Thank you, jomana. We salute this very courageous woman. Erin Burnett Outfront starts right now. Out front next, trump returns the favor backing jim jordan in the race to be the next speaker of the house. Someone whos leading the way on trying to impeach biden and one of the biggest backers of trumps rigged election claims. Plus, breaking news. An appeals judge denying trumps appeal to halt the fraud case. Michael cohen will be out front tonight. Putins latest strike killing a young boy. Tonight there is a threat of more to come. Lets go out front. Good evening, im erin burnett. Out front tonight, Trump Playing King Maker Backing congressman jim jordan and his bid to become the next house speaker. Jim jordan has a long history of doing trumps work for him. In fact, jordan is now one of the heads of the biden Impeachment Inquiry, something that trump, of course, made clear absolutely had to happen. They should investigate the bidens. I call them corrupt joe. Crooked joe biden. I believe we have a compromised president. Jim jordan heard trump loud and clear and repeatedly and hes taken action. There are some members of your committees that are talking about impeachment. Is that on the table . It sure is. He actually did what they impeached President Trump for. Well, the Impeachment Inquiry that jordan is helping lead is just the latest example though of trump of jordan going full maga for trump. It was a rigged election. It was a and it was really a sham. I dont know how you can ever convince me that President Trump didnt actually win this thing. They cheat and they cheat like crazy. What are the democrats trying to hide . Lets get to the bottom of this. This election is a fraud. There was fraud. The democrats are trying to steal the white house. You cannot let them. Americans instinctively know there was something wrong with this election. That last comment from jordan was january 6th, 2021, as thousands of Trump Supporters began clashing with Police Outside the capitol. Look, theres been no daylight between jim jordan and donald trump for a long time. Jordan attended white house and Campaign Meetings on overthrowing the election. Jordan defied a subpoena by the January 6th Committee to testify. Jordan has put his career and his reputation on the line for trump and now trump is endorsing him. It may well give jordan the gavel, but he does have at least one declared rival for the speakership, Steve Scalise. That rivalry evolved into one other example of republican chaos. This morning they agreed to do a debate on fox news. Everyone finds out about it and the republican uproar to such a breach of protocol, to such a Publicity Stunt was loud and clear. One republican calling it a circus. Another saying its, quote, insanity. Another saying, quote, people are pissed. A few hours later after it was announced, suddenly the debate was off, it was canceled. Thats just another layer in the chaos thats been engulfing the house. Melanie zanona is out front on capitol hihill. He played king maker with mccarthy. Now here he is, hes picking jordan. Will this endorsement will have an impact . I think it cuts both ways. This will help jim jordan with the right and with conservatives. We did already see a number of them come out and say they are now backing jumpim jordan becau of trump. I talked to troy nels. He said i am not going to go against the former president s wishes. On the other hand, this endorsement is not going to do anything to win over the more moderates in the party. They have a lot of concerns about a jim jordan speaker candidacy because hes a flame thrower, because hes the face of the impeachment. Hes arguing hes best positioned to unify the party. I know youve been talking to your sources, melanie, about the chaos. The debate gets planned, canceled. What are you learning . Reporter theres a lot of whiplash today inside the House Republican party. This all started because im told fox news reached out to the speaker candidates doing this televised event in the capitol on monday, after it was announced, almost instantly i was getting messages, my phone was blowing up from moderate republicans who were worried about the optics. Ca Carlos Gimenez said this is a horrible idea. I think all of the backlash speaks to the idea there is so much uncertainty and raw emotion in the house caucus. They want to get this right. They dont want to see more embarrassment or dysfunction on the floor like we saw when Kevin Mccarthy was removed or in january where it took 15 rounds for Kevin Mccarthy to get that speakers gavel. At this point its unclear whether scalise or jordan can unify the party and go to a floor vote. Theyll have a Candidate Forum on tuesday and theyll huddle Behind Closed Doors to elect their nominee. Thank you. Theyll Behind Closed Doors do that this time. Eight took down mccarthy. The vast majority, 210, wanted them to remain. One is anthony desposito. Hes with me tonight. And the other is ted lu. I want to begin with you, Congressman Desposito. You were against that effort to oust speaker Kevin Mccarthy. Yes. I know that today you had a chance to speak to jim jordan and also with kevin hern who is considering a bid for speaker as well. Youve spoken to Steve Scalise who is declared as the candidate for speaker. Have you made your decision . I have not. I am constantly in contact with members of the new york delegation. We will vote for this in one unified bunch. We know whats important to the new york voters. We know whats important to long island and we want to make sure that the next speaker of the house understands the unique situation that we have