call don mcgahn, said you have to correct the record. i can't work in an environment where we're not being within the lines of what the truth is and what really happened. >> is there a possibility that rosenstein is so hot about this he might resign his position? >> i don't think so. from the people i've talked to, he really likes this job as deputy attorney general, believes that he's the right guy to lead the department, day-to-day operations and overseeing the probe of russia and russia's meddling in the u.s. election, and this was just his way to push back at the white house. others have reported he threatened to resign. we didn't get that far in our reporting. we found he basically said let's set the record straight. you know what happened, the white house did, right after that started talking about how this was at the president's instigation, he long wanted to fire comey and as you played earlier in his interview, didn't care what the recommendation was going to be, he was going to fire him anyway. >> right. i think the date as i s

yates says she told white house counsel don mcgahn on january 26 that flynn was lying both publicly and privately about whether he'd discussed sanctions on russia in his conversation with russian ambassador sergei kislyak, and that she thought these lies made flynn vulnerable to being blackmailed. former house intelligence committee chair devin nunes canceled hearings in march in apparent efforts to block yate'' testimony after she and former cia head john brennan, who was slated to testify at the same hearing, informed the government they would contradict some statements that white house officials had made. former democratic presidential candidate are clinton claimed that fbi director james comey and russian hacking cost her the u.s. election during an interview tuesday. mrs. clinton: i was on the way to winning until a combination letter on october 28 and russian wikileaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were implying to vote for me -- inclined to vote for me, but got scared off. had the election mid-october 27, i would be your president. amy: that's hillary clinton, referrin

mcgahn, his son-in-law jared kushner, who apparently all backed, by the way, dismissing comey, while steve bannon and reince priebus had concerns over the timing though reince priebus was ultimately supportive. it's unbelievable this white house would not be prepared or didn't realize just how big this would be. >> yeah, i -- this is -- david mentioned this and i would just echo it times 1,000 which is firing james comey on january 21st, let's say, day after donald trump gets into office, it would still be a big deal. there would still be questions about the russia investigation, but, you know, he said we needed a change, you know, i felt very strongly about this, i made this decision that if i was elected, i was going to do this. firing him on may 9th in the middle of the russia investigation as cnn is reporting that subpoenas have gone out to associates of michael flynn is totally and completely baffling, not just because of donald trump's past statements, which are contradictory, not just because the reasons, the rationalization they put out last night made zero sense, but because

mcgahn. he's even frustrated with his cabinet officials talked about getting upstaged with top officials including his friend, wilbur ross. i think this suggests that he's just angry and frustrated. the thing for the white house, he's the product and pitchman. he's the producer, firing the stage hands denies a fundamental -- >> we know this happens a lot. is there a timeline here? something he's moving quickly or like comey, could happen in a day or month? >> we never know. we had this three weeks ago, we know he wants steve bannon out and jared kushner wants steve bannon out. they're worried about the optics of when to do it. when he vents and get frustrated he really gets frustrated. you never know if he's blowing off steam, but something is coming. >> it's clear to me the circle has shrunk around the president. this comports with that. >> i think you saw that with the comey decision. steve bannon was not in the loop with this. there's pushback with his allies. the point is this circle is s

and really, it is that sally yates to don mcgahn situation that i've been playing over in my own mind, which is somebody in the justice department believing that there is somebody inside the administration who is a danger, who is a threat, who is a counterintelligence risk either because they are in current communications with foreign adversary or because they could be black mauled by foreign adversary or they're untrustworthy. the white house council would act. again, i think we have to be concerned that that may not play out here. >> michael, on the list that everyone is playing around with now of people that you could describe as close to the president who have russian contacts, there are publicly known contacts that jeff sessions had that rex tillerson had and that jared kushner had. when you say close to the president, it sounds like that's more jared kushner than it is an attorney general whose down the street in another building and tillerson who is down the street in another building. and steve bannon seemed to leave some clues about this in a report in "the new york times" la

mcgahn, you have reince priebus and you have jared and ivanka. jared and ivanka they're not going anywhere. >> they're not going anywhere. and we know the president wasn't happy with the way his press shop handled the announcement of the firing of the fbi director, so who could potentially be hurt by that? obviously you have sean spicer who's the press secretary, he's been someone who's been at the center of questions about how long he may or may not stay in that position. we know that the president thinks that sarah huckabee sanders did a very good job when she stepped before the podium a number of times last week while sean was out fulfill something of his duty and then we also know that reince priebus, part of that messaging as well. but look here's what we know about this president, stef, this is someone who has gone through a series of kind of taking a hard look at his staff. sometimes he gets upset, blows off steam and moves on. the question we have to keep in mind this time, is this yet another one of the instances. it is highly unlikely b

