maggie haberman, if you can stay with us, i want to bring in david chalian and david axelrod. david chalian. >> maggie, my first question for you is you spoke with or goldstone gave "the times" a statement and said here that the e-mail suggested that the people had information concerning alleged wrongdoing by hillary clinton in her dealings with russia. this also seems to be the first we're learning about possibly what the content of that meeting was going to be about. do you know any more about the alleged wrongdoing that hillary clinton may have done with russia that this lawyer was going to come in and sort of sell, if you will, to donald trump jr.? >> we don't, david. and that -- that piggybacks on to the statement that came out from the president's own legal team over the weekend. if you recall, there was a statement that went out that was really sharply at odds with what don jr. had said on saturday. i think it was right after our initial story posted on the fact of this meeting. but, no, we don't know any more so far about what types of damaging information it supposedly

and new reporting from maggie haberman on growing tension in the west wing.nel. it is interesting the president has been largely silent other than short tweet tonight. he's not calling it a witch hunt not going after the media. >> maybe he's listening to his lawyer or white house aides usually that doesn't last long as we've seen during this investigation he's always been tweeting. to take a step back, the take away today the fundamental narrative of the story has shifted, right, the one thing all partisans of the president could say is no evidence of collusion, no evidence of collusion, no evidence of collusion, that was the thing that exploded today. we have clear evidence at the very least the senior members of the trump campaign were willing and eager to collude with people who represented them selves as representatives of the russian government. >> whether they did represent the government or had actual information almost doesn't matter. >> doesn't matter because the whole thing was basically a sting, a set up, hey we're the russian government would you

in fact, we should do that one day down pennsylvania avenue and maggie haberman knew the president, how it would go, i wondered if you would say that. trump comes back, i've always

here's more of my conversation with maggie haberman earlier.erstand that the newly reported second meeting with putin also came up. he says it only lasted 15 minutes, is that right? >> he said -- i would have to go back and check our transcript for what he said because there is a lot. >> i just read it. he said about 15 minutes. it's been reported by other people who were there that it was about an hour. >> yeah. i mean, look, he was adamant in that time frame, which is consistent with what white house officials said yesterday about this second get together. he was clearly not defining it in his mind as an actual meeting. he told a very long and elaborate story about sitting next to prime minister abe's wife of japan. she doesn't speak english. she got up to see his own wife who was sitting next to putin and they started talking. this is interesting. he said the topic of russian adoption came up when he was talking to putin as this newer meeting. the topic of russian adoptions as you recall was the supposedly the subject of or part of the subje

cnn political analyst and "new york times" white house correspondent maggie haberman was in the oval office to conduct the interview yesterday. she joins us now. you were joined with two of your colleagues. maggie, just as important as the substance is the style and the setting. what did you find when you walked into the oval office? how was the president and how did that translate into his posture in the interview? >> contrary to the last time i was in the oval office for an interview where there was sort of a garage band full of aides sitting around. this was just hope hicks who has been with the president since the beginning of the 2016 campaign and then me, peter baker, my colleague and michael schmidt, another colleague. the president was in a very good and chatty mood, you know. a couple of times people tried pulling the plug on him talking. he wanted to continue talking. this is much how he was on air force week on the way to paris. he likes doing these kinds of interviews and likes speaking his mind and i think he also believes, and you guys have seen this before, that nobody

and maggie haberman's reporting.ng you talked about in the past, clinton white house, that, bill clinton even in the darkest days, when he was facing stuff with monica lewinsky and the eyes able to compartmentalize things. not sure what that says about him. but he was able to do it. and that is essential in the white house. is this white house able to do that? >> psychologically suited to be president. a lot of things coming at once. some times foreign crisis. domestic. political. personal. some times all at once at the same time. but his mother passed away when he was about to leave for a summit in russia. he had to be able to compartmentalize. essential for a president. this president seems obsessed with the russia story. and for good reason. because he knows there is something there. i'm really struck by maggie's reporting always am of the circular firing squad. i have been through nothing like this. close. you either come together or come apart. people that went through impeachment with for clinton are like broth

