Exploring issues that affect leaders in the U. S. And around the globe. Today had as much to do with the president but now that you have people that the Justice Department indicts, like congressman Duncan Hunter adopting the president s rhetoric, the chief Law Enforcement general in this country felt like he had to push back. We have to consider the context in which this is happening. The Justice Department has extracted guilty pleas or convictions for the president s former lawyer and fixer, his campaign chairman, his National Security advisor and Foreign Policy advisor. Indicted his number one Congressional Republican supporter and number two Congressional Republican supporter. He told the the New York Times that he had Great Respect for eric holder because in his view he totally protected president obama. We can debate the facts of that but it suggests the president views the role of Attorney General as protecting him primarily and he doesnt separate himself from the institution. Jeff sessions knows he has to protect the institution. What was interesting today was the reaction on capitol hill. Let me play for you Lindsey Graham and then i want to read you john cornyns statement. Here is lindsay graham. The president is entitled to an Attorney General that he has faith in, somebody thats qualified for the job. Clearly Attorney General sessions doesnt have the confidence of the president , and all i can say is that i have a lot of respect for the Attorney General, but thats an Important Office in the country and there after the election i think there will be some serious discussions about a new Attorney General. Let me put up john cornyns statement. Number two in the republican leadership, i know this is a difficult position for him, referring to sessions, to be in but i think it would be bad for the country, it would be bad for the president , it would be bad for the department of justice for him to be forced out under these circumstances. What do you guys make of this, matthew . Cornyns statement is open to a soft exit of sessions conforming to Lindsey Grahams schedule of after the election. Chuck grassley said, hey, i
could do it now. Youre going what . Republicans because of the crazy dynamic of the 2018 election may have a larger Senate Majority in 2019 and more of a cushion to confirm whoever trump nominates to replace sessions. Every actor in this drama now is kind of constrained by potential courses of action. I mean look at trump. If he fires sessions, who replaces him immediately . Rosenstein. The acting Attorney General. Is that really what the president wants . And so too, though, with the prosecutors in new york. What are they building up to here . Are they really going to indict a sitting president . It hasnt been done before. Is bob mueller going to subpoena the president to testify . That too would be breaking some norms. So were reaching this critical impasse where we dont know what will happen next. Well, i think we broke norms a long time ago, but i think, chuck, what was most remarkable to me about the incredibly
softball interview of fox news with the president , he was talking about Jeff Sessions. The only reason he gave him this job is out of loyalty and he said hes never taken control of the Justice Department. What does that mean . How do you define control . I think that he feels like this is a person who is supposed to protect me. For someone whose first job in the United States is as the president of the country, he doesnt understand Campaign Finance law and certainly doesnt understand how the doj works. I dont know how he reconciles that statement with something his promise to the American People that hell only choose the best people. I think hes fallen way short of that promise if his statement stands to be true. What would be the excuse to fire sessions other than trumps unhappiness about the mueller issue . You got me. Could he come up with something that would sell to conservatives, matthew . Well, it would be hard for the very reason that sessions has been probably the most effective hes been pursuing a very conservative agenda. Also in terms of actually
implementing, hey, crackdown on opioid addiction, crackdown on illegal immigration. If democrats had such control of the Justice Department, would they be suing california about Sanctuary City laws. Those are the core planks about why trump was elected and shows you at the end of the day, just as his comment about why he put sessions in there suggests, at the end of the day it is about trump personalizing conflict and protecting his position above all. Its such a key point. It would be crazy to conceive of Jeff Sessions as a resistance hero. He set the stage for ending daca, for harsher Sentencing Guidelines you cant say he hasnt pursued the president s agenda. He absolutely has. He mentioned the rule of law. In other words, im not going to favor some people because theyre your allies and target other people because theyre not. Now, susan collins, a pivotal vote in the senate told us today
