Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20190228

That we havent yet discussed today . Yes. And again, those are part of the investigation thats currently being looked at by the Southern District of new york. Heartbreak in hanoi. The president cancels his lunch date with kim jongun, coming home without the dramatic sign ceremony he was counting on. It was a very interesting two days, actually a very productive two days. Sometimes you have to walk. This was just one of those times. And boiling point. A tense moment when a new congresswoman challenges a trump loyalist. The fact that someone would actually use a prop, a black woman, in this chamber, in this committee, is alone racist in itself. Donald trump is setting mr. Chairman, i Ask Donald Trump is setting a precedent i reclaim my time. And good day, im Andrea Mitchell in washington. On day three of Michael Cohens congressional marathon this week, today cohen is behind closed doors at the House Intelligence Committee where lawmakers are following up leads that he dropped during nine hours of testimony wednesday, drilling down on revelations that the president was working on the trump tower moscow deal for most of the campaign, that roger stone, according to cohen, has a connection to wikileaks and told trump about it, and any white house role. Across the world in vietnam, President Trump responded to a question about cohens charges. He called you a liar, a con man, a racist. Whats your response to Michael Cohen . Well, its correctiincorrect its very interesting, i tried to watch as much as i could, i wasnt able to watch too much because ive been a little bit busy. He lied a lot. It was very interesting because he didnt lie about one thing, he said no collusion with the russian hoax. I said, i wonder why he didnt just lie about that too like he did about Everything Else . He said no collusion. And i was a little bit impressed bring that, frankly, he could have gone all out. He only went about 95 instead of 100 . Well see what happens. But it was pretty shameful, i think. Joining me now, nbc justice correspondent pete williams, nbc White House Correspondent kristen welker, msnbc contributor chuck rosenberg, a former cia official and former attorney, and mimi rocah, former assistant attorney in the Southern District of new york. Kristen, you were tracking every minute of that dramatic hearing yesterday. Tell us first of all about the president s reaction, reacting to the only one thing that Michael Cohen, that he pulled out of it, Michael Cohen clearing him of any russian collusion according to cohen. I thought it was remarkable to hear President Trump responding in hanoi, andrea, because you heard him there say that Michael Cohen lied about everything except russian collusion. What Michael Cohen said was, look, i have no direct evidence suggesting that there was any collusion, at the same time i do have my suspicions. So he didnt rule it out. But the president pouncing on that statement by Michael Cohen and the fact that he said, look, he cant prove it, bottom line. But i think whats difficult for the president is how can he say that one statement is true and Everything Else is a lie. That becomes very difficult to argue. The president also strategically did what i think we heard from a number of republicans yesterday, which is to pounce on the fact that this hearing was held on the same day that he was having his critical meeting with kim jongun. And of course we now know that those talks fell apart. But the president pointing to the politics of that, the fact that it created this stunning split screen, frankly, and distracted from what he was working on. In terms of what we learned yesterday, there were a number of allegations leveled by Michael Cohen but perhaps one of the more significant things legally was that he brought this check that he says was signed by President Trump once he was in office, reimbursement for those hush money payments during the 2016 campaign. That could be one of the bigger legal problems for President Trump. Otherwise a lot of potentially political problems, because of course you heard cohen allege that President Trump urged him to mislead members of congress when he first testified 18 months ago about discussions about building a trump tower in moscow. And he said he was aware of those hacked emails by wikileaks. That does become the big question, andrea, whats the bigger fallout here, political or legal. At this point it seems to be political. The legal questions could be coming up in that House Intelligence Committee meeting today. Mmhmm. Let me play what cohen had to say about his discussion in the oval office regarding one of those checks and the fact that checks would be coming, so this brings it into the presidency, obviously into the white house, not just the campaign. Im visiting President Trump in the oval office for the first time. And its truly aweinspiring. Hes showing me all around. And pointing to different paintings. And he says to me something to the effect of, dont worry, michael, your january and february reimbursement checks are coming. So, pete williams, the check with the iconic signature that kind of looks like an ekg, whats the impact of that . Its tappingible, its visual, represent the real facts of those payments in his own hand. Right. And of course we knew about the existence of these payments from the plea agreement that cohen reached with the prosecutors in new york who made the Campaign Finance violation accusation against cohen, one of the things that he pleaded guilty to and famously mentioned individual 1, and it talked about these