let me bring this back to maggie haberman right now.n the midst of all of this, a big white house shakeup. one that apparently the president -- it sure seems like most of the white house didn't know that the president was sitting down with you. seems like most of the white house didn't know that anthony scaramucci, including reince priebus, until the end, was coming in as communications director. >> most people in "the white house" knew -- most people in the white house knew that "the times" was coming in. whether it was going to go on the record or not was a different issue. in terms of scaramucci, this is true. this was a direct negotiation between antony scaramucci and president trump. they have known each other for a long time. they have had, at times, a c contentious relationship, because scaramucci had backed other horses. basically, the president has been very frustrated by his messages team. part of why it is that you see him tweeting. see him giving interviews. he feels like people are not accurately representing what he thinks

we're going to get straight to maggie haberman with "the new york times." she broke the story. joins us now via phone. maggie, just holding ahold of your reporting, reading some of it. so you have new reporting tonight about an e-mail donald trump received ahead of his june 2016 meeting with a russian lawyer. what can you tell us about that? >> so, look, there's a lot that we -- there's stuff we know and there are many things we don't know. what we do know right now, this i was a very much a group effort at the "times" by a lot of reporters, that don jr. in the course of being approached about a meeting on the woman, the lawyer, the russian lawyer, with whom he met and these stories have been reported on over the last couple days, he received an e-mail from an intermediary and the e-mail said, made clear, that they -- part of the point of this meeting was, you know, to offer him some compromising information about hillary clinton, who at that point was clearly the nominee on the democratic side, and that the material was part of a larger russian governmente esffort to help his f

cnn political analystion maggie haberman and john avlon and counterterrorism analyst philip mudd. thank you for be with us this morning. maggie, what does it mean? what are the highlights for you? >> the highlights are a couple different things. you have don junior, the president's oldest son, meeting with this russian lawyer at the request of an intermediary. she invited jared kushner and paul manafort to join, june 9, a pivotal moment. he had security the primary but facing a del got slog going into the convention. they were very focused on that. what donald said this meeting was strictly to talk about russian adoptions. the story changed. there was also a discussion initially about opposition research against hillary clinton. don junior's disclosure requirements are not the same as jared kushner who had joined the government. the main problem for everyone is the story changed. if they had said initially, look, this is what the meeting is about and it did include this issue about hillary clinton initially and this woman changed which is what the story said yesterday, i think that

we have maggie haberman coming back to tell you the story next. when did you see the sign? when i needed to jumpstart sales. build attendance for an event. help people find their way. fastsigns designed new directional signage. and got them back on track. get started at fastsigns.com. and got them back on track. at the lexus golden opportunity sales event before it ends. choose from the is turbo, es 350 or nx turbo for $299 a month for 36 months if you lease now. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. casper makes one perfect supportive and comfortable. premium foam layers. breathable for airflow. perfect rebound, plus perfect lift. pick your size, you get 100 nights to test it out. test the layers, be a layer, casper. finding the best hotel price is now a safe bet. because tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites - so you save up to 30% on the hotel you want. lock it in. tripadvisor. >>> all right. we've actually learned a lot thanks to this "new york times" interview with the president, what he thinks on important issues. a lot of it is surprising. let's bring back m

maggie haberman, great to have you with us. thank you so much for that insight into this sort of epic free-wheeling conversation between president and press corps. in my own opinion is that maggie is absolutely right. it is eexception that that conversation be on the record, particularly because it went beyond what the white house and president has said on the record. >> your opinion matters to me. and all of us. >>> let's bring in our panel. cnn political analyst david gregory, white house correspondent from bloomberg news, margaret talub, and congressional report for the "washington post," karyn dimersian. david greg worygregory, what ar thoughts? >> it is always interesting when in he president takes it upon himself to meet with those reporters covering him and speak if had a way that's kind of open-ended. i would like to see a lot more of this from president trump in the form of a formal press conference. but i think in any form it is important. it often makes aides nervous and it absolutely should be on the record. and we l

