jeff sessions, that was a nice walkout. but you would think he would have taken the hint months ago and rosenstein would have taken the hint months ago and other people in the white house might have taken the hint months ago. it would still be my hope that even though there's a new acting attorney general who will be the most senior person overseeing the mueller investigation, that that does not necessarily mean that rod rosenstein gets cast to the side. he's still a person who has deep knowledge of what's going on there. he's the one who appointed bob mueller in the first place. and i'm not aware of any regulation that requires rod rosenstein not to be involved. and i think it would be silly and it would also be a bad look optically if the new acting attorney general decided to freeze out rod rosenstein. because he can still offer advice and guidance and counsel. and he should. >> he's a former u.s. attorney in baltimore, rod rosenstein. you know, kaitlan, i'm anxious -- what did you think of that little goodbye that the a

don mcgahn, who is gone, jeff sessions, john kelly. he's surrounded by people telling him not to do it and he's listened to them so far but he has been getting rid of these guardrails one after the other. >> you would appreciate this. the thing about sessions, too, that's amazing, first supporter in the senate, such a hard line guy, what he understood i think the president forgets about the presidency is that his job as attorney general is bigger than him. whether you like sessions or not, he held up to that principle and then gets treated like this. >> it was a protracted saturday night massacre. i will not give the president credit to think perhaps he is now just throwing caution to the wind. he knows the midterms are over and consequences politically are gone. there's hope because mueller anticipated this. so what do you got, mueller? time is up for you to take a protracted approach to this at this point. >> and a lot of us are wondering what rosenstein himself might do. >> one of the questions given the fact that matt whitaker at l

we heard how he wanted to fire jeff sessions. this is not coming as a huge shock to people in washington. i talked to a source familiar with what had happened to jeff sessions, who said before the midterm elections there were discussions inside the senate gop caucus about whether the president would try to do this somehow before the mid terms and the message was being sent from the white house that the president would, in fact, wait until after the mid terms. they didn't expect it to happen so quickly, perhaps later on at the end of this week. i think the president saw an opportunity to change the news cycle, change it away from the results of last night where he lost the house. now he has somebody overseeing the russia investigation. matt whitaker can oversee the russia investigation. somebody who is really a critic of this russia investigation is now in charge of it, wolfe. >> thanks very much jim acosta at the white house. more on the breaking news right now. our analysts and experts are joining us. you're at the justice depar

jeff sessions is out. his letter of resignation says that he's resigning at the president's request. >> what does that mean to you, pete? that's the first line, at your request i am submitting my resignation. >> right. meaning that he didn't want to leave as attorney general and he's only going because they have asked him to. i think this was the plan all along. my understanding is that jeff sessions assumed that this was going to happen in some form after the midterm election, that he would get a call from the white house saying it's time to go and that's apparently what has happened here. so someone -- the chief of staff or someone called him up and said, okay, time for you to pull the plug. i think mr. sessions anticipated this. there were signs in the last couple of months that he was realizing that his time as attorney general was coming to a close, so, you know, as i said earlier, i think the only surprising thing about this is the timing, happening the very day after the midterm elections. >> i hear

just -- listen. >> jeff sessions should have never let it happen. he should have never recused himself. i think it was a disgrace. jeff sessions never took control of the justice department, and it's a -- sort of an incredible thing. the attorney general made a terrible mistake when he did this and when he recused himself. i'm very disappointed with the attorney general, but we will see what happens. time will tell. time will tell. >> look, this may have been a long time coming, pamela, but i mean, you're also reporting not only the white house but justice officials were kind of kept in the dark on this one as well. >> that's right. again, the president had publicly ridiculed jeff sessions, so there certainly was an expectation at the justice department and the white house that eventually sessions would go, but aides have been urging the president to wait until after the midterms. however, timing was surprising at the justice department as well. in fact, u.s. attorneys across the country, d.o.j. employees only found out because they watched tv, they

jeff sessions out. not surprise here. the news was delivered to jeff sessions by chief of staff john kelly. matt whitaker, he is acting attorney general and he will oversee the russia investigation. president announced promotion for whitaker via twitter after sessions submitted his resignation letter. the president assailed sessions more than a year after sessions excused himself from the russia investigation. the president said before all this became public, no one should be surprised if changes are coming with his cabinet. listen here. >> as we make changes we'll sit down and talk to you about it. there is no great secret. a lot of administrations mick changes after midterms. we're happy with this cabinet. we're doing a good job. reporter: that was wide-ranging news conference hour 1/2 he would work with democrats over the next couple years. i asked the president about the possibility of middle class tax cuts and whether or not he would be open to the idea of bumping up the rates, the tax rates for corporations and the

