And legal experts. And were on the road for the midterms. Hello, pennsylvania. This is a race with national implications. Our first look at the crucial battlegrounds. All the weeks politics on our power house round table. Well break down the politics, smoke out the spin. The facts that matter this week. Well break down the politics, smoke out the spin. The facts that matter this good morning. President trump ramped up his war on the fbi this week signaling hell do whatever it takes to discredit the russia probe. Hes already fired one fbi director. Forced out a deputy. He publicly attacked his attorney general and threatened other officials behind closed doors. It all broke open friday when the president declassified the infamous memo from republicans on the House Intelligence Committee. The president claims it shows if fbi wrongly convinced a judge to approve a wire tap against carter page by relying on a dossier paid for by the Clinton Campaign and failing to disclose that funding. Democrats say its simply not true. Theyre backed by a host of independent experts and this statement from the fbi. We have grave concerns about material omissionings of fact that fundamentally impact the memos accuracy. That drew a fierce response from President Trump. The top leadership and investigators at the fbi and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of the democrats. I want to start with pierre thomas. Youve been covering the fbi and d. O. J. For 20 years. Weve never seen anything like this, an open battle between the president and Law Enforcement. George, good morning. This is an extraordinary moment with tension between the white house and fbi growing day to day and sometimes minute by minute. This is what im hearing from inside the fbi. Theyre willing to acknowledge that agents and officials sometimes make mistakes. Many believe the president s and his allies are engaged in an assault on the integrity of their institution. Were seeing rare moves by the fbi to push back. On friday the Fbi Agents Association put out a statement which basically accused House Republicans of playing politics in releasing that controversial memo. The association saying the fbi will not yield to partisan politics and chris wray after getting nowhere with pleading with the white house not releasing the memo, drawing a line in the sand, which he said was full of inaccuracies. We dont know how the president is going to react to director wrays push back. How the relationship unfolds is critical to me george. The director also spoke by video to all the fbi employees as well. There has been some nervousness in some corners of the white house that he might resign. Well, im hearing that wray and Deputy Attorney general rosenstein love the institutions they work for. They dont plan to resign immediately. Both plan to put their heads down and keep working. The president is the wild card. He publicly criticized jeff sessions. He tweeted negative things about rosenstein. He said the fbis reputation is in tatters. The president clearly believes hes been abused by the Justice Department and believes the russia investigation is unnecessary. His aggressive style is different than his predecessors. His supporters say its right. Make no mistake his constant pressure on the Justice Department is not the norm. Critics say it creates the impression hes trying to create the institutions that are supposed to have a level of independent to investigate National Security matters without political interference. You know rod rosenstein. If the president ordered him to fire mueller would he obey . He said he will not fire mueller without cause. The one person weve not heard from at all this week, not one peep, not one word, is the special counsel. By all accounts hes digging and hes digging hard, george. Thanks. Were joined by adam schiff. Congressman, thanks for joining us. I want to begin with President Trumps tweet. He said the memo totally vindicates trump in probe but the russia witch hunt goes on and on. There was no obstruction or collusion. The word now used because after one year of looking endlessly oond finding nothing, collusion is dead. This is an american disgrace. The memo vindicates trump . Of course not at all. The memo indicates the investigation didnt begin with carter page. It began with george papadopoulos, someone who was a Foreign Policy advisor for candidate trump and someone who was meeting secretly with the russians and talking about the stolen clinton emails. So quite to the contrary even this very flawed memo demonstrates the origin of the investigation. That involved the issue of collusion. Thats one of the problems you pointed out. I want to dig in some of the other ones that have been raised. The fisa court should have been told the dossier was funded by democrats and Hillary Clintons campaign. Thats relevant information, isnt it . It is relevant. Was there a political motivation . The court was notified there was a political actor involved. Thats part of the misleading nature of the fisa application. In terms of the identity of the political actor. The most Important Information is what did Christopher Steele know. Glenn simpson testified kris fear steel was not