here. So when trump comes out with this endorsement of congressman jordan, calls him a, quote, star, does that influence your decision one way or the other . It doesnt. My decision is going to be based on the feelings of there is a lot of unifying we have to do in taking part in over the next days and weeks. The party and the members are angry. They are upset. We need to do our best to unify the party and get to work because thats what the American People sent us here to do. You sent a letter condemning the chaos caucus. In that letter theres a line, congressman. The injustice we all witnessed cannot go unaddressed. You obviously are taking this with great gravity and seriousness. Matt gaetz who led that mocked your letter. Tonight he wrote, quote, thoughts and prayers. Whats your response to that, to just being, you know, a mocking response to something that you took so seriously . Yeah. I think that matt gaetz has made a joke of this since day one. This has never been serious for him. This is about a personal vendetta that he had against one of this nations oldest institutions to take out a personal vendetta, and quite frankly hes an egotistical maniac and hes using his extremism to halt government. Instead of doing what we should be doing and that is governing and getting Appropriations Bills on the door, hes concerned about getting retweets and raising money. I want to ask you one other question tonight about former President Trump. Hes coming under fire for making antiimmigrant comments in an interview. This echos language used by a white supremacist. I want to play for you what he said. Nobody has ever seen anything like what were witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. Its poisoning the blood of our country. Its so bad. And people are coming in with disease. People are come being in with every possible thing that you can have. Just to be clear, congressman, the specific reference to poisoning the blood. Blood poisoning was a phrase that was used repeatedly by hitler, very specifically blood poisoning. So whats this whats your reaction when you hear this sort of language, what he said all together from the former president . Well, perhaps not the best choice of words, but ishl that what were seeing at the southern border is unprecedented. I think weve now seen across the country democrats and republicans. Look at new york, for example, i mean, the mayor has flat out said that whats happening at the southern border is going to destroy new york city. Yes. The. The governor has said that its clear that people from both sides of the aisle agree we have a real problem at the southern border. Thats what we should be focused on now, not matt gaetz and the situation hes put us in. Congressman, i appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Thank you. And i want to bring in now as promised the democratic congressman ted lu of california. Congressman, first your reaction to Congressman Desposito regarding the race. It was very clear that the letter he wrote with 44 other republicans, that he had done so with great seriousness saying how unacceptable the situation was and saying matt gaetzs behavior is that of an e egotistical maniac. Let me suggest a contrast. When democrats were in control, we reduced the cost of medicines. This year when republicans control they took us to the brink of a default on our debts, they took us to the brink of a government shutdown. This is just the latest example in a string of events showing that the republicans cant govern and they have division, dysfunction and disarray. We support Hakeem Jefferies for speaker and we ask people to come join us. Well, i understand that, but of course they have the majority, right . Theyre going to pick. Well, theoretically theyre going to pick. On this front you know jim jordan because youre on the house judiciary. You know him. You see him every day. He told Manu Raju Today that he should be speaker because hes someone who can, quote, unite republicans . But in the context, congressman, of what you see, how he conducts himself, how he treats people, how he leads on your committee, what do you think of his leadership . Let me just say again that jim jordan ignored a bipartisan congressional subpoena. His unprecedented actions have damaged the rule of law and made it harder for all congressional committees to get information from witnesses. Thats the first thing American People should know about jim jordan. He violated and totally ignored a bipartisan congressional subpoena. Having said that, im happy to work with any republican speaker as long as that they keep their word and they want to help the American People. So that speaker, who knows who that will be, but mccarthy had worked with you on a couple of things. The government had remained open, right . That last minute there were some things that happened he did not work with us. He did not work with us. He gave us a resolution bill with no notice, called a vote immediately and we asked within 90 minutes to read that bill and he rejected that. He did not work with us. He was surprised that we voted for that bill. All right. So i understand what youre saying, but nonetheless, the bill passed. You guys you all somehow kept the government open. I put it in this context, congressman, you sometimes have to choose from what youre given. The conservative Group Heritage action tracks voting members. This is conservative positions. Jim jordans Lifetime Score is 95 . Mccarthys is 53 . Right . Democrats chose not to save mccarthy but wouldnt speaker jordan be better for the house, for what you believe in than what Speaker