why wasn't barr told about it?would seem to me with somebody as high profile as roger stone, you would know more about this than i would, they would be having these discussions and debriefed a about it. >> let me get abbi into this. can you remember a time when you covered the white house for us and also help us. do you remember a time in the the past three years a sitting member of the cabinet has publicly rebuked the president along the lines of what bill barr has just done? >> there's been nothing like it from anybody in office. we heard thing trs people on background who left. we heard things as we saud from john kel hi this a paid speech last night in new jersey. but we haven't seen anything like this from anybody while they were in realtime. even when they disagreed. think about rex tillerson who had a famously bad relationship with the president. he chose to leave without being public about it. i do think gloria makes an important point. there's still a lot of questions about why barr decided to intervene he

i wonder if you had any insight into any talks of coordination here between barr and graham or barr in, i think it's interesting because barr is in this strange because where he's very close to the president. he is one of his loudest and most effective frankly spokespeople on the hill for various policies the president puts out there. but graham is also, you know, has been an institutionalist who does care to an extent about improving the sanctity of the justice department. and so he is kind of in this similar position where, you know, if barr is too tainted that that causes a problem all the way down in to doj. and so him rushing to barr's defense is kind of like trying to put his finger in the dam of what might explode here. lindsey graham has criticized the president for his tweets, too. that is kind of safe territory for people who ultimately do support the president to say you're going too far here and you're making it more difficult than it needs to be. we don't intend to focus in on those individual senators as acutely as we are with barr right now because they manage a differen

bush writes barr must resign.iven his attacks on the rule of law, it is not too strong to suggest that bill barr is un-american. here is what eric said right here on "the beat" last week. >> i don't think he is fit for the office because i think what he has done is to undertake a campaign essentially to undermine the department of justice as it was reformed and we've all lived with it for the last 45 years, reform following watergate. >> joining me now is pulitzer prize winning journalist and executive editor of new yorker.com david rohde who is writing about william barr. trump's sword and shield with a focus on critics, now wondering if barr is paving the way for autocracy. le me begin with asking you. do you believe from what you have gathered as a report they're everything william barr has done is undermining our democracy s and pushing us towards an autocracy? >> i fear it is. i want to think that this interview this week was sort of a cry from bill barr that the president was out of control, but it's not cle

bill barr knew what trump wanted.rybody knows what trump wanted. >> i also think it's important for us to make clear that it is a crime to intervene in a criminal matter the way the president is doing. he actually does not have the right to do this. his role as president means that saying those things infect as pressure. maybe if we said this on television it might be interesting. but we're not in a position to put pressure on the justice department. he is. i think he's exiting a crime. he doesn't have the right to say this. >> maggie, you hear this all the time i'm sure. people say trump does it in a more, whatever, brazen or childish or offensive way, but other people did it before. this is what they do, meaning presidents in this case. people say that. but it's not true. >> i don't know what the comparable -- i don't even know what the comparison basis is for a lot of the cases we have seen under this president when you have had so many former advisers to this particular president who have come under investigation

so far barr -- so barr is talking to people inside and outside the white house.rr trying to send a message to this president, you think? >> that's correct. i mean, barr has been trying for months, or many, many weeks to tell the president you tweeting about open investigations, you tweeting about the justice department is entirely unhelpful to me, and then that was the crescendo in the interview last week, that abc interview that kaitlan mentioned that was kind of a remarkable rebuke of the president saying i cannot continue to do my job. the president, as kaitlan said, has continued to tweet about things and continued to make his public opinions known. and folks close to the president tell us he's not going to stop. so the question will be how much of it is bill barr willing to take. is bill barr actually serious about this threat or is he trying to get the president to stop and won't back down? i think that's what we're still trying to figure out. >> kaitlan, this is carrie kupek who is the barr spokesperson. here's what he tweeted. he says, "addressing beltway

