very soon. very soon we're coming out. we're going to have 100% of the caliphate, as they call it, sometimes referred to as land. we're talking it all back quickly, quickly. but we're going to be coming out of there real soon. >> to call that a surprise doesn't begin to describe it. it was a surprise to his own staff. and tonight the confusion it caused remains. cnn's boris sanchez joins us now not far from mar-a-lago with more. so, boris, what is the latest on this uncertainty that apparents exists between the president, his public comments and really his security apparatus, his own closest advisers in. >> reporter: hey there, jim. confusion is certainly an understatement. we heard from a senior white house official today who essentially told us they had no idea what the president meant by his comment during his speech yesterday to a union in ohio. he further said that we should let everyone else take care of

what's going on in syria, the longstanding civil war there, something that is likely music to the ears of vladimir putin and iran, two nations that have a tremendous amount of interest in the ongoing war in syria. we should note we got a statement from the state department within the last hour trying to clarify a report in "the wall street journal" that president trump ordered a freeze on some $200 million worth of assets that were dedicated toward syrian recovery. that statement from the state department essentially says that aid, foreign aid is constantly being re-evaluated and that in light of the president's request, they're now doing that for these funds. further, the statement emphasizes pushing the international community to do more in syria, kind of dovetailing off what the president said yesterday, encouraging foreign partners to share the burden there. if you read between the lines, that essentially goes with what the president was saying about

letting others take the lead when it comes to handling the future of syria and its leader, bashar al assad. unquestionably it draws into question some of the president's own statements on the middle east, notably if you recall during the campaign, president trump criticized several leaders -- president obama and president bush -- for their efforts in iran not only in telegraphing what they were going to do, but further for leaving a vacuum once the united states withdrew from iraq for isis to form. you'll recall president trump called barack obama the founder of isis. so doing the same thing now, at least hinting that he's going to do the same thing now in syria, certainly a lot of scrutiny to be placed on that, jim. >> no question. boris sanchez in florida. let's bring in the panel, jen. going to war is the most solemn

decision a president will make. this disconnect between the president and his own most senior advisers, the pentagon said it was blindsided by this. how much trouble is that inside an administration? >> a significant amount of trouble. here's why. one, when you make a decision like this, which every president has every right to do, there's a significant amount of preparation that goes into it. the department of defense need to prepare for how exactly are they going to withdraw 2,000 men and women who are in syria. we need to take steps to inform our allies and make sure they're aware. that's something the state department would be doing. the second is that it really sends a bad message to our partners and allies around the world. if you look at what the troops are doing in syria, many of them are working with arab and kurdish militias. so what are they thinking about this? they've been important partners to them. they've been consistent partners to them. i think they're probably looking at this and wondering what happens as well. so there are significant implications when you go against the recommendations or a typical

process that the national security team goes through. >> allies want to know if u.s. soldiers are going to be shoulder to shoulder with them tomorrow or next month. >> exactly. what will happen? >> i want to play some comments from then-candidate trump and president trump on military strategy and telegraphing it. have a listen. >> i don't want to tell the enemy how i am thinking. does that make sense? surprise. you remember they used to call it the element of surprise. i keep saying, whatever happened to the element of surprise? you know i've been saying the element of surprise. we're too predictable. we need to be unpredictable. we have to be unpredictable. we want to be unpredictable, folks. we want to be unpredictable. i'm not going to tell you anything about what response i do. i don't talk about military response. i don't want to be one of these guys that say, yes, here's what we're going to do. i don't have to do that. you know why? because they shouldn't know. >> so how do you reconcile the

president's many proclamations about, you know, playing your cards close to your chest with what he just did yesterday? >> i think during the campaign he's made his position clear on military engage many. he wanted less in the international stage. when he makes statements like syria, we're going to get our troops out of there, that's consistent with what he said in the campaign. >> how is that consistent? >> there's two very different things. he hasn't gone into the granular level about what diplomatic engagement looks like because he wants to keep that close to his vest. if you look at what he said during the campaign, he said he's going to be the president that brings the troops home, that has less military engagement throughout the international stage. those two things can be consistent with what he said in the campaign. >> doesn't that sound like a lot of what president obama said about bringing the troops home, and then he was criticized? >> listen, i think history is obviously 20/20, and i think barack obama, we can say he made a bad decision. i think we'll look at what this looks like now in the time he

