with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. for the strength and energy to get back to doing... ...what you love. ensure. always be you. very good afternoon to you. we have breaking news we're recovering this hour for you. president trump has fired u.s. attorney preet bharara. bharara is what "time" magazine once calmed the man that busted wall street. and it's top cop. he leads one of the most independent and prolific prosecutorial districts in the country. that's new york southern district. this comes after the president ordered the remaining 46 u.s. attorneys across the country that were hired earlier either by the previous administration and earlier presidents to step down friday. bharara refused. he was then fired. bharara has taken down big corruption cases involving both political parties. he has a prosecution success

rate of over 95% and knowing bharara's reputation in november, president trump asked bharara to stay on and he agreed. >> we had a good meeting. i said i would absolutely consider staying on. i agreed to stay on. i have already spoken to senator sessions, who is as you know the nominee to be the attorney general. he also asked that i stay on. >> and then this past thursday sean hannity of fox news demanded that trump purge all obama holdovers. >> for weeks we've been warning you for the deep state obama holdover bureaucrats who are hell bent on destroying this president, president trump, tonight it's time for the trump administration to begin to purge these saboteurs before it's too late. >> well, 24 hours after that, the white house did just that when it came to u.s. attorneys. at the same time, the ethics watchdog group citizens for

ethics and responsibility in washington wrote this letter you see here to bharara. they asked him to investigate trump organization ties to foreign governments. attorney for the trump organization then told npr that the letter was factually inaccurate, legally erroneous and politically motivated. let's bring in nbc's monica alba at the white house. mon, ka what are you hearing if anything from the white house, of course u.s. attorney general jeff sessions all part of this request for these u.s. attorneys to resign? >> well, richard, we're not hearing anything officially from white house officials at this time. they're referring everything over to the department of justice, as you can imagine. but of course this news coming as quite the surprise to those in preet bharara's orbit, of course, as he made clear, he intended to stay on in this position and that came after a conversation as we played earlier with then president-elect trump, who had

made clear that he wanted him to stay in this position. so, mr. bharara making clear that he wanted to continue on in this work and sources told my colleague tom winter that he had even planned to go to work on monday. that's how shocking this was of a cull that he received yesterday. he referred to that basically in a tweet and statement earlier wanting to be very clear that this was not his decision. he did not tender his resignation, instead he was fired. writing in this statement i'm going to read to you a little bit. he said -- today i was fired from my position as u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. one hallmark of justice is absolute independence and that was my touch stone everyday that i served. so, for some context, bharara was of course a pretty high profile u.s. attorney overseeing areas like wall street, like public officials in new york such as the mayor and governor and tackling issues of corruption. so this was somebody who was

pretty well known in those circles and there are democrats such as senator chuck schumer from new york putting out a statement today and praising him, saying he will be sorely missed for his independence. >> nbc's monica alba at the white house. thank you so much, monica. i want to bring in now our msnbc chief legal correspondent on the phone right now. ari, for those folks who are not familiar with preet bharara, not familiar with this particular u.s. attorney, why is this a headline? >> reporter: this is a big headline because of who preet bharara was and where he serves. who he was as a u.s. attorney ending effective today was a very aggressive prosecutor who dealt with corruption cases in both parties, as you mentioned in your reporting, cyber crime, he attacked silk road online marketplace and bizarre for all kinds of elicit activity.

he went after foreign cyber threats. he went after mafia figures. he was seen as an aggressive and respected prosecutor. which is why they think president-elect trump asked him to stay on. number two, the where, this is the prosecutor for new york. that means when you look at trump tower, federal ties to russia, look at wall street, of course, other campaign-related finance issues, he has the federal per view over all those kinds of cases if there's a question about whether to bring a case or charge. so that obviously is super important. >> right. >> as i stressed, the president has the lawful authority to hire and fire u.s. attorneys at any time. that is normal. what is abnormal here was that president-elect trump out of his way to meet with this particular prosecutor. he did not meet with majority of them obviously. now we're seeing very different treatment to the same prosecutor.

