quote, if sessions won't unrecuse.a statement that's bound to be of interest to the special counsel. according to a list of questions mueller wants to ask trump compiled by trump's own lawyers, two questions apply. what did you think and do regarding the recusal of mr. sessions and what efforts did you make to try to get him to change his mind? it sounds like devin nunes might be able to shed some light. chuck rosenberg and the panel are still here. paul butler, it's remarkable to me that this -- it has been reported, president president's lawyers are aware of the fact that donald trump's desire for jeff sessions to unrecuse -- i don't even know if that's a thing. is this to get his a.g. to unrecuse himself is one of the flash points in the investigation into the president. >> it's crazy. especially when we remember what this investigation is about, is whether republican campaign operatives conspired with the russians to try to subvert our democracy and what chairman nunes is saying is i don't care if the russians inst

to unrecuse himself in the investigation. in march trump ordered mcgahn to stop sessions from recusing. next the firing of fbi director james comey. mcgahn's aides at the center and how trump would explain it publicly. then there was trump's attempt to fire robert mueller. trump directed mcgahn to fire the special counsel last june. mcgahn this time refused. there are also concerns of witness tampering. "the new york times" reporting in march mueller learned of two conversations in which trump asked key witnesses, one of them don mcgahn, about matters they discussed with the special counsel, raising concerns that the president was acting improperly. and then there is the spark that ignited it all, the firing of national security advisor mike flynn. mcgahn was at the center of that, too. he was the one who briefed trump on flynn's dishonesty. and what trump knew about flynn's deception and when he could -- when he knew he could determine whether his pressure on comey to drop the flynn investigation amounted to obstruction of j

you're the lawyer, but i'm hearing unrecusal and i'm wondering if that's even an option. >> right, i don't know how it works. it's knew. but two points to what morgan said, first it's true, on both sides of the aisle, this is gaming in the casino. with nunes this has been gambling in the casino and it's a huge politicalization of what happened, a roughly bipartisan effort. but the bigger part is this, if this is what you believe, that there's mischief on both sides of the aisle. the one thing that is doing it straight, mueller and the fbi simply be left alone to do their job. and nunes along with trump is trying to demonize the one entity we really have to look to get to this straight. and that's a shame. >> morgan and harry. thanks very much. >>> coming up, vice president mike pence tries to deliver on the space force that the president has proposed. what this sixth branch of the military could do and we'll get reaction from former commander scott kelly. >>> and the first lady's parents just received their official u.s. citizenship. so we'll explain their immigration background and

if sessions won't unrecuse and mueller won't clear the president, we're the only ones. if we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away. so behind closed doors when they don't think there's any recording of what they're saying, they've been told there's no press, they've disallowed the press from being there, it's a private republicans only closed fund-raiser, the case they're making is that they either need to stop the investigation of the president, they need to stop the russia investigation or keep using the power of congress to impede that investigation, or else, right? or quote all of this goes away. that's why they want to keep the majority. that's the stakes for them keeping the majority. they're using the majority to impede the investigation. if they lose the majority the investigation might go forward, and then quote all of this goes away. so, again, we obtained this audio from a progressive group called "fuse washington," someone from that group paid to attend this fund-raiser and made this recording. we, of course, asked congressman devin nunes for comme

. >> people have asked is there such a thing as unrecusal? not that i've heard of. jeff sessions it's incredible to see the president in the course of two tweets, peter strzok sent tests, should have recused himself but jeff sessions who dealt with russian directly, part of the campaign, he should unrecuse himself some who you. >> good point. >> thank you. we have more on this coming up. day two of paul manafort trial. already a huge surprise. the prosecution's star witness rick gates may not testify. hear why. and a cnn exclusive robert mueller handing off several of his cases to new york federal prosecutors. what this could say about the russia investigation. and president trump escalates the trade war saying u.s. farmers hit by tariffs, quote, can take it. we'll talk to an iowa soybean farmer coming up. you're watching cnn, i'm brooke baldwin. you never listen to your dad when you're a teenager. my dad- he always gave me two pieces of advice. one was to always be humble. and the second was to always do the right thing. now that i'm the new ceo of uber, i've taken

