The latest news from around the world with hosts John Berman and Poppy Harlow. Listen. Are you considering pardoning Paul Manafort . I have Great Respect for what hes done in terms of what hes gone through. You know he worked for Ronald Reagan for years. He worked for bob dole, i guess his firm worked for john mccain. He worked for many, many people. Many, many years. And i would say what he did, some of the charges they threw against him, every consultant, every lobbyist in washington probably does. Well, so much for draining the swamp. It seems very much that President Trump is not at all concerned about those charges Paul Manafort was found guilty of. In fact he later told the fox news interviewer that one of the reasons he had respect for manafort was that he didnt flip like Michael Cohen did. This is clearly something the president believes is part of a broader conspiracy against him. He even went on to say that he believed his own Justice Department was still under the control of democrats, poppy. Abby phillip at the white house. Thank you for that reporting. With me now, Jeffrey Toobin and eli hoenig, former federal prosecutor. The president says what Michael Cohen pled to is not a crime. Is there any planet on which this is true . Not this one. Michael cohen was advised by very fine lawyers. He was perfectly capable of fighting the charges if he wanted to and its worth remembering why people have Campaign Finance laws in the first place. We have them so we know where must be comes from in campaigns and where it goes, how its spe spent. What Michael Cohen did, he says at the direction of the president , was he lied in both of those where the money came from and where it went on an extremely consequential subject. Whether the president was providing hush money to these two women. Right. That is a crime. So lets listen to some of what the president is saying now and what he said then about exactly that, about these payments. So here is what was said to fox about these payments. Lets listen to this exchange first. Did you know about the payments . Later on i knew. Later on. But you have to understand, ainsley, what he did and they werent taken out of Campaign Finance, thats a big thing. Thats a much bigger thing. Did they come out of the campaign . They didnt come out of the campaign. They came from me. But it completely contradicts, eli, what he is heard saying on tape with Michael Cohen. Lets remind people. When it comes time for the financing which will be listen, what financing . Well, i have to pay. Pay with cash. No, no, no. Theyre talking about 130,000 payment to keep Stormy Daniels story secret leading up to the election and the 150,000 remember, too, he said in an interview on Air Force One that he didnt know about the payments at all. At all. So he has been he has said many contradictory things about the whole Michael Cohen situation already. Can i ask you on that, jeff . He is playing down Campaign Finance violations. Correct. Another thing he said is that theyre a really little thing. They dont really even matter. But could it wouldnt just be here possible that the president made a Campaign Finance violation. Couldnt there be a Conspiracy Charge . Well, of course there could be, but remember also we are talking about an environment where Justice Department policy says he cant be charged anyway. So this is not really parsing what legal what crimes may have been committed. This is discerning whether there are any grounds for impeachment. That is much more a political process than a legal process. Sure, but that would be included if there was conspiracy in muellers report to congress. Correct, correct. That is certainly a relevant concern and but it will be resolved not in a courtroom but in the court of Public Opinion in congress. So flipping, eli. The president said also in this interview its called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal. So twofold question there. Is that saying that telling the truth should be illegal or, of course, you can flip and you can lie but if you lie initially you have to stick with the lie . This is a subject close to my heart having been a prosecutor not long ago and this is lunacy. Do you know who hates cooperating witnesses most . Jeff knows this, the leaders of criminal organizations, Drug Traffickers hate cooperating witnesses. Mob bosses, corrupt ceos and politicians because thats how they get brought down. To be discouraging and intimidating people from giving testimony is outrageous. And i will say this, the president went on to say now
theyre saying Michael Cohen is a hero and theyre going to build a statue. Not at all. Cooperating witnesses are bad people. Thats what we say as prosecutors all the time, theyre cooperating for a reason, because theyre criminals. Thats where the jury system kicks in. Juries will evaluate the cooperating witnesses and theyll see them and decide do i believe this person, does the other evidence back them up . If not, they acquit. But if they credit the cooperator, as we just saw largely in manafort, theyll convict. But thats the system. Elsewhere in the interview he says the Justice Department, with justice in quotes, which is amazing itself. But all of us who have been federal prosecutors, the whole structure of how federal prosecutions work is based on the idea of working from the bottom up. Of getting lowlevel people to cooperate against people above them and thats why federal Law Enforcement is so successful and we are we were i mean, im not there anymore but thats why we were so good at our jobs is because that structure works. You were so good at your jobs. So why are you sitting here with me. They survived my departure from the legal profession. On the Justice Department, its interesting youre Hearing Other other republicans like Duncan Hunter in california echoing the president saying this is the democrats Justice Department, sort of through the Looking Glass but here is what the president said about Jeff Sessions, his Attorney General, this morning. He took the job and then he said im going to recuse myself. I said what kind of a man is this . And by the way, he was on the campaign. You know, the only reason i gave him the job, because i felt loyalty. He was an original supporter. He was on the campaign. Is that how you pick an Attorney General . Not because hes qualified, not because he was going to do a good job but the only reason he gave it to him is because hes loyal. He just said that. I was listening, poppy. Elie, remind us who pays Jeff Sessionss salary. The federal government. Oh, not the trump
