wild card here. what account president, what can republicans get through the house of representatives. >> lots of headlines emerging from this informal exchange. the president had with white house correspondents. the big head line of course is that president says he's ready to testify before robert mueller subject to what his lawyers recommend. that's it for me. thanks for watching. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next breaking news, president trump says he wants to talk to bob mueller do it under oath. and republican talking point that the fbi is bias against the president, new reporting tonight pouring water on that conspiracy theory. plus trump says he's open to pathway for d.r.e.a.m.ers. does that mean immigration deal? let's go "outfront." good evening i'm erin burnett "outfront." president saying he is willing

to talk to special counsel mitch mcconnell bob mueller. just before leaving for the summit in davos, switzerland. surprised reporters. they were being briefed by immigration reform by other members of the white house. the president opened the door and waukds in. you'll hear all that he had to say. because he took quite a few questions but here he is when asked about willing to speak with mueller's team. >> i'm looking forward to it. >> there has been no collusion whatsoever. no obstruction whatsoever. and i'm looking forward to it. i do worry when i look at all of the things that you people don't report about, with what's happening. if you take a look at, you know, five months worth of missing texts, that's a lot of missing texts. and as i said yesterday, that's prime time. so you do sort of look at that and say what's going on. you do look at certain texts where they talk about insurance policies or insurance where they say the kind of things they are

saying, you have to be concerned. but i would love to do that. i'd like to do that as soon as possible. >> do you have a date set? >> so here's the deal -- no, i don't know. a couple of weeks but i would love to do that. subject to my lawyers i would love to do it. >> would you like to do it under oath? >> who said that? >> i said it. >> you say a lot. >> did hillary do it under oath? >> i don't know. >> i think you know. do you really not have an idea? i'll give you idea. she didn't do it under oath. but i'll do it under oath. and you no he she didn't do it under oath, right? >> if you didn't know about hillary, then you are not much of a reporter. >> you would do it under oath? >> oh, i would do it under oath, absolutely. >> so there is a lot of other questions to come. but let's talk about this.

obviously the big caveat is yes he would do it under oath. comes a day after mueller is thinking about interviewing the people, about firing of jim comey and possible behavior. he did not answer directly like tonight. >> would you be willing to meet with him without condition? >> i'll speak to attorneys. i can only say this, there was absolutely no collusion. >> would you be open to it? >> we'll see what happens. certainly i'll see what happens. but when they have no collusion and nobody has found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you would even have an interview. >> pamela brown is "outfront" tonight at the white house. so, pam, i know you were in the room. plenty of topics talked about. we'll talk about them all and playing this audio. but the president had to say about bob mueller coming at crucial point at russia probe.

you have been covering that from the beginning. you are now covering this president. what more did he have to say tonight in that room. >> reporter: well, he wanted to make it clear, erin, he's not afraid to go faist to face with robert mueller. because as you heard him say there is no collusion or obstruction of justice. but he also added the cave cave ate that he will do it at the advice of his lawyers. one of them said publicly the deern was it would open up to perjury. fishing expedition. sources say robert mueller wants to question him on his decision to fire james comey as former security adviser michael flynn. he would asked that and left it open-ended. willing to do it under oath. and he said as you heard in the

tape unlike hillary clinton. for our viewers she was interviewed by the fbi voluntary but not under oath. but it is a federal crime to lie to the fbi. he said a couple of weeks, it could happen in two to three weeks, this potential interview with robert mueller. i can tell you, erin, sources tell us there is no date set for such an interview. in the early stages of negotiating the terms of any potential interview with the president. and what that interview might look like is still unclear, but you heard him say he would love to do a sit down interview with robert mueller special counsel. >> and now in terms of how all this happened, right, because he also talked here about the fbi, corruption at the fbi, immigration, a whole lot of topics we'll be playing out throughout the hour. the back story why he was there, because i know he is headed to davos tonight. very interesting, you are sitting in a room hearing about immigration policy. then what happens? >> that's right. i was fortunate enough to sit

