bob mueller knows what the rest of the iceberg is, michael cohen knows what the rest of the iceberg is. mueller will decide when to let the rest of us know. >> bret: it seems like everything went a little bit more fast forward after the president filed the answers to those questions which included one about this real estate deal. >> i think that was one of the big revelations today about those questions, he did ask about a proposal to build a tower in moscow by the trump organization. up until now it was not known to us through our reporting and what rudy giuliani the president's attorney said to us today, they don't see any contradiction between the president's written answers and what was stated in the cohen plea. they still feel comfortable but the timing when you line up the data points certainly has the feel of almost a cascading or domino effect. >> bret: judge, we've seen all kinds of reporting here, there's new reporting right now, but sweet has a story saying president trump's company planned to give a $50 million penthouse at trump tower moscow to vladimir putin as the compan

the other thing we're waiting for is the possibility that bob mueller, that the indictments, he doesn'tindictments but as a result of the investigation we'd see indictments. mia, is there -- if whitaker is a trump stooge designed to knee-cap mueller -- >> if? >> if that's the case. if there are sealed indictments that exist already out of the grand jury teed up of any of these people -- stone, donald trump jr., anyone, is there anything whitaker could do to stop the indictments? >> he can. the short answer it depends if they'd already been approved and moved forward through rod rosenstein before matt whitaker takes over. so if that's the case if they were pipelined if they've already been, the word some would use socialized within the department of justice, which just means gone through and given the green light because bob mueller is not king of the hill. he's not ken starr. he has to report up. >> he has a boss. >> then, sure, those can come forward, but he could, if they have not been socialized in that way, meaning if they have not been approved already by rod rosenstein, essentiall

and we'll have to see what bob mueller has been able to do and what bob mueller has been able to sayr via indictment or via report. and that will also guide what we intend to do in our committee. >> that was congressman adam schiff last night. poised to become the new chairman of the house intel committee now that democrats have taken control of the house. he's vowing to end trump's war on justice but better get to work quickly. joining us by phone is john brennan. now an nbc news and msnbc national security and intelligence analyst. i wanted to get your thoughts today on both democrats taking over control of the house intel committee and perhaps doing the real work of trying to understand the role russia played in meddling in the 2016 election instead of the trump shilling that devin nunes was doing. but i have to start with the breaking news. donald trump has asked for attorney general jeff sessions' resignation. in his place he's appointed as acting attorney general someone "the washington post" describes as a rah-rah republican. the chief of staff to jeff sessions, matt whisketak

right now tonight are you looking at bob mueller's new boss. this is what he said about trying to limit the mueller probe. >> bob mueller and his small u.s. attorney's office as i've heard it described today does go beyond the 2016 election and get into trump organization finances unrelated to the 2016 election and really unrelated to russian coordination if it even exists. i think that would be crossing a red line. >> crossing a red line. whitaker describing things we know bob mueller did and rosenstein even approved, like looking at manafort's now admitted crimes that weren't related directly in 2016. you are looking at your new attorney general. he has discussed in public. tonight democrats are saying he should recuse. he's discussed a blue print of sorts to further oversee or interfere with, yes, the mueller investigation. >> i can see a scenario where jeff sessions is replaced with a recess appointment and that attorney general doesn't fire bob mueller, he just reduces the budget so low that his investigation grinds to absolutely almost a h

but bob mueller knows.en is bob mueller and his team will now be briefing the attorney general, and they will say, here's what we have been doing. here's why we have been doing it, and then the attorney general under the regulations does have the power to say, no, i don't want you to take that step. it hasn't happened yet. but there are checks and balances. it is not unilateral power. >> but how? what are the guard rails? if the special counsel mueller briefs whittaker, where are the guard rails? >> well, they're informal guard rails, such as if something is done -- and these are hypotheticals, and i hope we'll allow the attorney general to take the office and to start exercising the authority that he has. so let's just calm it down a little bit and wait and see. but here is the guard rail. and i don't think this is going to happen. if the attorney general says, i don't want you to do x, then bob mueller says, here's my letter of resignation. and then the firestorm begins, right? >> wow, ken. i mean, that's

