on the floor of the senate. they were close friends and there were tears in that tribute as for many of his former colleagues. i believe that's jeff flake, former senator from arizona as well. greeting this extraordinary senator on his return to washington. coverage continues with my colleague, john berm. >> all right. john berm in for anderson tonight. you're looking at live pictures in for the base at andrews where the casket has just landed. you're looking at the mccain family greeting members largely of senator mccain's senate staff, some 75 people, part of his extended family and members of the senate. we see jeff flake and lindsey graham in that lineup right

there. washington, d.c. the second city on this three city memorial tour, this week long remembrance of the life and heroic contributions of senator mccain. the day was spent in arizona, where john mccain felt the greatest peace and now in washington, d.c., where i think senator mccain found the greatest joy. i think he was at his happiest in the u.s. senate. sunday, he will be buried at the u.s. naval academy in annapolis, a place he felt the greatest pride. this week, everything chosen has a deep deep meaning to senator john mccain and his family. let's watch for a minute.

[ silence ]. >> again, what you're seeing here is the hearse carrying

senator john mccain. it will head for a funeral home tomorrow and the senator will lie in state at the u.s. capitol, just the 31st person to do that. joining me now, presidential historian, douglas brinkley and retired general mark herling, doug, this is a week long week for senator john mccain the likes we haven't seen. you don't see this for anyone other than a u.s. president, perhaps robert kennedy, the one exception to that. maybe not sense robert kennedy have we seen this outpouring of emotion for u.s. senator. >> i think that's exactly right. the fact senator mccain will be lying in state in the rotunda of the u.s. capitol building one of only 31 others to have had that honor. we do it for presidents or supreme court justices. the country has fallen in love

with john mccain this week. we always loved him and admired him. the more we're learning about his life-long career in politics and military service the more we're kind of nostalgic and longing for the virtues that he had. they did a beautiful job in phoenix. cindy mccain, that's where she was born and raised, the ceremonies today and eulogigies were deeply inspiring, particularly joe biden able to say, i'm a democrat and mccain is from a different age, a long ago age we would bury our differences and senators could be great friends. all around, it's been remarkable how the country is really recognizing what a giant for the ages john mccain was. >> he and defense secretary james mattis there. you know this is a very meaningful time for him as well. retired marine general, he said of john mccain, we have lost a

man who steadfastly represented the best ideals of our country. with us also, retired general mark hertling, general, it seems to me this moment we're looking at right now much of it is about john mccain and reference he gave this country, i think much of it has been emotional because of where we are as a country. >> yes. the comments by secretary mattis, retired general mattis hit the mark. what we've talked about and all the speakers have talked about in senator mccain's ceremony this afternoon was his presence, how he reflected a presence of leadership. where we are right now, we're all yearning for that, a character of honesty, standing out for the idealism of our country, the values our nation holds dear, what is represented

in the constitution, and that people who are in government service pledge to support and defend that piece of paper with such great ideology, it's caused many of us to reflect a little bit and say, boy, we sure have been missing some of that recently. even in his death, senator mccain, who, you know, you don't have to agree or be on the same side of everything he said or did and certainly many people aren't, but you can't debated his character or what he stood for or how much he gave to our nation. i think perhaps this afternoon was a reminder that we've got to start polishing those things again a little bit. they've become dulled and we ought to go back to that selfless service of our nation because that's what true patriotism is all about. >> the song that was played at the end of the ceremony in arizona was frank sinatra's "my

way." i don't think anyone would dispute john mccain did it his way but he was saying my way should be our way, the american way and to remind us what that way should be. on the idea of "my way," he certainly planned this week in a very unique way. it's not everyone who could have former vice president joe biden and wide receiver larry fitzgerald speak at a ceremony just days before a republican president, george w. bush and democratic president barack obama, again, doug, very significant and poignant. >> absolutely. larry fitzgerald, the arizona cardinal wide receiver was just marvelous today. he talked about the differences. he's white, i'm black. i'm an athlete and he was in the military. he went on and talked about all their differences. in the end, they were great friends. i thought it was poignant the senator, in his last days, asked larry fitzgerald in his last days to be one of his you'eulog

