Transcripts For CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 20190523

And thats the nature of the that was at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time this morning. From there she headed to the white house for an 11 15 meeting with the president on infrastructure, spending something nearly every lawmakers likes. The president trushowed up 15 minutes late and then complained about what Speaker Pelosi said as well as the russia investigation at large and said he cant work with democrats while theyre investigating him. Then he walked out and a short time later stepped up to the podium, equipped with talking points on aplacard, which he then proceeded to echo. So heres the bottom line. There was no collusion, there was no obstruction. This whole thing was a takedown attempt at the president of the United States. So hes clearly upset, enough to slip into the third person as he railed against Robert Muellers investigators who he accused of supporting Hillary Clinton and despising him. They hated President Trump, they hated him with a passion. They went to her big party after the election, that turned out to be a wake, not a party, it was a wake and they were very angry. Hes speaking about himself in the third person. Im not sure its worth fact checking. Yes, some gave to Hillary Clinton, some gave to gop, Robert Mueller is a republican, so is rod rosenstein, who is also a trump appointee. We dont know if they went to the party, but its a minor point. This, on the other hand, is not. It turns out im the most and i think most of you would agree to this. Im the most transparent president probably in the history of this country. If you havent noticed this by now, whenever he says something thats not true, he tries to suggest that the people hes lying to agree with him. I dont know if you noticed that. Keep it in mind the next time thats what he does. Keeping him honest, he might be the most transparent president ever, if transparency means no longer having White House Press briefings or having a note taker in the room when you meet with Vladimir Putin or if transparency means letting the public know about the meetings you had a day after you fire your fbi director, or it means speaking to Robert Mueller in person or not even answering written questions from mueller on obstruction of justice, if thats what transparency means hes a regular Crystal Mountain stream. The president also tried to suggest that we all agreed on this. I dont do cover ups. You people probably know that better than anybody. Again you all agree with us, we can all agree, no cover ups. He doesnt do them. I need to open a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend david. Im going to do that right away give it to me. And ive spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding so what are we going to do . Yes. And its all the stuff because you never know where that company, where hes going to be if he gets hit by a truck. Yes. One person on that tape, the president s former attorney now in prison. Both he and the other person, the president , lied to the investigators about it. That wouldnt be covering up it, would it . The how about the other instances Robert Mueller documents . How about trying to fire mueller and getting his white House Counsel to lie about that and firing comey . You might call that things persons who dont do cover ups, dont do. Like we said at the top, the e denials are not that new. Something Chuck Schumer was quick to mention. There were investigations going on three weeks ago when we met and he still met with us. But now that he was forced to actually say how hed pay for it, he had to run away. As you might imagine, the president characterized it differently. I just wanted to let you know that i walked into the room and i told senator schumer, Speaker Pelosi i want to do infrastructure. I want to do it more than you want to do it. Id be really good at that. Thats what i do. But you know what, you cant do it under these circumstances. So get the phony investigations over with keeping him honest, however you characterize the president s walkout, the information notion get done until investigatio investigationseninvestigations end, thats not how Congress Works. Richard nixon worked on legislation, senator bill clinton. Thats what politicians do even in times of stress and strife and investigations theyre expected to do their jobs. Well talk about how one person, not senator schumer has a talent for needling the president. For some reason, maybe it was lack of confidence on his part that he couldnt match the greatness of the challenge that we have didnt wasnt really respectful of the congress and the white house working together. He just took a pass. And it just makes me wonder why he did that. In any event, i pray for the president of the United States. And i pray for the United States of america. More now from someone else who was in the room with the president this morning. Michigan democratic senator, Debbie Stabinow we spoke earlier. Can you walk us through what happened in the meeting with the president today. First, anderson, its great to be with you. Let me say, it was bizarre and also very disappointing. The reason its disappointing is because the need to invest in roads and bridges and high Speed Internet and new electric grids all of these things are important and