as evan's saying, blocked to us but not to bob mueller.let's just say that call was to donald trump sr., right? donald trump jr.'s testified in front of a committee, right, that, oh, i don't know whose number that was and his father saying, i don't remember it. i mean, okay. if they can prove that it was from son to father, and that means you've got these two calls right as the meeting's being planned, the call right afterwards. what does that do? because i would imagine one thing they cannot get is an actual transcription of what was said on those calls. so, it's damning but still circumstantial, yes? >> i think that's right. i mean, you could try to show that the father and son are both lying, that they, in fact, do remember the call, remember what was said and they're saying, i don't remember, is itself false. but it's hard to prove that without some sort of corroboration. you know, you would want to see maybe were there e-mails right after the call saying, i just spoke to dad, you know, big news or something like that. you know, absent

and others are saying we will negotiate as we always should, but that needs to include protecting bob muellershutting down the government -- >> you won't vote for any legislation to fund the government, if it doesn't include mueller protection. is that right? >> right. but the government is run by republicans right now. they have majority in both houses. only they can shut down their government. >> congressman, appreciate you being with me. have a nice weekend. >> my pleasure. you, too. >>> a critical g20 underway and what is likely to be the most critical moment in the g20 summit. ahead, the president is sitting down with the chinese president xi jinping, trying to strike a trade agreement. will they be able to hash something out? more on that, next. what makes this simple salad the best simple salad ever? great tasting, heart-healthy california walnuts. so simple, so good. get the recipes at walnuts.org. ♪ can you feel it ♪ can you feel it amazon has everything you need for your holiday get together. with low prices and free shipping on millions of items, for everything you need this holida

orchestrated effort to shake up the justice department with such voracity that the shaking upreaches bob mueller. >> shepard: no reporting in from eric holder. anyone that attempts to interfere or obstruct the mueller inquiry must be held accountable. this is a red line. we're a nation of laws and norms, not subject to the self-interested actions of one man. chad pergram with more reporting on this. chad? >> well, i talked to some republican sources that told me for a long time that they did not think that president trump would try to fire the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. the question is, is getting rid of jeff sessions sort of a stand-in for that? that's the problem. also, i want to read to you -- we just got a tweet from jerry nather. we've been hearing a lot of rattling in the last 20 hours about what democrats might do when it comes to investigations. and he says "americans must have answers immediately as to the reasoning behind the president removing jeff sessions. why is the president making this change? who has authority over the special counsel investigation? we'll be holdin

and i'm sure bob mueller and his team have prepared for this contingency. so it could very well be that he walks into the grand jury tomorrow and says, you know, ladies and gentlemen, i've been presenting this evidence to you. i have told you what the potential charges might be. may i please ask you to vote on the following charges. once he does that, it literally is a matter of hours between the time the grand jury returns an indictment, that indictment gets dropped on the court's docket and then i'm sorry, but a criminal case is in progress at that moment. >> so that's two different things you're talking about, glenn. one of the things we're talking about is a report that a lot of people think bob mueller is preparing, which can be handed to the guy who was his boss, rod rosenstein. now it's going to be matthew whitaker, and that report -- it's possible no one will ever see that report, versus a grand jury? >> those are definitely two different things. and we could see any combination of it. we could see bob mueller returning indictments against some and

you tweeted this week about, quote, bob mueller and his gang of democrat thugs. >> right. chris: if whitaker decides in any way to limit or curtail the mueller investigation, are you okay with that? >> look, it's going to be up to him. i think he's very well aware politically. i think he's a astute politically, he's a very smart person, respected person, he will do what's right. i really believe he will do what's right. chris: you won't overrule him if he decides to curtail.

