personally directed his then lawyer michael cohen to lie to congress about efforts to build a trump tower in moscow, the key offense at issue is what is known as encouraging perjury, witness tampering, obstruction of justice. >> it is important for us to know that neither cnn nor any other major news outlet has so far confirmed buzz feed's reporting and president trump's current lawyer says if you believe cohen i can get you a great deal on the brooklyn bridge. that's not an outright denial. it is important to know that buzz feed's report isn't just based on michael cohen. michael cohen didn't talk to buzz feed for this. it says the special counsel is not taking cohen's words for anything. reportedly cohen only confirmed what the mueller team already knew from other witnesses and documents. that's key. >> tell us what you have learned as you look at this. >> i think the point that poppy makes is an important one. the fact that sthis is based not only on what could conceively blee michael cohen's words that the special counsel has gathered other information, text messages, documents, other information. they say other witnesses have come in from the trump organization and backed up these claims. that is stunning. it is for the first time. if this is all true that we are hearing that there is other information, here is how buzz feed described the information in their story. they said that the special counsel's office learned about trump's directive for cohen to lie to congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the trump organization and internal company e-mails, text messages and a cache of other documents. cohen they say then acknowledged those instructions during the interviews with the office. that is the special counsel. it is also the first time we are hearing that there have been multiple people from the trump organization who have been cooperating with investigators. we have heard of one who was cooperating in new york. everything that we are seeing from this story would be certainly a bombshell information. if true, obviously, we ourselves have not kwaub ratcorroborated this. it is significant. >> fascinating, no question. some members of congress are speaking up. let's bring in manu. >> reporter: you are hearing more about investigate particularly from the members who now wield gavels, running the powerful committees that have subpoena power that can investigate. so we are hearing from two key committee chair men overnight about the revelations in this report saying they want to look into this further. one is the house intelligence committee chairman saying we know the president has engaged, the allegation may have been in an effort to curtail the investigation and cover up the business deals with russia. we will do what is necessary to find out if it's true. that referring to the fact that michael cohen admitted to lying before the house intelligence committee in his previous testimony. did he do it at the direction of the president? adam shif wants to understand if that is what happened. in a wheat it says we know the president engaged in a long pattern of obstruction. the job is to get to the bottom of it. we will do that work. some members are going farther. they are raising the specter of impeachment including joaquin castro. saying if the story is true president trump must resign or be impeached. those are comments coming from democrats. we haven't heard much from republicans at all. most will likely say let's wait for the mueller report to come out. democrats are probably on that side, too. this also raises the intensity and scrutiny over the february 7 testimony of michael cohen. we will be asked all these questions. the question is can he respond to these questions about the trump tower moscow project because we have learned he cannot talk about things about the russia investigation. does this pertain to the russia investigation? can he say this in open testimony or in classified testimony behind closed doors? we don't have an answer yet. >> it would be a lot of pressure to ask and answer those questions. >> let's talk about the legal and political ramifications of this report. joining us michael moore, former u.s. attorney for the middle district of georgia. david gurgen, former adviser. let's focus on your work advising president nixon and president clinton. this morning you have advised -- how does it compare if confirmed? >> there has been a question of would the investigation be more than an alignment or suggestion or would it find a smoking gun? when the smoking gun came to light in the nixon case, for example, on the tape recordings he was gone very quickly from office and it didn't take very long. cnn is properly treating this very cautiously. we don't know a lot. until we verify this we can't go with hard stories. if it is true, and it's a big if, this would be a smoking gun and it would be perilous for president and for his team. so it is big. as i said, it is potentially a turning point, but we have to -- we're coming down the home stretch. cnn is making the right choice by trying to be very careful and cautious before going after things that are hard. >> the president has made his first comment on this. as he often does he is quoting someone on fox news. i will read what the president is quoting. don't forget michael cohen has been convicted of perjury and fraud and the wall street journal suggested he may have stolen tens of thousands of dollar dollars. watched this father-in-law trying to indrge an investigation of his father-in-law. to you, what the president misses there is the buzz feed story claims that robert mueller has multiple witnesses and other proof, e-mails, electronic proof but clearly the president's strategy as was rudy giuliani's is to focus on michael cohen and call him a liar. >> i think that is right. i think the president misses the point that bob mueller is not a novice prosecutor. i'm not surprised that he has information that corroborates michael cohen. he knows what he is guilty of and admitted to. it is a normal drive when you have a witness who is less than candid or has been tarnished to go in and back up or build up his or her story. that's essentially what has happened here. there is nothing surprising about that. the pattern that the president has is he continues to attack people in the hopes that he can somehow diminish the findings of