tv Erin Burnett Out Front CNN April 10, 2018 4:00pm-5:00pm PDT
4:00 pm
possible summit and asked mr. trump to press them about stopping flying missiles over japan and to send back several japanese citizens who the north koreans have kidnapped over the decades. >> lots going on. thank you. that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer. in "the situation room." erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next, breaking news. president trump said to be weighing whether to fire the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. a crucial development tonight. is it his way of getting rid of bob mueller? also, new details on the raid on cohn, how the initial moments went down and what the feds took with them. and mark zuckerberg admits facebook has been contacted by bob mueller's team. let's go "outfront." and good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, the breaking news. president trump is considering firing deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. a move that could up end the entire russia investigation. and lay the ground work for bob
4:01 pm
mueller's firing. aaccording to multiple people, the president is is enranged over raiding the office of his long time attorney. sarah sanders was asked about what the president thinks of rosenstein. >> what about rosenstein? what's the thinking about him in terms of his tenure at the department of justice? he did not appear to be very happy with him last night. can you confirm did rosenstein was the high level d doj official that signed off on the fbi raid? >> i'll defer you to the department of justice in interpreters of their process. certain ly the president's voicd his frustrations, but beyond that, i don't have anything else. >> the president is frustrated. and tonight's development is crucial because the it's the person who holds rosenstein's job who can actually fire bob mueller. according to justice department federal regulations, quote, the special counsel may be
4:02 pm
disciplined or removed from office by the personal action of the attorney general. so the special counsel is bob mueller. attorney general is jeff sessions. now, jeff sessions of course has recused himself from the russia investigation, so the person in charge is rod rosenstein. it is his responsibility to oversee mueller and make those decisions. whether he is hired or fired. that's up to rosenstein now. and as of december of last year, rosenstein has publicly testified that he sees no reason to fire bob mueller. >> have you seen good cause to fire special counsel mueller? >> no. p. >> thank you. if you were ordered today today to fire mr. mueller, what would you do? >> i would follow the regulation. if there were good cause, i would act. if there were no good cause, i would not. >> and you've seen no good cause so far. >> correct. >> so, rosenstein didn't see a reason to fire mueller. is that why his job is in jep
4:03 pm
jeopardy tonight? pamela brown is "outfront" with this breaking development and pamela, you are breaking this story. what more are you learn iing at this hour about what the president is thinking about firing rosenstein? >> well, our team has learned the president's consideration of firing rod rosenstein has gained urgency following the raid of the office of the president's personal lawyer. sources familiar with this matter say this is one of several options on the table right now, including going so far as to fire jeff sessions as well. this is what the president is weighing. now x officials say if trump acts, rosenstein is his most likely target because installing a new deputy attorney general could provide the check on mueller that trump is seeking. now, we should note, erin, that not all of trump's legal add vir visors are on board with this, but others are telling him they have a stronger case. they believe he has crossed the line and what he can and cannot pursue and they consider him conflicted since he is a potential witness in the special counsel's investigation because he wrote the memo that justified
4:04 pm
the firing of former fbi director, james comey, so even though trump has considered firing him in the past, the possibility has taken b on a more serious tone. >> that was used by the president to defend it so to fire him and say you're conflicted, obviously ready hard to circle that square. you areal rorying more breaking news tonight, that the president canceled his trip to south network. scheduled to go this week. his economic adviser this morning thought it was on. no, it's not and in part because of this. >> that's right. we have learned that president who had shortened his eye ten yar and had been grum babling to aides around him that he really didn't want to go, so staying behind in washington in part to decide the next steps on potential changes of f the justice department. this is according to two sources we've spoken with. now, sarah sanders, the white house overall has said trump is
4:05 pm
staying behind to oversee a response to the chemical weapons attack in syria, so it appears there are a number of factors including not only monitoring the response in syria, but also what next steps if any he's going to take for his department of justice. now, sources are saying, erin, that trump's anger has reached a boiling point. it has even surpass eed previou outrage over the mueller investigation. one source says trump views the raid on cohen which was executed by the u.s. attorney's office for the southern district of new york and not mueller, as a ruse and directly related to the mueller investigation. according to the source who's familiar with the president's feelings, trump believes mueller is unregulated with few checks and balances on his conduct and this could be a turning point for the president. >> and then a turning point for the country as a whole, if pamela, thank you so much. let's go to david gergen.
