Theres no good time to do it, by the way. He made a recommendation, but regardless of recommend, i was going to fire comey. Paul Michael Mukasey served as the 81st attorney general of the United States. Thanks for coming in. Good to be here. Paul first point, is there any doubt in your mind that as a legal matter the president had the right, the authority to fire james comey . None. Paul none. None. The fbi director is a part of e. E executive, the president is regardless of whether the fbi director is appointed for a term or not for a term, the president has the authority to fire him. Paul thats despite the tenyear term he was supposed to yeah. Paul all right. In the chain of command at the Justice Department, some people seem to believe that the fbi is independent. That is not true. It is not true. The fbi director is supposed to report to the Deputy Attorney general who then reports to the attorney general. Thats the way its supposed to work. Paul okay. And the fbi is not some independent branch of government. Paul okay. So, ultimately, this is the basis of the critique, that mr. Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney general only in the job now for two weeks, baptism by fair [laughter] in his critique that he laid out in that memo of the fbi directors behavior, youve read the memo. Ive read the memo. Paul what do you think of the analysis . The an us is analysis is spot on, and i say that not only because im quoted [laughter] paul right. As are several other paul yes. Of both parties. Right. But its quite clear the fbi director has the authority, is supposed to investigate cases and then bring his or her findings to the attorney general. Or to some other designee at the department then to evaluate, to a prosecutor to evaluate whether a case should be brought or not. It is not the job of the attorney general to decide whether the case should be brought or not, its certainly not the attorney the fbi directors job to go out and announce that no case should be brought and then to go into a discourse on why it is that whoever was under investigation done wrong. Paul and thats exactly what james comey last july 5. Right. Paul now, comeys defense ex post facto is that the attorney general at the time, Loretta Lynch, was conflicted because she had met on a tarmac with bill clinton, the husband of Hillary Clinton, and that compromised her x. Thats why he did what he did. Yeah. Paul is there justification for that . Well, that may be true. First of all, thats not his determination to make. But secondly, even if it were true, there is in the office somebody known as the Deputy Attorney general who is there for precisely the situations in which the attorney general has to recuse herself, as she probably should have in that case. Paul she hadnt formally recused herself. No. Paul and you have to formally recuse yourself if youre going to actually say im not responsible for this decision. Correct. You put it on a piece of paper. Paul right. And then if she had done that, comey still would have had to go to the deputy right. Paul now, another thing that rosenstein said in that memo was related to the statement that comey made, the letter he sent to capitol hill saying that hed reopened the case 11 days before the election which, of course, created all of that turmoil. And comey said later, i had to do that because i felt i couldnt conceal what had occurred. And rosensteins memo said thats not your job either. Concealment, silence in a case does not mean conceal. Correct. Of course. Concealment is an active is an act. Paul right. Simply not talking about an investigation is simply not talking about an investigation, which is what the fbi director is supposed to do. Paul thats the norm. Thats the norm. When you start an investigation, you dont go out and announce it and think that youre concealing the existence of the investigation by not announcing it. Thats what youre supposed to do. Paul okay. So adding all of this up, the rosenstein memo, the circumstances that you followed closely youve written for us, do you think the president was justified in firing the fbi director. In the firing . Absolutely. Paul okay. In the firing, he was. Right. Paul he had more than ample reason to do so. Absolutely. Paul okay. You suggest to me that maybe the firing, but what about the timing and the politics . Certainly, thats complicated. Well, that, i mean, thats sort of stepping outside my lane a bit. Paul okay. Im pulling a james comey. [laughter] paul well, but youre not, youre not the director. Right. It couldnt conceivably have been worse. The timing was awful. It was made to appear as if, you know, somebody was trying to derail an investigation. Paul right. And, of course, you dont derail an investigation by firing the director, because the director doesnt conduct investigations. [laughter] thats done by agents out in the field. Paul right. Is there any doubt in your mind that this investigation is going to continue no matter who runs the fbi . Absolutely. Paul and mccabe said so, the Deputy Director was up on capitol hill saying were going ahead with it. And in my experience with the fbi, it shouldnt be this way perhaps, but its pretty porous. If there are facts that they discover and they think its being covered up, thats going to come out. Is that your experience . Of course. The fbi knows how to keep investigation in confidence, it also knows how to release it to its particular benefit. Weve seen that many times over the years. And theres no way that you kill an investigation by firing the director. Paul all