what role bill barr had. that will be a privileged communication remaining between the two of them. >> one more reaction from a member of the committee. democrat from oregon saying i must answer questions about whether donald trump demanded his loyalty or extracted promises about constraining robert mueller's investigation as a condition of being nominated. a failure to answer those questions will be disqualifying he says. >> is up to senators to answer what is qualifying or disqualifying. i have no doubt he will answer that question and no doubt -- no promises were asked and then were given. >> we will start with an independent. good morning. >> good morning and thank you. i remember years ago when brian lamb was hosting and this was a time when barack obama was first nominated as president. he has selected hillary clinton as secretary of state but he also deliberately did not put in the inspector general at the secretary of state office. i believe that will be the center focus and contention. many of us too

barr with his record is unfair. >> i will get to bill barr in a second, but i want to emphasize the point you are making on matt whitaker. you do think there should have been an official review, and when they said you should step aside, do you feel he should have? >> i think he should weigh seriously the process that resulted in that advice. then it's his judgment and he's accountable for that judgment. had i been in his place, and i am not in his place, i would have said i want to know what the ethics experts at the justice department say, and i will weigh that carefully, and i would say those recommendations would have have very heavy presumption of correctness, and that's a long way of saying you better follow the ethics advice that jeff sessions did, but if he disagrees, he will be accountable for that. there has not been a hint that i know of, no public hint there has been any interference with the investigation? >> none of that. the reason for that we now know, up until yesterday whitaker was not exercising the oversight role. rosenstein was. now that the memo has been written

bill barr is a respected up attorn attorney. he has a long career in both government and private practice. he was a lawyer at the cia, he was in the reagan white house, in the justice department before becoming attorney general during the george h.w. bush administration, and since then mostly a corporate lawyer working for telecommunications companies. one key difference is, unlike jeff sessions, who was forced out as attorney general, barr wouldn't have any reason to recuse himself, that is to take himself off the russia investigation. he didn't campaign for president trump, something sessions did. as you heard this morning, the president said he only med barr just a few days ago. so as garrett said, the timing is notable. the prevail thought here was that the administration would let matt whitaker serve as attorney general under the mueller report came out, but then nominate someone so the confirmation hearing would not be what it is going to be, which is 127 questions about how independent are you going to let robert mueller

that will say that bill barr is not qualified. >> i didn't ask you whether he was qualified. i asked you whether his position criticizing the investigation is reasonably part of the president's justification or rational? >> i don't know what the president's rational was for chosing him, but i'll tell you this, he made a good choice in bill barr because he's a good lawyer. i can't get into the president's mind as to why he made the choice he did. but one of the reasons must have been because of the reputation he had. >> barr also said that mueller should not be able, and i'm quoting here, to demand that the president submit to an interrogation about alleged obstruction. as you know, the president multiple times in public said he would be happy to sit down with the special counsel. that has now changed and his lawyers threw up roadblocks to that. why would the president say repeatedly he's willing to do it and now say no? >> well, he must be getting good advice from his lawyers. i have said on this network numerous times now that no lawyer worth a salt would recommend that the

and he has worked for bull barr. the -- bill barr. think the fact the white house counsel knows the attorney general is going to be important for the kind of legal pressure this president is going to come under in the next 14 months. paul: fascinating. james, how worried should we be about slowing economic growth and the roiling markets? >> i'm not too worried, maybe no surprise -- [laughter] paul: mr. complacent. mr. sunshine. [laughter] >> look, it was a solid, not great jobs report. you, maybe you would have liked, obviously, more job creation, and there were some revisions from the previous months, but still this year overall average hiring better than last year. so wages are up. a lot of good news in there. but if you're the fed and you're basically saying we're going to watch the economy closely, this is not an outstanding report. it's a good one. you've got slowing global growth. based on their policies, i think it's reasonable that they would slow down. paul: but average growth in jobs over the last three months, 170,000. that

bill barr, do you know him and like the pick? heather nauert at the u.n. >> i worked with bill barr back in the first bush administration and before that and i've watched him every since. he has great integrity. he is very smart. i think that he will be confirmed readily by the senate. he brings a level of stability and knowledge to the justice department that will be very powerful. a great pick by the president and it is interesting to me in the middle of all this talk about mueller and all this noise, here you have the president making a great pick for attorney general and a very solid pick for the u.n. heather nauert has worked very closely with secretary pompeo. she has been in the room for two solid years. and while tiller son didn't have her in his inner circle she was nonetheless in the state department working issues, working with the president and his team. i think there is a real sense that she can communicate effectively. remember, a major part of the united nation's ambassadors job is public diplomacy. look at the gre

