--as also the registered legislative director for jeff sessions. host: we seem to be on the cusp of another bruising supreme court confirmation fight. how did we get here again? guest: it certainly appears that way. i think many people expected that this could at least happen when justice ginsburg died. when the news was announced, it was a mad scramble. my own feeling was we should have taken longer and reflected on her before jumping 30 seconds later to how it will play out in the senate. i think we have all been waiting for something like this either for justice ginsburg or any other justice. there is an election coming up. the majority leader of the senate, mitch mcconnell and other senate republicans have made it clear that if this were to have happen, they would try to push a confirmation through the senate. we have been talking about this for a while now. it's not entirely unfamiliar. host: have we seen a situation similar to this in the past where a justice is being replaced within months of an election day, this close to an election day? i

then "the times" broke the news that the president had asked attorney general jeff sessions to go back and retake control of the mueller investigation after attorney general sessions had already recused himself. that again was reporter mike schmidt. schmidt was then first to report that trump had ordered special counsel robert mueller to be fired, only backing off when white house counsel don mcgahn threatened to quit. when we later learned that mcgahn, the white house counsel, had cooperated extensively with mueller's investigation, that too was reporting by mike schmidt. schmidt was first to report that in the days after james comey was fired, the fbi had opened an inquiry into whether or not president trump was secretly working as a russian agent. that was a michael schmidt byline too. schmidt was first to obtain the questions special counsel robert mueller wanted to ask of president trump. he was first to break the news that president trump had wanted his justice department to prosecute political adversaries including hillary clinton and james comey. on top of story after story aft

is not a focus of the book but caught my eye, which is the prospect that then-attorney general jeff sessions, the man who held the job then that bill barr holds now, might have committed perjury during his senate confirmation hearings, lying about his own contacts on the trump campaign with russian officials. and the implication, or at least the worry there, is that while perjury -- a perjury investigation, potentially perjury charges might have been warranted against attorney general jeff sessions, essentially even, you know, in 2016, 2017, before we go to the bill barr era, the justice department might not be capable of making that kind of a judgment, of pursuing that kind of a case against somebody at the top of its own department. >> that certainly was the concern. you know, to his credit, attorney general sessions recused himself from the investigations. but you have to frame -- you have to put yourself in our position at that time. we had a president coming in who we had concerns about his connections to the government of russia. we had a national security adviser that we were concerne

jeff sessions, the new attorney general, spelled it out. >> i made it clear that this department of justicewill cost lives by handcuffing the police rather than handcuffing the criminals. >> cobb: christy, how are you? >> cobb: good.ow are you doing? thank you for taking the time to talk today. i recently spoke-- remotely-- l with chrisez, who oversaw the d.o.j.'s police investigations during the obama administration. >> there was this narrative that many were trying to paint, that these consent decrees were this radical ing that were happening, and they were not. they really were simply meant to keep police departments fromly systematiciolating people's rights.op >> cobb: left the department right before jeff , jeff sessions sa, "athe end of the previous administration, many of youyou came to believe that some of the nelitical leadership of this country had abanyou," speaking to a police officers group. >> some radicals and politicians began to unfairly malign and blame police as a whe for the crimes and unacceptable deeds of a few. >> cobb: and he then goes on to say, "and let me say this

that's something that started under jeff sessions. they were following jeff sessions' advice.as an intervention, not just from people within the u.s. attorney's office, but then eventually from the attorney general himself saying this was too high of a sentence. barr has defended this also to congress and said that he intervened, because it should be that he was giving stone special treatment, but he shouldn't get worse treatment just because he's a friend of the president. but it's really hard for that defense to stand after we saw trump himself take such a personal stake in this sentencing that he indeed did commute his sentence entirely by the end. >> jeremy bash, let me bring you in on this. roger stone certainly didn't think it was too strong of a sentence when he said that he agreed with it. and the only intervening events really was that pressure campaign from the president. this is the second workday in a row that the light is flashing yellow at the barr justice department. in this hour on friday, the heartfort kurartford currant re the barr blessed deputy had resigned

