yates' replacement, dana boente, was sworn in. she was pressed on how she would handle a disagreement with trump's current pick for attorney general, jeff sessions. >> should the attorney general or the deputy attorney general say no? >> senator, i believe that the attorney general or the deputy attorney general has an obligation to follow the law. >> reporter: senator sessions' confirmation process is now more contentious in the wake of the yates ouster. lester? >> kristen welker at

sally yates said she was not convinced the executive order was lawful. as went on "consequently for long as i'm acting attorney general the department of justice will not present arguments in defense of the executive order." this drama was unfolding as protesters have taken to the streets to oppose the ban on refugees coming to the u.s. she was fired for defying the president, it was hardly surprising. the language was. "the acting attorney general sally yates has betrayed the department of justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect citizens of the united states." the trail is more used for spies or people who have committed treachery. sally yates said she was doing what she thought was right and upholding the law. this shows us how the trump administration sees dissent and how it will do with it. in essence, you are with us or against us. look at this from her confirmation hearing in 2015. the man asking the questions is donald trump's choice for attorney general. >> if the president wants to execute something unlawful should the d

as a hero. >> i know sally yates as a person of integrity. >> sally yates stood her ground. >> that statement took guts. >> reporter: yates sent shock waves through washington with her announcement that the justice department would not defend the president's executive order. in a dramatic letter to the department attorneys, she questioned whether the immigration ban was "consistent with this institution's solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right," adding she is not "convinced that the executive order is lawful." within three hours, yates, an obama holdover, was out, fired by president trump. >> for the attorney general to turn around and say "i'm not going to uphold this lawful executive order" is clearly a dereliction of duty, and she should have been removed, and she was. >> reporter: yates received the news in a letter hand delivered to the justice department. in a blistering statement, the white house called her "weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration." >> if you have a legally executed order, and the attorney general says, "i'm not goin

sally yates, will you run for senate? sally yates, we know who you are now. georgia democrats say they are lobbying sally yates to run for georgia governor when that seat opens up next year. look at virginia. virginia is a blue state now in many ways. went for obama in '08, went for obama in 2012, went for hillary clinton by more than five points. but a lot of virginia is deep red. the legislature is still republican by a little bit in the senate and a lot in the house. virginia holds their elections in odd-numbered years so their legislature is up in 2015. they're up again this year, 2017. southern democratic parties, including virginia, have become notorious in recent years for not even bothering to run democratic challengers in a lot of red districts, not even bothering to try. that apparently is no longer going to be the case. virginia democrats have identified 17 districts in the state this year where hillary clinton won the presidential race but the local state legislator is a republican. virginia democrats tell us tonight they have recruited democratic

jackie, yates was fired by hand-delivered letter.is something trump -- he likes to send notes to people. in this white house statement he used the word betrayed, that she was weak. they also used that word. this seems unusually personal. you don't use those words unless you feel personally affronted. >> for most people that would be correct but trump uses these words all the time, calls people weak, disasters, called graham weak two days ago. i'm not justifying it. he hasn't settled into the fact in this role these words really matter. you say someone betrayed you, that means a lot more coming from the president of the united states than from a reality tv star. it just does. and the connotation is to a lot of people, particularly in the government and reporters, that connotation is just disturbing. >> it also shows by the way -- granted he doesn't have all his people in position but at least at this moment he is not delegating. he wrote the letter. the words betrayed and weak we know came from donald trump. he is micromanaging what t

january 309, sally yates was fired over a different issue. that brings us to this week, yesterday. kellyanne conway saying flynn had the full confidence of the president. late last night he then resigns. i guess given that time line that i just went through, does it -- david, does it me sense to you that this is the order of events? >> well, none of this actually makes a lot of sense. i think to extend a little bit what have the congressman was just saying, the story that was being put out to the american public was misleading. but look at it from the russian perspective. the russians knew what happened in that phone call back at the end of december. and they knew that flynn knew, obviously, what went on in that phone call and that the vice president had been put out and sean spicer had been put out to tell something that was not true. from the russian's perspective during all of this, they must have been thinking we have a great opportunity here. we have a national security adviser who is willing to mislead the vice president, who then misleads the american people. and whenever it

