News, analysis and interviews with politicians and observers. Several other top campaign officials, and with russians who had ties to the kremlin. On sunday, this tweet describing in the clearest terms yet what this meeting was about. This was a meeting, the president tweeted, to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics and it went nowhere. Adding lastly, i did not know about it. Now remember, when the New York Times was first breaking news of this meeting, the president Helped Don Junior Draft a statement that claimed it was about adoption policy. After that was proven to be a lie, the president s story began evolving, to use a polite term. This is a year ago in paris. I think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. Its called Opposition Research or Even Research into your opponent. Ive had many people ive only been in politics for two years, but ive had many people call up, we have information on this factor or this person or,
people involved in the case, how he communicates to Jeff Sessions over at the attorney general, and so i dont think we can look at these tweets and sort of write them off or shrug off that, oh, this is just the president tapping it out on his phone. Its going to be important as this case progresses. A critical piece of it is that mueller has all the documentation too. We presume he has texts, emails, meeting schedules, correspondence back and forth, which is important because the key players involved keep changing their stories publicly. If you go back and look at this, july 8th, the trump junior statement. The meeting was primarily about adoption. We now know the president was involved in that, even though they denied it at the time. Then the New York Times writes, no, it was about Opposition Research on clinton. Trump junior releases emails that says clinton dirt was d discussed. Sarah sanders evolves that, says the president weighed in on the statement. Then in september, Trump Junior Sa says he doesnt recall white house involvement in the statement. The New York Times personal
lawyer tells mueller trump dictated the statement. So it evolves and changes. If youre bob mueller, you know a hell of a lot more than we do about this. You have all the documentation and the like. Again, beating a broken record, but the president keeps making the case that he should sit down with mueller. The Big Legal Question here is not collusion. Thats not really in statute here unless youre talking about antitrust law. Its conspiracy to commit a crime. The crime is obtaining help from a foreign power, which could be construed as an inkind campaign contribution. This is fascinating because of the prospect a subpoena could come in. Yesterday, jay sekulow mentioned if a subpoena comes in, theyre going to file a motion to quash. Thats going to go up almost certainly to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is 44 in terms of appointees from either party. The potentially decisive vote
could be brett kavanaugh, the nominee. He could have a pivotal say in the president s legal fate. Hes expressed expansive views of president ial power. Tonc to your point about jay sekulow, he had to clean up his own past statements. Hes the one who went on television saying its ridiculous, the president had nothing to do with it. Now he says, oh, well. I had Bad Information at that point. I made a mistake in my statement. I talked about that before. That happens when you have cases like this. I think its very important to point out that in a situation like this, you have, over time, facts develop. Thats what investigations do. I agreed to go on your network and others days within being retained on this and had a lot of information to process. I got that one wrong. Facts develop in a lot of things over time, but facts about something thats already happened and who knew what when or who was in the room, those
dont change, they dont develop. The president either did or did not help draft a statement. There were plenty of people who could have given a jay sekulow that information. He either went on to be a political lawyer and didnt do any homework before he lied on television or said something that turned out to be not true, or again, hes just like them and every time you get caught, youre going to change your story. I think this is less a reflection of this case and more a reflection of the clients that they have here. Trump is known in a political setting, in a Business Setting for sort of changing what he says depending on who hes talking to. Hes done it for years. So the fact that shehes doing now in some ways isnt a surprise, but the stakes are so much higher, and hes putting people, his own attorneys and advisers, in terrible positions to go out and defend things that he himself later comes out and admits are different. Its also absolutely emblematic of the lack of discipline in the president s team. Its shifted, different people have been in and out of that team, but theyve all been characterized by a lack of any discipline you normally see, especially lawyers who are normally very careful. Its not the facts that are
changing. Its the clients story that seems to be changing. The president does have this Tenden Tendency to try to get ahead of it. Tweeted publicly, it seems less nefarious. Of course, tweets are public statements that can be used in court. To that point, thats why im so curious about the president over this weekend, a, after seeing hope hicks and b, knowing more than any of us at the table know. Thats why you get curious, what does the president know . What is he worried about when he does this . Meanwhile, separate but related, the Paul Manafort trial resumes next hour. This is a huge week for prosecutors. Expected on the stand soon, manaforts longtime righthand man rick gates. Gates handled all of manaforts daytoday business then joined the Trump Campaign in a top position. His testimony is a key test for prosecutors and the credibility of their big cooperating witnesses. Shimon prokupecz is following this trial and joins us now live here in washington. Is today the day, shimon . Do we get rick gates . When he takes the stand, what are we looking for . Reporter quite honestly, we dont know. We know the witness who was testifying on friday, the accountant, one of the accountants, shes going to continue testifying this afternoon when manaforts lawyers are going to get to question her. That is the big question now, when does rick gates take the stand . Some of what were going to see and learn for the first time, perhaps, is just the extent of his cooperation. Jurors will likely get that. There will be documents submitted into evidence. Well get to learn how much hes been cooperating. We may not learn the full extent in terms of where it goes out into the campaign or perhaps the collusion investigation, but certainly parts of his cooperation are going to become known at this trial. Itll no doubt be challenged by the defense. His credibility is a key issue, john, for them. Theyre arguing he was sort of the mastermind behind this entire thing, blaming him for a lot of manaforts behavior. So its going to be interesting. What will be most fascinating, to see what his life has been like these last few months as hes been cooperating. It is fascinating. Big test for rick gates, whether he stands up to the crossexamination and the Special Counsel. Shimon, appreciate that. Keep in touch as we learn more this afternoon. Up next, just hours to go, the Trump Administration reimposing sanctions on iran. The white house says iran has no one to blame but itself. Liberty mutual saved us almost 800