is it the president's desire for sessions to unrecuse himself in the probe and is it his desire for theounsel to be fired. >> i think i have clarified this ten times. it is the president's opinion, i don't have anything further. steve. >> last night at the rally, the president again pushed for creation of a space force of a new military branch. the defense department missed the deadline, we are told that the white house twice rejected drafts because of the defense department does not want a space force. how is the president going to force the creation of a space force? >> we are continuing to work with the department of defense to figure out and determine the best way forward, something that the president feels strongly about and we'll work with our team there and figure out the best solution. >> i have a question about the president meeting with inner city pastors. secretary carlson have pushed policies raised on poor people and antiimmigration initiatives. what is the president going to say to these inner city pastors who may be hurt with these policies. >> hearing their concerns. i k

if sessions won't unrecuse and mueller won't clear the president we're the only ones, which is really the danger. that's why i keep and thank you for saying it by the way, i mean, we have to keep all these seats. we have to keep the majority. if we do not keep the majority all this goes away. >> if this was an isolated statement it might be seen differential, a partisan fund-raiser. keep in mind this is not one-of-a-kind, part of pattern for nunes. you will remember the chairman's revelation, we'll put that in quotes back of may of last year the u.s. spy agency had in the chairman's words incidentally collected information about u.s. citizens involved in the trump transition. he was, he said, alarmed by it. so alarm he rushed to the white house to brief the president and reporters. the president needs to know these intelligence reports are out there and i have a duty to tell him that. >> it later turned out he had gotten those so-called intelligence reports from the white house itself, from a secret visit he made the night before. just to underscore what was done later revealed by me

. >> if sessions won't unrecuse and mueller won't clear the president, we're the only ones which is really a danger. that's why i keep. thank you for saying it. if we don't keep the majority, all of this goes away. >> you kind of knew it, but now it's right out of his own mouth. protect the president. not to do his duty as a congressman. so i want to begin now with cnn's national security analyst james clapper. the former director of national intelligence. and the author of "facts and fears: hard truths from life in intelligence." man, director, good evening to you. what do you think of my opening remarks there? >> well, hard to know where to start. i mean, i -- i find myself in line with agreement with everything you said which is usually the case, by the way. first, the tweet i had more, as you said, more distortions and untruths crammed into it. he may have set a record with that one tweet with all the distortions and lies that are in it. secondly is, of course, rudy giuliani who know appears to be setting conditions for when the mueller investigation is supposed to end and also i find

if sessions won't unrecuse and mueller won't clear the president, we're the only ones. which is really the danger. that's why i keep -- and thank you for saying that, by the way. we have to keep on this. we have to keep the majority. if we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away. >> we're the only ones. the only ones who can save the president. the reason the special prosecutor was appointed to investigate president bill clinton was not that republicans demanded it or that some newspaper editorials and some columnist demanded it. bill clinton and his attorney janet reno would have resisted those demands from republicans. a special prosecutor was appointed because democrats demanded it, enough democrats in the house and the senate, including liberal democrats and moderate democrats agreed that there should be a special prosecutor to investigate bill and hillary clinton's financial dealings while he was governor of arkansas. and eventually bill clinton agreed and president clinton asked his attorney general, janet reno to appoint a special prosecutor to investigat

sessions won't unrecuse and mueller won't clear the president, we are the only ones.hat does that tape tell you, ned price, of the outlook of some republicans here on this investigation? >> well, the problem, david, is that devin nunes is not a bystander in all of this. he is the chair of the house intelligence committee, one of the two u.s. committees on capitol hill that are investigating these series of crimes from russian hacking to everything else. so the fact that he is broadcasting for everyone to see and for everyone to hear, the fact that he is essentially putting his finger on the scale for the president is pretty remarkable. at the same time, we didn't learn anything from that tape we didn't know before, at least that we couldn't observe before. it was last year when devin nunes first ran to the white house, created this whole unmasking scandal in an effort to defend the president. when it comes to the hearings within the house intelligence committee, he has served as a de facto defense attorney for the president, cross-examining witnesses to the president'

list listen. . >> if sessions won't unrecuse and mueller won't clear the president, we're the only ones, which is really the danger. that's why i keep, thank you for saying it, by the way. if we don't keep the majority, all of this goes away. >> all of this goes away. it's remarkable to hear a congressman, the chairman of the house intel committee, frank, saying that it's their job to shield the president. >> right. >> like this. is that their job? i mean, what the hell is going on here? >> no, what david said is absolutely correct, the job of congress is to provide oversight. there's a separation pof powers. checks and balances. congress supposed to be a balance on the executive branch. what devon noon yiz is saying in the tape, we defend the president at all costs regardless of anything. what's so scary about what she say hesays, if mueller won't clear the president. there's no concern in his statement about what mueller finds. regardless of what mueller finds, regardless of what donald trump did or didn't do, they are going to protect the president because they see their function, he

