so it appears that would be in the scope of robert mueller. >> i -- well, it's robert mueller's decision as to whether it's within the scope of the investigation or not, and as we know, rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, is the person who oversees the special counsel and if someone thought that the special counsel or his team were accessing or attempting to access evidence or documents that were beyond the scope, they could say something about it. i should the flip side is true, too, which is that if the special counsel during the course of his investigation discovered additional areas that he thought were worthy of investigation, the regulations in place deal with that scenario and that possible and the special counsel then have to go back to the attorney general and in this case it's the acting attorney general for this matter, rod rosenstein, and ask for permission and additional grant of authority to broaden the scope of his investigation. but i don't think he would need to do that to seek tax returns assuming, again, that his view is that the tax returns are relevant to th

what do you think the concern is for mueller? in order to fire sessions, they would have to go through all the hoops and do everything that they said. do you think mueller is concerned right now? >> i don'tme. first of all, bob mueller was the fbi director when i was u.s. attorney. i have a lot of respect for him and i would be surprised if he is ultimately worried at all about this. in fact, i don't even think he pays attention to what's going on in the daily back and forth about whether or not jeff sessions has the confidence of the president. bob mueller is going to continue to do his investigation. he continues to staff up. they're talking to people, and they're doing their job, which you would expect. >> fascinating conversation. always appreciate having you on. thank you, guys. >> thank you. >>> when we come back, one of

mueller has broad latitude. sources say the president has also vented in recent weeks, that his legal team has not done enough to beat back allegations. >> ladies and gentlemen -- >> sources tell cnn marc kasowitz, the president's longtime attorney and lead lawyer on the russia matter, will see his role reduced, after the spokesman and communications strategist for the legal team resigned. >> mr. president, does sessions still have your full support? >> thank you, everybody. >> reporter: president trump ignoring questions about his embattled attorney general, after blaming him for the special counsel probe. >> sessions should have never recused hills and if he would -- if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and i would have picked somebody else. >> reporter: sessions signaling thursday, he has no plans to step down, despite the president's remarkable public rebuke. >> we love this job, we love this department, and i plan to continue to do so, as long as that is appropria

they are not mueller. mueller is the decisionmaker. and if there is a less political person in a prominent place in american life, i don't know who it is. mueller has a very clean and apolitical record. >> so david sanger, much of this comes from "the new york times" reporting, your outlet, but there's also some "washington post" reporting this morning that says that the president and his team are also exploring how far-reaching the president's pardon authority is. obviously, the implication is, if don jr. in trouble, maybe, if jared kushner were in trouble, what could the president do about that? >> well, when you read into the story, it says, he's asking the question, but not necessarily with an eye toward trying to do that anytime soon. what you don't know with this president is that he is obviously a man of some passions, and the question is, could the same moment of passion that led him to fire james comey lead him to issue the pardon or attempt to fire mueller or take one of these other steps. now, it was interesting in "the time

or get rid of mueller even. these are the questions that hover over the white housen if they haven't been acted upon. >> thank you very much for joining us. appreciate it. >>> up next, donald trump's undisclosed meeting with vladimir putin what does it have in common with don junior's undisclosed meeting with a russian lawyer? you'll want to haefr what donald trump told the "new york times" about that. e to inflammation. so i use restasis multidose. it helps me make more of my own tears, with continued use, twice a day, every day. restasis multidose helps increase your eyes' natural ability to produce tears, which may be reduced by inflammation due to chronic dry eye. restasis multidose did not increase tear production in patients using anti-inflammatory eye drops or tear duct plugs. to help avoid eye injury and contamination, do not touch the bottle tip to your eye or other surfaces. wait 15 minutes after use before inserting contact lenses. the most common side effect is a temporary burning sensation. your eye

mueller. thank you. host: conny from illinois, thanks for the accustom this is rom mark, friend of comey. and there's this from johnny. what has mueller done to earn my trust? no, i don't trust him. this story from "time" magazine, available online at time.com with the developing story about the president's tweets yesterday. "hours before he was to help commission a new aircraft carrier at a patriotic ceremony fired virginia coast, he a 2003 that shows how furious he remains over multiple investigations into russian meddling in the 2016 election. the tweets were unusual in their breath and scope even for trump given the wide variety of topics he touched on as saturday. his 10 tweets sent within two hours ranging from the russian investigation and attorney general jeff sessions to hillary clinton to the health care effort and his newly appointed white house communications director. trump said in one quote while they all have the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crimes so far is leaks

