As well as the firing of james comey. Will sessions invoke kpktive privilege to avoid answering . The attorney general expected to be grilled today on capitol hill by members of the Senate Intelligence committee. Were not sewer yet how forthcoming the attorney general will be. We do know his testimony comes at a time when President Trump and his associates appear to be interfering with the work of the special counsel Robert Mueller. I think hes considering perhaps terminating the special council. Just hours after leaving the white house, President Trumps longtime friend claims the president is considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller, the man in charge of investigating possible collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia. I think hes weighing that option. I think it is pretty clear by what one of his lawyers said on television recently. I personally think it would be a very significant mistake. Sean spicer insisting mr. Rudi never spoke to the president regarding this issue. But hours earlier, spicers deputy says rudi, quote, speaks for himself. Several trump allies attacking muellers credibility despite initially praising his appointment. Former Trump Campaign advisor Newt Gingrich tweeting republicans are delusional if they think this special counsel is going to be fair. Last month gingrich praised mueller as a superb choice. One of the reasons for the revolt, who mueller has hired for his legal team. Three of the five lawyers on muellers team have donated almost exclusively to democrats, with two giving the maximum donation to Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign. Still, while house sources tell cnn trumps advisors are urging him not to fire mueller. It would be astonishing were he to entertain this. The echoes of watergate the getting louder and louder. Comes before todays testimony by Jeff Sessions. Sessions is expected to face a grilling about his contacts with russia and the firing of james comey. He was very close to and inevitably going to recuse himself for a variety of reasons. We also were aware of facts that i cant discuss in an open setting that would make his continued engagement in a russia related investigation problematic. Sources tell cnn comey told senators behind closed doors that sessions may have had a third meeting with Sergei Kislyak which the Justice Department denies. It will likely be brought up today along with comeys account that sessions was booted from a meeting back in february before comey said the president asked him to drop the Michael Flynn investigation. My sense was the attorney general knew he shouldnt be leaving, which is why he was lingering. It is unclear whether sessions will invoke executive privilege. Do you believe that he should invoke executive privilege . I think it depends on the scope of the questions. Chris rudi firing back against sean spicer this morning. He gave a statement to our Jeremy Diamond this morning. It says spicer issued a bizarre Statement Last night, a press release that, a, doesnt deny my claim that the president is considering firing mueller and, b, i didnt speak to the president on the matter when i never claimed to have done so. Memo to shawn, focus your efforts on disposing the russia investigations and high liking his remarkable achievement. Dont waste your time trying to undermine one of your few allies. This morning the president s allies in a battle between each other as we get ready to hear from attorney general sessions later this afternoon. Friendly fire going on. Lets discuss. Ryan, thank you very much. The panel is with us. Cnn political analyst, reporter and editor at large for cnn politics, chris cillizza. Cnn legal analyst, bob mules special assistant at the Justice Departme department, by the way. What is happening here . This man is a friend. He comes out and says i think hes considering doing this. I think it is a bad idea. The white house says the conversation never happened. Now he is fighting with the white house. Well, youve got a fight between trump allies with. This is serious because chris rudi knows donald trump so well. It comes on the heels of Newt Gingrich coming out against mueller. One of the president s lawyers floating this possibility. So youve got a drum beat of trump allies and advisors saying hes considering or should consider firing bob mueller. So take one step for a second. That would be def come 10. That would cause panic among members of congress who are looking for a degree of objective oversight. It should cause concern among the American People. Why in the world would anyone think that donald trump wouldnt do this after firing james comey . This is a dangerous game being played in washington right now and the implications are massive for our democracy. Chris ruddi was using the television to telegraph a message to the president. We have heard this on his friends sometime dos that to say it would be a bad idea. Tell us the legal implications. Tell us what this would mean if the president were to fire mueller. Well, mostly the implications are political. Legally the president , through the Deputy Attorney general, is lawfully allowed to do this. So its within his power to do it. So the legal implications in the sense are none. He can do what hes allowed to do by law. The political consequences are much more serious and you have to say to yourself if you are Rod Rosenstein would you stay in the administration. If you were the fbi designee, would you pull your name from consideration. If