told the identity of the lawyer or the party behind the lawyer. Thats the most Important Information is judging christopher steels bias. Youre saying the court was told that the dossier was funded by a political actor . Yes, there was a political actor behind it. Thats part of the misleading nature of this document. I want to comment on this is oversight and asking why wasnt this included. If this was oversight, the Committee Members would want to read the underlying documents. I made a motion for them to read the documents. They voted it down. I made a motion for them to bring the fbi in. And ask the fbi these questions why was this included, why was that not included. Thats what oversight looks like. You read the underlying documents . I have. They voted that down. They voted against hearing from the fbi. When you do oversight, you haul them in and ask them under oath why was this included, why wasnt that included. The interest was a political hit job on the fbi in the service of the president. They point out in the memo that Andrew Mccabe who they said no warrant would have been sought by the Court Without steele dossier information. I know you said mccabe cant say that. Heres how chairman nunes responded on fox. That is definitely what he said. Not to mention we have other witnesses who said very similar things. Is it true the fbi led the fisa application with the dossier . Yeah. Most of the the largest percentage of the entire application has to do with the dossier and using the news story to corroborate the dossier. Your response to the chairman . The chairman is wrong. The chairman also hasnt read the underlying materials. The argument that the yahoo news article was circular reporting, thats not what the article is cited for. If you read the application, you would know thats not what the article was cited for. The whole point here is not to be accurate. The point is to be misleading. The democrats didnt read the memo until minutes before it was voted out to the house. If they were interested in getting to the truth thats not the process they would use. Instead they used a vehicle that has never been used before in the history of the house to release this onesided memorandum. In terms of andy mccabe, like the memorandum itself, they cherry pick what he said. While i cant go into the specifics of his testimony, i can tell you you have to look as a fisa application as a cohesive whole. All the parts are important. The suggestion the chairman makes there and others on the committee have made is that the entire dossier was included in this is just plain false. Youre responsible for oversight as well. Did the fbi make any mistakes here . We dont know. We havent had the opportunity to bring the fbi in before the committee and ask them questions. In a normal oversight process we would have the opportunity to do that. The goal isnt to find out the answers from the fbi. The goal here is to undermine the fbi, discredit the fbi, discredit the Mueller Investigation, do the president s bidding from the midnight run the chairman made to the white house to present documents he got from the white house to today, its all part of the same. The chairman wouldnt answer whether his staff was working with the white house on this memorandum. Inside the committee. He answered on fox saying there was no working with the white house. Theres a reason i think he wouldnt answer in committee. The reality is you believe his staff worked with the white house . I think its very possible his staff worked with the white house and coordinated the whole effort with the white house. It looks so much like this earlier which we know was coordinated with the white house who said he would recuse himself as chairman but hasnt. Do you think the memo can be part of an obstruction case . I dont know if members of congress can be part of an obstruction case. The president s use of this, the president s decision im going to release the memo even though the fbi says its inaccurate or the department of justice says its reckless even though i want read it. You said the goal here is to undermine the fbi, discredit the fbi, discredit the Mueller Investigation, do the president s bidding from the midnight run the chairman made to the white house to present documents he got from the white house its all part of the same. I dont think its working. It is impeaching the fbi. The problem with this and i think this is at the heart of the departments concern is if you have a neighbor thats buying lots of fertilizer but has no yard and you have concerns about it and you want to call the fbi youre going to wonder is that fbi going to hold my name in confidence or this information in confidence. Sources are going to dry up because of what the republicans are doing. Theres a compact between our community and the Intelligence Community. You give us your deepest held secrets, we hold them in good confidence. We wont abuse them. Theyre going to share a lot less with us and others are going to decide not to share with the fbi because they cant rely on our committee not to be partisan in the handling of that information. Thats a deep disservice dissere make it is country less safe. Thanks for your time. Were