they considered mueller and met with mueller before his appointed special council.talk about conflicts. mueller wasn't interviewing for this job. there were many other jobs i haven't said, but i will at some point, end quote. >> he's good at a tease. >> he is. he's constantly in the deep tease. sometimes he comes through and sometimes he doesn't. as far as robert mueller's investigation, multiple officials familiar with the ongoing probe tell us the special councsel is, quote, finding the strike zone, and continuing to gather documents including financial records and business dealings of those close to the trump campaign. peter baker, you were one of the people in that celebrated justly celebrated interview and then your paper has another block buster today about this question of undermining mueller. it seems to me that the president in both your interview and through the reporting of your paper exposed today, is really trying to say that his financial past is off limits, and that if mueller goes into what he has declared to be a bad zone here, that there will be co

or get rid of mueller even.e are the questions that hover over the white housen if they haven't been acted upon. >> thank you very much for joining us. appreciate it. >>> up next, donald trump's undisclosed meeting with vladimir putin what does it have in common with don junior's undisclosed meeting with a russian lawyer? you'll want to haefr what donald trump told the "new york times" about that. >>> we learned this week of a previously undisclosed second meeting between president trump and vladimir putin on the evening of july 7th at the g20 summit in germany. in trump's interview with the "new york times" he gay his version how it came to be. trump's wife was sitting beside putin and he walked over to talk to her and boom instant pull aside. he also offered what they discussed. >> she was sitting next to putin, and toward dessert i went to say hello to melania and i went to say hello to putin. really pleasant tris more than anything else. not a long conversation, it could be 15 minutes, you know. actually, it

trump's lawyers seek to undercut mueller's russia investigation.just been posted by "the washington post" some of president trump's lawyers are exploring the ways to limit or undercut bob mueller's russia investigation building a case against what they believe are mueller's conflict of interest. and, quote, discussing the president's authority to grant pardons. according to to people familiar with the effort, trump has asked his advisors about his power to par don aids, family members and even himself in connection to the probe. a second person said trump's lawyers have been discussing the president's pardoning powers among themselves. this is from the "the washington post" tonight reporting this out. they said, without a quote, but citing advisors, that quote the president is irritated by the notion that bob mueller's probe could reach into his and his family's finances. trump has been fuming about the probe in recent weeks as he has been informed about the legal questions he and his family could face. his primary focus is why should his deals for

and secondly, with respect to the removal of mueller, the only person that can remove mueller under the regulations that govern this is rosenstein. and rosenstein's basis under the regulations for removal of mueller is good cause and that there is not going to be good cause found in this fishing expedition into his background. i mean he's a republican and he doesn't have any political orientation in the way he investigates crime. so i don't think it's going to amount to anything. and rosenstein has said in his public testimony that he will resign before he fires mueller without there being a good cause showing. so i think this is a lot of bluster and maybe it has some political resonance. i don't do politics, just law. the others can talk about that. but i don't think in the end of the day it's going to amount to anything. with respect to -- sorry, go on. >> well, i was going to bring in molly because, michael, you've given us a great information as has carol about all of the sort of threads of this, but the big picture, molly, is we're supposed to be talking about made in america week.

