second the special counsel was appointed by the trump administration. can you witch hunt yourself. and why did he break from the relatively reserved response from the white house on this subject? and how will that affect this investigation? let's go to the white house right now. good morning, joe. >> good morning, john. i certainly can't answer a lot of those questions, but i can tell you about robert mueller, the man who has been appointed as special counsel, spelled with an s, to investigate the connections between russia and the last election, including whether there was any collusion between the campaign of donald trump and the russians. bob mueller is well known in this city as the longest serving fbi director, second only to j. edgar hoover. as you said, last night there was a reserved statement that was put out. this was after the president sat down with his advisors and carefully crafted something. it was almost noncommittal. as i stated, many times a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know, there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity. i look forward to this matter concluding quickly. in the meantime i will never stop fighting for the people and the issues that matter most to the future of our country. so last night's statement coming once again after the administration had to react as opposed to direct events that were occurring in the news. the administration actually being told and not asked that bob mueller had been appointed by rod rosenstein. it is interesting also to point out that both the attorney general rand the white house itself got very short notice before all of this was made public. what's the president going to say about all of this once he gets in front of a television camera? anybody's guess. but he will go in front of television cameras today. we're told the president columbia, a meeting here. they are going to hold a news conference. an opportunity to get a couple questions to president trump. >> it will be interesting to see if we get the reserved like statement we got last night or if we get the twitter attitude that we got this morning. joe, to be sure, there was other news that bubbled out overnight reporting that the trump administration, more accurately, the trump transition knew that michael flynn was under investigation for his foreign ties. nevertheless, the president or president-elect still tapped him to be national security advisor. what happened here? >> well, that's a good question. but as reported, "the new york times" suggesting, yes, michael flynn did alert the transition team that he was under federal investigation because of his role with turkey. he got about half a million dollars, not directly from the turkish government, rather from a company that could be viewed perhaps as an intermediary. so more reporting on that. the bottom line, why would he be put into the job of national security advisor if he told the transition he was under federal investigation. >> joe johns for us at the white house. thanks so much. news of bob mueller's appoint sparking a rare thing in congress, bipartisan phrase, democrats and republicans alike are hailing the move even as some believe that a special counsel was not needed. it takes a lot of pressure off of republicans up there. >> it certainly does. if you would imagine there is a sense that republicans and democrats could come together on something, that is this issue here. you've got people all the way on the left from representative john connors saying this brings more seriousness of the allegations against trump and his associates. talking about, look, they could go home to the american people and provide more certainty this is not going to be an investigation that has political influence. part of this is who they have selected as a special prosecutor. the former fbi director, bob mueller, and this is somebody who is very well respected. has a lot of credibility. so what you're hearing just on the last 12 hours, the last hour or so, if you will, is a sense that, yes, they want to move forward and support this in a bipartisan way. >> i said last week right after the firing of director comey that there was an inevitability to some type of an independent investigation. i was thinking more along the lines of an independent commission along 9/11 style. i do respect this decision. special prosecutor the end to take on a life of their own. but he has impeccable credentials. this will help the situation. >> it sounds to be a great choice and is the right move and a great choice to put some confidence back. you know, as someone was saying, winston churchhill says don't worry, the united states will always do the right thing after they have tried everything else. the american public should have confidence in what's going on. the intelligence community is going to do its job and the special prosecutor will do his job and we'll see where it goes. but we are going to make sure we uncover transparency and whatever is there is there. let the intel take you to the facts and the facts will take you to the truth. >> and, john, of course that congressman was trying to get to is the truth later this afternoon. we will hear from rod rosenstein. he is going to go before the full senate to brief them. originally it was scheduled to talk about the comey firing and what was behind that, what did he know. how of course being the person that appointed this special prosecutor, that will be the real issue, the real focus. what will be next for that investigation. john? >> might be a less hostile from the democrats. let's discuss now. nick ac nick i want to start with you with these tweets from the president a moment ago, calling the appointment of a special counsel a witch hunt. he said this is the single gr t greatest witch hunt of a politician in history. first, do you recall richard nixon ever