Not vote which is not unusual in that community. But he also said he found the conversation disturbing. Joining us now is the reporter who broke that story. Cnn political analyst and White House Reporter for the Washington Post josh dossy. Lets start with the question that predent trump put t Andrew Mccabe which was, w it as simple as who did you vote for in 2016 . It was a gettoknowyou meeting. He was thinking about making mccabe acting director. It was clear he was looking for loyalty. He wanted to know who did you vote for, berated him about his wife taking contributions from a clinton supporter and made clear to mr. Mccabe, i want to know what your affiliations are. The people are telling me theyre democratic and i dont like the sound of that. Was he that specific. Did he say i want to know what your political leanings are . He said who did you vote for in the election. I think thats a pretty specific question. He wanted to know did you support clinton or did you support me. The reason i ask and i press on this is because you see it or he saw it, i guess, as a loyalty test. Lots of people do. But we just had the rnc chair in who said hes just making conversation, that was just a gettoknowyou meeting he had with Andrew Mccabe. I heard that. Its unusual our sources said to us last night for a president to ask a civilian servant, a nonpartisan person who they voted for. That was followed up for criticizing him for his wifes political donations for democrats. I guess he could be making small talk. Those two things together i understand mighted to us he was looking for some sense of how he felt pligolitically. How did mccabe take it . It wasdisturbing. There was a conversation with the president ,e went in and the president asked a number of political questions. Several people in the fbi described it to my colleagues as he was disturbed by the conversation. It was interesting to hear Andrew Mccabe, as you report, say that he didnt vote. Right but thats pretty normal. A lot of top fbi officials just like many journalists who are involved in this world dont cast ballots in president ial elections or are not affiliated with a party so you wont have the concerns of partisan political activity. As you know, when the concerns are there it taints the findings and taints the work. You learned from our legal experts today that is customary because if youre involved in an investigation, you dont want to be seen as partisan somehow, so you sit it out and dont exercise your civil duty or your civil right. Did that satisfy the president when Andrew Mccabe said he didnt vote . Its unclear. He brought him back in again for a perfunctory interview to become the permanent fbi director and obviously chose chris ray. Since then he talked about the money he took, the fact he thinks hes a democrat. Weve seen seen him taunt Andrew Mccabe on twitter. Hes far from the president s favorite person. And i dont think his answers satisfied him if all the president s subsequent comments are an indicator of that. Lets talk about your other reporting that Robert Mueller is preparing, getting ready to interview President Trump and vice versa. Do you have any sense of what that will look like . Is that a sitdown in person, a submission of written questions and answers . Well, the negotiations are at pace now. President trumps lawyers are looking to make an interview as accommodating to him as possible, whether its some written, whether part is videotaped. What bob muellers team has told the president is theyre interested in two parts, the firing of mick flynn early in the administration and the firing of james comey later in the administration. Those are kind of the bucket areas, what the president was thinking, the preceding events, what happened afterwards, what precipitated the president to take both of these moves. The negotiations are beginning now. His lawyers are obviously going to the president and saying here is what we want. Plulers team saying here is what we want and we expect this to happen in the coming months. Coming months, not couple of weeks . Well, it depends. These negotiations could go well. I think President Trumps lawyers are expecting to talk talking to muellers team as early as next week. It depends how they could go. They could in a few days figure it out or it cou take some time. Thank you very much. Joining us reynaldo mariotti and senior political analyst david gregory. Renato, the timing of moving in to want to interview trump, having done comey and sessions, what does that tell you . It tells me as to the obstruction piece of muellers investigation, hes getting closer to a conclusion. A prosecutor does not interview a key subject in a probe like this until very close to the end, after hes already gathered all the key documents, spoken to the less important or more peripheral witnesses. Whatever the president says about his firing of james comey will dramatically impact muellers investigation of obstruction. So this is sort of where all of the rubber meets the road, so to speak. Obviously weve heard and cnn has reported over the past months of various other aspects of muellers investigation, from facebook to the trump tower meeting and so on. This doesnt mean that mueller is going to be investigating the other meetings, but it means as to this portion of the investigation, its very far along. David, its interesting to think about the president sitting down with Robert Mueller. Thats