you talked to john dowd personal attorney. heard the president he wanted to get all the credit i'd love to do it two or three weeks subject to my lawyers. then shockingly the lawyers come out and say, we'll decide. no decision has been made. talk to john dowd. what else can you tell us? >> well, look, i think what's going on here, and we heard this fromty cobb at the white house last night after the president spoke and from john dowd this evening. there is a shuffle brigade. and what they are trying to do is fix what the president said and say, wait, a minute, no desist has been made. it's up to the president's lawyers, as the president has kind of indicated. and i think what the president was doing last night, quite honestly, was playing to the american public. and saying, look, i have nothing to hide here. i would love to sit down and talk to the special counsel. so he's the good cop. and let the lawyers be the bad cop. and i think john dowd clearly is saying no decisions have been made. and when they have been made it will

this statement from john dowd, lawyers work for clients, not the other way around.ent's call to do the interview or not, john dowd is just trying to take some of the heat off the president. and pressuring people privately and pressuring people publicly, there is a long-term strategy to try to jundermine bob mueller. he can either fire him if there's wrong doing. i think there's a clear strategy on the part of the interview, one of the ways to back out of it is to claim bob mueller is biassed, the investigation has been biassed from the beginning, we can pro the memo will prove that he's been biassed and we don't want to sit down with him. >> yet what the republican house officials want is to focus on the memo and it's unseen, unverified rumored attacks on the person who, oh, guess what, is overseeing bob mueller, there have been times in history when people hold up documents and say their secret document proves terrible things about other people in government without revealing what's in the document. and that's something that we're emphasizing in our report in fo fi

it details what dowd describes as unprecedented cooperation and transparency, noting more than 20 white house personnel voluntarily offered interviews and more than 20,000 pages of documents were provided, dowd says, relating, in part, to fired national security agency michael flynn, and dismissed fbi director james comey. now, president trump is also aiming to improve his image in the wake of offensive remarks, purportedly made about africans and others. the president said he deeply respects africans, in a all right sent to the african union, ahead of its annual summit this weekend. the president also said that secretary of state rex tillerson will make an extended visit to the continent in march. reena. >> ninan: errol barnett at the white house. sexual assault allegations against casino titan steve wynn shook the vegas strip friday, and there was fallout today in washington. carter evans has the latest. >> reporter: reaction to the sex saltaccusations against casino mogul steve wynn has been swift. wynn resort stock closed down more than 10% friday, and tharch, the billionaire steppe

and then john dowd saying, no, i'm going to make that call. again, something i say and people don't like this sometimes, but in fairness to the trump's white house, bill clinton's lawyers did take the position that it was negotiatable. lawyers do fight things out. so it seems to me that at a mon minimum what we're observing, is ty cobb, john dowd, these lawyers tonight trying to get back the leverage that the great deal maker seems to give away with these grand promises last night. >> there's two things i think they're trying to accomplish here, one is to signify resistance to this entire probe and also to relegitimize it. what the president did yesterday, i don't know if it's about trying to make any kind of agreements or set himself to a higher standard than bill clinton or hillary clinton, he's trying to exhibit that he's in charge, that he will make a decision. that he is the one who is deciding what's going to happen and what's not going to happen. he just seems not to realize what kind of trouble he's actually in. he thinks he can repeat

and in fact, dowd telling gloria that it is ultimately dowd's decision on whether or not he will -- the president will sit down with bob mueller. this despite the president saying before he left to davos he would be willing to sit down with bob mueller, do it under oath, under the advice of his attorneys, but some of his attorneys may not be there yet. they're saying those negotiations are still ongoing. >> can't imagine what the questions would be, did you try to fire me? thank you. >>> let's break it down further. here are cnn and legal national security asha ranga. let me use your expertise for this first. how does this change mueller's investigation on the obstruction of justice front? >> i don't think it changes it as much as potentially strengthens it. again, mueller's main challenge here is to prove in his obstruction case that the president fired comey with corrupt intent. absent the president, you know, confessing to this, he has to kind of create that through circumstantial evidence and a pattern of behavior can go towards that. and this adds to the pattern of behavior. we kno

