Himself, calling the newly announced investigation into his campaigns possible ties to russia not just the single greatest witch hunt of any politician in american history, but adding, with all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton Campaign and Obama Administration, there was never a special council appointed. Tweeted that before 8 00 eastern time this morning after releasing a measured Statement Last night. Saying he, quote, looks forward to this matter concluding quickly. His scathing new criticism unleashed even as something highly unusual is unfolding in washington this morning. Bipartisan agreement. Praise for former fbi director Robert Mueller as special council to oversee the russia investigation. All of us are that know director mueller are very happy hes there. It couldnt be a better choice. I have a lot of respect for ko counsel mueller. It was a good point when i first heard it. Everything we know about his portfolio thus far gives us confidence he may be able to get to where the facts lead him. The surprising announcement at 6 00 last night. Not the only headache for the white house this morning. The New York Times is reporting that President Trumps Transition Team was told Michael Flynn was under investigation but the president made him his National Security adviser anyway. Reuters is reporting this morning that flynn and other advisers to the Trump Campaign had at least 18 previously undisclosed contacts with russian officials, including ambassador kislyak, during the last seven months of the president ial campaign. A lot to cover and discuss this morning. Lets start with Kelly Odonnell who is at the white house this morning. Lets start with the naming of Robert Mueller as special counsel to lead the investigation. White house was blindsided. From his tweets this morning, the president isnt happy about it. Well, chris, good morning. You do get the sense the president s first reaction in a printed statement was in his name but not really in his voice. His voice comes through on twitter, where you get the sense of his anger over this. The suspicion he feels about how hes been treated with the reference to a witch hunt. So the first wave of response was almost bracing for what would come next, knowing they would have to treat this with a seriousness. There is an opportunity here for the white house to see some of the daily, even hourly, even minute by minute, drum beat about questions about the russia investigation, the partisan nature of all of this. Turning that down now with bipartisan respect for Robert Mueller, who led the fbi for a dozen years, was responsible for very important investigations, and holds so much credibility. So if they can sort of see where the facts go with a bit of a pause, at least from the daily rhetoric of the questions and answers, that might actually allow the president to turn to some of his agenda items. His anger over this, the sort of turmoil inside the white house, not easy to contain or calm any of that. The president also has this opportunity with a foreign trip that prior to the events of the last 48 hours, advisers and staffers here were saying that they were so focused on wanting that to a success, a chance for the president to be on the global stage with key partners, and to have some reboot moments that could effect kind of a change of energy and momentum for this Trump White House. Since that time, the very big news stories have intervened. How it will affect the foreign travel, the first trip by the president , remains to be seen. Part of it is his own emotions. If his anger continues, we may see it come out today with the News Conference that is scheduled this afternoon, chris. All right. Thank you so much. Nbcs Kelly Odonnell at the white house. Nbcs chief Legal Correspondent ari melber joins us live now. Lets talk about Robert Mueller. His history, second longest serving fbi director. Obviously, from what weve heard this morning, a stellar reputation. His reputation based on his Law Enforcement history is second to none. Politically, because everything is parsed that way, he was appointed by president bush but asked to stay on by president obama. He was there, his tenure spanning 9 11, when obviously there was tremendous spekeptici of the government. Why didnt the cia pick up the clues . Yet he handled the period well. Obama continued his previous history as a prosecutor, the previous head of the doj. Itd be hard to find someone who knows their way better around the two challenges in play, chris. Challenge number one, a complex National Security and criminal inquiry. Number two, an inquiry that may or may not and weve got to be careful because we dont know where the inquiry ends but may or may not involve politicall tinged prosecutions. These are tw thinge knows well and handled with distinction. Tell us about the role hell play. Leading up to this, there was talk about should there be a commission, a special counsel. What kind of power does he have . Put aside all the legal talk, this thing thats happened last night is the most independent and strongest thing that could have happened. This special counsel is a more independent, subpoenadriven investigation than anything else that was on the table. The talk about a 9 11 Style Committee would have been much more of a factfinding thing. You get a report. Maybe the public learns things. Thats not bad. But this is stronger. So he is now going to be overseeing the same fbi line agents. That doesnt change. But he will make the calls of whether to issue more subpoenas or look for certain documents or not. He will make ultimately the main charging recommendation out of the doj, meaning if they find the facts and say, we want to go after x, y or z