and, look, you know, bill barr is a savvy veteran guy. he's too smart, i believe, to have gotten too far into conversations like that. and also, i should point out something else. we wrote about in the piece, which is that he's got a relationship with bob -- robert mueller. when bill barr was attorney general -- >> that's right. >> -- mueller was the assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division. >> right. >> they worked together on a lot of major cases. >> well, this just goes into the #it's just weird category. michael, thank you very much as always for your reporting. michael isikoff of yahoo! news. up ahead, former prosecutor jill wine-banks and nick ackerman are here to talk about the depths of trump's legal troubles right after this. >>> if the democrats take back power, do you believe they will try to impeach you? >> well, you know, i guess it's something like high crimes and all -- i don't know how you can impeach somebody who has done a great job. >> because the high crimes and misdemeanors thing isn't actually ab

bill barr will be an outstanding attorney general when he's confirmed next year. the memo that you made reference to reflects mr. barr's personal opinion. he shared his personal opinion with the department. lots of people offer opinions to the department of justice, but they don't influence our own decision making. we have very experienced lawyers. and obviously, our decisions are informed by our knowledge of the actual facts of the case, which mr. barr didn't have. i didn't share any confidential information with mr. barr. he never requested that we provide any non-public information to him, and that memo had no impact on our investigation. >> two very quick questions. number one, can you give us a sense of the number of groups like this operating in china that are attempting to steal information? my second question is on the rule of law. the president of the united states tweeted a photograph with you behind bars, talked about a cooperating witness as being a rat. can you assure the american public that this department will make sure it operates directly on the

he obviously endeered to bill barr because bill barr defended the president's decision to fire james comey. so i don't think it's necessarily a coincidence that the person he interviewed to be his defense lawyer is now in position of attorney general. whether or not bill barr actually takes steps to limit the investigation remains to be seen. i would not be surprised. obviously, you know, there's another piece of this which is that he's really good friends with the white house counsel, bill barr is. there's all sorts of contacts and dynamics we need to watch. >> natasha you just dropped some truths there that i did not know. that bill barr interviewed to be one of the president's defense lawyers. >> he's been openly critical of the mueller investigation. >> so now that natasha has dropped this amazing bit of information here, how worried should we all be that the president has -- will have taken a huge step closer to getting rid of mueller? >> we should always worry. there's no question. we should always worry he's doing whatever he can to undermine this investigation. that's been i

bill barr, heather nauert. the president is with acting ag whitaker and jared kushner on marine one which is kind of interesting. perhaps the president is having some of those conversations as he's headed to joint base andrews before going on to kansas city, steph. >> very busy morning. congressman, let me get your reaction. >> this is an administration of chronic chaos. by the way, the departure, reported departure of the chief of staff would be the 27th high level departure. because people believe presumably he should manage things. the new attorney general is the perfect candidate for president trump. >> does that mean democrats are going to agree with you? >> well, we'll see. actually, there's been tremendous pressure on the administration to name a replacement to whitaker. this is somebody who's been auditioning for the position. he has the perfect profile for the president. he wants an investigation of hillary clinton, while downplaying collusion. >> i think it's a strong pick. i don't know very much abou

integrity, sense of public duty, one of the things you have to understand about bill barr he's great believer in presidential authority, he defended president trump's invasion of panamÁ at the time, can you imagine donald trump did something like that and in the coming year donald trump needs attorney general that understands presidential authority. i might add as well that while he was in the attorney general's office he had someone working for him named patrick, he is now white house counsel. he has worked for bill barr and the fact that white house counsel knows attorney general knows will be very important for legal pressure this president is going to come under in the next 14 months. paul: fascinating, james, how worried should we be about slowing economic growth in the rolling markets? >> i'm not too worried. maybe no surprise but -- [laughter] paul: mr. complacent, mr. sunshine. >> look, solid, not great job's report, you -- maybe you could have liked obviously more job creation but still this year overall average hiring better than last year, so wages are up, a lot of good n

