inches tall. blake, rene, new father cedric, they're all doing well. look how cute, how cute that little baby is. congratulations to the entire wonderful family. i'm wolf blitzer. follow me on instagram. tweet the show @cnn. erin burnett out front starts right now. "outfront" next, the pardon problem. do emails between michael cohen and a lawyer linked to team trump proving that trump was dang bling a pardon. the feds want the ooechls. obstruction of justice on the line. plus trump says things could get very bad, that's a quote, if his police and his military get tough on his opponents. is that a threat? and the son of a u.s. citizen detained, allegedly tort tured by saudi arabia speaking out in his first television interview. why is president trump sigh lenl again when it comes to abuses by saudi arabia's crown prince? let's go "outfront."

good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, president trump dangling a pardon. he says he's got the emails to prove it. now, two powerful congressional committees, the chairman and federal prosecutors think that those emails may prove something. >> i take that as the president -- or people on his behalf may have been dangling the possibility of a pardon in front of mr. cohen to say to him don't tell the truth, you know, don't implicate the president. >> we'll be looking to koobt i corroborate the evidence we received and this is very much a key interest of ours. >> and we're learning tonight the federal prosecutors in the southern district of new york want to review those emails as well. here's why. the emails were sent after cohen's home and office were raided by the fbi, okay?

after that, okay, but before cohen pleaded guilty, sent during a time that trump knew information was in investigators' hands that he did not want out. he didn't want them to have it. during a time that trump needed cohen to toe the line. the emails were between michael cohen and a lawyer named robert costello. now, costello was essentially supposed to be a back channel to trump's team. at this time that team had a joint defense team. costello was a long-time friend of rudy giuliani. that's the connection it seems here. now, here's part of the email that cohen released to try to corroborate his claim that the president's team was dangling a pardon to try to obviously influence and get him to support the president. costello wrote to coal hen, quote, you are loved. sleep well tonight. you have friends in high places. now, remember trump tweeted just last week bad lawyer and

fraudster michael cohen directly asked me for a pardon. i said no. so this is actually not just a matter of semantics or wanting to get to the bottom of it just for the sake of it. who brought up the pardon first is an important question because it could mean obstruction of justice if the answer is the president of the united states. shimon is out in washington. what are they looking for? what do they want? >> so the only thing really you can think of here is whether or not -- really the best way to explain it is whether or not the president, whether the people close to the president were essentially trying to buy michael cohen off with the idea they were dangling this pardon. it's very clear that everyone knew that at the time that michael cohen was on shaky ground, he did not feel comfortable. he was uneasy over the raid. he was very concerned that -- of his arrest and the fact that the

fbi and the department of justice was copping after him, and the president and his people were certainly concerned where michael cohen stood. and when you look at all of this, the fact that they're doing this backchild communication to rudy giuliani, that somehow getting to the president you have to wonder what else could this possibly be. and, you know, a lot of focus has always been on whether robert mueller is looking at obstruction, but it very well could be that this issue is well before the southern district of new york in the mike calico hen investigation and whether or not they were trying to dangle this pardon and, hey, we're going to take care of you. do the right thing, don't flip on us. they don't have to come out and say that. their actions and activities could point to that. the other thing i want to point to is the fact that when you look at the way the president behaved surrounding this investigation, when you look at the way the people around the president of the organization behaved around the payments, the hush money, they made every effort to try and hide those

payments, so when you take all of that in its totality, the investigators have to be wondering, what the hell is going on here. you have to see this is probably part of an obstruction investigation. >> thank you very much. it's crucial. it's crime. so it's a crime in any sense of the world and of course it's also an impeachable act. "outfront" tonight, gerry connolly. good to have you back. >> good to be with you. >> you've seen the information that jerry nadler has. do the emails prove trump dangled a pardon or not at this point? >> on their face they certainly don't prove it, but they certainly create, i think, circumstantial evidence that merits a lot further scrutiny. when you use phrases like you can sleep well tonight and you have friends in high places, what does that mean? i mean are we going from friends in high places that sleep well tonight otherwise you'll sleep

