Fake talks about now faking and rigging the polls. The direction of and for the sole benefit for his boss. You cant make this stuff up, although according to Michael Cohen, the campaign did try. We begin with the speaker and the president jim acosta starts us off in the white house. Where do things stand tonight between pelosi and the president . I just checked in with a white house official a few moments ago who said at this point the president still plans to deliver his state of the union speech on the 29th up on capitol hill, as was planned before all of this got started. But anderson, its hard to figure out how exactly thats going to take place when you take into consideration this very deeply personal battle that is going on between the president and his new foil here in washington, the House Speaker nancy pelosi. That letter that the president fired off earlier today essentially cancelling, i suppose theyre saying postponing this delegation trip to afghanistan and on the way stop in brussels and meet with u. S. Military commanders. You know, thats playing hardball obviously here in washington, but it was in response, it was in retaliation, were told to what the House Speaker did just a day earlier when she said that the president could postpone his speech on the state of the union night as a result of the government shutdown. Anderson, at this point, there is really no i guess there is no light at the end of the tunnel as to how both of these sides come together and resolve all of this. I talked to a source close to the white house earlier this evening who said that they want to see how this measure that the president took earlier today sinks in up on capitol hill and whether or not that motives the House Speaker, motives democrats to come to the negotiating table. One thing that is interesting that happened, anderson, is that while it was pointed out that the president was blocking members of congress from flying on a government aircraft because of the government shutdown, he was allowing members of his administration to go on this Upcoming Trip to the World Economic forum in davos. The treasury secretary, the secretary of state and so on. The president earlier this evening scrapped that trip altogether. So there are now consequences on both ends of pennsylvania avenue for this government shutdown. But as you were saying, anderson, the people who were dealing the federal employees, the 800,000 federal employees who are dealing with all of this, they probably dont care very much about these theatrics, this cannon fire going back and forth, up and down pennsylvania avenue. They want to know hen theyre going to be paid, and that goes for the secret Service People that we run across over here at the white house on a daily basis. Jim acosta at the white house. Jim, thanks very much. Its a busy night. Joining us hawaii democratic senator mazie hirono. Thanks for joining us. Sure. Should senator pelosi expected some kind of postponement. She pulled a lever at her disposal. Now the president pulled one at his. Its never a surprise when donald trump does something very childish, but lets not forget who began this train wreck of an unnecessary and harmful shutdown. Its donald trump when he changed his mind about supporting a bill that was passed by the house, bills passed by the senate, i should say, in december and expected to be passed by the house when he changed his mind after getting yelled at by some folks on fox news. So he is one of the people who can end this shutdown right now, but i dont expect him to because he has taken 800,000 people hostages. The other person is of course Mitch Mcconnell, who should start acting like the senate is a separate branch of government, that congress is a separate branch of government, and he should just bring those senate past bills to the floor for a vote so that we can end this shutdown, and then the president will be given a chance to make his pitch on the substance of a wall. And lets face it. Its clear he cant justify this wall. Thats why he has to take people hostage in order to get his way. I read a tweet that you sent earlier today about Mitch Mcconnell. You said last year Mitch Mcconnell called for bipartisanship, accusing democrats of putting partisan politics ahead of the country. Clearly you are are you surprised by his relative radio silence during the shutdown . Mitch mcconnell is basically a person who will whose very fajile in getting what he wants. He has used his powers time and again to get votes such as the 5 trillion tax break for the richest in our country, screwing the middle class, bringing to the floor a bill that would undo the Affordable Care act and just throwing millions of people off of health care. He had no problems bringing those bills, not to mention changing the rules so that it would take only a bare majority of senators to put Supreme Court justices on the court. So he has used his power time and again. Why cant he use it to help 800,000 people who are working women, many of them, without paychecks. So the ripple affect of all of this harm from this train wreck was started by donald trump who said oh, yeah, ill take responsibility for it, but of course not. I understand you blame the president for it. The president said he would carry the mantle of the shutdown. Yes. But does Speaker Pelosi share any of the blame as well . She is claiming security concerns based on the shutdown for saying that president shouldnt do the state of the union. But that seems a little hard to believe. Anderson, frankly, i think we should get our sights back on who can end this shutdown. So this back and forth, et cetera, i dont think the president should be giving a state of the state, state of the union speech so that he can for 45 minutes carry on about all the great things he has done at a time hen the government is shut down. With eshould be focusing on reopening the government. Who can do that . The president. Forget that. And Mitch Mcconnell. Thats why the