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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  May 18, 2017 9:00am-10:01am PDT

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a clean sweep welcomed by senators of both parties. >> we're glad that former fbi director muller is addressing the criminal side of it, but we still need a select committee in my view. >> his choice was the right choice for the job. >> this is a positive thing i think for the american people. >> mull sere a great appointment. >> is this a big deal? >> yes. >> the blind spot, new reports that the trump team new michael flynn was under fbi investigation for his foreign conflicts weeks before they named himational security advisor. >> should he have been hired in the first place. >> you can argue that maybe he shouldn't have been and knowing what we know now, he probably shouldn't have. >> and question time, the attorney general that just appointed the special council on capitol hill today to talk about the fires of james comey from the fbi. >> are you confidence his files and devices have been secured in
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a way that we can maintain whatever information or evidence he has in connection with the investigation. >> yes, ma'am, i am. >> coming up, an exclusive interview with pamela harris, the former california attorney general now a freshman on the senate intelligence committee here on msnbc. talking over the investigation into hacking. tweeting with all of the illegal acts that took place in the clinton campaign and the obama administration and there was never a special council. joining me, peter alexander at the white house, and kristen welker on capitol hill, and justice corresponde pet
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williams. let me talk to you first about robert muller. let's talk about his reach in terms of what he can do and how he has to coordinate with the hill and also with the justice department. >> well, his background is the longest serving, other than j. edgar hoover, he doesn't have to know his way around the building or where to go to get answers. he, i'm sure, has not made any of the decisions. there's a lot of things your asking that we can't answer yet like how much will he staff up? where will he set up shop, in the justice department? will he get independent space? probably the later. what will his budget be. he has to decide that pretty soon, and you know basically getting his arms around the scope of his investigation. this is the only second time that this sort of completely outside of the government special council has been used. the first time was john danforth
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when janet reno asked him to investigate what went wrong in waco that ended in a however fire, and he hired a staff of 74 people, but he was in essence investigating the atf and the fbi's ro fbi's role in that. mueller's task is different here. he can simply decide how toun this, does he just plug himself into the role that rod ros rosenstein was playing one guy gets up and the other sits down. he brought two people over from the law firm here in washington. one is his former chief of staff, and one is john quarrels that worked on the watergate team that has a lot of experience. those are the decisions he has
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to make. >> peter alexander, you had exclusive reporting out of the white house on michael flynn and what we call the blind spot. tell me how he could have been hired by this white house after notifying them he was already under fbi investigation. >> so the bottom line is you refer to that language. a course familiar with the conversation that took place two days after president trump run where he went into a room, the source tells me that flynn said he wanted to be the national security advisor. he said he wanted the national security advisor role, and that he would accept a defense job or secretary of state, and as this individual tells me, basically it was communicated to him that would be fine because he would be rewarded for the loyalty of
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president elect trump. th trump familyad a "blind ot" when it came to mike flynn. this is important because it raises new questions, as you know, about the vetting of flynn. the "new york times" reporting that flynn, himself, communicated in the transition time to the transition team, specifically to the head transition lawyer, that he was under federal investigation for his ties, having received money effectively from turkey. that didn't affect the president's decision making, he still brought mike flynn in and brought him by his side with access to the most classified documents and secrets that the u.s. holds. >> i'm told they vetted him, but it was to find out all of the stuff that would discakadisqualm a june yore press aide's position in any other white house. it is just extraordinary. we will be drilling down on that throughout the hour. and to capitol hill and kristen
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welker. today is a big day. they're going to hear from rod ro ro rosenstein. >> he initially said he did it at the direction of the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. and then president trump came out himself and said to lester he was planning to fire him regardless of what rod ros rosete suggested. i have to tell you that we just heard from house speaker paul ryan that responded to the development that there there be a special council looking into the russia probe and he was supportive, and what is worth notes is the bipartisan support right now for the special
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council and for robert mueller to head up that council. speaker ryan saying he feels confident that the other investigations here on capitol hill, now four different investigations, will be able to proceed will be equally significant, but at the same time there is a sense this decision lifted a clubhouse of controversy over the investigation. a couple other headlines here, andrea, the house speaker was pressed on if he agreed there should be less drama coming from the white house, he said less drama is always a good thing, and he was asked about the republicans that say vice president pence would make a better president. his response to that is "good grief." he said i'm not going -- "i'm no dignify that with a response." >> kristin weller, peter alexander, and pete williams, thank you.