. >> my colleagues have already reported he's long since wanted jeff sessions to unrecuse himself from this entire russia investigation. he's wanted that from the very beginning, so we're hearing the president say publicly what he has said privately many times, that he really wishes that jeff sessions hadn't recused himself and would just step back in, if that were a thing -- which it is not in our system of government. but he would really like for jeff sessions to be able to step back in and take control of this thing an steer it away from the president or in a way that's more favorable to the president. i think david's right, the white house has taken great pains to separate the manafort trial from the broader question of russia's interference in the election and potential collusion by the trump campaign. but let's also not forget that this is all unfolding as his legal team is working behind the scenes with mueller to figure out whether or not there's going to be an interview and what the terms for that interview would be and what questions the president might be facing on issues th

the firing of james comey being one, getting jeff sessions to unrecuse himself, the president tellingo fire robert mueller. "the new york times" finding out about it, writing a story about it, and then the president ordering mcgahn to tell "the new york times" it didn't happen only for mcgahn to say, no, it did happen i can't say that. when you take those circumstances and say mcgahn told the special prosecutor that, what does that mean for the investigation? what does that mean for robert mueller? is it a silver bullet for obstruction? could it lead to a silver bullet? >> you've named four particular instances and i would say four times zero is zero. not one of those four instances separately or together would constitute obstruction. the real key is does mueller have something that is -- that constitutes classic obstruction, which is hush money, paying somebody to tell a lie or to not testify at all. you know, explicitly dangling a pardon in exchange for somebody testifying the right way. all those classic things, which is what -- destruction of evidence, which is what nixon and wate

if sessions won't unrecuse, mueller won't -- we're the only ones, which is really the danger.t's why -- i mean, we he keep all these things. we have to kee the majority. if we do not keep the majoritgo all of thi away. >> congressman nunes did not respond to msnbc's calls for comment. >> a new york congressman is promising a legal fight after he was indicted on insider trading charges. representative chris collins pleaded not guilty and was released on $500,000 bail. oo says he'sng forward to being fully vindicated. >> the charges that have been levied against me are meritless and i will mount a vigorous nse in court to clear my name. >> house demedrats sla collins who is up for reelection. minority leader nancy pelosica said the ame people deserve better than the gop'sco uption, cronyism, and incompetence. nate mcmry said thewamp is alive and well in washington, d.c. nbc's stephanie gosk has mor >> on the evening of june 22nd -- >> reporter: u.s. attorney laid out time lines and phone records, proof he says that republican congressman christopher collinsew of n york is guilty

he won't unrecuse himself and fire mueller. they won't falsely investigate his rivals. donald trump thinks that the attorney general is basically his lawyer, not the lawyer for the justice department, not for the american people but basically the guy that has his back. so it's that fundamental motive. again, this is a recurrent issue. you may have the authority to fire the attorney general or the director of the fbi or revoke peoples security clearances. it doesn't mean if you are doing it far for a corrupt purpose. >> how important is he to this cohen investigation? it is a private lawyer for the president. he pleaded guilty to eight counts. two of those he said under oath that the president was effectively an unindicted coconspirator. it would be credible to the special council robert mueller. >> he said he has investigation he believes would be of importance and value to special council. for that reason i reached out to mr. cohen's lawyers to invite him to share whatever information he may not have been willing to share. it was that the president was a coconspirator

if sessions won't unrecuse and mueller won't clear the president, we're the only ones. which is really the danger. that's why i keep, and thank for -- >> if we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away. msnbc reached out to the office. face a grave threat from the mueller investigation which has already ensnared senior campaign officials and the president's first national security advisor. nunes made it crystal clear that his priority is not to find out the truth but rather to shield the president from consequences. it applies not to the russia probe but expanding number of russia levels. consider the new developments in the last few days. we just learned that the trump administration has secretly farmed out leadership of the va to three members of the president's private club mar-a-lago none of whom has relevant experience. wilbur ross. and then just yesterday we learned that the first member to endorse the president's campaign, chris collins carried out an insider trading scheme last year from the lawn of the white house. meanwhile, the president has spent an en