4:06 pm
kerry, former counsel to the u.s. assistant attorney general and renado, former federal prosecutor. david, this is -- sorry, stunning development in many ways. the president tonight considering firing rod rosenstein, the man who decides the fate of bob mueller. >> well, we may be nearing a crisis point in all of these investigations. there are two steps that would have to be taken. that is to fire rosenstein and possibly sessions and put somebody else into place. who would then order the firing of mueller. and it does seem to me as it's really interesting the president according to gloria borger's reporting, sitting down can alan dershowitz this evening, that will be interesting. >> harvard professor. >> he's very, yes, yes, and he has a hard line view on this. he's been very sympathetic to the president on this. and so you know, conceivably
4:07 pm
could alan step into one of those posts? anything could happen, right? but the other thing is, erin, where are the republican leadership? it seems to me knowing how fearful they are of firing of mueller, they think it will be a bad political mistake especially heading into the midterm elections, why isn't there a rub derepublican delegation? there's nobody nels the white house who can talk him out of it. why not the republicans try? >> that is a big question. we're going to be joined by a republican later this hour. senator kennedy. how big of a deal would it be if the president fires rod rosenstein? >> a very big deal, other thaea. after watching this investigation for some time and watching the way rod rosenstein has been exercising oversight and has been very public, both in his public statements and to members of congress and open hearing x about the extent to which he is providing hands on oversight. i've come around to the view he is really the lynch pin for ensuring that the investigation
4:08 pm
continues in a way that is protect ed from political influence and continues to whatever ends it is intended to go towards. he has insulated this special counsel's office from political pressure. he has according to his own accounts, exercised oversight. meaning that he is consulting with the special counsel regularly about different directions they might go in and it seems from the reporting we're seeing on the michael ccoe of the search warrant, he has determineded some things are outside the scope. at least according to the reporting over the last day. i think he has become a central figure and important figure that is protect iing the integrity o this investigation. >> what would this do bob mueller's investigation? do you think? i suppose there's always someone. but on a practical level, could
4:09 pm
the president find someone to go in and do what he says and fire bob mueller? >> well, certainly, he may be able to find some lacky who's going try to do whatever possible to squelch this investigation, but it's not going to be easy because these cases are open in the fbi. they're open in the justice department. literally, they're ongoing investigations and they're ongoing court cases and what would have to happen if s not just a new person to take over the role of you know, attorney general or deputy attorney general, and potentially a new special county, but then what would have to happen is somebody would have to go in and decline prosecution in all these cases. somebody would have to close all these investigations. tlas lot of paper work. is somebody going o to come in and do that. what might happen and what i hope happens for the good of this country is that somebody comes in who has enough integrity who says no, i'm not
4:10 pm
going to do that. then it brings this to head. >> an of course, you have real crimes that have you know, allegedly been committed. by the likes of paul manafort, 12 russians. this is a lot easier said than done to say you're going to pretend that didn't happen. this also comes, pam's reporting, that the president now canceling the trip to south america and did so very suddenly. this morning, his economic adviser, larry kudlow, was on the radio saying i'm looking forward the going with him. within hours, we found out the president isn't going. because he wants to figure out what to do about the doj. that's pretty specific. >> absolutely right. this is not the first time kudlow has been surprised in his short tenure. he's trying hard to keep the ship right and navigate it well, but it's very, very hard for him. if the president decides to fire rosenstein, it sounds like he's close to doing that. we're going look back and say this was saturday night massacre in slow motion. we've seen a process unfold now
4:11 pm
over a period of weeks. leading to the effort to get mueller oaf out of there. i think the point is well taken. when archibald cox was fired, way back in the nixon period and he was essentially conducting the investigation, leon got appointed and carried it out. i think the chances of shutting down the mueller investigation all together i think would cause such an uproar in this country. i think would go well beyond trying to fire mueller. i would imagine the republican party would tell mr. president, you can't do that. >> even chuck grassley today said it would be suicidal to do so. it's also interesting, sarah sanders said something today. i went through the actual line of the mandate for the special counsel. and it said that the attorney general was the one, the only one who had the ability to fire and of course, because he's recused himself as the deputy. sarah sanders today said that's
4:12 pm
not even true. i just wanted to play the exchange for you and for our viewers. here it is. >> do you believe he has the power to fire mueller? >> certainly believe he has the power to do so. >> you said the president believes he has the power to fire robert mueller because usually, most legal experts believe he would have to hire rosenstein to fire mueller and rosenstein could refuse. >> i know a number of individuals in the legal community and including at the department of j department of justice that he has the power to do so. but i don't have any further announcements on -- >> they told me. i've asked. they said it's rosenstein only has the power to fire special counsel! again, we've been advised that the president certainly has the power to make that decision. i can't go anything beyond that. >> look, it's significant on many levels. one, according to the regulations, she's wrong. the special counsel may be disciplined or removed only by the action of the attorney general.