complete confidence that she would not recuse herself after the jeff sessions attorney general situation we know the trumpets very aware of the possibility of recuse told by people who are supposed to be more oil to him in his eyes and i'm sure he'll never get old again like that i mean to see how this all unfolds thank you very much for talking to us jeff house anytime. still ahead on ology. what we also want is for you to quit the question brianna taina sammy continue to demand justice stops a grand jury's decision not to charge police officers involved and had that venezuela's president nicolas maduro hits back at the u.n. following a growing tide of accusations against him. however we've got more heavy rain in the forecast for japan said they cross the northern half of japan still plenty of cloud sharing of paper seen some big downpours in recent days small big downpours and in the next few days as well sliding their way up across northern parts of honshu into the qaida winds come around some more of a northerly direction that cooler direction dragging that moisture in from the sea o

he's already been burned by one individual that he appointed who recused himself and that was jeff sessions, he's crossed that bridge and he won't do it again. and i'm sure that he has told that she will not be recused herself. and so democrats need to focus on the next 38, 39 days to written a race before we ask what will happen in the supreme court or what will happen after the election. they need to focus to getting the most 1r0e9votes. >> and i was looking at what ted cruz said that this is why we have a nominee before an election. but is there is a conflict of interest, should the election results go to the sbreupreme co? >> i hate to say it doesn't matter, but she has the votes. so yes recusal 1450 be brought but it is sort of irrelevant. they are trying to go for a gotcha moment when it would be better to probe her on the substantive issues of how an election should be decided. she can't get away with saying that i might rule about it in a future matter because there is so much case law about it. she needs to be asked about that, she shoulded asked did the president ask you for loyal

these are all private prisons basically private that you can't run for money that were started by jeff sessions the 1st month he got in as the attorney general before the for the things that occurred and said that he should not this is one of the things that the drug administration and its against it should be no profit making in these facilities because if you have a product for them i mean just so many bad in order to make them and once again to make this is the more egregious of something that i don't know the thing in the reporting or not is that they have been trying to deport people but then make the claim faster than they could actually intervene for they will never be found again and if this happened rape victim this happened people that hysterectomy and actually the representative from texas she was actually stepped in to stop one of the victims all of them from being deported the other day because they had already been and it's a perfect the one that he's in all the very day he's getting it's a way to apply to the flop the funding because at the top of that you can now testify about t

then t the president asked jeff sessions to go back and take control of the mueller investigation afteressions already recused himself. that was reporter mike schmidt. schmidt was the first to report that trump ordered robert mueller to be fired and only backing off when mcgahn threatened to quit. mcgahn cooperated extensively with mueller's investigation, that too was reporting by mike schmidt. in the days after james comey was fired, the fbi opened an inquiry into whether or not president trump was working as a russian agent. he was first to break the news that trump had wanted his justice department to prosecute political adversary including hillary clinton and james comey. on top of story after story on the russia investigation, michael schmidt was the first to report that is president trump over ruled national security officials in order to give son-in-law, jared kushner, top secret authority. now with this new book that he's got out tomorrow, he's breaking even more news. many revelations that the fact that no elements of the u.s. or including the fbi ever examined president trump

the attorney general, jeff sessions, might have committed forgery during his hearing and lying on therump campaign with russian officials. the implications or the worry there is that while perjury investigation, perjury charges against sessions and even 2016 or 2017 before we got to the bill barr area, the justice department is not capable of making that kind of judgment, pursuing that kind of a case of somebody at the top of its own department. >> that was as concern. attorney sessions recused himself in the investigation. you have to put yourselves in our position at the time. we had a president coming in who had concerns of his relationship with the government of russia. we had a senior foreign policy that we had concerns of his connection with russia. not only we were concerning but as we began to confront them, one after another began to lie. in that context, the attorney general failure to tell the truth about his contact with russia were deeply concerning when you look at it across this tableau activity. >> if it turns out attorney general william barr is doing something in cah

his cruel words toward people who served in senior cabinet positions from the attorney general, jeff sessions of state tillerson to -- i asked trump about general mattis, the defense secretary. i said, what do you think of him? oh, he's just a pr guy. well, whether you like mattis or don't, and you read what he did as secretary of defense, he's not a pr guy. he's certainly the most serious military person we have had in the secretary of defense position for a long time. so, it is -- trump has obliterated the notion of some sort of organization, some sort of management. in the first book i did on trump called "fear," i said there is a nervous breakdown of the executive branch. this is just an extension of that. and if you go through the book -- i think the most devout trump supporter could read through this book and say, well, yeah, there's some things i like, but there are big questions about what trump is doing to this country and our value system. >> we've got to leave it at that. bob, thank you. as always, imunbelievable reporti reporting. thank you so much. pleasure and honor. >> thank yo

