Transcripts For CNNW CNN Tonight With Don Lemon 20181117

Respect him for coming on the show. I really do. Its important to hear the voices that are close to the president. You know how i feel about that. But for him to say, you cant say i challenge you, mr. President. Oh, but you can look at him and say, hey, reporter, youre evil. Youre the enemy of the people. Youre a bad person. Come on. It starts at the top. This is the most important man in the world. Theres only one of them. And to think that you and i have to be careful, hey, dont act like the president , don. Be better than that. Two things. One, the Corey Lewandowski thing, this is not a personal thing, but i think that anyone who has signed im pretty sure that corey has, correct me if im wrong, an nda, right . How honest and critical of someone can you be when you have very. Have said that you are not going to disparage them . Very. Disparagement goes to defamation and saying things that are hurtful and wrong and untrue. I dont know. Money talks. And i think that people most people who are not attorneys, theyll be careful of what they say because they dont know what disparage they think that means you cant actually criticize the person and call them out when theyre wrong. Listen, you can debate anyones tactic and style. You can debate jims style. But when you thats different than restricting someone from actually doing their job. True. But i think what they mean by decorum in this white house is control. Yes. Theyre trying to control you. 100 . I mean look at their reaction today. No big deal. No big deal. Well make up some rules, and if he misbehaves, well throw him out. Wrong. Thats not going to cut the mustard. That was spin. It shows he doesnt get it. Sarah sanders saying, the judge said theres no absolute right to the first amendment. First of all, he didnt say anything about it. He didnt rule on it. And he said cnn is likely to win about. And their lawyers actually our lawyers because we pay their salaries at the doj. They were arguing that, you know, the president does have a right to do this, which is offensive and expensive. But they wouldnt defend that infowars tape, and the judge even said i mean i laughed because its so absurd. That her suggestion about what the reporter did was likely untrue. Yeah. And based on questionable proof. Yeah. They used infowars. I mean come on. Listen, in normal times and previous administrations, you know how this would have been solved . You get called to the prince pa pals office, right . Say, chris, you had an interview or whatever. They thought you were acting up at at press conference. Theyd say, hey, chris, can you take it down a notch . I know that this president is whatever, hes under a lot of pressure. We love having you there, but can we just agree to take it down a notch and try to work on this . Boom, done, over. But not in this administration. Thats true. Its shorts versus the skins and you got to go to the mat. Its gotten worse. I will tell you for all the enemy of the state and all that b. S. , ive had conversations with the president during the election where he was not happy about certain things, thought they were unfair. I hadnt reported them. I said, ill take a look. If its wrong, its wrong. Ill find out. You mean previous administrations, or this one . No, no, no. This one. But its gotten worse. Ive had people close to him say, hey, theyre reporting this about me. This is wrong. I know you guys are going to come after me about it. I get it, but this parts wrong. And i check. We have zero interest in being wrong, zero. Every time we are wrong, its much more dangerous for us than it is for the president. Hes a politician. There is a different standard for us. So it used to be that way. Theyve changed the rule. They dont want to come on. They wont engage. Thats their call. But when was when was the last president you heard say i mean ive seen people ive seen president s since what i can recall since nixon is really what i can recall, barely nixon. Youre much older than i am, so by about a month. But i can recall president s, you know, sparring with the media, but never youre a terrible person. No, never. Never ive never heard an alderman talk like this. What a dumb question. And then you call for decorum. Really . Decorum in the white house. People should have decorum in the white house. Of course. Kanye dropped the fbomb in the white house. Is that decorum . Didnt call him out, did they . Right . What did he say about Stormy Daniels . That she had a horseface. Yeah. Nobody said anything about decorum for that. No. And im just saying there are all kinds of things that happened coming from the man whose in charge. Right. Why should a correspondent have more decorum than the president of the United States . Look, again and i know that a lot of people wont like this. They never do when i say it. I dont believe that you act the way youre acted to in this particular context. I agree. I believe that the job demands that we be our best and we be our most respectful. Take the high road. I just think its the only road because when youre right and youre making good points and you have good questions, you never need to go at the person that youre talking to personally. When its personal, thats a function of weakness. Yeah. You know . Its like you and me. When were going back and forth about something, you always wind up saying something about me being ugly or old or fat because you run out of ideas. Youre the one who just said i was way older than you. You started the insult. Its a fact. Not really. What . What . Yeah, but who looks younger . Okay. Go i do. We have a lot to be thankful for considering the judges ruling, considering were healthy and our families. True. Im talking about you and i. And that which actually get along, which is shocking. I love being with you on tv. I love being with you off tv. Youre a good man, d. Lemon. Im thankful for you, gramps. Not so much. See you. