read this document go online. they release a document like this, remember. we'll get more information clearly as the day goes on. thanks for watching, erin burnett out front starts right now. out front next, james comey lashing out, accusing the president of the united states of being a liar and attacking the rule of law. the former fbi director shaping republican republicans for not standing up to trump. breaking news, the dow plunging more than 500 points again. the market is right now on track for the worst december since the great depression. all the way back to 1931. is it fair to blame trump or not? let's go out front. good evening, i'm erin burnett. comey lashing out at trump and

the entire republican party. jim comey on the hill today, he was there for another closed door hearing with congress. after nearly six hours behind closed doors with members. comey came out to take the latest shot in his growing war with the president. this time he called the president a liar. no hesitation with that word, and he did so repeatedly. >> the president of the united states is lying about the fbi, attacking the fbi and attacking the rule of law in this country. the fbi's reputation has taken a big hit because the president of the united states has lied about it constantly. >> comey's anger and personal slams come as trump in the past week, six tweets slamming comey and the fbi, including personal slams like, "comey had no right heading the fbi at any time but especially after his mind exploded." i didn't make that up. that personal insult did not

cause comey to go in front of the cameras. that happened and days with no comment from comey. remember, michael cohen only became a rat after the fbi did something that was unthinkable and unheard of. they broke into an attorney's office. okay. comey taking issue with a very important thing here, the facts. the fact is, no one broke into an attorney's office, michael cohen's office was not broken into. the fbi had a court issued warrant. president trump knows this, there is no other word for his statement than that it was a lie. today comey saying republicans need to step up and stand up to their leader. >> republicans used to understand that the actions of a president matter. the words of a president matter, the rule of law matters, and the truth matters. where are those republicans today? >> at some point, someone has to

stand up and in the face of fear of fox news, fear of mean tweets, stand up for the values of this country. and not slink away into retirement, but stand up and speak the truth. >> pretty powerful words. slink away into retirement, there's several individuals he's referring to, even with that. tonight silence from those republicans. kaitlan collins is out front at the white house, how is the president dealing with this shot from jim comey? there was a moment, several long long minutes today, where jim comey was on every single cable screen calling the president of the united states a liar. >> you can bet the president likely saw that, i've talked to white house aids, there's almost no doubt the president is going to respond to what james comey said when he came out there and said, the president is essentially trying to burn down the fbi. and that republicans on capitol hill are his willing accompli accomplices. james comey also refused to take

responsibility for any damage that's been done to the fbi's credibility. blaming it all on president trump. the question is not whether or not the president is going to respond to this, because aids have said keep an eye on your phone and your twitter feeds. you can expect a tweet from president trump in the future. as the mueller probe has progressed, he's trying to paint this picture of an fbi and law enforcement system that's biassed against him. after seeing james comey come out, is he helping or hurting the president's case there. >> thank you very much, kaitlyn, that is the crucial question. >> let's go to josh campbell. joan walsh national correspondent with the nation. scott jennings. scott, look, silence tonight from the gop, even when comey refers to some of them slinking

away into retirement, i think we all can name some of the individuals he's referring, is he right that the gop is to blame? >> for part of this problem? not standing up to the president? >> well, look, with all due respect to my friend josh, he's going to want to comment on this. i can't think of anybody in politics right now, in public life that has less of a political constituency than former director comey. the republicans don't pay much attention to what he says. the democrats are mad at him over 2016. i know what he's trying to do tonight, he's trying to make up for his own shortcomings and contributions of his decline to the fbi. he wants to pin the blame on republicans, republican leaders who are retiring, the president, what have you. i don't think it's going to work. his credibility has taken a real hit since he left his post. and for good reason.