conservatives to so were releasing a statement signed by everybody from marco rubio to attorney general jeff sessionsnd leaders of think tanks and some of the leading conservative labor lawyers, all making this exact point that labor should work differently than it does right now in this country, but conservative shouldn't be hoping that labor goes away. they should be finding a way to build strong organizations that give workers a real seat at the table. >> i just love your approach to all these questions. since you los launched american compass and you been out there making these arguments, wind what's been the reaction from others in the establishment and the conservative movement. >> generally the reaction has been really, really encouraging. if i look just over the last couple weeks, especially with the republican convention going on we had the opportunity to tell our story everywhere. in the new york times and wall street journal, cnn, npr, even the financial time over in england, everyone was really interested in this and wants to highlight that the future for the right of center doesn't just

he wanted, he was upset with jeff sessions for the stepping aside from the russia investigation.nted loyalty from comey. as i report in the book he wanted john kelly to be the fbi director and ask him to give him his loyalty until he refused to do that. in bill barr the president has found that person he was looking for. president would complain in the first few years of the presidency where is my roy cohn. where is that fixture. he saw the people in the government as fixers for him. >> he had one in michael cohen. you see how that worked out. until officials are warning that russia is once again working to push disinformation this this election. now we have a president who is sewing doubt in the election process attacking mail in voting. are we dealing with election interference that's not just from abroad but from within now? >> i think in a fundamental level the country has never reckoned with the fact that 2016 was one of the greatest intelligence failures since september 11. and as i lay out in the book a lot hasn't been done to respond to it. there hasn't been a commission

to be subject to criminal investigation, what do you do you take out general flynn, you freeze jeff sessionsything by falsely accusing him of misconduct and leaking information about him, you get the special counsel appointed and freeze the department completely for years, the troubling thing the justice department still frozen, why are we only finding out about this detail now, if durin if jerome g his job they wouldn't do about it the minute they got in. this is the worst kept secret in washington and the fact that is coming out a month before the election says more about the deep state cover-up then the underlying issue which is always been apparent that hillary clinton was a crook and trying to get away with it by smearing trump. lou: the president has been right, not for four years but better than six years because he has been talking about crooked hillary throughout and he does right as anyone could possibly be, someone else's right, it appears, andrew weissman and all the good investigators and attorneys of the special counsel office, their phones were wiped and i understand there is

during the transition a number of people close to the president, rudy giuliani, chris christie, jeff sessions all urged him to fire james comey immediately on taking office, the director of the fbi and giuliani said he's going to turn on you, there's something wrong with him, chris christie said he's a loose cannon and if you keep him after you became president he will become your loose cannon so the question was why did he not take that advice, why did he keep james comey? did not work out well for him and the answer was he thought he could win comey over. over his many years in business the president has come to believe if he can work his personality on someone he can bring them around to his side so he thought he could win comey over which he didn't do so then you think perhaps that is the reason he spoke 18 times to bob woodward, thought he could bring him over. >> washington is a different beast. about these conversations, the discussion of whether he was trying to calm the public, when he knew what he knew, whether he should have been forthcoming with the american people, molly hemingwa

going back to his time with alabama senator jeff sessions, stephen miller focused on derailing the reform bill that was being worked on in 2013. and to create a wedge issue not just based on their skin color but political ideology. and it's very important for stephen miller and we have to see how things change over the next few months if at all. >> this just isn't me i am trying to call to the question and comments. >> right now is completely overwhelming follow all of the news the book comes out you meticulously report, what do you hope readers take away at this moment? and you can answer this question a million different ways but if you had to give two or three broad takeaways how would you describe that? >> if you want to understand the era of polarization you have to understand stephen miller so i hope that my book helps people to get some perspective how we became so divided because it's what he exploited to weaponize and increase for the purposeful demonization any of their liberal allies. that's one of the key takeaways on how his story is a microcosm for how we got here and second

king outlined jeff sessions horrific history of racisracism.e reagan white house decided that she was right and withdrew his nomination. >> that's right. >> and so senator warren thought if you're too racist to be a judge in 1986, you should be too racist to be our attorney general in 2017. clearly, the senate majority didn't agree with that. but what i also found so powerful about that moment and think senator warren rightly deserved all this support and senator mcconnell rightly deserved all the condemnation that came his way, was really kind of the celebration of king, who i think too often is kind of framed and taught in history as just being dr. king's wife and widow and she actually was a student civil rights leader in her own right and was a civil rights leader and very much after his assassination. >> we're running of time, but i want to ask you a quick question. got to have a quick political conversation. your mom ran against donald trump. you had a first row seat to witness what she went through. any piece of advice you can offer to j