people want us to Work Together to get things done. The president walked into the room, all of our leadership, democratic leadership in the house and senate were there, the secretary of the treasury were there, there were other people in the room, instead of sitting down, he stood at the end of the table and proceeded to he was holding up an article or some news release and proceeded to talk about how hed love to work with us but he cant because nancy pelosi, our speaker, had said something he didnt like in the morning, attacked him at a meeting earlier in the morning. Said something he didnt like. He went on and on, we heard it many times, no collusions, he hadnt done anything wrong, he went on and on, and then he said, i cant im not going to be able to work with you guys on anything, and Something Like unless the investigations stop. It was Something Like that. Then he turned around and left the room. And Speaker Pelosi was incredibly gracious. She said to everyone there that we were disappointed. The fact is that we were asked to bring our priorities for what needs to be fixed in infrastructure. What do we think is important . We brought a 35page document with our priorities. And the president had agreed that he and his team would put forward ways to pay for this. And we were going to we thought we were going to have a discussion and begin a negotiation to actually get something done. It is kind of extraordinary. If it was some words of nancy pelosi that, you know, its apparently part of her saying the president is accusing him of engaging in a cover up right. President s before have been accused of all sorts of things by people in congress. Look at bill clinton being investigated. President obama as being investigated. Exactly. Yet they were still able to make deals with people. Right. The idea that everything shuts down because the president s upset, it just seems like somebody who is allegedly a great deal maker is throwing a tantrum. Well, it was, you know, very bizarre. And in looking back on it, i think he was looking for an excuse not to have the meeting. Thats only my perception. But we came with what we had promised in terms of our priorities. He was supposed to provide what he thought was the way to pay for this. He was willing to spend 1. 5 trillion on a tax cut mainly for the wealthiest americans. So were saying so how are you going to pay for this on infrastructure . On the flip side of it, though, was it wise for Speaker Pelosi to make these comments right before this meeting . Because if democrats are truly interested in working with the white house, which some republicans say theyre really not interested in having an infrastructure deal because they dont want to have anything that shows the president having a success, would Something Like saying what Speaker Pelosi said, doesnt that hurt the effort . Anderson, this president tweets multiple times a day attacking people. We are talking about ongoing questions here and investigations. Suddenly to have an internal private meeting that she had with her caucus and something that she said be a reason not to move forward on behalf of the American People to solve one of our biggest needs, which is rebuilding america, creating tens of millions of good paying jobs, to me it doesnt add up. Do you think he planned this all along . This was the plan all along . Get you there, and walk out and lo and behold theres a press conference right away . Theres a lot of speculation. Im not sure everybody in the room from his team knew it, but when he walked out he went to the rose garden that had a chart that said no collusion. And the press had been told to go to the rose garden. So obviously, somebody planned it. If they made a chart. Do you think theres something specifically about Speaker Pelosi that gets under the president s skin . It seems he has a different reaction to her than he does to senator schumer. Shes incredibly smart woman. And shes tough, she will work with him, but shes very savvy and i i dont think he does well with strong, smart women. Senator, i appreciate your time. Thank you. Youre welcome. Breaking news tonight from house Speaker Pelosi, she said the president im quoting had a tantrum for us all to see. She went on to say her Party Remains committed to their agenda. Joining us now, cnn political analyst maggie haberman. Chief legal analyst jeffrey too bin, and Senior Analyst david g gergin, whos been in the west wing in moments like this, im not sure exactly like this. What did you learn about how this went down today . Was this planned out . Was everybody in the white house on board with the idea . It was planned out but it was not some white house wide thing. It was basically decided on after pelosis remark this morning where she said he had been part of a cover up or cover ups or something to that effect, and he was triggered by that remark. He told his aides he was in a bad mood, he has been for a few days, he told his aides he didnt want to do this. What was the point of having this meeting if nancy pelosi was going to say this. Were overlooking he has been accused of cover up by prosecutors in the Southern District in the Michael Cohen case, in terms of the hush money payments in terms of women who claimed to have affairs with him. I dont think thats related to why he got this upset. I think he wanted to make a loud production