and there's never been an easier way to get great advice. a place for mom is a free service that pairs you with a local advisor to help you sort through your options and find a perfect place. a place for mom. you know your family we know senior living. together we'll make the right choice. hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. in washington where people are watching from around the world. thank you for joining us. there's breaking news. the previous attorney general being the latest member of the cabinet being interviewed by robert mueller. the question is whether he obstructed justice. christopher wray threatening to quit after being told to get rid of his deputy. the question is what role did

the president play? just in, senate minority leader chuck schumer withdrawing his offer on the border wall in negotiations over the fate of the d.r.e.a.m.ers. this as the clock begins in yet another immigration standoff. but we start with a major development, the russia investigation. the attorney general jeff sessions in the hot seat questioned by the special prosecutor robert mueller discussing russian meddling and possibly obstruction of justice by the president. let's go to our justice correspondent jessica schneider. she's here. jessica, the interview took place last week. what more can you tell us? >> wolf, the attorney general was questioned for several hours by mueller's team last week on wednesday. that's according to a source close to sessions. the spokesman for the doj, she confirmed that this interview took place but she's declining to say if the attorney general handed over any documents or communications as part of that interview. of course, this is a major development in the russia probe. this interview marks the 15th

member of the trump administration known by cnn to have been interviewed as part of the russia investigation so far. so here is some of the significant names that have been questioned after robert mueller was appointed on may 17th. we have former chief of staff reince priebus, also former press secretary sean spicer. they were both questioned in october. then in november it was senior adviser and the president's son-in-law jared kushner. he was questioned. and then just at the end of last year, two significant interviews of people still in the white house, communications director hope hicks as well as white house counsel don mcghan, both of them questioned by special counsel mueller's team. we know from two sources last week that former chief strategist steve bannon struck a deal with mueller's team and he will be interviewed by prosecutors instead of testifying before a grand jury. so as for the attorney general, we did see him at the white house yesterday afternoon, our cnn camera spotting him as he was leaving.

but press secretary sarah sanders, she said this morning she doesn't know if the attorney general spoke with the president about his interview with mueller's team while at the white house. white house counsel ty cobb has responded to our request for comment, but a session with key interests of the special counsel of meetings he had with the russians sparked him to recuse himself from the russia probe, and of course mueller wants to know what sessions might have known about things surrounding comey's firing. >> for hours he was interviewed by the special counsel's team. we'll have more on this breaking story, but there is another big story emerging right now from the justice department. the other big story is the threat of resignation from the fbi director christopher wray. we learned that wray was on the brink of quitting after pressure

from deputies, that pressure coming from attorney general jeff sessions himself, former fbi director james comey weighed in on this late-breaking development tweeting, among other things, quote, good to read reports of people standing up for what they believe in. meanwhile press secretary sarah sanders said this morning that the president has full confidence in director wray at the fbi. our crime investigator is following the story for us. what more can you tell us about how close the new fbi director actually came to quitting? >> well, wolf, certainly it was a big concern and came close enough to the point where it appears, at least reportedly, that sessions backed off of the demands. now, these demands that he fire andrew mccabe or reassign andrew mccabe coming from sessions, it's been reported possibly from the president putting pressure on sessions to have the current

fbi director make changes at the fbi to sort of clear the field there of some of the people who have stayed since comey has been fired, some of the people that have been close to comey that remain at the fbi, andrew mccabe is one of them, james baker who was the general counsel has been reassigned and others, and it appears that sessions was putting pressure on the fbi director to move these people, to get rid of them. >> why did the attorney general jeff sessions, shimon, want andrew mccabe, the deputy fbi director out, and couldn't he just have fired him himself? he is the head of the justice department. >> he obviously is the head of the justice department, but it doesn't really work that way, wolf. the deputy director reports to the fbi director. now andrew mccabe, he's a career fbi agent, has certain protections. he's not a political appointee, so you can't just outright fire him without cause. there has to be some sort of wrongdoing to go ahead and fire a person who has been with the

fbi, who has been a career fbi agent, so it's not something that the attorney general could do himself. it also would be pretty difficult for the fbi director to do it. again, you need to have some cause, some wrongdoing. he could have reassigned andy mccabe to a field office to another position at the fbi, but as we've been reporting, mccabe has been saying he's going to retire come march. he plans to retire given all the political backlash that he has received because of his connections to the hillary clinton e-mail investigation, to the fact that his wife was running for state office in virginia. all of that probably weighing heavily on him as he approaches perhaps the last month as the deputy director. >> and he's going to retire in march because he'll then become eligible for his retirement benefits and pension. he served in the fbi all these years, right? >> that's exactly right. that is when he becomes eligible. he could have left earlier

