his deputy, he hardly knew, and that's rosenstein. rod rosenstein, who is from baltimore. there are very few republicans in baltimore, if any. trump also said his special counsel should never have been appointed in this case, but in an interview conducted with before the president's comments were published last night, rosenstein stood by his appointment of mueller and defended his fairness. >> i made the decision to appoint director mueller based upon his reputation. he had an excellent reputation. really bipartisan support for his integrity. that's why i made that decision. i'm not going to be able to comment upon what he may or may

that's up to rosenstein to do.t's not up to the president to decide what's the swim lane and what's not the swim lane. and rosenstein can decide with consultation with anyone he wants within the justice department whether this is appropriate matter for them to investigate or whether this is something the justice department can investigate independent of mueller. i don't think the president or sekulow has a legal leg to stand on with respect to the threat they may shut this down. if they want to fire mueller, they have to do that through rosenstein. rosenstein said he'd quit before he fired him. the only standard for firing is really misconduct and i don't think there's any misconduct mueller is going to engage in. i think there's a lot of bullying and threatening but there's no real legal there, there, at the end of it. >> okay. >> i can say one other thing, if i may, don. on the pardon question that you were just talking with jeffrey toobin about, i agree with jeffrey except to add one additional thing which is un

legally speaking, rosenstein has some authority over the mueller investigation, but it's not day-to-day supervision. he can't control this investigation in that way. the code of federal regulations that govern this make that explicitly clear. he has given mueller a mandate. it's not the broadest mandate. it says the relationship between russia and the campaign and matters that arise out of it, which is what i think any u.s. attorney or united states attorney would believe to be a prudent mandate. so i just don't understand from a legal standpoint what the president's end objective is because it's not accomplishable. >> that's why we have laura coates here. >> where are you going with this, don? >> do you want to answer that question for us? walk us through exactly what would happen and who would take charge if president trump himself was able to replace sessions. >> let's play this out fully and that's why you know it's quite nonsen nonsensical what the president of the united states is trying to do. if he fires jeff sessions, he will be replaced by next in line, who is rod rosenstein,

so maybe rod rosenstein will resign tonight, too. or maybe rod rosenstein should be on resignation watch as well. the president is publicly calling into question his ability to do his job because of his partisan leanings or lack thereof. which is a public expression of lack of confidence by the president in the deputy attorney general who in the case of the russian investigation is the acting attorney general. again, that is the sort of thing that would typically cause a public official to resign immediately. but again, we don't know what to expect tonight. as i also mentioned in this interview tonight, the president casts some aspersions on the deputy director of the fbi, andrew mccabe. we don't yet have a quote from the "times" about that, we just have their characterization of the president criticizing him. so i think we'll wait until we get the transcript, or additional audio from the "times" before we get into too much detail there, rather than going with a paraphrased set of criticism. when it comes to robert mueller, though, t

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.

>> stephen: rosenstein looks good.y but he's jacked. ( laughter ) but it's really weird for the president to even blame rod rosenstein, because remember what trump told lester holt-- >> regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. i decided to just do it. i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. >> stephen: so, if trump says he decided to fire comey, and trump says rod rosenstein told trump to fire comey, that means trump is rod rosenstein! ( laughter ) it's a fight club situation! ( cheers and applause ) it's fight club! they're the same guy! >> jon: wow, the same cat. >> stephen: i've never seen them on camera together. they're the same guy. that explains why trump can't stop punching himself in the face. ( laughter ) and once again, sir, the first rule of fight club is "don't talk about it." ( laughter ) so for damage control yesterday, the white house sent out trump attorney and mr. burns' lawyer from "the simpsons," jay sekulow. ( applause ) ( pian