that would obscure the actual remark, and it did. This was not some huge plan, there were a few aides read in on it, others who did not think it was a wise course of action, not clear how loudly they spoke up. The charts had been at the white house for quite some time that were affixed to the podium. It was fairly last minute but it was preplanned he was going to handle the meeting this way. David, you think about the president s who have been under investigations, justified or not, they still got to do their job. Absolutely. I felt in the military we called this dereliction of duty to walk off the job. I can well remember when president clinton was dealing with newt gingrich, he was under investigation for whitewater, they worked out a Major Overhaul of welfare, brought a balanced budget for the First Time Since the 60s, and funding for Childrens Health insurance. Reagan when he was under investigation on irancontra. He overhauled the tax system working with bill bradley and other democrats to get it done. Overhauled the immigration system, working with democrats as well. President s do not here we have trump who says i dont like the way its going, im going to walk off the job, president s dont do that. Especially someone who claims to be the greatest deal maker of all times. Theres really just no sign of that. Theres no sign but hes gotten seriously bad news in the courts over the past two days. You have yesterday a judge in washington saying that one Congressional Committee could get access to his accountants paperwork, his tax returns. Today a judge in new york said Deutsche Bank had to turn over the documents. And they said the arguments were frivolous, so he has little chance to win these on appeal. So you can understand why hes feeling embattled when it comes to his personal finances, which is of great concern to him. As hope hicks told Robert Mueller thats husband achilles heel. And it seems to be faster than people anticipated yes and no, there was an agreement reached this afternoon on the appeal process for the accounta accountants litigation. Which means theyll hear it in july, will they decide it in july . Probably not. Maybe theyll decide it in august. These things dont move that quickly. The idea these papers will be turned over next week or next month is pretty remote. I have to get a break in. Well finish the discussion coming up. And also how other president s reacted being under investigation. And one of the things President Trump says is his greatest attribute. My time is thin, but so is my lawn. Now theres scotts thickr lawn 3in1 solution. With a soil improver seed and fertilizer to feed now yard time is our time. This is a scotts yard. Theres thousands of ingredients out there. The freshest stuff this planet can grow. Not buzzword fresh. But, actually freshfresh. Fresh. At panera, we handpick berries at peakseason. Use creamy avocado. Cagefree eggs. And a dressing fit for a goddess. Oh and every ingredient is 100 clean. Come taste what a salad should be. And for your next event big or small, try panera catering. Panera. Food as it should be. Last year, the department of Veterans Affairs partnered with tmobile for business. 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Talking about the president s walkout during a white house meeting with democrats and then his outburst in the rose garden, including this remark. I dont do cover ups, you people probably know that better than anybody. Part of what seems to be a picture of a president under pressure. Hes now had two Court Rulings just this week on his finances, the new York State Legislature passed a bill granting access to his state returns. A lot on his plate. And now on top of that, infrastructure week has just drawn to a close. Back with our panel. The president today saying he doesnt do cover ups, obviously the karen mcdougal, Stormy Daniels thing is a cover up. Prosecutors implicated him in a crime. This is not just Michael Cohen saying it. Its prosecutors based on interviewing other people. I think that gets to him. I think hes well aware of the fact that if hes not elected he could face criminal exposure in that. Some people would disagree. Jeffrey would know more about this than i do. But if youre looking at the gamut this week, its the losses in the court cases related to his financial documents and theres been Media Coverage about his internal polling hes watching one story after another that hes in trouble. When you add it to a comment about cover ups, it leads to one place for him, which is feeling threatened. He pays a price for lacking a strategic sense. Hes not going to be able to sustain this position. Of course. You have to get to a budget passed this fall, deal with the debt ceiling. This fall you have to do it and you have to do it in a bipartisan way. He wants them to do a trade bill, the new nafta. There are going to be negotiations over that. But this was probably one of those things he said like ill take the mantle of the shutdown, ill be proud to carry the mantle and that lasted a couple days. Who made him look weak on that . It was nancy pelosi. And nancy pelosi had another victory today in her internal caucus because she has people who want her to go right out to impeachment. And what shes been saying all along is no, we can do the same kind of investigation, but we dont have to call it impeachment. We