i know bob mueller. i have confidence in bob mueller. >> last question. >> way in the back. >> thank you. two parts. one, did you convey your opinions to the president on mr. mueller that he should just let the investigation continue? and if the president does go ahead and let mr. mueller go, would you -- >> there's no debate that's going on here. >> you're creating a debate that's not happening. >> this is like a rumor we heard last night, so there's not really some big debate that's occurring on this. >> is congress interested in reupping the special prosecutor? >> you're creating -- like i said, kevin just said it you're creating a debate that's not occurring here. this i think was a rumor that came out last night -- >> you're creating a rumor that's not happening. >> so, kevin made a good point here. look at what we're doing this week. we found out three years ago veterans were dying on these waiting lists that were occurring at the va in arizona and then all around america, so we uncovered a scandal

>> that's bob mueller's job to sort that out. >> that's bob mueller's job to sort that out. the special counsel will work to understand whether the obstruction intent was there, whether that's an offense. so that's the first obvious reason we believe that the special counsel, bob mueller is now investigating whether anyone potentiay including the president might have tried to obstruct justice in the russia investigation. first reason is bluntly because james comey said so yesterday under oath, twice. the other reason we believe the special counsel bob mueller is investigating whether there was an obstruction of justice is because of this. >> so you didn't consider your memo or your sense of that conversation to be a government document. you consider it to be somehow your own personal document that you could share with the media as you wanted to? >> correct. i understood this to be my recollection recorded of my conversation with the president as a private citizen. i felt free to share that. i felt very important to get that out. >> so were all of your memos that you recorded

that's bob mueller's job to sort that out. >> bob mueller, special counsel, as of tonight appears very strongly to be investigating whether the president of the united states, donald trump, committed obstruction of justice. now, the race is on to confirm that for a fact, but in the absence of direct confirmation, it really seems clear by every indication that that's what he's doing. so we've got james comey saying under oath that president trump was not the subject personally of a counterintelligence investigation by the fbi into the russian attack on our election and possible collusion. president not personally the subject of that. but it appears that he very much may be the subject of the special counsel's investigation into the potential obstruction of justice. so here's the other thing going on about that tonight that is turning into a really interesting question. bob mueller appears to be investigating obstruction of justice. is congress investigating that too? we know the intelligence committees are investigating the russia side of this, the russia attack, whether they colluded i

to pick bob mueller, to stand by bob mueller.t is, i hate to use the word stunning, but it is stunning to see republicans diss bob mueller. >> i think so. especially when bob mueller in my opinion is the best solution for the white house and this -- this problem, the problem of the investigation. what you need now is clarity, credibility and closure. that's what you need out of this investigation. bob mueller is the best chance of that. he's independent -- >> why don't they understand that? >> because they see every move as a political machination that's intended to undermine. instead of seeing this as an opportunity to say bob mueller should bring together the best legal minds to figure out if there are any criminal charges, and frankly, if there are not, then to lay this clarity and claim in the cloud shall as the president said, over the administration out of the way. what's so debilitating here is the suspicion around this case. >> he has assembled a dream team. i think we have some of their names up here. kasie hunt, talk a

that's not bob mueller. never been bob mueller. doesn't bake any sensmake any s.epublican appointee. a law enforcement person. more importantly, it's the first inning, literally the first day this has been publicly documented. i don't know if anyone has any idea where it goes. it could ultimately help donald trump if a respectable person clears him of charges and say it's time to move on or could hurt him in other ways. either way, this is a guy who ran on law and order and supporting the cops. ma what do you think the fbi is? federal cops. they are the people who enforce the laws and risk their lives. we're here coming off a day when we talked about the capitol police, the lives they risk. that's what we're talking about. if you believe the woest woet repo blank blank woe "washington post" paper. started looking as obstruction as a factual matter before bob mueller came in the room. at a certain point, yes, he is fair game in the sense that it's lawful to talk about it. and i fully expect the president's lawyers to do that. but if you talk about the wider ambit,