an interesting scenario to imagine. Polls suggest that most americans want Robert Mueller to get to the bottom of this. If the president we to somehow avoid a facetoface interview, do you think there would be political consequences . I dont necessarily think there would be political consequences. I think the president very much wants to meet with Robert Mueller. I think his lawyers may be concerned about how undisciplined he is. I cant imagine a more undisciplined figure to be deposed or interviewed which is why im sure they want a combination of written answers and facetoface. Lets also remember, the obstruction area is certainly an area of inquiry by the special counsel, but its not only that. Whatever hes doing with regard to Paul Manafort and his deputy, mr. Gates, there is a wide area here that the president could be questioned on, and i think thats important to remember. And i also think in fairness to the president , we have to point out that he could do himself a lot of good. There may be things that he can corroborate, that he can help the special counsel with that will validate what the president has said about not knowing certain things, being removed from certain questions. Remember, Hillary Clinton of course, as other figures have been, was interviewed as part of the email probe and that didnt lead to any charges. So i think we have to consider all sides of this. Renato, what piques your interest in terms of questions for the president . And are you interested in this latest anecdote about how he interviewed mccabe when he was in his office as acting fbi director and said who did you vote for, whats up with your wife and all this democratic money . I will tell you let me start with the second part of that question first. I thought it was very interesting that the president apparently asked mr. Mccabe about who he voted for. That is very unusual, and i have to say, i find it absolutely unbelievable that theres a suggestion that this was just small talk, like asking about baseball or the latest movie you watched. It is very unusual to be asking people in the fbi who they voted for, who their partisan political leanings are. He clearly according to the reporting we just heard a moment ago followed that up with questions about his wife and her political leanings. The president later called out mccabe on twitter for alleging he was partisan. What it suggests is that the president believes that people should either be on his side or not on his side. Youve used the fbi as people who are either for him or against him, and thats not what the fbi is supposed to be. Theyre supposed to be neutral investigators of the law. Thats very concning. And think its something mueller could ask him about because itoes to the idea of loyalty that comey talked about when he testified before the senate, the Senate Committee where he said that the president wanted essentially his interpretation was that the president wanted him to be personally loyal to him. Now, in terms of questioning i think really what mueller is going to be asking about is the decisionmaking process that called the president ultimately to fire comey. Hes going to ask about the conversations with comey in great detail to see what areas of true disagreement are there between trump and comey about what was said during those meetings. Trump may ultimately agree with comey as to many of the points about what were said during the meetings. That ultimately could aid in his investigation. Lets also remember, i think its patently ridiculous that the basis for the president firing comey, since he made it so clear that he was unhappy with the russia probe, but as it pertains to the investigation, the president and his lawyers may assert and may be right that, look, they had a basis for removing him from the Deputy Attorney general who basically went through the underlying causes to do so. Except trump said he was going to do it anyway. This is why the investigation would have to happen. But i think its important to remember that he had that basis, according to the administration. Renato, what do you see in the fact that rick gates, this Top Campaign Official aide to donald trump at the time has now hired this highpowered attorney that suggests that something is closing in on rick gates . Well, it certainly suggests that gates may be wanting to go in a different direction in the way that he is handling the investigation. I will tell you that as somebody who has been both a federal prosecutor and now on the other side of it, given the array of charges against gates and the years hes facing in prison, cooperation is very much logically the best move for him given that federal prosecutors usually secure convictions. It doesnt surprise me that gates might be cooperating, and i think thats really bad news for Paul Manafort because that just makes the evidence against him Even Stronger because mueller is going to know everything that gates knows. When i say everything, thats really important i think for everyone in trumps camp because gates was obviously part of the campaign and gates will be sharing with mueller his knowledge on a variety of subjects. Not good news for manafort, thats for sure. David gregory, you advanced a theory early on that now has more meat on the bones. Boy, political moves to discredit the Justice Department may wind up leading to a crisis when the special counsel delivers his findings to senste