at one point, he says it's god's orders, kate. >> all right. so much more to learn. scott, thank you so much for being on the ground. really appreciate it. thank you all so much for joining me today. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. thank you, kate. and welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. the president's new response to the special counsel is more political threat than legal strategy. shut things down, team trump tells robert mueller, or become a midterm election issue. plus, how alexandria ocasio-cortez turns a stunning primary upset. and look to the stars. is that the battlefield of tomorrow? the trump administration moves ahead with its plans for a new space force.

the late-night comics say thank you. >> the united states space force. >> we're not entirely sure what we do. >> do we fight aliens or? >> i have no clue. just shut up until we get the spaceship. >> spaceship? >> we begin with the russia investigation. a team trump legal strategy that's in truth a team trump political strategy. the president's lawyers are now waiting on robert mueller after sending the special counsel a response they know is a nonstarter. the president, they say, is willing to answer some mueller questions, but nothing about the possibility of obstructing justice. >> the reality is he doesn't need to ask a single question on obstruction. he has all the answers. they're not going to change. the president's not going to change his testimony. so stop the nonsense. you are trying to trap him into perjury because you don't have a

case. >> mueller, of course, does not have all the answers. in part, because the president, of course, has not testified. most of what giuliani says on television is fact free, but this to cnn's dana bash is a moment of remarkable candor. quote, when i first got involved, i would have told you not testifying would be the right legal strategy but that hurt politically. now i'm thinking the continuance of the investigation would actually help because people are getting tired of it, and the president needs something to energize his voters because the democrats look like they're energized. nothing would energize republicans more than, quote, let's save the president. in other words, we've decided to stall and string mueller along because in giuliani's own words, quote, the president needs something to energize his voters. dana bash, who spoke to rudy giuliani, joins us live. is there any other way to translate that? >> look, the reality that they're living in is that they don't think the president should testify. nobody around the president thinks he should testify or

answer questions, i should say. that's not new. but they still have a client, the president, who is arguing that he wants to answer questions. the flip side is they have a special counsel who really wants the president to answer questions. so they've been going through this dance for months now. proposal, counterproposal, the mueller team wants to ask a broad range of questions, the trump team keeps wanting to narrow it in. so they don't have a choice, really, but to answer the questions -- or excuse me, but to negotiate about answering questions. so while they're doing that, they have to try to find bright sides. it has been true, and i know you're hearing this from republicans as i am, that politically speaking, they've been surprised at the fact that the russia investigation isn't as much of a drag with regard to the base, and maybe even some independents, as they thought. maybe it could be a help. so he's trying to look on the bright side. it definitely is and was a moment of candor from giuliani,

but the ball is not in their court. he's very open about that. they have to wait to see what robert mueller does. it's really unclear. subpoena or anything else that could run the gamut. so they're going to play the cards they're dealt right now. >> play the cards they're dealt and try to benefit politically as they wait for the special counsel. you are right. that's his response -- this next response, i guess, might tell us something. dana bash, appreciate the reporting. i get they keep saying we're trying to work this out, but i keep reading this as they're saying no. they're saying no, and they're trying to make mueller decide, are you going to take the momentous step of issuing a subpoena for the president of the united states? is there another way to read it? and forgive me, i know everyone keeps saying the president keeps saying he wants to testify. he's the president of the united

states. he could tell his lawyers bring him in, let's do it, and he hasn't. i'm skeptical the president actually really wants to answer questions. >> like, let me at him type of thing. don't hold me back. yes, i think that's a good point. but again, it does seem like they're really trying to bait robert mueller. there is a lot we don't know. we don't know what mueller is doing. a lot of it is kind of an iceberg investigation. there's a lot happening below the surface. we don't know what he will do. that would -- if the president is subpoenaed before the election, that would energize the president's base. you heard devin nunes basically selling that during a fundraiser on that recording just yesterday. saying that we're the last line of defense for the president. so that is already kind of there in the ether among republicans. they're talking about this sort of thing probably more than the democrats are. >> to that point, since you brought it up, there's a school of thought, forget your political party.

a special counsel is investigating election meddling by a foreign power that does not have the interest of the united states in mind, and there are some questions about communications between people who work for the president of the united states and russians. why wouldn't the president of the united states want to clear all this up and answer the questions? that's the silly apolitical way to look at it. si silly because it doesn't work that way. you mentioned devin nunes. here you have the chairman of the house intelligence committee who knows a lot we don't know about this because he has access to classified information, speaking at a fundraiser. listen to him here. is he saying we need to clear up all these questions? and i understand from a republican perspective, let's get this over with, especially if the president did nothing wrong. but that's not what he says. he says let's keep the republicans in charge of congress because we need to protect the president.

