tv Wolf CNN April 10, 2018 10:00am-11:00am PDT
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we begin with breaking news. cnn has learned that the search warrant used by the fbi includes a search for documents of two women who claim they had affairs with donald trump. let's quickly go to our political analyst gloria borger who is doing serious reporting on this. this all involves the raid of the home, the office and the hotel room of the president's long-time personal attorney michael cohen in new york. >> we knew a large part of the warrant was related to stormy daniels, and president trump's relationship with cohen, the payment, et cetera. they also wanted information on the records of karen mcdougal and he also referenced american media, which is the company that paid karen mcdougal but never ran her story. it doesn't mention in particular
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the owner of that company, but it does mention the company itself. and as we've reported earlier, and shimon knows a lot about this, the warrant also included some of michael cohen's business issues. >> taxi medallions, he's the owner of taxi medallions. it's lucrative taxi medallions in new york city. we're told that during the search of his office, his home, perhaps even his hotel room, they were looking for documents related to that business. it's not clear to us why they're seeking that. he is known for running this kind of a business, but the fact they're now looking for information regarding that just shows you, and we've been told this, how broad this investigation is. >> the fact they're going into these taxi medallions which are really permits to own taxi cabs in new york city suggests that they're really looking through
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his entire personal business venture. >> so what perhaps may have started as an investigation into russia meddling, into collusion by the special counsel has clearly now broadened out. we know the people who have come before the special counsel, people like sam nunberg, others, they have been asked questions about michael cohen's business dealings, about stormy daniels. sam nunberg has said that himself. clearly what started out as one thing has now expanded with the special counsel, with bob mueller referring these cases to the u.s. attorney in new york. >> the president, i was told this morning by a source close to the president, what he's most upset about this, obviously michael cohen is a good friend and has been his personal attorney since 1996, but he sees this as a clear violation of attorney-client privilege. on air force i, the president
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went out of his way to say michael cohen is my personal friend and attorney. he had him at mar-a-lago, and you heard him say in no uncertain terms that he was furious about this because of attorney-client privilege. and the question we all have is, of course, where does this leave things? does he blame rod rosenstein, does he blame jeff sessions, does he blame bob mueller? what does he do with that? we know he's furious. >> and we know bob mueller is the one who ultimately approved this, so the pressure kind of falls there. he could definitely be in the president's crosshairs now and the president may want to do something about that. but it's everything bob mueller has done, that the special counsel has done, has to get approved by rod rosenstein. >> i want to bring in kim ask jew -- and julie in a moment, but
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they were looking for information involving not only the $130,000 hush money agreement that michael cohen worked out with stormy daniels' attorney, but also the $150,000 hush money agreement, if it was a hush money agreement, that karen mcdougal, a former pl playmate, worked out with american media, the company he worked that out with. the agreement with stormy daniels was 11 days before the presidential election, so they're presumably looking to see if these were violations of campaign finance law. >> and i've been told that in the warrant, election law was mentioned. >> and wolf, the people who are running this investigation are public corruption investigators. the fbi in new york and at the u.s. attorney in new york. these are public corruption investigators, so presumably, yeah. >> clearly, julie, the president is deeply, deeply irritated about what's going on. i want to put up on the screen
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five men who are leading this investigation right now. let's put it up on the screen if we have it. there you can see jeff sessions. he's recused himself. he's the attorney general. you see christopher wray is the director of the fbi. rod rosenstein is the deputy attorney general. he's overseeing the investigation because sessions recused himself. jeff berman is the attorney of jeff sessions in new york. he's overlooking michael cohen. he's the one who authorized the raid on his home. and robert mueller, the special counsel. what do all of these have in common? i'm answering my own question. they are all republicans and they were all named to their current positions during the trump presidency, during the trump administration. so when the president says this investigation is a bunch of democrats who are biased and anti-trump, these are all republicans, they were all named by his people. >> absolutely. we should point out that mr.