i don't think anyone -- >> what was missing is an answer to the question. where are the republicans in standing up to the attacks on the rule of law. the way i look at it i distinguished between actions that jim comey took and jim comey the person. the person, when they try to label him as some kind of corrupt official i'm going to speak out about that. >> after james comey was fired, 157 times president trump tweeted that this lawful investigation is a witch hunt. after james comey was fired you had the president of the united states saying fbi agents executing a lawful court order saying they broke into his office. you had giuliani saying, they were nazi storm troopers. they released an embarrassing memo -- i don't know how long the show is. this all happened after james comey was fired. he has things he has to answer

for. what we're talking about are the corrosive attacks the president is making right now. >> to the point you're making, you talk about 157 times, part of the issue here is, comey is standing up now, and he has obviously, he did his book tour, but today was a new level. this all started by, they broke into an attorney's office we know the president of the united states knows is untrue. when he knows it's untrue i will call it a lie. it's a lie. here's how he responded. let me play that. >> it undermines the rule of law. this is the president of the united states calling a witness who has cooperated with his own justice department a rat. say that again to yourself at home, and remind yourself where we have ended up. we need to stop being numb to it, you need to stand on your feet, overcome your shame and say something.

>> are people becoming numb to it? >> i think people are becoming numb to it. there are folks on the left, and i'm one of them who has issues with what james comey did at the end of the 2016 election this is spate. first of all, he was calls, instead of doing their oversight function with regard to the president, his administration, we now know there are 17 different investigations into some aspect of trump's life, instead of doing that, they continue, this is the second time house republicans have hauled this man before them. he asks for the hearings to be open. they refuse, they say they have to be closed. he had every right to come out and defend himself, and he's at the end of his rope to see people spend six hours on him rather than six hours on the president. and finally, i do think -- i believe the president has called michael cohen a rat before. but that tweet did take us into new territory. calling a witness a rat and you're the commander in chief.

there's something wrong with that. >> it implies you did something wrong. >> it does. >> there's something confusing about it, the point that comey is making here, just on the simple point about trump lying, right? trump is lying about the fbi breaking into michael cohen's office, we know donald trump knows every interest mat detail about this whole thing. when he lies like that, is that an assault on the rule of law. is there any other way to look at it? >> it's an assault on his own credibility. just because i think director comey lacks certain credibility right now, it doesn't mean everything he said today is incorrect. the president should not call cohen a rat, because it implies he himself has done something wrong. the president shouldn't lie, i

think the president should stick to the truth and stick to the things that are helpful and not self-defeating as it relates to defending against these investigations. >> it's not just comey, we're at a strange moment in this country, everyone watching gets that. however, it doesn't make these easy things to listen to. coming from people that we perceive to be the leaders of law. comey is not alone. >> i think some of his tweets just indicate how ill suited he is for the presidency. and also some of his handling of these issues, demonstrates again he is incompetent. >> he seems to have a separate reality for each day, each tweet, each statement in an interview which has little or no

bearing to what he said in the past. >> i take great solace in knowing that you realize how much trouble you're in, how impossible it will be to escape american justice. i'm relieved you'll never have the opportunity to run for public office again. is that -- they're trying to stand up for the rule of law. is this risking muddying the waters? >> it could. i think he's been a little more aggressive. as we look at director clapper and director comey? this is the way i've seen it. they weren't out making money building buildings on wall street, they were serving the nation, these institutions that they love. as they look at what's happening now the commander in chief systematically undermine the rule of law and justice and the

intelligence community for purely -- faced with those options i don't think there's anything you can do -- >> if leading republicans in congress were doing more and saying more some of these men might not be going as far as they're going. all three of them have served both republican and democratic presidents. they've never seen anything like this, the partisanship around the legal questions is shocking to them, and forces them to go further than perhaps they want to. >> to that point, i think joan's right about if there were more people speaking in the gop, they wouldn't be. they are only doing it because no one else is in that void. will the gop stand up in a way they haven't before? >> a highly respected matter, but will we see outspoken --

