to push when he wants a coke. but when he was a candidate, he actually had to speak. >> get me a coke, please. >> reporter: as one commenter noted, things, including hush money, go better with coke. ♪ things go better with coca-cola ♪ >> reporter: jeanne moos -- >> get me a coke, please. >> reporter: cnn, new york. >> and thank you for joining us. have a great weekend. anderson is next. good evening. it says something about the kind of week we've seen or month or year, three, for that matter that the big question tonight is who are you going to believe? someone for not known for telling the truth or someone on record having made more than 3,000 false or misleading statements since becoming president. it says even more that this entirely deeply offensive notion seems to be the president's entire defensive strategy tonight. sources tell us michael cohen is prepared to tell russia's special counsel robert mueller that candidate trump had advanced knowledge of the new infamous june 2016 meeting between his son, son-in-law,

campaign chairman and russians promising kremlin intelligence on hillary clinton. in short, if mr. cohen is to believed that everything the president, his son and lawyers have been saying since is false. and the defense, that's pretty rich are. it boils down to this. don't believe him. he's a liar. pot, meet kettle. i did not know of the meeting with my son, don jr., the president tweeted this morning. sounds like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam. taxi cabs maybe? he even retained bill and crooked hillary's lawyer. boy, i wonder if they helped him make the choice. no reaction on his way to another weekend at the golf course. but the forecast is for rain. so look, there may be more tweeting this weekend. also, no reaction from don jr., seen here today in what must have been a somewhat awkward moment, waiting close behind a seated robert mueller to board the same flight at reagan national airport in washington. the two did not speak, making it the one meeting we absolutely positively know all there is to know about. no need to take anyone's word on

that, especially not say, michael cohen's. here is the president's rudy giuliani talking to chris cuomo about the president's former confidante. >> i expected something from this from cohen. he has been lying all week. he has been lying for years. >> reporter: "lying for years," he says, which is strange because that means michael cohen must have been no less a liar when rudy giuliani was praising him for not being liar. so was mr. giuliani lying in that clip you just heard, or lying in this one from just a couple of months ago? >> the man is an honest, honorable lawyer. >> it all becomes clear right now. it's confusing, to say the least. the honest honorable lawyer has also been deeply dishonest for years, or at least this week. maybe it's like truthful hyperbole or something. or maybe like so much else these days is yet another thing that would be funny if it weren't so serious. after all, the assertion by michael cohen if true casts serious down on the president's long-time claims of no collusion with russia. if true, what else would this be expect the candidate having knowledge or complicity in a

form of premeditated collaboration or attempted collaboration with a hostile foreign power in the middle of its attack on american democracy. you'll remember the meeting was in june of 2016, but we didn't learn about it until the following summer. the campaign never spoke of it nor the participants nor the transition team nor later the white house or the president. no one said anything until "the new york times" broke the story last july. and when people did talk, the first response was to be misleading about what was discussed and to loudly make the claim that's being disputed tonight that the president knew nothing about it before, after, and even a year after the fact. >> did you tell your father anything about this? >> it was such a nothing, there was nothing to tell. >> look, here is what happened. donald trump jr. put it all out today. it's all out. >> did you know at the time they had the meeting? >> no i didn't know anything about the meeting. >> let's focus on what the president was aware of. nothing. he was not aware of the meeting. >> it must have been a very unimportant meeting because i never even heard about it.

>> i wouldn't even have member remembered it until you start scouring through the stadium. it was literally waste of 20 minutes, which was a shame. >> nobody. >> i didn't know anything. it's very unimportant -- sound like a very unimportant meeting. >> the president has stated very clearly he was not a wir of the meeting and did not attend the meeting. >> this is not a situation where the president was not involved in the meeting, was not aware of the meeting, did not attend the meeting. >> when did the president learn that that meeting had taken place? >> nibble the last couple of days is my understanding. >> he didn't know about these this meeting until a couple of days ago? >> he was not wear of the meeting, he was not involved, it sound unimportant. it was such a nothing. but keeping them honest, if it was such a nothing, why did everyone from the president on down start lying about it the moment it became known? first the meating was billed primarily about adoption of russian children that was a lie. then came more false statements about what was actually response form that bogus statement. >> i wasn't involved in the statement drafting at all, nor was the president.

