Wolf Blitzer looks at politics, breaking news and international stories. Trump Campaign Manager facing off against the Russia Investigation special counsel robert mueller. You cannot understate just how big this is, no matter which way it goes. On one hand, if, for example, mr. Manafort is found guilty, that makes it a real problem for the president of the United States to continue to call this a witch hunt. Now, what about this case . We have 18 charges in the indictment, Something Like three dozen witnesses. The former partner of Paul Manafort, rick gates, could testify. The trial could last up to three weeks. At the end of the day, though, a big deal for Paul Manafort himself, who was a huge power broker in washington, d. C. He has another trial scheduled later this year, wolf. And theyre accusing him of taking about 60 million from prorussian politicians in
Wolf Blitzer looks at politics, breaking news and international stories. On the job. Now that seems to have changed, and we got a little hint of that yesterday when we were in the oval office as the president was swearing in the new secretary of veterans affairs. He gave john kelly a shoutout for it being his one year on the job as Chief Of Staff. John kelly smiled and saluted the president in return. But this is quite surprising given that john kelly seemed to be on the Chopping Block in recent weeks here, wolf. He had been telling aides that he believed that this is a way he could rehabilitate his image in the west wing, something he thinks has been badly changed because of the fallout from that rob porter scandal, the Staff Secretary who was accused of Domestic Abuse of his exwife. John kelly took the brunt of the fall for that because he was told or we were told by sources he actually had known of the allegations against porter for months before they surfaced, yet allowed him to keep working in the west wing here anyway, wolf. So john kelly seems to be doing a little bit of rehab here, believing he can change his image here in the west wing if
he stays on for a little longer, which he does seem to have agreed to do. The caveat being white house officials do not sign contracts. It is not guaranteed he will be here through 2020, through the reelection campaign. But of course, right now that seems to be what President Trump would like. At least for now, key words. A vote of confidence for john kelly. Kaitlan collins, thanks very much. Lets bring in former Department Of Justice prosecutor Joseph Morino and our gloria borger. What do you think . Its really surprising since we have known through our reporting that the president s been calling around to people asking for potential replacements. It seems to me, and julie knows more about this than i do, that this is a story the white house wanted out there. Maybe its a way for kelly to rehabilitate himself because there are plenty of stories about how he wasnt really in
charge, that jared and ivanka could walk into the president s office any time they wanted, and he had tried to put a stop to that. Obviously the Rob Porter Case was a problem for him. We all watched his face during helsinki. He didnt seem to be smiling a lot. So it seems to me theyre putting this story out so that as long as kelly decides to stay, the message is im in charge here, the president likes me, and if and when i decide to leave, it will be my decision and nobody elses. Now, maybe im being cynical about this. Maybe he will stay through 2020. But that seems a little far fetched to me. What do you think . I think gloria is absolutely right. I think the most interesting thing about this story is that we know about it, right, which i think is clearly by design. You know, as kaitlan reported, there have been whispers, rumors for many, many weeks and months now that john kelly was on his way out the door, that he doesnt actually have much of a role anymore when it comes to the president and whats actually going on in this white house. Those have certainly picked up
in recent weeks. The on boarding of bill shine in a Big Communications role. Z i do think that theres an aspect to this which is about john kelly wanting to be able to say publicly that im here until im not here anymore. Im in charge of what im in charge of. Its not totally clear. Many people ive talked to in the west wing dont know exactly what that is. But he has been sidelined to a great degree. This may be President Trump feeling like he can keep him around and still do everything he wants to do. They really wanted this story out, the white house. The Wall Street Journal broke it. Within a nanosecond, every other News Organization got confirmation from senior officials at the white house. Seems like youve covered the white house. Once that happens, you know they want that story out for whatever reason. Lets talk about manafort for a moment. Joseph, youve argued before this federal judge in alexandria, virginia. The rocket docket. Theyre moving quickly over
there, arent they . Absolutely, wolf. Its not only the rocket docket, but judge ellis is particularly known to have minimal patience for any kind of theatrics. Hes a by the book, get to the point kind of judge. Hes a prosecutors judge in the form of he will not tolerate the sort of drama that sometimes defense counsels like to bring to the table. We do our thing when were on the defense side. So not only is it a fast jurisdiction, but this judge will move things along. I would not be surprised if Opening Statements are not beginning at 9 00 tomorrow morning. Very, very quickly indeed. 16 jurors, 4 alternates. It means a lot what happens in alexandria, virginia. Absolutely crucial for the mueller probe. Its not because the trial itself is going to be about the russia probe because it really isnt. But this is key. If muellers team fails to get a conviction on manafort, the wind will be at the back of those who
