Transcripts For CNNW New Day 20180403

Here. A newly classified declassified memo has been released and provides new details on the scope of Robert Muellers investigative mandate. Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein explicitly authorized mueller to investigate whether Paul Manafort colluded with the russians in the 2016 election and to probe any crimes related to payments that manafort received from the ukrainian government. Meanwhile, President Trumps focus continues to be on curtailing illegal immigration. The president tweeted once again about caravans he says of immigrants taking advantage of what he calls our nations weak border laws. It comes as the white house is making a new legislative push aimed at strengthening Border Security. Well begin our coverage this morning with live coverage in washington with our top story, the mueller investigation, a lot of folks predicting its end but a lot of folks still working on it. This memo lays out the scope of the special counsel investigation shows that its not coming to an end any time soon. Now the memo was written as authorization which was given by the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein who is overseeing the russia probe, as we know at times has been himself criticized by the president. This memo it was written in august three months after bob mueller was appointed to run the investigation. And in a significant move, the special counsel made parts of this memo public and here is some of what it reveals. Certainly some of the allegations that mueller is investigating against manafort. One of those is allegations that he committed a crime or crimes by colluding with the russians. And then the second one is that it also says mueller is authorized to investigate manafort for money he received while working for the prorussian head of the ukrainian government. As we know, mana gs fort was charged with some of that money, Money Laundering he made from that work. His attorneys are arguing that mueller overstepped his jurisdiction by bringing those charges because essentially it has nothing to do with the russia investigation. Now this threepage memo is also notable for what we dont see. And that is parts of it actually most of it is blacked out and it appears to indicate other allegations and people that mueller that the mueller team is investigating. The memos existence has been classified up until now, and it was released as part of muellers response to manaforts motion to dismiss one of the indictments against him. Guys, certainly this memo shows that any notion that the collusion investigation is over and that manafort isnt potentially facing russiarelated charges alisyn, is clearly not true. Thank you, shimon for all of that reporting. Lets talk about what the president is focus on this morning. He tweeted now ten times about illegal immigration in just the past 48 hours as the white house makes a new legislative push on immigration. Cnns Abby Phillips is live at the white house with more. So whats changed, abby . Reporter well, good morning, alisyn. President trump is clearly pivoting hard to his base with these tweets, implying new hardline immigration stance. He tweeted just this morning more about this issue of caravans supposedly coming up from Central America into the United States, he said. The big caravan of people from honduras now coming across mexico and headed to our weak laws border has better be stopped before it gets here. Cash cow nafta is in in play as is foreign aid to honduras and the countries that allow this to happen. Congress must act now. Threatening honduras and mexico and nafta just at the same time the white house is planning a new push to encourage congress to pass new hardline immigration laws. President trump continuing to vent about u. S. Immigration policies, calling current laws weak and an obama joke and urging congress to act. The white house beginning another push to pass a series of hardline measures that failed to gain steam last fall, including removing protections that prevent the immediate deportation of undocumented children and allowing authorities to keep families in detention for longer periods awaiting deportation decisions, according to the New York Times. This effort coming after the president declared that any deal to protect dreamers is dead. The democrats have really let them down. Its a shame. And now people are taking advantage of daca. Thats a shame. It should have never happened. Didnt you kill, daca, sir . Didnt you kill daca . Reporter President Trump announced he intended to end the Dreamer Program last fall. And immigration negotiations collapsed earlier this year after the president signaled he was open to a bipartisan solution. This group and others from the senate, from the house comes back with an agreement, im signing it. I mean, i will be signing it. Im not going to say, oh, gee, i want this or i want that. Reporter democrats offered 25 billion for the president s border wall in exchange for citizenship for dreamers. The white house was not satisfied, saying there were too few measures to curb immigration overall. Sources tell cnn that a number of president s allies warned him this weekend that his base thinks hes softening on immigration. The president is also ramping up his attacks on amazon, accusing the company of hurting the u. S. Postal service and brick and mortar stores, arguments he made on the campaign trail. And believe me, if i become president oh do they have problems. Reporter the latest criticism causing amazon stock to drop 5 . President trump also renewing his rebuke on his own Justice Department, accusing the doj and the fbi of slow walking documents requested by congress for