with the pistons? what is billion said there? and remember as you said, erin, if you're dangling a pardon in exchange for silence and obstruction of justice, that's a crime. >> right. let me try to understand. so you're saying they don't prove it, but there's obviously circumstantial evidence here. you want more information. so what do you not have? do you have all the emails preand post? do you have everything you need? and if not, what are you missing? >> i think we're going to have to see more documents. we're going to have see what was the context. i think the reporting that we heard did a very good job of putting this in context, which certainly does not put the presidents' day or mr. giuliani or for that matter mr. costello in a good light. so i think, you know, this investigation has to go forward, but this is a very troubling development, no question about it that so let me, though, just understand. if michael cohen brings it up first, maybe that's what things

will show. who knows. he brings it up first. he asks about pardons or pardons in general or something like that, and then the emails proceed the way they did, could it still be perceived as an obstruction of justice if it's offered, put out there, dangled? >> it certainly could if the expectation was that in return for even discussing a pardon, you need to be uncooperative with the special prosecutor and you need to basically stay with the code of omerta. don't talk, like manafort. >> which i think is an important point to make which in a sense doesn't matter what came first. it matter as what the president's team was saying and when and how they were saying it. >> exactly. >> you said it comes too soon to decide on impeachment. if you find that the president dangled a pardon or someone on his behalf, giuliani, costello,

whoever it may have been, is that grounds for impeachment? >> yes, no question. right now we're at the early stages. we've only been in the majority -- this is our third month. we've had one public hearing, and that was with mr. cohen himself. as mr. nadler reported, they put out one net with a wide range of activity by mr. trump and his organization, we're in the fact-finding phase and shouldn't be ahead of ourselves but neither should we downplay the gravity of it. >> i know you're always questioning jared kushner's security clearance. there are letters that show that

president trump personally intervened, overrode national security officials and said give it to them. and the president was asked about this today. let me play the exchange, congressman. >> thank you very much. >> just to be clear because i think context does matter here. that refusal to answer the question came as he answered ten questions before that question and two questions after that question. so that question was one he did not want to answer. have you made any progress? >> right. not yet. my hope is that general kelly who had been his chef of staff and probably mr. mcgahn who served as whougs counsel would be forthcoming in providing their cops of the memoranda. that i each memorialized their concerns about the presidential order overruling serious reservations about providing mr. kushner with a security

clearance. this was not a technical or trivial matter, and the fact that they felt compelled to put their thoughts to writing in terms of their concerns if not about the objection of the president's action is worthy of much further scrutiny and i'd love to get my hands on both of those memos. >> thank you very much. i appreciate your time, congressman connolly. >> thank you, erin. next, president trump in a new interview threatening his opponents saying his military, his police, and his biker pals could make it very bad for democrats. what does that mean when you're talking about police and military? plus, bay toe o'rourke is running for president. >> this is a defining moment of truth for this country and for every single one of us. and mueller's star prosecutor leashing. does it mean it's over? the end of a special counsel probe.

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and trouble swallowing may occur. ask if vraylar can help you get on track. new tonight president trump says his police and military could make things very difficult. this is brett bart. i actually think the people on the right are tougher. i can tell you i have the support of the police, the

support of the military, the support of the bikers for trump. i have the tough people. but they don't play it tough until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad. abby phillips is out in front of the white house. abby, this feels like a threat. >> a lot of people are taking it that way, erin. ite knowset the first time president trump has used almost identical language talking about the military, the biengers for trump, and others who he says are tough and tough in a specific waying and the president implying in this way the left is tough too. he used this language when he was talking about antifa saying that his supporters might be able to go up against antifa at a campaign rally back in september in missouri and many people remember back in the campaign president trump talked about second amendment people, second amendment people referring to people who advocate for gun rights in this country,

being able to stop hillary clinton from appointing judges, left leaning judges to the court if she were elected president, so this is a president who's repeatedly used this kind of language, sometimes playing fast and loose with his words and leaving it open to interpretation for people to believe this is a door open to people who might want to use violence in the public's sphere. the president almost never clarifies and the white house certainly doesn't either, but a lot of people raising more questions about the president's language here oonld why he doesn't do more to be clear about his words if violence isn't what he's implying here. >> abby, thank you very much. good point. if violence isn't what you're talking about, why are you talking about things getting very bad when you talk about your supporters as the police and the military and monolithic groups. keith, when you hear the president say things could get