joined by congressman will hurd. You heard congressman schiff saying this is going to cause a loss of confidence in the Intelligence Community your response . I dont believe so. I think we have to hold the Intelligence Community, the federal Law Enforcement to high standards. I spent a decade as an undercover officer in the cia collecting intelligence. We know that we are supposed to be held to a higher standard. When political leaders of an organization we should make sure theyre crossing ts and dotting is. Its not just democrats you criticize in this memo. James comey came out with this tweet. He said thats it. Diss and misleading memo destroyed the House Intelligence Committee. What . D. O. J. And fbi must keep doing their jobs. Whats your response to james comey . I would say they should continue doing the job. I dont believe this is an attack on bob mueller. I dont believe its an attack on the men and women in the fbi. Ive served shoulder to shoulder with them. Theyre hard working folks that keep us safe. This is about a couple things, should unverified information be able to be used to spy on an american. Should circular reporting you heard congressman schiff say it wasnt circular reporting. If you had read the underlying intelligence. A newspaper article should be able to used to spy on an american. The article was based on information they already had access to. Whats interesting is nobody is questioning whether some of the information was unverified. Nobody is questioning that there was rumors that were involved in this. For me this is about making sure that were protecting the Civil Liberties of the americans. The congressman said thats only one part of a very large file that was presented to the judge. When you introduced me today. You didnt say i was from san antonio or spent my life in texas. That doesnt change the fact im a republican member of congress. The information that were talking about is unverified. Nobody questions that. The gentleman from california which information is unverified . Most of the information in the steele dossier. What information there is verified . You dont know because you didnt read the underlying documents. You dont have to read them. The gentleman from california said we havent interviewed the fbi or d. O. J. On this. Ive spent countless hearings with the d. O. J. And fbi asking questions. Ive had the opportunity to ask the people that created the underlying document about this. Thats what came to the conclusions and why i voted to release the memo. You voted against releasing the democratic memo. Why . There was information that i believe led to the erosion of National Security. There was some references to ongoing intelligence operations. I believe theyre working through that and its going to why not wait until that was scrubbed the same way the republican one was scrubbed . Then they could both be put out statement. The information wasnt ready to go. We decided to release ours. People can criticize our decision. Providing oversight and shining a light on the issues is important. Ultimately i believe were letting the russians win. The russians got involved in our election to erode trust in our democratic institutions. When the press is criticizing congress for shedding light on issues, when theres a perceived friction between the executive branch and legislative branch and federal Law Enforcement and people think there shouldnt be oversight, civil january over oversight why not call the fbi director in a closed session and ask him those questions . We did. There have been dozens of hours of conversations around this. The reason we found this is because of the broader russia investigation. To me this discuss not i want to stress bob mueller should be allowed to turn over every rock, pursue every lead so we can have trust knowing what russia did or didnt do. So you dont believe President Trump when he says it vindicates him . I dont. Im not shocked elected officials are using hyperbole and exaggerations. This is about for me what kind of information should be used in a title iii court in order to spy on american citizens. Civil liberties are important. Most people i was just back in my hometown of san antonio. I didnt get asked a lot of questions about this. Most people are worried how do they pay their rent, how do they make sure they have enough money for their kids to go to college. The fact we have to protect our Civil Liberties, this is one of the things that has made our country great. We should be focussed on this. Congress should do its oversight role even in a crazy environment. Carter page the man at the center of this we heard from congressman schiff that it began with george papadopoulos. The intelligence he gave to the australian intelligence official. Lets talk about carter page for a second. Hes been on the radar of the fbi as possibly working the russians in 2013. In order to get a fisa warrant you have to show probable cause this person is a foreign agent. That has to be approved by a judge. This was approved and renewed three separate times by judges appointed by republican president s. Right. Which i think is a probable that information that was unverified was renewed in that application. You