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office and the hotel room of mr. cohen. it wasn't just information about payments to a former porn star, magazine company's deal with a playboy model. it wasn't just allegedly about bank records, it was about communications between cohen and his client, donald trump, about that "access hollywood" tape that threatened to derail the president's campaign. remember almost immediately after the tape was released, wickileaks published informatio damaging to hillary clinton. jim acosta is with us from the white house. what are you learning about monday's raid? >> reporter: we've confirmed that fbi agents that raided the home, office and hotel of michael cohen saw communications that mr. trump had with cohen and others regarding the infamous "access hollywood" tape that captured the president making lewd remarks about women a month before the election. now according to sources familiar with the matter, the warrant's specific reference to the president is the first direct known mention of the president in a search warrant

and appeared in connection with "access hollywood." so, this is obviously, you know, this is obviously a story people thought would not come back to haunt the president, meaning that tape, but it appears to have merged with this mueller investigation in ways that the white house is not happy about. >> do we know why they would have been interested in this information? or why they're looking for information about the tape or the attempts to keep it from coming out? >> reporter: well, one of the sources that we talked to said the warrant also referenced an investigation into wire fraud and bank fraud, cnn previously reported that fbi agents removed cohen's computer, cell phone, business files, financial documents. that's according to our sources. and this search warrant also saw communications between then candidate trump and his associates regarding efforts to prevent disclosure of the tape. that's according to our sources. and so, all of this is obviously of great interest to the mueller team. now, in addition to that,

anderson, investigators wanted records, communications concerning over potentialing in information about then candidate trump that the campaign would have wanted to contain ahead of the election. i remember covering that election, as you know, all too well. this was a bombshell, and the sources that we're talking to said that this warrant was not specific about what this additional information might be, but obviously, the mueller team wants to get to the bottom of all of this. and when you talk to white house sources, they're obviously not pleased about this. they see this as a continuation of a fishing expedition that is not really in line with the original mandate for the mueller probe. it's why, for example, the president is not -- is apparently re-evaluating this idea of sitting down with mueller's investigators. >> cnn has new reporting on john kelly, the chief of staff, and his feelings on what he's seeing in the white house. >> reporter: that's right, anderson. our white house team is reporting that john kelly was essentially coming into this week hoping that things were

going to calm down after some chaotic weeks over here at the white house, that obviously has not been the case. obviously, the raid on the office of michael cohen changed much of that, and then, of course, there's this decision about whether or not to launch air strikes on syria. the president indicated this morning in that tweet, which really shocked almost all of washington, that the president would forecast or telegraph an upcoming missile strike on syria. but that is obviously what he did. now, the white house tried to tamp down on that later on in the day with sarah sanders, the white house press secretary, saying that the president is still reviewing all of his options, essentially walking back the president's tweet. but make no mistake, john kelly was expecting things to be quieter this week. he's not getting that. >> jim acosta, thank you. cnn political analyst maggie habrum broke the story in "the new york times." maggie, just explain what you learned about the raid and the "access hollywood" tape. >> sure, it is one of the --

part of a bunch of categories in what has been described to me by several sources as a lengthy search warrant. and in terms of the "access hollywood" component, it's looking for communications that cohen may have had, i think either with the president or just on his own around that tape, as well as any other negative information that could have existed about the president, negative news stories, negative publicity around the president. so, it's a pretty broad scope, but gets very specific around "access hollywood." it's not clear what role cohen would have had about "access hollywood." that was the same day the wikileaks dump of john podesta's e-mails, the hillary clinton campaign chairman, that had been hacked, went online and sort of engulfed the campaign. michael cohen was one of the only defenders of the president, then candidate, on television when the "access hollywood" tape broke. but it is the piece of this that

has said a number of people close to this case very puzzled as to what exactly they are searching for. >> after the raid happened on monday, your sources told you that on tuesday the president's mood was, quote, brooding and fearful. do you have any insight on how he's handling this latest? >> not happily. the "access hollywood" tape as you know was deeply embarrassing to him and he is not somebody who gets particularly embarrassed by these things, but he was there. it has confirmed all of this, but that corner in particular, as i understand it, has sort of confirmed his belief, a, both he and michael cohen are said to believe that, you know, while this is a southern district of new york warrant, that this is all sort of robert mueller's hidden hand. it was according to cohen's lawyer, done at least in part on a referral from mueller. and this sort of confirms what the president had had in his mind, this is how the president sees it, that mueller is just out to get him this entire time

