News, analysis and interviews with politicians and observers. Personal purposes. On the other hand, if it came out of a Donald Trump Trust fund, which i understand weisselberg also manages, it might not be any kind of a financial tax crime. So hes somebody who has very, very Important Information which could be helpful to the prosecutors. Not only in the cohen case but if they want to dig deeper into the Trump Organization. And weisselbergs cooperation seems to be limited to the cohen probe. What would prosecutors need to call weisselberg back and ask him to provide information about other potential crimes . Well, i think you know, what always happens in these federal investigations, and we saw it in the manafort case, when they start looking at a particular issue, sometimes they stumble across other things that turn out to be criminal in nature. Thats, i think, one of the reasons why the president is probably as upset as he has been sounding this week. Once they start looking into the Inner Workings of the Trump Organization, theres a lot to look at there. Finances. So that would be an interesting conversation, to see how weisselbergs position will be affected in the Trump Organization. Yeah, certainly imagine that will be awkward Going Forward. Thanks for that, paul. And here with me now to share their reporting and their insights, cnns abby phillip, carl holt with the New York Times, Eliana Johnson with politico, and cnns shimon prokupecz. Shimmy, im going to start with you on this. How worried should trump be about this . I think he should be very worried about this. Ill tell you one of the things thats most remarkable. Who benefitted out of this . In all of this, the person that benefitted out of this was the president. If he wasnt the president , if he was a private citizen, chances are wed be facing a very different situation here. Its likely that he would have been indicted in this. When you look at the people this is clearly about the hush money, right . They brought in pecker, the National Enquirer guy. For the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend david, you know, so that im going to do that right away. Ive spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding. Its all the stuff because you never know where hes going to be. You imagine this doesnt land well with the president , who of course is worried about flippers. Weisselberg is someone the trump family has known for decades. Absolutely. I think a lot of people wondered why the president seems to worked up about this idea of flipping earlier this week in that fox interview. He spent so much time talking about how unfair it was, how much experience hed had with it 30 and 40 years ago. Now we know two people close to him have essentially flipped. We dont know exactly why, what this is all leading up to, but
clearly the president , who had drawn a sort of bright line around his businesses, is now seeing that being the center of something that could be a pandoras box for him. I think paul made a really important point about trump. Allen weisselberg is currently in a position in the Trump Organization. Hes the person in charge when trump stepped away from his businesses and became president , he put his sons and allen in charge of his businesses. Now the question is, what happens now . How does this upend trump world, an organization thats currently still, you know, chugging along without the president . I think it really raises a lot of questions Going Forward about the future for allen in that organization. Right. And the president famously i mean, you talked about this red line and what he would do, President Trump saying this would be a red line. Here he is talking to the New York Times. Mueller was looking at your finances, your familys finances unrelated to russia. Is that a red line . Would that be a breach of his
midterms. If you want to, as you said, get these people before congress, theres only one way thats going to happen, if the democrats have the house or even the senate. Youve seen some interest from folks on the hill with getting some of those folks back there, for instance cohen. You imagine they have interest in weisselberg as well. Yeah, Michael Cohen, whos testified before congress but Behind Closed Doors once, lots of interest in having him come back again now that this case has unfolded. I think the question to me is how does Robert Mueller use any of the evidence and information thats come forth if he does at all, and what are the relationships between these two probes that are unfolding on parallel tracks . As a result, you know, how does that really impact the president . Du does Robert Mueller include some of this information in a report to congress, the Campaign Finance violations, or does he segment it off, which he seemed
to be doing when he referred the prosecution to the Southern District. Thats all an open question right now, i think. I think thats what the president really should be worried about in terms of how this really impacts him. And shimon, could you weigh in on that . Mueller, as you said, famously kind of ships stuff off to the sdny. From everything we know, i think the Department Of Justice and people at the sdny that are prosecuting this understand that they cannot indict the president. Thats probably why we havent seen a Cooperation Agreement that was given to Michael Cohen. In essence, the big fish here would be the president. If you look at all this and its clear the government feels there was some serious criminal violations and how the hush money was handled. In terms of Robert Mueller, whether or not he can take this, i think its been pretty clear that hes not joining any part of this investigation. What remains to be seen is whether or not Michael Cohen, if eventually Michael Cohen does wind up meeting with those