because of accrued time, but it seems, at least among everything we've been told, that he chose to stay on. keep in mind, wolf, andy mccabe has been involved in many investigations at the fbi. it's been close to 20 years that he's now been there. other political investigations against democrats, and he still has a hand in the day-to-day activity, the day-to-day operations that go on in the fbi. also wray wanted to keep him on as he learns the fbi, as he learns how it functions. he couldn't just get rid of him right away. there was concern that it would sort of send shock waves through the bureau. they had already went through enough with the firing of comey, and he felt it was necessary to keep some of the staff members there from the previous administration as he learned the workings of the bureau. we are expecting to see more changes, some more people leave who were associated with comey.

that was always planned for sometime this month. >> it's impressive that christopher wray, the fbi director, withstood that pressure from the attorney general of the united states. shimon, thank you very much. let's get more on all these major developments. i'm joined by the former special prosecutor during watergate. let's talk first of all about the pressure that the attorney general puts on the new fbi director, christopher wray, to fire his deputy. what's your reaction when you heard that? >> chris wray is a professional. he's got great respect in the legal community and at the fbi now. mccabe is very popular, very well respected among the rank and file at the fbi. and wray is simply not going to take direction about his own personnel decisions with respect to his deputy. so this appears to be sessions trying to curry favor with the president. he's been out of favor for such a long time and here this might

seem to be an easy way to do it, but he's run into the resistance properly of the fbi director in saying, hands off, my deputy. >> how extraordinary is it that the special counsel robert mueller, a self-performer 12-year fbi director, has actually called the attorney general of the united states, jeff sessions, to come and answer questions before his russia investigation? >> it's not at all unusual. it's respected. in fact, that's the reason why it was imperative that sessions recuse himself from the investigation because of his knowledge as a witness, first with respect to the russians, his interaction with the russian ambassador, and secondly, his knowledge about the firing of the fbi director james comey. you may remember that in watergate, the interference with the fbi's investigation of

watergate was the direct cause of nixon's resignation, when it was proved beyond a doubt that nixon gave the order to interfere with the fbi, that was the obstruction of justice that ended any support remaining for nixon. >> when sessions, the attorney general, testified before congress, you remember, he couldn't remember a lot of facts. he couldn't remember this, couldn't remember that. he was testifying, of course, under oath. when he testifies before the special counsel's staff, can he do that? can he say, i don't remember this, i don't remember that? >> if it's legitimate that he doesn't remember, he can say it. if it is pretextual to avoidancing questions, then that's troublesome. but he didn't testify with mueller, he was interviewed by mueller. >> what's the difference? >> testifying under oath would be before the grand jury and

that's a different phase of the investigation. >> but if he's being pressured by the fbi, even if he's not under oath, it would be a crime to lie. >> he's not being questioned by the fbi in this case. he's being questioned by the stand-in for the attorney general of the united states, which is what robert mueller's position is as special counsel. so the law makes a distinction. lying to the fbi is a distinct and separate crime. perjury before a grand jury is different. and so i think we're going to see the end of the informal, in quotes, inquiry, the questioning of witnesses before mueller and his staff leading up to a point at which mueller will decide whether or not to put witnesses before the grand jury which

would mark a different, and i think, concluding phase of his investigation. >> the fact that he called the attorney general in to answer questions, that's a pretty major decision. you don't do that every day. at least to me, and presumably for others, it set the stage higher, namely the president of the united states, to come in for questioning before mueller's team. do you agree? >> i agree. i think that eventually president trump will be invited to come in and talk. or mr. mueller may, as an accommodation, go to the white house with his staff to hear answers to questions he poses should the president agree to that. but testifying before a grand jury is quite another story. he will not subpoena, in my view, president trump before a grand jury.

there is reasons for this, and an investigation, if an individual is thought to be the target of an investigation, he will not receive a subpoena, but he will receive an invitation to testify should he desire to do so. >> bill clinton, when he was president, testified before a grand jury via video conference, right? >> right. >> so that was a little different. >> not subpoenaed. >> thanks very much, richard. thanks as usual for joining us. >> thank you. there's more breaking news we're following. we're just getting word that the senate democratic leader, the minority leader chuck schumer, has now withdrawn his earlier offer to the president of putting the border wall on the table in the d.r.e.a.m.er talks. so how does that change the looming immigration fight? and was it illegal for donald trump's lawyer to reportedly pay a porn star hush money to hide her alleged affair with then-citizen donald trump? new questions ahead.