dowd, that's not your decision? >> well, he could plead the fifth amendment. that would be a reason to say i'm not going to testify. >> is that the only way he can refuse -- >> i think it is. who knows what someone could come up with. >> but pleading the fifth is the only way out of this. >> i think so, and i'm not sure that's a way out of it. >> pr wise, a terrible idea. >> a, and b, i don't know if mueller would do this, but he could say okay, you have immunity. we won't criminally prosecute you for anything you say to the grand jury. but of course, congress is watching. and they can impeach you for what you say to the grand jury. and if you lie to the grand jury, we can prosecute you for that. so mueller has a lot of leverage here. >> it sounds like what you're saying is we in the press corps, we shouldn't even bother worrying about what the white house thinks they can do with mueller. this is all in mueller pfrs court. >> it's always interesting to see what the white house thinks they can do, but i think this is mueller's call, unless trump has something u

what do you think of the statement from john dowd?hows that you know this is a pretty much a complete 180. this is an invitation not to do an interview at all. and you know, we know that donald trump is very capable of make iing a complete turn aroun. look, think about the tax returns. he said he release d the tax returns now he didn't do it. now he said you know, he said yesterday that he wants to talk, but now the lawyer's deciding he can overrule the president. so you know, it seems to me that this is very much an undecided question of whether or when the president will talk to the mueller investigation and the lawyers who are no dumb mys know what it was much safer at least legally not the talk to him. politically, it may be a problem not to talk to mueller, but legally, clearly, the safest course is to have the client say no. >> it's a pretty blunt, bold statement from john dowd, david axelrod, saying i will be the one to make this decision. not the president of the united states. >> yeah, it is. but you know, what i wonder and i

john dowd calling all of that unprecedented.t is important to point out, steph, there is an investigation and they're being asked for this information and these interviews. so they're complying, really, with the requests of the special counsel, steph. >> so they could have said no, or they had to comply? >> reporter: well, they're making the case that, look, they are being transparent. could they say no? my guess is that's probably up for discussion, based on any given request. but the legal team all along has said that our strategy is to be transparent. we want to get as much information to the special couns counsel, that the special counsel has requested, as possible because we want this investigation to move swiftly and be finished as quickly as possible. >> thank you so much. >>> let's break this down with our panel. legal analyst benjamin wittes. i lied, not a panel. it is all you. the president said he is willing to speak under oath. does that apply here? i mean, whenever you speak to the fbi, don't you have to tell the tr

>> john dowd said that he is going to be the one to decide if the president is going to sit down forn interview with the special counsel. and moreover, he said i haven't made any decision yet. so there's a lot of cleanup going on here, anderson. the president did caveat his statement a little last night saying, you know, subject to his attorneys, and his attorney today said not so fast. >> gloria, there's more breaking news happening right now. i believe we have maggie haberman on the phone, do we have maggie? what's this breaking story that you're just breaking now? >> caller: sure, my colleague, mike schmid and i just reported that the president last june ordered the white house counsel to fire robert mueller, mcgann protested and threatened to quit if he was ordered to go through with this. the president ultimately backed down. this is the first time that we know of, anderson of the president actually engaging in this and doing what had been seen as an option he was keeping open, and he was very consciously keeping it open last july in an interview with the "times". he has said i'