why? we don't know at this hour. >> one of the things, ar-i, that we've been discussing over the last 24 hours is that request that came in from a watchdog group to this particular office, to preet bharara saying look into potential connections -- this goes back to the claus, of this particular president as well as the financial gain that he may be enjoying, shall we say, quote unquote, from the current business environment and he now being the president of the united states. what's the best way to talk about the timing of that and what has happened now today in this preet bharara resigning and the other 45 u.s. attorneys being asked to resign? >> well, it's a great question. i would put it more on geography than timing, by which i mean this office matters more because it would handle prosecutions relating to new york or anything relating to trump businesses in new york, trump tower, et cetera. so that alone makes it different. i don't think we can read that much into the request. that came from an independent

group crew which is also suing the president and there are plenty of groups like that that at any time might make that kind of request. that doesn't really tell us how aggressive the office was being. but it is certainly notable, as you mentioned in your reporting, that we have the original plan of the president-elect to say he's keeping this prosecutor. then we have certain prosecutors leave and certain stay. that's normal. then you have fox news sean hannity associate federal prosecutor who are nonpartisan and sworn to uphold the law, he associates them in a broadcast with these conspiracy theories about a deep state. then you have the announcement that everyone must resign. you have bharara defieing that. he can be removed legally. now you have all of this controversy. so with so many other things with the trump administration, you have a lot of questions about why they're doing it this way and whether this is founded on fact and precedent or some sort of make it up as you go

along set of reaction. >> staying on that idea fact here, ari, are we aware of any investigations? and of course there will be on going investigations that this office will undertake that we know about post facto. sometimes during, in process and sometimes none at all. are we aware of any on going that might touch on the trump tower or issues that are relevant to this presidency? >> so, at this hour we cannot confirm any on going investigations out of bharara's office. all we can confirm is the geography that would be on him and his office to do it or whoever now takes over in that role. but again, attorney general sessions emphasized he was recusing himself from potential campaign investigations. he didn't campaign whether there was one and he didn't say anything about what happens after election day. >> yeah. >> but as we reported, after election day, we know the fbi did interviews with trump officials about connections to russia. we know there are on going

questions about other trump associates connections to russia. there have been unconfirmed reports about evidence that relates to new york and there are, of course, questions on going about the business side. so there's a lot here that's difference in this office, formerly led by u.s. attorney bharara than any other prosecutorial office in the country. >> you sat down with preet bharara in his seven years. you had the opportunity to get a sense of who he is, the way that he approaches the responsibility that is so great that he has taken on in the southern district here. he is, if you will, a prodigy of chuck schumer. what can you tell us about preet bharara that may give us an indication of how forward he might be, how aggressive he might be in the coming days about this unfortunate outcome, at least it seems that's the way he's seeing it at the moment. >> right.

on the scale from quiet and demure to loud and bold on a prosecutorial scale, prosecutors tend to be more aggressive, i would put bharara at the far end of the spectrum, bold, confident, clear, loud. i would expect we'll hear from him in time if not immediately with all of this. when i sat down with him in 2015, he was pursuing a prosecution of a democratic politician in new york. he ultimately prevailed in that. it was very controversial. he saw that as totally immaterial, not relevant to how he enforces the law. he's also prosecuted republicans in this state. >> right. >> so what came through in our interviews was someone who certainly believes that he had a higher calling above politics, not afraid of controversial cases however they cut. who has a little bit of what you might call an attitude or a playfulness in his tone and his style. i don't think that enters into

the courtroom per se. but was a colorful figure compared to some prosecutors who are very by the book. >> we could talk for another 10, 15 minutes but i know you have to go. thanks for giving us your perspective. >> thank you. great to be with you on another busy news weekend. >> we get to see you tomorrow, my friend. thank you. for those of you who don't know, ari does have a show tomorrow, 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. that show is called "the pitch." no doubt ari -- the point will have more on that tomorrow. i want to bring in now msnbc joan walsh, national political reporter with bloomberg politics. as ari was underlining to both of you, another saturday and we have some news to talk about here today. >> just a little. >> joan, this prosecutor was, if you will, being equal opportunity. >> right. >> he is known for going after democrats as well as republicans in this case. so it doesn't appear, at least that there would be any sort of

