With russian officials and a couple of days after the trump security adviser retroactively registered himself as a foreign agent. What happened . What happened . Tomorrow Jeff Sessions under oath, the first time we will have any chance of learning the answer to that question, if they ask it of him. Watch this space that does it for us tonight. Ill see you again tomorrow. Now its time for the last word with Lawrence Odonnell to whom i owe 1 07. Im sorry. But you were just being so help to feel the senate staff that are preparing questions for tomorrow, that im sure theyre all scribbling furiously. We thought we knew, had a pretty good idea what the questions would be to Jeff Sessions. But now we know that one of the very first questions tomorrow is going to be what will you do if the president orders you to fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller . What was your role in the firing of the fbi director . What was your role in the firing of the u. S. Attorneys . What will you do, what will your role be if he tries to fire the special counsel . Eventually can he fire everyone . I mean, its going to be fascinating tomorrow. Were going to hear every one of those questions. What we dont know is how many answers were going to hear. Yeah. That were not sure of. Yeah. This question of executive privilege and what theyre going the call executive privilege and such a i mean thats a difficult legal theory anyway. Thats not a cut and dried thing even in the best of circumstances, i think were going to get into Appeals Court territory pretty quickly tomorrow. And i have a feeling that Jeff Sessions isnt going to rely on the feelings pleading that we heard last week from dan coats and the director of nsa. It is my feeling that i shouldnt talk about this. I have discomfort. Yeah. Yes. I have a gavel. We will seattle. Thank you, rachel. Thanks. When president nixon fired the special prosecutor investigating him, he did it on a friday night and shocked headline writers who immediately called it the saturday night massacre. No one saw that coming, no one. Everyone in the country was shocked. But because the Trump White House is the leakiest white house in history, we know tonight that the president is thinking about firing special prosecutor Robert Mueller. And the first wave of commentary that you may have heard about this included many people repeating the phrase cant imagine. As in cant imagine that the president would actually fire the special prosecutor. If you cant imagine that, you have not been paying attention. To president donald trump. Trump and the people around him are not acting like people who have nothing to hide. Its Jeff Sessions turn to answer questions from the Senate Intelligence committee about russia. The last time he was here, he testified and gave false testimony. I did not have communications with the russians. We got a lot of questions we want to ask him. He violated his own recusal. If the president okay testifying in this setting tomorrow . I think he is going to testify. Were aware of it and go from there. I think what republicans ought to focus on is closing down the independent counsel. Could the president fire bob mueller . Firing special prosecutors tends not to work, as we all learned from watergate. You may be the first president in history to go down because you cant stop inappropriately talking about an investigation. What were calling stupid watergate, something with all the potential National Shame of watergate brought to you by people too stupid to grasp the concept of shame. Mr. President , its been an honor to serve. I cant thank you enough. It looked to me something out of north korea or the soviet pole it wil politburo. We thank you for the blessing you have given us. April ryan, the White House Correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks is reporting there is, quote, mass hysteria, thats her term, mass hysteria in the white house tonight because the president is considering firing special prosecutor Robert Mueller. Tonight on the pbs news hour, chris ruddy, a confidante of the president said this to judy woodruff. I think he is considering perhaps terminating the special counsel. I think he is weighing that option. I think its pretty clear what one of his lawyers said on television recently. I personally think it would be a very significant mistake, even though i dont think there is a justification, and even though i mean, here you have a situation chris ruddy had just come from the white house before doing that interview with judy woodru woodruff. The report of mass hysteria in the white house tonight is based on the point that chris ruddy just made, even though he is a trump supporter who believe theres shouldnt be a special prosecutor, he believes it would be politically disastrous for the president to fire the special prosecutor. When president nixon fired the special prosecutor that was closing in on him, the president then felt the resulting political pressure was so strong that it forced president nixon to then allow the appointment of a replacement special prosecutor. Leon jaworski who carried the watergate investigation to its conclusion which force president nixon to resign. Tomorrow afternoon when attorney general Jeff Sessions appears to testify to the