i just came back. >> so don mcgahn, we know, has been the adviser to the president.to the point that was just made, jared had been spending a lot of time with him. could they have been spending time together discussing jared's issues, not necessarily the president as it related to the president and russia, the president's interest in firing james comey? >> it's certainly one possibility, and they could have been discussing both. another issue that don mcgahn will have to work through now as i mentioned earlier, if he is the focus of this investigation -- and we don't know. it may just be questions for him, but it may be something more serious. you might have an incident where the department of justice, where the fbi come to don mcgahn, like they did with mike flynn, not to say that jared kushner is compromised, but to say he is a person of interest in this investigation. we think it's something the white house needs to know about because we may want to limit his access to sensitive information. it's something that often happens when people are involved in investigati

she revealed for the first time that she discussed michael flynn with white house counsel don mcgahn on three separate occasions starting two days after the fbi interviewed flynn. she said she initially called mcgahn to express the concern that flynn could be blackmailed by the russians and she wanted to visit him at the white house in a secure location, and so when she met with him, she explained to him that she was concerned that flynn could be blackmailed because he had discussed sanctions with the russian ambassador, but lied about it to top white house officials including the vice president who as we know went on television denying flynn had ever discussed sanctions. and then she said the second time they met was the next day when mcgahn had several questions including whether flynn could be criminally prosecuted and the third conversation about allowing white house officials to see the underlying evidence of flynn's behavior. now, james clapper on the other hand, he stood by that earlier assertion that he had seen no evidence of collusion between trump's campaign associates and

white house counsel don mcgahn asked why it was concerning to the d.o.j.e official lied to another. she explained that flynn was compromised. if the white house was looking at this as more of an administrative matter, does that raise concerns of the white house judgment at the time? >> it seems like they're saying, this is our turf, you stay on your turf. it is interesting that he seemed to be implying that it's actually kind of okay. we'll resolve it, it's our dirty laundry, you stay out of this. he wasn't going to do anything about it. as susan pointed out. or he had no influence with president trump, that he couldn't take this up to him and say, this is what d.o.j. is saying, what do you think? >> michael moore, does this speak to judgment for you? >> i lost you, don. >> does this speak to judgment? >> i think it denies that the inner circle at the white house doesn't know what's going on. let me jump to one thing. spent a lot of time talking about the travel ban, as opposed to talking about the judgment and the process of the white house that may tell

but not don mcgahn. >> well, as i said, i don't know what he's advising the president.ut one would hope that the white house counsel would serve the role of being the president's conscious. of being the better angel on his shoulder and advising the president and everyone in the white house to uphold the highest ethical standards, the highest moral standards because public service is a public trust. it is not an exercise in trying to find holoo law school -- loo. >> you also want the fec to investigate these reports that russia paid some of its agents for these facebook ads to spread damaging disinformation during the 2016 campaign. tell us more. >> well, i can't comment on any enforcement or investigatory matters that might either be currently or in the future come before the fec. i had spoken about whether those facebook ads would be subject to fec regulation, and they would be because we do have jurisdiction over any advertised money spent on advertising, whether it is on the internet or in other forums. i have spoken out on many occasions about my concern about the p

. >> don mcgahn is the white house counsel. he is the man sally yates met with on the 26th of january to warn him about general flynn. why wait until the 26th to take the information to the white house? >> just like in any matter, we were trying to balance notification against an impact that it would have on an fbi investigation. >> you had to wait until flynn was interviewed by the fbi. >> we looked at that as well as the fact that it was the misrepresentations that didn't really start until mid january that aggravated the situation. >> because misrepresentations to the vice-president and others in the white house, that you believed took it to another level? >> it did. it certainly aggravated the situation in terms of the ability for that information to be used for compromise with the russians. >> explain the idea of compromise, how that works. >> sure. this has been a try and true craft of the russians for decades now. the gist is simple. if they have information that they can use to -- as leverage over someone, they will use

