No shortage of breaking news, surrounding the russia investigation, the president weighing the possibility of firing mueller. I think he is considering perhaps terminating the special counsel. I think he is weighing that option. I think its pretty clear by what one of his lawyers said on television recently. I personally think it would be a very significant mistake. Even though i dont think theres a justification and even though here you have a situation you dont think theres a justification . For a special counsel. Robert mueller, theres some real conflict. He comes from a law firm that represent members of the trump family. He interviewed the day before a few days before he was aspo t appointed with the president looking at him to become the next fbi director. Its true. I think it would be strange that he would have a confidential conversation and then a few days later become the prosecutor of the person he may be investigating. I think that mueller should have not taken the position if he was under consideration and had a private meeting with the president and was privy maybe to some of his thoughts about that investigation or other matters before the bureau. Christopher rud ruddy earlie today. Had the white house had anything to say about the comments . They have. In the last hour, the Deputy Press Secretary put out a brief statement saying that chris speaks for himself. And then a separate statement from white house officials thereafter saying that chris ruddy did not meet with the president before making these comments. I know because i saw chris myself over here at the white house earlier this afternoon that he was here on the white house grounds and he was inside the west wing earlier today. I have talked to a source close to the president who says that the president is being counseled by, quote, many people not to fire Robert Mueller. So this appears to be something thats being deliberated inside the white house and among the people around the president. If he is being counseled not do it, it means theres discussions about whether or not to do it. Absolutely. It would be a dramatic move. It would be something we have not really seen, a constitutional crisis that we have not seen since the watergate era. Because there are questions as to whether the president could fire the special prosecutor. I was talking to an exert who said it is a murky area. We havent we havent had a lot of test cases in this department. Very quickly, did the white house have anything to say about sessions testimony tomorrow . Yes. Sean spicer was asked about it. He said its unclear whether the administration will exert executive privilege and attempt to block Jeff Sessions from answering questions. That sets up a scenario like we saw last week where the director of National Intelligence was just refusing to answer some questions because he was awaiting guidance from the administration. So you could have a situation tomorrow where Jeff Sessions is being asked all sorts of very important relevant questions and is not giving a lot of answers that will be to any kind of satisfaction to those senators up on capitol hill. It will be something to watch. I would imagine if this mueller thing is reaching his level that Jeff Sessions will be asked about that as well. Jim acosta, thanks. Adam schiff weighed in with a warning to the president. If president fired bob mule he congress would reestablish independent counsel and appoint bob mueller. Dont waste our time. Congressman, do you think the president is seriously considering this . Could this be a trial balloon . You hear the white house statement from Sarah Huckabee sanders saying chris speaks for himself. Thats not saying the president isnt considering this. Just saying chris speaks for himself. You know, its hard to figure out whether its a trial balloon or the president just expressing that he would like to get rid of this guy just the way he wanted to get rid of james comey. You have to hope that common sense will reveprevail. It would be astonishing were he to entertain this. The echos of watergate are getting louder. If he were to order Jeff Sessions, who has supposed to have recused himself to fire this guy, i would hope Jeff Sessions would resign before he would agree to that. And Rod Rosenstein i would hope would resign before he would give affect to that instruction. If the president goes through this somehow congress will have to step up to the plate, reestablish the independent counsel law that has expired so he can be appointed. Were not going to let the president choose who conducts this investigation. Playing it through, if the president did decide this is what he wanted, wouldnt this is something that the attorney general is supposed to do. Its not something the president is supposed to do. Attorney general sessions because he recused himself, wouldnt he have to recuse himself from that decision . Wouldnt it automatically go to Rod Rosenstein . It should. But then again, attorney general sessions should have had nothing to do with the firing of james comey and yet he did. The recusal isnt worth that much. If you are making decisions and you recommend firing the top investigator in the russia case, that recusal doesnt amount to a whole lot. I think you are right. I would hope you are right that Jeff Sessions would tell the president , number one, this is a bad idea, number two, i recused myself and number three, if you make me do this, i will quit. It would fall to Rod Rosenstein. Having spoken so highly of mueller and republicans and democrats think highly of mueller, is also not going to acquiesce to this further interference in the russia investigation. He appointed the got the special counsel just recently. You said congress would just step in if this was done, congress would reestablish the independent counsel statute. Are you confident republicans would