it's not clear matt whittaker will be around for any report. it could also be the case mueller has investigative or prosecutorial work but the report may come much later and would be a gap in time if barr is confirmed, as gregory mentioned, ultimately what happens to it and whittaker mentioned being reviewed was an artful way of saying mueller will submit a final report to him explaining all the prosecution and deck clination of cases he didn't bring gets reviewed by the justice department, and it came up a little bit jumbled. >> can we account for the fact he may have screwed up and doesn't have a lot of experience. we are in a position to interpret something and he may hope it will wrap up soon? >> i don't think so. i asked repeatedly last night, do you want to correct that statement? there was no comment. they had an opportunity to say, you know what, he misspoke. we want to walk this back or soften it in some way. they had no comment and the special counsel's office certainly had no comment. >> he needs to be clear if you diagram the syntax

he should not keep on matt whittaker. this man -- no one is ever going to trust a decision -- i shouldn't say no one. many americans are not going to trust decisions or statements that come out from matt whittaker given his background. he just reinforced that last night. >> you want to jump in? >> over my time in the justice department i did those q&a for nominees probably 50 times. and you don't put a lot of information in them so as not to get locked in for any number of reasons. you know, so the generic statement of i will follow the facts and the law, of course, that's a natural answer he should give. getting into the witch hunt stuff is a deliberate choice by the justice department and the white house to put a jab out there. just like mimi said -- >> it's remarkably political. >> in questions for the record. those written questions that come after the hearing, they're submitted sort of in writing -- >> right, you think through them and be careful. >> usually one or two sentences long and they say things i'll follow t

>> yes. >> to see what matt whittaker did yesterday? >> i've been fully briefed on the investigation. i look forward to director mueller delivering the final report. right now, the investigation is, i think, close to being completed, and i hope that we can get the report from director mueller as soon as possible. >> that didn't have -- that didn't have the quote where he says we're going to be reviewing -- >> the decisions made. the decisions, which i have no idea what he's talking about. >> i get the impression you're not comfortable with either his lawyering or performance there? >> deer in the headlights is charitable. >> david gregory, you heard what the counselor had to say about that. might it have just been a big mistake or a flub, he wasn't prepared to go answer those questions? if that's the case, does that inoculate him to any criticism? >> no. we heard last hour that our reporters asked whether they wanted to walk that back at all and they clearly didn't. he doesn't look particularly impressive in front of the cameras. he loo

. >> in this section you bring in whittaker chambers and as you cite you say the "one man against the world". tell briefly about his story and how it relates to literally in this whole thing of why we went. >> i did note the time when i wrote, i'm not a soothsayer but whittaker chambers inclusion has a lot to do with politics today especially because of the kavanaugh hearing. whittaker chambers for those of you who aren't familiar with him, he wrote the book witness, it's a life-changing book, he was having a soviet agent before world war ii, he took information from african-americans smuggled it to the soviet union. he was the middleman for all the moles in the east coast. after that he saw the light. he said how can the system that i so adored now work with hitler. and he left the communist party and he went underground, he took his family with him, and he kept all the documentation of his work for the soviet union. after the war ended, he had found jesus, found the love for this country, and said i have a duty to help the truman extrusion in know the moles inside the u.s. governmen

matt whittaker may not be at the helm of the justice department.won't be the boss when this mueller report finally lands on the desk of the attorney general. he may not have anything to do with it. i think you expect democrats will have some very, very sharp questions for him because of the offhanded comments that he made yesterday. >> shan, what whittaker said yesterday is i hope we can get the report from director mueller as soon as possible. as evan says, democrats are taking that as the acting a.g. pressuring mueller to wrap it up, not asking, telling maybe. what do you think he was saying here? >> i think he was trying to do that. he may have been trying to milk his last moments in the limelight. it's not really a bizarre behavior for an acting attorney general. the attorney general will soon be confirmed. it is odd that he would go out on a limb and make this statement. as it is pointed out by evan, the justice department does not comment on the status of the ongoing investigation. for him to be basically signaling that it is near completion

