The president is heading to the u. S. mexico border today, the same border he threatened to shut down just days ago. The president is now backtracking on that threat. Listen to the president last week and then listen to him yesterday. Im telling you right now, we will close the damn border. Theres a very good likelihood that ill be closing the border next week. Well give them a one year warning and if the drugs dont stop or largely stop, were going to put tariffs on mexico and if that doesnt stop the drugs, we close the border. I dont think well ever have to close the border. All right. This comes just days after the president retreated on health care electing to punt the issue until after 2020. He still has not retreated on the fact that his father was not born in germany. As the president reverses course again, the democrats want to still see the secret Mueller Report and the president s still secret tax returns. Jerry nadler is demanding the Justice Department produce all communications between the attorney general and the special counsel. This comes after reports that some members of the mueller team told associates that the attorney generals summary of their work did not convey how damaging the findings were for the president. House democrats have also demanded six years of the president s tax returns, the New York Times reports the president asked Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell to prioritize a confirmation vote for his nominee to be the head lawyer at the irs and that request is raising questions about the timing and motivation. Did he do it because he wanted his guy there in case democrats went after his taxes . All right. Lets bring in jeffrey toobin, former federal prosecutor and cnn chief analyst and Michael Smerconish and susan glasser, staff writer for the the new yorker. You can read her new piece called the witchhunt lives. Its not an fword so you dont know how to pronounce. Jeffrey, i want to start with you. I was asking you, what do you think the biggest deal is this morning given everything thats going on and with all the smoke, with all the flipflops, with all the fighting you still say its the Mueller Report. I do. This is 300 pages of material about one of the most significant scandals in american history. So much noise happens in this presidency every day, it is worth remembering just the magnitude of that issue, you know. Russia made this concerted effort to interfere with our election. The Trump Campaign did not, according to mueller, illegally assist that effort, but there was evidence of obstruction of justice by the president. We need to know what was what mueller learned and this report exists in the world, but the question is, whos going to get to see it . It sounds like somebody who is going to get to see it by midapril. What month is it, michael . So, look, jerry nadler is inpatient because of some of these reports that say some on muellers team believe that the attorney general has mischaracterized them. Hes chomping at the bit to get his hands on it. It sounds like well be able to see some form of it next week. I dont know that theres a surprise in this tension that has become evident through the reporting that some members of the investigation, the Mueller Group now are concerned about bill barr, but barr kind of told us, alisyn, where he was headed in his confirmation process without dropping comeys name as i recall. He was very clear that he didnt think it proper that jim comey had taken Hillary Clinton to the wood shed relative to the emails without their being an indictment. So now in view of that where theres not a recommendation in the report were told for any indictment nor could there be of a sitting president , but i think all of a sudden now youre seeing his predisposition to not allow a repeat of what we saw in the summer of 2016. Suzie, you look at this and you see all these developments leading up to this morning tell you that the president s best news cycle on the Mueller Report has already happened and from here you think its all downhill. Look, theyve spent the last two weeks its been two weeks since the Mueller Report was delivered to the Justice Department essentially claiming not only victory but complete and total exoneration, even though the four page not a summary from attorney general barr specifically said that it was not exoneration, according to mueller on the question of obstruction of justice. It is increasingly clear it seems to me both to the president and to his lawyer Rudy Giuliani who are reverting to their previous form of attacking the mueller prosecutors and the Mueller Investigation as illlegitimate. If you looked at the strongly worded comments from giuliani over the last couple days you got a feeling that they believed that this report is potentially very damaging to the president of the United States and i feel like that sunk in and that, at least in part, explains the dizzying series of president ial diversio diversions, distractions and otherwise that weve seen over especially the last week. He seems quite free net tick, confused at times saying even by President Trumps standards saying wild and outrageous things. The National Media spent the last two days arguing over whether Wind Turbines cause cancer because the president was ranting about it. They dont. I agree with jeff. This is all connected in some ways to the Mueller Report and that, while it may be predictable, that there would be this period of wrangling over the report were still in the middle of it and will we look back and remember that there was a couple week gap between when the Mueller Report was delivered and when it was seen by the public, i think that very much depends on what attorney general barr decides to do or not. Is it going to be a real report or a redacted one . Let me just respond to something michael said. I think he may be right that barr will take out the material that is incriminating to the president because he was in charge, but think about the legal position the president is in. He cant be charged under Justice Department policy, so thats off the table. But if you believe that there should be no disclosures of information about people who are not charged, then thats removed from the report. So he wins both ways, if thats the case. Its set up perfectly. Heads i win, tails you lose. You cant indictment and you cant talk about me because im not indicted. That brings us to another thing that could be damaging for the president because we just dont know because hes never released his taxes, michael. And now the ways and Means Committee wants to see his taxes and they have every legal right to see his taxes and theres New York Times reporting that President Trump was very interested in putting someone his hand picked person into the chief counsels office of the irs. Let me just read a portion. President trump earlier this year asked senator Mitch Mcconnell to prioritize the confirmation vote for his nominee to be chief counsel of the irs indicating it was a higher priority than voting on the nomination of william barr as attorney general. The white house aides insisted for months that the confirmation of the nominee matt desmond was a top priority after the passage of the tax bill in 2017. Of course this raises the question, if this was more important to him than the attorney general for the United States who would oversee the Mueller Report, of course, it makes you think that he wants a stooge at the irs before his taxes could be released to anyone. Im sure he wanted to