>> i did go into my meeting with deputy attorney general rosenstein and attorney general sessions, i met with them together, with a number of questions in my mind about wanting to be sure that i knew what i was getting myself into. and was very comfortable with what i heard. >> what was it that you heard? >> i'm sorry, there was not a discussion of comey's firing or of russian investigation other than, other than, deputy attorney general rosenstein making a comment to the effect, that now that special counsel mueller has been appointed, that situation is more straight forward because there's an investigation going and special counsel mueller has that. so the landscape that i was coming into at this point, would have been different had special counsel mueller had not been appointed? >> so did you come to the conclusion that you would not be having one-on-one kmpx with the president about director muller. >> i was very comfortable i would be able to do my job after that meeting, yes. >> at the time that you had a meeting with jeff sessions and deputy director rosenstein, did you indica

and then you had a subsequent meeting with jeff sessions and rosenstein and then another meeting at the white house the president attended. when you had your initial meeting with deputy ag rosenstein, does the subject of comey's firing, did the subject of the mueller investigation, but? did you go in with any kind of seeking of reassurances that should you take this position you would be free to do your job, free from political pressure? >> i did go into my meeting with deputy attorney general rosenstein and attorney general sessions, i met with them together. with a number of questions in my mind about wanting to be sure that i knew what i was getting myself into. and i was very comfortable with what i heard. there was not a discussion of comey's firing or the russia investigation other than deputy attorney general rosenstein making a comment to the effect that now that special counsel mueller has been appointed, that situation is more straightforward because there is an investigation going and special counsel mueller has that. from my perspective, the landscape that i was coming i

standing side by side can sessions today, rosenstein brushed off the criticism. president trump appeared to send a sharp warning to mueller to keep his nose out of the president and his family's business dealings. >> is that a ri red line? >> that would be a breach? >> i would say, yes. reporter: bloomberg reported that mul mueller was looking into president's finances but it appeared to be limited to business deals with russians, which the president seemed okay with. >> i tell a lot of condo units. someone from russia buys a condo, i don't make money from russia. reporter: white house said despite reports that mueller investigation has broadened out to include the president's finances. and trump has mo intension of firing mueller. lou. lou: thank you, john. >> our first guest to assess whether attorney general's days are perhaps numbered or mueller moved beyond scope. greg jarrett. let's start with attorney general sessions. where president put most of his focus. it has been festering all this time. with the president. >> well, i mean, you can say many things ab

>> i did go into my meeting with deputy attorney general rosenstein and sessions. i met with them together. with a number of questions in my mind about wanting to be sure that i knew what i was getting myself into. and was very comfortable with what i heard. >> what was it that you heard? >> sorry. there was not a discussion of comey's firing or of the russian investigation, other than deputy attorney general rosenstein making a comment to the effect that now that special counsel muehler has been appointed, that situation is more straight forward, because there is an investigation going, and special counsel muehler has that. so from my perspective, the landscape that i was coming into at that point was different than it would have been without special counsel muehler having been appointed. >> so did you come to a conclusion that you would not probably be having one-on-one discussions about the russian experience with the president as had occurred with director comey, because you had muehler there conducting an investigation. >> yes. >> so you were assured or reassu

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 appointed to replace jeff sessions coul

rod rosenstein to fire him and if he doesn't, then he can fire rosenstein. then he would have to keep firing someone from the top down until he found someone at a high rank to fire bob mueller. that is a long path. what became clear this week is there is an easier and shorter path for the president. quicker way to do it would be for him to put someone new, instead of rod rosenstein in charge of oversighing the mueller investigation. and the way you do that is just to kill jeff sessions, to proverbably kill off jeff sessions. he may love jeff sessions, but if jeff sessions gets fired or gets as attorney general, trump could appoint a new ag who would not be recused from the russia investigation or overseeing mueller. and that that new attorney again could fire bob mueller and the white house would retroactivity explain it with all of the stuff they're trying to cook up to undermine mueller's credibility. that is what is looming over the question of the future of the russia investigation, the prospects of what the president might do to try to stop it. and that

