on his way into the mccabe hearing, elijah cummings shot hearing today, democrat elijah cummings shot off this roman candle. >> to the press, i beg you to get it right because you are recording this history. you got to get it right. this is a fight for the soul of our democracy. nothing less. and so -- i'm going to work hard to make sure we save that democracy, and i will fight until i die. cia criticized, fbi criticized, over and over and over again. now, the rumors, and i hope that's all they are, of mueller possibly being fired. i hope that's not true. but those are the kinds of things that tear down a democracy, because they are the very things that a democracy is based upon. and i say to all americans, and i beg you to guard this democracy. guard it. >> elijah cummings, top democrat on oversight, just the latest democrat in the last couple of days to sound a loud alarm about whatever it is that's going on with the republicans going after the fbi right now. a brand-new alarm sounded by a another very senior democrat late this afternoon. he says he's going to block trump nominees u

and it's elijah cummings said, this is the benghazi approach. right? elijah cummings counts six committees investigating the fbi, investigating the investigators. this is not by chance. there's nothing there. they haven't proven anything. this is a corrupt and dangerous and kind of treasonist way to deal with law enforcement. nobody say it is doj can't be criticized. that is party that will smear anyone to protect trump. and again, it's the benghazi kitchen sink approach. if it's uranium-1 today, fine. people forget about that. the dossier, mueller. it is endless. >> yeah. >> they're using the gears of the federal government to try to stop another investigation. it's unprecedented. richard nixon never had anything like this. >> he wished he did and what he would have dreamed of. jonathan, you have donald trump signaling, signals what he wants republicans to do and then they do it. donald trump back in early november calling for an investigation of his political rivals, something that they do usually in tin pot dictatorships. >> right. >> prosecute the

elijah cummings, ranking member of our oversight committee, has already gone out with strong support of moving forward with this investigation. we hope the chairman will recognize the need and urgency of this matter. of the oversight committee, i call on all of my colleagues who sit on this committee to support and immediately launch this investigation, regardless of the victim or alleged predator. every boris deserves to be heard and justice -- every voice deserves to be heard and justice demands transparency, accountability, and due process. thank you. >> any questions? reporter: have you gotten any response from the republican chairman? >> not yet. reporter: what do you say to this isans who argue something [inaudible] >> just so everyone here's the question, what do we say to republicans who say this is already been litigated and it was something that happened before the president was elected? rep. frankel: the oversight committee has very broad jurisdiction. i will remind everybody of the whitewater investigation many years ago when president clinton was investigated for matters

the house democrats in the house oversight committee and there's a time stamp, the letter by elijah cummings which you should check out is remarkable tale. to come back to the mueller point because the timing here is important. this whistle blower comes to cummings who's in the house government oversight committee in the ranking member, and mueller tells him specifically not to go bbl it, right? >> correct. and, you know, what -- because you had flynn taking a plea agreement last friday, and what mueller wants to know is there's no other things that flynn has done wrong. he's not going to find something else out that flynn, you know, oh flynn has done this or not done this and find out about that after he takes a plea groemt. mueller's going to run the leads to ground, so he has an idea of what the criminal exposure he has and he can use that as leverage against flynn as he has here and gotten him to corporate cooperate. >> great to have you. >> thanks for having me. let's bring in watergate prosecutor, someone who knows a thing or two about investigating the white house. we'll start with th

that according to a whistle-blower whose account was released by congressman elijah cummings, but a lawyer for flynn denies that claim. >>> there is also breaking news about senator al franken. a majority of democratic senators are now calling for him to resign as new allegations of sexual harassment continue to surface. at least six women have accused franken of inappropriately touching them. we're covering all of that and much more this hour with our guests, including the top democrat on the senate foreign relations committee, senator ben cardin. and our correspondents and specialists are also standing by. we'll get to president trump's stunning decision about jerusalem in just a few moments. >>> but first, the wildfires raging out of control in southern california. senators sara sidner is at the scene of the newest blaze burning right now in the heart of los angeles. sara, crews are working to try to get a handle on this fire before the winds pick up in the next few hours. >> reporter: yeah, it is absolutely a difficult job and right now we're about to have another drop from the sky to