payments. Legally the significance of it is, i dont know, frankly. Politically, though, it brings it into the white house, as you say. If in theory, if anyone was ever going to claim that this is an impeachable offense, the payment arrangement was made while he was a candidate. And there is a school of thought that says you cant impeach someone for what they do before they become a public official, that impeachment is punishable for acts in office. So this brings it into that time frame. Of course we also learned about a lot of other things that Southern District of new york prosecutors are investigating, reinforce something thats i think people lose sight of. Yes, the Mueller Investigation is shutting down, but theres a lot going on in the Southern District of new york, prosecutors in manhattan looking at especially financial questions regarding the trump organization. Was there potential tax fraud, insurance fraud, misuse of the charity . These are things that cohen made clear are under investigation, including a tantalizing thing that he said yesterday when he said the president or some of his agents, is the way the question was put, continued to reach out to him after his office was searched, after his office and the hotel where he was living was searched. He was asked, what did they ask you, what did they talk about . He said, im sorry, i cant discuss that, the prosecutors in new york have asked me not to because its a matter still under investigation. Thats really interesting, intriguing. Chuck, lets talk about that and also the family, the trump organization. This is another part of the testimony. Who were the family members that you briefed on the trump tower moscow project . Don trump jr. And ivanka trump. Now, were these in the regular course of business or did the president or family request the briefings . This is in the regular course of business. Chuck rosenberg, picking up also on what pete just referred to, what do we know more about what the Southern District in new york prosecutors are looking at . Sure. Theyre going to want to speak to the people with whom cohen spoke, that makes sense. Investigations ripple out. Imagine throwing a rock into a pond, where that rock lands of course creates ripples. Those ripples are witnesses and documents and emails and phone calls that extend out from that inner core. So if cohen spoke with the trump children about the trump tower meeting or spoke with them about hush money payments to stormy daniels, prosecutors and agents would want to speak with them too. Recall in cohens testimony yesterday he mentioned donald trump jr. , as i recall, in two respects. One, with respect to the trump tower meeting, and the other, he said that one of the checks he received to reimburse him for those hush money payments was cosigned by donald trump jr. Now, in fairness, he also said he thought that donald trump jr. Was only cursorily involved in those hush money payments. Nevertheless, to your question, andrea, prosecutors will absolutely want to know about the role of the children in these financial transactions, whether or not theyre targets or subjects or mere witnesses, that would only be speculation at this point. But they will certainly want to know what the children knew. And according to the donald trump jr. , he has not to our knowledge been interviewed yet. What do you think is his status as far as the investigation is concerned . This is speculative, but i think its informed speculative. Typically prosecutors, and mimi knows this well, leave the targets of investigation to the end. Under the justice manual, a target is somebody who is a putative or likely defendant, someone who is specifically under investigation for federal criminal conduct. Normally you do not speak to these people at the beginning of an investigation. You speak to everyone else about these people. And so it could be that if donald trump jr. Really has not been interviewed, has not been called before a grand jury, that is because hes a target, a putative defendant. Of course another plausible explanation is because hes done absolutely nothing wrong and they have no need to talk to him. I think its more likely the former than the latter, andrea. But i also wanted to show a key moment with jackie speier, the congresswoman, asking him what he did as a socalled fixer for trump. Mimi rocah, lets take a look at this. How many times did mr. Trump ask you to threaten an individual or entity on his behalf . Quite a few times. 50 times . More. 100 times . More. 200 times . More. 500 times . Probably, over the over the ten years. Over the ten years, he asked you and when you say threatened, im talking about with litigation or an argument. Mimi rocah, what is your takeaway there . Look, i would have wanted to know what he meant, particularly by threaten them with an argument. What does that mean exactly . You know, this could be something in the category of thuggish, bad behavior that, you know, certainly a legitimate lawyer wouldnt have engaged in on behalf of a client who would not have condoned such behavior. But it could rise to the level of crimes. I know we keep making this comparison to the organized crime world, but this is exactly you know, the kind of thing that lawyers on behalf of mobsters are employed to do, is to go out and sort of in fact Michael Cohen said, one of the things he did was, there were debts that were monies owed to certain Small Businesses and he was sent out to go tell them, were not paying you, basically. That can be a crime. It might qualify as a crime. We just dont know enough details. So i think there is a thread to follow up on, there. But