we've seen five guilty pleas. and that's before the events of today which are -- up until today, the biggest turning point in this entire investigation. >> what an historic day. the bombshells, they fell on this day. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. thanks for watching. cnn's coverage of the breaking news continues with poppy harlow hosting "erin burnet outfront" right now. outfront next, breaking news. the president's longtime personal lawyer saying president trump ordered the hush money payments. major blow to the president. how will he respond? also, more breaking news tonight. paul manafort found guilty on eight counts. trump still insisting the manafort verdict has nothing to do with him. how badly, though is the president damaged by this? and an iowa college student missing for more than a month. now an undocumented immigrant has been charged with first degree murder in her death. a lot to get to. let's go outfront. good evening. i'm poppy harlow in for erin

burnet. outfront tonight, breaking news. guilty. a stunning day on two fronts. two people in the president's inner circle either pleading or found guilty. president trump's former longtime attorney and fixer michael pleading guilty to tax fraud and bank fraud, including and importantly hush money payments to stormy daniels and karen mcdougal. hush money payments that cohen said then candidate donald trump directed. cohen's stunning words today, in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office. also breaking, the president's campaign chairman paul manafort found guilty on eight counts. the judge declaring a mistrial on ten other counts after the jury failed to reach a verdict. we have a lot to get to. caris is outfront in new york where cohen pleaded guilty. you were there and heard it first hand from cohen's mouth essentially naming the president as a co-conspirator. >> that's right.

michael cohen plead guilty today to eight counts. he spoke very forcefully and very directly when he described to the judge exactly what crimes he committed. he explained the tax evasion charges and also for filing false information to a bank. where he really nailed in on the president here without naming him by name was when he described those campaign finance violations. those violations have to do with payments made to karen mcdougal and stormy mcdaniel. and precisely what cohen said was he had done this in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office. we know at the time he was working for president trump. and he said he did it, quote, for the principal purpose of influencing the election. so poppy, right there is really, you know, effectively naming the president here without naming him and implicating him in this crime that michael cohen just plead guilty to. of course, these are michael cohen's words. his allegations this was at the direction of the president. but in court under oath he says that he committed campaign

finance violations at the direction of the president. >> hush money to, you know, a porn star and director and former "playboy" playmate of the year to mislead the american people leading up days before the election. it's stunning and significant. thank you very much kara. let's talk about all of this. shan wu is with me. also the former attorney for rick gates, manafort's associate. harris sandik is here. april ryan, white house correspondent for american urban radio network joins me and frank burney. harry, let me begin with you. as a former ausa in the southern district. they just got this plea. again in michael cohen's own words he did this, he coordinated hush money payments in the days leading up to the election with a porn star and with a former "playboy" playmate

of the year to mislead the american public in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office. we now know that person is the president of the united states. how damaging for the president? >> i think it's very damaging. a plea allocution is a solemn thing. a person goes in and admits he's committed a crime. he's put under oath. he's told he's under penalty of perjury. it was under penalty of perjury he made this serious accusation. what he said essentially was i committed a campaign finance violation at the direction of the president several days before one of the closest

and i think it is quite unprecedented for him -- >> but let's be clear. you said plea bargain. at this point our reporting from our team is that there is no plea deal yet with prosecutors in the southern district or with mueller's team. there's no formal cooperation here saying you're going to go easy on me. >> it has serious and explicit terms. when there is a plea bargain and i report is seen this document but i'm assumed it's still considered a plea bargain in that they could have brought other charges. he's under obligation to tell the truth in the allocution and

in the future during that entire process. he's in no position to try to withhold information at this point if he's asked further questions, he's going to have to tell the truth about it. >> if the president is trying to distance himself from cohen more recently but he still says he's a good man. let's listen to how the president has weighed in on michael cohen from april through june. >> so i just heard they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys. a good man. >> i can tell you, he's a good guy. i haven't spoken to michael in a long time. >> is he still your lawyer? >> no, he's not my lawyer. >> your personal lawyer? >> but i always liked michael, and he's a good person. >> a good person. a good person. how does the president spin this? he avoided reporter questions tonight when they asked him. >> this is a very hard one to spin and it's probably a hard one for him to absorb. what you are hearing is a reflection of the fact that for ten years, for a decade they had

