everyone was like, heads-up. and then -- i don't think there's anything malicious there. it's just really funny and ironic. >> and maybe in the museum, can the ball -- save the ball, preserve the ball in the trump presidential museum whenever that is. the ball deserves a place. thanks for joining us for "inside politics." don't go anywhere. a lot of news to report. "wolf" starts right now. ♪ hello. i'm wolf blitzer. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks for joining us. the war begins. one of the people who has been closest to president trump officially turns on him. after michael cohen and his lawyers release a secret tape, the president is now responding with a blistering attack on his longtime former fixer. plus, does this tape show the president and his team violated campaign finance law? we have expert analysis on what this all means. and moments from now, the president has face-to-face negotiations with the european union as he defends his trade

wars and a new bailout plan from republican criticism. all that coming up. but up first, he once said he'd take a bullet for donald trump. now michael cohen has fired the first shot in what's likely to be an all-out war between trump and his longtime attorney and fixer. the president is lashing out over a secret audio recording of him and cohen obtained exclusively by cnn from cohen's attorney. on the tape, trump and cohen discuss a potential payoff stemming from allegations by a former playboy model of an affair with trump. the goal was to keep the story from coming out. >> i've spoken to allen weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding -- >> [ inaudible ]. >> yes. and it's all the stuff -- all the stuff. you never know where that company -- >> gets hit by a truck. >> i'm all over that.

>> let's go to our white house correspondent kaitlan collins. the president fired off an angry response on twitter directed at michael cohen. what did the president say in this tweet? >> well, wolf, the president isn't pleased. he went off on twitter not complaining about the content of what's included in the audio recording of his converation with michael cohen, but the fact that michael cohen recorded the conversation at all. the president said what kind of lawyer would tape a client? so sad. is this a first? he said he's never heard of it before. why was the tape so abruptly terminated while i was presumably saying positive things? and the president says i hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped. can this be so? too bad. the president doesn't elaborate on what those positive things he would have said while discussing a payment made to a playboy mod whole is alleging she had an affair with the president weeks before the election would have been. but we do know the white house is referring most questions about this and this recording to

the president's lawyer, rudy giuliani who is certainly firing back, responding. and as you'll recall, rudy just last week when this -- it was first reported this recording even existed, said he believed it would exonerate the president in the end. now today on twitter, rudy giuliani responding to the fact that this audio was published saying if cohen, as in michael cohen, is telling the truth, why are he and lanny davis misrepresenting the language from president trump? he says they said do not pay by cash, check, and why are they leaking falsely privileged and confidential information? so much for ethics. on that last note there, a lot of details here, but we should note this was considered a privileged conversation between president trump and his attorney michael cohen. but they waived privilege on this. then allowing this recording to go to the fbi. those prosecutors are investigating michael cohen. so there is no privilege here because the president and his legal team waived it. but, wolf, there's a lot of

confusion regarding this tape, what was being discussed, what the president was saying to michael cohen. but what's clear here is that we're seeing a dramatic new change in the relationship between president trump and michael cohen. once considered his longtime fixer, but now someone who can certainly be a pain in the side for president trump. >> i suspect this war between president trump and his team and michael cohen, his team, is only just beginning. kaitlan collins, thanks very much for that report. so what does this secret audio recording between president trump and michael cohen confirm? and what doesn't it confirm? it suggests the president knew about playboy model karen mcdougal's claims of an affair and efforts to keep the story quiet. listen to what cohen tells then candidate donald trump about efforts to buy the rights to mcdougal's story. >> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend david

so that i'm going to do that right away. i've come up -- i've spoken to allen weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with -- >> so what we are going to do? >> yes. and it's all the stuff -- >> all right. let's bring in our legal analyst, former federal prosecutor who is joining us. from your perspective, what is this audio, and you've listened to it presumably several times so far. what does the excerpt confirm? what does this is a about michael cohen's strategy right now? >> i think what we learned from this audio is three things. awareness, cover-up and timing. that's what you have to listen for. clearly it seems that the president is aware of this. it's not the first time he's ever learning of it. he's also very concerned about -- talk about cover-up in a second. about the timing. there's an earlier portion where he was talking about wanting to postpone things for four weeks. he's clearly aware of the

