coons: will the senator yield for another question? mr. lee: i'm very late. mr. coons: the d.c. circuit reconsidered this issue this year and said that morrison remains valid and binding precedent. i know we have other urgent business to move to. but i will say i'm grateful for the work of my colleague from arizona and despite the objection by my colleague from utah, this is an important bill that

senator coons? senator coons: thank you, senator flake. i appreciate the ongoing working partnership i enjoy on the judiciary committee and public relations. we just called for a unanimous consent vote, the majority leader came out an objected. i appreciate that there are many colleagues, mostly in the other party who said there's nothing to worry about here, that there's no reason to be concerned but they support special counsel robert mueller being able to complete his investigation. as senator flake has said and i could not agree more, we need to the realize a week ago the president compelled the resignation of his attorney general. his closest ally in the early stages of his campaign. and the reason he fired attorney general jeff sessions is because he recused himself. the president just the same day that he compelled the resignation of the attorney general tweeted about the mueller investigation being a hoax. he has replaced the attorney general not with the deputy attorney general which would have been appropriate under the successio

senator coons: yes, absolutely. i don't think he should be in the position at all to have oversight of the investigation. that's what seems unconstitutional. senator flake: to step out of the succession they've always had, the same type of success succession, it goes to the deputy who is already performing that function. it wasn't as if they leapfrogged over the deputy they took this investigation from him and gave it to someone who has not received senate confirmation and that does not seem constitutional today. >> chuck grassley said he wouldn't have hearings before the end they have year with matt whittaker. do you think it's important for the senate judiciary committee to open matt whittaker in open session? senator coons: the ranking member sent a letter saying we should have matt whittaker in front of us to ask questions about his prior tirks values, conduct and whether or not he'll context. self in this senator flake: when you hear the statement he is has made in the past, not just about the special counsel b

joining me is senator chris coons. it's good to see you after -- i feel like it's been too long since i saw any of you in the halls of the capitol. it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks with the election. thank you for being here. i want to start with that legislation you have with senator flake. mitch mcconnell seems to be on the record. he was saying there's nothing to worry about. mueller is not in any sort of jeopardy. do you agree with that assessment, and what should they be doing? >> this is a bill, a bipartisan bill that passed the senate judiciary committee back in april by a strong bipartisan margin of 14-7. my co-sponsors on the republican side, senators graham and tillis and co-sponsor on the democratic side, senator booker, have all urged this not just to protect this special counsel but future special counsels. to make sure that it's clear in law that you can't abruptly and for no good reason fire the special counsel. as he mentioned in the lead-in, we are hoping the special counsel is concluding his inve

i agree with the characterization of senator coons. he and i have had a lot of discussions about this. we may have had different ideas about dodd/frank, but frankly, this is a reform that's limited in scope but one that i think is important to restore due process and transparency in some regular order as opposed to leaving this issue for the administrative state with a lot of discretion and few rules to really guide its hand. so that's why i introduced originally with senator toomey a piece of legislation. this represents a pared down version, which is designed to try to build consensus. that's what we try to do around here. at least i think we should try to do more of. and this is an important policy issue that would, of course, enable financial institutions to voluntarily recapitalize and avoid total collapse along with the intended damage to consumers and taxpayers. so i appreciate chairman grassley your holding this hearing so we can talk about chapter 14. we have learned from the experiences of 2008 and we're not supposed to presu

coons: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. coons: mr. president, i first want to thank my colleague and my friend, senator flake, the senator from arizona, for joining with me today on the floor in calling for action on a balanced bipartisan bill to uphold the rule of law to avoid a constitutional crisis and to secure the ongoing position of special counsel robert mueller as he moves to complete his investigation. this is a critical moment. just a week ago today, president trump forced the resignation of his attorney general, jeff sessions, and effectively stripped deputy attorney general rod rosenstein of his investigation. an investigation, which i will remind you, the same day that he forced attorney general session's reservation. let's just take a step back to remember the bigger picture here. robert mueller, a career federal law enforcement leader, a decorated combat veteran is leading an investigation into a foreign adversary's attack on our last election. this isn't about relitigating that election. it isn't about partisan politic