we're waiting for the attorney general, jeff sessions and departing attorney general jeff sessions to depart for the day leaving the department of justice. the speed of events is note worthy. that extraordinary news conference from the east room where the president clearly made the turn from fighting with the democrats, which he had been doing, now they have take -- shifts the focus now to the media. even for the president, a testy news conference. the likes of which the east room has never hosted, never in history. since then the immediate resignation of the attorney general. the immediate announcement of a replacement and interim replacement, the almost immediate swearing in of that replacement. the departure here, the arrival of rod rosenstein to john bussey now, associate ed to from the wall street journal. this is like a roller coaster. >> it's moving. we're about to see what happens to the mueller investigation by seeing what happens to rod rosenstein. so part of this is animus between the president and sessions. this has been a dead man walking, a dead cabinet member walking no

attorney general jeff sessions is fired. it ends a rocky relationship between president trump and his top legal offici. the timing comes hours after the results of the midterm elections poured in, giving democrats the house and the republicans a greater margin in the senate. plus, it was a night ofs firsts . across theav country, voterse sent a diverse new group of people to congress. laura: welcome to our viewers on public tel around the globe.and the beleaguered u.s. attorney general jeff sessions has been fired. it follows months of a dysfunctional relationship mr. trump and hisop legal official which became strained after mr. sessions recused himself from the russia investigation. but today came the final blow. just hours after the results of the midterm elections. here's a look at how things played out. essions: make america great again. laura: jeff sessions was an early trump loyalist, the first u.s. senator to endorse s presidential run. but postelection, he ran into trouble after his confirmation hearing as attorney

president donald trump attorney general jeff sessions the amount spent comes just hours after trump's republican party lost control of the house of representatives and chief state's midterm elections they would also increased its majority in the u.s. senate we'll have much more on the election and its aftermath in a few moments but first particle hain has this report on the man who was one of trump's earliest backus but his time at the justice department was troubled almost from day one. attorney general jeff sessions was an early and enthusiastic supporter of donald trump's bid for the white house. now when that bid succeeded president appointed his loyal supporter attorney general. but in his confirmation hearings sessions failed to tell the whole truth about a campaign error meeting he had with russian ambassador surrogate his lack session stunned washington. in with this statement in march of two thousand and seventeen and that is to do with it is was there any. investigations even. if. you know. sessions move enraged trump who saw it as enabling the probe into whether his campaig

i like jeff sessions very much. i've known him since he was a united states attorney in mobile, alabama. this is his dream job. >> neil: and you're very old. >> not as old as i look. but every lawyer who serves in the justice department has this deep respect for the attorney generalship. it's as old as the republic. edmond randolph, the first attorney general, through some ups and downs. so it's a venerated position that people in the department respect and want to respect and admire the attorney general even though they don't agree with the policies. it's one of the great anchors of the rule of law. so the other issue that will come out with respect to integrity of mr. whitaker and his relationship with the president of the u.s. there's nothing wrong with my view that the president knows him and the president thinks well of him. with that. history shows robert kennedy's outstanding service under his brother, john and john kennedy says he needs to get some experience before he goes out and practices law. so that was

president donald trump forces his attorney general jeff sessions to resign a move that democrats have branded a gross abuse of power. hello i'm barbara starr and this is al jazeera live from london also coming up on the program. that's enough put down the mike you are rude terrible person well i'm not a big fan of yours either side of trump clashes with the media during a fractious press conference after the democrats' victory in the house of representatives in the midterm elections. seventy eight school students kidnapped in cameroon are freed but their principal and the teacher are still missing and the bare facts the grisly reality naturalists say lies behind that cute video. the u.s. attorney general jeff sessions has been forced to resign from his position at the request of president trump it comes just one day after the midterm elections which have handed control of the house of representatives back to the democrats the relationship between donald trump and jeff sessions soured almost as soon as sessions took office even though he was one of trump's first high profile supporters

