syria. i think the president's angry and he literal has his finger on the missile button. >> lots going on and doesn't look like it's going to stop soon. guys, thanks very much for joining us. that's it for me. thanks very much r for watching. i'm wolf blitzer. in "the situation room." erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. . next, breaking news. michael cohen now under criminal investigation and the president himself calls him today. new details on what the federal agents got in the raid. plus, trump and comey at war. the name calling from both sides. as the white house goes on overdrive to discredit the fired fbi director and scooter libby pardoned. why now? vary plame, whose cover was blown by the bush administration as an undercover cia agent is my guest. let's go "outfront." good evening. michael cohen under criminal

investigation. this as we are learning that president trump called him today. the topic, the fbi raid of cohen's office and home on monday. now, this phone call, taking place as lawyers for trump and cohen appeared in court in new york. the topic of the court appearance was the fbi raid of ko cohen's office and home this week. a raid white house aides tell cnn has been a turning point for this president. who was more angry over the raid of his personal lawyer than anything else that has come from the mueller investigation. think about that for a second. anything else. in fact, "the new york times" is reporting tonight that president trump's advisers conclude the cohen investigation poses a greater and more imminent threat to the president than even the special counsel's russia investigation. it's another thing to give everyone pause for thought. this is video of michael cohen sitting in the back there on the bench on the right. sitting outside his hotel in manhattan. that's where he's been staying. it's a block from his apartment.

there's group of mep smoking cigars around him as the legal pressure on cohen mounts, including a revelation he helped negotiate a $1.6 million hush agreement between the man there, the vice chair of trump's inaugural committee, elliot, and former playboy play mate. that's his wife in the picture. today he forced to resign as deputy finance chair of the rnc, releasing a statement saying quote, at the end of our relationship, this woman shared she was pregnant. she decided she did not want to continue with the pregnancy and i offered to help her financially during this difficult period. we have not spoken since that time. this brings the number of hush payments cohen was involved with to four. all these developments leading to syria's questions about relationship with cohen. now we know the relationship is criminal in nature. in fact, federal prosecutors today say that cohen told at least one witness the only real client he had, the only real

client he had was donald j. trump. and as for the white house today, the deputy press secretary telling cnn that cohen does still represent trump. even after sarah sanders was unable to answer the question at today's briefing. >>. >> is michael cohen still the president's attorneys? they've been close for a decade. >> yeah, last i've heard, he continues to be. that's correct. >> even though he's under criminal investigation? >> there's been no wrong doing against michael cohen either. he and his attorney can answer for the issues in new york. >> pretty stunning. evan perez is "outfront" and evan, you're talking about a sitting president. you know, his press secretary is saying he's still being represented by an attorney who wasn't representing them, who's under criminal investigation. what more do you know about the mounting legal troubles for cohen?

>> in case it wasn't clear from the fbi raids this week, michael cohen, the prosecutors in manhattan made clear today in black and white, they said that he is under criminal investigation and they said that it is for conduct largely centered on his personal business. now now, this is separate from robert mueller's russia investigation. they also revealed a couple of other thing, including the fact there was a covert warrant used to collect information from michael cohen's e-mails. they also said that previously before they decided to do this search on michael cohen's hotel, his home and office, that the special counsel had actually asked michael cohen had asked the trump organization for some of this same information and that they were very afraid that some of this information could have been destroyed or could have been delete e ed and that the reason why the fbi took the extraordinary measure to do these raids on michael cohen. >> all right.

thank you very much. evan perez. it's pretty increde bable and of course, as i've reported, i've learned from this raid that when they knocked on the door, michael cohen answered it, they stuck the foot in the door, the fbi agent immediately took away his phone. it was a very aggressive raid. "outfront" now, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york and white house correspondent for american urban networks, also here, john dean. h harry, let me start with you. michael cohen is the personal attorney for the president as of tonight. certain ly he was for at least dozen years. he's under criminal investigation. according to federal prosecutors. he has told at least one witness that donald trump is his only client. how big of a deal is this? >> a very serious puturn. if the case against cohen is strong, will he attempt to cooperate with the government's investigation into donald trump.

