don mcgann is a witness here in a lot of ways. don't forget, sally yates went to don mcgann about general flynn. and that was 18 days before flynn was eventually fired. >> he was the point person. she was -- >> he was the point person. and we've been told throughout this year that don mcgann and the president have had a very uneasy relationship, and there were times that the president wanted to get rid of don mcgann. and so i think if the president listened to him, it's because it's clear that he was also, and maggie, this is your great story, that he, he was hearing also the cries from people outside, from congress and elsewhere, saying that this would effectively create a constitutional crisis and, and i think mcgann was probably of that, of that school and not surprisingly threatened to quit, according to this great story. >> dana bash, if memory serves me, and again, i don't want to conflats events, but there were plenty of people or have been plenty of people on capitol hill warning about the impact of firing or at least mont

don mcgann is a witness here in a lot of ways. don't forget, sally yates went to don mcgann about general flynn. and that was 18 days before flynn was eventually fired. >> he was the point person. she was -- >> he was the point person. and we've been told throughout this year that don mcgann and the president have had a very uneasy relationship, and there were times that the president wanted to get rid of don mcgann. and so i think if the president listened to him, it's because it's clear that he was also, and maggie, this is your great story, that he, he was hearing also the cries from people outside, from congress and elsewhere, saying that this would effectively create a constitutional crisis and, and i think mcgann was probably of that, of that school and not surprisingly threatened to quit, according to this great story. >> dana bash, if memory serves me, and again, i don't want to conflate events, but there were plenty of people or have been plenty of people on capitol hill warning about the impact of firing or at least mont

and don mcgann threatened to quit. at the time the president was considering three issues as possible conflicts of interest. one was a dispute over fees at a golf club that mueller had been a member of, never completely understood what was that about. it was seen widely by legal experts i spoke with as a flimsy reason. the second reason was mueller had, up until that point, worked at the law firm that also employed a lawyer for jared kushner, the president's son-in-law. and the third was mueller had interviewed to be the enter is eupl fbi director replacing james comey and could be a witness in the case. the last was the only one that had even sort of a whiff of credibility about it. it made no actual sense as a conflict. the last two, i would point out, both issues were pushed out by trump advisers at the time on background to discredit mueller and not to say and therefore he should be fired but to stoke the perception that he should not be in the job that he was in. but also at the time, chris ruddy of news max went

but let's not forget who don mcgann is. he is the guy that sat across from sally yates and challenged her came to report her concerns about michael flynn. and he may or may not be the one who communicated that to the president. he also is the guy who contacted the department of justice and tried to get information about possible fisa warrants, which is something any without counsel would know not to do. and of course where was he when comey was fired? so this is -- this -- he's also the one who pressured jeff sessions not to recuse when he had a legal responsibility to recuse under a criminal conflict of interest statute. so this is not a rule of law kind of thing. i seriously doubt he thought incident was a wrong thing to do. i think he thought it was a thing they wouldn't get away with with. >> it didn't happen. robert mueller was not fired, obviously. so in and of itself the act isn't grounds for obstruction or anything else. but could the intent, how does the intent tell you about the president's mind-set and might that

what are you calling for with don mcgann? >> don mcgann should go back in time and undo what he did. >> thank you very much for expressing your strong feelings to us this morning. appreciate talking to you. >> thank you. >>> we are following a lot of news this morning, so let's get right to it. >>> "the new york times" published a blockbuster story about president trump's efforts to keep control of the russian investigation. >> it speaks to the very depths of deprivilege tea of the white house. >> i have never heard of anything like that. >> it's absolutely his decision. >> this author is, quite frankly, a crack pot fantasy news faction writer. >> we're caught up debating the mental health of the president. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning and welcome to your "new day." it's friday, january 5th, 8:00 in the east. we have two big stories following. first, the man behind the explosive tell-all book behind the white house, and dropping even more eyebrow raising claims about donald trump,

this is two months after he asked don mcgann to do exactly that. here is what the president said. >> mr. president you thought about, considered leading to the dismissal of the special counsel. is there anything bob mueller could do to send you in that direction? >> i haven't given it any thought. i've been reading about it from you people. you say i'm going to dismiss him. no, i'm not dismissing anybody. >> paul? >> the president, the way he phrases things, it's amazing. he says no, and then he says but you guys have been talking about it and i've read about it. the no is the answer to the question have you thought about it. if you read about it, you were thinking about what you were reading. on its face that's an inaccurate answer to a question. he's slippery on the way he answers questions. >> but now from our reporting it's false. >> it's totally false, completely false. obviously what the reporting indicates is he was obsessed with the appointment of mueller. he was angry that mueller was appointed. he talked to his counsel about how can we fi

