don mcgahn, ty cobb are not always on the same page. they don't see issues like executive privilege and disclosure to mueller the same way. mcgahn more in favor of protecting those powers for future presidents, mcgahn actually representing the office of the presidency, thinking about that. where cobb takes the perspective that the president has nothing to hide, and the sooner they cooperate with mueller, the more documents they give to him, the more forthcoming they are, the sooner they are to get a resolution and have this cloud taken away from the president. obviously, a huge political cloud over him. over everything. and there is this constant tension between the two of them as cobb has tried to do everything possible to try and move along the white house's cooperation with mueller. >> frank, i want to bring you in on that point, because i know you shared some thoughts with us today that donald trump's reaction to this story, by calling michael schmidt and maggie haber man's account fake news, he may have impeached the credibility or

. >> but no denials from his attorney ty cobb, or anyone else at the white house, ty cobb saying we decline to comment out of respect for the office of special counsel and its process. joining us today, "new york times" reporter michael schmidt who along with maggie haberman who broke that story last night. michael schmidt, let me start with you and this account, which puts a lot of pieces on the board, if you will, in understanding who the narrators are. what stands out for me is this wasn't the musing that i think a lot of us have heard about of a desire to fire sessions because he recused himself, a desire to be rid of mueller. this was a direct order. how did it not come to be? what did mcgahn put on the line to stop the president? >> well, the president told mcgahn to call the justice department to tell them about mueller's conflict of interest issues and -- >> tick through those for us. those were amazing. tick through the conflicts of interest that you reported on. >> so the biggest issue or the most interesting certainly of them that the president cited was the fact that mueller had

gloria, i understand you just got something from ty cobb? >> and ty cobb basically said to us what he said to maggie and the "times", that he's not commenting on this out of respect for the special counsel. one comment i'd want to make here is that ty cobb and the new lawyers, john dowd, et cetera, were not on board at the time that this occurred. this was the other team, this was marc kasowitz, et cetera, the president's new york lawyers, and they are in the donald trump school of being blinl rant. and i think this was trump being trump. and when dowd came on and jay sekulow came on and ty cobb came on they implored the president and said back off the attacking of muller. we are going to cooperate with muller. you have nothing to hide. we are going to, you know, basically show that we are going to be completely transparent and cooperate and you saw the president kind of back down a little. he hasn't been tweeting about mueller since, since last july. and so it's been a real change of strategy, and they've managed, you know, they've managed

gloria, i understand you just got something from ty cobb? >> and ty cobb basically said to us what he said to maggie and the "times", that he's not commenting on this out of respect for the special counsel. one comment i'd want to make here is that ty cobb and the new lawyers, john dowd, et cetera, were not on board at the time that this occurred. this was the other team, this was marc kasowitz, et cetera, the president's new york lawyers, and they are in the donald trump school of being belligerent. and i think this was trump being trump. and when dowd came on and jay sekulow came on and ty cobb came on they implored the president and said back off the attacking of muller. we are going to cooperate with muller. you have nothing to hide. we are going to, you know, basically show that we are going to be completely transparent and cooperate and you saw the president kind of back down a little. he hasn't been tweeting about mueller since, since last july. and so it's been a real change of strategy, and they've managed, you know, they've managed

and another white house lawyer ty cobb said that he will be donald trump's personal counsel. as for donald trump himself, he's started to frame his own defense. listen to his argument here, one man's obstruction is another man's fight. >> do you think robert mueller will be fair to you in this larger investigation. >> we're going to find out. >> are you concerned about that? >> here's what we'll say, and everybody says, there's no collusion, now they're saying, oh, well, he didn't fight back. fight back, oh, it's obstruction. >> if you fight back, it's obstruction. will trump's lawyers let this interview happen? they will if it's up to the client. >> are you going to talk to mueller? >> i'm looking forward to it actually. >> do you have a date set? >> here's the story, there's no collusion whatsoever, there's no obstruction whatsoever. >> do you have a date set yet? >> i guess in about two or three weeks, but i would love to do it. >> now we have nick ackerman, sophia nelson, former house counsel to the gop and jameal smith, a columnist for huff post. i start with you, nick,

i would find it shocking for ty cobb to put it out there without having fairly detailed conversations with his clients. we know they have been gaming this out and preparing for this scenario talking about whether they could do written q&as or an in person briefing. the risks are substantial. that phrase he used, perjury trap is telling. as we know, donald trump is not precise in the way he describes events. he has been caught telling falsehoods on quite a substantial number of occasions. i think what ty cobb means by that is the standard has to be very, very high as to what constitutes lying to the federal authorities. this is not a george papadopoulos situation. when you get to the top of the chain, it needs a high standard for the public to wear it as a political matter. >> to our only lawyer and a damn good one at that, what kind of perjury traps are we talking about. >> there are a lot. but i agree with jonathan. this is not something that mueller will go after as a perjury trap. he is looking for substantive crimes. he is looking for whether there was money laundering. whether th

