mr. mueller's appointment just months ago. indeed, there's much to praise. the fact is that robert mueller has impeccable credentials as a man of the law. he's assembled a team that includes some of the nation's best investigators, and he's leading the investigation with the professionalism it deserves. mr. mueller is a dedicated vietnam war veteran and a lifelong republican appointed to his current role by deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, also a republican. in fact, all of the major players to date in this investigation, former director comey, current f.b.i. directo dr ray rosenstein and even attorney general sessions who has had to recuse himself are all republicans. the charges that some have made that somehow democratic political bias have crept into this investigation are baseless given the makeup of the leadership team. in recent weeks much has been made of some political opinions expressed by an f.b.i. agent during the election last year. this specious line of argument conveniently ignores the fact that as soon as mr. mueller learned about these

mr. mueller preparing an indictment of others. to me that ifng mr. mueller should proceed, any of the president or his associates to me it appears process be some kind of related indictment, perjury, obstruction. not relating specifically to collusion with the russians to affect the outcome of the election. >> do you think there's anything in the president's tax return that can lead to charges? not.do i have long thought that the president isn't putting his tax the totalt because income would be extraordinary perhaps not of us, as large as some people might. back to the campaign i have long thought that the should put his tax returns out. deductionsitimate for losses on a large scale. tax code if you don't like the tack code you can tax code. president has taken advantage of perfectly legitimate tax laws in that area. anyn't think there's business relationship with russian entities or anything of that type. to michaelurn isikoff. >> just to follow up on the issue. you just wrote in the daily advice to the president is he must completely disempower and

mr. mueller's intentions. i think they misunderstand the deep enmity that the political establishment in both parties has for the president and they're -- their absolute resolved to remove him on any pretext whatsoever. to me, strategy of turning over hundreds of houses of documents, waiving executive privilege, and relying on the fairness of robert mueller is a foolish strategy. i think we have to wait to see what comes out of general flynn's plea deal. he says a senior executive directed him to set up the meeting, a perfectly legal action on general flynn's part. so, perhaps mr. mueller is preparing an indictment of others. it is interesting to me that if mr. mueller should proceed against the president or any -- to me it seems like it would be a process related indictment of perjury, obstruction, nothing relating specifically to tolusion with the russians affect the outcome of the election. host: do you think there is anything in the president's tax returns that can lead to charges? to affect the outcome of

mr. mueller was appointed by mr. rosenstein, not by the attorney general. -- hisein's lack of dodging and weaving in congressional testimony was extraordinary. when asked if he could see the obvious bias and partisanship in mr. mueller, he said he did not see it. -- it is fairly obvious. here.he 25th amendment do you have any evidence that anyone is actively plotting, attempting, laying groundwork, inside the administration, to make that removal? that would be the mechanism for that to happen. not people in the senate. not pundits or other folks. inside his own white house. stone: like you, i have sources and i work my sources. i believe there are some who have had this discussion. this is both outside the cabinet and in. it is the fallback plan for the establishment. i'm trying to sound the clarion call. you will see an uptick in these irresponsible stories smearing the president as not up to the job and so on. particularly if mr. mueller should shoot and miss. i'm being realistic about what i believe is the resolve

mr. mueller from his investigation. so politically motivated challenges of special counsel mueller and his investigation must not be allowed to threaten the investigation. despite special counsel mueller's investigation of integrity as attested to those by these republican leaders and despite the clear progress that mr. mueller is making in his investigation, the right-wing media and republican members of congress have attempted to advance a false narrative that special counsel mueller and his investigation is bias, this is what they say and some have advocated for his removal. on june 15, 2017, referring in general terms to the russia investigation, president trump stated on social media and i quote, he said you are witnessing the sink will greatest witchhunt led by very bad conflicted people. in congress, led by representative matt gaetz and including trent franks who is now re-signed and missed an ethics committee investigation called for mueller to step down. those members have attempted to advance a baseless claims

mr. mueller's appointment just months ago. there is much to praise, the fact is robert mueller has impeccable credentials as a man of the law. he assembled the team that includes some of the best investigators and is leading the investigation with the professionalism it deserves. is a dedicated vietnam war veteran a lifelong republican, pointed to his current role by rod rosenstein, also a republican. all of the major players, former director comey, ray rosenstein and jeff sessions are all republicans. the charges that somehow democratic political bias has crept into this investigation are baseless given the makeup of the leadership team. in recent weeks much as been made about the cold opinions expressed by an fbi agent last year. this conveniently ignores the fact that as soon as mr. mueller learned about these comments he immediately removed that agent in question from the investigation. if anything this adds to his credibility as a fair and independent investigator. i stand here is a vice-chairman of the intelligence commit

