Versus them friends, if you dont like what america is, you leave. America does not need to become great again. She will only become greater by being more of what she already is. Thank you for watching the show and getting after it with me again on my birthday. Cnn tonight with don lemon starts right now. Enlisting the truth. Thats what im going to do at the very top of this show. So i want the audience to bear with me. What you were talking about, that term, chain migration used as a negative, making people think you can just bring everybody in. Its called Family Reunification is what it is. I think the hypocrisy of the president and the administration to speak horribly about Family Reunification when the first lady did the same thing. Really unbelievable. Two of his wives. Yeah. Two of the three came into the country this way, visas he wants to limit. People he says are unworthy. His own inlaws. We grew up in the same place, don. Its all immigrants. Unbelievable. Enlisting the truth. Enlisting the truth. Thank you, my friend. Were going to do that. Happy birthday. Thanks, bud. This is cnn tonight. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com for a man who claims he wants the russia investigation to go away, this president cant stop talking about it. From his Working Vacation in new jersey, he tweeted an angry message with an ominous final statement. I dont usually like to do too much with these tweets but this is notable for the sheer number of lies packed into it. Bear with me. Im going to take my time here. Take a look at this. This is an illegally brought rigged witch hunt run by people who are totally corrupt and or crooked. Phony dossier. Fisa disgrace. So many lying and dishonest people already fired. 17 angry dems. Stay tuned. The tweets riddled with lies, inaccuracies, distortions and smears. So were going to correct the record right here. This is enlisting the truth. So, and it gets exhausting, by the way. Number one, Robert Muellers russia investigation is not a rigged witch hunt. It has resulted in 191 charges, 5 guilty pleas, and a trial that is going on as we speak involving the former head of the Trump Campaign, paul manafort. And number two, it is certainly not illegal. Heres Deputy Attorney general rod rosensteins charges order from may of 2017 Appointing Mueller as Special Counsel. And heres what it says. Paragraph b. It says, hes authorized to conduct the investigation originally begun by former fbi director james comey. Subheadings 1, 2, and 3 authorize him to look into any links or coordination between
the russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign including any matters that arise from the investigation. And then paragraph c is a key line. If the Special Counsel believes its appropriate, hes authorized to prosecute any federal crimes that arise from the investigation. Not illegal. Number three, president also wrongly claims the investigations run by corrupted or conflicted people. Mueller, rosenstein, and fbi director Christopher Wray are three of the straightest arrows in washington. And all are republicans. Theyre the ones who are running the investigation. Fbi agent peter strzok, a frequent target of the president , due to his biased text messages, was removed from muellers team a year ago. You would think hes still on it now, right, if you listen to
him. A year ago. Inspector generals report found while the texts were inappropriate to say the least, they did not impact the investigation. Number four, started and paid for by Crooked Hillary and the democrats. Not true. Even the president s republican allies on the House Intelligence Committee concede that the russia investigation into the Trump Campaign began in july of 2016 when u. S. Officials were notify the by australia that Trump CampaignForeign Policy adviser George Papadopoulos told an australian diplomats the russians had dirt on hillary clinton. Number five, hes referring to the steele dossier which did not start the investigation and he calls that dossier phony. It is not. Parts of it have been confirmed by u. S. Intelligence. Number six, fisa disgrace. Okay. Despite a misleading memo issued earlier in the year by house intel chair devin nunes implying the fisa warrant on another former trump Foreign PolicyAdviser Carter Page was inappropriately obtained, the
his reality show tease. Warning. Stay tuned. Stay tuned. Exclamation point. Is the president going to try to shut down the probe by Firing Mueller or rosenstein . Will he sit down for an interview with Robert Muellers team . Hes been all over the board on that one. Are you going to talk to mueller . Im looking forward to it, actually. Mr. President , would you like to testify to Special CounselRobert Mueller, sir . Thank you. You would like to i would like to. Have you changed your mind at all about being willing to sit with Robert Mueller . I would love to speak. I would love to. Nobody wants to speak more than me, in fact, against my lawyers. Undermining the investigation, likely thats part of a master plan, create lots of doubt so no one knows what to believe. Thats probably why the president s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said this on fox. No surprise there. I think if it isnt over by september, then we have a very, very serious violation of the Justice Department rules that you shouldnt be conducting one of these investigations in the 60day period. That is absolutely false. Its hard to believe giuliani ever worked for the Justice Department. There