A look at Breaking News, politics and reports from around the world. Its more of a custom inside the justice department. It doesnt say that there cant be an investigation 60 days out from an election. What it says is the norm is that there isnt an overt move in an investigation dealing with an elected official or somebody on the ballot at 60 days before the election. For example, a subpoena, an indictment or pushing to get an interview during that window. Thats true. But at the same time you alluded to this, wolf giuliani is conceding that if there is no resolution between now and labor day, which is effectively the september deadline hes talking about, that it might not be the worst thing in the world politically, not legally but politically to give the republicans a Rallying Point to kind of protect the president , not unlike what you heard devin nunes say on that tape. To protect the president from
democrats who may want to impeach him. Now, thats obviously a stretch, but it doesnt take away from the fact that its a Talking Point for republicans. Some legal scholars have pointed out that sort of that tradition of not going after people on the ballot involves members of the house, members of the senate who are up for reelection, but the president himself is not up for reelection thanchts. Thats true. Hes not on the ballot technically, but when youre dealing with the president of the United States, hes always on the ballot in a metaphoric way. In this particular election year, there is going to have a referendum on this president and hes out campaigning for people. So, yes, it is a very unique situation that youre dealing with a president under investigation. So i think its probably something that will be concluded by all sides that it should apply in his case. Stand by. Were going to be getting back to you soon. I want to get some more on all of this. Republican congressman Ted Yo Of Florida is joining us. Thanks for joining us. You bet, wolf. Great to hear you. Is it appropriate, congressman, for the president s attorney Rudy Giuliani to be treating this investigation as a political football by dragging out the Interview Negotiations with Robert Mueller and suggesting, you know what, if theres no interview, that might be good in generating support among the president s base going into the midterm elections . You know, i think Rudy Giuliani is doing what he thinks is best for the president to move forward. This investigation really needs to go away. It was set up on russian collusion and russian meddling in our election. We know they meddled. There is no evidence of collusion. The fisa warrants were issued on those pretenses. Excuse me for interrupting, but We Dont Know What Mueller has. Hes been very silent. We dont know if he has evidence of collusion or conspiracy or cooperation or any of those areas. We know the investigation is continuing. But you know how this investigation can be wrapped up right away . If the president agrees to sit down with the special counsel and his team and answer questions. Why not simply do that . I dont see a need for that. I would defer to Rudy Giuliani again. This investigation should go away. It was set up on a false pretense. Weve read the memos. There is no collusion. Theyre going to drag this out. This thing just needs to go away so we can get on with the nations business. We talk about our debt, we talk about these other threats. This is a distraction. Think how much more we could get done in congress as a nation if we got rid of this witch hunt. I just want to correct you. You keep saying its a false pretense. Do you agree the russians did meddle in the u. S. President ial elections in 2016 . Theres no doubt about that. All of the members of the u. S. Intelligence community agree, including the president s own director of National Intelligence and cia director and everyone else. Sure. Isnt that part of the investigation that Robert Mueller and his team are we know that happened. To learn all of the lessons and to see if there was any cooperation whether with George Papadopoulos or any of the trump advisors working in that area . You know, i think after a year, year and a half and millions of dollars, i believe they would have found it by now. How do you know they havent found it if we dont know the results of muellers investigation . Well, he should have come out with it by now. Hes waiting to speak to the president , though. The president hasnt been charged with anything and he hasnt shown any wrongdoing. So i dont know if i would sit down with Robert Mueller if it was me. I dont believe i would. They usually wait for the
principal in this particular case to be the final element in the investigation. That gives the prosecutor a leg up to sit down with him. You know, if i were President Trump, i dont believe i would. Id listen to Rudy Giuliani. The whole point, though, and its a simple notion that all of us grew up with. Our parent always told us, if you have nothing to hide, go ahead and speak the truth and you wont be in trouble. What is the president and his lawyers afraid of in sitting down and answering questions if the president didnt do anything wrong . I agree. I think wed like to hear what was said on the plane with bill clinton and Loretta Lynch. Lets hear what that brings out. Again, theyve had a year and a half to find something. Obviously they dont have anything. Theyre dragging this out. I disagree with that. All that stuff with bill clinton and Loretta Lynch and all that other stuff with Hillary Clinton has been thoroughly investigated. You saw the inspector generals report and the department of
