spoke to today, what mike and ashley have alluded to, the president is seemingly trying to soften the ground or perhaps give us a window into something he s been cautioned might be a possibility that on the obstruction front, on the obstruction channel, if you will, there could be conduct that is clearly in the vain of trying to obstruct the investigation to himself and his campaign. we re now getting more than a glimpse of what this defense strategy s going to be, particularly with regard to obstructi obstruction allegations is i m not a obstructionist, i m a fighter. i m a fighter, that s who i am. i m not violating any laws. and then with regards to impeachment and other charges, he s saying you can t do that. you shouldn t do it because i won an election. and i m doing a really good job. but what s most disturbing to me that s come out in the last 24 hours, nicolle, is this notion from him that the, quote, the american people won t accept this, unquote. what that means is we re g
engage in all of this foreign lobbying without registering with the justice department. he thought he could pull the wool over the eyes of mueller and then a jury. so i m not surprised necessarily that he would maintain this back channel to trump because it provided him with an ability to angle for a pardon throughout all of this. now, whether or not trump does that we have to wait and see, as you said. it would potentially be obstruction of justice. but manafort is always looking out for himself and at the same time, his hubris is amazing. you re calling it a back channel to trump, which is one dramatic way to put it. we re always searching for our spy movies and thrillers and ways to understand this stuff. also, and a half that, tell me you see it differently, it s an obstruction channel to the white house. it s possible and, of course, legal experts that i ve spoken to said it depends on what was discussed. if there was a diangle of a pardon by trump s lawyers to manafort s lega