i'm assuming that was between mr. donald trump jr., between don jr. and his lawyer. >> that was july 11th of last year. no presidential involvement at all. by early august no involvement became some involvement. >> the statement that don jr. issued is true. there is no inaccuracy in the statement. the president weighed in, as any father would, based on the limited information he had. >> seven months later, jay sekulow was forced to admit in a letter to the special counsel that president trump had in fact dictated what he characterized as a short but accurate statement, not just weighed in as any dad might, but dictated it, accurate or not. now the consensus is not. in any event, it didn't stop his colleague rudy giuliani just last month from offering up this heaping helping of word salad. >> i think it's a -- >> i mean, i obviously asked jay about this. i think he was ininformed at the time, just like i was when i came into the case. he was just in the case. this is a point that maybe wasn't clarified in terms of

recollection and his understanding of it. and what jay did was he immediately corrected it. and even had been under oath, he would call that recanting. and it's jay, not the president. so that's the wisdom of not having a president testify. it's one thing to do it with a lawyer. it's another thing to do it with your client. >> got it? make sense now? the president's defenders can't seem to keep their story straight about the bogus story the president concocted about the meeting that they were misleading about after concealing for a year. that's one side. on the other side, the president's turncoat attorney who might or might not be telling truth about his serially less than honest client. that's where we are tonight. and so is this. a few years to the day stood up and said this to the country he is now accused of colluding with. >> russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. i think you will probably be

rewarded mightily by our press. >> as we said, the president left town without answering questions about this or anything else, which does not mean there was no news at the white house today, just the opposite. cnn's abbey phillip joins us now. has the white house any official responsible this trump tower meeting? >> they have not. the white house has not offered anything in the way of clarification about many of the comments you played there made from the podium by the press secretary, sarah huckabee sanders. and the president, as you just mentioned, left town without making any statements at all, leaving this as simply his word against his former lawyers. but the president tried this morning in a tweet to preempt questions from reporters by saying, denying the storying, saying he did not know anything about this meeting with don jr. and those russians. but he does not want, clearly, to answer any questions from reporters about it at all, and that is not really how this works. the white house won't submit to any sort of inquiries at all from white house reporters about

what they make of this new reporting and how that squares with all of those past statements, denying any knowledge whatsoever from the president about that meeting, anderson. >> do we have any idea what the mood of the president is right now amidst all of this? >> well, he is clearly very angry. a white house source told us this week that he has been stewing for days about all of this reporting, watching the coverage on television, and he is angry not just with his former lawyer, michael cohen, but also with reporters who continue to ask him about this at all these opportunities. they try to change the subject this morning at a pretty hastily put together press conference in the rose garden. the press reporters kept feet away from the president, against the president just turned and walked out of the room after. but those questions kept coming. and president trump is clearly pretty annoyed about it. the tweets we have seen from president trump this morning reflect pretty accurately where he is. he thinks these questions are a waste of his time and he doesn't want to talk about it. he'd rather talk about anything else.

>> and abbie, do i have my math right? are we on day three now without any answers about lies exposed by the cohen tape? >> that's exactly right. three days of the president not saying anything about it, being asked about it. the white house also being asked about it, referring questions to the president's outside lawyers, and also, i should note, anderson, not having any white house press briefings to answer any press briefings at all. sarah sander's last briefing on monday. the white house has only had three press briefings all month. this is the white house retreating from inquiries about all of these controversies swirling around this president. they don't want to talk about it, and they're not giving reporters opportunities to do it. when they are pressed on it, they are lashing out at reporters, as we've seen this week. the white house is really leaving this out in the open, allowing these questions to continue to swirl around this president. >> three press briefings in a month, wow. abbey philips, wow.

the damage he could do and some of the other evidence he we can look to determine who is telling the truth here. carl bernstein, who shares the bylines from the scoop and has been there before. and maggie haberman, and cnn chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin. i mean, maggie, it's, again, this odd situation where this is a story involving two people who are not known for their truth telling. >> right. i think it's interesting looking at that cascade of things, statements from rudy giuliani, who is the president's current lawyer. people who get around donald trump tend to take on his personality. this has been a habit that we have seen through the campaign. we have seen it through his career in business. i think when michael cohen was working for donald trump, he said things that were not true. i think you see rudy giuliani now saying things that are not true. giuliani told us of that tape of michael cohen and donald trump, that it was, quote/unquote, exculpatory. he described a series of events on this tape that did not quite play out once you heard the