who's don mcgann advising the president to advance? >> to think about this clearly, you have to separate appeals court judges and supreme court justices who have a lot of power over the law as a policy matter from district court judges who run trials. there's not -- they've had a lot of problems with their district court nominees, but a lot of those actually come from home state senators, and the white house agrees to nominate so and so, a buddy of so and so. the appeals court judges they've been pick regular young, high powered, extremely conservative, well-credentialed federalist society-style jurists of the type that could not have been confirmed in the old days -- that is up until 2013 when you needed 60 votes to clear a filibuster in the senate to clear a judge. democrats ended the filibuster in november of 2013, and trump is the first republican president with the republican senator, and they're using that on simple majority basis to get through to conservative judges. >> we're seeing the nuclear fallout as it were. charlie savag

mcgann, there were press reports to find out what's going on with don mcgann and jeff sessions to see if he was trying to recuse himself. i would rather he didn't. that's very different from a president of the united states saying that don mcgann and you tell him that i order him to stay on the investigation to protect me. that's a different story. >> it could be what is taking place. we would like to hear from don mcbegan to nag out. >> ultimately remember to jeff sessions's credit, he did recuse himself. he pressured him not to do so and he chose the more prudent course. >> it is a little bit of context covering the clinton white house. what a terrible tleap they had. rahm e manual and we used to ring them out on different issues. that's a different issue. there are differences. >> a lot of us like to see that. would he be allowed to? >> it would and donald trump jr. had no bearing on these things, but the privilege belongs to the president of the united states. the president would have to assert that privilege and tell him whether or not he could speak. it's not on behalf of john m

so i don't know if don mcgann is the leaker. maybe he is a guy who the victim of a lucky coincidence. but i'm saying if i was donald trump i'd be eye balling don mcgann right now. >> the other person in the room he know of would be donald trump himself. listen, i asked john dean about your tweet in the last hour. and this is what he said. >> well i don't think he -- he has any choice. in this instance. he -- his client is not donald trump it's the office of the president. he has to respond accordingly. i think walter makes a good point about canonizing the counsel for doing what he is supposed to do. but i think it also suggests that he saw the peril in this and the potential criminality of it and that's why he backed off and was wise to do so. >> so very similar question mr. chavez i asked you before, do you think mcgann is pulling a john dean, john cooperatewood the investigators during the nixon administration by the way when they were looking into the watergate cover-up. >> well it sure sounded from that excerpt like john de

don mcgann, the white house counsel may have saved the trump presidency. the white house counsel reportedly stopped trump from being richard nixon. specifically when nixon fired archibald cox, the real nixon reference is that if the president had moved on the special counsel, bob mueller, there may well have been a cascade of resignations just like with nixon that would have left trump exactly where nixon was. forced to resign for efforts to derail justice. that's where we are tonight. let's bring in one of the new york times reporters who broke the story. can you hear me? >> i can. >> where do you want to start? i think it makes most sense -- have you heard anything from the white house in response to this reporting? >> just a statement from ty cobb that out of respect for the process they were going to decline to comment. that's not a denial. i think it's worth noting. the first that we have heard of an actual effort by the president to do this. chris who is an ally of the president and who was in the white house last summer, around this time went on tel

and now one wanders whether don mcgann was in the loop in that decision. we have a statement from adam schiff. demonstrating the nixonian length this president is willing to go to protect himself. you have mark warner saying it would be a red line to fire mueller, and congress needs to take steps to make sure that that cannot happen, andrea. >> bob bauer, can you put yourself in the position of don mcgahn. the president of the united states, the commander in chief comes to you and says, i want to fire the special prosecutor, what would you have said, what would you have done? >> the first question is why, and the reasons given, if they prove not to be satisfactory, would lead you to say, that's very unwise, if the president insists, then you have to try to explain and the times reports did explain what the political consequences would be. if the president insists more, that would be up to the white house council. according to the times, mr. mcgahn made it clear at least through intermediaries he's not prepared to do that. >> is that something you should be

but don mcgann, the white house counsel said, i will quit if you do that. is this a good news story, the president didn't do it, the staff stopped him? >> it reflects the fact that the president has been ob strulkting justice all through out his first year in office. he took on manipulation of three fbi directors. now we find out he ordered his special counsel to fire the special prosecutor. what we see is on every piece of information the president is absolutely panicked about the truth coming out over his team's collaboration with the russians. >> how can you say that definitively. we've had our legal experts on that say it's about intent. we can't be in the president's mind. it's his prerogative if he wants to fire special counsel robert mueller. >> if he had nothing to high, he wouldn't be up at night worried about what was going to come out and plotting to how he can control this investigation. he would be focused on other things. he's clearly spending so much time worried, panicked over the information that has come out. it shows a pattern of contact.

