town hall with 2020 candidate former colorado governor john hickenlooper, dana bash moderates life from the cnn center in atlanta later tonight. 10:00 p.m. eastern only on cnn. thanks for watching. "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. >> "outfront" next, breaking news. trump confidante hope hicks cooperating with house investigators tonight. the white house, though, continues to stonewall. plus, the president goes after john mccain again and again and again. tonight, in a lengthy rant, accusing mccain of not doing enough for vets. >> why aren't more republicans standing up to the president? and breaking news, the justice department issuing subpoenas in a criminal investigation into boeing. let's go "outfront." >> good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront," the breaking news. one of pt. p's most trusted confidantes, his former communications director hope hicks is now cooperating with house democrats. agreeing to turn over documents

to house judiciary committee. hicks is very important. she was at the president's side through the campaign and at the white house until she left a year ago, and she didn't leave as persona non grata. since then, she's accompanied president trump to rallies. she's still close to the president. hicks is just one of 81 family friends, business associated, entities of trump's that received letters from the powerful chairman of the house judiciary committee. the committee with the power to lead impeachment proceedings. so far, only eight people have agreed to cooperate. trump's white house is not on the list of cooperators. the white house reportedly ignoring more than a dunz requests for document from the committees. and yet today, the president for the first time publicly said this. >> will we have a right to see the mueller report? >> i don't mind. frankly, i told the house, if you want, let them see it. let it come out. let people see it. >> okay, so when it comes to the report, he's saying let people

see it, which sounds good and transparent. the problem is that the president showed his true colors on this issue earlier this week when he tweeted, quote, on the recent nonbinding vote, 420-0, in congress about releasing the mueller report, i told leadership to let all republicans vote for transparency. makes us all look good and doesn't matter. play along with the game. play along with the game. because actions speak louder than the president's words today saying let them see it. sources tell cnn white house lawyers expect to see mueller's russia findings before congress and the public so they can claim executive privilege and prevent people from seeing anything trump doesn't want us to see. that is a far cry from transparency. family brown is "outfront" live outside the white house. the president wants to say he's fine with everybody seeing the mueller report, but that is a long way from the reality of actually having it released. >> it certainly is, erin. the president is changing his tune today. he's now saying the mueller

report should be released to the public, compared to before when he deferred to the attorney general to make the call. but the president saying this, as you point out, erin, is a far cry from it actually happening. the president wants to send a message, it seems, that he has nothing to hide, similar to the idea he wanted to sit down with mueller and be interviewed, which as we know, never actually happened. so the question is, does the president's pledge put pressure on the a.g., the attorney general, to release a report in full since the president is his boss. from a practical standpoint, he probably couldn't because of the potential classified information and grand jury information in the report, but he does have wide discretion to share other information, and sources tell me the white house wants to review whatever he gives to congress beforehand so they can assert executive privilege if need be. that seems counter to this idea of the president saying today of releasing the full report. now, speaking of transparency, erin, the white house is actively working to respond to the house judiciary committee after missing a deadline to respond. a white house official telling

me today the response will be comprehensive and thorough in responding to the committee's kwrs, but it doesn't mean the white house will comply with the request. clearly, the white house is working on its own timetable here. >> pamela, thank you very much from the white house. now, democratic congressman from california eric swalwell, who sits on the house intelligence and judiciary committees. so what's your thought? the president today seems to be singing a different tune and says let everyone see the mueller report. do you believe him? >> well, good evening. also, i have to say, happy new year to the persian community and muslim community in my district and across the country. but i don't believe him. because he has obstructed every step along the way. if the mueller team has a cable package, they will have seen him obstruct on cable news nightly almost. there's no exception to who could be so dumb that they would tell lester holt they obstructed justice by firing james comey. i also don't believe him because

he won't sit down even though he's been given the questions that investigators want to ask with the mueller team while others have gone under oath, and i don't believe him because he has put in place two people to be attorney general who auditioned for the job by saying they don't believe in the legitimacy of the mueller investigation. but erin, he's outnumbered. there's a majority in the house of representatives who will ask for this report and there's pres dnls in the judiciary that will require him to turn it over. >> okay, so you believe we'll get it, although it is obviously a fair point, right? ardless of how many times we see him saying i want to sit down with mueller. he never did. okay. cnn has confirmed that hope hicks, the former white house communications director and as you know, a trump insider, confidante, she plans to comply with your judiciary committee's request for documents related to the probe into president trump. now, among the many reasons she's important, not just that she's a confidante and close to him and was by his side at all

