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Attorney General William Barr Does Not Agree to Testify before House Judiciary Committee; Senate Questions Attorney General William Barr on Mueller Report; Robert Mueller to be Called to Testify before Congress; Sen. Michael Bennet Announces 2020 Presidential Bid; Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) is Interviewed About AG Barr Refusing to Testify Before House Hearing Today. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired May 02, 2019 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: -- attorney general who called Mueller's concerns a bit snitty. And how will he react to the attorney general's claim that Mueller's report cleared President Obama of obstruction despite 10 possible instances laid out in the Mueller report in painstaking detail. This morning we have to wait to find out when we are going to hear from Robert Mueller.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And we will not hear from William Barr again today. He is refusing to testify before the House Judiciary Committee when it convenes an hour from now. He is skipping the hearing because he does not want to be questioned by the committee's staff attorneys. Barr offered no apologies for his handling of the Mueller report yesterday, but he admitted he did not review Robert Mueller's underlying evidence before giving that four-page summary.

CNN's Lauren Fox is live inside the hearing room where Barr will not appear on Capitol Hill with more. So what's going to happen now in an hour?

LAUREN FOX, CNN POLITICS CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, Alisyn, this chair behind me is exactly where Bill Barr was supposed to be seated today for questioning from the House Judiciary Committee. We know that he won't appear, and that's because of a disagreement with the Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler over the format of this hearing. Basically, Nadler wanted to allow staff lawyers on both the Republican and Democratic side to question Barr for 30 minutes each after members of Congress had gotten their questions in. That is something that the Justice Department said they could not agree to, so Barr will not be coming before the committee today.

Jerry Nadler has been very clear that everything has been escalated because the Justice Department did not hand over that Mueller report, the full, unredacted report, despite a subpoena from the committee chairman yesterday. So at this point it's likely that the committee chair will have to move to hold the attorney general in contempt of Congress. Here is what Jerry Nadler said yesterday about his disagreements with the Justice Department.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JERROLD NADLER, (D-NY) HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: He is trying to blackmail the committee into not following what we think is the most effective means of eliciting the information we need, and the Congress cannot permit the executive branch, we cannot permit the administration to dictate to Congress how we operate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: Now, the committee will still hold this hearing today. We're going to hear from the opening remarks of both the committee chairman and the ranking member, but the real focus now is they want to hear from Bob Mueller. John and Alisyn?

BERMAN: And when and how and where will Mueller testify? That is such a key question this morning. Lauren Fox inside the committee room where we will not see William Barr one hour from now.

CAMEROTA: In the room where it will not happen.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: Exactly, which was the last song cut from "Hamilton," the very last song.

I want to bring in Julie Pace, Washington Bureau Chief for the Associated Press and a CNN political analyst, Phil Mudd, former FBI senior intelligence adviser and a CNN counterterrorism analyst, and Renato Mariotti, former federal prosecutor and a CNN legal analyst. Renato, I want to start with you, because what I want to know is what new questions came out of the hearing yesterday, and what questions from that then need to be posed to Robert Mueller?

RENATO MARIOTTI, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think one of the biggest ones has to be that private conversation that Bill Barr contends that he had with Robert Mueller. Robert Mueller wrote a letter, he said in that letter essentially that what Barr had told the public mischaracterized what was in the report, what his findings were. Barr kind of went back to this private conversation he supposedly had with Mueller. He did the same thing at his press conference, although when our own Laura Jarrett asked a question about whether or not DOJ policy drove Mueller's non-decision on obstruction, he went to a private conversation he supposed had with Mueller. I suspect that those private conversations are going to be a very key part of the conversation on Capitol Hill.

CAMEROTA: Phil, what has stuck with you, because it looks like something has stuck with you?

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: What stuck with me is it's 8:00 a.m. and you're asking me what stuck with me.

CAMEROTA: That might be your resting face, I can never tell.