removes these troops to see where isis is. i think isis is somebody that barack obama never took seriously. he called them the j.v. team, and he let that sort of metastasize and get bigger in that region. we're now seeing the shortening of isis. we're seeing the elimination of it, the sort of breaking apart, and that's the consensus. it's a different frame time. to try to overlay them as the same thing is not consistent with the truth. >> phillip, on multiple national security issues, you can talk about syria, the mexico border wall, of course non-national security issues, roseanne barr rating, this is a president who says what he wants when he wants as his inner circle is shrinking and questions mounting about who he's listening to. which advisers are willing to challenge him on these decisions? >> that's absolutely true. the post is reporting tonight that trump had reached out to defense secretary mattis about the issue of potentially withdrawing troops from syria. that's what the administration told the post. further, that he had asked for a

plan for what that withdrawal looks like. there apparently was some conversation within the administration, but one of the things we've seen is donald trump will make proclamations, make pronouncements about what he wants to do and then he gets internal pushback, particularly from mattis. one can think of the transgender ban. it's going to see how that power dynamic plays out. all of that said, yes. what donald trump was doing this week was the classic donald trump, which is there's nothing he loves more than standing in front of an audience that's cheering for him and talking about what comes to the top of his head. it is essentially his twitter account, the live version. that is what he was doing. i'm not surprised he's been thinking about this thing and therefore it came out in front of that audience. we've heard multiple reports as well over the course of his presidency. he goes down to mar-a-lago and talks to people there, what do you think about x, y, and z? it's how he operates. >> jen, you hear from phillip bump there of the "washington post" saying they're reporting tonight he at least had a conversation with mattis about kind of laying the ground work. we have seen this with trump before where you're seeing the

policy play out in realtime, right? >> sure. >> even the discussions that might normally have been confined to the situation room, they're right out there in public. is that what we're seeing here? >> i think we're clearly seeing an element of that. obviously there have been discussions about what they're going to do in syria. the big problem is this is not a joke. this shouldn't be talked about flippantly at a campaign event. this is a serious foreign policy decision that impacts the security of the united states, impacts our partners and allies. as you've been talking about on your show, there are serious implications about our withdrawal, including the rise of iran in russia, other proxies that are even more problematic. it's not clear even from his riff at the campaign event that he has an understanding of that, and that is very alarming. >> brian, are you concerned at all because the president did say leave it to others. the others on the ground in syria, they're not friendly players. >> absolutely. i think when he was referring to others, he was referring to the international community as they usually step in during moments like this. whether it was iraq, whether it

was other conflict areas, the international community does step forward and get engaged, and that's the diplomatic trump we're not seeing. >> you envision a peacekeeping force or -- >> just engagement from the international community. maybe they can set parameters on what a deescalation looks like so when the president makes these comments, he expects the international community to step up. we've carried a lot of that burden for several generations. we now have a president who says that we need to share that responsibility throughout the community, and i think that's consistent with what he's saying. >> phillip bump, do you see that playing out here if the u.s. were to withdraw from syria, the international community would then stand up to russia, iran, and bashar al assad? >> i think the critical context that's missing is on the campaign trail, donald trump said why don't we just let russia deal with syria? he has said before, let's give it to them to deal with. and i think that there certainly is an element -- i don't know that russia necessarily wants -- i mean certainly they like to occupy as much space as they can, but syria is not an easy thing to have to management

there's an element there that is more difficult than it seems. it's important to note that, a, donald trump has consistently talked about excluding the united states from international agreements. he has consistently done things that have been perceived by our nato allies as undermining the nato alliance. he says said he thinks russia should deal with syria. i don't know what there is in the campaign or donald trump's presidency that would lead anyone to believe that what he is saying is actually what we need is an international force in syria, not the united states going it alone. >> none of this should surprise us because we've heard these positions for months and a couple of years going back. thanks very much for staying late with us on this good friday. next, two views on the president's pick to run the v.a. his white house doctor, the one who had such a flattering assessment of his patient's health. later, breaking news in that deadly police shooting of alton sterling. an action now taken against two officers involved. run the massi

veterans affairs, dr. ronny jackson is drawing widespread praise for his work as the white house physician. his choice with zero experiencing running big organizations, well, that's raising questions even among those who know him well in his current capacity. former white house ethics czar norm eisen for one. he worked with dr. jackson in the obama administration and has co-authored a stinging opinion piece in "the new york times." his perspective now along with

