we have breaking news, robert mueller's team breaking it's silence about the report that ricochetted around washington in the last 24 hours and they have a different story. we'll bring in a team of people that have reported on and worked these type of cases to tell us where things stand in terms of what we know and where we go. then we'll go one-on-one about the shutdown. he spent an hour with the president about what it will take to get people paid and i think the president just let us know where he stands when it comes to whether he rejects steve king's message of bigotry. it is a wild week. once again.

it ain't over. let's get after it. >> they put out a statement just a moment ago about what they hear in this buzz feed report, and they knock it down in part. now buzz feed reported that michael cohen, the president's former lawyer told the special counsel that president trump directed him to lie to congress about a massive business deal he was seeking with moscow. they cited two law enforcement sources investigating it. they said they had corroborating effort. mueller's team put out a statement that says this, quote, buzzfeed's 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 accura

accurate. buzzfeed is not backing down. we stand by our reporting and the sources that informed it and we urge the special counsel to make clear what he is disputing. all right. it's good to have you both, all right? let's deal with where we think things stand. buzzfeed says one thing. the mueller people change in terms of what they believe is true about what they know. does that end the buzzfeed reporting for you? >> for me, i take it as now we are back to exactly where we were at the point where cohen pleaded guilty to lying to congress and we should let the facts come out as they may.

i do think the special counsel taking this extraordinary step to comment on it means two things, this particular allegation is so explosive and has so many potential consequences they felt it was important to make clear what was or was not accurate or at least what was not accurate about that story. but it's been almost two years. we have not heard boo from the special counsel's office. so i don't think where ever these sources are coming from, i am 99.9% sure they're not coming from mueller's team. >> it's interesting you say that. let's look at the language from buzzfeed. their language is two federal law enforcement officials involved in the investigation of a matter. if you had mueller guys, you might say it. you might not because they might

want the protection. especially with rudy giuliani saying they must bring these sources forward. it's not unusual for them to want to be anonymous and it's the law enforcement officials telling buzz feed what the special counsel knows. now to you, does that mean they must work for the special counsel? or does it mean that both could be true? they work for some other entity, other body, and the special counsel is modifying the reporting and not cancelling it %-po in on that particular phrase and then i think the larger point is to look at the context of the investigative details that this story purports to break. what i mean by that is this entire report deals with the

trump organization end of this investigation which is not actually being run by the special counsel's office. >> true. >> we short jammed all of this as the mueller probe, but it is, in fact, it is 17 different investigations being run by seven different prosecutors offices and the trump organization is being investigated by the southern district of new york. the federal prosecutors in manhattan. so that was who raided michael cohen's office. that is who is dealing with some of these campaign finance violations that the trump organization has been involved in. and that's who the chief financial officer for the trump organization did his immunity deal with last summer.

i don't like to play a guessing game about other reporters stories but it is worth pointing the finger away from the special counsel's office because this has been an operation that's been leak free for two years, and i have a hard time believing that this one random story is the first time that we have seen a leak out at the special counsel's office where as new york is actually no toiroustori leaky operation. it was the leaks out of that office that drove jim comey's decision in the week prior to the november 2016 election to make that extraordinary comment about reopening hillary clinton's e-mail investigation given anthony weiner's laptop. all of this circles and circles and circles. >> i think there is a line through it and you refer to it in your answer.

let's put up why this made sense to people when it came out anyway. it's about the context of what we thought we were going to find out surrounding cohen's testimony. remember, he's about to testify again. now i don't know if this matter will be closed off because it's too close to what mueller is doing. although, by what we're saying right now and what the sourcing is for buzzfeed, doesn't seem like it might be under his umbrella. maybe he will be allowed to discuss it. but put up the language of what was in mueller's pleading that came out the same day as the southern district's pleading about cohen. cohen provided relevant and useful information concerning his contacts with persons connected to the white house during the 2017-2018 time period. cohen described the circumstances of preparing and circulating his response while continuing to accept responsibility for the false statements contained with it.