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. A legal setback today for President Trump and his administration. A federal judge in washington, a trump appointee ruling in cnns favor and ordering the white house to reinstate a press pass to cnns chief White House Correspondent jim acosta. Cnn sued trump and top aides, claiming violations of freedom of the press and due process, and the judge said the white house couldnt do what they did. The rule of law must apply. But it got us thinking. How often does President Trump challenge the constitution and therefore the rule of law . It has been happening all throughout. The headlines are shocking. Trump is a oneman assault on the rule of law, and trumps allout attack on the rule of law among others. So lets look at some notable examples starting with the president s executive order issued a week after he took office, the one that banned entry or wanted to ban entry into the u. S. For 90 days of citizens from iraq, syria, iran, libya, somalia, sudan, and yemen, countries that are primarily muslim. Opponents called it a muslim travel ban, and they filed lawsuits. A series of federal courts initially blocked two separate versions of the travel ban, citing among other things violations of due process and equal protection. President trump insisted that the courts were wrong and that he had the authority to block people coming into the country. If he thinkstheres danger out there, he or she, whoever is president , can say, im sorry, folks. Not now, please. We got enough problems. Were talking about the safety of our nation, the safety and security of our people. This ruling makes us look weak. Well, he may have felt that way, but the court cases forced him to make changes to his initial ban. The case ultimately went all the way to the Supreme Court but not until this past june, a year and a half later, and at that point it was a revised executive order that the court ruled was within the president s authority. But nonetheless, the president and the administration were subject to the rule of law. Another example of the president s overreach, well, its also had him in a rage for nearly two years now. It started with the former attorney general jeff sessions, him recusing himself from the russia investigation. I have now decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matter relating in any way to the campaigns for president of the United States. Sessions did the right thing. As part of the trump campaign, he met numerous times with russias ambassador to the u. S. , but he didnt own up to those meetings during his confirmation hearings. There was an uproar on capitol hill. Sessions checked with Justice Department guidelines, stepped aside from oversight of the investigation. It was the right thing to do, except in the mind of the president. Till this day, as far as hes concerned, sessions betrayed him. The attorney general made a terrible mistake when he did this and when he recused himself, or he should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse himself, and we would have used a put a different attorney general in. So he made what i consider to be a very terrible mistake for the country. He took the job, and then he said, im going to recuse myself. I said, what kind of a man is this . And by the way, he was on the campaign. You know, the only reason i gave him the job, because i felt loyalty. He was an original supporter. He was on the campaign. He knows there was no collusion. The rule of law didnt matter to the president , who never seemed to grasp that the attorney general is not his personal lawyer. Were told he berated sessions every chance he got. Many wondered why sessions put up with all the abuse, but he did until trump fired him last week and installed an acting attorney general who is on record criticizing the russia investigation. And lets not forget that trump fired former fbi director james comey, who initially opened the investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 election. Heres what he said. Lester holt. Regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. And, in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a madeup story. Its an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election that they should have won. Sessions had already recused himself. President trump fired comey and said out loud, on national television, that it was because of the russia investigation, except that is not what happened, is it . Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein took control of the investigation and hired special Counsel Robert Mueller himself a former fbi director and a man who has a stellar reputation in law enforcement, hired him to run it. Trump hated that move but failed to realize that by firing comey, he himself triggered a more intense investigation. So as we know, the president rails against it every chance he gets. This is one of his unhinged tweets from yesterday, okay . Here it is. The inner workings of the Mueller Investigation are a total mess. They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want. They are a disgrace to our nation and dont care how many lives they ruin. A total witch hunt like no other in American History, all caps at the end there. There has been reporting that trump has considered firing rosenstein. He has not. But he did order former White House Counsel Don Mcgahn to fire mueller. Mcgahn refused, threatening to resign first. He also cooperated with the special counsels investigation, sitting down in interviews spanning some 30 hours. Mcgahn and the rule of