audio. and so i think that you are seeing giuliani try to pit trump's credibility against michael cohen's and suggest that trump will win. you can't -- there is a problem, and this was the issue for them during the campaign. the corrosive lying and the corrosive distorting and the corrosive lack of telling the truth, it does have an impact at a certain point. >> right. >> and you can't just keep saying to people you're not hearing what you're hearing. now, look, michael cohen contradicted himself, i think. i think he said something a little different to congress about the trump tower meeting and he will have to deal with that if he gets called by robert mueller's investors. i do think when you look at aggregate what this white house has said, the myriad of things. i never get over jay sekulow saying the president was involved in drafting the report. he may not have been told the truth. but this is the problem we hear over and over again. well, this is the president saying author is this client saying. then quit or don't parrot it if you don't believe it. we will see what gets said to

federal investigators. it is a crime to lie to them. michael cohen has not yet been contacted by them as far as we know. how that plays out remains to be seen. >> jeff, donald trump, the president has never under oath about this meeting. so there is no law he would have broken. if he is lying, he is just lying to the american public and reporters. >> correct. although donald trump jr. may have a problem because he under oath to congressional committee said he did not discuss this with his father in advance. so if michael cohen is telling the truth, donald trump jr. may have a problem. but it's also important to remember why this issue is important. this isn't just some random meeting. this is a meeting between the representatives of the russian government giving dirt, so the trump campaign thought, to the leaderses of the trump campaign. so every time the president says there was no collusion, i had nothing to do with any russians,

this meeting, if in fact he knew about it at the time, shows that all of those statements, every time he said no collusion, is a lie. so it's not just sort of a random lie about the size of the inauguration crowd. it's lying about his involvement with the russian government in the campaign. >> and carl, if a meeting was squeaky clean with nothing improper, why have there been so many iterations to, you know, to who is there, who knew about it, what exactly took place, what the whole purpose was? >> let's be clear about this meeting. this meeting was convened for the purposes of colluding. that was the invitation that was extended to donald trump jr. by mr. goldstone on behalf of russian representatives to bring dirt to a meeting about hillary clinton at the behest of the russian government. it said in the letter of introduction, as it were. so this meeting is unique.

it is hugely important, and thus far, from the moment we have learned about it, absolutely every aspect of it has been attempted to be covered up by donald trump and those around him. he has been truthful about nothing having to do with this meeting. why? because, indeed, it's indicative of collusion. now, is this the one time perhaps now that mr. cohen has said this that donald trump is telling the truth about this meeting and that he did not know of it in advance where he has lied about every other aspect of it almost? it's possible, i suppose. but you and others have run through the chronology of what occurred and what he said three days after the invitation was extended and his son knew about it. >> yeah. >> it's very strange, all these coincidences. and it's going to get sorted out. and i think that's one of the reasons we're seeing donald

trump, according to people around him in the white house, acting so desperately and unhinged in his fury. >> maggie, the thing i keep coming back to about this meeting, and probably will repeat this several times tonight is if we're -- if they were to be believed, donald trump jr. is informed that the kremlin is supporting his father's campaign, and he chooses -- and even if paul manafort is in that meeting and kushner is in that meeting, he chooses not to tell his fatherer either in advance or after that meeting, this pretty stunning idea, true or not, that the kremlin is supporting your campaign. for such a small organization, a small campaign at that point, it's pretty hard to imagine. >> what i'm not clear -- so there is a couple of things i would say about that. it's not clear to me what -- whether cohen is going to say or is prepared to say or has told people that donald trump sr. was briefed after this meeting or before this meeting took place. and there is a distinction in and here's why. i could see a world as knowing

how people are around donald trump and afraid of incurring his wrath or accused of not being competent or any number of things he says to his nearest and dearest. if you go and tell him that actually this thing did not result in anything, this didn't happen, you are going to get dismissed. so it's possible that he was not briefed after. the question was whether he was briefed before. to me that is the big question mark, and i don't know the answer. i think that generally speaking, in that campaign, people did not do things without donald trump knowing. not everything, but most times. >> but there is another very important fact that plays into what people knew when, which is donald trump's announcement that he's going give a big speech about hillary clinton's misdeeds involving russia, among other countries. he gives that announcement of the speech when in the lead-up to this meeting. >> right. >> the meeting turns out to be a bust, and donald trump never gives this promised speech.