president of our country are awakening to that responsibility that mitch is running away from, and there billboards now in his own state saying where are you, mitch. Do your job. Senator lindsey graham, your republican colleague tweeted today saying one sophomoric response does not deserve another. He doesnt like what the president did, but he doesnt like what the speaker did either. I dont want to spend a lot of time arguing about that back and forth. I want to focus like a laser beam on who can end the shutdown. Who the has the power to do that, who should have the will to do that, and that is mitch, and hes not doing it. If Speaker Pelosi had gone to afghanistan and it was fiveday trip, wouldnt that have delayed any possibility of ending the shutdown for at least five more days . You know, when we have these trips set, having gone to afghanistan and iraq and china and all these places, its a lot of work, and i know she was going there to meet with our troops to see that their needs were being met, and of course to go to brussels and reassure our allies that there are many of us who think getting out of nato would actually be very detrimental to our national security. But lets set that aside. Really, the person who could end this do you think she would go on a trip if Mitch Mcconnell said i am going to bring the senate the bills that we already passed in the senate and passed by the house, he will bring these bills to the floor. Do you think she would go on a trip . Nobody would be going anywhere. We would all be here voting for that legislation to reopen government. There is no question in my mind. Senator hirono, i appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Okay. Two perspective news on the trump pelosi standoff and policy implications, what drives the two personalities involved. President trump as you know probably by now has been described as a counterpuncher. As for Speaker Pelosi, she seems to be renting space inside the president s head at the moment. Here to talk about it cnn political analyst maggie haberm haberman, and retired pentagon spokesperson john kirby. Maggie, you certainly covered the pook for a long time. Does this seem straight out of his playbook . Straight out of the new york political playbook. This reminds me of the kind of thing mayor Rudy Giuliani would do. This is a form of smashmouth politics that donald trump lived in for a long time, if not practicing himself. It was very predictable. The problem is its different when youre president doing it, and i think it risks for him coming off as petty. There is no question that what you said about how it is a little hard to believe there are actual security concerns related to his speech, state of the union speech that nancy pelosi is concerned about. She was clearly efforting brinksmanship and trolling him, frankly, and he had to do something to appear dominant, because thats usually what these exchanges are about for him, and he was returning fire. I do think that this is going to become a messy back and forth. We are well past the point where the president is listening to people around him who are concerned about him appearing president ial. He has shattered norms over and over. They have said to him you are now in your reelection window. Assuming that he does run for reelection, this is going to be the kind of politics that youre going to see over and over again. It is how he won. Who is he listening to in the white house . Mostly himself. He has his soninlaw. He has his daughter. He does listen to his chief of staff. He does listen to kellyanne conway. He does listen to Sarah Sanders, but he is increasingly guided by what he wants to do. And remember, there are very few people in the white house left. There is a lot that has been boiled down. And you have a very small core group, many of whom, not all, but many of whom share his impulses or agree with his impulses, or at least dont want to try to regulate his behavior the way john kelly and Reince Priebus attempted to. There is no point. They dont see the effort. I dont think there was a ton of trying to hold him back here. I think yesterday they were very surprised by what nancy pelosi did, and they went quiet, as they sometimes do when they dont know how to respond. They were trying to figure out . They were trying to figure out what to do. What i think was silly was how many white house aides were saying oh, he wasnt bothered by this. He didnt think about it. He of course saw all of the coverage last night and all day today, as he always does, and saw that it was in Nancy Pelosis favor, it seems. And that bothered him so he had to get back. And admiral, youre familiar with how these trips work. Was it a good idea for Speaker Pelosi to go in the first place . As a veteran, i would far prefer to see both sides put somewhere in a room with a box of donuts we have coast guardsmen protecting our maritime borders and we have more maritime borders than terrestrial without getting paid, i would prefer everybody stay in town and get this solved. That said, these are serious business. Im accompanied some of them. They do a lot of work. Its important for them to do this. They have a right and a responsibility to talk to troops and commanders on the ground, to figure out whats going on and to help the devise the policy going forward. Youre saying this isnt just some sort of junket. No, no, its insulting to call a codel an excursion. This is serious business. I have no problem that she would want to go to afghanistan and talk to our leaders about whats going on. The president just a couple of weeks ago, anderson, decided to cut the troops in half in afghanistan with no other statement about what the strategy was going to be or how the strategy that was in existence was going to change. This is serious business, and it directly affects our national security. I dont have a problem intrinsically with her leading a codel to afghanistan. I would prefer, though, that the policymakers stay in town