on going investigations. Calling the institutions an embarrassment, this as sources tell cnn embattled epa chief Scott Pruitts job may be in jeopardy. The president is reportedly angry with recent reports that pruitt rented a room from the family of an Energy Lobbyists well under value. The new york city times reports the epa signed off on a proposal from a Canadian Company linked to the lobbying firm last month the same time pruitt was renting the condo. The epa and the firm deny theres any connection. And a spokeswoman from the epa is now saying that scott pruitt is focussed on advancing President Trumps agenda amid all of this controversy over his use of taxpayer dollars. And we will see President Trump today in a press conference that he will host with the leaders of Baltic States this afternoon. Back to you guys. Okay, abby, thank you very much for all of the reporting. Joining us now we have reporter and editor at large cnn politics Chris Cillizza and cnn michael legal analyst Michael Zeldin. Lets begin with immigration. Thats very much on the president s mind in the past 48 hours, Chris Cillizza. This weekend ann colter was interviewed the New York Times about how disappointed she is in his not building a wall, how disappointed she thinks the base is that is what they think was his quintessential Campaign Promise and he hasnt kept it. They dont like he signed the omnibus spending bill without the money for the wall and he seems to have churned up the twitter machine now into overdrive with harsher rhetoric than he has used for the past months about dreamers and daca. So, look, weve often talked about what should we Pay Attention to the tweets or the policy. What wr do you think these two intersect . Ive always been on the Pay Attention to the tweets. Its what he really thinks and what he really cares about. Now that changes quite frequently as his twitter feed reflect. I do think its a window into his mind. I think this is largely, alisyn, as you lay out a reaction to what he heard over the easter weekend. Remember who he was talking to. Sean hannity, janine piro, bill shine, a former fox news executive. So theres a lot of people in his ear who are reflective of that trump base. I dont want to conflate it with the republicans. But the trump base and the trump base believes wholeheartedly that when he said he was going to build the wall, it was not symbolic, it was not sort of a Campaign Promise that politics make, that it was the core central, most important thing he can do. And if he does not do it, it is an actual betrayal, maybe the one thing that actually leads some of them to jump off the trump bandwagon. Here is a question, Chris Cillizza, he Needs Congress to make that happen. Listen, hes creating a stir. Theres no question. Hes great at driving at what people are talking about, but is he going to get congress, the Republican Leadership in congress to move on this . Bewell, like we see so much with trump, jim, the rhetoric is at 10, the policy solutions are at 1. While were going to close these loopholes . What specifically is it related to the caravan, people seeking political asylum . That will determine what congress is willing to do. Remember, republicans control the house and the senate. I dont think its out of the question that we could see some level of reaction by Mitch Mcconnell in the senate and paul ryan in the house to this to try to get something done, but when you say congress, you have to say what they would act on and that will determine what will happen. Well, look, the president s tweeting that daca is dead. That would mean the bill of love is dead, but we had the broad outlines of a grand bargain offered up. Democrats offering 25 billion for Border Security. You know, the question i think is can that be built on by people in both parties who want to see a win . The president then comes out looking like a hero, is it just prosecuting a negative. But part of this hard line tact thats coming right now Michael Zeldin is from trumps own Justice Department in the last few hours late last saying, michael, theres a new policy in place they want to impose a quo ta of 700 cases for deportations per year. Do you think that is going to fly . Well, its not clear exactly how they intend to implement it. I think these judges get reappointed every period of time and this may be part of their evaluation criteria for reappointment. If however, its an effort by the executive branch to impose on i guess these are Judicial Branch people even though theyre executive appointees, theres a separation of powers implication to what this is doing. So we have to see exactly what this means. Theres nothing good about it on first evaluation of it, but its a little too soon, jim, to understand exactly how they intend to implement this. Chris cillizza, help us fact check the big caravans of people coming to the u. S. Border that the president tweeted. There is this group people without borders they have done this in the past. They say they are fleeing violence and persecution in generally honduras and Central America. The president acts as though theyre a band that is about to overtake our border. So, how is this going to work . Yeah. Okay. So first the Fact Checking piece. Youre right absolutely, alisyn, its happened five previous times organized by this people without borders group. In 2017, there were two caravans about 200 people. Three people out of that were granted political asylum, the others remain in sort of legal limbo. Youre talking about over 1,000 people. Its the largest caravan yet. So those things are true broadly speaking. The issue is the way in which donald trump has seized on it. So remember yesterday the that theyre going to take