with feds. Hes handled Trump Organization finances, prepared trumps tax returns, managed trumps private trust, as you said, abby, treasurer of trumps charity, and hes also a Miss Universe pageant board member. I mean, this is the person who knows pretty much everything there is to know about the financial part of Donald Trumps life. Even also the private part of Donald Trumps life. There is a nexus between those two things. The fact were talking about Hush Money Payments, thats about alleged affairs the president had. Theres a big universe of things he could know. You brought up tax returns. We havent seen the president s tax returns. That remains one of the things that the president has held so closely. It just reveals i think weisselberg holds the key to a lot of that, but this breaking up of trumps Inner Sanctum is
where this leads. Trump had some Key Employees that he treated like family, that knew everything. This is one of them. Theres a couple others. Theres no one really who has more potentially damaging information. Well have to leave it there. Coming up, well have an update on the health of senator john mccain. Stay with us. Baby boomers, heres something you should know. Theres a serious virus out there that 1 in 30 boomers has, yet most dont even know it. A virus thats been almost forgotten. Its hepatitis c. Hep c can hide in the body for years without symptoms. Left untreated it can lead to liver damage, even liver cancer. The only way to know if you have hep c is to ask your Healthcare Provider for the simple blood test. If you have hep c, it can be cured. For us, its time to get tested. Its the only way to know for sure. To find the Perfect Place and determine the right level of care, whether thats just a helping hand or fulltime memory care. Best of all, its a free service. There is never any cost to you. Senior living has never been better, and theres never been an easier way to get great advice. Call today. A place for mom you know your family, we know senior living. Together well make the right choice. You know your family, we know senior living. But how do i know if im im getting a good deal . I tell truecar my zip and which car i want and truecar shows the range of prices people in my area actually paid for the same car so i know if im getting a great price. This is how car buying was always meant to be. This is truecar. Right now about john mccain. Reporter well, Senator Mccain has been receiving treatment for brain cancer since last july. Certainly this is a very grim Health Update from his family coming today that he is indeed and has chosen himself to discontinue medical treatment for that cancer. Notable that in a statement his family gave just an hour or so ago in announcing this decision, they give a nod in essence to the battle that hes waged over the past year, battling this aggressive form of cancer. They say that in the last year, john has surpassed expectations for his survival, but they say the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict. Senator mccain has not been up here on capitol hill for quite some time. He was last seen up here in december. He has of course at times chimed
in from the sidelines from his home in arizona. He occasionally tweets out statements. His office sends out statements, even though hes unable to physically get back here to the halls of congress to cast his votes. Of course, we have heard an outpouring of love and support from his colleagues up here on capitol hill. Bipartisan support from senator schumer, from mitch mcconnell, from Speaker Of The House paul ryan, of course sending their love and support during this very hard time. Of course speaking to how beloved he is up here on capitol hill. Nia . Thank you so much, sunlen, for that really sad update. Were seeing a lot of reaction online to the news from the mccain family. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell tweets hes very sad to hear this mornings update from the family of our dear friend senator john mccain. Were so fortunate to call him our friend and colleague. John, cindy, and the entire mccain family are in our prayers a the this incredibly difficult hour. Moments after the family released their statement, john mccains wife shared this on twitter. I love my husband with all of my heart. God bless everyone who has cared for my husband along this journey. And Senator Mccains daughter Meghan Mccain shares this poignant tweet about her father. My family is deeply appreciative of all of the love and generosity youve shown us during this past year. Thank you for all of your continued support and prayers. We could not have made it this far without you. Youve given us strength to carry on. Joining me with their insights and their reporting and thoughts about john mccain, weve got Chief Medical Correspondent dr. Sanjay gupta, Inside Politics own john king, and cnns meave restin. John, ill start with you. A sad day for the mccain family and really the country. Nia, i never thought id speak this sentence. John mccain is giving up the fight. But thats what hes doing today. Dr. Gupta can get into the medical reasons. In the family statement, they
