where do you think we are going forward with rosenstein leaving? by the way, or member of a scuttlebutt about the president not firing him? it looks like he s just leaving. because it s been a couple years. he said that was a total commitment. pete: absolutely. this looks like a new attorney general should have the ability to have a team around him that reflects the priorities and the approach that they attorney general s going to take. barr is very well-respected, i think he will be confirmed. he has taken a measured approach on mueller. all of this about protecting mueller is a bunch of nonsense. how many times do people have does it give them a chance to give him a chance to finish the investigation, before someone believes them? harris: it s a chance to say we don t know what mueller has. and that it s almost over. [laughter] that we believe they just apply for some extension. maybe not. katie, i want to get back to this point. the president obviously meant when he said when
nominee william barr is confirmed by the senate. nominee barr on capitol hill today, meeting with senator lindsey graham. senator graham saying that barr has assured him that he will allow special counsel robert mueller to complete his investigation. this comes amid a new development in that probe. court documents revealing that paul manafort, the president s former campaign chairman, is accused of sharing polling data with a russian-tied criminal and operative. catherine herridge on the job for us today to bring us up to speed with the news. catherine? the white house characterized the decision to leave after a new attorney general is confirmed as part of a smooth transition. i don t think there is any willingness by the president of the white house to push them ou out. my guess is that he is making room for the new attorney general to build a team that he wants around him. rod rosenstein left his home
dealing with. what do you expect in terms of the posture, the approach this administration, this white house takes toward these investigations in these coming months from the democrats in congress and from the special counsel and southern district of new york as well. well, i think what concerns me the most, steve is the departure of john kelly. essentially the departure of one of the last remaining remnants of adult supervision. when you think about what the approach is going to be to these incoming slaught of investigative threat. the president is not going to be able to restrain himself. he s going to lash out repeatedly and that on any given bad day, you could see a strategy unfortunate strategy of trying to fire rod rosenstein and/or bob mueller. things could get a lot weers here. there s a window of time before william barr takes his seat at the department of justice while whitaker is sitting there. don t be surprised if on a bad
work for him and throws them under the bus and goes at it alone so many times. you are a tweet away from being fired. that s the white house they re dealing with. what do you expect in terms of the posture, the approach this administration, this white house takes toward these investigations in these coming months from the democrats in congress and from the special counsel and southern district of new york as well. well, i think what concerns me the most, steve is the departure of john kelly. essentially the departure of one of the last remaining remnants of adult supervision. when you think about what the approach is going to be to these incoming slaught of investigative threat. the president is not going to be able to restrain himself. he s going to lash out repeatedly and that on any given bad day, you could see a strategy unfortunate strategy of trying to fire rod rosenstein and/or bob mueller. things could get a lot worse here.
both rosenstein and mueller are by the book, professional prosecutors. they re going to do this investigation and his message in that interview was we re going to do this investigation in the right way. there is more reporting about manafort having met nine times with the special counsel s office, more focus on roger stone. what are your expectations for where this goes next? the evidence is pretty clear that there was collusion between the trump campaign and the russians. you think there s evidence pretty clear? the evidence is there. whether they have enough of it to bring criminal charges is another issue entirely. likewise with obstruction of justice charges. what we saw in firing comey and the threats to the investigators, in various other actions linked to the white house is the potential obstruction of justice case. is it not absolutely essential, both these cases, vis-a-v vis-a-vis russia and saudi