The latest news from around the world with host Fredricka Whitfield. Nicu, there were six of them, we air lifted them out a couple of nights ago as a precaution. It takes three to four hours to get a baby ready to go and be transported, so thats why just decided to err on the side of safety and have them air lifted from redding to the sacramento area, which is about 150 miles or so. We did prepare highrisk patients in the event that we wanted to. You know, because youve got logistics there with wheelchairs, gurneys, that kind of thing, that did not happen, though. Right now, there are no plans to evacuate anyone else at all. Were just happy that the babies are safe, away from the fire with their families with them. So what you say there are no plans to evacuate. You just kind of described the volatility of the conditions there and how unpredictable it might be. Do you kind of have that plan b in place if it comes to the point where everyone must go . Oh, absolutely. We have had a Command Center set
up more than two days now. Weve started early in the morning on what would that be, thursday morning, i guess. 24 hours, 7 days a week, were there in the command Center Monitoring the conditions, making sure we are ready. We put a lot of Contingency Plans in place. Were just kind of at the mercy of the weather of the fire, but right now, we feel very, again, you know, comfortable with where we are. Were ready to move if we have to, but at this point, it doesnt appear there that has to happen. What about you and your staff . You all live in the inventovicid im sure are very worried about your own properties and your families at home. Talk to me about how you continue to do your job, worry about, you know, patients and fellow Staff Members at the same time, worried about, you know, your own assets outside of the hospital. Fredricka, oddly enough, i can look out the window of my office and see my office. I live just minutes away. We are on a green belt, which is now a brown belt because its summer and its hot and all the grass is dry, so thats always a concern, regardless of the what year it is and what else is going on around us. There are other people here who have lost their homes, who have still come to work, people involved in direct patient care and others also, showing their dedication to the patients and their job, and we put patients first here, so theyre willing to come in, even though theyve got that going on around in their personal life. And that its affected everyone in the community. So many homes have been lost that a lot of people are still trying to cope with that, to get to their work, to keep the community functioning, although i will say, its very quiet around here. Not only at the hospital but kind of even in the city. You know, fewer people out and about, certainly here at the hospital. Normally its a hard place to get a parking space, but right now, theres plenty of open parking spots. The hospital, though, is 100 open other than we have cancelled elective surgeries. But besides that, you know, the Emergency Room is open, which there hasnt been too many, you know, really serious cases so far, almost surprisingly so. There have been a few we had six firefighters come in. One of them complaining of heat exhaustion, which its not funny, but its funny in the way that hes from the north coast where the temperature is usually around 60 degrees or whatever and they come inland here where our average july temperature is 100 degrees and you can kind of see why he would have heat exhaustion. He enjoyed being rehydrated and being in the airconditioning for a while of the hospital. All the firefighters, by the way, have been treat and had released. There havent been any serious injuries. Weve had some burn victims, three of those are firefighters,
but again, none of those serious, and theyve all been treated and released as well. We had a man in the last 24 hours, he was trimming a tree, you know, trying to get his property safe for the encroaching flames. He fell about 30 feet out of the tree and came in with broken ribs. His injuries are moderate. He is here in the hospital and his wife was running an Evacuation Center at the same time. One more for you, fredricka. There was a firerelated car crash where a son was helping his parents move their car and motor home. Well, one of them stopped, the other one didnt see it, so there was a rear end crash. They came in. Theyre not seriously hurt, but they had also just lost their home. So they lost not only their home in the fire but both of their vehicles as well. Some remarkable occurrences there. Well, you all are amazing soldiers in this colossal battle there. And i know so many are grateful that you are there to assist in
absolutely zero rain in the shortterm forecast. We have about 90 active large fires. This doesnt even account for the smaller fires, fred, but this is over a dozen different states, so its not even just california thats been dealing with the wildfires. My goodness. All right, allison chinchar, thanks for that update. Appreciate it. Straight ahead in the newsroom, President TrumpStanding Firm in his denial that he did not know about that trump tower meeting before it happened. What trumps former lawyer km K Michael Cohen is reportedly prepared to testify to the contrary. And feeling secure in where you are. Visit cancercenter. Com breast were in a small room. What . welcome. [ gasps ] a bigger room . how many of you use Car Insurance . Oh. Well, what if i showed you this . [ laughing ] hohoho wow. Its a computer. We compare rates to help you get the price and coverage thats right for you. Thats amazing the only thing that would make this better is if my mom were here. What . an unexpected ending
