Keeping them from what he described as rapists, murderers and people who arent really their parents. I could release all of the kids by 10 55 p. M. , but i dont think you want that i know the court doesnt want that. I dont think even our political opponents want that to happen. Thats secretary azar in the situation room tonight. Now, remember, this is someone talking about children his agency took in the first place and has held for weeks now. As for the thousands more who crossed the border unaccompanied, secretary azar suggested his agency was practically doing gods work. It is one of the great acts of american generosity and charity what we are doing for these unaccompanied kids who are smuggled into our country or come across illegally. What secretary azar did in that interview is what the administration really has been doing throughout this episode. He repeatedly conflated the unaccompanied minors with kids, some 28 to 2900 who have been taken from parents under the president s zero tolerance policy. And perhaps thats understandable. Perhaps, perhaps, caring for unaccompanied minors is indeed something to be admired. Its nothing controversial really about it, which may be why the secretary prefers to talk about that or blur the distinction because keeping him honest when it actually comes to those thousands of separated kids or the 102 children younger than 5 years old that the administration created the crisis and is not taking responsibility for it. And whatever you might think of the administrations zero tolerance border policy, officials enacted it under false pretenses. They have lied about many aspects of it, not planned for the human consequences, and now after all that are trying to talk their way out of it. Lets just start with the false pretenses. First, this administration did not create a policy of separating families at the border. We have a statutory responsibility that we take seriously to protect alien children from human smuggling, trafficking, and over criminal actions while enforcing our immigration laws. Well, keeping them honest, thats barely half true. It is, however, totally disingenuous. The administration, they chose to enforce the law, but in a way that two prior president s, republican and democratic declined to precisely because it would lead to mass family separations, which of course it did. But the Trump Administration viewed zero tolerance, as they called it, as a potential deterrent to illegal border crossing. And thats a legitimate, albeit harsh way to look at things. As long as you accept responsibility for it, which frankly, this administration did not. It hasnt been good. And the American People dont like the idea that were separating families. We never really intended to do that. Well, actually, they did. They really did intend that. Just ask them back when the policy was announced and before the world was greeted with images of kids locked in chain link cells. If you cross the border unlawfully, even a first offense, then were going to prosecute you. If you smuggle an illegal alien across the border, then well prosecute you for smuggling. If youre smuggling a child, then were going to prosecute you. And that child will be separated from you probably as required by law. Again, not required by law, done by choice, touted as a deterrent, something the administration proudly owned until the consequences came and the stories changed. Then all kinds of things suddenly seemed to get awfully fuzzy with the administration. Listen to what hhs secretary alex azar said during congressional testimony about how easy it would be to reunite parents and their separated children. There is no reason why any parent would not know where their child is located. I could at the stroke of at key strokes, i sat on the orr portal with just basic key strokes within seconds could find any child in our care for any parent. Well, he said that late last month just hours before a judge gave the government 30 days to reunify all families divided under the socalled zero tolerance policy. And two weeks for the youngest kids. By late last week, though, secretary azar was saying hhs did not even have an exact count of how many children it had in custody. Somewhere below 3,000, he said, an estimate about children were talking about. Now, by the way, the administration had been releasing exact numbers daily. That is until the judge issued his order, then all of the sudden the numbers stopped. No more magical key strokes, i guess. And lets just listen to this, just to remind you. There is no reason why any parent would not know where their child is located. Well, that, of course, wasnt true either. The parents did not know. Apparently he didnt know. Still, he did say that hhs would meet all the deadlines where there is now unspecified number of children was concerned, and that wasnt true either. But he said it anyway. And the way he said it suggested that the real problem lay with the court order, not the administration failing to have a plan for living up to it. We will comply with the artificial deadlines created by the court. We will comply, even if those deadlines prevent us from conducting our standard or even a truncated vetting process. So at the end of the day, that process cannot seem to even reunify all 102 children younger than five years old with their families. And again, late today, secretary azar painted a postcard picture of the lives that these kids now lead. Wolf, what we do is provide as caring an environment. They get education. Theyre getting athletics. Theyre getting entertainment, they get medical care, dental care, health care, vision care. Theyre getting snacks. We then of course the care manager, the Case Management to try to place them with relatives, if its not about this reunification process. We place them in a safe environment with other relatives would are here in this country, even if theyre here illegally. Its what we do as part of this program regularly, but its always about child welfare. Its about compassion and love towards these kids and protecting them. I know thats what you want. Anyone else wants us to do that. So for him, he says its all about the kids. As for the president , what are his thoughts on untangling the human mess that his policy created . Listen. Well, i have a solution. Tell people not to come to our country illegally. Thats the solution. Dont come to