very bad, very bad if police and military -- the police, the military get tough, what do you think he's saying? >> i think he's clearly threatening violence or hinting at the possibility of violence. it's a part of a pattern that we see from donald trump going back to the presidential campaign when he would consistently talk about he wanted to punch people in the face, tell people to knock the crap out of protesters. he offered to pay their legal bills for people who roughed up protesters. he just consistently behaved in a way that was detrimental to create a collegial atmosphere and he doesn't show any sense so sis he's become president. >> steve? >> look. i think it's important here to be very precise in terms of what the president actually said. he did not anyny way infer or say he was going to use the military, meaning in an official capacity or the police in any way. what he's saying is among those

groups he has enormous support, and that's very clearly true. hi's saying those groups can indefensively act with force if they have to because there's no doubt that -- >> steve, are we -- are we talking about having the military in a violent confrontation with the left in this country? >> no. i just said the opposite. i said -- >> you said -- >> no, no. this is exactly what i'm saying erin. he's not saying the military or police are going to take action. he's saying among those groups he has enormous support. >> you did say that but you continued to say they could fight in his defense. >> it's very, very bad. >> no, no. and as individuals, not as a military force, not as police forces, as vegs if think need to, they will defend themselves because we've seen a marked rise in serious violence from the left, from antifa and other groups. you can't blow this off. they're shooting congressmen,

punching student activists in the face, rousting speakers from podiums around the country and he's saying his supporters are tired of being pushed often. it's never okay to create violence but if it's necessary -- >> this is outranges. >> they will be forced to defend themselves. >> we have never had a president like this before who's not only encouraged violence when a balm woman was pushed around, a black man in fayetteville was punched in the face. he went to montana and praised greg gee a gianforte for body slamming a reporter. the president of the united states has encouraged this type of behavior or at least hinted at it. when violent people were

actually marking with tiki torches in charlottesville the president said they were very fine people. this is a guy who has a history of -- >> no, he didn't say that. >> he said they were very fine people on both sides. >> on both sides of the monument debate. that's an incredibly important distinction. he said there were fine people on both sides of the mon meant debate. it's a serious debate. he did not say they were fine people on both siesd of the protest. >> no one's tried to use it until you tried to use it now. >> in fact, he said it -- >> from the white house he completely denounced racism. he called it, quote, repugnant. he actually very specifically denounced the neo-nazis who were there. >> why did he offer to pay the legal bills for those who were roughing up people in the. ka pain? why did he say it was okay to do

police brew actuality. why did he threat to do a photo op with ted nugent after ted nugent threatened barack obama and hillary clinton with a machine gun. >> when you talk about a country on the edge, can i just play what michael cohen said last week. forget the message for a moment, steve. let me just play what he said dpz. >> well -- >> given my experience from working with mr. trump, i fear that if he loses the election in 2020, there will never be a peaceful transition of power, and this is why i agreed to appear before you today. >> there are people who have that fear, a lot of people. there's people on the left, there's people on the right. when the president says i have the support of the police and the military and if the other side plays it tough, it will get to a certain point and then it would be very bad, very bad, isn't that the specter that a lot of people hear, steve?

>> no. now, listen. i think he should be more careful with his words. i do. during his interview, i think it's never okay to -- >> steve, he didn't say it. he knows to say it. he chooses not to say it. >> look. her ooh is the difference though. i think what you're doing tonight, erin, and what media has done to him since he entered politics is always ascribe the very most nefarious interpretation possible of his words. the american people don't hear him that way though. we hear him as somebody who speaks very plainly, who doesn't speak in a lawyerly or political manner. for instance when he said -- abby said this during the pre view of the story and i had to fight this a lot in the campaign. she messaged the second amendment supporters could stop hillary clinton. what he meant was not that they were going to shoot hillary clinton but that that i could use their political power and political force to stop her in the senate. >> okay. i want to play.

no, no, no, no, no. i want to play -- everybody hold on for a second. i want to play some things he said, the last one about hillary and the amendment. i'm going to play it. >> knock the crap out of her, okay? i promise you i will pay for the legal fees, i promise. i love the old days. you know what they would do to guys like that in a place like this? they would be carried out on a stretcher, folks. hillary wants to essentially abolish the second amendment. by the way, if she gets to pick -- if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. although the second amendment people, maybe there is. i don't know. >> yeah. this guy has a history of playing loose with his words intentionally designed to stir up and fan the flames. remember, steve, when he went out there and said he caught

shoot somebody on fifth avenue and he wouldn't lose a supporter. this is a guy who knows his supporters are on the edge. he wants to tee them up to the point where during that -- >> a frenzy. >> -- during the 2016 campaign he would threaten he wouldn't accept the election result sthoos that was a very funny comment from him. >> no, it's not funny for the president of the united states to threaten to murder somebody and think he has no consequences for doing so. that's not a joke zmoo here's the thing. you can't have it both ways. here's what i hear constantly from the left. he's a feckless president who can't get anything passed from his own republicans to back him on the border, but at the same time he's a tyrant and dictator who's going to use national security forces to enforce the rule. which is it because those two things don't jive. >> nice try, steve. >> no. if he had the tendencies --