whether don mcgann is acting as a personal lawyer. there is a distinction there. you can't forget why did donald trump not want jeff sessions to recuse himself. it was to add a layer of political protection to the president. it goes to that same flynn question. we had white house officials lie to each other with repercussions and about how things unfolded. it's the underlying conduct that was problematic and what was the purpose the not taking action on what sally yates told the white house. >> the attorney general in particular is facing backlash on his role in russia, but a new policy he announced on marijuana and it's coming from inside his own party. stay with us. steyer: the president's national security adviser -- guilty. his campaign chairman -- under indictment. his son-in-law -- secret talks with russians. the director of the fbi -- fired. special counsel robert mueller's criminal investigation has already shown why the president should be impeached. you can send a message to your representatives at needtoimpeach.com and demand they finally take a stand.

i think don mcgann threatened to resign because he had no choice. he realized he was engaging in possibly joining a criminal conspiracy to remove or to obstruct justice. and that's what a lawyer has to do in a situation like that, either threaten to resign or quietly resign in some jurisdictions, they have to make a noisy withdrawal when they do that. >> you were shaking your head in agreement, this is another piece in the puzzle, big piece. >> it is because we see the pattern above all things, donald trump through his first year in office has done everything possible to undermine, obstruct and demean and halt this legitimate investigation into his conduct, the conduct of his campaign, the conduct of people in his family, doesn't mean they are guilty, he doesn't want this investigation to go forward at all costs, he now has engaged the republican party, which is staking its future to some extent in trying to undernine the investigation. what we've seen in the last few weeks from republicans trying to demean mueller's investigation is quite extraordi

when that white house lawyer, don mcgann, tried and failed to convince sessions, "the new york times" the president "erupted in anger" and said he needed his attorney general to protect him. the story says the president described the russia investigation as "fabricated and politically motivated" in a letter he had wanted to send to then-fbi director james comey. but then white house aides stopped him from sending it. joined by congressman ted lieu, democrat from washington, member of the house judiciary committee. thank you for being here. this story, pretty extraordinary that according to "the new york times," donald trump essentially ordered the white house counsel, don mcgann, to go to jeff sessions and lobby him not to quit, saying he needed his attorney general to protect him, saying he expected his top law enforcement officer to safeguard him the way he believed robert f. kennedy as attorney general had done for his brother john f. kennedy and eric holder had done for barack obama. your response? >> thank you for your question. that is a significant story because it shows us how

not only did white house counsel don mcgann pressure sessions, but so did former chief of staff reince priebus and ex-press secretary sean spicer. one official telling cnn, "i think it's fair to call it pressure." >>> plus, that explosive new tell-all detailing life inside the white house in the first 100 days of the trump presidency. the author of the book saying that 100% of the people around trump question his fitness to be president. all right, let's get straight to cnn white house correspondent abby philip. abby, the president has been tweeting, but has that happened before those meetings have gotten under way at camp david? >> hi, fred. this book seems to really have gotten under president trump's skin. this morning he was scheduled to be in meetings starting around 9:45 a.m., but well before then he appeared to be keeping up with the news on cable television and tweeting about some of the revelations in that book, especially that chatter about his mental stability. now, the president's defense of these charges in the book in which michael wolff suggests that the president is rep

howie: if you believe that don mcgann the white house counsel said i will leave if you fire him. mollie: you have the house intelligence committee about to release a report about fisa abuse that members of the house say is chilling, disturbing criminal activity. and you have no collusion with the trump administration and russia after a year investigation. in d.c. there is panic and fear over's going to come out with this report. howie: some journalists and liberal commentators are saying he was not telling the truth at the time. capri: some of his closest allies are saying one thing. and that's not unique. we have seen the president change his stories time and again. i disagree as far as the media bringing the story up again to deflect from something else. but i do think there is a concerted effort to create a narrative across different media channels to say this is a pattern that president trump wanted to fire mueller. no, he didn't. the reason why he didn't is balk don mcgann said -- we saw the same thing with the fbi director reportedly saying he was going to quit. howie: the

"new york times" reporting robert mueller is aware that trump ordered white house counsel don mcgann to stop sessions from recusing himself. >> the incident another possible example he sought to influence. ty cobb told cnn he respectfully declined to respond. congress man and top grdemocrat it completely unacceptable saying mcgann should make himself available to the committee. >> also reporting four days before he was fired an aide to attorney general sessions asked the congressional staffer whether he had any damaging information about comey. a person with knowledge of that meeting tells the times sessions quote, wanted one negative article a day in the news media about mr. comey. a justice department spokeswoman tell the cnn this did not happen. >> a highly anticipated book about president trump's white house goes on sale today. it comes out days ahead of schedule defying legal threats from mr. trump's lawyers. cnn has obtained a copy. wolff was given extraordinary access to the west wing early in the administration. >> we should note while some of his reporting has been corrobora

