throwing out a million things, joan is right, that he is losing it to some degree. but what happened this week? we saw really all of the people of the united states and many people around the world express great love for john mccain. the contrast between john mccain and donald trump became incredibly acute and i think he cannot even let a man who s just died get this kind of attention. without freaking out. he was saying everything, all kinds of nonsense. i do think it s also true that the pressure on him right now is enormous. he s under i think this great fear of this book coming out and what s going to happen next. it s been a horrible summer for him and it may not be a very good autumn. david don, can i make one more quick point about the lester holt interview? the lester holt interview stands
on its own. the president s fudging comment makes no sense. you know, and it s a year-plus after he had a chance 15 months. to say, oh, he took me out of context but there s also the may 9th, 2017, letter in which president trump notified comey he was fired where he referenced i appreciate that you told me three different times that i wasn t under investigation, but i still agree with the justice department that you ve got to go. that s in a let e so i it s hard for the president to maintain at this point the investigation had nothing to do with comey s firing. joan, i got to ask you before we go, the new york times reporting that michael cohen and then-candidate trump came up with this potential plan to buy these catch and kill stories from the national enquirer that could prove damaging to trump and backs up a report that cnn, you remember we heard on tape yes. right, of them talking about, you know, our friend, david. david. gets hit by a bus truck.
would then face impeachment. and he didn t think democrats would want to do that. all right. i want you to stick right there, please, margaret. i want to bring in cnn political commentators joan walsh, david swerdli swerdlick, michael d antonio author about the shadow president: the truth about mike pence. good evening to you guys. i want to start with you first, david, though. let s start with president trump s assertion that robert mueller s investigation is illegal. do you think he s feeling some sort of pressure? i think he s feeling pressure and i think this week, the last week or two, he and his team have been throwing out digit theories to see if any of them stick. the idea that the mueller investigation isn t legal doesn t sit well on its face. first of all, it s dronald tru p trump s justice department that appointed the attorney general, deputy attorney general and the special counsel. the special counsel is a job or a role that is laid out in statute. it s congressiona
them, because obviously, the threat we face is global. so so, the european council president this morning, guys, donald tusk, said he was impressed with the president on counterterrorism. david, i mean, that s quite a response. oh, it is quite a response. and frankly, it s probably pretty much right on track. there s no doubt about that. look, the europeans and the americans have to get on the same page with respect to terrorism. there is just so many other things that can easily drive a wedge between the good feelings that terrorism-cooperation can in theory elicit in our relationships with europe and the rest of the european, the whole european alliance and the whole european comedy, if you will. the getting together of these parts of the world that are so very, very important. and i hope that donald trump understands the value of having a good relationship across the board, on trade, on security, on all of the other things that
mind. that is what we saw when she interviewed with christiane amanpour, and i think you re going to be seeing that today. i do think, though, that what you re going to see is this trying to tailor it to a positive message. this is a commencement. this is a lot of people in their early 20s who have their futures before them and she s going to try to inspire them as well. very good point. brianna keilar live at wellesley, where we are waiting for hillary clinton to speak. you ll hear it live here. back now to our final, lynn sweet and david swerdlick. so david, what do you make on what we may hear from hillary clinton? yeah, no, i think that secretary clinton is sort of finding her groove post election. she was laying low for a while, and now she s having these opportunities. wellesley is a home game for her. yeah. and she s, you know, she s going to i think on the one hand do one of these democratic, you know, when they go low, we go high, try to give an inspiring message to gr