you were senator schumer, would you reintroduce the independent Council Statute to get around all of this . So there are a lot of political cascading impacts from doing this. But legally it is in his power to do it. It is not law, but it is no his power to do it. I think whats going on a bit is that the trump team or surrogates for the Trump White House are floating the trial balloon of can we go after mueller and his team in the same way that clinton went after star and his team . I think theyre looking at how that is going to play. I dont think it will play. I dont think looking at somebody who knows mueller and yes a lot of the people people were praising him. Theyre going after his choices of counsel. We are showing that a number of lawyers that mueller is picking did donate to democrats. Do you think that is a valid basis of criticism and disqualifying for mueller. So, look, it is not disqualifying for mueller. Mueller himself didnt make any contributions to any political candidate on either side. Principally the donation of one of his Office People who most likely will play a supervisory role in the administration of the case. He also gave some right. But the silliness of this argument is evident by the selection by Jared Kushner of his lawyer, which is a longtime democrat, former Deputy Attorney general in the clinton administration. A terrific lawyer whose judgment is not going to be prepared by who she made a political contribution to. This has nothing to do with the exercise of independence or good decisionmaking by his attorney. It is a silly gambit they are running, i think. Chris cillizza, what is your take . Well, politically speaking, i think that there is massive problems here for donald trump that was slightly down the road of talking about bob mueller. If there is if there was a def con 11, id be there. Legally of course he can do it but just because you can do it doesnt mean you could do it. This president puts unpredictability at the heart of everything he does. I think he likes to keep every possible option open. It is the same reason that the answer on are you or are you not taping conversations the white house says ill let you know, wink, wink. He likes to keep his options open. He likes to build intrigue and keep it as a cliff hanger. He is a Reality Television show producer in his heart of hearts. I dont imagine that is good politics for him. I think thats been bornout. When he plays to the pace, though, well, the political question for the president heading forward is can he grow . Let me ask you something, though, because the proof is in the performance of what were going to see today with the attorney general. Chris ruddy says flimflam accusations. Thats false based on what were going to see with Jeff Sessions today. These are heavy questions. What did you know about his desire to talk to comey alone . Why did you leave . Did you ask the president about that . Did you ask comey about it . If you did ask comey and he told you anything, what did you do about it . These are Big Questions that get him whether he claims ignorance or not. Thats the big question, is how much does he say im not going to speak about that because of the president s executive privilege. But the president would therefore have to exercise that privilege. A. G. Sessions would have to be directed by counsel that, yes, we are exercising the privilege. Thats a question also. Thats a question also. But it is going to be because he doesnt have a privilege, the a. G. Thats correct. But the white house could impose upon him in effect. Look, there are no no shortage of questions for Jeff Sessions to answer. From undisclosed meetings are russians to the firing of james comey to how much he actually recused himself from this Ongoing Investigation to his assessment of donald trump at a time when their relationship seems troubles. How much does he speak about it . Because if hes still trying to curry favor with the administration, hes going to be restrained about how honest and direct he could be. I think its a mistake to assume you are going to get a totally open conversation Jeff Sessions telling the truth as he tells it. I think he is going to tell the minimum viable truth. Michael, you are the former federal prosecutor. How open will sessions be . I hope he will be very open. Chris is right that the privilege is with the president. And, so, sessions answer of im exerting executive privilege is legally wrong. He has to say the president instructed me. Secondly, i think the a. G. Really needs to convince the American Public in some respect that he operates the department of justice in the independent and partial blind justice sort of way. His having to recuse himself so early in the administration put a stain on that independence and i think he has to resurrect. Hopefully that will lead to him being forthright in his answers, be what may come of it. Panel, we have to leave it there. You say blind justice, but he was like this. A little side eye going. Thank you very much, panel. Coverage begins at 2 00 p. M. Eastern. Take off your ear muffs and watch this everyone. Before this sessions testimony today, the head of the Republican Party is calling for an end to all congressional probes into possible Trump Campaign connections to russia. Why would such a request be made . We will ask. Plus, a blast from the past on new day. Our dear friend will be here to share the cause and place very close to her heart. Were dpoipg to sgoing to see v. You do all this research