the outcome of this investigation. i think he is going to fail at that. what's particularly interesting and i will give you two big ifs, if the story is correct and if, in fact, we are to believe the attorney general's -- i mean the president's nominee for attorney general, it seems to me that it may be that the president has hired his own hangman. he may very well put in place the man who has admitted now in his congressional hearings that in fact the conduct that is alleged in the story would in fact be obstruction and something that would be prosecutable as a crime for supporting perjury. that is a problem for the president going forward. this is a big story if it is in fact true. i imagine that michael cohen has good lawyers and they are not going to put their client out front in this position of testifying before congress without some documentary or other corroborating proof that he may have. we know he has recorded the president before. i wouldn't be surprised at all to see that. >> hiring his own hangman, quite a phrase. >> the key question here is obstruction. did the president attempt to obstruct justice? that is the core of it. it's not just partisan lawmakers who have questions about obstruction. it is potentially the likely next attorney general who by the way has a very important view of whether a president can obstruct justice or not. so that makes these statements during his confirmation hearing earlier this week that much more important responding to both republican senator lindsey graham and amy cloebture. >> if there is reason to believe that the president tried to coach somebody not to testify or testify falsely, that could be obstruction of justice? >> yes. under an obstruction statute. >> so if there is evidence that the president tried to conceal evidence, that would be obstruction of justice potentially? >> in your memo, you talked about the comey decision and you talk about obstruction of justice. and you went over that. you wrote on page one that a president persuading a person to commit perjury would be obstruction. is that right? >> yes. well, any person who persuades another. >> you said that a president or any person convincing a witness to change testimony would be obstruction. is that right? >> yes. >> no equivocating there. that direct answer both times from william barr just got a whole lot more potentially important this morning. >> absolutely, poppy. one of the reasons it got more important is that he did write a memo earlier on as we all know in which he really questioned whether these proceedings could go after trump on obstruction of justice and said the president has powers and can do a lot of things if he is acting within the presidential constitutional power, then that is not obstruction. he very carefully then agreed that there were instances that when the president could obstruct just skps one of them was whether you persuade or direct perjury from someone who is appearing before congress, that is obstruction. that is a violation of federal law. he is very clear on that. >> one thing before we go, in mueller's sentencing memo for cohen, the following phrasing caught our attention. it said that cohen described the circumstances of preparing and circuting his response to the congressional inquiries. just before that he talks about cohen providing useful information regarding contacts at the white house during 2017-2018. that lines up at least in general terms with the idea that cohen provided the special counsel with useful information about white house guidance on his testimony, does it not? >> i think it does. again, remember that bob mueller and his team are prosecutorial tacticia tacticians. they are not novice prosecutors who don't know how to put in a memo certain information that can be both read to the defense team, to the court and people interested in that. i think you can read those details into that kind of writing. again, as we wait and see whether or not this story is backed up, as it stands today, at this particular hour, 10:14 in the morning, as it stands today, this is damning for the president. >> important friday morning. thanks to you both for being here. still to come, much more on the potential fallout over this buzz feed report. we are going to speak with the reporter who broke the water gate story. nancy pelosi is accusing the trump administration of putting members of congress in danger by leaking details about their cancelled trip to afghanistan. we will speak to a lawmaker who is supposed to be part of that delegation next. show your gut some love. only activia has billions of our live and active probiotics. a delicious way to enjoy probiotics every day. with 20 years of devotion to gut health. activia. like no other. when your blanket's freshness fades before the binge-watching begins... that's when you know, it's half-washed. next time, add downy fabric conditioner for up to 7 days of downy freshness. downy and it's done. these days we're all stressed. i hear you, sister. stress can affect our minds. i call this dish, "stress." stress can also affect our bodies. so, i'm partnering with cigna to remind you that your emotional and physical health are more connected than you think. go in for your annual check-up. and be open with your doctor about anything you feel. physically, and emotionally. body and mind. cigna. together, all the way. that's better. into your own little world.k especially these days. 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(vo) presenting the all-new three-row subaru ascent. love is now bigger than ever. welcome back. this morning nancy pelosi's office is firing back after the president denied her use of a military plane and postponed her trip abroad including to afghanistan. the office says that the president's decision to call off the trip quote significantly increased the danger to the delegation and to the troops, security and other officials supporting the trip according to the diplomatic security service. pelosi's office went on to say quote we learned that the administration had leaked the commercial travel plans, as well. this as an all out war of words as well as actions has broken out between the president and the house speaker. the president writes why would nancy pelosi leave the country with other democrats on an ex kurgz when 800,000 people are not getting paid. joining me now is a 20-year navy veteran and the only house veteran that was slated to visit afghanistan. thank you for being with me. >> thank you for having me. >> thank you for your service, 20 years in the navy and now serving this country in congress. