Relationship. This does not sound like candidate donald trump who often made fun of the french when he was running for president. This certainly is a sign of how he has grown in office, at least in one respect here. Now he has a new friend on the world stage, and he indeed is the president of france. Also the new president of france. So im struck by that as he really has developed this bond here. But i assume that this is one of many state dinners to come, but it certainly has taken them slightly longer than other president s in their first year, anderson. Kate, as far as the event goes, the first lady really took a lead on the decision. On all of it. To add to jeffs point, i think the state dinner probably happened so late in the administration because the first lady wasnt living in the white house, really, until june. She wanted a hand in this. It takes months to plan. She has been working on it for months. She chose everything from the china, which is the clinton president ial china, to the menu, to the seat cushions, to the music, to the dripless candles and all the gold accoutrement on the table. So, certainly, this is a Melania Trump event. She did not hire a planner. At the head table, it looks to be tim cook sitting next to brigitte macron. Bernard auneax, who has a large French Business that extends into fashion as well. Those were the guests sitting at that table. Obviously Melania Trump had a hand in those seating charts, interestingly enough. This is definitely a moment for the first lady. You can talk about the white hat all day today, but tonight is her first time as state dinner host. Jeff, kate, thank you very much. Now some stunning allegations tonight for the president s choice to run the v. A. And a name for him. The candy man. Physician Ronny Jackson already under fire for having no experience to run an organization the size of the department of Veterans Affairs. Now hes facing multiple complaints about his temper and temperament and dispensing drugs without prescriptions. Some of that news was broken tonight at the top of the last broadcast from the Veterans Affairs committee which has suspended confirmation hearings for him. Don tester is the ranking democrat. We spoke to him in the last hour. I understand he had a nickname. He was the candy man because he handed out prescription drugs like they were candy. The white house doctor is nicknamed, among some people at the white house, the candy man. Thats correct. Thats what we were told. Thats not a nickname you want in a doctor. Thats not a nickname you want in a doctor, and when you consider we have a problem with prescription drugs in this country, its not the example we need set. He appeared drunk at a meeting. In which administration did that happen . It was the Obama Administration, and admiral jackson was the primary Health Care Provider for the president. If youre drunk and something happens with the president , its very difficult to go in and treat the president how it needs to be done. This is totally unacceptable in this environment, and multiple people told us this was the case on several different trips. Do you know under what circumstances he was drinking . Was this a social occasion . I believe they were social. There were comments about him being in the hotel room and couldnt respond because he had been drinking so much. He couldnt actually respond to requests that were made of him. Thats right. Someone else had to fill in. Thats correct. In a moment ill ask another u. S. Senator, richard blumenthal, about what his colleague said. I understand there are new allegations of jacksons behavior while allegedly drinking on the job. Thats right, anderson. I spoke to four sources familiar with this incident, including one with direct knowledge. They told me and our colleague manu raju that during a trip in 2014, Ronny Jackson, the white house physician, was intoxicated. He banged on the Hotel Room Door of a female employee. That incident became so noisy, according to one source familiar with this allegation, that the secret service stopped him out of concern he would wake former president barack obama. Now, two sources who previously worked in the white houses medical unit with Ronny Jackson described that same incident to me, one of those staffers telling me it was definitely inappropriate, happened in the middle of the night, and that it made the woman in question uncomfortable. This is one of the most specific allegations weve heard about these allegations about jackson. They have been making the rounds on capitol hill. Jackson was set to appear on capitol hill for his confirmation hearing wednesday evening. That has been postponed. The white house and secret service have so far declined to comment on this story. It sounds like the secret service were involved. We are told that at that time it was reported to the chain of command. Sources tell us it was one of multiple episodes involving jackson, alcohol, and overseas trips. Of course, what you just heard last hour from montana senator john tester. Members of the committee have been working through all of these allegations. But they havent been able to substantiate these claims because theres so little documentation to be able to corroborate it. Were not hearing from the white house just yet on this specific matter. Where do things stand . How might this affect his nomination . Anderson, weve heard lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say if these are true, they want to learn me. You saw the Top Republican on the veterans committee, and john tester, the top democrat, reaching out to the white house. They want more details about any allegations, any inspections into Ronny Jacksons behavior while serving as the white house physician. He