how does donald trump decide to gave big speech on this subject without knowing that the trump tower meeting is taking place? and how does he decide to cancel the speech without knowing that the meeting is a bust? that's a chronology that's very hard to explain. >> and certainly, carl, what we have seen of this president is he's not great about keeping his cards close to the chest. he does like to promo something. he does like to promote something in advance. watch for some big things, revelation coming up or big news on a summit or whatever it may be. to jeff's point, it's entirely possible that he knew about this meeting and decided to kind of give a little promo. >> well, that's what it certainly would look like and appears a perfectly reasonable assumption from what he said. let me add one more piece of information that i learned in the last few days, not from any source connected to cohen or

cohen's attorneys, but this is that there was a weekly family meeting convened by donald trump at which he presided over through the whole campaign at which almost everything from what i gather of importance in the campaign was discussed. now whether or not the meeting mr. cohen is referring to, assuming that it existed in the way he is talking about it is a family meeting, i don't know. but there is a part of the whole campaign process in which the family was fully briefed and interacted with one another on all the major happenings in the campaign. perhaps donald trump kept some things from his children. that's possible, and from his son-in-law and vice versa. i suppose that's possible too. but we now have a picture of the family involvement around this one meeting that's starting to

coalesce in a way that is very distressing. >> okay. >> to donald trump's legal team and the people around him. >> donald trump sr. did not attend those meetings. it was always the children. >> the children just meeting with each other? >> correct. and with some of the campaign -- >> you mean the family meeting? >> correct. that's an important distinction. if we're talking about the history of the campaign, that is how that -- >> but it was a regular family meeting of just the kids? >> just the kids and sometimes some campaign aides. >> i think it's also worth mentioning another part of carl's story that he wrote with jim sciutto yesterday on cnn.com. according to cohen, there are other people present at the meeting where he found out that donald trump sr. knew about the trump tower meeting. their testimony may be more important than anyone else's, because maybe their credibility is better than donald trump's or michael cohen's. corroboration is always indispensable when it comes to these swearing contests. are there e-mails? are there texts?

are there tapes or other witnesses who can confirm or refute what michael cohen says about this meeting? that may be more important than cohen's testimony itself, because his credibility is so damaged. >> there are a lot of wins for the president, for his administration just this week. north korea returning what seemed to be -- has to be confirmed, remains of u.s. service members. certainly economic numbers on gdp growth. all things are good for him, but also this week the cfo of the trump organization is subpoenaed and this tape emerged which seems to prove that the president lied about his knowledge about karen macdougals lie. >> the white house cannot tell a consistent story not just about these issues, but about their own accomplishments. so that is one thing because the president will then tweet something like he did this morning. it's not these are distractions and i don't want to talk about this, the way we've seen other politicians do. but we have not talked about the allen weisselberg appearance

before the grand jury that is pend, and this is related to the cohen case in the southern district of new york, and that is a huge deal. >> because he knows everything? >> everything. he is synonymous with trump's money. so if you are looking at trying to unravel things that could be problematic for donald trump over decades, this is not just over the last year. >> he was working for donald trump's father? >> he worked for donald trump's father. he was involved in the trump foundation. he is involved in the trump organization. he is involved in trump's personal trust, the money that was moved over after he became president. and he reviewed the campaign's books at various points. he literally knows everything. i feel like that was the -- that is getting overshadowed about this talk about what cohen may or may not say. and in reality, the allen weisselberg call to a grand jury is an enormous deal. >> maggie haberman, carl bernstein, jeff toobin, thanks. ahead, american politics and policy, lieutenant colonel ralph

peters will have plenty to say about that when we come back. and later two, attorneys, each with skin in the game, clash. michael avenatti and alan dershowitz tonight on "360." fruits and veggies are essential to your health,