right or by firing anybody. Paul theres no pressure, political pressure on Rod Rosenstein because the attorney generals recused himself from the russia probe. Hes the man who would make a decision about a special prosecutor. Right. Paul do you think he should name a special counsel . I dont. And its kind of too bad, because there are many people who are now, who have now announced that they are going to measure his propriety and his suitability and his ethics by whether or not he appoints a special prosecutor. And in order to have a potential prosecutor, theres got to be something to prosecute. And as far as i know, there is no criming being investigated. This is a counterintelligence investigation, not a criminal investigation. Paul explain the difference. The fbi has two functions. One is, of course, the traditional one. We all know it investigates crimes. Paul right. After 9 11 it was given an intelligencegathering function and a counterintelligence function which the counterintelligence function, actually with, its had for a long time. And that is simply to conduct investigations that relate to National Security and then report those to other National Security agencies. Paul and theres no doubt in your mind, briefly, that the fbi that the Justice Department under rosenstein can conduct this investigation honestly. None. Paul none . None. Paul okay. If none. And there are other agencies within the Intelligence Community that can, that can and will look into this. And there are Senate Committees and house committees that can and will looking into it. Paul all right. Thank you very much, judge mukasey, appreciate it. Still ahead, calls grow for a special prosecutor in the russia probe in the wake of comeys firing, but is that the best way to get the answers americans deserve . I have said from the get go that i think a potential prosecutor is the a special prosecutor is the way to go. But now with whats happened it is the only way to go, only way to go to restore the American Peoples faith. Paul that was Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer this week calling for the appointment of a special counsel in the wake of fbi director james comeys dismissal. But is that the best way to get to the bottom of alleged russian interference in the 2016 president ial campaign . Lets ask wall street journal columnist and Deputy Editor dan henninger, manhattan senior fellow jason reilly, and Editorial Board member joe rego. Dan, lets put this week into context. Start with a question, do you think that the comey firing on the merits, the legal merits, well get to the politics in a second, but on the legal merits was justified. Yes, paul, it was absolutely justified. And as you and judge mukasey just made clear, Deputy Attorney general rosensteins memo on this makes it clear that many comey had erogated to himself powers that do not belong to the director of the fbi. Those powers should have belonged to the Deputy Attorney general after Loretta Lynch recused herself. And secondly it was not, as he made clear, mr. Comeys responsibility to decide whether any prosecutions were warranted in the email server case. That was something that should have been handed up to his superiors at Justice Department. So mr. Comey was way outside his brief, and it would have been best if mr. Trump had fired him the day after the inauguration and put a new fbi director this place to proceed with whatever investigation of the russia connection was onboard. So that there was no question at all that there was a basis for firing him. Paul but, mary, trump said he was going to do it no matter what, i was going to do it anyway, no matter what they told me at the Justice Department. That certainly did contradict some of the early lines out of the white house. And it kind of messes up the whole tale and makes it look worse than, i think, the decision actually was. You know, theres no question he has handled this so poorly. I mean, across the board in every way. And i think the publics perception matters a lot here. And is, yes, their confidence is shaken even though, as dan says, he was completely within his rights to fire him. But i think that donald trump is also right when he says there was no good time because had he fired him when he first came into office after everything happened with John Podestas emails being hacked and so forth, he would also have been accused of trying to cover something up. Paul but it would have been a more natural transition, would it not . New government come in, fresh start, fbi, all that . In hindsight, for sure. Paul thats what we specialize in, mary, hindsight. [laughter] but i understand paul we did recommend it at the time. Yes. But im mildly sympathetic to his point. I think whats really damaging now is when it comes out that he, when he explains that he went out to dinner with the guy and asked him am i a subject of the investigation x then decided to keep him when he found out that he was not. Paul this is the problem with trump in many respects, its about him. [laughter] it is about him, but also the management of this. Its not just the timing, its the rollout. Did they learn nothing from the rollout of the travel ban . You have to get your ducks in order, you have to get everyone on the same page, paul. This is a very important decision. Why not hold a press conference, give a speech to the American People . This is why we need a new fbi director. Hes damaged the credibility of the institution, and he has to go, and heres why. He could have anticipated all of the responses to this and handled them in a press conference. And the leaking that has gone on daily, its been a very exhausting week in that sense. There was one Washington Post story that said there were 30 sources. 