election which has important aspects in terms of the campaign finance laws. and then lastly, the kind of cover-up issue is why are they evenution this corporation to make the payments through? possibly requires more investigation. they want to do that to more distance him from the payments. >> there's a reference on the audio recording to a david. we presume it's david pecker, the publisher of american media, which is the parent company of the "national enquirer." what's the significance of that? >> it's the awareness issue. he says our friend david. clearly the president is not surprised of this issue. i think even the moment in the tape where cohen says i told you before and goes to his awareness that that publisher is involved. why are they having it made? >> significant development. trump is also heard saying something along the lines, and the tape is murky occasionally. paying with cash. it's muddled a little, that audio. not clear whether he suggests paying with cash, paying with a

check. i want to play that clip for you and our viewers can listen to it closely. >> and i spoke to allen about it when it comes time for the financing, which will be -- >> what financing? >> we'll have to pay. >> we'll pay -- >> no, no, no. >> how are you? >> so what did you hear there? pay with cash? pay with check? potentially that's a significant issue. >> yes, not clear who is saying the word check, but i think the legal analysis on that is check or cash does not matter. the real issue is payment and trump seems very aware he wants to make a payment. >> you pay cash then there's no record. if you pay with a check, there's a record. >> that would be the lay person notion that the president may be thinking but, obviously, there's still going to be an electronic record of the payment made. so either way the payment will be tracked some place. his notion of cash may make it

harder to track but it may show evidence of his intent to cover it up. >> thanks for that analysis. here's a reminder of the allegations, denials and revelations surrounding president trump's alleged affair with karen mcdougal. june 2006 -- that's when "playboy" playmate karen mcdougal claims she began a nearly year-long affair with then reality tv star n business mogul donald trump. >> we were together ten months before i chose to end it. so we saw each other quite frequently. >> so dozens of times you were together? >> many dozens of times. >> and you were intimate? >> yes. >> it came to light during trump's 2016 presidential run. in september of 2016, jump and his personal attorney michael cohen discussed buying the rights to mcdougal's story from ami, the parent company of the "national enquirer." then in november, days before the election, "the wall street journal" reported mcdougal reached a $150,000 deal for her story with ami.

hope hicks, the trump campaign spokeswoman, denied both the payment and the affair to "the wall street journal." in march of 2018, mcdougal sued ami to get out of her hush agreement and broke her silence on cnn. >> were you in love with him? >> i was. >> do you think he was in love with you? >> he was, yeah. he always told me he loved me. >> in april 2018, ami settles, releasing mcdougal from the agreement. the same month the fbi raided the office of trump's personal attorney and fixer michael cohen and seized legal records. the stunning revelation that cohen secretly recorded conversations between himself and trump, including the one where they discuss payments to mcdougal. when asked about it in the white house briefing on monday, sarah sanders said this. >> still deny that he ever had a relationship with a woman named karen mcdougal? >> the president maintains he's done nothing wrong.

>> one day later, cnn obtained those tapes. >> when it comes time for the financing, which will be -- >> what financing? >> we'll have to pay -- >> pay cash. >> no, no, no. >> the attorney says his client is ready to tell the truth. that's why trump attorney rudy giuliani is going after cohen. listen. >> this man has turned a corner in his life. has hit a reset button and he's now dedicated to telling the truth. the reason giuliani is attacking him, so viciously, rewriting what everybody hears with their own plain ears is they are afraid of him because donald trump can't stand the truth and the truth will come out. >> let's bring in chief political correspondent dana bash and gloria borger. gloria, what's cohen's strategy going forward right now with his decision to go ahead and release