rosenstein. Sure enough, now we see the memo released that there was bad surveillance by the Justice Department, the president redoubling his efforts by saying it has the worst reputation ever and everything is toxic there. The missing texting between two of the people involved in the probe, ron johnson, sitting wisconsin senator little irony, thats where joe mccarthy came from says secret society meets off campus. Thats what an informant says, but no real proof. How high is your concern now . Your interview with former attorney general gonzalez i thought was interesting. It is upsetting to anybody connected with the Justice Department, the fbi and to american citizens to hear this kind of thing, because theres so much innuendo, and we cannot forget what good and important job fbi agents do and employees political and nonpolitical of the Justice Department. Its important for citizens to have faith in those institutions, faith that is wellplaced, by the way, even though they make mistakes. They could very well have made mistakes here. Lets also remember this is a political process now, just as the Clinton Administration and their allies beat up on ken starr and his investigation, so, too, are they going to do that here. This is where mueller has got to account for his investigation. But remember, the fbi chief who trump put in place has stood up for his people and so have people at the justice much for all the analysis. Ry lawmakers say theyre ready to tackle immigration reform. Will there be a bipartisan solution. Senator joe manchin met with President Trump this week. Well talk about that meeting next. You do all this research on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivwith accident forgiveness, liberty tual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. The commute is worth it. Me, the more you know for all the work you pour into this place, you sure get a lot more out of it. You and that john deere tractor. So versatile, you can keep dreaming up projects all the way home. Its a longer drive. But just like a john deere, its worth it. Nothing runs like a deere. Now you can own a 1e subcompact tractor for just 99 dollars a month. Learn more at your john deere dealer. New signs that the special counsel is heating up his investigation. Sources tell cnn he does want to question the president and soon, and he wants to talk to him specifically about decisions to fire former fbi director james comey and former National Security adviser michael flynn. We also now know that recently the special counsel has interviewed the attorney general, jeff sessions, and the former fbi director jim comey. Lets bring in democratic senator joe manchin of West Virginia, member of the senate intel committee. Joe manchin, weve known each other a long time. Ive seen you be a true advocate for your people as governor and senator in West Virginia. I have never heard you say that anything sucks before i read that New York Times piece. Obviously youve had it. What sucks, my brother . Senator, tell us why you said that. Chris, i got to the point so many good people up here, both democrats and republicans. Theyre all my friends. I work with them. When you get us together, it sounds like we make sense. We want things to work. And all of a sudden all the power transfers to two people, the majority leader and minority leader who makes a decision what moves and doesnt move. The majority sets the agenda. I keep thinking my be loved robert c. Byrd laying in his grave, hes got to be twisting and turning thinking how did we get to this. Weve got to come back to regular order and where other senators have input and our voices are heard. Were able to move the dialogue. Thats where you saw the Common Sense Coalition come together with Susan Collins and so Many Democrats and republicans. We had 25 senators about equally divided, ds and rs who want the place to work and make sense and understands theres a pathway forward. Thats what weve been working on. I said the place sucks when it doesnt work. I get a little frustrated at times. I let it fly that day. I probably shouldnt have. I like it. Its good for people to hear the frustrations and more importantly see why, see whom to blame, who to ask for better. Hold on, hold on, second. The blame game is whats the problem up here. The blame game really destroys the trust we should have in each other. Its nobodys fault, but its everybodys fault. If i blame you, youre never going to try to fix it with me. Im not going to blame my democratic or republican friends im just talking about transparency. It doesnt make sense to anybody who is not initiated in the process because it doesnt work like the way you guys do it anywhere else in society. It doesnt work in running a household, running a relationship with a spouse or in a business. On immigration, whats the suck factor . Theres not a person up here, 100 senators that i know, that does not want these children to have their home which is the United States of america. Talking about the d. R. E. A. M. Ers . Talking about the daca children. Those children that came in undocumented, no powers of their own, and they came here with their parents at very young ages. Theyre here. Everyone realizes this is the only home they have. Were not going to send them where elsewhere they dont know and put them i jeopardy. Weo from there . Said, where do what aut the parents . They called them migration with many more people in the