mr. mueller. after serving 27 years in law enforcement working very closely with the federal bureau of investigation, i know him to be a person of honor and integrity. mr. mueller has been praised every integrity by republican leader. see, he is, mr. speaker, a man searching for the truth, and the truth does matter. without truth, life becomes deaf, liberty becomes slavery, and the pursuit of happiness becomes impossible. if a president can shut down an investigation into his activities and deny our right to the truth, then the promise of america that we love to celebrate is broken. over the past year, our institution, law enforcement, the judiciary have come under daily assault, so persistent, so relentless that we had occasion to tune it out or brushed it aside. but these assaults, mr. speaker, undermine what's essential to our country and our society. if president trump chooses to fire the special counsel or otherwise interfere with the legal and appropriate investigation into himself and his s

mr. mueller's team. first, we have fbi agent peter struck and fbi lawyer lisa paige, exchanging information showing extreme bias against mr. trump. a fact that would be bad enough if not for the fact that these two individuals were employed as part of the mueller dream team, investigating the very person for whom they were showing disdain. and calling it mere disdain is generous. according to the documents produced last night to this committee, mr. struck refer to the president as a loathsome human and awful while continually praising hillary clinton and the obamas. these text messages prove what we all suspected. high-ranking fbi officials involved in the clinton investigation were personally invested in the outcome of the election and clearly let their strong, political opinions cloud their professional judgment. and this was only an initial disclosure containing heavy redactions. second, former embattled fbi general counsel and current mueller prosecutor, andrew weismann, expressed his awe of a former

mr. mueller got rid of mr. strzok, removed him from the team, end of story. of course, f.b.i. agents, prosecutors, are allowed to have a political party. mueller's got one, it's republican. rosenstein got one, he's a republican. that's fine. you can be a republican, you can be democrat. you're not allowed to have your political ideas affect your work to the point that you're biased. so i take it, mr. mueller figured that those text messages suggested the possibility of bias, not just against bernie sanders and martin o'malley but also against donald trump and said, we'll remove him from the team, he's gone. yesterday, that's all the republicans wanted to talk about his great trumped up fake text message scandal. totally irrelevant. the only one who, to his credit, tried to make it relevant was a republican colleague who said, this is fruit of the poisonous tree. and he repeated it numerous times he intoned the words, fruit of the poisonous tree. i'm a law professor so i know what fruit of the poisonous tree means. it's a fourth amendment doctrine which says that if you've got a

mr. mueller is one of the most trusted and respected public servants in america. he's served administrations of both parties and was first appointed by a republican, was installed as a special counsel by president trump's pick for deputy attorney general, republican roz rosen stein. he's -- as everyone in america knows he's as straight a shooter as he comes. impugning his motives and calling his investigation a witch hunt or coup is frankly hysterical. there is not a shred of ed to back them up. if any of these critics had evidence they would pursue their claims in court. of course there is no evidence so instead they wage a warped campaign in the press fueled by after avalanche of donald trump up allegations -- avalanche of trumped up allegations. we have to get to the bottom of what happened in last year's election, no matter who, who ends up on the short end of the stick when those results are announced. how was russia able to wage a successful information campaign to influence our election? to what extent were any members of trump president's campaign coordina

mr. mueller's appointment just months ago. indeed there's much to praise. the fact is that robert mueller has impeccable credentials as a man of the law. he's assembled a team that includes some of the nation's best investigators. and he is leading the investigation with the professionalism it deserves. mr. mueller is a dedicated vietnam war veteran and a life-long republican. appointed to his current role by deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, also a republican. in fact, all of the major players to date in this investigation. former director comey, current fbi director ray, rosenstein and even attorney general sessions who has had to recuse himself, are all republicans. the charges -- the charges that some have made that somehow democratic political bias have crept into this investigation are baseless given the makeup of the leadership team. in recent weeks, much has been made of some political opinions expressed by an fbi agent during the election last year. this line of argument conveniently ignores the fact that as soon as mr. mueller learned about t