bob mueller's investigation is only getting started. the only thing that has changed is the president is attacking bob mueller. and therefore, newt gingrich is attacking bob mueller. members of congress on both sides of the aisle find mr. mueller to be someone of bravery and courage who served his country with bravery in vietnam, who served both parties. >> let's talk about the democrats he was talking about. congressman. is that a point? if he's got democrats in there, if he's got people who have given to clinton and other democrats? >> no, i think anyone who knows bob mueller knows he is choosing the best people to serve on the investigative team. people with experience in the issues he wants to investigate and believes need to be investigated. as you and pierre pointed out, he can't go through f.e.c. filings to determine if he should or shouldn't hire people. he's picking the best people. members of congress have confidence in that. what's happening here, the president wants to take down bob mueller. his lawyer wants to take down bob

sarah sanders confirmed today on air force one that he interviewed bob mueller the day before bob mueller was appointed as special counsel. >> i want to read another quote from this piece tonight. in recent days, the president has told his staff, his visitors, and his advisers that he was increasingly convinced that mr. mueller, like mr. comey, his successor at the fbi, was part of a witch hunt of partisans who wanted to see him weakened or forced from office. david rohde, what do you think of that? >> it's the same sense in the white house that they're under siege. i understand their frustration. this continues to dominate the news. >> mueller was appointed by trump's deputy ag. how is that a witch hunt? >> i think mueller has nothing to lose, he's a decorated combat veteran, served in vietnam, oversaw investigations of john gatti and noriega. mueller will carry this out very thoroughly but also very slowly. i don't think this tactic is going to work. i think it hurts president trump. i think he should let this investigation go forward, talk about the economy, talk about jobs, you know,

newt gingrich liked bob mueller.paul ryan defended bob mueller this morning on hugh hewitt's talk show. >> i think you had republicans writ large came out when bob mueller was appointed to the special counsel saying this is the guy for the job, this is the professional who will take it out of this kind of combat political back and forth of partisanship. now you're seeing in the last five days or so where republican, kind of grass-roots, the ann coulters of the world saying, no, bob mueller is no longer qualified. he is tainted. he is best friends with comey and they're trying to cast aspersions on this. newt gingrich came out this morning, kind of re-casting his statement once again saying he has talked to the president and he doesn't believe he'll actually fire him. >> we have the sound bite from this morning. talking about all this. take a listen. >> you think the president is considering firing robert mueller? >> no. absolutely not. >> why don't you think that? >> i think the president is pretty confident that ult

you won't be unless bob mueller says so. stop talking. you are headed into a giant perjury trap. so mueller has a lot of weight on his shoulders and people are trying to discredit him, people are trying to support him. right now, the process has to play out, and if mueller is moved away from this, it looks very bad for the president. >> it's more than looking bad. let's call it what it would be. it would be a credible claim towards obstruction of justice. if this would be derailed by the administration, that's what at lies are increasingly saying. assume there are talking points floating around. >> assume there are talking points. >> yes, and you know, let's also call it what it is, which is yet another part of the epidemic of situational ethics we're seeing in washington, and surrounding this administration. i doubt very much that newt gingrich would have questioned the impartiality of ken starr during the clash with that independent counsel being the crucial difference it was an independent counsel and all these republicans who had nothing to say about their parties and former p

is the president's past, could that be an issue if he appeared before bob mueller.he things we have learned from the comey testimony, is that he did various actions to tilt thing to bob mueller, which was that now h has. >> very clear that james comey admitted in his testimony, that he took various actions in leaking, so that he could get his friend bob mueller to act. now right there, that says that there's a problem here. >> he did admit that he did provide that memo to hiss friend because he wanted to see a special counsel appointed, he didn't use the words bob mueller. >> he's manipulating things. i mean let's get beyond james comey-- >> one of the ways that pundits work occasionally is by taking leaps of logic here, and bob mueller, his name was not even mentioned, there was no special counsel appointed and bob mueller's name wasn't even circulated and you're saying that james comey wanted to see bob mueller appointed special counsel? >> i am simply observing the fact that by his own definition, he's great friends with bob mueller, i'm simply observing that, th