is no 60day rule. It doesnt exist on the books. Theres a longstanding custom at the department requiring caution around elections, but thats it. Muellers free to keep his investigation going but the real point is, giulianis already made his bogus claim public, muddying the waters. Hes also trying to tell mueller how to do his job. The reality is, he doesnt need to ask a single question on obstruction. He has always answers. Theyre not going to change. The president s not going to change his testimony, to stop nonsense. You are trying to trap him into perjury because you dont have a case. Team trump trying to limit potential questions from mueller about possible obstruction of justice. But they should remember that the president is not above the law. And that makes comments from are congressman devin nunes so interesting. Nunes is the chairman of the House Intel Committee who scuttled the house russia investigation. Hes close to the white house. So thats the reason why. In an audio recording, he tells supporters its imperative that republicans keep control of the house to protect trump from mueller. If sessions wont unrecuse and mueller wont clear the president , were the only ones which is really a danger. Thats why i keep. Thank you for saying it. If we dont keep the majority, all of this goes away. You kind of knew it, but now its right out of his own mouth. Protect the president. Not to do his duty as a congressman. So i want to begin now with
cnns National Security analyst james clapper. The former director of national intelligence. And the author of facts and fears hard truths from life in intelligence. Man, director, good evening to you. What do you think of my opening remarks there . Well, hard to know where to start. I mean, i i find myself in line with agreement with everything you said which is usually the case, by the way. First, the tweet i had more, as you said, more distortions and untruths crammed into it. He may have set a record with that one tweet with all the distortions and lies that are in it. Secondly is, of course, Rudy Giuliani who know appears to be Setting Conditions for when the Mueller Investigation is supposed to end and also i find it incredulous this notion that they will determine what the
president will answer questions about or not. And what a surprise. They dont want any questions asked about obstruction, which i thought was a duh. If i were the president s team given the president s rather distant relationship with the truth, id be leery of that. I imagine the investigation is going to ask questions they already know the answers to which is very appropriate. And as for devin nunes, well, he has already been seen, i think, as a tool of the white house and this recording just kind of proves that and this is extremely irregular where you have heres a chairman of the House Intelligence Committee whos supposed to be seeing to the oversight of the executive branch, not aligning himself in some sort of conspiracy. The objective of which is to protect the president from theMueller Investigation. So, you know, this is kind of a microcosm of, you know, what you put together here, don, in your opening statement. I think representative microcosm of this administration from its beginning. Well, let me ask you about this, because this seems to be ramping up and im wondering if you think it is, because its not the first time weve talked about the strategy behind the web of lies and Conspiracy Theories coming from the president and Rudy Giuliani, his attorney, when it comes to the russia investigation. Do you think its ramping up . I do. And i think its this is a manifestation of, frankly, the anxiety about this whole thing coming to a head. And what the what the implications could be for the president. And i think that is i think an explanation for this
unbelievable tweet. Director clapper, i want to play some of what we heard from Rudy Giuliani who spoke to hannity, an example of giuliani muddying the waters. Here it is. He knows the answers to every question that he wants to ask. Hes going to ask him, did you tell Comey To Go Easy On Flynn . The president is going to say, no, i didnt. Hey, bob, you know it. Why do you want to get him under oath . You think were fools . You want to get him under oath. You want to trap him into perjury. Were not going to let you do that. Does it strike you even the president s lawyers seem to know that he cant keep himself from lying under oath . No, i think, exactly. I and i think thats why i think in the end, by the way, i dont think the president will
ever silt down with mueller to talk about anything. For exactly that reason. I just dont see that happening. I think this is a lot of theater and posturing right now so that later on, somebody can point fingers. This is just kind of a theatrical setup for that. Does Stalling Help the president you think . Is this all about the electoral chances in the midterms and minimizing damage . Thats a great question, don, and i honestly dont know. I think whatever comes out of the Mueller Investigation is simply going to harden the positions that people already have. Whatever comes out. Its not going to change anybodys mind in the rabid base, certainly, and those who are not big fans of the president , it will certainly, i would guess, reinforce their reservations about him. So i what impact that would have on the midterms is, for me, very difficult to say. I got to ask you something, director. You can answer it if you want. Its a bit personal so i understand if you wont. You and i are both in the same