and fix this shutdown. It is interesting, maggie, the president i assume it was the president chose to cancel the trip of some of his secretaries to dabo. I think they felt they had to. Initially they were going to keep on track. Remember, davos has gotten stale l scaled down. The president himself was very unlikely to go. They were preparing for a lengthy one. They tried having a delegation going. Look, people like that trip to davos. Frankly, so does the president. I think they were trying to preserve it and i think they see a value in it. There was really no way to go ahead with it once you canceled this codel earlier today. There has to be one uniform plan here. It would be hard to argument. Thats right. You shouldnt take this trip during a shutdown. There are some people who have made the argument to me in the past couple of hours that the president might have been better off actually letting this nancy pelosi codel go ahead, and then you could criticize her if you wanted to, or him while she was overseas and say come back, im here and negotiate with me. Its a little harder to do when youre visit aguiar zone. She is being videotaped, photographed. With military personnel. Exactly. But it still would have been a potential opportunity. And instead he just brought the hammer down in a way that felt very personal and very intended to sort of pull the rug out right before they were about to leave. But it is all personal with this president. Its mostly personal. Or at least its about, look, this the last 48 hours has taken this away from being about how do we get the government reopened and how do we get to a deal, either from the president s perspective on a wall and from the democrats perspective on doing something that they would reopening the government or then getting something in exchange for that. Some kind of Border Security money. And i want is now just become a personality tit for tat. And youre right. Thats Donald Trumps comfort zone. The problem is nancy pelosi has generally had the upper hand because the president does personally like her, and he has been sort of confounded on how to deal with her. And i think when you get into the just throwing mud portion of our program, hes generally going to win that. So i just im not sure where we go from here. There is also 800,000 people thats what i mean. Weve gotten away from the high ground about what is actually the impact of this shutdown and now it just looks like a tit for tat. Admiral, even if there was way for senator pelosi to get on a flight to afghanistan, i guess the president has blown her cover. She is second in line to the presidency. She would have to have protective detail to say the least in afghanistan, a very large one, nothing to say of the military presence. You can get to kabul, but youre not going to get off the airport grounds without military support. Its that dangerous a situation there. There is no way she and that delegation can visit the troops in afghanistan or even kabul without military support. Number two, he has now made effectively any kind of future trip, at least in the near term, impossible for her because he outed the fact that she was going. That for me is also utterly disgraceful. I want to make one other point here. Disgraceful because youre saying it puts her security and the security of any other member of congress absolutely. Youre putting people at risk, not just the principles that are going. Military personnel. The people protecting them now. Thats all at risk. So she cant go any time soon. Look, another point that we make here, the argument that cost is the factor here is just ridiculous. The u. S. Military, certainly the active military and the military that are Forward Deployed in afghanistan are not affected by this shutdown whatsoever. Its the coast guard thats not getting paid, but the rest of the military is on duty and getting paid. So i think this whole argument is just specious to begin with. I again come back to the 800,000 people sitting at home tonight or wherever they are, wondering how does this end . Or in some cases being forced to work without a paycheck. Right. There are all variations of this. The short answer is who knows. It is really hard to see an end to this right now. It is going to require two people who have zero political incentive to approach one another to doing it. Except a lot of political incentive not to. Correct, with their base. However, i do think folks in the white house had said for a while that their general opinion is shutdowns are not good for anyone. And i think there is something to that. I do think the Public Opinion polls have shown the president is taking an outsized ownership of this in the mind of the public, but thats i think in part because he said i will proudly own this shutdown, and a lot of people have seen that video and are aware of it. And because he has done all sorts of other things to reinforce that. They havent had a consistent message on what they are trying to do. I think, if anything to your point the personal is all with him now, he has sort of found a groove that he can head into, and i think is going to be if the democrats want to try to claim that back from him, theyre going to have to find a way to turn this into the workers and not back and forth with the president. Maggie haberman, thank you. Admiral, thank you as well. The washington shutdown is the real story. 