♪ [ cheers and applause ] this is "nightline." >> tonight, jeff sessions forced to step down. the shakeup follows the historic midterm election which president trump claims is a victory. republicans gaining ground in the senate, but losing control of the house. democrats now armed with subpoena power. what does this mean for the future of the white house? and the mueller probe? a private war. the gripping story of journalist marie colvin, who gave a human face to conflict zones. >> i see it. so you don't have to. >> now brought to life in a new film, colvin's ultimate sacrifice, to shine a light in the darkest corners.

>> marie colvin was fearless and a great reporter. >> and why the message behind her mission lands at such a crucial time. >> i'm not armed! journalist! >> but first the "nightline 5." >> everything was so fresh in the beginning. but that plug quickly faded. luckily there's febreze plug. it cleans odors and freshens for 1,200 hours. breathe happy with new febreze plug. whether you were born for more danceoffs, more travels, or more touchdowns, get the immune support that gives you more. airborne gummys have 50% more vitamin c

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good evening. thanks for joining us. tonight much of washington reacting to the president's decision to fire his attorney general, shifting control of the mueller investigation to the new acting a.g. just as democrats consider flexing their newfound political muscle as they begin to take control of the house. what it all means for the future of the russia probe. >> last night the republican party defied history to expand our senate majority. >> reporter: after a momentous midterm election, an extraordinary and at times contentious presidential press conference -- >> sit down. >> you didn't answer my question. >> you are the enemy of the people. >> reporter: president trump celebrating what he called a near victory in yesterday's vote. and hinting at political shakeups in his cabinet. >> i will say that for the most part, i'm very, very happy with this cabinet. >> reporter: and less than an hour later, a bombshell announcement. >> today the president demanded his attorney general, jeff sessions, resign. >> reporter: jeff sessions, the embattled attorney general,

forced to step down from his post. submitting an undated letter saying, dear mr. president, at your request i'm submitting my resignation. i've been honored to serve as attorney general. >> jeff sessions was fired by president trump. make no mistake. and this means that the president is ready to get involved as he wanted with his justice department, maybe up to and including robert mueller's probe. >> reporter: after meeting with his staff, he exited the justice department today to applause. early on, sessions stunned and infuriated the president by recusing himself from the mueller probe, citing a doj regulation that bans employees from taking part in an investigation if they know the people involved. >> therefore, i have recused myself in the matters that deal with the trump campaign. >> reporter: after today's resignation, the president swiftly announcing his replacement on twitter, appointing sessions' chief of staff, matthew whitaker, as the acting attorney general.

whitaker will now take oversight of the russia probe. just last year, whitaker wrote a cnn op-ed called "mueller's investigation is going too far." in an appearance on cnn, whitaker defended the infamous trump tower meeting. >> we have no information right now that would suggest that he knew who this individual was that he was meeting with. >> reporter: democrats are crying foul, calling for whitaker to recuse himself because of his previous comments attacking the mueller investigation. >> there's no question that now that whitaker is running the russia investigation, he will likely constrain it in a significant way. >> reporter: but tonight on pbs, kellyanne conway denying that president trump intends to use whitaker to stop mueller. >> so does this mean the president expects mr. whitaker to shut the investigation down or to limit it? >> no. that is not the reason that the president has asked matt whitaker to step in as acting attorney general. >> reporter: the shakeup occurred on the heels of a seismic shift in congress. with the country now looking to see how the president will

govern in the wake of democratic control of the house. >> i think president trump knows that he is in a politically perilous position. and he needed to act and potentially act very fast. >> reporter: as a staunchly conservative senator from alabama, sessions was an early supporter and adviser of then candidate donald trump. when few were supporting him. >> he is the one person i sought his counsel, because he's been so spot-on. he's so highly respected. has anybody ever heard of senator jeff sessions? >> reporter: a movement that led to a budding bromance. >> i am pleased to endorse donald trump for the presidency of the united states. >> reporter: and in his speech on election night, trump credited sessions with helping lead him to victory. >> he's as smart as you get. senator jeff sessions. >> reporter: sessions was one of trump's first cabinet appointees, just ten days after the inauguration.

>> wso help me god. >> reporter: sessions' recusal soured his relationship with the president, eventually leading to bitter public outbursts, questioning his ability to do his job. >> if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me prior to taking office. and i would have quite simply picked somebody else. >> rs' deputy, rod rosenstein, was put in charge of the russia probe. after the president fired fbi director james comey. for the past year the president continued to lash out against sessions, tweeting, why aren't the committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered a.g., looking into crooked hillary's crimes and russia relations? >> horrible. jeff sessions -- >> if the justice department doesn't take action -- >> i'm really not involved with the justice department. i'd like to let it run itself. >> reporter: while rumors swirled about growing strain between the pair, sessions put on a brave space, speaking to abc's pierre thomas. >> how is your relationship with the president?