so we all remembered that he was talking to people. he was talking to people involved in the white house. i wonder who. then you have to look at that in the context of what his lawyers said in response to that. put that up, please. okay. in the weeks in which his then council prepared his written response to the congressional commi committe committees, michael remained in close and regular contact with white house based staff and legal council. so here's where my head is on this. what could be the big distinction and would totally justify what the mueller probe came out with but not vacate everything buzzfeed said is trump directed michael cohen, don't put that on us. but michael cohen worked with people around trump in preparing his testimony and we're faced with what did the president know and not know?

that could be true and it kw squares with what was in the mueller pleading and what was in michael cohen's own pleading. does that make sense? >> i think so. >> i was on set the day he pleaded guilty with several prosecutors and that was the language that many of us honed in on. what does this mean? it's not in there for no reason at all. but we do need to remember that -- two things. this allegation, we talked about the seriousness of it and also the special counsel's office may have been getting pressure from members of congress saying if this is something that you had, you better let us know right now. >> but that's not a first. >> yeah. >> but that allegation directly goes to congress's function.

so that's an enormous pressure to be there. also to the extent that anything of this nature is being collected by the special counsel's office, it is in everyone's interest to see it in black and white, the way we have seen his indictment and official filings which we know by virtue of them being layed out that they're backed up with evidence. >> it has to be part of the report. it has to be part of the report because mueller referred to it. if we put up mueller's response. i get that it's a bunch of lawyers and they're careful about everything but they didn't need to be this careful about this statement. they could have said buzz feed's reporting is wrong. we're not pursuing anything like this. we haven't done anything like this. they could have just said that, but they didn't. i'm not looking for a needle in

a hay tack on this. we'll see what happens. put that back up. description of specific statements to the special counsel's office, the characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office is not accurate. am i a lawyer just looking at it that way? >> no, you're right. the special counsel's office knows how to deny a story, and this is not a denial. >> they could have waved it away in a single line if they wanted to. >> exactly. one of the things we might be seeing here is the special counsel operating in a political environment as well.

this might be as simple as the special counsel's office saying, hey, guys, we're not going to impeach the president this weekend so let's all take a deep breath and let's keep waiting and we'll get to this when we're ready to talk about it. >> you know what, that's always been the best advice. when things happen, i bring you in on this case. what could it mean? where could it lead us? what could happen next? that's all fair. but the pace of the curiosity matters as well. and we are back where we were when we got that mueller pleading. cohen didn't go it alone but who does that mean and what does that mean? does it mean anything for the president? we still don't know until we learn more. thank you very much. needed you tonight, you came through and i appreciate it. this week has been a huge week. you have rudy giuliani changing

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incht all right the story about buzzfeed and the reporting and the question about whether michael cohen helped anybody lie to congress, it matters. it matters a lot. we'll see how they reconcile it. we're going to find out one way or another because he's going to testify in a few weeks. this kind of grew out of, in terms of its legitimacy what mueller put in his own pleadings. they have been tracking this issue of who helped him lie to congress. also michael cohen, the fact that he paid for polls to be rigged for donald trump at donald trump's direction. that was their relationship. he did dirty deeds. this time they believe he pocketed some cash, but that's another issue. what else? we start looking around, you have rudy giuliani. we now know that the strategy is

just to protect himself. the campaign, i don't know about that. all i know is that the president himself did nothing wrong. but what did he know about? and is that something that will hold? that was a big development this week. relaxing sanctions on russia. that's going on right now. you're going to hear on this show from a republican that voted against it because he doesn't understand the need for it. why when they're looking at you to see if you're too cozy with russia would you try to relax sanctions on one of the oligarchs in the pope. putin talking points. in july, after speaking with the russian president, our president made his defense into his own official administration statement. he said it to two media outlets. the second time he left out the part that putin told him. that happened. why would he do that? the interpreters notes. why would he hide the notes of an interpreter after a meeting

with putin? maybe he doesn't want everybody to know what he says with world leaders. then why only this world leader. they say well you only heard about this because of the white house leaks. well if it leaks all the time, why have we only heard about him doing it with putin. these questions only lead to the same vexing issue. why does the president keep taking special steps to be differential and protective of the president and the country if he has nothing to hide. that's what we learned this week. the special counsel's office, they don't talk. so they came out to say the buzzfeed thing, mischaracterization. not accurate. is that the end of it? you're about to talk to a very seasoned prosecutor that says, nope.

