and the confusion he spread today over a very simple question. what did the president know, if anything, ahead of the campaign meeting with russians? did he have knowledge of it in advance? according to our sources as you saw it here first, michael cohen is prepared to say that he did, in fact, know about it

beforehand, which would turn collusion into a premeditated act for the president. as we saw today, mr. giuliani's answer so far has been to cloud the issue. whether it's deliberate or by accident, hard to say. what's clear is, it's getting plenty oaf attention. joining us now from the white house, cnn's kaitlan collins. talk about how the president's attorney, giuliani, what he's been saying today. >> reporter: well, anderson, we're seeing rudy giuliani shift their defense. they've gone for months now saying there was no collusion to today rudy giuliani said he's been looking, and he doesn't believe collusion is an actual crime. that is certainly not what the president has argued before, that it wasn't the fact that he may have colluded that was a problem. the president has maintained for months now that he did not collude at all. so we're seeing giuliani make these statements of course that seem problematic for the white house, as well as saying that the president didn't attend that meeting with the russian officials, and donald trump jr., his son, and jared kushner, his son-in-law, now senior adviser, and then paul manafort.

that's what rudy giuliani said today. he wasn't arguing about that statement from michael cohen, who is alleging that president trump did know about that meeting before it occurred. rudy giuliani only said that he could state for the record that president trump did not attend that meeting with those russian officials, which is not something that was in question in the first place. it was whether or not president trump knew about it, which is something that his aides and president trump himself have denied for months now, including that president trump said he just found out about it in july of 2017, a year after it happened. and donald trump jr. testified in front of lawmakers that his father did not know about it before. so it would be increasingly problematic. that is the question now, anderson. it is essentially the president's word versus michael cohen's. but the white house does not seem to be at all enthusiastic about taking questions about michael cohen, including president trump today, who has been tweeting about michael cohen. but when he is not in a structured setting where he can control the narrative, he does not seem eager at all to take questions about michael cohen, about whether the special

counsel robert mueller should trust michael cohen or anything related to his former lawyer and fixer at all. >> has the white house had any response to the claims from giuliani this morning on television, i mean, it's not being -- his statements are not being coordinated with the white house, are they? >> no, they're not. and the white house has made that pretty clear ever since the president first hired rudy giuliani to be his lawyer. his statements have been increasingly problematic for the white house spokespeople because of course rudy giuliani will say something on television that contradicts what they have said in the past. you'll think of the stormy daniels' payment. and if you'll listen to what it was that rudy giuliani was saying this morning, you can see why the press secretaries are not eager to speak about it. here's a little bit of what rudy giuliani said today. >> which i don't even know that's a crime, colluding about russians. >> okay. >> you start analyzing the crime. the hacking is the crime. the hacking is the crime. >> that certainly is the original problem, yes. >> the president didn't hack. >> of course not. >> he didn't pay them for

hacking. >> reporter: so, you see there, rudy giuliani seems to be shifting the goalpost here and the defense of what the white house has said for months. there was no collusion. >> right. >> reporter: then rudy giuliani goes on television. he says collusion's not a crime. it raises all of these questions for the white house, and so far their tactic for dealing with what rudy giuliani says on tv has been to refer questions back to rudy giuliani. anderson? >> kaitlan, thanks very much. perspective now from someone who had a view for a time inside the campaign. someone who has already talked to robert mueller's people about it. joining us is former trump campaign aide sam nunberg. great to have you back on. >> thank you. >> this -- the trump tower meeting, is it possible, in your mind, that donald trump jr. or someone, paul manafort or kushner, would not have told donald trump, either in advance or after this meeting, that it had occurred? >> in the totality, during the campaign, i would assume perhaps donald trump knew about this meeting. but if we're getting to the specifics here about whether donald trump and don jr. are

telling the truth against now michael cohen, i believe donald trump and don jr. and let me also say for one quick reason, and you'll understand this once we get into the weeds. remember, goldstone, who works for the agalarov family, he sent that e-mail directly to don jr. if you look at the e-mails, it was never forwarded to rhona graff, then donald trump's executive assistant, but essentially like his chief of staff. >> right. there was, however, a blocked number call made by donald trump jr., both, i think, before and after the meeting, the candidate, mr. trump at the tell graphed that there's going to be some big revelation coming out about hillary clinton regarding russia that he never followed through on after the meeting took place. it just seems to me that if you're donald trump jr. and you get this e-mail informing you

