News, analysis and interviews with politicians and observers. News, analysis and interviews with politicians and observers. Damaging. Both the combination of the Michael Cohen revelations and also the fact that mueller is still going. Its causing a lot of people around the president to worry, and theyre also worried about the midterms. Theyre worried mueller might drop something before the midterm elections that could be devastating to republicans. And trump also seems to believe that possibly if he talks, it could bring this investigation to an end more quickly, but theres not necessarily any evidence of that. Yeah, i mean, its interesting the way that trump seems to think that he could Charm Mueller the way that he thinks hes done with kim jongun and with other world leaders. If he gets in the room, he can win them over. This is of course a very different situation. The other thing that is interesting where giuliani is saying put up or shut up, the irony in that is that bob mueller is perhaps the only person who we havent heard from. Yeah, yeah. He has shut up. He never speaks. He speaks through indictments, which hes had a lot of. He speaks through his court filings, but he doesnt talk himself. So you have giuliani out there talking a lot. You have President Trump talking a lot. You have Michael Avenatti in the other case and lanny davis. You have a lot of these lawyers talking, but bob mueller himself is relatively silent, which his supporters may want to hear more from him given the way his opinion numbers have taken a dive. Hes sort of the epitome of talk softly and carry a big stick. You know, hes doing that a lot right now. Were seeing his actions but not his words. Rachel, yesterday we saw the president lashing out and his reaction to this and this whole idea of whether or not his tweet was a directive or an opinion or just a suggestion or him blowing off steam. Of course, the white house, were going to play a clip of all the ways the white house has talked about the president s tweets and whether or not theyre opinion or directives. Here you go. Its not an order. Its the president s opinion. The president is stating his opinion. Hes stating it clearly. Theres no reason he shouldnt be able to voice that opinion. Should the Attorney General see this as a directive . No, it isnt at all. Its what it is. As we said, its an opinion. He used his he used a medium he uses for opinions. Policies are statements and statements are policies. It goes both ways. Thats absolutely not true. I make lots of statements. Theyre not u. S. Policy. I misspoke. It is the case. The president calls the ball. His statements are, in fact, policy. The president is the president of the United States, so theyre considered official statements by the president of the United States. Pompeo there switching it up in the same conversation there. Yeah, but to go back to the president s tweet yesterday, its got to be the toughest job in washington, speaking for the president and also being his lawyer. Yes, theyre arguing he said mueller should end the probe, not he must end the probe and thats a difference. Hes just expressing his opinion. But look f t, if the president the United States says something should end and you work for the president of the United States, you see that and you got to be nervous about it. Of course, the fbi, theyre going to do their job. Theyre trying to tune this out and just want to get this done with. But going back also to the Obstruction Of Justice and why he doesnt want to answer questions or why his lawyers do not want to answer questions on this, theres a lot of thinking out there that mueller might have a more solid case on obstruction than he does on the russia interference thing. So they dont want the president to talk about this, but again, trump and his tweeting, he just wants to go out there and put it all out there. This could be a real legal danger to him. It deals with state of mind. Thats one of the biggest problems for the president s lawyers. Its about what were you thinking when you did, not what happened when. I think thats why its tricky for him. Thats when you open up the president to saying all kinds of things that you may not have wanted him to say. When he sat down with lester holt, he basically started that process by saying, when i fired comey, i was thinking about the russia investigation. Thats a big red flag for his legal team. When it comes to Something Like yesterday, again, this is about the court of public opinion. President trump understands news cycles. I think we can all agree to that. It was the first full day of testimony in Paul Manaforts trial. If the president had not stepped in and created his own side story, all of the coverage that day about the russia probe would have been about manafort and the trial. Instead, Everybody Knows the top four paragraphs of every story became President Trump on the offensive on twitter. And do we expect more of that . I mean, i know its hard to say. Daily. They would have stronger ground to stand on if he did only use it for opinion. He uses his twitter feed to fire people, to announce