discussion point on -- >> that he's biased or we can't trust him in this role. >> that's right. >> no, not at all. people who are bharara watchers in this town probably in washington, too, were really interested when he took that meeting with president-elect trump. and when he came out and said that he had been invited to stay and that he would stay. that seemed nothing wrong with it, it was just noteworthy. and so today when he did not resign, you know, this is -- everyone has to say this is common for a new administration to do this, but sometimes they do keep some of the folks on, some of the best folks with the best reputation for nonpartisanship. so it wasn't crazy to think that he might have been somebody that they would keep. but then he got, you know, no, you, too. clean out your desk. >> that's right. >> and spoke out about it. so i am curious about what comes next. i really -- he is, as ari said, somebody with a reputation for being forthright and not skullinging away. >> a top cop. >> i can't wait to hear what he

has to say in the next week or so. >> he comes from a district here that since he got into the top spot there of this district, made it a little more open. he certainly understood how these particular district offices need to have a certain presence and he brought that, if you will, the way he interfaces with media. you heard from ari's reporting that, you know, he is not a shrinking violet that he sa person that is very clear in his idea, very focussed, not that this matters, he is a huge bruce springsteen fan, he's gone to 30 concerts. he likes to get out there and not be somebody that will take a step back, shall we say. what does this say based on wat you know of preet bharara and the timing of this development? >> so, a few things, richard. yes, you're absolutely right. he is anything but a shrinking violet. he didn't shy away from the spotlight or tough cases and he took on some very prominent

targets and earned praise from across the spectrum. senator schumer and attorney sneiderman putting out statements today in support of preet bharara and the prosecution cases he went after. i think there are two important things to know in the context of this. number one, it's not uncommon for presidents to dismiss existing u.s. attorneys. president bill clinton, of course, did that with 93 u.s. attorneys when he came into office. >> that's right. >> presidents have the legal authority to do that. what was a little unusual here as ari pointed out, number one, president-elect trump meet with preet bharara. asked him to stay on. it seems it was settled. this is an abrupt shift and turn of events. 46 attorneys were immediately asked to clear out their offices. usually there's a bit of a transition period where replacements are organized. >> until replacement found, right? >> yeah. >> exactly. the other thing to keep in mind, we have trump strategists and trump allies on the outside talking increasingly about this so-called deep state of career government officials that they

believe are out to get the president. and i think that's a key thing because the president himself has been somewhat sympathetic to these theories. we know he's been fiercely attacking anybody within the government who has been leaking anything unflattering about him. so again, i'm not suggesting there's a clear link here, but we have to consider that context as a part of all these decisions being made. >> joan, that deep state thematic that the former president barack obama in new york city somehow is putting together and potentially running a second level or a behind the scenes government. we know he's not in new york but in washington, d.c. because his daughter is there, right? we understand that. >> he wants to stay around until sasha graduates. he is spending a lot of time in new york, though, but he looks very happy. he is going to plays and having lunches. i don't see him having a lot of time to manage the deep state, but he's an amazing guy. it's possible. >> the thematic here is trying to get out those career positions as well as those who were appointed out of the

government because they are now orchestrating some sort of subplot. >> yeah, which is pretty ridiculous and anything that comes from sean hannity has to be pretty much rejected. but what is happening, i think, is that they have been so slow in hiring their own people, whether it's at the state department or the epa or in the justice department that there's a lot of paranoia about the power that the obama holdover people have. but i also have to just wonder if anything has emerged in the last month or two that bharara is looking at. i just couldn't -- i can't stay away from that question because he has been known to at least look into the doings of various wealthy russian oligarchs, not necessarily a tie to donald trump, but he gets around in the areas of wealth and corruption and conflicts of interest. so, you know, i can see them being wary of him, but they liked him only a couple months ago. >> if you looked at -- again,

