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 just about a month and a half after the meeting and said, russia, if youre listening, which years ago from today, as you pointed out, you would be rewarded for hacking Hillary Clintons emails. Michael avenatti, after, represents Stormy Daniels said Michael Cohen has far more incriminating things about the president. I demanded release of all trump tapes and stated at the time there were multiple recordings and we know there are indeed over 100 recordings seized. This information on the Trump Tower Meeting is not the best information Michael Cohen has. Issure you of that. Start with kelly odonnell. Not far from where the president is spending the weekend at his
bedminster resort. Good morning. The president refused to answer questions on camera about Michael Cohen and that infamous meeting at trump tower with the russian lawyer. Still, we keep asking what did he know and when did he know it . Reporter these are persistent questions, alex, and the president commented in his own way but not engaged with reporters when we have been asking about this issue. It is important in understanding what the president s knowledge was, what his role may have been, what the intentions were when that meeting in 2016 was taken, and the fact that the stories have changed over time, and once considered an ally, Michael Cohen now appears to be squarely in the camp of being a threat to the president. But theres credibility issues all around. Which one of the figures in this is to be believed . Now, this comes at a time when the president also has other things on this mind like the economy, and improved numbers there, and the campaign trail. With all of this russia investigati
did. Reporter referring to friction the president caused with nato leaders after demanding they boost defense spending. Friday, for the first time, the president shared a National SecurityCouncil Meeting on election interference, but notably, the official statement did not mention russia. His administration will not tolerate foreign interference in you are 0 elections from any nation state or other malicious actors. The president refused questions ten times this week. Mr. President , sir, is Michael Cohen lying . Reporter after news his former attorney, Michael Cohen, is prepared to tell authorities that mr. Trump was aware that russians offered to bring dirt on Hillary Clinton to a Trump Tower Meeting with donald trump jr. In 2016. Mr. President , did you know about the meeting at trump tower . Reporter but his only response has come on twitter. I did not know of the meeting with my son, don junior. Then suggests a motive for cohen under investigation. Sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jab. Amid the controversy, the white house is celebrating. New signs the economy is thriving. Were on track to hit the highest annual average growth rate in over 13 years. Reporter and, alex, sometimes there is just the unusual situation of two figures well known being in a space where you might not expect them and that happens from time to time at Washingtons Reagan National Airport and on friday politico captured an image showing special Counsel Robert Mueller waiting in gate 35x. A number of different destinations in the same location in the waiting area. So Robert Mueller seated there in the lower left frame and in the upper right side of that frame, thats the president s son donald trump jr. Also waiting for a flight. The two men did not interact but of course, their lives very much
interconnected over the last year and a half since mueller took over the investigation and all of these new questions surfaced about what did donald trump jr. Know . Had he been fully disclosing information to the congressional committees . Is he in sort of the the p purview of the Special Counsel . Imagine waiting for your flight to take off that says so much about whats happening in washington. What i would give to be that lady sitting directly across from mueller. Are these guys even acknowledging each other . Quite something. Anyway reporter yes. We chuckle now. Thank you so much, kelly. See you again. Bring in brian bennett, senior White House Correspondent for time and nbc news digital reporter. Gentlemen, good saturday morning to you. A source telling nbc news that Michael Cohen is certainly ready to tell Robert Mueller then candidate trump new in advance about his sons 2016 meeting with russians at trump tower. Of course, this contradicts both the president and donald trump jr. And his testimony. Brian, if its true, what does this mean for the Mueller Investigation . It means a lot, and already Rudy Giuliani is out there trying to take down the credibility of Michael Cohen, and whats interesting is when a prosecutor like Robert Mueller has a cooperating witness, and if Michael Cohen decides to cooperate fully with prosecutors, its more than just what he has to say. So he may say he recalls President Trump knowing about the june 2016 meeting, but he also may know a lot of details about where prosecutors can look for communications, as we know, there may be some recordings of conversations that could refer back to that. There could be other pieces of evidence that Michael Cohen knows about that he could tell prosecutors, and so its not just his word against theirs. It could also be other pieces of
