Loudly denying over and over that he had business in russia. We all already that. This week these emails leaked showing it was false. Trump sought business and help from the kremlin with it. Today, the putin government confirms they heard that digital plea for help. Now, yes, there is good reason to follow the rubles. The putin aide saying i can confirm among the mass of emails there was a email from mr. Michael cohen, quote, this really happened. Why is russia corroborating a story that looks so bad for donald trump . They do offer a defense within this corroboration claiming they didnt respond to that email or raise it with putin. A claim bob mueller is sure to be fact checking. These are putting more pressure on Michael Cohen who sent the email and facing calls by congress to sit for questions. The same who pressed donald trump junior to agreeing to an interview of his own. All of these developments raise a pretty basic point. If you need an alibi in the russia investigation, its probably better that it does not come from a key aide to vladmir putin. Im joined,0 eed now by former m bask ambassador to russia. Olivia, we have talked about this a lot. When you look specifically at the kremlin speaking out today, they are confirming the other side of this. They dont have a need to do that. What do you make of it . Its terrible for the president , obviously. Theres sort of a drip, drip. Its increasing with speed every day this goes on. Michael cohen is not just his personal lawyer but hes been a campaign spokesman. Hes appeared on television as a tur ga surrogate for the president. Hes visited the white house. Its not just hes some random member of his legal team. Hes very important to donald trump not just in a legal respect but also on the campaign itself. Let me play for you what i mentioned so folks can take it all in with the new information. They were seeking to build a trump tower in moscow. They were seeking the kremlins help and all the while during the same year of 2016, donald trump was saying things like this. Im all over the world but were not involved in russia. I have nothing to do with russia. I have no dealings with russia. I have no deals in russia. I have no deals that could happen in russia because weve stayed away. I have no loans with russia. I have nothing to do with russia. I have no investments in russia. None, whatsoever. I dont have property in russia. Not for lack of trying, ambassador, we reached to you to do some kremlinology. Interesting wording here from a central putin figure. He said he didnt respond to the email because it was outside of his job description. Here is how roueuters described it. We do not react to such questions about business themes. This is not our job. We left this matter without a response. Does that mean that no one else involved in putins circle or outside business interest might have responded after prodding from the kremlin, ambassador . Thats a good question. We dont know that. We dont know if there were other emails, other contacts related to this. If this was a Serious Business proposition, of course, they would have had other contacts with other russian officials besides mr. Peskov. Hes the guy you seeputin. If you think you need to have a contact with him, hes the guy you go to. He didnt have to tell us this. Why is he telling this . Why is he making this public . I dont know the answer to that but it seems very mysterious to me. Could it be gloating . Hes going out of his way to confirm it. Maybe hes gloating. I dont know. Could be gloating. It could be theres real disenchantment with what President Trump has done to in terms of u. S. Russian relations. They had big expectations last november about lifting sanction, roll back nato, no talk about democracy or human rights. None of that has happened. Maybe they have lost interest in trying to help mr. Trump succeed. Thats very interesting. You read it as potentially a negative or a turning there . Possibly. I dont know exactly what mr. I know mr. Peskov well. I dont know exactly what he meant. Its very unusual to go on the record with Something Like this. I would remind your viewers, dont believe me. Go back and look at what the Prime Minister said a couple of weeks ago about President Trumps inability to stop that sanctions legislation. He basically said hes weak and hes given up Foreign Policy to the socalled deep state, the congress, the National Security experts. That suggests they no longer think that trump can deliver on the promises that he made on the campaign trail. How does that play out in trump land . I think this is a real big problem because as the clip you played demonstrated, donald trump and the people close to him have always argued, yeah, maybe russia somewhat interfered but there was no collusion. We have no interests. That has crumbled. In crumbled in relation to the june 2016 meeting. Its under question here. The russians here seem to be saying we didnt respond to that, to the email from Michael Cohen, but thats not really the point. The point is by making this request for help, obviously the russians then had leverage of a kind whether they use it or not with someone who is known to be extremely close to the president of the United States. Thats an issue. Whether they responded or not, if you email me, and ask me a favor that could involve millions and millions of dollars, whether i respond to your email isnt the point. The point is i have i way to influence it. Who were they emailing you on whoms behalf . Emily, a New York Times reporter and former clerk to a federal judge with some Legal Expertise and how these thing ks be interpreted, Michael