we saw him kind of give a lukewarm endorsement to candidates in the past. in the last few weeks, he's been very on message and trying to get support for the candidates he's backing. >> we'll count the votes tonight. hope you come back to see us tomorrow. that's it for today on "inside politics." again, see you this time tomorrow. wolf starts right now. hello. i'm wolf blitzer. 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we start with more dramatic developments from the paul manafort trial. his former protege rick gates oon the stand once again today. he testified about e-mails that show manafort directed gates on what to do with money coming in from secret offshore accounts. gates also told the court he created invoices for fake amounts of money for use in wire transfers. this follows gates' stunning testimony yesterday that he had committed years of fraud

alongside manafort and even stole several hundred thousand dollars from him. i want to quickly go to our justice correspondent jessica schneider, monitoring all these developments. what's the biggest takeaway so far from today's dramatic testimony? >> the biggest takeaway, woman, just how elaborate this financial scheme was and how involved is paul manafort really seemed to be, directing the movement of money here. rick gates has been testifying about these hundreds of e-mails where manafort actually signs off on transferring the money their consulting company earned throughout these various foreign bank accounts. paul manafort would always write back, approving these transfers and signing it with his initial "p." this is the prosecution laying out that it was, in fact, paul manafort in charge. also, rick gates is talking about some of these fake invoices that he actually created. we heard about them from the accountants last week. gates is now owning up to it. he says the invoices were made

out to some of the vendors they did business with, but the money itself didn't go to pay those vendors. instead, the money went into the banks. gates said that was so the wire transfers wouldn't be recorded by the u.s. government. finally, gates has revealed today that he and paul manafort were interviewed by the fbi in 2014. it was part of a forfeiture investigation led by both the u.s. and ukrainian governments. investigators asked about their work for ukraine, but they were never charged in any of this case. afterward, paul manafort directed gates to meet up with one of the ukrainian business partners to fill him in about that fbi interview. the two actually met in france. of course, rick gates is not holding back at all here. we're into several hours of his testimony now. that's because he's at the mercy of these tprosecutors. he struck a deal with them. he's hoping the more information he gives, the more lenient

eventually his sentence will be. >> he pleaded guilty, as we know. jessica schneider, thank you. let's get some analysis. joining us, laura coats, cnn legal analyst, former federal prosecutor, michael zeldin, former assistant to special prosecutor robert mueller. kim, what do you think? it looks like they're getting ready to wrap up their questioning of rick gates, but he's got a lot of stunning information he's already released. >> sure. and the question here is the extent to what the jury is going to believe, how this is corroborated, both by the documents and mr. manafort's former accountants. all of this is lining up. manafort's defense is going to be, i didn't know, i was dumb, i didn't understand this. rick gates is the one who orchestrated this. but of course now we know rick gates met mr. manafort as an intern at a holiday party. it's tough to say that narrative

is actually going to come across in a real way to the jury here. >> pretty soon the defense will have an opportunity, michael, to cross-examine. they're going to try to undermine this guy as much as possible. say, you know, he's already admitted lying to federal prosecutors. you can't believe a word he says. >> that's exactly right. so they could say to the jury, you have a reasonable doubt when you get to the jury room to deliberate. the problem is that gates' testimony is corroborated by all the e-mails, by the accountants, by the tax preparers, by the weight of the bank records in the fraud aspect of this case. even if they don't like gates, i think it's going to be hard to discredit what he says because there's so much support for it. we have two cases going on here. we have tax fraud, when they were making a lot of money and moving it through cyprus. then we have bank fraud, where they had no money and were trying to trick banks into

lending them money. both of those aspects of the case are very well supported by other witnesses and documentary evidence. >> both of these guys, manafort and rick gate, very, very sleazy. >> a very sleazy operation. the credibility game can only go so far because birz of a feather do flock together. the jury can look at this and say, okay, fine, that one sleazy person who's doing money laundering and stealing from their employer, so to speak, i have someone else who can launder money the way i've never been able to do. you have this conundrum. for the jury, they're seeing why is this person on trial? wouldn't you have an accountant telling them i also false fifie documents? this is a great equalizer of sorts. the prosecution will try to say,