Senate Intelligence committee, he will be asked about firing the special prosecutor, if the special prosecutor has already been fired by tomorrow afternoon, such is the suspense we live with, then Jeff Sessions will be asked about any conversations he had about firing the special prosecutor. Hell be asked why the special prosecutor was fired. But if special prosecutor Robert Mueller has not yet been fired as of tomorrow afternoon, then Jeff Sessions will be asked if he will resign if the special prosecutor is fired. That is what attorney general Elliot Richardson did when president nixon ordered him to fire special prosecutor archibald cox. Elliot richardson refused the president s order and resigned. And then the Deputy Attorney general williams ruckelhaus refused that same order, and then he refused. And then Robert Bourque obeyed the president s order. And that was remembered when Robert Bourque 14 years later was nominated by president reagan to fill a Supreme Court vacancy and his nomination was defeated by a vote of 5842. What happens in the firing of Robert Mueller be remembered for the rest of the lives of anyone who participates in that firing. Technically, the president does not have the direct power to fire the special prosecutor. Only the attorney general has that power. But since attorney general Jeff Sessions has recused himself from matters involving the special prosecutors investigation of the trump administrations russian connections, the prosecutor to fire the special prosecutor now rests with Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein, the man who appointed the special prosecutor. This evening we have been hearing many, many commentators say they just cannot imagine that President Trump would have the special prosecutor fired. Everyone who has said that is a very slow learner about the capacities of the trump administration. One senator has already imagined it. Senator Kamala Harris of california last week asked Rod Rosenstein to guarantee in writing that the special prosecutor would not be fired. That exchange became memorable not so much for the assistance for the style of Rod Rosensteins response in which he seemed to try to avoid giving senator harris an answer, and more importantly, it was remembered for senator harris persistence in getting an answer. Would you agree, mr. Rosenstein, to provide a letter to director mueller similarly providing that director mueller has the authority as special counsel, quote, independent of the supervision or control of any officer of the department and ensure that director mueller has the authority that is plenary and not, quote, defined or limited by the special counsel regulations . Senator, im very sensitive about time, and id like to have a very lengthy conversation and explain that all to you. Can you give me a yes or no . Its not a short answer, senator. It is. Either you are willing to do that or not, as we have precedent in that regard. Chairman, they should be allowed to answer the question. I realize that theoretically anybody can be fired. And so there is a potential for undermining an investigation. I am confident, senator, that director mueller, mr. Mccabe and i and anybody else who may film those positions in the future will protect the integrity of that investigation. Thats my commitment to you, and thats the guarantee that you and the American People have. So is that a no . She took that as a no. Kind of the best line of that exchange was just cut off in our video. That now turns out to be possibly the most important question that was asked at that hearing. There were many other important questions asked of the other witnesses that got all the air time that day. But now, now that question. Looms as the most important. That is the only time that Rod Rosenstein has been questioned about firing the special prosecutor. And his answer was theoretically anyone could be fired. He did give a guarantee, sounded like his personal guarantee that he would protect the integrity of the investigation. We will find out what that guarantee is worth. Well find out what that means, if the president tries to fire a special prosecutor Robert Mueller. We will find out if Rod Rosenstein simply refuses to carry out that order. And if he does refuse, then we will find out if he then immediately resigns following the Elliot Richardson model, or perhaps more interestingly, Rod Rosenstein refuses to carry out the order and he doesnt resign. And he tries to appoint another special prosecutor. Then well see if the president then fires Rod Rosenstein. Or might attorney general Jeff Sessions decide that he will carry out the president s order and fire Robert Mueller himself . Even though he has recused himself from the russia investigation. Then does Rod Rosenstein resign . With a president who is motived by the norms of political cost benefit analysis, we might be able to predict for you what might happen here. With any other attorney general, we might be able to predict what the attorney general would do. If the president wanted the special prosecutor fired. What we do know is that from the start, President Trump has behaved not like a politician who is concerned with how things look and how they will look in the next election, he has behaved as senator franken said