i'm told by white house staff that the president took it pretty well when his white house counsel don mcgahn broke the news to him at 5:30 in the oval office, but now he's had a few hours did she would overcome he seems to be coming to a different state of mind about the whole thing then he was yesterday afternoon, tweeting out this morning: "with all of the illegal acts that took place in the clinton campaign and obama administration, there was never a special counsel appointed!" also, "this is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history!" bill clinton may disagree with that. a lot of republicans are seemingly comfortable with the idea that richard muller, the former director of the fbi has been appointed to be a special counsel to look into the russia contact and whatever russia did to try to influence the electio election. senator from alabama is the former chairman of the intelligence committee, listen to what he said. >> this is an excellent appointment. he has impeccable credentials, former fbi director were he served with distinction. before that, he was

white house counsel don mcgahn. >> that's the question with mcgahn. there have been a couple of these situations where mcgahn, to use a hockey analogy, let a couple by. >> i know so much about hockey. >> well, the one thing you should know is the goalie should not be looking behind himself into the net, seeing the puck, and that's occasionally happened with mcgahn. you know, we've been told in our reporting that mcgahn was not necessarily thrilled with the comey firing, but we have seen, for instance, on the executive orders, not a lot of really rigorous legal vetting and he tends to do i think what the president is ask him to do. so i don't know where this thing will ultimately resolve itself but mcgahn, for instance, has not been like we know in the obama administration, bob bower was extraordinarily diligent about limiting what a spokesperson could say and what was being found in public to the annoyance of people like you oftentimes. but mcgahn does not seem to be following that pattern. >> jill, i have to bring you in here because you ran "the new

mcgahn trying to get a better understanding of what the special counsel pro proses would look like. his initial reaction to the announcement was measured saying that he thought this would prove what he has said all along no collusion between his campaign aides and russian operatives and hope to come to a conclusion and put this to rest quickly but yesterday in a meeting privately with news reporters and anchors he had sort of a different sense. he said that the appointment of the special counsel was hurting the country, divides us, shows we're not united and spoke about it in stronger terms late yesterday. take a listen. >> well, i respect the move but the entire thing has been a witch hunt and there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign. but i can always speak for myself and the russians, zero. >> so sflooen that comment there was sort of a contradiction. he respects the move but views it as a witch hunt. we wait to see if he has further comment on it and we wait to see whether or not the fbi announcement could come as early as today. >> what can you tell us abou

if don mcgahn is telling him not to do these things -- we don't know that, but we would assume he is. the president is not listening to him. so the president needs to get a lawyer he can listen to, and someone who will advise him to stop doing the things that are hurting him politically, and find someone whose advice he will take. >> thank you for participating in this conversation. >>> coming up after the next break, n reporting tonight on just what vice president mike pence knew or didn't know about the flynn issues when we continue. we're on to you, diabetes. time's up, insufficient prenatal care. and administrative paperwork... your days of drowning people are numbered. same goes for you, budget overruns. and rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. we're coming for you, too. for those who won't rest until the world is healthier, neither will we. optum. how well gets done. i am totally blind. i lost my sight in afghanistan. if you're totally blind, you may also be struggling with non-24. calling 844-844-2424. or visit my24info.com. ♪ it's not just a car, it's your daily trea

sally yates informs don mcgahn, white house counsel -- >> the white house counsel. >> white house counsel, february 26th. it's so urgent, she goes to the white house to meet with him in a skiff, a place where she can -- >> a secure briefing. >> a secure briefing. the next day, comey is summoned to the white house by the president of the united states and asked for loyalty in the investigation of the mike flynn matter. if there isn't a reason for a special prosecutor, there has never been one in our history. >> but here's the thing, special prosecutors, as you know, need to be appointed by the department of justice. so, congresswoman, i don't think jeff sessions or deputy attorney general rosenstein are eager to appoint a special prosecutor. i don't think president trump wants them to. is there anything that can be done? >> i think that one of the things that could be done is an independent commission can be set up through passage of legislation that i have co-sponsored. what we're looking for, though, is a few good men or women on the republican side who are willing to put their country a

mcgahn. a lot of self-inflicted wounds. he has lawyered up in terms of an external counsel. we have joe, the letter from joe lieberman withdrawing from consideration as fbi director. everything seems at the moment to be in pieces on the ground. whether or not he's going to be able to kind of recover and come up with a coherent plan is really up to him. we've gone through the staff stories, guys. we've talked about how chief of staff priebus and sean spicer are all under the gun here. this comes down to the president and how he's managing this white house. and i think when he comes back off of this trip, he's got to take a good, long look in the mirror and think about the kind of job he's been doing. >> jake sherman, jonathan swan and glen thrush as well, glen thrush, sans hat on this thursday afternoon. we thought that you were contract actually obligated to wear that thing when you appeared on television. >> it's a gray day in washington so i wanted to give you some nice shine. >> thank you