MUDD: I'm of two minds on this. Look, Barr, I think, misled us. There was one exchange, for example, where he's saying dancing on the head of a pin. Look, I don't know what the staff thought because I spoke with Mueller despite the fact that he said that he got the letter before he said he didn't know what the staff thought, but what else did he say? He said he thought the staff drafted the letter. So what is it, Mr. Barr? Which one is it?

That's not my overriding view here, Alisyn. My overriding view is Bill Barr won, and the reason is if you go into that hostile testimony, there is a couple things as a witness, and I've been in hostile testimony, as a witness you're thinking of. Number one, how many times did negative information about Donald Trump come up? The boss didn't get hammered in the hearing. And number two, in middle America, the attorney general stuck to his previous statements, he didn't make I think any headline news. I think he's walking away saying that was going to be a nasty event, it was nasty, but I came away sticking to my points and I didn't hammer the boss. Looks good from his perspective.

BERMAN: The interesting thing about that framing is when you talk about won and lost, it makes me wonder what the exact teams are, because I can get what you're saying if one team there is the White House versus Democrats.

[08:05:00] But I'm not sure that Robert Mueller is on a team there, and I don't know if Barr won over Mueller or not. And the other part of it is I'm not sure the truth has a team in this case, and I'm not sure whether or not we learn more or, in fact, learn less about what actually happened in some instances here. Julie, what's your top line analysis?

JULIE PACE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think to Phil's point, I think my top line is that Bill Barr is team Trump, and that was abundantly clear. When he was in his initial confirmation hearings, he was trying to straddle this line between being the nation's top law enforcement official and being a political appointee, and actually did quite a good job. There were even Democrats who came out of those hearings feeling pretty confident about his standing at the top of the Justice Department.

We have now seen a shift here. He is a Trump adviser through and through, and he went up there to, as Phil says, to protect the boss. And from that standpoint, he did do a good job. He was able to parry a lot of these questions from Democrats, he did not reveal anything new in terms of substance, he didn't open up any new legal questions, I think, about the president. He was there to simply defend him, to defend his own actions, and from that perspective I think he was successful.

CAMEROTA: To that point, even the pronouns that he uses are about he and the president. Here was a moment where he was asked about whether or not Don McGahn is protected by executive privilege. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DICK DURBIN, (D-IL) SENATE MINORITY WHIP: Do you have any objections, can you think of an objection of why Don McGahn shouldn't come testify before this committee about his experience? WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Yes. I think that he's a close

adviser to the president and the president --

DURBIN: Never exerted executive privilege.

BARR: Excuse me?

DURBIN: He may have already waived --

BARR: No, we haven't waived executive privilege.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: He said, "no, we haven't waived executive privilege."

MARIOTTI: Very interesting.

CAMEROTA: He is supposed to be the top law enforcement officer of the country.

MARIOTTI: And only the president can waive executive privilege. So he really is, I think that's very revealing, you're right, it's him seeing himself as part of what the president is doing. And really on that which side won or lost comment, I think the American people lost, because I think what we were hoping to get out of this process was something like Robert Mueller was trying to provide us, where he went through the facts, he did it in a fairly neutral way. He clearly didn't have an agenda. I don't think anyone could come out of reading that reporting thinking the guy had an agenda.

And I think he had faith that if he just put that to Bill Barr, that Bill Barr would just put that in front of the American people in a neutral way. He had faith in that just like a lot of DOJ lawyers. I don't think he had any agenda whatsoever. And what happened was Bill Barr took him to lunch for that. He essentially took advantage of the fact that Robert Mueller showed restraint, and he achieved some political victory for that. And the American people are the losers, even though him and Trump gained.

BERMAN: And he had to bear, William Barr did, a whole lot of criticism from the Democrats here. Let me just play what Mazie Hirono, Democratic senator from Hawaii had to say yesterday during her question period where there weren't so many questions, frankly. Listen.

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO, (D) HAWAII: Now, the American people know that you are no different from Rudy Giuliani or Kellyanne Conway or any of the other people who sacrificed their once decent reputation for the grifter and liar who sits in the Oval Office. You know the difference but you've chosen to be the president's lawyer and side with him over the interest of the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And it went on and on and on for more than three men's before she even got to her first question. Phil, my question to you, as someone who worked -- you're shaking your head. You didn't like that.