second, dowd told me he has not made any decision whatsoever on whether or not that's going to happen. as you all sort of hinted at earlier, the fact that trump sometimes says things that don't line with reality is likely giving a lot of concern to the president's lawyers about whether or not they want him to sit down with mueller. that said of course, the next question becomes does mueller subpoena the president? that's a couple steps down the line. i wouldn't want to speculate about it but the reality is that this potential conflict between the president's outside attorney, john dowd, and bob mueller has the potential to be a really significant stories in the coming weeks. >> michael, you named three excuses that the president had for firing mueller. he gave you another one when you guys sat down with him in the oval office, i think it was a case of president going a little rogue. but we have your sound from it. this is the president describing what would be a red line for him with bob mueller. let's listen. >> mueller was looking at your finances and family finances unrelated to ru

let's start with dowd. dowd believes and some agree that the united states cannot be charged with obstruction of justice tore doing that which he has the constitutional right to do, which is fire comey. it is a different question whether he has the right to fire mueller when there is a statute that says only the, in this case, deputy attorney general acting as attorney general can fire mueller for good cause shown which is why mcgann would have resigned rather a than order rosenstein to fire mueller. that is issue number one. issue number two is if he can't be charged with obstruction of justice to do that which he has the constitutional right to do, can he be charged with abuse of office, which is the abuse of his constitutional authority, which is what gave rise to the second article for nixon and third article of impeachment for clinton. so he's got a problem one way or the other. we'll see how the lawyers interpret the a laws of the united states constitution in this respect. we have to remember of cour

peter dowd on the latest drama. >> if he cannot say he loves his grandfather, then our world is a little messed up. >> reporter: the grandson of charles manson wants manson cremated. freeman insists his grandfather died without a will. he didn't learn he was related to manson until he was 11 years old. then had an eight-year relationship with manson. he wants to give his grandfather a proper burial. >> i love my grandfather. everybody makes mistakes. i'm not talking about the mistakes he's made and placing judgment. i don't want anyone judging me for my past, you know, for my past choices. he did his time. >> reporter: but the killer's pen pal wants control of the remains. claiming he filed a will in 2002 naming him executor of the manson estate. the santa clarita man spoke with us earlier this month and said manson want today be cremated. >> nobody knows. nobody will know except for me. >> reporter: a woman who had believes she's the daughter of manson showed up after today's hearing. she filed a petition on behalf of her half brother, matthew lenz, who claims he is also manson's child.

matt dowd reporting in from austin, texas, this morning. we always appreciate it. >> thank you, matt. >>> we turn to another major story. a rally on the campus of michigan state university in support of survivors of sexual abuse. >> students took to the streets after the sentencing of disgraced doctor, larry nassar, who sexually abused star athletes at the university as well as olympians and the rally comes as the school is choosing new leadership and usa gymnastics is overhauling its board and eva pilgrim is here and, eva, the fallout continues. >> reporter: good morning. this case may be over, but it is spurring a lot of real questions. larry nassar abused a staggering number of girls for more than 20 years under the guise of medical treatment. his victims now want to know who knew what, when and why no one stopped him. a sea of teal standing in support calling for change in the midst of the search for answers. [ chanting "no more silence" ] hundreds of michigan state students taking part in a demonstration overnight to support the more t

the criminal attorney, john dowd, has proclaimed it is his decision alone whether the president does not. of course, he'll be able to make a recommendation. so he'll have the dowd recommendation, he'll have the cobb recommendation, he'll have all his friends on tv recommending he not do it. what's he going to do? >> i assume ty cobb doesn't have the ability of knowing what don mcghan has said. does he have notes, maybe, of what he's talked about with donald trump? don's friends on tv have a point, in a sense. when they get in that room, and they know him, he's going to be asked, mr. trump, why did you fire james comey? he's going to have to say what he said to lester holt or say something else. then he'll say, mr. trump, why did you tell mr. holt why you fired him on russia? he'll have to say that. mr. trump, did you tell him to fire james comey? and if he doesn't say what his snoets s snoets s notes say, he's in trouble. his friends on tv are not crazy. he'll be asked, did you fire -- if he answers him, i fired him because he quit my golf club. nobody is going to believe he was fire

