Strike in syria. Saying the missiles will be quote nice and new and smart. After promising never to telegraph moves, isnt that what the president is doing . The judge in the Stormy Daniels case orders lawyers for the porn star, President Trump and other parties to meet and work out their differences over a jury trial for the lawsuit against the president. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. This is cnn, breaking news. The notorious video that jolted the Trump Campaign is back. Sources tell cnn that the fbi raid saw communications between Michael Cohen and donald trump about the access Hollywood Tape with its lewd comments about women. House speaker richard bloomingthal of the the judiciary committee. Our kor spon decorrespondents a specialists are standing by. Evan, first to you. Why is it significant that agents were looking for information involving that access Hollywood Tape. This is very significant. This is the first time that were hearing the specific reference to donald trump in any search warrant and what is in investigation. One being carried out by the u. S. Attorney. Sources who talk to cnn the agents were specifically looking for communications between donald trump and his personal attorney Michael Cohen regarding this access Hollywood Tape which came out just before the 2016 election. This is subject of investigat n investigation. In addition to the access Hollywood Tape it dez it involves wire fraud and bank fraud. The campaign and the candidate were trying to suppress, trying to keep out of the public eye right before the election again. All of this significant because this is now basically the communications we have on one involving russia potential collusion. Thats being done. Special counsel investigation that perhaps points or suggests Something Else is going on here and that seems to be the issue whether or not anyone close to the president did anything illegal to try and suppress that. For the fbi to come in on investigation lieke this there has to be extortion or sb intimidati intimidation. There could be Campaign Finance laws. In order to get this kind of a search warrant on someones communications from their lawyer given a political candidate at the time now the president would certainly require extraordinary measures and would indicate at least indicate to us that they already have some information sort of that they have placed in this affidavit to get this warrant but have to get permission from a judge to go ahead and do this. This is an extraordinary, aggressive move here by these investigators. What are you hearing from trump team . I think the fact that Donald Trumps that i mename appears i documents left behind with michael qcohen and his lawyers s a shot across the bow and they are reacting like you would expect. They believe this is now aimed squarely not at Michael Cohen but bringing down the president. I think people believe a fishing expedition. Say they theres nothing here. Michael cohen and his attorneys believe theres nothing here that warrants this investigation. Keep in mind, none of this happens without the blessing, without the say so, the sign of attorney general for the purposes of these investigations. This is why youre hearing so much criticism of him and whether or not the time has come for the president to fire him. Youre hearing that from people close to the president and people who have seen him and this is why youre seeing the president tweet about this. Whats Michael Cohens next move . I think people close to him are concerned hes in a lot of trouble. Were told hes trying to hire another attorney. Someone in new york. He does have some washington attorneys but hes going to probably need an attorney in new york that will be able to deal with this. I think everyone feels the people close to him, people close to the president feel hes in a lot of trouble. The pattern here that we see from the materials left behind in this search warrant, in these raids by the fbi indicates they are cobbling together this picture of a pattern of these types of trying to suppress stories again before the election. This has to do not only with access Hollywood Tape but also the payment to Stormy Daniels, the payment to the playboy play mate. All of these payments happening right before the election. Ra it could be a lot more than election violations. Everyone is baffled by the access hollywood. Certainly people ive talked to today are baffled. The notion that the fbi is asking questions about the access Hollywood Tape has really caught a lot of people by surprise. Now the president has to worry about two investigations. The Robert Mueller investigation, the russia probe as its called but now this separate investigation being conducted by the u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york and manhattan. He could potentially be a witness in this case. We dont know where this is going. We dont know what they will recover now and from these search warrants, from the materials they have gathered they will review it and then well see. They might want to talk to the president. Theres still these negotiations to try to determine whether the president will give an interview to Robert Muellers investigation. What about prosecutors we know specifically what they saw in referring