there you go that's going to be the last word steven erlanger thank you so much for joining us for your.

. >> to talk more about this let's bring in steven erlanger. steven the chief diplomatic correspondent in europe for the "new york times" live in brussels, belgium this hour. steven, always a pleasure you have to here on the show. look, we know that mcgahn spent three days, some 30 hours speaking with the special counsel. the president appearing to get out ahead of the story, saying he told him to do so. but here's the thing. a source telling cnn the white house doesn't know exactly what mcgahn discussed. is this a problem for the president? >> well, it's always a problem for the president because this investigation really goes to the heart of his -- of his election victory, first of all. which he's very sensitive about. and it's a question of whether he obstructed justice or whether anyone in the white house tried to obstruct justice. and that's what mr. mcgahn is likely to be able to testify about. >> i don't know what he said any more than trump did but lawyers are very careful when they're talking under oath to other lawyers, particularly pr

let's talk about it all with steven erlanger joining us from brussels.you here on the show. what was surprising the other day was jeff sessions firing back at the u.s. president for criticizing him for recusing himself, but now president trump doubling down even suggesting that sessions pursue the white house's political opponents. this is a very public tug of war. what do you make of it? >> well, what i make of it is trump is getting ready to fire jeff sessions. it will probably happen after the midterm elections in november, but it is very, very difficult. i mean after all trump named him. jeff sessions who was a senator and very loyal to trump, one of his early supporters inside the republican party, but he is a lawyer and he cares deeply about the justice system and the one thing he does know is that the justice department is in general not going to allow itself to be politicalized. so if trump keeps going with this, he opens himself more to charges of obstruction of justice. what i think people fear actually is a looming saturday night massacre, whi

and that's the hope i think many people have will be carried forward. >> steven erlanger live for us in brussels, belgium. steven, thank you for your time. >> thanks, george. >>> well, once again a mass shooting in the united states has brought heartache to the state of florida. this was at a video game tournament in jacksonville. at least two people were killed when a young man opened fire and then killed himself. police have identified him as a 24-year-old from baltimore. >> his motive at this point not clear, but we do know he was competing in a tournament which was being livestreamed online. we're about to show you video of one of the games going on when the shooting started. we do warn you, you may find the video disturbing because you can hear the gunshots and at least one person reacting to being shot. we'll play it now. >> got a lot of good games going on. >> it's going to be hard to get them on stream. it's a lot. >> it's not a tough out today -- excuse me, not an easy out. [ gunshots ] [ scream ] >> ow! oh, [ bleep ]! what are you shooting with? oh! >> wow, it is just shocki

. >>> steven erlanger is joining us now. the chief did that lplomatic fo "new york times" in london. thank you for your final. several former indiana te-- intelligence officials are speaking out over the action to cancel jobrennan's security clearance and they say it should be based on national security concerns, not political views. so it does seem like an attack on one is becoming an attack on all. >> well, it does. and you've heard president trump there who sounds sometimes rather hysterical on this russia issue. i mean, he really sounds like this is the one thing that bothers him most of all in the entire world. now, this is the same president who gave away an important israeli intelligence source through chatting in the oval office early in his time. this is not about national security. john brennan has been a sharp critic of president trump. and president trump has struck back. and if he does as he keeps talking about doing, taking security clearances away from people like susan rice, former obama officials who simply

maggie on skype he's an advisor at the national diversity coalition for trump and in brussels steven erlanger's also on skype the chief diplomatic correspondent for europe at the new york times welcome to you or if i could start with stephen have the last few days been a turning point in terms of the vulnerability of the white house yes i think they have no this is a story that has a long way to go but this is the first time that president trump has been quite clearly implicated in a crime is personal lawyer is considerably airy if you like but knows where a lot of the secrets are kept. claim guilty and testified that he had committed a crime instigation and in coordination with the president of the united states but they are not let me say i mean i'm going to try as i'm sure you know trump supporters would argue he hasn't been charged himself trump hasn't been charged themselves not why does this make him vulnerable then. well we don't indict sitting presidents but i'll tell you if he wasn't a sitting president he probably would have been indicted ok i can see oliver is shaking his head in h

