we'll see how he reacts to all this news. >> we'll keep an eye on that. thanks for joining us on "inside politics" today. jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer today. he picks up our coverage right now. have a great weekend. hello. i'm jim sciutto in today for wolf blitzer. 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. a new denial. president trump disputing michael cohen's claim as first reported here on cnn that the president knew of and approved of the trump tower meeting with the russians before that meeting happened. so in a battle of credibility, who are we to believe? plus, vladimir putin invites president trump to moscow and accepts his invitation back here to washington. this as we learn russians attempted to hack a senator's office this year. and the u.s. economy growing at

the fastest rate in some four years, and the president vows that 4% growth is not a one-time shot. up first now, president trump firing back and once again denying he knew in advance about the infamous trump tower meeting in june 2016. the president's latest denial in response to cnn's reporting. according to sources, former trump fixer michael cohen says then-candidate trump not only knew about that meeting but also gave the green light to go ahead with it. and that he's willing to make that claim to special counsel robert mueller. the premise of the meeting was that the russians had dirt on hillary clinton. earlier today, the president tweeted the following. quote, i did not know of the meeting with my son don junior. sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam. he even retained bill and crooked hillary's lawyer. let's bring in cnn white house correspondent abby phillips. as this story broke, you've been

speaking to people in the white house. what has been their reaction to this? any nervousness behind the scenes? >> well, jim, this morning you saw a president fairly upbeat on another subject, about the economy. but behind the scenes, the president has been angry. he's been stewing about a series of stories that are quite negative about some potentially damaging legal troubles on the horizon. the michael cohen story continues to unfold, and the president has been watching, being briefed by his advisers, and has been growing angry. an administration official tells us. the president yesterday as he was traveling, watching that coverage on air force one, stewing about it. we saw him really explode this morning on twitter, complaining about the coverage, complaining his former personal lawyer michael cohen might have betrayed him. as you just read, he retained a lawyer who is working actively in a way that the president finds to be confrontational. he's also complained about reporters asking him questions about it. this week the white house tried to punish a cnn reporter for

doing that. today in the rose garden, the president gave a news event but did not take questions, even as reporters asked him about some of these very issues. the president clearly agitated about a series of stories that he thinks are stomping on otherwise good news on the economic front that he would much rather tout, jim. >> not the first time he's complained about reporters or former staff. the white house, as we were reporting earlier, has had postponed the invitation for vladimir putin to visit washington, but now today putin says he's, nftin fact, ready to come to the states and reciprocate with a visit to moscow. i'm just curious, who is running this show? is the white house? control of this? is vladimir putin surprising the white house with these public statements? >> well, that's a really good question, jim. i think one of the dynamics coming out of the helsinki meeting was this feeling in the white house that moscow was really the one running the show. they were putting out announcements about the deals the president supposedly made in his one-on-one meeting with vladimir putin.

they announced by surprise on twitter that they had invited vladimir putin to washington. he sort of brushed back that invitation, saying maybe we can meet at the g20, prompting the white house to turn around and rescind the invitation, saying they're going to push it back until the first of next year, of 2019. now we're hearing from moscow again that putin is ready to meet either in washington or in moscow with president trump, and sarah sanders issued a statement through the press pool this morning saying that president trump looks forward to having president putin in washington after the first of the year and is open to visiting moscow after receiving a formal invitation. the white house here clearly trying to keep relations warm, but there's tension obviously in this back and forth about when a meeting can happen feasibly between these two leaders. frankly, here in washington, the prospect of putin coming to the united states just before a midterm election was not warmly received. so the white house is having a little bit of trouble back home making the environment something

