slack, if you will, a subpoena was served but that didn't make any difference to the white house's assertion of executive privilege here through steve bannon and his attorney. >> and i just want to be clear. bannon's attorney, did he tell the committee the white house directed bannon not to answer questions about his time in the white house or the transition? >> no. he was clear about that. he said up front that any questions that pertain to those two periods of time, transition or steve bannon's time in the white house, would be off-limits which again, led to as you might imagine, all sorts of discussion and argument within the committee today. >> today, the white house press secretary said the white house encouraged people to cooperate with the investigations. again, i don't understand how you square that with then the fact they reportedly tell bannon not to talk about his time even in the transition. >> yeah. you just don't. there is no squaring that. there is also no squaring the fact that the president has been adamant that these investigations should be wrapped up as soon as possible. he wants them over. we are now going to spend