our country over. Its the whole they versus us thing. They are challenging what it means to be an american. They dont share our values. And theyre taking advantage of daca which is patent lid false. Thats right. That is something that is simply thats apples and oranges. Its in the same universe, not on the same planet. But the point here is that this is a political conflation im often in the donald trump doesnt the strategy is that theres no strategy. I actually think he knows what hes doing to an extent here which is the us versus them, theyre going to take what is yours away. They are a marauding horde on route to the United States. Thats a powerful symbol and image. Its not entirely accurate, its not mostly accurate, but it can be used and weaponized politically. Thats what hes doing. Michael, it seems like the headline is youve heard from trump and reporters that manaforts charges are all about his business dealings long before he joined the campaign. In fact were learned based on the Court Documents that mueller believes he has the okay and that Deputy Attorney general gave him the okay to look at collusion involving manafort. Exactly right. What we learned in the new filing, the august 2nd filing is that rosenstein elaborated to mueller upon his mandate and that mandate as it relates to manafort includes two things. One is allegations with respect to collusion and second with respect to financial dealings with ukraine, perhaps independent of the collusion or perhaps as a predicate to understand how a collusive relationship may have been formed. So both of those things are very significant in terms of our understanding what bob mueller is looking at, which is collusion and financial crimes because why the financial crimes is important because if it relates to manafort that way it may also portend how mueller is looking out it in relationship to the president. So this is a significant day in terms of the revelation of what muellers thought process is and what his mandate is as elaborated upon by rosenstein. There you go. That is great context for all of us to have. Michael zeldin, thank you. Chris cillizza, thank you very much. The white house sending mixed mess angs on syria. Should the u. S. Keep troops there or not . We ask former navy s. E. A. L. , congressman scott taylor next. A family of seven Technology Leaders working behind the scenes to make the impossible. Reality. Were helping to give cars the power to read your mind from anywhere. 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Alright, i brought in high protein to help get us moving. And help you feel more strength and energy in just two weeks ill take that. Yeeeeeah ensure high protein. With 16 grams of protein and 4 grams of sugar. Ensure. Always be you. Lets fly, lets fly away just say the words and well beat the birds down to acapulco bay its perfect for a flying honeymoon they say come fly with me lets fly, lets fly away come fly with me lets fly, lets fly away President Trump taking to twitter to stoke fears about the nations immigration policies and insinuate that caravans of immigrants are trying to overtake the u. S. Border. Whats fueling the president s change on this topic . Lets talk about this and more with scott taylor of virginia. Great to have you here in studio with us. Thanks for having me. Do you understand today where the president is in terms of daca and the dreamers . Well, i still believe that theres a deal to be had that has more Border Security and has more future illegal immigrations and fix for daca. I dont think thats a hard and fast position what the president just said. Meaning the deal that democrats say they offered up, which was we can put it up 25 billion to help build that border wall that the president wanted to secure a pathway in exchange for a pathway to citizenship for 1. 8 daca recipients, dreamers no legal status for the parents and no changes to the familybased visas. He rejected that. Do you have a sense of what changes he would want other than these . I dont on that specific deal. I think that was with the senate. I will tell you in the house where i am, thats not what i was hearing from my counterparts, my colleagues on the democrat side. They were clean dream act. Clean dream act. There are several folks, however, in the house that do want a bipartisan deal from both sides that they were trying to work something, but it never really gained traction. So im not sure exactly what the president wants, but i do believe theres a pathway there that gets enough votes on both sides. Where are Republican Voters on this issue . Voters in your district, are they pushing you for solution to protect the dreamers . Or is it not a priority for them . I dont believe its a priority. I think that in general i think folks want to do something about this population, but i will tell you that probably the majority of my voters also want more Border Security, also want disincentives for future illegal immigration so as not to have the same issue in a few years. But i dont think its a top priority, but in general people do want a solution for this population. What alisyn laid out, more money for Border Security, 25 billion, end of chain migration which i know you oppose but a path for dreamers but not their parents. Does that fit the broad outlines of what you see as a bipartisan bill you can support in the house . I believe so. Devil is in the details obviously but i think so. I know that senator durbin was saying that they put these options there and the president rejected it. He was also there was also he was leaking basically not leaking but came out and said that the president said mean things and stuff like that. I think that there was some on