attacking your investigation in the same way? and is there a legal jeopardy in doing that if you are the president? >> first of all, i don't ever recall even nixon taking on and saying it was a witch hunt. he may have had his surrogates do that, but he had least had enough political sense to know how to go about attacking a political prosecutor. we took actions with all of these things in mind. we are always conscious about the fact that whatever we did would raise questions and we wanted to make sure we always followed the rules, always did it by the book. in terms what trump did here, if he thinks he is going to be able to intimidate mueller, he's in for a big shock. he could say all he wants about mueller and the investigation, but i can guarantee you that this investigation will go ahead regardless of what the president says, regardless of what he tweets, and i think it will be fair. >> to that point, robert mueller, former fbi director, what makes him so acceptable, a great choice according to both democrats and republicans? >> i think it is the idea that this is a career person within the fbi. he's a known quantity. this is not someone or leaks. this is not someone who will be out there talking to the media. this is someone who will take their job seriously and who has wide bipartisan support. people on both sides of the aisle respect him enormously. he was appointed under bush but obama extended his term. this is truly someone everyone can get on board with. >> former fbi agent, you served i imagine under bob mueller. your thoughts, your impressions? what kind of investigation do you expect him to lead right now? >> a strong investigation but also a very private investigation. i don't expect a lot of leaks and i don't expect a lot of news coming out of this investigation for a long time. i think that polarization of the investigation to date i think was a little too much. although i think that the investigators look at that as some level of white noise. they plow through that, but this provides a little bit of a political distance between the investigation and the noise that takes place. so director mueller is a strong man. i work for him for 12 years. very highly respected in the fbi. he probably knows the senior investigators on this investigative team by name. they probably know him. he knows the process and how it has to happen. he's going to get the ground running and this is an investigation under way for a long time. it is not going to take very long to really start getting down into the weeds and getting these guys exactly what they need if they don't have it and to plau forward with this. >> before 6:00 p.m. last night, all the talk was that these different committees in congress wanted to see the memos written by james comey. they were calling him to testify in public before these various committees. as soon as next week. do you have any sense of the status of those requests? do you think it makes it less likely those memos will go public in the next seven days and less likely we'll see james comey? >> well, paul ryan said that he believed that the house investigation would continue, that he wants it to continue. so i think by that token, i don't expect these things are going to go away. he said he still wants to see those comey letters. he wants to know whether they exist or not. the second request, whether james comey will actually testify sort of depends on whether or not congress decides to compel him to. i think there are a lot of members of congress who would like to see him come out and clear the air a little bit, especially after these revelations seem to be one sided, especially for the allies of the president in both houses of congress. so i still think that we'll see a lot of activity on capitol hill. but for a long time now, people on both sides of the aisle have been sort of wondering whether these investigations are moving with enough speed, whether they have enough resources on capitol hill, and whether they can really do what the fbi is now going to be able to do with the special investigator looking into all of this. >> you get the sense that robert mueller will get the resources, any resources he wants for this investigation. the order signed by rod rosenstein is very interesting. bob mueller has been charged to investigate any linked between the russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of trump. but this next line, any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation. that opens the door to a whole lot of things. >> well, that is extremely significant. in fact, that was my first question when i heard that there was this appointment. what was the charge for the special prosecutor? and with that would include this obstruction of justice by trump in firing comey -- >> alleged. >> alleged, of course. but certainly in terms of something comey to stop the investigation into flynn. so it really is a fairly broad charge, which i think is good. i mean, i think we absolutely needed that. i was concerned that it would just be limited to the collusion between the trump campaign and the russian government. but now i think this gives i think everybody a lot more comfort. >> look, you'll need to look at history to see the impact of that. it was obviously independent counsel investigating clinton. but ken tar was involved in the white house investigation, which is a vastly different thing. >> i don't expect this to become a sex scandal. >> i'm saying what begins as an investigation into one thing can end into an investigation into something else. >> this is very focussed. any kind of alleged obstruction of justice by the president certainly relates to the russian investigation to his firing of comey, to his hiring of flynn and the whole connection between the trump administration, the trump campaign and the russian government. so i think