per hour. does step counter, those sport matt and wireless remote call. now, hunger, how solomon in new york? and this is cnn it's wednesday, may 15th, right now on cnn this morning, tense moments in court with michael cohen on the stand.

>> donald trump's lawyers trying to convince the jury that the x fixer is school republicans joining forces white house all right, 6:00 a.m. here in washington alive. >> look at the white house on this misty wednesday morning here in washington. good morning, everyone. i'm kasie hunt. >> it's wonderful to have you with us donald trump's defense team had months to prepare for this particular moment in history. >> there chance to cross-examine michael cohen to try to attack his character, tear down his credibility, and convinced 12 jurors that he can't be trusted or believed. trump's former lawyer and fixer faced intense scrutiny on the stand on tuesday. the defense tried to paint him as

bidder filled with rage and motivated by revenge cohen was confronted with a string of insults that he has leveled at the former president in recent years, including calling him a cheeto-dusted cartoon villain. and dictator di bag in direct examination from prosecutors earlier in the day, cohen testified in detail about the 2018 fbi raid on his home tell room and office. as investigators sought evidence related to the hush money payment based on information that was uncovered in the molar probe. here was how then president trump reacted to learning about that raid so i just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys good man and it's a disgraceful situation. it's a total witch hunt that been second for a long time. i've wanted to keep it down trump later called cohen. >> this is in this period to

reassure cohen with cohen testifying, trump said, quote, don't worry, i am the president of the united states. there is no, there is nothing here everything is going to be okay. stay tough. >> you are going to be okay cohen, of course, later flipped pled guilty, and here we are today our panels here, cnn chief national affairs correspondent jeff zeleny, matt gorman, foreign, your former senior adviser to tim scott's presidential campaign and the former federal prosecutor elliot williams. welcome all elliott fascinating day yesterday, this, this call that he gets what did it say to you? >> i mean, i had to sort of been turning it over and over in my head because it really does win the president of united states tells you that they'll take care of you. there are powers that the president has if there disposal we also learned about another apparent instance where i guess jeff sessions was said to be in president trump's pocket, et cetera what did you see in the

direct examination here and how do you consider this narrative and how it's going to play with the jury, well, the most important thing that came out there was this question of loyalty for the former president. it's been a narrative through the trial. this is an individual that tries to keep people close, likes to keep people close, and ultimately punishes those who stray from the fold. now, in terms of the evidence that was submitted, it wasn't the most persuasive evidence that we saw over the course of the day, there was quite damning document condition of, for instance, the payments to michael cohen and how they were structured all of the checks and then of course, other witnesses that corroborated much of the things michael cohen said, except for the meeting that he had with the president one-on-one and we can talk about that, too. but yeah, this was more of the interesting color about the former president that we've learned over the course of the trial, that i think is news to many people at times. >> yeah. i mean, it's quite

the specifics or near is of course, people knew what they got with the foreign reserve. i mean, the specifics of how the conversations played out. so what i meant yeah for sure. >> and some of these these insults, of course that cohen had levelled at the president. we can, we can put them up. this this is in the cross-examination on your first podcast, mea culpa, you referred to president trump as a boorish cartoon misogynist, didn't you? cohen says, it sounds like something i would say. you call the first one in 2020 as a cheeto-dusted cartoon villain, cohen that also sounds like something i said. you think you might've said, quote, i truly nothing hope this man's and ends up in prison. is that exact cohen, it sounds like my language on mea culpa geoff, this of course, the podcast that michael cohen has been hosting. he isn't necessarily done himself any favors in buttressing his own credibility, which they they tried to highlight here. did they do it successfully? >> i mean, we'll see their hours and hours and hours of things that michael cohen has said about everything, but certainly about his former boss, donald trump. i think the

question is, are jurors going to look beyond the di bag word that you said and other things that he has said and listen to the heart of the matter and what happened during the testimony is that for the first time he tied the former president directly to those payments. and that oval office meeting, i think it's so interesting and when they showed the picture of michael cohen standing in what else briefing room, that was a pretty interesting de was back in february 2017, the former president had been president for only a couple of weeks, and we all remember michael cohen coming into the white house sort of like what are you doing here? that was interesting i think he's not believable necessarily or likable. >> i should say, he's not likable. see if he's believable. i think that michael cohen has given enough he's kept his cool, which we've all been watching to see if he would. >> i love this picture currently generated laughter in the courtroom. this is the him taking that time in the briefing room because we're