ultimately, the question of criminal misconduct lies with bob mueller, the special counsel here. given how polarized the country is, what do you think are the chances that the country will have wide acceptance of whatever mueller comes up with? >> oh, i think at the end of the day they probably will accept what he puts out. he's a very credible person on both sides of the aisle. he's going to let the chips fall where they may. if he finds anything, he'll put it forward. i didn't see anything yesterday, candidly, that led to intent to obstruct justice. mr. comey admitted a cowardice or lack of will. he went in and had issues with mr. trump the first time and went in nine additional times and met with him. if he had concerns, he should have said, no, mr. president, it's not appropriate to talk about these issues or if we're going to talk about these issues, i'll have the attorney general, his boss, in with him. that was his responsibility. >> senator feinstein alluded to that yesterday, saying why didn't you say to the president why this is not appropriate. i want you to look ahead

and now we see paid hacks on the other side going after bob mueller. >> yeah., it was newt gingrich who said they probably could and should fire bob mueller. so this act is complicated and it was changed in 1999. >> the act of kree creating a sl counsel? >> after ken starr. there was a sense that if you give someone too much independence, there's no accountability. and there has to be a way for someone to be accountable to someone after ken starr. so they came up with this compromised solution, which is that the president can actually fire mueller and ken starr could not be fired at that point so i think they were looking for a middle ground here. the question is, that nobody can answer, nothing is perfect here. would it be a great solution for the president of the united states to ask rod rosenstein, who would then resign, so ask somebody else, to fire the independent counsel? no. but can he do it? absolutely. >> all of these structures, independent counsel, are designed, at least in a general way, to try to take politics out and make people independent. the s

the next is, what exactly is doj's position on the support for special counsel bob mueller? e trump confidante, chris ruddy, is now saying that the president of the united states is considering terminating mueller, but the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, is up on the hill right now saying that there are regulations in place, and that decision isn't up to the president. and last but not least, how many times exactly did sessions meet with the russian ambassador, sergey kislyak? cnn has reported that congressional investigators are examining whether sessions had an additional, private meeting with that russian ambassador back on the campaign trail, but the justice department says it never happened, period. so, you can be sure senators are going to want to question him hard about that, kate. >> absolutely. laura, thank you. so many questions. thank you for laying it out for us. everyone will be watching to see how, and if he does answer those questions. laura, thank you so much. peter and diane are back with me. laura jarrett laid out the main questions here. diane, let

>> bob mueller has been appointed mostly by republicans and was extended by president obama. st the lead has some republican credit. but i think it's pretty safe to say that mueller does not read newt gingrich's tweets. his head is down. he's focussed on what he can deliver and his obligation to deliver the truth. if you are on trump's team, what you want is a thorough investigation so that this will go away and the administration and the white house can actually focus on work. >> so this comes as some democrats are now saying that the fired national security advisor, michael flynn, is cooperating. obviously, that's significant in many ways. but one of them could be that he, in exchange for his cooperation, is willing to, well, let's just say flip or turn or dish on somebody else. how big of a risk is flynn? >> well, look, flynn has been a problem for the president from the very beginning and i can't understand the president's loyalty to flynn because of that because most of the president's problems with the russia investigation which is a serious matter the president should w

the talk about firing bob mueller, what's being missed is what has bob mueller done other than hire assistants. that's how crazy what is going on right now. if we're talking about firing bob mueller because he hired an assistant that looks optically bad. it's insane. the one last point, there is now on the far right the allegation that there's some sort of deep state conspiracy between president obama, bob mueller and james comey. and there's a photo going around from june 21st, 2013, in the oval office of the three of them together and you know what happened that day, it was the day that the president or president obama nominated james comey to succeed bob mueller. a standard photo op but that's the proof of the conspiracy. the salem witch trials were built on more evidence than that. >> extraordinary time and we have a quick programming note. chris ruddy will be live at noon with kristen welker filling in for andrea mitchell. we will find out what he says he heard whether it was from the president or someone close to the president around his intentions around robert mueller. the other big st