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or allergic reactions to your doctor right away. In patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. The most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. Ask your doctor about Neulasta Onpro. Pay no more than 5 per dose with copay card. Welcome back. President trump today following through on one of the many controversial threats and promises hes made when it comes to foreign policy. Starting tomorrow, midnight tonight, his administration will reimpose sanctions on iran. The first phase excludes oil but targets coal, steel, aluminum, and precious metal. The sanctions also go after irans Automobile Sector and aim to cut off the countrys access to the u. S. Dollar. National security adviser john bolton says getting tough with
tehran is the only thing that will change its behavior. It is certainly 180degree reversal from the failed obama administration. Our policy is not regime change, but we want to put unprecedented pressure on the government of iran to change its behavior. So far, theyve shown no indication theyre prepared to do that. Cnns Kaitlan Collins joins us live to take us inside this decision by the white house. How did all of this unfold today . We see the ambassador out talking about it, but what about the president . Oh, a Little Communications issue there with kaitlan. Reporter this is standard operating procedure. The white house would allow a small group of reporters to come in, watch the president sign Something Like this, but today that did not happen. Instead, this was not on the president s schedule, this signing of this Executive Order, reimposing these sanction. Though, we did know the sanctions were coming since the president withdrew from the iran
deal back in may. Instead, the white house had already established a photo lid, which essentially means were not expecting to see the president any longer today by the time they sent out and alerted the press that the president signed this Executive Order today. Typically, the reporters would come in, there would be camera coverage, and an opportunity for reporters to ask questions. Now, today those questions likely would have been about the president s tweet over the weekend saying that that meeting very clearly and explicitly between his son and russian officials last summer was not about russian adoptions but instead about obtaining dirt on Hillary Clinton. Of course, those questions werent asked today because there was no coverage of this event, which weve asked the white house why there wasnt any coverage of it. They havent gotten back to us yet. Kaitlan collins, appreciate that. Shes traveling with the president up in new jersey. It is unusual, especially because this has been a Signature Issue for the
president. You heard john bolton, ambassador bolton, say this is an issue where a lot of the world thinks theyre wrong, but they think theyre right. They view the obama deal was weak, not tough enough on iran. You would think normally, would you not, that the president and this is an issue where the Republican Base doesnt like his trade policy, but the republican establishment is with him on this. You would think this would be the Perfect Moment for more of a big event, right . You would. In the past, the president actually has been pretty forward leaning and public in his statements on iran. Hes had events at the white house. Kaitlan is probably right that hes probably trying to avoid some of the questions not related to iran. As a policy matter, it is quite significant. It is a promise fulfilled for the president. He has promised he was going to be taking a tougher line, putting sanctions back in place. It will be interesting to watch the reaction from the europeans. Theyre not only unhappy with the president in terms of his policy on iran but also on trade
right now. Hes putting a lot of American Allies in a really difficult position. You saw some statements this morning already condemning this action, but for the president , he looks at republicans and he looks at his base, which fully support what hes doing as it relates to tehran. To that point, lets put them up here, courtesy of reuters. The German Foreign minister and the spokeswoman for the chancellor making clear that they dont view this as the right way to go about this. They also think the president is now trying to punish essentially german company, french companies, other European Companies doing business with iran. Again, this is one on which the president has been fairly consistent, even though theres a lot of blow back. Yeah, this is where i think john bolton using the word unprecedented pressure on iran is interesting. On one hand, they can hurt the iranian currency. They already
already Companies Fleeing iran because were sort of the big player, especially in the banking system. So, you know, i think that will be one of the tests. What is the Trump Administration trying to achieve . The imposition of sanctions is usually a means to an end. In the obama administration, it was a means to get them to the table so you could negotiate the deal. Theres little indication that the Trump Administration has sort of indicated what they think their realistic end goal is. Maximum pressure with a big Question Mark for now at least. Up next, tomorrows big test in ohio and the president s late effort to help in a contest that should be, emphasis on should be, a republican slam dunk. Its time we rebuild our own country now, okay. [ cheers and applause ] and Troy Balderson is going to help me do that. Right, troy . Troy . Yes, okay. He said yes. If he said no, im out of here, okay. Farmer. My life is here. [telephone ring] ahoyhoy. Alexander graham bell here. No, no, my number is one, you must want two two, i say like my father before. [telephone ring] like my father before. Ahoyhoy as long as people talk too loudly on the phone, you can count on geico saving folks money. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Dream more, dream faster, and above all. Now, ill dream gig. Now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. Comcast, building americas largest gigspeed network. Welcome back. Ohio, and specifically the columbus suburbs, the big test tomorrow of the midterm mood. A house Special Election, as you can see, the republican who holds this seat now got 66 of the vote when he won reelection in 2016. This is a big republican district, but theres a Special Election for the district tomorrow and republicans are
nervous. If theyre nervous, that tells you in tnot only about this dist but the midterm mood. Lets take a closer look. The last democrat to win this district was in 1980. That tells you everything you need to know. This is a solid republican district in a conservative suburb of cluolumbus. It should be held by republicans. The president carried it by 11. 5. Mitt romney won it by 10. 5. Even at the president ial level, solid republican territory. But the republicans are pouring money in here. The last republican congressman carried it by all of that, why are the democrats competitive . Listen to ohios governor john kasich. Hes more of a moderate. T. The chaos that seems to surround donald trump has unnerved a lot of people. So suburban women in particular here are the ones that are really turned off. You add to that the millennials, you have it very close. I asked them the other day, why are you bringing trump in . He said, i dont have an