"the new york times" article about the discussions with don mcgann and jeff sessions. all the discussions in the white house. before james comey was fired. and the president talking about how he wanted to fire james comey. all those discussions in the white house where the president helped write a false statement about his son don jr.'s dealing with the russians. back in the campaign. you're a former prosecutor. you add all that up. you see just what we know has been reported. would you need to talk to the president about that? >> generally speaking, when an investigation is overt as opposed to covert. in this case, there's no more investigation in the history of the world, perhaps. everyone knows what is happening. the lawyers have said they want to meet. the president's lawyers want to meet with special counsel mueller. generally speaking, before you make a decision about this, if you're buttoning everything up, crossing every "t," dotting

i don't know whether or not don mcgann put it this way. listen, the president wants you to think hard about not recusing yourself. we know it's a judgment call. we know you will exercise your own best judgment as to what's right here. the president hopes you can stay on in that investigation. so if it was presented that way, you can make an argument that there would be nothing improper about communicating the president's wishes. but understanding at the end of the day general jeff sessions has to make this call based upon his own best judgment is. that would not have been inappropriate in my judgment. >> but it sounds like from what you've read, you're not comfortable with what happened there. >> well, again, there's a lot i don't know about the relationships. a lot i don't know about the investigation. based on my experience as white house counsel, this is not a conversation that would have occurred. >> okay. alberto gonzales, thank you very much. it was great to get your expertise on this. >> thank you, alisyn. >>> the trump administrati

close to attorney general jeff sessions tells cnn white house counsel don mcgann personally reached out to sessions to try to dissuade the attorney general from recusing himself from the russia probe and it was a direct order from president trump who reportedly erupted in front of several white house officials when sessions announced his recusal in march. >> therefore, i was recused myself. >> sources put it this way to the times. mr. trump said he had expected his top law enforcement official to safeguard him the way he believed robert f. kennedy's attorney general had done for his brother and john f. contendy and the eric h. holder jr. did for president obama. >> while i was on the phone talking to department of justice officials telling them that jeff sessions had had no choice but to recuse in order to resolve a criminal conflict of interest, we now learn that don mcgann was pressuring jeff sessions on behalf of the president to do just the.opposite. i think that we are in a neighborhood where i hope mueller is looking at this very seriously for obstruction of justice because it

i think don mcgann has done a good job for a white house counsel. so there are bright spots here that are helping the president along. and look, they've got 3%-plus economic growth. how much of that credit you want to give to the president -- >> the question was, if don mcgahn leaves, what impact does it have on the russia investigation? that is the question. >> if you're going to make the lawyer a witness and then he leaves the office and i see no indications of that yet. but then you create complications because now you have a new white house counsel, you've doubled the number of people in the position, and there's no way of getting around the white house counsel having to be a traffic cop for an awful lot of this information. no way around it. >> john, i've got ten seconds left, and i have to get this in. the president has denied anyone in his campaign had contact with russia. that has proven false. michael flynn, george papadopoulos. they all pled guilty to lying to the fbi on the russia matter. does it seem possible that trump was left in the d

i think don mcgann has done a good job for a white house counsel. so there are bright spots here that are helping the president along. and look, they've got 3%-plus economic growth. how much of that credit you want to give to the president -- [ all speak at once ] >> what effect does that have on the russia investigation? that is the question. [ all speak at once ] >> if you're going to make the lawyer a witness and then he leaves the office and i see no indications of that yet. but then you create complications because now you have a new white house counsel, you've doubled the number of people in the position, and there's no way of getting around the white house counsel having to be a traffic cop for an awful lot of this information. no way around it. >> john, i've got ten seconds left, and i have to get this in. the president has denied anyone in his campaign had contact with russia. that has proven false. michael flynn, george papadopoulos. they all pled guilty to lying to the fbi on the russia matter. does it seem possible that trump was left in

that appeal came from don mcgann. in june, the attorney general refused to answer questions from lawmakers about the president's frustration with that decision. >> it's my judgment that it would be inappropriate for me to answer and reveal private conversations with the president when he is not -- has not had a full opportunity to review the questions and to make a decision on whether or not to approve such an answer. >> yeah, this new report is bringing a cascade for trump administration officials to step down including jeff sessions and don mcgann. >> it's pretty clear that mcgann should no longer have a position in the white house, that he was not representing the united states constitution, not representing the american people but representing donald trump really as in a private attorney and that is just completely inappropriate. >> as you mentioned, northeaster white house or the president's personal attorneys are responding to the reports. if accurate, it would be the latest example of the president's actions ra