mr. mueller will need to go, but not just mr. eller, the team, i look at rod rosenstein, he needs too g and andre mccabe needs to go, jeff sessions, christopher ray they need to clean out the under brush of the top level staff at doj and fbi if we see that. then all of a sudden americans can begin to have trust that this investigation should there be one, is fair. ry right now no one sees it as fair. lou: a number of your colleagues as well calling for special counsel to investigate the investigation. at some point bie we'll have an amazing number of extinguish counsel -- special counsel investigations. it is clear that there have been actions taken that are in direct conflict with the responsibilities of anyone serving in the justice department of the fbi, when it comes to investigation of hillary clinton. we also have, i don't know how many people say, you can't guest investigate a prominent member of a previous administration. well, why not say this out loud? they tell us that americans have two systems of just is. one for the

mr. mueller? >> i was at dinner with the president last night and vice president, i haven't heard anything about this. any firing. >> but, folks, if we can't take the president seriously when he promises to do something like get tough with putin, can we also take him seriously when he promises not to do something? like fire bob mueller? joined by democratic senator ben cardin of maryland, the ranking member on the senate foreign relations committee. senator, thank you for joining us. >> good to be with you, thanks. >> last month you said that russia's election meddling was an act of war. when you heard about the president's speech today, were you hoping he would -- he would declare war on russia? >> well, what russia did to the united states cannot go unchallenged. it's not just the u.s. with the attempt to do in our election, they also did it in western europe and we have to speak with a strong voice we will not tolerate that type of behavior. we can't cozy up to mr. putin and give him compliment

mr. mueller. mr. mueller has a subpoena. pres. want to have the things that we represent and we certainly don't want to have a iseral democrat that controlled by nancy pelosi and controlled by chuck schumer. we do not want to have that for alabama. thank you all very much. they give her much. shery: president trump talking about the alabama election. roy moore running there, despite the controversy he is facing. he is headed into a lunch with gop senators, also the ambassador. the tax billut that is coming out of conference. he said the tax conference will result in a perfecto bill. something that will be coming out of the conference quickly. we know senator mitch mcconnell has said the senate will vote this week to join house taxakers in attacks -- in a conference. president trump about nafta in trade deals. naftahe fifth round of negotiations did not bear that much fruit. the chief negotiators were not there last month. he has reiterated negotiations will not be easy, given that elections are coming up with have the midterms in

mr. mueller learned about these conflicts of interest. why we're issuing subpoenas and why the american people want answers on who was involved in gathering evidence. >> as you know, mueller is overseen by the acting attorney general for russia, rod rosenstein. here's what the white house said about his credentials. >> rod rosenstein who everybody across the board has unequivocally said, this guy is a man of outstanding character and the gold standard at the department of justice. >> that's the republican appointee who has stood by mueller as recently has the week. what specific evidence do you have against rod rosen stein or do you just not like that he's letting mueller do his job? >> i specifically asked when he became aware of the fusion gps dossier and nellie orr. and he said he didn't know the answer to that question. i find that completely inconceivable that rosenstein would show you to the judiciary committee -- >> again, you make so many charges against so many people. anyone watching the show, wow, you've discovered the hidden se

mr. mueller to always head high.at, but highly regard and highly respected as he completed his assignment. i think the american people want to be able to trust mr. mueller, but many people from the left and the democrats as well have spoken out with concerns about the role he has had and the associations he had that affected his reputation. >> already, congressman robert pittinger from north carolina. a very happy new year to you and your family. we'll be right back. 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. g new cars. you're smart. you already knew that. but it's also great for finding the perfect used car. you'll see what a fair price is, and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer. now you're even smarter. this is truecar. >> earlier this year president trump said he planned to bar trans

mr. mueller's appointment just months ago. indeed, there is much to praise. is that robert mueller has impeccable credentials as a man of the law. he's assembled a team that includes some of the nation's best investigators and he is leading the investigation with the professionalism is deserves. mr. mueller is a dedicated vietnam war veteran and a lifelong republican. appointed to his current role by deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, also a republican. in fact, all of the major players to date in this investigation, former director comey, current fbi director wray, rosenstein, and even attorney general sessions, who has had to recuse himself, are all republicans. the charges, the charges that some have made that somehow democratic political bias have crept into this investigation or baseless, given the makeup of the leadership team. in recent weeks, much has been made of some political opinions expressed by an fbi agent during the election last year. this line of argument conveniently ignores the fact that as soon as mr. mueller learned about these comm

mr. mueller and the continuing inquiry. the report continues, the president did not demand an end to the russia investigations, swirling around his administration. but insisted 16 times that there's been no collusion discovered by the inquiry.

