how can i share new plans virtually? how can i download an e-file? virtual tours? zip-file? really big files? in seconds, not minutes... just like that. like everything... the answer is simple. i'll do what i've always done... dream more, dream faster, and above all... now, i'll dream gig. now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. the president changes his story about that trump tower meeting with russians again. he's defending his campaign and his son, making the legal mess better or worse? plus, the special counsel does his talking in court. a star witness in the paul

manafort trial is his former deputy and a trump campaign insider. and the next big test of the midterm mood is tomorrow as republicans scramble to hold an ohio house seat last won when ronald reagan was president. the current republican president is a big issue. >> i said, troy, why did you inspite trui invite trump in here, the president? he said, no, i didn't. i think donald trump decides where he wants to go. i think they think they're firing up the base, but i have to tell you, at the same time he comes in here, i was with some women last night who said, hey, you know what, i'm not voting -- and they're republicans. >> back to that race in a moment, but we begin the hour with the president and his new direct admission that his son arranged a meeting with russians expecting to get dirt on hillary clinton. this new version is a 180-degree flip from the president's initial story about that now-infamous june 2016 trump tower meeting attended by the president's son, his son-in-law,

several other top campaign officials, and with russians who had ties to the kremlin. on sunday, this tweet describing in the clearest terms yet what this meeting was about. this was a meeting, the president tweeted, to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics and it went nowhere. adding lastly, i did not know about it. now remember, when "the new york times" was first breaking news of this meeting, the president helped don junior draft a statement that claimed it was about adoption policy. after that was proven to be a lie, the president's story began evolving, to use a polite term. this is a year ago in paris. >> i think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. it's called opposition research or even research into your opponent. i've had many people -- i've only been in politics for two years, but i've had many people call up, we have information on this factor or this person or,

frankly, hillary. that's very standard in po politics. >> so not the first time you see there as the president talked about this as a meeting to get opposition research. but why the more direct admission now? sources close to the white house telling cnn the president is concerned about his son's fate, possible jeopardy in the special counsel investigation. the president denies that. he's not in washington. he's up at his resort in bedminster, new jersey, a working vacation of sorts, likely to wake up to this headline if he's reading the hometown papers "lies and more lies" lies." unflattering headline in "the daily news." a year ago the president did concede, yeah, this was for opposition research purposes, but now he's directly saying in a presidential statement, a tweet is an official statement from the president of the united states, it was to get dirt on hillary clinton, which in a campaign if you take information from a foreign national, that is illegal, correct? >> correct. i think it is significant. he's the president of the united states. this is a meeting that we know

is being scrutinized by bob mueller. we know also the drafting of the statement about the meeting is being scrutinized by mueller. the fact that the president keeps changing what happened here, i think, speaks to the larger concern that his legal team has about his involvement, his potential interview with bob mueller, that he doesn't stick with one story. i think it will be most significant what he says to mueller directly if he does go forward with an interview. the fact he has so many public statements out there, he's answering questions for bob mueller without having to sit do down for this interview. >> to that point, i think we all get the same information, the president wants to talk to bob mueller. the president is certainly making the case mueller has reason to talk to him. this is the president changing his story repeatedly, evolving to be polite, or when he gets caught he changes his story. and making clear that if i'm bob mueller, i want to know when did you know about the meeting? what did you know about the

meeting? what happened on that air force one call? >> i think the most interesting part of that latest tweet was the fact he said i did not know, exclamation point. why that's relevant now -- and again, it's something he said all along, but the timing is that we've reported at the journal and others have reported that michael cohen has information that he'd like to share with the mueller team about the president actually knowing about the meeting when to cure it occurred. >> to that point, someone else who would know popped up after being missing for months, after leaving the white house, the communications director hope hicks. we have pictures of her. she is a central player in all this. by all accounts was an air force one when they were drafting the original statement that said this is about adoption policy. hope hicks was the middle person between the president and his son don junior. since she's left the white house, we have not seen her publicly. there have been a number of reports that the president

