you can stay in charge of the whittaker probe. but they said, whittaker, you shouldn't. but he is. how big is it? >> that's right, poppy. especially because this is all about the appearance of a conflict of interest because of the words that whittaker has used. he was out there, you know, months ago when he was on the trail for trump as a surrogate saying that if sessions were to be replaced, maybe the next person in charge could just squeeze the budget and effectively straggle the investigation. so while whittaker did consult with these ethics officials and they told him there is no actual legal conflict of interest, but they did raise the issue of his statements and comments saying it is an appearance of a conflict of interest. so, you know, that is one of these issues that whittaker -- the feedback he thought. they said if they had a formal recommendation, he would recuse himself. but he has said he didn't want to set a precedent for someone else. they found him to be not just willy nilly disregarding the investigation, having a lot more, you know, things he wouldn't make irrati

the whittaker thing, certainly does present a wild card. >> let's get into the whittaker thing. here are all the times we can find that matthew whittaker was critical of the russia investigation. it's a number of times between june 2017 and august 2017. we reported the ethics committee said he should not recuse himself or whittaker was saying the ethics committee said he shouldn't recuse himself. there's now reporting that whittaker was advised to recuse himself. there was a recommendation from the ethics committee. he tapped a veteran u.s. attorney to become a fore team of advicevisers on his new job. they recommendsed to whittaker the next day not to recuse. glen, help me understand this. he appointed his own set of add vie -- advisers who told him what he wanted to hear is that he could stay in charge. >> that's problematic. it seems like mr. whittaker may have problems depending on the decisions he makes regarding the mueller probe. there is an office within the department of justice called o proa. they tackle difficult and thorny conflict issues day in and day out. it doesn

whittaker was a paid advisor at the time for the company. the e-mail exchanges indicate that whittaker had some advance notice about the issues that eventually led to the government charges of fraud against the company and an fbi investigation into the matter. as the "wall street journal" points out, the documents show that ftc employees who investigated world patent marketing were anxious when they received a voicemail from whittaker informing the agency he had taken a high level job. one wrote, you're not going to believe this, matt whittaker is now chief of staff to the attorney general of the united states. >> acting attorney general mat whittaker has also been critical of the man who tapped him for the job. according to the "washington post," the acting a.g. has criticized trump on numerous occasions while appearing on tv and radio as a political comment ta commentator. he said that trump should make his tax returns public and that trump was self-serving in the way he fired former fbi director james comey. whittaker said neither trump n

we have to remember about why whittaker was appointed in the first place. he didn't have the credentials for the job and didn't have the reputation and doesn't have the experience. he wasn't next in line or next to next in line. i think everyone anticipated the reason he was put there was to be someone willing to do the president's bidding in this way which makes everyone even more suspicious this is what's going on here. the fact cnn has learn about these conversations, what are the chances mueller knew about them already? >> if we know, mueller knows. i think that's fair to say across the board. he has a team of terrific investigators and lawyers obviously are working diligently and have been for some time. if the public knows, there's no question mueller knows that and a whole lot more. >> what can he do about this, given whittaker is the oversight, his boss, essentially? >> i don't know there's much mueller can do about this in particular. this really goes to the oversight congress should be having. mueller's job is to investigate and where appropriate

whittaker was a tight end for the university from 1990 to 1992. he claimed the honor on his biography for his former law firm's website. the paper adds that whittaker also made the claim in a 2010 application for a judgeship in iowa and it was included in a 2009 justice department press release about him. the journal says that whittaker's name doesn't appear in the list of academic all americans on the website of the organization and has no record of whittaker as an all american. the justice department told the paper that the acting a.g. received a district distinction. meanwhile a spokesperson for the academic all american program said we know people over the time used the terms interchangeably and innocently. >>> still ahead, an update on supreme court justice ruth bader ginsberg following her recent cancer surgery. >>> plus mark sanford offers a stern warning about the repercussions of political discourse in the era of trump. ol discourse in the era of trump. oh milk. am i willing to pay the price for loving you? you'll make my morning, but rui

whittaker says no, i won't. your reaction. >> that's already a problem that he has refused to recuse himself when the original staff counsel doj lawyer said i think you have a conflict. i think the other problem is clear. that he is not a confirmed ag, which the regular order requires. nor did they follow the regular order with the deputy attorney general becoming the acting attorney general. the real issue is, i don't know whether they expect mr. whittaker to be the magic man or superman. because you cannot stop an ongoing litigation or ongoing criminal investigation that one person is involved in and who is making his own separate agreements with prosecutors, no matter who you are. and i assume what he was suggesting is, that he could interfere with mueller and with the new york state assistant attorney generals for the southern district, excuse me, and could have stopped them from being able to continue on the agreement. that is absolutely absurd. and anybody knows the structure of the federal government and

