News, analysis and interviews with politicians and observers. Meaning in this other than you have to pay your taxes, and you cant lie on a loan application. Time is going to tell who is to be trusted around here and who isnt. Including everybody. We begin there with the president in crisis and the stunning fact, yes, fact, that the foundation of that crisis. The president of the United States is an unindicted coconspirator in a felony Campaign Finance case. If that isnt enough, the Special Counsel won convictions on eight counts in his first major trial. That are the former Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort. The president s reaction today is beyond telling. Hes attacking his longtime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen who decided to cooperate with the feds and is praising Paul Manafort who the president says is refusing to break under pressure. Both Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort face prison time. What now for the president is
the big question here in washington. There are democrats who say theres now more than enough to impeach though even some leading liberals say wait. Wait, wait, wait. Lets see if the Special Counsels methodical march produces more. Let him make a full and fair report to all of the American People. And when weve got that, then we can make a decision on what the appropriate next step is. Republicans, the president s party, are in a private panic and what you might best call public denial. Many for now following the president s defender in chief. It has nothing to do with russia collusion. Nothing. Paul manafort earlier today found guilty of eight of 18 charges all related to bank and tax fraud. No russia collusion. Michael cohen plead guilty. Eight counts of bank fraud, tax fraud, Minor Campaign violations. No russia collusion. News, analysis and interviews with politicians and observers. Started dropping and republicans start fleeing, then things come, as you know, will change very quickly. I think he has to do a couple of things. He has to go before mueller now and testify. The American People are due the truth on this. We have as Rudy Giuliani keeps pointing out, competing truths. Competing narratives about what happened. We havent heard the president s side of this story under oath. Weve heard the president lie about a felony that he has committed apparently and with regard to cohen. So given that set of lies, its imperative that we hear from him. I think the second thing he ought to do, im sure hed hate to do it, is to take the power of pardon off the table. If he sent a clear message on that, it would be very reassuring. As it is now, theres no basis on which to believe anything else the president has said, absent of full investigation for
mueller. I want to read a line from a man who is a friend of ours, dan balls from the Washington Post writes this. This was a day when truth overran tweets, when facts overran bold assertions. Eventually disappears into the ether. Tuesdays convictions could send two people to prison for years. Do you think the president gets that . You offered some advice. I bet hes not going to accept it. The president understands how today is different . Not fully. Not fully. Although he may be privately panicked about things hes hearing about whether the investigation is going, whether how it may involve members of his family or Something Like that. Probably going through agony if thats the case. But nonetheless, i dont think in public he has adjusted. His rhetoric is the same today through his tweets. And last night as it was before all this happened. Its as if it the significance of whats happened
hasnt sunk in on him or hes in denial. What about his party . Should they not have factfinding hearings to see if Michael Cohen is a liar, the president s have committees in both the house and senate. They can lay all this out before the election to the American People. Shouldnt they . Do you really trust what theyre going to do in the hour, if they had the hearings . Are they just going to be an effort to smear mueller . And the republicans must understand that watergate led to a blowout in the midterm elections in 74, and then to the election of jimmy carter, a democrat, in 76. And both of those outcomes hinged upon the misdeeds in watergate. They could easily get punished, im not sure as badly but in a significant way. If the republicans stay silent
