A role. Announcer this is new day with chris cuomo and allison come rat toe. This is new day tuesday march 20th, 6 00 a. M. In new york. Chris and alison are off. Here is our starting line. So now we know what launched the president into new darkness over the russia probe. News and signs that he is getting nervous about where it is all headed. Sources tell cnn the president s lawyers met face to face with special counsel investigators last week to outline the topics that muellers team would like to ask the president about. Cnn has learned that the president is getting agitated as he realized that the russia investigation is far from over. President shake up his legal team, hiring a lawyer who has argued on tv that the president is a target of an elaborate fbi conspiracy. The New York Times reports that the president is now considering firing one lawyer while another considers leaving. All of this as republicans are largely silent on President Trumps attacks on Robert Mueller and his attempts to undermine the russia investigation. Why hasnt Mitch Mcconnell said anything . Two bruising editorials calling on congress to pass legislation to protect the counsel from being fired. Cambridge an lit ka facebook data was misused by the trumplinked firm. Now korcongress wants to speak h mark zuckerberg. Reporter good morning, erica. Sources tell cnn that the president could be scheduling interview with Robert Muellers lawyers in the next few weeks. Amid these delicate negotiations, the president is shaking up his own legal team. Reporter cnn has learned that President Trumps lawyers and Robert Muellers investigators sat down for a rare facetoface meeting last week. The two sides hashing out the details about the topics muellers team wishes to discuss with the president , including the role attorney general Jeff Sessions played in the firing of fbi director james comey and what trump knew about Michael Flynns phone calls with Sergey Kislyak in december, 2016. President trumps legal Team Provided the special counsel with written descriptions of these events and others in hopes of limiting the scope of a potential future interview. A source tells cnn that President Trump wavered behind the scenes about whether to agree with an interview with mueller, despite publicly boasting that hes eager for a sitdown. Are you going to talk to mueller . Im looking forward to it actually. You want to . Just so you understand, theres been no collusion whatsoever. Theres no obstruction whatsoever. Im looking forward to it. Reporter as it becomes clear that muellers probe is far from over, sources say President Trump is lashing out at the special counsel and blasting the russia probe as a witch hunt. President trump also hiring longterm washington lawyer and tv pundit joseph who has repeatedly panelled a Conspiracy Theory that fbi they fabricated the russia story to frame mr. Trump. There was a brazen plot to illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton and if she didnt win the election to frame toig with a falsely created crime. It wasnt the russians who corrupted the president ial election. It was the american officials at the department of justice and the fbi. Reporter but as one lawyer joins trumps legal team, others may be on their way out. The New York Times reports that the president is weighing dismissing ty cobb who argued with cooperation with muellers team. And the times reporting that john dowd has contemplated leaving because hes concluded he has no control over the behavior of the president. Both lawyers deny that they are going anywhere and mr. Trump insisted last week that he is very happy with his lawyers. The president s escalating attacks on mueller drawing a rebuke from some republicans on the hill. It would be the stupidest thing the president could do. How would republicans react if the fired mueller . I think it would be total upheaval in the senate. Others like Mitch Mcconnell have remained silent about the president s attacks. So in the midst of all of this, the president s advisers say he is not contemplating firing mueller. And on his schedule today, hes got a meeting with the crown prince of saudi arabia where notably a Senior Administration official says theyre planning on discussing ways to make russia pay for its involvement in iran and syria. The president also has a meeting about sanctuary cities today which is something he discussed yesterday during a visit to New Hampshire on the opioid crisis. Abby, thanks so much. Want to bring in cnn legal analyst who worked with the special counsel Michael Zelden and michael burns. I think if you combine the cnn report and the New York Times report about whats going on inside the white house with the president thinking about his legal team, all of a sudden we understand why the president was so ticked off this weekend. He thinks he knows where this is headed and he doesnt like it, michael. His attorneys sat down with the special counsel last week and they were given information about what kind of questions the special counsel wants to ask. It has to do with the firing of james comey and Michael Flynn and the specifics about Jeff Sessions and Michael Flynn here. What does this tell you about where the investigation is going and why it might so upset the president . Well, so why it may upset the president is because his lawyers have been telling him probably because this is what he wanted to hear that this investigation would be over thanksgiving then at christmas and then who knows what, st. Patricks day. Now