closed-door meeting. >> neal, isn't executive privilege, the white house has to invoke not -- not matthew whitaker? >> yes. the white house is the only individual -- entity that can invoke it and here i do think there is a problem because, anderson, whitaker didn't just previously testify in congress that the president didn't lash out, he also testified in response to a question of did the white house reach out to you in some way to express dissatisfaction? answer, no. so whitaker didn't have any problem remembering that just a month ago, even less than a month ago. now all of a sudden he's got these memory deficits. and i 100% agree with jeffrey toobin and i remember every one conversation with the attorney general and they are big deals general every day, i remember every conversation, they are big deals. and dollars to donuts, i remember every conversation with the president of the united states. so this idea that he just kind of forgets is really, really tough. >> stand by, everybody. i want to take a quick break. there is more coming up. we'll look at paul manafort's sentencing today. his add

susan, let's talk about matthew whitaker. he says whitaker did not deny that the president called him to discuss the cohen case. the ranking republican denies -- it contradicts what nadler is saying. what do you think of that in. >> first of all it gives you an indication of the state of bipartisanship in the house judiciary committee, which is to say not looking so good. you know, this is a very serious allegation. once again you raise the prospect of was an official of the trump administration telling the truth in public? was he lying to congress? there are many allegations. i'm amazed by this, you know, but it shouldn't really be amazing or surprising at all to talk to your point about no collusion. and the president and not telling the truth about what happened in the manafort hearing today, seven different times -- i counted it seven times the president denied collusion and said that was the finding of judge jackson today, in direct contravention of the facts. should i be shocked that the acting attorney general that the

this is a case of, matthew whitaker, where people in the room heard different things. matthew whitaker said to the house judiciary committee just on february 8th about any conversations that he would have had with president trump. so let's start there. listen to this. >> did the president lash out at you after michael cohen's guilty plea for lying to congress about a trump organization project to build a tower in moscow? >> the president specifically tweeted that he had not lashed out. >> i'm asking you, mr. whitaker, did the president lash out at you? not asking what he tweeted. i zrient lot have a lot of comp the veracity of his tweets. >> congressman, that's based on an unsubstantiated -- >> sir, answer the question, yes or no, did the president lash out at you about mr. cohen's guilty plea? >> no, he did not. >> okay. now let's listen to what jerry nadler said yesterday about what he heard behind closed doors in a much smaller meeting. >> unlike in the hearing room mr. whitaker did not deny that the president called him to discuss michael cohen -- the michael cohen

former acting attorney general matthew whitaker is to give more testimony. what do they know? >> reporter: they say he did not tell the full truth, especially with his actions with donald trump after it was revealed by federal prosecutors in new york of the hush money scandal with michael cohen to keep quiet about those affairs that were about to come out right before the 2016 elections. they don't agree with what he testified to. they later excised what they had questions about. they suggested he never had issues with the white house public concerns about the special counsel's investigation. because jerry nadler points out somewhat incredulously he doesn't believe they didn't discuss this as whitaker was interviewing for a white house attorney position with the responsibility for overseeing, dealing with the special counsel's investigation. so when i talked to jerry nadler yesterday, he told me very clearly he needs to hear what he says is the full truth from matt whitaker. >> well, he made a number of statements to committee, which we had reason to believe weren't entirely t

there are reports that the president may have contacted matthew whitaker by phone and askedessentially if a different prosecutor to be put in charge and use his role to make that change in that u.s. attorney's office. those reports have led to a number of sort of shoes waiting to drop because that's a very s serious allegation for the president given what appears to be his own potential legal scrutiny and jeopardy related to the u.s. attorney's office. while we're waiting to find out what will happen there next, today we got the surprising news that matthew whitaker himself has left the justice department. he left this weekend. now we knew he was no longer acting attorney general because we have a full-time attorney general william barr in place but matthew whitaker was going to stay on until he wasn't. he left suddenly without an announcement this weekend and it's not like he's leaving because he suddenly got offered some awesome new gig. the l.a. times reports that he has not settled on what to do next in his legal career. so he left the justice department for nothing and it was just

there is also the question of the president's alleged communications with matthew whitaker that reported to attempt to put pressure on prosecutors in the southern district in new york over the cohn cohen case. there is also the question of whether a pardon was floated for michael cohen or flynn or manafort to influence their conduct occurring these investigations, their comments to congress, or their statements otherwise to law enforcement. the committee is seeking documents on the cohen hush money payments he testified to congress about last week. and about his earlier false statements, his earlier false testimony to congress. also whether anybody from the white house edited or approved his false testimony. and the recordings michael cohen says he has of various conversations, the committee would like any of those that are relevant. they are also probing whether any improper foreign payments and constitutionally prohibited e -- emoluments were given and whether there was any russian financing for trump business projects or those of his son-in-law and kushner projects, as well. there is