that of gop strategist scott jennings. so, norm, in your op-ed in "the new york times" today, you questioned dr. jackson's qualifications to run the v.a., but also importantly his independence from the president. explain that to us. >> gjim, i know dr. jackson, he was a wonderful physician for all of us when he ran the white house medical unit in the obama administration. but he simply is not qualified to take on one of the most complicated health care management jobs in the world. he doesn't have the health care management experience. he does not appear has been properly vetted. his appointment came as a surprise to many of the president's advisers. but most troubling, jim, was his performance at that press conference when he talked about the president's health because he put on a show that made the

president happy but was not legitimate. he predicted the president's health seven years in the future. he talked about how the president might live to 200 if he had a better diet, and most troubling of all, he gave the president the wrong testing to address the cognitive issues, the psychological issues that were swirling around. >> a lot of issues there. let's set that medical examination aside for a moment. but on the issue, scott, of running the v.a., it's got serious issues. the lives of wounded veterans and ill veterans really hang in the balance there. there have been some treatment issues. people have died waiting in line. how do you defend this decision to choose the president's doctor, in effect, to run this sprawling bureaucracy facing real challenges? >> well, first of all, i think na norm is soft-selling what he

said about ronny jackson today. he called him a liar and a quack. he basically said this rear admiral in the united states navy went before the american people and lied and said he may not have even conducted correct medical tests despite his years of excellent training. so let's not pull punches here, norm. you called this man a liar and a quack. here's what i think. >> i do -- >> let me finish. >> i do want to set that issue aside. i want to get to the issue which is the central one here of running the v.a. that's the job at hand here. do you believe he's qualified to run the v.a. and can help solve these real, present and, you know, life-changing problems that the v.a. faces? >> i hope he does a good job, and i think we need to give this man a chance. i'm not going to fight norm on the fact he has non-traditional qualifications for this. i do also prefer the president go through a better vetting process for presidential appointments. i did presidential personnel vetting for president george w. bush, and i would prefer a stronger vetting process. i think what we have to hope here is that dr. jackson's qualifications are thoroughly

probed in the confirmation process. but i think we have no reason to believe he's of low character. we have no reason to believe he's a liar and every reason to believe he's an excellent doctor. we also have most importantly every reason to believe this man cares deeply and passionately about his country and about his fellow veterans. and i think that alone should cause all of us to say, we wish you well, and we hope you clean up this agency because it's vital. >> norm, is that enough, the fact that he is a military man himself? in fact, he's still in uniform. is that enough in your view? >> no, jim, it's not. the v.a. job is one of the most complex health care management jobs in the world. you are treating -- responsible for treating the health of hundreds of thousands if not millions of american veterans, a variety of other social services to them. ronny jackson runs a medical unit of a few dozen people. i don't question his patriotism or his decency.

i was very well treated by him as a doctor. but that doesn't suit him to run one of the most complex medical bureaucracies and one of the most troubled ones, jim. >> scott, it is cnn's reporting that the president said to aides that ronny jackson's performance in that press conference, praising the president's health, was a factor in him selecting him for the v.a. he also commented, my cnn colleagues have reported to others that he thought he looked like the central casting version of someone who should be in that role. that appears part of the president's calculus here in choosing him. >> it's part of the president's calculus in choosing a lot of aides these days. he likes people who now how to communicate. i hope dr. jackson's management abilities and his abilities to run an organization like the v.a. live up to how the president views his communication abilities. there's no question he has never managed anything this large, but not that many people around donald trump right now have.

i think ronny jackson's prior service, ronny jackson's patrioti patriotism, ronny jackson's knowledge of the veterans system, it is going to help him succeed in this role. look, we could try to tear this guy down before he even starts this job, but i just don't know what good that does. >> we're going to have to leave it there. thanks very much for taking the hard questions. >> thanks, jim. >> thanks, jim. coming up, disturbing new video from an officer's body camera showing the police killing of alton sterling in baton rouge. we're going to show you the video and bring you breaking news about what has happened to those police officers. that's next. how do you win at business? stay at la quinta. where we're changing with stylish make-overs. then at your next meeting, set your seat height to its maximum level. bravo, tall meeting man. start winning today. book now at lq.com