how did you and senator coons develop that relationship? senator flake: we serve on the foreign relations committee, he chaired the africa subcommittee before i got to the senate and the first two years it was here. and when republicans took control i chaired it. and we traveled and we have sponsored legislation together on wildlife preservation, economic sanctions to try to push zimbabwe in the right direction, so we worked together on these things, as well as some others on the judiciary committee. and so i knew him well enough that when he gave his speech, i knew that was intended for me, and he acknowledges that. and it did move me. that we could work together, on what they were requesting, a one-week delay, limited in time and scope would be acceptable. so that is what encouraged me to get up and ask him to go to the anteroom. steve: and then what? senator flake: well, we talked, and soon attracted attention when my side of the aisle realized something was afoot, and that i might not be a yes vote. so a lot of my colleagues came forwar

coons: will the senator yield for another question? mr. lee: i'm very late. mr. coons: the d.c. circuit reconsidered this issue this year and said that morrison remains valid and binding precedent. i know we have other urgent business to move to. but i will say i'm grateful for the work of my colleague from arizona and despite the objection by my colleague from utah, this is an important bill that call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lee: mr. president, i stood before this body in march of this year to protest our country's unconstitutional intervention in saudi arabia's blood did i war -- bloody war in yemen. i was proud to stand with my colleagues, senator sanders and senator murphy, to file a discharge motion of our resolution, s.j. res. 54, that would remove u.s. armed forces from yemen. at that time members of the foreign relations committee requested additional time to study the issue and to debate the resolution in the foreign relations committee. the chairman of that committee, my friend and colleague from tennessee, senator corker, requested this with the

well, i along with senators shaheen, collins and coons, introduced senate joint resolution 58 on april 11. our bill required the secretary of state to repeatedly certify that the government of saudi arabia is taking urgent steps to end the civil war in yemen, alleviate the humanitarian crisis, and reduce the risk to civilians. and if he cannot make these written, detailed, and unclassified certifications, the legislation would prohibit u.s. air refueling for saudi-led coalition aircraft conducting missions exclusively focused on the civil war in yemen. we, in a bipartisan way, worked successfully to ensure that the senate foreign relations committee and the senate armed services committee passed versions of our legislation. we then worked in a bipartisan way to ensure it was included in the national defense authorization act, section 1290, which the president of the united states signed into law. in september , pursuant to section 1290, secretary of state pompeo sent to congress the required submission requiring saudi actions in yemen. now, secretary pompeo chose not to use the nationa

still, that prompted significant concerns from jeff flake, along with senator chris coons of delaware, who went to the floor to raise their concerns about the way this investigation is going and the person who is now overseeing it. >> with the firing of the attorney general and in my view the improper installation of an acting attorney general who has not been subject to confirmation by this body, the president now has this investigation in his sights and we all know it. >> so that acting attorney general, matt whitaker, someone who has been a critic of the mueller investigation. i asked jeff flake at a press conference here just moments ago whether or not matt whitaker should recuse himself from the russia investigation. he said he should recuse himself. that's breaking with most republicans on the hill who don't have concerns with matt whitaker. now, at the same time, flake and chris coons called for hearings to discuss with matt whitaker exactly how he views the mueller investigation, chuck grassley, who is currently the chairman of the senate judiciary committee, told me earlier t

you heard senator coons. if only he's guilty, only if you impute some malice aforethought here by the president doing any of this, matt whitaker is a patriot. he's not going to fire bob mueller. the statute is pretty clear. he can ask questions about mueller according to the independent -- the special counsel statute. he can inquire on some things. he's not going anywhere. >> kirsten, do you think it's much to do about nothing? >> it feels like maybe i'm really old fashioned but if you're going to have somebody who is in a position to be overseeing an investigation, you want them to be as neutral as possible. this strikes me as not being as neutral as possible. maybe in this new world this seems normal. i think you want somebody who hasn't already expressed an opinion about how the investigation is supposed to be going. >> it you have to find a monk some place. >> we're going to take a break. ahead, more on what's been a remarkable day here in washington. later i'll talk with vermont senator bernie sanders as

