Wolf Blitzer looks at politics, breaking news and international stories. Undoubtedly, hes going to confirm all the suspicions mounting for the past year that hes been using his chairmanship to protect the president. We recall last year when he viewed some things he viewed as problematic in those intelligence reports. He rushed to the white house, briefed the president about it before even briefing his committee. He was forced to step aside from the Russia Investigation on his Committee Last year, but he still wielded considerable influence from the outside. He stopped democratic attempts to subpoena witnesses, to get more records, to schedule witness interviews. Behind the scenes, he mounted his own investigation to try to sew doubt on the fbi, the Russia Investigation, the mueller probe. That led to the release of the nunes memo from earlier this year, criticizing how that fisa warrant was obtained to monitor carter page. Democrats say this is all part of this effort by devin nunes to try to protect the president , and this is the first time were Hearing Nunes own words making
the direct connection himself. Undoubtedly, its going to spark these concerns from democrats. I reached out to both the Speakers Office and Kathy Mcmorris rogers, who attended that fundraiser with devin nunes. No comment. We have not heard back from either office. And he also spoke about impeaching the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the mueller probe. Yeah, and this has been a big push from conservatives in the house. Theyve got an lot of documents but not enough to the satisfaction of people like devin nunes. Yesterday when this recording came out and he was discussing the impeachment, he said lets wait until after the Senate Confirms brett kavanaugh. Now, wolf, ill note that chances of impeachment of Rod Rosenstein are very slim. The House Republicans are divided on this. Senate republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to convicting him and removing him from office. But people like nunes are pushing this very hard. This is going to be an issue of debate for the House Republicans when they return for that fall session right before the elections, wolf. Manu, very interesting stuff. Thank you very much. Lets discuss this and more, the new reporting were getting. Congressman Ryan Costello of pennsylvania is joining us. Lets get to the questions right away. After hearing that tape of your colleague devin nunes saying its his job, its other republicans jobs to protect the president , thats the job of members of congress, to protect the president , do you agree . Is that your job . What i interpreted devin saying there was that democrats
would go about seeking impeachment against President Trump. That was to me what he was implicated. So thereby what we need to protect is the integrity of the investigation. Where i disagree with devin is on the issue of impeaching rosenstein. I dont think he should be impeached. I think the investigation that mueller has undertaken is legitimate. Again, this is broader than any russian interference or collusion as its been alleged with the trump campaign. This is about Russian Election interference in america writ large. So i disagree with devin a little bit, but on the initial point, the other takeaway i took from that was i dont think he said anything in that fund raiser that he hasnt said to the press. I could be wrong, but hes been pretty outspoken in terms of what he thinks. Theres a part of me that thinks because it was behind closed doors and secretly recorded that some are making it to be a bigger deal than it may actually
or so. You heard Kaitlan Collins read it. Im not going to read it again. Hes basically saying that the whole Mueller Investigation is rigged, its kruptd, its conflicted. Then he ends with the words stay tuned. What is he threatening, do you think . I have no idea. I think the tweets are ad nauseam at this point. We know what he thinks. It is a legitimate investigation. Ill repeat that once again. I dont understand what he means by stay tuned. He obviously likes to suck all the oxygen out of the room. Whether or not he has something additional coming by way of tweet or any sort of action, i simply dont know. It could very well be something mark meadows and jim jordan may propose. They seem to be his chief defenders and muellers Chief Protagonists in the house. Your guess is as good as mine. Probably better than mine. I mean, those words jumped out at all of us. Final question, congressman, before i let you go. Your colleague, republican
congressman Chris Collins of new york, hes now been arrested. Hes now been indicted on charges of Insider Trading and lying to the fbi. Heres what he said about those charges. Listen to this. The charges that have been levied against me are meritless. I will mount a vigorous defense in court to clear my name. I look forward to being fully vindicated and exonerated. So youve seen the evidence that the u. S. Attorney for the Southern District and the fbi in new york have put out. Do you think the charges against him are meritless . Two things. One, i sit two seats down from him on the energy and commerce committee. Speaker ryan did temporarily remove him from the committee. I think that was the appropriate action. He has the right to a trial. Hes presumed innocent. This i would really put in the same category as Senator Menendez in the sense that while you have an indictment, they have the right to defend
themselves. I do think it creates a complication for him politically. I know him quite well. I dont want to go too far. I did read portions of the indictment, but it says what it says. Theyre serious charges. I dont want to make light of that either. Thats probably the best answer i could give you right now, wolf. Thats a good answer because he is, of course, innocent until proven guilty. He certainly has a right to defend himself. He is going to seek reelection in november. Well see what happens in that district outside of my hometown of buffalo, new york. Congressman costello, thanks so much for joining us. Good to be with you, wolf. Thank you. Thank you. Coming up, a. The former Whi House Adviser reportedly taped the president of the United States in the white house and makes claims about ivanka trump and Anthony Scaramucci in her new book thats about to be released. Anthony scaramucci is standing by live. Thats next. Plus, fox news host laura
ingraham is under fire for blaming Illegal Migrants of america not existing anymore because of, quote, Demographic Changes. And a truly horrific scene an air strike hits a school bus, skilling dozens, mostly children. Well have that story and so much more. Stay with us. Ballpark. Is more than juste stadium pa all military members stand and be recognized. Sometimes fans cheer for those who wear a different uniform. No matter where or when you served, tmobile stands ready to serve you. Thats why were providing half off family lines to all military. A single tap offerss to peace of mind. Y, uber is giving you new ways