policy. Its a realtime look into his mind set. So its not like hes only using it for his opinion. I think his team is doing all that they can to turn this into a semantics argument. Clean it up, yeah. Well have to leave it there. Before we go to break, some major news on wall street. Apple just became the First American Public Company to reach 1 trillion in value. Apple shares surged to an alltime high just moments ago after the company reported better than expected earnings this week. For context, amazon clocks in at about 900 billion. Google and microsoft both worth more than 800 billion. Well be right back. Yeah, it was during testimony from one of the witnesses where the prosecutors were asking questions related to rick gates. I think in an effort to move along, the judge said, well, youre going to have rick gates here testifying, so why dont we just move along here. When rick gates comes in, you can ask him these questions. The prosecutor, i think without thinking, just quickly said, well, we may or may not call him. Certainly that signaled to a lot of the reporters in the room, well, whoa, this is the first time were hearing that gates may not be coming in. As you said this morning, i think seeing some of the news reports, the prosecutors came in and wanted to make it very clear to the judge and to the defense team, yeah, we do intend to call rick gates, and that could happen, as you said, tomorrow, as early as tomorrow or monday. And gates of course had come under some pretty withering criticism, this idea that he might not be such a reliable witness. Yeah, certainly i think thats what the defense wants. They seem to he seems to be key to their defense. Theyre blaming everything on him. They said so much in the opening statement. Its clear theyre going to stick with their guy and intend to bring him before court. Well see what he says. As we watch this trial, were also watching trumps reaction to the trial. We saw it yesterday. One of the things thats interesting, and politico has this report, in terms of the white houses Talking Points and having people talk about this trial, this is what they found. More than a half dozen of trumps most Vocal Tv Surrogates told politico that they werent provided white house or Campaign Talking Points on the case, as is customary for important headline generating matters. Some interpreted that as an attempt to keep them from talking about the trial on tv and to starve it of oxygen. Donald trump did not get that message. Hes not starving it of oxygen. Hes providing some oxygen. There seem to be from the white house paul manawho, like he didnt work for the campaign. Trump obviously having a different perspective. Theres also another explanation, which is they dont have their act together to come up with Talking Points to send out. In this white house, thats a real possibility. I think this idea that theres a grand plan around this Manafort Trial is not quite right because they have settled on as close to something as this as nothing to do with us. Thats not a fully baked plan. Its fairly limited in its scope. Obviously the president is undermining that every day he talks about it. So this is the white house still trying to figure out exactly where to position themselves on this. As many people have pointed out, the Manafort Trial is being handled by the special counsel. As much as they say this has nothing to do with his time as campaign chairman, there is a fear that there is something they dont know about that could come back to haunt them. One of the things coming out in this Manafort Trial, his lavish expenditures and his extravagant lifestyle. 30plus Bank Accounts in three countries. Who among us doesnt have 30plus Bank Accounts in three countries . Seven homes, 6 million on luxury items and services, 3 million in home improvements, 900,000 at a Mens Clothing store, 123,000 car. And the jackets, of course. 18,000 on a Python Jacket and 15,000 on an ostrich jacket. I think theres also some sort of vest to go with it. Youve got to have the vest to go with the jacket. Just some of the fun, i guess, in this trial. Heres the importance in this. This is how the prosecutors are showing he was living this lavish lifestyle. He was using money, overseas money, money that he had parked in these overseas accounts, and then was wire transferring a lot of this money to these vendors, to this suit guy, the guy making his suits. Thats what the prosecutors are using this for. The judge has taken some issue with them showing these photos. The other thing important in terms of the president , when we hear from rick gates, its going to be interesting to see how the president reacts to that. He worked on the campaign. We know how the president feels about disloyal people, the idea that rick gates cooperating flipped. We dont know everything rick gates is providing to prosecutors. But the reason why all this is important, the ostrich clothes or whatever, its like a shiny object. The reason why this is important and interesting is because Paul Manafort had longstanding, wellestablished roots to the russians, the prorussian ukraine