keep in mind, whittaker's replace immaterial a.g.ominee william barr heads into his confirmation hearings next week. but it's not going away for whittaker even if he's not at the helm of the department of justice. nadler intends to send him a letter today of his intentions and they still want to get him up here on capitol hill even if he does not head the department of justice. >> surrounding a lot of things, conversations with the president over sessions' firing, his past comments about the russia investigation. the >>> the supreme court has sided with the special counsel over a mystery foreign company in that company's fight to resist a subpoena by robert mueller and his team. now the company is facing a $50,000 a day fine until it complies with the special counsel. this whole mystery company from a mystery country only referred to as country a, this whole thing is fascinating. what more did we learn from the supreme court here? >> it's not very often that the supreme court gets a petition that is so shrouded in mystery. here's wha

matthew whittaker suggested earlural this week that it could be soon. trump says he hasn't discussed the conclusion of the russia probe with whittaker. keep in mind trump is saying all of this about the russia investigation as we haven't seen him speak publically in six days now. >> that is very true. thank you so much. there is much more to get at about the russia investigation. the special counsel is arguing in court that information they handed over to a russian company as part of the discovery process in their legal battle with them has somehow ended up on line pushed by a pro russia twitter account. it's more than 1,000 documents that we are talking about. kara, these documents were also alterred. what are you hearing about this? >> all of this was revealed in a court filing yesterday against concord management known as putin's chef because of his close ties to the kremlin. special counsel's office is saying nonsensitive information that they shared with the defense team has ended up in russia online in a portal and alterred. what they have alleged

what do you make of matt whittaker's comments. >> nothing really. heard that so many times from so many people that it may or may not be true. >> he would be in a position to know more than most people, don't you think? >> the story just broke two minutes ago, i just got a peak at it. yeah, it -- i think most people think it is relatively close to being wrapped up, but i said that before and it turned out not to be true. >> so we will wait, how about that. >> let's talk about roger stone. he has been indicted. he will have a hearing tomorrow, expected to plead not guilty. there is a lot of talk about whether or not he might testify against the president. he said he would never do that and then hi said let's listen. >> i was not going to say anything that was truthful. >>. >> how much stock do you put into that. >> none if you heen thmean that interpreting it as holding out a potential olive branch. first of all they don't want a witness like him. roger stone said so many things at so many different times to so many people and she considered to be su

whittaker says he is getting briefed on the special counsel's report. there is some assumption that matt whittaker would brief the president on what he knows. is the president saying i'm going to take a hands off approach based on your reporting? is there any indication that he has gotten a sense that the report won't be that damaging to him? >> reporter: of course, president trump has really continued to attack the investigation as a hoax. anytime he is speaking about it he is not letting on anything he knows about it. we know that the white house this year under the new white house counsel has stepped up in anticipation of the release of the mueller report. there had been talk that president trump might try to exert executive privilege over this report. without a clear idea of what is in it, president trump might be saying at this moment he will allow the process to play out. >> thank you. mean titime the justice departm says russia has been waging a campaign to discredit the special counsel's investigation. >> which is investigating. prosecutors alle

whittaker saying -- he has supervisory ability to know what's going on. he says he thinks it's close. the president was asked about this, the president said that no, no, i haven't talked to whittaker about this. he said i would say i think that after almost two years it certainly should be. meaning the investigation at a point of this length and cost and the resources put to it should be near its end. so that's sort of the president opining on this. we've often looked for other markers along the way for when would it be over, we don't yet know. so this is one of the ways where the president sort of adds a little something into the ether. he claims he didn't speak to whittaker, that's an important data point in knowing if the president is trying to gather intel through the official department of justice as opposed to his lawyers, for example. >> tom, let me ask you about the comments that the president made regarding roger stone and that arrest almost a week ago. i'm spiethieaking for a lot of e that were disappointed on how that went down that way. the pr