those favoring a withdraw from the deal are the nationalists, of course, steve bannon, don mcgahn, the president's lawyer, and epa administrator scott p pruitt. i'm joined by mustafa. just give me a little primer here and our viewers. what's the significance of this decision to stay in the climate reent or get out? we should definily stay in. it would be a huge mistake to remove ourselves from this agreement in a number of different ways. the first one would be in relationship to health and making sure that the storms that will increase because of a warming of our planet, greater floods that would also cause some significant damage, both to property and to people's lives, and also the droughts that also come from a warming planet. so we need to make sure that we are partnering with these other 195 countries who are very, very focused on making sure that we are reducing greenhouse gas emissions. we're also going to create an opportunity to make sure that the economics and the jobs that come from a new climate economy are there, and if we pull away from this agreement, then we lose that

. >> my white house counsel, don mcgahn, came back to me, and did not sound like an emergency of any -- it didn't make it sound like he was, you know -- and she actually didn't make it sound that way, either, in the hearings the other day, like it had to be done immediately. this man has served for many years. he's a general. he's, in my opinion, a very good person. i believe that it would be very unfair to hear from somebody who we don't even know and immediately run out and fire a general. >> let me bring in right now former republican congressman and former u.s. attorney bob barr. he first hired sally yates as assistant district attorneyin 1989. thanks for coming in. >> always a pleasure, kate. >> thank you. what do you think of president trump not heeding these warnings from yates about michael flynn? what do you make of it? >> i think what he ought to do is take a very hard, serious look at his staff and how information gets to him, how it's filtered, because, obviously, the system is breaking down. when sally yates, when she was acting attorney general, made the overture to th

mcgahn with information, it's hard to trust when you have every motivation in the world for a sally yates or barack obama to say something bad about general flynn. i think the white house did what it should have done. it proceeded with caution. keep in mind, she did not say, hey, he was giving away nuclear secrets. what she appeared to say is he talked about sanctions or whatever, but his story was not was related to the vice president. that's a warning sign, but it's not like he's peddling nuclear secrets out the door. i think the white house did what it should have done. it proceeded with caution, looked into it further and then they fired him. >> proceeded with caution. the problem is, at least as of this time, there's no real record of that. mark, of course, you have the president's warning and then sally yates' warnings. after all of those warnings, general flynn is there for the most important national security meetings that the president had, phone calls with the king of saudi arabia, phone calls with the russian president, vladimir putin, so they had been warned he could be

. >> because my white house counsel don mcgahn came back to me and it didn't sound like an emergency. he didn't make it sounds like he was -- and she didn't make it sound that way either in the hearings the other day, liked the to be done immediately. this man has served for many years, he's a general, he's a -- in my opinion, a very good person. i believe that it would be very unfair to hear from somebody who we don't even know and smeedly run out and fire a general. >> she's the acting attorney general at the time. >> my white house counsel came to me, they had, i believe, two meetings and we ultimately fired but we fired for a different reason you're talking about general flynn. >> yes. >> because of lying to the vice president? >> yes, but everything plays in. everything plays into it but we faired him because he said something to the vice president that was not so. >> did you know that he had had -- received payments from the russian government. that he received payments from the turkish government? >> no, but obama perhaps knew because he had clearance from the obama administrat

the "wall street journal" reports rosenstein pressed white house canal don mcgahn to correct what he felt was an inaccurate white house depiction of the events surrounding fbi director james comey's firing. lester holt asked the president about the strangest firing letter ever written by a president of the united states. >> let me ask you about your termination letter to mr. comey. you write i greatly appreciate you informing me under three times that i am not under investigation. >> because he told me. and i've heard that from oirks was it a phone call? did you meet face-to-face? >> i had a dinner with him. he wanted to have dinner because he wanted to stay on. we had a very nice dinner. >> he asked? >> that dinner was arranged. i think he asked for the dinner. and he wanted to stay on as the fbi head. and i said consider. we'll see what happens. but we had a very nice dinner. and at that time he told me you're not under investigation, which i knew anyway. >> that was one meeting. >> when you're under investigation, they give you all sorts of documents and everything. i knew i wasn'

