other way which is why doesn t trump fire sessions? sessions is recused from the russia investigation so if he doesn t want this guy, he s obviously not afraid to get rid of people, though he does it in a unique way. why doesn t he get rid of them? i think aides have tried very hard to prevail on the president that firing the attorney general could be a comeyesque mistake. it certainly would raise questions about the rule of law, about whether or not trump was trying to affect the russia investigation in untoward ways and the political ramifications of that could quite well be very damaging to him so, you know, i think many people around trump have told him that firing sessions would be a bad idea. that doesn t mean he won t do it at some point. certainly there s a worry that getting rid of sessions who, you know, many people around him believe is doing the president s bidding would be a significant
there s a lot to still discuss here. one interesting fact was the fact that the minority head chief minority member on the house intelligence committee adam schiff went in the opposite direction from the rest of the democratic party, which reacted in the typical way and said, hey, it s possible that andy mccabe s firing was justified. we need to know more about that. there s a big set of facts hanging out there. it will be in the jus it is department inspector general s report. so, first of all, matt, when are we going to see that report? secondly, is there not an interpretation to all of this that that was trump trying to create a kind of litmus test for jeff sessions? and sessions making this decision in some ways preserved his job and did not give trump an easy pretext for firing sessions? yeah. and the report you re referring to obviously is this long awaited inspector general s report. we know there is one specifically on andrew mccabe.
firing sessions. nbc has not confirmed either of those reports. for more on the chaos, i m joined by charlie sykes from the weekly standard and eddie glad you, chairman of the center for african-american studies at princeton. let me start with charlie on this. the buzz about this thing. it seems in common sense terms, if you can apply them to the president, he s got mueller coming right at the white house gates now subpoenaing him for all his business records. i mean, he must be thinking hey, good, this guy means it. he s not going away for months if not years. he s coming to get me any way he can. it seems like we re going to get more firings just to keep things moving. your thoughts? yeah, i mean, all of his white house chaos is because that s the way trump wants it. he likes this. i think he s trying to create a safe space for himself where he won t have aides and cabinet members who will tell him, you can t do that or mr. president, you are wrong.
president wants and he s going to complete this investigation. he has the ability to bring criminal charges against folks and all the messaging in the world isn t going to stop that. jeremy bash, but you think he can use it to make a case for firing sessions, firing rosenstein, and putting someone in place who would fire mueller? i don t know, but after today, i think every cabinet secretary is at risk, as was previously referenced. i think another interesting question, nicolle, is whether or not if the house intelligence committee can t come forward with an actual report about what happened, does bob mueller believe that he has a responsibility to issue a report? there s some technicalities about the authority of a special counsel to issue a report, but in the same way that ken starr issued a report during the investigations into the clinton white house, you know, will bob mueller say, look, we re going to indict, we re going to convict, we re going to win convictions, going to br
the summer. right. sessions remains a popular figure. republicans on the hill stepped up and said we will not hold hearings for a replacement, this is a line, mr. president, you should not cross. whether that s fear of a constitutional crisis, firing sessions could lead to rosenstein, bob mueller or simply out of loyalty to jeff sessions who they ve known? the senate for decades and delivering on conservative promises in the doj? that we re not sure. sessions is a spot where the republicans in congress have pushed back a little bit against the president. the trump times make for strange alliances. even had very progressive democrats yes, also jeff sessions. spitting coffee out when i heard elizabeth warren on our air defending jeff sessions. barbara, thank you for elevating us for a while. when we come back, a sentence that hasn t been said in a long, long time. north korea may be ready and willing to hold talks with the u.s. which prompts an interesting question, is dona