Turned out he wasnt a very good lawyer. I dont know how you can impeach somebody whos done a great job. When you see mueller with the conflicts, hes so conflicted. Comey is his best friend. Considering a proposal to let states use federal money to buy guns for teachers. But lets begin today with that extensive interview that even by President Trump standards is extraordinary. In it, he dismisses the law. He excuses fraud that rips off the american taxpayer. And suggests that the economy depends on him being president. And thats just for starters. Weve got a great team here to break it all down for us. But we have to start with the details of that interview itself. The president sitting down with Fox And Friends Ainsley Ernheart yesterday for 22 minutes and turning on Michael Cohen so completely now. Dismissive of the man he employed for more than ten years. He was a lawyer for me for
Coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Existence, the Washington PostFact Checkers call it a lie. His explanation of the payments, theyve concluded, is an outright lie. In the Bigger Picture it does bring to mind a watergateera question, of interest to investigators now. What did the president know and when did he know it . The president also doing something of an aboutface on Paul Manafort. Remember, thats the guy he once dismissed as only working for him for a very short period of time. But now, not ruling out a pardon. And, in fact, had nothing but praise for convicted manafort. Though he was very critical of his attorney general, jeff sessions, for his decision to recuse himself from the investigation. What kind of a man is this. By the way, he was on the campaign. You know, the only reason i gave him the job, because i felt loyal to him. He was an original supporter. He was on the campaign. So the end game from democrats for this investigation is impeachment. But the majority of democrats on the hill yesterday steered clear of any talk of the i word. While during the interview, the president put the i in impeachment. I get its Something Like high crimes. I dont know how you can impeach somebody whos done a great job. Ill tell you what, if i ever got impeached, i think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor. So much to get to with Nbcs Kristen Welker whos at the white house for us. So kristen, look, the president s list of grievances is long. He seemed to touch on so many of them, including reviving that totally bogus claim that the Obama Administration bugged trump tower. Youve got reporting that the west wing is now preparing for a blowup. Lay that out for us. Hi chris, good morning. The team here at the white house has been working all of our sources and according to multiple sources, the president
is definitely calm about all of this right now, however, some of his allies and advisers are bracing for a potential meltdown. Lets go back to the very beginning when all of this news broke earlier this week. He was headed to west virginia. He was on air force one. We were told he was calm. He was even joking about how this would be overplayed in the media. Youve seen some of his frustrations being reflected in his tweets, chris, so theres no doubt that this is getting under his skin to some extent, as this entire probe has done. Just overnight, the president Tweeting Rigged Witch Hunt yet again. For right now, the president hasnt completely started to sort of blow his top as some are concerned he might do. Remember, this is an administration that is used to being on defense. Is used to dealing with chaos. I think thats the sense right now. Look, this is yet another challenge. Theyve got to get through it. Theyve got to fight through. We saw that yesterday from sarah
huckabee sanders at the podium. Repeating that line over and over again. The president has done nothing wrong. She was steadfast in that comment. Really didnt move from her Talking Points much. One source explained it to me this way. Its like a boxing match. Sometimes you take a hit, but at the end of the round, youre Still Standing and ready for the next round to begin. That i think really encapsulates the thinking here at the white house. What about outside of the white house . What about republicans . Theyre concerned about holding on to critical seats in the Midterm Elections. Theyre starting to get nervous. The sort of public response has been a bit mixed with some saying look, this looks very bad, this is unprecedented. Others saying look, theres no real smoking gun here yet. Democrats, as you pointed out are staying away from that word impeachment right now. They want to see how this plays out. Trump supporters in the swing state of florida are steadfast in their support. Hes planning to hit the road,
15 states after labor day, chris. Joining me, ben white, chief economic correspondent for politico, host of the politico money podcast. Noelle kimpoor. Most legal experts will tell you it isnt, then, a crime, heres the problem though. Prosecutors say they have audio recordings, they have text messages, they have Phone Records about cohens payments and the intent. Ben white, what do you make of this interview . Its sort of hard to pick a spot to attack on that interview because theres so many bizarre things. On the point of Michael Cohen and yes. And even if i did this, its not wrong. Of course its wrong, obviously. It doesnt make any difference whether it came from the campaign or his personal bank account or the Trump Organization. The fact of the matter is, its