it says that bob mueller knows how important it was. when michael cohen is sentenced december 12th for these things together, you will hear the judge read a letter about how he cooperated and the way he cooperated. people in court today saw how he was relating with the prosecutors and press, it was a very different michael cohen than several months ago. michael cohen is on this team, he is on the blue team and on the right team. >> wonder if you can give your view of his theory of the case which is that the money is the problem. he outlined a vision where the legal process could be picking apart donald trump's entire fortune, if there is a fortune, or debt. and sprinkle in a little of ditty and biggie, he seemed to say we have gone from more money, more problems to more mueller, more problems. >> i thought you were doing kendrick lamar and michael cohen is going you're dead to me. i can go with you, ari. >> we can go kendrick, say he is telling jerome corsi, be humble, sit down. >> yeah. go ahead. we could do this all night. >> yes, we

bob mueller's jobs are to look for crimes. where there are gaps just as after the september 11 commission, making ourselves sar in the skies with congressional reforms, we have the same duty now. >> woodruff: congressman eric swalwell, memberhf te house intelligence committee. thank you very much. >> my pleasure. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, president trump canceled a demeeting with russian pre vladimir putin, at the upcoming g-20 summit. he tweeted his decision, after leaving for argentin in it, he cited russia's seizure of three ukrainian ships and 24 sailors near occupied crimea. the president said he decided that "it would be best fors ll partncerned to cancel." that came less than an hourte he said he was still open to meeting with putin. ukrainian president petro poroshenko called today for nato to send more warships to the crimean region. but a nato spokesperson said the alliance already has a strong presence there. the kremlin complained that poroshenko is trying provoke new trouble. president trump is giving

he's the one who appointed bob mueller in the first place. and i'm not aware of any regulation that requires rod rosenstein not to be involved. and i think it would be silly and it would also be a bad look optically if the new acting attorney general decided to freeze out rod rosenstein. because he can still offer advice and guidance and counsel. and he should. >> he's a former u.s. attorney in baltimore, rod rosenstein. you know, kaitlan, i'm anxious -- what did you think of that little goodbye that the attorney general -- now the former attorney general, jeff sessions had? it was all staged, as evan correctly points out. they wanted to show that. but some are already suggesting maybe it was a little bit of a slap at the president for firing him. >> well, of course. and we have seen jeff sessions take those actions over the past year with when president trump has criticized him. he went to dinner that time really publicly with rod rosenstein at a very popular washington restaurant and a photo with them dining with the solicitor general quick

a very specific date and a specific conversation that bob mueller cites in the plea agreement.oesn't say in the plea agreement is that june 14th, 2016, is the same date that the dnc hack becomes public for the first time. and remember, it's just about a week after that trump tower meeting with paul manafort, don jr., jared kushner and all of the russians who show up saying that they're there to help trump. so this is turning into a very consequential period of time in june 2016. and it doesn't seem like it's probably entirely a coincidence that trump tower/moscow died on the same day that the dnc hack was revealed if bob mueller is going out of his way in these court filings to make that argument. >> garrett graff, what a week it's been. >> amazing. >> and at least with these -- as you point out, these public court filings, just because matt whitaker is now this acting attorney general and everybody thought, well, what would that mean for the russia investigation and bob mueller, clearly he's going to get so much out there publicly that we will see the -- the public will be abl

these are angry people, including the highly conflicted bob mueller who worked for obama for eight years." okay, there's a lot there, but let me just start with a couple of important facts. first, mueller is a registered republican, nominated to be director of the fbi by president george w. bush in 2001, and his term was extended by two years by president obama. so, he served about five years under obama, not eight. he's a republican named by a republican. okay. now, from what people have been questioned by the mueller team have said to me, including tom and mark caputo, both of whom have sat down with these guys, mueller's team is professional, prepared, calm, they know the answers before they even ask the questions. their experience with team mueller is as far as it gets from screaming or shouting or anger. but the president's renewed attack on mueller is coming as republican senator orrin hatch is joining the majority leader, mitch mcconnell, in rejecting calls to vote on a bill to protect the special counsel. >> we don't need that. and frankly, even if you did need that bill, all you