>> again, please, if there's another way to translate it, i would love to hear it. rudy giuliani's legal strategy, at least at the moment, until he knows more about bob mueller s a political strategy. devin nunes was removed for the meat of this investigation because he got caught playing with team trump, essentially saying we need to keep the republicans not so we can answer questions and get to the bottom of this, but so we can protect the president. >> this is where you see the confluence of these two parallel tracks. one is the political messages the president and rudy giuliani and jay sekulow are conducting. the over ther is the behind the scenes work mueller's team is doing. depending on what mr. mueller actually does and how it actually affects the president,

it will certainly matter whether one or in theory both chambers of congress are -- whether democrats take over. then all these questions that right now are totally different, the impeachment question is totally different when there's nothing on the table. it'll obviously be a very risky political move for democrats to do if they were in charge. if things change next year, it won't matter who's in control of the house as well as the senate. meanwhile, the court of public opinion does matter because if mr. mueller puts out a report that doesn't have an actual kind of charging hammer with it but includes details that come out in the public at some point t will also matter who's in charge of each chamber of congress. the president and his legal team are playing the only game they have right now, which is the political game. >> and not hearing from mueller is interesting. obviously it looks to me like he's got three options. keep up these negotiations, decide to wrap things up without talking to the president, thought experiment, bob mueller says i'm not going to talk to the president, i don't need to talk to the president. what do you think republicans say? are they satisfied with that

answer, or do they say, a-ha, he's already reached a conclusion? so either keep up these negotiations, go nuclear with a subpoena, or decide he doesn't need to talk to the president. we don't know what his intent is in any of these things. we know he wants to talk to him, but would he settle for not? >> and there's definitely some irony in rudy giuliani sort of daring publicly, daring mueller to go past the september 1st deadline because, you know, the lawyers have been in negotiations for really a better part of this year now about this interview, how it will be conducted, what questions need to be off limits, and a big reason for that is because there's tension between trump's lawyers and the president himself. he's out there saying i welcome this interview, i want to be interviewed because i'm convinced i can get in front of mueller and his team and show them that i'm innocent, whereas his lawyers don't really buy that. they know he struggles with, you know, being loose with his words, being loose with his sort of version of the truth.

they, i think, are sort of frightened and worried about the prospect of him having this interview and committing perjury. >> it's the theory in the justice department that you get close to an election, you're supposed to back off. james comey is exhibit a in recent history. we all assume bob mueller is going to play this as a company man and is not going to be doing things in the last week of october that will be judged as political. this is an ig report that got into this 60-day rule, per se. it talks about ray hustler, who was the chief of the public integrity system. hustler said that while working on the election year sensitivities memorandum, they considered codifying the substance of the 60-day rule, but they rejected that approach as unworkable. hustler told the inspector general that a prosecutor should look to the needs of the case

and significant investigative steps should be taken, quote, when the case is ready, not earlier or later. in other words -- >> there's no 60 days. >> there's no hard rule, but don't be a jerk. use common sense. if the case blossoms and, bang, you have to choice, but otherwise, don't be doing things to poke close to an election. >> to that point, it's relevant to look back at former attorney general holder, who released identical versions of a memo saying you shouldn't take public steps with the purpose of affecting the outcome of an election. >> and to your point about mueller's options, one is to just simply pause. go ahead with cases like the manafort trial, other things that are in the system, hit the pause button on everything else, come back after the election. rudy giuliani and the president use it as an issue during the election. if democrats are in charge after the election, then mueller hits the restart button, we live in a very different world. but we'll watch this play out over the next few weeks. up next, he's facing criminal charges, but

congressman chris collins says he's not going anywhere. what his legal woes could mean come november. [burke] at farmers, we've seen almost everything