Cohen is a Senior Business representative of the Trump Organization and a lawyer for trump. We have been told over and over this is a lien organization that moves quickly and represents the boss. Is it plausible or likely that he was writing with the no knowledge of donald trump on Donald Trumps behalf or would he has a lawyer do this on freelance and tell his boss after. It seems rather implausible that cohen was out there doing this on his own. On the other hand we dont have the proof yet. This is the bred crumb of these trail that were watching as we get more and more information drip by drip about what these emails show. What we hear over and over from the Trump Organization is that they do things that donald trump orders that is hands on and perhaps if it was a tiny country and a tiny deal or throw away licensing deal, but here is a trump tower in moscow is where its slated to be. Youre now seeking the help of an aide to vladmir putin. Not someone you want to trifle with. Theres no backsies with putin. You ask for help, youre asking. This is a deal that trump and his children had talked about, played up and made a big deal about. That can add one more shred of evidence, perhaps, to what youre pointing toward. This comes as there are top democratic investigators saying it changes the calculus. Some real news here from representative swalwell. Hes saying it in response to these developments and the kremlin statement today. Telling the committee might want to have witness testimony from the president himself. People have thought of that as unprecedented or an implausibility. Its not entirely without presence. Gerald ford was called in 1974 to testify. The previous example before that was woodrow wilson. This does point to the fact the house investigators finding out in the interview that you call, they talked about things proceeding at a dizzying pace. I think that does get to this point that there are a lot of interesting pieces of information being excavated at the minimum. On the trump side of this, i want you to join me and take a journalistic risk on live television. Join me in the supposition that donald trump has not tweeted about this since we went on air live, which is a risk because he tweets a lot. Were not seeing the president lash out at this particularly part of the russia news the way he has on so many other parts. What i notice, i want your view, wow, if the kremlin is talking, suddenly he clams up. Right. Hes exercising a kind of caution that is unusual for him. He normally tweets what he thinks when he thinks it. We dont know him to be somebody who ever holds back. The fact hes not tweeting the last couple of days about this being a witch hunt is very out of character and makes you wonder is he starting to get worried. What does he know about this invi investigation that we dont know. You read the emails, testifies at the Trump Organization where they were making these connections between the campaign and between his real estate deal. His potential real estate deal in moscow. They are really doing a lot of work for us here in terms of k connecting these dots. You dont have to speculate the way donald trump has accused journalists of speculating. A lot of clues out in the open. Thank you all for joining me. Emily, stay with me. I want to talk about another big story. Coming up, the russia inv t investigation and the pardon issue. If trump were to pardon enough people in the wrong way, he could create a new federal crime. Donald trump no stranger to testify under oath. This democratic lawmaker pushing for that. We have the reporter who broke that story on the beat and later, how trump struggles with power. Robert green is here to discuss the 48 laws of power. Hes a guru to many familiar faces. Hell explain trump on the beat. Nobodys hurt, but there will still be pain. It comes when your Insurance Company says theyll only pay threequarters of what it takes to replace it. What are you supposed to do . Drive threequarters of a car . Now if you had Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, youd get your whole car back. I guess they dont want you driving around on three wheels. Smart. With Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, well replace the full value of your car. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. With moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis . How do you chase what you love do what i did. Ask your doctor about humira. Its proven to help relieve pain and protect joints from further irreversible damage in many adults. 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He tried to tackle policy in missouri using himself as an example. Eliminate special interest loopholes. Im speaking against myself when i do this. I have to tell you. I might be speaking against mr. Cook and were both okay with it, is that right . Its crazy. Were speaking maybe we shouldnt be doing this, you know. Theyve been the forgotten people but theyre not forgotten any longer. I can tell you that. We are unable to confirm trumps claims about the impact on his own taxes because unlike every recent president ial candidate, he refused to release them. Bringing up his own secret tax returns in his policy speech does take a certain hoopspaw. There is a one page summary that suggests people in the top 1 will get another quarter of a Million Dollars from the federal government. Thats per an independent analysis while raising taxes on far more people in the middle class. So, does that benefit you . According to our financial colleagues at cnbc, youre this the national 1 if your family makes over 600,000 a year or in a city like houston you have to make 1. 