and the president keeps going on with this mularkey, its a witch hunt, this party gets hurt. This party will not have a future with millennials unless it deals uprightly with this story. Excellent insights, david. Appreciate you taking the time to join us. Up next here capitol hill wrings its hands over how best to respond. Manafort, cohen, at the center of it, trump. Unlimited ways share with others. Unlimited ways to live for the moment. All for as low as 30 bucks a line. Unlimited for you. For them. For all. Get unlimited for as low at 30 bucks per line for four lines at tmobile. Hes hes plead guilty and thats the way the constitution works. So what else so what is there about him to worry about . Mr. Cohens credibility is going to be challenged. I dont think the full story has been written yet. The top gop leadership, silent so far. Mitch mcconnell declined to respond to questions. House Speaker Paul Ryan said he needs more information. Among democrats, across the board outrage but mixed opinion over how to channel that outrage. Some saying everything should be on the table, including impeachment, even indictment. Others, lets be a little more cautious. Protect Robert Mueller. Let him finish his vfigation. And when weve got that, then we can make a decision on what the appropriate next step is. I dont think we should be talking about impeachment. We should be withholding this decision on the Supreme Court nominee until the air is cleared. We should talk about all the
remedies. Every single remedy including indictment of the president should be on the table. The president can be indicted. Lets get straight to Cnns Phil Mattingly who has been racing around capitol hill. Interesting day out there. Whats the most surprising thing, if anything, that youre hearing . The most surprising thing is nothing is really surprising right now. Based on trolling the hallways for the last 19 months, the reaction here is similar to what weve seen. Dramatic, seemingly cataclysmic moment for the administration occurs. Then the next day or a couple hours later you talk to republican senators. Some have concerns. Some didnt see it or dont have the information on it. And others outright defend the president. Thats exactly what has happened this morning. I dont think youll see any shift. The red line has always been the firing or efforts to get rid of the Special CounselRobert Mueller. Anything short of that youll not see many people bite. You heard from senator
blumenthal. What ive picked up is nobody wants to go anywhere near the impeachment question. Theyre aware of the political problems with that on their side. They want to talk about mueller finishing his investigation. On the republican side, this is very much aligned with the rhythm weve seen on capitol hill from Senate Republicans and House Republicans over the course of the last 19 or 20 months. The grand Ostrich Party i would call it. Chuck schumer says delay Brett Kavanaughs hearings for the Supreme Court nomination because of this. Connect those dots for me. When they have gone through the record ofbrett kavanaugh and what he did with the starr independent counsel, what hes done in judicial ranks that his view on Executive Power doesnt align with a president thats currently either been implicated or perhaps under investigation. Heres the reality here. Thats their push right now. You already had a senator on the Judiciary Committee cancel her one on one meet with kavanaugh. Cory booker saying they need to
postpone the meetings and hold hearings on the cohen issue. This train is moving. Its not going to stop. Democrats dont have power to actually stop anything on their own and they dont have the power to block the nomination on the senate floor without help from republicans. As it stands, thats their position. Trying to hit grassroots and get the base riled up. At this moment it doesnt look like anything of that sort is going to go their way. At this moment. Well see if tomorrow is like today. Phil mattingly, appreciate it. It is a fascinating moment for everybody. But you do get the sense from republicans, this is bigger than the past trump crises where they just try to walk away or pretend they dont know what theyre talking about or duck the questions or hope tomorrow its a new question. Their calculation seems to be theres an election in 11 weeks. We need trump voters. If we dont have trumps voters, we lose our power. Therefore, were going to wash our hands of this and try to stay away from it. Is that fair . While the news may seem to be
bigger, the republican reaction really isnt. I was on the hill with phil earlier and i spoke with senator Chuck Grassley of the Judiciary Committee and asked him all the news from yesterday. What does that mean for the prospects of the Mueller Protection Bill weve seen languish in the senate. Hes like, look. Its up to mcconnell. I dont see the calculus changing before the midterms. You talked about trump voters at the rally last night. Its as if this news hadnt happened. There was a chant lock her up but it was in reference to hillary clinton. The president s Campaign Chairman is found guilty and trumps followers say lock her up. The only, i geruess, thing tt could happen is you had warner and burr come out after the cohen plea deal was announced and say they wanted cohen to come back in because it was clear he wasnt telling them the truth. So will that happen . Well have to see. Cohen seemed open to coming to the hill and testifying in public. I dont see that happening. That is the one bright spot in a whole flurry of ostriches. It is foolish to expect or ask for consistency but i covered the Clinton White house when he was impeached. Nothing to do with whitewater which is where ken starr began. I dont remember republicans jumping up to bill clintons defense saying, how dare you, ken starr. That has nothing to do with whitewater. Now when they say it, and we dont know where Robert Mueller is going to end. Were in the early chapters. When Sean Hannitys and the United States senate say this has nothing to do with russia, why are we doing this . You have for the next number of weeks before the election an interesting pr battle. Well see which side wins. On the whoonone hand, the repubs are betting they can make the pr case that they can undermine the credibility of all of these people. You saw them trying to undermine, well, cohen is going to have trouble. He doesnt have any credibility. The same way theyve been