sally yates told him no. she refused to let the justice department defend the president's misguided travel ban. she was fired for doing exactly what the position of attorney general requires. and when the acting a.g., acting a.g. yates said his travel ban was wrong, the president didn't simply relieve her of her position. instead he put out a press release attacking her personally. sally yates had served the country for almost three decades as a career prosecutor, justice department attorney. she served the president -- she deserved the president's respect regardless of whether he agreed with her or not. time and again president trump has shown that he will not tolerate dissent. you're either with him or in his mind you're wrong. and you become the enemy. president trump has put the bully back into the bully pulpit. he frequently and publicly lashes out against those who express different views and more dangerously, he lashes out at the institutions that are the fabric of this democracy. this weekend he attac

i commend president trump for firing sally yates last night. when an attorney general decides her partisan political commitments more pregnant following the law, that acting attorney general gives the president no choice but to relieve them of their duties. i would would encourage this committee to move expeditiously in confirming a attorney general, someone we know and respect and will be faithful to the law. faithful to the constitution not following a political agenda as has been that record. but instead being faithful of his oath, to to defend the constitution and the rule of law. with that, i yield the floor. >> mr. chairman, my understanding is that we are going to conclude six minutes from now at 2:00 p.m. there was a suggestion by the chairman that senator franken would give remarks tomorrow. given that only six minutes remain, i asked that i be included in tomorrow's schedule to speak prior to senator franken and then to move from there to the boat. >> u.s. for 20 minutes? >> that will more than suffice. >> senator franken could i put

yates came in, gave a heads up to the white house counsel.white house counsel looked at the matter. the next day or the day after the investigation was closed and no longer going on, then the issue shifted to whether or not something was done that was wrong. the vice president was then looped in on the situation, and we talked to the vice president about whether or not michael flynn was being honest or not. the vice president knew that there was an fbi interview, and then ultimately we decided after about ten days bringing the vice president in that we decided that he wasn't being honest. that is the timeline. it happened very quickly, chris. chris: but the vice president says he didn't know for 14 days that he had been misled by michael flynn. >> no. the vice president knew that we were -- what the vice president didn't know, i believe, was that sally yates gave an initial heads up to don mcgann. but once that, once the next day came and that investigation was closed, chris, that topic didn't come up again. this whole conversation shifted to

so, talk about sally yates' role. >> well, alysin, this is another example of sally yates trying to do the right thing. sally yates not just had the problem for the potential for blackmail but she also identified the possibility that flynn had violated federal law. there's a law on the books called logan act, it prevents a private citizen having discussions like this with a foreign government. now it's an old law. it hasn't been used to prosecute anyone. it's still on the books and it's a felony. as soon as she recognized there was a problem like this inside the white house she did everything she could to let them know about it. it just appears they didn't care. >> phil, you have so much experience being in the room and figuring out how the politics meshes with intel. the idea that michael flynn was just freelancing and this was a conspiracy of one in terms of who was controlling this dynamic is a little hard to swallow, how could that be possible where despite warnings by the doj, clapper, brennan, that the white house went to flynn and he said it's all okay and the analysis ended the

there was a womb in the news, sally yates.n obama holdover did this in part to get attention. >> she wants the job at msnbc as a political pundit. she is a liberal hero. but the rule of law was not followed here. the press coverage was overblown, the massacre thing was completely wrong. cnn weren't with it all day monday. they had stuff online on their site thursday calling it a sunday night massacre. the huge story this week because there has been so much news this week. liberal and con sr. analysts are weighing in on the president's pick of neil gorsuch. >> if president trump makes no other decisions phrased by both side, he couldn't have picked a more conservative individual. >> what i'm impressed with in terms of judge gorsuch is not only that he has incredible credentials, but he has the judicial temperament. howie: i was impressed with the fairness in which these analysts dealt with judge gorsuch. i think the big story is democrats want to slow this down and defeat it because they are angry about merrick garland. >> i th

and basically, you had the intel chiefs, brannon and clapper and yates who wanted to go to the trump white house, after the inauguration and let them know that the way pence, the vice president elect and other administration officials in the incoming administration mischaracterized based on a conversation they had with flynn, his conversation with the russian ambassador. and so comey, the fbi director, initially, on the 19th of january opposed going to the trump white house to let them know this information. after, you know, trump comes to office, sally yates, who's then acting attorney general makes the case again and convinces comey, sometime after the 23rd of january but before the 31st that this information needed to be passed on, so they shared it with the white house. >> so they, in terms of the intercepts of the conversations of flynn with the russian ambassador, those were looked at once, according to your article, after intelligence officials were surprised that russia didn't retaliate for u.s. actions against russia, is that correct? >> caller: correct. the fbi has a wire t