as senator coons said, we have the votes to do it.t will vote for it and a lot of republicans as well. so we just need to bring it to the floor. we can bring it today, we can bring it again and again, and i think we plan to do so until we get it passed. >> senator flake, about the only one wish that president trump has been granted recently is the fact that you are not going to return to the united states senate. what's your reaction now to the fact that you're going to be replaced in the senate by a democrat and what do you have to say to president trump about that? >> well, first i congratulate kyrsten sinema on a good race, well run and won. in arizona republicans have about a 200,000 person registration advantage still statewide, so nominally we are a red state. we are just no longer a trump state. we were once briefly, i guess, during the election, but it's clear that somebody who runs as a trump candidate statewide will not win in arizona. arizona, as you've mentioned this morning, is now -- our delegation is six democrats, five

chris coons joins us when "morning joe" comes back.chime) - [narrator] meet shark's newest robot vacuum. it powerfully cleans from floors to carpets, even pet hair, with ease, and now for cleaning surfaces above the floor, it comes with a built in shark handheld. one dock, two sharks. the shark ion robot cleaning system. ♪ ♪ the united states postal service makes more holiday deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. ♪ with one notable exception. ♪ discover card. i justis this for real?match, yep. we match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. whoo! i got my money! hard to contain yourself, isn't it? uh huh! let it go! whoo! get a dollar-for-dollar match at the end of your first year. >>> the creator of sponge bob spare pants has died at the age of 57. steven hillenburg was diagnosed with a rare neuro degenerative disease als last year and passed away from complications of als on monday. since its inception his influence led the franchise to become one of the longest running am

. >>> chris coons is the democratic senator on the senate judiciary committee.wn for his bipartisan, good faith relationship with his colleagues. that made it that more striking to see the hot fire which he respondened when news broke today that the president fired attorney general jeff sessions and installed a white house loyalist named matt whitaker to take over the operations of the justice department and the mueller investigation, specifically. he responded online, quote, if there's any indication that the president has fired the attorney general and named mr. whitaker as acting attorney general to influence or end special counsel robert mueller's investigation, that would make today's action an historic attack on the rule of law. quote, that is a red line, which president trump has been warned not to cross by republicans and democrats alike. joining us now is senator chris coons from the great state of delaware, member of the senate judiciary committee. thank you for making time to join us tonight, injury. >> thank you, rachel. >> you called this action by

look, you heard senator coons.impute some malice aforethought here by the president doing any of this, matt whitaker is a patriot. he's not going to fire bob mueller. the statute is pretty clear. he can ask questions about mueller according to the independent -- the special counsel statute. he can inquire on some things. he's not going anywhere. >> kirsten, do you think it's much ado about nothing? >> it feels like maybe i'm really old fashioned but if you're going to have somebody who is in a position to be overseeing an investigation, you want them to be as neutral as possible. this strikes me as not being as neutral as possible. maybe in this new world this seems normal. i think you want somebody who hasn't already expressed an opinion about how the investigation is supposed to be going. >> you have to find a monk some place. >> we're going to take a break. ahead, more on what's been a remarkable day here in washington. later i'll talk with vermont senator bernie sanders as well. get his take on jeff sessions' f

the question, of course, is whether, yes, chris coons and also jeff flake who is saying that he will not vote on any further judicial nominations until the senate votes on protecting the mueller investigation is where the action is. that is of course secondary to this issue. you know, most americans believe that this investigation should proceed. the president should believe that even though he is trying to delegitimize this, and there is one thing, and with one thing only that the president believes is true that there is no collusion, and so most people understand that it needs to go forward and so what manafort is doing is not about the investigation but playing for the presidential pardon which is the one conceivable way that he does not spend the bulk of his life behind bars. >> what is the role of manafort and what it says about the investigation and whether the investigation has been co compromise and badly damaged by blowing up the e plea deal? >> well, manafort is obviously badly damaged as a witness in the mueller investigation. he has shown to be a serial liar even when he