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now after booking your flight, you unlock discounts on select hotels right until the day you leave. ♪ add-on advantage. discounted hotel rates when you add on to your trip. only when you book with expedia. no question that president trump has a documented history of embellishment, even lies. and the president rudy giuliani now says michael cohen has a history of lying as well, despite he is reported as saying the opposite a few months ago. so the question tonight, who to believe. let's ask author, retired lieutenant colonel ralph peters. as a former intelligence officer, i imagine you've had plenty of experience of lies and deception, trying to figure it out. given that both the president and michael cohen have, shall we say, a complicated relationship with the truth, who do you believe here? >> in this specific case, it

sounds like michael cohen is the more honest of the two because he claims that other people were at the meeting where trump was told in advance about the meeting with the russians. and if he can name the other people and they're compelled to testify and they corroborate his story, well, then you've got an interesting case. but, anderson, even beyond the he said, she said, or he said-he said, think about it. can you imagine if donald trump jr. or any member of trump's family had scheduled a meeting in trump tower with russian representatives to get dirt about hillary clinton, invite other senior trump staff members and didn't tell daddy? i mean trump would have exploded. you would have heard it from the bronx to beverly hills. it's just not the way the world works. but donald trump, as incompetent as he may be at other things, from business to strategy, he is a genius at pr and propaganda.

and what trump understands and what so many of us fail to understand is that the truth barely has a chance against a lie that people want to believe. and during his campaign and right up to this day, and i'm sure in the future, trump has and will tell lies that people want to believe. just today i had an exchange with a trump supporter, an educated man who spent much of his life working against the russians, and it is impossible to reason with him. he is immune to evidence. >> it's not just a lie, it's a lie repeated over and over and over and over again. you know, it becomes almost a brand name sometimes, some of these lies or these tag lines. and it's hard to fight against. >> absolutely. first of all, when you have a plethora, a flood of lies, it does obscure the truth. you can suffocate the truth with lies. but also, again, repetition is

very, very important. any propagandist throughout history has recognized that. and trump, you know, our intelligentsia may mock his repetition of deep state, witch-hunt, crooked hillary, take your pick. >> fake news, that sort of thing. >> fake news, certainly. fake news. but those simple binary combinations are easy to remember. two-word combinations, most of them mono syllablic words. they're like jingles you hate, but you go in the store and look at which of the thousands of rolls of toilet paper do i buy and that jingle sticks in your head. trump insinuates into your head. >> the other thing that strikes me with that meeting is in donald trump is informed that russia, the candidate wants donald trump to win, it just defies logic that donald trump jr. would not say something to his own father. >> yeah. >> hey, you know what?

i don't know if this is true or not, but we're being told that russia actually wants you to win. that's a stunning thing for any candidate. >> yeah. and donald trump wants to be in the loop. his specialty actually has been keeping other people out of the loop, letting them only slightly. he wants to be the master of information. so, again, it is utterly inconceivable to me that any member of trump's family would have scheduled, or any of this staff would have schedule such a meeting without getting -- not just telling him, but getting his blessing. you don't just roll on your own on stuff like this. >> just lastly, putin said he has invited president trump to moscow, which the white house says they're open to. and putin said he is ready to come to washington, praised the president for fulfilling his campaign promises. i wonder what you make of this latest exchange here. >> well, perhaps president trump can visit some old girlfriends. but it's, look, putin doesn't want to come here because he knows it would be a spectacle. there is so much anger toward him and russia. but by inviting trump to moscow,

he can lay on all the military parades that trump loves. he can give him literally the czarist royal treatment. and so i think it's a smart move on putin's point. and there is so much else involved in all this. but go back to something i said at the start of the show. the big lie repeated over and over again, the lie that people want to believe can beat the truth. and, you know, "the washington post" now on its mast head, it has a phrase, "democracy dies in darkness." that's not to really true. democracy dies in broad daylight if good citizens do nothing. and too many of us are doing nothing in the age of trump. >> colonel peter, i appreciate your time. thank you. >> thank you. well, as the weekends, one of the biggest story lines of course has been the very public separation between the president and his once fixer, his personal attorney michael cohen. coming up, i'll talk with michael avenatti and alan dershowitz about who they believe amidst all the fire and

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cohen is reporting the president knew of the meeting has thrown the president's former fixer back squarely into the spotlight for what me may or may not say to robert mueller but also his one-time client president trump. two attorneys who are no stranger to the spotlight themselves in this story, michael avenatti, stormy daniels' attorney and alan dershowitz, who as emerged as one of the president's defenders at times. he is the t author of the new book "the case against impeaching trump." michael, there the past you've called michael cohen, quote, an absolute criminal thug. you have called him in a co-conspirator. you're in a legal battle with him on the ongoing stormy daniels case. in terms of the trump tower meeting, do you think he is telling the truth here? >> well, it's a good question, anderson. i don't know if he's telling the truth. i think he likely is telling the truth, but the guy has been all over the map for so many months and years that i think that as a witness, certainly there is questions as to his credibility.