our country illegally. Come like other people do, come legally. Mr. President , mr. President im saying this very simply. We have laws. We have borders. Dont come to our country illegally. Its not a good thing. One of the other many remarkable moments in that interview with secretary azar was his insisting that his agency has been nothing but transparent throughout the process, transparent about the numbers, the facilities, everything, really. So while you consider that, were going to play some tape from a Conference Call on the 26th of last month that shows that this claim of transparency, well, it certainly wasnt the case in this case. Im wondering first, are you still receiving children who are coming into your care because of parental detention . We know there is an Implementation Phase on the executive order. As mentioned earlier, we can get you that information as soon as possible, and we appreciate your patience. No, no, actually, its really important. Are you excuse me, are you still receiving children who are there because of the parental separation policy . I believe weve answered youve you gave us three questions. We responded to your question and i ask that you send that to media im sorry, i didnt hear an answer. Your final question. That was a mighty long pause before not answering that question. Sunlen serfaty was on that call trying to get answers. She joins us now. Sunlen, youve been following this for weeks. What is your reaction to what secretary azar said tonight about being transparent . I think that claim, anderson, that secretary azar made was significant, saying that he believes theyve been transparent. But i can tell you, after reporting on this story for a few weeks now, that really flies in the face of what our team here has observed. Myself and my other colleagues here at cnn, weve been reaching out daily to hhs, really trying to get answers to the specific questions that we have since this executive order by President Trump was signed. Simple questions like what are the ages of the kids that youre holding, simple questions like how many kids are you holding . And then the larger questions, when did you stop separating the kids, how are these reunifications going to take place . How is this playing out . What is the process here . And really at every avenue it seems they cannot or will not give us those answers. At times when weve reached out to hhs, they have ignored our questions. At other times theyve simply acknowledged receipt of the questions, but not given an answer. Sometimes they have given answers, but its usually been incomplete or really not answering the direct questions that weve had, and weve been pushing on a daily basis getting very basic answers or trying to get very basic questions answered. One good example that of is as you set up very nicefully the introduction there is about something as simple as a head count, trying to get our arms around how many kids were separated from their families and who have not been reunified. At first, they broke down that number. They said these are the number of kids who were separated from their families. These were the numbers of kids who showed up unaccompanied without an adult. Then they went back and did a lump sum, putting all of those kids together. That essentially gave us even less information than we had before. So certainly a lot more questions here tonight. And i think this claim by secretary azar really is in conflict with what we observed as weve stayed on reporting this story. It is noticeable that the secretary made the claim on a day that was a deadline, a deadline that the government is not going to make. I mean, what do we know about the next deadline that theyre facing . Thats right. He made this claim, and i should say and make sure to say that in the last week, in the last few days, in fact, it seems like the hhs secretary has made a concerted effort to try to push some numbers out there. Of course, as you mentioned, they are really running up against these deadlines. One of those deadlines today that they likely would not make, and they did not make. Theyre now only have reunified under half of the 100 kids under five years old that they have separated from their families. They have another mayjor deadlie coming up on july 26. Thats the date they have to reunify all the kids that have been separated from their family. Significant today still are they not giving us much of the answers but theyre in the midst of missing another deadline. And again, should it be noted these are not deadlines and facts and figures, these are of course lives that were talking about, and in many case, little babies, little kids. Yeah, and the secretary kept calling it arbitrary deadline set by the court. Sunlen, thanks. Joinsing us is mary meg mccarthy, executive director of the National Immigrant justice center. Mary meg, thanks for joining us. I wonder first of all what goes through your mind when you hear secretary azar say that the administration is not only protecting these kids, but theyre actually saving these childrens lives . Anderson, im very, very concerned about the rhetoric that we are hearing from this administration. Number one, there is absolutely no transparency, and in fact, what i heard today is really demonizing these parents who were ripped from their children by this administration. This administration is taking absolutely no responsibility for the Human Rights Violations that have occurred as a result of their actions and their practices. And theyre changing their stories. The reason these children he did seem in this interview a lot in the interview, he seemed to be saying that a lot of the people werent really their parents, they were murderers, they were rapists, and there must be these cases amongst these, but it did sound like he was making it sound as if that this was the majority of the reason why these kids were not being reunited or had not yet been reunited. I would argue there is no evidence to support that. In fact, at the National Immigrant justice center, where we have been representing parents and children, we have found totally legitimate family relationships. There is no evidence to show that these parents are fraudulently bringing in children. And furthermore, the evidence that these parents are criminals, that has been the rhetoric of this administration towards all immigrants since day