wolf. >> arwa damon reporting live from irbil in iraq. be careful over there.viewers, h for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next, mueller about to make his move. cnn learning he could wrap up the russia investigation as soon as next week. will mueller have a smoking gun? plus, the white house bracing for a shakeup. could the director of national intelligence be out? and breaking news, the "empire" actor who claimed to have been the victim of a racist, homophobic attack, is now officially a suspect. let's go "outfront." good evening. i'm erin burnetburnett. "outfront" tonight the mueller report, after one year and nine months, sources tell cnn that attorney general bill barr is preparing to announce the russia investigation is done. now, we have learned this could happen as soon as next week. the big question, is there a

smoking gun? and will we, the american people, see mueller's report? today, president trump tried to act like it's all fine, it's all fine. he doesn't care. >> should the mueller report be released next week? >> that will be totally up to the new attorney general. he's a tremendous man. a tremendous person who really respects this country and respects the justice department. so that will be totally up to him. the new attorney -- the new attorney general. yes. >> will the word, "tremendous," work? the president today choosing to kiss up to his new attorney general because bill barr does hold the mueller report's face in his hands and president trump knows it. for once he chose not to demean, diminish, insult, you know, otherwise slam the investigation because keep in mind, since it began, 644 days ago, president trump has attacked mueller's investigation about 1,100 times, which adds up, obviously, on average to about twice a day.

and, you know, you know the words, "which hunt qu"witch hun" "hoax." all of that. of course, no matter what your politics, that is false. it is not a witch hunt because you need to look at the numbers to know that. mueller's investigation has resulted in 199 criminal counts. 37 people and companies have been charged. seven have pleaded guilty. four people have been sent to prison. those are the facts. and this all comes as former acting fbi director andrew mccabe dropped a bombshell coming right on the eve of this news. claiming it is possible that president trump is a russian asset. >> do you still believe the president could be a russian asset? >> i think it's possible. i think it's why we started our investigation. and i'm really anxious to see where director mueller concludes that. >> it's possible? that is a remarkable statement for a top intelligence official to make. we're talking about a sitting

president of the united states of america. and here's the thing. the former cia director john brennan says that when it comes to russia, oftentimes, people don't even realize they're being played by putin. >> individuals who go along the treasonous path do not even realize they're along that path until it gets to be a bit too late. >> long paths, well, president trump has had a long history with russia. it goes all the way back to at least 1987 when moscow expressed interest in a deal with trump. trump actually wrote about it in "art of the deal." so he writes about the year 1987, "on july 4th i flew to moscow. it was an extraordinary experience. we toured a half dozen potential sites for a hotel including several near red square. we stayed in lenin's suite at the national hotel and impressed with the ambition of the soviet officials to make a deal." that was the trip, july 4th in moscow. when he returned, trump spent nearly $100,000, these are 1987

dollars, okay, $100,000 to place full-page ads in "the new york times," the "washington post," and the "boston globe." the ad said in part, "an open letter from donald j. trump on why america should stop paying to defend countries that can afford to defend themselves." and of course, that wasn't just his position which, you know, suddenly he decided he was going to make public in these ads in the major newspapers in this country. that was russia's open and ardent position at the time. nearly 32 years later, trump is still repeating some russian talking points like on meddling. >> i believe that president putin really feels, and he feels strongly, that he did not meddle l in our election. i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. >> so will mueller conclude trump was an asset of putin or not? we may find out very soon. evan perez is "outfront" live in washington. and, evan, you know, it is amazing, after so much talking, so many filings, so many

charges, right, people going to prison, here we finally might be on the eve of this being done. what are you learning about the release of mueller's report tonight? >> that's right, erin. the end is near, it appears. we expect in the next week or so that the attorney general will announce that he's received notice from mueller that the investigation is over. and then he'll review the findings and decide what exactly he's going to tell members of congress, what he's going to tell the public, if anything, about the mueller findings. now, what he says to congress could vary. right? because he made no promises about releasing the entire report. instead, what he says he's going to do is see confidential report, which is all the regulations for the justice department require, then decide what to release. now, obviously, there's a lot of pressure from members of congress. you heard from some of that -- from some of those members of congress during the time that bill barr was getting confirmed. they want to see everything.