like okay, like, what are you doing? well, you there that day i was there that day it was february. i believe it was february 8 there has been some testimonies. it was a february 5, but in any case, it was the first week of february in 2017. >> and the white house was still being filled up with staff. >> there was always a revolving door of staffers, but at that point, it was still unclear. it's like is this a new sean spicer? what's michael cohen? >> i can spice are already been fired by the owner. know you'd not been fired, but i mean, certainly was coming at some point, no. he was still a press secretary, but anyway, the point is, are they going to believe michael cohen? i think so far, his credibility is pretty good in the sense that what does he have to lose at this point? i mean, he's been convicted and other things honestly, the only thing that is not finished, right? >> right. right. that's going to continue on thursday. i mean, it's felony is michael cohen be lives on the stand. he risks going back to prison. that doesn't seem like a motivator. >> he's lived every other branch if i use like every branch of government, like he's been found to executive congressional subpoenas have with like a stretch for you get a prize at your third branch

really trying to pull posing. i can intern at the at the prep oh, and just correct me if i'm wrong, that looks boring. white house. they don't typically allow people photograph behind the lectern typically, right? it's usually doesn't necessarily germany if you come in as a an appointment to the west wing and he had a meeting in the oval office. so you do and certainly after hours, you can yeah. >> i mean, i've i've a lot of friends who have small kids and they'll it's not, it's not really considered terribly anyway. >> look, look, i think the jury obviously is one thing also i guess i struggle also to kind of take it, take to step back and see how much voters are actually following the ins and outs of this and whether it's gonna be persuasive to them as of right now it doesn't seem to be according to a lot of the polls, but specifically asking the question, where do you fall in this trial will get affect it? doesn't seem to be in certainly with the aggregate in terms of poles in the states, doesn't seem to be, seems to be very tribal. but certainly cohen is giving the defense a lot to cross-examine here. i'm sure we'll see more mat we're

going to dig into the republicans who stood by trump it a little bit later in the show but they're there was one question i had for you off the top which is that these people are making this calculation, that what they're, what they wanna do right now is is what they need for their own political futures right now, it doesn't seem to have a ton of regard at, for the future. i mean, are probably my colleague stephen collins wrote these republicans desperation to move into the former president's inner circle is ironic since cohen has offered a cautionary tale in describing himself how he turned himself into a bullying lying clone of trump to grab a piece the power and his efforts ended with him in prison, right what did we see from that yesterday? >> i think it's a fair point. i think stepping back right. take all the all the pagans tree out of it. we've seen consistently as republicans rushing to tv to either talk to trump campaign for the nomination independent

the nomination. yeah. and so look, you're going to go where the cameras are right now. they are stationed outside the courthouse in manhattan. and so in terms of communication, you realize what they're doing. i mean, it's like he is on trial and what if he gets convicted and i but again, but they're also making the calculation the right now he's leading in the polls for presidency the electrodes today it's likely he would win. so there's another calculation there and they're going to where the cameras are i think. >> yeah. >> sorry, interrupt. i think eagle incident of people who aren't feeling like like lindsey graham said, i'm not going to go to new york several senator said i'm not doing up there. so that's kind of an interesting split because he's been very close to the former. >> i mean, normal the normal rules of politics would say that you should not go to a courthouse and defend someone without knowing if they're going to be guilty or not. of course, we feel those out in my gouache for so long mid here we are. let's just not lose sight of that coming up. we will talk to one of the people to win. did this congressman cory mills well but we'll ask him what the calculation is. and why he

did go to that courthouse to support trump. >> plus will also get to this secretary of state. >> blinken is in ukraine with a message of hope at a desperate time for them and a security guard training in an amazon warehouse tries to shoot his supervisor at point blank range. oh, my god, this is one of five things you have to see this morning. >> cnn this morning is brought to you by vip guard. and vip guard high truly generalized myasthenia gravis made my life a lot harder but the picture started changing when i started on viv cart if guard is for adults with generalized myasthenia gravis who are anti-ab chr antibody positive in a clinical trial, vif guard significantly improved most participant's ability to do daily activities when added to their current gmt treatment most participants taking the guard also had less muscle