one. And yet there is no evidence. All of the sudden were talking about these terrible individuals, these parents who were ripped from their children not because of their criminal behavior but because of our criminal behavior in this country when we decided to prosecute asylum seekers. That is the illegal act. Mary meg, stick around. I want to bring in some additional perspective tonight. John sandw waway is acting dire of i. C. E. Youve seen this family reunification process unfold or not unfold in the last several weeks. Im wondering, do you think they have a lot to be proud of the way this has been handled . No, of course not. The notion that somehow the three and a half week delays because theyre protecting the children is really misleading, anderson. It doesnt take three and a half weeks to vet the parents backgrounds, to identify criminal histories. It doesnt take three and a half weeks to confirm parentage. This is really about the administrations reluctance despite the president saying three weeks ago he was going to reunite the families. Clearly there is reluctance to do it because there are simple ways of doing it. Release the parents, put them on an ankle bracelet, let them reunify with their children. I dont know whats going on here, but there is clearly obviously lack of planning plays a part, but a genre luck importance to just reunite these families. When you say reluctance, are you saying a willful reluctance, they dont want to do it, or they cant do it, despite the secretary saying it could be the locations could be found with a key stroke a while back in front of congress, that they actually cant do it . Certainly clearly there is a lack of planning that is playing a role. The parents in dhs custody. Clearly they didnt do a very good job of keeping records so it was easy to reunite the families that should be a couple of key strokes. I think its pretty apparent that its not. I do think something more is at play here and that is that the administration is trying very hard to figure out a way to continue the detention of the families together. Theyre saying okay, well reunite, be were going to do it in a detention setting that violates court that i. C. E. Doesnt have the capacity to hold families in this situation. Thats also driving this a bit. I think there is a genre luck importance because theyre trying to find way despite whats impossible, frankly, to figure out a way to detain these families further. Mary meg, i wonder what you think when you hear secretary azar essentially saying that theyre doing these children favors, giving them education, entertainment, snacks. I mean, ive talked to some people who have visited these facilities who say the children arent allowed to be touched, which is obviously for reasons. They dont want them to be abused in any way. But obviously you have kids under 5 years old. The idea of not having human contact or much human contact, im not sure enough snacks are going to fill that void. Those children need to be with their parents, anderson. That is the simple solution. There is no reason these children have been separated from their parents. I would argue that the care and custody for these children generally has been appropriate, but when you separate children, you rip them away from their parents, the trauma. The American Academy of pediatrics has verified that the trauma is lifelong for many of these children and for the parents, and now we as a country have a responsibility to ensure that those children receive the proper care as well as their parents. We may get these families reunited, but then we now have to fight for them to secure asylum and protection. People do not leave their home countries, especially with children, unless their lives are in danger, and thats what were seeing in this country today. Its just a disrespect for the rule of law. And, john, i would just add i know you talked about the alternatives to detention. We dont need to put people, parents on ankle monitors. We need to look at Case Management systems, alternatives to detention. Today we had a father, a 23yearold father released and reunited with his 3yearold child. He is now on an ankle bracelet. He is not going anywhere. He needs support. Theyve been separated for two months. They need a lawyer and they need support for the trauma that they have suffered for the past two months. John, i want you to be able to answer that. Well, listen, i dont disagree with mary meg at all, but the bottom line is the administration wants to take a position where theyre considered by catch and release. You didnt need to separate families to enforce Border Security or be tough on the border there are alternative ways of doing this. And i agree with mary meg. Case management programs are very effective in ensuring compliance. But there are other ways of doing that this family separation was never necessary from the beginning. Not to protect the children, not to protect the border, and now were seeing the consequences three weeks later. Only 50 kids have been reunited. John sandway, thank you. Mary meg, a good discussion. Coming up, a new discussion on secretary of state mike pompeos visit to korea and the chilly reception he got there. And is Michael Cohen the new john dean . What sources are saying his team is saying about comparison with nixons white House Counsel. Why dean flipped and what he thinks about dean being compared to him. Well be right back. Belly fat the chili pepper sweatout. Not cool. Freezing away fat cells with coolsculpting . Now thats cool coolsculpting safely freezes and removes fat cells with little or no downtime. And no surgery. Results and Patient Experience may vary. Some common side effects include temporary numbness, discomfort,and swelling. Ask your doctor if coolsculpting is right for you and visit coolsculpting. Com today for your chance to win a free treatment. The new united explorer card makes things easy. Traveling lighter. Taking a shortcut. woooo taking a breather. Rewarded learn more at theexplorercard. Com a hotel can make or break a trip. And at expedia, we dont think you should be rushed into booking one. Thats why we created expedias addon advantage. Now after booking your flight, you unlock discounts on select hotels right until the day you leave. Addon advantage. Discounted hotel rates when you add on to your trip. Only when you book with expedia. Welcome