this is just evidence of that. there are a lot of people close to the president, also at least one member of congress on twitter, saying they can't understand what this would have to do with anything, the topic of "access hollywood" infuriates and touches a real nerve for the president and he's now going to see cable news kyrons about it all day today, again tomorrow, it's not going to help. >> maggie, you reported yesterday that the president wanted to fire mueller back in december after previously reported he wanted to fire him back in june, but don mcgahn stopped him, or threatened to resign. do you have any indication of where he is now on the idea of firing mueller? >> everyone i talk to says that he knows that he should not fire mueller and that it is a very, very dangerous proposition. the question of what happens to rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, comes up more frequently, but at the moment, that seems to be something that he recognizes would be problematic. but look. he is often musing about firing any number of these people. jeff sessions, rod rosenstein,

mueller, you know, the investigation should be quote unquote shut down, is something that he has said on a near daily basis for weeks, if not months. and most of his advisers have come to dismiss these instances of, that's just how he talks. sometimes it has gone further than that, and in the case that we wrote about from last summer, it certainly did. the case in december, he was extremely angry and had to be talked off of it. you know, it -- it's easy to dismiss the idea that he might do any of these things, except there was one time he did pull the trigger, and that was james comey. that's not had great results for him, clearly, and he might see that, but it's why you can't just dismiss this as that's just him musing. >> and maggie, on a morning that the president tweeted that russia should get ready, because missiles are coming, he quoted that much of the bad blood is caused by the fake and corrupt russia investigation, headed up by all the democrat loyalists or people that worked for obama.

i mean, just, technically speaking, these are not all democrats. these are, in fact, i believe all republicans. >> right. all, if not most. it's also, you know, it's not all fake. the intelligence community believes that russia was behind efforts to influence the 2016 election, in the hopes of hurting hillary clinton and helping donald trump. there are many other reasons why there's quote unquote bad blood, that are geo-political in nature. when the president says something like that, you know, it is -- it is essentially the kind of thing that would only appeal to a couple of people, but among them -- it's hard for him, on the one hand, criticize russia in the context of syria and say, oh, but this collusion thing is all a fake. the person who seems to be suggesting this is all a hoax is the leader of the country and the leader of the republican party.

other people are not. his own party members don't agree with him. >> yeah. >> he just sees himself as interchangeable with the institution he serves and has been unable to just say that, you know, in a -- efforts to influence the election in 2016 was an affront to democracy, it's not just something he has been able to do. >> it's interesting, because he said the raid that happened on monday was basically an attack on america. just finally, when hope hicks left, the white house communications director, you said in effect that things could get out of control without her there. do you believe that's what we're seeing here? >> so, i mean, i think that's part of it. i think that hope hicks was part of a group of people and it was never just one person, but there were a number of people who have worked in concert to try to calm him down, some of the members still in the white house, some of them left the white house. hope hicks is not the only person. and that has, i think, delayed him at certain points, they have helped get him off the ledge

when he's talked about, you know, shutting down the investigation or firing this one or that one. so, that is part of it, but i got to say, a raid by the fbi on his personal lawyer, i think if there were 1,000 hope hicks there, i'm not really sure that would calm him down. >> maggie, appreciate the reporting. thank you. last night, the president met with alan dershowitz. he was at the white house again today. did not meet with the president. both meetings were prescheduled. he's written at least six books on the middle east, as well as more recently trum "trumped up." the professor joins us, as well. there's a lot of your former students sprinkled throughout the world. >> and they're all on the other side. of me. >> first of all, i have to ask you, did any aspect of the mueller investigation come up in your dinner with -- >> i can't describe what went on in my dinner. i had a dinner with the president. i met with many members of the staff. the subject of all the meetings