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schumer withdraws an offer. he called the white house on monday to say the proposal the senator had made earlier on friday, agreeing to significant funding for a new border wall along the u.s.-mexico border was no longer an option. let's bring in senator jeff merkley. he's a democrat from oregon. thank you very much for joining us. >> you're very welcome, wolf. good to be with you. >> i know you voted against the arrangement to reopen the government yesterday, but do you think he did the right thing now, rescinding that offer to fund a new border wall, or at least a chunk of it? >> yes, absolutely, because the way that mitch mcconnell has set this up, he says there is going to be a spending bill that will

resolve on february 8th and then we'll go to the issue of the daca bill, the d.r.e.a.m.er bill, and in that setting, it would be very easy for the president to say, hey, i want that money in the context of the february 8th bill before we go to the issue of immigration. and senator schumer is very emphatically clearly saying, look, if you're not willing to step forward and be part of this conversation about daca, forget the wall. >> you disagreed with senator schumer, you voted against it. i think 15 of your democratic colleagues did as well. two republicans voted against it as well. do you think that schumer blinked? >> no, i wouldn't put it that way at all. i would say -- here's the picture. we were fighting for a three-day continuing resolution to keep the government open while we had intensive negotiations. the reason for that is what we've seen with the continuing resolutions is mitch mcconnell doesn't negotiate until the last 24 hours. therefore we're going to have several wasted weeks.

but our preferred pathway, we couldn't put it on the floor because mitch mcconnell locked up the amendment box where we would place our amendments to be considered. so we couldn't put either anything we wanted or anything that had been worked out in a bipartisan fashion. it limits the leverage, limits the optionoptions, so listen, w all focused now on the 2013 model where we got the two-thirds of the majority bipartisan to say, here's an immigration bill that will work. let's do that now. let's seize that opportunity. >> in 2013 you passed it overwhelmingly in the senate, didn't even come up for a vote in the house of representatives and a lot of your colleagues fear the same could happen now. >> absolutely, that is a real threat. this is an election year. 2013 was not an election year. you had a democrat in the office and the republicans were determined not to let him have any success. you now have a republican in

office. that republican has said on various occasions when he's in his tuesday trump mode he wants to get a deal done. when he's in his thursday trump mode, which is his breitbart mode, he's all against everything. but it will depend upon the president deciding he wants a deal, and he does want that wall, and so we have more leverage this year. we can also pursue a discharge petition in the house should we pass this in the senate that will put a lot of pressure as people are approaching november. >> listen to what the white house budget director, former congressman nick mulvaney said earlier today as far as the d.r.e.a.m.ers, the negotiations, where the president stands now. listen to this. >> we want a big deal that solves the reason that we have a daca problem in the first place. if you simply gave amnesty, whatever you want to call it, to the folks here but don't solve border security, then you're simply delaying another daca

problem 10 or 15 years from now. >> who gets to stay? how do you you decide? >> it depends. what do we get for a border wall? >> what are the democrats willing to offer to the president to help those 800,000 d.r.e.a.m.ers to be able to stay here in the united states? >> if we go back to that 2013 bill which had virtually all the democrats, we had a support bill in there. we don't want to see money wasted on a wall that doesn't stop drugs and doesn't stop people, but this is a negotiation to be had. we're willing to meet the president partway here. but he's got to be engaged and he's got to be determined to take on the issue of the unfair treatment of members of our community who were brought here as small children, went to elementary schools, high schools, many of them are in

college, many of them have important jobs. these folks had the legal status jerked from under them. it's an unfair treatment of people who are part of our communities here in america. it has to be addressed. >> a quick question on another matter but a very important matter. we've learned that christopher wray, the fbi director, was on the brink of actually quitting, of resigning after being pressured to fire, to change deputies by the attorney general jeff sessions. what concerns does that raise for you? >> more interference in the fair administration of justice. and it just builds to this pattern that we see both from the executive branch and we see it particularly from the house republicans of trying to interrupt and obstruct the pursuit of justice. >> senator merkley, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. thank you, wolf. take care. president trump's private lawyer reportedly paying hush money to a porn star to keep