and it also echoes what we said in the earlier segment, that the real action, elijah cummings and his republican counter part trey gaudy will snipe at each other over this but the real action is happening in bob mueller's office suite. >> of course, the line is too perfect for anyone in washington to have said. it was written by william goldman, the screenwriter of the movie, "all the president's men" so of course it's a line from a great hollywood screenwriter. mieke, i want you to go through what a committee staff would do in congressman couplings' case, before you would go public with information like that, what kind of vetting would you do on a whistle-blower? >> sit down with the whistle-blower, hear the story, figure out the background. test them to make sure what they're telling you is true. corroborative evidence, truth to tell the truth or deceive the committee? an ax to grind? once you determine they're credible you are concerned about the substance of the allegations and what this person is suggesting is general flynn was steering u.s. policy in the financial interests of p

elijah cummings going on in his letter he wrote to the republican chairman of the oversight committee, that flynn attempted to, quote, manipulate the course of international nuclear policy for the financial gain of his business partners. of course, this is also relevant, because we've been learning in recent days, including, wolf, as you know, as part of his plea agreement, that michael flynn has said that he spoke to the russian ambassador on the very same day that the obama administration imposed sanctions on russia for election interference, and that he kept several members, senior members of the trump transition team, aware of those conversations. of course, the question is, was michael flynn sending a message to russia during those conversations that those sanctions may be relaxed by the trump administration? of course, a couple weeks later, at the inauguration, we have him here in his text mentssages celebrating the end of those sanctions. >> yeah, significant developments on that front. donald trump jr., meanwhile, he was up on capitol hill for hours, testifying or speaking, an

the whistleblower account is being made public by elijah cummings. mr. flynn believed that ending the sanctions could allow a business project he had once participated in to move forward according to the whistleblower. and mike mimoli covering this story at nbc news writes donald trump was just 11 minutes into his presidency when flynn texted a former business partner to say ambitious u.s. collaboration with russia to build nuclear reactors in the middle east was, quote, good to go, according to a new whistleblower account. this news comes as the president's son donald trump jr. fielded questions from the house intel committee today. let's get to our reporters and gifts on all of these stories. msnbc national security analyst and former chief of staff at both the department of defense and the cia, jeremy bash joins us, along with "new york times" reporter msnbc national security contributor michael schmidt, one of the reporters on this new flynn story today and our panel. associated press white house reporter jonathan lemire. michael schmidt, let me star

elijah cummings, ranking member of our oversight committee has already gone out in a strong support of moving forward with this investigation. we hope that chairman goddy will recognize the need and urgency of this matter. as a member of the oversight committee, i call on all of my colleagues who sit on this committee to support and immediately launch this investigation. regardless of the victim or alleged predator, every voice deserves to be heard. and justice demands transparency, accountability, and due process. thank you. >> thank you. any questions? yeah. >> my first question is, have you gotten any response from the republican chairman about whether he is -- >> not yet. >> and then my second question is, what do you say to republicans who argue this isn't something that congress should be investigating because it happened allegedly before mr. trump took office? >> the question is -- i'm sorry, just so everyone hears the question. is question is what do we say to republicans who say this has already been litigated and this is something that happened before the president was electe

now they've cleared elijah cummings to let the information be publicly known. lot of movement on this today. lot of stuff coming to light every day now. every quarter of news cycle a new piece comes to light. bottom line, that weird flynn nuclear deal appears to have been about russian sanctions. secret ukraine peace deal cooked up by trump's personal lawyer and russian guy appears to be about sanctions. seychelles secret meeting. trump tower meeting. what flynn lied to fbi about. sanctions. what vice president mike pence lied to american public about, sanctions. now apparently what president and his son are pretending to be lawyers about, how they cooked up their public statements about that meeting, that was about sanctions. lot of news going on right now. lot to get to even over the course of the rest of this hour. but with the news we got today, at least finally seems clear that we know now what russia was after from their side. seems indubitably clear what the quo was in any quid pro quo from the trump campaign. ♪ let's go! ♪ mom! slow down! for the ones w

