Transcripts For CNNW CNN Tonight With Don Lemon 20180413 : v

CNNW CNN Tonight With Don Lemon April 13, 2018

Bothered him if there was even a 1 chance his wife, melania, thought it was true. Comey goes on to say the president told him he was thinking of asking the fbi to investigate the allegation to prove it was a lie. And theres more. The Washington Post reporting that comey writes, it is also wrong to stand idly by or worse to stay silent when you know better. While a president brazeningly seeks to undermine Public Confidence in Law Enforcement institutions that were established to keep our leaders in check. But in what may be the most explosive of all, comey writes, this president is unethical and untethered to truth and institutional values. His leadership is transactional. Ego driven. And about personal loyalty. White house Officials Say there are no plans at this point to respond to the book tonight. But cnn has learned exclusively that the president s allies have already begun putting together an Extensive Campaign to fight back against comey, talking points including branding the nations former top Law Enforcement officer as, quote, lying comey. And reminding democrats of how the former fbi director treated Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign. But the comey book is not the only headache for the Trump White House tonight. The new yorker is reporting that the National Enquirers Parent Company allegedly paid 30,000 in hush money to a doorman at a Trump Building in an effort to stop him from speaking out about a rumor that trump fathered a love child. The enquirers Parent Company and the Trump Organization both deny the allegation. Though the doorman stands by his story. We have more breaking news to tell you about tonight. Allies of the president are worried that the feds may have seized taped conversations in the raid on Michael Cohen this week. Sources telling cnn those recordings were even played back at times to candidate trump and included discussions about the campaign and interactions with the media. Cnn has also learned tonight that as the president is debating whether to fire Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein, the white house is working on an effort to undermine his credibility. Rosenstein interestingly enough met with the president today at the white house. Reportedly regarding routine business. A lot to discuss as i said at the top of the show. You have to Pay Attention or you might get lost. I want to bring in cnn White House Correspondent jeff zeleny. Cnn political analyst mark preston. Cnn legal analyst laura coates and cnn Law Enforcement analyst josh campbell. Good evening to one and all. Jeff, lets start with you. Youre standing there in front of the white house. President trumps allies were all set to go on the offense against comey. Is that blown out of the water now that the bombshell after bombshell after bombshell has been leaked from comeys book . Is the white house in panic mode now . Reporter don, good evening, certainly its complicated by these new details coming out about the book and suspect its going to continue happening the next several days before the books official release next week. Look, the white house and Republican National committee which is sort of overseeing the response to this always knew this was going to be a heavy lift, if you will, so their one strategy is to try and go after james comey. Theyre trying to undermine his credibility. Theyre trying to assail his character. Interestingly using the words of democrats to remind all americans about the full picture of james comey, but don, the reality here is i think most people probably on both sides have made up their minds about james comey. They want to hear what he has to say, obviously. The specific details certainly overshadow any blanket suggestion hes a liar or a leaker. Of course, his memoir is called a higher loyalty. Tonight the Republican National committee with not much else to say has put out a mock book cover saying a higher loyalty to me, myself, and i, james comey. So, again, don, this is really a last straw. One of the only things they can talk about is james comeys credibility because the president s also very much on the line and theres utter silence here about that. The former director of the fbi writing a book like this. I cant i mean, who would have thunk . So lets get to the bookmark. This is an excerpt obtained by the associated press. Comey writes about his first meeting with trump after the election and was surprised by the president elect that he didnt ask trump was what he didnt ask. Trump was just briefed about the russia interference. Heres what he said. They were about to lead a country that had been attacked by a foreign adversary, yet they had no question about what the future russian threat might be. So, mark, comey then says that they they want to figure out a way to spin that, what they just learned. What do you make of the president s early indifference to russias interference . Were certainly not shocked. I think anybody who was hearing what james comey is saying about President Trump tonight shouldnt be shocked, either. A lot of the things james comey says has come out as fact in some ways when he talks about the president not necessarily being so truthful. Although hes not as kind in saying those words. But to your