i agree with chuck rosenburg, he's right to say that this nominee is better than matt whittaker. that's like -- so is this coffee cup. that's not saying anything. i do think, you know, fundamentally this is such an important position. if he can't promise to obey the ethics office, i think that looks trumpian beyond words. that speaks volumes. >> what kind of people work at the doj office of ethics? >> well, it's the career office. you know, they're wonderful people and they may very well tell him he has to recuse. i'm not saying i disagree with you. i think this ethics answer is terrible. i think this memo is terrible. i think his views since 1989 about the unitary executive and all the power, it's all terrible. it's what we got. it's coming. that's all i'm saying. you're right. he's changed on this ethics. he's never going to recuse. i think we ought to face it. i hope the people at the ethics office are convincing and they will have a very legally based response and then he will not recuse. >> i guess what i'm reacting to, i was privileged to work a little bit on eric holder's

and yet people that have given their all for this country coming back to whittaker chambers to remind people that yes this is who we are int and s is what people have done >> host: we are going to get to the policy side of your book but you mentioned the story i want to tackle the story of your heritage and appearance but we are going to get into those because the very striking the way that you need in their stories into the policy insights that you are putting forward in the book but it's a memorable part of the book let's start with this you focus on what it means to be a freedom fighter. i view your father who you tell the story of in the book about your father please tell us what does it mean to be a freedom fighter, and also say that about your father, the impact that your father and your parents had ohave on you and your own worldview. >> guest: i am a product of my parents. my parents in world war ii when hungary was taken over by a pocket moxi nazi regime and they looked through the depression. my father actually assisted and protected his jewish classmates on the way to schoo

whittaker. republicans have complained that other witnesses in the russia e-mail investigations have lied or misled congress. is it robert mueller's responsibility to investigate those allegations, or is it yours? >> well, fundamentally the mueller investigation has a very defined scope and so anything outside of that scope would have -- the scope would have to be enhanced to bring additional matters to be investigated by the mueller investigation, but obviously if it's not given to that investigation by an increasing in the scope of investigation, it would be retained by the department of justice. we have -- we take very seriously lying to congress and if there are referrals made by the appropriate committees, as ordinary course for matters like this, then we would investigate that as we would anything else. >> two quick questions. one, has the justice department formally filed its extradition request form? also, the president once raised the specter of her extradition possibly playing a role i

that starred, among others, oprah winfrey, forest whittaker, cuba gooding jr., david ol' well, jane fanned, and vanessa redgrave, a special movie came out in 2013. you can safely say it sort of took america by storm. an amazing heartfelt story of a gentleman who i tracked down who worked for eight american presidents, his name was eugene allen, and he had quite a life. he started in the white house harry trump and went all the way up to president reagan so he had quite an epic life. >> thank you for your time. >> keep on eye out for more interviews from the national press club's book fair to air in the near future. ... [inaudible conversations] good evening everyone. i am winston cap the sheridan dean and i'm very happy to welcome all of you here to this wonderful

bart whittaker had his last meal.> touched hands through the glass and we said our good-byes. >> the clock was ticking. one hour to go. would it ber death? >> peter van sant is with us. how unusual is it to have a death sentence commuted in texas? >> it's very unusual. in fact, texas executes five times as many people as the next closest state. at the time that this appeal was made, no clemency had been granted for more than a decade. >> did bart show any remorse for what he had done? >> i was in the courtroom during the actual trial. and he took the stand. he said he was sorry for what he did, but as i sat there, i felt as though it was just words. his father said during the course of his time in prison that he did change. he believes he is remorseful. so we'll see. he's not a very sympathetic fellow. he hired someone to murder his entire fellow. >> to have his father as number one advocate is quite stunning. peter thank you. >> thank you. >> you can watch his full report on "48 hours" tomorrow right here on cbs at 1