. >> did you ask acting attorney general matthew whitaker to change the leadership of the investigation into your former personal attorney michael cohen? >> no. not at all. i don't know who gave you that. that's more fake news. there's a lot of fake -- there's a lot of fake news out there. no, i didn't. >> chairman nadler's account of whitaker's comments today raises new questions about possible obstruction of justice by the president. this was not an official hearing. so there is no transcript. and then late today the top republican on the committee, nadler's counterpart, congressman doug collins, disputed nadler's interpretation of their conversation with whitaker. >> nadler suggested that he contradicted his own testimony in the previous public hearing about whether he was involved in discussions with the president directly about mr. cohen. was that your takeaway from this? >> no, i didn't have that takeaway at all. in fact, he said he had not talked with the president about mr. cohen at all. and no conversation with the southern district of new york at all either. >> so that brings

matthew whitaker certainly intended to give the committee the impression that he was his work was never interfered with in any way by president trump but let's listen to what jerry nadler said today about what happened in his closed door interview with matthew whitaker this week. >> when presented directly with an opportunity to deny that the president talked to him about the michael cohen investigation, he refused to deny it. he evaded a lot of questions but refused to deny that. this goes to the heart of our investigation, which is obstruction of justice and abuse of power. if the president is seeking to influence that investigation in which he was possibly implicated, that's a very grave abuse of power. it's a very grave obstruction of justice. >> your reaction to that? >> jerry nadler is right. the facts need to be developed and are being developed by the judiciary committee. if it's the case as it appears to be that the president tried to get whitaker when he was acting attorney general to lean on the acting head of the southern district u.s. attorney's office and to get trump's fr

. >>> we're going to dig a lot deeper into matthew whitaker's meeting on the hill with chairman nadler a member of the house judiciary committee, did whitaker tell the truth during his testimony? congresswoman sheila jackson lee, next. ♪ pardon the interruption but this is big! now with t-mobile get the samsung galaxy s10e included with unlimited data for just $40 a month. okay, i never thought i'd say this, but i found bladder leak underwear that's actually pretty. surprised? it's called always discreet boutique. it looks and fits like my underwear. i know what you're thinking. how can something this pretty protect? hidden inside is a super absorbent core that quickly turns liquid to gel for incredible protection. so i feel protected and pretty. always discreet boutique. new color. new size. to exhilarating to surprise. we invite you to more than an exceptionally crafted vehicle. we invite you to an exceptionally crafted experience. this is the invitation to lexus sales event, with generous offers now through march 31st. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. beauty editors have tri

. >>> we're going to dig a lot deeper into matthew whitaker's meeting on the hill with chairman nadler ask a member of the house judiciary committee, did whitaker tell the truth during his testimony? congresswoman sheila jackson-lee, next. ♪we gonna do what they say can't be done♪ ♪we've got a long way to go ♪and a short time to get there.♪ ♪i'm eastbound, just watch ole bandit run♪ whatever party you've got going in the back, we've got the business up front. the pain and swelling. the psoriasis. cosentyx treats more than just the joint pain of active psoriatic arthritis. it even helps stop further joint damage. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms, if your inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen, or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. get real relief, with cosentyx. i need great without the wait. new elvive rapid reviver deep conditioners work fast with no lea

what is your reaction to what chairman nadler is telling us now about what matthew whitaker clearly withheld, at minimum, in the public hearing and some would say deliberately misled the committee. >> well, my reaction is this. jeff sessions was effectively fired because he recused himself. because he followed the advice of ethics lawyers at the justice department. matt whitaker was hired because he talked about how he could privately cripple the mueller investigation and because i'm sure the president was confident he would not recuse himself. the ethics lawyers urged him to do so. he refused. then you have the new attorney general appointed, who refuses to commit to following the advice of ethics lawyers on that same issue, recusal. so is it plausible that the issue of the recusal of the prosecutor in the southern district of new york came up? absolutely. is it i think straining credit utility to think that if he did have conversations about that with others or the president that he would have a failure of recollection about it? that doesn't strike me as too credible. >> the president's re