consistently trying with the help of the president to undermine the credibility of mueller and the angry democrats and all of that. The democrats on the other side are having been given a gift of being able to describe a culture of corruption, right . And thats what their message is going to be. And the question is, which of those not just with the administration. Two republican congressmen. One yesterday, one a couple of weeks ago. And everything else. Scott pruitt and czink and Everybody Else. Which one is going to be more powerful. And the republicans right now are betting theyre going to be able to destroy the credibility so by the time voters get there, they shrunk. The defense of theres no russian collusion isnt rocksolid messaging in the wake of what happened yesterday. I do think some of the president s allies over the last 16 hours or so are worried what theyre hearing from republicans because they may not be coming out and condemning what happened, condemning Michael Cohen but saying these are really serious allegations, that they are very concerned or not
saying anything at all like mitch mcconnell. They are worried this could come out theyre not immediately defending the president or defending anything hes surrounded himself with. That could eventually turn on them. As soon as the voters turn on the president , the republicans on capitol hill will turn on the president , too. All they care about is the republicans on capitol hill keep getting surprised by the news. Surprised by whats happening in court and dont trust what theyre hearing from the white house. Well continue the discussion about the politics. Up next, the Special Counsel with new validation and some say fresh leverage over Paul Manafort. Hey allergy muddlers. Are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool . Try zyrtec®. Its starts working hard at hour one. And works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. They comparison shop a 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 this number now. Or go to selectquote. Com. Discover what over a million families know. We shop. You save. In that question is a larger one. If manafort and cohen do cooperate, does either of them hold the keys to any kingdoms . Joining us to discuss the legal consequences here, cnn justice correspondent evan perez, Shimon Prokupecz and shan wu. What next is a big question in all of these cases. In the middle of all of that, the president tweets today, criticizing Michael Cohen, who decided to cooperate and tell his story and praising Paul Manafort for not breaking. What do you read into that . I think youre right. I think thats the hang in there, Paul Manafort sweet. That is a tweet that is signalling to Paul Manafort that theres a Pardon Waiting for him. We know that there have been those discussions between the trump team and Paul Manaforts team in the early parts of this proceeding. And so what the president is reminding Paul Manafort that if you hang in there and dont do what Michael Cohen has done, things are going to be okay. And i think that is the clearest signaling weve seen from the president of what is to come. I think youre right the idea that the danger of Paul Manafort turning is something very much in the president s mind and thats what youre seeing. Its the language, forgive me. Its the language of an organized crime family. Dont break. The other day he used the word rat in a tweet. Where have we heard such things before. Its mob talk. Mobsters talk. You know, gotti used to say things about people who would turn on him and called him rights. Essentially hes calling Michael Cohen a rat. What he did in court yesterday, i think the president views as devastating because he did. He basically implicated him in this entire thing. So, yeah, i mean, stunning words from the president that just continues and continues. And you have to wonder, what are the investigators that are sitting around Robert Mueller thinking every day when they see
these tweets. We dont know what else they have. But there are now Court Documents filed in a courthouse by the Southern District of new york. The president s own justice department, not bob mueller. He handed this case over. The president of the United States committed two Campaign Finance felonies. What does that mean for him . What legal jeopardy is the president in now and what legal jeopardy would he be in whether its in two years or six years, hes a former president . Its clear that but for the fact that hes the president right now, he would be charged and indicted like anybody else. I think it is unlikely that theyll try to indict him while hes in office right now. And its probably more going to become a political question of impeachment. Whether the statute of limitations would continue after he left, not really clear on that, although i think the urgency of that would probably be gone. The real question is whether he gets impeached. One thing we have to remind people of is the president has a very good Legal Defense if he wants it which is, and were going to hear this from his