>> matthew dowd is standing by for analysis, but we're going to begin with abc's david wright at the white house for us this morning. david, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, paula and dan. president trump arrived back here amid mounting questions over the russia probe especially that question of whether he tried to fire the special counsel. trump calls it fake news, but that alone won't satisfy his critics. as president trump returned to the white house, he was in no mood to answer questions about the russia probe. in davos, too, he dodged. >> mr. president, did you seek to fire mueller? >> fake news, folks. fake news. >> what's your message today? >> typical "new york times" fake story. >> reporter: but overseas that line of attack -- >> and it wasn't until i became a politician that i realized how nasty, how mean, how vicious and how fake the press can be. >> reporter: -- didn't go over so well. [ booing ] the notion of fake news got booeed. abc news has now confirmed the president did seek to fire mueller last june one month into the job until according to "the time

let's end with the words of maureen dowd who pretty much nailed it. some day the clintons should give their tin cup to the smithsonian. it's one of the wonders of the world. coming up. peter schweizer, the author of "clinton cash" joins me. on bild hillary. don't go let's get started. show of hands. who wants customizable options chains? ones that make it fast and easy to analyze and take action? how about some of the lowest options fees? are you raising your hand? good then it's time for power e*trade the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. alright one quick game of rock, paper, scissors. 1, 2, 3, go. e*trade. the original place to invest online. my name's dustinhey, dustin. grab a seat. woman: okay. moderator: nice to meet you. have you ever had car trouble in a place like this? (roaring of truck) yes and it was like the worst experience of my life. seven lanes of traffic and i was in the second lane. when i get into my car, i want to know that it's going to get me from point a to point b. well, then i have some good news.

he's become and put the champions in front for the first time and then moments later the terrific dowd made it for. by and score start now all but forgotten and there was still time to sound weird but it's a wrap so it's in the williams yet stuff and i'm striker i putting his accounts to his new club. now does manage to think what's a buy and finally get the better of that bogey team. well well let's have a look at what kind of reaction that comeback got on social media we have a tweet from. drome boa tang he's head of goal sought by and draw level he tweeted to celebrate the side's win dedicating his goal to his twin daughters with a candidate for the longest ever hash tag lumia and so late this goal was for you and this byron fan from lebanon also chipped in with a new nickname idea for the center back calling a boa king i think that might catch on. right after all that talk about the top of the table it's time to visit the bottom of the second bottom to be exact hamburg they haven't want to game in more than two months which meant that bant. was drafted in as their new coach this we

here's landon dowd with details on the business report. >> reporter: your amazon could be making you spend more money. examined the spending habits of amazon customers and found people who own this spend more. . on the average amazon spends that much a year. voice shopping is enabled by default. amazon also provides exclusive offers only to amazon echo devices. >>> says dipping into la new business, cryo genics, company offer technology to businesses in pharmaceutical, agricultural and animal feed industries. new industry called cryo dots, use liquid nitrogen, they could freeze culture,al vera, and probiotics for pets companies. business report. i'm landon dowd. >> if you are still deciding which diet you'll try this year, you are probably not starting on the right foot. but for the 8th year in a world u.s. news report lists dash diet as best. national institutes of health. designed to lower blood pressure by only eating low grains. and mediterranean also tied for first place. >> and the mind interesting. >> i don't know, i'm a little sad i had to pull out the scale the other day aft

how does this kind of situation peter dowd? how does this kind of situation peter dowd ? spluttering —— how does it peter out? the more people that will be affected, the more coughing and spluttering and sneezing, but as the season goes on more people will become immune and therefore not pass it on. perhaps as the weather gets on we spend more time away from each other, but we don't know completely, even now, by some infections tend to be seasonal. but we do know they are much more likely, whenever a winter is, whetherjune, july in australia or december until february here, thatis or december until february here, that is when flu tends to happen. thank you forjoining us. a bit more news on theresa may's cabinet reshuffle. esther mcvey has been appointed as the secretary for work and pensions, a job we understand was being offered to justine greening who was asked to leave the education department, but she said no to that sort esther mcvey is now the secretary of state for work and pensions, so that has just come into us in the last couple of minutes. time for a look at th