do not pay much attention to this cooperation agreement, as if that's the thing that says you can't believe him, he would lie to protect his own hide. in many ways, he has that sentences hanging in front of him as a carrot. he must tell the truth. it enhances his credibility. >> everyone stand by. more news coming in. "the wall street journal" is reporting that federal prosecutors are looking into possible tax fraud by michael cohen, the president's former fixer and lawyer. let's get some analysis of what we're just learning from "the wall street journal". laura, let me start with you. "the wall street journal" headline, former trump lawyer michael cohen under investigation for tax fraud. we know the federal attorney for the southern district of new york in new york city, they're investigating him. he's under criminal investigation. he hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing yet. but they've raided his home, raided his apartment at the regency hotel in new york. they've raided his safe deposit box, his office. a line jumps out at me. federal authorities are

assessing whether mr. cohen's income from his taxi medallion business was underreported in federal tax returns. one of the people said, the income included hundreds of thousands of dollars received in cash and other payments over the last five years. so what does this say to you, that they're squeezing this guy big time right now? >> i'm hearing déjà vu. this is precisely in a way what paul manafort is on trial right now. underreporting his income, trying to evade tax payments and only gha obligations, somebody orbiting the president of the united states who would know about their conduct in some way shape or form. i'm seeing a bit of a déjà vu. what's interesting is unlike the case of paul manafort, remember mueller has not wanted the case of michael cohen. he has passed this off to a different district court, a different u.s. attorney's office. i was curious as to why he's chosen to argue on behalf of one and not the other, probably because of the role that michael cohen did not play on the campaign, unlike paul manafort. >> how do you see it? >> well, this is what you expect in a situation with a

depreciating asset like a taxi medallion. they were worth 1.2 million until uber came. then this is a depreciating asset. he's got a whole host of money invested in these medallions. he's got to deal with this, with the banks, with his taxes. it makes perfect sense there would be fraud on the banks and fraud in the preparation of his taxes as it relates to that asset. >> and because he hasn't bandage charged with any crime, although there's a criminal investigation under way right now, but this article is very devastating. if you take a look, he was the president's lawyer and fixer for a decade, maybe 12 years. he's in deep trouble right now. the former chairman of the president's campaign, paul manafort, in deep trouble right now. the deputy campaign chairman, rick gates, in deep trouble. the president's former national security adviser michael flynn in deep trouble right now. what does that say to you?

>> certainly connections to the president. one thing is the justice department is sending a strong message. we're on our game. we've got our facts. we're ready to go after these people. i think also farming some of it out to other parts of the justice department makes it a little harder for trump to play the i'm firing mueller card and calling everything off. i think that's one really important point. the other thing is -- >> because you make the point mueller referred the michael cohen case to the southern district of new york. >> exactly. the tendrils are in different places in terms of how this entire thing is being investigated and prosecuted. i know there's concern we're going to see another saturday night massacre like we saw with nixon, but i think it's a smart move to have other parts of the justice department that are answering to jeff sessions and not to rod rosenstein to address some of these issues. >> what it also says to me is they're squeezing michael cohen big time right now to make sure

that he does flip, that he does cooperate, pleads guilty to whatever crimes they may have against him, and he could be an excellent witness in terms of the bigger picture. >> he could be. of course, all these mounting legal jeopardy cases are going to make him uniquely desiring of doing that very thing, but remember, they actually have to want to hear from him. you can't just say to a prosecutor, i'd like to make a deal that's favorable to me, i don't actually want to hear from you. i already have the information some place else. i no longer need you. when it was important for you to come forward, you did not. remember, we've seen him already trying to give little nuggets and colonels kernels of informa. >> everybody stand by. there's more we need to follow up on. we're also getting some new reporting right now that suggests the president's legal team is reluctant for the president to answer any questions about possible obstruction of justice in an interview with robert mueller and his team.