mr. mueller.federal government and the integrity of our systems of democracy is tested and that would raise a whole question. this is a different time and place and a different president. if either republicans in congress or the president of the united states does anything to constraint mr. mueller, then i think we have some questions that actually take us to those comparisons in dark terms. they should not obstruct and if we are going of integrity in our system and if there is nothing to hide, they should not fear this investigation. >> let me ask you of the big news over night earlier this morning, republicans scoring major victory passing their republican tax plan. you call that plan a stab that it only helps the american corporations. i want to ask you that the fact that republicans have a lot on the line if this plan is a giveaway to the rich. that would not go well with a lot of the president's faiths. wh why would the republicans be voting after this plan of the risk of their own political

mr. mueller would pull together an unbiased team. pires and referees might wear, i would submit that the mueller team overwhelmingly ought to be attired with democratic donkeys on their jerseys or i'm with hillary t-shirts. certainly not with let's make america great again. and i think that's a shame because i think the american people deserve a lot better than the very biased team that they are getting under robert mueller. i think it's really sad. yield back. >> chair recognizes ms. jackson lee for five minutes. >> thank you. welcome and thank you for your service to the nation. allow me just for a moment as i move on my questions to indicate that i am shocked and baffled the way some in the right wing media and some of our friends on the other side show such contempt for the department of justice and the f.b.i. and so much skepticism or mistrust of the russian government. let me review for the record the f.b.i. and doj put away timothy mcveigh who killed 168 americans. clansmen who murdered civil rights workers goodman, cheney and

a spokesman for mr mueller said his team followed appropriate criminal process in all its dealings.ember of embassy staff in beirut. rebecca dykes had been in the city for about a year, working for the uk's department for international development. it is believed ms dykes had spent friday evening at a going—away party for a colleague. after leaving the bar at about midnight, it appears she was abducted. here's our briefing on some of the key events happening later: the new bishop of london — the third—most senior figure in the church of england — will be named at st paul's cathedral this morning. then at westminster, in the afternoon, theresa may will update parliament on last week's brexit negotiations in brussels. and later in washington, president trump announces his new security strategy focussing on protecting the us homeland and preserving "peace through strength". cricket and there was no play before lunch in the ashes test in perth because overnight rain penetrated onto the pitch. but play has just got underway with england facing an uphill task to avoid defeat on this the f

mr. mueller's appointment just months ago. indeed, there's much to praise. the fact is that robert mueller has impeccable credentials as a man of the law. he's assembled a team that includes some of the nation's best investigators, and he's leading the investigation with the professionalism it deserves. mr. mueller is a dedicated vietnam war veteran and a lifelong republican appointed to his current role by deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, also a republican. in fact, all of the major players to date in this investigation, former director comey, current f.b.i. directo dr ray rosenstein and even attorney general sessions who has had to recuse himself are all republicans. the charges that some have made that somehow democratic political bias have crept into this investigation are baseless given the makeup of the leadership team. in recent weeks much has been made of some political opinions expressed by an f.b.i. agent during the election last year. this specious line of argument conveniently ignores the fact that as soon as mr. mueller learned about these

mr. mueller would pull together an unbiassed team. but rather than wearing stripes as umpires and referees might wear, i would submit that the mueller team overwhelmingly ought to be attired with democratic donkeys on their jerseys or i'm with hillary t-shirts, certainly not with let's make america great again. and i think that's a shame. i think the american people deserve a lot better than the very biassed team they're getting under robert mueller. and i think it's really sad. i yield back. >> the chair recognizes ms. jackson lee for five minutes. >> thank you. welcome. and thank you for your service to the nation. allow me just for a moment as i move on my questions to indicate that i am shocked and baffled the way some in the right wing media and some of our friend on the other side show such contempt for the department of justice and the fbi and so much skepticism or mistrust of the russian government. the fbi and doj brought to justice and put away timothy mcvay, klansmen, the unibomber, organized crime family kingpins, pan am 10

mr. mueller? >> the new turns in the russia probe and why some democrats were excluded from key interviews in the investigation. >>> we begin with politics, and the white house dealing with two major reports this morning. a possible shake-up at the fbi prompted a twitter tirade by president trump. all coming just a couple of hours after that explosive "new york times" report over alleged comments the president made about immigrants. nbc's kelly o'donnell has the latest. >> reporter: the president's fire over immigration. >> we're going to get the wall. and we need it. >> reporter: long frustrated by congress and the courts, rejecting his policies, including a travel ban. >> we don't know who they are. we don't know where they come from. >> reporter: that backdrop is context for a provocative report in "the new york times" that describes a volatile oval office meeting six months ago, where the president and top officials engaged in a heated conversation over how many visas the state department gran