how is the president reacting to barr's comments? >> reporter: he's saying it looks like the attorney general is taking directions from the president which is the criticism prompted by the tweet from the president. tonight the white house was caught off guard by this interview based on several officials we have spoke to. barr is free to air his opinions publicly, but we also note this is a president who does not like to be criticized, certainly not publicly challenged by one of his favorite cabinet members. so, what the president is thinking is likely to play out in the next several hours because often the way he views an event is shaped by the coverage of it. that is going to be the question going forward here. when someone disagrees with the president on the record, he has pushed back strongly. that's the question going forward here and what the president does then. barr was saying he feels like he was put in an untenable position by the president's tweet and what he wanted to do. but the president seems to be in an impuzzled situa

barr knows what the president wants. and so even with respect to what just happened in the roger stone case, barr insisted that he had not been directed by trump to do anything with respect to that recommendation. i don't -- i mean, that could well be the case, but he understood the significance of a heavy sentence on roger stone and he was going to act accordingly. so whether that, you know, back and forth would lead to impeachment is one question. he was clearly accepting direction from the president, that's an entirely different one. >> the only adjective left out by the senator that might have caught him was tweeted. maybe someone tweeted to him he ought to investigate people. >> right. that's true. >> because he clearly takes directions from president trump's twitter feed. nancy and paul, thank you for being here. up next, the most infamous leaker of the trump administration. new reporting on the behind the scenes hunt for anonymous, and who is leading the charge. that's in two minutes. [ fast-paced drumming ] [ fas

and under william barr, attorney general william barr, the effort to prosecute mr. mccabe keeps chugging along, trying, trying, mr. president. but clearly, it doesn't make much sense. it's not well-grounded. it's really starting to seem like they don't actually have a case against him. and the "new york times" suggested that the supposed key witnesses they were going to count on, those witnesses actually went in the grand jury and told them everything mccabe did was fine. not only was it not illegal, it was specifically the kind of stuff he was tasked to do in the job he held at the fbi. seems like they don't have a case. who wants to be the one to tell president trump that the criminal case that they brought against andrew mccabe, after he insisted on them opening it, is going to be dropped? who wants to tell him? you want to tell him? i'm going to be out sick the next three weeks. meanwhile, the prosecutors on the andrew mccabe case start quitting. one prosecutor pulls his name off the case. withdraws. another leaves the justice department altogether. sound famili

he is undermining barr's standing in the justice department and so all barr really wants is for trumpto be quiet and to let barr manipulate the system on his behalf. why does trump want to come out and say these things which are actually in some ways harmful to his henchmen at the justice department because trump wants everybody to know he is the man with the power, he wants everybody to know that he can punish his enemies and help his friends, that he is the power to do that and that we are not ruled by the rule of law, we are ruled by the rule of trump, he wants everybody to know he's the strong man in the making and that makes barr's job harder but barr has facilitated that ever since becoming attorney general. >> what are the chances that, michael, that he actually resigns? >> well, i think slim to none. >> he's annoyed with the president. >> you're right, this is bill barr saying i really do have a little manhood. some of it's left. you know, you don't own me completely, donald trump. but, in fact, donald trump does own him completely. the one thing that i would say that the pres

barr steps in. the problem is, that we're losing an ability to have confidence that the department is not going to be influenced by improper forces. when you think about someone goes easy on someone because they're the president's friend. what about the problem of going hard on someone because they're his enemy? >> right. and what happened in the back drop of the president having publicly demanded investigations of his rivals and where his democracy is at and who will speak up and you being someone who worked for mr. barr. we appreciate your straightforward analysis tonight. thank you, sir. i'm going to bring in maya wily. we're running over on time, my producers tell me. i want to hear your reaction briefly he has known barr a long time it is always harder to go after the people you were professional he colleagues with. what do you make of him? >> i think it speaks to the danger of the times we're in. and that i think what was so important about what mr. ayers said, i completely agree with this. wh