sahil, as you know, we don't know what happened in that discussion when preet bharara was at trump tower. it is assumed based on his comments that everything was just hunky dory, kumbaya and they moved forward, but again we don't know specifically what had happened in that conversation, which does need to be noted here. this particular u.s. attorney general, though, as we look forward, he is gone after some very, very big fish and small fish but very, very large fish as well sac capital had to pay $1.8 billion with that criminal success rate of over 90%. this is certainly somebody that if you're on the other side of the table from him, you have to be careful, shall we say. >> sure. look, i think president trump -- there's no evidence again which is important to note, there's no clear evidence that he was investigating anything that had a link to president trump. i think the overall context of this as we discussed was the

fact that trump is clearly very suspicious to the point of being somewhat conspiratorial that there are elements in individuals within the federal government that are out to get him. it's unclear if this was -- if this decision -- >> we're not favoring him. >> or not favoring him. it's unclear if this decision was a product of that. i'm sure we'll find out a lot more in the coming days and weeks. preet bharara is not someone who has been shy to speak his mind and i think now he is freer to do that. the other important thing to note here is that as you pointed the justice department has been a bit slow to fully staff up in transition under the new presidency. it's gotten off to a bit of a rocky start with the former acting attorney general holdover from president obama refusing to defend the new president's executive order on immigration in court. this was before court blocked that order and that was replaced. then you have current attorney general jeff sessions who came under fire for not being forthcoming, some had said lying

to congress about his conversations with russian officials during the campaign when he was an adviser to trump. so this is -- it's all i think part of the overall shift that the justice department needs to write. now they have a whole 46 u.s. attorneys that they need to replace. everyone will be keeping a very close eye on who the replacement here is for preet bharara because these are big shoes to fill. >> big, big shoes. thank you, sahil and joan. this on the breaking news that we're following on msnbc, that is again the firing of preet bharara, who headed up the southern district office in new york. thank you both so much. meanwhile, the other big headline today that we're watching is of course the obamacare replacement plan today. we'll be covering that right after this short break. have fun with your replaced windows. run away! [ grunts ] leave him! leave him! [ music continues ] brick and mortar, what?! [ music continues ] [ tires screech ] [ laughs ] [ doorbell rings ] when you bundle home and auto insurance with progressive,

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live-streat the airport.e sport binge dvr'd shows while painting your toes. on demand laughs during long bubble baths. tv everywhere is awesome. the all-new xfinity stream app. xfinity. the future of awesome. thanks for staying with us. the kicked off his push to sell obamacare replacement plan today. vice president mike pension made the first stop louisville, kentucky, vowing the new plan will keep some of the obamacare's most popular

provisions. take a listen. >> we'll make sure that americans with pre-existing conditions still have access to the coverage and the care that they need. and all the parents here will make sure you can keep your kids on your plan until they're 26 years of age. and most significantly in my view we'll give states like kentucky the freedom and flexibility with medicaid to meet the needs of your most vulnerable -- >> but pence also blasted obamacare as a nightmare that must be repealed. >> the obamacare nightmare is about to end. obamacare has failed the people of kentucky. it's failed the people of america. and obamacare must go. >> and kicking off the replacement plan push in kentucky today, it was no coincidence, it's a deep red state that's benefitted from obamacare, cutting the uninsured rate by half. and it's also where paul ryan and president trump's replacement plan is facing its

biggest push back within its own party specifically from senator rand paul. pence urged republicans to try to unit. >> we need every republican in congress and we're counting on kentucky. president trump and i know the end of the day after a good and vigorous debate we know kentucky will be there and we will repeal and replace obamacare once and for all. >> joining us now nbc beth. thanks for being with us. kentucky, why? >> couple reasons. you outlines in your lead-in. senator rand paul will be key to this once this bill if it gets out of the house moves over to the senate. he has come out and he has flatly said that he will not support the bill as it's being marked up and considered in the house that's got president trump's name on it, paul ryan's name on it as well. rand pal is saying it's a non-starter. over in the senate, there's only a margin of two republicans over