back. There is breaking news tonight on the fallout from secretary of state mike pompeos trip to north korea. Now, youll recall the last week pompeo characterized his talks with north korean leaders as productive. Now were learning that may not have actually been the case. Cnns Michelle Kosinski joins us with details. What are you learning, michelle . Well, the source familiar with this discussion says there is a sense even among some within the white house that this trip and he has sat down with kim jonguns righthand man before went as badly as it could have gone. That there just wasnt the rapport there. In fact the North Koreans didnt seem all that serious about wanting to move things forward. They described the north korean side as, quote, just messing around in these long hours meetings. So immediately after the talks, we hear the secretary of state mike pompeo say that progress was made on all the big issues, but at the same time, you see the North Koreans calling the u. S. Stance gangsterlike, regrettable, saying the u. S. Was bringing up cancerous issues that only led to an increased risk of war in the past. So you see there was a big gap there, and that was evidenced further by the fact that we are told pompeo fully expected to be sitting down with kim jongun himself. He was promised a meeting with kim jongun. That didnt happen, and that sent a big message to the americans that this was not going to be quite as expected. Yeah, its a pretty stunning turn of events if you believed the administrations line about how well the initial meeting went and what the president has said publicly recently. I think theyre just trying to emphasize the positive. Maybe some progress was made on the big issues, if only in the sense that well talk about these in the future. I mean, it could have been Something Like that, but when you saw that north korean statement with all the bluster, the kind of rhetoric and name calling that you saw before the trump kim summit, you knew something went wrong in there. And when you read the north korean statement, you see that the North Koreans expected more on certain issues. They want to see progress towards an official end to the korean war. They want to see them get something at every step. Clearly, this didnt lend clarity or the closing of the gap between how the americans and the North Koreans view what denuclearization is and how its going to happen. Michelle kosinski, i appreciate the update. Thanks. Clearly a very unsettled situation with north korea. The nato summit begins tomorrow in brussels. Normally these things are long on ceremony and short on controversy. Normal. Well, this wasnt aint. President trump, who arrived in the belgian capital earlier today is already upending all of that as he left the white house. The president once again complained about nato and also had a forecast about his upcoming meeting with russias vladimir putin. Nato has not treated us fairly, but i think well work something out. We pay far too much and they pay far too little. But we will work it out, and all countries will be happy. The uk, thats a situation thats been going on for a long time. So i have nato, i have the uk, which is in somewhat turmoil, and i have putin. Frankly, putin may be the easiest of them all. Well, joining us now, cnn Global Affairs analyst and Washington Post columnist max boot and the director of the kennon institute at the Woodrow Wilson center. How do you explain the president criticizing nato on the eve of the summit in brussels, and less than a week before he meets with putin, because instability within nato is something i assume putin would welcome. Its inexplicable, anderson, if youre talking about any other u. S. President , but its entirely par for the course for donald trump who since the 1980s has been against our allies claiming they are ripping us off. He does not appreciate the value of our alliances, and at the same time he has had nothing but kind words toe say about vladimir putin. This kind of upside down world that he inhabits where our allies are our enemies and vice versa. Thats how you have to understand what he is doing with this summit. But its hugely destructive, and he does not understand the extent to which we actually benefit from our Alliance System and the extent to which we will miss it once its gone, which is a real possibility given the way he is trying to destabilize our oldest relationships. Matthew, it is interesting, to say the least, to hear the president saying the Putin Meeting might be the easiest on his itinerary, easier than meeting with some of our closest allies, easier than meeting with the british Prime Minister theresa may. Its going to be easier to meet with a former kgb intelligence operative who is certainly well versed in a lot of issues that this president may not be as well read in on. I think, anderson, you know, easy might be the right word if the way you define a successful meeting is nothing particularly terrible but nothing particularly important happens. I suspect this is not going to be a meeting that is long on substance. This is going to be a meeting that is important largely because it happens, because the president of the United States and the president of the russian federation, the worlds two Biggest Nuclear powers who are severely at odds, who are not going to come to agreement under any circumstances over issues like ukraine or syria or election hacking, there is a long list of really serious disagreements between these two countries. Theyre going to shake hands. Theyre going to talk. There are going to be photo opes and theyre going to send a signal to the two governments, okay, the mutual isolation policy part at least is over for a while. Now its okay to talk to each other. I dont suspect there are going to be a lot of substantive deliverables from this meeting. In that sense, it will be easy because it will be likely relatively short on content. Well, max, to that notion, if it does at least signal to our allies, signal to others that the freezing between the two countries is reduced, that i assume would be a positive development because then there could be further further meetings, no . In theory, of course, you always have to say that its better to have good relations rather than bad relations. But in this case i think what is happening is actually very dangerous because if you think about the