a very close relationship. so harry talked about the kind of legal ramifications here. what does this mean emotionally for the president. he feels a sense of the world closing in. someone just plead guilty to federal crimes and said i committed this federal crime at the direction of the president of the united states. didn't name donald trump, but donald trump is who he was talking about. there's no way donald trump isn't feeling this emotionally in a very raw way. we'll see that come out in the rally in west virginia. >> the president speaking in just moments. we're obviously monitoring it closely. april, you've covered the white house day in and day out. the people the president works most closely with and the president himself repeatedly denied knowing anything about these payments to stormy daniels. let's just listen. >> did the president and michael cohen talk about this payment at

any time during the campaign or thereafter? >> not that i'm aware of. i'd refer you to michael. >> did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? >> no, no. >> why did michael cohen -- >> you have to ask michael cohen. michael is my attorney and you'll have to ask michael cohen. >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> i don't know, no. >> there you go. today we do know because michael cohen answered that question. you'll have to ask michael cohen, in court today. said it was at the behefts of the president. giuliani said in may on another network, yeah, he knew about these payments and he paid him back. how does the white house handle this? what does sarah sanders say at the podium when you and other journalists ask her? >> well, let's not even go to sarah. that would be tomorrow. let's talk about tonight. the white house from what i'm understanding from our republican sources are -- white house staffers are very upset and very concerned about what

the president could say tonight in west virginia. so that's the first step. and then tomorrow you know, we always hear sarah sanders do prez-splaining. this president and michael cohen are polar opposites on the truth as it relates to what happened with these payments. but -- and there is a credibility issue on both sides. but at the same time, you have tapes. sex, lies and videotape and audiotape now. so that's the issue, the proof. michael cohen apparently understands that he's condemned a damned man for him to plead guilty to this because there is evidence. so we have to wait to see what the president has to say. earlier today when the president disembarked air force one, he talked about paul manafort, but his silence was deafening on michael cohen. >> you just heard he was just walking. is he going to turn around? going to answer? he sometimes does when reporters keep shouting at him. he did not.

rudy giuliani on hannity may 2nd, i believe, and asked about all of this. this is what he disclosed, the president paid him back, paid cohen back for the $130,000. even sean hannity was like, what? when it comes to the issue of could it be campaign finance violation, here's how rudy giuliani responded. >> was it a campaign finance violation? which usually would result in a fine, by the way, not this big storm troopers coming in and breaking down his apartment and office. >> that horrible storm troopers comment aside, is this just some little thing that rudy giuliani is saying? it's like it's campaign finance violation. it's not a big deal. >> here's the key distinction. if you commit a campaign violation. let's say you exceed the limit and didn't know you made the mistake. that you get punished with a fine. if you willfully, intending to violate the campaign finance law do so, then that is a crime. and you can be prosecuted. >> felony? >> it say felony.

you can be punished. i think it's a five hear ye-yea maximum. is it by accident or is it intentional and willful? >> shan, the thing is it's pretty were settled. some contest it. legally, you can't indict a sitting president, right? if that's the case, then this is political. this is in the hands of congress at this point, shan, or do you see it differently? >> i think ultimately, it is going to be political. i think mueller is a conservative prosecutor. i think the southern district is not going to try to make any new ground by trying to indict the president. and i think it does end up being the question of, does this add to the impeachability of donald trump. and an interesting question related to that is ultimately mueller's report comes out, which is not about this particular case, how does he handle this information? does he need to include it in it as well? that's probably a question for him. >> frank, to you.