>> just because he's not good as being a dictator doesn't mean he's not trying. >> he's an incompetent dictator. >> that's the best i can say at this point. >> i wish the president would have been more careful with his words. >> thank you, thank you. >> i also believe when we're attacked by antifa, and leftists -- i lived in chicago when we were shut down, i think the trump supporters have to be ready. >> i've been in buildings where pipe bombs were set because of president trump. >> that's the fundamental issue and i think we all agree political violence is unacceptable and un-american, let's agree on that. thank you both. on "outfront" next -- >> i'm going to be me, run with everyone, run for everyone, listen to everybody.

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a get your questions answered by awesome experts store. it's a now there's one store that connects your life like never before store. the xfinity store is here. and it's simple, easy, awesome. tonight, born to run. that's what he said to "vanity fair" after he said he was born to be in it. beto o'rourke announced his candidacy today kicking off his run in iowa, explaining how he said he will differentiate himself from the more than dozen candidates he is vying for for the democratic nomination. he said one big way that he's going to be different is just to be himself. >> i'm just going to be me, you know? i'm going to run for everyone, run with everyone.

listen to everybody. try to answer every question. at this very divided moment in our country, people want to come together. >> he grabbed the attention of his democratic opponents who jumped right in. camela harris -- he also got the attention of his republican rival as well. >> well, i think he's got a lot of hand movement. i've never seen so much hand movement. i said, is he crazy or is that just the way he acts. >> more on that later on in this show. only jeanne can handle that. all right, patrick, so this announcement comes hand in hand with a very fancy glossy ann leave it was cover.

by that it means posed. she's the top of the top when it comes to this. okay. how much real substance the there behind him? what do we really know about beto o'rourke's policy? >> we know he was not ted cruz in 2018. that was very exciting down in texas. but in terms of substance on immigration, he's got an el paso message he can certainly talk about, getting rid of the border wall down there. he's able to speak with authenticity around that. on climate change, health care, standard democratic issues, he's more center left than progressive like elizabeth warren and bernie sanders, but what you're getting at is central here. it's not at the policies that are exciting people. it's, frankly -- >> packaging. >> -- a guy who's on the cover of "vanity fair." it was barack obama in 2008 when he was getting huge, huge rallies and becoming a rock star

and he was slated as a celebrity candidate. right now beto o'rourke needs to believe in something and he doesn't want to go down the trail where's the beef. >> i'm with everyone that the dangers of getting ahead of himself with saying i was born to do this without showing he earned it or deserves it is the question. >> here's a crucial question. obviously he lost to ted cruz. he's a three-term congressman. obviously ted cruz sort of made him famous with that loss. you've spent a lot of time with him, covering him, sasha. is he ready to take on trump? >> i think from the perspective of somebody running a campaign, he proved himself remarkably credible last year. he raised more money than any candidate ever. by the end of the campaign, he had 830 people on his field staff, which is roughly the same size as donald trump's national campaign payroll by the end of

2012. so when you accept that a candidate is a ceo of a strategic and markets organization, i think he acquitted himself pretty well. that's some preparation to run. the stuff patrick talks about, can he talk about foreign policy, that's not something that was ever really demanded of him and he wasn't able to -- he didn't have a primary contest last year, so he didn't -- he didn't have a serious primary. so he didn't get a lot of scrutiny from liberal interest groups. and in the general election people across the spectrum in texas were able to project onto him a lot of what they wanted to project onto him and he's very good at being all thing to all people. >> that's of course something you can do until you can't. he talked about being on a road trip, tired of being in a senate race, tired of being in a, quote, funk, the fog, the confusion, a lot of poetic posts there. you wrote a piece for cnn about