and appoint bob mueller. don't waste our time. let's bring in david drucker, a man who cloerly never sleeps. he was our lead in actually. >> thanks for coming back. >> i changed my clothes. >> well done, even the pocket square. >> always a pocket square. >> there's some criticism of bob mueller, of the special kunl. it comes from newt gingrich, who tweeted, republicans are delusional it they think the special counsel is going to be fair. look who he's hiring. check fec reports, time to e rethink. the question is these people that bob mueller has appoint ed some call it an all-star team, but they have all made donations to the democratic party. is that a problem for the investigation? >> i think that he's realized it will certainly run some people the wrong wi. you have to dig into the numb s numbers. there's a couple members that have given money over the course of years. i don't think that's such a big deal. one of the people appointed has given a sizable amount of money over a period of decades. and in this

and then after -- and bob mueller's name wasn't even circulating. ames comey wanted to see bob newaller appointed as special counsel? james comey rod rosenstein? >> i'm saying he is great friends with bob mueller that is a fact. >> let's talk about what really happened here. it was one of the most fascinating moments of comey's testimony. he acknowledged, and it was a spectacular moment that he more or less engineered the appointment of a special prosecutor. that was his objection. >> yes. >> not necessarily robert mueller. and why was that his objective? because it is obvious from his testimony he thought there was a cover-up going on. a cover-up in which the president of the united states might well and probably was involved -- let me finish, please. from his point of view. and also the role of jeff sessions. he went to the attorney general and told him about his session. keep me away from the president, et cetera. and when that failed, yes, he indeed tried to engineer getting a special prosecutor. and has succeeded. and why has he succeeded? becau

will reappoint bob mueller. where is the apology for me for all the incorrect stories, but the suggestion that he is considering firing mueller is not fake news it came from a long time friend of of president trump chris ruddy, here he is on pbs news hour in his own words. >> i think he is perhaps thinking about firing the special council. i think it's clear by what one of his lawyers said on television -- >> and the white house official's comment on that is that ruddy speaks for himself and as you pointed out we heard from the deputy a.g. it wouldn't matter to him what anyone session bob mueller will not be fired without justifiable cause. >> and abc news will bring you the sessions testimony live at 2:30 this afternoon and brian taff's live reports beginning at 4:00 here on "action news." >>> and because of today's special report, today's regularly scheduled episode of general hospital will be moved to tomorrow. don't worry you won't miss a thing. tomorrow at 3:00 a repeat episode of general hospital will be p

bob mueller's job and i can't comment on what he may or may not be looking at. to figure out whether charges should be brought against someone and if so, for what. our responsibility is equally important but different. it's our job to figure out what has happened to make sure there is no interference with any investigation including our own. and to report to the american people. so this work needs to be done and we are the only committee in the house that's authorized to look into this. >> are you negotiating with mike conaway, the top republican on the committee on this investigation? are you in negotiations with him on that? >> i have begun discussions with him about it earlier in the week. now, mike was at the ball field practicing during the terrible attack. i think he's quite properly taking time to deal with that. i look forward when he gets back next week and i didn't have a chance to see him to discuss it further. i do think that if there is anyone trying to interfere with what the fbi is doing we need to put a stop to it. we need to make sure bob muelle

the appointment of bob mueller was not appropriate under those circumstances. >> i just want to make one thing crystal clear right now, the reason he could be a witness, part of the issue, and the president brought this on himself, he said the reason i fired the fbi director was russia. did the president tell you he was going to fire the fbi director because of russia or was it because of your memo about the clinton administration? he could be forced to asked that and be forced to answer, couldn't he? >> and the first thing i would ask is who asked you to write this memo? there's a lot of questions surrounding that memo in the first place. i agree with the substance of that memo, i think that jim comey stepped out of bounds with his investigation. >> the last point that matthew was making right there, that bob mueller may not be the best pick as a special counsel because of his well known relationship with james comey, the two guys are friends. do you think robert mueller should step aside and why? >> yes, i two think he should step aside. it's not that he's anything but a man of int