that would work for them in order to have a productive meeting with putin and the united states. >> imagine that, a democratic senator confirmed just yesterday she was the subject of an unsuccessful attack from russia in an election year. abby phillip at the white house, thanks very much. today's twitter denial from president trump on the michael cohen news just the latest in a long line of pushback from this president, his allies, and some changing stories. cnn politics reporter and editor at large chris cillizza is here. how do we get to this point? one thing that struck me is there have been a thousand different stories about this from denials to different explanations to denials again. not exactly a consistent line from the president or his team. >> that's exactly right, jim. i think that's what makes it so hard to just say, oh, well, what donald trump has said must be right. i don't think there's any way i can tell you how many times the trump world has denied this. it's better to show you. let's play some sound of the many denials. >> i am going to give a major

speech on probably monday of next week, and we're going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the clintons. i think you're going to find it very informative and very, very interesting. >> when did the president learn that meeting had taken place? >> i believe in the last couple of days is my understanding. >> one key point is this is not a situation where the president was involved in this meeting, was not aware of the meeting, did not attend this meeting. >> did he really not know about this meeting until a few days ago? >> that's correct. >> did you tell your father anything about this? >> no. it was such a nothing. there was nothing to tell. i mean, i wouldn't have even remembered it until you start scouring through the stuff. it was a waste of 20 minutes, which was a shame. >> did you know at the time they had the meeting? >> no, i didn't know anything about the meeting. it must have been a very unimportant meeting. i never even heard about it. >> no one told you a word, nothing? >> nobody told me.

i didn't know anything. very unimportant. sounded like a very unimportant meeting. >> so we have that. but then, jim, as you mentioned, we also have so many conflicting narratives here. i want to go through a few things of what was said and what we know now. donald trump jr. first said that meeting in june 2016 at trump tower was about a relatively obscure adoption law that russia wanted done differently. okay. president trump dictated that initial response about adoption. that in and of itself is a changed narrative. remember that donald trump and his lawyer said he had nothing to do with that statement that don junior made to "the new york times" when it was initially revealed. turns out not only did he know about it, he dictated it. we learned later not from don junior but from e-mail exchanges that were released that don junior knew it wasn't first about adoptions. the reason the meeting happened between these group of russians, don junior, jared kush nerkushn

paul manafort is because dirt was promised on hillary clinton. finally, they've basically said, okay, well, our initial story wasn't right, but nothing happened. this meeting was a nothing burger, so no need to pay any attention to it. the problem, jip, so much of what we initially were told from dong junior, donald trump, donald trump's lawyers about this meeting was not accurate, and knnow they're saying that stuff might not have been accurate, but this time we're saying it is. now we have michael cohen saying it isn't. too unreliable narrators. the question is, who do we believe? >> this is part of their explanation. apparently if they had offered the dirt on hillary clinton, it would have been a worthwhile meeting. i might have told my father about it. that's the thing. hard to find a consistency. chris, thanks very much. joining me now, former federal

prosecutor seth waxman, and cnn national security analyst mark mazetti, who also works for a paper call the "the new york times." this is an unusual way for a willing witness to present himself to a special counsel in public, in effect. is this something that the special counsel would take seriously as an offer? i imagine -- listen, if mueller was interested in his knowledge of this meeting, wouldn't he have already reached out to him? >> it does appear cohen is actively seeking a deal. you're right. if mueller acts in ways that sometimes are mysterious but they're very purposeful, to this would be something he'd want to know. chris brought me back to this. over a year ago, this long and painful weekend of trying to figure out the truth on this meeting. where we ended up was they knew it was coming from the russian government. they knew it was dirt. the big unanswered question still is did donald trump know.