mr. mueller's team who have financial donations to the democrat, the clinton obama campaigns. i think over half of the mueller team donated to either clinton or obama. none donated to trump u. . so that's either one of two things. either mr. mueller was cure rating a universe of people who hate the process or it's a kins dense that a lot of people have bias we learn more and more about each day. the it's the action that is your responsibility to make sure it's not infected by this bias. when mr. struck goes and changes wording from gross negligence, a crime, to extremely careless, that's not a belief. that's an action. like, we can't find out, you won't tell us whether or not tack pair money was used to buy this dossier. if it was, if the fbi was working with the democratic party to buy a dossier to discredit the president of the united states, that's not a belief. that's an action. if that was dressed up as an intelligence document and brought to a court, that wasn't a belief, it was an action. if bruce ore is meeting with the author of the dossier during the campaign and the

mr. mueller or to spotlight what they see as an anti-trump animus. >> this is part of the president's long-term strategy and has been all along, to discredit anybody who disagrees with him. it's not that you're wrong. it's that you are a bad human. you are biased. you are fake news. you are corrupt in some way. this is the president and his allies that said the fbi is corrupt. he runs the fbi, right? they report to him. justice department is corrupt. everybody is inept and corrupt if you can question donald trump. he is all about discrediting any authority that can question his own authority. what you're seeing now as robert mueller's investigation progresses and gets closer and closer to donald trump and the oval office you see an increased effort to discredit any kind of credibility that mueller and the firks the investigation might have with the american public. make them look like they're biased political hacks. that's the trump strategy. >> paul and yamiche, thank you. appreciate it. >>> john lewis was among those to boycott the opening of the museum in selma. was that a missed opportunity

mr. mueller would pull together an unbiased team. rather than wearing stripes as umpires and referees might wear, i would submit that the mueller team overwhelmingly ought to be attired with democratic donkeys or i'mnd with hillary t-shirts, notin with let's make america great again. i think that's a shame because i think the american people deserveha a lot better than the very biased team that they're getting under a robert mueller. and i think it's really sad. i yield back. >> the chair recognizes the gentle woman from texas, ms. jackson lee. >> deputy all attorney general, thank you. welcome and thank you fur your service to the nation. allow me for a moment as i move in my questions to indicate that i am shocked and baffled the way some in the right wing media and some of our friends on the other side show such contempt for the department ofke justice and the fbimi and so much skepticism or mistrust of the russian government. let me review for the record.og the fbi and doj brought to justice and put away timothy mcvey, clathe una

mr. mueller and his team. we get him to come in. we keep exposing what we hear. the things that we have found out. basically, if you do that at some point, he either has to say he's got to go. even if he never resigns, the outcome is going to be tainted either way. that's the problem. >> your credit say you are doing this deliberately in the president has everyone out there sort of trying to police the waters, if you would. he wants the credibility of the fbi and robert mueller to be undermined. then again, mueller isn't doing himself any favors. >> absolutely not. it isn't like president trump has called me or anyone on his team and get out there and save us. when we started this six months ago, we said look, the way he got appointed with mr. comey, at the way that rod rosenstein was there, we knew that what was going to happen was they would expand the scope of this far beyond russia conspiracy to affect our elections. that's where they are. they're all over the place and all over the map. >> trish: representative nunes to try to get some answers as to what hap

mr. mueller got something very valuable in exchange.re is that old saying that nothing is in life is free. well, that's certainly the case when dealing with federal prosecutor. they don't giveaway deals that are very favorable to you unless they are getting something favorable back in exchange. and this deal is very good for michael flynn. he's pleading guilty to one count of making a false statement to a fbi agent. that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison which in itself is upper limit on the cap what the judge can do. but also the gouideline range that the prosecutors are saying would be guideline for sentence is 0 to six months which considering all we've heard over flynn's potential liability relating to the lobbying work he was doing on behalf of turkey and failure to register as foreign agent, the fact that none of that is part of the deal and all he's looking at a recommended sentence of 0 to six months tells me mr. mueller believes he's getting substantial assistance in exchange. and that would mean testimony that