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simple. easy. awesome. click or visit a retail store today. >> they call it not accurate, the buzzfeed news report. they say it's mischaracterizing documents and statements made to them. however buzzfeed's editor in chief pushing back to their push back. standing by the reporting and their sources and asking for the special counsel to clarify what it is they dispute. so what do we take away from the back and forth? here's a side note. there's been a lot of stories about what's going on with the probe and what the president may have known. they have never come forward until now. i wonder if that means that they had no problem with any of the other reports. let's bring somebody in that

says this is not the end. good to have you here. let's leave whether or not they like the other reporting or not to the side, do you believe this is the end of this issue? >> not at all. the statement itself is ambiguous. it hard to know exactly what to make of it. it could be that they're disputing everything. they don't have sufficient evidence to go after trump for ordering cohen to lie to congress. or it could be that mueller is dec defending the institution of his office and saying we run a tight ship and there's no leaks in our office and that mentions his office and the information provided to his office. so we don't know. but here are two things we do know. number one. after the story came out, president trump went and threatened michael cohen saying go after his father or father-in-law or something like

that this morning which is itself potential ais crime and number two, this allegation about ordering cohen to lie before congress is only one of a litany of things in which trump and everyone in trump world happens to lie when it comes to russia. and whether or not this specific thing is there or not, there's a bigger tapestry that is incredibly damaging to the president and underscores the need for him to be involved. >> the reason it's so enticing to journalists coming the story is its an extension of what we learned from mueller himself. mueller had said, look, cohen had come forward about who he was talking to while he was

getting ready for his congressional testimony and this is from the special counsel's office. cohen admitted with respect to both statements he acted in coordination and at the direction of individual one. that's the payments of the women. the southern district went out of his way to say he was directed by individual one. mueller didn't do that when he talked about his congressional testimony and how he came up with the decision to lie and who might have helped him. but he did say there was coordination with people in the white house and neither mentioned the president specifically. and they could have. is this about me versus we? is this about the president directing it or something more

generalized. was he part of it? did he know? >> that's an excellent point and there's a lot to it. we just don't know, everyone is a little bit patient. they were patient last night and they all want to read certain things into it and that's why, i had the privilege of being on with don lemon last night and everyone was like if this is true, then x follows but nobody would say this is actually where things are. and it could be that the folks around him were all trump people but not trump himself. on the other hand, trump has a pretty strong disrespect for the law and it's certainly plausible that the reverse is true. this is why we need an investigation and if donald trump is truly innocent, as he said, he's the one that should be -- he should be clamoring for

an investigation. he should be saying bring it on. i have nothing to hide. >> he is trying to shut it down. he's trying to say it's a witch hunt. his lawyers have they had they might exert executive privilege. he doesn't sit down with mueller and answer his questions. this does not look like the behavior of an innocent person and if any government officer acted this way, they'd lose their job. this allows them to say, you can't believe it. you can't believe what you read or what you hear, you can only believe us. even the special counsel says they don't get it right. >> mueller is a very respected

prosecutor, a former republican and trump always accused him of being biased. >> not tonight he won't so yes we can talk about the boomrang in the media. >> the president. this is a nice distraction from what we learned this week. if we had been able to match the reporting or anybody else had, this would have been a very big deal. instead it leaves us back where we were when mueller puts out the pleading that creates the suggestion that cohen may have been in contact and coordinating with others while preparing his congressional testimony. we had rudy giuliani change their plan.

we learned about the lengths that the president has gone to to protect his conversation with vladimir putin. he made it his own administration position. these are still, they all go to feed the fire of why does the president behave this way toward this man. >> and that is so important. the new york times reporting that our sitting president has been under active investigation from the fbi for being a russian asset and you take all of these things together, chris, and this is why two hours ago i had the privilege of writing an op-ed with president bush's former cia director and national security director -- >> big part of the cnn family. >> exactly. and a lovely contributor to your network. we said you take all of this together and it really underscores the need for a serious congressional investigation using impeachment.

