the vp immediately assumes the office of president. and let s bring in our legal analyst and civil rights taurn a r reattorney re attorney areva martin for more on this. rosenstein issued this statement, he said i never pursued or authorized recording the president and any suggestion that i have ever advocated for the removal of the president is absolutely false. this was reported by the new york times and they say that they worked on this story for months. what do you think about that denial. is he hedging or is that an outright denial? clearly not an outright denial. he is parsing his words. what he doesn t say is that he didn t say it. he just says that he didn t pursue it or authorize it. so it remains to be seen if he did make the statements. so where does that leave it
he does what he believes is proper, what he believes is just. and what he believes is in the interest of his constituents. and again, he has had political enemies, maybe more than most-of- he s been controversial at times for certain. he doesn t test the wind. he doesn t say what would be the preliminarily expedient thing to say. there are been times on immigration that he was politically expedient. when i would challenge him on that, he would say he who had often been trying to bring about reform in a broadway, comprehensive reform and that failed, that also advocated strongly for building the southern border wall, he would say his state has changed, times have changed and he needed to adjust to that. so there are times that people said he was not conservative enough and people hot tempered to work about, but there were also people who admired and continue to mire his public service. also his sons have served in the military, his son who bears his name is still active duty.
he knew what was happening and why. that shows knowledge before the transaction. that is inconsistent with what the president and with what hope hicks said from the campaign. he knew about this until after the fact. not true, rudy. we know it from the tape. no, that s not right. the tape is really can be argued either way on whether he knew or he didn t know. he doesn t say why did he know the dollar amount? cohen could have told him two hours before and not taped it. how do i there s one conversation between cohen and the president that s taped. you think they had one conversation in two years? i don t know. not only that i know it when i hear it. it s not now information. here s another thing that he did. when trump says check and everybody agrees that he said check at the end he cut it off abruptly. who knows what else was discussed then? there s no doubt the president was very surprised by the idea of financing, that they were going to have to make some kind
being formed and how it will be financed, you believe that s a second reference? listen to the tapes. this is not a man shocked about karen mcdougal. he knows what they re talking about. listen to this tape. remember that karen hicks, the campaign spokesman. hope hicks. hope hicks, excuse me. denied that he knew anything about the mcdougal matter in november before the election. a lie. and here mr. trump is not surprised when mr. cohen mentions there needs to be financing, and he immediately say, cash. he doesn t say what the transcript that you re telling me says. he says cash, and my client has been discharged over and over again by mr. giuliani with misinformation and misstatements. for example, what we have heard over and over again is that mr. cohen is living lavishly, and no mention is made that there was a tremendous flood in his apartment. he s living in a hotel with insurance paying for his hotel room.
one is that this is the first time that he heard about the karen mcdougal issue. listen to the tape, everyone. this is not a man shocked when mr. cohen said, we have to make payments. even though michael is describing to him the formation of the company and why it s being formed and how it will be financed, you believe that s a second reference? listen to the tapes. this is not a man shocked about karen mcdougal. he knows what they re talking about. listen to this tape. they speak for themselves. remember that karen hicks, the campaign spokesman. hope hicks. hope hicks, excuse me. denied that he knew anything about the mcdougal matter in november before the election. a lie. and here mr. trump is not surprised when mr. cohen mentions there needs to be financing, and he immediately says, cash. he doesn t say what the transcript that you re telling me says. he says cash, and my client has been disparaged over and over again by mr. giuliani with misinformation and