I want to begin tonight with cnns senior political analyst mark preston, Senior AnalystJeffrey Toobin, investigative correspondent for yahoo news and correspondent analyst abbey phillip, White House Press for the Washington Post. Im proud to have all of you in my presence on the show this evening. Especially you, mark preston. Another week in the russia investigation seems to be front and center, President Trump evidently weighing to terminate Robert Mueller from the special investigation . Were going to speak with chris in a moment, by the way. Politically speaking, and i think chris ruddy believes this as well. This would be a mistake of epic proportions. No doubt. In fact, let me read you a comment from senator Lindsey Graham yesterday on cbs face the nation. Speaking of President Trump, he said, you may be the first president in history to go down because you cant stop inappropriately talking about an investigation that if you just were quiet would clear you. Now, that is senator Lindsey Graham talking about trump just tweeting and being involved in an investigation when he should just be quiet. Now, could you imagine if he actually fired the investigator that is investigating him and his campaign and his administration right now for possible russian ties . It might actually be the final straw that would break the camels back and put republicans into the corner where they would have to actually be more aggressive in their investigation of donald trump. As a matter of fact, i cant imagine it. Nothing surprises me now. I was talking to Jeffrey Toobin, by the way, next question for you, but when we came on, i said, can you believe it . How would this even work . To answer that specifically, the regulation that of the appointment of the special counsel, its not the president who can fire him, its the attorney general. And that would be, the president would order the attorney general who is under scrutiny. Presumably who is recused, and then it would be up to Rob Rosenstein if he would fire him or he would quit the way Elliott Richardson and then william ruckle quit after the president told him to fire bob cox in the firehouse massacre. The question would be would anyone in the Justice Department actually follow the orders or would they resign . I have to say, i am less convinced that the Republican Party would abandon donald trump if he did this. The Republican Party here, you know, they are completely unified. Every once in a while, john mccain says, im very concerned, and then hes still voting with them down the line on everything. So i think this is an intensely loyal agendadriven Republican Party, and if he fired comey, i think it would be very bad politically, but im not sure the republicans would really turn on him. I have a reason to believe why thats happening. I think its fairly obvious but lets move on. Abby, a source close to the president telling jim that the president should steer clear of doing Something Like this, but at the end of the day, the president listens to his gut. Anything could happen. When people tell him what to do, he tends to react, oftentimes by doing the opposite. So were in kind of a weird space right now where you have a lot of people trying to gently prod him not to do something that chris ruddy apparently thinks hes thinking about pretty seriously. And with this president you never really know. I think whats really clear, though, is that there are a lot of people in the white house who are increasingly concerned about this. One of the reasons you know, i think there is a lot of reason to believe the republicans are nervous about backing away from trump, but i do think that one of the reasons this would be a last straw is because it is the only hope to get this investigation off of their backs. There is no other option but to allow the special investigator to have this investigation run its course. If they lose that, it really opens them up in a profound way that they have not been opened up to before. Many of these members are going to be up for reelection in a very short amount of time. Were talking less than 12 months here. I think many republicans just want Rod Rosenstein to do what hes going to do and quiet. Abby, when youre saying beyond the investigation, whether the investigation turns up anything or not, there could be nothing there. But politically its bad for republicans if that does happen and bad for this president. Yeah. I mean, even if the investigation turns up absolutely nothing, just the idea of having someone over in a corner who you can say, oh, this guy is handling this investigation, a lot of republicans need that idea, they need to be able to say that to their constituents to they can move past this. Lets talk more about the Republican Party. One in particular and that is the former house speaker, michael, newt gingrich. He said the republicans are delusional if they think the republicans can be fair. Look who hes hiring . Time to rethink. But then this is what he tweeted just a month ago, to Jeffrey Toobins point. Robert mueller is a superb point to be special counsel. His reputation is full of honesty and integrity. The media should calm down. Which is which . Whats changed . Which one should we believe . Remarkable the way things change. I do want to say, don, i think on this show about six weeks ago when mueller was appointed, i raised the possibility that the president might fire him, and i think you kind of dismissed it and said it was impossible, so i just want to state that for the record i was wrong. That its in the mix. If i was there, i would pat you on the back. Go ahead. But look, i mean, it is i can see a scenario where trump does do this. He says theres nothing to this investigation, its a waste of time, its a waste of money, theyve spent months, they havent come up with any evidence of collusion, and its a distraction from my agenda, and he would make his case to the american people, and if the congress doesnt like it, they can impeach me. You know, i dont know that he will do that. It is still highly risky. Rod rosenstein would almost certainly have to resign and that would leave him, President Trump, with almost nobody at the Justice Department. Theres only, like, three confirmed, trumpconfirmed appoint appointees at the Justice Department and you would have a Justice Department completely depleted unable to complete his agenda. Its certainly high risk, but i dont think its completely out of the question. Youre right. It felt like six weeks ago, but it was less than a month ago. In this world it just feels like a long, long time when it hasnt been. It feels like donald trump has been president for three years. Weve been talking about you were saying that Jeff Sessions would have to become involved if he wants to remove the special counselor, but Jeff Sessions is testifying tomorrow. What are you looking for . I dont think sessions would be involved if he wanted to remove him, it would be rod rosenste rosenstein. You know what i look for is for sessions not to answer a lot of questions. I think either he will either cite executive privilege or infect cite executive privilege. You know, the congress does not have a lot of options with witnesses who refuse to answer questions. You know, theoretically they could find someone in contempt and then go to court, but you cant do that the day of the testimony. So they really are at the mercy of sessions. Sessions is certainly going to have to answer questions about why he didnt tell the full truth about his meetings with russians. I mean, hes acknowledged that he didnt disclose those. But hell have some explanation that