law held the line. And then theres trumps laughable, phony allegation of rampant voter fraud. Experts say it doesnt exist. Because he lost the popular vote to hillary clinton, trump tweeted this right after the election, okay . In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, i won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally. He harped on this claim, attacking the very foundation of our democracy and established a commission headed by kris kobach to look into this madeup scourge. That commission he created to investigate voter fraud, well, it was dissolved because there was no evidence. And the man who headed it up lost the race for governor as a republican in kansas. Still this all didnt stop the president from telling the right wing website the daily caller after the gop lost the house, he said if republicans dont win, and thats because of potentially illegal votes. When people get in line that have absolutely no right to vote and they go around in circles, sometimes they go to their car, they put on a different hat, put on a different shirt, come in, and vote again. Nobody takes anything. Its really a disgrace whats going on. A disgrace, you could say that. Okay . But lets get back to jim acosta and the rule of law displayed today in the courts. Heres the exchange that set off the president the day after he and republicans lost big in the midterms. Theyre hundreds of miles aways, though. Thats not an invasion. Honestly, i think you should let me run the country. You run cnn. All right. And if you did it well, your ratings would be much better. If i may ask one other question. Are you worried thats enough. Thats enough. Mr. President , i was going to ask one other thats enough. Pardon me, maam. Mr. President thats enough. I have one other question if i may ask. That couldnt be me because i would say, what about your ratings . I digress. The white house then revoked acostas credentials, Sarah Sanders saying in a statement, the white house cannot run an orderly and Fair Press Conference when a reporter acts this way, which is neither appropriate nor professional. If there is no check on this type of behavior, it impedes the ability of the president , the white house staff, and members of the media to conduct business. So much to dissect there, but well do it in this show. After the judge ruled in cnns favor, the president said this. Just people have to behave, and they have to do were writing up rules and regulations to make our position. I think you were treated very unfairly, both of you. I think you were treated very unfairly because you have somebody interrupting you. And if they dont listen to the rules and regulations, well end up back in court, and well win. The rule of law. A lot to get to tonight. Phil mudd is here, jack quinn, susan glasser, and max boot, including a report that the cia now concludes that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman personally ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, right after this. Looking good at booking. Com, we cant guarantee youll good at that water jet thingy. But we can guarantee the best price on this hotel. Or any accommodation, from homes to yurts. Booking. Com booking. Yeah whoa presenting the iwhats he doing . Come on, lets check it out nice. Hes pretty good at this. Hm its like a game gasps woohoo got it which car should we get . All of em ooh, yeah that one this one looks nice. Yes, and yes. I like this game. I think were winning delivery . Where . doorbell rings man its here what . announcer buy your next car from carvana before ralph breaks the internet. Then go see the movie, in theatres november 21st. Every Insurance Company tells you they can save you money. Save up to 10 when you bundle with esurance. Including me, esurance spokesperson dennis quaid. Hes a pretty good spokesperson. Ehhh. So when i say, drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved an average of 412, you probably wont believe me. Hey, actor lady whose scene was cut. Hi. But you can believe this esurance employee, nancy abraham. Seriously, send her an email and ask her yourself. No emails. No emails. When insurance is affordable, its surprisingly painless. So were back here on a friday night. Another crazy week. Developments on multiple stories, both at home and abroad. So joining me now to break it all down, philip mudd, jack quinn, susan glasser. Max boot. Max is the author of the corrosion of conservatism, why i left the right. Good evening. Were at the end here of a slow week. Thats not true, but we have some serious breaking news. There was big breaking news tonight, max. Theres this Washington Post report tonight. The cia concluded the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman gave the order to assassinate khashoggi in istanbul last month. Whats your reaction to that . That sounds very credible. This was a high confidence cia finding, which is something i think you can really have confidence in because the cia is confident and, you know, theres tapes that have come out from turkey. So theres overwhelming evidence, and this simply you know, it simply fails the test of elementary logic to imagine that the saudi government could carry out this elaborate plot to murder and dismember a prominent journalist like Jamal Khashoggi and that crown prince mbs, Mohammed Bin Salman, was not on top of this, that he did not know about it, he didnt authorize it. The government it denying it by the way. Let me read you the quote. Heres what the official tells the post. He says, quote, the accepted position is that there is no way this happened without him, meaning the Saudi Crown Prince, being aware or involved. Go on. And of course the saudi government denies it. And whats really troubling is that the Trump