the democratic folks in the minority. so you lose rand paul, you can only lose to afford to lose one other republican and the whole thing is dead. that's one reason he went to kentucky. the other is the popularity of obamacare in kentucky. that has been a state that's actually done a good job of setting up the exchanges, making it something that's very user friendly, many kentuckians have gotten on to the plan. it was called connect when it was under the democratic governor, former democratic governor steve ba here is. many people got coverage who didn't have it before and very much liked the exchanges and liked getting on those plans. now with the republican governor, the whole program has taken a little bit of a turn and it's not quite the same as connect, but it's still functioning well. it got a waiver from the federal government to change things around a little bit. we still have a number of kentuckians pretty happy with the plan. so mr. pence had to go in and do two things, basically convince kentuckians that the plan that worked for them pretty well

isn't working and he's speaking to senator rand paul who said flatly he will not support the bill as its laid out right now. >> kentucky, that's where you would kick this off as you move across the country. of course, there is monday's scoring from the cbo that will be so important, at least for this white house as they look to try to convince votes in the house and the senate as you're describing so well for us. beth, thank you so much. >> thanks. there's certain races that are going to be presumptively in a second class type of environment. and there will be a superior race that is running everything. >> the attorney general of hawaii became the first u.s. official this week to challenge the president's updated travel ban on six majority muslim nations. but criticisms are being levelled at hawaii now that the state's top law enforcement official is taking on the white house. only a few days remain until

that ban is set to go into effect. joining us now is hawaii's attorney general doug chin. mr. attorney general, good to see you again. you and i had spoken two or three weeks back, this after the original travel ban was in the midst of the its fits and starts, shall we say. now as you look forward to what your objective is, we're just hearing coming out of the break using the word like superior race and second class. some might say that might be a bit too much. >> sure. you know, any history shows us when ever the top levels of government take some sort of aim at persons because of their national origin or because of their religion, that's when you're going to end up having problems. it's either problems with the constitution, but even beyond that, so that's where you end up having problems in society. i think one of the concerns that we have about the executive order, even when we are reading through the new one. >> right. >> is just that it has -- it

has -- it still contains words such as we're going to make sure we track every one of these citizens and non-citizens that are based in these countries to look and see whether or not they're committing hate crimes or honor killings or domestic violence and perhaps worst of all, anybody from one of these six, used to be seven, any one from one of these six countries is presumptively a terrorist. that is something that they have to overcome even if they're a baby or a grandmother or the mother-in-law to the individual plaintiff in our case. >> when you look at one of the adjustments to this new or revised immigration ban, they have removed the wording that many critics were bringing up, this has religious considerations and no longer does it show that in this latest draft, shall we say. >> right. well, supreme court back in 2005 had a great case that they --

that had to do with the ten commandments being labeled as ultimately labeled as the fundamentals of american principles in law and being placed in a public institution. it was a church and state argument, but basically in striking down what that county was trying to do, the supreme court said that the world is not made brand new every morning. so essentially we might be looking at neutral language, but we didn't all wake up on that day. i think the problem unfortunately for the administration is that you have president trump's statements when he was on the campaign trail after he became the republican candidate and even after he became president as well as the statements of his surrogates steven miller after the second executive order was put out essentially said this is going to have the same basic policy principles with just a few tweaks to it in order to pass legal concerns. so, with that, we don't think that the discriminatory intent

that was behind it has been eliminated. >> folks might not know this, state of hawaii has, what, 5 or 6,000 numbered group of residents that are muslim-americans and you do talk about them when you discuss this issue. what has that community been saying to your office? >> well w you know, i have to say that hawaii is one of the most ethnically diverse states in the country. there is significant muslim population that's here and i think one of the blessings of being in this involved in this lawsuit has been the opportunity to meet these people in the community. they go to our schools. they work great jobs. they contribute to the university and the research institutions that are here. and they're special people that deserve to be becomed just as other shall we say minority groups that have been discriminated against in the past. >> so just looking at the calendar here, wednesday, you're back in court?

