show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. "andrea mitchell reports" starts now. >> right now, president trump not holding back. in a wide ranging interview siding with a saudi cover up instead of the ca and other world leezers on who ordered the assassination. blasting the navy s.e.a.l. commander who led the bin laden raid and he won't sit down with. >> is that your final position? there's going to be no zit interview and nothing written or in person or b obstruction? >> i would say probably.

probably. i can change my mind, but probably. i think we've wasted enough time on this witch hunt. >> system fail. after botch ed recounts ahead 20620, florida's three term incumbent senator concedes, g e giving republicans another seat in the senate. >> it's going to be exciting to go to washington. i'm a business guy, i'm going to bring an outsider perspective like i did to tallahassee. >> 80 dead, hurricandreds missi thousands homeless and the president blame iing the victim. >> you look at other countries where they do it differently and it's whole different story. they spend a lot of time on cleaning and doing things, and they don't have any problem. this is a very small problem. president trump has lit a bonfire of headlines in his

interview on fox news. the president says he is ready to let acting attorney general matt whitaker, a vocal critic of the mueller investigation before becoming the new acting ag decide on the counsel. >> if whitaker decides to limit or curtail the mueller investigation, are you okay with that? >> it's going to be up to him. i think he's very well aware politically. i think he's astute politically. he's very smart person. a very respected person. he's going to do what's right. i really believe he's going to do what's right. >> but you won't overrule him. >> i would not get involved. >> nbc white house correspondent kristen welker joins me now. we're getting into the end game here with the answers to questions not including any about obstruction of justice and making it pretty definitive that no matter what he's said, he's

not sitting down for an interview. >> president trump leaning into that position in the most robust way we have heard him do to do yet. essentially, when asked if a sit-down in person interview is all off the table, he said probably. it's time for this to be over. reiterating that line of attack. now, in terms of where things stand, president trump saying that he has finished writing the answers to questions that he got from special counsel robert mueller. when are those going to be submitted? well, sources familiar with the matter tell nbc news they will be submitted to the special l counsel before thanksgiving. so that's the target line. now here's what could happen, andrea, just because the president is saying he's ready to move on doesn't mean this investigation is going to move on because robert mueller could decide he needs an in person interview, he wants one and needs more follow up to these written responses that he's going to get sh so, what happens then? is the president and his legal

team prepared to fight this to have a subpoena fight? of course a lot of that remains to be seen, but bottom line, this is far from being finished. what you saw there was a defiant president trump saying as you played there, that he's not going to stop his acting ag, matthew whitaker, if he wants to curtail the special counsel v t investigation. a lot of people thought it was eyebrow raising when he was pressed on the past statements. president seeming to indication he wasn't aware of those statements. some democrats saying they don't think that's the case. bottom line, he is defiant as he prepares to turn in those written responses. >> let's do recordkeeping on the b cabinet. whether kirsten nelson and john kelly. what about this top nsc aide who was apparently escorted out on friday. apparently for objecting to what

seems like a decision to side with the saudis. that's a big deal as well. >> right. absolutely. and that being the latest departure and underscoring by the way, andrea, that the challenges this president is having in interpreteterms of de saudi arabia. but of course chief among them, the cia assessment that the saudi crown prince was the one who directed the killing of "the washington post" columnist. you mention ed the dhs secretar. president trump not committing to her being here long-term. not weighing in ou how long she might be here, but he said he wanted her to be tougher on the issue of john kelly. he said he hasn't taken a hard look yet at how long john kelly will be here. >> and he thinks kelly might want to move on. we're moving into a holiday

weekend and we know what happens when he goes to mar-a-lago and sees his club members. to be b continued. i know you're going to cover him. >> i will. every step of the way. and breaking news from capitol hill. three democratic senators now taking the political fight over president trump's appointment of matt whitaker federal court. pete williams is joining me now. richard blumenthal, sheldon whitehouse and hirano of hawaii. this is the third now legal challenge to whitaker's appointment. they say that a person serving as a cabinet member in this case acting attorney general, must under the constitution be appointed under the president and most importantly, confirmed by the senate, so they have legal standing to sue, so this appointment putting someone into the acting attorney general's job who's not been confirmed. he was confirmed when he was u.s. attorney, but he's not

