mr. whittaker has been at the elbow of jeff sessions, so what's he going to do?'t know. but he's not going to be acting unilaterally. if he does, it could be kind dangerous for him. >> tell me more about that because what makes you think he won't act unilaterally? i'm not sure we need to wait and see what happens, mr. starr. he feels that the mueller probe is possibly too far-reaching. he also feels that one way to starve it is to just start of starve it of its funding. here he was speaking about this. listen to matt whittaker. >> i could see a scenario where jeff sessions is replaced with a recess appointment and that attorney general doesn't fire bob mueller but reduce it is budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt. >> that sounds like a preview. >> it is. it's a warning shot to say, okay, this is going to be watched. but the nation is not just going to standby and allow unilateral power to be exercised. >> what can the nation do? >> oh, it's called the congress of the united states. it's called the press. it's called the political pressure

i'm not sure mr whittaker wa nts to charter. i'm not sure mr whittaker wants to go there.may well be illegal. under the constitution the appointments clause principal officers have to be confirmed by the senate. it is quite extraordinary to replace one cabinet officer and another person who has never been confirmed by senate whatsoever. assuming that is true, assuming, and remember also the statute under which mr whittaker was appointed provides for presidential interval appointments in cases of resignations or death, not speaking of filings. if you read jeff sessions‘s letter it is obvious he resigned under duress and was basically told. to the first point thatjeff sessions could be forced to give evidence to robert mueller, right, and whittaker could also be forced to give evidence but on your second point, isn't that the reason why mr whittaker is a temporary appointment, he has not been confirmed and as a result the president can put him in for several weeks or months, he can get away with that? not necessarily, you cannot have a temporary violation of the constitution

mr. whittaker in conjunction with this case, would he be obliged to follow that advice?, there is an ethics apparatus at the department of justice, in rod rosenstein's office. one of rod's senior staff people is the senior ethics official for the department. i happen to know that individual. he's a fine lawyer, a fine person, a long-time career official. if asked to, i'm sure he would produce a fine legal analysis with a recommendation. this is a more subjective kind of you know it when you see it. it should be so obvious that someone with statements atributed to him that before whittaker has, should have nothing to do with oversight of the mueller investigation. and so an ethics insurrection arises within the department where he is pressed on to recuse himself, it's improbable he's going to give any credence to recommendations that he recuse himself. and it's inconceivable that he would recuse himself, because the president installed him in this job to get rid of an attorney general who could -- who was recused. so it's just -- we are in this hall of mirrors here where

mr. whittaker now provide oversight, stay within the lines of constitutional governance and, in fact, you know, keep -- keep mr. mueller on the straight and narrow? the fact of the matter is that he didn't get a blank check. he didn't get a license to go into a whole variety of areas. it was a very, very precise course of action that he was supposed to be pursuing. so, look, there are no free lunches for anybody in this. i think we are lucky that folks will, in fact, stay within the lines and act within constitutional governance norms. >> jeffrey, just quickly. comey's firing sparked the mueller investigation. >> correct. >> can sessions firing spark another special counsel investigation? >> i don't think so. it could be evidence in the existing mueller investigation. >> for obstruction of justice. >> for obstruction of justice. our colleagues have reported that even while he was attorney general, jeff sessions gave interviews to mueller about his own involvement in this case. i assume that the mueller office will interview him again. >> right. >> because it is all part of the same -- >>

mr. whittaker before the committee and find out what happened with the firing of jeff sessions and how mr. whittaker was hired and what consideratves took place at the white house. >> i'm curious as we widen out from just the law, as a student or observer of donald trump, what do you think about the counter productive risk he's taking. he's beefing with john roberts, someone he can't fire who could have the final word on the mueller probe, efforts to subpoena trump and other big important questions. >> i mean what's really scary about this president is he continues to not just push the law but push norms. there by forcing congress, almost challenging them, daring them to stop him. politically it's very difficult even under a democratic house. it's going to be very difficult to spend the time to actually subpoena and hold accountable his administration because these democrats promised voters and every one promised voters that they would focus on health care, on jobs. that's really very important. the problem that the president is forcing their hand and the congress is going to have to make