you're going to find out what happens if they refuse. plus, a huge primary night here in america that may paint a clearer picture for the midterm elections. will president trump's picks win out tonight, and how successful will socialist backed democrats be tonight? also, as iran gets had hit with u.s. sanctions, israel says the regime should be, quote, have been aish -- vanished from the world. this as president trump issues a new threat against any nation dealing with iran. stand by. ♪

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will he or won't he? that's still the question surrounding president trump and the russia investigation. will the president of the united states answer questions in person from the special counsel robert mueller?

but it seems there's another sticking point right now. namely, the obstruction investigation. let's go to our white house correspondent kaitlan collins outside the president's bedminster golf resort in new jersey. the president has been vacationing there over the past several days. where do we stand right now on the interview negotiations, kaitlan? >> reporter: wolf, we still seem to be very much in the middle of this. this has been going on for eight months now, the back and forth between the president's legal team and the special counsel's team over whether or not he's actually going to sit down with an interview with the special counsel. what we do know, the latest reporting we have is that the president's legal team is prepared to respond in the coming days to the latest proposal from robert mueller's team. wolf, you'll remember that proposal was that they would agree to limit the number of questions about obstruction of justice, but they still wanted to ask the president those questions in person. that is something the president's legal team does not want to agree to. they actually want to have no

questions about obstruction of justice. rudy giuliani has made that quite clear. instead, hoping the questions can only focus on collusion and events that occurred before president trump took office. you heard that in rudy giuliani's quote to "the washington post," saying there's a real reluctance to allow those questions about obstruction of justice if the president does sit down with them. so they seem to be very much in the middle of this still, this cat-and-mouse game, going back and forth. what we do know, even though these negotiations hit a wall after the fbi raided michael cohen's house, office, and hotel, the president no longer seeming willing to sit down with the special counsel, he does in recent weeks seem to be expressing that interest once again in sitting down with him, putting him at odds with his legal team here, wolf, but it does seem that it will be the president who makes the final decision about whether or not he's going to sit down with robert mueller. >> we'll see what happens, kaitlan. thank you very much. back with us now, is there a chance the president will actually sit down with robert

moo mueller and his team face to face? >> i think he's using the media as a focus group. knowing the court of public opinion will ultimately influence the impeachment process, if there is one. i think it's in his best interest to speak with his attorneys president, which would not happen if he were subpoenaed. you want that harness and potential muz. around him and a script in front of him to answer questions that would not be allowed to be there if he had a grand jury. it's in his interest whether he'll follow suit is very different. >> one of the points that were made, maybe he'll answer questions on these allegations of, quote, collusion, but he's only going to do it in written form, any questions involving obstruction of justice. >> so you have three different things going on here. you have coordination conspiracy p pre-election. there's no executive privilege. he has a hard time denying mueller the right to talk to him about that. >> that's the collusion issue. >> then you get to obstruction. obstruction breaks into two different parts. one is the firing of comey.

now, he received information from his topped advisers, rosen ste -- rosenstein and sessions. that falls within executive privilege. that's what they don't want to talk about. then there's the firing of flynn, the interference with the fbi by the intelligence community, the interference alleged with the burr committee. all of that doesn't include executive privilege. they're really trying to parse this out into various pieces so they are only talking about things that don't implicate executive privilege. >> it's interesting. if they refuse to answer questions, if the president refuses to answer questions, he potentially could be subpoenaed. that could wind up a decision before the u.s. supreme court. i want you to listen to what one democratic congressman, adam smith of washington state, told me last night. >> nobody has the right to ignore a subpoena. however, remember the supreme court that we have.