matt whitaker basically seems like the exact opposite of jeff sessions. sessions also posted a photo of himself power lifting but it wasn't as impressive. ( laughter ) we've got to get all our short jokes in now. now or never, they're done. apart from being former u.s. attorney and looking like bane during the off season, one other thing about whitaker that probably makes him the perfect pick for president trump, he shares a similar passion for business ethics. >> matt whitaker the now acting attorney general after jeff sessions was fired, he's now linked to a company referred to as a scam. rule patent marketing billed itself as helping investors secure patent and whitaker was hands on showcasing a hot tub invention for a company that has since been shut down and slapped with a $26 million fine from authorities snowho. >> trevor: he will be interrogating bad guys like, tell me who your partner is! you are. yeah, we had a good run, didn't we? ( laughter ) if you think whitaker looks familiar, you either just cleaned your bedroo your bathron watching a ton

jeff sessions to resign. it's effectively a firing, even though technically sessions willingly submitted his letter of resignation and now he is going to be replaced as acting attorney general by his chief of staff matthew whitaker. >> we have the actual letter from jeff sessions, the attorney general, to the president. "at your request, i am submitting my resignation." those are the key words. and then he goes on to say "since the day i was honored to be sworn in as attorney general of the united states, i came to walk at the department of justice every day determined to do my duty, serve my country. i have done so to the best of my ability, working to support the fundamental legal processes that are the foundation of justice." >> so, first of all, we should change the chyron, it should say president trump fires attorney general jeff sessions, the president asked him to submit his resignation. he was fired. he's doing this one day after the election, doing this with a senate that is more republican, he feels

this tension between himself and jeff sessions is that jeff sessions was a part of the campaign, and in fact, a noted surrogate. and the campaign itself was being investigated. that was the basis in which the people eternal in doj said you should recuse yourself. i will say, however, the idea is best practices. that's absolutely the case. but the thing about this particular individual is that he has not only done what people do not want a justice department to do, which is to show that lady justice is not blind. he has preconceived notions on the individual case and i want to hold him to his actual words. he's absolutely right. rod rosenstein and robert mueller should be held to the four corners of the investigation which includes whatever follows from the collusion investigation, including finances. that's part of it. and if he wants to be held to his word, then he should welcome any opportunity to venture past the initial. >> i was going to say, remember, we used to have this independent counsel statute that both sides got rid of it. it was a license to fish. very narrow. this is s

and attorney general jeff sessions resigns. stay there. >> the democrats won the house last night with a 27-seat gain. that's nowhere near a blue wave. and they lost big in the senate. i so many interesting details.n ancestrydna was able to tell me where my father's family came from in colombia. they pinpointed the colombia and ecuador region and then there's a whole new andean region. that was incredibly exciting because i really didn't know that. it just brings it home how deep my roots are and it connects me to them and to their spirit and to their history. this holiday, give the gift that's connected millions to a deeper family story. order your kit at ancestry.com but some give their clients cookie cutter portfolios. fisher investments tailors portfolios to your goals and needs. some only call when they have something to sell. fisher calls regularly so you stay informed. and while some advisors are happy to earn commissions whether you do well or not. fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do bette

privately calls jeff sessions "mr. magoo." >> i'm very disappointed with the attorney general, but we will see what happens. time will tell. time will tell. captioning sponsored by comedy central captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org (pam) w.b. jones is renovating their offices, and their construction crews are taking up some of the parking spaces we used to get. (jim) so we had to park at a satellite parking lot over there. which just means we get to see more of our lovely street. tell them what we saw today, jim. oh, today we saw a junkyard dog attacking the bones of a rotisserie chicken. nature. i've been here nine years, and now all of a sudden

much as it was under for jeff sessions. jeff sessions, ultimately, decided on his own per the ethi ethics counsel at the department of justice that he should recuse himself. the ethics folks could go to whittaker and say, hey, we see issues here. the president put me here, i'm doing what the president told me to do and essentially taking over this investigation and this deparetment of justice which is going to be entirely, everything there will be overseen by him. >> yeah, shimon, stay with us. joining us now is former federal prosecutor laura coates and former nixon white house counsel john dean. carl bernstein. and cnn chief legal analyst, jeffrey toobin. jeff, you say this is the president, himself, essentially taking over the mueller case. explain that. >> well, the -- robert mueller is an employee of the department of justice and understood the regulation he is to be supervised as an employee of the department of justice which means it's usually the attorney general unless the attorney general is recused. now because t

