like this and others, this is what liberation looks like. miles and miles of rubble. >> reporter: many here fear that buried in the destruction the seeds are being sewn for another war. the team obviously took great risk to bring that report. we thank them and stay safe. news continues. hands it ore to chris for cuomo "prime time." >> thank you i am chris cuomo. welcome to "prime time." the president said good-bye to there was no collusion by anyone with russia. we no know his legal team only contest the idea the president did anything criminal. not people around him. not the campaign. question, could the president really not know what the people around him are up to? learning more about why his lawyer clings so tightly to the idea that if it ain't a felony it ain't a problem. more proof of wrong doing that

may not be a crime. but it isn't acceptable. now in ha scheme to rig polls in trumps favor. as we learn the president parroted a putin talking point to the u.s. talking point to defend russia. the president didn't like the state of the union snub. so he cancelled her trip abroad minutes before take off. does any of this change the shut down politics? let's get after it. you saw it here on realtime. the answer to the central question of the donald trumps presidency. now consistents entirely of all i know is it wasn't me. everyone else around him his family and campaign. here comes the bus. how we got here matters. we have gone from hope hicks saying it never happened. that was false. sarah sanders couched it with to

the best of our knowledge of the that was false. don jr. tried quote but no information changed hands. that's unknown. then rudy giuliani said collusion isn't a crime. probably not unless we're talking about security. the president is likely not going fo jail and knowing about collusion could sure add to an impeachment argument. if information was passed it doesn't matter because they didn't use it. hard to believe. he insisted it was just the coffee boy. nobody major in the campaign. then there's the man at the top the president. kept saying this to you over and over. >> there's no collusion. between me and my campaign and the russians. there's no collusion. between myself and my campaign. there has been no collusion between the trump campaign. and russia. >> there was no collusion wean between the trump campaign and the russian people.

>> that's why my face went from this to this. when rudy said this. >> i never said there was no collusion between the campaign. or between people in the campaign. >> yes you have. >> i have not. the president of the united states. there's not a single bit of evidence the president committed the only crime you can commit. conspired with the russians to hack. >> here's the fact. it's not just about him. it's not about crime. rudy giuliani knows that better than i do. don't let his position as a lawyer fool you. this isn't a legal argument. he's too smart to prepare a legal defense on tv. his job is protect his one client. president trump. what you saw was rudy circling the wagon to protect his client from the only jury that matters. trumps political base. the idea that only crimes count. those both need to be tested. they're both false. i will demonstrate that.

mueller was ordered to look into quote any links and coordination between the russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of trump. you don't see the word crime. it isn't there. individuals associated with the campaign means the 16 trumpers. the campaigns main man. manafort. we know they all met with russians. that's a lot of links and coordination. rudy is right. one face that's not here is the president. what did he know about flynn, manafort, and all the others close to him? did he lie about that? as for this argument too far, listen. >> they have gotten so beyond the scope, that it's absurd. >> have they? what's the scope. the scope of the jurisdiction of the special counsel is clear. a special counsel shall include the authority to investigate and prosecute federal crimes

committed. perjury and intimidation of witnesses. lying. mueller is charging folks with that. witness intimidation and obstruction. which giuliani said nobody obstructed. destruction of evidence. the only report trump taking interpreters notes. 36 people charged with 172 counts and four prison sentences. keep that in mind when rudy says the only crime is the dnc hack. >> there's not a single bit of evidence the president of the united states committed the only crime you can commit here. conspired with the russians to hack. >> for all the razzle-dazzle let's stay clear. if he knew about what manafort or flynn or his son or others were doing and lied about it. he has a political problem that could get ugly, fast. another point. that you on the right are

banging on about today. there must be nothing to the question of po tus. >> the truth about it is. if your doing a counter intelligence investigation and find any evidence of breech of national security you have to follow up on it. you can't refer it to a prosecution. you have to quickly report that. to people in authority. so they can protect america against a national security breech. they found no such breech. >> all right. went at it about this. i accept your point. here's why. rudy is right if you think about the rules when he was one of the highest ranking members of the justice department. there was a big demarcation. the patriot act and the 9/11 act changed the ways that works. muellers orders say the special counsel is supposed to pick up the investigation that comey told the house intel committee about. the question is did comey tell the house there was a counter

intelligence investigation. the answer is yes. >> i have been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the fbi as part of the counter intelligence mission is investigating the russian government efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign. and the russian government. >> links. coordination. all right so there's supposed to look at it. let's clear that to the side. one more piece of proof it doesn't have to be a crime to be wrong. reports just today that the president spoke to putin and echoed his defense of why russia didn't interfere directly to u.s. media. that stinks. and could loom large. in public opinion. so, those are the facts. what do they mean in the scope