this case to the u. S. Attorney in this case . We do not know. Sources told us this was in part a referral from Robert Mueller. That indicates the prosecutors in manhattan had their own thing going. Certainly the search warrant information, they took information regarding tax and made investments by Michael Cohen. What this indicates is that mueller saw something. We dont know what it is but theres something that he believed was outside the scope of his investigation. Russia collusion and that was better handled by this prosecutor in manhattan. Sam nunberg, they asked him before a grand jury so something they have come up that Robert Mueller decided needed to be further investigated. Thanks. Theres more breaking news tonight as the white house insists all options are on the table for responding to a chemical attack in syria despite the president s taunting of russia that missiles will be coming. Lets go live to cnn chief white house correspondent. Is the commander if chief giving away his plans via twitter . Reporter it sounds like it. We have gone from the president declaring war on twitter to the white house trying to walk back that tweet later on this afternoon saying that all options are on the table. Defense secretary james mattis and the joints chief chairman we should point out were all spotted at the white house earlier today as the president was telegraphing an upcoming military strike on syria. Something he swore he would do. Theres also the prospect of the party, Republican Party losing control of congress in the fall as House Speaker paul ryan says goodbye. Mr. President , will u yo take a few questions. Reporter avoiding questions from the press, President Trump all but declared war on twitter previewing air strikes aimed at syria. Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles at syria. Get ready russia because they will be coming. You shouldnt be partners with a gas killing animal who kills his people and enjoys it. The president s vow to take action while in response to the suspected gas attack carried out by syria also violates his past pledges to never telegraph his next move. The president says get ready russia. They will be coming. The missiles are coming. How is that anything but an announcement of a pending air strike . Thats one option but that doesnt mean its the only option or the only thing that the president may or may not do. Because he does one thing, doesnt mean he cant do a number of other actions as well and he hasnt laid out the timetable which would be broadcasting his intentions. Reporter when former president barack obama faced the question of striking syria in 2013, mr. Trump tweeted i would not go into syria but if i did it would be by surprise and not blurt it all over the media like fools. Something he promised against during the campaign. I have a substantial chance of winning. If i win, i dont want to broadcast to the enemy what my plan is. Reporter any information about mr. Trumps infamous comments to access hollywood that nearly cost him the election. Grab them by the [ bleep ]. Reporter cnn has learned the president and his legal team are evaluating whether mr. Trump will sit down with Robert Muellers investigators. Mueller has his defenders who are out with a new ad. Robert mueller rescued fallen marines under enemy fire and awarded a bronze star for va lor. As a prosecutor he spent decades going after corruption, financial fraud and terrorism. As the head of the fbi under george w. Bush, mueller has been trusted by republicans to put america first. Reporter the white house still insists the power h presi has the power to fire mueller. A lead that could lead to shake up at the special counsels office. The president has been clear he has a very deep concern about the direction that the special counsel and other investigations have taken. This investigation started off as russia collusion of which there was none. It has been very clear that nothing has come up over the last year. Reporter the questions about Mueller Probe come as republicans are in search of a new leader in the house as Speaker Paul Ryan announced hes retiring at the end of his term. A departure thats fueling fears of a democratic wave in the midterms. I gave it some consideration but i really do not believe whether i stay or go in 2019 is going to affect a persons individual race for congress. Reporter as for the upcoming mid terms theres growing worries inside the white house and among top gop congressional officials that democrats will immediately seek to impeach President Trump should republicans lose control of the house this november. Multiple officials tell us that the president is aware of this concern. One white house source described it to me earlier today, theres a quote, anticipation of death about the november elections. Theres some serious hand wringing over these mid terms by the white house tonight. A lot of nervous tension right now. No doubt about that. Thank you. Joining us now democratic senator of connecticut. Hes a member of the judiciary and Armed Services committee. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. What does it tell you that fbi agents are looking at records related to that infamous access Hollywood Video tape . What it tells me and we have no certain knowledge because the invest investigation isconfi is they are looking another obstruction of justice in new york by Michael Cohen, concealment and hiding of evidence, money laundering, bank fraud as well as obstruction of justice this washington, d. C. By the president of the United States. Theres also a link in the timing of those payments to Stormy Daniels and others in so far as the tapes released at the time and those payments may have been related to trying to hide or conceal that kind of evidence. Could any of that whether the tomorrowmy daniels, Karen Mcdougal or the access Hollywood Video tape have any connection with the russia probe . They have possible connection to the president. Were learning about those conversation now as a result of excellent reporting that you just indicated. Whether it relates to the russia probe or not is still unknown. Were connected to the russia probe, the special counsel would not have referred it to the u. S. Attorney in new york. He might have asked the u. S. Attorney simply to do the search warrant and conduct the raid because logistically it might have been easier to do it in that way. Prosecutors frequently do. Remember, wolf, Michael Cohen was involved in the Trump Hotel Negotiations in russia. He represented donald trump and the Trump Organization in connection with potentially other Financial Transactions involving georgia bank. Money laundering by russia which its already acknowledged. That was Donald Trumps bank. Theres a variety of potential connections to russia collusion, but i think one of most likely connections concerns the hiding of material evidence. Obstruction of evidence, potential destruction of documents which is the reason why the fbi would have conducted this raid. Not only that evidence existed but it was in danger of destruction. Does this raise the chances, you believe, the president might fire jeff sessions, for example, the attorney general, rod rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney general Robert Mueller . Thats the timely and important question of the day. We have reintroduced legislation that will protect the special counsel and increases the threat level. The president is in substantial turmoil, upset, upheaval. The rant and tirade that he conducted just the other day in the presence of his generals considering the Syrian Strike indicates that he is really deeply troubled. It raises the very possible prospect that is also affecting my colleagues that he would do something rash and impulsive. If the president were to fire rod rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney general overseeing the Mueller Probe, would it be possible if somebody new came in that we might never see the bottom line collusion of muellers robert because he has to submit it to the Deputy Attorney general sessions, hes recused himself and then that Deputy Attorney general whoever it might be decides whether to release it, send it to congress or whatever. Firing rod rosenstein, in my view, would be evidence of obstruction of justice on the part of the president. It would have the affect of suppressing a report and continuing to conceal evidence, impede the investigation, intimidate the investigators so it would be an act of very serious legal consequences in my view evidence of obstruction of justice. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Theres more breaking news. With the president already deeply agitated about the direction of this entire russia probe. Will the focus on the access Hollywood Videotape infuriate him even more. The bomb slehell appeared after russias election cyber attacks. Did the trump tape overshadow the evidence of russian meddling in the election. Ill ask the former obama Homeland Security secretary jay johnson. Hes standing by live. What does it take to make Digital Transformation actually happen . Do you just flip a switch. And presto your business is magically transformed . Not quite. It takes a groundbreaking company like dell technologies. A family of seven Technology Leaders working behind the scenes to make the impossible. Reality. For instance, were helping to give cars the power to read your mind from anywhere. Were helping up to 40 of the nations donated blood supply. To be redirected to the areas and people that need it most. And were even developing technology to create a whole new vision for the blind. 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Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. You remember october 7th, 2017. That was the day you and the director of National Intelligence issued the statement in which you condition colluded the u. S. Intelligence community is confidence the russian government directed the recent compromises of emails from u. S. Persons and institutions and you included u. S. Political organizations. It was a very significant day. Ill show you the timeline. You released that statement with James Clapper at 3 30 p. M. Eastern. At 4 03, the washington toast released the access Hollywood Video tape. Within a half an hour wikileaks released for the first time the john podesta, his emails. What do you make of that time line . You left some things out about friday, october 7th. We were dealing with Hurricane Matthew on the florida coast and dealing with the response there. A