tv Inside Politics CNN March 25, 2019 9:00am-10:00am PDT
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shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving simple. easy. awesome. stay connected with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. thanks very much for joining us for this special edition of "inside politics." i'm wolf blitzer in washington. john king has the day off. new details emerging just in to cnn on the russian special counsel investigation. the attorney general said yesterday that robert mueller did not decide on the big question, did the president of the united states obstruct justice? now cnn is learning new information about when and how robert mueller revealed he would not weigh in on that very, very sensitive, explosive question.
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our justice correspondent, evan perez, is joining us right now. evan, tell us what we've learned. >> reporter: this is very important new information, because the very fact the obstruction question remains still a looming question over the end of this investigation. what we're told, and laura jarrett, our reporter at the justice department frks to, was a source that about three weeks ago the general attorney bill barr and the justice attorney rod rosenstein, was briefed on the mueller investigation, and they were surprised to learn that mueller was not going to be able to reach a conclusion as to whether or not obstruction of justice had occurred by the president. again, this is something that came somewhat unexpected to the attorney general and the deputy attorney general -- >> hold on one moment. the president of the united states and the prime minister of israel had aboare about to spea.
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>> it's a big moment. a very important moment. it's my honor to welcome prime minister netanyahu to the white house. he's a very special man. he's done a great job. i want to begin by expressing our condolences to the prime minister and the people of israel for the horrific hamas rocket attack on israeli homes this morning which wounded seven civilians, at least, including numerous children. our prayers are with our friends in israel as they carry out an incredible way of life in the face of great terror.
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the united states recognizes israel's absolute right to defend itself. the despicable attack this morning demonstrates the significant security challenges that israel faces every single day. and today i am taking historic action to promote israel's ability to defend itself and really to have a very powerful, very strong national security which they're entitled to have. in a moment i will sign a presidential probable cauclamat recognizing israel's sovereign right over the golan heights. israel took control of the golan heights in 1967 to safeguard and security from external threats. today aggressive action by iran and terrorist groups in southern syria, including hezbollah, continued to make the golan heights a potential launching ground for attacks against
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israel. very violent attacks. any possible future peace agreement must account for israel's need to defend itself from syria, iran and other regional threats. we do not want to see another attack like the one suffered this morning north of tel aviv. in our meeting today, the prime minister and i will discuss these dangers as well as several mutual priorities in the middle east and beyond. we'll be discussing other subjects also, including trade, but we will mostly be discussing this defense and perhaps offense. under my administration, the unbreakable alliance between the united states and israel has never been stronger. you read things, you hear things. it's never been stronger, just remember that. people talk but it's only talk. our relationship is powerful.
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at this moment the american embassy stands proudly in the capital the jewish people have established, and they wanted the embassy for many, many years, for many decades, and frankly through many presidents and we got it done. not only did we get it done, we also got it built at a slight cost saving, like about $1 billion cost saving. and i want to thank ambassador david freedman for the job he's done and jason greenblad and jared and everybody. they worked very hard together, so i want to thank you all. thank you very much, ambassador. are you enjoying it? >> yes. >> and you love israel? >> and america. >> and america. i was waiting for him to say that. we have defeated the caliphate in syria. we have withdrawn from the horrible iran nuclear deal and imposed the toughest ever sanctions, and these are by far the toughest ever on the iranian
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regime. it's having a big effect. iran is not the same country that it was when i took office. the day i took office, we had threats all over the middle east and beyond. iran is a much different place right now than it was. as i said during my state of the union address, we will not arise to the dictatorship. death to iran and death to the genocide. we won't let them support that. we will succumb to our words, and maybe more importantly, our actions. in the last century, humanity witnessed the consequences of anti-semitism and a world without a jewish homeland. in the wake of those unthinkable
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horrors, the jewish people built a mighty nation in the holy land, something very, very powerful, something very special and important. today israel demonstrates that incredible possibility when strong sovereign and independent nations shot their own destinies. there can be no better example of greatness than what israel has done starting from such a small speck of sand. israel is an inspiration, a trusted ally and a cherished friend. the united states will always stand by its side. i'd like to now invite prime minister netanyahu to say a few words, and b.b. and i have known each other for a long time. he's another one that truly, truly loves israel. i can say he also loves the united states. so before i sign the
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presidential proclamation recognizing israel sovereignty over the golan heights, i would like to ask prime minister netanyahu to say a few words. thank you very much. >> mr. president, my dear friend donald. you have shown consistently incredible support for israel, for our right to self-defense. when we exercise that self-defense, you never flinched. you've always been there, including today, and i thank you. yesterday a rocket was fired from gaza deep inside israel. it hit a home in tel aviv. it wounded seven, including two small children. and miraculously no one was killed.