firing of james comey, his orders, for example, to fire mueller himself or to try to get sessions to unrecuse himself, et cetera. i think he will focus on those as obstructionist acts because i think they're more clear, but use this to show trump's intent. and certainly what you see here is a man, the president who claimed to be a law and order candidate, sounds more like a criminal who's pleased one of his henchmen remains silent rather than in law and order. >> manafort could still make some deal to get his sentencing down, right, if he were to start cooperating with mueller's team if he had something useful for them? >> no question. if there's not a pardon on the table, and i represented paul manafort, i would say you need to cut a deal right away. get the d.c. case wrapped up in district of columbia, get that wrapped into the virginia case, try to get some sort of deal to get judge ellis to handle the whole thing, get a reduced sentence. >>> stand by. one of the reporters that broke the watergate scandal joins us next. i will ask carl bernstein how it compares and could impeachment be a r

the president of the united states asking or telling the attorney general who is recused to unrecuseimself and stop an investigation that seems to be getting even closer to trump and his inner circle. we get distracted by the outlandish drapings that come out on these decisions and then we get bogged down with rudy giuliani's sesemantics. but at the core is a fundamentally un-american authoritarian impulse. and that should frighten people. republicans are saying absolutely nothing about what i hate to say is kind of a historic moment. >> tim, rudy giuliani today saying the special prosecutor should put up or shut up at the same time that he has spent the entire year, that the trump team has spent the entire year avoiding an interview that the special prosecutor has been asking for. >> they want to speed this along to the extent they can because they want to limit the scope of this investigation. everything is in bob mueller's favor to continue probing this. it is not only just an obstruction and a collusion investigation. there is also a possible high crimes misdemeanors. bob mueller

. >> one of his quotes, just drilling back down barrett, if sessions won't unrecuse, and mueller won't end the investigation, we're the only ones who can clear trump. >> this should be shocking to all of us that he's publicly commenting that his goal is to clear the president. but this isn't actually that surprising, this is just a public acknowledgement of what they have been doing this entire time. the sole focus of this investigation, i think we can put air quotes around that now, is to discredit the special counsel's investigation. >> i think they have succeed beyond their dreams in discrediting mueller. and i think that's one reason why they want to keep down this path. it's not pretty, but it's working to some degree. in that amount of republicans are turning against mueller. >> and david, to you, what he said about supreme court nominee brett kavanagh, the senate will have to take that up and the senate he said needs to be focused on confirming cavanaugh, cavanaugh, a, is the senate really -- >> i can't see that, they're on two different tracks and if there is an impeachment pro

. >> if sessions won't unrecuse and mueller won't clear the president, we're the only ones. which is really the danger. that's why i keep -- and thank you for saying it by the way, i mean, we have to keep all these secrets. >> he's basically saying in that clip that they've got to win because that's the only way to stop mueller one way or the other. >> and that's the only way to protect the agenda. the republican party -- >> protect the president. >> -- still supports the president very strongly. if the republicans lose the house of representatives it's katie bar the door from investigations by democrats. >> this isn't just another member of congress. he is chairman of the intelligence committee. i mean, contrast this behavior with the more traditional role that senator burr has taken, the chairman of the intelligence committee on the other side. >> no question that the senate has a more bipartisan, and i agree, better model in terms of this investigation than the house does. it's become a partisan issue in the house. >> it was devin nunes who went surreptitiously at night t

. >> if sessions won't unrecuse and mueller won't clear the president, we're the only ones, which iseally the danger. thank you for saying it, by the way. we have to keep all these seats. if we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away. >> republicans are clear in their mission, trying to protect the president. and there are democrats not on board with impreachmeneachment. >> the first thing to remember is 75% of democratic voters think this president should be impeached and removed from office. that's an overwhelming number. we are at nixon-type levels in the american people that think this president is corrupt, the most corrupt in history and needs to go. that's a truth, which is building in america. it is something which has been growing. it took 2 1/2 years to come to terms that nixon needed to leave office. what we are going to do is go out and tell the truth. we are going to put the constitution and the american people to the truth. they are the people that hold the power. >> if you have people who do the paperwork side of it and make things happen and they are not listen