general matthew whitaker has left the justice department.kesperson confirms his last a was saturday. last month when william barr was confirmed as attorney general. matthew whitaker was elevated to acting attorney general after president trump fired then attorney general jeff sessions. venezuela's opposition leader juan guaido has arrived in venezuela to renew his campaign to topple the government of nicolas maduro. he landed at the country's main airport about 25 miles from caracas. he said in a tweet he has passed through integration checks -- immigration checks. many countries have recognized him as the legitimate leader in venezuela, arguing that the election of nicolas maduro was invalid. juan guaido has called for demonstrations coinciding with his arrival. south korea is proposing talks with north korea and the united states following the collapse of the summit between president trump and kim jong-un. during a meeting today, the south korean president said preventing nuclear talks between the u.s. and north korea from derailing it a t

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today former acting attorney general matthew whitaker met with the top democrat and republican on theiary committee. now according to committee chairman jerry nadler who is a democrat, whitaker talked about what the president said to him in the wake of michael cohen's guilty plea about his former fixer as well as a southern district of new york investigation of cohen and the man known as individual one in court documents, also known as the president. however, at the top republican congressman doug collins said that is not what

so does the idea of using matthew whitaker to mess with the sdny investigation.t's take them up with cuomo's court. elliot williams, former federal prosecutor who we should point out consults for lawworks. an organization dedicated to protecting the special counsel. and john dean. unparalleled perspective as nixon's white house counsel during watergate. an honor to have you both. all right. so, elliot, let's start with you. why do i care about the cohen e-mails? the the chair of the rnc. they only talk about criminality. nothing is wrong. i call it the, if it isn't a felony, it's fine standard. this from the party of lincoln that used to be all about character when it was about praising bill clinton, wasn't just about his crimes. it was moral turpitude. now, elliot, if you can't prove it's a felony, everything was fine. sure, they may have lied about it but republicans don't care. and this is going to be a political trial and that's what gets them through. >> right. not all conduct that is suspect or questionable for a president of the united states or frankly a

so does the idea of using matthew whitaker to mess with the sdny investigation.s take them up with cuomo's court. elliot williams, former federal prosecutor who we should point out consults for law works. an organization dedicated to protecting the special counsel. and john dean. unparalleled perspective as nixon's white house counsel during watergate. an honor to have you both. all right. so, elliot, let's start with you. why do i care about the cohen e-mails? can't the president pardon anyone? what would make it wrong? . >> we have seen before the president is willing to use pardon power. all individuals who were loyal to the president. and the question is by floating a pardon if that's what happened in the e-mail. was he trying to reward the loyalty of michael cohen. they hadn't had a falling out yet. >> something could be not illegal. but wrong. john, legally the president the pardon power is so expansive. showing bribery it analogizes to the obstruction. analysis. legally. which is he has over sight over the investigations. if he wants to stop them he can. y

do you think the president had secret good news maybe from i don't know matthew whitaker. >> i don't know if he had secret good news, rod rosenstein still around somewhere. but i think president is sensing same thing that my democrat friends are sensing, this is a nothing burger as far as russia collusion and even obstructtion of justice, so they have to manufacture something, the president feels like many of us do, let's go for it. kennedy: maybe he knows something we don't. bob mueller has played it close to the vest, we thought it was going to come out a couple weeks ago or last friday or friday before that. then, you know that has not happened yet. there is a lot of flurry around rick gates and people are trying to put together that activity with what bob mueller as and when he will wrap it up it is difficult to say but newt gingrich says, if it is tame, and president sounds more hopeful that it is, does this ill legitimize the other investigations going on in various committees in the house? >> yeah, absolutely. those investigations were probably without valid tie to begin with,

matthew whitaker for one has said that it is pretty much wrapped up.ill be chaos in the news business. every interested party will spin it to their own en