i think bob mueller would never make the deal that the lawyers may be pressuring, which is they don'tr have to have follow-ups. these questions do not reportedly cover anything about the obstruction. there's no way bob mueller would agree he's not going to ask the president questions. >> that could be the holdup, that they still want answers to obstruction questions and the president's lawyers want a guarantee that if we answer these questions on collusion, you'll leave us alone on the investigation. >> asked who might replace whitaker as a permanent attorney general, a question that did not mention the mueller probe at all, trump digressed into a rant about the mule are pro-- muelle probe. michael, he knows why he put whitaker there. it was to protect him from the russia probe. he's saying keep those people down. >> he's trying to keep distance from himself and whitaker as the press for whitaker has gotten worse and worse. there's questions about why he's truly there and the president keeps moving closer and closer to the side. >> that's usually what he does to people right before he

were the decisions that were made based on those financial ties, those are all the issues that bob mueller is investigating. we are without question at a very critical point in terms of the mueller investigation that will determine whether or not this president faces serious problems or whether or not we will have two more years of the trump presidency. >> thanks so mump fch for joini us. we praesappreciate it. i want to talk about the developments in the russia investigation. what was the latest on that? >> the hearing today after the stunning revelation, allegations made by the special counsel that paul manafort had been lying to them during his cooperation and interviews with the fbi and the u.s. attorneys part of the special counsel's investigation. today was generally a status conference. the judge wanted to hear where things stood. paul manafort was not in court. what we learned was important and that is that paul manafort could face more charges. there could be things he's facing that we don't even know about yet and the other thing what we have learned is this case will go on for q

if there is an effort to fire bob mueller, there will be a fire storm. maybe not among my republican colleagues, but among the american people -- >> right. >> there will be another clear saturday night massacre. that's the strategy here of the republicans to do it in slow motion so as to avoid that overt fire storm. >> senator richard blumenthal, thank you for your time tonight. >>> joined by the incoming chir of the house judiciary committee, congressman jerry nadler. he's asked about mr. whitaker, he responds about the mueller investigation and how it's illegitimate. do you read anything into that? >> well, we read a confirmation of the obvious, that whitaker was placed there to be a hatchet man to subvert or sabotage the mueller investigation. he had only one qualification which was relevant, namely that unlike attorney general sessions, he would not recuse himself. he would not point -- he would ignore his obvious conflicts of interest. so the president is simply confirming that his purpose there is to sabotage the investigation. >> there's been news

bob mueller can do whatever he wants. it's not going to help the president for giuliani to say this out loud. and they have to make sure everything is accurate. so they've written these answers. the president has to sit down with him, and he has to say, well, yes and no. it happened that way and it didn't happen that way. and he's frustrated because he doesn't like the process, and by the way there's no guarantee that he won't have to testify on obstruction. this is just part one. this is collusion. there's another -- >> obstruction will be a whole different set of constitutional -- >> that'll be privilege. but mueller has not given any promises about part two. >> bob mueller has said they will follow the doj guidelines. >> but part one is very problematic. remember giuliani says we can't answer some of this. it's the president realizing oh, my god, before we even get to the problem of what we thought was obstruction, i've got these collusion problems. >> let's take a quick break. we're going to pick up the conversation w

bob mueller would know that but donald trump wasn't know what else mcgahn has dished on. e white house he did clash with trump and trump blamed him for mueller's entire appointment. he doesn't know what elbob mcga has said. he was part of firing of mike flynn, the firing of james comey. jeff sessions decision not to recuse, these other attempts to fire bob mueller and the new report that trump wanted to prosecute clinton and comey. mcgahn is reportedly cooperating exten extensively. over 30 hours of interview. every one agrees mcgahn was in the center of everything. >> the counsel to the president is a appointed position directly answerable to the president. it's the primary legal adviser to the president. >> that vovrs yinvolves you in about everything. >> unfortunately, yes. >> hard for you to say i didn't do it. >> i'm joined my michael conway who wrote part of the report recommending richard nixon's imp peachment. is the attempted investigation of political enemies, clinton and comey, worse than the original comey firing from a legal perspective and do you think don mc