nbc news has confirmed the report that sally yates did warn the white house. why didn't they correct the record earlier. very few experts that we've talked to think there was a prosecutable offense under the logan act. >> pretty obscure. >> that law has never been prosecuted. the issue amounted to the blanket denial in the face of a transcript that said something completely the opposite and a really significant item, which is discussing sanctions on the day they were levied. the bigger concept is did donald trump know about it? they say it's inconceivable he wasn't briefed about high level discussions on sanctions. >> and, matt, very quickly, you know the white house well. what is going on there this morning in terms of the power shift and the dynamics that are at play here? >> reporter: well, i think there's a lot of confusion. we had kellyanne conway, as you showed, saying that flynn had the trust of the president yesterday. spicer throwing cold water on that. now they're quickly in the search for a replacement, but i think there's turmoil on the national se

i just want to give sally yates her moment. it's the most poignant moment we possibly could have found. i found this video online just after i finished my program here last night at 11:00 p.m. when in her confirmation hearing for her last confirmation at the justice department, jeff sessions asked her specifically what she would do if given an unlawful order by the president. let's watch this moment. >> if the views a president wants to execute are unlawful, should the attorney general or the deputy attorney general say no? >> senator, i believe that the attorney general or the deputy attorney general has an obligation to follow the law and the constitution and to give their independent legal advice to the president. >> so the president fired her for doing what she promised jeff sessions she would do, for doing what she promised donald trump's choice for attorney general what she would do. >> yeah. and the firing, to me, is not as bad as the way they, you know, characterized it as betrayal. if donald trump can't understand that

yates reportedly believed flynn was, quote, potentially vulnerable to russian blackmail, according to the post. if sally yates' name sound familiar, it's because president trump fired her on january 31st after she refused to defend the travel ban. the "washington post" further reports the justice department thought flynn's actions may even be illegal. an obscure act called the logan act makes it illegal to get involved in legal disputes. five months after he was sworn into office, he was warned about sanctions coming into the obama white house. when the president hired steve mnuchin, michael flynn failed to answer questions from reporters. >> good night. thank you. >> that was at the white house in the early part of the evening. here we are 11:02 p.m. on the east coast, and we have further news on our lead story tonight. for that we go to our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell in washington. andrea? >> reporter: according to kristin welker and one senior official, the nsa, the acting national security adviser, is general keith kellogg who was the chief of staff. micha

it was -- our legal counsel got a heads-up from sally yates that something wasn't adding up with his story, to then our legal department went into a review of the situation. and sometime after that, when sally yates refused to do her job as attorney general like two days later we had to get rid of her. and then sometime after that the legal department came back and said that they didn't see anything wrong with what was actually said, but then we started thinking about whether or not michael flynn was being straight with us, and that's when we started asking a lot of questions and sort of deposing michael flynn and figuring out what he knew or what he didn't know. he maintained the fact that he never talked to the russian ambassador about sanctions, but still something wasn't adding up. and eventually we determined that he did, in fact, talk about the sanctions, even though we didn't believe that it was illegal, the fact was it turned more or less into a conversation about whether or not he was being honest with us and the vice president. and the president asked for his resignation an

it happens to be sally yates whose story gets told.ned a month ago and didn't act on it. >> the news reinforces concerns about the new president. one is that the free wheeling style is not commensurate of the gravity of the task of governing the country and the second is that the entire overarching set of questions about russia and this perpetual issue where vladimir putin and russia, now the ambassador appear as these persistent characters and the question, which everybody has been asking on social media about what does the president know and when did he know it? there's significant questions to be answered about president trump's relationship, nonrelationship with russia itself. >> to that point, mika, who knew in the white house and when did they know in the white house and why was the vice president of the united states kept in the dark and allowed to go on television and lie and not have anybody go to him who knew in the white house that he had been pushed out to lie? the only reason we are finding out aut now is because a patriot