we've got bob mueller in this, mike.s the president under any guise to be compelled to talk by robert mueller? >> not necessarily. for all the focus we've had on comey, all the focus on house intel and senate judiciary and all these different public forums, you're absolutely right that bob mueller is the wildcard. he's the force that's going to drive what we see into the future. we don't know how long that's going to take, what steps he's going to take. for all of comey's testimony, bob mueller already has the memos themselves. >> is there any guess at a timeline on this? >> i have no guess at all. when is the last time you saw bob mueller make a public statement? he just hasn't done anything. we expect that to be the case moving forward. don't expect it to happen very fast, that's for sure. >> thing about this, too, no one wants to jump to conclusions about the fact he's been appointed as special prosecutor. he's got to do the job, let the facts leaped where they may. it may lead to a place where bob mueller doesn't do

chris, i want to play a little more about what chris rurddy jut said, saying don't fire bob mueller. listen to this. >> i don't think the white house press office is doing a good job explaining what the president's achievements have been. and they are now facing a very serious threat from robert mueller. but i do think at the basis of all of this, i think it would be a mistake to fire mueller, but i also think the basis of his investigation is flimflam. >> all right. ron, we have been talking about this for days. clearly, there is some kind of effort to go after bob mueller, at least in some way. but by bringing up the firing, today of all days, when you have jeff sessions testifying before the senate intelligence committee in a little bit, ron rosenstein, the guy who is the only one who could actually fire bob mueller, he testifies in less than an hour right now, this guarantees that the deputy attorney general is going to get asked about this, ron. >> absolutely. first of all, as a designated nonlewis on the panel, great to be here. i think this is part of a broader part earn we hav

the order appointing bob mueller to be special counsel said i don't have any idea that investigation he could also investigated and prosecute any other matters that, quote, arise from that russia investigations. well, it now seems clear that one of the matters that has arisen from the russia investigation is this possibility there's been an attempt to obstruct justice in this matter potentially by the president of the united states himself. and although the mueller investigation, the spokesperson for bomueller is not confirming that overtly, that bob mueller isow investigating whether the president obstructed justice, we're sure that's what he's working on. we're pretty darn sure of it tonight for two reasons. first reason is because james comey said so under oath yesterday twice. >> do you sense the president was trying to obstruct justice or just seek for a way for mike flynn to save face given he had

it won't really impact bob mueller.bob mueller is going to look at the facts and look at what the evidence based on those facts tells him and he's going to make a decision. it is not going to be a political decision. he is not a political guy. he is actually registered as a republican, but that doesn't make one bit of difference for the way he'll behave in this case. it is what does the facts say, what is the conclusion you have to draw from those things. >> it is interesting, though. trump is raising a couple points here that are worth running down. okay? one of them the donations. you just heard tom's report. giving tens of thousands of dollars to democrats. there are at least three members of mueller's team that have donated almost exclusively to democrats. two of them to hillary clinton last year. does trump have a point to say that this objection -- investigation, i'm sorry, may not be objective? >> not really. i mean, look, there is the facts of the contribution, which you can't deny and they are asserting their p

he created all kinds of problems. >> do you think bob mueller is dirty?> look, chris, that's one member of congress. here's what i do know. all kinds of republicans, all kinds of democrats wanted james comey to go. republicans didn't like what he said in july of last year. you democrats didn't like what he said in october. i actually criticized both times. i criticized him in july, and i took some heat for it when i did that in october. i thought he messed the whole investigation up. he leaked information to "the new york times" to protect himself. he did. >> wait a second. >> to create this push for a special counsel, and it actually is now what we have. so -- >> wait. but to get back, the question at issue is not james comey, who's been fired. there's nothing anyone with do about that. james comey is gone. the person who does occupy a position of authority is robert mueller, appointed by the deputy attorney general. there's are a lot of folks saying that mueller has to go, they trust him, he's dirty -- [ overlapping voices ] i'm just curious whether you

i think ultimately bob mueller is also going to need to get these answers. part of our discussions and we expect to meet with bob mueller either later this week or next week will be what is the proper sequencing here senator what are his equities in this, and how do we coordinate these efforts? but at the end. day, both the congress, bob mueller owes the american people as to whether this attorney general and deputy were providing nothing more than a pretense for a decision, an improper decision to fire the director on other grounds. >> well, let me just press you. if in fact he continues to refuse to answer your questions, are you ready to go as far as to hold him in contempt of congress and then see him in court? >> well, here's the sequence i think we ought to follow. if we get to that point, ultimately the answer is yes, wolf, but i think the sequence is we go back to the white house and say we're going to need answers to these questions. are you invoking privilege or are you not. if they are not we'll invite him to come back in and if they do invoke pri

