apparently the alacrity with which it's carried out all of a sudden in a crucial moment in the russia investigation. >> speaking of russia, who is going to be at the state department tomorrow and possibly at the white house tomorrow with the president, unless it gets canceled? sergei lavrov. the russians are in town witnessing this craziness. the string they first started pulling with the e-mail hack has just come completely unraveled before their very eyes. >> chief of foreign affairs andrea mitchell. andrea, thank you for joining us tonight. what a day to be alive. i am 44 years old. i know, i look older. i'm 44 years old. 44 years ago today, when my beloved mother was struggling with a fat, cranky, six-week-old baby me, she found something to

keep her distracted from how annoying i was as a child. because 44 years ago today, in 1973, the televised watergate hearings began. starting today 44 years ago, they ran live during the day as the hearings were happening, and then pbs ran them again at night so you could catch them twice. when it comes to investigating the actions of the administration itself, particularly when it comes to investigating the actions of a president, everybody has recognized forever that there is a basic problem with the idea of the president being investigated by his own appointees at the justice department. so forever in the united states there have been special prosecutors appointed to investigate presidential scandals and scandals that affect presidential legislations. there was a special prosecutor for the teapot dome destruction

scandal. in the james garfield era, there was a special investigation for a weird postal service bribery scheme that i don't really understand, but it seemed like it involved tons of money. in watergate, in the '70s, there was a problem with this age-old special prosecutor idea. there was a problem during watergate with a special prosecutor who nixon brought in to work on that scandal. because in watergate, nixon fired the special prosecutor. he told the attorney general to fire the special prosecutor. the attorney general resigned in protest. he then told the deputy attorney general to fire the special prosecutor, and the deputy attorney general resigned in protest. he finally got someone else to fire the special prosecutor who was working on the watergate scandal, so he did get hid of him, but congress was mad. congress was not happy about it. and they eventually let the united states install a new special prosecutor for watergate

but with the condition that the senate majority would have to sign off on it on a vote if nixon wanted to fire him, too. this happened through 1973 and nixon resigned in 1974. he pardoned his successor gerald ford so he could not be prosecuted. and by the time jimmy carter got in there, the country felt ethicswise it was time for a big shower. one of the post-watergate reforms was the ethics act in 1978 that was signed by jimmy carter. that actually changed the whole special prosecutor thing. it set triggers for circumstances that would require the attorney general to recommend the special prosecutor. it let a panel of three federal judges pick who that special prosecutor would be. jimmy carter signed that law in 1978 and it persisted for 20

years. everybody hated it. everybody hated it. the first two special prosecutor investigations happened in the carter investigation. one of them was into whether carter's chief of staff was on drugs, and the other one was whether carter's campaign manager was on drugs. no indictments in either case. the special prosecutor law changed ultimately into the independent counsel law. they changed the name of it, they changed it substantively and was reauthorized in the '80s, again in the '80s, and democrats hate how it's used in republican administrations and republicans hate how it's used in democratic administrations. finally in 1989, they killed it. they let it die. and so great. everybody hated that. everybody hated that way of

dealing with it, so the independent counsel statute, it died. but there is still this underlying problem, right? there's still the underlying existential conflict of interest problem about what you do, how you properly handle it when there needs to be an investigation of the president. if the department of justice is what investigates scandals, how can a department of justice whose leadership is appointed by a president possibly be tested to get an investigation of that president done properly. get it done right and true. it's not a partisan problem, it's not a modern problem, it's an original problem, right? it goes back to teapot dome and before the special prosecutor investigation was left to die in 1989, the attorney at the time

was janet reno. she was attorney general during the whole clinton presidency. her deputy attorney general was eric holder. and under janet reno and eric holder's leadership at the justice department in 1999, after the independent counsel statute went away and the idea of an independent counsel was x excised from american law, they had to put something in its place. so in 1999, under the leadership of reno and holder, the justice department promulgated its new regulations for how to handle that enduring problem about presidential scandals and who can rightfully investigate them. they wrote those regulations in 1989 and those are the regulations that today allowed us as a country to finally be sure that the investigation into the russian attack on our election and the prospect that the trump campaign was in on it is an investigation that will not be carried out by trump appointees.