MUDD: No, I don't. I mean, the responsibility especially if you have limited time -- this is why the Mueller testimony will be so interesting, the responsibility of the members is to come in and not soapbox with their perspective. I think it's to be -- if you want to get something, to be very pointed and prepared in your questions.

Just to transition quickly, I think that's why preparation of questions is so critical for the Mueller hearing, and that will happen. Watch a couple things. Do they try to get him, that is Mueller, to go against Barr? He won't do it. Do they try to get him to engage in fights between Democrats and Republicans? He won't do it. Do they spend time with staff saying how do we ask precise questions about how he interpreted the president's legal responsibility in the obstruction case. Then you could get there. If you get people like Hirono sitting there saying let me soapbox for three minutes we're not going to get any answers.

BERMAN: Phil, I'm so glad you brought this up, because that was actually what my question was going to be, because you worked with Robert Mueller and you know how he will approach these things. You just laid out what he will not do. But if he's asked a direct question about what was the nature of your telephone conversation with William Barr, and if he has a different view of what happened in that conversation, because that's now called into question, will he level with Congress and the American people?

MUDD: Yes, and I think that would be a fair question. He would pick up a question about the investigation and the results of the investigation. But there are a lot of questions I could see them asking that he won't pick up. Things like, do you think it was appropriate for the attorney general to call your letter snitty? That's a he said/she said. That's trying to get him to go sideways on an issue that doesn't really relate to the facts of the investigation. I'm afraid that the members are not going to spend the time playing Mueller like they should. Be legalistic, don't be political.

[08:10:09] CAMEROTA: But I do want to know what Robert Mueller thinks about being called a little bit snitty.

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: What do you think he did when he heard that, Phil?

MUDD: I think that was a mistake by Barr. He stuck to his talking points most of the time. I think he's looking at that as someone who sat in about 2,000 meetings with him saying, you've got to be kidding me. You've got to be kidding me suggesting by Barr that Mueller didn't even look at the letter. We used to have a problem with Mueller in meetings and say, director, please don't ask who shot Jane questions, please don't ask what the color of the car questions were. He was so detail oriented, there is no way he didn't even draft or look at the letter.

And when you read the letter, it's simply somebody saying me and my staff spent two years and you misrepresented us. It's not snitty. I think he was irritated -- I'm sure he was irritated, but I don't think he will take that bait in a hearing.

PACE: And Mueller of course being someone who has been in Washington for a long time had to know that that letter would become public at some point. So the idea that he would hand that over to a staff member and say you just take care of this letter, which will clearly become public and clearly become part of this massive debate about the future of the Trump presidency seems a little unlikely here.

BERMAN: What do you think Democrats are going to do? How are they going to handle this now? Because you already have people calling for Barr's resignation, which I think you've pointed out, don't hold your breath. This isn't going to happen. Where do they take that and where do they take the Mueller testimony, which is imminent, I feel?

PACE: In some ways the questions about Barr are actually a bit easier for Democrats because it allows them to look like they are trying to still take action, still have forward momentum, but not be talking about impeaching Trump. That is a whole political can of worms for them right now. But to say we think Barr should resign, to say that we want to keep calling him before the Hill, that's a much more comfortable space for them.

I do think the request he about how they will handle Mueller testimony is really crucial, because we have no idea how Mueller will play when he gets up there. To Phil's point, he is not a political actor. He is no the going to be up there to sort of root for one side or the other. And so if Democrats go in there and try to turn him into somebody who they think is on their side, that could really backfire to them. But I also think that Democrats and Republicans are political actors here, and the idea that they are going to go in there and just do sort of basic, straightforward legal questions is also highly unlikely.

CAMEROTA: And just quickly, are you hearing May 15th? Is that the day?

PACE: That's the day that we're hearing right now. That is at least where we're negotiating.

BERMAN: Circle your calendar.

CAMEROTA: I am. I am, because some people think that he will -- despite the DOJ attempting to perhaps block his testimony, that they won't be able to. Do you think that's right?