that's why the cohen story is very big, if true. if cohen did have knowledge and can prove is, it's a huge story. so that's really the big missing piece of this story. >> and in our story about this, cohen claims he was in the room when then-candidate trump was informed about this meeting by his son donald trump jr. so he's claiming firsthand knowledge. michael cohen has been, it seems, asked about this before in an environment where it matters. he appeared before house and senate committees. it's cnn's reporting that someone with knowledge of his house testimony has told us that he did not testify in that context, that the president knew of this meeting in advance. do we know if he was -- do you know in your reporting if he was specifically asked about it? and what problem would that pose for michael cohen? if in that environment where

your tell is required by law to be truthful and in another environment, you know, what does that do to his legal situation but also to his credibility? >> well, that's exactly the word i was going to use. there's a credibility problem here when you're telling one story to one group of people who have a legal reason to expect you to tell the truth and another story when your back is more up against the wall because you're the subject of an investigation yourself. michael cohen is not the first person in this entire affair to change his story. he's not the first person to give an incomplete or incorrect record of events to house investigators. we saw that happen when eric prince's testimony went back and forth. so that's not good, but it's not unique in this whole narrative. the question is really does he have proof of these things? is it just his word? then of course there's a question of how much weight that word has, given that his story has changed and he does have his own problems to think about. but he and his lawyers seem to be saying, no, they do have -- if not proof of this specific thing, then tapes of other interactions that would go towards establishing his credibility and the question is

really, is it enough to meet -- well, to convince the special counsel if there's something there's he's trying to convince him of and meet a legal threshold. this is what they're going to need if they take this case forward. >> i should note in our reporting, it's our understanding michael cohen does not have an audio recording of this meeting to corroborate it. seth, criminal defense attorney, former federal prosecutor. you've been on both size. let's talk about the president's legal liability here. it's two paths, is it not? it's both on for knowledge of a meeting that would involve illegal foreign help to his campaign but also on trying to cover up that meeting potentially later. that's two avenues of potential legal liability. >> that's the obstruction on the one hand and the underlying crime. it's always been my opinion at the heart of the mueller investigation is this quid pro quo, this offer of dirt for hillary in exchange for reducing

or e liliminating sanctions on russians. when he was inaugurated or sworn into office, we can all agree that he's subject to federal bribery law. that law says it applies much, much earlier. it applies as of the date the person is nominated or officially notified that they're going to be nominated. that is in the heart of this time frame when the trump tower meeting occurred and all of this other material. the other big point about federal bribery, it is a 15-year maximum prison sentence associated with it. it also can be a predicate to other charges. all the charges we've heard about thus far are campaign finance violations, conspiracy to defraud the u.s. those are two and five-year maximum sentences. the federal prosecutors use hammers to go after people in the inside of conspiracies like the jared kushners, like the don juniors. it's always been my opinion that it's this federal bribery law that's at the heart. now mr. cohen putting mr. trump at the center of this quid pro

quo kind of lends evidence to that underlying legal theory. >> mark, it struck me that listening to the president's attorney rudy giuliani last night that he floated about 15 different defenses on this. on the one hand, he said that, yeah, a meeting took place, but other people will contradict cohen. on the other hand, he said, all i have to do is create a reasonable doubt. on the other hand, he said he has no credibility. two months ago, he told george stephanopoulos he was an honorable lawyer. is it your sense that this white house is nervous about what mike come h cohen knows about the president's activities? >> in this case, they might need to be nervous. if, in fact, cohen can prove trump had foreknowledge of this meeting, then it's significant in the narrative. the mantra in the white house has been there's no collusion.

the reason for twhy the trump t meeting is important is because it shows the top tier of the trump campaign wanted to collude. they knew there was a russian government attempt to give dirt on hillary clinton, and they were disappointed that it didn't deliver. so it's significant, and if the president knew about it, it would be significant. >> it's a great point, is it not -- and we were saying this a little earlier. trump himself has said this. any campaign would want this kind of dirt. they're kind of defending what they wanted the meeting to be and then saying at the same time, well, it didn't turn out to give us what we wanted, and therefore, there's no crime here. there's no collusion here. >> it's almost a philosophical legal question. if you had the intent to commit a crime but didn't actually do it, how bad is that when you're talking about both a legal process and public opinion? they both matter, especially in an election year. granted, the president's not on the election, but the republican party kind of is in congress. >> i'm sure this republican