leadership at the time, deep ties to that world. The question is, how did the russians get anywhere close to donald trump . We know the answer. This establishes the answer. Between rick gates relationships and Paul Manaforts relationships. Thats the first nexus, and its proven again and again, at least with some of the alleged financial ties theyre trying to bear out. Thats what theyll get at today. Yeah. The question for the president and the president s family and some top aides is did that ever jump to the next level . Did it ever move out of manafort and rick gates world into trump land . But we know thats the establishing basis of a lot of these relationships. Another thing that came up in court today was whether or not Paul Manafort would testify. Well just have to wait and see. Nowhere close to that. Up next, an endorsement from President Trump is highly coveted these days, but does it pay off at the polls . One candidate says absolutely. R its a game changer here in pennsylvania. President trump is more popular here today than when he won in 2016. Call or go online today. As endorser in chief, President Trump is very much on a roll. Most of the midterm candidates hes backed this year have won their respective primaries. These are just a few of them, and hes keeping his foot on the gas for republicans in several other states. He was in florida on tuesday pushing congressman ron desantis for governor. Hell be in pennsylvania later today stumping for congressman lou barletta, and saturday in Central Ohio Campaigning for a State Senator Running for congress. But the president s Endorsements Havent Always worked. His guy, of course, lost in that pennsylvania Special Election back in march, and remember he backed Luther Strange then roy moore in alabama, both of them lost. But the president is clearly reveling in this string of winning endorsements. My polls are great, but the question is, is it transferable . Now, it certainly was with florida because you saw ron desantis, whos gotten a tremendous you know, many, many points. The governor of georgia, where he was down by five and won by 40 after i endorsed him. If you take a look at Congressman Donovan from staten island, hes down by 10 and wins by 24. So weve had a lot of impact. And thats why im going around. Man, hes clearly enjoying this. Kind of looking at the polls and in the weeds on this. The value of his endorsement seems to have gone up. He wants to do more. And he doesnt name brian kemp in there, whos running for governor in georgia. The lack of familiarity with these candidates is kind of interesting. And its not like hes ushering in ideologues. Hes not backing people because of their ideology, often. Hes backing them because they like him. Hes ushering in a new group of people who really like donald trump. You see that with ron desantis and some of his ads in florida. Theyre really hugging close to trump. That does you know, its part of the enduring parts of his presidency, the support he still has within that base of the republican party. Theyre all, you know, clinging to him in ads, which is unusual at this time of year, for people to be clinging to an incumbent president ahead of a midterm cycle that typically is not very good for an incumbent. Rachel, is there any more method to what hes doing, other than if the guy likes trump hes going to get out there and endorse him . Its all about loyalty. I would say almost 100 . Of course, Party Leaders will obviously ask the president to back someone theyre worried about, which theyre going in ohio right now. Most of these guys hes backing have done something for the president. Ron desantis, whos polling ahead in his run for governor, because of trump has been on tv time and time again blasting the russia investigation, defending the president , saying this is all a witch hunt. You talk about lou barletta. I remember when he was the first person on capitol hill to endorse the president in 2016. The president clearly never forgot that. He started a whole trump caucus thing. The president s endorsement is the top prize for republicans, even though he doesnt have the greatest polling right now. If you look at the support amongst republicans, its the greatest of any other president in recent modern history in terms of favoritabability ratin. Its the ultimate prize. He is incredibly popular. He is one of the most popular republican president s that weve seen among republicans. Hes polling at Something Like 84 among republicans. And you see that. Thats why people want his endorsement. The other thing thats interesting, though, is if you look at the kind of enthusiasm he brings among republicans, he also brings out opposition among democrats. Its at an alltime high. The question is whats going to matter more . The opposition that democrats feel towards this president or the loyalty that republicans feel for him come midterms. I think the loyalty part is if youre a republican, you cant do without it. It may not be enough to overcompensate for what the democrats are doing, but as a republican, you cannot go into a general election without really firm