Coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Stories here, who has more perceived credibility at this point . Its a tough call. What do you think . Well, thats a good question, i dont think either one of them does. President trump says things that are untrue all the time. He has about this very anecdote because the New York Times reported a year ago he helped create a false statement about this meeting. Don jr. Most likely told his father about this meeting, its not plausible that he wouldnt have. Michael cohen doesnt have credibility. Rudy giuliani doesnt have credibility. I think what this does, we dont know again if this is collusion, if collusion is a crime. If this is actually an impeachable offense. Well wait for mueller to figure this out. Whether or not there was a direct act that could be
translated from collusion to conspiracy. But i think what this does is, with Michael Cohen seemingly turning on the president , it exposes him with regard to his Business Dealings at the Trump Organization. Thats what the trump allies are worried about. If Michael Cohen has decided he can no longer be loyal. In he has roads to take investigators down in terms of a potential financial crimes by the Trump Organization over the years, thats going to be extremely problematic for the president. This could be just one piece of the puzzle, the information hes putting forward. The president has uncharacteristically not spoken to reporters since this cohen tape leaked. Sources are saying trump has had a difficult time with what he sees as a huge betrayal on the part of his fixer. What does the president s silence indicate to you now . This is a pattern weve seen before, when theres difficult news, especially in a case where
there may be a legal liability involved. The president retreats to media, sean hannity, the white house took an extraordinary measure this week. And we learned the Washington Post had a story indicating this pretty much came from the top, the president has been asking his aids to consider banning other reporters who ask questions that he deems unfriendly, theres a bit of a Siege Mentality here. And silence on the tweets too. Now, following cohens accusation, democrats are ramping up accusations that trump included with russia, of course. Watch what eric said on the Rachel Maddow show last night. Its not about what donald trump did with that meeting, i think what is significant is what he did not do. If he knew that the meeting was to take place, he did not tell his son to cancel the meeting. He did not tell the fbi about the meeting, and if anything, he further encouraged and emboldened the russians to hack. Because he went out and said, russia, if youre listening, which was two years ago from today, you would be rewarded for hacking Hillary Clintons emails. Its an interesting time line that gives us more of a picture of this mosaic. What do you make of the congressmans comments. You really see this defense that trump has laid out is very rests very much on him not knowing about this meeting. One of his own Talking Points has been, why didnt the Obama Administration do more to publicize the russia threat. If you knew that was rush yaz was actively trying to help your campaign by peddling dirt. Why didnt you do more . Why didnt you go to the fbi. You see the kind of rabbit hole this leads into here. The white house cant sustain some of these earlier defenses. And then we have this almost comical reversal from giuliani. What do you make of Giuliani Pivoting from calling cohen honest and honorable and then saying, hes lied all his life shortly thereafter. Its a damaging shift from a legal standpoint. Rudy giuliani is going to have to bring this up in court at some point. The fact that hes completely changed his tone on someone who can be a key witness in this case is not good for his credibility. And he really ive talked to some legal experts in reporting this out the last few days. They were making the case that he should not have taken a definitive tone on mikal cohen to begin with. He should not you should step back from the public position hes taken. That being said, the strategy from the Trump Legal Team seems to be to fight this out in the court of public opinion. Thats what Rudy Giuliani has been doing over the last couple weeks. That is the political strategy the president has insisted on. I want to talk about this coziness with russia. Trump is open to visiting the kremlin after receiving the surprise invite from putin. Its been a confusing and shocking relationship, especially since the helsinki summit. Where do things stand in your opinion . Its interesting to concerned republicans throughout the government and outside of government that it took days for us to learn from the president of the russian federation, that they had discussed President Trump going to moscow. Now, its one thing the only thing worse that putin coming to the white house, where you heard congressional leaders in the president s party say he would
not be welcome in the congress, that would be quite a frosty visit in washington. But the only thing worse is for President Trump to go to moscow. Thats not in the best interests of this country. They can keep talking at g 20 meetings or get together in some way, on neutral ground. Its not a good idea for the president to go to moscow. If youre looking at the next couple weeks and months, and the midterm elections coming up, youre going to see continued push back from republicans who want this whole idea to go away. Shocking we found out about it days after the two hour meeting that no one knows anything about between president s trump and putin. Not in the best interest of national scout. Probably best that its been postponed. Thank you for sharing your insight. Next up, legal jeopardy, how Michael Cohens Bombshell Allegation puts President Trump and others in a pretty uncomfortable situation. Stay with us. Mcquaid thank you both for being here. By a flub of accounts 37 wieselberg has a lot of answers. This is a pretty big deal, what do you think the significance is of his subpoena and what are federal investigators looking for here. The subpoena is particularly significant because it comes in the investigation in the Southern District of new york into Michael Cohen. What it suggests is, there is a link to the Trump Organization and perhaps President Trump himself in that investigation. Theyre now looking at trumps finances. I think its an opportunity for them to look at, were there fraudulent payments, bank fraud, money laundering. As his long time chief financial officer, wieselberg has access
to all this information. I heard him described as the human tax return. This could be a real gold mine for investigators. He was involved when the trumps, when trumps father was at the elm. What legal danger could the president face if its proven he did know about it . Well, certainly other facts are going to matter to find out context and other things. It suggests the possibility that President Trump could find himself facing conspiracy charges if theyre able to prove there was an agreement between russians to do a number of things. Weve already seen the indictment against russians to defraud the United States out of Fair Administration of elections. President trump could be added to such an indictment. There could be charges for violating the Computer Fraud and abuse act as has been alleged in the other indictments. Theres also concern here about
