Were used to seeing from the president. Perhaps this statement was lawyered, it was in response to a request that my colleague Ashley Parker and i made to sarah sanders, first to interview the president. He wasnt available for an interview, but she offered to get a statement from him which he provided. Look, its important because he seems to be creating some wiggle room for his son. We know from our reporting that theres anxiety in the president s inner circle including by the president himself who has fretted to associates and friends that hes worried about don jr. , worried that there could be some legal jeopardy, legal exposure there, and theres a feeling in the orbit that something could potentially happen in the next few weeks. We dont know what that might be. But this maybe the president trying to protect himself, distance himself from anything that may be afoot with his son. All right. So theres the issue of the Trump Tower Meeting which we know mueller has a good deal of inform
Erin Burnett stays ahead of the headlines, delivering a show that is indepth and informative. Nice to have you all. John dean, let me begin with you. You heard the president out there try to defend himself today. Did he do himself any favors . Every time he opens his mouth he seems to conflict with a prior statement so i dont think he did himself any favors. They have not developed a Clear Strategy or approach or answer or response to any of this. And it is reminiscent of others in high places that got themselves in trouble. Some of them kept a better message than trump has. David, to you, the defense from the president again and again is, you know, the payments didnt come out of the campaign. He said and i quote, they being the payments, came from me. If what he said on fox is true, that statement, then at the very least he admitted to a payment that was not disclosed on the Financial Disclosure forms, which very well may be illegal, but how does the court of Public Opinion see it ton
And people are exhausted. Trump did respond to Michael Cohens plea today. This morning he wrote if anyone is looking for a good lawyer, i would strongly suggest that you dont retain the services of Michael Cohen and Michael Cohen plead guilty to two counts of Campaign Finance violations that are not a crime. President obama had a big Campaign Finance violation and it was easily settled. Trump also spoke to fox news about his relationship with Michael Cohen. He was a lawyer for me for one of many, you know, there was a lawyer and the fixer. I dont know if he was a fixer. I dont know where that term came from, but hes didnt do big deals. Did small deals. Not somebody that was with me that much. You know, they make it sound like i didnt live without him. I understood Michael Cohen very well. Turned out he wasnt a very good lawyer, frankly. He was somebody that was probably with me for about ten take this all together this being the president of the United States after all. The Washington
A recap of the days news. A recap of the days news. As part of his plea deal he agreed to cooperate with muellers investigation, and then theres dutch lawyer Alex Van Der Zwaan Who pled guilty to lying to investigators about his discussions with gates. He served 30 days in prison and was deported to the netherlands in june. Richard pinedo pled guilty to Election Fraud running a business selling dummy Bank Accounts to shadowy buyers including russians to sew discord in american politics. His lawyer said he didnt know the identity of his customers. He cooperated with muellers investigation as well. Fired Trump National security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about his conversations with former Russian Ambassador to the u. S. Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and hes been cooperating with the special counsel investigation. His Sentencing Hearing was delayed for the fourth time today. Former Trump Campaign adviser George Papadopoulos pled guilty to making a false statemen
A recap of the days news. Explain that . Ive commented on this pretty extensively. What you can tell you is ha 2 president did nothing wrong, there is no collusion. For anything beyond that i would refer you to the president s outside counsel. Didnt he say he didnt know about it and then theres a tape during before it happened discussing it . Ok. Again Michael Cohen is alleging is that trump committed a crime. And directing cohen to pay to silence women who claim they had affairs with trump, that is collusion. You might think republican lawmakers would be compelled to speak out in the face of this. Actually, it probably wont surprise you at all that the response from the president s own party is pretty much this. Crickets. Deafening silence. Nothing. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell completely silent. Majority whip john cornen i dont know the facts. The facts. House Speaker Paul Ryan punting to his spokesperson who said, quote, we need more information than is currently available