>> i think you're going to have to -- >> yeah, i think they're going to have to see more on the russia collusion side than they have already. i don't think this campaign finance stuff is going to roust any republicans, a lot of republicans don't -- >> we're not going to stand up to the president about his words? >> the crime -- >> i understand what you're saying, but that to me is a figure leaf they're hiding behind. he's still saying what he's saying. that the fbi is full of a bunch of democrats and -- >> if the request is for -- if the question is when are republicans going to "do something or say something." i think it's going to be at the corn collusion of the mueller report, or when a congressional committee issues a final report that says, here's the truth and here's the full picture and here's the full story on russia, we don't have that yet. if you're asking me for an honest assessment, my honest assessment is, they're going to wait on russia, they're not going to take the bait on cohen, it's not a big deal. >> here's my naivety when it

comes to politics. my specialty is law. why is the party of law enforcement not standing up to attacks on law enforcement and the rule of law? . i genuinely don't understand it. i think most folks tend to hugh conservative. i talk to fbi people nearly every day, and they are furious at these attacks. people who are across the political spectrum, they see their own party sitting there and not doing anything. that's the part i can't understand. what is keeping these good people -- and scott, you and i have talked. i worked in the republican party -- i cannot understand why knees good people are not standing up to say, mr. president, you're out of line. our justice is more important than your political future. special counsel bob mueller as we look here just releasing a memo about the fbi interview with michael flynn. this now highly contested

interview, we've gotten new details about that, and about flynn's lies when he lied about contacts with the russian officials. rudy giuliani his latest defense of president trump. was it on purpose or did he really do a lot more harm? two new investigations reaching a stunning conclusion. russian interference in the 2016 election, worse than we've ever known. your digestive system has billions of bacteria, but life can throw them off balance. re-align yourself, with align probiotic. and try align gummies, with prebiotics and probiotics to help support digestive health

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heavy redactions, just looking at it here. i mean, you can see some pages not as bad as others, some pages heavy redactions about the fbi's interview with michael flynn. this was the interview in which flynn lied to those fbi agents when they asked about his ton tacts with sergei kislyak. shimon is out front. you've been looking through this revealing document. there's a lot of nonredactions too. there's a lot to learn from this. >> really we don't get this kind of window inside an fbi interview. certainly not in these cases. sometimes it takes years before this kind of information is released. it's important for people to keep that in mind. we're in places with this investigation we never thought we would be.

it's how the fbi describes that interview with michael flynn at the white house, essentially what you see in reading all of this, michael flynn is downplaying his conversations with the russian ambassador. everyone was alarmed that flynn would be having these conversations with the russian ambassador. the fbi asked him questions and he essentially downplayed the contact. at one point there was this discussion about whether or not after the obama administration reacted by expelling some of the discussions with embassies here in the u.s. the fbi wanted to know whether or not michael flynn was having conversations with the russian ambassador about the action that the obama administration undertook. he clearly, where the fbi asks

him about that, he denies it. did he encourage kislyak not to escalate the situation and to keep the russian response reciprocal or not the fbi agent says a tit for tat. flynn says not really. you read the statement of offense at the fbi that's actually not the case. flynn told him not to escalate the situation. here you have a good picture, what was going on how michael flynn was responding. and we will hear more. >> thank you very much. >> as we're starting to go through this here. april ryan. and also with me, john dean, the former nixon white house counsel. this is 10 pages, there's a lot

of it that is not redacted. we weren't expecting to get this. we weren't expecting to get it. what's the significance of what we're learning. >> the judge wanted to see this because flynn's lawyers essentially tried to make it seem like the fbi was maybe pulling a fast one on flynn. it was all just a big mistake. not at all, we gave him every opportunity to tell the truth. fbi interviews aren't typically tape recorded or videoed. and the judge today said, you know, this is a public court proceeding. this document should be public so everyone can read it. when you read it, it does support what mueller said. almost reading back verbatim things he said, in saying, is that what you said? flynn denied it.

>> flynn says, oh, i don't really totally understand his defense. i guess you weren't -- you didn't tell me i couldn't lie, or i didn't understand, i couldn't lie. so, therefore, the interview wasn't fair. certainly not what comes across from this. >> this defense is something of a tempest in the tea pot. as harry said, the reason this document is public, the judge wanted to see it, and that's why it was forced out, and i think it's appropriate. as harry also mentioned, these are not recorded, which has always been one of my bifs with the fbi given the technology today. why don't they record these? they resist because they sometimes play a little bit with their interpretation. i don't think that happened here. but i would feel better if there's a recording. >> i think a lot of people watching would say, at this point in history with the technology, we have why not?