sessions a friend of progressives hardly jeff sessions that i was a zero rating for the human rights campaign on gay rights a guy who asked the department of the national council of nannies why they were buying so many books on islam the zero tolerance policy means zero humanity and it makes zero sense for his politically motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his indifference toward criminal violations of civil rights laws back in two thousand and sixteen when jeff sessions was for. nominated the liberal organization known as move on dot org issued a petition opposing him they accused him of making racist comments opposing equal pay for women immigration and opposing hate crimes legislation this is how jeff sessions confirmation hearings went there and error. her hair. but now the very same organizations that protested against his nomination are now protesting his departure they fear that the removal of sessions could pave the way for an end to the bob muller investigation into alleged ties between trump and russia the recent nothing i like about most of the people they found with t

attorney general jeff sessions out. what we know about his departure and what his possible replacement has said about the mueller investigation. liberty mutual accident forgiveness means they won't hike your rates over one mistake. see, liberty mutual doesn't hold grudges. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ♪ traders -- they're always looking for advantages. the smart ones look to fidelity to find them. we give you research and data-visualization tools to help identify potential opportunities. so, you can do it this way... or get everything you need to help capture investment ideas and make smarter trading decisions with fidelity for just $4.95 per online u.s. equity trade. fidelity. open an account today. ♪ open an account today. we're all under one roof now. congratulations. thank you. how many kids? my two. his three. along with two dogs and jake, our new parrot. that is quite the family. quite

>> i think the last time i saw jeff sessions was maybe a couple of weeks ago, jeff sessions, any time somebody was leaving, to go on to a new opportunity he would be sure to come down, say good-bye, tell him how much he appreciated their work, that's a kind of he was. >> harris: i wanted to ask about his demeanor, there was so much talk about whether he would leave after the midterm elections, but he was jovial on that occasion as and a supportive guys you've always seen him in that role? >> he's not someone that watches tv, he's not on twitter, he's focused on the job. one of the things that was most important for jeff sessions was support for law enforcement and he really enjoyed getting out there, going to visit u.s. attorney's offices, getting to meet with state and local law enforcement, that was a big part of the job for him. something that hasn't been reported on too much, every time all law enforcement officer lost his or her life in duty, that family got a letter from the attorney general, every single time over the past few years. >> harris: a letter from jeff sessions, and

jeff sessions the u.s. attorney general who just stepped down has got some new friends liberals and progressives across the country are taking to the streets to protest his removal it's over nine hundred cities that are having protests a major mobilization but was jeff sessions a friend of progressive's hardly jeff sessions that i was a zero rating for the human rights campaign on gay rights a guy who asked the department of the national council of manny's why they were buying so many books on islam the zero tolerance policy means it was zero humanity and it makes zero sense for his politically motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his indifference toward criminal violations of civil rights laws back in two thousand and sixteen when jeff sessions was first nominated the liberal organization known as move on dot org issued a petition opposing him they accused him of making racist comments opposing equal pay for women immigration and opposing hate crimes legislation this is how jeff sessions confirmation hea

it's no surprise he got rid of jeff sessions. did you expect rosenstein, though, to step up into the role? >> i think that rosenstein has been surpassed by whittaker's appointment unless whittaker recuss himself. but more important what we saw today is a kind of coup against the rule of law. the kind of action you see in a tin pot dictatorship. now we have a president of the united states who clearly from the beginning has been trying to shutdown, bury the mueller investigation. he is on the road to doing it. he has done it the day after the election, under the cover of night as it were. and this is anti-democratic in the sense of lowercase "d," in the sense we now have a president of the united states who is willing to totally undermine the system of justice in this country for his own ends. >> laura, i mean is there anything to stop if whittaker wanted to do what he said on television and cut the budget for robert mueller's team, is that possible? >> well, he could limit and try to hamstring the nature of the investigation. rem

first of all, jeff sessions, i'm going to hold it up here to get clear of the graphics, jeff sessions has sent this letter to the white house chief of staff. the first line of it says this. at your request, i am submitting my resignation. the letter is addressed to the president, but it was delivered through the chief of staff. there's no -- curiously there's no date on the letter, so i don't know when jeff sessions wrote this letter, but he presented it today. again, it says at your request i am submitting my resignation. then he goes on to say what a pleasure it's been to be attorney general. what he thinks he's done as attorney general, some of the things that he believes he's accomplished. he concludes by saying i've been honored to serve as attorney general and have worked to implement the law enforcement agenda based on the rule of law that formed a central part of your campaign for the presidency. thank you for that opportunity, mr. president, and it's signed jeff sessions. so the man that the president has apparently chosen to act as attorney general, matt whitaker, is a forme

privately calls jeff sessions "mr. magoo." >> i'm very disappointed with the attorney general, but we will see what happens. time will tell. time will tell. captioning sponsored by comedy central captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org (pam on phone) well, i should go. all right. i'll tell everybody here that you say hi. no, don't. i'm mad at them. [chuckling] why? what happened? not one of them called to congratulate me on our engagement. ah. that they might be off the hook for, because i didn't tell them. what? why not? [chuckles] i just didn't, you know, want to deal-- come on, it won't be that bad. okay, you know what? here we go.