person, he might say, yup, i see the case, or no, i dont. The fact he has, i think, a lot of credibility will help the country here say, okay, maybe that case was made in a factual way and not any other way. The other point ill make, we have this banner across the screen, that the president is trashing this as a, quote, witch hunt. That banner is accurataccurate, sense the president said it. I also have to report, chris, its pretty hard to understand. This socalled witch hunt in the president s words is a decision that was made by the person he just picked to be Deputy Attorney general, rosenstein, who he only picked a few weeks ago. It is far less likely this is a witch hunt designed to somehow get someone. Thats how we think of a witch hunt. Far more likely, i think, at this juncture, the Deputy Attorney general looked tat facts, looked at the appearance of conflicts, thats what his job is supposed to be when you look for a special counsel, and decided not that he wants to catch a witch but this is the best way to make sure the system is working and independent. It is another case where we have words from the president. We report on them. I think for viewers, we should give the context, this is his Deputy Attorney general that made this decision. The system, chris, appears to be working. Msnbcs chief Legal Correspondent, ari melber, thank you for that. This morning, the investigation into ties between the Trump Campaign and russia grows. Beyond the appointment of Robert Mueller to lead the independent investigation, there are at least three congressional committees that have invited james comey to testif all the congressional investigations continue, including on both intelgenc committees. Joining me is a member of the the committee on the congress side. I want to get to what your committee is doing. Let me start with the obvious question. Are you happy about this . Is mueller the right man for the job . He is absolutely the right person for the job. The fact that we have got a straight shooter, that Rod Rosenstein made this choice, is profound and should be applauded. It is i want to bring you to the other side. Jason chaffetz praised mueller but said he didnt think a special counsel was needed. I dont know id necessary done that. I have not seen evidence of actual collusion. It begs the question, why did they need a special prosecutor . What are they trying to prosecute . What are this they actually g to prosecute . I dont think jason is on the mark on this issue. We already know the u. S. Attorney in virginia has sought information about both manafort and flynn. I think that there are issues around tax evasion that could be brought against particular persons. I think that there is a great question as to whether or not there were references to trump personnel during his campaign that were in collusion with the russian governments intervention into the election. There is a lot that can be and will be investigated by the special counsel that looks at criminality. Criminal conduct by americans. That is very important. Does this in any way affect the investigation you folks are doing on the Intelligence Committee . So our review is going on because we have an oversight responsibility over the intelligence community. So it is important for us to evaluate the strength of our intel on russia, to look into the intervention by the russian government and to our elections, and what steps we need to take moving forward in terms of making sure the integrity of our electoral process, that our Voter Registration machinations and our actual election tallying machines are above any kind of hacking or subject to any infiltration. Your, i believe, your Committee Also wants james comey to appear, is that right . Thats true. What is the critical question you have for him . I think we all want to know what was said in those memos and what was said by the president that were, as a result, turned into memos by james comey. He has been, you know, very focused on the infiltration of the russians intour election and the extent to which the Trump Campaign was engaged with the russians, in trying to mess with our election process. Are you a little concerned, congresswoman, and im out of time, but a lot of these meetings happen private i will. Does it become a case of he said he said, one versus the other, who has more credibility . Well, i think just if history serves, as well, documents by fbi agents or attorneys that put down what was said carry a lot of weight and have been used, particularly memos by fbi agents, in Court Proceedings as being relevant and factual. Congresswoman, thanks so you. We have assembled a distinguished panel. Lee was vice chairman of the 9 11 commission. Now a member of the president s Homeland Security advisory ko counc council. 34 years in congress, served as chairman of the house intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees. Morgan is a former analyst at the treasury department. Liz, a prominent member of house judiciary that voted to impeach nixon. And nick, a special watergate prosecutor as well as serving as a u. S. Attorney here in new york. Lee, ill start with you as vice chair of the commission that investigated the 9 11 attacks, so somebody who knows a little about investigations, mueller took over as fbi director just before 9 11. I know you know him. You have worked with him. What do you think hell do in terms of this investigation . I think mr. Mueller is a highly skilled prosecutor. Very led in the prosecutorial arts. He is a truth seeker. Will do after the facts, come hell or high water, and let the chips fall where they may. Ive been very pleased with the almost unanimous support given his appointment. I think it is an excellent