A purge. Jessica schneider has been working on this. What are you learning . The president has phoned two u. S. Attorneys tonight telling them hes declining to accept their resignation. Those are the two acting Deputy Attorney general dana bente and rod rosenstein, up for Deputy Attorney general. We saw his confirmation hearings this week. As for the firings of the other 44, those came swiftly and abruptly. The people i talked with said they were flabbergasted this happen sod suddenly, no notice. It is normani for a president to want his own u. S. Attorney appointees but in this case the remaining 44 u. S. Attorneys who had been appointed by president obama, they had no notice and some like you mentioned found out through media reports. Others just from a department of Justice Press release. One source saying this could not have been handled any worse. Another one saying you dont just tell people to clean out their desks effective at midnight tonight, especially since some of those u. S. Attorneys are traveling right now. Of course, john, you did mention that rightwing talk show host calling for the purge. That was actually sean hannity last night saying in his words its time now for the president to fire anyone and everyone who is actively working against him. Sean hannity even cited the fact bill clinton fired 93 u. S. Attorneys when he took office, but tonight people are noting that those u. S. Attorneys got a lot more notice than this time around. I did talk to a previous u. S. Attorney who said that, you know, when president obama came in, he was given eight months notice and he se this is just bad for morale at the department of justice. Joining us is matthew axelrod, served as a deputy to acting attorney general general sally yates before she was fired. Matt, your reaction to this news and how it was handled. Both surprising and disappointing. Itis not unusual the president would want his own appointees in mace and thats typical and u. S. Attorneys are typically asked to resign at some point in time. Whats so unusual here is the timing and that people were asked to resign by the end of the day. A lot of these women and men have been in department for 20 or 30 years and thats how their service is ending, being told to go by the end of the day. Thats whats so surprising. I appreciate it may be difficult for these people and their staffs, but in the end, is this more than anything than just about feelings if they all knew this was coming eventually . It is. These are the chief federal Law Enforcement officers in their districts and spent years building relationship with state and local Law Enforcement leaders, other federal Law Enforcement agency heads in their districts and those relationships are very important and important to the mission of the department of justice. Those relationships take time to transition and that time has been deprived because of the u. S. Attorneys were asked to go by the end of the day. What needs to happen in this transition from one u. S. Attorney to another . Typically there would be meetings with Law Enforcement leaders so the outgoing u. S. Attorney could introtus the leaders to the incoming u. S. Attorney who usually is and in this case will be career Law Enforcement professionals who are working in the office. Their work is mostly e internally focused whereas the u. S. Attorney has been the public face of the office and working externally. Those transitions are very important. Have you had a chance to talk to any of your former coworkers, these u. S. Attorneys . Are they literally told to get a box and be out of the office by the end of the day . I have had an opportunity to speak with some of them. These are apolitical people, the chief federal Law Enforcement officers in their districts, many serving for 20 years, 30 years, through democratic and Republican Administrations alike. They are not ideologues. They are on the front lines every day prosecuting terrorists and child pornographers and violent criminals. I dont think they were told to get a box and p be out by the end of the day but they were told today would be their last day. Do they blame sean hannity for bringing it up yesterday and having it happen today . I think people are at a loss to understand why it hammed today. This actually was an issue that was discussed with the during the transition and the Transition Team made a recommendation to the white house to keep the u. S. Attorneys on for some period of time to allow for an orderly transition. I think people are just uncertain as to what changed so that now it happened in the manner that it did. Matt axelrod, thanks for being with us. Appreciate the discussion. Lets bring in our panel. Jason miller. Maggie haifrman who had the story of these firings first. Kayleigh mcenany is here. Kirsten powers is with us as well. Also former South Carolina democratic legislator bakari sellers. Maggie, you broke the story. Exactly whats the controversy here if there is a controversy and is it fair . Every president gets to clean house. They dont all do it in the same way but they get to put in their own people and that is always the case. What was unusual again as we said earlier was the abrupt nature of how this took place. All done in