lot of people have found that timeline to be interesting and tend to believe that its not coincident coincidental. What do you believe . No one outside of government could have had a heads up that at 3 30 we were going to issue that statement. I thought it was going to be big news above the fold news. I tend to believe that an actor, a cyber actor could not have acted so quickly within just a 30minute window after that statement was released. I do tend to believe that it was a confluence of events that happened to occur. Do you think it was a coincidence that wikileaks and the u. S. Government believes russia was involved in the hacking of those confidential documents that it was just a coincidence they released the Podesta Emails an hour after you released your report . I tend to believe it was a confluence of mine. They were planning to release the emails that day. As you pointed out, and others have pointed out, our statement did not get the attention that it frankly deserved because the public and the press attention was drawn to access hollywood. What is your opinion that the attorney in the Southern District of new york, why do you believe they are so interested right now . They raided the office, the home, the hotel room of Michael Cohen looking for information involving that access Hollywood Tape . Thats a good question. Prosecutors and agents do not issue search warrants on attorneys for their files for their client files lightly because of the attorneyclient privilege. They tend to work through subpoena, request for documents, asearch warrant on an attorneys files is extremely rare. They must have viewed it as something they really needed to do for matters of urgency and a judge must have signed off on a search warrant authorizing that action. It must have been a pretty significant case that led them to act with that kind of dispatch. Its not every day, as you correctly point out, they go after an attorney and look for communications with the client especially when the attorney happens to be the attorney of the president of the United States. The Attorney Client privilege is generally regarded as unqualified privilege and Law Enforcement rarely goes after things that are likely to be attorneyclient privilege. How much trouble is Michael Cohen in right now . Im not sure id want to be in his shoes right now and i hope he has a good lawyer. Would you conclude he was a subject of this investigation or a target of the investigation . Those are significant differences. In u. S. Attorney vocabulary and its hard for me to know pause im not involved in the investigation but somebody who is the target of a search warrant is generally at least a subject, if not a target. Potentially could be charged. How vulnerable, how much trouble is the president in right,0 now . Its hard to say. I have to say its plain that the special counsel is doing a very, very thorough investigation and if the president has confidence in the bottom line and conclusion there was no collusion, he ought to just see it through, let it play out and then when director mueller is concluded, the president will be able to say he conducted a thorough investigation and think they found nothing. What do you think should happen if the attorney decides to fire Deputy Attorney general . Id be very concerned. Tell us why. A game changer, an independent counsel should be allowed to complete his investigation and even republicans fwh congress in the senate are saying this would be a real game changer. I sincerely hope the president does not go there. You were the secretary of Homeland Security, federal prosecutor and counsel at the department of defense. I want to read this tweet. The president s really blaming this whole russia probe on the deterioration in u. S. Russian relations. Much of the bad blood is caused by the fake and corrupt russia investigation headed up by the all democrat loyalists or people that work for obama. Mueller is most conflicted of all except rosenstein. No collusion so they go crazy. The president is blaming this russia investigation for this deterioration in u. S. Russia relations right now which is very dangerous. I disagree with the statement. You have to look at what prompted the investigation in the first laplace which is the russian government made a serious attempt to interfere in our democracy in 2016. We have to respond to that. Im pleased that the trump administrations Treasury Department is taking steps to respond to that and so its that and a variety of other things including the situation in syria that is lending to the tension right now. The tension is enormous. He tweeted this earlier on possibly going to war over there in syria. He tweeted russia vows to shoot down in and all missiles fired at syria. Get ready russia because they will be coming nice and new and smart. You shouldnt be partners with gas killing animal who kills his people and enjoys it. Cnn has learned that no final decision has yet been made but the president went ahead and telegraphed what he wants to do in that tweet this morning. Whats your reaction . Find puzzling given what the president has said in the past about telegraphing your military actions. I was pleased to see from secretary mattis that were still evaluating the intelligence and it appears