A recap of the days news. Explain that . Ive commented on this pretty extensively. What you can tell you is ha 2 president did nothing wrong, there is no collusion. For anything beyond that i would refer you to the president s outside counsel. Didnt he say he didnt know about it and then theres a tape during before it happened discussing it . Ok. Again Michael Cohen is alleging is that trump committed a crime. And directing cohen to pay to silence women who claim they had affairs with trump, that is collusion. You might think republican lawmakers would be compelled to speak out in the face of this. Actually, it probably wont surprise you at all that the response from the president s own party is pretty much this. Crickets. Deafening silence. Nothing. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell completely silent. Majority whip john cornen i dont know the facts. The facts. House Speaker Paul Ryan punting to his spokesperson who said, quote, we need more information than is currently available at this point. Then theres this from the longest serving living senator orrin hatch. Naturally it makes you very concerned but you know, the president shouldnt be held responsible for the actions of people who hes trusted. And the point here is that Michael Cohen in his allocution said that donald trump instructed him to make the payments. We can hold the president responsible for that. It may not come as a surprise
that the republicans dont want to do that. The president has to be wonder what if a blue wave crashes over capitol hill come november. Lets discuss it. Caitlin collins asked that we can. Shes with us. Jonathan shade and good evening to all of you. Caitlin, you were there today. You asked the questions to Sarah Sanders. Whats the mood inside the white house tonight . Don, you saw it. The white house is having a lot of trouble mounting a defense in response to the claims made bid michael coen, essentially sighing what they said in the past, that the president did nothing wrong. These charges arent against him. Then saying theres no collusion even though thats unrelated to what Michael Cohen said in the courtroom yesterday. Were seeing a lot of struggle in the bhouls. But a loft of that comes because of the things President Trump has said in the past like when
he told Sarah Sanders. She sited a conversation and then we found out from Rudy Guiliani, that the president did, in fact, know about it. Don, what we know is that the mood inside this west wing goes two ways. We know the president is bad mood. He wasnt expecting Michael Cohen to make that statement yesterday. His lead attorney Rudy Guiliani is currently out of the country. Thats something thats irking the president. 1235rs those who work in the west wing, they dont know how to react to this. Of course, they dont know what the president is correct or if hes right when he said he didnt direct Michael Cohen to make those payments. Back with rob porter and the security clearances, with the trump tower meeting, with the Stormy Daniels payment revelations, they dont know if this will be the story that
breaks the camels back. So theyre sitting back waiting to see whats going to happen. After denying knowledge of the Hush Money Payments in april, President Trump now says he did know about it. I cant keep it straight whether he knew or didnt know but he did know at the time but then added on. Did he do himself any favors today . No. His admission was a confession. He tried to say it only would have mattered if the money came out of the campaign. He actually got it totally backwards. He took the money from the Trump Organization and donate ud it to the campaign. Thats the illegality. I think he thinks he was doing himself a favor when he was actually hurtsing himself. Yeah. Suzann, by saying on fox, by the way, that he knew about the payments, is he created more problems for himself . I think potentially he is. At this point, the question of whether or not the president didnt know, i think it strings believe. Not only was Michael Cohen willing to say this under oath, he has tapes that essentially corroborate his account. Its significant that prosecutors allowed him to say this in court during his allocution. They would have coordinated it in advance unless they had reason to believe it was true. The notion here that were not sure whether or not the president was aware or not, you know, i think its relatively apparent at this point, to the point that jonathan made, i think the president may have gotten himself into additional legal trouble in that interview told. He appears to be confused about the law. Hes emphasizing that Campaign Funds were not used for the payments. However, if Campaign Funds were used he might have been ok. This is a private individual and
a corporation made illegal Campaign Funds. So i dont know if hes relying on bad Legal Counsel or he simply doesnt understand whatd theyve splapd to him but i dont think hes doing himself any help at all. I see heads shaking. This report says trump and Rudy Guiliani have discussed the potential political repercussions of pardononing Paul Manafort. He says he hits this hes been terribly treating. We know the ump is enamored of this. I think he is concerned about Paul Manafort cooperating from this point forward. That verdict was sort of the beginning for manafort. Hes facing an entirely different trial coming up in washington, d. C. In september. You know, and i think what were seeing from the statements,