were around the middle east, but i'm not free to disclose what went on, but let me tell you about the "access hollywood" tape. i have a theory and i think it's correct. remember, that tape was recorded in california illegally which is a two-party consent state. >> they were wearing microphones. >> but they didn't know it was on. >> but if you're wearing a microphone, you're telling me -- >> no, not under california law. >> really? >> if you don't know that the mike is on, after you've left, if i leave here tonight, new york is a one party, if i go to the bathroom and the microphone stays on and i talk as, remember that happened in a situation with a guy, that murderer guy, durst, whatever his name was, it's at least a question, so -- >> you're in the commercial break, we were all talking -- >> remember, he left, they were leaving, all i'm saying is, it's arguable. i can imagine the following conversation. trump calls his lawyer, cohen, says, stop this tape, it's illegal, i didn't consent to it. i didn't know the microphone was on. stop it.

use all legal means. now, the government then gets that communication. they put it through a taint team what do they do? what is a taint team? a taint team is, other government agents, fbi agents or assisting the united states attorneys, they go through the material, they say, this is doctor/patient privilege, this is a conversation between a man and his wife, a spouse. i'm going to read it, but i'm not going to let the prosecution use it. would any american citizen be happy to have his or her private communications read by an fbi agent on the assurance, merely, that it wouldn't be used -- >> it should be read by a judge -- >> it shouldn't be read by anybody. >> if we're talking hypotheticals here, that's one hypothetical, what the president might have said. another is, he calls up cohen, says, you know what, call our good friends at wikileaks, tell them to dump that stuff because this tape just got released. >> that wouldn't be a crime, either.

>> that's the president. >> yes, mr. president. sorry. >> wouldn't be a crime, but that's another hypothetical. you're saying that wouldn't be a crime. >> that wouldn't be a crime. you've already gotten material, leak it. >> wouldn't it be an example of potential coordination? >> anderson, you just heard the world's smallest violin playing for alan's argument. why? we can have confidence that this seizure of records was reviewed at the justice department, at the staff level. then by rod rosenstein. then it was sent over to the u.s. attorney's office and reviewed again by the public corruption unit here. it could be that alan -- >> and a judge would have signed off. >> and you have to get judicial permission. but the review before the judge made a probable cause finding is much more searching. and whatever it is, it's going to be scrutinized, it's going to be the most scrutinized review

in history. i think there is -- this is why i think alan, this is the flaw in your argument, i think that the prosecution has powerful reasons -- we don't know what they are, the timing questions certainly are substantial, but there's something else. there's the history of trump's paying hush money to women that he allegedly has had relationships with. >> perfectly legal. >> and there are allegations that sometimes there have been threats against those women. and that may be what these prosecutors are looking at. a pattern of illegal conduct. >> the bottom line is we don't know. >> let me tell you what we do know. we do know that the search warrant allowed for the seizure of material that is confidential. in other words, nobody does a preliminary search and says, just seize material that is not covered by the privilege. so, we know that they have

material that's presumptively covered by the privilege. somebody reads that material and says it's covered by the privilege, and says, i won't tell the prosecutor. let's assume, hypothetically, that they go and they find privileged material between the president and his lawyer, but it's embarrassing. seriously embarrassing. do you think anybody believes that the fbi wouldn't leak that material if it's against the president of the united states? do you think that's a sufficient safeguard to protect the right of every american not to have confidential material looked at by government officials? >> you've raised the objection there are other ways they could have gone about -- >> of course, at least some of it. >> but if they felt, if there was concern that this information might be destroyed, that michael cohen might be trying to get rid of information, isn't there a time essence here? >> if there was evidence of that, but i don't think it was anything in the warrant that would suggest that there was probable cause to believe that there was immediate -- >> well, we don't know. >> let me ask all your listeners

this question. if hillary clinton had been elected president, and they were investigating her with a special counsel, and they were going after the e-mails, and they were saying she destroyed computer this and that and the other thing and they went in and they raided her lawyer's office, the aclu would be on this case, the national association of criminal defense lawyers would be on this case and my former student would be on this case. >> well, there's hypocrisy on all sides. democrats would be against it, republicans would -- >> at least. some republicans have now discovered civil liberties. >> i'm going to let you respond. >> alan, it's just not right. if any president of any party had committed the kinds of conduct that we've seen here -- >> you mean like -- >> let me finish. you interrupted me when i was in your class -- >> that was my job. >> and you interrupted me when i was your -- working in your law practice and you're doing it now. if any president had done the kinds of things that donald trump has done, raising the