wanted to talk to her. she's been told not to talk to him. there she is there. the president in the same weekend -- she's a central player here. we know the special counsel wants to talk to her, likely has talked to her. then this tweet comes. >> i think -- i believe it's public she's already talked to the independent counsel. so it's not as if she and the president could be sort of getting their story straight before she talked to them. they've already got from her what they are going to get. i think one of the interesting things, yes, the independent counsel wants to talk to the president in person and wants to question the president in person. but we also know over the last couple weeks that the independent counsel is scrutinizing the president's twitter feed in a way that i think we all assumed probably was the case, you know, even before the revelation, but the fact is these tweets matter and the independent counsel is looking at these tweets as an accurate reflection of what the president is saying both kind of to the public at large but also how he communicates to the other

people involved in the case, how he communicates to jeff sessions over at the attorney general, and so i don't think we can look at these tweets and sort of write them off or shrug off that, oh, this is just the president tapping it out on his phone. it's going to be important as this case progresses. >> a critical piece of it is that mueller has all the documentation too. we presume he has texts, e-mails, meeting schedules, correspondence back and forth, which is important because the key players involved keep changing their stories publicly. if you go back and look at this, july 8th, the trump junior statement. the meeting was primarily about adoption. we now know the president was involved in that, even though they denied it at the time. then "the new york times" writes, no, it was about opposition research on clinton. trump junior releases e-mails that says clinton dirt was d discussed. sarah sanders evolves that, says the president weighed in on the statement. then in september, trump junior sa says he doesn't recall white house involvement in the statement. "the new york times" personal

lawyer tells mueller trump dictated the statement. so it evolves and changes. if you're bob mueller, you know a hell of a lot more than we do about this. you have all the documentation and the like. again, beating a broken record, but the president keeps making the case that he should sit down with mueller. >> the big legal question here is not collusion. that's not really in statute here unless you're talking about anti-trust law. it's conspiracy to commit a crime. the crime is obtaining help from a foreign power, which could be construed as an in-kind campaign contribution. this is fascinating because of the prospect a subpoena could come in. yesterday, jay sekulow mentioned if a subpoena comes in, they're going to file a motion to quash. that's going to go up almost certainly to the supreme court. the supreme court is 4-4 in terms of appointees from either party. the potentially decisive vote

could be brett kavanaugh, the nominee. he could have a pivotal say in the president's legal fate. he's expressed expansive views of presidential power. tonc >> to your point about jay sekulow, he had to clean up his own past statements. he's the one who went on television saying it's ridiculous, the president had nothing to do with it. now he says, oh, well. >> i had bad information at that point. i made a mistake in my statement. i talked about that before. that happens when you have cases like this. i think it's very important to point out that in a situation like this, you have, over time, facts develop. that's what investigations do. i agreed to go on your network and others days within being retained on this and had a lot of information to process. i got that one wrong. >> facts develop in a lot of things over time, but facts about something that's already happened and who knew what when or who was in the room, those

don't change, they don't develop. the president either did or did not help draft a statement. there were plenty of people who could have given a jay sekulow that information. he either went on to be a political lawyer and didn't do any homework before he lied on television or said something that turned out to be not true, or again, he's just like them and every time you get caught, you're going to change your story. >> i think this is less a reflection of this case and more a reflection of the clients that they have here. trump is known in a political setting, in a business setting for sort of changing what he says depending on who he's talking to. he's done it for years. so the fact that shehe's doing now in some ways isn't a surprise, but the stakes are so much higher, and he's putting people, his own attorneys and advisers, in terrible positions to go out and defend things that he himself later comes out and admits are different. >> it's also absolutely emblematic of the lack of discipline in the president's team. it's shifted, different people have been in and out of that team, but they've all been characterized by a lack of any discipline you normally see, especially lawyers who are normally very careful. >> it's not the facts that are

changing. it's the client's story that seems to be changing. the president does have this tenden tendency to try to get ahead of it. tweeted publicly, it seems less nefarious. of course, tweets are public statements that can be used in court. >> to that point, that's why i'm so curious about the president over this weekend, a, after seeing hope hicks and b, knowing more than any of us at the table know. that's why you get curious, what does the president know? what is he worried about when he does this? meanwhile, separate but related, the paul manafort trial resumes next hour. this is a huge week for prosecutors. expected on the stand soon, manafort's long-time right-hand man rick gates. gates handled all of manafort's day-to-day business then joined the trump campaign in a top position. his testimony is a key test for prosecutors and the credibility of their big cooperating witnesses. shimon prokupecz is following this trial and joins us now live here in washington. is today the day, shimon?

