democratic senator sheldon whitehouse on the justice department issues here.or joining me tonight. >> good to be with you, ari. >> you and then attorney general nominee bill barr talked obstruction at the hearing. let's look at that. >> and it is not your up tension tensio -- >> no, it's not. >> -- particularly as they may bear on obstruction by the president or people around him? >> that's right. >> thank you. >> you got a sort of commitment there. do you feel else's honoring it? >> it's hard to tell because of all the different charges that one could bring, you know, there are a lot that are a mixture of fact and law and an obstruction charge is about as fact heavy a proposition as we have, so his letter said that most of the obstruction or potentially obstruction conduct has been public but that implies obviously that there is some conduct that is not known to the public and until you see the whole thing, it's very hard to sort that through and apply it against the prosecution standards of the department. >> let me give you the benefit of responding to the

what's your sense from a political perspective, i'd like to continue the conversation with sheldon whitehouse what exactly these senators on the judiciary committee think about this, more measured from the house. what do you think the democratic base will demand from their leaders in the wake of this? >> i think they will want to see, and should see as much of the report as legally able to be released, right? that this is fight the democrats can have and have high moral legal standing on. it's tricky for president trump and the justice department to say, no, no, no, we will only release this much. it's in his political interest for the president to release as much as they possibly legally can. i think where trump benefits is once that fight shifts away from what are we releasing and not releasing an gets into a fishing expedition, so he can say it's a fishing expedition on the part of democrats to relitigate what appears to have been settled on this report. thumb thrives on having an enemy and saying he's been persecuted. he's always seen himself as being persecuted. a lot of republican voter

i joined forces with rob portman, republican from ohio, and sheldon whitehouse and at the time, kellyput a bill forward for a blueprint. i remember senators patting us on the head. >> really? >> people didn't understand how bad it was and how quickly addicted people were to opioids and it was legal prescriptions a lot of them were addicted to. that's where we started and there is a bigger realization for opioids and all drugs. i used to say we wanted to be efficient like a business. we are not a business in one important way. we don't like to see repeat customers. >> yeah. >> the way you stop repeat customers in the criminal justice system is by making sure people get treatment. >> you have a republican champion in terms of big pharma. that's chuck grassley. you said big pharma companies think they own washington. he and you are on the same page on a lot of this stuff which might be surprising to a lot of the american public. what should the american people expect you and senator grassley to do together to get signed into law? >> they should expect the bills which is just legislation

what's your sense from a political perspective, i'd like to continue the conversation with sheldon whitehouseat exactly these senators on the judiciary committee think about this, more measured from the house. what do you think the democratic base will demand from their leaders in the wake of this? >> i think they will want to see, and should see as much of the report as legally able to be released, right? that this is fight the democrats can have and have high moral legal standing on. it's tricky for president trump and the justice department to say, no, no, no, we will only release this much. it's in his political interest for the president to release as much as they possibly legally can. i think where trump benefits is once that fight shifts away from what are we releasing and not releasing an gets into a fishing expedition, so he can say it's a fishing expedition on the part of democrats to relitigate what appears to have been settled on this report. thumb thrives on having an enemy and saying he's been persecuted. he's always seen himself as being persecuted. a lot of republican voters o

. >>> i want to bring in now democratic sheldon whitehouse, who is on the judiciary committee. senator, thank you very much for joining us. today democratic leader chuck schumer tried to bring to a vote the unanimous house resolution that would make the mueller report public. but leader mcconnell objected. why won't mcconnell allow a vote on this? >> i do not know. i think maybe it would put some of his republicans in a bad position. that's usually the reason that he blocks things. but that doesn't make much sense with the president saying this should be transparent, with the house having voted unanimously to clear it. so hard to tell. >> you've made it clear all along that you want the full mueller report to be public. what in your estimation -- what is your estimation of barr, the memo that barr sent to congress? do you trust his interpretation of mueller's report? >> i don't because i haven't seen the report and it leaves such huge questions unanswered. the two biggest unanswered questions are, first, what was the scope of the mueller report? what was the scope of his invest

sheldon whitehouse saying there is something troubled in president trump constantly trying to belittleohn mccain. the president must realize how far better a man like john was and will always be. senator ben cardin from maryland, democrats and republicans can disagree on policy, but we should share respect for individuals who served and sacrificed in uniform for our country. that is some responsys from members of congress over the president remarks on john mccain. mitch is next in delaware, democrats line. caller: good morning. i am a tea party democrat in ella where. i think there are three good reasons to support the president's recent comments. i think the first one that really hit all the headlines may have been an article. he has been able to command the headline. he has brilliantly done this in the past and that speaks for itself. forcesond one is it people like the ones you mentioned previously to have to defend sarah palin's former running mate, which is hilarious. lastly and most importantly, i believe it keeps the collusion the dossier -- collusion dossier on cnn. the left wa

feinstein, durbin, sheldon whitehouse still voted no many of them they said he was a strong witness andeved he was going to stand up and there he was yesterday saying the president is on firm legal ground. do you think democrats will finally realize that he is? >> probably not. how good does the president feel to have the attorney general next to him that he feels like is backing him up in a way that he really hadn't had before. ultimately the president went on to say national emergency 56 them had been declared before. usualably other countries. if you have a clear emergency in our own i'm going to use the authority that i have. no one better than to have your attorney general who has these credentials standing next to you. rachel: you wouldn't know bill barr took that kind of stand with clarity the media never covered it. here is what talking heads had to say during his comments. pete: these are the split screens. on the bottom is fox news channel. fox news channel is taking the remarks of bill barr and kirsten nielsen and others. the other channels have as you see jake at that point

senators tom udall, chris van hollen, brian schatz, and sheldon whitehouse lead those efforts. in addition, we should acknowledge that senators ed markey and jeff merkley have long led bills to bring about comprehensive climate action. we need to get all the good ideas we can out on the table. and we need the republicans to come with ideas of their own. just this week, republican senator lamar alexander of tennessee proposed a "manhattan project for clean energy," reviving an idea he pushed a decade ago, which would increase funding for energy research. this is promising. so let's bring all the ideas to the table and take action on climate. taking decisive action is good for our health, our environment, and our economy. america can either follow or lead on climate change. democrats think we should lead. >> the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. >> asked not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country. >> and the people who knocked these buildings down. book,pan's new was the the presidents, ranking the best and worst chief executives remise ins

different regions around the country, including the northeast, which is where of course sheldon -- senator whitehouse represents rhode island andist honor of representing -- and i have the honor of representing maryland. it says these areas, these regions will get hot faster than many other areas and it talks about the impact of climate change on the chesapeake bay, which is a national treasure and really important to maryland's economy. and they predict stronger and more frequent storms and an increase in rain which leads to more pollution in the bay, increasing water temperatures, sea level rise. by the way, one island has already disappeared in the chesapeake bay and a couple more look like they will be going under in the coming years because of sea level rise. if you go to the naval academy in annapolis and you talk to folks there, they will tell you that they are already experiencing the negative impact of flooding and sea level rise right there at the naval academy. of course our military has warned for years about the consequences of climate change. madam president, i just want to give a very