elijah cummings, it's great having you on the show. thank you so much. greatly appreciate it.came out yesterday, and i suppose bob muler is probably already deep into this. pretty remarkable, this whistle blower's story, if it's accurate, that 11 minutes into the inaugural speech, the new national security adviser to the president of the united states was texting in the middle of that speech not about the massive inbox that our country had but instead to a business associate saying, hey, trump's going to lift. tear up sanctions, we're all going to get rich. >> we're going to find out what happened here, but i'm impatient to connect the dots. i don't understand quite what it is that we're looking here, and what i would have asked the congressman is what's the insinuation he's making in the letter? is this a corruption issue or is it that the national security adviser to the president of the united states is a russian asset. is this a treason issue? >> there was an economic incentive for him to lie about his meeting with kislyak when he's talking about lifting -- a week before w

according to elijah cummings, a whistle blower came to cummings at the oversight committee, and at theheld that until mueller gave him the green light to release this. this whistle blower said that mike flynn, on the day of inauguration, and i think we have the picture, 11 minutes into the president's speech, and pu if you can see mike flynn there in the stands in the isolated picture in the box, he's looking down at his phone. 11 minutes into the speech, instead of celebrating the moment, being in the moment, listening to the speech, looking at the crowd, what was he doing? according to this whistle blower's account to elijah cummings, he was texting a former business partner, saying, now you can go ahead with this russian deal for nuclear construction, nuclear power construction in the middle east. obviously a very lucrative deals for his former business associates if not for himself, and saying they would be ripping up the russian sanctions, the ukraine sanctions and/or the election sanctions. >> now, if mike flynn were involved in promoting this deal overseas to build nuclear power

and i think that that is what elijah cummings raised. that is so scary here. ey don't even really believe in the government that they are representing. >> mr. cummings is a very important figure. you can see the frustration on his part. it was just a few weeks ago he put forward this letter to trey gowdy with this unbelievable whistleblower account that michael flynn is on the daius saying we're going to get this nuclear deal through. >> this is like going to costco. i'm going to go get all my shopping done with you. jared kushner, "the new york times" reporting prosecutors were said to seek kushner records from deutsche bank. federal prosecutors have sought bank records about entities associated with the family company of jared kushner. so that would be -- would that be the u.s. attorneys, the eastern district? >> that's correct. >> what's the significance of that? >> this is a meticulously worded and careful "new york times" story. careful about what this could say. more of what they don't know just yet. mueller's team could or could not be looking into this.

you know as he, this whistleblower spoke to elijah cummings. e is though some he said he said now between the company and the individual that is alleged to have had this conversation. with general flynn and congressman cummings, right? >> right so after congressman cummings came out this with this today, the lawyer for the company of the business partner, she's denying this and went so far to say in statement that no member of the company received any communication in any form from general flynn during the campaign. during the transition, during the inauguration. but congressman cummings after the statement came out, he some huge doubt on that. he says that general flynn was actually an adviser to the company throughout the trump campaign and it would have been odd for him not to have communicated so that is the he said he said and of course, eastern, all this plall this pls into the fact that michael flynn did talk to the russian ambassador the same day president obama imposed the sanctions on russia in late december. >> thank you very much. >>

. >> this came comes from a wristle blower who went to the hill, representative elijah cummings, claimed she had a conversation with someone who claimed they were receiving text messages about a plan to work with a russian government-owned company to build nuclear reactors in the middle east. now she says flynn told a former business colleague that the plan was, quote, good to go, that they were going -- this business deal was going to work out and according to this former colleague, flynn suggested sanctions. sanctions has been a big thing here, his conversations with kislyak, the sanctions would be, quote, ripped up the white house and president would do away with sanctions in the early days of the new administration. >> shimon prokupecz for us. thanks very much. want to bring in susan hennesy, legal analyst, former national security agency attorney, also with us mark preston, cnn senior political analyst. donald trump, jr. claiming attorney-client privilege protects a conversation he had with his father over the russian meeting because lawyers were also listening in. does it work like

