The latest news from around the world with hosts John Berman and Poppy Harlow. The latest news from around the world with hosts John Berman and Poppy Harlow. Has gone through. You know, he worked for Ronald Reagan for years. He worked for bob dole. His firm worked for 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. We are a long way from drain the swamp, unless you are Paul Manafort and you do what everybody else also does. The president was asked about Michael Cohen, his longtime attorney, somebody who worked for him for more than a decade. He is trying to distance himself now from Michael Cohen, who has pleaded guilty to eight Felony Charges and implicated the president in the Campaign Finance violations to which he pled guilty. This comes, of course, as the specter of Michael Cohen and what he could possibly say to prosecutors further, if he could talk additionally with the special counsel robert mueller,
that is still looming. It was notable the president made very few disparaging comments about Michael Cohen in this interview, trying to be perhaps a little bit nice to a man who could flip on him as the president is saying. Its an interesting point. Jere jeremy, thanks for the reporting. Lets talk about the legal aspe aspects. Good morning to you guys. Ann, let me begin with you. According to the president this morning, Michael Cohens admitted crimes, felonies, werent crimes. First of all, theres no question they are crimes. No federal judge would take a guilty plea unless they were pleading guilty to a crime. The bottom line is we know they are crimes. Theres no question here that there are Campaign Finance violations. What makes these Campaign Finance violations very clear is that cohen is saying that the president intended do this to protect himself in the political campaign. Thats what matters. For the president to say theres
nothing wrong is just its beyond absurd. Shan, he is downplaying the crime of Campaign Finance violations. Right . But theres actually a bigger crime that Michael Cohen is alleging here in what he said in court, and thats a crime of conspiracy against the president. Thats right. The president is now what we call an unindicted coconspirator. Its perfectly clear that its him and that cohen was acting at his direction. So he is completely implicated in the crime. What about Paul Manafort . Your read on the language, shan, that the president used to describe Paul Manafort in this interview this morning, echoing what he was tweeting right after . Yeah. The language is striking, particularly in conjunction with his later talk about flipping. I mean, he is using the language of mafia mob prosecutions. Its one thing to express
sympathy but he is saying its an unjust prosecution, even though he has been convicted. Clearly, a continuing signal he is trying to dangle the Pardon Possibility in front of him. You think a pardon is likely . Its hard for me to imagine we could talk about a pardon. Even the language he is using, its stunning to me that we now have manafort convicted as a felon of stealing millions of dollars essentially from the American People and donald trump is out there saying, but he is a great guy. Its really its hard for me to imagine that we could be talking about a pardon. That said, i think its possible the president does it. Lets listen also to the explanation on the payments here, shan. Because the president wants to have it always not one way or two ways, always. The issue is, he says such contrasting things on tape. So lets listen first to the cohen payments to pay off, you know, Stormy Daniels and also
karen mcdougal, to keep stories of an alleged affair with the president silent. Here is what he said this morning. Did you know about the payment s payments . Later on. You have to understand, what he did 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. Okay. Well, here is what he said on tape with Michael Cohen about arranging a deal to pay 150,000 to keep Karen Mcdougals story of an alleged affair with the president , to keep that silent. Here is the president. When it comes time for the financing what financing . We will have to pay. Pay with cash . No, no, no, no. What is he trying to do here . Shan . Thats a good question. Its all there. Its all right there. He is trying to deflect as is usual. I gotta say, i think anne will agree, he needs to consult with lawyers before he talks about this stuff. It makes no sense. He is talking about it wasnt campaign resources. Thats not what the crime is here. Its completely off base with that. Then his statement that he didnt know about it until later or something, i mean, that is collaborated because what is the later there . He is aware of it before its paid. I dont see how this helps him at all besides opening up to more false statement. Do you think, anne who or what do you think is putting the president in the most jeopardy right now . By that cohen and, you negotiation the very likely possibility of a potentially very consequential Plea Agreement and Cooperation Agreement or manafort who also could reach a deal with