april, it is a pretty stunning thing for them to release this hours ahead of his sentencing. >> this is transparency to a certain extent at its best, to find out -- and it also gives those who say this is a witch hunt or it's not right. more understanding into what's going on. even though he will be sentenced tomorrow, there's a recommendation by mueller for him not to be sentenced, because he's still very valuable to this investigation. this russia investigation. i mean, 2016. when you look at it, 2016 was the time that this president was trying to be president. that's a critical time, any time you have this kind of situation where those connected to the president have issues of wrongdoing and lies, it leads into other things, and this is the problem for this white house. and for those who also say, you know, why is this such a big

deal, because you cannot go in to -- i equate it and i said this before, you cannot go into a home and look for drugs, and they see that the wife or the husband is being abused and ignore it, you have to bring it all into the scope. >> this comes as rudy giuliani has done something which is quite hard to understand, possibly incredibly important. this is introducing a new and much more damning date on the time line, as to when discussions with russians on a trump tower in moscow ended. michael cohen said it was june of 2016. which is pretty bad. the president said all sorts of things up to that point. now, rudy giuliani saying it went all the way until november, election. here he is. >> did donald trump know that michael cohen was pursuing the trump tower in moscow into the summer of 2016? >> according to the answer that he gave, it would have covered

all the way up to november of 2016. he said he had conversations with him about it. >> okay, november of 2016. that is not the summer, it's november. that's six months later that michael cohen himself said these discussions were going under. was that purposeful? >> i assume it was. >> it's maybe most a safe assumption, but assuming it was purposeful, it was to draw the sting of some revelation that we're about to hear either in a charging document, in mueller's ultimate report, so that giuliani isn't out there advancing the june date, when he knows that in a matter of days or weeks, the november date will take hold. >> to that point, because when you add six months, you add six months where now you could have had discussions going on about trump tower moscow which involved offers to putin himself, while donald trump is on tape saying things like this. >> wouldn't it be nice if we

actually got along with russia? wouldn't that be good? isn't that a bad thing. like putin, putin called me brilliant, i like it. we would like you to disavow that statement. i said, you think i'm going to disavow that statement, are you crazy? i would treat vladimir putin firmly, there's nothing i can think of that i'd rather do, than have russia friendly as opposed to the way they are right now. >> those three things happened after michael cohen said discussions were over, but now in the interim, before rudy giuliani is opening the door to those discussions being over. why would rudy giuliani do this unless harry is right, and he knows something pretty damning is going to come on the time line? >> well, we also know that the russians were upping their game and they're trying to deal with our election process during the same time period that he's now expanded outword. with rudy, you never know if

he's ahead of or behind the curve, if this is an intentional plant to draw the sting or a mistake. i never can be quite sure with rudy, but it could well cover a lot of activity that would be charged and not make him look like a chump. >> the point here about rudy giuliani, he came out and completely changed his time line, he's front running something really bad, or he made a huge mistake, i'm remembering when he added the president for lying about stormy daniels and here he is doing that. >> having something to do with paying some stormy daniels woman 130,000, which is going to be turn out to be perfectly legal. that money was not campaign money, sorry, i'm giving you a fact now that you don't know. it's not campaign money. no campaign finance violation. >> they funneled it through a

law firm? >> funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it. >> oh, i didn't know he did. >> yeah. >> there's no campaign finance law? >> zero. >> the headline there was, the president knew about it, and he repaid it, april. you heard sean hannity sort of like, okay, let's talk about campaign law. the point is, rudy giuliani has done this before. he front ran the president of the united states lying about stormy daniels there. that was purposeful, could this be the same? >> right, trying to cushion the blow before the blow comes. you've heard from so many people to include people in the white house would are talking quietly, rudy giuliani gets out in front of them before they know. many people are saying, rudy giuliani needs to stop talking as well as the president, they're putting more nails in the coffin and closing their own coffin. the bottom line is, when you talk about this payment, and i'm going back to 2016 again, and that time line of november.

