Does, he returned again and again to his phrase, his favorite phrase, which is no collusion. There were no collusion. And thats been so found as you know by the House Intelligence Committee. Theres no collusion. There was no collusion with russia. So, of course, what the president didnt mention there is that it is it was the republicans on the House Intelligence Committee voting along party lines who said they found no evidence of collusion. Democrats did not sign on to their report. He also didnt mention that the House Intel Committee finding has no bearing on the Mueller Investigation. But theres more. The president had this to say about whether he is considering firing mueller or Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein. Theyve been saying im going to get rid of them for the last three months. Four months. Five months. And theyre still here. Well, thats not exactly ringing endorsement from a president who just to recap has already tried twice to fire Robert Mueller. Once in june of last year and again in december, thats according to the new york times. Remember, it was just days ago in the wake of the raid on Michael Cohen that the president said this. Why dont i just fire mueller . Yeah. Just fire the guy. Well, i think its a disgrace whats going on. Well see what happens, but i think its really a sad situation when you look at what happened. And many people have said, you should fire him. I dont know about you, but that sure sounds to me like the president has at least thought about firing mueller. And on the subject of russia, the president had this to say tonight. Sanctions, they very much deserve it. But its hard to square this statement with the president s claim that he is tough on russia. Theres been nobody tougher on russia than President Donald Trump. So i want to bring no now cnns chief Political Correspondent dana bash. Cnn political analysts ryan lizza and april ryan. Good evening, one and all. Hey, don. Dana, you are up first. I want to start with this this warning from the former trump attorney to President Trump that Michael Cohen could flip on him. What do we know about this . This is more amazing reporting from our colleague, Gloria Borger, who spoke to this attorney, his name is jay goldberg. This is somebody who goes back with donald trump for decades. He helped negotiate Donald Trumps divorces from both ivana trump and marla maples, and, in fact, the president called him on friday just to talk to him and to get advice. To get legal advice. And what goldberg told the president , this is according to goldberg, himself, he spoke to Gloria Borger, is that he thinks that its very possible that Michael Cohen could flip because he said, look, he could be facing up to 30 years in prison and he is not, in his legal experience, has not seen anybody who has that kind of potential sentence not at least thought about or even ultimately gone ahead and flipped on somebody in order to lessen the sentence at the very least, which is interesting given the fact that the whole sort of persona of Michael Cohen has been this and he enjoys being referred to as sort of a ray donovan type, somebody who will take whatever it is for his boss and somebody who loves donald trump like a Family Member and would go to the end of the earth. A very different kind of perspective from this man who the president interestingly turned to even though they worked together decades ago. Ryan, can you imagine this, though, not i dont think that the president would i dont want to say this be naive enough, lets put it that way, to actually speak to Michael Cohen privately about this information, but maybe he would. But can you picture a Michael Cohen wearing a wire . We do know that the president , it was reported he did talk to cohen, what was it, a friday ago. Wearing a wire . He smoke to him. Do you think there was any detail . I mean, that would be well not smart. What i think is the astonishing thing about this whole conversation is the assumption is according to this lawyer, goldberg, the assumption by everyone just seems to be that cohen has something to flip on. Right. Everyone just make everyone just casually assumes that trump and cohen must have been running some criminal enterprise together and theyre i mean, what is he going to flip on . I made that point the other night. Its fine for us in bandy that about. Saying this guy could flip on you then telling the press about it, that means someone very, very close to trump, who knows a lot of his secrets believes that Michael Cohen has some kind of extremely damaging information about presumably about crimes. I mean, thats the only way to read what goldberg is saying. Yeah, if you dana, i think what the issue is is that according to legal minds, and im not one, youre not an attorney that i know of we all play one on tv. We just play one on tv. Thank you, ryan. In order for the Southern District to get a warrant to raid the attorneys office, especially the president of the United States, there has to be some kind of compelling evidence. Of course. We dont need to be attorneys to know its a basic understanding of how the judicial system works, right . And this is something that that is sort of well known. Now, we dont know what the it was or we dont know what the things were that not only the prosecutor in the u. S. Attorneys office and the judge and, frankly, the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein knew about this. All of them thought that there was enough evidence or enough concern that this unbelievably unprecedented raid on a president of the United States attorney, fixer, whatever you call him, could go through. It certainly does tell you that there could be a to use ryans