>> a red flag was raised by late last month by then acting attorney general sally yates, yates tellingmp white house she believed flynn was available to russian blackmail. >> trevor: ah, russia! i forgot russia was a part of the story. they're like the villain from the last season making a guest appearance now. ha ha! you thought i was de-ad! this is why you got written out of the show, man. this is not working. it makes sense. remember after obama put sanctions on russia for election meddling to help trump win? remember that? after that, flynn called the russian ambassador and told them not to sanction the u.s. back because trump was going to cancel american sanctions when he took office. that even sounds illegal. i don't even know the law. ( laughter ) sounds illegal. so president trump must have been so grateful to this sally yates lady who warned him of this major national security breech. i wonder what was her reward? >> president trump fired yates last month after she refused to defend his controversial immigration executive order. >> trevor: ah, yes! of course! the great immigra

sally yates, to her credit, gave the right answer. and when she was tested just last week, she stood by her word. but senator sessions has failed to assure the american people he will follow the law and uphold the constitution, not simply follow the president of the united states, not blindly follow the president of the united states just because he's his boss. that's not the kind of attorney general we want. that's not the kind of attorney general we should vote to confirm today. one last point, mr. president. i watched the confirmation yesterday of the secretary of education, and it was so clear to me and so clear to so many of my colleagues and so clear to the american public that confirming the secretary of education, now the secretary of education -- she was in an unprecedented, an historical move, the vice president actually was the one that came and broke the tie 51-50. two republicans voted against the secretary of education-designee showing great courage. but what was so evident, even though overwhelming opposition to her, ou

when sally yates, the deputy attorney general, when she saw them she was alarmed.flynn had crossed the line, in particular, the logan act, which is an obscure statu statute, which would bar a u.s. person, like flynn, before that person becomes part of the government, to lobby another person in government. but the fbi had an ongoing investigation looking at trump associates and their ties to russia. it wasn't an issue, really, until you had the mischaracterizations publicly. the idea is that the russians knew what flynn and kislyak had spoken about. they could tell by the way pence, sean spicer and the chief of staff, that they were mischaracteriziing based on wha flynn was telling them, what was discussed in those calls. >> well, attorney, ron bermier joins us from santa maria, california. thank you so much for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> our guest earlier this hour, suggested that general michael flynn may have violated an old statute. we heard it mentioned just then, the logan act, if he discussed the lifting of u.s. sanctions with the ambassador t

yates, that wasn't her job. the department's job is to enforce the law, just like senator sessions becoming attorney general said he would enforce the law. ms. yates' obligation was clear. if she couldn't defend the order in good conscience, the only proper course was to resign. this unfortunate situation with ms. yates highlights why it is important to swiftly move to confirm an attorney general who will be faithful to the constitution and uphold the law regardless of policy preferences. ultimately it comes down to this, there is no one more qualified than jeff sessions for this position. he served in the department for 15 years. he served as attorney general for his home state of alabama, and for 20 years he served on the senate judiciary committee, which has oversight over the department of justice. we all know senator sessions is a man of his word. we all know that he'll enforce all the laws on the books regardless of whether he supported them. so both republicans and democrats know that he'll make an excell

i know sally yates as a person of integrity. despite the presidents strong interest in implementing the muslim ban, as he promised to do in his campaign, ms. yates concluded as immigration executive order was not legally defensible. this was not a surprising conclusion. executive order discriminates by design. it's wrong, i believe it is illegal. several federal courts have already found that president trump order is very likely unconstitutional. but ms. yates willingness to defend the rule of law instead of defending president trump's political whims demonstrates exactly why having an independent attorney general is so important and why we have to be so careful. it's likely -- just like the next attorney general. understand what's happening here. i've been here with numerous administrations, republican and democratic. in one of my first roll call votes was for a republican attorney general, william french smith. i've been declared i would vote for attorney general barbara and we had a voice vote. but these are people i thought

acting attorney general sally yates informed the trump administration prior to being fired that general flynn was vulnerable to potential blackmail. in his resignation letter, flynn ined inadvertently briefed the vice president elect and others with incomplete information. despite reporting be i the washington post that the sanctions on russia was a main topic of discussion. >> according to two officials we spoke to who have been briefed on it, a main topic of the discussion. it wasn't something that kislyak maybe threw out attend of. kelly anne conway said that flynn had the full confidence from the president. a different message, the president was evaluating the situation. president trump refusing to answer questions. about his controversial adviser. we still don't know what the president knew and when he knew it. in a statement, democrat adam schiff accusing the administration of not being forthcoming about who was aware of flynn's conversations with the ambassador or if he was on the instructions of the president or any other officials with knowledge. we in congress need to know who