family. That needs to be tightened up and vetted properly. Just because you might get a pathway to citizenship, United States citizens and our whole citizenship is based on family. Is pathway to citizenship even on the table . For daca, it is. You saw its a 12year pathway. Two years credit for daca and its still a tenyear process. Do the parents that are trying to work things out . Thats whats holding it up. Its not holding up do these children belong in america or not. Its what else can you close. Then you have the border, border security, border wall, whatever you want to call it. Theyre getting into a tiff about this, chris. We have to have border security. If the president calls it a border wall, we do need wall. We need to repair some wall, build some new wall. We need other technology, too. Its messaging you guys are going to have to swallow him rubbing your face in it saying i got the wall, you lost. It doesnt matter. It matters politically and that can create energy. You have the president also fighting your assumption a little bit. Youre saying the men and women up there want to help these people. Nick mulvaney was on here and the president echoed his own statement that im going to give on daca only as much as i get in rern. Theres no such thing as calibrated compassion. I met with him two days ago, sat in his office. Myself and doug jones sat with the president. I can tell you he believes these children need a pathway forward. There might be people around him that arent quite as sympathetic as he is. My gut tells me the president wants to get this done. Im willing to continue to keep working with limb in a bipartisan way, be an honest broker, tell him what i think we work and wont work. Reneed to get past this. The rhetoric is what it is. The president is going to say what hes going to say. That doesnt upset me as long as we have a final product and a pathway forward. We can do this. Were going to continue to keep working. The Common Sense Coalition is going to stay together. Were going to see if we can work this thing out. We have a hard deadline. March 5th these kids start moving out technically if we dont do something. February 8th the government shuts down again if we dont have a deal. Theres no time to waste here. Dont make collins break out that stick. If she breaks out that stick, joe, youre a big man, but she can swing that stick. I can catch that stick, too. Its been thrown at me. It wasnt thrown at your head. You werent in front of the glass elephant . Thats a bunch of crap. Sometimes peoples reflexes arent as good as they should be. It was never thrown at somebodys head. We figured we ought to go to basketball. A little easier to catch. And softer if it does hit you on the led. Immigration, do drugs come nto across the southern border . Yes, they do. Is it the biggest way they come over . Probably not looking at the estimates of what happens in tunnels and other large cargo. And it certainly isnt our biggest concern when we talk about something that is a specific concern to your state. We need a documentary on this recently for hln. Opioids are only getting worse. Its good that the administration is talking about it, getting their hands around it. But it aint enough. Money is not making it onto the streets and into communities where its needed to combat this with treatment and enforcement. Whats your take and whats your request . My request has been this. Make sure once you identifythe front line of defense where the war really is taking place, West Virginia is the front line. We cant be just disburse out money to fight a war if its based on population. Were 2 million people. If you base it on the death we have per thousand, were number one. Give us enough bullets to fight the war so we can stop the enemy from moving in. Opioids are going to be a big part of this, addiction and how do we fight it. It starts with the kids in kindergarten, education and prevention. It starts with cleaning up the people addicted and getting them back into productive society. We have a long way to go, chris. We can do it. Its ravaging every state. It is the perfect storm. The senator said it was something we should pursue. So we did. You and New Hampshire stick out because small populations but big infestation. Its the perfect storm of a drug surge. Not only is it uniquely addictive and synthetic and shipped from big pharma suppliers, but you have overprescribing as an aspect we never had to deal with with more elicit drugs. The urgency is there. Well stay on it for you, senator. Let me say this, chris. First of all, when you talked about how drugs are coming, fentanyl, a deadly drug, comes mostly through the mail. Security, we talk about walls. We need ever thing. We need technology, drones, new agents, border patrol. We also need dock patrol where it comes through our ports. We need highspeed boats to intercept. Were talking about all of this. When you hear someone talk about just the wall, theres a lot more than just the wall. Senator when youre talking opioids, your argument does not suck. I will tell senator collins to spare you the talking stick. Thank you, chris. I cant get enough of the stick. Im so glad she shod it to us. I believe they were figin with the stick. I would say lets go shot for shot with the stick. Whoever wins, they get what they want. Whereas i believe somebody could just drop it or not catch it because thats where i come from. You wouldnt catch it