. >> reporter: yeah, this whistle-blower is coming forward according to elijah cummings, this whistle-blowermichael flynn in the day of president trump's inauguration texted his own business partner and suggested they should move forward with a nuclear energy project in the middle east working with russia. he said that he told this business partner according to the whistle-blower that the trump administration was prepared to rip up sanctions on russia right away as part of this project. now what was significant is the first time we know that the administration seeming to be interested in rolling back sanctions on russia according to this whistle-blower and shows that perhaps flynn was looking to enrich himself on this matter as well. part of a business project he was involved with. we just got a response from an attorney from that business partner. they are firmly denying the account of the whistle-blower who we have not yet heard from the republican chairman of the republican committee, trey gowdy, who elijah cummings wants to issue subpoenas. >> that's right, flynn was working with a busin

that's according to whistle blower account made public via letter from congressman elijah cummings and whistle blower inauguration day. copson was working with flynn to promote a joint project with russia to build nuclear reactor in the middle least and flynn was making sure russia sanks would be ripped out which would in turn allow money to flow to the project. there's word some text messages were exchanged after president trump was inaugurated as in rights on the stage. donald trump junior ozen hill today with closed door interview with house intelligence commits tee as parts of the russia investigation. cnn reports don junior said he did not communicate directly with father when news surfaced about june 2016 meeting with with yourian lawyer. he was talking about how to respond to reports. hicks on air force one and speaking with president trump while the statement was crafted. there have been questions about how involved president trump was in crafting original misleading statements about the meeting and all about adoption. trump junior denied communicated with father about june 201

my understanding that he was recommended for this job by elijah cummings, the democrat congressman from baltimore, and pushed for the job by then-white house chief of staff reince priebus. this is an example of the president appointing establishment republicans who did not vote for him, and do not have his back. i fear the extent to which he has surrounded himself with people who did not support him and are not loyal to him. i am a loyal supporter of the president, and i am concerned about some of the people he has, perhaps inadvertently, put around him. >> you said you do not believe he should fire mueller. should he fire rosenstein? stone: the reason i believe he should not fire mueller is because i think the democrats realize that they have lost the upper hand in this particular struggle, and therefore i think they are trying to go him into this. congresswoman spier saying that there are rumors that the president will firing mueller. the only rumors are the ones you are starting, congresswoman. they believed if the president fired mr. mueller on, say, new year's eve or christmas day,

those are the kind of people who will bring us to where we need to be. >> congressman elijah cummings, the top democrat on the house oversight committee. sir, thank you develop for being with us tonight. i know you joined us on short notice. i appreciate it. >> thank you. >>> i want to bring in nbc presidential historian michael beschloss. it's great to have you here. >> good to see you. >> whenever talk about watergate or anything like that, i get my michael beschloss phone dialing hands start acting on its own. for me, obviously, the -- i'm trying to find historical context that helps me understand the magnitude of what this means. we only have one previous example of an fbi director being fired. under very different circumstances, sessions is fired by president clinton over minor abuse of office claims. the more salient precedent to me seems like, because of the active counterintelligence investigation into this president, seems to me like archibald cox who was the special prosecutor at watergate. is that how you are thinking about it? does that seem apt to you? >> yes. if you and

first, here's congressman elijah cummings talking about reported efforts to discredit robert mueller's investigation. >> whenever it seems mueller is getting closer and closer to the white house, it seems that we're distracted to something else. so now they've reached into their book of tricks and are pulling this out today. so we're prepared. >> kevin, you touched on this. does this appear to be the case, and who is leading the republican charge for the gop on that front? >> well, there's a host of republicans. i think that it really depends on their own independent districts and their own independent states. you got to remember that prump -- president trump enjoyins overwhelming popularity in certain districts, such as in south, where he's not controversial. i think those republicans are looking at the russia probe as something that's deeply unpopular. you're seeing a shift and hearing cries from them to investigate other aspects of the obama administration. so it really is a local issue in terms of where it's at with the republicans. on the flip side, there are several republicans w

