Transcripts For CNNW Inside Politics 20181127

The onetime Trump Campaign chairman is breaking the terms of his plea agreement by lying instead of cooperating. The president s lawyer accuses the special counsel of unethical behavior. Something that plays well with the boss. You have deep state, but one by one we are getting them out. We have deep state bad people. A lot of phony stuff going on. You know what, one by one, were winning, winning, winning. We begin the hour with major new wrinkles in the russia interference investigation including new reporting that drives at the very thing the president said doesnt exist. Collusion. The Guardian Newspaper said Paul Manafort in the spring of 2016 paid a secret visit to the wikileaks founder, Julian Assangea alleged to have happened in london. The paper said its unclear why he went to see assange. Manafort met with assange three times. First in 2013 and then 2015 and finally in 2016. Manaforts lawyers refused to answer questions about the alleged meetings. Wikileaks said this is fiction. Assange and manafort never met. The guardian sites a wellknown guest at the london embassy. The timing of the last alleged meeting around march 2016 would be just months before wikileaks dumped thousands of hacked democratic emails stolen by russia on the internet. March 2016 is the same month Paul Manafort joined the Trump Campaign. Manafort was big in the news. Robert mueller accusing him of lying after signing a plea agreement in which he promised to cooperate. With us today to share the insights and reporting is Phil Mattingly and lisa with the new york times. We can hire you if you feel left out. Lets start with the potential significance of this guardian reporting. Our team is trying to work on this. If Paul Manafort met with Julian Assange in the very month he became chairman of the Trump Campaign if its true, of course. It would be huge. As you said, we are trying to see if we can corroborate on our own. It has not happened yet. I will tell you that the manafort legal team by direction or order i should say of the judge, they are not supposed to talk about things like this. Rudy giuliani is open about the fact that he does talk to the legal team told me this morning that this is just false. Thats the information he has from manaforts lawyers. Thats the statement of Rudy Giuliani. Lets pause for a second on that. I want more context on this court filing accusing Paul Manafort of breaking a signed agreement and the special counsel said they are lying to federal agents. The former number two to ken star takes us inside. If you were on this special counsel team and you have a witness and the counsel said he has proof that Paul Manafort is repeatedly lying. What does that tell you . It tells me if they can prove it, Paul Manafort has significant additional exposure unless of course he gets pardoned and he will have no exposure then. Keep in mind this is a plea agreement, allegation of the preach of the plea agreement. Mueller does not get to make that determination. He will have to present evidence on and the judge will have to make a decision. Also mueller said i will file a memo in detail and manaforts crimes and lies. Mueller has been limited because of his position in what he can say possibly and his team has not done a lot of leaking. One area where he is not limit side what he can say in a court filing. He can say anything he wants to in and we learned most of what we know has been in a sentence or two or a page or three that he puts in the court filings. All right facing 10 years and knowing if he gets caught lying, he will spent the rest of his life in federal prison. How big would that have to be for you to do that . First of all, we dont know that he did lie. Sometimes prosecutors and case agents have a theory of a case that they believe somebody is lying. What they say doesnt fit their theory. That could be whats going on here. Maybe he has been playing for a parton all along. This is a remarkable fact that i dont think enough people have commented on. A few weeks after manafort said he would be cooperating, Rudy Giuliani said manafort is in a joint Defense Agreement with us. That is virtually unheart of in federal criminal practice. Imagine, if you will, that john dean was cooperating with Archibald Cox was in a joint Defense Agreement with richard nixon. This doesnt happen. That would be astonishment if you were the prosecutor. You would not be happy about it. Its a key point. We are in this drama that paid out and we are getting closer to the end, but maybe we are not. Appreciate your insights. I want to read this from the filing from bob mueller. They will file a detailed sentencing with the Probation Department in advance of sentencing that sets forth the nature of the crimes and lies, including those after signing the plea agreement here in. The special counsel is saying Paul Manafort after saying he would lie and lie and lie and we are going to prove it. Repeatedly lying. You dont get a Cooperation Agreement and you lie to prosecutors. This is special counsel. There are career people on this team. There are veterans on this team. There are fbi agents that spent dozens of years working these cases. You dont go into a room and think you can get away with lying. Especially before the special counsel which time