. >> matthew whitaker, the attorney general, the president asked him to call jeffery berman to get him to unrecolonies himself from -- did you think the president was worried of what you guys may be able to find and trying to do the same thing by cultivating you and what he did with whitaker to convince berlin which potentially unrecused which he can't do. >> the president wants people who are loyal to him and not loyal to the country or not necessarily loyal to the first amendment or even if you are fox news, just loyalty to him. he has this view to be my replacement at the southern district. if only that person is investi., >> if you are still ats the sbny, what would you look into? >> non prosecutor kpeer and we'll be looking at things that's appropriate to look at and from important, looking at various aspects of trump horg-- of those things seem to be a lot on their plate and when presumably being so. no matter who the u.s. attorney is. >> did he come up at the s, t, and y? and is his taxes are deplaiting on assets. we scrutinized with a lot of people. >> michael cohen, it has bee

i think even with matthew whitaker people thought he would stop if it came to throwing his own body acrosshe track. that's what barr had done. people who worked with him, democrats, too, say he is a responsible and intellectual man who cares about the justice department. i kind of trusted him. >> i respect him but again what he did today, he put people, rod rosenstein and they made a decision, a legal decision that mueller says it was hard and complicated. they made it in 48 hours where they have hundreds of lawyers. >> here is the final point. this is a letter that talks a lot about what mueller found but barely quotes him. name check, rod rosenstein, acted oversight of the probe. it is only signed by one person. it is not the mueller report, it is signed by bill barr. as promise, i have a break down. final thought from you. >> he did not have to make the determination on obstruction. mueller was silent on it. they did not have the evidence to sustain an obstruction charge and then wash the hands and submit the letter. >> that would have handed off to congress which clearly he did not wan

sessions chief of staff matthew whitaker had been critical of the mueller probe took his place. >> i have usually been the only one that says there is no evidence of obstruction of justice or collusion. >> reporter: as the trump investigation appeared to be winding down earlier this year, long-time trump associate roger stone is indicted. in january, the fbi raided stone's florida home. the special counsel alleges stone coordinated and sought e-mails that could damage trump's opponents and awaits his fate on the charges he faces and proclaimed his innocence. >> the justice department is telling us that attorney general bill barr received the report from special counsel robert mueller. >> it will be up to trump's attorney general william barr to decide how much of the report will be made public. jason carroll, cnn new york. >> thank you very much. after everything that's happened over the past two years now that mueller finished his investigation, what will happen next? ♪ ♪ t-mobile will do the math for you. right now, when you join t-mobile, you get two lines of unlimited with two of

and matthew whitaker apoored to sort of deny that under oath. i want to play hitds testimony because there does seem to be tngz between what he said under oath and what public reporting has indicated and what he reportedly said today. >> at no time has the white house asked for, nor have i provided any promises or commitments concerning the special counsel'sings have or any other investigation. since becoming acting attorneygeneral i have run the department of justice with fedealt to the law and the constitution. >> did you communicate to the president, any soonier white house advisors related to the trump? >> i was very explicit in my opening staumt as to that not only about my communications regarding the special counsel's office and i said other investigations in the southern district of new york would be included in other investigations. >> chuck, you're a lawyer and a very good one obviously. he says the white house hasn't provided any promises or commitments, which is pretty a specific language. >> and those are exact lathe words i have ke

i think even with matthew whitaker people thought he would stop if it came to throwing his own body across the track. that's what barr had done. people who worked with him, democrats, too, say he is a responsible and intellectual man who cares about the justice department. i kind of trusted him. >> i respect him but again what he did today, he put people, rod rosenstein and they made a decision, a legal decision that mueller says it was hard and complicated. they made it in 48 hours where they have hundreds of lawyers. >> here is the final point. this is a letter that talks a lot about what mueller found but barely quotes him. name check, rod rosenstein, acted oversight of the probe. it is only signed by one person. it is not the mule eveeller rept is signed by bill barr. as promise, i have a break down. final thought from you. >> he did not have to make the determination on obstruction. mueller was silent on it. they did not have the evidence to sustain an obstruction charge and then wash the hands and submit the letter. >> that would have handed off to congress which clearly he did not w