mr. whittaker's installation makes a mockery of our constitution and our founders' vision. bipartisan. house democrats once again that in our negotiations on the omnibus bill that the g.o.p. leadership include -- join us in including language that would say the special counsel -- to protect any special counsel, the special couple cannot be fired without cause. he or she would be granted a three-judge appeal panel if fired. could only be removed by a -- replaced by a senate-confirmed attorney general or top senate justice department official. this is very important. whittaker would not qualify because such an appointment must be made by someone confirmed by the senate. that's a fact and has to be emphasized. and very importantly, the preservation of all the documentation so that the people an know the truth. i don't know if you saw an op ed by former leader daschle, democrats and republicans saying that the starr report was released, did vote in the congress to do so. o, too, mueller documents. , orter: i wanted to ask you will you have a climate panel-t there has been pushback on that

mr. whittaker's only supervisor is president trump himself, and the president is hopelessly compromised by the mueller investigation. quote, mr. trump's installation of matthew whitaker of acting attorney general of the united states is unconstitutional. it is illegal, and it means that anything mr. whittaker does or tries to do in that position is invalid. now i'm not a lawyer. do not take my advice. i couldn't get you out of a parking ticket if you got a parking ticket while you were on a pogo stick. i can not help you. but if you want to know what explains all the three-inch-all the headlines about what trump just did here right after the election, how he was able to actually get the election results off the front pages of newspapers across the country, right, if you want to know what's got those three-inch headlines and what's got people out in the streets in a thousand different protests tonight, and what's got all these serious legal minds and these law enforcement veterans all saying this is the crisis we have been expecting, the reason people are freaked out is because what the pre

mr. whittaker to do anything other than mr. r's job. >> our justice correspondent has more on our nation's top law enforcement official. the newly appointed attorney general and why democrats are so concerned. >> reporter: matthew whittaker was well known as a reliable conservative when hef was hand picked. don mcgahn was behind his fihirg as sessions chief of staff and white house officials believe his loyalties would lie at the white house and not with sessions who had fallen out of favor with trump. he too recommended whittaker since jeff sessions need add strong manager and someone with credibility who had served the department. one source says it was way to keep things on the rails at the justice department and keep sessions focused. whittaker was encouraged by people close to trump to appear on tv to get the attention of the president. in 2014, whittaker told an iowa blog he thought the landmark supreme court ruling from 1803 that established judiciary ability to strike down laws to violate the u.s. constitution was one of

mr. whittaker from being the acting attorney general.ur founders put in article 2 of the constitution the requirement principle officers and heads of department the attorney general this is quintessential case have to be confirmed by the senate. you have president trump reaching into the bowels of the justice department and appointing a constitutional nobody, somebody the senate has not confirmed to this task. it's one thing if it's an emergency. this is a situation the president already has his own people in deputy attorney rod rosen stein and solicitor general, people the president nominated but importantly the senate has confirmed to justice positions. whittaker has none of that. >> if he wanted to put somebody an active member confirmed in the justice department by the senate, that's fine but somebody who never has been confirmed elevating him to the highest justice position in the land, that you say is legal? >> that's correct. the attorney general has awesome powers. the power to put somebody to death or supervise the solicitor gen

mr. whittaker. >> all right. general, thank you very much. great to talk to you. >>> all right. of 2000 in florida all over again? a recount battle looms over the sunshine state. we have the latest vote totals for you next. cal: we saved our money and now, we get to spend it - our way. ♪ valerie: but we worry if we have enough to last. ♪ cal: ellen, our certified financial planner™ professional, helps us manage our cash flow and plan for the unexpected. valerie: her experience and training gave us the courage to go for it. it's our "confident forever plan"... cal: ...and it's all possible with a cfp® professional. find your certified financial planner™ professional at letsmakeaplan.org. >>> i will not sit by as liberals try to win this election. >> that's not an indication of fraud. >> this is a pattern of incompeten incompetence, and it's embarrassing for the sate. >> i ran for my life. >> i talked to him before he headed out the door. last thing i said was, son, i love you. >> this is america. this doesn't happen anywhere else on the planet. >> we are a hurting city, but the d