." >> melissa: onto business, democrat chris coons, cory booker, and retiring republican jeff flake. they want to use the procedural maneuver to force a vote on the bill to shield from interference. it has failed once before and it may feel again. he senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says he will block it. but chris coons believes he has an advantage. >> what i think the republican majority leader ought to do is simply allow us to have a vote and move forward. senator flake, i will remind you, has steadfastly refused to vote for any presidential nominee for judicial post, either in the judiciary committee or on the floor, until we get this vote. that gives us some leverage. >> melissa: said that majority leader mcconnell says the bill is simply unnecessary. >> the president is not going to fire robert mueller. nor do i think you should, nor do i think that he should not be allowed to finish. >> will you repeat what you did? [interesting question] >> i probably would, yeah. >> melissa: all this has president trump rims of his criticism of the probe. he says "the disgusting fake n

there was a floor vote that was blocked that flake and chris coons is pushing. >> flake says legislation is necessary after the president fired jeff sessions and named matt whitaker as acting attorney general. whitaker has been openly critical of the mueller probe. >> with the firing of the attorney general and in my view, the improper installation of the acting attorney general, who has not been subject to confirmation, the president has the investigation in his sights and we all know it. >> other senate republicans say the measure is not needed because the president is not about to fire mueller. >>> democrats gaining two more seats in the house of representatives as races in california and new jersey are called. that brings democrats total pick ups in the house to 32 with eight races still to be called. democrats poised to hold 227 seats in the new congress. there is a new wrinkle in nancy pelosi's bid to get the gavel for the house speaker. 17 democrats signed a letter saying they will not vote for her. >> five additional democrats pledging not to support pelosi. if they all stick to

flake along with booker and coons want to force a legislation that would slow the president should hetry to fire the special council they say we are living through our era. the russia special council and two former attorney general and the president's own hand picked current deputy attorney general behind bars. you can see the words right there under the words treason. it follows new disclosures. he says he is rejecting a plae deal at the moment. see the document right there on the screen. let's bring this back into the conversation. let me start on capitol hill. the interesting thing if it does pass jeff flake is saying he won't support anymore nominations. they want to rush a lot of these through. it gets difficult. they have been thinking we have to give him a vote. i think he does not seem ready to go aid head with this. >> in his dallasic opinion it belongs in the department of justice. its principal officers consists of people appointed by the president serving at the pleasure of the president after being confirmed by the united states senate. this is a fundamental component of

what do you make of senator flake and coons in their defense of fed. >> you see this strength of theendent branches of government and those who look for oversight. i see both sides. raising interest rates is a sign of a healthy economy, you look at consumer, small family have not made anything on savings or cds over last 12 year, raising interest rate to keep up with booming economy is important. but president is looking at maybe fed is a little bit too aggressive in doing it. as i talked with banking community in georgia, which is supportive of increasing interest rates they do feel that fed is doing it a little bit too aggressively. i think some criticism of the president -- he is a big boy he handle its well. but it is incumbent upon us to question even the independent agencies the decisions they are making. >> it is possible that -- i am concerned do you think possible that fed trying to prove how independent they are to counter trump to show he is not influis -- influencing their policy. >> one thing i have learned, you can't discount anything, i would hope that federal reserve

sworn oath to keep it that way so with the unanimous consent request that just failed today, senator coons and i are prepared to make it again and again until there is a vote on the senate floor i have informed the majority leader i will not vote to advance any of the 21 judicial nominees pending or to confirm the 32 judges awaiting confirmation on the senate floor until it is brought to the full senate for a vote. think you mister president. >> mister president first i want to thank my colleagues for calling for action on a balanced bipartisan bill to avoid a constitutional crisis to secure the ongoing crisis this is a critical moment just today he forced the resignation of his attorney general to strip rosenstein of his authority to supervise the ongoing investigation this same day forced attorney general sessions attorney general as a hoax and a witchhunt so remember the bigger picture. robert mueller is a career federal law enforcement leader and decorated combat veteran leading an investigation into a foreign adversary this isn't about relitigating that election or partisan politics b