mr. mueller? why are they doing any of these things? because the investigation is getting too hot for them. they're not subpoenaing everyone that they should. they are not forcing answers from key witnesses. they're rushing this investigation. the interviews are taking place on an overlapping basis, often out of state. and they're refusing to bring in certain people who will be important witnesses. >> our live coverage this hour on the russia probe includes our political panel, noelle nikpour, peter emerson and kelly o'donnell. president trump is in mar-a-lago where he will celebrate holidays with his family. he avoided a year-end news conference, instead rushing to sign the tax bill without any fanfare. kelly o'donnell, good to see you again. what was behind this decision? >> reporter: well, the president said he wanted to get the bill signed into law to make his own self-imposed christmas deadline. it wasn't enough the bill passed both chambers and was on his desk, skipping what he said was a planned event in january that would have h

mr. mueller. in the transcript of your interview he seemed to be trying really hard to stress that there was collusion on behalf of the democrats in 2016. >> yes. he likes to turn the collusion argument around on the democrats and say there's far more evidence on their side than his. the interesting thing i thought that he said to me was about podesta, john podesta's brother tony. what happened to tony? he was under investigation. the firm essentially went under and i thought mule earl was looking at that. why isn't he doing more there? and that's interesting because if mueller makes a move on podesta, mueller could strike a tone publicly showing that he's going to go after democrats and republicans. >> he did not mention michael flynn. we have been hearing a lot about michael flynn. there's a "the washington post" report out that the trump legal counsel is considering trying to paint flynn has a liar. why no mention of him? >> the president's very difficult to interview because he can move very q

mr. mueller, end the witch-hunt."." and joining us now, that aforementioned congressman andy biggs joining me. congressman, great to see you. >> thanks, david. good to be with you. >> david: let's dive right into this. the timeline matters here in the travel to collect the information to bring it back to the united states. hand it off. so, with the new subpoena and the subpoena powers of devin nunes, do we see connecting the dots as a part of the strategy? >> well, i think so. chairman devin nunez is doing a great job by issuing that subpoena and demanding answers and we in congress have to keep ratcheting this up because we know there is bias. we know there is conflict. the 10,000 emails that got taken away from the trump transition team. we know that those weren't really gone through the normal due process. this is just one moreie piece of evidence to indicate that this mueller investigation is just kind of spun out of control. and it's widespread and it's broad. and this may be the scandal of our time, quite frankly,

mr. mueller. hasn't told ounsel us how many other folks they have brought on, who are acting staff, so take that in context, not knowing exactly people that is supporting, a portion of being spent on folks who were hired from outside of that is kind , so of the money that you would see eing spent for private salaries, other folks are, coming from within the department of justice. their salaries would have been paid regardless, they are the special counsel other than working on other matters. mueller himself set the salary range? guest: when they hire from the government, sliding scale of government pay, you not see anything wildly outside of what works for the ranked along is experience level of what they have and folks brought back from outside of government had spent some time in government work before. was then another category about $733,000, labeled for equipment purchases. could you describe what those fall under? guest: we didn't get a breakdown line-by-line items, what is purchased, but it

mr. mueller has the resources he needs to do this and should not be interfered with by the administration or the president in any way. we need to protect it from that. and let mr. mueller and his team follow the facts wherever they lead. >> it sounds like you have made up your mind mostly about some credence into building this case of the obstruction of justice largely because of the indictments, the guilty pleas. but this latest tweet is just sort of icing on the cake but it's not the item that makes you feel even more curious about a potential case of obstruction of justice? >> well, i wouldn't say curious. it makes me gravely concerned. interference by this president in an ongoing investigation of this importance is very, very significant. you know, it's important to view it in the context -- this is in the context of the conclusion of our intelligence agencies that russians interfere with our presidential election with the expressed purpose of helping donald trump and hurting the democratic nominee from the very top of the russian organization, vladimir putin, and a whole series of in

mr. mueller. he tried to put distance between himself and his former chairman paul manafort indicted for his work in the pro russian government, a charge he denies. he said paul only worked for me for a few weeks. paul worked for ronald reagan & bob dole for far longer than he worked for me. you are talking what paul was many years ago before i heard of him. he worked for me for what was it, 3 1/2 months? >> the washington correspondent and msnbc contributor. thanks for calling in. this was an imp promptu sit down. what sort of mood was the president? >> thanks for having me. i think the president is his best spokesman so he wants to pick the arguments about why things are going well and why they are not. he was eager to talk about taxes and that accomplishment and the interesting thing to me was the tone he struck that bob mueller would be fair to him. that is sort of in contrast to what republicans are saying today. republicans say love mueller is an unfair person who is completely out of contro