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and spinning. take back control it's lipo flavanoid adrenaline, just like every turn migrant play on words, please jot of adrenaline right to the heart secretary state antony blinken is in key for a second day trying to reform us support for ukraine after the us recently greenlit more than $60 billion in military support

but that aides pretty late and it comes just as russia launched another round of ground and air attacks on northern kharkiv this morning. officials say about 8,000 people have been evacuated from the area. >> the ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy, thanking the us, but pleading for even more help it's er defense the biggest deficit for us really we need today two petro's for kharkiv, for kharkiv region because they are people are under attack all right, cnn's nick paton walsh joins us now, live from that region of ukraine. >> nick, good morning to you. we're just learning that's a lenski is also postponing his participation in all international events in the coming days because of the situation on the ground there in kharkiv, what can you tell us? >> yeah. i mean, that is just the reflection frankly, of how grave is getting north of kharkiv, part of his job as you were saying, to go round allies and make the urgent case for more better aid quickly now,

what we're seeing, author of kharkiv, let me make sure people understand the context of this is not another active front line where the russians are seeing success. they've been seeing success and moving forwards in the east quite dramatically over the past weeks, what they did on friday is launch a significant new invasion, frankly from their territory into parts of ukraine that they'd been kicked out two years ago. and it's frankly okay. the pressing to be back here. this is the front line, two years ago that we worked around to see. now this potentially under threat again, now the russians have come at this with force resources. they've not found ukrainians ready. we've not driven past significant going forward for cations on the way to hear two places with there being urgently bont. we did see and key to all of this as a town called vovchansk. now that is on the border we were there when they were kicked out two years ago, but now the russians are back. it seems a local police chief talking about hearing gunfire are in and around the city. so it seems that most generous took care of the russians are certainly on the outskirts and ukraine's

military talking about how they'd moved to fake more favorable positions over the last 24 hours. that's sort of their euphemism for a form of retreats. so clearly on russia, on the forefoot there, they have other key settlement once in their sights, two, one of which lyptsi might potentially enable them to shell kharkiv ukraine's second biggest city. or member place of millions that have felt for a while com, the ability to get back to normal life and is now facing the possibility of continued shelling. they've had airstrikes over the past days or so. and so all of this a reflection of how russia appears to have gone its resources together, to have turned its economy into a war time one, and regained its focus and its manpower. while ukraine has been left with its morale created because the six months it's had to wait for that $61 billion back in december people were talking about how they didn't get it. they were finished. that the weight fireball six months. that's starved them of ammunition on the front lines to stop russian advances. that's left them questions getting where they have to essentially devote what little

they have left and an a key moment like this, where russia has launched an entirely new offensive in a different direction, then i have to make choices about where they send the troops to hold that back and we're also seeing russia making advances in the east two. so this is frankly a catastrophic moment for kyiv, a change in the war and something reflected in zelenskyy deciding not to make those urgent visits to allies in the days ahead, we're into a very grave moment here and the aid simply cannot come fast enough if indeed it's not too late for some parts of ukraine, casey yeah, sometimes it can be hard to wrap your head around the real ramifications of the delays here in washington as you're covering bring them day-to-day. >> i really appreciate that very clear. reporting about where we are right now and the real ramifications of that that has had that now puts us in this position. nick paton walsh for us in the kharkiv region. nick, thank you very much. >> ahead here. angela also brooks defeats a record-breaking self-fund or in the maryland democratic senate primary, plus some mixed

reaction. shall we say to king charles, latest official portrait. this is definitely one of the five things you we'll have to see today. everyone's gotten opinion how we'd really happy with jesse l. martin, sunday's at nih cnn bleeding gums are serious. jamie, dr. garcia here is sine of infection that's gone to talk supplies, antibacterial fluoride works below the gum line to help heal gums and stop bleeding press saves the day, press today. and america's beverage companies are models might still look the same but they can be remade in a whole new way. thanks to you. >> we're getting bottles back and we've developed a way to make new ones from 100% recycled plastic, new bottles made using no new plastic. you'll be seeing more of these bottles in more places. >> and when we get more of them back we can use less new plastic. >> bottles are day to be remade