the reported story you mentioned that the president may be more nervous about this than the russia investigation, perhaps points to the depth of the relationship and the long-term relationship. who really knows whaexactly how many things donald trump and mike khouw hen have worked on together. that today may be in the fullness of time, donald trump he hadn't done. >> april, that is pretty a pretty significant development here. a report from "the new york times." trump's advisers believe the michael cohen investigation is a bigger threat and more imminent threat than the russia aspect of the mueller probe. could they be right. >> they could be right. one of the reasons why you have phone conversations that is alleged to have been part of the raid they received. if that's true, there could be incriminating information on those tapes about something.

it could be anything about a trail of money. wire fraud, bank fraud, a whole host of things, so this actually could nail some of the coffin shut that they're trying to close. so this is pretty bad, but one thing we have to remember, this attorney, michael cohen, and anyone who really works closely with this president is loyal to him. there is a loyalty test. we understand the president asks for loyalty, so we'll see how this plays out and what will be revealed, but you have to remember, again, michael cohn has been loyal to the president and the president still considers him his attorney according to the deputy white house press secretary. >> john, when i spoke to michael cohen's lawyer a few weeks ago, he made it clear and with pride, i've known michael cohen for a long time. he was the fixer. the guy that no matter what the president needed, he was the guy who got the phone call. here's how his attorney put it.

>> michael was if fixer. it could be anything. it's not this. there were a ton of matters that took place that michael fixed and donald trump wasn't involved in every single matter. believe me, michael cohen got kauls at 3:00 in the morning. michael and i would be at dinner, the boss would be calling all the time. >> 3:00 in morning. at dinner. all the time. a source saying the raid was akin to a final blow. his anger is bloeyond what anyo can imagine. is it because those 3:00 a.m. phone calls? the president knows what's happened on those calls. >> he sure does. >> i thought his first reaction was interesting. one of his early tweets, there goes the attorney client privilege. he must have been thinking about how he felt protected by that.

this isn't a new investigation. rather it's been going on for several months. so they've built a very strong case and that's how they were obviously able to get a magistrate judge to give them the power to go in there and get all the things they collected with a warrant. >> chris told us the other day, he said you don't get this kind of a warrant where you can stick your foot in the door and take things. you don't get that with nothing. you can obl get it if you can prove to the judge you can destroy evidence. that adds to the question marks here. the other thing is that the president of the united states called michael cohen today. good move? >> not a good idea. if you're a criminal defense lawyer, the first thing you tell your client who may be a subject of an investigation or just a witness, don't talk to the other

people who are a part of the investigation if you can avoid it at all. there's a concern. the government will wonder what happened in that call. were there threats made? promises made in did the president try to encourage michael cohen to keep the faith, the hope this might be a pardon and to remain loyal to him? we know that this is a relationship that has loyalty as a key component and was that discussed on the call. we don't know. so the better course is don't talk to other people in the investigation. >> and now we know that's what's happening and april, it comes as there's alleged, that cohen was allegedly involved in brokering payoffs to three people to protect donald trump. stormy daniels, karen mcdougle and a door man who said he had information about some sort of an illegitimate child. these hush payment, cohen allegedly involved in.

now top donor to the republican national committee who raised money with donald trump trump jr. now gets a play mate pregnant and michael cohen is the guy who negotiateded the hush payment it seems. >> and it seems that the wrong doing or the alleged wrong doing is all about money. and the special prosecutor is following the trail of money. something that this president did not ever want to disclose. the trail of money is really where it all lies. and again, it's about that circle, that close knit circle to protect donald trump, the civilian and now, the president. and this president has withheld, but he does a lot of talking about if he had not done a lot of talking about this, maybe a lot of this would not be right now. he has not listened to the advice of attorneys and now, you're here at a point where they're following the trail of money and more is being

disclosed over and over again. it's all about the money. >> it's all about the money. john dean and the money that we have seen. look, there's going to be more involved, but the money that we have seen, at least all thus far, has involved payments to shut people up about inappropriate sexual affairs. >> true. and while that may not be per se illegal, depending on how they got the money, where the money came from, what reporting requirements might be connected with it, it could become illegal. you know, erin, men who become president have something of a student of that office, they sort of assume that they're not vulnerable when they get there. and i think that has been the effect on trump and i think he thinks he's above it all. but he's going find out that isn't true. >> all right. perhaps he brought that heir of invul ner bability with him. i guess seems he's much more vulnerable now when he was a private citizen. thank you all three very much.