bipartisan effort to try to put legislation to require that. but one of the things that's guiding justice department officials is that they don't want to do a repeat of james comey, which if you remember in 2016, he stood up there, did a press conference. he said there were no charges to be filed against hillary clinton but then spent several minutes afterwards describing all of the things that she did wrong. they do not want to do that again. so the question is, you know, if there are no charges against certain people, will the mueller report say exactly what they did find and why they didn't bring those charges? we don't expect that that's going to be made public. so one other thing that we should take note of this, erin, is that just because mule ellem done doesn't mean this is all over. prosecutors in new york that are investigating the inauguration and there are other parts of this investigation that are living on, u.s. attorney's offices here in washington and elsewhere. >> all right, thank you very much, evan. as evan points out, when you follow the money, this may be

just the beginning of what matters most. "outfront" now, former cia chief of russia operations steve hall. former assistant secretary for the department of homeland security under president obama, juliette kayyem. and former federal prosecutor shan lu. and former democratic member of the los angeles city council, jack weiss. thanks to all. jack, could there be a smoking gun in here for president trump or not? look, i think the only stuff that's in this report for trump is bad. and what we're going to find out some time in the next few weeks is who bill barr thinks he's working for. is he working for history or is he working for the trump family? does he want to go down in history as elliot richardson did or does he want to be remembered as one like john mitchell or devin nunes? there's nothing in this report that's going to exonerate trump. and remember, the trump -- the report is not the end of the matter. it's hardly a bold prediction to say that once the report, whatever it is, makes it to

congress, congress is going to open impeachment proceedings. by the way, they can take new evidence when they begin those proceedings. so the report is going to be bad for trump. it's going to signal a new process for trump. and we're going to know really soon what bill barr is made of. >> steve, could there be a smoking gun? >> erin, i wouldn't rule out anything. i mean, it's certainly possible that through the course of this lengthy investigation, which we have to remember started out as a counterintelligence investigation in the fbi, that the fbi and the mueller team has uncovered certain evidence, facts, that could, indeed, be a smoking gun. we'll have to see. one thing that is absolutely difficult or if not impossible to get past is all of the connective tissue that you've got between donald trump, the trump family, the trump team during the campaign, and russia. and what the investigation actually shows about that, those

connections, and the motivations behind them, critically, i think is really going to decide as to how impactful and what's going to happen with the mueller investigation when it concludes. >> and juliette, shan mentions the word, "impeachment." you think democrats are going to go ahead with impeachment proceedings after this, regardless. there will be nothing there to force that, to force the jerry nadlers of the world to go. >> i think that's right. i've never been a proponent of the smoking gun theory. i mean, the idea that there's some tape of a phone call between putin and trump, to, you know, to steal the election, is just ridiculous. in some ways, we don't need a smoking gun at this stage. enough people are in jail, enough people have pled, enough lies have been made to make sure there's clear criminal exposure for the trump family. what we have to look at the mueller report is, there's a report then there's different audiences. so one is going to be congress. what do they do with it, what do they do in terms of furthering an investigation, and do they look at this as basically a

statement that says that the president is sufficiently compromised by russia to proceed. there's the public and whether the public is up in arms about some of this stuff. and then, of course, there is the courts. there are --grand juries meeting rite n ining rig. we don't know the subjects of the grand jury. there will be more shoes to drop across the counterintelligence, political realms. the smoking gun theory of mueller never rang true to me. that's not how the cases unfold. >> i want to talk about the other possibilities, other grand juries, other possible cases. sh shan, first, this report, as we said, what is it going to look like? so i mentioned 37 people or entities already charged, right? four people already gone to prison. 100 criminal counts. what's the report going to look like? you know, all of this laid out,

