Good evening. Im katy tur in washington in for chuck todd and welcome to mtp daily. No one is safe in President Trumps Justice Department. The president gave the order to fire special counsel Robert Mueller. He fired fbi director james comey. He he pressured deputy fbi director Andrew Mccabe to quit. He stepped down today. Earlier than expected and weve just learned the president insulted his wife in a phone call last year. The president pressured the attorney general Jeff Sessions to step down. And he reportedly talked about firing the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein. And it looks like the president also wants a secret republican memo released. Why . His republican allies say it further undermines muellers investigation. The fbi and the justice. The House Intelligence Committee has a meeting scheduled right now where they could vote to release that secret memo compiled by republican chairman devin nunez. This is a secret memo. But it is ignited a very public fire storm on the right. Im here to tell all of america tonight that i am shocked to read exactly what has taken place. I would think that it would never happen in a country that loves freedom and democracy like this country. What i read today in that classified Briefing Room is as bad as i thought it was. You are describing the very elements of a palace coup and after jim and mark meadows reviewed the intelligence information today, it is abundantly clear that the entire Mueller Investigation is a lie, built on a foundation of corruption. So what is in the memo . Nbc news has confirmed that it includes details about the fbi surveillance of carter page, a Trump Campaign adviser. According to the New York Times, the memo alleged the application to spy on page was approved by the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein who used information from the steele dossier. There are ample reasons to clout the conclusions of this memo. But if you do believe what is being reported about it, the bombshell here is arguably that a trump appointee approved an application to spy on a former member of the Trump Campaign and a trump appointee seemingly thought that some of the information in this steele dossier was credible. But the president and some republicans are seemingly going to use that information as proof that rosen stein is corrupt. And the investigation is a sham. Because i because as i mentioned, no one is safe in President Trumps Justice Department. Case in point. The fbis acting director Andrew Mccabe stepped down today. Earlier than expected. The president has publicly attacked mccabe and nbc news learned that trump told mccabe his wife as a loser. He called mccabe to vent about james comey who he just fired. The loser remark was in apparent reference to his wifes Unsuccessful Campaign for state office in virginia. So the number two of the fbi is out and the number two at Justice Department is in the cross hairs. Joining me now is mark walker of north carolina, a member of the house over Sight Committee and congressman thank you for joining us. Sure, thank you. So you have seen the nunez memo and you want to t released. Does it show Rod Rosenstein approves an application to spy on carter page. As you would imagine as well as you and your audience, i cant get into the specifics as far as names that have been named until the vote has been released and it is released to the public. I think the overview and i heard three different members in the leadin there talking about it. If your audience or somebody is believing this is the end all smoking gun, it isnt. It doesnt name names, presenting some intriguing facts as i would share it, that makes you ask even more questions. To the place, is it a dislike or a buy as or do we get to the place where there was intentional wrongdoing by some of the players that have been involved in this investigation. But to make the case that this is the most shocking document in the history of mankind, i believe that is hyperbole. So then why do you want it released . Well i believe it is important. If you look back throughout our history, any time that the government could be more transparent, i think it is best for the American People. Weve lost some trust in government. Unfortunately and i hope this isnt longterm even our highest level of Law Enforcement when you have the behavior and the things that have transpired recently, that is not a good thing. You mentioned that i was on the house overSight Committee. I think back to the lowest emails and they said they were lost and the Inspector General found them within an hour and the missing texts, those have been found by the Inspector General. We need to restore the credibility to the American People and to me if there is nothing no National Security being breached, i think the American People should have access to this information. It devin nunez credible here . He was a member of the donald trump transition. That seems like a pretty major conflict of interest. Wellif you hold that standard, you could look back at not just republicans and democrats who went out and worked very hard for whatever president ial campaign, whether it was Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders or even throughout our history, i dont think that precludes or disqualifies for someone being straightforward and honest. Devin nunez was part of the transition, hes been working to discredit much of the fbi. Do you expect the American Public to see this as not just a partisan issue, when this has not been shared with democrats in the committee and especially when he wouldnt even share it with his own counterpart in senate intel. It seems suspicious. It is my understanding that the democrats have had a chance to look at it and on top of that, i believe theyre releasing their own version of what the memo the conclusion might be able to say. So well see what happens or what they share on it. But i do not think to the largest point that it discredited devin nunez with his relationship of being forth right to the American People. That is the whole crux of why we want this delivered, that it no longer becomed a subjective opinion. But this is investigating the donald Trump Campaign and a transition and this is a member of the transition putting together a memo. This is not just somebody who supported a president working on something that has nothing to do with it. This investigation is looking into the campaign and the transition and this is a member of the transition. Sure. And you would hope that you would have the confidence for somebody to do the right thing. But that is to your point. That is why it is so important that when you release said memo that you could actually have some of the data. Some of this isnt congesture and some of the Data Information is evidence and facts of exchanges and that is why the American People would have the opportunity to judge for themself, is it something exaggerated or something that we create a concern for the major people who were investigating into this, was there wrongdoing here. There is classifying information in this memo. The d. O. J. Has said it would be extraordinarily reckless to release this. Do you think it is a good idea to go around the d. O. J. And release something that theyve said is extraordinarily reckless, that talks about one of the most secret practices in our government. One of the most sensitive ways that we gather intelligence using fisa warrants. There is a precedent in many cases, both from the judiciary as well as the House Oversight which has full subpoena powers to access and get information for the department of justice even top secret and even cla class classified information and it is some redacted and the Judiciary Committee and believe there is no National Security information that could be damaged. This is about peoples past