"outfront" next, the white house pushing back hard tonight against jim comey. the fired fbi director amid a steady stream of revelations coming out in his new book. >> comey will forever be known as a disgraced partisan hack. >> how do you really feel, var? plus u, the white house weighing in on rod rosenstein's fate. the big unknown of course is the president himself. and president trump pardoning scooter libby, a guy bush wouldn't pardon. valerie plame is my guest. you t an incomplete job from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. flonase. hey, i'm curious about your social security alerts. oh! we'll alert you if we find your social security number on any one of thousands of risky sites, so you'll be in the know.

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[seen it. covered it. n. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ new tonight, trump's twitter tirade against comey. james comey is a proven leaker and liar. virtually everyone in washington thought he should be fired until he was fired. he leaked classified information for which he should be prosecutoreded. he lied to congress under oath. he is a weak an and and untruthful slime ball, who was as time as proven, a terrible director of the fbi. his handling of crooked hillary will go down as one of the most botched jobs in history. it was my great honor to fire james comey. that's his side of it.

you hear jeffrey toobin. meantime, his interview started to hit the air waves. here he is with george stephanopoulos. >> i never thought these words would come out, but i don't know whether the current president of the united states was with constitutes peeing on each other in moscow in 2013. >> are we living an alternate universe? we think this is real life unless we're in a parallel universe. james, retired fbi supervisory special agent joins me along with jeffrey toobin. it is pretty incredible when you' that change on both sides. we're talking about prostitutes peeing in a hotel room in moscow. the whole thing is sordid on both sides. start with the president calling him a slime ball. people on both sides did hate jim comey at some point. >> he's right.

some hate d him. there's a lot in there that's highly controversial. there's no proof he leaked classified information for example, so i think we need to be, can't get that backward. the -- >> sorry. >> the way donald trump expresses himself on twitter and in general is just something new under the sun in terms of how presidents of the united states behave. we're now sort of used to it. i think. we've read so many tweets by him there are so intemperate and vulgar, but that's just how he expresses himself. he got elected president that way. he's not going toed well for hi. >> weak slime ball would not be two of them. james, let me just read some more of what comey wrote about trump. he writes, his face appeared slightly orange with bright white half-moons under his eyes where i assume d he placed smal tanning googles and impressively coifed bright blond air which

upon close inspection was his. i made a note to check its size. it was smaller than mine, but did not seem unusually so. gratuitous? >> we are witnessing the ditch in addition of a man i thought had -- and someone i respected the two years of my 25-year career that i worked under him. look, people have been saying this on a number of different networks. if you criticize james comey, you are guilty of character assassination. when he was fired on may 9th, i came on the air waves and call ed the president repugnant and reprehensible for the manner in which he dispatched a career public servant. but james comey's actions last june testimony about how he handled matters with an attorney general that tended to deal with some things that politicized or potentially politicized fbi investigations. i've come to this determination. he might be a good man.

we're all fallible human beings. we're mortal. but he was afectless leader and this book and the manner of which he's tried to out trump trump, t a bad look. >> i really do disagree. public officials have been b writing books since the days of grant and before that. they're entitled to express how they feel and what people, you know, the question we have, maybe this is because i'm book writer myself. you always ask someone, what was it like and what was it like dealing with donald trump? that's what this book is b about. that's a value bable public service. he's making it interesting. a >> and the comment b about the hands. he goes on to say a lot of very, very serious things. he's let me not disagree, we