some sort of obstruction of justice. We have donald trump jr. Saying he didnt know about it. President trump has said he didnt know about it, i dont know that this standing alone makes out a criminal case, you add it to all the things President Trump has tried to do to divert attention from the investigation into coordination with russians, this could be a powerful evidence of obstruction of justice. The challenge for mueller will be to find that truth, that proof. Cohen reportedly claimed several people were in the room when trump was told about this trump tower meeting. Corroboration can be everything for prosecutors to make their case. How could that change things for the president if there were other people there. There were two ways it could change for the president. One is corroboration, if other people are persuaded to tell the story that does appear to be there. You dont need the corroboration, you have the ability to examine what happened
before and after that meeting. You have phone records. Theres no doubt in my mind bob mueller had before we were talking about this. You have all the Financial Transactions that the Financial Crimes Network processes. Bob mueller has access to all of that information. As these walls are closing in on all of these fronts. Many things on the russian ya investigation front. It encourages more people to come forward and Tell The Truth and cooperate. This is a Snowball Effect that probably isnt going to end soon. When donald trump jr. Testified, he was questioned about a blocked number he was in contact with while arranging the meeting, he testified he didnt know whose block number it was. What if any questions could he face if it turns out he lied about this . This seems to be the kind of thing hes speaking before he thinks through the consequences of it, not knowing the blocked
number you were in contact with, it strains credibility a bit. Given the number of false hoods that have been stated, hes not putting himself out there as a good fact witness for himself. Many of the things hes mentioning, there are ways of finding out whether its true or not, thats the real issue, saying something doesnt mean its true. With the other evidence coming in around him, hes putting himself in jeopardy, and closing in the walls around his father as well. We learned this weekend, special prosecutor Robert Mueller examining tweets and negative statements made by the president for possible obstruction. His tweets seems sometimes pretty innocuous, how can they help the investigation here. This is interesting . It is really interesting. And certainly a new form of technology, new form of communication that hasnt been used much before for this kind of thing, it can demonstrate whats necessary in a case like
this, these Arent Secret Communications which often is the case when youre trying to obstruct an investigation. You told some witness you better lie for me or else. This is putting public pressure on Jeff Sessions and jim comey about the investigation. Was he trying to nudge them in a certain direction . Stand ago lone, i dont know that any one of these tweets would make a case. To prove that corrupt intent, they could provide a real window into President Trumps mind, when you see what it is hes tweeting. When i briefed bob mueller the Intelligence Report every day. I saw the way his mind worked. He left no stone unturned. If there was something that could give insight, he did not hesitate to ask and follow it up and chase that fact until he had it. Theres no doubt in my mind that hes incorporating these tweets into the time line of potential obstruction of justice. They certainly can give us an
indication of the thoughts that were going on at that time. David and barbara, thank you for sharing your insight with us. Saturday a major push by republicans to keep control of the house and overcome a pretty difficult electoral map. Well have a live report from chicago. Trade wars, the Political Risk as President Trumps tariffs start to hit home for people in his base, stick around. Im ray and i quit smoking with chantix. I tried cold turkey, i tried the patch. They didnt work for me. I didnt think anything was going to work for me until i tried chantix. Chantix, along with support, helps you quit smoking. Chantix reduced my urge to smoke. I needed that to quit. When you try to quit smoking,
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hand out mailers as theyre doing now. Operations like these are happening all across the country. About 100 days away from the midterm elections. Its an illustrative mic microcosm. Republicans in the midwest could face a backlash to President Trumps policies. Today agriculture secretary sonny purdue told this to reuters, farmers will receive money from the 12 billion aid package as soon as september. That money is designed to help farmers affected by the administrations aggressive tariff policies. The president could already be paying a price politically. Trump is losing support in the midwest. His job approval in michigan, minnesota, wisconsin is now in the 30s. He deserves to be reelected. As you remember, trump won wisconsin and michigan by pretty slim margins. Joining me to talk about this is former Iowa Governor tom vilsak. President and ceo of the u. S. Dairy export council. Thank you for joining us. Great to be with you. Is this bailout helping farmers . It doesnt seem to be what they want. They want markets, they want to be able to earn money the right way. Very dependent on export markets. Soybeans are down 20 sales have been stopped in china. And were really dealing with the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars of had income. A 1. 8 billion loss over the last several weeks. Its a fairly significant
opportunity and challenge that farmers face because of these tari tariffs. Markets that were open, markets that had momentum are now being shut off. To explain this better, china buys most of the u. S. s soybeans which are now being supplied by brazil and other countries that are ramping up production. Thats been hurting the u. S. The reality is, the retaliatory tariffs increases the cost of our soybeans to chinese purchasers. Theyre not competitive. Theyre not competitively priced. That makes it easier for South American soybeans to be closed into china. Mexico is our number one market for cheese. Our cheese used to be financially advantageous to the mexicans. The refail Ya Tory Tariffs by mexico, makes it we have a logistical advantage, at the end of the day, the tariffs have
made it difficult for us to make the financial case. We have these tariff issues as well. The eu made some concessions depending on who you ask. Is trump right that farmers are getting a raw deal from previous u. S. Trade policies, in your opinion . Its interesting. Because we had the highest farm income in the history of u. S. Agriculture, the highest Export Numbers in the history of u. S. Agriculture, its difficult to make the case that the trade issues di