think it would have been done on flimsy information . Thats at the heard of this. You havent read the underlying documents. No, but weve talked to the people that have created this. James comey himself said that the dossier was salacious and unverified. He was talking about the one part dealing with President Trump in russia. That was one small part, not the dossier of the whole. What parts of dossier have been verified . The underlying documents would show for that. Thats why im asking you havent read them. We asked the folks at fbi and d. O. J. Theyve not been able to prove through other reporting that that information was correct. Thats unverified information. At the time that information was included into this first fisa application they knew it wasnt verified. Want to show a quote from your republican colleague from arizona. He said this illegal misconduct and abuse of fisa by james comey, sally yates and rod rosenstein. Is not just criminal but constitute treason. Im be sending a let tore the attorney general seeking prosecution against these traders of our nation. Will you sign that letter . No. Why . Is it a problem . Yes. The d. O. J. Has a report coming out. Well look at that. That goes a little far. Thanks for your time. Thank you. Lets get to martha raddatz, dave abrams and i want to begin with matt. Youre the man of the moment. Three years under president bush you over saw the fisa application process. Your reaction to the memo . Just on the four corners of the memo its politically motivated. Its am chu amaturish. Its short and leads to more questions than answers. The central claim in the memo we now know thats not true. Thats my experience overseeing the lawyers in the Justice Department. You heard congressman hurd saying the information is unverified. Walk us through what it would take too get a judge to approve this kind of warrant. Thats an important point. These applications takes weeks, months to prepare. There are agents in the fbi, overseen by lawyers in the fbi. Theyre 50 pages or more. Theyre this thick. They are every fact is vetted and scrutinized by lawyers. They sit down with the agents. Starts with agents and moves up. Multiple levels of lawyers and approved at the department of justice. Thats before it gets to the fisa court. These judges are independent article iii judges. Theyre independent justices who have staff. They ask questions. The chances there was a conspiracy of all these people to provide misleading information is a zero. Thats the initial application. It was then renewed three separate times. Whats the standard for renewal . Probable cause that the target is an agent of a foreign power. Each time youre asking the court to renew it there has to be some Additional Information that shows the investigation is advancing, the surveillance is advancing the investigation. Dan, youre saying its what happens in court every single day. This memo reads like a Defense Attorneys brief to try to exclude evidence. In just about every high profile case i cover, the defense argues that the investigators and prosecutors had tunnel vision. They were out to get the defendant from the beginning, they included all sorts of unverified information and warrant applications. This is a relatively weak legal argument coming from the nunes memo. In the end theyre talking about motivations. Theyre not talking about facts they got wrong or laws that were broken. Really this is nothing new. The idea that, you know, i can compare this to the o. J. Simpson case where they said they had it out for him from the beginning thats what it sounds like. It just sounds like theyre saying they wanted to get him. Thats what Defense Attorneys argue every day. Martha, what a break down between the president and the Intelligence Committee, the House Intelligence Committee and the professionals they deal with. Exactly. The intelligence professionals i talked to this week when they look at this memo say theyre not so concerned about sources and methods. I know the democrats talked about National Security and the threat of that. They will tell you these are career professionals that it is incomplete and there is bias in there. What concerns them most is the attacks on the fbi, the attacks on the Intelligence Community the president can say its not the rank and file, its just the leadership. I dont think thats the way the public sees it. That permeates in the same way they say fake news. They dent dont say hes not fake shes not fake. They feel it up and down the rank. Up and down. That brings up something that john mccain he responded to this. He said the latest attacks serve no american interests, no party, no president s. The nation and president must stop looking at this through the warped of politics and manufacturing partisan side shows. If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, were doing putins job for him. It is paying off every day in spades. He won the super bowl. Putin has won the super bowl here. Exactly what he wanted to happen in this country, this discord and mistrust of institutions is exactly why they operate this way. This memo is just about carter page who is not relevant in the big picture in the investigation. He