not prejudging the outcome but everyone in this country needs to know the answers to these problems. some are within mueller's jurisdiction because they're criminal but others are not. it's squarely congress's obligation. >> why not wait and see what's in there and see what else you need to do? >> first of all, we don kn't kn how long that could be. >> what's the rush? >> mueller is famous for not leaking. >> what's the rush. >> we have allegations that the president has been engaged in serious wrong doing and as long as the questions can be asked by congress in a way that doesn't interfere with the mueller investigation, i think an episode like tonight really demonstrates why congress should be involved. after all, the buzzfeed story is about lying to congress. who cares about that more than anyone? congress. so they're the ones that should

be -- it's appropriate and part of their constitutional duties to do this. respectful to law enforcement interests to mueller and the like, but it should and needs to be done. >> my push back is impeachment, removal, political processes. they're not legal processes. they're political, and if you don't have the american people pushing on politicians in a form of a consensus, i think you won be close to that until you get past the mueller probe and what he says and how people feel about it. >> i think that cuts the other way. general hayden and i are reluctant impeachment investigators. we don't think it's right. we don't want to criminalize

politics. but when you have allegations like this, our point is they should be investigated. you might not convict at the end of the day. and that's a feature of our system, not a bug, that it takes a 2-thirds vote in the senate to con vick. >> fair point. thank you for being on on a friday night. how many times have i had you on planning to talk about one thing and we had to wind up talking about something completely differ because of the news. >> welcome to the era of trump. >> thank you for the flexibility. have a great weekend. >> this is a big story, mueller, but it ain't the only one. 800,000 workers aren't being paid. if you lose sight of it we're losing sight of the individuals. we know who the blame. we know the president owns this shutdown. we know that mitch mcconnell has frozen the senate and now he's saying there's a major announcement to make. what does he think should be done to free up the senate and have these guys do their job, next.

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a month into the shutdown, deal maker and chief still has no deal but what he does have is a major announcement he tweeted concerning the humanitarian crisis on our southern border and the shutdown.

let's focus on what matters and what we know about that is focussing on keeping this government shutdown. >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me, man. >> when it comes to the shutdown, a big heap of blame belongs on the head of mitch mcconnell. he seems to have decided his oath he took was to the president and not to the people. why don't you go to him and say let us do our job. there's bills we should be voting on. that's why we're here. let us do our job. >> two points. we're all to blame for this. every single one of us. number two, let me tell you why i don't think it's mcconnell's

fault. if we pass a bill and the president vetoes it, what have we accomplished? all we have done is give him false hope. he is not going to put a bill on the floor that the president is not going to sign. >> i would doubt that we could get 2-thirds. >> do you want to reopen the government? >> i do want to reopen the government, but anyway you look at this from any perspective because of the circumstances we find ourselves in that right now there's only two people's opinions that matter, donald trump and nancy pelosi and many of my -- i hitched a ride back on the president's plane.

he didn't have an ugly thing to say, a bad thing to say about speaker pelosi. he honestly believes he is doing the right thing. for better or worse, and i happen to agree with him, he does not believe you can secure a 1,900 mile border without having in part, some barriers and on this issue, he is strong as bear's breath. he is residenolute. he's willing to negotiate. he told me point blank. here's what i believe. the president and the speaker are pretty close to this thing right now. if each of them would appoint somebody in who they have great confidence and tell them to go off for two or three days, meet, forget about all the politics and bring me back a plan to help secure this border, i think that plan would say we need to enhance security in our ports of entry. >> yes. >> we need more border agents,

we need more judges and in part a barrier. >> that's what it always said. they gave him 25 billion over five years. the democrats always funded physical barriers. right now they're offering him the money that he put in the bud budget for it. >> you're making my point here. mrs. pelosi. chuck has for whatever reason decided to let the speaker run the show. i saw it. i saw it on cnn where it was reported and the speaker said it was true. the president said if i open back government and we negotiate, will you consider a wall? she said no. not one dollar. >> but she has offered over a billion. they offered him 25 billion and he walked away from the deal. >> not to be used for a wall. >> part of it is for the wall.

