The body. Now, thanks to the president s favorite news channel, hes wading in. Welcome to the lead, im jake tapper. We begin with the politics lead. With Close Associates being hauled off to prison, President Trump claims that crimes are not crimes while also changing the time line for a key aspect of the mueller investigation. In addition to his tweets about the, quote, russian witch hunt hoax, the president sent his attorney, Rudy Guiliani, to admit that then candidate trump had conversations about the proposed trump tower in moscow, even more recently than previously disclosed. Saying that trump told mueller he discussed the potential deal through the november 2016 president ial election. Much, much later than previously claimed. Recall that mueller had previously characterized the deal as potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and needing approval from the kremlin. Guiliani seeming to say the answer was given in response to muellers written questions, making the comment
And as the Government Shutdown heads into day 34 by the end of this hour, a senior officials telling nbc news the white house is preparing for this impasse, get this, to potentially continue for many more weeks. That is just ahead. We begin with longtime trump personal Attorney Michael Cohen suddenly pulling the plug on his upcoming live congressional hearing. Cohen says he will not testify publicly on the 7th of february because of intimidation coming from the president. Cohens Legal Adviser lanny davis issued a Statement Today that reads in part, and we quote, due to ongoing threats against his family from President Trump and mr. Giuliani, this is a movie script, as well as mr. Cohens continued cooperation with ongoing investigations, by advice of counsel mr. Cohens appearance will be postponed to a later date. This is a time where mr. Cohen had to put his family and their safety first. Last week on this Network Davis made a similar accusation. Theres only one person in the country,
Well dig into that. Trouble brewing. How the Government Shutdown is hurting american breweries, including one oklahoma business with a half Million Dollars worth of beer it cant sell. Well get to that story in just a moment. We start with President Trumps primetime appeal. Nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer will be delivering the democratic response. Talks are at a standstill. Officials are manufacturing an emergency to win money. Legal issue is one big problem, another issue, the political problem. Members of his own party dont seem keen on this new fight. Lets start with our nbc reporters. Jeff, well start with you. What can we expect to hear from the president tonight . What does he hope to accomplish with this primetime address . Reporter President Trump is going to attempt to make the case direct to the American People that there is an imminent threat brewing along the border that is best addressed, best solved by a steel barrier. Hes going to make the case from the oval office for th
Possible state of the Union Address during a Government Shutdown soon entering its 34th day as the 11th hour gets under way here on a wednesday night. And it goes on. Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 734 of this Trump Administration. And as the Government Shutdown heads into day 34 by the end of this hour, a senior officials telling nbc news the white house is preparing for this impasse, get this, to potentially continue for many more weeks. That is just ahead. We begin with longtime trump personal Attorney Michael Cohen suddenly pulling the plug on his upcoming live congressional hearing. Cohen says he will not testify publicly on the 7th of february because of intimidation coming from the president. Cohens Legal Adviser lanny davis issued a Statement Today that reads in part, and we quote, due to ongoing threats against his family from President Trump and mr. Giuliani, this is a movie script, as well as mr. Cohens continued cooperation with
Of being shocked but an incredibly bad man don is. And they can just hardly believe his flaws. They sat open mouth in congress has Michael Cohen described his former boss, brace yourself a bit of a con man who has overstated his personal wealth. In private tromp apparently has said, at one point Michael Cohen said tromp used a straw buyer to bid up a portrait of himself at a charity auction. He wanted his picture to go for the highest price. Are you shocked yet . Can you believe it . Of course you can, this is exactly we knew back in 2015 went descent of the famous escalator and millions of people voted for him anyway, his character was not the point. That will point the hearings not his character either but supposed to be russian collusion and obstruction of justice. And those topics have derailed the American Government for the past two years. In those subjects, we actually did learn quite a bit today. Here is one example. About a month ago the cat block does feed ran an article, tru