we're back with democratic senator richard blumenthal of connecticut.e's a member of the judiciary and armed serves committees. very interesting today at the white house briefing sarah sanders, the press secretary, was asked if the president is going to be releasing now finally his tax returns. she suggested the answer is no. but your committee, you're looking into some of the financial information that may be related to this entire investigation. what are you looking for? >> there's a credible case of obstruction of justice against donald trump. and his acknowledgement in a tweet over the weekend that he knew that michael flynn had lied when he fired jim comey, when he asked comey to go lightly on flynn, when he fired sally yates, when he reached out to dan coats and asked the intelligence community to in effect dispense with its investigation. there is mounting available publicly evidence that, in fact, donald trump should be investigated for obstruction of justice and that there is a credible case against him. so it's the principle of follow the mone

senator richard blumenthal on the latest trouble for donald trump jr. in two minutes. >>> tonight there's new information about a central issue in the russia investigation. that now infamous june 9th, 2016 meeting at trump tower. that was the meeting donald trump jr. took after being promised dirt on hillary clinton courtesy of the russian government. trump junior insisted nothing came of the meeting. he never got the dirt he was promised and just kind of moved on. >> there wasn't really follow-up because there was nothing to follow up. as we were walking out, he said listen, i'm sorry for that. >> did you ever have any contact with goldstone again? >> casual, how's it going, something like that. >> but tonight we now know there were in fact follow-up e-mails uncovered by congressional investigators. cnn reporting that an e-mail from rob goldstone to senior trump aide dan scavino reveals a previously undisclosed topic discussed at the time meeting. it encouraged candidate trump to create a page on the russian social networking site vk telling him that d

joining me is senator richard blumenthal. called today's guilty plea by michael flynn the tip of the iceberg for not only him but for president trump. can you explain what you mean? >> this guilty plea, an acknowledgement of criminal culpability, is a shattering moment for the trump administration. the reason is, there is an abundance of information that michael flynn can share about the campaign, and its possible collusion with russia. about the transition team and the conversations with russians before president-elect trump took the oath. and afterward, while he was the president's chief national security adviser, and it goes to russian collusion and obstruction of justice. remember that jim comey was fired because he wouldn't drop his investigation of michael flynn. now that investigation has produced this criminal plea and it will lead to more evidence besides the firing of obstruction of justice. >> do you think it will lead directly to president trump? >> it will lead directly to the oval office, certainly to people at

i want to talk about all of this with richard blumenthal. he is a democrat on the armed services committee. thanks so much for being with us. >> thank you. >> your background is as former attorney general. i'll ask you a similar question i asked evan. when you see that this is michael flynn in this key role that he played in the transition in the campaign, in the administration and he has pleaded guilty, what does that say to you? >> what it says to me, brianna, that this acknowledgement of criminal guilt is a shattering moment for the trump presidency because michael flynn is one of the inner circle, one of the top advisers, not just on any old topic, but national security. and he is a potential witness against jared kushner, against other top officials if they fail to be truthful with compelling knowledge and deep credibility because of his position. and now we have a moment similar to watergate where the question's going to be what did they know and when did they know it? not just the president but jared kushner and michael pence, the vic

senator richard blumenthal is standing by live. and why is another top democratic senator now sounding the alarm tonight, warning that the special counsel's russia investigation may be in very serious danger? >> any attempt by this president to remove special counsel mueller from his position or to pardon key witnesses in any effort to shield them from accountability or shut down the investigation would be a gross abuse of power and a flagrant violation of executive branch responsibilities and authorities. ( ♪ ) more people shop online for the holidays than ever before. (clapping) and the united states postal service delivers more of those purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. ( ♪ ) because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest. even the smallest things was supposed to be a wake reup call for our government?sh people all across the country lost their savings, their pensions and their jobs. i'm tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in

. >>> now for the democratic response, joining us is democratic senator richard blumenthal of connecticut. i know you have been listening, so let's dive in with some of the things she said and the russia investigation. you heard what kellyanne conway just said, about roy moore for senate in alabama. these accusations are just accusations, unproven, and it's up to the alabama voters. what is your response? >> well, like many of my colleagues in the united states senate on both sides of the aisle, i believe the women. i believe that roy moore committed these acts of unconscionable harassment and assault, and he will be judged by the united states senate if he is elected, but i hope the voters of alabama will show not only good sense but also moral principle. there is a moral principle involved here. sexual harassment and sexual assault are never okay, and that's why we need to act against it here in the congress as well as every other industry. >> when you say he will be judged by his senate colleagues if he were to win, that means an eitherics committee investigation will be launched and t