trump is sort of testing the waters. Essentially, to see whether or not hes going to get away with it. What weve seen in response has been pretty much nothing. Sort of shrugs from republicans but they really are not drawing firm lines around trump pardoning individuals who are drem implicated in this investigation. The times is reporting that no, theyre not going to do it. They talked about it but hes not considering it. He told Ainsley Earhart at fox, well, theres a possibility. So there is a disconnect there, kaitlin, with the reporting on this. There is. Thats what Rudy Guiliani says, his one account of this. Its clear heres what the president is saying during an interview on the white house grounds today. That comes after Sarah Sanders said today there had been no discussion that she was aware of as a potential pardon for paul
manafort here. The president himself, all you have to do is look at his twitter feed. Hes signalling that he could potentially pardon him essentially saying that he wasnt treated fairly by the Justice System even though Paul Manafort got a trial by a jury of his peers and even his own attorneys said he felt it was a fair trial he received over the last few weeks. The president is doubting the Justice System today and signalling to Paul Manafort saying that he didnt break, calling him a brave man. Obviously a stark con threat r travis to what he thinks Michael Cohen has done. What hes saying to his legal team, his lead attorney, Rudy Guiliani and what he is saying to a Cable News Host about potentially pardoning his former campaign chairman. Oh, boy. May i add a point . Quickly, because i want to get to Michael Cohen. The big point that is wildly
improper for the president to be floating the pardon of someone who could be testifying against his own criminal involvement. Right, right. Right, right, right. Go on. Thank you. Lets talk about this. When last we heard of the president speaking of Michael Cohen, tw it was a flippant tweet saying, if you wand im paraphrasing here, a dpe tent attorney, dont hire Michael Cohen. Surprised you would hear r o see the president of the United States tweet Something Like that. Tonight he is speaking about his relationship with Michael Cohen. Listen. Are you considering pardoning Paul Manafort . I have Great Respect for what hes done in terms of what hes gone through. He worked for Ronald Reagan for years. Bob dole. He worked i guess 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. If you look at Hillary Clintons person, you look at the people who worked for Hillary Clinton. Look at the crimes that clinton did with the emails and she dlee deletes 30,000 emails and this justice does nothing about it . And all the other crimes that theyve done. That was about Paul Manafort. So much Fact Checking in that, i dont have three hours to do when it comes to the 33,000 emails and the crimes that have already been discussed. There were hearings held. Hillary clinton is the president in his head and probably in the head of the folks who work for fox news. Hes talking about manford. By him saying, susan, that its something that every lobbyist in
washington has done, thats not true, either. I think its not true. There has been some confusion about the scope of enforcement of the foreign registration act. He stood up in front of the United States of america and swore an oath to take care that the laws be enforced. Now he says breaking the law is not a big deal. Everybody does it. Shouldnt be responsible for it. We have him tweeting, praising someone for failing i to cooperate with federal investigators. Just the brainz breach of the oath of office, it really is stunning to see Something Like this unfolding in plain view. Did you want to Say Something about that, jonathan . No. I think she hit the nail on the head. Paul manafort was much worse than other lobbyists. He was working for russia. He was working to advance
russian interests in other countries. In ukrainian and other soviet republics. Seems like he did the same thing in the United States. S. Why this obsession with Hillary Clinton and her emails, kaitlin . I guess its a strategy on his part and the part of his supporters. Every time theres something wrong thats not explainable that hurts the president , aah, Hillary Clinton, ahh, emails, ahh, obama. Its not just a Defense Tactic for the president. He believes that Hillary Clinton hasnt been prosecuted in the way she should. Youre saying this Justice Department. Hes referring to his own Justice Department with the attorney general Jeff Sessions who the president hand pick, the same as rod rosenstein, the fbi director, all these people are people who the president picked to run. His Justice System thats hes