do you think he would fire robert mueller? >> he might fire robert mueller. he's going to have difficulty reaching down to find somebody to do it, who will be his robert bork. it's entirely possible he may decide to preemptively pardon himself and others. that, of course, covers criminal matters. it would not protect him from the issue of impeachment and removal from office which is a political act. but at the end of the day, you can always count on donald will look out for donald, and the person to watch here now is jared kushner. jared kushner is the member of the family most subject to pressure from mueller's office and to leverage, and jared kushner is going to face some difficult choices down the road as this investigation goes forward. >> i would imagine manafort would as well, in deep debt to the russians. >> the other two people who are most subject to leverage by saying, you know, cooperate or face the music, are paul manafort, longtime representative of many dictatorial regimes, and close connections here with the russians and the ukrainian -- the p

i agree it would be a bad idea to get rid of bob mueller. bob mueller is so well regarded.k about pardon at this early stage, at least the president has tweeted it's too early. let the investigation play out and let's find out what happens and let's move on from there. >> we need to get to the facts before conclusions. so the big deal is to follow the money. we have some hint about the net worth of jared kushner and ivanka trump. and we'll go to the naval base in virginia for the honoring ceremony of gerald r. ford. back in a moment. ne who makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. and with their price match, i know i'm getting the best price every time. c'mon, gary! your vacation is very important. that's why booking.com makes finding the right hotel for the right price easy. visit booking.com now to find out why we're booking.yeah! oscwe went back toing bithe drawing board...s. and the cutting board. we removed the added nitrates and nitrites, by-products, and artificial preservatives in all of our meat. every. single. one. why? for the love of hot dogs. dad

and they will havel mueller. no question about that. and they will have mueller.hat. and they will have -- elected officials will have to distance themselves on this. just because donald trump is supported by the base, it didn't mean that the base will support those elected officials who either agree or disagree with donald trump. so they really are just so much on the record though, it would really be a big backwards step for them to do anything but respect what he says. >> all right. susan, adrian, always good to see you. >>> my next guest says kim jong-un is not taken seriously enough by the u.s. i'll talk to him about that and the possibility of regime change. oscar mayer is making big changes to hot dogs. we went back to the drawing board... and the cutting board. we removed the added nitrates and nitrites, by-products, and artificial preservatives in all of our meat. every. single. one. why? for the love of hot dogs. when heartburn hits fight back fast with new tums chewy bites. fast relief in every bite. crunchy outside. chewy inside. tum tum tum tum new tu

you'd have to kill off really more than just bob mueller.l investigation that actually proceeded bob mueller's appointment. that would be a very extraordinary thing for a president to do especially investigation involving himself. he might have the power to do it but it's never happened before. >> not to mention the investigations going on on capitol hill. there's a number of investigations there. i like that you said wallowing in watergate. you know how us tv people love i illiterations. thank you for that. calling a vote. what does that say? >> it may say more about mitch mcconnell's sensibility. he may be at the end of his rope with his own members. he's done everything he thought he knew how to do to try to get this to a positive outcome. so far has not been able to do it. i think he wants to put people on the record. that would give people who want to vote for a repeal and repiea and replace the opportunity to say they were able to do that. it would bring some finality to this chapter of it in the senate. i think he just wants some sens

dana, what is mueller asking here? >> reporter: cnn learned the special council, robert mueller sent a letter to the white house council this week asking white house staff to save all documents relating to the june, 2016 meeting at trump tower with donald trump jr., jared kushner, paul manafort and a russian lawyer. according to a source i spoke with who has seen the letter and read it to me, the request pertains to any subjects discussed in the course of the meeting and also any decisions made regarding recent disclosures about the june, 2016 meeting. muellers letter clearly connect this is request to the larger russia investigation. as you are aware, we are investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, including links and coordination of individuals with donald trump. any information concerning the june 2016 meeting between donald trump jr. is relevant to the investigation. now, this preservation request inclutes text messages, e-mails, notes, voice mails, communicatio

battle going on with robert mueller. robert mueller doesn't speak to the press, and neither do his investigators. and everybody who says they know what's going on in that investigation is guessing about what's going on in that investigation or getting very specific squibbs of reporting that mostly, as far as we can surmise, are obtained by finding out who they've been obtaining evidence from. i mean they're not -- robert mueller is not out there campaigning for office. you can't run negative ads against him and make his investigation go away. the only reason you'd cook up an effort to undermine him is to either retroactively or contemporaneously explain why you're moving to get rid of him. it's going to be a steep climb if they want to do that. you can see in the conservative media they've been trying to help the white house with that already. >> according to the statute, the president does not have the direct legal authority to fire this special prosecutor. the attorney general does, but this attorney general, jeff sess

