Here. Its a new day, and a new chair and i have the gavel at this point. If you wish to leave, you may. When it the republicans they did not treat the secretary of the treasury this way. So if this is it the way you want to treat me, then ill rethink whether i voluntarily come back there testify, which ive offered to do. Mr. Secretary, i want you to know that no other secretary has ever told us the day before that they were going to limit their time in the way that youre doing. So if you want to use them as examples, you have acted differently than they have acted and as i have said, if you wish to leave, you may. If youd wish to keep me here so that i dont have my important meeting and continue to grill me, then we can do that. I wilg cancel my meeting and i will not be back here. Ill be clear if thats the way youd like the have this relationship. Thank you. The gentleman has agreed to stay. Please cancel your meeting and respect our time. My foroen meeting. Youre instructing me to stay here. No, you just made me an offer. You made me an offer i accepted. Lets be clear. Youre ordering me to stay here. No, im not ordering you. I said you may leave anytime you want and you said okay. If thats what you want to do, ill cancel my appoint oment and ill stay here. So im responding to your request. Thats not what i want to do. What would you like the do . I thought it was respectful you would let me leave at 5 15. You can go anytime you want. Please dismiss everybody. Please do not instruct me on how im to can conduct this can committee. He wasnt ready. That may not be the last time we see fireworks on capitol hill, especially with the Mueller Report due within the week. I want to bring in democratic congressman mike quickly. Got hammered for his handling oenough Mueller Report so far. Do you think he understands or cares about the criticism hes getting . Absolutely not. I think he applied for the job by writing a mem obeysically outlining how the theory of law that would allow him to believe there was obstruction was unfounded in this case. So he was hired to exonerate the president , no matter what the it report said as it relates to obstruction. And he was hired to keep as much of this report hidden from the American Public and as much as he possibly can hidden from congress. So hes doing his job. Nobody can in congress can fire him. So i dont expect him to change his path. Adam schiff told cnn that barr was acting like the president roy cone, that he was betraying his pledge to be transparent. You agree with that . Absolutely. But i dont think thats his purpose. I dont think thats what he has in mind. I think theres other parallels to people in previous administrations. They all have their moments in history. This one i think infamously, unfortunately its going to be very difficult for us to get the full report and underlying information, which is critical. More about congressman schiff now. He says he requested counterintelligence information gathered by the special counsel. It may or may not be part of the Mueller Report. Its important to learn whether hes compromised. Should they go to court if they have to . Absolutely. This began as a counterintelligence investigation, questioning whether the president of the United States was compromised. I think theres a lot of evidence he was. I think the seconds part of getting all the information was to found a out where all the gaps are, such as money laundering. A lot of Deutsche Bank money laundering. We also know they were the only bank willing to finance trump operation for a decade up until he became poz of the United States. Theres a lot of information that may not have been relevant to the decision as to who to bring to just thoos special counsel. But it can be particularly valuable to the house and Senate Investigators dedetermining whether the president is compromised. Barr refused to answer whether the white house has seen the Mueller Report. When asked by represent crisp if anyone other than the doj reviewed the summary letter, he at first said he didnt recall and then clarified. I checked with my staff and told just before the letters were out o, after they were finalized and before they go out, we did advise the White House Counsels Office that the letters were being sent. But they were not allowed or even asked to make any changes to the letters. We notified them before we issued them. Mr. Crisp, im sure would have asked you. Did they get to see the letter . They did not get to see the letter. Does that raise concerns to you of coordination with the white house . Ive seen coordination with the white house since this investigation began. My concern is power corrupts absolutely. I dont think my republican colleagues in congress appreciate that. Theyve worked hand in glove as special counsel to the president , protecting him politically and legally. President has surrounded himself with people who dont understand the importance of the independence of the Justice Department or for that matter the independence of the integrity of the intelligence community. The far ranging damage this president has done to the reputation and independence of both of those entities is extraordinary and extraordinarily damaging. Listen, it was a really unexpected answer he gave when asked why he didnt include any of the sumries already prepared. Basically he didnt want to give too much or too little information. Does that seem like a credible answer to you . No. He should rethrelease the full report to congress. My committee of intelligence gets the most sensitive, classified information on ang ongoing basis. Information and frankly we need do it to complete our part of the investigation. So look, mr. Barrs out to the protect the president. And mr. Barr said he tried to include as much of muellers words as he could but they didnt include a single full sentence from had it report. All hes to the do is release the report. He has a hard time saying the president s been exonerated and not releasing a single sentence from had it report. I believe hes following orders. I dont know when these