and time again has shown us they know a lot more than anyone who goes in and thinks they can get away with lying. It just doesnt work. Forgive me for interrupting if you know the history of the case, whats he worried about . Is he just stubborn and is he going to lie to them . Something he knows about the president. Is he worried about something with the russians. Is he then put in prison . That can hurt him or his family. There is always concern because of the people he dealt with throughout his and career and the lobbying work that he dealt with unsavory characters, people with connections to russian mob. So there is always a concern something was going to happen if he started spilling the beans. When you meet with prosecutors and fbi agents, they dont just ask you questions about one case they are investigating. They will ask you about everything you may have had contact with and people you may have contact with. There could be snag clearly spooked him when they started asking him these questions. Whats telling is the repeated lying. They kept bringing him in and asking him questions and knew he was lying, but still bringing him in. And at a time when an acting attorney general, we are not sure what will be made public if bob mueller filed a report today. Now we do know there will be a Court Proceeding in which he is not restricted. He is allowed to do his day job. This is a pending ongoing investigation. He can file something in the court that told us whatever he wants to share. Thats another key piece. This may be a reflection of mueller getting nervous about whats going to happen, particularly if a new attorney general has to come in and approve the final report. This is a way for him to get information out in the Public Domain without having to go through the Justice Department channels. We see in the president s tweets and we talked about Rudy Giuliani. You see in the tweets, he understands something is happening and we knows a lot more than we do and always has. When you see him go from that to that, the phony witch hunt continues. The Fake News Media builds up bob mueller as a saint when he is the opposite. Rudy juligiuliani said he has b upset for weeks about the unamerican horrible treatment for manafort. He has been railroaded the he may or may not have been guilty of serious crimes. He is railroaded even though he is guilt guilty of serious crimes. One of the charges is not registering. The argument that giuliani made to me that the president is making to him and others behind the scenes and making it clear publicly now in his tweets is that they didnt have anything on manafort that they could actually take to the bank in the court of law beforehand. The only reason they can do it now or trying to do it now is because of his ties to the president. This is overreach and they are trying to get at the president and do it through manafort. Its not that they have this deep long lasting relationship or friendship. Not at all. Its that he sees this as exhibit a right now of the way that the mueller team is kind of overdoing it. Now, whether thats fair, thats to be determined, but that is what is behind at least some of the what we are now seeing in terms of the president really throwing twitter tantrums about mueller. In a minute, we have to take a break. In mississippi, the last big e lengz of 2018. Can the democrats win another senate seat in the south . Well be right back. Bum bum bum bum bum tmobile believes its better to give than to receive. Some may disagree. Seriously. No. No. No. Others wont believe it. screaming in excitement and some just wont have the words join tmobile and get the Samsung Galaxy s9 free. We look forward to your reactions. screaming in excitement bum bum bum bum bum you may be learning about, medicare and supplemental insurance. Medicare is great, but it doesnt cover everything. Only about 80 of your part b medicare costs. A Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan may help cover some of the rest. Learn how an aarp Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan, insured by Unitedhealthcare Insurance Company might be the right choice for you. A free decision guide is a great place to start. Call today to request yours. So what makes an aarp Medicare Supplement plan unique . 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The reason to have a run off is Cindy Hyde Smith came in first and mike espy is second. Nobody got over 50 . Thats why they had the run off. This is a ruby red state. President trump carried it by over a dozen points. However, even if the africanamerican turn out is overwhelming, he needs to cut into this and get a decent number of the white vote. Democrats look at this and remember last year in neighboring alabama. This is what we will look for. He got 88 of the nonwhite vote and 30 of the white vote. That is mike espys challenge. A couple of weeks ago, mike espy did match up 36 of the nonwhite vote and 15 of the white vote in the initial election that led to the run off. That is a key test. Cindy hyde smith is viewed as a weak candidate and a number of mistakes on racial issues. The president tried to bring out support and said this election, he barely mentions her name. Its not about her. This is about him and having a bigger cushion in the senate. We want to get to that 53 