november was a big month. november was the leadup to the election. either way, no matter what part of november this happened in, it doesn't bode well, it looks like it's more about personal interest and personal gain for this president to be -- or president-elect to have over the good of the country. >> thank you all very much. could be the best defense he's going to be able to come up with is, i didn't think there was anyway i was going to win, so i kept up trying to get the tower the whole time. i don't know. more questions about rudy giuliani's defense strategy. when he was mayor, he was so tough on crime. now as trump's attorney, some crimes are no longer crimes. >> it's not a crime, george. paying $130,000 to stormy whatever and paying 100 to the other one is not a crime. two explosive reports used every major social media outlet

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argh! i'm trying... ♪ yippiekiyay. ♪ mom. ♪ tonight, new details breaking about the enormity of russia's interference in the american election, and the lengths that russia went to to help trump both during and after the election. there are two new reports that were commissioned by the senate intelligence committee,

bipartisan. analyzed more than 10 million tweets, 116,000 instagram posts. 61,000 facebook posts. by the russian government linked internet research agency. this is a group by the way, i want to be clear which has been indicted by the special counsel earlier this year, it's not just someone saying, they're linked to russia, they've been indicted. all of the messaging sought to benefit the republican party and specifically donald trump out front now. mike quigley, congressman, thanks very much for taking the time. this is significant because it is coming, this is a bipartisan relesion they've evaluated this, and it was done by russians to help republicans and specifically donald trump. >> it's a bipartisan release,

but the response has not been. the russians are good at weaponizing social media. we know how effective they are. our response so far, recognizing it's ongoing has been to -- on the republican side launch another attack against who? the intelligence community. the fbi, the justice department. >> other countries have responded this in a much different way. to hold the social media platforms accountable for their public responsibility. we're simply not doing this, as a result the russians efforts will be ongoing. >> they continue with the purpose of helping president trump. i want to put in perspective

here this is a crucial thing that people like visiting. did the interference sway the election? first it was no, it didn't. let's take wisconsin, it was close. a big reason that he won was -- black turnout, down 25% in the state from 2012, which was obviously barack obama's second term. >> we now know targeted african-american voters. was it enough to swing the election of trump. swing or influence? >> i think you have to look at three key states to the election. wisconsin, pennsylvania and michigan, together the vote difference in all three states

that amount or a number of people that would fit into soldier field in chicago. it's a really small amount. the extraordinary effort here by the russians had some dramatic effect. how to quantify that is extraordinary difficult. the russians won. no matter what the result was in the election, i think it had a dramatic impact on this. they won because we were so willing to believe all of this. it wasn't just their efforts as you reference. they were efforts in a positive wray to help the trump campaign as well. i'm not the kind of expert that tells you how effective tweets and other social media efforts are many it had a dramatic impact, i think others have suggested that the election was won because of this. the comey statements just weeks

before the elections. the fact that they hacked and dumped all these e-mails, had some impact on the election. you're never going to go forward if you're going to focus on the last election. my response is, we're never going to have the democratic free and open process, if we don't stop this now. >> i want to ask you about a development in the investigation. in the new yorker jeffrey toobin interviewed congressman schiff, the incoming chair of your committee. he plans to subpoena information on trump's transactions with deutche bank. because of deutche bank's long relationship with to trump. now, look, everybody has followed this whole investigation has heard about deutche bank. do you think there's a smoking gun there that no one has found

yet? is it possible or people are just saying deutche bank and there's nothing there? >> they do one of the banks that have financed the trump organization. i recognize as we know they were fined for illegally laundering money for the russians in new york state. so "guess after watching this and being part of the investigation for two years there are no coincidences i just began to look at this in cypress over a year ago, i think there's a lot more to learn. how does the president react when the president gets close about the finances he calls it the red line, that's when he was first threatening to fire or attempt to fire mueller. there's a lot of smoke there, i

think the american public deserves a right to know exactly what was done there. not just because mr. schiff recognized the possibility of compromise. what was the president's interest during the campaign. as a candidate, was he looking out for the american public, russian oligarchs, his own personal finances? fair questions. >> thank you very much, i appreciate your time, congressman. >> thank you. and next, from america's player to trump's attorney, our special report on rudy giuliani, i have to tell you, the tape is incredible. the then and now. there's no situation where it's more stark. another rough day on wall street, the dow plunging 508 points. just how anxious the president is about this development tonight. coming up. coaching means making tough choices.

