never seen before. >> i do not at all believe mr. mueller has been compromised. he's beyond reproach. >> i haven't heard about any of this firing. but we have to get past this. >> i wish john well. i understand he will come if we need his vote. >> millions of middleclass taxes go up. >> the lights just went out. everything went out. >> right now we don't know the cause of the fire. >> i want to express my sincere apologies to the thousands of passengers. >> it is is extremely frustrating. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo or alisyn camerota. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to your "new day". we begin with a cnn exclusive for you. multiple sources tell cnn president trump is quietly confident about the outcome of the russia investigation as his personal attorneys prepare to meet with the special prosecutors team.

the president believes he will be exonerated and he is strike a tone about the probe of late. >> this as lawyers for the president accuse the team of mueller of using improper channels for obtaining e-mails from the trump transition team. mueller maintaining it was all done by the book in a rare statement of defense by his team. cnn's sara murray is live at the white house with breaking developments. say sara, thank you for bringing the reporter. >> reporter: thank you, chris. the president has been quiet when it comes into the investigation whether there was any russian meddling. he even told some of the friends and allies he expects to get a letter of exoneration from mueller's team. both privately and publicly trump's lawyers have cast this optimistic timeline saying they expect the president and the white house to be cleared of this any time. it could come in the coming months. but legal experts and other lawyers involved are very skeptical there's any indication

that mueller is wrapping up his work. that has some of trump's allies worried that this could be setting up the president for disappointment and setting him up for a meltdown and potentially a rash move. we have talked to three dozen sources in the white house, close to the president, who are involved in this investigation. they also noted that one of the key tipping points for the president's mood on this could come this week. we are expecting mueller and his team to sit down with the president's lawyers. they are hoping they can get a read on mueller for the the next steps in this investigation. now, that could be good news for trump. maybe mueller sends him a signal that, sure, things are wrapping up. if it is an indication this could carry on, that trump's allies are worried could cause him to do something rash, like try to move to fire mueller. trump talked to reporters yesterday as he was returning to the white house. he insisted that wasn't the

case. >> sara, thank you very much for sharing your exclusive reporting with us. joining us to discuss are edi r editor-in-chief of "the daily beast" john avlon and chris cillizza. john avlon, the idea that he is no longer agitated about the russia probe, that is newsworthy and notable. it sounds as though he is sort of transferred his ire to christopher wray, head of the fbi. this is some of maggie haberman's reporting, in addition to sara's. >> what's fascinating is the reason the president is incre e increasingly feeling he is going to be exonerated comes from the lawyer. expect a big exoneration. it will all be okay. there is light at the end of the tunnel. the dangerous trap is if there is not an exoneration, an

official letter which doesn't seem to be standard operating procedure. that could create major backlash. there is a lot of containing the president, managing expectations. if he's feeling a little bit better about things because his lawyers tell him it will all be fine, beware of the blowback. >> it would be interesting if the surrogates around the president are making donations around the mueller team relevant again. he is a political appointee. it's interesting that he is going after wray now. i wonder if that will come up from his surrogates. what do you take from this in terms of its long term impact? >> that the president is fundamentally per cural. mercurial. i especially and anyone who spends time in this, you have a tendency to see a narrative arc that exists in presidents.

it is the way in which we cover these things. i'm just not convinced -- i always use the nfl metaphor. it is a week to week league. except for the browns, you can be good one week, bad the next week and lose to any team. i think trump is a day-to-day president. what he said yesterday is not terribly indicative of what he will do today. we know certain things about him personality wise. i'm not sure we are moving in a sort of predictable arc toward something. i do think he is probably calm right now because ty cobb and others said so. >> why would they be saying that? >> i have an idea. the way in which you remain around donald trump is tell donald trump things that make him happy and he wants to hear. we know from time to time he does not like to be given

information that he finds to be either not conducive to what he believes or things that will bother him. >> you don't have to be a great legal mind to see that his legal exposure is probably not that -- well, look. they are probably looking at it. what is the worst-case scenario if you were going to sit with him as a client, right? they don't work for the government. they work for the president. what's the worst-case scenario? there is a huge question as to whether or not mueller could even bring an indictment against a sitting president. so they're telling him that. they are saying obstruction of justice is not an easy case to bring. so they are telling him that. the better of exoneration, i don't know where they are getting that. >> the question is what does mueller's report ultimately do in terms of influencing the actions of congress? there are a lot of aides being brought in by the mueller investigation. the scope keeps widening. there are dilates. is that his standard of success? he keeps talking about broad exoneration.