are screaming witch hunt, namely the president of the United States. If they get a conviction on manafort, it will be very important to them as they go forward. And doernt forget, were probay going to hear from somebody like rick gates, manaforts former business partner, who has pled to mueller. So that will be interesting to hear for all of us. Were going to get some kind of insight about how deeply the Mueller Investigation has really looked into the private Business Dealings of people in the Trump Administration. That could scare some people. But very, very key for mueller, they need to win this one. They certainly do. It comes a the a time when the president is now echoing his private attorney rudy giuliani, tweeting all of a sudden, you know what, there was no collusion, but collusion isnt even a crime. Right. Its an amazing sort of moving of the goalposts, even for this president , who likes to move the goalposts. Hes no longer saying that its his argument that nobody in his campaign ever had contact with
thats been tested under scenarios like this. It would be a stretch in any case. It doesnt mean it cant work. It certainly has teeth, but i could see thats the next pivot to where the strategy is going. But Isnt Conspiracy To Defraud the United States government a crime as opposed to a technicality, which is effectively what collusion is . It is certainly a crime, absolutely. Its a serious crime. Its punishable with serious consequences. But i could certainly see if your audience isnt a jury in a District Court but the american people, then thats the message. Its like, you know, look, it may have been the trump tower meeting may have been an attempt at something, but it didnt bear any fruit, so lets not worry about it. It didnt amount to anything. If this biased prosecutor with his 13 angry democrats on his team bring charges, well, its a technicality, dont worry about it. So i could see the message going in that direction. There is also this whole question of wittingly or unwittingly. If they have information that the russians were conspireing to defraud the United States government but are somehow able
to argue that those involved, if there were any, in the Trump Campaign didnt know what they were doing, thats clearly going to be a line of defense theyre going to try to use, at least try to argue before an actual jury, if not in the jury of Public Opinion if this were to go to some congressional procedure. Intent is always something the prosecutors look very closely at. Guys, thank you very much. Dont go too far. We have more to discuss. The president reportedly considering another tax cut, this one just for largely the richest americans. Why he bypassed congress to do it. Plus, theyre among the biggest donors for conservatives, but today the president just went to war, really, with the Koch Brothers, calling them a total joke. Youll hear why. And just hours from now, americans will be able to buy plans for 3d guns. The president says hes concerned as lawmakers sound the alarm. We have new details and what these guns can do. Liberty mutual saved us almost 800 when we switched our auto and home insurance. With liberty, we could afford a real babysitter
instead of your brother. Hey oh, thats my robe. Is it . When you switch to liberty mutual, you could save 782 on auto and home insurance. And still get great coverage for you and your family. Call for a free quote today. You could save 782. Liberty mutual insurance. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. A book that youre ready to share with the world . Get published now, call for your free publisher kit today the Trump Administration could be setting itself up for a future court battle. The New York Times now reporting that the administration is considering bypassing congress to grant a 100 billion tax cut almost exclusively to the very wealthy. Joining us now, the man who broke the story, tax and economics reporter for the New York Times. Tell us, jim, how this would work. Sure. The Treasury Department would issue a rule, wolf. It would change the way that the government considers the word cost when it comes up with Capital Gains taxation rates. So essentially what would happen is they would make it so that Capital Gains are now indexed to inflation, which means the price you paid for a stock or a home a