chris coons suggested there surely has got to be room for a television show that goes along seinfeld's jerry getting coffee. senators in elevators with advocates. there is an old joke that says when you are serving in the house of representatives, you run toward the press at every opportunity. when you are in the senate, you run away from the press as fast as you can. my experience has been that's not a joke but an ax inch om. let me get serious for a couple of minutes here. i would like to say a few words tonight about the search for truth, which is what all of you here tonight are all about, it's what defines your profession. near the beginning of the documents that made us free, our declaration of independence, thomas jefferson wrote, we hold these truths to be self-evident. so from our very beginnings, our freedom has been predicated on truth. the founders were visionary in this regard, understanding well that good faith and shared facts between the governed and the government would be the very basis of this ongoing idea of america. without truelingt and a principled fidelity to tr

these two who are pitching right now to protect bob mueller, senator coons of delaware and jeff flakeona. chad, is it a realistic threat anyway? a number are pushing this but update me. >> mitch mcconnell, senate majority leader, said didn't think legislation was necessary to protect bob mueller. he indicated based on what the president had told him, he didn't think there was any promise or threat from the white house to get rid of bob mueller. it doesn't sit well with senators on both sides of the aisle. what happened in the past 35 minutes, senator flake and senator coons asked for unanimous consent that the senate start debate immediately on a bill to protect bob mueller from firing. they started last week we had the firing of jeff sessions. what unanimous consent needs in the senate is you need the blessing of all 100 senators. it just takes one objection. in that case, it was mitch mcconnell. that's how you get bills up on the floor. they didn't defeat this piece of legislation. mitch mcconnell simply blocked them from considering this bill on the floor to protect bob mueller. >>

i don't think the legislation that he and senator coons are proposing is either, a, constitutional, or, b, necessary. >> with that, let's bring in our lead off panel on a thursday night. the a pore mentioned michael schmidt, washington correspondent for "the new york times." sam stein beck with us as well, politics editor at the daily beast. tamara keith returns, from npr. donald trump comes out of the concentrated for him sessions with his legal team and in plain english, learns just how bad it is, and then goes on a rant on twitter? >> well, there is a big issue here which is that they have been trying to get written responses to mueller for several weeks now. the president's lawyers thought it would happen by wednesday. it still hasn't happened. the president's lawyers have had the questions from mueller. they've known the topics for many, many months. why is it that they can't give the written responses to mueller? what's the problem with the answers? does it incriminate the president in a certain way? why is it that he can't answer them? and that is the question tonight. what has

that is what senator flake and coons said this afternoon. they plan to introduce legislation on the mueller probe that would protect it? >> well, they can try to do that. the president would surely veto it would be my guess. it would take quite a bit to override a veto. we did away with this country in the independent counsel law because it had become extremely unpopular for good and sufficient reasons. ken starr, last independent counsel testified against reauthorizing the act. if the congress wants to reenact the independent counsel statue they can go down that road but they may regret it. connell: there is, kellyanne conway's husband, not exactly a big fan of the president, in op-ed of "new york times," whitaker's appointment. he is acting ag. at some point the president will appoint someone he wants to take the job on a permanent basis. you have ideas, many others do as well. you mentioned a couple current cabinet secretaries happen to be named alex, alex acosta, alex azar, i think that is coincidental. who else and why would they be goo

he spoke alongside democratic senators chris coons and cory booker. now, the republican line up until now has been that there's no danger to the mueller investigation whatsoever, so why would anybody take any steps to protect it? that's been the line. now that the attorney general has been pushed out and the deputy attorney general has been pushed aside and the president has instead installed his own guy to take over, it is hard to see how that republican argument still holds about mueller being totally safe and sound. but senator flake today was trying to push the issue to its limit on his way out the door in the u.s. senate. so we will see what the senate reaction is to flake throwing down that gauntlet. that said, the other thing that we sort of expected to see happen right after the midterm elections is that we expected the mueller investigation itself to spring back to life in a visible way. justice department rules discourage public action by prosecutors just before election time if those actions might be construed to have an effect on the elect

