Protect trump from a special prosecutor. Thats right. He blames him for two things number one, the president is a combatant. He likes people who fight. So he doesnt like that instead of fighting, sessions recused himself. But he believes initial step what set in motion the process that led to special Counsel Robert Mueller who is causing tremendous headaches for the president and his family. His understanding of the role of the Attorney Generalship. Can you square that what most people think an Attorney General should be today . Man or woman since at least janet reno, theyre seen as the countrys Attorney General, not the president s personal lawyer. Thats right. There have been people very close to them as the Attorney General, like kennedy. Or bobby kennedy. He would be the prime example but thats not what we think of. We dont think of the Attorney General being the president s lawyer. We think of him being the lawyer
for the country. In a way thats very important institutionally. It
Leaders in congress, are to pretend didnt happen. Is that just Mitch Mcconnells nature . What has to happen for something to get done . Tell me what you saw when you watched the Press Conference today. Reporter well, Mitch Mcconnell knows when youre the leader, a party in the senate, youll take shots. Thats part of the job, a guy who takes incoming fire and allows your caucus to get things done. The two men appearing sidebyside today was politically smart or at least acknowledgement of political reality. Their goals in most cases are the same and desperately need each other to get any of them done. On tax reform, they cannot have the same problems they had on health care. If theyre sniping back and forth at each other day after day its gawk to be that much more difficult to get done. You heard some of that today. The president praising Mitch Mcconnell. Saying hes the guy to get it done on all of these issues and put a bunch of additional issues on Mitch Mcconnells plate now
this is a t
Today the russia investigation took a major step forward. For the first time a member of the president s inner circle faced questions on capitol hill. Put another way, this investigation has now come within one man of the president. He is arguably the closest man to the president. White house Senior Adviser and soninlaw Jared Kushner spent more than two hours with the Senate Intelligence committee and then he made a Public Statement saying he never colluded with russia. It comes as trump pours the pressure on his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, who rekuzed himself from the Justice Departments russia investigation months ago. A decision the president has not been able to get past. He wrote about sessions on twitter this morning, referring to his own Attorney General, mind you, as our beleaguered Attorney General. And tonight the Washington Post as a new report headline, trump leaves sessions twisting
in the wind Bile Berating him publicly. It reads in Part Sessions was once conside
Beyond those who have been so outspoken to push back on that. Will we see other senators come out today and take a flake or corkerlike position on that . Well find out. But right now i doubt it. A standing ovation. I want to bring my panel in. Robert costa, National Political reporter for the Washington Post and bret stephens, an oped columnist for the New York Times and megan murphy, the editor of Bloomberg Business week. Brett, i want to start with you. One trump critic said the ice is beginning to crack. What were seeing with bob corker, with jeff flake, youre going to see more republicans follow suit. Do you think thats the case . Follow suit in denouncing the president . Yes. Or in renouncing their political ambitions. Fair point. This is the key thing. Theres a law in economics, greshams law, bad money drives out good. In a sense what we have is bad republican politicians driving out good ones who are just removing themselves literally
from circulation. There was this conceit amo
Taking part in any kind of sales of oil that would violate u. N. Sanctions. The Treasury Department note d last month that there were north korea ben shipping companies that were attempting these ship to ship transfers likely of oil to evade u. N. Sanctions, but the president is on vacation here in maralago. He was on the golf course when the tweet was sent. Weve reached out to a number of of his aides at National Security counsel. Was there something new that set off the president . Some new piece of information he had confirmed . Did he know there was a new Transfer Attempt and we got no response ch its Worth Remembering that the president travel wg a very thin staff when he goes on vacations like this. So its possible that even his own staffers dont knowd the pr to send this tweet today. All right, thank you very much. With me now, the author of nuclear showdown, north korea takes on the world, gordon
chang. And cnn security analyst, bob. Gordon, let me begin with you. The word fs f