You know, if you wanted to hold a pageant to decide the president aes favorite Member Of Congress, i dont think any of us knows who the final winner might be. Might be whether the president insisted on a swimsuit contest or something scarier. Without any argument at all, i think almost all of us who paid any attention to the news in this era, we could all name a couple of the pageant finalists were this contest to happen. One of the finalists would undoubtedly be the Member Of Congress who started off today being taken into custody at the offices of the fbi in lower manhattan. Chris collins a Republican Congressman from new york, hes from buffalo, he was the first Member Of Congress to
endorse Donald Trumps president ial campaign all the way back in february, 2016. We know that is the kind of thing that really matters to this president. Congressman collins has since been among the most Faithful Visible Trump loyalists in washington. But now hes been arrested in an alleged scheme that a
Touches several other serving republican members of congress and disgraced health secretary, tom price, the first trump Cabinet Secretary to resign in scandal. We have had our fair share of political scandals and public corruption indictments as a country. That is a history that includes todays date on the calendar in 1974, when president Richard Nixon resigned the presidency in the wake of the watergate scandal, this day, 1974. But even so, even with that rich history under our belts, it really is something when you wake up to the news of a sitting member of congress being indicted by federal prosecutors and the sight of a sitting member of congress being hauled before a federal judge for criminal arraignment. So, we will have more ahead tonight on trump ally republican congressman Chris Collins turning himself in and being indicted and arraigned on federal criminal charges today
including talking to the intrepid local reporter at the buffalo news, who first broke the story that turne
reporter: many people look at that memo as an audition for the job of attorney general look at this this is how i lean well, first, i wasn t interested in being attorney general. and second, you know, if i wanted to be attorney general, there are much more direct ways of auditioning for it some thought the memo was a signal to the president that barr was ready to make the russia investigation go away. your mind sounds like it was clearly made up before we even got to this point on the russia investigation that it was a phony investigation. no, it wasn t made up i was as i say in my book, suspicious of it it didn t ring true to me months after barr wrote that memo the president fired attorney general jeff sessions who had refused to intervene in the mueller investigation. the president offered the job to barr. five weeks after his confirmation the mueller report was in his hands. this is all we know bob mueller has submitted his report to the attorney
giuliani had said no obstruction questions, then he was a little less sure about the whole thing. clearly, there are obstruction questions. how do we deal with that? so as i understand it, the president s legal team takes a position since this obstruction of justice investigation is all about the firing of fbi director james comey, the president had an absolute right to fire comey for whatever reason he decided. and so you, robert mueller, have no right to investigate that. there was no crime there. we re not answering any questions about it. that i believe is their position, and mueller s team has taken the position that we need to know what was in the president s head, because if he had corrupt intent, if he was firing james comey to make the russia investigation go away, that could be a crime, could be obstruction of justice, could be grounds for impeachment. that s the standoff on that issue. all right. ken dilanian, thank clow you so, nbc news intelligence and national securit
someone of integrity, independence who sought to collaborate. i think most people wish the president would just put his twitter account away this week and honor the service of john mccain rather than create these distractions. as it relates to attorney general sessions, he loves me, he loves me not. we don t know what will happen to attorney general sessions. i think what the senate could do is make it clear that if you fire your attorney general that they will only confirm somebody who will continue the mueller investigation. when i hear senator graham say president trump should have an attorney general he can work with, that is fine. on policy issues attorney general sessions is aligned with donald trump. the only issue they don t agree on is that attorney general sessions won t make the russia investigation go away. another attorney general that would satisfy donald trump would only be someone who could make that investigation go away.