senator flake has tweeted about it, saying "when the senate convenes next week, chris coons and i will unanimous consent to bring s2644 to a vote on the senate floor. after the firing of the ag, it is more important than ever to protect the special counsel. "18 state attorneys general, also calling for his recusal from the probe. top democrats are looking to preserve all of muller's investigative materials. the pushback and response to his past public criticism of the probe. the acting ag calling it "a little fishy. ridiculous last year." an opinion president trump double down on this morning. watch it. >> the russian investigation is a hoax. it's a phony hoax. i didn't -- i was a much better candidate than hillary clinton. i worked much harder, i went to the right places. she went to the wrong places. because she didn't know what the hell she was doing. she didn't do a good job. this didn't have to do with russians -- it's a russian hoax. >> chris: democrats are wrong to think that everybody who doesn't agree with them has to recuse themselves from any position overseeing something. t

he won't approve the judicial nominees until he gets the legislation bi-partisan with chris kooun coons and they have gotten it to the floor. >> and it could be one last stand by the outgoing arizona senator who is going to be replace bade a democratic senator kirsten cinema, and sin sinema, and she will replace him, and obviously a democrat. and also, the conservative website, the daily collar spoke to reporters and posed a question about matt whitaker and the president effectively said that he knew very little about him in the past other than the connection to jeff sessions, but unprompt ed the president said this, as far as i'm concerned this is an investigation that never should have been brought and should never have been had. it is something that should not have been brought and it is an illegal investigation. and i bring this up, because when matt whitaker's name was brought up, and in regard to the russian investigation, the first place that he went was to relationship of the russian investigator and not viewing him as the acting a.g. and overseeing the whole administration, but

. >> reporter: local leaders say they will learn from other coon how to cut red tape, serve evacuees and smooth rebuilding. a task force has been set up, a local assistant center will open. it will be a one-stop shop for fire survivors. >> six more bodies were found yesterday and 13 were i am wondering how people reacted there when they heard there are still hundreds missing. the death toll could increase.>> reporter: absolutely. there was a gasp when the numbers come out and people are horrified and very sad. the people i spoke with were entirely surprised. there was really no warning, no notice. they ran with the close on their backs and got in their cars with their pets and children and but down the hill but didn't have time to knock on the door of a neighbor. they said that had elderly neighbors, disabled neighbors, those without cars and they fear that as the numbers go up they will be mostly seniors. >> thank you, debora. >>> hundreds are reported missing in the paradise area four days after the fire broke out. rob malcolm spent the day at an emergency shelter in yuba city wher

i as her sister have to listen to a lot of the rhetoric and things that people say, oh, she's a coon,an uncle tom. aunt gentlemen mimea. all the things -- jemina -- jemima. all the things they're upset she chooses to be part of that party. this is a democracy. we do live in america. so, i would like people to stop pitting families and pitting people against people. i don't understand many days why she is a republican. and under this administration. i do understand -- >> you know why, cissy. i'm a republican under this administration because i was a republican under the obama administration. i was a republican under the bush administration. >> that's fair. >> i'm a republican. i can't separate being a republican from being the president. he happens to be in power. so if he is the one in power, ok, great. i'm going to try to advance all of those republican causes. but if -- >> all of them? >> the majority. the ones i agree with. how about that? >> ok, ok. soledad: do you guys have fights in the family? >> oh, golly. soledad: how many? does it get ugly? >> yeah. kind of -- yeah. i guess

we get to tuesday it's going to be sinking down here across the yucatan peninsula for cause mel can coon you're going to see some heavy rain and also have ana things are going to go downhill with temperatures at thirty. for this eleven year old girl that. is a passion. and a ticket out of poverty. now she has a once in a time. to raise the stakes a little higher. in her journey to success. championship dream. on al-jazeera. take a look at the top stories here in ukraine's president says he'll call on parliament to declare martial law after russian coast guard vessels data and impounded three of its naval vessels in the black sea russia says the boat strayed into its territorial waters near crimea region of ukraine unexpired russian twenty fourteen . leaders have approved a final agreement for the u.k.'s exit from the european union bought the british prime minister to resign may still needs to get her own m.p.'s to accept the deal and pass it through parliament. mexico will deport some of the five hundred asylum seekers who it says try to violently and illegally cross the u.s. border on