this audiotape? >> this is kind of shakespearean. this whole thing. there was nobody more loyal to donald trump for years and years and years than michael cohen. any one of us who has spoken to michael cohen know he was the president's greatest defender during the campaign, both privately and on television. now i think they are at a bit of a crossroads where michael cohen, and this started shortly after july 4th, right around when he hired lanny daufrks when he decided, look, i've got to go my own way and declared his independence. we see this progressing to lanny davis releasing this tape. i think the strategy is to establish a distance between yourself and the president to perhaps let prosecutors know you have a lot of information that perhaps you are willing to share, and lanny davis portrays it as a sea change that cohen

has decided to be a different person. we really don't know what's inside michael cohen's head right now but we do know that there are legal cases that are progressing and michael cohen is in some trouble with the southern district of new york. we don't know how they'll react to this. >> for these two people, who were so close, and knew each other's deepest, darkest secrets, to be playing out their warnings about and strategies for one another in public like this is extraordinary. and that's what this is. and it keeps escalating and notching up, up, up. it wasn't that long ago that rudy giuliani, last month, told me and a few others that all michael cohen has to do is tell the truth and he's home free, directly into the camera, talking to one person, michael cohen. and that has escalated to where we are now where michael cohen,

both of them really, both sides are clearly seeing for whatever reason a public relations necessity to keep ratcheting it up and in public. i think it seems to be more of a pr strategy here. >> it is. >> than a legal strategy. it's hard to imagine when it comes to michael cohen's legal defense that it is a good thing to put this tape out there. >> yeah. >> this is about the pr war. >> i think it's a pr strategy. look, michael cohen feels that the president has kind of left him in the dust. and that he's rejected him and that has left him out there, hanging out there. that cohen has not gotten a lot of love from the president or from the family after all he's done for them. and i think he feels that he wants his name back. and this is one way to do it, as dana points out. it's a pr strategy. the question is whether it's a legal strategy and we don't know

the answer. >> it's also a question of whether it's going to work which is a very big opening question. >> and can really -- it's ugly right now. it can really get a lot more ugly in the days and weeks to come because you got two teams who are going to war against each other. and the accusations are about to explode. >> and there are two teams who play dirty and know each other's tactics because they've worked together. michael cohen, if nothing else, knows how donald trump thinks and vice versa. and, you know, as the gloves peel off, it is going to be -- because of that, it's going to be more fascinating. hard to imagine that team trump, aside from rudy giuliani's tweet today, or the president's tweet today, leaving it at that. >> right. we'll just -- we'll have to see what they decide to do. do they decide to release more tapes? we don't know. we do know that rudy giuliani is a hardball player. and he just got punched.

so we'll have to see whether he punches back. but in the grand scheme of things, the big question here is, how does this affect, if at all, michael cohen in the southern district of new york or potentially even with the special counsel? >> yeah, remember, michael cohen is under criminal investigation right now by the u.s. attorney -- >> no charges. >> no charges yet. but he potentially if he is charged, he's a man in his early 50s. he's got kids. he's got to worry about what could happen down the road. >> true. and the other piece of that big picture that you laid out so well is, really, whether michael cohen even has anything on donald trump or anyone else to give to the prosecutors in new york if he isn't, in fact, facing a series of charges or even one charge that could put him away. we don't know the answer to that. certainly this tape suggests he could, but it also suggests he might not. >> my suspicion is michael cohen

worked for a dozen years with president trump. he knows a lot. >> he sure does. >> a lot of secrets out there. and the president should be cautious in dealing with him because if this thing totally explodes, who knows where it's going to lead. but we'll see what happens. guys, thank you very, very much. i suspect this story is only just beginning. meanwhile, republican and democratic lawmakers here in washington, they are standing by to react to the audiotape and what happens from here. plus, as republicans blast the president's bailout of farmers hurt by his trade wars, the president is now about to go face-to-face with the eu president who has called his tariffs stupid. we'll see the encounter. and after a report suggests president trump was furious that melania trump, what she was watching on air force one. she was watching cnn. the first lady has just responded. we'll tell you. ♪ keep it comin' love. if you keep on eating, we'll keep it comin'.

