Someone broke into the house or drunk driving, he would be there in a minute, unquote. Now the president s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani is out there calling Michael Cohen a liar. Do you think Michael Cohen is a liar . Well, listen, theres certainly been a breach in the relationship. So when i said that, i meant that because i had known michael for ten years, known the president for a very long time and my guess was that they were very loyal to each other. When your house gets raided and your apartment and hotel room gets raided and you get jarred by the fbi, maybe that has changed now. The leaking of the tape and i listened to the tape. I think the president is trying to make the point and mayor giuliani is making the point that it seems like the tape was cut off, that there was more e dialogue there and the president thinks it was more favorable to
A mix of newsmaker interviews, political analysis, cultural segments and media analysis. Change Michael Cohens calculus . What i also did say is that the Isolation Strategy of Michael Cohen ive said that a couple of times publicly, is probably not the best strategy either. Im not on the president s legal term. So i dont know what theyre legally allowed to do and not allowed to do and im not exactly sure what michael is being targeted for. The president is indicating in a tweet yesterday it might be related to the medallions and the taxi cab licenses that michael had. So me its not clear what is absolutely going on. I think michael would probably say that he didnt leak the last piece related to the russian meeting. Im not really exactly sure where that came from. But i dont like the crossfire. When you and i we have friends go back a long time and you see friends get in a disagreement, you say to yourselves, gees, i wish these guys could put down their arms, recognize the longevity of their
relationship and stop the back biting and infighting. Lastly, doing it on Nation National tv my Message To Michael and ive said this, its not the appropriate venue to be doing this. Lets see if we can calm things down. The president is obviously doing a great job as president. These things happened before he was president. Listen, its a complicated world we live in, jake. What im hoping is the trump agenda on the scales of all these things, the trump agenda and all the good things happening in the economy will outweigh all the stuff going on right now. Anthony, as someone who knows both of them, you have Michael Cohen according to sources claiming that President Trump knew ahead of time about the trump tower meeting with russians. You have President Trump denying it repeatedly publicly. Who do you believe . Thats a good question. Listen, its not clear to me
michael leaked that. So im going to stay on the side of the president here. Im going to take the president at his word that he didnt know. I was in the campaign during that period of time. There was a major flurry of activity. You have to go back, jake, back to june of 2016 where one of the things that the campaign was worried about, and this is something Paul Manafort, frankly, was working on, is to make sure the president s Electoral Success State By state was going to be matched at the Convention Floor where we were counting delegates and we wanted to make sure there wasnt some kind of insurrection. So there was a massive amount of activity around that, very, very little activity away from that. You also have to remember, we were understaffed on that campaign, we were underfunded relative to secretary Clintons Campaign as well. So to me its very possible, and i take the president at his word, that he did not know about the meeting. But knowing what you know about President Trump and how he
runs things, you really find it credible that donald trump jr. , jared kushner, Paul Manafort would have had this meeting where they were going to get all this dirt allegedly on Hillary Clinton for him to use against her and they wouldnt have told him about it . That sounds credible to you . Well, i think could he have known after the fact . I think thats possible. I think what donald trump jr. Said last year, the meeting was about 20 minutes. They thought they were going in for one thing. It turned out to be a completely other thing. They shortly dismissed the meeting. So, yes, i do think its possible. I think if you check sources inside the white house and check sources inside that campaign, the level of from net sichl, it is very possible. You have to remember the president is a entrepreneur. One of the things that entrepreneurs do very well, they delegate to other people and create a lot of autonomy around them. One of the reasons why that campaign was so successful is that the president said, okay,
paul has a job, jared has a job. Everybody was in different positions. Hes a guy that would delegate to people the way good entrepreneurs do. Yes, i do think thats possible. I understand the pushback, why people think it isnt possible. But you have to understand, it was one meeting, and donald trump jr. Said it was a meeting that was 20 minutes long. When you think about the totality of what was going on in the campaign, were looking at it now with a microscope and the way we magnify and destroy ants, but back then it wasnt that big a deal. I take them at their word, also. Anthony you were the White House Communications director for a few days and i know you wanted to improve relationships between the press and the white house, so i do want to ask you about this. This week the white house barred kaitlan collins, an excellent reporter of ours, from attending the vechbt after she asked, quote, inappropriate questions during the president s pool spray when he was meeting with the head of the european as