dont have to risk alienating people who dont like that idea. She got two Court Decisions this week that said these investigations can proceed, can get information without actually calling it impeachment. Thats a victory for her against her own caucus. I dont think her caucus is going to see it that way. You dont think so . No. I agree realistically. It strengthens her hands, get more Court Decisions, and build to impeachment. Members of her caucus that wanted impeachment they wanted it for a long time. Long before the Mueller Report was out. So i dont think youre right, theyre going to look at the decision and say its a win. I agree with you what her calculation is, that is the hand she has to play. I think neither she nor the president frankly think impeachment is a good thing for different reasons. But i dont believe she thinks this is going to calm her caucus down in any meaningful way. It probably will slow down the number of people calling for impeachment. It might. And thats in her favor. Youre certainly right that, you know, the david cicillines, the people who are sort of in the proimpeachment push are not going to stop because of this. No. We seem to be heading in that direction regardless. However slowly or fast. Do you think theres one branch of this investigation that worries the president more than any other . Deutsche bank, his taxes . I think its the Southern District that worries him more than anything. In terms of the congressional investigations, he does not want people having this information. But there are, as you know, a bunch of schools of thought as to why that is. Is it because theres a bunch of sources of questionable income . Foreign income . Or is it going to show hes not that wealthy. I just dont know the answer. I can see donald trump digging in because other people want what he doesnt want to give them and sort of causing this selfinflicted wound. It doesnt help him if these documents come out closer to the election if theres something bad in them. If theres not something bad in them, it might be more problematic for democrats, i dont know. I dont think he can walk away quickly what he said today. We go down the legislative road or the investigative road, we cant do both together. Hes sort of drawn a line in the sand, he cant defend that. I dont think he can easily say were bluffing. Well see. Thank you very much. For now remembering things can change quickly in the trump white house, it seems clear the democrats are not backing down, what this means Going Forward and what this means, can any legislation now get passed . 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Lets talk about it with columnist kiersten powers and senator rick santorum. Is this a political winner for the president . I dont know. I mean, i think this is one of the things, depending on who you support, youll see it a certain way. I think a lot of people think the president who support the president would think hes standing up to the democrats. But the truth is, hes making this argument that you cant investigate him and legislate at the same time, which is just completely nonsense. Its every president deals with investigations. Bill clinton was under investigation for five years. So i think that he was still able to work with republicans and pass legislation and make real deals that really required some give and take. You know, both sides had to give and take. Whereas President Trump who has talked a lot about making deals really hasnt been able to make any deals that involve working with the other party in any significant way. And i think infrastructure is an area they could Work Together, something he says he cares a lot about, the democrats are willing to work with him on it and because nancy pelosi said something that upset him, i guess he thought it was worth walking away from trying to make a deal. Senator santorum, is this how you would have done it . No. I think the president made a bad call on this one. Im disappointed he said what he said. I understand his frustration. I think what the democrats are doing is outrageous, but you dont you dont go in and give the other side something to beat you up on. Im im thats not a good move on his part. What is the outrageous part for the democrats . You mean the investigations that are taking place . Yeah, look, the continuing investigation after the Mueller Report came out, to continue to try to just harass the president on this. Theyre not going to find anymore information. Bob mueller did a thorough job. The idea they need to continue to investigate is just political harassment. And these fishing expeditions going into trumps, you know, personal affairs, look, is this is this going to be the standard now, someone elected president were going to dig into their past and look at their financial whatever. Maybe its not financial. Maybe its something else. So were going to look in their past and see if we can find something to accuse him of to discredit him. Thats just the worse politicization that ive seen. Look, i understand the democrats hate the guy, theres a lot of people in this country do. But i think theyre setting a bad precedent how you deal with people in power. Kiersten, is this a precedent . What you just described is the clinton impeachment process. I dont really understand it. Talking about digging into somebodys life. Where youre