and that origin story. the part of my mom and me being six weeks old is not. but how. comes from a justice department regulation. the justice department has these regulations. the justice department has tt power to do this on their own. what happened today happened within the justice department. rod rosenstein is the one who signed this order naming fbi director robert mueller as the new special counsel. the order spelling out the terms of his agreement and what he will be investigating. and you know what? the white house was not even notified that this was happening until a half hour after the order was signed. gone are the days when the president appointed the special

counsel. now, the attorney general, jeff sessions, has said that he has recused himself from matters involving the trump-russia investigation. that recusal is now very much in question because of jeff sessions' admitted role in the firing of fbi director james comey who was leading the trump-russia investigations and the fbi. but this order tonight, to have oversight into these russia investigations, hand over your records. rod rosenstein said he was acting attorney general on this issue. we're going to find out what that means and why that's important in terms of how much we should all trust this is going to be an independent and capable uninfluenced, unimpeded, real investigation. we'll have more on that coming

up. in fact, from a former very senior justice department lawyer who was personally involved in drafting the special counsel regulations that made this possible today. we've got that coming up this hour. now, in terms of why exactly this happened and why it happened today, we don't know exactly. we're hoping to get some guidance on that this hour as well. we're going to be speaking tonight with one of the gang of eight in this congress. the gang of eight is people who get briefed on stuff. we'll be speaking with a member of the gang of 8 live in this program this hour. as recent as five days ago, it was reported that rod rosenstein did not feel the need for a special counsel. he said he wasn't inclined to change his mind on that unless,

quote, the fbi investigation appears to be i mperilled. we have heard tonight that rod rosenstein has, specifically on the firing of fbi director james comey. so in terms. why he went this far, why he did it without telling the white house he was going to do it after the order was signed? what changed his mind on this? it's possible that just what happened over the last week was enough. it's possible it's just the james comey firing and what happened as to the president's public allegation the. he was told to shut down the investigation into michael

flynn. it it's also possible that what changed here is the progress of the investigations and what they are turning up and the magnitude of what they are turning up, or the lack of magnitude of what they're turning up. we know that three members of acting congress has asked for testimony from the attorney general. we know those committees and more have also now demanded documents from the fbi and from the white house pertaining to white house meetings and communications that james comey might have had with not just the president but also the attorney general and the deputy attorney general, and even the people who served in those positions before the transition, before trump was sworn in. so the congressional committees, we can see them operating in

public, right? we can see them demanding new testimony. the house intelligence committee scheduled testimony today with former cia director john brennan. we see them making demands for documents, and all their document demands, they want them in 72 hours or a week from today. we are seeing these committees get into gear. some of them might even find the clutch one day and start to engage in forward motion, but nobody guarantees it. at the fbi, we know from public statements by the fbi that there was an ongoing counterintelligence investigation into the possibility that the trump campaign cooperated with russia in its attack on the u.s. election last year. we know that that investigation, that counterintelligence investigation, will continue. but if you broaden the scope a little bit, we believe it is probably multiple investigations at the fbi and the department of justice. nbc news reports tonight that paul manafort, the former trump campaign chairman, and michael flynn, the former national security adviser, are now both being described as subjects of a

criminal investigation. and that generally technically means theriy are officially suspected of committing crimes. both men, of course, deny any criminal wrongdoing through their attorneys. we were first to air last night with nbc news reporting that financial dealings of paul manafort are in a federal subpoena issued in an investigation. this comes from previous reporting that the michael flynn investigation has also been forwarded to a federal grand jury subpoena. but with this report, a subject of records requests in these criminal investigations which they are now subject to. whether or not you have strong feelings about the event wal fate of paul manafort and mike flynn, to the extent that a real

investigation into the heart of the matter, right, the real investigation into the president's campaign to the ex tenlt th-- extent that they wer in a position to see and know what was going on. the former campaign chairman, being in pressure like this, that affects the odds as to whether or not either of those two men will serve as witnesses in these broader investigations. in terms of mike flynn, those attorneys has already testified that he want to testify. a real story to tell! >> now that we know a special council hal has been named because of e see, with the

guests that we've got. they're all important, at least as far as i see this. first of all, how will the appointment of fbi director. . we don't know how much the investigations have gotten done already. we than. we have documentaries from the fbi or the white house. whatever you think about. getting that testimony, getting those documents, genuinely tour what happens exactly to the

ongoing justice. there's professional investigations and there's law enforcement investigations. what happens to those special investigations now that there's counsel? do they report like they did before, except they just report to rob mueller instead of the trump campaign? or does rob mueller's special counsel control change how we expect those investigations to proceed. also, what about the scope of this investigation that robert mueller has been in charge. you've seen how they describe it. the special council coal is directed on march 20. any lengths and coordination

with the russian government in association with the campaign of donald trump, and two, any matters marneed to be put in th investigation. that's what mueller is supposed to do. as soon as i saw this, i called people for advice on whether this is. it's narrowly targeted enough not to be -- but widely enough scoped so it can get to the heart of the. i epded up speaking with attorney general eric holder tonight. he told me that in his view.

