The body. Now, thanks to the president s favorite news channel, hes wading in. Welcome to the lead, im jake tapper. We begin with the politics lead. With Close Associates being hauled off to prison, President Trump claims that crimes are not crimes while also changing the time line for a key aspect of the mueller investigation. In addition to his tweets about the, quote, russian witch hunt hoax, the president sent his attorney, Rudy Guiliani, to admit that then candidate trump had conversations about the proposed trump tower in moscow, even more recently than previously disclosed. Saying that trump told mueller he discussed the potential deal through the november 2016 president ial election. Much, much later than previously claimed. Recall that mueller had previously characterized the deal as potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and needing approval from the kremlin. Guiliani seeming to say the answer was given in response to muellers written questions, making the comment
President in alleged quid pro quo. And even before he was sworn in last may, ukraines president knew his relationship could be at stake if he did not launch an investigation into the bidens in the 2016 election. This refutes the new defense from the president that there couldnt be a quid pro quo if the ukrainians didnt know what was going on. The reporting this morning, they knew. Hence, storm the hearing room. Lets get right to Suzanne Malveaux live on capitol hill where so far this morning, a little bit quieter than yesterday. Reporter so far, john. Its early. House democrats started this impeachment inquiry just four weeks ago. Already they have gathered an astounding amount of information. Republicans from the very beginning have been very frustrated with the process, but they are now using new tactics to either slow or stop the investigation. But this public testimony that they have been calling for may be happening soon. House democrats signaling the impeachment inquiry against P
Administration missing a deadline to turn over the tax returns of the president to congress. The treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin telling democrats he is consulting the Justice Department do term if the demand is legal. In response the democrats upping the ante. Saying the house ways and Mean Committee to prepared to subpoena the returns if the white house doesnt comply. And in of course just the latest salvo in the battle over congressional oversight. The white house doing all it can to stone wall democratss investigations. As lawmakers push back. House oversight kmierm kmarm Elijah Cummings announcing he is prepared to hold a former Administration Official in contempt over security clearances. Now that official refusing to appear on orders from the white house. All of has democratics issue yet another subpoena for the president s financial records. The president trying to stop that by filing a lawsuit. And new this afternoon, is the white house trying to stop former White House Couns
The persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or aseed to his request. People like don mcgahn. On more than one occasion the president called and directed mcgahn to ask rosenstein to fire mueller. Mcgahn refused. Considering the president s request to be an Inflection Point and wanted to hit the brakes. There was also cory lewandowski. The president dictated a message for him to deliver to then attorney general Jeff Sessions directing sessions to publicly announce that quote, not with standing his recusal from the russia investigation the president had done nothing wrong and to limit the investigation to future election interference only. He did not deliver that message and tried passing it off. The message was never delivered. Former staff secretary rob porter was asked to reach out to rachel brand to discuss the possibility of her replacing sessions and ending the investigation. He didnt do so because he was uncomfortable with the task. There were some in Dona
Everexpanding president ial field, that is according to the latest numbers from monmouth, check it out for yourself which shows biden hanging on to his lead and edging out Bernie Sanders, who comes in at number two. Mayor Pete Buttigieg and senators Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren round out the top five in all three in singledigits in that poll. Josh green is Bloomberg Business Week National correspondent and a cnn political analyst and may reston is our National Political reporter. So welcome to both of you and well get to the other democrats here in just a second but first hone in on joe biden so hes jumping in the race. It is really happening. It is happening this week, josh. So let me start with you. He has been at the top of the polls even before jumping in. So what does he need to do once hes in to maintain that lead in the most diverse president ial field in modern u. S. History . Well, i think the first thing he has to do is show that he belongs in the modern Democratic Part