justice allegations against president trump. the new york times reports the president tried to influence the investigation of michael cohen by asking his acting attorney general to put a trump supporter in charge of the probe. that supporter, the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, had already recused himself from the case. tonight, mr. trump is denying the report which offers a very detailed portrait of a president at war against investigators as they close in on him and his inner circle. i will get reaction from david sicilini. our correspondents and analysts are standing by. first, let s go to kaitlan collins. the president is denying he interfered. this report is detailed and potentially very damaging. reporter: it s a major report. it really details how the president has tried to undermine or end the investigations he feels could threaten his presidency. the big one is right at the top.
russian adoption. some members of the o.g. trump legal team have a problem with it. the communications chief quits a few weeks later, followed by the president s first lawyer. that s all we know about that pivotal trip to hamburg so far. remember, at first the official version of events contained none of this. it s a portrait of a president whose first impulse is to hide the truth. when you re president, you can t run and you can t hide. the truth will out. that s your reality check. john, very helpful. thank you. all right. we have one of the reporters that broke the bombshell buzzfeed story on president trump right now. announcer: this is cnn breaking news. good morning. welcome to your new day. it is friday, january 18, 8:00 in the east. breaking news this morning potentially of the huge variety. a new report this morning from buzzfeed news that president trump personally instructed michael cohen to lie to congress about building a trump tower in
breaking tonight, the white house is furiously dodging questions about whether president trump might actually consider pardoning himself after decl thae has the absolute right to do so. we re following a series of bombshells coming from the president, rudy giuliani and a newly revealed letter from the trump legal team to robert mueller. it s all adding to a very disturbi portrait of a president who appears to think he is above the law and an administration that can t be trusted to tell the american people the truth. i will get reaction from former homeland security secretary jeh johnson who works as a prosecutor under rudy giuliani. and from richard blumenthal. first, let s go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta. a lot of critical questions for the white house. a lot of critical questions that certainly did not get answered. reporter: that s right. they have not gone away. the white house spent the day making questionable
finally, florida school shooting survivors head to their state dapt to ta capital to talk gun laws. they don t need to tell us that we don t know what we re talking about. this is mtp daily and it starts right now. good evening. i m chuck todd here this washington. welcome to mtp daily. another criminal charge has been filed in mueller s probe, another guilty plea has been entered and president trump is going after obama, the fbi, and his own national security adviser has mueller uncovers information warfare. but we begin tonight with the white house s portrait of a president that arguably does not exist. moments ago sarah huckabee sanders made a number of highly dubious claims about this president s stance on russian meddling. here is the first one. that somehow president trump has been resolute on the question of