you know, as steve is saying. ken starr was, what, 453 pages. that would seem to be a droop in the bucket of what he's going to do. >> he doesn't have the same requirements as starr has. starr had the right of public disclosure to a large extent. the requirements are simply he has to explain prosecution and explain justice department interference or limitations on it. beyond that, it's structuralist form. i do think we'll never see the raw data in that report. thi i think there's no question as to who the attorney general is working for, and he has plenty of good, solid, rationales not to release anything negative. he can use that longstanding policy, no disparaging information. so i really think what's going to happen is there will be a very sanitized summary, and then the ball's really going to be in congress' court because the question is, what can they glean? they can subpoena the document. they get some of it. they can subpoena witnesses. it's going to be in their court. >> it's going to be pretty

amazing, it seems right. you all seem to think impeachment, obviously, that's what's happening here. steve, i want to it ask you about something i just mentioned, though. former acting fbi director andrew mccabe says it's possible the president of the united states could be a russian asset. right? that directly, couldn't have been more clear. you were the head of the moscow bureau station. what do you think? >> erin, i think there's a lot of ways that somebody like president trump can commit treason. need not necessarily be sort of the typical, stereotypical, you know, meeting a spy under a bridge on a foggy night in moscow. i actually doubt it would be something like that. you have to remember, the russians have a very broad spectrum of type of people that they can cooperate with in different ways, in different modes. they've got, you know, cooperative contacts. they've got trusted people. sometimes the quote that you had from john brennan earlier was very good. sometimes people are not even witting as to what they're doing. but the real question that i think we have to ask is, did

donald trump work and act in such a fashion that benefited russia as opposed to the united states? there's a lot of people who think, oh, he was just trying to get a trump tower going in moscow or something to benefit himself financially, but there's a lot of things that he did that don't make any sense. unless you were doing it for russia. disparaging nato. disparaging our western allies. why would he do that unless it was in russia's support? >> all right. that is obviously going to be the crucial question here. all of you staying with me. as the president braces for mueller's report, is there another major investigation that could be a much bigger threat? plus, president trump spends the weekend venting about his director of national intelligence. now dan coats may be on his way out. plus, bernie sanders raking in a massive amount of money in just the first 24 hours of his campaign. $6 million. that trumps his rivals.

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- want to take your next vacation to new heights? tripadvisor now lets you book over 100,000 tours, attractions, and experiences in destinations around the world like new york, from bus tours to breathtaking adventures. tripadvisor makes it easy to find and book amazing things to do. and you can cancel most bookings up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund. so you can make your next trip monumental. read reviews, check hotel prices, book things to do, tripadvisor. tonight, the investigation that could be more of a threat to trump than mueller's probe, which, of course, as we said, could be done in the next week. the southern district of new york investigating trump's inaugural committee recently requesting interviews with trump organization executives. we don't exactly know what that's for, whether it's related to that or something else. and, of course, the sdny led the probe into michael cohen's role with hush money payments to women alleging affairs with

trump. now, keep in mind, this is the same investigation that trump reportedly asked the formering aingsupporter in to oversee. pamela brown is od o"outfront." you reported trump allies and trump, himself, are much more afraid of what's going on with the southern district, even, than mueller. why? >> reporter: yaerkeah, erin, tr and his legal team long harbored concerns, investigation by sdny investigators, may ultimately pose more dangers to trump's family, to him, his allies, than the inquiry by special counsel robert mueller. now, president trump has said publicly that his red line for investigators is his family and money and it appears thereat sdny investigators are focusing their efforts there now that they've completed the investigation into michael cohen, the president's former fixer, and his payments to the two women during the election. and we know sdny recently reached out to interview executives with the trump family

business. sd sdn kblr sdny's been looking into -- unlike the probe, the sdny investigation could last throughout trump's presidency. that's a sticking point for the president and his allies. people involved in the investigation i've spoken with say the fact the mueller probe is ending completion, is a welcome development for the campaign and the white house, although they say no one is going to relax until all of the investigations, the sdny investigations, are done. erin? >> all right. thank you very much. pam and juliette let me start you. you think that this could be the biggest threat. the president's right? >> according to -- for the president, yes. so one of the hardest things to admit with this president is where his values and where his emphasis lie. so if you say, what is a value to the president? it's his family. it's the money, and it's the brand. and what's the greatest threat to those three things? it is going to be out of the new york cases. all the stuff happening with mueller has to do with the