because we're divided and we're great pals and he did a great job as did joe biden. >> there's he hearse departing and tonight, it will go to the funeral home and tomorrow, lie in state at the capitol and there will be a ceremony at the capitol and before the burial on sunday. every step of the way, there will be more remembrances and more speakers. we saw the family. they're in the cars right now. we saw the family deplane moments ago. i saw smiles on their faces occasionally, which is nice to see because they're in the middle of what has to be a searing emotional week. but they've been given, i think, some solace and some strength by the words that we heard,

including from vice president biden, i think really spoke to them, general, directly today. >> it sure did. not just vice president biden but all of the speakers today. the vice-president was particularly good, but as douglas just said, larry fitzgerald was also phenomenal. i was watching that ceremony with a group of other people not con descendingly, like "star wars" political figures coming together sometimes grumpy and testy but always had a love of life and a love of country. it was pulling so many people together. i think the vice president, in using his humor the way he did, really bonded with the audience and showed how people with two different ideologies, political

ideologies can still come together and find the best way ahead for our great nation. i think we all need to be reminded of that often, and we should, opposed to the divisiveness we've seen recently, we need to start pulling together and have those conversations and laugh a little bit more and have a beer with one another to talk about what separates us first and what might unite us a little bit. >> senator mccain would certainly endorse the beer notion for sure. senator and general, thanks so much. we saw this powerful emotional memorial service back in phoenix. this is a look at some of the most poignant moments. ♪ amazing grace how sweet the sound ♪ >> for some reason, john mccain asked me to be his chief of staff when he got elected.

on my first day at 7:00 a.m., john mccain picked me up at my house, i went to the car, i said, well, you want me to drive? he said, no, i'm going to drive. i said, want me to sit in the back seat? [ laughter ] >> i'm no expert on this, but i thought the staff drove. no, get in the car, boy, get in the car. >> the time will come, what's going to happen is six months will go by and everybody's going to think, well, it's past, but you're going to ride by that field or smell that fragrance or see that flashing image and you're going to feel like you did the day you got the news but you know you're going to make it when the image of your dad, your husband, your friend crosses

your mind and a smile comes to your lip before a tear to your eye. that's when you know, and i promise you, give you my word, i promise you, this, i know that day will come. ♪ >> we're saying good-bye to a man who meant so much. ♪ >> john mccain, back in washington, d.c. tonight. as all this unfolded, there was other breaking news today. a new interview with president trump. we'll tell you about it next including his thoughts on the russia probe.

later, the other big story, new reporting, maggie haberman's reporting, what michael cohen might have been trying to buy from the "national enquirer"'s publisher, more dirt than stormy daniels and karen mcdougal, tell you all about it on "360." ...grew up the youngest of three kids... ...raised a good sport... ...and became a second-generation firefighter. but i couldn't bear my diabetic nerve pain any longer. so i talked to my doctor, and he prescribed lyrica. nerve damage from diabetes cause diabetic nerve pain. lyrica is fda approved to treat this pain from moderate to even severe diabetic nerve pain. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worse depression, unusual changes in mood or behavior, swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. common side effects: dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs, and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica.

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your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. it has been day of moments to remember whether john mccain's solemn final journey or this, more breaking news what the president is now saying about the russian investigation and job security and other range of subjects that almost certainly will be tomorrow's headlines. mr. trump talking about all of it when he sat down with bloomberg news. the senior white house correspondent joins us now who also happens to be a cnn political analyst. i want to start with this. you asked the president whether he would comply with a subpoena from mueller. he didn't give you a clear

answer to that. what did he say? >> no, he didn't. he said he thought the investigation itself was illegal. this is very interesting. what does it mean three, four months going forward? he wasn't explicit about it. when we asked him the question, he said, i would answer that in a different way, i don't agree with that being the point of the question. said it was improper or because of all the elements he believed had been revealed to be sort of hinky about the investigation. he's complained about that before we know that. for him to come out and say that he thought it was illegal seemed to me to be a turn. >> the investigation is illegal. we'll come back to that. you asked the president about attorney general jeff sessions job security. let's listen to what he said. >> i'd just like to have jeff sessions do his job and if he did i'd be very happy. the job entails two sides, not one side. >> not part of this audio, you really seemed to push him on how long he has that job security.