the first path goes through the person that's now overseeing the mueller investigation. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. if the president can't persuade rod rosenstein to follow mueller, and it seems like he probably can't, then he could fire -- heco order rod rosen stein to fire him, and then if rod rosenstein says no, he could fire rod rosenstein, and then he would get into the cycle where he had to keep firing every other ranking person at the justice department from the top down until he found someone at some rank who would fire bob mueller. that is a hard path. that is potentially a long path. what became clear this week is that there is an easier and at least a shorter path for the president. quicker way to do it would be for him to just put someone new instead of rod rosenstein in charge of overseeing the mueller investigation. he may love jeff sessions, but if he fires or quits, trump could appoint a new a.g. who would not be recused from the russia investigation, who would not be recused from overseeing mueller, and then that new attorney general would be

you see the headline, mueller expands probe to trump business transactions. the reason i say this was a seemingly very important story is in part because of the freak out it seems to have occasions in the white house. that bloomberg article came out yesterday, mid morning. updated a couple of times during the day but initially came out mid-morning yesterday. by the time we were on the air last night, these were the stories that were breaking in "the washington post" and in the "new york times" about the president considering his pardon powers, having his legal team discuss who he's allowed to pardon, including considering the question of whether he's allowed to pardon himself. and the white house trying to cook up ways to discredit robert mueller, the special counsel's investigation, giving clear indication that the white house is now basically trying to find a way to fire the special counsel. and to that end, they're trying to cook up ways that they would be able to justify that firing if and when they do it. those stories broke last night while we were on t

and yet a guy like mueller is so culturely different. his resume, life experience, his motivations are so different that it appears sometimes to be beyond the president's kin, a guy like that. >> i think that's a great question. i think one thing that the president's legal team to that point, to trying to drill into him and to the people around him is that sort of what worked in new york real estate and in the business world does not necessarily work in washington. and the most striking thing to point out is that donald trump in new york real estate sort of got by through -- i don't want to call it lying. but as one senior adviser put it to us is puffery and fudging, not being entirely truthful and boasting. that was fine there. but what the legal team needs him to understand is that in washington there is two people you cannot lie to. and that is the feds and congressional investigators because that has real world consequences. and i seem to think they think the president and family members are getting there. but they may not quite be t

mueller may have already crossed that line. john roberts has our report. >> reporter: the president has no intention of firing jeff sessions, but he beat the stuffing out of him in public. at highlighting american manufacturing, the president ignored the questions of believing in the attorney general. and the daily off camera briefing sarah huckabee considered for her boss. the attorney is disappointed with attorney general sessions recusing himself. but he has confidence in him or he would not be attorney general. >> he said in the interview had he known sessions would have bowed out of the russian investigation he would not have named him as attorney general. >> if he was going to recuse himself he is have took the job. how do you take a job and recuse yourself? it unfair and that is a mild word to the president. >> reporter: the white house said the president was candid about what sessions d. in doing so, he stepped over his forceful mess amg of health care reform. and announced the takedown of website and traffic and guns w

first of all with regard to mueller personally.eone who is a lifelong republican who was head of the criminal division in republican administrations who for 12 years was made of the fbi in both republican and democratic administrations. respected by law enforcement across the country. they raised the fact that he had worked with james comey. but comey may be not necessarily a central figure in this. but in any event, comey and mueller have never been to each other's houses. one was fbi and one does deposit any attorney general and they overlapped. that's absurd. of course there with people on his staff who have participated in supporting political candidates. it must be mr. trump's position that only trump supporters are allowed to investigate him. people were either for trump or for clinton. and mueller would not have given that any consideration whatsoever in assembling his staff. i don't think see they have anything. the idea that robert mueller would risk his reputation that he's spent a lifetime gathering to try to go after so

