New york city. He is calling on attorney general Jeff Sessions to get involved. Ellison barber live at the white house with the very latest on the president s call. Hi, ellison. Reporter eric, President Trump told reporters on air force one he is considering potential legal action against the times. He thinks this is something attorney general Jeff Sessions should get involved with and investigate to try to figure out who wrote this oped. The white house seems to be walking that statement back. A white house official told the Associated Press the president was expressing his frustration with the oped but not ordering federal prosecutors to take action. The New York Times says that they are confident that the department of justice understands that the First Amendment protects all american citizens and that it would not participate in such a blatant abuse of government power. More than 30 cabinet level and cabinet members have denied writing the oped. U. S. Ambassador to the u. N. Nikki
The d. C. Circuit. His answers to this committee have not resolved the issue. Frank ly, im surprised that judge kavanagh is not demanding that every document hes ever handled be reviewed by this committee. Unless of course theres something to hide. Thank you. Thank you, chairman grassley. Senator whitehouse, members of the committee. A great pleasure to return where i served as staffer some two decades ago. An even greater pleasure to be here today to testify in support of judge kavanaghs nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge kavanagh and i first met some 25 years ago when we clerked at the Supreme Court together during the same term for different justices. Although the law clerks were an impressive bunch, brett stood out. That was john dean we were just listening to in his testimony against john deans, against Brett Kavanaghs nomination. I want to go to Elliot Williams joining me now. A former Deputy Assistant general for legislative affairs at the department of
Previous president got in the game. The politics of division and resentment and paranoia has, unfortunately, found a home in the Republican Party. Much more on Barack Obamas reemergence a bit later on in this broadcast here tonight. First, the current president is escalating his effort to find and unmask the anonymous author of that explosive oped piece in the New York Times. And today, unbothered by what the president would do if that happened, donald trump suggested using his Justice Department to do just that. Do you think Jeff Sessions should be investigating who the author of the oped piece was . I think so, because i think its National Security. I would say jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was. Because i really believe its National Security. Is there an action that should be taken against the New York Times for publishing it . Were going to see. Im looking at that right now. Im looking. You said last night that its treason, what happened. In this country,
Justice department to do just that. Do you think Jeff Sessions should be investigating who the author of the oped piece was . I would think so because it is National Security. Jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was. I really believe it was National Security. Is there an action that should be taken against the New York Times . Were going to see. Im looking at that right now. Im looking. You said last night that its treason, what happened. In this country, we punish treason with the death penalty. Are you serious about that . Were going to take a look at what he had, what he gave, what hes talking about, also where he is right now. As you can probably tell already, the president spoke on Board Air Force one, recorded in audio form and not by cameras, while traveling from montana to north dakota. Do you want your people to take lie detecter tests about this oped . People have suggested it. Rand paul, who i like and respect, came out this morning. He said, have them
Attorney general to serve his political agenda rather than the law. Making the dubious argument that the oped in the New York Times posed a National Security threat to the country. Here is the audio of the president responding on air force one. I will say this, for somebody to do that its very low. And i think journalistically and from many different standpoints and maybe even from the stand point of National Security. Well find out about that. For the New York Times to allow that to happen, thats disgraceful. Do you think Jeff Sessions should be investigating who the author of the oped place was or who i think so. Because i think its National Security. It is like a third world dictator ordering the secret police going after somebody who says something about the boss. To government, that was his phrase. To government at once. Subjecting the anonymously published article amounted to treason. The president doubled down on that allegation and accused the New York Times itself of treason.