do we get rick gates? when he takes the stand, what are we looking for? >> reporter: quite honestly, we don't know. we know the witness who was testifying on friday, the accountant, one of the accountants, she's going to continue testifying this afternoon when manafort's lawyers are going to get to question her. that is the big question now, when does rick gates take the stand? some of what we're going to see and learn for the first time, perhaps, is just the extent of his cooperation. jurors will likely get that. there will be documents submitted into evidence. we'll get to learn how much he's been cooperating. we may not learn the full extent in terms of where it goes out into the campaign or perhaps the collusion investigation, but certainly parts of his cooperation are going to become known at this trial. it'll no doubt be challenged by the defense. his credibility is a key issue, john, for them. they're arguing he was sort of the mastermind behind this entire thing, blaming him for a lot of manafort's behavior.

so it's going to be interesting. what will be most fascinating, to see what his life has been like these last few months as he's been cooperating. >> it is fascinating. big test for rick gates, whether he stands up to the cross-examination and the special counsel. shimon, appreciate that. keep in touch as we learn more this afternoon. up next, just hours to go, the trump administration reimposing sanctions on iran. the white house says iran has no one to blame but itself. liberty mutual saved us almost $800

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or allergic reactions to your doctor right away. in patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. the most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. ask your doctor about neulasta onpro. pay no more than $5 per dose with copay card. welcome back. president trump today following through on one of the many controversial threats and promises he's made when it comes to foreign policy. starting tomorrow, midnight tonight, his administration will reimpose sanctions on iran. the first phase excludes oil but targets coal, steel, aluminum, and precious metal. the sanctions also go after iran's automobile sector and aim to cut off the country's access to the u.s. dollar. national security adviser john bolton says getting tough with

tehran is the only thing that will change its behavior. >> it is certainly 180-degree reversal from the failed obama administration. our policy is not regime change, but we want to put unprecedented pressure on the government of iran to change its behavior. so far, they've shown no indication they're prepared to do that. >> cnn's kaitlan collins joins us live to take us inside this decision by the white house. how did all of this unfold today? we see the ambassador out talking about it, but what about the president? oh, a little communications issue there with kaitlan. >> reporter: this is standard operating procedure. the white house would allow a small group of reporters to come in, watch the president sign something like this, but today that did not happen. instead, this was not on the president's schedule, this signing of this executive order, reimposing these sanction. though, we did know the sanctions were coming since the president withdrew from the iran

deal back in may. instead, the white house had already established a photo lid, which essentially means we're not expecting to see the president any longer today by the time they sent out and alerted the press that the president signed this executive order today. typically, the reporters would come in, there would be camera coverage, and an opportunity for reporters to ask questions. now, today those questions likely would have been about the president's tweet over the weekend saying that that meeting very clearly and explicitly between his son and russian officials last summer was not about russian adoptions but instead about obtaining dirt on hillary clinton. of course, those questions weren't asked today because there was no coverage of this event, which we've asked the white house why there wasn't any coverage of it. they haven't gotten back to us yet. >> kaitlan collins, appreciate that. she's traveling with the president up in new jersey. it is unusual, especially because this has been a signature issue for the

president. you heard john bolton, ambassador bolton, say this is an issue where a lot of the world thinks they're wrong, but they think they're right. they view the obama deal was weak, not tough enough on iran. you would think normally, would you not, that the president -- and this is an issue where the republican base doesn't like his trade policy, but the republican establishment is with him on this. you would think this would be the perfect moment for more of a big event, right? >> you would. in the past, the president actually has been pretty forward leaning and public in his statements on iran. he's had events at the white house. kaitlan is probably right that he's probably trying to avoid some of the questions not related to iran. as a policy matter, it is quite significant. it is a promise fulfilled for the president. he has promised he was going to be taking a tougher line, putting sanctions back in place. it will be interesting to watch the reaction from the europeans. they're not only unhappy with the president in terms of his policy on iran but also on trade

