Chris Cuomo asks the tough questions to newsmakers in Washington and around the world. And what we see are passions on the rise. Trump gets this very well. He plays to it for better and worse. I think that doing what works for him and his base, stoking discontent, abusing the truth, stoking conspiracy theories, may come at a cost. His lies have become so trek. Okay . When we look at these kinds of things. The Washington Post has the truth detector that they do on it. The fact checker says he now lies at a rate of more than 7 1 2 times a day to you. And that works. Its reduced the impact on you and the ability of the media to track the same types of data and make the case to you that it matters. This tweet about the the tweet about the 17 angry men and the mueller conflicts, if it smacks of Alex Jones Junk thats because a lot of it is. Remember, the president is privy to information thats way better than what i have and what you
dont be that ugly, dont be that hostile, dont threaten violence like that, be better than that, the Trump Supporters are better than that. She didnt say that. Why . You decide. And what speech do they support at the white house . They support speech like when sanders justified the president calling the free press scum, right . A stain on america. The enemy of the people. They support all that as free speech. But they dont support free speech when they dont like it. Thats when they disinvite journalists and they shrink away from interviews and they wont put their people out on shows like this. So what does all this tell us tonight . The tweets matter. They could have significance to investigators who are digging for proof of intent which the president seems all but too happy to supply. That could be dangerous. And so could feeding all these Fringe Groups that are Finding Comfort in a potential cause for action in trumps Scorched Earth attacks on american institutions. Now, what is our job . Its to call it out, give the information to you, and let you make informed decisions. We are going to do that job no matter what the president encourages to stop us. In fact, i believe as deeply as anything that the president has made my job more important than ever. So what do you say . Lets take a quick break and get back after it. Lets do this job. Weve got a senator here tonight who is at the center of two of the biggest problems we face, the russia probe and those captured kids on the border. He sees big developments coming on both fronts. The democratic whip, senator dick durbin, next. Fruits and veggies are essential to your health, but its tough to get enough of their nutrients. New one a day with natures medley is the only complete multivitamin with antioxidants from one total serving of fruits and veggies try new one a day with natures medley. Rewards me basically aeverywhere. Om so why am i sliding into this ski lodge with my mini horse . Because hotels. Com lets me do me. Sorry, the cold makes him a little horse. Hotels. Com. You do you and get rewarded. A place with flexible fmeal plans. E. And 24hour room service. A place where seniors get the care they need in the comfort of home. Home instead senior care. Question. What does it mean when the president responds to more demands from the Mueller Probe by saying it should end . Is that just an opinion or is it an admission that the president will stop this investigation . And if he were to stop it, is that Obstruction Of Justice . Weighty questions. So lets get after it with the Senate Minority whip, illinois democrat senator dick durbin. Senator durbin, thank you for joining us on prime time. What do you make of the president s tweet . Ill put it up for the audience. That seemed to be a call to the Attorney General to stop the Mueller Probe. His people are saying no, use the word should, not must, its not an order, its just his opinion. The president s playing games with words here. We know exactly what his opinion is in the Mueller Probe. Hes called it a witch hunt and many other names. Its time for Mitch Mcconnell to finally let us pass the Bipartisan Legislation that once
and for all protects the Special Counsel and lets him finish his business. That said, the president does have the right to say he thinks that the probe is a joke and that it should end, right . He still has his First Amendment rights as well, no . Well, he certainly does, but when he starts trying to influence a man that he appointed as Attorney General, it gets dangerously close to Obstruction Of Justice. What is the line for you . Can a president obstruct justice . And if so, what would you need to see . Well, of course he can obstruct justice. And in this situation an investigation which may or may not find him culpable if he tries to stop it, if he tries to dismiss bob mueller before hes completed the investigation, all of these things i think are as they say prima facie evidence. What do you make of the notion that the law doesnt make it clear enough where a president is involved . Because he has as the Supreme Court has held and i know you know this, almost absolute firing power. He can get rid of whomever he wants whenever he wants. In the absence of a law that
