Being with me. Im fredricka whitfield. President trump is spending the weekend at the golf resort in bed minu bedminister, new jersey. The news of a booming economy and the president fulfilling a Campaign Promise overshadowed by the latest bombshell in the russia investigation. The man who once said he would take a bullet for trump is now telling special counsel mueller the president knew about that infamous 2016 Trump Tower Meeting ahead of time. This is something the president has repeatedly denied. And now the president is doubling down on that denial. Cnns White House ReporterSarah Westwood joins us live from new jersey near the president s golf club where he is spending the weekend. How is the president handling
this . Reporter President Trump is settling in for a weekend facing many Unanswered Questions about that 2016 Trump Tower Meeting involving his son, donald trump, and a russian lawyer. Trump refused to answer questions about those claims from his attorney Michael Cohen. That trump had advance knowledge of that meeting. Rudy giuliani, trumps current attorney, is going after cohen in the wake of cnns reporting about what cohen is prepared to testify. Take a listen to just how dramatically giulianis tone has shifted when it comes to trumps former fixer. He doesnt have any incriminating evidence about the president or himself. The man is an honest honorable lawyer. I expected Something Like this. Hes been lying for years. Reporter now, the president is also going after Michael Cohen in another remarkable
shift, claiming cohen is simply lying about the meeting in order to extricate himself from legal troubles. And of course all of this comes against the backdrop of an otherwise successful week for trump by any measure. The president Made Strides In Trade Talks with the european union. He attended the reopening of a steel mill that was saved by his tariffs. He touted the Reliease Of Robus economic numbers on friday. But as has frequently been the case, fred, President Trumps domestic agenda and his economic message were once again overshadowed by developments in the russia investigation. Fred. All right, Sarah Westwood, thank you so much, in new jersey. So if Michael Cohens claim is true it would demolish all the stories the president and his team have been telling about that meeting. And it could become a central piece in Robert Muellers russia investigation. Cnns randi kaye has a look at how we got to this point. Reporter on june 3rd, in an email, donald trump jr. Is promised incriminating information about hillary clinton. His response, if its what you say, i love it, especially later in the summer. Six days later, meeting with the russian lawyer at trump tower. Joining him, Trumps Campaign chairman at the time, manafort, and his soninlaw, jared kushner. Whether the New York Times broke the story, don jr. Didnt initially disclose the attending purpose of the meeting. Instead, he said the purpose was to discuss the adoption of russian children. But the very next day when the times broke the news that the president s son was promised damaging information about hillary clinton, don jr. Issued a statement saying the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to russia were supporting mrs. Clinton. He also said the lawyer changed the subject to adoption. Two days after the story broke,
white House Press SecretarySarah Sanders denied the president had any prior knowledge of meeting. When did the president learn that meeting had taken place . I believe in the last couple of days is my understanding. Reporter the next day on fox news, don jr. Told sean hannity his father was unaware of the meeting. Did you tell your father anything about this . No. It was such a nothing there was nothing to tell. Reporter that narrative worked. Until it didnt. The story would soon unravel. The morning after don jr. s denials on fox news, the president s lawyer, jay sekulow, told cnn this the president was not aware of the meeting, did not attend the meeting, and was only made aware of the emails very recently by counsel. I wasnt involved in the Statement Drafting at all, nors what the president. Reporter a week later, a strong denial from the president himself, during this taped interview with the New York Times. Did you know at the time . No, i didnt. But you didnt it must have been a very unimportant meeting because i never even heard about it. No one told you a word, nothing . Its a very unimportant sounded like a very unimportant reporter if thats true and the president didnt know anything about it as he says, how does he explain what happened next . The Washington Post reported last july that the president himself decided to say the meeting was about adoption. And dictated the misleading statement don jr. Gave the New York Times. The paper said the president dictated statement aboard Air Force One the day the story first broke on his way back to washington from the g20 summit in germany. Then in january, this year, the president s lawyer, sekulow, suddenly contradicted earlier claims he and the white house had made that the president was not involved in drafting his sons statement. In a letter to special counsel Robert Mueller, is beingseculowe