. >> if sessions won't unrecuse and mueller won't clear the president, we're the only ones. by the way i mean we have to keep all of these -- we're the only ones. >> meaning republicans in congress. what did you find so offensive in that that would lead you to for the very first time in your life as far as we know vote for a democrat? >> first time in a federal election. i voted locally in d.c. for a while and voted for some democratic candidates here. but really, it's the abdication of responsibility, the republican party seems to me to no longer deserve my support or frankly the support of anybody who thinks that the legislative branch should act as a check and balance against executive awe thor tar yanism. essentially represent nunes has said aloud what everybody is assuming, which is that his only goal and apparently the only goal of the party is to defend the president no matter what. and that's not the right way for a legislative branch to function. >> abdicated what exactly what what should he be doing? the right kind of devin nunes and house committee chair, what wou

and he thinks, or he's come under the fear that to go that far to remove sessions to try to get an unrecusedneecap the probe itself you think would actually lead to impeachment? >> especially this close to the election, yes. >> ambassador? >> i don't have a good answer to that question. it seems to me that he knows that his options of firing him, i mean, your point, ari, he has the presidential authority to do that, that he chooses not to. suggests that he doesn't have a plan "b." and maybe he's just stuck with the current equilibrium that he's put himself in. the tragedy of all this, is the rule of law, is the respect for the united states government, the institutions that normally don't behave in this way and normally a president of the united states does not talk about his attorney general in the way that president trump does today. >> certainly not, and so it both shows what he's doing that's concerned so many people and that mueller may ultimately use as evidence. the limits on him, something may be working. thank you both. >>> up ahead, we have new numbers exclusive to "the beat" on so

if sessions won't unrecuse and mueller won't clear the president -- we have to keep the majority. if we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away. >> reporter: cnn has learned the president is expected to have dinner with rudy giuliani at his divorce cour golf course here in new jersey later on, another sign that the trump team is closing in on this crucial decision on whether to give mule their all-important and crucial interview. it seems that the president and his legal team are trying to have it both ways. at many points during the course of all of this, complaining that this investigation has dragged on too long, while at the same time they're now withholding from robert mueller and his team the one thing they need to wrap up this investigation. that, of course, is that interview with the president. >> we're also getting some new information about melania trump's parent who is officially became united states citizens today. what are you learning? >> reporter: that's right, wolf. we're learning that her parents were sworn in as citizens earlier today, united states citiz

. >> if sessions won't unrecuse and mueller won't clear the president, we're the only ones. which is really the danger. that's why i keep, and thank you for saying it by the way, i mean, we have to keep all of these seats. if we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away. >> as i said, not surprising, but it certainly is problematic given that devin nunes is the chairman. house intelligence committee. the big question today is, is the republican playbook to protect the president from bob mueller working? white house bureau chief with "the washington post" phil rucker, former assistant u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york and distinguished fell in criminal justice at pace university's law school mimi rocca. they are both msnbc analysts. and steve schmidt, also an msnbc contributor. phil, starting with you, i think it's pretty clear now that rudy giuliani will tell us today that he is going to give an answer to robert mueller by the end of the day and then tomorrow say, oh, we're still negotiating, and then the day after that say, there is never going to be

if we know that the obstruction of justice inquiry includes his efforts to get jeff sessions to unrecuse, that he wanted someone at the justice department to protect him. protect him from what? why can't -- why are the lawyers so weak and powerless that they can't simply say, you can attack everybody, just leave off of jeff sessions, because you're under investigation. you may actually be a subject or a target of the obstruction of justice investigation because of your threats to fire jeff sessions. >> sure. you know, trump apparently has no impulse control here. i feel certain that his lawyers have warned him on repeated occasions against discussing anything to do with his attorney general publicly. apparently, though, he just can't help himself. and the irony is that sessions -- and look, i think i need to say it, and i never thought these words would come out of my mouth but i agree with trump, that sessions is not a real attorney general and i look forward to getting back to the days when we can discuss criminal justice and civil rights where sessions is failing as an attorney genera