justice came out with a lengthy report. Theyve reviewed it in detail. This is a separate matter right now. Lets get into another issue, because youre always kind to join us here. The recently uncovered recording of your colleague, the House Intelligence Committee chairman devin nunes telling republican donors that republicans need to keep the majority in the house of representatives. And then he suggested in order to protect President Trump from the special counsels investigation. Do you think its your job to protect the president of the United States from this kind of investigation . Before i answer that, i listened to that recording seven times and i never heard the word protect. What i heard devin nunes say at the end of that is if we dont keep the majority, all this goes away. You know, the tax cuts go away, the reforms we made with regulations, they go away. So you can read that protect in there. I did not hear the word protect. So i dont know if thats conjecture. I didnt hear that portion of it. Ive listened to your show for the last hour listening to that and i played it back over and over again. If thats his goal to protect the president , as you know the legislative branch is coequal with the Executive Branch. Right. Your mission is to do whats necessary to protect the American People, not necessarily the president of the United States. Absolutely. If hes making that suggestion, youve got to have a republican majority in order to make sure the president doesnt have to deal with Robert Mueller, thats not necessarily appropriate, is it . Well, again, i didnt hear the word protect. Youre putting that word in there. I heard that all this goes away. Again, i think devin nunes was talking about all the gains weve had, the historic low unemployment, the minimum wage going up across the country, over 4 Million People getting bonuses and the millions of people that have gotten
increased pay because of the tax cut that we passed. Thats what i think devin nunes was talking about when i heard that tape. Hes talking about all that goes away. Youre right. The word protect specifically is not included in this statement. But clearly its implied. Lets leave that out of this discussion. I could play that clip for you one more time. Certainly if you hear what hes saying about Robert Mueller and his investigation, the need for a republican majority in the house of representatives, the implication is that youve got to keep a republican majority to make sure the president is protected. Well, we want to keep a republican majority because we like the crumbs that are coming in and the American People do too. They sent us up there to do what weve done, and we want to make sure the agenda of the Republican Party and this president stays intact with the ga gains weve made. I agree with devin nunes. If we lose that majority, all
those gains go away and youll have nancy pelosi on the house Floor Rallying for eight hours to protect the people here illegally and theyll have open borders and get rid of the tax cuts and god knows what else. I stand with devin nunes on that comment. I did not hear the word protect. I hope that the media gets that right and says the word protect was not in that statement. I think thats a little false advertising. We get your point. But it was certainly implied if not specifically used, that one word protect. Thats a little thin. We can leave it on that and let the viewers make up their mind to see what he was driving at. Let me get your thoughts. Youre a member of the House Foreign Affairs committee. On these latest sanctions against russia for the poisoning of an exrussian spy on british soil, including his daughter as well. These sanctions are required by u. S. Law, but the administration
didnt implement them until the chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee wrote to the white house in late july, saying youve got to do this because its the law of the land. Youre a member of the Foreign Affairs committee. Do you want the administration to be more proactive about combatting russian misbehavior . Yes, absolutely. Chairman royce, i have the utmost respect for him. If hes leading us, im 100 behind it. These are tools that weve come up with of arrows in a quiver that an administration can use. If we dont use the tools, whether its russia, china, north korea or iran, were weakening our hand. I agree with chairman royce. When you ever a nefarious actor like russia that you know is meddling in our elections and theres evidence that theyre doing it again, we need to act on that. Thats why we put in our Cyber Security response and deterrence