united states an our independence as a democracy and whether our elections were free and fair. that is of less value to the president of the united states. it is clear two years later, having done nothing to thwart the russia threat, that is of less value. so from the president's prospectip perspective, what does he care about? money, brand and the family. that's all in new york. none of that gets impacted by whatever mueller does next week. >> and you know, jack, look, i mentioned, right, the inaugural, i mentioned, you know, these interviews with trump executives and the trump organization. there's the cohen probe then there's as juliette points out, who knows what else there is, right in other grand juries we may not even be aware of. when it comes to trump org executives, we don't know why they've been interviewed. the chief financial executive or the trump org allen weisselberg has been granted immunitimmunit right? he knows a lot. here's what trump inner circle members have said about mr. weisselbe weisselberg. >> he knows everything about

donald. and in terms of the money trail, donald can be hurt, i believe, a great deal by allen weisselberg. >> he knows every single financial transaction? >> i do believe that he got more and more involved as time went on, and donald trusted him. he was almost a family member. >> how bad could that be for trump, jack, when you think about allen weisselberg who has been granted immunity? >> oh, it's serious stuff, and i think juliette hit it on the head, trump doesn't care about the country but he cares about himself and he cares about his family's liberty. the sorts of things that the southern district is going to be investigating, i would assume, would include violations of the foreign corrupt practices act. remember, there was that "new yorker" story about trump wrongdoing in the former soviet republics to help people paying off local officials to get trump buildings built. there is the intriguing issue of the deutsche bank subpoena. remember, deutsche bank is the only financial institution that would touch trump when no one

else would. there are all the questions surrounding money laundering. it could be russian oligarchs buying real estate. it could be other wrongdoing. this is all stuff which if any of this conduct occurred as late as 2016, the statute of limitations will continue past the trump presidency and on january 21st, 2021, he and his family could be subject to criminal indictment. >> i mean, steve, it's a pretty stunning thing to think about, and when he mentions, when you hear jack mention the family, no one, obviously, is more important to the trump organization besides trump than don junior, ivanka, and his son-in-law, jared kushner, right? that trio, specifically. last night, andrew mccabe was asked directly whether mueller's team has looked into trump's family. and here's how he answered the question. >> do you know was the president's family being looked into before the appointment of mueller or after? >> that's something i don't feel comfortable talking about as it goes to the -- could go to

ongoing investigative matters. >> what do you make of that, steve? >> i think the -- it's interesting that the context of that comment was when they were briefing the group of eight, which was thesenior-most folks in congress about the issue and the fact that he's unwilling, mccabe is unwilling to go further to discuss that right now, indicates to me that there is some sort of ongoing investigation, legal or counterintelligence or perhaps both, against what juliette and others have said exactly right is really a center point for donald trump. it's his family and his business. and i think that the russian intelligence services and vladimir putin understand that very, very clearly as well. that's one of the significant motivating factors when they're looking at somebody like donald trump and the family and the team to figure out how can we manipulate them and get what we want? it seems to me the family is an important focus of the investigation. >> shan, how bad could it get? >> it could get very bad because from a prosecutor's standpoint,

what is great about the southern district case, you have these incredibly valuable informants. you do not give the chief financial officer immunity unless he has a lot of bang for the buck. so that's number one. number two, they started off with cohen. another incredibly valuable informant because he has the president's unfiltered comments. knows what he's worried about. knows what he's thinking. lastly, let's not forget my former client, rick gates. aisle not saying anything confidential or privileged. just looking at the public record, he's not been sentenced yet. he was involved, we know from public reports with the inaugural committee, and they're looking at that as well. so when you put together that trio of informants, very, very dangerous. >> all right. thank you, all, very much. >> thank you. next, the white house bracing for possibly another moment of chaos. the shakeup for the president's new target, his director of national intelligence, the highly respected dan coats. plus, bernie sanders taking credit for pushing the party to the left. giving trump a reason to say