>> we're getting along. >> reporter: their fraught relationship becoming frequent fodder on "saturday night live." >> i'm a sneaky, lying little villain. if mean old mr. mueller comes after me, i'm just going to roll over and play dead. that's very funny, mr. president, but i'm not going anywhere. >> reporter: in recent months the president began implying that sessions' days as the head of the justice department were numbered. speaking to "fox & friends." >> i put in attorney general that never took control of the justice department, jeff sessions. never took control of the justice department. >> reporter: he would tell bloomberg news that sessions would be safe, at least until the midterm elections, which brings us to that press conference today. >> i'll tell you, there will be changes. nothing monumental fromk ry y wts toon -an have

work in this white house, we are a hot country. this is a hot white house. >> reporter: and the trump administration's turnover rate has been dramatic. 26 high-profile officials have either been fired or resigned in less than two years. >> this has been a presidency marked by turnover. top officials have been indicted in some cases, have resigned, have moved on, have been replaced in an unprecedented clip. >> reporter: today's drama in washington threatening to overshadow the results of the midterms. democrats adding 29 seats, securing a house majority. and republican gains in the senate locking in their majority through 2022. >> the big takeaway is that democrats control the house. for the first time in donald trump's presidency. >> reporter: for democrats, these are the spoils of victory. they can now launch investigations, issue subpoenas, even demand tax returns. >> we now have an opportunity to get the documents that we need to do our investigations.

the constitution mandates that we be a check on the executive branch. >> reporter: the president ready to fight back. >> they can play that game, but we can play it better. >> reporter: all this as election results continue to trickle in. while the democrats notched at least seven wins for governor, tonight nearly a dozen house seats and three senate races remain undecided. the blue wave may not have been a tsunami. but the pink wave ushered in over 100 women to the house represents. a new record. among them, several veterans like former navy pilot and federal prosecutor mikie sherrill in new jersey. >> i'll never stop fighting for you and for the generations of americans that have laid down their lives for our freedoms. >> reporter: the mother of four deciding to run as the antithesis to trump and his policies. >> mikie sherrill? she is going to win. >> reporter: and last night, those dreams coming true. mikie taking to the stage with

her entire family. >> it's so incredibly exciting. we've worked so hard for this. >> reporter: across the country the victories weren't just female, they were diverse. >> ainglyer arr of experiences that i think reflect the diversionty of the american people in a way we haven't seen before in congress. up next, the personal sacrifice journalist marie colvin made to tell the stories few others could. being diagnosed with cancer made me rethink everything in my life. the things that became important to me were the relationships with people. we pulled together closer as a family. i had so many people at ctca helping me find a way to go through the treatments, to prepare me for anything i would've faced. cancer showed me what true living is all about. so i started helping at a school for special needs children. i think they do more for me than i do for them. the reality of cancer is not everybody survives.

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♪ ♪ connecting people... ...uniting the world. ♪♪ ventured to places few others dared. but her work exposing atrocities on the front lines of war-ravaged cities ultimately

cost her everything. here's my "nitlinanor n l ital today. >> we just -- wiped. there's a bullet. gadhafi's forces are right in front of us. they're also sniping from the side. there's mortars coming in and going out. extremely -- we're basically in the middle of the firefight. >> reporter: in the middle of a firefight is where "sunday times" reporter marie colvin all too often found herself. >> marie colvin was fearless, brilliant. >> marie colvin was a reporter's reporter. >> reporter: from the deserts of libya to the jungles of east timor. >> not a lot of food, so really rapidly deteriorating situation -- >> reporter: to her final dispatches days before her death in syria. >> every civilian house on the street has been hit. >> reporter: her personal missio to bear witness to the h >> she always wrote about human beings. she always tried to humanize these conflicts. >> reporter: giving voice to the voiceless despite the undeniable

risk. >> i often say marie didn't die working, she died living. this is what she did. >> i'm not armed! journalist! >> reporter: now her life and her work the subject of the new film "a private war." >> the film is both an homage to marie, but an homage to journalism. an homage to people who are out there fighting for the truth, shedding light on dark corners of the world. >> reporter: in his first narrative feature, director matt heineman felt a great responsibility in telling marie's story. >> i really wanted to explore sort of what drives somebody to go to these places to explore the sort of ravages of war and attempt to put a face to it. also explore the deep cost that marie paid for doing that. >> the pain of war is really beyond telling. >> reporter: in the year 2000, colvin was given the courage in journalism award for her unrelenting pursuit of human truth. >> whatever the rights or the wrongs of a conflict, i feel we

fail if we don't face what war does, face the human horrors, rather than just record who won and who lost. >> reporter: a year later, while covering the conflict in sri lanka, colvin was blinded in one eye by shrapnel from a grenade. >> i think after that, her attitude to her own frailty, mortality, vulnerability in the field, changed. >> reporter: losing sight in one eye did not stop colvin from seeking the truth and from compelling her readers to care. >> she was a 12-year-old palestinian girl. killed by a stray bullet that pierced her heart. i watched her parents hold her as she bled out. she was wearing pearl earrings. she probably thought she looked pretty that day. i see it. so you don't have to. >> reporter: actress rosamund

