People. Inside politics, the biggest stories sourced by the best reporters now. Welcome to inside politics. Im john king. To our viewers around the United States and the world, thank you for sharing your sunday. President trumps inner circle under scrutiny by the feds. The longtime aide who knows the most about the money and the longtime fixer no longer willing to take a bullet for the boss. This man has come to a moment in his life and i wont talk about what he did in the past for donald trump other than being a loyal defender as an attorney, but i will tell you my own personal view. This man has turned a corner in his life, has hit a reset button and hes now dedicated to telling the truth. Plus new evidence the American Economy is booming, low unemployment, high growth. Is the timing just right or will the president s trade war stall
the boone times . This is the time to straighten out the worst trade deals ever made by any country on earth ever in history. These deals were made by people i dont know if they didnt understand or they didnt care or if they didnt, frarningly, love our krunt. We have the worst trade deals ever made in history but now theyre becoming good again. And 100 days to the midterm elections, brand new cnn rankings give democrats a clear path to seize control of the house. The president s numbers are better of late, but still historically bad. Yet, listen here, he continues to defy history. Give me the top 25 Congress People that can go either way, and i want to go out and campaign for those people. Likewise for the senate. The famous quote, its the
cnn this past week obtained a once secret recording of then candidate trump talking to cohen about buying mcdougals silence. So im all over that. I spoke to allen about it. When it comes time to the financing which will be what financing . Well have to pay. With cash . No, no. Check . Note the i spoke to allen, connected back to mr. Weisselberg. Cnn has told cohen asserts mr. Trump knew advance about the june 2016 Trump Tower MeetingOrganized By Don Junior with russians who promised dirt on hillary clinton. The president says he did not know in advance. In fact, the president and those who speak for him denied it some 20 times back last july when word of the meeting broke. Cohen says others can back him up. The president s lawyer who just a few weeks ago called cohen a
straight shooter and an honorable man now says pay no attention to the man who for years lived behind the trump tower curtain. I expected Something Like this from cohen. Hes been lying all week or two hes been lying for years. We all make mistakes about people who have been disloyal to us. Benedict arnold was disloyal. You can go back to ancient Classical Literature and find people who you think you trust and they turn out to be scoundrels. I dont think i want to go back to brutus and cesar, but we have a dilemma here for bob mueller to resolve for the Southern District of new york to resolve in that so many of the key actors in these key questions are people with damag damaged, to be polite, the president of the United States, Rudy Giuliani, Michael Cohen. What do we make of this . I think Rudy Giuliani, his dramatic take on this whole
situation kind of tells you everything you need to know about how dire it is for the president. But it really does make you wonder, if Michael Cohen was such a scoundrel and such a liar, why did the president employ him for so many years . I think thats real lild where this all comes down to. The key word for me from giuliani is disloyal. This is about the lack of loyalty to the president. But the question for someone, not for me, maybe a juror, maybe robert mueller, maybe the Southern District of new york is why is Michael Cohen perceived as being disloyal . Is it because hes telling the truth or not telling the truth . We dont really know. On these Financial Transactions and mr. Weisselberg, who we dont hear from, smartly on his behalf, i think is in many ways the more consequential witness in that he knows about the internal financing and doesnt have the public credibility of the others. We know about the imt pas for one issue. We have this tape that Michael Cohen decided to release of the
president. Here is Rudy Giuliani who says we have taken this to Forensic Experts and we think Michael Cohen doctored it. He abruptly ended thatrd roing as soon as the president said the word check. What were investigating is how did that happen . What actually did happen . What was eliminated . And then hes got to raise that question with every one of these tapes. We have determined the fact that he tampered with the tape in the sense that he abruptly mid conversation turned it off. Now, we know he didnt do that for a good reason. Again, the feds have talented people who know how to do this, know how to do the forensics and ability lies the tapes that. Will be event, if we get there, in a court of law. In the court of public opinion, smear the guys who was for years the president fixer, is the strategy. Now what . I think one of the important things that has happened this week is that there has always been this question about what is the importance of the southern