term crime that Michael Cohen could flip on. Now, we dont know if it has to do directly with the president , we dont know in it has to do with things that are a little bit tangential. I agree with ryan, the fact this conversation even took place and its being relayed on the record in a very public way is a signal and is telling. Yeah. Yes. And, again, and ryan, you bring up a very good point which i said the other night, working on that assumption, innocent until proven guilty. We dont know. We dont know. Its important to point out. Were not investigators. Were not part of the investigation. Lets talk about mueller. April, you can hear me, right . You had an earpiece issue. I can hear you now, yes. President trump was asked if hes concluded that firing mueller and rosenstein is not worth the political fallout. His response was, theyre still here. Thats not really closing the door on any future action, is it . No, its not at all. This president offers kneejerk reactions all the time, and as we remember, this president was thinking about changing the hierarchy of the Justice Department to make sure that mueller could be fired or that he would be restrained. This president is very upset with this investigation, and it just depends upon which way the wind blows, what happens at any moment in time. This president does not want this investigation to continue. And hes very upset and its all about right now following the trail of money, which he does not like. And we know that because he did not even want to offer his taxes for public consumption, even though its not law that he had to. Even that on the last day of tax filing tonight. So this is all about the president not liking this, and lets see what happens, what more charges come out, what charges come from this. It all depends upon all of that how the president will respond. This president is very reactionary. Well, you know, we all know, you were mentioning the taxes. The reason that he didnt one main reason that he didnt do it is because he didnt think he was going to win, so why put all your information out there when you dont believe that youre well, hes won. I know. Why not put the information out now its a different story. Yes. That is what happened. Ryan, the question was specific to mueller and to rosenstein but this is how the president began his answer. Watch this. There was no collusion and thats been so found as you know by the House Intelligence Committee. Theres no collusion. There was no collusion with russia. Other than by the democrats. Or as i call them, the obstructionists. Because they truly are obstructionists. We are giving tremendous amounts of paper. This was really a hoax created largely by the democrats as a way of softening a blow of a loss which is a loss that frankly they shouldnt have had from the standpoint that its very easy for them. They have a tremendous advantage in the electoral college. The president brought up podesta, talked about the dnc server. I dont think he brought up Hillary Clinton and barack obama which would be interesting. He does keep going back reaching for those greatest hit and its kind of like, hey, look over there. I mean, so much to unpack there. One, the House Intelligence Committee, well, i think they didnt finish their investigation, right . They did not many witnesses were outside of their reach. It is true that apparently the republicans on that committee are going to argue that they didnt find conclusion. Minority will argue and has been arguing that they never actually got to the bottom of that question. So thats the first thing to say about that part of the answer. The one the thing that really sticks out to me is embedded in that answer when hes talking about the server at the dnc and the fbi never looking at that, think about what hes saying there. Hes, again, raising the idea that maybe the dnc hack was something else. That the fbi missed it. Hes raising the idea that russia, that what his the conclusion of his own Intelligence Services is not true. That the hack of the dnc might have been some other entity, maybe some, you know, 300pound person sitting on his bed as trump once said. But, again he said 400, but go on. Was it 400 . So that, to me, is hes still you know, he resorts when on the topic of russia, he resorts to these farout statement. Could be a 98pound weakling, too, we dont want to fat shame someone, but go ahead, dana. Don its going to farout statements but also hes tried to divert from the question. Talking about the democrats. And the question of was there any collusion between the trump team, anybody in that orbit, and russians . And the real answer to that question is that the fbi, and we know even more about this since james comey is out and about talking about this in his book, started an investigation in the summer of 2016 based on things that they picked up from carter page and maybe even papadopoulos, conversations that they were having that were worrisome. And thats how the investigation started. It is not, you know, some political hoax done by the Democratic Administration that was in there. Now, listen, it could very well be that at the end of the day, Robert Mueller does not find collusion as the president is talking about, but we dont know the answer to that. Thats right. One other point i want to make really quickly, i kind of what struck me with him talking about collusion over and over again is almost a reminder that thats how thats what this is supposed to be about. And that the mueller team is looking at other things like obstruction of justice and who knows what else, maybe his finances. Well that was kind of a reminder yeah, let me so heres a directive. Any links and or coordination between the russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump and any matters that arose and may arise directly from bingo. That investigation. Now, he keeps saying theres no collusion, nothing there. Papadopoulos a lot of links. Pleaded guilty. Michael flynn pleaded guilty. Paul manafort was indicted. Rick gates pleaded with the mueller team on one conspiracy charge. Russian nationals, three Russian Companies were to be fair, theyre not about its not about it has arisen from this investigation. If youre going to talk about it, then you need to give the whole scope of the investigation. Ill give you the last word quickly, please, april. Sorry. You know, i just think it reminds me of, once again, what happened with bill clinton in the 90s. You know, it started with whitewater then it wound up with monica lewinsky. Yeah. As we are seeing all of this, as were seeing all this my earpiece once again pops out as were seeing all this, we have to remember that whatever they find while theyre looking at collusion, its like chris darden said, former prosecutor of the o. J. Simpson trial, if they go in, if the police are going in looking for drugs and they see the wife being beaten, they have to bring that in, too. Thats what were going to be what were going to see. Were seeing a scope of different things. It starts with collusion but its unfolding into other things. I got to run. My favorite line of the night, though, did you guys have a favorite line of the night . The olympics line . Did you guys catch that . No. The olympics, made it great. Could not have gone off without him. Don lemon, i think you made the olympics great just because. Thats a good one. I enjoyed that. Thank you, all. James comey sits down with jake tapper live on the lead tomorrow at 4 00 p. M. Eastern time. When we come back, more on our breaking news tonight, one of President Trumps longtime lawyers doesnt trust this other lawyer claiming Michael Cohen could be wearing a wire. Can the president trust his own fixer . Dear foremothers, your society was led by a woman, who governed thousands. Commanded armies. Yielded to no one. When i found you in my dna, i learned where my strength comes from. My name is courtney mckinney, and this is my ancestrydna story. Now with 5 times more detail than other dna tests. Order your kit at ancestrydna. Com now with 5 times more detail than other dna tests. Believe the health we aof our water sourcesany is essential to the health of our communities. Which is why were helping to replenish the mighty rio grande as well as over 30 watersheds across the country. Were also leading water projects in more than 100 communities. And for every drop we use. Were working to give one back. Because our products rely on the same thing as we all do. Clean water. And we care about it like our business depends on it. 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 president getting a blunt warning from one of his longtime lawyers who says Michael Cohen might flip on him. I want to bring in Cnn National Security analyst juliette kayyem. Jack quinn. And renato mariotti, a former federal prosecutor. Good evening to all of you. Lets look at this new reporting from Gloria Borger and the wall street journal tonight. One of the president s longtime lawyers, jay goldberg, hes been on the show before, warning the president days ago Michael Cohen would flip on him if hes faced with criminal charges. Cohen has been one of the most loyal donald trump supporters, a real trump loyalist. Is it surprising to you that at least one of the president s allies is very publicly advising him to be wary of cohen . Especially if youre under a federal investigation. You know, its actually a little interesting, don, because if you think if everyone at home thinks if you were offered a benefit in exchange for testifying about somebody you knew a friend of yours committing a serious federal crime, the first thing you need to ask yourself is would you be able to testify . I would tell you i dont know of anybody whos committed serious federal crimes. I havent witnessed any serious crimes being committed. I mean, whats interesting here is, the only reason you need to be worried about somebody flipping on you is if you, yourself, have criminal liability. It betrays the fact theres an assumption amongst trumps camp he has criminal and Michael Cohen knows something about it. Renato, you bring up a very good point from an attorney who has worked with him for a long time is saying this, because otherwise why would you have to give him that advice, right . Well, yeah, you know, when i was a federal prosecutor, a junior prosecutor, my supervisor was teaching me, he said all these people are cooperators, the reason they have this information is because they are associating with criminals. And they are, you know, often criminals, themselves. I mean, cooperators are rarely, you know, people who are a person whos a witness might be somebody on the street seeing a crime committed but a corroborator is usually in the thick of a crime with others. Goldberg said anybody whos facing 30 years never stands up. Im wondering if thats your experience. Also to renatos point, if you you someone, had a friend, youd say, look, you have nothing to hide so dont worry about it. You wouldnt say careful of that guy, bobby, over there, he might flip on you, right . Look, the thing thats baffled me for a long time in this whole thing is why the president doesnt act like the innocent man he professes to be. I mean, his behavior its like a guy, you know, with a pile of documents behind him and hes saying dont read these. You know . Look over there. And his behavior is just is really concerning is that your experience, anybody who