Sure Whitaker News Today

Notified the house judiciary committee that acting attorney general matt whitaker will not, i repeat, will not appear before tomorrows scheduled hearing if the house issues a subpoena to him. joining me now, msnbc correspondent garrett hake live on the hill. what does this all mean? >> reporter: stephanie, if everything stays as it is right now, ting means we should still expect to see whitaker on the hill tomorrow. heres how we got here. house democrats were very concerned that whitaker would c...

What we deliver by delivering. president trump is defending his choice of matthew whitaker as interim attorney general following the firing of jeff sessions. today, president trump praised his new interim ag tweeting, matthew g. whitaker is a highly respected former u.s. attorney from iowa. he was chosen by jeff sessions to be his chief of staff. mr. whitaker is highly thought of by joni ernst and many more. i feel certain he will make an outstanding acting attorney

An investigation could set a bad precedent for republicans down the line when a democrat is in charge? >> and i answered your question, s.e. i said, no. and the reason i said no is because i think the presumption that theres going to be a problem is misplaced. i remember being on a cnn panel with seven others the night jim comey was fired and all i heard from everybody else on that panel was how terrible it was that the russia investigation had been ended by firing jim comey. i was the only one ...

Announcing the appointment of matthew whitaker as acting attorney general. coincidental coincidentally, im sure whitaker has been a vocal critic of the mueller investigation which hell now be charged with overseeing. next in the path of trump tornado, the president turned his wrath towards the prez for daring to ask him questions. after a chaotic press conference on wednesday, the white house pulled the press pass of cnn chief white house correspondent jim acosta. when asked if acostas pass woul...

Hopeful about what the next weeks and months are going to bring. >> so the first thing the president did when it was clear the republicans would keep the senate was fire jeff sessions because he could. now, some are saying not to worry, the mueller investigation will be just fine. democrats will have options. are you worried about the integrity of that investigation? >> i think everybody has to be worried about it because i think the reason that, you know, mr. whitaker was not the first, second,...

I know mike pence is the next person in line but i feel like it should be you. >> laulaura, ken is very sangui about how this is going to go but do you think whitaker could damage the mueller investigation as interim attorney general? >> yes, the keyword here is interim because we all know from the presidents initial tweet that theres going to be a more permanent person placed later on. presumably somebody who would follow the senate confirmation but even temporary power can be extremely impactf...

General. i just want to point out, whitaker was installed by the white house, not jeff sessions. nevertheless, the presidents tweets come as democrats continue their call for whitaker to recuse himself from any involvement in the mueller investigation due to his vocal opposition to the special counsel. shortly after whitakers appointment was announced, nancy pelosi tweeted, given his threats to weaken the russia investigation, should recuse himself from any involvement in muellers investigation....

We all know why he fired him because sessions recused himself from the russia investigation. are you worried about the precedent this could set for another president who might be a democrat? >> no, i think theres really been bad blood between the president and his choice for attorney general jeff sessions for a while. >> fair. >> certainly, it has always rubbed the president the wrong way that sessions recused himself and i think sessions recusal was overbroad but not inappropriate. >> okay. >> ...

Dig into the purpose of why the statute was written. the vra, vacancies reform act, was passed in 1998 to limit the discretion to hand pick his crony. and the other statute was passed right after watergate to specifically prevent a president of doing whats happening right now. thinking about the purpose of the statute, all of those rae readings would make sure whitaker is not an attorney general right now. >> when you consider the post-watergate supplement to this law, that was after we sought t...

Thinking about the purpose of the statute, all of those readings would make sure whitaker is not an attorney general right now. >> when you consider the post-watergate supplement to this law, that was after we sought two republican generals in a row, in the nixon administration, convicted of federal crimes. and so this was specifically intended to clarify what happens in that order of succession. >> thats exactly right, and that law was very important for those reasons because of that live examp...