>> sure. >> the new ban. >> yes. >> set to take effect the day after that. you've also had a conversation evidently with the president. tell me all about those things. >> that's right. well, last week i had a chance to be at the national a.g.'s conference that was in d.c. president trump met with us and he opened it up for questions and answers. so at that time the executive order hadn't gone out, so i stood up and i introduced myself. i said i was -- we were wondering with the new travel ban coming out what was it that he was really trying to accomplish? what was it that he was trying to -- what was he thinking behind this executive order? and his response was civil. it was actually the same day as his statement to the -- his speech to the joint session of congress. and he said that his goals were to make america safe again and that extreme vetting was a part of that and that he knew that a lot of us wouldn't like his approach and yet that was his priority.

i think the problem for us is that extreme vetting, even in his own statements, has been tied to a muslim ban. that's what he meant when he was saying that he wanted to ban all muslims or keep them out of the country was that it just -- it evolved into extreme vetting in order to disguise what was said before. and now it's evolved into what's happening now, which is still carrying the same discriminatory intent. >> national a.g.'s gathering, what's the headline that you didn't know before you gather with all the folks that are just like yourself that might be relevant to this travel ban? are many thinking regardless of leanings the same way as you are? >> well, we do have other lawsuits that are going on right now in other parts of the country, and i really have to salute and appreciate general bob ferguson in washington state, eric sneiderman in new york, laura healey in massachusetts, ellen rosenberg in maryland -- >> right. they all just joined.

so, there are some other lawsuits that are happening and we'll see. i mean, ultimately the courts going to decide this issue, but certainly from hawaii's standpoint we have to speak up. >> mr. attorney general doug chin of hawaii. thank you, sir. >> great. thank you. >> you bet. still following breaking news -- u.s. attorney preet bharara has been fired from the justice department after he refused to step down. this coming as attorney general jeff sessions asked 46 u.s. attorneys across the country from the obama era to resign. i can stay. i'm good. i won't be late hey mom. yeah. no kissing on the first date, alright? life doesn't always stick to a plan, but with our investment expertise we'll help you handle what's next. financial guidance while you're mastering life.

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good afternoon. thanks for staying with us. i'm richard louis in new york. here is what we're following here on msnbc. >> any comment on the intruder? >> ah, secret service did a fantastic job last night. i appreciated it. secret service did a fantastic job. it was a troubled person. very sad. secret service was fantastic. >> that tape is from a little bit earlier today. president trump making brief remarks in response to news that an intruder breached the white

house grounds last night. this as the president was actually inside the white house when it happened. the intruder identified as 26-year-old jonathan tran claimed he was there for a meeting with the president, which turned out to be false. the secret service issued a statement saying that the suspect was arrested without incident and was not harmed. another big story that we're following on this saturday afternoon, and that is firing of a u.s. attorney, a prominent one, who stood up to corruption and tried to stand up to the white house overnight as well. u.s. attorney preet bharara known as the sheriff of wall street was one of 46 u.s. attorneys from the obama era and before who were told to hand in their notice. but bharara wrote on twitter late today, that quo, i did not resign. moments ago i was fired. being the u.s. attorney will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life. bharara met with president trump and attorney general sessions

weeks after the election. he told reporters back then he had the support of the white house. joining us now republican strategist and democratic strategist. noel, long day for you. good to have you with us on msnbc today. >> thanks. >> what's the best way to talk about this development over the last 24 hours? >> you mean be bharara? >> yes. >> i think this, richard, in all fairness, i think that when he spoke to the transition team and i think that he agreed to stay on, i think that in all fairness i think they wanted him to stay on. i think what's going down the pipe now is they want pretty much to clean house. and although i have heard fantastic things about bharara and i think that he took on wall street and he has prosecuted democrats as well as republicans. he seems like a very fair and very good man. i do think, however, that there's going to be a lot of things coming out and i think in