the broader danger, as chris is saying, is people telling the president what he wants to hear not what he needs to know. putting personalities aside, that is bad practice for the presidency. >> is i think you're right, chris, legally speaking. i think obstruction of justice is worth keeping up. legally speaking, you're right. what we know of the investigation in terms of trump largely comes from trump's conversation with comey, james comey, which was a while ago. comey told him on three occasions, you're not under investigation. obviously that can change. but we don't have any information that's changed. we should not assume that he faces massive legal jeopardy here. but what we do know is his attempts, repeated attempts to dismiss this as a democratic witch-hunt, i think it's important to keep harping on this point. this is the trump justice department. jeff sessions and rod rosenstein who opened up special counsel. mule sereller is a former repub.

this is not nancy pelosi and chuck schumer driving an investigation. it is important to say he's not in serious legal jeopardy but you can't -- this is not a political witch-hunt. it's just not. >> the larger problem is this pattern of trying to subvert reality. we know a lot of his closest aides, newt gingrich called mueller a superb choice. then months later he is calling into questions individuals, the system of justice, comparing surrogates on air the fbi to the kgb of a toe tal yann state that murdered people. that is flipping the script in dangerous ways. let's talk about the tax plan. it is expected to be on the president's desk before christmas. here's the timeline as we know it before today. the house to vote first on

tuesday, tomorrow. senate to take up bill when house is done. bill on trump's desk by wednesday. this is going to happen. they have the votes. >> they do. marco rubio's issues last week resolved, corker now on board. i think the fact that john mccain is going to arizona tells you most of what you need to know about that. if they desperately needed him, they could. it's going to happen. it shows you congress can work quickly. this was necessity. they believed they had to have this. that's what drove it. politics have been more dicey than that. can you change it? sure, you can change it. but this would be clearly, other than gorsuch, this is his big accomplishment of 2017. >> it looks like they have it all lined up. it is zero sum politics. they have a one vote margin.

let's not be too sanguine because it ain't. it ain't over till it's over. >> we have seen things blow up repeatedly. tax cuts are, look, in 1981, reagan. 2001, bush. this feels like a republican majority in the first year of that control. marco rubio, for -- marco rubio is not going to be the guy who killed the large scale tax plan. it is not going to happen. could it be bob corker? he's on record as saying yes. jeff flake. there are not a lot of uncertainty. >> chris, john, thank you very much for the conversation. we have breaking news right now.

the power is back at the world's busiest airport. however, the low gist cal nightmare is only beginning. the challenge is getting tens of thousands of strapped passengers to their intended destinations now. martin savidge is live with what the situation is at this hour. >> reporter: good morning, alisyn. we are starting to hear aircraft moving in the sky. you have heard the power is back on. you can see it looks normal. that's the problem. normally about 270,000 people go through this airport every single day. a lot of the folks didn't get to where they were going yesterday. they run smack dab into today's 270,000 people. so logistically it's a night they're. they are trying to make room. they expect flight schedules to be back to normal by later this

afternoon. that doesn't mean everyone is going to be where they want to be because flights were already full. delta canceled flights. the ripple effect impacts the eastern side of the united states 10% to 20%. so you can see how it gets pushed along down the line and don't even get me started on the millions of dollars the airlines are going to have to eat as a result of this and the black eye for the city, and they're still trying to figure out why. chris? >> martin, thank you very much. good to have you did special counsel obtain thousands of trump transition team e-mails unlawfully. we have a good legal debate ahead. >> plus, the family of sergeant la david johnson, who was called in niger, is speaking out exclusively as new details about that ambush are released and the questions they still have about his final moments next.