MARIOTTI: I think that they will be able to if they want to while he is a DOJ employee. They can try to do it. One thing right now is Barr has a delay strategy. I don't think he's ever going to keep this full report from the House of Representatives, I think no court is going to let him do it. I don't think he's going to have any chance of keeping most of these witnesses. But what he's doing is he's basically allowing the air to deflate out of the balloon here. He's wasting the Democrats' time, he's basically taking a lot of the momentum away from impeachment. That is the strategy here, and that's why I think you can see some frustration by Jerry Nadler and some of the others who know there is no legal basis for this, but they effectively have to play along because they have to set themselves up for potential legal challenge.

BERMAN: There's wasn't a lot of deflation yesterday if that was his goal. If he gets asked the direct question, in some ways this is the whole ballgame, Renato, if he gets asked directly, Director Mueller, do you think -- if the president, if Donald Trump were not president of the United States would you have charged him with obstruction? That seems like a fairly direct question.

MARIOTTI: It is. And if he was answering honestly, I think he would say yes, but I don't think he is going to say that. I think he's going to stick to his guns. He made a judgment that it would not be fair to president Trump to make that judgment when Trump could not go in court and defend himself in a criminal proceeding. And I have to tell you, that's extraordinary fairness to a man who has treated him very badly, and it just goes to show you the restraint, humility, and fair play that Robert Mueller has. I think he'll stick to his guns in that. That may frustrate Democrats, or maybe, as Julie is saying, maybe that will make them happy deep inside.

CAMEROTA: How do you think he would answer, Phil, real quickly?

MUDD: That's the wrong question. That's a hypothetical. He'd say, I'm sorry, that wasn't the case. I think the right question, the precise question would be did the fact that one of the subjects was in the Oval Office influence how that report was drafted, and what your decision was. That's what I would ask.

BERMAN: So thank you for the criticism. I will take it.

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: And you're welcome, lawmakers.

MUDD: Makes me feel so good this morning.

BERMAN: I feel like it was a bit snitty, but I will take it anyway.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: I appreciate it. I'm so nervous now.

CAMEROTA: I'm scared. He's scaring me. All right, get the camera off him. Very good.

A new name may be joining the 2020 race while a candidate surging in the polls continues to capture the spotlight. We have all the latest campaign trail news next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:18:30] BERMAN: All right. We have breaking news. This just in. There is a new Democratic candidate for president.

CAMEROTA: Who saw that coming?

BERMAN: No one could have seen this coming, Colorado Senator Michael Bennet announced his bid just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Bennet joins us now only on "CBS This Morning" to announce his plans for the future.

Good morning, Senator.

SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D-CO), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Good morning, John.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, what are your plans for the future?

BENNET: My plan is to run for president. I appreciate you letting me come here to announce that. I think this country faces two enormous challenges among others, one is a lack of economic mobility and opportunity for most Americans. And the other is, there need to restore integrity to our government. I think we need to do both of those things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Senator Bennet is now the 21st Democrat to announce candidacy for president.

Joining us now, CNN senior political analyst John Avlon.

I know there is a tendency to say, oh my gosh, the 21st candidate, you know, he doesn't have a chance. I am of the mind it's not for us to decide who does and doesn't have a chance.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: That is literally true.

BERMAN: That voters --

CAMEROTA: That's for Harry Enten to decide.

BERMAN: The voters will get to decide.

But Michael Bennet, what's his case?

AVLON: His case is that he is a swing state senator, background in education, reform, relatively young. You heard, he wants to focus on economic mobility and restoring honor to the office.

One fascinating thing about him getting in is there already a statewide elected official from Colorado in the race, John Hickenlooper, the former governor. And to make it even more fascinating, Michael Bennet was once his chief of staff. That is an unusual sort of little collision of ambition on the road of the White House.

[08:20:04] You know, he was diagnosed -- came up with the diagnosis of prostate cancer just a month or so ago and said that that made him think bigger about his obligations to his country. Someone who typically a swing state senator is someone who typically would be a strong candidate for the office. John Hickenlooper has had trouble getting traction, despite being one of the few swing state governors running.