context of don mcgahn, which is, donald trump, by "the new york times" reporting, did try to remove bob mueller. it's don mcgahn who basically stopped that when it was attempted in december, and mueller knows all that. analyze that as well in the c context what was we're learning as a final thought. >> i don't know that there's obstruction of justice. clearly we're on the line of abuse of power. this is something we don't do in the united states. we don't use the mechanisms of government and the justice department to punish political enemies. it is not something we do in our political culture, it's not something we do in our laws. but it does raise, again, right now there's one thing to have donald trump, if he has -- if he is surrounded by people who contain his instincts. with whitaker as attorney gener general, mcgahn gone, kelly potentially going out the door as chief of staff, there's a big difference between donald trump surrounded by capable people who respect the constitution, and donald trump on his own. and we are facing tonight the nightmare of donald trump revisited on his own witho

trump's ties to russia and today's developments make you wonder if bob mueller is looking into a larger effort by the president to hide his business tigers to russia during the 2016 campaign. as part of mueller's investigation, cohen admitted in federal court that he repeatedly lied to congressional investigators about the trump organization's communications with russia about a trump tower, moscow deal. cohen said he lied about the duration of their talks with russia, that he lied about trump and the trump family's awareness of what was happening with the deal. and cohen told the court that he told all of those lies for mr. trump, although he did not say he was directed by the president to lie. cohen explained some of his motives for lying. i was aware of donald trump's repeated disavouls are commercial and political ties between himself and russia, which included that any contact with russian nationals by the trump campaign or trump organization had all terminated before the iowa caucus. as we learned today, cohen was working the deal well beyond the iowa caucus. the deal was in the wo

he was not only approved by the senate, neither was bob mueller, who was highly convicted. meanwhile, the top democrat elijah cummings has vowed to make a final report from mueller's investigations to make it public. >> what the public has said is that they want accountability. they want transparency. they have paid for an investigation by one of our greatest public servants, mr. mueller. special counsel miller. so, i would do anything and everything in my power to have the findings presented not only to the congress but to the people of the united states. >> harris: the incoming chairman of the senate judiciary committee, lindsey graham, says he's not worried about whitaker but he would like to see a vote on a bill to protect the special counsel. >> jeff flake says not going to support judges until we get a vote on the mueller protection bill, which i wrote, by the way. some people think it's unconstitutional. i feel good about it. i think the best thing the senate could do is just bring this bill to the floor. having said all that, i don't see any indication at all that th

the speaker and senate majority leader don't seem interested in legislation to protect bob mueller. i want to follow up on something garrett said and paint the picture for you. people on capitol hill, senators and members of the house hate being lied to, especially under oath, and when democrats take over, it's completely possible that they'll haul some of these people in in open session on television, and they'll be forced or they'll be asked to testify about these things, and did they also lie. so you're going to go from a house of representatives and a senate that has been protective of the president and deferred to the white house to at least a hostile house of representatives that will and could and most likely will bring people in front of open committees and have them testify under oath, which is not a hospitable thing for the president especially if it's his family, son and close associates. >> for folks that might be joining us at 11:30 on the east coast, breaking news we continue to follow here at msnbc, a new filing in a federal courtroom today says michael cohen, the pre

including this bombshell last night that bob mueller is canceling manafort's entire plea deal because mueller says he lied to their team after making the plea deal. that itself could be another new crime. i can report for you that julian assange is denying this story and has pledged to sue over it. your normally voluble president has gone somewhat quiet, refusing to address this manafort plea deal news in a new interview he did with "the washington post." here's a little more context for the "guardian" report. manafort would have been taking this newly reported wikileaks right around the time he joined the campaign as a veteran strategist lauded to come and bring some order heading into the convention. >> let's talk now with donald trump's newly minted convention manager, paul manafort. this is not manafort's first rodeo. he is a veteran political strategist. >> here's another reason this story is so explosive. it would put manafort in secret dialogue with wikileaks to potentially get secret tips long before julian assange ever told the rest of the world that he did have the goods on