this is exactly what we feared about whittaker's appointment. this is a real assault on the rule of law. and we are going to scrutinize every single action by matt whitaker. >> adam schiff's new warning today for president trump as the president berated matt whitaker twice after revelations implicated him in a case against his former attorney michael cohen. joining me now katie fang. listen to what he said there, a real assault on the rule of law. that's a strong statement. what is your take, katie? do you think the president is interfering with an investigation? >> absolutely. what is being said by adam schiff, identit's not high hype. donald trump told james comey, can you see if you could maybe let flynn go? we're getting a different context on this when it comes to acting a.g. matt whitaker. we have trump telling whittaker, why are you not controlling your prosecutoring more? you have to show intent. and when you can prove it through circumstantial facts and the circumstances of the case, do you think donald trump is just saying this in pass

whittaker said his strategy would be starve the investigation. deplete the funds from robert mueller so he can't continue. he won't be able to do that since it's almost done? >> he said there's one way the there's enough funding to get through february. i think that matt whittaker is in a tough spot as is donald trump because if he does do anything to limit this invs. ga -- investigation it's going to look like he's trump little -- >> how will we know if he does? >> you will know because it will come out one way or the other either through a subpoena from congress or through resignations. one way or another we're going to figure that out. this is part of the problem with trump railing on this investigation and on jeff sessions for recusing. it now it appears that anybody, including bill barr that trump is putting in as attorney general, he's doing so because of their views on this investigation and in order to limit it. that creates an appearance almost inherently of conflict because of trump appointing someone to limit the investigation into him

math chew whittaker also publically criticized the investigation before the president chose him. that's quite a coincidence that the two replacements for sessions had the president criticized for two years publically about his handles of the russia investigation had both publically criticized that investigation. is that just a coincidence? >> you will be hard pressed to find a lawyer in washington, d.c. that will say that bill barr is not qualified. >> i didn't ask you whether he was qualified. i asked you whether his position criticizing the investigation is reasonably part of the president's justification or rational? >> i don't know what the president's rational was for chosing him, but i'll tell you this, he made a good choice in bill barr because he's a good lawyer. i can't get into the president's mind as to why he made the choice he did. but one of the reasons must have been because of the reputation he had. >> barr also said that mueller should not be able, and i'm quoting here, to demand that the president submit to an interrogation about alleged obstruction. as you know

that's the category that matt whittaker finds himself in. although they have suggested no, you should recuse yourself, he's gone ahead and stayed in it. the question is is the government interested having you work on this greater than the conflict that you have here. it doesn't seem like anyone is really advocating on behalf of the government interest here. we have rod rosenstein, a perfectly good person to step in and oversee this investigation who is already there. the idea you would put in someone over him who has this apparent conflict really flies in face of those regulations. >> the big issue that's coming down the road that we don't know what mueller will do but we do know the rules which is there's a report and whoever his boss is, decides whether that report goes which is generally a good thing because it means the prosecutors not the only one involved in that decision and there's layers of oversight. the democrats are saying if this is trump's little ruse to get someone in there who will pocket the report, they have ways around it.

when you take that memo and combine it with what has been going on between the president and whittaker, the president clearly communicating to get the southern district off my back. there are real questions about impartiality and the democratic congress can be a crucial check on that. >> you might wonder if that was the waving of a flag saying look at me for this job. in response to bar's criticism, the deputy attorney general, he had some pretty strong words with this message included. he said obviously our decisions are informed by our knowledge of the actual facts in this case which mr. bar didn't have. is he telegraphing his commitment to the investigation or once barr sees the facts he will know this is no witch hunt? >> that is what i hope he means. it does sound like he is suggesting that. a hoar cynical read would be he sees this guy coming in as his boss and is trying to sort of apologize for the bizarre move that barr made. i hope what rosenstein means is he will see the facts and he will come off of this uninformed view. >> thanks very much. >> thanks, jim. >>> russia and th

the marine biologist whittaker has spotted something a whale is eating its way through school a fish. with a bit of luck the guests may even catch sight of the much larger humpback whale. in the same waters where the tourists are taking snapshots others are whale hunting. these animals they are good like us that has nerves they can feel there's pain so there's a heartbeat that goes into the wild an explosion and then they bring these wells on board so it can take you know thirty minutes after an hour for these wild bites among painful process. i slams only willing station lies hidden at the end of a few orde far away from reykjavik. the whale catchers have captured a fin whale the second largest mammal on earth and an endangered species that is just animal rights activists document the stripping of the forty ton whales blubber . they post photos and videos online hoping to inspire others to act against whaling this is not a tradition here really it started with our region still in it we have we have long tradition of eating kale in iceland and growing kale so if kale not the way. we