isn't the best case scenario here tonight for the president, the best case, that at the very least he didn't hire the best. that at the very least the president hired admitted and convicted felons. did i miss anything? that's what keeps reverberating in my head. >> i'm just laughing but we need to say one other thing about michael cohen. we do not know for a fact that he's not yet going to cooperate in some measure with robert mueller. that was sort of left out there. it's not part of this agreement. certainly seems less likely than it did a month ago. if you follow the reporting on this closely it remains an open question as to whether michael cohen will talk to robert mueller and whether mueller will turn around and recommend a lighter sentence. that chapter of the story is not over and the president remains exposed in that fashion. >> april ryan, to you. the president, remember, was calling all of this a witch hunt over and over again. he said it on april 9th when michael cohen's apartment was

raided by the fbi. well, now this is a quote/unquote witch hunt according to the president with a guilty plea and an admission in front of a federal judge by michael cohen. the president continues this language tonight afterwards discipline it work for him politically? >> well, you know it works for his base because the president's poll numbers are very high with his base as it relates to russia. but i've said it over and over again. this is not about theater. this is not about a reality show that's played out, produced by the white house on taxpayer dollars. this is about the rule of law. and this is about an election process that has been going on for hundreds of years and now has been tampered with by russia and also maybe with some of those who are close inside the camp of the trump circle to pay off, to get loans to pay off a porn star and a playboy, whatever you call her, to pay these women off to try not to

influence an election with information they may have. these are serious allegations. and the president could indeed, as he calls this a witch hunt, could be named an unindicted co-conspirator to this election issue that michael cohen is facing. >> don't go anywhere. there is a lot of breaking news tonight. next, we're going to talk about paul manafort, the former chair for the trump campaign found guilty. the jury could not reach a verdict on 10 of the 18 counts but came down with 8 guilty counts. will trump try to claim a victory on that front tonight? also the president's thinking this evening as two trump insiders join the list of people facing these charges. what happened to only hiring the best? also, we have other breaking news. police have arrested an undocumented immigrant in the murder of that iowa college student. we'll bring you the latest. kenmore at sears. 4 bm up to fifty percent off appliances with your sears card. like this washer and dryer for $539.99 each. and this refrigerator for $899.99.

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[ goose honking ] ♪ [ laughing ] a bad day on the road still beats a good one off it. ♪ progressive helps keep you out there. president trump's former campaign chairman paul manafort convicted on eight counts of financial crimes. he's found guilty on five tax fraud charges, two counts of bank fraud, one charge of hiding foreign bank naccounts, all felonies. unable to reach a verdict on ten other accounts. president trump reacted just moments ago to the verdict. >> this is a witch hunt, and it's a disgrace. i feel very badly for paul manafort. it was not the original mission, believe me. it was something very much different. so had nothing to do with russian collusion. we continue the witch hunt.

>> evan perez outside of the courthouse in alexandria, virginia. let's go through the first, the eight guilty verdicts and this mistrial on ten other counts. what does this mean for manafort? >> poppy, one of the first things you have to look at is that paul manafort was found guilty of two of these counts of bank fraud. those each carry up to 30 years in prison. and so, look, his tax fraud -- the tax fraud charges, which each carry three years or five counts and then the one count of not declaring foreign bank accounts. and that carries a five-year term possibly. look, in a worst case scenario, paul manafort could spend the rest of his life in prison. we don't know what the sentencing details will be. the judge has not indicated when sentencing will come. but the prosecution you can bet are looking at trying to get the maximum against paul manafort.

keep in mind paul manafort has another trial coming up in the next few months in september. at least in the district of columbia federal court which has to do a lot more with his activities in the campaign. so we don't know, you know, right now what paul manafort would get but we're looking at possibly the rest of his life in prison. >> that upcoming trial in just a few weeks in september having to do with money laundering. before you go, how is paul manafort responding? what is his family saying? >> right. he had no reaction immediately in court. when he was leaving he gave a nod and a wink to his wife as he was exiting the courtroom. one of the things the judge did was directly address manafort telling him he'd been found guilty of these charges. he looked straight ahead. when he was leaving the court, his lawyer stopped by the microphones and said he was exploring all his options. we do not know whether that means there's going to be an appeal. he has another trial coming up