timeline, last month donald trump had a very acrimonious meeting with our allies at the g7. Now imagine what happens if this week he has an equally acrimonious meeting which i think is very likely. Going into it he is already flinging twitter insults left and right against our closest allies. So imagine if he has this acrimonious meeting with nato, then he goes to britain and probably undermines theresa may with her government on the brink of clasollapse and then goes an meets with putin and glad hands him. Its clear that donald trump would love to deal perhaps on syria, perhaps on ukraine. Anyway, the symbolism i think is very destructive. These it really feels like these are hugely important days for u. S. Diplomacy in the 21st century. It really feels like a lot of things weve taken for granted, the nature of the Alliance System that weve depended on since the 1940s is very much in balance because fundamentally, donald trump is not an atlanticist. He castigates them all the time and he seems to have boundless sympathy for russia so that is a very dangerous confluence of circumstances. Matthew, the president s argument all along has been that its better to get along with russia than have a bad relationship. For putin, is it a zero sum game . Is he looking to make concessions . I think its much less black and white than that, anderson. I dont think there is a state of the world which is huhunkyd we get along, everything is great between putin and trump, between russia and america. The current state of the world where we are really dangerously on the brink of war, and that can have Serious Nuclear implications for two countries that have the capability to basically end life on this planet as we know it in under an hour should they choose to do so. There is a middle ground, and i suspect that in reality, this meeting is a move towards that middle ground where the two governments at a minimum can functionally talk to each other that can be at a working level among military professionals, et cetera. And the two president s meeting opens that door. That is important. I think thats an overly optimistic view of whats happening here because i think that donald trump needs to stand up to vladimir putin. He needs to send him a message that its unacceptable to murder a mother of three on british soil. Its unacceptable to invade ukraine and occupy crimea. Its unacceptable to commit war crimes in syria. Its unacceptable to meddle in u. S. Elections. And my concern is that donald trump is not going to deliver any of those messages, and instead what hes going to do is hes going to tell putin how wonderful he is. Putin will tell trump that he thinks hes wonderful too, and in fact this will undermine our deterrence and encourage russia and undermine the western alliance. Certainly a lot to watch for, max boot, matthew rojansky, thank you very much. The first of a schedule of visits to senators ahead of his confirmation hearing. Coming up, well take a look at the reaction, thus far. Well be right back. A hotel can make or break a trip. And at expedia, we dont think you should be rushed into booking one. Thats why we created expedias addon advantage. Now after booking your flight, you unlock discounts on select hotels right until the day you leave. Addon advantage. Discounted hotel rates when you add on to your trip. Only when you book with expedia. This is not a screensaver. Game. This is the destruction of a cancer cell by the bodys own immune system, thanks to medicine that didnt exist until now. And today can save your life. You like to be in control. Especially when it comes to important stuff. Like, say. Your car. Well, good news. The esurance app lets you keep an eye on your repairs when your car is in the shop. Its kinda like being there, without being there. Which is probably better for everyone. Thats insurance for the modern world. Esurance. An allstate company. Click or call. President trumps Second Supreme Court nominee made his senate debut today. Brett kavanaugh is a washington insider, a longtime political player as well. He does, however, face a senate as divided as perhaps its ever been with midterm elections just around the corner. So the tension and the stakes really could not be any higher. Phil mattingly joins us now with the very latest. Phil, in terms of the people youre talking to, where does the senate stand tonight when it comes to kavanaugh, especially the red state democrats and the moderate republicans . Yeah, there are really six or seven senators that everybody is focused on right now, really will determine the fate of this pick. While we are going to know officially where they stand for a number of weeks, according to aides, pretty much all of their offices, you did get a hint today that is probably good news for mitch mcconnell. Two republicans, Lisa Murkowski and susan collins, the two that democrats are targeting, hoping to peel off to their side, both simply saying they believe at least at first glance Brett Kavanaugh is very well qualified for the position, both noting they voted for past democratic nominees even if they disagreed with them politically because they felt they were qualified. Obviously the there is a lot of work to come and democrats outside the capitol and inside the capitol will be putting a lot of pressure on both senators, most notably on abortion rights. But when you listen to those words, at least at first glance, keep in mind the key for mcconnell, the key for the white house, if they roll up all of the republicans in support of kavanaugh, they dont need democrats at all. Thats their focus right now, and at least in terms of early returns, there is a pretty good day on that front, anderson. Yeah, in terms of the timeline for the confirmation hearings, do we have an idea of what that looks like . Its up in the air right now. Look, ive talked to republican aides who have made clear they want to move on a confirmation hearing as soon as august. We were hearing september for the weeks leading up to now. Theyre trying to accelerate that. But keep an eye on kind of a smaller battle inside the broader war thats going on with this pick, and thats on documents, thats on everything that Brett Kavanaugh was involved in, not just the 300 opinions he issued as an Appellate Court justice, but also his time in the bush administration. Democrats want everything he was involved