times during the campaign and of course in the white house. one of those times is air force one, right, when the president dictated that initial statement about don jr.'s meeting at trump tower, which was false. it was about dirt on hillary clinton and the statement came out, but it was about adoptions. how important do you think hope hicks could be? >> a critically important, and she has seen things, erin. i was part of the interview team that interviewed her in front of the house intelligence committee, and during my questioning with her is when she acknowledged she told lies on behalf of donald trump before. when i pressed her as to what those lies were, she refused to answer. she also refused to answer whether she told lies for donald trump jr., ivanka trump, and others who she worked for. >> when they said oh, she just meant white lies and harmless things and this was taken out of context, because i believe that was the pushback we got at the time, your impression is no. it wasn't just white lies. >> my impression was, okay, tell me the lies you told and the people that asked you to tell

them, and she said dozens of times i refuse to answer. i refuse to answer. we were in the minority then, the republicans refused themselves to have her answer. we're not in that position anymore. we can get the answers from her. she actually in what she was willing to talk about, was quite cooperative. her memory is very deep and extensive, and i think if she has a subpoena hanging over her, i think we can find out a lot about this candidate, these businesses, the transition, and the administration. >> so you said there are indictments waiting for this president. and you're now, i understand, working on legislation that would basically extend the criminal statute of limitations for sitting presidents so essentially department of justice policy is you don't indict a sitting president. he gets re-elected, he could be outside the statute of limitations by the time he leaves office. you want to remedy that. you could get it through the house, presumably. democrats control it. is there any chance the senate would support that? >> they should if they care about the rule of law.

erin, the president of the united states is individual one in an indictment that someone else is already going to jail for. i do not see how he gets out of himself being indicted if the statute of limitations doesn't run. what we want to do is make sure no president ever, republican or democrat, can escape a criminal liability just because they're re-elected. that legislation is forthcoming. >> okay, now, you also said you're not there yet when it comes to impeachment. i want to share a new poll out tonight. among all americans, 36% think trump should be impeached. that's a low number. and it is down seven points from december. 11 points from september. that's a plunge. okay. and it's not just a republican plunge, although they weren't for it to begin with. democrats also, huge plunge. impeachment, supporting democrats went from 80% to 60% just since december. that's a huge drop in support for impeachment. why do you think it happened? >> well, i think the american people also want to see us bring down the cost of their

prescription drugs, expand infrastructure investments and make sure kids have good schools in their community. >> they see it as like you're going to be spending all this time on impeachment and not doing those other things. that's the priority. >> yeah, we should not lead with impeachment, but we shouldn't look the other way either. what i believe is that there's three criteria that i have before i would be willing to support impeachment. and i think there's evidence that's concerning, but one, the stakes have to be so high for the conduct that the american people understand why it offends our rule of law and our norms. two, the evidence has to be strong. it can't just be based on one witness's uncorroborated testimony. and three, i want the public, republicans and democrats, to be bought in. we're getting there, and we'll continue to look, but i don't think we should eagerly rush into this. this is an extraordinary remedy, and i want to give donald trump a fair investigation than he would give anyone else. >> all right, congressman swalwell, i appreciate your time. >> i want to go to anne milgram.