mueller may have already crossed that line. john roberts has our report. >> reporter: the president has no intention of firing jeff sessions, but he beat the stuffing out of him in public. at highlighting american manufacturing, the president ignored the questions of believing in the attorney general. and the daily off camera briefing sarah huckabee considered for her boss. the attorney is disappointed with attorney general sessions recusing himself. but he has confidence in him or he would not be attorney general. >> he said in the interview had he known sessions would have bowed out of the russian investigation he would not have named him as attorney general. >> if he was going to recuse himself he is have took the job. how do you take a job and recuse yourself? it unfair and that is a mild word to the president. >> reporter: the white house said the president was candid about what sessions d. in doing so, he stepped over his forceful mess amg of health care reform. and announced the takedown of website and traffic and guns w

the men have been described, comey and mueller, as quote, brothers in arms, mueller conflicts extenthis legal team of democratic donors, most of them, nearly half of them gave money to hillary clinton or president obama one staffer donating to both dems and republicans. that is only place that republicans show up for any money from that legal team. and as for rosenstein, deputy attorney general, the man who appointed somewhere counsel, after writing a letter recommending firing comey, he appears to be in denial of massive conflicts, which surround him. >> i made the decision to appoint director mueller based on his reputation, he had an excellent reputation, bipartisan support for his integrity. i can assure you, if there were conflicts that arose because of director mueller or anyone emptied by director mueller we have a process within the deputy to take care of this we judge by results, my view about that, we'll see if they do the right thing. lou: we'll see if they do the right thing? if there are conflicts? there is no hypothetical, they are on the face of this mess we call a spe

he could fire mueller. i mean, he would have to tell the justice department, which would mean telling rod rosenstein because sessions recused. if rosenstein refused, he would move down the chain of command to get someone to fire him. presumably, he would get someone to fire him. i don't think we could rule that out. i don't think it is out of the question that robert mueller will be fired. donald trump fired the fbi director, why not mueller? >> on the premise of what he is talking about, he says don't go beyond -- don't get out of your lane. isn't that by definition what happens? ask bill clinton where these investigations go. folks around the president, they know that. >> absolutely. you know, i think mueller and ken star are two very different people, but it's very clear to me and i agree with jeffrey, what the president was doing is essentially, what we call in politics a prebuttle, putting him on notice saying this isn't what you are supposed to do. you are supposed to cover the russian hack, you are n

mueller may have already crossed that line. john roberts has our report. >> reporter: the president has no intention of firing jeff sessions, but he beat the stuffing out of him in public. at highlighting american manufacturing, the president ignored the questions of believing in the attorney general. and the daily off camera briefing sarah huckabee considered for her boss. the attorney is disappointed with attorney general sessions recusing himself. but he has confidence in him or he would not be attorney general. >> he said in the interview had he known sessions would have bowed out of the russian investigation he would not have named him as attorney general. >> if he was going to recuse himself he is have took the job. how do you take a job and recuse yourself? it unfair and that is a mild word to the president. >> reporter: the white house said the president was candid about what sessions d. in doing so, he stepped over his forceful mess amg of health care reform. and announced the takedown of website and traffic and guns w

going after mueller's folks and mueller himself is less of anything of real substance, more laying ar any action he wants to take against mueller in the future that will help sell that action to his base. >> you know, and it's interesting, caton, what it seems donald trump wants in his communication team is a certain look, there was a cnn person who said something to the effect of anthony scaramucci is what trump thinks he sees when he looks in the mirror, he's really rich, his suits fit and all that kind of thing but also a certain kind of combatant, this guy is a sean hannity-esque kind of combatant who a few years agoer have viewing a pr firm for himself to use he was blunt according to a piece on him about what he was looking for. scaramucci told this person "i need someone who is prepared to go to the mat and lie for me." so caton, what does that tell you about the time of communications shop donald trump wants to see run? >> tony scaramucci has been around a while. he's wicked smart. he went to tufts harvard university law degree. he's taken one of the most important jobs in po

mueller. >> jason miller?> it's a pushback to that, i'd say the story also very clearly said a second source said this is only being discussed amongst the lawyers. i think we need to tamp it down a little bit, paul. but i think we're getting away from the broader point here, anderson. if you're wondering why trump supporters are so distrustful of the establishment clash in washington, it's this story and what we see going on. supposedly, when the special counsel was announced, it was purely about looking into this allegation that there was foreign meddling in our election and some sort of coordination between the campaign and some foreign entity. now we're hearing this news that they're looking into business dealings, or business ties or different transactions from seven, eight, ten years ago. nothing at all to do with the campaign. i think it's time for a little bit of critical thinking here. i think a lot of people are looking at this and saying, okay, have they gotten to the end of the rainbow, and there is

