Plus, wheres the proof . When hes ready to discuss it, he will. Do those tapes exist . And if they do, will the president comply . We asked the top democrat on that committee in an exclusive interview the. And will trumps base stand for this . I travelled to the heart of Trump Country to find out. Do you want to get to the truth about this . Do you care . Is it important . Plus, insights and analysis from our powerhouse roundtable. Everything you need to know. What happens after the president of the United States says i am being investigated. Good morning. And to all the fathers out there, a very happy fathers day. This week, a new sense of urgency over President Trumps future and the cost of political anger. The shock of that wednesday morning shooting. A gunman targeting republican members of congress practicing for their annual Charity Baseball game. Banner headlines. Across america. Including the full front page of the new Orleans Times picayune, hometown paper op congressman Steve Scalise still in the hospital facing more surgery and a long recovery. The hospital reports scalise is doing better. That he is more responsive. And is speaking with his loved ones. The nation seemed to rebound in the uplifting thursday night ball game. Republicans and democrats praying together at second base, the position scalise was supposed to play. It made for a great image for fridays Washington Post. But one column over, and here we go again. President trump lashing out at special counsel mueller and his team of investigators. Reconciliation and anger battling for space on the page and for hearts and minds. And with those trump tweets aimed squarely at the special counsel and Deputy Attorney general rosenstein, the heat is on high at the department of justice. Lets bring in pierre thomas. Martha, good morning. The president in that tweet basically said he believes hes under investigation. That soon could become a reality. The former fbi director james comey laid out what he believes is a disturbing case. He said the president asked him for loyalty. Asked him to basically stop the investigation into former National Security adviser michael flynn. And he said he was fired to change the course of the russian investigation. Mueller faces a huge decision. Does he believe the president or go after the president in the way james comey wants him to do . My sources are telling me hes begun preliminary planning. Plans to talk to people in the administration. Hes not yet made the decision. To go for a fullscale investigation. How vast is this team . How vast are the personnel hes hiring . Give us a sense of how big this investigation is and how it compares to others. Muellers hired 13 attorneys already with more in the pipeline, im being told. He also has a platoon of fbi agents at his disposal. So its fair to say that the trump team and administration is going to face scrutiny they have never seen before. These people, these prosecutors are experts in conspiracies. Investigating the mafia. And bringing down crimes like enron. A lot of pressure here. Our next guest, speaker Newt Gingrich, says the first few people mueller hired were democrats or given to democratic candidates. Is that a fair issue to bring up . Clearly, several of the people hes hired have made donations to democrats in the past. But Justice Department guidelines say he cannot use that against people in terms of whether theyre republicans or democrats in regards to hiring. Hes supposed to use the basis of their skills. One thing we can take as fact. Bob mueller is not seen, by and large, as a partisan figure. He served as fbi director for ten years. He was reconfirmed by the senate, 1000. Hes starting to get some pushback from some. Clearly, some people are pushing at bob mueller. Im not sure that dog is going to hunt. What do you make of the tensions between the president and the Justice Department . Especially deputy a. G. Rosenstein. Extraordinary. I talked to sources on friday. They were perplexed. The president s tweet called into question the integrity of rosenstein. They didnt know quite what to make of it. Rosenstein is under extreme pressure. If mueller decides to do a special counsel investigation of obstruction of justice of the president and it involves the firing of comey, rosenstein is a potential witness. He may have to make a decision to recuse himself. If he does that, you would have the attorney general and Deputy Attorney general of the United States recusing themselves in a massive investigation. Okay, thanks very much, pierre. Im joined by trump ally and former House SpeakerNewt Gingrich, author of understanding trump. Good morning. Good morning. I want to start with the russia investigation. We saw the Washington Post headline and attorney general Rod Rosenstein cautioning people and reports from anonymous officials. But then, as the president tweeted, im being investigated for firing the fbi director by the man who told me to fire the fbi director. Witch hunt. We know people close to the president s legal team say he wasnt confirming any sort of investigation. You heard what pierre said. President trump was commenting on the Washington Post headlines. Youre the man who wrote understanding trump. How do you understand that tweet . Trump has a compulsion to counterattack. Hes very pugnacious. I dont think it serves him well. I dont think that tweet helped him. But its almost like who hes been his whole life. Hes been a fighter his whole life. Hes infuriated, legitimately, in my judgment, by this whole russian baloney. And notice how its evolving. They dont have anything on russia. Maybe, maybe there was obstruction. We may not get anything on obstruction. Maybe there will be perjury. And maybe there will be a you go down the list. We have been here before. We watched comey appoint patrick fitzgerald, the godfather to comeys children, and fitzgerald