Our job is to serve and represent the whole of the american people. And george on our minds, why tuesdays special Congressional Election is the biggest test yet for the trumps presidency. Joining me is david brooks, amy walter, and danielle pletka. Welcome to sunday, its meet the press. The longest running show in television his celebrating its 70th year. Good sunday more and happy fathers day to all of the dads out there. We want to update you on the progress of one father in particular, congressman Steve Scalise who was shot at the republican baseball practice on wednesday, his condition has improved from critical to serious. The hospital says he is more responsive and peaking with his loved ones. Now, back to our main focus this morning, President Trump has been in office for a few months and now they are under fgs for obstruction of justice. She was seemingly acknowledging that it was true, he said i am being investigating for firing the fbi director, that was not an acknowledgment that he was being investigated. Another strange twitter turn. They are preparing for historical implications. They are increasingly developed on all this week punctuated by a frightening attack that shows how thin the line can be between anger and violence. We represent the whole american people. On a week when political rancor turned to tragedy. The horrific shooting of members of congress is a reminder that our toxic politics can turn violence. We do well to mremember that we love our country but he under call his calls for unity. On thursday, they called the investigation the single greatest witch hunt in american political history led by bad and conflicted people. Do you believe youre under investigation . Friday he doubled down saying im being investigated for firing the fbi director by the man that told me to fire the fbi director. An apparent reference to Deputy Attorney general rod rosenstein, and it contradicts what trump himself told lester hold. Regardless i was going to fire comey. When i decided to do it, i said to myself, you know this russia thing with trump and russia is a madeup story. He added a power house lawyer to his Legal Defense team. They are also investigating soninlaw jared kushner. They said we do not know what this report refers to. Ironical ironically, trump warned it would be should trobl. Hillary is likely to be under investigation for years. Now they are lead by a special council. Is it a witch hunt . Welcome to meet the press, happy fathers day. Happy fathers day. Let me begin with getting clarification here. The president tweeted im being investigated for firing the man that the director told me to fire. He is not under investigation by the special council. The tweet from the president was the five Anonymous Sources that was great able leaking information to the president. As we know of today, the president is not under investigation. Why did he say he was . I mean is this just mistweeted . The president s tweet was in response to the Washington Post story. They had five Anonymous Sources, and they did not identify what agencies those sources were from. Let me be very clear here as it has since the beginning. The president is not and has not been under investigation for obstruction. So why is he confused. Why is he not taking your legal advice saying youre not under investigation. Why tweet this . I think your reading more into the tweet than what is there. The president sent out that tweet in response to the Washington Post story with the five anonymous unnamed sources from unnamed agencies. Thats why he put that in the tweet. As you know he has been very effective at utilizing social media. He is not under investigation. The tweet was in response to a Washington Post story concern. He said by the man that told me to fire the fbi director, i assume that is a message to the attorney general. He said he was going to fire the fbi director regardless of what the attorney general said. So who made the recommendation to fire james comey. Was it the president s decision or the recommendation of the Deputy Attorney general. He is president of the United States. There is a very thorough process. Im holding in my hand, the letter sent from the attorney general of the justice regarding the situation involving former fbi director comey. In that recommendation is a recommendation for removal. As you know they have the ability to think about these not in a vacuum. There is a process. When he met with his Deputy Attorney general for what they thought the appropriate course of tax should be, they were convinced that james comey should be ri moved, but if the leaks were correct about the investigation, and we have no knowledge of an investigation, here is what the legal ththeory case would have to be. You would have had the president of the United States reviewing a letter and recommendations from his department ahead, that would be the attorney general of the United States and others. That is the nature of the issues, and he made a determination based on that determination and dlib eliberat process the president said to lest to hold that he already made the decision. You said he asked for the consultation. In his prepared statement, in his testimony to congress, he said my memorandum is not a statement for reasons to justify a for cause determination. So im confused by youruation rl he rationale here. He said i must recommend you remove james comey. That is pretty unqualified. Attached to that is a memorandum from the former the handling of the Hillary Clinton manner, but lets take a look at what you just said. Here is what you just said, the president made the the president under the constitution has that authority to see that decision. He has memorandums, here is the theory of this purported case from the Washington Post. Just think about this for a minute. The president of the United States takes action to remove the fbi director, and he