Alex Witt hosts coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Evidence. For instance, donald trump jr. Called an unlisted number shortly after that meeting. Get Cell Phone Numbers leading to donald trump himself would be very strong evidence. Brian, the president verbally silent, publicly speaking. You go to twitter and in a tweet says cohen is trying to make up stories to get himself out of an unrelated jam. Different than the tone when the pr president called cohen a great guy. Can you make Heads Or Tails what this looks like . Estranged now and unlikely to ever come back. Michael cohen has turned on the president. He has in public actively is trying to undermine the president s story on this, and those tweets are really significant, because the president has Put In Black And White on the record what his version of events is, and theres no going back from that. That is incredibly significant. Id note right now. You can see the weather in bedminster is incredibly good. In the 80s, sunny. Significant. The president will be golfing, distracted. The last time the president sent a rainy weekend in bedminster, more than a year ago in april, and he decided to Fire Jim Comey when he came back to washington after that. So its significant, i think, that the president will be in bedminster on a sunny weekend where he can be out golfing and not stewing and watching reports about the russia investigation, as you know, probably make time to put out tweets. Usually does that before he hits the golf links as hes done the last couple of weekends. Look at Robert Mueller, alex, right now combing through the president s tweets. What about those relative to Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions . How does that factor into it . The way hes slammed him on twitter . Right. Robert mueller is looking for,
building an Obstruction Of Justice case. The key with an obstruction of justi justice, you have to prove intept. Challenging. Its not a smoking gun. You have to establish a pattern of facts. Thats what Robert Mueller will be trying to do with these tweets. Jeff sessions, trump almost specifically threatens him. If i had known he would have recused himself i would never have appointed him, and trump threatening sessions to drop the witchhunt into the president ial election. The president is his boss. You could make the case this is trump trying to pressure his subordinate to drop an investigation into the president. Can we pull up that picture once again from politico . This dca, reagan terminal 35x. Have either of you been there, and if you have, would it be possible to not know. Its small. Cramped, right . Would you not know Somebody Else who is potentially boarding the same plane, these two its possible if youre absorbed in whatever youre reading and didnt look up to see as people came in and out. But it is not its not a large space, but because of a lot of flights depart from there a lot of people do go through. An amazing terminal. Sort of like a green room from outside a cable news show. People from all Walks Of Washington Go Through there and often theres curious interactions that happen in that terminal. Oh, yeah. Especially after events like White House Correspondents dinners and things like that. Alex, you want to weigh in on this . Ive spent too much time at that gate. Brief eye contact and in a split second agreed to pretend they didnt see each other. Fully aware they were in public and any interaction would be a big public scenants an interesting reaction to this picture. Thank you for weighing in. Appreciate it. Coming up next, suspicions about that Trump Tower Meeting. And in the dark. How even the Secretary Of State appears to have little idea what exactly happened in that trumpputin private powwow. Senator, i understand the game that youre playing, again. No, no. Mr. Secretary, with all due respect, i dont appreciate you characterizing my questions. My questions are to get to the truth. vo what if this didnt have to happen . I didnt see it. vo what if we could go back . What if our car. Could stop itself . In iihs frontend crash prevention testing, nobody beats the subaru impreza. Not toyota. Not honda. Not ford. The subaru impreza. More than a car, its a subaru. Your hair is so soft did you use head and shoulders two in one . I did mom. Wanna try it . Yes. It intensely moisturizes your hair and scalp and keeps you flake free. Manolo . Look at my soft hair. I should be in the shot now too. Try head and shoulders two in one. Dear foremothers,