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joining me now is ned price, a senior director in president obama's national security council, former cia analyst and now an nbc national security analyst. first of all, cathy, let's get to the question of january 4th, president trump telling don mcgann that he is under fbi investigation. do you say they fine, you don't have to file, it's all right, you're vetted, come on in the president wants you. >> i think that is the end of the conversation. certainly -- >> thank you, goodbye? >> exactly, you can't have a senior advisor to the president, or security advisor being under investigation when coming into the white house. it is unfathomable that that was okay. maybe they say wait until the
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investigation runs it's course. maybe you can join the administration in a different capacity at a different time, but it is very high risk to have brought him in. >> and the president keeps repeating that he was cleared by president obama for the highest possible security clearance referring to the fact that the previous year he renewed as retired general renewed his military security clearance. >> those are apples and oranges. when we would vet someone for a senior position, assistant secretary or a white house official, whatith we would first do is start our extensive vetting investigation where we would ask every question imaginable of the potential candidate. at the very end of that process, after we had independently decided that the individual was suitable and, you know, had the right judgment, temperament, and didn't have any issues, we would
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then ask the fbi or the appropriate agent to do an investigation. there are many people who did not even make it through our vetting process. and it includes not just the question of can they have security clearance, but whether or not this person has sound judgment, has written things on a blog post, anything in their background that would raise conflict of interest programs, or problems for the president. >> perhaps having receive 500,000 lobbies for turkey may have been disqualifying on the face of it you were at the nsc when some decisions were made,
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when susan rice advised mike fl flynn in a transition of the arms of the syrian kurds. going against isis headquarters in raqqa, syria. it would continue past january 20th. so as a kurt si, they brought michael flin into that not knowing they were lobbyingor turkey. they view the kurds as their enemy. that conflict is kind of basic. can you give us any background on that? why did they bring the new trump administration into that? >> this was one of the biggest things they were faced with. in the one hand you have a key
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strategy that is arming the syrian kurds, but you have the important equities of a nato ally. they are very curious of weapons and arms. it is not a decision arrived at lightly. the obama administration thought it prudent and responsible to inform the incoming team, and the response was typical, hold up. they had substantive policies about this. his 500,000 contract with the turkish government and it looks much more sinister. on election day he wrote an op-ed as part of a campaign against a pennsylvania based tushish cleric.
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these things taken together show that he was contacting in his own interest. >> as a matter of law, can that conflict of interest become of the issues that the speal county till will look into? >> sure, absolutely. it is unclear, i think at this point, how much the existing law enforcement informations will be wrapped up into former director mueller's am bit, but i certainly would expect that this very likely would be and it will certain i will be addressed. it has to be. one thing about director mueller is that he really understands the russian threat. and in a very serious and significant way. he understands their techniques and what they try to do to compromise people and that gives them a huge advantage and leg up in this information. >> thank you so much, cathy and
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bob, thank you. coming up, after the mueller appointment, what is next for the congressional investigation? we will speak with congressman adam schiff coming up here. you're watching andrea mitchell reports here on msnbc. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker. ...saving time when it matters most. stay with me, mrs. parker. that's the power of and. new neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair wrinkles? your time is up! with the proven power of retinol.