but talk anyway and be insulted that someone threw it to you. Thats right. Meanwhile, a burst of new developments related to special counsel Robert Muellers russia investigation. How significant are these . Well ask republican congressman charley dent of pennsylvania next. I promise, to have and to hold, from this day forward through sickness and in health, till death do us part selectquote can help you keep your promise. With Life Insurance starting at under 1 a day but you promised daddy. Come on. Selectquote helped michael, 41, keep his promise, by finding him a 500,000 policy for under 26 per month. And found venessa, 37, a 750,00 policy for just 22 per month. Since 1985, weve helped millions of families by finding rated insurers, offering over 70 policies. Dad, dont be late, you promise . You promise . I promise. Keep your promise. There is a republican push to release a memo from house intel chair devan nunez that alleges fbi abuses of fisa surveillance laws. Sources say President Trump is inclined to allow that memo to be made public, but what is in it . Joining us is republican congressman charlie dent. Good morning, congressman . Good morning, alisyn. Great to be with you. Great to have you. Do you know about this nunez memo and whats in it . I know the memo. It was a memo prepared by i believe republican staff of the intelligence committee. I have not yet read it. But i mean theres a lot in there that has been discussed. Such as i know some of it is classified, but in broad brush strokes, can you tell us if this is a bombshell memo or if these are chairman nunezs sort of cliff notes on something hes seen with fisa . Since i have not read it, i cant comment on the content. Even if i did read it, i couldnt comment on the content because its classified. As i read in public reports, theres some suggestion that sa rules or laws may have been olated in the context ofhis investigation. I think thats what the allegation is. Again, having said that, just based on news reports, without having read the memo. Here is the point. Some of your republican colleagues seem to be in overdrive trying to discredit in different ways the fbi. Let me just play for you what senator ron johnson said about the fbi last night on fox. More than bias, corruption at the highest levels of the fbi, the secret society we have an informant thats talking about a group that were Holding Secret meetings offsite. Theres so much smoke here, so much suspicion. Lets stop there. A secret society, secret meetings offsite of the Justice Department. Correct. You have an informant saying that . Yes. Let me repeat bret bairds questions, secret society, secret meetings offsite. Do you know what senator johnson is talking about . I have no idea. I do believe that the men and women of the fbi are good, honorable, professional people. Im sure there are some bad apples, but we have a process to deal with that. I think its important that we not undermine the American Publics confidence in the Justice Department and the fbi. Do you think some of your colleagues are undermining the fbi . Well, i am not prone to conspiracy theories. I really am not. I wish some of my colleagues would temper their rhetoric. We republicans have often sold ourselves as the party of law enforcement, not just the state and local level, but the federal level as well. These peoe at the fbi are vy much involved with counterterrorism operations, going out and putting their lives at risk every day. We shouldnt lose sight of that over the politics of this particular russia investigation. I have confidence in director mueller that he is going to run a thorough, fair, professional investigation. When there were problems with two individuals involved, he either removed them or demoted them. I do have confidence in this. We shouldnt do anything to undermine this investigation. Congressman, help us understand why some of your republican colleagues seem more focused on bringing down the talking about the fbi and their perceived issues with the fbi rather than getting to the bottom of the russia investigation. Ill tell you, i think whats disappointing to me, i served as chairman of the House Ethics Committee during the last congress. I was involved with sensitive investigations. We did them in a very bipartisan manner. I didnt do a thing about talking to my ranking member, linda sanchez. We always moved together. Nothing was agreed to until everything was agreed to. It seems to me whatever issues there are with the fbi and there may be legitimate issues to look at here. Im not questioning that. If we try to do this on a purely partisan basis, i dont think that serves anyones interest or the American Publics interest. They have to find a way to do this on a bipartisan basis. Thats the intelligence committee, a secretive committee. Its easier to do these things behind closed doors in a bipartisan manner than it is out in the open. They have to get that back on track. Do you think its possible that some members of the fbi have formed a secret skull and bonesesque society . Well, look, i guess anything is possible, but i cant imagine theres some grand conspiracy here. Call me skeptical, all right . Do you think some of your republican colleagues are following the president s lead . The president is the person who started saying that the fbi was in tatters. Well, the president i think has to be very careful. I just saw yesterday i guess in the Washington Post