Justice correspondent, evan perez. Don, an extraordinary series of events as President Trump fired sally yates, the acting attorney general, because she had ordered the Justice Department not to defend the president s executive order on immigration and refugees. The president s order rolled ought chaotically over the weekend, band travel to the United States of people from seven countries, deemed to be security risks. Yates is an obama appointee and a nearly 30year career lawyer in the Justice Department. On monday evening, she told Justice Department lawyers, quote, i am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institutions solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand up for whats right. She went on to stay that she didnt think the executive order is lawful. A few hours later, the white house issued a statement attacking yates for being weak on illegal immigration. The statement said yates has betrayed the department of justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States. The new acting attorney general is dana boente, the top federal prosecutor in northern virginia. He will remain in office until the Senate Confirms senator jeff sessions, expected later this week. Thank you, evan. I appreciate that. I want to bring in andre bower, michael nutter, former mayor of philadelphia, and president ial historian douglas brinkley, who joins us by phone. National security analyst juliette kai yam. Carl bernstein is also on the phone and senior political analyst david gergen. So we have a lot to get to this evening. So i want lets, carl, youre on the phone. Just moments ago, the new acting attorney general, dana boente, just issued guidance on the travel ban to the department of justice and it says, and i quote here, i hereby rescind former acting attorney general sally q. Yates on january 30, 2017, guidance and direct the men and women of the department of justice to do our sworn dudey and to defend the lawful orders of our president. What do you make of this . First of all, hes within his authority to fire her. I dont think theres any question about that, but it just contributes to the chaos that has been sewn by an order that ostensibly was made to protect the United States. But in fact, its very obvious, was made to protect and advance his own political position, and at the expense of the National Security of the United States. What we are seeing, in terms of the haste of this order, the recklessness of the way it was promulgated, the message it sends, and its antithetical to the history of the United States as an immigrant nation. It has threatened or National Security, instead of enhancing it. It also put hundreds of thousands of people into the streets, opposition to the trump administration, a former president of the United States, his predecessor, president obama, encouraging people to go into the streets. So instead of getting the people of the country behind him and legitimizing his election, hes now delegitimizing his own position as the president of the United States. And i think hes doing it at great peril to himself and the future of his presidency. Douglas brinkley, the white House Counsel for nixon, john dean, he said the way the Trump Presidency is beginning, its safe to say it will end in calamity. Its almost a certainty. Even republicans know this. Is he right . Well, i dont know, but i do think its ringing all of our watergate bells right now, and people like john dean are being listened to, because this smacks of what richardson did when he resigned rather than obey the executive order to fire the watergate prosecutor. The difference is, this is going to be a real circus with the confirmation hearing of senator sessions coming up. Many people are just thinking it would go smoothly, but its going to be a spectacular effort by democrats to go after trump and punish trump for this firing in such a dramatic way. Andre, he says even republicans know this. Whats your reaction . I think theyre wrong. Again, i think that the media and the political pundits are getting it wrong. I think the people out there in the heartland of america want to feel safe. The number one job of the president of the United States is to keep the people of this country safe. Theres terror and evil throughout the world. I want to say that john dean is neither part of the media, nor is he a political pundit. But go on. Everybodys got their own opinion, but the vast majority of americans realize there are tough times around the world. They come to our shores more than any time in history. And President Trump is doing exactly what he said when he ran for president , and hes delivering on those promises. He wants to keep this country safe. He believes in this country. Hes saying, wait a minute, give us a few minutes, this is a protective pause, it isnt permanent, but lets step back and look at this and see what we can do to fix the situation. Because we dont want people coming in that may want to harm our citizens in this country. Juliette, are we safer now than we were friday before this executive order went out . Oh, no. And in fact, we probably enraged many people that were helping us in the fight against terrorism. Can i say some narrative thats going on out here that somehow people not in Middle America dont love their children too. I have spent two decades in saved and security, but i disagree with President Trump on this order, it doesnt mean we dont care about safety and security. The process by which this executive order went through was