security investigations, and that it should do that without reference to political favor. and this seems to be an idea that the president is not capable of getting his hands around and i think we should be candid that is what is going on here. benjamin wittes, msnbc legal analyst, i really appreciate you joining us, especially on short notice for this breaking news tonight. thank you. thanks for having me. i will just say, this is a dramatic report from axios.com. christopher wray reportedly threatening to resign if attorney general jeff sessions and the president were to prevail in pressuring andrew mccabe, the fbi deputy director, if they were able to prevail in pressuring him out of the organization. it had been reported towards the end of last year, that mccabe was, in fact, going to step down right around christmas time.
candid that is what is going on here. msnbc legal analyst, ben, really appreciate you joining us on the short notice. thank you. thanks for having me. i will say, this is a dramatic report from axios.com. christopher wray reportedly threatening to resign if attorney general jeff sessions and the president were to prevail in pressuring andrew mccabe, the fbi deputy director, able to prevail and pressure him out of the organization. it was reported toward the end of last year mccabe was going to step down around crihristmastim and retire from the fbi. he may have the number of years in that would allow him to retire sometime soon. he s 49 years old, though. this is not a time people typically retire. the new york times reported in late december that mccabe was going to retire early this year. axios is reporting mccabe is
but on obstruction of justice, today may end up going down as a landmark day in this scandal. because today is the day of the president s lawyers effectively stopped arguing against the allegation that the president obstructed justice and instead they pivoted today and started making a public case that it s okay if the president obstructed justice because he s the president and he can do that. as president he s immune from any accountability for that particular crime. the president s lawyer john dowd telling axios.com today, the president cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer. that was published by ax yos this morning and then this evening jeffrey toppin at the new yorker published this concerning his discussions with another one of trump s lawyers, jay sekulow. in several conversations with me sekulow emphasized that collusion between the trump campaign and russia, even if it did take place, would not be illegal. quote, for something to be a
elected to the senate, if he survives the scandals in alabama, it will be because of the accumulation of the six things jim just laid out and distrust of the media because the people who support roy moore when you talk to them, it s not that they don t it s not that they are mad he did these things, it s that though don t believe them because they come from the washington post. the piece is up on axios.com. thank you. not qualified the american bar association issues that unusual rating for one of president trump s nominees this guy, willie, what in the world? wait until you see his resume. we re back in just a moment.
strategist, steve bannon, and son-in-law have been clashing, that son-in-law being jared kushner. that s word from a number of news sources and denied by the white house. joining me is jonathan swan from axios.com. your latest article how trump diffused west wing feud for now. let s dive into that because there s been so much i guess interest in the enigma of these three figures, not only just kushner and bannon but reince priebus involved. explain the rub or where they went sideways. well, there was always a rub between steve bannon and gary cohen, who is donald trump s top economic adviser, and that was really a matter of policy. steve bannon is an ar dadant nationalist and cohen is a liberal democrat and has much more of a globalist perspective.