that the russian government is supporting your dad's campaign, that would seem to me to be a pretty big deal to not inform your dad about. that's what the e-mail said. the russians are supporting your dad's campaign. that's a major thing. you would think if i'm donald trump and somebody in my campaign gets that e-mail and they don't tell me about it i would be surprised and angered, i would think. >> really? i don't know. i've seen a lot of campaign associates, campaign consultants from both sides of the aisle, we would never talk to a foreign government, you just don't do that. first of all, there's no law on that. the fec is clear on that. i would have accepted that meeting because they were talking about a sealed indictment in a russian court about hillary clinton. sealed indictments have been released in the past during

campaigns. you recall in 2004 there was a stat senat state senator in illinois who was running against a republican who had a lot of money. >> you don't see anything sleazy about the meeting? >> no, no. >> do you think rudy giuliani is doing a good job representing the president in the public sphere? >> yes. >> it seems he's made c contradictory statements? >> to muddy the waters, one, this is going to get, this is ultimately going to be fought in the public. and it's a political knife fight for the presidency. we're 90 days off from the midterms. it is essentially donald trump's first reelect. the democrats don't want to talk about impeachment. adam schiff told michaelis co r

cover. you look at the muller indictment. they say they tried to hack hillary's e-mails. if you have hillary's 30,000 e-mails, please release them. he was talking about the state department e-mails that we have never seen. >> mueller is pointing out, he didn't draw a direct parallel, but he did say later that day they made the effort. >> i think mueller has systematically, is systematically and in a way, we can talk about his bias and conflict, there is some, but systematically made the argument to give the impetus to the democrats and some republicans who would be very happy to see donald trump impeached, he's laying the case out systematically.

>> what do you see as his bias? are you talking about -- >> no bias, here's what i see. >> giuliani's raising this spectre of he's inherent lly biassed. he should recuse himself because of some conflict. >> i don't think it's a conflict between donald trump and robert mueller on the golf course. that's a side issue. my issue is that we have 325 million people in this country, and i think we have a lot of lawyers in this country. i understand why you would want to get the former fbi director in general, objectively be the special counsel when you're investigating the president of the united states. but robert mueller's argument on obstruction, he's using james comey. if you hook at tlook at the stu, in the "new york times," the questions that involve michael flynn's firing. you look at all of them. they're all interrelated to

james comey, and they're also essentially the same way michael cone was essentially wiretapping donald trump, these contempt pranous memos mueller has this relationship with james comey that i find to then investigate the firing of james comey, when you lobbied barack obama for him to be your successor. there's a problem with that. >> it does seem, though, that we don't really know -- it's one thing for us to talk about the mueller investigation because of little leaks, things that have leaked out or out because of court documents. we really don't know the vast iceberg underneath the surface. >> that's why robert mueller's, he's spent all this money can at lei least issue some kind of report so we can see the nature. >> this has not gone on that long. compared to the benghazi

investigation. the iran-contra investigation. >> i agree from that point. but we should get some kind of idea let's say, so we know -- >> why, why give up information about an ongoing investigation? >> about preliminary findings, about whether or not the trump campaign had some kind of coordination with the e-mails, and putin did the hacking. i would like to see where this is going, because what we don't know is what is going on. you have people in this country, americans, and they'll say robert mueller is ultimately going to get donald trump impeached. you have other people who say donald trump didn't do anything. mueller this, mueller that. >> do you know any investigation in which they give out preliminary stuff in. >> in is an ahistoric investigation. >> you have investigative reasons, it doesn't, for political reasons -- >> because you're talking about the investigation in terms of court. the criminal, the criminal part and these indictments. i'm talking about the political.

and this is political. they're building a narrative. this is political. and at the end of the day, 90 days from today, this is essentially donald trump's reelect, because he will be impeached by larry nadler if nancy pelosi is speaker. >> want to welcome steve cortez and rich lowry. do you think there's a scenario in which donald trump jr. didn't tell his father about this trump tower meeting ahead of time? >> i this i -- i think we need to focus on rudy giuliani, why did he go into a panic. they've all denied up and down that donald trump had knowledge about it. now michael cohen is saying he can place it there. this is a problem for don jr. he has testified to the nsenate committee four times that he did

not tell his father about the meeting. that's a perjury problem. i took note this giuliani placed rick gates at those meetings. his name came up in the conversation. why is that important? because rick gates is already a cooperating witness with the mueller investigation. he pled guilty to charges in early february. if he can corroborate what cohen says you have two people against the multiple denials that team trump is giving, that is a huge problem for don jr. >> when i see a problem, i mean the way giuliani framed this today. i have tremendous admiration. i think he was the best mayor in american history. >> do you think's doing his client any favors? >> i don't know what he's doing. he had me thoroughly confused. when he was talking about collusion, is it a crime or not, he was almost like a law