in charge of. Jeff sessions recusal which is one of the things thats irritated the president the most the entire time hes been in office since last march when he recused him, he zeroed in on that. Scrutiny is heightened around the president. His form eer aides. The more thats in the news, the more he thinks about Hillary Clinton and what she did. He wants that to be kwaefl looked at and scrutinized as he was. Hes the president , not Hillary Clinton. Hes occupying the white house behind me. The president doesnt seem to grasp that. He thinks Hillary Clinton should be treated the way she is and that hes guilty of the things anybody hes been associated with has been as well. The president doesnt like the scrutiny that hes getting from the Justice Department. Yeah. Its something that has consumed the president the entire time. Listen, i love having just the facts on this show. I promise the viewers well give you just the facts. Ok. Clintons staff this is a political fact. One of the fact checks. Clintons staff received a Subpoena March 4th an employee managing her server deleted emails three weeks later. The fbi found no evidence that the emails were deleted deliberately to avoid the subpoena or other requests. Clintons team requested for them to be deleted months before the subpoena came. They also said all the documents had been turned over to the state department. Read it for yourself if you dont believe me. Use your google machinings. Well be back. Well talk about the president relationship with Michael Cohen among other things. David axlerod is here. Did small deals, not big deals. Not somebody that was with me that much. They made it sound like i didnt live without him. I understood Michael Cohen very well. Turned out he wasnt a very good lawyer, frankly. But he was probably with me for about ten years, and i would see him sometimes. Why would he have a not very good lawyer working for him for ten years . Very good question, a guy who says he only gets the best and brightest around him. The reason he had him around was to handle assignments like the assignment of trying to get Stormy Daniels and Karen Macdougal to step down, to stay silent. I mean, thats the kind of assignment that Michael Cohen took up for the president. He knows very well why he had Michael Cohen around and the
kinds of things that he assigned to him. So will you answer me this, david . You worked in the Obama Administration. Youve seen what its like inside the white house on a daily basis on a daily basis. What do you think the moods there in the white house . Theres never been a white house likes this, maybe the Nixon White House at the end. This is sui generis. When things happen we never have elliott cal scandals like this. You certainly have events that happen, crises around the world or things like that. And you feel like water is flowing in from everywhere. You feel like sewer under siege. I can only imagine what they feel like in the white house. Theyve had practice. This has reached a different
kind of inflexion poingtd. Point. Theres no way to justify this set of facts. Its almost as if shes given up trying. She dismisses the questions and moves on. Partly because i think shes been burned so many times by asserting things that turned out not to be true. You mentioned sui generis and this administration. As i said in my open, the silence is coming from republicans, lawmakers in washington on the republican side. Is this president going to pay any immediate political price for being implicated in a crime . Well, i think that the immediate political price that he may pay will come in november at the polls. I think his basis is his base, i think when he said i can stand on 5th avenue and shoot someone and still stick with me, i think that was about right. He had a Political Base whos
implaqueble. The people who decide this election are primarily independent voters. They might be open to voting for republicans. I think hes placed a heavy load on the wagon of every republican whos running in any of the swing districts. I have to believe theres an enormous amount of concern about it. You will see, i think, in some of those districts, some republicans speaking out. The bulk of those republicans in congress, run in districts that are dominated by one party, by the Republican Party and they fear the president s power within that base. And so theyre reluctant to speak out. Its always whats perplexing to me is he stands by, people stand by shooting
someone in the middle of 5th avenue. Thats some kind of badge of honor. Can you imagine supporting somebody like that . Do you think im that stupid . Yeah. You know, i agree with that. Although i think hes proven himself hes proven right about that. But i just want to harken im old enough to remember the watergate days, don, and i dont know some of your viewers will remember how that ended. It ended because Senior Republicans walked down to the white house and told the president it was over. Get out, yeah. After he was named as an unindicted coconspirator and he did. That was before the days of fox news and breitbart and hannity and this kind of this sort of silos that is we live in today. But you know, you do you would like to see people stand up at some point and take a
position on this, because you know, this is a major fivealarm constitu