obsessed about their sex life and putting him under oath asking him where he touched monica lewinsky, come on. Do you know where he did it . He did it in the white house with an intern let her finish. Someone who talks about the me too movement. Its not illegal. Its not right but its not illegal. Let her finish. Listen to you, you just got done saying how wrong it is to do that when you participated in that. Now you have a report that lays out a bunch of very questionable behavior, even if its not illegal, thats problematic, and some of it may be illegal. There could be an obstruction of justice, and this was sent to congress and congress is doing their due diligence. But really what the president said today doesnt have anything to do with that. It has to do with the fact that nancy pelosi said something mean to him. He basically is saying, he cant do his job because she said something that upset him. Is this how president s are supposed to behave . It does seem, senator santorum, he talked about during the campaign a winning temperament. It seems like a whining temperament today. As you said its not something you would have done. Im not going to defend what the president did today. Im not. I didnt defend it, i wont defend it. What im saying is first off, this is fundamentally different than bill clinton. In the case of whitewater, the governor of arkansas was convicted and sent to jail because of things going on. This is not some lets just open up someones financial background and see if we can find something. There were crimes committed not by bill clinton, though. This is unbelievable. Its a legitimate way to investigate. Theres no one suggesting that donald trump theres no accusation that donald trump committed a crime. They want to check it out, see what they can find. Obstruction of justice is a crime. Yeah, but thats not why theyre looking at his tax returns. Thats not why they want deutsche to turn over his records. Theres no charge or claim that hes done anything illegal other than speculation as opposed to to clinton where there was something that illegal that happened. All right, your answer and then we have to go. I was going to say, there is a real possibility that he has broken laws related to his taxes. Speculation. I think the idea that you think this shouldnt be investigated but you thought bill clinton should be investigated is bizarre. Thank you both. Another victory over democrats today had implications of the victory with one of Committee Chairs trying to subpoena President Trumps financial records. Maxine waters. Corner of your growing business. From using feedback to innovate. To introducing products faster. To managing website inventory. And network bandwidth. Giving you a nice big edge over your competition. Thats the power of edgetoedge intelligence. Thanks to priceline working with top airlines to turn their unsold seats into amazing deals, Family Reunion attendance is up. Were all related yeah, i see it. And because priceline offers great deals by comparing thousands of prices in real time, sports fans are seeing more away games. Various yeahhh is that safe . Oh, y. Ahh not at all. No, maam. Nope. And more people than ever are enjoying romantic getaways. romantic music thats gross priceline. Every trip is a big deal. Thats gross my time is thin, but so is my lawn. Now theres scotts thickr lawn 3in1 solution. With a soil improver seed and fertilizer to feed now yard time is our time. This is a scotts yard. More breaking news this hour, another court defeat for President Trump. For the second time this week a federal judge ruled congress has the right to see the president s financial records. Mondays case involved his accounting firm, today case business and family records held by Deutsche Banks and capital one financial. Today the judge said the subpoenas are pertinent to Congress Work and rejected the idea they dont have a legitimate legislative work for the documents. The same thing that Steve Mnuchin is using to block the president s tax returns. In fact, Steve Mnuchin was on the hill this morning defending those actions before the House Financial Services committee. One of two committees that won in court today. A short time ago i spoke to the chairwoman of that committee. About todays court ruling as well as the other one this week in your committees favor, does it bolster Speaker Pelosis argument that its better to let this play out in court rather than start impeachment proceedings because i know youve been a vocal proponent of impeachment. Yes, you know im an advocate of impeachment, ive been for a long time. And im still very strongly in support of impeachment. However, that doesnt mean that im going to stop doing my oversight and Investigations Committee on the Financial Services committee as the chair im going to carry out my responsibility and im going to keep working. And in keeping working i am requesting documents. We are, you know, issuing subpoenas and you know we had a Court Decision today up in the Southern District of new york where trump had filed a lawsuit against Deutsche Bank to prevent them from giving us any documents, and the court and judge ramos ruled on that today. Ruled in our favor for a preliminary injunction. So why why move toward impeachment proceedings if you are already starting to get Court Rulings in your favor and you may be getting these