pike says she fought for the chance to embody colvin and to collaborate with heineman, who received an oscar nomination for his documentary "cartel land." >> i doubt either of us deviated from the idea we were going to get as damn close to marie as she was, as she talked and walked and smoked and lived and loved and fought for the stories, as we could. >> reporter: the duo took a uniquely journalistic approach, from rip la dating colvin's distinct voice and mannerisms -- >> i hate being in a war zone. i also feel compelled. compelled to see it for myself. >> reporter: to doing extensive research and interviews with people who knew her. >> i need a photographer. i need good. >> the best. >> reporter: trained by jamie dornan in the film, photo journalist paul conroy worked tirelessly to capture colvin's words in pictures. >> listen to me next time. >> reporter: these stirring images from the arab spring

uprising in libya. colvin's drivel known. >> we were very fiercely committed to getting the story first and getting the scoop first. but in one of the most important scoops of the last decade, the two of us pooled our resources to get the last-ever interview with moammar gadhafi. >> reporter: chris yawn amanpour and colvin's interview airing here on "nightline." >> they say that you ordered air attacks against people, against civilians. >> i think marie, my generation, we showed that having a female perspective was really important. but most importantly, when we came to the field, war was changing. it was becoming war against civilians. >> reporter: it was this kinage colvin could not stay away from. in 2012, she and conroy got themselves smuggled inside to

report on the destruction firsthand. this shot from their last assignment for "the sunday times," taken in a makeshift shelter in homs while the city was under siege. that image gave life to this stirring scene in the movie. >> these were women who had lost all their husbands, their sons, anyone who didn't have anyone to look after them was in that basement. >> i want people to know your story. >> reporter: liheineman recreat the widow's basement and cast syrian refugees, all with real stories of loss to tell. >> i as marie put my hand on her, and she looks at me, and she said, i don't want this just to be words on paper. i thought, my goodness, she's speaking to me as though i am a journalist. this is not a woman in a movie speaking to an actress. >> reporter: it was their unwavering determination to shed light on one of the most brutal

offensives in homs that compelled colvin and conroy to remain in syria. >> what are you doing? >> i've got to go back. there are 28,000 people there. >> she thought by getting there, by taking that story, by bringing it to the world that the world would intervene and stop that killing, the slaughter that was about to happen, that was happening, that we were in the middle of. >> reporter: february of 2012, as two of the last western journalists inside, they witnessed the death of a little boy killed by shelling. colvin speaking to cnn's anderson cooper. >> we just watched this little boy, his little tummy heaving and heaving as he tried to breathe. it was horrific. my heart broke. >> reporter: that decision to broadcast a great risk, bringing attention to the suffering, would also bring assad's attention to them. >> we had this conversation that went along the lines of, marie, it's tuesday, we're not going to be alive to file a story by

friday. >> reporter: the following day, colvin was killed by an air strike. conroy was severely wounded. >> for me that assignment never really ended. you know, i -- on the way out they were saying, get out, tell the world. i just felt a real sense of obligation and a duty of honor to marie. >> reporter: for the filmmakers, continuing to tell the story that ultimately killed colvin could not be more important right now. >> it's not common that we see feature films about conflicts that are ongoing. usually it's got a retrospective element. was that tricky in some way? >> that is one of the tragedies of how the film ends. not just how her life ends, but also that this tragedy of syria persists to today. 500,000-plus people have been killed since she was killed. >> her story's important. reminding us through this film is important. and we journalists standing up for what's right, standing up for the truth, and standing up

for being the eyes and ears of the people is really important to crystallize right now. >> reporter: in fact, no one said it better than colvin herself. "our mission is to report these horrors of war with accuracy and without prejudice." >> "a private war" is in theaters now. we'll be right back. this winter, a hero will fight... superhero: [coughs] his cold. what do ya think? sidekick material? eh? superhero: i seriously can't deal with you today. mucinex cold & flu all-in-one. fights... oh no. no-no-no. sore throat, fever, cough, sinus pressure, chest congestion, headache, nasal congestion, body pain... all in one did you really need the caps lock? superhero: hold this. finally, a piece of the actiooooon! get tough on cold and flu symptoms. mucinex cold and flu all-in-one. cle...is a hassle.th a mop and bucket... swiffer wetjet makes cleaning easy. it's safe to use on all finished surfaces,

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finally tonight, marie colvin's death in the line of duty as a war correspondent reminds us all of the journalists who search for truth despite being under attack. since colvin's death six years ago, nearly 600 journalists have been killed all over the world. and tonight we pay tribute to them all. th

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