serious prospect that you may have -- you may have had obstruction of justice committed in the white house with the pattern around the comey firing, this pattern of very disturbing possible campaign finance violations, did donald trump know that illegal -- possibly illegal contributions were being made to support his campaign -- let me finish. i'm almost done. i'm almost done. if any president had done that, i would be here saying that. >> we have to take a quick break. we're going to continue this discussion. we knew it would be good, so, we booked a lot of time for this. more on the president and russia, the confrontation which could heat up in a matter of hours. the big question, is twitter the right place to send a message to moscow on a military conflict? we'll be right back. >> tech: at safelite autoglass we know that when you're spending time with the grandkids every minute counts. and you don't have time for a cracked windshield. that's why we show you exactly when we'll be there. saving you time, so you can keep saving the world.

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is the fact that it's very, very tough on bacteria, yet it's very gentle on the denture itself. polident consists of 4 powerful ingredients that work together to deep clean your denture in hard to reach places. talk tonight about the russia probe, the raids on michael cohen. as preet bharara told us last night, it's an ominous development for anybody on the receiving end of one. >> if i was the united states attorney and i was being asked to personally approve, as someone had to have been in the southern district of new york, a search of someone's home and office, who was counsel to the president, i would want a lot more than the bare minimum proof of probable cause. so, i predict, as we saw with paul manafort that if they

decide they have enough evidence to engage in a very aggressive move, that the likelihood that michael cohen is going to be charged is high. >> back now with alan der ch witness, norman iseman. do you agree with that? >> i do. lawyers aren't above the law. but it's the rights of the client, that is, when you start taking the entire computer, all of the financial records, we know from reporting that it also includes conversations and -- >> how can it be done then? if you're saying a taint team isn't the way to do it, it's not right for fbi agents to be doing this, you're saying, what, a judge? >> if anybody's going to go through it, it should be a judge or a neutral monitor appointed by the court so that the least number of people possible, the most trusted people, actually read the lawyer/client material information. >> do you agree with him? >> well, first of all, in order to do these searches, anderson, the subpoenas need to be very

narrowly tailored, so, you're not sweeping everything in. i have a different view of the taint teams. you know, i had cases in which the taint teams worked. i also supervised an fbi office when i served as amambassador, d i can tell you, those agents were honorable, i would trust them with my life, and i believe if they have instructions not to leak, they will not leak. >> professor -- >> i got a bridge to sell you in brooklyn. no leaks, oh, my god, a leak? it sounds like the scene from "casablanca." leaking can pervasive. the head of the fbi, james comey, leaked information and laundered it through a columbia professor. that's the head of the fbi, supposed to be stopping leaks. what kind of a message does that send to the fbi? what it says is, leaking is okay. leaking is pervasive in this government. >> you have said that it would

be a mistake for the president to fire mueller. what about rod rosenstein? >> rod rosenstein should be recused. he cannot be both a witness and a prosecutor in the same case. >> he's a witness because he was involved in the comey firing? >> involved -- he wrote the m o memo. if you are trump's lawyer, the first person you call as a witness is rod rosenstein. you wrote the memo. did you obstruct justice? did you think this was an obstruction of justice? >> would it be a mistake for the president to replace him with somebody who is going to try to basically get rid of mueller? >> well, that's a tactical decision. i don't think rosenstein, whoever replaced him, would try to get rid of mueller, but i think roadssenstein's status ine case raises very deep questions. say he doesn't get recused and hech t he testifies. if he's now recused, we have to go back and see if he tainted anything else early on in the case. it's a mistake for the government to keep rod ro rosenstein on the case. i want to take the opportunity to apology to norm, as you know

when you were my student, when i interrupted a student, it was the highest praise. it was a statement, saying, i get your point, now let's move on. when i interrupt you, it's praise. >> now i'm going to interrupt you by praising you by disagree. first of all, it's not a tactical question when we're talking about the firing of rod rosenstein on robert mueller. it's the most profound attack on our rule of law. what the president does every day. number two, it is not correct, alan. i've done these government conflicts, including sitting in the white house. it is not correct that a prosecutor needs to be recused at this stage of the case because he's a possible witness. you tell me one time in the thousands of cases that you have done, when you have knocked out a prosecutor pre-trial before even an indictment of the subject or target. name one example. >> first of all, you want to ask