on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and Auto Insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. In just hours, attorney general sessions will testify before a senate panel about his introductions with russia and the firing of james comey. But the head of the Republican Party is calling for an end to all congressional investigations into the Trump Campaigns ties to russia. Lets bring her in. She is the chairwoman of the Republican National committee. Good morning. Good morning. Thanks for being here. Why are you calling for an end to the congressional investigations into whatever the ties were between the trump team and russia . Im saying that the investigations about the collusion between the Trump Campaign and the russians needs to be completed because this investigation started last july under director comey. We have not seen a single senator. We havent seen director comey or clapper say that there is any evidence of collusion between the Trump Campaign and the russians. So why is this continuing . Why is this going almost a year, this investigation . Isnt it time to put an end to it. If nobody can say there is definitive evidence, shouldnt we take that shadow off the white house and let the American People know there has been no evidence . You know what they would say thus far. Thats why the investigation is continuing. But its almost a year. It started last july. How long can you let this linger. Well, bob mueller was just named to lead this investigation probably three weeks ago, less than four weeks ago. Some people think it is just beginning. But director comey started it in july of 2016. The election ended in november. And now were in june. But Jeff Sessions today almost a year out and still just today the senate intel lawmakers are able to hear from him. There is not one senator, name one senator democrat or republican can say theyve seen evidence of collusion. They would say its not complete. But whats taking so long . Heres the thing thats concerning to me. I feel like theyre drawing it out. It is concerning. The democrats have a play book. Draw out, obstruct, play out the clock so we could get to 2018 with this doubt over the white house and i think the American People deserve to know is there evidence of collusion . If there isnt, lets put an end to it and stop putting this doubt in the American Peoples minds. I hear you. But of course republicans control congress. These are bipartisan committees. The senate intel, the house intel. Their chairmans are republicans, so its not just democrats with this play book. Im speaking from going across the country. I was in arkansas last weekend, buffalo and georgia and people are saying why is this taking so long . It started last july. Were almost a year in, a year into this investigation. Why cant we put an end to this . The election ended in november. Have you shared your why cant we Start Talking about what people are concerned about at home in my state of michigan, health care, tax reform, jobs. Listen, i have heard all of the claims that the russia cloud is preventing the president from moving forward with his agenda. Were just not talking about it because we keep talking about this one thing. Wait a second. You are saying two different things. Is the russia cloud preventing the president from moving forward with his agenda. I think the russia cloud needs to be removed from the American Peoples minds. If you see no evidence of collusion, lets get it done and over with. But the president is moving forward regardless. It is just not getting the coverage. Have you shared your feelings with the republican chairs of these committees, richard burr and devin nunes . Ive made some calls. But this is what the American Public is saying. What have they said about that . We havent talked about it at that length. I have just shared with them what i have heard out there, that the American People want to see this cloud removed. It is not fair. Were a year in from this investigation. Why dont we have a conclusion . No one can say there is evidence. If there is no evidence, why are we continuing to investigate it . Well, i hear you with the people that you have spoken to. But let me show you the latest polls because that is a wider slot of americans. Just last week, 73 of americans do support the independent Commission Investigating the links between team trump and russia. 60 of americans, if you add these next two numbers together believe that the president did something illegal or unethical. So americans do not feel that we should you need this to be concluded. You had director comey last week say the president was never under investigation, that he has never been under investigation. Director clapper has said no evidence of collusion. There is no evidence. So lets conclude the investigations and let the American People know that there is no evidence thats been found. Well, look, these polls dont stru suggest that americans feel we need to be done with these investigations. About the president not being the target, you know, here is the list of his associates that investigators are still looking into. I mean, as is evidenced by today, just a few hours from now at the top of this list, Jeff Sessions will be asked these questions. You know the investigations into Michael Flynn. They didnt disclose their meetings with russian officials. Whats that about . Well, its ridiculous because the Obama Administration between 2009 and 2013 had 22 meetings with kislyak. You have seen senators