i think more importantly, just coming back to where we are right now, we already know so much from Michael Cohen and from the documents in the Southern District of new york. And i just dont want to lose sight of it, which is namely, that the president was part of this criminal conspiracy to help get him elected. And it continued in office. Im not saying all the is are dotted and ts are crossed. But theres very little about those facts that are in dispute right now. You dont need to rely on Michael Cohens credibility to establish those facts. He fills in some holes, but the documents, and i think theres going to be more if they do follow through on this thread in congress, you know, bring in some more witnesses, get some more documents. I dont think it will end up falling s s rrising or falli the credibility of Michael Cohen, that trump was involved in this kind of crime. Kristen, i want to bring you to a moment that youve been mentioning in your extensive reporting about another thing that happened yesterday, a moment sparked by trump ally, Freedom Caucus chair mark meadows, questioning Michael Cohen. Meadows brought former trump family senior aide lynne patton, now an aide at department of housing and urban development, behind the congressmembers where she stood. You made some very demeaning comments about the president that ms. Patton doesnt agree with. In fact it has to do with your claim of racism. She says that as a daughter of a man born in birmingham, alabama, that there is no way that she would work for an individual who was racist. Lets show you what happened when democratic freshman congresswoman Rashida Tlaib reacted to this and challenged mark meadows. The fact that someone would actually use a prop, a black woman, in this chamber, in this committee, is alone racist in itself. Donald trump is setting a precedent mr. Chairman, i ask that her words be taken down. I reclaim my time. My nieces and nephews are people of color. Not many people know that. You know that, mr. Chairman. And to indicate that i asked someone who is a personal friend of the trump family, who has worked for him, who knows this particular individual, that shes coming in to be a prop, its racist to suggest that i ask her to come in here for that reason . It was quite dramatic. Then Elijah Cummings jumped in and said, mark meadows is one of my closest friends. Theres a lot going on there. We have an update, our own Marianna Sotomayor on capitol hill witnessed mark meadows and rasheed th rasheedida tlaib g it out on the house floor. What it spoke to i think is the fact that there was a lot of miscommunication about how that type of an action would be perceived by some other members there, how it might be perceived by the broader public, and really spoke to how complicated some of these conversations are around race in general, but specifically right now. And i had the ability to follow up with congresswoman lawrence who also spoke out there yesterday, andrea, who said she was quite offended by what happened and she didnt back down, she said this is a real problem, you cannot hold up one person and make them a broader example. We also heard from the woman who was standing there this morning, she said she does not feel like she was a prop. So very complicated and a lot of heated emotions around it, andrea. Thanks so much, kristen, for your perspective, you were up there. Pete williams, happy birthday pete williams. Kristen welker, chuck rosenberg, mimi rocah, thanks all. Coming up, the art of the deal. Talks collapse in hanoi. Whats next . Stay with us right here. Stay with us right here. Don let me be by myself in the evenin breeze, listen to the murmur of the tall concrete, send me off forever, but i ask you please dont fence me in. Special offers available at your local mini dealer. Sorry, is that too loud . Oud. You dont need any more hormones in your house. Thats why you chose kraft natural cheese. Made with fresh milk without the added hormone rbst. Its cheese as it should be. mo dad mhm. For me . Aaaah mom nooooo. dad nooooo. son nooooo. avo quick, the quicker picker upper bounty picks up messes quicker and is 2x more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand. 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How you live, what you love. Thats what inspired us to create americas most advanced internet. Internet that puts you in charge. That protects whats important. It handles everything, and reaches everywhere. This is beyond wifi, this is xfi. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Xfinity, the future of awesome. Sometimes you have to walk. And this was just one of those times. I could have 100 signed something today. We actually had papers ready to be signed. It just wasnt appropriate. I want to do it right. I would much rather do it right than do it fast. President trump is on his way back from hanoi without a deal after talks with north koreas leader kim jongun abruptly broke down. The two leaders failing to agree on any steps towards denuclearization of the north. The president and kim skipping a planned lunch meeting and a joint statement that had been scheduled. Joining me now, ambassador nick burns, former undersecretary of state for Political Affairs and Senior National security analyst michael leiter. There are so many things thats two men could have been talking about all those hours, yet they cut short their meeting. You would think, nick burns, they could have found things to fill out the schedule. How about bringing up human rights . How about not accepting kim jonguns denial that he knew anything about Otto Warmbiers death . It was