that focus is going to be laser set, and i think it is going to even compass a lot of different criminal activities. >> an fbi director still needs to be appointed. could happen in the next few days. do you think this makes it easier to get that director confirmed in the senate? >> i think it does. i think it ease sz some of the pressure to appoint someone wholly nonpartisan. i don't think we should go too far here. i still think this person needs to have quite a bit of bipartisan support and a pretty clean slate going into this job. >> thanks so much for being with us. we do have some breaking news today on another front. roger ailes has passed away less than a year after he resigned from that cable network. we'll have the latest on that. did you hear the one about president trump being on vladimir putin's payroll. that was a joke told a year ago by the house majority leader. at least he says it was a joke. the question is who's laughing now? listen up, heart disease. you too, unnecessary er visits. and hey, unmanaged depression, don't get too comfortable. we're talking to you, cost inefficiencies and data without insights. and fragmented care- stop getting in the way of patient recovery and pay attention. every single one of you is on our list. for those who won't rest until the world is healthier, neither will we. optum. how well gets done. so i use excedrin.ments from my life. it starts to relieve migraine pain in just 30 minutes. and it works on my symptoms, too. now moments lost to migraines are moments gained with excedrin. 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(laughs) that was my movantik moment. my doctor told me that movantik is specifically designed for oic and can help you go more often. don't take movantik if you have a bowel blockage or a history of them. movantik may cause serious side effects, including symptoms of opioid withdrawal, severe stomach pain and/or diarrhea, and tears in the stomach or intestine. tell your doctor about any side effects and about medicines you take. movantik may interact with them causing side effects. why hold it in? have your movantik moment. talk to your doctor about opioid-induced constipation. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. breaking news this morning. the chairman of fox news, roger ailes has died. he built fox into the massive commercial success that it was. a voice for conservative causes. he resigned a year ago. we take a look at his life. >> a television titan and gob king maker. >> find something you love to do. find somebody that will pay you to do it, whose year ended in scandal. he was born in ohio in 19 40. he was a natural born fighter who dreamed of a better life. >> i always thought, you know, the only way to do it is hard work and you've got to be better and smarter than the next guy. >> ailes graduated from ohio university in 1962 then worked in local tv. ve chen lully becoming executive producer of the mike doug loss show. there he met richard nixon who later hired him as a media advisor. he also worked for presidents ronald region, george w.h. bush. he created this infamous resolving door act attacking michael dukaukus has soft on crime. he went back to the tv business in the early 1990s becoming president of cnbc. then came the opportunity of a lifetime. rupert murdoch tapped him to lead the fox news channel. >> we expected to find balanced journalism. less than six years later it was top rated. >> i don't have a degree in journalism. >> fox cemented his reputation as a tv legend and changed the political landscape. he ran the channel almost like a permanent campaign, lifting up republican candidates and supporting conservative policies. >> he found what the economistic call a market inefficiency. an audience was not being serve. >> many people the conservative influence of fox news paved the way for donald trump. but ailes was not able to saver the victory. former fox news host sued him, accusing him of sexual harassment. although he strongly denied the allegations, multiple women within fox came forward with similar stories. his wife stood by him. but two weeks later he was out of a job. >> a media bombshell. >> shockwaves as one of the most powerful men in the history of television and politics is ousted. >> fox news eventually settled sexual harassment complaints by several women. it was a stragerring fall for the master mind behind the cable news juggernaut. his golden parachute $40 million. but his legacy lives on through the channel he built and through the media revolution he launched. >> all right. brian joins me now along with bill carter. brian, obviously, you know, we know about the controversy of the last couple years surrounding roger ailes. we'll get to that in a moment. but his legacy in terms of being a media icon. >> he changed america. whether you believe he changed america for the better or worse probably depends on your political affiliation. but the he was he was able to be in a country where he was able to create a media powerhouse and affect american politics is something we are thinking about this morning. we were describing that obituary, humble roots, then create fox news and turn it into this bashing of conservative media, this public square for the right in the united states. it is an extraordinary accomplishment no matter what else happened. you have to hold multiple thoughts in your mind at the same time. but the few times i met be him, every time i came away thinks he's truly a genius of television. >> he was a genius of politics as well. helped put george h.w. bush in the white house with some of the most memorable ads. but his legacy means something else because of the way his career at fox news ended. >> there is no question about that. and, you know, you can give him all the credit in the world because you did change television as no one else has