yourself if you're a lawyer whether it's tactically advisable to do so, but you are looking in this camera and telling me it's okay for the same person to be investigating, prosecuting the case, when he knows he's going to be the central witness in the case itself. does that really pass the smell test? >> quick answer, and we have to go. >> we do not yet know he's going to be the central witness. we do not know it, and the rules -- there are rules on this, and the rules do not require it. this is more presidential mischief being recycled out of your dinner. >> the rules require common sense and common sense says you cannot prosecute and you cannot be a witness in the same face. >> thank you very much, appreciate it. just ahead, the action on capitol hill today to try to limit president trump's ability to fire special counsel robert mueller. i'll talk to one of the sponsors of that bill, democratic senator cory booker, next. not in this house. 'cause that's no average family. that's your family. which is why you didn't grab just any cheese.

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we give you 75 mbps for $59.95. that's more speed than at&t's comparable bundle, for less. call today. well, with president trump reportedly fuming over the raids and his personal attorney and a report that the president discussed fired robert mueller this past december. now senators are working together to try to protect mueller and any future special counsel. today, they rolled out a consolidated version of earlier proposed legislation that would do just that. the special counsel act would ensure that mueller can only be

fired by, quote, good cause, by senior justice department official. and a ten-day window to seek review of the firing. cory booker is one of the sponsors of the bill. i talked to him earlier tonight. senator booker, i'm wondering why you decided to introduce legislation today. you have to believe there's urgency to protect the special could be sell right now. >> i introduced this legislation last year. we had a hearing about this. >> okay. >> so, there's been a lot of movement on the legislation, but you're right, anderson, there seems to be a renewed sense of urgency to move this forward and i'm hopeful we're going to get this into our committee and out of our committee and god willing, perhaps even to the senate floor for a vote. >> we obviously learned today that during the fbi raid on michael cohen's home, the office, the hotel, the fbi saw communications between then candidate trump and cohen about that "access hollywood" tape.

i'm wondering what you make of that and does the president's reaction to that raid add to the concerns about mueller? >> yeah, well, first of all, we have a constitutional crisis in the making, should we ever have between now and the future in history have a president who he himself orm his associates are under investigation, and in this case, we've seen his associates be indicted, have -- still retain the power to, without good cause, to fire or order the firing of a special counsel. and if we can't figure out a way to check that power, have an appropriate check and balance, we could really make for a serious constitutional crisis. so, there's a lot going on with this investigation. i'm one of those folks that just thinks, let mueller do his work. i know there's speculation, but you see progression of work and thorough investigate going on. but i just want to make sure that we in congress, i'm grateful there's republicans who are very prudent, sensible, sobered piece of legislation understand that we should just make sure that we avoid what we saw in the past, which was a

saturday night massacre-type situation. >> you do have republican cosponsors on the bill, but most republicans oppose it, including mitch mcconnell and john cornyn, to say nothing, even if it did pass, the likelihood of the president actually signing it. >> yeah, but you know, we're seeing circumstances change daily. i think one of the reason white house this bill is getting momentum now and potentially will get a markup in the judiciary committee is because you're starting to see a president say things that are not only sort of threatening the process, but seemingly potentially recklessly pushing us towards a constitutional crisis, which is something that republicans and democrats want to avoid. >> if the president did fire, say, the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, would that, in your opinion, constitute a constitutional crisis? >> i think if he fired rosenstein, you have heard the words of republicans themselves

say very dramatic things about what that would mean for donald trump's presidency. but again, if he fired rosenstein, installed somebody who then ordered to fire mueller, when you've seen what's going on, you've seen indictments, you saw one person being sentenced, who pled guilty, for his to interrupt an investigation like that, i think you would bring about a moment in our country where you would really have a crisis in our nation. >> this tweet by the president this morning saying that much of the bad blood with russia is caused by what he called the fake and corrupt russia investigation, does that make any sense to you at all? i mean, the idea that, first of all, the majority of people here we're talking about are republicans. >> yeah, i -- i mean, this is -- this is the thing that really frustrates me is, you know, we've seen investigation lead by a republican, around an issue that we all have to keep reminding ourselves, i hope, that this is something about the safety, the security and the strength of our democracy. our eastern european allies,

