This is cnn tonight. I am don lemon. It is 11 00 p. M. , here, on the east coast. And we have multiple breaking news stories on this friday night. Not one but two fridaynight news dumps from the Justice Department against the backdrop of a country in turmoil. Maybe, they think the news would get lost amid President Trump making his return to the campaign trail tomorrow, with a massive rally in tulsa, oklahoma. He is expecting thousands of supporters to pack an indoor arena. Even though oklahoma is reporting a record oneday increase in coronavirus cases, and tulsa county has more infections than any other county in the state. Public Health Officials warning that the rally has the potential to be a superspreader event. Maybe they think that it will get lost among the soaring numbers of coronavirus cases in california, in florida, in arizona. All, seeing recordhigh numbers. And the World Health Organization is warning were in a, quote, new and dangerous phase of the pandemic. Maybe, they think it will be drowned out by marches across the country celebrating juneteenth, the end of slavery in the u. S. Thousands rallying for unity and justice from atlanta to oakland to washington, d. C. Just weeks after the death of george floyd sparked National Protests on Police Brutality and systemic racism. I am talking about two big stories. Breaking out of the Justice Department. Late tonight, the u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york is resigning. Jeffrey burman has run for sdny since 2018. Investigating multiple members of trumps inner circle. The news coming, right after the doj dropped a new version of the Mueller Report, with less redactions. Were going to cover that, and all of these top stories, in the hour ahead, from a country in turmoil. So i want to begin tonight with the countrys two major crises coming together tonight and tomorrow in tulsa, oklahoma, as conflict over race and politics meets. Meets the coronavirus. And joining me now, john harwood and cnn political analyst ryan liza. Good evening to both of you. I appreciate it. Also, john, the president may be craving giant crowds with thousands of people. Masks, optional. Inside a closed arena. Goes against the cdc guidelines, and even the white house is the white houses guidelines. I would say that the white house is in denial about the risk. But, at some point, it seems much more intentional than that. It is intentional deception. Well, its certainly intentional. Look. The the white house can hear what Anthony Fauci has to say, and what the Corona Task ForceCoronavirus Task force has said. This is a situation you you used the right word at the top, of the description. He craves the adulation of these crowds. Trump has had a very rough several months. Hes been battered. Hes way down, to joe biden, nationally. Down in nearly all the battleground states. Hes been just hit by adverse event, after adverse event. And so, he lives for the adulation of others, the admiration of others. And so, he is dying to have this crowd in tulsa cheer his name. Hes going to have 20,000 crowd inside. Hes got overflow space outside. And, secondly, he wants to send a signal to his supporters around the country, that his campaign is kicking off. That he is going to fight. And, third, by not requiring masks, something that he does not encourage, himself. He does not model, himself, for other people. He is trying to send the message that weve moved past the coronavirus, and were on to the reopening phase of the country. Its a very risky message, because the more the coronavirus explodes, in places like arizona and texas and florida and in oklahoma, its going up as well. The more risk you have of damage to the economy, right as we get to the fall. But hes not looking at the longterm. Hes looking at right now. John, also tonight, trump is saying that the defense secretary, mark esper and mark milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, should have been proud to join him on that walk across lafayette park. Really . Proud to stand by, while peaceful protestors were sprayed with tear gas, all so he can get a photo op . Don, one of the things we learned from the john bolton book, that came out this week, is that the president believes that his personal interest is more important than the national interest, or is the national interest, in his mind. And so, when mark milley and secretary esper expressed the view that it was a mistake for them to participate in this domestic stunt for the photo op at st. Johns church. They are saying that, in the interest of the proper role of civilianmilitary relations in the country, and their conception of their duty. Donald trumps conception of their duty is duty to him. And so, he said, in that interview with axios, well, maybe by regulation, they shouldnt have done it. But i wouldnt have handled it that way. I know the regulations better than they do. What hes saying is they should ignore those concerns of their office, and do what is good for me. You know, john, this the president is in a tailspin. He is unable to handle the racial unrest in this country. He is downplaying or intentionally deceiving people about the coronavirus pandemic, that has killed over 119,000 americans. And instead of attempting to unite, he is threatening protestors. Hes always been able to get away with this stuff before. But are i mean, i dont know. Are there signs, now, that his usual tactics arent working well for him . Well, we know theyre not working well for him. Because hes trailing joe biden, by eight or nine points, in the average of national polls. He is trailing in nearly all the battleground states. 