wasnt even a member of the Trump Campaign at the time the application was made. Thats what this memo is all about . For someone to link that to the Mueller Investigation is such a leap because carter page isnt a central part of the Mueller Investigation. Isnt a central part of the investigation, but as you point out matt, you dont believe a judge would have approved this if there werent huge suspicions. You have a person whose a suspected agent of russia. Thats the take away. Well be back with the round table and we take a look at the crucial midterm elections. Starting with a special election coming up in pennsylvanias 18th congressional district. Its called 18 for 18. Well be right back. Ons. Well be right back. Its easy to think that all Money Managers are pretty much the same. But while some push High Commission investment products, Fisher Investments avoids them. Some advisers have hidden and layered fees. Fisher investments never does. And while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, Fisher Investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. Maybe thats why most of our clients come from other Money Managers. Fisher investments. Clearly better money management. 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Ive had it. Im taking mucinex sinusmax. Its got a triple action formula. Carl . Carl mucinex sinusmax. Tripleaction fights pain, congestion pressure. Lets end this. Conventional wisdom holds the upcoming midterms will be a challenge. I think you all know what President Trump thinks about conventional wisdom. The truth of the matter is we made history in 2016 and well make history again in 2018 when we reelect republican majorities in the house and senate. An optimistic mike pence saying the republicans will buck history with a big win in the midterms. Were kicking off our comprehensive midterm coverage calling it 18 for 18. A closer look at the most compelling races to watch from here to november. Dan is here to talk about the 18th district. Good morning. This district pennsylvania 18 is tucked into the Southwest Corner of the state outside pittsburgh. Its a special election in march that will be viewed as a referendum on President Trump. Welcome our Vice President , mike pence. Here comes the Vice President. Theyre bringing out the big guns in south western pennsylvania for rick saccone. Theres a reason why Vice President pence showed up in pennsylvania 18th district two days ago and why President Trump was here two weeks before that. A real friend and a spectacular man, rick saccone. So we travelled to the 18th district to get a feel for this contest. This is a race with serious national implications. Everyone wants to know if were looking at another alabama where the republicans could be dealt a swift and severe setback as a consequence of Donald Trumps unpopularity. The candidates at the secenter this special election, two military veterans rick saccone and 33yearold conner lamb. The seat left vacant after a sex scandal. We spent time with saccone who is facing an unexpected fight in this district, a mix of suburbs and rural stretches where trump beat Hillary Clinton by double digits. Saccone said he wants to be trumps wing man. Youve said i was trump before trump. What do you mean . Half jokingly. Its a good phrase. What it means the issues that president the issues that president the issues that president the issues that president reducing regulations, repealing reducing regulations, repealing reducing regulations, repealing reducing regulations, repealing trump as niegs national iced. Reducing regulations, repealing and replaces obamacare i ran on in the state house. Trump has motivated many in saccones base, but hes also motivated his opponents supporters some getting involved in politics for the first time. Here in this affluent suburb we attended a meeting where they plotted strategy and hit the streets. Its shocking at me to look and at your group today and to see the vast majority female. Do you think thats a coincidence . No, not at all. Women in particular i think are key to any election, but i think especially to this election. As saccone embraces trump, National Republicans are pouring in pick money to paint his opponent connor lamb as a nancy pelosi puppet. Lamb said he wont back pelosi as speaker and keeping a low profile. Hes shunning the national media, including our interview request. He made his case to our pittsburgh affiliate this weekend. My strategy is to go straight to the voters and talk to them about what we face in pennsylvania, not anyones national agenda. That seems to be working so far. Lamb following the doug jones strategy. James carvell called pittsburgh, philadelphia and pittsburgh with alabama in between. We havent seen any reliable polling. The folks i spoke with who are pro trump are still very much pro trump. One older gentleman said every time the media attacks trump he feels like its an attack on him personally. While we dont have any reliable polls, we know its a closer race than republicans would like it to be. A democratic win would be explosive. You can found our 18 for 18 coverage at abc. Com and downloading our app. Round table up next. App. Round table up