served, again, lets keep in mind, under three administrations. Certainly a lot of concern on capitol hill for a nominee thats already facing questions before any of this came out about his Management Experience and his ability to run such a sprawling federal agency. Thanks so much. Joining us now is senator blumenthal of connecticut. First of all, your reaction to the reporting of the allegation of the doctor banging on the door . These very serious allegations adds to, really, the important questions that have been raised, serious and significant questions about his integrity and qualifications for this job. Remember, anderson, there already were questions about his experience and expertise, his managerial ability for the second Largest Agency in our United States government. This nominee is rapidly becoming doomed by the administrations own stonewalling. Its failing to come forward forthrightly with facts, precluding members of the v. A. Committee, for example, from seeing the background check done by the fbi and providing the Inspector General reports from the navy of 2012. This kind of nominee, if he fails to clear up these questions, is a disservice to our veterans, and we want the best qualified. As you depicted the president saying it again and again and again at the top of the last hour, the best people, and especially for this job, the best person. Does it concern you . Obviously the v. A. Is the second Largest Agency, 300,000 people, that there are, according to senator tester, as many as 20 people that they have spoken to so far who have made some sort of allegations, and a number of them seem to be about his management of what is a very small office, frankly, in the white house. If there is problems managing a small office, how does he go about managing 300,000 people . The problems demonstrated with managing a small office creating a hostile or toxic work environment. If applied on a much larger scale could create much larger problems. And there are already problems in the v. A. That need to be addressed by the best possible health care to our veterans. Weve been working hard on the v. A. Committee to help reform the v. A. Health care system, as well as employment and job training opportunities. But here is really the more fundamental point. There is an abject failure of vetting in this white house. I count more than 20 highlevel nominees who have been forced to withdraw because of serious revelations about their past. Scott pruitt already on the job, now having to come to terms for similar ethical violations in his past. So the lack of proper vetting is deeply disturbing, and right now, were going to continue investigating on the v. A. Committee. The Inspector General navy needs to investigate, and most importantly, the white house needs to do its job. The president made a particular point of hiring the best people. That was one of his big selling points. Theres two ways to look at this. Either theyve hired the best people but they cant keep them, which says something about the management in the white house. Or theyre not hiring the best people, which says something about the decisions made by this white house and by the president about who to hire. Theyre far from hiring the best people. The president himself hired Rex Tillerson because he looked the part. The report is that he has nominated admiral jackson because he looked the part. But more than looking the part is required for these kinds of jobs. Vetting, checking, scrutinizing has to be done by the white house. What i dont understand, though, if ones report is accurate, and i have no reason to believe its not, about this incident of him banging the doors. This was in the Obama Administration. Senator tester said many of these incidents occurred during the obama years. He was able to keep his job then. Shouldnt flags have been raised back then if, in fact, these incidents were as egregious as they now sound . Perhaps those flags should have been raised back then. Remember, his job has been as the president s physician, a highly significant one, but not a managerial one at the cabinet level and not one requiring senate confirmation. But here is the really important point thats raised by your excellent question. To come forward as these men and women in uniform or retired military have done takes tremendous courage and strength. Because the threat of retaliation is so great, they have volunteered this information. We have not solicited it from them. And that is a very important fact, the courage that it took to come forward in spite of the fear of retribution. Senator tester is saying a number of them are very concerned about retribution, that if dr. Jackson does not get this job with the va, he goes back to running that medical office and the many people that currently work there. Exactly. And right now there is no clear path for this nomination to succeed. So he may be going back, and the questions and allegations, serious and significant that theyve raised, may prompt it. You say theres no clear path for this nomination. Do you believe he should get a hearing . He should receive a hearing as long as the white house does the work of investigating these claims and provides the documents and evidence that are necessary to resolve these questions. And then we will have the basis to ask informed questions. He will be under oath, and hell see those documents. There has to be investigative work by the white house. Thats where the task and the blame lie right now. Senator blumenthal, thank you for coming. Appreciate it. Were going to take this up with the panel coming up next. Later on, details about the state dinner at the white house and the larger visit by the french president. Whoooo. When it comes to travel, i sweat the