A news and interview program, anchored by Erin Burnett. Erin. Throughout the day we saw the president several times, the first time in the oval office with the italian Prime Minister asked questions about what is he talking about exactly with Conflicts Of Interest with bob mueller. He did not answer questions there. He did not answer our questions in the east room later on after that News Conference and he didnt answer questions later on again in the oval office. He clearly does not want to talk about publicly on camera about bob mueller. Erin, that does not mean he is not thinking about him and tweeting about him. There is one thing thats clear, it is its clear that bob mueller is in his head as this trial of Paul Manafort perhaps begins tomorrow, that may be the reason, there may be other reasons, but its clear the president wants to talk about this in a controlled environment of saying things online. Does not want to be asked about it. This anger and rage, erin, is more strategy than anger. Hes clearly trying to discredit the entire investigation as the trial begins. But today he did not answer questions. Were almost a week now into the
contentious Business Relationship, which, you know, he had never mentioned in those words before. 439 days of an investigation not withstanding. Why do you think these attacks are becoming so much more frequent now . Its not surprising that donald trump is increasing his attacks. The walls are closing in on him. We got the release of the cohen tape and the potential that Michael Cohens going to flip. Weve got the Paul Manafort trial about to start and the president is lashing out. I know that when defendants cant rely on the facts or the law, they resort to attacking law enforcement. Thats what youre seeing donald trump doing, hes attacking law enforcement. So the president is demanding now mueller release those quote, unquote, Conflicts Of Interest. The Justice Department, as you know, looked into the history of mueller and trump when this all started, finding no issue with muellers appointment. Obviously we all knew about his long standing friendship with jim comey. We raised it on the first night he was appointed. That was certainly no secret. Do you know what the president is talking about, congressman,
though, when he says, quote, very nasty and contentious Business Relationship . Do you have any idea what that refers to . No, it couldnt have been that nasty if donald trump considered Robert Mueller for the position of fbi director in the first place. I also do want to note that the Department Of Justice ethics experts cleared any Conflicts Of Interest that Robert Mueller might have had in may of 2017. In addition, Robert Muellers supervisor, republican rod rosenstein, testified before congress, saying there were no disqualifying Conflicts Of Interest. So the president right now is really just grasping at straws. I think hes trying to distract the american public. He doesnt want to talk about the fact that Health Care Costs are rising and that wages are, in fact, decreasing. Your republican colleagues on the House Judiciary Committee, congressman liu, obviously youre a member of that, they want to bring back jim comey, the former fbi director, for an interview. The topic reportedly about his decisionmaking during the 2016 campaign. Obviously hes testified before you all. You asked him a lot of
questions. What more do they want to know from him . Do you know . There are a lot of issues that are very pressing. Such as, lots of kids ripped away from their parents who have not been reunited yet. The House Judiciary Committee controlled by republicans wants to talk about Hillary Clintons emails. I frankly think that is absurd. Do i, however, welcome them bringing comey back to testify. I think he is a very good witness. I think he actually provides a lot of information that is not part of the republican narrative. So if they want to do that then they should go ahead and do that, but i think the American People want to move on. Youre all for it if theyre going to do it, youre not going to try to stop it . I would welcome Comey Testifying Under Oath in front of the House Judiciary Committee and telling the American People again his story of how trump tried to obstruct justice. Thank you very much, congressman liu. Thank you, erin. Outfront now, Rudy Giulianis bizarre Defense Strategy today got even stranger. I dont even know if thats a crime, colluding about russians. Does that do more harm than