when the president says put the mueller report out, obviously, that goes against a lot of the other things he's been saying and doing and an interview with mueller that he never did when he said he wanted to. putting that all aside, what is his bet here? is it a bet on bill barr? >> it's a really interesting question that he is potentially betting on -- there's one of two things. one, the bet is he's betting on bill barr, the attorney general, saying no, don't release it. this is exactly what he did with speaking with mueller's team. he said i would love to do it, but then my lawyers are telling me not to. and sort of relying on legal representation. the other is a bet, or a gamble that he'll be exonerating or at least not that there will not be sufficient evidence that the public will be swayed. so you know, the one thing i would take issue with a little bit is, i actually do think this report should legally be released by the department of justice. there's a lot of precedent in civil rights investigations. i was in the civil rights division at doj. the ferguson report, the reinvestigations of jfk, the

reinvestigation of martin luther king jr.'s murder. so there are countless examples where with the court's permission, where those types of reports have gone out. >> doj policy is not to indict a sitting president. we can all debate policy, precedent, but that's the policy. if that's adhered to, trump wins re-election, the point that congressman swalwell was just making, he could then be outside the statute of limitations. so it's possible, unless there's a change in the law, he could avoid being charged altogether if he wins re-election. >> most federal crimes are five years statute of limitations. if you think about most of the conduct mueller is investigations, 2016 and 2017, involving the president, those five year statutes of limitations would run in 200021, 2022. if the president is re-elected, he would still be president. so it does seem to me that there's a real reason for concern because it's clear the president isn't above the law. there's cases that say the president can be charged after he's been or she's been president. but if you have it that there's

guidance that says you can't indict a sitting president, and the general statute of limitation is five years, you can't. >> all right, anne, thank you very much. that's something to think about. a lot of people probably had not even thought about that yet. >> "outfront" next, the president intensifying his attacks on the late senator john mccain. >> and i gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted. i don't care about this. i didn't get a thank you. that's okay. >> okay. plus, the president in ohio. today with this message. >> we have the best economy we have ever had. >> so why then is the fed raising a major red flag today? >> and president trump calling george conway a husband from hell. his wife, kellyanne conway, is taking president trump's side. some things are out of your control. like bedhead. hmmmm. ♪ rub-a-dub ducky... and then...there's national car rental. at national, i'm in total control.

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and their giant dad. or a horse. or a horse's brother, for that matter. the room for eight, 9,000 lb towing ford expedition. tonight, president trump continues his assault on the late senator john mccain. speaking before factory workers today on a trip which was supposed to be about spotlighting manufacturing in ohio, president trump went on a five-minute rant. five-minute rant, and here's just part of it. >> so i have to be honest. i have never liked him much. hasn't been for me. i've really probably never will. but there are certain reasons for it. john mccain received a fake and phony dossier. he said two hours before he was

voting to repeal and replace. mccain didn't get the job done for our great vets and the v.a. we're in a war in the middle east that mccain pushed so hard. and i gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted. which as president, i had to approve. i don't care about this. i didn't get thank you. that's okay. we sent him on the way, but i wasn't a fan of john mccain. >> we sent him on the way, but i wasn't a fan of john mccain. okay. "outfront" now, lieutenant general mark hertling, former army commanding general for europe and the seventh army, and rick santorum, former presidential candidate and former senator from pennsylvania. general hertling, let me start with you. your reaction? >> well, what i would say, erin, is most folks in the military have a perspective of their leaders, whether they're the civilian leaders or military

leaders, as requiring character in order to lead and build trust. part of that character is an understanding that you pay homage to the values of our nation, which include in treating each person with dignity and respect. i think across the board in the military, these comments are going to add to other comments that the president has said about various folks who have worn the uniform and create quite a stir. and they have. based on what i have seen from some of my colleagues. i was disgusted by it. it's vile behavior, but how many times have we said that before and attempted to rationalize what the president says and why he says it, because he's had an enemy of john mccain. i knew senator mccain. had my ass chewed by him a couple times, as a matter of fact, both in combat and in peace time and in the halls of congress. i didn't agree with everything he said. but i did see him as a true patriot and a servient of our country.