right now. he's putting a lot of american allies in a really difficult position. you saw some statements this morning already condemning this action, but for the president, he looks at republicans and he looks at his base, which fully support what he's doing as it relates to tehran. >> to that point, let's put them up here, courtesy of reuters. the german foreign minister and the spokeswoman for the chancellor making clear that they don't view this as the right way to go about this. they also think the president is now trying to punish essentially german company, french companies, other european companies doing business with iran. again, this is one on which the president has been fairly consistent, even though there's a lot of blow back. >> yeah, this is where i think john bolton using the word unprecedented pressure on iran is interesting. on one hand, they can hurt the iranian currency. they already

>> dedicated to getting deliverable nuclear weapons. they have been for 25 years. and i don't think the iran nuclear deal slowed them down at all. >> the other cig stories to the deal say, yes, it did, and significantly so. that's where we are. >> you know, the real test may not be what the other governments of europe do but what the companies do. there's already some evidence that even though the other countries haven't imposed the same kind of sanctions, there's

already companies fleeing iran because we're sort of the big player, especially in the banking system. so, you know, i think that will be one of the tests. what is the trump administration trying to achieve? the imposition of sanctions is usually a means to an end. in the obama administration, it was a means to get them to the table so you could negotiate the deal. there's little indication that the trump administration has sort of indicated what they think their realistic end goal is. >> maximum pressure with a big question mark for now at least. up next, tomorrow's big test in ohio and the president's late effort to help in a contest that should be, emphasis on should be, a republican slam dunk. >> it's time we rebuild our own country now, okay. [ cheers and applause ] and troy balderson is going to help me do that. right, troy? troy? yes, okay. he said yes. if he said no, i'm out of here, okay. farmer.

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nervous. if they're nervous, that tells you in tnot only about this dist but the midterm mood. let's take a closer look. the last democrat to win this district was in 1980. that tells you everything you need to know. this is a solid republican district in a conservative suburb of cluolumbus. it should be held by republicans. the president carried it by 11.5. mitt romney won it by 10. 5. even at the presidential level, solid republican territory. but the republicans are pouring money in here. the last republican congressman carried it by all of that, why are the democrats competitive? listen to ohio's governor john kasich. he's more of a moderate.

t . >> the chaos that seems to surround donald trump has unnerved a lot of people. so suburban women in particular here are the ones that are really turned off. you add to that the millennials, you have it very close. i asked them the other day, why are you bringing trump in? he said, i don't have anything to do with it. i think he's trying to thread this needle. >> if republicans lose a district that is considered by most analysts plus seven, plus eight for republicans, the last republican won it by 30-plus points, if it's even close, what does that tell us about the mood from now through november and the likelihood of a democratic takeover of the house? >> it's just another data point potentially in the democratic enthusiasm that has shown up in numerous other special elections. from what we can see in fundraising from democratic candidates, there's real enthusiasm out there. it's been consistent. it seems like even if you just

look at the efarly voting in ths particular district, there is some evidence that democrats are casting votes early in ways they hadn't previously. so i think it's going to be a really interesting data point in sort of the overall special election and trending towards november as well. >> and so the president goes out in the final days, and he makes the case -- he doesn't acknowledge that some people don't like him, but he does make the case that never mind me, if you elect this democrat, the democrats might take the house back, then you get nancy ploe circumstances th -- pelosi, then you get higher taxes. >> nancy pelosi controls danny o'connor, whoever the hell that is. danny o'connor. that's a beauty. he's another beauty. this is what we're fighting. they will take away your taxes. they will destroy so many things that we've given. >> danny o'connor would be the democratic candidate against troy balderson. >> probably did some good for his name recognition there. >> yeah, it's decent for

democrats if they come closer, but it's a five-alarm fire for republicans if they lose this district. the republican incumbent here has won this district by an average of 35 points. it was redrawn after 2010. the bigger implications are what's fascinating. this is a very college educated district, one of the most in ohio, i think the most in ohio. if republicans cannot hold on to this, what does it mean for someone else in these upper income, suburban educated districts where a lot of people are turned off by trump. >> this tells you all you need to know. you could say, gee, these are just being good, loyal republicans, or you could say, wait a minute, why do you have to send the president, the vice president, the house speaker, the president's son? why do you need to send all this and more? why do you have to send the fire department into a district that should be a cake walk? >> every time we have these special elections, we always caution it's true.

