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. which is new. so the this late piece just up

on "the washington post" website. 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 staying there. so the russians are going after the same guy the president is. much more on that shortly. also breaking news on james comey, what the fired fbi director said about the president and republican lawmakers after his testimony to congress today. we begin, though, with the presidential tweet that dove tails with tonight's other russia angles, statements by the president's tv lawyer, rudy giuliani that could put him in legal and politically in a box. whether he intended to or not, giuliani's language allows his client did pursue business ties with the russians all the way to the elections and first what the

president said on twitter about his former consigliere. remember michael cohen only became a rat after the fbi did something only unthinkable and unheard of until the witch hunt was legally started. they broke into an attorney's office, all caps. why did they break into the dnc to get the server or crooked office? so keeping them honest and translating from mob speak, absolutely unthinkable and unheard of becomes neither unthinkable or unheard of. and went to a judge, showed probable cause and obtained a lawful search warrant. the subject is michael cohen's role in the hush payment to karen mcdougal and stormy daniels. here's cohen talking about some

of those arrangements. >> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all that info regarding our friend david so that i'm going to do that right away. i've spoken to allan weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding -- >> so what are we going to do -- >> with funding, yes and all the stuff. i'm all over that. when it comes to allen with the financing -- >> what financing? >> the president late in the campaign talking to the man he once called his lawyer and now calls a rat. as for his current lawyer at about the same time the president was tweeting about cohen yesterday, rudy giuliani was on abc this week. he had plenty to say including a new theory about the hush

payments, namely the allegation couldn't be true because the six figure pay outs were too small. >> when it's true and you have the kind of money the president had, it's a million dollar settlement. when it's not true, when it's a harassment settlement and it's not true you give them $130,000, $150,000. they went away for so little money it indicates the case was very, very weak. >> if it ain't a million bucks, it ain't nothing. he also talked about the president's legal exposure in the hacking of democratic e-mails. first, the president had nothing to do with it. >> did roger stone ever get the president a heads up on wikileaks leaks concerning hillary clinton and the dnc? >> no, he didn't. not at all. i don't believe so. >> he doesn't believe so? that certainly lets the imagination wander. anyways that's step one. step two goes like this. even if trump did know anything about it, it's not a crime.

>> again, if roger stone gave anybody a heads up about wikileaks leaks that's not a crime. it would be like giving them a heads up that the times is going to print something. this is why this thing is so weird, strange. >> weird to him but perhaps central to robert mueller's investigation and significant in that giuliani allows for the possibility of the president through roger stone at wikileaks being party to or aware of some sort of coordination with russia. giuliani also let this slip about how much longer than we'd known the pursuit of business of moskow went on in 2016. >> did donald trump know that michael cohen was pursuing the trump tower in moskow in the summer of 2016? >> according to the answer that he gave, it would have covered all the way up to november of 2016. said he had conversations with him about the president --

>> keeping them honest, he did lie about this. we've been reporting for weeks efforts in russia continued at least until the republican convention in july. but november, that's new. so is giuliani's implication that some of what the president has been telling the public may not have been the whole truth. >> the president is not under oath and the president is trying the best he can to remember what happened back at the time he was the busiest man in the world. and i was with him most of that time. boy, the same way i go under oath and i really think about it, and i really say i can't remember that, i was wrong about who was with me on september 11th. i always thought the fire commissioner was with me in the building we were trapped in. turns out later he told me i met you after. that's what happens when you're in the middle of difficult events. >> so bottom line in the space of a single interview one of the

president's lawyers said the president did nothing wrong, but if he did it wasn't a crime. he said the president was trying to do business with russia far longer than he led us to believe. he said the president may have been lying to the american public, but, hey it's not like he was under oath or anything. but as if the remind everyone of the true stakes involved two new reports detailed just how expensive russia's social media effort was during the 2016 campaign to hurt hillary clinton especially among african-americans voters by suppressing turnout to boost wikileaks and support donald trump. at the end of the day that's what this is about. the president, though, sees it differently. thank you, he tweeted yesterday, commenting on a piece in the wall street journal. people are starting to see and understand what this witch hunt is all about. and perhaps they are, but not in the way he thinks because the same day he tweeted that a new nbc news wall street journal poll was showing 62% of