president dictated on behalf of his son, don jr. After reports that President Trump actually drafted his sons statement, Sarah Sanders went into Damage Control mode. Because of her own earlier statements about the timing of the president s knowledge of the meeting. He certainly didnt dictate but, you know, he like i said, he weighed in, offered suggestion, like any father would do. Reporter still, the denials about whether the president knew continued. In september last year when don jr. Was asked by the Senate Judiciary committee if his father knew about the Trump Tower Meeting in advance, he told senators no, i wouldnt have wasted his time with it. And that might be true. And chances are Robert Mueller wants to find out. Randi kaye, cnn, new york. All right, joining me right now, cnn intelligence and Security Analyst and former cia operative bob baer and cnn reporter erica ordin. Good to see you both. Erica, you first, how much legal
didnt know and whether he perjured himself on that potentially. Cohen has represented trump for a long time. Even, you know, it was cohen who said hed take a bullet for trump. But now the president s own attorney, rudy giuliani, is calling cohen a liar after he had already called him a very honest lawyer. So lets talk about the discrediting of the white houses defense in all of this. Well, fred, right now, cohen has a better record of telling the truth than the president or giuliani. I find it bizarre giuliani would say hes been lying for years. So why did the president keep him on retainer . That makes no sense at all to me. By the way, fred, we dont know really what happened in that meeting at trump tower because nobodys come clean clearly and the fbi i know, for one, is investigating the possibility that there was a russian Intelligence Officer at that meeting in addition to the lawyer. Now, i dont know where theyve gone with that, but that is one
suspicion. So mueller is deep into this. At that meeting, other emails we have not seen. Theyve not all been leaked to the press. I think were going to hear a lot more about this. If cohen, in fact, was at a meeting when trump approved this or, you know, coordinated this meeting with the russian lawyer, this sounds like collusion to me. Yes, is it enough that it would be his word, Michael Cohen, or perhaps hell say there were other people present, hes willing to share those names with bob mueller. Is that i guess verifiable enough . Well, i think, fred, that there may be Con Temp Rainious notes we havent seen. I would suspect that. Maybe even taped conversations with the president related to this. We just dont know. We dont see what sort of evidence that cohen is going to come out in support of this. Frankly, its a bombshell. You know, this is going to dribble out for quite a while. But i think the president is
definitely in legal jeopardy at this point. So erica, sources are telling cnn that cohen does not have an audio recording, you know, Corroborating The Claim that trump knew. We do know cohen has said there has been hae he has a lot of Audio Recordings but its different to record your client or people in your Office Versus some belief that he would be recording something going on in trump tower. So how would mueller go about trying to verify that, you know, this really did go down without any kind of, you know, recording . So as you said, there doesnt seem to be it doesnt seem to be the case that there is an audio recording. As bob said, there could be con tem con Tem Plannious notes or Phone Records that mul core access that would not necessarily contain rather, timing around when don jr. First learned of and accepted the
The latest news from around the world with host Fredricka Whitfield. But he has plans today. Ain. Hey dad. So he took aleve. If hed taken tylenol, hed be stopping for more pills right now. Only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Aleve. All day strong. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Booking a flight doesnt have to be expensive. Just go to priceline. Its the best place to book a flight a few days before my trip and still save up to 40 . Just tap and go. For the best savings on flights, go to priceline. I have to tell you something incredible. Capital one has partnered with hotels. Com to give Venture Cardholders 10 miles on every dollar they spend at thousands of hotels. All you have to do is pay with this at hotels. Com venture. 10 miles per dollar . That is incredible. Brrrrr i have the chills. Because youre so excited . Because ice. Is cold. And because of all those miles. Obviously. Whats in your wallet . We didnt really take things out. Like, Everybody Else that was scrambling at the last minute to get out when we saw the fire on the ridge. I mean, once we saw it there, then we knew it was coming but it was too late then. Cnns Paul Vercammen is in redding, california, a site of one of the largest wildfires. Paul, the devastation behind you, what is happening . Reporter well, theyre actively trying to fight this fire, but theyve gone to west and it has left behind an unbelievable swath of destruction in its wake. This is the car fire. You can see in this neighborhood in west redding everything basically taken to the ground. Now, to give you a little more perspective on how this acreage doubled, you might say, how did it go from 40,000 to 80,000 overnight . Well, we went off and took a little drive about ten miles from here. This is the road leading towards