lawyers, that i was simply i authorized this payment in order to avoid embarrassment from my wife, from my family, right . If thats his defense, which is a john edwards defense, thats a perfectly fine Legal Defense. Its not so great for impeachment purposes, but it is a perfectly fine Legal Defense. And i think were going to see them make use of that in the next couple of days. This document, this is the court case against cohen. Also says this was paid with Trump Organization funds as reimbursements. And the government says thats an illegal corporate contribution. Do we have any indication of whether they plan to take up their case against the Trump Organization or Michael Cohen put the president on the record. Were done. We have no indication, but you have to wonder and this is where the department of justice and fbi needs to come forward and tell us what other information they have, what other evidence they gather that it shows the president was part of this, cooperating with this. At some point, like everything else, this part needs to come out because i think they owe it to the American People at this point to put this forward. Tell us what other information you have. To have Michael Cohen stand up in court and to make such accusations, right . Extremely serious. But then they also make those accusations in the filings and also in court. Prosecutors made those accusations. If they dont bring charges against anyone else, we need to know what else they know in this investigation. What is the mood in muellers office . The President Tweeting you lost ten. There were 18 counts. Eight convictions. The president trying to tweet, you lost ten. If youre manafort youre convicted of eight. But if you are the Special Counsel, this was trial number one. How are you feeling today . I think they feel like they did what they needed to do. They have some questions to answer, for example. Do they retry those other hung counts . They probably have to evaluate how well gates did and if theyll use him, whether its in a retrial, whether its in the Second Manafort trial or in other cases because there could be an inference in some of those
hung counts were related to how he came across to the jury. I think mueller is definitely prop propelled. He wound tn on the tax fraud, b fraud. There was a great deal of worry at the beginning of the day yesterday that this may not turn out so well for the Special Counsel. I think today, i think this is very much after months of the president s rhetoric, undermining mueller, i think today hes propelled. Now we have a jury that is part of the witch hunt. Appreciate you coming in. Next, a source says the Democratic National committee called the fbi after, according to this source, yet again, someone tried to hack, break into a dnc database. Routine and see how activia yogurt with its billions of live and active probiotics may help support your Digestive Health so you can take on your day. Start the activia probiotic challenge today. It works or its free . Where you can shop withvent confidence and convenience plus get these 4 benefits from kenmore at sears. Up to fifty percent off appliances with your sears card. Like this washer and dryer for 539. 99 each. And this refrigerator for 899. 99. Hurry in to sears today. Their medicare options. E people go to learn about before theyre on medicare. Come on in. Youre turning 65 soon . Yep. And youre retiring at 67 . Thats the plan well, youve come to the right place. Its also a great time to learn about an aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plan, insured by Unitedhealthcare Insurance Company. Heres why. Medicare part b doesnt pay for everything. Only about 80 of your medical costs. This part is up to you. Yeah, everyones a little surprised to learn that one. A Medicare Supplement plan helps pay for some of what medicare doesnt. That could help cut down on those outofyourpocket medical costs. Call Unitedhealthcare Insurance Company today to request this free, and very helpful, decision guide. And learn about the only Medicare Supplement plans endorsed by aarp. Selected for meeting their high standards of quality and service. This type of plan lets you say yes to any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. There are no networks or referrals to worry about. Do you accept medicare patients . I sure do see . Youre able to stick with him. Like to travel . This kind of plan goes with you anywhere you travel in the country. So go ahead, spend winter somewhere warm. If youre turning 65 soon or over 65 and planning to retire, find out more about the plans that live up to