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>> the president -- >> reporter: this time it's dan coats. the most senior intelligence official in the country. the president today denying he's thinking about it. >> are you considering replacing dan coats as your director of national intelligence? >> i haven't even thought about it. >> reporter: but the speculation that coats may soon find himself out of a job went into overdrive after a close trump friend spoke with cnn's christiane amanpour. >> i'm hearing from sources around the white house that it's just general dis appoiappointme the president with director coats. there's a feeling that -- >> uh-oh. >> -- maybe there theneeds to b change of leadership in that position. >> reporter: it comes on the heels of last month's senate intelligence committee hearing when coats, who was surrounded by the chiefs of the major intelligence agencies, rattled off a long list of analysis which contradicted what the president had been saying. including on north korea. >> it's unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons and production capabilities because its leaders ultimately view nuclear weapons as critical to

regime survival. >> reporter: this as the president was promoting an upcomi upcoming summit with and heaping praise on dictator kim jong-un. >> things are going very well with north korea. >> reporter: after the hearing the president lashed out tweeting, "perhaps intelligence should go back to school." fuming about coats behind the scenes while then arguing that the press was misreporting what the intelligence community had said. >> they said they were totally misquoted and they were totally -- it was taken out of context. >> reporter: divisions between the two men sprang to light last summer when coats was asked about the breaking news. >> okay. >> yeah. >> reporter: that russian president vladimir putin had been invited to washington. >> that's going to be special. >> reporter: coats has repeated time and time again what the president has been unwilling to. that russia meddled in the 2016 election. and even three weeks after trump met one-on-one with putin in helsinki, the man charged with america's secrets appeared to have not been told that his boss

discussed with one of the country's biggest adversaries. >> i'm not in a position to either understand fully or talk about what happened at helsinki. >> reporter: with the storm clouds gathering over coats now, allies are coming to his defense. senator susan collins tweeting, "we are fortunate to have a person of his ability and candor to lead our intelligence community." senator angus king who served with coats on the intelligence committee telling cnn's "new day" that firing him would lead the intel community down a dangerous path. >> the message to the intelligence community is, shade the data. cook it. slant it. don't tell the man what he doesn't want to hear. that's disastrous for the country. >> reporter: and, erin, sources are telling our white house team now that officials have begun having discussions over who could take over, if coats is, indeed, fired. now, the cautioning of these talks are in the early stages and may not come to pass as all. the president has been venting about coats for weeks, we're told, and the president does see

coats as trying to constrain him. of course, others who have tried doing that have been shown the exit. erin? >> all right, alex, thank you very much. i want to go straight now to a person who knows dan coats well. a person who has been in that very chair. james clapper, the former director of national intelligence. director, i appreciate your time. look, you know coats personally. you had this job. what's your reaction to what the president is seemingly trying to do behind the scenes to get rid of him? >> well, this is the -- what has become the all-too-familiar pattern here of when people incur the displeasure, or the rath, i guess, more accurately in this case, of the president, you start to see media reporting and white house aides talking about, you know, his departure and in this case, which i thought was pretty blatant, was the confidant of the president speaking about his eminent departure. think this is really, really

regrettable for a lot of reasons. dan coats is an honorable man who believes in truth and telling of the truth and that's what he's been doing, and i think if he is fired, this conveys a terrible, terrible message to the intelligence community. in other words, don't tell truth to power. you got to hue to the party line and to the president's bubble, reality bubble, and not actual fact. and that is a very dangerous thing as senator king aptly said. >> yeah, when he was saying, you know, cook the books, shade the data. you know, the thing about this is, director, is that trump had a lot of people working around him that had a lot of bipartisan respect. right? people may not agree with all of them, but they were respected. right? they were supposed to steady the ship. h.r. mcmaster. john kelly. jim mattis. right? they're all gone. coats also respected on both sides of the aisle. if he goes, how big of a loss is it? when you look at that roster, gone, gone, gone, gone? >> i think on the heels,

particularly, of jim mattis' resignation, that this is for the country, maybe not for president trump, but for the country, would be a real double whammy to lose another independent voice in dan coats. i recall a conversation i had with dan in november of '16 when he was, i think, pressed pretty hard by vice president pence to take this job, and dan was retiring. he was on his way out. he took the job out of a sense of duty. and i think he's served with great honor. and i think this would be a huge loss for the country and what a message for his successor. here's how you have to behave if you want to keep the job. >> right. not a good message. i mean, let me ask you about this is coming, right, in the context of the mueller report, which we were reporting could be released as soon as next week. that mueller could be done with