estonia, poland, ukraine, all understand, as well as other european nations, that we are under a war by russia. when putin is not met by power, when he's not shown american force push him back, he will only be emboldened by what he's trying to do. it's not just our election systems. it's critical infrastructure. we're in a cyber contest with the russians who are on an onslaug onslaught. to have a president of the united states not appreciate this, not recognize the danger and the threat and be doing things that are at the very least trying to create an atmosphere that undermines an ongoing investigation, this is very problematic and i think it's, in my ways, this is m malpractice on a president whose first concern should be protecting the american people. >> senator booker, thank you. >> thank you. coming up next, more on the stormy daniels documents that fbi agents were seeking in the raid on the president's personal attorney, and now we're learning the warrant included documents

regarding the "access hollywood" tape. stormy daniels' attorney joins us next. and i'm mike tryon. and this is our sears hometown store. (toddler speaks) i used to run my own landscaping company. people have asked why i'd sell my business just to go work for sears. but i didn't. i own this place. and being an independent business owner means we make sure to treat you to the best deals and the best service. sears hometown stores have been independently owned and operated for over 23 years. we don't work for sears. we own this place. we work for you.

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as we reported, as first reported by "the new york times," the infamous "access hollywood" continues to loom over washington. sources telling cnn that fbi agents who raided michael coh cohen's home, office and hotel room were looking for communications between him and the president about the tape which came out about a month

before the election and shows the now president bragging, obviously, about sexual assault. the tape does. the warrant also included documents related to the $130,000 payoff to stormy daniels. his attorney joins me now. obviously, i mean, you don't have any inside knowledge on this "access hollywood" tape, if this is part of the warrant, but just in general, the -- what do you -- now that it's been two days since this raid, how do you see this raid? obviously, it's bad news for michael cohen, but what do you -- to you, what stands out about it? >> anderson, i think this entire raid is centered on this $130,000 payment and what the president knew and when he knew it and what michael cohen did in connection with the $130,000 payment. >> you think that's front and center? >> absolutely. look. i can't get into the details, but i know it's front and center, and i think it's going to be a very clean case, ultimately. and it's going to be far easier to prove than russian collusion. >> but if the president did know

about it, what is the -- what's the crime there? >> well, first of all, i think it's highly unlikely that he did not know about it. a lot of people have said that if the president did not arrange reimbursement, then he's, you know, basically scott free, that there's no issues. i completely disagree. if it can be shown that the president knew that michael cohen paid this money and that he conspired with michael cohen or agreed with michael cohen that it was going to be paid in such a way to not report it, pursuant to campaign finance requirements, that would be a felony. that would be a conspiracy, potentially. >> a lot of people have pointed to the idea that this was all about campaign finance. you say it's a felony, so, you're saying it is a big deal. >> there's no question it's a big deal. i've seen panelists on various news programs over the last 48 hours say, oh, you know, these campaign finance requirements, big deal. i mean, we're talking about felonies. >> but oftentimes the violations are just referred -- basically ended up being a fine.

>> al capone did not go down for murder, anderson. al capone went down for tax evasion. and this could very easily be a very similar situation. these campaign finance violations, if they occurred, i believe they did, if they occurred, they are easily proven. it would only require potentially michael cohen rolling over on the president. and this is something i've been saying for a couple weeks now. i think that that is the target of these raids, that's the target of this investigation. i don't know what to make of this "access hollywood" tape. to the best of my knowledge, there's been no reporting that suggests or no facts to suggest that there was any change of money or any money in connection with this tape. the only focus, as it relates to the tape, could be acts of thuggery, intimidation, to the extent that michael cohen knew about this, or the president knew about it and they attempted to strong arm or intimidate people to keep that from coming to light. that's really the only aspect