my understanding that he was recommended for this job by elijah cummings, the democratic congressman. i have an example talked about of the president in many cases appointing establishment republicans who do not support his agenda for reform. who did not vote for him. and i fear the extent to which he is surround himself with people who did not support him, who are not loyal to him. i am a loyal supporter of the president and i'm concerned about some of the people he has perhaps inadvertently put around him. michael: you have said you don't believe the president should fire mueller. do you believe you should fire rosenstein? stone: third reason i don't believe he should fire mueller is -- the reason i don't believe he should fire mueller is i believe democrats feel that lost the upper hand and i think they are trying to goad him into this. cumbersome inspires singh rumors are everywhere at the president is going to fire mueller. only the rumors you are starting. they believe if the president fired mr. mueller, say on new year's eve or christmas day, that they would have the analogies

irectly responsible autria: congressman elijah cummings will be this year's winter commencement speakerthe university of maryland later today. he will receive an honorary doctorate for public service. larry: developing now, a school mix up in the district, three-year-old girl sent home with the wrong person. suzanne kennedy has more on what is every parent's nightmare. good morning to you, larry. as the students come and go from this northwest washington school, they will be watching even more closely after this incident that took place here. the mother of this three-year-old says she called police after her child was sent home from cleveland elementary school with a stranger. the woman called police, who said the child was allowed to go home with another student's relative. they thought the man that t girls uncle. the child was returned unharmed and d.c. public schools released a statement about the issue -- we're looking into the incident from cleveland park elementary school. we are committed to fostering a learning environment in which students are safe and secure." authorities say

. >> elijah cummings of maryland said this on his way into today's committee interviews with andrew mccabe. >> to the press, i beg you to get it right, you are recording this history. you got to get it right, this is a fight for the soul of our democracy. nothing less. and so i'm going to work hard to make sure we save that democracy, and i will fight until i die. cia criticized, fbi criticized, over and over and over again. now the rumors and i hope that's all they are of mueller possibly being fired. i hope that's not true those are the kinds of things that tear down a democracy. they are the very things that our democracy is based upon. and i say to all americans, and i beg you. to guard this democracy to guard it. >> kind of emotional words from a veteran member of the house that got our attention today. for their part, the white house continues to maintain that mueller and this russia investigation are safe. >> we have no intentions of firing bob mueller, we're continuing to work closely and cooperate with him. we look forward to seeing this hoax wrap up very soon. we think that it is

elijah cummings will join joe and more on the letter and investigation. >>> much more on president trump'sion to recognize jerusalem in israel's capital. joe and mika will get reaction from around the world as a growing chorus condemn the president's actions. plus, democratic congressman jackie spear joining the conversation whether lawmakers can reach a bipartisan deal with days to go until that deadline. morning joe, everybody, just moments away. you might take something for your heart... or joints. 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. pai'm open to that.medicare? lower premiums? extra benefits? it's open enrollment. time to open the laptop... ...and compare medicare health plans. why? because plans change, so can your health needs. so, be open-minded. look at everything-like prescription drug plans... and medicare advantage plans from private insurers. use the tools at medicare.gov. or call 1-800-medicare. open to so

it's something that myself and elijah cummings asked and it got started. think they need a change at the attorney general's office. i don't think that attorney general sessions is up to the job. he's had to recuse himself of all this. it's why we have director mueller. it's going to be people like trey gowdy and john ratliff and a host of other people there that have got to get their fingers into it but it's they have to be able to follow a testimony trail and these people made available to the committee so they can do transcribed interviews and the evacuation they need to do. jason chai fets and gregg, have a great christmas. great to see you. >>> democrats warning that robert mueller may be fired but the white house says it's not going to happen. is the left trying to create a crisis? stay with us as this special edition of "hannity" continues. you won't see these folks at the post office. they have businesses to run. they have passions to pursue. how do they avoid trips to the post office? stamps.com mail letters, ship packages, all the services of the