>> any information that may come from the investigation. >> so. he suggests it could have said in fact, matters that lie directly or in. he could have gotten permission to expand his agreement if he fe felt. robert miller may have to investigate any potential problems and remit includes, for example, the firing of james comey as fbi director. that's another question. that's the question, is the extent wide enough? and here's a really specific, i

think, answerable question. if special counsel robert mueller feels that this agreement is not broad enough. if he feels he needs to expand his remit, if he wants clause 2 to manage directly or indirectly, can he request an expansion and who does he request it from? also, what resorts will he have. we're told already that robert mueller is bringing with him to had this job, his chief paragraph at a asasharyu from that school with him. how many people does he get to hire? and who and we're funding both

research why is will the special council make a publi. he says, i'll do my best, and then he disappears for months and years, while we the public and congress are kept in the dark as to whatever it is that he is doing. i believe these are all answerable questions. we're going to try to answer as many of them as we can over the course of this hour. joining me now is sari whorowit. >> very happy to have you here. >> thank you for having me, andrea. >> do you know how it's, whether

or not this is a properly investigated investigation. >> yes. huge news. the attorney rod rosenstein was so you asked the question, why today, and i believe this is a meeting he has. they had been putting pressure on him to do this, and he chose robert mueller who has so much integrity rit. to answer your question, he reports to rod rosenstein, although he technically reports to him because rod rosenstein is acting as the acting attorney general because sessions recused himself. but mueller is really on his own to prevent any possible kblxz f

of. he can bli in other people. we mostly will keep the investigators who are already doing the work. those of us who have covered him over the years know he is very serious. he's not going to leak. there are not going to be leaks out of this investigation, and he is not required at the end to present a public report. he is required to present a confidential report to rod rosenstein who rosenstein at that point can make it public. you are not going to see bob muleie, doing a press komps on his own. but he will be bringing people who ants high. >> in terms of the remake session, you make it clear he

would be laughing. talking to people about roger, the political capital that he has. at least, it seemed to people that i talked to today if he ma make. or even if he makes, he's the kind of person that rod rosen tin and personally would have a very hard time saying no to. is that a. is that fair how that dpu. is that right? >> i would think to think that he met somewhere for big time. they'll be coming up with a budget in the coming days for

this investigation. and although technically rod rosenstein could fire pluler. . we do know that the president cannot fire him. he can only be dismissed by the tone general. sherry harris, this was very. >> i'll be glad to. >> joining us now is congressman adam shift, ranking kratz. i know this is a very busy time for you. >> rachel, i can't hear you. i'm sorry, i had somebody else talking in my ear, but go ahead. >> can you hear me now? congressman, let me say first as a.

igt firing of investigative committee robert tension. he's briefing the and is expected to vote for the house on sunday. is that you're understanding? >> they were trying to finalize the house bill, but i think that's the case. . even now the question about the appointment of the special counsel? >> i would surge imagine that noum that many. but i imagine members will have a lot of questions about the jf and the firing of james comey. ij those rb the. >> congress, i notice that. i also know that you can't.

without that being stated, do you have any instate where you can. as many as the daptty to the protd so or r on. will had been reporting the that he would do that is because the investigation is rather impeded. it makes me worry about what triggered this for him. can you shed some light on that? >> i don't know how much light i can shed, but i spoke to the deputy attorney last week, and among others, i urged him to appoint a special counsel. the argument that i made with him was that it wasn't that i

doubted they were good preer probable cause and capable of doing an investigation. but it has to be independent enough that the public has confidence of any decisions that are made in the end. i thought about in the absence of independent counsel and in light of all the problems at the fbi, with the doj, with the recusal of the attorney general himself, the. he listened to me politely, herd me how the. . >> i do think it's a good first step and i also. if he wants to expand the copy if he needs reortsz and we in congress are going to make sure he gets all the resources he needs. >> as an investigator yourself,

do you feel like the scope of his responsibilities was appropriately defined? when you look at that ard, is it the name if there's any question about any of it. it would be very hard to say no under i think by virtue of the. i think he will have all the discretion that he needs. >> in terms of your own investigation at the house intelligence committee and the otherville tim many. >> do you think it will change what you get access to and when? >> it won't change in the sense that our investigation will

remain as i know, give a lot of that will not be deterred and can't be interfered with. we have to know tho our investigation. he will now be the president it don't think it will substantively impact what. it gives's a. we a reach arpd the hoob. this does not take away from what the house and the fbi have to do here. >> thank you for joining us tonight. i know you have a lot of issues

about weather and where to do these things. >> it's a pleasure, rachel. thank you. what has happened in robert mueller's life since he left the fbi? it was an unusual and slightly controversial decision. wh what. he kept him for another. over the 12 years in which the fbi has come to a close, he has that in terms of what is about to happen next here. we'll have that as well as expert testimony. stay with us.