relating to the tape. >> a couple days ago, you talked about releasing a -- a, i don't know, what do you call it, an identification by stormy daniels, you had a sketch artist do of the person that she says threatened her in 2011 in the parking lot in las vegas. you intimated the other day that you weren't going to do that, given the raid and things had changed. where are you on that now? >> well, as you know, when you interviewed her, she described in detail this very serious threat back in 2011. subsequent to that, my client sat down with lois gibson, a r forensic artist. we were on the verge of rep leasing that sketch, together with details concerning a reward. we were asked to delay that. this is a very dynamic situation. >> can you say who you were asked by? >> i'm not at liberty to discuss that, but what i will say is, this is a very dynamic situation. a lot has happened in the last 48 hours and i will tell you, anderson, these raids that

occurred on monday, they're not the last raids. i know that for a fact. there are other raids that are contemplated. i anticipate them coming in the -- within the next week. >> you say you know that for a fact. the only way you would know that for a fact, i know you said you had been contacted and stormy daniels is cooperating with officials from the mueller investigation. are you saying you have learned that from people you have -- >> i'm not going to get into details as to where i've learned that, but look, i think our track record over the last five weeks relating to what i've predicted, what we predicted is pretty damn good, and i stand behind it. >> you're saying more raids to come? >> i think we have only scratched the surface. i have the utmost confidence in the u.s. attorneys in the southern district of new york office. they're the best and the brightest in the nation. they're going to get to the bottom of this. we're going to cooperate in connection with that. but there's a lot of information that's going to come down the pike, if you will, and i will tell you this. if i was the president, i would not be sleeping well at night.

>> michael, thank you for being with us. >> thank you. coming up, a closer look at the president's twitter warning, saying get ready russia, because, quote, nice, new smart missiles are coming to syria. what the white house said when asked for clarification, next. i'm just worried about the house and taking care of the boys. zach! talk to me. it's for the house. i got a job. it's okay. dad took care of us. you won't find relief here. congestion and pressure? go to the pharmacy counter for powerful claritin-d. while the leading allergy spray relieves 6 symptoms... claritin-d relieves 8, including sinus congestion and pressure. claritin-d relieves more. we know that when you're >> tspending time with thelass grandkids...

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as we reported earlier in the program, the president has threatened military action on twitter in response to the aftermath of the suspected chemical attack in syria. the president tweeted this early this morning. "russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at syria. get ready, russia, because they will be coming nice and new and smart. you shouldn't be partners with a gas killing animal who kills his people and enjoys it." at the white house briefing today, press secretary sarah sanders was asked about what that tweet means. >> we're maintaining that we have a number of options and all of those options are still on the table. final decisions haven't been made yet on that front. >> so does it mean anything at all? what does it mean? >> it certainly means, i think, there's a lot there that you can read from. but at the same time, the president has a number of options at his disposal. and all of those options remain on the table and we're continuing to look at each one of them. >> all options may be on the table, but the tweet said, quote, missiles will be coming, which certainly qualifies as

telegraphing military action, which is something that president trump krooilds president obama for repeatedly and something that he and sarah sanders have said over and over and over again that he would never do. >> i don't want to tell the enemy how i am thinking. does that make sense? surprise. remember, they used to call it the element of surprise. i keep saying, whatever happened to the element of surprise. you know, i've been saying, the element of surprise. we're too predictable. we need to be unpredictable. we have to be unpredictable. we want to be unpredictable, folks. we want to be unpredictable. we have a president that gets up and he says, we will attack them here. we're going to leave here, we're going to -- this guy gets up and tells everything we're ever going to do. why can't he just keep his mouth shut? why would he announce this? we have to be unpredictable. i don't want to be one of these guys that says, yes, here's what we're going to do. i don't have to do that.

you know why? because they shouldn't know. >> "they shouldn't know." he's not going to talk about it. joining us now fareed zakaria, host of cnn's "fareed zakaria gps" and former house intelligence committee chairman, mike rogers. fareed, we just saw the president time and time again saying, not going to telegraph. the only -- he is surprising people in that he's surprising the white house staff by sending out this tweet, it seems. >> you know, the thing that you're struck by about trump is that he seems often surprised to face the constraints and challenges that every president has faced. because i think he hasn't thought about it. the reason that barack obama or george bush or bill clinton face this problem is that you're leading the world. something happens. people expect to hear from the american president. they want to understand what is your reaction to it? and in giving your reaction, you are rallying the troops, the entire free world. you are telling the country, this is a democratic country.