it didn't seem like the president was willing to give him one second past the midterm elections. >> i do think it's important the president probably -- the republican leadership sounds like a big sigh of relief, the president is now committed or resigned or whatever to saying, all right, let me set my concerns aside, through november, that's something that mitch mcconnell and lindsey graham and basically every republican have wanted to hear him say out loud and he said it. the follow-up question is okay, what about after the mid-terms he didn't want to touch. maybe it's to his credit he didn't want to touch it. didn't want to tease it or have that become the news. he didn't say, no, this is all overblown, everything is fine, instead he turned back to this idea that -- you could see throughout the conversation he's so frustrated with jeff sessions he feels that's why there is this ongoing probe of him. >> not related i understand the topic of impeachment came up,

did he seem worried it was a possibility if democrats took back the house? >> no. actually his answer on the impeachment question, if democrats take over the house, do you think it would hurt your ability to govern if they proceeded with impeachment or do you think it would actually help you to get reelected? he said, i don't know. he said, i don't think they can. his reasoning for why he said they couldn't is because he's done a great job, is what he said. also, what he said, essentially, if they do that to him it will create a new precedent where every president will face impeachment when the opposite party takes control of the house. >> hmm. you also asked the president point-blank did he think he messed up on how he handle the passing of senator john mccain. what did he say about that? he said, no. i said, do you think you screwed it up, could have united the country. he said, no, i don't. i did everything they asked me

to. that he said he respected senator mccain's contributions to the country. but he also went on to talk on his own terms about how deeply they disagreed on so many issues. he made pretty clear their policy and personal animus. we asked him whether he thought john mccain would have been a better president than barack obama. notably, he declined to answer the question. >> a lot to chew over there. i know there's more in the interview as well. margaret, stick around, stay with us, i want to bring in cnn political analyst, maggie haver man who has a great piece in the "new york times" we'll get to in our next segment and cnn analyst, jeffrey toobin and on the phone, alan dershowitz, author of "the case against impeaching trump." i want to start with what we got from margaret, saying the mueller investigation is illegal. i'm guessing that's not the last

time he will say that. >> it's not true. as senator moynihan liked to say, everyone is entitled to their own opinion but they're not entitled to their own facts. robert mueller is an employee of the department of justice, a prosecutor like any other. the idea he is an illegal, that there is something fundamentally improper about this relationship, about this investigation is completely wrong and not supported by the law or the facts. it may be mueller is doing a bad job, maybe he's brought inappropriate cases, we can have those disagreements. the idea that he is an illegal actor is just a talking point for the president's base. it is not based on anything real. >> alan dershowitz, professor dershowitz, you are on the phone with us. the president said he is basing that notion on what he has heard from great scholars. i am guessing that he means you.

i think he watches you on tv quite a bit. you have said there never should have been a special counsel, but i don't believe you have said that robert mueller is doing an illegal investigation. >> quite the opposite. i've said that i disagree with my friends, even a great scholar who has written a powerful article appointing the case of special counsel and giving him the ability to rule without the senate is illegal and plausible situation and here i agree with jeffrey toobin. i always said i thought the appointment of special counsel was lawful. i thought it was unnecessary and the southern districts and other districts could handle it. i thought it raised serious policy questions, there's really no check and balance effectively on the special counsel. i've been critical of special counsel. if the president meant me, i'd be flattered if he called me a

great legal scholar, i think he must have meant steven. i've never taken that position, this is a lawful position but in my view, misguided. >> if the president is watching this live or tivo later, mr. alan dershowitz, a great scholar does not think it's an illegal investigation. maggie, to you, the president was flat out asked many different ways if he would fire jeff sessions. he seemed to rule it out until election day and seemed like where we were headed all along. he wouldn't give him one minute past. >> he doesn't like jeff sessions. whether you think what he's saying about the both sides you should investigate, whether that's a fair assessment how an attorney general should do his job based on a political consideration or not is a different question. he has been frustrated with jeff sessions for over a year now. this has been going on since march of 2017. i think that lindsey graham has