61 of the American People told the quinnipiac pollsters the other day, he is dishonest. And what weve seen in the portrayals of President Trump, from john bolton, from jim mattis, from john kelly, his seniormost, top aides, is to affirm the very harsh, negative judgments we heard in the campaign, in 2016, from marco rubio, ted cruz, hillary clinton. That President Trump is dishonest. That hes amoral. That hes unfit for office. That is becoming a consensus judgment of nearly everyone who has encountered donald trump. And theres no sign that hes going to change. He you know this new book is out, right . And hes not happy about it so he is calling trump is calling john bolton a wacko, as we learn more allegations about this from the white house about this book. Name calling of people who turn on him. The White House Press secretary was asked about this. Why does the president keep hiring people who are dumb as a rock, way over their heads, wacko, and incompetent . So the president makes hiring decisions based on the fact that he likes to have countervailing viewpoints. I spoke to him this morning about the hiring of john bolton, in particular. And he said i like to counterbalance my opinion with individuals that have he likes a team of rivals like what we saw in president lincolns administration. I mean, do you actually think the president said the word countervailing and counterbalance . But, anyway, a team of rivals, really . Look. Kayleigh mcenany seems to want to top herself in ridiculous comments. One after the other. Look. The problem is not the people that donald trump has hired. Because all of them walk away, even if they walked into the office with sterling reputations, they walk out with a common judgment of donald trump. At some point, you have to accept the reality. I dont expect Kayleigh Mcenany to do it. But the the American People have come to accept it. A majority of them. And people who had close contact with donald trump have come to accept it. The problem is with donald trump. Hes the president. He, as i said, the from his 2016 republican rivals, democratic rivals, and now, his seniormost aides, they all agree he is not fit for the presidency. And you cant talk your way out of that, no matter, you know, what you stand at the white house podium and try to conjure up in terms of a comparison to abraham lincoln. John harwood, technical difficulties. You got the whole segment to yourself. So our apologies about ryan liza. Have a good weekend. I want to bring in, now, cnns senior justice correspondent, none other than evan perez. And by the way, the former u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york, laura coates, joins us as well. Cnn senior legal analyst, who is a former federal prosecutor. Good evening, to one and all. Pareed, im going to start with you. Another fridaynight firing, this time of one of the most important attorneys in america. You dont buy that Jeffrey Burman stepped down. You believe he was forced out . Yeah. I have some experience with being fired by the president , in that exact job. The press release says he stepped down. I understand, from just the circumstances from the reporting, and from people ive talked to myself, that Jeffrey Berman was fired. People will point out immediately the president has every right to Fire United States attorney. Those people pleasure, like i did, at the pleasure of the president. But coming friday night, unexpectedly. He is your own handpicked person, prosecutor, for that job. Less than five months away from an election, with all sorts of other reporting going on, including with respect to the john bolton book. Just because its authorized and may be lawful doesnt mean it doesnt stink to high heaven. And id like to understand what was going on here. Id hope that if its possible, that jeff berman, the outgoing u. S. Attorney, would explain some of that if he has the ability to do so. And i think congress should ask some questions. Its a highly irregular thing to do in this way, with respect to your own United States attorney, when there are all sorts of investigations swirling around the president , his associates. There may be anger about the way some of the prior investigations were conducted, with respect to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, and others. Theres a lot of questions that should be asked. And i wait to see if we get any answers. Evan, i want to bring you in. What do you know about this unexpected departure of Jeffrey Berman . Yeah, preet is right. I mean, Jeffrey Berman was pushed out. He was ousted from the u. S. Attorneys office. Im told, don, that he was offered other jobs inside the Justice Department. He was offered the civil division, here, in washington. Where the assistant attorney general just abruptly announced his departure earlier this week. But Jeffrey Berman declined that job. So he was forced out of the job in new york. Now, it tells you a lot about the way this was done. Bill barr, the attorney general, was in new york today. He met with berman and this, all, went down today. But the attorney general decided to skip over the deputy, which is normally, you know, when when preet was fired, for instance, they put the deputy as the acting attorney general im sorry, the acting u. S. Attorney. They didnt do that, in this case. They decided to bring in someone from new jersey to be the acting, while they wait for the senate to act on the nomination of jay clayton, who is the chairman of the securities and exchange commission. So tells you a lot that they believe that the Justice Department, here, in washington doesnt believe that the Southern District of new york can really be trusted. They wanted someone that they could trust. And thats the reason why they brought in craig, who is the u. S. Attorney in new jersey, who is going to be the acting u. S. Attorney in manhattan, now