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up with this sort of stuff. I hope chris is innocent, but if hes not innocent for some reason, i do expect there to be more cases like this. There will be more cases like this either way, but i just dont like the activity at all. Its one of the reasons why ive never had a trading account. One of the things that they point out, the u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york, in the charges against him is that once he got word that pharmaceutical, that biotech company, that the clinical tr s trials on ms had failed, he was actually at the white house Congressional Picnic with the president and made that phone call, according to this indictment, to his son from the white house lawn. That was awkward, right . Well, but thats another reason why you dont have Trading Accounts and you try to stay above the fray. What happens is you have all these Human Impulses, wolf. If you get information like that and hes saying this call was false, but lets say it wasnt for a second. You get information like that, your Human Impulse is to save yourself some money. It was a lot of money, probably 750,000, according to the indictment. If you dont want to drink, you got to stay out of a bar. If you dont want to get tagged with Insider Trading when youre loaded up with all that information that you get in the congress, just dont have a personal trading account. Yeah, all right. Lets discuss Rudy Giuliani while i have you, anthony. The back and forth thats been going on and whether the president will eventually agree to a sitdown interview with the special counsel, Robert Mueller. Giuliani says he wants the negotiations all wrapped up by september. He also says republicans could benefit if things drag on during the midterm elections in november. What do you think it is . Well, i think hes saying if it drags on, itll galvanize the base and itll increase the participatory turnout of the people who like the president , sort of be a vote for him in those congressional districts. Im personally not in love with that strategy. I would like to see this thing
completely wrapped up. It seems unlikely, frankly, that this will get wrapped up before the midterm elections. What jay sekulow and Rudy Giuliani are working on is a very narrow testimony for the president so that he doesnt get boxed into a potential perjury situation. So i was trained in law school, i dont like the idea of the president even going before the prosecutor, frankly, and so i hope it doesnt happen. But if it does come to pass, it would seem unlikely to come to pass given the narrowness of what both jay and rudy are suggesting. Its a simple concept i dont think Robert Mueller will go for that basically. I suspect he wont either. But its a simple concept. Explain to our viewers why you presumably disagree with the concept. They say to the president of the United States, you know what, if you have nothing to hide, if youve done nothing wrong, just tell the truth and get it over with. What do you say to that . Well, what i would say to
th that, if you understand the president s communication style, and this has gone back from 45 years, hes prone to some levels of hyperbole and prone to some levels of what my grandfather would say, we sometimes remember things the way we would like to remember them as opposed to how they actually happened. So what would be at risk there is you put him in that room, he believes in his heart and in his brain that hes done absolutely nothing wrong. He wears everything on his sleeve. And he misstates a few things and gets nailed for perjury as opposed to Obstruction Of Justice or collusion. So i think thats the worry that the legal team would have in a situation like that with somebody like the president and with his personality. So i would do everything i can to avoid that sort of situation, if you will. So what youre saying is the legal team, the president s advisers, theyre really afraid that given the president s history, he could wind up committing perjury or lying during the course of this kind of interview. Not intentionally, not
sitting there, you know, saying things like what the definition of is is and things like that, but his personality is such where he likes to embellish stories. Im a friend of his. I want to see him do well. The economy is humming along fantastically. So many good things are happening around the world. This is like a mill stone on the white house and the west wing. So wed like to see it pass. But you sometimes have to protect your principal from things you know about their personalities. All right. Lets move on to some other sensitive issues. Its causing a bit of a stir right now. The Fog News Host Laura Inn Grah ingraham is facing a lot of blowback about a comment she made about immigration and how its changing the United States. Listen to this. In some parts of the country, it does seem like the america that we know and love doesnt exist anymore. Massive Demographic Changes have been foisted upon the American People, and theyre changes that
none of us ever voted for and most of us dont like. From virginia to california, we see stark examples of how radically in some ways the country has changed. Now, much of this is related to both illegal and in some cases Legal Immigration that, of course, progressives love. All right. So whats your reaction to that . You know, im super not not happy with that. I like her as a person, but if you remember father tom coughlin in the 1930s, my grandparents certainly remember him, its the same rhetoric. Its the same sentence structure. Its the same level of xenophobia that my immigrant grandparents faced as italianamericans a short 70, 80 years ago. Im not in love with it. I love the concept of america, the idea of america, and the experiment of our great republic. We really are the last best hope for mankind. We have our diversity. We get our strength from that diversity. One last point, once said about america, we have such a competitive advantage around the world because you can come to the United States as a chinese or a german and become a germanamerican or a chineseamerican, but thats not true going to those other countries. So thats a huge competitive advantage that we have versus the rest of the world in terms of the intellectual capital. I really wish she wouldnt talk like that because it sounds ignorant, and its unfortunate particularly if you know your grandparents Immigration Story or you yourself are an immigrant. I hope she walks it back. I hope she realizes that what she said is just not its against the American Values that shes supposedly touting. But does that rev up that base that clearly so supports the president , that kind of language . Yeah, you see, i sort of disagree about that. Im writing a book about this. Im writing a book called The Blue Collar president about my
experiences with the campaign and going into those markets and having grown up in a bluecollar family where neither one of my parents went to college. The identification that these people have with the president , theyre not nativists. Theyre not xenophobes. Its a very small population of those people that are like that. If anything, each of these people have an Immigration Story, and they just want what we all want in the United States, an aspirational economy and an aspirational opportunity for their children. So it may tweak and it may get a lot of Media Attention for a small group of people, wolf, but i really think its unamerican. By and large, most americans are great people and they dont like that sort of nonsense. And almost all of us are children of immigrants, to be sure, as you correctly pointed out. Before i let you go, quickly, a once loyal trump aide now admits to secretly recording the president of the United States. Were not talking about michael
cohen, the president s former lawyer. Were talking about the former apprentice star omarosa. She says she has secret recordings. Do you have any knowledge of any of this . And what do you make of the president of the United States being secretly recorded inside the white house . Listen, i dont like the notion these people are taping the president. Having said