so pervasive, they fear that text messaging will alert the chinese authorities and result in further arbitrary detention of loved ones back home. >> so glad you did that report. thank you. thank you for watching. erin burnett outfront starts right now. demanding answers. democrats vowing to investigate the bombshell report that president trump told his fixer to lie under oath. the president saying he's making major announcement about the shutdown. why? why was mike pompeo's wife traveling with him on an official trip to the prmiddle et in the middle of a government shutdown. good evening. i'm erin burnett. democrats calling for an investigation into the explosive report that president trump told

michael cohen to lie under oath to congress. buzzfeed reporting the bombshell details. they are saying a reporter has seen documentation proving that the president committed a felony crime. chairman of the house int intelligence committee and the judiciary committee is where impeachment proceedings would begin are both calling for investigation. the white house response to the report. they took 16 hours to refute it. >> that's absolutely ridiculous. i think that the president's outside counsel addressed this best and said in statement earlier today it's false. >> this was 16 hours after buzzfeed reported. according to two law enforcement officials michael choohen was instructed to lie by donald trump. go negotiations ended been the

primary. they continued months after that. cnn has not independently confirmed buzzfeed's report. it's the talk of the day and there's congressional investigations about to start as a result. if true, the report implicates the president in federal crime. up until sanders categorical denial 16 hours after that report. all we heard were attacks on michael cohen himself. not denials of the facts but attacks. >> i'm not going to give any credence to michael cohen so who is a convicted felony and admitted liar. >> cohen is not the source of the allegation. they wrote, quote, the special counsel's office learned about trump's directive to lie through interviews with multiple witnesses from the trump organization and internal company e-mail, text messages

and a cache of other documents. cohen acknowledged the instructions with the interviews with that office. that's significant saying cohen then acknowledged. if true it shows mueller team had the evidence that trump told cohen to lie and then they confronted cohen. sure cohen is a liar. every one knows that. federal prosecutors made it clear they didn't trust him either. they trusted other information they already had. they said the information was useful to the extent he wrob rated information known. they seem to be trusting other facts out there. they are calling for investigations. those are now on the case. as you got the investigations, calls for investigations from democrat sboos ths into the bom report, the white house story seems to shift throughout the

day. >> reporter: there's been a notable evolution of how the white house is responding. it seemed the strategy was to undermine michael cohen. attack buzzfeed news as more fake news and not even answer the underlying question about whether or not the president committed a federal crime. now it pyrappears after many ho the white house is following the lead of rudy giuliani calling this report categorically false. i think in this effort to shift from attacking cohen to denying the claim, you see a white house who has been burned in the pass by denying some of these stories only to have them be proven true and perhaps giving them more life. one person we haven't heard anything from his own mouth is president trump. he didn't see him at all today. we did hear from him on twitter. tomorrow, however, the white house is announced he making an announcement on the government shutdown and on the border crisis. it's not clear what exactly he's going to say but it is another opportunity for president trump

to retake the narrative here in the public eye. perhaps to take the upper hand over nancy pelosi but also perhaps to get some other unsavory headlines about this russia investigation out of news. president trump remains with the power to end this shutdown at any moment. will he do that tomorrow? it's not clear. the white house won't say, they won't rule out the possibility he might declare national emergency. >> thank you very much. stand your grounding week for this president who was forced to directly say i'm not an agent of the russian government. nooi i'm not a russian agent. democratic congresswoman val demmings, i appreciate your time.

what is going to happen now? how will your committee investiga investigate? >> it's good to be with you tonight. as we know over the last two years, we have really not provided the necessary overnight or demanded accountability as we should have. republicans just refuse when they were in charge to hold the white house, this administration or any of his enablers accountable. let me say this, the gavel is in different hands. if the president of the united states direct his personal attorney to lie under oath to congress, we are going to hold him accountable. that's exploring all of our options up to and including impeachment. i believe the american people have a right to know. we have a nation of laws and we are going to be relentless in our efforts to uncover the truth and get to the bottom of it.

