tonight, what has michael cohen told robert mueller already? after spending more than 70 hours answering questions from mueller's team. abc's chief justice correspondent pierre thomas leading us off tonight. >> reporter: michael cohen, the president's former personal attorney and fixer, swarmed today outside federal court in lower manhattan after pleading guilty as part of his bombshell plea deal with special counsel robert mueller. >> mr. cohen has cooperated, mr. cohen will continue to cooperate. >> reporter: sources tell abc news cohen has already spent more than 70 hours talking to mueller's investigators about the 2016 campaign and president trump's business ties to russia. today, he pleaded guilty to

. >> reporter: with special counsel robert mueller expected to be nearing the end of his investigation, a major development. a cooperation deal with key witness paul manafort has broken down. mueller accusing the former trump campaign chairman of lying repeatedly to the fbi. manafort has already pled guilty to other charges and faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison. could manafort now be hoping for a pardon from the president? hours after the deal broke down, the president offered some of his harsh attacks yet on the special counsel, tweeting, "wait until it comes out how horribly and viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie. mueller is a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue." given what the president said this morning, that robert mueller is ruining people's lives, is he considering a pardon for paul manafort or for others who were prosecuted and have been prosecuted by mueller? >> i'm not aware of any conversations for anyone's pardon involving this process. >> reporter: but with a new acting attorney general who has also criti

>> look, i think that the president has had robert mueller doing his job for the last two years and he could have taken action at any point and he hasn't. >> reporter: is he ruling it out now? >> so we'll let that speak for itself. he has no intent to do anything. >> let's get to jonathan karl. there's been a lot of talk about the possibility of a government shutdown in the president doesn't get the funding for the border wall that he wants. if there is a shutdown, tonight, the special counsel is on the record about what would happen to robert mueller's investigation? >> reporter: we saw something from the special counsel that we almost never see from them. a public statement. in this statement, the office of robert mueller said that their investigation will continue ghtherovnmshutdoy rare jo rl, ouryou. next here to the deadliest day this year for american service members fighting in afghanistan. three u.s. troops were killed when an ied exploded. it's the very danger that our team saw first-hand with the troops while reporting from the front lines in afghanistan. witnessing the momen

tonight, what has michael cohen told robert mueller already, after spending more than 70 hours answering questions from mueller's team. abc's chief justice correspondent pierre thomas leading us off tonight. >> reporter: michael cohen, the president's former personal attorney and fixer, swarmed today outside of federal court in lower manhattan, after pleading guilty as part of his bombshell plea deal with special counsel robert mueller. >> mr. cohen has cooperated, mr. cohen will continue to cooperate. >> reporter: sources tell abc news cohen has already spent more than 70 hours talking to mueller's investigators about the 2016 campaign and president trump's business ties to russia. today, he pleaded guilty to lying to congress about plans to build a trump tower in moscow. cohen had told lawmakers the moscow project was abandoned in january 2016. he now says that's not true, that the project did not end until june, deep into the campaign. but cohen now says he briefed the president and members of his family on multiple occasions. the next month, candidate trump said this -- >> i have no

and in whitaker, he has picked someone who has talked openly about reining in robert mueller. last year, when the president said mueller would be crossing a red line if he investigated the trump family business and finances, whitaker, then a cnn contributor, wrote, "the president is absolutely correct. that goes beyond the scope of the appointment of the special counsel." and in a television appearance, whitaker defended the infamous trump tower meeting. donald trump jr., paul manafort and jared kushner sitting down with a russian lawyer they were told had dirt on hillary clinton. >> you would always have somebody from the campaign take the meeting and hear that person out. >> reporter: whitaker also openly about how an acting attorney general could effectively put an end to the russia investigation. >> i could see a scenario where jeff sessions is replaced with a recess appointment and that attorney general doesn't fire bob mueller, but he just reduces his budget to so low that his investigation grinds to a halt. >> and jon karl with us live tonight from the white house. jon