A recap of the days news. Bother me, but i think it we have to keep speaking up about them. Yeah. Thank you, director. You know, money doesnt buy class. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Thanks, don. Up next, is donald trump the president the Founding Fathers feared . One prominent writer says, yes. Is he right . Well talk about that, next. When you rent from national. Its kind of like playing your own version of best ball. Because here, you can choose any car in the aisle, even if its a better car class than the one you reserved. So no matter what, youre guaranteed to have a perfect drive. [laughter] vo go national. Go like a pro. See what i did there . I knew at that exact moment. Im beating this. My main focus was to find a team of doctors. Its not just picking a surgeon,
A recap of the days news. Theyll drop everything can you take a look at her vitals . Share the data with other specialists yeah, im looking at them now. Theyll drop everything hey. Take care of this baby yeah, that procedure seems right. That one too. At t provides edge to edge intelligence. It can do so much for your business, the list goes on and on. Thats the power of. When your patients tests come back. President Trump Railing against the Mueller Investigation, calling it an
illegal and rigged witch hunt. This as the republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee is caught on tape talking about how Congress Needs to save the president from mueller. I want to bring in now cnn contributor frank bruni and senior political commentator david axelrod. Good evening to both of you. The nunes thing is just unbelievable. We will talk about that. I just want to talk about this Washington Post article by richard cohen. And its an Opinion Piece and the headline is, trump is the president the Founding Fathers feared. Okay . And it talks about his ignorance, his dishonesty, his contempt for Civil Liberties and on and on and on. Is there some truth to that . I think theres a lot of truth to that. I thought it was it was a fascinating opped because it pulled back in a way that we sometimes dont and sort of listed the whole laundry list of what donald trump has done as president , how hes debased the presidency. And when you pull back and you look at it, you realize were not, you know, talking in too frightened a fashion when were here at this table tonight. Founding fathers set up a system because they had thrown off a monarchy and they didnt want another one. So they set up a system of checks and balances understanding that Human Frailty and failings and weaknesses were such that you could have a situation like this and one of those checks was the congress. The congress was supposed to keep to provide oversight over the executive and now we have, you know, an admission of something that we already knew which is that Congressman Nunes is in a very sensitive position, believes that its his responsibility to protect the president , not the country. To block oversight rather than provide oversight. Hes making a mockery of what our Founding Fathers had in mind. And the constitution to which hes sworn an oath. Im glad you mentioned that because i just want to play a part. This is what we talked about, devin nunes, a leaked video. Mn snbc got, and he is speaking at a fundraiser. L listen. If sessions wont unrecuse and mueller wont clear the president , were the only ones, which is really the danger. Thats why i keep, thank you for saying it, by the way. If we dont keep the majority, all of this goes away. All of this goes away. Its remarkable to hear a congressman, the chairman of the House Intel Committee, frank, saying that its their job to shield the president. Right. Like this. Is that their job . I mean, what the hell is going on here . No, what david said is absolutely correct, the job of congress is to provide oversight. Theres a separation of powers. Checks and balances. Congress supposed to be a balance on the executive branch. What devin nunes is saying in the tape, we defend the president at all costs regardless of anything. Whats so scary about what he
says, if mueller wont clear the president. Theres no concern in his statement about what mueller finds. Regardless of what mueller finds, regardless of what donald trump did or didnt do, they are going to protect the president because they see their function, he sees his function as purely tribal. As a party, do you think the party is buying this hook, line, and sinker, david . Because i remember when conservatives were strict constitutionalists. Lets go by the constitution. The Constitution Doesnt Say protect the president. It says you protect the constitution. You know, youre absolutely right. But, you know, lets lets be honest, i mean, the partisanship has been a strong, now its been a growing element of governance in recent years. I mean, weve had episodes in our history of that. But i will recall watergate when
there were people like devin nunes who were defending Richard Nixon to the last to the last degree. But ultimately, it was leaders of his own party who went down to the white house and told them that he had to resign. Ill tell you what the difference is between now and then, and its really concerning. There was no fox news then rallying the base. There was no social media spreading spreading lies and misinformation and propaganda. I often wonder whether Richard Nixon would have been forced from office if he if he h