a lot of republicans saying they don t think the president would make that step. so i think that obviously it would set a very bad precedent if the president were to take that step. so i think there is a chance that republicans could go along with this idea, yes. and i want to draw on your legal mind. two things. sources tell cnn that president trump is really upset and possibly considering firing rod rosenstein deputy attorney general. his advisers of course are telling him that is a bad idea. but what happens if he were to go through with it? the president certainly has the legal ability and authority to remove the deputy attorney general rosenstein. he works in the justice department. the president has the chief executive is in control of the justice department. it would be a very bad idea politically, but also legally because rod rosenstein is in charge of the special counsel s investigation. robert mueller has to report to rod rosenstein when he washhe w go in a different dire
when he s made findings or conclusions. so if you remove rosenstein, you have to have somebody else put in place to bafshsically overse the investigation because the attorney general jeff sessions has already recused himself. so that would allow the president to have direct influence over the special counsel s investigation without removing rob mueller. so i can see why the president may want to do it, but it is a bad idea. and daniel, hold on a second. i want to ask one more of page. and that is if it got to a point where the president is actually interviewed by mueller and his team, would you expect that the question would be asked directly of the president, hey, did you really plan to fire me or attempt to fire me back in june of last year? i certainly think that those questions will be asked. maybe not that direct question. and first of all, we don t know that rob mueller would actually do the questioning. anyone on his team could take the place of the investigate tore at that
black to president trump s state of the union address. this is happening on tuesday and the reason is to show solidarity with the me too and time s up movements. they have been drawing attention to sexual misconduct. in fact some lawmakers are bringing survivors as guests. congressman mcclane, congressman mike quickly, congress one speier are bringing activists or survivors. let s talk about this. tarana, i have to start with you. as i understand it, you were invited to go to the state of the union and you declined the invitation. why? i did. representative speier invited me to go to the state of the union and be her guest along with two
hearing this morning about the democrats plan to protect mueller s team? reporter: well, they have raised the question of thousand protect robert mueller once again and they are seeking to ensmur that te ensure that the ongoing budget negotiations include some type of legislation that would protect the special counsel from being able to be fired by the president alone. now, this isn t the first time that the democrats have raised this idea, they actually brought it up late fall last year when there was speculation that the president could be considering bob mueller. but to talk of the legislation, it died down because not only the president, but his aides and lawyers insisted that it wasn t on the table for him to even be considering firing bob mueller. something we now know is not true with the wake of the new york times report that the white house counsel actually threatened to quit after the president told him to fire mueller. senator warner has been a critic
going as far to say it wasn t on the table. we know this bombshell report confirmed by cnn that is not the case and the president actually considering firing mueller and that s why the talks are starting back up on capitol hill. the leading democrat on the senate intelligence committee which is conducting its own investigation into this russia probe and he had to say this about making sure that bob mueller cannot be fired by the president. if the president had gone through with this or tries to go through with it on a going forward basis, we re into unchartered territory and the real question of fundamentals of our democracy. are we still going to be a country where rule of law prevails and that no one, even the president, is above the law. my hope will become next week that the congress will take up bipartisan legislation that was around last year that would protect the special prosecutor from these kind of arbiter