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in lima, peru smashed multiple police cars. the 33 year-old driver was allegedly trying to steal that truck ics. you also have to see this anthony blinken rog it out during his trip to ukraine for the free world, the us secretary of state picked up a guitar and you will recognize this as neil young's rocket in the free world. >> he was in beef and king charles unveiling his first official portraits since his coronation at buckingham palace public reaction to this six would painting which features a red background with charles and uniform and not to welsh guards, apparently husband. >> the scripture says, it's been mixed. >> that is a major understatement will just show it to you. you decide they're allowed to feelings. >> all right. time now for whether severe storm threats ramping up in three regions of the us, central florida, the carolinas, and the southern plains. this morning, i, meteorologist allison chinchar,

tracking these systems for us, alice and good morning. what are you seeing? >> good morning. yes, it's going to be quite an active day today. is those three separate areas all having the same threats you're talking damaging winds, the potential for some hail and also tornadoes. now, here's where the active weather is, as we speak, the bulk of it is really over the southeast and especially in florida, this severe line of thunderstorms right here has a tornado, one much in effect until 11:00 a.m. eastern time today, that includes daytona beach, orlando, as well as tampa as that line moves through another thread is going to be flooding over the next several days because all the areas along the gulf coast is going to get a tremendous amount of rain. that thing, they don't need. you're looking at an additional three to five inches of rain expected over for the next several days, given the ground is already saturated, that's what's got these both of these days. thursday and friday, looking at a moderate risk that's a level three out of four for excessive rainfall, mainly along many of the same areas. and the key thing here is because of how much rain they've had the last few weeks, you look at this and just the last 72 hours scores

alone, a lot of these areas you see that orange and red color you're talking at least four inches to four to six inches for a lot of these places hasty. now we're talking about adding three to five inches more on top of it. so it's no wonder we have the potential for flooding over the next few days all right. allison chinchar for us and our weather center. allison. thank you are coming up next here inside president biden's decision to move forward with a $1,000,000,000 arms deal with is real plus former gop congressman charlie dent is here to tell us about a new group. >> he's forming of republicans determined to move the party away donald trump it's the cabinets to go buy more safe, more sales, save up to 40% on gracious home custom cabinet tree and up to 40% on custom stock in premiere cabinet tree collections, this cell ends may 21 to hurry in today to get your dream kitchen and get more wow, for less innovation in health care means nothing.

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you it's me. >> hi, either problem will vogue said happened. >> i got indicted or as i spell it, indicated frankly, it's time that i come clean, admit that i broke the law and go quiet it lead to prison. april fools so who's republican party is it anyway? >> i think we know. but this morning, three former gop senators are trying to argue that it is not just donald trump's. they write millions of republicans are struggling with the question of how to vote in november, not content with the choices for by either party, they find themselves at a loss as to how to proceed some are considering staying home, writing in a name of their own choosing, are voting for a man. they don't really want to see in the white house those lawmakers are now launching a new group that they're calling our republican legacy. they're trying to say that it's a home for voters who think that the modern republican party has abandoned the values that were once held

dear by the party. they say it's the constitution union fiscal responsibility, free enterprise, peace through strength principles that i mean, do you hear donald trump talking about them? we tried to figure that out. watch this american prestige and power had been restored. we've dampened aggression and promoting peace and we've come to an even greater realization of how much our renewed military strength has meant to all of us since genius. >> putin declares a big portion of the ukraine, of ukraine. >> putin declares it as independent. oh, that's wonderful. yes, it's as maintaining free markets within countries is maintaining the free movement of goods and services between countries. so i put terrorists big tariffs, 50%, 100%, but 50% for the most part, he's an error. >> he is not no, no, no, ma'am. >> no, ma'am. he's a he's a decent family man citizen that

i just happened to have disagreements with. >> rookie gel is staging is this pathetic fear campaign event in pennsylvania today, did you say him he was stuttering through the whole thing. he's guard. i buy because he's threat to democracy. >> there's no question with the january 6 was a riot and insurrection attempt and effort to overturn the process designed to the constitution to allow the voice of the people to be carried out because you're not going to be a dictator. yeah, i said no, no, no. other than day one well, that contrast is pretty stark joining me now, in the first tv interview about this group, former congressman charlie dent, who is the senior advisor to our republican legacy, congressman, very grateful to have you. thank you for being here so i have to say you are not the first group of people to come out and try to do something like this. we have seen efforts all the way along since donald trump was elected, since before donald trump was elected, honestly, why is this any different? because the reality is there haven't been

there isn't a track record of success well, we've created this republican legacy for a few reasons when we think there needs to be a strong alternative argument or alternative narrative to the maga movement. >> that's what this is about. case you just laid out those five principles that we believe very strongly in that a sustained this party from abraham lincoln, the theory good or roosevelt, dwight eisenhower to reagan, the bushes and forward until maga and so we think it's imperative that we give republican voters, many of whom are very dispirited dissatisfied. in fact, you're seeing that nikki haley's getting about 20% of the vote and she's not even running a lot of these republicans want to stay in the party and we want to give them a reason to stay, and we want to push back on the maga movement. >> so what do you think that they should do in november? should they vote for biden? >> well, we're not we're not here to direct anybody how to vote. we're not we're not a political, for trump were now what we are telling me, they're