and then secondly, once the a.g., acting attorney general sally yates went to the trump administration and said, hey, we have these concerns that he could be blackmailed because he's told a different story to the vice-president. why didn't president feel compelled to correct the record at that time? that was a couple weeks ago as far as we know. so, these are some open questions i think are going to be pursued with vigor over the next couple of days here. >> and, ken, the other issue is that michael flynn, who we know has been looked at in term of his relationship to the russians, and this going back even during the campaign. this is somebody who was on the payroll of r.t. which is the government propaganda arm cable vision network in russia. the fact that he was at that dinner, now infamous dinner sitting at vladimir putin's table and participating in that standing ovation. didn't donald trump have to pull some strings to make sure he could get a security clearance at all to be national security advisor? and i ask that to say, isn't the real story here donald trump's own ties to russi

now, you'll recall that the acting attorney general, until last month, was sally yates.sident trump fired her when she said publicly that she believed his muslim ban was illegal and she would not have the justice department defend it. that view, by the way, has been born out by many, many federal judges since she first put that in a letter to the new president. but before she was fired, she apparently told the white house that the national security adviser might be personally compromised and, again, vulnerable to russian blackmail. "the post" story conditions, "in the waning days of the obama administration, james clapper and john brennan shared sally yates' concerns and confirmed. flynn put himself in a compromising position." a senior trump official said that the white house was aware of the matter adding, quote, we've been working on this for weeks. for weeks the trump administration has known about this. for weeks. really? joining us now is adam, "the washington post" reporter who broke this tonight. thanks for making time for us tonight. really appreciate it. >> no

yates' replacement, dana boente, was sworn in. she was pressed on how she would handle a disagreement with trump's current pick for attorney general, jeff sessions. >> should the attorney general or the deputy attorney general say no? >> senator, i believe that the attorney general or the deputy attorney general has an obligation to follow the law. >> reporter: senator sessions' confirmation process is now more contentious in the wake of the yates ouster. lester? >> kristen welker at the white house, thank you. >>> the trump administration deciding to keep one of president obama's executive orders in place, protecting the rights of the lgbt employees working for federal contractors. >>> there is drama swirling around president trump's nominee for secretary of education. as democrats raise concerns about her qualifications and now this, a report that some of her answers appear to be copied from multiple sources without attribution. we get details from nbc's chief education correspondent rehema ellis. >> reporter: betsy devos was ap

the department of justice under acting attorney general sally yates warned the trump administration they intercepted phone calls and transcript was flynn and the russian ambassador kislyak. it was found that the two discussed sanctions. flynn was forced last night to submit a letter of resignation from the fallout. that letter read i briefed the president and vice president and others about my phone calls with the ambassador. i apologize to the president and vice president and they accepted my apology. i'm tendering my resignation. honored to have served our nation and the american people in such a distinguished way. now, flynn will be replaced in the short-term by retired lieutenant general keith kellogg. he was previously serving as the chief of staff. he is a long time adviser of trump. there are others in the running. retired general david petraeus. he has baggage cording accordin officials. and robert harward. another major officer who worked in central command. his name is in the running. >> it will be a very dramatic day after a dramatic evening. thanks, ryan browne. >> it was con

have learned over the last 24 hours that the then attorney general, the acting attorney general sally yates had reached out to this white house communicating her concerns about the fact that flynn had misled some of his top advisers, including the vice president, and the risk that he could be vulnerable to russian blackmail, so that's notable because that would have happened about three weeks ago, roughly three weeks ago, but this morning we heard from some top aides including kellyanne conway that michael flynn's position here in the white house had not been diminished. the bottom line a guy who became famous for the phrase "you're fired" was reluctant to fire his national security adviser. ultimately the folks claimed it was unsustainable given the fact he had misled not just the vice president but other top advisers. >> you refer to kellyanne conway on the "today" program with matt lauer. here's more of that as the white house tries to put the best foot forward. >> the fact is that general flynn continued in that position and was in the presidential daily briefings, was part of the leade

nbc has confirmed from officials that yates and the others wanted to tell the trump team on january 19th, the day before the inaugural when they got all their facts in order, but fbi director james comey objected. it was the following week after sean spicer said at his first briefing that flynn had repeated to him he had not discussed sanctions at all with the russians that sally yates did brief the white house counsel. what is not clear why it took so long for the white house to decide that flynn had to go. frances. >> thanks to andrea mitchell reporting. thank you. for knew lieutenant general keith kellogg will serve as the acting national security adviser. he's being considered for david pe tray he is'ses if. bob harwood is said to be at the top of the list. >>> the department of homeland security said its agents arrested some 680 undocumented immigrants in a week-long roundup over several states far below the totals of similar raids by the obama administration. however, that didn't stop protestors that came out in full force. thousands gathered in downtown milwaukee for what they dee