americans do not believe president trump was telling the truth about the russia probe. meantime back on capitol hill today testifying on both the house and oversight judiciary committees. afterwards james comey spoke about accusing the president and republican lawmakers of damaging the bureau's reputation and in the president's case he says, lying about it. he also slammed the president for calling michael cohen a rat. we have have to stop being numb to it comey said. senator bloomenthal, i want to start by getting your reaction to this breaking news from "the washington post" that months after the president took office, russian disinformation teams were specifically targeting special counsel robert mueller. what do you see there? >> what i see is that the sprawling sweeping russian disinformation campaign is continuing. and it is continuing to echo and

mirror the trump white house in its attack on mueller, in its attempt to divide and disrupt and destroy our democracy. that is the russian play book. it began early in this century and it is continuing. and it is continuing with more intense pace and effect because it's part of vladimir putin's overall strategy. and anybody who has any doubt about it should go back and read the february and october indictments from the special counsel, which show how this operation is managed from the russian side. an indictment provides it in stunning detail as well. >> some 5,000 tweets and re-tweets specifically about robert mueller. it is fascinating. moving on i want to play a clip to you and our viewers about what former fbi director james comey said today after he was grilled behind doors on the

fbi's handling of the clinton e-mail investigation and the russia investigation. listen to this. >> this while the president of the united states is lying about the fbi, attacking the fbi and attacking the rule of law in this country. how does that make any sense at all? 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 in the face of fear of fox news, fear of their base, 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. >> do you feel, senator, there has been a failure to stand up? >> there has been absolutely a failure on the part of my republican colleagues to stand up, to speak out and to push back against donald trump. unfortunately, i think my republican colleagues need to

find the senate loss to -- because history will judge them very harshly if they fail at this critical moment because we know the russians are continuing this attack on our democracy. thereat report shows they are mirroring and echoing the trump continuing campaign against the special counsel. >> i thought there was a lot fascinating about what rudy giuliani said yesterday. but suggesting collusions on a crime even if the president did hear from roger stone about wikileaks, that was not a crime. acknowledging the president maybe did lie but he wasn't under oath, all of those admissions, moving the goal posts so far not to mention the fact he allowed for the possibility the president was negotiating on trump tower moskow all the way up to the election. do you think there was a strategy with rudy giuliani coming out with these admissions now? >> i hope rudy giuliani has his

malpractice insurance paid up because i don't see a strategy. i see simply damaging admissions on behalf of his client. and moving the goal posts as you just put it is exactly the right way to term it. because what they're doing is trying to say in effect c conspiracy is not a crime. it is a crime. and the president need not know all the ends of the conspiracy, what all the russians were trying to do for his campaign, he need not know all the collusion that was taking place or the obstruction of justice. it is still a crime. and there is a credible case now of obstruction of justice against the president of the united states. >> along those lines, rudy giuliani said yesterday the possibility that the president would testify or answer questions from robert mueller, giuliani said over my dead body but, you know, i could be dead. do you think presidential testimony is absolutely necessary for robert mueller? >> for donald trump testimony would be necessary to exonerate himself. but as you know having covered

him and as the american people know having watched him, donald trump's connection to facts and evidence is very tenuous. and so i doubt that he will ever be a witness voluntarily. it will take a subpoena, and there should be one from the special counsel or from the southern district of new york. john, remember that the most advanced edge, the point of the spear now in this investigation is in the southern district of new york in manhattan where that unindicted coconspirator, individual number one, is having a very bad time. >> we should note as of now we have no reporting on any subpoenas being issued by either entity, but obviously we're watching it very closely. senator richard bloomenthal, thank you for being with us. perspective now from cnn chief legal analyst and former federal prosecutor jeffrey toobin, and also ken cuccinelli and cnn's

katelyn collins. as we just come to air that russian social media accounts are going after robert mueller. >> well, it's just consistent with how the russian government has treated donald trump since he declared his candidacy. they are doing his bidding. whether it's by supporting trump explicitly, whether it's by suppressing turn out of supporters of hillary clinton, whether it's attacking hillary clinton or now attacking president trump's adversary, robert mueller. now, i don't know if there's any connection between the trump presidency or the trump campaign and what's going on now. but, again, it shows how russia's interests are aligned with president trump's interest. >> ken, as a republican politician and leader, are you comfortable that the russian message so often is directly in line with the white house message? >> well, i'm not comfortable