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michael fnn has filed with the department of justice as a foreign agent for making more than 500,000 as a lobbiest for turk, your reaction to that? >> hearing that story today was the first i heard of it, and i fully support the decision that president trump made asking for general flynn's resignation. >> first, what they nude about the federal investigation while the president was leading the transition team. adam schiff is the top democrat on the intelligence committee. i can't get my head around the fact that he told the transition team, the lawyer there, that he was working for turkey, and had accepted 500,000 from the turkey lobbiesout fit at that time, and
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they still cleared him to work in the white house. what does that say about them and the vice president that was leading the transition. >> that says they were less concerned about whether or not mike flynn had a deep conflict of interest. and they were having the guy they wanted to have. this is distressing at a number of levels. i think what is under scores if they thought it was a paperwork. the reports are accurate, and mike flin who was helping make decisions about whether or not we should be arming the kurds,
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and they see this conflict of interest. if he did disclose it and the white house brought him on none the less. >> and we have confirmed this as well. our pentagon reporter and justice correspondents confirmed this secret of events. this did have an impact and they were making decisions that this was hotly debated for weeks and weeks if not months inside of the obama had min -- administration. and it was going to affect them almost immediately. >> that is what is so astonishing about this. i think the decision they made to arm the kurds, because they
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have been the most effective fighting part thers that we have, because if that decision was delayed because of mike flynn was on the payroll of turkey, that is a very significant consequence. one of our primary concerns in addition to one of the horrible losses of life there is that the people of syria are plotting against us. anything that delays our taking raqqa, defeating isis. when i read the op-ed that mr. flynn wrote, saying we should turn him over without any evidence, it set off alarm bells with me and it should have that e that there was something that could have. what is accounted for was $600,000 in turk iish money.
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>>. >> now they are going to have serious equities to weigh. he is getting immunity in exchange for his testimony. we are certainly going to need to have a conversation at some point with bob mueller about how he enjoys the case and the equity he nas this befohas in t find out more. >> breaking news, one person died when a car crashed into pe dist -- pedestrians in times square. we will continue to bring you the latest. joining me now is kristin
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dolgri. was this an account or a deliberate act. >> they are iesgating -- >> i think she is off mic and we can't quite hear you, can we clear her microphone, we want to hear urgently what she is reporting from the scene. can we try again to bring in kristin dalgren? okay, we're going to take a quick break and we'll bring that in. you see the pictures there, there is chaos, i think i heard her say very much off mic she talked to the police but well get that report for you momentarily. there's nothing traditional about my small business so when it comes to technology, i need someone that understands my unique needs. my dell small business advisor has gotten to know our business
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and we're back with breaking news out of new york, at least one person is reportedly dead. joining me now is kristin
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dahlgren that this is accidental, not a deliberate act. >> i did not confirm that yet. they said they were not willing to immediately go there yet. we know know that 13 people were injured in this. and one killed someone in the busiest intersection at new york here. you have all of your bystanders taking pictures. on the scene as well, it is a car and suv type looking up on filed through the intersection here at 45th and broad way. its has two wheels off of the ground. the hood is back, two doors open
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as well, and at this point police say they are still trying to figure out exactly what ppened. they said it has been chaos here since it happened. they saw the ambulances come in, at least one person carried away by ambulance. so we will continue to stay down there and try to get more information as soon as possible. >> thank you, kristin dahlgren at the scene. there is certainly no weather implication by the looks of it. a sunny day and one of the busiest intersections in the world. you're only about five blocks from 30 rock. we see patients being wheeled off on stretchers. at least one person, as you said died on the way to the hospital,
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have they cleared the area? d it looks like there is no traffic at all, they claeshearee streets, correct? >> yes, they are keeping any tourists and media away behind the yellow police tape. so the intersection of times square for at least a two-block area that i'm looking at here is completely cleared. as you mentioned the weather doesn't appear to be a factor as the streets are completely dry. a hot day out here, and as you imagine a busy day at times square. very busy at this time of day, the lunchtime hour, people here at times square. >> thank youor that report. joining me is sean henry, a former assistant former executive assistant director. this raised concerns because of
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the increase in vehicular terrorism using suvs and trucks as weapons of mass destruction. it appears at least from initial reports that that is not the case here. >> that's right, we have seen increasingly terrorist organizations using these vehicular attacks to try to wreck havoc. they are easy to do. there is not a lot of training required. not a lot of funding required, and they have a substantial impact. in this particular case we don't know and the police officers responding, i imagine the fbi will have members of the joint terrorism task force that will respond, doing a preliminary investigation, so unfortunately when we see incidents like this now, law enforcement defaults to "it could be a terrorist attack. there is no indication here that it will be taken to determine
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them to go by their process. they will default to that, they want to ensure that if it was that type of attack they can secure evidence, they are able to look to see if there are any other planned attacks that might be related to to it. they will tyke a look. at this point it appears unclear, andrea. >> we understand from a tweet that governor cuomo is on sight, officials are gathering there as well. we know what happened in westminster and in nice. and that is the backdrop, of course for the concerns, sean, that normally would be made. the president, we are told, has been informed. and this as a very busy time. we were going to talk to you about bob mueller whom you knew very well, now as special council.