long time ago would be calculated in todays dollars, not on the price that you paid for it in terms of how much tax you would owe on that when you sell it. I know thats wonky, but it works out to a big cut to really the top 0. 1 of americans who pay most of our Capital Gains taxes. That would be a huge bonanza for them. I understand its something that former president george h. W. Bush considered back in 1992 before leaving office. He didnt follow through on it. Why . Well, his Treasury Department concluded that it was not within the governments power to do this. Subsequent president s have looked at this and concluded the same. Whats happened now is the conservative activists have pointed to some new legal writings from conservatives saying no, actually, the Treasury Department does have this authority. Theyre urging the Trump Administration to reconsider what has been a pretty uniform declaration from president s on down the line. Jim tankersley, thank you very much. Lets discuss this more. Gloria and julie are still with us. It would be a big deal for the very, very wealthy if they didnt have to worry about paying all those Capital Gains taxes. It would be, but not so fast. First of all, i think this would wind up in court immediately. The democrats would jump on it and talk about, you know, this is a tax cut for the wealthy because Capital Gains taxes are largely paid by high earners. I think its a test of Executive Power. I remember im old enough to remember when the democrats were screaming about Barack Obamas imperial presidency because of his Executive Action on dreamers. Well, this is beyond that. Tax legislation originates in the house of representatives. So i think this would just wind up in court and theyd be asking for that. What do you think . It isnt anything new for the administration to be figuring out what they can do with their Executive Power when it comes to the tax code. We know how hard it is to pass legislation on capitol hill. Even the obama administration
did consider using Executive Action to actually cut down on the use of tax loopholes, these corporate inversions, for instance and some of the Tax Methods Corporations would use to cut down on their tax bills. Its always very controversial. Both sides do it. I think the issue with this particular move would be the administrati administrations argument is that President Trump is a populist. Everything hes doing, it may look like on paper its for the rich, but it accrues to the advantage of the middle class, folks who need jobs and higher wages. Theres no way of making that argument when it comes to this. Its clearly, as my colleagues reported, twothirds of the benefit of this goes to the top 0. 1 . Clearly a tax cut for the wealthy. It would be sold and debated in a political realm as such. By the way, the president s supporters, for example, in iowa, farmers, are complaining because theyre being hurt. So, you know, politically, as julie was saying, this is not a
winwin for him. It might be a win for his business. It might be a win for him personally. We dont know because we havent looked at his taxes. But for most of his supporters, i dont think so. The very, very wealthy supporters, it would be a nice little bonanza. Lets talk about the Koch Brothers for a moment. All of a sudden the president is going to war with the Koch Brothers, who have been among the most ardent supporters of republicans over the years. The president tweeting this morning the Koch Brothers are total jokes, their network is highly overrated. He says, these are two nice guys with bad ideas. How risky is it to all of a sudden go to war with the Koch Brothers who have provided so much money to various conservative think tanks and influential organizations . Look, theyve never been trump fans. They disagree with him on almost every piece of economic policy, especially tariffs, for example. They made the case that were going to support candidates,
either democrat or republican, who support us. This is a big rift in the republican party. They were so dependable for republicans. Theyre not trump fans, period. I think the president just punched back. I hesitate to ever try to guess what is behind some of his tweets, but if he were to calculate this, youre not going to stop the Koch Brothers from weighing in, in a big way on the republican side. Theyre going to continue to do that no matter whether the president insults them or not. This is kind of a free shot for him. Theyre the republican establishment. Theyre for, you know, free trade. Theyre not for the tariffs. They think that its a trade war that hes sparked by engaging in this titfortat on trade. There also have been in the past support of proimmigration policies, which obviously is very much at odds with what President Trump has been saying. There are these differences, and he wont hesitate to point them out, knowing theyll still be there for the vast majority of republicans in the midterm. And theyre also for prison reform, which is something Jared Kushner has been working on. Theyve worked with democrats on prison reform. Jeff sessions is not their biggest supporter on that, but Jared Kushner is. The Koch Brothers are kind of theyre hard to pigeon hole sometimes. Trump is a little easier. All the sudden, julie, were hearing between now and midterms in november, were going to see the president doing all these politic political rallies out there, going state to state, district to district. Tonight hes in florida, in tampa at a huge rally. And pennsylvania later this week. Hes clearly chomping at the bit. We heard earlier in the year he was going to try to confine his campaigning to deep red states where there was potentially a vulnerable democrat where he had won big and could really boost the Republican Base and try to damage the democrat and help republicans keep control of the