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there is breaking news tonight in the case of alton sterling, a man killed by police in baton rouge, louisiana, in 2016. police were responding then to a call from a homeless man about a man with a gun. video from the officers' body camera has now been released, which we will show you in just a moment. just this week, it was announced no charges would be brought against the two officers. tonight one of those officers has been fired. the other has been suspended for three days without pay. here now is that body cam video. i just want to give you a warning here. it is extremely disturbing to watch. >> back off. >> what's your problem? >> don't move. stop. >> what i did? >> don't [ bleep ] move. i'm shoot your [ bleep ]. put your hands on the car. i'm going to shoot you in your [ bleep ] head. you hear me? don't you [ bleep ] move! >> all right.

hold up. hold up. you're hurting my arm. hold on. >> tase him. >> get on the ground! get on the ground! >> pop him again, howie. >> [ bleep ]. >> [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. >> get on the ground! [ bleep ]. >> shots fired.

>> just so difficult to watch. cnn's nick valencia joining us now from baton rouge. nick, i know you spoke to the attorney for the officer who killed alton sterling, fired the deadly shots. what can you tell us about what he said? >> reporter: the attorney for blaine sal mowne salamoni tellse disappointed in the chief's decision. they plan on appealing and that process could take as much as 90 days for it to start. i asked him if his client really wants to come back to work in law enforcement in baton rouge after everything we've seen on that video. he tells me it's less about wanting to come back and work as a police officer here, more about wanting to clear his name. reportedly he was very emotional about the news, and he plans to appeal. jim? >> tell us about the sterling family. they lost alton sterling here. how are they reacting to this? >> reporter: well, it's clearly very difficult for the family. i spoke earlier as well to chris stewart, who represents the children for alton sterling. you remember he has five children between the ages of

about 4 or 5 to 17. they're trying their best they can to keep those kids from watching the video. they don't want them to have to see their father that way. reportedly one of the family members of the sterling family passed out after seeing the video. i asked them about this notion of closure that the police chief brought up at the press conference. i said, do you think the family will get closure after seeing these videos? they say the real closure will come if the city steps up, according to the attorney, and goes forward with the civil lawsuit. one of the things, jim, real quick is they're haunted by what they saw on this tape. they're haunted by what happened at the end. as alton sterling's body is laying there and he's bleeding out, the officer, blane salamoni, walks over and called sterling stupid, uses profanities. the family sees that as laughing in the face of death and their loved one. jim? >> goodness. you can understand why. nick valencia, thanks very much for joining us. joining us now is former lapd officer david clinger and cnn law enforcement analyst and former philadelphia police

commissioner charles ramsay. he's co-founder of the consulting group 21 century policing solutions. chief ramsay, let me ask you first. you watched that video. do you think the police officers behaved correctly? >> no. no. i mean threatening to shoot the individual in the head, all that sort of thing, the swearing, no, that certainly is not standard procedure. >> david, you look at this and based on what we know, do you agree that they did something wrong here, that they should have paid for it with more than lossing their jobs? >> that's some of the worst police work i've ever seen in my life. those two officers, particularly the shooter, should be embarrassed as should anybody with any sort of law enforcement background who knows anything about how to deal with people. as chuck just said, the inappropriate language, threatening to kill somebody. and if you listen carefully to what the shooter says, he tells

mr. sterling that first i'm going to shoot you in the blankety blank and all these awful words if you move. then he tells him put your hands on the car. then he tells him again i'm going to shoot you if you move. what sense does this make? we had a completely out of control police officer who's making no sense, and he spun out of control. he got very emotional. i heard your reporter say that he got emotional when he heard the news of being fired. this is a guy who can't control his emotions. he cusses at the very beginning. he shoots him. then he cusses at him some more. then there were a bunch of other terrible mistakes that were made. >> listen, i don't mean to demean or dismiss the dangers that police officers, uniformed police officers, face around the country every day. but is this more than embarrassing, chief ramsey? was it criminal behavior by these police officers in your view? >> well, you know, when you have these kinds of cases, your district or state's attorney will review it in the light of whether or not it could be

criminal. the department will look at it administratively. did you violate policy procedures, training, and the like? but certainly training does not include pulling your gun, pointing it at someone's head, threatening to kill them, swearing at them, giving them commands, move, don't move. i mean it's just -- it's terrible. he should have been fired quite frankly in my opinion. but one of the things that's problematic in policing, there is no centralized database where you can enter that kind of information into so that he could never hold another law enforcement job anywhere in the united states. so he could be fired from here, but theoretically he could go somewhere else and get hired. that's a scary thought. >> david, it seems a consistent problem that we see in instances like this is the opposite of de-escalation, right? because i know that part of training, the police are trained when the circumstances merit to find a way to de-escalate rather than to escalate.