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israel will not tolerate this. i will not tolerate this. and as we speak, as i told you, mr. president, just now, israel is responding forcefully to this wanton aggression. i have a simple message to israel's enemies. we will do whatever we must do to defend our people and defend our state. after this meeting, i will return home ahead of schedule to lead the people of israel and the soldiers of israel. but before i go, mr. president, it was so kind of you to invite me to come here. it was so important for me to come here to the white house and to thank you. mr. president, over the years, israel has been blessed to have many friends who sat in the oval office, but israel has never had
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a better friend than you. you show this time and again. you showed this when you withdrew from the disastrous nuclear deal with iran. i remember in one of our first meetings, you said, this is a horrible deal. i will leave it. you said it, you did it. you showed it when you restored sanctions against a genocidal regime that seeks to destroy the one and only jewish state. you said, i will restore those sanctions. you said it and you did it. you showed that when you recognized jerusalem as israel's capital and moved the american embassy there and gave us a tremendous ambassador. you said it, you did it. and you showed it once again today, mr. president, with your official proclamation recognizing israel's sovereignty over the golan heights. mr. president, ladies and gentlemen, this is truly an
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historic day. for two decades, from 1948 to 1967, syria rained deadly fire from the golan heights on israel's citizens below. a generation of israeli children lived in constant danger. and then in two glorious days, in june 1967, the brave soldiers of israel scaled those daunting heights and liberated the golan. this has profound meaning for all israelis, and for me personally, one of those brave soldiers was my brother who was wounded in battle three hours before the end of the war. and a few years later, as an officer in a special unit, i led my soldier into a covert mission into syria, and as we came back to golan, to israel, we nearly froze to death in a blinding snowstorm -- well, as you can see, i'm still here.
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but at that point, in 1967, israel seized the high ground which has since proven invaluable to our defense. because in 1973, syria launched a surprise attack against israel. and those same golan heights proved to be to enable to absorb the initial attack. it was a horrific attack. and the forces in three weeks were within the gates of damascus. outmanned, outgunned, israel won after a great battle in history. but israel winning those two wars, we would have to wait half a century until this moment in this room to translate our military victory into a diplomatic victory. and that is why, mr. president, your decision to recognize israel's sovereignty on the golan heights is so historic.