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the latest trump defense. is this was never about whether anyone in the trump campaign colluded with russia. it's always been about whether the president himself colluded in way that amounts to a crime. or so his lawyer would have you believe. but what about bha the president knew about what all these other people in the campaign and elsewhere were doing? what will mueller did with this? let's discuss. i have great guests for you. real life experience and exactly these matters. thank you, thank you. so, what stuck out to you in terms of did you perceive a change last night in terms of the legal disposition of the president's team? >> after my head spun around.

what i heard was him specialessy conceding there was collusion in the campaign. which contradicts everything he has been saying. we have been hearing for the last year and a half that the mueller investigation was a witch hunt. and what he's done is vindicated the core purpose of the investigation. and remember, that investigation was later expanded. and rod rosenstein authorized that. that was a complaint also. looks like there was a basis. finally if you remember, spy gate. the whole idea there was no reason to go into the campaign. if they are conceding there was a reason to believe members of the campaign were colluding with russia, clearly the fbi had a basis to use a tactic a source to discover more information. >> i have been very hard on saying don't get stuck on this it has to be a crime to be wrong. if it comes into whether politicians want to act on it.

high crime and misdemeanor means whatever congress thinks it means. you say i shouldn't surrender so quickly. we don't know there aren't any crimes even up to the president. why the confidence? >> i'm not confident there were crimes. i'm confident we don't know whether there were. giuliani said the only crime the president could commit is if he conspired with the russians to hack. that's not true. there are a whole host of campaign finance, coordination crimes. he could have done accessory after the fact. aiding and abetting after the hack. he could have obstructed justice. interfered with witnesses. it's a host of things that are available to prosecutors. when giuliani says there's one and only one crime that the president of the united states can commit. it's not correct. >> i want to add in there, that's also a distraction. we know that one of the crimes that has been charged against the russians is the social media

campaign. the passing of internal private polling data would most likely be relevant to that. if anything. and as you know, chris, if you facility any part of the operation which is a conspiracy to defraud the united states, even in the social media disinformation campaign. that would be a crime. >> the bad information the bad fact for the president side of the ledger is when the senate intel did digging the places and faces the campaign were targeting seem to be very similar to the ones that the russian trolls. how did they get the information was it coincidence. or the fruit of the data polling data that manafort got to them. and there's something else that is going away in the president's favor. he didn't know anything. all right. let's assume what would he have done if me knew. we're talking about mueller. the man you worked with. would he really act this way when people come forward.

not this guy. the president has shown time and again how susceptible he is to bad actors and bad acts. payments to the women. paying off somebody to fix polls. he would meet with vladimir putin. be secretive about it and parrot putin's talking points. that shows a susceptibility. you're up to no good and they're okay with it. >> it means to me that it's pretty hard to imagine that the president was just totally in the dark about what was going on around him. his son said once of his father, my father is a very hands on manager. he knows. >> everybody says that. >> he knows these things. that then has to be measured against the defies credit. he didn't know about the trump tower meeting. or writing of the false statement by don jr. after the meeting.

he didn't know about the internal polling data and on and on. that puts him in a very difficult position. it was karl clifford who said under investigation, they put me in a petition of being a criminal or a fool. i think that's where donald trump find himself. giuliani isn't helping. >> ultimately what do you see as exposure? >> i'm not sold on this has to be a crime. it's in the crime of public opinion. we'll reply on polls like never before. what percentage of the people believe what's in the report and break it down. this will be thick. we'll be watching polls. what's the exposure? >> it's really the national security risk. versus whether the president committed a crime. he's in the oval office now. the fbi was worried and had a basis to believe there maybe a relationship with russia. and opened an investigation. here's the thing, if they were trying to sus out if he was a

risk. that likely would have been a preliminary investigation. which would have been could have lasted no longer than six months. they needed reasonable basis to keep it going. nobody is asking was that investigation ever closed? because if it wasn't, then we know that there was something serious there. if it was, he's vindicated. >> we opened a investigation into links. including the president. is that the answer? >> yeah. what comey said on march 20. which you played. was this was a counter intelligence investigation. and involved collusion and coordination. also we learned frd the "new york times" in that story that said the fbi was looking at the president as a possible asset. they believe it was a criminal investigation worth opening. they opened simultaneous a criminal and counter intelligence investigation.