can see time and put the champions and sons for the first time and then moments later the terrific dowd made it for. by a sports star now all but forgotten and there's still time for sounder about it's about souls in the rams yet still sometimes strike i think his accounts of his new top. dog as men left to think well to buy and finally get the better of that team. now for a look at things a little further down the table second bottom hamburg travel to life on the back of a winless run which stretched back to months could new coach bad hollaback turn things around against fourth place like this. a familiar scene at hamburg in recent years a new coach in the spotlights and on the pitch is the same old story. number give away the ball and lights make them pay. myself up it's found bruma on months of the bumps and lights to delete. and hunt stumbled with the ball and was too slow for kevin campos comeback defense were ripped apart and the visitors were a goal down to just nine minutes. i. the new coach looked on and saw a very nervous hamburg side. another mistake this time from papadopoul

the president's lead outside counsel, john dowd, told fox news that he will be the one to make the decision whether or not president trump sits for an interview with robert mueller. john dowd says as of now he has not made that decision. >> bret: john roberts in davos early friday morning. thanks. facebook says it's found what it calls "insignificant overlap" between ads targeting the donald trump presidential campaign ads tied to russian linked accounts. facebook, twitter, and google -- questions during the open senate intelligence committee. we are learning tonight how much iran has been testing its ballistic missiles since signing the nuclear deal with the u.s. and its allies in 2015. correspondent rich edson has a fox news exclusive tonight from the state department. >> secretary of state rex tillerson a traveling europe, convincing allies to join the trump administrations more aggressive stance against iran. now a new report from the foundation for defense of democracies, obtained by fox does, says it bolsters the initiations case as it details iran's missile activities since the signi

john dowd and all the other counsel will never permit this president to do it. i got to tell you that's what's so impressive if it is credible that donald mcgahn convinced the president not to fire robert mueller. if that is true, he is a constitutional hero. he avoided a national -- he avoided a national crisis. so the idea of donald trump ever appearing with all this motive and intent, evidence, would certainly result in some adverse action to the president. it's not going to happen. >> so richard what would it look like if the president doesn't, you know, testify in terms of speaking voice as opposed to in a written format after he says p he's willing to do so under oath? >> this is political gamesmanship right now. the president can sit there and try to fool everybody by saying how much he wants to testify, but that's absolutely ridiculous. there's no way his lawyers would allow him to testify. i think it goes beyond that. i think it's political suicide and potentially legal malpractice to allow him not only to testify but even to testify at a grand jury. he

said that he not the president will be deciding whether or not he sits down with mueller, says dowd, >> some people interpret that as political cover. very interesting stuff, thank you. >>> president trump says his visit to the world economic forum in davos, switzerland has been productive so far. president trump met with teresa may and prime minister netanyahu. he said that palestinians must return to peace talks in order to receive u.s. aid money. and mr. trump also met with global business leaders overdinner and urged them to invest in america. >> a lot of people are coming back to the united states, we are seeing tremendous investment. today's been a very exciting day and great for our country. thank you very much. >> and today the british government said president trump will visit the uk sometime later this year. >>> john kerry may be considering a run at president in 2020. an israeli newspaper reports the former secretary of state told palestinian officials he's strongly considering a run for the office. kerry who's now 74 years old had previously said he considered a run in 20