story that director mueller is very interested in the president s role in the firing of director comey and also mr. Flynn, general fln. And the allegation is why did the president interfere, does that rise to the level of obstruction . If i were the president , less is more i simply dont understand why he would want to interfere in any way. Its clear to me that at. Im not aware that the president directly was involved in any kind of meddling with the campaign. There were others who had entanglements but not the president. If he has nothing to fear, if he says theres nothing to worry about, why continue to attack his Justice Department. Its his attorney general jeff sessions. Its his fbi director christopher ray. These are people who report to him its the trump administration, these are his people. I find it odd hes attacking his own government. You think the American Public can trust the fbi . Yes, i do. I do. I believe again, i have agents in my own community who are involved in all sorts of sensitive matters, and i have a lot of confidence in the men and women. I think theyre all very professional. Do they have political opinions . Do all people in government have political opinions . Of course they do. We like them to keep it to themselves. They have a right to vote, make a campaign contribution. We know that. When theyre on the job, we expect them to be thorough, fair and professional and not let whatever political views they have interview with their work. I believe thats true with virtually most everybody in the fbi. There might be some exceptions, but i think thats just the way it is. Congressman charlie dent, we appreciate talking to you. Anks for being here. Thank you, alisyn. Great to be with you. Police in kentucky are trying to figure out why a teenager opened fire at a high school killing two classmates, injuring 18 others. The latest in a live report next. Who are these people . The Energy Conscious people among us say small actions can add up to something. Humongous. A little thing here. A little thing there. Starts to feel like a badge maybe millions can wear. Who are all these caretakers, advocates too . Turns out, its californians its me and its you. Dont stop now, its easy to add to the routine. Join Energy Upgrade california and do your thing. An investigation is under way intohy a 15yearold studt reportedly opened fire inside a Kentucky High School killing two other students and injuring 18 more. Cnns nick valencia is live in benton, kentucky with the latest developments. What have you learned . Reporter good morning, alisyn. What eyewitnesss describe happened here yesterday is absolutely haunting. A 15yearold male student is alleged to have walked into a school just as it was getting under way and gunning down his classmates. We know 20 victims suffered, 16 gunshot victims, five still in Critical Condition this morning battling for their lives. Benton, kentucky is a very small town, a very small knit community, so small that some of these First Responders have kids who go to this school. One of the first state troopers thought the 15yearold girl who died here was his own daughter. The identities of those two students who were killed, they were released during a somber press conference. Preston cope, 15 years old is said to have died at a nearby hospital in asheville, and bailey holt, 15 years old who died at the scene. One of the outstanding questions this morning is why. Why would this 15yearold do this . Thats a question that investigators are looking at. This 15yearold is in custody. Were also waiting to hear whether or not this teenager will be charged as a juvenile or adult. That all is part of the investigation. Chris, alisyn . Thank you very much. Appreciate you staying on this. The Washington Post reporting President Trump asked the acting fbi director whom he voted for in 2016. 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That all happened in the oval office when he was the acting fbi director. Overreach by the president . Lets bring in cnn National Security commentator and former house intelligence chairman mike rogers. Been a while, mike. Happy new year. Good to see you. Happy new year to you. I thought you guys didnt love me anymore. I love you. It would be uncomfortable if i told the truth about that on television. Let me ask you, what is right, what is appropriate and what is of concern in this conversation as reported between the president of the United States and acting fbi director Andrew Mccabe. I dont think this was any ill intent. It was definitely inappropriate. The understanding the fbi needs to operate as an independent agency and, yes, members of the fbi have political opinions like every american. If thats the sole standard, were in a lot of trouble. The standard needs to be for those fbi agents not to act on their political biases in any investigation. Most agents justice is engrained with them. Having the president ask the question, it was inappropriate at the very, very least. Interesting to mueller . Probably, because if hes trying to show a pattern of behavior, if hes looking to do an obstruction of justice charge which, by the way, i think is really hard to get to. If thats what hes looking to do, he needs to show a pattern of behavior that would lead any jury to conclude, yes, that person was clearly trying to obstruct justice in this case. Yeah, i think thats probably likely going to be a question. Sounds