now that berman is going is leaving on july 3rd. And to do both jobs. Im sorry to jump in. But the extraordinary thing is that you have a person, who has a big, fulltime job in new jersey. Its a big prosecutors office. They do a lot of casings. N now, being asked to come in and supervise an even bigger office, that does even more cases. While we wait in the final moments of this administration, or at least this term of the administration, the nomination of someone else. Who, by the way, is a nice guy. I know him. He is an able civil litigator. Never tried a criminal case. Never tried a criminal case, whatsoever. That would be a first in Southern District of new york. Preet, you can jump in anytime. I dont mind at all. But lets get laura in on this. I want to talk about something because preet mentioned this earlier. But i want you to dig into it. Berman was handpicked by President Trump. Under his leadership, bermans office has been investigating Rudy Giuliani and others. Could that have something to do with it . I wonder, don, if there was some coincidence here about this process. You know, one of the things that makes this so unusual and also predictable, is that weve seen over the course of the administration, as it relates to those who are in a prosecutorial position, that the president really takes seriously, at the pleasure of the president of the United States. Meaning, what actually pleases him or his colleagues, his people hes working with or that work under him, in some capacity. And, remember, one of the things thats so important about this. We talk a lot about the morale of Police Departments across this country. Theres morale involved for, not only the career prosecutors who serve under these appointed u. S. Attorneys but, also, has an impact on the prioritization of cases, within a prosecutors office. Its not as if everything will stop, depending upon who the u. S. Attorney is. But it does have a big influence in other cases that are in the pipeline and down the road. Charging decisions. Decisions about how to go forward. We have already seen what happened here, in washington, d. C. , when there was a replacement of prosecutors who were handling the roger stone sentencing, et cetera. So it makes a very big impact. And i suspect its directly tied, in many respects, to the president being displeased by the handling of investigation of those who are close to him, and those who are no longer close to him, as in Michael Cohen or lev parnas. Let me ask you this because evan talked about the s. E. C. Commission. Plans to nominate him to replace berman. Never been a prosecutor. How unusual is that . Well, its very unusual, particularly in a jurisdiction thats known the southevereign district of new york. And the idea that these are extraordinarily competent litigators who have a very wide grasp of trials, of the strategy of evidentiarybased prosecution. To have someone oversee career prosecutors, who would not be able to give perhaps the guidance necessary. Can i take a look at it real quick . Is quite different than whats happening to, of course, the idea of sdny. And so, there is some financial component. I mean, sdny does oversee cases like this. But it is unusual, in some respects, to have somebody who is a top official, in a Prosecutorial Office of that stature, who does not have litigation experience. However, i trust in career prosecutors. I was one of them. The idea that we are competent enough to handle cases, in spite of who was appointed and i hope thats the case in sdny. Okay. Let me ask you this, evan. I need to bring you in here. This is a statement of u. S. Attorney Jeffrey Berman on announcement by attorney general. And the statement says i learned in a press release from the attorney general tonight that i was stepping down as u. S. United states attorney. I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning my position, to which i was appointed by the judges of the United StatesDistrict Court for the Southern District of new york. I will step down, when a president iallyappointed nominee is confirmed by the senate. Until then, our investigations will move forward, without delay or interruption. I cherish every day that i work with the men and women of this office to pursue justice, without fear or favor. And intend to ensure that this offices important cases continue, unimpeded. Talk to me, evan. Good for him. Well, i mean, look. I think preet preet knows exactly what this playbook looks like because this is sort of a little bit of what happened with preet. But, this is what we were hearing. We were hearing that berman was not going, willingly. That he was, essentially, being told that he was being replaced. And just the atmospherics of everything, don. And keep in mind, Justice Department, attorney general bill barr had tried to do this last year. There was a period where they were orchestrating a way to get rid of berman and put someone else in there. And then, a couple of guys, who were working with Rudy Giuliani, ended up buying oneway tickets to vienna. And the fbi went and arrested them, suddenly. And that made it impossible, at that moment, to get rid of Jeffrey Berman. Thats the reason why they didnt pull this off last year. And why he was able to survive all of that. And of course, now we know the Giuliani Investigation is an outgrowth of that investigation to lev parnas and some other giuliani associates. So berman has been on the radar for the attorney general, for the president , for some time that somebody that they wanted to get rid of. And all of this, of course, you know, the the the lack of trust in berman goes back to the fact that he is the one. Its his office that named the president as, essentially, an unindicted coconspirator in the