professor. but that's not where we are in the realm of theoretical law. this is about a political kangaroo court that the swamp is operating, and we need to approach it and fight it like a political fight. a political cage match. this isn't about criminal law. to me, he confused the issue there, and we need to continue to telegraph what the president has for many, many months, no collusion. if there's no collusion, they don't have a political case to usurp what we did in 2016. >> vacari, is that what it boils down to, to no collusion? giuliani seems to move the post today that collusion is not a crime. >> no, and i don't know what three rhettical law is. >> y you have the issue that have arisen and will arise. they are doing impeachment

politics. that is what you see when you see rudy giuliani on tv. he is proving to be an awful lawyer. that is what we are seeing. collusion is not a crime. that's a fact. as a democrat, as a lawyer, i can tell you that collusion is not a crime. but mail fraud is, bank fraud, wire fraud, obstruction, perjury. the list goes on and on and on. conspiracy. all of these things. the e-mails that were received by the trump campaign, the federal election commission views those at least of having a modicum of value. if you usurp those federal election laws you've krcommittea crime. they're doing a really good job muddying the water. but there are the issues for criminality that donald trump jr. needs to be worried about, jared kushner needs to be worried about.

i remember one famous quote, we should not have a president who is under federal investigation. you have a president and his family under federal investigation. >> and you heard that they can't control what giuliani said, is that a problem? >> if were you coordinating with giuliani, you'd have to worry about the judgment of the white house press team. he's wild, undisciplined, but he is not out there to make a classical legal case for the president. he is a public advocate. his job is to throw haymakers every day. we might gawk, scratch our heads and snicker, but's succeeding. the key metric as vacari and others have said is political. are robert mueller's numbers going up or going down? they're going down. and this is the first stage of a potential impeachment fight. president trump's not going to be indicted. he's not going to be tried. if it goes further, it's going

to be a political question about impeachment fought out in congress. >> it's been political from the very beginning. if it were criminal, a crime is committed and an investigation commences. >> that's not true. >> no, the crime that was committed. [ talking simultaneously ] >> one at a time. >> i'm talking. >> their is is an investigation search of a crime. >> that's not true. >> yes it , it is true. >> the crime was that information was stolen from the clinton campaign. the question is did members of the trump campaign knowingly solicit that information for use in an election, and if that is true, that triggers all kinds of crimes. we're acting like this is something the russians did. no, that is stolen information. it's like if someone stole a car and you decided to take it for a joyride and said oh, i didn't know it was stolen. you can't do that. >> the fbi or justice department would be more than empowered to

investigate that. we don't need a special counsel -- t . >> may be an obstruction of justice case. >> no. [ talking simultaneously ] >> twilight zone. >> this whole talking point about this not be being a valid investigation, this being a witch hunt, let's talk about all the people indicted and ask where is the crime committed, let's talk about the people who pled guilty. >> let's talk about them. all russians and paul manafort. >> and rick gates. >> i was with paul manafort backstage at the rnc because he ran your convention. he was your campaign manager. this isn't somebody. >> right. [ talking simultaneously ] >> this wasn't the driver. >> papadopoulos. >> pled guilty. >> you have, let me give you facts because you're in hyperbole land. you have 13 russian nationals

who have been charged with hacking our elections. so you can say what you want to say, but these are all facts. this is a real investigation. >> we got to take a break. we'll pick up the conversation and talk more about the president's new attacks on special counsel mueller later. new progress on the fire lines in california as crews work round the clock in some of the worst conditions imaginable. the pictures are incredible. we'll be right back. ♪ 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. i knew at that exact moment ... i'm beating this. my main focus was to find a team of doctors. it's not just picking a surgeon, it's picking the care team and feeling secure in where you are. visit cancercenter.com/breast