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president trump's transition team writing to members of congress accusing special counsel bob mueller's team of obtaining unauthorized access to tens of thousands of transition e-mails in the course of its russia investigation. a spokesman for mueller's team denies the accusations. in fact, they have done something we haven't seen the team do very often in public, they came out and defended their actions saying the briefing was legally obtained or otherwise available. all right. let's take it on. former federal prosecutor and cnn chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin against a guy who hasn't even had breakfast. here's the big point they're making, right? i'll advance the trump call here. the trump for america, which you will see referred to as tfa, it's a private organization. privately funded. did not mix and mingle with white house staff. e-mails were their own.

and the presidential transition act of 1963, it contemplates that it is a separate entity. you can't grab them like any other government e-mails and you did. >> not true. it is not true that that was a private entity deserving of private protections. the e-mails are ptt, presidential transition dot gov. they were managed by gsa, general services administration, which manages the federal government. these were government e-mails. the mueller team had absolute access and absolute right to go to gsa and say let us have -- see those e-mails pursuant to a subpoena or voluntary production or any way that they wanted to. they had a right to see those e-mails. >> and the other side is wrong. you focus on dot gov. i focus on the ptt. while the gsa, they were in a

p prefunctory role. it was contemplated as being separate. it is laid out in this act and even in the national archives recently advised. that's all i got.

it is significant not because there is any real issue here. >> and buzzfeed has an interview that shed light on what jeffrey is saying right now. let's put up a little excerpt from it, please. when we have obtained -- maybe read it for yourself. in using our devices, transition team members were informed that materials would not be held back in any law enforcement actions. loewen tri tt read a series of agreements that anyone had to agree to when using gsa materials during the transition, including that there could be monitoring and auditing of devices and that, therefore, no expectation of privacy can be assumed. who is loewen tri tt and why

does this matter? >> this is how everyone understood it. even though they were not told that, that's not the way the world works today. when you and i have turner broadcast e-mails, do you and i think we have control over those e-mails? >> no. >> obviously not. anybody who has organization swral e-mail knows you don't control access to it. this is essentially open season on the e-mails. you know, this one, since it was a gov e-mail is even more obviously one that is not something subject to the normal rules and privacy. >> even though you seem to need no help in this, let's bring in another opinion. ronado, am i making any headway

here or are you getting clobbered? >> i think you're getting clobbered. >> i'm losing ronado. let's lose his feed. no. why is jeffrey wrong? >> there were agreementsis signed by the transition that said there is no expectation of privacy in those e-mails. from a legal perspective, that cuts the legs out from their their claim. if you don't have an expectation of privacy is you can't make a fourth amendment claim. the only reason you need a search warrant is when someone has an expectation of privacy. it is cut and dry. i agree with jeffrey. the only reason they're writing a letter to congress is they don't have a good argument to take to court or robert mueller. if you had a complaint against cnn, you wouldn't write another media outlet about it. you would go to your employer about it. it is just a stunt is. >> let me use these two good

minds to something else. renato, i'll start with you. the real move right now is that this is politically compromised, this probe. it just is. you've got the he mails from struck who was fund mental in the hillary clinton investigation. he clearly doesn't like trump. yes, he didn't like bernie sanders. he didn't like trump. he is trying to hurt him. these are political organizations. that is driving and jading this entire process. how much proof is there to that allegation? >> well, look, you have the text from an individual who has been removed from the mueller investigation. it is is certainly a problem if an agent or a prosecutor lets their political beliefs influence how they make a decision about a case. but obviously, and everyone at home needs to realize that everyone, every human being working in the fbi or as a

federal prosecutor has private political beliefs. that's something that's normal. it is something that's protected. and those individuals can't be fired for having beliefs. the issue here is this guy expressed him. he seemed to have strong beliefs. in and of itself it doesn't really affect anything about the investigation. >> and, remember, those texts were september long before he was working on the mueller investigation. there was no mueller investigation when he was working on it. and, you know, he was an fbi agent. as important as agents are, they don't make decisions about who gets prosecuted, what a final report says. so he was not the straw that stirs the drink in the mueller investigation. he's gone. the idea that a couple of texts that he sent months and months

ago taints the ongoing investigation led by someone whose reputation is unimpeachable, mueller himself. >> and they are saying he had motivation in the probe. >> that was comey's decision. >> gentlemen, thank you both to you as always. all right. so we're learning new details about sergeant la david johnson's final moments in niger. we will speak live with his mother and sister is next. getting a bad haircut. overcrowded trains. turnstiles that don't turn. and spilling coffee on themselves. but for everyone else, there's directv. for #1 rated customer satisfaction over cable, switch to directv. and for a limited time get a $100 reward card. call 1-800-directv