sort of personal phone calls throughout the day, on a friday, and be out by the end of the day, clean out your desk by the end of the day. This one that is most interesting and not much attention outside new york but a big story in new york is the Senate DistrictUnited States attorney who oversees a ton of Corruption Cases including ones involving governor cuomo, big de blasio and who met personally with then president elect donald trump who asked him to stay on. He told reporters he agreed to stay on. Jeff sessions had also asked him to. Thats the one that was the most surprising because hes not being exempted in this request for a resignation. What that means for those cases remains to be seen and in terms of the timing of why they did it now, ive heard from two white house officials who said theyve been planning on this for a long time. But that as haufen been the case with the Trump Administration it was not rolled out in a very smooth way. Ferrara told he was going to stay on and . As we often see with this president , hell Say Something and Something Different happens. As we often see with him, he watches cable news of all varieties. We know he watches sean hannity, hes friends with sean hannity. It doesnt feel like a coincidence that hannity yesterday calls for a purge inside the Justice Department and today there is one. This would have surprised mae little bit, certainly as you talked about in the leadin, its up to every president. They want to replace folks and put in who they want in that position. Certainly whether its at the u. S. Attorney level, whether were talking ambassadors, the president should be able to put his own people in. But today on friday, the only thing we should be talking about are 235,000 jobs, great jobs announcement. I felt it was stepped on. A little bit of a head scratcher. I know the president s probably in my opinion one of the greatest geniuses of anyone out there. It really surprised me this came out today and they moved like this. Kirsten powers, a former Trump Communications guy, says that the Trump White House just bungled the communications on this. Is that fair . I guess, unless they wanted to do it on a friday and so they figured something they didnt want to necessarily get a lot of attention and typically thats when you do Something Like this. So it could be that they thought by monday this story will be over. I think that, you know, i went back and looked at what republicans said when bill clinton did this. He actually fired all 93. And they called it extreme and unprecedented. The reason there werent 93 today is so many had already left. It would have been 93 probably. Extreme and unprecedented when bill clinton did it and they were actually given time and people were held over until you had people to come in and take over for them. Whats unusual about this is there are ongoing investigations that people are handling and if theyre being told to clean out their desk and leave then these investigations are just being left, you know, in the middle of them with nobody for them to transition them to a new person. That is extreme. There are legal considerations. Theres no reason for it. Kayleigh, what about that . Weve seen these transitions before and they dont have to be this. As kristen mentioned, bill clinton fired 93, reagan fired 89. This is not unusual. People are saying its uns predented the way trump did it. Whats also unprecedented and unusual is this administration is being beset by latin americas. Every day we get a new story leaking confidential information, people committing felonies, leaking informs about fisa warrants potentially, all sorts of information. Thats unusual. Thats unprecedented. I frankly am glad donald trump took Sean Hannitys advice or anyone elses, i dont care where it came from, communicationswise jason might be right, maybe not the right way to to it but substantively speaking, getting rid of people who are leaking left and right, obama holdout sas very smart move. To be clear, President Trump himself sort of leaked the idea of fisa warrants. President trump himself is the one who very publicly said he was being wiretapped right there. So its not just leakers inside who are fomenting this. But kary, bill clinton did fire 93 u. S. Attorneys. He did. This does happen. Yeah. I dont think i think politically speaking its not that big of a story because its something that has happened, just to contradict my friend, kag leigh, slightly, the calls, the leaks, the sources are coming from within the house. And i dont think theyre coming from these dedicated Public Servants who are now United States attorney s. This political jousting has been going on for a long period of time. Myself, for example, i was hoping to be one of the people considered to be the next United States attorney from South Carolina. I dont think im going to get the phone call for this president. However, i do understand that jousting has been going on for a long period of time. I currently work for a former United States attorney, so i know this on its face is not that big of a story. But what keirsten was talking about is the problem is the problem with this Trump White House. It goes to Michael Flynn, goes to a lot of things. The Transition