. >> representative elijah cummings, thank you for being with us. appreciate your time. >>> senator al franken stepping down but not apologizing. what do the women who are accusing him think now? his latest accuser here next. your next getaway? connecting with family and friends? a big night out? or maybe your everyday shopping. whatever it is, aarp member advantages can help save you time and money along the way. so when you get there, you can enjoy it all the more. for less. surround yourself with savings at aarpadvantages.com we're on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, it's time to wake up to keurig. wakey! wakey! rise and shine! oh my gosh! how are you? well watch this. i pop that in there. press brew. that's it. so rich. i love it. that's why you should be a keurig man! full-bodied. are you sure you're describing the coffee and not me? full-bodied. if you spit blood you may have gum problems,s and could be on the journey to much worse. try parodontax toothpaste. it's clinically proven to remove plaque, the main cause of bleeding gums. for

we know this from elijah cummings' letter today. and the mueller team actually asked them to hold off, to keep this information from becoming public until they reached a later stage in their investigation. this is the special counsel's investigation. so clearly they thought this information was important, did not want it to be disclosed publicly, and basically wanted to get a guilty plea out of flynn first before this hit the presses and we knew about it. it's important in that regard and also important as john was saying because it makes it so much more clearer that sanctions was at the heart of this. and there was a plan by the former national security advisor to lift those sanctions. flynn based on that text message seems convinced that he was going to be able to lift the sanctions almost immediately as a top priority for president trump when he took office. >> anita, you spent a lot of time bouncing around the hallways of the west wing as much as they allow you to leave the press briefing room. you couldn't blame west-wingers fo

just moments ago, elijah cummings who is a top democrat on the oversight committee who is doing this hearing as well and larger concerns about what he views as a threat to democra democracy. that's what he said. >> this is a fight for the soul of our democracy. nothing less. i'm going to work hard to make sure we save that democracy and i will fight until i die. >> what are do you mean? >> we have seen how the pillars of democracy are being cut down. freedom of the press. you know that. cia. fbi criticized. over and over and over again. >> and also republicans are saying that that's overblown. the president is not doing what the democrats are saying. that is taking steps to fire robert mueller. the white house said that is not under consideration. i did ask the members about this including one of the members on the committee, mark meadows. he had a conversation about firing robert mueller with the president and the president is not taking that action. >> there is not a concern that is not only established and continues to investigate. robert muler is not a subject of our investigatio

>> the ranking democrat elijah cummings released a statement to reporters. he said he has been contacted by a credible whistle blower who said that he has information that during the inauguration, former national security adviser mike flynn sent a series of texts about 11 minutes into the inauguration and indicated to a business associate that he had good information that a nuclear power project was gonna go ahead in the middle east. this would require the cooperation of russia, and that president trump was going to rip up russian sanctions. we're waiting for some kind of response from the republican chairman of the government oversight committee and whether they're going to proceed with this whistle blower. right now, outside a secure facility outside the house intelligence committee where we're into hour four of the closed door testimony by donald trump jr. what we know so far is that democrats have been pressing the president's son on this june 2016 power meeting. there were about half dozen people there including the president's son-in-law, as well as th

. >> they have written a formal letter to the chairman of the house and the ranking democrat elijah cummings wanting a full investigation of the president of the united states amidst sexual misconduct allegations. let's discuss this and morn and we have the senior writer and our political director and bloomberg news white house reporter shannon pety piece. 60 women and a bunch of democratic men, lawmakers have signed on and want a formal investigation by the committee. >> the issue is not going away. the topic which in a new news cycle where topics come in and out within a few mores, this issue around sexual misconduct around the president and members of congress and the media across industries is sticking. it is clearly resonating with a lot of people. on this issue with the president, of course these are democrats. republicans control the house and the senate. it will be in republican jurisdiction to decide whether they want to move forward and it looks bad on the republicans's party if they don't. if there is a shift in 2018, this is one more thing that the democrats could do to come afte