going to be people in our movement like i've never voted for trump. i'm not going to vote for him again. that said, we are not telling people how to vote. we want republicans to rally around these five principles challenge republican leaders everywhere in this country to embrace those, those, those principles if they can embrace those principles in a way, we can't be for supporting our allies, pushing back against the aggressors were against high tariffs and price controls i tell you what are the things that were against it. we think that maga is four. we're for the constitution we believe in the rule of law, the constitutional order. we believe that election outcomes should be respected. the union abraham lincoln founded us. were against this crazy talk of secession and others who want to divide this country. so that's what we're about and we were just trying to pushed back and create an argument and others are trying to. but we've got some heft behind us. we have senators, dan for simpson and cohen who led off with that op-ed. we're just getting started and this has got to be a movement bianna 2024. and we're serious about it how much money do you have?

well, i'm not here to say how much money we had. i can tell you we have enough money to get us through this year and we're going to raise even more we're raising money from individuals and we're very excited about thousands, millions and say, well, we're going to, we're going to be able to advance a program with digital marketing with all kinds of things. so don't worry about that. we're getting started. we're going to be well capitalized and we're going to make, we're going to make this thing stand on its own for some time. so this time, i'm sick with me, congressman, i want to bring our panel into this conversation, but in doing so, i would like to just show you what the house speaker, mike johnson, who is the highest ranking member of the republican party on stage in washington right now. and of course, a constitutional officer of the united states and donald trump, just juxtaposed to kind of illustrate where we stand, where you're republican party stands right now, watch this there's no brian there is no crime here this is for weeks if keeping me from not campaigning, they are doing

this intentionally to keep him here and keep him off of the campaign trail, been brought six years ago, seven years ago, eight years ago. >> now, eight years later. suddenly they've resurrected this thing we have a corrupt you know what democrat politicians. >> what we've got here is a partisan democrat district attorney we have a biden donor, judge all right. let me bring matt gorman in to this conversation. >> matt that i think clearly states where the republican party is today i mean, yeah, i wouldn't say a couple of things. >> we just had a competitive primary. i don't understand what, you know where was this before? when we actually we're having this robust debate about this. i worked for tim sky was a part of it. also like, look, i respect senator senators danforth simpson cohen. obviously, congressman debt look, the fact is the youngest senator who signed that epic

was at three years old and they left office i was in second grade. >> it's just not in touch with actual republican party is at it's been getting more populist. and look, we played a clip of george w bush, senator danforth been a purchase and critic of george w bush. he started in 2005, was a critic throughout his second term and the fact is also look, i with many of the points you made. i do but the tough part is i think where you saw bush fail and certainly we danforth criticized, was that peace through strength and fiscal discipline can be at odds. oftentimes, i think that the reason there was such high deficits during the bush years was because we promoted that agenda. obviously rightly or wrong with a rack and others so look, i think in long, long, short is the party was getting populist for a long time. i think what a lot of things trump didn't necessarily transform the party. all he did was speed up a lot of changes that were happening already congressman well, i would simply respond by saying what part of those five principles should we not embrace as republicans to issues, not what

principles, issues that republican party, if this is where you stand, it seems like the party is moved away from these things. >> well, it's clear though, look, the republican party is divided. it is not evenly divided, but it is divided. there are at least 20% of voters that seems who wants someone other than this maga movement, they don't want a criminal defendant as their nominee. they want something better. many people are trying to figure out how to vote in november they don't want to vote for these policies of high tariffs and protectionism. and at times this, this kind of mindless populism. we have trump when he would surrender, he would surrender ukraine to russia. if he could. we all know that he did walk away from our allies and nato and elsewhere so i think we want a more constructive international engagement. we're not getting that. i mean, we can talk about populism. all we want, but at some point, we're going to have to be for something. and we can't be a party of going on protecting a guy who's he's a criminal defendant for paying

