they can then decide whether to apoint a special prosecutor. so we have to separate that out. >> who's to say he wouldn't fire this person too? sally yates gone. pete berar atold he was going to stay. gone. james comey, gone. all three of whom had the potential to trouble the trump presidency. >> all three appointed by democrats and appropriately replaced by a republican. >> it was appropriate that james comey -- why do they have 10-year terms. >> i theng a lot of this is his fault. he should have said to himself i am not trusted by democrats, republicans by the american public and should have rezeened. >> i haven't forgot about you. the three people investigating this president or the administration fired. >> yates was a hold over. it was a question of which day. generally the u.s. attorney is replaced and comey is a unique situation. he may have changed the results of an election. he could not be the head. >> she wasn't investigating but she was the acting attorney general. >> this is obviously a fig leaf and the president was looking for a r

congress is notified whenever special counsel is apointed, removed or finished with the investigation. the appointment of a special prosecutor would be a welcome step in the right direction. but it is not the only action that should be taken. there are a great many outstanding questions about the circumstances of director comey's dismissal, the status of the executive branch investigation into the trump campaign ties to russia. and what the future holds for these investigations. so i will be requesting that the majority leader call a closed and if necessary, classified session, all senators briefing, sorry. i will be requesting that the majority leader call a closed and if necessary classified, all senators briefing, with the attorney general and the deputy attorney general separately. at which they can be asked questions. some of the questions. why was attorney general sessions who had recused himself from the russia investigations able to influence the firing of the man conducting the russia investigation? did deputy attorney general rosenstein act on his own, or at the direction of

so there was a whole year before cox was actually apointed. so this does not happen in a short time. this is going to take some time, there's no question about it. >> it's interesting when i hear young people saying this is crazy, this is crazy, i can't believe this is happening. and i remember when i was a kid our president having to leave the house on a helicopter, like waving good-bye. that is crazy. >> exactly, totally. >> do you think looking at the evidence we have now, is that a possibility? >> oh, absolutely a possibility. i mean you've got a primaphasia case really of obstruction of justice. it's not just they memo. it's the pretext of firing comey. it's the fact that flynn was kept in for such a long period of time before he was finally fired. and then the next day trump goes and talks to comey and zbets rid of the attorney general and everybody else and has a private meeting where he says to them can you do something, stop this investigation with flynn? i mean it's an intent crime. it's a question of what was his intept in what he w

. >> reporter: deputy attorney general rose rosenstein apointing a special counsel to investigation possible collusion with the trump campaign,ying in part, a special counsel is necessary in order for the american people to have full confidence in the outcome. rosenstein emphasized no determination any crime was committed or prosecution was warranted, but trump lashed out over the decision tweeting the investigation is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history. the move already garnering support across the aisle. >> i now have significantly greater confidence that the investigation will follow the facts, wherever they lead. >> this takes the politics out of it, hopefully. this has gotten too political. >> reporter: the man leading this new investigation, boll mueller, former fbi director, a unique figure in washington. last confirmed by the senate, 100-0, prestigious ten year appointment extended for another two years. >> he has the expertise and experience and the guts and backbone to uncover the truth and hold accountable anybody who's broken the law. >> reporter:

. >> reporter: president trump speaking out for the first time since apointment of a special counselinvestigate russian meddling in the election and their possible solution with the trump campaign. >> there's no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign, but i can always speak for myself and the russians, zero. >> reporter: during a meeting with network anchors behind closed doors, the president also saying, i believe it hurts our country terribly, because it shows we're a divided, mixed up, not unified country. it also happens to be a pure excuse for the democrats, having lost an election that they should have easily won. i think it is a very, very negative thing, and hopefully this can go quickly. but on to find a lawmaker who backs the president's assessment, even members of his own party. >> i think it is a serious investigation. >> reporter: is this a witch hunt? >> oh, i -- i think i'll not characterize what it is. >> reporter: as the man who appointed the special counsel to lead the russia investigation smiles for cameras. behind closed doors, deputy attorney general