these tults you times where we have the travel ban and a lot of anger towards both sides, i think that what sessions wanting and what trump is wanting is i think that they're wanting to go ahead flesh out, clean house and have everybody pretty much going along with the administration. there's nothing really wrong with that and there's nothing really out of step. >> yeah. >> it's just that i think maybe bharara was very good. he comes with high accolades. and i think that in a way he was almost heartbroken. he loved his job. he loved serving. and he thought that he had an understanding that he was going to continue on. obviously that wasn't so. but he did continue on just not as long as he wanted. >> to that point, preet bharara is that quintessential story of the american dream, both his parents being immigrants. he coming here, going to law school saying i see what they do in these districts. i see what these attorneys do. i want to become one just like them. and it's true.

so other the last seven years he's been living his dream and going after both republicans and democrats. does not seem to have been an issue for him which side of the aisle you fell on, shall we say. but now this development and unfortunately it's happening very quickly and at a pace and according to what we understand he is not the only one that may be surprised. there are others that found out about this firing or request for resignation via either reporter or via the news reports. >> it's really confusing, richard. you know, you have a president who specifically reaches out to somebody and gives them their word in person with the vice president that they want them to stay on and then he finds out via another channel that he no longer has a job. i mean, it's just -- it's kind of very emblematic of this administration that you never know who is making the decisions and why they're being made, as you said and as your previous guests said, he's obviously very

respected from the right and from the left and it makes no sense, but i think what the president is underestimating is the dignity and people themselves, right? so, they ask him to resign. he loves his job. he's great at it. and he says no. and this becomes a story that they no longer control. where as it's normal for somebody to appoint their own prosecutors, et cetera, first of all, they don't have the people that are backed up, the people that are there already to take these jobs. and second of all, in a case of somebody who is loved by both left and right, they're either lying, given mixed messages and nobody knows who is making the decisions and why. >> no el about this firing of preet bharara, this is not the first time as has been reported, this did happen during the clinton administration. the cleaning of house, if you will, is not uncommon when you look at this. why is this attorney general moving on this so fast, though?

we're talking about timing? >> well, you know, it is a little od, but i will say you've been covering this for many years. you do an excellent job and it is politics. i mean, this is not a business thing. this is politics. and this is part of the dirty and the ugly job both on the republican and the democrat side and i don't think that has any reflection on bharara. i don't think this has -- this is saying that he's doing a bad job or anything. i think this is just a cleaning of the house. i think that this is just a matter of protocol. like i said, when he spoke to them, they had an understanding obviously, i believe everybody involved, sessions and bharara and trump, i believe that he was asked to stay on. i just think that now that they have decided they're going to clean house, but i do not think that they think that bharara has done a bad job or in any way they dislike anything that he has done. he has done nothing wrong. he is highly respected. i think this is nothing more than politics and a changing of

the guard. >> thank you so much. lots of moving parts today. appreciate you both. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back.

jobs, jobs, jobs. president trump's first month in office yielded a strong month for job creation in the u.s., but despite the number of americans going back to work, some companies now have a new concern. it's over. i've found a permanent escape from monotony. together, we are perfectly balanced. our senses awake. our hearts racing as one. i know this is sudden, but they say...if you love something set it free. see you around, giulia

the first full month employment figures of the trump administration, they were stronger than expect md ch the economy added 235,000 jobs last month. unemployment fell to 4.7%. candidate trump, regularly mocked the monthly jobs report as phony before, but companies are concerned about a new problem, nbc's tom costello reports for us.

>> reporter: in avon, massachusetts, the help wanted sign is out. high-paying jobs for those with the right skills. nearly 80 workers at accurounds design and cut cut precision semiconductor. today this man was cutting an aircraft part. >> anything today is about high precision and speed. the environments are more clean. >> they're called middle skilled jocks. requiring vocational skills but not a college degree. according to a recent study more than half of all jobs require middle skills but only 43% of the country's workers are trained properly. the pay starts at $18 an hour which can climb well past $30 an hour, but the ceo can't find enough qualified employees to grow. >> anybody that's talented and has that technical experience

already has a job. >> today's unemployment rate at 4.7% is considered full employment. before taking office, president trump questioned strong jobs numbers under president obama. >> it's a statistic that's full of nonsense. >> today a different take. >> they may have been phony in the past, but it's very real now. >> this economy is a fast-moving economy. whether or not donald trump or president will see similar numbers. >> back in massachusetts, the company is hosting field trips for high schoolers hoping to foster the workforce of the future. tom costello, avon, massachusetts. this is going to be a great discussion here. we'll start o with you, except secretary. what is your thought on the numbers here? under 5% for under 18 months. >> these were strong numbers.