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your recognition is a twofold act of historic justice. israel won the golan heights in a just war of self-defense, and the jewish people's roots in the golan go back thousands of years. in the long sweep of jewish history, there have been a handful of proclamations by non-jewish leaders on behalf of our people in our land. cyrus the great, the great persian king, lord balfour, president harry truman and president donald j. trump. and you, mr. president, you've done it not once but twice, with your bold proclamation on jerusalem and your bold proclamation today on the golan. your proclamation comes at a time when the golan is more
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important than ever on our security. when iran is trying to establish bases in syria to strike at israel. from across the border in syria, iran has launched drones into our airspace, missiles into our territory. mr. president, justice has stood tall in 1967, justice has stood tall in 1973. israel stands tall today. we hold the high ground and we shall never give it up. mr. president, we have a saying in israel -- i'll say it in hebrew -- [ speaking hebrew ] >> that means the people are with golan. but thanks to you, we now know there are two peoples who stand with the golan, the people of israel and the people of america. so on behalf of all the people
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of israel, thank you, president trump. thank you for your leadership, thank you for your friendship, and thank you for all you've done to make the alliance between america and israel stronger and greater than ever. thank you, mr. president. [ applause ] >> this was a long time in the making. it should have taken place many decades ago. maybe you can give this to the
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people of israel. >> i will do that. [ applause ] >> reporter: after signing this proclamation, after recognizing ju judeism, will you give palestinians -- >> right now we're talking about this. thank you very much. thank you, everybody. >> reporter: do you want to see prime minister netanyahu -- >> i bought you a case of the finest wine. i understand you're not a great wine drinker, but could i have a glass? >> the prime minister of israel, benjamin netanyahu, getting the
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official word from the president of the united states, donald trump, that the golan heights will now be formally officially recognized as sovereignty by the pa president. since 1967, it was seen by israeli presidents as their golan heights. but now the u.s. considers the golan heights officially as part of israeli. our u.s. correspondent was watching, and gloria boringger here with me. it's interesting, kaitlan, the prime minister of israel is facing in two weeks a reelection in israel, potentially. he said, israel has never had a better friend than you, looking at the president of the united
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states. there is a real clear almost love affair between these two guys. >> reporter: certainly, wolf, and it's been that kind of chummy relationship since trump took office. as he sat down to sign that proclamation, you heard the president say this was a long time in the making. critics have raised questions about whether or not the president was recognizing golan heights as israeli territory because netanyahu is up for reelection in a matter of weeks and it's one of the toughest reelection battles he's ever faced. some say this is a boost for him in that reelection, it certainly could be a boost for him, but the president has denied that recognizing this as israeli territory is tied to that election. of course, you can't ignore that this visit happens and is certainly something netanyahu would like to highlight before that election takes place, and certainly the president would like a boost for him before that election. the brief signing in the white
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house, they were scheduled to have a dinner, but netanyahu said he's cutting his trip short so he won't be there as long as planned. this is taking place two weeks before his reelection. >> certainly it will give benjamin netanyahu a boost to get himself reelected on april 9. michelle ka ssinski, you are whe there is talk about what's been done. >> reporter: there won't be much more time with netanyahu since he's going back to israel. with a lack of netanyahu being here and a lack of trump being here, it seemed like vice president mike pence made up for both of them. he hit all the points that president trump likes to hit, the threat from iran. although i will say something
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that was striking with what the president just said there alongside netanyahu is something we've heard before. he said iran is a much different place now since he pulled the u.s. out of the iran nuclear deal. an analyst would argue with that, that iran's posture regionally has not changed, and domestically, if anything, it has become more repressive on descent. still, that's a point he likes to hit. here at aipec, mike pence got big applause, multiple standing ovations. he hit on what he calls anti-semitism even in the halls of congress. he didn't mention democratic freshman ilhan omar by name, but he was clearly referring to her, and he talked about all the things that president trump has done for israel. and the timing of this could not be more stark seeing president trump doing this and announcing this, signing it alongside netanyahu as he is only days away from his tough election facing additional charges of
