Everybody. What more can you tell us about this . You were given this information or permission by the senator or by his family in order to broadcast this . Yes, they with his permission, i spoke to the doctors they ask that i talk to the doctors get the information about what happened. We know that on friday morning he went to the doctors basically for a scheduled annual physical exam. He was complaining a bit of fatigue and said hes been feeling tired over the last few months. He also had a bout of double vision. But because of those things his doctors decided to order a cat scan of his brain. This is all friday this happened. It was that cat scan and an a subsequent mri scan of the vain that revealed this abnormality. It was concerning enough that urgently, within the next couple of hours, the doctors took him to the operating room, they per
performed the incision in the left eyebrow area, removed some intone they believed they removed the entire tumor they could see from the area of the left front of his brain. This is a glee owe blas toe ma. Its the same type of tumor that senator kennedy had, that bo biden had. It is an aggressive type of brain cancer. So Senator Mccain and his family are dealing with the news and trying to decide the next steps in terms of treatment. He is at home, he was able to go home the next day after surgery. He had a rapid recovery. The doctors told me after he woke up from the anesthesia, he was alert, sharp, able to tell you what year it was. He was making jokes with the Recovery Room staff. But again it takes a few days for these diagnoses to come back because the pathologist has to review it and this is what they found. What are the potential next
steps . Well, this is one of those types of tumors that is it doesnt have a particular cure. Theres not a type of treatment you can say is going to likely lead to cure. The types of treatments typically are a combination of che che Chemo Therapy and radiation to his brain. This is a discussion im sure Senator Mccain and his family are going to have with doctors as how to proceed and when to proceed. Just recovering from this operation can take a couple weeks, but to begin this therapy, radiation, chemotherapy. They have to wait three to four weeks until after the operation. He had the operation in arizona, at the mayo clinic there. This is a dumb question, but is this a tumor or is it more than that . This is a tumor. It is a type of brain tumor. Its a tumor that comes from the
brain as opposed to types of tumors that come from somewhere else in the body and spread to his brain. This started in his brain. People were concerned about the melanoma having spread. But this is not a melanoma. This is a malignant cancer. What that means, you operate on this, it needs to be treated as well with chemotherapy and radiation. The concern is it will come back. Thats the big concern with these type of tumors. In order to try to give him the best chance at that, it is likely hell undergo further treatments in the next several weeks. I want you to stay with us. David axle rod is also joining us and gloer ya borjer. This is very devastating news for Senator Mccain and his family. Very tough news to hear for everybody. He was first elected to the
senate in 1986, more than 30 years ago. For the impact he has had, and continues to have, on the senate is not to be overstated. Its remarkable and dont forget he ran for the presidency twice and he told me he once came in second place, which wasnt good enough. You know, john mccain is a fighter. I think we all know that, all of us tonight. And, you know, this is a man who survived fire on the forest, shot out of a plane, would you say tortured, five years in a pow camp, melanoma. Weve been talking to folks close to mccain. Hes been on the phone talking about his statements on health care and continuing to work. If i know john mccain hes going to want to get back to work as soon as possible and want to continue to do what he does best, which is represent the people of arizona. And be the lion that he is in
the United States senate. You covered capitol hill for a long time, talk about the influence Senator Mccain has there and within the republican party. I interviewed him a number of times, he has a great sense of humor and is engaged in not just domestic issues but international. The only people who can call people little jerks and mean that as a term of indeerment, which he does. There is nobody who is the kind of fighter that john mccain is, never mind all the things he went through in vie yet nam, the melanoma he had in 2000, but that hes going constantly. Warp speed always. You mention it had impact he had in the senate, a huge impact. But he has a huge impact
globally. Just this year alone, anderson, 75,000 miles to 15 nations across three continents he logged. I was talking to chris coons who went back to vietnam with john mccain and talked about the fact that chris coons, whos about 30 years younger than john mccain. He had to change his own schedule because he couldnt keep up with mccain. And the way he said mccain is revered by leaders across the country, even especially in vietnam, which was really interesting. B but covering mccain in the senate and i covered his president ial campaign in 2008 from start to finish. He has a Fighter Pilots mentally which is you keep going and keep going. You dont look back, you dont