don mcgahn might now. person may have a hint, particularly if the person has done anything that could be called into question. person of interest is a big deal but it's not the same as target. it is basically a casual term, it's not a formal term defined by statute. it's a casual term that means investigators are looking at someone because they know things in an investigation or could ultimately potentially be charged with a crime, nicolle. >> ari, do targets and subjects of investigations sometimes start as people of interest? >> yes. good question. the answer being yes because -- >> i watched "l.a. law." >> you have. exactly. look, you have witnesses, you have subjects and you have targets. right? and witness is like anyone, you could be a completely innocent witness, you work in the government and bad things are happening potentially. right? that's why the president's activities and words up to this point are so problematic. he seems to think if he's not under his own personal investigation which is his

lawyer don mcgahn. >> i guess i also want to go to the question, which keeping gnawing at me here that mr. mcgahn asked of you. is there anything wrong with one white house official lying to another white house official? >> to be fair to mr. mcgahn here, i wouldn't say he said is there anything wrong. his question was more what's it to the justice department department if one official is lying to another official. in other words, why is this something that d.o.j. would be concerned about. that's when we went back through the list of issues and things that were troubling to us. >> the white house counsel did not understand why the department of justice was concerned. >> to be fair to mr. mcgahn, i think the issue he raised, that he wasn't clear on was why we cared that michael flynn had lied to the vice president and others. why that was a matter essentially -- >> i think that's clear. >> within d.o.j. jurisdiction. >> i think that's so clear. and we have mcgahn doesn't understand what's wrong with this? >> yates was also asked about any evidence she may have seen that the trump campaig

hear from the white house counsel because sally yates painted a very unflattering picture of how don mcgahn handled the information he was given. take a listen to what she said. >> one of the questions mr. mcgahn asked me when i went back over the second day was essentially why does it matter to doj if one white house official lies to another white house official? and so we explained it was a whole lot more than that. there was a request made by mr. mcgahn in the second meeting as to whether or not they would be able to look at the underlying evidence that we had. i called him first thing monday morning to let him know that we would allow them to come over and review the underlying evidence. he had to call me back, he was not available then and i do not hear back until that afternoon of monday the 30th. >> and that was the end of this episode? nobody came over to look at the material? >> i don't know what happened after that because that was my last day with doj. >> dana, what do you make of the white house responses to this controversy so far? >> it's impossible, craig. to know what the re

26th. >> i called don mcgahn first thing that morning and told him that i had a very sensitive matter that i needed to discuss with him, that i couldn't talk about it on the phone and that i needed to come see him. >> reporter: she went to the white house that very day to discuss concerns flynn might have been lying to the white house. >> the vice president was unknowingly making false statements to the public, and because we believed that general flynn was compromised with respect to the russians. we believe that the russians knew this, and that created a compromise situation, a situation where the national security adviser, essentially, could be blackmailed by the russians. >> reporter: yates citing repeated concerns from trump officials suggesting that flynn had told them he had not discussed sanctions against the kremlin for meddling in the u.s. election on a call with the russian ambassador. but yates knew otherwise, because flynn was caught on electronic surveillance allegedly discussing those sanctions the same day they were announced. >> we were concerned that the american peo

i was in the car on the way to the airport. >> this is the same day of your second meeting with don mcgahn. >> i had been meeting with mr. mcgahn at the white house. i was on my way to the airport. i got a call from my principal deputy, saying he saw online on a news report, that the president had issued an executive order with respect to immigration. and this was the very first we had heard about it. >> you are the acting attorney general of the united states of america. >> right. and you did not know about this order. >> that's right. >> the office of legal counsel had been asked to weigh in on this. >> they were asked to review it for form and legality. >> if the office of justice was given a heads up and asked to review it, wouldn't they have given you a heads up about it? >> normally they would. but my understanding is they were asked not to tell us about it. >> the department of justice office of legal counsel was asked not to inform you, the acting attorney general, about this order? >> that's my understanding. >> do you know why you weren't performed? >> i wasn't informed zwlp is t