number. They dont believe it and they dont want to talk about it. 5347, that will be a wonderful, wonderful day. Tomorrow is a big day. Tomorrow is a big day. Only with the Strong Senate gop majority can we defend your tax cuts and your Second Amendment and protect your medicare and Social Security and confirm judges. Thats the president last night. He joins the conversation as well. I will start with you. When the president talks about 53, he does it in a funny way and he is right. He has 53 and it comes to judges and other nominees. He worries less. Not not at all, but less about the moderates Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski who caused trouble in the past. To take all the power of the moderatess hands for Mitch Mcconnell and has been official on nam nations with democrats controlling the house. It gives him space and breathing room and opportunities to move things he wants. People might scoff at one more senator and whats that going to mean . Thats cushion. What is one less because he lost to alabama . People are more skittish with nominations. We have seen it on judges and its happening right now on the hill with jeff flake. That matters. It does. If mike espy wins, there will be panic. You wrote a smart piece. Democrats want to say look, we did this in alabama and the win was huge. Even though they are neighboring states, they are different. Alabama is urban. You have africanamerican voters in high numbers. You have rural areas and they have the biggest voters. I spoke to the top strategist for the Espy Campaign and advised the Doug Jones Campaign and he distinguished the two and said they were different. Mississippi is tougher than alabama and said its more rural and more conservative. Everything has to go right for them to pull this off. They have an overwhelming turn out who are energized by the comments. They believe they need to win about 25 of white voters or higher depending on turn out that. Means cindy hydesmiths turn out has to crash or peel off republicanleaning voters who will be younger and college educated. Its a very, very tough task. As controversial as they seem from up here in the north, its quite different scenario than roy moore. She is not roy moore on a million levels. That makes a difference. Candidates matter. Yet the republicans are so nervous about her weakness as a candidate. Mostly because of racially charged comments and photos. She is not a great communicator and she is from the tea party state. They worry about that. In the washington post, Mississippi Republican party sent out a mailer urging supporters to get to the polls, but it has trumps image and never once mentioned hydesmiths name. Not a message of strength. She called her bust the maga wagon. Its a picture of her and the president on the side. This is definitely our last referendum on the president for a while. We have a couple gubernatorial races in it wasnt 19, but this is really people looking at how well she does to extrapolate messages. 25 of white voters may not seem like a lot, but this is the most pollerized in the country. For mike espy to get 25 is hard. I learned my lesson about politic politics, but this is a tough one. In a special election after a holiday, they debated when the president comes in, how much do the rallies really matter. Drawing attention to something they have no idea is happening. When you are very popular in the state and have a popular governor, that should carry over tonight. Mississippi republicans who might have unease about her and dont like the racial comments or dont think she is conservative enough. The president said this is important to me and that matters to mississippi. The cushion of 52 to 53 senators makes a difference with them heading in on defense. Susan collins of maine up for reelection. Cory gardner is up for reelection. She was an ashlg pointed senator, walking in to vote right now in mississippi. Mike espy voted earlier. Brook haven is the town where she is voting. Walking into the polling place. A hug to a supporter there. Whatever your politics, election days are tough with the candidates. They put a lot of time into this to watch it play out. We will keep an eye on that race. The democrats could be on the cusp of grabbing 40 house seats. One of those republicans losing is mia love who conceded and returned, shall we say, the no love for the president. The president s behavior towards me made me wonder, what did he have to gain by saying such a thing about a fellow republican . This election experience and these comments signs a spotlight on the problems washington politicians have with minorities and black americans. Its transactional. Do you want to take the path or the shortcut . Not too fast. vo you do more than protect parks when you share the love. You protect our future. Get a new subaru, like the all new forester, and charities like the National Park foundation can receive two hundred and fifty dollars from subaru. avo get zero percent during the subaru share the love event. Xfinity mobile is a designed to save you money. Even when youve got serious binging to do. Wherever your phone takes you, your wireless bill is about to cost a whole lot less. Use less data with a network that automatically connects you to the most wifi hotspots in millions of places and the best 4g lte