now that breaking news. attorney general jeff sessions now pushing back on criticism from president trump. in a statement he issued just a few minutes ago. the attorney general writing, in part, quote, while i am attorney general, the actions of the department of justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations. i demand the highest standards and where they are not met, i take action. however, no nation has a more talented, more dedicated group of law enforcement investigators and prosecutors than the united states. i am proud to serve with them and proud of the work we have done in successfully advancing the rule of law. let s bring in nancy cook, white house reporter for politico. and jonathan la mere, white house reporter for the associated press. he is also an msnbc political analyst. nancy, let me start with you there. because, again, pete alluded to this earlier, chuck rosenberg talked about this as well. the president has made it a
from the white house, from congress, from anyone. this is just a fragrant act by the white house to try to shut down that investigation. in terms of the attorney general s role here, that is obviously we ve got this memo, we ve got the letter from the president asserting he s not under investigation. but in between there, we ve got the attorney general writing to the president making this recommendation, the president saying he is firing the fbi director on the recommendation of the attorney general. the attorney general is recused, says he is recused from all matters related to the trump-russia investigation or to all matters relating to hillary clinton that may have arisen during the campaign. what it looks like, whether this is from trump-russia or what they say it is about, hillary clinton and the e-mails, he should be recused in either case. are we just putng too much emphasis on the word recused ? does it not mean anything? it s supposed to mean anything. both those memos
everything he laid out is right about jim comey. jim comey did violate a number of department rules. there is one fundamental rule at the department of justice more important than any other and that is independence of the department of justice and fbi to conduct investigations free from political interference. this is just a flagrant act by the white house to try to shut down that investigation. in terms of the attorney general s role here, that is obviously we have this memo from the deputy attorney general. we have the letter from the president asserting that he is not under investigation. but in between there we have the attorney general writing to the president making this recommendation and the president saying he is firing the fbi director on the recommendation of the attorney general. the attorney general is recused, says he is recused from all matters related to trump russia investigation and any matters related to hillary clinton. either from what it looks like
clarify his response in confirmation hearing. if there s any evidence that trump campaign communicated with the russian government in course of this campaign what would you do? i m not aware of any of those activity. i have been called a surrogate and i did not have a communications with the russians. and i m unable to comment on it. the attorney general writing to the senate judiciary committee, my answer was correct. he goes on to say i did not mention communications i had with the russian ambassador over the years because the question did not ask about them. that comes as the white house insists something happened in terms of the wiretap. that claim coming from trump s saturday morning allegation on twitter accusing president obama