then there was a telephone call to you on september the 9th. had he ever talked to you prior to that telephone call? let me just tell you, i hardly know the gentleman. he has done that before. i heard that before. i don t know the guy. anyway, of course, this is the first time the president has used the i hardly knew him defense to minimize his ties to people who may pose a threat to him. james comey, i hardly know the man. i m not going to say, i want you to pledge allegiance. i never met him. i don t know putin. i don t know matt whitaker. he worked for jeff sessions. manafort has nothing to do with our campaign. that s why they have a ricoh charge. who loves to pull this, set it up like this? they have everybody doing what they want them to do but they can deny all the relationships. one thing we ve also seen through trump s presidency is that when he tries to use this defense, it can backfire. in the case of michael cohen it s clear that part of the
there? i hardly know the gentleman. this president has a history and a preferred way of tossing some distance between him and virtually any name in the news. i don t know anything about david duke, okay? i never met putin. i don t know who putin is. germa paul manafort worked for me for a very short period of time. i don t know matt whitaker. matt whisker worked for jeff sessions. michael cohen, tell me about your relationship with him. he was a lawyer for me, one of many. not somebody that was with me that much. back with us tonight, rick wilson, longtime florida man, republican strategist who is following up on his first book everything trump touches dies with his new work running against the devil which for a whole lot of folks can t come out fast enough. it s due out in the early, early part of 2020. rick, when you hear that matc p mash-up, when you hear, i knew him for a very short period of
jordan sondland said the beginning of december he presumed there was a quid pro quo. then there was a telephone call on september the 9th. had he ever talked to you prior to that telephone call? let me just tell you, i hardly know the gentleman. he has done that before. i heard that before. i don t know the guy. anyway, of course, this is the first time the president has used the i hardly knew him defense to minimize his ties to people who may pose a threat to him. james comey, i hardly know the man. i m not going to say, i want you to know. i never mitt him. i don t know putin. i don t know matt whitaker. he worked for jeff sessions. manafort has nothing to do with our campaign. that s why they have a ricoh charge. who loves to pull this, set it up like this? they have everybody doing what they want them to do but they can deny all the relationships. one thing we ve also seen through trump s presidency is that when he tries to use this
and i happen to agree with that. we have an extraordinary group of people around this table. this is a tremendous amount of talent. for that kind of applause for the people he picks doesn t last long when you get in trouble or do something trump doesn t like, he drops you like a hot potato. i know mr. manafort. i haven t spoken to him in a long time. he was with the campaign, as you know, for a very short period of time. do you remember george papadopoulos during that march meeting? i don t remember much about that meeting. it was a very unimportant meeting. it took place so long time. i don t remember much about it. i don t know matt whitaker. matt whitaker works for jeff sessions. here is a tweet on the man who served for years as his personal lawyer and fixer, quote, if anyone is looking for a good lawyer, i would strongly suggest you don t retain the service of michael cohen. but michael cohen got no worse than the usual trump kiss-off to someone no longer useful. quote,
own publicist. he treats everybody well. he s a good guy and he s not going to hurt anybody. yeah, that was citizen donald trump posing as himself fictional publicist, john miller, not to be confused with his other fictional publicist john baron. that was not part of his board game or a verse of eyes wide shut it was how he rolled in the game of life back then. remember when the president nominated matt whitaker to be acting attorney general? it seems like a long time ago. this is what he said in october before he nominated him and then shortly after november. i can tell you matt whitaker s a great guy. i know mat whitaker. i don t know matt whitaker. what? it was a month apart. not even. i don t i think both weren t true. you know, he does have the best memory. he himself has admitted that. i know that was hard to pull out of him but he finally admitted