. >> where are you do you think in this investigation as bob mueller continues his investigation? >> the questioner is an important part of the process for robert mueller. robert mueller probably knows what he needs to know. right? usually what prosecutors do, they want to make sure they have all the documents, all the data, all the information and robert mueller has a ton of that. in addition to everything that all of his witnesses have told him and have told the grand jury. this is really to see what the president says, how consistent or inconsistent it is with all of that information, and that's why it's not so easy. >> felipe, says he hasn't turned it in because he's been busy. in you'europe last weekend, for whatever that was in europe and a lot to tend to in d.c. as well. you followed the back and forth we've seen play out in the press mostly. his lawyers saying where we are in the process, the special counsel's office saying nothing. what does it say to you about where we are? >> funny he's saying too busy while on his way to a golf cour course. >> on his way to california t

but anyone who knows bob mueller's watch, bob mueller watched the way this investigation has been conductedthink would say otherwise. and i think it would be important for both democrats and republicans to say, we're going to wait on this report and we will make our judgments based on the substance of what is reported out by the special counsel. >> it's interesting, mark. the president said today, i'm very happy with almost all of my cabinet. in effect, confirming more members of the cabinet are about to be dumped. >> yeah. there's no question about that. and what's actually scary about this is that usually what happens in the administration and david has gone through this. you see the best and brightest tend to go in at the beginning. and then on the second wave, it's not necessarily the best and brightest, but the second best and brightest that come in. what is very concerning, specifically here in washington, d.c., some of these positions he's going to draw off of to come in and fill, those people might not be qualified at all to fill those positions. >> david, senior administration offi

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

bob mueller is not conflicted and doesn't have to be senate approved. the trump appointee named robert mueller, but he tries to stoke this what? >> i think it makes sense. the senate is talking about a bill to protect mueller. the jeff flake and the democrats want to pass. i think poisoning the waters, this bill was never going to pass in the first place. you can't sign this bill because trump declared mueller as my enemy. this is the smart politics in a certain way. >> they got the efforts to discredit mueller so confusion have worked. they feel good about the strategy. >> this is straight from the greatest hits album. he tweeted about them so many times. this was like tweets from three months ago. it's back. >> the greatest hits tour. i like that. >> you see the president and the first lady. if anyone had questions about her willingness to exert her influence, they got the answer. we have seen that in recent days. up next, the recount deadline hour away, the president pushing experience theories about what he sees as fraud. >> today questions of time

bob mueller can ask what he wants. it's not going to help the president for rudy to say this out loud. so they have to make sure everything is accurate. so they've written these answers. the president has to sit down with him and he has to say well, yes and no. it happened that way and it didn't happen that way. and he's frustrated because he doesn't like the process, and by the way, there's no guarantee that he won't have to testify on obstruction. this is just part one. this is collusion. mueller has not given him any promises about part two. >> mueller has said they will follow the doj guidelines. >> part one is very problematic. giuliani says we can't answer some of this. it's the president realizing oh, my god, before i get to what we thought was the problem, obstruction, i've got collusion problems. that's why you get these crazy tweets, collusion, no collusion. >> let's take a quick break. we'll pick up the conversation when we come back. and later, how a florida u.s. senate recount will play out in all the uniq

i mean, you look at bob mueller right now. who has a higher standing in american life between bob mueller, who has not spoken in the last two years, has not engaged with donald trump? >> that's an important point. >> he's not engaged with donald trump. he's managed to maintain his standing -- i'm talking about just his polling standing. and his broader standing without having to engage at all. and in some cases having less of a megaphone it turns out, especially when the person with the megaphone is saying divisive incendiary, and sometimes moronic things it's better to be quieter sometimes in these fights. >> up against a commercial break. i'm going to award 15 seconds to mr. costa and then 15 seconds to ms. wiley and that's got to be it, you kids. >> very quickly, the timing as john mentioned is so critical. this comes right before bob mueller likely issues his report on the president's conduct. it's institutional erosion from the white house across the board, across our law and order system. >> and maya. >> you know, the hi

you never want to be approached at an airport by bob mueller. therwise. >> or nick. >> no. >>> still ahead on "morning joe," mitch mcconnell says he will block a bill to protect special counsel robert mueller. we will show you his reasoning even as other republicans are pushing for the legislation. >>> for no other reason than to show this vehicle, this is completely gratuitous, but we had to show you there is a giant cow. 6'4" tall, weighs over a ton. he was too about i go to fit into the slaughter house so now he's hanging out with his friends. his size saved his life. "morning joe" is coming right back. (chime) - [narrator] meet shark's newest robot vacuum. it powerfully cleans from floors to carpets, even pet hair, with ease, and now for cleaning surfaces above the floor, it comes with a built in shark handheld. one dock, two sharks. the shark ion robot cleaning system. pushing for the legislation. "morning joe" is coming right my mom's pain from moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis was intense. i wondered if she could do the stuff she doe