good . Breaking news at this hour. Bob woodward, the legendary reporter, you know, the guy from deep throat who had the hand in taking down nixon, has a new book coming out about trump. We have some stunning details tonight. Plus trump talking tough on Border Security, threatening a Government Shutdown over the wall. Whats really going on with all those National Guard troops . Remember, they all got sent to the border. Well, we went to find out. People might have thought theyd be patrolling right along this fence line here. Thats not happening. Thats not the way it was meant to happen. No, nothing. Not at all. But allstate actually helps you drive safely. With drivewise. It lets you know when you go too fast. And brake too hard. With feedback to help you drive safer. Giving you the power to actually lower your cost. Unfortunately, it cant do anything about that. Now that you know the truth. Are you in good hands . Humira can help stop the clock. Prescribed for 15 years, humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Help stop the clock on further irreversible joint damage. Talk to your rheumatologist. Right here. Right now. Humira. New tonight, did Rudy Giuliani, President Trumps own lawyer, admit there was collusion with russia . Thats kind of a crazy thing to even ask, right . But one must ask it when giuliani said this not once but twice today, saying, oh, collusion isnt a crime. I dont even know if thats a crime, colluding about russians. You start analyzing the crime, the hacking is the crime. The hacking is the crime. That certainly is the original crime. The president didnt hack. Ive been looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime. Its not. Collusion is not a crime. This is significant because its actually kind of not the point. The point is Rudy Giuliani never denied collusion took place. He just said collusion isnt a crime. Collusion itself, forget the crime part, colluding is something President Trump has repeatedly denied. There is no collusion. I say it all the time. There is absolutely no collusion. There was no collusion on my side. There is no collusion between me and my campaign and the russians. I didnt know the president. There was nobody to collude with. I am truly not involved in any form of collusion with russia, believe me. Four hours later, i mean, you know, when you listen to all that you realize there is kind of a problem there. Giuliani went to fox news, called in to try to clean it up. When i said today that there was no collusion and therefore and that collusion also is no crime. Ive been saying that from the very beginning, so has john dowd. Its a very, very familiar lawyers argument that the alternative, my client didnt do it, and even if he did it, its not a crime. I have said that over and over again. Outfront now, chief National Security correspondent jim sciutto, white house
correspondent for american urban radio networks, april ryan and bob muellers former Special Assistant at the Justice Department michael zeldin. Okay, jim, the president , you know, every time hes asked anything says there was no collusion, right . You could ask him about, i dont know, whether the sky is blue and hes going to say, yeah, sure, but there was no collusion with russia, right . Then Rudy Giuliani comes out and says something really different. Saying well, you know, but i dont know if its a crime, you know . There is yeah. What do you make of this . What kind of explanation is this . This is like saying, i didnt steal it, oh, but if i did, what are you going to do . Yeah, i mean, first of all, its a legal red herring because the crime would be conspiracy. Conspiracy to defraud the u. S. Government. Which weve seen this Justice Department, weve seen this Special Counsel charge several russians with in a group of indictments earlier this year. Russians who were directly involved in trying to influence the u. S. Election. As we know, that old story, stealing information, timing
those releases, et cetera. Thats actually the criminal charge there. I think that beyond that, i mean, Rudy Giulianis a smart lawyer, hes been around a long time, he knows that that is a crime and im sure hes read those indictments. Beyond that, what is he trying to accomplish there . Its not the first time i have heard that kind of prepreemptive argument from trump loyalists President Trump himself, youll remember, when the Trump Tower Meeting was first revealed a year ago raised this trial balloon saying, listen, anybody would get Opposition Research against their opponent, regardless of the source. That, frankly, doesnt stand up to the facts because there are laws against accepting Material Support from foreigners, which is what this would amount to. Its hard to say what Rudy Giulianis trying to accomplish here, but i just try to stick to what the facts are on the law from hearing from smart lawyers. They say forget about collusion, Talk About Conspiracy and and that is illegal. And conspiracy is illegal. Michael, what do you think the strategy is here from Rudy Giuliani . Hes saying collusion is not a crime. If you didnt do it, you shouldnt care whether its a crime. It does appear hes opening the door here. Inadvertently, i think. I think the only thing that i credit that came out of Rudy Giulianis mouth since hes appeared on the scene is hes not up to speed. Remember when he said he wasnt up to speed on the facts and the law . I think hes still not up to speed on the facts and the law. What he has said here today, of course makes no sense legally, as jim pointed out, it is a crime to coordinate with foreign nationals and receive a thing of value as a donation. It is a conspiracy to defraud the United States. If you engage in that sort of conduct. It is a lie to make a false declaration of it. There is no Strategic Value here i can see other than Rudy Giuliani