quiet about an alleged affair years earlier. the money paid allegedly just weeks before the presidential election. a watchdog group says that may have broken campaign finance laws. we'll discuss. plus, as these reports surface, the first lady of the united states suddenly pulling out of the president's trip to davos, switzerland. what's behind the change of plans? we have new information. they came out of nowhere, sir! how many of 'em? we don't know. dozens. all right! let's teach these freaks some manners! good luck out there, captain! thanks! but i don't need luck, i have skills... i don't have my keys. (on intercom) all hands. we are looking for the captain's keys again. they are on a silver carabiner. oh, this is bad.

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the watchdog group common cause claims donald trump's lawyer and private attorney violated campaign finance laws when he reportedly paid a porn star hush money to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with trump many years before he was president of the united states. listen to why common causes is now lodging complaints with the department of justice and the federal election commission.

>> violation number one, failure to disclose an expenditure by the trump campaign committee in its receipt of an in-kind contribution in the amount of $130,000. the second violation we allege as having occurred, if this money did not come from president trump, there was an illegal contribution. if it came from the trump foundation, that's an illegal corporate contribution. >> cnn's brian todd is reporting on this. any other confession from michael cohen? >> he says the account is baseless as is, he says, the allegation that president trump falsified any kind of report to the federal election commission regarding this case. the question that we have to look at now is, was the reported $130,000 paid to stormy daniels part of some kind of a contribution that might have benefited president trump's campaign in 2016?

here are the federal election commission rules on that kind of thing. an individual is limited to $2,700 that they can contribute to a federal election candidate, according to the federal election commission, so obviously if that was $130,000 to benefit trump's campaign from an individual, that would have obviously exceeded that amount. now, a candidate -- any candidate who gets a $200 contribution from an individual, if it's over $200, that individual has to be named. the question again is, if, again, this was made as a possible campaign benefit contribution and didn't report who gave it to him or who gave the money to stormy daniels, that could be a violation. also contributions from corporations to a federal candidate are prohibited under federal election commission law. so if it was the trump corporation giving this money to stormy daniels for the purposes of benefiting the trump campaign in 2016, that could have been a violation. but again, michael cohen says all of this is baseless as far

as the complaint from common cause. the question is, who did the money come from, what was it intended as? trump's lawyers, according to some legal experts, could argue that regardless of who it came from, the money was simply intended not to benefit his 2016 campaign but simply to provide hush money, which is not illegal, so that he wouldn't embarrass himself personally and for the sake of his marriage and that it had nothing to do with the campaign. that's what some legal experts are saying that his lawyers could argue, and if they do that successfully, there probably wouldn't be many legal grounds to bring this before the federal election commission, wolf. >> thanks very much. brian todd reporting for us. let's discuss this with larry noble. he's a general counsel of the fcc, he's a general counsel for the campaign. that last argument may be made

by trump, it really isn't anything to do with the election. it happened a month before the election, sort of a week after that "access hollywood noo "individu video came out and was reportedly to stop embarrassment for him. >> that argument was made by former attorney john edwards when he was indicted for a similar activity. the problem with that is this is not money being paid over a year. it was a history a somebody paying. the allegations of her having an affair with him had been known for ten years. all of a sudden before the election he allegedly decides to pay to get a nondisclosure agreement. that made it looks like it was specifically for the election, not for another purpose. >> how important is it to determine where the $130,000

came from? we know michael cohen, the attorney, set up this fictitious account in delaware with fictitious names to it avoid seeing where it came from, but how important is it to find out for the campaign finance laws to find out where that money came from? >> it's very important. what you would have is a reporting violation. if it came from donald trump himself, then it should be reported as an in-kind contribution from the campaign and an expenditure should be reported. if it came from an individual, then you have a contribution. if it's from his corporation, it's a prohibitive contribution. if it's a foreign national, then it's a foreign national contribution. it's important to know where this money came from. >> do they have to case asking the justice department to investigate? >> they definitely have a case and this should be investigated. we're not going to know if it's

illegal until it is investigated, and we don't know where the money came from and what is the history behind this. the most telling thing is this happens right before the election to keep her quiet. and he makes it look like it was related to the election and for the purposes of influencing the election. >> do you think they'll go ahead and investigate the sec and the department of justice? do you think they'll open a case? >> i think it's an uphill battle, because the fec isn't known for doing investigations at all. the department of justice is another question, but we'll have to see what the department of justice says. i think there is enough to go forward with an investigation. i'm not sure the fec will. but they can sue the fec if it doesn't go forward. >> larry noble, thanks so much for joining us. >> my pleasure. as these reports surface, by the way, the first lady of the united states suddenly cancelling her trip with the president to davos, switzerland