maggie on skype he's an advisor at the national diversity coalition for trump and in brussels steven erlanger who's also on skype the chief diplomatic correspondent for europe at the new york times welcome to you all if i could start with stephen have the last few days been a turning point in terms of the vulnerability of the white house yes i think they have no this is a story that has a long way to go but this is the first time that president trump has been quite clearly implicated in a crime is personal lawyer is considerably airy if you like but knows where a lot of the secrets are kept. pled guilty and testified that he had committed a crime at the instigation and then coordination with the president of the united states but they haven't let me say i mean i'm going to try as i'm sure you know trump supporters would argue he hasn't been charged himself trump hasn't been charged themselves not why does this make him vulnerable then. well we don't indict sitting presidents but i'll tell you if he wasn't a sitting president he probably would have been indicted ok i can see oliver is shaking

goes though let's leave it there for now and thank our guests james boys all of them again and steven erlanger. and thank you for watching the show you can see it again any time by visiting our website al-jazeera dot com and for the discussion go over to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle there is at a.j. inside story from me sam has a band and the entire team here for now it's good buy. capturing a moment in time. snapshots of other lives other stories. providing a glimpse into someone else's well. witness on al-jazeera. challenge your perception ethiopia's economy has grown to foster right than any other african country fearless journalist look at sirens were heard here is that is indication of just how close the fighting is groundbreaking documentary debates and discussion just six months ago we were at the brink of a who. was willing programs take you on a journey around the globe. on al-jazeera on counting the cost crippled by its currency crisis the oil rich venezuela taking desperate measures

maggie on skype he's an advisor at the national diversity coalition for trump and in brussels steven erlanger who's also on skype the chief diplomatic correspondent for europe at the new york times welcome to you all if i could start with stephen have the last few days been a turning point in terms of the vulnerability of the white house yes i think they have no this is a story that has a long way to go but this is the first time that president trump has been quite clearly implicated in a crime it's personal lawyer is considerably airy if you like but knows where a lot of the secrets are kept. pled guilty and testified that he had committed a crime of instigation and in coordination with the president of the united states but they are not let me say i mean i'm going to turn as our show you know trump supporters would argue he hasn't been charged himself trump hasn't been charged themselves not why does this make him vulnerable then. well we don't indict sitting presidents but i'll tell you if he wasn't a sitting president he probably would have been indicted ok i can see oliver is shaking his

. >> steven erlanger, thank you for your analysis.nue to for him the story of course. >>> the day's top stories and breaking news on the west coast just ahead here. i'm george howell. >> i'm natalie allen. we'll be right back. this is not a bed. it's a revolution in sleep. the new sleep number 360 smart bed, from $999, intelligently senses your movement and automatically adjusts. so you wake up ready to train for that marathon. and now, save up to $500 on select sleep number 360 smart beds. ends wednesday. and i'm the founder of ugmonk. before shipstation it was crazy. it's great when you see a hundred orders come in, a hundred orders come in, but then you realize i've got a hundred orders i have to ship out. shipstation streamlined that wh the order data, the weights of , everything is seamlessly put into shipstation, so when we print the shipping ll everything's pretty much done. it's so much easier so now, we're ready, bring on t. shipstation. the number one ch of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get two months free. do

there you go that's going to be the last word steven erlanger thank you so much for joining us for your insight we appreciate it thank you russian president vladimir putin has called a new set of u.s. sanctions against moscow counterproductive and senseless the measures banned certain exports to russia after the poisoning of a russian agent and his daughter and england the attack which both did survive has been widely blamed on moscow but has been denied by the kremlin or a challenge joins us now from moscow so henri. the wording from vladimir putin he's very good at messaging what type of message is he trying to send that he wants washington to hear. well i think he's got two different audiences here in washington that he is speaking to at the moment one of them is the man who sitting in the white house at the moment donald trump and putin wants to tell donald trump essentially that the door is still open and putin does not blame trump personally for these russian sanctions and he says things like well you know we had a great meeting or a positive meeting in helsinki recently that was

for more analysis on this now, steven erlanger, chief correspondent at the new york times, joins us viaer, as you have put it, has implicated the president in the commission of that crime. if donald trump were not president, he would be indicted tomorrow. but generally, sitting president are not indicted. the point is, these are campaign finance issues. this is not the russian issue, which i think it matters more to americans, the question of collusion or conspiracy with the russian government. trump presents himself obviously as the victim of the washington swamp, the elites, the fbi, robert mueller, all the clilntonites and everyone who didn't want him to be president, and he is pushing that line. that is going to be much more awkward for him, particularly as the mid—term elections come in november, if the republicans suffer badly. the presidency will have a big hole in it there's no about that. but in the president'sview, this is a witch—hunt. he says there is no evidence of collusion with the russians, so how does this fit in with robert mueller‘s investigation? well, this is intere