a point when he says this is a relationship that is disfunctional, it is clearly disfunctional. to margaret's point, to the president's credit he didn't try to dress this up as something different. he did say this is where it's going. what i think is happening is he is having some kind of discussion with members of the senate about who could get confirmed and under what circumstances you could get jeff sessions to leave. this president does not like firing people for all of this talk about what a bad job he is doing yet he had the option of firing him. he got a resignation letter from him last year and got that back. their hope is they can get sessions to resign and they might. >> doesn't seem like they want to have it happen before the mid-terms. >> they don't want anything to happen before mid terms. >> the only thing protecting jeff sessions right now is mid-terms. jeffrey, hang on. there are interesting nuggets in this interview. margaret, i understand alan

wiseleberg, the ffo of the trump investigation who was granted immunity in the michael cohen investigation, you asked him about the president about that. what did he say? >> what we wanted to know from the president, did he feel that mr. weisselberg had either betrayed him or put him in legal jeopardy by this arrangement? he said, absolutely not. he said 100% his friend, alan weisselberg had not, he's a very good friends and whatever his discussions were, had been very short, in terms of anything he would have told the prosecutors. so the president seemed to be saying he didn't feel that weisselberg was doing anything to hurt him or to try to hurt him. >> interesting. jeffrey. so the president seems to have some knowledge or at least claimed to have some knowledge of the weisselberg testimony right there. could the president be right it's limited to a very specific period of time or should he be

concerned weisselberg could say more? >> i would not be surprised if weisselberg's attorney spoke to trump's attorneys and told him what he was asked about and what he answered. one of the great unanswered questions, i don't know the answer to it, is, is the southern district which obtained the guilty plea for michael cohen, where michael cohen said i did these illegal acts at the direction of president trump, then candidate trump, are they following up on that? are they doing more investigation? i don't know the answer to that yet. it may be that weisselberg's testimony was directed to getting the guilty plea, which was successfully completed, but will they go back to him and say, what more can you tell us? i don't know. maggie, do you know? >> i don't know. i'd like to know. >> we will talk more about alan weisselberg. while i still have you on, the

subject of alan, you said you thought the this is a bigger threat in your mind than the russia investigation. weisselberg is the guy that knows where all the financial bodies are buried. should the president be more concerned about him? >> he should be and especially enough if he thinks weisselberg said anything incriminating. that's not the issue. did he say anything that builds gaps in the prosecution's case. if you say, i said nothing, that will hurt the president. you don't know what gaps there are. weisselberg may have told about a meeting or encounter, something they didn't know could lead to other issues. the president should be concerned about weisselberg and cohen. i would expect his legal team is concerned he may be putting forth a positive face on this but he should be deeply concerned. i've always said he should be

more concerned about the southern district where he doesn't have constitutional defenses than the mueller probe, which is about his presidency, where he has constitutional defenses. they may not be perfect but they're better than the situation he's in, in the southern district. >> alan dershowitz, thanks so much. and margaret, thank you for bringing your reporting to us. maggie and jeff, stick around. up next, maggie's latest reporting what could be decades of dirt on donald trump and new reporting what candidate trump and donald kohn might have been talking about in that secret recording you probably heard on cnn but might still have questions about, new evidence they were talking about buying more than just the silence of stormy daniels and karen mcdougal. ♪ flintstones! meet the flintstones. ♪ ♪ they're the modern stone age family. ♪

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the phrase, "catch and kill" just got catchier. when cnn got ahold of the tape talking to donald trump about the enquirer publisher we didn't know it would be a bigger purchaser of caught and kill stories than just karen mcdougal. the headlines, "national enquirer" had decades of dirt and he wanted to buy it all. when you do, watch for the phrase, all the stuff. >> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, david, you know, so i'm going to do that right away.

i've actually come up and spoken to allen weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up about funding. yes. it's all the stuff. here, you never know what that company -- >> if he gets hit by a truck. >> i'm all over that. i spoke to alan about it when it comes time for the financing. >> what financing? it's getting old. >> no, no. >> how are you? >> so that's the candidate and his fixer a couple months before the election, all the stuff, cohen says, in case he, meaning david pecker, gets hit by a truck. remember, former "national enquirer" editor said pecker kept a safe of story files and do some of the national stories include more dirt on donald