with any involvement by the russians because i would note this is all minuscule and we also haven't talked about and referee rattled off a number of angl angles and they're disruptive efforts after ferguson. i mean senator bloomenthal mentioned that russia's goal here is to destabilize. and even the knowledge of their involvement is destabilizing. so i am uncomfortable with their continuable drib drab role in the public discourse during elections. other countries have dealt with them during their elections. the french come to mind as well. so this was a clear global strategy on the part of the russians. and no, i'm not comfortable with it at all. >> the other news has been rudy giuliani seemingly moving the goal posts, katelyn, on what he

thinks possible wrongdoing is for the president. if it ain't illegal, it ain't a problem, that's rudy giuliani's statement right there. but there does seem to be this new concern among the president's lawyers and in this white house. what are you seeing? what has the mood inside the white house been? >> well, it's relatively dark and staffers inside the white house will describe the president in a very dark mood. and at times we talk about what the president has been feeling. and it's not just because of the russia investigation but essentially touching every aspect almost of not just the president's political life but also his personal life, and that does seem to be weighing on the west wing, and we've seen that play out over the last few weeks as the president was searching for a new chief of staff and essentially was trying to combat that narrative that no one wanted to be his chief of staff and take over what is sure to be a tumultuous few years now

empowered democrats taking over in january. so you're seeing it not only affect the president's mood and what you're seeing on twitter but also the staffing decisions that he's making inside the white house are also being affected by this. so it certainly is quite dark in the west wing. >> jeffrey, what do you make what we have ewe have urd from rudy giuliani, this sort of mass inoculation if the president knew about wikileaks, that's not a crime. sure the president may have lied but he wasn't under oath so that's not a crime. why are we hearing that from giuliani so much and now? >> because i think the evidence is pointing that way and he needs to give talking points to his supporters at fox news and elsewhere. i do think there is more method to the madness than people are suggesting, like this is just rudy being crazy. trump -- the president's supporters need arguments. they may not be very good arguments, but he is supplying them. and i think just for example one

of them that i find completely maddening is the idea that, well, you know, donald trump was negotiating with russia for trump tower moskow during all of 2016 but everybody knew that anyway. nobody knew that. and in fact it could have been highly significant information. what we knew is that donald trump during the campaign was currying favor with vladimir putin for unaccountable reasons. why was he saying such nice things about putin? now, we hear it's because he was trying to make a deal with putin's russia about trump tower moskow so he could make a lot of money. that was highly relevant information that the american public absolutely did not have. >> you know, ken, i've been asking you a lot about your comfort level tonight. what about the idea that collusion is not a crime? i suppose legally speaking you could make that argument, but are you comfortable that that is the case now being made by the president's legal and political

team? >> well, i don't think it's new that that point is being made. we most recently talked about this with respect to the campaign finance issue that cohen pled to and looking back to john edwards. and you've seen debate in the public arena about that. and while it's uncomfortable to have a president or then presidential candidate trying to make arrangements to keep stories about his personal life that are embarrassing quiet, it is legal. it is exist outside of the campaign, which is the fec standard for whether it's a campaign expenditure or not. and yet it's still uncomfortable. and we keep hearing about it, and i get why. i mean, michael cohen just pled guilty to six or eight different things, and there were two charges there among them. so the comfort level is problematic, and i don't know that rudy giuliani makes anybody more comfortable because he does

have the appearance and sound of being a bit rambling. and because he's talking about things today that he wasn't talking about, say, two months ago. >> so katelyn, the president, he perhaps added to all of this with his tweets about michael cohen over the weekend, talking about cohen being a rat and talking about lying about the fact the fbi broke into cohen's office there. where are we in the control of the president's twitter stream, particularly with john kelly on the way out and mick mulvaney on the way in? >> i think most staffers have realized you cannot control the president's tweets, and they've largely stopped from telling the president what he should and shouldn't tweet. and that's become pretty evident. he's tweeted nine times alone about the russia investigation saying that jeff sessions should be ashamed of himself and whatnot, but he sent rudy giuliani onto the sunday shows to essentially be his attack dog and as you saw some of his comments there, essentially