district of new york case against Michael Cohen and the Trump Organization . How does that connect back to the Mueller Investigation and how does it connect back, if at all, to the president. There are a lot of people who says it doesnt really. The things that the new york investigators were looking at didnt have anything obvious to do with the president and the russia probe. Here is where we get the answer to that question which is that pressure makes things happen, and the pressure on Michael Cohen has made has produced its first small piece of evidence linking the meeting at trump tower. And i think the question will be, as that pressure intensifies on Michael Cohen, on w weisselberg, other people in that investigation, does it produce more linkages back to the Mueller Investigation and back to President Trump . Ultimately thats the big
question politically and in washington as opposed to just about mr. Cohen. Is it rm to Connect The Dots and say thats one of the reasons . The president has criticized the investigations from day one. Is it fair to say thats one of the reasons he upped his ante when it comes to dont believe anything . Its hard to see the point of all this hysteria. What exactly would the crime here be . Its not illegal to talk to foreigners. Nobody is claiming any information changed hands. Even if it did, so what . If hes proven to have not told the whole truth about the fact that campaigns look for dirt and if someone offers it, you listen to them, nobody is going to be surprised. There are some things in politics that you just take for granted. That was not the president , obviously, but lets talk about that. The president s supporters often say theres trump derangement syndrome, they call it, among his critics and the media. Thats an example of trump can do no wrong among his supporters. Months ago, if it was the
benghazi investigation, darrell issa didnt say, well, shes a politician, susan rice, shes great. Its okay the president may have lied about the meeting with russians or knowing about the meeting with russians. Right. The impression over the last 14, 16 months of the defense has been fascinating. You can put from January Of 2017 till now im pointing to a screen that nobody can seen. But just fyi, its right there. Its illuminating and interesting and it also underscores a really key component of all this, that there will never be a groundswell of opposition that goes beyond the kind of 50 to 60 of the country that seems to be very uncomfortable with this. He will always have his defenders. Everyone chuckles or laughs and that might be possible. The other side lies about people going after the president. Its actually really important. You can joke about how its been split up. This is a different scenario that past crises. You can look back and people talked about this perhaps during the nixon administration. What would have happened if nixon always had defenders. There was a 40 of the country that always defended him and didnt think he did anything wrong. They didnt have the megaphone that the president has now, to continue to defend him, to continue to make the case that whatever comes out is wrong, is whatever one else would have done. It matters because as we talked about repeatedly, this fight right now is a fight for public opinion, a fight over the airwaves. We have no idea what the Mueller Investigation is actually looking at right now. We dont know where sd andy is in terms of their case. As long as these camps sit in their places and have no desire to move one way or another, thats important. That will help dictate the direction. Agree with you 1000 . I lived through the bill clinton team smearing prosecutors. This is that times ten i think. At the core of it, forget the issue, forget your partisanship. Theyre saying its okay if the president lied. Its not okay if the president lies about anything. The thing about all of this, and this goes along with his assessment of cohen at this point, too, is his assessments of people are transactional, its based on whether that perp is being loyal to him at that moment. Now cohen is off and hes mad at him. Thats what that is. The one thing i do agree with rudy on, this is like an ancient drama with the pagt those and the heel turn and you dont know who to trust. I think its a problem for trump that cohen was recording anything because we dont know what else he might have. That being said, you cant make those charges criminal, its going to be splashy and media, but we have seen that not make a difference for him electorally because you have this issue where people stick with him. I do think thats the issue for
him. I should note the president had gone a long span from late friday night until this morning not tweeting. Hes up this morning retweeting Michael Cohen in 2017 when don junior say iing that. Michael cohen has a different place now. Well see how that goes. Up next, 4 growth, add that to 4 unemployment. The president has a plan to rev it up even more. A trade war his critics warn will smother that boom. Come fly with me, lets fly, lets fly away. Come fly with me, lets fly, lets fly away. Response to our tax reform, to the deregulation that we and the president have pursued jointly has been phenomenally success fl. Im afraid it could really be jeopardized by this downward spiral on trade. Is there any indication the president is ready to step back . He did hit day tant button, the pause button with europe. Canada, mexico, china . Any indication the president is going to say im not going to risk this good thing . His argument is it is strong enough, we can ride this out. There will be turbulence but well be okay in the end. I think he very much still thinks thats the case. Interestingly the detente button was a little break with the eu. They gave him a little bit of an out by saying were not going to go further than weve already gone. With nafta and china, things are not going well. China has basically backed away from talks. Nafta is stalled and the president isnt actually making