one of the things -- congress has had michael cohen up there and matthew whitaker, did you talk to theesident about the cohen case? he said, i never did anything improper. this is the chairman of the committee. try to follow this. >> what did he admit to discussing with the president? >> he did not admit to discussing with the president anything, but when presented with the opportunity, when asked by mr. collins at the end of the interview if it was correct that he had not spoken to the president about the cohen case, he said he did not have the opportunity. so he refused to do so. >> doj officials are pushing back saying whitaker did nothing wrong. i said the same thing when you had devin nun yooz in the house. they have a responsibility to speak clearly. >> i had the privilege of being there. it was confusing. he did not deny having these conversations and the pushback from the republican side is he said he couldn't decide. the question was if there are questions, is that also suspect of maybe those conversations and they were not intentionally with the president? and there's so many

basically lied and said that the documents in writing didn't exist but again two days before matthew whitaker is to leave the doj, this letter is found. there are no coincidences. somebody who comes in behind matt whitaker was going to find it. they have a lot of explaining to do why they lied in their sworn pleading. >> appreciating your perspective as always, katie fang. thank you so much for joining us very early on this sunday. >> always. >>> just ahead, the issues driving the presidential campaign. who is saying what? up next, sound check 2020. >>> plus, snl's weekend update poking a little fun at paul manafort's sentencing this week. >> paul manafort, who looks like he was born divorced, faced up to 24 years in prison but only got 4 years, probably in a minimum security white collar facility with a bunch of his friends. the guy stole over $50 million and he basically got sentenced to college. also, how can you possibly claim manafort lived a blameless life. he's being skensed for another crime next week and it's a crime he committed while on house arrest for a third crime. >> if i'm goi

republicans and democrats have -- even though matthew whitaker is no longer at the justice departmentthey have been interested in this. he was at the center of the michael cohen situation in those early days, especially after cohen had pleaded guilty to lying to congress. whitaker is right there in the hot seat at the top of the justice department. that's why this matters. >> it matters because if this is what he said when he was testifying as the acting attorney general before congress under only. listen to this. >> at no time has the white house asked for nor have i provided any promises or commitments concerning the special counsel's investigation or any other investigation. >> i want to know whether you talked to president trump at all about the southern district of new york's case involving michael cohen. >> congresswoman, as i mentioned several times today, i am not going to discuss my private conversations with the president of the united states. >> what do you think? >> her question was direct. did you have any conversations at all? he chose not to answer that question. which

but let's add matthew whitaker to the list as well. poor matthew whitaker.at the hell out of him but at the same time he was pressured by donald trump and he resisted the pressure. >> the process went through to the end. but as we have all been saying around this table we now enter a period of understanding what the report itself said. what the implications are for congress. because clearly, mueller was passing certain issues along. yes, to attorney general barr. and beyond that to congress and you can say to the public. >> and congress is next. it will be interesting to see how the house oversight committee now takes its questioning and who they bring in and what exactly angle they take on this. we don't know what's in this report. i think we frame that again. no one has seen it beyond the attorney general and robert mueller himself and the president has been given the attorney general's interpretation of it. a "new york times" reads in part this. mr. barr did exactly as mr. trump hoped he would. but there's a reason obstructioning justice is a crime on its

we saw matthew whitaker refuse to talk.letter responding to the requests for documents on security clearances perfect the white house, again, it's hinting at that. the supreme court in 1974, with the decision on the nixon watergate tapes, made clear executive privilege is not a limitless authority. i would think the odds are high that john roberts will tell us what they can learn. you can bet this white house will dig in, use executive privilege wherever it can to avoid material from becoming public. >> i want to ask about a different subject, otto warmbier, after the president's summit with kim jong-un. the american college student who was detained by north korea officials. when he was returned to the u.s., it was in a vegetative state. he later died. he said, president trump, that he takes kim jong-un's word that he didn't know how badly warmbier was being treated. the parents of otto warmbier were so upset about this, as you can imagine. the president responding to that said that he didn't like being misinterpreted. he s

william barr, matthew whitaker and rod rosenstein, former attorney general jeff sessions. it did not, it turns out, have anything to do with the mueller report. just a ceremony to bestow former a.g. jefferson sessions with a wait for it, ceremonial cabinet chair. for all his service to the justice department. according to the a.p., the name robert mueller was not mentioned once. something tells me, though, that mueller was on everybody's mind, however. so for now, we wait and refresh twitter and some of us are handling the long wait better than others. say for instance, the president of the united states who cannot seem to resist the urge to pick twitter fights with a war hero no longer alive and with the husband of his top aid. maybe someone should get him a fidget spinner. we patrol miromise, we'll tell immediately if there is breaking news and following the shot across the bow in the stand off with democrats this time over notes from the president's private discussions with vladimir putin. we also have a look inside the president's attempt to build a trump tower in mosc