we're talking about bob mueller. a lot of the trump finances, trump organizations, the things matthew whitaker wrote about in that op-ed, they cut the deal with michael cohen, those v investigations that get to the president's company and the company's associates, that's not under robert mueller anymore, those have been handed off. >> i want to bring in legal commentator jeffrey toobin. what do you think this means, president trump effectively firing the attorney general. instead of having the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, bringing in whitaker, who is supporting the unfairness of the mueller probe. >> it means the president is taking control of the mueller investigation and the senate is going to do nothing about it. remember, we just had this election yesterday where they expanded their majority. the idea that this senate will exercise any sort of reluctance, hesitance, control over the president i think is folly. i think this is going to be a rubber stamp senate. the fact that jeff sessions is a former s

. >>> bob mueller's information hitting a fever pitch. trump talking about a pardon for manafort. jerome corsi leaking the draft plea deal in statement offense he was offered by mueller and he joins me live tonight. we also later have news on manafort's alleged lies to mueller and how they may backfire. we begin with this breaking news in the russia probe. >>> washington on edge right now over this truly unusual news. convicted felon paul manafort busted for feeding information back to trump while claiming to cooperate with bob mueller. the new reporting here is that manafort was trying to basically be an apparent double agent and that explains the news you may have heard earlier this week when bob mueller suddenly canceled the plea agreement with manafort. and it gives context to this other story tonight. donald trump telling the "new york post" that pardoning paul manafort is not off the table. those words are farther than donald trump has gone off that topic so far and it would further tie donald trump back to a convicted felon at the center of the collusion probe who stands ac

you know, paul manafort keeps thinking that he's going to get one past bob mueller. remember he's been caught already twice earlier this year, he was trying to ghost write an op-ed in support of himself and bob mueller confronted him with the track changes in the microsoft word document. and then he was trying to do some light witness tampering to align his story with another potential witness and bob mueller confronted him with the encrypted text messaging communications. the fact that paul manafort hasn't realized that bob mueller is one, two, six steps ahead of him at every turn through this case is one of the things that continues to astound me. >> incredible. garrett graff and dana bash, thank you. >> up next, we'll take you live to ohio and the site of one of the general motor plants that will be shutting down. the president threatening to cut off all gm subsidies in response. >> plus, the president went to mississippi to try to boost a republican candidate. and later, republican leaders may allow a vote on a bill to protect the special counsel investigation. d

but what i am confident of is that bob mueller is ten steps ahead.pared for this by getting the authorization from deputy attorney general rosenstein that he needs to get in order to move forward with these indictments. all of those indictments could be sitting there sealed, waiting to be dropped on the court's docket. and once a case is dropped on a court's docket and unsealed, i'm sorry, but it's on. there is an active prosecution that will move forward in court one way or the other. >> so when the final indictments, glen, are written, do you expect the president's name to be among them? >> it's the $64,000 question, but here is my sense of it after 30 years as a federal prosecutor. bob mueller, i don't believe, wants to leave this up to the vag vagueries of congress. i think he's been appointed to do this job, and i think he views it as his job to complete. so if he can get the authority, and there is a legal and procedural pathway to indicting a sitting president, if he gets the authority to do that, my prediction is he will indict the president,

hoump how much in your estimation, the tweets where we have an agitated president focused on bob mueller, how much of is an election hangover for the president and maybe related to something we're not yet reporting? >> reporter: it's a really difficult question. the president is preoccupied with mueller this morning. historians after the fact will be after to graph the president's tweets on day-to-day interactions. he went down to the marine corps home. not a whole lot of energy from the president. most of his focus is on the mueller probe. we'll see what he says. >> peter baker, what's your take on the -- how to put these m midterm losses in historical context. it's shifted since election night. it didn't seem as though this was going to be perhaps the big blue wave but as the week has progressed, things have gotten worse for this president, not better. >> that's right. i think the house loss is now look to be in the mid-30s. we haven't yet settled the florida recount. republicans will probably still hold onto that seat or win that seat from bill nelson but the arizona senate seat went