chief Law Enforcement officer . Well, youve got to look at how the republicans as a whole view donald trump. They think hes very successful. That he has checked off promises that he has made to them. They voted for him because they expected certain things done. And he is going through a check list of marking them off. Youve also got to realize hes a lot of republicans, or maybe a lot of people that support trump or his base, are looking at this repeated attack on donald trump, the person. And its but not so much anymore. I know this whole witch hunt mantra seemed to be working. Theres a new fox news poll out. 59 of registered voters approve now of muellers investigation. Thats up 11 points from just july. Thats a fox news poll. Should that give those same people youre talking about pause . Nobodys happy. Nobody thinks this is an awesome
thing thats going on. A lot of people are looking at trump. Saying all youre doing, that this is nothing but a witch hunt because youre looking for a smoking gun to get trump out because you dont like his tactics and you dont like the way he handles business. It is different. It is unusual. Its blowing a lot of peoples minds. This is not business as usual. This is the most different presidency weve ever had, right or left. But you cant use that as an excuse. You have to look at a lie and call it a lie. If there is illegality, it is the job of prosecutors to look at it. I want to show you a moment when senator mcconnell was asked for a response to the whole Cohen Manafort news. Senator, do you have any reaction to the Cohen Manafort news . Do you think its concerning at all . You you think it will affect the
midterms . [ no audible comments ] you still Support Mueller, right . [ Inaudible Comments ] how long can republicans theyre going to get asked about this on the campaign trail. They are. How long can they defend the president . Theyre in an exquisite political bind here. Trump is popular among republicans. They do not want to be on the record criticizing him. At the same time, this Midterm Election is going to play out in a lot of suburban Swing Districts where independents are running away from trump. Female educated voters are running away from trump. Theyre in danger, if they defend him too hard, of alienating those voters. They havent gotten to the point
yet where they feel that their conscience demands they come out and speak out against the president and Support Mueller publicly and talk about hearings on some of these allegations. We could get to that point where theres something out there so egregious they have to take that stand. Right now, if they speak out against the president , they alienate their base. If they speak out for him, they alienate swing voters. Is that maybe that point, that where people draw a line, if he decides to pardon Paul Manafort . One of the things that struck me about this, noelle, is he used to have really good things to say about Michael Cohen and now he used to be kind of not kind of, he was dismissive of Paul Manafort and what he did at a critical moment of his president ial campaign. Now, in this interview with fox friends, he sounds like hes his best friend. I just want to play a little from the interview, what he had to say about Paul Manafort. I have Great Respect for what hes done in terms of what hes
gone through. He worked for many, many people. Many, many years. And i would say what he did, some of the charges they threw against him, every consultant, every lobbyist in washington probably does. If you look at Hillary Clintons person, i mean, look at the crimes that clinton did, with the emails and she deletes 33,000 emails after she gets a subpoena from congress. And this Justice Department does nothing about it . So he again diverts to clinton, which is something he does often. But is what were to take away from that, that almost if not every consultant and lobbyist in washington is a criminal, because everybody does it, and if people do it, everybody does it, even if its against the law, its forgivable. Is that what the person who the chief Law Enforcement officer really of the United States, he takes an oath. The oath that you take on the Inauguration Day talks about upholding the constitution, upholding law. Is that what we take away from that . Its okay . Paul manafort broke the law. Im not going to dispute that. I dont think donald trump is trying to dispute that. I think what donald trump is trying to do is tee the ball up for, number one, they were looking to get trump on something. And in the midst of this, they discovered all these crimes. Which are crimes. And Paul Manafort some of the charges they threw against him, the president said, every consultant, every lobbyist in washington probably does. Hes trying to set this up to where a lot of his base feel this is a witch hunt. They were looking to Paul Manafort to press on Paul Manafort and look through him to try to get something on donald trump. And in the midst of this investigation, they found all these crimes, all this activity