party would much prefer the economic figures to be the story rather than this. it keeps going. thanks very much. the president today doing a victory lap as we were mentioning as the economy grows at its fastest pace in four years. we're going to take a look at what's behind that growth this quarter as well as how sustainable it is. plus, will the president accept vladimir putin's invitation to moscow? it comes as we learn that the russians just tried to hack a democratic senator's office. that's right, this year in 2018. and the north koreans releasing the remains of american soldiers after the president's summit with kim jong-un. i'll speak live with a man who's negotiated directly with the north. truecar is great for finding new cars. you're smart, you already knew that.

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it is certainly a big number for the u.s. economy. 4.1%, that is the rate the gross domestic product, a measure of the entire u.s. economy, grew in the last quarter. that's the fastest economic growth for a quarter in almost four years. president trump, of course, touting the achievement earlier today. >> we are the economic envy of the entire world. when i meet the leaders of countries, the first thing they say invariably is, mr. president, so nice to meet you, congratulations on your economy. you're leading the entire world. they say it almost each and every time. >> let's bring in mya mcginness, president of the committee for a responsible federal budget. certainly a lot of numbers here. the headline number, 4.1%. is this a sustainable rate as we look back -- these are the quarters going back to, well, the last quarter of the last election. >> right.

there's no question this is a really strong top line number, but just about everybody, probably with the exception of those in the white house, think this is a temporary blip. >> why is it temporary? >> there are a lot of things going on here, but there's more of a sugar high story than the really important question, which is can you get sustainable growth? we have a lot of headwinds against us in the economy, mainly the ageing of the population. but this quarter what we have was deficit finance tax cuts, deficit finance spending, and a huge kind of bump up in demand for our goods, soybeans in particular, because of the impending possible trade war. >> so here are some of the numbers that make it up. nearly 10% growth in exports. consumers also giving it a bit of a boost. let's dig down on that export number. you say this is responding, in effect trying to get it in under the wire before the tariffs come in. >> that's what happens. there was a huge demand for our goods. soybeans is a big piece of this whole story. >> 9,000%. >> that's a massive amount of

soybean purchases. basically, people wanted to get them from other countries before the tariffs hit. it's the anticipation of a trade war. it's not that there's a great new demand for soybeans. basically, this is not going to last. so the demand came up this quarter, but we won't see it in the subsequent quarters. >> because the tariffs are beginning to take effect, does that mean you see the end of that sugar high in the next quarter? does it get into the numbers that quickly? >> yeah, again, there's two things going on. there's this export, the demand for soybeans. then there's the stimulus that came from spending and tax cuts that ran up the national debt. both of those are projected to start to fade in the next quarters. overall for this year, we're seeing gdp growth that will be significantly lower than it was for this big quarter. >> the president, as you know, likes to tout things as the biggest ever, historic, never seen before. if we look back even to, well, barack obama, a name president trump doesn't like to mention,

you've had bigger growth in past cycles. why are these peaks higher than this peak as you look back? >> well, the real thing is that quarterly gdp growth isn't a number you want to focus on. where we are right now, what we really want to think about is how long can the economy, how high can the economy grow for the next decade or at least couple years. certainly annual growth matters more. quarterly growth, you have all sorts of things changing from the seasonality to the timing shifts. these are not the numbers to think about. the numbers are the trend. president trump does have a challenge, not of his own making. that's the demographics working against us. the sugar high isn't going to lead to sustainable growth. that's really the big name of the game here. >> he may be hoping and waiting for it to last at least into the midterm elections. we'll see. >> that would be longer than i think these temporary blips are going to be able to last. >> interesting. that's only four months away. thanks very much. more than a week after the

president sided with vladimir putin over the u.s. intelligence community, the russian president invites trump to moscow. we're going to discuss the fallout of that if mr. trump accepts. and 65 years since the korean war, north korea returns what could be remains of american service members. now that the north has made good on at least one promise from that summit, could this lead to more substantive breakthroughs on denuclearization? we're going to ask a former ambassador, bill richardson. he'll be next. smart home technology...meet beautiful window coverings. can something so easy, and so affordable... also be this much fun? ohhhhh, yeaaaaah. get smart shades, by budget blinds and lutron. the #1 provider of custom window coverings.