. >> you see that mueller was apointed by the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, who was of course appointed by the president of the united states. when you say independent, is it truly and fully independent or would they have the ability to fire him? could you just put a little color around that? >> this is part of a special law that was passed after the expiration of the independent counsel law in 1999, so really this means that he is truly independent. that's why there's so much reluctance usually by the justice department to bring in a special counsel, because you don't know where this is going to end up and certainly for the white house, this is the last thing they wanted to see. >> he answers to no one, which is obviously the crucial point. >> right. >> evan perez, in the midst of breaking news. as we get more we'll get back to him. jeff zeleny is back at the white house. you heard what evan just said. not good news for the white house because they won't know what's going on. we're hearing they got less than one hour notice. and they weren't told until it was signed. we have

a judge decides to hand the matter of the district attorney or apoint prosecutors. >>> a shocking and really sad death in the south bay. a 16-year-old basketball player collapsed in the court and died. her family is grieving. as abc 7 news reporter janine delavega explains, they were able to get some comfort from super star stephen curry. >> he's reading the pages from his daughter's scrapbook. the teen collapsed during a basketball game and died. this is the last picture taken of her. >> she held her chest. they sat down and she fell. r since then i never heard her voice. >> the last year, kimberley begin getting migraines and fainted. doctors cleared her to play. >> he was numbed with grieve. he found comfort in the act of kindness. warriors' star, stephen curry was kimberley's favorite player. the wish was granted. >> too bad, this is a a small token to her family. we are thinking about them. >> kimberley's family planned on burying her in the shoes. >> i know she's in heaven right now shech now. she will be happy. >> kimberley was a sophomore and students visited the memorial that

that was just confirmed as the deputy -- he is seen as a fairly independent prosecutor who has been apointed by republican and democratic administrations. about as middle of the road as you're going to get for a political appointee. i don't see it gaining much traction. >> you think director comey did well today, why is that? >> he made his case for history. he was not going to convince democrats that he did the right thing, but you saw him in a very emotional and animated tones. he presented himself as a man with no real options to conceal or reveal to congress the situation. he did have other options in the view of democrats, but he presented a somewhat persuasive case for the history books that this is why he did what he did. >> why director comey spoke out about candidate clinton but not candidate trump. what is the original sin? does it go back to bill clinton? >> hillary herself has to bear a lot of the blame for starting the fiasco with the decision to the events leading up to the tarmac scene with loretta lynch and bill clinton. and it is one turn after another. in hient sight, if we

harding, just a very short period of time, only spends three years in office but he apoints four members of the court including taft and after taftis appointed, he helps select conservative people and con hat court in a severetive -- conseff fashion. and some people would say holmes was liberal but difficult to categorize. host: mcreynolds on the far left and brandeis from kentucky. tell us about that relationship. host guest: both of them are appointed by wilson. and had a liberal reputation as a truck buster before he joined the wilson the administration and while he was in the administration and he goes on to become one of the most conservative and racist and anti-semitic supreme court justices in history. but to tell you how diverse the people who were dining at the house of truth. robert valentine comes down from massachusetts and frankfurter arranges a dinner and they get into a debate about civil service and whether or not people should be hired to work in the justice department based ronage and atriot frank furtherer says it should be merit. and mcreynolds said what about the sen

. >> so i think there is a legitimate concern about apointing relatives to public office.tunately for the country robert kennedy was one of the best attorney generals we had and he had experience working in the senate, he'd run a presidential campaign. so he was not someone who had a significant level of experience before he was put in the job. i think tats arer the important thing. their capability and qualifications. >> that's the criticism is that they have no political experience at all. >> tlahat's the main one. i've never been that hard on donald trump because of ivanka. if she's going to help stop him from doing tweets that disrupt the country, more power to her. but i don't know -- the problem is he may get more and more insul insular. with bobby kennedy, it was hard to tell president kennedy i don't want to tell you this in fronts of your brother because they become the final arbitrator. there's always that fear of nepotism. and it was the kennedy years that created the nepotism law people try to avoid. and he was a legend in civil rights saga. >> stig around both

the best line was who apoint you to the supreme court? senator john kennedy? in other words, how the hell do you get on interpret and act on interpretation of the supreme court over a ruling from the president of the united states? >> right, your job is not to interpret, your job is to enforce as told. if it's illegal, you go from there. it was not illegal. i know a judge found that he didn't want to enforce it. the fact is here both of these people on the committee, clapper and her, found in capacity to be basically bad eggs in some way, shape, or form. either lied before, misled before or fired from their job. that should go a long way in their testimony. charles: let's leave it there. coming up, first the netherlands and of course now france, and i guess one of the big questions coming into the week has the populism movement has it peace in europe or just getting started? love to hear your thoughts on cv payne. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ welcome to holiday inn! ♪ ♪ thank you! ♪ ♪ wait, i have something for you! ♪ ♪ making every stay a special stay. holiday in