details. Late checkout. Downalternative pillows. And of course, price. Tripadvisor helps you book a. Hotel without breaking a sweat. Because we now instantly. Search over 200 booking sites. To find you the lowest price. On the hotel you want. Dont sweat your booking. Tripadvisor. The latest reviews. The lowest prices. An abject failure of vetting, thats how senator blumenthal described the hiring of certain people in the white house. Here with the panel, senator sanders, lets talk about jackson. Man, i did it again. Thats the second time i think ive called you senator sanders. Senator santorum. It just ends different. Sorry. We consciously put you on the right this time. These allegations, if vetted and true about jackson, does this make his nomination impossible . In a brooklyn accent, please. Look, this just doesnt sound right to me. This was a man who served president obama, and a lot of these allegations are from when he served president obama. He stayed in that position even though it sounds like he was not doing his job or was doing things inappropriate in the job. He obviously must have been recommended to the next administration. You dont normally keep someone like that unless there is some good feeling about him in the white house. And then all of a sudden, all of this comes out that hes this scandalous individual. It just doesnt fit. And so im just trying to figure out, is it true, or is this just, you know, maybe a little bit of hysteria trying to continue to undermine this administration and make them look bad . Its possible i think youre right, it is strange, because this is somebody that president obama had spoken very positively about and promoted, but i think were in a different culture now where people feel like they can come out and make complaints against people who are powerful, so it may be that they werent complaining before, and now they are coming forward and saying, oh, he was drunk and he was banging on my door, as he did allegedly with a female staffer. And that there was abuse in this happening. So its possible people just didnt feel empowered to come forward before. Especially if the secret service was involved. If the reporting is true and the secret service knew about this and it went up the chain of command so the fact that the secret service did nothing, if im the woman in this situation, i dont feel that me continuously bringing it back up to the powers that be in my office will make a difference. I do think its strange that president obama and folks in the Obama Administration recommended that dr. Jackson continue on. I think its problematic that so many problematic men in washington continue to be able to do their jobs at the expense of so many women who just want to go to work. Dr. Jackson has earned a lot of goodwill from the Obama Administration as well as the Trump Administration. People really like him. And the george w. Bush administration. Exactly. And so, i think, unless and until he was promoted to another job he was qualified for, i dont think this would have come out. So its people looking at, can he handle the sprawling bureaucracy, is he qualified for that, who started to complain about his management style in this small place where he sometimes behaved like a tyrant, other times his drinking, and the list went on to include this misprescribing of medications. He would have continued on as the happy doctor because people like him. Hes very well liked, and thats why it seems to senator santorum and a lot of us that it sort of came out of left field. So, first of all, hes president obamas personal doctor. So when you talk about and going back to previous administrations. So the idea that there should be Something Better done in the vetting process, clearly if these are true, thats obvious. But you can also forgive an administration for thinking, you know what, this person has been vetted. Theyve been passed through administration after administration with one of the most important jobs that anyone in the federal government has, which is keeping the president healthy at all times. You can forgive someone for thinking thats probably a pretty standup guy and all the reports weve gotten are pretty standup. Secondly, if hes handing out drugs to people, thats obviously a nonstarter. If thats proven to be true, hes not going to be the next v. A. Secretary, especially with the problem we have in this country, and how the president feels about it. Hell say no immediately. But who in the Obama White House was going to the doctor and getting free drugs all the time . This doctor was just handing out drugs without prescriptions. Oh, really. Who to . Obviously, the Obama White House, thats where i start to think, some of this is getting a little bit extreme. Look, if he was doing it or if he had a drinking problem, hes not going to be the v. A. Secretary. But some of it does make you wonder a little bit how extreme weve gone in the space of about 12 hours with these allegations. This is one persons fault. Its Donald Trumps fault. You say that about vetting but you know, as a political professional, how many people reach very high offices and then are promoted into a cabinet secretary role or to work in an administration and suddenly you find out things that voters back home, if theyre a member of the house or senate, didnt know, and youre just at a much higher level, and thats why the vetting is so important. Think of tom dashell when he had to withdraw because he had tax issues. It happens all the time. So i disagree with you that just because he was the white house doctor, he was somehow vetted thoroughly. I can see that he should be vetted better. Everyone should be. But my point is this wasnt just someone who was like trumps guy that he played