says otherwise. And there is no statute that specifically does this. And coincidentally, his nominee for the Supreme Court, brett kavanaugh, has said he believes that a president should basically be immune from investigation and prosecution while in office. That is certainly a timely choice of a nominee. In absence of legislation he too kavanaugh argues as well because of the absence of a statute that says otherwise a president should be exempt. Well, we can argue one way or the other. A statute would make it a lot clearer, but were not going to get a statute through this Republican Congress and signed by this particular president. So lets say that mueller either doesnt find the sufficiency or doesnt believe he can charge and indict a sitting president , which seems to be the case. Do you believe that what you see as potential Obstruction Of Justice is an Impeachable Offense under the High Crimes And Misdemeanors nebulous
standard . Well, im going to wait for muellers conclusion. Sxif a lot of faith in him. Ill stand by his conclusion. Whether it exonerates the president or finds him guilty, or at least accuses him of being guilty of some misconduct. When it comes to the Impeachment Process i can just tell you ive been through that with president clinton. This is a very High Standard under our constitution. I do not consider it lightly. And should it go forward i would be sitting on the jury in the United States senate. Isnt that One Of The Best arguments in favor of wrapping this up . If mueller doesnt have really heavyduty ammunition against the president and impeachment is largely a political numbers game, why wouldnt he wrap it up . If he doesnt have something to actually indict and charge on and impeachment is all but impossible because of the numbers in congress right now, where is the progress in all of this . Chris, let me tell you, i trust robert mueller. Ive known him for 20 years. I have worked with him when he
headed the fbi. Hes a consummate professional. He is handling this professionally. The reason hes getting battered in the press by the president s constant tweets calling it a witch hunt is because he believes that a good professional prosecutor doesnt try his case in the press. Im going to give him the timetable he needs to complete this. This is an historic undertaking. I want it done right. When its all over, i want the American People to feel justice is being done. Thats got to be the bar. People have to believe its the truth. They have to believe that they understand the facts and the consequences. That should be everybodys priority. So in that vein i want to pivot with you because the Judiciary Committee that youre on is going to have a role when it comes to dealing with what is happening on our border right now. This Reunification Process is pleasing to one of the judges in the litigations. But its still a low standard. We know theres not a plan. And most importantly we know from an hhs official now that they knew what would happen if
they did this and they did it anyway. What does that tell you and what can you do about that . Well, it tells me that this idea, forcibly removing children from their parents, was a humanitarian disaster from start to finish. There was callous disregard for these children even though we took them under our custodial care as a government. We did not keep records on their parents or the children. Clearly no one was even thinking ahead to the possibility of reunifying them at some point. Now, this judge in Southern California set deadlines which our government has met partially but failed to meet in many respects. We have as of this week 711 children who have not been reunited. 91 of those children they say they just cant even identify who their parents might be. That is reckless disregard for the wellbeing of these children. Someone ought to accept responsibility. And thats why i called for the resignation of the department of Homeland Security secretary,
nielsen, this week. The criticism of that poll, though, or did garner a lot of headlines, is too low on the totem pole, senator. You know shes not calling the shots. Shes doing what shes told to do. You have Attorney General sessions out there saying that basically the point of this was deterrence. Hes a big shot. You have the president whos been campaigning on this since the moment he came down those fateful stairs in one of his buildings. Why go after her . The president will face his day of reckoning on this decision and so many others in due time under our constitution. As far as the Attorney General is concerned i know exactly where he stands on this issue and so many others and he is culpable in the process. But she is the one who was the architect and engineered the process start to finish. She needs to accept personal responsibility for making a disastrous decision which reflects so badly on our country. Senator grassley says its on you, its on congress, the system stinks and you havent designed any better laws and you basically boxed in the executive and the Law Enforcement officials to have to make bad
choices. My response to my friend Chuck Grassley is that five years i sat down with seven senators, four democrats, four republicans, all together, we put together a comprehensive Immigration Reform bill that passed the United States senate with 65 votes. It didnt include his vote, i might add. But it passed and was sent to the Republican House which even refused to consider it. We need comprehensive Immigration Reform. There is no evidence this president supports that. Well, heres what we know. If nothing changes, the situation will stay the same. The courts can only do so much. And were going to need legal action and were going to need enforcement priorities, and youre going to be part of that equation. Senator, thank you for joining us. Well be talking about that again. Youre always welcome on this show. Thanks, chris. And with democrats like durbin and 9 Republicanthe Repu they do will be weighed and measured in the midterm elections. Fast approaching. Less than 97 days now. President trumps already furiously campaigning. And someone else is getting back