act that will go after these and gives the legislative branch more tools to give an Executive Branch to hold bad actors accountable. Its time we start using them. You got a pretty strong endorsement on twitter today from the president of the United States. Im sure youre pretty happy about that. I see that broad smile coming from you. Always good to have you here. I appreciate it. Thank you for the opportunity. Just ahead, the judge in the Paul Manafort trial clashes repeatedly with prosecutors. What does it mean for the Mueller Investigation . Plus, much more on Rudy Giulianis fear that mueller is simply setting what he calls a perjury trap for the president. Is jew my father passed this truck down to me,
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his more than 20 interviews hes had now with the special counsel. The prosecutors said those discussions up by the bench. Theyd like to keep them secret, because it relates to an ongoing investigation, an ongoing criminal investigation. What are the two things that the special counsel is looking into . Its Paul Manaforts financial dealings. The other one is that key issue of russian interference in the election and the possibility, if it exists, of the Trump Campaign cooperating with the russians into the interference in that election. What that filing makes clear is that the special counsel is talking to rick gates, someone who is very high in the Trump Campaign, Deputy Campaign chairman, in fact. Theyre still talking to him, theyre asking him questions and that that question, at least as described by the prosecutors in the filing, is an ongoing criminal investigation. Theyre still relying on him and his testimony still relevant to
that open question. Important point. Jim sciutto, thank you very much. Lets dig deeper into all of this. Jeffrey toobin is joining us. How unusual is it for a federal judge to admonish a prosecutor like this . And how unusual is it for that same judge to then apologize in front of the jury . Judge ellis is a bully and a disgrace. His behavior in the courtroom is appalling. There are many ways that judges can keep a disciplined courtroom that can move cases along quickly without berating and embarrassing the lawyers, especially when the judge was wrong. The issue that came up was, he yelled at the prosecutors because they allowed an Expert Witness to remain in the courtroom and listen to other testimony, but he had previously allowed Expert Witnesses, explicitly said it was okay for them to be in the courtroom. And grudging hi the iningly thi said, well, probably i was wrong. Not probably, definitely he was wrong. It is unusual because most judges are better and less arrogant than this judge is. You know, i dont think it will affect the outcome of the trial, but i think its a poor model in a high profile case. Lets turn to Rudy Giulianis latest remarks to our own dana bash. He says he might not mind dragging out the Russia Investigation because it could help fire up the Republican Base ahead of the midterm elections. What did you make of that comment from the president s attorney . I think he may be right. If you look at how Rudy Giuliani has conducted his defense in public, it has been basically an attempt to rally the base to convince the president s supporters that Robert Mueller is a thug, that Robert Mueller is on a witch hunt. And its been pretty successful according to the polls. Robert mueller is powerless to defend himself. He does not comment in the media. He only has people who are on the outside who are commenting on his behalf. And we can argue about whether its a good thing or a bad thing that Rudy Giuliani is talking this way. But is he right about how the politics play out . At the margins, he may well be right that the fight with mueller keeps his base motivated. Thank you so much. Jeffrey toobin is our legal analyst. Just ahead, more on the newly leaked recording of the House Intelligence Committee chairman talking about protecting trump from the special counsel Robert Mueller. Were going to play the clip for our viewer. And Breaking News, the Death Toll Climbs in californias fire disaster, plus new details of the man suspected of starting one of the blazes and how he taunted a firefighter by text. See thats funny, i thought you traded options. Im not really a wall street guy. Whats the hesitation . Eh, it just feels too complicated, you know . Well sure, at first, but jj can help you with that. Jj, will you break it down for this gentleman . Hey, ian. You know, at Td Ameritrade, we can walk you through your Options Trades step by step until youre comfortable. I could be up for that. Thats taking Options Trading from wall st. To main st. Hey guys, wanna play some pool . Eh, im not really a pool guy. Whats the hesitation . Its just complicated. Stepbystep Options Trading support from Td Ameritrade the first person to survive alzis out there. Ase and the Alzheimers Association is going to make it happen by funding scientific breakthroughs, advancing public policy, and providing local support to those living with the disease and their caregivers. But we wont get there without you. Join the fight with the Alzheimers Association. You made moonshine in a backwoods still. Smuggled booze and dodged the law. Even when they brought you in,