knew there was no crime. Lets go back to what you just said. This russian baloney. Its russian baloney. If people are involved in collusion with russia, dont you want to know about that . If you want to investigate russia, fine. How about bill clintons 500,000 speech. How about podestas brother. Who is a registered agent for a russian bank. How about the iranian deal. Lets stick with this for a moment. Im happy to look at russias relationship. I think it would be healthy to have congressional hearings on foreign influence peddling in the u. S. Way beyond the russians. I think thats important for the future of our democracy. No one and comey said in his last testimony, no one has suggested that donald trump had anything to do with colluding with the russians. Theres not a bit of evidence he did. We dont know what any evidence is so far. We dont know what is going on. Senator feinstein, the democrat Ranking Member said there is no evidence of collusion. I want to go back to the tweet for a second. Do you think he was confirming an investigation . I have no idea what he thought he was doing. Okay. You said this week that the president cannot obstruct justice. You led the charge to impeach bill clinton. You voted for article 3. Of the house impeachment of bill clinton for the obstruction of justice, somewhat the difference here . Clinton committed perjury. He lost his license to practice law. Perjury is a felony. Its the same thing with nixon. The nixon people were involved in a crime. Andy mccarthy, who is a former federal prosecutor. He prosecuted the trade Center Bombing in 1993. Mccarthy made the point over and over again, if you dont have a crime, what is it youre investigating . We dont have any evidence that donald trump but the president said that he fired comey because of the russia investigation. If the special counsel finds he impeded that investigation by firing comey, how is that not obstruction . He didnt impede the investigation. Theres no evidence. First of all, the fbi itself has said, they have all the money they have asked for. They have had no problems getting resources. I think he fired comey because comeys public behavior was so destructive. He said he fired comey because of the russia investigation. Right. Because comey would not say in public what he was saying to trump in private, which is youre not being investigated. Trump wanted people to understand, fine, theres a russian investigation. It doesnt involve the president of the United States. Comey apparently said that in three occasions. Lets talk about bob mueller. You have done a complete 180 on bob mueller. You heard what pierre said. In may, you said mueller was a superb choice for special counsel with an impeccable reputation for honesty. Less than a month later, you say, he wont be fair. I have no problem with bob mueller as a person. But i have ever problem with how hes with what hes doing. I frankly began to switch the minute comey said, i deliberately leaked to a College Professor to leak to the New York Times for the purpose of getting a special counsel. Now the special counsel happens to be a close friend of comey. Which is weird. Because urnds Justice Department rules, mueller cant investigate comey. Mueller was appointed by rosenstein. And comey isnt under investigation. Comey may be under investigation. If you have an obstruction case comey has to be one of the major witnesses. Now im curious. Then i look at who mueller has hired. One of the lawyers he brought in has such a record of hiding evidence from the defense. The Supreme Court ruled 90 that when that lawyer participated in destroying arthur anderson, 85,000 jobs, that it wasnt a crime. He hid the evidence. He hid the evidence in enron and four people who were innocent spent a year in jail. You bring in head hunters like that. The first four people he brought in, one was someone who defended the Clinton Foundation against the freedom of information act. You heard what pierre said. You now have 13 in there. Federal law pro hibts the just of political or ideological affiliations in order to assess applicants. These arent applicants. Hes recruiting. You tell me why the first four names that came up. I dont know about the next nine. The first four are people that gave to democrats. Two of them are people with a record of hiding evidence from the defense. One of them is a person who defended the Clinton Foundation. In this environment with a Justice Department where 97 of the donations last year went to hillary, 97 , explain to me why i should relax as a republican. Bob english says the charges against trump are more serious than lying under oath. He writes that former president clinton was impeached for charges less serious than the ones before us now. In the current case, comey was exploring the possibility of american involvement in the russian plot, a treasonous what are the charges . Talked about what they could investigate. Notice how the whole system, including you moves the game. There are no charges against trump. Comey said, three times, no evidence of collusion with trump. Senator feinstein. The ranking democrat. Comey is no longer there. We know that. Hes said after six months of looking, there is no evidence that trumps involved. Senator feinstein said there is no evidence thats been found that trump is involved. So what is the evidence against trump . Lets talk about rosenstein. Why was trump, or was he in that tweet, publicly calling out his Deputy Attorney general . Has he lost confidence in him . I think hes furious. I think trump sits there and says, let me get this straight. I know i didnt do anything with the russians. Comey has said three times i didnt do anything with the russians. Nobody on capitol hill has any proof that i did anything with the russians. And now i get an independent counsel. Who will mess up the next year at a minimum. And who is now