that is from newt gingrich about bob mueller.rical context, we try that every now and then in washington, here's newt gingrich a short time ago, may 17th. robert mueller is a superb choice to be a special counsel. media should calm down. so we had our staff, look, there is one person on the staff so far and we're going to look at them all who gave about $18,000 to democratic causes over the years. that's one person. this is washington. is that reason enough for newt gingrich to suddenly turn and say bob mueller, a guy who was fbi director under george w. bush extended his term so that he could stay on, bob mueller has become a partisan hack overnight? >> no. because bob mueller is the one in charge of this investigation. ultimately to decide how to proceed and there is some oversight over him by rod rosenstein even though there is a special counsel, so he can't really just do whatever he wants in this investigation. can't just do whatever they want. so the question is -- the jury's out about how bob mueller conduc conducts himsel

time did not believe that the president was obstructing justice and quite frankly special counsel bob mueller, who is allowing jim comey to testify today, could potentially in any case of obstruction be, you know, bob mueller's key witness, he is already allowed him to speak about this. so i don't think, i think analysis is correct. this is a political situation where the people will hear both sides of a political case but the legal case is just not there. stuart: james comey, by the way just walked into the hearing room.

now, he deferred to bob mueller, who was in charge of investigating the ties in between the trump campaign and russia. and at this point, we just don't know. mueller himself obviously isn't talking. comey laid out a very clear synopsis of what he saw as pressure from the white house. president trump, of course, has denied key parts of that testimony. it's really unclear at this stage as to whether or not mueller is going to see that as a viable pathway. he's certainly authorized to investigate that but whether or not he is remains a question. >> sunlen, what are you hearing? were house and senate judiciary committees on their own or do they leave it to bob mueller? >> it's going to move forward regardless of what we heard from james comey on thursday and with the bob mueller special investigation. the intel committee led by richard burr of north carolina and mark warner of north carolina, they are moving forward on their investigation to looking into russian meddling into the 2016 elections. they are hopefully meeting with bob mueller in the coming days to find out how do we not step on ea

you look in the dictionary for public servant and you see bob mueller's picture. he was an outstanding choice and is doing his job. he's doing nothing other than doing his job. the president just can't pick the opposing team, you know, if you're playing baseball, you don't pitch -- you don't pick the person who pitches for the other team. you don't say you can only have three infielders. you don't mess with the criminal justice system in this way. and the fact that he wishes to test the waters on firing mueller has gotten a lot of attention in congress and you saw senator feinstein today make the statement that there should be consequences in the congress if the president goes ahead and does that. and watergate, archibald cox, the man who was investigating nixon, was fired for no reason that passed muster causing the resignation rather than doing that deed. the president is on very tenuous ground here, don. >> i've got to ask you, john, richard nixon considered a mix son is hoping for a saturday night massacre. he said, "identifier mueller and rosenstein for wasti

he said he had confidence in bob mueller. the president is kind of on an island. there are nobody here attacking ron rosenstein, bob dollar. -- mueller. it seems like this week is the week that senate republicans began to push back on the president. they also had russia sanctions this week, prevented -- this new bill would prevent lifting sanctions on his own, really rating in the president. david: i imagine it's a quiet friday there on capitol hill. what is on the agenda next week vis-a-vis these investigations? steven: we will hear more from grassley and feinstein, maybe finalize the agreement. senate intelligence will have an open hearing on wednesday into russian interference in the elections. also on election security, this is an increasing issue. people worried about hacking into the actual voting systems themselves. that will be an issue on wednesday. dennis, appreciate the time. one of our congressional reporters. speech thising a afternoon by president trump in miami, florida. expecting him to rollback changes president obama made to u.s. policy with cuba.