golf with that happened to be a doctor in palm beach, this was the president of the United States personal doctor going back through a democratic and republican administration. You can forgive someone for thinking, hey, this is vetting enough, this guy is pretty solid. Its a mistake and theyre going to pay. But if donald trump just liked the guy and hes his buddy and he put him forward without thinking hes trusted to keep president obama for eight years in the white house, his personal doctor. You can be a great doctor, and have misconduct issues, and still be a great doctor to the president and the staff around him. The core of the problem at the white house right now is their office of personnel. Theyre not doing vetting. This isnt just a jackson problem. This is a problem across the administration where you hear senator after senator on these committees are saying, these people are coming to the Senate Without the vetting that they usually get in previous administrations, and i suppose its fine if the white house doesnt want to vet its nominees, but again and again, theyre going to trip into this issue. Lets take a quick break. A lot more to talk about. Dr. Jackson not the only hire facing personal questions tonight. The latest on epa administrator scott pruitt and his ethics. This is emilys third nomination and first win. Um. So, just. Wow um, first of all, to my fellow nominees, it is an honor sharing the road with you. And of course, to the progressive snapshot app for giving good drivers the discounts no, i have to say it for giving good drivers the discounts they deserve. Safe driving for giving good drivers the discounts they deserve. This ones below market price and has bluetooth. Same here, but this one has Leather Seats use the cars. Com app to compare price, features and value. Capital one has partneredthing with hotels. Com to give venture cardholders 10 miles on every dollar they spend at thousands of hotels. All you have to do is pay with this. At hotels. Com venture. 10 miles per dollar . That is incredible. Brrrrr. I have the chills. Because youre so excited . Because ice is cold. And because of all those miles. Obviously. Whats in your wallet . Im not sure. Whats in your wallet . Does your Business Internet provider promise a lot . Lets see who delivers more. Comcast business gives you gigspeed in more places. The others dont. We offer up to 6 hours of 4g Wireless Network backup. Everyone else, no way. We let calls from any of your devices come from your business number. Them, not so much. We let you keep an eye on your business from anywhere. The others . Nope get internet on our gigspeed network and add voice and tv for 34. 90 more per month. Call or go on line today. grunting today is your day. Crush it. Angies boom chicka pop whole grain popcorn. Boom as weve been talking about it, dr. Ronny jacksons nomination for v. A. Secretary is in jeopardy, as well as scott pruitt in a flurry of allegations and investigations. His story, under cabinet advisers, are wondering where are all the best people the president promised to hire in his campaign . Im going to get the best people. Were going to deliver. Were going to get the best people in the world. We dont want people who are b level, c level, d level. We have to get the absolute best. Were using our smartest and best. Were not using political hacks anymore. Its a sophisticated chess match. But i have the best people lined up. We need people who are truly, truly capable. We have to get the best people. Back now with the panel. Mike, do you think the president has hired the best people . I do. I think he had a tremendous team from the very beginning, and when they dont live up to the standards he has, hell get rid of them. I dont think hell have any problem getting rid of Ronny Jackson if this happens, and if the v. A. Doesnt like it, theyre going to get rid of him. Term limits have been a popular issue for decades because we get sick of our politicians not doing what they said they would do, and i dont think this president is afraid of changing out cabinet members over and over again, until he gets the results he wants. Which is why shulkin is gone. If youve done some vetting, why do you have to change them out . Obviously, on the campaign trail hes going to say were going to hire the best people. The transition i thought was run extremely well. They brought in a great team. Some of them have not worked out. Hes getting rid of some and putting new ones in. Hes doing it a lot faster than other people. There were other administrations that people probably wish the president had traded out sooner in those administrations as well. Look, mike, i think this is a little different because scott pruitt is a sworn enemy of the epa prior to him being installed as epa administrator. Which is the real reason hes being attacked. The white house should not be his personal piggy bank. There is even an ethical investigation into his conduct. Even his political mentor is asking for an investigation into his conduct. Scott pruitt is not suited to be the epa administrator to begin with and has no business being there. Two, this job has exposed exactly who he is. Mike, mike, mike. It is not the sierra clubs fault or the medias fault or some deep states fault or liberals fault that scott pruitt is an ethical dumpster fire. He was absolutely qualified to take this job. But my three High School Students could deregulate and undo all the obama era regulations at the epa. Its not really rocket science. Anyone could be in Scott Pruitts position doing the best to sort of like i said, scale back everything obama did and put in place every policy priority of the president s. It is his doing and his doing alone that he is in the situation he finds