anymore. he stepped down from that in 2009, so that previous confirmation doesn't count and his current incarnation of the justice department as chief of staff to jeff sessions, he wasn't confirmed. so they say the appointment deprives them of their right to vote on the confirmation. this is the third legal challenge. the first two came last week. one from maryland, one from the supreme court and they all this this violates the appointments clause. now, the justice department in a long memo, a long opinion from the office of legal counsel week, said this doesn't need to be senate confirmed because they say the supreme court has before ruled that someone serving temperatuorarily over emergency circumstances can be acting without senate confirmation. they say there was no emergency here and secondly, they say the justice department's opinion is based on the belief that there exists something called exacting attorney general different from

attorney general when in fact the senators say it has the same legal responsibility. >> and they're all member of the judiciary committee. >> and all democrats. >> i want to point out, pete, that the problems, hard to tell, but there's a picture that was tweeted by wall street reporter from his first addressing of the troops and i'm not sure you can tell it in that shot, but in a wider shot you can see there are a lot of empty seats from the great hall, which would be unusual for this, the internal people not to show up for the first address with a new boss. >> yeah. this was i believe not sure which picture this is. i think it was a veteran's day ceremony. not quite sure what day this picture was taken. without question, andrea, there's some internal concern about the whitaker appointment. some career feeks folks say they have faith everything will stay

on track as long as rod rosenstein remains as deputy attorney general, but it's fair to say that whitaker has his fans at justice and also people who think he shouldn't be in this position. >> thanks so much and maryland congressman elijah cummings is the top democrat on the house side joins me now. you're mr. chairman elect given the election results. i guess congratulations are in in order. thanks for being with us. >> thank you very much. thank you. >> what rn concerns sh, if any, do you have about whitaker, in particular the fbi investigating a company he was connected to that was a scam. just his background in business and in law. >> i have a lot of concerns. not only with regard to the scam that has been raised numerous times. but i also have a concern with regard to appearance of a conflict of interest. not just a conflict. it's the appearance of it.

and when you have someone who has talk ed about the funding, the special counsel's probe, someone who has talked about said that he really doesn't believe in it and that he doesn't want to go along with with it. within a month after the special counsel was appointed, that's to concern all of us. i had the same concern that is the three senators who have now filed suit with regard to this issue have. whether or not this was a institutional appointment, of course it seems that it may be a decision by the courts. but he is in a position to make some major decisions and so, i think that we should, in this case, at the least, there should be a recusal on his part so there's not even an appearance.

>> of course by the time any of these lawsuits get up through the courts, he could have done a lot of damage from your perspective. he could be restraining the budget and scope of the mueller probe. how will you know? >> that's a great key question. i would hope that we would have, we would protect this investigation and i'm kind of confused with regard to to mr. mcconnell. now we are way out of order. in this instance, there's a person in a position to have a direct impact by allowing the legislation to go forward. i disagree with that.

>> where's your first priority in terms of subpoenas? because there's a political downside of just flooding the house with them and voters are frustrated nothing is getting done and this may seem like it's a political attack against the president. >> that's one of my major concerns. i don't want to, our committee to come up looking like that because i think it takes away from our integrity. as to your question, i want to look at things like the census. keep in mind that we have a census, a the administration has put in a census question, or proposed one. regarding citizenship, which would cause people possibly not to participate. the reason why it's so urgent is because the census is right around the corner and what we do on the census will determine

various formulas for the next ten or 12 years. so we've got to address that. i want to also look at voting. voting, there's no way in this, we should have a situation where we have a country where we are doing everything in our power in certain states to stop people from voting. or suppress their votes. skyrocketing drug prices. i want to take a look at that. so there will be a number of thipgs that we'll look a. but be clear, i plan to deal with subpoenas in a very careful and dleliberate way with standards. and consulting with the minority, but we'll do it carefully. i will not be a burden, congressman former congressman who issued more than 100 subpoenas in a limited amount of time. no, no, no.

we will have integrity. that's what the american people have asked for. >> before i let you go, i'll ask you about a tweet from president where he refers to one of your top colleagues in a very either typo or disrespectful way. any reaction to that? >> yes, of course. i would say to the president directly, mr. president, please do not do that. that is beneath you and beneath this office. adam schiff is one of the most brilliant members of our congress and just a phenomenal human being. and i would beg you to respect our opinions without calling anybody names. no need for that. we have to be too busy. we don't have time for it. the president has said he wants to build his. he says less than two years to do that.