next to the door. we were five minutes into the immigration plan, and in comes the president of the united states. and of course all of the reporters jumped up. and immediately started asking questions. and a couple of times he acted like he was going to leave, then we would ask other questions, and he would stick around to answer them. he was seemingly in good spirits, erin, seemed to be jovial and wanted to be there answering reporters questions. as you mention he's going to be heading out to davos to the world economic forum. and he didn't seem to mind to stand there for 10 or 15 minutes to talk to reporters answering questions on range of topics from immigration to the special counsel. >> all right. thank you very much, pamela, and as i said we'll play there for you. as this audio comes in, reporters happened to be rolling audio because they were briefed on immigration. so when the president came in they were already rolling. that's why we have all of this. "outfront" now with us is our

panel. mark preston. john dean, so you heard the president, i'd love to do it, again i'd have to say subject to my lawyers. is it he really looking forward to it and love to do it? or is all that matters he's giving that impression and saying subject to my lawyers? >> that is it a big caveat he's put in this. his lawyers will probably negotiate a deal he won't be under oath. they know he's often truth challenged and want to protect him. i think this is a good show on his part that he doesn't mind mixing with mueller. and i don't think he's looking forward to it. but i hope he's better prepared than he usually is when it happens, otherwise he's going to find himself on the wrong side of the law. >> right. he said of course in other depositions i spent no time preparing with pride. but what's your takeaway from what he said today? >> well, i agree with john.

i think this is great public relations. actually has to be public stance. because he's been saying it's been a witch hunt. if it's a witch hunt he shouldn't be afraid to be questioned? right. so this is perfectly skibt with his description of this entire inquiry. i think the caveat is huge and i would be very interested in seeing whether he goes through with this likely his lawyers will tell him he shouldn't. and it's grates pr and absolutely the right thing for him to say. >> i want to play again twhat pm pointed out. hillary didn't do that. here he is. >> like hillary did? who said that. >> i said it. >> oh, you did say it. you say a lot. did hillary do it under oath? >> i have no idea. >> i think you do have an idea. do you really not have an idea? i'll give you an idea she didn't do it under oath.

>> of course the point is pamela was making is it's a federal crime to lie to the fbi. so he's right she didn't do it under oath. it would have been a crime had she lied. the big question of course for this president is whether heel testify under oath himself. >> well, right. i mean, it wouldn't necessarily have to be under oath. when you speak to federal investigators it is not always under oath. in fact usually in the context that hillary clinton was interviewed it is not under oath. there was some confusion i think in that room whether the president was saying that he was willing to testify in front of a grand jury. because that's the scenario in which he would be testifying under oath. but i think what he was trying to remind people of was that that interview wasn't under oath. and once again remind people that he had a rival who was accused of some wrongdoing as well and sort of muddy the waters a little bit around this question. i don't think he's gotten too far down the technical rabbit hole probably with his lawyers about what the details are of whether he would be under oath

or not under oath. but i mean i agree with everyone saying what he was trying to git out there is i'm willing to do this and eager for these questions. and in fact maybe he may be being advised this is a perjury trap, you shouldn't do this, also a school of thought in the white house i think that if you want to see this thing ended, this may be the only way to do that. and so i think that that has stuck in his head. and the president is part of him really would like to see this over with. and if this is the way to do it, he wants to signal he's up for it. >> mark? >> whether he meant to do this or not, it was incredibly smart strategic move. because he's going out there saying i want to do it. and as we are discussing here, but my lawyers may not allow me to do it, i'm not allowed to do it. but yet everyone certainly his supporters are going to hear those words. i'd love to do it. i want to do it. i have nothing to hide. there is no obstruction. so not very many things that

donald trump does is strategic. and i would say this is probably not one of them but certainly is going to work well for him. >> and john what about the fact that he's putting this timing out there two or three weeks. we had said the reporting was in the coming weeks. so unclear. that cob two or three weeks or eight weeks. but he's putting a time frame on it. two or three weeks. does that mean we are that close to this whole thing being done? i'm simply going under the layperson's assumption you would not interview the person at the top of the pyramid if you had not investigated every single brick below him? >> that's a correct assumption. for sure mueller will have done all the underlying investigations he feels necessary to undertake this interview. because he's not going to get many shots, if any, other shot at the president. so he will be prepared. that signals at least one phase of this investigation, maybe towards the end, and this is the last person he'll need to talk to. and what's interesting, also,

