Headquarters here in new york. We have a lot to catch up on tonight. This was day 657 of the trump administration. And just hours after democrats gained control of the house, the president forced out his attorney general, Jeff Sessions. If the president was looking for a distraction after the election, he got one. And this could have serious ramifications. Earlier tonight, the nowformer attorney general, Jeff Sessions, left the department of justice to a round of applause. He was famously the first sitting u. S. Senator to support donald trump. He was then relentlessly attacked by the president for taking himself out of the russia case. Im disappointed in the attorney general for many reasons. And you understand that. I am disappointed in the attorney general. He should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse himself. And we would have used a put a different attorney general in. But sessions replacement who will oversee Robert Muellers russia investigation instead of the deputy ag Rod Rosenstein is viewed as a trump loyalist. Matt whitaker, sessions chief of staff just saw him saying goodbye to sessions at the car tonight, will serve as the acting attorney general. Whitaker is a former u. S. Attorney. He ran as a republican for senate in iowa in 2014, but lost out to joni ernst in a primary. Whitaker has been publicly critical of the Mueller Investigation, writing in an oped, august 2017, quote, it is time for rosenstein, who was the acting attorney general for the purposes of this investigation to order mueller to limit the scope of his investigation, to the four corners of the order appointing him special counsel. If he doesnt, muellers investigation will eventually start to look like a political fishing expedition. This would not only be out of character for a respected figure like mueller but also could be damaging to the president of the United States and his family and by extension to the country. Whitaker also appeared on cnn in august of 2017 and said mueller would be crossing a red line by looking into the Trump Organization finances. If bob mueller and his small u. S. Attorneys office, as ive heard it described today, does go beyond the 2016 election and get into Trump Organization finances, unrelated to the 2016 election, and really unrelated to russian coordination, if it even exists, i think that would be crossing a red line. Peter baker of the New York Times reports today, quote, mr. Whitakers an skens skend ascendance to the top of the Justice Department shows how much loyalty means to mr. Trump. The president has longregarded mr. Whitaker as his eyes and ears inside a department that he considers an enemy institution. Baker also points out that under normal circumstances, Rod Rosenstein, as the number two guy at justice, after all, would be in line to become the acting attorney general. Earlier today, whitaker released a statement that read, in part, quote, it is true it is a true honor, rather, that the president has confidence in my ability to lead the department of justice as acting attorney general. I am committed to leading a Fair Department with the highest ethical standards that upholds the rule of law and seeks justice for all americans. No mention there of Robert Muellers investigation. Earlier today, frank figliuzzi, the former fbi assistant director for counterintelligence offered on this network a blunt assessment of the sessions firing. I think were watching obstruction of justice play out right in plain sight. I fear theres a quid pro quo, you do this, i name you acting attorney general, or i nominate you for attorney general. You take care of the special counsel investigation. And thats public corruption. That gets your attention. So does this. Phillip rutger, robert costa, and josh dawsey wrap up the last 24 hours this way, quote, washington plunged into political war on wednesday in the wake of a split decision by voters in the midterm elections, with President Trump ousting his attorney general and threatening to retaliate against democrats if they launch investigations into his personal conduct and possible corruption in the administration. The rapid shift to battle stations signaled the start of what is likely to be two years of unremitting political combat as trump positions himself for reelection. As we said, it gets your attention. And lets bring in our leadoff panel on this postelection wednesday night, jeremy bash, former chief of staff at cia and the pentagon. Former u. S. Attorney, joyce vance, who spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor. And the aforementioned robert costa, National Political reporter for the Washington Post and moderator of Washington Week on pbs and what a week its been already. Robert, i would like to begin with you. What is the book on whitaker . Whats the book on how the president sees him . And i know you talked to rudy in the last 24 hours. What did you learn . Brian, ive known mr. Whitaker for about a decade, going back to his time in iowa politics. Moderated his first debate when he ran for u. S. Senate. Lost the republican primary then in 2014 to now senator joni ernst. Hes a conservative, hes an ideologue, hes someone whos migrated towards the trump wing of the republican party. Hes Close Friends with sam clovis, someone