someone who wanted to improve relations, whats your take . Are you okay with the way the white house handled this . What i would do listen, i think i dont know this for a fact. That probably came from the president. He likes to be respected. He was probably frustrated at that moment. What i would do in a situation like that, id pull a tape of questions that Sam Donaldson screamed at Ronald Reagan and go right through the last 30 years of Pool Reporters asking questions that president s probably think are obnoxious or untoward or disrespectful questions and just point out that she was doing her job. So i understand that she was put in the penalty box. I would certainly recommend to my former colleagues that you take her out of the penalty box. Ive said this consistently and i will continue to say this to anybody who listens, having a War Declaration or having that
level of antagonism with the president does not help the president , does not serve his interests going into the midterms or the elections. I understand the frustration and i understand his personality where he likes to punch back and be combative. What i think that also does, and i think youll agree with me, it galvanizes the president visavis the white house. I was watching one of the Press Conferences where i think it was a gentleman from politico yielded to the woman from nbc. So what youre doing is youre starting to galvanize people against the white house, and its a collective which i think is not in the best interest of the president. So, one, i dont like that decision. Number two, it probably came from the president himself. So you sort of cant when youre getting told by the president to do a, b and c and youre sitting there saying, well, it may not be the best idea, im sure these people have Strong Enough personalities where they would tell him, look, its not the best idea. But he probably wanted them to do it anyway. But i disagree with it, and im
happy to talk about it. Im happy to explain why. I think the best people around the president will always give him constructive coaching. Its not criticism. Look, this is not in your best interest, longterm, removing kat lynn from the pool, putting her in the penalty box, youre not getting the desired outcome. What is the desired outcome that people dont ask you those questions . Guess what . The First Amendment gives these reporters the right to do that. By the way, your predecessors, many of which you respected, take a look at the tape. This is what reporters have been doing for 30 or 40 years. Anthony, thank you so much. For the record, the reporter that yielded the floor was from the hill. From the hill, yeah. You get the point. I get the point, absolutely. Hot off the hot Second Quarter growth number, the president says the best is yet to come. What makes him so sure . Top white house economic adviser larry kudlow is here. And a dark horse is here talking about whats facing the Democratic Party. Mitch landrieu ahead. Stay with us. Behr marquee, 1 rated interior paint. Find it exclusively at the home depot. Electronic Dance Music we carry flowers that signifyn why we want to end the disease. And we walk so that one day, there will be a white flower for alzheimers first survivor. Join the fight at alz. Org walk. Happy anniversary dinner, darlin. Can this much love be cleaned by a little bit of dawn ultra . Oh yeah one bottle has the Grease Cleaning Power of three bottles of this other liquid. A drop of dawn and grease is gone. Wlets do it. . Come on. This summer, add a new member to the family. At the mercedesbenz summer event. Lease the glc300 for 429 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Mercedesbenz. The best or nothing. To help support digestive health. Welcome back to state of the union. Im jake tapper. President trump isnt known for
his humility particularly. This week he had very real Bragging Rights by any measure. 4. 1 growth in gdp is a strong number. When he promised to hit 4 , some economists called that crazy. In the victory lap thursday, President Trump says the boone is just beginning. I think the most important thing, and larry kudlow just confirmed to me along with kevin h hassert, that these numbers are very sustainable. This isnt a onetime shot. Top kmous economic adviser larry kudlow joins me. After you were last here, you had health problems. Youre out of the woods, good to see you. Never better. To quote my favorite author, reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated. Were happy to hear that. 4. 1 growth rate is a positive for the country. You said you agreed with the
president this is sustainable. There are economists are skeptical. Moodies says the growth is not sustainable and will come close to stalling out in 2020. Another said its a result of doomsday prepping. In the New York Times she said, quote, Global Economies are stockpiling raw materials, intermediate and finished goods before tariffs take effect. Once they hit demand, they will no longer need to build inventories and this boost to Economic Growth will end. Why are you so confident its sustainable . I appreciate that they disagree, they often do. Policies matter a lot, jake. I think the president deserves a victory lap. Low tax rates, rolling back regulations, opening up energy, for example. Trade reform which i think is already paying off with respect to the eu agreement we did last week. The fundamentals of the economy look really good. Parsing through some of these