in the political game. President obama. Who will be the biggest influence at the polls . The making of a great debate. And look at those two punims to get after it. Next. What do you have there . P3 its meat, cheese and nuts. I keep my protein interesting. Oh yea, me too. I have cheese and uh these herbs. P3 snacks. The more interesting way to get your protein. Now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller im Gonna Follow The Sun now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller transitions™ light under control™
let your perfect drive come together at the Lincoln Summer Invitation sales event. Get 0 apr on select 2018 lincoln models plus 1,000 bonus cash. The president repeated his threat today to shut down the government if he doesnt get the money for his border wall before the midterms. He even argues it would be good for the gop if there were a shutdown. What do you think . Lets have a great debate with ana navarro and steve cortes. Here is some of the sound of the president saying it today. He was on with rush limbaugh, whos celebrating 30 years in the business. Heres what he said. Here you are, suggesting that youd be willing to maybe you talk about shutting down the government if thats what it took to get this wall built. Its like pulling teeth. Getting these guys to get it done is and you have no idea how tough ive been. And i say hey, if you have a shutdown you have a shutdown. But whether its before or after. But i actually think its a Great Campaign issue. I think it would be great
before. Steve cortes, shutdown good. Why . I totally agree. Look, i think its both good policy and good politics. Good policy because the president ran on this as his signature issue. It is perhaps the foremost reason that he won the presidency, and its a promise he made to the American People. In terms of policy, for weeks, chris, weve been talking about the terrible situation weve had down at the border particularly as it regards children and families entering illegally. Guess what . A wall solves 95 of those problems at the border if we only have guarded accessible points of entry where we can control what happens down there. But secondly, and this is on the political side, i think quite frankly the republicans are in trouble. The democrats are clearly favored to take the house right now. History argues that. Present polling argues that. One way, though, to crystallize the president s coalition, the deplorables, and get them excited that President Trump is back on the ballot is to give the congress an up or down choice. The Congress Loves to equivocate
and bloviate. We need to make it very simple for them. You either fund this wall that the American People voted for or were going to shut government down. Ana, what happens if theres a shutdown politically . First of all, the republicans take the blame. I mean, im almost tempted to say great, go ahead, do a Government Shutdown because i think it will be so politically costly. Its impossible to think that anybody other than the republicans would take the blame when you have a Republican House, a republican senate, and a republican president. Look, i remember back when there was the entire shutdown debate and shutdown when obama was president. And it was the republicans who took the blame. So its not a good look for a Republican Party that has the entire power and the entire package to not be able to function properly. Also, chris, its so look, donald trump likes to flex his muscle. Right . He likes to do things that he can do on his own. He likes to impose tariffs. He likes to give out pardons. He likes to show that he is a powerful macho man thats got all this political power and policy power and can make changes and theres all these republicans in congress begging hig him and hes being the magnanimous guy. But listen, it is very cavalier i think for a very rich guy who spends so much time at his golf clubs and jetting around to his own properties to throw out the idea of a Government Shutdown so carelessly. The people who get hurt in a Government Shutdown are the government workers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck. The first ones that start getting furloughed are people like park rangers, people who are low on the totem pole, on the bureaucratic totem pole, and it inflicts a lot of pain on a lot of people in america including a lot of families. Forgive me if i dont feel sorry for government workers. The five richest counties in america by income are all in the washington, d. C. Metro area. Theres a reason for that. Its because washington, d. C. And the Establishment Crony swamp has siphoned the wealth and prosperity of the American People for its own benefits and its done that for decades. Thats the reason donald trump was elected. And if the government nonessential services need to be shut down, its already happened twice this year, it wasnt armageddon, if that needs to happen again so they can finally get it through their thick heads on capitol hill that the American People vote ford a wall and demand a wall steve. Then thats what we need to do. Steve, what did it cost nothing looks more like a swamp than Donald Trumps cabinet. Okay . If you want to talk a