he wants to take down the price of prescription drugs. we don't have time for name calling. that only muddies the water. >> thank you very much. thanks for being with us today. and coming up next, war of words, the president blasting the admiral who oversaw the raid that killed osama bin laden. cia chief during that raid joining me next. stay with us. joining me nt.ex stay with us unpredictable crohn's symptoms following you? for adults with moderately to severely active crohn's disease, stelara® works differently. studies showed relief and remission, with dosing every 8 weeks. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection or flu-like symptoms or sores, have had cancer, or develop new skin growths, or if anyone in your house needs or recently had a vaccine. alert your doctor of new or worsening problems, including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems. these may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. some serious allergic reactions

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president trump lashed out at a retired admiral who commanded the 2011 raid that killed osama bin laden. >> he's a hillary clinton backer. and an obama backer. >> he's a navy s.e.a.l. >> it would have been nice if we got osama bin laden a lot sooner than that. >> he's a retired navy s.e.a.l. leader who criticized the president's leadership style writing in an op-ed the president had quote humiliated the u.s. on a world stage. ginning me now, leon panetta. you were cia director when the obama raid happened. so, let's talk about what the president had to say about the

raid. >> well, it's hard for me to even begin to respond to this president. when he's dealing with probably one of the most proudest and courageous operations that has taken place. and the s.e.a.l.s who went in in a very risky operation, but they got osama bin laden. nation's number one enemy. and they sent a clear message to the world that nobody attacks this country. and gets away with it. this president owes admiral mccraven and all of the s.e.a.l.s involved in that operation an apology for what he's saying. he's undermining his position as commander in chief. not only with those that conducted the operation, but with the entire military. >> at the same time, what about

his criticism that you and mccraven and the obama administration should have gotten bin laden sooner? >> well, it was ten years trying to find bin laden and thanks to the hard work of our intelligence officers, they were able finally to determine that. by the way, we did not brief admiral mccraven on the location of that compound. until about three months bf they conducted the operation. once we briefed them, admiral mccraven put together the operation. the president approve ued it. it was a risky operation. but they went ahead and did that operation and were success ffult doing it. this is one of the proudest moments in recent history. regarding a military operation. this president ought to

recognize that it's that kind of valor and courage that is important in order to protect the security of this country. >> want to ask you about the president's responses also about khashoggi because he is accepting the saudi explanation, which many believe is a cover up and he is going against the cia assessment, which i reported, nbc has reported, other news organizations, "the washington post," "new york times," "wall street journal," was briefed to the senate and house intelligence committees last thursday. it was an assessment. and then the state department under of course secretary pompeo who was a former cia director, said there were no final conclusions. i think that is parsing words, because sometimes assessments are not final conclusions. maybe you can clarify there.

>> well, look, the cia presents its intelligence evaluation to the president and to the leaders of our country. and it defines the accuracy of that information. with various degrees of confidence. in this case, they presented information and intelligence with high confidence that the crown prince in syria or in saudi arabia was directly involved with regards to the khashoggi operation. that's high confidence. and that means that there is very clear and strong evidence that that is the case. and very frankly, others recognize that as well. whether it's turkey or other countries recognize that there is that relationship for the president to ignore the intelligence, to ignore the facts in this case. and not take a strong stand

against the kind of behavior that was involved here and murdering somebody dismembering them in their own embassy. to not take a strong position. sends a clear message to the world that the united states is not going to action when a country behaves na that manner. >> i want to play what the president said on fox news sunday about the crown prince, mbs, assuring him he didn't do it. >> he told me that he had nothing to do with it. he told me that i would say maybe five times. at different points. >> what if he's lying. >> you saw me put on massive sap sanctions on a large group of people from saudi arabia, but at the same time, we have an ally and i want to stick with an ally that's been very good. >> and so he's basically putting whatever jobs or oil relationship economic relationship with this ally that

going up against iran. in syria. and throughout the world going up against iran and yemen. as more important than the evidence being presented by his own intelligence community. >> this president when he wants to be, can be blind to the facts. when putin said that russia was not involved in an effort to undermine our elections, he said i believe what putin is saying. even in the face of clear intelligence information to the contrary. and now here with regards to saudi arabia, the crown prince has told him he wasn't involved and the president is accepting that word. in the face of all of the evidence and intelligence briefings that he's receiving.