this is the white house counsel, don mcgahn. again, attorney general, we believe the national security division chief at doj, they rushed to the white house without even waiting for the fbi agents to write up their report on their questioning of mike flynn. they rush to the white house to notify the white house counsel about what they have learned about the national security adviser mike flynn. heading into today, everybody thought this was going to be testimony that would be kind of a letdown, that we already knew everything sally yates was going to say. but right off the bat, she gives you that incredible timeline and that incredible urgen si how they went to the white house and how fast. and then she said this. i don't think anybody has any idea what this means exactly. >> so i told them again that there were a number of press accounts of statements that had been made by the vice president and other high rking white house officials about general flynn's conduct that we knew to be untrue. and we told them how we knew -- how we

mcgahn on january 4th he was under investigation for being a foreign agent to turkey. over the course of the last 4 ho -- 24 hours, there's been questions whether the vice president was kept in the dark. and if the sound bite you just heard between january 9th, in between january 4th and march 9 9, there was a two-month gap there, which the vice president was potentially kept in the dark. we'll play you a sound bite here from congressman cummings, because mike pence is contesting that he was not aware of michael flynn's connection to turkey until march 9th. >> he sent a very detailed letter talking about flynn's involvement with the turkish government. >> so you think pence is telling the truth when he says he only learned about flynn from news reports? >> well, it's either he's not telling the truth or he was running a sloppy shop. >> reporter: this is that three-page letter that was sent to the vice president. but they said the letter not got to the vice president. >> what is worse, that he is being kept in the dark or is the implication from his aides that the presi

and really, it is that sally yates to don mcgahn situation that i've been playing over in my own mind, which is somebody in the justice department believing that there is somebody inside the administration who is a danger, who is a threat, who is a counterintelligence risk either because they are in current communications with foreign adversary or because they could be black mauled by foreign adversary or they're untrustworthy. the white hse council would act. again, i think we have to be concerned that that may notlay out here. >> michael, on the list that everyone is playing around with now of people that you could describe as close to the president who have russian contacts, there are publicly known contacts that jeff sessions had that rex tillerson had and that jared kushner had. when you say close to the president, it sounds like that's more jared kushner than it is an attorney general whose down the street in another building and tillerson who is down the street in another building. and steve bannon seemed to leave some clues about this in a report in "the new york times" last m

white house counsel don mcgahn was notified and very soon after that informed the president of the united states that there was a special prosecutor looking into this, and this also happened with attorney general jeff sessions, that is almost more interesting than the white house not getting much advanced notice. but apparently after that order was signed between that time and when this was all announced to the world was less than an hour, according to administration officials. so that explains why the statement from the white house came fairly long after this rosrose ros rosenstein announcement bombshell. >> they only had less than an hour's heads up? >> they had less than an hour's heads up. president trump had no control over this situation. that was apparent tonight. >> jim acosta, thanks. now perspective from our panel. jeff toobin, let me start off with you. how important is this? >> it's enormously important, but it's also i think a rare moment of unanimity and relief. because there is literally no more respected person in american law enforcement than bob mueller. when you look at

and really, it is that sally yates to don mcgahn situation that i've been playing over in my own mind, which is somebody in the justice department believing that there is somebody inside the administration who is a danger, who is a threat, who is a counterintelligence risk either because they are in current communications with foreign adversary or because they could be blackmailed by a foreign adversary or they're untrustworthy. the white house council would act. again, i think we have to be concerned that that may not play out here. >> michael, on the list that everyone is playing around with now of people that you could describe as close to the president who have russian contacts, there are publicly known contacts that jeff sessions had that rex tillerson had and that jared kushner had. when you say close to the president, it sounds like that's more jared kushner than it is an attorney general whose down the street in another building and tillerson who is down the street in another building. and steve bannon seemed to leave some clues about this in a report in "the new york times" l

mcgahn, then the transition team's lawyer, he is now the white house counsel. stephanie? >> extraordinary. i want to bring my panel back. matt miller, christine. help me. the trump team mike flynn worked for turkey but up to this point, it had appeared they didn't know he was under investigation. how important is that distinction? i feel they were saying it was obama, obama hired him and left out he also fired him. >> it goes to one of the critical questions that we still don't have an answer to, which is, why was trump so loyal to mike flynn? now we know that they were warned, trump himself was warned personally by the president in november, found out in january he was under federal criminal investigation, then warned by the deputy attorney general sally yates that he had been untruthful, and they did nothing about it until his problems were publicly reported by "the washington post" in february. and to this day, trump continues to defend flynn and, you know, going so far as to ask the fbi director to quash the investigation into him. it's possible it's just a