it and you wrote in part, quote, this could never, ever be a wom woman, betsy o'rourke, you were saying, if she wrote about being in a funk. for him, it did not matter. >> in writing this piece, i guess, amy, his wife bristled at the notion that i was supposedly criticizing him for leaving his kids at home and she said, well, he wasn't leaving the kids at home, i was there to take care of them, which is exactly the point i was making is that his wife who's privileged enable him to leave his house, leave his kids because his wife was at home and also the idea he could give an interview to the "washington post" and the question of immigration came up and he was pretty comfortable in saying he didn't know that. i don't think a woman could do that. i don't think an

african-american candidate could do that or a minority candidate could do that either. this idea if you're a woman candidate or minority candidate you have to be twice as good to get after half as far and i think a lot of the candidates we've seen. hillary clinton, barack obama, we've not seen that. >> president trump likes to talk about many of his rifles but he's not been quiet about -- here it is. >> i think he must be something a little special. he's not. he pretends to be a moderate, but he's actually a radical open borders left winger. that's what he is. the young man who's got very little going for himself except he's got a great first name -- >> i think that's probably the end of his political career. >> trump knows every time he says someone's name he helps them out or even doesn't say

their name. >> right. >> so what's the strategy. >> trump attacks at least when someone is getting under his own skin. he took on elizabeth warren with the racist name pocahontas. she was fearless in causing him out. she went right for him. that's where he go. his comment about beto o'rourke having something wrong with his hands at least for me reminds me of him mocking someone with "the new york times," a friend of mine. he decides to go personal very quickly and likes to main fun of people even if it's not based o anyone reality. >> one thng, the first day of the campaign, he flipped on a very, very big issue that's going to be central to this election. here he is today app then in our town hall, which was just a few months ago. >> i think the american people are going to have a chance to decide this at the ballot box in

november 2020 and perhaps that's the best way for us to resolve these outstanding questions. i do think there's enough there for impeachment and if asked, i would vote on it. >> okay. now he wants the ballot box, if asked i would vote on it, a few months ago. everybody's got to evolve, but is that an issue? >> yeah. actually last year he adjusted to being open to beginning an impeachment proceduring to being open to it. he's no longer a member in congress, so he's not going to have to face a vote on this and i think all the democrats are going to have to deal with the fact the facts are going to have to change in the next six months, 12 months. we'll learn things when the mueller report comes out and the congressional hearings. my guess is no democrat will have the same position on this or same language on it now that they do when people start caucusing in iowa. >> yeah. from your editorial you write,

o'rourke, tall, hand some, white, and male. his privilege allows him to turn a loss into a launching pad for a white house run. has o'rourke miscalculated. is 2020 the wrong year for someone of his profile, his description? >> you know, i don't think we know yet. this has come up in the "vanity fair" article, the idea that somehow he's disadvantaged because of his race and gender, because he's a white man in a field, according to this article, where democrats are wanting cory booker or camela harris. none of the metrics so far show that somebody like camela harris or cory booker is tailor made for this field. i don't think it's really sort of credible to argue that being white and male is going to hurt this candidate at all. i think in many ways it's going

to be an advantage for him. it allows him to be all things to all people as sasha was talking about. >> all right. that ichg you all. next, a man team trump loved to hate. >> andrew weissmann, you know who he is? a complete scoundrel? and now robber mueller is leaving his team. is it time for the mueller report. and the american teen in a saudi arabian prison allegedly tortured and yet president trump is silent. why? the detained american is my guest next. [beep] lisa jones! hey carl, what are you charging me for online equity trades? [nervous laughter] and do i get my fees back if i'm not happy? like a satisfaction guarantee? ugh...schwab! oh right, i'm calling schwab. thanks, carl! wait, lisa! lisa?!... are you getting low costs backed by a satisfaction guarantee? if not, talk to schwab. a modern approach to wealth management.

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new tonight, the strongest sign yet that the end of robert mueller's investigation is nigh. he'll be leaving the team. this is a big deal. a storied prosecutor, one of the first to voin, the one who led the case against the trump campaign chairman paul manafort and someone but team trump has regularly attacked. >> andrew weissmann, you know who andrew weissmann is. he's a complete scoundrel. andrew weissmann will be regarded by many lawyers and prosecutors as a disgrace. >> disgrace, scoundrel. "outfront" now former nixen white house counsel john dean.