maggie haberman joins our "roundtable." we'll smoke out the spin. the facts that matter this week. >>> good morning. six months ago this week, president trump took the oath of office vowinging to make america great again. he promised a border wall paid for by mexico. tepid of obamacare. tax cuts for everyone. three signature promises unkept. unclr his approval rating is throwest of any president ever at this point. though trump has kept a strong hold on his core voters. he can take comfort in a strong economy, with low unemployment. the stock market at record highs. one promise the president has made good on, the promise to shake up washington. the question now, can his presidency survive the aftershocks? as the russia investigations by congress and the the special counsel intensify this week, the president responded as he did when faced with crises in his private life. by hunkering down, lashing out, shaking up his team. lashing out at investigators. he's poised for battle. safe to say our country has never seen anything quite like it either. and i

we don't know nothing came out of that meeting. > maggie haberman, the "times" broke the story.st in terms of some process, i have two questions. donald trump jr. released all these e-mails. the president praised him for transparency. he's released a series of e-mails. the president praised him for his transparency. had the "new york times" contacted him and said we have these e-mails and then he went forward with these e-mails and also jared kushner, my understanding is three weeks ago or so he amended his security request to get a security clearance with this meeting. can you say if he had been informed or questioned about this meeting or if he knew the "times" was investigating? >> whether jared kushner knew that the times" was investigating? to your first question, we reached out to the lawyer for donald trump jr. said that we were familiar with the contents of these e-mails and were planning to publish. we gave a hard deadline. donald trump jr. preempted it. i think there has been some frustration on the part of donald trump jr. and people close to him about how the last co

<maggie haberman > would that be a breach of what the actual charge is? (tes) mccain who is 80-years-old has survived several near-death exper

record. >> it's interesting in that president trump telling "the new york times" telling maggie haberman that the issue of adoptions came up. obviously on the russian side. saying it came up, i'm not sure if that means he brought it up or putin brought it up. if putin brought it up, adoptions for russia means sanctions. >> that's exactly right. putin has been talking about removing the sanctions for some time. in addition to the very appropriate one that tom just brought up, is that the russians have given the americans an ultimatum that they want these two properties back. they're not going to do anything, engage in a deal to return them. in the last two days, we hear from the russians that indeed they're very close to an agreement with the trump administration to get these properties back. where they were engaging in illegal surveillance in the united states. one up in new york and one here near d.c. again, is there a quid for that quo? was this discussed between trump and putin privately? the russians are the only ones with the readout and maybe a tape recording of that conversation.

collusion let's take a listen to what the mainstream press had to say breaking news report now maggie haberman reporting in the new york times and it is really something that donald trump's son think he was about to get help from a russian lawyer with ties to the kremlin intent to collude with the russian government and that is a giant turn in this unfolding story. the national weather service in mount holly new jersey issued a severe thunderstorm warning for southwestern atlantic county in southern new jersey northeastern cumberland county in southern jersey southeastern salem county in southern new jersey southeastern gloucester county in southern new jersey until three forty five pm it's three pm a severe thunderstorm was located near rose again or near millville moving east at twenty five miles per hour hazard sixty mile per hour gusts and quarter size hail source radar indicated impact minor damage to vehicles is possible expects damage to trees and power lines locations impacted include. cumberland known as demand dorothy just south of vine and rose again and sold some for your protectio

he held with a russian lawyer during his father's election campaign breaking news report now maggie haberman reporting in the new york times and it is really something that certainly shows intent to collude with the russian government and that is a giant turn in this unfolding story this morning sobered up. everybody still talk about russia. well let's try to get to the heart of this and cross live now to our tease caleb moore pin in new york hi there caleb well the story has been circulating for several days now but child union has just released a new statement what more can you tell us. well it all started over the weekend when the new york times came forward with allegations about a meeting that took place between donald trump jr and gerald cushion or and a russian lawyer now the new york times in their report they alleged that this meeting in taken place because there had been a campaign had been promised dirt on hillary clinton and they furthermore said that this russian lawyer had been working with the kremlin now as we continue to to see the facts come out the only source that was eve