i'm richard lui with your top stories. an attack killed six people in kabul today. the president has been briefed on that attack. it's turned out to be a white christmas in some parts of

the united states. a winter storm brought heavy snow and wind gusts to new england this morning, at one point causing whiteout conditions at boston's main airport. for now, back to "the rachel maddow show." robert mueller started at the fbi one week exactly before 9/11. then he was there for ten years. after his ten years as fbi director were up, by then barack obama was president and he asked him to stay on for another two years. he specifically asked him to stay on because the defense department and the cia were both in the process of changing their leadership at the same time, too, and the obama administration reportedly worried that that would be too much turnover in too many key national security agencies all at the same time. he got a unanimous vote in congress to allow him to extend his tenure by an extra two years. he stayed on an extra two years and left in 2013. since he left, though, since 2013, since he was replaced by james comey at the fbi, robert

mueller has been working for a law firm called wilmer hale. but specifically he's been working as the guy who gets called in after a big deal organization makes a huge mess and they need somebody to come in and sort it out and clean it up. for example, 2014. the nfl botches its investigation into a domestic assault by baltimore ravens running back ray rice. the nfl gives ray rice a slap on the wrist. they fail to uncover, or depending who you choose to believe, they choose to ignore a video of the assault, which proves to be way more than the league initially let on. after the league's subsequent handling of that was a disaster, the fbi hired robert mueller to do his own investigation into the nfl investigation. it was his job to figure out how they blew it. that's one. last year it was the vw thing. remember when they were outed for cheating on their admissions

tests? robert mueller was hired as a settlement judge in that case to transparently facilitate settlement discussions. he was selected for a similar role earlier this year when the airbag company takata was accused of failing and resulted in 60 deaths nationwide. once again bob mueller is being called upon to function as an independent party, but this time he has to quit his law firm job to do it, because this time the former fbi director will be taking over his own agency's investigations into the current president of the united states. joining us is tim weiner, author of "enemies."

what did you first think when you heard the news? >> i think the republicans got a chance of saving themselves. bobby mueller -- bobby three sticks as agents called him -- -- >> they called him three sticks? >> yeah. there are three important things people need to know about bobby mueller. one, he was a marine. he was awarded the bronze star for valor. for personally leading his troo troops under fire and rescuing a terribly wounded soldier on enemy lines. he's going to personally rescue this case, i think. two, he took over the fbi, as you mentioned, september 4, 2001. the following week he was in charge of the biggest investigation in the history of the universe leading 4,000 agents and they're trying to find out what happened. >> restructuring the fbi, and in the process, they moved all these fbi agents, thousands of them, into counterterrorism,

into national security. >> they were not worried about bank robberies at this point. they're worried about, now what? >> and he oversaw that shift. >> and when the president, vice president cheney and george bush were flipping out because of the fear, secrecy and ignorance of those times, bobby mueller kept his cool. it was mueller and jim comey, who was his boss at the time, the acting attorney general of the united states, who went in and told bush that they had to stop spying on americans with the nsa program, that they had gone too far, bush and cheney in the nsa. they said no to the president. >> in terms of mueller taking over here, there is interesting questions that we all see play out in realtime in terms of what it materially means to the fbi investigations that he's now going to be in charge with this special counsel role. it seems to me that nobody leaves an organization as big

and fraught as the fbi. nobody leaves an investigation except herbert hoover. how was he viewed by current agents whether or not he was there. how was his tenure viewed? >> he had a lot of respect. he is a very rigorous person. he speaks with precision. he never would have gratuitously said a certain someone had been extremely careless, which was not a federal crime. wouldn't have let that slip. and i talked to him at length about six months ago, and he and comey got along great, but he wasn't terribly happy about the way that played out. >> he wasn't terribly happy about comey's behavior? >> that particular instance, i think, he thought was poor judgment. but they get along really well, having worked together for years. >> comey's public statements about mueller are glowing. >> and mueller's private statements about comey are glowing, too.