the fact that trump has so many existing outstanding conflicting statements, it's going to be really interesting to watch how he handles that when he is questioned, whether it be under oath or not. because he'll be asked which statement is true. and as i say, he's got many conflicting statements on most of the issues that he'll be confronted with. >> so this issue, as i mentioned he talked about bob muellerment and also talked about why he thinks that there is something deep deeply amiss perhaps corrupt at the fbi. i wanted to play that exchange with the reporters. here's the president. >> i am very disturbed as is the general, as is everybody else that is intelligent. when you look at five months, right, this is a large scale version. that was 18 minutes. this is five months. they say it's 50,000 texts h and

it's prime time. that's disturbing. >> should mccabe go, mr. president? >> well, mccabe got more than $500,000 from essentially hillary clinton and is he investigating historic? >> should he go? >> do you remember, did anyone hear many of my speeches where i talked about mccabe? he was the starve star of my speech. the wife got $500,000 from terry. terry is hillary. >> do you regret having him as your acting fbi? >> you know what, i keep out of it. you find that hard to believe. i keep out of it. that's the way it fell. he's been there, one of those things. but he was the star? of many o my speeches. got that money for the wife.

and in virginia -- you don't have to spend the money. so i never checked as to whether or not they spent the money on campaign. how much of the money did he spend on the campaign, do you know? how much was it? wait. how much of the money was spent? >> you know. how much? >> did you ask him -- >> i don't think so, no. no i don't thip i did. i don't know what's the big deal with that. because i would ask you, who did you vote for? i don't think it's a big deal. but i don't remember that. i saw that this morning. i don't remember asking him that question. >> is it possible you did? >> i don't remember asking him the question. >> you don't remember? >> i think it's also a very important question. but i don't remember asking him that. >> so you just heard that entire exchange. all right. let's just start here, mark, with the facts. many that are amiss in what he's saying there. for example, the texts that he says are missing, 50,000 of

them. we have no idea. we know 50,000 texts they have recovered. we don't know how many is missing. he said it in a tweet and here and we don't know what the real number is. that's just one of many issues here. >> well, yeah. i mean, look, also it's not, from what we are understanding now this could have been a computer glitch right now that is affecting many phones right now from fbi, officials from that time period. of course everybody wants to see the texts hopefully they can go back and get them. so you are right about that. he also said when he's talking about the money that was given to his wife, this is before mccabe became or at least took over the fbi. and certainly was before he was overseeing the hillary clinton investigation. what's interesting is that donald trump will just grab on to a little bit of news, little bit of information, and then he'll blow it out and put the narrative around it, then he pushes it around, and his

supporters eat it up. that is what fuels president trump. and we just saw that right there. >> julie, we certainly did. we have a letter today from the assistant attorney general steven boyd who is a trump appointee, worked before with then senator jeff sessions who came out and said this is a technical glitch affecting about 1 in 10 fbi phones and they are trying to run this down. so when you are trying to feed into the idea it's a conspiracy theory that only affected two phones in quote unquote prime time as the president says. that does not fit with the facts. >> well, right. i mean, what we do know is there are 50,000 texts total. so the idea that there are 50,000 texts over the period he's talking about is certainly not the case. but bigger issue is here you just heard him say in that tape i stay out of it. he's not actually staying out of it and imposing this narrative

about a conspiracy at the fbi and who knows what these missing texts say. and about political motivations by high ranking officials at the fbi. and we now know that he actually asked mccabe what his political affiliation is or who he voted for in 2016. even though he just said that he doesn't remember doing that. white house officials have told us that in fact he did ask. and so what you have is the president who generally does try to stir clear of these things, these investigations for fear it even appearing to trying to sway the outcome, really wading into the details here and trying to weave this conspiracy theory that supposedly about people out to get him within his own fbi. >> all right. all of you stay with me as our coverage of these breaking comments continue as she says. extremely unusual for this level of detail and we are getting it and it's very important. next, more of the trump audio. and president with new questions

tonight as well about d.r.e.a.m.ers. and breaking news about the stern warning about possible release of the nunes memo. their words, it would be reckless. and more breaking news, trump leaving any second for davos. how will the america first president sell his message to the global elites that despise it? [man] woah. ugh, i don't have my wallet, so - [girl 1] perfect! you can send a digital payment. [man] uhh, i don't have one of those payment apps. [girl 2] perfect! you have a us-based bank account, right? [man] i have wells fargo. [girl 3] perfect! then you should have zelle! [man] perfect. [girls] perfect! [vo] the number one mobile banking app just got better. [man] does your coach use zelle, too? [boy] of course! [vo] another way we're building better every day.