what does's whyman's departure tell you where mueller is? is he done? >> it doesn't necessarily mean he's totally done. it looks like a phase of it is done. i'm told he's not only a good prosecutor and good in the courtroom but a good administrator and good at running investigations. it looks like with the manafort rap, that sort of heavy financial angle has come to an end. i think the counterintelligence part of this is going to be ongoing for several years. >> wow. so you think mueller will put out a report on where he is or do you think everybody is completely wrong on where this is? >> i think what's going to happen is people overestimated what his report is going to be. the regulars just called for him to explain why did he decline or why did he prosecute somebody. that's really all he has to report. so i don't think there will be

much more than that. it will be pretty bare bones. >> hmm. and then you're saying the conspiracy part would continue for several years? the counterintelligence part. >> all right. so i want to ask you the context of all of this, of course, is everybody talking about your role and nixon, and we have a new series coming out, "tricky dick," which looks at nixon's life and his career and some of the parallels between then and now. here's a brief clip, john. the tougher it gets, the cooler i get. i have what it takes. >> impeach nixon now. impeach nixon now. >> i want to say this to the television because people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. well, i'm not a crook. >> this crap about watergate -- >> let others wallow in watergate. we're going to do our job. >> briefly, you appeared in that clip, and, of course, your testimony before congress at

this time was crucial, right? you told nixon the watergate coverup was a cancer on the presidency. when you said that, that played a huge role in his resignation and that huge moment in history. what do you think is going to happen here? are we going to have more hearings? impeachment hearings? what happens here? >> i think this is a little different than watergate in the sense that watergate, you had hearings going on while you have special counsel investigating. they were both parallel activities. they would evolve into an impeachment inquiry based on something nixon had no answer for, and his tapes were so telling he decided he didn't want to try to fight it even. i don't see an exact parallel here, but i do see the overon the house beginning now is going to educate voters about what's really going on. >> all right. thank you very much, john dean. >> thank you. >> ant don't miss "tricky dick."

it premieres this sunday at 9:00 p.m. only on cnn. up next, a teen tortured in saudi arabia. his family wants to know why president trump remained silent. he's on "outfront." and on a much lighter note this evening, a call to arms and hands, the body language of 2020. ol, but she might not be sweatpants cool. not quite ready to face the day? that's why we're here with free hot breakfast. book at hampton.com for our price match guarantee. hampton by hilton. and relief from symptoms caused feel the clarity of non-drowsy claritin book at hampton.com for our price match guarantee. by over 200 indoor and outdoor allergens. like those from buddy. because stuffed animals are clearly no substitute for real ones. feel the clarity. and live claritin clear. the big drug companies don't see they see us as profits. we're paying the highest prescription drug prices

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harvard living in the united states for decades before heading to riyadh. he was helping people, also talking about human rights when he was arrested in the and his family says he is being beaten and tortured. president trump remains silent "outfront" now the doctor's son, ahmed. ahmed, thank you very much. you were there. what happened? >> basically, what happened was one day me and my dad were sitting in his office chatting when suddenly we heard a knock on the door. we opened the door, and it's a group of at least six to seven police officers dressed as civilians. they grabbed my dad extremely

aggressively, and they take him to the side. at that time they promise that they just want to talk. so they said that he is going to return by the time lunch is ready, he'll be ready. he'll be back home, which is in a couple of hours, which as we all know that was a lie. because one year and a half later, and he is still there. >> and so he is rounded up, along with other people that in most all cases were not charged at the ritz, and he ends up in prison. did you ever get any updates, anything about where he was, what they were doing, anything at all? >> well, that's the most frustrating part about all this. since the beginning, i've been watching this case, and the first couple of months we said you know what? let's play the patience game. let's give them their time. maybe this is a misunderstanding. so we waited. after that we said okay, what's the next step? the next step is let's navigate through the saudi legal system. so we looked for a saudi lawyer. the problem is not one lawyer wanted to touch this.

it was radioactive. nobody wants to touch this. >> because -- because it was perceive had the crown prince is on the other side? >> exactly. and out of fear and obviously security of their own safety, they don't want to take the case. so i was left with no choice but to come here to the u.s. and try to raise the issue on the higher ups. so i went and spoke with the congress. i went up to the hill. and they've been actually very helpful. >> you were with him on the day he was arrested. >> that's correct. >> you then decided you were doing everything you could to try to help him get out. >> that's correct. >> so you go to the airport. and you go again, and again and again. finally somebody lets you out. you come here because you have a u.s. passport. but then what do they do, the rest of your family? >> they go and they take both my family's saudi and u.s. passports. >> so no one else can leave? >> yes. no one else can leave. not only that, they have frozen all our accounts. so it's extremely hard to move since we have all of us nine