800,000 americans not getting paid and the Ripple Effect that has. Were trying to keep our focus on them in all of this. Last night on the program we spoke to a woman named mallory lorgie who works for the fish and wildlife service. She was already having bad luck. She was on medical leave. She was diabetic. Last night she told us how she started rationing insulin because she couldnt afford the copay. Tonight im happy to report in the last 24 hours since shes been on the program, shes gotten 50 offers for insulin. She says she is all set now, has insulin and cant keep up with the messages. She has this reminder for her and all the people how many good people there are in the world. Just ahead, july jugiuliani previously denied maybe the president is not colluding with the russia. So the question, what was he trying to say . Were keeping him honest on that. And Michael Cohens latest trail of campaign dirty tricks and another mans claim of cash in a walmart bag. The bizarre seamy details ahead on 360. Its tough to quit smoking cold turkey. So chantix can help you quit slow turkey. Along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. With chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting. Chantix reduces the urge so when the day arrives, youll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. When you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix. You may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in. Behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or life threatening allergic and skin reactions. Decrease alcohol use. Use caution driving or operating machinery. Tell your doctor if youve had Mental Health problems. The most common side effect is nausea. Quit smoking slow turkey. Talk to your doctor about chantix. Each day justin at work. Walk. And after work. He does it all with dr. Scholls. Only dr. Scholls has massaging gel insoles that provide allday comfort. To keep him feeling more energized. Dr. Scholls. Born to move. The unknown beyond the horizon. That was once our frontier. But today, a new frontier has risen. And this is the vehicle crafted to conquer it. Introducing the firstofitskind lexus ux and ux f sport, also available in hybrid allwheel drive. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. The best simple salad ever . D great tasting, hearthealthy california walnuts. So simple, so good. Get the recipes at walnuts. Org. With tripadvisor finding the right hotel at the lowest price is as easy as dates, deals, done. Going on a work trip . Dates, deals, done. Destination wedding . Dates, deals, done. Because with tripadvisor all you have to do is enter the dates of your stay and well take care of the rest searching over 200 booking sites to find you the best deal its as easy dates, deals, you know the rest. owl hoots read reviews, check hotel prices, book things to do, tripadvisor. Well, the president s tv lawyer went on cnn last night and conceded what the president has always denied, that members of the campaign colluded with russians. Rudy giuliani now says he did not mean to send new signals last night to chris cuomo. He says he was misinterpreted. But before we get into that, heres what he actually said. You can interpret it for yourself. I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign. Yes, you have. I have no idea. I have not. I said the president of the United States. There is not a single bit of evidence the president of the United States committed the only crime you can commit here, conspired with the russians to hack the dnc. Chriss face says it all. Keeping him honest, every part of what you heard giuliani just say is false, wrong, its a lie. You can call it whatever you want to call it. The last part first. As numerous experts have pointed out, whatever else you may think of the president and the allegations against him, the russian attack on the 2016 election was multifaceted, and so is the potential legal exposure. To his first point, though, that he never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign, chris was quick to jump in. But instead of chris telling it, perhaps it would be better to let someone else have the floor. Rudy giuliani, perhaps. Take it away. It is still the position of you and your client that there was no collusion with the russians whatsoever on behalf of the Trump Campaign . Correct. That was last july. It sounds pretty concrete. No collusion whatsoever on behalf of the campaign, except as he showed again, and again, being a tv lawyer means never really having to be consistent or exactly clear, and yeah, it does kind of make your head spin. And yeah, maybe thats the point. In case, july 31st, 2018, no collusion whatsoever. As far back as may 2016, he seemed to be leaving open the possibility while saying it wouldnt be a crime. Then it was back to a flat denial, then back again. So were very indebted tonight to the washington post, which put together a timeline on how the story has changed. So november of 2016, spam hope hicks said, quote, there was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign. Now we know thats not true, many times over. In february 2017, Sarah Sanders then repeated that lie, but added, to the best of our knowledge. So inserting some wiggle room there. Then that march donald trump jr. Told the New York Times well, yes, i did meet with russians, but nothing was set up, and he wasnt representing the campaign. That was a lie, as was the meeting at trump tower was primarily about adoption. By december of 2017, the president s other tv lawyer, jay sekulow moved the goalpost again, telling the new Yorker Jeff Toobin for something to be a crime there has to be a statute that you claim is being violated. There is a not a statute that refers to criminal collusion. There is no crime of collusion. By may last year, the line changed again and the goalpost moved with it. Here is Rudy Giuliani saying there is nothing wrong with collusion. When i ran against them, they were looking for dirt on me every day. I mean, thats what you do. Maybe you shouldnt, but you do it. Nothing illegal about that. And even if it comes from a russian or a german or an american, it doesnt matter. Germans, russian, it doesnt matter. Yet he later circled back again to no collusion, period. And then he circled back on tv last night, tried to square the circumstance well a quote today, tweeting my statements on collusion havent changed, he writes. The misinterpretation has changed. The point is i represent the president , not the campaign. But from both perspectives, there is no involvement in