arguing that the president did not have these affairs with women and that the proof of it was he did not pay them money more money than what he paid them. like the payment that michael cohen facilitated to stormy daniels or the $150,000 that was facilitated to karen mcdougal from american media. i think the question it's uncomfortable is an interesting one to make because as before as we've seen play out with other races that is something that's been disqualified to be a story surrounding the president. and now we've got the president's legal team going out there and making the story it's simply not illegal. they've changed their story over the past few months and i think that is why they have such a credibility issue especially when it comes to the payments they've made to these women. >> stick around. we've got more for you. it's a busy night. coming up more perspective on comey's out rage on james clapper. he'll also weigh in on a new

report tonight that russia's disinformation team targeted robert mueller. just hours before michael flynn is set to be sentenced for lying to the fbi, what that document reveals in just a moment. i'm ken jacobus and i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back. which i used to offer health insurance to my employees. what's in your wallet?

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ultimate feast time it'sat red lobster.r own pick four of ten favorites to create the ultimate feast you've been dreaming of. like lobster mac & cheese. or tender snow crab. so hurry in before new create your own ultimate feast ends. there is more breaking news tonight. special counsel robert mueller has released a 2017 memo detailing an interview with national security advisor michael flynn. this was the one where flynn lied to fbi agents which led to charges against him and his guilty plea. general flynn is expected to be sentenced tomorrow. jim has looking over the memo and joins us now. also, jeffrey toobin and joining us, phil mudd, former fbi senior intelligence adviser. jim, you got a chance to look t at this. what jumps out? >> he went in there kind of innocently and the fbi kind of

tricked him into lying about these things. flynn based on these memos willfully lied twice about issues of sensitivity. and when he spoke to russian ambassador in december 2017 first, was he pushing them to vote a certain way on a u.n. security counsel resolution sponsored by the obama administration, and he says no. he said i was just counting votes to see how they vote. but in fact as we found out from the charging documents they knew he communicated and tried to get russia to vote against that resolution or block it or slow roll it. line number two, they asked him when he contacted the russia ambassador again, this is after the obama administration imposed sanctions on russia for interfering in the election including excelling diplomats. did he communicate to the russian ambassador, hey, guys, don't react, don't retaliate for this because there's a new sheriff in town, et cetera, he says no, i didn't do anything, i don't remember really when in fact they knew exactly what he

asked them to do. those are two key issues because you have one administration running defense against the outgoing administration there. those are issues of importance and consequence that he lied about to that fbi. the idea he was somehow tricked into it or went in blindly or stupidly seems to be belied by what you see on paper here. >> my reading on it and again i've never been an fbi agent like you have, they seem to go out of their way to give you the opportunity to tell the truth. they would ask him a question and say, wait, really you did do that or are you sure you didn't do that? they went again and again and again and in the case of the conversation with kislyak, he still lied about it. >> because the reason is they know this is going to be reviewed potentially in the public domain like we are tonight. so is it a terrorism case or national security case like this one related to russia, again and again you're talking to a witness and give them an opportunity. what happened?

speak the truth, what happened? if you look at maybe other paragraph, there's an opportunity for general flynn to say i had sensitive national security conversations with the russians. it's not like the fbi walked into the room and said let me entrap this guy. they gave him 12 opportunities or ten, i lost track to say this is what happened. every time he said, no, i didn't do that. that's why he's going to go to jail. >> and jeffrey, i'm going to ask you the unanswerable question, which is why. why is michael flynn lying here? >> first of all from a purely practical matter he was the head of the defense agency. he had to know that these conversations were monitored so that the fbi agents were asking him questions to which they actually knew the answers. so there's just a pure stupidity level of lying to the agents. but at a larger level, the difficult question to resolve is why was he lying about

coordination with russia, particularly the second answer, you know, the second thing he lied about. you know, he was trying to down-play his friendship in a way with russia. and that, i think, fits into the whole pattern of everything we've seen from trump affiliated people since the day this investigation began. they are always trying to down-play their relationship with russia when in fact it was a lot more significant and expensive than we've understood. >> a lot of theatrics around this tonight are fascinating. because tomorrow michael flynn will be sentenced but the special counsel has recommended no jail time, so why are we seeing all of these documents and whose arguments are they going to bolster. >> well, first to the jail time, why there's a lot of speculation he might not get jail time and that's because he's clearly offered a lot of important and consequential information some