that, you know, Paul Manafort its bad. Its bad. But i think that to, you know, to imply that every lobbyist is doing something wrong, who knows. I guess if you look who knows . Who knows . Well, not everyone taking tens of millions of dollars from the ukrainians and hiding it from the government. Theyre not laundering money the base of this was set up to say what he did was a crime but he is a nice guy. He worked for reagan, this, this, this. Hes probably going to tee him up to be pardoned. People will go nuts if manafort is pardoned. I dont think so. You dont think so . No. Coming up, investigators in new york issue a subpoena for Michael Cohen. Saying he could be a source of information regarding a new legal challenge facing trump and his eldest three children. A swrjuror reveals it was o person, a single holdout that
blocked special counsel Robert Muellers team from scoring a conviction on all 18 counts. And, by the way, that jurors a trump supporter. With a maga hat. Applebees to go. Order online and get 5 off 25. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. A hotel can make or break a trip. And at expedia, we dont think you should be rushed into booking one. Thats why we created expedias addon advantage. Now after booking your flight, you unlock discounts on select hotels right until the day you leave. Addon advantage. Discounted hotel rates when you add on to your trip. Only when you book with expedia. Counts but now hes been served with a subpoena as part of a New York State Criminal Probe into the Trump Organization. Let me bring in tom winter. A robert beianca, a former criminal investigator. Weve been focused on the counts as it relates understandably to Michael Cohen and the president. The first five counts that he pled guilty to have to do with tax evasion. And so federal prosecutors have said he didnt declare over 4 million of income on successive tax returns from 2012 to 2016. If youre the new York State Division of taxation and theyre the ones who issued the subpoena, you would look at this and say wait a minute if he didnt declare to the feds 4 million of income, maybe he didnt declare to us 4 million of income. Were entitled to our pound of flesh here. And so in for Michael Cohen, he would have to pay both New York State tax as well as new york city tax. The implications only for him or for the trump family as well . So we can get beyond that. In the Trump Organization, depending upon how they accounted for certain of the payments that were given to Michael Cohen. So remember in count eight, thats the Stormy Daniels count, Michael Cohen pled that he received payment from the Trump Organization for what he was able for the payment he made to Stormy Daniels. They were also and its in the criminal information, there was Text Information and communications that occurred saying were going to pay you above and beyond that 130,000 because if we were to pay that as a paycheck, viewed to pay taxes out of it. Is there any issue with respect to the Trump Organization as far as did they properly account for and was this all proper the way they accounted for payment back to Michael Cohen for the payment to Stormy Daniels . So, again, very much like, though, the case that was laid out in court against Paul Manafort. Theres a lot of paperwork there. But bringing it down to i think
a more understandable level in some ways. Something extraordinary happened here. In that cohen gets a subpoena. 99. 9 of the time, you tell me if im wrong about this, your lawyer then is in touch, right, with the New York State authorities who have issued this subpoena. He picks up the phone. Thats the reporting, that he picks up the phone. Whats going on here . Okay, listen, people are misunderstanding Whats Going On because they hear theres not a quote unquote cooperation agreement. The data is already there. They have him locked up. Hes got multiple federal and state jurisdictions. Not physically locked up hes locked up, his investigation. He is splayed on to the mercy of federal and state prosecutors in multiple jurisdictions. Even though theres not a cooperation agreement, theres kind of a wink and nod or understanding that says if you fully cooperate, if you do what we ask, if you go and give all the data and information, even though as a Defense Lawyer you
dont want to do that because that opens them up to more criminal liability, thats not where Michael Cohen is now. His wife didnt get charged. Hes going on team and state usa and State Attorney generals. Hell go to the hill. Hell give every data he can. In the hopes that those jurisdictions will not go after him. Remember, that cooperation let me stop you there. That plea deal was something that really got the president going in his interview on fox and friends. So let as listen to that. Theres this whole thing about flipping they call it. I know all about flipping. For 30, 40 years, ive been watching flippers. Everythings wonderful. And then they get tenu years in jail and they flip on whoever the next highest one is. It almost ought to be outlawed. It almost ought to be outlawed. In other words, hes saying people should not cooperate with legitimate investigations. Is that what you heard . I want to give credence to the comment in one way. Theres a body of people that are out there that have said this idea of flipping and where a person who is more culpable, more responsible, gets less of a sentence than somebody who may be a bigger fish or bigger target winds up going down for it. Look, its a prosecutorial tool that needs to be done. It shouldnt be eliminated. Certainly, this is not the wrong piece in order to argue that because theyre getting plenty of data to show theres a lot of activity and theyr