their answer in my exclusive interview with deputy attorney general rod rosenstein next. what about one place just pull someone over and decide to seize a wallet, money, in that situation. is that all right? about a medication... ...this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain... ...and protect my joints from further damage. humira has been clinically studied for over 18 years. humira works by targeting and helping to... ...block a specific source... ...of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. it's proven to help relieve pain and... ...stop further joint damage in many adults. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas... ...where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike sympto

he questioned the political meaning not overtly of rod rosenstein. the president tends to boil things down to politics and people chose other sides. >> let me read here, it says the president also expressed discontent with when mr. sessions recused himself he said he was irritated to learn where his deputy was from. there are very few republicans in baltimore as odom nat democratic city. it seems like a strong thing for someone to say. >> yes, it does. >> the reason i said that because andrew mccain who's the acting fbi director as well, he suggested he too has a conflict. mr. mccabe's wife. he -- and it guess on to talk about that in governor who was a close friend of hillary clinton and bill.clinton and on and on. so who was he happy with? anyone who was close to the investigation and people he appointed and people he hired he's not happy with them already and it's just six months in. >> i think look -- as i said for him in his mind jeff session's recusal was an original thing. he's very frustrated. remember, there was a whole -- what set off that

what does rosenstein do, does he stay, does rosenstein quit?oes he ask rosenstein to fire mueller and rosenstein refuses? and on and on. and if he wants to fire mueller, i guarantee you his legal team would quit. i can't imagine the president's legal team saying, you know, it's okay -- >> jason, do you think it would be hard to get another attorney general? >> i think there is one thing that's a little bit different with this president and this administration, we've got to take a step back. if we rewind a couple months ago and we heard the talk about firing comey and it would be the sky is falling and how can we come back from this? >> but it did. >> no, but i think look, this president has the authority if he wants to go fire somebody in his administration, he can. that's his right as president to do so. so he invariably will fire people at various points in his administration. and i think we need to take a step back and realize that this administration is different and it -- >> but do you think it would be hard to get somebody passed on capit

rosenstein telling her that he stands by his recommendation president trump fired fbi director james comey. lea: the supreme court issued another ruling on president trump travel ban. that amounts to a partial but refer the administration. the high court granted its request to more strictly enforce refugees until a federal appeals court weighs in. the justices left in place a lower court order that makes it easier for travelers from six mostly muslim countries to enter the united states. the trump administration had appealed the ruling by a federal judge on the scope of both bands. gerri: google has released to date update. tracee carrascas joins us more without another headline. >> good morning. google search on your smartphone is about to get a little more personal. the company out kind another update which will done when they in the u.s. the google feed will feature stories and other content based on your searches but also what is trendy near your location. sound familiar? very similar to the widely popular newsfeed on facebook. this allows users to discover, explore and stay conn

james comey, jeff sessions, rob rosenstein and bob mueller. what do they have in common?ump. the commander in chief slamming these current and former justice officials on everything from their hometowns to how they are handling their jobs. jeff sessions, on him, the president makes clear he regrets kicking sessions, saying he wouldn't have. sessions would be recusing himself from all things russia. on sessions number two, the president

james comey, jeff sessions, rob rosenstein and bob mueller. what do they have in common? they are are targets of president trump. the commander in chief slamming these current and former justice officials on everything from their hometowns to how they are handling their jobs. jeff sessions, on him, the president makes clear he regrets kicking sessions, saying he wouldn't have. sessions would be recusing himself from all things russia. on sessions number two, the president criticized rosenstein for bringing on mueller and being from baltimore, maryland, where the president says very few republicans live. for the special council, bob mueller, the president had a warning, stay away from his family finances or else. as for the fired fbi director, the president leveled a new accusation against comey, saying he thinks he used a solation dossier. they discussed russian adoptions, which means they discussed sanctions, which is more than small talk. let's get to it. beginning with stunning comments about jeff sessions. listen to this. >> sessions should have never recused himself.