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berman, i believe, my colleagues are reporting that he has also recused himself from this particular matter. but it's true these are all republicans, it's true they were all appointed during the trump administration. it seems, talking to people around the president, that that almost makes it worse in his mind. he feels like he should be protected by these people. this has been his beef with jeff sessions all along, that why isn't he protecting me from this? he's my attorney general, i'm the one who put him there. he made it very clear that's how he sees these folks. he can argue, and there are some people on bob mueller's team of investigators, who maybe have a history of giving to democrats, but what these raids did yesterday and what this whole sort of tangent of this investigation now does is make it much more difficult for the president to argue this is all a witch hunt against him by russia. this is clearly a much broader case. they're delving into much broader matters, and they had to satisfy authorities in order to get the warrant to do these raids in manhattan, that there
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was probable cause to believe that crimes had been committed here. it's very difficult to dismiss this all as a partisan witch hunt when you have this many tentacles out and you have, at the highest levels of the justice department, people saying, we sign off the probable cause of looking into this stuff. >> you were associate and former counsel during the whitewater investigation. you were a graduate of the college of law in baltimore. the president says this is a witch hunt and attorney-client privilege is dead. does he have any point at all? >> it is so disappointing to hear that. career fbi agents, career lawmakers, they had to overcome this as well as rod rose stein. but there are a lot of procedures in place to ensure this is not a witch hunt, and a witch hunt being just a did hei.
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when we talk about some of the things within the scope of the search, we've heard taxi medallions that mr. cohen owned, that could have potentially been within the scope of the jurisdiction of the southern district of new york. for all we know, they already had investigations ongoing with mr. cohen, and maybe a piece of it was sent from mueller, and those investigations would still fall under the authority of mr. sessions. so mr. sessions could be part of this whole scheme. with respect to this privilege, in answer to your question, that is completely erroneous. the attorney-client privilege is not this blanket that covers every time you talk to a friend who is your attorney. it has to be confidential, no third parties involved, and there are exceptions. you can't use it to bury the body, so to speak, and then say,
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oh, i can't talk. it can't be crime fraud related. >> there is a question in legal circles, and you're the lawyer, i just play one, that why mueller chose to do it this way. and, you know, there are some who say this is a total s subterfuge and it's actually part of the investigation into the president. he's going to use michael cohen. there are other people who argue that it is separate and that, in fact, he said this is not within my jurisdiction and that i am doing this -- i came across this and i'm handing it over to you guys, new york, because you can investigate it better than i can. >> there's also indications from michael cohen's attorney that this was handed to the southern district based in part by -- because of bob mueller. he gave it to them. but they seemed like they had other information they had already been working on something regarding michael cohen. so perhaps maybe the special counsel just decided it's just
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better to send everything there. >> i quickly want to go to jim acosta, our chief white house correspondent at the white house. you're getting more information on how angry the president is, jim. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. he was furious last night. apparently he's still stewing over this, still fuming over this, we're told. the president is obviously deeply upset about this raid in offices and other areas related to his personal attorney michael cohen. this is obviously going to be the subject that dominates the briefing with sarah sanders. the president was asked about some of this as he was meeting with the emir of qatar a few moments ago. he'll be saying goodbye to the emir in a few minutes. there is a chance we could shout out some questions, although he's not commenting on it. last night he made a sort of stream of consciousness inside the mind of the president as to how he's feeling about all of this, but for all appearances, wolf, he's very upset about
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this. we're all getting a sense of the chaos that keeps on churning over here at the white house. the president earlier this morning scrapping the trip to the southern americas that was supposed to take place later this weekend. the white house said the president is not going because he wants to plan to be available and able to respond to what happens in syria, the white house all but telegraphing the president is going to take some action in syria later on this week. and there is the top security aide here in the white house, tom bossert, which is completely unrelated to what's happening in the mueller investigation. it just goes to show you, even with this michael cohen raid and the president's furious response to it, there is so much other chaos churning over here at the white house that this is just adding to it, and obviously the president spending a lot of time behind closed doors watching tv coverage of all of this. put all of that together and you have some aides to the president
