Ayman Mohyeldin hosts coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. He walked that fine line. He was just very critical of the investigation. Not going after mueller in a personal kpcapacity. But with the tone of the tweet we just read, he is really trying to assign mueller a motive as to why hes going after trump eluding to things like he didnt get the job, Nasty Business Relationship that went sour between the two men. Do you think this is a different tactic now that were seeing that hes building up for the past several months . Hes been going after mueller for a while. I do think were at a critical moment here. Theres a lot of of expectation that mueller is building to some more indictments, to some more cases and theres that Obstruction Report that he has been working on for some time. And theres a generally belief that hes not going to do anything after labor day. He doesnt want to be accused of interfearing in the election in the same way that james comey
mueller . It feels as if something is building. I was at the Justice Department on friday. Shortly after Republican House effort to try to impeach or censure rod rose instein because Speaker Paul Ryan didnt agree it with. Rod rosenstein was withstanding this pressure as does bob mueller. The person who appears to be operating under some more intense pressure is the president who as you pointed out today has been tweeting again about mueller. Thats because doj now announced two indictments against russians for Information Warfare and for hacking and other types of offenses. And the question is will the Special Counsel unveil indictments of any americans who were involved in those activities before the midterm elections . That combined with the looming trial of Paul Manafort which starts this week in virginia and the increasing pressure under
scandal for the last half century from watergate to irancontra and white water, there have been public hearings and the key witnesses testified in public. This is nonsense what were getting now with the counter spin. Chuck grassley and Dianne Feinstein and richard berr and mark warner at intelligence, they could subpoena Michael Cohen tomorrow, have him testify in public. We can learn exactly what he has to say, exactly who was there, who his other witnesses were. They can bring back donald trump jr. , have him testify in public. And we can air this and the public can evaluate for themselves who is telling the truth here. But this spin, counter spin is really not doing anybody any favors and its clouding the issue. I thit shate to say this but think youre asking for a lot from congress. It is their responsibility. Absolutely. They say they want to investigate this and yet everything is Behind Closed Doors and all we get is spin from two sides. Youre right. I was just trying to be a little sarcastic there. I appreciate your point. Rick, i want you to watch giuliani claiming that cohen doctored at least one of the recordings. Take a listen to this. Now ive listened, unfortunately, to mshany, many hours of tapes. And the man is a pathological manipulator, liar. I didnt know that. I didnt know him well. Hes capable, i think, unfortunately of doctoring tapes. He hasnt done that, hard to do it now since we have an expert all over it. Rick, i know that you worked on two of jew lagiulianis camp. What is your reaction there . What is the strategy that you think hes going after . I think its important to remember the rudy youre seeing is a performing rudy. He is playing the role of the junk yard dog attorney deaverfeg
his client to the hilt. I dont think rudy believes that the tapes are doctored. I dont think he but you can expect him to do the very sort of, you know, upper style rudy, the big character because its newsworthy. It keeps the base of trumps support, you know, gives them a sort of model to go after, a Talking Point to follow. And so the fact that hes going to play that role and hes going to play it with all this sort of big over the top assertions and stuff, its just important to remember, like i said, its performance. Its a piece of Performance Art as lawyering. Who has more perceived credibility here, trump or cohen . Both of these men, an argument can be made against them. How do you see this being played out . Im going to go with the people who have the Subpoena Power. The people that have the Subpoena Power are the prosecutors and the Southern District of new york and the Special Counsels office. Those folks know far more than we do. And they know who telling the truth and who is not telling the truth. They likely already got Phone Records and corroborating evidence to give a sense of who here is shading and not shading and by how much. Id also point out that to the extent Congress Wants to delve into the issues seems like kind of doesnt. That could get in the way of the on going criminal investigations. So for now were left with these actors both with motivations to improve on a story which may or may not be true. Shading the truth. And though important thing is what evidence a grand jury sees in new york and d. C. And virginia. Yeah. To michaels point, at the end of the day, were all still left in the dark here. No transparency whatsoever for the public. Thank you very much for joining us. Michael, stick around. Youll be back later in the program. What if the tape of Michael Cohen and President Trumps