off a porn star and all these other issues he's got we got to get to a much better place. and i think a lot of republicans know this. even many of those who are supporting donald trump, we welcome everybody we want to get them thinking about the future because the party has been around for over 170 years, amalgam boom has been around seven or eight years so let's have this debate. >> jeff zeleny, what's your view of this as someone who has covered i mean, you have covered the evolution of the republican party are candidates on in both sides. what do you hear in this i mean, the congressman's right, there is a share of republican voters out there who are looking for something else. >> the challenge for this moving is it's a small share. >> but looking last night at a couple of the results nebraska, my home state interesting results in starkey county and douglas county. >> the reason this matters is nebraska to that is where the one congressional primary where the one electoral vote could go to joe biden as it did four years ago, nikki haley got about a quarter of the vote there so that is the challenge

here for the maga movement, if you will, the trump align candidate lost that congressional primary to don bacon significantly by 25 points. so i think going forward, there's no doubt or republican party is going through identity crisis, i guess to be charitable but not sure that a group like this is going to change things in the short-term the question is, if what is the party look like in the future after the november, we'll have to see the results of the november election before we know the answer. for that what congressman i do very much appreciate you coming in here and sharing sharing this with us. >> i know this has been an ongoing struggle. i will just i do want to put up this picture of those folks that went up to the courthouse and you said that they shouldn't be doing this. i absolutely hear you i just want you to look at wat wh they're wearing in this photo. if we could please put that up. >> i mean, do they remind you of anyone? because i'm strongly reminded of one man and yet they all four are

dressed identically what do you. >> see what look one of the things we're talking about, this movement is not only these principles, but we also welcome a diversity of opinion on issues and everybody dressing up like donald trump. i mean, i think it's really a bit unseemly i mean, we really have to be a party that is much bigger than this. and then just simply following a flawed leader and trying to drive to be like him being trump's minimise, it's absurd. so we need to get to a better place when we're talking about having a much more serious conversations about the issues dressing this facing this country. and frankly this world that are not being addressed instead, they're spending their time in front of a courtroom defending donald trump over his payment to an adult film star. i mean, company a break. the behavior is terrible. i don't know if he broke the law or not. but is this really where the party needs to be all right. >> congressman dan, very grateful for your time this

morning. we should know here also the former chairman of the ethics committee, which is honestly one of the tough jobs. if you want she internal affairs and the police department exactly rational thank you very much. and jeff zeleny, thanks to you as well for your time today, are coming up next year. the witness that the judge will not allowed to testify in the corruption trial of senator bob menendez plus one of those republicans that we just saw defending donald trump, republican congressman cory mills is going to join us and talk about the de, he spent in the courtroom supporting donald trump during his criminal trial this is my coffee shop. >> we just moved into a bigger space, brought on another employee, an order new branded gear for the team. it was so easy. i just chose my products, added our logo, and play it's my order. bring your own team

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and a lineup of possible vice presidential running mates the system is using all the tools at its disposal right now to punish one president, to provide cover for another this is a sham this is not the united states of america. >> this is some third rate banana republic, the only conclusion of course is that election interference. and it's tying up the president of from being out on the campaign trail hi, all this is a sham and that is the only thing this is michael cohen has no credibility. >> no integrity, and this is weaponization against our president. this is a joke. it is a farce, it is a travesty. we are better than this all, right. >> identically dressed, gentlemen at the microphones. we were just talking about one of them, republican congressman cory mills of florida was there. we just saw him. he traveled to manhattan to support trump in court. he joins us now, tireless this morning. i see the red tie thought the red tie was so controversial. oh, coincidence. not a coincidence it was absolutely. >> i'll tell you what was funny. we literally look each other and it was almost like when you show up to a party

with the same outfit on yogev, go. >> i've been there. i have. normally it's women and that situation you know, here we are. so look, congressman the reality is this is a man who is on trial for covering up the alleged crime is any covered up an affair with a porn star before an election why go and stand up for that? >> we'll actually what the crime that they're trying to charges is that he was wrongfully falsifying business records. and in fact, if you look at the general ledger where you actually do have the ability to put legal fees as part of that segment. that was exactly what it is, if anything, i actually sought as an admission by michael cohen that he knowingly was falsifying invoices to the trump organization and so when you look at, for example, when i ran my businesses, you would have ten, 15 different specialty lawyers said we'd keep on retainer why? one in the event that something happens, you want someone to call. but secondly, it's almost a deterrence. people don't want to launch a frivolous lawsuit if they know for a fact that you have enough people painter,