next. Stay with me, mr. Parker. When a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. Stay with me, mr. Parker. The at t network is helping First Responders explosive. Yeeeeaaaahhh hmmhmm. Uh oh. A painful sore throat . Not now. If you want a max strength alternative to cough drops take cepacol instamax. This will provide fast relief. Look unlike regular cough drops it contains 2 max strength pain relievers and cools in seconds. Dual power in one lozenge. Bye bye sore throat. Knock out sore throat fast. Take cepacol instamax. [ click, keyboard clacking ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ click, keyboard clacking ] good questions lead to good answers. Our advisors can help you find both. Talk to one today and see why were bullish on the future. Yours. Talk to one today and see why were bullish on the future. 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And this is charlie not coughing while getting a little too into nanas party. Because he took delsym. Nothing lasts longer for powerful cough relief. Delsym. The joy of not coughing. And dont forget kids 4 and up. Delsym is 1 pediatrician recommended. Round table ready to go. Well be right back. To go. Well be right back. Traders theyre always looking for advantages. The smart ones look to fidelity to find them. We give you research and datavisualization 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. Ugh man, my sinuses. Its like my heads in a fog. I mean, could you be any more dramatic . Ive had it. Im taking mucinex sinusmax. Eh, that stuffs all the same. This is different. It fights pressure, pain, and congestion. Athank you. 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For a chance to win a free treatment. vo do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day; rage, rage against the dying of the light. Do not go gentle into that good night. My duty and the sacred duty of every elected official is to defend americans, to protect their safety, their families their communities and their right to the American Dream because americans are dreamers too. Remember that . President trump had a state of the Union Address this week. Only tuesday. Feels like a lifetime ago. Well talk about the whole week now with our round table, bill kristol, roland martin, mary bruce, jen psaki and Anthony Scaramucci at the round table. We have three people who served as communication directors. You guys serve more mooches than me. Thats fine. I want to start on capitol hill, mary. I made that joke about the state of the union. The shelf life incredibly short. Friday everyone consumed by the memo. It was a partisan grenade. It went off on capitol hill. It exposed the deep Division Within the two parties and even within the republican party. The president has put republicans in a really tough spot. Speaker ryan is trying to walk the fine line. On one hand he supported the release of the memo in the state of transparency but he said it should not be used to undermine the Russian Investigation which puts him and several others at odds with the president. A vocal group on the hill, doing just that. The president is keeping up this drum beat though. I think hes upset. Listen, we can agree on certain things and obviously disagree on other things. If youre in his position, hes saying the germination that what happened was related to Opposition Research. We can debate whether the memo should be out there or not. I said there should be a Bipartisan Commission put together to protect that from happening in the future, but also to protect the agencies. One thing that bill and i agree with is that the agencies are sacred and we need to protect them. You even had john kelly looking at the memo saying its not quite what it was sold to be. Anyone in the white house saying, mr. President , even if you believe that its not a good idea to have a Public Campaign against the fbi or are they behind it . I think so. Despite what people think i think people go at the president pretty hard. He likes have tough intelligent people around him. He has a certain style to his personality. The style is that there was Opposition Research that was a dura flame log that ignited the surveillance. He doesnt like that. The whole thing would calm down from a bipartisan perspective if we unified and said well have a committee that comes together. That was the idea behind an Intelligence Committee in the first place. Im been struck by how many republicans have fallen in line behind the president. Over the last six to eight months. Its remarkable. If you told me you would have the House Republicans attacking the fbi, signing on to this partisan memo, defending trump no matter what he says or does, thats a victory for donald trump. I dislike it as a republican. I dislike it very much. Politically he has not been stupid. I think people miss the forest for the tries. They say hes short tempered and erratic. I dont buy this. He hates this investigation. He wanted to limit it, did he legitimize it, discredit. Make it a partisan thing. Rally his supporters as much as possible for what he may have to do down the road. Hes succeeded to a much greater degree. I want to bring that to jen it seems the president is conditioning