>> is it grounds for impeachment in your investigation shows it happened? >> if the president of the united states directed his personal attorney to lie under oath, i do believe that rises to the level of impeachment. impeachment may not be the main concern that the president of the united states should have. we really have not answered issue about whether a sitting president can be indicted. what i can guarantee you is through the judiciary committee and intelligence econocommittee we'll hold the president accountable. >> do you think he can be indicted? obviously for a normal citizen, a federal crime will result in jail time, do you think he could be indicted? >> as a 27 year law enforcement officer, what we're talking about is not some simple minor

violation of the law. we're talking about a serious felony. what we do know is there's absolutely nothing other than opinions that have been written to say that a sitting president cannot be indicted. what i do know is this president, you all heard it during his campaign said he could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot somebody and not be held accountable or responsible for it. i believe the president is underestimating the american people. we are nation of laws. we'll see what happens. >> congresswoman, these investigati investigation, these calls for investigations tonight, the gavel is in your hands, democrat hands. have you talked to your colleagues across the aisle, republicans. will they support this investigation into whether cohen lied at trump's direction? >> let me just say this, if it is proven, and i do believe if this is true, certainly the special counsel would have corroborating information. i know the president personal

attorney is trying to say it's just michael cohen's word but the personal attorney also said there was no collusion and then he said that he never said that. i do believe that would be corroborating evidence. i believe my colleagues on the other side of the aisle when presented with the facts, the overwhelming evidence that may exist, it would lever thave the no other choice but accountability. >> one of the reporters has seen independent corroboration. texts, e-mail, things that would prove this which they are saying they confronted michael cohen with. what do you make of the fact that the white house took 16 hours to refute this? the people who were sent out to refute it are people that would have no idea whether it's true. he goes out and impugns michael

cohen. why do you think it took them 16 hours to switch from making this about michael cohen to saying, wait a minute, we're going to refute the whole thing? >> erin, that is really troubling. when the president was asked the other day if he's a russian spy. also now here we are talking about the president being directing someone or instructing someone to lie when they were under oath to congress. i believe it took the white house 16 hours to try to craft a response that perhaps the american people would buy or believe. what i can tell you again is that we take our job very seriously. we're going to provide the necessary oversight that, i believe, the american people want to see. regardless of what response the

white house struggles to craft, we're going hold them accountable. >> thank you. as michael cohen prepares to go before congress again, he says this time to tell the truth, the president is now going after cohen's family. is this witness intimidation? the white house leaking house speaker nancy pelosi plans to fly commercially to afghanistan. why is sarah sanders saying they didn't do it? they did it. they leaked it to the new york times. president trump accused of pushing a racially charged story about prayer rugs found at the border.

tonight president trump

hitting back at michael choen as democrats demand investigations into the buzz feed report there's documentation proving trump told cohen to line under oath. trump tweeting lying to reduce his jail time. watch father-in-law. you might kind of dismiss that except you wouldn't because it's not the first time that trump has brought up cohen's father-in-law. >> he should give information maybe on his father-in-law because that's the one that people want to look at because where there's that money. that's the money in the family and i guess he didn't want to talk about his father-in-law. he's trying to get his sentence reduced. it's weak and very sad to watch a thing like that. i couldn't care less. >> what is his father-in-law's name? >> i don't know but you'll find out. >> former nixon white house counsel john dean. new york times op-ed columnist. trump has done this again and

again bringing choohen's father-in-law. what is he doing? >> he's trying to influence cohen's willingness to testify by threatening cohen's father-in-law with prosecution. i have no idea whether he's done anything wrong or not but you're not supposed to link the two or pressure a witness. this is wrong. i think it comes close, if not amounts to some sort of obstruction or witness tampering. >> john, you say it's witness tampering or intimidation. >> it appears to be. he is flagging his father-in-law for some kind of attention that probably the father-in-law doesn't want. he obviously knows about michael's family from his days being his employee and in the office. it is a threat. i agree with harry. it's totally inappropriate and very dangerous. >> obviously, comes on the context of cohen is going to

jail for three years. there's been all kinds of conversations about family so clearly threatening. interesting he's doing it over the air waves which he does in almost every case. he does it publicly. >> he can't seem to contain himself. wait for the tweet, wait for the calling in to fox news. he shouldn't be doing these things. i'm sure his lawyers, if they are telling him to stop. they can't control their client. >> this comes as michael cohen will testify in front of congre congress. by the way he's going to jail for other lies he told to congress. how worried should the president be about what cohen will say. cohen said he will talk about what a madman trump is. we're going to learn a lot about donald trump in this. >> i think the president should be very worried.