with a preface here that don mcgahn, he was notified twice, once by sally yates and also by general flynn? >> well, post watergate it's been made very clear under the rules of ethical and professional responsibility, that the white house counsel does not represent donald trump. he represents the office of the president. whether he is going to end up as a target himself of some investigation is not clear at this point for his failure or how he handled the clearance of flynn along the way. so we don't know that. we'd just be speculating. and your question is to whether these people should lawyer up? i don't think anybody who is not a likely target needs to. but i think there's going to be a rush for some of the better criminal defense lawyers in washington in the coming weeks. >> interesting way to put that. >> during watergate. it was pretty much a full employment period for white collar defense lawyers. >> philip, you wrote an interesting piece in "the washington post." you write, "leaks may be manipulative but as in watergate, they may be as central to the transparency and accountability

mcgahn figure this all out. >> who is paying for this? >> that is a great question. we've seen in the past presidents have turned to outside counsel and used different fundraising apparatus as a way ever providing money for those groups. the president may have to raise money to support this initiative or he may have to use his own money. >> how is the president himself reacting to the investigation right now, any idea how he reacted even today to the testimony from john brennan? >> i do know based on my reporting with my colleague that the president has personally met and spoken with several of the candidates to be on his outside legal team. so you have the president personally involved with the search process for outside counsel. that is a signal that he takes it seriously. >> and the white house obviously has been pushing back on the russia investigation and there is talk about leaks at the white house, a coms team not doing an adequately job reportedly and now reports that cory might be coming back? how will he plug the hole? >> well,

you would think if white house council don mcgahn was aware that the fbi was going to interview national security adviser, he would make sure he has representation. >> hold on a moment, what is really significant, is if he told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, in that interview with the fbi. because if he didn't, he has major problems. right now as we all know. coming up, much more on breaking news. former acting attorney general of the united states testified that she warned the white house that the then national security adviser michael flynn lied to the president and was compromised and could be blackmailed by the russians. they call him the whisperer. the whisperer? why do they call him the whisperer? he talks to planes. he talks to planes. watch this. hey watson, what's avionics telling you? maintenance records and performance data suggest replacing capacitor c4. not bad. what's with the coffee maker? sorry. we are not on speaking terms. what's with the coffee maker? so how old do you want uhh, i was thinking around 70. alright, and before that? you mean after

mcgahn was notified and very soon after that informed the president of the united states that there was a special prosecutor looking into this, and this also happened with attorney general jeff sessions, that is almost more interesting than the white house not getting much advanced notice. but apparently after that order was signed and when this was all announced to the world was less than an hour, according to administration officials so that is why the statement from the white house came fairly long after this rosenstein announcement bombshell. >> they only had less than an hour's heads up? >> they had less than an hour's heads up. also with us, someone who's worked with director mueller, hill mudd. how important is this? >> it's enormously important, but it's also i think a rare moment of unanimity and relief. because there is literally no more well respected law enforcement in the united states, when you look at his experience, 12 years as fbi director, head of the criminal division, u.s. attorney in boston, u.s. attorney in san francisco, appointed mostly by republicans, but oc

. >> the small group is don mcgahn, the white house counsel, reince priebus, jared kushner. anyone else? >> and the vice president. >> pierre thomas, you cover justice day after day. we have heard a lot of reports from those close to comey denying so much about what the president has said about those meetings. >> exactly. this was a week unlike any i have seen in years at the fbi. they're usually in a position of knowing secrets and things that will shock other people. they got shocked this week. comey found out about this in los angeles. >> he thought it was a joke. >> he thought it was a joke. it was on television behind him. literally, the people in the room were saying, do you see what's going on? he turned around. then went to another room to find out from someone in washington that he had been fired. >> you have the president in the initial letter saying that comey told him on three separate occasions he was not a target of the investigation. and then, you saw this idea that he had dinner with comey on january 27th, which is the same week that the acting attorney gener

also you have to look at -- since we said jared's name, we might as well -- the other person, don mcgahn has been in the middle of everything from the very beginning. i'm not suggesting that he is one of those. but if you were narrowing it down to one, two, three, four -- >> would you describe don mcgahn as somebody close to the president? >> yes. >> president's lawyer. >> yeah. the president's lawyer. would you like to enter this very dangerous game of speculation? >> i don't speculate. >> thank you very much. >> i don't speculate. within the administration, they now face not only questions about russia and interference and alleged collusion, but potential obstruction of justice, two separate sharks coming at the white house from different directions. the special counsel will not only be looking at relationships with russia but what the president did when he fired james comey. how was that decision made? was it all proper? >> are all these people so ignorant of the basics of governance that they don't understand the potential conflict of interest, that the white house lawyer is not awar

