He refused, threatened to resign and thats when President Trump backed down ultimately deciding not to fire the Special Counsel. But again, were seeing this new point of frustration from President Trump with these new attacks. Again, the most direct at robert mueller. The backdrop is important to point out. A few days ago, the president s former Attorney Michael Cohen spoke to a number of sources who then told cnn that he was ready to testify to the Special Counsel that President Trump approved that june 2016 meeting between russian nationals and his son donald trump jr. And other members of his campaign. So the president responding to that coverage. He also tweeted angrily at the media today we should point out. Yes, he did. He tweeted all over the place. Boris sanchez in new jersey where the president just head back to the white house. Thank you. A lot to discuss on this sunday evening. Joining us now is cnns senior
political analyst and Senior Editor for The Laatlantic and Washington Post columnist josh rogan. Clearly something set the president off. What do you think it is . I think the reporting that he noted is the logical precipitating cause here. Look, this is part of a continuing effort to influence in effect the jury pool which will be congressional republicans. If bob mueller comes back with any recommendation that the president that the house needs to consider impeachment on the various areas he is vugting this is about creating more pressure on republicans to avoid that. I would point out this these attacks are a perfect microcosm for the trump presidency. They are having an influence among republican voters. But among the general public more broadly, it is consolidating uncertainty and moving people away. I mean there is polling last week, 63 of the country say they didnt trust the Intelligence Services over donald trump about the impact of russian interference and the election by 20 points, a 20 point margin. They say the fbi is not biassed against him and another poll, 60 said he usually does not tell the truth. Its not like this behavior is cost free. For him or for the republicans in congress who have chosen to defend it. Josh mueller said to be scrutinizing trumps tweets as part of the Obstruction Of Justice investigation. So why launch the tweets when you know hes watching . I think its an effort to distract from what the news media and a lot of other people are focusing on, namely, the fact that Michael Cohens personal lawyer is releasing all sorts of new information, new tapes, new recordings, new accusations and all of these not only feed into the muller investigation but are super
damaging politically and publicly for the president. For the president s personal lawyer to accuse him of knowing about the meeting at trump tower before and approving it before his son and Campaign Manager and soninlaw met with russians connected to the russian government that, is a shocking accusation. Although Michael Cohen has little credibility and Rudy Giuliani has little credibility and the president has little credibility, the fastball this is the topic of discussion along with Michael Cohens playing of the tape shows that President Trump probably knew about pay yofrz to his alleged mistress, playboy model. This is all exactly what the president doesnt want to focus on. So by putting out all of the tweets, he is trying to shift the conversation. He succeeding in that. Ahead of the brand new news cycle, he is sending out Marching Orders to the allies in congress and in the media, dont look over here, look over here. Dont talk about Michael Cohen and karen mcdougal, talk about angry democrats and the witchunt
and all of this stuff. You know, again, its pretty Standard Practice for the president. I dont think its going to work in terms of saving him from the actual consequences of these revelations. But it certainly works in changing the conversation. Thats him using his bully pulpit which he uses effectively. We were used to this president going after socalled enemies, going after competitors. Hes not afraid to call people out by name, sloppy steve, right . I mean theres crooked hillary. And, yet, he hasnt been attacking Michael Cohen by name today. Instead, hes going after mueller. Why do you think that is . Well, Michael Cohen can do a lot of damage to donald trump. You know, he has been he has been right in the middle of everything for many years. Theres a lot that he knows. Im sure it is a very unnerving situation for the president to have Michael Cohen, you know, signalling that he wants to cooperate with investigators, bringing on lanny davis late of
the clinton defense to be, you know, his lawyer and kind of Public Relations consultant. All of that are kind of ominous, you know, directions for the president. I would point out that there is kind of a broader pattern here which is, you know, twofold. One, the president needs conflict. That is what he believes is the essence of his political strength. There is always a fight. You know, whether a couple days ago it was revoking Security Clearances for former officials. It could be nfl players. It could be pop culture figures. He believers he needs to show his base that he is fighting all of the time, that he is breaking the glass on their behalf. As i said, there is a cost to that. A cost in exhaustion among many swing voters, particularly white collar voters and that is where the republican risk is the greatest. We have the Special Election coming up in ohio in a couple weeks. Another district that should be safely republican but because of the revolt in the suburbs that they are facing, it is now a nail biter for the gop and that is where the vulnerability is concentrated in november and, again, this kind of behavior by
the republican about it president and the decision by House Republicans not only to defend it but to abet it in many cases by, you know, working against the investigation, that is the core that magnifies their risk in the places their most vulnerable. Were looking at images of Air Force One as the president gets on the plane and comes back from his weekend at his golf resort in new jersey. So well just keep this up. If he comes in and addresses the immediate yashgs of course, well be listening in. In the meantime, josh, one of the tweets today, he is threatening to shut down the government unless democrats dont agree to build a border wall. He said all along, mefrm he could is going to pay for that wall. This is one 00 days out from the mid terms. Does this do more to help or hurt republicans in november . Hes putting his republican allies in congress in an impossible position because, of course, they dont have the leverage to get democrats to agree to a border wall funding. If they dshgs they would have used it already in these past 18