acting attorney general sally yates informed the trump administration prior to being fired that general flynn was vulnerable to potential blackmail. and flynn asserted he briefed the white house with incomplete information and falling short of admitting he lied, and denying the topics of conversations were not of sanctions. >> it was as they described it, a main topic of the discussion. it was not something that maybe they threw out at the end. >> reporter: kellyanne conway said the president supported flynn. >> flynn does enjoy the full confidence of the president. >> reporter: an hour later from the white house press secretary, the president was evaluating the situation. refusing to answer questions about his controversial adviser. we still don't know what the president knew and when he knew it. in a statement a democrat adam schiff of accusing the president of not being forthcoming, and whether he was acting on the instructions of the president or any other officials or with their knowledge. democrats now calling for an immediate classified briefing into the situation writing we in c

and then secondly, once the a.g., acting attorney general sally yates went to the trump administration and said, hey, we have these concerns that he could be blackmailed because he's told a different story to the vice-president. why didn't president feel compelled to correct the record at that time? that was a couple weeks ago as far as we know. so, these are some open questions i think are going to be pursued with vigor over the next couple of days here. >> and, ken, the other issue is that michael flynn, who we know has been looked at in term of his relationship to the russians, and this going back even during the campaign. this is somebody who was on the payroll of r.t. which is the government propaganda arm cable vision network in russia. the fact that he was at that dinner, now infamous dinner sitting at vladimir putin's table and participating in that standing ovation. didn't donald trump have to pull some strings to make sure he could get a security clearance at all to be national security advisor? and i ask that to say, isn't the real story here donald trump's own ties to russi

yates replacement was sworn in. in an ironic twist she was pressed on how she would handle a disagreement with the presidenby attorney general, jeff sessions. >> if the president wants to execute or unlawful, should the attorney general or deputy attorney general say no? >> i believe the attorney general or deputy attorney general has an obligation to follow the law. >> reporter: senator sessions confirmation process is more contentious in the wake of the yates ouster. they delayed a vote for sessions and boycotted two other picks. lester. >> thank you. >>> the trump administration deciding today to keep one of the former president obama's executive orders in place. this one protecting the rights of lgbt americans. in a statement the white house said president trump will uphold the order banning discrimination against lgbt employees working for federal contractors. >>> there's drama swirling about president trump's choice for secretary of education as democrats raise concerns about her qualifications and now th a re

then acting attorney general sally yates. discovered the conversations that they had not adhered to what flynn and vice president-elect mike pence had been saying about the russian ambassador kislyak. they had transcripts and sanctions were discussed among other issues. there was a discussion within the obama administration. then director with john brennan and james clapper. we believe they were informed these conversations took place and they differed from the public accounts that mike pence and mike flynn had been talking about. this is when it came to the actual resignation letter that michael flynn submitted last night, he mentions this difference what he told the vice president-elect mike pence. he said i briefed the vice president-elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the russian ambassador. i apologize with the president and vice president. they accepted my apology. i tendered my resignation. this comes less than a month in the tenure. making him the shortest lived national security

( cheers and applause ) i mean, instead of being embarrassed by sally yates, an obama hold over, whog in a few days anyway, he could have wait ford a few weeks on the ban when jeff sessions could have been attorney general. trump had the patience of a toddler who ate his entire birthday cake before the party! who are you?! you know -- ( laughter ) you know, trump's whole campaign appeal was that he would run the country like a business. remember that? he's going to run it like a business. at the time, it seemed like a terrible idea because it's a country, not a business. but now i'm starting to wish he would run it more like a business. because what kind of business would launch a new product without telling the rest of the company about it, without checking it with the lawyers, or most importantly worried about how it would affect their brand. what kind of company would do that? it's not a -- although i guess trump is in a way keeping his promise. he may not be running "the" country like "a" business, but he is running it like "his" business. ( cheers and applause ) we'll be right b