>> professor dershowitz, if the reporting turns out to be true, and a big if, and the president did know about the meeting, there are others to corroborate michael cohen's story, is that major problem for president trump and donald trump jr. who between with the two of them have denied the president's knowledge of the meeting nine times. >> oh, it's a political problem to be sure, but i don't think it's a legal problem. even if the president knew of the meeting, knew exactly the role of the woman who was there that she was representing the russian government, and even knew that they were going to go to try to collect dirt that had already been gotten by the russians on hillary clinton, that would be a political sin, but it wouldn't be a federal crime. and i think if this is the best that cohen has to offer, i don't think he's going to be given immunity by the federal prosecutors. he may have to compose and not only sing to get that because this isn't very much from a legal point of view. it's a big deal from a political and public relations point of view, but legally it's a 3 on a

scale of 10 maybe. >> what's also interesting about cohen's story on this, and again, if it turns out to be true, he claims there are other people present who heard that as well. so if they're under oath, i guess they could back up what cohen has to say. >> and if it turns out there are no other people, that will affect his credibility as well. >> right. >> but i think the big picture is that even if everything he says is true, it's not a crime. you know, in my new book, "case against impeaching trump," i set out a hypothetical based on this possibility, a hypothetical. even if the president actively sought material dirt on hillary clinton, terrible thing, but even if he sought it, but the dirt had already been gathered, and he wasn't asking them to hack the dnc or do anything criminal, that would not be a crime. it would show, quote, perhaps collusion. but there is nothing in the federal code that makes collusion itself a crime. >> well, professor, about those tapes, you tweeted yesterday, quote, i didn't say michael

avenatti was wrong, but if he is right how did he access that confidential information. he implied there is more trump tapes. let's see whose right. do you stand by that? >> well, i don't want to get personal at all. but i think it's hard to imagine how he could have lawfully gotten ahead of those tapes. he did, according to press reports, have a conversation with mr. cohen at a restaurant, and that raises some questions because, you know, you're not allowed to speak to somebody whose counseled, who has a lawyer and ask him do you want to work together to hurt trump. so i don't know whether that occurred. but if it did occur, i think michael has to do some explaining. >> michael? >> alan, let me say this. you keep saying you don't want the get personal with me, and you keep getting personal with me, including on fox the other night. >> the question. >> i'm going to tell you, i don't appreciate it. i'm willing to put up my track record over the last six months in this case up against yours in

day of the week. i have been very, very accurate in my predictions, in the statements that i've made, and the fax. and the fact of the matter is on sunday, you expressed considerable doubt as to whether i knew what i was talking about, and within 48 hours -- let me finish -- within 48 hours i was proven right. >> i said it was true. i said it was true what you were talking about. and that's why it needs some explanation. you did guarantee the american public back in may that president trump would resign. we're watching our watches and waiting to see if that prediction comes true. that's the one prediction that you really staked your reputation on. so your reputation will turn on whether he does resign or not. >> well, alan, let me tell you, i'm going to determine what my reputation turns on, not you. i have made many predictions that will -- >> and i will too -- >> let me finish. i've made many predictions that have turned out to be true. and we have two years left in this president's term. despite the fact he thinks you write great book, we're going to see whats. >> monday you said i'm awaiting

an apology from alan dershowitz and others. i stated in late may during the pressure. there were multiple recordings and that was confirmed today. unlike president trump and others, i don't make statements that are false. "the washington post" did report there are about 100 recordings. we don't know the full nature of those recordings. >> well, back on may, i think it was 29th, anderson, i stood in front of the federal courthouse and demand the release of all telephone trump tapes. i stated at the time there were multiple recording. we now know indeed there are over 100 recordings have been seized. i want to go back to something i said earlier. this information on the trump tower meeting, that's not the best information michael cohen has. i can assure you of that. >> how do you know that? >> how do you know that, is my question? how can you assure us? >> again, i'm not going to tell you how i know these things. but you know, what alan -- >> well, you may have the tell the ethics committee, then. you may have to tell that to the things committee.