. >>> senator richard blumenthal has been one of the most outspoken voices on the need to protect the mueller investigation. he joins me now. do you share my feeling that over the last week there has been an intensification of the rhetoric coming from trump tv and from his allies in congress around shutting down this investigation? does it feel that way to you? >> there is clearly a feeling that the rhetoric has intensified, at least among some of the trump supporters. and the targets of this investigation, like donald trump himself. and there is increasingly a need to protect the investigation. my hope is that my republican colleagues will speak out and stand up. now is the time for that kind of courage in the public interest. >> let me just say, there is not a lot of that going around. back during the summer, when mueller was first named, which was back in the spring, there was widespread by partisan support. newt gingrich said he was a great choice even though newt gingrich is now talking about how corrupt and inept he is. then during the summer when the president appeared to be fi

on the senate floor richard blumenthal call for client control legislation and said the nra is blocking reasonable gun restrictions. >> i want to talk today on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the sandy hook massacre in my state of connecticut. one of the saddest days of my life, one of the worst days of my public career when i went to the elementary school in newtown, connecticut along with my colleagues will be speaking today as well. and the judiciary committee, just moments ago senator feinstein circulated a framed copy of the front page of the daily news of wednesday, december 15, 2013. five years ago. almost to the day. that frontpage has photographs of the 20 beautiful children who were lost in that unspeakable act of terror and harm. they are 20 wonderful human beings who would be 11 years old today. they're great teachers were killed as well having valued and known their parents and friends and fellow advocates in the effort to achieve commonsense measures against gun violence, i know how deeply that pain is still felt. the healing is far from over. the grief remains. p

with us now, democratic senator richard blumenthal. he's a member of the judiciary committee and previously served at connecticut's attorney general. senator, thanks for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. good to be with you. >> we've got a lot to go through. let's start with this "new york times" report that the past february the fbi briefed hope hicks about efforts by russians to contact her during the presidential transition. what does that tell you? >> what it tells me is that the fbi knew about contacts between the transition team and the russian government, as have been documented previously. they obviously were concerned about possible leaks of information from the trump transition team to the russians and contacts by flynn, which are now part of the charging documents and official files with the court show that, in fact, high-level members of the trump transition were knowledgeable about flynn's contacts. and the question really now is, what did they know and when did they know it? not only flynn but also jared kushner and even th

senator richard blumenthal sits on the judiciary committee which is investigating its own probe. senator, you had this to say earlier today. congress must now match the special counsel's courage by approving legislation to shield him from the very real threat of political interference as i and others have proposed. what do you mean by that? >> we proposed legislation that would stop the president of the united states from firing the special counsel and it would shield the special counsel from any political interference which now seems increasingly threatened, not just the president was blindsided but all of his administration and it is a shadowing moment for the trump presidency, comparing it to watergate is a real danger of another saturday night massacre. we should send a signal on a judiciary committee on the united states senate to approve legislation that will shield the special counsel. in fact, bar any firing without proper court order so that the president is, in effect, discouraged from endangering our democracy with this constitutional confrontation and possible -- >> t

. >>> joining me now is senator richard blumenthal, a member of the senate judiciary committee. senator, thank you for being with us. you were attorney general for the state of connecticut for a long time. you know about investigations. the president says he nows believe the special counsel robert mueller is going to send him a letter exonerating him. is this how it works, generally? >> very rarely. i can say not only as state attorney general but also as a former united states attorney, this kind of letter is sent exonerating, it's rare, virtually nonexistent in the case of the president. it may happen but this investigation is mounting in intensity and scope. it is not the beginning of the end. it is the end of the beginning. and there will be more indictments and more convictions, i think, as a near certainty before this investigation is over. it has penetrated the white house. it's nearing the oval office. and so the creation of these false expectations is really a disservice to the president and the country. >> obviously the white house lawyers, the president's lawyers on t

