new york times" about leaked testimony of don mcgann saying -- he told mcgann to fire bob mueller. he said hey, you have to challenge that story. i never did that. said mr. president, yes, you did. they moved on. so again, the main thing being, this took place after the idea that trump was trying to tamper with witnesses, which is something that mentioned in the piece, took place after they testified. so there's no logic to that argument either. >> trace: yeah, you want to tamper before they say stuff. thanks, tom. real clear politics. >> thanks. >> trace: as we wait for president trump to talk about his import tax plan better known as the tariffs, some in his own party are not holding back. more than 100 house republicans have fired off a letter to the president asking him to reconsider broad tariffs that could hurt the american economy. and it's workers. we have a lot of democrats that are in favor of this. we'll get to the bottom of this when the trump and president speaks coming up. but there's no way to avoid that mi...s pmi, hey! this'll help. rocket mortgage by quicken loans

kelly insists that he and the white house counsel, don mcgann had no idea that the fbi had handed over a partial file on rob porter to the white house personnel security office in march and in june and he insists the first he heard about this was the afternoon of february 6. he did said "we didn't cover ourselves in glory in dealing with this issue", shep. >> shepard: the white house got told about this twice last year. the chief counsel and chief of staff didn't know until february. >> that's what john kelly said today. he said they were unaware that the information had gone to the personnel security office, which is -- i don't want to say its an autonomous office but it's compartmentalized and staffed by career professionals. what is interesting is that no red flags were raised about porter. but there were red flags that were raised about other employees. one, an employee who had a lot of credit card debt and that could make somebody susceptible to influence from outside organizations or nations. and another person that said that they wouldn't get their clearance. that person was let

the conversations with reince priebus and don mcgann were not about substance but asking if they received professional and fair treatment. this is not obstruction." trish? >> thanks, catherine. paul ryan trying to hammer home the republican tax cuts at a home depot today. who is winning this fight? home depot co-founder bernie marcus is next. whatever you're doing to stay healthy... there's something you may be missing. a key part of your wellness that you may be... overlooking. it's your eyes. that's why there's ocuvite, from bausch + lomb. as you age your eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish those nutrients. ocuvite has lutein, zeaxanthin, and omega-3. nourish your eyes to help them be their healthy best. ocuvite eye vitamins. be good to your eyes. you or joints. something for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. >> we set forth to do tax reform. we're very excited about the outcome of

a team led by don mcgann. don mcgann in my view is quite correct to argue let's not give the special counsel anything. he has a team headed by john dowd, mark kasowitz, now joe digenova. he has three pieces of litigation, involving three women who claim to have had relationships, one who has given an insinldry interview to 60 minutes, we'll hear on sunday night. one of them to take the president's deposition, to put him under oath and question him about his relationship, intimate sexual relationship with this lady 12 years ago. this is not good for all of this to happen to the president while he's talking to putin and signing tariffs on china, and negotiating spending with the congress. >> harris: it doesn't show he can get the job done no matter what is going on? >> many because in the air but he is human. this is almost league under siege. >> harris: so this is why i come back to the case that you just laid out and you are a judge, so do you that so well, this is why i come back to wouldn't you rather have a

after it was reported that president trump spoke to his former chief of staff reince priebus and don mcgann interactions with the special counsel, white house officials told cnn the chief of staff john kelly has warned president trump about speaking to witnesses from a legal perspective. how much trouble could the president be in for talking to these witnesses? it's not a good look, right? >> first of all, he's clearly going against the advice of only general kelly but certainly of his lawyers. he must be telling them to do this. but you're right on both counts. number one, in and of itself, these probing various employees is not -- does not amount to obstruction of justice or witness tampering. having said that, it's incredibly unwise on his part. it's unwise because it creates a terrible appearance. innocent people may get nervous and want to find out what other witnesses are saying. but guilty people do this all the time. somebody is doing this looks to be guilty and -- >> you had all the people testifying about something that could potentially lead to your impeachment or put new jail. i

the president spoke with former chief of staff reince priebus as well as white house counsel don mcgannuisiana republican is constitutional law attorney. democrats said these discussions involving the president were disturbing. do you see it that way? >> not at all. what we seen and what developed here, it doesn't matter what this president does, his critics and liberal media and some of the liberals here will try to spin it into a conspiracy. look at the facts here. look what's been reported. they're taking a casual conversation that the president had with a former aide where he asked them if he was treated nicely. they trying to imply this is obstruction of justice. there's nothing unlawful about this casual conversation. i think this is much ado about nothing. >> jon: much of this reported yesterday in the "new york times" and all of the information comes from unnamed sources. fox has confirmed that the conversations did take place but if you're the president and you're talking with your attorney and you're talking with your chief of staff, that kind of happens in the course of daily