new york times and the associated press new york times in particular maggie haberman i'll withdraw this this close shade. simply false narrative of seventeen intelligence work let me even me the former director of national intelligence officer testified under oath to senator alfonse that has been repeated over and over on who is to program ok some of these intelligence agencies some of these intelligence agencies like that just but. they don't even deal with these kinds of assessments so when you're saying selling the coast guard i mean they had a big game the question is why they felt the need to keep saying this to try to buttress the cause if you meant to add me into it sounds nice and seasons but isn't . we've also we've also had. these repeated scandals at c.n.n. with editors being fired trying to draw trump business connections between russia and trump campaign that was song cost three employees a couple reporters and an editor their jobs and now we've got these damaging videos coming out about c.n.n. cynical profit driven pursuit of this which on the narrative is crumbling but th

but the news report now maggie haberman reporting in the new york times and it is really something that donald trump's son think he was about to get help from a russian lawyer with ties to the kremlin intent to collude with the russian government and that is a giant turn in this unfolding story. now at first this story seems like it might be a bombshell all we hear about donald trump jr meeting with a musical producer for a mosque how based pop star the father reportedly met with a so-called russian crown prosecutor there was going to be alleged dirt on the democratic national committee that was supposed to be passed over by a kremlin lawyer but the meeting took place and it turned out to be nothing of what was promised of the first lawyer turned out to not be a crime on the links a lobbyist but someone here in the united states a lawyer in no way connected to the russian government who simply had lobbied around adoption laws with russia this is how trump jr put it in his statement the woman as she has said publicly was not a government official and as we have said she had no informatio

stunning and revealing moment at the same time to have the president sit down with peter baker and maggie habermannd michael schmidt of the "your times as quote and talk to his frustration with his attorney general which can be traced back to jeff sessions austria decision to refuse himself from the russia investigation. ever since then, the president has been furious behind the scenes because he believes sessions recusal has left him personally and his administration vulnerable to attack from democrats, obama to the special counsel now being run by bob mueller. and it has created a suffocating cloud around the white house where the rest of the agenda seems to get stalled, and he traces a lot of this back to sessions who he thought could be his manager justice department. are saying it was the firing of james comey that led to the appointment of bob mueller. and if he had not listened to the people urging him to fire comey, he would not have had the special prosecutor put in place by the deputy attorney general. >> that is exactly right. there is a lot of swirling factors that have led the preside

it's great to sit down with maggie haberman and glenn baker.nk he ought to be out there as he was during the campaign. it worked and then. why would he change it now? charlie: on that note, thank you. we will be right back. stay with us. charlie: we are joined by sebastian gorka, deputy assistant to president trump. he's been called by "the new york times" one of the most visible defenders of the administration. in an interview on fox news, he characterized himself as the president pitbull. before joining the administration, he was an editor for breitbart news where he worked closely with white house colleague steve bannon. i am pleased to have sebastian gorka on the program. sebastian: thank you kindly, charlie. charlie: we have been talking about a group of reporters about thei am pleased to have sebastin gorka on the program. first six months. tell me about how you assess the accomplishments and failures, if you may, of trump's first six months. sebastian: as i wrote on the six-month anniversary, it feels as if we have been here for 25 weeks

that's politics maggie haberman noted in her lead quote he ran on a promise to end politics as usual. and as the excuses for why the meeting happened havist shifted over and over, today at the white house another offcamera briefing sean spicer recycled the first explanation. >> on whether or not it's okay to meet with a hostile government for opposition research. >> well you know i'm not getting into the specifics of this. i will say that it's quite often for people given information during the heat of a campaign to ask what that is. that's what simply he did. the president made it clear through the tweet. and there was nothing as far as we know that would lead anyone to believe there was anything except for discussion about about adoption, the magnitsky act. i would refer you back to counsel on that one. >> meanwhile as the president nears the 6-month mark in who was, a string of new polling is out there putting his approval rating between 36% and 40%. the numbers 36% in the absent news "washington post" poll, just six months in, make this president historically unpopular. no other c