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claims trump knew in advance about the meeting, according to sources. And those sources tell cnn cohen is willing to make that assertion to special counsel robert mueller. Joining me right now, cnn senior political analyst Ron Brownstein and cnn legal analyst joey jackson. Good to see you both. Joey, you first. Cohen said there are no recordings of this moment, so is it simply his word against the president s . Well, it is, and good to see you, fredricka and ron. Look, the reality, though, is that we do know that it would be his word against the president s, but i think there is even more corroboration here. I mean, in a standard case, what you look at for a persons credibility is you look at what their motivation to lie would be and certainly from the president s perspective, Michael Cohen has every reason to lie. The feds are after him. Hes in a very tight spot and therefore hed say things that would be contrary to the president , beneficial for himself. But from the perspective of having an opportunity to observe
and being the president s fixer, he would know everything, right . And if he was such an incredible person, that means, you know, that he was not a person that was trustworthy, why did trump keep him around for such a long time . But at the end of the day, whether trump knew or didnt know in my view has no legal significance for a variety of reasons. Does it really take Michael Cohen to tell us something that i think we already really think and do know . From trump saying two days, you know, before the meeting takes place, you know, something to the effect of, hey, im about to give a big speech, theres big news coming out about hillary, the blocked calls that don junior is making. Thats the reality so i think we already know. And furthermore, so what . If the president did know about the meeting, all right, its another lie to the press. Hes become very good at that and with impunity, there seems to be in consequence to that and finally, fredricka, on the issue of him knowing about a meeting, a meeting in and of itself doesnt establish collusion. You meet with who you want. So i dont think theres any legal significance in any event,
from my perspective, as to whether he lied or not. All right. So, ron, what are the potential consequences here of this kind getting out . On, you know, you know, depends on the i think that the critical question is wheres the venue, which is ultimately judged. Is it judged in a court of law or is it judged in congress in some kind of proceeding, eventually . I mean, look, you know, bob mueller could choose to challenge the Justice Department guidance under both Richard Nixon and bill clinton that a sitting president cannot be indited. He could choose to do that. Most people think it is more likely that whatever conclusions he reaches about the president , he turns over to congress, and in that venue, in that, in effect, courtroom, the standards could be very different about what constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors. I think theres no question that republicans in congress would not view even a lie by the president about his knowledge of this meeting as sufficient grounds to move against him. I dont think theres any grounds that they would take,
short of an email from Vladimir Putin saying, you know, heres whats coming. But a Democratic Congress in 2019 might view evidence that the president knew about this meeting and subsequently dictated a press statement, you know, misleading statement about what the purpose of the meaning was when it was very clearly indicated that it was going to be about dirt on hillary clinton, they might view that in a very different light. So if we understand that miss ultimately most likely going to be judged in a political context, i do believe this accumulation of evidence of the president s awareness of what was going on and his continuing efforts to obfuscate after the fact could be relevant in an obstruction of justice kind of consideration. Because joey, no matter what this piling on, bottom line is it only draws more inference to the whats being hidden here. It really does, and just to piggyback a bit off of what rons talking about. Heres the reality. In the event that were talking
about impeachment, you just need a majority in the house to impeach so 2018 midterm elections are critical because if the republicans lose control and it goes to the democrats, big problem for the president , but not so fast, because then you have to be impeached, right, where or actually removed and convict b convicted by the senate and it takes twothirds so you need much more than just a majority thats there, so thats problematic. But you know, its interesting, though, fredricka, because the president appears to lie with impunity and just get away with it one after the other after the other, and at the end of the day, in the event that you can not impeach or otherwise indict, rather, a sitting president , i mean, what therein lies the consequence. This seems to me to be a lot more political than it would be legal, particularly in the event that the republicans maintain control. Ron . Can i add real quickly. First of all, there are political consequences. Youre talking about a significant majority of the country consistently saying the president cannot be told to tell cannot be trusted to tell the truth and thats one