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tonight rudy giuliani does a 180. he says possible campaign violations are not a crime. neither is collusion. this is the same man who has cracked down on the pettiest of

crimes, litter, public urination. what happened, rudy? >> your response? >> pathetic. the man is pathetic. >> whether he's attacking the president's former attorney for cooperating with the special counsel or suggesting another trump insider turned witness was entrapped. >> that's a setup, they set up flynn. >> rudy giuliani bats down every accusation that donald trump has done anything wrong. hush money to women who say they had improper relations with trump? >> it's not a crime. it's not a crime. paying $130,000 to stormy whatever and paying $100,000 to the other is not a crime. >> trump denies the affairs, it's a far cry from giuliani's day as new york's mayor in the mid to late '90s. back then giuliani swore by the broken windows theory, you stop big crimes by going after small

ones. dotting every eye. >> you've got to pay attention to somebody urinating on the streets. if may be a minor thing, it may be a serious thing, you cannot ignore it, you have to deal with it. it is against the law to urinate in public. >> his cingular focus on minor offenses became a seinfeld bit. >> they're starting the press conference. >> mayor giuliani will do everything possible to cleanse the city of this falsified nonfat yogurt. system, crime did decline. when the republican convention needed a law and order speaker? guess who got the nod. >> it's time to make america safe again. it's time to make america one again. one america. >> now he takes on any and all trump accusers. allegations the president was negotiating business deals with russia, even as the kremlin was

interfering in the election. >> suggestions the special prosecutor's probe is justified. >> i'm telling you, george, they're going to look for unpaid parking tickets. and see if they can nail them for unpaid parking tickets. >> the change is startling. >> now we have him lying to the public, changing the facts left and right to suit whatever pr purposes he's cooked up for the president. it's disappointing and i think it undermines the department of justice. >> the reason you hear opinions like that from former colleagues and people who have followed his career closely, when he was locking up white collar criminals is that this is simply so astonishing, this is a very big change for a man who once said there were no small crimes. >> well, i mean, nonfat yogurt to collusion and conspiracy was quite a leap. >> that was fiction, but the rest of it was fact. >> thank you very much, tom foreman. the dow dropping another 500

points. the worst december right now on pace for the worst december since the 1930s. the president now expressing anxiety. and jeanne moos on trump's tough talk. why is he sounding a bit more like this. >> take it, you dirty yellow bellied --

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tonight the president is privately expressing anxiety about the markets. the dow plunging another 508 points today. when you look at it, the dow and the s&p are -- well, would make anybody anxious. they're on track to the worst perform answer since december of 1931. it would put it in a formal bear

market. out front, steven moore author of trumpenomics. the president is nervous, should all americans be. you have a pension, a 401(k), you have been taking some serious >> i think it was always a dumb idea for him to stake the metric of his performance on the stock market. i mean, president's don't control stock markets. even they did, even before this route, he did not compare favorably, actually, to obama, and of course, what goes up can also go down. so yeah, he should be nervous because he's the one who told us, this is how you measure the success of my presidency. >> cps said that repeatedly, right, he said look, the economy is great. the economy is great, and of course the markets, which are up, they are up from inauguration, still 19%, steve, but every day when it went up, he would be tweeting about it, and now of course the silence is, well, you know, very silent.

>> one of the lessons is markets don't like trade wars, and we're in a trade war with china right now. i think it's an important trade war for trump to win. there's so much uncertainty about how this is going to turn out. i'm somewhat optimistic trump is going to pull out a victory here. there's no certaintity about it. one -- certainty about it. one thing i would say i disagree a little bit is look at the fundamentals of the economy, i think they do look strong. the reading for the 4th quarter which will end in a couple of weeks, is 3% growth which is strong, manufacturing is good, construction is good, industrial production is good, consumer confidence is good. there seems to be right now a disconnect, in my opinion, between where the stock market is headed which is south and the real economy, which is, you know, north. >> i would argue that there are actually some worrying signs in the economy. it's not clear that we're immediately going to have a recession. i don't want to freak people out, but, you know, housing looks weak.