tonight's multiple source, multiple byline piece in "the new york times" which read to me like maggie haberman president was aggravated by the news of the meeting. this is tonight's news story about the don jr. meeting. according to one person, less over the fact that it happened and more because it was yet another story about russia that has swamped the media cycle. does that ring true to you? >> absolutely. we know this president is very concerned about messaging. he's very concerned about scoring wins, actual wins or perceived wins and fighting with the media he thinks is portraying him unfairly. just the word russia to him equals fake news and any time that word is being said and people aren't talking about the g20, aren't talking about the health care bill or christopher rey, when people are talk about russia that is infuriating to him. >> what great point. thank you very much. and phil rucker does it get harder now for the president of the united states to call russia a ruse? >> i think it becomes harder every day for him to do that but i don't think that's going to stop him and i assume

i mean, you know, maggie haberman is such a great reporter, right? and she really has a way of c l pulling him out, he's very comfortable when he talks with her. and i thought that they were all able to have him talk about sort of the insecurity that he has about a attorney general that is now someone who doesn't immediately have his back as soon as he is, you know, president, right? and this is something that is important to presidents. and show, you know, i think he feels vulnerable without having that guy or, you know, if it ends up being a woman, that woman, you know, as part of his team. he's disappointed. this is something that we've heard leaked out before, but that's the first tile we hear it in his own words. and he's blunt about it. session was a guy that was with him in every -- almost every rally that i covered last year, right? i mean, this was a totally loyal guy, but it shows you that for this president, when you can't be there for him, you -- and you are, you know, there's some sort of, you know, maybe you knew you were going to have

tonight's multiple source, multiple byline piece in "the new york times," which read a lot to me like maggie habermano was the lastbyline on the list. the president was aggravated by the news of the meeting. this is tonight's news story about the don jr meeting. according to one person close to him. less over the fact that it happened, and more because it was yet another story about russia that had swamped the media cycle. does that ring true to you? >> absolutely. we know this president is very concerned about messaging. he's very concerned about scoring wins, actual wins or perceived wins and fighting with the media that he thinks is portraying him unfairly. just the word "russia" to him equals fake news, and any time that word is being said and people aren't talking about g20, reporter talking about the health care bill that he's trying to push, or christopher ray, his fbi pick, who has a confirmation hearing this week and is likely to be confirmed, when people aren't talking about that, when they're talking about russia, that's infuriating to him. >> what a great point. kimberly, thank you very m

his latest piece sharing a by line with maggie haberman tonight carries the headline "rancor at white house as russia story refuses to let the page turn." ashley parker white house reporter from "the washington post." her latest with philip rucker. category 5 hurricane, white house under siege by trump junior's russia revelations. and vivian salama white house reporter for the "associated press" is looking ahead tonight her headline is about the president's next overseas trip which we should remember begins tomorrow. trump storms paris for bastille day. welcome to all of you. peter baker, this was a story your paper broke. i'll ask you first, house big a story was this today in the whole scope of the russia collusion story we've been covering? >> well, i think it is a big story because it does sort of undercut the defense that there was no collusion, not only at a very minimum we learned from these e-mails there was a willingness if not even an eagerness on the part of the president's son to receive information that he was told anyway would be incriminating and directly from what was

