has russia are the russians still trying to interfere in our election system? the russians are absolutely intent on trying to interfere with our elections through is it fair to say that everything we ve done against russia has not deterred them enough? all the sanctions, all the talk, they re still at it? well, my view is until they stop, they haven t been deterred enough. and they re still doing it? yes. and we begin the hour on that subject with the big wait for tomorrow morning and the russia special counsel s capitol hill testimony. today democrats are doing a dry run, holding mock hearings. last night the president, quoting a fox business personality, to hammer home his own mueller report conclusion. quote, there s no there, there. that s the president s take. today the house democratic judiciary committee chairman jerry nadler says that s a lie and tomorrow s hearing, nadler says, will break through the president s spin.
simple. easy. awesome. xfinity. the future of awesome. harris: become and with this this fox news alert. republicans are preparing a war room. less than 24 hours out of robert mueller s high-stakes testimony on capitol hill, democrats are gearing up, as well. holding mock hearings today to prepare their strategies for questioning by the house judiciary and intelligence committees. just last night, fox news obtained a letter sent by the justice department to mueller questioning him to be careful about what he reveals in hearings tomorrow. the doj wrote this. any testimony must remain within the boundaries of your public report. but earlier today house judiciary committee chairman jerry nadler said mueller does not need to listen to the doj anymore. here it is. he does not have to comply with that letter. isn t work for them. our goal is to break the lies of
mueller has said he plans to stick to the contents of his report. so they re going to respond accordingly. well, we ll have to see though if lawmakers get him to push beyond his report during those five hours of testimony. that s going to be the big question, mika. so, kristen, let me ask you quickly. i know you re on the white house beat, but any word as to whether the democrats have coordinated their questions to mueller? coordinated their strategy more effectively than we usually see in capitol hill hearings? yeah, it s a really important question. and i asked chairman schiff about the extent to which they have been preparing. he wouldn t go into specific detail, but he basically said, look, the preparations have been robust. i asked if they had been holding mock hearings. he would don t so far as to confirming that but he said this is high stakes so we are going to be prepared on wednesday which i think really underscores your point, joe. they really feel as though their
to potentially shift the narrative, potentially get some more folks on board with impeachment. and certainly looking for a moment that resonates with the american public. they know that many americans have not read the mueller report, so they certainly want to bring that to light and they will likely focus on the areas that they believe that the president obstructed justice. here s the chairman of the house judiciary committee. i think there is very substantial well, the report purports the president is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and we have to let mueller present those facts to the american people and see where we go from there. no president can be above the law. democrats and republicans, meantime, on these committees, they have both been preparing by holding mock hearings, rereading portions, and potentially the extensive entire mueller report. we know democrats tomorrow preparing a two-hour mock
tanker in the strait of hormuz, sharply escalating tension with the u.s. and western allies. cnn has learned that members of iran s revolutionary guard boarded a british ship and a liberian ship 30 minutes apart and that armed american military planes are now protecting u.s. ships in the region. we re also learning new details tonight of house democrats intense preparation for next week s testimony by former special counsel robert mueller. sources tell cnn they have been holding mock hearings and honing their questions in the hopes of shifting public perception of the russia investigation. we ll be talking about the breaking news and more with congressman steve cohen of the judiciary committee and our correspondents and our analysts are also standing by. first, let s get to the latest on the breaking news with cnn chief national security correspondent jim sciutto. and jim, you re learning some new details about iran s hostilities in one of the world s most important shipping lanes.