trump told the turkish president that heed have bill barr f he'd have bill barr fix that case for him. they are investigating the trump inaugural committee. s.d.n.y. is investigating the trump's family business. s.d.n.y. is investigating criminal behavior of president trump's personal lawyer rudy giuliani. we'll have more on that in a moment. s.d.n.y. put michael cohen in prison for hush money paid by the president's campaign before the 2016 election. "the new york times" reported in the last few days among the s.d.n.y. cases where william barr has personally inserted himself is that hush money case, the michael cohen case, that resulted in charges against no one else. quote, while mr. trump's long-time fixer michael cohen had already pled guilty to campaign finance violations for his role in those payments, prosecutors were still investigating whether the role of trump's family business had obstructed the -- whether the role of executives at the trump family business had obstructed the investigation. quote, at one point during discussions about the scope of campaign finance laws, att

in the atlantic title, bill barr must resign, ayer writes, the fundamental problem is that barr does not believe in the central tenet of our system of government that no person is above the law. bill barr's america is not a place that anyone, including trump voters, should want to go. it is a banana republic where all are subject to the whims of a dictatorial president and his henchmen. joining me is former deputy attorney solicitor general and deputy attorney general donald ayer. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> i told you during the break i read your letter, it frightened me, but i'm glad you wrote it. the thing you presume about a attorney general of the united states is they understand their job is to be the attorney of the people. it has been very clear from the very beginning that mr. barr believes he's donald trump's personal, sort of the hand of the king. you called what he has tried to do unamerican. >> right. >> can you explain why you say that? >> well, i do. i think the one thing that i think we can all agree on and i think certainly people in this

barr has said. he knew from day one what the sentencing recommendation for roger stone was going to be. because it was one of the highest profile cases. they could weekly memos about what will happen in the case. and bill barr for a fact knew that we were going, we, the partner in justice would recommend 7 to 9 years. he was not accurate. he did not fwhak decision to withdraw that recommendation until after that tweet. he gave the impression that he had made decision before trump's tweet. that was really disingenuous in my view. >> where do we go from here? you had the department of justice say they won't prosecute andrew mccabe for what they said did he wrong. where does everything go from here? what are you tracking next? >> well, one of the things what happens to the relationship between president trump and attorney general barr. this is an attorney general that president trump has said is finally the attorney general whose dreams that he wanted from the start. the first real public tension we've

william barr assigned a u.s. attorney the extra duty of investigating joe biden and joe biden's son and hillary clinton and the democratic party. william barr said he would not do an investigation like that if you sense it is they are a political opponent. you don't have to sense that joe biden was a political opponent to donald trump. he was declared candidate for president of the united states. william barr will be challenged with his own words, these words you heard from him tonight. he will be challenged when he testifies to the house judiciary committee about this next month. william barr has a lot of work to do on the answers to the questions he will be facing, including the question if donald trump has made it impossible for you to do your job why haven't you resigned like federal prosecutor jonathan kravis who had the dignity and sense of duty to resign when you made it impossible for him to do his job. when attorney general william barr changed the sentencing recommendation in the roger stone case, all f

william barr, u.s. attorney general facing demands today from more than 1,100 former officials of the justice department, career prosecutors and political appointees. they want barr to step down now. these are people who work in both democratic and republican administrations. they are concerned about how women barr handled the federal sentencing of roger stone, close friend of president trump's convicted on charges that came out of the mueller recommendation. william barr, as attorney general, stepped in and overruled the recommendations that the prosecutors made. former justice officials say barr was out of bounds. mr. barr's actions in doing the president's personal bidding, unfortunately, speak louder than words. those actions and the damage they've done to the department of justice's reputation for integrity and rule of law require mr. barr to resign. our white house correspondent jeremy diamond is in washington. this is an extraordinary and bipartisan action from a very large group of officials. ho

bill barr rebuking trump.ged attorney general of the united states. bill barr for the first time now, you may have heard this just briefly. it broke as we were coming on the air. he is claiming to disagree president trump. let me get into it. this is a rare new interview. it comes as the embattled attorney general is taking heat for siding with trump in this very controversial way, politically intervening in the case of convicted trump aide roger stone and many say, blatant politicizing the department of justice. we'll break down what he is