don mcgann according to your reports, said no. tell us about your story, tell us about the reporting. tell us if you can, how long you've been working on this. >> well this is stuff that has come up in the interviews that mueller has done in the past few months with white house officials. mueller has focused a lot on the president's conduct in office, what was he doing, why was he so obsessed with loyalty. why was he so obsessed with a person running the russia investigation? he's been interviewing folks from the white house counsel's office, the aides closest to the president to try to understand what the president was doing. and the white house has waved executive privilege and attorney-client privilege and allowed all of this to be shared with the special counsel's office, as they sifted through different things, they found different events like this. things where the president was trying to get rid of mueller. for most people it's just astounding that just a month after comey was fired, he thought that getting rid of mueller w

my understand is don mcgann -- >> an excellent distinction. excellent distinction. the presidency, the office of the president -- serves the president in his official capacity, period, and that's it. >> that is it. >> the attorney general has an unusual role as a cabinet member in that unlike the other cabinet members, the term has independent decisionmaking authority. that's part of what we've talked about here. the attorney general also has, like all the other cabinet secretaries, policy implementation and some political, meaning dealing with capitol hill in particular, responsibilities that genuinely are not independent. they do fall under the direct authority appropriately of the president. just like all the other cabinet secretaries. >> the piece we're talking about with attorney general sessions is that independent legal authority under the attorney general's office that doesn't exist under any cabinet secretary. that's it. >> professor, it was appropriate for the president of the united states to not only tell don mcgann to try to get jeff sessions to not rec

a senior position at the treasury that was filled by shannon mcgann, wife of white house council don mcgann. that became vacate when she left the position at treasury. worked for steven mnuchin today is her last today. mike pence lost his domestic policy director. he also lost his chief lawyer, lost two senior staffers in a day. white house chief of staff john kelly's senior -- senior adviser is also out. the white house says they found some other job for him at a foreign aid agency. but out of the white house and now head of the ns. afrmt and cybercommand will be gone as of the spring. these those are the people relearned about today. if you are trying to keep track of the departure list from the trump administration it has become an uks ears challenge. health and human services secretary, chief of staff, deputy chief of staff and another deputy chief of staff director of public leasen. press secretary and assistant press secretary two communications drrkt. rapid response drrkt. two deputy national advisers. adviser to the national security. director of intelligence programs petitio

good for don mcgann. he's a very fine person, i've known him for many years. i guess i just have to say to you, again, let mueller do his work. and if mueller were to be fired, and i don't think he will be. but if he were to be fired, that would set off a political firestorm like this country hasn't seen probably since watergate. >> do you get the impression that the president doesn't want mueller's russia investigation to come to a natural conclusion? despite what he says, he says one thing, but then behind closed doors, or not in front of the cameras, he indicates other things. >> well that's always been i think part of the frustration of this whole thing. publicly the president says he's done nothing wrong and there's been no collusion. and up to this point i've seen no evidence of the president himself colluding with the russians, now there have been other folks who do have some exposure. but the president, there's been no direct evidence of that. so i guess that begs the question -- why then interfere with the investigation. i'm not saying obstruct. but i

official that don mcgann, that lawyer and other officials asked sessions not to recuse, ultimately, he did. so coming up, we'll go through what the special counsel knows about it, what you need to know about it, and what the reporter behind the story is working on next. he's here and only here live. >>> also, only on msnbc, the author of that explosive book rattling the west wing, author michael wolf on the "today" show. what he's saying in face of the threats from the president. the book as of 61 minutes ago on sale coast to coast. days earlier than expected. >> my credibility is being questioned by a man who has less credibility than perhaps anyone who has walked on earth at this point. >> reporte >> with us now to kick off the show, michael schmidt, nbc's kristen welker is standing by at the white house, also onset here, former deputy assistant attorney general, robert driscoll, and our panel for the next 60 minutes, white house reporter for bloomberg, shani pettypiece and nick johnson. let's get to it and drill-down on the new york times report. because you need to know what is in

the president did not fire him or have don mcgann, that white house lawyer fire him. don mcgann is still on the job, too, guys, at least for now. >> hallie jackson, thank you. >>> here at home, the white house is defending the president's immigration proposal, a path to citizenship for 2 million so-called d.r.e.a.m.ers as well as a $25 billion trust fund for the border wall. nbc white house correspondent kristen welker with more on that. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, savann savannah. hi to you. officials here at the white house are starting the hard sell on his immigration proposal. one senior official calls the plan a dramatic concession to democrats and while some lawmakers on capitol hill are praising the proposal, many democrats and hardline republicans say they're fiercely opposed. this morning, a new chapter in the fight over immigration. nbc news has learned from senior white house officials president trump is sending a plan to capitol hill that would provide a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million d.r.e.a.m.ers, young undocumented immigrants brough