Team, it was horrible. With all due respect to my friend jason who was on the Transition Team at that time, they failed to do their job and do it adequately. Now you get to a point you have cases which are open and people leaving today. We have these day to day line attorneys that work every single day to make these cases on behalf of the federal government. And yes, they are trying to prosecute terrorism and, yes, they are trying to prosecute child Sexual Conduct, children Sexual Conduct and exploitations. Now theyre left without any guide, any direction whatsoever . You have highprofile cases not just right here in new york, but throughout the country that are going on that these United States attorneys are leading that now they have no home. All right. Well find out perhaps in next few days what the Justice Department intend to do. Next, late word on the president s wiretap allegations. We were just talking about them. 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Holding you back break through your allergies. Introducing Flonase Sensimist. More complete allergy relief in a gentle mist you may not even notice. Using unique mistpro technology, new Flonase Sensimist delivers a gentle mist to help block six key inflammatory substances that cause your symptoms. Most allergy pills only block one. And six is greater than one. Break through your allergies. New Flonase Sensimist. Oh the things you say oh youre unbelievab e youre unbelievab e lawmakers have said they see no evidence of supposed wiretapping. Tonight a white house source tells us the president has not spoke on the fbi director james comey about this or anything all week. Also today another Michael Flynn eruption. He was working as a Foreign Agent for another country during the campaign and getting paid for it. Bigleague and bigly. There are questions tonight about what that white house new back then and later what he was vetted, if you could call it that at this point for the National Security job. More from cnns jeff zeleny. Reporter was President Trump aware his first National Security adviser adviser, general Michael Flynn, was registered as a Foreign Agent to represent the government of turkey . So were clear, general flynn filed with the department of justice two days ago. Reporter sean spicer said his lobbying business was private and took place before he joined the administration. Although at the same time he was advising the Trump Campaign last year. That is not up for the government to determine. There are certain private citizens activities you conduct and you seek counsel on or professional advice. Reporter flynns contract with the government of turkey ended after the election. Spicer dismissed a series of questions about the lobbying disclosure. No, no, no. The person who was in line to be the National Security adviser may need to register as a Foreign Agent. If that doesnt raise a red flag its not a question of raising a red flag, john. Its a question of whether or not they gave him the advice theyre supposed to. On day 50 of the trump presidency, this was the latest distraction at the white house. Its been a full week now since President Trump leveled the explosive accusation that President Trump was spying on him at trump tower, but again today still no evidence. Thank you all very much. Were fwing to get to work. Reporter asked three times, the president wouldnt say whether he had any proof to back up his unsubstantiated charges. White house is focusing on health care. Thats what people want, repeal and replace. Reporter yet washington is consumed by russia and the widening investigation into any connections between the Trump Campaign and russian operatives. The congressional probe includes allegations of president ial wiretapping which no one seems to know about but mr. Trump. Adam schiff, the top democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told cnns manu raju today hes seen no evidence but suppose the question will come up when James Comey Testifies on capitol hill later this month. Hes certainly prepared for the question and i dont see any reason why he cant answer it. He may even welcome the opportunity. Reporter chairman devin nunez echoed hi comment from earlier this week he had not seen any proof to back up the president s claims. We want to find that out but at this point i dont have anything to tell you. Jeff zeleny, were learning about a deadline to produce evidence, arent we. We are indeed. The House Intelligence Committee has given the department of justice a deadline. They say by next week on monday they want any relevant information on this wiretapping allegations. Now, so far as you said, no one has said that they have seen anything, not a democrat, not a republican, no one here at the white house except the president , but he hasnt talked about it. They are giving hem a deadline on monday. This is all building toward that first hearing on march 20th, a week from monday. Fbi director james comey one of the first witnesses to be called. The question is how much will he say. Jeff zeleny, thanks for being with us. Pack with the panel. Jason miller, fbi director james comey, the president hasnt spoken to him this week about this or anything. Does that seem odd to you . No, i