support from your fellow republicans. But that being said, i mean, the battleground for control over the house is going to be in the suburbs. Where are democrating going to democrats not only going to be able to get their base out but those conflicted moderates in the middle, the onetime republicans who are maybe a little more disenchanted with trump than others, maybe who have stopped identifying as republicans. Particularly subyou aurban w women, college egtsducated wome. Honestly, anyone who says they know doesnt know. That being said, it doesnt diminish the value of trumps endorsement if you are a republican. You cannot go into a general unless youve solidified your base. It is kind of fun to see the president lay a little groundwork to give himself space if it backfires. Hearing him say things like itll be interesting to see whether my great popularity transfers. The big test will be the general election, right. Its one thing for his endorsement to matter in a primary, but come the general election, for instance, if youre barbara comstock, you dont want him anywhere near your campaign. Although, if youre barbara comstock, its kind of baked in the cake already. Thats sort of its like a selffulfilling prophesy. The republican lawmakers who will be craving President Trumps visit and endorsement are inherently not barbara comstock. So its sort of the geography is Destiny Problem for a lot of these folks. You dont want the President Campaigning against you, but if hes campaigning for you, theres some place where is that really helps turn people out. Theres some places where that just reminds democrats and swing voters to dont like President Trump, why they want to turn out the other way around. Every president in a midterm year craves being as relevant or as important as he is in a president ial year. President obama went through this also. And the Second Time Around in 2014. He wanted to be out there, but he was benched in a lot of places. President trump has not exercised the same discretion, but so far his instincts about where to go and the places where his team have been able to maneuver him have been pretty smart. And he always highlights the same things when he tweets these endorsements, something that philip bump discovered in the washington post. Basically tough on crime, strong on the border, and hes going to offer you his full and total endorsement if you meet that criteria. Well see what happens in november. Coming up, thanks and see you soon. The president tweets out praise for kim jongun. [burke] at farmers, weve seen almost everything so we know how to cover almost anything. Even vengeful vermin. Not so cute when theyre angry. And we covered it. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum make cars more fuel efficient. Now, the epa and transportation departments cite safety as one reason for the rollback, arguing it would make cars more affordable and allow more people to buy safer cars. 20 State Attorneys General say they are prepared to go to court to challenge the clean car rule. The white house says north korean dictator kim jongun sent President Trump another letter yesterday. President trump thanked kim for that letter in an overnight tweet, but its still unclear what the president means by i look forward to seeing you soon. This morning, Vice President mike pence complimented the president on his negotiations to bring home the remains of u. S. Troops killed during the korean war. He secured not just a promise to create a pathway for denuclearization and peace, but he also secured a promise to bring our boys home. Today is the Court Deadline for the Trump Administration and the aclu to present their plans to reunite 500plus immigrant children who are still separated from their parents. But as these children wait to see their families again, ivanka trump said the Family Separations battle was a low point for her during her time so far in the white house. That was a low point for me as well. I feel very strongly about that, and i am very vehemently against Family Separation and the separation of parents and children. These are incredibly difficult issues, and like the rest of the country, i i experienced them in a very emotional way. Do we know what ivanka trump did to actually help the kids get back together . I mean, shes sort of sitting there as like a bystander, if she was just only witnessing the whole thing and not actually working in the white house. We know a little bit. This is an issue she talked about Behind The Scenes with her father. We know her position on this Behind The Scenes is as she describes it there, that she didnt agree with the policy. But how did she go to the mat . What effect did it have . Did it have more to do with the public backlash . Those are the sort of things we dont know. This just reflects the kind of nuanced position that you have when you have Family Members serving in either an official or unofficial kind of advisory capacity, which is that they have to weigh their Family Loyalty to the loyalty of their own convictions and that they have to be discreet enough to be able to come home for