i think michael cohen will talk about some of the things he's talked to mueller about but other things. he will get asked questions by lawmaker to show what a mad man donald trump is. his strategy is a little odd because you would think that with cohen about to go that he will talk, you would think he would not want to goad him into saying the worst possible things but threatening his father-in-law. his father-in-law is not president or accused of colluding with russia. to say let's look at cohen's father-in-law, i mean come on. >> you have this buzzfeed story. democrats have jumped on it. obviously it's a felony if someone were to be indictable, they could go to jail. congresswoman demmings said if trump did tell cohen to line under oath, that rises to the level of impeachment.

>> absolutely it does. it's a crime, number one. number two, it's abuse of power. it was part of water gate encouraging people to make false statements. i don't have any doubt that's impeachment. it's logical that congress would investigate this. the timing of the investigation and how they do it, lot of open questions. >> that's a mood when you hear, i think a lot of people on capital hill have tried to be judicious and careful about how they have said things and they still are. they want the facts. that's how it should be. they are saying if this is the case, that is what we're talking about. there's no beating around the bush here. >> i hear the chairmans could have jurisdiction over the testimony saying they want to get to the bottom of it but i doubt the leadership is ready to

go. they want to get a cue from the senate. the senate is interested in pursuing this. they could impeach and the senate wouldn't hold a trial under mitch mcconnell. they would just let it sit there. >> that is crucial especially when you think about bill clinton. you could be impeached and nothing happens. donald trump has weighed in on impeachment. he thinks that lying is enough to have you be impeached. in fact, he was asked about it and whether then speaker nancy pelosi should impeach george w. bush. she's involved and trump is weighing in on itmpeachment. let me play it. >> i was surprised she didn't do more in terms of bush and going after bush.

it was almost, it just seemed like she was going to really look to impeach becach bush andm out of office which would have been a good thing. >> impeach him? >> for the war. he lied. he got us into the war with lies. >> donald trump has high standards for every one but himself. this gets added to the long list of things he probably wishes he never said. by what a troef ve of bits frome past we have of him. there's a separate question o of whether republicans have swallowed their pride and do it. >> they are very rare.

on top of that if house democrats impeached him and there was no support on the other side, remember bill clinton was strengthened bill politically because people felt the republicans had gone too far. >> what's interesting in that sound bite, donald trump standards. i don't like someone so i think it would be wonderful to impeach them and lying about the war not under oath would be a standard for impeachment itself. it is pretty ironic to hear those words now. >> he is on so many sides of every issue that it doesn't surprise me to hear this claim about impeaching george h.w. bush. he's unpredictable. nothing means anything to him. he has no underlying principals or philosophy. it's just him getting attention at the time. i don't think he really knows what he's talking about when he addresses most of these issues as well. >> harry, if the defense comes

down to whatever is proven by the facts to have occurred that i didn't think i was going to win so i wasn't trying to collude. i was going ahead with my business. is that enough? >> from a legal perfective social security weait's weak. from a political perspective, we don't know what the senate has the appetite to do with this. if there isn't going to be a serious trial and a possibility of removal, it may not be in the interest of the house democrats to press this. from a legal perspective to say i didn't think i was going to win and that's why i did all of this, very, very weak. >> also pretty scary to imagine if you go to a legal point and an american citizen where someone had a felony crime and you don't do it because the laws don't matter, that's really scary thing to say that's the world we could be living in. thank you very much. next, president trump tweeting