mr. whittaker. e president reiterated that on twicer friday evening that he had no social contact with the acting agn october president trump told fox news he knew him. >> i don't know matt whittaker, worked for jeff sessions and he was always extremely highly thought of and he still is. >> i can tell you matt whittaker is a great guy, i know matt whittaker. >> on friday reporters asked the president if he discussed the mueller probe with whittaker, president trump said he did not speak to matt whittaker about it and again said he did not know him, reporting in washington, d.c. i'm ellison barber fox news. arthel: thank you very much, eric, over to you. eric: let's go to matthew, former justice department attorney general, senior fellow at institute. you heard the critics say, they think the fix is in with whittaker, democrats say he was picked to protect the president, how do you see it? >> well, i think he was pick today be acting attorney general and i think he is unlikely to take any traumatic mo

mr. whittaker may have said when hef he was a television analyst. while i think we know what we're talking about, we don't have all the facts. what he says as attorney general matters mump moch more. if he can put aside the views he formed as a pundit or as an analyst and do the job he took the oath to do, maybe the guardrails hold. we got to wait and see. >> michael, let me ask you about robert mueller. yesterday marked a major milestone. the president about 18 months of complaining about it, turned over the written responses. they are pre-presidency. they don't deal with obstruction of justice. we have new reporting out. rudy giuliani said if they try to go further, we're just not going to cooperate. this is as far as we're willing to go. >> that's the real question is the other part of the mueller investigation, whether the president obstructed justice. the president's lawyers have taken position he does not have to answer those questions. mueller is looking into those matters and has -- needs to know or his investigators want to know whether the

mr. whittaker as acting attorney general takes controversial actions.e can challenge those, challenge regulations, challenge personnel appointments, challenge immigration decisions. it will get caught up in litigation and will cause a problem for the president. the president could have avoided all of this by picking a senate confirmed position if he was so frustrated with the deputy attorney general, he could have picked the solicitor general or an assistant attorney general, and there would not have been all of this fuss, and potentially put the president's legal agenda into peril. >> to those who say, you shouldn't prejudge what matthew whitaker will do regarding mueller, once he's in this different office. how do you get past what he's said publicly, for instance, challenging the legitimacy of one of the first supreme court decisions, marbury versus madison? >> i don't know mr. whitaker, and he served as a u.s. attorney in the bush administration in iowa, and as far as i know, served well. the statements he made on the senate questionnaire were head

mr. whittaker share one priority, which is overseeing the justice department to kneecap the mueller probe and not recuse. donald trump's one public stated beef with sessions was that he recused under the guidance that you just cited that he's supposed to under those doj rules. and mr. whittaker has said on television he thinks there are ways to kneecap the mueller probe like defunding it or putting pressure on it. so that's all out in the open, and the question very much on the minds of the incoming democratic majority, and you put their finger on the oversight, is if you have a gangster mentality in the white house trying to subvert the doj. >> we saw the gangster mentality of literally the nixon gang in the justice department and the nixon's attorney general. and matt whittaker has to be thinking of the nixon attorney general precedents, and after he takes that oath of office in this job and after he is surrounded by the justice department professionals who are advising him on a daily basis and watching him and he knows they're watching him, and he knows they will be available and ready

whittaker. >> reporter: but that's not true if you believe what mr. ump told "fox news" last month. >> i never talk about that, but i can tell you matt whittaker is a great guy. i mean i know matt whittaker. >> reporter: prominent d.c. attorney john conway, husband of kellyanne conway, argued in a "new york times" op-ed that his selection is unconstitutional, it is illegal and it means anything mr. whittaker does or tries to do in that position is invalid. the president brushed off conway's concerns. >> he is just trying to get publicity for himself. why don't you do this, why don't you -- why don't you ask kellyanne that question, all right? she might -- she might know him better than me. i really don't know the guy. >> reporter: the democrats, who are about to take control of the house, are vowing to protect special counsel robert mueller. >> the american people spoke on tuesday. they want a check on abuses of power. that's, i think, one of the issues that was on the ballot. so we have a number of options. one, we're going to have a funding-the-gover