of the results we saw earlier today with the prosecution of these two other turkish officials with trying to make a deal to try to extraicate this turkish cleric from the u.s. to turkey, point being flynn was involved in that as well. why is flynn not being charged in that? >> he must have given a lot of goods, by the way. his federal sentencing guidelines is 0 to 6 months. in my experience most people whose guidelines are 0 to 6 months, particularly those who cooperate get no jail time. phil seemed to say something different and i'm curious ability he means. >> look, i made a mistake on it. i think he's going to be hammered by the judge tomorrow. i was mistaken. i don't mean to suggest he'll go to jail. i do mean to suggest that a week ago his lawyers were saying cry crocodile tears for my client. he was railroaded by the fbi. i think the judge ordered this document to be out tonight because the judge tomorrow is going to say you might not get jail time but if you want to go in front of the american people

and say you were an innocent victim of the fbi, try that again. that's not going to work. >> that sounds right to me because i just don't think he's going to get jail time given all this. >> thank you all very much. next back to james comey, we'll be joined by one of the other top officials who was there with him as russia attacked this country. james clapper's take when 360 continues. ♪ the greatest wish of all... is one that brings us together. the lincoln wish list event is here. sign and drive off in a new lincoln with $0 down, $0 due at signing, and a complimentary first month's payment. only at your lincoln dealer. what would you like the power to do? ♪ listening to people answer that question,

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the day was dominated by two reports detailing russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election and in fact after the election including attacks on special counsel robert mueller's investigation, that's according to new reporting in "the washington post." james comey was at the center of much of this at the time. he testified before congress today but spent a portion of his time fielding questions not about that but about hillary clinton's e-mails. and he was not happy afterwards that the russia threat was not front and center for republicans. >> people who know better including republican members of this body have to have the courage to stand up and speak the truth. not be cowed by mean tweets or fear of their base, and their silence is shameful. >> other republicans remaining in the house do you see any taking that mantel coming up and

defending the president? >> not yet. someday they'll have to explain to their grandchildren what they did today. >> a short time later press secretary sarah sanders weighed in saying, quote, republicans should stand up to comey and his tremendous corruption. joining nous one of james comey's colleagues at the time and former director national intelligence james clapper, author of" facts and fears, hard truth from a life in intelligence." director clapper as someone who used to work with former fbi director comey what do you make of his comments? is the silence from republicans as shame fm as he says? >> well, i think just to step back a bit, john, what jim was -- i think he was venting and i can certainly understand why after enduring his second session which to me appears to be mostly about harassment, last chance for republicans to beat him up at a hearing before they lose control of the house. but the bigger issue here that i

think jim was getting at was that the general assault on truth and those institutions that depend on truth, and i'm referring to things like science, like journalism, like the intelligence community and what jim was hulighting was the assault on law enforcement and specifically the rule of law. general mike hayden has written a book about this very eloquently so describing this assault on truth and those institutions that depend on truth and why that's dangerous to any democracy particularly this one. and i think he was chastising people who either acquiesce or defend this assault on truth. >> the attack on the 2016 election has continued after the 2016 election. these two new reports including one tonight which to say some of these attacks were on special counsel robert mueller and his investigation. again, you were in the middle of

it all through the inauguration. are you surprised that the russian efforts have continued until now? >> no, absolutely not. and john, i have to say it's very gratifying for me to read about these reports because they simply reinforce or buttress what we said in our intelligence community assessment in january of 2017. and remember the first objective of the russians was to sow doubt, discord and discontent in this country and they've succeeded in further exploiting divisiveness in this country. second was doing all they could to damage hillary clinton's candidacy and when he became serious as a nominee, help donald trump. but that first primary objective so sowing doubt and discord and discontent has continued and will continue to do so. this is how the russians can exploit our weaknesses and

comsate fco compensate for theirs. >> why would they continue to help donald trump, though, after the election? hillary clinton already lost so why bother with the president? >> this is just an opportunity to drive a wedge among us, again to sew doubt, discord and discontent about the efficacy of our very institutions about the rule of law. >> so a good way to do that is attack mueller. and they'll -- i mean they have messages for everybody in the campaign, whether it's black lives matter, white supremacists, a gun control advocate and second amendment advocates, it didn't matter. so the russians are always going to be looking for issues they can exploit to their advantage. >> is that their message about robert mueller in so many cases and some of these social media comments so closely mirrors that from the white house, is that done intentionally? are the russians doing that are