bush administration alongside william barr, he's known william barr for 40 years, he's now gone so far as to urge a, quote, public uprising to insist that attorney general barr should be removed from the justice department. but this uproar, this ongoing uproar, is not apparently making things any better when it comes to the issue about which there is the uproar, about the use of the criminal justice system to do favors for the president and to go after the president's enemies, to protect and reward his loyalists. i mean each passing day since this scandal has broken open, the crisis has seemed to get a little worse, not better. we'll be talking a little later on this hour about today's raft of pardons and commutations, mostly for public corruption offenses. these pardons and commutations the president doled out today with glee, as a sort of rub your face in it demonstration that even the most vile, famous, uncontested, fully litigated, proven beyond a reasonable doubt, plaqblack and white case public corruption, they're okay now if president trump says they're okay. and the courts are

should the president listen to bill barr, will he listen to bill barr?u should listen to bill barr. the president obviously has confidence in bill barr. he appointed him. he has set over the weekend that she was asked, does this mean there's a rift? would seem that he had a rift with his prior attorney general and he said no, i think you should listen, but i think this controversy is still overblown in a sense that if the president were really intervening, when with the president thinks. the president thinks andrew mccabe probably should have been charged anything's roger stone is getting railroaded. if you were really intervening, the charges against roger stone would have been dropped and andrew mccabe would be facing charges maybe have already been tried by no, so i take bill barr at his word when he says that the president has never intervened, but that he finds the comments unhelpful. so, you know, back off a little tweets in the comments and take the advice of your attorney general, sure, but the fact of the matter is i think that the president's r

barr asked the u.s. attorney for the eastern district of missouri to look into the interview reports. also in breaking doj news, the justice department will not pursue criminal charges of andrew mccabe. mccabe, of course authorized and their constant targets are smears from the president. quote, the move was toads in -- said to infuriate trump. mccabe and others he considers political enemies, should be charged with crimes. notably, he was deputy director of the fbi who he lied to the fbi agents. and others trump considers enemies. adding to the tension of the barr director probe and the flynn interview and career officials at doj is today's assertion from donald trump that he has a legal right to get involved in criminal cases. that followed yesterday's televised plea from barr asking him to refrain from doing so. that's where we start with some ofory favorite reporters and friends. national security reporter covering the justice department. carol lee, former u.s. attorney joyce vance and matt miller a

>> speaking of the july 25th phone call, bill barr was asked about it and bill barr it turns out was to be part of the july 25th call. listen to this moment. >> a bit irritated by it. you know, the conversation jumped around. so i'm not sure what he meant by some of what he was saying. >> i wasn't sure what the president meant by some of what he was saying on that. >> i know exactly what he meant. he said to talk about the investigation into a political rival. completely unambiguous. so why is it irritating to bill barr? is it irritating because he was found out or because he didn't know about it? >> also if he didn't understand what the president was saying, i suppose he could ask the president. >> of course he was irritated. what he should have done is recuse yourself. you get mentioned in a call like that, you're a witness. and the thing that donald trump said in the rivera interview that was extra crazy, he said i had a choice. i could go through the comeys or i could go through rudy. the comeys, that's the fbi. how you're supposed to do these things. rudy is a private citizen. i

bill barr's breaking the scale of justice.become the errand boy for the president and politicize the justice department completely. what natasha said is right. the career members of the justice department are very demoralized by this. and i think that the house judiciary committee will grill him but we have seen in the hearings that he had before the senate judiciary committee's confirmation, bill barr's a wiley speaker. he is not going to be flumoxed by this questioning. he said he'll enforce the rule of law. >> thanks to both of you. natasha bertrand, michael con way. >>> coming up next, we are just over a week away from nevada's democratic caucuses but only a few of the candidates are actually in that state today. we are looking at what's at stake in nevada after the break. mornings were made for better things than rheumatoid arthritis or psoriatic arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz xr, a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis or active psoriatic arthritis for w