it's unfortunate the president doesn't see it that way. >> rick santorum, do you share general hertling's sort of emotional reaction to this, disgusted by it, that it's vile behavior? >> it is vile behavior. but let's just -- you know, the bottom line here, this is about the sealed dossier, about the revelations that came out over the weekend that further implicated john mccain and his team of promoting the steele dossier, which in the president's mind, believes this the reason for the fisa warrants and ultimately for this russia investigation. so this is him doing to john mccain what he did to jeff sessions, which is someone who he believes is implicated in causing the biggest noose around his neck, if you will, when it comes to his presidency, which is just the constant harangue of this investigation, which is

obviously impeded his presidency. >> i'm curious, when he said the things he said, when you all referring to that it's vile and disgusting, i presume among other things that he said, you're referring to john mccain, given what he went through and what he did for vets, that he didn't get the job done for the vets and things like that that the president said. yet, i want to just play the response he got from his crowd, from his voters, his people who were there today, general. here's what happened. >> a lot of people are asking, because they love me and they ask me about a man named john mccain. if you want me to tell you about him, should i or not? yes? >> so you know, they seemed to like it. it seemed to be that sort of back and forth. >> that was a pretty tepid -- you didn't hear a big cheer. i have been in those crowds. >> you see it differently, okay. >> i did. i didn't think that was much of a cheer at all, number one, and number two, i have been in crowds where the president went after john mccain during the primary, back in 2016, and there

was not a lot of cheering going on. there was some. >> you don't think this works with his base, senator? >> pardon? >> you don't think it works with his base? >> i don't think it works for anybody. look, this is the president who is personally upset about what john mccain did that caused him problems with the russia investigation. and he's just blowing off steam. but this is not a winning strategy for the republican base, for any base. >> what's interesting, erin, is senator mccain did exactly what he needed to do when he came in possession of the dossier. he needed to give it to the authorities, the fbi, which he did. that's what makes this so troubling. you know, it's interesting. i'll add another piece to this, that this is behavior that is continually debated on various cable channels. why is the president doing this? who is holding him accountable? the thing that i'm concerned with is having testified before congress multiple times and been held accountable for my actions as the commander of a large

force, i think it's time to hold congress accountable for censuring the president and saying we will not accept this. this is not the behavior we expect from a leader of our country. >> so i want to -- to this point, you had johnny isakson today, he came out and said it's deplorable. he did call him out. you had martha mcsally say it's not okay. senator romney. you had some people, general, but i want to just play lindsey graham, because he gets to the heart of what i think you're saying. obviously, he's one of mccain's best friends. professionally and personally. he called president trump out on mccain today. i wanted to play exactly how he did it. here he is. >> i love john mccain. i traveled the world with him. i learned a lot from him. he's an american hero, and nothing will ever diminish that. i think the president's comments about senator mccain hurt him more than they hurt the legacy of senator mccain. i'm going to try to continue to help the president. >> and that last line may be the

one that matters, right, because ultimately, graham, as you both know, while he calls out the president sometimes, when push comes to shove, when it matters, he almost always gets on the trump train. his words, here he is. >> to every republican, if you don't stand behind this president, we're not going to stand behind you. when it comes to the wall. >> to my republican friends, get on the train. >> can you have it both ways at this point, general? >> no. the video has to match the audio. senator graham is just talking. and he talks when it's in his favor, as he's conducting his re-election campaign right now with the vice president campaigning for him, and yet tomorrow, he'll do something different to support the president. the president needs to be called out and held accountable by the members of the senate, all of them, both sides. democrats and republicans. it is behavior that we should not expect of our president because we should expect a

higher standard from him representing our values and our constitution. and he's not doing it, and congress is the only people that can censure him and say stop doing this. it's crazy. >> and yet senator santorum, and obviously, you're a former senator, he's not talking to you right now, but there's no chance it's going to happen. i think it's pretty clear. am i wrong? >> i think to censure a president because of his rhetoric and because of his incivility i think would change the standard of what censure is all about. the reality is what the president -- i agree with the general. i find the president's conduct when it comes to these types of personal attacks reprehensible, but what lindsey is talking about is the president as president, governing as president, he's going to support him because he by and large agrees with what lindsey wants to do and republicans and conservatives want to do when it comes to policy. that's the differentiation. it's important to speak out. i congratulation johnny isakson

and martha and others who have spoken out. i think others should. i think maybe to the general's point, if more republicans would be a little louder in condemning the president's forays into personal attacks, there might be some hesitancy to do it in the future. >> thank you both. >> i just would add to that, just like commanding from a military perspective means more than just the things you do as a commander, it means leading your force. governing should entail more than just policy and strategy. it should mean how you represent the american people. and i don't see the president doing that very well right now. >> thank you both. and next, president trump also today talking about the economy. it came on the same day that the fed is warning of a slowdown. trump's chief economist kevin hassett "outfront." >> the fbi involved in a criminal investigation into the boeing 737 max. multiple subpoenas from the justice department tonight.