senate that way. Now it seems like he did this interview with sean hannity on friday on the radio, saying he wants to travel six to seven days a week when it gets to be 60 days out. I doubt were going to see that extensive of a campaign. Clearly the president wants to be out there, wants to be in these rallies, sort of throwing out that red meat for the base. He loves those political rallies. Well cover them, of course, as we always do. Guys, thank you very, very much. Despite talks, u. S. Spy agencies are saying north korea is working on new missiles. Is President Trump getting played by kim jongun . Plus, President Trump is directly contradicting his own Secretary Of State. Why it shows hes out of sync with top officials in his own administration when it comes to foreign policy. About medicare. Theres also a lot to know. The most important thing . Medicare doesnt pay for everything. Yep. Youre on the hook for the rest. So consider an aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plan, insured by Unitedhealthcare Insurance Company. A plan like this helps pay some of what medicare doesnt. So you could end up paying less. And these are the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. Selected for meeting their high standards of quality and service. Call Unitedhealthcare Insurance Company now to request this free Decision Guide, and learn more. Like, Medicare Supplement plan, give you the freedom to go with any doctor who accepts medicare patients. Its nice to have a choice. And your coverage goes with you, anywhere you travel in the country. We have grandkids out of state. They love our long visits. Not sure about their parents, though. Call unitedhealthcare and ask for your free Decision Guide today. I knew at that exact moment. Im beating this. My main focus was to find a team of doctors. Its not just picking a surgeon, its picking the care team and feeling secure in where you are. Visit cancercenter. Com breast
them, not so much. We let you keep an eye on your business from anywhere. The others . Nope get internet on our gigspeed network and add voice and tv for 34. 90 more per month. Call or go online today. Theres new evidence, including satellite images, that appear to show north korea is building more missiles. The Washington Post is reporting that intelligence Officials Say work is under way on one or possibly two new intercontinental ballistic missiles, missiles that could theoretically reach the United States. After the summit in singapore, President Trump declared that the Nuclear Threat from north korea was over. As recently as a couple of weeks ago, he also said there was no rush for north korea to dismantle its arsenal. Susan glasser is a cnn Global Affairs analyst, staff writer at the new yorker. Josh rogan is a columnist for the Washington Post. Thanks very much for joining us. What do you think . All of a sudden, the Nuclear Threat was over, everything is great, and now there are indications the north koreans are working on new intercontine intercontinental ballistic missiles. Thats what happens when you eat dessert before breakfast. This process of the north Korea Nuclear deal was really a deal in name only. So Secretary Of State mike pompeo was still filling in the details. North korea never agreed to dismantle its missiles. Thats what brought them to the table. In that sense, of course theyre not going to give up that. Their development of one that could reach the United States is why Arguably Trump was negotiating with them in the first place. This is what the north koreans do. This is what negotiating with north korea is like. Pompeo knows that, okay. He bought the ticket. Now hes got to take the ride all the way to the end. Theyre not going to give up anything without something in return. What they want next is they want
a declaration of the end of hostilities of the korean war, a path towards a peace treaty and normalization. What the u. S. Wants is for north korea to declare its nuclear arsenal. Thats the first step that we want. Theres an opportunity. Mike pompeo is going to singapore for a meeting with the north Korean Foreign minister. Its expected theyre going to have a talk. In advance of that, the white house held a highlevel meeting chaired by john bolton on friday to discuss what theyre going to do. All right. This is going to be a very long process. Patient diplomacy. One step forward, two steps back. Its going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. Lets talk about iran while i have you guys. Yesterday the president at that News Conference with the italian prime minister, he was asked about iran, and he very flatly all of a sudden, despite the threats of a few days earlier, said, you know, hes ready for direct talks. I want to play precisely what he said and then i want you to listen to Secretary Of State mike pompeo because he, quote, clarified what the president said. I believe in meeting. I would certainly meet with iran
if they wanted to meet. I dont know that theyre ready yet. Theyre having a hard time right now. No preconditions, no. They want to meet, ill meet. Any time they want. If the iranians demonstrate a commitment to make fundamental changes in how they treat their own people, reduce their maligned behavior, can agree that its worthwhile to enter into a Nuclear Agreement that actually prevents proliferation, then the president said hes prepared to sit down and have the conversation with them. Except thats not what the president said. The president said no preconditions at all. Secretary pompeo outlined three specific, very tough conditions that the iranians would have to endorse before there could be such a meeting. You know, being Secretary Of State for donald trump means youre on perpetual cleanup duty when it comes to issues like this. Secretary pompeo has a really tough job in that trump has given to all caps tweets in the middle of the night, has given