his lawyer, ty cobb said mr. trump didn't mean that when he said it. but the president said it. it's been a remarkable day. we'll see you again tomorrow. now it's time for "last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening, lawrence. >> good evening from chicago. i pretty much just ran in here and i hope nothing big has happened in the news in the last few hours anyway. >> people are still mad about the shutdown, you know what it's like. >> i can do a shutdown down and shutdown analysis. great. >> pretty much. you need updates on anything, you can call me. >> it's the 21st century so we have radio in the car. i have a wicked smart phone so i am completely up to date. >> very good. well done my friend. thank you. >> thanks a lot. >>> the president is on air force one tonight, heading to switzerland for the world economic forum, but just before the president left the white house, he surprised reporters by stopping to talk with them at the entrance to white house chief of staff john kelly's office. and, after a few questions about international trade and immigration, the president w

his lawyer, ty cobb said mr. trump didn't mean that when he said it. but the president said it. we'll see who win that is fight. it's been a remarkable day. we'll see you again tomorrow. now it's time for "last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening, lawrence. >> good evening from chicago. i pretty much just ran in here and i hope nothing big has happened in the news in the last few hours anyway. >> people are still mad about the shutdown, you know what it's like. >> i can do a shutdown down and shutdown analysis. great. >> pretty much. you need update s on anything, you can call me. >> it's the 21st century so we have radio in the car. i have a wicked smart phone so i am completely up to date. >> very good. well done my friend. thank you. >> thanks a lot. >>> the president is on air force one tonight, heading to switzerland for the world economic forum, but just before the president left the white house, he surprised reporters by stopping to talk with them at the entrance to white house chief of staff john kelly's office. and, after a few questions about international trad

at the same time even ty cobb expressed nervousness. he said, i hope this isn't a interview with mueller.f the there's a l ovidef ee there that they're willing to talk to special counsel mueller, but feeling pretty nervous about it. >> also interesting from ty cobb, he says he thinks the whole thing will be wrapped up in four to six years. timeline keeps changing. before it was thanksgiving, then christmas. now four to six weeks. another key data point in the last 36 hours. there's a delay in a check-in to do with a judge that was supposed to be this week. they pushed it back three months at least at this point, susan. what does that indicate to you about the timing of this whole thing? >> ty cobb has been predicting we're right at the end of an investigation. it's hard to tell and there is contradictory evidence. the fact they're delaying george papadopoulos' sentencing end case this will go until at least the pd of april. it's more difficult to see what to make of the fact that mueller's team seems to be looking to interview the presi

ty cobb stressing that point. when i asked if the president would testify under oath, he said, look, the president wants to cooperate with the special counsel with whatever is requested by the special counsel. but, again, the terms of any potential interview are still very much under negotiation. the time frame is important here, nicole. the president himself saying this could happen as soon as two to three weeks. that's consistent with everything that we've been reporting. but based on my conversations, they are still trying to work out those details, what would an interview look like, would all of it be in person, would there be a written portion to the interview, how long would it be, what would the scope be. those are among the questions being asked. also worth noting that john dowd, who is the president's personal attorney, earlier today put out this statement, essentially saying that the legal team had been the most transparent in history, had turned over some 20,000 documents and 20 white house officials ha

. >> white house lawyer ty cobb doing damage control. he's still in negotiations with mueller about the type of interview the president will agree to. cobb telling cnn, while mr. trump was speaking hurriedly before leaving for davos, he remains committed to continued complete cooperation with the office of special counsel and is looking forward to speaking with mr. mueller. the president also saying his efforts to defend himself have been unfairly portrayed as trying to interfere in the case. do you think robert mueller will be fair in this larger investigation? >> we're going to find out. we're going to find out. because here's what we'll say, is and everybody says no collusion, there's no collusion. now they're saying, oh, well, did he fight back? if you fight back, you say okay instruction. if you bite back, john, if you fight back, oh, it's obstruction. so here's the thing, i hope so >> reporter: repeatedly saying this when asked if he trusts the fbi. >> i am very disturbed, as is the general, as is everybody else that is intelligent