muellers team . I would be skeptical that manafort will reach a deal. He should have done it earlier. Its a strange thing to do at this point. Again, its possible. The cohen piece, the two biggest issues are Michael Cohens guilty plea and the Mueller Investigation into whether he conspired with russia. And manafort is out there as well. He has a is cohens problematic issue with the truth and credibility going to be a factor that could be helpful to the president . Sure. Look, the president surrounded himself with people who are not truthful. The kind of lawyer that would tape someone, the kind of people that would steal millions of dollars from the u. S. Government and steal from the transition and inauguration. The president surrounded he did not surround himself with mother theresa, lets say that. The people all have issues. Theyre all going to be found to have lied and cheat and stolen. You have the president of the United States saying that Paul Manafort was stealing money and doing these things but everybody in washington does it, so its okay. How is that possible . From the drain of swamp president. The political side of that next. Thank you. Shan, nice to have you as well. President trump also taking another shot at his own Attorney General this morning. He says there is only one reason that he gave Jeff Sessions that job. What is it . You will hear from the president next. Also, facing legal battles back here at home, the president sends a latenight tweet about South African land reform. South africa is firing back this morning. Was this really about policy or just a Distraction Tactic . John bolton moments ago saying he and his russian counterpart did not see eye to eye on election meddling. So what now . Countries that we traveled what is your nationality . And i would always answer, hispanic. So, when i got my ancestrydna results
it was a shocker im everything, im from all nations. I would look at forms now and wonder, what do i mark . Because im everything. And i marked other. Discover the story only your dna can tell. Order your kit now at ancestrydna. Com
for drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty mutual insurance. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Yet again, the president of the United States is ripping into his own Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions, saying he gave sessions the job based on loyalty, solely loyalty. Apparently, instead of qualification. Listen to the president. He took the job and then he said, im going to recuse myself. I said, what kind of a man is this . 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. All right, david gergin is with me and jackie kasinich. Theres so much to parse through from this interview this morning. Lets begin on this, the Attorney General, only hired
because of loyalty. Loyalty above all else. A theme for this president. For a man who has paid for and works for the american taxpayer. Absolutely. Its important to go back to fundamentals here. The president of the United States is the ultimate guardian of our rule of law in the United States. The Attorney General is the appointee of the president to carry that out. And to protect the rule of law. Donald trump now has been on a tear to violate all the norms that we normally associate with protecting the rule of law, going after his Attorney General like this is one more example. But also, the way he has praised now a convicted felon, Paul Manafort, for essentially resisting any cooperation with the justice department, with various investigations. And at the same time, he attacked his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, who agreed to cooperate and tell the truth
under oath. Yes, it didnt reflect well on the president , it implicated him. But you know, he, the president , is our guardian. If we cant if we cant expect protection from the guardian, where can we turn . We have become a nation without a rule of law. You can turn to the coequal branch of government, you can turn to congress, because thats a big part of their mandate is to check the executive branch. You know, we heard from republicans this morning. Its mum, pretty silent from House Speaker paul ryans team, from Mitch Mcconnells team. Where is the check . Its a really good question. You are right, it should be with congress. But theyre being quiet because they dont want this election to be about President Trump. He is very good about turning the entire functions of the government into being all about
him. He just said that with the justice department. Its all about loyalty, its all about him, its all about protecting him. Thats what you heard from senator rounds. Thats what you heard from people on the hill this week, saying that he is the president. What do you want us to do . You could launch investigations. You could do this. You could do that. We are ahead of a midterm. They want to talk about the economy. They want to talk about taxes. Right now, all theyre doing is spending their time talking about President Trump. And that in a lot particularly talking about house congressional districts, could be very problematic. David, let me ask you about the voter, right, and what this is going to do to the republican voter and the staunch trump voter. A guy that i have interviewed for years, made a ton of money in the oil boom, a big republican donor, fascinating because he stood so closely with