i suspect it was largely handiwork of the relentless maggie haberman. clearly so deep inside. guy's head she should be sending invoices as a shrink. now at the end of the show, can you top this, and they did seemingly exclusive by "the washington post." it is pretty impress ef but also comes against the backdrop of the trump bannon attempt to essentially delegitmize the press and delegitimize precision and they are fighting an uphill battle. . >> jim's piece is on-line now. you're about the best. >> thank you. >> when we return, let me finish tonight with trump watch. it will be tough on him. what's with him? he's happy. your family's finally eating vegetables thanks to our birds eye voila skillet meals. and they only take 15 minutes to make. ahh! birds eye voila so veggie good itwhat's possible.nk rethink the experience. rethink your allergy pills. flonase sensimist allergy relief uses unique mistpro technology and helps block 6 key inflammatory substances with a gentle mist. most allergy pills only block one. and 6 is greater than one. rethink your allergy relief. flonase se

our mutual friend maggie haberman at the types" published a piece on the effect of this story on members of the trump family at large about jared kushner trying to diminish the importance of this meeting, having had to circle back and report this meeting in the first place. and this kind of cycle goes on. >> it sure does. i feel like every time i sit down write one of these inside the white house stories, i'm going straight to the source to look up a word for chaos or disorder or expass prayed or fuming or watching television. it repeats itself and that's what we've seen again this week where the president has been watching a lot of television. he's been following the scandal closely. he's been reacting. he's angry about the headlines dominating it. he's frustrated that his son, his namesake son is now dragged into it. he feels like it's all a conspiracy by the media and by the democrats. >> michael crowley two words, policy agenda. what's left of it and what to make of it in the president taking off saying he'll be very angry if health care doesn't get through the under mitch mcconnell'

. >> michael, maggie haberman tweeted that the house loved today's briefing. meaning by that, yes, this was something with a real human cost. and something that has to be debated and discussed. but it was also a giant daily distraction. >> yeah, the briefing was short and sweet. and there wasn't a lot to it. there weren't a lot of answers to these questions. the transgender issue is incredibly complicated at the pentagon. it's something that the obama administration spent an enormous amount of time looking at. they figured out how much it would cost. it's not a big cost. it's about $3 million or $4 million more for a military that spends over $500 billion. and this is something that the obama administration really worked a lot of time on. and now that there's this is announcement it's not coming out for the press, there was not a lot of answers about what would happen with that, and you know, the press was certainly not satisfied with that. >> jeremy, last word to you in a volunteer service in the modern era, you don't hear often who shouldn't serve, who shoul

administration has come from the president himself on the record in interviews with folks like magg maggie haberman from "new york times" and on twitter. so that is not something the chief of staff is going to solve. >> interesting. so, abigail, this change coming after, you know, the other change in the communications office, anthony scaramucci, i mean, it didn't help that he was publicly attacking, you know, priebus, and even the white house chief strategist steve bannon in that kind of vulgar rant, you know, to "the new yorker." sources are telling cnn that trump consulted some conservatives about whether to keep bannon and they told him that getting rid of him could damage trump's base, but is it your view that bannon's job is on the line too potentially? >> i think we've heard that for a while now. and i think he might be a little bit more on the edge than at times in the past. but i do think one interesting thing to think about is john kelly was somebody who did have the approval of steve bannon coming in and steve bannon was one person who actually brought in john kelly to be homeland -- to

baker and peter maggie haberman, it says reince priebus ouster was the latest convulsion in a white housenfused by political setbacks, the president became convinced that reince priebus was not strong enough to run the white house operations and told him two weeks ago that he wanted to make a change. intrigued at the idea of putting a general in charge, donald trump offer the job to mr. kelly a few days ago. mr. kelly was not always in lockstep with donald trump's policies and publicly questioned the need for a full border wall with mexico and calling russia a threat to the united states as the president signaled a friendlier approach to moscow but over six months of leaving homeland security, mr. kelly who friends describe is not afraid to challenge superiors, emerged as an important and highly visible surrogate to the president. the associated press writes and asks the question, can kelly pull things together? much of his success will depend on factors outside of his control, including whether donald trump's swallowing staff will put aside rivalries that have complicated efforts to enac