youve been involved with a lot of criminal enterprises. In 1981 he offered to cooperate with the fbi and have people who work in his casino work as operatives for the fbi. That would be illegal. The kind of rhetoric that has some of his critics saying this is how mob bosses also speak. But its also how Reality Tv Contestants talk. Whats fascinating to me its true. Were laughing. Weve gone from Reality Television to reality politics. Flipping is not just in the course of an investigation, its also when you have a contest and trying to form alliances and you dont want the other person to betray you. What have we seen in the last month . Exactly what we would see on a high rated reality show. The closest allies flip. David pecker. Omarosa. Youre right. This is the one she actually has tapes. The president doesnt really know how to advance because for three years, weve been playing
on his terms, which are the reality tv terms. And political people dont know how to behave that way. Heres he does seem to be preparing to do something that you could tell theres a whole bunch of people in the west wing that want to tackle him and are trying not to. But he wants to lash out. Logistically pardoning manafort right now doesnt make sense since hes got another trial, right . Thats what rudy giuliani, his lawyer, told the Washington Post which is that hes been advised by his legal team not to do a pardon of manafort now, at least to wait until its over. They cant really control the president. When does that become Obstruction Of Justice . When you dangle a pardon before a trial starts . How else would you describe it . I think we got to Obstruction Of Justice a few weeks ago when he ordered his Attorney General to stop the investigation. He put his Obstruction Of Justice on display in his twitter feed. Whether it was an order or
not, we dont know, could, should, all those things. The Pardon Question is relevant. The president has in previous questions pardoned his political allies who he said were treated unfairly. He did wait until the trials were over. He did do that. In the case of joe arpaio, that came out of nowhere. He pardoned him. Manafort, arguing hes been treated unfairly. There is a pattern and thats why its fair game to ask if thats what hes considering. Oh, i think hes absolutely considering it. One of the messages from this interview is to manaforts legal team, which is to say that, you know, youve done what Michael Cohen did not do. You have gone through this trial by fire and maybe at the end of it there will be a pardon. Its beyond consideration. Im old enough to remember when there were a lot of republican senators who said Firing Rosenstein would be a bridge too far, firing mueller, firing sessions. Were lately even saying pardoning manafort would be a mistake. Do we think republicans would do anything other than issue
harshly worded condemnations on paper . No. We have yet to see republicans stand up to this president. You did have tom cole come out and say they have to Start Talking about this president breaking the law, which i find it interesting when republicans decide to draw this line, right . So they didnt draw the line when he called Nazi Sympathizers good people. They didnt draw the line when he sat on The World Stage and stood next to Vladimir Putin and crapped all over the u. S. A lot of people spoke out. A lot of people spoke out, a few spoke out. I guess the question, i guess is goes to what tom cole is looking for, which is they got to tell the voters that theyre willing to hold him accountable, right . That swing voter wants to hear that if they at all are thinking about keeping a republican in office. How do they do that . Well, its hard to know. Theyre caught in a very difficult position right now between the loyal trump voter, which is the loyal republican voter. Nobody is going to win an election without that voter turning out and theyre worried that a president who maintains
87 Approval Rating among republicans in the latest fox news poll is not someone to be messed with two and a half months before the election. The fact of what he does does not matter to them. But muellers 60 mueller had a higher approval than trump in that poll, which is interesting. What will move republican lawmakers is when President Trumps support among their voters crashes. That is the only thing that will cause them to take meaningful losing power in november. I think if the result is bad in november, youll get a bunch, whoever is left, youll get a bunch of them at least. And it will be the Opposition Party then making that decision. Very interesting. Well take a pause here, stick around. After the break well talk to a republican member of congress for a bit of reaction on all of todays big developments, yesterdays big developments, the whole weeks big developments. And later, we are going to break down the anatomy of, and theres no more accurate way to put this one, an actual president ial lie. Insurance that wont replace the full value of your new car . Youd be better off throwing your money right into the harbor. Im gonna regret that. With Liberty Mutual new Car Replacement well replace the full value of your car. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty
you know, at Td Ameritrade, we can walk you through your Options Trades step by step until youre comfortable. I could be up for that. Stepbystep options trading support from Td Ameritrade mom okay we need to get all your School Supplies today. School. Grade. Done. Done. Hit the Snooze Button and get low prices on School Supplies all summer long. Like these for only 2 or less at office depot officemax. Welcome back. Republicans in Congress Face a dilemma, stay silent about President Trumps attacks on the judiciary, on the rule of law and free speech and have your integrity questioned, or go after mr. Trump and risk the voters, your Republican Voters coming after you. With the house on summer break, a lot of House Republicans have been keeping a bit of a low profi profile. Im joined by a Republican Congressman, Ryan Costello of pennsylvania, whos not keeping as low of a profile but hes not seeking reelection this year either so maybe it gives him a little more latitude to speak freely. Congressman, good to see you, sir. Maybe. Fair enough, fair enough. Let me start with the issue of the president versus the Attorney General. It certainly appears that the president s beef with the Attorney General has nothing to do with his overall job and everything to do with the Mueller Investigation. Do you think the president s criticisms are warranted . I totally agree with you that this is about the criticisms relate to one thing and that is the Mueller Investigation. I dont think its warranted. I think that very early on he made the decision that he had a conflict. He appointed rosenstein to then make the decision. The decision was made. I would say this, most republicans supported the appointment of an independent counsel or at least many did. And so moving forward, theres not much republicans can do right now or should do right now other than say i support this investigation, lets let it proceed to whatever conclusion it reaches. If theres one thing we might consider at this point is to prevent what the Freedom Caucus was trying to do right before we left break and that was protect the investigation moving forward so that there cannot be a saturday night massacre. So how would you do that . How could you protect the investigation from your branch of government . We have legislation that would essentially say you cannot fire, if you do, you need to come before congress and state the reasons why. At that point in time if there is not if there is not a for cause reason, it would not take effect. Now, there obviously are some constitutional questions about that separation of powers and things like that, which i think is why some have said they didnt think it would actually pass it wouldnt pass a challenge in the courts. I think thats fair, but your questions are as much oriented around the political challenge that republicans have. Sure. You hear were not doing anything and i think the answer is, yes, we are. I might also add, what is the message today that democrats have thats different than republicans . And by that i mean, are democrats ready to impeach . Because if theyre not ready to impeach over what Michael Cohen has now pled to, then theyre in the same position as most republicans, which is lets let the Mueller Investigation play out. Well, no, this is what i actually i dont understand on this front. I hear you on the Mueller Investigation. But cohen is a separate investigation. Agreed. And so here you have him pleading guilty in a court of law. The u. S. Attorney in new york accepting the guilty plea not because of his word but because they have physical evidence. Right. And accepting the idea that the president directed him to do this. That to me we have a system in place of what do you do when the president is accused of a crime. It starts in the house of representatives. You guys are supposed to begin investigating to see is there something here to be concerned about. Thats what im wondering, why
before the Mueller Investigation concludes . I dont think you do because you still have some factual questions that are out there. We dont have the full breadth of what evidence mueller does have. When he provides a report, it will all be in front of us. I think at that point in time it is certainly a ripe question as to what the house should do. But here we are sitting august 24th or whatever day it is. I dont think based upon that plea and some of the other stuff weve heard out there that now is the time to undertake Judiciary Committee proceedings on some of the information that we have, not knowing what else is out there. In fact when did that stop this congress if i might add, it was democrats criticizing republicans on the Judiciary Committee who were literally trying to get rosenstein to provide more information than he should have provided with the argument being that youre trying to pull out what is an ongoing investigation. So no matter what you do here, i think that one side will criticize the other. That i get. Look, i think you are making a strong point that the house isnt mature enough to do its constitutional duty. I didnt use that term. Im using it. But its so polarized that nobody can look beyond their blue or red glasses. But i guess the question is if you were running for reelection right. Id be doing exactly what im doing now. No, i believe you. Youve got to appeal to two types of voters. One who thinks this thing is a sham. Yeah. But then you have that slice of voters who likes the tax cut, is probably a little right of cen