is confused and is confusing the matter for his client, which makes it worse for his client because the story continues to linger. I dont credit him. Others may think hes, you know, crazy as a fox and has a strategy here. I think hes freelancing and hes Making Mistakes and its hurting his client. Well, april, you know, speaking of confusing things and muddying the waters that has really been far from helpful for the president , Giuliani Today Introduced For The First Time a new meeting. Entirely separate meeting from the one we all know about, right . The one with the russian lawyer and donald trump jr. And manafort and kushner, et cetera. He is introducing a whole new meeting before that russian meeting took place, okay . Here is what he said. Cohen also now says, he says too much, that two days before he participated in a meeting with roughly the same group of people but not the president , definitely not the president , in which they were talking about the strategy of the meeting with the russians. The people in that meeting deny it. The people weve been able to interview. Again, april, the confusion here is that hes saying the
people in that meeting deny it. Denied what . Denied thats what it was talking about but admit there was a meeting in which case Rudy Giuliani is saying there was a meeting and youre opening the door to i mean, what the heck is going on here . Right. It seems there are several things that could be going on. Number one, lawyers are supposed to keep their mouths shut and so is the client. Rudy giuliani is talking too much. He could be opening up a hole and jumping right in. It could also be a strategy. He wants to play this out in the court of Public Opinion to have the shiny ball to avert the attention from something else. We just dont know. Rudy giuliani is an anomaly at this moment for a lot of people, but the bottom line is hes either doing harm to this president s case by announcing something that people dont know or he could be sly as a fox trying to really put something out there. We just dont know. We have to wait and see. This strategy playing in the court of Public Opinion is really playing to the base, though, who is supporting the
president. Yeah. His base, by 91 . Which is stunning. I think important to keep raising, right . He does have that incredible support from his base. It has not relented at all. You know, michael, Rudy Giuliani, you know, kept up attacking Michael Cohen himself today, you know, after this is just what he said, though, to give everyone a sense of the confusion which is now Rudy Giuliani. The guy is unethical, hes a scumbag, hes a horrible person. The man is an honest, honorable lawyer the man is a pathological manipulator, liar. Michaels not going to lie. Hes going to tell the truth. Im sorry, i had whiplash. That obviously is extremely confusing. By the way, its not confusion, michael, which caused the president s former lawyer jay goldberg to tell me what rudys doing there is going to do immeasurable damage to his boss, the president of the United States. Here he is. For giuliani to say that hell tell the truth strips the
defense of its main weapon, of claiming that hes coloring his testimony to favor the government so that he can get a letter of cooperation. I knew as soon as giuliani spoke that he was damaging trumps case immeasurably. Immeasurably . Immeasurably. How bad could that be . It ranks near 100 in terms of damage. Near 100, michael . Well, i think hes right that giuliani should have kept his mouth shut. It doesnt help his client when he says, on the one hand this guy is honorable, on the other hand when he says something bad about us, hes not. He should stick to the silence is golden rule and let the real lawyers on this case, the raskins and emmett flood do the legal working. Jim, i must ask you about some breaking news. The Washington Post just reporting something extremely significant for this president. That is that u. S. Spy agencies saying there are signs of new
missiles being worked on, one, possibly two Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles at the same factory that produced the icbm capable of striking the american east coast. An intelligence source tells them we see them going to work just as before. The president , of course, says north korea is no longer a nuclear threat. How significant is this development . If true, its part of a series of similar signals, right . Because there had been activity detected at Nuclear Facilities within the last month or so continuing. Beyond that, there has been no irreversible progress. Remember, thats one of the standards that this administration held up. Yeah. In other areas. Yes, they have stopped Missile Tests and nuclear tests. That could change tomorrow. Yes, they appear to have taken down one of the underground test sites. They appear to have begun dismantling their Missile Test Sites but both of those things are easily replaceable and u. S. Intelligence had not established what they had actually done to disable those sites. So you have a lack of progress
on one side and then here you have indications that north koreas continuing activities that they we