both sides there was some tension there that basically resulted in a deal not happening. Which troubles me. I think that we should have have a deal. I think that we should come to a solution that again has Border Security, has future disincentives but also deals with that population. There are people who are really worried out there, right . Very anxious whether theyre in that population, their families, their friends, their employers. I think its important that we come to a solution. I do believe there is a path to make it happen. The president has tweeted about this ten times in the past 48 hours. He seems to be using different rhetoric than he had in the past. It seems to be harsher frankly towards immigrants, certainly not the deal of love that he had been talking about for dreamers. What do you think is motivating that . Thats a good question. Im not really sure to be honest with you. I know that theres images of course on tv of the caravan that youre seeing there and thats powerful on either side, right, whatever side you fall on the debate. Im not really sure why hes doing that. But again i believe theres a path forward, a deal to be made a bipartisan one. It has to be a bipartisan one and i think there is. Just the last on this point, do you think its helpful when the president uses language this, brings people to the table and gets it going or alienates people . It could go both ways, which, you know, you cant predict which way it will go. Hes had success getting people to the table using this language and had failures as well. It could go either way. Looking ahead, is the Republican Leadership working on a proposal that they think the president is willing to sign here . I can tell you in the house that the Republican Leadership and i will tell you that theres been a lot of rumors there, too, about the leadership and the speaker. Theyre all committed to keeping the majority. I will say that they have been theres a good bill were working on in the house that isnt in the posture that it needs to be to get enough votes, but theyre having listening sessions, bringing people in from all sides of the debate to figure out a way to get a bill passed through the house. Syria, the president surprised a number of folks with his comment that seemed to surprise some of his close advisers saying that the u. S. Is going to withdraw from syria. In light of the fact here is a president who criticized president obama for leaving iraq too early and laying the ground work for isis running rampant there. Why withdraw from syria and in your view is it premature . Number one, the president s gut, of course, is i think actually right in some ways. You know, to not have this huge footprint around the world. We talked about that before the segment which third president working off a 16yearold amf, i have a problem with that. I will tell you and we talked about it as well, im sure the pentagon gave the president several different options, one having more people there, pulling them back. I will tell you i was in iraq for christmas and you can if you need to do something in syria, you can do it from iraq as well. Just as a former navy s. E. A. L. , we have 2,000 troops there, the United States pulls out, does that benefit russia and iran . Lets face it, International Relations is like a chess game. Every single move the whole battlefield changes, exponentially sometimes. I think we made a mistake years ago when we did disengage and pull out. Russia filled the vacuum. Assad has the upper hand in his country. Thats just the fact. Were all playing in the same sand box militarily. Thats dangerous in terms of having a flash point. You know, i think that its important to understand what the strategy is, what were doing there, what we need when you look at iran and look at that land bridge from teheran right into syria, thats that, of course, makes our allies nervous and israel and our sunni allies as well. We need to make sure that were engaged to deal with that issue if it does come up in the way that fits american grand strategy and best benefits us and our allies. I think you do that. I dont think i think you can do that from iraq. But just to be clear, that would mean that russia and iran would have a stronger hand in the region, that would be the geopolitical implication . Thats the worry right. The worry gio politically is iran which im telling you they already do. Theyre there. Because of mistakes i believe we made years ago under the last administration. Very quickly senator Lindsey Graham says it would be the single worse decision the president could make pulling troops out. Do you agree or disagree . I dont think its the single worst decision he could make. With all due respect to the senator, i dont think its the single worst one. I think there are options and i think theyve been presented to the president. If they havent, they certainly will moving forward. So, i do think we have to be engaged in that region. I do think we have to have a pulse in whats going on in syria and have a seat at the table, but the reality is now that the russia and iran have a seat at the table because of past decisions. Big military visions there as well. Scott taylor, thank you for taking the time with us. Teachers in several states are walking out of their classrooms. What exactly are they fighting for . Were going to discuss that right after this. Were on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, its time to wake up to keurig. Wakey wakey rise and shine oh my gosh how are you . Well watch this. I pop that in there. Press brew. Thats it. So rich. I love it. Thats why you should be a keurig man fullbodied. Are you sure youre describing the coffee and not me . Welcome to