>> you mention the legislation to protect robert mueller. some of your colleagues in the senate including ron wyden have suggested not supporting the government funding bill that's coming up in early december unless this legislation is included. do you support that effort? >> i think we should do everything we can to get that bill passed. it's about the rule of law. we'll see what our leverage points are. there is some republican support for this. all of my colleagues who said repeatedly they want to protect the investigation, really have to come forward and do it. i'm talking about those on the republican side of the aisle. >> that's the biggest leverage point you have right now? >> it is. >> you going to use it? >> i think we should use it however we can. it depends on what bills are coming through and how we can do it. we have to protect this investigation. >> let me switch subjects. the president up and tweeting this morning about situation at the border. migrants coming from central america to mexico. reports of a possible deal with mex

after paul manafort's plea deal with robert mueller breaks down, now we learn manafort's lawyers were talking with the president's lawyers all along. and the president now tonight saying he's not ruling out a pardon for manafort. >>> ivanka trump for the first time is asked about using private e-mail for white house work. >> so, the idea of lock her up doesn't apply to you? >> no. >>> the deadly bear attack. the husband killing the bear, not knowing it had already attacked his wife and baby girl. >>> genetically altered babies. the scientist who just today said he is proud of it, and now we learn, another baby, he says, is on the way. tonight, the growing outrage. >>> the aerials coming in. the search at a major catholic archdiocese. what authorities are looking for. >>> and bruce springsteen and the revealing new interview tonight about his very personal struggle. >>> good evening. and it's great to have you with us here on a very busy wednesday night. there are several developing stories, and we're going to begin with that horrible family tragedy unfolding at this hour. at least six

he spent 70 hours with robert mueller. we don't know every subject and it wouldn't be revealed in these filings today, every subject he talked about with robert mueller. >> correct. all we know from this document is three stated lies, one plea deal, one charge of -- one guilty plea on a particular count. >> and a connection to president trump given what michael cohen said in court. >> correct. a connection to president trump but this doesn't necessarily take it to the next level of collusion with russia or whatever the case may be. >> more to come. >> yeah. >> thanks very much. back to our regular programming. ♪ ♪ ♪ denybe but sworn my love,e thy name. or iand i'll... not, so she's telling romeo to ditch his parents and then she'll be his boo forever. oh. there are multiples on the table: one is cash, three are fha, one is .a so what can you do? she's saying a whole lotta people want to buy this house. but you got this! rocket mortgage by quicken loans makes the complex simple. understand the details and get approved

. >>> president trump's answers to robert mueller. what we learned tonight. >>> new surveillance this evening. the 49ers football fan, an army vet who had been in the stands with his girlfriend and vanishing. his car still there. >>> the colorado father who begged for his wife and children to come home even though authorities say he had already killed them. his girlfriend, breaking silence. what she noticed not long before. >>> black friday, the one step you can take one now online to ensure you will get the lowest price. >>> thanksgiving almost here. the cdc with the new warning about turkey and salmonella. >>> and celebrating the man behind so many classics, from "butch cassidy and the sun dance kid" to the princess bride. >>> good evening and we have a lot to get to tonight. we begin with a nightmare still playing out. the deadly and historic nor'easter slamming several states. there is still snow falling. it brought new york city to a halt. the 20-car pileup, on the gw bridge connecting new york to new jersey, grid lock across the

will he sit down with robert mueller? what the president now says, after telling our jon karl that he would be willing to speak with mueller under oat 100%. the president was also asked, did he know his pick for acting attorney general said before that pick that there was no collusion? abc's chief white house correspondent jonathan karl tonight. >> reporter: president trump is now making it clear he is almost certainly not going to do an in-person interview with special counsel robert mueller. >> i think we've wasted enough time on this witch hunt and the answer is probably, we're finished. >> reporter: that's not what the president told me last year. would you be willing to speak under oath to give your version of those events? >> 100%. >> reporter: the mueller investigation is overseen by new acting attorney general matt whitaker who, before he joined the justice department, was openly critical of the special counsel. >> the truth is, there was no collusion with the russians s the trump campaign. >> did you know before

and what he said about robert mueller before, saying, there was no collusion. now, he's in charge of the investigation. >>> supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg in the hospital. we do have news on her condition tonight. >>> and the breaking development in the urgent search for that missing 13-year-old girl. the suv she was forced into, and where it's now been found. >>> and good evening from california, as we come on the air here in the west tonight. and you probably woke up this morning like so many across this country, saying, not again. we are here in thousand oaks, california, tonight, the scene of the nation's newest mass shooting. this time, at a popular country music bar, the borderline bar and grill on college night. for students as young as 18, hundreds of people inside, when the horror and the chaos began. the shots ringing out, people hiding under tables and bar stools, smashing windows to get away, running for their lives. carrying the injured as they ran. police rushing to the scene, heavily armed officers, including a sheriff's sergeant who w