consider this statement from white house lawyer john dowd. that was back on august 8 when he was asked if a firing was possible. john dowd said this. he said, that's never been on the table, never. it's a manifestation of the media. but just last night after these reports came out, white house lawyer ty cobb, he deferred questions, saying that, we decline to comment out of respect for the office of the special counsel and its process. so notably white house lawyers last night did not explicitly slap down these reports, but of course, wolf, the president still calling it fake news before he left switzerland. wolf? >> yes, he did, jessica. thanks very much. let's quicking ta inly take a l what was happening last june when president trump ordered his white house counsel to fire robert mueller. as you know, mueller was appointed in may after the president fired the former fbi director, james comey. here's what went on in the month that followed. on june 7th, comey releases a written statement about his interactions with the president. that statem

john dowd will say to the president yes, you can or no, you can't? >> i think he will. but this is donald trump. he will do what he wants to do, and it's likely he will decide i can go in there and charm these guys, i can sell them. >> michael wolff thank you for joining us again tonight. really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> coming up the, the panel is joining us. they will consider everything that's developed. some of them taking notes during michael wolff's conversation here. we'll see what they think the special prosecutor is going to react to. >>> also adam schiff will join us, that's coming up. ♪ ♪ave a cold, stuff happens. ♪ { sneezing ] shut down cold symptoms fast [ coughing ] with maximum strength alka seltzer plus liquid gels. stay at la quinta. where we're changing with stylish make-overs. then at your next meeting, set your seat height to its maximum level. bravo, tall meeting man. start winning today. book now at lq.com why make something this intelligent... (engine starting up) ...when it can get by on looks alone? why create something that stands out, w

now, remember, john dowd, a member of the president's legal team, was very firm after the president's comments that he would testify under oath for robert mueller saying ultimately it's up to john dowd. it's up to the legal team to determine what this interview is going to look like. it's my understanding those conversations are ongoing, and again, the word that i have heard used over and over again is that they are very sensitive. so, in other words, urging the president, other top officials here, not to publicly discuss what that interview might look like so as to effectively roil what they're trying to do behind the scenes. as you know, rachel and brian, as we've reported, the president has had a very complicated relationship with robert mueller, for example. he ordered him to be fired over the summer privately. of course, he backed down after he got a lot of resistance to do that, but again, this really looms large over this white house. even a night like tonight, this state of the union, not enough to turn the page of the discussion that looms so tall. rachel? >> thank you very m

john dowd, another one of the president's private attorneys, saying this to cnn. you heard the president, absolutely, under oath, nothing to fear. i will make the decision on whether the president talks to the special counsel. i have not nad decision ymade a yet. the president sometimes goes off the rail saying, i'm the boss. but timing is essential here, because if the president is going to sit down, they say that framework is two or three weeks from now. meaning we're at the crossroads. >> the two big differences between now and seven months ago -- remember, this sort of percolated up seven months ago, around that time -- >> we were talking about it on the show. >> but the differences are two things. one, then it was sort of a vague sense, vague reports that the president might have thought about this. now we have very specifics from people who were briefed about this and who, let's face it, are giving us detailed specifics about the reasoning the president had for the kind of conflict of interest that he thought meant that mueller had to go. and the second thin

it took us about five years, raising money to be able to now and out to full-time -- ann dowd endow twoime -- full-time art therapists at the hospital. since starting my role as second lady of the united states, i have participated in discussions with art therapists and their clients, and observe art therapy programs throughout the united states and in countries in europe, the asia south pacific region, latin america and most recently, the middle east. i just returned this week from egypt, jordan and israel. where he met with art therapists in those countries and it was a great trip. did you know that in israel there are 7000 art therapists? i mean, i was stunned. but i have learned more about the profession and the benefits of this unique treatment. from children with cancer, to struggling teenagers -- you know, we have a real issue with suicide with our teenagers all to veteranrld -- autism,, people with military servicemembers experiencing posttraumatic stress disorder. to those with eating disorders. art therapy is changing lives, and i will go as far as to say, art therapy is saving l