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>> all right, the president spending time on this because where lordstown is matters. trumble county voted for trump in 2016. that is the first time that county has voted for a republican since the 1970s. a lot is at stake. "outfront" now, kevin hassett, chairman of the white house council of economic advisers. so the president today having that fund-raiser, only an hour away from lordstown where that general motors factory is closing. i spoke the other day to the uaw union leader, david greene, who president trump of course had personally attacked on twitter. he says he's tried to reach out to the president twice to talk about the plant. he didn't get a response. what is president trump going to do about those jobs at this plant? >> right. well, first, i can say that i'm not really sure i agree with the way you set the thing up in the sense there's some narrow political calculation for why the president is there talking about cars. ever since i first met the president more than two years ago, he's always talking about cars, and we have been pursuing policies that bring auto jobs back to the u.s.

we just pulled the numbers before i came to see you. did you realize since the election, there are 56,000 more autoworkers in the u.s. than there were when he was elected. when the president sees something like 56,000 more jobs in the auto sector and sees a plant closing, he's sort of puzzled about it. i don't want to speak about a specific company, but i think he's right given the big expansion of production and employment we're seeing undurable goods and autos. probably someone is going to buy the plant if gm wants to shut it down. >> is he going to take this on as a personal issue, this specific plant? he has talked about it specifically. >> i have not heard that he's going to try to find a buyer or anything like that, but he really cares about blue-collar workers and the economic report, the president, that came out yesterday, we documented his policies have really improved the lives of blue-collar workers. their wages are going up, unemployment rate is low. that's really quite striking. >> when you talk about

improvements, the federal reserve today came out and actually cut its growth forecast for the year. they cut it down to 2.1%. it had been 2.3%. both numbers below where you want to be. you have been saying you're going to get to 3% or higher. but the fed is just absolutely not even close to on the same page as you. wlie are they wrong? >> well, i have all the regard in the world for jay powell and the people there, and respect their independence. i think one of the things that's been different between us and a lot of forecasters is that we have been a lot more optimistic about the economic impact of president trump's policies. and the policies have basically delivered about as we said, you know, in the first year of our forecast, gdp came in above our forecast, but when we made it, everybody said that's ridiculous. it's too high. i think we were 2.4%, and the previous year, it was about a percent less than that. last year at the beginning of the year, we said we would be at 3.1%. sure enough, we were at 3.1%. >> you had a quarter. >> the point is just that we

think the models that got those two years right are the models we should rely upon, and my expectation is we're going to have another 3% year and next year, you know, if we do, then we would be right to stick to our models, and i think at that point, people are really going to wonder, maybe we need to adjust these things. >> so you're now saying let's celebrate 3%, but again, when it comes to a president, a lot matters. what he promised, what he said he was going to deliver. here's what the president promised. >> i'm going to get us to 4% growth and create 25 million jobs over a ten-year period. >> look, we're going to have a tremendous gdp. it's going to be maybe 4%, and it could even be higher than that. >> we're bringing gdp from really 1%, which is what it is now, but we're bringing it from 1% up to 4%, and i actually think we can go higher than 4%. i think you can go to 5% or 6%. >> did he have any idea how hard that would be? did he know those were promises that don't fit with reality?

>> you know, i think that the president is an optimist, and one of the things that economists know that is, you know, if you have an optimistic president, that thinks about how good things can be, that drives consumer sentiment and business sentiment and can lead to positive outcomes that are way above expectation. if you look at the inflection, the sentiment, i think the president's optimism has had a big effect. >> you view it as optimism and not politically expedient promises. >> it's the economic report of the president that came out. it's not the economic report of kevin hassett. the president agrees with our forecast that we'll average about 3% over the next decade, dropping a little below that over the next ten years. he's really an optimist. when i'm in the oval with him, he's like, kevin, i think we're going to do better than this. it's just the way he did. >> the joint committee on taxation released its overview of the tax system. for the first time in 50 years, kevin, for the first time in 50 years, individual income taxes account for more than half of tax revenue. corporate share has plunged