himself in, and they want to get rid of him. It has nothing to do with his policy practices. One thing you have to keep in context in washington, d. C. , is look what happened with the secretary of states nomination. It has been completely bipartisan, where people have been confirmed overwhelmingly that has nothing to do with scott pruitt. But what happens, what democrats do, they ruin their credibility when senators come on here and start attacking every other nominee. The difference, i believe, between pompeos nomination as secretary of state, you are the person who is the top diplomat for america. Pompeo has said and backed some extremely problematic things. Hes been antimuslim, hes been antigay people, hes been problematic with women. Which, if thats what we believe as americans across the board, sign him up and send them through. I do not think thats who we are as americans. Those things are okay in the cia, then. I didnt think they were. Okay, but the Job Description as a cia director is a little different than secretary of state. Nobody made scott pruitt go to morocco on a multiday trip and have one, onehour meeting. Nobody made him do that. Nobody made him go and have this shady setup with a lobbyist and pay 50 a night. Thats why hes being investigated by one of his top supporters. Senator inhoff is totally one of his top supporters. I dont think you can pin it on the left or some liberal establishment. I really cannot believe that you think this is the administration with the best people, as that word is traditionally defined. Theres none better. I mean, there is a word that gets thrown around a lot by the left and democrats to describe the administration as a catistocracy, government by the worst. Whether you believe that or not, i dont remember republicans talking about the Obama Administration that way, or the Bush Administration being described that way. So if youre part of this before the trump era, you probably have some problems and youre not getting the absolute best this is what they do. But wait, this white house has had a problem because there were a number of republicans who were nevertrumpers or who said critical things about the president , which clearly this white house ruled out those people. Do you believe that that may have been part of the problem in terms of the limited pool that they had to theres no question the bench to choose from was not as deep as well, for any administration. There was a clear division, really, the old bush folks, a lot of the old bush folks never got over the treatment of jeb during the primary and were nevertrumpers. And a lot of those bush folks didnt want anything to do with this administration. But i disagree. Look, i was very critical of the Obama Administration because it was filled with a bunch of academics, people who had no practical experience at all. In fact, it had the highest percentage of academics in any Administration Since fdr, and they had no practical experience on how to deal with these agencies in the real world. Trump went in and put in a bunch of real world people. You can say they were i dont even know that word, but whatever the word you were just saying, and yes, you bring in people who are not government people, who are not academics and youre going to have some difficult times in this town because youre doing things very differently. Do you think the best cream of the crop, the best . Yeah, i think if you go through the list of folks in there, you have some really outstanding people. Look and also the country was tired of really slick politicians that didnt have any problems with no real world experience that were doing things that were harming them. So they voted for a president that was completely different, from the private sector, that never hold office before. Let me tell you that that is not true, as someone who has spoken with these particularly persuadable voters, people they call obama voters. Its not true they will just put up with whats going on in this white house. What im saying is they want their lives to be better, they dont care about the scandals in d. C. If somebody is going to come to d. C. And offend everybody by appointing people they dont like, theyre like, good. Thats not a governing philosophy, is it . I think you just hit on something i hear a lot on the right. I dont care about anything, i just want to piss off my political opponents. The right is we have policies, and the reason scott pruitt may survive this is because hes actually policy driven and hes doing things in this office that conservatives wont do. I saw his quote, he said these are questions we need to look at. And he has a right to have his day in court or before congress, to have these questions answers. Lets take a break. When we come back, a lot more details were learning about the first state dinner of the Trump Administration. Now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller im gonna follow the sun now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller im gonna follow the sun transitions™ light under control™ transitions™ peopbut theyre different. Nd. Its nice to remove artificial ingredients. Kind never had to. We choose real ingredients like almonds, peanuts and a drizzle of dark chocolate. Find your favorite and give kind® a try. To bring together a group of remarkable people. To help save the universe. From paying too much on their car insurance. Hey, theres cake in the breakroom. What are you doing . Um. Nothing . Marvel studios avengers infinity war, in theaters april 27th. Now. Where were we . Tonight, the president and first lady are hosting the first state dinner of the Trump Administration under way now with the president and first lady of france. Melania trump helped plan a lot of