>> just the statement from ty cobb that's in the story. that out of respect for the process and special counsel they were going to decline comment. that's not a denial. and i think it's just worth noting. the story i think speaks for itself. the first we have heard of an actual effort by the president to do this. i should note credit where it's due. chris ruddy who is an ally of the president and was in the white house last summer, around this time, went on television and said the president was considering firing mueller. there's a frantic effort by white house advisors to walk that back. and insist it wasn't true. it was true. and i think various people at various points have used the threat of resigning to try to impact the president's behavior. this was clearly one of them. it may have had a very dramatic impact in the don mcgahn stayed on and didn't go anywhere and prevented the president from doing this. >> that is important to note. however there have been numerous members of the administration. im putting together a file in realtime

kristen, ty cobb can walk this back all he wants. you were there when the president came back to john kel he's office for this impromptu press conference. >> i was there and the president was definitive. when we asked him whether he was willing to sit for an in person interview with robert mueller, he said he's looking forward to it. and when president said he would do it under oath, the audio is pretty cool. take a listen. >> would you do it under oath, mr. president? >> you mean like hillary did it under oath? who said that? >> i said that. >> i'll give you an idea. she didn't do it under oath. but i would do it under oath. listen, but i would do it. >> so you're going to do it under oath? >> say it. >> to reach a higher standard, you would do it under oath? >> oh, i would do it under oath, yes, absolutely. >> so the audio tells you everything you need to know. you're absolutely right, stephanie, the president here at the white house handling all things russia. ty cobb did walk back the president's comments to some extent. he said

in terms of serving the initial subpoena you ask ty cobb to accept service, ty cobb says yes otherwise somebody follows around the president and a security guard. but if the second scenario that jill wine-banks talked about if it's been ordered to see the documents and the president says no and disobeys. it's a bigger problem. that's a strait out defiance of the court. that's an anticonstitutional maneuver. and at the end of the day, everybody thinks that maybe trump will be so out there, so different from nixon and every other president -- >> he will be. >> -- that he will try to the disobey orders. then we have bigger problems than the marshal at the gate. >> i wish you had more free time we could have brought you to law school, it would have been way more fun. but it's deeper, richard nixon was a crook and an institutionalist. >> and he was a lawyer. >> i'm not here to defend richard nixon because obviously he did many things we learned that a crook would do on the way. but in the end there was a part of him that was an institutionalist and even though there was missing minutes they

behalf ty cobb believes or the president wants is irrelevant. we believe that mueller will interview the president. he has no reason not to in order to wrap up his investigation. so it will occur. it's just a matter of when and where. >> last week, here's what the president said, just to remind everyone. >> we'll see what happens. i mean, certainly i'll see what happens. but when they have no collusion and nobody has found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you would even have an interview. >> well, that's a little different, errol. he is saying he wouldn't even be asked. robert mueller wouldn't even ask because there's been no collusion. you can flip it and say if there's no collusion, why not be immediately available to talk. >> and why tell your people not to say anything. the president either genuinely or his attorney keeps telling him, it truly is a witch-hunt, a hoax, it is going to go away in a few weeks. that is what he has been saying and legal advisers have been telling them. the reality is really different. >> when you

so i think ty cobb means the standard has to be very high. this is not a george papadopoulos situation. once you get to the top of the chain, it needs a high standard for the public to wear. >> to our only lawyer here and a damn good one, what kinds of perjury traps are we talking about here, jill? >> a lot. i would agree with what jonathan just said which is this isn't something that mueller is going to go after as a perjury trap. he's looking for substantive crimes. he's looking for whether there was money laundering, whether there was a conspiracy to interfere with the election. those are much more important. he's looking at obstruction of justice. those are the substantive crimes important to american democracy. it is a high risk whenever trump would be under oath because as has been noted, he has a loose connection to the truth. he frequently says things that are false and that you can prove are false. i don't think that will be mueller's goal in doing this. >> jeremy, while not quite the dean atchison of our times, hope hicks was presen

trump attorney ty cobb told our own kristen welker that the president was, quote, speaking to reporters hurriedly and that the terms of an interview are still being negotiated by trump's personal lawyers with mueller's staff. the comment comes one day after mueller's team was pursuing an interview with trump about fired director james comey, among others. but tuesday the president publicly expressed his reservations about testifying before special counsel mueller. >> certainly i'll see what happens, but when they have no collusion and nobody has found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you would even have an interview. >> no collusion. we've heard the president mention that a time or two. he did again tonight. the question of collusion came up earlier today at the white house briefing. >> the president has said repeatedly there was no collusion between the campaign and russia. can you define what he means when he says collusion? is he talking about meetings between officials, is he talking about information exchanging hands? >> i think the accusation against the presiden