collusion with russians. On the email hack, the only possible crime. Okay. Thats gaslighting or smoke blowing. The misinterpretation hasnt changed, whatever that even means. The story, the narrative from july july, that is what has changed. And this whole rudy roundabout routine is not knew. Hes done it before when trying to get ahead of some damaging yet unseen piece of news. Here it is where donald trump was deeply involved in the payoff to Stormy Daniels during the campaign. Its not campaign money, no Campaign Finance violation. They funneled it through a law firm. Funnel it through a law firm and the president repaid it. Oh, i didnt know. He did. Oh. Was his latest Statement Last night to chris on collusion Something Like that, what the Nixon White House once referred to as a modified limited hangout . Was the tv lawyers on tv shows sometimes do, hinting at whats coming up in the next act. If thats what he is doing, getsing out ahead of Robert Muellers next move, how is Rudy Giuliani to know . Well talk more about that. Robby mook, former Trump White House lawyer and carrie cordero. She currently teaches at georgetown and is a cnn legal analyst. Carrie, certainly a lot to wade through. But i want to start with the president s legal concerns. Does the evolving message on collusion tell you what his legal team might be thinking about his potential exposure . How do you interpret this . Well, i tend to distinguish between what his legal team that is behind the scenes does. So the legal team thats actually going through documents and reviewing information and talking to other people involved in the case and coordinating with the special counsel, i just distinguish between them and what Rudy Giuliani does on tv, which i believe is running a counter impeachment strategy. So i think when rudy goes on tv, his audience is the president s political base, and its republicans on capitol hill where he is trying to get out what the messaging is, and its a political strategy more than a legal strategy. But his point about the dnc hack being the only crime thats an issue, of course, is the major point in what he said, which is not true, because the special counsels investigation is much broader than that, and the potential exposure for the president and other members of the campaign is much broader than that. Jim, does it make sense to you that the president seems to know more about jeff bezos divorce than he does about what his Campaign Aides were up to during the campaign, which was run out of trump tower . Look, the candidates typically dont get into the weeds on campaigns. Thats not what they do. He is going to rallies. He is running grassroots research, doing all the things, television commercials, those kinds of things. But no, im not surprised that he wouldnt know about whats going on the everyday daytoday operations during a campaign. That being said, i agree with carrie on the issue of Rudy Giuliani. Him out there talking is really political statement. Because at the end of the day, this is a report thats likely to go to congress. And its not something thats going to get before a judge or a jury as it relates to the president. Its going to be something thats used in congress as an impeachment tool if the democrats so choose to use it. So i think thats what Rudy Giuliani is out there trying to do. The lawyers behind the scene are doing what lawyers behind the scene do, and thats responding to requests from mueller and i assume responding to requests from mueller and handling all the legal matters. Do you think that july jugius contradicting what he previously said and the president knew all along . Thats also the danger about coming out and talking about facts relating to an investigation before the investigation is completed. Sometimes that can cause you problems down the road as the facts come out into the public as a result of the facts that are generated as a result of the investigation. Its a dangerous thing to do as it relates to the legal case. But in this matter, again, its going to be a political issue, not so much a legal issue when it gets to congress. So he is out there doing the political bidding for the president , not necessarily not necessarily the lawyering for the president as it relates to what he says on tv. Robbie, essentially, he i mean he is contradicting what he previously said and whether, okay, he didnt know the facts, but he was sure acting as if he did know the facts back then. Was he lying then . Is he lying now . What do you make of it . Well, the trump apparatus has been lying about the campaigns relationship with russia the entire time. You know, i was on cnn with donald trump jr. Back during the convention in july of 2016, and he called me a liar when i said that russia was the one who hacked into the dnc and that they were doing it to help donald trump. That was a few days i believe or maybe weeks after he had met with an agent of the russians to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. So the idea that theyre lying about any of this, thats been going on forever. I think whats scary for our country is that youre exactly right. Giuliani is trying to introduce this into the bloodstream. He is trying to telegraph whats coming ahead, but its not just sending talking points to republicans. Theyre trying to boil the toad here, right . Theyre just trying to turn up the temperature a little bit. Hey, maybe there was collusion with the campaign so when it comes out people dont care anymore. And this is whats been going on for years now is every time something new comes out, they just shift the goalpost a little bit. So i remember during the campaign it was my god, russia would never steal emails from the dnc, and then they did. They moved the goalpost. Then it was oh, well, the campaign would never have any communications with russia. Then they did. They moved the goalpost again. And were going get to the point now where i believe it will probably come out the president did know what