in. Republicans already saying they dont need that to know where he stands from a judicial philosophy perspective that will be a fight to watch, and that will be a fight that 23409 only could dictate when the hear willing happen, but also if it could be delayed even longer, anderson. All right, phil. Its going to be a busy couple of weeks for you. Objections to the nomination are coalescing, not just on abortion or the Affordable Care act act. Also judge kavanaughs precedent. Joined now with adam schiff ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee. Congressman schiff, kavanaughs past opinions about sitting president s and criminal prosecution, youve expressed concern about that. But opinions a judge may have expressed previously on aler Court Whether on the bench or not. Why does that necessarily translate into how theyll rule on the Supreme Court . Kavanaugh wrote this in the minnesota law review, it wasnt even a ruling of his. Well, of course someones writings or past decisions are at best guidance about what they may do in the future. Theyre never a perfect road map. But here there are very legitimate concerns. This is someone who was on the ken starr Investigative Team that was dogging a sitting president who then has an epiphany and says really, sitting president s shouldnt be the subject of an investigation or prosecution. And what accounts for the transformation . He worked in the Bush White House and discovered that president s are very busy. I dont think anyone is quite that naive to think that president s are not busy, but nonetheless, here is now a strongly articulated policy view that president s shouldnt be subject to investigation or prosecution. And where thats of concern is if you have a question of first impression, can the president pardon himself . Can the president pardon his own family . Can the president be held liable for obstruction of justice or is he essentially, as giuliani and the others argue, above the law because he is the law and he cant be held to be obstructing the law . If these cases go to the court and kavanaugh is sitting on the court and rules in the president s favor, that opinion will have no respect in the public because it will be tainted by the suspicion that he was chosen expressly for that purpose. I think it will do more to discredit the court than bush v gore ever did. And so the senators are going to need to ask very difficult, deep, probing questions about this. And if he fails to answer them, i think he either ought to be refused on that basis alone or that a recusal be committed to an advance. Do you personally believe that thats why he was selected, to give cover for the president . On this particular issue . I do believe there is only one guiding ideologiology, philosophy, rule of law or rule of thumb for this president , and that is self. He changes his policy positions five times a day. He has no devotion to anything that conservative view would espouse or the conservative party for that matter. The only guiding principle, the north star for this president is selfinterest. And so, yes, among these 25 candidates approved by the federalist society, he picks the one that says a sitting president shouldnt be the subject of an investigation or prosecution. I think its hard to imagine that was not a very decisive factor in kavanaughs favor. Its also hard to imagine that given that history that any opinion he would participate in would have the kind of respect of the public that it would need to to have credibility. I think this is a key factor. And i just think its a pretty damning statement about the motivation of the president for picking a Supreme Court justice, that basically, hes sort of trying to get himself a get out of jail card, a potential get out of jail or stay out of jail card. Well, look, it would be naive to think otherwise with this president. He reminds us on a daily basis on twitter that its all about him, that the problems that he has with nato and europe are about him, the affinity that he has with putin is about him, that even controversies that would ostensibly have nothing to do with him are in reality about him. So why should we imagine that this Supreme Court pick would be anything different . I think it would be quite naive to think otherwise. And so in light of that, i think we have to game this out. These questions are likely to go to the court. Some of these questions are likely to go to the court. And what kind of a crisis of confidence will there be if a Supreme Court in which kavanaugh sits makes a decision impacting the direction, the future of this presidency . I think that is something that every senator needs to think about during any confirmation process. Congressman schiff, appreciate your time. Thank you. Thanks, anderson. Coming up, a really amazing end to the story of the kids stuck in that cave in thailand. Its a happy story in these dark days. Some sources telling us also that Michael Cohens team feel theres is a strong parallel to john dean, the former white House Counsel who eventually told all to a Senate Committee during watergate. Just ahead, ill talk with the man himself, john dean, not Michael Cohen. But how does john dean feel about being compared by some of Michael Cohens people to him . Well be right back. Your mornings were made for Better Things than psoriatic arthritis. As you and your rheumatologist consider treatments, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. Xeljanz xr is a oncedaily pill for psoriatic arthritis. Taken with methotrexate or similar medicines, it can reduce joint pain, swelling, and significantly improve physical function. Xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma, and other cancers have happened. Dont start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. Tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts, and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. Your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. Tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common, and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. Xeljanz xr can reduce the symptoms of psoriatic arthritis. Dont let another morning go by without talking to your rheumatologist about xeljanz xr. Crisp leaves of lettuce. Freshly made dressing. Clean food that looks this good. Delivered to your desk. Now delivering to home or office. Panera. Food as it should