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breaking news, president trump speaking to reporters moments ago in a surprise question-and-answer session. and he talked about a whole lot of things. you just heard a little bit of it talking about mccabe, deputy fbi director, and whether he asked him who he voted for. talking about immigration. talking about how he wants to testify to bob mueller. talking about collision. we'll be playing all of this. and i want to talk about mccabe, because crucial point. but first in newest audio with the president with breaking details on, republicans listen up, you are saying you don't know where he stands on immigration, guess what, listen up, he's talking about it today. >> do you think you'll get a deal on immigration? >> i think so. we'll get great border security. a wall. until fa in fact, i just wrote something out. we want great border security. we want to do a great job with

daca. i this i itnk it's a better iss democrats and republicans. >> do you want citizenship for d.r.e.a.m.ers. >> do you want citizenship? >> i think it gives incentive to do a good job. but they've worked hard. they've done terrifically whether they have a company or work, whatever they are doing, if they do a nice job, i think nice to have incentive after a period of years being able to be a citizen. >> how many years? >> looking 10 or 12. >> do you want citizenship for d.r.e.a.m.ers? >> we are going to morph into it. >> what do you mean? >> works hard. gives incentive to do a great job. but they've worked hard and done terrifically, whether they have a company or worked, whatever

they are doing. >> okay. my panel is back with me. mark, first let's parse this out. obviously the word morph is very important. but talks clearly about path to citizenship. 10 to 12 years and you do a great job. and a whole lot of room in there to see this as something democrats could get on board with or not. >> well, they can get on board with what the path to citizenship. but there is several other things they will not be able too get on board with that. but even before we get to that, think of what his supporters are thinking right now. when he said we'll send home everyone that came here illegally. then morphed into daca. now he's opening this great big door for the path to citizenship. but what he's going to run into and buzz on capitol hill and julia knows this all too well, democrats are going to fight back on the $25 billion that he wants from the wall.

the $5 billion that he wants for other security measures. and democrats are not going to go for the end of quote unquote chain migration or the end of the visa lottery program. >> and julie, what's also crucial here is the president does understand the strategy here. he says this is good for republicans. and indeed it is. the republican party can't move forward without somehow doing better with hispanic vote and d.r.e.a.m.ers is a way to do that. >> that's absolutely true. and he's seen the polling saying overwhelming majorities in both parties have a lot of sympathy for this population and would like to see them gain citizenship. the problem though is, and this is what's ham strung the negotiations in the last few weeks over this, is he does have a large republican contingent on capitol hill who does not want to see these people gain citizenship in any scenario. they say well we are willing to deal with them and give them some legal status if we get all

of the things that mark laid out that democrats will never go for including an end to what they call chain migration. all of this money for border security. way over and above what most democrats think is appropriate. and the end to the visa diversity visa lottery. but they don't want to give these people citizenship. they consider that amnesty. and by the president coming out here when the white house said earlier today they'll come out with legislative proposal for this on monday, and saying, hey, i want to pathway to citizenship for the d.r.e.a.m.ers, that will really complicate the chances of getting a consensus on the republican side to go forward. >> and, tim, i want to ask you something about mccabe in a moment. but first he said something that caught your attention. i was writing something down about this. sort of like if i came into the room writing something down specifically on immigration. >> yes. well, that surprised me. it's great. we want presidents to write things down. so it's interesting, when the president is not next to steven

miller how he speaks about immigration. it's very interesting. this is likely the kind of sent mea meant th sentiment that he shared with lindsey graham and dick durbin. the president is leading out path to sit scitizenship. this nearly tore the party part. bush wanted reform and it didn't happen because republicans couldn't swallow path to citizenship. that was for much larger group of people. but the issue for many republicans is the same here. and president trump is on the side of those who would like d.r.e.a.m.ers to become citizens. that's huge. and major problem for republican leaders. >> and now you have him on tape saying it and time line. very significant. okay. john, i want to play part of what the president said about the deputy fbi director mccabe. the conversation about president asking him who he voted for. something very important in here. let me play it.