the marine biologist whittaker has spotted something a monkey whale is eating its way through school a fish. with a bit of luck the guests may even catch sight of the much larger humpback whale. in the same waters where the tourists are taking snapshots others are whale hunting. these animals they have good like us that has nerves they can feel there's pain so there's a heartbeat that goes into the wild that explosion and then they bring these wells on board so we can take you know thirty minutes after an hour but these piles by it's a long painful process. icelanders only willing station lies hidden at the end of a few orde far away from reykjavik. the whale catchers have captured a fin whale the second largest mammal on earth and an endangered species that is this animal rights activists document the stripping of the forty ton whales blubber . they post photos and videos online hoping to inspire others to act against whaling this is not a tradition here really it started with our region still in it we have we have longer tradition of eating kale in iceland and growing kale so if ka

doctor who starjodie whittaker is to be the latest celebrity to read a cbeebies bedtime story. the actor follows in the footsteps of the likes of sir eltonjohn, dolly parton, david hasselhoff and tom hardy. she'll read the tale of ada twist, a girl on a mission to use science to better understand her world. the story will be shown on the 7th december and jodie whittaker has described the experience as an honour. now it's time for a look at the weather with louise lear. lots of showers potentially driving in this afternoon moving in from the west. this is the cloud combined at the moment. some of that rain is fairly persistent in the north—west of scotland. the best is in the north east. it was a chilly start and a chilly day. at least there is some sunshine. most of us will have cloudy skies and with a freshening south—westerly winds to drive showers in. now, some of the wind will start to pick up what those sharp showers particularly along the channel. that is worth keeping in mind. gusts in excess of 60 miles an hour. incredibly mild for this time of year in england and s

whittaker appears to be trying to finesse something here. he knows he couldn't recuse or he would risk the wrath of his boss. while he's saying he's retaining ultimate authority, he is delegating the day-to-day oversight or management to rosen si stien who has been fully briefed. >> regardless, democrats are not happy. chuck schumer says it's an attack on the rule of law. senator warren, this is alarming. >> it's interesting because as much as democrats did not like seeing sessions being in a position he was in, this looks like a step away from where they were before and things are getting worse. whether or not trump will put someone in place who actually will do things and handle the way democrats hope he will, it's not clear yet. >> ken, give me the cliff's notes version of how democrats are hoping to get their hands on the president's tax returns. >> we believe that mueller has the tax returns. every legal expert says he likely does but he would not make them public. the democrats have a law that requires the treasury secretary to turn ov

doctor who starjodie whittaker is to be the latest celebrity to read a cbeebies bedtime story. the actor follows in the footsteps of the likes of sir eltonjohn, dolly parton, david hasselhoff and tom hardy. she'll read the tale of ada twist, a girl on a mission to use science to better understand her world. the story will be shown on the 7th december and jodie whittaker has described the experience as "an honour". a woman in ohio has had a lucky escape after a car smashed through her bedroom wall while she was sleeping. the impact pushed caitlyn faoliu's bed across the room but she escaped with just cuts and bruises. it's believed the driver, who lives next door, may have reversed instead of accelerating. oh, dear. never mind. time for a look at the weather with louise lear. hello there. much of the country started sunday off on a cloudy but rather mild note. and this weather watcher picture sent in from cheshire illustrates the point quite clearly. but we did have a chilly start in the far north and scotland and that is where the driest of the weather will be. but we are surro

the doctor who starjodie whittaker is to be the latest celebrity to read a cbeebies bedtime story. the actor follows in the footsteps of the likes of sir eltonjohn, dolly parton, david hasselhoff and tom hardy. she'll read the tale of ada twist, a girl on a mission to use science to better understand her world. the story will be shown on the 7th of december, and jodie whittaker has described the experience as an honour. now it's time for a look at the weather with louise. hello there. much of the country started sunday on a cloudy but rather mild note, and this weather watcher picture sent in from cheshire illustrates the point quite clearly. we did have a chilly start in the far north of scotland, and thatis in the far north of scotland, and that is where the driest weather will be, but we are surrounded by weather fronts pushing will be, but we are surrounded by weatherfronts pushing in from will be, but we are surrounded by weather fronts pushing in from the atlantic. a milder westerly wind goes with it across the south of the country and that will continue to drive in plenty of