>> so it's not going to change bob mueller's focus.e the person making the decisions here. up to this point, the conventional wisdom has been that bob mueller was protected as long as rod rosenstein was there. that has gone out the window. we can shuffle the deck on that conventional wisdom. now rosenstein is not that barrier. it appears matt whitaker will be supervising the investigation. so, again, someone on record criticizing, being put in by the president, can lead in only one direction. it's very troubling. i will say, jake, one thing we know based on the president's history with department of justice is every major personnel change he's made at doj has involved seemingly some type of ulterior motive. sally yates defend the immigration ban and was trying to sound the alarm on michael flynn. pret preet, and james comey and trying to influence the investigation. each of those instances we have seen some kind of motive at play here. with sessions, it appears to be the same case. recused himself, angered the president. it may be now

yesterday trump tweeted universities will someday study what highly conflicted and not senate approved bob mueller and his gang of democrat thugs have done to destroy people. why he is protecting crooked hillary, mccabe, comey and peter

these are angry people, including the highly conflicted bob mueller who worked for obama for eight years. they won't even look at all of the bad acts and crimes on the other side. a total witch hunt like no other in american history.

the president escalating the smears against bob mueller as one republican and a host of democrats are fighting for legislation to protect the investigation from white house interference. >> i think it is an absolutely necessary and important move to force accountability. >> i think that there is nothing lost by doing it. there is possibly much gained. >> what is your take on senator flake's here to hold up some of the judicial nominee tos force the issue? >> itt is a courageous move. i respect it. mad respect. >> saving face -- a bombshell report of "the new york times" reveals how facebook allegedly tried to koucounter attack criticism of its handling of the russian meddling interference in the 2016 campaign. >> what i want to know is in addition to the information in "the new york times" is do they also go after political opponents as in people who work in congress, as in elected officials. >> and search for survivors. the list of those missing in the deadly california wildfires climbs to 297 people. officials say that rebuilding in some places just won't be possible. >> i ral reali

the fake news media builds bob mueller up as a saint when he is doing tremendous damage to our criminal justice system where he is only looking at one side and not the other. heroes will come of this and it won't be mueller and his angry gang of democrats. the witch hunt continues and they have nothing but ruined lives and finishes writing where is the server? let these terrible people go

not worried about bob mueller. paul: why do you -- mr. ryan: i have good reason to believe that -- paul: because of conversations you've directly had -- mr. ryan: i don't want to get into that. i just don't think bob mueller is going to be interfered with. i really don't. i really do not -- i believe he will be left to do his job. paul: you have directly told the president of what the fallout would be? mr. ryan: i have a successful relationship with the president because i keep a lot of our conversations between the two of us. by the way, that would be my advice to nancy, as well. and to chuck. which is, government still has to work. just because we have a divided government, it's got to work. and the branches have to have some kind of relationship. it is far more successful from my experience -- look, we have a lot of heated conversations about lots of things. but if you keep those conversations between two people and don't go talk about it, you're going to be more successful in achieving your goals and achieving outcomes that you seek t

the man who has replaced him temporarily has made no secret of his -- a bob mueller's probe. >> i can scenario where jeff sessions is replaced with a recess appointment. and the attorney general does not fire bob mueller, but reduces his budget so low that a grinds the investigation to a halt. robert ray is now here at bloomberg. how likely is it that mr. whitaker will shut down the mueller investigation? >> not very. he is not a recess appointment. he is an acting attorney general. it is in thehat country's interest, the president's interest, and congress's interest to see a nomination. that will begin with a new congress in january. a new attorney general will be next year.efore it was not be smart for an acting attorney general to be doing something like that. all the speculation that is out there now, swirling around about what the acting attorney general could do really begs the question of what reasonably will he do. just because one has been aboutal as a commentator what they mueller investigation is up to doesn't suggest that, once you assume the awesome power of being attorne