their name. Thumbs up to that remember, the time to prepare is before you go on medicare dont wait. Get started today. Call unitedhealthcare and ask for your free decision guide. Learn more about aarp Medicare Supplement plan options and rates to fit your needs. Oh, and happy birthday. Or retirement. In advance. A Security Company out in San Francisco that someone had built an exact, identical site to this in an effort to capture democrats trying to sign on to the real log site in an toefref to capture their signins and logins and get inside the voter database. No indication that happened but the dnc notified the fbi and the dnc, according to sources, telling our digital editor today that the dnc is notifying all its state Democratic Leaders at a meeting in chicago that this Hacking Attempt took place. Very similar to what microsoft announced yesterday in which microsoft said russian actors were behind it. We dont know who is behind this but yet again an example of hackers one way or another using their skills and techniques to try to crack in to the u. S. Political system. Another story that continues. Come back to us when you get more information about this. Up next for us here, a
republican congressman indicted for misusing campaign money. Wait until you see the shopping list. Hundred roads named park in the u. S. Its americas most popular street name. But Allstate Agents know thats where the similarity stops. If youre on park street in reno, nevada, the high winds of the Washoe Zephyr could damage your siding. And thats very different than living on park ave in sheboygan, wisconsin, where ice dams could cause water damage. But no matter what park you live on, one of 10,000 local Allstate Agents knows yours. Now that you know the truth, are you in good hands . Itthats why i lovel the daily fiber wfiber choice,ood alone. With the fiber found in many fruits and vegetables. Fiber choice. The number one ge recommended chewable prebiotic fiber. Topping our political radar. The markets marking a milestone today. The bull market has been going on for 3,453 days making it the longest period of uninterrupted gains in american history. Since march 2009, the dow has soared, the s p. Chinese officials here in washington today to talk trade. More tariffs on chinese goods go into effect tomorrow. The guest list for president trumps chief economic advisers Birthday Party included White Nationalist peter brimlow. Larry kudlow says hes known him forever but never would have invited him had he known about his White Nationalist ties. Topping our political radar,
back to our political radar, Duncan Hunter of california and his wife indicted for using Campaign Funds to pay for personal expenses, including payments to their kidds school golf course. They bought a shirt and tried to report it as golf balls for wounded warriors. They were desperate financially overdrawing their personal bank account more than 1100 times. The congressmans father who held that seat until his retirement says his sons indictment is political. He blames, listen to the echo here, rod rosenstein. I think he just likes duncan probably as much as he dislikes mr. Trump. And i think they look at duncan as part of the trump team. Theyre hoping the cloud of the indictment itself takes his republican seat and puts it in the democrat column. No matter if hes found innocent after the election is over. This was football season. This is a late hit. I got stuck in traffic today. Is it rod rosensteins fault . Im sorry. I guess, why not. If it works for the president , it might work for you. So any time something bad happens to a republican, its because of the deep state, not because they went to italy and used Campaign Funds. Not because they lied about golf balls for wounded c eed warrior instead spent it on themselves. Its the most disturbing thing ive read in a long time. I read this indictment from top to bottom. Its truly, you could not write this if you were scripting a movie. More greedy and corrupt politician. The things he and his wife did that they spent their Campaign Funds. Constituents hardearned money on tequila shots, video games, family vacations. This person, a veteran and his wife, conspired to use funds to buy clothing at a golf pro shop and then write it off as golf balls they bought for wounded warriors. The fact a veteran would do that makes it all the more disturbing. Innocent until proven guilty,
but its not rod rosensteins fault. Up next president Trumps Campaign promise to hire the best people . Being tested in recent days, isnt it . Electronic Dance Music
are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool . Try zyrtec®. Its starts working hard at hour one. And works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. Im a fighter. Always have been. When i found out i had agerelated macular degeneration, amd, i wanted to fight back. My doctor and i came up with a plan. It includes preservision. Only Preservision Areds 2 has the exact nutrient formula recommended by the National Eye Institute to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd. Thats why i fight. Because its my vision. Preservision. Also, in a greattasting chewable. Were going to make America Great again. Were going to use our best