months. And also they know something that he may or may not acknowledge which is that if he shuts down the government, thats bad for them. Hes not up for election. But they are. And so they really cant afford to take the risk of having a Big Government shutdown even over the border wall, even if its popular before this midterm. So, you know, again, sort of like, you know, lets throw out a bunch of empty threats. Lets put everybody thats on our side into a terrible political bind. And then, you know, ranlt at an rave until something shakes out. It doesnt seem to be working. We dont have the border wall funding. Hes not making progress on it. Its not clear to me why this threat is different from that any of the other 100 times that he made it. But again, its he thinks its a good issue politically for him. There is no cost to him personally for making the threats. So he thinks why not just do it . And see what happens. Who knows, it may work. Ron, i want to get your take we dont know what the reason was for the end of that tape. Joining us now to discuss what may have happened there, ed primo, one of the nations audio Forensic Experts with 30 plus years of experience. Ed, great to have you with us. Earlier this week you confirmed to my colleague that the tape was in fact edited. And i want to dig into that issue specifically. Since that seems to be a point of contention right now. What does your analysis tell you about what was modified and when it happened . Well, the recording was created using the Voice Memo App on an iphone 5. I can see the Operating System in the data. And in the Voice Memo Application, there is a feature or a function called trim. So i believe the recording was edited in the Voice Memo App. But the biggest problem that we have here, its a misrepresentation of the events as they occurred. When i testified in court
previously, and ive testified dozens of times, the recordings that are presented, if theyre edited, then the trier of fact, judge and jury, need to be made aware of the fact that it was shortened. In this particular case, we have a recording that ends with a butt edit. It is very visible and in any program that you can view the sounds spectrum and you can notice that the ending has some a couple different words on it. Why that is like that, i dont know. But it is not an authentic recording and it certainly is not the original. Lets listen to that audio again this time sloweded down. Slowed down. When it comes time for the financing which will be listen, what financing . Ill have to pay. No. No. No. I got no. No. A check. So you have said that the data tells you this recording was modified four seconds after it was created. Just four seconds later. Im trying to make sense of that. Can you specify what kind of modification . Well, there was an edit, obviously. I recreated the edit today by making a recording on an iphone 5 that had an Operating System more recent. It was actually 10. 2. The original recording that i could see in the data was created on an iphone five with the Operating System 9. 3. So i didnt do any research to learn how many updates away that was from where this recording was created. But what is important here is that it was created in a Voice Memo App that is capable of editing. It has a trim feature in it. So could an incoming call or running out of battery have been the reason for that abrupt
ending . Or did somebody have to physically do it themselves . I believe it was actually edited. Somebody actually ended the recording there using the Trim Function and Voice Memo App. That is my theory at this point. And thats the science that ive observed up to this point. Is there evidence that something was actually deleted . No. Not anything that i could see. Other than knowing that it was edited and the conversation appears to continue. Because it was edited right after the ch in check or if that is the word check. And let me just confirm with you, too. There is not evidence that anything before that moment had been edited . Not that ive seen, no. Okay. Ed primo, thank you for giving us your expertise, helping us better understand what were dealing with when it come to this piece of potential evident. We appreciate it. Youre welcome. Coming up, lets head out west. There is a deadly inferno right
now. A wind driven Blaze Leveling neighborhoods, amid triple digit temperatures. Well take you live to california. Plus, unraveling the mystery of Amelia Earhart. Hear from the researcher who says the famed aviators final pleas for help were broadcast around the world. And later, meet the top target for a dangerous cartel. A 6yearold german shepard who sniffs out their drugs. And now has a big bounty on her head. What will you discover with a lens made by essilor . To get your windshield fixed. 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 i knew at that exact moment. Im beating this. My main focus was to find a team of doctors. Its not just picking a surgeon, its picking the care team and feeling secure in where you are. Visit cancercenter. Com breast
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 i have new numbers on the california wildfires. The confirmed death toll to six. At least seven people are still missing. There is also a warning as night fall nears. Conditions are ripe for this inferno to become even more dangerous and more explosive than what firefighters have already seen. This is the car fire near reading. It is moving so fast it is so erratic that fire crews have barely managed to contain 5 of it that is after fighting it for
a whole week. Cnns dan simon is joining us live from reading. Tell us what you are experience there, dan. Conditions remain challenging. For the first time, fire crews are expressing optimism about the overall effort. Ill talk to you about that in a second. First, were in the lake reading estates neighborhood. It is just amazing when you walk around and see some of the devastation. Check out this trash can which is just totally melted. And then look at this over here. On this driveway. You can see, you have what was a garden hose right here. I mean you can just fall apart. So in terms of the overall Fire Fighting effort, the Containment Number right now is at 5 . But just a moment ago crews were saying that the collective effort appears to be working. You have 3500 firefighters here on the line. You have a lot of aircraft dumping water. And this is what the Incident Commander said about that. Take a look. Were going to continue to work hard to get direct line on this thing. I think by tonight youll start seeing Containment Percentages increase. So that is the first time they have actually said that it looks like theyre turning a corner with this blaze. Not to put words in his mouth, but thats how i think you can interpret that which is great news. For the last several days this region really has been paralyzed with nearly 40,000 people under an evacuation order. All of the hotels are full. You have the shelters. A lot of them are full as well. So these people, as you can imagine, are so anxious to get back into their homes. Hopefully theyll have a home to come back to. Anna . Sadly, too many people dont. Thank you, sdan simon. The russian president shows off his Military Might as the american president sents an invitation to moscow. What could all this mean for
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