igo, a small town west of redding. And look around at the charred landscape. You can see where the car fire came roaring through here. Burning most everything in its path. But firefighters successfully had some great moments where they safled structures. Off in the distance, on top of that hill, Everything Else is burn bud that structure is still standing. And the landscape is just barren. Look at the remnants of trees. Theyre just like burned up matchsticks now, pointing towards the sky. And as we speak, there are some deer that disappeared, theyve gone up the hillside. But theyre looking for anything green they can forage on. You can tell this fire came down here with so much momentum, fire whirls, firestorm everywhere. And this is a problem throughout the state of california right now. Because theres several fires
burning here. Some 90 major fires throughout the United States. Some 900,000 acres burned. Its a lot four firefighters to deal with. Ill just pan over here. Theres the deer we were talking about. This is their forest and its gone. And so theyve come Down The Hill looking for something to forage on as we said, all part of the drama of this massive fire, 80,000 acres. The car fire which they said started by the mechanical failure of a vehicle. Some reports are there was a tire blowout on a motor home, fred. It is devastating. Im wondering, paul, is there any update on the search for this greatgrandmother and these two kids . What can you tell us . All we know is the family was very, very, very adamant that they were missing. Authorities have not put out any sort of a bulletin. So what we understand is theres
an active search going on with any other relatives and at any evacuation centers. So well give you anything we know when that becomes available to us. All right, please do. Paul vercammen, thank you so much. All right, more than 700 children remain in Government Custody despite the fact a deadline to reunify families separated at the border has come and gone. This as new allegations of mistreatment at shelters now comes to light. Sometimes a day at the ballpark is more than just a day at the ballpark. Stadium pa all Military Members Stand and be recognized. Sometimes fans cheer for those who wear a different uniform. No matter where or when you served, tmobile stands ready to serve you. Thats why were providing half off family lines to all military. With best inclass towing 2018 ford f150. Best inclass payload and best inclass torque the f150 lineup has the capability to get big things to big places bigtime. And things just got bigger. F150 is now motor trends 2018 truck of the year. This is the new 2018 ford f150. It doesnt just raise the bar, pal. It is the bar. Whenshe was pregnant,ter failed, inlaws were coming, a little bit of water, it really it rocked our world. I had no idea the amount of damage that water could do. We called usaa. And they greeted me as they always do. Sergeant baker, how are you . They were on it. It was unbelievable. Having insurance is something everyone needs, but having usaa now thats a privilege. Were the bakers and were usaa members for life. Usaa. Get your insurance quote today. Our new, hot, fresh breakfast will get you the readiest. buzzer sound holiday inn express. Be the readiest. Lets see who delivers more. Comcast business gives you gigspeed in more places. The others dont. We offer up to 6 hours of 4g Wireless Network backup. Everyone else, no way. We let calls from any of your devices come from your business number. Them, not so much. We let you keep an eye on your business from anywhere. The others . Nope get internet on our gigspeed network and add voice and tv for 34. 90 more per month. Call or go online today. A book that youre ready to share with the world . Get published now, call for your free publisher kit today the number is heartbreaking following the government
deadline to reunite separating families and an estimated 700 children still remain in custody. Officials say the families were ineligible for reunification for various reasons such as the parents declined, they were deported or they had criminal records. Cnn correspondent Kaylee Hartung is in mcallen, texas. Reporter theres no straight answer as to what happens to these 711 kids still in the u. S. Governments custody. One former i. C. E. Official warning some of these children may never see their parents again. But its our understanding there are essentially four options for these children moving forward. One is to remain in Government Custody. Theyre more than 100 shelters for children operated by health and human services. Right now, the average length of stay for a child there is about 57 days but theres no limit as to how long they can stay. If a child has Family Member in the United States, they could be released into their custody or that of another sponsor. Of course, there are criteria that those sponsors must meet in order to take the children into their custody. But if a child doesnt have family in the United States foster care could be the answer. Of course even when a child is released from Government Custody, though, fred, they still have to make their case to a judge to stay in this country. If they cant do that, and i still say theyre not guaranteed to have a lawyer in court with them if they cant make that case to a judge, they could be deported. There are so many legal complexities here, fred. And Immigration Attorneys say they have to figure this out as they go. There are reports that children are being mistreated at some of these shelters. What do we know . There are, and cnn has reported on unsanitary conditions. These children are forced to
live in. The trauma theyre undergoing as a result of separation from their f