matthew whitaker for one has said that it is pretty much wrapped up.ill be chaos in the

as the attorney general, and what is clear about attorney general barr as perhaps compared to matthew whitaker this role, who takes seriously the institutional independence of the justice department, and who is a career public servant in many ways. and so, there is reason to be somewhat more confident of him, but i think democrats are right to lay down a very clear marker about transparency right now. >> ned, does congresswoman paul have a point about republicans, that they have set the groundwork for this to be released through the push to declassify, release other sensitive documents during the past couple years? >> well, i would hope so. i have no disagreement with what she said. in fact, i've been calling it for two years, alex. you know this. we've had conversations about this over the course of time. i want it all to come out. i want the entire mueller report to be public. i want all of the fisa applications to be public. i want all of the memorandum laying out the scope of the mueller investigation to be public. i want it all to be public to the american people so they can understand wh

that's something that we've heard from brett kavanaugh, from william barr, from matthew whitaker. don't think that holds. our system tells us nobody can be above the law. >> fox chairman rupert murdoch was opposed to the deal. we know murdoch and trump spoke often and we know the whether you want to call it a revolving door or just an open door between fox and this administration is a pretty incredible one. right? you've got a whole lot of people that have gone one way or the other, whether it's john bolton or bill shine. >> the line that really stood out in this piece that hit in the "new yorker" that jean may wrote was that there's never been anything quite like this in the history of television, media, and presidency, and that is that it is the closest thing to state-controlled television. right? you have this -- and by the way, i say this as a former fox news employee. i was a commentator at fox news from 2008 to 2012 before i came to cnn. fox news was different then. fox was run by roger ailes, who we all know had a dramatic fall from grace. but there was still in its own way

president trump installed to be acting attorney general of the united states for a hot minute, matthew whitakerhe was back on capitol hill today where lawmakers invited him to meet with them to clarify some testimony that he gave last month. whitaker told the judicia committee in an open session that president trump never exerted any pressure on him over the mueller investigation or any other investigation, including the federal prosecution of the president's longtime former lawyer michael cohen. at that february hearing, mr. whitaker flatly denied public reporting that the president had lashed out at him on at least a couple of occasions after cohen pled guilty to multiple felonies when he was prosecuted in the southern district of new york. whitaker's testimony that day in congress denying that he'd been the recipient of any such pressure, denying he'd had conversations like that with the president, that was soon thrown into doubt when "the new york times" reported that the president had, in fact, called matt whitaker late last year and asked him if somebody else could be put in charge of the

with perjury generally speaking when we were talking way back about jeff sessions testimony, matthew whitaker's testimony more recently. it has to be a big lie. as far as we know now, even if all of these allegations proven to be true, it's not a false statement to say that with the you cannot charge him for perjury with that. would he take a credibility hit if it turned out did he have some outreach and he said yes, probably, but it's not going to be perjury. >> does it made who made the overture to whom? does it matter which it team, the president's team or cohen's team first floated the idea of a pardon? >> it does. if it's cohen's team and the trump's team like we're not counting on that at all, go do what you need to do, they don't have have any jeopardy from that. but it depends. a lot of the obstruction is the wink wink nod nod we can't talk about pardons right now but we hope you'll stay strong with us michael, that sort of thing could certainly be obstruction. >> how are we ever going to find out. >> well, prosecutors i think already know. remember they had flynn on board, had no conce

matthew whitaker told them tode esident called them while he was in office to discuss the cohen case and federal investigations into mr. trump. mr. trump warned reublican mr. trump warned republican sesenators today not to op his national emergency related to the southern border. he also nixed a g.o.p. proposal to limit future emergencies. it was aimed at staving off a defeat for the president tomorrow, when the senate votes on blocking ergency declaration. the house already passedt, and the president has threatened a veto. california's governor gavin swson has imposed a moratorium on executions in tte. his action today means a reprieve, for w, for 737 inmates on the nation's largest death row. newsom is a newly-elected democrat and a longtime foe of capital punishment. >> it's not the question of the death penalty if peoe deserve to die for their heinous acts. the queson really is, do we have the right to kill? do we have the right to kill? that's a deep and existential question, and i don't believe we do. uff: newsom denied he is defying voters. in 2016, californians narrowlyor sud