if this story bears out. >> we should keep our eye on don mcgahn. white house counsel was john dean's job in the nixon white house. john dean ended up serving time for some of the actions he took as white house counsel. but he was the guy who turned on everyone else in the conspiracy and did testify against them, 48 people. 48 people in nixon's administration then go to jail. after that. >> wow. >> here we are, rachel. here we are. >> here we are, and here we remain. thank you. >> thank you, rachel, very much. thank you. >>> and so, the special counsel is here. this is the new chapter, this special counsel. president nixon got a special prosecutor assigned to investigate his administration five years into his presidency. a presidency that survived only one more year because of that special prosecutor who sent 48 members of the nixon administration to prison. a month after president nixon resigned, he was pardon by his successor, president jerry ford. ronald reagan faced a special prosecutor six years into the reagan presidency in the iran/contra. bi

the warn came january 26, from then acting attorney general sally yates to white house counsel don mcgahnd don mcgahn first thing that morning and told him i had a very sensitive matter that i needed to discuss with him. >> a sensitive matter concerning then national security advisor michael flynn who had just been interviewed at the white house two days before. yates warned that flynn hadn't been forthcoming with about conversations he had with russian ambassador sergey kislayak. >> it set up a situation where the national security advisor could be blackmailed by the russian. >> reporter: on january 27, the day after her warning, yates testified she returned to the white house for a second meeting with mcgahn. during that meeting, yates said mcgahn asked her if he could look at the evidence that had her cso concerned about general flynn. the date of january 27 is key, and here's why, donald trump has now admitted that he had dinner with fbi director james comey that very evening, january 27 at the white house. a private dinner soon after the president learned that his nsa director was be

she went over there with her hair on fire and said i can't talk to you, don mcgahn, white house counsel phone, it's so important that i have to go over to the white house and i have to let you know and she let him know and then we don't know what happened after that. and so i would -- i would argue that there is no loop in the white house to be out of. i think there's only one person in the white house. and that's donald trump. and he has, i've been told by sources close to him, that he's been complaining an awful lot about his white house counsel, don mcgahn. i don't know what the reason is, maybe it's because he -- the president felt he was out of this loop. i just, you know, i don't have any idea, but it's hard for me to think of any other white house in which, you know, she would go down to the white house, tell the white house counsel these issues that she had with the national security adviser, you know, being subject potentially to blackmail and that a white house wouldn't act on that very, very quickly. it's stunning. >> it is incredible, though, to have the president of the uni

>> it's going to be really interesting because sally yates has made it clear that she went to don mcgahn, the white house counsel, to warn him that flynn could be compromised because what he was saying publicly, what the white house was saying publicly was not true. >> right. >> and she knew this because she was able to examine or get reports on the classified transcripts of the u.s. intelligence surveillance of kislyak. now, it's not clear -- and i would be surprised if yates is going to be able to refer to what's in those transcripts. >> right. what's in the box is the question. >> she'll presumably be able to say, i saw something that concerned me, and i took it to the white house, to don mcgahn. but she won't be able to say what it was she saw that raised that level of concerns. so i think it will probably not be -- while there may be some atmospherics and theatrics, and certainly if she speaks as strongly as some people think she will, it will get a lot of headlines. but i'm not sure it will get us further to the bottom of the story of what exactly flynn did say to kislyak. >> all r

. >> she testified that she met twice in person at a phone call with the white house counsel don mcgahn because the white house said michael flynn did not discuss sanctions in december with the russians ambassador. >> we believe the russians knew this they likely had proof of this. that created compromise, a situation where the national security advisor could be blackmailed by the russians. >> yates, who later lost her job, said the justice department felt the flynn situation was serious. speak we told them we were giving them all of this information so they could take action. >> pressed on whether president obama warned president-elect trump not to hire flynn, the white house spokesman said. >> president obama made it known he was not a fan of general flynn. general flynn had worked for president obama and was an outspoken critic. >> spicer reinforced his tweet that the obama administration gave flynn the highest security clearance. >> if anyone else was concerned, the question should be asked, what did they do. if nothing, why not? >> another tweet about how classified information got