jeff sessions the u.s. attorney general who just stepped down has got some new friends liberals and progressives across the country are taking to the streets to protest his removal it's over nine hundred cities that are having protests a major mobilization but it was jeff sessions a friend of progressives hardly jeff sessions that i was a zero rating for the human rights campaign on gay rights a guy who asked the department of the national council of manny's why they were buying so many books on islam the zero tolerance policy means zero humanity and it makes zero sense for his political or motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his indifference toward criminal violations of civil rights laws back in two thousand and sixteen when jeff sessions was first nominated the liberal organization known as move on dot org issued a petition opposing him they accused him of making racist comments opposing equal pay for women immigration and opposing hate crimes legislation this is how jeff sessions confirmation hearing

a day after the election, trump fired attorney general jeff sessions. manyiring has led to comparisons between trump and former president richard nixon. on wednesday, cnn's jake tapper called sessions ouster another chapter in "a slow-motion multi-monthed saturday night , massacre." he was referencing the infamous saturday night massacre in 1973, when then-attorney general elliot richardson and his deputy resigned after president richard nixon ordered richardson to fire the special prosecutor investigating the watergate scandal. amy: for more, we continue our conversation with elizabeth holtzman, former u.s. congresswoman from new york who served on the house judiciary committee that voted to impeach richard nixon. for over 40 years,s, she had the record of eating the youngest woman ever elected to congress. her new book "the case for , impeaching trump," is out on monday. still with us, david cole. massacre.ay night as you are watching this unfold yesterday, liz, you must have -- you must have been flooded with memories. >> oh, yeah. it is not just hap

attorney general jeff sessions has been fired. it comes hours after the midterm elections, and was an abrupt end to the tumultuous relationship between the president and jeff for more, i'm joined by a federal andhi-collar criminal defense attorney. what does the departure of jeff sessions mean for theer probe? >> it is hugely consequential, and first i would like to say that this is not surprising in and of itself. i think the timing of it is quite surprising, but we know that trump has been harboring ill will, shall we say, with jeff sessions since the beginning. he alw that he recused himself on the russia investigation, which prompted deputy attorney general rod rosenstein to oversee the probe. now all of a sudden in firing sessions, or asking him to resign and him accepting the resignation, that leaves it open for trump to put somebody in the position of overseeing the probe other than rosenstein. laura: we know that the acting attorney general willma bhew whitaker, who has set in the past that d replacement for sessions could

jeff sessions the u.s. attorney general who just stepped down has got some new friends liberals and progressives across the country are taking to the streets to protest his removal it's over nine hundred cities that are having protests a major mobilization but was jeff sessions a friend of progressive hardly jeff sessions of i was a zero rating for the human rights campaign on gay rights a guy who asked the department of the national council of manny's why they were buying so many books on islam the zero tolerance policy means it was zero humanity and it makes zero sense for his politically motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his indifference toward criminal violations of civil rights laws back in two thousand and sixteen when jeff sessions was first nominated the liberal organization known as move on dot org issued a petition opposing him they accused him of making racist comments opposing equal pay for women immigration and opposing hate crimes legislation this is how jeff sessions confirmation hearing

jeff sessions the u.s. attorney general who just stepped down has got some new friends liberals and progressives across the country are taking to the streets to protest his removal it's over nine hundred cities that are having protests a major mobilization but was jeff sessions a friend of progressives hardly jeff sessions that i was a zero rating for the human rights campaign on gay rights a guy who asked the department of the national council of manny's why they were buying so many books on islam the zero tolerance policy means it was zero humanity and it makes zero sense for his politically motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his indifference toward criminal violations of civil rights laws back in two thousand and sixteen when jeff sessions was first nominated the liberal organization known as move on dot org issued a petition opposing him they accused him of making racist comments opposing equal pay for women and immigration and opposing hate crimes legislation this is how jeff sessions confirmation