have a right to right a book. here's where comey does it. you'll tell me, first amendment, that trumps everything. excuse the pun. all fbi employees and the people that say james comey is no longer an fbi employee, the department of justice defines an employee as someone who holds or who has held a held a position of public trust in the agency. there are 13 different reasons you are not allowed to receive information. one is when you provide material that is relevant or salient to an open or ongoing investigation or case. tell many james comey's book, which is predicated on nine interactions with the president is not relateded to the ig report and the russia probe. >> it is, but most of what's in the book is what he testified about in front of the senate intelligence committee and testifying before congress is one of the core obligations of people who serve d in the

executive branch and both past and present. so i just think there's a public interest in airing the story of how james comey was fired. how, the president behaved. the president is under investigation, as jim said, for obstruction of justice in connection with comey's firing. >> we played the sound bite where we said i don't know whether the president of the united states was with pr prostitutes peeing on other each. >> that was trump, not obama, right? >> obama's bed. >> think about how we have declined so quickly. >> i can't even believe i'm saying this. that's why i made the alternate universe comment. he continueded to say this. i'm curious as to whether you think these things go so far.

>> here he is talking more about the prostitutes. >> how weird was that briefing? >> really weird. almost an out of body experience for me. i was floating above myself looking down saying you're sitting here briefing the incoming president of the united states about prostitutes in moscow. >> you don't feel that he went too far. >> not in slightest. it answers the fundamental question. what was it like. that's what it was like. that's a public service! but not during an ongoing investigation. >> he stopped knowing the day he was fired, so how is he violating anything? >> he is a central witness in the russia probe. a central witness in the ig probe, a number of open investigations on capitol hill. >> didn't he testify about what happened? >> he has. but are you telling me there's a greater need at this moment while this russia probe that has the entire country, the world

riveted. >> what's the problem? i know it's not technically a perjury track, but he may see things during one of his stops along the tour that's different than something he said in a book and different than in a deposition. >> that's his b problem. >> it is. it's a bad look. when an fbi director says things like i didn't have the courage in that moment to stand up to the president or i felt mildly queasy, but didn't push back. you lose respect to people like me that spent half our life or more as some have. you lose our respect. we want you to be a man of more courage to stand up and push back on a bully and he hasn't done it. he's doing it in a book. >> all right. thank you both. >> okay. and next, more breaking news. new details about what fbi agents got in the raid on michael cohen. a very significant development of what they got. and john bolton reportedly

pushing for military strikes in syria. this coming e ing as the milita advisers convene tonight on what to do. will the strike come imminently? i'm very proud of the fact

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we're getting new details about what agents got in the raid. i want to go to gloria. what did they find? >> cnn has learned tonight when the fbi raided michael cohen's office, his apartment and his hotel room, they seized audio recordings between cohen and keith davidson. davidson you might remember was stormy daniels and karen mcdougle's first lawyer. he no longer represents either one of them. the recordings could prove really value bable to the investigation of cohen, who as we know is under scrutiny for his role in trying to keep these alleged affairs secret before the presidential election. an the warrant last week has admitted no wrong doing.

the president has denied any affairs. i should add that we do not know how many calls were recorded or what the conversations specifically contained. but we do know now that the fed's have them. >> we know they have them. but just a few questions. we know keith davidson as you point out at some point represented stormy daniels and mcdougle and apparently, this rnc donor play mate with whom he had an affair. do you have any sense of the timing these tapes were made? did he have all of them? how many? >> that's a really good question. we don't know the answer to that. i mean, they just grabbed everything they could. and we know these two attorneys had multiple conversations. even cently, they had multiple conversations because as you'll recall in an interview with sara

sidner on cnn, keith davidson said he spoke to, he spoke to michael cohen just recently who told him to spill his guts. so we know that there was some constant contact. but i would tell you that a spokesman for davidson tells sara sidner this evening he never consented to having anything recorded and he's willing to pursue his legal rights. recording conversations in certain states can be illegal e depending on where the parties are. >> i guess a lawyer in california andlaws. b i believe california, both parties need to know. new york only one u. i'm not a lawyer. >> that is right. >> big development here. jeffrey is back with me and also joining us, president bill clinton's adviser, paul begala and steve cortez. jeff, let me start with you though. you know, what we know is they