that no final decision has been made yet. This will be a very, very difficult decision for the president to have to make. The department of defense when you were counsel over the department of defense, you had to authorize military action and say it was legal, right . Absolutely. Walk us through the process right now. The joint chiefs have to go through in order for the commander in chief to go ahead and attack. First, the slaughter of innocent men, women and children in this manner, i can think of no more moral imperative to take action. Second, youve got to know what the Legal Authority is from a domestic and International Legal basis and probably most important we have to know what the ramifications of military action this syria will be. Its like a chess game. If you take one move, you have to know what the others involved will do in response and be able to evaluate it in that way. That conversation, i hope, is going on in the situation room right now. Final question, totally unrelated matter. The president s decision to Order National guard troops to the u. S. Border with mexico right now. Whats your reaction . Theres a law where the military cannot serve in civilian Law Enforcement positions. They can serve in support positions. Weve done this before. We did this in 2010. We did this in the bush years and the guard can only serve in support situations. The president is right to note that illegal apprehensions are down significantly from where they were 17, 18 years ago. We ought to be focusing on the push factors in Central America that lead women and children to come to the United States in the first place. Put your youve served in various critically important roles in the u. S. Government whether the pentagon, department of Homeland Security, federal prosecutor. W when you look at these developments whether syria, russia probe, whats going on in the u. S. Mexico border, what worries you the most . The sheer instability of it. I worry that in this atmosphere the president does not have the i worry hes not getting the right advice. I worry that it may be a lot of people are telling him what he wants to hear. I have a lot of confidence in jim mattis and a lot of confidence in john kelly. Both of them are friends of mine. I think its critical in this environment when youre dealing with a Serious National Security issue concerning syria that he gets the right advice and able to sort it out and gets the right mix of views. Im worried that right now in this environment where hes plainly distracted by the special counsels investigation that he be able to make the right decision. He may be getting a lot of good advice but may be ignoring a lot of that as well. I hope not. Well see what happens. Its a serious, dangerous situation thats unfolding especially in syria right now. Thanks so much for joining us. Jay johnson, the former secretary of Homeland Security. Theres more breaking news were following with new details of the role of the access Hollywood Videotape. What role did it play in f bi raids on President Trumps lawyer . New york . John kelly said to be on a downward slide in the west wing. Were standing by. Were getting new information on that. Well be right back. 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Dreaming definitely dreaming. Then again, dreaming is how i got this far. Now more businesses in more places can afford to dream gig. Comcast, building americas largest gigspeed network. Breaking news tonight. New details of the fbi raid targeting President Trumps personal lawyer. Agents were looking for communications between mr. Trump and cohen regarding that infamous access Hollywood Videotape that captured donald trump posting about groping women. Bryan todd is working the story for us. Major new developments in the story tonight. Update our viewers. Right. This is another indication of just how far prosecutors are going to find out what, if anything, donald trump knew about the efforts to suppress the alleged Stormy Daniels affair and other information. Were hearing tonight from former prosecutors that they believe Michael Cohen is in serious legal trouble and could face charges. You asked me who i was having lunch with . Reporter he talks about his lunch but not his legal problems as journalists track him through manhatt manhattan. All right. Before you knock each other over, you all good. Reporter fbi agents were looking for communications that donald trump may have had with cohen related to trumps infamous access Hollywood Tape. Sdp how are you . Reporter the New York Times reports fbi was also looking for evidence of whether cohen tried to prevent damaging information about trump from being revealed in the run up to the 2016 election. Tonight, former federal prosecutors tell cnn they believe trumps person attorney is in a serious legal jam. This is a bizarre situation. If you wrote a script about this, no one would believe it. Reporter one key question regards comments by the president last week aboard air force one. Did you know about the 130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels . Why did Michael Cohen make it . You have to ask Michael Cohen. Hes my attorney and youll have to ask michael. Do you know where he got the money to make that payment . I dont know. Reporter former prosecutors