and rosenstein gave that to mueller to investigate. and what he is investigating and we'll see in the report whether he determines the president to have committed a crime. but unindictable. and or whether he believes he engaged in such corrosive action rs that it warrants the efforts of the congress to look at it from a high crimes and misdemeanor impeachable offense. >> i don't know what the president does things like pushing to relieve sanctions on one of the guys they're looking at in the probe. and takes interpreters notes. why would he do these things. >> there was a great piece in wired magazine. about exactly that. hoping if you will, that the president is an asset. because otherwise we're in a terrible situation. he's such a playable player. >> thank you so much. appreciate it.

all right, the president may have gotten a key talking point on russian interference from putin himself. this is straight under the category of you can't make it up. why parrot and protect the moscow meddler? there's a lot of ill lit ration. this man can take it on. mike rogers is next. meet o, that's good! frozen pizza one third of our classic crust is made with cauliflower but that's not stopping anyone o, that's good!

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the president lawyer insists there is no proof the president is or could be compromised by russia. but we just learned the president did reportedly talk to putin and parrot his talking points defending russia directly to the press. more than once. let's bring in mike rogers. in fact not only did he parrot it. it was the official position of the administration. have you ever heard of anything like that? >> well, no. frankly, no. the fact that the president went back to old soviet talking points on afghanistan was a head scratcher. certainly for me. again it just something doesn't smell right about this whole thing. i don't believe the president was an agent of the russians. i don't. but all of these facts certainly

mean there's some lack of judgment happening somewhere in his organization. maybe it is inside the oval office. >> look, i have always been with you step for step in terms of it can't be. it's got to be that he's hyper defensive and he just doesn't trust other people. the consistency of the weirdness with this. taking the interpreters notes. not telling his staff about what happened with putin. that yuck yuck session in the oval office. letting putin's guys be at a meeting. we have never ever seen this type of pandering to putin. anywhere. they can cite the obama sound bite of him saying to medvedev i can be helpful after the election. it doesn't size up to this. >> i was upset by that comment. i'm certainly upset when obama said that. i'm equally concerned about the policy that i see today.

it's completely inconsistent with what defense and intelligence services know about the activity of the russians including targeting the united states and allies. that's what's so frustrating to me about this. the fact that they keep looking for permission to do something different with putin. here's the thing, if the president really said listen, i know he's a bad guy. he's doing bad things. i want to cut a deal for the betterment of national security for the united states on x. on missils on fill in the blank. that's one thing. we don't seem to be getting to that policy side. we were still in the notion that we'll continue to defend bad practices. by the way they did do really important things when he took office. trump did. on arming the ukraine and doing other things and sanctions. that was all really good. but the policy seems to have stopped. dead in its tracks. and you have this weird

narrative coming out of the administration that just again, for me, it defies lodgic. there's an old saying in the fbi. when you're talking with fraud sters and liars and criminals. listen to what they don't say. what people will do is go back and say why isn't he saying we'll push back on putin. and he's doing bad things. that worries me. >> that's why i'm chasing the president on steve king. let me ask about rudy giuliani. what'd you take away? i begged you to come on the show, this will be a political process. doint see a prosecution of the president in the court system. what struckout last night? >> he was preparing i think for a political fight. of impeachment. he separated the president away from the campaign. in a way he hasn't before.

he is a smart lawyer. i don't think anyone should walk away thinking he doesn't know what he's doing. he's separating the president from the campaign. what's interesting is there's a lot of people. including his family. who have had engagements with the russians. this will be an interesting play here. legally. as they move forward. and what we know is that there were contacts with the russians. now we don't know, i think there's a lot of wiggle room. if the administration is saying there is a bunch of -- we have one bad guy. manafort was a bad guy and got himself in financial difficulty in about 2014. committing bank fraud as fast as he could print the paper work. was he selling information to the russians? was he acting as an agent? that's a question i want to know. i think that's why mueller pulled a stop on any notion he would be a good witness for the prosecution. and said we should put anymore jail. there's a lot more to that.