have tapes of conversations between these two lawyers. >> let me give you an example of something investigators will be very interested in. which is cohen has said that the reason he made daniels out of his own money was that he wanted to protect the trump family. he said it had nothing to do with the campaign. even though it was october 28th when the deal was struck. right before the election. if there are tapes of him talking to stormy's lawyer about the election and say weg got to get this done before the election, then it puts cohen in more jeopardy of a campaign finance violation because it looks like the money is unlawful campaign contribution. one thing the investigators will be listening for is any references to the campaign in those con vversations. >> you know, it also begs the question, steve, of why michael

cohen would save these calls. presumably because he thought he looked good in them. or that he needed the evidence or good in them to show somebody else. maybe his only client, donald trump. i don't know. but it's, steve, does it seem strange to you that he would report this stuff? >> look. that's a question to ask him. not me. i'm not a lawyer. ooip not michael cohen. what i am is an american who supported donald trump and who supported donald trump like most americans who support ed him, knowing full well by the way, there was a colorful past there, particularly before he was a politician. so is this really revel torre? like is this really news to most of america that perhaps a dozen years ago, he had a one night stand or an affair, if true and not say iing it is, but if true like would that have changed anyone's votes? would that change our decision to what he's doing today? my answer to all those questions would be no. not relevant. not jermaine. not, nothing to do with today.

this is a witch hunt. can't we understand that? >> paul, do you think it's a witch hunt or do you put more stake in what the president's close advisers are saying, which is they believe the investigation of michael cohen is a greater and more imminent threat to the president than bob b mueller's investigation. >> i was agreeing with r cortez until the last statement. i don't think voters cared at all that mr. trump had had a checker ed, colorful private life. why then pay stormy daniels $130,000. no allegation that it was not consentual. miss daniels in her interview. >> very clear it was consentual. >> so i think steve's right about that. what he's wrong about if in fact as toobin says, this was designed to affect the election and the timing is really subjective that it was. then you could be in violation of the campaign finance laws. they should have listened to you, steve, but mr. trump should have said, look, okay, i made a mistake in my marriage. it would have been fine, but you

can't spend 100, if they did, spend $130,000 to affect the election and not report it. not disclose it. hold on. this is an important point. what if it wasn't due to the fact of the election. let's again, i'm not seeing it happen. but say it did. say he did sleep with stormy daniels. wouldn't it be applauseplausibl might have been spent to preserve his marriage rather than the election? >> two weeks before the election, no. sorry. the affair happened like ten years ago. >> we know it happened more than once. go ahead. >> i also think you know, it's fine to be cynical about this election and people knew everything about truch. it trump. it may be people knew trump had a complicated marriage, but no one knew as far as i'm aware that he was paying hush money to all these women. and i think the fact that that didn't come out may well have had an impact on the election. so the idea that oh, everyone knew everything about donald trump, none of this matters.

i don't buy that at all. >> jeffrey, listen. >> go ahead. >> when this was not, everyone knew. donald trump is an outsider. he was not a politician. he did not live his life like a politician. thank goodness, right? >> an outsider when you give women hush money u? >> hold on, jeffrey. listen, there's a dark side to that. also a light side. the light side is that he was not scripted. he was not careful. he was not lawyerly. you can laugh at me. he didn't live a life that lended itself to being a politician. and the american people understood that and knew him. knew him very well. the star of the number one reality show in america. we knew him. he never portend ed he was francis. we were not missold. we were not led down a prim rose path. we knew who he was.

>> how do you have no morals when it comes to your sexual life is different than having no morals when it comes to skirting the law. i think there's a lot of people who might see a distinction between those two things. >> i think the most important thing about gloria's reporting is to quote jim comey, lordy, there's tapes. there are tapes. john oliver didn't know how right he was. now we have stupid tapes. what the hell. michael, did you pay full price for that law degree because what the hell are you doing recording these things. >> i just got to ask you, keith davidson at one point represent ing all three of the women that we are now aware of. daniels, mcdougle and now the playmate involved with the rnc doe r nor. i find that strange. am i right? these people who don't know each other all have the same lawyer? zwl it could be that this is simply a specialty he has and you know, lawyers do develop