planning to expand the charge. Now theyre talking about obstruction. Going and looking at financial files. I said yesterday, you have two more leaks like this, rosenstein is going to have to appoint a essential counsel to investigate a special counsel. Should rosenstein recuse himself . No. I think this whole game of recusal is a nightmare. And i dont think people realize this. You have this legalistic nightmare. Trying to block the Trump Presidency on behalf of a department in which 97 of the money was given to hillary. You want me to believe this is all just random behavior. As a historian, i dont believe it. What do you think should happen here . If you have allegations. If youve got people saying things. What allegations . Allegations of collusion. You say there is no evidence. We dont know that. So should they just stop it down . Show the evidence. Show the evidence. If they have evidence donald trump is personally involved, show it. Were not just talking about donald trump. Trump did nothing to slow down the investigation below comey. No one is suggesting the regular fbi could investigate to their hearts content. Trump said he wanted it done. He was angry at comey, not the investigation. Well see how this all turns out. Im sure it will be many months of going back and forth. Thank you for joining us. Good to be with you. Congressman adam schiff, the top democrat on the House Intelligence Committee joins me now. Good morning, congressman schiff. Good morning. You heard speaker gingrich say he doesnt trust bob mueller. But bob mueller is close to comey. Does he have a point . No, he doesnt. I found it hard to follow his argument, frankly. This is someone, as you pointed out, Newt Gingrich was extolling, just a few weeks ago, nothing has changed. Bob muellers investigation is only getting started. The only thing that has changed is the president is attacking bob mueller. And therefore, Newt Gingrich is attacking bob mueller. Members of congress on both sides of the aisle find mr. Mueller to be someone of bravery and courage who served his country with bravery in vietnam, who served both parties. Lets talk about the democrats he was talking about. Congressman. Is that a point . If hes got democrats in there, if hes got people who have given to clinton and other democrats . No, i think anyone who knows bob mueller knows he is choosing the best people to serve on the investigative team. People with experience in the issues he wants to investigate and believes need to be investigated. As you and pierre pointed out, he cant go through f. E. C. Filings to determine if he should or shouldnt hire people. Hes picking the best people. Members of congress have confidence in that. Whats happening here, the president wants to take down bob mueller. His lawyer wants to take down bob mueller. The question is, why . And i think the answer is they want to lay the foundation to discredit whatever bob mueller comes up with. Theyre essentially engaging in a scorched earth litigation strategy. Theyre trying to discredit the prosecutor. I dont think we should acquiesce in the besmirchment of this good man. We ought to let him do his job. Hes just getting started. You said recently, there is evidence of collusion. What kind of evidence have you seen . What can you tell us . I think there is evidence. I cant go into the particulars of our closed investigation. I think there is also evidence of obstruction. In both cases, whether there is some, evidence doesnt mean there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The same people that say there is no evidence of collusion say there is no evidence of obstruction. And that the president cant commit obstruction. I dont buy that. If you look at james comeys testimony, and we were trying this in a court of law, no judge would exclude that. That would all be relevant evidence as to potential obstruction. The fact that the president can fire someone for good cause or can fire someone with no cause doesnt mean that he can fire someone for malicious cause. The fact that an employer can terminate an employee at will. That doesnt mean he can fire an employee because they rejected their sexual advances. So i dont i want to go back to the collusion and i know you cant talk about specific evidence. Dianne feinstein says there is no evidence of collusion. Collusion between who . The russians and the hacking and the dumps of documents in the election had essentially relationships with Trump Campaign people. And, coordinated those efforts. Now the fbi open investigation into that issue in july. Well before congress did. I think they did that for good reason in july. I think they maintain that investigation. Its ongoing for good reason as well. Im not prepared to say there is proof you could take to a jury. I can say theres enough that we ought to be investigating. It would be negligent for us not to investigate. And the principal reason is, martha, that if a Foreign Government has something they can hang over the head of our president or our administration that can influence u. S. Policy, its very much in our National Security interest to know it. And we need to conduct this investigation now. Newt gingrich and the president would like us to shut it down before its under way. Were far closer to beginning the investigation than the end. But it would be the worst form of negligence to our republic to say were going to close the investigation before we can determine whether there is merit to the allegations. Abc news has recorded Deputy Attorney general rosenstein has started discussing whether to recuse himself. Do you think he should recuse himself given his role in justifying james comeys firing . I think we ought to let bob mueller develop some of the evidence and determine what he needs to investigate. If he believes he needs to look into the circumstances in which Rod Rosenstein wrote the memo. If