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welcome back. congressman chris collins looking at the possibility of 150 years in prison. that's a big number. but he says it won't keep him off the ballot this november. the new york republican vowing now to fight insider trading charges. prosecutors allege he shared inside information about a failed drug product prompting his son and the father of his son's girlfriend to dump a pharmaceutical stock just before it tanked. >> i will mount a vigorous defense in court to clear my name. i look forward to being fully vindicated and exonerated. rest assured, i will continue to work hard for the people and

constituents of the 27th congressional district of new york, and i will remain on the ballot running for re-election this november. >> the news, of course, not surprisingly dominating the republican lawmaker's home state headlines. look right here. "friends and family discount?" just won word from "the rochester chronicle," "indicted." it's not good news for the congressman. not good news for the republican party. if you listen to the press conference yesterday, the prosecutors laid out this case in pretty stunning detail. if you look at the documents they released as well, it is even more meticulous in how it is built. yet, the congressman says he's going to mount a vigorous defense and importantly says he's not going to get off the ballot. >> this really is what people

imagine as being corruption at its worst in washington, when people think about why congress' approval ratings are so low, they think about this kind of scenario you see in tv shows and movies. a member of congress having special access and then trying to help himself then the people around him have personal profit off of this kind of information and this kind of access. i think in terms of the district that he is in and the fact that he's going to continue running for re-election -- and by the way, it's kind of very difficult to take his name off the ballot a this point, just because of how things work in that district. unless he were to die or run for another office, which i don't think he's going to do at this point in time, i think a lot of this is going to come down to how democrats decide to capitalize on this and seize on this moment. yes, it is very, very difficult in this district for a democrat to flip this seat. however, this is how unusual things happen in politics.

something, some kind of external circumstance that's unexpected happens, and then the other side capitalizes on it. a lot will come down to can democrats seize on this moment? >> although, i can see a scenario. he's a huge defender of the president. he was an early supporter of the president. it's not impossible that trump could decide to back him. yes, that indictment was extremely damning and even had flowcharts. that said, i wouldn't be -- nothing really surprises me anymore, but i wouldn't be surprised if the president decided to say this is a witch hunt, he's my supporter, i back him. it could be as easy as that for him to win re-election in a district like this. >> and the democrat running against him had raised about $80,000 up until yesterday. we'll see what happens. this is a strong trump seat, strong republican seat. but you have exceptions to the rule when you have something like this. "the weekly standard" writing about this today. the 68-year-old former businessman could lose what was previously seen as a safe seat from the republican party fighting to hold on to the house of representatives. his opponent, 43-year-old town supervisor from grand island, relative youth and impressive

educational background could make him an attractive candidate in a district that's not elected a democrat since the last round of redistricting in 2013. you see this from time to time. if it flipped, the other party gets elected to a solid seat, then maybe the next election they change it. but it's to throw the perceived bum out. >> and jackie is right, anything could happen, but we didn't see president trump jump on this yesterday when he was doing his five hefor five lap or talking about the special election in ohio. i think anything that touches on those swamp boundaries is a problem for him messaging wise. anything that touches on the criminal justice system also is. he's been pretty well disciplined, or he was, for about a 24-hour period. >> he did just tweet about the so-called witch hunt. he's tweeting about other things. he has the phone in hand, obviously. we'll see if he gets to it. if he doesn't, that tells you something. one of the risks is the democrats think they can seize on this, not just with

congressman chris collins. they think they can say, hey, look at scott pruitt, look at tom price, look at david shulkin, look at other people in the trump administration who have had swampy questions about personal finances or the way they've conducted affairs in their department. >> that's exactly fair. they have this broader narrative. that's potentially very effective. i'm skeptical that this is going to be particularly painful politically for congressman collins, if only because we have another example of a member of congress who assaulted a reporter, broke his glasses, and lied about it who is a duly sworn member of congress. it's not really clear to me that voters on that side are particularly swamp intolerant. >> and by the way, the swampy visuals here could not possibly be worse. the fact that we have footage of collins taking these phone calls while he was at the white house attending the congressional picnic surrounded by other people in washington, some of his colleagues. the visuals are so, so terrible. >> and let's remember the last time culture of corruption

worked. it was very house centric, which flipped it before. now, with the president and all of his cabinet members, maybe that sinks in. but house democrats in particular had quite a case to make the last time this worked. >> if nothing else, it is another problem for a republican party that has a long list of issues in a very difficult med term election year. up next, the trump administration makes its case at the pentagon and on twitter for a brand new branch of the military. take a look. about people and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business the united states postal service. priority: you

