Also congressman andy biggs on the fbi launching an internal investigation. Gordon chang is here on the u. S. Relationship with china as Vice President mike pence says the white house will hold the communist government accountable for concealing information about the coronavirus pandemic. All of that and more as we look ahead on sunday morning futures. Sandra sandra President Trump on friday announcing that churches and other houses of worship should no longer need to abide by the same restrictions that have forced businesses across the country to close during this pandemic. Some governors have deemed Liquor Stores and abortion clinics as essential. But have left out churches and other houses of worship. Its not right. So im correcting this injustice and calling houses of worship essential. I call upon governors to allow our churches and places of worship to open right now. Sandra the president adding that if governors of those states wont let churches open, he will override them. Though its still not clear if he has the authority to do so. Joining us now, health and Human Services secretary, alex azar. Thank you for being here and happy memorial day to you. Same to you great to be with you and your viewers, thanks. Sandra it is sunday morning memorial day weekend. Millions of americans across the country are waking up wondering if its safe to return to their church or their place of worship this morning. You tell them what . Well, we believe it is as long as your church is taking appropriate precautions and we put out guidance to that effect. My church back in indianapolis, what are they doing . Theyve got appointments. You sign up so they dont get overcrowded. You get screened for temperature as well as symptoms as you come in. You socially distance among family units in the church. The church has been sanitized by the cleaning workers there. So we can get back to work, back to school, and back to worship in safe ways because of President Trumps historic response here. Sandra secretary azar, has been fascinating to see some of the accommodation thats churches made even during the shutdown, holding online services, driveup services, et cetera. The cdc guidelines have been released. We have some of them for you up on the screen. While they are lengthy, we chose some of the most important ones. Of course, that is making an advertisers and soaps sanitizers and soaps handy, wearing cloth masks, social distancing of course and what struck me was limiting the sharing of books and hymnals in pews and shares. You see the same thing in restaurants with menus, they have onetime menus so people arent using the same things in front of them. The Washington Post is reporting the reason for the day lay delay in guidance from the cdc on faithbased operations because there was disagreement between the cdc and the white house. Are both in agreement on those guidelines, mr. Secretary . Yes, they are. You know, theres an i iterative process that we engage in with cdc, the white house and other parts of the interagency to make sure whatever we put out is as good as possible. It doesnt help a priest, pastor, imam, rabbi to get a 60 page document that goes through everything as if you have a masters in epidemiology. We put information like that out also. We want to make sure we put actionable, understandable information out to leaders of faith communities, also our summer camp directors, School Leaders and those who run small businesses. Its just a process to make sure were fitting our information to our audience. Sandra i want to get to Summer School and school in general in just a moment as well as those summer camps. First, i want to take this big picture. The fda commissioner, dr. Hahn this morning, he put out a statement and he essentially said this virus is not contained yet. And so while we understand that millions of americans will be heading out to enjoy Memorial Day Services and celebrations, it is up to the individual to you as an american to protect yourself and limit the spread of this virus. What is your message this morning, mr. Secretary . Well, certainly i would endorse what dr. Hahn had to say there but i would also add that thanks to President Trump and our governors historic response to this, we have to and we can get back to work, to school, to community, to engagement, because its not an issue of health versus our economy. Its actually an issue of health versus health. By being locked up in our homes, theres very real health consequences. The social and economic dislocation leads to suicide and mental illness. We have hundreds of thousands of fewer cancer screenings and treatments going on. We have less preventative services, millions of kids arent getting pediatric vaccinations. Those are real discernable Immediate Health consequences that have to be considered just as much as the spread of this degrees ease has disease has to be considered. Sandra dr. Fauci who once said at a capitol hill hearing that he is only looking at the science and the medical side of things, he is now putting out a new warning and a new interview, sounding the alarm on shutting down and staying shut down for too long. Ill throw his words up on the screen. He said this. We cant stay locked down for such a considerable period of time that you might do i reparable damage and have unintended consequences, even consequences