We want to get right now to whats happening on capitol hill. Right now fort first time live in the road after the expletive Oval Office Meeting somebody there is going to be under oath. She is sitting right there. Kirstjen nielsen. Department of Homeland Security. Secretary. Testifying under oath in front of law make tears. A routine hearing once again up ended by politics. Secretary nielsen will also certainly be asked about the new in fa News Comments about the president. Perhaps by dick durbin who is also going to be lining the day as hes standing by his s hole account. This is standing any moment. All of it making a deal on immigration a little more difficult with more deja vu as the government ends one day closer to shut down. A deal on spending and immigration seems less likely over the next 72 hours making it a real possibility that the d. C. Will be closed on one year president s inauguration. You know what else . Steve bannon showing up to be vebted. Paul manafort is back in c
Their parents. Well dig into that in just a moment. We start with the hand grenade that President Trump threw into an already difficult fbi investigation process. Two sources now familiar with the matter telling nbc news the investigation into Brett Kavanaugh may end as early as today. That despite criticism over who is and is not on the witness list. On it, chris garrett, aka, squi, the friend who attended that july 1st party listed on kavanaughs calendar. And tim gaudett who may have hosted that party not on the list. More than 40 potential witnesses who are friends of kavanaugh and dr. Christine blasey ford. The white house saying the fbi has no plans to interview either. I repeat, no plans to interview ford or kavanaugh as part of the investigation. The president had been uncharacteristically measured about the situation, no longer. Here he is last night at a rally in mississippi. What hes going through 36 years ago this happened. I had one beer. Right . I had one beer. Well, do yo
Interest for the president to oversee the investigation through the white house. To have Matt Whitaker there is exactly the same problem. And i also note that under the vacatio vacancies act, its unclear if he could be in that position. He is not senate confirmed. And there is an issue about what position he has, would it qualify to be under the vacancy act. Do you expect mueller to act quickly with any possible announcements, now that the mid terms are over and the attorney general has been fired . I believe Robert Mueller is a very smart man, and that he has contingencies in place. Will be sending letters to both the special counsel to say if there has been any change in the scope of the investigation, they need to inform members of the congress and specifically the Judiciary Committee. Do you think that muellers job is in jeopardy until democrats take over the house of representatives, presumably in january . I do not believe Robert Muellers job is in jeopardy right now. I think the
Telling cnn President Trump is preparing a big, bold new wave of pardons, potentially dozens of people. Paperwork is now being assembled. Cnns kaitlan c has the report and shes joining me from the white house. Kaitlan, how many people are we talking abhere. Reporter we are talking dozens of people that the white house is preparing paperwork for the president to pardon. A very large number there comes after the president , of course, had the pardon last week and the very controversial figure dinesh de souza, and this goes to show how much the president is willing to exert his constitional power and what he believes are wronged and people on he believes were imprisoned for too long and were seeing an indication of how much the president is ready to do that with this number of at least 30 people that the president is read to parton. This comes as the president met with Kim Kardashian last week in the oval office. That was unusual, but it was because she was lobbying for President Trump to
Expecting. Jeremy diamond is at the white house. The president said that he is excited about mcgahns replacement. We have some idea as to who that may be. Are we getting any indications from the white house as to who he is picking to replace mcgahn . I spoke with a senior white house official who says the sense inside the white house is no final decision has yet been made as to who will succeed don mcgahn. Thats despite the president s tweet where he said, i am very excited about the person who will be taking the place of don mcgahn as white House Counsel. I like don but he was not responsible for me not firing mueller or sessions. So much fake reporting and fake news. Despite the fact that the president hasnt named a successor for don mcgahn, the senior white house official said flood really does appear to be the top contender. He is the special counsel handling everything with regard to the special counsel investigation into russian interference and the questions of obstruction of ju