jeff sessions the u.s. attorney general who just stepped down has got some new friends liberals and progressive's across the country are taking to the streets to protest his removal it's over nine hundred cities that are having protests a major mobilization but was jeff sessions a friend of progressives hardly jeff sessions of i was a zero rating for the human rights campaign on gay rights a guy who asked the department of the national council of manny's why they were buying so many books on islam the zero tolerance policy means zero humanity and it makes zero sense for his politically motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his indifference toward criminal violations of civil rights laws back in two thousand and sixteen when jeff sessions was first nominated the liberal organization known as move on dot org issued a petition opposing him they accused him of making racist comments opposing equal pay for women and immigration and opposing hate crimes legislation this is how jeff sessions confirmation hearings

president donald trump has fired jeff sessions, the attorney general, after publicly parading himself oversing the alleged russian meddling in the 2016 u.s. elections. that paved the way for robert mueller's investigation and will be replaced now by his -- for now by his chief of staff. what does this mean for the russia probe? >> now, you have s someone in charge who is a donaldld trump loyalist, he will oversee the justice department. until this point, ron rosenstein has been over -- overseeing the pressure probe because jeff sessions recused himself because of his support for donald trump during his 2016 support for donald trump an undisclosed meetings with the russian ambassador leading up to the election. you have a donald trump loyalist who said the investigation being overseen by robert mueller has gone too far. talk about speculating in an interview about the ability to stop the investigation by stopping to find it -- fund it. is nowld trump oil acting -- loyalist the acting attorney general. does this mean the investigation will stop? >> the justice department says it will co

firing of jeff sessions. replaced by what looks like a loyalist who is on the record for narrowing in this probe. where does this rate in comparison to 96 season. >> ari, if this is going the way this looks, this is ten times worse than nixon because, let's look, if this leads to let's say the firing of robert mueller or the substantial limiting of this investigation ten times worse than nixon because let's look at what donald trump has done here. let's first look at the supreme court. he now has a five justice majority on the supreme court the fifth justice is the one person of all those people on that federal society list that has the most extreme views of permitting a president not to be investigated, not to be indicted, not to be subpoenaed, used pardons to help himself. there is no doubt in my mind why brett kavanaugh is on the court tonight because donald trump wanted him to be reliable if a trump case could come to the court. remember, that was a vacancy that donald trump created by encouraging anthony

donald trump fired jeff sessions for one reason because if you look at jeff sessions' policies they were in lock step with donald trump. they only disagreed on russian investigation. only reason he fired jeff sessions was to put in someone who would interfere with the special counsel's investigation. that looks like obstruction of justice, the same way firing james comey was obstruction of justice. >> then the congress, both chambers of congress, both chambers of congress, meaning the senate and congress, haven't had many checks on this president basically on this administration basically. he's able to with a blank check able to do whatever he wants to do. what do you say to the folks who say they're not going to do anything differently than they've been doing over the last couple of years? >> that's one reason democrats had a blue wave empty house of representatives last night. people wanted to put in a check and blaebs on the president of the united states and his administration. come january, the house of representatives is going to be a coequal branch of government. we're going to ac

donald trump fired jeff sessions for one reason. if you look at sessions policies they were in lock step with donald trump. they disagreed on the russia investigation. the only reason he fired him was put in someone who would interfere with the investigation. that looks a lot like obstruction of justice. the same way firing comey was obstruction of justice. >> the congress both chambers. meaning the senate and congress. haven't had many checks on this president. basically on this administration. he's able to with a blank check to do whatever he wants to do. so what do you say to the folks that say they're not going anything differently. they have been doing the last couple years. >> that's one reason democrats had a blue wave in the house of representatives last night. people want to put in a kmek and balance on the president of the united states and his administration. come january the house is going to be a coequal branch of government. we'll act like it. and make sure we hold trump and the administration accountable. and it's als

sessions was out and that matthew whitaker, chief of staff to attorney general jeff sessions will become our new acting attorney general. the president went on to thank jeff sessions for his service and wish them well, adding that a permanent replacement would be nominated at a later date. it was minutes earlier that president trump deferred when asked about possible changes to his cabinet, even though chief of staff john kelly had already called sessions this morning to ask for his resignation. >> president trump: i'll answer that at a little bit different time, were looking at a lot of different things. >> the press conference was the president's first opportunity in person to comment about the results of yesterday's midterms. president trump losing control of the house but increasing his margins in the senate. >> president trump: i thought it was a very close to complete victory. >> the president said he looked forward to working with the democrats. >> president trump: there are many things we can get along on without a lot of trouble that we agree very much with them and they agree w