you don't want to read too much into it. we've now had enough of these special elections and primaries you start to see a trend. republicans are worried. they know that trump has 80%, let's say, approval rating among gop voters, but there is this soft 20%. they tend to be college educated younger voters. if that 20% starts to fall apart, it's a really difficult midterm landscape for the gop. >> special if all the democrats are coming out of the woodwork. if democrats come out and republicans maybe aren't voting. look at the money, look at the resources. this tells you all you need to know. this is a safe republican district. look at all the money republican parties and groups are pouring into this district. you just look at that and say, they know they got a problem. >> in addition to everything else folks have said here, i think there's implications for trump's mood. you know, when he loses these -- if he loses, right, if they lose here, despite him going in there -- i was with him for the 78 minutes or whatever he spoke

in ohio on saturday night, you know, it has the potential to just really make him angry. his anger tends to build. then you sort of -- he gets less disciplined, and you can imagine the kinds of things he tweets and the things he says and statements and the like. sort of in addition to the politics on the ground, kind of getting into his head, it's not going to be a good place. >> maybe he'll rethink the strategy they've been talking about of getting him out there so much during midterms as we get closer and closer to the election. they were talking about plans to have him traveling all over the place and talking all the time. >> this would be a place you'd want to put him. if that doesn't work -- >> it's a bifurcated strategy. on one hand, they are trying to appeal to the trump voter. they're trying to supercharge that vote. but also appeal to what they call the kasich republican, the moderate republican. he talked about that in the clip you played. my question is, can you bifurcate that? can you bring trump in? can you bring pence in?

while also not turning off those exact voters that you're also trying to appeal to. >> the soft 20. but also then energizing democrats. trump comes in and you can energize democrats as well who say, like, hey, this is our chance to stop him. look not just what it would do for the agenda, but impeachment is on the lips and minds of a lot of democrats. >> i think a lot of house republican incumbents are going to say, go play in the senate races, if this one goes down. up next, new, this just in, rudy giuliani just gave cnn an update on when president trump's legal team will get back to robert mueller. have we heard this story before? u to get your windshield fixed. >> teacher: let's turn in your science papers. >> tech vo: this teacher always puts her students first. >> student: i did mine on volcanoes. >> teacher: you did?! oh, i can't wait to read it. >> tech vo: so when she had auto glass damage... she chose safelite. with safelite, she could see exactly when we'd be there. >> teacher: you must be pascal. >> tech: yes ma'am. >> tech vo: saving her time... [honk, honk] >> kids: bye! >> tech vo: ...so she can save the science project.

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welcome back. an important update on the president's legal strategy when it comes to the special counsel investigation. the president's attorney rudy giuliani just telling cnn the white house should have its response to mueller's request for an interview within a day or so. the two sides have been negotiating the terms of a potential interview between mueller and the president. those negotiations have gone on for months now. giuliani recently suggesting the president and his legal team would make a final decision soon. other sources cautioning us the pending response could be just a counteroffer. still, it's significant, especially if you go back to where we began the hour. if we watch the president the last 7200 hours or so, he's always attacking bob mueller. now saying, yep, the trump tower meeting was about dirt on hillary clinton from russians. then there's the question about the air force one call. we know mueller wants to talk about obstruction, impeding the