who is calling the shots, ty cobb or robert mueller? ken: [laughter] it will be bob mueller. bob mueller has the authority of the justice department, including to issue a subpoena, to require the president to testify before grand jury. i think what ty cobb, the lawyer, is saying is that the white house is cooperating with the mueller investigation. the president will make his policy and political points, but the lawyers, i think, are guiding the president exactly the right way, which is you should cooperate. it is a lawful investigation. and under the rule of law, you really don't have a choice, unless you want a confrontation. i doubt the president really wants that. christian: i read the other day that you sat down with bill clinton for nine hours interviewing the president. at the time, did you know what you wanted, or was it was it to a certain extent a fishing exercise? ken: no, by the time you are ready to interview the president, whether it is a formal interview and fact gathering, or as was the case in 1998, a formal grand jury appearance, you know precisely what you

in the last few moments, ty cobb, the lawyer leading the response to the lawyer leading the response to the special counsel's investigation has been quoted by the new york times as saying that mr trump was speaking hurriedly and intended to say only that he was willing to meet with the special counsel. he is willing to meet but will be guided by the advice of his personal counsel, they are the words of ty cobb to the new york times. this follows news yesterday that the attorney general, jeff sessions has been interviewed by robert mueller‘s tea m been interviewed by robert mueller‘s team as has james comey, the man that donald trump sacked in may last year. it does feel suggestions here that robert mueller‘s investigation could be reaching its climax. the very suggestion that by interviewing increasingly senior members of the administration and now, perhaps, the present and himself, they could be about to reach their conclusions. as the mrtrump about to reach their conclusions. as the mr trump himself giving evidence, it is a matter on which he has wavered in recent weeks. just

before you go, i thought it was fascinating or very telling what ty cobb said last night and gave us in response to all this. it was not a denial. >> right. it's not a denial. no one has denied it at all. they're pushing forward that they're cooperating with mueller's investigation. that has been the narrative that the white house has been pushing under the new lawyers when trump threatened to fire mueller, he was being represented by a different legal team. they've put forth they're cooperating. they said 20 white house officials who interviewed with mueller, eight from the white house counsel's office and they're currently in negotiations about whether the president will or won't sit before mueller and answer questions. that decision we expect to be made in the next few weeks. >> cara scan nell, great reporting. thank you very much. let's pause for a second. timing matters a lot. let's take a step back. let's remember what was going on in june of last year. one source says the president demanded bob mueller be fired. let's go back to may 9th, president trump fired fbi director jame

in the last few moments, ty cobb, the lawyer leading the response to the special counsel's investigation has been quoted by the new york times as saying that mr trump was speaking hurriedly and intended to say only that he was willing to meet with the special counsel. he is willing to meet but will be guided by the advice of his personal counsel, they are the words of ty cobb to the new york times. this follows news yesterday that the attorney general, jeff sessions has been interviewed by robert mueller‘s team as has james comey, the man that donald trump sacked in may last year. it does fuel suggestions here that robert mueller‘s investigation could be reaching its climax. the very suggestion that by interviewing increasingly senior members of the administration and now, perhaps, the president himself, they could be about to reach their conclusions. as for mr trump himself giving evidence, it is a matter on which he has wavered in recent weeks. just over one week ago he said that there is no, has been no collusion between the trump team and the russians to try and influence the out

ty cobb, who is the internal special counsel for the president inside the white house said this today. he said for the record, the white house does not comment on communications with the office of special counsel out of respect for the osc and its process. the white house is continuing its full cooperation with the osc in order to facilitate the earlierest possible resolution. and anderson, they would like the get this over with as quickly as possible. and you know, you mentioned bill clinton earlier. they went through months of litigation on this and they finally wound up with clinton before a grand jury. and i don't think that is what trump's lawyers want at all. i think they would rather get this over as quickly as possible to try to find a way to accommodate what mueller wants with what they believe would be in the best interests of their clients and get it done. >> all right. gloria, stay with us. i want to bring in the legal experts. professor, if you were advising the president, or the team, what would you advise? >> well, it would be a subpoena. no lawyer present. no opportuni

trump attorney ty cobb told our own kristen welker that the president was, quote, speaking to reporters hurriedly and that the terms of an interview are still being negotiated by mr. trump's personal lawyers with mueller's staff. the president's comments come one day after reports that mueller was indeed pursue an interview with trump and they've already spokenton attorney general jeff sessions and fired fbi director james comey among others. but tuesday the president publicly expressed his reservations about testifying before special counsel mueller. >> certainly i'll see what happens, but when they have no collusion and nobody has found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you would even have an interview. >> no collusion. we've heard the president mention that a time or two. he did again tonight. the question of collusion came up earlier today at the white house briefing. >> the president has said repeatedly there was no collusion between the campaign and russia. can you define what he means when he says collusion? is he talking about meetings between officials, is he t