say they dont think trumps comments precipitated the fbi raid on cohen but they say trumps remarks could complicate the Stormy Daniels case against cohen. Sdplp the natural question is if the president didnt know about it, did he authorize it some other way. These payments to Stormy Daniels. If he didnt, why were these payments made . Reporter tonight former prosecutors say by conducting that raid, federal investigators must have had significant evidence on cohen and he could be a legal target. If they decided they had enough evidence to engage in very aggressive move, that the likelihood that Michael Cohen will be charged is high. What do you think he will be charged with . Election violations, payment of money so close to the election to be an influencer of the outcome of that election. The other charges would be bank fraud, wire fraud. Was the bank told the truth, the purpose for obtaining these funds. If the bank was not, if they are misrepresentations theres potential bank frauds. Reporter if he is charge,ed, President Trump could be charged in legal jeopardy in cohens case if investigators found communication that trump knew about the payments to women or other sense tifr matters. Cohen says he believes it will be found that he did nothing illegal. The white house has not commented for our story. How concerning is this news for President Trump . To be flame enamed in a sear warrant. Its a little obvious when the fbi made an aggressive move against his personal attorney but Michael Cohen does other things in his life. The fact that the president is named. The fact it is related to access hollywood is a huge deal. It gives us a bit more of an indication about why the president has gone so beserk about this. We dont have suspicion anymore that this is related to donald trump. We know. Its a big deal indeed. Phil mud, the access Hollywood Videotape was leased on the same day as there were other Significant Developments unfolding. Take a look at this graphic. 3 30 p. M. On october 7th, 2016, the u. S. Officially blamed russia for the Democratic National committee hacks opinion at 4 03 p. M. , access Hollywood Videotape released by the Washington Post. At 4 30 p. M. , wikileaks releases john Podesta Emails. Youre smiling. Im smiling because if wikileakss was efficient enough to release an hour and a half after, i dont buy that. If youre running this investigation, one of the most significant things youre doing is putting together a three dimensional time line over the course of a year or two. When were there initial contacts if there were. We know there were some between wikileakss and people affiliated with the Trump Campaign. What happened with those contacts over time and then in the midst of that year or two time line you have the release of emails. I was more suspicious, not so much of the statement by the u. S. Government blaming russia for the hack but the access Hollywood Videotape that was do damming. Trump officials knew it was coming because the Washington Post alerted them earlier that they had this video tape. They wanted reaction and then a half an hour later the Wikileaks Dump goes forward. Look, i just do not believe that disjointed campaign was efficient enough to manage that kind of cooperation. You think it was a coincidence . I do. Theres a strategic piece thats more significant. I do not believe over the course of months of wikileaks accessing this information that the release of the emails in general over time was a coincidence. They were trying to influence the campaign. Whether or not they responded within 16 minutes or two hours, i ge that. That seems too fishefficient fo. Unless they find out as part of the raid they knew about this access Hollywood Tape prior to that and had more time than 30 minutes to plan. Maybe. One of the president s tweets he wrote this. He said no collusion or obstruction other than i fight back. Listen to a previous comment that the president made. Listen to this. Heres what well say and everybody says. No collusion. Theres no collusion. Now theyre saying, well, did he fight back. You fight back. What does no collusion mean . You fight back, oh, its obstruction. Is he acknowledging here that fighting back might be seen as obstruction of justice. I think he acknowledges people have that perception but with all due respect mr. President , thats why people are saying you are obstructing justice. Theres the firing of james comey that had something to do with that accusation. You can always profess your innocence. No one has said you can not come to your own defense. He goes much further than that. You cannot do in obstruction law is try to influence, intimidate, interfere with an election in away even if you think you are entitled to do so by commenting on it. Its that bridge too far that makes people question whether he obstructed. Not the idea of saying im innocent. In fact, it was trey gowdy who said if you are innocent, you should allow it to unfold. It was never the idea you cant say and proclaim it. You cannot try to interfere with an investigation that may exonerate you or may convict you in some way. Youve been doing some reporting on john kelly, the white house chief of staff. Whats the latest. Were seeing how limited john kelly i kellys ability to influence the