investigation. i guess i have to add the caveat before i yield the floor that giuliani has said before we're close to a decision, and then weeks later we're still close to a decision. >> part of the reason we see the timeline shifting is because you do have this device between the president and his attorneys. the president is very sensitive to any perception that he's trying to avoid answering questions about all the myriad of things that mueller is looking at. his attorneys would like him to avoid some of these questions, in part because of the changing statements. you've had this back and forth not just between mueller and the white house but between trump and his legal team. >> and mueller has said, no, i need to interview the president. giuliani's response is you can talk about the campaign but nothing else. he's the president of the united states, i get it. the mueller team has tried to present itself as reasonable, but we have to do some stuff. at what point do they just have

to make a decision? or do they have to make a decision? >> it does feel like we're close to that point in time. it's hard to read the tea leaves on these things, but if you look at the tweets, it seems in some ways like the president is setting the stage for not cooperating with the probe at this point. all the talk of the 17 angry democra democra democrats and building up the language with the probe, we'll see what happens. >> and to the president's state of mind, i think it's fascinating the white house press secretary has said the president believes manafort was treated unfairly. the president has conveyed that himself. two other people the president thought were treated unfairly, joe arpaio. it raises the question, at least in my mind, does manafort think his end game is ultimately clemency. >> and the president's team has also upped its attacks on the credibility of the mueller probe. you can do that on television or in a court of law. every time it's been done in a court of law, mueller has won.

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sleonly remfresh usesep one in threeion-powered melatonin to deliver up to 7 hours of sleep support. number one sleep doctor recommended remfresh - your nightly sleep companion. welcome back. topping our political radar today, senator rand paul in moscow, apparently doing some diplomacy of his own as a follow-up to the recent trump/putin summit. the republican meeting with russian lawmakers asked if election meddling came up, he deflected, said dialogue is the key to relations between the two countries. senator paul also says he's invited some of those russian lawmakers to visit washington for more discussions. president trump weighing in on the kansas governor's race a day before the republican primary there. he tweeted his support today for the kansas secretary of state. he's a fantastic guy, the president said, who loves his state and our country.

"the new york times" reporting, though, that republican leadership was hoping the president would stay out of this race, saying he could actually increase the democrats' odds of taking the governor's mansion. a new government watchdog reports the trump administration haste with the border wall could waste millions in taxpayer dollars. the gao spells out its concerns in a new report just obtained by cnn. alex, what's it say? >> john, we should also note the government accountability office is a nonpartisan watchdog that reports to congress. in this report that came out just around an hour ago, they say that the department of homeland security, which has been tasked with building this wall and specifically its subsidiary, the customs and border protection, is proceeding without key information on cost. as a result, they risk wasting some of the billions of dollars that have been allocated for this project. they say that cbp is looking at different infrastructure, looking at different locations without taking into

consideration the cost. they're also ignoring some of the previous assets that are there, parts of the fence along that border that are already there, specifically in the rio grand grandevalley. as a result, some of those billions of dollars risk being wasted. john, i want to read part of the conclusion in this 50-page report put out by the gao today. it reads, dhs faces an increased risk that the border wall system program will cost more than projected, take longer than planned, or not fully perform as expected. without assessing costs when prioritizing locations for future barriers, cbp does not have complete information to determine whether it is using its limited resources in the most cost effective manner and does not have important cost information that would help it develop future budget requests. so john, essentially the gao is saying that if you're going to spend this money, spend it correctly and spend it wisely. john?

>> think it through first maybe. alex, great reporting. appreciate that. we'll see if this report comes up when the president and congress have to debate a new spending plan. up next, the president says he deserves some bragging rights if you look at his record compared to president obama's at this point. we'll show you the fact check, number by number. stay with us. ♪ ooh, heaven is a place on earth ♪

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welcome back. midterm elections tend to be about one thing, the president. president trump says he deserves

bragging rights for his record, especially if you compare it to his predecessor, sharing this one tweet that looks at him and president obama. here's the tweet. presidential approval numbers, very good, strong economy, military and just about everything else, better numbers than obama at this point by far. we're winning on just about every front, and for that reason, there will not be a blue wave, but there might be a red wave. that's what the president says on twitter. here's a side-by-side comparison of some of the numbers at the same point in their presidency. guess what? president trump is right, especially on the economics. remember the times. president trump took office at a time the economy was booming. president obama took office in a recession, after a financial crisis when the economy was tanking. job approval, if you look at the margin of error, president obama was a little above, but they're roughly the same. the unemployment rate, president trump does deserve bragging rights. again, consider the times though. jobs added versus jobs lost, we were still deep in the recession when president obama took over.