progress. If what he wants to do is up the risk for everyone so everyone decides to lower tariffs, thats actually not whats happening, even with the eu. I dont think hes getting exactly what he wants, but hes not backing down. I think his aides at this point have stopped really countering him strongly on this. You hear larry kudlow saying we just have to wait to see what works. If the president is right, this could turn out great. If hes wrong, who knows whats going to happen . I think his aides have resigned to where we are. This is any president s dream. There are a lot of people watching who didnt vote for the president. You can say this started under obama. Thats fine. Look at the headlines around the country. The president could just breed that in and he did take credit this week. You could take the victory lap and not do anything to mess with that, or you can try to do what this is the issue on which hes been most consistent. Look, there is a playbook for
taking an amazingly good economy and turning that into an electoral success with an election in a few months. The question is will he follow it . The Message Discipline that he and the Republican Party have to have to counter and blunt the democratic wave that could be coming, you need to stay focused on that topic. And the trade war is one of those things that could challenge that discipline, but there are a million other things as weve seen that this president could end up diverting himself and the Republican Party from that disciplined message. That wont help them at the ballot box. You have conservative free market pop tigss like ben sasse of nebraska saying what are you doing . You try to solve with bailouts, another bad thing. Not heading in a good direction. Youre trying to make it 1929
again. We want more markets, we want more trade. Thats ben sasse, conservative senator from nebraska. Whats remarkable is listening to the farmers, this is from npr, most of the farmers dont like this, theyre worried about it. A lot of them voted for the president and theyre saying, okay, mr. President , well give you some time. We cant give you two or three years. If this stretches out too long, well be under water. I think theres still overwhelming support for the president because of his intent. What were afraid of is slipping into a longterm situation here. Wed still like to see, in my personal opinion, i think most farmers ive talked to at least here in wisconsin, we want trade, not aid. We dont give common sense, Hard Working Americans enough credit in the sense that, okay, youre the president , but there is patience for him doing things differently because thats why people voted for him. This scenario where you bail out farmers because youre hurting farmers is a little healittleal
hand. The Top Line Numbers are so good its almost impossible to rain on that parade except for an executivedriven trade war. Thats what hes purposing. When you see the eu detente, they would argue we or moving toward freer trade. If you read the agreement they came to, very vague. It leaves out auto stuff and almost as an afterthought puts in the fact that maybe well get rid of the retaliatory tariffs as well. Youre getting taxed on both ends. Regardless of whether it hits in the long term, it makes longterm planning for businesses really tough. Thats the key thing. The businesses saying how do we plan three, four, five years down the line . The president thinks this is why a lot of republicans think he doesnt understand hes the leader of the punl. He thinks in a couple years well be out of the tunnel and hell be okay. Michael made note, 100 days and counting, our brand new cnn ranking show more races lean blue. Is the house within democrats reach . To skin matching. So blendable, its like you cant tell where your foundation ends, and your skin begins. 3 undertones. 45 shades. True match. From loreal paris. True match. You could start your search at the allnew carfax. Com that might help. Show me the carfax . Now the car you want and the history you need are easy to find. Show me used minivans with no reported accidents. Boom. Love it. [struggles] show me the carfax. Start your used car search and get free Carfax Reports at the allnew carfax. Com. Sometimes a day at the ballpark is more than just a day at the ballpark. Stadium pa all military members stand and be recognized. Sometimes fans cheer for those who wear a different uniform. No matter where or when you served, tmobile stands ready to serve you. Thats why were providing half off family lines to all military. Democrats at 193 today. Thats the State Of Play in washington. Look at the new rankings releasing this hour on the campaign trail. Republicans from 235 down to 158 solid seats for the gop. 29 likelies, 18 leans. You see the tossups, thats the yellow in the middle. For the democrats, 182 solid, nine likely and 12 leaning democratic seats. Can the democrats give to the majority . Let me give you a dream scenario. If the democrats keep all the likelies, win on the liens and sweep these tossups, look at the numbers. That would give them 230 seals, more than enough to be in the majority. Thats a dream scenario. Elections never play out as you with. It shows the math is within their reach. Why are that so optimistic. 27s toup races. 25 of the 27 of these seats are currently held by republicans, 25 of the 27 tossups are currently republican seats. Thats why the democrats are so optimistic. Only two of those yellow seats are blue, democratic seats. Democrats optimistic. Even more so at the 100day mark. Another reason theyre so optimistic is the then and now. Lets go back to the beginning of the year. Republicans are still in danger, but numbers were better. 177 seats back in january, only 158 now. More races have moved from the dark red into the lighter yesterday, the pink, the yellow and the blue. Democrats, 177 solid seats, 182 now. The climate for the democrats even better at the 100day mark than at the beginning of the year which is why current leader nancy pelosi sounds optimistic. At every turn republicans are