richard blumenthal joins me now. senator, is there a giant tax cut for the middle class in this bill? >> there is no giant tax cut for the middle class. there are crumbs for the middle class. it's a classic bait and switch. some middle class families may see very minor tax cuts. but the big benefits and breaks and giveaways are to the wealthiest and the big corporations and, frankly, at the expense of our children and grandchildren, because they're going to be burdened with trillions of dollars in debt. it is utterly irresponsible. and there are also threats to social security and medicare because that's the way the republicans are choosing as well to pay for these huge benefits to the wealthiest and corporations. >> while i have the senior senator from connecticut, i with on remiss if we didn't talk about five years ago today, the shooting at sandy hook, 26 dead, 20 of them children, a day that moved then president obama to tears. >> they had their entire lives ahead of them. birthdays. graduations. weddings. kids o

democrats like senator richard blumenthal dismissed the idea of investigating an entire federal agency calling it absurd. they say it's part of an effort to cast doubt on special counsel mueller's investigation. >> the department cannot simply assign a special counsel to look at things that bother the white house. >> reporter: the fbi has already launched an internal investigation into the anti- trump text messages. weijia jiang, cbs news, capitol hill. >> fbi regulations permit employees to express political opinions as long as it's clear that they're doing so in a personal capacity. >>> and this is -- coming up on capitol hill later on today, house democrats will hold a forum on the gop tax bill. talk about the bill in a speech tonight on tax reform in front of a crowd filled with young people and middle class families. in the meantime, house speaker paul ryan continues to tout the bill as a game changer. >> this tax reform legislation is monumental. tax reform is what people need right now. and i am so thrilled that we are so close to the finish line. we're going to keep at it so we

. >> yesterday on capitol hill, connecticut senator richard blumenthal reflected on how little has changed in five years saying the rate of gun violence is off the charts. >>> the communities continues to mourn the loss two of brothers killed in a fire earlier this week. yesterday we got an update from investigators who are one step closer to closing the case. they believe a faulty extension cord plugged into a space heater caused the fire that destroyed this home and left the holidays for the family of a law enforcement officer in shambles. at a fundraiser for the lukens family, children wrote cards of support. each hope their thoughts will help the family cope with the pain of losing the boys before christmas. meantime, some of the kids are still attempting to make sense of what happened. >> i know that sometimes stuff happe happens. i know it can be important to help them. >> the fundraiser to help support montgomery county deputy brian luke ns and his family wil be hold e hosted by firefighters from 6:00 to 9:00 tonight. you can drop off gift cards, money, any supplies that may help th

senator richard blumenthal releasing a statement demanding don jr.ents and public testimony to the senate following reports that when appearing before the house intel community, don jr. claimed attorney-client privilege, withholding details of a conversation with his father when it came to the inflammation 2016 meeting with the russian lawyer. blumenthal called his invoking attorney-client privilege disingenerals you and bogus. >>> the man behind the x men franchise is accused of raping a teenaged boy. a lawsuit says bryan singer allegedly sexually assaulted a then 17-year-old on a yacht in 2003. according to the complaint, singer allegedly brought the teen into a room in the yacht and forced him to perform sex acts. he then allegedly told the boy he could help him get into acting as long as he never told anyone about the incident. a representative for singer said in part, bryan categorically denies these allegations and will vehemently defend this lawsuit to the very end. once bryan prevails, he will pursue his own claims for malicious prosecution.

then, connecticut senators richard blumenthal and chris murphy, talk about the anniversary of the sandyhook school shooting. later, immersing the president on deregulation. >> jefferson probably knew more about more things than any single man in north america. and i include franklin in that. who would be his only rival. and everyone was impressed by jefferson, the extent of his knowledge good items was smart but he did not have the breadth. but he had some history in law. that jefferson did not have. not because jefferson could not. he just was not as interested in the law as items. >> sunday on q&a, gordon would on his book, friends divided. about the relationship and a different political views of john adams and thomas jefferson. >> adams was a realist. he did not believe all men are created equal. he says all men were created unequal. he did not believe in exceptionalism. we are no better and no different from other nations. jefferson is the opposite. he is into nurture. and that i think is what most americans believe. that is what we put so much in -- we are all born equal the diffe

he's in charge now. >> joining us now, richard blumenthal of connecticut.ator, we're going to talk to you about obstruction of justice, but before we get there, i think we have to talk about what we just saw with america's national security adviser, a man who has been well respected his entire career. i was thrilled when he came national security adviser because he talked about dereliction of duty. he had a great career. he was extraordinarily respected. here you have a man going on sunday morning shows explaining away the president of the united states promoting to 40 million people in his twitter feed neo- nazi videos by a group that many people believe for good reason, inspired the assassination of a member of parliament. what's your reaction to that? >> my reaction is that we're at a real testing time for this country when people are going to either speak up and stand up and challenge the president of the united states or they won't. the white house is a very heady place, power is a very powerfully addictive drug, and donald trump is a very formidable p