so i think ty cobb means the standard has to be very high. this is not a george papadopoulos situation. once you get to the top of the chain, it needs a high standard for the public to wear. >> to our only lawyer here and a damn good one, what kinds of perjury traps are we talking about here, jill? >> a lot. i would agree with what jonathan just said which is this isn't something that mueller is going to go after as a perjury trap. he's looking for substantive crimes. he's looking for whether there was money laundering, whether there was a conspiracy to interfere with the election. those are much more important. he's looking at obstruction of justice. those are the substantive crimes important to american democracy. it is a high risk whenever trump would be under oath because as has been noted, he has a loose connection to the truth. he frequently says things that are false and that you can prove are false. i don't think that will be mueller's goal in doing this. >> jeremy, while not quite the dean afttchison of our times, he hicks was presen

we know that ty cobb, the president's lawyer did not back off of this other than to say the president wants to cop rate. cobb wasn't with him at the time this was happening. we know one thing. unless this is all false and again, we don't have any reason to question it. the president, in june, when mueller said he wanted to look at obstruction, he had lawyers start looking into mueller and coming up with at least three different reasons to disqualify him. reasons that did not exist when mueller was appointed and celebrated by all of you as a great choice. not all of you but most of you. if this is true what happened here and but for don mcgann, he would have moved on bob mueller. what do you make of that? >> if this is true, and there are four sources. i haven't had a chance. it's uncomfortable for me to try -- >> uncomfortable for me too. this is very weighty stuff that we're talking about. >> both of us want to gather more information. as i understand it's four anonymous sources to one newspaper. look we just have to be gun shy. i'm not saying discount it, it doesn't matter. sfwlp if

ty cobb, one of the president's lawyers, it is not a denial. >> reporter: ty cobb is not denying this happened. they're saying they want to work with the special counsel and the president, even though he said today this is all fake news, that is not what the the white house's message was last night. one of the president's other attorneys, his personal attorney, john dowd, told gloria borger yesterday, he has not made a final decision of whether whether or not he would sit down with robert mueller as part of this investigation. and in fact, dowd telling gloria that it is ultimately dowd's decision on whether or not he will -- the president will sit down with bob mueller. this despite the president saying before he left to davos he would be willing to sit down with bob mueller, do it under oath, under the advice of his attorneys, but some of his attorneys may not be there yet. they're saying those negotiations are still ongoing. >> can't imagine what the questions would be, did you try to fire me? thank you. >>> let's break it down further. here are cnn and legal national security asha

ty cobb who is the internal special counsel for the president inside the white house said this today. he said for the record, the white house does not comment on communications with the office of special counsel out of respect for the osc and its process. the white house is continuing its full cooperation with the osc in order to facilitate the earliest possible resolution. and anderson, they would like the get this over with as quickly as possible. and you know, you mentioned bill clinton earlier. they went through months of litigation on this and they finally wound up with clinton before a grand jury. and i don't think that is what trump's lawyers want at all. i think they would rather get this over as quickly as possible to try to find a way to accommodate what mueller wants with what they believe would be in the best interests of their clients and get it done. >> all right. gloria, stay with us. i want to bring in the legal experts. jeffrey toobin, professor alan dershowitz. if you were advising the president or his team, what would you advise him about this. >> the dread would be

that's exactly why they brought in ty cobb. they needed a lawyer within the white house who obviously could handle this specifically. >> a look at the president's twitter feed last june whether he did order the firing makes it clear the russian probe was on his mind at the time he attempted to fire mueller. among his tweets, he said "they made up a phony collusion with the russian story, found zero proof so now they go for obstruction of justice on phony story. nice." >> i love the way he talks. he talks like he thinks. >> the irony is like you know, you have a contemporaneous view in his brain. it's like when they bring him in for questioning, he goes no, i wasn't thinking about this. actually, yes, you tweeted about it. >> is he going to talk like that under oath? nice. >> sad. >> trump's lawyer said the "usa today" misleading statement in august, he put out the word afterwards, i never was doing this. >> john dowd who obviously came in around the time he started speaking more for the trump legal lel team because jake sekulow

ty cobbs showed a little bit of concern there, about a perjury trap, not surprising giving his client's, i would say, not always faithful adherence to the truth. there's an easy way to avoid a perjury trap, don't perjure yourself. >> that's another issue whenever you're going before anybody and answering questions. matt miller, always good to see you, thank you. >>> up next, despite fears of a shutdown, traders on the floor seem unfazed. plus, what apple just did that made the president happy. woman: i'm a fighter. always have been. when i found out i had age-related macular degeneration, amd, i wanted to fight back. my doctor and i came up with a plan. it includes preservision. only preservision areds 2 has the exact nutrient formula recommended by the national eye institute to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd backed by 15 years of clinical studies. that's why i fight. because it's my vision. preservision. >>> welcome back, i'm chris jansing in for stephanie ruhle. a powerful winter storm has dumped ice and nearly a foot of snow on parts of the south para