we have this big run up in risky corporate debt. the yield curve has partially inverted, which has always happened preceding recessions over the last 50 years. there are signs in the real world and economy. and republicans borrowed $2 trillion for tax cuts a year ago, and have very little to show for it other than a lot of stock buy backs. >> we got a lot of growth out of it. my point is trump is really, i mean, almost staked his whole presidency right at this point, erin, on pulling out this trade deal with china. it's a hard thing for him to do because that means beijing has to cooperate, right, they have to come forward in the next 60 or 70 days. >> or he can cave and pretend he did a deal and declare victory. the question is how much internal fortitude does he have to not do that? >> this is the fight of our lifetime. we are in a cold war with china right now, and i think to china

would be the worst of long-term options for the security of our country. >> you're saying we didn't want this war, now we're in it. >> as trump said we have been in a trade war for ten years with china, and we have a president who's calling them out on it. >> the obstacle to coming to a deal with china is not only whether china is whether to give in, it's also trump keeps changing his mind what he actually wants china to give in on. as we have talked about many times on this show and others, the actual sins that china has committed have to do with like very deep structural issues including their subsidies for state owned enterprises, their disrespect for intellectual property et cetera. trump wants to talk about the trade deficit which is not at core the main problem here, and which most economists would say -- >> and a trade deficit that has made many americans standard of living surge, for better or

worse, we all must admit that. >> americans are behind trump on this trade dispute with china. look what happened last week, erin, with the cyber security breaches and so on, and the espionage. this is a country that is bad actor on the world scene on every stage. we can't cave in on them. >> if you look at americans opinions about trade over the last few years, they have become more pro-trade. >> that's good. i'm pro-trade. >> i'm pro-trade as well. i think trump is on the wrong side of the messaging here, in f fact, there's a myth that there was a surge of protection, a sentiment over the last few years and it's just not the case. >> we're going to get a big stock market rally, and that's what i'm counting on. >> we're on pace, down 4 1/2% this year, the dow is up 19% since inauguration. it's two very different tales, we'll see which one -- >> it was up way more after obama, i'll just point that out.

>> thank you both. gina moes, on trump talking rats, is he trying to sound like tony soprano. , bathrooms and those hard to reach places. you and braava jet from irobot. better together. ♪

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tough talk goes to the mattresses. here's jeanne. when president trump referred to his former attorney as a rat for talking to the government, critics came scurrying. >> frankly makes him sound more like a mob boss than president of the united states. >> and not for the first time, the president had previously tweeted about a john dean type rant, prompting someone to ask sarcastically is this your james cagney imitation. >> your dirty yellow belly. >> or maybe the president prefers the sopranos. >> three months ago by you, the rat. >> the president has tweeted admiri admireingly of how paul manafort refused to break. he wondered who was treated worse, capone or manafort. former fbi director james comey noted a similarity. >> the way the trump administration is organized reminded him of something. >> i had a flashback to my days

investigating the mafia. >> but colbert didn't think the president was tough enough to be a mob boss. >> luca sleeps with the fishes but i sleep with the filet of fishes. >> another phrase the president uses. >> flipping, they call her. i know all about flipping. >> you could almost mix up quotes from donald trump with quotes from the actual don of a crime family. who said it, trump or gaudy asked "the new york times," he doesn't know me but he would go down fast and hard, all the way, was trump responding to a joe biden taunt about fighting trump. working in construction, donald trump couldn't entirely avoid the mob. >> do you use mob concrete or not? >> well, it is the best concrete. >> and president trump knows all the best words, mob words. >> i know all about flipping for

30, 40 years, i have been watching flippers. >> jeanne moos, cnn new york. >> wonderful as always. thank you so much for joining us. ac 360 begins now. somewhere tonight, vinny the chin is smiling, smiling because donald the president trump is now speaking his language. john the substitute berman in for anderson. a very big night of russia developments including two new senate reports on how systematic russia interference in the 2016 election was, first on helping candidate trump and later president trump. this piece opened on the "washington post" web site, their lead, russia's disinformation team train their sights on a new target, special counsel robert mueller, they now work to neutralize the biggest threat to his