people. Im going to get the best people. The cabinet, were going to have all the best people. Its not going to be a politically correct choice either. My people are nice folks. Theyre great. Theyre great. My people are great. My people are great. Yeah, so how is that going . That 2016 promise from the president. Lets just take a look. Best people in the realm of Law And Order. Rick gates, former deputy Campaign Chairman. Guilty, two counts. Still cooperating with the Special Counsel. George papadopoulos, the president would call him the coffee boy. Guilty. Lying to investigators. Awaiting sentencing. Some talk he may try to get out of his plea deal. Hes been convicted. Michael flynn, the National Security adviser to the president of the United States. Great people . Lying to investigators. Still a cooperating witness for the Special Counsel. The last 24 hours, Paul Manafort, convicted in court. Best people. The former trump Campaign Chairman. Ran the convention and campaign. Guilty on eight counts. Faces another trial. And of course at the president s side for more than a decade, an office in trump tower. Michael cohen pleasing guilty yesterday to eight counts, including that he worked with the president of the United States on illegal Campaign Finance scheme. The president , when it comes to cohen and manafort, wishing it goes away. I feel badly i must tell you Paul Manafort is a good man. He was with ronald reagan. He was with a lot of different people over the years. And i feel very sad about that. It doesnt involve me, but i still feel, its a very sad thing that happened. An organization gets its culture from its leader. Thats just the world of Law And Order. There are others. Look at the New York Post and new york daily news. Usually the new york tabloids are split on their opinion about the president. All the president s henchmen. Dons cons. This is not funny. You can laugh at some of the headlines but when you take promise of, im a businessman and im going to bring the best people. That was just the Law And Order department. We can go on. The president likes people who compliment him. He thought he already surrounded himself by the best people when he was at the Trump Organization. Having to do with proximity more than maybe actual qualifications. And i think particularly in the early part of hiS Administration, and during the campaign because the campaign was sort of a collection of misfit toys, particularly at the beginning. If they were with him, they were, obviously, the best people. It wasnt necessarily having anything to do with their resume. You would like to think that everybody sort of comes with an internal moral code, right, that guides them. But the truth is, you know, covering the white house under obama for eight years, even if you didnt if you were somebody that was in the president S Administration and you didnt have your own moral code, you did know that if you did Something Like this, if you
skirted the rules that obama was going to be furious about it and there were going to be consequences for you. And there were consequences for people, even lowlevel people that folks dont know about who crossed a line and the president said thats it. Were not tolerating that. And this president doesnt have that line. And people around him dont have the expectation that if they cross a moral or ethical line theyll get in trouble with the boss. In addition to the Law And Order issues, the gentleman we just showed you. Tom price had to leave the cabinet. Scott prupruitt. Finally left the cabinet. Omarosa who the president is now mad at. He broughter in Ev Er Iher In EEverybody Else said dont bringer in. Rob porter. Thats been one of the biggest problems. They cant separate this because they all fully realize these are people the president chose to surround himself with. Thats one thing they have a lot of trouble defending themselves against is these are problems of
the president s own making. He brought all of these people in. Mike flynn, Paul Manafort, omarosa. Michael cohen. These are all people the president surrounded himself with and if hed never done that, he would not have had these problems. If they had never gotten involved in the president , they wouldnt have these problems but the white house has a very tough time defending themselves against the idea that it was the president s own choice to bring in Michael Cohen. Who was the president s own choice. And the American People get this. A Monmouth University poll. The president does or does not hire the best people . Does, 30 , does not, 58 . Almost 6 in 10 americans say the president of the United States, essentially, has bad judgment. Doesnt hire the best people. Thats pretty damning. Its a pattern because it comes from the top and youll be seeing that for some time, obviously. We values to remember when he surrounds himself with the staff matters because, also, it sets policy as well. So there are real world implications for the kinds of people that he surrounds himself with. Real world implications, to