Mccarthy was . I think Speaker Mccarthy could have made it in a way that democrats could have supported him. This entire year he said he wouldnt work with democrats but he couldnt govern. He brought the nation to crisis after crisis. Then he sided with the extreme mag a wing of his party. On top of that, his word could not be trusted. I would rather deal with someone who has principles. I can work with those principles and find ways to help American People. Like jim jordan . Its hard to work with someone who you cant trust. All right. Congressman lu, thank you very much. I appreciate your time tonight. I appreciate you with us. Breaking news, a judge rejecting trumps appeal. Plus, 120,000 people pouring into armenia, and were live there tonight because this growing disaster all comes back to vladimir putin. And new video of the deadly car crash involving the now wife of senator bob menendez. Didnt do anything wrong. Why is that crash under investigation again . And does it have something to do with the bribery charges she and menendez are facing . Breaking news. An Appeals Court judge rejecting trumps bid to pause the fraud trial. The judge did agree to temporarily halt breaking up trumps businesses. This as a deputy testified to fraud today. Hes a former employee and codefender. He testified he inflated the value of Trump Properties significantly and he did so at the direction of eric trump, trumps son. According to him he was told to include the value of seven homes when valuing a development called Seven Springs even though the homes were not built. He testified he continued to value trumps briar Cliff Golf Club at 104 million. The appraise al was less than half of that value. Why did he do it . He says eric trump told him to, quote, leave value as is. Former lawyer for donald trump, michael cohen. He is the author of revenge, how donald trump weaponized the u. S. Department of justice. Michael, i really appreciate your time. You know more about what theyre talking about in this courtroom than anyone. This Major Development in trumps lawsuit against you happened today. I want to ask you about this. What he said about eric trump, how much trouble is eric trump in right now, do you think . It sounds like it could be a lot. You know, the fraud doesnt start and stop with donald trump. It also now of course goes to the children. It was Allen Weisselberg. It was also jeff mcconnie. I do think the statements that were made by jeff mcconny certainly injurious not just to the Trump Organization but to eric trump as well. You know mcconny and all of these individuals involved. You worked with all of them. Yes. Mcconny testified he and Allen Weisselberg agreed to calculate the value of apartments at Trump Park Avenue without saying that the units were rent stabilized, which of course significantly lowers the value. They calculated maralagos valuation as if it could be sold as a private residence, meanwhile he didnt know that trump had deeded away the right to do that, right, so that it had to stay a social club. It could not have that private residence value. When you look at all of this, michael, given what you know of every one of these individuals and how things were done because you were in the rooms, is it possible trump was in the dark for all of this . No, and i think that mcconny also made a statement to the extent that donald trump had the ultimate signoff on the documents. I also believe that Donald Bender from mazers stated the same exact thing. Look, i also testified before the House Oversight committee and said the exact same thing as well, that everything that happened at the Trump Organization happened at the direction and with the explicit knowledge of donald j. Trump. And you were, and thats by the way a big part of the reason why this case is happening right now, is because of what you said in that room specifically referring to valuations and trump getting loans from deutsche bank. Wil Leticia James put out a statement late last night, michael. The defendants like to act as though this case is very complicated when, in fact, the fraud they committed is simple. Donald trump often calls his business perfect and beautiful, but its clear that when it comes to running a company, he doesnt care about the real numbers or the facts. As i said, michael, youre likely to be a witness here. Youre on the list. They all want to hear from you. Are you confident that from what you know and saw that you can link donald trump directly to this very clearly established pattern that the judge has accepted, pattern of fraud with your testimony . The answer is yes. I dont want to at this point and time go into how i will have that established or the extent to which the Attorney Generals Office will be questioning me, but i can assure you that as i had stated once again before the House Oversight committee, everything that happened at the Trump Organization happened with the direct knowledge and at the direction of and ultimately signed off by donald j. Trump. Theres no way for him to escape this. So you have more examples . Youve got the receipts . Yes. And, actually, the receipts are in the hands of the Attorney General. All right. And we literally, right . We also learned late last night, i wanted to mention this lawsuit against you. Donald trump had this lawsuit against you, michael, 500 million he was suing you for. He dropped it. He dropped it four days before he was scheduled to be deposed in the case. Now he had claimed you breached your obligations as his confidante and lawyer and by publishing your books and media appearances like this one, but, again