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situation where this puts us in such a tough spot. If sessions wont unrecuse and mueller wont clear the president , were the only ones. Which is really the danger. We have to keep the majority. If we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away. Whats your analysis . Its a protection racket. I mean, he wants to protect the president. If you want to say, look, we need to keep the republican majority because we need to do more on tax reform or, you know, we want to do more on trade, we want to get rid of nafta, whatever it is, fine, fine. Those are issues. What hes talking about is protecting the president from bob mueller, the special counsel. You know, hes also saying if we did this now, if we tried to
impeach rod rosenstein, if we impeach rod rosenstein, were going to hold up the confirmation of cavanaugh for the supreme court, which people would argue is probably a little bit more important. So lets hold off on impeaching the Deputy Attorney general until after the election. So lets make sure we can keep this majority. And by the way, use this as an issue in the election, which is what theyre going to do. Rebecca berg, you didnt hear the word protect, but the whole upshot of this is that if theres no republican majority in the house of representatives, mueller and sessions doesnt unrecuse himself and mueller wont clear the president , the republican majority is the only one that can prevent this real danger to the president of the United States from unfolding. So the protection is clearly implied there, even if that word
protect is not used. Absolutely. Its clear what devin nunes here is saying. Its not necessarily surprising that he would think this, that he would believe this. But to hear a House Committee chairman, much less the Intelligence Committee chairman, give voice to these feelings is rather stunning. Two things, first, because of what it says about his investigation, about the work that he has done on the Intelligence Committee. It casts doubt on everything the h he has done. It racises questions about his impartiality. Then its also playing right into the hand of democrats politically. They have been arguing that they need to come to washington to be a check on the president , because republicans wont do it. Thats exactly what devin nunes here is saying. Congress is supposed to be a coequal branch of government with oversight responsibilities, responsibilities to the american
public, not necessarily to the Executive Branch, including the president. Right. A coequal article i branch of government thats supposed to be loyal to the constitution, not to the president of their own party. I think republicans in the house have at times played this fairly partisan even in comparison to republicans in the senate. What makes Congressman Nunes stand out is that if you look at some of his statements, that statement, his actions going to the skiff at the white house last spring to try and look at documents to backstop the president s claim about the Obama Administration spying on him. The difference between him and some of his colleagues is he doesnt seem to mind that we all perceive him that way. He is riding for trump and that is what makes him stand out. What do you make of congressman devin nuness remarks . Are you kidding me . If this were a serious process, were going to get either indictments or i suspect were going to get a written report
atteat the end of this Process By Mueller that will include the facts of the investigation. A Real Committee look at the Senate Intel Committee led by republican senator Richard Bu Burr very honorably looking at the Russia Process and saying why dont we consider a fact. Devin nunes is saying, i dont care what mueller find, were supposed to be a block on the mueller process. If you gave nunes the f and the a, he couldnt spell fact. All he says is weve got to block what they do. The senates got this right. The house never has. The funny thing about Congressman Nunes that surprises me sometimes is that President Trump is loyal to no one thats not named trump. Its a wonder why he thinks that if at any point it becomes useful to the president to say Congressman Nunes, who . Never heard of the guy. He used to get coffee for us. He probably will do that based on his track record. So why is he sticking to closely to him . Its hard to say. New statistics coming out from puerto rico to the hurricanes, the death toll from last years hurricanes in puerto rico, irma and maria. Now 1,427 people were killed from this hurricane, as opposed to about 60 originally mentioned in the early statistics. Its approaching Hurricane Ka Trina at 1,833. These are american citizens on puerto rico. What are your thoughts on the new information from the government of puerto rico . I think the United States government needs to do an accounting, a Public Accounting of what occurred here and what went wrong. The president was saying things were going great, the Electric Grid was up, you know, the 40odd deaths were unfortunate but things were going well. I mean, now youre talking about a huge number of people who have perished. Where is the president . And where are the departments here of government talking about what went wrong afteraction, what they can do better, why it didnt work, where were the resources . And were not hearing that. Were not hearing that. Look, theres so much else going on, you know, were talking about children being separated from their parents at the border, were talking about the Russia Investigation, were talking about russia. Were talking about nato. There is so much incoming right now that its hard to kind of focus on what occurred months and months ago. But these are people, americans, americans who died who were not given assistance that they