should he listen to bill barr. >> he should listen to bill barr. the president has confidence in bill barr. he appointed him. i think he should listen. but i think this controversy is still overblown. if the president were really intervening. the president thinks andrew mccabe should have been charged and he thought roger stone got railroaded. so i take bill barr's word when he says the president hasn't intervened. back off with the tweets and comments and take the advice of your attorney general. i think the president is right in the opinions he expressions and right to be concerned with equal justice. chris: on this issue of of democratic calls to investigate political interference at the department of justice. we got this on facebook. how can you interfere in an organization you oversee? it's rhetorical, you can't. under article two the president has tremendous powers to oversee the justice department and criminal investigations. >> it's a fair question. there is a paradox built into our constitutional order. the president is the head of the exe

barr to resign. now, the white house has spent a couple of days insisting that the relationship between the president and the attorney general is on solid footing despite barr's rebuke of the president's use of social media as it relates to the department of justice. what we are also seeing is the white house insisting that the president has confidence in barr, but also a little bit of pushback on what barr was saying. here's the vice president's chief of staff making that point. >> i don't think that it's impossible to do this job. in fact, i think that attorney general barr is doing a great job. i think he has a lot of confidence inside the white house. i think that the president's frustration is one that a lot of americans have, which feels like the scales of justice are not balanced anymore. there has been a bias inside the department of justice that attorney general barr is trying to correct. i think he has said that the president has not called him directly to do these things. he has acted inde

barr to resign. so this is going directly to the inspector general. >> and we know that the long time confident roger stone is going to be sentenced this week. what is the latest we are hearing? >> the latest is that the judge overseeing this, judge jackson has scheduled a conference call tomorrow to discuss some of the things that went on, and so many things that happened last week, wolf, including four prosecutors who quit the case. she has yet to even acknowledge the fact that those four prosecutors are no longer there. so for now it appears he is going to be sentenced this week, and he has requested twice for the judge to declare a new trial and we don't expect it is going to happen, and certainly, tomorrow, we will get to the first indication of her reaction to what went on at the justice department last week. >> we will see what she says and evan perez is reporting for us, and we will get more on this with senator ben cardin of maryland, and he is a member of the foreign relations committee and

things sure have changed since barr said this. this is back in 1991. >> it's the attorney general's responsibility to enforce the law even handedly and with integrity. the attorney general must ensure that the administration of justice, enforcement of the law is above and away from politics. >> let's not forget it was just days ago we learned barr in a hush-hush move ordered a u.s. attorney to take a second look at some sensitive cases including the case of ex-trump national security advisor michael flynn who pleaded guilty back in 2017 to lying to the fbi. but it seems this president won't let a guilty plea stand in the way when it comes to defending a member of team trump. >> michael flynn, general flynn is a wonderful man. i think he's been treated very unfairly by the media. he was just doing his job. well, i feel very badly for the general. he's led a very strong life and i feel very badly. what they did to general flynn is very unfair in my opinion. they ought to be ashamed of themselves. >> in the face of all that bill barr

and so it makes no sense at all. >> well, let's try to figure out -- is barr on the level or is barr playing a game? >> i think barr's playing a game and i think this is working the refs. this isn't just about roger stone. this is about this larger message, i am donald trump and if you do anything, if you investigate anybody, if you prosecute anybody, if you look into anything, if i don't like it i'm going to come after you so you better keep your head down and do what i want you to do. >> is it a joke? is barr playing a game here, pretending to challenge the president when he's simply in bed with him? >> i honestly don't know. but i think a lot of people will point to barr's previous conduct again and again coming to the president's defense, declaring that he didn't obstruct justice in the mueller investigation when that's not something that mueller's team actually concluded on. he has come to the president's defense again and again. he's described this all as a hoax. he has described the ukraine investigation as unfounded. he is somebody who's continuously stood by the president's

this week, barr said mr.mp comments and tweets about criminal cases make it impossible for him to do his job. meanwhile, executors dropped a tough sentencing recommendation from long-time trump advisor roger stone. decided not to pursue criminal charges against a favorite trump target andrew mccabe. in a moment, we will spoke with counselor to the president kellyanne conway. first, let's bring in mark meredith reporting from the president retreat with the latest. mark appeared. >> the president still has confidence and faith in his attorney general, even as multiple congressional democrats are calling for bill barr to resign amid multiple controversies facing his department. >> will not be bullied or influenced by anybody. >> bill barr is raising eyebrows for selecting an outside prosecutor to review the case against former national security advisor michael flynn. in 2017, flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the f b i recently asked to withdraw that plea and is still awaiting sentencing. the justice department s