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tonight the white house leaking speaker pelosi's plans to fly commercially to afghanistan. pelosi says that leak forced her to cancel her commercial plans because her security was put at risk. the white house denies the leak. an official telling cnn the idea we would leak anything that o wo would put the safety of any american at risk is a flat out lie. they called up thursday night an leaked it to the new york times so that's false. phil, the president said he cancelled pelosi's trip so she could stay to negotiate. don't go to afghanistan. you should be here with me but there are no negotiations

happening this long weekend. >> reporter: if that was the goal, there wasn't any follow through beyond taking away the military aircraft. i'm told there were no phone calls between democrats and white houses today. there were no meeting invitati n invitatio invitations. she left town a couple of hours ago. the reality remains the same. there are no talks and no clear pathways forward. the president tweeted there was going to be a major announcement tomorrow at the white house. i'm told democrats are not aware of what that announcement would be. here is the issue with that regardless of where the president goes. mitch mcconnell has made clear whatever ends up being the final pathway out of this will have to come through negotiations between the president and congressional democrats. negotiations that have not taken place. that raises the question as to whether or not the president announces tomorrow, is it going to be something that can get out of the shutdown because in order to get out of the shutdown you

need democrats. democrat who is are not in town. some of whom won't be back until tuesday. some won't be back until the week after that. that leaves everybody scratching their heads wondering what will will president announce and will it move the ball anywhere. we're 28 days into this and to be frank, there are no closer to a resolution now than they were on day one. >> okay. thank you very much. let's go now to democratic congressman of michigan. there's this announcement. the president will be making a major announcement. are you aware of what it's about? >> i have no idea. i don't know that anybody does. the president is teasing his own announcement like he's teasing the next episode of a game show. this is really serious business. if the president has an announcement to make, he should

just say it, so these people who are working without pay and the people in this country who are being threatened by the impact of this shutdown can move on. if the president has manager to say, stop playing games. just say it. >> do you think it could be something like reopen the government but declaring the national emergency to do his wall? is that what you expect it is or not up to that line? >> who knows. i've stopped trying to predict this president's behavior because it's so erratic. the truth of the matter is, it's not up to him to reopen the government. i read article one of the constitution again this morning. mitch mcconnell could simply do his job and we could get government open again. for some reason, mitch lacks the courage to upset this president. i don't know why but he has a responsibility. he swore an oath to the constitution. article one vests these decisto

decisions in the congress. we can do this without the president's signature if we do what mitch was willing to do a few weeks ago. >> they voted and you voted on pieces to put that to a vote is what he's not doing. >> we passed the very same spending bills that the republican led senate passed a few weeks ago with overwhelming numbers. >> then the president backed out and now here we are. in his letter to the speaker, trump said quote it would be better if she was in washington tying to work out a deal. he didn't set up any talks. there's no invitation or nothing. she's gone. he's doing this speech on his own. she's not scheduled to be back until tuesday which is three days before another zero dollar paycheck goes out to 800,000 americans. can the government formal lly reopen before then ? >> we should be able to.

mitch mcconnell, the republicans in the senate have the ability to get the government open not with standing the president's erratic and i believe psychologically unbalanced behavior. this guy is really going off the rails. we need to step up and do what the framers expected us to do and provide a check on a president who is clearly incapable of the basic responsibilities of the uoffice that he holds. >> are you calling for article 25? you say he's incapable of serving. >> unfortunately, article 25 requires those around the president, his direct appointees to initiate some action and because of the departures of the last remaining responsible members of his cabinet, he's surrounded by a group of sycophants who seem to just jump when ever he says jump and cower when ever he gets angry and tweets. i wish i was exaggerating, erin. this is really a bad situation for our country. the framers anticipated this

moment. that's why they vested in congress and the house and the senate, the ability to over ride a rogue presidency. while i could continue to observe the president's behavior and criticize it, i think the more important thing for the american people to do is to demand that the united states senate do its constitutional duty and get the government open again and then we can move forward with an honest debate about border security or any other issue. this is a moment that requires us to look at the oath and the constitution that we swore that oath to and step up. >> i want to ask you about the report today that the chairman, both the house intelligence committee chairs and the house judiciary chairs want investigations into the report by buzzfeed. the report that the president told michael cohen to lie under oath. what's your reaction?