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corruption. this is the exact opposite of what we saw during the obama administration. wolf? >> michelle, you stand with gloria borger this unique relationship between these two. he's going back to israel early because of this rocket attack north of tel aviv, but you can see that relationship very, very evident during that photo op. >> and i think they feel it's mutually beneficial. it wasn't that long ago that trump said democrats hate the jewish people because of the trouble democrats had agreeing on a resolution on anti-semitism in the house of representatives. so the president took that opportunity to appeal to jewish voters. this is another opportunity, obviously, to do that. and as everyone was pointing out before, this could also help netanyahu back at home. so it's mutual. they believe it helps both of them, and i think that they were
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happy to be there on the podium together, and now netanyahu will go back and claim that, you know, donald trump loves us and that we have never had a better friend, and he is my best friend, so therefore, you should vote for me. >> president trump said the democrats are anti-jewish, which certainly is not true. kaitl kaitlan, before the president left, he was asked about the mueller investigation. i didn't hear what the president said but you did. >> reporter: they were talking about the similarities between the president and netanyahu and they both had scandals during their time in ofrfice. the president had very good news with the key findings in mueller's report, and of course this comes after questions of corruption surrounding netanyahu, which is hoping to have a similar outcome to the president. the president did not bring up robert mueller at the end, but a reporter asked the president and
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said, do you think robert mueller acted honorably? that question comes, of course, as the president has spent over the last year attacking robert mueller and the investigators on his team and was continuing to do so yesterday after the report cleared the president and his campaign of collusion with russia when he called it an illegal hoax, but then during this when he was asked, did robert mueller act honorably, according to the tv poll, he said, yes, i did. speaking of robert mueller now that this report has come out in his favor compared to what he has spent the last several months saying and the last several weeks, even, as he was quizzing his advisers on what they believed the outcome of this investigation would be. >> the president formally apologized to robert mueller for things he said over the last two years. we ever more on this story. kaitlan, don't go too far away. we're also getting new details come in to cnn.
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breaking news this hour, a source telling cnn that russia special counsel robert mueller gave the attorney general a heads-up some three weeks ago that he would not be able to reach a conclusion on one of the biggest questions in his nearly two-year investigation, did the president of the united states obstruct justice? let's bring in our reporters and our experts. joining us now are crime and justice reporter shimon prokupecz, pamela brown, legal analyst gloria borger and analyst shan wu. this is major news. three weeks ago mueller said, i can't decide. it's up to you. >> i would love to learn more about what was happening behind the scenes and why mueller decided to punt to the attorney general bill barr. it makes you wonder if because
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he never got that sit-down interview, he was never approved for the subpoena as he wanted it, he basically said, i'm going to leave the conclusion to you. i always thought a lot of the criticism has been bill barr only had 48 hours to make this determination. now we know, according to our reporting from laura jarrett, that no, he's known for a few weeks what the situation was and he's been briefed from the get-go for the last month or so on what evidence they had on obstruction of justice. so in that sense, you know, he did have the time to lay out in his letter yesterday to congress about why he did not think there was sufficient evidence to make an obstruction of justice case, and frankly, we already knew that even before on the memo he had sent before he was attorney general, saying that the investigation overall was fatally misconceived, and as we expected, we predicted is what democrats have been seizing on, that the hand-picked attorney general and rod rosenstein who
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helped fire james comey are con fli flicted and they shouldn't have been the ones to make the decision. >> they quote robert mueller as saying while this report does not prove that the president committed a crime on obstruction of justice, it also does not exonerate him. >> that is the most puzzling line on all of this and has created this mess, and what you're seeing as the department of justice are reporting today trying to clean this up a little bit. it's a very puzzling line because he left it so open-ended, you can't get any more open-ended now. where they're so clear on the collusion aspect of this, they're not clear on the obstruction aspect. the bot line is, this is it. we can all argue what this means and lawyers can argue back and forth. the department of justice, that's the key here, has cleared the president of any wrongdoing, of any criminal wrongdoing. >> on obstruction and collusion.