. >>> in an extraordinary move, the president is waving aside the lu coon by his own intel agencies that saudi arabia's crown d the e was beh murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. andrea mitchell reports. >> reporter: the president tonight deciding to side with abia at all costs. >>f we abandon saudi arabia, it would be a terrible mistake. >> reporter: questioning the cia's conclusion reported by nbc news, that the saudi crown prince muhammad bin salman the murder of washington post writer jamal khashoggi. >> they have nothing definitive. and the fact is, maybe he did, maybe he didn't. >> reporter: saying to him it's all about keeping oil prices down, arms deals, and countering iran. >> trump is saying the other thinget from saudi arabia are more important than establishing the culpability for the murder of khashoggi. president claims $450 billion in saudi deals, they've promised only $14.5 billion, and the secretary of state, asked about khashoggi's death affecting saudi relations said -- >> it's mean, nast world out there. they're an important partner of ours. >> reporter: mike pompeo

senator chris coons, thank you so much forjoining me. thank you.ramme of the international relations think—tank chatham house. she has given evidence before the uk parliament's brexit select committee. welcome. there are two regulatory superpowers in the world, the eu and the us. if you align yourself with the us. if you align yourself with the eu, does that automatically rule out trade with the us? it does not, but obviously it constrains your ability to shake that trade agreement. but that is a choice. if you look at a lot of our big businesses in the uk, they already conform with eu standards, and export more to the eu market anyway. so actually they would probably want to continue that regulatory alignment instead of starting from scratch and try to treat —— deviate. they would constrain our ability, but does not exclude free trade with the us. let me put it a different way, this political declaration is a sliding scale. they say you can have deep and meaningful relations with us, perhaps norway style agreement, a single market customs union, o

here's senator flake late tonight in a press conference alongside senator coons. >> when you have theorney general fired and the oversight for the investigation moved to someone who has not received senate confirmation, who has expressed open hostility to the mueller investigation, then there's a problem. and i think that most of our colleagues feel the same way. i have explained today, i have committed not to advance anymore nominees through the judiciary committee. they will not receive my vote. and with the margins we have in the judiciary committee, it will mean they should not move forward. >> should matt whitaker recuse himself from overseeing the investigation? >> yes, absolutely. >> senator flake? >> yes. well, i think he shouldn't be in that position at all. >> well, even trump's outspoken ally, senator lindsay dprey gra south carolina, who had previously backed away to protect mueller conceded to reuters yesterday that it probably would be good to have this legislation in place just for the future. i'm joined right now by natasha bertrand, a staff writer at the atlantic and

senator chris coons joins us live to talk about his bipartisan effort to

the time we get to tuesday it's going to be down here across the yucatan peninsula because mel can coon you're going to see some heavy rain and also have and things are going to go downhill with temperatures at thirty. china has a serious shortage of women and a lot of lonely men. one on one east meets those desperately seeking love any way they can on al-jazeera. al-jazeera. where ever you want. well if we cannot have palestina my government was suddenly not allowed britain to control french palestine would be an outrage but then we need to find another solution before we come to blows over a century ago britain and france made the secret deal that changed the shape of the middle east and so. now we can draw raima. sikes pico lines in the sand on all to see. this is al jazeera. hello i'm down jordan this is the news hour live from doha coming up in the next sixty minutes. russia seizes three ukrainian ships off the coast of crimea prompting an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council. to water apartment terry interstate i warning for the british prime minister just hours after sh