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while we look at people gathering at times square and investigators trying to sort through exactly what happened to cause this accident, let's talk about the backdrop of what is happening in washington. >> it was interesting to see that selection last night. from their perspective, i have spoken to people in the fbi and it provided a great deal of confidence to them that former director mueller coming in as a special council to take a look at this investigative process, that it will be disown with a high degree of character. very well received across the board up on capitol hill, the american pup lick shoublic shou
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lot of confidence in him at this point. >> he and his background with russia investigations, with russian banking investigationing witho he is familiar with some of the bad actors in this kind of thing. >> leading the fbi for 12 years, bob mueller was involved in every type of investigation that you can imagine from the fbi perspective. long ranking and complex sophisticated investigations. he lead them as an investigator. he was a prosecutor, a deputy attorney general, worked under two presidents, appointed by president bush, and reenacted by president obama to have a wide appeal. i worked with him on a daily basis for about five years, but i can tell you his level of intensity and his commitment to
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following the facts and the truth, and in a bipartisan way. it is so important. he was really unflappable, and we had a lot of issues that had political implications. he played it straight always, it was about following the facts and doing what was right for the american pu american public. i had a great deal of confidence. >> just to update us now, covering all of thesishes, the initial report from tom winter. maybe we can brink jonathan in. >> a short distance away and is now in custody and being questioned. accident not terror, believed to be the cause of today's incident in times square. as a precaution, there was a large emergency response as is
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prudent. you have the fire department, the police department, and elements of the fbi joint terrorism task force all respondings a precaution,ut again 13 people injured. law enforcement sources telling us that one person is dead, one is seriously injured, and he has a history of drunk driving with suspended licenses. >> it appears, chris, you were at the seen or at least very close to it. where are you? >> i'm still very close right now. >> listening in on jonathan dean's reporting on wnbc, our nbc station in new york. a 26-year-old man is in custody. police say he has a record of drunk driving or driving under the influence, and so their
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initial conclusion, john, is what we reported early sere ties an accident, not terrorism. but in looking at this response, you see the joint terror task force would respond that there is an injured person that could be trapped under a vehicle. >> they're moving us back now. they're establishing an even greater perimeter saying at least 1,000 feet because they do have an explosive squad coming in just to check things out. i know jonathan says at this point they're looking at it as an accident and not terror. we're told they are bringing in explosive teams to try and just double-check and make sure there
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is nothing else going on here. they're pushing the press back. eyewitnesss we spoke to earlier said it was absolute chaos here after this happened. th i have not found anyone that saw the accident yet, but the traffic was unbelievable and the reaction from people trying to get out of the way, out of the area. they are coming over at the nypd and establishing a staging area for the media that we can get some more information and see where they are are now. >> they have been safely removing. >> patients being treated here at this point, we did see ambulances, leaving the scene, as we were arriving here, so the 16 patients that were they were
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look robert griffin iii at the car. the investigators doing the measurements, they now moves a bus in front of the car and we can't see it, they are trying to establish a wider perimeter. >> can you describe the vehicle. did you see in earlier no? >> reporter: i was behind the car, it was a maroon vehicle. it looks like an v or cross overvehicle. it didn't lk look to me -- the trunk had popped open and it looked like an suv open trump open, the car was crumpled back and it for anyone that had been
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down at time square they know it protects some of the buildings who a for just such of an occasion, to avoid a vehicle going into these vehicles, so it went up on one of these metal substantiatitant. the other two on the ground, and it was tilted on the side, and the front was crumpled and popped up, from my limited knowledge of auto accidents, it appears to have hit with quite some force. >> we see see a steel program with the hood crumpled, and the hood is exactly as you described it, from this angle, more of a
