the attorney general is the purseen that makes the judgment and that s what the job entails. and betsywoodrough with the daily beast. it sounds like he s not going to do it, no matter what this ethics board has to say in the matter. chris, he s not going to recuse himself. he saw what happened to the lasts person that recused himself. that s why congress should do all it can and just pass legislation protecting mueller. there is no shortage of lawyers in america, no shortage of conservative lawyers in america. can t we find one that didn t meet with donald trump to join the defense team against mueller and one that didn t send a mem oo about the illegitimacy of the mueller probe?
allison barber is live on capitol hill where a new memo from mueller is sparking more outrage. the senate judiciary committee executive business meeting was postponed for second week in a row, a dozen judiciary nominees once again on hold as the republican standoff continues, legislation protecting robert mueller, republican majority on the judiciary committee 11-10, if one republican senator defects that poses a problem when it comes to advancing nominees, republican senator jeff flake allowed to vote against the administration of judicial nominee until the senate votes on legislation protecting mueller in the russia probe. when asked if the judiciary committee is goes into voting on nominee senator flake said this. i don t know, i hope so. let s have a vote. you can vote against it, vote
the senate votes on legislation that would protect special counsel robert mueller. there were reports today that republicans might be considering allowing a vote on legislation to protect mueller. specifically to get flake s vote for these judicial nominees. but late in the day the republican leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell, made clear that, no, he s not going to do that. he s going to continue to block any legislation protecting mueller from coming to the floor even if it costs jeff flake s vote. so that means for thomas farr and all other judicial nominees, it s a no vote from jeff flake. and thomas farr s case that means he can t afford to lose one more republican senator. thomas farr is exactly the kind of nomination, though, that might reasonably pose a problem for republican senator tim scott. republican senators mostly stick together like a bag of iron filings near a strong magnet. but over the summer, tim scott sunk a trump judicial nominee named ryan bounds when it turne
legislation and protect the special counsel. i think there s nothing lost by doing it and there s possibly much gained and it clears the air. whitaker has expressed hostility towards this probe. he s suggested ways to diminish it, to starve it of funding for example. why in the world we would allow this to happen is beyond me. reporter: senator lindsey graham met with the acting a.g. a ki couple days ago. i think he would be good for the country in person duty to make sure in perpetuity to make sure special counsels have protection. i see no reason that mr. mueller will be dismissed by president trump or mr. whitaker. reporter: mitch mcconnell has said legislation protecting mueller is not necessary. jeff flake who you just heard from, a republican member of the
ins luted from politics. if it is true should he resign or be fired and couldn t the perception work against the special counsel investigation? again, the facts are unclear at this point, anderson. but here s my bottom line. if donald trump fired rod rosenstein for the purpose of protecting himself from the mueller investigation, that would represent high crimes and misdemeanors. should rosenstein leave noel francisco, the solicitor general, would likely oversee the russia investigation, at least temporarily. based on what you know about him, do you have faith that he would protect the integrity of the investigation? i don t, and the fact is he has a long record of trying to inflate executive power at every opportunity. that s a prescription for trouble with this president. there has been a push from democrats for months now, as you talked about, to pass some kind of legislation protecting mueller, protecting the