mueller has to come before congress and tell us its veracity. can you make that happen. we re going to subpoena him. congressman eric swalwell on the end of the investigation as washington aways word from ag bill barr on the findings. joining me right now rick tyler, political analyst, and jonathan alter, from the daily beast also a political analyst. jonathan you first. ag barr said in his letter to senate and house judiciary leaders he intends to consult with deputy ag rosenstein and robert mueller to determine what other information beyond the principal conclusions can be released to congress and the public. why isn t that comforting to the democrats? why are they bracing for a fight? because the attorney general is known for many years now as being a very strong advocate of executive power. he basically believes that the executive branch, the president
special counsel s investigation, but once you put him in that role as acting attorney general, then the question becomes can he be an honest broker. then there are other questions i will defer to michael whether he has been properly placed in that role. that s why you see the president showing discomfort with the question. michael, whitaker, part of his duty being the acting ag is that he would have oversite over the mueller investigation, aside from the fact he has been outspoken about it, but also reportedly the deputy ag rosenstein will still be in the mix. however, when in august of 2017 matthew whitaker was on many people s show, i even had an opportunity to interview him, he spoke prolifically what he thought limitations should be for the mueller probe. listen. my understanding of the scope is that it is limited. this is one of the discussions i
david. right, fred. i m going to take deputy attorney general rosenstein at his word he thinks highly of acting attorney general matthew whitaker. let s face it, if this guy is his boss for however short a time period, doesn t behoove him to start a wharf worar of words him. rosenstein was caught in the mix not in a good way when james comey was fired in 2017. he was one of the authors, was the author of the memo justifying it, that justification or reasoning behind it was a little questionable, maybe he didn t realize the president was dead set at that time on pushing ahead with getting rid of comey. now you have to wonder, though, if he is not privately asking himself why he as the number two guy at department of justice is not put in position of acting attorney general. is it because, and imaski am as
the same that jeff sessions looked at and was counselled by professional responsibility personnel in justice and agreed he should step aside, applied equally in force to matthew whitaker and he should step aside voluntarily because of predisposition to a particular outcome of a case he doesn t know the facts of yet. while there s a lot of criticism of whitaker and how he has revealed his thoughts on the mueller probe, david, the acting ag or i m sorry, deputy ag rosenstein is saying or commending whitaker having known him, saying he is the right guy for the job. this is rosenstein. i think it is a superb choice for attorney general. staunlds the work and priorit s priorities understands the work and priorities of the department. this only adds to confusion,
trump and jeff sessions, the attorney s chief of staff, matt whitaker, would attend white house meetings in his place. but sessions apparently did not know that whitaker at the same time was angling for a promotion. here s cnn s evan perez. matt whitaker s rise has been in the works for months. his boss, former attorney general jeff sessions, only came to realize this recently. cnn has learned new details of some of the behind the scenes drama that took place after white house chief of staff john kelly called sessions to ask for his resignation. top justice department officials including deputy attorney general rod rosenstein huddled with sessions to try to find a way to delay the resignation. rosenstein was the highest ranking official overseeing special counsel robert mueller s investigation. that is, until whitaker took over as acting attorney general on wednesday.