go along with that . I think the pressure on republicans would be even too much for them to resist. I hope it doesnt come to that, were tested this way. I hope im not wrong about this. At some point, republicans have to stand up and speak and act in favor of our system of checks and balances. If they were not to do it here, i dont know how they could go back home and look their constituents in the eye. Congressman schiff, i appreciate your time. Thank you very much. More on the growing complaints about Robert Mueller. The controversy involves the team he assembled. What about it . What were learning is that members of the legal team known to have been hired by special Counsel Robert Mueller to handle the russia investigation, they have given political donations almost exclusively to democrats. Thats according to a cnn analysis of the federal Election Commission records. Here is the breakdown. More than half of the nearly 60,000 it came from one lawyer. You can see there. More than half of that amount was donated before the 2016 election. Two of the lawyers gave the maximum 2700 donation to Hillary Clinton last year. We should note there was no record of special Counsel Robert Mueller himself making any donations. James quarles, he started as an assistant special prosecutor in water tlt ga watergate. He donated more than 30,000 to democrats. But as you will note, he recently he has forked over 2700 to republican candidates. Jeannie rhee maxed out. The others, they stopped donating in 2008 and 2006 respectively. Didnt donate this election cycle. We did reach out to a spokesman for Robert Mueller. He had no comment when cnn asked about the donations and any criticism it might invite that theres bias in this investigation. Whats been reaction among President Trumps allies . Former House Speaker newt gingrich, he has come out forcefully on this. He tweeted early this morning. Look at this. Republicans are delusional if they think the special counsel is going to be fair. Look at who he is hiring. Check fec reports. Time to rethink. Its notable it was just last month on may 17th when gingrich tweeted a different tune saying Robert Mueller is a superb choice. His reputation is impeccable for hon he integrity. Media should calm down. Even with the krit sichcriticis muellers team, kenneth star, he said he has confidence in the team. He said they are professionals. He stressed about mueller, quote, lets let him do his job. Appreciate the update. Bring in the panel. David, let me start with you. The response from the white house on this idea of getting rid of mueller is chris is his own chris speaks for himself, which is not saying the president hasnt considered this or is considering this. It season. Its a nondenial there. It would suggest that the subject has come up. Everything we have heard tonight suggests that most people who the president may have heard from on this, and certainly the ones he will hear from, are going to explain its a bad idea, that historically it has resonance of the saturday night massacre. Even chris ruddy was saying he didnt think it was a good idea. Thats right. That raised a couple possibilities. One, trial balloon. Second, warning to mueller that this is under way. I doubt mueller doesnt strike me as the type who intimidates easily. But could be. Third possibility is that the president really is not attune to what the reaction might be or might be trying to figure that out. Congressman schiff may be right that it would result in Congress Acting to put together again the special prosecutor law that congress itself let lapse. Im not certain that thats right. It could well be that they will say it shouldnt have happened but putting a law back together is too difficult. You worked at the fbi, do you think this would intimidate Robert Mueller . Not the mueller i know. I worked under mueller. I didnt work for him personally. He is a man who i dont think bends to political winds. I will point out that he was appointed by george bush and he also was the head of the fbi and the investigation in the valerie plain leak. This is someone who is able to i think be unbiased and objective and has proven that and is the longest serving director of the fbi after j. Edgar hoover. Would you advise him to fire Robert Mueller . I wouldnt at all. I dont think director mueller he is a decorated combat veteran from vietnam. A marine corps officer. I dont think he is the type that wilts easily. I will go back to a point that was raised earlier by Jeffrey Toobin there on the panel about conflicts, whether or not director mueller has conflicts in his law firm or whether he has conflicts because of his close personal relationship with director comey. They have been friends for over 15 years. Comey is a star witness here. They have been very, very close allies, battle buddies. I dont know what the terminology has been used in the past. There may be a conflict there. As well as the poor optics of hiring attorneys who work on this investigation who have given who are partisan. Given no money to republicans and huge amounts of money to democrats. Jeff toobin, what about that . I think particularly two of those prosecutors, Michael Dreeben is perhaps the finest appellate lawyer in america when it c it comes to criminal law. He has argued Something Like 100 cases before the supreme court. The justices lean forward when this guy argues. He is a legend. Andrew weisman was also the head of the enron prosecution team. These people have impeccable credentials. Bad optics though. You know, the star investigation had a bunch of people who gave money to republicans. I just think lets just let these people do their investigation. He hasnt finished hiring. Presumably he will hire our people. These people are a lot bigger than Single Campaign contributions that they gave ten years ago. Its interesting, chris ruddy made a point