Trumps commitment to nato and about this shutdown, this was day twoif. And while more wurgers have been called back to the job, they still arent getting paid and no wps going to blink. Day six of the Trmp Administration it will be day 26 by the end of this hor. We have new it developments. The mueller team did reits latest court fooling what it says paul map fort lied about after he began cooperating with with enforcement and between redactions are multiple headings that say thupg things like quote manaforts false and misleading. With can taths russian and in the trumped a mp straegz. Today we lurped hes not done with rig gates. Mueller and gates asked for another delay in sentencing because gates quote continues to cooperate with respegt to several ongoing investigations. To put a fieper point opthis, they would be sentencing gates if they were dup with him but hes apparently still being helpful. Mi Michael Cohens testimony is expected to be highly reskrekt stricted to avoid interfering with muellers inquiry. The journal reports hes expected to give an explosive recounting of his testimony. His testimony is expected to focus on his lifes story. How he from suffering as one of the most loyal aids in a deg aide to implicating him in two crimes. A man familiar with his prepared remarks says he plans on portraying him as quote a madman. Before these new devmts tonight, muellers new supervisor appearb appeared before the Senate Judiciary committee. A lot of the questioning dealt with the Mueller Investigation and the lengths he will go to protect it. Barr has come under scrut an for t scrutiny for a memo he wrote that questioned muellers investigation into obstruction. Today he stressed his support for the special counsel and the inquiry. I believe it is vitally important that special counsel be allowed to complete his investigation. I said his selection was good news and that knowing him i had confidence he would handle the matter properly and i still have that confidence today. Do you believe mr. Mueller would be involved in a witch hunt against anybody . I dont believe mr. Mueller would be involved in a witch hunt. I believe the russians attempted to interfere with the elication and i think we have to get to the bottom of the. The issue of recusal came up today. Current acting ag who was critical of the Mueller Investigation refused to recuse himself. Heres barrs response to the committee. Lets imagine its a judgment call and the judgment by the Ethics Committee and what would the basis of that disagreement be . My judgment. And thats based on what . The facts. It appeared to suggest not all of the find gsz would be revealed. Its very important that public and congress be informed of the special counsels work. Will you share it with us . Consustant with law and regulations,ious. The special counsel report is confidential. The report that goes public would be a report by the attorneygeneral. Despite the fact that you want be to transparent, Neither Congress or the public will get the Mueller Report because thats confidential. So what we will be getting and your review of the Mueller Report. Is that what youre telling us . I dont know what at the end of the day, what will boo releasable. I dont know what bob mueller is writing. Just to underscore, we dont know there will be a Mueller Report. We dont tend to know anything about the Mueller Investigation unreal time. Despite barrs assurances of support for mueller, he was also asked point blank about the future of the investigation. Are there any circumstances that would cause you to term not the investigation . Or a component or significantly restrict its funding . Under the regulations, bob mueller could only be terminated for good cause and. I dont think bob would do anything that gave rise to good cause. Chief White House Correspondent to the New York Timess. Former assistant attorney for the southern dustricate of new york. And chuck rosenberg, former u. S. Attorney, former senior fbi official. And chuck, id like to begin with you. Did barr do enough to convince you that Mueller Investigation would be sealed, protected, walled off under his good care . Yes, he did, brian. Let me explain why. Although i dont share his view on several matters of law that came up today and while i imagine i dont share his politics, ive always believed bill barr to be a man of ining it rety, a principaled man. He said the right thupgs ings a as im concerned about bob muellers character, specifically it wasnt a witch hunt, which we know and that he would do what he could to protect it. That mueller would not be removed except for good cause and that he, bill barr, couldnt imagine mueller doing anything that would rise to the level of good cause. Those type of statements give me great comfort and i think bill barr undoubtedly will be confirmed to the job. Sfwr were all assuming theres going to be a nicely bountd 400page report easy for every american to understand. What he will get is different from what he will are lease to us . I think mr. Barr daid a good job of being clear. He said look, i get a confidential report. In theory he could take verbatim everything that is in the robert Mueller Report and make it public. He sdruz tdoes have the power t that. So i thought he was being cute by suggesting it was a requirement it be something literally different. Things like grand jury information would be seeld off from the rest of us anyway. Certainly whos right when he says there are regulations that might preclude i dont know can theres going to be something thats National Security. Certainly he would have the obligation to go through that report and see if anything would be precluded from being mod public. I dont think that answers the question. I differ from chuck rosenberg, but its certain true and i think clear that barrs