. >> because my white house counsel don mcgahn came back to me and didn't make is sound like he was -- and she actually didn't make it sound that way either in the hearings the other day, like it had to be done immediately. this man has served for many years. he's a general. he's, in my opinion, a very good person. i believe that it would be very unfair to hear from somebody who we don't even know and immediately run out and fire a general. >> she was the acting attorney general at the time? >> my white house counsel came to me. they had, i believe, two meetings, and we ultimately fired. but we fired for a different reason. >> did you know that he had received payments from the russian government, that he had received payments from the turkish government? >> no. but obama perhaps knew because he had clearance from the obama administration, and his clearance -- and this is something they never want to report. he had clearance from the obama administration, the highest clearance you can have. >> you know, what i heard was we fired him for a different reason. >> uh-huh. >> that's what i

mcgahn, his counsel, was not td until after the order was signed. we don't know exactly whatime that order is. there's nothing specific on that at this point. but we do know that this was signed and then the white house counsel's office was informed. and presumably the president if not immediately, then almost immediately after that. we received that written statement that you read at the top of the show. other than that, nothing from the white house. nothing on camera at least, and we are obviously working to report out more on how this is all going down, how this is playing out behind the scenes in the west wing, chris. >> are they shell shocked over there? >> i've had a lot of conversations over the past 24 hours with people inside and outside this administration frankly who are close with folks inside, and here are some of the adjectives. if you were to make a word cloud, i think these are the words you would include -- frustrated, angry, exhausted, sad is one word that somebody said. demoralized. i heard the phrase "body blows" as in what has h

you can't be taking instruction from don mcgahn. >> that's correct. >> or others in the white house. once you realize you're under investigation, right, if they tell you, ari, you can be under investigation -- >> right. >> jeb bush came out with a statement where he said "when i ran for office, i said he is a chaos candidate and would be a chaos president. unfortunately, so far, chaos organizes the president right now." he's speaking at a hedge fund conference in las vegas. i want to wrap this up, to tell you what has happened. we started an hour ago talking about donald trump's first foreign trip. air force one took off, first destination saudi arabia. within moments of that, two bombshell reports, one from "the new york times" quoting donald trump as calling james comey a nut job and telling sergey kisly kislyak, the russian ambassador to the united states, and sergey lavrov, the foreign minister of russia, that the firing of james comey has alleviated pressure on the russia administration and then the "washington post" report stating that a senior white house official is a person

. >> because my white house council don mcgahn and did not sound like an emergency didn't make it sound like -- she actually didn't make it sound that way either in the hearings the other day like it had to be done immediately. this man served for many years. he is a general. he is -- i in my opinion a very good person. i believed that it would be very unfair to hear from somebody who we don't even know and immediately run out and fire a general. >> the acting attorney general at the time. >> my white house counsel came to me. they had -- i believe two meetings. and we ultimately fired but we fired for a different reason. >> you're talking about general flynn. >> general flynn yes. >> because of lying to the vice president. >> yeah but everything plays in. everything plays into it. but we fired him because he said something to the vice president that was not so. >> did you know that he had -- received payments from the russian government, that he had. >> no. >> received payments from the turkish governments. >> no but obama perhaps new because he had clearance from the obama administrat

mcgahn, look, your national security adviser was interviewed by the fbi. he's not telling the truth about this. he could be compromised by the russians. 14 days later, flynn is fired or resigns. and the next day is when the president, at the end of a meeting, pointedly asked comey to stay alone. and you say sessions wanted to stick around. give me more on that. >> well, the fbi is sort of this interesting thing within the government. it's part of the executive branch. it comes under the justice department. but it really sort of operates independently, and the folks at the fbi, including comey, really believe in an independent fbi that can sort of follow the facts and do what it needs to. and attorney general sessions obviously knows this, and there are some concerns that, you know, previous fbi directors have had about having one-on-one conversations with the president or having the president trying to influence him. the fbi director actually answers to the deputy attorney general and the attorney general. he doesn't answer to the president. and sessions k

. >> my white house counsel don mcgahn didn't make it sound like it was an emergency. she actually didn't make it sound that way either in the hearings the other day, like it had to be done immediately. this man has served for many years. he's a general. he's -- in my opinion, a very good person. i believe that it would be very unfair to hear from somebody who we don't even know and immediately run out and fire a general. >> he was acting attorney general at the time. >> my white house counsel came to me. they had i believe two meetings, and we ultimately fired, but we fired for a different reason. >> you're talking about general flynn. >> general flynn, yes. >> because of lying to the vice-president. >> yeah, but everything plays in. everything plays into it. but we fired him because he said something to the vice-president that was not so. >> did you know that he had had that -- received payments from the russian government, that he had received payments no. >> that he had received payments from the turkish government? >> no, but obama perhaps knew because he had clea