richard blumenthal wants pence to appear before the judiciary committee. he wants to hear what he knew before flynn's conversations with russian officials. >> pence was unaware flynn spoke to the russians. but unsealed court findings and new details about president trump's own knowledge flynn lied to the fbi all indicate that a wide circle of advisors were aware flynn raised the sanctions issue with the ambassador. now, sources say many in pence's circle are worried he'll eventually be called for an interview with special counsel robert mueller. pence's team pushing back on that idea, a spokesman saying nothing could be further from the truth. the vice president is focused on pushing the largest tax cut in american history. >> now republicans racing to find a path forward. gop leaders negotiating with the conservative house freedom caucus trying to convince them to pooass a two-week bill which would fund the government through december 22nd. it would also force them to later accept another short term bill. >> that includes immigration policy, but several s

richard blumenthal of connecticut joins us now. >> good morning. >> we want to ask about this phone callnow what was discussed because the white house put out a statement. president donald j. trump planked president putin for his strong economic performance in his annual press conference. what are your thoughts about what president trump chose to talk to putin about? >> i welcome the president of the united states having amicable relations with russia and cooperation with russia when it comes to north korea, syria. we hope we can cooperate on the international front in stopping north korea from acquiring nuclear weapons and also in the middle east seeking peace there. but the president has resisted the objective reality that russia meddled in the 2016 elections. in fact, he's firmly -- to any suggestion that russia attacked our democracy which plainly did all the intelligence agencies have reached anonymity in that conclusion. and it impairs our ability to resist and set up this kind of meddling and interference in the future. it is a real national security. russia will repeat it unless

told, the president was frustrated when he heard the news about what neil gorsuch said with richard blumenthal, but it was later explained to him by the staff, and he was okay with it. he later saw a letter that gorsuch wrote to him, albeit eight days later it arrived, but in no time, i am told, the president ever stated that we should pull back the nomination. >> melissa: a lot going on there. thank you a lot, john. >> typical day. >> jon: a fox news alert on the deadly amtrak derailment. investigators say the train was traveling more than twice the speed limit when it hit the curve and careened off an overpass, spilling cars on the interstate below. three people are dead. >> all of a sudden, it was crashing, and there it was down. the train went like this. this body lying there. hardly had any close on, it had been ripped off of him. he was obviously dead. >> melissa: wow. >> jon: live near the scene and dupont, washington. delays on the investigation. claudia? >> investigation national transportation safety board say they are talking to witnesses and analyzing speed tracking data wide 12 pa

ambassador to the, nikki haley discussed evidence that iran -- later, connecticut senator richard blumenthaln the anniversary of the sandy hook school shooting. >> c-span, live every day with new some policy issues that impact too. coming up on friday morning, christopher lewis with a group public knowledge on the fcc rolling back obama era neutrality. joseph talks about the republican tax bill that will be voted on next week. william, ceo and critic of russian vladimir putin discusses relations. watch "washington journal", live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on friday morning. >> former investors to the middle east testified about u.s. strategy in the region. they discussed efforts to combat isis, iran's nuclear program, u.s. relations with turkey and the israeli-palestinian conflict. senator john mccain did not attend because he is in the hospital.

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white house and in president trump's brain when judge gorsuch went and sat down with senator richard blumenthal, and judge gorsuch admitted he found the attacks on the other judge of hispanic origin to be demoralizing. he was quite honest about his feelings about it. president trump was silent at that time. at least in public, about what gorsuch was saying. now if you peel back the curtain we know, david, in fact, he was seething. so much so that he had told colleagues that he was considering rescinding the nomination. >> this is -- i mean this is classic donald trump. we should take this story and clip it and put it in some time capsule if you just want to understand donald trump's psyche. here is his guy that is going to be his biggest win of the year and get conservatives in a really happy place about the trump presidency early on. all of a sudden, he's getting personally offended by the fact that gorsuch is playing his politics and expressing his real opinion to make sure that he doesn't royal the waters of confirmation and trump, of course, willing to pull it. the white house says he was n