his investigation as soon as next week. you were there, director, right, back in 2016, the first meeting with the trump campaign, right? you warned russians could be trying to interfere with the u.s. election. you were there at the very beginning. the nascent beginnings of all of this. now this report could be about to come out. do you think that anybody could be indicted by mueller? whether the president or don junior or ivanka trump or jared kushner? do you think there could be any move to indict by mueller? >> i don't know, but i kind of doubt it. i think if something like that were afoot, that we'd know something. so i don't -- i don't pretend to know just how this is going to be handled, but perhaps,contemp would be handed off to the department of justice. so, you know, he -- and in a sense, the special counsel's acting like a prosecuting attorney. not like an independent counsel.

so it's a different thing here. so i don't know. but i have said, i've come of a mind that this thing could be anti-climactic. >> all right. well, we will, of course, see. thank you so very much. i appreciate it, director clapper. >> thanks, erin. and next, bernie sanders with an eye-popping fund-raising number. in just 24 hours. should other democrats be really afraid? the dnc chair, tom perez, is "outfront." plus, breaking news. jussie smollett. you know the actor who claimed to be the victim of the racist and homophobic attack, is now officially a suspect. are charges next? the sleep number 360 smart bed is on sale now from $899, during the ultimate sleep number event. it senses your movement, and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. it even helps with this. so you wake up ready to hit the ground running. only at a sleep number store. it's the final days to save 50% on the sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus, 24-month financing on all smart beds.

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tonight, the money. senator bernie sanders' campaign says he has brought in $6 million in just 24 hours after he announced he's running for president the second time. sanders, of course, topping the bar. easily set by senator kamala harris who raised $1.5 million in her first 24 hours. "outfront" now, democratic national committee chair, tom perez. look, it's a heck of a lot of money, and i know, chairman perez, he's got the lists and the e-mail lists and, you know, kind of the built-in group of people, but $6 million is a lot of money. what do you make of it? >> well, that's a lot of money and that's great. what we're tryinging to do at the dnc is to encourage grassroots fund-raising.

that's why for debate participation, we have encouraged all candidates to raise money at the grassroots. that's exactly what they're doing. we have a remarkably deep field. i welcome that. and with whhat our job is at th erin, make sure everybody gets a fair shake during the process and make sure we continue to build the infrastructure that enables our next nominee to take down donald trump because we have to win this election. that is our number-one objective, and that's exactly what we're working 24/7 to accomplish. >> so, the question is, of course, will the ideas that are being put forth by that very wide and diverse field appeal to enough americans to do that? sanders says the party has moved toward him and his ideas, and let me play for you how he put it. >> you may recall that in 2016, many of the ideas that i talked about, medicare for all, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, making public colleges and universities tuition-free, all

of those ideas, people said, oh, bernie, they're so radical, they are extreme. the american people just won't accept those ideas. well, you know what's happened over three years? all of those ideas, and many more, are now part of the political mainstream. >> and, you know, when you listen to some of his rivals, it sounds like he's right, chairman. here they are. >> i am introducing a brand-new, big proposal, for universal childcare and early learning. >> we need to have medicare for all. that's just the bottom line. >> we need to work toward a tuition-free system of public university, college, apprenticeship, and certification programs in this country. >> free, universal, for all. is sanders right? >> well, you know what we're right about as democrats? we believe that health care is a right for all, and not a privilege for a few. we believe that climate change is real. the other side believes that climate change is a hoax. we believe that if you have diabetes or some other

pre-existing condition, you ought to be able to keep your health insurance. we believe that your source of payment or your family income should never inhibit you from getting the education that enables you to punch your ticket to the middle class. those are the conversations democrats are going to have throughout this primary. i was proud with president obama to work on a lot of these issues. and we're proud to work with the fight for $15 movement and the labor movement and others on those issues, and wa we're going it see in this upcoming debate season is a robust exchange of ideas. we're not going to be talking about hand size. we're going to be talk b iing, , about health care. >> you're going 23 be talking about big words. right? one of them is going to be social bism. the president is putting that front and center. he's launching a new line of attack at your party saying all of this freeness is socialism and here's what he's saying. >> to those who would try to impose socialism on the united states, we, again, deliver a very simple message.