like he has something to hide, something big. And we know a lot about Jeff Sessions, but not enough to predict what he will do if the president orders the firing of the special prosecutor. And so tonight the investigation of the president and his associates has hit another stunning suspense point. Will the special prosecutor be fired . It was a question that Rod Rosenstein thought he could ignore last week. And most of the media thought it could be ignored last week when Kamala Harris asked about that. But tonight here we are. Its the question of the night. And we dont know what attorney general Jeff Sessions will do. We dont know if he will do the right thing and stand up to the president. This might be the night when Jeff Sessions looks into his soul and decides that the place he wants to occupy in history is as an attorney general who did the right thing when the president tried to fire the special prosecutor. If this happens, if the president does try to fire the special prosecutor, Jeff Sessions should know that what he then does will define his place in history. It will overwhelm everything he has ever done in his past, good or bad. It will be the thing he is remembered for. No one remembers Elliot Richardson for being the attorney general of massachusetts. No one remembers anything else Elliot Richardson did as the attorney general of the United States. They remember only that Elliot Richardson did the right thing on one night of his life when president nixon wanted to fire the special prosecutor. And unfortunately, everything that we do know about Jeff Sessions tells us that Jeff Sessions is no Elliot Richardson. Joining us now walter dallinger who served as head of the office of legal counsel. He was acting solicitor general from 1996 to 97. John heilemann, National Affairs analyst for msnbc news and msnbc. And david frum, Senior Editor at the atlantic. Take us through the possibilities here. And one of the things i want to consider as we approach this, Jeff Sessions may already be a subject of the special prosecutors investigation, possibly for perjury in testifying to the senate, or possibly involving his possible russian connections. It is is it possible that Jeff Sessions tonight has to worry that if he participates in the firing of the special prosecutor, that could add a obstruction of justice risk to him in what could become any investigation that follows that . Well, as you know, attorney general sessions recused himself from anything having to do with the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 president ial election. For him to unrecuse himself and to participate in any decision to dismiss the special counsel i think would place him at extraordinary personal legal jeopardy. So i cannot imagine, no matter how loyal he may be to donald trump that he would be the one to step into that at his own personal legal peril. Its much more likely that in the unthinkable world in which we were to dismiss the special counsel that the president would direct the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein to do that, i knew rosenstein a bit. Most people who have been in Washington Justice DepartmentLaw Enforcement know him. I find it unthinkable that he would accept and carry out such an order. I believe that he would resign and that the president would have to go down the list. One of the problems is there are not many confirmed officials in the department of justice who are in the hierarchy to become acting Deputy Attorney general and to take on that authority. I dont know how many people would have to resign before President Trump would find someone who would carry out the order to discharge mr. Mueller. You have to remember the extraordinary confidence that Robert Mueller has among federal judges all across the country, among fbi agents all across the country, among republicans and democrats who have been in Law Enforcement or justice or law firms who is a republican who served for two terms under president bush as director of the fbi. I mean, this is this would be such an extraordinarily shocking event that it would not simply call into question the integrity of this investigation, it would call into question whether we really were operating under the rule of law at all. Lets listen to Newt Gingrich making the case for firing the special prosecutor. I think that what republicans ought to focus on is closing down the independent counsel, because he is not independent. He apparently is very close to comey. We know comey hates trump. You have to assume that that has to leak over to mueller. And you have to assume that the people mueller is going to bring in are essentially Justice Department people who were 331 in favor of clinton over trump. David frum, your reaction to Newt Gingrich. First, he is calling him an independent counsel. Thats an important mistake. The independent counsel law was allowed to la ed ted to lapse a last century because there were doubts of constitution. That the special counsel is under the president because people have argued the president can be trusted to investigate himself. If that turns out not to be true, you are into political recommend dolphins most dire kind. Maybe Newt Gingrich would welcome that because its kind of an apocalyptic scenario and he enjoys thos