in a few weeks. >> you know, cooperating, i suppose, still an option for him. evan, thank you very much. with me now, my guests are back. harry, back to you. eight guilty counts against manafort. ten counts they could not reach a verdict on. who won tonight? >> the special counsel mueller and his team. greg andres, the prosecutor. the ten counts on which the jury was unable to reach a verdict. those are open counts. they'll sit out there perhaps forever if the government feels they're not necessary for sentencing and under a quirk of our constitutional laws, the conduct for which that related to the hung jury counts can be considered as part of sentencing. so the sentence could be the same as if he was convicted on all of the counts. the president saying that this is a witch hunt and he's saying this had nothing to do with his campaign but if you read through the charges that manafort was

found guilty on, specifically charge 25 and charge 27, they were about bank fraud, bank loans that extended into march of 2016. march of 2016 is when paul manafort began his work with the trump campaign. significant? >> i think it is significant. there's no way for the president to avoid the taint of what this conviction does. i think i do slightly disagree with harry. the defense did an outstanding job, too. identified the weak points in the case. and i think kudos have to go to the jury. this was a really sharp jury. they focussed in on the most important things right from the get-go. there's no way the president can escape the taint of this conviction. >> to the president distancing himself again and again from paul manafort. you can't deny that you hired the guy. he ran your campaign. one of the most critical points for five months leading up to the convention, getting the delegates, et cetera. but -- but we have polling,

recent polling in the last few days that shows that republicans are not fans of mueller and how he's handling the probe. 66% disapprove. only 22% approve. so did today change anything at least politically. did the guilty verdict make a difference to them? >> i don't think it's going to make a difference with the heart of the base. but there are still a lot of people in the middle who are smelling something bad from the trump administration who are feeling like this climate is wrong, this administration is unethical and no way today's verdict doesn't move them further toward those beliefs and maybe get them out to the polls. also the president when he says rigged witch hunt, he gives the impression there's no wrongdoing out there that the wrongdoers and wrongdoing are completely made up. in this case as a result of mueller's investigation and the work still being done, a group of jurors, independent, obviously not stacked with partisan democrats said paul manafort is a criminal. this investigation that began with mueller did lead to the

exposure of criminal activity and the conviction of a criminal. and so when donald trump now says rigged witch hunt, to fair-minded people that has less power and relevance than ever before. >> they think i could have been one of those average americans on that jury. >> that's right. we're talking about a man who essentially defrauded the government out of millions of dollars. this is not a fine man as donald trump has said over and over. >> and the president said tonight, paul manafort is a good man and that he feels, quote, sorry for paul manafort. he has never ruled out possibly pardoning paul manafort, which he can do because these are all federal charges. listen to what he said just last friday on this question. >> [ inaudible ]. >> i don't talk about that now. i think the whole manafort trial is very sad. when you look at what's going on. i think it's a very sad day for our country. he worked for me for a very short period of time but you know what? he happens to be a very good person. and i think it's very sad what

they've done to paul manafort. >> so april, a presidential pardon possible? probable? out of the question? >> well, i'm not going to say it's out of the question because what he said once again leaving air force one, he felt badly for paul manafort. that is key right there. paul manafort has been, i guess, held the line with the president. he's not done a michael cohen, if you will. using michael cohen as a verb, that back and forth with him. but paul manafort has kept his mouth shut, has not gone out in the press talking against the president or putting anything out there. in the president's eyes he looks good. according to my republican sources, as of two weeks ago there was no paper or anything as it relates to a possible pardon of manafort but that doesn't necessarily mean anything with this president because he can wind up once there's a conviction, turn around and say, hey, we're going to do this. we're going to change things. you have to remember that this

president does not like anything as it relates to this russia investigation. what we're forgetting is when we talk about this tax issue that paul manafort has been found guilty on with these eight counts, that money that he received came from this oligarch who had links to the kremlin. and that's -- >> that's a very important -- that's a very important point. >> that's a very important point. >> a covert regime propped up by the kremlin and putin. it's an important point. harry, to you. the president, one thing he said tonight that isn't getting the headlines buts important. and i quote. he said this is nothing to do with where they started out, meaning mueller's team. was not the original mission, believe me. the thing is, that's just wrong. when rosenstein said mueller do this probe. you can do this probe. it can be as broad as you need it to be and your tentacles can reach where they need to. lead this where it may.