holiday inn thank you wait, i have something for you every stay is a special stay at holiday inn. Save up to 15 when you book early at hollidayinn. Com teachers in several states walking off the job, demanding better pay and more funding for their students. In oklahoma, many schools will be closed again today as teachers take their case directly to state lawmakers. Cnns nick valencia is live in Oklahoma City with more. Really kind of something of a growing movement here, nick . It is a growing movement, jim. We expect another rally to take place later this morning. Were here inside Oklahoma State capitol. We expect hundreds of thousands that are anticipated to show up to continue lobbying their lawmakers, the senators and representatives to try to get more Education Funding. The teachers we spoken to say its not just about pay races but its also about getting more money for their classrooms. Do your job do your job reporter thousands of teachers walking out of their classrooms and storming State Capitols, demanding higher wages and more Education Funding for their students. I would much rather with my students. I have to be here fighting for them. Reporter in oklahoma, teachers salaries are among the lowest in the country with many teachers working two or three jobs to pay the bills. Low wages are only part of the problem. The Teachers Union saying School Funding is cut by nearly 30 over the last decade meaning underpaid teachers bare the burden of buying supplies. We dont have adequate furniture, textbook, curriculum. Those are all stretched as thin as they can be and held together with as much duct pay we can pay for out of our paychecks. Reporter last week, oklahoma governor raised salaries and increasing funding but many say its not enough. Its very difficult to trust your state elected officials if they continue to turn their backs on education. And they cannot do this any longer. Reporter these Students Holding a mock class at the protest to send conditions about our schools. We need teacher attention. And we need up to date classrooms and we need to feel like a priority in our state. And we dont. Reporter these walkouts part of a growing Movement Among teachers in largely republican states. Fund our schools fund our schools reporter in kentucky, teachers denouncing changes to their pension benefits after state lawmakers tucked reforms into a sewage bill and in arizona educators threatening to strike calling for a 20 raise and increase School Funding. These protesters galvanized by the success of a nineday strike in West Virginia. I think it gave people the belief that they can do the things they need to do for Public Education. Its stronger than the hope. Educators here in oklahoma say those in West Virginia gave them the inspiration to keep going and one quick note this morning, guys. Were hearing from the Smaller School districts in the state that theyre only going to send one teacher delegate today to the State Capitol with others being told if they do show up, they have to pay out of their own pocket to pay for the substitutes that will replace them. Alisyn . Nick, very interesting to see what happens today. Thank you so much for the reporting. So teachers in kentucky are expected back in the classroom after that walkout on monday. They are protesting, as you heard, after changes to their pension plans. Joining us now to talk about it is stephanie winkler, the president of the Kentucky Education association, the states largest Teachers Union. Ms. Winkler, thank you so much for taking time to talk to us. So what is your beef . What do teachers in kentucky want . Our Educators Want one of the same things across the country, just an investment in Public Education. Public education is by our kentucky constitution a requirement. And our state legislature has been not funding Public Education for a long time to the levels that we feel like we need to be able to provide a 21st century education while using 20th century instructional materials. Just so i understand, they want their salaries increased, they want their pensions increased or they want their classroom supplies increased . So in kentucky our fight started with our pensions and the threat of our governor taking away our defined benefit pensions last fall. And our organization spent almost the entire fall meeting with legislatures, having pension forums trying to educate themselves and the public about the details of our eight public pension systems in kentucky which are grossly underfunded mainly due to a lack of dedicated funding by our legislature for many years. Its not a partisan issue in our state. Its not the fault of any one party. Its just been a simple lack of funding by many legislatures to fund what they should have been funding in order to keep our pension systems at the level that they need to be to be sustained. So its primarily about pensions . It is about pensions and then also because our legislative session this time is a budget session and so we had to advocate not just for funding for Public Schools as we do every budget session but also to make sure that the governor was going to keep his promise and his commitment as they did in the last session to fully fund our pension system. So whats the plan today . So will there be walkouts of classrooms . Will there be sickouts as they say, teacherers calling in sick . I have heard of some districts but the majority close to 75 of the 173 School Districts are on spring break this week, so theyre already out of school. And so the ones that are in school we had solidarity of all 173 districts that were not in school yesterday, we had a phenomenal turnout, the estimates are around 12,000 community members, educators, parents, students