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russian president vladimir putin has extended a counteroffer to president trump for a second summit between the two leaders. >> translator: we are ready for such meetings. we are ready to invite president trump to moscow to be my guest. he has such an invitation. i've toll him that. and i'm ready to go to washington. i repeat once again, if the right conditions for work are created. >> the invitation comes after the president invited putin to washington later this year, but then backtracked and pushed that potential meeting to next year after the midterm elections. for more now, let's bring in senior international correspondent matthew chance. he is in moscow. matthew, i'm curious how this is seen in moscow. it strikes me that vladimir putin is running the show on

this summit here. it's going to happen. maybe i won't come. now i will come. what's the perception in moscow? >> well, i think it's a very difficult issue for the kremlin to handle. of course, we saw what the dynamic was like in helsinki. i was in that press conference with presidents trump and putin. putin came across as much more dominant. president trump came across as deferential, even submissive at times, which i think was shocking to many people in the audience. people in russia were also shocked as well. state television said that president trump smelt like a kremlin agent. that was the words that they used to describe the u.s. president. so i think the kremlin have kind of backed off a bit, despite this latest invitation. they're concerned that it's gone a little bit too far. they want president trump to deliver on his election promises, to make the relationship better with russia, but they also see that he's not

going to be able to do that if he continues to perform like he performed in helsinki when standing next to president putin. so yes, there was this invitation extended today. president putin speaking in south africa at a brics summit said that, you know, he's already given that invitation, in fact, to president trump, perhaps providing us with some insight into what else was discussed in that meeting, that secret meeting or closed door meeting that they had together whilst in the finnish capital. but he made the point that the conditions have to be right. what he was talking about then, i think, is putin wants the political environment in the united states to be less hostile to him if he's going to undertake another summit. he wants something tangible out of it, jim. >> yeah, doesn't help that apparently russia's hacking u.s. senators again. matthew chance in moscow. let's talk about that invitation. joining me now is former u.s. ambassador to the united nations, bill richardson.

ambassador richardson, the president had what by even republican accounts was a disastrous summit in helsinki with vladimir putin. what is the good reason to have another meeting now, whether it's here in the u.s. or moscow? >> i would hold off on the summits between the president and president putin. they've just caused problems, misperceptions. he said this, this happened, secret meetings. what i would do is old-fashioned diplomacy. task your secretary of state to meet with foreign minister lavrov. find ways to reach possible common ground on the intervention in syria, on the crimea issue, on arms control issues. some soft power issues that might improve the relationship, which right now is in tatters. i would avoid summits. i think the president is getting in trouble with too many summits, going from the top to the bottom on these

relationships. i think there's a little -- a few problems on the north korea front. although, the remains issue is positive. but i do think that with russia, just stay away from each other. i think it's in both leaders' interests. let your diplomats. mike pompeo has done a good job on north korea. let's see if he can smooth things out. lavrov i know. knows the united states well. maybe progress can be made. but start at the lower level instead of going to the top for another summit that could be another disaster. >> well, let me ask you this. senator clare mccaskill revealed yesterday, confirmed that a russian cyber attack targeted her. it was unsuccessful, she said. so this is really one of the first instances we're seeing of russian interference in this

election cycle. should a u.s. president, donald trump, meet with a russian president when that is happening right now? >> no, he shouldn't. and this is another issue. although, i think pompeo and the white house has said they do recognize the russians interfered. this is an instance in the 2018 election. clare mccaskill, that's one of the most coveted seats. she's a very strong senator. but this shouldn't happen. there should not be any summits while the russians continue this deplorable tactic. >> i want to switch geears now, if i can, to north korea. a country you have dealt with personally. you know it very well. a moment in the last 24 hours in south korea. what are believed to be remains of u.s. troops killed during the korean war, some 55 in fact. before you have a chance to answer, please have a watch here.