probably in the last 50 years. but his methods were often ruthless. not just the sexual harassment, which was really offensive lu he was very different that he made attacks on people sometimes very unjustified. you have to take that as part of his legacy. he left behind this conservative monument, yes. but the way he did it was often questionable. not every genius is a positive genius, i guess. >> that doesn't excuse the inexcusable behavior. brian, any word on what his state of mind has been in the last year since he was let go by fox news? >> he has been in a state of public silence. he has not addressed directly the allegations against him except to have his lawyer repeatedly deny, deny de, deny. he has been estranged by some of his family members and close friends. he's been in a life of relative seclusion. he was in president trump's inner circle this year talking all the time with candidate trump now. the two men apparently do not talk. what we don't know yet is the cause of death. but he was believed to have been pretty sick, even though it was in private and hadn't been speaking to a lot of people, so we don't know yet a lot of the details. we have a statement from his wife we put on the screen, elizabeth, who stood by roger's side last summer. it says i am profoundly sad and heart broken to report my husband passed away this morning. he was a loving son to me, and a loyal friend to many. he was also a patriot, grateful to live in a country that gave him so much opportunity, to work hard, to rise and give back. the statement there from his widow. >> again, the news roger ailes passed away at the age of 77. that word coming just this morning. we are moments away from the hoping bell. investors, they are rattled. christine watching the markets before the bell. romans. >> good morning, john. the calm was broken yesterday after reports of that comey memo and you saw the dow simply dive. but there is a whole new news cycle this morning and now you have word of a special prosecutor. perhaps there could be a bounce back. don't hold your breath. i'll have the opening bell right after the break. >> before the bell is brought to you by e-trade. start trading today and go to cnnmoney.com to stay on top of the markets and sign up for the daily news letter. h analysis, level 2 data, and a team of experienced traders ready to help you if you need it. ♪ ♪ it's like having the power of a trading floor, wherever you are. it's your trade. ♪ ♪ e*trade. ♪ ♪ start trading today at etrade.com at crowne plaza we know business travel isn't just business. there's this. 'a bit of this. why not? your hotel should make it easy to do all the things you do. which is what we do. crowne plaza. we're all business, mostly. a cockroach can survive heresubmerged ttle guy. underwater for 30 minutes. wow. yeah. not getting in today. terminix. defenders of home. the opening bell on wall street just moments ago. take a look. we are down 50 points already. that's not bad. yesterday, though, was horrendo horrendous. the worst day i believe of the entire administration. the question is where is it headed today with investors clearly nervous with what's happening now. christine romans, they're afraid. >> they're afraid. the calm has been broken on wall street. it was almost impenetrable. there was a trump high in this market that people just couldn't take. they were really convinced that this president has an agenda that is going to make companies richer and investors richer. tax cuts, deregulations. you saw a dent in that confidence because of the comey memo. now we're talking about a special counselor and there was some discussion overnight maybe there could be a bounce back because now at least you have a process by which all of this russia stuff is going to be examined, investigated. but instead you have a resumption of that selling. i am showing you the fear gauge. remember we were telling you how complacents investors were? they were so euphoric about a trump presidency that nothing really mattered. earning was strong, jobs were being added. but most importantly, companies, the investor class was making money. so you had a big sense of complacency. that spike yesterday shows you it was broken. >> not notable because 40 drops is a big drop. notable because it didn't bounce back. bob mueller is the legal equivalent of a sedative. but investors don't think it will make the controversies go away. >> you heard investors saying there was a difference. there has always been this assumption that the agenda would get done one way or another. but the first talk about the existence of the presidency, this president in the white house, and that's a long shot, of course. but that was something that had never been under consideration. so, look, one day is just one day. yesterday we lost 370 points. that's not even 2%. but you're not seeing a bounce back here this morning. it will be important to see if there is anything that the treasury secretary says about tax reform. that could be, i think, a headline risk one way or the other here for investors. >> that's what republicans want to be talking about. the question is can they sustain that discussion with everything else going on. always great to see you. thank you so much. new this morning the president is complaining about the appointment of a special counsel. this is what he wrote just a short time ago. this is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history. joining me now is democratic congressman ted lou of california. congressman, as a member of the judiciary committee, the president now saying you are part of a witch hunt. your response? >> my response is it may be this is the greatest political witch hunt in history or it may be the greatest political crime in history. that's why i am so pleased a special counsel has been investigated to see in fact what has