he says, out of respect for mr. mueller and the office of special counsel s investigation mr. cohen declined to respond to reporters and so do i. anthony, thank you for your reporting. anthony cormier, buzzfeed news. i want to bring in our leadoff panel. philip rucker for the washington post. barbara mcquade. and emily jane fox, senior reporter for vanity fair who also is the author of born trump: inside america s first family. we have exactly the right people to talk about this. first, i want to start with you, phil. you have reached out to the president s attorney, rudy giuliani, for a response. what have you got? that s right. his response is sort of a nondenial denial. he s basically saying, look, if you believe michael cohen, i have the brooklyn bridge to sell you which, of course, he doesn t.
phil. phil, you have reached out to the president s attorney, rudy giuliani, for a response. what have you got? that s right. his response is sort of a nondenial denial. he s basically saying, look, if you believe michael cohen, i have the brooklyn bridge to sell you which, of course, he doesn t. but that overlooks the fact that the buzzfeed reporting is not based on the word of michael cohen. it s based on, you know, documents and other pieces of evidence as you were just you and the guests were just explaining a few minutes ago. but clearly, the white house, or the president s legal team, rather, is trying to downplay the significance of this but it s a very important development, and it directly, you know, if it s true, it directly implicates the president in a crime. it continues to look very serious for michael cohen. what does this look like to you for donald trump? i think if this report is true, it s very serious for donald trump as well. as we heard, this is not just bas
communications adviser about this buzzfeed story. he says out of respect for mr. mule aeller and mr. cohen decli to anthony, thank you for your reporting. anthony cormie frrks buzzfeed news. i want to bring in our leadoff panel. philip rucker for the woe washington post. barbara mcquade. and emily jane fox, senior reporter for vanity fair who also is the author of born trump: inside america s first family. we have exactly the right people to talk about this. first, i want to start you, phil. phil, you have reached out to the president s attorney, rudy giuliani, for a response. what have you got? that s right. his response is sort of a nondenial denial. he s basically saying, look, if you believe michael cohen, i have the brooklyn bridge to sell you which, of course, he doesn t. but that overlooks the fact that the buzzfeed reporting is not based on the word of michael cohen. it s based on, you know,
said president trump was there for the beginning of it and he sided with john bolton because he agrees that he doesn t think kirstjen nielsen is doing enough at dhs. president trump essentially dressed her down at a cabinet meeting, saying she needed to do her job, echoing what john bolton was saying today. so it s a feud that s existed between john kelly and john bolton, but so far we ve never seen it play out in the public like this. what did the white house have to say about this? the white house didn t say anything for a few hours, then sarah sanders said while we are passionate about solving the issue of illegal immigration, we are not angry at one another. however, we are furious at the failure of congressional democrats to help us address this growing crisis. so she s trying to turn it around there on democrats, but she doesn t, if you notice in the first line, deny that this happened. this is a nondenial denial. reporter: exactly.
the first line, deny that this happened. this is a nondenial denial. reporter: exactly. stay with us. i want to bring in two of the loudest people i know, david gergen, and kirsten powers. so david, what does it say two of the president s top aides were arguing so intensely outside the oval office, is that i mean, is that normal having worked in white houses? no. i think when bob woodward turns his hardback into a paperback, he s going to have plenty of material for a postscript about the chaos in the white house. we have two very strong willed individuals here, who have been used to asserting themselves and everybody else getting out of the way and letting them have their way. and now they re clashing, and it s not totally surprising, the issues surrounding the borders are getting sharper. president trump clearly wants to