part of this, i get that this is a records case, but we have learned a lot about donald trump's relationship, for example, with the tabloid publisher david pecker we have heard a lot of sorted and salacious details from stormy daniel's. i just i guess i go back to why is it the right call politically for you to put yourself next to all of that. >> well, first off, i wanted to go back to one thing which is that you're talking about stormy daniels who signed that. they don't have surely any sexual interactions, then she signed she doesn't have it. i mean, clearly breaking her integrity on her actual overall credibility, then you got michael cohen, who has been perjury people in congress had lied about tax evasion to the irs, is now saying that he falsified actual invoices, which is fraud as well. he even said though by his own words at the southern district of new york is a corrupt and weaponized court system and here he is testifying and say, oh, i cried wolf all these times, but believe me now. believe me now. i'll tell you

what else it is when you go there and you see this for yourself, it's very different than when you watch on tv where they pan away from things we're actually able to see the jurors and how they respond to things, but also the fact is, is that one i didn't the judge recuse himself when his daughters raising hundreds of millions of dollars to help the biden harris reelection, to help adam schiff. and you've got michael cohen, who's making money off this with me, a culpa podcast. this is financially beneficial to drag this out, but yeah, i haven't seen prosecutorial proof it's actually drive this. >> look, you've got a lot of details in there and i think i just coming keep coming back to the big picture of this, which is standing next to him considering all of these things that have happened. i mean, do you think they'll ever come a time when you might regret having done that. i don't and i've stood by the president since 2015 back when he first came down back when i was hosting the first five international policy advisors that he had ever had back when i was on his actual administration as a sect deaf adviser, look when we look at what the president did while he was in office, whether it's his foreign policy or domestic policy, economic growth strategies, whether he was how he handled certain conflicts are individuals. >> i think that he was one of

the absolute best and i think when people reach in our pockets and they say, can i fill up my gas here? thought my grocery carts, you can't deny that things were better off under president trump. i mean, it's going back to the reagan days of where are you better off four years ago? >> well, certainly our polling shows that that's how people feel about, about the biden economy. can i ask you about how speaker mike johnson because you, you and he there is a distinction. he has a constitutional officer of the united states. he's fundraising the appeal the appearance that he made yesterday. do you see any difference between someone like you, a politician who as you say, i've used, supported downstream from the beginning, you make no apologies or bones about that whatsoever and what mike johnson did well, i would constitutionalist at the end of the de i mean, i'm a seven article 27 amendment constitutionalist and that's exactly what i've stood for throughout my nth period. and your entire time, i wouldn't quantify myself as being somehow a politician given the fact that this is the only ever run four. and i think it's most raga tory term in the world for me but being a statesman, being representative of being constitutional conservative matters. and that's what i continue to fight for, but also

being physically responsible because here i am a guy who was a geopolitical analysts who had served in the military for many years, who deploy multiple times. i know what we're looking at and i tried to balance that so i did think that mike johnson and i are very similar with regards to constitutionality. i think how he handled different. okay. i see what you're saying. >> yeah. what i meant was that his role is different and more elevated in the context of him appearing at a at a courthouse which is part of our system, i mean, would you criticize a democratic speaker if they showed up at i don't know, a hunter biden's. we make no more more than i criticized when chuck schumer said that the justices going to reap the whirlwind on the supreme court justice steps. i mean, look, we've seen where this is not something that's unusual as you have mike johnson, who is a litigator and let us go back for a moment. remember he defended president trump during the actual impeachment articles when they were brought to the floor. so i think that he was well within his right to stand there with president trump and also continue to look this from a litigant tory as well as for, from his position on how we stopped the weaponization of our governments will you have

any concerns about donald trumping your nominee if he's convicted in this a lot me, he is our nominee one way or another and i see that, but i don't see where he could be convicted on a victimless crime that they haven't in my opinion, that's true. >> my convict him. >> well, he has a lot of reasons for appeal. i mean, look, the judge recused himself for their again, width, but also you've got to look at the fact that there was no circumstantial so evidence that would actually validate what the claim is that he somehow wrongfully putting things into his ledger. he didn't do so. >> all right congressman cory mills. >> thank you very much for being here. i appreciate your time. i hope you come back. i will. all right. >> 54 minutes past the hour. here's your morning round up, the judge and the bribery case against senator bob menendez is excusing to allow a psychiatrist to testify for the defense. the senator is attorneys claim he can discuss a condition that caused menendez to store hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in his new jersey the home i didn't realize this was a medical condition. opening arguments expected to start today the ship that collapsed the baltimore's key bridge had to electrical blackouts the day before the collision and experienced two more blackouts the disabled critical equipment