wil: that was be "the butler" that was turned into a motion picture that starred among others, forest whittaker, oprah winfrey, jane fonda, and vunessa redgrave. is a pretty special movie came out in 2013. i think you can safely say it took america by storm. it was an amazing heartfelt story of a gentleman who i tracked down who worked for eight american presidents. his name was eugene alan, and he had quite a life. he started in the white house for harry truman and went all the way up to president reagan. so he had quite a epic life. >> host: author wil haygood thanks for your time. >> keep an eye out for more interviews from the national press book fair to air in the future. you can watch them and any other programs in their entirety at booktv.org. type the author's name in the search bar at the top of the page. >> here are some of the best selling fiction books. according to publishers weekly. topping the something like this "becoming" michelle obama's reflections on her life. after that it's a collection of the late columnist charles krauthammer's essays in the the won't of it all. followed

the appointment of whittaker is part of that. the day after the election in november. this is very much a strategy that's oriented towards february 15th when the mueller report comes out and fighting that report. it's not a real legal strategy of the kind we normally see. >> i think it is interesting an worthwhile to note as joyce was saying, rudy giuliani, is getting more erratic in the way he answers questions in interviews. just contradicting himself and claiming crimes aren't crimes. from mayor of new york city who would prosecute squegee men now trying to say crimes aren't crimes. it bears repeating. ahead, the silent shutdown. nobody is talking. nothing is happening and the clock just keeps on ticking. we'll talk to a member of democratic leadership, next. >>> welcome back. the only thing most sides with agree on is when it comes to this partial shutdown is it's not ending any time soon. republicans and democrats are remaining in touch but the major players don't seem to be talking. both chambers were gavelled into session for a grand total of under five minutes.

the appointment of whittaker is part of that. the day after the election in november. this is very much a strategy that's oriented towards february 15th when the mueller report comes out and fighting that report. it's not a real legal strategy of the kind we normally see. >> i think it is interesting an worthwhile to note as joyce was saying, rudy giuliani, is getting more erratic in the way he answers questions in interviews. just contradicting himself and claiming crimes aren't crimes. from mayor of new york city who would prosecute squegee men now trying to say crimes aren't crimes. it bears repeating. ahead, the silent shutdown. nobody is talking. nothing is happening and the clock just keeps on ticking. we'll talk to a member of democratic leadership, next. a m democratic leadership, next. ♪ voice-command navigation with waze wifi wireless charging 104 cubic feet of cargo room and seating for 8. now that's a sleigh. ford expedition. built for the holidays. (hurry!) it's the final days to get zero percent financing plus twelve hundred and fifty dollars ford credi

to see that level of trust and stature diminished by someone like matthew whittaker is heartbreaking. >> what a great panel. i'm appreciative in this holiday week you came onto talk with me. many thanks appreciated. >>> how new dna testing could lead to freedom for man on california's death row for decades. california's death row for decades. like baseball? like you! diagnosed with an aggressive cancer, johan came to st. jude children's research hospital. our discoveries have helped to increase the overall childhood cancer survival from 20% to 80%. and we won't stop until every child survives. how big is 80%? this big! donate now at stjude.org or shop wherever you see the st. jude logo. so we improved everything. we used 50% fewer ingredients added one handed pumps and beat the top safety standards the new johnson's® choose gentle allow you to take advantage of growth opportunities with a level of protection in down markets. so you can be less concerned about your retirement savings. talk with your advisor about shield℠ annuities from brighthouse financial, established by metlife.

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

i've never met matt whittaker. he's viewed as a loyalist. that's what president trump seems to find appealing in him. but really people who have expressed loyalty to trump in the past and people like john kelly, who came in at a time when there was a push for strong leadership. trump wants somebody who will be his guy. >> it also seems like there's the jared and ivanka factor that the chief of staff is going to have to deal with. all the reports indicate that john kelly didn't necessarily get arolong with them. >> dave lawlor live in washington. thanks, dave. >>> hundreds of students gather in the halls of capitol hill demanding action on climate change. >>> if you were on twitter yesterday, you may have seen the president's use of the word -- it's supposed to be smoking gun. i think he wrote smocking, not once but twice. details on who offers him a lesson on what smocking actually means. >>> bill karins back with another check on your forecast. 'tand in your garage,son a brand new john deere. that's not a mirage. with 60 months financing at

he himself acknowledges he doesn't know much about it. >> let's talk about matt whittaker who is the acting ag now. there was an ethics review. he would trash the mueller investigation. the ethics team said that it's okay. he doesn't have to recuse himself. adam schiff, house democrat, is saying ethics opinion needs to be shared openly with congress. what's your opinion? >> i'd like to see it too. there are times when you must recuse yourself and i presume that's what the ethics officials are telling him. i assume that's what they are telling him. >> there could be in that opinion listen, we think maybe it would be a good idea for you to do so but we're not requiring that you do so. >> they may say it's not mandatory but it's advisable or it's not mandatory, we'll leave it up to you. >> what's the process to see that? >> to see the opinion? >> yeah. >> i guess congress will ask for it. >> can they rebuff, fight them on that? >> the men and women are not political appointees. they are career officials. i've always abided their advice. it can still be advisable. >> the other news today