show the contrary. the president when he does that, look, this involves our national security. it involves how a president responds to threats that are out there. and if the president deliberately blind sides himself with regards to the evidence that's very clear, i think that shows tremendous weakness on the part of this president and it sends a message of weakness for the united states across the world that we will ignore the facts and the truth when it comes to dealing with not only our adversaries with our allies as well. >> i want to ask you also about your own community in california because the panetta ranch right there in caramel valley is in a fire zone. you're surrounded by the tragedies in all parts of the state and this is what the president during his tour had to say when he was visiting paradise, california. >> take care of the floors.

the floor it is of the forest. very important. i was with the president of finland and he said we have much different. he called it a forestation. they spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things and they don't have any problem. it's a very small problem. >> the finnish leader has denied that conversation ever took place, but to compare california with a rainy, cold climate finland and to blame people for not clearing the forest adequately, i don't know how you as a lifelong californian feel b about that. >> well, again, it's just another indication this president doesn't want to hear the truth. and doesn't want to pay attention to the facts. he lives in his own world. and he makes his own conclusions regardless of what the facts

are,le regardless of what reali is. we know the situation in california very well. we know the impact climate change has had here. we've been in a drought. it's created tremendous fuel. the winds combined with the fuel have resulted in these wildfires, what jerry brown has called the new ab norrmal. i think he owes it to the people to pay attention to the truth and not make up his own reality. >> thank you so much. stay safe out there in california. we're all with you. >> thank you. >> thank you very much and coming up, orange is the new blue. democrats complete a house sweep including in orange county, california. the historically conservative county. lifornia the historically conservative county

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after weeks of democratic charges of voter suppression in georgia, the election is now over in both states. in florida, bill nelson sunday

was ousted by rick scott and conceded and democrat andrew gillum conceded the governor's race to ran desantis. in georgia, stacey ab abrams conceded her bid, but is still refusing to call kemp's victory legitimate. she says legal, but not legitimate. let's get the scoop from contributor editor at "the weekly standard," white house correspondent for the pbs news hour. all msnbc contribute ors. charlie, first to you. let's talk about what's happening around the country. with these results, obviously big gains for democrats in the house. in midwestern governors state houses. but the same time, these high profile losses in texas, in georgia, if florida. they were big stretches for democrats, but didn't get pas passed the finish line. where do you see this coming

down as we head to 2020? >> al three you just mentioned were unlikely to begin with. you u get into the midwest in contrast. look at what happened in pennsylvania, many michigan, in wisconsin. i think you're starting to see many of those states that win for trump are right in the margin beginning to slip away that we didn't have a complete realignment. a couple of other things. ohio and kro co. are no lopger swing states and arkansizona, y saw how important it was to have candidates that appeal to the center. you had a senate candidate who ran to the middle and was elected flipping a seat for the democrats. very much a mixed issue. i'm not feeling that good for the electoral college. >> we got you back from florida.

it's over final ly. what's your take with the charges and countercharges? >> people are worries this has set us up for a nasty 2020. imagine what we saw over the last week and a half with these charges of voter fraud and theft. but playing out in the context of a tight presidential election. this has the ability. >> we've been there before. >> and this frankly people think could be worse from that. 200 was bad and shook a lot of people's faith in the electoral system, you didn't have these charges of fraud and lying and theft as the backdrop for the principle acro moenys. >> when i was talking to elijah cummings, he said one of the things they want to work on is

se precio suppression of the vote. that's a big issue in north dakota. in kansas with a moving of the polling place outside of kansas and of course what happened in florida as well as having elected republicans supervising elections in georgia. >> i think what's remarkable is that you have some democrats who lost, but who instantly became activists for voter suppression or really looking at voter fraud. there's this idea that stacey abe raps said we have to look at the stm in georgia. he brought mer campaign filing a lawsuit saying he wie need to look at these voting ideas. democrats are going to make the case that republicans in court have been found to really target and with precision african-american voters, counties where they know that democrats are voting, so i think we're going to have this large conversation in the next two years about how people are voting. whether r or not signature matches something that should be part of your voting. how many people change their signature from when they're sign ing for dinner or voting. that's i think really remark bable that you have democrats who are losing instantly have a

new message that they can hold on to. you think o'rourke in texas. he lost and he has probably a lot of money left over and now is looking at 2020 maybe. >> charlie, when we look going forward, do democrats really have a way to change these processes when you've got republican secretaries of state and those exact match laws are all-sta all state issues. >> i want to go back to jeremy's point that we're in a very, very dangerous period here. this reflex to challenge the legitimacy of elections. you know, it can have long-term damage to our democratic norms here and i think we need to be very, very cautious and restrained about that because he's right. just imagine if the 2020 presidential election hinged on contested ballots. as bad as 2000 was, add in the trumpina tribalism we have now and it could be a genuinely ugly