the president said today he only met bill barr just recently. but the question, number one question of the confirmation is, what is your attitude going to be? will you let mueller do his thing? what will you do when com comes out? in addition to the things any nominee would hear. >> what is your sense of him and is this guy up for getting a second act? >> so interestingly i worked for him and mueller at the same time so robert mueller was the head of the criminal division when bill barr was the attorney general. >> do they know each other well? >> they had to be working together on a daily basis. so this -- they definitely have had a working relationship together. and my impression of bill barr is that, yes, he absolutely has very conservative credentials. he actually went to law school at night when he was at cia. >> wow. >> and got his law school degree while he was working at the cia. where he met bush sr. and in the department, though, i think he's respected, at least, you know, in my time there. my impression is this is a guy who's thoughtf

what has bill barr said publicly on mueller and russia? >> well, big barr has been a little critical of the make-up of mueller's team, saying he should have been a little bit more balanced in doing that. he has defended the president at times and said the president should be briefed on an investigation. but he hasn't said a whole lot. he has not been one of the leading commenters. he obviously is a respected lawyer, at kirkland and ellis for his career, he was at verizon, he was in the government, he's had decades of experience. he's not been one of the most v virulent commenters on the probe one way or another. >> thank you for all of your great reporting. >> major developments are expected to drop tomorrow from the special counsel robert mueller. we'll discuss what his court filings could reveal about the scope of this russia investigation. also here's two words you may not want to hear in reference to the white house -- winging it. my next guest has insight into president trump's legal team strategy and how they plan to respond when mue

did he flat out ask bill barr if he would recuse himself from russia stuff. would he protect the presidency or him personally the way he wished jeff sessions had. look, he's in a tweet every day. i do think there's some diminishing rurndiminis diminishing returns here. you just wonder what the effect is after a while. >> if the president had asked mr. barr any of those questions, would that constitute obstruction? >> i don't think it would constitute obstruction. i think that it would give very good reason for bill barr to recuse himself from the investigation. i think that it's an unusual situation to have the president who is appointing this cabinet member to oversee an investigation into the president, so it's on sort of heightened alert, and if there are any forays to put his own crony like matt whitaker or put someone who he knows will be favorable to him, that's going to ring alarm bells. >> natasha, one of the things that struck me about the announcement this morning of barr, the timing of it. you would think that the white house would realize that if

>> shannon: trace, another subject, getting breaking news about attorney general nominee bill barr. what can you tell us? >> "the wall street journal" just broke a story that might play a role in the confirmation of former attorney general bill barr. it turns out he wrote a memo to rod rosenstein that lays out his argument for why the law does not support any obstruction of justice case against the president. the journal says the memo was unsolicited and written in barr's capacity as former attorney general. the concern, of course, is whether the memo factored into the president's decision to nominate bill barr, but mr. barr claims he told the president about the memo and that it was after he was offered the job. in fact, sources close to the confirmation process told the "journal" that they say the sequence was that president trump met with barr, offered the job, then they talked about potential confirmation pitfalls. the article also quotes rod rosenstein saying the memo had no impact on any of the investigations. of course, the memo will be sent to the to the senate judiciary com

it was known that he spoke to bill barr about it. ,xactly what role bill barr had that will be a privileged communication that will remain between the two of them. host: ron wyden, number of the committee, democrat from oregon, answerbarr must questions about whether trump demanded his loyalty or extracted promises about constraining the mueller investigation. a failure to answer those questions will be disqualifying, he says. guest: it is up to senators to decide what is qualified or not. i have no doubt he will ask that question. no promises were sought and none were given. host: brian is first in michigan. an independent. caller: good morning and thank you. i remember years ago when brian was hosting, and this was the time when barack obama was first nominated president. already selected hillary clinton as secretary of state but he also deliberately did not at in an inspector general the secretary of state's office. i believe that will be a focus of contention. when they took alarm put up all these rules. the board signed off on a

you know bill barr. someone who isain establishment republican public figure. he's had the job before. worked for an establishment republican who we spent the last week mourning. it's not a crazily outside the mainstream pick. it's someone who is qualified unlike the current serving acting attorney general. qualified on the merits. now all of the issues people are raising as areas of concern that might make a case for him to recuse himself from this investigation, i want to hear more about all that stuff that i currently know. those may be sound concerns but this is not a pick. this is a pick that another republican president once picked. a republican president in he mainstream. a respectable pick but one who deserves serious scrutiny and particularly serious scrutiny on these issues that would relate to the issue of recusal specifically on this matter. >> and i guess chuck rosenberg, my question about this selection isn't whether or not he has logged enough hours in doj circles. it's whether in this extraordinary moment in which we find ourselves with a comman