they write an intelligent report based on the transcript and that finds its way to yates. when news breaks that there are these calls, it later in january, mid january, you know, that's when pence, the vice president-elect at that point, goes public and he defends flynn and makes a statement that yates and other intelligence officials who had read this intelligence report roar knew to be untrue, which is pence said that flynn had told him he did not discuss the sanctions in they know that the russian ambassador, kislyak, he reports to moscow on his conversations. so moscow knew what pence was saying was not accurate. so yates and for that matter the director of the national intelligence, james clapper and james brennan, the cia director, they were about to leave the administration. this was a concern that the russians could basically use this in a meeting with flynn and try to say that if he doesn't do something to help russia in a certain instance, that somehow this information could get out -- >> and this is obviously the heart of what has concerned a lot of people who h

brandon clapper, yates and the president-elect wanted to act on it before the inauguration. it was comey, the fbi director, who said, no, he thought it would compromise the investigation. after january 23rd when sean spicer had his first press briefing and repeated the misinformation that he had been told by mike flynn and said that he had just gone back to flynn the night before that briefing and that flynn had repeated to him that that conversation was all about airplanes and setting up the phone call and christmas greetings and the like, that's when, after january 23rd, that comey withdrew his objections to revealing this ongoing investigation, and sally yates was authorized to tell the white house counsel. so sometime after january 23rd, she informed the white house counsel, but it was january 30th s that she was fired, and fired presumably, the statement was given to us, that it was because of her refusal to enforce the immigration ban. we don't know why it took so long after that period -- sometime after january 23rd -- for the white house to come to this conclusion. >

acting attorney general, sally yates and others wanted to notify the white house.ames comey was concerned the investigation was at too sensitive a stage and could be compromised. but as trump surrogates repeatedly backed flynn's version of events, yates decided she had to act. warning white house officials they had been misled. she worried flynn was at risk of russian blackmail. sean spicer insisted that then president elect trump never told flynn to discuss the sanctions. >> did the president instruct him to talk about sanctions? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: spicer seemed to blame yates for the delay. >> why did it take so long? i think the first question should be -- where was the department of this. >> reporter: we learned that the fbi interviewed flynn the week at flynn said. to comment on if he wasn't completely honest he could be accused of lying to the fbi, a felony. flynn insisted his conversation with the russian ambassador was not about sanctions but the 35 diplomats, obama expelled end of last year. he also said the president expressed confidence in h

but salary yates was right all for judges that looked at it were right. this is not a constitutional executive order. the fact that they didn't consult with experts shows in the drafting of the order. >> are you confident that the courts can function in their traditional role? >> so far so good. i mean each of the court has heard it and addressed different parts of the order and have been firm about it. there are -- i immediately wrote to the department of homeland security. in new york we have a huge immigrant population. this doesn't just hurt immigrants it hurts all new yorkers. we have health care inshu inconstitutions and institutions of higher learning that depend on immigrants. it's of particular concern to us and the courts have ruled, we contacted immediately -- my office contacted the department of homeland security and customs and border protection and we got a response from them immediately. they said they were complying with the court orders, they wouldn't detain anyone at new york airports. >> that's interesting. they specifically told you t

but salary yates was right all for judges that looked at it were right. this is not a constitutional executive order. the fact that they didn't consult with experts shows in the drafting of the order. >> are you confident that the courts can function in their traditional role? >> so far so good. i mean each of the court has heard it and addressed different parts of the order and have been firm about it. there are -- i immediately wrote to the department of homeland security. in new york we have a huge immigrant population. this doesn't just hurt immigrants it hurts all new yorkers. we have health care inshugs inconstitutions and institutions of higher learning that depend on immigrants. it's of particular concern to us and the courts have ruled, we contacted immediately -- my office contacted the department of homeland security and customs and border protection and we got a response from them immediately. they said they were complying with the court orders, they wouldn't detain anyone at new york airports. >> that's interesting. they specifically told you

shortly afterward yates apparently decided she had no choice but to inform the white house that theyad been misled and she and other officials were concerned about the potential of the russians blackmailing flynn. >> pierre, are there any legal implications here? >> it doesn't appear that any charges are imminent but officials are concerned that flynn was having these conversations, robin. they want to know how many did he have and what precisely were they talking about? >> again, three-week period. >> so many questions and let's bring jon karl back as well as matthew dowd our chief political analyst and cecilia vega here and, jon, let's begin with the three-week gap. as we said it's kind of extraordinary. around january 23rd. sally yates tells the white house counsel that flynn could be vulnerable to blackmail yet that's going to be the big question for the white house. why. >> reporter: the big question is did the president know about it three weeks ago. i asked that directly of senior officials. the only answer i've gotten is that the evaluation of flynn that ultimately led to his