if this goes all the way up to this supreme court, you can bring it back to nixon when the supreme court at that time required president nixon to turn over the tapes because they were following the law. as i've noted before, this supreme court seems to make its decisions based on what donald trump and the republican party want as opposed to precedents of the constitution. >> so if this issue goes up to the supreme court, what do you think? >> yeah, i mean, i think it's hard to get around the nixon case. in addition, even executive privilege wouldn't necessarily protect the president from speaking, responding to a subpoena. but the other issue is we're dealing with president trump. even in the world where we have an order from a court saying you must comply and you must actually respond to the subpoena, this is not a person that i would put -- would assume would necessarily comply. he might say, listen, i don't think that's a real court, i don't have to, i'm the president of the united states, i'm the head of the executive branch, i choose to ignore it. then we're in a full-fledged

constitutional crisis. >> even if the supreme court says you must comply, he could always plead the fifth and not necessarily comply. >> for specific questions, yes. >> okay, guys. excellent conversation. thanks very much. there's other news we're following, including a very important primary night here in america. you're going to hear why the president will be watching very closely, including his 11th hour endorsement and the controversial candidacy of one of his most famous loyalists. also, cnn uncovers past columns by the vice president of the united states mike pence who argues that a sitting president can be removed from office over the issue of morals. saved us almost $800 when we switched our auto and home insurance. with liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. hey! oh, that's my robe. is it? when you switch to liberty mutual, you could save $782 on auto and home insurance. and still get great coverage for you and your family. call for a free quote today.

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now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. right now, voters in five states are heading to the polls. this will be another major chance to gauge the temperature of voters ahead of november's midterm elections here in the united states. we're watching primaries specifically in kansas, michigan, missouri, and washington state. all eyes really are on the special election in ohio's 12th district, where a reliably republican seat is at risk of switching parties. republican state senator troy balderson is squaring off against democrat danny o'connor. trump, the president of the united states, has thrown his support behind balderson, who's fighting to maintain the

republicans' three-decade-old hold on the district. joining us now with big things to watch, associated editor and columnist for real politics, a.b. stoddard. this is an important race. we're going to be watching it to see if there could be a blue wave in november. >> wolf, the democrats are already overperforming in this district. i think the former incumbent won it by 37 points in 2016, trump by 11. so that wasn't a democratic fantasy. that was a democratic fever dream. the idea this race is too close to call, the idea the early voting is coming in better for the democrats is very much spooking republicans. even a close call tonight, a near miss for republicans, they hold on by a little, is an indication they'll be in for incredible amounts of surprises in otherwise unthinkable places, spending resources all over the map in competitive races across the country. >> we're going to be watching this congressional district very closely. we're also watching a race in

kansas right now. a race where the president only recently came in and endorsed kobach for that seat. >> republicans have made it clear in the last 24 hours, wolf, they did not want this to happen. there's a sitting republican governor. he replaced a former governor who vacated the seat to go to the administration. kris kobach is the secretary of the state, a very controversial figure. he ran up president trump's voter fraud commission. it was not a successful story. many secretaries of state around the country rejected his methods. they wouldn't share their data with him. the idea that trump is coming in at the last minute and could throw this to kobach would be a gift for democrats, making them far more competitive in the general election and god forbid have a democratic governor in kansas. >> that would be a huge, luge deal. we're also watching on the democratic side to see where this party, the democratic party, is moving as a result of

what happened in new york city just a few weeks ago. alexandria ocasio-cortez won a democratic primary against a long-time democratic sitting congressman. we're seeing if her support for some of these other candidates really can make an impression. we're also seeing if whether the democrats are moving towards this notion of being democratic socialists. >> the party leadership certainly hopes not. they'd like to take back the white house in 2020, and they're very conflicted about this movement. they want a star. they need a star. they want the spark and the heat but not the wildfire. so this is being watched with tremendous caution. the first candidate, james thompson, he came close in mike pompeo's seat, which was vacated. he almost won by five seats in a district that trump won by something like 27. he's on the heels trying to compete against ron estes. he's hoping for a comeback and has the best chance.