4:13 pm
that flies in the face of what she is clearly saying, but she's also saying, we've been advised. in other words, they've spent time looking into it. >> that's right. and couple of things i would say. one way they could try to get around it is by putting in a new attorney general and by ordering that attorney general to remove the regulations entirely. >> ah, so fire jeff sessions, change the rule, then do it without rod rosenstein. >> basically. but i will tell you, one thing you're keen in noticing this is a sort of double speak that's going on here. what we hear from republicans is there's no reason to protect mueller. we don't need to pass this legislation to protect mueller. he's not in jeopardy and what we're hearing at the white house is well, we've already looked into it. the president has to power to do it and so on. there's a lot of double speak here. i worry for the sake of the country as somebody who's an american and somebody in law enforcement, david gergen is saying won't come true and
4:14 pm
republicans won't stand up if we have somebody who's under investigation and goes through the step of firing the people investigating. >> this comes as the investigation moves forward. not only do you have the move that the press to move ahead with raiding three locations at least. related to michael cohen. we're learning tonight, storm whey daniels is cooperating with federal investigators. a source familiar with the investigation is now describing it as extensive and aggressive and that the team working on it is sizable. this is related to possible payments, bank fraud, stormy daniels. we're not even talking specifically about russia and we're talking aggressive, extensive and sizable. >> right, well, so it's still a little unclear from the reporting exactly how this is being called a referral was made from the special counsel's office to possibly the southern district of new york. it looks like it was the fbi division of new york that executed the search warrants, so
4:15 pm
it's unclear how that relationship, but assuming that the stormy daniels piece, the michael cohen piece of it was spun off into a separate investigation, this special counsel investigation is wide ranging. in the course of it, they come across information that is evidence of over crime, then they are within the b fbi, they're going to send leads to other offices and follow up on that. they're not going to just look the other way. >> final word, david. >> final word. yes. listen, the president's action and getting so angry at rosenstein is not fair. and he's really been sliming him. as far as we can tell from all the reporting so far, what mueller did, what the fbi did when it picked it up from mueller then what rosenstein did in approving it is all by the book. the president is stating that attorney client privilege is dead. it is not. there are exceptions written in the rule book that make it clear that in exceptional case, you
4:16 pm
can do this. i know it sounds odd. so many of us celebrate the attorney client privilege, but there are some exexceptions. i think it's a mistake for the president to take action on a misstatement of the facts. >> of course one of those is probable evidence of a crime, which they could have put in front of a judge. we don't know all the details. thank you all three so much. next, more breaking news. new details about how the raid went down on michael cohen. what happened with fbi agents when he answered the door. plus, one republican senator saying it would be suicide if the president fires mueller. why aren't republicans stepping up an doing more to protect the special counsel? and mark zuckerberg grilled today on capitol hill. but when it came to crucial questions, he was very short on answers. >> senator, i'm not aware of that. i actually am not aware. i'm not sure.
4:17 pm
a golf clubthat only hits it straight... is that some kind of magic wand? not quite... just the result of dell emc working with callaway to gather data - and design best-in-class clubs, transforming the player into a bonafide golfer. oh! maybe it is a magic wand. magic can't make digital transformation happen... but we can. that's the power dell emc, part of dell technologies. we're finally back out in our yard, but so are they. the triple threat of dandelions, lurking crabgrass and weak, thin grass! introducing the all new scotts turf builder triple action. this single-step breakthrough changes everything. it kills weeds, prevents crabgrass for up to 4 months, and feeds so grass can thrive, all guaranteed. only from scotts. our backyard is back.
