the department of justice has denied that they were looking for dirt on comey but, you know, all of this is very interesting. because it does go to the continued kind of morale within these agencies that they feel biept, you know, we re still talking about them. they really want to move forward, but the career folks and folks that work at these agencies will keep doing their job, keeping open safe sessions. that will continue. you have to expect it does hurt the people that work there, morale and how they feel about their leaders the agencies that they re working at. thank you. i want to discuss president trump s actions today, defending his mental stable, lashing out at the author of a tell-all book and turning the spotlight back on the russia probe on the focus of the legislative agenda moving forward. joining us now to talk more about it is douglas brinkley, cnn presidential historian, a former member of president
that the president is trying to interfere with the separation of powers and the independent judiciary is a core part of our democracy. we know that russia is trying to under mine that democracy. so every single time we see the president or a thread about the administration, trying to interfere in the investigation or gather dirt on comey, all that s doing is making the russian s job easier so the best case scenario is that the department of justice continues to function without interference from the white house and the special counsel continues to do its work. thank you all very much. i really appreciate it. still ahead here in the newsroom as headlines swirl about this new book of president trump and the white house the republican agenda waits. how fire and fury is overshadowing everything from data to infrastructure. plus, secretary of state rex tillerson telling cnn in a tv exclusive what he thinks of the president s competence as commander-in-chief and laider
congress to protect that special counsel through legislation that would stop his firing. there should be legislation, i hope it will be bipartisan, the bills i ve introduced along with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are bipartisan, to make sure that the president cannot fire the special counsel or fire rod rosenstein on the way to firing the special counsel. i want to turn to former fbi director comey. according to the times, an aide to sessions approached a hill staffer looking for dirt on comey because the attorney general wanted one negative article a day about the fbi director. doj spokeswoman denied that this happened, but if it s true, is that appropriate? i mean, if that s true, do you believe sessions should resign? inappropriate and hard to believe that the attorney general of the united states would seek dirt on his own fbi director. it so contravenes the ethic of the department of justice that
the lawyer. but it speaks to the unfitness of this president. and of course this is the larger issue that s raised by the michael wolff book. that here s a man who is so unsuited to the job, so incapable, so lacking in the basic temperament and skills to do the work, that his own lawyers can t tell him the truth. how can the country function that way? so it s an extraordinary moment in the history of the white house counsel. i know of nothing like it. it s fascinating what s happening with these lawyers, and back to don mcgahn, john dean, the fact that sessions aide reportedly going to this congressional aide to try to get dirt on comey, you know, days before the firing. how damming is that? well, i know of no precedent, certainly even back to the nixon
it s a very it s a gray area in the district of columbia. it s not an automatic situation. i don t know all the bars he s admitted to. but it s somewhat governed by which bar he belongs to. and john dean, this notion of an aide to sessions going to a congressional staffer looking for dirt on comey, how unusual does that sound to you? that sounds very unusual. i worked at the department of justice, and that is just way out of bounds of the norms of the department of justice. even as political a one as nixon had with first mitchell and then kleindienst. i want to thank everybody. this is, obviously, a political as well as a legal story. let s bring in the political panel, diana grubez, van jones, jack kingston, veronica henderson, paul begala, and jason miller. and go. what do you make of the reporting tonight? well, i mean, this is disturbing.