were given to him, but its clear the job wasnt to act as it the independent attorney general. Thank you for your time. Anytime. Thank you. Now lets turn to more on the attorney generals time today, dodging a whole lot of questions about the Mueller Report. Thank you so much. An eventful day again. I want to break down the big question. But first barr would not say whether he spoke to the white house about muellers report. Did the white house see the report before you released your summarizing letter . Has the white house seen it since then . Have they been briefed on the contents beyond what was in your summarizing letter to the Judiciary Committee . Um, ive said what im going to say about the report today. Ive issued three letters about it. Im not going to say anything more about it until the report is out and everyone has a chance to look at it. Why would barr choose not to answer that question . I dont know. He can explain if they saw it or didnt. William barr is undoubtedly a very smart, experienced, savvy attorney but not much of a witness when hes the one getting asked questions. When he wanted to answer something, he knew the answer and didnt feel it made him or the president look bad, hes give a direct, clear answer. When it was like that, we saw a tap dance routine break out and by the way, if he did run it by the white house, thats not crime. It looks bad politically and exposes bias, which i think is coming out more and more on william barr, but to just say im not going to answer that anymore, why not . You answered questions for three and a half hours but im not answering that . It was a multipart question and i think the concern is if he started to answer some parts, then the question would be so if you talked to the white house, when did you enthusiastic white house . Who did you talk to at the white house . What did you say . What did they say . And i think his point is look,ilook, im doing my work with, trying to do it fast and im trying to get information out to the public. Those are logical followup questions. Im doing all the work, im going to get the information to the public and then we can talk about it and then ill answer questions about it. That was one of the most suspicious things i heard. Just say yes, no i didnt show it to them in the beginning. But since i released the letter, i spoke to such and such about it. I share this concern, voice this concern about William Barrs impartiality. He said before he was attorney general that the obstruction theory was fatally misconceived and told the New York Times he referenced what he called quote socalled collusion with the socalled sarcastic eye roll. That was before he was a. G. We knew that. But look at what hes done since takes a an almost 400page report, boils it down to four page where he selects snippets and he, on his own, clears the president of obstruction. Theres a pattern. So in that letter he said i tried to include as much of mueller was words as possible. He used 101 words, including words from the single footnote and a title. The entire report is nearly 400 pages. And if he wanted to include as much of what mueller said as possible, wouldnt he use the summary . The answer is we dont know how the summary were prepared . In fairness to him its a systematic approach. The fist thing was to tell the American People did Robert Mueller conclude that the president was a criminal . And he answered that question. The next thing hes trying to do is go through these 400 pages and address lots of complicated issues and get as much of that 400 pages out to the public as possible. Its a systematic approach and after that, if Congress Wants more, work with congress. If theyre intitled to more f it makes sense too, give them more. We are being fair to him. Im just wondering. Wouldnt it have been better for him to do it that way. Let muellers words speak for themselves the parts where mueller said i did not make a judgment on that, then he can come in and talk about why. Im not saying youre not being fair to him. I think the question is maybe in those sumries theres grand jury material. Every page is stamped. May include grand jury material. So the first thing hes got to do is go through and identify grand jury material. In the summaries . In the whole thing. There may be classified information. We havent seen it yet. So barrs done a bit more than what muellers it done. He went on his own and said i find no obstruction. When barr said im not even going to ask a koertd for permission when he could, if it he wanted to. This is the guy that promised maximum transparency. President trump is falsely blaming former president obama for his own zero tolerance separation at the border. Obamas longest serving Senior Advisor joins me to respond. There she is. When i had my brother take me places, it was always like, we had to get there early so i could smoke a cigarette before we go inside. We always had to stop for cigarettes. Its true. I decided i needed to find an alternative. So i started looking and then juul came up. I did both for a while. And eventually i just switched over, its very quick. I remember recently you asking me like did you want to smoke before we go in . And i was like no, i dont need to. So the president today falsely claiming that Obama Administration separated as many families as his own administration. President obama had child separation. Take a look. The press knows it, you know it. We all know it. Im the one that stopped it. President obama had child separation. So joining me now is valerie jared, former Senior Advisor and author of the new book, finding my voice, my journey that west wing and the path forward. We really appreciate it. Good evening don and im so happy with all the love going on in your life. Hes a lucky man. Oh, thank you. I hope hes watching. Im sure he is. Ive got to remind our viewers. Those comments from trump, they are a lie. Trumped a mun stragz ramped up its strict enforcement immigration laws. Theyre already on the books. Youre exactly right. Their whole point was to separation families quite intengszally, trying