4:18 pm
this is a scotts yard. ♪ ♪ ♪ raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ♪ ♪ bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens ♪ ♪ brown paper packages tied up with strings ♪ ♪ these are a few of my favorite things ♪ ♪ ♪ 3 toddlers won't stop him.. and neither will lower back pain. because at a dr. scholl's kiosk he got a recommendation for our custom fit orthotic to relieve his foot, knee, or lower back pain, from being on his feet. dr. scholl's. born to move. ♪ let's fly, let's fly away ♪ ♪ just say the words ♪ and we'll beat the birds down to acapulco bay ♪
4:19 pm
♪ it's perfect for a flying honeymoon they say ♪ ♪ come fly with me ♪ let's fly, let's fly away ♪ ♪ come fly with me ♪ let's fly, let's fly away ♪ hey, i'm curious about your social security alerts. oh! we'll alert you if we find your social security number on any one of thousands of risky sites, so you'll be in the know. ewww! being in the know is very good. don't shake! ahhh! sign up online for free. discover social security alerts. well, lik-oh!st of you, i j-very nice.a house. now i'm turning into my dad. i text in full sentences. i refer to every child as chief. this hat was free. what am i supposed to do, not wear it? next thing you know, i'm telling strangers defense wins championships. -well, it does. -right? why is the door open? are we trying to air condition the whole neighborhood? at least i bundled home and auto on an internet website, progressive.com. progressive can't save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto.
4:20 pm
i mean, why would i replace this? it's not broken. why people everywhere are upgrading their water filter to zerowater. start with water that has a lot of dissolved solids. pour it through brita's two-stage filter. dissolved solids remain? what if we filter it over and over? (sighing) oh dear. thank goodness zerowater's five-stage filter gets to all zeroes the first time. so, maybe it's time to upgrade. get more out of your water. get zerowater. break iing news. new details on the raid to report tonight. a source familiar with what happened tells me fbi agents knock eed on michael cohen's do monday morning. he answered the door, his wife was inside. an fbi stuck his foot in door so it kobt be closed. he was holding his cell phone when he opened the door and an
4:21 pm
agent took it from him right away. a source says the agents were exhaustive and were moving items not related in any way the stormy daniels. chris joins me along with white house reporter for the "new york times" and former assistant u.s. tone for the southern district of new york, which is of course who oversaw this entire raid and warrant. harry. chris, let me start with you from your years as director from the criminal investigative unit. what do you make of how this raid went down? early in the morning. a knock on the door. a foot in the door. >> that's a no nonsense execution of a search warrant. it could be they were able to get a special provision in the search warrant that what we call no knock. we don't know at this point because i'm sure the search warrant is sealed, but that indicates to me this was that type of warrant. you only get those if you can
4:22 pm
show the magistrate or the judge that there's the high potential that evidence is going to be destroyed if they take their time and execute the normal way. so that was a decision made by the agents. the judge agreed and issued the warrant this that fashion, so this is a bare knuckle execution of a search warrant. >> the source telling me there was a knock. they did knock. the door was opened, but that would still fit what you're calling a no knock. >> i will caveat and say we don't know that's the case, but sticking the foot in the door, taking the cell phone, those are indications that this could have been u a no knock type of search warrant. >> and harry -- >> a knock would have been just to get him to the door so they wouldn't destroy evidence. >> which it's significant when you think of this and all the details we're learning. the fbi searched multiple locations. not just the one where cohen happened to be. his hotel room, his office, his apartment.