. >>> president trump's answers to robert mueller. what we learned tonight. >>> the 49ers football fan, an army vet who had in the stands with his girlfriend and vanishing. his car still there. >>> the colorado father who killed his wife. his girlfriend, breaking silence. >>> black friday, the one step you can take one now online to ensure you will get the lowest price. >>> thanksgiving almost here. the new warning about turkey salmonella. and celebrating so many from butch cassidy and the sun dance kid to the princess bride. >>> good evening and we have a lot to get to tonight. we begin with a nightmare still playing out. the deadly and historic nor'easter slamming several states. there is still snow falling. it brought new york city to a halt. the 20-car pileup, grid lock across the city. the maddening scene with buses delayed. you can see the guards there there blocking the students forced to spend the night in a middle school. and now a new system we are watching tonight. meteorologist rob marciano leading it off. >> reporter: ton

what it could mean for special counsel robert mueller's case. >>> slashing jobs. general motors announcing massive layoffs. >> there's people in there bawling their eyes out. i've never seen anything like it. >> what's behind the stunning decision to close plants in the united states and the growing backlash t >>> hang gliding horror. this half hour, we hear from the man whose vacation adventure turned into two minutes of terror. >>> plus, going once, going twice, how you could become the owner of hugh hefner's silk pajamas. >>> and show me the money. how a trip to the atm turned into a major payday for some lucky customers. >>> good tuesday morning, everyone. tensions are rising at the southern border today. >> hundreds more american troops are headed to the san diego/tijuana border crossing after sunday's violent confrontation and now mexico is calling for the united states to investigate what prompted agents to fire tear gas at migrants. >> overnight the secretary of homeland security spoke out detailing the threat posed by these migrants as president trump iss

you're doing the written questions to robert mueller. have you ruled out a sitdown, an in-person sitdown with robert mueller? >> i haven't ruled out anything. i haven't even thought about it. i'm thinking about the world. >> reporter: there are bipartisan efforts to protect robert mueller in the senate. but mitch mcconnell has made it clear those efforts are going nowhere in the senate. but at the same time, mcconnell said that mueller should be allowed to finish his work. and he said as far as he's concerned, whitaker will be a very interim attorney general. in other words, he won't be around for long. david? >> jon, thank you. >>> next, in florida tonight, a state known for very close elections, and famous for the presidential recount in 2000, now facing another possible recount. the race for senate is likely headed to a recount. republican governor rick scott thought he had defeated democrat bill nelson, but tonight two counties are still counting ballots. rick scott leads by just under 15,000 votes. if the margin stays that small, it

. >>> breaking news tonight involving president trump and his answers to robert mueller. and the other headline, the president says he will stand with saudi arabia, despite the killing of jamal khashoggi. >>> ivanka trump's use of private e-mail for her work in the white house, after her father made private e-mail issue number one against hillary clinton. >>> the manhunt right now. the woman killed inside a catholic supply store. >>> the mother who plunged overboard on a cruise ship. tonight, her children now speaking out. what they say she told them right before the trip. >>> two major fires tonight. the investigation after a family is killed inside their home right before thanksgiving. and the other fire in new york city, the aerials coming in now. >>> the major consumer warning tonight just been thanksgiving about something that could be on the holiday table. they say, do not eat it. >>> and black friday almost here. the tool that will tell you if there's actually a lower price some place else. >>> good evening. and it's great to have you with us here on a tuesday nigh

president trump this morning saying those answers for special counsel robert mueller are ready to go. >> did you submit your answers to the special counsel? >> no, we do that neck week. they're all done. >> reporter: friday the president saying he responded without the help of his lawyers suggesting the special counsel wants to catch him in a perjury trap. >> you have to always be careful when you answer questions with people that probably have bad intentions. >> reporter: his lawyer, rudy giuliani, previously raising concerns that president trump could be accused of lying under oath. >> what is the danger in answering robert mueller's question. >> because they're trying to trap -- you couldn't put a lawyer on this show who wants to keep his law license to tell you he should testify. >> reporter: the president has yet to submit his answers saying he still needs his lawyers to review them. >> you need lawyers for submittal. you need lawyers to go over some of the answers, but they're not very difficult questions. >> reporter: sources tell abc news that the president has been working wi

