origin of this russia probe. you have rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who over sees the mueller investigation, trying to protect the process of a counterintelligence operation, all amid an ongoing investigation. it s an uneasy situation for all of these players. but they re dealing with a president who is combative as ever. bob, let s say on behalf of the press corps, the president tried to wave away questions about rod rosenstein, we would love to ask questions about visiting dignitaries but we get no other access to the president, no other news conferences. having said that, what did you make of his lack of an answer until the question do you have confidence in rosenstein? he didn t give an answer, and that s telling because he s not expressing confidence at a moment where he could express confidence. the lawmakers who are close to the president like mark meadows and congressman devin nunes, they re very unhappy with rosenstein. the president fumes at times about rose
the president fumes at times about rosenstein and sessions and how this probe continues to go on and on. but the president has not had a formal news conference in quite some time. many months. these open pool sprays, it s an insider term, but these pool sprays, that s what they re doing, that allows the president to control the question and answer more than he would in that kind of traditional news conference setting. derivation of the phrase pool spray for our lay audience, the press pool is the tight group of correspondents and camera crews who cover the white house every day and it s a spraying motion of the cameras so you can get a shot of all involved, lest someone come away with the wrong definition. jill, i want to play a piece of an interview with lesley stahl. this is lesley stahl talking about when she first went over to interview donald trump in trump tower. this is december 2016, after he won the election, something he told her then. we ll discuss it on the other side.
or actually, howie chris is the one that first said that. are these reliable sources? for the most part, the press pool has become a pack of lupine commentators and they are masquerading as journalists. just listen to this. she can be mad at what i say right now, tough. i m a reporter that will continue to ask questions and there was nothing wrong with that question. i wish i could install a b.s. meter inside of the white house break room but i think it would be going off all the time and it would be hard to here the press secretary tell the truth on a daily basis. i actually like sarah, she s very resourceful. she burns fat and then uses that to create this perfect smoky eye. laura: i literally had to turn my volume down on that. so the ability to demean and drive out sanders and center packing from her job is part of the politics of personal
conversation that the trump lawyers had over the last several weeks and months. it s very possible this was leaked from someone on the trump s side. the special counsel s office very rarely leaked. it essentially showed this is a deep, broad investigation that s still very much alive, that is still very much going on. we are going to be hearing from the president just to really shortly here, the press pool was just called into the oval office and he was meeting with folks in there, the passengers and pilot of that southwest flight from that accident a month ago. as we stand by for that. of course this is a central focus here on those questions. so we are going to hear from sa sarah sanders. is the president going to answer
sitting down with mueller. basically no way in h, e, double hockey sticks will the president sit down with mueller. bret: the press pool rotates. abc is the press pool today. they rent out some of this. they, and you have been in this, as have i, sometimes you yell out questions. this president answers them. i want to read it. why don t you just fired mueller? he says i think it s a disgrace. many people have said i should do it. they are finding nothing. that s a big statement. and then asking if he is concerned about what the fbi will find, he says no. pretty detailed about this. we want to turn to the videotape that s coming from the press pool. they are just getting out and queuing up the tape. stand by as we get ready to go in the cabinet room where the