matt whittaker maybe. mark meadows has a good relationship with the president. david bossy sticks out to me. he's on the kpacampaign. he's still in donald trump's orbit. is he someone that would be dreiero desirous of this job. would it be better than the job he's doing now? he's writing books. >> reporter: over the course of the day sources have steered us away from him. of the list of people you showed moving off the list are david bossy and randy levine. i think at the very top of the list you have mark mad deadows said it would be great honor to serve as chief of staff. >> interesting. interesting. carol lee. people that the president has chosen to be his generals have not faired well. that's the latest headline in an article that you offered today. >> yeah. my colleagues and i wrote a story about and took a look at how president trump's fascination with military generals has kind of faded a little bit. you'll recall he was famous for saying he would pick the best generals. the generals he picked coming into his administration were straight out of central ca

we've just learned, he calls whittaker at least twice, angry with what he's seeing in the sdny filings. let's combine that with the nbc reporting that maybe mueller is going to wrap up as early as february: what does this mean? it means this is going to come right back to whitaker because william barr, as much as we talk about the mystery memo that we wrote, i agree with danny, this is extremely disturbing and out of the blue, it may not matter, though, because if mueller wraps up by february, the report goes to whitaker. he's being lashed out by the president, between a proverbial rock and hard place. if i'm mueller after this week of developments, here's what i do, i'm going to stay on course of the strategy of making the report to whitaker secondary to telling the full story through speaking indictments. if we're talking about a february wrap up, the next shoes to fall, i predict will be roger stone and jerome corsi and look for those indictments to tell us a story that includes russian collusion. >> and would that be that nerve here, danny? >> frank is exactly right. there is a rea

whittaker and his horse, utamaro decaussine, finished the course in a time of 37.02 seconds which proved to be too fast for the other riders in one of showjumpings biggest competitions. william's brother michael finished fourth. i have been coming here ever since i was two or three years old, so it was two or three years old, so it was kind of, ever since i was young it was the thing that spurred beyond every day to go and win the world cup here and this happened. christian wade is the third highest try—scorer in premiership history. he's played for england and toured with the lions. so when he announced in october that he was leaving rugby union to take up american football, it came as a pretty big surprise. he's spent the last couple of months in florida, training and getting his head around the intricacies of the nfl before starting a gruelling three—month training camp injanuary. he's home for christmas at the moment, and nipped in to see mark chapman and 0si umenyiora on the nfl show. so you have been in miami, we've got some of the shots from that, what did the american footbal

whittaker and his horse, utamaro decaussine, finished the course in a time of 37.02 seconds which proved to be too fast for the other riders in one of showjumpings biggest competitions. william's uncle michael finished fourth. i've been coming here ever since i was two or three years old, so it is a lwa ys was two or three years old, so it is always been a family tradition and it was kind of, ever since i was young it was the thing that spurred me on. i want to win the world cup at olympia and it happened. christian wade is the third highest try—scorer in premiership history. he's played for england and toured with the lions. so when he announced in october that he was leaving rugby union to take up american football, it came as a pretty big surprise. he's spent the last couple of months in florida, training and getting his head around the intricacies of the nfl before starting a gruelling three—month training camp injanuary. he's home for christmas at the moment, and nipped in to see mark chapman and 0si umenyiora on the nfl show. so you have been in miami, training in miami, we've

yes and i think the special counsel more has to be concerned about this news matthew whittaker the supposedly interim acting attorney general there is controversy about the legality of his appointment but he is a known skeptic of mahler and of this investigation but the thing about whitaker is that he is not widely respected and so whitaker is in particularly weak position to rein in special counsel moller the thing about bill barr is that while his views are very little different than matthew whitaker he holds extreme views about the power of the presidency he has conspiratorial views about hillary clinton he's basically no better than matthew what occur but he has this longstanding history in washington d.c. and so he is considered to be a more serious figure even if his views themselves are not actually very serious views and so i think that makes him a much more dangerous threat to special council mauler than whitacre who's such a weak person in his current position what are the chances of him being approved with that still very still a narrow republican senate majority that will take the

whittaker is not, was not named ultimately as attorney general but mr. bar who went through the process once. this is a really critical function and it gets back again to the special counsel because you want to make sure the and -- make sure if and when a situation arises that you have an attorney general who has the gumption and sufficient credibility and even though the president is appointed, to appoint someone of credibility as special counsel and allow that person to do his or her job. that is a very high bar and a very important bar. and it's ultimately a protection for all of us. when you look at the difference between the united states and the autocratic governments with whom we're now competing, particularly china, it comes down to one phrase that's at the bottom of the constitution, from start to today. the rule of law. it is the respect for the rule of law. and that pervades everything that we're talking about now. again, the 1978 act i think was terrific. it perhaps had some flaws. ken mentioned some. i think it was the hair trigger which was