that came out to our State Capitol yesterday to make sure that we communicated to our state legislature that we were going to be watching and that we were going to demand that our Government Fund Public Education and fund our pensions and continue to keep the promises made to our public employees. And very quickly, do you think that lawmakers got the message . Are they listening . Is something going to change . Were hopeful by the budget that was passed yesterday. We havent gone through the details because once again we had lots of things passed and the bills were not open or given out to the public, not even to the Minority Party other than a few hours before they had to vote on it. So were still digging into the details, but overall, we feel like this budget does keep the promise to fully fund our pensions and we are just hopeful that the governor signs this budget and keeps his promise. Okay. Stephanie winkler, thank you very much for giving us all the information. So thats the rub right there is they think they were victims of a bait and switch that the bills were not transparent. They didnt know that these changes were being made to their pensions. Its a tough one because im sure a lot of families are sympathetic for teachers. Theres a pay issue, some great reporting yesterday on that. But as kids are out of school for days and days, you know, how does i have three kids. The kids are out of school for a long time, youre going to start to wonder how long that support lasts. What i think is fascinating, too, were seeing this red state rebellion of teachers, West Virginia, oklahoma as we saw yesterday massive protests, kentucky. One of the flowthroughs, pensions are important. But i think its really about dollars that get to the classrooms. Have those been cut . Yesterday we saw that oklahoma teachers are surviving on 1,200 a month. Thats not a living wage having to work a second or third job. That really does motivate a lot of folks to say where are our priorities. Well be watching today to see what happens. All right. We have a long day of testimony in the at t time warner merger trial. Why both sides are claiming Small Victories next. Were on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, its time to wake up to keurig. Wakey wakey rise and shine oh my gosh how are you . Well watch this. I pop that in there. Press brew. Thats it. So rich. I love it. Thats why you should be a keurig man fullbodied. Are you sure youre describing the coffee and not me . If you have moderate to severe or psoriatic arthritis, Little Things can be a big deal. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. 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Welcome to holiday inn thank you wait, i have something for you every stay is a special stay at holiday inn. Save up to 15 when you book early at hollidayinn. Com save up to 15 when you book early internet providers promise Business Owners a lot. Lets see who delivers more. Comcast business offers fast gigspeeds across our network. At t doesnt. We offer more complete reliability with up to 8 hours of 4g Wireless Network backup. At t, no way. We offer 35 voice features and solutions that grow with your business. At t, not so much. We give you 75 mbps for 59. 95. Thats more speed than at ts comparable bundle, for less. Call today. Lawyers will be back in court today as the Justice Department looks to block at ts proposed merger with time warner, which owns cnn. Lets bring in cnn senior media correspondent and host and reliable sources Brian Stelter and hadas gold. Can you start in these early decisions and statements from the judge any indication as to where his decision is likely to fall . Or is it too early . He is certainly try to maintain order and speed up this trial. Hes been frustrated with the pace of how this is going. No, i dont think theres a lot we can read in the tea leaves about how the judge is reacting so far. What we do know is that back on the stand today are turner executives talking about how these distribution deals are done, how they are orchestrated, how the company tries to gain a more higher subscriber fees in these negotiations. And one of the questions of this case is whether that whether at t owns time warner if the deal is allowed to go through, whether at t would have too much power in the marketplace to do that. Hadas, give us the courtroom drama unfolded yesterday. Yesterday was spent doing deep into the negotiations with turner executives how they negotiate with your local Cable Provider to get cnn, hln, tnt, tbs on the air. What the government was trying to prove was that turner was willing to go dark which means to completely cut off access in order to get those higher fees, in order to get the types of terms that they wanted in order to air on the distributors. But turner executives on the other hand said, yes, these are hardcharging negotiations for both sides. The door swings both ways is how executive described it. Listen, when we go dark, its not something we want because we lose tens of millions of dollars when we go dark. He said during a dish satellite tv black out they had they lost Something Like 30 million in ad revenue. He was trying to push back on the gofrts assertion that turner wants to go dark, that this is part of the strategy that they have. Look, we lose a lot of money when we do this. Its going to be honestly up to the judge to decide whether this is such a useful tactic and whether its a tactic they will use in future negotiations or whether it will be more powerful under the at t umbrella because then you risk sort of the balance of who gets this valuable content. Yeah. The keyword being the future, right . What is the media marketplace