has a recommendation from his attorney general and Deputy Attorney general to take that action. He is now being investigated by the same department that told him to take that action. That is not constitutional. That is not the way the constitution works. But the question will be what was the reason behind the firing. So let me ask you this, was the reason having to do with his handling of the Russian Investigation . Or was it having to do with his handling of the clinton emails. The president in his interview with lester holt said it was about russia, which is it . The memorandum from the attorney general, its about the Hillary Clinton emails, thats what document says. But you raid an interesting point, when the president gave that full interview to lester holt that if, in light of all of this, the removal of james comey would lengthen the amount of time this investigate would take, but he thought it was in the best interest of the american people. He was fully aware that if he took this action, he could see a lengthenning of the process. And you cannot say these things in a vacuum. Multiple factors come into existence. That determination is protected by the constitution, period. Why is the president seeing to act as if he is so concerned about the investigation if he did nothing wrong. If he did if this is going to find that he did nothing wrong and he knows it, he should not be afraid of the investigation. Robert mueller is not a political guy, not a partisan guy, why doesnt the president just embrace this investigation if he is innocent . Because every day the Washington Post and the New York Times are utilized supposed leaked information about supposed investigations about the president of the United States. When you see a tweet, okay, or a utilization of social media, his social media reach is over 100 million. A little bit more are probably watching us today, i know you reach a lot of people. She responding to what he sees in the media in a way that he sees as appropriate for those people that put anymore office. But if he is not innocent, why is he afraid of the information . He is not aphrase, i want to be clear here. There is an information what russia did. And he told james comby, and they will testify to this, he said to continue the probe, but there is not an investigation of the president of the United States. Ly leave it there, thank you for coming out this morning on this fathers day, appreciate it. Joining me now, senator marco rubio, member of the Senate Intelligence committee. Welcome back to meet the press. Thank you, chuck. Let me again with the latest. The president tweeted the im being investigated for fearing the fbi director by the man that told me to fire the fbi director. Witch hunt. Diane feinstein said this pret yes rough words from her, she doesnt normally use language like that. Do you concur with her sentiment . I think everyone just needs to keep watching this and take a deep breath. The fbi will do their job. They dont sit around and read tweets. They will do their job, the fbi will do their job, and the Senate Intelligence committee will do their job. The best thang can happen for everyone, the president , the country, the government, is for a full, thorough, and credible investigation. Thats the best thing that can happen, and that is whats going to happen i believe. He referred to the investigation, i believes with as a witch hunt i want to say six or even times. That is not embracing the investigation and thats an attempt to under mind the credibility of the investigation. One thing we learned, i think from the testimony of multiple people now is that the president is pretty fired up about this. He feels strongly that he did nothing wrong and hements people to say that. I dont think that is a mystery and he is expressing himself in that way, that will not impede any of the work from continuing. You have never seen a Single Member of Law Enforcement and i believe all of the truth will come out. You dont believe theyre intended to send a warning to special Council Mueller or rod rosenstein. I have no way to make a determination on the intent. The president feeting pretty strongly about the fact that he did nothing wrong and he is trying to get multiple people to say that publicly. The work is moving forward, and i think it is important for everyone to understand that, and if that changes well have a different conversation on the air, but that is not happening right now. The president s legal team is disputing the notion that he is under investigation for obstruction of justice. Do you think it would be appropriate for the special council at this point considering the confusion of the firing behind the fbi director. An investigation doesnt mean guilt, it just means investigate him. You said it doesnt mean guilt, a lot of times thats how it is portrayed. No one wants to be under investigation, even if you did nothing wrong because it has negative con stations. I think they should look at everything. I think it will be good for everyone to have a full and credible investigation. I think that will have, and the result of that will be good for america and we can move on to take on some other portiimporta issues. There has been some concern that the administration is not taking seriously what russia did. It was quite stunning, here is what it is. I know nothing but what i read in the paper. I never received a detailed preefing on how a hacking occurred, or the information did you fend it startling that a member of the National Security council has not had a briefing on what russia did to in the election. What the negligence community said . It seemed to be stunning to me that a member of the president s National Security council. That would imply their not even discussioning this issue. The initial reaction people have is wow. An attorney general has not even been briefed, but you realize if he had been briefed what