striking, andrea, this meeting ended so abruptly without lunch even being served. Youre right, there was a lot to talk about. Kim has not dismantled any part of his nuclear apparatus, hes not serious, obviously, about these talks. The demand that we lift all sanctions was a very bad deal. The president was right to walk away from it. But i think the president really misstepped on the question of Otto Warmbier, the american student who was brutalized and murdered by the north korean regime. For the president to essentially let kim jongun off the hook when hes an authoritarian dictator who runs a mafioso state, hes responsible for what happens in that president. The president didnt stand up for Otto Warmbier and his family. It was a low point for him. The president needs to rethink his strategy. He needs to get china, south korea, together on sanctions. Kim is now credible, hes emerged from his isolation. If youre grading this on points, kim is the winner of these two summits. The fact is that the first summit was widely criticized because they didnt get anything out of it and they claim they did. The president claiming, michael, inaccurately, that kim had agreed to denuclearize. And then, you know, sort of glossing over the fact that pompeo goes, doesnt get a meeting, gets stiffed, doesnt get to meet with kim jongun, that they never get the inventory of their arsenal, they dont have the basis to begin negotiating dismantling the nukes. Theres no doubt at all that the president set extremely High Expectations from before the first summit through this one and he didnt remotely meet them. All that said, andrea, i have a little more saympathy than nick does. I agree completely that human rights havent been brought up, because its a central problem with the korean regime. All that being said, to the extent that we are at least now talking, thats a good thing. And we have to remember where we were at the end of the obama administration, and frankly even worse, at the beginning of the Trump Administration. And if nothing else, this year or so of engagement seems to have calmed down our president and gotten our president , President Trump, to look at korea as a real problem worth engagement and not just really bla blathering on with threats, a Silver Lining to what was clearly not a successful summit. It does strike me, to both of you, President Trump relies so much on his power of making deals, the art of personality, the pen pal summit, if you will, and it reminded me, its not a perfect analogy, nick, of what we went through with reykjavik, after geneva in 1985, everyone was talking about how reagan and gorbachev could work with each other and all of a sudden you get into reykjavik and a demand is made, and reagan appropriately walked away from it, and it turned out to be exactly the right thing to do. This had that kind of feel. You were kind of glad that mike pompeo was there, the guardians were there to say, you cant rely on this guy and keep talking about him as, quote, your friend. Nick, am i andrea, i very much agree with michael. I think that President Trumps been right to try diplomacy with kim jongun. I also believe hes made the correct calculation, we need to engage this regime. Clearly want buddy philosophy, i can become kim jonguns best friend, he describes the love letters they write to each other, that hasnt worked. Kim has not been moved by that at all. So i think a return to more traditional diplomacy. The president has a very effective negotiator in steve biegun. And secretary pompeo is a very effective person. Let them lead. You need to get the japanese, chinese, and South Koreans to your side. You probably need to turn back on the military exercises. I was just going to say that. That we have to have with south korea. And you need to show some leverage and toughness. That will probably work better for the Trump Administration in the short term. Sometimes the Charm Offensive can work. It clearly has not in this case. Michael leiter, the South Koreans were totally blindsided by the president seemingly shutting down those military exercises. He did that, he freelanced that in singapore. And general mattis, defense secretary, pushed back and said, its only a suspension. But he really was and he seemed not to be aware that two weeks ago, the u. S. And south korea agreed that they would pay more for these exercises. I think it is fair to say that this administration, President Trump specifically, are neither focused on our allies nor focused on predictability. And both of those things cause many problems in many areas, to include north korea. Certainly the cessation of a pause in the exercises, the president s expectations that he set with south korea are now going to cause the president of south korea some problems. So he really does, i think nick is exactly right, this has always been a multilateral issue. This is the korean peninsula. This is very close to japan. China is central to this. We have to work this in a multilateral way. And thats not something that this administration has mastered really in any contrast. So true. Michael leiter, nick burns, great to talk to both of you today. Coming up, did Michael Cohen open the door for the democrats to get their hands on the president s tax returns . Senator bob menendez is next. Stay with us on Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. This is the story of john smith. Not this john smith. Or this john smith. Or any of the other hundreds of john smiths that are humana Medicare Advantage members. No, its this john smith. Who we paired with a humana team member to help address his own specific