mr. whittaker that seem to render him unfit for the job.tely, the white house chief of staff needs to have been able to step in and tell the president no and say for the good of one of core functions of government which is keeping people safe you've got to install someone who can run this department well. >> not traditional in terms of the appointee and replacement after dismissing him. this is what the president said on another network today. take a listen. >> did you know before you appointed him, that he had that record and was so critical of robert mueller? >> i did not know that. i did not know he took views on mueller investigation as such. >> when you found that out? >> i don't think it has any affect. if you look at statement, those statements can really be viewed either way. i don't think it koultd have -- >> he says there's no collusion. he says you can starve the investigation. >> he's right. what do you do when a person is right, there is no collusion. he said it. if he said there's no collusion, he's right. >> cart before the h

mr. whittaker will be called to answer and any role will be exposed to the public. >> adam schiff giving he will not tolerate any interference from matthew whittaker. in january he's expected to become chairman of the house intelligence committee. his comments come with the special counsel investigation possibly entering its final chaj stag -- stages. mueller has been writing his report since august. still unclear is when lit be finished. is it really possible that matt whittaker could back channel information about the mueller investigation to the president? >> i think he could. the question is should he be doing that. would that be permissible. if he were sharing information about it, he could be exposing himself to charges of obstruction of justice. it's such an unprecedented territory to be in. i think that is a legitimate concern especially in light of very unusual nature of the appointment of matt whit chtake. we've seen the commentary that's been pro-trump and anti-mueller. >> talk about this unusual appointment. the question is how long can he will left there in. >> he can be left

mr. whittaker. >> reporter: the white house say there is is no intent to disrupt the investigation. >> thenvestigation has gone forward using your tax dollars. we don't have an acting attorney general who is recused from it. >> reporter: the protest nationwide thursday at 5:00 p.m., a coordinated outcry from large crowds in time square to california where protesters proeffect id messages on the front of oakland city hall. >> we demand that whittaker recuse himself. >> we're going to support mueller not being fired. when the people speak the people speak. people speak. . >> reporter: some people say another point of concern is that whittaker is taking come of the department of justice, not having been through any kind of senate confirmation process or vetting. another call from democrats is they want some kind of investigation into administrati was any intent to medal in the mueller probe. >> a supreme court justice the hospitalized. still ahead, the injury suffered by ruth bader ginsburg. >>> california's new goff e electric, we caught up with him and he was feeding the hungry and heard ab

mr. whittaker. >> now to nancy pelosi who's in line to potentially be the next speaker of the house.e lingering questions as democrats gear up for control, impeachment. pelosi says that while she doesn't want to impeach the president, he add-- she adds wh mueller might think is indictable could be impeachable. you have to have evidence of the connection. >>> the democrat poised to lead investigations into trump says he will use subpoenas sparingly. during an interview cummings was asked if he was ready to go to war with president trump if democrats decide to open investigations. here's what he had to say. >> i'm not going to war with anyone. what i am going to do is do what the american people said they wanted us to do through this election. even in trump country, they basically are saying we want transparency, we want honesty and integrity. i'm not going to be handing out subpoenas like somebody's handing out candy on halloween. i take this as a lawyer and as an officer of the court. i take subpoenas very seriously and i plan to, if i have to use them, they will be used in a methodi

mr. whittaker as a witness.have asked -- we have sent letters asking for document retention that all documents be retain retained. it will be a criminal matter to destroy them. the first priority is to protect the mueller investigation. we have a lot of other priorities too. we have to enact legislation to deal with voter suppression. we have to deal with the dreamers. we have to have an investigation into how it came about that the united states could tear mothers -- tear children out of arms of their mothers at the border and still have several hundred kids not been reunited. we have to do something about gun control. we have massacre, mass shooting every two weeks in this country. we're told by the nra and others it's a mental health problem. if you look at europe or japan, nobody has more than 150, 170 guys a year. we have 33,000. we're now 10,000 times more mentally ill as the people in japan or europe. that's a sugar landlander on thn people. >> what about impeachment proceedings? >> that's far down the ro