and matthew whittaker who yesterday launched into this praise of the president. >> sir, mr.ll start by highlighting the fact that you stayed in washington, d.c. over the holidays, giving up christmas with your family, new years with your family, trying to bring an end to this shutdown and security to our southern border. you have demonstrated your dedication to delivering on this critical issue for our country and for the american people. >> also during that cabinet meeting, president trump relayed some of his views and opinions of the middle east. >> i get along very well with india and prime minister modi. but he's constantly telling me he built a library in afghanistan, okay, a library. that's like -- you know what that is? that's like five hours of what we spend. and he's very smart and we're supposed to say oh, thank you for the library. i don't know who's using it in afghanistan, but one of those things. look, we don't want syria. obama gave up syria years ago when he didn't violate the red line. i did when i shot 59 missiles in. so syria was lost long ago. it was lost

like whittaker, it got a lot of attention.xpected nomination of bill barr has flown under the bar radar a little bit. barr once said that a physical board wall would be overkill. >> with so many trump presidency policy battles that ultimately the personality of the president or the president, the tweeter, basically overrides any policy disruptions or disputes. but over the next month or two months i think this is going to be the single most important inflection point on trump presidency policies, because you're going to have senators querying environmental, justice including the mueller investigation to a certain extent and the southern district of new york investigation. i mentioned environmental, justice. and then foreign policy. the syria withdrawal, which i think he's backtracked a little bit, as well as the role of nato and how we're going to respond to russia and china and middle east unrest is all going to be on display in terms of what is the policy and allowing a lot of senators who are running for president to be abl

we are getting interesting news from matt whittaker predicting the end of the mueller probe. listen to what he said. >> i have been fully briefed on the investigation. i look forward to director mueller delivering the final report. but right now the investigation is i think close to being completed. i hope that we can get the report from director mueller as soon as possible. >> reporter: obviously that comment raised a lot of eyebrows because we have heard next to nothing from the department of justice about the timeline for mueller's work. there is another indication that the idea that it is wrapping up may be relative having to do with andrew miller challenging a subpoena for grand jury testimony as well as mueller's authority. his lawyers heard they are pursuing the testimony. that is an indication that the government could be pursuing more indictments and more charges against roger stone in the future. >> we know you will keep us up to date. cnn law enforcement analyst for the great southern district of new york. for folks at home having trouble keeping track of all of th

responding ing ting to a previ, whittaker said he would appear before the committee in mid-february but it's at least two weeks after the end of the shutdown. nadler rejected that. when we know you'll be in washington, and cited justice department guidance from the 1995 shutdown citing officials can still appear before congress even during a government shutdown. it's been 15 months since jeff sessions testified before the committee. it's pastime for the committee to conduct oversight. >> the "new york times" issued a correction yesterday to their bomb shell report about tuesday's revelation that paul manafort shared campaign polling data with an associate tied to russian intelligence during the 2016 presidential race. the report originally said that manafort wanted his associate to pass the private polling data on to a russian oligarch with close ties to the kremlin and who manafort owed money to. but a correction issued said manafort wanted the information shared with two ukrainian oligarchs. the fact that manafort shared trump campaign polling data was inadvertently revealed by manafo

but hasn't that been corrected by the appointment of matt whittaker? we now have an attorney general. now, we read these reports that rosenstein is still receiving information reports from bob mueller but that can only be with the aprobation of the acting attorney general. jonathan: well, yes, but he was in charge for most of the period of investigation. in this case, jeff sessions was the one who did the ethically correct thing. he removed himself and had no role in it and was right to do so. greta: sir, your question? >> a different perspective than your husband. i'm really curious, let's say that the special counsel comes out and proves and it is verified by a jury or whatever the process would be that donald trump gained the presidency illegally. he had a conspiracy with russia, he defrauded the american people, one illegality after the other and therefore would be considered in the legitimate -- an illegitimate president. and having gained that office illegitimately. richard painter and i agree, the former bush ethics lawyer, that void abniche yo

. >> reporter: acting attorney general matt whittaker could be forced to appear this month to answer questions about his oversight of the mueller investigation. >> trying to get date and they are dragging their feet on date. we'll see what happens. >> will you see send a subpoena then? >> we'll have to. >> reporter: for pelosi the challenge will be balancing demands from her base looking to take on the president and others eager for bipartisan accomplishments. on the floor today, 15 democrats revolting in opposed pelosi's asena asengs to speaker. she represents the most diverse house in american history with a record number of women and minorities sworn in. in the senate the gop added two more seats now with a 57-43 majority and the ability to protect the president against the democratic foes. >> mitch mcconnell said democrats could work on productive policies or engage in presidential harassment. a line we'll hear over and over again from republicans and this white house and mitch mcconnell making it clear no role in the government shutdown fight. he said it's what about the democra