gum detoxify, from crest. >>> so the attorney general william barr, bill barr sending a very public messageto president trump saying his tweets and public statements about justice department investigations are making it impossible for him to do his job. there's a lot to talk about. cnn's chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin is here. jeffrey never has anything, never says what's on his mind. political commentator cath ran ranfell and that was was obviously sarcasm and i appreciate your expertise on this. jeffrey, i'm going to start with you. the attorney general saying the president's tweets make his job impossible. i don't know, is he telling -- is he saying don't say the quiet part out loud? >> i think we've got to see what happens next. i will give the attorney general a measure of credit because he did say to the president stop doing this. now, the press secretary who never talk tuesday the press came out with a statement a couple of hours later saying the president is free to speak his mind as if you were still the host of the apprentice if you had no authority in this area and basically

bill barr's level of sincerity. i take his public comments with a grain of salt at this point, especially given his love of the strong executive. maybe the tweets are a bridge too far. do i see bill barr doing anything else rather than political cover? i take it as a political move, not as his deep regard for ethics of the department of justice and sanctity of upholding it. >> do you believe bill barr when he says he is making decisions on stone or flynn independently of the white house? >> no. i believe, i have no reason to believe that there was contact between the president and bill barr or the white house and justice department prior to barr's decision to withdraw that brief or supplement that brief. i do think, however, that it is unimaginable that bill barr acted without an eye on what the president would want, how the president desires for cases like stone and mike flynn's to be handled, and the reason for that is the president talks about it all the time. he couldn't possibly know how the president feels. gr

barr think that he is as well.ly, eric, everyone is kind of mystified by why the president has taken this course, both supporters and, of course, detractors are not mystified, but furious. eric: judy miller, as always, we thank you. arthel? >> thank you. arthel: well, thank you. several u.s. agencies now taking action against chinese tech giant huawei for alleged rogue practices, but some of our allies are not taking as strong an approach. how huawei is responding to washington's pressure, that's up next. ♪ ♪ i don't add up the years. and i don't count the wrinkles. but what i do count on is boost high protein. and now, introducing new boost women... with key nutrients to help support thyroid, bone, hair and skin health. all with great taste. new, boost women. designed just for you. new, boost women. i must admit. i had a few good tricks to help hide my bladder leak pad. like the old "tunic tug". you know it, right? but i don't have to, with always discreet. i couldn't believe the difference. it's less bulky. and i

get a grip, barr. look clearly. barr's complaint against the president amounts to this.c news, to whine that his boss is making his job tougher because his boss habitually takes to new meet yeah, twitter, and talks to the american people and gives his opinion as well. the attorney general is wrong on several counts, including taking on his boss in public. then the stories he's thinking about quitting unless the president quits tweeting. that's a dumb ultimatum. it's classless, it won't work, and the president has the constitutional duty and authority to run the justice department, period. it's time for the attorney general to deliver on his mission, clean up the rancid, politically corrupt justice department and fbi. they are both crooked at the top and the american people won't stand for more political correction. and you better be fighting for this president. he's the only one in washington who has been certified to be absolutely. and the u.s. senate. get back to work. too many of us put our faith in you and john durham for you to flag or to fold. go after the damn bad

bill barr hit at his tweets. that while barr appointed a u.s. attorney to view the case against michael flynn. plus, the weekended with the dropped charges against andrew mccabe. and we learned the judge in the mcca mccabe case was like a, quote, banana republic. criticism about barr using the department to help the president politically. here's barr addressing that concern in senate testimony. all right. we do not have that sound byte. but barr there defending that he was not asked. barr graces the house judiciary at the end of next month to testify. joining us now, democratic congresswoman sheila jackson lee, who sits on the house judiciary committee. always a pleasure, representative, to have you here. how are you doing? >> richard, good to be with you. i'm doing wonderful. thank you. and thank you for really explaining what we're facing here in america. >> that was just a partial list, as you know, of what are some of the concerns that have come up especially from your side of the aisle here. who should -- let me ask you this first -- should