>> did you ask him who he voted for? >> you know. >> did you ask him? >> i don't think so. >> you don't think so? >> i don't think i did. i don't know what the big deal with that because i would ask you. who did you vote for? i don't think it's a big deal. but i don't remember that. i saw that this morning. i don't remember asking him that question. >> is it possible did you? >> i don't remember asking him the question. >> you don't remember? >> i think it's also a very unimportant question. but i don't remember asking him that question. >> so, mark, again, let's make the point here, he says i don't know what the big deal is with unimportant question. it's a very important question. he asked specifically who he voted for. a federal employer is not allowed to ask a federal employee their party affiliation. so asking a specific question about who you voted for would at least seem highly inappropriate. and he clearly thinks it's a big deal because using it against

the case why mccabe is loyal to him. >> it all comes down to loyalty. donald trump loves loyalty that's why he asked that question. >> and, john, that's a crucial thing. by the way, just to point out the fact here. we checked. andrew mccabe did not vote in the general election. and primary he voted in republican primary in virginia. >> and apparently not for trump. i think he's off base in pressing this. his faulty memory now shows or he's probably been told this was highly in rope rate statement he posed to mccabe and really none of these business. these people are able to go to work every day in fbi and across the government and of all persuasions. and if you start having this kind of pressure from the top that they be of the right party, our government won't function. >> i think that's well said. and very true. all right. all stay with me.

we have more that the president said. and the note to devon nunes to the justice department just breaking this hour. saying don't even think about releasing the controversial memo until they have seen it. they said to do so would be reckless. and more breaking news, the president heading to davos in just a few minutes. so why is he going to something that he ostensibly turned his nose at for so many years? ♪ take off for mexico with expedia. ♪ one click gives you access to discounts on thousands of hotels, cars and things to do. like the fairmont mayakoba for 59% off.

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and more breaking news, the justice department tonight warning the house intelligence committee, chairman devon nunes, that it would be quote, reckless for him to release his memo before they review t they are alleging fbi an abuses of surveillance laws.

they are concerned with the memo. it uses reckless. what is the department of justice saying? >> reporter: i have to tell you extremely stern rebuke of the republican chairman of the house intelligence committee by the republican run department of justice. of course run by attorney general jeff sessions appointee of the president. it says we think it would be reckless without giving them the opportunity to review it without the risk of harm to national security. going to national security issue here and ongoing investigations. goes onto challenge devon nunes in effect for his evidence here. it says in the letter that we assume that the house intelligence committee members want to provide evidence of this. it goes on to say, we are

currently aware of any wrongdoing to the fisa process. so going after with this memo not only releasing it, but the underlying allegation to, which you are alluding to, eric, you hear it on fox news and from the president, department of justice and fbi misused fisa process to surveil a trump or trump campaign aides during the election, in effect, they say in effort to undermine him, to keep him from winning that election, which is remarkable allegation to make without the evidence and remarkable to hear the department of justice attempt to knock that down. >> and just be to clear, republican department of justice, it was steven boyd, trump appointee who signed theler, right? >> exactly. he's the assistant attorney general who signed t and the boss attorney general himself jeff sessions also a trump appointee during the campaign.

>> jim sciutto, thank you very much. and let's go to trey gaudy and sits on the intelligence committee we are talking about, as well as judiciary committee. thaun thanks for joining us. i want to give your chance to respond to this memo of nunes. it says it would be reckless to release that memo without showing it to department of justice for them to review it. what do you say? >> well, erin, thank you for having me on. let me say this at the out seth i have tremendous respect for the deposit of justice and fbi. i worked and with them for 18 of my professional years. so there is no member of congress that holds that department in higher esteem than i do. i have concerns about what was done in the spring and fall of

2016. and i'm not a critic of the department. not someone who alleged the department is corrupt. i'm a fan of the department. and i have concerns about what they did in 2016. so i would say this to my friend steven boyd, let's lower the rhetoric. i don't care if you see the memo. but let's be clear about this, erin, the memo was derived, distilled from information that the department gave us. so it's not like there is new information. everything in the memo they already have. what they don't know specifically is what are the complaints. and i'm fine to share them with them, but you can't possibly say a memo was reckless if you haven't read it. >> so let me ask you a crucial question here. have you seen the underlying intelligence, classified intelligence that this memo, right, because this is summary written by the republican chairman, have you seen the actual intelligence that it is based on? and is it 100% consistent with the memo as you have seen it?