what's more, bob mueller is a class act and he's going to do a good job. if the president were to choose to fire him, i think we'd have to be looking for a new president very quickly. it's not going to work that way. >> i want to ask you, because you're there at the white house every day, about -- >> yes. >> -- sort of impugning the reputation of robert mueller. it happened with comey. this is a deliberate strategy on the part of the white house and the administration. >> it's no longer the politics of politics, it's the smear campaign now. you know, with this administration, if they don't like you, they will let you know, and let the public know. they are not afraid of playing the partisan game. you know, if you are considered a democrat, or there's a thought that you're a democrat, that is an ugly word. it's a pejorative now. if they don't like you for something that you're doing, they will go after you. the talking points, we've heard it today, against mueller. the issue is, again, the politics of politics are gone. it is a smear campaign now. >> we als

all in bob mueller's hands now? >> it is. i mean, there's still a lot of road to be coved to get this nearimpeachment and referred to article iv of impeachment and did not get through the senate. >> it did not. >> it was rejected and article i impeachment of nixon was much more detailed. >> all right. thank you very much. >> thank you, guys. >> matthew, you get a c-plus. >> what? >> room for improvement. working harder next time. >> didn't fail. >> exactly. >> she is a -- >> is there extra credit? >> take that home with you. >> best line i have heard since the doctor passed away. tributes of bobby. she said, he read an article that he wrote and the doctor wrote him a quick note and said, very well argued. weak conclusion. bobby said it was the greatest compliment he ever got. >> we are heading to church to remember my dad today. >> we sure are. >> stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thanks, good morning. i'm stephanie ruhle with breaking news to cover and breaking the silence. the president finally responds to

we just need to go there. >> mark hit on a key point with regard to bob mueller. mueller is there for bun reason and one reason only, to provide resolution, on either side, whether there's nothing there or something indeed there. that's what bob mueller is there to do. he's a fair guy, fair guy, ethical guy, and he will get that done. michael schmidt, your story -- "the times" story in today's paper indicate three people will probably be questioned by mr. mueller and his crew. dan coats who has only been dni now for two or three months, but mike rogers and his assistant have been at the nsa for quite some period of time, and during their time there, they would certainly have been on board in anything that was going on with russia for several months, maybe even years. where is this going with questioning those three? >> that was the significant thing to us which is that these three folks were not part of the campaign. they weren't involved in going out on the stump or helping with the election and all. so the questions about them coming in terms of how the president

partner to bob mueller. but what do you think he misunderstands about the professionalism with which career law enforcement folks go about any investigation? >> i think he sees this in very tribal terms. you're either on one team or another team. obviously that's not how washington works necessarily. and that's not how the legal profession works. look, i do think -- i was surprised to see among first four hires of bob mueller announced that three of them had given more than $40,000 to the democratic campaigns. including the obama campaign and the clinton campaign. i think that was a misstep in the order of the hiring but he's hired many lawyers since who don't have that record and bob mueller is a registered republican, who's worked for republicans. he's got an impeccable reputation for honesty and integrity in this town. if idea that this is not -- the idea that this not on the level because a few attorneys gave money to democrats seems absurd to me. >> let many go back to the obstruction of justice investi

trump met with bob mueller, a day before mueller was named special counsel. what did they talk about? plus, bombshell about trump firing mueller. was he doing the president's bidding. we have a special report on their relationship. and an american in captain activity in south korea for 17 years back home in a coma. what happened to him? somewhere along the great journey of self-discovery: a breakthrough. ♪ it's in our nature to need each other. ♪ will you be ready when the moment turns romantic? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask

president trump an his associates appear to be interfering with the work of the special counsel, bob mueller. >> i think he's considering, perhaps, terminating the special counsel. >> just hours after leaving the white house, president trump's longtime friend, christopher ruddy, claims the president is considering firing special counsel robert mueller, the man in charge of investigating possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia. >> i think he's weighing that option. i think it's pretty clear by what one of his lawyers said on television recently. i personally think it would be a very significant mistake. >> white house press secretary sean spicer insisting mr. ruddy never spoke to the president regarding this issue. but ours earlier spicer's deputy said ruddy, quote, speaks for himself. self trump allies now attacking mueller's credibility despite initially praising his appointment. former trump campaign adviser newt gingrich tweeting monday, republicans are delusional if they think special counsel is doing to be fair. but only last month gingrich praised mueller as a, quote,