happened. >> well, if his tweet was hyperbolic, then the statement you just made was equally hyperbolic. the greatest political crime in american history? that's a high bar, sir, considering of course watergate. >> if there was collusion with the russians, that is far beyond what happened with watergate. collusion with the russians, in fact, would be the greatest political crime in history that resulted in the election of a president. and that is why i am so pleased to have this special counsel. and keep in mind, our democratic institutions are being tested like never before. our courts have stood up. the department of justice stood up. now it is time for congress to stand up and investigate as well. so you think the appointment of bob mueller as special counsel is necessary. is it sufficient? your house minority leader said she still wants to see a special committee appointed to investigate this. should that go on pause right now to let this special counsel begin his work? >> no, because these are two separate investigations. during watergate, you had investigations from both congress as well as a special prosecutor. that's what we need right now. both exthrough counsel and throh congress with an independent commission, we need both. >> the fact that rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general made this appointment apparently with no counsel or suggests from the white house or from the attorney general himself, does this paint him in a different light than you. because they were highly critical of the memo he had written to the president which suggested that james comey had behaved inappropriately. >> rod rosenstein saved his integrity. he followed the law. if you look at the law, title 28 of the code of federal regulations says that the attorney general will appoint a special counsel when there is a conflict of interest and rod rosenstein realized he cannot investigate his boss, the president, for obstruction of justice and other matters. and rod rosenstein did the right thing and i commend him for it. >> it is interesting because you say he saved his integrity when he does something you like. yet you and many democrats attacked him when he did something you do not like. many rod rosenstein really did think that james comey did step over bounds during the investigation into hillary clinton. so might it be he was behaving with integrity in both cases? >> i don't have any problem with the memo that rosenstein wrote. my problem was that donald trump fired comey for entirely different reasons. donald trump admitted on national tv he fired james comey because of the russia probe. that looks like obstruction of justice. the memo that rosenstein wrote talking about how comey was unfair to hillary clinton, i don't have any problems with the rosenstein memo. i have problems with how it was used by the mesh president to mislead the american people. >> do you have any concerns going forward about the independence of the special counsel? because, you know, under the law, the special counsel can be fired still more or less by the president of the united states. >> that is correct. but i have great faith in robert mueller. he was appointed by bush and extended by obama as fbi director, he's a former prosecutor and i think he will stand strong. and if the president fires robin mueller, then we know that the house of cards is coming down. >> do you still need to see james comey before congress in the next few weeks? >> absolutely. because james comey can shed light on why the president fired him because if the president fired james comey to influence or obstruct the fbi investigation, that is obstruction of justice. that's a high crime and it is a federal crime. >> all right. thank you so much for being with us. appreciate your perspective, sir. kevin mccarthy once claimed that president trump or candidate trump was on vladimir putin's payroll. now he says he was just kidding. we'll tell you how he is defending those comments today. you're going to be hanging out in here. so if you need anything, text me. do you play? ♪ ♪ use the chase mobile app to send money in just a tap, to friends at more banks then ever before. you got next? chase. helping you master what's now and what's next. there's nothing more than my vacation.me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. they offer free cancellation if my plans change. visit booking.com. booking.yeah. new neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair wrinkles? your time is up! with the proven power of retinol. reduces wrinkles in just one week. neutrogena® controversy around kevin mccarthy this morning. he is on tail telling his colleagues last year that vladimir putin pays donald trump. reporters heard the tape and provided a transcript. people in the room apparently laughed. mccarthy now says he was just kidding but we'll let you judge for yourself. republican leaders are talking about the dnc hack last summer when he said there is two people i think putin pays, ror backer and trump. he added swear to god. then paul ryan responded this is an off the record. no leaks, all right? and then he added. this is how we know we're a real family here. now paul ryan's office says this is all just a joke and we got the same message from kevin mccarthy. >> if you listen to it, it said everybody laughs. so you know it is a joke. there is nothing to it. no one believes it to be true. >> all right. adam wrote the story. he listened to the tapes. he joins us right now. adam, the $6 million question is was kevin mccarthy joking? you seaslistened. what do you think? >> it is a very serious conversation that's taking place before mccarthy makes that -- delivers that line. and you can see from ryan's reaction that he clearly saw that statement as something that he didn't want to escape the room. he wanted to keep it quiet and then he