was going on with the dnc and theyre going to try to clear the field so nobody cares anymore. And thats where i think we all need to step back and realize this is a really big deal. I want to continue this conversation. Were going to take a quick break. Were going get more into it, including more on the mixed messages sent by giuliani on collusion in the Trump Campaign. And later, another fascinating story, president trumps former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen says he did pay thousands of dollars in 2015 to rig online polls to favor donald trump. Its a story reported by the wall street journal. Details on that ahead. To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best to make you everybody else. Means to fight the hardest battle, which any human being can fight and never stop. Does this sound dismal . It isnt. Its the most wonderful life on earth. With expedia, i saved when i added a hotel to our flight. So even when she grows up, shell never outgrow the memory of our adventure. Unlock savings when you add select hotels to your existing trip. Only with expedia. Select hotels to your existing trip. ba y crying hold on, im comin hold on, im comin hold on dont you worry, im comin here we come, hold on were about to save you im comin, yeah hold on dont you worry, im comin turn up your swagger game with one a day gummies. One serving. Once a day. With nutrients that support 6 vital functions. And one healthy you. Thats the power of one a day. At to cover the essentialsyou have in retirement, as well as all the things you want to do. Because when youre ready for what comes next, the only direction is forward. More now on the conclusion confusion from the president s tv lawyer, perhaps a confusion or strategy Rudy Giuliani on what appears to be his attempt to clear things up. We show his explanation of what he said and it wasnt surprising some of what he said raises eyebrows. If nothing else, whenever giuliani speaks in public about this, its been an experience. Here is a bit of how his statements have evolved over weeks and years. Never used it. They rejected it. If there was collusion with the russians, they would have used it. The collusion part, were comfortable with because there is none. I dont know if thats a crime, inclucolluding with russ back now with robby mook, jim schultz and carrie cordero. Was giuliani confused or confused last night or saying Something Different last night as part of a strategy . Look, hes had a history of being imprecise, no question about that. The motivations behind that, whether there was motivations behind that, whether he is forecasting something, where he is spinning something, its hard to tell, and its been hard to tell. But i also think its one thing he could have been doing, look, you saw the manafort, the fact that manafort sent the polling data over to the russians that was Campaign Polling data. And some of that is maybe hes anticipating spin that some of these actions that i think based upon the fact that he was not charged with conspiracy, meaning manafort to conspiracy and there was no charge, that there is probably no connection to the campaign associated with this. Maybe hes just he was the Campaign Chairman at the time. No, no, i get that. But there was no charge against anyone else. There was no charge in connection. Right. He is still cooperating. There is no conspiracy charge whatsoever as it relates to anything. So that leads to the conclusion the Justice Department is not looking at it from the perspective of, you know, him working with other folks on the campaign to turn this over for the benefit of the campaign. I think this could be some spin because thats out there. The democrats are going to spin that the way they want to spin it. The fact of the matter is he could have been just doing it to save his own tail and had nothing to do with the campaign and nothing to do with trying to win the campaign, but that he was acting outside the scope of his duties as Campaign Chairman. It does seem, carrie, or maybe this is robby since youve been intricately involved with this, the goalposts do seem to shift a lot. Originally there was no connection whatsoever, there was no collusion whatsoever. Now its oh, yeah, the Campaign Chairman was actually in contact, but it didnt have anything really to do with the campaign. Thats for robby. Oh, sorry. Look, let me just level set what were talking about. The Campaign Chairman is sending polling data to russians. So first of all, thats a really weird thing. I was not in the practice as a Campaign Manager of sending our internal strategic polling to foreigners, just in general. So lets put that. No russians . No syrians . No syrians, no mexicans, no french. So lets go there. But we are contorting ourselves. Jims having to do gymnastics here to explain how the campaign was not colluding. So i just, again, whats disturbing to me here is were not asking ourselves how did this how was this even able to happen, what does it say that our president was elected, you know, hand in hand with a foreign power, not to mention one that is probably our most hostile enemy out there today. Were getting in the ticky tacky details. Thats exactly what giuliani is trying to do here is were trying to speculate on all of his rants and not actually look at the real issue, which is that our president is probably compromised and has demonstrated that. Look, its a little selfserving of robby go ahead, jim. I think its a little selfserving of robby on this one given that he was Campaign Manager for Hillary Clinton and there is probably sour grapes there. There are a lot of things that go on in campaigning, and robby knows that he didnt have his finger on everything that was going on the campaign. Jim, we were not sending data to the russians. That you guys were rigging it against bernie the entire time and working with the dnc. You were embarrassed by those emails. I get that. We were never sending data to foreign people. I get