my motivation, why? >> i've been thinking why jay sec cue lo would go on the circuit and say this is the message that i'm trying to drive. and i think really what they're trying to do is frying to say that the president isn't under investigation as far as they know. that's what they're trying to say. >> don't they drive home the message that the president is under investigation just by the -- >> it's called hanging a lantern on it. >> exactly. john dean, you've been in the white house before. you've been around. when you don't want something to be out there in the ethos, you don't give it oxygen. you shut up about it, don't respond to it. >> that's the general rule. we've got a situation here, don, where the justice department really doesn't have the power to indict a sitting president. so they might be driving the point home right now and starting to lay the base for it that they don't think the special counsel should be even snooping around these areas if they are beginning to target a