i m jonathan hunt, live in jerusalem. qatar has reportedly mediated an agreement between egypt, israel and the u.s. to allow foreign passport holders and some critically injured civilians out of gaza. this is significant since it would presumably allow some who ve been stuck inside gaza for weeks to leave. and it s been a deadly week for israeli troops as they battle hamas fighters inside gaza. the idf now says an additional nine soldiers have died. they were hit by an anti-tank missile while operating in the northern part of the strip. that s in addition to the deaths of two other soldiers reported earlier on tuesday. meantime, a barrage of israeli airstrikes targets in jabalia, just north of gaza city. israel claims the strikes destroyed a hamas command center set up civilian homes, as well as part of a network of underground tunnels. the idf says the strikes killed ibrahim bari, who commanded some of the attacks in israel on october 7th. it s not clear how many civilians w
district of new york u.s. attorney berman s recusal, and whether the southern district went too far in pursuing the campaign finance case in which the president was listed as individual number one. okay. berman is jeffrey berman, a trump ally. he s the united states attorney for the southern district of new york. so he recused himself from the cohen case. so whitaker, according to nadler, admits he discussed berman s recusal. remember, the new york times has reported trump asked whitaker, directly asked whitaker, whether berman could be put in charge of the probe. he s admitting he discussed berman s recusal. it s a major accusation that could go all the way to the president. under oath in february, whitaker denied ever being pressured by the president to interfere in any investigation. this is under oath. at no time has the white house asked for nor have i provided any promises or
him politically. these are all things that an autocrat would do. so this assault on the rule of law, this effort to undermine investigations into his own conduct is really a piece of that broader tableau about the undermining of our democracy. chuck, talk to me about whitaker s reported description of his job as the ability to jump on the grenade for the president. talk to me about the president s reported interactions with his acting attorney general. sure, brian. so whitaker s description of his role or the role of an attorney general, on frankly any senior leader at the department of justice to jump on a grenade, to protect the president is severely and sorely misplaced. that s whatnot we do. our job is to be tethered to the constitution, to enforce the law, to follow the facts and follow the evidence to whatever logical conclusion they lead us. so my concern with mr. whitaker
investigation. but what does he consider the mueller investigation? if he only considers that the investigation into russia collusion, that leaves a very broad universe, including the southern district of new york s investigation and prosecution of michael cohen, trump s former attorney who arguably knows the most about trump s private affairs, his family, and his business. so it does leave open the question what else has whitaker talked to trump about? let s stay on that. whitaker claimed he had no conversation with the president regarding the mueller investigation but refused to answer whether he spoke with him about the southern district of new york probe into michael cohen. what does that tell you? he has a point on one hand. there is executive privilege. the supreme court hasn t been helpful. all we really know is that executive privilege exists but we don t know exactly what the contours are of that privilege. so whitaker may be right if
investigation to be done. so whitaker s statements today were both incongruous and potentially to the trump investigation. the dirty trickster spent this weekend blasting mueller s indictment of him, by the way, speaking to anyone who was willing to listen, stone made the television rounds to savage the special counsel investigation. today, stone indicated he would not cooperate with prosecutor mueller. are you willing to cut a deal with mueller to avoid going to trial? i don t answer hypothetical questions. i have no intention of doing so, however. natasha, this is the kind of tease we have been watching from this guy for decades. this is what roger stone does. he taps right up to the tip-toes right up to the edge of the cliff and dances on it for a while. he s been doing it all weekend. what s he up to, besides narcissism?