thers also tal of matt whittaker. two possible outside picks, the president of citizens united who has worked on the trump campaign, and the new york president levine. >>> and there are challenges from kansas and louisiana which those states wanted to strip medicaid funrom planned parenthood. it is not used for abortions but the states wanted to stop plmned parenthood f getting any federal money after a series of videos surface that have since been discredited. justice kavanaugh is among those who decided not to take case. >>> dylon augustyniak is accused of shooting and killing steven wilson last week inside a model home. police say it was a random robbery. in astatement, his family said we are grateful that steven wilson's suspected killer will be detained until trial. we are confident the state's attorney will get a conviction. >>> the winter storm just missed most of e'. >>>ll have a closer look at where the storm stands in the record books. >>> and then home security cameras appeared to catch young pirates in mar

and 48-year-old xavier done more and 28-year-old marcus whittaker, a suspect in a murder last sum order fourth street southeast. these murder victims didn't just drop inhe from sky. they have ties here, andhey can help the cops close these cases of murder. >>> a panel will recommend no major changes deste several instances of bullets hitting homes. residents a some elected leaders became alarmed last may when an outdoor shooting range hit several homes. the working group said studying the rules would be too difficult to enforce. >>> there is a battle over parking in vienna, the argument to take away parking spaces so more bikes can park. >> reporter: 5 and, it has charm. character. it has traffic. lots of traffic heading to the shots here. it has controversy about ting away a single street parking space to put in a bik rack. >> to take away parking is not fair to our businesses. >> repter: these bike racks seem to bese being for there different purposes more thanor bikes. >> every parking space mat orders church st as much as we want people to bike and to wall and that cuts down on traf

in the meantime, the attorney general matthew whittaker remains in charge. >>> closing arguments a just about over at the charlottesville murder trial of james fields he is accused of driving into a crowd of demonstrors, killing one and injuring more. >>> there is no dispute that he is driving the car. is this a case ofdi preted first-degree murder? the closing arguments,ay prosecutors there's no question of that. as proof they point to the fact that fields sat in his car a couple blocks away fro the demonstrators, watching, just idling until he stepped on th gas. >> prosecutors say james fields was angry. it was after all the violent clashes that the self-described neo-nazi drove his dodge charger into a you had confront counter demonstrators, killing heather h heyer and hurting many others. the question ist manner in whi drives it into the crowd is the same as a deadly weapon. the prosecutors point out there action as he backed his car up s first to get more running room. but in closing arguments the defense attorney says he acted in self-defense in fearful saying the whole weekend wa

he will fill spot of matthew whittaker. the president will heather nauert who will replace kki haley. she is a former fox news reporter. >>xp the longted departure will occur in the days ahead for john kelly. and back tyou. >>> amelia draper joins us to talk about how long the cold sticks around. >>> it was a chilly day but at least we had beautiful sunshine for the day. >> it is chilly.s high temperatu only in the low 40s. and then of course, we have to talk aut that winter storm system. here's the latest on storm team 4 radar. it is completely dry across our area but it could give us some parts of the area, maybe a glancing blow sunday night. i'll have more on the timing and if it has any impact at all. coming up aroun 4:15. >> today marks 77 years since the bombing on pearl harbor. at the world war ii memorial in washingtond.c., veterans joined together to mark the occasion. they laid wreaths to commemorate those killed in the attack on pearl harbor. none of these veterans with at iarl harbor when happened but they remem

what sort of insight and visibility is whittaker giving trump? >> we don't know at this point. there's not been any reporting that i've done to suggest that he is actively briefing trump on all details of the mueller investigation. it seems more likely that trump's legal team is being briefed by lawyers surrounding the team and involved in it than it is that matt whittaker would go so far as to breach those norms. rod rosenstein is overseeing the investigation itself. matt whittaker ultimately is the decider of what will be allowed to move forward with the mueller investigation, but it's not clear that he's playing that extremely hands on role at this moment. i think he would face a lot of pushback in the justice department if it were discovered he was briefing trump's legal team on this. i think the fact that the sentencing memo about michael flynn is due to come out today would be really troubling and problematic for the president, because there's a big question about the michael flynn episode that kind of hangs in the balance, which is this gop operaty name opera operative w