. >> so far the special counsel robert mueller has inexcited 13 other russians in their involvement in the disinformation campaign. last year i travelled to russia to see for myself what happens inside one of these so-called troll factories. >> i'm from abc news in the united states. >> cut. >> i was quickly turned away. but an under cover journalist provided us footage showing rows of troll inside the internet research agency which was later named in one of robert mueller's indictments. and the disinformation campaign was just the beginning. next step, motivating americans to take their frustrations off line and on to the streets. conrad james an activist from raleigh, north carolina, says he was approached by a woman who claimed to represent black matters u.s. to his dismay he later learned they were an allegedly russian-group. >> they make the entire movement look bad. who else was hooked like me by the same group. >> now the lead up to this midterm election day american intelligence officials warn their subbterfug. >> reporter: has not stopped. >> this is culmination of two years o

here is abc's jonathan karl. >> reporter: with special counsel robert mueller expected to be nearing the end of his investigation, a major development. a cooperation deal with key witness paul manafort has broken down. mueller accusing the former trump campaign chairman of lying repeatedly to the fbi. manafort has already pled guilty to other charges and faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison. could manafort now be hoping for a pardon from the president? hours after the deal broke down, the president offered some of his harshest attacks yet on the special counsel tweeting, "wait until it comes out how horribly and viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie. mueller is a convicted prosecutor gone rogue." >> given what the president said this morning, that robert mueller is ruining people's lives, is he considering a pardon for paul manafort or for others who were prosecuted, have been prosecuted by mueller? >> i'm not aware of any conversations for anyone's pardon involving this process at all. >> reporter: but with a new actin

robert mueller's team apparently in the process of releasing a final report. whitaker, president trump's personal attorney rudy giuliani and chris christie are on the short list to take over for sessions permanently. >>> quick actions by a pair of new jersey state troopers saved a man's life. >> the man was trapped in this burning car. they managed to get him free even though he was wedged in his seat. they dragged him to safety just before the entire car burst into flames. >> incredible. >>> coming up, the latest on the supreme court justice, ruth bader ginsburg. >> and the over the top offer of body parts from legions of fans on social media. up next on "world news now." body parts from legions of fans on social media. up next on "world news now." i didn't do it so when i heard they added ultra oxi to the cleaning power of tide, i knew it was just what we needed so now we can undo all the tough stains that nobody did dad? i didn't do it it's got to be tide ♪ ♪ >>> i don't think paul ryan could do this. ♪ want to feel? want to feel it? >> pretty good. >

abc news has learned that special counsel robert mueller is in the process of writing his final report. >> reporter: as acting attorney general, whitaker would decide whether that final report is made public. the president's short list of candidates for attorney general could come from trump's inner circle. they include whitaker himself, trump's lawyer rudy giuliani and chris christie, now an abc news contributor who ran the trump transition during the campaign. and we've learned more about whitaker's past. he once sat on the board of a florida marketing company, which the ftc called a scam. >>> a major decision about the future of e-cigarette sales. the fda is expected to ban most brands of flavored e-cigarettes from being sold in convenience stores and gas stations. the move is in response to the surge in vaping among minors. the restrictions could be announced next week. >>> to sports now and thursday night football or a thursday night blow-out as the case was ben roethlisberger throwing five touchdowns as the steelers dominated the carolina panthers. pittsburgh won its fifth consec

as the president prepares to submit his responses to special counsel robert mueller, he says a face-to-face interview is unlikely. abc's tara palmeri has more. >> reporter: president trump making it clear he alone is the one answering special counsel robert mueller's questions. >> your team is preparing written answers to questions about -- >> no, no, not my team, i'm preparing written answers. i'm the one that does the answering. >> reporter: those answers are now finished and he says will be submitted soon. the president also all but ruling out a sit-down interview. >> i think we've wasted enough time on this witch hunt, and the answer is probably we're finished. >> reporter: when it comes to acting attorney general matthew whitaker, the president saying he has free rein to limit the mueller probe. >> if whitaker decides in any way to limit or curtail the mueller investigation, are you okay with that? >> look, he -- it's going to be up to him. i think he's very well aware politically. i think he's astute politically and he's going to do what's right. >> reporter: in the past whitaker has