bought me a letter or a rod rosenstein, whitaker, bill barr. it has been handled appropriately. >> dana: catherine herridge is live in washington. >> this story broke this morning, they have revealed more details about the deliberations, painting a more nuanced picture of the decision-making. the ethics review concluded that there was no actual conflict for matt whitaker to oversee the mueller problem. however, a senior ethics official was concerned over the objects that whitaker made previous negative comments about the case. recusal was "a close call," and they recommended in favor. they considered it an issue, we are told, recommended against recusal. today, rod rosenstein, pardon me, asked separately about the stalled legislation to protect the special counsel. >> the investigation is being conducted in accordance with the department of regulations, and nothing anybody says is going to affect that, so i believe that that investigation is being handled appropriately under the existing department regulations. >> one of the big changes, you wi

i asked you about bill barr's legal analysis. what if that's coupled with the fact that he also met the president and essentially interviewed with him to be his lead personal lawyer in the mueller? are those two -- now that you put those two facts together, do you think would that still lead to the same decision, or do you think they would be officially making the recommendation that you need to recuse? >> yeah, so you're much closer to a mandatory recusal when you're talking about either a financial or a personal or a political relationship. if bill barr was interviewed to be trump's lawyer, for instance, i don't know that to be true, but bear with me on the hypothetical. >> right. >> and learn theed things from president that he would only have learned as a precursor to an attorney-client relationship, i think you're much, much closer to a situation where you might have to step down. but, again, you're still going to have an appearance question. and we're not talking about some trial attorney in the bowels of the department of

you just can't do that with a bill barr. i don't want to portray him as a march w-- maverick who will be looking to slap the president around. he can't do that and won't do that, but i think he will gird against any attempts to, for the department to be breached in the way it has been over the last few years. >> is it at all worrisome however that mr. barr has been critical of the mueller probe and that's why he might be appealing to president trump? >> well, i think this is a possible appeal for the president. and as i mentioned, i can see specific points where he and mueller would have principle disagreements, of course, as you mentioned, barr was there when mueller was the head of the criminal division, and surely share, i was there at the time as well by the way, and he surely shares the universal respect for mueller's professionalism, which trump denigrates daily. can you see ways in which it would peck at the margins? yes. nevertheless, given where we are and where we could be, the fact that you will have somebody at t

this choice of bill barr was a very untrumpian choice. it's unlike some of his other choices where he appoints people he sees on tv or something else. this is someone who is pedigrees, who has experience, and of course somebody got in trump's ear and explained that he has positions that would be beneficial to the trump administration. but doesn't appear as any kind of quid pro quo or anything like that. >>> coming up, everybody, republican lawmakers are still standing by president trump despite the serious questions raised in new federal court filings. so what would it take for members of his party to say enough is enough? that conversation is next. look, if you're not the lead dog, the scenery never changes. that's why this is the view for every other full-size pickup. and this year, it's déjà vu all over again. 'cuz only the ford f-150 gives you best-in-class torque, best-in-class payload . . . and you got it, baby . . . best-in-class towing. this is the big dog! this is the ford f-150. it doesn't just raise the bar, pal. it is the ba

barr. >> bill barr was an excellent attorney general during the approximately 14 months he served in 1991 to 1993. bill barr will be an outstanding attorney general when he's confirmed next year. the memo that you made reference to reflects mr. barr's personal opinion. he shared his personal opinion with the department. lots of people offer opinions to the department of justice, but they don't influence our own decision-making. we have very experienced lawyers, and obviously our decisions are informed by our knowledge of the actual facts of the case, which mr. barr didn't have. i didn't share any confidential information with mr. barr. he never requested we provider any non-public information to him, and that memo had no impact on our investigation. >> very interesting. aaron, i know you've been working on reporting on this. what do you make from what we just heard? >> rod rosenstein is putting a good face on it. that memo goes beyond from what we saw with matthew whitaker and his public -- >> this memo that bill bar sent unsolicited over the summer to the department of justice blast