the president saying that's not the case. >> yeah, and it also -- i think even more than that, it did actually touch up against the campaign in ways that became apparent through the evidence. there was testimony relating to some of the bank fraud issues about a job offer to someone in the administration who helped get a large loan for manafort. >> the department of justice in this case actually showed an e-mail that was sent from paul manafort to jared kushner, the president's son-in-law that said i recommend you hire the head of this bank that manafort is trying to get loans from to be the secretary of the army. it never happened but there was an attempt. >> absolutely. and part of the bank fraud. this clearly did touch upon the campaign. not as directly as michael cohen stated in court today but it absolutely grew out of the campaign and also grew out of the investigation that was conducted. if you come across additional crimes in the course of the investigation, should the prosecutor just bury his head and say, well, sure we found

serious crimes but because they don't prove collusion or something, we're going to ignore them? >> no. >> shan, to you first. what hurt or who hurt the president more today? michael cohen or paul manafort? >> i think michael cohen hurt him worse and also poses a far greater continuing danger. >> frank? >> i think it's the combined force of the two of them. once again we have to reckon with who donald trump associates himself with and what behavior he tolerates or turns a blind eye to. >> like my mother taught me when you were young. you are who you associate with. >> thank you all, one and all. i appreciate it. outfront next, congress calling for michael cohen to come back again to testify. i'll speak with congressman mike quigley. does he want to hear from michael cohen again? also, president trump likes to claim he only hours a the best people. how do you explain cohen, manafort, flynn and others, next. people confuse nice and kind.

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the big news today that his former lawyer michael cohen pleaded guilty to eight -- excuse me, that his former campaign chair paul manafort pleaded guilty to eight counts including tax fraud and also michael cohen pleading guilty to these counts as well that he at the behest of the president paid off stormy daniels and karen mcdougal. let's go to jim acosta. he joins us from the rally in west virginia. jim, obviously, you are listening to see if the president addresses this tonight. what about what the white house is saying leading up to now? >> yeah, so far pretty quiet in terms of official comments coming out of the white house. they're referring us to outside lawyers in these cases we've been focused on all day. you heard the president when he landed in west virginia described paul manafort as a good man. seized on that verdict in that case to go after the russia investigation calling it a disgrace. and a witch hunt. but i will tell you, poppy, the plans, the political plans at the white house, the president's

supporters, they've been dashed in terms of how they're going to respond to this. at least thus far. i talked to a source close to the white house earlier today who said, listen, the plan over at the white house was in hopes of a favorable verdict in the paul manafort case and if they'd gotten a not guilty verdict or some kind of mistrial, they were going to seize on that to go after the mueller investigation. they obviously did not get that. as for the michael cohen case, they were planning to go after that as having to do with michael cohen's business dealings in new york. taxicab business dealings in new york. that did not pan out as well. what you are seeing is they are responding to all of this in realtime. you heard the president earlier this evening trying to distance himself from paul manafort. but i am talking to a number of republicans sources. a source close to the white house just in the last several minutes who told me this michael cohen case and the plea agreement he entered into up in new york sounds, quote, terrible

for the president. and this is somebody who has been advising the white house on legal and communications strategy on how to deal with all of this. and i also talked to a key republican source up on capitol hill who essentially said they're just trying to catch their breath up there. so this whirlwind of events. this avalanche of very negative legal news for the president. it is definitely hitting a lot of republicans, top republicans hard tonight but so far the president not really weighing in at this rally. he is sticking to his greatest hits in terms of what fires up the crowd at these rallies. >> for now. and i should clarify, of course, it was michael cohen who pleaded guilty here and paul manafort who was found guilty on those eight counts. a lot of news tonight. jim, thank you. democratic congressman from illinois, mike quigley. he sits on the house intelligence committee. it's an important night to have you. thank you for joining me. >> thank you.