mr. mueller is supposed to be investigating, and he said that he and mr. ler have an understanding about that, and if mr. mueller is going to go any further, he will check with mr. rosenstein. we don't do business that way based on private understanding between official officials and k that's part of the reason the investigation has strayed as far as it has. >> sreenivasan: he called it a fishing expedition or a safari. your response? >> i think absolutely not. i think judge mucase seright, it requires a high threshold, criminal wrongdoing, which is why the special counsel to investigate the special counsel like the dr. seuss "b" watchers watching "b" watchers, and the like is ridiculous. the idea that it's a fishing expedition, obviously rosenstein-- let's remember who rosenstein is. he's not some obama holdover. he's president trump's guy. he's the acting attorney general of the united states for this investigation. he found in that letter that the russia stuff was important and merited an investigation, and lo and behold, we know that that judgment was r

mr. mueller? >> a house intel committee member with some pointed questions for his gop colleagues, including why some democrats could not attend interviews with key witnesses in the russia probe. >>> nikki haley is going to throw a party, but a lot of america's closest allies are not going to be there, not going to be invited. the latest on whether this latest diplomatic maneuver could ba backfire. that's here on "msnbc live." >>> we start with politics and the congressional investigations of russia. here's what democratic congressman mike quigley said earlier on msnbc. >> i feel on a continuing basis that there is increased evidence of obstruction taking place. why are the republicans rushing this through? why are they trying to discredit there mueller? where are they doing any of these things? because the investigation is getting to hot for them. they're not subpoenaing everyone that they should. they're not forcing answers from key witnesses. they're rushing this investigation. the interviews a

mr. mueller's investigation to conclude and i'm entirely behind mr. mueller's investigation. but one of the lines in the sand is, if this president fires mr. mueller, that would be a line in the sand to show that he was obstructing justice. he's already fired mr. comey for the russian investigation, which is the exact same thing and he said on tv, i did it because of the russian thing. we see today that the -- a judge in new york said only the congress can -- has standing to go after the president on emoluments, which is when you're taking money from foreign governments. it's absolutely forbidden and this president has absolutely done it since the very first day. so he has clearly met the criteria for impeachment and he is a danger to the health and safety of the american people and he is a danger to the health and safety of our democracy. >> okay. but let's say that your ultimate goal is impeachment. the numbers are still the numbers. the republicans are not going to impeach him, i think, barring some new evidence. there are people who say, why would you spend $20 million on

mr. mueller's job easier, and that's a nice thing to do. merry christmas. >> several calling for mccabe's removal. democrats argue the gop criticism are meant to undermine special counsel mueller has the investigation intensifies. let's discuss all this. our commentary writer and editor at "the washington examiner." good to see you. it has been airing of the grievances all year long for this president. i know he wants to take credit for this war on christmas, but this war on the fbi, is it shared by republicans in congress, or is this opinion from the republican senator -- he tweeted this. the thwarted isis inspired attack on san fran ki-- thankfu christopher ray and his team, the very people the president is knocking on twitter. so is the president's war on the fbi shared by republicans in congress? >> i think you'll find the republican is split. if you look at the investigation into hillary clinton's e-mail server, led by a republican, james comey, finding that there was no indictment on there, was pretty unnerving to a lot of republicans

a spokesman for mr mueller said his team followed appropriate criminal process in all its dealings.capital colombo has hosted a mass wedding of chinese couples for the first time. fifty couples married in traditional sri lankan style. their honeymoons are to be spent visiting the island's tourist attractions. the sri lankan government is hoping the event will strengthen ties between the two countries and promote tourism. in india, votes are being counted up after last week's assembly elections in the state of gujarat. the poll is seen as an important test of the popularity of the hindu nationalist prime minister, narendra modi, in his home state. his tenure as chief minister of gujarat was clouded by accusations that he stoked violence against muslims in inter—communal riots in 2001. divya arya reports from ahme—dabad. divya arya reports from ahmedabad. we are on the promenade in the heart of the city of ahmedabad, in gujarat, narendra modi's home state. he was prime ministerfor 14 gujarat, narendra modi's home state. he was prime minister for 14 years and credited with building a l