the president on everything, until now. Here is what he says. This cohen stuff is an earthquake. Cohen is admitting trump told him to commit a crime. A lot of people in trump world have been spinning and spinning. How do you spin a fact . This is a hard fact in a formal setting thats unavoidable. Is he an anomaly . Are we going to see more of that in. I think thats one of the big, big questions. If people like that begin to turn, you will see the numbers begin to crumble, support for trump begin to crumble. I think he is more protected in rural parts of the country where his base is very strong. But i think a danger part is in the suburbs. You have a lot of people in the suburbs are still open minded and havent made up their mind necessarily. They like what trump has done for the economy. But theyre probably aghast by all the rest. Which way will they go . The republicans, after
of all of these scandals unfolding. Now we bring us to the midterms. If they lose the house, if they lose seats, sure, the president will blame it on other things. He will be a very large presence of that. That will be a real live consequence. We will have to see if that happens. If not, you will see a very emboldened president , if the republicans keep control. David . I think thats absolutely right. I come back to this, republicans, by tieing themselves as tightly as they have to donald trump, are going to face more and more problems unless they change course. From my Point Of View i know they wont do this. I know they will be against it. I think they ought to draw three red lines for the president. Do not shut down the Mueller Investigation. Second red line is, do not start pardoning people like Paul Manafort. Third red line is, when and if Mueller Subpoenas you, go and testify. Talk. This morning, south africa wants clarification for what it is calling, quote, hysterical comments from President Trump. What were those comments . Let me read you what the president wrote last night. I have asked Secretary Of State mike pompeo to study the south africa land and farm seizures and largescale killing of farmers. They claimed they were seizing land from white farmers. David mckenzie joins me this morning. What is the president talking about . Reporter he is talking about a fox news report and a Lightning Rod often for white nationalists around the world. Let me start off by saying there are two factual inaccuracies in the tweet and then the report. There are no farms being seized by the government. The other being that while there are there is a broad issue
with crime, of course, in south africa, there isnt some high level of farm murders specifically right now. In fact, one Farm Organization saying its at a 20year low. The issue broadly is this issue of land in south africa, which is a deeply emotional issue in this country with a racist past. 70 of people owning private land here are white South Africans. You look at the demographics. Thats something the government and others are trying to change. Here is the response from the South Africans. South africa rejects this narrow perception which only seems to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past. A very swift response, because of that tweet, which mentions the Secretary Of State. It takes on a whole official kind of air about it, even beyond the fact that it was the president of the United States wading into this issue. No response yet back to the South African Government from the white house on it this
morning. We will keep an eye on that. Thank you for the fact check this morning. Meantime, National Security adviser john bolton talking tough with his russian counterpart on election meddling. They just met. Listen to this. We werent able to Reach Agreement on that. We decided to go ahead and we will each speak individually, which is what im doing now. On the whole, i would say we made considerable progress. I made it clear that we wouldnt tolerate meddling in 2018 and that we were prepared to take necessary steps to prevent it from happening. This meeting that just happened today was a followup to the held sisinki summit. Lets go to michelle kosinski. I mean, these two men not on the same page. Bolton made that very clear. It was so difficult than with a we saw in helsinki. The u. S. And russia are it seems never going to be on the same page, at least any time soon, on election meddling. Russia denies it, calls it fake news, say its a big hoax, sounds a lot like language we hear in other ways relating to russia on the part of the u. S. On election meddling, National Security adviser john bolton has been tough on russia. Some consider him to be a russia hawk. He has spoken out harshly against russian bad behavior many, many times in the past. When you get him in this kind of scenario, they are in geneva, he is with his russian counterpart, you feel certain he is going to raise it, he is going to Say Something like that. And he made it pretty clear that he said, its not going to be tolerated. Were going to do something about it. Do not mess in our elections. Of course not. Thats a silly question. I just spoke to him literally a few minutes ago. We have performed here in exactly the way i think the two leaders would have expected us to. You know, honestly, have a little faith in the American People who elected him president. Re