barr to resign. >> something unprecedented has happened. 1,100 justice department official who is are republican as well as democrats call for his attorney general to step down for the abuse of the office. folks, i'm serious. no one has ever, ever weaponized the justice department like he has. >> reporter: in separate op-ed former republican deputy general went further writing bill barr's america is not place that anyone, including trump voters want to go. it's banana pe prepublic where all subject to a dictator president and his hench men. they said they work hand in grov. >> president has not asked or directed his attorney general to do anything in any criminal matter. number two, he works hand in glove with the attorney general as we all are privileged to do on any number of matters that affect this country. aides to the president say there's no way mr. trump will not tweeting his opinions about federal cases even as they vovr friends he want spared and enemies he want punished by prosecutors. >>

barr. anee it'sinteresting because barr is his favorite cabinetber. he handled the mueller probe.repeated dwhaun t president has wanted. this is the first tangible riff that we'vseen between theseen two robert: you just said that president trump spokeith the attorney gideral today on ay. what do you know about that conversation? >> we're still tryg to figure out all the details. what we know is that attorney general barr has been trying to communicate with the president, please stop tweeting. please stop making these public comments about d.o.j. probes. these comments are not help to feel you, they're not helpful to me. can you please step down? we know that he wanted mccabe we know he wanted james comey charged. we know there's been a number of disagreements between these two men. and that barr hasried to get some distance from the president. rt: you've been talking to former federal prosecutors all week on the newshour. what does your reporting tell you that how former officials at the d.o.j. are interpreting all that? do they see the attorney generai recl the institution and re

barr doesn't have that problem. but i think barr has a deeper problem when he goes and testifies on march 31st. which is really the reality, which is the president and barr seem to be bent on investigating all of the president's enemies, and benefiting all the president's friends. he has now launched investigations into the investigators over michael flynn, the president's national security adviser, roger stone, the president's campaign official and close confidant, carter page before that. someone who worked on the trump campaign. he's been launching all those investigations. and it is like ukraine. the president said what i did was right. i was trying to fight corruption. and he was asked, can you come up with any other example in the world where you cared about corruption? he couldn't then. and similarly here, barr should be asked, here you are, doing the president's bidding time and time again. you're now magically concerned about unfairness over roger stone. there are thousands of criminal cases in the system.

what's behind bill barr's decision to speak up? where i come from we measure your height from your neck up. >> mike bloomberg pulling no punches as the president fires away on twitter. the former mayor quietly building a coalition before he's even on the ballot. >>> three, two, one. throw it. >> and nothing but the net with $10,000 on the line. so why won't that student get the full prize? >> a controversy brewing, i think. >>> good morning and welcome back to "early start." i'm alison cosik. >> and i'm laura jarrett. 31 minutes past thohour here in new york. how far does the president have to go get a scolding from his most fierce protector? turning on his boss just days after bill barr overruled it was a move that drew cheers from the president but increased worries his umproper influence is undermining the rule of law. and apparently trump critics weren't the only ones worried. >> to have public statements and tweets made about the department, about our people in the department, our men and women here, about cases pending in the

can he not surrender barr?ld say it's an interesting question to see whether there is a slow building anger in his body for barr. >> i will bet you a fair amount of money that barr is still attorney general a year from now. >> i'm not betting. i said it's just an interesting -- but i mean i think that's more threatening to barr than the letter. >> sonom? >> it's not what barr says in these interviews but it's his actions. ever since he took over as attorney general, he has done a number of things that directly catered to the president where barr is acting more like the president's defense lawyer than as the attorney general. so it doesn't matter if he's telling interviewers these tweets bother me and it makes it impossible for me to do my job because at the end of the day he's still catering to the president's wishes. if we look at this letter from 2,000 career prosecutors directly criticizing attorney general barr for stepping in in the roger stone sentencing, that's just the latest thing that he's done. i thi

