were worried about the stability of the department at that point if somebody couldn't step up and do the job. so that -- bourque has always -- while he's very conservative and much more conservative than many in the republican party, he's kind of gotten a bad rap over the years. >> so john, is it worse than -- i mean, in nixon's case, he had to get someone to get the job done. in trump's case, the white house believes he has the power to fire mueller himself. what do you think? >> well, i think that's a new theory of executive power that's really come since watergate. it's called the unitary executive theory, that the president has unlimited powers in the executive branch, that he cannot only fire anybody in the justice department, not with standing regulations, he can go over to the s.e.c. and tell them how to decide a case or tell the s.e.c. how to decide a case. it really does -- it places the president above the law.