so i think what happens now is that the fbi sticks with its counterintelligence investigation, and mueller looks at crime. and he looks at money. and he looks at obstruction of justice. the fbi is set up as an intelligence agency that goes against spies and is a criminal law enforcement agency. i think he ought to divide the work here. the fbi stays on the count counterintel part. bob mueller rides to the rescue to save criminals from obstruction of justice. >> tim weiner is the author of "energy." boy, i'm glad you were able to come here tonight. regulations were written in 1999 at the department of justice after the statute that previously covered for you.

we don't have that many experiences with how this crime investigation goes. we have a person with us now who knows about the regulations, the ins and outs, because he helped right them in 1999 because he was justice tore eric holder. he has been back in the news lately as a lawyer arguing against the president's travel ban on behalf of the state of hawaii. thank you for being here. i appreciate it. >> thanks, rachel. >> does that mean you were a writer for 1989, exactly this kind of situation. the first lines of the counsel regulations assumes the government is compromised and

they provided for the general to take place of the attorney general. then they weigh in with special counsel and how. can you just from former director mueller, that he's bringing a couple staffers from his current law firm. we expect. based on you having written these regulations, does he just operate on his own terms, answering only to himself unless something extraordinary needs to change? >> no, he doesn't get to answer just himself. so part 8 of the regular ligs, to the acting attorney general, then the acting attorney general will decide on that budget.

and he will meet with bureau agents right away on the investigation. but if he takes a step, he's required to notify. if rosenstein reject that and says. he's. you know how you have kind of a spineless majority test. this report has to be given not just to sgrorden representative m mpl. >> i would reserve the rule for mueller. >> if, as special counsel, bob mueller makes a complaint of the

deputy attorney general, whether it it's. that's within the scope of his examination or resources or other matter that he needs to go to the doj. >> he does have to. there are reasons as to. he is taking a step that is against the established traditions and views of the. it has to be a serious violation. it's a very high strarnd. that was proposedxpatterson and it's in the regulations. >> can i just ask you broadly what we should worry about here. obviously a lot of people who have been concerned about the investigations, them being protected from political

pressure and potential obstruction, are welcoming this choice not only in the abstract but specifically welcoming that it's bob mueller who has been appointed to this job. is there anything you worry about or feel like is not being adequately. >> mueller is as good as you can febl. for someone who wants the law executed as professionally as possible, that means he could dismiss mueller. there's little that would surprise me, in the days to come given what we've seen, yes, it is important to note that the president does -- say the fall of the government, but he did have that power. >> thank you.

former acting slis tore general. thank you for being with us. i know it's not. we have a lot more to come tonight, and because this is on you.

because no night is complete anymore without several new major breaking news story about the administration in the last few minutes, we have this story from the "new york times," quoting from the times. michael flynn told president trump's transition team weeks before the inauguration that he was under federal investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for turkey during the campaign. this warning came about a month after the justice department had notified mr. flynn that he was under federal investigation. despite the warning, trump made flynn his national security

adviser, anyway. flynn's disclosure to the trump transition was on january 4th. it was made to the transition team lawyer don mcgann, now special counsel. it shows that the trump team knew about the federal investigation of mike flynn far earlier than has previously been reported, putting a much finer point on the question of why they hired him, and then why they didn't fire him until 18 days after the justice department came to the white house with their proverbial hair on fire saying, your national security adviser has a russia problem. they knew he was under federal investigation when they made him national security adviser. now, of course, we know he's under federal investigation in the probe with russia and now we know he is the subject of a criminal investigation. he is officially suspected of

committing crimes. this "times" story tonight also has new details on the investigation of flynn. quote, the pace of the investigations has intensified in recent weeks with a veteran espionage prosecutor, brandon van grack, now leading a grand jury inquiry in northern virginia that is scrutinizing mr. flynn's foreign lobbying and has begun issuing subpoenas to businesses that worked with mr. flynn and his associates. the "new york times" has reviewed one of the subpoenas. it demands all records, research, contracts, bank records, communications and other documents related to work with mr. flynn and the flynn intel group. the subpoena also asks for similar records about eki ekim alptekin, a turkish businessman who is close to president recep.