the dinner, choosing the china, the menu and the state dinner teams. The president has had multiple interactions with president macron throughout the day. A lot of interesting variations on what it means to shake hands. So, i understand the planning of this dinner was done by melania tonight. Sure. She did a lot of gold and white, some china, some honey from the beehive on the south lawns. She certainly looked at things to inspire her. The gift she gave the macrons was a piece of fabric from the blue room of james monroe. Im bad at my president s. She thought it all through. And President Trump is so off the cuff, and his history is fuzzy at times. Shes very meticulous. Wncht who was on the guest list . What stands out to me is who wasnt there. We didnt see pruitt, we didnt see nikki haley. We saw mnuchin, we saw ross, we saw more of the sort of trump friends in the cabinet. Not a lot of democrats. Certainly not the star power were used to seeing. I think only one democrat was invited, the governor of louisiana. Who is obviously french history in louisiana. Exactly. Some cajun food was served tonight as well, cajuninspired jambalaya. Certainly not the bipartisan affairs weve seen in the past. Rupert murdoch, i think, was there, obviously, from fox news. And also tim cook, the ceo of apple, and interestingly, tim cook took lisa jackson, apparently, we saw them together there, and lisa jackson was president obamas epa administrator, a wellknown liberal democrat. She now works for apple. Pruitt, not there, but at least jackson was there. I think its kind of sad that were at such a place with the Trump Administration that even as a gesture just for the optics, no nancy pelosi, no members with, maybe democrats with a french background in congress, you know, just a completely even state dinners now are almost entirely partisan. There is also i dont know much about hats, but there was a lot of talk today about the hat. Why was this such a big deal . I think it was a moment, and i think she thinks her outfits through very carefully. As i was saying to some people today, i dont really remember what the president was saying when he got to the podium because everybody was, hat, hat, hat. Certainly she took the spotlight away from him, really. It was a custommade hat by her personal stylist. People said it looked like beyonce, olivia pope in scandal. Certainly there was an influence of something. She left it on all day, inside and out. She trended, as we say, with that hat. She looked great, but it was a moment to take away a spotlight that was an important diplomatic moment. It is interesting that this is the first state dinner of this administration. I dont know what it says, but its interesting. Its been a while. Most president s have one in their first year, right, and it usually sends some kind of statement about maybe a change in policy or reorienting towards one country or another. You know, i think as someone who thinks its really important for an inexperienced president who is a bit impulsive like donald trump to have some guardrails, i think its a good thing that he and macron have this relationship, because macron seems to have figured out sort of the trump psychology. You know, you praise him a lot, you say nice things about him, hell be your best friend. And frankly, that could have important dividends for our Foreign Policy when you have someone trump doesnt listen to any of the democrats, he doesnt listen to any of the sort of traditional liberal Foreign Policy establishment. If hes going to listen to the president of france, that might be a good thing for the United States. Thats one thing you get out of this relationship that i personally think is a positive thing. It is interesting the degree to which it seems like macron has sort of figured out a way to work with President Trump. Yes. Hes effusive and he prefaced this meeting by preparing a great strategy, which is get on fox news and make points about serious policies like the iran deal and terrorists and those kinds of things. But he plays up that theyre both mavericks, that they were the outsiders who came in, they have that in common. And they represent the people and not the establishment. Trump loves that. And then theres a lot of touching and now double kissing. Also sort of a weird bro hug today. Yeah. It got a little strange. But trump was obviously enjoying it, its obvious. When he was answering the questions on the iran deal, he made it clear he came to provide trump an offramp on the iran deal that would make it look like he wasnt recertifying but he wasnt entirely pulling out. He strategized long and hard about this, and the way he greased it, at least by the reception of the press conference, thus far seems like hes pretty successful. There was one item that did not agree with the president. 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Minutes. That guests would compliment our wifi. That we could video conference. And do it like that. snaps if youd have told me that i could afford. A gigspeed. A gigspeed network. Its like 20 times faster than what most people have. Id of said. Id of said youre dreaming. Dreaming definitely dreaming. Then again, dreaming is how i got this far. Now more businesses in more places can afford to dream gig. Comcast, building americas largest gigspeed network. The president s lawyer, Michael Cohen, is under criminal investigation. Today in the oval office, john karl had a question about cohens future and the president didnt like the question very much. Take a look. Thank you very much. What about Michael Cohen . Thats a stupid question. Back, now, with the panel. Called it a stupid question. In one sense, its a difficult question because Michael Cohen has not been charged with