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president trump is heading to switzerland this week for the world economic forum in davos. but the first lady, melania trump, will not be at his side. that's a sudden change of plans. joining us to discuss, our cnn contributor and author, kate benedi benedict. she says she is not going because of scheduling logistic logistical issues. what does that mean? >> a week ago she was going, and then they did some investigating

into it and now she is not going and staying here and doing some solo events. but the timing has raised eyebrows. >> why has it raised eyebrows? >> this is a lady we don't know much about, how she's feeling. so we looked into the reviews of not going on the trip, the stormy daniels story and it leads people to reach their own narrative of what may be happening behind the scenes. we can take it at face value, but people are going to speculate. >> it's interesting that the first lady, the change in plans was announced yesterday which happened to be the 13th wedding anniversary of the trumps. how unusual, and you've covered a lot of this, is it for a first lady to cancel a visit with her husband, the president of the united states, to davos at the last minute? >> it's pretty unusual, but in modern history we haven't seen a couple like this.

i'm thinking back to hillary clinton when she famously went with president clinton to mar martha's vineyard at the height of the impeachment, the trial and things around it. it's a kind of power that a first lady can yield over her husband. we haven't had this kind of information fraught since the clintons, even going back to president kennedy and his wife with rumors swirled around their relationship. this is a really hard job for her. >> the first lady in the first anniversary of her husband's inauguration, she posted a picture that didn't include a picture of her husband and also said the past year has been filled with many wonderful moments but did not mention the president by name. >> it's unusual, and i think this goes back to a first lady we don't hear from a lot, but she is a-plus in subliminal messaging. not a mention of her husband, of

the thousands of pictures taken of the two of them this last year. interesting that she would pick that picture and it doesn't mention the president. >> what does it say to you? >> it says she's struggling in this role. she doesn't really seem to want to be first lady. i think she's married to a very divisive president and it makes her job even harder. >> tough situation. kate and kate, thanks. two kates and wolf. thank you very much. more on the breaking news coming up. does the latest revelation that the attorney general jeff sessions spoken to robert mueller's team marked a new phase in the russia investigation? i'll discuss that and more. my panel is standing by.

breaking news, jeff sessions being questioned by the special counsel robert mueller's office as part of the investigation into russia's meddling in the 2016 election. let's discuss with shannon petty, reporter for bloomberg news, david druc kerkdrucker an borger. it's pretty unusual to bring in the attorney general for questioning. >> but not unexpected, actually, because of course the attorney general was very involved in the firing of james comey. when the president wanted to fire comey, he asked sessions and rosenstein to come up with a memo and sessions was involved in giving the sort of rationale for the firing of comey about his behavior during the hillary clinton investigation.

and don't forget that sessions is also somebody who had to recuse himself in the russia investigation because he met a couple of times with ambassador kislyak from russia, did not tell congress about it, and that became an issue. the president did not want him to recuse himself from the russia investigation. it's caused sessions a lot of problems with this white house, but he acted upon what the ethics office in the justice department thought it was best for him to do. >> david, how do you see it? >> mr. sessions was a very prominent member of the trump campaign. he was one of the earliest members of the establishment, full, to provide backing to mr. trump. mr. sessions was a senator from alabama at the time. in fact, his staff, mr. sessions' staff and his senate office, moved over to the campaign. that's where stephen miller came from and senator sessions, then-senator sessions' chief of

staff also moved over and played a prominent role in the campaign. because of that, it meant that he was probably always going to be a part of any russia investigation that occurred given the role he played both as a foreign policy adviser and ald viz -- adviser on immigration and somebody who was just very much at the center of the campaign and one of the first really only republican professionals who understood real politics and real campaigning that was there. in that regard it's not surprising at all. >> it sort of sets the stage, though, because the next level would be the president of the united states going in for some questioning. >> i think mueller is getting to the real deep end of his investigation. in an investigation like this you usually start with the lower level peripheral people. you start out and work your way in. we're clearly getting toward that inner level. we're probably a few weeks away from an interview, the terms being negotiated with the

