Sunday Shows preview: Lawmakers, Trump allies discuss Russia probe, migrant family separation

Members of Congress and allies of the president will join the Sunday talk show circuit this week after President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was ordered to jail by a judge for violating the terms of his bail agreement.

Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon will join ABC’s “This Week,” where he will be interviewed for his first-ever live Sunday show appearance by Jonathan Karl.

Bannon was ousted from his post as executive chairman of Breitbart News last year after unflattering comments he made to journalist Michael Wolff were published in Wolff’s bestselling book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump administration.”

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Trump’s newest attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, will also hit the Sunday circuit as he sits down with both CBS’s “Face the Nation” and CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Giuliani sent shockwaves through Washington last month when he revealed for the first time publicly that Trump reimbursed his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen for a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult-film star Stormy Daniels to silence her about an alleged 2006 affair with Trump.

Cohen paid Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, shortly before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the payment, but has denied that the affair with Daniels took place.

The payment is now being looked at for possible campaign finance law violations, and Cohen has reportedly told friends that he expects to be arrested soon amid the ongoing investigations into his lobbying work. Cohen has publicly denied the report. Trump said on Friday that Cohen is no longer his lawyer.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chair Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) will join “Fox News Sunday,” where he will likely discuss this week’s release of a bombshell report from the Justice Department’s internal watchdog.

The report criticized FBI Director James Comey for his handling of his investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, but found no evidence to show his key decisions in the investigation were politically motivated.

The report also raised questions surrounding FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page, whose text message exchange provoked outrage among Trump’s allies. In the messages, Strzok told Page “We’ll stop it,” after being asked, “[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” The exchange, the report found, was “indicative of a biased state of mind.”

Also joining CNN is Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), who traveled to an immigrant detention center in his home state this week to document the conditions that undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers face.

The visit came amid growing tensions nationwide over the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy that seeks to prosecute any immigrant who crosses into the U.S. illegally. Thousands of migrant children have been separated from their parents under the policy, according to the Department of Homeland Security, since it was implemented last month. 

Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), a vocal Trump critic who lost his primary to a Trump-backed opponent this week, will also sit down on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The full Sunday show lineup is as follows:

NBC’s “Meet the Press”: White House counselor Kellyanne Conway; ranking House Intelligence Committee Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, (Calif.), and Rep. Mark Sanford, (R-S.C.)

Fox News’s “Fox News Sunday”: House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chair Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.).

CBS’s “Face the Nation”: Trump’s attorney and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine); House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), Rep. Cedric Richmond, (D-La.).

CNN’s “State of the Union”: Giuliani will also appear, as well as Reps. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) and Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.).

ABC’s “This Week”: Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.).