on purpose? >> that's a great question, john, and i discuss in the book and thanks for the plug, spent a whole chapter on exactly that. the striking parallelism sumatically between what the russians were doing and saying and what the trump campaign were doing and saying. i don't suggest collusion, but there are striking parallels and those parallels continue yet today and that's because the russians go to school on how to do that. >> general james clapper, great to have you with us. thanks very much. >> thank you, john. >> so with the news that the president's inaugural committee is under investigation for possible misuse of funds and giving political favors to donors, there's virtually no aspects of his life, business or presidency that is not under the microscope. we're going to talk about what that means for the future of this country next. working out for everyone? i dunno. i'm still a little stressed about buying our new house.

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when you look around in the trump universe practically the only thing not under investigation is trump university, and that's only because the fraud lawsuit has already been settled. as we noted last week when the news broke at the trump inaugural committee is under active criminal investigation just about every aspect of the president's life is under investigation. the campaign, the transition, the administration, the trump organization, the trump foundation, and now even the

trump inauguration. if you look at that graphic, it's stunning to think about this is where we are. i want to closely look at all these different elements every night throughout this week. as former nixon white house counsel john dean puts it, quote, this is much more damning than watergate and it's just getting started. joining me now to put the magnitude of what we're seeing in perspective two men who have perspective former advisor to obama david axelrod. what do you make of his comments all these investigations, more damning than watergate already? >> i think there's a lot of truth to it. as that graphic showed it's not just sikts different organizations but they're now 17 different criminal investigations under way. 17. by numerous different, whether it's the mueller team or the southern district court of new

york or the statewide officials, the attorney general of new york or what's going on in d.c. or virginia, it's massive. and i think it's more than what we've seen -- watergate there's no question corrupted at least three agencies of the government, the white house, the fbi, the cia. it spread into that. but it wasn't as massive as this. and a number of people who were involved i think was smaller as a proportion. the nixon white house did not resemble the mob. it did have a criminal element in it. >> so david axelrod, again there was something about the news that the trump inauguration was under investigation that painted this in a whole new light because it was that last moment of this time line that it wasn't under investigation. you're really looking at almost every aspect of things that the president has touched for the last several years. what kind of pressure does that put on him? what kind of pressure does that put on the administration? well, enormous pressure now and

especially with a democratic congress set to take office in january with the power of oversight that hasn't been exercised over the last two years. it's enormous pressure. but i think the larger point is this. you say how could all of these thing be going on? they all have one common element and that's donald trump. and donald trump's career has been basically marked by a certain ethos which is you take what you can, whatever you can, however you can that rules, norms, laws, institutions don't matter that you flout them and whatever you can get away with and that's been his business model but now he's president of the united states and it has much, much broader implications. and everything he's involved in including the way he governs and the way he runs his politics have been infected by that. and the walls are closing in. >> so david gergen, it won't be

until, you know, two weeks from now when democrats take control of the house, that there will be a democratic led effort in any way to investigate the president. that's when they'll first have control of the committees. but what about the role of politics and partisanship up until this point? these 17 different investigations that you noted, how much does politics play in any of them? >> well, they have normal political ramifications, and fighting back against all these investigations trump continually lashes out at the fbi, he undermines the legal -- the law enforcement in the country. he continually undermines the legitimacy of the press. there's not only a parallel between what the russians were doing and what the trump team has been doing or has been accused of, but there's also parallels between what trump is doing and what democratic

governments -- democratic governments around the world are starting to become much more authoritarian. and the ones are the ones that attack the press and the rule of the long-term damage is going to be to weaken our democracy, and leave us vulnerable to more demagoguery. >> david, if i can, i want to >> clapper was talking about james comey who is attacking republicans for not standing up and raising their voice more. when you as a democrat see james comey now as a messenger for anything, is he delivering the type of message that democrats want to hear right now? >> look, i think he is delivering a message that americans should want to hear, leaving the partisanship aside. i think his sentiment is one that is shared by democrats, independents and, yes, some republicans. but i will say this. the one thing -- the irony of