the white house counsel tried to make a statement about don mcgann tried fire.stified. overnight, more evidence that mueller is still looking at if there was collusion. george. >> okay, pierre, thanks very much >>> coming up here the new bachelorette, becca's message. what is she going to say to arie and lauren. >>> those new sites that could help cleanse your social media accounts. >>> lara? >> hello, ms. robin. i'm here with tory johnson. she has great deals and steals like this. little moonlighting for you. help make life easier while saving big and being safe. so much coming up on "good morning america." the clapper. come on up. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ this guy's...is guy? been through a lot. dogs bring out the good in us. pedigree brings out the good in them. feed the good. ibut it doesn't always come naturally. this i can do, easily. benefiber® healthy shape is a 100% natural prebiotic fiber that's clinically proven to help me feel fuller longer. benefiber® healthy shape. this i can do! when my smile is bright, i feel ready to shine. some whitening toothpastes only remove

they are report being don m mcgann telling them to fire the special counsel and issue a statement denying "new york times" report. then the conversation with reince priebus. you take that and earl you had the former attorney general eric holder saying president trump will face obstruction of justice charge from the special counsel robert mueller. you technically have an obstruction of justice case. i've known bob mueller from 20 to 30 years. he's trying to make the case. this looks the like "new york times" trying to put pressure on the special counsel to come up with an obstruction of justice charge. even though the president having conversations with his own advisors as judge napolitano said that's not coaching a witness. he can have these conversations. even the "new york times" article goes into this. attorneys don't think this looks like that. it looks shady and it smells bad. they trying to -- well, did you know that they trying to basically loin up a case for the special counsel. >> bottom line for me, completely appropriate for the president to be talking to his staff afterwards.

. >> senator grassley and i have housen to both the white don mcgann and director of the fbi asking for a full explanation of the continuing security clearance process because i continue to believe speaking only for myself that it continues to be effective and hope you will cooperate in that review. dir. coats: we certainly will cooperate for that review. >> can you assure us you will take action in the event any foreign government seeks to manipulate a member of the white house staff? dir. coats: once again i want to make clear that taking action is a policy decision. we provide the information of truth to power, truth to those make a policy decisions. to the extent the intelligence community can participate in those actions, that has to be formulated through policy. dir. coats: but you will -- >> but you'll make recommendations? dir. coats: we are a part of these discussions. >> senator fischer. >> thank you mr. chairman. welcome gentlemen. if we could gear this back to some friends we are facing as a country. i know in the recently released nuclear pot ash nuclear posture review it w

mcgann said to him, a, yes, you did, and b, now i have to go report this back to mueller don mcghan and others have a legal obligation to report in certain types of factual information in the middle an obstruction probe. so i think mcgann has played that role, threatened to resign and is still there. that tells us something about donald trump's very intelligent, very thought-out and methodical approach to this probe. it is very clear that many of donald trump's critics are wrong to suggest that he is impulsive or just shoots from the hip on this issue. he has been moving very methodically through trial and error, experimental, to figure out how you can restrain parts of this probe to the many parts he doesn't like, does so publicly, while not falling into the trap of richard nixon while having an explosive set of firings which actually imperil the presidency. this is, as i've said before, the markings of more of a slow-motion saturday night massacre that's harder to pinpoint than the way nixon did it. that's one reason why donald trump who we know removes people -- there are a lot of pe

don mcgahn should issue a statement denying the article in january. it says the president once asked him to fire the special counsel robert mueller and mr. mcgannd a statement and had to remind the president that he asked him to see that mr. mueller was discussed. >> he's asking him to issue a statement denying something that really happened. i want to read the other, according to "the new york times," the president asked former chief of staff reince priebus how his interview with the special counsel investigator went and whether they had been nice. it goes to show the president is very interested, even though they've been dismissive and believe this investigation is wrapping up, he's clearly very interested in what these investigators and what the special counsel wants to know about him, to the fact that he's asking his former chief of staff what happened in that interview. i don't even have a law degree. i know that's not something you're supposed to do. >> let me read the other line. rebecca, i'd e like you to weigh in. legal experts said mr. trump's contact with the men most likely did not rise to the level of witness tampering, but witness