>> the answer to your first question, erin is yes. i may be the only member who has read it all. i went to the department of justice. >> democrat told me yesterday he had as well. >> all right. that would be two. well, jerry is not on intel. he's on judiciary. more power to him. i think everybody ought to go down there and read t it's hard to have a conversation when you haven't read the documents. glad jerry did it. i read it all. i have concerns about the process, about representations that may be made in court pleadings. i have concerns about the duty of government to provide complete full accurate information. fbi agents are not advocates at this i go sta. we are representatives to the courts. so there is an obligation to present accurate, full, complete information. and that's true in every criminal case or every counter intelligence case. they don't get the scrutiny that this one does. >> they are saying, and i want

to make the point, steven boyd, assistant attorney general who signed thisler that i'm looking at right now, it says, among other things, they think not only would it be reckless, but seen no wrongdoing in the fisa process. and again let's make the point, steven boyd is donald trump's nominee. he is saying to you all he does not see any evidence of what is being alleged. >> yeah, well, i mean i would say this again. i like steven. i work well with him. it's really difficult to say a memo is reckless when you haven't read it. to the extent he says that they've seen no evidence of any improprietorty or inappropriate conduct tlurg t conduct during the process we respectfully disagree. and that happens from time to time. lawyers can look at the same pattern and draw two different conclusions. i'm sure adam schiff will do a memo where he doesn't see any problems. but what that advocates for, erin is the release of

nonclassified material, release it, inappropriate form, and let the public decide. that's what that advocates for. >> how is that consistent with you are saying how can anyone talk about this and the implications of if if they vent seen the underlying information? from what i understand no one is partisan memo coming out of it. because it's so classified. are you saying the top secret you read should be released? >> no. >> and they think if the summary is fair? >> no. i don't. the president can declassify it. my counsel to him is don't do it. do nothing to jeopardize sources and methods. do nothing to jeopardize the women and men in the intelligence committee. but you and i are having a conversation without divulging conversation. you have to do it carefully. but you can have a conversation.

we'll do it right now. do you think information should be vetted before its included in a court proceeding? that would be a question i have for you. if a hypothetical source is being paid by a political owe upon ept, do you think that should be shared with a court or with a judge? see, you and i just did it. and i think the answer is, yes, that should it be shared with the court. and if it's not shared with the court, then you have to tell me why it wasn't important enough to do so. >> i want to ask you about a couple of other things tonight. one is it the other news that has been breaking over the past few hours. regarding the text messages exchange between mr. strzok and miss page. thousands of fbi issued phones were affected by this technical glitch. resulted in five months of missing text data. and we are now told law enforcement is telling cnn about one in ten fbi phones were affected, so not just these two,

thousands were affected that has this data outage. do you accept this was a technical glitch or do you think there is some sort of conspiracy theory here? >> i'm not a conspiracyist. and i have no reason to impeach or under cut what the department is representing and what the fbi is representing. it puts those of us who are fans and supportist of the department and bureau in an awkward position. five month gap that's really important. but i have no reason to not believe them. i hope my michael horowitz or someone else will verify it. but i'm not a conspiracyist. i'm ever bit concerned about the te texts we do have. and the texts we do have level of bias from any law enforcement officer and it is troubling. and i'm more interested in talking about the texts then theorizing in the texts that we

don't. >> i want to point out for the record special counsel bob mueller when he found out about the text messages by senior agent strzok removed him from the team. but let's talk about one that you know of. this one is from may 19th of last summer so right after the five month glitch. and in it strzok text page referring to the russia investigation. you and i both know the odds are nothing. if i thought it was likely, i would be there no question. i hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern there is no big there there. okay. assumption being made they are talking about his willingness to join the russian investigation. but my question to you is, congressman, doesn't this show you whatever his personal political believes is, what he's saying there, i thought it

likely i would be there no question, but didn't have a bias against trump on russia. he's saying there is no big there there. i don'ty there is anything there. >> you know what, erin, respectfully, it meals the exact opposite. because above that text is a conversation about impeachment. and you are performing a national service from a counter investigation investigation about foreign adversary, and if that doesn't get a fbi excited enough to participate in an investigation, that's heartbreaking. so i read that text exactly differently. if it's not going to result in a conviction against the president of the united states, i'm not interested in participating. i don't know another bureau agent that would take that approach. >> all right. but i'm making the point he