special counsel robert mueller has yet to reveal a timeline, but president trump says he has completed his written answers for mueller, telling fox news he wrote them himself. >> not my team. i'm preparing written answers. >> reporter: the president adding a sitdown interview with mueller, not likely. >> i think we have wasted enough time on this witch hunt, and the answer is probably that we're finished. >> reporter: as for his acting attorney general, matthew whitaker, who has been a vocal critic of the russia probe, this is what he says about limbing the investigation. >> if he decides to curtail -- >> i would not get involved. >> reporter: this as democrat adam schiff, likely the next chairman of the house intelligence committee calls his appointment unconstitutional. >> it has to be subject to confirmation and ethically, he should have absolutely nothing to do with the investigation. >> reporter: in response, president trump blasted schiff on twitter calling his name an expletive. the president also lashing out at retired admiral william mcraven, who commanded the raid that killed

where president trump says he has completed his answers for special counsel robert mueller and he wrote them himself. trump also defending acting attorney general matthew whitaker, saying he has free rein to limit mueller's investigation. but while the president may think he's finished answering questions, the special counsel has yet to reveal his timeline. here's abc white house correspondent tara palmeri. >> reporter: tonight president trump making it clear he alone is the one answering special counsel robert mueller's questions. >> your team is preparing written answers to questions about -- >> no, no. not my team. i'm preparing written answers. my -- i -- i'm the one that does the answering. >> reporter: those answers are now finished, and he says will be submitted soon. the president also all but ruling out a sitdown interview. >> i think we've wasted enough time on this witch hunt and the answer is probably, we're finished. >> reporter: when it comes to acting attorney general matthew whitaker, the president saying he has free rein to limit the mueller probe. >> if whitaker decide

second thing to keep an eye on, robert mueller. democrats are likely to take steps to try to protect the special counsel. the third issue is impeachment. democrats, though, are treading very carefully here. don't expect them to bring that up much. they want to see what the special counsel has discovered before they make any decisions about impeachment. >> they want to know what robert mueller has. in the meantime, if democrats pull this off in the house, much harder in the senate, so many democratic senators defending their seats in red seats that trump won. but in the house, it's not a guarantee that it would be madam speaker with nancy pelosi all over again. >> reporter: no, david. not a guarantee that speaker pelosi will become a reality. look, many candidates have already said they will not support her. nancy pelosi's going to face an uphill battle, but she is a fighter. and david, we're told she's already been working the phones behind the scenes with some of those possible freshmen candidates. >> mary bruce, great to have you

but before leaving d.c., he slammed cohen over his plea deal with special counsel robert mueller. in court papers, cohen claimed that talks about building a trump tower in moscow continued well into 2016, even after donald trump became the presumptive republican nominee and russia was stepping up efforts to help him defeat hillary clinton. abc's pierre thomas has the details. >> reporter: michael cohen, the president's former personal attorney and fixer, swarmed outside a federal court in lower manhattan after pleading guilty as part of his bombshell plea deal with special counsel robert mueller. >> mr. cohen has cooperated. mr. cohen will continue to cooperate. >> reporter: sources tell abc news cohen has already spent more than 70 hours talking to mueller's investigators about the 2016 campaign and president trump's business ties to russia. he pleaded guilty to lying to congress about plans to build a trump tower in moscow. cohen had told lawmakers the moscow project was abandoned in january 2016. he now says that's not true, that the project did not end until june, deep into th

mueller. i was talking to alan dershowitz who said it could be devastating. >> reporter: absolutely, and it's a huge unknown. the white house and the president's legal team, they don't know when this report is coming, what in what form it is coming, but they are certainly bracing for bad news from robert mueller. the words from alan dershowitz, who has been a strong supporter of the president were stark, saying this will be devastating to the president. >> thank you very much. >>> coming up, two of president trump's closest political confidantes, corey lewandowski and david bossie are here with their new book, "trump's enemy." cecilia. >> looking forward to that one, george. >>> we want to turn to a tense battle over the senate seat in mississippi. president trump heads there today to campaign for the embattled republican candidate cindy hyde-smith who is facing accusations of racism and supporting voter suppression. our chief national affairs correspondent tom llamas is here with more. tom, t