going to look like five, ten years down the road. Thats partly why i this is so interesting and challenging for the judge in this case. I have no idea how were going to be watching tv in ten years. I have some guesses and dreams about how it should work, but i dont think anybody knows exactly. And yet this kind of case will help determine how the marketplace evolves and how people pay for cable, pay for television in the future. One of the fascinating things about this case is you have a very pro business president , proudly from the business community, advocating less regulations, new economic adviser, free market advocates all around with the exception of some companies that are perceived as critics. I want to talk about amazon and the president s full court press against amazon because their stock is down almost 7, 8 over the last several days. Its really stunning directly in reaction to the president s tweets against the company. How do you read this . You look at this and you have to think that the president s personal animus, his personal frustration with the Washington Post is plain in his decision to attack amazon. That is what is clear in the reporting here and its clear through his own tweets because he likes to link amazon and the Washington Post on twitter in these tweets in the past. It is uncharted territory, isnt it, john . We havent seen this before. You cant underestimate how disturbing this. This is a president we talk about tweets are policy here, right . The president via twitter solely is imposing an Enormous Economic cost on a critic, jeff bezos who owns a newspaper whose coverage the president doesnt like that. And bezos is staying out of it, amazon is not commenting. Its trying to weather the storm, but it all comes back to fox and whether the president has the facts or not, whether its about his complaints against cnn or amazon or other companies. Hes on twitter this morning saying that its a fact that cnn only hires people if theyre antitrump. Now, we all around this table know theres no litmus test, theres no test like that. Thats crazy talk. Thats not true. Its crazy talk, but the president called it a fact. He called it a fact. And one thing makes me want to go back to bed, guys. You cant. We need you. Go ahead, hadas. Exactly what brian is talking about, were not hearing him criticize other things like the sinclair attempt to own those tribune stations and really increase their reach. We dont hear him criticize the 21st fox disney deal. Another thing i want to point out in terms of a republican pro business president , you look at Net Neutrality, the rule about whether the internet should be open where companies can charge more money to go faster over their pipes, were going in completely opposite directions. The administration on Net Neutrality is saying that companies should be able to have more power of it. But then when it comes to the at t time warner merger, no, we need to get more involved. Those are completely opposite views. Brian, hadas, thank you very much for the conversations. Theres this new cover story in new York Magazine says President Trump, its not collusion, its not incompetence, that President Trump and voters should be worried about, its something bigger going on in the white house. Thats next. Ke most of you, i just bought a house. Oh very nice. Now im turning into my dad. I text in full sentences. I refer to every child as chief. This hat was free. What am i supposed to do, not wear it . Next thing you know, im telling strangers defense wins championships. Well, it does. Right . Why is the door open . Are we trying to air condition the whole neighborhood . At least i bundled home and auto on an internet website, progressive. Com. Progressive cant save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto. I mean, why would i replace this . Its not broken. I mean, why would i replace this . An expectation to surpass. Burden. But thats the point. 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Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin kevin kevin trusted advice for life. Kevin, hows your mom . Life well planned. See what a Raymond James Financial Advisor can do for you. A new memo from Deputy Attorney general rod rosen stein shows he explicitly authorized Robert Mueller to investigate whether there was interference in the election. A cover story arguing its not a threat to the trump administration, it is corruption. Joining us to discuss john avlon and Margaret Hoover who i think know each other. Familiar with each others work. We love it. The cover is just the president is not going to like the cover. The argument here in the words of new York Magazine, not collusion, not incompetence. Its the corruption stupid. As a political analyst ill have a different answer than anybody making the case this this administration has brought in a huge amount of people that dont have the scruggs or really the respect for the office that we demand in our transparent government. The idea that people have gotten into power to line their pockets and not serve the public in the most altruistic way will really strike many citizens negatively. What i will tell you as a political analyst who has family that voted for donald trump, here is the problem. Im going to be the naysayer at the table, the 80 of republicans that voted for trump even though they didnt like him, they did it because they said what was going to happen if Hillary Clinton was there. As soon as you bring up corruption, every trump supporter says the Clinton Foundation was corrupt. If youre not going to get the trump folks by mentioning corruption. If your goal is to win over the reasonable edge of the opposition, i know hes dying to