saying hes not getting fewered on my watch. If i thought i was being directed to do something inappropriate, i would resign. Certainly those are comforting statements but remember the memorandum stated the president had very broad powers to start and stop prosecution. He didnt distance himself lat from that statement in the memo. Which sets up the potential for if bob mueller says in my report i actually am recommending that there was abuse of authority here and actually obstruction of justice and he says i dont think thats actually warranted. He would have to write a report. But it doesnt actually square necessarily whether he will be in lock step lat all with Rober Mueller simply because he respects him. I think he was creative and smart in his answers. I dont disbelieve him about his strong feelingsing about the law but i think there are things that should give us pause. Some said there were two bill barrs at the hearing. The guy who wrote this voluminous memo no one asked for that was sent all around town. And the bill barr who said my life is pretty great, my family and me. I wasnt looking for work. Its in the eyes of the beholder to decide that. One thing there wasnt, fireworks, not a single protester. Was it the way it seemed to us . I do think you saw bill barr today who was softing some of the things he said. He took more of an advocates point of view in making Public Comment cans about the way the things were going. Even before the trumped administration had been an out spokened a vlkt f spoken advocate for the president. I think he had a more measured accounting of his views. Saying what he needs to say to reassure him that hes not going to be a tool of the president but hes going to be an independent administrator of the department of justice the waw he was when he was working for the bush administration, bush 41. Obviously hes presenting himself because he wants to win conformation. Staying consistent with how hes planning to run the Justice Department at this point. But there are going to be places where people say you said this then and now youre saying this now. And theyre going to find contrast draw. We spoke about the following topic but because of your years of service to the fbi i wanted to raise it agon. The opening headline on fox news10 00 p. M. Hour was the fbis sicking war against trump. And said this is an allpowerful out of control rogue agency and its time be halted in its tracks, reorganizeinized and replaced with a new organization. Its time that the fbi be halted. Its not about fox news, its about senator graham who opened today with an attack on doj and the fbi. And my question to you is how do you square this concerning this agency where youve spent so much of your adult life . I found those comments on fox and by the chairman despicable and disgusting, brian. I have stronger words but i wont use them here. Whats happening, sadly, is an effort to undermine the men and women of the fbi. And we discussed this earlier. When theyre execute canniing at warrant, they need people to trust what they are and what they do because what they are and what they do is protect us. And so to the extent that this constant drum beat, this drip, drip, drip undermines them and their work, its deeply destructive. The fbi i worked for jim comey and bob mueller is closely tegterred to the ruth of law and the constitution. In fact in the counterintelligence world its the most highly regulated and closely supervised work they do. So the notion this is a rogue agency out on a frolic and detour is just nonsense and its deeply hurtful and doopeeply destructive. Let me take the other side of the argument to make the point that for a republican ag nominee for donald trump, this man today really did try to stake his claim to independence and went out of his way to say the right things regarding the integrity of the investigations. If youre donald trump who has wistfully spoken of where is my roy cone, is this a case of be careful what you wish for . I kept going back to the can question of why does william barr want this job . And i think he was getting some of those questions today. Its an incredibly powerful and important position. And who wouldnt want to be the nations top lawyer and hes bun the nations top lawyer for a sitting president and hes seen trumps behavior repeatedly towards the department he loves. I dont disbelieve at all that william barr loves the department of justice and is committed to it. Not for a minute do i question that. So its hard to square how this relationship will play out if he is in fact confirmed. Certainly i believe him when he says i will resign before im willing to do something that is completely wrong. Im just concerned though how he will interpret that in conjunction with his read of vast executive power on the part of the president. And remember that we know that he dooply shocked that memo that he wrote around washington including sending it to Jared Kushners attorney. It does seem like he wanted the job. I cant believe i didnt get nominated. Share with our viewers the gist of the piece you wrote tonight regarding an interaction you had with barr in i believe 2017. He was asked about a quote and story i wrote in 2017 quote canning him. It was a time when the president was calling on the Justice Department to open investigations into Hillary Clinton and his political foes and i reached out to all or most of the living attorney generals. And he answered and said theres nothing wrong. The president calling for an investigation. He said it depends on the circumstances of it. In an email he said for instance he thought there was more of a basis for investigating the Hillary Clinton your in aia one than the collusion on President Trump. And that became an issue today at the haring. He remembered the quote somewhat differently