it was an oversight or it was in his senatorial duties. But in terms of his conversations with the president about the firing of comey, i anticipate that there will be pretty much a stone wall. Maybe others disagree with me. I want to ask mark about that because we saw it in coats and rogers with their appearance. They didnt answer a lot of questions and Jeffrey Toobin saying hell probably invoke executive privilege. Do you think well learn much from sessions tomorrow, mark . We did see rogers on capitol hill. He did meet with the Intelligence Committee behind closed doors. I do think jeff is correct. There are areas where Jeff Sessions will absolutely not go into tomorrow. I dont think he will try to use the word executive privilege if he can get away without using it. Much like we saw from the two intelligence chiefs when they were on capitol hill. But i think when push comes to shove, he will, in fact, invoke executive privilege. I also think one thing to look for tomorrow, there has been a lot of speculation that donald trump was very upset with Jeff Sessions, in fact, was so angry at him that sessions in turn offered his resignation, which was not accepted. Tomorrow will we see Jeff Sessions, while appearing to be loyal, also try to salvage his reputation which has been dragged through gutter a little bit. Look for that tomorrow, and then you can see if those on the inner circle, are the knives turned inward on trump at all. Thank you, all. Michael, again, you were right. Appreciate it. When we come back, a pretty strange Cabinet Meeting. President trump first boasting about his term so far. I will say that never has there been a president , with few exceptions in the case of fdr, he had a major depression to handle who has passed more legislation. Is that true . And then he invited his cabinet members to do the same. Were going to show you what they said, next. Award winning interface. Award winning design. 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Get a portfolio that works for you now and as your needs change with Investment Management services. The president holding his first full Cabinet Meeting today. Cabinet members going around the table offering mr. Trump gushing praise. Mr. President , thank you for the honor to serve the country. Its a great privilege youve given me. Mr. President , an honor to be on the team. I want to thank you for getting this country moving again and also working again. I cant thank you enough for the privilege youve given me and the kinship that youve shown. I want to thank you for keeping your commitment to the american workers. Its been an honor to be able to serve you. On behalf of the senior staff around you, mr. President , we thank you for the opportunity and the blessing youve given us to serve your agenda and the american people. Dont laugh, don, ive seen you with your staff. Thats exactly what its like around the don lemon show. I feel bad. Come on, seriously. It looked like north korea. The way, you know, the dear leader. Didnt it seem like north korea to you . It just seems really odd. Ive worked for a lot of bosses, and never have i seen any group of people or team put in a position like that. It just strikes me as weird. Michael jackson, what do you think . First of all, its such an honor and privilege to be on your show, don, that i cant thank you enough. Look, its bizarre, but obviously the president feels like hes not getting the appreciation he deserves, and so if he cant get it from congress or the news media, hes getting it from his immediate staff. But beyond that, i dont know what to make of it. Heres what one cabinet member, he took a different route. Watch this. Mr. President , its an honor to represent the men and women of the department of defense, and we are grateful for the sacrifices our people are making in order to strengthen our military and can always negotiate from a position of strength. Mark preston, that was probably a better route, right, choose to go praise the troops . Yet again, general mattis has shown that he really is the grownup in the room, certainly in the administration wh. When his name was being floated for that position to oversee the department of defense, there was a big sigh of relief on capitol hill and i think throughout washington, throughout the country. Someone who understands what his mission is and really was always known as a soldiers general, somebody who looked out for them. Don, just to the point of what we saw there from President Trump, in many ways, and we havent said this yet, it seems like its humiliating, because those people around that table were all very accomplished people, whether in private life in business or whether in politics, and to sit there and to affirm President Trump is just outrageous. More accomplished than the man who is actually president. Thats why i said it just seemed really sad. Abby, one person who consistently praises President Trump is the Vice President. He does it a lot. Take a look at this. Well, its the greatest honor of my life to stand shoulder to shoulder with donald trump. Today, thanks to the perseverance, the determination and the leadership of President Donald Trump the greatest honor of my life is to serve as Vice President to the 45th president of the United States of america, President Donald Trump. What you saw two days ago is what i see every single day. A leader with broad shoulders and a big heart. A believer. Greatest privilege of my life. Is to serve as Vice President to a president keeping his word to the american people. Is this just a job of Vice President . Do all Vice President s do that . To a certain extent, but mike pence is like a jedi master at praising President Trump. Hes really, really good at it and thats one of the reasons he has the job that he has. One of the funny things i thought about that whole moment earlier today was that mike pence actually kicked off that whole tableful of celebration of trump, so anybody who came after mike pence, it would have been really hard to sort of go a different route with it when pence, you know, starts off by saying its the greatest privilege of my life. Everybody else has to kind of follow suit. But, you know, this is one of the reasons that people who know mike pence, his loyalty to trump, his willingness to defer to trump at all costs is one of the reasons why he remains in the room, one of the reasons why they actually are pretty close, and despite many, many difficult moments in this administration, mike pence has always been pretty consistent in saying the things that he said today and pretty much every other day of the week. You know, don, because i have no life, i actually watched the whole thing. You cannot believe how long it goes on. I mean, thats the thing, we just showed bits and pieces here. But this festival of praise, it just goes on and on. Its much more bizarre when you see it all together. So much so you sort of dont believe it, right . It looks like a parody of something. Speaking of parody, this is chuck schumer. Watch this. I want to thank everybody for coming. I just thought we would go around the room. Lucy, how did we do on the sunday show yesterday . Your tone was perfect. You were right on message. Michelle, how did my hair look coming out of the gym this morning . You have great hair. Nobody has better hair than you. Before we go further, i just want to say thank you for the opportunity and blessing to serve your agenda. The only difference there, abby, seriously is that they laughed at the end. There is no difference if you play both of the videos back to back. Its just that the Schumer Grou