trump? this suggests so. maggie joins us in a moment. this is the money quote. he and his lawyer at the time, michael d. cohen, devised a plan to buy up all the dirt on mr. trump the "national enquirer" collected on him dating back to the 1980s according to several of his associates. this includes older stories and his marital woes and lawsuits and tips about marital affairs and golf and the purchase plan was never finalized. now, we know there could be a whole lot more about his private life the president wants to conceal. but, "keeping them honest," wait a minute, haven't he and his surrogates been saying there is absolutely nothing to conceal? no truth to any of this? why, yes, yes, they have. >> the president has addressed these directly and made very well clear that none of these allegations are true. >> did he know about the payment at the time? >> not that i'm aware of. as i just said, as we have addressed on a number of times,

the president has denied these allegations. i don't have anything else further to add. >> look, the president denied these allegations and we've spoken about this issue extensively and i don't have anything else to add. beyond that, i would refer you to the outside counsel. >> did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? >> no. >> the president has denied and continues to deny the underlying claim. >> neither the white house or president has budged from the allegations and even after the tape came out and after standing up in court saying it discloses the dirt. who will you believe? that, the tape, all the reporting including the "new york times" latest or this from the president just yesterday. >> we do everything straight. we do everything by the book. >> so whether or not the president does everything by the book, maggie haberman and jeffrey toobin sure do, back

with us now along with cnn commentator and former republican presidential president, rick santorum. maggie, you've been sitting here the whole time while i've been talking about you and your reporting. thank you for that. since you're here coincidentally, what i'm talking about, walk us through it. the president and michael cohen, you're saying wanted to buy decades of dirt. >> when my colleague and i first wrote about the existence of that tape, we didn't have the audio, it was described by people on both sides familiar with it in the very narrow context of karen mcdougal and reimbursing her and that was what we focused on for weeks it turns out actually, there had been this discussion about obtaining everything, because there was a concern that david pecker was going to leave ami and they would be leaving this information in the hands of somebody they didn't know. as you said, this was a grab bag of information. some of it may not even have

been anything fleshed out or real or actually confirmed, tips, random stories, things about golf. it was this pile about donald trump and we know he likes control. clearly, you can see from this grab bag of stuff, david pecker had been at ami for a really long time. this was pretty clear from the audio and our reporting this was not some plan michael cohen dreamed up, he said this in court, what he was told to do by donald trump is go deal with this, so he was going and dealing with this. in the court papers, there is a reference to the candidate, he's not named. there are clear references on that tape to alan weisselberg, who was given immunity to testify to this. they have connection to this. where this leads, i don't know, i'm not a campaign finance lawyer. it is possible the president is saying i was buying these things for years and had nothing to do with the election and becomes

more complicated with the election. >> you and david pecker have information on a long relationship. there is information, it could be a part of it. >> david pecker, american media actually published an in-house magazine for the trump hotels. they were business partners with trump in certain ventures, that's how close they were. what i thought was so fascinating about maggie's story was how, as long as david pecker was there, everything was going to be fine. they could keep -- that certainly is what pecker said to me in very explicit terms, we bought karen mcdougal's story because we wanted to protect our friend, the president. that apparently was the guiding principle for all of the editorial decisions at the "national enquirer." what's so fascinating about this story, they were so concerned

pecker might leave they wanted to get their hands on all the dirt so that pecker, even if he was gone, they'd still be protected. >> not like you're speculating about that. we heard it on the tape. >> they say it. >> they said it out loud. >> what did he say, if you get hit by a truck, a very new york way of putting it. >> we're guessing it's a euphemism. >> if you're listening, i am remembering the senator santorum deeply concerned about decades of dirt and maybe scurrilous dirt on a presidential candidate now president, i'm guessing at this point that the president supporters, doesn't move them at all, i imagine, this is what you're going to tell me, they already baked it into the cake, the "access hollywood" tape didn't move it, nothing else will move. >> i've been listening to this and i'm having a hard time

keeping my dinner down. this is not a very pleasant conversation to talk about the president of the united states and all of these potential scirrulous types of activities, not fun to listen to. we understand the president has a sordid past and he had, you know, did a lot of things that were a lot worse than even what maybe he was trying to protect himself from. they voted for him anyway. i don't like it and i find it to be, you know, a compounding effect of the character of the man, but at the same time, i think that, as you just said, has been baked into the cake. >> rick, isn't it really the case -- we will have -- the