>> it's devastateingly bad news for trump and for whittaker both. he was installed as the acting attorney general and has always had a constitutionally tenuous claim to that position since he never, you know, was confirmed by the senate. the attorney general is a very very big job. it's a big deal. and this guy was a constitutional nobody, and really the president's lackey, and really the only reason he was put in really for that job was because president trump wanted someone to control the investigation into him. that's what it looks like. and now we're seeing devastating evidence that that is true, that basically whitaker has been the subject of lashing out by trump on two occasions about the professional jobs done by the southern district of new york justice department prosecutors. so look, i think the bottom line here is even if whitaker could have been acting attorney general, even if he could have supervised the mueller investigation, because of the ethics advice he got yesterday, which seems dubious on its own, but in any event, now he can't.

if you weren't worried as i am about the guardrails kind of going down here in the second half of whittaker and with a lot of the senior people leaving. young political operative. >> what about heather snrks a-- n nauert. i was thinking back. p then y then you look at samantha power, whether you like our politics or not, her credentials. she was a war correspondent. she was an adviser to barack obama. is she qualified for this position? >> in the trump administration. >> what is it a sliding scale? >> yes. let's compare it with nikki haley. she managed to get along with donald trump. she did things at the u.n. and did them capable. she was the governor of south carolina. she had a certain standing. i believe she could get on the phone with mike pompeo and say on this kind of thing, let's eeh if we can't talk the president into this. can she get on the phone with jim mattis and say can you walk me through some of the complexities of this possible resolution on north korea or syria. maybe she can. i don't want to say ahead of time. >> or deal with long time ambassadors from other major countr

on the other hand you have whittaker, the acting attorney general who may be there for a while. we don't know if william barr will be approved. you have barr who has strong views on executive privilege and whether presidents can do wrong things. what do you think the danger is of mueller submitting a report to the attorney general and us not seeing it? >> well, that's going to be a problem at any point that he submits it. the only protection we now have is that the republicans are not in control of the subpoenas for the house. we could have some public hearings where people are called forward. mueller is not divulge any of the information he's gathered when he's called because it's still secret unless it is done in a way that is something similar to what we did during watergate where we issued a road map for potential impeachment and the judiciary committee used the evidence we provided in order to conduct their i vest gags. that made things public. i want to say it's really important for the american people to hear that evidence because it made a big difference in water gate wh

if the senate approves his nomination, he'll take over for acting attorney general matthew whittaker. >>> this weekend on american history tv, saturday at 6:00 p.m. eastern on the civil war, the battle of antietam through soldiers' letters and diary entries. at 8:00 p.m. eastern, university of north florida professor on immigration and the rise of nativism. sunday, a discussion on anthony kennedy. at 4:00 on reel america, a 1974 conversation with democratic representatives martha griffis of michigan and patsy mink of hawaii. this weekend on american history tv on cspan3. >>> sunday on q&a. >> i worked with four people, jimmy carter, bill clinton, barack obama, and to my surprise, donald j. trump. >> the publisher of many best selling non-fiction books. >> i also came to understand about donald trump, and this is profoundly important for the way things work now. is donald trump in his heart of hearts believes he always wins. here's a guy who has been in new york real estate but gambling real estate, boxing, wrestling, beauty contests, television, construction, never been the target of

mueller and his team have been working with the expectation and the advent of the appointment of matthew whittaker that their job may be curtailed or even ended prematurely. with that in mind, they may be rushing to get as much out into the public because there may be a report that they submit that could potentially never see the light of day. >> so you're confident in that. this is almost now a year into the investigation. mueller's been pretty tight lipped. he's never seemed rushes despite the fact that we thought he was wrapping up the investigation on numerous occasions. you're pretty confident at this point he's going to be wrapping it up? >> i'm confident in nothing. but i'll say this. >> at least you're honest. >> i caution folks that it may be true that mueller is wrapping up his investigation. the federal government, the doj and u.s. attorneys take their time investigating. they do not like working under a timetable. most of the time a person finds out that an investigation is concluded either when they are indicted or they die of natural causes. >> all right. >> snitches get stitches. >>

include mark meadows, white house budget director mick mulvaney, david bossy, steve mnuchin, matthew whittaker and new york yankees president randy levine. >> interesting. >> joining us from washington, white house reporter for politico gabby orr. good to see you. >> i think we're beginning to see a clearer picture about what happened during the 2016 campaign of donald trump. and that is that there were several overtures made from russian officials, people with close ties to russian intelligence to members of president trump's campaign, oftentimes top aides and senior advisors on the campaign and those that are really in that inner circle and that very few of these overtures were ever rebuffed by the president's aides and advisors. we learned this in the filing on friday of michael cohen. in november of 2015 he said he was approached by somebody with ties to russia and he continued to have discussions with this perso person. that seems to be the case with others as well. paul manafort is one of them. michael flynn. so many trump campaign advisors have been in touch with people from russia. thi