arguing along your lines but in a different way. He was saying he believed mueller had some conflict because he was being had had an interview with President Trump, he was being considered for a job prior to being appointed as special counsel and his law firm muellers law firm, according to ruddy has represented members of the trump family. He thought perhaps he had been privy to information or the thinking of the president that might that should disqualify him. Im not sure about that. But on this network we heard this week the former assistant director of the fbi for the Criminal Division say that upon one of the first or second meetings that director comey had with the president where he felt uncomfortable or whatever word he used to scribble down, that he should immediately recuse himself because he became a part of the investigation at that point. What im saying and im asking jeffrey is just out loud is does director mueller have a conflict because of his close personal relationship with the star witness in this investigation . Jeff . I dont think so. He is the director of the fbi. Thats how he got this job. Both of them were directors of the fbi. I just dont think that represents a conflict. Sure they know each other. A lot of people who Work Together in washington know each other. I think more of a mentor, mentee relationship. I agree with jeffrey and everyone else and david. This would increase the level of this crisis by 100 fold. Every Single Member of congress, republican and democrat, said at the time of muellers appointment, this is what we need, this is the impartial guy. You saw Newt Gingrichs tweet. I think whats happening now is because precisely because he is hiring these very, very high powered prosecutors that jeffrey talks about, theres a sense of nervousness and foreboding about where this might go. So theres a strategy now afoot to try and sully the investigation as political and to turn it into a republican democrat think. I think its very hard to do with a guy like bob mueller. Its classic donald trump and his team. He is too close to trump, he cant be special counsel. He is too close to hillary and democrats. He cant be special counsel. They know that this guy is going to run a top notch, ethical investigation with some of the top lawyers in the country. Theyre frightened of that. Theyre going to crush to try to discredit. When you hear that statement from Sarah Huckabee sanders saying chris ruddy speaks for himself, is that a nondenial denial . Yes. But at the say the time, remember last week when she said you cant take what the president says with his tweets seriously. Then sean spicer comes in saying its official. We have to wait and see how this all plays out. At the end of the day, this president is going to speak for himself no matter who stands before him and talk to him sense about what this could actually do to the democracy and what it could do to his party, what it could do to the country. Well have to see what the president says. Im sure chris ruddy made his points known to the president. Its ultimately up to the president. Did donald trump junior let a comeysize cat out of the bag . What a big court case from President Trumps past. Award winning interface. Award winning design. Award winning engine. The volvo xc90. The most awarded luxury suv of the century. Visit your volvo dealer to take advantage of our midsommar sales event offer. Thit stood up to 1s allhandsondeck summer,age rain, hail, shine, and family gatherings galore. Behr premium semitransparent number one rated stain. Rich, lasting color that weathers it all. Only at the home depot. Hes told that joke a million times. And you always laugh like youre hearing it for the first time. At lincoln financial, we get there are some responsibilities of love you gotta do on your own. And some you shouldnt have to shoulder alone. Like ensuring hes welltaken care of. Even as you build your own plans for retirement. Ask a Financial Advisor how lincoln can help protect your savings from the impact of longterm care expenses. The whole country booking on Choice Hotels. Com. Four words, badda book. Badda boom. Let it sink in. Shouldnt we say we have the lowest price . Nope, badda book. Badda boom. Have you ever stayed with Choice Hotels . Like at a comfort inn . Yep. Free waffles, cant go wrong. I like it. Promote that guy. Get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed. When you book direct at choicehotels. Com. Book now. The president says it would not have been wrong to tell james comey that he hoped the fbi would lay off michael flynn. He denies saying it. However, donald junior perhaps accidentally contradicted his father. When he tells you to do something, guess what, theres no ambiguity in it. Theres no, hey, im hoping. You and i are friends, i hope this happens but you have do your job. For this guy as a politician to go back and write a memo, he felt so threatened, but he didnt do anything. Back now with the panel. David, it does seem like the president s son is contradicting his father, President Trump said he didnt say i hope you can let this go about flynn. Only two people were in the room, the president and director comey. As i have said before on your show anderson and other types, if director comey felt so uncomfortable, i think he should have said to the president , mr. President , this is a completely inappropriate discussion for you and i have to be having. I dont feel comfortable about it. The president would have asked him why. He could have explained it. Is this just a mistake by donald trump junior . He was tweeting all during the comey thing. He was listening to that very carefully. I believe its a mistake. He misspoke. I have not spoken to him. I believe its a mistake. Does donald trump juniors explanation make sense . Let me say what it says to me is he is a chip off the old block.