reason to undermine it as a witch hunt. unless something changed from the midterm elections last night to right now, mueller should theoretically be safe under existing legislation. i don t think it s that far gone to picture the president firing the special counsel, because a., he s tried to do it before. it s not like it s some area he hasn t come close to. he s tried to do it before. and b., what was one of the things he was tweeting about this morning when he was talking about the rash of election results from last night? he was citing a poll believing americans did not find the mueller investigation to be worthy of continuing to go on. so the president can use that mentality or he clearly has that mentality. he thinks his supporters and he s been surrounded by them for two weeks now, saying witch hunt and having the crowd cheer, agree with him. this is a waste of time and he should end it. that is how the president reasons things. not by being worried about what people on capito
counsel was considering. let s talk about matt whitaker for a second. he s going to serve as the acting attorney general. he will now be overseeing the russia investigation, not deputy attorney general rosenstein. and he does seem, as you note, to align with the president s view of the mueller investigation. he wrote in a cnn op-ed last week, quote, it does not take a lawyer or even a former federal prosecutor like myself to conclude that investigating donald trump s finances or his family s finances falls completely outside of the realm of his 2016 campaign and allegations that the campaign coordinated with the russian government or anyone else. that goes beyond the scope of the appointment of the special counsel. so that s just one example of many of the things that matt whitaker has said publicly about limiting the mueller probe one way or the other. you mentioned already that he had talked, high apologet hypot acting attorney general could starve the mueller investigation in term
though a source tells cnn she is likely not interested. laura jarrett, cnn, washington. and our thanks to laura jarrett for that piece. this just in. current democratic minority leader incoming likely house speaker nancy pelosi just tweeted, quote, it is impossible to read attorney general sessions firing as anything other than a blatant attempt to undermine and end special counsel mueller s investigation. pelosi weighing in on the appointment of the acting attorney general, adding quote, given his record of threats to undermine and weaken the russia investigation, matthew whitacre should recuse himself from any involvement in mueller s investigation. congress must take immediate action to protect the rule of law and integrity of the investigation. unquote. and our panel is here with us to discuss this. and david urban, let me start with you. as somebody who is closely allied with the white house. are you surprised by this? do you think it s wise? sure. slow news at a day.
mueller could investigate his finances. he said it s time for rosenstein to order mueller to limit the scope of his investigation to the four corners of the order appointing him special counsel. if he doesn t, then mueller s investigation will eventually start to look like a political fishing expedition. do you have any concerns about whether or not he can supervise the investigation? i think in cases like this, it s best practices to if you ve opined on this specific subject, to make sure that it people have confidence by not putting yourself in that position. so you think he should recuse. i think that s probably the right thing. i think jeff sessions did the right thing, and it has ticked off trump as we have seen ever since then. i don t want to dismiss the idea that special prosecutors should have limits on them. that s a long time and fair concern about these types of investigations. sure. but he s specifically commented on this. and i will say, it s going to be dif
catch mueller to exert pressure being day after interview with staffers. if another comment, matt whitaker tweeted in response to this npr headline, those depending on robert mueller to shake up the trump presidency may be in for disappointment, stating the article is correct. it will be very difficult to ever see evidence discovered by mueller grand jury investigation. matt whitaker also shared an opinion piece. note to trump s lawyer, do not cooperate with mueller lynch mob, adding, worth a read. responding to the breaking news of trump firing attorney general jeff sessions. sunlen serfaty is on the hill. what are you hearing? reporter: certainly, jake, specifically, a lot of concern about acting ag, matt whitaker. a lot of those words you read, the top senate democrat, top house democrat, calling for matt whitaker to recuse himself in the russia investigation and across the board, a lot of top democrats expressing concern about what this means for the