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president trump did both in a series of tweets on trade earlier today. one he tweeted this. china is targeting our farmers who they know i love and respect as a way of getting me to continue allowing them to take advantage of the u.s. they are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. we were being nice until now. china made $517 billion on u.s. last year. in another tweet, quote, every time i see a weak politician asking to stop trade talks or the use of tariffs to counter unfair tariffs, i wonder what can they be thinking? are we just going to continue and let our farmers and country get ripped off? lost $817 billion on trade last year. no weakness. close quote.

many of those politicians who want to stop tariffs are, in fact, republicans. >> the tactics that are being used right now are not helping our producers. and all we're saying is, look, wouldn't we have been better off if we made a deal with tpp or strengthened our nafta agreement before we go after china? >> when you have tariffs, they're a bad thing. and then you try to solve them with bailouts. you're trying to make america 1929 again. that's not what the people in the state i represent want. we want to feed the world. more markets and more trade. >> i don't support tariffs. i think tariffs are taxes. i think there are better tools to use to get them to play fairly. >> china, of course, isn't the only target of the steep u.s. tariffs. right now the president is holding trade talks with european commission president jean claude junker. tom foreman is here to break it all down for us. how are the tariffs hurting the u.s. economy?

>> some of those lawmakers just said because they're attacking things sold over there. the u.s. imports about -- let me reset here. the u.s. imports about $600 billion worth of goods from the european union. that's more than america sends the other way in exports. but those exports are still critical to american businesses and communities coast to coast. as retaliatory tariffs are raised in the eu and elsewhere as they charge more for those u.s. goods you come into their market, the darker states on this map are where people are feeling it the most because they make a lot of stuff for export. two of the hardest hit, california, way over here, and tennessee right here. california, of course, is a huge economy and would have some hand in pretty much many of the 160 or so products targeted by european tariffs. look at the top three items here and you can see why tennessee is feeling the heat. whiskey. sales of u.s. whiskey have been booming overseas.

a lot from tennessee and neighboring kentucky. when tariffs make it more expensive, that poses a real threat to the growing market. the map of affected states looks a little different when you talk about retaliatory tariffs from china. agriculture is a big part of this equation. louisiana, for example, has almost $6 billion in agricultural exports. washington state has another roughly $5 billion. and then california weighs in again, always important, about $4 billion in automotive products out there. so if all these states feel so much pressure, why do this? from the president's point of view, this is the reason. look at how much the u.s. exports from china versus how much china imports from the u.s. the difference is around $376 billion. the white house doesn't like that and believes the short-term problems and all these complaints about a trade war right now for american communities will be outweighed by the long-term gains of these numbers coming more into

balance. wolf? >> this battle is heating up dramatically. tom foreman, thanks. we're waiting to hear from the president. we'll hear what he has to say on all of this coming up shortly. first, the white house raising eyebrows after cnn reveals officials will no longer release summaries of what happens in the president's phone calls with world leaders. plus, comparisons to george orwell after the president tells americans, don't believe what you see or read. we'll discuss. sometimes a day at the ballpark is more than just a day at the ballpark. stadium pa : all military members stand and be recognized. sometimes fans cheer for those who wear a different uniform. no matter where or when you served, t-mobile stands ready to serve you. that's why we're providing half off family lines to all military.

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the year is 2018, not 1984, but the sentiment isseer eerily similar to george orwell. now your own eyes are deceiving you as well. >> just remember what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening. just stick with us. don't believe the crap you see from these people. the fake news. >> that was yesterday at an event for veterans. let's bring in cnn's politics reporter chris cillizza. the president having what some are describing, an orwellian moment. >> yeah, look, wolf. this is a book that probably everyone read at some point in your high school or collegiate life. i want to read you a quote from

the book that will ring eerily reminiscent. the party told you to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears. it was their final, most essential command. i'll add there, wolf, take it out of the fictional realm, i'll add that in many authoritarian countries around the world lead by what we would call authoritarian dictators, there is a lot of state-run, state-controlled media. no free and independent press. basically you can only believe what the top person tells you to believe. the thing that worried me the most is not that donald trump said it. it's the cheering that you heard in that clip in response to it. i think that is just people cheering because they don't like the media, which is their right, but i wonder what their lives would be like without a free and independent media. >> while the president is telling people not to believe what they see or read, they are not being completely honest over at the white house or forthright

