Week In The News: Special Counsel, Trump Under Fire, Remembering Roger Ailes

With guest host Tom Gjelten.

Bombshell week in Washington. Classified information shared with Russia. Special Counsel appointed. Roger Ailes. The president heads abroad on his first foreign trip. Our weekly news round table goes behind the headlines.

You’ve got to imagine President Trump is happy to be leaving the country. It’s been a very bad week. News leaked that Trump shared classified intelligence with Russia and suggested the FBI director stop investigating Michael Flynn. Now, there’s a special counsel looking at all-things –Trump Russia. In other news: Iran votes for a new president. Fox’s Roger Ailes dies. This hour On Point, a wild week in the news roundtable.

John Harwood, editor at large for CNBC and political and economics reporter for the New York Times. (@JohnJHarwood)

Kathy Gilsinan, senior editor at the Atlantic, where she oversees the global news section. (@kgilsinan)

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. (@JackBeattyNPR)

New York Times: Robert Mueller, Former F.B.I. Director, Is Named Special Counsel for Russia Investigation — "The Justice Department appointed Robert S. Mueller III, a former F.B.I. director, as special counsel on Wednesday to oversee the investigation into ties between President Trump’s campaign and Russian officials, dramatically raising the legal and political stakes in an affair that has threatened to engulf Mr. Trump’s four-month-old presidency."

Washington Post: Roger Ailes, architect of conservative TV juggernaut Fox News, is dead at 77 -- "Roger Ailes, who mastered the art of selling political candidates like Hollywood celebrities and was the architect of conservative-oriented TV news, died Thursday at 77. He was the longtime chairman and chief executive of the Fox News Channel, building it over two decades into a politically influential juggernaut until his abrupt ouster last year amid sexual harassment allegations."

The Atlantic: The U.S. Strike in Syria -- "The strikes are a dramatic turnaround for Trump, who during the presidential campaign said his priority was fighting ISIS, not Assad. Fighting both, he said, was both 'madness and idiocy.' Yet, as the U.S. continues to fight ISIS in Syria and Iraq, it has also stepped up diplomatic pressure on the Assad regime—while insisting that regime change is not its immediate priority."