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we're learning new details about the death of army sergeant la david johnson, one of four soldiers killed in the ambush in niger. officials familiar with the investigation tell cnn there is no evidence that sergeant johnson was captured alive or executed by enemy combatants during the 48 hours he was missing. but the investigation has not concluded. you will remember october 4th a team of special u.s. forces partnered with nigerian troops

unexpectedly came under fire from isis-affiliated fighters with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. sergeant johnson became separated from the group and his body was recovered two details later nearly a mile away. the trump administration and the military faced a political firestorm in providing details about the attack. president trump also faced scrutiny for igniting a feud with sergeant johnson's grieving widow, telling her in a call that johnson, "knew what he signed up for". >> the president said that he knew what he signed up for. but it hurts anyways. it made me angry because of the tone of his office. he couldn't remember my husband's name. >> the president refused to back down, tweeting i had a very respectful conversation with the widow of sergeant la david johnson and spoke his name from

the beginning without hesitation. how the ambush occurred and exactly what happened to sergeant johnson are still mysteries. his remains were discovered and those could required further clues. johnson's family claims they have been left in the dark. >> why couldn't i see my husband? every time i asked to see my husband, they wouldn't let me. i need to see him that i know that is my husband. they won't show me a finger, a hand. i know my husband's body from head to toe. and they won't let me see anything. i don't know what's in that box. it could be empty for all i know. >> the department of defense expects this to be completed bijan. let's talk more about it. sergeant johnson's mother here with us and his sister. they both join us now. ladies, thank you so much for being here. we're so sorry for your loss and the ordeal you have been

through. what do you think now that they say sergeant johnson was never in enemy hands. he died in the initial firefight? >> it hurts me because la david honored his job. and to be told seven different stories, it really hurts me. >> let me stop you there. in other words, you have already gotten lots of stories from the military, from the commanders. tell us some of the evolution of what they have said to you. >> i'm going to just tell you the first story that we were told as a family. that la david johnson was possibly captured. please do not post anything on the media because it will interfere with his investigation. they said he did activate his gps. they said he did activate his gps and they said he was on the move. >> so the very first thing that

you heard was he was possibly captured and they could see he was on the move from his gps. >> they said we have a united army soldier and they was willing to milwaukee a trade. a little later we got another call that stated that if they take la david -- if they took him outside the border, it wasn't going to look good for him. that was thursday. at 9:06 we was told that my son's status had changed from unknown to killed in the line of duty. >> now that they have this different story, they say he was

not captured. how did they explain some of the questions about where he was for two days, why they didn't find his body for 48 hours? >> they haven't explained to us. we find out everything via social media. they haven't talked to our family about where was his whereabouts. they haven't briefed us the proper way they were supposed to. >> tell us about that. what are your communications with the pentagon and the military like? how often do you speak to them? >> well, my parents and my each that speak to them. they don't speak to me, obviously. >> absolutely not. i was in the restaurant with some of your colleagues. and to see the investigation, i seen it last night on facebook. >> you saw on facebook that they

said he was never in the hands of enemy combatants, he died in the initial firefight. they hadn't told you about that? >> no one knew nothing about his autopsy. we had it since november 12th. that's when we had his autopsy. >> and you had access to it? >> we have his autopsy results. to see it on the news last night was very disrespectful for our family. >> you want communication? >> i want the truth. if they had told us the truth behind the situation day one we wouldn't be sitting here because we would have clocher and we can move on from this. but there's no closure because it's like my mom always used to tell us, if you tell one lie, you have to tell so many lies to cover up that one little lie. if they told us he did get killed in the line of duty and