brent welder is the bernie sanders candidate that the democratic establishment is worried if he prevails, they'll lose the seat anyway to the incumbent ken yoder. cori bush is running against a family legacy. bill clay, one of the founding members of the congressional black caucus. it will take a lot to prevail. abdul el-sayed, very popular among liberals because they want him to prevail against the democratic establishment. she's a former state senate majority leader who is ahead of him in the polls, but he becomes the first muslim governor of the nation if he wins the primary and prevails in november. >> a lot of extensive coverage of these races tonight.

thanks, a.b. excellent analysis. coming up, ramping up the pressure on iran. the president signing what he calls the most biting sanctions ever imposed on the country, as israel says it would be best if the iranian regime would simply vanish from the world. plus, why is saudi arabia declaring diplomatic war on canada? the saudis expel canadian diplomats, cancel flights, freeze trade, and now telling saudi students who study in canada to return home and go study some place else. you're going to hear why. metimek is more than just a day at the ballpark. stadium pa : all military members stand and be recognized. sometimes fans cheer for those who wear a different uniform. no matter where or when you served, t-mobile stands ready to serve you. that's why we're providing half off family lines to all military.

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putting the pressure on iran, president trump is touting tough sanctions on iran saying they are the most biting ever imposed and warning that other countries had better also turn their backs on tehran. israeli officials say it would be best if the iranian regime, quote, vanished from the world, while republican senator lindsey graham sees it this way. >> the sanctions today issued by president trump through executive order against iran are crippling, and i think our goal should be as a nation to drive this regime into the ground without firing a shot, stand behind the iranian people. >> all right. joining us now, elizabeth sherwood randal. as you know, senior trump

administration officials say regime change is not necessarily the goal, but they want to modify the regime's behavior. is that a realistic goal with these renewed sanctions? >> thanks, wolf. you know, this decision the president has taken to reimpose sanctions has huge costs for our leadership and the world for our national security and for our economicing security. and so my view of this decision to reimpose sanctions when iran iss is dismantling its nuclear weapons, the decisions he makes are putting us at risk. >> you don't think that these kinds of economic sanctions and telling the europeans, the japanese, the chinese, you either are with the united states, you can have trade with the u.s., or you can have trade with iran, but you can't have trade with both?

you don't think that'll have a huge impact domestically, internally? >> i think it will have a huge impact, but unfortunately not a positive impact. one of the important aspects of the agreement that was put in place was to give benefits to the iranian people for supporting a regime that made the difficult decision to give up its nuclear program. now that we're reimposing sanctions, which makes life harder for the iranian people, that emboldens the hard liners in iran who are always opposed to this agreement and who want to foment the kind of instability that the trump decision supposedly is going to stop. so the president says he wants to stop iranian malfeasance. in fact, what we had done previously was take nuclear weapons off the table, encourage the iranian people to move in the direction of engagement with the world, and over time to create more incentives for the iranians to stop their bad behavior in other dimensions. that is now all being blown up.

what it does is isolate the united states. it diminishes our standing in the world, the credibility of our word, and puts our allies and partners at risk. so what we're doing is also harming their economies, multinationals that are both american and european and asian, and creating the kind of risk that we don't need right now. it gives strategic opportunity to those who are competing with us and indeed hands an economic win to both china and russia. so let me give you some concrete examples. >> hold on for one moment. i want to point out that the iranian president, hasan rouhani, says he would welcome talks with the united states and said he's ready to start those talks right now. as you know, last week the president, president trump, said he's ready to meet with the iranian leadership with no preconditions. so what are the chances we see a summit between the u.s. and iran emerging like the summit we saw between the u.s. and north korea in singapore? >> well, it's certainly part of president trump's playbook.