president. the terms could be set in the next couple weeks. we've steve bannon set to come who had kept out of this. but with that michael wolff book, he is expected to get questions there. there is a long list of sessions' involvement in so there's many fact -- you know, many aspects to this investigation that i'm sure mueller has talked to sessions about. >> one of those meetings when papadapolous suggested that the president meet with putin. >> the president will be making his first public remarks since the government shutdown ended. we're standing by for the videotape. we'll be right back. we use our phones and computers the same way these days.

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breaking news. we're learning the fbi director is bringing in a new chief of staff, on reports that wray was contemplating quitting after being forced to change deputies by jeff sessions. >> now former chief of staff james rubicky last month has decided he is going to leave the fbi and what we're told is that he's heading into the private sector, into some other job. now this comes, as you say, after the fbi has taken some criticism, certainly from the president, from the attorney general, focused on some of the comey holdovers. rubicky was comey's chief of staff during the clinton investigation, he, himself, rubicky, has had to go before the hill and answer questions about that investigation.

now we're getting word that he, too, is going to be leaving the fbi. let me just quickly read to you a rare statement from the fbi director, chris wray, who basically issued a statement to cnn in response to our request. here is what he said. he was notified last month. rubicky notified me last month he will be leaving the fbi to accept an opportunity in sector and that he goes on to say that this is an exciting move for rubicky and his family but he will be miss bid the fbi and by me personally. by every indication that we've been given, he is not being forced out by the fbi. he is leaving on his own terms, a decision he made last month and has helped the current fbi director through this transition. he will be one of many, perhaps, that we will start seeing will be leaving the fbi. some of the comey holdovers, as christopher wray now brings in

his own people. >> thank you. gloria, rubicky did come under fire by republicans because of his close association with james comey. presumably that's why he decided maybe it's a good time to leave. >> anybody affiliated with james comey comes under fire. that may be part of his reason. we don't know. this is something clearly planned and the note from wray to cnn makes it clear that wray had a lot of confidence in him. the person hang iing out there the deputy fbi director, andrew mccabe whom the president, and axios first report this had morning, has told the attorney general you better -- i would like you to get rid of this guy. he has tweeted about it publicly and that wray pushed back to the brink, according to some, threatening to leave. in that he didn't like being told who to hire and who to fire

f you look at trump's tweet from last july, why didn't a.g. sessions replace fbi director mccabe, comey friend? he wants to clean house of all these career people. mccabe, we're told, intends to retire when he gets his full pension. that could be some time this spring. but it's clear that the president wants these people out. >> you know who we haven't heard from in a long time? james comey. at some point, in his book or during his book tour, i'm wondering if he will start filling in a lot of the gaps for information that came out since he last spoke to congress, to that committee and answering all of these charges, essentially, that have been coming from republicans on capitol hill. >> he did tweet today it's good to see some people -- i don't have it in front of me but have the strength to do the right thing, along those lines, to the

fact that chris wray pushed against sessions in order to fire mccabe. >> it's unprecedented to have a president getting involved at staffing decisions at the fbi level. we're seeing this direction coming from sessions but the president has made very clear, as you pointed out, his feelings about mccabe. he got involved in sessions' decision to recuse himself. don mcgann to try to tell sessions not to recuse himself. it continues to be unprecedented, two major levels, like an ethical conflict about your attorney general and a recusal. >> the attorney general, according to reporting, did go to wray, on behalf of the president and say this should happen when, in fact, you know, the justice department should operate independently of the president, who should not be

telling the attorney general whom he can hire and whom he can fire. >> the president has -- >> hold on. here is the president of the united states only moments ago. >> spanning decades really. we're very proud of it. the stock market is reacting the way it is. thank you all very much. very proud of this. thank you. [ inaudible ] >> not at all. >> did you talk to him? >> no, i didn't, but i'm not at all concerned. thank you very much. no, he didn't at all. he did not even a little bit. he he's going to do a good job. we're look at it. we're looking at a lot of things. let's see how it all works out. >> are you concerned about -- [ inaudible ] >> thank you all very much. >> thank you, all. thank you very much. >> it won't be a trade war, by the way, only stock increases for