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behind the scenes who are sort of unsettled and uncertain about where things are going right now, wolf. >> tom bossert, homeland security office, all of a sudden he's out. others are out. stand by for a moment. i want to bring in senior political analyst "new york times" reporter michael scherer. he's also dealing with his colleagues at the "new york times" some very serious reporting on all of this. walk me through, michael, the investigation warrants, the search warrants, and looking into stormy daniels, the payment of $130,000 to her to keep her quiet before the election. but also karen mcdougal, a $150,000 payment to her two months earlier by a close friend of donald trump, the owner of american media, the parent company of the national enquirer. >> that's right, wolf. the revelation that this investigation, whatever else
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might be in it, and it does seem to be a very broad investigation into michael cohen, but that it is focused, at least in part, on women and payments that were made to women who have alleged affairs with the president in an effort to keep them quiet. part of the thing here is that these issues have been political problems for the president for a long time, dating to before he was elected and during the campaign, you'll all remember, of course, the access hollywood videos and questions about -- swirling around the president about his treatment of women and involvement with women. what this shows, though, is that these are moving from a political problem into a very serious potential legal problem for the president. and when sarah sanders comes to the briefing and sort of dismisses our questions about stormy daniels, about karen mcdougal and says, well, these have been asked and answered and the president has denied all of these, it becomes much harder to do that now because these are the stuj of a public corruption
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investigation being led by federal officials in new york. as you all have talked about already in the last few minutes, this is not something that's being done by the president's political adversaries, his enemies, the democrats. this is being approved and led and pursued by the president's own justice department and law enforcement team. it makes it very hard. it's not just a political problem anymore, it's a legal one, and that's going to make it a lot tougher for the white house to dismiss. >> just to be precise, michael, are they looking to see what the relationship was, what communications may have taken place between michael cohen, the president's long-time personal attorney, for example, david pechar, the owner of american media that led to the payment of $150,000 to karen mcdougal. >> the name was not mentioned,
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as far as we know, just the company itself. we do know that one of the things that was seized was communications between michael cohen and his clients, among them donald trump. so you can surmise that part of what the government is looking to examine and what we know from our reporting is that the subject matter they're looking at are these payments that were made in one case by american media and in another case by mr. cohen himself in the hopes of keeping the stories of these affairs out of the press. and so obviously what the investigators are looking to see is what can they learn about why these payments were made, what was the motivation, who knew about the payments before they were made and after they were made, and all of that is going to be part of an investigation that becomes a bigger and bigger headache for the president the further it goes on. >> and gloria, at issue is whether those payments were legal, if they violated campaign finance law because there's
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certain limitations how much individuals can contribute to politicians. these were huge sums. >> i also think there is an issue, you know, he set up these llcs and i think he's done that numerous times. >> michael cohen? >> michael cohen. and don't forget, these payments were red-flagged, the payment to stormy daniels was red-flagged by the bank. and he has apparently set up llcs in a number of cases. i don't know if he did it in the karen mcdougal case. i think that is of interest to the banks. and also don't forget, we have the president on the record denying that he had had an affair. now, i don't know if there's nothing illegal about lying to the media, but you do have that out there. one more thing i want to add to what michael is saying is that i was told by a source, look, michael cohen has represented the president in dozens and dozens of legal cases over the years. not just stormy daniels and not just karen mcdougal, but a whole
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host of things, and that potentially opens up the president as well. >> julie, which raises the question whether there were other hush agreements that michael cohen worked out with other women over the years. >> well, it raises that question. it also raises a whole host of other questions about what other potential deals or matters that donald trump could be worried about being caught up in this investigation. the thing about taxi medallions that's intriguing to me is they're not just about taxis, they're about money. if there was an enterprise michael cohen was at the center of and donald trump helped direct that, these are all issues they'll be looking into just by seizing the documents of michael cohen, and i think that's what's most bothersome to the president, that this will open up a whole host of issues that prosecutors will take a look at. >> and the fbi comes into this. there's state lines, right, with stormy daniels. there's allegations of intimidation, perhaps extortion here. all of that would fall your