>> right. >> are police departments around the country trying to do a better job of that? >> i think they are, and i think perhaps chuck knows a little bit more about this than i do in terms of his consulting work. but definitely there's a movement. but to move towards de-escalation, that's a good thing. but we have to understand two things. number one, there's times where de-escalation is not the correct way to go. this situation, however, they escalated it. they started out hot. they walk ted right up and put their hands on. there's no need to do that. we don't have time to go into every single tactical blunder that went down here. but suffice it to say that when we go back to this issue of de-escalation, yes. but these officers escalated from the outset, and that was completely improper. unless there's something going on that i know nothing about, which is possible, they should not have handled it that way from the outset. >> as david said, chief ramsey, i know this is something that you're working on. >> yeah, well, it is.

de-escalation training is something that is part of police training in practical every city across the united states now. what these officers did of course is not an example of that. they did just the opposite. they actually caused a situation to elevate even higher. i think to keep it in perspective, though, you know, police officers have contact with citizens every single day. they arrest people every day. they take some very dangerous people off the street, including those that are armed, and there's no injury to the cop, no injury to the citizen. but when you have instances like this, you have video, it certainly gives the impression that that's like standard police work, and nothing could be further from the truth. >> i get it. it's a fair point. i deal with police often, and we've got to give them credit where credit is due. chief ramsey, david clinger, thanks very much. special counsel robert mueller is in the eye of many storms in washington, of course. some republicans want him fired. democrats say there will be a constitutional crisis if he is. just ahead, a detailed profile of mueller by cnn's gloria borger.

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he may not be a man for all seasons, but in today's washington without a doubt, he is a man for this season. special counsel robert mueller is the point man in charge of the russia investigation. his team of prosecutors has already indicted 13 russian nationals and three russian companies for allegedly

interfering in the 2016 presidential election, and he has obtained guilty pleas from five people for various charges, including michael flynn, president trump's first national security adviser, and rick gates, the former deputy chairman of the trump campaign. what's more, there is no sign that mueller's investigation is coming to a close. here is cnn's gloria borger with the first of a two-part profile of a man who once headed the fbi. >> reporter: special counsel robert mueller is a mystery man, perhaps the most private public figure in washington. but as the leader of the russia investigation, he's also at political ground zero. >> i think the public trust in this whole thing is gone. >> reporter: and in the sights of a president who wants him fired. >> last june the president ordered the firing of special counsel robert mueller, backed down after the white house counsel threatened to quit. >> reporter: putting mueller in the bizarre position of investigating whether the president tried to fire him.

but you'll never hear about it from mueller. >> i mean this is someone who has turned down more press conferences and interviews than most people in washington ever get the chance to give. he doesn't really like talking about himself. he doesn't really like speaking with the press. >> reporter: at the start, mueller was a bipartisan favorite. >> he would have been on anybody's list of, let's say, the top five people in the country to have, you know, taken on this kind of a responsibility. >> we all need to let mr. mueller do his job. i think he's the right guy at the right time. >> reporter: with a long résume. at 73, he's been involved for decades in some of the justice department's most celebrated cases. mobster john gotti, panamanian dictator manuel noriega, and the pan am 103 bombing in lockerbie, scotland, in 1988, a case that still remains personal. >> i'll never forget the visit i made to lockerbie where i saw

the smallwo wooden warehouse in which were stored the various effects of your loved ones. a white sneaker. a syracuse sweatshirt. christmas presents and photographs. >> he's been effectively the same bob mueller in every place he has ever worked, whether that was the u.s. attorney's office in san francisco in the 1970s, whether that was the george h.w. bush administration in the 1980s, whether that was the d.c. homicide prosecutor's office in the 1990s, or the fbi in the 2000s. he is hard-driving. he's tenacious. he is incredibly thorough and has a very strong sense of right or wrong. >> reporter: not republican or democrat. >> four and a half years, 2,000 meetings, i didn't hear him say anything political. >> really? in washington? >> i know that sounds weird. he might have said that guy's a jerk. i didn't see it as a partner