selling out and putting their special interests and donors first. Look at where we were in january, where we are now, 12 races since we last did this a couple months ago. 12 more races moving toward the democrats which is the great tug of war in american politics. We talked about the booming economy, something the president and his party should be able to sell to the american people, but then you have the a first, the traditional midterm namics, the president eefs party almost always loses in the midterm and dynamic two, in much of the country where you have the tossup races, the soft republican seats, the president is toxic. A couple things. One, i think thats reflective of what i was hearing from House Republicans before they left. The poll has been bouncing around where they felt good, thought they were getting into a better place, seriously focused on the economy. That has shifted as they were leaving town. People are now feeling not great about what theyre coming home
to. Ill say this. One of the most interesting things i think everyone is keeping an eye on, ohio 12, columbus Special Election going on now. One of The Monster Super Pacts in the game, put out an advertisement focused entirely on illegal immigration and nancy pell soes si. This is the suburbs of columbus, the type of people that the con message should play for. This is where trump won in 2016. It focusing on illegal immigration, trying to hit the rural area numbers in lincoln county. While i dont know what numbers theyre looking at, that doesnt seem to be a great thing for me and underscores what were seeing right now with the math. I want to highlight one particular race, the Virginia Seven Which is dave bratts district, the old eric cantor
seat. Bellwether when bratt won it. Tea party, wave seats, covering virginia for a long time, thats been a republican seat. That was not something the Republican Party thought they had to worry about. The rankings here have moved that into the tossup category. If thats a tossup seat for republicans they have to worry about, thats the canary in the coal mine that they have problems they need to address. Lets look deeper at the numbers, 2018 numbers, crept numbers, compare them to how the president did in 2016. If you see right now, the generic house ballot, democrats are up 25 points among women. They won women in 2016, but only by 13. White without a college degree, plus 11 for republicans, but it was plus 37 for President Trump. Independents, plus 17 for democrats right now, President Trump carried independents by four, plus four. Midterms are always different. Its not aptal year. If youre republicans looking at the fundamentals, especially
women, independents, youre worried. Yes. I think its true he can exist for a while on base support, but what trump is doing to a large extent in some of these suburban areas is taking White College educated women who were occasionally, if not reliably gop voters and turning them into at least swing voters, if not democratic voters. We dont know how theyll behave in a midterm election, if theyll sit at home. If they dont come out and they used to come out, thats a problem for the gop. The other issue for trump is we havent seen his Power Transfer to other candidates unless they are very aligned with the trump style, and being very aligned with the trump style is not helpful in a tossup district where you need to be more subtle. Listen to the president talking on the radio with sean hannity. A lot of republicans want the president to be quiet or talk just about the economy, dont tweet about things, dont attack the special counsel. Dont travel all that much, just go to the deep red places. But the president says im ready to help. The famous quote, its the economy stupid, well, if its the economy, then we should do very well. I dont know any reason why we shouldnt do well. The economy is the strongest ever, and i think that will have a very positive impact. Im going to work very hard. Ill go six or seven days a week when were 60 days out, and i will be campaigning for all of these great people that do have a difficult race, and we think were going to bring them over the lien. Can he do it and where can he do it . As we have the conversation, i want to show this michael mentioned this in the last discussion about the economy. 95 competitive house races we have in the country right now, 28 of them in the midwest, a lot of them are farm States Affected by the trade conversation, 27 held by republicans. Can the president at this moment we know there are some places he can help, he can help in north dakota, west virginia, indiana and the big senate