so dowd can't overrule his client. if his client has been on record repeatedly saying there's nothing there, i'd love to testify, i think politically they have a hard time. i think they have a harder time legally, but we can talk about that at a later time. >> as a former republican chair of the committee, is there any justifiable reason to release the republican memo but not the democratic memo simultaneously? is there any justification to wait on one other thanks hey, the republicans want theirs out there first? >> i try never to wear my partisan hat from the committee spaces. it's an important mission for the congress to be the legitimate oversight of a vast intelligence collection network of the fire departmeederal gove. so no, i don't. as a matter of fact, in any investigation, you'd always have dissenting views allowed in the back. even if a republican or democratic majority offered a report that had differences, they allowed members that had differences of opinion to amend these statements to the back so you cou

what i've been told is that john dowd and jay sekulow are the ones responsible for sort of negotiating the terms of an interview between donald trump and bob mueller's team. and the important thing to bear in mind with is that john dowd has drawn a lot of criticism from steve bannon about his -- he's best known for his work with his nonprofit based on religious freedom as well as as a media personality. so that's the president's legal team going into what will be the most important interview of his life and the stage is set, of course, for a moment that's going to be historic and i think pretty unpredictable. >> and frank, interviewing a president is fundamentally different than any other interview in a probe. you certainly don't usually get two bites at the apple, whereas there are other witnesses that you can bring in and out or you put them in front of a grand jury, you check back with them if you need, particularly if something doesn't check out. watch this tonight, the president of the united states before leaving the country telling reporters that he will talk to mueller under oa

dowd or mr. cobb. what's the worst thing about this story coming out?well, i think they've painted themselves into a corner, right, because they have a client, the president, who keeps coming out and saying he's looking forward to the special counsel interview. he thinks that mueller will treat him fairly. so while one strategy otherwise might have been for the president to come out tomorrow and go, yeah, so what? i was thinking of firing him, because i think there were some silly conflicts of interest, right, the golf club, et cetera. well, now if he comes out and says that, he's contradicting himself. so he's in a corner. he's probably going to defend his position, which is, no, i'm going forward with it, i deny that this happened. >> chuck, let's talk about mr. mcghan. by one way of looking at this, his putting his body between the president and this decision might have spared us something of a constitutional crisis. i think i'm right when i run through his brief biographical notes, he had the good sense of being born in new jersey, went to annapolis

we heard from john dowd, the president's outside lawyer,re r lawyer. the white house expects the processes of the office of the special counsel and does not comment on communications with that office, because of that. adding they expect that the office of the special counsel will facilitate the earliest possible resolution and continue its cooperation. what we heard from hogan gidly from not just john dowd but ty cobb on the plane. the only news on that front coming out of gidly. in a second we'll talk about other headlines coming out of the pool reporters in the air as the president is getting ready to land in nashville. talk about this story that came out. it does a couple of things. says that the attorneys here, the president's legal team, is considering things like the legal standard when a president needs to be interviewed and considering things like timing, and the format of any kind of discussion with the special counsel, if, in fact, robert mueller and his team decide he want to ask for this kind of interview from donald trump. now, there are s

. >> john dowd who obviously came in around the time he started speaking more for the trump legal lelteam because jake sekulow had been thought to be doing a botched job. he says he never considered firing bob mueller. now you go back and look at everything and you say what can we believe and also was this held so closely that dowd didn't know? are there people in the white house that don't know the things that run through the consideration in the president's head? >> who obviously tells huckabee sanders to say it didn't happen? do they just assume that's what the message it? >> here's the thing. >> he did order the firing. > "the new york times" like any responsible media gives advance notice, we are going to write this story. if this really was untrue, where are the white house denials in the original story, the vehement denial from mcgahn this happened? where are the statements? they don't examine is. >> trump's legal team is studying a 1990s era court ruling in in order to avoid a possible interview between the president and special counsel. this is again against cross currents of