mr. whittaker will oversee not just the mueller investigation but the day-to-day business.s a bad choice and trump should have seen this coming. >> the other thing that's happen sg t happening is the president is trying to claim that robert mueller should never even been appointed and saying that's illegal. will you do everybody a favor and fact check. >> it's wrong. robert mueller is not a principal officer. the attorney general is a principal officer and under the president's own analysis he's got a little bit of a problem here potentially. mueller, who is appointed pursuant to the special counsel provisions is on the level. that issue is being heard in part in the district of columbia circuit court today. it looks like we'll get a quick take from the courts or mueller's legitimacy. i don't think he'll have any problems in that regard. >> final question to you ben. is robert mueller despite matt whittaker taking control of the doj? >> absolutely not. safe is what happens when the senior administration officials starting from the president and going down through the attorn

mr. whittaker next week and have him assure me he'll let mr. mueller do his jock -- job and if there's interference you'll hear about it. >> sandra: the potential russia investigation effect and mike huckabee is on deck. >> and an out of control wildfire has devastated these communities in california and a live update on the ground as what happens today as the sun comes up. >> you can see flames shooting up all over -- all over. it's horrible. >> we could see the whole ridge. the whole ridge was ablaze. just makes you sick. nothing but fire. >> fox news alert, president trump is getting ready it take off for paris right now but first he stopped and spoke to reporters. he is still in fact speaking to reporters on a variety of topics. we're hearing so far he talked a lot about immigration and mid term elections and his pick of whittaker. he said it's a shame whoever i put out there they go after. he's a strong person and will be fair. we'll get tape playback for you and show that to you when we get it. the president still speaking to reporters ah

mr. whittaker stays in his capacity as the acting attorney general long-term, this is really going to havethey may make it all the way up to the supreme court in one form or another. i'm not exactly sure which of the lawsuits may get there, but my colleague todd rugger was reporting on this yesterday. this one that senator blumenthal and the other democratic senators have filed so far seems like it might be the most plausible challenge and that will really matter whether or not trump nominates a successor sooner rather than later, in which case this all might be short circuited. >> the conversation about nancy pelosi's future was happening before the midterms took place. there have been many democrats pushing back on her bid to be speaker of the house. if they don't want her to be in that role and no one has stepped up to formally challenge nancy pelosi, what are they angling for? what's the game plan here for those democrats? >> you wonder if some of those democrats like seth molten up in massachusetts may be angling for some sort of run for other office, or if they have some sort of othe

mr. whittaker, do you see this as a move not just to distract from politics but to interfere with the muellerl, i think the latter is the primary purpose, is to interfere with the mueller probe. the timing of the mueller investigation, the timing of it is of course to distract from the big defeat that the president suffered in terms of our taking the house. >> what's your concern about the move politically and what can you do about it? >> our concern is, of course, that they will interfere and say the president is above the law. what we can do about it is what many of our chairman and ranking members now seem to be chairman in the house have sent a letter saying we must preserve the documents of the mueller investigation. we must preserve the documents. the preservation of the documents is essential. leader schumer and i early on have called upon our leadership counter parts in the congress, the speaker and the leader, mitch mcconnell, to include in one of our appropriations bill legislation that would say that the counsel, mueller, could not just generally, doesn't mean him, counsels could n

mr. whittaker is blocking certain key investigative steps.gress will learn about that and may want to make that information public. they are going to conduct their own russia investigation. the republicans on the house intelligence committee wrapped up their investigation in march and concluded there had been no collusion. democrats have been continuing to investigate and call witnesses very quietly. come january they'll have subpoena power. the ability to legally compel people to come before their committee and testify under oath and also the ability to force the trump administration and private citizens to turn over documents. that's a crucial tool. they will be able to conduct a parallel investigation along with robert mueller and the role is to make this information public. >> public pressure to sway political leaders. the democrats have already told the trump administration to preserve documents on the firing of jeff sessions. what might they find in those documents? what are they looking for? what do you know? >> that goes back to the f

mr. whittaker, look at what he has said about the mueller investigation. it is virtually identical to what donald trump has said about it, that there are no crimes here, it needs to be forestalled, it needs to be ended. and the only question is when or if whittaker decides to shut it down. >> carl bernstein, how do you see this? i mean, this has been talked about now for quite a while. the president has been making fun of jeff sessions, publicly, privately. it's no surprise he got rid of jeff sessions. did you expect rosenstein, though, to step up into the role? >> i think that rosenstein has been surpassed by whittaker's appointment unless whittaker recuss himself. but more important what we saw today is a kind of coup against the rule of law. the kind of action you see in a tin pot dictatorship. now we have a president of the united states who clearly from the beginning has been trying to shutdown, bury the mueller investigation. he is on the road to doing it. he has done it the day after the election, under the cover of night as it were. and this is ant