he was captured, we would have understood as his mom, his dad, his wife and his siblings. because we have talked about this numerous times. we used to always say, i can't get captured. i can't get captured. >> why would he say that? >> we always looked at movies. this here is what i feared. the day he went into the army, i cried. my face was white because i cried so bad because i read so many different stories on this. he honored the family. i wish he would have honored them him the way he honored them. >> they haven't concluded the investigation yet. maybe they don't have all the answers. maybe they're not trying to

mislead you but they don't have all the answers. >> well, just tell us the truth and inform us what's going on. when i call, they say his investigation wouldn't be completed until the end of january. that was the information that i have received. >> have they told you why his body was found a mile away from the incident? >> no. >> no. >> what are your lingering questions? >> i just want to know why did they leave him? in the army we are tryiaught ne to leave a fallen comrade. this left him. being a veteran and knowing the procedures, they left him. >> you have never gotten a a good explanation for why he was left behind. >> we were given lots of stories. there was no reason behind it. i heard so many stories. now they say he was in bushes.

he was taking cover. that's what i read last night. i was like, wow, where did this come from? >> how is his widow doing? >> myisha is doing great. we were a family before this happened and we're going to remain a family. we have to be supportive and make sure we stay a family. >> about all the blowback of president trump's call to her, that he wasn't sensitive enough, that it wasn't as timely a fashion, what are your thoughts? >> i was ready to pick up my son's body. i wasn't really concerned about that conversation with president trump and myisha. it just wasn't the time for the conversation. if we were at home sitting in the house eating and drinking and he called it probably would have been a little bit more different. but no one knows what to say to myisha at this time, nor me,

because everyone is trying to understand the same thing we're trying to understand, what happened out there on that battle field. so he's human just like us. you know -- >> you forgive him for bad timing or the awkward sentence or whatever it was. >> i think it was just the wrong timing to be said. he did say it, but i don't think he was meaning any, you know, trying to throw it in myisha's face to make her feel bad. i think he just didn't know what to say to her at that time. and i'm sad that it had to go the way that it went because it took the focus of what happened to la david. it went to something totally different. i don't think nobody in the whole case from donald trump to ms. fredricka wilson was trying to mean harm to everyone. everyone has their right to voice their opinion, and that's what happened. >> tell us about your brother. >> my brother? he was awesome. he was our role model.

he was the oldest out of us nine. and he led by example. he just wanted us to be great. >> i understand. i read about the cooking that he would do. and how funny he was. tell me some of your memories. >> i have so many memories about la david. from kindergarten to 12th grade, i never received any calls of behavior. he was always creative. he always found something to do. and it was a big family, so we always had to sacrifice to make sure that the kids was taken care of. he did. that's why he learned how to cut hair. that's why he cooked for his family.

those are the things we installed in him. >> he was trying to make extra money. so he taught himself how to do these things to make extra money. >> i taught them the sacrifices that you have to make for your family. because i gave up a lot to make sure that they was taken care of, me and my husband. we did all we can to make sure they was provided for. and he did exactly the same thing. he loved cooking like i love to cook. he loved baking like i love to bake. he was in africa cutting people's hair. he was cutting little boy's hair. he was something special. and he is truly missed. when i look at my grandbabies, especially la david jr., he looks just like him. >> he sounds wonderful. >> he was wonderful. >> and you deserve answers. >> yes. >> what do you want to say to the pentagon or whoever has answers? what do you want them to know?

>> can you just please honor my son the way he honored his job. just be truthful with us. there's nothing else going to come out of it. we want to know the truth so we can have closure and we can move on. and he we can't move on because every time we look on the news there's something about la david. he always said he wanted to be famous on but i didn't think this was the way he was going to be famous. i got cards and letters and all types of things that he always put i want to be famous on. that's why he was riding a bike on on one wheel. he was always wanting to be famous. to see him being famous and the pentagon is lying to us, it hurts. i just wish they would just be honest with us and we could move forward. >> you deserve that. >> yes. >> we hope there's answers when the final report comes out. thank you very much for sharing your wonderful story. >> thank you. >> about your son and brother. >> thank you. >> chris? >> all right. thank you for that. one of the nfl's most

influential owners is selling his team. the man on your screen is jerry richardson. he is done with the carolina panthers after this season. the allegations that sparked his decision next. at t-mobile when you holiday twogether, great things come in two's. like t-mobile and netflix. right now when you get an unlimited family plan, netflix is included. wow t-mobile covers your netflix subscription, so you can catch the hottest new movies and shows all year long on us. amazing and it's your last chance to buy any of these hot new samsung galaxy phones and get a 2nd one free. that's one samsung for you and one to gift. just in time to finish off your list. t-mobile...holiday twogether.