>> the report indicates there's corroborating evidence. i think for those charged with responsibility, we need to see that evidence. one of my colleagues indicated it might be time, i think it was senator murphy that said it might be time for mr. mueller to begin to provide to congress the necessary information we need to do our job that may not constitute a complete report. if he has evidence that questions the president's veracity and questions whether or not he's suborn perjury, we need to know that. >> at this point you need that evidence now. this is leaked out, you need it. >> i believe we do. this report is really troubling.

we can't base it on a single reporting from a single news source. if the indication is that there's evidence, we need to know. >> all right. i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> thank you. next, this is b.s. that's from one official at mike pompeo brought his wife on an official trip to the middle east during the shutdown. what was she doing? president trump accused of pushing an unfounded racist conspiracy theory. tonight, will a republican speak up? we know these memories will last longer than the wrapping paper. we know there's some things you just can't put a bow on. we know the best gift of all is still out there. we know the great outdoors. we love the great outdoors. bass pro shops and cabela's-- where incredible selection, great people, and an experience like no other

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a spokesperson for the special counsel robert mueller's office is disputing buzzfeed's article. the article says according to two law enforcement officials michael cohen was reported to lie under oath. to tell congress under oath that negotiations ended before the primaries. the specific counsel has just come out with statement. i want to read it to you. responding to buzzfeed saying the description of specific statements to the special counsel's office and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office regarding michael cohen's

congressional testimony are not accurate. that's according to the spokesman for robert mueller's office. i want to go straight to sarah murray. highly unusual we could get a statement because we never get statements from the special counsel's office. not even to say what they ate for lunch. this is a big deal. >> sit a huge deit is a huge de. the most we get is an off the record comment. to see them put out statement like this to say this buzzfeed report is not accurate, that's a big deal. i think you're seeing a response they probably did not want to put out there today. obviously, it took them quite some time to move forward and to make this response public. we're seeing it in the wake of all these democratic lawmakers coming out today pointing to this buzzfeed report saying if this is true, this is grounds to move forward with impeachment proceedings. we have seen committee members saying we want to dig into this and try to find the underlying

documents and witnesses. if it's true, would have been obstruction of the justice. would have been the president trying to get a witness to commit perjury. i think that's why you're seeing the special counsel's office take this step of issuing a statement like this. they don't want to be in the habit of saying this is right and this is wrong because they're not supposed to be commenting but this was a different kind of story. >> that's right. we heard the congress may san now that this is out there, mueller owes us an answer. it seems like they are trying to do that. is there anything to read between the lines. they had all these text messages and e-mails and got all that and knew it to be true and confronted cohen.

it seems to be a clear rebuttal. >> right. this is not just based on these people's perceptions. they are aware of the documents. the special counsel saying this is not accurate of sort of the information, the testimony that the special counsel has at their disposal. we've all been in a difficult position with this report. no one else has been able to confirm it. we have been saying that on the air over and over again that cnn couldn't confirm it. even the buzzfeed reporter said they haven't seen the underlying evidence and now the special counsel is saying we haven't seen this underlying evidence either. it's not accurate as far as we're concerned. >> sarah, stay with me. what do you make as the special counsel is coming out with statement. obviously, extenuating

circumstances. saying this would be a crime, a felony, impeachment. we demand an answer from mueller. >> many of us said if this story is true, that's the major cave t caveat. it does have an obligation to correct the record given where the public debate has headed over the past 24 hours. it's good they spoke up and said it isn't true. they don't want people to be mislead. i think it warrants the deviation from the normal and healthy practice they follow to avoid public comment and speak only in court. >> john, what do you think happened here? we need to know more details but you have a news organization saying two law enforcement officials saying it was corroborating evidence and one of the reporters had seen it and the special counsel's office is saying it isn't true. it sounds pretty terrible for

buzzfeed? >> it sounds very terrible for buzzfeed. i have a lot of faith in the fact that mueller never puts out statements or rarely. the other thing is, i looked at the reporters who were behind the story. i only know one of them. he's a careful reporter. i can't believe he would put out a bogus story. the other one is a pulitzer prize winner which makes it even more confusing. they are invest gaigative reporters. they must have been mislead by their sources. >> it's hard to understand what would happen here. nobody would come out an do something like this if they knew it to be false. they believed it have true. we need more details on what the