president has been. Its been on full display hes unable to do that. That was very evident with the president s outburst with the dinner where he went off on the special counsel, the attorney general and my colleague is now reporting that john kelly was horrified by that outburst. Its not just his standing with the president. Its his standing in the west wing seems to have been fractured. Hes holding fewer staff meetings. They used to do them three days and now they do them one day. He seems to be second guessing his standing with the president. After we report thad the president was emboldening Anthony Scaramucci to go on cable news and attack him. John kelly was frustrated by that. We reported how john quekelly h been on thin ice. He was fwlaugt brought in to ree chaos. Its been the chaos thats saved john kellys job. It really is ironic. The one thing i was told is he is expressing a little bit of i dont know if its remorse or just kind of an analysis of himself and of the role that the expectations when he came in were so incredibly high that he would be a i believe to seize control. He would be able to change not just the white house but the president and its just not possible. Its not possible. It is noteworthy that we havent seen a will the of john kelly. Much less visible and engaged. He seems to realize his days are numbers right now. I agree. Ive heard the same thing that caitlin has heard. Hes a retired general but the chairman of the joint chief, all the the commanders that are in that room with the president are meeting about what to do involving syria and he opens it up in front of the cameras with this blistering attack on Law Enforcement on the special counsel. He goes after them. Goes after the attorney general. That was so awkward. Let me take you in this game. I spent 25 years in that business. When youre sitting around the table with political leaders, when i was in the business, youed to view politics as necessary but dirty. When you look at the advice that you give as a National Security profession mall to politicians, the way this works is you say whether its syria, iran, north korea, here is the advice. We recognize you have a dirty job on the camera with congress, the American People. Sometimes it involves language we wouldnt use but thats separate from a private conversation among professionals about what our National Security advice is there. To sit around the table, to have the president assault the american democracy in front of people who are sworn to serve democrats, republicans, whoever the American People elect and for him to draw them into politics as a former practictioner you sit back and they they have to be saying i have to go home and have a cocktail. He was saying the raids in new york on his attorney Michael Cohen was an assault on our country. He was going after the u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york who made a referral from the special counsel to go ahead an check this out. He said the attack on our nation as hes flanked by military officials. The attack is pearl harbor, other things. 9 11. To suggest in a personal problem to put it on the same level as an attack on our nation, as a personal attorney issue, it shows he lacks perspective and his own myopia is affecting his judgment. And you would think that the white house would consult with his white house chief of staff, a retired general himself sitting there, you wouldnt think he would open up the meeting with all these generals talking about the raid in new york. I dont know if he did or didnt consult with john kelly, but it was pretty humiliating. Even if he did consult with john kelly, he clearly didnt listen to him. Weve reported for months how frustrated the president is with the special counsel and all of this. And with that raid of Michael Cohens office, his personal attorney, it really hit home for him, because Michael Cohen knows so much about the president. Hes more than just a lawyer. Hes like a pit bull for donald trump. And he was just overheard telling someone he would rather jump out of a building than turn on the president. It just goes to show just how much he values Michael Cohen and how he knows what Michael Cohen knows. But it also shows how much john kelly cant influence the president , cant talk to him about not and dana, if the president wants to make a Statement Like this, dont do it in front of the generals. Go into the roosevelt room, go into the briefing room, call the pool, the network pool to come in with the cameras, make your statement, and then move on. You dont do that in front of a meeting where youre plotting military strategy in syria. It goes to what you were talking about with jeh johnson before we came on, which is, advice. Its not necessarily that he doesnt have good people around him who have the ability to give him advice, like, please dont do this. John kelly obviously has the ability, wherewithal, and understanding. Its a question of whether or not he listens. Which is why, circling back to the whole notion of, will he or wont he fire rod rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney general, who is in charge of the mueller investigation, never mind Robert Mueller, that is why that is still a very open question, despite the House Speaker saying hes got