>> allen -- >> if you had a conversation with a man and you didn't ask his lawyers permission and his lawyer is now evidently complaining about that. it's not enough to say selectively i don't have to answer that question, but i will answer thatlan, alan, you reall to start talking only about things that you know about, as opposed to things that you have no knowledge about. you have no knowledge of the communications that went on between me and michael cohen's representatives long before that -- long before that -- no, you don't know what you're talk about, alan. long before that restaurant meeting. you have no idea about the communications that went on relating to a particular or proposed level of communication. you need to go back -- let me finish. >> let him finish. >> you need to go back and concentrate on what invites you're getting on martha's vineyard since that appears to be what you're really good at.

>> well, i'm about to head off to a party. so i have to leave in a minute. >> good luck to that. >> are you saying specifically that you were given permission by michael cohen's lawyer to have that conversation with him in the restaurant? that's a question you should answer specifically, because if you weren't given permission to have that conversation with michael cohen, you may have to answer to an ethics committee about that conversation, because i taught legal ethics for 35 years, and i know a lot about legal ethics. and the one thing i know is you're not allowed to have a conversation with somebody whose counseled without the specific approval of the client -- of the lawyer to have that conversation. i think you have to explain that meeting. >> alan, alan, guess who gave me permission? michael cohen. he gave me permission. >> that's not enough. that's not enough. that's not enough under the rules of ethics. >> alan, alan, alan. >> yeah. >> once again you don't know what you're talking about. you know what i want to know? i want to know about the relationship between you and donald trump.

i think you ought to disclose the extent of the relationship. how did you get that positive book review? why is that it you two -- >> happy to disclose it. >> why state this you two appear to be such close friends now? >> i've met him three times in my life. all three times dealing with the middle east. i have no relationship with him. but you have to tell you, i do know legal ethics. and getting permission from a counseled client -- >> you're wrong. >> you're wrong. >> is not enough. i've been teaching legal ethics for a long time. about that, i am 100%. >> michael, let me ask you, i want to ask you about the three additional women you say you're representing. you say they're also paid hush money. you tell us any more when that hush money was allegedly paid or anything else about the alleged relationships and any proof that they happened? >> in 2015 and 2016, and i find it very interesting that we haven't seen a denial from donald trump or michael cohen all day. i would think that if i was wrong, we would have seen a

denial. and alan, i feel sorry for the students you taught legal ethics by the way, because you didn't teach them the truth. >> well, they've become justices of the supreme court, judges. >> i'm sure. >> some of the most important people in america. >> i'm sure they're very proud. >> for a long, long time. i wish you had been in my -- if you had been in my class you would not have had that conversation with michael cohen. >> alan, i'm sure they're very proud. i'm sure they're very proud of your conduct over the last two years, i'm sure. >> michael avenatti, professor dershowitz, thank you very much. i appreciate it. >> thank you. up next, the worst best week at the white house. the president on the defensive, his white house gripped by one bombshell after another in the multiple investigations against him. also a triumphant president, taking credit for strong economic numbers. more on that ahead. [music playing] (vo) from the beginning,

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what a strange day it's likely been for the president. this morning he was touting the state of the economy, new numbers showing it's growing the fastest pace, up 4.1%. pushing back against michael cohen, the former fixer. the two are in an all-out war. it's a tale of two white houses.

mixed with the good and the bad. here to talk about it, van jones, host of the van jones show, jason miller, former adviser to the trump campaign. van, isn't the president overdue for some credit for these economic numbers? >> look, absolutely. i've said many times obama got us moving in the right direction. trump said we're moving in the wrong direction. he lied. that wasn't true. we're going in the right direction. but the liberals said trump was going to screw it up, and they were wrong too. the obama numbers have gone in a straight line, unemployment coming down. a good pass-off to trump. both parties should be happy about it. the problem is even though the economy is coming up, society is coming apart, and the president is driving that level of division, and i think that's where, you know, you've got to continue to hold him accountable. >> jason, no doubt you would make the argument as well that the president isn't getting the credit he deserves on the economy. i'm wondering how much responsibility he bears for that, you know, if everybody tweet about a witch hunt or a hoax were replaced by a tweet

about the economy, wouldn't he be better served by that in terms of just a focused message? >> well, absolutely. i think the white house does bear some of the responsibility for some of the messaging that comes out, and it's their -- they obviously do have a big part of the say in what comes -- what they're talking about each day. they can either talk about the economy. they can talk about the successes that they're pushing, or they can talk about the distraction. but i think there is this cloud. i think that many of the detractors want to have over the white house. i call it, in a sense, the jan brady syndrome where many of the detractors, every time president trump does anything good, they want to say russia, russia, russia. i was watching twitter this morning when the president was having his press conference, and i was shocked, really shocked, the number of journalists and even news outlets, folks who i really respect and have a great deal of admiration for, while the president is up at the podium talking about the growth numbers, as you talked about, the best gdp numbers we've had in four years, that we're just