dinner once in a while. Theres always been this tight rope shes walking, rachel. Shes sort of in the white house but not of the white house on any number of issues. Yeah, this interview created some buzz. We were talking about this in the makeup room and also during the break. Does she have political ambitions . I mean, she just sold her company. Shes showing that shes going to be here in washington, at least for the foreseeable future. Shes tried to paint herself as the more pragmatic trump, the trump whisperer who can talk to her dad and bring him closer to something that, you know, both parties can get behind. But again, she could really get hit for not, for instance, speaking out publicly on the Family Separation issue until it was over. She hasnt pushed back a lot on her father publicly at least. And it takes a lot less courage, i think, to speak out against it now after families are now being reunited than it would have been at the time. But i do think that its like a joke of waiting for President Trump to pivot. Speak to a broader electorate. Ivanka does seem to try to do that more, to speak to a broader slice of the electorate whereas President Trump is always speaking to his base. So she does have a little bit of that. There are real questions about her efficacy in the white house in the time shes been there. She says she stays in order to make an impact on what she can, but the reality is trump hasnt moderated on almost anything, including many of the things she says she cares about the most. I think thats why people are sort of skeptical about her, especially at times like this when she after the fact speaks out forcefully against something everyone thought was outrageous at the time. All right. Well have to end it there. Next, former senator al franken Wont Rule Out Another Run for office. What his democratic colleagues are saying about his possible return. Hi, im joan lunden with a Place For Mom, the nations largest seniorliving referral service. For the past five years, ive spoken with hundreds of families and visited seniorcare communities around the country. And ive got to tell you, todays seniorliving communities are better than ever. These days, there are amazing amenities, like movie theaters, Exercise Rooms and swimming pools, public cafes, bars, and bistros, even petcare services. And nobody understands your options like the advisers at a Place For Mom. These are local, expert advisers that will partner with you to find the Perfect Place and determine the right level of care, whether thats just a helping hand or fulltime memory care. Best of all, its a free service. There is never any cost to you. Senior living has never been better, and theres never been an easier way to get great advice. Call today. A Place For Mom you know your family, we know senior living. Together well make the right choice. But if something happened to you. You need Life Insurance and chances are selectquote can get it for you for under a dollar a day selectquote found michael, 38, a 500,000 policy for under 23 a month. Selectquote found anna, 37, a 750,000 policy for under 22 a month. Selectquotes secret . They comparison shop select group of Great Companies like these for your best rate. Give your family the security they need. At a price you can afford. Since 1985, selectquote has saved over a million families millions of dollars on Life Insurance. Call the number on your screen. Or go to selectquote. Com. Discover what over a million families know. We shop. You save. Now he says never say never when asked about running again. I miss the whole job. I love that job. I love the job of senator. If i say anything there, youll put it in the story. So i i dont know. I dont know. I havent ruled it out. I havent ruled it in. Frankens friend and former colleague senator Amy Klobuchar didnt exactly get behind the idea of his comeback. Al made his own decision to resign, so i dont see this in the cards that hes running right now. This isnt just wild speculation. Hes the one saying he hasnt ruled it out. I guess im just wondering, would you like to see him back in congress . Id like to see him back doing good work and using his skills and his passion for Public Service in a way, but that doesnt mean he necessarily has to run for office. That would be a no for amy clo klobuchar. Thats just so uncomfortable. Its noteworthy, too, because klobuchar was a friend of frankens for a long time. She was not one of the first women to ask him to resign, so shes saying stay away. He should probably stay away. Lets be clear, he can try, but he will not succeed. Just revisiting some of the allegations against him alone would sink any campaign he would try right now. Were talking about groping, forcible kissing. This stuff is not acceptable in this day and age, and women are speaking out. Thats going to poison him for the rest of his life. I just dont see a comeback. One of the things we saw, gillebrand was really one of the first people out there. Shes received some blowback. This is what she said. If standing up for women who have been wronged makes george soros mad, thats on him, but i