point and to this question right now, not surprising that we saw this small team of trumps allies. After they get a briefing. We should note this briefing was by James Clapper at the time. He was the director of national intelligence. He had just told them about the interference efforts on behalf of russian what they did in 2016. Just think about it. This meeting occurred right after the election, don. They knew, at least some of them knew, about a meeting that occurred in june in trump tower, june 2016, with a russian operative who was supposed to be acting as an intermediary between the russian government. We do know Michael Flynn had existing relationships with russia. He was also at that meeting. This is no surprise and no surprise that Reince Priebus and sean spicer who were at the meeting didnt speak up and say something. At that time you have to understand when youre working for donald trump you can never say anything thats going to anger him. You do not want to be in his presence. To talk about this would anger him. By the way, James Clapper is going to be on this Program Later on. Well certainly ask him about that and much, much more, mark. Josh, as i was reading especially what the Republican National committee has put out, you were shaking your head. Why is that . Well, because we have the, quote unquote, party of Law Enforcement that is turning their sights and using their precious resources to settle a score and go after the former chief Law Enforcement officer at americas premier Law Enforcement agency. I mean, just let that sink in for a second and youll see the kind of times that were in. You know, its very interesting, as weve seen some of these excerpts that have been coming out, specifically the focus on, you know, referring to the white house as untethered and, you know, the president untethered from the truth. Let me tell you about james comey. I had the honor of serving as his special assistant in the fbi. A career agent who served as his special assistant. There were two things about him that you knew. His professional life and personal life were closely tethered to the truth. That was his story. That was his hallmark. So for him to claim someone else is untethered to the truth, its a big deal. All those that were in his orbit knew two things. Everyone on his staff knew two things. First of all, you better give it to him straight. If he asks you a question, even if the answer is critical of him, you better give it to him straight. The second thing being, you better be tethered to the truth. Every answer you give better be in line with the facts and nothing else. Thats what hes used to. Today in washington in this posttruth world, People Choose facts whenever theyre convenient. A lot of people look to him and say thats someone whos sanctimonious. When, in fact, thats the kind of person we would want. Someone tethered to the truth. They said hes unethical. Correct. As you look at this book, i havent read the book, ill read it along with everyone else, two things you have to focus on. The first being we can look at the actions over the course of the 2016 election and the decisions that he made at every single turn. Good honest people can disagree with what he did. Thats fair. Read the book, make up your own mind. The thing thats most troubling, were seeing a character assassination by the rnc, by the white house, by this phony fake book cover that you showed which is kind of childish going after a person not because of the decisions he made, but because theyre trying to discredit him because of the investigation and where it led. Its just troubling. The situation were in now and the direction were headed its sad. Laura, i want to get you in. I want to read a quote before you respond. Theres also this comey excerpt where he recalls a meeting he had with President Trump and then chief of staff Reince Priebus and in it, he made him think of the days when he was the federal prosecutor talking to the mob. Heres what he says in the book. The silent circle of assent, the boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The us versus them world view. The lying about all things large and small. In service to some code of loyalty that put the organization above morality and above the truth. Laura, what do you make of that description particularly when you put it in context that this administration wants to fight the russia investigation tooth and nail . Its not surprising james comey would have made that statement. Because the idea of loyalty and a familydriven organization, everything is kept close to the vest. Have to kiss the ring to feel as though youre validated, have the good graces of whos in children. Playing out in different cabinet meetings that have been televised and other things. Its a very fair criticism of james comey to call him a flawed messenger in this capacity. A lot of the critiques that hes received over time have been based on his own actions and a lot about his decisions to try to make sure that his own personal legacy was intact, perhaps above maybe usurping the power of the attorney general, et cetera. Having said that, even as a flawed messenger, there could be statements hes making in the book and i like any of you have not read all of them and are titillated a little bit by what youre seeing already. The fact hes a flawed messenger doesnt mean what hes