thank you very much, matt dowd. we appreciate your analysis from texas. >>> one piece of relatively good news is that the shutdown will not impact the cdc's flu program. >> right. but the bad news is that the new numbers indicate the flu epidemic is actually getting worse with more children dying and abc's erielle reshef is in studio with more. erielle, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, dan and paula. doctors say the flu season is hitting hard and proving deadly particularly when it comes to kids. ten more pediatric deaths reported this week. now, doctors are warning it may be easier than you think for you or your loved ones to get sick. they're the faces of this year's deadly flu epidemic. this third grader in alabama among the latest victims. the cdc calling it the worst flu season in eight years. >> activity has gone up again this week. >> reporter: children hit particularly hard. so far 30 pediatric deaths have been reported. nearly double this time last year. clinics across the country packed with

this is what dowd told you, these documents that they have turned over to the special counsel have been voluntarily provided bill the president to the special counsel. it includes privileged material of all kinds. the cooperation and transparency are unprecedented. he went on to say that 20,000 pages have been turned over and that over 20 white house personnel have sat for an interview with the special counsel's team. they're trying to put the focus on the transparency here, even as this interview with the president may just be two to three weeks away. the terms being negotiated. >> that's all exactly right. that number more than 20 white house officials not including campaign officials to have sat down with the special counsel's office already is one you and i are focused on right now. thank you very much. back here i'm joined by legal analyst and former assistant special noik ackerman a partner with dorsey and whitney. ladies and gentlemen, you stay with us, i want to ask you nick a question if i can about those comments by the president and the cleanup of sorts by his attorney ty cob

let's bring in abc news political analyst matthew dowd. matthew, good morning. >> good morning. >> so we've heard from lindsey graham and we heard in david wright's piece that lindsay was in the room. paul ryan, the speaker of the house, has also weighed in calling the president's comments, quote, unhelpful. what do you think overall about the way republicans are handling this? >> well, paul ryan referring to what many are interpreting as racist remarks as unhelpful or as unfortunate is like we talk about a hangnail or me forgetting a hat on a sunny day. i think if the gop leaders in washington were a pasta and you were cooking them, they would not be al dente. they are as far as from firm on this on the president as possible, and i'm amazed at the gravitational pull of planet trump, how all these gop leaders have lost their principles after they've gotten pulled into that planet. >> and it really seemed that democrats and republicans were making a lot of progress on immigration and daca, which expires in march. how big of a setback is thi

matthew dowd, we're talking about those members of congress looking for a second with the president. you got about 20 minutes with the president today alone, while we were, after we were having lunch, he called you in for a meeting and reinforced this theme here that we've been talking about. >> yeah, the white house reached out this morning and asked if i could have a meeting at the oval office and it was a one-on-one meeting with the president and i. and i emphasized to the president, i said to the president, this country is as divided as it's ever been in our history and he as the president of the united states, he needs to do something about that. i told him, it's going to take more than just a speech tonight. he understood the importance of the teach. it's going to take a series of actions in the aftermath of this speech. he seemed to understand howdy slided the country is and he needs to step up. >> and cecilia vega, one of the issues going to be front and center tonight, immigration. it's divided democrats and republicans, different regions of the country. and the president ha

and tonight, another trump attorney, john dowd, tells us that he, not the president, will be the one to decide if mueller gets an interview. and speaking to reporters, the president made one thing clear -- he may be eager to talk to mueller, but he still has concerns about the special counsel. >> do you think robert mueller will be fair to you in this larger investigation? >> we're going to find out. we're going to find out. because here's what we'll say. and everybody says, no collusion. there's no collusion. now they're saying, oh, well, did he fight back? you fight back, oh, it's obstruction. so, here's the thing -- i hope so. >> reporter: before the president left the room of reporters, he once again brought it back to his election victory, saying he defeated hillary clinton not because of the russians, but because he was such a great candidate. >> the fact is -- you people won't say this, but i'll say it. i was a much better candidate than her. you always say she was a bad candidate. you never say i was a good candidate. i was one of the greatest candidates. >> all right, the el