documents were. what do you make of this? where they lied to? >> certainly. there's always the possibility someone was lied to but there's the possibility that whoever these federal law enforcement officials were, they saw some subset of these documents and drew conclusions that maybe took leaps that are not backed up by the documentation. maybe they drew different conclusions than what the special counsel's office drew. it's difficult know without know wh knowing what was included. this is the kind of story where because it changes the direction of the country. you want to be really careful on something like this. i think that's why the buzzfeed reporters took pain there was this underlying evidence.

>> all right. thank you very much. we'll update you as we get more. we have that very important rebuttal from the special couns counsel's office this hour. next, the president accused of tweeting a racist story about prayer rugs at the border. we'll tell you what that means. why was mike pompeo's office traveling with him on an official trip to the middle east with extra staff in the middle of a government shutdown? coaching means making tough choices. jim! you're in! but when you have high blood pressure and need cold medicine that works fast, the choice is simple. coricidin hbp is the #1 brand that gives powerful cold symptom relief without raising your blood pressure. coricidin hbp. rewards me basicallyaptain everywhere i stay.bvious and hotels.com

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i got real relief. i got clearer skin and feel better. now, watch me. get real relief with cosentyx. new tonl tonight, mike po pompeo's wife traveling with him. michelle kosinski is out front. >> reporter: mike pompeo traveled through the middle east, reassuring allies about the u.s. role. it's the role of someone else who went on the trip, his wife, susan, during the government shutdown, that raised questions among many state department diplomat. this is bs, you done bring more people that need staffing, transportation, when embassy employees are working without being paid. the state department says most

diplomats abroad have not been paid during the shutdown. many had to come to work anyway to handle this trip. for some requiring very long hours. one source familiar with the planning tells cnn, i have been outraged. why was this necessary? this wasn't a matter of national security. pompeo described the trip as a working one for his wife as well. >> she meets with the medical officers. she will tour housing. she will write up her thoughts and comments after that. i wish i had time to do those things. >> reporter: susan had a state department employee dedicated to tending to her schedule. at each location she had her own state official and security to travel with her to meetings. she also required that staffing and security to shop at a local market, which sources say made her late for the next flight, keeping the secretary and his team waiting on the plane at least a half hour, plus a crowd of officials waiting at the next stop.

another issue raised is what kind of notes and recommendations exactly susan pompeo will prepare as the secretary said she would. >> he takes his wife and gives her responsibilities, gives her support and taking that away from those same men and women during a shutdown, during a time when they are particularly suffering. it sends a terrible message about a double standard, one set of rules applies to me, another set of rules applies to the working men and women of this department. >> reporter: while it's not that common for secretary spouses to join them, it has happened. >> it's important when they do, that they have an itinerary that is justified for the trip. they are providing meaningful context. >> reporter: normally, it wouldn't draw anger or even much notice necessarily. but this is a government shutdown, people were called in and worked for free.

we have a lot of questions about this. how many people were tasked with working with pompeo's wife and the stops? how many were paid? how much did this cost? how much is she going to reimburse? it has been days now. the state department still hasn't answered those questions. even though this trip is funded by taxpayers. they just said at the beginning of the trip that this meets all of the rules and regulations that the state department requires. only once our story aired today did they get back to us, not answering all those questions, but they said that they wouldn't characterize one of the stops we mentioned as a shopping trip. they said she was at the market, but she was there for a meeting with the wife of the king of bahrain. she came under scrutiny for the amount of time she spent there, for traveling with him when he was the head of the fbi and using office space at the agency. >> i think it's important to

note that the reason that this is a story is because the president wrote the letter yesterday to nancy pelosi saying it's a shutdown. you shouldn't use these resources. when melania trump used a government plane, that became a story, and this too. >> these people who we are told by multiple sources were supporting her at each of these eight stops, they were not being paid. not all of them, the state department won't share the numbers with us, but many of these people say they were working around the clock not being paid and asking questions, why did pompeo's wife come along during this government shutdown? >> thank you very much, michelle. sorry, i have a cough there. i want go back to breaking news. the spokesperson for robert muell mueller's office disputing buzzfeed's article that michael cohen was instructed to lie by donald trump to lie under oath.