to white house counsel don mcgahn. >> i called don mcgahn first thing that morning and told him i hadsitive matter i needed to discuss with him. >> a sensitive matter concerning national security michael flynn who had just been interviewed by the fbi at the white house two days before. yates warned that flynn hadn't been forthcoming about conversations he had had with russian ambassador sergei kizlyak about u.s. sanctions during campaign 2016. eye. >> that created a compromise situation, a situation where the national security adviser essentially could be blackmailed by the russians. >> after yates's warning. >> the president was immediately informed of the situation. >> on january 27th. process. the day after her yarning yates testified she returned to the white house for a second meeting with mcgahn. during that meeting yates said mcgahn asked her if he could look at the evidence that had her so concerned about general flynn. >> the date of january 27th is key. and here is why. president trump has now revealed that he had dinner with then fbi director james comey on that very same e

. >> sally yates also said, senator, that white house council don mcgahn why it mattered to the department of justice if officials were lying to each other. to which she explained that flynn could be compromiseed. do you think the white house knew about the potential impact of michael flynn's russian connections? >> she certainly made it clear. she also made it clear today that in a second meeting with the white house council she was asked about whether he was potentially criminally liable and under what statutes he might be prosecuted. i thought that was also important information we heard in today's hearing. >> do you trust that white house council don mcgahn is giving the white house good advice based on the testimony we heard today? >> i don't know. i can't speak to that. i know that ms. yates gave the white house council unmistakable ef evidence that michael flynn should be removed. it was asked, is he someone that should be fired immediately? she said, that's not my call. that's the president's call. she was fired from her job days later. it is hard for me to discern that vice presid

you described in this briefing what sally did as a heads-up with don mcgahn. she testified she came to the white house twice in person on the 26th and 27th to do more, she says, than simply offer to provide materials. she says she encouraged the white house to act and expressed real concern about mike flynn being compromised by the russians. on the 28th, saturday, mike flynn sat in on that oval office phone call with president putin. is that the right call? >> again, i think what you have is somebody who was an obama pointee coming in saying -- i get it -- no, no -- at that moment, sure, you have someone who you have to wonder why they are telling you something to the point where they had to come back a second time because what they were saying was unclear. >> reporter: before the second topic you said it was widely rumored she wanted to be part of the clinton white house potentially. so that makes you negate her coming to -- >> no. again, i guess my point is somebody who is not -- who clearly showed by the fact that career doj attorneys told her the president

she went over there with her hair on fire and said i can't talk to you, don mcgahn, white house counsel, over the phone, it's so important that i have to go over to the white house and i have to let you know and she let him know and then we don't know what happened after that. and so i would -- i would argue that there is no loop in the white house to be out of. i think there's only one person in the white house. and that's donald trump. and he has, i've been told by sources close to him, that he's been complaining an awful lot about his white house counsel, don mcgahn. i don't know what the reason is, maybe it's because he -- the president felt he was out of this loop. i just, you know, i don't have any idea, but it's hard for me to think of any other white house in which, you know, she would go down to the white house, tell the white house counsel these issues that she had with the national security adviser, you know, being subject potentially to blackmail and that a white house wouldn't act on that very, very quickly. it's stunning. >> it is incredible, though, to have the president

the first one is about don mcgahn, the white house counsel who apparently got that warning. what did he do with it? did he take it to the president, and if he did, was he overruled by the president? if he was, it brings us back to that question which has been really behind a lot of strange decisions by president trump in the last few months. why has he always been so eager to protect michael flynn? that is, you know, the question that has led him to potentially cross lines with his behavior towards jim comey, potentially why he even fired james comey. we don't know whether it's out of loyalty to mike flynn, out of friendship to mike flynn, or if it's something darker, if he's worried mike flynn had something he would tell investigators if he ever felt he was in legal jeopardy. >> andrea mitchell. >> well, there are a couple of things about that. i was told early on that mike flynn was vetted, and his attorney was in touch with don mcgahn early on in january. the fact is that that's what they called a vet. they knew about his representation of turkey at the time, before it wa