youre embarrassed by that and youre making a political statement here. I get what youre doing. Seems like sent this polling data over the russians is clearly disturbing, and im giving a legal analysis to this. And robby, youre making political statements. And i get that. Thats what you do. Heres whats odd heres whats odd from a counterintelligence perspective. If we were to take Rudy Giuliani at his word that the president didnt know anything about what Paul Manafort was doing, the reaction after the fact to that information being revealed publicly has been sort of odd, because the reaction hasnt been boy, i would have never wanted my Campaign Chairman to be coordinating or to be providing information about my campaign. Yeah. To a foreign power that has adversarial interests to the United States of america. So that reaction is odd. Its clear that Rudy Giuliani is trying to limit the scope of what people think the president has exposure to, but on the conspiracy point that jim mentioned earlier, the entire special counsels theory of the case is that the russian influence effort was to was conspiracy to defraud the United States. And so anything that falls under the russian influence activities, that campaign personnel including the president may have been involved in would fall under that broad umbrella. Carrie cordero, i appreciate it as well, jim schultz, robby mook. There is new reporting that donald trump claimed over and over the polls were rigged, his fixer was behind the scenes trying to rig polls. Michael cohen says he did it as the direction of donald trump. Details next. Lets see, aleve is proven better on pain than tylenol extra strength. And last longer with fewer pills. So why am i still thinking about this . Ill take aleve. Aleve. Proven better on pain. Green book is the feel good movie woo thats the winner of 3 golden globes. That was a good time. [ laughing ] best supporting actor, best screen play and best picture of the year. Hes a true virtuoso. I think hes really good. With tripadvisor finding the right hotel at the lowest price is as easy as dates, deals, done. Going on a work trip . Dates, deals, done. Destination wedding . Dates, deals, done. Because with tripadvisor all you have to do is enter the dates of your stay and well take care of the rest searching over 200 booking sites to find you the best deal its as easy dates, deals, you know the rest. owl hoots read reviews, check hotel prices, book things to do, tripadvisor. [birds chirping] accidents can happen anytime thats why geico is here 24 hours a day everyday. Geico, fifteen minutes could save you 15 or more on car insurance. As you know, the president has said for years that the polls are rigged and the polls are fake. Now reporting for the wall street journal shows his former lawyer, Michael Cohen hired company to rig polls and make fake news. And then he allegedly stiffed them. The journal says cohen hired a Small Tech Company to manipulate online polls about trump, one on cnbc and one in the drudge report. Cohen said he did this at the direction of and for the whole benefit of donald trump who has made his opinion of polls rhett pretty clear over the years. I think these polls, i dont know, something about these polls. There is something funny. Watch the polls, because this is part of the crooked system. Its part of the rigged system. They even want to try to rig the election at the polling booths. You know, polls are fake, just like everything else. During the president ial race, cohen also asked this company to create a twitter account women for kwoecohen that tweeted abo cohen as a sex symbol. Cohen paid about 12,000 or 13,000 cash in a walmart bag and gave him a boxing bag that cohen said was worn by a brazilian mixed martial arts fighter. Cohen still owed the guy about 37,000 according to the journal. Cohen was reimbursed for the full amount by trump, 50,000, but never paid the company what it was owed. Joining me Kirsten Powers and max boot, author of the corrosion of conservativism why i left the right. Max, a candidate repeatedly talking about polls as rigged now rigging online polls. I mean, online polls are meaningless. That anyone would take an online poll seriously. But the fact according to this reporting, he is paying for this. Right. Thats a sign of the fact that donald trump is deeply cynical about politics because he has engaged in deeply cynical manipulations over the years. What this really brings home to me, anderson, is that Chris Christie is right. Hes got this new book out in which he says donald trump attracted to him amateur, grifters, weaklings, convicted and unconvicted felons who were hustling jobs they were never suited for, seemingly sometimes without even a background check. And Michael Cohen is a great example of that. He is obviously not an upstanding individual. There is an allegation here he defrauded this i. T. Consultant of tens of thousands of dollars that he got from donald trump. Essentially stealing money, according to the reporting money that trump paid him, he kept most of it, didnt pay. Exactly. But its not coincidence that donald trump attracts people like that, that those are the kind of people he is comfortable with because thats the kind of person he is. You look at how the Trump Organization operates here. The money is paid largely out of trumps personal account after a handwritten note from cohen saying he needed 50,000 for tech services. The president can say as much as he wants that cohen, you know, was a bit player and wasnt close to him, but he was certainly highly trusted by trump because hes just, you know, based on a little handwritten note, he gives him 50,000. Yeah. Also there are other reports of the trump operation acting this way in terms of having agreements that arent really, you know, binding. So theyre not done in the normal way, sort of corporate way or i think the way most people would do, so theyre not traceable, paying in cash. There are other stories of them paying in