egregious. And this notion that the trump people are disruptive and get to do what they want, sometimes disruptive is a way to mask incompetency. And i think thats what youre seeing over the last 72 hours. Do you want to speak to that, michael . Because there are people who are americans who do live on the coast and live in big cities, they just dont happen to live in Middle America, maybe they werent born there, they should be heard as well. Everyone should be heard. But similar to juliette, but at nowhere near the level of expertise that she has. Juliette and i serve on the Homeland SecurityAdvisory Council and we care about the entire country. Its interesting that most of the danger from time to time that comes to america and in recent times more homegrown than foreign, is actually in cities across the United States of america. You know, andre, nice try on that. The fact of the matter is that john mccain and lindsey graham, before tonights monday night massacre, disagreed with mr. Trumps executive order. And it is not known at the moment, whether or not that order is actually legal or not. This is the monday night massacre and i appreciate carl bernstein, i was a teenager during the course of watergate. I possibly knew more about watergate as a teenager than many adults. Thats how i learned about politics at that time. The president may have the authority to do what he did, but he has breached the moral realm in doing what he did. This administration, i think in the words of the folks from saving private ryan, this was fubar at its worst. They are in complete chaos and confusion. They have not vetted these executive orders properly. That takes time, which of course is in opposition to his need, seemingly, to fulfill all of his Campaign Promises in a week or ten days. This is just a mess. Also, john dean also tweeted out, saying, and i dont have the exact tweet, im paraphrasing, and this is for you, carl bernstein, that hes never seeing that the trump response to sally yates was nasty. Hes never seen any attack like that politically. Basically saying hes made this political and he didnt have to go that low when he could have just fired her and not said those things. I think thats true. If you look at the nixon firing, which is not quite comparable. Nixon fired the special prosecutor because nixon himself was the target of the investigation and was trying to obstruct justice. This is Something Else again. What this is, is a new president of the United States, who believes that he has a mandate, and its very doubtful from what were seeing in terms of the reaction from both republicans on capitol hill and people in the streets all over america that this mandate is not necessarily what he thinks it is. In fact, we now have more people in the streets than we have had since the Antiwar Movement in the 1960s. And this is an extraordinary thing that has happened in the course of two weeks. So instead of the good will that is usually afforded a new president of the United States, even one who had a remarkable victory by pledging to shake things up, yes, hes shaking things up, but hes also shaking the foundation of his own white house, and it might not stop shaking unless some people around him come to their senses and unless he comes to the senses he may or may not have. David gergen, interesting, because ive seen at least one trump adviser saying that members of the media should be fired. Heads should roll in the media after the election. This all started with the refugee ban. It snowballed into a crisis of leadership. Should there be repercussions in the white house . Should heads roll there . Well, don, one might think that with an ordinary white house, but this is not an ordinary white house. I continue to think that many people around the president , starting with bannon, miller and others, and the president himself, they thrive on this kind of chaos. They thrive on the tensions and having people and they like to have donald trump right in the middle of it, and all the attention will turn to him. What he says next on his next tweet, and tomorrow night when he goes on to his next controversy over the supreme court. So i dont think heads are going to roll at all. I think theyre sort of a few are probably saying, it went too far. But i think some of them are down deep. They came to wash ington to disrupt. When they went into transition briefings, people on the obama side tried to help them understand how government worked. The trump side wanted to know, how do we change it . How do we blow it up . Thats just what theyve been doing. Take a break here. 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Breaking news, President Trump fires the acting attorney general for refusing to enforce his travel ban. Im back with my panel. I want to play this. This is sean spicer today talking about a 5yearold being displaced because of the travel ban. Thats why we slow it down a little, to make sure if they are a 5yearold, to make sure theyre with their parents and they dont pose a threat. But to assume that because of someones age or gender dont pose a threat, would be wrong. Is he asking how we can assume that a 5yearold isnt dangerous . What do you think of that . I think sean spicer is trying to explain an executive order that is inexplicable. Theres a reason why the executive order should have gone through the interagency review and its not bureaucracy and slowness. If it had done the normal processes, the department of defense would have alerted the white house. We have translators