miss yates, let me ask you about this meeting on january the 26th with white house counsel don mcgahn. you shared the justice d department's concerns about his communication with russia, dishonesty about the communications and vulvulnerabiy of blackmail. >> that's right. >> general flynn, other than his representations he had no conversations that you bawarned don mcgahn about? >>. >> didn't go back to his trip to moscow, money received? >> no, it did not. >> strictly on that yes? >> yes. >> you had a second meeting the next day. >> that's right. >> correct? january the 27th. >> at his request, yes. >> at mr. mcgahn's request. at that second meeting, did mr. mcgahn say anything about whether he'd taken the information you'd given him to the president? >> no, de hadn't tell us. >> are you aware of the fact mr. spicer, the white house press secretary, on february 14th, said, i quote, "immediately aft the department of justice notified the white house council of the situation, the white house counsel briefed the president in a small group of senior advisers." >> i've seen media reports t

so the open question now is, if that happened, did don mcgahn just sit on it? and, if so, why? why would he do that? because the whole idea, the whole reason why these kinds of ties are inappropriate and are foreboden, because any decision that the president makes, in this case it's turkey, is viewed rightly or wrongly, fair or unfair, through the prism of the fact that the national security adviser was getting $500,000 -- >> file that under the bright lights not to do as well. >> -- from this country. also, if you take a step back and look more broadly at it, so the vice president has now gotten caught in so many different webs of donald trump and they have been the white house making it unfortunate and uncomfortable. it doesn't seem as though in this particular case, if we take them at his word that he really did not know, that he was at fault. if he were running the transition, maybe he should have known. we don't know who is to blame for that. this comes on the hooems eels o week when the vice president took it upon himself to do something he rarely does, which is speak to

the president's thinking, the vice president, son-in-law jared kushner and white house counsel don mcgahn, all of them backing a decision that ultimately as it happened again and again was the president's and the president's alone. lester? >> hallie jackson at the white house, thanks. comey's firing triggered criticism on both sides of the isle and reignited calls from democrats for an independent special prosecutor to take over the investigation into possible collusion between the trump campaign and russians to influence the election. we get more from nbc's kristen welker. >> reporter: amid mounting outrage on capitol hill tonight, some lawmakers are questioning the country's very foundation. do you see this as a constitutional crisis? >> absolutely. >> this is a stress test of the constitutional democracy. what we're living in right now. >> reporter: and it's not just democrats, an increasing number of republicans are joining the voices. richard burr chairs the senate intelligence committee. >> the timing and reasons for this decision made little sense to me and i haven't heard anything

"the new york times" reporting flynn informed the chief lawyer don mcgahn weeks before he was under federal investigation for secretly working for a paid lobbyist for turkey during the campaign. the white house says the story is flat wrong. despite the warning, mr. trump named flynn to name the national security team granting him access to the deepest secrets before firing him three weeks later. sharing the transition team, vice president elect mike pence who to this day maintains he was unaware of flynn's ties to turkey. >> let me say, hearing that story today was the first i heard of it. >> reporter: tonight an administration said saying if he knew and didn't tell pence, it's malpractice or intentional and either is unacceptable. and within trump's inner circle, an official says the trump family had a blind spot when it came to flynn, who was rewarded for his loyalty to the president. four law enforcement officials tell nbc news flynn and former campaign chairman paul manafort are key figures with multiple grand jury subpoenas that and requests during the last six months. in the crosshair

quote, white house counsel don mcgahn and his team is urging the white house and trump to be cautiousomments with a special prosecutor involved. joining me now alex from politico who had the news with the trump meeting with lawyers. matt miller, so many legal questions. alex, i want to start with you and the meeting. what was the focus of that meeting? >> the focus was very simple which is to start getting the president and his team familiarized with the process and how it's going to work. this is going to be a new process for people in the white house. matt made the point earlier on this evening. look, this is a white house that is very much -- has been racked in chaos from the beginning. this is going to be another strain on them as they move forward. so, this meeting was really to start getting them prepared and ready to go here as this gets underway. >> but the thing that really jumped out at me -- there were several things -- it was a really fine piece of reporting. but we just read part of it, that they wanted to urge the white house and trump to be cautious in its comments. it'