so you do have to kind of let people in on what your reaction, what your strategy is. that's what i it's not because people are so stupid that they haven't thought about the fact, oh, there would be an element of surprise. you know, you have to balance this. and i think what's happening in a strange way is, trump realizes the world is looking at him. and is wondering what he's saying. and so, i don't thwart him for having, you know -- you have to signal in some way, are you going to respond to this? react to this? is that -- the mistake, of course, was all of that criticism that he was heaping, piling on barack obama, which really misunderstood the nature of the presidency. of course, the president has to have some reaction when these things happen. he could have had a -- frankly, he could have had a more guarded reaction, the kind that obama or bush would have had, which gives you more options. in fact, whatever his press secretary says, he doesn't have any option at this point. he has said he's going to respond. >> and with smart weapons. chairman rogers, defense secretary mattis said today that

the u.s. and key allies are still working on options to respond and have not even definitively concluded who is behind the attacks. how risky is it, then, for the president to make a statement like that? or was it the right thing for him to do? >> listen, i was with trump when he said, we shouldn't telegraph what we're doing tactically. and he certainly didn't do that in his tweet. what i also found a little disturbing, this is why you don't have this kind of diplomacy over a short character tweet, is that the russians could certainly misinterpret this. he deliberately poked the russians in what we think was an assad regime attack using chemical weapons. why would you enrage the russians? the best way to do that is have the attack, take away their ability to deliver chemical weapons, and then come out and say, hey, the russians need to clean up their act, they should not be supporting these folks. and now what's happened is you see anti-air units are being deployed, units are being moved around syria, ships have deployed, the russian ships have

deployed out of tartus, a russian-controlled port in syria. and the reason they're going, they believe, if you're going to fire missiles, you have to do it from the met and they're going to have ships out there to try to deal with that. none of that is good. some of that they were going to do anyway, but this heightened poke you in the chest just doesn't help and may, in fact, have taken away an avenue in which the president could have dealt with this issue. >> the striking thing listening to mike is, there's so much kind of bizarre, bizarre incompetence in the trump white house. sometimes, you know, things go wrong. government is very hard. national security is very hard. but so many of these cases, it is obvious that this is not what you want to do, because you create more problems for yourself than yourself. so look at the steel tariffs for china. they decide to go on with steel tariffs and surprise, surprise, we actually import most of our steel from canada and mexico and south korea and germany. so then you have to provide exceptions to all those countries. or just, you know, think about what mike just said.

this is all predictable, if somebody just had a national security council meeting and had this five or six people around saying, okay, if we were to do this, what would likely happen? so then you don't do that. so it seems as though nobody in the trump white house does any scenario planning before they announce something or before the president tweets something. >> chairman rogers, white house spokesman sarah sanders kind of danced around the president's comments, saying just pause the president laid out one option, doesn't mean he's looking or not looking at other options, including diplomacy. to fareed's point, does there need to be a clear strategy communicated in any type of reaction? >> completely. and if this were part of some grand strategy that maybe those of us who are in the -- used to do a lot of the national security work don't understand, that's great. but you need to articulate it. or at least demonstrate it. and when you have the secretary of defense who's in a different position saying, well, wait a minute, we haven't even worked out the issues with our allies yet. and by the way, if you're going

to be successful at this, you have to have our allies engaged in whatever decision, even if the president decided, i am going to fire tomahawk missiles and take out your ability to deliver a chemical weapon, either by air or by machinery or by runway, all of those things could be options. now that seems a bit muddled. and you've gotten ahead of the negotiations with your allies. i will tell you, that will honk them off. that's a technical diplomatic term, anderson. >> yeah. >> it will happen. they're not going to be happy about this, because they want to get it right. they want to be able to tell their people why this is important and why we need to thwart the use of chemical weapons. i just think it takes away options, it doesn't help you build allies and put your options on the table. >> chairman rogers, for a reid zakaria, thank you very much. coming up, new details on the raid on michael cohen's office, hotel room, and home. and also, new reporting on a plan to cripple the russia probe and the return of steve bannon.

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