we saw bill barr expressing some views hostile to the investigation as well. and are they going to treat mueller's recommendations fairly? are they going to listen to it or try to put this thing under a rug? >> matt, what -- both of them, matt whitaker and bill barr have expressed opinions on the mueller investigation or at least varying views on whether the president can be subjected to prosecution or indictment. for people who think that the mueller investigation report should be made public and/or the president should face penalty for anything he may have been found to have done, when is it better that the report come out? >> you know, it would be better that the report come out when rod rosenstein who's been overseeing this probe for some time is allowed to continue it. i don't think it's a coincidence both the acting attorney general matt whitaker and the attorney general nominee bill barr both have expressed hostility to the mueller investigation. barr we found today did in a secret memo he gave to the white house. that's why those people are in the job,

bush to replace jeff sessions as the head of the justice department. >> i want to confirm that bill barr, one of the most respected jurists in the country, highly respected lawyer, former attorney general under the bush administration, a terrific man, a terrific person, a brilliant man, he was my first choice from day one. respected by republicans and respected by democrats. he will be nominated for the united states attorney general and hopefully that process will go very quickly and i think it will go very quickly. >> before the president tapped barr to serve as his next ag, he reportedly tried to get him to step into a different role. barr was previously offered a position as trump's defense attorney. the report says the president met privately with barr in the spring of 2017 and asked if he would serve in the position and help defend him against robert mueller's russia probe, which barr has been a critic of. barr reportedly said he had other obligations but added he would think about it. a long time friend tells yahoo that barr rebuffed numerous offers from the white house to be atto

director comey: i like and respect bill barr, he cares deeply about the integrity of the justice department, so i am sure he will use the standard career resources he has to judge what he should be involved in and what he should not be involved in. but the bar is a talented person who was a good attorney general the first time, and i think he will serve the justice department while. i am sure he will talk to the career officials about how to it.le reporter: how extensively have you cooperated with the robert mueller investigation at this point? fmr. president obama: i cannot talk about that -- director comey a cannot talk about that. reporter: republicans came out wereaid that there specific lines of shutdown. is that true, and if so, which topics were not discussed? director comey: you would have to read the transcript. reporter: you have been out as fbi director for a year and half now. what questions can you not answer? director comey: the fbi does not want me talking about the details of an investigation that is still ongoing. directorwith i was fbi , software as they do not me to go in

>> i think bill barr is like a lot of conservatives and nervous about where this is going. you are seeing that in the interviews he has given. i will tell you this. talking to conservative lawyers, they are thrilled about this. people inside the justice department and career people and appointees are relieved. inside the department right now, the dysfunction of having acting attorney general and a deputy attorney general who don't trust reach other. this is a fourth and fifth floor of this building where there is no trust right now. having bill barr come in, someone who is known, a known quantity to restore the department and its reputation has a relationship with the president. this is somebody who supported the president even though he is an establishment figure. they feel he will do wonders just to try to repair the relationship which has been broken for many months. >> he is lobbying the announcement and the deputy attorney general. it is interesting in talking to trump's allies. they are not too happy about this thing. some of them at least. they feel like he is too mu

i'm curious, what do you think is going through bill barr's head right now [ laughter ] >> i wondered exactly that. >> i mean, do you want to go into this mess now. >> i cannot imagine having agreed to work for this president -- >> you're surprised he agreed. >> i'm shocked. this person's reputation was secure. >> pristine. and democrats today are not trashing him in their statements. they're like we're looking forward to hearing from him. so they're not automatically playing politics. >> even james comey praised him. >> what is going through bill barr's head? i can't imagine. >> i think oy vey. [ laughter ] if bill barr says those words, i'm sure that's what it is. >> every to think the confirmation hearings now, i mean, it's going to essentially not be anything be bill barr but it's going to be talking about the president's conduct and ability to understand -- i mean, they're going to have to make him set promises and make promises in this hearing that i think will make barr uncomfortable. >> absolutely. it's going to make -- the country should be uncomfortable and, by the way, this

bill barr's name didn't seem to be there. so it came as a surprise. >> is this new, charlie, that -- have we heard this before, that barr was being considered as a defense attorney? >> when i read that from the article, it was the first i had heard of it. it fits the pattern. mike whitaker, the acting attorney general right now, first came to the trump white house's attention last summer, summer of 2017, when he was interviewing for a job of being the in-house white house counsel for the purpose of managing defense against the mueller investigation. if by the isekoff report, barr reached out and wasn't interested in the job which might create more separation than there was with matt whitaker. but that's important to know with bill barr going forward with his very likely confirmation to be the next attorney general. >> i'm sure both of you will stay on that for sure, darlene superville and charlie savage. thank you. >> thank you. >>> what trouble is the president facing and what if he is an illegal co-conspirator? my panel wei