. —— don mcgahn. it sounds that we are all coming back to this one.s. my pleasure. bill o'reilly stepped down last month are to act of sexual harassment by a number of women. —— fox news anchor bill o'reilly stepped down last month, accused of sexual harrassment by a number of women. and now one of them has flown to london to try to block rupert murdoch — who owns fox — from taking full control of sky. she met the media regulator ofcom — which is investigating whether murdoch's company 21st century fox would be fit and proper to take full control of sky. this from our media editor amol rajan. on the west coast of ireland, people are flocking to a remote island to see a sandy beach that has reappeared — that is the word. it was washed away by storms more than 30 years ago. but a freak tide has dumped thousands of tonnes of sand back there again. keith doyle has the story. achill island, on the west coast of ireland, has many beautiful beaches. but for the past 30 years, this was not one of them. however, nature has now returned dooagh beach to its form

don mcgahn, the counsel's office informed the president. they asked for the documents or materials that she had referred to at -- i forgot, five or six days to get those. they reviewed him, and he was asked to resign shortly tl thereafter. but i think there is a difference. there was an't a review process. that was the review case. in this case, as the president noted yesterday during his interview, he had been thinking about this for a long time. the justice department had done a review. but, again, i'm not really sure -- in both cases -- >> so since you just -- >> no, you just asked me -- >> [ inaudible ] justice, is that what you're talking about? >> you're asking why it wasn't an emergency. it's not a question of is it an emergency? he took the time to do due process. someone comes to you with an allegation, i think everyone deserves due process to make sure that that allegation -- someone coming in and giving you a heads up. we did exactly what was necessary. and the president made the right decision and he continues to stand by it. >>

two days later on the 26th, yates met at the white house with the president's lawyer don mcgahn. she said she informed him then that flynn had been compromised. >> the russians also knew about what general flynn had done, and the russians also knew that vice president. this was a problem. not only did we believe that the russians knew this, but that they likely had proof of this information. and that created a compromise situation, a situation where the national security adviser essentially could be blackmailed by the russians. >> reporter: the next day yates met with mcgahn again. he asked whether the justice department was pursuing charges against flynn. >> they were concerned that taking action might interfere with the f.b.i. investigation. and we told him, both the senior career official and i, that he should not be concerned with it. >> reporter: mcdwan then asked to see the evidence against flynn. three days later on january 30th, yates agree, but that night the obama straight holdover was fired for refusing to defend the president's travel ban. >> i don't know what happene

reince priebus, councilor kellyanne conway, chief strategist steve bannon, and white house council don mcgahn. amid this intrigue, the search continues for a new f.b.i. director. the president has not decided whether he will personally interview the finalists, but scott said today the process is moving rapidly. white house officials expect an announcement before friday. >> pelley: major garrett at the white house. in another big story tonight, that cyber attack computers in every corner of the world began to slow today. it turns out that a pair of engineers, one of them an american, figured out a way to stall the attack for just a few dollars. charlie d'agata begins our coverage. >> reporter: from china's main oil company to a hospital in indonesia to japan's nissan car company, the ransomware attack ricocheted around the world again today as people went back to work. and today asia bore the bankrupt of the attacks. chinese university students were even locked out from their term papers. elsewhere, germany's railroads were hit, france's reynaud car factory had to close, businesses in australi

january 26, sally yates warns the white house counsel don mcgahn about flynn lying and saying that could potentially compromise him. february 8, flynn denies discussing the sanctions with russian officials in "the washington post" piece. he has to say he has no recollection of discussing it. february 13, flynn resigns from his national security advisor post. that is where we are. long hearing today. steve hayes, editor-in-chief of "the weekly standard," mercedes schlapp, anna palmer, and charles krauthammer. steve, thoughts on the day. what we need most in this discussion is new information. we need something to break through, we need clarity. we didn't get that today. i think what we got was more of the same. mike flynn made mistakes, exercised bad judgment. on question after question, both james clapper and sally yates hid behind classification. one would hope if this matter continues and we are certain it will, somebody somewhere will say we need to see this stuff. the american public needs to see it. whether you are talking about transcripts of what mike flynn said in his conversatio