were in the middle of march and muellers investigation seems to be gaining steam rather than winding down. So that has to upset him quite a lot. Then to the exact point you raised, john, the issues that mueller has in his sights for Interview Questions involve the full scope of his mandate, counterintelligence, coordination, obstruction of justice. What we havent heard yet, though, is whether mueller is interested in speaking to the president at this time about the Financial Information related to the trump organization. Because remember just last week we read that there were subpoenas issued with respect to the financial crime. So i expect that this is a much broader scope investigation than the president was led together or wanted to believe. And hes grown more and more furious over it which led to the tweet storms. The tweet storms and the changes weve seen in terms of president s legal team which are certainly nothing to ignore. We could see people leaving ty cobb, john dowd. Whats fascinating is not just what we heard from him over the last several months about views he shares with the president about where they believe the fbi is on a number of issues related to the president , but whats fascinating is what he said in the past and certainly when we were dealing with former president clinton which you covered extensively, john. He was talking about degenova. A president should be able to be indicted. This should happen. Saying no one is above the law and this could be an important civics lesson for the country. Is there a sense, alex, one would wonder whether that may still be his thinking here . And if so, why the president would bring him in. Thats a question i suspect hes going to have to answer. Look, i think you have to see that other pieces basic inconsistencies on matters what could be presented as matters of principle when it comes to the investigation. The president shouldnt have to sit for an interview. He waffled on a number of these important procedural matters where its now going to be very hard for the president politically at least not to sit for an interview. He said in the past that hes looking forward to it. So what changed, right . If it does get to the point of us having a debate about whether a president can be indicted, how can you say youre above the law when your own lawyer said x, y and z. This is of piece with how the president handles virtually all matters of policy. I use that term loosely to include personal behavior and sort of government ethics, right . He is entirely opportunistic and entirely inconsistent based on his mood and what he considers to be useful and when youre in a legal situation thats highly dangerous. These lawyers are arguing for different things, michael. In your vast experience, what does it tell you that this deep into the investigation the president is adding a bombthrowing lawyer. Lets be clear about this his role seems to be so say what hes saying outloud on fox news, maybe to the courts or to keep on saying it on behalf of the president. What does it tell you about how stable this operation is . Well, it does point to different legal theories within the team how to approach mueller. Ty cobb and john dowd seem to be conciliatory and want to work with mueller to put an end to this thing as quickly as possible. Then you have others surrounding them who are like joe, more aggressive about this. I have to say just by way of sort of full disclosure, joe and i worked together for a long time. Joe was the independent counsel and i was his deputy on the janet mullens, George Herbert walker bush. Joe was very aggressive in acquiring the testimony of Herbert Walker bush and was aggressive in asserting that president clinton in his impeachment process had to testify and there was no standing down in face of the grand jurys interest in his information. Joe has a very hard time as a matter of consistency to say otherwise. Joe i like him, i respect him and i think what well see from joe is a lot of time on television trying to press the president s claim that muellers investigation is tainted without firing mueller but trying to undermine the value of whatever mueller may put forth whether an indictment or final report. Thats something weve seen for some time, too. The president trying to put forth that message whether its coming from himself or others. Of course for the first time mentioning mueller in his tweets over the weekend to somehow try to undermine this investigation and his credibility. Yet it keeps coming back up against him. Hes hitting a wall against it. That is an area if the president were more restrained it would be entirely in keeping with how other president s have handled special counsels. The Clinton Administration did everything to undermine and attack ken starr short of going as far as the president has having the current president president clinton never went on television and said this is a witch hunt. It never happened. The president says outloud, he reads the sub text outloud. Right. Exactly. I do think the clips that we saw of mono on the hill talking to republican senators, you are hearing language who are typically white house allies around this mueller issue that you have not heard on any other subject. You get a lot of eye rolling from people, the Senate Republicans will never stand up to the president. You never heard orrin hatch on any matter of policy use the kind of language he is using on this investigation. I want to come back to that in just a moment. One final legal matter i