>> during the transition from a number of people, rudy giuliani, chris christie, jeff sessions, all advised before to fire comey immediately upon taking office. giuliani told me every time we talked about comey, i said the guy is going to turn on you, there is something wrong with him. and chris christie said, he is a loose cannon, and if you keep him after you are inaugurated, he will be your loose cannon. why didn't trump fire him right then? and apparently he thought he could win comey over -- >> laura: ah. >> he long thought if he could talk to someone, he could bring them over to his side, and it did not work with jim comey. >> laura: he thought he could win over bob woodward, so also. switching topics to trump-russia collusion nonsense, what you unearthed that suggested mueller's team knew early that there was no russia collusion, that continued anyway. >> the trump team could see who mueller was interviewing, and in the very first weeks, remember, mueller was appointed in may 2017, and the very first few weeks, mueller was going hard on a search for collusion. he was looking at peopl

during the transition, a number of people close to the president, rudy giuliani, jeff sessions, all urgedo fire james comey immediately upon taking office. at the director of the fbi. giuliani said he's going to turn on you, there's something wrong with him. chris christie said he is a loose cannon, and if you keep him after you become president, he's going to become your loose cannon. the question was, why did he not take that advice? why did he keep james comey even though it didn't work well for him? the answer was he thought he could win a combing over a period over his many years in business, the president has come to believe that if he can work his personality on somebody, he can bring them around to his side. we thought he could win it comey ovary, which he didn't do. then you think, perhaps that's the reason he spoke 18 times to bob woodward. he thought he could bring him over. >> washington is a different beast, as we know. about these conversations where there is a discussion about whether or not he was trying to calm the public, whether he should have been more fourth coming, i

pompeo declared wikileaks [indiscernible] followed quickly by statements by the attorney general jeff sessions saying the priority to prosecute wikileaks and now we are seeing the outcome of that. an indictment where julian faces 175 years in prison. this is part of we said the trump administration's attack on journalism. it is a precedent that will be used against journalists not just in the united states, but around the world. the most dangerous thing about the position of the united states attorney has made clear in his evidence before this court is not only is the u.s. government seeking to exercise jurisdiction outside the u.s. for publishing information about the united states, they are also saying they will exercise that jurisdiction but at the same time for publishers and journalists will not benefit and should not benefit from first amendment protections. and that should be very concerning for journalists everywhere around the world. amy: many of the news organizations in the united states work with julian assange, like "the new york times" and "the washington post" in hosing war crim

then the times broke the news they asked jeff sessions to go back and retake control of the mueller investigation had already recused himself. that again was reporter mike schmidt. he was first to report that he ordered robert mueller to be fired, only backing off when don mcgahn threatened to quit. we later learned that mcgahn had to cop raoperated extensively. he was first to report in the days after james comey was fired, the fbi opened an inquiry into whether or not president trump was secretly working as a russian agent. first to obtain the questions that special counselor mueller wanted to ask of trump. trump had wanted his justice department to prosecute political adversaries, including hillary clinton and james comey. on top of story after story after story on the russia investigation, michael schmidt was the first to report president trump overruled national authority officials in order to give jared kushner top security officials. the new york time's michael schmidt has been a fearsome scoop machine during the trump area. now with this new book, he's breaking even more news. among the b

he never understood that with jeff sessions, his first attorney general who cused himself from the russiation, and as kelly spent all this time with the president, as his chief of staff, as that guardrail, trump just never got it. he just never understood that people like kelly were not going to go that extra mile, that extra line just for trump, just for personal reasons, and it was just a remarkable, remarkable phenomenon feature of his time. >> let me read another excerpt from the book talking about the attitudes within the white house. "they tolerated more self-destructive behavior from the president than anyone to have ever held the position of white house chief of staff and white house counsel, between policing trump's ignorance of presidential norms of conduct and obsession with settling scores and fighting with the media, both men felt as if they had time for little else. they were forces for good, they believed, and they resented having to serve as the bad cops for the whims and ethical lapses of the family." in quotation marks there. that's how john kelly you write felt at the t

