All of this as the president is tweeting that white house us counsel don mcgahn is leaving this fall, a tweet that apparently surprised even mcgahn himself and despite news of another exit, President Trumps executive time is in full swing, the president insisting the white house is a smoothrunning machine, no kay yot to see here. Hes excited about the person taking mcgahns place and, oh, in case you were wondering, daughter ivanka, soninlaw jared kushner, the president tweets they had nothing to do with the counsels departure. Theres a lot to discuss thursday morning achlt thee that jones is at the white house. Athena, the president hinting he knows who will replace mcgahn. Erica, thats right. The president tweeting hes excited about the person but not naming them. He said im very excited about the person who will be taking the place of white House Counsel don mcgahn. I liked don but he was not responsible for me not firing bob muellerover Jeff Sessions. That is a reference to the fact that the president wanted mcgun to convince Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself in the russia investigation last year. Sessions did end up recusing himself and that did make the president happy. We reported the president wanted to fire special Counsel Robert Mueller but mcgaun threatened e to resign. No official announcement has been made on who the replacement will be, erica. Waiting for official record. Meantime, this walk reporting that i was referencing talks about the president and essentially says he doesnt have the staff and hes not anxious enough for some for a possible blue wave in the midterms. How concerned are allies that this president is not preparing . Very concerned according to the report in the Washington Post that the president doesnt fully grasp the magnitude of what could be in store if democrats win control of the house in the fall midterm elections, they say so far his only action plan seems to be to make sure democrats dont win by campaigning. Theyre concerned that its not just that democrats might pursue impeachment proceedings but also investigations, a series of investigations that there would be subpoenas and requests for documents and testimony. Democrats indicated there are a lot of things they want to investigate the president on. The paper cites Rudy Giuliani the president s lawyer saying democrats want death by a thousand cuts and you coated another ally using the game of thrones reference saying winter is coming. The white house will be under siege and theyre not ready. Athena jones, appreciate it, thank you. The president says he is not concerned about what don mcgahn told the special counsel over those 30 hours of interview. Jessica schneider is in washington with more on that this morning. The president projecting this air of confidence but it does stand in stark contrast to what our sources have told us over the past few weeks and that is this that don mcgahns 30 hours of discussions with the special counsel unnerved President Trump and that the president didnt know the full extent of the talks so we reported this several weeks ago when word of mcgahns cooperation with the special counsel came out but then, of course, yesterday when jim acosta pressed the president , President Trump did just brush it off. Take a listen. Any concern about what he said to mueller . No at all. Not at all. I knew he was going. I had to approve it. We didnt claim executive reporter youre aware of what he said . No, we do everything straight. We do everything by the book. And the president saying he has a lot of affection for mcgahn but theirs has been somewhat of a rocky relationship over the past 18 months. Don mcgahn has pushed back on some of the president s demands including threatening to quilt when the president pressed don mcgahn to fire special Counsel Robert Mueller and its those types of incidents that has made mcgahn himself an important witness in special counsel muellers probe on the question of whether the president obstructed justice so erica, well wait and see when don mcgahn leaves. We know it will be some time after the confirmation hearings and the confirmation, presumably, of brett kavanaugh. Jessica schneider with the latest, thank you. Joining me to discuss, cnn legal analyst laura coates and joey jackson. Good to have both of you with us. Never a dull moment. Lets start with the Washington Post reporting here. It does paint a bleak picture and a lot of concern for folks who are surrounding the president , advisers, allies worried he doesnt have the staff or strategy and that hes not anxious enough to deal with a possible onslaught if the democrats take the house. What should be happening at this point . He should be preparing himself to respond to the 5 outstanding requests democrats have made concerning the administration, security clearances, jared kushner, Michael Flynn, Steve Bannons testimony document production, the list goes on and on. Remember, unless you were a part of the Majority Party in control of the house or senate you dont have subpoena power. You cant issue a subpoena, you can only request the people in the majority will do so and on at least two occasions the republicans have denied those requests. 