issue. >> how would you describe his politics? >> not. >> as in there are none? >> he's apolitical. he is non-partisan. he is, as i think has become quite clear, a pretty law and order guy. but he doesn't speak of things in political terms. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. >> reporter: which is partly why president bush picked him to run the fbi in 2001. >> the fbi must remain independent of politics and uncompromising in its mission. >> reporter: mueller arrived at the fbi just seven days before 9/11. he served most of his term under bush and when president obama asked him to stay for two more years, it required an act of congress. the senate approved 100-0. his m.o., a by the books guy even after hours. >> people told me after christmas, we're going to the director's house, a guy that never really interacts with us.

at the end of the party, he would flick the lights. it's on the invitation it's 7:00 to 9:00. it's 9:03. lights on. that's kind of a signal. >> reporter: married to a former teacher, the father of two daughters, there still wasn't much small talk about family at work. a literally buttoned up and buttoned down boss. >> i remember him telling him, director, you wear a white button down shirt every day. can you wear tattersall or something. i asked him years after he had been director, what was the deal with the white shirts when you were at the fbi? he said, i understood i was leading the fbi through a wrenching period of change. i wanted to wear the white shirt because i wanted the other fbi agents to be able to know that this was still the agency that they had signed up to join. >> reporter: his dress code as unforgiving as his work ethic. >> he was in the office between

6:00 and 6:30 every morning, and he would always plop his briefcase down in the chair opposite my desk, not sit down and kibitz or shoot the breeze. immediately, what's happening? what's going on? >> what if you're not a good briefer? >> then you're done. then you're done. >> done? >> then you're done. the boss likes a good briefer. people used to wake up at 4:00 in the morning and study for two hours before briefing the boss. it was like the big test of the day. >> there's not a lot of back and forth. very quickly you're going to go through the details of the case. >> would you assume that he is managing the special counsel investigation the same way? >> oh, heck yes. i wouldn't assume it. that is his -- it's not like a professional choice. that's his dna. what's going on today? what have you got? what have you got? i don't want to hear a lot of noise. i want to hear what the facts are. let's talk about. what's your judgment? what do you think? let's here our decision. let's go. >> reporter: the pressure on

mueller now is intense but he's seen worse. >> you forget this is a man that in his early 20s fought in vietnam. i don't think there's anything in washington that's going to give him any type of fear that he faced when he was a young man. >> reporter: mueller grew up in the wealthy philadelphia suburbs and attended an's elite boarding school. a classmate of john kerry. then to princeton. but the combat death of a classmate in vietnam inspired mueller to join the marines. >> he was wounded in combat, shot through the leg, received a bronze star with valor, purple heart, and, you know, was right back in the fight a couple of weeks later. >> i always did consider myself fortunate to have lived through the war in vietnam, and there were many men such as david hackett who did not. in some sense, you feel that you have been give a second lease on life, and you want to make the most of it to contribute in some way. >> reporter: after graduating the university of virginia law school, mueller soon found his

way to the department of justice and remained there for most of the next four decades. >> my colleagues here at the department of justice pass and present -- >> reporter: with two short breaks to give private practice a try. >> bob mueller has been notoriously unhappy every time he has tried to be in private practice. he just can't defend guilty people. he'll meet with a client. they'll explain his problem, and he'll say, well, sounds like you should go to jail, then. you know -- >> so he'll tell his client -- >> sounds like you're guilty. bob mueller is someone who sees the world in very black and white terms. >> part two of gloria's profile in just a moment, including robert mueller's dramatic showdown in a washington hospital room alongside james comey. well, like most of you, i just bought a house.

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mueller has a long history in official washington, especially during one incident under john ashcroft. >> by 2004 mule are weller was the fbi. it was the first time mueller and comey would find themselves in a very controversial legal drama. >> i was very upset. i was angry. >> comey was worried the bush administration was determined to keep an eavesdropping program that they thought was illegal. a ashcroft was in the hospital leaving comey in charge. >> i was concerned that given how ill i knew the attorney general was that there might be an effort to ask him to overrule me when he was in no condition to do that. called director mueller with whom i had been discussing this