. >> elijah cummings is referring to andrew mccabe. lawmakers have called mccabe twice this week foreclosed-door interviews as they work to cast doubt on the impartiality of the fbi. >> mr. cummings, are you concerned about hearing today? >> well, we got less than 48 hours. as a matter of fact, at the same time that mr. dowdy was grilling mccabe, they sent me out for this. certainly this is an effort to discredit the fbi. >> for weeks, trump tv has worked hard town dermine the russia investigation by casting the fbi so unabsurdly has a hotbed of liberalism. >> over the last month or so, it's been demonstrated that key members of this investigation are loyalists of either the obama administration or hillary clinton. >> they are enthusiastically embracing trump tv. devin nunes led a group of house republicans who have gathered secretly for weeks in the capitol in an effort to build a case that senior leaders of the justice department and fbi improperly and perhaps criminally mishandled the contents of a dossier that describes alleged tie

. >> elijah cummings, the senior democrat on the house oversight committee put out a statement two hours ago. if you look at the statement, there's a summary of the information that was brought to him by what was described as a credible partner. flynn volunteered to him that he received some text messages from mike flynn about 11 hours into the ceremony and that they were good to go, a quote, "good to go" on the nuclear project in the middle east that required russian cooperation and the business associate said that russian sanctions were going to be ripped apart by president trump. we're still waiting for some kind of comment from the republican chairman of the government oversight committee, tray gowdy and whether he wants to listen to this whistle-blower, have them in for an interview and seek on-the-record testimony about the chain of events. what's not clear to us is whether this information was known to the special counsel when mike flynn made the guilty plea on friday where he admitted to lying to federal investigators about a conversation with the russian ambassador and the exten

i think that combined with the whistle-blower that has come forward, our ranking member, elijah cummingshat sent a letter to tray gowdy saying we need to be investigating this, and michael flynn was texting during president trump's inauguration speech and talking about how the russian sanctions were going to be ripped up and this was going to create wealth for all kinds of people wanting to build nuclear reactors in russia. and then the trump administration seemed to be to the russian contacts, it's important that we investigate this and have an independent investigation, even as robert mueller's investigation is continuing. >> on the senate side of the judiciary, feinstein has been critical of chuck grassley saying he's not taking some of the russia leads seriously enough, and do you feel the same way on the republican counterparts in your committee or are you confident they are following all of these leads? >> i wish i could say i was confident. some would like to start impeachment hearings for hillary clinton, except hillary clinton is not the president. the reality is we have seen a

democratic congressman elijah cummings says he received this account and then he consulted with bob mueller's office and he determined that believes it to be credible. mueller's office and flynn's attorney have not immediately responded to our requests for comment. i'll bring that you when we get it. flynn had been pushing business in partnership with russian interests for acu's strategic partners all the way through june 2016. on inauguration day when flynn would formally assume his powers and while he was not literally working for that company anymore, the allegation is that he would go ahead at 12:11 p.m., and send out a fweks his plan to shape russia policy for these business people. cummings says there's evidence flynn texted the and this was the exact moment. >> i will fight for you with every breath in my body and i will never, ever let you down. america will start winning again. winning like never before. >> allegedly at the very time president trump promising to put america first, flynn texting about rolling back sanctions to help business partners. cummings' office released this pho

. >> in a letter, congressman elijah cummings had a whistle-blower and come forward with a evidence that flynn told the business associate their plans to build nuclear reactors in the middle east are good to go. the business associate responded to the allegations with his company providing this letter. as evidence they say there was no communication between the men on january 20. adding other allegations of the whistle-blower are equally false and unfounded. congressman cummings wants a transcribed interview with a witness, former justice to foreign officials suggested there may be a rush to judgment. >> i think people often get in partial information or they filter information to the lengths they want to see things through. they will hear something that the administration did. they will immediately say a half. a smoking gun we've been looking for. >> the politicization of the russian investigation and intelligence were further stored in a candid interview with mike morrell. >> gets the first intelligence briefing after becoming the nominee and within 24 hours, there are leaks. they are