conversation was altered . Were going to discuss. Plus, the ultimate will they or wont they right after the president invites putin to the white house, putin turns around and says he invited the president to russia. The possible power play behind the special invite. You might take something for your heart. Or joints. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in Clinical Trials to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Let someone else do the heavy lifting. Tripadvisor compares prices from over 200 booking sites to find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. So you barely have to lift a finger. Or a wing. Tripadvisor. Then you might have a dcondition called dry mouth. . Biotene is clinically proven to soothe and moisturize a dry mouth. Plus, it freshens breath. Biotene. Immediate and long lasting dry mouth symptom relief. Bundle and save big, but now its time to find my dream abode. Right away, i could tell his priorities were a little unorthodox. Keep going. Stop. A little bit down. Stop. Back up again. Is this adequate sunlight for a Komodo Dragon . Yeah. Sure, i want that discount on Car Insurance just for owning a home, but im not compromising. Youre taking a shower . Water pressures crucial, scott its like they say location, location, koi pond. They dont say that. On the heels of the controversial summit in helsinki, an encounter is in the works this time on american soil. I think this meeting is very important for everyone. All right. The white house says the next summit now wont take place until after the first of the year. National security adviser john bolton saying they want to wait until the witchunt or Mueller Probe is over. But some are speculating there could be another reason for the delay. No one really publicly endorsed that idea. A lot of people said it was a bad idea. He is an adversary. You dont invite him to the white house. All right. So russian President Putin returned the favor inviting trump to visit moscow, something President Trump is considering. We are ready to invite President Trump to moscow. Be my guest. He has such an invitation and i told him that. I am ready to go to washington as well. I repeat, once again, if the
right conditions for work are created. So is this now the beginning of a budding new bromance and how can russians benefit from this relationship . Russian tv took to the Streets Of Moscow and asked what do you want from mr. Trump. Watch . All right. So trump may have some fandz s russia. But germanys Defense Minister delivered a scathing critique in an interview and he said, the u. S. President lacks any strategy in dealing with russia. A trip to moscow may be just what trump needs as things start to heat up back here at home. As Donald Trumps former personal lawyer jumped camp and released a Damming Recording of a conversation he had with trump, how much political damage has been done . Did Michael Cohen betray you . All right. And then theres this trolling. The russian pop star who helped facilitate the 2016 trump tower meeting between don jr. And the russians, taking a cheeky jab at the president in a music video featuring a trump look alike. Wish you at least could be honest i wish that you told me the truth but you keep complaining and every time that you go you got me so good i wish you would be honest the lyrics there. All this could make the president anks shuxious. What about the rest of us . Trump Anxiety Disorder is not an official diagnosis but therapists know the symptoms. To talk about the trumpputin dynamic, i want to bring in my panel. The former white house director and democratic strategist and back with me once again, michael isakoff. Great to have you with us. Is this normal . Give us a sense. You spent time at the State Department. Dueling invites from superpowers with neither side really seeming to know about the other offer or invitation in advance, is that something that is common practice . No, none of this is normal. Big surprise. Usually the way this works is that an invitation is discussed at length by both sides before it is officially extended, meaning that staff on both sides, the Foreign Ministry and State Department all know about this in advance. And lots of planning goes into it. Its usually an invitation to the white house. Its a reward for Good Behavior or extension of good will as it was for example with india to increase economic ties. In this circumstance, donald trump extended the invitation to putin to come right during the election and everybody was shocked. How do you invite the adversary who is accused by your intelligence agencies, by your congressional leaders of