because they got a big cut. it is now at barely 6%, which is the lowest since 1983. when you see those numbers, it's shocking. wait, individuals are paying all the taxes to subsidize a corporate tax cut? >> that's completely backwards. you and i have talked about this before. so what happened is that we brought the factories back home. we had a capital spending boom. the capital spending was expensed. so temporarily, corporate expenses are down, but what did we say back in the tax debate was happening, that wages would skyrocket. there's all kinds of charts that document that's what's going on. the bottom 10% of the income distribution is seeing wage growth of about 6.5%. it's spiked if you look at the chart. it's happening exactly the way we said by having a capital spending boom in a period of low unemployment that you get an increase in wages. >> that you say will continue and the fed says will not.

>> but what happens if there's a big surge in wages? people pay tax on those wages. so therefore, the share of personal income goes up. so if you have a wage boom, you're also going to have higher taxes on the civilian side. it's not like a shocking terrible thing the way you portrayed it. >> you and the president believe that's the right way, that we should have -- that people, vings should be paying more? and the margin is greater and greater between individuals and corporations on who is carrying the tax burden in this country? >> we believe that the reason that wage growth was basically nonexistent over the last decade, but certainly before the president came in, was that we are the highest corporate tax place on earth, and nobody was building factories anymore. that manufacturing employment dropp dropped, if you go back to right before the great recession by 200,000 over president obama's eight years. manufacturing employment is now up by 500,000. those manufacturing jobs are really good paying jobs. people are getting wages again because we brought the factories home. being the highest corporate tax place on earth is a really bad

idea for workers. that's what we said before the tax cuts passed, the tax cuts passed, and the tax cuts delivered. we have seen the capital spending. we have seen the wage growth, just the way we said. >> okay, the "wall street journal" is reporting something that does not fit with this narrative. they're reporting former bankruptcy filings as one major point in farming states are at their highest level in a decade. which goes not just generally against what you're saying but very specifically against one of president trump's promises. >> on every front, we're fighting for our great farmers. our ranchers, our growers. we have to take care of our farmers and our ranchers, and we will take care of them. we want to open up china to farms which will make it better than it has ever been. farmers have been going down economically over a 15-year period. we'll have it go the other way. >> first, general reports the surge is in part because of the president's tariffs. is he even aware this is happening and his tariffs are being blamed?

>> i was in a meeting today with the secretary of agriculture, and he absolutely is briefing the president all the time on factors of the sector. i think that the farm bankruptcy issue is something we have to pay close attention to. there are a lot of factors driving farm prices this year, in addition to trade. there was a bumper crop in s soybeans and so on. i think in the end, the strong economy is going to drive consumption and increase agriculture and everything else. the final thing is that the trade deals are moving forward. ambassador lighthizer and secretary mnuchin are still working on the deal with china. and we've got the usmca deal that could pass and help farmers by opening up markets in canada. the president has been fighting for farmers. as the trade dales are realized, we'll open up new markets to our farm products and see those numbers reverse. >> all right, kevin, thank you very much. i appreciate your time. >> great to be here. >> and next, president trump slamming george conway. >> i call him mr. kellyanne.

the fact is that he's doing a tremendous disservice to a wife and family. >> well, according to my next guest, former trump business partner, going after family members is trump's m.o. plus, the justice department issuing subpoenas in an fbi criminal investigation. this into boeing 737 max. to bea world which is doing it's best 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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from hell. that's a quote from president trump. that's what he's calling george conway. but the president did not stop there. that was a tweet. he continued here. >> he's a whack job. there's no question about it, but i don't really know him. i think he's doing a tremendous disservice to a wonderful wife. kellyanne is a wonderful woman. and i call him mr. kellyanne. the fact is that he's doing a tremendous disservice to a wife and family. she's a wonderful woman. >> as for kellyanne conway, making it clear whose side she is on, she told politico, quote, in an interview, trump left it alone for months out of respect for me, but you think he shouldn't respond when someone, a non-medical professional accuses him of having a mental disorder. you think high should just sit that down? that nonmedical professional is of course her husband, george conway, who is questioning trump's medical state, even