saying is untruthful or completely off the rails. There could be a vendetta he has, there could also be a lot of vindication for those who have questioned whether or not the way in which the president of the United States has ruled this administration is becoming a cause of concern. Absolutely. Jeff i want jeff to weigh in on this. You guys are going to come back. Jeff, you have the details about trump apparently was concerned about some of these allegations made in the steele dossier. This is according to comey. He says, trump brought up, quote im quoting here, the golden showers here. Its salacious allegation, but its something the president has pushed back on before. He has, don. This is something the president pushed back on in a News Conference shortly after he was elected before he came here to the white house at trump tower. And he, you know, a journalist asked him that question, you know, an odd question, uncomfortable question, awkward question to ask a president of the United States. A newly elected one. He answered in a very unusual way. He said, one, everywhere he went, he had security guards. There were video cameras, so he couldnt have done Something Like this. He said, two, hes a germophobe. He held up his hands and said hes a germophobe. Thats why Something Like this couldnt be accurate. But the reality here is that, you know, the accounts here are so personal between james comey and the president. So the most i think the thing that will get under the president s skin the most is that james comey is having the final word here or at least the final word since he was fired almost a year ago and the president , i believe, will want to respond to this. The white house officials that we talked to are not giving any predictions of when the president is going to weigh in. Don, the reason this matters, is it going to affect the Mueller Investigation, is this going to set him off . Well find out. All right. Stick around, everybody. We have much more to talk about. I want to bring in cnn Political Correspondent sara murray. I want to bring you in, because i understand you have new details in tapes federal investigators may have obtained in the Michael Cohen raids. What do you know . We learned from sources familiar with the matter that Michael Cohen had as habit of recording his conversations during the president ial campaign as well as before it and these are tapes that the could have easily been scooped up in the raid that the fbi conducted of Michael Cohens office, his home and of his hotel room. One source familiar with Michael Cohens behavior said there were times when hed actually play these tapes back to thencandidate trump or his associates. So its certainly possible some of these recordings were either on the phones or on the computers that were scooped up as part of this fbi raid. I also spoke to a number of former Campaign Officials who said this was sort of the constant lore around Michael Cohen, as soon as you would join the trump orbit, that it was known among Campaign Officials, as well as among officials at the Trump Organization that cohen had this habit of recording conversations and so newcomers to the orbit would get this warning. You know, dont have a conversation with Michael Cohen in his office unless you want it recorded, you should beware of that. Obviously the concern is much broader. The notion that its possible that investigators now have recordings of some of Michael Cohens private conversations. Sara murray with the new details on that. Sara, thank you very much. Everybody else stick around. When we come back, much more on james comeys war on President Trump including reports that comey claims john kelly called trump dishonorable. Josh campbell was sitting next to the former fbi director. Im going to ask him about that call. If youve been diagnosed with cancer, searching for answers may feel overwhelming. So start your search with our teams of specialists at Cancer Treatment centers of america. The evolution of cancer care is here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com experts at t provides edgetoedge intelligence, covering virtually every part of your manufacturing business. So this wont happen. 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So were back, everyone. Weve got more revelations tonight from the former fbi director james comeys incendiary book. Back with me, jeff zeleny, mark preston within laura cotes and josh campbell. So, listen, according to comey, hes insinuating the president seems to be obsessed with the salacious details in the dossier and concerned that his wife might believe some of it. And in january of last year, a reporter asked him about possibly being vulnerable to blackmail because of the allegations, because of what is alleged in those tapes. The president spoke about that. Lets take a listen and well talk. Say that you are potentially vulnerable to blackmail by russia, or by its intelligence agencies . Let me just say what i do. When i leave our country, im a very highprofile person, would you say . I am extremely careful. Im surrounded by bodyguards. Im surrounded by people. And i always tell them, anywhere, but i always tell them, if im leaving this country, be very careful because in your hotel rooms, and no matter where you go, youre going to probably

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