interfearing inte interfering in the election and then you off the cuff invite a former kgb head of this operation to come on your home turf . On top of all of that, putin played completely i coucoy, he not accept or decline the invitation for five days until trum health care pl trum Health Care Plan to officially withdraw it. That was a power play by putin. Putin is saying can you come to moscow as an extension of that power play because it gives putin the home turf advantage. And not to mention, nobody forgets that moment when dan coats, director of National Intelligence was told about the invitation from the white house and his reaction and surprise to that. Michael, let me play you the sound bite from the secretary of state. He was grilled on what came out of that first big trumpputin meeting. Take a listen to this. There were many things that came from what i view as incredibly important meeting between a President Trump andPresident Putin. One that i think the world will benefit from when history is written. All right. And to my recollection, he is not yet articulated what came out of this meeting. Why then have a second meeting, mike signal what do you think is the real motivation behind having a second meeting since there was nothing announced in the first one . Who knows . We dont know what was said in that first one. And pompeo doesnt either. All he knows is what the president told him and one does have to wonder how accurate and fullsome the president s account would have been . It does appear that the russians have a much better handle on what was exchanged between President Trump and President Putin at that meeting than anybody in the United States government. So, look, the fact that they want to have a second meeting without any sort of really detailed accounting of what took place in the first one is a little bit odd at best. Yeah. Theyre not even announcing or
articulating a series of meetings or steps that they can say could lead to this, you know, like some working group. Working agenda. Absolutely. Adrian, speaking of agendas, let me read this to you. This is the National Security adviser john bolton. He put out a statement that reads the president believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia Witchunt is over. So we agreed that it will be after the first of the year. Is that the real reason here for this delay or is it because putins visit was unpopular in the first place not to mention among the president s own party it drew a lot of criticism . Sure. I think its the latter as opposed to the former. But i want to make the point here that fact that our National Security adviser of the United States of america, the person who has the ear of the president on National Security matters probably more so than anybody else in the administration is actually calling a very Serious Investigation into russian
meddling and into our elections. Russian interference for that matter. Clear cut interference. A witchunt in an official white house statement is just you just cant believe this is actually happening. We see this time and time again. Of course john bolton on fox news consistently disparaging the Mueller Investigation is one thing. Now hes National Security adviser. Again, you know, every day i think im not surprised by something the Trump White House does because so many things are chaotic that come out of that administration, something manages to shock me. Let me draw into your expertise once more the State Department i should say the white house, excuse me, is no longer publishing readouts of the president s phone calls with World Leaders. How problematic, how disturbing is that . Or is it not . Extremely disturbing because even though those reports used to be fairly anondine, it is
talked about and Counter Terrorism policies and economic cooperation, at least it gave a sense of what parts of policy and strategy the two leaders were talking about. And the readouts again go to the broader understanding that the Executive Branch is ultimately beholden to the american people. And we are able to get information. That is of the most importance in maintaining our system of checks and balances. And maintaining the integrity of our democracy. This is just another step by denying us basic information about what our president is talking to other World Leaders about. It allows donald trump to make the presidency about himself and not about the american public. It also leads me to believe that sometimes those other World Leaders if theyre adversaries could spin the message the way they want to. They have been. Weve been hearing all about this from the russians. Every aspect. So they now are winning the Public Affairs campaign about
whats going on in the war on syria, what is happening in iran. Theyre now claiming u. S. Support that may or may not exist because we dont have an accurate readout from our own president. Michael, let me get your final thoughts on how this putintrump bromance plays out with our allies. We played a sound bite from the German Defense minister saying there is no american strategy to deal with russia. It goes beyond just the lack of strategy, right . Theres no doubt theyre going to be remembered far more than anybody else about that summit and events leading up to it. Because there you had the president unvarnished taking what he really thinks. And what really thinks is the russians didnt really attack our election. It may have been somebody else. What about the dnc server, all this, you know, sand dust that hes been throwing out there. And if thats what hes saying in public after meeting putin, we can presume he was saying he was saying something similar in his private talks with putin. That is really astonishing. I want to echo that point made before, the idea that john bolton is now adopting the political spin of the president calling the Mueller Investigation a witchunt is really remarkable. He has a