reporter: president trump using one of his favorite phrases to deny the bombshell report from the new york times, that he called for special counsel robert mueller s firing last june. but a source confirms to cnn that trump did call for mueller s firing and that white house counsel don mcbeggahn refd the order. trump s effort to remove mueller came just a month after he created a firestorm by firing fbi director james comey. two people told the times the president expressed concern over what he saw as three possible conflicts of interest with mueller serving as special counsel. one involving a dispute at trump national golf club causing him to resign his membership. another made mueller s law firm had previously represented his son-in-law jared kushner and finally that trump had just interviewed mueller for comey s replacement as fbi director.
white house lawyer ty cobb telling cnn we decline to comment out of respect for the office of the special counsel and its process. back in june, trump was also openly airing his frustrations over the russia probe on twitter. this one tweet saying you are witnessing the single gregle gr witch hunt in american political history. two months after the reported attempt to fire mueller, he was asked if he ever considered it. i haven t given it any thought. i ve been reading about it from you people no, i m not dismi dismissing people. reporter: trump says he is looking forward to a potential enter rue. i d love to do it. subject to my lawyers and all of that, but i d love do it. reporter: and while mueller s team tries to zero in on whether he obstructed justice, some legal experts say if he did attempt to fire mueller, it is part of a pattern. there is a theory in obstruction of justice which is actually a mosaic. can you take a lot of little
appear before the special counsel s office. it is one thing to refer to reports he didn t like as fake news to the press. it is quite another to do that under oath. jim acosta, cnn, davos, switzerland. and now to a story about air force one, the president will be getting a new refridnlgerator upgrade. boeing has the contract worth $24 million. and that is to replace two cold chiller units that came with the plane back in 1990. in the past mr. trump has criticized the cost of the air force one program as you recall, the $23.6 million price tag includes the design, manufacturing and installation of the new chiller units. still ahead here on the newsroom, in australia why a growing number of people say a holiday meant to celebrate national pride, it is really a reminder of hundreds of years of suffering for many people there. and we ll tell you what that is about plus high water is swamping parts of paris after
tell you about on the russia investigation. a source confirms president trump called for special counsel robert mueller s firing last june, but backed down when his own white house counsel threatened to quit. joining me on the phone with more on this is cnn political analyst josh dawsey, white house reporter for the washington post. josh, thank you so much. i understand you have new information about who tried to intervene so that the president wouldn t do this. right. don, so what we were able to report tonight is in the time period, there was a possible concern inside the white house he was actually going to pull the trigger on this, leading his former chief of staff, reince priebus, and former strategist and others to ask for intervention, basically talk to the president s friends, associates, aids and say how can we talk him out of this? there was a series of conversations in the white house during that period because the president was fixated on this.
said he was prepared to face mueller under oath and it may fuel mueller s focus on obstruction of justice. i ll speak with congressman hakeem jefferies. sarah murray, what s the latest? reporter: we ve long known the president is irritated by the russia probes and particularly the appointment of a special counsel. now we re getting a better sense of the lengths the president reportedly went to have robert mueller removed. president trump today using one of his favorite phrases to deny the bombshell report from the new york times, that he called for special counsel robert mueller s firing last june. mr. president, did you seek to fire robert mueller? fake news, folks, typical new york times fake stories. reporter: but a source confirms to cnn that trump did call for mueller s firing and