want to mop up, michael, it was interesting to me in the meetings cnn is reporting that the president s team and special counsels team, the subject of Jeff Sessions came up. What was Jeff Sessions role in the firing of james comey. My eyebrows raised there. What could the special counsel be after Jeff Sessions . What could his legal jeopardy be. He recused himself from the investigation. Unaccusing yourself unofficially, that wouldnt be illegally, necessarily, that would be professionally unethical, right . Yeah. I dont know that sessions himself is necessarily in the crosshairs of special counsel mueller as much as it is possible that he wants to know how did it come to pass actually that comey was fired . How did it come to pass actually that there was this loyalty request . How did it come actually that they had a private meeting, the president and director comey, in which the president is said to have asked that the Flynn Investigation be let go. I think he wants to know what did sessions really know about that in an effort to understand what the president s true thinking was because that relates to whether he had a corrupt intent and whether or not he obstructed justice in taking any of those acts. So i think sessions is more likely a witness into what the president was doing and thinking than being a target or subject of mueller directly. Of course they have complicated relationship, dont they, the president and jeff session . Stand by. We have breaking news we are following out of texas. A new explosion has hit this state. This one at a fedex, facility south of austin. Coming as police and hundreds of agents look for a possible serial bomber. Ed lavandera in austin with the breaking details. What have you learned, ed . Reporter good morning, john. This is very much a developing situation so its not clear at all at this point whether or not the explosion that is being investigated at this fedex delivery facility in the town of shirts, texas, about an hours drive south of austin. Its basically a suburb of northern san antonio, but we understand that officials are at the scene at this fedex facility and investigating this possible explosion there. So, this is a situation that is very much developing here in these Early Morning hours and its not entirely clear if its connected to the four explosions that authorities in austin texas believe are connected. Well continue to monitor that throughout the day. Right now we are in the neighborhood where that fourth explosion sunday night occurred. This is the area where it went off. The only remnants left here is the divot in the ground here on this patch of grass where the explosion occurred sunday night, injuring two young men in their early 20s. Those young men expected to survive with nonlife threatening injuries, but authorities here have been really talking about what could be interesting if this information in shirts, texas, that we were talking about does, indeed, become related to these explosions is the changing method of how these explosions have been carried out. The first three explosions earlier this month were packages left on peoples doorsteps. This particular explosion used a wire a trip wire and thats one of the things that authorities are concerned about is the changing dynamic of how these explosions have occurred and thats one of the things theyre worried about. John and erica. Ed, appreciate. It thank you. Well check in with you throughout the morning. Republicans largely silent of President Trumps repeated attacks on Robert Mueller and the russia information. Will Congress Pass any legislation to protect Robert Mueller . Well tackle that next. Youve tried moisturizer but theres one. That blows them all out of the water. Hydro boost water gel from neutrogena®. With hyaluronic acid it goes beneath the surface to plump skin cells from within and lock in hydration leaving skin so supple, it actually bounces back. The results will blow you away hydro boost and our gentle exfoliating cleanser from neutrogena® or a canythingo. But ive got an idea sir. Get domo. Itll connect us to everything thats going on in the company. Get it for jean whos always cold. For the sales team, it and the warehouse crew. Give us the data we need. In one place, anywhere we need it. Help us do our jobs better. With domo we can run this place together. Well thats thats your job i guess. 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Ask your doctor if myrbetriq is right for you, and visit myrbetriq. Com to learn more. When you have something you love, you want to protect it. At legalzoom, our network of attorneys can help you every step of the way. With an estate plan including wills or a living trust that grows along with you and your family. Legalzoom. Where life meets legal. Members of President Trumps own Party Warning him to leave the special counsel alone after he attacked Robert Mueller on twitter. It would be the stupidest thing the president could do to fire him. I think he needs to leave him alone. How would republicans react if he fired mueller . I think it would be a total upheaval in the senate. You think it would be a total upheaval in the senate . Yeah, no question. Total upheaval in the senate. Republicans turned those words into action a push to introduce a bill to keep mueller from being fired. Alex, you made the point a short time ago that we havent heard such strong words from republican lawmakers, pointing out everything we just heard in the reporting from manu red. There is the question, where is