coons eveng, chris suggested there surely has to be room for a television show that goes along the linef jerry seinfeld's comedians and cars getting coffee. a decaffeinated version like senators in elevators with advocates. wait for that one. there is an old joke that says when you are serving in the house of representatives, you run towards the press at every opportunity. when you are in the senate, you run away from the press as fast as you can. my experience has been that is not a joke, that is an axiom. let me get serious for a couple of minutes here. i'd like to say a few words tonight about the search for truth. which is what all of you here tonight are all about. it's what defines your profession. near the beginning of the document that make us free, our declaration of independence, thomas jefferson wrote "we hold these truths to be self-evident." from our very beginnings, our freedom has been predicated on truth. the founders were visionary in this regard. understanding well that good faith and shared facts between the governed and the government would be the very basis of this

nevertheless, jeff flake and coons from proposed legislation in a senate to protect bob mueller, mitchmcconnell will not put on to the docket. >> there no reason to. president has not taken any act this is grandstanding by democrats and jeff flake, one thing we know, in 7 weeks jeff f flake will not longer be a senator. he will try to get his 5 more minutes of fame. >> he will not vote for a judicial appointment. >> he is grandstand, he has committed himself to conservative principles and justice and he will gum up the works. kennedy: he has great ideas but not a good politician, mark lawsuiter thanlauder ti. >> topical storm is next stay here. comcast business built the nation's largest gig-speed network. then went beyond. beyond chasing down network problems. to knowing when and where there's an issue. beyond network complexity. to a zero-touch, one-box world. optimizing performance and budget. beyond having questions. to getting answers. "activecore, how's my network?" "all sites are green." all of which helps you do more than your customers thought possible. comcast business. beyon

judiciary committee because today when jeff flake rose on the senate floor with democratic senator chris coonsfor a vote on their bipartisan supported bill to protect robert mueller, mitch mcconnell blocked that vote, and that was the breaking point for jeff flake. >> why are we so sanguin about this? yet when we have the opportunity to past legislation to say protect the special counsel, we fail to bring it up on the senate floor? why? bring it to a vote. and until we do the 21 nominations that are in the judiciary committee waiting for a vote there will not receive a vote, nor will i give my vote to the 32 nominations that are sitting here on the senate floor. >> that is what the power of a single senator looks like. those nominations cannot paz the senate judiciary committee without the vote of every republican on that committee. senator flake took his stand today after the justice department of legal counsel released a 20-page memo attempting to justify president trump's installation of matthew whitaker as a so-called acting attorney general. assistant attorney general wrote, quote, this o

marcia fudge from ohio has been threatening to run again her, she has been coon.si. ashley: niger there have been calls to have a fresh face. there is a division, would you not agree on that issue? >> there is no doubt, there is a bernie sanders, alexandria ocasio-cortez, out of new york wing. very progressive, socialive wing of democratic party, but nancy pelosi is not going to have problems, i think she will elevate one or two of them to some symbolic leadership role. she will be ruling with an iron gavel come january. ashley: all right, gina. the democrats rule the house, what does that mean for president's agenda? i guess you know no repeal of affordable care act. no new rounds of tax cuts, do we get a whole slough of investigations and probes and calls for president's tax returns or phone records are we going to sink 2 into that. >> i am we are, polling indicated that those issues do not work for the democrats. the democrat warned their own midterm candidates, not to run on those issues, do not bring them up, when they do, it will not bode well for them, it w

we get to tuesday it's going to be sitting done here across the yucatan peninsula for cause mel can coon you're going to see some heavy rain and also have and things are going to go downhill with temperatures at thirty. i've had this conviction that everyone has a deep reservoir of town the military and if you can give them the opportunity wonderful things start to happen sometimes the simplest situations optimised and packed for. the main things that sets out zero apart from other news organizations is that a lot of our reporting is about real people but about ideas or politicians or what they may want to do but how policy and how events affect real people it's ok it's ok it's ok to get a little complicated i'll put it up if this is not an act of creation and i'm going to vote for walking. down like my family's status and wealth has benefited from their choice enslaved. some oversold risky to speak out as a surprise that. this job isn't just about what's on a script or a piece of paper it's about what is happening right now. welcome back a quick reminder about top stories in a cell ukra