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sedan. jim cavanagh, former chief of the bureau of tobacco and firearms, checked to make sure none of the packages were explosives is automatic at this point, right? >> right, they call in a bomb quad right away. they will sweep it for ie derd explosive devices. it is where they come to the quickest knowledge of motive. who is the driver, and then what is the motive and it could be an accident. a medical emergency, a drunken driver. people getting away from that is why you see them with the bomb
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squad and moving the prem ter back. >> according to the initial reports, a man that was in custody, while it was intoxicated, they will be checking checking to make sure it was an accident, and perhaps he was under the influence, but let's give people a context about the joint counter terrorism task force in the post 9/11 error. >> new york has the biggest join terrorism taskforce. there is a dozen of those taskforces around the country. and it fuses together the information, and they are the lyn lynch. the fbi has has the biggest in
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the country. but every city, every fbi division has one or more. and all of the agencies support at with agents from all of the disciplines, so they can move fast. if they have an immigration violation they can use i.c.e. nypd does a great job on this and they backed that perimeter up, and it is smart money because you don't know if there is a device in there. you to back the perimeter way up. don't be onlookers, you need to move away. if there is a chance for explosiv
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explosives. standing there looking at it, if you can see it, it can see you. i always like to get behind the nearest building even when we were duty bound to be there. if we didn't have to look at the place where the bomb was, we rr right around the corner. get protection because if something would detonate -- this doesn't look like that, this is a routine check. no indication of a bomb. there is no indication of a bomb, they have to just do smart policing. >> that is such good advice, in the media as well. that expanded police perimeter, and as we report, sources are saying this is an accident. and it was at least initially reported as an accident. out of an abundance of caution,
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the task force, the nypd, is there in full fours. to the other major story we have been following throughout the day and night, the new investigation by bob mueller, the former veteran fbi chief that has been appointed special council goining me now for exclusive interview. pamela harris who serves on the senate intelligence community. >> my best thoughts go out to all of those folks, particularly the law enforcement and first responders. and the former attorney general. now, what you're dealing with today, a member of the intelligence committee, what do you want to hear from rosenstein
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about the firing of james comec. >> first, the real reasons for firing james comey. i've been very critical of the memo written about firing james comey. now the person in the department of justice, in charge of the investigation from that end, that he has a credible basis for firing the then director of the fbi. >> we know from the presi himself, in that memo, it was not the reason that james comey was fired. the president told lester that he want the to fire him from the beginning. eric holder and other people, not contemporaneously, isn't that questionable? >> of course it was, and andrea,
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listen, as the former attorney general of california and a career prosecutor. if i was giving a memo that was that vacuous about citations about laws and protocols, and had no firsthand information, double hearsay at best, i would send it back and say come back if you have a stronger case. but that can't be the basis for the director firing him in an investigation that was about, let's be clear, the interference with russia in the election of the president of the united states. >> do you understand why the president keeps praising mike flynn, why flynn told friends at a dinner that he got a atta boy, hang tough, from the president in the middle of the investigation. >> based on everything that i heard and read, they knew about