for health. Is this perhaps a sign that dr. Fauci and the Task Force Team might be seeing that some states are taking the lockdown and shutdown orders too far, secretary say glair . Azar. The perspective is vey wise. It takes balance. We took the measures of shutdown because under the circumstances those were the right measures to recommend. Now that we have one of the worlds best testing systems, more testing going on than anywhere else in the world, now that we have the states in the drivers seat with Contact Tracing setting and isolation of cases and seeking out and containing various outbreaks, we have the tomb tools to get backp and running again in a safe, smart way and we just cant stay locked down forever as dr. Fauci said. Sandra we hear you. I know theres Many Americans who feel the same way about that while wanting to still be safe and stop the spread of of the virus. That being said, we heard a lot of that from President Trump and in a new interview, speaking to Maria Bartiromo this week, he not only sounds the alarm about staying closed too long, but he also starts to point fingers and says theres politics at play here. Heres the president. Maria your critics want you to keep it closed going into the election. Yeah, i do, i think its a political thing in addition. I think some maria theyre saying youre putting money, business ahead of lives. No, no. I think the people that want to see the right thing happen, they agree with me. We have to get our country open. Sandra secretary azar, are politics at play . And have politics played any part, impeding your ability to keep the country safe . I dont want to get into any type of politics discussion. I just had the pleasure of traveling on commercial airline to North Carolina and florida this week, North Carolina led by democratic Governor Cooper and florida led by republican governor de santis. Were seeing reopening in safe ways. The cocacola 600 running today, i saw the precautions theyre taking to make that happen. I got to be in florida at the mayo clinic, see how theyre reopening to get elective procedures up and running and do Preventative Care and make sure people get the healthcare they need. I think its great to see how were working closely with our governors, helping to bring the country back again. Sandra final thought . You ask parents anywhere in the country, theyre wondering about summer camps, wondering about Summer School and wondering about kids returning to school in the fall. What can you tell us about where you stand on whether or not thats going to happen . Well, first and foremost i would say that any parent judge your individual circumstances first. Are you, your child or other household members particularly vulnerable or at risk. Youve always got to look to protect your household unit first in making these decisions. Then id say follow the guidance of your local leaders. This is a locally led, state supervised federally supported. We put out guidance about schools and summer camps getting reopened and safe procedures to do so. As always, your local and state leaders know the circumstances on the ground best. Follow their guidance. But i hope that well be back at summer camp. I hope well be back at school. Again, there are ways to do it safely we dont have to be in our house toss be safe. We can do this safely. Sandra with the few seconds i have left, as far as a vaccine, you and i spoke earlier this week about that. Are you optimistic as the white house is that we could see one by end of year . This is a very credible objective. We just signed a deal with astrazeneca for the oxford vaccine, where by october could have 100 million doses of vaccine and 300 million doses by early next year. Were going to place multiple bets like this and drive operation warp speed. President trump said he demands that we reduce inefficiency in that system when we get these kind of results if at all possible. Sandra really appreciate your time on this memorial day weekend. Thank you for sharing your sunday morning with us. The case against Michael Flynn growing more bizarre with the declassification of parts of an email about him that susan rice sent to herself. And as a trial judge hesitates to respond to the dojs request to dismiss the case, former acting attorney general Matt Whitaker will be joining us live, next. Sandra a federal Appeals Court ordering the judge in the Michael Flynn case to respond by june 1st to flynns petition to drop the charges against him. As the Justice Department had requested. That judge Emmett Sullivan had instead appointed an outside lawyer to argue against the dojs request. Our next guest is author of the new book, above the law, the inside story of how the Justice Department tried to subvert President Trump. Matt whitaker is here now. Thanks so much for being here. Glad to be here. Sandra what do you believe is the fate of general flynn at this point . Well, there is no discretion of judge sullivan to not dismiss the case once the department of justice has decided to no longer pursue those charges. I think ultimately its going to be a strange proceeding when the Appeals Court gets their filing from the judge, trying to defend his actions. General flynn will be the case will be dismissed and the charges will no longer be held against him. Sandra go back to the initial delay of judge sullivan in