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. i'm glad to have the opportunity to continue serving in a new capacity. >> what were you hoping to achieve by going on this trip? >> the trip was a four-day trip. we were going to visit our n.a.t.o. allies in belgium. part of the visit was to reemphasize the strength and importance of that alliance. we were going to proceed to afghanistan and meet with military troops on the ground, local leaders and assess the conditions of our troops and the security situation on the ground. it was a vital part of our oversight as congress to be able to hear the voices on the ground. myself as a new member of the house armed services committee and veterans affairs committee i thought was an important opportunity for me to learn and gather information necessary to do my job effectively. >> as i said, it has been rescheduled. you don't know when yet. you plan to go when the government is back open, is that correct? >> there are plans to travel in the future. these trips are not normally announced ahead of time for security reasons. that is one of the complications that we had this time. we were pushing forward with the travel and had all of our arrangements ready to go today via commercial air. due to the security information and disclosure of travel plans it became prudent to not go at this time. >> just to be clear after the president pulled the use of a military plane for this you, nancy pelosi, the delegation made plans and booked to fly commercial but decided not to once that was added in the president's statement, is that right? >> that's correct. we did continue making plans to travel solely to afghanistan. we thought it was very important that we make the trip and conduct our responsibilities of congressional oversight. i think one of the issues with this really front and foremost for the delegation is that congress has this responsibility. it is not the place of the executive branch to usurp that or interrupt travel plans. >> it is the responsibility as you note of congress in terms of an oversight role and being informed. but i do want your response to the president's point this morning. i read part of his tweet to our viewers just a moment ago. he said why would nancy pelosi leave the country with other democrats on a seven day excursion when 800,000 great people are not getting paid? does he have a point? should this be something that should wait, that you and other members of congress shouldn't leave the country while you are trying to negotiate a deal to get the government back open? >> i think you can put it that congress can do more than one thing at a time. we can walk and chew gum. >> i hear you. she is key in these negotiations. she can't go to a meeting at the white house, for example, talk to the president directly if she is away on a seven-day trip. do you see that point? >> she couldn't be there personally but technology does allow communication around the world. we were going to be back in time for the next series of votes. on our side in the house since the first day of the session we voted nine times to reopen the government. we have done that in every way possible through continuing resolutions, separate appropriations bills. we are ready to open the government. we want the government open again. we want to pay the 800,000 workers who are protecting our country and our national security. it's the border patrol, the tsa, customs officials and many other agencies who are not able to provide the vital services. i have been in my district last weekend and met with the coast guard. they significantly reduced the operations. now they are only responding to emergency search and rescue missions. if you want to look at an incident that happened just in our district recently, there was an incident where a vessel struck a jetting. four people were rescued. with our coast guard not on station to respond to those, those could have been tragic casualties. >> and not getting paid to protect this country. let me ask you about the buzz feed, the explosive allegations from buzz feed news alleging that the president directed michael cohen to lie to congress about the extent and timeline on the trump moscow tower proposal. where do you fall in terms of whether you think that should change democrats' calculations to introduce articles of impeachment against the president? are you in the camp that says this is important but let's hold off for impeachment proceedings until we get the mueller report or do you think mueller should turn in this part of findings to congress now as senator chris murphy has asked for. >> i think we need to get to the bottom of the allegations. they are late breaking and there is not a lot of concrete evidence known. we need to protect the mueller investigation. that is of utmost importance. once i have the facts from that investigation then i can comment further. >> so it sounds like you would be in the camp of democrats who say important to know. let's get to the bottom of it, but don't urge mueller to turn this part over. is that right? >> i think the investigation needs to continue and that an early release of information that could compromise the process of the investigation is potentially not called for and i think that we need to know more facts before we call for any subsequent action. >> understood. thank you. again thank you for your two decades of service to this country and the navy. we appreciate it. we'll be right back. isn't what goes into your soup... just as important as what you get out of it? 