your society was led by a woman, who governed thousands. Commanded armies. Yielded to no one. When i found you in my dna, i learned where my strength comes from. My name is courtney mckinney, and this is my ancestrydna story. Now with 2 times more geographic detail than other dna tests. Order your kit at ancestrydna. Com. The man is a liar. A proven liar. There is no way youre going to bring down the president of the United States on the Testimony Uncorroborated of a proven liar. I guarantee you, this guy is a proven liar. The president s credibility is not at issue. He didnt know about it. I know that. Ive been over this in great detail. Ive talked to the corroborating witnesses. This guy is walking into a trap. The president s lawyer there reacting to reports that Michael Cohen claims the president new beforehand and approved of that infamous Trudge Ptower Meeting Offering Dirt OnHillary Clinton. A former cia officer joins me, 28year veteran, in fact, of the National Clandestine service, served in moss cows in t the moscow in the 1990s. Big welcome to you. You have long held that the Trump Tower Meeting was not
trump jr. Because hes already testified under oath about this . Seems so to me. Im not legal expert. Theres been a pattern of lies, lies, lies or coverups. Thats obviously where legal investigators are going to look. From the outside, there was certainly a willingness and a welcome desire to collaborate and collude with anybody to help them against the Hillary Clinton campaign. And is that why you say that this was not an innocent meeting . That they were trying to get dirt on Hillary Clinton . I mean, it wasnt all about adoptions, we later found out not true in the claim. Why is it you think it was you know, not an above Board Meeting . For a couple reasons. One is, when a foreign power steals information from american citizens and provides it to you, the right thing to do is go to your lawyers, your security people, go to the fbi. But is it possible that the
trump team was too knew eve to know that and do it . People suggested this team couldnt even have pulled off corroboration, that naive and inept . Still doesnt make it right, however, its a good point and possible donald trump jr. Was that naive and that inept, but not possible Paul Manafort was that naive and inept. Hes worked in that cesspool of russian collaboration, collaboration of russian cooperation, Mafia Intelligence Overlap and would have definitely known what happened, and they had months and months of other contacts and things following that they could have in some fashion reported this. How does this differ from traditional opo research . Youve heard the defense, everybody does this. You try to get Opposition Research on your candidate, merely because of the foreign Entity Involvement . Yeah. I dont know much about Opposition Research and that certainly makes sense, but when a hostile foreign power, who whose soul Foreign Policy goal
is to hurt the United States steals american citizens documents and offers them to you you have to have if youre of any common sense or a patriot or any ethics have to look into that before you jump. Part of this problem is, it goes to the fact that i think people have become so partisan now they see their political enemies as real enemies, and, therefore, actual foreign enemies that can help them, theyre willing to sort of work with them to take down their political enemies. We really are in a bad place if that becomes sort of the Standard Operating Procedure. Okay. I want to get to the president s hil cin helsinki meeting. Talking at the Senate ForeignRelations Committee hearing this week. Take a listen. A number of conversations with President Trump about what transpired in the meeting and present when he and President Putin gave a synopsis what took
place. Speak with sergey lavrov, i have a pretty complete understanding of what took place in that meeting. Did you speak to the translator at that meeting . I havent. Did the president tell you that he discussed relaxing russia sanctions or not . Yes or not. They are entitled to have private meetings. Im telling you what u. S. Policy is. Does it sound pompeo got most of his information just like the rest of us Russian Readouts and whats your thought on that if you agree . I do agree and feel bad for him. Hes trying to walk that tightrope of loyalty to the president and also lack of access of information what the president talked about. Its clear to all of us President Trump really doesnt understand what his policy is and doesnt explain things well about what happened. Mike pompeo who has to defend the administration probably went to President Trump and got the same word sale we all got and is trying to make something out of it. In the government we usually have what we call an olive
government approach. Big foreign policies, everybody has to be moving in the same direction. The problem with this administration is, there seems to be a,eneder the president policy and then whatever the president happens to say. Trying to square those two things is really hard. Can i ask you your thoughts on the fact that Vladimir Putin has invited President Trump to moscow . The president s apparent willingness to accept . Hasnt done it yet, but do you have concerns about that . If the president Goes To Moscow for a meeting . I have concerns about it but i think probably everybody in President Trumps administration also has concerns about it. I dont think anybody under him supported the helsinki summit. And now theyve seen what came out of it, they certainly dont want a replay of that anytime soon. President trump seems to have his own sort of game going. Sort of likes to stick his finger in the eye of everybody and its the