that was according to a preliminary report by federal safety investigators and this cnn projecting attorney angela also brooks will win maryland democrat cradock, senate primary, defeating representative david trone. she will face former gop governor larry hogan in november all right. >> our panel is back. i guys i feel like we have to talk for a second. can about that. >> and kind of the way the presence defenders collectively are approaching this meghan as the democrat at the table. >> there was there were a lot of very fast at details, but i feel the big picture pretty clear. >> i mean, i think it's really bizarre that they're going up there. it looks like they're competing for the rows, like they're auditioning for roads to be the vp. it's very bizarre to me. i don't understand why they're all have the same talking points which i fully understand, but they're missing facts and they're missing the contrast here. there's not it's hard to find words is going to understand like where he was coming from. a lot of that like the judge's daughter raising money, like how is this all like how any of that have

anything to do with the actual facts of the case. and they just keep going through the salacious details and that's frustrating because it's just muddy the waters, which is what trump's team is really good at doing. >> all this question of the facts of the case. there's a basic question. do you believe or not that the president paid off a porn star? the answer is yes. now, the statute that he's being charged with has all sorts of different requirements or prosecutors to prove whether it was done to falsify a falsified too cover up a felony, but to the central question, do you believe he paid off a porn star? the answer is yes. all that other nonsense ought not matter, at least for the political process. now again, the legal process and what happens in that jury room is totally different. but what you saw on the stage, if you want to call it better on the steps of the courthouse was every possible comment and about well, the judge and the particulars the prosecutors and they haven't circumstantial evidence and get to the point of whether there was do you think he paid off a porn star and on and the answer is yes. and that ought to really alarm people who are

deciding who they want to be the next president. >> matt. >> let me again, making pull it to political argument, right? i think at its core, the legal argument. i mean, i'll leave tail last than me on this. it's a business records. you can very easily get caught up in the details. but in a way the main point which you are undertaking pair of a porn star or not yeah. yeah well i mean, i'm agree i agree with you. >> that's the question that's the question they got. >> right and so when it comes to they're making the argument to the voters. they're not making an argument to the jury. right. and so as with anything, you're going to read, cameras are smart comms, move, take everything out of the equation you've got to go where the presses we want to get your message out regardless, i think anyone agree with that. >> when he was writing to the courthouse with these guys yesterday? good morning, are alayna treene reported he was telling them in the suv that he was getting way more media coverage outside the courtroom that he would then he would jen here on the campaign trail 100%. he gets on the media, takes him live twice a day, which get started. the president gave remarks announcing policy, but no one took live because they're

taking a trial and reading a transcript on the side with a panel of five or six people. and every network is taking it. of course, he is getting more coverage like it's, it's crazy to me that we are actually not paying attention to what matters here, but like trump people, i mean, it's just, it's wild to me that we're doing that. what i'll say is this too, as someone who reminds me a lot of 2016 in that look, he is blocked out the sun on media coverage like that is something it's very hard to compete with. >> and if he doesn't like the headline, he makes a new one. don't forget all of a sudden, he loses iowa caucuses and the next day, ted cruz is a canadian citizen, right? like it is very hard to compete with. i don't envy you guys. i've done it twice a couple of times now. it's very hard because he is someone who just always as ubiquitous with media coverage and convolve this sunday, just last and this is not political point, but to the are you better off today than you were four years ago, reagan point that was made 2020. and i if i recall correctly, it was a pretty crappy none of us were better than i did states. so the notion of like, i mean, i recognize it's not was exact. i think that's out to the

exact date. >> when you look at the polls that they feel better about the trump economy, they do the biden economy all right, look, i personally need a little bit of a palate cleanser, so i will leave you with this. a posh poodle named age one best in show at the westminster dog show this year handler causes hello saka in the 45th and final show of his career, couldn't back hold back tears of joy as her name was announced, the three-year-old black miniature is the 11th poodle to win honors. >> and this shows 148 year history. she's a texan from houston and was the clear crowd favorite at the ability national tennis center in new york. she beat six other group winners to wow the judges. runner-up honors went to mercedes, the german shepherd. it's a study in contrasts look at those beautiful guys. i'm sorry guys. i just, i like, i'll take a dog story quite literally any day of the week. thanks to our panel, thanks to all of you for joining us. i'm casey, who don't go anywhere. cnn news central starts right now.