Administration has so far tried to run away from this inescapable reality that their close ally and pal in riyadh, mbs, was responsible for this heinous crime, and now he has been caught out by turkish intelligence. Hes been caught out by u. S. Intelligence. And just this week you had this kind of charade burewhere the ss said they were going to prosecute 11 individuals and the Trump Administration said they were going to put sanctions on 17 individuals, but these are lower level saudis and theyre basically trying to create a cover so that mbs can get away with this crime. Now that becomes much harder to do because the cia has fingered him as the culprit, which he obviously is. Phil, let he bring you in. Heres what the post is reporting tonight, that the saudi ambassador to the United States, khalid bin salman, who is mbs brother, encouraged khashoggi to go to turkey, pick up the documents he needed to get married, assuring him that he would be safe, and they say this, which is important. Let me read it here. It says, it is not clear if khalid knew that khashoggi would be kills, but he made the call at his brothers direction according to the people familiar with the call, which was intercepted by u. S. Intelligence. So theres an intercepted call revealing this . Whats up with that . Well, hold on just a second here, don. This party is not over yet. Lets go back to the fall of 2016. The Intelligence Community with high confidence talked to the president elect. At that point president elect trump, and said we have a lot of information about russian meddling in the election. What does the president say . It could be a 400pound person in the basement. Max is dead on on this. The white house doesnt want to be near this issue because they want to remain in alliance with the saudis. My point is we now have the Intelligence Community again saying we have high confidence that we think the Saudi Crown Prince was involved directly in the assassination of the journalist. I think we still have a chance that the white house is going to come out and say, high confidence, conclusion, thats not a fact. We want to see more information. We still have questions about the difference between whether you conclude the saudis were involved and whether you have facts that the saudis were involved. I think theres still an air gap, and there will be between the white house and the intel guys. I want to get your gut on this one because the ambassador denies this and tweeting in part. I never talked to him by phone and certainly never suggested he go to turkey for any reason. Thats according to the post sources. Its unclear whether khalid knew that khashoggi would be murdered. Give me your gut here. What does it tell you . This is pretty simple. What the heck is he supposed to say . Yeah, i got a phone call, and it appears that phone call was directly related to a murder operation authorized by the crown prince, who is the main man in saudi arabia . He doesnt have any option but to say that. And by wait, as a former intel guy, any intel guy is going to sit there and say the same thing. He cant say, i knew. And he cant say, i participated in that phone call because all of a sudden then he makes the crown prince implicated. He gave the only answer he could, don. Susan, considering what phil just said, max as well, these lower level guys when its really at the top, what does the white house do now . Well, first of all, to your point about the ambassador who is the brother of the crown prince, he did leave the country very suddenly after the disclosure of khashoggis disappearance and is not expected to return, which suggests that he or others in riyadh consider him to be in some kind of jeopardy. Perhaps they knew about this phone call. So i do think that his leaving the United States and not coming back is something thats very relevant to the conversation. Number two, the politics of this are very interesting. So the white house clearly has tried bobbing and weaving in every way possible to avoid being tarred with this, especially because theres Jared Kushners friendship with Mohammed Bin Salman as well as President Trumps overall strategy in the middle east riding on it. But up on capitol hill, you have an interesting situation with republicans as well as democrats increasingly putting pressure on the administration. You see this. This was happening already before a lot of concern about the brutal war in yemen, which is causing an absolute catastrophe of manmade famine in addition to the toll of the war itself. The United States effectively has been supporting that war, supporting saudi arabia conducting it. I think youll see a lot more concern that the United States should be withdrawing its support from the saudi war in yemen, number one. Number two, theres a movement afoot to impose magnitsky act sanctions including potentially the prince who carried this out. Let me ask you, jack. What does the white house do now . Have they backed themselves into a corner . Whats the strategy . They are in a corner. But first let me again, in the interest of full disclosure, i represent thousands of 9 11 family members. That said, you know, yes, the white house is backed into a corner. I believe the ambassador left because he had denied this murder occurred in terms that were demonstrably false. So i think it was absolutely inconceivable that he could stay here, particularly in that role. And the other thing i would mention, and i think phil will support this or correct me if im wrong. But when the cia says they have a high degree of confidence that these are the facts, that is cia speak for saying, theyre absolutely certain this is what happened and that mbs ordered this. All right. All of you stay with me. The president says that he has personally answered Robert Muellers questions. Should his lawyers be worried . Your insurance rates skyrocket after a scratch so small you could fix it with a pen. How about using that pen to sign up for new insurance instead . For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise their rates because of their first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty mutual insurance. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Even when nothing else is. Gopis found a way to keep her receipts tidy, brand vo snap and sort your expenses with quickbooks and find, on average, 4,628 in tax savings. Quickbooks. Backing you. The president pushing back against reports hes in a dark mood and has fears about Robert Muellers russia investigation. Phil is back. Jack as well. Susan and max. Okay. So, susan, lets talk about trump and mueller. The president was asked today if he was agitated over the Mueller Investigation based on his twitter tirade yesterday, right . He says he wasnt, but he says something that is pretty telling. Watch this. They should have never been a socalled investigation, which in theory its not an investigation of me. But as far as im concerned, i like to take everything personally because you do better that way. The witch hunt, as i call it, should never have taken place. It continues to go on. I imagine its ending now. From what i hear, its ending, and im sure it will be just fine. And you know why its going to be just fine . Because there was no collusion. Now, he says he likes to take everything personally. Its unclear to me. Is he admitting that he is thinskinned, or is he talking about answering the questions . I dont know, susan. Whats going on here . You know, theres an awful lot to unpack. As far as i know, none of us on this panel are psychologists, so you might want to have a different panel for that conversation. But, you know, i found it to be a revealing comment. Trump often he cant restrain himself in a way from telling us whats on his mind, and he doesnt seem like somebody who is not worried about the Mueller Investigation in the way that he talks about it. That being said, i wanted to point out something about that tweetstorm yesterday. He called it the worst witch hunt in American History ever. The witch hunt actually went away for a crucial sixweek period, from september i believe it was 17th until the election day, we didnt hear a word from President Trump and his twitter feed about the witch hunt. After months in which he was escalating over and over, as you know, obsessing about it, publicly ranting and raving. When he went on the campaign trail, he clearly made a political calculation that it wasnt in his interest to rant and rave about this at all times. And he showed at least a modicum of selfrestraint in not going on about the witch hunt. Now, as you know, the second that the votes were counted and the election was over, hes back to obsessing about it in a way that shows, i think, how much he has been brooding on this subject. I imagine his lawyers did not have a lot of confidence when President Trump said today, oh, it was no problem. I just gave the answers. I dont need anyone to help me. I imagine that thats probably why they havent actually been submitted yet to the special counsel. The president says that, you know, hes written the answers to muellers questions, not his lawyers, right, jack . But Maggie Haberman is reporting at the new york times. She says thats false. Its his lawyers. He also says this. Watch this. My lawyers dont write answers. I write answers. I was asked a series of questions. Ive answered them very easily, very easily. Im sure theyre tricked up because, you know, they like to catch people. Gee, was the weather sunny, or was it rainy . He said it may have been a good day. It was rainy. Therefore, he told a lie. He perjured himself. Okay . So you have to always be careful when you answer questions with people that probably have bad intentions. But, no, its the questions were very routinely answered by me, by me. Okay . So if theyre so easy, why not just submit them already . Well, i think he has been working with his lawyers, its fair to say. He hasnt been doing this in a room off by himself. On the other hand, his lawyers didnt write these answers for him. He adopted these answers. Whoever put the words on the paper yesterday, whenever he gave that statement, he adopted them. I was a little bit surprised because i would have thought that someone like President Trump would leave room so that he might later say, no, no, no. Those were my lawyers words. I didnt say that. I didnt make that admission. I didnt make that error. He has now whatever the answers say, they are his. He has lock, stock, and barrel adopted them. The second point i would make is im frankly not sure and have a hunch that the special counsel doesnt really need these answers. My sense of where this is going and its just a hunch is that Robert Mueller has what he needs to finish up this case. He was dutybound, i think, to give the president the opportunity to provide answers, the opportunity to testify, which the president has chosen not to do. Maybe to defend himself. I think mueller wanted to give trump the opportunity to defend himself. I think he knows where hes going, and he doesnt need the president s testimony to get where hes going. The last thing and just in terms of what has changed here, remember, in recent days and since the election, the president has gotten probably a pretty decent line of vision into the special counsel operation through mr. Whitaker. Whitaker no doubt, among his first chores, was sitting down with Robert Mueller and people on his staff and figuring out whats going on. And i think the president s mood lately is probably and, again, this is a