attorney general jeff sessions is out. liz claman is in. over to you. liz: i saw how you inserted that other breaking news that governor scott walker, the republican from wisconsin, has conceded to the democrat, tony evers, for the position of governor. we will get to that in just a minute. but yes, when the boss requests that you resign, that's called you're fired. breaking news, attorney general jeff sessions, first line in the resignation letter says just that. dear mr. president, at your request i am submitting my resignation. blake burman, you just saw him with charles, he's working the phones right now. in just a second he will get us up to the minute details of this dramatic departure which comes just hours after what wasn't a blue wave or really a red tide. "usa today" kind of calling it a purple puddle. either way, the markets seem to think that gridlock is absolutely fabulous following last night's midterm elections that delivered a divided government. dow jones industrials just off session highs, gaining nearly 500 points here. we are up 464.

jeff sessions the u.s. attorney general who just stepped down has got some new friends liberals and progressives across the country are taking to the streets to protest his removal it's over nine hundred cities that are having protests a major mobilization but was jeff sessions a friend of progressives hardly jeff sessions that i was a zero rating for the human rights campaign on gay rights a guy who asked the department of the national council of nannies why they were buying so many books on islam the zero tolerance policy means zero humanity and it makes zero sense for his political or motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his indifference toward criminal violations of civil rights laws back in two thousand and sixteen when jeff sessions was first nominated the liberal organization known as move on dot org issued a petition opposing him they accused him of making racist comments opposing equal pay for women immigration and opposing hate crimes legislation this is how jeff sessions confirmation hearings w

jeff sessions was hand-picked by the president. he seems to be getting away from the process of democracy. we ran by republicans and democrats. we are missing the issue and we have a lot of people blurting opinions about this, that, and the other. you need to stick to the truth. wanted the only point i to make this morning. host: a previous caller, i am not sure if he is watching, asked a question, can the president see the report from robert mueller before the public does. our producer reached out to carrie johnson, our reporter from npr earlier this morning and asked her the question and she said in normal situations, that information is not shared because it is highly law enforcement sensitive, but the white house counsel may get a heads-up it is coming. the president could ask whitaker and i am not sure what he would do. hope that is answered for now. we will go to john in florida, a republican. hi, john. caller: good morning. what i am thinking is about .ublic opinion -- themselves a little bit more when they speak to the pres

jeff sessions the u.s. attorney general who just stepped down has got some new friends liberals and progressives across the country are taking to the streets to protest his removal it's over nine hundred cities that are having protests a major mobilization but was jeff sessions a friend of progressive's hardly jeff sessions that i was a zero rating for the human rights campaign on gay rights a guy who asked the department of the national council of manny's why they were buying so many books on islam the zero tolerance policy means and zero humanity and it makes zero sense for his politically motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his indifference toward criminal violations of civil rights laws back in two thousand and sixteen when jeff sessions was first nominated the liberal organization known as move on dot org issued a petition opposing him they accused him of making racist comments opposing equal pay for women and immigration and opposing hate crimes legislation this is how jeff sessions confirmation he

jeff sessions the u.s. attorney general who just stepped down has got some new friends liberals and progressives across the country are taking to the streets to protest his removal it's over nine hundred cities that are having protests a major mobilization but was jeff sessions a friend of progressives hardly jeff sessions of i was a zero rating for the human rights campaign on gay rights a guy who asked the department of the national council of manny's why they were buying so many books on islam the zero tolerance policy means zero humanity and it makes zero sense for his politically motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his indifference toward criminal violations of civil rights laws back in two thousand and sixteen when jeff sessions was first nominated the liberal organization known as move on dot org issued a petition opposing him they accused him of making racist comments opposing equal pay for women and immigration and opposing hate crimes legislation this is how jeff sessions confirmation hearings

jeff sessions the u.s. attorney general who just stepped down has got some new friends liberals and progressives across the country are taking to the streets to protest his removal it's over nine hundred cities that are having protests a major mobilization but was jeff sessions a friend of progressives hardly jeff sessions that i was a zero rating for the human rights campaign on gay rights a guy who asked the department of the national council of nannies why they were buying so many books on islam the zero tolerance policy means zero humanity and it makes zero sense for his politically motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his indifference toward criminal violations of civil rights laws back in two thousand and sixteen when jeff sessions was first nominated the liberal organization known as move on dot org issued a petition opposing him they accused him of making racist comments opposing equal pay for women and immigration and opposing hate crimes legislation this is how jeff sessions confirmation hearing