mr. whittaker knew that there was a fraud going on and somehow abetted it, which he denies very stronglyus, which i can talk about in a minute. but if he didn't know about it, this is a guy who was a u.s. attorney overseeing fraud investigations. >> uh-huh. >> how it is -- it's a question of his judgment. how is it that he got duped, shall we say, into being part of this thing? i mean, some questions that i would hope he would answer. >> best case scenario in this case he was duped, and that in itself would be a problem for somebody who has just been invested with the kind of judgment -- indicted with the kind of responsibility he has given. mark maremont with "the wall street journal," congratulations on this scoop. thank you for helping us understand it. >> thank you, rachel. >> i will say the threatening e-mail that matt whitaker wrote as part of his involvement in this company, it does seem logical that the company, the scam, threatening customers who -- especially threatened that they were going expose the scheme and go to the better business bureau and make public complaints about

mr. whittaker. look at what he has said about the mueller investigation. it is virtually identical to what donald trump has said about it, that there are no crimes here. it needs to be forestalled. it needs to be ended. and the only question is when or if whittaker decides to shut it down. >> sorry, who do we have? carl bernstein. how do you see this? i mean, this has been talked about now for quite a while, the idea of jeff sessions, you know, the president has been making fun of jeff sessions publicly, privately. it's no surprise he got rid of jeff sessions. did you expect rosenstein, though, to step up into the role? >> i think rosenstein has been surpassed by whittaker's appointment unless whittaker recuses himself. more important, what we saw today, we saw a kind of coup against the rule of law, a kind of action that you see in a tinpot dictatorship in which now we have the president of the united states who clearly from the beginning has been trying to shut down, bury the mueller investigation. he is on the road to doing it. he's done it today after

mr. whittaker. >> he may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer but he can see his future and knows if hean extra legal way he would go down in history for the wrong reasons. >> do you support that kind of talk about someone from the former fbi director? >> i am not going to comment on that. the fact is that whittaker is there i believe illegally because his name was never submitted for confirmation. he has pre-judged the issue and volunteered to sabotage the investigation. he has no other visible qualifications for the job at all. >> some colleagues on the republican side say he has assured them he will not interfere with it. >>> breaking news, we are moments away from polls closing in mississippi's senate runoff. what do democrats need to pull off an upset? john king at the wall next. . so he stepped on the dr. scholl's kiosk. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain so you can move more. dr. scholl's. born to move. with a free picture with santa and big savings. like savings of 25% on giant berber blankets. and save up to 50% on fleece throws

mr. whittaker needs to understand he will be called to answer in any role he plays will be exposed to thelic. >> bill: that answer there talking about matthew whitaker acting a.g. lets you know what they're getting ready for. what do you think it is? >> it looks like the democrats are hell bent on making the mistake of focusing on investigations instead of cooperation. they don't seem to understand that maxine waters and schiff are outside of a handful of commentators at cnn looked at as clowns around the country. if that's the best the democrats will put forward after having won the house, 2020 will look awfully good for the republicans. >> bill: jerry nadler, democrat from new york said our very first witness on or after january 3 will be to subpoena or summon if necessary mr. whitaker. they have him initially in their sights. >> you know, they will find out that's a clean operation, so if he is in their sights, they are focusing on the wrong area if there is any right area to focus on. >> bill: axios had this headline. democrats load subpoena cannon with 85 plus trump targets. do you t