"the new york times" article about the discussions with don mcgann and jeff sessions. all the discussions in the white house. before james comey was fired. and the president talking about how he wanted to fire james comey. all those discussions in the white house where the president helped write a false statement about his son don jr.'s dealing with the russians. back in the campaign. you're a former prosecutor. you add all that up. you see just what we know has been reported. would you need to talk to the president about that? >> generally speaking, when an investigation is overt as opposed to covert. in this case, there's no more investigation in the history of the world, perhaps. everyone knows what is happening. the lawyers have said they want to meet. the president's lawyers want to meet with special counsel mueller. generally speaking, before you make a decision about this, if you're buttoning everything up, crossing every "t," dotting every "i," usually, you have a high-profile potential target, yeah, you talk to that person. usually close to the end. now, the p

we take them as they come. >> okay. >> i want to go to passage about don mcgann in this book. the details that the president ordered the firing is one more little piece that fits into this story completely and the characters behave in the way we understand them from your book. he tried to explain that comey was not running the russia investigation. without comey the investigation could proceed any way. mcgann was a frequent target of trump rages. typically these would begin as a kind of exaggeration or acting and then devolve into the real thing. uncontrollable, vein popping, ugly face, tantrum stuff. it got primal. now the president's denunciations focused in a vicious fury on mcgain. we can presume something went on with mueller. >> let me give a slightly different context than the new york times gives. the new york times make it sound like trump thought about this, sat down, determined that this was, that he should fire comey -- that he should fire mueller and he should act on this and then told mcgain to carry this out. that's not untrue but the difference is he does this

trump backed off when white house lawyer don mcgann threatened to quit. firing mueller could have had repercussions. >> excited eagles fans lined up for sport's fans. christie ileto joining us tonight with more on that. hey, kristi. >> right now, it's all people are talking about. fans lined up for meet and agrees. eagle nation was deep in northeast philadelphia. >> we have been waiting on this for a long time. >> some fans came on with messages for their favorite players. >> bring it home, baby. >> at the mall, the lines sink through the upper deck. >> fans filed into dynasty sports with one thing on their mind. >> you're going to bring it home for us. >> i love these men. they are awesome. we talked about football. >> i tried to explain to him that this doesn't happen every year. we feel it's going to happen this year. >> it's the same quarterback and same head coach. >> high hopes pinned on these shoulders. a lot of passionate fans out there as eagles plan to meet with players as they head to out to philadelphia. >> thank you, monica. >> as we gear up

after a possible obstruction of case last june, the white house ordered don mcgann to fire muller. he backed off saying he would quit. >> the president has not even discussed. the president is not discussing bob muller. >> reporter: the new york times argued that dismissing muller would have a catastrophic of eft on the trump presidency. >> these reports are salute stunning, deeply frightening, because they show again that the president will stop at nothing to protect himself. >> reporter: white house attorney ty cobb saying we declined to comment out of the office for the special counsel and it's process. >> trump said he is read to sit down with muller under oath. the attorney quickly clarified saying that is being worked out. >> mean who i will, the white house has released an outline of the immigration plan that includes a pathway to citizenship for the so-called dreamers. it would impact 1.8 million for undocumented immigrants. in return he is asking for $25 billion for his border wall with mexico. the white house proposal is depict expected to reach the senate in the coming d

as the reporting goes, the president in effect pushed don mcgann, his white house counsel, to lobby jeff sessions not to recuse himself. the president was angry, he was furious after the fact. that in effect he said he wanted an attorney general who is more like rfa to his brother jfk. like eric holder to president obama, basically someone who was allied and had an allegiance to him. beyond that some of the other colors, some of the other details, we're learning that reince priebus kept handwritten notes during the course of time he was here serving in the west wing. all of this is significant. and even one other fact, that jeff sessions' aides had apparently sought damaging information on james comey before comey was fired, as if to say they were looking for some reason to better explain the firing beyond the russia probe, which the president in his conversation with lester holt says was certainly on his mind. andrea? >> peter alexander, thanks for braving a very cold lawn of the white house today. >> thanks. >>> security analyst jeremy bash who is chief of staff at the pentagon. and ma