be. Panera. I we worked with pg eof to save energy because wenie. Wanted to help the school. They would put these signs on the door to let the teacher know you didnt cut off the light. The teachers, they would call us the energy patrol. So they would be like, here they come, turn off your lights those three young ladies were teaching the whole school about energy efficiency. We actually saved 50,000. And thats just one school, two semesters, three girls. Together, were building a better california. A question. Is Michael Cohen the new john dean . Sources are telling cnn his legal team feels there is a strong parallel between his case and the white House Counsel during watergate. Im joined by john dean, jeffrey toobin, cnn legal analyst as well. John, how do you feel about Michael Cohen comparing his circumstances to what you went through during watergate . Do you see any similarities . Well, im reaching a little bit, anderson. First of all he is not in the white house. He obviously was with the Trump Organization for a long time. I was not with the nixon organization until the white house. But if hes determined to step up and tell the truth, thats something i did do while i was at the white house. So your advice to cohen is basically, if he is going to cooperate, he better beprepared to go the whole way and pull no punches . Exactly. He cannot shade this. He cannot try to be selfserving in any way. Hes got to be prepared to take the heat. When i actually broke rank, i told my colleagues i was doing so. I hired a lawyer. I was going to plead. My lawyer said he was a very sophisticated lawyer with trial experience in the Southern District, and he said i dont do pleas, but ill look at your case, and if youve got options, well go forward. And he thought i had a lot of options. So we did go forward. He was a very savvy lawyer in his representation of me. But he also said, john, remember when you kick the king, it better take care of the job. Jeff, do you buy this idea that Michael Cohen is the Second Coming of john dean . Because i seem to recall i think maybe it was Michael Wolffs book that there was an anecdote about the president watching cnn, watching when john dean was on and sort of being fascinated by that or concerned about it or at least obsessed with john deans comments about watergate and any comparisons. Is this lanny davis sending a message to the president referring to Michael Cohen and john dean . What i love about this segment, it reminds me of that great scene in annie hal. Yes. You think youre john dean . We happen to have john dean right here. Which we do. You know nothing. And their then Marshall Mcluhan was you know nothing about my work. How you got to be a professor of columbia amazes me or Something Like that. Anyway, there is a huge difference between Michael Cohen at this stage and john dean when he became famous. John dean told his story and told how he told the president there was a cancer on the presidency. He admitted that he was part of the watergate coverup. Michael cohen hasnt admitted anything. Michael cohen hasnt said what he knows. So we cant really draw a comparison if Michael Cohen is merely speculating, or his representatives are merely speculating that he may Say Something damaging until he actually says it. We dont know what Michael Cohen himself is accused of doing wrong, if anything, and we dont know if he knows anything bad about donald trump. So i think the comparison sort of falls apart right at the very beginning. So, john, what is this . Is this just some sort of Public Campaign to either influence the president to a potential pardon . Is it a message to prosecutors . How do you see this . Well, one of my reactions was it was a message to trump. As you said, the Michael Wolff book, fire and fury did have trump talking to his television whenever i appeared on cnn to make a comparison, which he obviously would send a message to the president if he said he was going to try to take my role. Trump i dont think has much real insight into watergate. I dont think he has any real understanding of what my role was. He doesnt know history well at all. Well see if the lawyers that represent michael do. Jeff, how long could any potential negotiations between cohen and the Southern District of new york go on for . And the longer the process goes, does that tell you anything . I mean, we dont even know if there are negotiations. We dont. And one reason i think things have been sort of at a stand still is this process has been going on of reviewing the documents and the phone records that were seized in the search to see if there is anything covered by the Attorney Client privilege. That slowed everything down. We dont know the prosecutors i think only recently got the full tranche of the material. You know, the legal system always works a little slower than we in journalism would prefer, but i do think the Southern District is going to have to make a decision relatively soon about whether they want to give Michael Cohen immunity, whether they want to prosecute him, whether theyll negotiate a guilty plea, all of that will be decided i think in the next few months. Jeff, thank you very much, john dean as well. Lets check in with chris to see whats coming up on cuomo prime time. Chris . Thank you my friend. Here on the white board you can see where the show is headed. Were going to be taking on immigration. Were going to talk mabout the taed line. What was the motive in missing the deadline today . Well make the case for you tonight. Were also going to talk about the play that the president is approaching on nato. What are the pluses . What are the minuses . Secretary cher tof is here. He was the second head of Homeland Security to talk about immigration. He was the developer of immigration streamline. How does he see the threat to nato that has been imposed . You heard about the vote, anderson . 