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op goi ongoing attacks on robert mueller. over the weekend he tweeted, is robert mueller ever going to release his conflicts of interest with respect to president trump. the president now saying that mueller has conflicts of interest. giuliani was pressed on those conflicts and wouldn't elaborate. i assume he's talking about this golf membership stuff. joil sa giuliani said i have a good idea what it is, it seems like it has gone to a ten in just a matter of days. >> they're using every means fair or foul, to undermine the prosecutor, which is what happens in many highly-politically-charged cases. i have known any president, except for maybe george w. bush

who hasn't tried to undermine the prosecutor. this is typical politics. take it up to a 11. that's the number donald trump is comfortable with on everything. but this is a version of what bill clinton did against ken starr and george h.w. bush's team did it on iran contra. it's typical washington politics but the volume and intensity is higher than usual. >> the bottom line, the president himself still hasn't answered questions about the cohen tape, why the trump campaign lied about it, the knowledge of the deal with ami and karen mcdougal, his response to the reporting that he knew about the trump tower meeting in advance. shouldn't he answer those questions himself in. >> i do. you mentioned the ami deal. i agree with what amanda said before the break, of course

hacking into citizens, dnc, those things should be investigated. but he's looking into things from ten years ago. are we saying karen mcdougal hacked the dnc? it's an open-ended investigation into donald trump's life to try to find something, why? to try to nullify our 2016 victory and delegitimize the president because his enemies in media and on the hill and even within his own justice department have been hell bent since the day he won to delegitimize. >> questioning people's motives, what they think about trump is not astound political or legal defense. in addition to him saying collusion is not a crime, he oddly said trump was not physically present at the trump tower meeting. and to me, that may be a way

that giuliani was trying to draw a very fine line that trump may walk. i think that warrants more followup in what giuliani meant by saying he was not physical think present. >> there's no indication that it was anything other than the nothing burger. the white whale as you referred to before the break is some kind of conspiracy with the russians to commit a crime and hack these e-mails. so far we have zero, zero evidence ever that. >> very suspicious in which trump said -- >> not only that. >> the speech about hillary clinton. [ speaking simultaneously [ as many ] >> one at a time, one at a time. >> the timing is suspicious. >> is he openly sending signals to russians with his speeches? >> he asked the russians to hack her e-mails. just quote him.

>> -- looking for signals. [ talking simultaneously ] >> what to do? >> i didn't say it. he said it. roll the tape. >> are people forgetting facts? the president of the united states, when he's a candidate said hack the 30,000 e-mails. he literally said that. not only that, you had somebody who pled guilty, a former national security adviser, michael flynn pled guilty to lying. you started with whitewater and ended with a blue dress. >> we're seeing it all very differently. traces of illusion when we continue. following you everywhere? it's time to take back control with stelara®. for adults with moderately to severely active crohn's disease, stelara® works differently. studies showed relief and remission with dosing every 8 weeks.

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when you see president trump's personal attorney rudy giuliani on television you may be confused by what you're seeing and hearing because we haven't always witnessed this kind of thing from america's mayor. >> what happened to there's no black america, there's no white america, there is just america! [cheers and applause] what happened to it? >> reporter: rudy giuliani at the 2016 republican national convention. this was not the kid from brooklyn that america had come to know. giuliani earned a reputation for being tough on crime as a young

assistant u.s. attorney. after landing a job as president ronald ragen's association attorney general, he was ranked third at the don't epartment of justice. at 39 he was appointed u.s. attorney for new york. he famously prosecuted wall street's iben boesky. he took credit for making manhattan safe again. then came 9/11. >> all we know is that two airplanes struck two towers of the world trade center. >> reporter: he was the picture of calm and strength, quickly becoming america's mayor. "time" magazine named him person of the year. he failed in his own 2008 presidential bid. but in 2016, he was back on the

campaign trail, playing surrogate to donald trump. >> and he will be the leader of the change we need. >> reporter: but this was not the same rudy giuliani. he's always been aggressive and unapologetic. but he was peddling outlandish conspiracy theories. in one he was saying hillary clinton had some mysterious illness. he mocked clinton's leadership skills, too, with this disturbing display. >> he didn't look like hillary clinton with one of those long answers. >> reporter: what happened to the old rudy? it was such a head scratcher it prompted this politico headline. is rudy giuliani losing his mind? at one point on the trail he even seemed to forget who attacked the u.s. on 9/11. >> under those eight years before obama came along, we didn't have any successful

radical islamic terrorist attack in the united states, they all started when clinton and obama got into office. >> reporter: and later after beyonce paid tribute to black lives matter at a concert. >> i ran the largest and best police department in the world and saved more black lives than any of those people you saw on stage. >> reporter: whatever's behind this bizarre transformation, it seems to be just what donald trump wants. >> vote for donald trump for a safer america and for an america headed in a different direction. >> reporter: randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> for more on rudy's transformation, we want to bring in dana bash. how different is rudy giuliani now from the prosecutor in new york? >> his persona couldn't be any

more different. he was america's mayor, time person of the year, the most beloved by the most liberal of democrats around the country and the most conservative of republicans. and since he joined the trump world, politically speaking, it's been very different. but i think we've become more used to seeing rudy giuliani in the sort of vein of donald trump as the ultimate protector, the ultimate loyalist, the ultimate defender. he was pretty much the only guy who would go out and say anything good about donald trump after the "access hollywood" tape came out at the end of the 2016 campaign. that tells you a lot. >> i was talking to maggie haberman. she was making a pioint that th people who get around donald trump take on his personality. do you think that's what rudy giuliani has done?