. >> reporter: down the aisle, jim whittaker offers to protect the youngest passenger. >> i asked this very brave, courageous woman if i would hold her baby. because that was obviously the smallest passenger on board. and if anybody was going to survive, hopefully it was going to be this one. >> reporter: seconds later, the unthinkable. >> there is an airplane down in manhattan. >> the plane just bounced over the water. >> reporter: the aircraft splashing to a halted, narrowly missing the skyscrapers of midtown manhattan. but the nightmare was far from over. >> i cracked my sternum on impact. when i hit that water that was 36 degrees, i honestly thought maybe i wouldn't make it then. >> when the plane hit the water and the water rushed in the back of the plane, it was frigid cold, and that's how i knew i was still alive. >> the water was up to here, and it was 35 degree water, it was like needles. i survived the impact and now i'm going to drown. that was my worry. >> reporter: robin roberts witnessing the landing from her apartment. >> it was an amazing land beii n the fuselage never

sanctions against iran and stealing technology from a rival fan acting attorney general matthew whittaker says the charges implicate the company's chief financial officer he's been detained in canada according to the indictment in twenty twelve wall we began a concerted effort to steal information about a robot that t. mobile used to test mobile phones in an effort to build their own robot was always engine years allegedly violated confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements with t. mobile by secretly taking photos of the robot measuring it and even stealing it stealing a piece of it i'm also announcing today a grand jury in new york has returning indictment alleging thirteen additional crimes committed by walk away it's c.f.o. it's affiliate in a ram and one of its subsidiaries here in the united states. diane estabrook is following the story for us and joins us now from washington and diane if you could explain the significance of the charges that were announced today and how it might impact the relationship between the u.s. canada and of course in china fairly significant at this pres

. >> alger harris of the 20th century lived through the 20th century and was accused of whittaker chambersr communist who was close to the soviets working for the gr you that is the one organization they had to change the acronym because the kgb went in and out. to be,, - - a columnist at columbia >> it was one of the leading party newspapers with the daily work. he eventually came to see the ron stench of exactly what stalinism was that the soviets were doing like a lot of americans place for a loyalty oath stalin soviet union. mark: chamber flips as a conservative and a libertarian. he starts writing later for national review and is taken under the wing of richard nixon and others trying to get to the bottom of this. >> you wanted to ensure soviet power in the united states the exact oath that cbs you members swore in the 1930s including almost every member of the hollywood ten. mark: let's stay focused. tell us more about this. >> chambers eventually left the party and told numbers of congress and the cliff notes version, by far, and summarizing. he said among the people who were the wo

you mentioned whittaker chambers saying this is the root of this. gone.viets may be but we don't want to leave it just the chance. a lot of things came together. the pope, president reagan, margaret thatcher should be mentioned. what are the odds of that happening? and by the way, all three of them survived an assassination attempt. i'm not normally one to make declarations on the elegy, but it is hard to dismiss the role of province and that could the reason we -- in that. the reason we study it is hopefully we create the same chance. >> a couple of events in the reagan administration, decisions, tell us what they meant. national security decision directive nsdd-75, the united states will contain and overtime reverse soviet expansionism by competing with the soviet union in all arenas and promote the process of change in the soviet union toward a system in which the power of a privileged ruling elite is reduced. did that feel as breathtakingly aggressive at the time as it sounds today? >> it is interesting the way you ask the question. being in tha