. >>> president trump, will he sit down with robert mueller? what he's now saying. >>> the wildfires in california. the number of missing now nearly

mueller. what michael cohen has already told mueller. the president furious, calling him weak today. and why the president has abr t abruptly canceled his weekend meeting with vladimir putin. >>> also breaking tonight, scenes of chaos on american highways. big rigs and cars crashing. the accidents mounting tonight, as a sweeping system moves from the west across the country and into the northeast. rob has the new track. >>> the family killed in a massive fire weeks before christmas, and tonight, what

after paul manafort's plea deal with robert mueller breaks down, now we learn manafort's lawyers were talking with the president's lawyers all along. and the president now tonight saying he's not ruling out a pardon for manafort. >>> ivanka trump for the first time is asked about using private e-mail for white house work. >> so, the idea of lock her up doesn't apy

mueller's russia investigation. cohen appeared in federal court this morning and pleaded guilty to making false statements to congress. >> reporter: michael cohen walking out of federal court in new york this morning after pleading guilty to making misstatements to congress when he testified last year about his contact with russians during the presidential campaign. >> the question is, did he and then others potentially lie about it b s bigger with russia? >> reporter: cohen is they and president trump, previously one of his most loyal defenders. but pleading guilty earlier this year to felony campaign finance violations for his role in arranging payments to stormy daniels and karen he spent more than 70 hours with the mueller team taking questions about contact with russians and trump associated during the campaign. according to court documents, extensive details about trump's business ties to russia and the planning of a project in moscow. the president leaving the white house today for the g20 summit i argentina

trump took to twitter to lash out at special counsel robert mueller. at 7:14 a.m., the president packed the inner working on the mueller investigation are a total mess, they have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. they are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want. they are a disgrace to our nation and don't, dot, dot, dot, and then he left us hanging for 18 minutes. [ laughter ] before delivering part two.anli. these are angry people, including the highly conflicted bob mueller who worked for obama they won't even look at all the bad acts and crimes on the other side, a total witch hunt like no other in american history. he always forgets we had real witch hunts in american history in which they killed witches. [ laughter ] but this is the biggest witch hunt, and bob mueller is moving on you like a witch, my friend. [ cheers and applause ] he wasn't done, though. he wrote, universities will someday study what highly conflicted and not senate approved bob mueller and his gang of dem

we now have some of the answers the president admitted to robert mueller. here is terry moran. >> reporter: we thought paul manafort flipped on president trump as part of his plea deal with robert mueller. now the president's lawyer tells us manafort was cooperating with team trump all along. and the president seems to be openly dangling the possibility of a pardon, telling "the new york post" it's not off the table. "it was never discussed, but i wouldn't take it off the table. why would i take it off the table?" he said. for months, he tried to minimize his relationship with his former campaign chair while at the same time expressing sympathy. >> he worked for me for a very short period of time, but you know what? he happens to be a very good person, and i think it's very sad what they've done to paul manafort. >> reporter: now we know that after manafort cut his deal with mueller his lawyer briefed the trump legal team on what mueller's prosecutors were asking, giving the president a direct view into the investigation. as manafort was feeding the preside

mueller. sources tell abc news that the answers pertain to collusion but not obstruction of justice. they say the president spent several days with his lawyers crafting those answers. >>> president trump is facing opposition from both parties over his refusal to directly penalize saudi arabia for the murder of "washington post" columnist jamal khashoggi. the top republican and democrat on the senate foreign relations committee are demanding that the president make a determination about the crown prince's role in the killing. they sent a letter triggering an investigation after the president said it would be foolish to cancel lucrative contracts with the saudis. >> why are you siding with the saudis over your own intelligence community? >> because it's america first for me. saudi arabia, if we broke with them, i think your oil prices would go through the roof. >> the cia has reportedly concluded that the crown prince himself ordered khashoggi's assassination. the president said maybe the prince