rod rosenstein is the one who holds the power in that. if rosenstein tries to do so, the special counsel has protections with congress. he has to actually do it for a reason. he can't have a willy-nilly reason and congress can hold a full hearing to figure out whether or not the reason was sound. it can't be as the president tries to air a grievance and suddenly the strings are cut. >> way to alien nate the people around you. stick around. we come back, an american's hero's latest battle. jay john mccain diagnosed with brain cancer. that news his shocked them. we have the latest from dr. sanjay gupta who spoke directly with the senator's doctors. neulasta helps reduce infection risk by boosting your white blood cell count, which strengthens your immune system. in a key study, neulasta reduced the risk of infection from 17% to 1%... ...a 94% decrease. applied the day of chemo, neulasta onpro is designed to deliver neulasta the next day. neulasta is for certain cancer patients receiving strong chemotherapy. do not take neulasta if you're al

this is rod rosenstein, jeff sessions. i think the problem is, you are seeing the president in the interview with "the new york times" and over the last few days launch attacks on federal law enforcement, his own people. jeff sessions and rod rosenstein but the acting fbi director, former fbi director. obviously wants to discredit the investigation and that's been important. this is a tricky place for president trump to go when his credibility is in question. sarah huckabee sanders says in the briefing today that the president has confidence in jeff sessions when the president said yesterday he didn't have confidence in jeff sessions. >> chris: he has done it in talking about what comey did and the illegal leak led to the appointment of mueller. >> it is telling that nobody around him who's been asked about it has to rule out the possibility of firing mueller. some of the critiques are valid. the question is how often do you make them and if you make them in such a manner that leaves you less believable than the people you

because jeff sessions steps aside and believes the -- and says to rosenstein, you get the appointment of a special council by rosenstein, robert mueller, who's not in a direct sense answering to the president. >> and he made clear -- he sort of laid bare his ignorance about the fbi and he sort of harkened back to the time when the fbi also essentially reported to the president. did you get a sense of what he was -- what he was sort of wishing for or reaching for or what sort of structure he had in mind before he realized how it really is? >> yeah, he does have an older view of how government is supposed to work. especially since the watergate era we had this idea that the fbi is supposed to be at least somewhat inoculated from politics as much as possible. at the same time, dual hat as a top law enforcement officer of the nation, meant to be independent of politics, at least to the extent that's possible. that's a system that doesn't clearly resonate with president trump. he was talking about the days that used to be. you know, before those kind of changes. and i think that he looks a

rod rosenstein would have to do that or someone within the justice department. not only that, in fa if mueller allowed to proceed with the investigation, the justice department has to come to congress and report that under the law. so he has some free reign here and i think it's very important for the american people that we get to the bottom of what happened so then we can move on to 2018 and other elections and know what the facts are so we can protect our elect system. >> rod rosenstein, the person who would be, as you say, responsible for any termination, was pressed by congress about that very issue, and he made it clear that the buck stops with him. of course, he could be dismissed. but did you feel like the assurances that congress received from rosenstein was enough to feel that this special counsel will not be in danger? >> i do. i think so, and then we also heard from christopher ray who did an excellent job at his hearing, the newly nominated fbi director, and he made it very clear that his obligation was to the law and that he was independent of the

look, fist first is this, the d.a.g., who is rod rosenstein. donald trump criticized him, too, in that new york city last

i asked you when we met in my office rosenstein memo that he wrote. and i understand there's inspector general investigation. i don't want to ask you specifically about the facts of that. but you have, i think, in response to senator graham suggested, that you never would see it appropriate to hold a press conference about a criminal investigation. and while declining to recommend prosecution disclose derogatory information about the target of that investigation. is that correct? >> senator, as we discussed when we met, while i don't think it would be appropriate for me to comment on director comey's decision, i don't know what information he had or what all went into his decision. i can tell you that in my experience, both as a line prosecutor and head of the criminal division, and now as a lawyer in private practice with the special appreciation for why some of those rules and policies are in effect, that i can't think of a time when anybody from the department, much less the fbi director, gave a press conference providing derogatory information abo