about what we all saw in helsinki last week at the summit with putin, are they? >> that's right. let's play a little sound first. this is from the summit. last monday in helsinki, finland. donald trump/vladimir putin being asked questions. let's play that. >> president putin, did you want president trump to win the election, and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that? >> translator: yes, i did. yes, i did. because he talked about bringing the u.s./russia relationship back to normal. >> okay. now let's go -- what you heard is this, wolf over here close to me. did you want president trump to win and did you direct any of your officials to do that? here's what still is on the official white house website as the white house transcript. did you direct any of your officials to do that? that doesn't make a lot of sense because you're missing this

whole first part which says did you want donald trump to win, to which putin responds, yes, i did, yes, i did. now the white house has said, cnn has reached out. the white house said there's nothing malicious in this. what it is is, as putin was having it translated to him in realtime in russian, the question obviously asked in english, a part of it was missed by the official white house stenographers. those are not appointees. those are lifetime people. these are not partisans who are keeping track of what's being said. the thing to note is they haven't corrected the record. everyone agrees this version is what happened. if you listen to that clip we played. this is the version. this is the version on the white house website. it's a simple change. you literally cut and paste this and put it here. don't know why they haven't done it. they should do it. they correct transcryipts all te time for less major omissions or something wasn't said properly. given what president trump has said over would versus wouldn't,

given what he said when he said no but wasn't talking about russia as it relates to russian targeting, you'd think they would want to change this to accurately reflect the record. >> it's unclear why they still haven't fixed it. they've known about this mistake for a week at least. thank you, chris, very much. as michael cohen officially turns on president trump by releasing a secret audiotape, there's a comment in the tape that suggests there's more being held secret. we'll discuss. and a short time from now, lawmakers will grill mike pompeo on the president's summit with vladimir putin. one of those senators standing by live to join us as we learn what pompeo is expected to reveal.

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in we may finally get some answers about what happened during that secret and closed door meeting between president trump and russian president vladimir putin. that's because in about an hour and a half or so, the secretary of state mike pompeo will be questioned by the senate foreign relations committee and certainly likely he'll be asked lots of questions about what happened in helsinki. democratic senator ben carden of maryland will be one of the lawmakers questioning pompeo. he's joining us live from capitol hill. thanks for joining us. we learned today that during his testimony, pompeo's expected to declare that the u.s. will not recognize russia's annexation of crimea in ukraine. why didn't the president flatly say that in helsinki?

>> wolf, it's mystifying why the president did what he did in helsinki, why he didn't dismiss out of hand the interrogation by russia of american citizens, why he was not public in bringing up to mr. putin interference in our elections. the list goes on and on and on. but today is the first opportunity that congress will have to question a high-level trump official on what happened in helsinki. and it's also our first opportunity to question in regards to what happened in singapore with north korea. this administration has not been forthcoming with the american people or congress as to what happened in these one-on-one meetings. >> is there one single question you most want to ask pompeo about the trump/putin summit? >> yes, i want to know what agreements were entered into. whether mr. trump said -- made any commitments in regards to ukraine, syria, in regards to

election interference, waiving of sanctions. we want to know exactly what was agreed to and, quite frankly, we hope that mr. pompeo is in a position to give us clear answers in that regard. >> the president now says he is concerned. he is concerned, he says, that russia is trying to interfere in the midterm congressional elections here in the united states in november but not to help him or to help republicans but actually, he says now that the russians want to help the democrats, your party. do you think the president is sending up an excuse in case democrats, for example, were to win big in the midterms? >> you know, it's hard to predict what the president is saying. obviously, there's no truth at all to that comment. i wish the president would first actively acknowledge that it was russia that interfered in our 2016 elections and that he's taking steps to protect us against the potential attacks in 2018 on our election system.

