he said, i d like you to do a favor, though? yes. it s in the white house transcript. for more on the republicans defense strategy, we have former trump white house lawyer and cnn legal commentator jim schultz. also republican strategist and cnn political commentator ana navarro. we heard the president s allies defending him, casting aspersions on the whistle-blower. do you think this is a dangerous time? i mean, how seriously i m wondering what you make of the president s defenders reactions to this. if it wasn t so serious, it would be funny. what we re seeing is a theater of the absurd. you ve got the top republican in the house of representatives who goes on 60 minutes without knowing what the transcript said, without having read it and gets fact checked in realtime. you ve got jim jordan who goes out there and tries to act indignant and horrified. he s scandalized by hunter biden at the same time that he is defending an administration where there is all sorts of
almost ready to buy more javelins from the united states for defense purposes and president trump replies, i would like you to do us a favor, though. you just added another word. no. it s in the transcript. i d like you to do a favor, though. it s in the white house transcript. for more, we have former trump white house lawyer and cnn legal commentator jim schultz, also republican strategiest and cnn political commentator ana navarro. heard the president s allies defending him, casting aspersions on the whistle-blower. do you think this is a dangerous time? i mean, how seriously i m wondering what you make of the president s defenders reactions to this. if it wasn t so serious, it would be funny. what we re seeing is a theater of the absurd. you got the top republican in the house of representatives who goes on 60 minutes without knowing what the transcript said, without having read it and gets fact checked in reeltialti.
what s right. but you want to overall him if he decides to curtail? i would not get involved, and all these people that say i m going to end the investigation, thee been saying this, how long has this witch-hunt gone on? reporter: two quick notes. the president was asked specifically when he found out whitaker held these views, he did not answer the question directly, except to say, quote, i don t think ed the any effect. secondly, i want to point out our colleague here at the white house, abby phillip asked president trump similar questions. president trump at the time didn t take a liking those questions, referring to them as stupid, ana. borris sanchez at the white house, thanks. i want to bring in cnn legal commentator jim schultz who s worked as an attorney in the trump white house. hopefully he can offer specific insight for us. jim the president says he, not his lawyers, wrote the answers to mueller s questions. do you imagine that to be the case? he definitely had to
general if he tried to curtail the mueller probe. doesn t that in a way confirm critics fears about whitaker that trump appointed him to limit or stop mueller? no. i think the president was very clear today. he isn t going to interfere one way or the other. he said today there were issues where people said he s going to shut it down. he hasn t shut it down. he hasn t made any efforts to shut it down. when i ta matt whitaker can make legal judgments as it relates to this investigation or any other, and it s not the place for the president to interfere with that and he said he wouldn t. jim schultz, thanks as always. good to see you. thank you. happening now, a church vigil being held in california as the death toll rises to 79 in the wildfires in that state. another 1,300 people unaccounted for. we re live in the disaster zone when we come back.
this point. but why not recuse is the other question. why not recuse if he s not concerned, if he s not trying to influence the mueller investigation? he has no reason to recuse. there s no reason to recuse unless the law requires it. why, just because everyone doesn t like who he is or what his views are, he has to recuse? the law doesn t provide for it. he s not required to do it and frankly he shouldn t. jim schultz and renato marriotti, thank you both, good to see you. a father finds a way to comfort his 3-year-old daughter in the middle of a life or death situation. we re going to get on fire. no, we re going to get out of here and we ll come back when it s more princess possibleppy,? the man who got his family out of the fires will join us live in the cnn newsroom, next.