obviously didn't think there was a there there. so he didn't go into the russian investigation, which he then subsequently went into it before mule teary moved him. so as much as the guy you are pointing out hates the president, he didn't see any there there. he wasn't going in thinking he was going to find anything. >> well, the only thing i would say in response to that is correct erin, the morning after the election they are discussing impeachment. so if they are open minded fbi akts what are they doing discussing impeerment when the ink isn't dry on the ballot confirmation yet? this is the morning after and they are talking about impeachment. so, look, i strl a lot of respect for you. you'll have a hard time convincing me that peter strzok should have been on this investigation. >> so let me ask you, by the way i'm pointing to because i need to for the record that bob mueller did remove him when he found out about the texts. >> he did. kudos to bob. >> just to make sure everyone

knows. he didn't stay on this investigation after it was discovered. >> you never heard me criticize bob mueller. >> and you have said that you have seen the texts which exist, ones we know about personally. one that was sent the day after the election which you are referring to impeachment. but one of the ones you talked about you quoted saying perhaps this is the first meeting of the secret society. you didn't give any context whachlt w. what was the context? what are we talking about secret society? >> right after they were lamenting the fact trump won north carolina and florida. and really disappointed in the way the election turned out. and then about an inch down from that is a conversation about perhaps this should be the first meeting of the secret society. and then about two texts down they say let's talk about it with andy. i don't know if that's andy mccabe and i'm not going to allege it is. but early similar to that.

>> you are throwing it out into the ee thur. >> well, andy is mentioned throughout the text. i don't know if there is another andy or not. so i'm not going to ma line him. i asked him about the insurance policy text and he denied it. i take him at his word. but take him out of it. here are two bureau agents talking about secret society. i have no clue what they are talking about. i don't know whether one existed but you know what it's nt my responsibility to prove that. they are the ones who used the phrase. they are the ones that should explain it. i can't tell what you they meant. i can only tell you what they said. and talking about a secret society right after they were talking about howdy press deprey were because donald trump won. >> let me ask you one more question. the president saying he doesn't recall whether he asked andrew mccabe who he voted for. just to put the facts out there,

he did not vote in the election, and republican primary. but obviously the report is which the white house did not deny, the president asked the fbi director directly in the oval office who he voted for. do you think that is appropriate in any way shape, or form for a president to ask that of a deputy fbi director? >> i don't think it's appropriate for any one to ask that. any time there is a curtain involved, that tells me supposed to be private. there is a curtain at the voting booth i vote in. no one should ever ask anyone else who they voted for. i don't know ask my wife if she asked for me. but none of my business who my kids vote for or wife votes for. i never asked a cop in my entire life are you a republican or democrat. doesn't come up in the law enforcement context. so i hope mr. mccabe was not asked that question and i hope he didn't answer it. because nobody's business.

>> thank you very much. i appreciate your time. good to have you back. >> yes, ma'am. thank you. >> next breaking news the president heading to davos in just moments. is he flying into a trade war? and the religious rite making excuses for donald trump amid the stormy daniels scandal. not just airline purchases. think about all the double miles you could be earning. (yelling) holy moly, that's a lot of miles! shh-h-h-h! ( ♪ ) shh! what's in your wallet? man: shh-h-h! shh! directv has been rated number one in customer satisfaction over cable for 17 years running. but some people still like cable. just like some people like pre-shaken sodas. having their seat kicked on an airplane. being rammed by a shopping cart.

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>> apologized for the tape. >> that's what i'm talking about. we are all equally bad. we are all sinners. and that is why evangelicals are so quick to forgive donald trump. things that happened ten, or 15 years ago. >> do you think all men are bad? >> jesus said it is all the same. they all have the same hearts and he taught that. he said let him who is without

sin cast the first stone. he forgave the thief on the cross. hypocrites, and they were the ones that he came down hardest on. and i think that is where we need to understand. evangelicals if they are anything, they are anti establishment. that is why they left europe to come to the united states. that is why they fought the revolutionary war. >> it wouldn't be anti establishment. it would be goodness and kindliness. before we go, steel says just shut the hell up and don't preach to me about everything again.

>> the left want to impose their morality. >> he is a republican. >> the left wants to impose their morality by putting in government officials -- that's what the left and christianity is about. >> thank you very much. show is over. anderson is next. thanks for joining us, the president will leave the white house and board air force 1 and on to davos, switzerland. the president spoke with reporters for about 15 minutes. his feelings about fbi and yes, the russia investigation. here is what he said about the prospect of speaking to special counsel