the environment much as bill clinton did when he denied what happened with monica lewinsky. Thats exactly right. Its less interesting about this memo, whats in it. Its pretty much a nothing burger. Whats most interesting is the how and why. Why did he do this . Hes continuing to lay the groundwork and laying the groundwork for his 35 of supporters that want to be able to argue on his behalf if there are more people indicted, if theres an obstruction of justice case made against him. The other interesting piece is what the republicans have done. The how is fascinating here. This is a moment where they could have stood up and said we cant put this memo out. They didnt do that. Theyre sitting there saying lets have misleading out to the public. Were used to the government defending fbi. Defending Law Enforcement. Were used to that. Again, this president is the president of the Queens County bully association. Anthony, i want to praise you for your words you said about the president. They were true. Theyre afraid to be attacked. Monday he refuses to set forth the sanctions against russia. Republican leadership says nothing. The head of the cia said russia is trying to impact the 2018 election. The president says nothing. If you want to talk about antiamerican and not protecting these borders, doing nothing about russia, thats what hes doing. I get to respond. This is the thing people dont understand about the president. Hes probably doing an enormous amount, in fact i know hes doing an enormous amount. One thing he doesnt like doing in a military situation is declaring what hes doing. The last president made the mistake of telling the taliban when he was leaving afghanistan which caused the taliban to move in. I appreciate you what you saying and the words i shared two years ago. It was true then and its true now. He was coming at me and i came at him like im about to come at you. Try it. Let me speak and then you can rebut me. Try it. He loves the fbi, he love it is cia. He loves Law Enforcement. I travelled on 25 Campaign Stops for him. Every time he came off the plane, they rushed him for selfies. The Border Patrol endorsed him. Hold on a second. Hes upset about the politics theres a huge let me come at you. 982. He tacked Intelligence Community. 982. Atacked intelligence e community. Tacked Intelligence Community. 17 agencies said russia interfered with the election. Hes trying to present an alternate reality. Thats what he does. The head of the cia mike pompeo its not collusion. He said theres no collusion. The president s has two tweets in the last two days saying the fbi politicized the process for the democrats. Calling them political tools. You may know whats in his heart. We dont. We read what hes tweeting. Mary bruce, you talk about capitol hill now. The first possible threats to Robert Mueller came out. You saw republicans and democrats saying that is the absolute red line. If the president does that, all bets are off. Theres going to be an explosion or moves towards an impeachment. Does that still hold . Its a question thats being posed to every single republican. Its a big concern. Youve seen republicans coming out saying mueller is off the table. You have this incredibly vocal group of republicans particularly in the house raising these concerns, questioning the investigation. The other point is theres a huge concern from members on both sides of the aisle about setting a precedent. The fundamental oversight rule done by congress is being tarnished by when this investigation is concluded, when mueller presents his findings it will be considered bipartisan. What do you think he does if mueller asked him to testify . I think hes going to refuse to testify. You sure . Absolutely. Hell offer written responses. Mueller will say no. Hell just refuse to testify. If hes forced to, maybe hell take the 5th. The United States taking the 5th is that conceivable . Yes. The 5th amendment is a great part of our constitution. Its a witch hunt. Youre right to focus on these two tweets sent out since the memo came out are very strikes. The fbi and d. O. J. Are fundamentally politicized. Whats the objection then to firing rosenstein . Hes in charge of it. The shift this week is that republicans in congress aligned behind donald trump on criticizing the fbi and d. O. J. And saying thats okay. Youve seen them twist themselves into pretzels. You saw your guest earlier do that. Hes trying to say this isnt about the fbi. It isnt about the d. O. J. It has nothing to do with it. Of course it does. You cant have it both ways. Theyre not going to be able to continue to have it both way. Remember Common People elected the guy. They dont see the pretzel twisting that perhaps we do at the table. They see it smells like politicalization. Lets get a Bipartisan Committee to check it. What they need is a committee of democrats and republicans and they already having one. Its called congress. The facts matter though. The two predictions are hes not going to fire mueller and rosenstein. Will he testify . I hope he doesnt. You dont want him to testify . To Robert Mueller . To answering questions . The president of the United States . Let him answer why not. I dont want