joining us, michael mukasey, former federal judge.torney general under president george w. bush it's great to have you with us. let's start with what appears to be a winding of the probe. if the post -- get the hypothetical in there, there is a huge disconnect between truth and the "washington post" and the "new york times" too often for us to say the report is accurate. nonetheless, your thoughts? >> first of all, obstruction of what? is this based on comey having said the president said he hoped the flynn investigation would come out with no charges against flynn? or he thinks flynn suffered enough and he's a good guy? is it that? if that's the case, i don't see where the obstruction is. obstruction is defined as an attempt to stand in the way of an investigation, corrupt it. it's not simply expressing a wish, even if you think the wish is from the president an order. he has to be acting corruptly. and in connection with the flynn investigation i can't see it. lou: let's take the james comey firing as well. >> threw run into the pro

joining us, michael mukasey, former federal judge. served as attorney general under president george w. bush it's great to have you with us. let's start with what appears to be a winding of the probe. if the post -- get the hypothetical in there, there is a huge disconnect between truth and the "washington post" and the "new york times" too often for us to say the report is accurate. nonetheless, your thoughts? >> first of all, obstruction of what? is this based on comey having said the president said he hoped the flynn investigation would come out with no charges against flynn? or he thinks flynn suffered enough and he's a good guy? is it that? if that's the case, i don't see where the obstruction is. obstruction is defined as an attempt to stand in the way of an investigation, coupt it. it's not simply expressing a wish, even if you think the wish is from the president an order. he has to be acting corruptly. and in connection with the flynn investigation i can't see it. lou: let's take the james comey firing as well. >> threw run i

we are talking about this a moment ago with michael mukasey.whether it be the u.k. and france that are just not assimilating what the west end following their sharia law. the leaders are allowing it. what do you want to see done? when you look at the fact even under the obama administration, we were even allowed to look at people's social media at cal. it was wrong, targeting people. we've done that, we would've seen that they were putting out hate. >> we need to make sure we are protecting our country likely would a business we protect. with the security, the first sign of security is military forces. if there are people who are telling us they intend to harm us, military force him to go outside and deal with the threat. we need security as we come into the united states and policies and procedures with keeping people safe. at the same time we need to make sure balancing the ability to have the lives and throw the baby out with the bathwater and start taking away the rights that we have so valuable for here. there's a way to do it. we need to

joining us now, michael mukasey.o served as attorney general under george w. bush. great to have you here. >> good to be here. lou: it is, it is perplexing that, as james comey prepares to testify next week, he's already told congress that he never faced a serious threat or effort to block an investigation. >> right. lou: is that going to limit his credibility? >> i don't think it's going to limit his credibility. in fact, i think it'll probably enhance it. lou: really? >> sure. because when somebody tells you, ah, come on, can't you cut this guy some slack, to say that is a serious attempt to stop an investigation when the investigation's not being conducted by the guy he's talking to, but rather by people who work at the agency and nothing can directly be affected really by talking to him or by firing him, for that matter. lou: so all of the, you know, the kerfuffle that's being stirred up around primarily by the left-wing national media, but nonetheless by, also, the dems here, the president's saying, you know, i

attorney general, michael mukasey good to see you.be with you. >> what are you expecting today. >> i think he will welcome this as chance to clear up a couple of misconceptions, one is about this issue of meetings with kislyak, he did have a meeting in his office, with kislyak that was set up by the obama state department it was one of about 20 or 30 meetings, that they set up, in capacity as a member of the senate armed services committee he was asked at his confirmation hearing i was there, asked at confirmation hearing by al frankin whether and he was reading from a piece of paper i don't know whether this is true but some surrogates of the president and that the point sessions said well i was one of the president surrogates during campaign some met with kislyak will you meet with kislyak he is thinking eye diet -- as a surrogate of the president the answer was i don't. >> any meeting ever had. >> right not at all. >> in fact that was set up by obama administration. >> the one in his office? absolutely it was one of about 20 or 30