first, i will joined by senator richard blumenthal of connecticut in a body that has just added a democrati want you to give it to me straight, senator. we always expect the truth from you. a year ago, would you have thought we would be talking about a new democrat joining your senate caucus from alabama? >> no way. no way i would have predicted a lot that has happened in this very, very unpredictable year. but last on the list would have been a democratic senator from the state of alabama. and i think it is a stunning testament to the fall of donald trump, or at least his process of falling in many,le parts of the country that voted for him. >> so you say it is partly the rejection of trump i. i just slowed the republicans' concern about bannon. someone who was not initially considered fit to boring in the white house by many people walk us through how much of this was a rejection of that, how much was a potential embrace of doug jones. and then to the issues. taxes, and should there be this vote without him. where do you see all this going? >> well, the first point is doug jones is a sup

you had a democratic colleague, senator richard blumenthal making predictions on twitter. that he believes that there would be -- there it is. a trump denial of russian collusion and doomed to unravel. expect more serious convictions and indictments early in 2018 as special counsel climbs ladder of criminal culpability and more panicky preemptive attacks from republicans. do you believe there are convictions and dimes coming in the next couple of weeks? >> i really have no way of knowing, but there is one thing i do know and i think there is one thing the american public knows or should know is that these investigations are extremely important. we are really talking about the very nature of our government and the ability to have the rule of law. we ought to let mueller do what he is tasked to do. that is to investigate all aspects of russian involvement in our election wherever it may take. we ought to be aware of there is a concerted effort by many of the republicans including many in the white house, the president himself to try to somehow discredit the mueller investiga

this after senator richard blumenthal said gorsuch called the president's attack on federal judges "dishearteningg." today the president tweeted the story is fake news, i never wavered, i am very proud of him and the job he is doing as a justice of the supreme court. the unnamed sources don't exist." "the washington post" says their account is based on interviews with 11 people familiar with the episode. i'm joined by one of the writers, one of the reporters for that article, ashley parker, who writes for "the washington post." and is an msnbc political analyst. great insight here. and i have so many questions about gorsuch. one is, well, first of all, the thing about trump having second thoughts. was this sort of like popeye in the cartoons, always mumbling and talking out of his brain and things bugging him? or did he really assert that he made a mistake with this guy, in a serious conversation? >> so that's a fair question and a good question. and the way it has told us that the nomination was never in actual jeopardy. but what we understand is that the president did what he often does, or wha

richard blumenthal, a senator from connecticut said recently, this is the reason donald trump jr.ubpoenaed, so he is forced to answer the question. >> i'm looking at the blumenthal statement where he calls it a disingener disingeneralious claim. when the story first broke, that was july 8, don jr. gave that initial and misleading statement claiming the meeting was about u.s./russia adoptions. july 12, jay sekulow said the president wasn't involved and echoed that on july 16 in his appearance on "meet the press." >> the president was not, did not draft the response. the response came from donald trump jr. and i'm sure in consultation with his lawyer. the president was not involved in the drafting of the statement and did not issue a statement. >> he says the president wasn't involved. july 31st they stay president dictated the statement. the next day, sarah huckabee sanders says president trump weighed in as any father would. we have the latest don jr. testimony. what do you make of this? >> chris, only a lawyer for donald trump could make the distinction between drafting and dicta

and senator richard blumenthal was saying he wants the vice president to come to capitol hill to testifyn this. we'll see if that happens or not here. >> it's also been intriguing that president trump fired flynn only after "the washington post" reported that he had lied about the sanctions issue in his phone conversation with kislyak. >> exactly. and that is something that now we're led to believe that the president knew this in advance here. but could the vice president have been essentially the only senior person in the west wing in the dark on this? if that's true, how could that be? because he's also very politically savvy. don't forget, he had more political experience than almost anyone else in the entire government at that point. perhaps he was trying to stay out of it. perhaps he was just not in those conversations. but that is a question that many people think investigators will ultimately want to know about. >> susan, you used to work at the nsa, the national security agency. you were a lawyer there. you heard jim sciutto's reporting now that eric prince, the founder of blackw