think about regrets, because we all have them. But you keep going. That is his m. O. Theres no question knowing him and the way he likes to fight and hes probably also telling his joke that is he told on the campaign trail, in the words of chairman mow, its always darkest before its black. Anybody who can survive what he did with his Brothers In Arms he spent years there under excruciating conditions. He is a fighter and he also in so many ways hes one of those politicians that transcends party lines. He does. I spent an hour with him the initial ax files on cnn with john mccain. And to hear him tell the story of his captivity and those very dismal years but the strength he
drew from that experience and the lessons he drew from that experience was incredibly moving. Yes, hes one of those people who has over the last 30 years found a way to Work Across Party Lines on issues like immigration reform, climate change. It didnt always make him popular with the base of the republican party. But even on the health care issues, as he was waiting for this diagnosis, he was issuing statements on Bipartisan Health care. I think thats who john mccain is. When i sat here listening to you and sanjay read that news, discuss that news, i thought of his friend ted kennedy, who eight years ago eight or nine years ago got a diagnosis like this and continued to fight through it, worked through it. But two those worked together on many, many issues. And, in fact, john mccain spoke at ted kennedys memorial
service. There arent that many giants left in the United States senate. John mccain is a giant. We certainly wish him and his family the best tonight. I know there are a lot of people across the country and people hes met All Around The World who are saying a prayer for him. So thank you all. In other words the president weighs in on his Attorney General. He said to the New York Times, youll hear it all next. And while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you choicehotels. Com. Badda book. Thats it . He means book direct at choicehotels. Com for the lowest price on our rooms guaranteed. Plus earn free nights and instant rewards at checkin. Yeah. Like i said. Book now at choicehotels. Com
yet up 90 fall short in getting key nutrients from food alone. Lets do more. Add one a day womens complete with key nutrients we may need. Plus it supports bone health with calcium and vitamin d. One a day womens in gummies and tablets. Yet at what is on the president s mind, the russian probe the man in charnl of it had to recuse himself. The president spoke to the New York Times. The headline only hints at how much news he made. He expresses anger with comey and sessions and mueller. This interview is something. I want to start with what he told you about Attorney General sessions. What did he say . He was clearly frustrated with Jeff Sessions he said that he would not have appointed him if he had known that he would recuse himself from anything russia related. He would have appointed somebody else. We know that donald trump has been angry with Jeff Sessions for quite some time, but it was a pretty remarkable statement for him to make on the record, for him to vent his ooire that y and make clear that he considers what Jeff Sessions did, which was a recusal because he was concerned about a conflict to be
praum problematic he faulted sessions for turning an easy question into a hard one at the Senate Confirmation hearing. Its a sentiment a fair number of critics agree with. He also said that if sessions hadnt recused himself There Wouldnt Have ended up being a Special Counsel, is that right. He did. A couple weeks ago the president s anger with sessions was really at the root of what he was saying had to do with other issues. He believed if sessions had not recused himself from russian there would be no Rod Rosenstein stepping up, no Special Counsel appointed. It is all the original sin from there. He was less about mueller but he was clear that he believed mueller had a number of Conflict Of Interest one of which trump aides talked about for quite some time was that they say that
bob mueller interviewed as interim fbi director the by the way day before he was appointed Special Counsel. They consider that a Mitigating Factor to put it mildly. The president refused to say what he would consider a violation of the charge on the part of bob mueller. He wouldnt answer it. But he believes muellers charge is on russia and he doesnt believe hes under investigation. He doesnt believe he is personally under investigation by bob mueller. Thats what he said. He also had choice words for former fbi director james comey. He did. He said any number of choice words about james comey for some time. But he was very specific that he, you know, believed that comey was trying to essentially get leverage over him with that dossier, making all sorts of wild allegations about President Trump and his appearance in russia in 2013. You know, he as we know, he was not happy with comey for quite some time, long before he actually fired him. There had been some belief that he might fire him immediately upon taking office. But i will say his frustration was less trained on comey than on sessions today. The allegation against comey, this goes back to the meeting when u. S. Intelligence officials at the time briefed then President Elect trump in trump tower and as comey has testified, comey pulled him aside after the meeting and told him about the existence of this dossier or twopage summary of thises dossier, the president saying he believes comey did that to get leverage to keep his job. Essentially comey wanted to keep his job and that was the point in showing it to him. Again, the president feels sort of vindicated as i think you have seen him say publically,