the report goes to the new acting attorney matt whittaker and prior to that it would have be rose enstein, because sessions recused himself, but now, whitaker, and first footnote, if bill barr is confirmed, then it goes to him. and the statutes say that he does not have to make it public, however, i would find it very, very unlikely not to be released to alt least the senate and the congress committee, and then a big dust-up with the media leaking and what with that, but i think first to the congress and then the public. >> we showed the key dates, and focus on michael flynn with the sentencing hearing which is surprising for a lot of folks who don't have experience with a district court judge. and he said, could cooperate more, and what pressure did that put on general flynn and the team? >> that is surprising having been through hundreds and hundreds of cases over the years as a prosecutor and defense attorney, because the range was zero the six months and he had received a 5k cooperation letter which means that the judge can give you less which is zero to six, but then the bomb of the

i am very concerned about robert mueller, particularly given matthew whittaker, the acting attorney general's refusal to listen to the advice of the professional ethics advisers in the department of justice. you know, i personally don't think we need to throw another $5 billion into the border wall through a slush fund without congressional oversight, but i am willing to invest more in border security. so i don't think the gap is that big. and the idea of getting the bill that senator flake and i have gone on the floor now three times to demand a vote on, getting that bill passed would be a significant step forward in my view. >> first of all, senator, the use of the new jazz hands mandate that we have here well played. very nice. thank you. you used it. >>> okay. let's talk about secretary mattis. what changes? what will change without secretary mattis now at the help at the defense department? because as you know he was often called the last adult in the room. >> with general mattis, a decorated and seasoned marine corps general with significant combat leadership experience was someone who

that had been a previous attorney general for bush 41 to try to remove some of the controversy around whittaker's appointment. so someone who has not been senate confirmed has never been in this position for this amount of time. >> barr has been critical of certain aspects of the mueller probe. john, let me get the political play here of one of the president's newest tweets this morning that fascinates me. i'll paraphrase for you here. he's saying that, you know, rudy giuliani, his personal lawyer is crafting a counter report to the mueller probe and the mueller report that 87 pages of it, john, are already done and he said we can't finish it until, you know, mueller is done with his work. politically, john, what's the play here? that they would feel the need to write a report responding that is already 87 pages long and they have started doing so before the mueller report. >> this has been reported that basically they want to offer their counter factor, the alternative facts to whatever the mueller report comes down with. then this was actually dismissed in an interview that rudy gave last night

so even if this fake attorney general whittaker tries to shut down the special counsel or the southern district in new york. now at this point some independent judge has that full record of what mueller is saying, the unredacted version. >> here's what we know for sure, there has to be more to come. and you have flynn and now cohen and manafort all clearly were not solo acts. they were talking to people. so people knew what was going on about the things that got these men in trouble. who? how much did they know? did they tell the truth about it when they were asked? those are the big open questions and they matter more now than ever. why lie? it keeps haunting me in this situation. michael, neal, i could not ask for better guys. say your last name the right way so i remember it correctly. >> cuomo. >> you're too handsome to be a quo mow. you can't be one of mine. it is great to have you both. thank you so much. you have been a real benefit again. >>> the president says something that's just common stfalse. fold up the tent, he says. mueller is not only looking at collusion. we know fro

acting attorney general mat chew whittaker has rejected the advice of ethics officials and decided not to recuse himself from overseeing the investigation. third, bill barr is under fire for a memo he sent to the justice department in june. he's critical of mueller's probe into whether president trump obstructed justice calling it quote, fatally misconceived. joining me now, new york times justice department reporter katie bennett. let's start here with the former and possibly future attorney general bill barr. this whole memo, which nobody asked for, raised questions about whether barr would order mueller to shut down his investigation or hamper it. what do you know? >> he takes issue with the idea you can go after the president for obstruction of justice based on the fact he fired james comey. his argument is as the head of the executive branch, he can fire anybody he wants. that's essentially the argument. there are things the president could do that would constitute obstruction and witness tampering. >> let me play with rod rosenstein played yesterday when asked about that memo. >>

what does it tell you when trump tweets that he didn't lash out at whittaker as reported by cnn? >> so that report was not about the mueller investigation itself, but about the michael cohen matter in new york which the southern district of new york prosecutors have taken over from mueller. this is the stuff related to money laundering, bank crimes plus the financial campaign finance kriemcrimes of paying oe two women who say they have slept with the president extra mar tale. supposedly, this was -- trump was beraiding matt whit taker and acting attorney general for not giving him a heads up on what was happening on reining in the prosecutors in new york. one of the things that trump is dealing with here is that his original legal troubles were centered on mueller alone has metastasized. he has the state attorney general in new york looking at the trump foundation and the trump organization and has prosecutors elsewhere in the justice department boring in on different aspects of his dealings before and during his presidency. so he is sort of surrounded and it is well within chara