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honor the purview of the fbi, so that could be some of what -- and those are extremely serious charges when you start heading in that direction. but definitely all of that, it's fair to say, is part of what they're looking at. >> does michael cohen have the president's tax returns? he's his lawyer. i don't have the answer to that. >> if robert mueller wants those tax returns, i'm sure he could go to the irs and subpoena those tax returns. he probably has those tax returns. just guessing. everybody stick around. we're not going everywhere. we're following the breaking news including of why robert mueller would have given part of this investigation to the southern district of new york. live pictures coming in from the white house. we'll have the first briefing from sarah sanders on these raids into michael cohen's home, his office, his hotel room. that's coming up a little bit later. much more right after this. flonase relieves your worst symptoms
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we're learning new details about an fbi raid on a home, hotel room and offices of the president's long-time personal attorney michael cohen. still, many questions remain unanswered, exactly how this raid happened. we know the special counsel robert mueller handed off jurisdiction for at least part of the investigation to the southern district of new york, the acting u.s. attorney there. the big question now is why. who had to sign off on these raids? joining us now to walk us through it, former u.s. attorney kim whelan. explain how this all unfolded. >> particularly in this instance, the prosecutor had to go to a judge to get a warren. that did happen. but there are a whole different set of procedures that kicked in under justice department guidelines. number one, it had to be kind of a last resort. other ways of getting this information had to be exhausted and the determination was made, we're not going that way. number two, the u.s. attorney
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and the southern district of new york had to clear it with either the acting attorney general, rod rosenstein, or in this instance, jeff sessions. we don't know which. number three, it had to go through the criminal division of the department of justice, then again to the federal court for compliance with the fourth amendment to the united states constitution, and in addition, there has to be a separate team, a privileged team, that is siphoned off from the actual investigation of prosecutors and decide, does a privilege protect these? if so, we're not going to let the executive prosecutors even see it. then they would turn the information over to the southern district prosecutors. >> and explain why mueller would refer this to the southern district of new york, the acting u.s. attorney there, instead of handling it himself with his own team. >> a couple things. under the regulation that defines whitewater to counsel
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this investigation, if new matters come to light, mr. mueller can go to rod rosenstein and say, hey, do you want me to cover this, do you want to do it or do you want me to send it to someone else? and mr. rosenstein would have made the decision to send it to the southern district of new york. alternatively, the southern district could have already had an investigation going on mr. cohen or affiliates of mr. cohen and the decision was made under traditional guidelines that, listen, the southern district has more interest in this, they have more expertise because this is kind of their turf, their bailiwick, and the evidence is there. so we'll delegate this and let mr. mueller focus on his core jurisdiction in the investigation. >> the fact you're dealing with the president of the united states, you're dealing with his long-time personal attorney, the issue of attorney-client privilege comes up. all of these steps would have had to have been approved at the highest levels of the department of justice. >> absolutely, both because we're talking about someone as close to the president as he is, because he is an attorney, a
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personal attorney of the president, and because of, you know, the national political significance of this. and don't forget, we do have a third party here, a federal judge who made the determination that there was potential evidence of crimes in all three of these locations. so this is not a political person, this is someone, a magistrate, but his boss, his or her boss, would have lifetime protection in the constitution. it can't be thrown out for political reasons. that's why we have the fbi because they are neutral. >> and an fbi raid, that's a huge, huge difference. coming up, i'll speak live with a senate democrat to get his reaction to the raid against michael cohen. cnn reporting that democrats are huddling right now to plan for a potential, potential firing of rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general. plus, we're moments away from two major live events at the white house set to respond on the raid of the president's
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lawyer's home, his office, his hotel room. and another matter, ceo of facebook, mark zuckerberg, about to be questioned on capitol hill. lots of news. we'll be right back. n see. a totally new kind of awesome going on here! (avo) new beneful simple goodness. tender, meaty morsels with real ingredients you can see. let's take a look at some numbers: 4 out of 5 people who have a stroke, their first symptom... is a stroke. 80 percent of all strokes and heart disease? preventable. and 149 dollars is all it takes to get screened and help take control of your health. we're life line screening... and if you're over 50... call this number, to schedule an appointment... for five painless screenings that go beyond regular check-ups. we use ultrasound technology to literally look inside your arteries... for plaque which builds up as you age- and increases your risk for stroke and cardiovascular disease.