american citizens. we're two people away from becoming an american football team. we're an extremely big group of people. so that also plays a big role in our inability to move. >> so since your father was detained, secretary of state for the united states mike pompeo, white house senior adviser jared kushner have been over to saudi arabia there have been multiple visits. neither of them have taken this issue or raised it, as far as we know. the president, president trump has backed the saudi crown prince, mohammed bin salman, even though american intelligence conclude head personally directed the brutal american of american resident jamal khashoggi. here is how president trump responded when he was asked about khashoggi's death. >> i hate the crime. i hate what's done. i hate the cover-up. and i will tell you this. the crown prince hates it more than i do, and they have vehemently denied it.

>> i know that's hard to hear, ahmad. >> yes. why? why do you think he says that. why do you think he stays silent about your dad? >> to be honest, really, i think about this every single day, honestly. and it doesn't make sense to me at all. i mean, he is one of the most law-abiding citizens ever. it's as easy as black and white case ever just, you know, it's clearly a misunderstanding of some sort or the government has arrested him on false pretenses, and now is trying to fabricate a case that doesn't exist. >> so ahmad, if your dad is watching, if he sees this, what do you want to say to him? >> i want to tell him i'm going to do everything i can to save him. i love him. hang in there. >> i hope that this is heard, and i hope that you see your dad soon. >> thank you. >> your mom, all your brothers and sisters. >> thank you so much. >> that you have been separated from.

i know you can't go back. they can't come here. it's just terrible. >> appreciate that a lot. >> thank you so very much, ahmad. >> thank you. appreciate it. >> and here is hoping the trump administration will take a stand on this. "outfront" next, all hands on deck for 2020. thanks to priceline working with top airlines to turn their unsold seats into amazing deals, family reunion attendance is up. we're all related! yeah, i see it. and because priceline offers great deals by comparing thousands of prices in real time, sports fans are seeing more away games. various: yeah-h-h!

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tonight, beto o'rourke up in arms. here is jeanne moos.

>> reporter: when beto o'rourke literally jumped into the presidential race, he was up in arms, his arms. >> beyond the shadow of a doubt. and if you look at the climate, to get all this done, we would be fools. >> reporter: disarming beto was not an option. >> i think we should begin with the end. >> reporter: even when sitting with his wife. >> the last great hope of earth. >> reporter: his other arm kept escaping from her clutches. >> from every single one of us. >> reporter: it was almost as if he were doing sign language. even president trump tipped his hat to beto's hands. >> well, i think he's got a lot of hand movement. i've never seen so much hand movement. i said is he crazy, or is that just the way he acts? study it. i'm sure you'll agree. study it? study yourself. >> we're winning too much. it's too much. we can't stand it. >> reporter: president trump is a genius of gesticulation. >> they're not going to get

their way anymore, folks. >> reporter: but beto wouldn't take the president's bait, making fun of his arms. >> have i nothing to say to that. i think people want us to rise above the pettiness, the smallness. >> reporter: i guess beto won't be going after small hands. body language expert chris all red compared beto. >> almost like the blowup man you'll see at car dealerships as you go by. >> reporter: such motions are known as illustrators. >> it helps people focus in on you. you're more watched, you're more dynamic. people see you more clearly as charismatic, likable. >> reporter: as long as he doesn't put someone's eye out. a fellow panelist protected herself from bernie sanders. >> all right. the only way to tame beto's hands is to put something in them. be it a coffee cup or a jacket or a sweater. before taking question, beto kept saying -- >> i'm all ears. >> i am all ears right now. >> reporter: and here we thought you're all arms.

>> by extension. >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn. >> i will remember this forever. >> reporter: new york. >> and anderson starts now. good evening. we begin tonight keeping them honest with a first for president trump and a first for members of his own party in congress, his first veto after their first time the egg him know on the signature issue of his presidency. he spelled it out in a one-word tweet late today. he'll do the actual deed tomorrow there you see the tweet, veto. he says he'll do it tomorrow, blocking legislation to overturn the national emergency he declared to get funding for his border wall, money that congress refused to give him. when the senate votes were tallied this afternoon, a dozen republicans, you can see them up on your screen, had broken with the president. >> declaring a national emergency to access different funds sets a dangerous new