needed. At some point, the buck stops with the president of the United States. Lets play what the president said in the immediate aftermath of the hurricanes in puerto rico. Listen to this. We saved a lot of lives. If you look at the every death is a horror, but if you look at a real catastrophe like katrina and you look at the hundreds of people that died and you look at what happened here with really a storm that was just totally overpowering. What is your death count as of this moment, 17 . 16. 16 people certified. 16 people versus in the thousands. You can be very proud of all of your people, all of our people working together. 16 versus literally thousands of people. We now know, according to the government of puerto rico, 1,427 people were killed in those
hurricanes. Right. So it really puts the president s comments in a whole new light, wolf. Maybe the president shouldnt have been celebrating that moment in the first place. I mean, its one thing to praise the government workers, the First Responders who in light of a Natural Disaster of that magnitude are responding and trying to save lives. Certainly the president should thank them and praise their work. But to try to take credit in that moment, to talk about those at the time 16 lives now we know it to be thousands of lives lost as if they were points on a scoreboard rather than people who are now dead whose families will never see them again, the president doesnt only have an obligation as an executive but also as a moral leader, as an emotional leader in moments of crisis and disaster. And you really didnt see that from President Trump in this case. Youve got to blame the governor in puerto rico too for
coming up with that number very early, clearly a false number. Just ahead, the Trump Reelection Campaign already fundraising off the president S Space Force just hours after it was launched. Plus, Breaking News, 17,000 homes and other buildings threatened right now by californias wildfires. Stay with us. Liberty mutual saved us almost 800
when we switched our auto and home insurance. With liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. Hey oh, thats my robe. Is it . When you switch to liberty mutual, you could save 782 on auto and home insurance. And still get great coverage for you and your family. Call for a free quote today. You could save 782. Liberty mutual insurance. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. President trumps Reelection Campaign is trying to raise money off of todays announcement launching the president S Space Force by selling branded merchandise and asking supporters to vote on a logo. Our pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us. The Vice President mike pence was over there today laying out a very ambitious plan for this new military branch. Whats the latest . Reporter once you get past the idea of political fundraising off of the u. S. Military, the question on the table is this. There is a threat, becauut does Trump Administration even have the right solution . Space force. Space force, Space Force Space force. So we have the army, the navy, the air force, the marines, the coast guard. Now were going to have the space force because we need
it. Reporter at the pentagon, Vice President mike pence unveiling the white house plan. The time has come to establish the United States space force. Reporter pence making the case the u. S. Is under threat. Russia, china, to north korea and iran have pursued weapons to jam, blind and disable our navigation and Communication Satellites. Reporter in 2007, china used a missile to destroy one of its own out of date satellites. What if it had been targeting u. S. Satellites . What that means is that it put every single thing that we have in space at risk. That includes gps communications. It include all of the Communication Satellites that we have, all of the things we depend on nowadays for our daily life, was all of a sudden put at risk by that one action by the chinese in 2007. Reporter the kremlin working on a similar threat. Russias been designing an Airborne Laser to disrupt our space based system and it claims
to be developing missiles that can be launched from aircraft mid flight to destroy american satellites. Reporter defense secretary james mattis was initially unenthusiastic about adding more bureacracy to the pentagon, telling congress in 2017, i do not wish to add a separate service that would likely present a narrower and even parochial approach to space operations. Mattis now says hes on board with the plan. Congress would have to approve a new branch of the military. And there are questions if more Military Offices are the right solution for a 21st century threat. I think this is maybe the wrong bureaucracy for so if there was a successful attack against a satellite, it could be catastrophic and push American Life back into the 1940s or 50s because of that