. >> shepard: the times told the white house counsel don mcgann to get rid of robert mueller, but eventually backed down when mcgann threatened to quit. a source tells fox news that is not what happened. saying the. only talked about the idea of firing mueller. the meeting about dismissing the special counsel happened weeks after the president fired the former fbi director james comey over what the president himself called the russia thing. president trump said earlier this week he's looking forward to meeting with the special counsel, mueller, and he will absolutely do so under oath if his lawyers let him. robert mueller is looking into moscow's meddling in the 2016 presidential election, possible collusion with team trump and whether the president himself obstructed justice. president trump has said there was no collusion and no obstruction. the chief white house correspondent john roberts is live in switzerland travelling with the president at the world economic forum. hello, john. >> shep, good even, good evening from davos. when this story first started to bubble up and that was in earl

it was appropriate for him to recuse himself by trying to undo himself through the down of don mcgann, the president is showing that he wanted to be protected from that investigation. that is what obstruction of justice is. i don't think this would amount to a crime in and of itself. when you look at the pattern of behavior. firing james comey for conducting this investigation, telling lester holt, the russian visitors, that he fired james comey because of the russia investigation. all of it adds up to the potential for a charge of obstruction of justice against the president. and the "times" reporting today is another brick in the wall. >> how do you see it? >> well, donald trump as a candidate and now as president has a fundamentally flawed understanding of the role of the attorney general and the role of the justice department. he thought on the campaign, he apparently has still thought that throughout his first year as president, that the department of justice and the prosecutors and investigators are an arm of the white house. and he doesn't understand the independence that the a

white house lawyer don mcgann apparently threatened to quit if the president went through with his threat. cnn's tom foreman looks at the man suddenly thrust into the spotlight. >> reporter: some are hailing white house counsel don mcgann as a hero in the wake of the report he stood up to trump and refused to fire special counsel mueller, the man leading the investigation trump finds so infuriating. >> russia is fake news. this is fake news put out by the media. >> reporter: others, however, are not so sure. the former director of the office of government ethics tweeting, i bet mcgann's objection was not that firing mueller was wrong but that it was dangerous. also this is not the first leak to put mcgahn in a good light at trump's expense. if i were trump, i'd wonder about mcgahn. if the president has doubts about his top legal gun, they're not showing. >> there's a reason why president trump asked me to be his lawyer. >> reporter: a longtime lawyer for republican interests and a trump ally for several years, mcgahn has been by his side throughout the russian probe, at times to the const

trump backed off when white house lawyer don mcgann threatened to quit if he fired muller. personal attorney for trump declined to confirm the report. >>> >>> lines snaked through the upper deck of the oxford valley mall in middletown township fans filed into dynasty sports with one thing on their minds. >> e-a-g-l-e-s! >> eagles nation was deep at modesls where fletcher cox was signing autographs and taking pictures. >>> a yearly tradition pulls into the pennsylvania convention center this weekend. the annual auto show opens to the public tomorrow. gray hall is live with a preview, showing matt and i the vehicles well only be able to look at. good morning, gray. >> reporter: good morning, tamala, this is an exiting event something for the entire family. they have classic cars, the hollywood cars, the trucks and jeeps, everything you can dream of, they have it over here, let me show you the jeep section where you can get inside the jeep. someone will drive you around and you will experience the whole jeep factor. tickets will cost $14 for adults and $7 for kids. what's cool

the reporting asserted don mcgann tried to get jeff sessions not to recuse himself from the russian investigation. it also said that a sessions' aide was looking for negative press about the sitting fbi director. then the book by michael wolff asserts during an air force one flight last summer the president was seeking to manage the response to reports about don jr.'s meeting with russians at trump tower. according to wolff, one spokesperson quit because of concerns over obstruction of justice. this all may have come as news to us, but by the time we're reading it, mueller already knows about it. the relevant timeline gained clarity, but in a moment i'll ask a constitutional expert if legal answers are anymore clear. important milestones would seem to include the following, the january 27, 2017 dinner between the president and then-fbi director comey, where trump supposedly sought comey's loyalty. next, the february 14th meeting where the president asked the vice president mike pence and attorney general jeff sessions to leave the room before asking fbi director comey to let go of the michael fly

reince priebus, don mcgann. so in a certain sense, it's old hat to president for somebody he knows and worked with him to be questioned. the surprise element has disappeared a little bit. >> shepard: the reporting is clear that the number of people that are being questioned now who are extremely close to the president is historically speaking almost unprecedented. members of the cabinet. really everyone inside the president's inner circle except the president. >> that's correct. that is, as you know, the next big step that everybody is waiting for. the special counsel has expressed interest in an eventual questioning of president. there's not been a formal interview request made but we know that is under active discussion. we'll see what happens there. i know ty cobb recently indicated the president is looking forward to it and they look for a necessary step in the resolution in the next four to six weeks. >> shepard: i believe it's the reporting of the associated press that they've been negotiating on the matte