actively hitting the president on russia and cohen and mueller. and the president literally couldn't even get through that press conference with folks hitting him. again, i'm not saying that the president and the white house are immune from criticism. i'm not saying that they don't have days where they create some of the headaches for themselves. but it shocks me every time i see this where they literally won't let the president get up off the mat. >> is part of the problem, though, jason, they've only had three white house briefings in the last month, and this tape has come out which shows that the president lied and the campaign lied about knowing about the deal with ami and karen mcdougal, and they've not said anything about it on the record? >> well, i think to the point about the press briefings, i mean the president's very accessible. i had said when i was on the other night that i think he's one of the most open presidents we've ever had in the white house, whether it be the cabinet meetings or the different press

he has. obviously the one on wednesday got a little bit off the rails. i think that's probably an understatement. >> you can't say he's open when they kick out the pool reporter. >> i mean -- >> no, and i -- >> how can you say the most open. they threw out one of our colleagues because she did her job. the other problem i think that we've got to be able to face straight ahead is that when you have openness when you want to have it, that's not transparency. it's when you're able to stand up and take tough questions and be available. and you can't then say, listen, i want to be able to have a happy press conference about my happy topics and i'm going to be upset and throw a fit like a toddler because somebody asked me a hard question. that's what we're dealing with. i do want to say one more thing, though. i'm surprised that conservatives are not more upset with what's going on in the economy. i remember when president obama was in office. because of deficits, we had the tea party marching all across the country. we now have massive deficits under trump, and no complaints at all. the conservatives attacked obama

for bailing out the auto industry. now you have trump bailing out american farmers, basically taking farmers and moving them from work to welfare because of his trade war, and not a peep. so, yes, there's good economic performance, but it's based on massive deficit spending, which conservatives won't check, and a trade war which makes no sense. and bailouts which conservatives won't criticize. so there is something going on in the economy that i'm surprised. you talk about being shocked. i'm shocked i don't hear people like you having more fidelity to your own conservative principles. >> van, we're looking at unemployment numbers that are at a 5-ye0-year low. you and i both know that the federal debt doubled under president obama, that -- >> because we had a huge recession. >> if we're ever going to -- but, again, we had the slowest growth. we had the slowest recovery since --

[ overlapping voices ] >> it was a slow recovery. so, van, what we needed is to go and jump start this economy and get it moving, and i think that's what president trump has done. if we go back to the election of 2016, right after that election, you know as well as i do that every corporate leader in america thought that hillary clinton was going to win. and they were essentially thinking there were going to be higher taxes and higher regulation as a result of that. so when president trump won, they're almost playing with house money. they started investing in their companies, investing back in the economy. that started this rocketship of growth. then we got deregulation in 2017. we got this big tax cut. now we're going into the trade deals and fighting for american jobs. van, this economy is a rocket ship, and now we're going to go in and take on china, which is really the biggest economic competition over the next 50 years this. is the big thing. >> listen, all that sounds great. very nice story. here's the reality. the reality is all the numbers you're talking about were moving

in the right direction under obama, and you guys said we were in hell. the numbers continue to move in the same direction at a slower pace, and now we're in heaven. that's because you read bed thyme stories to your kids and think it's real life. in real life, both presidents deserve more credit than they get. >> van, you sound like jan brady. >> don't miss the van jones show tomorrow night, 7:00 p.m. eastern on cnn. he'll talk to carmel anthony. van also takes on the progressive movement. also join us monday for our daily interactive newscast on facebook. you can watch full circle at 6:25 p.m. eastern. i'll see you there monday. 360 continues tonight. up next, the shifting explanations about the meeting at trump tower, how we got to this point. what the president is saying now about all of this. you shouldn't be rushed into booking a hotel. with expedia's add-on advantage, booking a flight unlocks discounts on select hotels until the day you leave for your trip. add-on advantage. only when you book with expedia.

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welcome to the second hour of 360. chris cuomo is off tonight. we begin with reaction to the story that broke on