i know acting attorney general whittaker says it's about to wrap up but we don't know that.in, we have to wait to see mr. mueller's even very me thods c -- methodical. he's gotten a number of guilty pleas. this was a culture of lying, corruption. i think the house of lies are really beginning to fall in on themselves. >> i want to ask you about the 2020 campaign. i don't know if you heard howard schultz. he was talking about medicare for all and why he will consider running. his political adviser was just on as well. question to you, should schultz run? >> no, i don't think he should run. i heard bill say he's not doing it for the money. i guess he's doing it because the weather is nice in seattle. i think mike bloomberg got this right. on a independent can't win. all he'll do is end up splitting the trump vote. i would think mr. schultz would rather have his legacy the fact he became a billionaire selling coffee than he helped get donald trump re-elected of the united states. >> when you put it that way. before we go, jeff is reporting that hillary clinton is not closing th

according to matthew whittaker, the investigation is close to being completed. watch this. apparently not. >> right now, the investigation is, i think, close to being completed and i hope that we can get the report from director mueller as soon as possible. >> sean: so here we are 621 days the witch hunt now may be almost over. so far zero evidence of any collusion. meanwhile, the president of the united states, he does have important work to do. mainly the safety and security of the american people. let's not our hearts be troubled. this is a president who keeps his promises. so i have a couple of questions for my conservative friends that are mad at the president for allowing congress three weeks to do their job, open the government in the interim. do you really believe the president has stopped his full-on fight over the border wall that he has promised? has he not tenacious fighter? i don't care how they get it as long as they build the wall to keep us safe. don't let what is what i believe a shift in strategy. the president is going to fight as hard if not harder for t

whittaker, 33. bennett valley, 33. and alamo and bennett park at 35 degrees. i think we're stuck. so to speak. hold on a second. sal? i know you have a lot to talk about. so go ahead. vallejo. >> you know what? right now. we do have to talk about vallejo, steve. it has been an ongoing problem for people who are driving on 80 westbound. i want to show you that it's still very, very slow. we had a combination of crashes. both of them did damage to the commute, one more than the other. at this point, it's not even important. what's important if you get on the road early, if you drive 80 west through vallejo. some people probably say, to heck with that. i'm going to use 37. instead of the richmond bridge. starting to get slow in hercules again. also very slow on the trip through berkeley on 80, as you head out to the macarthur maze. and finally, you'll get to the bay bridge toll plaza and see this. 880 south. doesn't look too bad. and south bay commute. we're seeing traffic approaching the 280 interchange. 6:31, let's go back to the desk. >> today, the concord city council will decide

the question is, when we have a whittaker sitting as acting attorney general who has made clear, essentiallyto stay in that seat and oversee the investigation despite the fact he was told by the office of ethics he should recuse himself, he's going to say to mueller whether or not he can go forward with an indictment, not just a report. whether there's litigation or the indictments are forthcoming. >> one of the critical questions we will watch. hopefully you both got some rest because it's going to be a couple busy weeks and months. thank you for the great analysis. >>> coming up, president trump claims there's a ten foot wall around his predecessors home. neighbors beg to differ. >>> democrats take over the house in two days. what will that look like? we'll look at that when we come back. stay with us. that when we come back stay with us the day after chemo shouldn't mean going back to the doctor just for a shot. with neulasta onpro patients get their day back... to be with family, or just to sleep in. strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection. in a key study neulasta reduced t

matthew whittaker was told by ethics officials you ought to recuse and he ignored that.ators need to ask william barr, if you are advised that you have a potential conflict, will you follow that advice? i hear it in the background and she's watching too, saying [indistinct conversation] [friend] i've never seen that before. ♪ ♪ i have... ♪ the question isn't whether he should be impeached any imore.... he's the most corrupt president in american history. and we all know it. the question now is, how fast can we move past this president so we can build a more just and prosperous future? please, join the more than 6.5 million americans who are demanding action now. because there's nothing more powerful than the unified voice of the american people. together, we will make this happen. need to impeach is responsible for the content of this ad. >>> we have some breaking news coming in from cnn's kevin l liptack. he has some reporting of how the white house is preparing for what could be an anticipated legal challenge if and when the president of the united states used an emerg