4:23 pm
the fact the fbi was able to get a search warrant for these locations for a lawyer's office. it's hugely significant. isn't it? >> very. lots of hurdles to clear if you want to search a lawyer's office. so you have to show among other things that there's no other way to get this evidence. than searching a lawyer's office! in order, they're not cooperating even if they have said they are, which in this case, they said. >> not cooperating enough and also that there isn't some other place where you could find the same information that you could hope to find at the lawyer's office. the coordinated nature of the three searches of the same time. standard when off an investigation where you think evidence could be destroy. you don't want to seize evidence at one place then find out it was really somewhere else. so definitely they had to get higher levels of approval than you would have to get in an ordinary case. you'd have to go to the criminal division within department of justice in washington. my understanding here is the
4:24 pm
deputy attorney general himself may have approved the execution of this search. all of which i think is good. because process is important and we want to see prosecutors following process. we don't want people to be cowboys. >> no. you want it to be by the rules. >> michael cohen has been b close to trump for a long time. a dozen years. i don't think anyone's heard him say a bad word about trump. in fact, he said a lot of extremely kind words. some of which he said on this show multiple times when he talk ed about why he was sure americans would vote for trump. here he is. >> they're looking for leadership. they're looking for somebody that can actually do for america what only donald trump can do. >> donald trump is presidential. he looks presidential. he speaks presidential. he wants to be the president of the united states of p p united states of america because he knows he can fix the country's problems. he could really make a difference for so many people.
4:25 pm
>> july, those are words of loyalty. the question now is will he pay this back now, when cohen is facing serious legal issues and found to be guilty of something, significant time possibly in jail. >> absolutely, michael cohen has been among the most loyal people in trump's inner circle. the president knows that. he likes that. we heard he is expressing that even as recently as today. this is one of the reasons that the president has been so enraged by these raids is because he feels that it really hits him close to home. and i mean, there is an open question of if they do attempt to use michael cohen to as leverage oaf tver the president
4:26 pm
what he'll do. what we have seen in the past is that the loyalty with trump only goes one way, but the fact is, he is at a level of outrage about these raids we haven't seen. we've heard him talk about the witch hunt, how mueller is is out of line and this is an unfair investigation when it comes to the russia election meddling, but on this, we are just hearing and you hear from people around him. he is at a boiling point. he is at a level of anger that could prompt him to try to do something so he thinks he won't be faced with having to choose between someone who is a loyalist to him. >> which is choice he may very well face. sarah sanders today said something really interesting. she said she's not sure if cohen is still trump's attorney. technically, he isn't formally, trump referred to him as quote, my attorney on air force one this past friday when asked about stormy daniels. what's the significance of this, of this sudden uncertainty or gray area about whether he's even the president's lawyer? >> this case might be mostly
4:27 pm
about cohen. i think there was a preexisting ves gags in the southern district of new york. it was a logical decision to pass the information up to the southern district and have them incorporate that into their preexisting veinvestigation. he may just be trying to put some distance. we don't know he's on retainer, so that's a lilt l unclear at this point. >> and important. harry, when you talk about the southern district of new york, there's confusion over who ordered what. we know mueller referred it. rosenstein sent to the southern district, then it's unclear. jeffrey bermen is the top federal prosecutor here in mat hatton now. he was recused from the michael cohen investigation before the search warrants were issued. we know he request ed that. but our source didn't know the reason why. obviously, he of course is
4:28 pm
truch's trump's appointee. what's your sense of what happened here? sq >> it's hard the to know, to engage in a small bit of speculation. it's b possible that he believed that his decision, whether to execute the search warrant or not and to seek the search warrant, would be subject to second guessing either way. if there was a referral, that means he didn't have to pursue the search warrant, but yuan independent decision was going to be made by prosecutors in his offi office. so if he were to decline, someone might say you're trying to curry favor and if he made it, some might say he was bending over backwards. meanwhile, you have someone here who has extremely talented people beneath him. rod, who was at the u.s. attorney's office. lisa. very talented. >> very qualified people made this decision. >> no doubt about that. if it was made by his deputy or chief of the criminal decision,
4:29 pm
dwig, they have vast experience in investigations. >> next, more breaking news. "the new york times" just reporting that trump tried to fire bob mueller in december, but he was talked out of it by his lawyers. so why do republicans insist even today that the president will never fire the special counsel, so don't worry? plus, mark zuckerberg admits facebook is working with mueller on the investigation. what we are learning about this significant admission tonight. and lobster truffle mac & cheese. classics like lobster lover's dream are here too. so enjoy these 10 lobsterlicious dishes now. because lobsterfest ends april 22nd.