cash as well, which is really the only people who are known for this kind of behavior are drug dealers and the mafia. You know, so that says a lot about this organization that thats how they operate. And i think the idea of the rigging the polls is that probably the reason that donald trump thought to do this, which Michael Cohen says he did this at Donald Trumps direction is because theyre the only polls that could be manipulated. Youre not going to be able to manipulate the cnn poll, right . Theyre going to go and and even though theyre meaningless and most people dont Pay Attention to them, it could be something that donald trump will point to in their favor. Just the way it occurred is just like, its like the Stormy Daniels payments. Its all of these denials. Theres a whole pattern of this conduct and you can say this is rigging a poll that nobody cares about but in other ways you can say this is a trial run for colewding with the russians to rig the 2016 election and Rudy Giuliani was saying maybe it is possible that the campaign was involved in this collusion. All he is saying trump himself didnt know about it personally but its hard to credit that. What we have seen is that trump himself has been very involved but you add it up and its a consistent pattern of elicit conduct by the president of the United States. Thank you so much. I want to check in with chris and see what he is working on at the top of the hour. So, the point of the exercise for Rudy Giuliani was i have to interrupt. It was extraordinary and watching your face during it was extraordinary. Thats why i dont pay poker. Theyre getting ready for a pr battle. Theyre not getting ready for court. What he is doing is getting the base ready and the American People ready to dismiss the idea that anything is here and they have had to retreat into this one corner. Forget about nobody did anything. Just the president. Thats who i defend. He doesnt know anything. He didnt do anything. The problem with that is the president has a pattern of susceptibility to bad behavior. Well lay that out tonight and talk about what it could mean to him. And people around him. Chris, thank you very much. See you at the top of the hour. About 8 minutes from now. The u. S. Backed Syrian Democratic forces say it will increase its military operations against isis. Just ahead, how the fire fight is playing out on the front line. We have an incredible report from the battlefield, next. What makes this simple salad the best simple salad ever . Great tasting, hearthealthy california walnuts. So simple, so good. Get the recipes at walnuts. Org. Each day justin at work. Walk. And after work. He does it all with dr. Scholls. Only dr. Scholls has massaging gel insoles that provide allday comfort. To keep him feeling more energized. Dr. Scholls. Born to move. Man 1 this is my body of proof. Woman 1 proof of less joint pain. Woman 2 . And clearer skin. Woman 3 this is my body of proof. Man 2 proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis. Woman 4 . With humira. Woman 5 humira targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms. Its proven to help relieve pain, stop further irreversible joint damage, and clear skin in many adults. Humira is the 1 prescribed biologic for psoriatic arthritis. Avo humira can lower your ability to fight infections. Serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Woman 6 ask your rheumatologist about humira. Woman 7 go to mypsaproof. Com to see proof in action. Ed gets copays as lowlily go to as zero dollars on Medicare Part d prescriptions. Ed gets labels clear as day. And, lily. Lily gets anything she wants. Ed knows he could just have us deliver his prescriptions. But whats the fun in that . Switch to cvs pharmacy. It will escalate operations inside syria after four americans were among those killed in an attack not under isis control. Inside syria tonight, she takes us to the front lines. The battle against isis is still raging as the u. S. Allied Syrian Democratic forces, known as the sdf push in on the last sliver of territory under the militants control. Here the fighters prepare to move into the village. Flares turn the dark night into day. A Coalition Aircraft circle overhead finding crushing arpaioer. By daylight, they push further in. This is where isis ends sdf commander tells his men. Isis launched a counter attack. They fight back. We travel down to the front line as they approach the next village. Our escorts insist on taking an armored vehicle, even liberated territory is far from secure. These roads are still dangerous, especially early in the morning because there are isis sleeper cells in the area. They come out overnight and they plant road side bombs. The commander takes us on the roof to show us the front line. So the next village over is where the front line is now and theyre hoping theyll be able to liberate that for tomorrow. American forces provide assistance from a few hundred miles away. The Commander Warns the battle is not over. The pressure we had militarily is ending. But the fundamental war is eradicating the ideology of isis. That will be a much tougher fight to win. Support for isis still lingers here. We pass through a recently liberated area. This is what is left now. You can see its been completely obliterated and to many of the people that were living in areas like this and others, this is what liberation looks like. Miles and miles of rubble. Many here fear that buried in the destruction, the seeds are being sewn for another war. Welcome to primetime. Big news. The president said goodbye to there was no collusion by anyone with russia. His legal team only contests the idea that the president did anything criminal. Not people around him. Not the campaign. Question, could the president really not know what the people around him were up to . And were learning more about why his lawyer clings so tightly to the idea that if it aint a felony, it aint a problem. More proof of wrong doing that may not