>> she is addiment. >> this is about proportionality. it's all about how much and where and what percentage of the budge. >> speaker peolsi does. >> she said that one time in response to a question, but they have 1.3 billion on the table. >> she is not going to agree to 1.3 billion. if the president today went to her and said here's the deal, i want 1.3 billion and i agree with you to do something on our ports of entry. we need immigration judges, border agents, drones, technology and $1.3 billion for a border wall to add to the 600 that are already working, she's not going to accept that. she said it. now if she will accept it, she needs to say so because it would further these negotiations. >> except he's asking for 5 billion. >> i don't speak for the president but i'm telling you -- i'm telling you, the president will negotiate on this.

>> you think he'll take 1.3. >> no, i'm not saying that. i'm saying that he will negotiate. here's what i think most americans think and i bet you do too, legal immigration makes this country stronger. illegal immigration undermines legal immigration. illegal immigration is illegal and a border barrier can help stem the tide of illegal immigration. >> it will help. >> we're not awa wall away. you want to stop illegal drugs, give them the x-raies and the infrastructure at the ports of entries. you want to stop illegal foot traffic or entry into the country, attack the airports. he's made it a metaphor. >> i don't say that.

>> but he does. that's why he shutdown the government. because for him it's all in on this idea of who wins. me who wants to keep everybody out and say that they're bad for wanting to come in or you people that want to do otherwise and i don't think it's fair to put this on people's backs and he did that. >> i see your point of view. it's a valid point of view. he is asking for money for an additional 234 miles of walls, barriers, it's a barrier. but in addition to that, he has asked for additional border agenerals and money to help the humanitarian cause. >> if i'm wrong, i'll come back and say i'm wrong. but my understanding is not one

penny for one inch of a wall. i think if mrs. pelosi stepped up to the plate and said i'll talk about a wall, we could wrap this up in a matter of days. >> if that's all it takes, it should be done tomorrow. because they have been offering money for this physical barrier for several differ iterations of a deal. people are paying a price they should have never had to pay. thank you for talking to me about these pressing matters. >> thanks, chris. >> there's another story emerging around us today. do you remember when the president claimed he saw thousands of arabs cheering nearby after the world trade center fell on 9/11? do you remember that? those were the early stages of this brown menace as i call it. well now, there's a new chapter. the danger of prayer is the new hype. next.

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conservative washington examiner. she claims she found prayer rugs along the southern border. i say so what. well, the potus seems to see an opportunity to stoke fear of muslims. first of all, the reporting is odd here. it's very short on proof of whatever they're trying to prove but it's very long on bigotry. the reporting is one thing but then it's like dig any identifying an insult. the whole point of this is to stoke fear, is it not? >> facts first. we always say facts do matter. so can i just read something for you? >> please. >> here's the anonymous quote. lots of people are coming in not just from mexico. people just don't get the terrorist threats of that. that's what is really scary. you don't know what's coming

across. so they're saying that because we found prayer rugs out there. >> so what? aren't we a country that cares about religious freedom and that respects other people's religious beliefs? just because someone has a prayer rug doesn't mean they're a terrorist. can they not make that connection? they don't understand that. the other thing, just so we know the truth, an administration official has told cnn that more non-u.s. citizens on terror watch lists were encountered on the northern than the southern border, and they tried to enter the country through legal ports of entry. those are the facts. stop being xenophobic about people who are muslim or different from you. even if you did find a prayer rug, who knows what it is? by the way, people use rugs to jump over those walls by the way. did you know that? >> right. >> stop doing that.

>> but even if you assume all the ugliness, muslims are not terrorists by definition. there are a billion muslims, okay? you know why they don't focus on the northern border part. it doesn't fit into the brown menace. >> no. >> it doesn't fit into the brown menace. >> you know what i used to say when people would say, oh, maybe barack obama is a muslim. and i would say, okay. what if he is a muslim? what's wrong with being a muslim? there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. so this, as i said, it's important tonight to be accurate and to talk about the facts. so we're going to go over a lot of things that happened this week. there was so much, chris, that happened this week beyond buzzfeed, the shutdown, and all that. we're going to go over all of it and tell you where we stand coming up. >> beautiful. i will watch. i'll have a drink in my hand, but i'll be watching. >> you're so lucky. i'll see you at the top of the hour. >> all right, d. lemon. so, question for us. which king are we about? as we enter into martin luther

king jr. weekend, the easy answer is obvious. dr. king. but the president still hasn't come out against steve king and his message of bigotry, not even on the verge of this weekend. wait. maybe he has. i will argue we have gotten our answer from the president. in fact, we got it today. next. with rich coconut oil, a legendary smoother, and cocoa butter known to soften. as a whole blend, it nourishes for 24-hour frizz control. blended makes us better. whole blends.