everywhere else. Saving you hundreds of dollars a year. And ask how you get Xfinity Mobile included with your internet. Plus, get 200 back when you when you buy a new smartphone. Xfinity mobile. Its simple. Easy. Awesome. Click, call or visit a store today. Welcome back. Democrats have the advantage in the last remaining uncalled house races. Small leads in new mexicos Second District and californias first swayed blue overnight. The democrat leading by fewer than 500 votes. That gives the democrats a net gain of 38 seats. They will have 233 in the new house, but nancy pelosi could claim up to 40 if both uncalled races go to the democrats and she heads into a meeting tomorrow to make her case to be the next speaker. Tomorrows meeting in a bit of a bind. The question is, does she have the votes . Tomorrow, yes. She will clear that easily and a big question comes in january when she needs a majority to get the votes. Thats where the current opposition could create problems. Its vacillating back and forth. 16 is what she needs to keep it at or under. You always should have kept this. She knows what shes doing and has done this before. She is effective at what she is trying to do. When you separate the votes as a sure thing and she will have another four, five, six weeks to work. Two or three of the people opposing her dropped off and people started negotiating and looked around with the others and saying is that person talking to her and trying to negotiate. Its not a done deal yet, but this is not her first rodeo. Money should be when you talk to democrats on nancy pelosi. This is not about the names. These are the 30 people who have not pledged to vote for nancy pelosi. We have them in three groups. Freshmen and newly elected member who is ran and said we need to change the party. Others said pelosi has to go and others just said we need change. Sometimes they have been around who dont like nancy pelosi for whatever reason. Ambition or ideology. Then the problem solvers. They want new rules to make it easier to bring legislation up. There is what you are watching. I will put myself in Nancy Pelosis shoes. Your beef was that i was the problem. We won 40 seats. We won 40 seats. If we went back six months and said whats the ceiling . 40 or 42 is about as high as they gave you. Whats the argument . Thats the first start. Really . We won 40 seats and you are blaming me . Republicans said they would run ads about nancy pelosi and democrats would lose. Hello thats primary number one argument that she should, would, and is making. Jenthen the gender argument. That dove tails off of that. Why are we saying she needs to go . If you are not hearing that about some of the male leaders in the senate side who did lose seats, why are you saying this when you have an overwhelming historic number of women taking away the first House Speaker who is a woman who wants to do it again . The last argument is the whole notion that you just made. She has proven effective and people are starting to realize who else do they want to be the person to go to toe, head to head. They cant think of someone more effective. Strong women unnerve the president. Thats a fact. No one is running against her. There is nobody who stepped up to run against her. I believe the stages of the wire have good advice. I think that sort of underscores a lot of whats happening if you come at the king, you best not miss. She is a powerful figure in washington. She knows how to count her votes and wrangle the votes. It does not seem like anyone else who feels that they could have that kind of pull. If you are an opponent, you have to go in knowing its going to be a love fest. Your strategy is to keep 20 or 25 people undecided . They dont have a challenger and last week was a good week for her. They endorsed her and flipped. You had alexandria ocasiocortez and the fact that she is a woman. I think that weighs in as well. The one thing to watch for is whether the freshmen who campaigned abstractly on change vote no on pelosi because there is no question that she will have the majority to be the nominee. On the floor, on january 3rd, its her or the republicans. I voted against her, but thats an excellent point. We will keep an eye on that. Well done on the wire reference. Pelosi. I didnt want that to go unnoticed. Close this conversation on a more somber note. Three American Service members were killed in an improvised explosive attack, making this the deadliest day in Ground Combat in afghanistan since december of 2015. Todays attack left three others wounded along with a contractor. 