actions, looking at it and then making the judgment allowing the American People to answer the question when you look at this specific information, did the government overstep their boundaries connected with the dossier, connected with the Hillary Clinton foundation, does this put more of the Hillary Clinton campaign does this put the pieces together and that is one of the things deducted from this information. The d. O. J. Said it would be extraordinarily reckless. Lets get on to another point. Republicans cried foul when a dossier came out and criticized or potentially could have hurt donald trump. The steele dossier. And now theyre putting forward another unverified memo, this one from devin nunez that is going to help donald trump. I dont understand how you square that circle. One unverified dossier is not okay but this unverified dossier is okay. One hurts the president and one helps the president and that makes this okay. I appreciate your assessment, but i think the difference is when you look at Christopher Steele, who was employed and paidly the Hillary Clinton campaign to come up with information, there is a certain bias. Christopher steele was first employed by republicans, we should make it clear, first paid by republicans. Sure. And sometimes me point is are you not beholden to the people employing you to dig up dirt on a spesive individual. When you have the connections, was the fbi connected and that is what the American People want to know. Not just your viewers but across the board, could you draw a direct connection about releasing the information it allows the American People more access to draw their on conclusions. One last point. You are talking about somebody working for somebody and trying to find things that person wants. Devin nunez worked for the transition. How does it not apply to them of them in the same way. As ive said earlier, there is a precedent being established that if you feel like or you are making the case that anybody who ever works with a potential candidate can no longer be unbiassed in their duties, their congressional duties, i think that puts us in a very bad situation because throughout history members of congress and elected officials have partnered and worked with and have campaigned for said candidates to be able to get out there. Once the election is over, i hope that you could go and continue to do your duties and do them honorably. But if your criticism of steele is if he was working for somebody makes it so he could not be fair, the same criticism would have to apply to devin nunez. Unfortunately that is all of the time we have for now. Thank you, congressman walker. We appreciate it. Thank you. Joining me now is chris coons of delaware. He wrote one of the bipartisan procedures around the firing of the special counsel. Senator, thank you very much for joining us. This Bipartisan Legislation that you want to protect Robert Mueller, is it getting new life now that weve seen the developments in the past week . Well im looking forward to conversations on the floor of the senate in just a few minutes. Im going to be talking with both thom tillis and with chairman of the Judiciary Committee, senator Chuck Grassley of iowa. It is my insistence to them that given the revelations by the New York Times that President Trump months ago attempted to fire bob puler resolved to do it and ordered his counsel to do so and was only blocked by a threat to resign from don mcgahn that it is more urgent than ever that we take this modest reasonable bipartisan step and we do so as quickly as possible. We introduced this bill months ago. It had a hearing before the judishir judicia judiciary meeting and i think it is important that we put in place a speed bump that would make it significantly harder for the president to fire special counsel Robert Mueller. Do you want to attach it to budget negotiations . Im still hopeful that we could get this done in an appropriate bipartisan way through the committee. But it is urgent. And if that ends up being the only pathway in front of us, i would support that as well. Is your legislation legal . Does congress have the authority to override the executive branch when the executive branch decides to fire somebody . Im confident that it is constitutional. Ill remind you that it is a decent in a majority opinion that those who raised questions at the one hearing are relying upon. I wont get into the legal weeds here. I do think there is reason to concern ourselves with whether we can stop the president from firing someone, my bill instead said if he fires the special counsel, that special counsel could go to a threejudge panel and seek reinstatement. That is a legal niceity but it matters in terms of the constitution. You dont think this conflicts with separations of power. No. There is a lot of ways in which each branch constrains the others. Checks and balances is one of the ways in which our Constitutional Order makes sure no one branch is completely unrestrained in the exercise of the constitutional duties. Lets talk about where donald trump stands right now on the special counsel. Are you confident that the republicans in the senate, the republicans in the house, will act if he tries to do Something Like that again . Well, katy, ive had a number of individual private conversations with my republican colleagues over the last few months. Every single republican, senator and congressman ive spoken to about this agrees that Robert Mueller must be allowed to continue his investigation unimpeded by the president and that it would be a significant blow to rule of law in this country if the president fired bob mueller. When i press them and say what would you do, they dont have a good answer. They all say well it wont happen or it would be terrible or something would have to be done. But im not confident that they have a plan b. And it is just wreckless and irresponsible for uses legislators to have this glaring threat to our republic and our Constitutional Order right in front of us and an easy solution to make it less likely and to fail to act. Well given that, are you going to try and force your legislation or force some legislation to make sure that he is protected . Are you going to if there is not an appetite to do anything with it or a real appetite to move quickly, shouldnt it be attached to budget negotiations . Katy, the way things get done here is with consent and partnership between the majority and minority. I cant on my own as one senator run into a budget negotiation and demand that this be included. But i am raising this as an issue with the chairman of the committee with my republican cosponsor and with lots of my colleagues. I think the facts have changed in the last few days. Given the New York Times report, and i think there is reason for all of us to be more concerned. Would you i appreciate you giving this coverage and im hopeful in the next few days republicans and democrats alike will agree this is a small step to secure more confidence that the president wont take this misguided action. There is also the Booker Graham legislation. If you cant come to an agreement on one of those one of those pieces of legislation before the government shutdown, before february i believing it 7th or 8th. 8th. 8th. Excuse me. Would you consider shutting down the government over this . Look, katy, that is a hypothetical. Im going to have some conversations on the floor today and have a much better sense of where my colleagues are. I think this is an important thing for us to take responsible for. As a body on a bipartisan basis. Senator chris coons. Thank you very much. Thank you. And ahead, the number two at the fbi stepped down today as tensions between the white house and the Justice Department reached a new high. Thats next. 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