that's how he apoints people. and so the idea that the feb is going to be fine because they're fine agents is -- there is little basis to support that and it doesn't address the question of why james comey was fired in the first place. and he was fired because he was investigating the white house. and that is an unacceptable -- that is an unacceptable rationale fire the head of the fbi and no confidence in the fbi can overcome that. for >> there were those that say they don't have confidence in com comey. there were plenty of democrats who said i have no trust in comey. >> and there was never wub republican and surcertainly not candidate or president trump that said anything like james comey should by fired how can it be the whole republican party changed overnight be outraged by the treatment of the hillary clinton email. the only reason now if you're president trump is because you don't want him investigating you. that's the only possible razzal here. look at the ridiculous letter that donald trump with this cra

if president trump apoints a very well respected, a federal judge or someone of that nature, a career fbi agent, this will vanish and up until then it's a circus, a show and it's terrible. and i'm not blaming all of you guys. it's the way it works and i've seen it before. >> no one ever fired ken starr i should point out. do you believe this had anything to do with the russia investigation? >> no. i think it's very obvious. i've been printing out statements from democrats demanding his resignation and all the sudden tonight they're defending him. it's hypocrisy to the max. they don't have anything about russia. if it's there, get it out. and as i've said before, i'm all for an independent commission. no special prosecutors. they don't go well. but an independent commission on the style of the 9/11 commission, let's do it. director comey, president obama, let's discuss the leaks all of it. get out. >> it is hitting f5 on the political analysis key to say democrats are being hypocrites. there is a basis for jim comey being fired and you can bed a ltly opposed as an american citizen to t

i told him, i do not have an apointment but i'm standing outside your door.and i would like you to come to the table. i like him. message received. >>> "tuesdays with morrie." >> he's sold more than 15 million copies of the book in 56 languages. >> i just can't accept it. i don't want you to die. i guess i flunked the course, huh? death ends a life, relationship. >> author mitch albom is jing us now. welcome. i forgot. jack lemmon. >> yeah. he was remarcable. that was really his last film basically. >> what is it that so resonates with people about this book? >> i think most people in their life have had a teacher, and so that's sort of their morrie. i have people open their wallets to me and show me a picture of their grandfather and say, this is my mmorrie. i think a lot of people are loft like i was at that age, i'm going 1,000 miles an hour and nothing seems relatable. >> it's so interesting your book continues to thrive today, 15 million sold so far and still selling but in the beginning nobody paid any attention to you, sports writer, you. >> yeah. actu

you mentioned one thing, i think if he apoints -- gets appointments done, a lot can be done that way.o agree with pam that the first priority in my opinion is we have to reduce regulation on small banks. i've been saying it for 25 years. it makes no sense that the same regulations are for big banks and small banks. we need small banks. we are losing them because of excess regulation. i expect that would be the first priority from a legislative -- for those activities that need legislation. >> well, cam, exactly on that point, among the things that you think are most important in terms of regulatory relief for smaller banks, how many of them are within the powers of the president and treasury department, itself, or other executive departments, and how much requires new legislation? >> requires legislation, the president, certainly, sets the tone, and he's doing that with his executive orders, his orders to review all regulations, his orders to hold up on regulations not yet issued. the president can certainly set the tone and put a very, very big thumb on the scale, but it takes mostly

has been to britain's health system where hospitals and doctors turned patients away and cancel apointmentsfected. we have calls out to major so-called critical infrastructure companies in the u.s. these are companies that experts say were targeted in the attack. we will update as we hear back. back over to you. >> all right. for now, thank you. >>> fallout from the firing of fbi director james comey is rippling through washington. it could have an impact on wall street if president trump's economic agenda is put on hold as a result. larry kudlow is next. >>> high profile tech disroupters rethinking plans to go public after snap's post earnings plunge this week? we'll ask coming up on "closing bell." last year, he said he was going to dig a hole to china. at&t is working with farmers to improve irrigation techniques. remote moisture sensors use a reliable network to tell them when and where to water. so that farmers like ray can compete in big ways. china. oh ... he got there. that's the power of and. ♪ it's not just a car, it's your daily treat. ♪ go ahead, spoil yourself. the es and es hy

