the least, for the president. the president is well aware he needs to play johnny appleseed and plants the seeds of doubt. when you have that, michael cohen says i have truth on my side, i have the upper hand, and what trump is trying to do is tell the american people that karen mcdoogle scenario may be a foregone conclusion, but stormy daniels is still out there. let s not con flat the two. he is trying to prepare everyone. it is me and i m attempting to exculpate myself in some way. he is trying to find a bright, shiny object to blind you to all
investigators. and as we continue to learn more details about their relationship, how big of a problem could the coen facthen be for the president? how sbig a mountain? we have the revelation that donald trump spo michael cohen spoke to donald trump about a payoff. in part, that was released possibly about the trump camp to deflect from the disaster with the helsinki summit with vladimir putin. but of course if the trump camp was basically agreeing to this tape being released hoping they can limit the damage, it only feeds the wider story. and that is if michael cohen is cooperating with special counsel robert mueller about the payoffs to women like karen mcdoogle, like stormy daniels, how much more is he cooperating about? how much more is he saying about the trump organization or about the trump campaign, including the link to the russians?
says, even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client. totally unheard of and perhaps illegal. end quote. cohen had recorded a conversation with mr. trump two months before the election talking about former playboy model karen mcdoogle. she alleges she had a month-long affair with donald trump around the time his wife gave birth to their son barron. trump denies the affair and in the tape cohen and trump discuss buying the rights to mcdoogle s story. davis abced the tweet with his own. obviously there s an ongoing investigation and we are sensitive to that but suffice it to say when the recording is heard it will not hurt michael cohen. any attempt to spin cannot change it what is on the tape. for the first time in fbi history, the agency has made public it s highly classified application for a fisa warrant,
they overshadow everything. that is, i won the election so anything that puts a taint on my election victory is horrible and i need to fight it, hence, charges of russian collusion. so he has to show that he and putin are fine. and, two, he is absolutely convinced that he can do a deal with anyone in the world one on one because he s the great negotiator and he doesn t have to listen to advice and he doesn t have to listen to his experts, he doesn t have to listen to dan coats, he just has to play golf and get up and go into a meeting and have a conversation. so that s the other thing that is very much on trump s mind. and all this is in the context, of course, of the november midterm elections. i think mr. trump sees the political danger of charges of
here, former trump campaign adviser carter page. the warrant states that the fbi believes that page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the russian government. it goes on to say the fbi believes that page has been collaborating and conspiring with the russian government earlier this year. the 400-page warrant became a political hot potato in congress. some republicans allege it showed the russian investigation was biased against the u.s. president because the warrant relied on the so-called steele dossier kbh which was funded by mr. trump s political enemies. but democrats say the warrant showed the fbi had a legitimate certain about people in the trump campaign which predated the steele dossier. let s talk about this with steven ear linger. he joins us from brussels. always good to have you with us. i want to begin with what is the development with the fisa warrant reveal about the fbi s investigation and does it give credence to republican claims of