health needs. At humana, we take a personal approach to your health, to provide care thats just as unique as you are. No matter what your name is. Itreat them all as if, they are hot and energized. No matter what your name is. Stay away from any downed wire, call 911 and call pg e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. Pg e wants you to plan ahead by mapping out escape routes and preparing a go kit, in case you need to get out quickly. For more information on how to be prepared and keep your family safe, visit pge. Com safety. Michael cohens explosive testimony also raised new questions about President Trumps finances. Here is an exchange with freshman congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez, cohen suggesting that the president s tax returns could shed light on possible financial crimes. I want to ask a little bit about your conversation with my colleague from missouri about asset inflation. To your knowledge did the president ever provide inflated assets to an Insurance Company . Yes. Who else knows that the president did this . Allen weisselberg, ron lieberman, and matthew calamari. Where would the committee find more information on this . Do you think we need to review his Financial Statements and tax returns in order to compare them . Yes, and you would find it at the trump org. Democratic senator bob menendez is a member of the banking and finance committees and the top democrat on Foreign Relations and joins me now from the capitol. Welcome, thank you so much, senator. Do you have a roadmap from this testimony yesterday and the testimony before house and senate intel . I think it provided a lot of insights, a lot of legitimate questions, and a foundation for going ahead and seeking the tax returns. Not only for potential financial crimes, but for understanding, for example, why President Trump seems to have no backbone to stand up to Vladimir Putin at the end of the day. And i think those are all legitimate critical questions that lead us to say the tax returns need to be reviewed in order to determine whether or not there are entanglements that are problematic. Now, you and your colleagues also sent a letter before the second summit. Do you have more advice to the white house, given the failure of this summit, colossal failure overnight . Andrea, i saw your initial reaction after the summit collapse. I think what you said was spot on, that with the nuts and bolts of Nuclear Disarmament is a very difficult process, Nuclear Disarmament is far more difficult than the art of the deal. Its not about personal diplomacy or made for tv moments. I did not think the president should have gone to the summit without the preparation. Another observation you made that i think is critically important. We need to know the totality of their inventory before you can jump off to what denuclearization looks like and what you can agree to. We had none of that. We have some sense that its greater than what theyre saying, but we didnt have the totality of it. So i was concerned from the beginning that the hard process of laying the foundation for a potential summit did not take place. That obviously was on show at this summit. And i am concerned that a significant amount of the leverage that we created to our maximum Pressure Campaign has been dissipated because china, russia have slowly eased off, engaged more economically. Our allies, japan, south korea, need to be engaged for vigorously throughout this process. So where we go from here is going to depend on whether we can reassemble that. Thats a lot more difficult after we turned kim jongun from International Pariah to what seemingly is a legitimate leader. It certainly seems you and your committee could be following up if you get republican support in the senate, particularly on the military piece. Canceling those exercises with no warning to south korea. Absolutely. I mean, i think its a huge mistake. Its first of all a concession without getting anything in return. Secondly, you blindsided our own allies. That is not the way to build faith and confidence that youre going to walk in this together. And to keep them where you want them in terms of your negotiations moving forward and your Pressure Campaign. And thirdly, to diss the efforts of those military exercises when theyre critically important for the military, and ignoring the advice of the generals. Senator menendez, thank you so much, great to see you today. Coming up, biden, beto, and bloomberg all on the cusp of jumping into the 2020 race. Stay with us on Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Hell reports on msnbc. Feeling unsure . What if you had some help . Introducing the new 2019 ford edge with the confidence of ford copilot360™ technology. The most available Driver Assist techonology in its class. The new 2019 ford edge with a 500,000 Life Insurance policy. How much do you think it cost him . 100 a month . 75 . 50 . Actually, duncan got his 500,000 for under 28 a month. Less than a dollar a day. His secret . Selectquote. 