in fact, we should do that one day down pennsylvania avenue and maggie haberman knew the president, how it would go, i wondered if you would say that. trump comes back, i've always thought of that. >> that's true. inauguration. he want -- we know he wanted to have troops marching down pennsylvania avenue for his inauguration day parade, and it couldn't happen for a number of reasons, but -- >> because this is irk in. >> but the kind of thing he loves and one of the reasons why this trip was so smart on macron's part. he knew exactly what would get trump the plight bulb to go off in his head. this thing makes him very happy. >> and explain to the president if he would drag a tank down the streets of washington you'd have to rebuild them. maggie was sitting next to me. hope she doesn't mind me divulging this. the president has to be loving this. can we get that? >> what's not to love about that? >> and listen, if you promise me, they would actually fix the streets after they rolled those tankses in washington, d.c. i'm with the president. get his parade. >>> thanks for joining us on "insi

and, you know, my colleagues, peter baker and maggie haberman, laid out the sense of foreboding and dreadhat seized the staff at the white house as they all point fingers at each other to figure out how to respond to this. >> jackie, that is part of the issue here. that when a moment happens, a lot of things come out of this white house that are extremely unflattering to other people in the white house, including the president. for example, just the president himself sitting around watching television. that's not something that makes the boss look good. >> well, they also don't know where these attacks are coming from. this was already an environment, as we know, that was a bit of a pressure cooker like most white houses are, but they also add on the paranoia, the fact a lot of these senior people don't trust each other. it is a team of rivals in a lot of ways. ryan priebus is frequently thrown under the bus. he's still there. but if you constantly have people undercutting each other and sniping like they do, that doesn't create an environment where if crisis does happen that there is a w

he sat in that chair right where maggie haberman was, the president was saying, wanting to be the fbiirector, there are conflicts. and all those guys he hired, they're all democrats and democrat contributors. what do you make of that? >> i don't make much of those allegations. i'll -- obviously if there were something that came to light about a true legitimate conflict, that would be serious stuff. the fact that the white house called former director mueller in to interview for the fbi director job i think actually can be flipped the other way. director mueller served his country for 12 years as fbi director. the fbi needed a new director after the president fired jim comey. if the white house called him, it's not surprising he would be willing to at least entertain the idea of stepping into the breach once more, but the notion that that was a job he was agitating for i find hard to believe. i also find it interesting that the white house had such confidence in robert mueller that they were willing to consider him as fbi director one day, why the next day all of a sudden they don't th

moment at the same time, charlie, to have the president sit down with our friends peter baker and maggie haberman and michael smith at the "new york times" to jeff sessions his long time alley's decision to recuse himself from the investigation. ever since then charlie, my reporting bears this out. the president has been furious behind the scenes because he believes that sessions' recusal has left him personally and his administration vulnerable to attack from democrats, vulnerable to the special counsel now being run by bob mueller and it's create a cloud, a suffocating cloud around the whitehouse where the rest of the agenda seems to get stalled day by day. and he administrations a -- traces this back at sessions who he thought would be his man at the justice department. >> rose: some say it was the firing of james quo me hiring bob mueller and if he didn't listen to those to fire comey he wouldn't have had the special prosecutor put in place by the deputy attorney general. >> that's exactly right. there's a lot of swirling factors here that have led the president to this point. it's not just s

even the "times" reporter maggie haberman says chris wray and the president says he's highly thought of by everybody. chris wray, the president's nominee to head up the fbi, he mostly everybody, if not everybody. but if he is being nominated to run the fbi by a president who is arguing overtly that the director of the fbi works for him directly and reports to him directly, a president who is now arguing that the fbi should basically be the president's agency and should no longer seen as part of the justice department, that is kind of blood chilling. i mean, did christopher wray accept this nomination from the president on those terms? when he accepted this nomination from the president, was it with the understanding that this is the way the president sees the fbi, because the president is now saying publicly that as far as he's concerned the fbi reports direct to him. the fbi director personally reports direct to him. did wray agree to that when he accepted the nomination? surely the senate would want to know that before they voted on whether or not to confirm him, right? apparently