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then again, dreaming is how i got this far. now more businesses in more places can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. president trump certainly has long seen the overall russia investigation as a personal attack on him, but now he's expressing the opinion that it's much more than just about him. listen. >> i have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now. actually, much more than that. you could say it was right after i won the nomination it started. and it's a disgrace. it's frankly a real disgrace. it's an attack on our country in a true sense. it's an attack on what we all stand for. so when i saw this and when i
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heard it, i heard it like you did. i said, that is really now in a whole new level of unfairness. >> here with us now is richard bend, prosecutor. what was your reaction when you heard about the raids on michael cohen's apartment, his home, his office, his hotel room, and then you just heard the president's blistering response. >> it's a response that seems more appropriate to the king of france who said the state is me. this is not an attack on the united states, this is the legal process. yes, it was an aggressive act, and i suspect that when the dust settles, the justification for the search warrant will become more clear. but this is nothing like how the
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president has described it. this is our legal system working. >> he says it's a witch hunt, it's a disgrace, it's an attack on the united states. why do you think mueller would refer at least part of the investigation to michael cohen, the president's lawyer, to the office of the u.s. attorney in new york? >> you know, all this stormy stuff started with a suspicious transaction report by the bank. after all, this was a shell company that cohen used to make this payment. >> the $130,000. >> very suspicious looking. so he would have had to give some explanation for it, and if that explanation was misleading or false, then he's got a separate criminal potential for an additional crime beyond all the others that have been described. >> and they're also looking into what, if any, connection he may have had to the $150,000 payment from american media, the parent
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company of the national enquirer, to karen mcdougal, the former playmate? >> yes. a ms. mcdougal said, and her lawyers have said, there was collusion between her lawyer and mr. cohen to arrange for that payoff and that she wasn't really getting true representation from her lawyer. that's a serious charge in and of itself. and so if all of this was to disguise a favor to mr. trump by his friend david pecker, then there is another potential for fraud. so the southern district of new york is notoriously -- it's my alma mater so i can take some pride in this and i was head of the official corruption section before i went down to washington to work on the watergate case. >> let me get your quick reaction to the chairman of the senate judiciary committee,
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chuck grassley, reacting today when he was asked about the possibility if the president could fire robert mueller. listen to this. >> i think it would be suicide for the president to fire him. i think the less the president says about this whole thing, the better off he will be. and i think that mueller is a person of stature and respected, and i respect him. just let the thing go forward. >> that is hugely important. >> why? tell us why you believe that's important. >> i testified before senator grassley's committee back in june, and the import of my testimony was that the judiciary committee needed to protect robert mueller against the potential for firing, just what's been discussed and what has been reported to have been the case back in june, when the president supposedly asked his counsel, don mcgahn, to orchestrate the firing of robert
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mueller. so this is the very, very powerful republican chairman of the senate judiciary committee speaking, saying that this would be suicide. that's a huge statement warning the president not to do it. and, indeed, i think that is the only thing on the table that might warrant a resolution of impeachment, that is, the firing of rosenstein and mueller, or at least a hobbling of mueller through various moves that the president might make. >> richard, thank you for coming in. >> thank you. is the president of the united states considering firing deputy attorney general rod rosenstein? i'll speak to a senate democrat whose colleagues are preparing right now for that possible scenario. plus, we're only moments away from two major live events in washington.