numbers, the 4. 1 quarter. Inventory is very low. Cap goods booming, Business Investment spending really booming. Thats a productivity creator, thats a job creator, thats a wage creator for ordinary main street folks. Terribly important. In fact, the saving rate was revised higher by 500 billion. That gives consumers plenty of ammunition. And as i say, as mr. Trump has made it very clear that he intends to reward success, hes not trashing businesses, he wants people to take a rip at the ball. Youre seeing the results of these new policies now. Weve got five trump quarters, just under 3 , 2. 9 . This was 4. 1. The first half was 3. 1. Honestly, any reason why we cant run this for several quarters again in technical terms, Rock Bottom Inventories and a Capital Goods investment
prosperity and healthy economy. Ultimately you think it will be deficit neutral, if not reducing the deficit . Some of the numbers ive seen heaven forbid, even the cbo, theyre suggesting we already paid for twothirds of the Corporate Tax cut. I think by the end of fiscal year 19, the Corporate Tax cut will be paid for. By 2020 it will be more than paid for. Of course, we inherited a tough deficit situation. Any time you have slow growth the Prior Administration had a very slow growth period. That really damages the budget deficit. They were coming off the Great Recession of 2008. By the way, i gave them that. I always have, but not eight years. That was the problem. They never got the snapback we should have gotten. I dont want to waste time on those policies. You have a new sheriff in town. Lets talk about the sheriff and his plans. I do want to say for Nick Mull Vane any, our budget no tariffs at all. And no traf barriers and no subsidies. Thats a goal. I think that was part of our eu discussion. Thats his view in general. That is also my view. So i think hes gaining this is a tough, harptd thing d thin. People say President Trumps tariffs are damaging this, that and the other thing. I say dont blame President Trump. He inherited a completely broken World Trading system including a world trade organization, most particularly china, but not only china. Hes trying to fix it. Other u. S. President s in both political parties, dems and republicans even handed, have never pushed the way hes pushing. He believes, and i agree, if we can work these things out and improve the trading system, it will be to the benefit of the United States economy, our exports, our farmers, our industry and, by the way, will probably help the rest of the
world, too. Got to give them a chance to get the policy in place. Seems like people like farmers are giving them a chance. They say we want trade, not aid. I agree. They dont want that. They want open markets to sell their goods. So does potus on this. As i said, china is the worst offender. The point here, the deal we made with the European Union is very important. Let me talk about that specifically. And mexico is coming. Let me talk about the eu because there is this deal on paper to agree. Critics say that all that President Trump accomplished with this deal were to get things that were already on the table as you know during the Obama Administration including negotiations on something our viewers may not have heard of, the tpip. Take a look at what the president of the National Foreign trade council said. Quote, most of this deal is stuff we were already on the
verge of agreeing on in the ttip negotiations before that deal got deepsixed after trumps election. Your comment . Im not sure about that. I dont want to get hung up on that, the Atlantic Trading deal. There are a lot of issues with that. I dont even want to go back there. Eu president and President Trump got together and surprised probably almost everybody in the world and basically came to agreement on a number of key items. Look, if the deal works through nicely, and its going to be several stages, i dont think there will be steel tariffs for the European Union. I dont think there will be automobile tariffs. I dont want to get ahead of it. Thats not in the deal right now, but youre saying long thunderstorm. Was discussed. There was a line in this carefully crafted Fiechbl Statement that suggests that would be the case. Europeans came, by the way, right at the top with an offer to purchase tons and tons of
american soy beans. They dont have tariffs on them. They just said we will buy them for you. This is a contentious issue because of chinas Soy Beans Tariffs and to the point you made earlier, our farmers would prefer trade not aid but theyve been stuck. I think soy beans have already started to firm up in the commodity markets. They want a big lng deal, natural gas. The eu doesnt want to have to do business with russia. Theyd rather do business with the usa. In fact, they suggested to us they would find ways an means to have us build or help them build pipelines for lng. These are all major steps forward. I wouldnt say it replicates anything because things have been a little bumpy. Now all of a sudden were on the right path. I like that very much. Stay healthy. We need you back on the show soon. Your friends and family love you
and were worried about you. Thank you very much. Potential democratic dark horse weighs in next. Russians have tried to interfere in one Key Senate Race in missouri. Could the u. S. Power grid be next . Stay with us. Drive safely. With drivewise. It lets you know when you go