smartest people in the world? preem reminds me what we asked after 2008. the credit swaps, nobody new, impossible for the s.e.c. and the government to regulate what was going on on wall street until it blew up. i m afraid that s what we re facing afacebook. and joe bezos, he says it was an attempt to blackmail and extort him. plus real oversight of the trump administration kicks into gear this morning as acting attorney general matthew whitaker becomes the first high-profile member of the trump administration to face the democratic-controlled house. morning joe is coming right back.
mueller s inquiry appears to be expanding beyond just russia, beyond just what we thought it originally involved and possibly leapfrogging into the middle east, which is a whole new universe for mueller s team to be looking at. also legally, as well. let s look at the federal code here. that s why we have you here. section 208, what is it exactly? this is the general conflict of interest statute. generally speaking, a federal l employee, executive branch official or executive branch employee, cannot participate. that s the key, the conflict of interest statute does not criminalize holding assets, properties, stocks, credit swaps, things like that. what it does criminalize is holding those assets and participating in what is called a particular matter. and all that means is if you have a financial interest in a particular area, you can t lobby, you can t participate, you can t push the government to
the banks that were too big to fail are bigger than ever and still making multimillion dollar bets. i m wore blitzer, you re in the situation room of . the latest skirmishes are being fought on college campuses with both president obama and mitt romney but neither candidate is saying much not saying much at all about same-sex marriage. our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin is joining us from new york so. jessica, what exactly did the president say when he addressed the graduates today? reporter: the president had a real message of empowerment and a little bit of politics. from president obama a message to female graduates that equality can be theirs. it is simple math, today women are not just half this country, it s half its workforce. reporter: if they work for it. don t just get involved, fight for your seat at the table. better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table. reporter: wonder if this is part of the campaign s apile to women voter
speaker gingrich said tonight, i don t know if you agree with him, he said, if you repeal dodd/frank, which everybody says, repeal dodd/frank. he says that overnight, the housing industry will do extreme well. it seems like all of you lay criticism on dodd/frank twasn t passed until july 2010. our problem started in 2007 with the stupid credit swaps and the toxic credit swaps with people borrowing money that shouldn t be borrowing. why are you demonizing dodd/frank so much? you have to go back to the start of the problem, with the financial meltdown of 2008 because of fannie and freddie. that started this whole housing meltdown and the financial system meltdown. and then on top of that, the democrat congress thought they were trying to fix the problems
speaker gingrich said tonight, i don t know if you agree with him, he said, if you repeal dodd/frank, which everybody says, repeal dodd/frank. he says that overnight, the housing industry will do extreme well. it seems like all of you lay criticism on dodd/frank twasn t passed until july 2010. our problem started in 2007 with the stupid credit swaps and the toxic credit swaps with people borrowing money that shouldn t be borrowing. why are you demonizing dodd/frank so much? you have to go back to the start of the problem, with the financial meltdown of 2008 because of fannie and freddie. that started this whole housing meltdown and the financial system meltdown. and then on top of that, the democrat congress thought they were trying to fix the problems