he said, but i do have to listen to counsel, and you saw ty cobb came out and backed it off. >> yeah, exactly. so i know from talking to sources that his lawyers do not want him to have a face to face interview with robert mueller. it very well may not happen. so in a sense this could be the president coming out and saying, look, i've got nothing to hide. i'll sit down with robert mueller when, in reality, it may never happen and he very well knows that. but to me it seemed like he wanted to make that point that, i have nothing to hide. there was no obstruction, no collusion. i'll sit down and tell robert mueller myself under oath when just a few weeks ago he sort of hedged and wouldn't really answer whether or not, in fact, he would do an interview. today was a different story. it seemed like he really wanted to send that message. >> let's scratch at that, jill, what are you hearing in terms of what those around him think about the idea that he can avoid the russia investigation altogether? it would be improbable for him to not be exposed at all to questioning in this probe. >> i mea

white house lawyer ty cobb says his team is cooperating fully with the investigation to bring it to a swift conclusion. >> the white house in h a surprise move has renominated kt mcfar land to become the ambassador to singapore. unlikely to support her because of questions about her testimony. she testified she was not aware of michael flynn's contacts with russian ambassador kislyak appearing to contradict flynn's account in his plea agreement. >> the white house struggling with the talk about the president's mental fitness. the source close to mr. trump considers the apology from steve bannon too little too late. >> the president we're told is frustrated by the cooperation his other top aides apparently gave to michael wolff. >> bannon told people to cooperate. sean spicer did. >> because they're liars, this is donald trump. this is what he does. a day after day after day, incident after incident, he doesn't tell the truth. because he doesn't know what the truth is. >> wolff also says bannon is not being truthful when he claims he was no the referring to don jr. when he called a mee

i think that's what you heard ty cobb express. the fact there's still discussions ongoing about what that interview might look like, what the scope of that interview might look like, what the length of that interview might look like. but, again, ty cobb did echo i think the fundamental principle, that the president's cooperating with the special counsel and they want this to be resolved quickly and that time frame, critical, two to three week, that an interview might happen. >>> a former u.s. congressman who voted to impeach nixon. and rebecca nirtram covers the administration for the atlantic. let's talk about him potentially being scooped by the release of the transcript, that's according to senator grassley. what could he say potentially that he would not want made public? >> well, a number of details about the meeting at trump tower with p with manafort and trump jr. there is what he failed to disclose about e-mails. including the e-mails donald trump jr. forwarded him about wikileaks. including those messages sent to donald t

cobb. if mueller wants to interview him, he can force it by issuing a grand jury subpoena. i think the best thing for the president to do in that instance is to have an informal interview if mueller will allow it and he certainly showed with ty cobb in the room with him and have it recorded. >> laura: unlike hillary clinton, no transcript, he always hammers that point. he can just skate on it. >> if they can get that hillary clinton special where they don't record the interview, that would be a great deal. i don't think he can fight the subpoena. >> mueller is a real prosecutor. >> laura: he's hiring more people, he's hiring that cyber crime expert which is not a sign that they're closing down this investigation anytime soon. have you caught the latest of the skies act? >> this idiot is the president. >> this idiot is the president. >> laura: my response, the the great emperor penguin migration. trekking a hundred miles inland to their breeding grounds. except for these two fellows. this ti

. >> julie: white house lawyer ty cobb saying arrangements are being worked out. before trump left for davos he said he'll do it as long as his lawyers are okay. what will be the timing in all of this if this took place? >> looks like it will happen in the next two or three weeks. special counsel mueller has interviewed many of trump's closest associates on the campaign and the white house. clearly we're leading up to the culmination of this investigation where we're seeing special counsel mueller want to interview president trump himself. i think this investigation is closing in. the real question here too, why is ty cobb backtracking from what the president said. if president told a bunch of reporters yesterday before leaving for davos, i'm happy to testify. there was no collusion. >> julie: any lawyer is going to basically want to prevent their client from testifying. >> absolutely. >> julie: the lawyer will not want him to put himself a compromising position. you have nothing to hide, why not. >> you got it. >> julie: thank you both. appreciate it. >> jon: we