we could see a conversation take place. the question there is what are we willing to do? we have taken an action that's unwarranted. the iranians were implementing an agreement. what will be on the table for such a discussion? what's the credibility of president trump's word? what is the credibility of the united states at this time when we've ripped up an agreement that's successfully stopping a nuclear program. >> israel says the european union, which of course supports the iran nuclear deal, is, quote, morally bankrupt for wanting to keep the iran nuclear deal in place. so why are the european leaders still trying to save the deal after the u.s. ripped it up? >> this is an inexplicable stance on the part of the israelis. the israelis are far more secure with an iran that does not have nuclear weapons than an iran that restarts its nuclear program. what the europeans are correctly doing is looking for mechanisms that will allow them in concert with others to continue to provide the benefits to the

iranian people that would lead the regime to decide to stay in the agreement despite america's withdrawal and despite america's reimposition of very substantial sanctions. this makes it much harder for our companies to do business successfully. boeing, for example, has a $20 billion civil aviation deal with the iranians right now, which has to be put on hold. that affects our workers, our economy. european companies as well. a $5 billion deal to develop the south oil field in iran. they're most likely to hand it off to its partner, the chinese national petroleum company, which will benefit from europe pulling out. >> elizabeth sherwood-randall, thanks for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. despite the president declaring that north korea is no longer a nuclear threat, his national security adviser says kim jong-un is not, repeat not, living up to his promise to denuke. this as we learn what the president is telling kim jong-un in a new letter. also, cnn uncovers past

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despite president trump's declaring north korea is no longer a nuclear threat, his administration is once again accusing the north of not living up to its commitments on denuclearization made at the june summit between president trump and the north korean leader kim jong-un. the president's national security adviser john bolton has been out there hammering that message home in the last couple days. >> so if the iranians are really

willing to come and talk about all of their malign behavior in the region and around the world, i think they'd find the president willing to do it. but once again, this is a question less of what their propaganda is and what their real intentions are. >> joining us now is max boot, a cnn global affairs analyst. he's with the consulate of foreign relations as well. so what do you think? because there is an exchange of letters between president trump and kim jong-un, talk of a second summit, maybe before the end of this year. but you hear john bolton saying the north koreans are not doing what they were supposed to be doing. >> there's a clear clash here between the president and his national security adviser because bolton is speaking the truth, that the emperor has no close. it this agreement is not resulting in denuclearization, u.s. intelligence suggests they're expanding those programs, and yet donald trump is not willing to admit that. he says he's, quote, very happy, with the results of the

singapore summit. bolton is basically calling him out here. i wonder what conversation they had back in the white house. >> you think there's going to be a second meeting? >> there could well be. trump is just determined to ignore all the evidence that the north koreans are not actually denuclearizing and to make this the deal of the century, essentially. he wants to play along, especially going into the midterm elections. he's basically trying to put a happy face on a nondeal where the north koreans are not making significant concessions. >> yeah, he's had very nice words to say about chairman kim of north korea. >> remember, this is a guy who keeps like 200,000 of his own citizens in slave labor camps. this is a guy who killed his own half brother with weapons of mass destruction in a national airport, killed his own uncle. this is a brutal, deadly dictator. it's disgusting donald trump lavishes all this praise on him. >> let's talk about another sensitive diplomatic issue that's developed. a real crisis between canada and saudi arabia. the saudis pulling out, telling

the canadian ambassador he's got to leave, telling saudi students studying in canada on saudi scholarships they have to leave. we're talking about a lot of students. saudi airlines no longer flying to toronto and other places in canada. give us some background on what's going on right now. this is a really, >> right. not normally one of the hot flash points of the world but it is today. this is the crown prince of saudi arabia who likes to portray himself as a modernizer, liberalizer, very young man trying to remake the kingdom. he is allowing women to drive. he's opening up movie theaters, doing positive things. but at the same time he is a brutal authoritarian who does not want challenges against his rule. he's allowing women to drive,

he's actually putting some of the female activists in jail, the very people calling for the right to drive and canada called him out on that. now you see this hyper bollic reaction. he bullies at home and abroad. he tried to enhance saudi standing in the region, not very successfully. one of the things that troubles me about this confrontation, wolf, is that the united states is not standing by our canadian allies. the u.s. takes a hands-off approach saying canada and saudi arabia, you sort it out. ignoring the fact that canada is a nato ally and they are standing up for human rights the way the united states used to do before the trump administration. >> it's a real crisis. max, thank you very much. there's more news we're following. the outgoing speaker of the house of representatives, paul ryan, now opening up about his time in the trump era in a new tell-all interview with "the new york times" saying -- he's helped avoid tragedies, but what