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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. the trump administration today making a public push for a new military frontier, a space force. this is vice president pence at the pentagon last hour. >> now the time has come to write the next great chapter in the history of our armed forces. to prepare for the next battlefield where america's best and bravest will be called to deter and defeat a new generation of threats to our people, to our nation. the time has come to establish the united states space force. >> that pence visit comes as the pentagon gets ready to release a report on space-related military

challenges and questions. today's event after months of nudging from the kmancommander chief. >> space is a war-fighting domain, just like the land, air, and sea. it's not merely enough to have an american presence in space. we must have american dominance in space. we very well may soon have the space force. everyone is very excited about that. it's not just sending rockets to the moon and rockets to mars. this is also a military imperative. and i've directed the pentagon to begin the process of creating a sixth branch of the united states armed forces called the space force. very important. >> joining our conversation, the retired rear admiral john kirby, our cnn contributor. there is no question -- if you want to go way back and think about pirates at sea, there's no

question now between satellites and all the economic technology, all the military technology in space, the question is how to deal with it, and do you need a new space force or just a new space priority? what's the answer? >> the pentagon's answer previously today had been to make it a unified command. a four-star level joint. so right now it only exists in the air force. elevating that so it's a joint command. i think that's where secretary math r mattis really wanted it to be. but vice president pence used the word department, which makes it unequivocal that they're going to create a sixth service military branch of the defense department, which takes it to a whole new level. it's unclear exactly all the missions and roles and responsibilities of this force, but they're going to have to go to congress to get full funding authority and all the mother pig pi -- other permissions that go along with setting up a force. >> and it doesn't take a rocket scientist, no pun intended.

to your point about secretary mattis, let's listen to a little now and then. you see the tension he has. again, not about the challenge but about how to respond to it. >> it is becoming a contested war-fighting domain, and we have got to adapt to that reality. it's on par with the air, land, sea, and cyberspace domains in terms of it being contested. it's now a domain in which we must be equally prepared as all of those other domains. >> we're in complete alignment with the president's concern about protecting our assets in space. >> complete alignment, but he goes on to say, i don't have the final answers yet. we're still putting that together. again, about how to do it, whether you have a new department or not. >> a billion dollars over five years is the initial ask. the actual policy and bureaucratic questions about how to organize this are very important in the long-term. but in the short-term, i.e. midterm elections, i have to say having done two trump rallies in

the last week, people in the crowds love the space force. sorry to dumb this down. as a political tool, this is a good political tool for the president. it reminds people in that audience in the same way that president obama would always harken back to the 1960s music and the play lists to be sort of aspirational and civil rights era and stuff. when president trump says space force, people in the crowd love it. it reminds them of the optimism of man on the moon and trying to beat russia and all this kind of stuff. it's that kind of nostalgia that i think as a political tool he's harnessing space force. >> as a practical matter, i like the question about what missions it will have, whether there's going to be a change in the mission from the space command into this new space force thing. there is the matter of a 1967 treaty that says space is to be kept free and open. it's not supposed to be an area where we fight. obviously over the years, that's changed, just as a practical

matter. but the missions -- it would be fascinating to get a read on how they see this changing. you hear mike pence saying we have to be dominant in space. that certainly suggests something much more aggressive. >> that treaty prohibits weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons, but not all weapons. there was a couple resolutions bounced around the u.n. a few years ago that the u.s. objected to, which would have banned all weapons. look, the russians and chinese both have space forces of their own. they're organized differently, but they are advancing their space capabilities. and their ability to defend themselves by knocking other satellites out of the sky. so there is a need for this, it's just a matter of how you organize it, train it, equip it, and resource it. >> i was thinking back to that moment in june where the president made this announcement, and it was a little unexpected. people in the room were sort of watching him, and he turned to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. he said, general, you got this? he said, got it. i think it was emblematic of how the president functions.

so often he says things or makes announcements that are unexpected. then the people around him actually do have to take those words at their value and try to execute whatever it is he wants executed and actually figure out, does he actually want this, and is he actually committed to this? i think for all of the sort of fodder this has created for the late-night shows, there are real questions about what will this actually do now that the vice president is out there talking about in a serious way. what will this look like and what will this do? >> if it's a challenge that needs to be addressed and he needs to ask congress for the money to do it, that means you have a process and a platform to which to have the conversation. let's address it. what is the challenge? who is the threat or the enemy? so perhaps good will come of disruption. we shall see. up next, an update you don't want to see on the death toll in puerto rico. the government trying to get its act together ten months after hurricane maria devastated the island. having more money each month to live on? our clients wanted to increase