races. In the house races, he could drive across the bridge to see barbara comstock. She would hide. No thank you. The president saying he cant think of a reason why republicans wont do well. Well, republicans can think of so many reasons and most of them are on his twitter feed every single morning. The president i think doesnt quite understand that the midterm dynamics are going to be different from what he was experiencing when he ran and won very narrowly in 2016. He also often forgets that he did win very narrowly, that this was not a total it might have been a blowout on the Electoral College side, but it was not a vote blowout. I think republicans are very mindful of that because this is a razors edge kind of situation. President trump wants to throw his weight around in some of these swing states and republicans are believing he needs to be more strategic. That being said, i think theyve been fairly happy with the kind of discipline that hes had recently with endorsing the
right people, endorsing the people that they want him to endorse, doing it at the right times, not going totally rogue, going where hes asked to go. Hes basically following directions. As long as that continues, i think theyll be okay. Going to be a remarkable final 100 days of this campaign, all the money being spent, who goes where, both parties in internal tug of wars. President s trump and putin say they want a second summit, maybe a third. Ah, yes, what a difference two years makes. Russia, if youre listening, i hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. Teacher lets turn in your science papers. Tech vo this teacher always puts her students first. Student i did mine on volcanoes. Teacher you did . oh, i cant wait to read it. Tech vo so when she had auto glass damage. She chose safelite. With safelite, she could see exactly when wed be there. Teacher you must be pascal. Tech yes maam. Tech vo saving her time. [honk, honk] kids bye tech vo . So she can save the science project. Kids whoa kids vo safelite repair, safelite replace for great deals on great gear. Like savings of up to 40 or more on select mens and ladies shoes and sandals. And save 25 or more on select camping gear. Bass pro shops and cabelas your adventure starts here. A drugfree blend of botanicals with melatonin. That supports your Natural Sleep cycle. So you can seize the morning. New zzzquil pure zzzs. He has such an invitation. Ive told him that, and im ready to go to washington. I repeat once again, if the right conditions for work are created. That same afternoon, friday, at the 18month mark of his presidency, mr. Trump convened his First NationalSecurity Council meeting on election security, but there were no new directives out of the white house and the meeting lasted well under an hour. Are we getting tougher on russia, softer on russia . Are we going to meet, not meet . A tad confusing. As far as the meeting is concerned, it seems clear that putin was brushing the white house back. They said well invite putin to washington. That was also a little bit of a game here where the white house felt like the russians after the helsinki meeting were running the show, releasing all this information, that they didnt want it to seem as if they were being dictated by the kremlin. Then putin said, well, actually maybe we can meet at g20. We dont need to have another
summit yet. Thats another reason the white house ended up pulling that invitation back because it wasnt likely to be accepted. I think putin feels, probably rightly so, theres not a whole lot of good that can come out of another summit, a washington meeting or even a moscow meeting when the political environment in washington is so toxic, and the white house is just trying to manage that. The president really wants to meet. He thinks summits are the way to go. Putin doesnt. He understands theres not a whole lot concrete they can actually make work in that environment. The administration, Secretary Pompeo on the hill saying were tough, were tough, were tough. Watch the policy, not the president s words. The president finally has this National SecurityCouncil Meeting on election security. States are complaining theyre not getting enough help, not a coordinated help. David sanger, our contributor has a fascinating piece saying essentially the russians have moved on, yes, they still meddle in elections but now going after bigger fish. Russian hackers feel far more interested in interested this year in demonstrating they can disrupt the american trick cal utility grid. The confidence is not super high. I do think that on the policy, they have been far better than his words. Theres always going to be this die very generals. The president , of course, when youre president of the United States and the leader of the free world, your words matter. Your policy can do a lot. Your words also shift the game. Putin felt that when they met. So if they continue to meet, trumps words will sort of change the game even if the policy is very solid which it has been in many cases. I am gratified they at least had this meeting about specifically russia and election meddling. Thats been the place. You have the ranking democrat
asking the Secretary Of State what did the president discuss with Vladimir Putin in private. Didnt get much. Did the president discuss relaxing u. S. Sanctions on russia . Senator, the u. S. Policy with respect to sanctions remains completely unchanged. I asked a very specific question. Did the president tell you he discussed relaxing russian sanctions or not. President s are entitled to private meetings. Im telling you what u. S. Policy was. I really dont believe you know what happened during the president s twoplus hour conversation with president putin. I dont know much more about the summit after sitting here for three hours than i did before. Fair questions, no answers. That hearing was probably one of the most fascinating things that happened in the week. What was most interesting, one was secretarys pompeos poster which was very aggressive. The second was, he had a list of things they have done to counter