972 in the senate. Almost as rare as a unicorn, that kind of bipartisan show on any vote. What does it mean . Well take you through it. Also a pardon that the president made that is a sign of the times. What is it and why . Youll see at 9 00. All right. Skr chris, thanks very much. When we come back, the latest from thailand where rescuers have saved all those kids and their soccer coach, incredible, chapptrapped in tha underground cave. I am all about living joyfully. The new united explorer card hooks me up. Getting more for getting away. Traveling lighter. Getting settled. Rewarded learn more at theexplorercard. Com well, for more than two weeks weve been watching the case of those kids trapped in a flooded cave in thailand. The boys are doing well. Theyre out. So is their coach. Were told theyre in a good mood ail though getting hungry a lot. Sanjay gupta joins me now. Sanjay, first an incredible miracle that they were able to coordinate this, get them out. Just in terms of whats ahead for these kids and their condition now, what are the important things to look for and know about . Well, you know, the big thing immediately after theyve been rescued was to take care of the basics. You know, there was hypothermia. There was dehydration, malnutrition, and they made some decisions right at the entrance to the cave, anderson, as you might know, how quickly do they need to get these boys to the hospital based on that level of concern. We hear that part of it, sort of stable i stabilizing those things is going pretty well. You cant do that fast. If someone has been hydrated, you have to do that slowly. Theres also the concern about infection. Theyve been in this cave for, you know, over two weeks. You get exposed to all sorts of different elements when in the cave. They have to check for those things, see if theres an infection that has taken hold. There is a concern about lung infection in a couple of the boys, but they dont know exactly what that infection is yet is my understanding. And also this is interesting, anderson. Appreciate when you dont have any exposure to Natural Light for over two weeks like these boys and the coach have had, your body changes. Your physiology changes to some extent. Some things in your body ramp up. Some things sort of ramp down. One of the concerns is that your immune system starts to not work as well. So that is why theyre in quarantine now as youve heard. Its because they dont want other people, family members or other people, bringing what would otherwise be harmless bacteria and infecting the boys, but that should all resolve in the next couple of days. From what i understand, i was interested to learn that the kids were using meditation to help stay calm. As someone who practices mindfulness meditation, i find that particularly interesting in a stressful situation like that, that that is effective or, you know, could be effective for them. Yeah. I had heard the same thing. I didnt know you practiced mindfulness meditation. I do too. I think it can be really helpful obviously decreasing anxiety, decreasing levels of fear in a situation like this. My understanding, what ive heard is the coach actually is someone who had practiced meditation for quite some time and had learned it well and was teaching the soccer players this as well. Theres a more pragmatic thing as well when youre in a situation where oxygen levels may be dropping, you have limited resources. Sort of mindfulness meditation can help lower your heart rate, lower your breathing, your metabolism so you may not have as much of a demand for those things. It could have a psychological as well as direct physical impact. Keep in mind with this rescue, a very unique sort of situation, you want to obviously do things and decrease anxiety in the long run, but also during the rescue itself, they have full face masks on. Theyre going through water. If theres a situation of panic, that could be a lifethreatening situation not only for the boy in this case but also for the rescue divers themselves. I had heard as well, anderson, that they gave the boys a little bit of a light dose of a sedative before the rescue actually took place to make sure that they stayed calm during that whole process. Yeah. I mean ive actually dived in underwater caves in botswana on a story about nile crocodiles. I got to tell you with hardly any visibility, which is the case in this cave in thailand, in some parts of it, i mean it was terrifying for me, and im an experienced diver. I could not imagine some of those kids who had never dived before, you know, and obviously theyre being helped, but even wearing those full face masks, which are really great because theyre less claustrophobic than the smaller face masks, but just in a cave is a freaky thing to be diving in. You cant see. And youre right. The full face mask is, i think, easier to sort of get used to than the respirator. But, still, for someone who has hardly done any swimming let alone diving like this, its got to be a very frightening experience. And getting them through that psychologically with the help of the meditation, maybe with the slight dose of the sedative, not enough too make them too sleepy, look, it seemed to have worked, anderson. It seemed to have done the trick. I also heard about something called cave disease that these boys may have been exposed too. It sounds kind of drastic. What exactly is that . Its interesting. In caves, you have lots of different potential pathogens. One of the ones that people worry about in particular really is due to the bird and bat droppings that can then become aerosolized in a fungus and the spores of a fungus. Its not something you would necessarily notice but you could be breathing those spores into your lung. People call it cave disease colloquially. Its known as histoplazmosis specifically, and thats something theyre testing for as well in addition to other potential infections. Thats one that, you know, they would want to diagnose early. That can be treated. Luckily its not contagious, so this wouldnt be something that would put the Health Care Workers at risk or other family members at risk. But its something theyd obviously want to treat. People who cave dive or spelunk as its called are most at risk. Yeah. Well, its a nice way to end the program for tonight. Certainly a happy story that theyre all out and doing well. Lets hand it over to chris. Cuomo prime time starts right now. Chris . Thank you, anderson. I am chris chruomo. Welcome to prime time. The Southern District reunify the youngest kids they took from their parents by today. President trump has failed. Barely half are being returned. Is this about incompetence or intentional harshness . Ive got an activist here who has been fighting tooth and nail to get these families back together. The name . Luis miranda. Yes, the dad of hamilton creator linmanuel miranda