>> tonight we heard michael cohen say in his own words in this federal courtroom that he committed felonies at the behest and direction of the president of the united states. your reaction. >> a shocking day. it reminds me of the president of the united states saying he was only going to hire the best people. well, two of those best people could conceivably have a reunion in jail. extraordinary moment. the president called it a sad day because he was sympathet ic. some of its top leadership are extraordinary criminals at its best. >> assuming a sitting president cannot be indicted. if you stand with that belief, this becomes a political matter. congress has to decide what to do. given the developments tonight, and you have been one of the democrats who said don't jump

too quickly towards articles of impeachment. given all of this. given the fact michael cohen says it was at the behest of the president that he organized these hush payments. if democrats retake the house, would you support at this point moving forward with articles of impeachment against the president? >> i want to be fair and consistent. what i told my colleagues months ago was let the mueller investigation take its course. if they had gone forward with impeachment months ago, they wouldn't have had any of this information. and i think this investigation has a lot more information to bring out. i think there's a long way for the mueller investigation to go. so it would be just as wrong for me to say let's wrap it up now. when you're doing an investigation, the most important investigation of our lifetime and, obviously, i'm old enough to remember watergate. you let it take its course. it doesn't need to be political on either side. but toward that end, the speaker

of the house needs to step up. if it wasn't a call for profiles in courage before, it certainly is now. he let the chairman of the intel community shut the investigation down. in the meantime, they hampered that investigation. they work with the white house to obstruct the investigation. i think today is a call for them to reconsider and allow the american public to find out what happened. >> let me -- >> remember, this investigation was on the house side, not just about what mr. mueller's investigation. it was about how to prevent the russians from doing this again and who else was involved. >> microsoft discovered the hacking of all of these different think tanks by the russians. let me get you something maggie haberman is just reporting of "the new york times." trump folks are worried about impeachment more than before. the thinking goes like this. this is something tangible, not theoretical. and it didn't come from mueller. does not mean it will happen,

but this has moved things into a different stage in their mind. she's speaking to the president's folks on all of this. should the president be more worried about impeachment than before because of what has happened today? >> oh, i think he should, and i think he is. i think when we see this investigation take steps forward, the president reacts with his tweets in kind. it's extraordinary. it's a little edgy. my concern is that the president reacts and begins beyond just obstructing the investigation. i think he starts talking more seriously about pardons. i think he starts talking more seriously, what did he say just yesterday, that he can take over this investigation. this is a president who did whatever he had to do to acquire power. why would anyone imagine he wouldn't do anything to maintain that same power? >> he said in that reuters interview, i could run the mueller probe. i'm going to leae it alone for

now but i could if i wanted to. michael cohen testified before your committee behind closed doors. a lot was about the 2016 trump tower meeting with the russians. our cnn reporting is that cohen did not testify to you and your colleagues behind closed doors that trump had advance knowledge of that meeting. now, according to our reporting, cohen is willing to testify that trump did have advance knowledge of the meeting. do you think cohen lied to your committee? >> i said a long time ago that there were new facts. there was new information. there were new documents that should dictate that mr. cohen come back and speak to our committee. i think that's what the senate leadership on the intel committee there was referring to. i think there are a lot of serious questions. was he in prague in 2016 meeting with the russians or any place else for that matter? in 2017, did he act as an intermediary with the russians on lifting sanctions between the ukrainian connection and general flynn. of course, the question raised

just earlier, what was that $500,000 payment for from the russian oligarch with ties to the kremlin? what was that for if it was the same shell account used to pay off stormy daniels? >> clearly you want him to come back and testify before your committee again. clearly you have more questions. very quickly before i go, do you think he lied to you? >> i think he lied, and i think he withheld information. >> congressman quigley, i appreciate you being here tonight. thank you. >> thank you. any time. outfront next, president trump vowed to hire the best. how does he explain michael cohen, paul manafort, michael flynn and others? wool dive in. also, iowa police arrest an undocumented immigrant in the murder of college student mollie tibbetts. >> mollie grabbed a hold of her phone and said you need to leave me alone. i'm going to call the police. then she took off running. he in turn chased her down.

