if you're bob muler and his team i'm sure you're take it all in. >> bob mueller has nothing to lose. f.b.i. director for 1 years. if he were fired tomorrow, it would be fine. robert: the president keeps talking about containing the special counsel and having research about the investigators but the republican party isn't falling in line with this white house strategy. molly: that's right. people keep asking when are the republicans in congress going to turn on trump and go hard against him? i don't think they have any motivation or inclination to do that. they are starting to turn on each other. part of what you're save seeing as one of my colleagues called republican-on-republican in the capitol. they're taking it out on their approximate targets. the senator firing at the house. the house firing at the senator -- senate and the end result is a complete stalemate. to where the republicans really naught that having consolidated control of the congress and the white house would mean this could really implement an agenda, there habilitate been a single piece of major legislation signed

i think this is providing more ample fodder for bob muler to follow up upon either in the grand jury or in fibrin of fbi agents conducting interviews. >> i'm tempted to say i thought it was a meeting about baby adoptions. that is to say another story has migrated again within 24 hours. >> exactly right. this is something where the white house every time they feel like they have a few good days largely they were pleasewood the the trip. they they thought he got things done at the g20 and immediately it's an vanch, the same word over and over. russia, rather. he makes a good point. are we do believe that the president had no knowledge of this np i was on the road with candidate trump that was a day we were in new york. mr. trump was here in new york. attend attended a fund raiser in the city. he had become the presumptive nominee was still in the delegate battle. are we to believe he had no knowledge of a meeting happening one floor below his office. >> two of our very best yb jonathan le mere are, jeremy bash thank you so much before this segment. another quick break we'll come back a

happens, senator, in your view, if this president now that it's in the realm of the possible, fires bob mulerd be an absolute explosion on capitol hill. and i think a dramatic collapse of republican political support for him here. it would send a very powerful signal that he has something to hide. and that he wants to end this investigation before it can run its course and get to the bottom of what happened. and because he's at the center of it, it's hard to believe that's not a conflict of interest. and it wouldn't be surprise me if we immediately established full-on investigative committee like the watergate committee and why not hire bob mueller and keep him on the job and so i don't think he gets rid of bob mueller as easily as he might think by firing him. >> interesting idea. sheldon whitehouse had, democrat from rhode island. thank you, senator for being on with us tonight. >> my pleasure. >> and coming up, republicans who control both the house and the senate suffer yet another loss on capitol hill trying to repeal obamacare. we'll ask the question, what happens next. >> we need a res

threatening bob muler and suggesting there's a boundy beyond which he is not supposed to go suggestsresident doesn't know or doesn't care what the limits are here in his actions. special counsel mueller has been given a sxharnlg the sxinlds the resources to pursue an investigation wherever it leads. and i think it is appropriate that bob mueller continue to do so. i also, frankly given who bob mueller is and his career, don't expect him to be intimidated by anything the president says. >> i don't think he has the cut of that jib. thank you. up next, senator mccain msnbc promises his sparring partners that he'll be back following some difficult health news. straight ahead, we'll talk to kelly ayotte. one of mccain's close former colleagues in the senate. ♪ if you've got a life, you gotta swiffer what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more pe

. >> and question, i think that trump decided that as long as bob muler is there, biggest story, scaramuccil be forgotten in a week. mueller has proven already like great special prosecutors, and i don't mean this against trump. i think he is smart to be scared. he is not paranoid. they are coming for him. prosecutors have liunlimited scope. from paula jones to what is her name in the white house -- >> lewinski. >> lewinski. this guy could go here from tax returns to the business dealings with russia, possible money-laundering. everything with the trump enterprise. and trump doesn't want a guy doing that. because that guy could be working harder than he is with better people. and he has to stop this thing. this is an existential threat. >> you agree? >> i don't know if he has to stop. >> you think this is a threat? >> anything on the president is a threat. >> history shows they dot job. >> i agree with you. i'm on record saying i think he will try to fire mueller. we will see what happens. >> i'm on with you with that. i don't see how he stops. thank you. phrase overused by the way. >> soun

independence of the investigatory functions of the fbi, the doj, and in this case, special council, bob mulerret what president trump said today about sessions? do you think he was trying to suggest to him that he quit? >> if i were in jeff session's shoes, if i were attorney general, i think this was a suggestion i should quit. it is strikingly a disloyal from someone who should be grateful that senator sessions was literally the first senator, now attorney general sessions, was the first senator and in some ways the longest and most dogged defender of donald trump in the course of his campaign. so, i think he both misunderstands why the attorney general recused himself, and shows a striking lack of loyalty to one of his strongest and earlier supporters. >> there was an interesting moment in the interview where the president said it wasn't until richard nixon that the fbi began reporting to the justice department out of courtesy, he said, quote, the fbi person really reports directly to the president of the united states, which is interesting. you know, which is interesting, and i think we'r

. >> you think the ends game is essentially trying to get eight at bob muler? >> oh, absolute lit.e has 100 problems that are huge, but none ensurmountable except one, that is the special prosecutor. now he has no one who can say to the special prosecutor, at least not at the attorney general level, look, you have a mandate. you have to stick to the mandate t. mandate is russia. in trump's head there is no crime in russia. ten months of investigation, no crimes. this will go and and on, if he has to live with this a while, it's a pain. it doesn't result in something that's cataclysmic. on the other hand if the special prosecutor is able to do as he now is showing he is able to do any kind of investigation whether it is banking, financials, real estate, anything on the earth, it's a blue dress so to speak, it is not white water. it's a blue dress, if there is such a thing, that's a dagger at the president's heart. what he has to look for is someone who can help contain that. at the moment he didn't have that because his attorney general is recuse. >> i want to bring all of this out

but do you sense anyone around him is trying to pump the brakes on the character assassination of bob mulered to the blowup of the legal team. some of the lawyers told him don't go after robert mueller. first of all, he's good and a smart guy, a person of integrity. second of all, he has that reputation, and it will not be to your benefit. some lawyers said to the president in effect, look, if you didn't do anything wrong and we think you don't have anything to worry about in terms of the russia investigation, then you should want robert mueller at his special counsel. if he find it, it will have credibility on both sides of the aisle. for several weeks president trump laid off. he kind of stopped doing that. then he went there pretty strongly in the interview. as you see in the articles this morning, there's something they're researching. now someone is out as the spokesman for the legal team. that's one of the issues. he had great respect for robert mueller because he worked with him in the justice department during your administration and thought robert mueller was a person of integrity

>> leader pelosi is exactly right, that is what special counsel muler is investigating right now and bobller please let me come back and do my prosecution. my opening statement -- >> oh my god you're trying to get a job right now? >> to prosecute the bad guys, absolutely. i'm going to say he said i would love it. i would love this dirt on hillary. he said that to a russian operative. that's not just unpatriotic, leader pelosi is right that's a violation of federal criminal law. >> i don't think it rises to that level yet, if you're receiving information. you're just assessing the information. i don't think it rises to the level of an overt act. >> let me ask you a question, what would they have to do for you to believe crimes were committed? >> i think there would have been some type of information given to the trump campaign from that meeting that was used against hillary clinton in the campaign. >> and what do you make of the fact that there is now part of the investigation now involves whether or not on the american side, meaning in the trump campaign the russian effort to disseminate