. >> i have talked to republicans that know don mcgahn, white house counsel very well.hey have a hard time placing blame with him when it comes to this. they say, it is not like him to mess something up like this. what do you think? obviously, we are operating with some limited information here. president trump should be getting counsel on these things. is it also possible that he is freelancing, just calling people up on a whim? >> i don't know whether trump. i don't know whether mcgahn. that seems to be what's happening. what one reads about the president is his grasp of history is shallow. if, in fairness to him, he needs to get a better understanding of why his powers are limited, not just that they are limited but why they are limited. we have a republic that is based on the rule of law, independent investigations are critical. independent intelligence is critical. we just have to maintain that. he cannot interfere. >> an inquiry into the ability to stop this investigation between russian intelligence officials and whether there could be ties substantive ties with

don mcgahn, a as many of you know, has many accomplishments. let me comment briefly on them. as the lawyer for the national republican campaign committee, he did a a great job of defending a lot of good republicans who are being unfairly attacked. as a member and chairman of the federal elections commission, he was outstanding in protecting the livelihoods and the reputation of so many people who were the victims of partisan attacks by those who would try to use that particular organization to pillory and to attack the reputation of so many of our friends for partisan purposes. and now as you heard, he's not only done a great job in the campaign representing the trump campaign, but has now embarked on a very important task and that is to defend the white house, the president and the current administration from what are often, again, unfair attacks by our opponents. particularly important is the way he's already embarked on coordinating the efforts of the general counsel's in the various departments. so we can have a eunited front f professional lawyers defending this administ

president, had as it was described, with a small number of individuals close to him, jared kushner, don mcgahnice president pence, all of them agreed with his decision basically to fire james comey, but what's striking is how they were caught off guard by how big of a bombshell it was and received. they thought it would be simple to sort of push back on democrats who might be critical of this. obviously they had leaflets that they distributed about some of the comments, the criticisms by chuck schumer, the top democrat in the senate, but i think the white house, it's fair to say, was definitely caught off guard by this and notably one piece of information striking to me the following day, the day after the announcement was made during the morning meeting where the senior staff and president are there, they basically glanced over this issue altogether, comey's firing, and moved on to other topics. as one senior white house official describes it there's real frustration but anger inside the west wing about the handling of this. not so much that it was done, but how it was done. that they fear no

that was 18 days after white house councel don mcgahn had first been told. jon sobel is here.out the person he was appointing. would he not be fired? that ceo would be in a lot of trouble and there would questions about their judgment. if they trouble and there would questions about theirjudgment. if they reach the conclusion that they could just ride it out. that is why the story has not gone away because of our questions. what happened in that 18 day period. the way that sean spicer is trying to handle the briefing, which is still going onjust now is trying to handle the briefing, which is still going on just now at the white house, is to say we had to verify the facts and clear the paperwork and then do due diligence and by that time 18 days have elapsed. that is one scenario. the other is that as you hinted at, perhaps donald trump made the calculation that we could ride this out, he wanted to remain loyal to mike flynn and still seems to want to remain loyal to him. and therefore the best way to do that is just see if it all goes away quietly. the decisive change was that