6 million to be in the top 1 . If thats more than you make, this plan doesnt help you. With me is the former chief of staff to Speaker Paul Ryan and has first hand experience in all of these battles and negotiations with donald trump as well as julian epstein. Ill start with you. Is this plan any good for the middle class as trump claims . Well, i think as you just said, its impossible to evaluate because President Trump during the campaign and since hes been president has not given us any details. His secretary of treasury and chief Economic Advisor said this would be done by august. They dont even have a plan by august. They have the bare outlines of plan. This shows this is plan for the elite and the well connected. The majority of the benefits will go to the top 1 of the earners. I think leaving aside what the substance of the plan, the idea that donald trump has the temperament to get something thats more complicated than health care through capitol hill right now has the team on the ground, i dont think he has the treasury secretary or gary cohen. He continues to alienate those that are important to him on capitol hill. This august has been a month for him where he has offended everybo everybody. Let me play for you these are some Trump Supporters who are frustrated not with his ideas in theory but the fact, as you know, working for speaker ryan, he hasnt dug in and passed major legislation yet. You voted for him . Yes, sir. Okay. Why check disappointment . Because regardless of what he truly wants to get done, whatever that may be, he has got to be his own worst enemy. He couldnt be any worse at achieving goals in politics. David, your view on results. Well, at this point the biggest result is the Supreme Court justice that was put in. They have not accomplished what they wanted to on health care. No doubt about that. Thats a failure. Right now they are looking at the fall as the opportunity to do taxes. The tax bill will be written by the members of the ways and Means Committee and will be taken over to the finance committee. Thats what they are doing. Those are the people who know taxes best. They want to make reform. The reforms they want to make are to start giving some money back to the private sector. So much money is taken out of private sector by the government that the people who want to use this to build their businesses, if youre looking at family businesses, those are some of the key people in this country. They have having to spend, give, 39 or more of their taxes to the government instead of putting it back into their business. Its range of things they are trying to do here and the ways and Means Committee, the finance Committee Members will be the ones who put pen to paper on this to put details together. The details are much more difficult in the long run. In taxes you have a million details. Point of personal reference in law school tax law was my least favorite course. Its truly complicated. I wonder, as a fellow congressional veteran like david, if you can analyze his theory is health care and they failed. Taxes is harder but theyre going to use the same legislative approach and try to have Congress Lead tr behind and this time it will be a win . I think you put your finger on it in the question. David, i think outline the congressional process very well. He worked for a guy who is not just an honorable guy, speaker ryan but a master at this. That said, theres a reason you havent had tax reform in 30 years because it takes very, very concerted leadership from the top. The top being the president of the United States. Were looking at a president now whose numbers have slipped down into the low 30s. The number of americans that have enthusiastically support this president is down in the low 20s. You look at the fact hes alienating congressional republican, ceos wont sit on his Business Council, his military leaders rebuked him, members of his cabinet want to distance themselves from him. You know you just continue to see whether its north korea. Let me give david the benefit of the response. Everybody is blowing this president off. To build on julians part. Charlie sykes was speaking about your old boss on this point saying i long admired paul ryan but hes made a bargain but for tax cuts paul referring to the support for White Supremacists saying i imagine ploes of the elected officials are privately horrified. They have peek and speaker ryan and chairman brady on the house side. Theyve been a part of this before. Theyve done some of these things before. For republicans they have also had much more work with the white house with mr. Cohen and secretary mnuchin than they did on health care. They are further down the line than they were on that. I think thats the reason for optimism here. I dont want to give you a hard time but i want to point out for the benefit of our viewers, youre not requesting the question that Charlie Sykes puts there. Go ahead. Paul throughout the campaign on a number of different occasions, he said thats not the direction republican party. Thats not what we believe. Remember paul is really a disciple of jack kemp. Jack, i worked for jack for four years that we were doing the tax reform in 1986. I was jacks dhechief of staff. I know jack well. He iunderstands this is the pary of lincoln. Id love to have you both back on. Thank you gentlemen. Ahead, movement on the issue of trump pardons. Why democrats now demanding a new investigation into trumps unusual pardon of sheriff arpaio. Patrick woke up with back pain. But he has work to do. So he took aleve. If hed taken tylenol, hed be stopping for more pills