hunch. I dont know if this is true. But it wouldnt surprise me if the president s sour mood recently isnt because whitaker has let him know that this investigation is farranging, is deep, is professional, and serious. And i would guess that the report back to the boss did not put him in a good mood. Phil, im going to get you on the other side, okay . Old tight for me. Everybody stick around. The judge ruling that the white house has to reinstate jim acostas press pass. The president s reaction next. Every Insurance Company tells you they can save you money. Save up to 10 when you bundle with esurance. Including me, esurance spokesperson dennis quaid. Hes a pretty good spokesperson. Ehhh. So when i say, drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved an average of 412, you probably wont believe me. Hey, actor lady whose scene was cut. Hi. But you can believe this esurance employee, nancy abraham. Seriously, send her an email and ask her yourself. No emails. No emails. When insurance is affordable, its surprisingly painless. Were truck and jeep experts,ore than a store. And have been for over 50 years. From wheel and tire upgrades. To full custom builds. 4wp has you covered. Whether you want to order the best parts online or shop instore. Do the work yourself. Or get it done by a pro. All roads lead to 4wp. Do your rig right. Shop online or find your store at 4wp. Com. A federal judge sides with cnn and orders the white house to restore the press credentials of cnns chief White House Correspondent jim acosta. In granting the temporary restraining order, judge Timothy Kelly said acostas fifth amendment rights were violated as his press pass was revoked without due process. Its just round one back again with me, the panel. Phil, here you go. You know what happened with jim acosta today. The judge ruled in cnns favor. Hes back at the white house after a judge ordered that his pass be reinstated. Whats your take on todays round one win for cnn and how this may play out . Theres only two words you used, don, that i paid attention to, and thats round one. I think youre deadon in characterizing this as a significant issue, but i think were way too fast in looking at this as a potential victory for the press. The president from day one has portrayed himself as a victim of both the press and conventional republicans among everybody else, the deep state people like me. He will use this over time to make the statement point a thousand times. To his base, hes going to say these people who are aggressive in the press room are the people who are preventing me from reaching the agenda that you elected me for. This is round one, youre right, don. I think this is far from over. Okay. Max. President trump now vowing to create rules and regulations. Sarah sanders as well for the white house, the way that they can act. Calling for decorum. I want you to take a look at some of these moments of decorum from the white house, okay . We might not have expected to have a crazy mother [ bleep ] like kanye west run up and support, but best believe we are going to make america great. On the campaign trail, you called yourself a nationalist. Some people saw that as emboldening white nationalists. Now people are also saying did. I dont know why you say that. Thats such a racist question. Mr. President , are you worried about indictments coming down in this investigation . You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldnt be working for cnn. You want them to rein in Robert Mueller . What a stupid questions that is. What a stupid question. But i watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions. Mr. President so that was stupid. How about namecalling, calling Stormy Daniels horseface in a tweet. Im just going to say again, the current president of the United States is calling for decorum at the white house. Which just goes to show, don, that this president is utterly lacking in any selfawareness because this is the rudest and crudest person ever to occupy the oval office. So its a joke that he thinks that its the press that is not being deck or us. But to get back to the decision, i think this is a great moment, and i think this is something we take for grants because in countries like germany or italy in the 1930s or russia or china today, there is no check on executive power. The executive can do whatever they want to the press, and in this country, we have something called the rule of law. And in this case, even a judge appointed by President Trump ruled against President Trump, and now jim acosta gets to report because even donald trump, who has such contempt for the rule of law, even he takes seriously the ruling by this judge. So i think that is really a tribute, don, to american democracy and our checks and balances in operation. We should not take this for granted. This is a very good news story, even though it is a small story, and phil is right. This is only round one. Its not going to end here, but this is a good day for press freedom and the rule of law in america. Today was so frustrating for me when they kept saying, there were other reporters in there who didnt get their questions answered. There is a very simple way to fix that. Stick around and answer all the questions. Right. Right . For the press secretary and for the president. What he wants is a confrontation. Thats why he calls on jim acosta. He wants that blowup because he knows attacking the press is going to energize his base. Yeah. You said that. I didnt. I just want people to know that. So, listen, i want to switch gears, now. Susan, i want to ask you about this. This is what a Senior Administration official told our jake tapper about sending u. S. Troops to the border, okay . He says, its a paper tiger, a total joke of limited