speculation, perhaps, but it would seem to be in keeping with his previous firing. >> julie, i raise bob mueller. i want to show you something senator bob corker said to me this morning and ask you if you think anything is sacred on the other side of this. >> i think we need to keep supporting what's happening through the intel committee. >> what about bob mueller? do the republicans have to make it abundantly clear and get it on the record that they support bob mueller. >> i cannot possibly imagine the president terminating bob mueller. it's not even -- it's ridiculous to even consider or talk about. i mean, it's -- it just cannot happen. so let's put that aside. if they even have ever discussed that, which i would doubt they have. but mueller aside, his investigation is going to go on. the intel committee, i think, is handling itself exceptionally well, and we need to continue to support their efforts. >> julie davis, 8:41 a.m. on today, i'm marking it on my calendar as the day that a very well respected republican senator said he could never imagine this president firing bob mueller. i -- i d

the deputy attorney general who named bob mueller, the special counsel. we've heard the president has been mad at james comey. james comey got fired. he's teaming about bob mueller. we know he's mad at jeff sessions for recusing himself. now he's mad at number two at the justice department, a man who has a very important job in the trump administration in addition to being the point person for the special counsel. >> this is a reflection of broadly how frustrated the president is generally about the russia investigation. he always has somebody he's turning his fire on. now it's rod rosenstein. and he issued a statement last night in response to some of the reports that were coming out about the investigation that was a little bit bizarre in the sense that it said don't believe anonymous sources . it seemed designed saying the justice department saying it wasn't pressure from the white hou hou house. >> so perhaps he knew the president is angry. this one gets bizarre when you think about all this. >> it made sense he would be the lightning rod for the pres

what if i fire bob mueller?" where they're talking about pulling that string. maybe for donald trump having a 24% approval rating is not as bad as the alternative, having bob muler and his investigators find that one thing that keeps donald trump awake all night. >> look at what we know about him. we've spent a lot of time with him. you know, at this point, i will put money on the fact that he will try to fire bob mueller. there are no tapes. secondly, the reason why he is still so unbelievably out of sync with what even seems like reality and congress as well, look at that cabinet meeting. that says it all. >> the delusion to say he's passed more legislation than anybody but fdr. >> he lied in that cabinet meeting. he did not pass any legislation. more so, he's surrounded by a bunch of -- i'll let joe find the word, people, i'll just say, who are feeding into that delusion and making that delusion sicker. >> mitch mcconnell has a job to do. and he's got -- he's elected by members of the senate to serve republic

his lawyer wants to take down bob mueller and the question is why.they want to lay the foundation to discredit whatever bob mueller comes up with. they are essentially engaging in a scorched with. they're essentially engaging in a scorched earth strategy that begins with trying to discredit the prosecutor. that's all that's happening here. >> that was california congressman adam schiff, democrat and ranking member of the house intelligence committee, trying to get inside the president's head in an interview this morning. let's bring in howard dean, former vermont governor, former dnc chair, msnbc contributor. and strategist susan del persio. what is the president trying to do? >> i agree with the congressman, he's trying to muddy the waters up. donald trump works best in his mind when he's fighting someone or something, when he's campaigning. that's what he's doing, he's making this a pr smear campaign against mr. mueller, which is really unfortunate, because if there is nothing to hide, he should be embracing it and saying yes, i want this to go for

do you believe that the president is seriously considering getting rid of bob mueller and why do you ? >> i think it is a consideration the president has had because mueller is illegitimate as special counsel. chris, remember, there is no evidence of wrongdoing. there is no evidence of collusion. there is no evidence of obstruction. there is no serious allegation made that the president or any of his senior staff engaged in collusion or any other crime. >> we don't know what they're really looking at. and how can you say bob mueller is illegitimate. he was praised by your side of the aisle as a great choice as special counsel by republicans. i don't understand what this newfound disparment is about. you just said he is illegitimate as special counsel. that's not nice. >> correct. but i said as a man, i think he did a great job running the nci. i think it is inappropriate. this man was interviewed by the president a day or two before he was named special counsel to become fbi director. he had a private conversation. don't you think it is unethical for him to become the investigator aga