a lot of republicans don't like the deficits under president trump, but higher under obama at this point. economic growth, certainly, just trying to crawl out of the recession there. president trump has ever right to be happy about 4.1 gdp in the last quarter. that is why when the president is on the campaign trail, he says look at the numbers. why aren't we doing better? >> i purposely didn't mention the kind of numbers we're achieving because i didn't want to be accused of exaggeration. if i would have said 4.1% gdp, they would have -- it would have been major headlines. by the way, it's going a lot higher. you can mark my words. you know, if i get the trade deficits down, they never tell you this, if i get the trade deficits down -- bring them down. if i bring the trade deficits down, we could pick up three and four points in gdp. nobody says that. nobody says that. >> now, again, the direct

comparison to the obama numbers is unfair in some ways, just because of the times. president obama took office when the country was in a ditch. president trump took office, republicans can take credit for their tax cuts and deregulation, but the economy was already doing that when he took office. he does have a point in the sense that why is the political outlook for republicans so bleak when you do have 4% growth last quarter? you do have a strong economy. you do have, you know, record low unemployment. why so bleak? >> i think one of the reasons is that trump has been unable to keep the focus on the economy. if he were able to just stay singularly focused on the economy, which is quite strong at this point, i think you might see republicans in a different position. instead, it's trump himself that keeps muddying the waters there. the second piece of it for republicans looking out, even past the midterms, is the worry about the impact of the tariffs, of the trade policies, that it will take an economy that should have the party in a pretty strong position and send it in the opposite direction. there's really nobody else to blame in that situation but trump himself. >> to the extent that president trump has high approval among

some groups of people, it's because he scores really well on the economy. president obama did not have that luxury. president obama around this point in his presidency was in his mid-40s in approval. president trump right now is in his low 40s. not a big difference. the one area where president trump clearly exceeds barack obama at this point was an intra-party approval. obama had sunk to about 75% on average at this point in his presidency. president trump is about mid-80s right now. one recent poll showed him at 88%, which is the highest of any president on an intraparty level since the '50s with the one exception of bush post-9/11. >> it is pretty remarkable. but what you get and what republicans would tell you is they try to sell the economy. in suburban areas especially, like the district up tomorrow, the president is personally toxic and they can't breakthrough. they can't get through the personal drag of the president of the united states. let's listen to him a little more. this is saturday in ohio. he says there's not going to be a blue wave, trust me. of course, most republicans don't. >> they're talking about this

blue wave. i don't think so. i don't think so. if the democrats get in, they're going to raise your taxes. you're going to have crime all over the place. you're going to have people pouring across the border. so why would that be a blue wave? i think it would be a red wave. i'll tell you what, really, i think it should be a red wave. >> is there anybody, anybody you talk to smart about politics that tells you there's going to be a red wave? >> you know, the president's always in the run up to an election, even when they instinctively know they're going to lose that election or are likely to, they never give in. obama didn't give in either in the run up to the 2010 midterms when in his words afterwords they got shellacked. this president in particular has really, i think, a way of living inside his own bubble, inside the fox news bubble that, you know, he and his supporters live in. so you get the sense that he just doesn't quite understand the level of kind of the

enthusiasm on the other side and the frustration that is going to likely contribute to problems for them in the fall. >> well, but the economic message is so strong for republicans that it is confusing that the president keeps kind of changing topics. just look at that tweet about lebron james right before going to ohio. what a random thing to tweet about. >> going to ohio, yeah, uh-huh. that's why republicans love him so. thanks for joining us on "inside politics." see you back here this time tomorrow. wolf starts right now. have a great day. hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. thanks for joining us. dirt and deceit. the president outright admitting the trump tower meeting with the russians was for dirt on hillary clinton and in turn admitting the original narratives about it were a ruse. the new legal exposure for the president and his family. plus, moments from now, the president of iran will respond to the u.s.