talk about how hes fought this. Hes had several seizures along the way, including a bad one last friday, im told. He has decided with their consultation that it is time to stop trying to fight it with medical treatment. That is a big deal if you know the life and history of john mccain. Hes an american hero. Hes been a republican politician through several iterations of the republican party. Through all of that, hes been a fighter and survivor. You look at how he was tortured and imprisoned in vietnam. If you look at his crustiness, and i say that as a high compliment, as a challenger to george bush in the republican primary, running for president himself in 2008, as a voice before he was sidelined by this horrible disease against this president often at times. A very dysfunctional relationship, being polite, with President Trump. So the arc of john mccains life, whether youre looking at his military service, his political service, his own admission later in life that hes far from a perfect person and how hes learned from his mistakes, whether its things he did in politics, positions he took. A remarkable american life. Sadly, were losing a hero. Not just in military service. People who have such a depth and breadth of American History in their blood, in politics, we dont have enough of that these days. Sanjay, this is a tough, tough illness. The treatment is also quite tough on the body. Thats basically it. I think every step of the way from the time of diagnosis through the treatment, theres a constant sort of evaluation going on, the risks and benefits. This particular tumor, a gbm, its an aggressive brain cancer. It starts in the brain as opposed to starting somewhere else in the body and spreading to the brain. Since ive been practicing neurosurgery 25 years now, since i started my training, we havent made a lot of progress in terms of actually improving survival there. Theres some potential promise out there, but Senator Mccain had an operation last summer, last july. Hes been undergoing treatment. As john king sort of mentioned,
its sometimes been tough on his body. Hes been hospitalized for the side effects of this therapy at various points. So the riskbenefit analysis continues. At this point, they decided the risks no longer outweighed the benefits. Its tough, you know. Its tough for the family and obviously john mccain and his doctors to all arrive at this decision, but it sounds like thats where they are now. Yeah, and meave, you covered him in 2008, traveling on the Straight Talk express. Talk about that campaign back in 2008. Well, you know, i think its such an important part of this discussion that we should not overlook, that part of john mccains legacy is just an entirely different era of politics. Not just in the way that he interacted with the press but also, you know, being remembered for his civility and his humor. I was covering him back in a
cold winter in 2007 when there were just three reporters with him on the bus. He would talk for hours and hours, literally sometimes like ten hours a day, telling funny stories. You wanted to go write your story. You wanted him to stop telling his same jokes, but he loved having this Band Of Brothers around him. He would tell stories about doing shots with Hillary Clinton and stories about his past. He would make fun of Lindsey Graham, who would ride the bus with him, remembering how he fell asleep in a meeting for taking too many Sleeping Pills on the plane before handing on a flight abroad. He also during the Campaign Just in contrast with donald trump, i remember this one moment. I think we were in pennsylvania. A woman stood up and said she was afraid of president obama being president and said he was an arab. John mccain took the microphone away from her, sternly corrected her, and said, no, maam,
president obama is a decent man, i admire him. He said he thought he would make a much better president , but it was just such a different level of bipartisanship and respect for others in power. I know that a lot of his friends and allies are talking about a lot of those stories today, nia. And certainly maeve, something we dont see very often now in this town. John, im going to go to you on this. I want to play a little bit of your interview you had with Senator Mccain in 2008. Why do you think you still, after all this time, have to convince these people i have been with you from the beginning . I dont know. Maybe i havent done a good enough job. Were trying to, and were trying to show them that i am a conservative in every way. Im a proud conservative, but im not embarrassed at all about the fact that i have reached across the aisle to try to get things done for them in washington while preserving those conservative principles. John, go ahead. Think of that in the context of 2008 then close your eyes and fast forward ten years to where we are today. John mccain was considered not a reliable conservative because, as maeve noted, he thought Hillary Clinton was a show boat, a first lady who wanted to run for president , was stopping by the senate to punch a ticket. Then he realized shes doing the work, i respect her. She travels with me to iraq and afghanistan. Shes trying. He was willing to reach across the aisle because he wanted to solve problems. He opposed the george w. Bush tax cut in 2000 because he said it was too big, a fiscal conservative couldnt support it because the deficit was too big. And yes, he believed and ended up working with senator ted kennedy and others on Mccain Kennedy bush, which was citizenship, a path to citizenship. He wanted to solve problems and get things done. He was willing to compromise to do that. For that, he