. >> reporter: whittaker sided with the president arguing the mueller investigation goes too far evegg ting ways to undermine it. mrump today insisting he hasn't spoken to whittaker about being involved with the probe. >> that's up to him. >> reporter: and trying to put distance between himself and the man running the justice department. >> i don'tw matt whittaker matt whittaker worked for jeff sessions and always extremely highly thought of and he still is but i didn't know matt whittaker. >> reporter: that's not what he told fox news a month ago. r > i can tell you matt whitta a great guy. >> reporter: with demonstrators rallying to be protecte they are calling on him to recuse himself. don't think we can expect matt whittaker can fairly oversee an investigation when he doesn't think it's necessary. >> reporter: as for a permanent a.g., the president says there is no rush. peter alexander, nbc news, the house. >>> as all that plays out, the president has just touched down in paris and already a swing at his host. kristen welker is there for us tonight. what's the latest? >> reporter: lester, striking that t is pr

fight against a russian mastication can that be the case and how much of a shield would whittaker be comes to housing mr nations well my personal view is there's no question the president put someone in to replace jeff sessions who he feels will protect him at least that's my interpretation as as a citizen i don't think i think that's his leaving qualification he's kind of someone who came from nowhere who now as this highest. position in the land as far as ensuring our perpetuation of our rule of law and so i'm very concerned about his motives or his previous statements he's made about the mahler investigation but i am confident in spite of that that the mahler investigation i know bob mueller personally i knew him as the f.b.i. director i believe he has the highest integrity of almost any official i know i think he's going to produce inch soon the final judgments of a very long investigation and the country is going to have to take a look at those and every citizen is going to have to decide what he hears she thinks of mahler's conclusions that's assuming of course that the justice department will rel

the pnt tweeted that matthew whittaker is now takingr the president thanked mr. sessions for the service and wished him well, but ithe resignation letter, sessions said he's stepping down at the present's request. there's been a simmering tension between the justice department and white house. mr. trump was enraged when sessions rescued himself from the russian probe and all o washington wonders what this means for the future of the specialcounsel's russian investigation. >> matt whitaker will oversee the mueller investigation. it's not rosenstein doing this anymore once thisppointment is >> reporter: they said the investigation has to be protected and ending it or limiting it would spark a constitutional icrisis. this a story we'll update you on as we learn more. >> a right, thank you, scott. >>> that was just one of the big stories coming out of the white house today. >> right. because prior to that announcement, the president engagedn a wild a combative news conference with reporters. >> speaking for 87 minutes, his longest press conference yet, he took questi

mr. president at your request i'm submitting my resignation. sessions chief of staff matte whittaker will serve as acting attorney general. a doj official says he will oversee all matters, including the russia investigation led by special counsel robert mueller, something he's called a political fishing expedition. >> it would create a constitutional crisis if therapy a prelude to ending or greatly limiting the mueller investigation. >> the justice department says whittaker's oversight of the special counsel will be subject to review by federal ethics officials. >>> the other big story out of washington tonight, jim acosta has been banned from the white house. >> reporter: this is just acosta, i'm in front of the white house, secret service officers asking for my hard pass. obviously no hard feelings to the officer, but i'm now getting my hard pass and giving it to the secret service. >> reporter: acosta tweeting this video after being denied entrance to the white house this evening. here's the incident that start today all. >> that's enough, that's enough. >> reporter: can i ask --

mr. mueller to committee what he does and make sure the information comes to the house and becomes public. one of the concerns is whittaker is that he will not allow the american public to see what the outcome of that investigation is. i think once we have the findings, that will be much more thorough, we'll see what we should do at that point. >> pedro: here on our republican line is bob, he is in tennessee, go ahead. >> had you are you doing pedro? i am a democrat until 2016, and let me tell you, if something hadn't been mentioned, and everybody knows what the democrats are trying to do. they will -- this country. and when someone like oprah winfrey stood up and said this would be a much better place when all the old white men are dead. now that's racist. and the democrat party -- and people are well aware of that pedro. >> pedro: your question for our guest sir? we'll leave it there. >> stacey: i don't believe oprah winfrey made a statement like that. i can't see her making a statement like that. and i think this is everyone's country. i don't think this is a country that belongs to black women, just like i don't think