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the investigation into flynn, the hide that they would have gone this to have such an important role in the investigation. someone privy to the investigation, the fact that they did not vet m, that they knew he had a active investigation is completely unbelievable. and deeply troubling because it also has to do with whether this administration fully understands that the responsibility of trust, that is vested in them. the people of the united states have vested in the president of the united states, the public trust. and he must earn that and right now he is not. >> you're a former career prosecutor and state's attorney general. there there is criticism of not having former prosecutors that
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really have the experience to go after what they need to go after here. >> as a member of the senate intelligence committee, i believe the staff is doing a good job. i believe the committee is doing a good job. i have been frustrated about the base, the pace of the investigation that we need to get to the truth. at a quicker pace. and at any point they believe we're staling to do the job we have been charged with doing, investigating russia's interference with the president of the united states,ly walk away. i have been calling for a special council, a special prosecutor appointed to oversea the general investigation. and i'm glad that has finally been done. >> should robert mueller have a concern that these committees, your committee and others might get in his way. we know what happened in a different error when they ended up having ace conviction
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overturned because of the conflict between special investigations and prosecutors. >> there local level, state wide level and also federal level. we kul call it deconfliction. where various bodies will find an opportunity and make an opportunity to check in with each other to make slur that we are not stepping over each other's toes so to speak. and i'm sure that that will happen with with bob mueller in charge of the investigation. i know bob muellerased on h years of bng in the bay area back when i was a prosecutor in alameda county in san francisco. and i think he is fully equipped to make all of the right decisions to ensure that there is not a conflict between these various investigations. >> you've been calling for jeff sessions to resign. do you now believe that rod rosenstein should also resign?
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>> i have questions about rod rosenstein's and to be in any way in charge of this. and in about particular because of the memo. you know, that was his first official act when he took on this important position of being number two of the united states department of just citif juof j. and he apparently authored a memo that clearly was written for the purposes of press and not for the purposes of the integrity and professionalism of the united states department of justice. i also am concerned that he was aware that jeff sessions was involved in the firing of comey and we are all aware that jeff sessions is supposed to be recused from any matter that relates to the rush a investigation and we know that comey was fired because of the russia investigation. so there is a comply indicated web taking place and rosenstein is part of that and that concerns me in terms of his ability to be unbiased and pursue his responsibilities. but the appointment of bob
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mueller is a good step in the right direction. >> that said, rosenstein can fire bob mueller if he reports back to congress and there is no deadline on that. and the president of the united states can also under the law that established the special counsel according to the person who helped write it back in '99, the president can fire bob mueller. >> i think that the presint should figure out that this is not a game show and bob about mueller is the right person at the right time and should be left to do the job of leading this investigation. and going where the facts and evidence take him so that the american public can know the truth about what happened. >> senator kamala harris, thank you so much. good to see you. and now back to the breaking news in new york city, at least one person is dead, 12 are injured after a car plowed into a group of pedestrians in times square. you can see the car there back
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up with its back up, its front down, the hood crumpled, the trunk up. clearly they are looking at it and looking to see if there are any devices there, but that is the car involved. the driver is in custody. new york governor andrew cuomo will address the media in about 20 minutes. we'll of course bring that to you live. joining me now beginkristen dah at the scene and sean calf nvan and henry on the phone. do you see anything else regarding the packages that the bomb squad was looking at or anything else untoward as they continue to examine what happened here? >> reporter: well, it's still very much an active investigation. so you do have them still looking at the car. we did see a bomb sniffing dog making its way around the perimeter of the car. it then was led away. and so they are continuing to look.