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One is a newcomer, the other a veteran. Beto orourke sent a strong signal he has his eyes on the big prize, announcing he will not run for the senate seat against john cornyn and telling the dallas morning news, amy and i have made a decision about how we can best serve our country. And now joe biden telling a hometown audience in delaware he has checked off one of his biggest concerns about running again. The first hurtdle for me was deciding whether or not i am comfortable taking the family through what would be a very, very difficult campaign, no matter who runs, its a very difficult campaign. The primary would be very difficult, and the general election, running against President Trump, i dont think hes likely to stop at anything, whomever he runs again. And so i am certain about where the family is. I have not made the final decision. But dont be surprised. I dont think well be surprised, certainly not susan page who follows this so closely, usa today Washington Bureau chief. Okay, ill say it, i think hes in, based on all the things hes said and checking all the boxes. And i think beto is in. And that becomes an even more crowded field. Now Eric Swalwell has spent a lot of time in iowa, new hampshire, lately, and south carolina, going to iowa on monday. Hes going to run into one of your fellow kansans, mike pompeo. Theres specificatiulation h run for senate from kansas. People like Mike Bloomberg, reports that hes looking for office space for a campaign in new york. Weve got the three bs up there, biden, beto, and bloomberg, a very diverse group. They are certainly cornering that market. I think terry mcauliffe, if biden jumps in, is unlikely to, because they occupy a similar space in terms of appeal to some of the blue collar trump democrats, if you will. I wouldnt really call them democrats, but theyre trump voters who otherwise would be democrats in pennsylvania, ohio, michigan, wisconsin. Even looking at your three bs, though, theres some diversity there. Biden is 76 years old. Beto orourke is 46 years old. There is a 30year age difference there. This is really going to be a remarkable field. I think the fact that there is no frontrunner in the field this big encourages it to get bigger, because who knows what is going to happen with this democratic field . It reminds me of 1988. But sort of bigger than 88. Weve never look, if we hit 18 candidates, which i feel pretty confident we will, it will be the biggest field in modern american history. With some of the oldest candidates. I mean, bernie, you know, as well as elizabeth warren, there are a number of older candidates. And now Mike Bloomberg possibly jumping in, as you just pointed out, and biden. On the other scale, beto orourke. Our mayor pete, i think hes 37. And Eric Swalwell is young. Eric swalwell says he wont run for reelection from california if he decides to run for the presidency. But i just got this email from his campaign saying he happens to be in iowa on sunday, monday, campaigning for an Iowa State Senate candidate. You know who bothers to do that . Not California Congress mmen. President ial candidates. Susan page, gradeat to see y. Coming up, a blunt warning to republicans. Youre watching msnbc. Ns youre watching msnbc. With all that usaa offers why go with anybody else . We know their rates are good, we know that theyre always going to take care of us. It was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. It was funny because when we would call another Insurance Company, hey would say oh we cant beat usaa were the webber family. Were the tenneys were the hayles, and were usaa members for life. Get your usaa Auto Insurance quote today. Even if youre doing everything right, inside, something can be wrong. Preventive screenings can help. But if youre not showing any symptoms. Insurance usually wont cover them. What then . 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And it doesnt cause bloating, cramping, gas, or sudden urgency. Miralax. Look for the pink cap. So lets promote our spring ftravel deals, on choicehotels. Com like this sneezes earn one free night when you stay just twice this spring. Allergies. Or. Badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com. I did the same thing that youre doing now, for ten years. I protected mr. Trump for ten years. I can only warn people, the more people that follow mr. Trump, as i did blindly, are going to suffer the same consequences that im suffering. Michael cohen issuing a stern warning of the consequences to republican members of congress who were supporting donald trump to the point where they never questioned what the president had done, they were just going after cohen throughout that hearing yesterday. Joining me now, rick stengel, and william cohen, former defense secretary under president clinton and a former republican senator from maine. You wrote at one point, mr. Secretary, mr. Senator, william cohen, you wrote a letter, an impassioned, bipartisan letter warning republicans of the perils of taking a partisan position without knowing the facts. The question is are they dedicated to the rule of law. Are they dedicated to Party Dominance as such . If they put the party over the rule of law, then i think they have abdicated their responsibility. I went through this in the watergate years where the president insisted, youve got to support me. And Many Republican members did until the final moments when the tape came out that confirmed that he had been involved in trying to pay the hush money, cover it up, et cetera. And i think its a fair warning. Always respect your office. Do your job as either a congressman or as a senator. And be prepared. Very clear, they were illprepared or unprepared yesterday in terms of what evidence they should have known about, what kind of they did an that they were unprepared to question Michael Cohen on the merits. And maybe it is a case where you never ask a question you dont know the answer to. And i think that they didnt know what the answers were going to be and that puts them in a position that they didnt dare to ask the questions. And you were a freshman on the house judiciary committee, a freshman from maine, when you