if sessions won't unrecuse and mueller won't clear the president we're the only ones -- we have to keepthese seats. we have to keep the majority. if we do not keep the majority all of this goes away. >> what democrats and other critics are saying is it is not the job of the house intelligence committee chairman to protect president trump. it is the job to find out what happened and share that information with the american people. >> a partisan member goes to a partisan event and gives a partisan speech. the problem is that the dysfunction of the intelligence committee. both sides have been far too aggressive partisan in these investigations. now you don't know what is right. the democrats issue their report. the republicans issue their report. is that right? the only way we get to the bottom of what is happening in all of this is through these i.g. investigations. d.o.j. is looking at the fisa issue. they looked at the clinton e-mails and said there were mistakes made. those are important to correct. what you have now is this absolute scrum on what is happening inside the intelligence c

if sessions won't unrecuse and mueller won't clear the president, we're the only ones, which is really the danger. that's why i keep -- and thank you for saying it, by the way. we have to keep all these seats. we have to keep the majority. if we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away. >> let's start in berkeley heights, new jersey, where the president begins his 11-day working vacation. that's where we find kelly o'donnell. good to see you. last night giuliani said there were things that weren't yet public about mueller or potential wrongdoing and then today trump ended that tweet with stay tuned. what do you know about what we are waiting for? >> reporter: well, this has been an ongoing campaign, kasie, from the president's legal team to bit by bit discredit the investigation so that particularly trump voters and those in the republican party would give it less weight as things go forward and at the same time it's also been about dragging out the really big ending game question. will the president participate in any way submitting to an interview with the special counsel. tha

devin nunes in that tape says that if sessions doesn't unrecuse himself, if mueller won't clear the president, it is up to house republicans. that is not sounding like a co-equal branch of government. >> that is the conclusion that he has come to. >> and he has done that insofar as he has the authority do that -- >> and what about -- >> well, that is not completely true. there isis overlapping evidence that the mueller folks have. >> and he has not seen all of the evidence -- >> we are further down the road than in watergate, and still no evidence of collusion, and that is because there wasn't collusi collusion. there was involvement by the russians in the election, but it is not collusion. >> and so you are saying that based on and you have seen the mueller evidence? >> no, i have seen what you have seen, anderson. let's not get trif yal about this. >> and so you don't know. >> and the double standard in 2012 when we had a president lean over to say to the president of russia, hey, let's deal differently before the election, and when we get past my election, i will go easy on you, that is wh

if sessions won't unrecuse and mueller won't clear the president, we're the only ones. so what they're saying there is if the attorney general of the united states abides by his oath to defend the constitution, and if the special prosecutor, robert mueller, abides by his oath to defend the constitution, then it will be up to them, the republican members of the congress, to defend donald trump against the defenders of the constitution. 44 years ago today richard nixon left the white house for the last time because there was no devin nunes in the house of representatives telling all the other republicans we're the only ones who can save their president. it wasn't always this way. if the republicans who served in the house of representatives and in the united states senate when richard nixon was president were still serving today, we would not have to fear that we are living with a congress that refuses to defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. leading off our discussion now, joyce vance, former federal prosecutor, professor at the university of

trump obstructed the investigation into russian meddling through his efforts to get jeff sessions to unrecuse himself. and by firing jim comey, and by seeking to fire robert mueller. we also know that the special counsel is examining donald trump's tweets and public statements. so why, why would donald trump continue to walk up to the line and in the view of many experts cross the line into clear obstruction of justice by admitting he's firing people investigating russian interference? here to help us answer that question, the very best of the best, chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney and former senior fbi official. maximum well, former clinton campaign advisor now director of progressive programming for sirius xm, jonathan swan, national political reporter for axios. also back with us, frank figliuzzi, former fbi assistant director for counter intelligence and steve schmidt is back. steve, you're going to end up with one name by the end of this. let me start with you, chuck. take me through what i understand now may not be a distinction worth making, that the president is somehow comforted

sort of ferocious attacks on sessions since we've learned that both the effort to get sessions to unrecuse himself are under investigation in the obstruction inquiry and that everything the president tweets is being stitched together with those actions behind the scenes. here's what he tweeted. this is from the president of the united states about his own attorney general. our a.g. is scared stiff and missing in action. it is all starting to be revealed -- not pretty. i.g. report soon? witch hunt. and then rudy giuliani piled on a little one-two here. a.g. sessions should appoint an independent counsel to investigate the investigator starting with the fraudulent steele dossier and including comey's leaking perjury and his own obstruction of justice. time to restore justice to the department of -- >> this department of justice is run by donald trump's appointees. what do these look like to investigators? >> this is a scorched earth policy. he's gone from calling the media the enemy of the people to now referring to the attorney general as implying he's the enemy of the white house. but on a