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our country must celebrate one king and denounce another. dr. king's name is synonymous with the struggle for equality and the appeal to our better angels, to peaceful opposition and the unyielding pursuit of justice. that is his legacy.

one of his many wise ideas that he left us with was in the buildup to the bloody sunday in selma, alabama. he wrote, a man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. a man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. a man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true. his words are testament to his truth, and his murder is testament to the urgency that must always occur whenever king's evil opposite raises its head. that's why i keep reminding you that our president has still not stood up against steve king's message. king, who said white nationalist, white supremacist, white civilization -- how did that language become offensive? and today after days of silence, in case you had any question, because he said he didn't know how he could say those things, the congressman thanked rush limbaugh fill-in mark stein for his support in his, quote, fight in defense of western civilization. it can't become a pejorative or

we will lose our civilization. it is explicitly a pejorative when you define western civilization as belonging only to white people, and king clearly does. and that is the same toxic notion of preference that opposed dr. king. that's why the president of the greatest experiment in diversity in the history of the world, america, cannot be quiet now. but he is quiet, isn't he? he has spoken about what he wants to protect and what he wants to punish. just today he re-tweeted a frankly stupid report from a conservative outlet. prayer rugs were supposedly found on the border, and an anonymous rancher was in a panic. first, show me who this rancher is. show me what they found. by the way, even if that's all true, so what? what are you trying to say? muslims crossed illegally? yeah, we know that. all kinds of people from all over try to get into the country. and what do they do? they pray? so what does that mean?

they're terrorists, or you're bothered by the praying? no. it's the suggestion. muslim equals bad, part of the brown menace. the president wants to fold them into that toxic mess, even on the day that we enter into mlk weekend. this is what he wants america to embrace. fear the muslims. fear the different. see them as the enemy. you're right to fear and hate them. a wall will save us. shame on him. but i guess that's his answer. should you embrace king? should you reject king? i guess that's his answer. but you know what? the answer's a loser. he can demonize the different. he can punish american workers in pursuit of his farcical wall, but he will never change the fundamental truth of this country. diversity is our strength. and when the day comes when color, creed, sex, identity, when those are all irrelevant to the involvement in this experiment, we will be the greatest we have ever been. make america greater than ever. that's what i would have chosen. he chose make it great again.

what does that mean? inherently backward-looking to the days when diversity was the exception, not the rule. when the thinking of steve king was all too common. but that hate was put down by something far more powerful and populated by the majority of this country. it is poison to prejudice and energizes equality, and the one true king, dr. martin luther king jr., told us years ago what it was and what it can do. darkness cannot drive out darkness, he said. only light can do that. hate cannot drive out hate. only love can do that. amen, dr. king. you and your words are remembered especially now when what we thought was put down has raised its ugly head. and even if the president chooses to let us all know he will not stand up against his fellow republicans' ugly message of bigotry, he still represents a minority. and, in fact, he represents more of a minority of this country than ever. thank you for watching.

"cnn tonight" with d. lemon starts right now. >> so, chris, all right. so we're always honest. i was going to say let's be honest. so people love this when you and i talk because it's unscripted and it's real. and this is how we talk to each other in everyday life. we have this very serious conversation about steve king and about race earlier in the week, and people were like, oh, my gosh. it's like, that's how chris and i speak to each other every day because that's how real friends talk to each other, right? you're honest. you don't hold back. so you feel a certain way, and i feel a certain way. and i said to you, i said, chris, let's see if we're talking about this next week. it's not even next week. have you heard any republicans speak out? >> yeah. >> in a significant way? have you heard any people saying, you know, i changed my mind about, you know, this president and about race and about me overlooking race, and i've been really thinking about it? have you honestly heard anyone? >> it depends what your measure is. if you're