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♪ topping our political radar today, moscow angrily pushing back against the united states' punishment for the poisoning of a former russian spy and his daughter in the uk. a kremlin spokesman calling the decision to slap more sanctions on russia, quote, categorically unacceptable and illegal. the u.s. state department announced that move yesterday, saying russia broke international warfare laws when they allegedly hit a retired russian operative and his daughter with a nerve agent back in march. russian officials insist they

did not do it. zplmpb the iowa state fair officially under way. that means two things. you can satisfy your cravings for deep fried butter on a stick, and the mic is hot at the political soap box. the lineup includes julian kr t castro and john delaney. today, officials in puerto rico saying more than 1400 people died in the aftermath of hurricane maria last year. that number more than 20 times higher than the official death toll, which up until now had been 64. the new assessment comes in a draft report being sent to congress seeking additional hurricane recovery money. let's bring in cnn's leyla santiago. this is a stunning change in the numbers. walk us through it. >> reporter: well, okay, let's go ahead and establish that despite these new numbers, the death toll remains at 64. the official death toll. so what is this new number, this 1400? that's a number that is found

here in this report that went to congress last night from the government of puerto rico, asking for more money in its recovery efforts. and the 1400 is the increase, the excess in deaths that statistics show in the month of hurricane maria compared to previous years. so the government of puerto rico is acknowledging, yes, we saw an increase in these deaths, but now they're saying, whoa, wait a minute, we're not saying they're necessarily tied to hurricane maria. we've commissioned a report, that report coming out of george washington university. the government saying until that report comes out, they have no plans to change the official hurricane maria death toll. so today, john, despite the acknowledgment of an increase in excess deaths, that death toll still stands at 64. so why is that so important? that's important because any expert in this field will tell

you if you don't understand who dies, when, where, and how, there's no possible way of potentially preventing that in the future. the timeliness of this is so important because we are now in hurricane season. we're about to hit the one-year mark for hurricane maria. they still have not gotten to the bottom of the death toll. john? >> excellent and important context. leyla san antontiago. that's the reason we'll keep asking these questions and scrubbing the answers. we'll be right back. ♪

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alexandria ocasio-cortez is now on the front lines of the democratic debate. the 28-year-old democratic congressional candidate vaulted into the spotlight by beating a

top member of the house democratic leadership in the primary in new york. she's now in demand by candidates who share her view that a higher minimum wage should be central to the democratic message. of the seven candidates she backed in primaries this tuesday, just two came out on top. but she says while wins are nice, they're not the only way to keep score. >> i feel really good about it because i think what we need to realize is that -- i mean, i come from things as an organizer. i put my organizer hat on. there are some races we go in because they're winnable. there are some races we go in because it's really important to build power and to really sway the issues. so i feel very confident. >> and she does have a point. if you take the longer term perspective in michigan, the democratic establishment candidate for governor made a point of noting during the primary this was not an extreme left or extreme right state. now the primary is over, she says she can see the energy on the left, and she wants it to

join her effort. >> there is a place for you as we move forward. i appreciate your spirit and your energy. i appreciate your ideas and what you have meant to this party. let's work together and get this done. and of course to the thousands of people who were the supporters, this is a big tent. join us. >> the question is, is that just something somebody wrote down? if you're the establishment candidate. or if you're gretchen whitmore and you won the primary in michigan and you think the centrist approach is the right approach but you have probably a stiffer challenge than you thought from the left, how do you marry the two? >> don't ask hillary clinton and stronger together, because that didn't work. progressives don't like to be pandered to. they need to be seen they're making an impact on your platform. they're going to know if you're just saying things and putting

ft. wor forth a more centrist vision. that's why some might be pulled to the left, because they want that energy coming out of the far left of the party. >> and ocasio-cortez's win was a very, very big moment for the party. it was a surprise to a lot of people, but i think it's worth keeping in mind that when you look at the democratic primaries that have happened so far, you've actually seen more outside er outsiders, newcomers, and women win more than far left candidates. she's really becoming the spokesperson for the democratic party and for the left views in the party, but she's doing that in a big part because she's a woman, because she's a newcomer to politics. >> and to that point, the brookings institution tracks these things. here's a stat. in the democratic primaries for house and senate, so far this year, progressives, 24%.

you see there on the left of your screen, losses, 71%, if you round. that's not great, but the question is, you know, ocasio-cortez seem z to haves t longer term view. yeah, we lose some, but we're going to develop. which is right? or are they both in some ways right? >> so in a midterm year, which is like basically everything we've talked about today, all pinned on what happens in november, the win column actually does matter. it's the only thing that matters. coming close is fine, but it doesn't count. i think the other lesson of 2016 going back to jackie's point, is that if you are very progressive or more liberal than the center, you still have to remember that your choice on a general election ballot is the person who's closer to you or the person on the other side of the aisle.