move from barr and barr is going to continue to protect the president and do his bidding and be the roy cohen that the president has called for. and president trump was on the radio in an interview saying that if he had barr from the beginning of the term, he would not have faced impeachment in all of the other scandals. >> and somewhere in alabama, jeff sessions flourishes. >> and so, if it is a deliberate move, it failed. and so look at what he is tweeting, john kelly, the former chief of staff who is no longer working there and not the attorney general who criticized him, and trump, if he feels that somebody is attacking him, he is not quiet. and the press secretary said that he is not bothered about it, and if you think that there not a gap between the two, i have a trump university certificate to sell you. >> and now, on the radio show he said that he did send rrp to ud giuliani to ukraine. >> was it strange to send rudy giuliani to ukraine and are you sorry for that? >> well, rudy is a great crime fighter and you know that more than anybody. >> yes, i do. >> and rudy is on the gam

barr alone.ost: north carolina on our independent line. i made the decision before president trump tweeted that out and barr is an honest man and president trump is the best president we have ever had in our lives. the democrat people need to think back at the beginning of 2016 andion in 2017, the news media never tells you who to vote for and they were listening to the news media and all of a sudden turned totally democrat. host: losing you, sorry about that. congress wraps up their work yesterday and now on break for the presidents' day week, the headline, senate passes resolution that would limit trump's war powers on iran. publicans joined democrats. the chairman of the foreign relations committee is jim risch and he spoke out against the measure on the senate floor. [video clip] >> there was no doubt this man was planning an imminent attack to kill americans. he did not get the chance. thank you, mr. president. thank you for what you did. we have heard the argument it was not imminent. this

and bill barr did not take issue with that. again, the first rule of fight club is you don't talk about fight club. what he took issue with is that the president was tweeting and talking about it. the other side is people always saying why aren't more people speaking out about certain things the president does. bill barr spoke out, i guess, against the president's tweeting. that's something. does he deserve credit for that? >> well, it's something. but it comes at a time when it's -- when the tweets all of a sudden are inconvenient for him. i mean, the question is if he says that the president's tweets and this constant running commentary that's been going on for the entire administration, if that makes his job impossible, then what is he going to do when the president continues to disparage justice department, current or former leaders. when the president continues to disparage sitting federal judges which he is going to do as we continue to approach the sentencing of roger stone. and the michael flynn case is still out there

in surprise comments yesterday barr blasted mr. trump for tweets attacking the j justice department's sentencing recommendation for his friend roger stone. barr said the tweets are making it impossible for him to do his job, adding he's not going to be bullied or influenced by anyone. senate judiciary committee chairman lindsey graham stood by barr saying he has my complete confidence. the comments come after the justice department intervened and lowered stone's sentencing recommendation. all four prosecutors on the case then stepped down. naomi ruchim is in new york. what's the reaction from the white house? >> reporter: white house officials i pear to be caught offguard by barr's remarks. but the press secretary said the president wasn't bothered by the comments at all and that the president like any american has the right to publicly offer his opinions. attorney general william barr has a message for president trump. stop tweeting. >> i cannot do my job here at the department with constant background commentary that undercuts me

what do you see bill barr doing here? is he trying to reverse the work of the mueller investigation? >> what is interesting is that michael flynn started when he was convicted started with a sentence, a guilty sentence, and he admitted that he had lied to the fbi when he was questioned on his conversations with russia during the campaign. and so, what's interesting here now is that the attorney general goes back and forth. when you are looking at the attorney general and what he has done from the very beginning is that he has undermined the independence of the department of justice. he has been following the orders from this president, and so at this point, i don't know if it is specific to the mueller investigation, and so it is the retaliation by this president for anyone that brought forth the truth that the president of the united states has abused the power of his office. what we are seeing now is that he is continuing the abuse of power by interfering in the investigations that should be completely free of any polit