russia. You add what congress has done, the money in place, the sanctions, all these things put together pompeo said watch the policy, dont listen to the president. Our reporters share their notebooks next, well discuss a pre election, here we go again, government shutdown. Into place. Trump, of course, would love for iran to come back to the table, negotiate a new deal he thinks is better than the old iran deal. Administration officials are watching carefully especially before the next deadline in november. Thats when the oilrelated sanctions go back in place. We know President Trump is concerned about Rising Oil Prices on the horizon. I think Administration Officials are skeptical that iran will do all the various things theyll need to do to get back to the tab table. Part of the paradigm to get get, to put the pressure on them, to get them back to the table. The next test for the blustery style and see what you get out of it. Michael . The next phase in the fight over the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is going to kick up a little bit this coming week. Thats the fight over documents. The democrats have demanded that
the democrats release documents from Brett Kavanaughs time in the white house as well as his time as Staff Secretary which is the place where a lot of papers that go to and from the president flow through the Staff Secretary. Watch for another less noticed fight over documents, thats the trove of documents that the National Archive has of the time Brett Kavanaugh spent working on the investigation with ken starr. There are thousands of documents. The National Archive says it could take five years or more to release the documents. Democrats on capitol hill will want those documents sooner. Well see what happens. I remember those days too well i might say. Bill . Another wild newsweek, an evergreen statement. We went through a number of topics. The fact that according to both Republican Leaders and democrats, its a hold on, success story, at this point in time. Theyre moving through a regular appropriations process. By the end of next week, the senate will have passed several appropriations bill. The house has approved all their bills. Theyre moving forward. One of the primary reasons ryan and mcconnell were meeting with the president was to a, lay out the fact that this is working well on a bipartisan manner and b, stress at this point in time, at the end of september, dont shut down the government. One of the pitches mcconnell made is you dont want to step on the kavanaugh nomination. Dont have this fight now. If you want to have the fight, have the fight later. Im told based on people briefed on the meeting, the president is amenable to the situation, agreed to be patient on things like wall funding and agreed dehid on the want to step on the kavanaugh nomination. Everything can change based on a tweet. Ill go with the view of the Kavanaugh Fight from the states. Theres been a 1. 5 million ad buy by Judicial Crisis Network targeting west virginia, north dakota, indiana and alabama. Obviously that will play into this and the midterm is coming up and what that vote looks like for red state democrats. There are poll numbers from those states in alabama, indiana, north dakota and west virginia, double digits in favor of confirming which is going to make things more automatic barred for red state democrats. You might. Let me follow up on that. This is a new phase that adds to the enormous pressure on the top democrat. The first meeting with the democrat is tomorrow. Thats west virginias joe manchin. Indiana democrat donnelly. Heidi heitcamp making progress scheduling her meeting. They are the three democrats, the only three who backed neil gorsuch, the Top White House targets now. The Democratic Base is telling schumer hold the line. Mansion, donnell y and heitcamp also among the farm State Lawmakers not happy with the president s trade tariffs. On the surface, it has nothing to do with Brett Kavanaugh unless your Research Shows voters understand some fights with the president , but not too
many. Thats it for inside politics. Thanks for sharing your sunday morning. Hope you can catch us weekdays as well. Up next, State Of The Union with jake tapper. His guests include the president s top economic adviser larry kudlow. Have a great sunday. vo this is not a video game. This is not a screensaver. This is the destruction of a cancer cell by the bodys own immune system, thanks to medicine that didnt exist until now. And today can save your life. Sometimes a day at the ballpark is more than just a day at the ballpark. Stadium pa all military members stand and be recognized. Sometimes fans cheer for those who wear a different uniform. No matter where or when you served, tmobile stands ready to serve you. Thats why were providing half off family lines to all military. Discover our largest variety of crab and crab dishes all year like new crabfest combo. Your one chance to have new Jumbo Snow Crab with tender dungeness crab. Or try crab lovers dream. Sweet, juicy king crab and Jumbo Snow Crab cozied up with crab linguini alfredo. Even our shrimp is crabtopped so hurry in and get your butterdunkin game on Cause Crabfest will be gone in a snap. And now bring home the seafood you crave with red lobster to go. Call or order online today