became a critical vote to move impeachment forward. Well, i went to congress to say im here to respect the office, to respect the rule of law. I had voted for President Trump nixon. I believe that he was the best person to lead the country. But i also felt that he had abused the law, his office, he had obstructed justice. And the important thing is that either we believe in the rule of law or the law of rule. And then were into putin territory. Then were into kim jungun territory. Where it doesnt matter what the law is, it matters who is in charge and what kind of rules they are going to disobey and oppress. And rick, when we have a situation with that committee, it reminded me of other committees that ive watched over these years when there was really just one purpose there was to michael cohundermine mic and not to listen to what he was saying, at least ask questions about the president. And weve learned that jim are Jordan Meadows have referred to william barr asking him to investigate Michael Cohen for perjury himself. As bill said, they basically abdicated their oversight role that the constitution gives them to look try to look at the facts, to examine the rule of law. That was unfortunate. You can still be a republican and still analyze someone for breaking the law. In fact the felonies which President Trump is accused of make Richard Nixon look like a piker. And again, these where only alleged crimes. But that takes us to a level that really hasnt existed before. And i think go back to your guest bill kohn, bill kohn was a perfect example of a young republican congressman standing up for the rule of law for country over party. And one of the things that we have to see if these alleged crimes are true is republican congressmen moving towards the middle. And i felt that i saw some of the republican congressmen yesterday trying to say look, lets really examine what is here and we need a lot more of that. These congressmen both jim jordan and mark meadows are saying is that what was testified to yesterday contradicted the sentencing report from the Southern District of new york. So these are clear facts that can be compared. If he said things yesterday that contradict what prosecutors said in his own case, then there is an issue. But that will be up to the new attorney general. But were in a really perilous time here because this city, this country, has been now engaged in this for two years waiting for the Mueller Report and then all the off shoots of these other investigations. And it is taking a lot of energy and focus away from other business for the white house as well. This is a very simple way to take care of this issue. Have the president meet with mr. Mueller. Have mr. Mueller put him on the record. Asking him questions. And if the president has nothing to hide, he has nothing to fear. It wont take a lot of time. It would not take as much time as the president has for executive time. And that would help clear this up so we could then move forward. If the president is telling the truth, that will end it. If he is not telling the truth, that should end is in a different way of course. So i think that the president can resolve this very quickly. I think his lawyers have said we dont trust him before mueller. He is not capable of telling the truth or he will get trapped. He cant get trapped if you are telling truth. So i think that he can solve this problem and move on. He still has a very strong core base of support. And i think that the American People say we just want to know the truth. Did you engage in this activity or did you not. What is the reason for your relationship with president putin. How did that come about. Is there a ton of russian money in your real estate empire. Have you been compromised by russia over the years. If that is the case, American People make a judgment on it and thats what we need, full clo disclosure. And then we can move forward. It should be in a bipartisan fashion. But this train is moving. It is moving from here to new york and to other cases in terms of whether or not taxes were properly paid or hemd back in the state of new york. The city of new york. Those are issues which will go on top of the ones that the congress is now pursuing. Bill, rick, well have to leave to quickly share this moment. At the end of wednesdays hearing, Elijah Cummings to Michael Cohen im hoping that all of us can get back to this democracy that we want and that we should be passing on our children so that they can do better than what we did. So you wonder whether people believe you. I dont know. I dont know whether they believe you. But the fact is that you come, you have your head to your heads has to be one of the hardest things that you do. Hopefully this portion of your destiny will lead to a better, a better, a better Michael Cohen, a better donald trump, a better United States of america and a better world. And i mean that from the depth of my heart. Depth of my heart. Unkie, i customize everything. Like my bike and my calves. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. You might or joints. Hing for your heart. But do you take something for your brain. 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And this is three different investigations. All of them involving allegations of corruption. If Benjamin Netanyahu is convicted of these crimes, and he is removed from office, this could be a major problem for the Trump Administration and indeed for their prospects for regional peace. In washington, d. C. , Michael Cohen back on the hill for his third day of testimony. This after yesterdays nearly 7 hours of public testimony in