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but we have excellent reporting both from tom winter, from jonathan dietz saying that they are looking at this now as an accident. so it's just precautionary standard procedure especiay when you have an inct in times square. my photographer pointed out that that is the same spot where are a few years ago they found an explosive device. and so they are being very cautious. but at this point, they are look at this as an accident. they are looking at a driver who appears from our reporting to have a history of dwi incidents. and so he is now in police custody and they are doing some further testing on him to try to determine all of those answers. we'll begin to get at least some from the press conference coming up with the governor. so we should have a lot more questions answered at that point. what i can tell you about the rest of the scene is that at least a one block area around this accident of 45th and
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broadway has now been roped off. you can see we've been moved pretty far back from the scene and we're trying to get a closer look at some point from a ground level for you so that we can bring that to you. a lot of tourists on the scene trying to get a glimpse at what happened. this is an extremely busy intersection, probably the busiest in the world. this was the lunchtime hour, so a lot of people here and you can just imagine some of the chaos and we're trying to find some people who were out here at that time. a car plowing into the crowds, into injuring 12 and leang one dead. so i'm sure a horrific scene at that points during the busy lunchtime hour. >> and sean henry, kristen was pointing out such a busy intersection. you have subway exits and entrances, so a lot to secure and clear. they obviously responded in full
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force with nypd and with the counterterrorism task force. this is all precautionary at this point. >> you never know going in what you will find. they will put as many resources as possible into the area of an incident so that they can collect evidence, they can identify any additional threats. and they want to flush this out. as a couple folks have said thus far, it really is about safety and precaution. and ensuring that there is nothing here that poses a continued hazard to any of the pedestrians in the area. and that this is fully investigated and thoroughly investigated. it's really important for law enforcement particularly in today's day and age. we know that these vehicular types of attacks have been on the on rise. we know the terrorist groups isis and others have talked about using them increasingly and law enforcement and fbi will take every measure to ensure that they fully vet this out. >> and joining me now as well is
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matt miller on a busy day when we have breaking news in new york city and you having worked at the justice department know full well when somhing like this happens, it's all hands on. and this at a time when frankly thwhite use is under siege legally. every aspect of this investigation we now know that mike flynn actually informed the general counsel of the transition who on is now the general counsel at the white house of his turkey connection and other problems and they said it's fine, they vetted him right in. >> yeah, i think kathy rindler who was on the program earlier had the right answer. that should have been the end of the conversation. you couldn't get into a junior position if you are under federal criminal investigation let alone the national security adviser. it goes to the big question that we still have about mike flynn's relationship with donald trump. there was there was just a report in the last couple of hours that the president sent a message to him to stay strong. there continue to be very serious questions about why the president remain so is close to
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him and is on loyal. >> and that will be a big question for the new robert mueller investigation. going to kristen dahlgren who is interviewing an eyewitness. >> no, no, no the people waiting for the signal to -- >> cross the street. >> wi42nd and 7th avenue. >> so five or six people on the hood of the car? >> yeah. >> and they were injured? >> that cargo all the way up to 45th. so on in tin the process i thine were dropped. >> yhe drove up here with peopl on the hood? >> jayeah. >> so up broadway? >> i think 7th. on the sidewalk. >> was there panic, people screaming? >> yeah, at first we are numb,
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but then the people start screaming and running to the people who were injured. yeah. that's aut it what i know. >> what did you think? >> i was wondering why the car is not slowing down. i didn't hear any brakes or any screeching sound. so we thought is it elderly people or drunk people or terrorist. whatever it was, it wasn't slowing down. that's it. >> and about how fast, faster than other traffic? >> you know, yeah, it's faster than other traffic, but you didn't expect the car coming toward us on 7th avenue. >> did you have to jump out of the way? >> yeah. >> you had to physically jump out of the way? >> jump to the right.
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>> was everybody doing that? >> yeah, a lot of people running. >> you on on the west side? >> west side. yeah. west side of 7th avenue and sidewalk. >> and did you see it come to rest here? >> no, no. we are member of media, so i was helping them. >> are you a journalist? >> yeah, researcher. happened to be there. >> but you saw people falling on which the hood of the car? >> yeah. >> and that dramatic eyewitness account of people jumping out of the way as the c barreli down the west side of 7th avenue with kristen dadahlgren, that researcher seeing people falling off the hood of the car. that does it for ugs for this edition of breaking news on andrea mitchell melvin is up ne continuing our