>> i think there's good reason for the suspicion. you have been in the business a long time. you know manafort. and they did when they hired him. the idea we didn't know the stuff. if you know paul manafort you know the past and what he's done to make money. the idea the president -- manafort didn't do it by himself. who knew, and how did the president not know? that may not lead to criminal analysis. but it sure can lead to a stinky water. that means something in a political analysis. >> no doubt. it gets back to the dwe, were that providing the information. poll numbers for the purpose of targeting of certain areas by a foreign power. a foreign influence. >> why did the campaign and the russians target the same places and faces? >> that's a different matter. we call that a clue in the fbi. they'll look at this and stay if we're tearing this apart we have to understand that's the coordination piece that i think they could prove in the campaign

was working with them. if in fact even supplying the poll numbers to say in this state we're weaker than this state. it would be nice to do something about propping up the numbers that's all completely 100% speculation. there's a pattern here that leads you to believe somebody in that campaign either for the own self-service, financially. or for the ben if the of the campaign was engaging in conversation with the russians. for something of value. it goes back to when flynn who was talking to the russians. remember everybody that you all put up on the chart with the people who have been interviewed by the investigation or indicted. or have pled guilty. all of them have told the wrong story on russia. they're finding themselves in trouble with the law. something is going on here. again, i haven't seen anything that would tell me the president is an agent of the foreign power. there is a will the of

information here that i know mueller and his team are sifting through. i bet we'll see a lot in the report. what you saw with giuliani was he was preparing for that report. that will be a little more damming than they are saying it was. and now with giuliani coming out it kind of confirms to me there's they know what's coming. and that's could be troublesome. >> what they don't say. what nobody picked up today, he was talking about how long it's been since they heard from the mueller folks on the trump legal team. silence is not golden when it comes to that dialogue. thank you so much. i appreciate it. what happened today in the shut down show? the president grounded the house speaker jet today cancelling her trip. why? she snubbed him on the state of the union. petty politics while people suffer in the shut down.

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trumps move to deny nancy pelosi a military plane for his trip to the war zone last minute. it tit for tat. one million americans are facing financial strant. how does this help? what will help. great debate. jennifer granholm and david irving. it's not helping anybody. >> i agree. >> i agree somewhat. >> come on, governor. it's easy. >> let me finish. >> go ahead. >> to say it's equal, i think is wrong. i do believe. >> what she did was worse. >> no, what the point that i'm making is that this both sidesism suggests the democrats and trump are equally to blame. that is not true.

democrats have voted nine times to open the government. and mitch mcconnell will not take it up. i think it's been lost in this which is that trump himself asked in his budget for 2019 for $1.6 billion for the wall. and the democrats said okay. we'll give you 1 pr$1.6 billion border security. fencing. he said no. they have been willing to do this. they have offered numerous. >> no, they haven't. >> yes. they had 14 different -- >> governor. if they were serious, if the speaker was serious she wouldn't stand up in front of the american public and say gifl the president exactly one dollar for the wall. she would show up when the vice president invites her and her colleagues to come to the white house and negotiate. she send staff.

you're not serious. >> she was in the white house. >> she wasn't. she didn't show up. she snubbed the vice president. >> $1.6 billion for border security. >> you know as well as i do. >> he said no. >> the budget is a working document. the president asked for 5 billion. we know this is not about policy. >> initially $1.6. >> his campaign promise he wasn't able to keep. >> democrats agreed for a fence. wall. on the southern border on numerous times. lots of high profile democrats have voted for it. spoken out for it. when president trump asks for it, it becomes we can't find the money. we'll shut down the government. >> let's establish a fact. just to clarify, i wasn't saying both sides. the left has been jumping on me. have at it. i lift weights.

the cheap tricks the spat over this state of the union ask pulling the plane. it's cheap theater. we don't need it. i'm not saying the shut down is equal. the president told the american people i own this shut down. dave. he owns it. and. >> he does. >> they offered 25 billion for the wall first. over five years. he said yes then no. then made another offer to give him what he wants in exchange for daca. he said yes then no. now they're offing a dollar. nancy pelosi bungled a talking point. >> she offered a dollar. >> she's giving $1 billion plus. >> one at a time. dave respond to me. >> the president can request what he likes. >> don't say they haven't

offered money. >> they offered a billion dollars. the president wants more. >> so negotiate it. don't shut down the government. that's my problem. >> i agree. you can't negotiate if the speaker doesn't show up to negotiation. >> she showed up. that's ridiculous. >> she's giving you 1.3. >> congress has appropriated in the past two years 1.7 billion for border security. and there's $680 million of it left unspent. so spend that money to prop up the border. >> i guarantee it's obligated. >> it's not. it is not. it is 60% of the 1.7 billion is obligated. 40% is not. $680 million. >> let's say she's right. for the sake of argument. we know what it's about. the president promised a farce wall. he sold people on the idea he was going to build something.