kind of instructing everybody to keep it there and what's said in the family stays in the family is the way he wraps up that discussion. the reason why we wanted to let people see the transcript is so they could try to judge for themselves. we saw this as a window into the way republicans were talking among themselves about trump, who's position on putin was clearly not completely in line with their own. >> and that is so important. the timing here is to important. this is june of last year. this was immediately after the first reporting about the dnc hacks had come into play. but not before tons of other russia information to come out. this was very early on here and you had the house majority leader already at that time even joking about, you know, a relationship between donald trump and russia. >> yeah. hillary clinton had not gone nearly this far yet. it would take months before she would make a similar suggestion publically. in fact, the dnc was hacked the day before mccarthy made this statement and hillary clinton's statement after that was, you know, he wasn't suggesting at that point that it was designed to help trump, which is what mccarthy is sort of suggesting in that statement. so, yeah, no, i agree with what you are saying, which is he was a very early person to take notice of this maybe strange affinity that trump had for putin and he makes this remark, which frankly, when you listen to the tone in his voice, he says it seriously. if it is a joke, it is very dead pan. and he doesn't say at the end i'm telling the joke. he says swear to god. the words are the words, you know. >> and it cuts both ways. i think kevin mccarthy is a man known to make light of situations. on the other hand he makes light of situations he thinks are serious, too. that's why you printed the transcript. and the facts are the facts here. when you went to the various congressional offices at play here to confront them with this, you got an interesting response. explain. >> yeah. keep in mind, after mccarthy makes his statement, ryan admonishes everybody in the room to be quiet. we went to their offices. we told them we were going to report these comments. and they told us that the conversation never happened, 100%. they called it fiction. we then told them we actually were basing our remarks on a transcript, to which they said the transcript was made up. they had been in the room, they said, and it never happened. then we told them we actually listened to a recording and that's when they changed their story and said that mccarthy was joking. >> all right. thanks so much for bringing us this story. again this congressional office says it was a joke. but look at the timing. very, very interesting. this special counsel appointment of bob mueller to lead the investigation into alleged ties between the trump campaign and russia causing great concern within the white house. this is not the first time this has happened. we can learn a lot from history here about what the trump administration can expect and they might have reason to worry. e the first ingredient is chicken. 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'a bit of this. why not? your hotel should make it easy to do all the things you do. which is what we do. crowne plaza. we're all business, mostly. some build walls to keep people out. but these are walls that welcome you in. within these walls, california's educators create safe places for every student to learn and grow. where teachers open minds to history... unleash creativity... and show our kids the future. some build walls to divide us. but the california teachers association knows these are walls that bring us together. because quality public schools build a better california for all of us. all right, in just a couple hours, president trump will face questioning from reporters as he battles the news that a special counsel has been appointed to investigate the ties between his campaign and russia. up until a couple hours ago, the white house and president had been very subdued about this news. that's gone out the window. joining me, cnn senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin. thank you so much for being with us. let me read you again -- >> the high road experiment was about ten hours long. >> the president has gone on twitter this morning. i will let you be the analyst here. this is what he wrote. he called this a witch hunt, and he added, "with all of the illegal acts that took place in the clinton campaign and obama administration, there was never a special counsel appointed," and then that, the greatest witch hunt in all of american history. again, throwing out the window the idea that the white house is going to have a subdued response. any impact on the investigation itself? >> i think director mueller, bob mueller, is a very experienced, savvy person. he's not going to say, ooh, donald trump said a bad thing about me, i'm going to go investigate him harder. he's going to do his job. he's going to follow the evidence. but i think politically, you know, you have a situation where republicans as well as democrats were saluting mueller, and now you have trump by himself attacking this investigation. you know, that's who he is. >> we'll have to wait and see what he says out loud. i guess that happens after 3:00 today. that will be interesting to see. what do we know from history? you, in fact, are a human being who has worked -- >> indeed. >> -- for a -- at that point, it was an independent counsel investigation during the iran contra, but what do we know about these investigations? >> for one thing, they take a long time. it is very hard to assemble a staff, especially in a case where there's a lot of classified information involved. you have to assemble a staff, they have to get security clearances, you have to start assembling documents, panel a grand