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sorry, are you gonna. Harmonica Interrupts everytime. Geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more on car insurance. Bringing the death toll now to eight. Cnns Stephanie Elam is joining us now from whats been dubbed The Holy Fire in southern california. Stephanie, 20,000 people, i understand, have been evacuated. Reporter thats right, wolf. And theyve actually increased the evacuations and this is part of the reason why. Because you see that flame there, right there by that tower, right here behind these homes. And you can probably also see that the wind is picking up here. These are all the concerns in the afternoon when theyre fighting fires. And this is what theyre dealing with across the state. Tonight, responders are scrambling to save lives and contain the damage, as fires blaze across california. These images from The Holy Fire in Orange County show what looks like a fire tornado. The Smoke Billowing as flames swirl along the hillside. Im caught on fire. Im burned. Reporter authorities believe The Holy Fire was manmade, allegedly started by this man,
51yearold forest gordon clark. Now behind bars and facing several felony arson charges. And if convicted, could face the rest of his life in prison. You know how this fire started . I have no idea. I was asleep. I had two ear plugs in. I just woke up, dude. I got burned. I woke up and my stuff was all on fire. This is a monster. Humidity and high wind and the highest Heat Temperatures this time of the year and intentionally set the forest on fire . He needs to be in jail for the rest of his life. Truly does. Holy gym volunteer fire chief Mike Milligan has known clark for decades and showed us a tech he says clark sent him just weeks ago. Its also going to burn, just like you planned, it read. Alleged Behavior Milligan said he warned officials of in the past. I said, you have to take care of this or hes going to burn something or kill somebody. And that was three years ago. Reporter californias warm and dry conditions, including july, registering as the hottest month on error record here have created the perfect storm for wildfires. Nearly 17,000 structures are threatened by three fires alone, as thousands of people have evacuated their homes. More than 13,000 firefighters are battling 19 major fires across the entire state, including what has already become the largest in californias history, the mendocino complex fire. On the front lines, a firsthand glimpse at how theyre trying to fight it. Controlled burns help get rid of any potential fuel that could help spread the wildfire. This fire is huge, but why has it been able to grow so big . Our First Priority is protecting the communities and the homes. Secondly, in building our control lines, we have to use a national lly occurring geograph features to help us control the fire. Reporter back in southern california, residents here are
grappling with the possibility that this destruction may be intention al intentional. Already the second wildfire authorities here are calling arson. I have to say, im not surprised, however, i feel i just feel terrible that this has all gone down. Reporter and if you take a look right now, it looks like that fire is getting closer to that structure there. This is the concern, this is what theyre trying to stop. But take a look also, wolf, at the thickness, the darkness of the smoke here. That tells you that it is finding new fire, new brush to burn through, and if you look to the right, you can see how clear it is, to show you that this darkness youre seeing here is strictly from the fire and the smoke here. The lake is over there, that is where theyre going to pull up water from helicopters, from plains, to fight this fire, but, obviously, when you come this close to civilization, this is where the concern is and this is where theyre battling right now. Stephanie elam on the scene for us. Lets bring in chief mike mueller, the Deputy Director of communications for cal fire. Hes joining us now on the phone. Chief, give us the latest on the progress youre making. Is there any end in sight . Right now, wolf, thank you for having us. What were seeing right now across the state is explosive fire growth. Like you mentioned, we have other 13,000 firefighters engaged. Unfortunately, what were going to see is red flag warnings throughout northern california, increased high temperatures in southern california, so its really a statewide emergency. Whats the toughest challenge for your firefighters out there on the front lines . I think right now, you know, one of the fires the mendocino complex being the largest in the state history, again, were recovering, still not, from a drought of six years of dead and dying fuels, explosive fire growth, very difficult country, and then as you can see on The Holy Fire, what we call the wildland urban interface makes it very difficult for firefighters to get in there and protect property. Do you expect the weather to shift in your favor anytime soon . We dont, for the next, unfortunately, seven days, the Weather Outlook is not in our favor. We have a lot of open fire line
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