but, instead, he's playing politics. you're right. he's very sensitive to the integrity of his election even though compromised by russia. he's trying to undermine the 2018 elections by raising doubt as to whether russia is trying to tip the scales in favor of a party. it's absurd the way he handles this. >> the president says he's been tougher on russia than any of his predecessors. abo if a bipartisan sanctions bim is placed on his desk, i assume he'll sign it. the last was passed by the senate with 98-2 and he reluctantly signed that. is the president, as far as you know, actively encouraging republicans and others to go ahead and pass new sanctions legislation against russia? >> first of all, wolf, there are sanctions in the bill we passed last year that are mandatory that this administration has not imposed on russia. so they've already not complied

with the law we passed. they ask for a waiver exception in regards to imposing some of these sanctions. so this administration has been very weak in regards to sanctions against russia. we had to take steps to protect the sanctions from being released by mr. trump without consultation with congress. we are ready to pass another sanction bill to deal with election interference, to deal with strengthening our resolve in regards to ukraine. it would be helpful if the president would work with us. we don't expect to get any help from the president but i think there's a strong bipartisan interest to strengthen our sanctions against russia, particularly in light of the helsinki summit. >> yeah, clearly not enthusiastic about the last sanctions legislation. quickly, before i let you go, senator, let me get your reaction to the secret audio recording cnn obtained of a conversation between president trump, then candidate trump, and his former personal attorney and

fixer michael cohen. i assume by now you've had a chance to listen to it. what's your reaction? >> well, quite frankly, we're seeing cover-up here. we're seeing an attempt to silence an article from reaching the public. so this is very damaging, i believe, to what the motivations have been to keep information from the public about mr. trump. >> you're suggesting the president was aggressively working with american media, the parent company of the enquirer to pay off mcdougal so that article would never appear? >> the recording indicates they were trying to prevent this from being made public. who has an interest in that? the only person i can think of is mr. trump. obviously, we need to connect dots but it very much appears to me this was an effort to keep from the public information about mr. trump. >> senator cardin, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. any moment now, we're

expecting to hear directly from president trump. he's meeting right now on u.s. tariffs with the leader who has openly called his plan stupid. the eu representative is here in washington. and the president is also taking heat from his own party when it comes to trade. the michael cohen tapes. his white house invitation to vladimir putin. i'll speak with a republican lawmaker. that's next. ♪ when i touch you like this ♪ it's so hard to believe ♪ but it's all coming back me. ♪ baby, baby, baby. all you can eat is back, baby. applebee's. they're all going in the same direction but in very different ways

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president trump's in the oval office right now with the president of the european commission, jean claude juncker.

>> it is an honor to have jean claude juncker. he's a very smart man and a tough man that represents his people well and the countries well. and we want to have a fair trade deal. and we're looking to have a fair trade deal. and hopefully we can work something out. over the years the united states has been losing hundreds of bms of dollars with the european union. and we just want it to be a level playing field for our farmers, for the manufacturers, for everybody. and we also want a big beneficiary, frankly, to be the european union. so we think it can be good for everybody. and that's why we're here to discuss, mr. president, thank you very much for coming. thank you. >> yeah. my pleasure, mr. president. because i wanted to thank you for having taken the initiative to invite me to the white house. we are close partners, allies, not enemies, we have to work together. we are representing half of the

world trade. $1 trillion is the trade figure between us. and so i think that we have to talk to one another. and that is what we do today. i do think that we should focus on the reducing tariffs instead of increasing them. and that's what we have to do. >> well, agree. if we can have no tariffs and no barriers and so no subsidize, the united states would be extremely pleased. we have many countries, we won't see the european union, we have many countries with massive barriers and massive tariffs. and we have to follow. and you could call it retaliation, but i would rather just say we want reciprocal. so whether it is with european union or others, it has to be reciprocal at a minimum. and we are working on that. and we're making tremendous strides. we're doing very well with mexico. we're doing very well with a lot of countries, actually, right

now. and -- but this is something as jean-claude said, together as a unit, we make up actually more than 50% of the world trade. that's a big number. that is a big number. so we expect something very positive to take place, but you'll be the first to know. thank you all very much. appreciate it. thank you. thank you very much. thank you. thank you very much. thank you. thank you. thank you very much, everybody.