we now know that prosecute's name is brandon van grack and he specializes in espionage. what's the mup ppet for that? despite knowing mike flynn was under investigation, specializes for that. >> never a dull night. thank god. >> dan rather is here hosted a big interview. dan covers watergate and much more. i am happy to have you tonight, sir. >> thanks, what a news tonight. it means surreal and of course, danger to the country. i do think there is something reassuring about this. for most of the early stages of trump's presidency. the question begged, are we still a country of laws or have we become a question of men? in today's events and

appointments of other countries and prosecutors give a resounding answer. this is one of the things that reunites us. facts are going to tell us what our destiny is and what our history will be. not donald trump's version of things. these time stories are big stories. thank god for the americans. when they knew that flynn was under investigation for serious law breaking. as you alluded to it that this race knew the question that what is it that flynn knows about donald trump and his campaign. did donald trump want to keep hidden? flynn knows something that it may not be criminal. if it is not bad news, it was not something criminal, why are they working so hard to hide it. number two, i think today's

shows us this is the day up until the day, president trump had the ability to control almost every news cycle from this day forward, he no longer has control and instead if you will of being the hunter, he becomes the hunted. and that's extremely important to keep on mind here on out. he cannot control it. i have this question, rachel, you know that meeting with the russians or which he did not allow any american photographers and some controversial of what the president said or did not say, were the russians taping that? were they taping it? >> if it is true, they could give us a transcript. if it is a tape, lets have it. speaking of tapes, now with donald trump since it is on the only defense. on the tapes that he's alluded to about his conversation with

the fbi director, if he has tapes or if he does not. if he has not, he's got to come forward. >> let me ask you something that we heard tonight, i talked to the former social general, i want him to be here because he was part of drafting the regulations that gave rise to special counsels. they use this for patrick fitzgerald in the plain fair. other than that, it is not taken out and driven around a lot. i asked him if there is anything he's worried about or if people ought to keep in mind diediets people are so ashusuring tonigh. the president can fire the special counsel. >> he can fire. >> i believe if that happens, the way he puts it, that'll lead to the fall of the government and that would be terrible if it happens. that's still an option.

i am trying to rec from my failure of imagination for not being able to anticipate a lot of things that happened in the last 110 days. >> what do you think would happen if trump went that far. >> it defepends on when it happens. out there in the country, that part of the country that voted heavy for donald trump. all of these conversations we are having and coverages, up to today, really has not penetrated much and made much of a difference. i would say this, if donald trump core support stays at say 38% or 40%. as in your interview, he has that power but if trump's poll ratings go to a 30 or below.

no. the public reaction is so strong. bottom line, if he does not in the next two or three weeks which i did not expect, he can survive it for at least a while. and many ways, the damn broke. the morning is anything that we had so far in the presidency. he's on the defensivdefensive. donald trump likes to pride fir people. he could not fire the special counsel. >> dan rather, the host of the big interview on access tv and on american travel, thank you for being here. big nights like this, i am happy that you can come in. we'll be right back with the other jaw dropping story that we have learned this evening. stay with us. i did my ancestrydna and i couldn't wait to get my pie chart. the most shocking result was that i'm 26% native american.

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the big story is the appointment of the special counsel taking over the russia investigation. that news broke at 6:00 eastern time evening. at 4 minutes before 6:00 this

eve evenin evening, the washington broke this. "house majority leader to colleagues in 2016:i think putin pays trump." there is two peopl pays. now, this apparently reportedly happened on june 15th, 2016, it is one thing for washington post to report that you said that. it is another thing for them to say that they heard the tape of you saying that. the recording was listened to and verified by the washington post. helicopt continuing from some of their stories, mccartney quickly added, quote, "swear to god." >> house speaker paul ryan instructed the lieutenant to keep the conversation quiet, no leaks, this is now we know we are a real family here.

>> this is about a month before donald trump secured the republican nomination but there is nobody else in the running at that point. both kevin mccartney and paul ryan met with the prime minister of ukraine. he made his comments about how he is pretty darn sure if putin is paying anyone. somebody reported the exchange and gave that reporting tonight to the washington post. >> paul ryan and mccartney denied this ever happens until the post told them there was a tape. oh, in that case, it was a poor

attempted joke. someone who was there thought it was important enough that they recorded it and kept the recording for r a year and gave it to the post. because that's what the news is like these days. it is not real news day unless there is two huge stories announced within four minutes of 6:00 p.m. that does it for us tonight. >> tonight's friday bomb shell as air force one reads up. two big stories dropped. president trump told the russians james comey is a nut job and pressure off on the russia investigation because comey is fired. from the washington post, the senior white house adviser is a significant interest. a person likely to be on board