to things that are at odds with the strategy. Perhaps theres more coordination than we realize to those tweets, which i think is often the case, but interestingly, i think that we thought, well, gee, mike pompeo is going to be different than rex tillerson. Obviously hes been more successful so far in managing his relationship with the president , but on this iran issue, if you listen to his remarkable testimony last week, its very similar. Hes saying, there is no change in u. S. Policy. Dont Pay Attention to exactly what the president of the United States says. Im going to fill in the blanks for you. So my question is, how long is that going to work as a trump Management Strategy . And then theres the question of the iranians. I think, you know, josh, theyre going to be a lot less likely to come to the table right away than the north koreans were. There was a statement from the Iranian Foreign ministry broadcast on state television in iran saying not so fast, were not yet ready to meet with President Trump. Right. Trump may think that iran is like north korea. If we get real belligerent then play nice, theyll come to the table and make a deal. Iran is not north korea. You have to ask yourself, why would they come to the table now . What iran is actually doing right now is theyre working with our allies to sustain the deal we left to isolate us. And its working. They have more cards than north korea. They have a different kind of country, a different kind of government than north korea. What pompeo laid out, if iran changes its government, changes all its activities and then yields to all of our demands, then we can talk. Well, thats a recipe for Policy Stagnation and diplomatic i understand intrance yesigenc. Were looking at a standoff that will last a long time. The preconditions secretary pompeo laid out are tough for any Iranian Regime. President rouhani, is he going to accept a commitment to make fundamental changes in how the Iranian Regime treats their own people, reduce their maligned behavior, and they have to agree to enter into a Nuclear Agreement that actually prevents
proliferation. And remember, the state Department Still regards the Iranian Regime as the worlds leading State Sponsor of terrorism. Well, thats right. And thats where you see this conflict between trump and pompeo. Again, pompeo just gave a very strongly worded speech at the Ronald Reagan library in california, in which he basically encouraged opponents of the regime to rise up against it. Sounds like regime change. Well, thats right. Number one. Number two, you still have a legally binding u. N. Resolution that the six major powers in the world agreed to in negotiating with iran. The United States unilaterally walked out of that. No one else has ripped up the deal. Its a much harder thing to negotiate with a country after youve just unilaterally ripped up a deal with it, which is not the case with north korea. And if the administration is demanding that iran give us a great, fabulous deal, how are they going to defend a deal with north korea that doesnt meet those standards . Theyve got two different philosophies, two different ideologies. Neither of them really seems to be working. And what you got is broad confusion, both inside the government, outside the government, around washington, Around The World about what the policy actually is. And that cannot be a good thing, either for the United States or its interests. Josh, susan, thanks very much. Still ahead, President Trump is embracing the defense laid out by his lawyer rudy giuliani. Why hes now also saying that collusion is not a crime. Are they getting out ahead of something . And downloadable death. Thats what printable 3d guns are being called. These untraceable weapons could be widely available as early as tomorrow here in the United States. Anyone could go out and get them despite any criminal Background Records or being on a terror watch list. What is the president of the United States saying about it . Stand by. S overachiever. Behr premium plus, behr through it all with a toprated paint at a great price. Find it exclusively at the home depot. Less than a dollar a day. His secret . Selectquote. In just minutes, a selectquote agent will comparison shop nearly a dozen highlyrated Life Insurance companies, and give you a choice of your five best rates. Duncans Wife Cassie Got A 750,000 policy for under 22 a month. Give your family the security it needs at a price you can afford. Working with the nra. Then nothing happens. Sure as were here today, nothing is going to happen from this administration. Were going to have to pass legislation because they are just enslaved by the nra. I dont care if a gun is made out of metal, made out of plastic. If it can fire a bullet and take someones life, then it needs to be regulated. Cnns tom foreman is joining us now with more on what are being called ghost guns. Take us through the controversy. You said the two key words. Undetectable and untraceable. Those two do not always go together when talking about these guns. Undetectable, youre talking about Something Like this. A fully plastic gun, one thats been made out of a machine and basically is sort of milled out in such a way that it cannot be detected by a metal detector. However, what were also talking about here are guns like this. This is a device made by defense distributed called the ghost