mr. whitaker except primarily as he traveled with sessions. no social contact. >> according to federal trade commission records in a 2014 media release, whittaker was on the advisory of a florida company find $26 million. as a former u.s. attorney, i would only align myself with a first-class organization. it goes beyond making statements about doing business ethically but translates them into action. they found the company built millions from consumers and suppressed krit sim. >> he was very highly thought of and still is. this only comes up because anybody that works for me, they do a number oen them. >> but seemed to distance himself from whitaker, despite an early acknowledgement. >> in all fairness to him, who i didn't know. i can tell you, matt whitaker is a great guy. i know matt whitaker. >> primary purpose is to interview with mueller, with the big defeat that the president suffered in terms of our taking the house. >> and the presumptive chairman was more blunt. >> he got rid of him because he was to throw a monkey wrench into mueller's efforts. >> today a federal appeals court ordered mueller to explain how it would affect an ongoing lawsuit over the sc

whittaker is a very smart man. he is a very respected man in the law enforcement community. he is at the top of the line. >> he told reporters he does not know mr. whitaker. the president reiterated that on twitter friday evening adding he had no social contact with the acting ag. >> i do not know matt whitaker. matt whitaker works for jeff sessions. he was always extremely highly thought of. he still is. >> i can tell you matt whitaker is a great guy. >> on friday, reporters asked the president if he discussed the molar probe with whitaker. president trump said he did not speak with matt whitaker about it and again said he did not know him. >> the official victory comes days after the election. democrats push hard to win over california's conservative 48th congressional district in orange county. usually a republican stronghold. >> a statewide vote recount is underway in florida for governor. officials from the races were too close to call. democrat andrew gillum has withdrawn his confession in the gubernatorial race. rhonda slightly ahead of gillum. in the senate race rick scott has a slim lead over democratic incumbent bill nelson. >> offire

whittaker as unconstitutional. president trump hitting back. ne you mean mr. kelly conway?ou were unconstitutionally appointing. >> he's just trying to get pub litsty for himself. >>t kellyanne conway didn' fspond to our requests for a comment, but onriday she appeared to lean into the controversy for a time, changing r twitter bio to the kellyanne conway and kelanne conway's husband. >> when the president says mr. kellyanne conway and a kellyanne the president is never worried how it affects he's always worried how it affects me. >> george conway says he wouldn't support his redlection. he tt was his wife who in his words basically got trump elected, helping to engineer the upseticry over hillary clinton. sheinelle, peter? >> thank you. >>> now to ari ting warning for any warrant about something called virtual kidnapping. have you heard of this? it happened to an olympic gol medal winning swimmer rowdy gains and his family. he's hoping nobody else has to go through what they iperienced. th a terrible story. good morning. >> good morning, peter. iteally is terrible because

late last night, we saw mr sessions leaving the white house to a round of applause from his colleagues. and this is acting attorney general. matthew whittaker jeff sessions‘ chief—of—staff. he's also a former football star turned lawyer. and he's a trump loyalist. before joining the department ofjustice, he was a commentator for cnn and and in articles like this, he wrote, "mueller‘s investigation of trump is going too far." last year, he tweeted the investigation is "boring". and here he is on cnn last year. i do still believe that there's not enough evidence here to substantiate an obstruction ofjustice claim, certainly criminal, anyways. and there is no evidence, we would know by now, as much leaking as there has been, if there was collusion between the trump campaign and russian officials. i can see a scenario wherejeff sessions is replaced with a recess appointment, and that attorney general doesn't fire bob mueller, he just reduces the budget so low that his investigation drags to a halt. and to dwindle his resources. we will have to see if he goes with that option, he now has influence over whether that happens or not. elizabeth warr

mr. trump fired his attorney general replacing jeff sessions with loyalest matt whittaker. >> warning about>> he'll create a constitutional crisis. >> the facts for recusal are very strong here. >> right now our top priority is to protect the mueller investigation. >> he should recuse himself. >> i don't think he has to. >> she should never have been appointed. >> i think he was appropriately appoint appointed. >> he's not sliding in somebody that's an old friend. >> should there be legislation to protect the special counsel? >> mueller isn't going to be stopped. it will continue and should continue. >> you didn't say whether it was necessary in the senate. >> i think it will continue. if it continues, why protect something that's continuing. >> okay. >> welcome back to "kasie d.c." president trump's pick matthew whittaker that served as chief of staff for jeff sessions. met with concern from both sides of the isle. it stems from matt whittaker's comments. mueller's appointment and flatout denying the trump campaign colluded. you may be surprised to hear the president say this about his cho