mcgahn, that mcgahn turned around and briefed the president and a small group of advisers. so i was reading that thinking it was either that day or shortly thereafter, katy. >> it sounds like that answer to that question is most likely yes. >> that's what it seems like. >> michael, let's take a look at your "new york times" article. it's a remarkable tick tock of what happened inside that dinner. as they ate, the president and mr. comey made small talk about the election and crowd sizes at mr. trump's rallies. the president then turned the conversation to whether mr. comey would pledge his loyalty to him. michael, pledge his loyalty. donald trump is saying he never said that. how confident are you in your sources that they're the ones telling the more truthful version of this story, that donald trump did ask for loyalty and that donald trump, not james comey, asked to have this dinner? >> well, the folks that i spoke to, mr. comey's associates, said that mr. comey had told them about this at the time and that mr. comey was very concerned about it. so this is not something t

mcgahn to talk about mike flynn. this will be the first time the public is going to see her talk in person. i think it is going to be a fascinating hearing. >> we're not going to hear from former national security director rice. advisor. we're not going to hear from her. she says she won't come why? >> i believe she's asserting sort of executive privilege essentially. her conversations with the white house, you know, advisors to the president like that shouldn't be called before congress to answer these kinds of questions. >> she did say sthe wanted to cooperate fully. >> that's right. in fairness to her, what is the allegation? it is sort of unclear here what they're saying she did wrong. >> i don't know if anyone is saying she did anything wrong. she fills in a piece of the public. this would be public unless it's national security. >> i don't know that she should testify. anyone conducting one of these investigations has to ask themselves, are they going to look at actual questions of wrongdoing or are they going

mcgahn, his counsel, was not told until after the order was signed. we don't know exactly what time that order is. there's nothing specific on that at this point. but we do know that this was signed and then the white house counsel's office was informed. and presumably the president if not immediately, then almost immediately after that. we received that written statement that you read at the top of the show. other than that, nothing from the white house. nothing on camera at least, and we are obviously working to report out more on how this is all going down, how this is playing out behind the scenes in the west wing, chris. >> are they shell shocked over there? >> i've had a lot of conversations over the past 24 hours with people inside and outside this administration frankly who are close with folks inside, and here are some of the adjectives. if you were to make a word cloud, i think these are the words you would include -- frustrated, angry, exhausted, sad is one word that somebody said. demoralized. i heard the phrase "body blows" as in what has

>> we discussed before, white house counsel don mcgahn. in a normal administration, all contact with this kind of stuff goes through the white house counsel and the white house counsel is supposed to keep the president shielded from these kinds of things. you see a series of thing where the president who is hard to control, doesn't go through channels. there are now reports that they're thinking of setting up, as bill clinton did, an outside team with lawyers and pr specialist ts, communications strategists to try to keep this stuff away from the rest of the white house staff, the daily flow of business because it is impossible to deal with the implications of an outside counsel, all the investigative and press demands and do everything else the white house needs to do, but this white house counsel, of all the people who are on the line now and all the people whose behavior is going to be scrutinized, he's the one who should be looking at what the president is known to have done and wondering is this -- is it possible for me to stay in my

the paper cites two people familiar with the case who say he informed white house counsel don mcgahn on january 4th. two days laters his lawyers apparently had another conversation with transition lawyers. a source familiar with conversations two days after the election tells nbc news, michael flynn made it clear he wanted to be national security adviser and jared kushner and ivanka trump made it clear president-elect trump would certainly approve of that request to reward flynn's loyalty. despite this "new york times" report that the transition team had been made aware of flynn's ties to foreign governments, here is what the head of the transition team, mike pence, said two weeks later when the stories of flynn's ties to turkey first broke. >> michael flynn has filed with the department of justice as a foreign agent for making more than $500,000 as a lobbyist essentiallfor turkey. your reaction to that, considering , doesn't that mean mr. vice president even if he didn't lie to you about what the russian ambassador said or didn't say, that you would have had to fire him anyway? >> w

mcgahn, the president's counsel. they should be required to testify in public under oath. i rope my committee -- i hope my colleagues will rise to the challenge, committing now to an independent prosecutor who can assure that the truth is uncovered and that accountability is imposed for any criminal wrongdoing and that we will prevent any obstruction of justice because the american people deserve it, they need it, they demand it. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. mr. king: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to speak for a few minutes on the ahc averages the health care bill recently passed in the house. i believe the letters stand for "anti-health care bill." it is a fig leaf preexisting condition provision which doesn't provide adequate funding to actually protect people with preexisting conditions, but what i really want to focus on today are two interrelated provisions: a massive cut to medicaid and a massive tax cut to the wea