america will never be a socialist country. the democrat party has never been more outside of the mainstream. they're becoming the party of socialism. we are alarmed by the new calls to adopt socialism in our country. >> are you comfortable with that? >> oh -- >> being a socialist? >> i'm laughing, erin, because what you should have put on after that was ronald reagan back in 1962 and 1963, we were debating medicare in america. and here's what he said. and i quote, "medicare will lead to socialized medicine. medicare will lead to socialism in america." here's what medicare has led to. it has led to prosperity for our seniors. when you fight for those ideals of health care for all, you're not fighting for socialism. you're fighting for fairness. you're fighting for inclusion. so this socialism word, you know, this is not the first time they've attempted to put this in

the playbook to attempt to deflect people from the realities. here's what democrats are fighting for. results. we want to make sure that this economy works for everyone. not just a few at the top. >> all right. tom perez, thanks. >> always a pleasure. all right. next, breaking news. police just announcing the actor who claimed to have been the victim of a hate crime is now an official suspect. charges could be next. plus, someone gets saucy at a kirsten gillibrand event. >> grassroots care about -- >> sorry. i'm just trying to get some ranch. >> go ahead. to make you everybody else... ♪ ♪ means to fight the hardest battle, which any human being can fight and never stop. does this sound dismal? it isn't. ♪ ♪ it's the most wonderful life on earth. ♪ ♪

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here's a thought, ever consider investing? e*trade has easy to use tools that help you get started. you like playing with tools don't you? 'course you do. ♪ don't get mad. start investing with e*trade. breaking news. the chicago tribune reporting that the cook county state's attorney's office is charging "empire" star jussie smollett with felony misconduct. this after he claimed he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attempt by men who cited trump's make america great again slogan. this story immediately raising questions and beginning to unravel. nick, a huge turn of events in just the past week. >> just in the past few hours, erin. we have just confirmed ourselves that jussie smollett has been charged here in cook county with

felony disorderly conduct. now, earlier this afternoon, two brothers, two men who were arrested last week as suspects in this attack came here to the grand jury. their lawyer just told us that they decided to man up and tell the truth. that lawyer told us that those two brothers were paid by jussie smollett. we have been hearing this from law enforcement sources for a few days now, that smollett paid these men. he choreographed, orchestrated this attack on himself. the attack took place back on january 29th, as you mentioned, questioned were raised pretty early on. it was 2:00 in the morning on a frigid cold night. smollett took 30 or 40 minutes to report the incident to police. questions were raised early on. but those two men who were seen on surveillance camera were arrested and then released on friday night when police said that new evidence had come to light. on saturday, which was the last time we heard from smollett's

lawyers, they were still saying it could not be further from the truth. this accusation that he orchestrated it. now, erin, it looks like it may well be the truth. erin. >> thank you very much, nick. obviously, those big developments, and i want to make it clear, disorderly conduct felony would carry, according to the chicago tribune, would carry a sentence of probation up to three years. a hate crime felony would be as many as ten years. i want to go to keith boykin. you know jussie smollett personally, but smollett of course said he was the victim of a hate crime. that's why i mentioned the difference in the sentencings, that his alleged attackers cited trump's make america great slogan. nine democrats jumped in pretty much immediately in part because that's the standard now. everyone expects you to jump in. they got forced to do it. kirsten gillibrand first. kamala harris tweeted this is a modern day lynching. she was asked about this on monday as the facts started to seem it could be a very

different story, and here's what she said about that tweet. >> which tweet? >> about saying that it is a modern day lynching. yes, jussie smollett. >> so i will say this about that case. i think that the facts are still unfolding. >> okay, look, she didn't have an answer. none of them do right now, but they were very quick without facts. will this rush to judgment be an issue for them? >> we don't know what's happened yet. we know there's a charge. i'm not presuming him to be guilty because of the charge. secondly, i do think it's important to understand that the climate we're in in this country makes these things believable because of the fact that when you have nazis who are marching in charlottesville, when you have hate crimes on the rise, when you have attacks on black lgbtq people on the rise, it's