So we will see. Twenty-one, blackjack, baby, let's go.

BERMAN: We are going to bust in a second because Steve Bullock will get in the race from Montana.

AVLON: That's 22, we'll bust.

BERMAN: We'll bust.

Go ahead. Sorry.

CAMEROTA: What is it that people don't necessarily think that they are going to blaze a trail to the White House but want their voice to be heard? Is that what some of these calculation is?

AVLON: For a lot of folks running, it is seen as something that they can raise their profile, have more influence, maybe set themselves up for another race or cabinet position. I don't think Michael Bennet necessarily falls into that category.

BERMAN: Agreed.

AVLON: And he really has been someone who has been focused on policy for a long time. Somebody who was the head of the Education Department in Denver, in Colorado. So, look, I think this credible candidate entering the race, this is not simply a vanity play, raise your name ID.

But the field is crowded and there is already someone from his state running. There is going to come down to not just the voters deciding but the debates will be key for differentiating in this broader field.

BERMAN: He has to start raising the money and getting the poll numbers up if he wants to be on the debate stage. And they are running out of time for that. So, there is time issues here.

I want to show the cover of "Time" magazine, I'm not sure "Time" magazine holds the weight it once does so I don't think the covers are in and of themselves news events and I think oftentimes, they try to make news with the covers. This is a picture of Pete Buttigieg and his husband on the cover of "Time" magazine saying "First Family".

Obviously, we've noted, this is a historic run for president by Pete Buttigieg. He has risen in the polls or was raising fast in the polls, may be a bit of a plateau recently.

But where is he right now in significance to this?

AVLON: But, look, I think this does confirm the buzz that's been building around Pete Buttigieg and it really highlights the historic nature of his candidacy. He talks about being a candidate of generational change. Obviously, that's part of being a pioneering gay candidate as well. But what's so key about his success to date is it echoes some of the things President Obama brought to bare.

Obama didn't campaign as a black candidate for president, he campaigned as someone running for president who happened to be black. Pete Buttigieg is doing the same thing for being gay. You know, he is somebody who is, you know, an Afghanistan war vet, somebody who's a mayor of a Midwestern city, happens to be gay and is not hiding from it, celebrating it, but it doesn't define him entirely.

And it really changes -- I think it's a great wonderful affirmation of the sea change that's gone around the gay rights movement in this country and the fact that it's understated and speaks volume about his candidacy and where we are as a country. So, I think it's an extraordinary moment.

CAMEROTA: OK, John, thank you very much for that snap analysis of everything that's happening in the race.

AVLON: There you go.

CAMEROTA: All right. Attorney General William Barr is refusing to testify today when the House Judiciary Committee convenes in just minutes.

Joining us now to talk about this and more, we have Democratic Congresswoman Cheri Bustos. She is the chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Congresswoman, great to have you.

REP. CHERI BUSTOS (D-IL): Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Before we get to Barr and everything happening on Capitol Hill, just about Michael Bennet. I mean, as the chairwoman of the campaign arm, does it get unwieldy with 21 Democratic candidates in the race so far?

BUSTOS: That's a large number. I was thinking when I was looking at the announcement, is this number 80-something? It seems like this number is growing by the minute.

No, you know, in the end I just want to make sure that we have a person, whoever that person is, who can be successful in November of 2020, who can resonate in the town of Hamlet, Illinois, population 48, who can stay focused on what matters to the people who -- when I go home I listen to all the time, the woman who was driving the van last week when I was job shadowing her who makes $9 an hour who has health insurance offered to her but cannot afford it. And when I asked her when she took a vacation last, she had to scratch her head and go, I don't remember. And what she does for fun is she watches the neighbor kids over her fence.

So, I want whoever it is to be able to relate to people like that.

CAMEROTA: About Bill Barr, I do want to ask you after yesterday's testimony, after his first testimony with lawmakers, after the four- page summary that he put out, you know, there are many Democrats who feel that he has lied to them, I mean, flat out lied to them, misrepresented and just not been forthcoming. So, they're calling for his resignation.