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the white house set to respond to the raids on michael cohen's office, his home, his hotel room. and mike zuckerberg set to be questioned about the facebook scandal live on capitol hill. we'll be right back. which gavee wiggle room in our budget. i wish our insurance did that. then we could get a real babysitter instead of your brother. hey, welcome back. this guy, right? (laughs) yes. ellen. that's my robe. you could save $782 when liberty stands with you. liberty mutual insurance.
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moments from now, the white house press secretary will have a briefing. she will be bombarded about the raids into the office, the home and hotel room of the president's personal attorney. we'll have live coverage of that, so stand by. but there is other critical news. we're following what's going on in syria. the president promised a very tough response to that suspected
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chemical attack in syria. right now president trump is weighing what that response will be. he said a decision would come within the next 24 hours or so, and as the president rallies u.s. allies, meeting with his military leadership, syria is taking direct aim at both the united states and israel. the government of bashar al-assad striking the air base this weekend. al-assad also denies a chemical agent attack killing women and children. they are taking action as to whether he has the authority to carry out an attack. listen to what republican senator bob corker told our manu raju. >> i think we need to take some surgical military action in syria, yes. >> what does that mean? >> what i just said.
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>> airstrikes? is that what you're talking about, surgical? >> something for a heavy price to actually be paid, not a rhetorical price, but a real price. >> senator bob menendez of new jersey is joining us right now. he's the ranking democrat on the foreign relations committee joining us from capitol hill. senator, what's your reaction to what your colleague chairman, bob corker, just said requiring surgical action on syria? >> the problem here is that a military action in and of itself is in strategy as it real estate la -- relates to syria. it's a one-off. we saw what happened when the president attacked them after an attack previously. the issue here is the administration has failed to have a comprehensive strategy on syria. if we want to defeat isis, if we want to end the civil war, if we
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want to end the humanitarian disaster, we need to have a full engagement. which means we need to have our diplomacy working, which means the freeze the president has on syria in terms of our aid to help the syrian people has to be rethought, the suggestion we're going to get out right away has to be rethought, and finally, we have to get a coalition of willing aides. and the syrian people will have to stand up to russia and iran. so you need more than a single strategy of a strike that hasn't stopped assad from using chemical weapons again. >> you heard the president say he wants at least 2,000 troops out of syria very soon, he said, and there has been a freeze on u.s. aid to ssyrians. i think it was about $200 million that have been frozen.
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what do you say to colleagues that say the use of active military force would cover syria. do you believe the president has the authority to launch military action against syria in a sustained way without a new resolution being passed by the u.s. senate? >> i believe the president needs to come to the senate for a particular authorization for the use of military force. if it's going to be a sustained action against syria, and this is why there is a great debate going on in the foreign relations committee about looking at the previous authorizations for the use of military force. no one could have foreseen that they've been so broadly used as they have been today and looking at the specifics of any given action. i don't believe it will be a sustained action. i don't think the president can do that without authorization of the use of military force which comes from the senate relations
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committee. >> let's talk about the raid on the home, the hotel room, the office of the president's personal attorney michael cohen. if the president tries to fire deputy attorney general rod rosenstein or attorney general jeff sessions, for that matter, or robert mueller, the special counsel, what can you tell us about the huddling going on behind the scenes? >> i think there is a serious concern that the president may be on the verge of creating a constitutional crisis where we have a start nigaturday night m where he fires the attorney general, possibly the deputy attorney general, therefore firing the special counsel, and at the same time creating an essence of where he takes over what is an appropriate and legitimate investigation. and what's the response of congress, particularly the senate, if that were to happen? i hope it doesn't, but if it were to happen, that would be,