we know because hes been interviewed by Robert Muellers grand jury. Hes migrated toward the trump administration, become sessions chief of staff at the department of justice and is known for taking a tough line on the Mueller Probe. Now hes running the department of justice. Joyce, i have so many questions for you. As a former u. S. Attorney, would this have been an organic choice, if you searched through the government payroll, to name this guy in normal times, as acting attorney general, first of all . If we were only talking about just generic roles. The attorney generals chief of staff wouldnt be a completely unprecedented choice to take over, if you anticipated as president , naming another permanent selection in the nottoodistant future. But what takes this out of the realm of the normal, brian, are Matt Whitakers clear stands, clear enunciation of his view that the Mueller Investigation should be limited. That makes this extremely abnormal and something we should all be concerned about. Now, thats my second question. Is that grounds for recusal . If you have issued an opinion, made it public, and you are suddenly then appointed to something overseeing that, is that normally grounds for recusal . So, recusal can be complicated, but it looks like whitaker has real problems. And one would expect that the professionals at the Justice Department would advise him that he must recuse, if not because of an actual conflict of interest, then because of the clear appearance of impropriety in his taking over this investigation. And a big part of that would be the fact that he had made pronouncements about how that investigation should be handled, before he was privy to all of the facts. In essence, prejudging it. Theres no reason that we can believe at this point that he can give the investigation a fair shake. And what the American People here deserve is not an outcome predetermined by an ideologue, its justice. Its the search for the truth so at the end of the Mueller Investigation, we have a high Comfort Level that weve reached a correct outcome. We cant get that with this attorney general at the helm. Jeremy bash, ive got to read you this from politico. Democrats are even prepping a breakglass scenario in case theres a nixonera saturday night massacre in which trump fires his current doj leadership and tries to shutter the Mueller Probe in the process. If that happens, senior democratic Officials Say mueller would likely get an immediate summons to capitol hill for nationally televised testimony about his firings. Jeremy, how would washington react if that is end game here . Well, if whitaker moves against the Mueller Probe, i think it is quite literally obstruction of justice. And in that case, i think what immediately shoots to the top of the agenda of the new House Majority is calling whitaker to testify under oath to explain whether he has had any conversations with the president of the United States about shuttering the Mueller Probe. And if he says he has, that opens an avenue of investigation from mueller to determine whether or not there has been an obstruction of justice. And once whitaker is a witness, i think he would have to recuse himself from any further oversight of the Mueller Investigation. Robert costa, what do you hear . Whats going on behind the scenes in this investigation . And are we ignoring a critical word . And is that acting . Are there lists of permanent candidates being drawn up in the west wing . There are lists being drawn right now, brian. The president is looking through some names, thinking about possibly some u. S. Senators who could be on that list. Thinking about retired and current federal judges, people who could get confirmed. For the moment, Matt Whitaker is there. A former federal prosecutor in iowa, who he sees as an ally, but he has to pick someone who could be the attorney general. Maybe it could be whitaker, but its probably going to be someone with a bigger name, a bigger profile, who can get senate confirmation. Hes thinking also talking to mayor giuliani today. He said that they need to make a decision after the president gets back from paris after his weekend trip about the interview with robert mueller. Are they going to do it or not . And if they dont, will they just provide written answers by midnovember. Joyce, i have to say, this got our attention today. Preet bharara, former u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york who was fired by the president just put this out on twitter today. Three words, its danger time. Do you concur with that . I think preets absolutely right. Were at i heard neal katyal call it earlier today the beginning of a constitutional crisis. And it certainly seems like this sets it in motion. It is a very dangerous time. We need to protect the Mueller Investigation. This new acting attorney general really needs to strenuously be encouraged by everyone who has the ability to encourage him to recuse from this investigation. Otherwise, were in dangerous territory. Joyce, i must say, i also heard john dean today, and im going to ask you to explain this in lay terms. He theorized that mueller has done some trump proofing of his own investigation, including but not limited to potentially delivering sealed indictments to a senior federal judge