. >> for instance, jeff sessions, an incredibly loyal guy, but made one decision, you know, complyingics suggestions from doj and that's it. he's dead to president trump. >> he could run you over with a steamroller at any time. i need you to do things and i need you to be willing to take the blame for me when things go poorly. >> perhaps contributing to unprecedented turnover. 89% of his senior staff, trump's a-team, have left. that's more turnover than all of the past five presidents had in their entire first terms. and one more number. trump has had 40% of his top positions replaced more than once. former white house press secretary sean spicer. >> there were some people that weren't qualified but they had been loyal to the president. >> and when people have left, several formers found themselves eventually speaking out against president trump. >> it was challenging for me to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn't read briefing reports. >> the only person in the military that mr. trump doesn't think is overrated is colonel sanders. >> the ultimate betrayal for tru

i think there was an impression when he was nominated to replace jeff sessions that he would be an institutionalistestablishment guy. there are a lot of never trump republicans that are dismayed. what do you think his legacy will be? >> i was one of those people who thought he was an adult and served before an institution institutionalist. i was completely dead wrong. his legacy so far, if it were to end today, would be a poor one. someone who is an arm of the president, works on behalf of the president for the people, interferes only when associated with the president as associated with michael flynn, roger stone. the reason i pause is i'm concerned his legacy is going to be much, much worse. what we've seen so far is only prologued to the election. with increasing frequency, he's making comments about evidence. he perfectly admits he's making evidence. he calls it logic without evidence, that there will be widespread voter fraud through mail-in ballots. all sorts of other things he says will be true about the election. what i'm worried about is the foundation he's laying so far to do things as a

presidential debate that if he was in office, he would jail her or pursuing a long vendetta against jeff sessions the crime of not prosecuting the president's political enemies and for recusing himself from the russia probe. now donald trump is william barr who seems amenable to whatever the president's whims are. now, prosecuting his enemies, it's something we have not quite crossed, though we are close to being on the edge of it. the president is trying to use the state justice apparatus in the road to election for prosecutions of political enemies and dissonance. another president, richard nixon, abused his power. john dean famously stood up and exposed his corruption. he is the co-author of a new book. and john dean joins me now. it is great to have you on, mr. dean. let me start with this principle here about prosecution of political enemies. and we have seen the president wield the apparatus of justice as a kind of shield for his friends. we have seen william barr intervene in prosecutions and sentencing memoranda causing people to, you know, to resign in disgust. we have seen pardons. we h

folks to remember what kamala harris on the judiciary committee was capable of doing with, say, jeff sessionsdon't think that these hearings are going to go the way that republicans are hoping that they will. i think they are going to face incredibly tough questions. we are talking about a president who has been impeached, a president who did not win the popular vote and a president who has presided over the deaths of 200,000 americans. i don't think many americans want that man deciding what is going to set policy for the next generation. >> right. but a tough hearing doesn't really amount to much. you know, the process still moves forward, no? >> that's why it's so frightening. i think we can do everything -- everybody needs to do what they have in their power. kamala harris has a lot of power and a lot of talent. i would expect her to use it. >> appreciate it. thanks. >>> from justice ginsburg's notorious rbg, the woman behind the name was full of surprises, like work out with comedian steven colbert. more on her life and legacy after the short break. so what's going on? i'm a talking dog.

the attorney general fought it and stayed an enso you have had donald trump, jeff sessions, bill barrgoing to hurt the morale of police with the police consent decrees. politics plays a role in the people who are put in charge of that and so when people say i want justice, they have to see it. you have to then deliver. you have a black mayor of rochester people say you haven't done enough and even when you have black mayors you still have the power of police who control the process. and that is the issue that we must face in this country. >> i think that's important because people get excited by presidential elections but not at state levels or interim elections but the presidential election, there's a tweet of a chance of biden electoral college win. if he wins it by 6%, 0 to 1 points, a 6% of a college win. if biden wins the electoral -- popular vote by 1 to 2 points it is just 22%. so the point here is that joe biden winning this election is still in doubt. >> it absolutely is. unfortunately. i think roland makes a critical point. there are nearly 18,000 police departments in this