specialties. the more sinister. >> all these women would know. >> the more sinister possibility is that cohen himself arranged for these women to be represented by someone he knew he could do business with. that's the, that's a more s sinister possibility. >> let me give you an even more cynical view. and this is i think the honest view. i think this is what trump voters believe. the swamp is trying to nullify the 2016 election. that is what is going on here. let's be honest about this. this is about impeachment. there's no crime here. it's about trying to -- >> steve, just to be fair, right. >> it's about trying to create conditions for impeachment. because so many people particularly elites in media and entertainment cannot accept that they got 2016 so wrong. and so this is their attempt to try to go back and thit redo

button. let's find something salaciousa. >> if there's been something going on in the southern district of new york and they get a no knock search, you're just going dismisths that as mea politics sfl. >> i believe this is a swamp acting at its worst. trying to nullify the will of people in 2016. i do. >> so you have someone saying here saying that law enforcement is now part of a political media kai ball against trump. >> yeah, respectfully. i just think it's ridiculous. you have the u.s. attorney's office in the southern district. the fbi. you have the mueller investigation. which has assembled all these guilty pleas already and the idea this is some attempt by the elites, whoever they are, to redo the election. >> it's silly. >> you do. you give me a list sometime, i guess. >> it would start with the doj. start with mccabe and mueller and rosenstein. >> and by the way, the

department of justice unfortunately has been insanely politicized and that's a shame. >> leads this vest ginvestigati because ethey are all republicans. >> being republican doesn't mean anything with this respect. respectfully, we know that. the republicans in washington, d.c. are as obstructionist as the democrats if not more so towards this president. this is the swamp against the people. >> that's the reality of the bottom line here. >> okay. >> this is why squid's squirt ink. try to cloud the water. >> nice try. >> wait, but now i get it. thank you all. . next, the president pard dons scooter libby. is he sending a message to former aides caught up in the former probe? valerie plame is "outfront" next. and breaking news. the president increasingly frustrated on the speed of the u.s. response to syria. new reporting on the warning he's getting from his military advisers tonight. there's little rest for a single dad.

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tonight, president trumplib. an extremely controversial

pardon. even george bush refused to pardon him. he was vice president dick cheney's staff and accused of lying to investigators, all this in a special counsel investigation into who leaked the identity of valerie plame. she was an undercover cia officer. her identity was exposed in 2003 and she is "outfront" now. it's wonderful to see you again. why do you think trump is pardoning libby right now? >> timing is everything, isn't it? thanks for having me on. look, donald trump is doing what president trump did not. this has nothing to do with justice. i think the times is not coincidental. there's been a lot of talk about pressure that donald trump is under. more so than in the last 48 hours than -- this is a way to

myov mind of sending a clear signal to curb ni, cohen, flynn, that you can go ahead if you are, you get wrapped up in this, you're caught lying to the fbi, committing a crime and national security, it's okay. i'll take care of you. because we know trump u values loyalty above all else. now, sarah sanders was asked basically what you're saying today, if there was a reason for the pardon. whether it was for trump to send a signal to bob mueller or as you're pointing out, who might be charged with him or might cooperate with him. here's the exchange. >> was the president sending some sort of signal to the mueller investigation or about the mueller investigation by pardoning scooter libby? >> not at all. one thing has nothing to do with

the other. >> do you buy it? >> i'm not sure the press secretary has a tremendous amount of credibility. no, i don't buy it at all. i think that this is, this is a tra travesty of justice. what we're seeing now is as it's unfolding, we don't want to see that trump is he's gone ahead and done this. it's really disgraceful. >> jim comey was involved in the libby case. the deputy attorney general at the time. he appointed the special counsel who investigated the case. is it coincidence that this pardon for libby is happening on the same day comey's excerpts came out? >> no, i don't think it is a coincidence at all. i think donald trump has done a r very good job. a masterful job of distraction. over here, over there. and this is i think we're more

example of that. look. it's important to point out tha pardon libby. he said i respect the jury's verdict. and i think this is another example of donald trump completely disrespecting those that have served their country. he was given, had an opportunity to serve in vietnam and he took as we know, at least four to five deferments. >> you know, your undercover career was ended by this leak and you've had a lot of soul u searching about this. you've spoken valerie. it was all about a leak. right? an underlying thing that happened. the president though, this president, donald trump, has taken a very strong stand on leaks. here he is. >>leakers. going to pay a big price.