>> maybe. he is not just a casual friend or acquaintance who just met donald trump. they' they've known each other quite well for decades. if you think about the fact that giuliani's children, particularly his son andrew, is someone who got to know donald trump as a young kid and now andrew is working in the donald trump white house and actually gets along in a very personal way with the now president kind of explains a lot and tells you a lot. and yeah, rudy giuliani has kind of become a trump whisperer. he has kind of rare latitude to go out and say things that he believes that the president will be okay with. a lot of times he objectiokays conversations that he has with reporters or interviews that he does. but sometimes my sense in talking to him, he doesn't have to get that specific because he knows what the president wants,

and what the president wants right now is what giuliani's doing, and that is an attack dog. that is no holds barred. he wanted to change direction, take the gloves off with how he approached the mueller investigation and robert mueller himself, and that's what he's got. >> dana bash. thanks. >> thank you. coming up, the president threatens a government shutdown if he doesn't get what he wants on immigration. we'll hear from someone who worked at the white house until just ten days ago. ♪ ♪ let your perfect drive come together at the lincoln summer invitation sales event. get 0% apr on select 2018 lincoln models plus $1,000 bonus cash.

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the president's repeating the threat that he'd be willing to shut down the government if he doesn't get the wall he wants or the fndiunding for the wall other things on his immigration wish list. he said this today. >> if we don't get border security after many, many years of talk within the united states, i would have no problem doing a shutdown. it's time we had proper border security. we're the laughingstock of the world. >> joining me now, cnn's newest political commentator, mark short who left the white house less than two weeks ago. good to have you here. >> thanks for having me. >> how likely you think it is that there would actually be a shutdown? because right now, the shutdown, unless there's a new spending bill, would be before the midterm. >> right.

so i think in august the senate's going to stay in session and complete more of the appropriations bills but unlikely to finish all of them. it's been 22 years since congress completed appropriations bills on time. we're likely to face another continuing resolution in september. at that point it had giwill giv more time. last year the president signed an omnibus. this year he's indicated he wouldn't. i doesn't want another $1.3 trillion spending bill plopped on his desk. >> but the likelihood of having it is unlike laly. >> it's not just the president. it's something democrats supported in 2006 with the secure fence act. it's become more politicized now. if you look at the plan the president's put forward, in some cases these are fences that are see-through, some cases it's

walls, but it's what they say they need to secure the border. it's become a much more politicized issue when there are career professionals who say this is what we need. it's politicized because democrats view if they vote for it it's giving a victory to trump. >> they also want a larger deal on the immigration issue and see this as a bigger way to negotiate. you worked so much when you were at the white house with congress. at a certain point, there are a lot of republicans on capitol hill who just ignore the president's tweets or statements and plan accordingly to what they think should be done. do you see that happening? very quickly, you had mcconnell coming out saying look, there's not going to be a shutdown essentially. >> i think mcconnell's had a meeting with the president this week. i think he's on pretty safe ground giving that direction. but i'd say the biggest changesa when we started in the white

house, i used to get calls from members of congress, mark, it's exciting, we're here, we have control of the senate, the white house, can you get the president to turn off his phone? and now we get members of congress saying hey, mark, can we get the president to tweet this. we have members calling and soliciting tweets on their behalf from the president of the united states. >> that's not saying that they love what he tweets out. he tweeted out that there's no longer a threat from north korea. now we hear that they are moving forward on weapons. >> i think the president's pretty clear-eyed on what's happening in north korea. he's got a great national security team in pompeo and mattis. bolton. but on the tweeting, he found a way to make sure he could communicate with the american people directly, and i think it's been an effective tool for

him. >> there was an article in politico, the one-year anniversary of john kelly taking over. the article was how he became chief in name only. has he been marginalized? >> i don't think it's fair. i think it's hard to find anyone who has sacrificed more for this country, not just personally but his family. i think that he has helped provide a lot of order to the white house that was missing prior to john kelly's arrival. >> that's certainly true. he's certainly seemed to get people in their lanes more, had less people going in and out of the oval office. does he still maintain the same level of oversight and power you think that he had eight months ago? >> i think general kelly is revered in the white house. the president wants to be very much involved and he's not going to delegate everything to a