jury, start interviewing witnesses. it is often a matter of years, not months. i mean, so, that's just one thing to keep in mind. the other thing to keep in mind is that independent counsels, special counsel, as they're known now, their interest is law enforcement, not public disclosure. so, the fact that this investigation exists does not necessarily mean that the public is going to learn what mueller finds out immediately, or perhaps, even ever. that's just worth keeping in mind, especially, i mean, just in the short term about the comey memos, which now is, you know, such obsessive interest. comey, who is very close to mueller personally, may go to mueller and say do you want me to testify now or do you want me to let you conduct your investigation? mueller may well say, you know what, let me get myself up to speed first. that means the public won't know what's in these memos. >> if there is a public thirst, if there is a partisan thirst among democrats, it may not be satisfied any time soon because of this appointment. another thing that we know, jeffrey, is that sometimes these investigations start in one place and end somewhere very, very different, and specifically in this case, the order signed by rod rosenstein says investigate the russian ties with the trump campaign, those allege ed ties, but also anythi that might arise. >> and the classic example of that, kenneth starr, independent counsel appointed to investigate whitewater, the land deal in arkansas, which turned out to have no criminal involvement by the clintons. that, of course, led to monica lewinski and bill clinton's impeachment, which was a very -- whatever else you think about it, it's very different from a land deal in arkansas, but it just shows, when you set a prosecutor with an unlimited budget, unlimited staff, loose, you don't know where they're going to go. >> and no one -- is anyone going to tell bob mueller how to do anything, based on what you know of him? >> absolutely not. and you know, technically, the law allows for him to be fired by rod rosenstein. i think it would take some sort of earthquake for him to do that, but you know, i think we are talking about a truly independent prosecutor who's just going to follow the evidence where it leads. >> jeffrey toobin, great to have you with us. thank you very, very much, sir. so, what will president trump say today, as we've been discussing, he holds his first news conference where he answers questions from reporters in a bilateral news conference. will he address the growing concerns surrounding the administration? we will bring that to you live. more coffee? yeah, thanks. that means, i'll get it from here. yeah okay so. i can just quit school and get a job. it's ok. daddy's here. daddy. hey. hi. hey buddy hey dad i think we can do this. really? adam baily. adam baily. he's a nascar champion who's she's a world-class swimmer who's stared down the best in her sport. but for both of them, the most challenging opponent was... pe blood clots in my lung. it was really scary. a dvt in my leg. i had to learn all i could to help protect myself. my doctor and i choose xarelto® xarelto®... to help keep me protected. xarelto® is a latest-generation blood thinner... ...that's proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots from happening again. in clinical studies, almost 98% of patients on xarelto® did not experience another dvt or pe. here's how xarelto works. xarelto® works differently. warfarin interferes with at least six blood-clotting factors. xarelto® is selective... ...targeting just one critical factor, interacting with less of your body's natural blood-clotting function. don't stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor as this may increase risk of blood clots. while taking, you may bruise more easily, or take longer for bleeding to stop. it may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. get help right away for unexpected bleeding, unusual bruising, or tingling. if you've had spinal anesthesia, watch for back pain or any nerve or muscle-related signs or symptoms. do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. tell your doctor before all planned medical or dental procedures and before starting xarelto® about any conditions, such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. you've got to learn all you can... ...to help protect yourself from dvt and pe blood clots. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. there's more to know. but we've got the get tdigital tools to help. now with xfinity's my account, you can figure things out easily, so you won't even have to call us. change your wifi password to something you can actually remember, instantly. add that premium channel, and watch the show everyone's talking about, tonight. and the bill you need to pay? do it in seconds. because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. go to xfinity.com/myaccount all right, good morning. i'm john berman. poppy is on assignment this morning. there is nothing special about a witch hunt, at least according to the president of the united states, angry this morning about the fact that a special counsel was named to investigate alleged russian meddling in the election and any possible ties to the trump campaign. he wrote just a short time ago, "this is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history!" it is worthy of note that this special counsel was appointed by someone who works for the president of the united states and was appointed by the president of the united states, so it's a witch hunt caused by a trump appointee. white house staffers, no doubt, getting ready for the president, who will answer questions from reporters later this afternoon. will he repeat these witch hunt claims out loud when he gets a chance to talk in a few hour

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