financial documents . Doesnt that allow you to do what you need to do without, at this stage, moving toward impeachment . Dont you understand, there are several things going on here . Number one, i support impeachment, but im also the chair of a very important committee, the Financial Services committee, and im going to do my work. And investigations and oversight. And i cannot make the final determination about whether my caucus and my members are going to support impeachment. That discussion continues to go on. And so, its not either or at this point. It is, you know, you do what you need to do and for me that includes continuing to talk about impeachment and helping to create that discussion and hoping more people will come around. At the same time, as i said, doing my investigation and oversight. These records from Deutsche Bank and capital one, what questions do you believe they may help your committee answer . What do you hope to glean from them . Well, i hope to get some basic information about the financial workings of trumps operation. We want to know about personal and about company finances. We want to know who he owes money to. We want to know whether or not he had the kind of assets that he claimed that he had in order to get money. We really want to find out from Deutsche Bank why Deutsche Bank is the only Major Financial Institution that will lend him money, despite the fact he had sued them at one point. And nobody else no other banks trusted him because of the way he conducts business. He filed bankruptcy, on and on. Treasury secretary mnuchin is still refusing to turn over the president s tax returns. Is your Committee Going to hold him in contempt if he doesnt produce them . And when might you have that vote . As you know theres a lot of confusion around that. We believe the constitution gives us the right to have those tax returns. Theyve been requested by ways and means which is the legitimate committee of congress to request those tax returns and the law basically says he shall turn them over if they are requested in the right way. So hes refusing to do that. But because hes refusing to do that, we are trying to figure out how to get them. And so, the ways and Means Committee will supposedly subpoena those documents. I dont know whats happening. We have another committee thats going after the accounting that is being done by his accounting firms. So a lot of things are going on to try to get information that we think is important and absolutely essential to understand much of the suspicion that is being discussed about this president and about his financial doings. He refusies to turn over the ta returns, what does he have to hide . Has he been compromised . Is there Money Laundering going on. Theres enough to have suspicion and enough that we need documentation. Chairwoman waters thank you. Youre welcome. That investigation is over as to whether Virginia Governor Ralph Northam appeared in black face in a yearbook. At first he said it was him, then he said it wasnt him. What he said next. Were only dealing with insane living costs i said next. N said next. V said. Next. N said next. D said next. Next. You can consolidate your Credit Card Debt into one monthly payment. And get your future right. Get your money right with sofi. Its nice. You got this woo [ slow dance music plays ] sfx record scratch music plays throughout [ watch me walk by Spencer Ludwig ] yo dj, can i put in a request . Dont have no sass about this im on my way im on my way cant take no class about this im on my way im on my like this this is a moment you plan for. To start your investment plan, find an advisor at massmutual. Com sfx [ mnemonic ] you may remember this picture that started a big controversy. A photograph in black face apparently of democratic Virginia Governor Ralph Northam in a medical School Yearbook in the 1980s. First he said it was him and apologized and a day later he backtracked and said he didnt believe it was him. This is back in february. Today an independent investigation ended without any definitive term. No one said that the governor was in the photograph and neither could determine the origin of the photo in the first place. Chris cuomo joins me now. Were you surprised this is how it ended up . Nope. Institutions look to protect themselves and these things, if given time, are usually wind up finding a way to the least damaging resolution. Look, part that made this weird, here is my plus minus, the governor saying it was him was pretty damning and it should have ended there. The idea can you prove it was him was taking care of what he said was him and didnt have a great conversation about why he was wrong about his initial assessment. Here is the negative part. You got to take these things case by case. And there is a rule with the media and it is an ugly truth, if you hold on to your guns, and you wait, there is i good chance that if the media cant make it happen soon, they will go away. That is definitely true. And we saw that also with the attorney general in the state and also the lieutenant governor. Yeah, it was got a little con tanl contagious and who is left here and the different complains of ascendents to figure out whether or not they have to have a special election and it ended. And the reason i was okay with it moving on at the time was there is sometimes too much of a frenzy in the media for finality, to make things happen. And that is not always fair in the moment. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isnt. I always believe it is better for the voters to decide who should be in what offices, not the media and their opponents pushing them out. What do you have tonight . So, like you, im going the route of in the room where it happened. I have senator durbin on, what was this about . This infrastructure, was it some petty penny theater that was going on and really a setup for the president with his room of democrats or is this about the new normal and is this a real proposition for them. Then im going to take on that second notion. And i believe that there is no more need to mull over the next step for the democrats. I think it is clear and not about what to do, it is about who they need before them right away. Interesting. Ill see you in about seven minutes from now. Coming up, say what you will about President Trump, he knows how to make use of a prop, political or otherwise. The intersection of the white house and kinkos and some steak and trump vodka on the ridiculist. Last year, the department of Veterans Affairs partnered with tmobile for business. With va video connect, powered by tmobile, vets can speak to their doctors from virtually anywhere, and get the care they deserve, without it counting against their data, so they can return to their most important post. Soulmate, best friend, or just dad. The va provides the care, tmobile provides the coverage. My time is thin, but so is my lawn. Now theres scotts thickr lawn 3in1 solution. 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Etsy knows that moments, big and small, deserve things that really matter. Sold by real people and filled with things that last beyond the latest trends. Belongings dont just show what we care about. They show who we are. Shop etsy. Com time for the ridiculist and trump has replaced gallagher as the prop comedy. After he told nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer not to let the door hit them on the way out, he went out like grand torino. And when he got to the podium prepositioned for him just under the seal of the president , a seal not exactly accustomed to sharing space with a novelty placard was this piece of polished propaganda, like for a for sale sign on a house or bankrupt casino. We explains the substance which feels like a strong word. Maybe taffy is more accurate, behind the stunt. We wanted to take a moment and just applause the west wing kinko operation. They made hundreds of thousands of pages and copies for Robert Mueller so they have experience in printing fast. They sure got that sign made fast. If there is one thing this president likes it is a visual aid. And theyre not just limited to rose garden tantrum and he tries to plug private companies finest meat and booze. We have trump steaks. He said the Steak Company and we have trump steaks. And by the way, if you want to take one well charge you about 50 a steak. No. Were proud. We make the finest wine. As good of wine as you could get in the world. And the steaks were not trump steaks and purchased from a butcher and despite the beef specialist the Sharper Image didnt exist and the idea that trump makes the finest wine anywhere you could find in the world, i know solmier but this doesnt sound right. It is like trump vodka. Remember that . Mr. Trump wasnt sure exactly where it was made when he was pitching it on larry king. Take a look. We launched a vodka called trump vodka and were considering it and i think it will be the finest vodka anywhere in the world. Where is it made. It is made actually in various parts of europe. Various parts of europe. It is a vodka so complex it has to be made in various unnamed parts of europe and then all brought together. Maybe it is made in paris, maybe germany or bottled in a hungarian aqueduct. But it is that good. You wont ask yourself where was it made because it is just that darn good. Now to be fair to the president , hes not the only one who enjoys a prop at taxpayer expense. Mike lee ofute utah made these props for the senate floor. This is a picture of former president ronald reagan. Naturally firing a machine gun while riding on the back of a dinosaur. I dont remember what his point was. Im not sure he does. I dont think it matters. As for President Trump perhaps today was a prophecy come true and a perfect marriage years in the making of hysterics and slogan searing. When it comes to great stakes, ive just raised the stakes. Yes, you have. And only time will tell whether this latest move has grade a. Meat on the bone or bunch of ground chuck turning temperature in the rose garden and the ridiculist. And i turn it over to chris for cuomo prime time. Thank you very much anderson. Another signature ridiculist. And im chris cuomo and welcome to prime time. Senator durbin had a frontrow seat to what nancy pelosi called an executive temper tantrum by the president. And the minority whip is here to tell what happened and why he gave an ultimatum to stop investigating him or give up working with him. But maybe it is this president who better make a choice to work with the congress on these investigations or else it looks like hell be forced to do the same by the courts. A second federal judge upholds subpoenas for the president s finances. Were