. >> reporter: white house lawyer ty cobb said we decline to comment out of respect for the office of the special counsel and its process. >> how is the conference going? >> really good. >> reporter: mr. trump has rubbed shoulders with elite set of business and world leaders, including the president on of rwanda, given the diplomatic uproar over him calling some african countries shitholes. in a new enter is view he said he was not addressing britain first when he retweeted three of their offensive posts last november. >> can i get an apology out of you just for the retweets. it would go a long way. >> here's what's fair. if you're telling me they are horrible racist people i would certainly apologize if you would like me to do that. i know nothing about them. >> reporter: now, this morning the president will be addressing the crowd here in davos. i'm told by a white house official he will be wearing his salesman hat trying to incentivize and bring european businesses into the u.s., trying to do more business there. now, all of this is happening of course as the russia investigation i

ty cobb told cnn quote he respectfully declines to comment. the top democrat on the judiciary committee calls mcgann's reported conduct completely unacceptable. he should make himself available to the committee. >> the new york times also reporting an aide to attorney general sessions asked a congressional staffer whether he had damaging information about comey. a person with knowledge of that meeting tell the the times sessions quote wanted one negative article a day in the news media about mr. comey. a justice department spokesman tells cnn this did not happen. all right. michael wolff's book also includes president trump's unflattering description of comey which came after he fired him. comey was a rat, repeated trump. there were rats everywhere. john dean, he repeated. do you know what john dean did to nixon. he was the white house counsel who cooperated with investigators. >> turning back to wolff's reporting on steve bannon the book describes an ugly and c contentious relationship. the author says ban non referred to name as jar ivanka.

. >> 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 days. >>> philadelphia's museum of the american revolution is choosing sides. the museum is showcasing it's support of the birds by temporarily renaming the first floors of the patriots gallery to the eagles gallery. the museum explorls -- explores the continental army who took on the british army. >>> we want to see your team spirit show us your eagles pride by showing us photos and videos use 6abc action on instagram or twitter or post them on the facebook wall. >>> philadelphia auto

one is ty cobb. he's the counsel in the white house. and there's jay secula. ty cobb said as the president left to catch the helicopter to air force base that the plan is to cooperate with the special counsel's office and in the particular to cooperate, they're talking about a possible interview. sources familiar with the investigation tell fox news that his outside attorneys are of a different mind about all of this. you mentioned this at the top, shep. no attorney wants his or her client to sit down with the prosecutors. what has gone on here over the last several months between the white house and the transition is that they have handed over thousands upon thousands of documents in excruciating detail over what went on during the transition and what occurred in the president's time in the white house. these are e-mails, these are deliberation memos, these are schedules. the special counsel's office has got a tremendous wealth of information. and if you have a prosecutor that has that level of granularity of detail about the president, the last thing you wan

so you ty cobb saying it would be over by thanksgiving, then new years now the next few weeks. the president hears this and will see this investigation is is not wrapping up and how long he can let that go on and follow the ty cobb strategy remains to be seen, especially because we know his instinct is not to sit back and let this continue. his instinct is to fight it. >> let's inject fatigue, international travel and twitter. if we have the president's twitter post tonight. the president on his twitter account liked by indication the wall street journal story about his friend, steve wynn of las vegas, steve wynn the target of these sexual harassment allegations. story got powerful play today and widely distributed, it was just weird to see a like on behalf of the president of the united states. again, though, not known for restraint in this venue. >> right. with him and his phone after a long foreign trip, this is when he tends to get in trouble. these flights have not always been friendly to him. we remember on one of those they crafted the statement about don junior meeting

. >> ty cobb said for the record the white house does not comment on communications with the white house out of respect for the osc and its process. in order to facilitate the earliest possible resolution. ty cobb has been very outspoken, too, saying they look forward to wrapping up this soon. >> pamela brown, thanks very much for that report. and now to the president himself. he's on the road right now. he's very much on the defensive about his mental fitness. let's go to our senior white house correspondent jim acosta. the president went to extremes in claiming he has the brain power to be president. >> he absolutely did, wolf. trying to get back on message touting his economic agenda after spending the last few days defending his mental sharpness and acuity, but the president's usual claim he's a genius has demonstrated how too much damage control can cause some damage. at a speech in gnashville president trump sounded if he was summing up his year in office as pure genius. >> oh, are you happy you voted for me, you are so lucky that i gave you that privilege. >> reporter: the preside

it's clear there from that statement, don, that ty cobb and the other lawyers involved in this, they want this wrapped up as quickly as possible. >> pamela brown, thank you for your reporting. >> yep. >>> now i want to turn to james clapper, the former director of national intelligence. thank you, sir, for joining us. happy new year to you. >> the same, don. >> director clapper on the one hand you have robert mueller who's an experienced investigator and on the other hand you have donald trump, embattled president of the united states, how do you think that interview would go? >> that's a great question. i think, first of all, i completely agree with the point pamela made. i don't see how the mueller investigation could be considered in anyway complete or conclusive without such counter between mueller and president trump. i just -- i think it would be so much criticism from all sides about the investigation if that weren't to happen. now, the key thing would be, you know, what are the ground rules that each side will try to establish? and will that result, for example, in a falling