>> fallen heroes from america back from the korean war. they're coming back to the united states. these incredible american heroes will soon lay at rest on sacred american soil. >> so this is, ambassador richardson, one of the first, really, concrete steps we've seen from north korea during th this. it doesn't relate to denuclearization, but it's concrete. is this an important sign from the north korean side? >> well, this is good an important for north koreans and for the united states, for the families that have been waiting. i got seven remains in 2007 from the north koreans in a negotiation. but this is just the start, jim. these are -- the north koreans said 200. they're doing 55. they're slow rolling this. they're going to stall this. there's 5300 total.

this is going to be a long process. it's good that it's happening. on the denuclearization front, the north koreans have been very silent, and they're not delivering, although they did blow up a missile site. at the same time, they're developing more nuclear fuel. secretary pompeo admitted that. so they're bobbing and waving and not fulfilling their denuclearization commitments. but this is also going to be a long process. this is also going to be a tough negotiation that should be continued. >> as you know, they like to drag out these negotiations. ambassador richardson, thanks very much for taking the time. >> thank you. well, this just in to cnn. facebook has suspended the personal profile of alex jones, the founder of infowars. he's pushed numerous conspiracy theories. in fact, just outright fake stories. hear about the last straw for facebook. that's next. what about him?

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cnn money senior media reporter oliver darcy joins me from new york. oliver, explain what facebook has done so far, and i suppose what they haven't done so far and why they're doing it now. >> well, last night facebook said that they suspended the personal profile of alex jones, but they are leaving right now at least the infowars and alex jones official profile page up. what this means is alex jones' personal profile, he can no longer post photos, but other administrators can go on infowars and post content to infowars, post content to the alex jones page. it's some action from facebook. it's really the first action we're seeing against alex jones. but it's still allowing infowars and alex jones -- they can still go on facebook and post their content. >> so then it seems like it's a step without a difference. are they considering banning him entirely from the platform?

>> so what facebook says is that infowars and the alex jones page haven't met the threshold of violations necessary to warrant unpublishing their pages from facebook. that said, i talked to a spokesperson earlier this morning, and that person had said that they are close to meeting that threshold that would result in the pages being unpublished. facebook hasn't really specified what that threshold is. they won't say how many strikes against the accounts would warrant unpublishing the page, but it's apparently close to hitting that number, and that would result in facebook unpublishing these pages from their social media platform. >> now, i imagine jones is not happy with this prospect. what's been his response? >> right. we just actually got this totally bonkers cease and desist statement from alex jones. he's asking cnn to cease and desist reporting essentially on the company, and he calls cnn a number of things, says we're

un-american for reporting on facebook and their position on his infowars page. of course, you know, cnn hasn't done a number of the things that we're accused of, including he says we're trying to ban his free speech. that's not what anyone at cnn is trying to do. we're just reporting on how facebook deals with the infowars page on their website. >> yeah, i mean, you might say we're doing our job. i'm an american and you are. oliver darcy, thanks very much. >> thank you, jim. president trump denying michael cohen's claim that he knew and approved of the trump tower meeting with russians in 2016 promising dirt on hillary clinton. the question is, does robert mueller already know who's lying in this story? a republican congressman will join us live to respond. plus, not even a week since the backlash against the president over his summit with vladimir putin, the white house now says that he's open to putin's invitation for another summit in moscow. hi, i'm joan lunden with a place for mom,

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duelling invitations. first, president trump invited president putin to washington. this following the summit in helsinki. now president putin has revealed he extended his own invitation for president trump to come to moscow. the white house says they are considering this offer. joining me, ken buck, a republican on the house judiciary committee. thank you for taking the time. we appreciate it. just yesterday claire mccaskill confirmed a report that her office had been targeted with a cyber attack.

