With the standard procedure. i will tell you this, all this is going on, and i agree with ji jill s assertion, that the attorney general is potentially criminally exposed on obstruction, maybe perjury. so you ve got an attorney who s a fact witness and a potential subject of a criminal investigation and all of this going on as news breaks that the fbi director may have threatened to resign because attorney general sessions is pressuring him to remove senior people in the fbi. this is an unprecedented time, really in the history of doj and fbi. certainly no dispute on that. jill, frank, we appreciate both of you being here, thank you very much. the state department said today that multiple u.s. citizens were killed and injured during a weekend attack on a luxury hotel in kabul, afghanistan. the department did not state the number or the names of those american citizens. afghan officials say at least 22 died in the roughly 13-hour attack. the taliban has now claimed responsibility.
Russian response. was he expecting anything else? a startling statement but with a purpose it builds leverage before the visit. joining me to talk about this, ji jill, a former colleague of mine. talk to us about what the russian senator means. what s this leverage he s ref g referring to? what s the official russian position? what did you expect the russians to say? they re going to say it s illegitimate. there was no u.n. or international approval for this. they even noted that congress wasn t involved in russian media they ve been saying that. and then they also say the attack on legally elected president. now, assad may not be the person that everyone loves but the russians would argue he is legally elected and therefore he s president.
we re only a day away from a crucial primary that could determine where this republican marathon is headed. fresh off a run away win in puerto rico, mitt romney is now looking to score big in illinois. rick santorum needs a strong showing as he tries to deny romney the nomination. the two rivals have long since taken off the gloves, but now they have put on some brass knuckles as well. our national correspondent jim accosta is in chicago with the very latest. the top two gop contenders are practicing their own brand of chicago style politics on this day before the illinois primary and both rick santorum and mitt romney are proving to be untouchable. reporter: the battle for the gop nomination has come to illinois and in the land of lincoln the republican party is a house divided in an uncivil war of words. i m somewhat experienced in the economy, i m not an economic light weight. president obama is. we re not going to be successful replacing an economic light weight wit
Ji jill, i believe you can hear me now. we know the president s here to speak to the russian president, but are the people in the room anticipating that the president might give a question about stanley mcchrystal? there s no question. that is the subject that s really overshadowing a lot of this. and all of the president s people are saying the mission will continue, nothing changes, personalities change, but the mission does not. but that really is a question. you know, are there issues, are there frustrations, are there concerns about things like the july 2011 deadline? some media operations like the new york times even said, let s clean house. let s start new with a new team, replace, for example, richard holbrooke, who s a special representative on afghanistan and pakistan. and replace the ambassador, eikenberry. many different things, start over. perhaps we ll hear some of that answer from the president. but there are serious concerns, then, of course, we have the
Serious issues that he wants to discuss with the russian president. and we see several other members starting, other people starting to walk into the room. but like you said there, jill, this event is supposed to be an event between the president of the u.s. and the president of russia, dmitry medvedev, who was in the u.s. he spent some time out in silicon valley, out in california because he is here to tout and pretty much sell his country for investment. trying to build up some partnerships and get people to invest money over in russia. that s what this event is supposed to be about. but that certainly sounds like to you, from hearing from you, it s being overshadowed a bit and everybody in the room is buzzing about what happened yesterday. yeah, well, we were actually on that trip out west to california to silicon valley with president medvedev. in fact, cnn was the only network that was allowed to do that. and it was a fascinating trip. i just got back this morning. here we go.