anything. The question of a pardon may be premature. But people can be pardoned before theyre charged. I think its a reasonable thing to ask, given his willingness to pardon some people, like joe arpaio and having questions about other pardons. And the fact he is enraged about the fbi raiding cohens office. I dont think he knows for sure. He has tweeted out he believes that Michael Cohen wouldnt flip. But i dont think hes necessarily positive about that. Hes clearly still you know, we talked to maggie earlier. Hes upset about her article, in great detail, through numerous sources, details the way that donald trump as a citizen has treated Michael Cohen in public and private. Its been reported that his legal team dangled the idea of a pardon for some of the people that mueller has indicted or is looking into. He had two highprofile pardons that were controversial. The sheriff in arizona and recently Scooter Libby. And hes reached out to Michael Cohen on the phone and had him to maralago to dinner. At the peak of this conversation, will he or will he not pardon cohen . He does a mysterious tweet about Sylvester Stallone calling him about a posthumous pardon. Pardons are in the air. Several staffers and Administration Officials have been indicted. Its a good question. Senator santorum . I dont think the pardons he issued to joe arpaio or Scooter Libby were controversial. Scooter libby should have been pardoned a long time ago. I dont think the pardons are outrageous. Why didnt george bush pardon him then . Its pretty controversial. Former president s deeply disagreed with it. He wanted him to do it. This the another special prosecutor operation, that the special prosecutor knew he was not guilty. It was controversial enough that president george w. Bush and his Vice President , theyre relationship blew up over it. Do you think it was coincidental that the president did it with Scooter Libby when he did it . And the joe arpaio one . And jack johnson out of the blue. I dont think the president does anything about thinking it through. Is it possible that the president is trying to send a message. Theres a game being played between mueller and his team. And raiding cohens office is part of that game. You take it on face value, theres a lot of news, lets report that it was raided. Behind the scenes, these teams are having a chess game back and forth. The mueller team is trying to get him to set down. The president is saying dont cross the lines. Were going to force you to cooperate. And theres sort of messages being sent like a cold war sending messages to each other. And i see some of this being a part of the message. He should pardon jack jackson and look at a lot of other cases like his. To say that a game, that means that a judge youre not saying that theres not potential reason to do those raids. A judge signed off on it. I think a prosecutor also plays games. I think, of course, we dont know theyre just following the law and investigating people. When people are indicted and make a big show, they probably did that to send a signal, of course theyre playing games. Theyre trying to match wits with his team and put pressure on them. And the trump team, hopefully, is pushing back in a sophisticated way to put pressure on them. And of course, who is the lead lawyer in the trump team . President trump is. Hes the chief of staff, the Communications Director and the Legal Counsel for his team, as well. Hes going to send messages back to muellers team like, im not afraid to do x, y and z. Mueller didnt raid the office. I dont understand. He didnt have the fbi he referred something to new york. Theyre the ones who got the warrant. You cant do the raids without meeting the high threshold of the likelihood of evidence. He referred it. Its considered if you dont think that President Trump thinks that mueller had something to do with that, theres signals being sent. My belief, i dont know this. Im not privy to this. Reading about investigations like this, prosecutors and the people that are being investigated are sending signals to each other. Thats happening. Heres my question. The president tweeted that Michael Cohen wouldnt flip. He didnt tweet that there was nothing to flip on. I think hes sending signals. Theres something there. Maybe well find out what it is. Well be right back. More news ahead. I have to tell you something incredible. Capital one has partnered with hotels. Com to give venture cardholders 10 miles on every dollar they spend at thousands of hotels. All you have to do is pay with this. At hotels. Com venture. 10 miles per dollar . That is incredible. Brrrrr. I have the chills. Because youre so excited . Because ice is cold. And because of all those miles. Obviously. Whats in your wallet . Im not sure. Whats in your wallet . Now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller im gonna follow the sun now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller im gonna follow the sun transitions™ light under control™ before we go tonight, a quick reminder about tomorrow night. Tune in for a live town hall with james comey and his new book and all of the controversy its creating. Tune in wednesday, 8 00 p. M. Eastern. I hope you join us for that. Thanks for watching 360. Time to hand it over to don lem lemon. Cnn tonight starts now. Cnn tonight. Im don lemon. Why the controversy deepens into a scandal, the first state dinner is happening at the white house, honoring Emmanuel Macron and his wife. The event a highprofile demonstration of what looks like a close relationship between the two president s, you can call it if you want, a bromance. But the star of the evening, Melania Trump, getting her moment to shine, after taking the lead on all of the details of this evening, from