gun, which helps mill some metal parts so you can make a gun that is untraceable. In that case, youre talking about something much more advanced than that singleshot plastic gun were talking about. You can make an ar15 or Something Like that with an amalgam of these parts. The concern with the untraceable gun is, in fact, people are being given the capability to make a gun in their garage or their basement that nobody knows exists until the gun is finished and in their hands. Now, in truth, under law, people can do this right now. Theyve done it for many years. Its just that this new machinery and 3d printing and this automatic milling of devices makes it a lot more effective and more likely that people could get guns like this are people who maybe should not be able to get guns, who would be forbidden from a legal purchase or would be on basically a list to be watched of people who have problems out there, wolf. Whats the National Rifle association saying about this . Well, they are all in favor
of it from all indications out there. Theres a tweet that basically said 3d printed ghost guns, as they call these, which can be made at home and dont have serial numbers symbolize freedom and innovation. That is not the view of all people out there. There are certainly a lot of hobbyists who find this very interesting, but it is a bigger question. As this Technology Advances and it gets even easier for people to just make a gun, a fully functional, bigleague firearm at home with nobody knowing about it, thats where the concern steps in for other folks out there. The technology is not quite there yet in terms of an undetectable gun. But in terms of untraceable guns, yeah, thats moving along very fast. Wolf . Clearly no background checks necessary. Tom foreman, thank you very much. Any moment now, by the way, the jury for the former Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort
will be seated. Plus, the white house Chief Of Staff john kelly committing to his role in the white house for the next two years. A source telling cnn kelly wanted to send a message to his staff. We have details. Stay with us. Know what . No, what . I just switched to geico and got more. More . Got a company i can trust. Thats a heck of a lot more. Over 75 years of great savings and service. You cant argue with more. Why would ya . Geico. Expect great savings and a whole lot more. The editor at large chris solisa is joining us. Update us on the books. Okay. We know donald trump is not an avid reader per se. He skims, hes into visuals, hes not a big book reader. But that hasnt stopped him from offering a lot of opinions on books. You will start the sense on what he likes. The russian hoax, the elicit scheme to clear Hillary Clinton and frame donald trump. Where do you think he came down on that one . Hot seller, already number one. Lets go to the next one. The case against impeaching trump. Youll notice the lawyer skeptical of the impeachment of donald trump and has been on the air talking about it a lot. I would encourage all people with Trump Derangement syndrome to read more of a medical recommendation than anywhere there. And to the next one, youll recognize that guy, wolf. Thats scene spicer. Sean spicer. This book has been savagely reviewed. People say his facts are wrong
and its not a good retelling of his time in the white house. Theres one critic who really liked it. Its a story told with both heart and knowledge. Donald john trump. Okay, now, what really happened . This is a conservative radio talk show host. A book which everyone is talking about. Last time i checked on amazon, not that many people were talking about that book but whatever. Okay, now things turn and youll see why. Fire and fury, if you didnt know this book existed, you havent been paying attention, you have been living on another planet. Why c michael wolfs book says, the fake book of a mentally deranged person. Full of lies, misinterpretation and sources that dont exist. A higher loyalty by james comey. Where do you think he came down on that one . A thirdranked book that should never have been written. And now, lets go to the next. The book were all waiting for, bob woodward, my colleague at the Washington Post. Legend of water gate. Hes written lots and lots of books on president s, eight at last count. Fear trump in the white house. Bob has not offered thoughts on the upcoming book but he did offer a thought on bob in 2013. Only on twitter, only the Obama White House can get away with attacking bob woodward. They werent really attacking bob woodward. It was sort of a misunderstanding, but thats here nor there. Fear, lets see, is it pro . It is donald trump like it, positive or negative review . Im going on the negative review side is my guess, but well see. We have another month or so, wolf. Back to you. September 11th. Well all have a chance. Chris solizza, good review. More on the breaking news. Facebook discovering dozens of new fake accounts ahead of the midterm elections here in the United States which may be linked to the russians. We have new details, standby
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