and saying, in effect, hang on to these in case anything happens to me or us. Can you speak to that . So that sounds a little bit nefarious. The process is really a little bit more pedestrian. Its not unusual for federal prosecutors to seal indictments. Theres a lot of reasons. Sealing is just a mechanism for keeping an indictment secret until youve actually been able to arrest the defendant. So a lot of the time, well do that for safety considerations. Here mueller could have had the grand jury issue indictments, sealed them. They would then be in possession of the clerk of the court, but not made public, not unsealed until such time as defendants were arrested or muellers prosecutors directed the clerk that it was time to unseal them. That seems like a very likely possibility to protect the investigation. But also, there are 93 u. S. Attorneys offices out there. They may have pieces of this case. And once those cases are out in the wild, its very hard for main justice to put a complete stop to them. Yeah. Wellput. Jeremy, im old enough to remember about a year ago. Im going to play you this clip from Lindsey Graham and were going to talk about what happened to Lindsey Graham since then. If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay. Any effort to go after mueller could be the beginning of the end of the trump presidency, unless mueller did something wrong. Jeremy, what happened to Lindsey Graham, do you think, in the intervening months . I think hes auditioning for jobs. I think hes potentially auditioning for the job of attorney general and maybe even for the job of secretary of defense if theres a vacancy over at the pentagon. And hes clearly decided that hes going to cast his lot in with trumpism and President Trump and hes abandoned the principles that he took that you noted in that interview, in which he said that if the president fired the attorney general, which is exactly what happened today, that would be the beginning of the end of the trump presidency. And jeremy, this is a question im going to ask other of our guests tonight. Can you think of republicans who would be willing to cross the aisle and work with democrats if they feared an effort to come after mueller, to come up with something that, again, trumpproofs the Mueller Investigation . I think it depends how its crafted. I think something that explains that the Mueller Investigation is a National Security investigation, requires a full and complete assessment of the facts, then perhaps there are some republicans of conscience who would do that, who would join with the majority in the house and pass a bill, pass legislation along that lines. But honestly, brian, im not too optimistic that any such bill would pass and i dont think the president would sign it. Robert costa yeah, go ahead. The person to watch, brian, senatorelect mitt romney of utah. He was one of the rare republicans who issued a Statement Today in light of the attorney generals firing and he said, you have to protect the Mueller Investigation. Does it become more than a statement in the coming weeks from senatorelect romney . Does it become an actual speech, an actual statement, talking on television, talking to his colleagues in the Upper Chamber . Does he become someone who could be a counterweight or the same way as senator graham, a republican whos on the trump train and going along with the president. Romney was almost alone among prominent republicans in saying that on social media today. Its why we had these three guests start us off tonight. Our great thanks to jeremy bash, to joyce vance, and to robert costa. We really appreciate it. And coming up, before President Trump fired sessions, he held the longest solo press conference of his presidency. It was over the top and off the rails and has tonight resulted in the punishment of a Cable Network correspondent. And later, about last night, the wins, the losses, the surprises. And two folks who had the good sense to get out of congress while the getting was good. Well deliver their verdict with us here this evening, as the 11th hour is just Getting Started on a wednesday night. Today is the day youre going to get motivated. Get stronger. Get closer. 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At comcast, its my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. My name is mike, im in Product Development at comcast. Were working to make things simple, easy and awesome. Do you expect that when the democrats take over the chairmanship of all of these important committees that youre going to get hit with a blizzard of subpoenas on everything from the russia investigation to your cell phone use to your tax returns. Ready . Then youre going to, if that happens, then were going to do the same thing and government comes to a halt and i would blame them. If they do that, then its just all it is is a warlike posture. Not even a thinly veiled warning to the democrats there, roughly 12 hours after their party regained control of the house, it came during the president s longest solo News Conference to date. 87 minutes. He also tried to paint last nights Election Results as a big win. Ill be honest. I thought it was a very close to complete victory. I really believe that we have a chance to get along very well with the demo