kavanaugh hearings next week, he's promised to appoint judges who will overturn roe v. wade. here comes judge kavanaugh, soon to be justice kavanaugh. donald trump could hang on the ceilings having sex with anybody he likes, as long as he gets roe v wade overturned, you don't care, isn't that the way it works? >> we're talking about things prior to him being president, i don't think there was any question in then minds of any voter about donald trump and his personal activities. that was pretty much made clear. so, what they're assessing him now and will continue to do is his performance as president. i think if they look at the policies he's made and the appointments he's made to the judiciary, i think most conservatives are very happy about it. they're not concerned about his behavior. >> all that talk about character we heard about bill clinton and

the role model to americans, that's all nonsense, right? you don't care about character, you care about winning? >> excuse me. i think i just said it's very disturbing to me and i don't like it, it's something i find reprehensible, but the issue -- the issue is with bill clinton, as you know, jeffrey, very well, bill clinton wasn't impeached because of bill clinton's behavior in the white house, he was impeached because he committed perjury, so let's just get to the reality of it. >> let's -- >> quit trying to confuse the issue. >> whether this president told the truth or not may become an issue as well. i want to give you the last word on this. it was your story. >> look, i think the focus of our story was not the dirt or sorting through it. the focus of our story was about the interactions between president trump, then a businessman and a hedge fund owned newspaper that was taking

losses at that point, burying stories because of its relationship with the president, and then an effort to try to get hold of all of that apparently on the order of the president. that's what it's about. not about -- >> a private citizen. >> but -- but if it was to sway the election, did the president order michael cohen to do it, as he testified in court under oath, again, that's the key question here. senator, jeffrey toobin, maggie, thank you very much. let's check in with chris cuomo to see what he's working on the top of the hour. >> spicy little bit of moral relativism you have going on the top of the docket to be sure. we will bring in a key player, michael avenatti. he sees it different. what does this information mean to his litigation, to his efforts and how he now sees it as a part of the overall investigation and russia probe.

we have him on the show. we will also have a big debate about what matters in this kind of situation and what doesn't. we have a good show coming up for everybody and we will take on this story about what's going on at the border. can an american really be denied a passport on the basis of where they live? >> chris cuomo, thank you very much. coming up, the president is claiming, without evidence at all, in an interview he did a year ago, was somehow fudged. "keeping them honest," next. ♪

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the president went on another one of his early morning twitter rampages this morning much like a drive time radio d.j. he ranted a bunch and played old hits fans can't get enough of and debuted a new hit, this new classic rail against the free press tweet quote i cannot state strongly enough how dishonest much of the media is. truth doesn't matter to them. they only have their hatred and agenda. this includes fake books which come out about me all the time.

always anonymous sources and are pure fiction, enemy of the people. you have to wonder if the president has anxiety about the upcoming book from bob woodward. in an avalanche, the president ranteded against cnn. what's happening at cnn is happening on different networks, nbc news the worst. andy lacky is about to be fired? lester holt got caught fudging his tape on russia. >> lester holt did not get caught fudging the tape on russia. he indicated to lester holt he got fired in part because of the russia investigation. >> i was going to fire regardless of recommendation.

he made a recommendation, highly respected. very good guy, smart guy, republicans and democrats like him. made a good recommendation. regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey knowing there was no good time to in fact when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story. >> so now more than a year later, the president says lester holt fudged the tape. there's of course no evidence of any fudging. repeat, no fudging for the part that is potentially damning, the president is on camera in the middle of a sentence. no cut-aways, no edits. add to that the fact that an extended version of the interview has been on the nbc news website since may 11th, 2017. but for this president and for some of his followers, evidence just doesn't matter. all that matters is what the president says no matter how many times he lies, contradicts himself, or simply makes things up. it all seems to be part of his

pattern of trying to discredit words that he doesn't think are good for him even if they came out of his own mouth. he's doing it now. he did it with the access hollywood kwiegs tape when he bragged about sexually assaulting women. when it came out, he apologized for using what he called locker room talk. then more than a year later, you started suggesting to people, including at least one senator, that it wasn't even his voice on the tape. now what he wants you to believe, what lester holt said on camera, was somehow fudged. let's not forget he flat-out instructed his followers on this just a month ago. don't believe your own eyes and ears. >> just stick with us. don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. and just remember what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening. >> keeping them honest, what you're seeing and what you're reading is happening. no matter how many times the president says you shouldn't believe even actual footage of