operation utility and a waste of our troops time. Mattis knows it. Nielsen knows it. Kelly knows it. But the battle was lost with the president. He was hellbent on troops. Thats one of those things people are joking if you get somebody to say it on background, its a big scoop, but actually its already been said publicly. I dont think theres anyone, right, left, or center, who hasnt seen pretty transparently through this decision to send almost 6,000 u. S. Troops to the border for an operation that nobody knows what it is. Now, by the way, it looks like just tonight, donald trump has finally tweeted about the caravan, the alleged pretext for this military operation, after basically being silent on it ever since the election and the balloting and its political utility was past. This is one of the most breathtaking, i think, developments of the last couple months, and it shouldnt get lost in, you know, were leaving in this outreach fatigue moment. But for me, i will never forget. I will never forget the pictures of u. S. Military forces in their battle gear, in bulletproof vests, being deployed, looking miserable about it the day before the election. How is this not terrible for the Republican Party as well as for the Democratic Party . The misuse of resources is staggering. And by the way, i would definitely put that high on the list of things that i imagine that the Incoming Democratic house of representatives will be looking into. Whats the final cost of this deployment . What were the reasons you talk about due process in the acosta case. One of the striking things that the judge found there was that there was no apparent process whatsoever that the judge could find for making that decision. What was the process for sends these thousands of people to the border . I would love to know the answer to that question. Thats a good question. Lets hope it gets answered. Thank you all. Happy thanksgiving. You too. Thank you. Well be right back. All right Kellyanne Conway is one of President Trumps closest advisers and counted on to defend the president no matter what the situation. Her husband George Conway, on the other hand, has become one of trumps most prominent conservative critics. This weekend he called trumps appointment of Matthew Whitaker unconstitutional. Conway has created aid new group called checks and balances to speak out in favor of principles they feel are under attack in the trump era. Hes been reluctant to give interviews which is why when my next guest was able to get him to appear on his podcast, we knew there would be some spicy comments. So listen. Im watching this thing and you know, its like the administration is like a shit show in a dumpster fire. Wow, michael isikoff, the chief investigative correspondent for yahoo news it, the host of yahoo news skulduggery podcast. Good evening. What did you think when he said that . Good evening. Yeah, look, it really was a remarkable interview. George conway is a fascinating guy. He is clearly a conservative, you know, charter member of the federalist society, believes very deeply in conservative principles. And you know, when donald trump was elected president , as he told dan my cohost and i, he wept for joy in large part out of pride in over his wife. His wife was at campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, now senior counsel to the president. I want to get more sound bites in. Go on. Yeah, and his evolution from you know, pride in the victory of donald trump, joy, weeping for joy to where he is today where clearly contempt for what this administration has become is such a striking evolution. Okay. It really is worth hearing him describe it. Let the people hear some of it. This is him talking about why he took himself out of the running for a Justice Department job. Listen to this. Im like, i dont know. And hen its like, then you got the comey firing and then you got him going on tv saying, i had russia on my mind. Its like oh, no. And then its like, then im driving home one day from new york and its like, Robert Mueller appointed special counsel. I realize this guys going to be at war with the Justice Department. Okay. Hes critical of trump on twitter. Thats a scathing assessment of the sitting president. And his wifes boss. Right. And whats remarkable about that is George Conway was offered a top job in the Justice Department to be the chief of the civil division, the guy who would be defending donald trump and the administration in lawsuits all across the country. So he would have been the point man in formulating Trump Administration legal strategy and he concluded very early on as these developments were unfolding, i cant do that. And he took himself out of the running. Oh, my gosh. Michael, i wish we had more time. Listen to this podcast. Theres lots more. Its amazing. Thank you, michael. I appreciate it. Have a great weekend. So the president says hes done answering Robert Muellers written questions but wont say when hes going to submit those answers. Whats ahead for the investigation . Thats next. Big australia is back, and your favorites are even bigger. With the big, juicy 18oz centercut sirloin. And the ultimate Great Barrier combo. Food this big is only here for a limited time. And now, get a 10 gift with every 50 in gift cards. A book that youre ready to share with the world . Get published now, call for your free publisher kit today this is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. Lawyers for President Trump are expected to submit written answers to questions posed by the special counsel soon. Well, the president met multiple times with the attorneys over this past week amid a scaled back public schedule. When asked about answering questions from muellers office, he said there. I write the answers