he was exaggerating always. and mexico was never paying. you forget that part. he said i'll build this big concrete wall and we'll be safe from the brown menace. he needs the big price tag of $5 billion to justify that. that's what this is about. >> it's not -- it's about building several hundred miles of fencing along the southern border to secure the border. do you not think the country has a right to security a border is this that's what it cost. >> you don't think a wall is a panacea to the problem. why spend the money. >> i don't think it is. they're not spending all the money on this. they're asking for money on other stuff as well. technology. there's hundreds moillions of dollars for technology. for beds. agents and judges. >> priority is upside down.

he never mentioned those points. you mention them thank you for doing that. >> it's large, it's porous. i agree. most of the folks coming on the southern border are coming here from economic reasons. fleeing terrible conditions. >> take up the rule. >> listen. do not think that there aren't people coming across the border who harbor ill will to the country. >> nobody says otherwise. if they know the facts. here's the thing. >> do you or the governor think that it is okay to have a porous border. >> nobody does. it's about priority. >> nobody is saying that. >> if you're worried about the illegal drugs. give them the infrastructure. the bulk of it. so, where do you think this goes

from here? >> here's what i would say, this is a terrible precedent to suggest that democrats should cave to a hostage taker in the hostages are 800,000 people. i'm not kidding. if the president stood up and said i am not going to open the government until i fund this priority. this priority being let's put guns in all schools to arm teachers. and the democrats said no. >> it's about 2020. >> we would be back at it. why do we continue to incent vise bad behavior. it's bad politics. she's in the funding bad policy. she's not fearful. she's in the driver seat. >> the whole reason we're in the situation is because the president fear of the far far right side. of his. he walked away from deals. dave, you argued compelling tonight. always happy to have you. jennifer granholm same to you.

you made the show better. take care. who will step up and get people to demand an end to the shut down? a big shot from the left, right? how about a voice that carries more weight with americans than all the politicians put together. i guarantee you know who she is. i'm sorry, i mean cardi b. here's a taste. >> this is crazy. our country is in a hell hole. all for a wall. we really need to take it serious. we need to take action. >> who's going to listen to her? 12 million views and counting on instagram. could she be an echo of the people demanding change? next. on tour, every second counts.

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because hotels.com lets me do me. where my dogs at? oh, here they are. hotels.com. you do you and get rewarded. take it away henry. you believe we're almost a month into this shut down? so, we are looking for voices that are going to somehow spark a change. cardi b is all riled up and put out call to action. here it is. with a will the of beeps. with a will tlot of bumps. >> ordering government workers to go back to work. without getting paid.

people don't care you don't work for the government or don't have a job. this is serious. this is crazy. our country is in a hell hole now. for a wall. we really need to take it serious. we need to take action. i don't know what action. this is not what i do. but i'm scared. this is crazy. i really feel bad for the people that have to go to work to not get paid. >> let's bring in d. lemon. i told people 12 million views. here's the thing. here's why i want to do this. some people say who cares what she says? she's a singer, idiot. hold on. this is about caring about people who are in a bad way. the people affected by the shut down. it won't be politicians that drum up the out rage. it will be regular people. you get people who identify with somebody like cardi b. she can start people thinking

about something. if people get loud and proud about we're against the shut down. politicia politicians act out of fear of consequence. >> why wouldn't people care what she say? >> she started as a reality tv star. right? she has 40 to 50 million followers. on social media. she's on love and hip hop. and put out a mix tape. and became an instagram star. and now he's probably the number one the most popular music star in the world. >> floods my house. my 8 year-old sings her stuff. >> i don't dance now i make money moves. if you see me and i don't speak, i don't -- with you. from the bronx. of course you should care about what she says. she's speaking for a lot of people. i'll go out on a limb. i may not agree with her

language. that's not what i would use on tv. maybe in person. she is absolutely right. this is ridiculous. if you are -- if what is the synonym for that? >> and for no good reason. >> what kind of people work without being paid? either your an indentured servant or a slave. that's what is happening here. >> the voice of out rage can often be the voice of reason. >> but she is. she is real regular. the people that know what i'm saying. she is real regular. as a matter of fact, she is going to be on the show tonight. i'm saying. she is not going to be on the show. >> i would have actually watched if that were true. >> let me talk to you at the top

of the show. look how happy he is. >> i'll see you. >> my neck is getting better. finally. all right. so when we come back, we're going to talk a little bit about what we -- the big thing. the president, only a crime. he never knew. what's going on with him and his confounding mimicry of putin? the denial of election interference that the trump administration took wound up mimicking vladimir putin's what does that mean? what can it mean? i'll make the argument to you next. to cover the essentials in retirement, as well as all the things you want to do. because when you're ready for what comes next, the only direction is forward.