30 sources. I mean, theres leaking and then theres niagara falls. [laughter] yeah. Well, and theres no question about that, joe. But its interesting, the russia probe the implication from the critics of trump is that theres a coverup going on, right . Youre trying to, hes trying to comey was serious about the information which, of course the investigation which, of course, no doubt he was. Youre firing comey, youre covering up. Thats not likely to be the case, is it . No, i dont think so. If thats really the goal, then this is probably the worst possible way to actually squelch an investigation. The interesting thing is if theres actually evidence that trump was colluding with the russians or there was some kind of nexus between his campaign and the kremlin, that evidence would probably be coming out right about now. We havent seen that. So for all the outrage, its a lot of innuendo that hasnt actually gotten to the merits of the case. Paul and mccabe, the deputy fbi director, mary, came out this week and told congress theres no interference that he knows of in this investigation. And, in fact, a report i think in the Washington Post that said he had made a request, comey had made a request for more resources for the probe that, actually, he was not aware of the request, and they have ample sources to investigate. Yeah. Theres more than 100 people working on this investigation, and as joe says, the odds of or the ability to cover that up is sort of ridiculous. And i think mccabe rained on the parade of the democrats by saying, look, this investigation is going to go on. But to jasons point the the bigger problem that we see here is Donald Trumps lack of discipline. And, you know, you look at this, another mistake in the same vein, and you kind of wonder is this guy going to learn . Because its going to be a long four years if he doesnt figure this out. Paul dan, should the Rod Rosenstein name a special counsel for this, or should he himself supervise this probe . Absolutely, they should not name a special prosecutor for the reason judge mukasey made absolutely clear. No crime has been identified or alleged at any point in this incident, and that is what prosecutors do, is they investigate virtually, a fishing expedition, in my view. So i think it should reside in the Deputy AttorneyGenerals Office to decide whether any sort of prosecution is warranted. Paul all right, thank you all very much. When we come back, democrats are already targeting republicans in swing house districts following last weeks districts following last weeks health care vote. 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Only at a sleep number store or sleepnumber. Com paul House Republicans in swing districts already feeling the heat from last weeks vote to repeal and replace obamacare. Democrats are targeting two dozen members who supported the legs promising to make it a central the legislation promising the make it a central issue in 2018. And with a new poll showing just 38 of the votes approve of the gop plan, the party has its work cut out for it. This week a group allied with House Speaker paul ryan went on the offensive with this ad. Its a bold plan to cut the deficit and provide 1 trillion of jobcreating tax relief. It puts patients and doctors back in charge of health care, eliminating washingtons expensive mandates and empowering state toss reduce Health Care Costs and protecting people with preexisting conditions. The Republican Health plan provides families with more choices, better coverage and lower premiums. Thank congresswoman mimi walters for keeping her word and fighting for the health care we deserve. Paul so, joe, democrats clearly think theyve got, this is their ticket back to the majority . Do you agree . I dont. I think republicans have a fairly good product. It needs to be improved. They can do that in the senate where the bill is now, but i think they really have a problem with messaging. They are not explain they have not done a good job explaining whats in the bill, how it would work, how it would improve peoples access to health care. Paul now lets i want to listen to another explanation for the bill. Weve got a democratic attack ad thats running. Lets listen. Congresswoman mcsally just voted for a disastrous Health Care Repeal be bill opposed by the ama, aarp and and the american cancer society. She voted to raise your costs and cut coverage for millions, to let Companies Deny coverage for cancer and maternity care. Mcsally voted yes even though the bill makes coverage completely unaffordable to people with preexisting conditions. Congresswoman mcsally, how could you do this to us . Paul jason . Are well, you mentioned earlier 38 of people support the republican plan, but i still think democrats are overstating the popularity of obamacare. They really are. Only about one in four americans support obamacare in its current form. Only about 40 of democrats support obamacare as is. Youve, meanwhile, got around 70 of americans who either want significant changes to it or want it to start from scratch. So you have to be careful. So in addition to fulfilling a campaign promise, i think republicans also need to deal with the unpopularity of this current plan and, you know, aetna is pulling out, pulled out of two more states recently, nebraska and delaware paul for 2018. They said they were going to lose about 200 million. R