i mean this is basic ethics. >> the same don mcgann who had a conversation with sally yates about her concerns about michael flynn's behavior. and dismissed it essentially. didn't see it as a big issue. i think we all have a lot to be concerned about when the white house's own counsel lacks the good judgment to push back initially when the president has bad ideas that may border on obstruction of justice. >> does this go back to the president's -- and i'm not saying this in an insulting way, he's a novice in terms of politics, but lack of understanding when it comes to three equal parts of government? i mean, "the new york times" has in there that the president doesn't understand why the attorney general isn't protecting him. it is not the attorney general's job to protect the president of the united states. >> i think it's more significant that he doesn't understand the three branches of government. i don't -- i think donald trump thinks everything, every day, is about him. and every person he sees and employs and surrounds him work for him exclusively. >> he says "my judges" -- >> r

what about don mcgann, this inventory who says he was would quit if the president wanted him to do this. what is he saying today? >> that's right, brooke. there's been some conspicuous silence from some of the people involved in this, including don mcgahn. he said absolutely nothing in response to the "times" story confirmed by numerous other news outlets and also the white house is not saying much at all. what we did hear is from the white house attorney, who deals with russia-related issues, deals with the special counsel, ty cobb. he put out this really nonstatement. he says that we decline to comment out of respect for the office of the special counsel. this is a story that the white house has been dealing with for quite some time. and, remember, around this time, the president himself was engaged in sort of an assault on robert mueller, criticizing the special counsel as a witch hunt and also chris ruddy, as you just played, came out publicly, publicly and on the record saying repeatedly that he believed his friend, president trump, who he talks to regularly, wanted to do this and

mcgann to fire mueller back in june. so this is interesting timing. and it plays into that part that the president makes it down with robert mueller pretty soon. >> and kevin, what do you know about the gop memo? especially the refusal to show it to the justice department and richard burr in the senate? >> well, i think what is interesting about the memo is the number of republicans up on capitol hill who are pushing for its release as well. people like house freedom caucus mark med dose. so i think that there is a vocal constituency on the republican party. they are in lock-step with president trump on this issue. we know for sure it has been quite controversial and others disagree with that. at tend of the day, all the intensity surrounding this, everybody's point would suggest we are nearing the completion of this investigation. and as a result of that, you're seeing republicans and democrats start to amplify their rhetoric around it in the name of transparency, but at the end of the day, it's all about finally seeing

. >> so ordering don mcgann to fire robert mueller. we can all say this is a huge deal, but is it? we know trump didn't want robert mueller to be in that job. at the end of the day, if he didn't fire him, can we say so what? >> there's three things. one, it leads to this building the case of obstruction of justice. two, it absolutely shreds the white house credibility, including mark short, who for some reason has sort of escaped the credibility gap he seems to be on, and he seems to be saying the president had no intention of firing mueller. what the congress needs to do today is to protect robert mueller's investigation and take it out of the hands. because now we know, despite all the protestations that mueller was not going to be fired by the white house, we know now, confirmed by multiple news sources, including nbc news, that is not true. >> you mentioned mark short. i want to share more sound from mark short, sarah huckabee sanders and kellyanne conway. will certainly carry whatever water this president asks them to. >> the president is not discu discussing firing bob muelle

my understand is don mcgann -- >> an excellent distinction. excellent distinction. the presidency, the office of the president. he serves the president in his official capacity, period, and that's it. that is it. the attorney general has an unusual role as a cabinet member in that unlike the other cabinet members, the attorney general has independent decision-making authority. that's part of what we've talked about here. the attorney general also has, like all the other cabinet secretaries, policy implementation and some political, meaning dealing with capitol hill in particular, responsibilities that genuinely are not independent. they do fall under the direct authority appropriately of the president. just like all the other cabinet secretaries. the piece we're talking about with attorney general sessions is that independent legal authority under the attorney general's office that doesn't exist under any cabinet secretary. that's it. >> professor, was it appropriate for the president of the united states to not only tell don mcgann to try to get jeff sessions to no

the president did not fire him or have don mcgann, the white house lawyer fire him. don mcgann is still on the job, too, guys, at least for now. >> hallie jackson, thank you. >>> here at home, the white house is defending the president's immigration proposal. it inexpectly includes a path to citizenship for nearly 2 million so-called dreamers as well as a $25 billion trust fund for the border wall. nbc white house correspondent kristen welker with more on that. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you. while the president engages in diplomacy in davos, of fivls are starting the hard sell on his immigration proposal. one senior official calls the plan a dramatic concession to democrats. while some lawmakers on capitol hill are praising the proposal, many democrats and hard line republicans say they're fiercely oppos opposed. this morning, a new chapter in the fight over immigration. nbc news has learned from senior white house officials president trump is sending a plan to capitol hill that would provide a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million dreamers. those a