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president trump speaking right now at a rally in west virginia. so far he has not mentioned the eight guilty verdicts against

paul manafort or michael cohen pleading guilty to these felonies. a source close to the president admitting today was, quote, a bad day for the home team. and that the president has been, quote, stewing all day. let's talk about this because it was a big day. outfront, paul begala, former white house counsel to president clinton and jason, the former senior communications adviser for the trump campaign. important day to have you both. jason you worked so closely with the president, with this team. how bad of a day was it for him? >> well, this is obviously a pretty bad day for the team, but also it's important to keep things in mind when it comes to the full context. so far we've only heard when it comes to michael cohen one side of the story. and the one side of the story that we heard so far is from someone who is now an eight-time felon who did not pay their taxes for five years. and i think it's also important to keep in mind this is someone who is supposed to be the president's lawyer. and what lawyers are supposed to

do is tell you where the very clear bright lines are about how you're supposed to go forward and operate within the construct of the law. so you have someone who clearly is not able to operate in the legal, ethical standards and then also is not able to give you very good legal advice. i think that when the president in his legal team come forward and tell their side of the story, i think you're going to see that this is far from being over. but to your initial point, yes, these are very serious allegations. i don't want to seem as though i'm dismissive. >> two points on that and then to you, paul. first, you know, the legal team already has set out the president's side of this. secondly as recently as june 15th, the president called michael cohen a good guy. and, frankly, it sounds like you're saying a man running for the highest office in the land to be leader of the free world doesn't need to know about campaign finance laws. it's up to his lawyer to tell him if this is right or wrong. that he doesn't need to know

that perhaps it's wrong to request hush money payments to a porn star and former playboy playmate of the year to mislead the american people. is that what you're saying? >> a lawyer in a situation like this and i'm learning about this from the public reports so i don't have any inside knowledge into this and so i know the same amount of information here that you do. the fact that michael cohen from the information we're getting today is portraying this image as though he was some poor, hapless sap who basically was taking direction from the president in implementing some sort of course of action. and i think to go and say as a lawyer that he just took some course of action and went and did something illegally, that's a stretch for a lawyer who is supposed to be in good standing to act as if the whoa is me, i was just happened to be here. i think that's really going to be tough to prove in the court of law. that's just my take from reading these public reports. >> he already plead guilty to it. paul? >> what's astonishing, poppy, is

that michael cohen, the man who said he would take a bullet from donald trump, is now holding a gun to his head. this is the worst day of the trump presidency, but i have to tell you, there are worse days to come. mr. cohen knows where all the bodies are buried. he will have a powerful incentive to coordinate. i was shocked that he stood in court today under oath and accused the president of the united states of felonies. right? he said i acted in accocoordina with a with. he said i did it with the coordination and at the behest of donald trump. now he's not going to say that unless there's more evidence to back that up. documentation, maybe even tapes. goodness knows mr. cohen was maybe unethically taping mr. trump from time to time. this is the worst day so far but i've got to tell you,

>> let me get your take on what maggie haberman just tweeted. she said trump folks are worried about impeach lt more than before. this is something tangible, not theoretical. and she goes on. is she right? should the president be more worried about impeachment now at almost 8:00 p.m. tonight than he was at 8:00 a.m. this morning? >> i think if the democrats get control of the house, they're definitely going to push for impeachment. i would have said that last week and i'll say that today and tomorrow. i think the democrats, that's clearly what their mission is going to be. >> we just heard from a democratic member of congress who said not yet. wait for the mueller report to play out. >> no, the democrats are going to go for impeachment. they're going to go all the way and try to take out president trump or try to mortally wound him in advance of 2020. i actually go back to the previous guest you had on a few minutes ago, and notice how it's kind of funny how the democrats will cherry pick when they want to give perfect credibility to someone like a michael cohen,

but then also point out and say he's a lying liar from liarsville. i think to this point, regarding michael cohen, you can see where there will be serious issues to a witness like this, especially, i mean, the fact that he doesn't have a cooperation agreement, i think goes to the point that he is viewed as so toxic that there's no way they're going to go and give someone like this a cooperation agreement. >> a fair point that there are credible questions. we'll see if a cooperation agreement does come forth. to you, paul, right now tonight, the president has not once brought up paul manafort or michael cohen. but the crowd in west virginia, some of them are chanting right now, lock her up. lock her up. i mean, you laugh, but does it not speak to the strength of the president's base when you have polling just a few days ago that shows among republicans, 66% disapprove of how mueller is handling the russia probe. only 22% approve? >> yes, but that's not all americans. the president has his base, as did richard nixon. it didn't do nixon any good.