12 americans have died this year. You see the 25yearold army ranger killed over the weekend, a longtime friend telling the stars and stripes was doing what he loved and always wanted to do to go and save people. Going to extremes for perfect skin . Where does it end . New olay whips. While not equal to cosmetic procedures, our b3 complex hydrates to smooth skin. Injections . Rejected. Beautiful skin . Accepted olay. You ok there, kurt . Were about to move. Karate helps. Relieve some of the housebuying. Stress. At least you dont have to worry about homeowners insurance. Call geico. Geico. Helps with. Homeowners insurance . Been doing it for years. Im calling geico right now. Good idea get to know geico. And see how easy homeowners and renters insurance can be. Can you feel it theres endless fun with great toys and games for everyone at amazon, with low prices and Free Shipping on millions of items. For everything you need this holiday, visit amazon. Democratic congressman beto orourke rethinking what he said about not running for president. He lost his senate bid to ted and he said he would stay out of the 2020 white house race. He was asked about it again and heres what he said. Obviously, you know, really interested in the direction this country takes. I want to be as effective as i can and making sure it goes in a positive direction. Thats a different answer than the one you gave when you ruled out running for president all together. Yeah, yeah it is. Whats with the yeah, it is . He seems a little anguished. He told me in a town hall before the election, he was going to go home to el paso. I guess on his way to iowa. Join the club. There is 17,000, 20,000 democrats running for president in early polling. Pretty high up. Why wouldnt you . Why would you rule it out . One of the last lessons is do not wait. The country likes fresh faces. It does not value political conspiracy. Trump, obama and bush became president and kerry and gore did not. I think president bush showering praise on him saying he was authentic and not poll tested weigh on beto. Young guns. That has been tested. A documentary title for the primaries of 2020. Up next, new complains about a game of hurry up and wait. Trump nemesis had carefully chosen words of the current acting attorney general. To what extent can he derail the special investigation . I think its a worry, but to my mind not a serious worry. He may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, but he know fist he acted in an extra legal way, he would go down in history for the wrong reasons. Im sure he doesnt want that. Seriously. No. No. No. Others wont believe it. screaming in excitement and some just wont have the words join tmobile and get the Samsung Galaxy s9 free. We look forward to your reactions. screaming in excitement bum bum bum bum bum Matthew Whitaker about to hit the threeweek mark as acting attorney general. Its not just democrats worrying about how long he will be on the job. This is from one of the senior republicans, Chuck Grassley of iowa. How long does it take you to make up your mind for who you want to be attorney general. The president seems in no rush. Listen. Its going well. Its going well. In the meantime we have somebody who is a very good man, matt whitaker. We are looking at people and i and a lot of people have tremendous confidence in the meantime of matt whitaker. Hes a tremendous person. It doesnt take a rocket scientist. Hes not at all in a hurry. Matthew whitaker is from iowa. His senior senator is saying get out. There is back story there between the two of them. There is a couple of things. When he talked to senators on the hill, they are not itching to have a fight, but there is a recognition of having an appointee carries more weight than somebody who is not. There are concerns about how he got to the job and some of his resume is whether or not that is enough for somebody that is the top Law Enforcement and when you are honest, members of the Republican House had people they want to have the position. They sent over to the white house and said this guy would be great and represent our interests the best. Lets start moving. They havent gotten barely any response from the white house as to whether the candidates are in play. It has been frustrating for people who believe they should be listened to. In the not so farfetched experience theory by democrats is the president is not in a rush to have a formal nominee who presumably would not be whitaker. He wants whitaker there because he is in charge of the mueller investigation. Full stop. He thinks he is loyal. The president made no question about what he believes an attorney general will do. They are supposed to protect the president. Thats not what the constitution said, but thats what the president thinks. This was not a surprise, sessions stepping down. This was clearly planned out far in advance that this was going to happen after the midterms. Blaring neon signs. Right. You have to either this is just disorganization at the white house which is always a clear possibility, or its strategic. Those are the only two options. Its inconceivable that he was Still Deciding when he knew it was coming for so many months. Most president s wait to fire somebody or force them out until they have somebody. Not this president. Generally the standard. And he has reason to believe whitaker is loyal because he is vocal about the mueller investigation. He even suggested strangling of resources. Its a crafty creative way of shutting it down. I also do think this was not enough attention to whitaker, his positions on the Affordable Care act in the courts is going to come into play. He argued that it should be struck down and new deal era jurisprudence is wrong and basically it would involve going back to the era where child labor and minimum wage was unconstitutional. As ag, he oversees the general who argues before the supreme court. We will watch it play out. Chuck grassley wants him to go and the president wants him to stay. We are waiting for a press briefing to begin at the white house. Very rare event. Up next, the very lengthy list of things Sarah Sanders is probably preparing for right now. Can you feel it can you feel it can you feel it put a smile on everyones face this holiday, with great gifts from amazon. With low prices and Free Shipping on millions of items, for everything you need this holiday, visit amazon. Now you can, with shipsticks. 