23 they take back the house, they reclaim the zch power in the house and theyll be able to effectively investigate all of those 52 things. Only one to five of which are russia collusion. So a lot to deal with there and as you point out, there are all these other issues. This isnt just the big i war. Joey there are concerns about who is left today and who will be left ultimately when it comes to the office of white House Counsel. The president tweeting chaos doesnt exist he says were a smooth running machine with changing parts, change does happen. From the outside it doesnt always seem to be a smoothrun magazine. Why do you think its so hard for the president to get lawyers, to keep them there, whether its white House Counsel or on his own personal team. Simple answer, erica, good to see you and laura. Thats because the president does what the president wants to do. When youre a lawyer you provide advice and counsel, you expect the people youre talking to would be encouraged by what youre saying and follow the script and its frustrating for a lawyer when youre making recommendations and doing what you think is in your legal interest as president and the office of the president to do what you want to do and reject that advice. Now theres good news. The good news is while the president may not be prepared for winter, winter isnt here yet so the president has an opportunity at this point to move forward and be in place when winter comes. If the democrats take control in the midterm elections, its a game changer for obvious reasons. Now youre not just the Minority Party saying you want an investigation. Now you have teeth and with those teeth you can grip in and get the information you want. Why . Because as the Majority Party, youre entitled to it. So i think the midterm elections will be critical as it relates to the house and their efforts to investigate and potentially yes, the i word, impeach this president and see what happens in the senate as well but there needs to be significant preparation and we know finally that this white house, the turnover rate, is quite significant. What is it . Upwards of 60 so thats not a surprise. Laura, the president noting hes not worried about what don mcgahn said with the mueller team. As a former federal prosecutor would there be any reason to be concerned that white House Counsel spent such a significant chunk of time or is that not as long as it may seem . 30 hours is a significant amount of time and if that is the line the president is throwing out, im not biting. He should be nervous to have the person who has been with him through tumultuous points of his presidency and before talking to the special counsel without even the assertion of a privilege. Now they were able to try to assert a privilege, they chose not to, think about who don mcgahn is. Not only does he have Campaign Finance background, he would have the person in the position to understand what may have happened at the trump tower meet organize in contributions or reimbursements laundered through Michael Cohen in some way, he would be the person that the former acting attorney general sally yates ran to tell to him listen, Michael Flynn has been deceiving you and the Vice President of the United States about his ties to russia. Another important point, the ideas of him being the person who is literally perhaps the firewall between the firing of Jeff Sessions or even the firing of Rod Rosenstein or Robert Mueller so at each different point that the president has had the most gaffes, at least ones that exposed him to the most legal liability and at least the ire or interest of the special counsel, don mcgahn has been the person in the room. So to suggest he would have no qualms about the conversation and have no understanding of the breadth of it is just bluser. We should point out and joey quickly ill through to this to you. President tweeting out, to be clear that he liked don but he was not in all capital letters responsible for me not firing bob mueller or Jeff Sessions so i dont know if he was the wall there, joey. What do you make . This is a president who wants to world to know hes in charge, he makes his own decisions and doesnt listen to anyone or nib and at the end of the day theres a big Public Relations imperative. The president has to not let the American People see him sweat. He has to put on a game face even though internally he may be seething about what occurred. And when you speak to someone for 30 hours its not discussion about the weather. Think of a dinner conversation. Only when the conversation is going well and there is information that can be gleaned from it so i think there are shoes to drop. Joey jackson, laura coates, good to have you both here. Thank you. A full court press, the president s private and intense push to get republican senators to flip on Jeff Sessions. Is it working . Plus the sheriff calling it a classic stand your ground case after an uber driver shoots and kills a man who threatened him. Dash cam video captures those key moments. And former Vice President joe biden will pay tribute to his friend senator john mccain. Cnn has those details for you. For years ive trained dogs for the marines like me, some of these dogs have seen many tours of duty. And for the past 15 years ive been a navy federal member. Thanks to their fast approval process, when it came time to buy a new car, we got everything we needed to transport my wifes little bundle of joy. Who i just adore. Open to the armed forces, the dod, veterans and their families. Navy federal credit union. When we switched our auto and home insurance. With liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. Hey oh, thats my robe. Is it . When you switch to liberty mutual, you could save 782 on auto and home insurance. And still get great coverage for you and your family. Call for a free quote today. You could save 782. Liberty mutual insurance. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Hours from now, senator john mccains casket will be moved from the Arizona State capital to the North Phoenix Baptist Church where a Memorial Service will include tributes from several members of the mccain family as well as former Vice President joe biden and arizona football star Larry Fitzgerald. Afterwards, his body will be flown to joint base andrew. Joining me with more, cnns nick watt, nick, good morning. Good morning, erica. At the service we expect readings from two of senator john mccains adopted children, andrew and digit and as you mentioned, Larry Fitzgerald from the Arizona Cardinals will deliver a eulogy, the two men were friends and senator mccain was a fan of the team. Apparently fitzgerald visited North Vietnam to see the site where john mccain was shot down back in 1967. Of course joe biden also delivering a eulogy to his political rival but long time friend. Joe bidens son beau died from a similar cancer that took john mccains life. Then the motorcade will process to Phoenix Airport with the Arizona National guard will bid a final farewell to senator john mccain from this state he loved so much. More a thousand seats in that church reserved for members of the public and we expect members of the public to line the route of the motorcade but it will be hod. Yet there was a service in the Arizona State capital and people stood in line for up to three hours to file past john mccains casket and pay their last respects and it was very hot and 21 people had to be treated by emts, two people taken to the hospital. Its expected to be hotter today, and one final word on that Church Service today, the recessional at the end will fittingly by my way by frank sinatra. Senator john mccain will take that final flight to washington, the flight he took so many times during his 35 years representing the people of arizona and he will land at joint base andrews at 7 30 and tomorrow he will lie in state at the u. S. Capital. Hes been saying goodbye to arizona the last couple days. Over the weekend, the nation gets a chance to say goodbye to john mccain. Erica . Nick, appreciate it as always. Thank you. Pall hickman was john mccains former Arizona State director, a good friend. He will be an usher at todays Memorial Service. We appreciate you joining us to talk about your good friend. Thanks, erica, thanks for having me. You were also able to be at that private ceremony yesterday. What was that like for you . It was difficult. It was tough. Id like to first offer my condolences and sympathy to cindy and the family. I have been asked about the legacy and thats one of the great ones weve got, a classy terrific senator john mccain and a great family, he raised a great family, but the ceremony was tough to watch, our governor and senator kyle and flake did a terrific job with their remarks and Walking Around and visiting, saying goodbye. I share a birthday with senator john mccain. It was both of our birthdays yesterday, it was difficult but well done and the folks at the capital did a terrific job. You talk about the family and the pictures we saw yesterday. They stop you. When you see senator john mccain approach the casket, meghan mccain, who has been so open about the relationship with her father and anyone who has ever loved a parent and lost a parent could relate. Talk about the legacy of his family. Youre right, this is an incredibly Strong Family and that was so important to who senator john mccain was. And its large and he had grandchildren and theyre spread across the country and his two sons, we thank them for their service to the nation. I think jack completes this circle at the academy with four Naval Academy grads with the same name starting with john mccain and then his son and then john sydney mccain iii and now jack who graduated from the Naval Academy and served our country with distinction since and jimmy as well who is also in the military. As i understand it, he started off as an you started off as an intern with john mccain, worked your way up to state director. What was john mccain like as a boss . He was a terrific boss, he was demanding and he was a hot head, i dont think anyone would disagree with that but when the heat of the moment was over, he was terrific to be around. He was one of those guys who a lot of people have one or two people in their lives they know that everybody wants to be in that orbit, they want to be around that person. He was a good and genuine guy. He knew you, you liked you and he gave you a chance to succeed and he would always say you know what . This is a what you make of it, gig. Bring me something and if its got half promise ill let you run that. There were a few senators who did that but not many. He did it to his credit because i think he got involved in issues because he let staff thrive. He would allow staff to thrive. And this is a man who talked often about why it was important to sort of follow the path you believe to be right and why it was okay to buck your party and to also look at the humanity of issues and one of those issues for him was immigration. Just give a sense of when he would talk about immigration and the humanity part of that how important that was to him. It was very important to him. Thats why he got involved in the issue, were a border state here and theres the body count in the 2000s in the deserts on the border kept climbing and i remember john saying that makes it our problem, thats our problem and we have an obligation to fix that problem. We cant continue to have this. And so he worked on that issue beginning in 2000 after losing the 2000 president ial campaign and coming back to arizona and i think he introduced a bill in just about every congress and worked hard up until the very end there and wanted a comprehensive solution to the issue. I t