this is the sheer weight of these investigations, on the one hand, looks very, very ominous. on the other hand, if you are donald trump and you are trying to make the case that this is just a political beatdown on him, the sheer weight of it actually works in his favor with his base, because he can say, look, every single way i turn, they are trying to bring the hammer down on me. so he is going to use that. you see it in this flury of tweets over the last several days. he will try to turn the sheer weight of these investigations in his favor at least to disqualify them in the eyes of his base. >> david, when the -- go ahead. >> i just want to say, david made a very interesting point. i wonder whether you could flip it the other way. that is, up until now, the whole -- this whole controversy hinged upon finding collusion. now with so many investigations

going on, is it as important as it was to find collusion? isn't there just such a stench? coming out of the investigation. it may make less of a difference. >> to that end, maybe you can answer this. if the mueller investigation wraps up, is it all over? >> no, i don't think it's all over. i think there's so many far flung tentacles of this that the president's problems are far from over. as we have seen in the southern district of new york, i think this is just beginning. >> thank you so much for being with us. up next, the latest ruling against obamacare could leave millions of people without coverage. it's likely to face an uphill legal battle. republicans seem to have no plan to fix health care. we will hear from ohio governor john kasich next.

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it's a battle over obamacare after a federal judge in texas ruled part is unconstitutional. the president is celebrating the ruling. it's worth mentioning the decision does not affect enrollment or coverage for 2019. many legal scholars say it would be overturned if it's appeal and reviewed by higher courts. again, here we are. the future of millions of people's health insurance is uncertain. what better time to get perspective from john kasich?

ohio governor. i spoke with him a short time ago. governor kasich, what do you make on friday's ruling on obamacare? given you are a republican governor. >> well, what i'm most worried about, john, is the fact that you have a lot of people that could have their healthcare ripped from under them. it doesn't mean it's perfect. it isn't. even the medicaid expense is not perfect. we tried to make improvements so people could still have care and yet we could reduce the cost. let's be clear, there are other ways that you could reform that program. to take it away, what are you talking about? are people going to lose lifetime limits? if you have a sick child and you could go bankrupt if there are lifetime limits that are too low. pre-existing conditions. it does threaten people with pre-existing conditions. if you work for a large employer, how will you be impacted? obamacare had an overlay over essential health benefits.

at least some guardrails. that was important. that was really important. as of right now, the program continues. look, any time there is a threat of people losing their healthcare, it's like a cloud over their heads. you think about you and me. just normal folks growing up, you in concord, me in mckeysrocks, somebody said, we don't have healthcare, that's scary and terrible. weapon -- we have to get it settled. long-term, the health care casts are going up too fast. we have to have a comprehensive program based on paying for performance. i get quality at lower cost. that's the way we have to think about this in the long-term. >> james comey who was on capitol hill, the former fbi director, he was asked to comment on some statements the president made attacking the investigation, calling michael cohen a rat, saying the fbi broke into michael cohen's office, which they didn't. a judge issued a search warrant for them. comey said, republicans used to understand that the actions of a president mattered, words matter.

the rule of law matters and the truth matters. where are those republicans today? >> one of them is sitting across from you. i have always been concerned about calling them as i see them. look, it's tribalism. it has always been that way. i remember when bill clinton got in trouble. the democrats all rallied behind him. the republicans were on the other side. even back in the days of the impeachment of nixon, which you and i read about and talked about. there's a case where the republicans, 28% had big approval of him, even when he was leaving office. it's normal to have tribalism. i like to think that at the end of the day, john, let the investigation be completed. hold your fire. you can have opinions and judgements. but at the end, you have to call them like you see them like an umpire. >> thanks so much. >> thanks. don't miss "full circle" on facebook where you vote on what stories we cover.

watch it at 6:25 eastern. on facebook.com. the news continues. i will hand it over to chris cuomo. cuomo "prime time" starts now. thank you. welcome. we have new information for you tonight. here are the lies that flynn told the fbi. these notions that flynn was set up, we will show you the reality here in black and white. the redactions don't make a difference. i'm going to go one on one with a man who sees a lot in this memo and in the president's lawyers making a new defense about michael cone's illegal payments. what it is and what it should mean to you is coming up. the new report about russia's social media propaganda campaign to subvert our election. there's a lot in there. but there's a discovery that no one is talking about, the striking similarities between what the russians did and what the trump campaign did. i'm going to go one on one with a democratic senator on what comes next.