barr's tenure that has come under close scrutiny. he's not backed away from t.help said he supported pardons for the reagan administration officials and given president trump's penchant for pardons that will be highly scrutinized in what is sure to be an ugly confirmation battle for bill barr or anybody else but already, jake, bipartisan support, pat leahy, top democrat on the senate judiciary committee, telling our ted barrett on capitol hill, that this is sub-who will be supported by both democrats and republicans. >> all right. laura jarrett, thank you so much. in our money lead, the dow closing down just 78 points, making a big recovery. at one point today the dow was down more than 700 points, continuing a volatile week over fears that despite president trump's reassurances there's no actual three-month truce between the u.s. and china in this trade war, and the situation has been exacerbated by the arrest of a chinese executive in canada at the request of the u.s. government. she is the daughter of the founder of the tech jane

. >> how does his new nominee for attorney general bill barr push back? the president is fully transparent, give him credit, for what he wants you to do, mr. barr. will you do it? >> democrats won't just ask those questions. republican also have those questions as well. senator susan collins has said that the nominee has to pledge that the mueller investigation will be protected. and they expect that commitment from mr. barr when he testifies before the senate judiciary committee. democrats have pointed out he has taken expansive views of presidential power and made some critical comments of the mueller investigation, more pertaining to the types of hires that mueller has made, political contributions, at least some on the team. those will be difficult questions that bill barr will have to learn to address. 53-47 majority in the senate. simple majority, republican majority in the senate and simple majority to get confirmed and barring a major catastrophe, bill barr should not have trouble getting the confirmation. >> president went through this with his f

heather picked up bill barr being the next attorney general, how does that change the process expects of the sitting president? >> excellent point. and i agree, we all tend to gloss over this. no, he's the president. he cannot be indicted. that is not a settled question. practically speaking, though, given who is now the acting attorney general and who is about to become the attorney -- well, if he becomes the attorney general, william barr, the prospect of a u.s. attorney's office or mueller getting permission to bring that indictment is very, very small. because, you know, whitacre was put there 100%, i think, to protect the president. whether he's doing that or not, i don't know. he actually seems to be keeping his hands out of the russia investigation, which is good. as he should. and letting things go forward as the prosecutors would want them to go forward for now. barr, you know, look, i've heard very favorable things about him from people that i greatly respect, prosecutors, former prosecutors, department of justice officials. so he gets a little bit of the benefit of the doub

is bill barr somebody who can come in and finally get to the bottom of this? >> well, i think more may be underway then we know. in fact, i'm sure that that's the case. i have great confidence that bill barr -- i served alongside him, and then i served under him. he was a very effective attorney general. he's extremely smart, he's aggressive and the best sense of the word with integrity. he will get to the bottom of things. i think we should feel very good about this nomination. >> ed: the president has a lot of nominations pending. we will be watching all of that. we appreciate you coming in. remember, pick up a copy of his new book, a memoir of the clinton investigation. thanks for coming on. all right, the president meanwhile tweeting new threats today. the government shutdown drags on. we are alive with new details. and homeland security advisor kristen nielsen is at our border today, just days after the second migrant child died in u.s. custody. we will discuss it with the panel comings up. once daily tresiba® controls blood sugar for 24 hours for powerf

first, bill barr, president h.w. bush alum, but someone who has been very public in his criticism of the special counsel. he has said the uranium one case is more substantial than the collusion case. he has argued for a whole -- even argued for the possibility of investigations of clinton and elsewhere. obviously, echoing points the president has made himself. is that the right person for the attorney general of the united states at this time? >> well, the person needs to have the confidence of the president. this is a cabinet officer that is subservient to the office, but the issue, whoever gets it, and it looks like barr, they're going to have go through a confirmation process. all the issues you raised, all your public statements, every in your past will be vetted and gone over in a confirmation process. i would be surprised if someone went through a confirmation process without having to answer to some of this and maybe make some promises about what they will and won't do in this job. i think the white house need