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 yesterday and today and tomorrow. and we are spending every minute working to advance the interests of the department. >> dan rather, it seems to me this president sets up all possible points and obstacles as bad people. he went after that mexican american judge, questioning, given his heritage, how he could give a fair judgment. he went after comey and rosenstein saying he has to be a bad democrat saying he's from baltimore. he is going after now bob mueller saying he has conflicts of interest already in his infancy as a special counsel. what is this m.o. of trump in accusing everyone of being tainted who might cause him trouble? >> well, i think what you have here is

. >> dispute rosenstein, the president told "the new york times" yesterday that the fact you're from baltimore concerns him since there aren't many republicans from that city. is that a valid concern in your view? what do you make of that criticism? >> as the attorney general said we're working here every day to advance the priorities of the justice department. i was proud to work here today, yesterday and will be proud to work here tomorrow. as the attorney general said we're happy to answer any questions about this case. it's a very important case and a lot of folks assisted in that investigation. that's all i'm going to talk about today. >> questions about alphabet? all right. thank you.

his deputy, he hardly knew, and that's rosenstein. rod rosenstein, who is from baltimore. there are very few republicans in baltimore, if any. trump also said his special counsel should never have been appointed in this case, but in an interview conducted with before the president's comments were published last night, rosenstein stood by his appointment of mueller and defended his fairness. >> i made the decision to appoint director mueller based upon his reputation. he had an excellent reputation. really bipartisan support for his integrity. that's why i made that decision. i'm not going to be able to comment upon what he may or may not be investigating, but i can assure you if there were conflicts that arose because of director mueller or anybody employed by director mueller, we have a process within the department to take care of that. we have ethics experts who review any allegations of conflicts, so i'm confident we'll reach the right result. >> joining us here on set is politico's daniel lipman, and also from washington d.c. capitol hill reporter for "the hill" molly

rod rosenstein picked the special counsel without running it by sessions first.ems. i know the president is trying to push sessions to get active with collusion by the russians with the rue crane and dnc. and leakers have violated the public trust and made it difficult for the administration to get work done. and all the i lets the hillary clinton campaign was involved in. trish: do you think it a.g. will survive? mollie: i think he will survive. going after one of your most of loyal supporters is not a good way to shore up support from people in the party. trish: make sure you check out lou's new book with jim born, "putin's gambit." viewers are loving it. every viewer whose comment is read on the show will receive an autographed copy of putin's gambit. thank you for joining us. and i see you right back here tomorrow where i see you every day at 2:00 p.m. eastern. lou will be back tomorrow night. he's got a terrific show planned the trend to breaking news this morning. senate gop leaders pick up support for scaled-back bill for obama kerry. with time running out

he is going after some of the actual people in charge of the investigation, suggesting that rod rosenstein may be biassed because he is not -- is he from baltimore, and very few republicans are there. >> it's also for him to totally undermine his own attorney general is unprecedented. for him to also say that he wanted an attorney general who could basically direct the investigation. he didn't want someone who would have to recuse himself. he wanted to be able to tell the attorney general what to do on the mueller investigation. >> yeah. to that point, i have to ask you about the relationship between jeff sessions and president trump. they were obviously very close at one point. sessions was one of his early supporters. talk to us a little bit about how that relationship has soured, and i got to ask you, honestly, do you see jeff

fire rod rosenstein -- rod rosenstein's is to the departmt of justice lawyers what -- i like him justn rnc lawyer. he's not part of the trump staffing. sessions' hands were kind of tied in some respects. he needed a doj person. move sessions to homeland, put in someone else as ag. >> eboni: colonel, lots of republicans have been upset, feeling like everything has been russia. what about all the things, the tarmac meeting with ag lynch and bill clinton having a conversation with her in the midst of the investigation. >> allen: with the democrats, you have a politicized conviction looking for mystical evidence. we know former president clinton met with the attorney general on the tarmac in a secret meeting and three days later we have the announcement about mrs. clinton. i am still trying to figure out when is everyone in the military going to be able to have their own personal email server in their quarters and they can do classified information. if it's good for mrs. clinton, it should be good for everyone in the military. and we don't talk about the uranium deal. we don't talk about