. >> just last hour, democratic senator richard blumenthal issued a statement saying trump jr. must be subpoenaed since he won't answer questions. former florida republican congressman david jolly, "washington post" columnist and msnbc analyst eugene robinson. zerlina maxwell, now director of progressive programming for sirius xm, republican strategist and msnbc contributor steve schmidt. in washington, white house reporter for "the wall street journal" and msnbc analyst eli stokells and former obama deputy campaign adviser stephanie cutter is here. i think you and stephanie are the two attorneys at the table. can you first just address what donald trump jr. is sort of holding out as his rationale for not sharing with the committee the substance of his conversation with his father? and then tell me if you think that will hold up with bob mueller. >> he's claiming attorney/client privilege. context is also important. we can't overlook that this is a family business for donald trump. and donald trump jr. and the entire trump oerlrganization. and there is no personnel they'll ulti

connecticut senator richard blumenthal: >> the president's tweet this morning against senator gillibrand was a disgraceful, sexist slur. >> desjardins: white house press secretary sarah sanders said the president's tweet was in no way sexual. >> i think only if your mind is in the gutter would you have read it that way. he's obviously talking about the political partisan games that people often play. >> desjardins: also on the hill today, a "new york times" report detailed the inner workings of republican representative blake farenthold's office, calling it a "hostile work environment, rife with sexual innuendo." the texas congressman used $84,000 of taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment claim with a former staffer three years ago. allegations of sexual assault also hit the sports world today. the n.f.l. network suspended three of its analysts after a former stylist, jami cantor, accused them of inappropriate touching and showing her their genitals. cantor claims four additional employees also sexually harassed her. and, a cbs news report chronicled recent sexual assault and haras

senator richard blumenthal says he wants the vice president to come to capitol hill and testify about all of these new things. so as we learn that there are, you know, at least seven advisers to the president who knew about this before the vice president, quite simply, how is that possible? so because of all of that, some people close to the president believe that at some point he will be brought in to answer these questions. >> does he want to? i guess that's the question. he seems -- if president trump, indeed, fired michael flynn because he had lied to mike pence and mike pence feels as though he had a sterling reputation and he was upset that pence put him in that position, does he want him to speak out more forcefully and try to clear his name? as you note, he was chairman of the transition after they fired chris christie and all of these things occurred under his watch. i don't know if he was watching, they were hiding it from him or what. >> one thing from the beginning, his office and his lawyers have cooperated and said they would cooperate. one of the things 10, 11 months in

i want to play you what senator richard blumenthal of connecticut said on a show friday night about these new developments. >> we propose legislation that would stop the president of the united states from firing the special counsel, and it would shield the special counsel from any political interference which now seems increasingly threatening, not just the president was blind-sided but all of his administration, and it's a shattering moment for the trump presidency. >> you know, jennifer, it does feel like donald trump is escalating his attacks on jim comey, and doesn't feel like it's going to get easier or better by doing that for him? >> seems to me he just learned objection of justice is a crime and it never dawned on him that he couldn't tell him to lay off flynn. i think donald trump realized perhaps in some vague way, but nevertheless, understands that he's in legal peril now. he fired the fbi director because he was investigating all of the russia ties and specifically because he was learned about what mike flynn would do. donald trump has never been loyal to anybody aside from d

this all relates to an interview gorsuch had in february with connecticut senator richard blumenthal where he said the president's tweak attacking the federal judges were demoralizing. the president was frustrated when he read about that exchange. he said something to the effect what the heck is this? might have expressed some other thoughts about it as well. but after the staff explained it to him, he was fine with it. i'm told at no point did he ever ask staff should we think about pulling back this nomination and find somebody else? the president also was a little bit concerned that he thought that he hadn't heard from gorsuch after the confirmation. but the president was told that gorsuch sent a letter to him, handwritten letter on march 2. for some reason it never made it to the president's desk. the legislative affairs director, mark short, ran downstairs march 10th when the president inquired about it. brought it up and the president was fine about that. another big event coming up in the next couple minutes the homeland security advisor tom boss ert holding a news conference

i'm joined by richard bloomenthal, ken delaney and paul butler, former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal scholar i must say. thank you. i love having you on. let me go to senator blumenthal. what's trump up to? i'm hearing from jackie spieres that trump has an itchy trigger finger and he has to protect jared kushner, his son-in-law. >> there is a fear that the president could fire the special counsel or issue a pardon. this i hope will lead to republican colleagues saying the same kind of warning because clearly that kind of rash, impulsive action from the president of the united states would trigger a firestorm. >> would that begin -- what began with the saturday night massacre back in '73, would this lead to an impeachment move? >> it would lead to a constitutional conflagration, a crisis that is looming right now. let's be very clear, chris. there's no question in the intelligence community that vladimir putin attacked our democracy so as to elect donald trump. the question for the special counsel has been will there be sufficient evidence to take action against the president based on collusion? >> without naming names, do you think the moderate -- i shouldn't say mod