that comey had to acknowledge under oath that he had told the president three times he was under investigation, he said he would not say that publically because it might change. The president doesnt accept that as an answer and was very frustrated that comey wouldnt say it publically. Again, i think his frustration with the dossier continues and this was a piece of that. The white house went after cnn and others who reported that comey had briefed the president about the existence of the dossier and the twopanl summary of the dossier. I remember having a conversation with Kellyanne Conway where they seemed not to know it happened or denied it had happened. So the president is confirming, as has been confirmed already, that it did occur. Its fascinating to hear his perspective why that briefing took place with comey he thinks. And the second conversation with putin he said it lasted only 15 minutes. I have to go back and check the transcript what was said i just raid ead it he said 1 minutes because we have other sources that were there that said about an hour. He was adamant with that time frame, which was consistent with what white house officials said yesterday about this second get together. He was not defining it in his mind as an actual meeting. He told a long and elaborate story about sitting next to japans prime ministers wife. He got up to see his own wife next to putin. They started talking. He did say the topic of russian adoption came up when he was talking to putin at the newer meeting. The topic of russian adoption, as you recall, was supposedly part of the subject of this meeting that the president s son, don junior had with the
russian lawyer on june 9, 2016, one that was ultimately billed as dirt against hillary clinton. So it was surprising that came up, i have no reason to believe that it was anything other than coincidence. But the adoption relates to sanctions. It sounds like he didnt mention it, it be sounds like putin mentioned it. So if putin mentioned it, theyre talking about sanctions. That was my read, but i dont want to get ahead of what the president said in his remarks. How does his demeanor seem . Incredibly upbeat. When i contrast him on Air Force One last week and today with some of what we saw earlier in the administration, for whatever reason, he seems to be in a pretty good place. Fascinating reporting as always. Thank you. Thank you. One other notable item from
the interview, asked if mr. Muellers investigation would cross a red line if it looked at his familys finances. He said, i would say yes. He was asked what he would do, he said listen this is about russia. Your panel is back. Gloria, have you ever heard of a time when the president of the United States says such things about the Attorney General, who he appointed, an oig who wttorn who was one of his earliest supporters, campaigned for him . No, his earliest supporter somebody who was with him every step of the way and i think what you heard in Hearing Maggie and in reading this remarkable piece in the New York Times is that this is a president whos very angry at a lot of people who work for him, i made a list,Jeff Sessions, comey who used to work for him, andrew mccain, Rod Rosenstein, and of course Special Counsel mueller who he is not directly threatening but saying you have a lot of conflicts out there. So this is a list of. Vegrieve enss. Even though he was upbeat in mood, you could hear the grievance in the New York Times piece. I talk to people who talk regularly with the president for months and we were told this is something he will not let go for months, his anger and ire at Jeff Sessions for recusing himself. If you remember, go back to his tweet, one of the first tweets he sent that got him as n big trouble as president it was the saturday morning after Jeff Sessions recused himself where
the president tweeted that President Obama was tapping trump tower. It was donald trump lashing out in furry, you know, maybe pointing his anger in the wrong direction, but that was where all of that came from. From Jeff Sessions recusing himself. And since then, as the president himself has now said in public on the record to the New York Times. So many bad things for him have stemmed from that recusal. Having said all that its one thing to hear about private conversations the president has about his Attorney General and how upset he is, its another thing to throe Jeff Sessions under the bus and then put it in reverse and come back and do it again in the New York Times. This isnt a former Attorney General. This is a sitting oig. The person who he put in charge. And as i you said anderson, a guy who went out on a very big
limb to endorse President Trump. And that gave him credibility with the Republican Base in the campaign. Does this mean that sessions needs to resign or something . I dont think so. Donald trump operates by his own rules. Jeff sessions is the Attorney General. Im going to see on friday hes going to be giving a talk in philadelphia. He will continue pushing for longer Prison Sentences for more civil forfeiture, its a bizarre situation, theres no doubt about that. But he is still the Attorney General, he will continue to do what hes doing, advancing an agenda, which is basically Donald Trumps agenda but just under this weird cloud. I dont think he has to resign. If he had any dignity he would. I think he should resign. First of all, id h