>> all right. so the reporters there are trying to ask the president some questions. clearly, he was not anxious to answer any questions during that photo op as the reporters were escorted out. let's get analysis from republican congressman ryan costello. congressman, thank you so much for joining us. there's a lot of concern about the tariffs that the president has imposed. the speaker, paul ryan, says he hates, he opposes the tariffs as they are simply a tax on the american people. the price of all sorts of products is going to go up here in the united states. the president now says an agricultural product, he's willing to come up with a $12 billion bailout to farmers. what is your reaction to this latest dispute? >> well, similar to the speaker and many other republicans on the hill, this is a self-inflicted wound. this is going to be very damaging to our farmers, to the agricultural sector. you know, using a credit facility created during the

great depression to create a subsidy for farmers while we hopefully cross our fingers and bring about reducing barriers is something that gives me great pause, because we do not know what the strategy is or what the end result may be, but we do know that in the meantime over the past several weeks, the cost to american farmers in getting dairy and getting soybeans to market in foreign countries has been reduced by about 15%. and it is expected through the department of agricultural that we are going to see less agricultural output get sold. and that's not a good thing in this economic environment. where we want our farmers to stand on their own, earn an income without the help of subsidize. >> yeah, $12 billion in deficit spending to, in effect, try to appease the farmers out there, the agricultural states. that's a series, serious issue.

do you agree with the speaker that the tariffs represent a new tax on people? because the price on all products is simply going to go up? >> yeah, i do. that is just a basic economic piece of the equation. i mean, that's not even in dispult. there are those that may wish to use a different term other than tax, but if i'm buying a product and then tomorrow as a result of a particular policy of the product, it costs 10% more, to me it's a 10% tax. that's what is going to be felt by the american consumer. across a broad section of the economy, the longer this goes on. >> so what is going to happen, how do you see this unfolding? >> well, my hope is that -- and i think all americans hope, is that if the president's going to do what the president's going to do here, i don't see -- he's not going to backtrack here. one thing you can say about this president is, he owns who he is. he owns his policies. and he's going to see them

through to tend. my hope is that this $12 billion is the backstop that farmers need during this point in time where they're going to lose money. my further hope is during that period of time, the eu, china, and even those in nafta realize that the president is serious, that he's going to see this through, and that they have to come to the negotiating table. and that we get better trade deals out of it. i think that's the hope for every single member of congress, every single american. and while i can, and many others can be critical of the $12 billion subsidy, i think we need it as a result of him imposing the tariffs. we don't like the tariffs, but the hope is that we end up in a better place months from now with better trade deals with a host of other countries. the concern is that we don't get there and then have to deal with perhaps another round of subsidize in order to shore up the agricultural sector. >> yeah, one of the ironies and several people have pointed this

out, congressman, the $12 billion could come from china because china would lend the u.s. the money, the so-called deficit spending. >> you're very correct. i'm glad you pointed that out. i'm glad you pointed that out. >> that's a real serious issue. let's continue this conversation down the road, congressman costello. thank you very much for joining us. >> appreciate being with you. the secretary of state mike pompeo is standing by to testify up on capitol hill. will he provide any answers to what was said inside that closed-door meeting between president trump and russian president putin in helsinki? we'll have live coverage coming up. your brain changes as you get older. but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown

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and add voice and tv for $34.90 more per month. call or go online today. good afternoon, everyone. i'm brooke baldwin. you're watching cnn. the man who knows donald trump's secrets is at war with him. michael cohen who proudly called himself trump's fixer is now the one to make the first move to show how broken, how shattered their relationship has truly become. cohen's attorney has released audio exclusively to cnn of this conversation between cohen and then candidate donald trump. this reporting is about how they would buy the rights to karen mcdougal's story. she's the former playboy model to allege she had the affair