to send a signal to discourage people. President obama looked for Humane Solutions knowing we have always been a country of immigrants. But that we should treat people who come to our shores with respect and humanity. And the it fact these children have been separated and this administration doesnt even can know where they are. Have deported parents and cant possibly reunify them with their children, i dont think that represent whose we are as a country and that sends a very troubling signal around it the world. And the truth is important. Even when the president of the United States lies. They were separated under ex10uating circumstances only when authorities had concerns for their well being or could not confirm that adult was in fact their legal guardian. But not as a blanket policy. Exactly. I want to play more of what this president said. He went on to say family separations work as a deitterrant. Once you dont have it, thats why you see many more people coming. Theyre coming like its a picnic because lets go to disneyland. Is he ignoring peoples rights to legally seek asylum . Thats the point. You cant instruct people not to follow it the laws. You have to follow the system and its designed to be reflective of our values as a country. And i think staying true to those core value is very important. This past week the former president barack obama was asked about pit falls challengic democrats in 2020. One of the things i do worry about sometimes among progressives in the United States, maybe its true here as well, is a certain kind of fridgeidity where we say oh, im sorry. This is how its going to be and then we start sometimes creating whats called a circular firing squad. Where you start shooting at your allies because one of them is strained from purity on the issues. And when that happens, it typically the overall effort and movement weakens. Do you share the former president s can concerns about this . Yeah. You know ive met with several of the candidates running. Ive said the authentic and true have an affirmative vision for where you think our country should go and explain why we should trust you to execute that vision. That should be focusing on yourself. The concern i have is the long view is winning the general election. If we beat each other so much in the primary and go in the general election in a weakened state, then were going to weaken our chances of winning. An authentic message, a clear sense of why you should be optimistic that this is the person that could lead this country and dont come after each other in the short term. And the other point i would make is theres a big difference between campaigning and governing. And in governance, sdwru compromise. It cant be a dirty word. In a country as big and complex and diverse as our os, you cant say my way or the highway or you run it the risk of getting nothing done. The Affordable Care act is a good example. There are many people who wanted a public option. We didnt have the votes for a public option. But now 20 Million People have health care, more than before. So you have to figure out how to avoid letting perfect be the enemy of the good. You had to deal with racial issues a lot when dealing with the former president. A new poll says 65 feel its common to express racially insensitive views since President Trump was elected. We spend a lot of time talking about that. Do you hear from people you talk to . I do. I think what i hear is very consistent with the new poll that came out. People are troubled by this toxic tone in our environment and were talking at people with labels and as opposed to actually getting a level of understanding and empathy so we can move forward and explanation. I think one of the reasons why president obama was so attractive and ran is he focussed on what can we do to bring ourselves together where were not focusing just on our differences, were looking for what we have in common, so that we can move beyond this these racist and discriminatory practices. Frrtsz dont we want to be a better and stronger country . And its hard to do that in an atmosphere thats so charged. Race is a huge factor in your personal story. You talk about that a lot in your book. My journey 92 west wing and the path forward. You can tell the conversation you had with your mom. She was particularly concerns that after our country had taken what she considered a impossible leap forward, it felt like we were now quickly regreszing. She said you have the optimistic belief that we are almost at the mountain top, but i believe were dangling over the precipice. Do you see trump as a back lash to president obama or a white lash as my colleague, van jones calls it . I dont know how to explain what happened. What i do know is 43 of eligible voters didnt vote. And i think if theres been a wakeup call with womens march, weve seen renewed aictivism and engagement. The number of people who ran for office in the midterms, the number of women and people of color who won, which is terrific. I think that puts us in a stronger pustwragz reflect the values of our country. And the question my mother put to my i had to think about. Are we dangling over the precipice or are we almost at the mountain top . I think my mom and i are both rights. Were at this Pivotal Moment and the direction we take depends upon whether ordinary citizens are going to exercise their most important duty of citizenship and that is to get involved and vote and demand better of their elected officials. We cant give anybody a pass. We have to say a democracy cant be taken for granted. We have to fight for our values, those core principals that bring out the best in us. And unless we do that, then we really cant complaun about what hapbs. So i encourage people to get involved and make sure we do get to that mountain top and push hards and our can country does reflect our core values. And we need leaders across america on the ground speaking up. Everybody can participate. We cant just look to whos in office today. More than to be held accountable by we the citizens. I wonder if you have the s