john walsh is with me. sorry. i'm having trouble. i want to get through the statement from peter carr, the spokesperson for mueller. characterization of testimony obtained by this office regarding michael cohen's testimony are not accurate. that's a huge statement. >> it is. >> congress was demanding it. that seems like an incredible reputation of an article which said it was based upon evidence. >> we're waiting for buzzfeed's response as well, which we need. it is something that has to set us all back. people have been -- have talked about impeachment. people really took this very seriously, because buzzfeed has a good track record. they are sober, reliable journalists.

i i i'm not going to say they did something wrong, but it sounds like something is wrong. i want their explanation. >> you have people demanding -- if true it's caveated. this is being disputed. it's stunning to have them be so special. it appears from this statement, there is no gray area, at least that's the way it reads. >> two things. buzzfeed is not a serious news organization. they shouldn't be treated as such. they put out the dozssier. this is unprecedented that this came out from mueller's team. they have not done this before. to try to defend buzzfeed is ridiculous. what really -- >> buzzfeed is an excellent news organization. >> you can say that. they just got their brains kicked in by the special counsel's office. >> i wouldn't put it that way. >> i will side with the special counsel. >> hold on. both of you could pause. i want to go back to abby philip at the white house, trying to

record on the reaction there from this. what more can you tell us? >> reporter: there hasn't been much of a reaction. reaching out to white house aides, really silence from them. you have to believe this is going to be a major thing for them. they tried this afternoon to shoot down the story, trying to undermine the credibility of buzzfeed and then later it was categorically false they said. they are getting a helping hand from the special counsel who the president has attacked repeatedly in the past. but now it's turning out to be something that's helpful to them. we have seen john junior on twitter reacting basically laughing emojis. people will take a major victory lap tonight. it's not clear if they will comment on ttonight, or even fr the president himself.

this is something that i think will be veried aven tay ed avea them. they will try to make the case that the reporting has not been accurate. after delaying for some time, they did eventually say it was false. i think they're going to have an opportunity to really take a victory lap on this. >> they will. the strange thing was that it took 16 hours to do that, but they did. you have -- just to emphasize, democrats had jumped on this immediately. some of them last night were quick to hit twitter and jump. if true -- >> if true -- >> a lot of people wanted investigations. does that stop? >> no. there were always going to be investigations. there's more than enough reason to have investigations. >> i mean into -- what is the evidence -- >> i think there should be an investigation. now as much as ever. maybe they will disprove it. maybe they will -- an investigation will show us what buzzfeed got wrong.

it's not that an investigation has to come to a pre -- >> ben? >> it's incredible to me the irresponsibility of members of congress. congressman's castro's tweet was -- if the buzzfeed story is true, president trump must resign or be impeached. you going to take that back? no. you want to destroy the president. others that went with him. they're not going to take it back either. they're not going to apologize. they're not going to be adults. congress and the democratic party has become so hateful towards this president that even when they get information that's wrong, you just heard it, they still want to actually investigate information that mueller's team is saying is completely false. >> it didn't say completely false. it said the specific statements -- >> sure they did. it was a statement that they never make.

they never make statements like this. you know that. >> they didn't say it is completely false. it's clear to you. >> characterization and description were not accurate. i have to leave it here. i have to hand it off to anderson. thank you for being with me. i apologize for the coughing. i will be better monday. thanks for joining us. anderson is next. good evening. we intended to speak at the top of the program with one of two buzzfeed reporters behind a report that if true meant federal investigators had evidence that the president of the united states committed a serious crime and potentially an impeachment offense. cnn had not confirmed the story, nor had any other news organization. a few moments ago we learned buzzfeed was going to pull the reporter from the program because robert mueller's office was about to weigh in. that office has weighed in and it is something in itself. before getting into exactly what mueller's office has now said -- they rarely ever say anything on the record -- here is the es