rosenstein pressed white house counsel don mcgahn to correct what he felt was an inaccurate white house depiction. in his talk with mcgahn, mr. rosenstein left the impression that he could not work in an environment where facts were not accurately reported. well, that's where he is. and forgive me, but, you know, the past couple of days with the chaos going on in washington, d.c., and with republicans caving into this man and not standing up to him, i actually went back and i read -- i'm reading again russell kirk's "the conservative mind." and forgive me again, but it's appropriate. in the foreword russell kirk says it is now an affair of a generation of the future which in its ensemble is incapable of discerning truth from lies, the true from the false, the good from the bad. this is the time of the harvest for the kingdom of man. and that is exactly what russell kirk in 1953 predicted would happen if we moved towards a more secularized autocratic government. and it's happening right now in realtime. >> in realtime. >> 70 years later. >> it really is, on so many levels that it's stagg

flynn reportedly told now white house counsel don mcgahn on january 4th he was under federal investigation. that conversation and another later showed the trump transition team knew about the flynn investigation far earlier than previously reported. the white house is still dealing with the president's oval office disclosure of highly classified intelligence with russian officials. russian president vladimir putin joked about the episode and called it political schizophrenia. to quiet the controversy he offered to give congress a russian transcript of the discussion. sean spicer said he was unaware of russian tapes at the oval office meeting. >> no politician in history, and i say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly. >> reporter: seeking refuge at the coast guard academy wednesday the president delivered a woe is me commencement speech. >> things are not always fair. >> reporter: and told cadets perseverance is key. >> you will find that things happen to you that you do not deserve and that are not always warranted. but you have to put your head down and fight,

so could white house counsel don mcgahn and steve bannon and all are still here. yet, this time it does feel more real. the president's frustrations about the direction of his administration are real and he's considering staff shakeups of a significant magnitude. what that's really meaning this week probably though is sean spicer and the communications director mike dub i can could be the ones under the most scrutiny. why? because there's a pervasive sense at this white house that though president trump set the firing of james comey the former fbi director in motion in an awkward way, his communication staff compounded that, made matters worse as the week went on. if those two figures, spicer and dubke don't convince the president this week they can solve the problems that they in part created for this white house, they may find themselves on if outside looking in. >> thank you so much. >>> president trump plans to name a new fbi director by fbi when he leaves on his first foreign trip of his term. eight candidates interviewed on saturday. they include current act

mcgahn, the white house counsel, that michael flynn was subject to blackmail, he suddenly brings in the fbi director and asks for loyal. this is donald trump talking to jeanine pirro on fox. >> i read that article. i don't think it's inappropriate. >> did you ask that question? >> no, no, i didn't, but i don't think it would be a bad question to ask. i think loyalty to the country, loyalty to the united states is important. it depends on how you define loyalty. number one. number two, i don't know how that got there, because i didn't ask that question. >> eric columbus, the idea -- you now have a he said/he said or he said/friends of he said. if trump said that wouldn't be a bad question, would that be a bad question to ask of an fbi director, in your view? >> it would be a horrible question. i think he's been watching "the godfather" one too many times. >> in your view, i said to go back to the moment the way comey was let go. mr. rosenstein, who wrote the memo on the same day of the firing, when you read that memo, how did it strike you? did it seem that mr. rosenstein was initiat

reporter: sally yates says she had two separate meetings and a phone call with white house counsel don mcgahn about michael flynn's conversation with the russian ambassador sergey kislyak. >> we were giving them all of this information so that they could take action. >> reporter: investigators had intercepts of the contacts and yates said it was clear to her that flynn had misled the vice president leaving flynn vulnerable to blackmail. >> the russians knew about what general flynn had done. that created a compromise situation, a situation where the national security adviser essentially could be blackmailed by the russians. >> reporter: but despite her warnings in late january, the white house waited more than two weeks to fire flynn. >> mr. mcgahn asked me whether or not general flynn should be fired and i told him that that really wasn't our call. >> reporter: republicans on the committee expressed concern to yates and james clapper, the former director of national intelligence under president obama, that private data about trump campaign officials was swept up in foreign surveillanc

. >> reporter: yates described an intense call to white house counsel don mcgahn. on the morning of january 26th. >> i called don the first thing that morning and told him that i had a very sensitive matter that i needed to discuss with him that i couldn't talk about it on the phone. >> reporter: sensitive because yates was concerned flynn might have been lying to white house officials including the vice president. she went to the white house that very day. >> we felt like it was critical that we get this information to the white house. because in part because the vice president was unknowingly making false statements to the public and because we believed that general flynn was compromised with respect to the russians. we believe that the russians knew this and that created a compromise situation, a situation where the national security adviser essentially could be blackmailed by the russians. >> reporter: she was worried because she saw repeated assertions from trump officials suggesting flynn had told them he had not discussed president obama's sanctions against