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Then it's a very unclear situation, what we can and should do at that point. >> you, today, do have some concern and fear that whitaker will try the end the probe prematurely? >> well, end is a strong word. what is more likely is he would try to curtail it or scale it back, cut the funds, death by 1,000 cuts, if you will, and i think there's a serious question as to whether he has a constitutional power to do so. the constitution is very clear that these positions require senate confirmation, and there could be emergencies where you put somebody in an acting position, but in this case the pres...

Take over the house majority have made crystal clear this is going to be issue number one for them. >> susan, you are a lawyer. how serious are these lawsuits? >> i think they are serious, and they're certainly open legal questions here about whether it is a violation of the appointments clause of the constitution. ultimately, even if the government prevails it is an enormous legal headache, an enormous distraction for them and it was entirely avoidable if the president had just slowed down, actually spoken to his lawyers, found a senate-confirmed individual to occupy this acting position, he ...

But i really think that if you read the appointments clause of the u.s. constitution, it is absolutely clear that the attorney general has to go through a confirmation process with the u.s. senate. you can't just appoint anybody in the department of justice who has not been confirmed to go into the acting position. also you've got a law that's been around for 100 years that basically sets up the line of succession in the department of justice. it doesn't mean you can take some low-level assistant, like whitaker, and throw him into this position to make momentous decisions that affect our every...

That clearly will get democrats and even some republicans in the senate on capitol hill's eyebrows raised. i think this is a serious issue, and i think the president has put himself in a difficult position. in may not rise to the level -- i don't buy the argument that it rises to the level of a conflict of interest but it's important, this acting position does not have to be confirmed by the senate so it's going to get a lot of scrutiny. >> harris: what you're saying is it's more of a political talking point. are we to believe that it wouldn't be anything other based on all the reporting? wher...

Organizations -- and then the president starts to distance himself. the classic phrase is i don't really know him. he did that with paul manafort, who ran the campaign. whitaker's positioning here is very clear. he was put in the justice department because he opposed the special counsel, to watch what was happening in that office and now he's expected to do the exact same thing in this acting position. >> go ahead. >> one of the reasons the president liked him, he had been in the oval repeatedly because jeff sessions and the president had such a terrible relationship that the president did not...