whittaker. it's unclear whether he's willing to come for your committee.very day goes by and this individual who is being sued in three or four different lawsuits, who has been ruled not an actually principle necessitating senate confirmation is the chief law enforcement officer of the u.s. will he come before your committee? >> yes. he cannot hide from our committee as he would have been able to if democrats hadn't won congress. presidential immunity will be over. we will subpoena him. that subpoena will be upheld in courts. he's going to have to defend his investigation and whether or not he's made promises to president trump. this is the united states. it shouldn't be adversarial for people's attorney general to come to congress and tell the american people what his priorities are and whether he can uphold a lawful investigation. >>> do you anticipate he will try to run out the clock. obviously there's going to try to be confirmation hearings for william barr, whether he's the acting attorney general or not. do you agree? >> we're not going to let that

have given their all for this country going back to stephen decatur after the founding right up to whittaker chambers to remind people that yes this is who we are and this is what people have done for their country. >> host: by the way we are going to get to the policy side of your look but you mention the story. i want to tackle a little bit about your personal story and that of your heritage, your parents but we need to get into those four heroes because it's very striking the way you we their stories into the policies that you are putting forward in the book. it was actually a very special part in a memorable part of the book. let's start with this. your first chapter focuses on what it means to be a freedom fighter. there really tells the story in a book about your father. please tell us what does it mean to be a freedom fighter and the impact that your father and parents haven't you in your own world view. >> guest: i am the product of my parents. my parents were children in world war ii when hungary was taken over by a regime and they lived through that oppression. my father actually a

. >> how significant is it that whittaker would comment publicly about this? because, i mean, he was sort of rambling there. >> there was some rambling there. but certainly, the fact that he stood there, this was not expected. he was talking about something else. he was at a press conference that had nothing to do with russia. it was a completely different investigation. and it caught all of us by surprise that he would even comment in any aspect on this investigation. normally, when you have people who stand there, they'll tell you, no comment, no comment. but what is so significant, when you start saying that an investigation is starting to wrap up, it's coming to an end, it can signal that there won't by anymore significant law enforcement action. so, it could be that in this investigation, we see no more arrests, we see no more indictments, we see nothing new happening here, because if what he's saying is true, that means pretty much all of the significant law enforcement action has been wrapped up and that the big players, so to speak, have now all by cha

vignette, people have given their all for this country back to stephen, after the fan letter to whittaker chambers to remind people that yes, this is a a ad this is what people have done for this country. >> host: we're going to get to the policy side of your book, but you mentioned the story. i want to tackle first a little bit about your own personal story and that of your heritage, your parents but we are going to get into those heroes because it's very striking the way you we then their stories into also the policies insights that you're you are putting forth in the book. it was a very special part, a memorable part of the book. let's start with this. your first chapter focuses on what it means to be a freedom fighter. your father who you really tele story of in the book about your father. please tell us what does it mean to be a freedom fighter and also sent an and bit about your fat, the impact your father, your parents had on you and your own worldview. >> guest: i'm a product of my parents. my parents were children in world war ii when hungary was taken over first but a pop pupt n

whittaker whose only qualification is he was against the mueller investigation. and i think mr.hen he sent these unsolicited memos that seemed to say hey look at me. i'm against the mueller investigation. i think the president has extensive executive powers. and i think with this kind of cloud over trump's view of mueller, we don't need an attorney general that is going to be at all compromised on this issue. >> compromising the investigation. so then on that, i'm just wondering what stands out to you the most in terms of donald trump's connections, compliance with russia. what one publicly known fact makes it seem most likely that president trump was working with russians to impact the outcome of the election, do you think? >> i'm not going to try to get into that speculation. i'll get into what we, from our senate investigation committee have discovered. we knew russians intervened. we knew they did it to help trump, to hurt clinton. we know that throughout the whole campaign donald trump said never a bad word against vladimir putin. we know that donald trump in a bizarre to s