moment. i'm hoping at some point, we recognize there's a bipartisan interest in assuring people that there is voter integrity and all the votes are counted because i just sense we're in a spiral of allegations from both political parties that are really going to have long-term institutional damage. >> and jeremy, when you think about it, it was because of donald trump even suggesting in that last debate that he might not accept the debate of the election. that prompted barack obama and the white house they say not to make a bigger deal out of the russian interference in their initial report. >> donald trump has put us into new and frankly rather frightening territory. whe the leader of if free world insisting he won't accept the results of an election just because he doesn't win. i mean, imagine na plthat playi out in florida. he's a guy, i think this is extraordinary. he insisted the other day that people were wearing disguises to vote multiple times. i mean this is just ludicrous, but it's coming from the

president of the united states. the tone that that sets and this permission structure it creates for politicians like rick scott, marco rubio, to say people are stealing this election. there is fraud going on. that's a slippery and dangerous slope to be on. >> we have to leave it there. we'll come back to this multiple times i fear. thank you all and coming up, the new class congresswoman elect and in nearly 40 years of control in her district joins me next. stay with us. ntrol in her district joins me next stay with us very foundation of very foundation of your typical bank. capital one is anything but typical. that's why we designed capital one cafes. you can get savings and checking accounts with no fees or minimums. and one of america's best savings rates. to top it off, you can open one from anywhere in 5 minutes. this isn't a typical bank. this is banking reimagined. what's in your wallet?

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a key vote over whether to support nancy pelosi for speaker is set for next week after the holidays amid a rebellion fueled by some young freshman pushing for a regime change. so far, they don't have a challenger willing to take on the leader. joining me now is democratic congresswoman from northern virginia, jennifer wexton. congratulations on your victory. >> thank you so much. >> you're going through a lot of transitions. explain where you stand on nancy pelosi. what's your take and how much pressure do you feel? >> i've declared that i will be supporting leader pelosi for speaker and i don't feel any great pressure. the only pressure i feel is that we want to be able to hit the ground running on day one and i think she's best equipped to make happen. >> did you get pushback from

constituents or voters? >> well, i was keeping an open mind and it's becoming clear that there doesn't seem to be anybody who wants to step up. and as i said, i think it's important we get this settled and get hit the ground running. i haven't encountered much pushback from constituents. i've received a lot of messages from support and people who agree. >> some of the other freshman were concerned. they think the leadership is too old. that it's become too you know, unresponsive. the counterargument is that nancy pelosi is the best general you have and nobody else sort of up to the task. what about martha fudge? she seemed to be b in recent interviews waffling about whether she would take it on. >> my understanding is that she hasn't officially thrown her hat in the ring. leadership doesn't end and begin with speaker. there are many pocks that are going to be up for election when we reconvene for our next week of freshman orientation.

so there's lots of opportunities for change at all levels. >> has pelosi promised there will be a presh man caucus or some unts for youpger people to move up? >> yes, about younger members or newer mbs and about having a very diverse group represent nd the caucus. >> how do you think you and the others many with military backgrounds, so many women, how will that change the way the house operates? is. >> well, i think it's already kind of changing the way that things are working. you know, we have a very cleenlgal group. a bunch of us communicate outside of the official channels. i think there's going to be a lot more understanding of maybe a family friendly schedule and things like that, so i think we'll be able to hopefully work together and get things done. >> well, lot of luck to you as you make this transition. come back and visit us often. you're not that far away. right across the potomac.