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With automatic authority from the va, we can say yes when banks say no. Give us a call. Call now 18667046442. Quick update on one of the outstanding house races. New mexico officially certified the race for the second congressional district. Democrats torressmall defeated her opponent. Democrats have a net gain of 39 seats in the house. There is one race that remains undecided, californias 21st district and the democrat pulled ahead there. They could get to 40. Any moment now, we will take you to the white house for an incredibly rare event. Sarah sanders giving a press briefing. The president gave reporters plenty to ask about. Including this recap of what he said happened at the u. S. Mexico border over the weekend. We had tremendous violence. Three Border Patrol people were very badly hurt through getting hit with rocks and stones. Very badly hurt, the president said. The agency in charge said thats overstating it and they were wearing helmets and shields and bulletproof vests. Four agents were hit with rocks, but were wearing protective gear and did not suffer serious injuries. Sarah sanderss job is to take questions for the american people. Thats the part in what gets lot of and why people dont like washington. The president has given her a long list to prepare for. I wouldnt even know where to start in that briefing room. There are so many questions. Thats one and the president said in a quick gaggle before he got on the helicopter that the kids werent tear gassed at the border. Lets listen to this. He was asking the question. We didnt. We dont use that. The tear gas is a very minor form of the tear gas itself. Its very safe. The ones that were suffering were the people putting it out there. Its very safe. You say why is a parent running up in through an area where they know that tear gas is going to be form and they are running up with a child . Thats from the president. I want to share reporting from our own layla santiago on the scene. Are she said she was holding her child like her child had fainted from the gas. You see children. If they thought they needed to use tear gas, it is unfortunate that there are other people there. The people are charging you. The agency said they have one kind of tear gas. If the election is any indicati indication, he could be successful. A lot of the voters were saying the caravan is here and its not 800 miles from the border, they are here in texas which we know already which is not true at all. Its part of what the president was pushing. He feels fairly confident that he can make up his own facts. Thats why a briefing is important. Some of the trend as well where the president talks about himself as being the person who cracks down on immigration and does what previous president s did. That has harsh consequences. The the family separation policy is another example. Its the same thing that the previous two administrations did. That was not true. People cross the border under president obama or president bush and it was a mother who seemed nonthreatening and had a young kid. They didnt require that the mother go to be incarcerated which requires separating the kid. They had what is called catch and release. You give them a court date to show up. They had work arounds. He wants to be a tough president , but it involves unpleasant thing. He is the president in a time that the Agency Issued a report about climate change. If your own Agency Issues a report that said fivealarm fire or 10alarm fire, you would think you would extrepress urg about it. I have seen it and read some of it and its fine. I dont believe it. No. I dont believe it. I dont believe it. You are almost speechless. Its irresponsible. As the leader of the free world and the leader of the country, these are people in your government putting out a report like this, its irresponsible. You can make economic arguments against why cap and trade would be effective for the policy and you dont believe the paris climate agreement should exist, but making arguments against the report, at least try to make the argument. If you think you have an argument and grounds and you think the science is wrong and your agencies are incorrect, make the argument. You are undermining your own government and institutions. How about taking a look at it . How about really reading it . The White House Briefing set to begin any moment. Brianna keilar will bring you that. She starts right now. Have a great day. Im pri anna keilar Washington Headquarters right now. We are moments away from the first White House Briefing in nearly a month as several controversies swirl around the president , including a question about whether his convicted former Campaign Chairman is expecting a pardon. Why Robert Mueller said Paul Manafort lied again, breaching a plea deal. Did he meet with Julian Assange in the heat of the campaign. Wikileaks denying a new report. Gm is slashing