when jeff sessions left is i took the man who worked beside him. he worked for jeffessions, a highly respected man especially , he is thereement an and acting position. from what i hear he is a very strong person, i think that's what they need. why don't you ask kellyanne that question. she might know him better than me. i don't know the guy. when you make a comment, i see everybody on television, all these lawyers, law enforcement people making comment after comment. fact that you go on fox or cnn or your anybody to make a comment you would have nobody left to choose. i see people at different times going on shows am i supposed to say --? i am watching many different people go on many different shows seeing many different things. that doesn't mean they are qualified. in all fairness to matt whitaker, who again, i didn't know. his reputation is excellent. many it -- everybody you are talking about, everybody looking at a permanent position -- i have done many shows. is that mean we shouldn't hire people, i don't think so.

jeff sessions the u.s. attorney general who just stepped down has got some new friends liberals and progressives across the country are taking to the streets to protest his removal it's over nine hundred cities that are having protests a major mobilization but was jeff sessions a friend of progressive's hardly jeff sessions that i was a zero rating for the human rights campaign on gay rights a guy who asked the department of the national council of nannies why they were buying so many books on islam the zero tolerance policy means zero humanity and it makes zero sense for his politically motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his indifference toward criminal violations of civil rights laws back in two thousand and sixteen when jeff sessions was first nominated the liberal organization known as move on dot org issued a petition opposing him they accused him of making racist comments opposing equal pay for women and immigration and opposing hate crimes legislation this is how jeff sessions confirmation hearin

jeff sessions the u.s. attorney general who just stepped down has got some new friends liberals and progressives across the country are taking to the streets to protest his removal it's over nine hundred cities that are having protests a major mobilization but was jeff sessions a friend of progressive's hardly jeff sessions that i was a zero rating for the human rights campaign on gay rights a guy who asked the department of the national council of manny's why they were buying so many books on islam the zero tolerance policy means and zero humanity and it makes zero sense for his politically motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his indifference toward criminal violations of civil rights laws back in two thousand and sixteen when jeff sessions was first nominated the liberal organization known as move on dot org issued a petition opposing him they accused him of making racist comments opposing equal pay for women immigration and opposing hate crimes legislation this is how jeff sessions confirmation hearin

sessions recusing himself blew up donald trump has vilified jeff sessions he's called them names he's called them beleaguered has given him a hard time on twitter and the story around washington was that jeff sessions gave donald trump a letter that was undated which was all about his all about his giving his rest resignation and there's no date on this letter no of course the other story over he's talking about whether they should or lot is about the media and we are part of the media and yet in the firing line again there's nothing new about what and how donald trump is treating the media but he seemed very on edge about the way the media were asking him questions that press conference. exactly and the most jaw dropping moment in a news conference that was surprising was undoubtedly when he accused the reporter of asking a racist question the reporter asked the question it wasn't a racist question but donald trump decided to see and the way he sees the media is very much the enemy because they don't report what he wants to report and the problem is that donald trump says things that

trish: jeff sessions out as attorney general. the new fallout for what there is means for the mueller probe. the white house demanding an apology from cnn white house correspondent. kellyanne conway says acosta the reporter from cnn had no right to touch the female white house staffer as he did. president trump: honestly i think you should let me run the country. you run cnn. if you did it well -- >> if i may ask one more question. president trump: that's enough. that's enough. that's enough. trish: my intel on all that went wrong there today and the blame lies squarely on cnn. the techs yas man who believes the president's tough immigration talk is really working. "trish regan primetime" begins right now. breaking right now. attorney general jeff sessions submitting his letter of resignation at president trump's request. this comes after the president repeatedly criticized sessions for recusing himself from the russian investigation. president trump: jeff sessions should have never let it happen. if he told me he would have recu

the president never clicked with jeff sessions after that session's recusal. the president has politically humiliated jeff sessions just a day now after the midterm elections. >> just want to reintroduce the team, all of the election teem back at hq >> was it already priced in from the point of views coming fairly quickly as a result? >> i think it was widely expected this change would take place. it has been telegraphed by several including lindsay gram there has always been the question of if the president intended to do this why doesn't he do it there is potential for political backlash now, he is doing it immediately after the election as democrats are preparing to take corral of the house. >> he may be deciding i will risk the backlash because the alternative and they can intervene using majority i will go ahead and test it now. we could be commencing right now the process of a slow motion attempt by the white house to unravel thisinformation. >> what are you going tell us about sessions resigning >> i think that this was very telegraphed. i don't think t