and so i pulled out the email and put it on twitter so everybody could judge exactly what he said word for word and they can determine for themselves what he meant. The m des are saying he is buying into what the fox news people say about Hillary Clinton and minimizing the possibility theres a can collusion predicate that bob muellers running in the email. Thats over reading what thats saying. I was just making an argument that there are lots of things out there and that Justice Department could or could not investigate. Cant thank our big three enough after this long tuesday from washington to new york and points west. Our thanks. And coming up for us the news from london that is likely maybing Vladimir Putin very happy. And later day 25 of this shutdown stalemate. All congress could steam agree on today was steve kung. All congress could steam agree all congress could steam agree. Important developments over these past 24 hours. As we said that are likely to have pleased Vladimir Putin. It was just last night at this time our friends at the New York Times reported President Trump discussed pulling the United States from nato on multiple occasions last year. Major parts of the United States government, as youre aware, remain closed tonight, as the longest shutdown in our history is about to enter its 26th day and tonight our closest ally across the atlantic is regrouping while it decides on nothing short of the future of its economy and culture. Earlier today the British Parliament resoundingly rejected teresa m teresa mays plan to neat eu. Not by a margin of 230 votes. Making it the most lopsided major vote in the post world war i of great britain. After todays vote, may call canned on members of parliament to find some sort of a path forward. It is clear that house does not support this deal. But tonights vote tells us nothing about what it does support. Nothing about how nothing about how or even if it intends to honor the decision the british people took in a Referendum Parliament decided to hold and youth citizens who have made their home and those in the eu deserve clarity on these questions as soon as possible. No one quite does understatement like the brits. The New York Times reports that with no clear consnss forward, more radical solutions are gaining momentum. One group is campaigning for a repeat referendum which could reverse the eu. Another favors leaving the bloc as planned march 29 without a withdrawal agreement, the socalled hard brexit. Year so fofrp into the have tonight nicolas kristoff. Why is it important to all americans what happened in the house of commons today . So if britain pulls without a hard brexit,en the there will be disarray and a huge blow to the british economy and european economy at time when theyre weak and thats going to have ramifications around the world. The European Union was not put unplace as an economic measure but really as a Security Architecture repeat of the world wars. And what were seeing being challenged is architecture put place 70 years ago. The un, what became the European Union, trade organizations, nato, did try to prevent global chaos and further wars. And youve sort of eluded to this early on and russia and china have been trying to undermine this architecture all along because theyve worked so longing to the wests advantage and now theyre being dismantled by their own side. I dont want to get too cute in a tv way but why isnt this a great night to be in the kremlin . Talk of the u. S. Pulling out. Our longest alliance. The special relationship between the u. S. And the u krgs. American upon american. Our politics laze broken by the side of the road. All of these things together. Thats right and both russia and china have made the argument that well democracy may look nice but it doesnt lead to efficient outcomes, to a nations strength and you look at britain and a country and an economy on the abyss. You look at an america where the government is shut down and in complete chaos. France, italy huge problems of their own. Germany has a much weaker leader or is about to assume a weaker leader. And theyre more able to make those arguments now than they were a year ortwo ago. And you know, for those of us that think that we fundamentally do have the right kind of government and structure, its really sad to see our sad enabling russia to make those arguments more compleingly in ways that will disadvantage our government and economy and societies perhaps for years to come. The one sign it tcientific et that we reference more than other is the famous frogging boiling experiment. The slow death of our friend the frog. Its my contention weve yet to grasp the headline in your newspaper friday night that an american president because of his actions and words did enough to trigger an inquiry on whether or not he was a witting or unwutiunwu unwitting tool of a hostile power. It was so staggering to even see that in the newspaper. I mean i instagramed it because it was so incredible to see it. Whether its witting or unwitting, its the cos. I mean there is no doubt i dont know whether President Trump thinks hes doing this on behalf of the kremlin but his policies are clearly benefitting the putin and if putin wanted to create arguments to undermine the u. S. Too, undermine britain, the western order,en the he would be seeking to shut down the u. S. Government for a while, seeming to support the brexit campaigners, undermine the un, talk about withdrawing from nato and collapsing nato that has stood up to russia all along. Pretty much exactly what President Trump has been doing. Is it witting . Unwit withinging . I dont know but is it serving putins interest . Absolutely. Thank you for revisiting our broadcast. From the noums. New york times. As airports close more security lanes, thousands of furloughe