have his back protected. Look, we have a tradition in this country of president ial candidates releasing their tax returns, but we dont have a requirement, and so in this case, i cant help but wonder if house ways and means is overstepping its bounds because theyre seeking to impose a requirement and i read the law. I dont completely understand it. I know that it dates back to the tea pot dome scandal but why ask for six years of tax returns if youre stated basis is to study the applicability of the irs code to sitting president s because he hasnt been in office for six years. I think that they run a risk here of being perceived as going after the president , even though many of us believe that he absolutely should have handed over his tax returns a long time ago. Man 67 of the American People according to the cnn poll which hasnt changed. That number is very consistent. Its the vast majority. The six years was chosen because thats why what the irs says you should save six years of taxes and that might be what the normal person would have readily available. Thats what they say is the reason they chose that number right there. Susan, i do want to get your take on one other piece of news that we learned overnight and thats Michael Cohen and his team are apparently asking for more time. Dont send him to jail next month because hes finding more information on his own as he gets access to his hard drives and his information. Let me read you this. Mr. Cohen was only recently able to access the hard drive with important documents. Thats what his lawyers say. Said drive contains over 14 million files which consist of all emails, voice recordings, images and attachments from mr. Cohens reporters and phones. A legitimate request at this point, do you think Michael Cohen has found out more in this last few weeks than say the fbi or Southern District found when they had all kinds of search warrants and digging through his stuff . Certainly it raises the question of when they had the investigation in the search into his office and various homes, why did they not find this . The statement tant lies us with the promise of voice recordings which from the beginning has been something that cohens and his attorneys have dangled out there, both the irs story and Michael Cohen story im struck by the extent to which its just a reminder of how much, you know, donald trump is encircled at this point in time, you know. The consequence of having the Democratic House of representatives, of having these meeat that time ta sizing investigations by the Southern District prosecutors, it suggests that, you know, one way or the other there will be investigations that hang over him, cohen is a significant cooperating witness given that he was so close to the president but now you have these whistleblowers coming forward not just the one whistleblower who became public this week talking about potentially improper granting of security clearances inside the white house, but the House OversightCommittee Says there are dozens of people who have come forward volunteering information. The president is definitely under attack right now. Susan, michael, jeffrey, thank you all very much. You can watch smerconish every saturday at 9 00 a. M. Right here on cnn. President trump heads to the border today after doing an aboutface on his threat to close it. 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Our nick watt is live in california near the border, goo. Well, the president this morning will tour a little section of fence that was unveiled with a little bit of fanfare last october and a plaque that reads in part, to commemorate the completion of the first section of President Trumps border wall. Not quite. Its more replacement fence that was earmarked for replacement back in 2009 but it was funded under President Trump. Now, the fear down here was that the president was going to announce that closure of the border but as you say, he has pivoted on that during the past week under some pressure. Take a listen. Im telling you right now, we will close the damn border. Theres a very good likelihood that ill be closing the border next week. Were going to give them a one year warning and if the drugs dont stop or largely stop, well put tariffs on mexico and if that doesnt stop the drugs, we close the border. I dont think well ever have to close the border. Reporter now, there are protests planned down here for today. Organizers have called for those protests to be peaceful but loud and one of the groups involved is bringing that big inflatable baby trump wearing a diaper. They want the president to see that. Back to you, alisyn. Nick watt, thank you very much for previewing that for us. Joining us now is democratic senator simping on the appropriations, Foreign Relations committee. You have made several trips to the border. Just give us a status report. Its hard for us to know what is happening at the border, so is it a crisis as we hear so many experts say . Whats your take from what youve seen . What you see if you see it from the mexican side is that families are coming from Central America, theyre fleeing horrendous violence in those three states of the northern triangle, theyre coming to the boreder and theyre being told you cannot present yourself for asylum. Theyre being left across the border under very terrible circumstances. I visited a whole bunch of shelters that were just jammed with people, not allowed as they should be under International Law to present themselves for asylum. Homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen says its your fault. Let me play for you what she said. I dont know how many more children need to be exploited or how many more families need to be put in harms way by traffickers before congress will act. As you saw we have tried everything we can at dhs. We are absolutely out of the ability to manage this flow and they need help so weve got to work with congress. This cannot be partisan. We do have common cause on this. I beseech folks to work with me. You heard her, at dhs they cannot manage this. Lets understand why theres such a big surge. If you asked the folks throughout Central America why are significant more coming now than came a few months ago and the answer is, President Trumps threats to use National Security emergency to seal the border. Every time he talks about sealing the border, it produces a surge. Youre saying the news trickles to them which is not hard obviously in this global age of information and then they they speed it up, the people who are desperate then make a run for the border yes. Exactly right. Picture in Central America that you have drug gangs that have been empowered by the money that we send because we buy drugs in america, they use those dollars to buy guns, then there are deported gang members who strengthen the gang infrastructure so at the street level everything faces extortion. Every family faces extortion, every business faces extortion. And so the result is that its just when a gang says you pay us today, its not that if you dont pay us well break your window. If you dont pay us today, we may kill you tomorrow, or we may rape your daughter or we may kill your family this weekend. Its that level of violence that is entrenched because of the relationship with the United States. President trump is cutting the aid. That was his threat to cut the aid to el salvador and guatemala and then what happens . The aid is a little bit of effort to strengthen some of the institutions that are being overwhelmed by the