matter and who had been a great help to me over that week and told him what was happening. he said i will meet you at the hospital. >> they had to race administration officials to the bedside. >> director mueller instructed the fbi agents not to allow me to be removed from the room under any circumstances. >> in the end, ashcroft backed them. >> he enlisted bob mueller because he knew bob mueller had this incredible non-partisan reputation in washington, while comey might be able to be personally blamed for having political motives or thinking politics, no one was going to be able to attach that to bob mueller. >> that was then. now, trump views their relationship with suspicion. >> very, very good friends with comey. which is very bothersome. >> mueller loyalists deny it. it's all part of the new landscape as he investigates the

president. >> in congress we just politics infects and invades everything. >> it has. news of disparaging text messages about trump led mueller to remove a member of his team. >> i think they are devastating. they are beyond showing political prefrerences. >> mr. president -- >> the president declassified a document challenging the fbi's professional behavior. >> i think it's a disgrace, what's going on in this country, i think it's a disgrace. sg >> the message to mueller was clear, your investigation is contaminated. mueller remains silent. instead, letting his work speak for itself. >> he is the best hope to produce a product that my fellow citizens can have confidence in. it will not come from congress. it will not come from a bunch of politicians. i hope it can come from a former

marine who is the head of the fbi and a u.s. attorney. but he has to be mindful of the perception. i'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and i'm going to wait on the product that he produces. >> coming up, why your morning coffee may soon come with a warning about cancer risk. first, a preview of sunday's new installment of american dynasties, the kennedys. >> you know their name. you don't know their whole story. a key battle over education brings the civil rights struggle to the forefront of jack's mind. confronted with the violence, the fundamental injustice, the kennedys realize that america needs civil rights legislation now. >> all men are created equal and the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened. we face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and a people. those who do nothing are

inviting shame as well as violence. >> american dynasties, the kennedys, new episode sunday at 9:00 on cnn.

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coffee may soon come with a cancer warning, at least in california. a court decision means coffee sellers may have to warn people of cancer risk due to a chemical in the roasting process. earlier i spoke with sanjay gupta. sanjay, i have to ask, i'm a coffee drinker. i'm sure there's a few tens of millions who might be watching this. what exactly is this and how worried do coffee drinkers like myself need to be? >> let me cut to the chase then, since you asked the question. i think it's going to be good news for you and the other coffee drinkers out there. i think this is probably going to feel more like panic than prudence. it shouldn't be. i think practically speaking, i don't think there's a risk really at all for the people who are coffee drinkers. what we are talking about a certain chemical which is typically thought of in industrial processes, dyes and

molds. but also in certain foods when they are heated or baked or roasted, for example, it can release this substance. coffee beans are one of the substances. when you see them coming as a plant, they are pale in color. after they are roasted, that's what gives them the darkness. that's when the chemical can be released. the saying in medicine is that it's the dose that is the poison. in this case, the dose is so low, even in the animal studies, it was so low that it really was not a problem in terms of potentially causing cancer. in very high doses, potentially, yes. that's why this concern has come up at all. >> of course, you mention cancer risk. folks are still going to wonder, is this something i should reduce just to be safe. we also hear of the studies that show the benefits of coffee drinking, at least in moderation. in your view, does this risk even if it's small outweigh the

benefits of drinking coffee? >> it's interesting you ask that question. in some ways that was the question that came up with this particular lawsuit in california. starbucks, other people who are coffee makers saying that there are so many health benefits to coffee, they should outweigh the risks. there's good reason for them to say that, decreasing risk of heart disease, your risk of alzheimer's, even decreasing your risk of certain cancer. i think there are significant benefits. again, while the chemical in and of itself is a potential cancer causing substance, it's the dose. you need a 100,000 times the dose you get to cause some problem. one thing i will say -- i know you are a coffee drinker -- the world health organization looks at hot beverages as a concern because the hot beverage itself can cause this damage to the esophag esophagus. that could potentially actually set you up for certain cancer.

low risk, but if you make a change, i would say don't worry about not drinking coffee, you may want to let it cool down longer. >> got it. good advice, comforting advice. thanks very much. >> you got it. thank you. thank you for watching. it's time to hand it over to don lemon. "cnn tonight" starts right now. i'm don lemon. breaking news in the russia investigation. a name we never heard before makes us wonder, what else does special counsel robert mueller know that we don't? cnn is learning the team detained and questions ted malloch. they asked him about roger stone and about julian assuage and wikileaks and they subpoenaed him to appear before mueller's grand jury in april. what does this tell us about where