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the carolina panthers are going to be put up for sale at the end of the nfl season after allegations of workplace misconduct by the team's owner. coy wire has more in this morning's bleacher report. coy, what do we know? >> reporter: hi, chris. the league is retaining outside counsel to investigate alleged workplace misconduct by panthers owner jerry richardson. this follows alleged inappropriate behavior by the 81-year-old richardson. the panthers said in a statement in part, "the carolina panthers and mr. richardson take these allegations very seriously and are fully committed to a full

investigation and taking appropriate steps to address and mediate any comments. he posted on the team's website he plans to put the team he founded up for sale at the conclusion of the season. among those expressing early interest, alisyn is music mogul sean diddy combs who tweeted it is time for diversity among nfl owners. >> thank you. we will see what happens with that, coy. thanks very much. we have brand-new cnn reporting that the president is saying he will be cleared in the special counsel's russia probe soon. a former campaign adviser is here next on that. ♪ when heartburn hits fight back fast with tums chewy bites. fast relief in every bite. crunchy outside. chewy inside. tum tum tum tum tums chewy bites.

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from our family to yours... may all your wishes come true this holiday season. all right. new this morning. cnn reporting president trump believes he's going to be cleared of any wrongdoing in the russia investigation in the coming weeks. privately, aides worry if that doesn't happen, mr. trump may have an epic meltdown and try to fire special prosecutor, robert mueller. would that really happen? let's bring in former trump campaign adviser, michael caputo. great to have you.

best to you and the family. >> merry christmas. >> so what do you think? would the president of the united states really make a move on bob mueller? >> no, i really don't think so. there's a lot of reason to believe that the mueller investigation is kind of off the rails right now, but i think the president trusts the process. and i think his team does, too. you know, in addition, i think the president understands that if he does that, it will isolate him in a way that he's never seen before. and he's been pretty isolated along the way here. and also at the same time, he doesn't have the support in congress right now to do something like this. because if he does this, his approval ratings will dip into regions that we probably have never seen before and have a really toxic impact on the 2018 midterm elections. so there's a lot of downside to this and very little upside. >> and also, it seems to kind of just glaze over the -- or gloss over the reality of what he can and can't do.

he can't just fire mueller the way he would fire somebody else. he would have to go through the department of justice. he would have to go through rod rosenstein. rosenstein made it, i thought, you tell me, pretty clear in his testimony that he does not see mueller as a malofactor. so if he refused to fire him, he would have to fire rosenstein, and we know how that goes from the nixon days. >> yeah, it would have to go through several steps and it would be like telegraphing a punch. the downside would be tremendous. at the same time, it's not clear -- we're seeing this mueller investigation, some of the things going on with two of the guys, strzok and weismann. it's not necessary that mueller himself is out to get the president. he has a long-standing record of honor and service to this country. but what we're seeing the investigation itself looking a little bit dodgy. and i think since he's already fired strzok for those texts with his lover and fired the lover as well, or moved her

along, as well. that's already been halfway taken care of. as far as i'm concerned, if mueller and his team comes clean on what really happened with strzok and maybe gets rid of weismann for what he did, supporting the deputy attorney general and her insubordination and attending hillary's victory party, those e-mails and texts were declarations of their joining the resistance. and with those two fellas gone and maybe more of a shake up, we could have a pretty solid investigation and move forward resolutely towards its conclusion. >> that's your characterization. i mean, it's hard to take a look at what we understand for the fact facts -- you know, strzok, his texts were done before he have ever got involved with the mueller investigation. they got rid of him. you know, that just as we kind of brushed it aside when hillary clinton and her team were making the exact same argument that you guys are making now during the e-mail probe, that guys are against us, they have political animus. of course, they do. people, human beings have political feelings.