go at me, but the point is youll have more if you make the case the entire group of people. Its the lesser people, the Jared Kushner who got the loan from citibank. Dont go after trump but go after the entire group of people that was supposed to have the swamp drained, then you can have more political salience and traction. That last i want you to get in there. That lasts while the economy is doing well. Stock market relatively up. Unemployment rate is down, wages are finally rising, so folks feel like theyre getting a fair deal, doing well economically. If that changes and folks look and see the president and his pals, will that change . Yes, that will change. Well, thats a hypothetical. At the moment its true. It is bill clintons its the economy, stupid. Whats so frustrating, you see republicans, good people who voted for trump and say, yeah, sure, maybe hes problematic, maybe the swamp hasnt been drained but they engage in what about it . They say the Clinton Foundation was worse. Trump is the president now and we see a really troubling pattern, from almost day one, doubling the fees for maralago to all the questions around the kushner building deals and the trump corporation. I want to ask about the trump corporation. When the president was running, he said if i become president , i could not care less about my economy. Is he lining his pockets still from is he benefiting financially from being president with his own organization . He is benefiting financially. That is true. Im a republican. Im not happy about that. I think into anathema to public service. What he says and what he does are two different things. So many times you get Trump Supporters that say forget the tweets, look what hes done. What es done is on page 161 of 166 saying i can take money out whenever i want. So youre saying thats a problem. So he has still invested and is still benefiting from the decisions hes making as president. Look at trump hotel in d. C. Theres a reason why many foreign governments come to d. C. And stay at trump hotels. Thats a direct financial benefit. These are rules that are recognizable, but we havent seen them in the american tradition. To a lot of international businessmen, its the way it happens in other countries. It just hasnt happened here. Here is what the president said on january 28, 2016, about his oh proclivities. Greatest hit. My whole life ive been greedy, greedy, greedy, but now i want to be greedy for the United States, i want to grab all that money. Well, i think this gets to the point actually that the president is being buoyed by a Strong Economy today. He can point to that and that creates a lot of good feelings. Thats why the president s poll numbers have risen. A lot of scandals, by he is the teflon don. I think part of the question hell love that. It applies to him as well as the formerly teflon don. But here is the question, Madison Square garden retd. Republicans have stuck with trump. Is his fate entirely attached to the economy or do republicans love him unconditionally . It is bill clinton, republicans hate citing bill clinton, but its the economy, stupid. The economy is doing well. This is to jims point before. None of this matters unless ordinary americans are doing well. Hes brought in a promise of bringing back manufacturing all these things, as long as everyone is making money, people are happy. Were happy to see the ho hoovlon reunited. Great to see you, margaret. Thanks. Were following a lot of news, lets get to it. Bob mueller understands and i understand the specific scope of the investigation. New evidence of that the special counsel is investigating collusion allegations between the president s former campaign chairman. Are there any ties between mr. Trump, you and your campaign and putin and his regime . No, there are not. The democrats have really let them down. Now people are taking advantage of daca. President trump lashing out on twitter criticizing u. S. Immigration policy. This president is completely clueless when it comes to immigration laws period. Embattled epa chief Scott Pruitts job may be in jeopardy. I dont know how you survive this one. Its hard to see how we have smooth management of the country when you have all these mel la dramas. This is new day with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. Good morning. Chris is off. Jim sciutto and john avlon join me. We have more news to report. Theres this newly released classified memo that details the scope of Robert Muellers mandate. Deputy attorney general rod rosen stein authorized Robert Mueller to vitt where rob manafort concluded with russia in the 2016 election. President trumps focus continues to be on curtailing illegal immigration. The president tweeting again about caravans of immigrants taking advantage of what he calls our nations weak border laws. It is his tenth tweet in 48 hours about immigration and it comes as the white house is making a new legislative push aimed at strengthening Border Security. Lets begin with cnns Shimon Prokupecz in washington with our top story. The collusion question, as far as the special counsels investigation is concerned not closed. Not at all. In fact, i think this memo just filed in court lays out the scope of the special counsel investigation which was authorized by the Deputy Attorney general, rod rosen stein who is overseeing the probe and has been criticized by the president. This president was written in august, three months after bob mueller was appointed to run the investigation. In a significant move, the special counsel made parts of this memo public. Here it reveals the allegations that mueller is investigating against manafort. One of those is an allegation that he committed a crime