understandable people would think this. >> isn't there a lesson to be learned though? if this happened, it would be horrible. i'm waiting for the facts. >> there's a way to handle it responsibly and to get the fact out, yes, but at the same time, i also think they also are handling it responsibly by re-evaluating what they're stating, unlike trump who never reevaluates anything, just completely doubles down on everything. also, donald trump is one of the people who condemned this attack. he said it was horrible, the worst it gets. so it's not just the democratic candidates. a lot of people believed this. people had no reason to think that, why would somebody make up a story like this? >> you know smollett. >> yes. >> you're shocked that he could have done this? >> again, i'm not presuming his guilt on this, but i have known him for eight years. i have never known him to lie. i had no reason to think he would lie about this. i still don't know it's necessarily true. in my previous life, i saw these

types of things happen on a regular basis. there was a guy a few blocks from here who was shot and killed in greenwich village, mark carson, in new york city, because of his sexual orientation. >> but if he made this up, doesn't he hurt every single person who has something this horrific happen to them. now when people hear it, they're not going to know if it's true. >> i heard that argument, but i don't believe that. i think people looking for excuses are going to use the excuses either way. yes, it doesn't help the case or future cases, but the reality is that people, these people are victims of crimes. black lgbtq people in particular have been victimized by these crimes. regardless of whether this is true or not, those stories need to be heard and told. >> i hope they are, even if we have charges here now, and if this was a horrific and horrible thing to make up if that's what happened. thank you so very much. >> in the middle of a campaign event, this woman stole america's heart. >> sorry, i'm jus trying to get some ranch. >> go ahead. so, i started with the stats regarding my

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tonight, contments on the campaign trail and the moment that went viral. here's jeanne. >> don't even think of messing with her ranch dressing. as democratic presidential candidate kirsten gillibrand was speaking at an iowa city restaurant called the airliner, this viral moment took off. >> the debate and the grassroots -- >> sorry, i'm just trying to get some raunch. >> jimmy fallon has the replay. >> sorry, i'm just trying to get some ranch. >> she's like, your election is in two years. i need my ranch now. >> and thus was born ranch girl, the hero america needs now. so what is so great about ranch? >> i think it's the best condiment. if i could only have one for the rest of my life, it would definitely be ranch. >> college student hannah kinney was upstairs leading a bible study group when their order

arrived without ranch dressing. hannah tried to wiggle her way to the kitchen through the gillibrand crowd. not recognizing the senator. >> i was thinking, oh, they're thinking you're trying to cut in front to get closer to the senator. that's why i threw my hands up, like i'm trying to get ranch. i don't want anyone to be mad. >> elle magazine gushed, clear a space on mt. rushmore and change the name to mt. ranchmore. what was the ranch for? pizza. she's a dipper. she dips her pizza in it. >> ranch girl says she leans left and plans to vote democratic. senator gillibrand tweeted, never get between a midwesterner and their ranch. telling hannah, pizza's on me during the next trip to iowa city. the restaurant's giving her a year's supply of ranch. do you ever drink it straight from the bottle? >> i have definitely probably done that on a dare in the past. >> on her wish list, an endorsement deal from wishbone. jeanne moos, cnn.

my cameraman is telling me i have ranch on my upper lip. new york. >> she really loves the ranch. all right. thank you so much for joining us. anderson starts now. >> what will we see and when will we see it? good evening, those questions taking on increasing urgency in the wake of new cnn reporting that suggests russia's special counsel robert mueller could be wrapping up his investigation. people familiar with the plans telling us that william barr, the new attorney general, is preparing to make that announcement as early as next week, which raises those questions. when will we see what the mueller team has uncovered, and how much of it will congress and the public have access to? because there's no law that says we have to see any of it, only justice department guidelines requiring mr. mueller to provide the attorney general with a confidential report explaining his decisions to prosecute or not. in turn, the attorney general is required only to provide top members of the h