time will tell with whittaker whether that will continue. in the west wing, mulvaney is someone who is a strong choice. there's not a lot of confidence he will say no to the president. he's not someone who is going to step up and say, sir, this is not what you should be doing. same with the white house counsel coming into the job. at this point, the president's closest confidants are his family. there's few people who can still get in the way and tell the president, this is a bad idea, you shouldn't be doing this. this leads him to be more vulnerable than before with all the investigations closing in. >> and more impulsive. >> yes. >> for the past couple months, the president and chief of staff have been barely speaking with one another. >> all right. we will leave it there. still ahead, the ap's year in review. the ten biggest stories of 2018. that is next. we'll be right back. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. great news for anyone wh- uh uh - i'm the one who delivers the news around here. ♪ li

matt whittaker said special counsel robert mueller's probe is wrapping up. >> it is close to being completed. >> sources have told nbc news once mueller submits his report, the justice department is likely to make some of it public. >>> nbc news is now responding to controversial comments about hispanics and assimilation made by special correspondent, tom brokaw on sunday's "meet the press." the remarks drew immediately backlash. on sunday, mr. brokaw issued an apology on twitter saying, i am sorry, truly sorry my comments were offensive to many. the great enduring american tradition of diversity is to be celebrated and cherished. on monday, an nbc spokesperson said tom's comments were inaccurate and inappropriate and glad he apologized. >>> lowering your blood pressure can fight memory loss. researchers looked at thousands over the age of 50 and those who lowered systolic to 120 reduced memory loss and cognitive impairment. it's unclear if it helps previous alzheimer's but so encouraging, alzheimer's is supporting a follow-up trial. >>> just because you're the mother of a teenager doesn't m

still ahead, acting attorney general, matthew whittaker, said this week the russia probe would be wrappinglly nervous about it. >> we will ask intel chief, adam schiff, what he thinks about it? "morning joe" back in two minutes. oe" back in two minutes. >>> joining us now, democratic adam schiff. is the mueller investigation close to wrapping up? is that correct? >> i don't know if it is correct. i do know matt whitaker should not have anything to do with the investigation. that was the opinion of the ethics lawyer at the justice department. he's ignoring that. bob mueller is capable to speak for himself. for one thing our witnesses, telling them the investigation is almost over and if they waited out, they may be able to wait out the special counsel is not helpful. i think matt whitaker should keep his mouth shut and have nothing to do with this. i do look forward to his aexperience before the judicial committee and i hope to find out whether he's been briefing the president at the white house defense team which . >> roger stone was arrested and indicted on seven counts yesterday and plea

now on the flip side, william barr is supposed to replace matt whittaker the acting attorney generalhan william barr, so perhaps that's an argument in favor of moving this along. at the end of the day we expect him to be confirmed. >> coming up, by the way, the president is tweeting this morning that nancy, cryin' chuck and democrats are to blame for the shutdown. i don't think people are buying this. >> actually, mika, less than one in four americans support the president. and his shutting down of the government. that's 24%. it's not nancy that's crying. it's a lot of republicans on capitol hill who are seeing their numbers go even lower. >>> plus after the firing of james comey, the fbi was so alarmed that it began investigating whether president trump was working for russia. the "new york times" michael schmidt joins us with that new report. we'll talk to "washington post's" greg miller who wrote the other bomb shell piece from the weekend about trump's efforts to conceal his conversation with vladimir putin. "morning joe" will be right back with another packed hour. stay with us.

of course, the democrats don't want matt whittaker to stay in that job.y are very open to getting someone as established as barr in there. >> there didn't seem to be a lot of pushback. >> you see interviews where they get fired up. this is not one of them. >> i agree with you. they don't see any advantage in stopping what looks like a runaway train. >> thank you juan, thank you, shannon, thank you, bret. >> sandra: other big news at the white house. president trump set to meet with lawmakers over the government shutdown. both sides accusing the other of playing politics. the latest on the talks coming up. >> british prime minister theresa may, we are watching what happens in brexit, in london today. what does that mean for the uk, the eu, et cetera? we'll get to that after this coming up. >>> back to the barr hearing in the moment. the president meeting at the white house with regard to the shutdown. john, good morning. what do we expect? >> reporter: good morning to you. the president will be meeting early this afternoon, about 12:30 at the white house w