4:30 pm
4:31 pm
we can do this. at fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. -whoo! your insurance on time. tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance.
4:32 pm
call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance. internet providers promise business owners a lot. let's see who delivers more. comcast business offers fast gig-speeds across our network. at&t doesn't. we offer more complete reliability with up to 8 hours of 4g wireless network backup. at&t, no way. we offer 35 voice features and solutions that grow with your business. at&t, not so much. we give you 75 mbps for $59.95. that's more speed than at&t's comparable bundle, for less. call today. president trump is considering firing the man
4:33 pm
overseeing the russia investigation. rod rosenstein, who has the fire to fire mueller. that's a red line for chuck grassley. here's what he said. >> i think it would be suicide for the president to fire him. i think the less the president says about this whole thing, the better off he will be. >> to be clear, he's talking about rbob mueller and "the new york times" is reporting at this moment that trump sought to fire mueller in december. after there were reports that mueller subpoenaed trump and the trump family bank records at deutsche bank. now, those reports turneded out to be inaccurate and nutrump std down. "outfront" now, democratic congresswoman, jackie speier, who's a member of the house intelligence committee. good to have you with me. first, the breaking news, the president is considering firing rod rosenstein. who of course has the direct authority to fire bob mueller. do you believe the president is getting ready to get rid of
4:34 pm
mueller? >> well, we certainly don't know what the president's about to do. but he wants this investigation to come to an end. he doesn't respect the rule of law and has shown in recent months and numerous and uber confidence that could be very dangerous in the white house. tipg result adult who have been supervising him have left aingd he feels that he can do almost anything he wants. much like he ran his family business. but this is a country of law, not of men. >> now, you have been warning that firing mueller was possible since last year. in fact, "the new york times" report iing he sought to fire mueller in december and you warned about it. here's what you said. >> the rumor on the hill when i left yesterday was that
4:35 pm
president was going to make a significant speech next week and when we are out of d.c., he was going to fire robert mueller. zble of course e . >> of course he didn't do it, but "the new york times" is reporting he is. here's what your colleagues are saying about the situation right now. >> the president has the ability to do that, but i don't see him doing that. >> i don't think he's going to be removed. i think he would be allowed to finish his job. >> i hope they're right. if the president takes this road not followed by others, i think he will reap the consequences and saturday night massacres happen some degrcades ago. if he chooses to do it midweek, it's still going to be a massacre for him as well.
4:36 pm
>> you know, you heard chuck grass say it would be suicide to fire mueller. do you believe, look, republicans are saying now, herballessentially, he's not go do it. so if the president does do something to get rid of bob mueller, do you have the full confidence that your republican colleagues, cornyn, all the ones you just heard there, grassley, that they'll stand up and say that's not okay? >> not at all because every time they make a very strong statement that i see as being kourmgous, they walk it back. for whatever reasons. whether it's in their districts or the white house, so i don't have a lot of confidence. but what i do have confidence in is that this investigation doesn't end if he goes to the process of firing rosenstein, then mueller because the gags is still being conducted by those within the fbi.
4:37 pm
who are going to continue to do their job and the justice department as well. >> so, let me ask you know because right now, you've got the russia investigation, but the godevelopment the presidents most upset about that's canceling his trip to south america, talk iing about firing rod rosenstein, has to do with the raid on his personal attorney, michael cohen. and we understand a lot of the materials sought, although not all, but a lot, were related to stormy daniels. a quinnipiac poll shows a majority of meamericans, 73%, s the president's affair is not an important issue and the majority of democrats agree. not just republicans. do you worry that the stormy affair and payment have become too much of a focal point and americans simply don't care? >> they doept care and i
quote
4:38 pm
understand that. when you disclose campaign contributions and when a contribution must be disclosed, whether the public thinks it's important or not, that is the law. we must follow the law. >> thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. and next, more on our breaking news. cnn reporting trump is considering firing rod ros rosenstein and now, with we know of a second time trump trid to fire mueller. is this all obstruction of justice? and mark zuckerberg facing tough questions on capitol hill over what facebook is doing with your information. sfrz . >> i say this gently. your user agreement sucks. >> that senator joins me next.