tweeting out the diagnosis for narcicisstic personal disorder. "outfront" now, jack o'donnell. so jack, you know trump obviously very well over many years. is this par for the course? >> well, i think it's absolutely par for the course. you know, listen, george conway attacked his personality, and i think that the president was going to come back very strong. and not only does he come back strong, but he comes back to try to tug at some emotional piece. and i think getting -- if he can cause more friction between the conway family, i think that's what trump is trying to do. and it's very typical of him. he did it to me. he's done it to others. >> tell me what he did to you, because obviously here, what he is doing is not just counterpunching and saying the guy is totally wrong or saying i'm not going to conscience this with a reply. it's getting into his wife and their kids. it's deeply personal.

>> sure. a good example with me is i did a show at one point, a phil dawn hue show, and trump was to be there or have a representative there, and he brought roger stone in to be his representative, and completely off subject in the middle of the show, roger stone takes off with a character assassination of my father. well, you know, that's what he does to try to get people to react emotionally. and it's a way of control for him. and so that's one of a couple. he also obviously planted stories that i wrote about in my book where he tried to plant stories about an affair that wasn't happening, because he knows at that point that even the story, even if it's not true, you have to go back to your family and explain what's going on. that in and of itself is a victory for trump. >> there's other times he's done this publicly. about family members. here's a few examples.

>> he should give information maybe on his father-in-law, because that's the one that people want to look at. >> if you look at mccabe, and his wife is getting all of this money to run. she lost. hillary clinton's only loyalty is to her financial contributors and to herself. i don't even think she's loyal to bill, you want to know the truth. >> and then ted cruz, of course, be careful or i'll spill the beans on your wife. why do you think he does this? >> well, listen. there's a mean streak that runs through donald trump's heart that i don't think people can underestimate. and he does get a great deal of satisfaction out of that. so while i'm not a diagnostician for mental health disorders, there is a piece of this that is almost sociopathic, that he likes to hurt people. you don't have to be a

professional to see these traits come out in him. so i think it's part of him, quite frankly. it's who he is. >> kellyanne conway when she talked to politico today, to dan lipman, she told the story, you know, about how she and the president have been talking about her husband's tweets. she said trump could privately say to me, honey, you're a distraction. we love you. you'll always be a part of the family, but go be with your kids. go do that, honey. it's the opposite. and the use of the word honey, by the way, we talked to dan. she was being very serious. she wasn't being sarcastic. the president uses the word honey to talk to kellyanne. not the first time we heard her say he does that. >> what's his response? >> okay, honey, then we'll win. >> that's how he talks to women, honey? professional women that work with him. >> well, i think it's how he treats women generally, erin. but it also does something in the public's eye that's very

disturbing. it creates not just the perception that she has to choose between her husband or trump, but it presents a more intimate relationship, and he knows that he's doing this. and that's very unfair to any woman that's subjected to that kind of treatment by this president. >> all right. jack o'donnell, thank you very much. and "outfront" next, the breaking news, boeing at the center of a criminal investigation tonight by the fbi and the justice department. now, multiple subpoenas have been issued in a criminal probe. >> and devin nunes and his cow. and you know what? nunes is getting utterly destroyed. from $999... senses your movement and automatically adjusts on each side to keep you both comfortable. and snoring? how smart is that? smarter sleep. so you can come out swinging, maintain your inner focus, and wake up rested

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[friend] i've never seen that before. ♪ ♪ i have... ♪ breaking news. the justice department issuing multiple subpoenas as part of a criminal investigation into the boeing 737 max. now, that plane, of course, has now crashed twice, killing every single person onboard. these images from the most recent, the ethiopian airlines crash, 157 people died. evan perez is "outfront." and evan, we now understand fbi is involved, it's criminal. what more are you learning? >> that's right, erin. the fbi and the justice department prosecutors have