wont hesitate to always do what i think is right. It goes on to say that if somebody does something wrong, you have to speak up and be counted, whether its President Trump or a democratic colleague. Something of a gift for Amy Klobuchar, this thing coming up, in some ways. But this is a bad conversation for democrats. They do not want to be talking about this again. In part because it brings up really deep tensions and bitterness among some democrats who feel like he was pushed out prematurely and others who feel like Krirsen Gillibrand used this as an opportunity to raise her profile at a time when shes thinking about running for president. Its better for democrats to have al franken not even talking about coming back, but Kristen Gillibrand is going to use it to her advantage. Distancing herself from him is not exactly the worst thing. And im not surprised frarnkn is doing this. He was fairly defiant in his Farewell Speech in the senator and hadnt ever really apologized or admitted any wrongdoing at all. You got the sense he was leaving because of the pressure, not because he had come to his own conclusion that he needed to leave. But if youre a democrat, you dont want al franken on tv giving interviews at all right now. He seemed to realize what he was saying and sort of saying like, this is going to be a story if i say it. Then he goes ahead and says it. I think he Hasnt Given Up the dream, but i agree with rachel. No way. Seems like a no go. Next is a big Upset Brewing in texas. A new poll shows in striking distance of ted cruz. A new poll in texas is giving democrats at least a little bit of hope that they can pull off an upset in this years senate race in texas. Democrat beto orourke is losing to senator ted cruz by just six points. Hes still a long shot to be sure, but orourke has also raised more money than cruz and has had more cash on hand as of the end of june. Orourke is running as an unabashed liberal in texas. Hes prochoice, wants an assault weapons ban, a path to citizenship, an obamacare public option, and cruz says orourke sounds like hes running in massachusetts, not texas. Matt, you have a great piece in town country magazine. You asked the question, can a person who looks like kennedy and Sounds Like Kennedy Win in texas . Yeah, and youre right he does sound like hes running in massachusetts. Hes an unabashed progressive. He talks about gun control in a state that is heavily armed. He talks about immigration issues, against the border wall in a state with the longest border with mexico. He talks about Climate Change in a state that deals a lot with the Energy Sector as an important part of its economy. So he is talking up these issues all around the state and getting a lot of reception among democrats. But theres still a big question. Its still texas. This is the shiny object for democrats every couple years. We saw wendy davis, for instance. And they always lose. I think beto is seeing a lot of momentum on this. Hes polling closely. Fundraising is coming in, a lot of it from out of state as well, as democrats look to this as a hot race. And whats your sense, rachel . Is ted cruz scared . Should he be . If he is, he probably shouldnt be. This is texas. But this is a sign of the blue wave coming. Its not just ted cruz whos experiencing this. Theres a bunch of House Freedom caucus members, hard core conservatives, who are in safe seats, or used to be safe seat, and are now having to run a real race. Hell have to be careful, but its texas. Cruz will be fine. Thats the thing. I feel like this is the white whale, lucy and the football. But well see. Maybe this year will be different. Were waiting for the White House Briefing to begin. Wolf blitzer is going to bring that to you live when it happens. He picks up on our coverage right now. Hello. Im wolf blitzer. Its 1 00 p. M. Here in washington. Wherever youre watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. Any moment, the White House Press briefing is scheduled to begin. It comes as we learn of a new proposal from the special Counsel Robert Mueller to President Trump and his legal team, talk to me in person and i wont ask you as many questions about Obstruction Of Justice. Thats the mueller proposal were told. This development could be what potentially set the president off yesterday when he tweeted that his Attorney General Jeff Sessions should end the Mueller Investigation right away, right now, his words. So now is this an offer the president will accept . Were going to find out presumably soon enough. While we wait for this Press Briefing to begin, i want to bring in the veteran journalist carl bernstein. His reporting with bob woodward during the Nixon Administration helped expose the watergate coverup that led to president nixons resignation. Carl, thanks so much for joining us. Im anxious to get your perspective on what were seeing right now. Lets start with the latest offer from robert mueller, the special counsel. He says hell limit the number of specific questions on Obstruction Of Justice if President Trump will talk to him in person and not simply do it in written form