he is literally the antipote of jeff sessions. you know, william barr doesn't care about that.en, his reputation is disgraced now. and, you know, he's been capricious with the use of the justice department. the inspector general is after him in terms of how he's tried to intimidate and influence people at the department of justice. and this is all being done because of the leader at the top creating this, you know, horrendous environment. but can i just say something about the constitution? remember, what i'm calling for is an amendment to the constitution. and there would be ways to break that out. >> i just don't know if that's going to happen before election day? >> of course it's not going to happen before election day. i'm telling you that president trump. we had a procedural amendment in '93. we haven't had a significant amount since '95 with the voting rights act, but you get one every eight years. so we're in overtime for a constitutional amendment and it will be to check the malignancy of a potential future leader. we've learned a lot from president trump and what he's

as we know very well, he thought that attorney general jeff sessions had been disloyal to him. the president said that out loud. the president fired the former fbi director, james comey, because he would not take a loyalty oath to him. as i report in the book, the former white house chief of staff, john kelly, the president tried to get him to fill the position of fbi director after he fired comey, asking kelly for a loyalty oath, saying i need you to be loyal to me above all else. and kelly telling him to get lost. that string of evidence and those facts create at the very least a perception issue with barr, because no, we don't know that barr gave trump a loyalty oath, but we do know that everyone who came before him who didn't go along with that is gone. >> you might not have this answer specifically, but from your reporting and everything you have gathered from this world, is there a line that those around him who are loyal to him are unwilling to cross? >> well, that is the story of the trump era and the people around him. for all of american history, for much of american

he was obviously dissatisfied with jeff sessions, and he's got the kind of person who is going to be able to use in these political back and forth. at some point in here he actually went after joe biden, went after kamala harris for some of the remarks they made about the jacob blake shooting. so he is going to be somebody that this president can use as a political ally in a way that we haven't really seen attorney generals play in that role before in administrations. >> the report that was released on july 24th, they specifically said, and this is the thoughts of the u.s. intellection community, we are primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by china, russia, and iran. they said we assess that china prefers that president trump does not win re-election, we assess that russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former vice president biden and what it sees as an anti-russia establishment. and it says as far as iran is concerned, we assess that iran seeks to undermine u.s. democratic institutions, president trump, and to divide the country in advanc

house, in the white house residence, that was attended by his new chief of staff, john kelly, by jeff sessionshis attorney general, by christopher wray, the f.b.i. director, and he went through basically the same exact rants, which by the way included lavish praise of stonewall jackson and robert e. lee as great military minds. and nobody in that private meeting spoke up and said, mr. president, in the wake of white supremacists protesting in charlottesville and killing a protester, remember, heggetter higher was killed in those protest -- heather heyer was killed in those protest, the counterprotests, it might not be an idea to start praising confederates and talking about how there are very fine people on both sides. nobody spoke up and said that and then he went out and said the same thing the next day in public and it became a real dark mark on his presidency. steve: julie pace, a few months after that, in the fall of 2017, a mass shooting in las vegas killing 60, injuring 400 others. one of the worst in american history. this is what he said, i'll get your reaction afterwards. president t

president has struggled to be most successful there are two well-known examples with this one with jeff sessionsmcgahn where trump tried to pressure them to prosecute his rivals that only went so far. now we're looking down at that question and that attempt again here with the president talking about this and the attorney general sort of echoing the president's rhetoric on this issue, at least in these private conversations with prosecutors the question will be will the president be successful in this proactive area, the area where he's had less success than on the obstructive front? >> director brennan, let me give you the last word. in your interview with the durham probe, did it feel like they were criminalizing your conduct in an aggressive manner? were they seeking to find something where no other probe, the doj probe, the mueller probe, has found anything? did it feel to you the motives were less than wholesome >> no. i ha i think they were testing various hearings they heard and were asking for my views and recollections on things. it was handling in a very professional manner. i'm concer

i never thought i would miss jeff sessions. he at least respected norms. you have bill barr who is savvy and crafty and smart enough and willing to go there to back up donald trump in his extreme experiments in executive power. it really does make for a fearful combination if donald trump is going to be surrounded by enables who help him not exit office peacefully. >> three of the calmest voices of reason you will find anywhere. peter baker, ben rhodes and elise jordan, thank you so much for navigating our way through this surreal headline. >>> when we come back, they might be the most important interviews donald trump has ever sat for. the fact there are nearly two dozen of them suggests trump thought they were going well. bob woodward's interviews contain confession after confession of donald trump's willful negligence to protect the american people against coronavirus as well as his scorn for anyone trying to understand the pain of anyone being black in america. bob woodward joins us. >>> up ahead it's increasingly clear that trump's involvement in the