they talk about it. they write about it. this isn't new. it doesn't mean that the mueller investigation is looking dodgy. there's no basis for that. >> well, i think there's basis, or at least people on our side of the fence believe that. at the same time, i've got to believe the person most upset about this beyond donald trump would be robert mueller himself. >> he got rid of him. >> yeah, but also, after he did that, he should have, you know, been more forthcoming with information. congress wanted to know immediately why he had done it. and for some reason, they delayed that for a long, long time. a stand-up guy would have come clean immediately. >> you don't think bob mueller is a stand-up guy? >> i believe bob mueller is after the truth here and he's following the truth wherever it leads him -- >> so he is a stand-up guy? >> well, i understand that. but, listen, the slow response to requests for information on strzok by the united states congress was not a good look for the mueller investigation --

>> but you don't think it was him trying to stay above the political stray. that's what this is. this is politics. strzok isn't mueller. he's not a main guy on his team. he isn't making decisions. >> i disagree. strzok had, at the fbi and this investigation had incredible powers. he wasn't -- >> how do you know at the mueller investigation he had special powers or considerable powers? do you know what his role was? >> his leadership role -- >> but he -- >> it was a leadership role. we know that. >> how do you know that? >> because he was one of the highest-ranking people in the fbi, the number two guy in countersblenlg counterintelligence. you don't put a guy in there like that to make coffee. >> i didn't say he was making coffee, but there's a big difference than saying this is one of the main guys in the probe and he was making coffee. i gave you the coffee thing with papadopoulos. you can't just throw it out every time you want to minimize someone. i get that it works politically, but are you a little concerned that this heavy-handed offensive

against the fbi and mueller could come back to bite you guys. you are trying to undermine confidence in some of the main institutions of our democracy. this russian interference are real. we are apparently nowhere in figuring out how to stop it for the next time that it happens in an election, which is almost a certainty. are you worried about playing politics in a situation that could be problematic? >> i don't see any difference between today and what happened during the ken starr investigation during the clinton investigation. this is pretty normal politics as usual. we all are up in arms on a daily basis now in life, television, 24/7 news cycle, but this is the way it goes in special investigations. >> what about some integrity to it? i thought you guys were going to be better, michael, you know, president trump said, i'm not going to play those games. i don't need their money. i don't have to play those cheap politics. now you always justify what you do by saying, this is what obama did. i thought you guys were going to be better? >> at the same time, chris, we're in the game -- it's

baseball. we've got to play baseball. we can't go in there and start playing che ining chess. >> but you don't have to undermine the fbi. you don't have to tell people they're like the kgb. it's a lot of crap coming from people on your side of the fence. you don't want to undermine the fbi, do you? >> the biggest problem with the fbi -- not the fbi, but that the special counsel has right now the the public perception of what's going on inside there. >> yeah, and who's feeding that? >> listen, when it comes down to it, the truth is the truth, chris. we've got these teches and these e-mails, which were declaration -- >> and the guy was gone. >> -- of membership in the resistance. >> they were political opinions about sanders and trump from strzok. i don't see you running around defending bernie sanders. >> and if this were an investigation into bernie sanders, i probably would be. but at this time, we still have a high-ranking person in investigation who was trolling for jobs at hillary clinton's victory party. this thing still has some more tinkering to clean it up.

i think director mueller can do it. and i think this thing can go forward resolute ly to a logica end and i think it's going to be soon. >> well, we don't have any idea of the timing. we know there's an urgency on the part of the white house. we'll see where it goes. only one man knows right now. michael caputo, thank you for your perspective. there is a lot of news this monday morning. what do you say? let's get after it! >> as you said, there's no clau collusion. no collusion whatsoever. >> the fix is in against donald trump from the beginning. >> you' see a concerted effort out of the white house to undermine the investigation. the question is, what are they afraid of? people said we wouldn't get this done. we're on the verge of getting it done. >> senator mccain, i hope he comes back, but i'm confident we will pass this bill. >> what we're seeing here is a massive attack on the middle cl