seems to me to be only in the mind of the white house. >> caitlin, you heard both davids here, david rohde says he believes it's obstruction, david, i'm not putting words in your mouth, you did say that? >> i did. >> caitlin, what do you think? >> that's a hefty charge to make. i'm not going to disagree, and i'm not going to agree. there's a lot left to be desired and to know about this. there's a lot to know and we need to hear from the president. i found out today, i confirmed that he did interview bob mueller to be the next fbi director when he was interviewing after he fired james comey. 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 outside 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

i want to begin with david rohde, michael isakoff, for yahoo! news and cnn political commentator david swerdlick. i'm going to start with you, david rohde. tension is building tonight in the justice department with a lot of people feeling it wasn't necessary for deputy attorney general rod rosenstein to bring in special investigate mueller, at least not yet. there's also a question on whether he has to recuse himself on this. what is your take? >> i think it is a sign that trump's effort to pressure rosenstein is working. if he recuses himself or resigns it goes to the number three official in the department, kelly brand i believe is her name. and there's a view that she's maybe more malleable, she will maybe try to shrink the scope of the russia investigation. >> how much further can we go down the chain at the justice department? >> there aren't a lot of people left. >> that's a serious question. >> right, yeah. i mean, look, of the trump nominated, confirmed people at the justice department, jeff sessions is recused, it is rod rosenstein, it i

. >> i agree with david rohde. the white house seems to be overlooking the idea that if they just let this play out, maybe it will eventually smooth itself out in their favor. we don't know that, but it's a possibility. don, we talk about this on your show all the time. this is another case of the president liking the big reveal, the stay tuned next week aspect of this as if everybody is auditioning for a part on the next season of president trump when in fact this is very likely the last public act or last public cycle for mueller. this is the last public cycle for president trump, whether it's 3 1/2 years or 7 1/2 more years. to caitlin's point, maybe he thinks that he can sway the outcome of an organizatiinvesti sway an investigation like he sways news coverage by sending a message to reporters, he'll send a message to mueller. >> will it have any effect on mueller, david swerdlick? >> i don't see what the incentive for mueller would be to be swayed one way or the other by the president dangling this idea of him

we're joined by david rohde.there's been a great deal of tension between the united states and the united kingdom since the attacks in manchester, england, more than a week ago. the british felt the united states was leaking information to the press. that does not appear to have happened tonight. you have to believe that u.s. officials went into tonight's attack very, very carefully. >> it's good because leaks endanger lives and there will be more cooperation. it seems like there's new intelligence that salman abedi, the young man who carried out the attack was in libya and they are sharing this information and they have to because this is such a threat in so many different countries and they need to work together. but again, keep it confidential. >> we are now learning a little bit more about some of the victims. we don't know anything about the six who were killed but we also know that there are 30 people, according to the officials, are who are being treated at the local hospitals and more than 80 people from

david rohde may join us. robert, let's start with you.r putin speaking out on reports of russia's involvement in hacking the u.s. election. take a listen. >> translator: they voted for him and the other team, they made a mistake and they don't want to recognize this mistake right now. but fair to say they were not wise enough. it's easy to say it's not our fault. it's the russians. they intervened. they interfered. it's like anti-semitism. the jews are to blame. >> he isn't denying russian involve like he has in the past. what do you think he's saying here? >> first of all, the russians are perplexed by the degree to which this thing has blown up and now affects virtually everything the trump administration can and can't do in its relations with russia. they don't know quite how to behave in this context. putin certainly knows what the russians had done during the election and subsequently, but at this stage i don't think they understand how serious it could get, although they're beginning to get an inkling of that. is what they did durin

i want to bring in david rohde, cnn global affairs analyst. online news director at the "new yorker." thank you, sir, for joining us. question to you, the president still doesn't say there are definitively not any tapes. he said he didn't make any or doesn't have any. is this a parsing of words? >> i think it is and it's partly distraction to keep this threat hovering. he did this often in new york in the real estate world. tim o'brien, he's been on the a journalist, he threatened over and over, saying i have these tapes, i have these tapes as an effort to intimidate him. there were no tapes it turned out in that lawsuit, so this was a sort of new york real estate-style effort to intimidate james comey but i think it undermines the president's credibility. it could create some legal issues for him. i think there are absolutely no takes and this is all distraction. >> i think jeffrey toobin and i are in agreement, all along we were saying there are no tapes. >> there are no tapes. >> is this a distraction? >> i don't know if what the strategy i

david rohde is online news director for the new yorker. will, let me start with you. what more can governments do to try to prevent these kind of attacks? we have seen them. we've seen attempts to try to block them. they still keep happening. >> i think, again, it is to a certain degree relative. i think we have to be quite prag pragmatic to a certain degree also about the number of attacks that materialize and have been followed by the various intelligence government agencies and counter terrorism capabilities. there is a lot of catching up that needs to be done. some very significant attacks across europe. for us in the united kingdom, 7/7 was very much our wakeup call. for france it was charley hebdo. certainly the berlin christmas market. there's a lot of catching up that needs to be done. really the best efforts i would say most productively focused b would be in assessing and analyzing the cycle of the terrorist is a great deal more. one of the key elements is not only the point of recruitment, but radicalization and how that can be delivered in its various diff

i want to bring in cnn global affair analyst david rohde and political analyst tara palmieri. thank you for joining us. president trump had a lot to say on former fbi director james comey today, but it's also what he didn't say that's interesting. listen to this. >> many of the countries on the flank of nato, including romania, see russia as a threat to the security and the peace in the region. do you share this vision, and do you think that the united states should act under article 5 if any of this country will be under military aggression? thank you very much. >> well, i'm committing the united states and have committed, but i'm committing the united states to article 5, and certainly we are there to protect. and that's one of the reasons that i want people to make sure we have a very, very strong force by paying the kind of money necessary to have that force. but yes, absolutely, i'd be committed to article 5. >> so, the president committed to article 5, but he ignored the question on russia. does he see them as a threat? what do you think of that, david? >> that's what's

>> david rohde, do you see self-awareness on the president's part that he created this whole mess? >> probably not, no, i'll be honest. i think he hasn't changed. these tactics worked for him in new york real estate. he won the election and you'll see this over and over again. and i think part of the day was playing, gechagain, on conspira theories and distrust of washington and conspiracies against the president by intelligence agencies. i agree with jeff, it's distraction to not talk about the negative aspects of the health care proposal today from republicans in the senate. >> we're going to -- >> don, i can telltalking to a of republicans about the tapes and the tweet and everything and they're exasperated, not quite sure why they went through this entire episode and lindsey graham told me today, perhaps the president will finally learn that his words actually matter. of course, we've been hearing that from lot of republicans for a long time. we have not seen any indication the president is stepping back particularly from tweeting. >> i can read jeffrey toobin's mind right now,