>> thanks so much. >> and the president says he has finished crafting his answers to the mueller probe. our legal eagles break it u all down. stay with us on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. with usl reports" only on msnbc

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your team is preparing written answers to questions about -- >> no, not my team. i'm preparing written answers. . i do the answer. are they writing them out? yeah. they're writing what i tell them to write. >> will they be submitted? >> very soon, yes. i have completed them. >> nbc news reporting that the answers will be submitted by the president's legal team by thanksgiving. joining me now is barbara mcclain and daniel goldman. barbara, first to you. the legal weight of these answers, they're written by the president quote/unquote or by his lawyers. there's no way to follow up. how much weight does the special counsel put on these answers which are not an opportunity to

actually question the president? >> yeah. as you point out, andrea, it is far from ideal. i can imagine the way you conduct interviews you would much rather be there in person to follow up on the answers and observe body language and inflection. nonetheless, i think there's some value in getting written answers even though lawyers will be involved no doubt in crafting the particular language of them because it locks president trump into a story. for example, if they're asking about back channel communications with russia or meetings at the islands or things like that, president trump has to either say he knew about them or he didn't. he has to take a stand and so whatever stand he takes i think can be useful to robert mueller because it's difficult for president trump to wriggle out of the answers later. >> can he pick and choose what he wants to answer? >> well, he should answer all the questions but he could exert executive privilege and some reports of doing that with questions of activity that is

occurred after he became president. that doesn't mean it's absolute as we saw in the nixon case. the court held there that in a criminal investigation the privilege may yield and have to give way in the quooest for the truth. robert mueller has a question to ask uhimself how hard does he want to push this in the courts? >> do we think there's questions of obstruction or pre-negotiated between lawyers from both sides? >> well, if you listen to rudy giuliani and i would caution anyone from listening too much to rudy giuliani but he is our only source. the questions did not relate to obstruction and did not include any questions that post-dated the election. that, barbara's right. there's certainly some degree of executive pr executive privilege that would apply but it's an open question whether in that transition period the president can exert

executive privilege. and we know there are a lot of meetings. there are a lot of suspicious activities that occurred during that transition period. michael flynn's conversations with sergei kislyak. james nader who's cooperating was involved in brokering some of those meetings. it seems like there was a flurry of activity there but from what rudy giuliani says none of these questions would relate to that period of time. i don't think this is the end of the questions. whether in writing or in person. i think this is a first step but it would seem to me, a, there's follow-up questions. and b, there may be some pressure for additional answers to akigsal questions outside of the realm of these collusion, election, campaign related

questions. >> and, barbara, i'm sorry. we are hearing audio interference. a question i had is whether you think the special counsel, whether either of you think the special counsel will push for a sitdown interview to the extent of going and subpoenaing the president and that, of course, would trigger we think a case all the way up to the supreme court. >> yeah. i think if robert mueller thinks it's fruitful and needs the answers he'll push it and depends. he'll look at the answers to the questions he has. he'll look at other information and the key question, many cases proceed without interviewing the defendant. is it essential to get his information and talking about obstruction and corrupt intent hearing his side of the story could be very important so i think if robert mueller assesses he needs it he'd be willing to push it. >> dan, what do you think? >> i agree.

the interesting thing is it's the broad consensus the president will not be indicted so he cannot really be the target of an investigation. and therefore, he could be subpoenaed to discuss the obstruction cases. the obstruction questions and those issues. but on the other hand, if he is the sole target of the obstruction investigation unlike the collusion investigation so it may be a situation where robert mueller says you know what? if you don't want do give us your story then you don't have to. that would be a better tactic i would say if he were likely to be indicted but because we are gearing up for a report it would seem to be an incomplete report if you don't have the president on record responding to the issues related to obstruction. >> finally, very quickly, do you people think, are all the signals indicating to have indictments soon? barbara? >> i think there's some signals

offen dim of indictments and not the president. there's roger stone and the associates that seem to be publicly telling con fliblflict stories and could see some indictments there. >> i agree. i think we will see a indictment of the roger stone and jerome corecy to be cooperating or indicted and don jr. who's not met with the special counsel and that's often an indication that there is an investigation focusing on him. >> well, we'll be right back. thank you all so much. i couldn't catch my breath. it was the last song of the night. it felt like my heart was skipping beats. they said i had afib. what's afib? i knew that meant i was at a greater risk of stroke. i needed answers. my doctor and i chose xarelto® to help keep me protected from a stroke. once-daily xarelto®, a latest-generation blood thinner

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follow us on twitter and here's stephanie ruhle for "velshi & ruhle." >> thanks so much. good afternoon. i'm stephanie ruhle. ali velshi off today. it's monday, november 19th. let's get smarter. >> your team is preparing written questions -- >> not my team. i'm preparing written answers. i'm the one that does the answering. >> are they going to be submitted? >> at some point very soon, yes. i have completed them. >> is that your final position that there's no sit down interview and nothing written or in person on obstruction? >> i would say probably. i think we have wasted enough time on this witch hunt.