call attorney general sessions, or why not ask any member of his staff who worked right down the hall to deliver a message? it is clear to me that the reason he went to you, mr. lewandowski, is because everyone said no. so i want to ask you about that. two days before meeting you, the president had called white house counsel mcgann at home on a saturday to fire the special counsel, saying, and you can see that on the screen, mueller has to go, call me back when you do it, plain and simple. but mcgann refused. when the president asked you to deliver that message, did he, the president, tell you that two days before your meeting his white house counsel had refused to fire the special counsel? volume 1186 is where you find that language. volume 2. when the president asked you did you hear the question? i m sorry.
branch privilege of confidentiality and i will recognize that at this time. let me just say that you knew did you know the president was putting you at risk when he asked you to deliver a message to the attorney general? i want to be very clear. the president knew what he was doing was wrong because everyone el had already said no. he called his white house counsel to fire the special counsel. mcgann said no. he called the attorney general to ask him to unrecuse himself from the special counsel s investigation. sessions said no. his white house counsel said there s to be no contact with sessions because of his recusal. so what does the president do? he calls you in to do what everyone el wouldn t do. he calls you in to do your dirty work because he knew it was wrong. time. we will expose the truth. the president cannot hide behind you any longer. you should be here to be telling the truth. the truth will set you free and the american people. i yield back. the time has expired
i have a conflict. i was involved in campaign. can t do it. then the white house counsel advised the president not even to contact sessions. but you, his loyal soldier, would do it. you were different from session and mcgann. trump could depend on you. you did not ask me questions. you took dictation. you gave to it hope hicks. you asked her to type it up for you. not that you couldn t have done it yourself, i m sure. then asked somebody else to deliver the message to sessions when you decided not to. donald trump talked to you outside normal channels. the president knew what he was doing was wrong. mr. sessions knew what he was doing was wrong. mr. mcgann knew what he was doing was wrong. you seem to be the only person who didn t think it was wrong. but mr. trump was wrong. at the last minute you got cold feet. you chickened out. the president s trust was
only loyal soldiers. your previous boss was convicted of corruption and lying to authorities. you were fired from americans for prosperity after being accused of voter fraud. you are now involved in this. either you were willing to break the law for politics and mr. trump or you are some kind of forest gump relating to corruption. let me ask you this. did the president pick you as enforcer he thought you would play whatever role he wanted? that would be a question for the president, mr. congressman. well, donald trump was right though. first the white house counsel, don mcgann refused to firespecial counsel. mr. mcgann refused to do what he knew would be an illegal act. then attorney general sessions, who recused himself, was asked to unrecuse himself, but attorney general sessions also not did the raoeu thing. i m not going to recuse myself.