>> papers are being leaked. it's criminal action. criminal act. i've actually called the justice department to look into the leaks. those are criminal leaks. >> so, he's outrage d at leaker, brings it up u again and again and again, but he's now just pardoned the person who's charged with lying about a leak. the leak that ended your career. your reaction? >> yeah. well, the irony is not lost on me. if none of that had happened, i would be overseas right now undercover doing the job that i loved. i loved my career. i was so proud to serve my country. i worked on nuclear counterp counterproliferation, trying to make sure bad guys did not get nuclear weapons. if scooter libby and there were others involved absolutely in the leak of my cia identity, there was a codery of senior bush white house officials. that led to the leak of my name. if none of that had happened, i wouldn't be sitting here this

pla . >> all right, i appreciate it. >> thank you. thank you erin. and next, breaking news on syria. president trump getting significant warnings on the risk the united states faces if he chooses to strike. be right back. hard to contain yourself, isn't it? uh huh! let it go! whoo! get a dollar-for-dollar match at the end of your first year. only from discover. you wouldn't accept from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. flonase. we're all under one roof now. congratulations. thank you. how many kids? my two. his three. along with two dogs and jake, our new parrot. that is quite the family. quite a lot of colleges to pay for though.

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dr. scholl's. born to move. breaking news, president trump's national security team just met hours ago on syria. cnn learned trump is butting heads with his advisers. saying trump pass pushed for plans on sustained assault. but mattis and other members of the team are. nice and new, and smart. jim sciutto is "outfront." what is the debate going on. trump pushing for a sustained assault. there is pushback within his own inner circle. >> whether to strike and how much to strike.

president trump joined by national bolton and nikki haley. warning the president of the risks of that. the risks of escalation of russia. and that of course poses enormous risk with the number of russian forces on the ground. we are told that the president has been frustrated with the push back with the options presented to him. some frustration of national security staff feeling boxed in. that does not mean they won't come to an agreement. you have debates like this regarding military action and that has been the debate. >> now, there is also a question of course the white house and state department saying they have high confidence that syria.

and let's be clear here. but bashar al as sad. >> there is little doubt that he is responsible. he has the resources. he has done this many times before and two, this is not just a chlorine attack but also involved some nerve agent. one handicap the united states has is they don't have boots on the ground to capture the evidence themselves. it is not about who did it and what they used. it is about how hard the evidence is that you have to

build international support. that is another question raised by mattis to the president. >> crucial question. talking about striking, possibly killing russians. it is not a small thing to say we should be 100%. i want to bring in military analyst former member of the joint chiefs of staff. kerr n colonel, what do you make of this. m mattis wants to get to 100% sure. >> the degree of certainty that they are willing to accept. and what we are dealing with is somebody in the form of mattis known as mad dog is now the restraining force on the trump administration. what is important is that we see the military system working to educate the president on not only his options but what the

possible consequences of the options should be. >> do you think they are essentially boxed in, or their hand is forced by the tweet that he sent, get ready russia. there is no option now but to strike. it is just a matter of how broadly and when. >> exactly. it is going to be not only how broadly and when, but also what set of targets. and those kinds of things that have to be hammered out in great detail in order to be effective. the target list that is done in a situation like this has to be precise because you want to hit it once, get it right and make sure you have the level of dr destruction in order to send the message. >> what is your feeling at this time? something could happen over the weekend or after? >> you never know, but something

that you should be prepared for. >> thank you. both so very much. i appreciate it. thanks for joining us. ac 360 with anderson cooper starts now. good evening. we learn that the president's personal attorney michael cohen is under criminal investigation. and more, maggie haberman -- we learn that cohen arranged another hush money. we saw michael cohen's attorney trying to block the justice department from reading documents. then we learned the president