i want to play what farmer ig michael mukasey about the people who were under subpoena about the issue. >> obviously is part of the intelligence community unmasked names. that was part of his remix. susan writes a somewhat stranger because the national security advisor doesn't get involved at that level. samantha power, totally unheard of. although she may be considered in some formal sense a part of the intelligence community, there's no reason she should have been evaluating intelligence. shannon: you're not the only member of congress. you believe you may have been monitored. how widespread do you think? spin echo explain what they're doing. i meet with world leaders and foreign governments all the time. i don't mind having a surveillance program to surveilled the russian investor because they ain't piece of intelligence operative trying to watch what he says and does. if i'm in a conversation, i don't find it being captured. i just don't want it to be used for political purposes. if susan rice and u.n. ambassador warned fact making a request of the elegance community that i want to

. >> michael mukasey served as the 81st attorney general of the united states under president george. judge, welcome. >> good to be here. paul: so let's focus first on what's the appropriate behavior for a senior justice department official like the fbi director in interacketting with the president of the united states? because when you go in to the oval office, it's intimidating thing, i guess. how is he supposed to behave when the president pulls him aside and says something like he said with michael flynn? >> the same way he would behave any place else. yes, the idea of the oval office is intimidating and maybe in fact intimidating for the first few times you are there. for the first 15 minutes. [laughter] >> if you have been a u.s. attorney in two districts, if you have been the deputy attorney general, if you have been for a number of years the director of the fbi and you're intimidated by being in the oval office, you're in the wrong job. paul: how should he have reacted to that? >> if he thought what he says he thought, then he should have said, mr. president, we can't have th

former attorney general michael mukasey, judge andrew napolitano and senator rand paul and later this afternoon join us for a personal edition of "america's newsroom" for live coverage of the jeff sessions hearing, the attorney general taking the podium and we'll start and kick it off at 2:00 p.m. today. >> bill: nothing going on. that's not the only matter today. president trump focusing on repealing obamacare and calling out democrats in the process when he said this. >> we'll have zero backing from the democrats even though they should get in and do something. we expect to get zero. >> bill: are we getting closer to getting a bill passed in the senate? house majority leader kevin mccarthy is live on that. >> shannon: former nba star dennis rodman heading back to north korea again. the motives behind the trip? hum. >> bill: the top story. a.g. jeff sessions before the committee today. yesterday judge napolitano said on our program he had some big concerns about that happening. so how does he feel about this today? >> it's a very dangerous position for him to be in. he is not testify

the formal attorney general, michael mukasey, and he lay down, you have to decide what the definition of a meeting is. he believes that there was only one meeting with jeff sessions and the russian investor. the others were i had chicken holo. that was pretty much that. james comey in a private section talk about the possibility of a third meeting. we have not heard about. how then do you tell the senators today, in a matter of moments, the context of your conversation, how long it lasted, i didn't mean you are acting as a trump campaign surrogate or as a u.s. sinner? >> that is one of the tasks of the bill. attorney general sessions has. if you quickly pass through an reception line and shake somebody's hand come and say hello, nice to see them, is that the type of meeting referred to in the inquiry that senator senator franken put you then senator jeff sessions. is it the type of meeting in the senate judiciary committee, which then jeff sessions stated differently, was there an honest, misunderstanding on the part of jeff sessions of what was being asked about? i believe, and i thi

clayton: i want to play a sound bite from you from former michael mukasey and get a response from youand i think it's obvious that it is a fact that the attorney general of the united states was adjusting the way the department talked about its business. so as to coincide with the way the clinton campaign talked about that business. in other words, it made the department of justice essentially an arm of the clinton campaign. clayton: what do you make of that? >> he is an extremely honorable man. i've interviewed him in the past and i know him. i think that to some extent he is right. this isn't just mukasey. i have talked to law enforcement, federal law enforcement officials that have said the same thing, guys. they've said, look, we were the -- the russia investigation was a criminal probe. many of them felt there was enough to take it to the attorney general for an indictment. so, there's going to be a lot of questions here as to, one, why did she ask former director comey to call it a matter and why in the end did director comey decide not to go forward with that -- you know, to th