we would be talking about today is whether or not that is appropriate because he is recused. It is a catch 22. As far as the general theme of their interference, the president says he doesnt believe it, i know it. Think about what you just said. The president said he doesnt believe it, you believe it, you have seen the evidence, how stunning is that to you that the president of the United States disputes the evidence of 17 intelligence asigencies in this country. At the end of the day, he has a right to his opinion on these much issues. I believe there is sufficient votes in place to encourage him to do so, but in the end well do what we believe is right, well have disagreements from time to time, and hopefully his conclusion on that will change. The more the administration tries to soften the angsts in the house, at any point do you understand if people see that as circumstantial evidence in the probe. I can tell you that as i believe at the core of the resistance is the president. I think the concern comes from the state department. I think they want the russians to be more cooperative. It is a legitimate argument. I thought about it, and i dont agree with it. The majority of my colleagues didnt agree with it. Happy fathers day. Thank you. When we come back, we will hear from the third side, if you will, senator angus king of maine. And a call to turn down the rest rick after the attack that injured congress nan Steve Scalise. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. You will hear me say you will hear me say their experience is coveted. Say their leadership is instinctive. Theyre experts in things you havent heard of. Researchers of technologies that one day you will. Some call them the best of the best. Some call them veterans. We call them our team. You realize the smartest investing idea, isnt just what you invest in, but who you invest with. So we need tablets installed. With the menu app ready to roll. In 12 weeks. Yeah. The world of fast food is being changed by faster networks. Data, applications, customer experience. Which is why comcast business delivers Consistent Network Performance and speed across all your locations. Fast connections everywhere. Thats how you outmaneuver. Im talking about what the russians did. You not received any briefing on what they did . That was angus king asking jeff sessions. Joining me now from his home state of maine, senator king, welcome back to the show, sir. Thank you, your colleague, i asked him, i asked him to react to that answer that the attorney general gave to you, and while he acknowledged that might be stunning or surprising to some that the attorney general did not get briefed, that it was a catch 22, and that if he were, he would have been rescuesed and i dont think so, i dont think he recused himself until some time in march. Were talking about when he was a senior Foreign Policy advisor. From january to february. The narrow engagement in the election and not digging into it. I believe it is one of the most serious ataxes on our country that we have had in years. Mr. Comey said he had nine interactions with him before he was fired. In none of those did he say what did they do, how do we know they did it, and what can we do about it. This is serious stuff, and it is on securing what i believe is the under lying story. Do you believe that kus yosty is circumstantial evidence in and of itself . I just think that the president has it in his nand it is not real, and i wish he would just sit down quietly with some professionals, mike rogers, or the f,000,000,000 i that did the investigation, or jim clapper, and get the facts. Quit denying it. I think he thinks it undermines his election, and we have to put that aside. The russians are not going away. Theyre going to come after us in 2018 and 2020. And as marco rubio keeps coming, it could work in the opposite way, putin is not a republican. I wont repeat some of the tweets again, but the idea that he is upset with the attorney general and his managing of the special council, do you think he needs to rescues himself because he was consulted on the comey firing . I think definitely he will be interviewed by the special council because of his involvement with the president. Can kro you oversee an investigation that youre going to be a witness on . Well, you know, i dont know quite what oversee means in that context, bob mueller has independence, it is just a matter of time. We dont need to decide or argue about it today whether or not the president is under investigation. Mueller will investigate what he thinks is important and well find out in a manner of time whether or not he is following up on the question of on instruction of justice. The president indicated that the collusion aspect of the investigation is over and theyre coming after him. Where is the Senate Intel Committee on this. I know you dont know the exact end day of when you think you can draw a conclusion, but give me some sense of where you are. First i can sigh that the collusion or cooperation is not over. And i would say that were 20 into it. I think well be done maybe at the end of the year. This is a very complexion manner. There is a lot of witnesses and investigation yet to go. What is the difference in your mind twine collusion and cord nation . I think that is a crucial question. I think the ke well both of those are disturning if even exist. Lets take coordination. Were there people in the trump campaign, not necessarily the president or the candidate, that were in contact with the russians and sharing investigation and cooperating in terms of how they were acting in the latter stages of the campaign. Thats what were looking at, but dont forget that the under lying question is they tried to screw around with our elections and also with a state election system that i find really scary. Well have a hearing on that this week, and that could ultimately be the mos