like, according to e reporting, that mccabe may already have been interviewed about that very topic, about the nature of that conversation. If nothing else, its another reminder of where the president s mind tends to be, on him and his interests. Youre talking about the fbi as if we could trust him. To listen to your republican brothers and sisters, its the worst its ever been, totally toxic, secret societies, all kinds of nefarious behavior. Cant trust him. Boy, i worry about this a lot. So what youre seeing is in the court of Public Opinion in day a defense attorney or single prosecutor tries to get up and impeach the character or integrity of a witness to taint their testimony. What youre seeing happen publicly now is that with the institution that is charged with protecting the United States. I worry about this a lot. I know the men and women of the fbi. I know the oaths they take and how serious they take it. Every single case they do, they understand they have the ability to take away someones freedom. That is a huge responsibility, and in some cases can be a burden but they accept it and are very professional in the execution of those duties to make sure america is kept safe. I worry this constant barrage on the institution of the fbi is bad. Can i just add one thing, chris . Please, mike. The optics of what happened with the bureau is bad. If you ask the average american, they go, i dont get that, i dont understand why was mccabes wife taking money and he visited the governor i dont like it. There was an interim investigation to my understanding that said he didnt violate any rules, but it just looked bad. So the fbi does need to be concerned about the optics, not the politics, but the optics of what theyre doing. They have a little responsibility here. The constant barrage about their character and integrity, i worry about that. Theyre doing cases all over the country, including counterterrorism cases in new york city, chicago, miami, all over the country trying to catch spies, like the chinese spy that just penetrated the cia recently. Thats important work and we should not detract them fr that. You can impeach a witness but theres a standard of proof. You have senator ron johnson saying theres a secret society because some informant told him. It reeks of politics. You flip the r and the d under johnsons name and flip him talking about a secret society, talking about russian collusion, you have completely opposite points of view where johnson will say, oh, one informant, christopher steel, this former uk guy . Not me, not enough. Theres nothing there. Now were seeing it its playing on the other side. Why people dont trust the politicians. Having interesting point, the reason we know about the texts between two agents who were involved at one time in the investigation is because, not of republicans, of the inspector general. They did their own inhouse check. There was accountability and mueller moved and took the agent off the probe. The fact that there was an allegation somewhere in the bureau and i dont think it was anything about the taint of the investigation, candidly. It was ability inappropriate behavior by two employees of the fbi, and thats what got him into trouble and i think they discovered all this other material. And when mueller found out about it, he took action right away to do it. I dont know what else you would ask him to do candidly in that case. He got the information the agent had a great reputation for all the casework he had done. Remember, these were private conversations about political beliefs. Guess what . Fbi agents have private conversations about political beliefs. Their goal is never, ever, ever bring it into the office. Never bring it into an investigation. Mueller decided the optics were not good, were moving along and were going to correct that. That to me is the right standard. Before we go out and start beating people, you have to understand that he saw a problem, he fixed the problem. A lifelong republican and a decorated veteran in bob mueller who was picked by the acting head of acting attorney general Rod Rosenstein who was trumps choice. Mike, thank you very much. Good to have you with us. Always good to see you. Thats it for us. Time for cnn newsroom with poppy harlow and john berman. So soon . Cant we do another three hours . Yes, we can. Come with me tonight. See you there. Alisyn and chris, 9 00 p. M. Oh, my god. Youre a machine. Ill give you the stick. Ill be watching. You will not. Plus, unlimited family plans come with netflix included. So, you can watch all your netflix favorites on your new samsung phones. Join the uncarrier and get a Samsung Galaxy s8 free. All on americas best unlimited network. Heavy, labored breathing heavy, labored breathing coughing breathing through oxygen mask breathing through oxygen mask breathing through oxygen mask breathing through oxygen mask covered california. Its more than just health care. Its life care. Powerful skincare,s now lightasair a breakthrough moisturizer delightfully whipped for instant absorption feel a lightasair finish in a flash new olay whips ageless good morning everyone. Im poppy harlow. Im john berman. A dizzying 24 hours in the russia investigation, no longer just inching toward the president. This morning it is more like careening. We know special counsel Robert Mueller wants to counsel the president and we know why. Sources tell cnn the special counsel wants to hear