wondering if you can clarify this tweet from this morning, is it the president's desire for sessions to unrecuse for the special counsel to be fired? >> secretary sanders: it is the president's opinion, i don't have anything further. >> reporter: last night at the tampa rally, the president again pushed for the creation of a space for us, a new military branch. the defense department today missed a deadline to submit a report to congress about how this space for us is to be structured and we are told the white house is now twice rejected drafts because the defense department doesn't want a space for us and would rather create a space command under the existing military structure. how is the president going to force the creation of a space force? >> secretary sanders: we are continuing to work with the department of defense to determine the best way forward, something the president feels strongly about and we are going to work with our team and figure out the best solution. >> reporter: i have a question about the president meeting with inner-city pastors today. secretary carson has pushed polici

apparently he was forced to ask sessions to unrecuse himself. he did it.ut in positions, he's threatened resignation. and now the guardrail is gone. does this 'em bolden the president? >> the president doesn't like the guardrails. >> no! he doesn't think the lines in the middle of roads, i think. >> sir, i'm sorry you can't do this or you can do that, that drives president trump absolutely crazy i'm being told on what you can do. i'll tell you what don mcgahn is good at and that's all the judicial nominations. we saw senator chuck grassley talk about that. please keep don mcgahn. to me if you want to step back outside the mueller investigation, the biggest story line is all the turnover that's actually occurred. if the white house is going to be on its second white house counsel, its fourth or fifth communications director, second or third white house press secretary, when you don't have really good people around you, guardrail or not, it's hard to get government to work. >> michael. >> it reminds me of that kid in the crib that figures out how to get out.

. >> if sessions won't unrecuse and mueller won't clear the president, we're the only ones, which is really the danger. i mean, we have to keep all these seats. we have to keep the majority. if we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away. >> nunes was discredited as a russia investigator over ethics charges that he was coordinating with the white house. he claimed to recuse himself from running the probe. what's new here is that nunes is bluntly admitting how he views his partisan role. he's playing out a new calendar for when he wants to kneecap the mueller probe and assuring donors there is still a plan to impeach mueller's boss, rod rosenstein. so listen to this part because he says the key isimpis simply it kicks in after november. >> the senate would have to drop everything they're doing and start to -- start with impeachment on rosenstein. and then you take the risk of not getting kavanaugh confirmed. so, it's not a matter that any of us like rosenstein. it's a matter of -- it's a matter of timing. >> a major claim for the republican's intel chairman to make. a plan to u

out these, you know, ridiculous orders that trump is trying to impose on sessions to get him to unrecuse himself. and that's why one is sort of being forced out and one is likely to be fired. >> sessions is also somebody who is a witness in robert mueller's probe. it's not just mcgahn. >> yeah, so we're looking increasingly now at an unchecked president and no one left to even try to balance his actions out. and if that happens, the domino effect may start. so he's talking increasingly about getting rid of sessions. we're hearing prominent republican senators kind of giving the blessing for that. and the danger signal to me is we're hearing people say, well, as long as he picks an attorney general who lets mueller finish. letting mueller finish is only half the equation. how you properly deal with mueller's report, mueller's potential request to subpoena the president for interview, mueller's potential request to indict a sitting president. if a new attorney general is there and he's a lackey for this president, look out. >> is it going to be a lackey for this president, phil? you alread

he has repeatedly tried to pressure jeff sessions to unrecuse. and fire robert mueller. and the prosecutor will find evidence of obstruction inside the white house, i'm sure. but, you know, the house and senate judiciary committee should be investigating this. we're pay past the time of 1973 where they were investigating richard nixon. i'm shocked there is no investigation for obstruction of justice and abuse of power and other high crimes and misdemeanors. >> let me ask you, why do you think that tonight we're in a place that is past where we were with nixon regarding presidential obstruction? what supports your view on that? >> i think we were past that point when he fired james comey. it was clear he fired james comey in order to obstruct the russia investigation, and he admitted to that in front of the russian ambassador in several tv interviews. we should have had hearings in the house and senate judiciary committee at the same time that robert mueller was hired. and that's the way it was done in the nixon days. they had the house and senate actually doing their job