4:39 pm
he's playno, with us. he's trying to tell us something. let's see what forensics thinks. sorry i'm late. what did i miss? wanna get away? now you can with southwest fares as low as 49 dollars one-way. yes to low fares with nothing to hide. that's transfarency. ♪ whether it's a big thing, small thing,
4:40 pm
4:41 pm
if ydear freshpet,day, zooka had digestive problems and wouldn't eat. then i fed him freshpet. with pg&e in the sierras. and i'm an arborist since the onset of the drought, more than 129 million trees have died in california. pg&e prunes and removes over a million trees every year to ensure that hazardous trees can't impact power lines. and since the onset of the drought we've doubled our efforts.
4:42 pm
i grew up in the forests out in this area and honestly it's heartbreaking to see all these trees dying. what guides me is ensuring that the public is going to be safer and that these forests can be sustained and enjoyed by the community in the future. president trump's outrage over the russia investigation intensifies. he is considered firing rod rosenstein, a move which could have a major move on the russia investigation and lead to mueller himself being fired. this comes as we are learning the president sought to have mueller fired in december. this is a headline just out from
4:43 pm
"the" advisers back in december that the words they use are no uncertain interpreters, mueller's investigation had to seem to be true, the president backed down. "outfront" now, former counsel to the u.s. assistant attorney general for national security and former federal prosecutor back with me. literally, this headline break ing in the past 15 minutes. what do you make of this report here because you couple it with the report that he is considering firing rod rosenstein and you now have that the president wanted to fire mueller in december. was just talked out of it by haze lawyers. >> here's my take, the president has been nothing if not
4:44 pm
consistent in his desire for this investigation to go away. this is what he has been consistent about since the appointment. since before the appointment of the special counsel, when comby was still running it and now, once there's a special counsel. he has wanted this this shout down. he tweets about it all the time. he hates this investigation and so i'm not surprised to learn that he would was considering back in december. there were some other things going on in december as well in addition to those reports about the subpoenas. mike flynn, his national security adviseadviser, had als pleaded guilty in december. so there were a few things going on in december that were causing him increasing concern. >> what do you make of this, that the president tried to do this, was talked off the ledge. as the word may be, by his lawyers and now, here we are again seemingly back on that ledge. >> well, you know, he has been consistent in doing everything
4:45 pm
he can. to undermine the mueller investigation. mueller can use all these statements he's made to his aides against him. to try to prove up the president's corrupt intent. now, the only caveat of course erin is what happens if donald trump is able to fire everyone who investigates him? that's really the end game for him here, is you know, he is making it so easy for the question is , will he be able t get away with it. when we were on earlier on the show today, i mentioned these vest gags will live on even if mueller is fired. i guess the question is first of all, how dedicated is trump to ending any investigation of himself and his allies. >> right. they control it and sorry, ca carr
4:46 pm
carrie, they'll control his fate, too, given the supermajority you need to have in the senate. if that's what you have, obstruction of justice, but no underlying crimes, is there any way republicans would ever get on board with going ahead with impeachment in that situation? it would seem no. >> there's a -- we've seen some indictments. we still haven't seen any indictments regarding the hacking, the hacking that took place of the dnc. the release of e-mails. there's a whole piece of this larger investigation that i think members of congress would be wanting to see the results of. whether obstruction alone would be cause for them to launch an impeachment inquiry is an open question, but there are things that members of congress and people who are in positions of authority can do now. that is that members of congress
4:47 pm
who are concerned that this investigation should at least run its course, need to make their views known. both publicly and privately to the white house. there's probably people within the justice department thinking about whether or not they want to make their views known. if there are more firings, how that might react within the justice department leadership. >> thanks, both. and next, breaking news. mark zuckerberg today facing tough questions on capitol hill about well, all of the security of every piece of information you've ever given them and the russia investigation. why though did mark zuckerberg answer this way. >> i'm happy to have my team follow up with you. i can certainly have my team get back the to you. i'll have my team get back to you.
4:48 pm
♪ today is a good day to make a plan for your financial goals and your everyday ones too. pnc can help. we'll be with you every step of the way. let's start today. we'll be with you every step of the way. you wouldn't accept from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. flonase. discover card. i justis this for real?match, yep. we match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. whoo! i got my money! hard to contain yourself, isn't it? uh huh! let it go! whoo! get a dollar-for-dollar match at the end of your first year.