choice. This is a very serious investigation. You needed someone who is independent, highly skilled, very knowledgeable, very focused, who will not be deabstrad distracted by the political noise that will attend all of this, and will do his very best to get to the bottom. This is likely his last chapter as a Public Servant and a superb one. He will not want to tarnish his reputation by failing to get to the bottom of what happened here. Its a good appointment. Liz, are you convinced he is the right guy to get to the bottom of it . We heard arhee melbeari melber about how complex this inquiry is. As someone who found themselves in the middle of watergate and knows as a lawyer what it is to get to the bottom of something, how complicated is it . How long could it take . Where do you think the focus will start . I think he is an excellent choice. Hes got an excellent reputation for integrity. You saw response from both sides of the aisles. That makes should make the country feel that this is not a partisan appointment. This is somebody who has got a solid reputation, built up not overnight but ov years and years and years. At really important. What concerns me is his independence here. He did not get the same charter that Patrick Fitzgerald got when he was looking into the matter. So his level of autonomy should be, in my opinion, the highest you can get. He can be fired. Not only can he be fired but his rulings or his decisions can be second guessed by the Deputy Attorney general or the attorney general. What are the chances, nick, that Something Like that happens . I mean, were in such a very different situation, even than valerie plain, in the amount of attention and media out there . I think theres that concern, but i dont think it is a major concern. I think what were going to see is mr. Mooueller is going to go ahead aggressively with subpoenas. Bring people into the grand jury. Do all of the things youd expect the prosecutor to do. Hes going to put together the facts. Hes going to have it all together. If it is his recommendation to indict x, y or z, it is going to be almost impossible to buck that. I think that if he felt strongly that a particular person should be indicted, and somebody interfered with that, that would cause total havoc over this thing. I think the politics wouldnt permit it, particularly since everybody universally believes that he is the right guy to do this investigation. So i think we feel pretty comfortable that this is going to be done properly, right. And whats really comfortable here is that the charter hes been given doesnt just say, youre only going to investigate the connection between russias collusion, alleged collusion, and the Trump Campaign, but it is also other matters relating to that and where that may take him. In other words, this whole business about whether or not donald trump endeavored to obstruct the investigation by telling comey to stop the inquiry into flynn is part of his mandate, which i think is extremely significant and comforting to most people who want to make sure this thing gets thoroughly investigated. I want to get back to where this may take him. Morgan, i wonder what you think about this whole concept of, again, in this environment, something the president talks a lot about, leaks. He seems to be determined, from everything weve heard, he is somebody who keeps things close to the vest. He is somebody who doesnt want this to take any kind of partisan tinge. How do you keep something from leaking when you have this many tentacles, this many people involved . Well, as weve seen, its almost impossible to stop people from leaking in washington. We saw the Obama Administration were actually very aggressive against leakers. I would imagine that the Trump Administration would like to be, as well. I think that it is difficult because you have so many people in washington running to the press with breaking news. I think what you will see though as your distinguished panelists have said, youll see the to isg down. The investigations never end well for the target of the investigation, but perhaps itll give the president and Congressional Republicans some breathing room to focus on policy and try to get their message out. Theres no way they can get their message out right now on health care, tax cuts, on the president s very important coming trip to saudi arabia and israel. That cant be discussed when all of this is in the news. I think the president , his team, should have message discipline here. Try to let the investigation play out without any political tinge. And try to focus on policy and focus on the foreign trip. Turn the page as best as they can. Obviously hard to do when they put out a very measured statement at night and then he starts tweeting in the morning. Lets go back, if we can, to where this might go. You heard a couple of suggestions from congresswoman speier. A lot of people saying, will he get his hands on the tax returns . Where doou see thisoing in terms of those actual details of e investnvestigation, liz . Some of the recent revelations, for example, Jared Kushner met with head of a bank that he needed to help him finance some deals a hotel deal in toronto. Were talking about i dont know the tax returns will be critical, but the Financial Transactions involving the russians could be a huge area that could involve conflicts of interest, could involve other kinds of potential criminal problems here. This reuters report this morning, that there were far more people that may have had contact with russian officials of course. Than previously reported. Thats a concern, right. While were concerned, it is going back to the point i made earlier. Even though i have no question that mueller will do the right