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in my mind, a constitutional crisis. so our hope is that we can engage our republican colleagues to have a bipartisan message and a bipartisan action that is very clear. first, don't do this, mr. president. don't create the constitutional crisis, and secondly, if you do, there has to be serious consequences, and i hope that our colleagues, if this were to happen, were to join us as patriots and not partisans. >> you heard chuck grassley, the chairman of the judiciary committee, a republican, of course, say that if the president were to fire mueller, it would be an act of suicide, strongly urging him not to do so. the president, though, is blasting the raids on the offices of his personal attorney michael cohen. he called it, as you know, a disgraceful situation. he says it's an attack on our country. this morning he says it's a witch hunt once again. you've had some experience with federal prosecutors, as you know. what are your thoughts about the president's very, very brutal
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response to what has happened? >> look, the president may not be happy with what's happening, but to say that it is an attack upon our country when he can't invoke russia and putin having truly attacked our country in the cyber attack that sought to undermine our democracy and still does so today is pretty outrageo outrageous. this is a process, whether you like it or not, in which obviously mueller found information, referred it back to the deputy attorney general who referred it to the southern district of new york, who independently reviewed it and then went before a federal judge and had to create a substantiated effort to try to get a subpoena and a search warrant, which they did. so that's the legal process. to say that that's an attack, thael that's the essence of the rule of law. if you happen to be a recipient, you may not like it but it still has to be the essence of the rule of law. i find it outrageous that he
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says it's an attack upon our country when he can't invoke the attack that russia and putin have invoked upon our country that were seeking to represent t -- affect the last presidential election and seeking to affect these midterms elections in 2018. up next, i'll speak with a republican lawmaker. he is now warning the president against moving against robert mueller.
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since the new broke thats fbi raided the home, the office of president trump's personal lawyer michael cohen yesterday, several have spoken out saying the president needs to be prudent in his next move. john radcliffe is a member of the judiciary committee. thanks so much for joining us. >> you bet, wolf. good to be here. >> several of your kcolleagues are urging the president not to fire robert mueller. what would be your advice to the president right now at this very sense tough moment? >> the president hasn't asked for my advice, but if he did, i would not recommend firing bob mueller as responsible at this point in time. >> tell us why. as you know, the president is deeply irritated by these moves against his long-time personal
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attorney gener attorney, michael cohen. >> it's understandable for him to be upset. michael cohen is not my lawyer. the president has watched an investigation that's gone on for the better part of a year. despite the fact that his personal lawyer has cooperated, you see this extraordinary measure taken against him. for the president to be upset, i understand that. but notwithstanding that, i wouldn't recommend that he fire bob mueller as special counsel, even though i was not in favor of appointing a special counsel at that time. i think right now with the american people watching everything that's been happening here, bob mueller ought to be allowed to follow the mandate that he's been given. i wish it wasn't as broad as it is but i think at this point the american people have enough confidence that bob mueller will deliver. >> one final question before i let you go, do you think
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legislation as some of your colleagues have suggested to protect mueller? >> i don't. the president has every constitutional right and authorities and every president has had that. i don't think we should institute special protections in the middle of something that's generated a lot of controversy just because it's generated a lot of controversy. >> congressman radcliffe, thanks so much for joining us. >> you bet. >> we're waiting for two big events on capitol hill. mark zuckerberg getting ready to be grilled by senate lawmakers and we're also waiting for the white house press briefing. we'll get the latest reaction to the raids on president trump's personal lawyer, michael cohen, his apartment, his home, his office. much more of our live coverage right after this. okay folks!
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hello, i'm jake tapper. this is cnn special live coverage of one of the more consequential days of the trump presidency. we're going to see the first white house press briefing since the fbi executed a raid on the president's personal lawyer and long-time confidante michael cohen. there is breaking news on that front. cnn has learned the fbi was seeking information not just about adult film actress stormy daniels but also about another woman. we're going to have much more on that in a moment. cnn is also learning according to people close to the president, his rage over the raid has surpassed any other anger he has shown over robert mueller's investigation. that is according to sources close to the president. agents seized documents from three locations pertaining to michael cohen, his office, his home and his
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