in the end, you've got a republican versus a democrat. those are the two choices. i think that's what's going to be tested in the fall. that's what every conversation  we're going to have between now and then is going to look like. >> and democrats insist they have tough primaries, but they've not seen evidence that there's bad blood after. we'll see what happens in november. we'll see if they lose some races by a point or two and we think that's the reason why. one thing you see is because ocasio-cortez is getting national attention, in addition to bernie sanders, but because there's this big national spotlight, republicans, including rush limbaugh, trying to take advantage of it, trying to tell voters, be careful. >> to many in the democratic party, she's the future. she is the face, she is the star. she has the answers. she's already supporting medicare for all, $32 trillion over ten years. now she wants free tuition. she wants free this, free food

stamps, everything. it isn't possible, folks. it simply isn't possible to tax people and businesses and the country enough to get the kind of money to pay for this. >> now, rush's point is you can't sell that in middle america. that's what he's trying to say. that's why we have elections. i actually like it when candidates are clear and explicit about what they want because then voters know what they're voting for. >> mofor perspective, we have a president who's accused democrats of supporting the ms-13 gang. it's not like now that she's won this primary, oh, now republicans are going to toughen the rhetoric. that's not what's happening here. i'm interested in seeing more of a breakdown, what kind of districts are asking her to come campaign, what kind of districts is she winning, what kind of districts is she not winning in? i think the establishment is doing well. we saw a little bad blood after her win. but it would be interesting to

look more analytically. so she's coming in, where is this message making a difference? i don't think it's making a difference in mid-republican messaging. >> they have a name now to attach to their criticism about liberal spending. >> the name was already nancy pelosi. now it's another name. >> mad libs. >> i like that. all right. up next, a new hope. a place with 24-hour fvalet servicee and a boutique salon a place with all day arts and crafts it even has a day spa a place that's so much like home,

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welcome back. this news just in to cnn. first lady melania trump's parents have been sworn in as u.s. citizens. they took their oath today in new york. before today, the first lady's parents were legal permanent residents of the united states. their attorney telling cnn it went well and they're grateful and appreciative of this wonderful day for their family. moving on to other news involving the white house, people are saying, as the president likes to say, that hope hicks might be mulling a return to the west wing. hicks left her job as white house communications director a little more than five months ago. she is central to some of the questions special counsel robert mueller is trying to answer.

for month, the word from friends is she was eager for a new chapter, but then hope hicks spotted boarding air force one last weekend, joining the president as he travelled to ohio. since then, buzz she might return to the white house. press secretary sarah sanders quoted today, calling hicks smart, talented, and saying it would be a win across the board if she's involved in any c capacity. hope hicks coming back or hope hicks just visiting friends? >> well, too soon to say. i think if you took a poll of the white house press corps and everyone said, what do you think, what feels right, the 2020, the re-elet campaign seems like the more likely role. after all, what is most important about hope hicks is her personal relationship with the president, sort of a calming or familial effect she has as an adviser. i think when she took a more formalized policy role at the white house, it wasn't her favorite time in the white

house. it wasn't her best time at the white house. but one of the big questions everyone has had is, are she and the president still talking? what's the relationship like now that she's left? it became obvious to those of us on the trip this weekend, even for the brief exposure we had to her, that she was still quite comfortable in trump land. and he was quite comfortable with her. >> she was central to the air force one meeting, phone call between the president and son don junior that resulted in the initial statement that was misleading about the trump tower meeting with russians. she was the one during the campaign who denied the president had any knowledge of karen mcdougal. that's now part of an investigation into michael cohen and all that. in the middle of all that, you come back to the white house? >> don't forget absolutely no contacts between any russians and the campaign. i think you might. we referred to her as communications director that woefully understates how central she was to the first year of the trump white house.

she's one of the people, yes, she would speak with more authority than a lot of other people, including chwhose job i was to speak for the president. >> whether you agree or disagree, sarah sanders is dead right saying she gets the president. she does get the president. all right. we'll keep an eye on that one as well. thanks for joining us today on "inside politics. don't go anywhere. more breaking news with wolf, who starts right now. hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. the ball is in robert mueller's court this hour because it appears the trump legal team isn't budging. according to them, mueller either avoids certain questions on obstruction of justice, or he doesn't get to talk to the president at all. listen to this. >> the reality is he doesn't need to ask a single question on obstruction. he has all the answers. they're not going to change. the president's not going to change hises