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>> first, it's a very big if and we need to know a lot of surrounding information about this whole event and about what cohen might or might not have said and a lot of detail about what the circumstantial evidence that might support this demonstrates. so we're a good ways from knowing where we are with it. obviously, this is a very important story. if true and accurate and contextual. that is what we need to wait and see. i think we need to look at it as part of a pattern, though, of news of the last couple weeks. and the important thing in many ways is no matter how sensational this story, the pattern itself is so damning about the president of the united states and his conduct as a candidate and as the president in terms of whether wittingly, unwittingly, half wittingly he has been manipulated at almost every significant turn by vladimir putin. >> it's a good point about the pattern because i think folks at home, it is easy to lose track of this. keep in mind, we learned that the president's campaign chairman gave polling data, it is alleged to the russians. we already knew that the president's national security adviser apparently authored relief on sanctions on russia during the transition. i think it is important to look in that broader pattern. another part of that pattern that michael cohen has pled guilty to a crime of taking the president's direction to break campaign finance law. that part of the pattern is listening to the president to do either shady things or illegal things. >> michael cohen thus far has proven to be a very damaging witness to the president of the united states. and the other thing that cohen has given to prosecutors that has been confirmed i think by numerous news organizations including cnn which originally broke the story is that cohen claims that trump was told about the so-called trump tower meeting before it occurred at which manafort, his son and others were present in the expectation that the russians were going to deliver dirt on hillary clinton and that they welcomed this from the russians. so there is this big pattern. there is an element that is particularly stunning and important and that is because it involves directing, allegedly directing michael cohen to lie not just to an investigative body, but to the congress of the united states. the republicans thus far have been craven and unwilling to demand really serious investigation themselves. and to join in a bipartisan effort to say we want to get to the bottom of this. lying to the congress, it's a kind of threshold that has a psychological aspect that we have not perhaps encountered in terms of what it might do with the sensibility of republicans on the hill. the great question thus far is why haven't republicans thus far except for self-interest and very little interest in the national what is really good for the country been more demanding of let's get to the bottom of donald trump and the russians. remember, all of the line, all of the president's line, the most egregious and consistent of the president's line and that of his family, that of his sons has been about russia. it has been consistently dishonest. so this story if accurate fits in -- we also have other indications of obstruction by the president of the united states. but this story if accurate raises the level. but we need to know a lot more and how it fits in the pattern. >> no question. and the why. why tlies specifically about russia. another very important story we will not forget here is the people caught in the cross hairs of this shutdown. how do you put food on the table when you are not getting a paycheck and you are a single parent? 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she is picking and choosing which bills she can pay and asking to defer those she can't afford. she calls the shutdown psych logically traumatizing. she is worried her 16 year old is going without lunch today and she had to tell her 4 year old he can't go to camp with classmates because she can't afford it. her hope that america can stop fighting. good morning. >> thank you for having me. i really appreciate the time that you have dedicated to have with me. >> of course. we won't stop until the shutdown stops. in your words, psych logically traumatizing. what are you going through every day just thinking of simple things like what am i going to make for dinner for my family tonight? >> exactly. what am i going to make for dinner? how am i going to get dinner to last a couple of days? even simple things as such as what are we going to drink? we are down to just tea. we don't do sodas. it's tea and water and maybe lemonade. you have to start really -- you have to get into survival mode. i have spoken to a lot of colleagues and friends and co workers and they are doing the same thing. they are in survival mode. >> we see these beautiful pictures of you with your three kids. i know you have been trying to hide the pain of a lot of this from your children even going as far as hiding in your car and crying so they don't see you. >> yes. i have cried in my car at least two times. i have cried in the shower. when they are just not around, i have sleepless nights. there are days when i have gone without eating, not because i can't eat, but i'm just not hungry. it is traumatizing. you go through so many different emotions because you just don't know. it's that idea of not knowing that really stresses you out and stresses out many of my fellow federal employee friends and co workers. we talk about it daily. we want to go back to work. we want the shutdown ended. that is all we are asking for. the effects of the shutdown has caused so much pain and worry and just has disrupted a lot of different things within the federal government. i've got co workers that were right in the middle of retirement. so the retirements are up in limbo. >> you're also an army veteran. you put your life on the line in the ultimate service to this country. >> that is correct. >> politics aside. i know you didn't vote in the last election but you said if you had you would have voted for hillary clinton, putting aside your political views, has the american government failed you? >> i wouldn't say the american government has failed me. i just feel like the american government needs to have a conversation. they need to sit down and compromise. we do need border security. that is important, but we need adults to compromise. right now what's going on seems like federal employees are utilized as pawns in politics. it is not fair to people who work in the front lines in support of the federal government to make sure things run in an orderly fashion. >> you got this letter from your employer. part of that letter said this will be a short term event. now, we are almost a month in. do you believe that this will be pro longed and protracted? >> honestly, my heart is telling me that yes i believe we are probably going to be furloughed a lot longer than we would like. we