. >> how was she not supporting him when she was going to don mcgahn, the general counsel at the whiteying that the then national security adviser was compromised by russia? >> well, in that instance, she was doing what she thought was the appropriate thing to do. she went to the white house, she issued the warning to the administration, the administration considered the warnings and the admonitions that she provided with them -- >> for 18 days. >> for 18 days. which i this is is an appropriate time. number one, this isn't someone the president did not appoint. he did not know her. she came in to the white house and said this guy is susceptible to blackmail. well, as soon as the white house and the fbi are saying that, we know that that's not going to happen because it's now clear everybody knows what the situation is so the immediate danger and the immediate threat of general flynn being blackmailed, that was gone. so this then provided the administration time to check all the facts, what he had done, what he said to the vice president, the information that was provided to it by the j

if don mcgahn is telling him not to do these things -- we don't know that, but we would assume he is. the president is not listening to him. so the president needs to get a lawyer that he'll listen to and someone that will advise him to stop doing these things that are hurting him politically and legally, and someone whose advice he'll take. >> thank you for participating in this conversation. >>> coming up after our next break, new reporting tonight on just what vice president mike pence knew or didn't know about the flynn issues, when we continue. does your makeup remover take it all off? every kiss-proof, cry-proof, stay-proof look? neutrogena® makeup remover does. it erases 99% of your most stubborn makeup with one towelette. need any more proof than that? neutrogena. >>> welcome back to "the 11th hour." it's a question we have asked repeatedly on this broadcast, why such devotion from the president for his former national security adviser mike flynn. what is it? today, yahoo published a report that flynn says he got a message from the president late last month to quote, stay stro

from sally yates was not only her bringing us into the office when she walked in and talked to don mcgahn the white house counsel on the seventh day of trump's presidency and laid out a long list of things that mike flynn had talked about in his discussion with the russian ambassador, but also she said something really interesting that i think is going to put some more fuel onto the story, which is that the underlying comment that flynn was making on that call raised concerns. and also that the fbi wasn't satisfied with their interview with mike flynn. and so that means that there is a potential legal jeopardy there and that the fbi is obviously looking very closely at mike flynn's conduct. and i think that part is not going to go away. >> andy, as we kinds of do at the end of the day, what does it all mean? does it mean that trump knew that mike flynn had lied to his vice president? does any of this mean that absent the "washington post" leak and subsequent report, mike flynn would still be at 109 days in, the national security adviser? >> i'm not sure about the answer to that question.

if don mcgahn is telling him not to do these things -- we don't know that, but we would assume he is.he president is not listening to him. so the president needs to get a lawyer he can listen to, and someone who will advise him to stop doing the things that are hurting him politically, and find someone whose advice he will take. >> thank you for participating in this conversation. >>> coming up after the next break, new reporting tonight on just what vice president mike pence knew or didn't know about the flynn issues when we continue. 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 ke nitrates for chest pain, adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in ood 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

that president trump expressed anger over comey to the vice president, to his white house counsel don mcgahn, his son-in-law jared kushner, who apparently all backed, by the way, dismissing comey, while steve bannon and reince priebus had concerns over the timing though reince priebus was ultimately supportive. it's unbelievable this white house would not be prepared or didn't realize just how big this would be. >> yeah, i -- this is -- david mentioned this and i would just echo it times 1,000 which is firing james comey on january 21st, let's say, day after donald trump gets into office, it would still be a big deal. there would still be questions about the russia investigation, but, you know, he said we needed a change, you know, i felt very strongly about this, i made this decision that if i was elected, i was going to do this. firing him on may 9th in the middle of the russia investigation as cnn is reporting that subpoenas have gone out to associates of michael flynn is totally and completely baffling, not just because of donald trump's past statements, which are contradictory, not just

yates says she told white house counsel don mcgahn on january 26 that flynn was lying both publicly and privately about whether he'd discussed sanctions on russia in his conversation with russian ambassador sergei kislyak, and that she thought these lies made flynn vulnerable to being blackmailed. former house intelligence committee chair devin nunes canceled hearings in march in apparent efforts to block yate'' testimony after she and former cia head john brennan, who was slated to testify at the same hearing, informed the government they would contradict some statements that white house officials had made. former democratic presidential candidate are clinton claimed that fbi director james comey and russian hacking cost her the u.s. election during an interview tuesday. mrs. clinton: i was on the way to winning until a combination letter on october 28 and russian wikileaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were implying to vote for me -- inclined to vote for me, but got scared off. had the election mid-october 27, i would be your president. amy: that's hillary clinton, referrin