she said it was unsuccessful. that she blamed on russia. is this a time for the u.s. president to meet with the russian president when there is now evidence that russia is again attempting to interfere in a u.s. election? >> i think there are issues beyond kribler attacks but i think it is absolutely necessary president of the united states makes it clear to the president of russia and the president of  china that we will not stand for being targeted by cyber attacks from state entities or private individuals within those countries. so it is not wrong to meet as there are so many important issues around the world but it is absolutely wrong to suggest that we don't take this very seriously and we won't take retaliatory action. >> given mr. trump's performance in helsinki, do you have confidence in president trump to deliver that warning in stern terms to the russian president? >> i have confidence in president trump delivering

messages. i think he is really good at delivering a lot of kinds of messages. but i think it is important that the secretary of state, the secretary of defense and others make it clear to the russian government at all plefls we take this seriously and we won't stand for it. >> let me ask you, i'm sure you're aware. cnn had some reporting last night regarding michael cohen. what he is willing to testify to to the special counsel robert mueller that he says, and this was my own reporting with carl bernstein so continuing story well, he is claiming to know that president trump knew about the 2016 trump tower meeting between his son and russians. he claims to have been in a meeting with the president when this was discussed. how important is that to you? if this is true that the president knows this, knew in advance, what does that say to you? >> well, i was a prosecutor for 25 years. i consider myself a prosecutor

impersonating a congressman at this point. i think it is one of those things that he'd better have corroboration. michael cohen has very little credibility on the stand. the next things what is the crime? what are the elements of the sxrim does this support any of the elements? there was no transmittal of information during the meeting occurred or after the meeting as a result of that meeting. so finding a crime that makes this particular statement relevant is going to be a challenge. >> let me ask you this. what struck me about the explanations for this meeting, you've heard this from donald trump jr., even the president himself said it, campaigns, any campaign would accept this kind of help. and donald trump jr.'s explanation for yes didn't tell his father was that well, the russians didn't deliver this dirt on hillary clinton as promised. do you think a campaign should be interested in, willing to accept help from russia in the midst of a presidential election?

>> i don't think any campaign should accept help from russia who is clearly an adversary if not an enemy of ours. i don't think any campaign should accept any help that the source of that information was illegally obtained. so i think there were things going on with the dnc. i think there were things going on on the other side and we should look at those things in congress and make sure that we pass laws that make it absolutely clear that accepting information from an outside source without knowing that that information was legally obtained is wrong. >> let me ask you this as well. there's big economic news today. very strong numbers in the most recent quarter, 4.1% economic growth. you're a freedom caucus member. you have been railing against exploding deficits for some time. of course there was a big tax cut this year. deficit financed. when you look at these numbers, do they look sustainable to you?

i was speaking to an economist who said this is a sugar high. the numbers falsely inflated by deficit spending. are you concerned? >> i'm hopeful that this isn't just a sugar high. i'm hopeful that these numbers, maybe not at the 4% range, maybe the 3% range, are sustained for a time and help pay off the tax cut. but it goes beyond creating deficits. what creates deficits in the united states is the spending that we're engaged in. not the tax money. the tax dollars belong to the taxpayers. and i think it is unfortunate that somehow a tax cut that leaves taxpayers with more of their own money is a cause -- >> that's just math. the budget, might be the has a checkbook knows, it is both what you spend and what you take in. if you reduce what you take in, you're going to have a budget problem. >> not if you reduce the money you spend. that's the key. we passed a farm bill that

talked about reducing payments, food stamp payments to able bodied individuals. we've looked at other ways to cut spending in d.c. and that's what we have to focus on. >> well, thank you very much for taking the time and answering the questions. >> thank you. >> we'll be back in just a moment. when i received the diagnoses,

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