the problem that the president has is that most americans are turning on him. of course, most americans voted against him in the election anyway, but there are an awful lot of people who voted for donald trump who are now having buyer's remorse, who are looking for a check and a balance. this could be a brake pedal election where voters say, hey, let's just kind of check this guy and balance him. >> maybe his approval rating overall has been sticking throw through all of this at around 42%. i have 30 seconds. >> 42%, which sucks. >> i i need to know on the pardon -- it's actually in a better position than jimmy carter or and some others at this point in their presidency. quickly to you, jason, pardon. the president has not ruled out pardoning paul manafort. would you advise the president to pardon manafort? >> i don't like any of the talk about pardons. >> there you go. even got it within my time limit. thank you both. >> out front next, an iowa college student missing for more than a month, now police have charged an undocumented

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an undocumented immigrant has been arrested in the murder of an iowa college student. her name, of course, you know by now, mollie tibbetts. officials say the suspect, christian rivera, led them to the body they believe to be tibbets. she went missing on july 18th while jogging, and police say surveillance video played a key role in helping solve this case. let's go to ryan young out front in montezuma, iowa. beginning tonight, what can you tell us about this man, the suspect, and how police tracked him down? >> well, we know he's an undocumented immigrant. of course, he was arrested after the video that police saw him on and had a conversation with him, and apparently, he was talking to investigators. they believe he's lived in the area for the last four to seven years and he's kept a small footprint here. they also believe he worked for a farmer, not sure what his occupation was. but what we're told is a neighbor turned over some video.

and detectives have been going through that for days, and when they went through this video, they saw a dark colored car, and they also saw mollie running by. and eventually, when they caught up with this man, they started talking to him. he says he was following along with her, trying to talk with her. at some point, he got out of his car and was running alongside of her when she said she was going to dial 91 wrun. get this. he said he blacked out and then the next thing you know, he put her in the trunk, and days later, he led investigators to her body that he put in a corn field and tried to cover with corn stalks. >> the outpouring for mollie tibbetts i can just imagine that community tonight. >> yeah. you know, we cover these quite often, and one of the things that is scary about this situation is, you saw people from the small community showing up because they wanted to hear what happened to this young lady. as we were driving in, you could see her posters all over, even large trucks had her picture on the side of the semis.

and people were captivated by this case. they wanted to know what happened to this young lady. we're showing you this video. this is friends who showed up, people in the community who were concerned about her. they started crying in the news conference. so much pain here, as you heard the details about this man apparently blacking out and talking about taking her to a corn field. details that maybe they shouldn't have heard, but they wanted to know what happened to this young lady, and your heart obviously pours out to them. >> watching her family speaking to news outlets over the past month, just praying and hoping that she was still alive, and then to get this news. it's devastating. are you hearing anything from authorities tonight there about a motive? >> well, that is something that we kept asking questions about. obviously, this investigation is still fresh. they said there may be more that they can't share right now, and even when we got the affidavit, we learned a detail about him placing her body in the trunk. we're not even sure if he took the body to the corn field right after he apparently killed her.

of course, this is just the conversation. his first court appearance will more than likely happen tomorrow. maybe we'll learn more in the next few hours. >> ryan young, my heart, all of our hearts are with her family, that entire community in montezuma, iowa, tonight. thank you. >> thank you for being with me. i'm poppy harlow in for erin burnett. ac 360 starts now. >> good evening. of all the tays we have seen, we are not seen a day quite like this. the president's former attorney and long time fixer stood up in court and said he broke the law. he broke the law to make money for himself and he said he broke the law to help get president trump elected. most significantly of all, he said he broke the law in what was coordination and, quote, at the direction, end quote, of donald trump. the crimes he admitted committing are felonies and it's hard to overstate the significance of that, of what cohen is claiming. the man who once said he would take a bullet for donald trump today in federal court was essentially calling his old boss