congressman elijah cummings is going to subpoena the white house for documents related to flynn. >>>resident trump's oldest son in the hot seat on capitol hill today. the house intelligence committee interviewed donald trump jr. as part of its investigation into russian interference in last year's election. they are interested in a meeting trump junior and other campaign officials held with russians last year. they also want to know about messages to trump junior exchanged with wikileaks. the website that leaked e-mails from top democratic officials during the campaign. >>> new jersey's governor is endorsing a plan to cut retirement benefits for say the workers. governor christie discussed the state's pension plan today in trenton. he has long called for slashing retirement health benefits for state workers but the democratic led legislature has resisted. governor christie is hopeful the incoming governor will embrace the plan. >> i don't know politically given some of the position the governor-elect has taken, how he intends to deal with it. the great thing about this job is, once y

and elijah cummings indicated that about a week ago when he said that they had known about a controversial conversation mike flynn had had, i believe from the dias of the capitol during the inauguration, that related to business dealings. cummings committee sat on that information for months. it did not leak because they were deferring to mueller and to his team. we can say with a lot of confidence that warner and democrats are doing the same thing. in fact, i believe in that same axios interview warner said he expects more indictments out of mueller's team and warner probably knows a significant amount about the trajectory of where mueller is going, what information he might have and additional criminal liabilities for folks in trump's orbit. it's not going anywhere. >> from an investigative perspective, paul, while there's disarray, they do seem to be working the right way with the investigation. >> cooperating. reportedly that the document and senate and house committees get they share with the special counsel and what you want to happen and not competition. you don't want it to be expl

the oversight committee you sit on it with democrat elijah cummings who brought forth this informatione blower this week who said mike flynn was texting a former business associate saying we're going to drop sanctions on russia right away they will be, quote, ripped up and this will help fast track building nuclear reactors with russia in the middle east and make a lot of people very wealthy. trey gowdy ranking republican on the committee said we're not going to investigate that. do you thing it should be investigated by your committee? this whistleblower's claims. >> you have to look at the fact that we have a special investigators appointed by the president, one that, you know, quite frankly many people see he is not being favorable to the president depending on what political viewpoint you have, so i don't think there's some issue on the other side of the aisle that, you know, mr. mueller is being unfair. those investigations are handled by special investigators and what we have to remember -- >> so this was brought to your committee by a whistleblower and i guess what i'm asking yo

elijah cummings now saying the president owes her an apology and to take down his tweet. is this typical twitter or are we getting in dangerous territory here between the president and democrats? >> we know the president is hypersensitive about these accusations, about his own past misconduct and the allegations against him about past misconduct. he's lashing out at anybody coming after him. i will make note, it is interesting to me that he went after senator gillenbrand calling on him to resign. she wasn't the first senator to do that, she just happens to be the first woman senator to do that. >> it was jeff merkley who was the first. >> merkley did it on my show. i didn't see him go after jeff merkley. i'm guessing there are a lot of people in the white house that wish he hadn't tweeted about this, but i do think the president is rattled by these allegations. he doesn't like to see these accusers showing up, and i don't think he appreciates right now how big this moment is. this is much bigger than clinton v. trump 2016. >> exactly. chuck todd, thank you, gabe gutierrez

now the top democrat on the committee on the oversight committee, elijah cummings spoke to us about whatis concerns are. here's what he said. >> this is a fight for the soul of our democracy. nothing less. and so i'm going to work hard to make sure we save that democracy and i will fight until i die. >> what do you mean, save our democracy? >> reporter: now he was raising concerns about the potential of firing robert mueller. the white house, of course, has denied they're even considering that action and one member of the house oversight committee a republican member, mark meadows, as he entered the hearing said he had a conversation with the president about this, about firing robert mueller, and he said he wouldn't do that. this is what meadows said. >> there's not a concern in terms of trying to discredit the special prosecutor that has been not only established but continues to investigate and so robert mueller is not a subject of our investigation. >> how would you react to the president takes steps to get rid -- >> reporter: some members and republicans are taking it further. bob co