and i think even with matthew whitaker, people thought that he would stop if it came to throwing his own body across the tracks. >> sure. >> and i think that's what barr has done. and people who worked with him, democrats too say he is -- he's a responsible intellectual man who cares about the justice department. i kind of trusted him. >> one at a time. >> i respect him, but, again, what he did today, over a weekend. >> yes. >> he put people, rod rosenstein and they made a decision, a legal decision that mueller said was hard and complicated. they made it in 48 hours where they have hundreds of lawyers at the department of justice. >> ellie has the final point. this is a letter that talks a lot of what mueller found but barely quotes him, name checks rod rosenstein who we know had active oversight of the probe. but it's only signed by one person. it's signed by bill barr. elliott, before i go, i promised i have a breakdown i want to do. but final thought from you? >> he did not have to make the determination on obstruction. >> that's right. >> mueller was silent on it. the finding of

president trump early on when the southern district was looking at this went to then acting matthew whitakeras the acting u.s. district attorney and said can't we get somebody loyal in that position. why would you want somebody loyal in that position if you weren't trying to control what was going on in the southern district. now, that didn't happen but that just shows you how concerned he was about what was going on in the southern district. >> and citizen trump and perhaps his family still perhaps very concerned about what could come out of the southern district. matt rosenberg, liz wiehl, thanks so much to both of you. >>> up next, for someone who usually has no objection speaking or tweeting, what is on the mind of the president today? he's staying surprisingly silent now that the mueller report has come to a close. we'll discuss right after this. before the trip, jessica sent 22 texts to a swim instructor to help manny overcome his fear. their gps took them to places out of a storybook. and they called grandma when manny felt sad about not being able to swim. overall, they shared 176 pi

in hush money payments during the 2016 election, trump called former acting attorney general matthew whitaker "trump asked wh geoffrey s. berman, the united states attorney for the so hern district of new yor and a trump ally, could be put in charge of the widening investigation according to several american officials with direct knowledge of the call. >> seth: so trump tried to get whitaker to interfere in the investigation of michael cohen. can you imagine how much whitaker was sweating during that phone call? probably looked like he just climbed out of a pool. [ laughter ] now, there's been speculation for months that special counsel robert mueller's investigation is wrapping up or winding down and it's never been true. but now this week, there's new reporting that justice department officials are expecting mueller's final report as soon as next week. and if that's the case, it could come wn trump is out of the country. >> we have the clearest erdication yet that special counsel robert mues nearly done with his almost two-year investigation, and that the ende ere is near. sources say the j

matthew whitaker for one has said that it is pretty much wrapped up.any case, all of this will end at some point. and when it does, it will be chaos in the news business. every interested party will spin it to their own end. before that happens, let's pause to put it in perspective and remember how the russia-hoax began in the first place. throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, hillary clinton and her surrogates in the media attacked donald trump for his role in pushing the birther story. they argued that it was dumb to think that barack obama was born in kenya and it hurt america. it delegitimized him as a leader by casting him as an illegitimate president. those are fair points. if you cannot prove something is true, you should not claim that it is. if you do not like a president's policies, argue against them. offer a better alternative. do not claim that he isn't really the president. that does not help the country. somehow democrats learn the opposite lesson. for three years they push their own former harmful conspiracy, the theory of russia c

president trump installed to be acting attorney general of the united states for a hot minute, matthew whitakerill today where lawmakers invited him to meet with them to clarify some testimony that he gave last month. whitaker told the judiciy committee in an open session that president trump never exerted any pressure on him over the mueller investigation or any other investigation, including the federal prosecution of the president's longtime former lawyer michael cohen. at that february hearing, mr. whitaker flatly denied public reporting that the president had lashed out at him on at least a couple of occasions after cohen pled guilty to multiple felonies when he was prosecuted in the southern district of new york. whitaker's testimony that day in congress denying that he'd been the recipient of any such pressure, denying he'd had conversations like that with the president, that was soon thrown into doubt when "the new york times" reported that the president had, in fact, called matt whitaker late last year and asked him if somebody else could be put in charge of the cohen investigation at