rod rosenstein said the same.that question, he's from baltimore and not too many republicans from bullet more, that rosenstein is too slanted to serve in that role. >> public officials sticking to the script, saying what they're supposed to say and not, as jonathan said, inflaming the situation. we know that president trump does not play by those rules. he says what he thinks and and if it's not particularly helpful to his agenda, so be it. we've seen this time and time again on twitter and in interviews where he says what's on his mind. in this news conference today, what we really saw was much more of a traditional political stance. >> sure. what would you have asked sessions if you were there? >> did you think about resigning? >> looks like he wants to stay on the job. >> i would like to know. >> the sessions piece, smaller part of a bigger puzzle. the idea that russia is weighing on this president all the time. his lawyers saying don't talk about it. >> and goes out and talks about it. >> his advisers saying d

>> my first step would be to call deputy attorney general rosenstein. there's a policy that applies to contacts between the white house and the department. it goes in both directions. particularly goes to any contact between -- with respect to a particular case. there are situations where the fbi director needs to communicate with the president on national security matters, for example. in my experience it would be unusual for there to be any kind of one on one meeting between any fbi director and any president. >> unusual but it happened. it happened to mr. comey. he decided that he was uncomfortable being in oval office alone with the president. as unusual as it may be, would you meet in the oval office with the president with no one else present? >> i think it would depend on the sishgz. i think it would be highly unlikely. but i could imagine a situation where there would be some national security matter where it might call for it. i would again -- my preference and my presumption would be that there should be people from the department working thro

to fire robert mueller and rosenstein doing what? simply refusing? if he does refuse, does the president then fire him and who moves up into the rosenstein position? and how many people have to move up into it before someone takes that position and says, okay, i'll fire him? >> i mean the number three person there would be rachel brand. we've been sort of looking at that line of succession, thinking about if this goes down saturday night massacre-style, like how many people do you have to fire till you get to the robert bork character who is going to do the dirty deed? with what happened last night with the president's attack on attorney general jeff sessions, i think we learned there's a much shorter path here. right now what they can do if they cook up some case about bob mueller being a terrible person and his probe being somehow tainted and some bad thing, they can do two things with it. they can put that case to rod rosenstein and try to persuade him to fire bob mueller. i think that's unlikely although i don't know. the other t

>> i'm not worried about it. >> why are you mad at rosenstein?d at rosenstein. >> you basically said if you're doing to fire anyone -- >> nicolle, the president is frustrated with the attorney general because of the russia investigation which hinges on the decision to pick a special counsel. i think that was a mistake because just like what happened in our administration and for eight years of the obama administration, it's actually possible for an attorney general or a doj to run an independent investigation without picking a special counsel. obama had tons of issues that bothered republicans and that were politically dicey including running the guns on the border and everything else, and they avoided the special counsel. i don't see any evidence that rises to the level that you have to pick a special counsel. somebody like rob rosenstein can do that investigation, without bringing up the special counsels. as you know they can go on for years and years. sometimes a decade or more. and it becomes a fishing expedition which would be a shame. >> it

>> my first step would be to call deputy attorney general rosenstein. there is a policy that applies to contacts between the white house and the department, it goes in both directions. in particular, he goes to any contact with respect to a particular case. there are obviously situations where the fbi director needs to be able to commune again with the president on national security matters, for example, but in my experience i would be unusual to have any kind of one-on-one meeting between any fbi director. >> unusual, but it happened. it happened to mr. comey and he decided he was uncomfortable being in the oval office alone with the president. as unusual as it may be, would you meet in the oval office with the president with no one else present? >> it would depend on the circumstances. i think would be highly unlikely, but i think i could imagine a situation where a base on national security matter with them i call for it. my preference on presumption would be that there should be people from the department working through the office of the attorney g