him to testify. As a lawyer i dont want him caught in a gotcha moment where somebody accuses him of lying where he may not remember something. I dont know what his legal team is going to say to him. Im giving you my personal opinion. I would say theres no reason to testify. Let it unfold the way it is. I was there for 18 months. I know there was no collusion. He knows there was no collusion. Don jr. Knows theres collusion. So testify. If its not true, testify. I know how it works and so do you. You dont want him to trip over something. Look what happened to the clintons. They started with white water and moved into monica lewinsky. Its not going to matter. Its the politics of personal destruction. It needs to end on both sides. Its not the politics of destruction. Its a serious investigation. There will be a report that deals with obstruction. Mueller knows well find out everything. Do you think theres a question is will there be a report . When mueller finishes, he gives it to rod rosenstein. He can choose to not make it public. I think that would be crazy, but he can. Thats why rosenstein is such an important figure in this. Thats why im very struck to the degree at which the president attacks him. That lays the groundwork maybe rosenstein does something. Rod was in my section in law school. Hes a great guy. I would tell the president do not fire him. Hell be fair and impartial. You may be upset about the politicalization, but i dont think it came from him. Give him a chance to sort this thing out. Didnt he say the same thing about comey and what happened . I think its different. I think he had a feeling about comey. Thats what hes done in the Trump Organization and what hell do as my president and your president. More yours than mine. Were both americans. Dont bully me brother. Ill nominate you for the queens bully association. Dont try that. He used the same with comey and he fired him. I dont know james comey. I know rod. Hes a good guy. I hope the president doesnt fire him. He can pardon people. I think people have underestimated his he thinks this is bad for him because where theres smoke theres fire. Hes going to resist it, limit it, combat. Hell drag it out as long as possible with par dodges pardons, with refusals to testify. If it comes to a clinton situation where it could, i think people underestimated. Hes not randomly reacting to things. He has a strategy here. Sustained. Before go its strange bed fellows, george. Thats for sure. During the state of the union we saw republicans applauding and democrats on their hands basically. Basically the entire speech, was that a mistake for democrats . No. There are some who didnt attend. Nobody was shouting at the president. Nobody was screaming you lie at the president. Democrats feel as many people in the country do a real dissatisfaction and unhappiness and anger. They didnt feel they could justify this divisive rhetoric, trying to say im for African Americans or trying to say im not racist. They were thinking of their constituents. Another possible Government Shutdown . Nowhere closer to a deal to protect dreamers. Sources say theyre near a budget deal. There is some optimism on that keeping the government open. Yes. Yet another short term stop gap measure to try to work out immigration. So far more time doesnt seem to be helping. Both parties agree something has to be done. No one wants a question about deportation as they head into the midterms. What do they do . It doesnt seem theyre nearing any kind of agreement. The president s put out his proposal. 25 billion for a wall is no fly for democrats. Even republicans have concerns about the cuts. Another big deadline on march 5th. Thats when did he poor they shun can come. Thank you all very much. Well be right back. Now we honor our fellow strummed guitar you cant experience the Canadian Rockies through a screen. You have to be here, with us. Upbeat music travel through this natural wonder and get a glimpse of amazing, with a glass of wine in one hand, and a camera in the other, aboard rocky mountaineer. Canadas Rocky Mountains await. Call your travel agent or rocky mountaineer for special offers now. Now we now we honor our fellow americans who serve and sacrifice. In the month of january two Service Members died overseas in afghanistan and iraq. That is all for us today. Thanks for sharing part of your sunday with us. Check out world news tonight. Ill see you tomorrow on gma. Part of your sunday with us. Check out world news tonight. Ill see you tomorrow on gma. New this morning, dramatic video of a sideshow in oakland. What police say some of the spectators did to businesses on the officers who obviously responded. Were following developing news out of south carolina. A headon collision involving a amtrak train that has turned deadly. Good sunday morning from walnut creek. High and mid level clouds. 54 degrees right now. Highs still expected to be well into the 70s with a few more clouds around. They will thin out. Ill track the forecast for you today and the week ahead comin the gigspeed network that powers the dreams of americas businesses is now doing the same for americas olympic and paralympic athletes. Dream gig. Comcast business