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his lawyer says the president is fine as long as he didn't commit a crime. maybe, if we're talking about a possible prosecution. my argument is what if we're not at trial? what if we're talking about the standard for judgment for an impeachment? then it's about what makes enough lawmakers to feel the president has violated his oath of office that he should be removed. high crimes and misdemeanors is not a legal standard. it comes down to what they'd like to do, and that would likely be a reflection of what they hear from you and what we tell them about how you feel about it. remember politicians are more

likely to act out of fear of consequence than out of good conscious. now we aren't just talking about crimes, we're talking about things that are wrong like lying to you again and again. not a crime but pretty damn wrong. what if he knew about manafort in what could turn out to be his coordinating with russians? what if he knew about the trump tower meeting and of course lied to you every chance he got? now, would he do that? well, we know he would lie about a lot of things including pay offs. michael cohen said the president also directed him to pay an outfit to fix polls to boost his status pre-campaign. we also learned he's not only okay talking to putin and not letting anyone else know what they talked about, but he will -- now, this is likely not a crime but it's all kinds of

wrong. here's the timing. so he meet with putin in july. the next day the president calls "the new york times" reporter and cnn national security analyst david sanger from air force one. wanting to describe his first encounter with putin. now, this is from david sanger's book. here's the book. trump had asked if he was involved in election meddling, he said. putin denied it and said if we did, we wouldn't have gotten caught because we're professionals. trump told me he believed that explanation. i thought that was a good point because they're some of the best in the world, he said. now, remember the president likely doesn't remember anything about who is good at what when it comes to espionage as he rarely pays attention to briefings and he didn't come into the job as an expert

although he thinks he is. what he is doing is accepting putin's opinion. he then talks to more media and hides that putin told him these things. a few days later in july trump does an interview with reuters and says somebody -- now, by somebody he's referring to putin not saying his intel chips. somebody did say if he did do it, you wouldn't have found out about it which is very interesting point. and then a week and a half after that anthony scaramucci said this. >> somebody said to me yesterday, i won't tell you who, that if the russians actually hacked this situation and spilled out those e-mails you would have never seen it. you would have never had any evidence of them. >> i don't know who this anonymous person is that said if the russians had done it we wouldn't have been able to detect it. >> how about it was the president. >> big surprise. it only took 16 days for putin's defense to become the position of the trump administration. you know what it reminds me of? this. >> from everything i see has no respect for this person. >> well, that's because he'd

rather have a puppet as president of the united states. >> no puppet. >> and it's pretty clear -- >> you're the puppet. >> i don't know. no puppet, no puppet. if not a puppet maybe his parrot. the president doesn't have to commit a crime to do you wrong. and do you wrong in ways that could jeopardize his position. here is the key consideration. if he doesn't want to be perceived as being in the pocket of putin, why does he keep sending signals that he is? i'm not saying he's some asset or agent, manchurian candidate, anything like that. we have no base for that type of suggestion. but he talks to the president again and again, won't let people know, takes notes from an interpreter. there's a probe going on that's targeting certain of these oligarchs as they're called and he now wants to relieve sanctions on one of them and

keeps fighting to do so. why? why would you take putin's word for why he didn't interfere. why would such a savvy smart man do that? as mike rogers said and many others, something smells weird. it doesn't have to be a crime to be wrong. thank you for watching. "cnn tonight" with d. lemon starts right now. >> i really want to meet with chris right now and close the door and i don't want anybody to, what does that mean? >> you're using your outside voice for your inside voice. >> right, seriously that's something i don't want people to know. it's obvious, don't you think? otherwise you would memorialize it, you would have your interpreter's notes, you would put your notes into record, i have nothing to hide at all. so what if it leaks? if you're not saying or doing anything wrong, why does it matter? >> i hear you. i hear you. i have to tell you, i have given every scintilla of the doubt that i can. people get frustrated, you know what it is.