mueller is very well respected.o these are bureaucrats who have been in place for many, many years, they've been through many administrations, they try to keep partisan politics out of this and keep their heads down and do their jobs and trump is stepping in and in a lot of their eyes i think is kind of up ending all of that and they're lashing out by sending anonymous tips to the post and the times. >> gabby, the bigger problem here, because we've been able to date and time stamp these sessions, they've lied or been misleading. because kislyak sends these cables and throws out bullet points and nuggets of discussion, it could not be true, he could be bloviating about all of that and we're using russia as the honest party and that's the problem. >> if you're getting information from moscow or anybody closely associated with the kremlin, you should take it with a grain of salt and be aware of the possibility that it could be misleading, it could be inaccurate and you have to do your due diligence as a reporter. i wou

robert mueller. quote, mr. trump said mr. mueller was running an office ripe with conflicts of interest. the president warned investigators against delving into matters too far afield from russia. mr. trump never said he would order the justice department to fire mr. mueller. nor would he outline circumstances under which he might do so. but he left open the possibility as he expressed deep grievance over an investigation that has taken a political toll in the six months since he took office. asked if mr. mueller's investigation would cross a red line, if it expanded to look at his family's finances beyond any relationship to russia, mr. trump said, quote, i would say yes. i think that's a violation. well, as noted last hour, with joy reed, when she spoke with reporter david k. johnston, who is the reporter who obtained the only two pages of donald trump's federal tax returns that have ever been made public, this reference, would it be a red line if mueller started looking into finances, into the tru

robert mueller is good for you. if he finds nothing wrong, that will be semied by the broader politic in washington. if you continue to goad him, to provoke him, that would be counter productive. he doesn't see it that way. i think he wants to implicitly through this conversation, influence course of the investigation and see what he can do to limit its effects. >> president trump also attacked deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who he said was somebody he hardly knew. then he told "the new york times," rod rosenstein from baltimore and there are very few republicans in baltimore, if any. i don't know why he added that. i think i do. today rosenstein was asked about that comment by the president. let's listen. >> the president told "the new york times" yesterday the fact you're from baltimore concerns him cynic there aren't many republicans in that city. is that a valid concern? >> we're working here every day to advance the priorities of the department of justice and the administration. er i am proud to be here

if he did resign, bob mueller could continue in his role. and it would be problematic for a new attorney general to discontinue or to fire bob mueller. if that happened, the expectation would be that there would be a fire storm of reaction and not just from the democrats. there would be republican that's have expressed admiration through the years who would not be pleased to see him depart. >> you have seen this unanimous chorus of trump support no matter what happens. they seem to line up. and i'll wondering, are you beginning on hear rumblings of republicans turning on jeff sessions? that would be a harbinger of what could be an acceptance of a new ag who would clear the russian investigation off the books. >> i don't think it matters who the attorney general would have trouble getting confirmed. if jeff sessions resigned. i would bet this won't happen quick i'll give you my best example. you have to think of who is confirmable. the senators will grill a nominee and get their pledge -- >> chris christie? >> it doesn't matter who. they woul

it reenergizes the legitimacy of the work that mueller is doing. when the president went after former f.b.i. director james comey and said a number of highly critical things, saying he lied, it was interesting that very few republicans followed him along in that. so it puts the president out on an island. and this is a way in which anthony scaramucci's job will be a challenge. these comments the president made to the "new york times," they help preserve the president perhaps in terms of trying the weaken anybody who would attack him, but it absolutely gets in the way of the president's agenda, the things he wants to do for the people who elected him, because the stories are a distraction and they... republicans have to deal with them instead of dealing with healthcare or infrastructure or tax reform. and so one of the things that scaramucci may do is just keep the president restrained and try to keep the communication about the issues. >> mason: john, as major reported, there was resistance within the west wing to the scaramucci appointment. so doe