assurances and other republicans on capitol hill and even within the white house saying that they dont think its going to happen. Because who knows . And thats whats the white house couldnt even say today, who gave paul ryan those assurances that the president is not going to fire the special counsel or the Deputy Attorney general, because they know that even though people in the white house say, oh, hes not going to fire him, they have no idea. They also said he was going to sign the spending bill and the next day on twitter hes threatening to veto it. Of course, he did sign it in the end. But it shows you how people in this white house cannot predict what the president is going to do. And if they think they can influence the president , not necessarily the case. Everybody, stick around. Theres nmore breaking news wee following in the connection between that infamous access Hollywood Videotape and the raids on the president s lawyer. Were learning some new information tonight. But what a powerful life lesson. And dont worry i have everything handled. I already spoke to our allstate agent, and i know that we have accident forgiveness. Which is so smart on your guys part. Like fact that theyll just. Forgive you. Four weeks without the car. Okay, yup. Good night. With accident forgiveness your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Switching to allstate is worth it. a voby daft punk is heard bettethroughout. sound of typing sound of exhaling sound of drilling jimmy shouting james brand vo the Worlds Largest workforce works for themselves. We work for them. Quickbooks. Backing you. Theres more breaking news tonight. The House Speaker, paul ryan, telling cnn that he has no plans to run for any other office. Ryan announced earlier in the day that he wont seek reelection and will leave congress at the end of his term in january. About 200 days to go before the midterm elections. What does this mean for republicans going into those house races . We already are seeing a Record Number of House Republicans retiring. Because they are just so afraid of the tsunami coming, they just want to evacuate. And now that includes the House Speaker himself. Now, he did give believable, legitimate reasons why hes done, about his kids, about the fact theyre teenagers. He doesnt just want to be a weekend dad. He lost his father when he was a teenager. Thats all real and true. But he also sees what is going on with having to do with the president of the United States and potentially, probably, at this point, with losing the majority in the house. So, look, they he is saying hes still going to fundraise. I talked to somebody in the party who said theyre actually excited because the fight for whos going to be the next leader will mean that theyre going to all want to outraise each other, which is going to benefit the party. But its certainly tough. Theres no question. How does this change, if it does, kaitlan, the president s view of this upcoming midterm election. Well, hes certainly going to be concerned, even though hes very confident he can help pull these people over the line. So far, any race hes endorsed someone or gone to a rally for, he has not been table to help any of thaose candidates. Its interesting to see what the white house is going to do looking ahead to this. We know that the president is going to be discussing this. He had several dinners including one last week with Corey Lewandowski and david bossy, so those campaign aides. It will be very interesting to see how that happens. Who the next House Speaker is and how the president interacts with them. He had a rocky relationship with paul ryan at times. But he has good relations with steve scalise, the whip right now, and kevin mccarthy. And a lot can happen, phil, between now and november in the mueller russia probe that can have a big impact on the midterm elections, as well. This is not about midterm elections. This is about the heart of america. America has seen itself for years as centrist, whether youre democrat or republican. This is an indicator whether you like paul ryan or not, hes a sensible, humane line. Thats what the president is pushing. No compromise if youre not with me, get out. Thats what happened to paul ryan, i think zplp it. Its a sensitive moment right now. It is. I think he jumped ship and people are going to view it as that and its going to further demoralize the Republican Party, but it will midterms will tell us more about that. Get ready. Were always ready, wolf. Thanks very much for watching. Im wolf blitzer in the situation room. Erin Burnett Outfront starts right now. Outfront next, breaking news, new details on the fbi raid on President Trumps longtime attorney. Agents looking at communications between trump himself and Michael Cohen regarding the access Hollywood Tape. Was there an attempted coverup . And growing concern tonight inside the white house about impeachment, heightened fears after paul ryan announces hes out. And what one republican congressman really thinks of President Trump. Its a profane tirade and the man who was there for all of it is my guest. Lets go outfront. And good evening. Im erin burnett. Outfront tonight, the breaking news. The president of the United States named in an fbi search warrant. Cnn learning that fbi agents