ty cobb works in the white house in the office of the counsel. so this is his private attorney making that very blunt tame. statement. >> it dove till tas with president's comments yesterday where he had that very important caveat that i would gladly sit down with the special counsel, but i have to consult my legal team first. my sense is is that they want to try and limit in so far as they can his exposure to the essential counsel and really try and control this parameters of this interview or have as much of it as they can be in written format and not have too much face-to-face time, but they probably can't have him get away with not sitting down with the special counsel at all. >> wrap this up. hold on. >> can i throw a shoe at the camera? you think the president didn't discuss with his lawyers beforehand whether they thought it was a good idea to go before this group? he knew going into that conversation his lawyers would say no because now he's going to say i said yes, they said no. >> jeffrey. >> well, i just think you know, the ground work

cobb. if mueller wants to interview him, he can force it by issuing a grand jury subpoena. i think the best thing for the president to do in that instance is to have an informal interview if mueller will allow it and he certainly showed with ty cobb in the room with him and have it recorded. >> laura: unlike hillary clinton, no transcript, he always hammers that point. he can just skate on it. >> if they can get that hillary clinton special where they don't record the interview, that would be a great deal. i don't think he can fight the subpoena. >> mueller is a real prosecutor. >> laura: he's hiring more people, he's hiring that cyber crime expert which is not a sign that they're closing down this investigation anytime soon. have you caught the latest of the skies act? >> this idiot is the president. >> laura: my response, the #meto movement targets another actor. >> tech: at safelite autoglass we know that when you're spending time with the grandkids... ♪ music >> tech: ...every minute

and the role of the attorney is very well prepared by ty cobb. >> let's get to it, solomon. you were kind enough -- we asked you to come up with key questions that if you were a lead investigator or mueller himself would ask the president. were you mad at comey's handling of the clinton e-mail probe? why is that key? >> well, i don't know that it is key. because, based on the public record i've seen, i don't think there is much of an obstruction case, unless there are things that mueller knows about that we don't, which is quite possible. i thought that was an important question because the president has indicated that he was mad at jim comey's handling of the e-mail investigation. do you think he went too easy on mrs. clinton or went too hard? i actually think -- if i'm not jumping ahead, i think the most important question to ask the president is did you tell anybody, any of your people, to repeat or to give any false story to federal investigators? to me it doesn't matter how many false statements the president made -- i'm not saying he made. >> sure. >> but how many fals

breaking tonight, i just spoke to one of those lawyers, white house counsel ty cobb, who was massaging my president trump said but not walking it back. he tells me the president was speaking hurriedly before leaving for davos but stressed the administration stands behind the message they have consistently given about continuing their complete cooperation with robert mueller, which includes, yes, the president to speaking with the special counsel directly. the details of that, though, i still be worked out by the president's personal attorney outside the white house, john dowd and jay sekulow. these statements, though, were a huge surprise from the president, not just to reporters but maybe even to white house staff, where he told reporters he's looking forward to doing an interview with mueller, willing to do it under oath, and even putting a timetable of 2-3 weeks for what would be an historic session that is very risky from a legal standpoint for him to sit down directly with the special counsel. big picture, it fits with the strategy pushed by ty cobb that mueller is close to wrappi

. >> later when asked about the under oath part, the president's attorney, ty cobb, would only say that the president was speaking, quote, hurriedly before leaving on his trip to swits switzerland and remains cooperative with special counsel. walk us through several major headlines that came out of that impromptu chat. >> and before i walk you through, let me set the stage here, brooke. we were in a background briefing on immigration with the senior white house official. that is very common here at the white house, where there's going to be policy rollout. a few minutes in, someone opened the door. we looked over and, lo and behold, it was president trump. >> surprise. >> reporter: i was fortunate enough to be sitting right there by the door and, of course, we all stood up, as reporters. it was a room packed with reporters and started asking him questions. it really went on for ten to 15 minutes. one of the big topics was this interview with special counsel robert mueller, that the president seemed eager or told us he was eager to sit down with robert mueller, speak to him under oath. a

the white house has given us a statement from special counsel ty cobb. and ty cobb said we do not find it to be a coincidence there's an onslaught of false stories circulating in what appears to be a coordinated effort to distract and deflect from new revelations about already reported bias and corruption. now, all this comes as we're expecting the president's legal team and mueller to come to some sort of decision about whether the president will testify before mueller. whether he will agree to some arrangement, or if there's going to be a bit more of a showdown. we could wait to see if mueller decides he's going to subpoena for testimony before a grand jury. >>> republicans are being urged to return money given by their own republican donor. the wall street journal detailing decades of sexual misconduct allegations against steve wynn, who also happens to be the finance chair of the republican national committee. the journal is reporting allegations from women who worked at wynn's casinos. and now democrats are insisting that the republicans return wynn