who have come through, what should we do about them . If it had gone to the state department, they would have told the white house, listen, its unclear whether this covered green card holders and we havent have had to wait 72 hours but to andres point, they dont want to do that. They want to be disrupters and change things. Maybe they figured they dont have to do it that way. You ask me i mean, you tell me nono, what im saying is sure, they want to do that. The disruptive thing is just a term theyre using to explain a policy that wasnt properly thought through. And its not just them. Lets just talk about first responders. There were reports coming out this weekend and i heard them, that this disruptive behavior doesnt fall on the white house, theyre protected. Its the young customs and Border Patrol agents who are out there, trying to figure out what an executive order means, that their secretary, secretary kelly, hasnt even reviewed. So were putting that burden on customs and Border Protection officials who basically sort of wake up one day and said, the whole world has changed. You dont run government like that, not because youre afraid of being disruptive, but because the efficient and effectuation of policy, even though i disagree with the policy is should be the reason why you wanted to be president. If thats not the reason why you want to be president , then thats the debate well have for the next four years. Presumably he wants the executive order to work. I fundamentally disagree with it, but the process they went through, in and of itself, was so objectionable for the people tolled to enforce it, to children, to green card holders, to the interpreters who were helping our troops in afghanistan and iraq. So thats so what the people want, i would assume the people want to figure out whether green card holders are protected. [ all speak at once ] hang on, mayor. Andre, even supporters of the president said that they wish it had been rolled out in a more professional and a more thoughtout manner. Do you disagree with that . Of course, i do. First i want to point out you disagree with it or you agree with it . I agree with the way he rolled it out. You know, there are always going to be critics. But again, president obamas National Security team recommended travel ban on these very countries. This isnt just this administration. The prior administration, that just vacated the office that is not true. Had the same recommendation. Hes right, andre, thats not true. And i can tell you the difference if youd like me to explain that. Stop saying that. Look, mayor, youre going to disagree with any the day donald trump won no, no. Let me settle this argument. [ all speak at once ] the trump administrations explanation is that they gentlemen, please. It started with the countries designated by the Obama Administration and that more could be added. The difference is in the scope and breadth of the people impacted. Trumps actions implemented a temporary ban to figure out how to give countries increased scrutiny. For now its almost a complete ban. The Obama Administrations restriction provided extra security to people who traveled to these countries that are listed because they are hotbeds of foreign it did not specifically ban people from entering the u. S. Because they were citizens from these seven countries. Theyre not the same. Theyre different. No, it recommended it. It just said these seven places had issues. It didnt ban people from coming in the country from these seven places. It said they needed extra security. Theres a difference. Yeah. And, don well okay. So douglas go ahead, go ahead, mayor. Sorry for the delay. No problem. So hopefully were clear on that. Undrey, unfortunately, youre wrong about that. I know you want to get that across. I wrote a piece today its on cnn in the opinion section. It is clear that theres something wrong going on in the white house, in the administration, and specifically with the president. There may be some mental challenges with his judgment and the things that they are doing. And you can under your breath, whatever. But until we get a full assessment of what the president s health is, and what his mental state is, the actions that are taking place and as juliette laid out, you want to be disruptive, you have that prerogative. But its what you do and how you do it. Theres no immediate threat to the United States of america right now. This was a mess the way it was rolled out. And whether you agree with it or not, there are ways to do things that at least the department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and other people would actually understand what youre trying to accomplish. In this particular regard, as a former executive, this was a mess in terms of how it was rolled out, because no one in the government actually knows how to implement it. Mayor, and that statement is yours. We have no indication that theres anything mentally or physically wrong with the president of the United States. I understand that. Thats your assessment. Carl bernstein the behavior douglas brinkley, i want to you, have we ever seen anything like this, you as an historian, have you witnessed anything close to this or similar to this . Andrew johnson after the lincoln assassination, in the first week, months, were really chaotic. We like to use the word unprecedented. And this is unprecedented behavior for this reason. Donald trump is acting as if he has won a landslide election. Fdr in 1932 did win a landslide. [ inaudible ] Ronald Reagan