would love for it to be ended tomorrow or next week, but unfortunately i foresee it lasting probably up until march. >> what are your children saying to you? i know for your 4 year old, he can't get his head around this. what are your older children saying to you about this? >> you know, my children have been very compassionate. they understand. but i can see the worry in their eyes, as well. when i tell them mommy is not getting a paycheck, they know and understand what that means. but they have been very compassionate, very supportive and very well behaved. so they have eliminated a lot of undue stress. they work with me. >> i'm glad to hear it. thank you very much for sharing this with us. good luck to you. we are thinking of you for sure. >> i'd like to say one more thing. i received a lot of support from people all across the nation. i would like to thank each and every american out there that has reached out to me as a government employee and an american and has been so understanding and very kind. thank you all for that. >> amen to that. brenner, thank you. we'll be right backism ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ cancer treatment centers of america. appointments available now. got it. ran out of ink and i have a big meeting today. and 2 boxes of twizzlers... yeah, uh...for the team. the team? 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(vo) your hand is talking. isn't it time you listened? there are non-surgical options. take the first step and learn more about dupuytren's at factsonhand.com. . this morning it's becoming clear of how the president and the white house plan to handle buzz feed's bombshell report on michael cohen. joe johns is at the white house. this story says unconfirmed by cnn that bob mueller has multiple witnesses on this and the white house going to an old favorite of zeroing in on cohen. >> you hit the nail on the head. his is one of the situations where the president has tweeted this morning the press office has weighed in and so far the responses have been around the edges of the story and not a denial of the core allegations in the buzz feed article. the president tweeted this morning going after his old lawyer michael cohen. i will read it to you. don't forget michael cohen has been convicted of perjury and fraud and the wall street journal has suggested he may have stolen tens of thousands of dollars lying to reduce his jail time. important also to say cnn has not been able to verify the information in the buzz feed report. the white house press office was on fox. he went after buzz feed. >> the president personally directed his long time attorney michael cohen to lie to congress about negotiations involving that trump tower. is that true or false? >> the president's attorneys also addressed this. i'm not giving credence or credibility to michael cohen who is a convicted felon and an admitted liar. that is ridiculous. >> reporter: very much going after michael cohen, but once again you hit the nail on the head. the allegation is that there is a lot of corroboration including interviews with witness kpz documents including text messages and other documents. that's what we want to hear from the white house about. >> that would be the test here. thanks very much. so we now this morning know the names of three of the four americans killed in this week's deadly bombing in syria. we will go to the pentagon next for that. here we are! you don't always use your smartphone to like something. how is it? perfect! who is this? you don't always use it to share something. he's doing it! but when it matters most, you count on tracfone to keep you connected, for less. can you send that to me? yeah. our new smartphone plan gives you talk, text and data with unlimited carryover starting at $15 a month, no contract. all with nationwide 4g lte coverage. get top smartphones or bring your own phone. tracfone. for moments that matter. a lot will happen in your life. wrinkles just won't. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair's derm-proven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week to reveal younger looking skin. making wrinkles look so last week. rapid wrinkle repair® pair with new retinol oil for 2x the wrinkle fighting power. neutrogena® the riskiest job. the consequences underwater can escalate quickly. the next thing i know, she swam off with the camera. it's like, hey, thats mine! i want to keep doing what i love. that's the retirement plan. with my annuity i know there's a guarantee. annuities can provide protected income for life. learn more at retireyourrisk.org this morning the military has identified three of the four americans killed this week by the suicide bomber in syria. >> pentagon correspondent barbara starr at the pentagon. service men and women dying in the war zone. >> the pentagon now releasing the names of some of these people, three of them, the fourth was a civilian contractor. that would be released by the person's company. chief warrant officer jonathan farm farmer, shannon kent was a translator. scott wirtz was a veteran of navy s.e.a.l.s. all three of these people serving in northern syria had very special military intelligence capabilities and training. they were in an area that westerners had been known to frequent. we are told they were on a mission to have a local engagement with people in the area, but the pentagon at this point releasing no additional information about what they were all exactly doing. back to you guys. >> thanks very much. it's a reminder that every day we have american service members, men and women and civilians in the line of fire. this was one of those cases that none of us can forget. >> no. the ultimate sacrifice for sure in syria. isis claiming responsibility. it's a tragedy. jim and everyone, we are glad you were with us today. a lot of news. we'll see you back here monday morning. i'm poppy harlow. >> and i'm jim sciutto. "at this hour" starts right now. hello. this morning an explosive new report that if true could have major implications for the presidency of donald trump. buzz feed is reporting that president trump personally instructed his lawyer to lie to congress about the trump tower project in moscow. ted michael cohen to say the negotiations months earlier than they did. cnn has not independently confirmed the report and president trump was quick to attack the credibility of