i'm not going to be a partisan and tell you they're not strong numbers. but it's important to put this in connection. this is the same economy that donald trump spent an entire campaign saying it was a mess. and then the minute he inherited it he's taking a victory louisiana there's no small amount of irony here. >> i think both men can take some credit. mr. obama certainly is bequeathing an economy that's got momentum. it's not growing fast enough, not creating as many jobs. there's a greater willingness to hire. but going back to the report, there are a lot of people on the bench, out of the jobs market. that's why that 4.7% rate is deceptive. they can't go into the jobs we have because they need the training. there's so much emphasis on getting people in the four year

colleges. we really need a lot more ems on the community colleges that did a lot to help proechlt we need more of that and it'll be interesting to see if the trump administration recognizes this need for women, minorities, and everybody in america to get into these kinds of skill areas so that we have the workers we need. >> good point. i'm a little bitesed being a community college graduate here. oh, really, you say? >> i've been taking heat from the ivy leaguers for 40 years. >> brother to brother. mr. deputy secretary, you saw tom costello's report. is that where more energy needs to be focused, this middle skill area that tom was telling us about in the report? >> absolutely. there are 5 and a half million jobs open in this country. 1.1 million in health care, 300,000 in manufacturing. half a million open jobs ini.t.

right now. every employer i talked to said he wanted to hire but they couldn't find enough skilled workers, so the professor has it exactly right. it's two-year colleges, greater use of apprenticeships. we need to do a better job of filling those open jobs. job creation means nothing without job training. >> part of this, the good numbers that we're seeing in this report, many folks saying we like that, thumbs up, but professor, the concern here is that there's a rate hike which we're watching carefully. and this does affect these middle skill jocks, lower skilled jobs and the folks that take them on. are we considering too early of a timing when we think about raising interest rates? >> i've been an advocate for raising interest rates for some time now.

we can accommodate moderate increase. i don't think that's going to affect this job market. i think the most important thing to circle back is now that the campaign is over and the partisanship is completed. it's the emphasis on the skilled programs, build them out firth. if i could do one thing in this administration besides infrastructure, that's it. america's middle skills people are the heart of america. >> react to that also, your sense of this upward pressure that may cause the need for higher interest rates here? >> we have had positive wage growth.

that's encouraging, but you have to look at this during a longer trend. wages have been stag gnat for far too many workers for far too long while the cost of everything else is increasing. i understand the fed is going to raise rates. i would suggest it's early at this point but i certainly understand the path they're taking. overall, skills are one thing we can agree on in a bipartisan way. what i'm krngd about is that this administration that has announced its intention to cut the budget so the department of labor, department of education which could help create that pipeline to skilled workers in the future. >> 15 seconds to you, mr. professor. >> i think there are places where both departments could be cut without impacting skills development. there are parts that could use additional money, such as labor. >> thank you both so much and have a good saturday. >> our pleasure. >> take care. >> stay with us.

much more on the firing of preet bharara after he refused to resigned. i'll be talking to former attorney general, albertogons next. but our past is just that, past. we are pioneers. so our greatest achievements can't lay behind us, because our destiny lies ahead. that's what it means to drive the world forward. that's what it means to dare.

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new york city. president trump has fired u.s. attorney preet bharara. bharara is what time mag ones called the magazine that busted wall street and its top cop. he leads one of the most independent and prolific districts, new york's. this comes after the president ordered to remaining 46 u.s. attorneys to step down friday. bharara refused. he was then fired today.