issued these subpoenas as part of this investigation. we're told that this is still very early in the process, but one of the things that investigators are trying to figure out is whether or not there's any criminal laws that have been broken in the way boeing certified this aircraft as being fit to fly, whether or not there were any criminal laws were broken in the way the certification, the safety, as well as the training manuals were prepared and as well as the way that boeing has marketed this aircraft around the world. it's become a very popular aircraft in just a couple of years that it's been on the market. >> so, the criminal investigation, i think what's important, too, you're learning, evan, this started after thel e lion air crash. you've had this probe start and now you've had another crash. what could be the significance of that? >> that's right, exactly. this certainly caught the attention of investigators early on and certainly the department of transportation, erin, has also started investigating this, because i think what you're going to see is that this

self-certification process, whereby boeing essentially was responsible for certifying this aircraft and then presenting this information to the faa, to decide whether or not it was ready to get the certificate, to be able to sell this aircraft, whether there was anything wrong in that process. i think members of congress are now asking questions about that process. and i think you're going to see a broadening of that investigation, whether or not this is a process that the faa should be using at all. >> all right. evan, thank you very much. and you know, just was checking here, some gdp numbers. because the boeing news that evan's reporting on could have major economic consequences. and moments ago, i asked the chief economic adviser for president trump, kevin hassett, about this, right? what would this do for the growth for the entire united states. boeing is the largest exporter in this country and it would matter. here he is. >> we have certainly lots of data on aircraft production and boeing production. and were there to be a disruption is something that would show up in gdp. it would be probably -- if they shut for a whole quarter, i think the number would be probably about 3 to 4/10ths off

the gdp number. >> that's huge, when you're talking about 2%, that's huge. we're talking tens of billions of dollars. obviously, with this criminal probe, all of this now a big question mark on the table. oo on a much lighter note, next, jeanne moos getting trampled by the comedians. >> he's literally suing an image narrow cow. (video games have evolved.addle) why hasn't the way you bank? virtual wallet from pnc bank helps make it easier to see what you're spending, stash more into savings and stay on top of your finances in a digital world. just one way pnc is modernizing banking to help make things easier. pnc bank. make today the day.

all of you.

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imaginary cow. >> reporter: the parody account, devin nunes's cow, was created to mock nunes, whose family runs a dairy farm. >> people were targeting me. there were anonymous accounts. >> reporter: so he targeted the parody account. the lawsuit didn't just let the cow out of the barn, it caused a stampede. a stampede of cow humor being milked for insults. when a horse's ass gets taken down by a happy cow. there were pole dancing cows and photo-shopped cows. the cow jumped over devin nunes. and "the washington post" declared nunes is having a cow. >> we can't have our -- can't have livestock insulting our elected officials. please don't follow devi devin @devincow. >> reporter: a campaign kicked off and surpassed devin's own twitter account in the number of

followers. devin nunes' cow started with only 1,200. within 24 hours or so, holy cow! this is no bull. the cow won. blowing through 400,000 followers and climbing. [ moo ] >> reporter: nunes' lawsuit against twitter inspired stephen colbert to goad the congressman. >> that's why it's totally legal for us to make @devinnunesskin an actual account where you can find announcements such as, "still thin." devin, we look forward to your lawsuit. >> reporter: take it from bart simpson. >> don't have a cow, man! >> reporter: actually, it's too late for that advice. nunes is already getting so much cow side eye, it would make any cower. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. i'm even dressed like a cow today. >> i was discussing, do you think she did that on purpose? she had to have had. oh, yes she did.

nothing that jeanne does is not done with great purpose. all right. coming up here on cnn, a live presidential town hall with democratic candidate and former colorado governor john hickenlooper moderated by dana, starting tonight at 10:00 eastern. thanks for joining us. anderson starts now. good evening. hope hicks, one of the president's closest confidants during the campaign and in the white house now says she sl cooperate with house democrats investigating him. we'll have the latest on that. also joined tonight by congressman jerry nadler who chairs the house judiciary committee. there's also breaking news on yet another investigation, acting defense secretary, patrick shanahan, now at the center of a new pentagon ethics probe. additionally, the president sclae escalated his attacks today on the late senator john mccain and took them in a direction no one saw coming and a direction that's pretty pathetic. but we begin with his new attacks on the special counsel, robert mueller, whose report is expected shortly. and whatever you think of the work of the special counsel, the president's remaray