insight. een you are qui i know you are quite busy today. i want to go back to greg brower in las vegas. i want to get your response to not only what we heard from the congressman but what we also heard from your friend, mr. whitaker, who before he was acting attorney general seemed to have a fair amount to say about this administration and about the special counsel s investigation. yeah, craig, it s that is, of course, the reason why his appointment as acting attorney general was met with so much controversy and so much, frankly, distrust at least on the democratic side because he had made those comments earlier. and that s why it s absolutely it has been absolutely imperative and continues to be imperative that he play it by the book in his role now as technically the overseer of the mueller investigation. again, i don t think we ve seen any evidence of any improper interference by matt whitaker with that investigation. he needs to be absolutely clear
yes, laughter there on the judiciary committee on capitol hill. garrett haake joining us, dana milbank, here in new york msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos and maya wiley. and from los angeles greg brower, friends with matthew whitaker. worked when he was at fbi. gar e, we ll sta garrett, we ll start with you on the hill. when they reconvene we ll rejoin the hearing in progress. garrett, we ll start with you. just summarize what we have heard so far. sure. so far, craig, it s been a confrontational, combative and apparently sometimes comedic hearing as matthew whitaker has tried to slow walk his answers to the committee on their
good chance at some point it will be asked this afternoon, greg brower. stand by for me. i do want to bring in eric swalwell now, democrat of california. he also sits on the house intelligence committee as well. congressman, let s start with this hearing that s in recess right now. so far have you been pleased with the answers that you ve heard from matt whitaker? no, craig. actually i find him to be disrespectful toward the process, which is kind of a theme we ve seen with this administration, which is a lack of respect for oversight. and then enablers on the republican side who don t believe that that is our role. i m going to give him the benefit of the doubt. there s only been two members who have questioned him. i hope that he knows that our responsibility is to make sure that the rule of law is intact in this country. it s had a wrecking ball taken to it. and principally around the mueller investigation, we just want to make sure that it has the freedom of movement. we don t ne
greg, i know you ve been watching this play out. and again, your perspective a bit unique because he is awe friend of yours. that being said, how well do you think your buddy has done so far? well, unfortunately for matt whitaker, he stepped into this role in the middle of very unfortunate circumstances given the nature of his appointment. and so it s no surprise that this is a very contentious hearing. democrats have, as was mentioned earlier, a very low level of trust with respect to the acting attorney general, again, given the nature of his appointment. i think during the break matt would be well advised to step back, take a deep breath and remember that the best approach generally in oversight hearings is to take a very conciliatory approach toward the committee, a very respectful approach and he needs to remind himself of that. there are times a witness needs to push back and be firm, but i think in this situation he just needs to be appear to be very
my calves are custom too, but i can t insure those. which is a crying shame. only pay for what you need. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. welcome back to hardball. next week, democrats on the house ways and means committee are having a hearing on a bill that would require the president to release their tax returns. democrats are also planning to take advantage of a law that allows the chair of the committee, which includes the house ways and means committee and the senate finance committee to request any individual tax returns from the treasury secretary. but they expect to face a legal challenge from this administration. i m joined now by david corn, washington bureau chief for mother jones and former u.s. attorney greg brower. david, first, what do you see