organization . This is trumps problem. From day one he was shocked when he got in office and realized the federal government does in the work for me personally donald j. Trump and hes been struggling with that everyday since. He thinks eric holder worked for obama. Exactly. And he said why Doesnt My Guy protect me. These guys, you know, these attacks on sessions are far beyond anything ive ever seen in terms of a president undermining and attacking the Department Of Justice and half of me cant believe sessions stands for it. But half of me also is somewhat i guess grateful because if he did step down you know what would happen. The next ag would be someone who goes in there with a promise to the president of i will take over the Mueller Investigation and make sure it gets done your way. To that point, how important to democracy and the pillars of American Freedom and what we live by is Jeff Sessions right now . Goodness. I dont know if i speak to the pillars of american democracy. Thats a little grand. Not sure if thats within my jurisdiction. Look, he is not hes not leaving notwithstanding all these attacks. He is actually following a lot of Donald Trumps policies on immigration, on limiting Voting Rights for minorities. These are the kinds of things the president wants him to do. But in terms of staying in his post and not for now at least being held in his post and not allowing what elie mentioned to happen, to be replaced by, i dont know, someone who would carry out the druthers. The question would be would the Republican Senate confirm anyone . Even some republicans have some misgivings about this endless trashing of the Justice Department. But look, one of the absolute touchstones of the Trump Presidency has been that republicans in congress occasionally say a word that is critical but they do Donald Trumps bidding over and over again. And i suspect that if sessions were to leave, they would do his bidding and confirm whoever he appoints. Gentlemen, thank you for being here, elie and jeff, toobs, thats what i get to call you now . Ive been called toobs since i was ten years old. Ahead, the president says the stock market would crash if he were to get impeached. Really . Well talk about that. And the trade clash with china revs up overnight. Were talking to a Business Owner who supports the tariffs and will Tell Congress as much tomorrow. Ine and see how activia yogurt with its billions of live and active probiotics may help support your Digestive Health so you can take on your day. Start the activia probiotic challenge today. It works or its free
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to discern poppy is how damaging this news is for the president. Its never a good day when your lawyer stands up in court and says you are part of a crime. That said, he could survive this as well just like he said a number of issues where at the time it seemed of consequential importance and he moved on. But here is a way that it makes me wonder if it is different, josh, for him. Legally putting that aside because if you ascribe to the precedent that you cant indict a sitting president , what about among voters . You quote a man ive interviewed for years, dan everhart, a republican who made a ton of monoin the north dakota oil boom, whos a huge advocate for the president , he seems to be changing his tune. He told you guy this is cohen stuff is an earthquake. Cohen admitting trump told him to commit a crime. People in trump world have been spinning and spinning, how do you spin a fact . This is a hard fact in a formal setting that is unavoidable. How much of a threat is it to even staunch supporters of the president . Well, its do what the president s supporters do. We quoted josh holmes, a respected gop strategist who said yesterday on the phone i dont think trump voters care that much if he had an affair with Stormy Daniels or telling the truth about it. I dont think anyone has been banking on him to tell the truth about it. I think the gop establishment will follow the cue of what voters do and if you see him dragging down his numbers, if you see new revelations on the Mueller Probe, if you see cohen come out with more damaging facts i think you could see slippa slippage. Im not sure among the president s supporters theyll see this as a reason to move away from him. A lot of folks i talked to say this is baked 234 and you have to remember the Access Hollywood happened last fall and he was elected three or four weeks later. A lot of his voters and supporters dont think hes perfect. They like what hes doing on policy and im not sure this moves him away. Mind you, i think were at chapter two or three in the book right now. I think we have a lot to go this fall and well see what else comes out. On the issue of impeachment, the president spoke bluntly about it and threats of impeachment this morning on fox. Lets listen. You know, i guess its Something Like high crimes and all. I dont know how you can impeach somebody whos done a great job. If i ever got impeached i think the market would crash, i think everybody would be very poor because without this you would see numbers in reverse. It depends on how you parse that but its high crimes and
misdemeanors are not about a great job and how the economy is doing but is he banking on the belief and line James Carville made so famous its the economy stupid, saying this i going to matter more than anything . Theres no act of selfconfidence they said how would you grade yourself and he said a plus. What the president knows intuitively is that impeachment is a political fight not a legal fight and how much republicans support him, what his strength looks like nationally, whether democrats win the chamber, the house in november, one of these issues are political ones and whether impeachment is a thing or not i think is a political fight and hes saying to supporters look at the things im doing, under dismiss all of this other noise and i think one of the things we wrote in our story today, poppy is that the president has begun discussing impeachment with his advisers and saying he thinks democrats might overreach if they go after
him. You also saw my colleague had a great piece on the front of todays post where he said nancy pelosi and others are saying dont mention the word impeachment yet. We dont think this is an effective Talking Point among more mainstream democrats so i dont know that were quite to that being fully formed yet and seeing the contours of our debate. I dont think were there yet. Lets check the market before the opening bell. U. S. Stock futures look like theyll open flat as the trade war intensifies overnight. All of this as the u. S. And china slap retaliatory tariffs on one another. Well have much more on that ahead. Introducing e trade personalized investments professionally managed portfolios customized to help meet your financial goals. Youll know what youre invested in and how its performing. So you can spend more Time Floating about on your inflatable swan. [ding] ahoy gotcha ah nooooo. Noooooo. Nooooo. Quick, the quicker picker upper bounty picks up messes quicker and is 2x more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand. Ahoy laughing bounty, the quicker picker upper. Instead of your brother. Hey oh, thats my robe. Is it . When you switch to liberty mutual, you could save 782 on auto and home insurance. And still get great coverage for you and your family. Call for a free quote today. You could save 782. Liberty mutual insurance. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Dream faster, and above all. Now, ill dream gig. Now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. Comcast, building americas largest gigspeed network. Welcome back. Trade tensions wean the u. S. And china, President Trumps latest round of tariffs kicked in at midnight. A 25 tax on 16 billion worth of chinese goods. China of course immediately retaliated with a 25 tariff on meat from auto parts to leather goods. The two counterparts sit down for trade talks. Now we have the ceo and owner of a leather supply company happy to see these tariffs. Hes set to fly out to testify
before congress tomorrow. Thanks for being with me. Thank you, pleasure to be here. I should note you said just a few blocks away from where your grandfather