reason his Approval Rating is around 41 or 42 with unemployment under 4 . Just an incredible disjunction there. Except within the party, hes at 90 . The rating is very, very high. Right. In his own party, its very, very high and thats one of the reasons why they wont act and i think its important to recognize also that theres a lot of Investigatory Space for congress between doing, you know, essentially the minimal amount which is where we are now and going all the way to impeachment. For example, joey mentioned the blocked phone calls from donald trump jr. , both before and immediately after this meeting. Republicans have refused to subpoena those records. I wonder why. So far, they have are refused to call him back for testimony, public testimony, about who he told and what he told and kind of having him under oath before the cameras to do that. Look, there is a lot you know, we continue the one thing we continue to find out is that we do not know all of this story. Bob mueller knows a lot more of the story than anyone in the press and anyone in the public. There is a lot more to learn, and the question is do we ever get that full accounting. Theres no question that if democrats win the house, they are going to be much more aggressive in pursuing answers than republicans have so far. Also very fascinating. Ron, joey, thanks, gentlemen. Appreciate it. All right. The u. S. Just logged its best Economic Performance since 2014, but the threat of new Trade Tariffs is still hanging over the economy. Straight ahead, a former u. S. Ambassador to china weighing in on whether this could become an allout trade war. 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 . Obviously. Does your Business Internet provider promise a lot . 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. The u. S. Economy is roaring. The latest numbers show it grew at 4. 1 in the spring, thats the biggest growth spurt since 2014. Combine that with a near 18year low in unemployment, Factory Orders on the rise and a surge in exports, and that gave President Trump a chance to pat himself on the back. Weve turned it all around. Once again, we are the economic envy of the entire world. Weve accomplished an economic turn around of historic proportions. All right, some economists say that bump may be temporary as farmers rush to ship products before new Trade Tariffs from china kick in. I want to bring in stephen moore, a cnn senior economics analyst and a former Trump Economics Adviser and lynette lopez, a Senior Finance correspondent. Lynette, how much credit should
the president get for this surge in the economy . Weve hit 4. 1 gdp or 4 gdp a couple times before during the obama administration. Trump likes to say this is the first time its happened in a long, long time. Thats not a fact. The only difference now is that we have a president who touts these numbers like a flailing balloon man outside of a used car lot. You know, a lot of businesses are very concerned about the fact that tariffs are going to hit. Theyre concerned about whats coming in the future, so theyre making a lot of investments now and i think thats why we saw a surge in investment, which, by the way, the only as great as, you know, its about the same level as it was in 2012. So, nothing historic there either. And so one concern that economists have is indeed that were going to see these numbers drop off in the next quarter. Okay. Thats a lot of cold water. So you know the president said a couple times yesterday, you know, that this level of growth is sustainable, but Interest Rates are going up and the
effective tax cuts wont last forever. So, do you think this is temporary . No, i mean, when we used to larry kudlow and i used to talk to donald trump all the time during the campaign and we formulated this strategy, cutting taxes, deregulating the economy, promoting american energy, being proamerican business, you know, we used to tell him, mr. President , we think you can get sustained Economic Growth of 3 to 4 for 5 or 6 years, so ive im sticking with that prediction. You know, as you just satid, fredricka, were seeing record growth in our manufacturing. I dont know if you saw the numbers earlier this week about construction. I mean, everywhere you go, Construction Crews are hard at work. Weve got record levels of construction. So, its a really the economy is firing on all cylinders. Does your plan still stand if Trumps Trade War goes through and were not able to make deals with, you know, nafta and, you know, we have a deal to make a deal with the europeans, but the
trump auto tariffs that he seems to be thinking about, that could disrupt that because the europeans really very, very big in the auto market and care a lot about that. So the question is, does trump ruin all of your plans for trump . Thats a great question. And look, i am nervous about the trade situation as you are, and correctly so. I do think what happened on wednesday this week, fredricka, was a big deal. Its a handshake agreement, but if the europeans go forward with this, they capitulated. They basically said were going to lower our tariffs on american Agricultural Products or manufacturing products, our oil and gas. Thats good news. Thats always what trump has wanted. Trump is not a trade protectionist. He wants to level the playing field. I dont think they agreed to much of anything, actually. How much confidence do you have . Until it really is happening and there is an agreement, right now, it was kind of like in principle. This is very complicated stuff and what weve learned from the Trump Administration in