his opponentment came the day after michael schmidt reported on the existence of a memo from james comey saying during meeting in the oval office the president pressured him into dropping the investigation into michael flynn. i hope you can let this go. the decision to appoint robert mueller as special counsel was made by deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who road the memo used as the pretext to fire comey. rosenstein charged mueller with investigating any links and/or coordination between the russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of donald trump as well as any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation. rosenstein made it clear he would protect mueller from any undo interference from the administration. >> if president trump ordered you to fire the special counsel what would you do? >> senator, i'm not going to follow any orders unless i believe they are lawful and appropriate orders under the regulation, special counselor mueller may be fired only for good cause and i'm required to put that cause in writing. that's what i would do if

. >> continuing here at the table with michael schmidt and ron clane. let's talk about leaks. some of the leaks scaramucci were complaining about were politically embarrassing leaks. what really is of concern to the attorney general and dan coats are classified information. i was curious about the way they seem to be throwing the intelligence community, which is familiar target of candidate trump and president elect trump and now president trump under the bus, but the fact is it's not at all clear that any of this has come from the intelligence community. there have been denials. >> it plays into the whole deep state. the deep state is the one that's undermining trump. but you have to remember that this is something trump has been obsessed with as far back as february. on that day that comey says he asked him to end the flynn investigation, the other half of their discussion is about leaks. trump says that we should put reporters in jail. we should go to these extreme things to do. comey says, look, these are really hard investigations to do. so this is something that's been o

lee, gee, hard to choose. >> michael schmidt, any someplace from dowd or anybody close to dowd why a formerly respected attorney would send out a secessionist document and something -- a document that white nationalists would cheer? >> the sense that i had last night was that the white house was relieved that there were no white house officials on the e-mail. it not like that was forwardedoning to them. it clear why he would do this nixon's lawyers put a line between policy and representing nixon. they never wanted to get involved, they wanted to stay in the legal lane han didn't want to have themselves in a situation which they were -- this is clearly a political issue and here is dowd trying to push out the message that what the president had said is. >> hey, michael, what was the source of this e-mail? i'm curious to know where this came from and with why the president of the united states's personal attorney would elevate it to become a talking point that the administration wanted to get out. >> so this e-mail was forwarded to about 30 people, including fay vincent, the former ba

joining me now, michael schmidt, and clint watts. l, the president's latest comments contradict what he reportedly said in the past. you heard that violation comment. is the president trying to change his tune when it comes to the special council? we know that. >> when he sat down last month, he was agitated with mueller, he was thinking of his aides. saying how could be get rid of him. but yesterday he said it is the complete opposite. what i think we're seeing is that he is not considering it right now. it looks like he has been talked out of it, but the idea that he looked at it and did not consider it is just not accurate. >> bloomberg is also reporting that paul manafort told authorities about that june 9th meeting between don jr., jared kushner, and folks that said they were with the russian government. so what does paulmanafort stand to gain by being the one to reveal that. >> the one that is least implicated, ultimately. if you bring it to their attention, you're not trying to hide that meeting. what i think is interesting is

michael schmidt, what's happening? >> well, what we saw on saturday is ku klux klan, neo-nazis, we saw armed paramilitary right wing militia marching through a university town, one of the most historic in the country. we saw the instigation of violence. we saw the violence and murder. and we saw a profound moral failure on the part of the president of the united states to be able to identify this evil. to address it by name. and to communicate to the nation and that moral lapse will hang around him for all time. >> michael, let me read you something from my former bush white house colleague mike gerson. at one level this is the natural result of defining authenticity as spontaneity. trump and his people did not believe it was worthy of serious caught and he's confident that his lazy musings are equal to history. they are not. they are an embarrassment and a disservice to the country. do you agree with michael grson -- gerson's assessment? >> i think that's fair assessment of where the president is coming from but i thi

here with us tonight to talk about all of this, michael schmidt, washington reporter for "the new york" who covers justice and national security. his article tonight, notably, quote, trump says he has not considered firing mueller. contradicting himself. we have an attorney and former staffer for house intel on the hill where jeremy bash worked in addition to being an attorney and cia. mr. schmidt, i would like to start with you by playing this bit from the president. we'll talk about it on the other side. >> have you ever thought about or considered leading the dismissal of the special counsel? is there anything he could do to send you in that direction? >> i haven't given it any thought and you say, i'm going to dismiss i'm. i'm not dismissing anybody. >> sometimes it's as if the president forgets that we know better in some of these cases. we have heard him discuss the possible dismissal of robert mueller, correct? >> correct. what the president said is not true. even one of his close confida s confidants, chris ruddy came out in june and said the president was considering doing tha

here with us tonight to talk about all of this, michael schmidt, washington reporter for "the new york times," who covers justice and national security. his article tonight, notably, quote, trump says he has not considered firing mueller. contradicting himself. we have an attorney and former staffer for house intel on the hill where jeremy bash worked in addition to being an attorney and cia. "the new york times," who covers justice and national security. his article tonight, notably, quote, trump says he has not considered firing mueller. contradicting himself. we have an attorney and former staffer for house intel on the hill where jeremy bash worked in addition to being an attorney and cia. mr. schmidt, i would like to start with you by playing this bit from the president. we'll talk about it on the other side. >> have you ever thought about or considered leading the dismissal of the special counsel? is there anything he could do to send you in that direction? >> i haven't given it any thought and you say, i'm going to dismiss i'm. i'm not dismissing anybody. >> sometimes it's as if

more obviously correct today than it was a month or a month and a half ago. >> michael schmidt, oftenerstand the motives, says and identities of leakers and what they're up to. i'm not going to ask you to divulge your sources or your paper's, but weave seen the independent council's investigations regarding russia. where are those leaks coming from? what's motivating them? >> people in washington feel more emboldined to speak to the press than ever before. either folks in the administration or connected to what's going on in these investigations are concerned by some of the president's behavior and believe that it needs to come to light and are more willing to take the risk to talk to us than they would be normally. >> why -- what's in it for them to leak incremental details about what mueller is looking at and what the congressional investigators are looking at? >> i mean, my sense is that i think people feel that the more sunlight that any of this gets and the more attention that it gets, the better result that there will be for the country. that is my guess on what is motivating a

michael is back. so let's get to it first one up is jeff immelt and uber's eric schmidt. he'll become ceo and maybe he's looking at travis kalanick. >> wow, this isn't somebody who will really embody what uber is all about, the hard-charging kind of rush to dominance cape of culture but somebody who brings coverage and you wonder if it's the worst of both worlds. >> is it a win-win or lose-lose? >> maybe so interim that's kind of a bridge to either, you know travis coming back. >> or the set inge of the lawsuit. >> next, is blue apron a unicorn no more? fell below $1 billion today. what about the dozens of other private sector unikworns that are about to go public now >> are they looking warily at how they might be received i think the big lesson and also with snap, it won't go away. they will become more intense and you have to prove it pretty quickly out of the gate. if you look at the chart from the ipo of blue apron it looks a lot like groupon and zynga which in kind of retrospect were viewed as the overhyped fatally flawed concepts. we'll see. under $1 billion there'