but his actions, the way he has threatened robert mueller, the way he demanded that jeff sessions unrecuse, the way he demanded mcgahn fire mueller and then demanded mcgahn lie according to the "new york times" about his demand of firing mueller when "the new york times" found out about it. they seem to be in direct conflict with each other. >> yeah. i mean, so i think the first problem is that, you know, people like you do not take him at his word when he tweets no collusion and witch hunt. he finds that very frustrating. and the second problem is that, you know, when he tries to cooperate because he thinks he has nothing to hide, what happens is that the people around him tell the prosecutors about his behavior, which isn't necessarily exculpatory talk. and then when he gets upset and tries to sort of thrash back, he ends up exacerbating that would public conduct and private conduct that those people are then witnesses to. and so he gets angry at mueller and he tries to fire mueller. who does the instruction go to? it goes to don mcgahn, who is then cooperating with mueller himself. and

is it the president's desire for, first, sessions to unrecuse himself from the probe and is it also hise special counsel to be fired? >> i think i've clarified this about ten times now. it's the president's opinion. i don't have anything further. steve? >> yes, sarah. last night at the tampa rally, the president again pushed for creation of a space force as a new military branch. the defense department today missed the deadline to submit a report to congress about how this space force is to be structured. and we're told the white house is now twice rejected drafts because the defense department doesn't want a space force. it would rather create a space command under the existing military structure. in view of this, how is the president going to force the creation of a space force? >> we're continuing to work with the department of defense to figure out and determine the best way forward. something the president feels strongly about. and we're going to work with our team there and figure out the best solution. >> i have a question about the president is meeting with inner city pastors. t

third third issue was the issue of recusing yourself in the case of judge gorseca and then unrecusingyourself again if you could provide a detailed -- you are with welcome to address it now but if you want to address a written statement that would be helpful. >> i welcome the opportunity. i served in the state of michigan judicial tenure commission as requested. it is their -- seven mebs of the judiciary and two independents. i served for six years. i would be more thean happy to discuss that and look forward to that opportunity. >> thank you for the opportunity to come here today. my wife and i have been to morocco. there is lots of opportunity to grow commerce, to grow count terrorism efforts. we look forward to hosting you if you can come and we can tour the country and look at the opportunity. commerce is better. there's -- with the free trade agreement we've seen over a 300% increase in commerce. s i say, they're great counter terrorism partners of urs. there's a lot to look forward to serving if confirmed. i again invite you to come to morocco and we can discuss it or i will com

obstruction, whether it's the firing of comey or the efforts to get sessions to recuse himself and unrecuserid of sessions. these are things that mcgahn is directly there with the president for. and mueller has had that extraordinary witness to help his investigation. and that's what we reported. >> and on twitter yesterday, president trump responded to that story and insisted that white house counsel don mcgahn won't turn on him like richard nixon's did. he tweeted, quote, failing new york times wrote a fake piece today implying that because white house counsel don mcgahn was giving hours of testimony to the special counsel he must be a john dean-type rat. john dean of course was the white house counsel for richard nixon and became a key witness in the watergate scandal and served a prison term for obstruction of justice. trump wrote about mcgahn, quote, i allowed him and all others to testify. i didn't have to. i have nothing to hide. and demanded transparency so that this rigged and disgusting witch hunt can come to a close. so many lives have been ruined. blah blah blah. so, michael sch

so in firing him or impeaching him or unrecusing the attorney general to fire him is really at the coreategy is. >> senator, a question for you. nunes is known as somebody who hates the investigation, who has cast doubt on it. but seeing the number for house republicans echo his comments, rogers echoing his sense of the strategy was new to me and i wonder if you take that to mean that the full house leadership is actually secretly behind this plan to impeach the deputy attorney general? >> in my view the republican leadership is ambivalent. it knows what the right thing to do here is. it needs the grit and back bone to stand up and really uphold the rule of law. and that applies to brett kavanaugh as well because right now the republicans are engaged in a conscious effort to hide and conceal documents that are necessary to evaluate brett kavanaugh's nomination. they've not only limited the scope of the documents to exclude all the relevant paper and communications involving brett kavanaugh's service in the bush white house as staff secretary but they've also turned over the screening pr