this trip is changing the headlines from the tough coverage he got in the russian matter with the apointmented about briefly, they were looking forward to seeing president on the world stage talking about international issues and world peace and that sort of thing, but it was the president, himself, in an unusual moment alongside benjamin netanyahu today who brought up the russia investigation. this was a moment where they were doing a photo opportunity with a handshake, press in the room tonight, and the president brought them back in to make a point he wanted to make about what he told the russians in the oval office meeting that was controversial. here's the meeting from earlier today. >> i never mentioned the word or name "israel," never mentioned it in during that conversation. they're all saying i did. there's another story wrong. never mentioned the word "israel." >> the president criticizing the media getting it wrong, but in actuality, the media coverage never suggested the president used the word "israel" in the conversations with the russians in the oval office. the allegation was

david: he said with all the illegal acts, there was never a special council apoint., this is rankling our president. alix: yesterday morning, he didn't tweet at all. i was waiting for it and it didn't happen. and you felt like that was a good thing for the markets. you can watch us online, click on our charts and graphics and interact with us directly. click on us. this is bloomberg ♪ jonathan: the scores are as follows. negative 65 on the dow. down .2% after the biggest one-day drop since september 2016. we pull back to april lows at a rate through may. and if we switched up the board and the fx market, the dollar making the headlines over the last couple of days. the post election gains. the dollar find some stability today against euro dollar. the euro weak and the dollar strong. the treasury market, the grind lower continues. yields lower by two basis points, $2.20 on the u.s. 10 year. so 2.2% on the u.s. 10-year treasury. david: many in the financial community were -- believed he should bring tax and regulatory reform to washington. now, some are wondering wheth

. >> president trump turning focus to the lower federal courts will unvai new apointes some from samech from do you think same behavior from a senate democrats obstructionist obstructionist obstructionist. >> they yushl don't do it at this level this is united states court of appeals in 12 groups we talked about 4th and 9th circuitry there is a 13th doesn't have a number has a name, they normally don't provoke great opposition even though they are final court, 95% of litigation in the federal system, i think the democrats would again just as with justice gorsuch be waisting their time they already lost the ability to philippiali filibuster at this level harry reid decision from a couple years ago. >> netflix renewing a controversial show 13 reasons why, for another season, this decision follows recent backlash some say show glorifies scene suicides. >> vandals flushing away concerns about the authority, that is next, back in a on this side, i want my customers to relax and enjoy themselves. but these days it's phones before forks. they want wifi out here. but behind that door, i need

. >> and the officers apointed over me. >> according to regulations. >> according to regulations. >>ot fiacci. >> to see something like that, that's really special. let's show you what we have going on right now as far as your weather's concerned. we are looking at severe weather down through the gulf. heavy showers and thunderstorms. we have flood watches and flash flood watches for 21 million people, stretching from texas all the way to central georgia. this is a strong system that's firing up. going to cause big problems. we got a risk. a strong risk of flooding, a moderate risk, east of houston, all the way to mobile, alabama. rising on the streams and rivers. flash flood potential generally about two to three inches of rain. but locally, can be four to six >> good morning. i'm meteorologist bill henley. it's going to be a rainy one today. some steady rainfall moving in this morning and continuing into the afternoon. that's going to limit our temperatures to the 60s. 69 degrees for philadelphia. the suburbs, rain moves in this morning. tapers off during the afternoon hours. but s

i would suggest to the president that one has been apointed, honor that decision, cooperate where it's appropriate. fight back when you have legal ability to do so. i've been through this once before with the clinton administration. clinton hired an individual lawyer to deal with all things related to ken starr so the white house could conduct this business. if i were the president i'd focus on defending the nation and trying to get his legislative agenda through the congress. one of the side benefits of this is now congress has been pretty much sidelined, not completely but pretty much and we can go back to dealing with legislative matters that affect the american people. so the bottom line here is the president may not have liked this decision that was made. i had questions about it. i honor it. you couldn't have picked a better man to do the job, and i think most people in that meeting are generally ok with the idea of a special counsel but what they don't quite understand is this decision has limited what congress can do. i find it hard. i would be reluctant to subpoena someone or