what's your view on bill barr? >> i would be concerned about anybody that trump appointed because right now his main concern is getting somebody that will take care of him, be his roy. bill barr has made statements about too many democrats being hired, people that showed their democratic support through contributions by the special counsel. he's questioned going -- that -- he said that you could go after hillary clinton on uranium one. all these right wing conspiracies he's bought into. the statement about firing comey, based on rosenstein's statement if that was the basis for his firing that he had gone too far in his july 5 press conference and taking authority that was really loretta lynch's about the investigation and the statements he made, those were not part of the fbi policy. those were very unusual circumstances. comey has explained that as he's explained the reopening of the investigation in october which was real close to the election, as being necessary to protect the integrity of the fbi and he is bein

bill barr is a seasoned law enforcement officer. he served as the attorney general for president george h.w. bush. he's more than qualified for this position and he's allowed to have opinions based on the fact that he's worked in this area and has significant experience surrounding these issues. >> shepard: adrienne, why is there so much response to a guy who we know is in this job temporarily? matthew whitaker is an acting person in this position with the a.g. i mean, as the a.g. so we're going to get william barr to be looked at for confirmation. as katie just said. so it might be a differential of a few weeks. why so much focus on whitaker? >> because democrats, the number 1 priority for democrats when it comes to dealing with the oversight authority going to the new congress is to make sure that the special counsel, the bob mueller investigation is protected. >> why do you think it won't be? >> because of the comments that matthew whisker has made. >> you think he's going to kill the investigation? you think he can? >> well, yes

>> i like and respect bill barr. he is institutionalist, who cares deeply about the integrity of the justice department. i'm sure he will use the standard career resources he has to judge what he should be involved in, what he shouldn't be involved in but bill barr is a talented person who is a good attorney general the first time. i liked him very much then. i think he will serve the justice department well. and i'm sure he will talk to the career officials about how to handle that. >> extensively have you cooperated with mueller investigation? >> i can't talk about that. >> how times have you spoken with him. >> i can't talk about that. i'm sorry. >> the republicans came out and said that a government lawyers ran interference and shut down specific lines of questioning. did that happen and if so, what topics were not discussed? >> when you read the transcript, i think you will not see that happening. >> specific topics you still feel like you can't discuss from your time at fbi director? you've been out the door ye

so you hope that bill barr, someone who has been in the attorney general and he would have the sense to insist on the chief of staff and own picks to surround him. >> and ken delainian, what else might we expect from the mueller team, and how late may it come? are we going to get a weekend? >> well, maybe not, andrea. the judge in new york thankfully set a 5:00 p.m. for the cohen memos and who knows about the manafort document may land, but this is true, that we have learned to temper the expectations given the flynn redacti redactions, but we would like to see to what credit they give him and do they use the phrase substantial assistance and the details may be redacted but if michael cohen is offering substantial assistance in his investigation, donald trump will be very worried about that. >> and kristen, likely that john kelly is out by the end of the day or given the fact that they are having the christmas party for the staff today maybe they will wait and not put coal in the stocking yet? >> well, they may wait, because there is a dinner tonight of the advise force the president

it likely raised some eyebrows in trump world today. >> i like and respect bill barr, i know he's an institutional lift who cares deeply about the integrity of the justice department. i'm sure he will use the standard career resources he has to judge what he should and shouldn't be involved in. bill barr is a talented person who was a good attorney general the first time, i liked him very much en this. i think he will serve the justice department well. >> laura: what do you think of the president listening to comey praying barr tonight. trump saying wait a second, get chris christie on the line. i'm just teasing. >> what comey is doing what he usually does, he uses sank at this money as a weapon. in his particular case it's very unbecoming. let's remember james comey is a disgrace did fired fbi director because he violated the law, he violated the chain of command inside the justice department. i really don't care what james comey thinks about anything. and i sincerely hope that when the new attorney general takes over, one of the first things they do is get a draft indictment of jam

bill barre was a support er of president trump. so it's not a surprise that he would be making some of these comments unlike a lot of people in the establishment. people connected to bush 41. bill barre was a full-throated supporter of the president. the fact that the president is considering bill as a consensus candidate for the president to nominate as the attorney general, you mentioned we're waiting tomorrow for a big drop from bb mueller and his consideration investigation. in particular the memo that he's going to file tomorrow with regard to paul manafort, who you remember went to bob mueller at least nine times, dozens of hours spent behind closed doors providing interviews. and now according to mueller has lied. so we expect we're going to see more about what exactly those lies are and we hope we might see a little bit more about what this investigation has turned up on to the central question of whether or not there was any illegal coordination between people connected to the trump campaign and the russians, who by the wa