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it's been burning for a week and has now become one of the ten most destructive wildfires in california history. burned close to 100,000 acres. the weather forecast is acres. the weather forecast is not looking good. nick watt has more. >> reporter: one of the most destructive fires to ever burn in california. 150 square miles. an area the size of denver scorched. almost 1,000 buildings destroyed. 38,000 people forced to flee their homes and six lives lost. among them two firefighters, one person who refused to evacuate and three members of a family getting ready to flee the

flames. ed bledsoe spoke to his wife and their great grandchildren moments before the fire reached them. >> it's coming at me. the fire's coming in the back door. come on, grandpa. i said i'm right down the road. emily said i love you, grandpa. and junior says i love you. come and get us. come and get us. i said i'm on my way. >> reporter: the fire is so large and temperatures so hot it's creating its own weather system. it can be seen from space. gale force winds chipped towering flames into that firefighters described as fire tornadoes. fire doubled in size overnight over the weekend. this isn't just a back country blaze. the fire threatening and burning parts of redding, california, population more than 90,000. >> this fire is scary. this is something we haven't seen before in the city. >> reporter: some were given 30 minutes to evacuate not knowing if they'd ever see their homes

again. >> it looked like an atomic bomb after the fact. we got a few pictures after the fact. >> reporter: for this family their worst fears realized. they lost everything. there are now scattered reports of looting in those abandoned areas. on the fire lines 17 helicopters, 300 engines and over 3,000 personnel continue to fight for control of this inferno. >> nick watt joins us from redding. incredible, nick, it doubled in size overnight and over the weekend. wildfires seem to be more and more common now. >> reporter: they do. listen, right now we have about 90 wildfires burning across this country around a million acres scorched. of the 12 biggest wildfires ever in california since records began, seven of them have happened since just 2015. now, the california drought probably had something to do

with that. there's still a lot of dead, dry vegetation around. after another california wildfire back in december, the governor said maybe this is now the new normal and he suggested maybe climate change is exacerbating the conditions that lead to blazes like this. anderson? >> nick watt, appreciate it on the fire lines. just ahead a new book on the horizon. a source saying it gives a front row seat to the white house. the author bob woodward. what we know about the book, next. with tripadvisor, finding your perfect hotel at the lowest price... is as easy as dates, deals, done! simply enter your destination and dates... and see all the hotels for your stay! tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites... to show you the lowest prices... so you can get the best deal on the right hotel for you.

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interviewed them. he has dozens of white house officials and firsthand sources who have been in these meetings with donald trump. they all spoke to him. they were all recorded. every interview was recorded, but don't make a mistake by that. they're not on the record. these are deep background. this is not a back of one deep throat. this is a book of dozens of deep throats, and they discussed everything from sort of explosive debates in the white house to really it's described as harrowing. >> is it a fear he found in the white house? i mean, i guess we don't know the answer. >> we will hear, but what we're -- it was not just interviews. these sources gave him

documents. he got memos. notes. files. diaries. notes i'm told in donald trump's own hand. so i'm told it's very authoritative and very well documented. >> are some of the notes classified? do you know? >> we don't know yet, but this is what i would say. in the past people have given bob woodward classified documents. i wouldn't be surprised if some of these were classified. >> do we know that the fear stems from? >> it's actually a donald trump quote. the last time bob woodward interviewed him was in march, 2016. donald trump said real power is -- i don't even want to use the word, fear. and that's where it comes from. >> that's often leaders, you know, do they want to be loved or feared? >> do they want to be respected?

>> right. >> but in his case, real power, fear. >> wow. well, i look forward to that. and that's coming out in the fall? >> six weeks from almost today. september 11th, right before the midterms. >> wow. fascinating. thank you very much for the preview. a quick reminder, watch "full circle" on facebook weeknights at 6:25 p.m. eastern. the news continues. time to hand it over to don lemon. "cnn tonight" starts now. don? this is cnn tonight. i'm don lemon. we have a prime time exclusive with the one and only lebron james. one of this generation's greatest star athletes. three-time nba champion. he started out as a kid from akron, a kid who missed 83 days of school in the fourth grade but he had big dreams. he's a man on the mission opening the i promise school in his hometown. he's had so many great moments