4:49 pm
only from discover. you can do it. we can do this. at fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. -whoo! while saving for the things it's these new fresh-fx car air fresheners from armor all. each scent can create a different mood in my car. like tranquil skies. armor all, it's easy to smell good. with exciting new dishes like lobdueling lobster tails.r. and lobster truffle mac & cheese. classics like lobster lover's dream are here too. so enjoy these 10 lobsterlicious dishes now. because lobsterfest ends april 22nd.
4:51 pm
if you'd have told me three years ago... that we'd be downloading in seconds, what used to take... minutes. that guests would compliment our wifi. that we could video conference... and do it like that. (snaps) if you'd have told me that i could afford... a gig-speed. a gig-speed network. it's like 20 times faster than what most people have. i'd of said... i'd of said you're dreaming. dreaming! definitely dreaming. then again, dreaming is how i got this far. now more businesses in more places can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network.
4:55 pm
were you priced to hear that? yeah. i was. clearly, mr. zuckerberg didn't want i am sure his council advised him not to. and yeah, i was pretty surprised. there were two surprises today. and that was one. and the other one was when mr. zuckerberg said repeatedlyt for its content. in the past facebook has said its a neutral media platform and not responsible for what people say. today, he said twice that it was. i was surprised to hear it was.
4:56 pm
>> now i want to get to the exchange. you did have harsh and colorful words for zuckerberg. let me play it. >> i say this gently. your user agreement sucks. you can spot me 75 iq points. if i can figure it out, you can figure it out. the purpose of the user agreement is to cover facebook's rear end. it is not to inform users about their rights. now you know that and i know that. i'm going to suggest to you that you go back home and rewrite it. and tell your $1,200 an hour lawyers, no disrespect, they are good. you want them written in english and non-zwahili?
4:57 pm
>> is he going to take your advice? >> i don't know. i'm not sure we connected with him. i mean what we tried to tell him is that look, facebook is an extraordinary company, and you have done magical things. but the digital land has mine fields. one is privacy. the other is propaganda. and go back and address these. he was sort of well, i want to do better, but i'm not doing anything wrong and i'm not sure we connected. now there is going to be a flurry of bills introduced. they are coming. i don't want to regulate him. the last thing i want to do. by god, i will vote to do it if he is not going to sit down and be serious about it.
4:58 pm
i am not saying he is unserious, just not sure we connected. he was too rehearsed. i wanted him to come in and let's talk, you know. >> i want to play a little bit of that in just a moment. first, at the end of that exchange when you were asking the question of mark, when you said in english. and you have been aware of your za hilli line. do you want to apologize for it. >> no. there is nothing to apologize for t i think everybody understood the point i was trying to make. >> so no apology at all? >> no. >> multiple occasions when zuckerberg wasn't able to answer the question. you said you failed to connect. others might say he didn't want to answer the question. and i wanted to play a few of
4:59 pm
those to give people the sense of what we are talking about. >> i will have my team get back to you. i will have my team get back to you. i think we should have our team follow up with yours to discuss the details around that more. >> is that what you are talking about? too rehearsed >> there is a lot of that. mr. zuckerberg kept saying look, you own your data and folks would say, it doesn't feel like i own my data. would you be willing to do this or do that. and would you be willing to let our data be portable and it was all we'll get back to you, get back to you. i don't want to be unfair to him. what is important is what he does and not what he says. but i didn't feel like we were connecting. i didn't. i'm not sure he appreciates that congress is serious here and we have got a problem.
5:00 pm
but these need to be addressed. >> i literally have ten seconds. does bob mueller deserve to stay in his job? >> yes. >> all right. you answered it less than ten. i appreciate your time. thanks for watching. we hand off to ac 360 with anderson cooper. >> good evening, president trump said to be in a red hot rage. two items. one involving the possible firing of deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. discussing getting rid of him and laying the groundwork for it. the second breaking news is the possible firing of mueller. gloria borger joins us with the exclusive. what are you learning
202 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
CNN (San Francisco) Television Archive Television Archive News Search Service The Chin Grimes TV News ArchiveUploaded by TV Archive on