was left with concerns about the context, the nature, the substance, how barr characterized all those aspects of the report. >> phil rucker, you had the first word, and i'd like to give you the last. amidst all this there is the business of the administration. another change in the trump cabinet. last night, however, the president told his rally audience in orlando he was pulling troops out of the middle east. so what of the ongoing business of this trump presidency? >> brian, there's a lot going on. there's even more than that. the president is headed to japan near the end of this month for a series of pretty high-stakes meetings with chinese president xi to go over that trade deal, possibly have some sort of an accord with china. he's planning a sit-down with vladimir putin, the russian president. we all know how important those meetings can be and how consequential that is for this president. so he's got a lot going on. there's this conflict emerging here in iran. and yet he continues to be so distracted and so focused. and you might say obsessed with the ongoing fallout from the mueller investigation. he's payi

phil mattingly. what does this offer reveal about the justice department's concern over a house vote next week to hold barr in contempt? >> reporter: yeah, wolf, it underscores the justice department is not only aware that the threat of the full house voting to hold the attorney general in contempt exists but it is now as you noted scheduled, and that's important here. they are trying to offer to deal with house democrats in their request for the unredacted full mueller report and the underlying investigative investigation, investigative materials from the investigation but only on the condition that that vote be postponed or dropped altogether. at this point in time, there's no clear idea whether or not that's going to happen. it's worth noting this was a strategy the justice department also tried to deploy before the house committee voted to hold the attorney general in contempt. it didn't work then. we'll have to see what happens now, but they have made clear they are trying to stop this from happening. just depends on whether democrats will go along with it. >> will this offer go anywhere, do you think

trumpers are getting very concerned about attorney general bill barr's investigation of the origins of the russia probe. former fbi agent phil mudd explaining while the dossier author christopher steele should not talk to the justice department. >> the democrats have a clock ticking. if they can't get things under way before the department of justice says here's our report on how the investigation was initiated, they're in trouble. when this thing got started about the trump campaign, it was pretty ugly and then we're off to the races. the white house will have some real ammo. lou: real ammo. looks like there's plenty of ammo. it's a question of getting it loaded. the trump campaign fighting to end a democratic national committee lawsuit that alleges the campaign conspired with russia to win the election. the trump committee using the report against the dnc stating the report debunks any such conclusion by walking through the vast evidence that his office collected and establishing that none of the evidence showed that the campaign formed any sort of agreement with russia. joining us tonight is donna bra stildonnabrazile. gr

phil, this is for you. the judiciary chairman, nadler, they wanted to delay barr's contempt vote next week. nadler saying he wants to negotiate with them, without those conditions. so what's this stall tactic here? >> i think this -- the stall tactic is in doj -- to doj's advantage. they've got a couple of opportunities here. number one, going back to the difference between the law and politics, you can talk about documents all you want. i think most of the american people are sitting back, saying i don't really know what the heck you're talking about. there's one other issue nobody talks about, don, that's important here. and that is eventually, the fbi and department of justice are going to conclude the investigations to how this investigation itself was initiated. i'm going to predict to you that that is going to go ugly early. the democrats have a clock ticking. if they can't get things under way before the department of just just takes says here's our problem, when this thing got started about the trump campaign, it was ugly and we're off the to races. the white house will have some re

. >> all of this comes, phil, as house democrats are adding yet more hearings on the mueller report and the attorney general, william barr, faces two separate actions from the hill next week. what's the strategy? >> wolf, next week is going to provide a crystal-clear window into speaker pelosi and her top deputy's strategy in terms of their non-impeachment investigation proceedings. on monday, the house judiciary committee will hold their first hearings on the mueller report. the house intelligence committee is planning to hold a hearing on the intelligence -- the underlying intelligence section and counterintelligence piece of the mueller report they announced today with two former fbi officials coming into testify. you have the full house contempt voice for attorney general william barr on tuesday, where they will officially find him in contempt of the whole house. don mcgahn, the former white house counsel will also be voted on, on tuesday. and at some point next week, the house oversight committee will vote on their contempt charges for william barr, related to him not responding or complying with the subpoena, relat