well a spokesman for mr mueller has been defending the investigation, saying the appropriate criminals being followed in all of the probe‘s dealings. lawyers representing the trump presidential transition team accused mr mueller of unauthorised access to tens of thousands of emails. turkey's president recep tayyip erdogan has announced that he wants to open an embassy for palestinians in eastjerusalem. the turkish leader has been one of the most vocal opponents of donald trump's decision to recognise jerusalem as the capital of israel and last week led calls for it to be recognised as the capital of a palestinian state. here's president erdogan at a rally earlier. translation: since jerusalem is currently under occupation, we can't go there and open our embassy. but oui’ go there and open our embassy. but our consulate general is represented by an ambassador. god willing, the day is close when officially, with god's permission, we will open up oui’ god's permission, we will open up our embassy there. joining me as a nonresident policy analyst in washington. why do you think he has spo

mr. mueller did as soon as he learned about the issue. i anticipate that's the rest of our prosecute owes, our new group of u.s. attorneys, justice department appointees, they understand the rules and they understand the responsibility to defend the integrity of the department congressman, that is the beassurance i can give you, but there's one other point. you should tell your constituents that we exposed this issue because we're ensuring that the inspector general conducts a thorough and effective investigation, and if there is any evidence of broke prity, he's going to surface it and report about it publicly. >> i'll try. >> the chairman h >>. >> thank you mr. rosenstein. in february the department of justice changed its litigation position. the texas photo i.d. case. did you have any involvement in the decision to reverse the -- that the texas voter i.d. law was intentional and indiscriminato indiscriminatory. >> i did not. in uthe department of justice changed its position, now defending ohio's voter purging law, were you involved in

mr. mueller and that just shouldn't have any place in american politics. i'm pleased to see that republicans are also defending the mueller investigation. i think the american people will be outraged if the president tries to interfere with that investigation. >> to that point, some of your colleagues have voiced concerns that the president could fire mueller. especially as he criticizes the special counsel, as he criticized the fbi. do you worry he might fire mueller? >> well, i'm already concerned about what he's done. he's -- he has used his voice to discredit the department of justice, the fbi investigation, mr. mueller. that already, i think, goes too far, but if he were to try to fire mr. mueller, i think that would cross the line. i think you would find the american people would not put up with that nor would the members of congress. >> i want to switch gears a bit. you are the ranking member of the senate foreign relations committee. i want to ask you about russia continuing to increase their posture in the west. over the weekend, british navy ships

mr. mueller and destroy the special counsel investigation that you would see a stampede towards impeachmentpolitical crisis. >> you're saying if the president fired bob b mueller, you would push for impeachment and many of your colleagues would? >> i think it would be a clearly impeachable offense because it would constitute obstruction of justice. the same kind of obstruction of justice when he fired fbi director comey after comey refused to drop the investigation into national security adviser flynn and refused to essentially take a personal loyalty oath to president trump. so you know, the evidence of obstruction of justice, deliberate interference with with this investigation is mounting and that would clearly be the straw that breaks the camel's back. >> i imagine you have a lot of private conversations with your republican colleagues, both on the judiciary committee, but elsewhere on the hill. do any republican colleagues say to you in private that they're concerned and that they would be outraged if the president r were to fire the special counsel? >> well, unfortunately, i heard mor

mr. mueller do his job. the right guy at that time the right time. >> garrett: lindsey graham, happy new year. thank you very much. look what's hon 2018 congressional agenda we're joined by group of house members not one, but four all who ham back to town. two republicans, congressman mark meadows from north carolina. chairman of the conservative group in the house known as freedom caucus. his colleague will hurd from texas our democrats this morning, congresswoman debbie tingle from michigan and joe crowley. happy new year. i want to go around the table very quickly with a opening question. debbie, start with you. what do you consider the most important agenda item for congress from your perspective and what will 2018 look like outside of politics in a successful year? >> i think we've got to try to work with each other because there are lot of things we've got to deliver for the american people. i don't say that i'm not going to work with anybody. we have to get a budget passed in january and make it long

mr. mueller. nd the fourth amendment doctrine that relates to evidence that derives from an illegal search or seizure. have you heard any allegation of mr. strzok or anyone in this case conducting an illegal seizure? >> no. >> thank you for your testimony. yield back. >> thank you. the chair recognizes mr. radcliff for five minutes. thank you, chairman johnson. mr. deputy attorney general, good to see you. >> likewise. i had a line of questions that i wanted to go into, but like many of the folks on this committee last night i had a chance to see are the number of these text messages between agency peter strzok and miss page. you've been asked about those. have you had a chance to read them? >> not all of them, congressman. >> how many have you read? >> a few dozen, i believe. >> okay. well i will tell you, i can't read some of these publicly they're that obscene. they're that offensive. and as someone who served with you at the department of justice and reveres the independence of the department o