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cnn's kay file uncovered two files where pence argued that bill clinton's admission of affair with white house intern and prior lies to the american public about the matter possibly also under oath meant clinton should be removed from office. he also argued in general about the importance of morality and integrity to the office of the presidency. the white house correspondent for reuters jeff mason is joining us right now. jeff, so that's what he said then. vice president pence has apparently a different view right now. >> he doesn't talk about it much now. when he made those comments he was not a politician, he was a radio host in indiana. if you look back at his sort of tenure with president trump during the 2016 campaign, he did criticize then candidate trump after the "access hollywood" tape came out. since then he as absolutely aligned himself with the president on everything from policy to moral issues. he stands behind the president. he gives his support to everything that he does. it's pretty much his -- that's who he is now is president

trump's number two. >> even when he's been asked about stormy daniels, karen mcdougal and so-called hush money and all that was paid. >> yeah. >> what does he say? >> yeah, he's dismissive of that. he questions the allegations that have been made. he does not come out and talk about moral arguments. if this was a democrat in office congress or governor in indiana that his tone and criticism would be much different. >> fascinating article "the new york times" posted today that will be in the magazine about the outgoing speaker of the house, paul ryan. it's really revealing article and among other things ryan suggests that he's been relatively quiet in public because he wants to make sure he can prevent, quote, tragedies by working with the president and avoiding any serious criticism. >> in fact, he said he had prevented some tragedies. then when the reporter followed up and asked what sort of

tragedies he didn't expand on that. yeah, it was a very interesting interview. interesting to compare the two, mike pence and paul ryan both are to some extent now whether they like it or not tied up or connected to president trump. ryan, of course, is leaving office, but his legacy will be connected to this president. >> very good article "the new york times." quickly, you were in helsinki, i was in helsinki. >> uh-huh. >> the president of the united states called on you for a question. it generated a lot of buzz. let me play the exchange. >> president putin, did you want president trump to win the election? and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that? >> translator: yes, i did. yes, i did because he talked about bringing the u.s./russia relationship back to normal. >> so, tell me what happened after the question was. it was a good question. clearly president trump was not very happy with your question or your colleague from a.p., his question either. >> yeah. it was an extraordinary press conference. the last question, that was the

third one i got, and i was still holding on to a microphone even though somebody was trying to pull it away from you. >> who was trying to pull it away from you? >> a staff member. i think they were ready to move on. we're not sure if putin heard the second part about my question, whether he directed staff to help president trump win the election. it was just an extraordinary moment. and the reaction to it both to the answers that the president of the united states gave and the president of russia continue to reverberate today. >> putin confirmed that, yes, he clearly wanted donald trump to be president and hillary clinton not to be president. >> absolutely. it negates subsequent tweets from the president which he has done since then that russia would have liked clinton to win. russia doesn't want republicans to be in office. russia doesn't want me to be in office. president putin admitted on live television to all of us there and the millions of people watching that that's exactly what he wanted, indeed. >> good point. good question, jeff.

thanks very much for coming in. keep up the good work at the white house. that's it for me. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in the situation room for our international viewers, amen pour is coming up next. newsroom with brooke baldwin starts right now for those in the u.s. ♪ hi there i'm brooke baldwin, you're watching cnn. right now prosecutors getting done to the nitty-gritty of their case against paul manafort and very shortly the defense will get its turn to cross-examine the prosecution's star witness. manafort's former aide bill gates. it focuses on shell bank accounts that manafort used hide millions of dollars. rick gates testified about his boss's money troubles,