him talking or books. we'll take you back to the radio analogy, in the words of radiohead, this is really happening. joining me now, cnn global affairs analyst and "washington post" columnist max boot. so, max, we just heard the president say what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening. so for him, once again, he's attempting to discredit a recording of himself. >> right, john. i would say that donald trump is revealing himself to be a marxist, not karl marx, groucho marx, who said, who are you going to believe? me or your own eyes? clearly he wants his followers to believe him rather than their own eyes. this is taking it to a whole new level. this is basically denying reality in the way that authoritarian dictators always try to do with their followers and to just rewrite the script. >> any guess about why he might be doing it now, why he might be choosing to say that this tape where he talks about russia

being a reason for firing james comey, why he's saying he didn't say it. >> why he might want to explain a way a tape on which he confessed obstruction of justice? 9 only issue is why it is taking him so long to try to make these ludicrous claims. i think what you see with the president is really getting worse because the facts are turning against him so markedly. i mean last week, remember, we can't forget this. his own attorney implicated him in two federal crimes. and as a result of that, you see a spike in his tweets about the so-called rigged witch hunt. he is feeling the heat, and so he is lashing out. and because the facts are so unfavorable to him, he is trying to challenge the very validity of the facts and of reality itself and complaining yesterday, why is google producing search results that aren't all about pro-trump? because the news is not pro-trump, but he can't handle it. >> while you're here, i do want to ask you something about the president told bloomberg. he said, he can be patient with

kim jong-un. the quote, i have greater patience than any human being in the world. people don't understand that about me. do you think that having patience with kim is the right path here? >> no. american presidents have had patience with north korean dictators going back to the 1990s, and they've been hornswoggled at every turn. donald trump promised that was not going to happen to him, but it has. i mean he is basically in the position of somebody who spiked the ball on the 50-yard line, and now he doesn't know what to do. does he pretend that he scored a touchdown or does he go to work and try to move the ball down the field? >> he's sort of saying it's a field goal. he says, you've had no missile testing, no rocket testing. we got back our hostages. there have been no nuclear tests, and that's pretty good. >> remember what he said immediately after he got back from singapore. he said there is no longer a nuclear threat from north korea, and that is just nonsense because everything we've learned since then is that north korea is actually expanding their nuclear program, expanding their

missile program. they're not dismantling it. and that's the reality he's dealing with. that's why last week he told mike pompeo not to go to pyongyang because the north koreans were not delivering. but at the same time as he's admitting that the deal that he agreed to is basically falling apart and is meaningless, at the same time he's trying to pretend he still has a great relationship with kim jong-un. everything is going just great. so you have these competing impulses at war with one another in almost everything that he says. >> max boot, great to have you with us. hopefully we'll see you again soon. reminder. don't miss full circle,'s 360's daily interactive newscast on facebook. you can see it week nights, 6:25 eastern at facebook.com/anderson cooper full circle. up next, more on a hero's journey to his final resting place. senator john mccain's casket arrives in washington where he will lie in state tomorrow at the capitol.

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the day ends as it began, mourning senator john mccain, a hero's journey to his final resting place. the senator's casket arrived at joint base andrews a little more than an hour ago after a moving

service in arizona earlier today. tomorrow there will be a ceremony at the capitol rotunda, and the senator will lie in state and members of the public can pay their respects. as former vice president joe biden said today, he paraphrased shakespeare, we shall not see his like again. the news continues. i'll hand it over now to chris and "cuomo prime time." >> thanks, j.b. i am chris cuomo. welcome to "prime time." all the stuff. you remember that line from the secret michael cohen tape i got you here? what is said on that tape is taking on new significance as part of the proof that trump was trying to buy a lot more than you know about until tonight. those hush money payments that michael avenatti is trying to get him to testify about under oath are even in sharper focus. avenatti is here to argue what this new information should mean to his case and others. senator mccain, as you just heard, returned to the capitol for the final time after a