i think what matters for robert mueller are the facts. the facts he's developed over the course of this investigation. what kind of indictments he'll be able to develop. and the evidence he has on the president. >> the theory is when he's silent, his ratings go down. they may go up when he weighs in. george, thanks. >> thanks, guys. >> i want to remind everybody george, as always, has a big show this sunday morning. he's going to speak with senator amy klobuchar and governor john kasich of ohio and senator sherrod brown. also of ohio, discussing their potential 2020 presidential bid. all coming up on "this week" on abc. >> thanks, guys. >> really appreciate it. >>> we'll move on to the latest on a mystery in new jersey. a family found dead after a fire in their mansion. >> the brother of the man who owned that home has come under suspicion. he's now getting vocal support. abc's david wright joins us with those details. good morning, david. >> reporter: good morning, guys. it's a grisly murder mystery in an exclusive new jersey neighborhoo

. >>> president trump's answers to robert mueller. what we learned tonight. >>> new surveillance this evening. the 49ers football fan, an army vet who had been in the stands with his girlfriend and vanishing. his car still there.

. >>> breaking news tonight involving president trump and his answers to robert mueller. and the other headline, the president says he will stand with saudi arabia, despite the killing of jamal khashoggi. >>> ivanka trump's use of private e-mail for her work in the white house, after her father made private e-mail issue number one against hillary clinton. >>> the manhunt right now. the woman killed inside a catholic supply store. >>> the mother who plung

mueller's probe. >> reporter: after meeting with his staff, he exited the justice department today to applause. early on, sessions stunned and infuriated the president by recusing himself from the mueller probe, citing a doj regulation that bans employees from taking part in an investigation if they know the people involved. >> therefore, i have recused myself in the matters that deal with the trump campaign. >> reporter: after today's resignation, the president swiftly announcing his replacement on twitter, appointing sessions' chief of staff, matthew whitaker, as the acting attorney general. whitaker will now take oversight of the russia probe. just last year, whitaker wrote a cnn op-ed called "mueller's investigation is going too far." in an appearance on cnn, whitaker defended the infamous trump tower meeting. >> we have no information right now that would suggest that he knew who this individual was that he was meeting with. >> reporter: democrats are crying foul, calling for whitaker to recuse himself because of his previous comments attacking the mueller investigation. >> there

from robert mueller, what recourse do you have? >> we could subpoena the final report. we could subpoena mueller and ask him in front of the committee, what was in your final report? those are things we could do. any such interference would be a pattern of obstruction of justice especially since -- he should recuse himself. he's expressed total hostility to the investigation. he said the investigation shouldn't go forward. someone who said that should not be in charge of deciding on the investigation. >> if matt whitaker is the acting attorney general when you become chair of the judiciary committee -- >> we will make sure that matt whitaker -- one of the first orders of business will be to invite him or subpoena him to appear before the committee. >> you would be responsible for any potential impeachment hearings. you're facing a lot of cross pressure. you laughed. you have top democrats saying democrats must pursue impeachment. you have others warning that would be overreach if you've went too quickly. how will you balance that?

. >>> president trump's answers to robert mueller. what we learned tonight. >>> the 49ers football fan, an army vet who had in the

second thing to keep an eye on, robert mueller. democrats are likely to take steps to try to protect the special counsel. the third issue is impeachment. don't expect democrats to bring that up much. they want to see what the special counsel has discovered. in the meantime, if democrats pull this off in the house, much harder in the senate, so many democratic senators defending their seats in red seats that trump won, but in the house, it's not a guarantee it would be madame speaker with nancy pelosi. >> reporter: many candidates have already said they will not support her. nancy pelosi's going to face a battle, but she is a fighter and we're told she's been working the phones behind the scenes with some of those possible freshmen candidates. >> mary bruce, great to have you here in person. we'll see you tomorrow night. mary and i will be here this time tomorrow. we'll be joining george and the entire powerhouse political team. our coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern. it's going to be a huge night. mary, we'll see you here then. >

. >>> president trump, will he sit down with robert mueller? what he's now saying. >>> the wildfires in california. the number of missing now nearly

. >>> breaking news tonight involving president trump and his answers to robert mueller. and the other headline, the president says he will stand with saudi arabia, despite the killing of jamal khashoggi. >>> ivanka trump's use of private e-mail for her work in the white house, after her father made private e-mail issue number one against hillary clinton. >>> the urgent manhunt right now.