democratic senator mark warner of virginia said the unsolicited memo that bill barr sent to the justice department earlier this year disqualifies him from managing bob mueller's russia investigation. in his memo barr argued against the special counsel building an obstruction of justice case against president trump. as cnn's jess can a schneider reports, it will be a difficult confirmation hearings if it even gets that far. >> the president's attorney general pick making clear about the special counsel's obstruction justice investigation way before his confirmation hearings even start. in a memo from this past summer bill barr called the obstruction inquiry quote fatally misconceived with disastrous implications for the presidency saying the firing of exfbi director james comey was within the powers of the president. para's memo to ross rosenstein and another senior official was unsolicited but rosenstein said he didn't have lots of the facts. >> lots of people offer opinions to the department of justice but they don't influence our own decision-making. i didn't share any confidential in

. >>> late last night we got the news the president's nominee for attorney general bill barr sent an unsolicited 20 page memo to the justice department a few months ago railing against what is believed to be a key portion of the special counsel investigation. the obstruction of justice part of what we believe that robert mueller is looking into when it comes to the president. if he was confirmed as attorney general, bill barr would be the over-seer of the mueller investigation and all of its parts. this memo declaring that he thinks that part of the -- of the investigation is a terrible idea means at base that mr. barr has pre-judged that element of the case. makes it a little hard to imagine him being put in charge of overseeing the investigation since that would imply that the president could very well have put him in that job specifically so that he would undermine that part of the investigation. then we got news this morning about the former cable tv pundit and former u.s. attorney keeping the attorney general seat warm as acting attorney general, the news is that acting attorney

>> i like and respect bill barr. he cares about the integrity of the justice department. i'm sure he will use the standard career resources he has to judge what he should be involved in and what shouldn't be involved in. bill barr is a talented person who is a good attorney general the first time. i liked him then. he will serve the justice department well. i'm sure he will talk to the career officials. >> how ostensively have you cooperated with the mueller investigation? >> i can't talk about that. >> how many times -- >> i can't talk about that. i can but i won't. >> republicans have said that government lawyers ran interference and wanted to shut down specific lines of questioning. did that happen? if so, what topics were not discussed? >> when you read the transcript, you'll see that not happening. >> there's specific topics that you feel like you can't discuss as your time as fbi director? you've been out the door 1 1/2 years now. what can't you answer? >> the fbi for understandable reasons doesn't want me talking about the details of the investigation that is still

. ♪♪ >>> late last night we got the news that the president's nominee for attorney general, bill barr, sent an unsolicited 20-page memo to the justice department a few months ago railing against what's believed to be a key portion of the special counsel's investigation. the obstruction of justice part of what we believe robert mueller is looking into when it comes to the president. of course, if he was confirmed as attorney general, bill barr would become the overseer of the mueller investigation in all of its parts. this moment owe declaring that he thinks that part of the investigation is a terrible idea means, at base, mr. barr has prejudged that element of the case. makes it a little hard to imagine him being put in charge of overseeing the investigation since that would imply the president could very well have put him in that job specifically so that he would undermine, at least, that part of the investigation. then we got news this morning about the former cable tv pundit, former u.s. attorney who is currently keeping the attorney general seat warm as acting attorney general, th

we've got to get bill barr in there. it's a distraction. if he fires mueller, it's a political distraction that this president doesn't need right now with all of the other things on his plate. get bill barr in there and have him get control of this out of control investigation. lou: and how long before barr can be in there? >> he should be in by the first part of february if things work right. even sooner than that. he's been confirmed three times by unanimous voice vote for three major jobs in the justice department. there's in reason he couldn't be confirmed by mid january. lou: so it means schumer will oppose him with every breath in his body. >> he already has. >> he's republican and qualified so schumer will vote no. >> he already has said it. >> schumer wants holder back. lou: oh boy. that's such a terrible thought. >> it is. lou: thanks for sharing it joe. thank you both. >> merry christmas, lou. lou: merry christmas. >>> up next, china's president says their global expansion doesn't pose a threat to any other country. relax. be reas