Now, he does not seem inclined to resigned or take any advice from Democrats. So, what do Democrats do? Some people are talking about moving for impeachment hearings on him.

[08:25:03] BUSTOS: Well, I don't -- I certainly do not want to go down the path of now talking about impeaching the attorney general.

But, again, and I've talked with you about this in the past, Alisyn, when you've been kind enough to have me on your show, but it's like -- it's seeking the truth here. If Attorney General Barr lied, then we've got to deal with that. The fact that Jerry Nadler, excuse me, in the Judiciary Committee today is going to have to have a hearing in front of an empty chair, you know, what in the heck is Attorney General Barr afraid of?

I mean, if he can't face attorneys, how is he going to stand up for the American public and make sure that he's fighting against the prescription drug companies that are gouging people?

CAMEROTA: Yes, but, I mean, just to represent his point of view, he feels that people on the -- you know, in Congress, lawmakers, many of them, are lawyers and that it is unusual to just ask staff attorneys to do the questioning and that he was being held to a different standard than other people called in front of committees.

BUSTOS: Well, we don't have to go back too far in history to know that the Republicans did that during the Kavanaugh hearings. They used their attorney, remember, because it was the senators who didn't want to have to ask those questions. So we don't have to go back that far to say this is not unprecedented.

And, frankly, the fact that we are limited in the house to these five- minute little sections to ask questions, I think we ought to be able to have a little more time to dig deep here.

This is a pretty serious matter. Russia infiltrated our election process. We have 365 days every single year and they are using every one of those days to continue to try to interfere with our democracy. You know, as the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, I have issued a letter, a very decent, nonpolitical letter, to the chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee, Tom Emmer, to say, you need to stand with us, please stand with us, and say to the Russian government that if we get information that has been stolen, has been hacked and it is -- involves any of our elections, that you will stand and say you will not use that.

I have written this letter to Chairman Emmer, he has not even responded. So what I would say, I hope he's watching this right now and I would say Tom Emmer, stand with us, stand against Russians stealing, hacking and using information in the political process to defile our democracy. Stand with us and stand against Russia on this.

But, Alisyn, he hasn't even responded to that request. We have signed a pledge saying we will not use any information that has been gotten from ill-gained processes to defile our election process.

CAMEROTA: Yes, I know you have done that, as has the DNC, and I'm just wondering if you will come to regret this pledge. What if you get some sort of leaked material about, say, President Trump's taxes, what if you get some sort of juicy material that you could use to run against President Trump, will you -- I mean, you know, one person's hack is another person's leak.

I mean, will you regret it if something crosses your desk that could be used against President Trump?

BUSTOS: I will not regret it. I would never regret it. I would -- look, the right thing to do and what Donald Trump should have done or Donald Trump Jr. should have done when the Russians were offering information against Hillary Clinton, they should have immediately called the FBI, federal authorities, and said, I just want to make sure you are aware of this. And think where we would be as a nation right now and not having to waste all of our time on this process.

And rather we could be focusing on things that the van driver who I just told you about is focused on, making sure that they can afford -- people can afford healthcare, that we rebuild our country with a meaningful infrastructure package. We could be focusing on things that matter to every day people instead of all of this if they just did the right thing.

So, Alisyn, no, I will not regret the fact that I have said that I will not use any stolen information from any hack by the Russian government or Russians to interfere with our democracy. It is the right thing to do and I would ask the chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee to do the right thing as well.

CAMEROTA: Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, thank you for being on NEW DAY.

BUSTOS: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Always great to talk to you.

BUSTOS: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: We will take a look at that hearing room one more time, John, as we show the room where it won't happen.

BERMAN: Oh, is there a sign in the desk? Is that saying William Barr and he will not sit in the chair behind it?

CAMEROTA: This is a lot of theatrics, I'd say.

BERMAN: All right. The Trump administration just filed a formal request to strike down all of Obamacare. So what does that mean for millions of Americans who depend on it for health insurance? We'll discuss, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END