Disputing Buzzfeed News Today

Sing it. >> so what! >> so wham so what. >> reporter: but for politicians, its often the retort of last resort. >> says who? >> reporter: me, jeanie mos. >> who cares? >> cnn. >> so what! >> reporter: new york. >> who cares? >> thank you for joining us. anderson starts now. good evening, we begin with a question. is president trumps tv lawyer rudy guiliani really bad at his job or is he very, very good at muddying the waters? whatever it is, he was at it again today and over the weekend. first...

Any time for somebody who is being investigated to talk to a witness in that investigation. but where it could become seriously problematic and illegal of course is whether the president asked, demanded that michael cohen say any particular thing. certainly if that particular thing was not true. okay, we know that michael cohen is not particularly faithful to the truth. the president is not particularly faithful to the truth so if there was a meeting and the president was encouraging michael coh...

Remember, cohen falsely told lawmakers contact with russian nationals on the project ended before the february 2016 iowa caucuses. he said, quote, i made these misstatements, he told the judge, to be consistent with individual 1s and political message and out of loyalty toied 1. the only question, did his boss, donald trump, tell him to do it? buzzfeed was and still is report tag robert mueller has evidence he did. muellers office is saying this, quote, buzzfeeds description of statements to spe...

Yes, it was a mistake. it was a subject of headlines and head-scratching and nothing -- a white house thats being investigated, they just love when some mistake is made, because then they denounce all of journalism. well, look at the end of the story. in the end, it didnt matter all that much. in a perfect world, no journalists story would ever be wrong at all. but its going to happen. the question is, do they clean up their act afterwards? i cant tell you how appalled the people "the post" were...

Come out the way i, mueller, am going to describe them. and so back to your original question. it seems to me that something got lost in translation here. i dont necessarily think this is someone who made up facts, meaning whoever the sources are, or that buzzfeed got it wrong. but things are very nuanced when youre describing things in proffer sessions and sessions with cooperators when youre looking at 302s. there are terms of art and it seems to me that somebody who had some familiarity got s...

Thats the way it worked in the nixon situation. congress was moving at the same speed, basically, as the special prosecutor. mimi, some fascinating elapsed times here in this case. yesterday buzzfeed reports that five hours went by -- five hours of silence from the white house after they disclosed their reporting to the white house, and theyre asking for comment from the white house. and the white house does not say a word. donald trump had -- knew what buzzfeed was going to write for five hours...

This case, perhaps buzzfeed would have been more cautious and could have avoided this whole matter, which is not good for journalism. its really frustrating. it feels like robert mueller at this point in the investigation owes the public a little bit more information than were getting about something so important. lawrence, thats my feeling about it. >> so a democratic house member, ted lieu, last night tweeting when this story broke. this is how hot it felt at this hour last night. "based on th...

Its possible that he was under instructions not to say that at that time. we just dont know. but what we do know is that robert mueller is not disputing the entirety of the buzzfeed story. he is, however, disputing this notion that his office has reams of corroborating information. and in fairness, that is one of the things that got everybodys attention about this story, because, you know, the house of representatives is not going to impeach donald trump on the word of michael cohen admitted lia...

Advance trumps agenda, per cohens legal memo, is not in dispute. the source disputed the further, more specific idea that trump issued and memorialized repeated direct instructions." and joy reid, that part about memorialized would be i think a reference in the buzzfeed article to there is supporting documentation -- >> right. >> -- either from texts or e-mails to what buzzfeed was reporting that the president basically ordered michael cohen to commit perjury. >> right. as well as one line in th...

We always use when discussing stories that arent yet proven to be true. and thats the language that i used here repeatedly last night at this hour when buzzfeed reported that michael cohen has told special prosecutor robert mueller that president trump ordered him to lie under oath to congress. >> is michael cohen -- if this is proven true, guilty of lying to congress as a crime? is he guilty of perjury as a crime? is the president of the united states guilty of suborning perjury if this report ...