this case, the delay to dismiss the charges once the doj put that to him. How unusual was that to see that from judge sullivan . Well, the federal rules of criminal procedure govern this type of motion to dismiss from the government and theres no discretion in this type of case for the judge. So its very unusual for not only him to take it under consideration, but also to appoint someone who argue in favor of maintaining this case open. Ive never seen anything like this before. Ive been a u. S. Attorney and acting attorney general and ive never seen anything where a District Court judge has done Something Like this. Sandra weve heard a lot from Andy Mccarthy on all of this, former assistant u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york. Hes been writing a lot about it. This week he wrote about judge sullivans, quote astownding and offensive refusal to dismiss the charges and says he must explain. Thats what he has to do by jun. Your prediction as to how this plays out . My prediction this writs of ma mandamus are a big deal. When the court accepted the motion from general flynns counsel to compel the judge to dismiss the case, thats an extraordinary move. To have a District Court judge have to respond to an appellate court, i cant think of another example where a judge has had to directly do that. Sandra now to not have him directly do it, we know hes brought on this high powered d. C. Attorney to respond by jun. What does that action tell you about judge sullivan . Well, it tells me that first of all that judge sullivan knows hes in tricky waters here. I think one of the things that this case also tells us all as we look at the procedural history is that there are folks that are against general flynn and are not in favor of justice. One of the themes i talk about in my new book is how we need to make sure regular order is followed not only by the department of justice, but also by the courts and how important that is for really the people of america to have confidence in the system. When a judge does Something Like this, completely goes rogue, creates a different proceeding thats not allowed under the federal rules, the American People have concerns about that. Sandra turning the page a bit here to the revelation in the susan rice emails this week, the wall street Journal Editorial Board writing about susan rices mysterious email. In it they say team obama spied on Trump Officials and tried to conceal it. You look back at those interviews, dating back to 2017, where she said i n know nothing about it, about Trump Officials being swept into this surveillance, the wall street journal says we know that denial was not true. What are we learning from these declassified emails this week, matt . What were learning is that january 20th email that susan rice wrote on the waning hours of the Obama Administration ultimately recorded january 5th meeting in 2017 where both president obama, jim comey and others agreed that any investigation conducted against general flynn would be by the books. I dont know what book they were reading. The book that applies to this is the justice manual and jim comey did not follow the justice manual pursuing the prosecution, interview of general flynn. There is very curious issues with this including what susan rice said in an interview where she denied she had any awareness of this. Sandra it was interesting to see her response to all this, not yet hearing from jim comey himself, but she responded through her spokesperson saying that they documented the content of that meeting at the direction of Obamas White House counsel. Shes downplaying the significance of the email, saying it makes clear no discussion of Law Enforcement matters or investigations took place. Does that explanation let her off the hook, matt . Oh, absolutely not. In fact, i think there are several people in that room including the Vice President , joe biden, that need to respond to these very specific questions because it does appear that the white house was possibly directing the investigation into general flynn and obviously that is very concerning and if jim comey and sally yates and others that were also in that meeting dont explain how this investigation was followed, pursuant to the book, i think that is another issue that is going to erode the Public Confidence in this entire chapter in american history. Sandra former acting u. S. Attorney general Matt Whitaker, really appreciate your time this morning. Thank you for joining us. Lets all honor our vets. Sandra thank you. We will have more on the Michael Flynn case coming up with arizona congressman andy biggs, he will join us live next on that and why he thinks congress should fully repeal the fisa system. 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Sandra fbi director Christopher Wray ordering an internal review into the investigation of Michael Flynn to determine if there were any errors or misconduct by bureau officials. And recommend improvements in procedures. The move coming after pressure from gop lawmakers. Arizona congressman andy biggs joins us now. He chairs the House Freedom caucus. Good morning, congressman, by the way. I heard one of your colleagues, trey gowdy, friday evening with martha say why now, whats the answer to that . Yeah, i mean, its really hard for me to get why now when this thing started thre