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>> both of those. and the other person you have to keep in mind here is rod rosenstein and the role he has played in all of this. he was managing this investigation, he was running it, he was making decisions on it, and so he very much was involved in this question of obstruction way before the attorney general, way before bill barr came into play here. bill barr was simply presented with the facts, he agreed with them, and this is where we are. >> it's interesting, because in light of the reporting of our subpoena discussions, we know now in this memo where rosenstein stood. he did not believe that there was enough there in the obstruction case, and so it does make you wonder. one last question i was -- one last thing i want to say is i was asking someone, why would ba -- bash prr put this in a me? he couldn't deny it because he knew he would be asked that one day. >> the attorney general said to
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congress yesterday, he said since robert mueller could not make a decision on obstruction of justice, handing it over to him, they consulted, obviously, with the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, but also consulted with the department officials, including the office of legal counsel before they concluded -- they concluded -- that -- i have concluded that the evidence developed during the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice defense. it's not just rod rosenstein, it's also the office of legal counsel and other department officials who advised, you go ahead and make the decision. >> barr has been getting buy-in from the different divisions, so he did that. this was tailor-made for him. this was exactly the hypothetical he raised in his memo. whether you give him three weeks or three months, he knew where he was coming out on this. but it's important to note that
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what mueller said was he would not -- not cannot, not i'm deferring -- raised a lot of questions. we don't know how that conversation went with barr. did he say to the attorney general, i think it's appropriate for you to decide? did he simply say he wouldn't be reaching a conclusion because, for example, way too much conflicting evidence. >> or did mueller feel like he wasn't going to weigh in, that he knew from his conversations, perhaps, his informal conversations with rod rosenstein how he felt about a subpoena for the president testifying. he knew he was going to lose on that one, so he didn't go there. and then he knew where barr stood, obviously, because of the 2018 memo that pamela has been talking about where he called this area of obstruction unfavorably conceived and a misreading of the law. so i believe he punted, which is strange for robert mueller. this is not the way he operates. there is a back story here, and
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i think it goes -- and i think it goes to the question of the president testifying before mueller, and we have to kind of unravel all that as we continue to report here. >> he was willing to answer questions in writing but there was never a formal q & a interview. >> about obstruction, yes. >> the question they have about obstruction, if their only evidence would be what the president would say. essentially the president would have to incriminate himself. then you have to wonder, what do they have? what do they have on obstruction? if they had more, then we would have seen, perhaps, maybe charges, or we would have seen something. but if the idea that they needed the president's words to bring charges against the president, that's a very difficult place for investigators and prosecutors to be. >> they said in the memo that most of it was in public view, and our reporting is that mueller was focused on conflicting public statements and whether that was an effort
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by the president to intimidate witnesses, to obstruct justice, and that that was being woven into this report. >> very quickly, gloria, the president just said, yes, he did, when he was asked at this photo op at the meeting with the prime minister of israel whether robert mueller acted honorably, he simply said, yes, he did, in sharp contrast to what he's been saying about mueller. >> and even yesterday where he called it illegal, the whole investigation illegal. i think that somebody may have gotten to the president and said, you know what, you ought to be a little more gracious about this and say that bob mueller acted honorably. >> gloria borger, shimon prokupecz, shan wu, guys, thank you very much. how are they responding to the trump conclusions? we'll be right back. you.
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president trump's meeting with prime minister netanyahu in the oval office. let's listen in. >> it's been needed for a long time. we're glad it's over. it's 100% the way it should have been. i wish it could have gotten done sooner, a lot quicker. there are people out there who have done very bad things, i would say treasonous things against our country. and hopefully people that have done such harm to our country -- we've gone through a period of really bad things happening -- those people will certainly be looked at. i have been looking at them for a long time, and i'm saying, why haven't they been looked at? they lied to congress. many of them, you know who they are. they've done so many evil
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things. i will tell you, i love this country. i love this country as much as i can love anything. my family, my country, my god. but what they did, it was a false narrative, it was a terrible thing. we can never let this happen to another president again. i can tell you -- i say it very strongly. very few people i know could have handled it. we can never, ever let this happen to another president again. thank you all very much. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you very much.
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>> up to the attorney general. wouldn't bother me at all. >> so there you hear reporters shouting questions at the end. he said the attorney general wouldn't bother me at all. i assume he has seen the mueller report if not all of the mueller report released to congress and the public. the president had very strong words for his opposition, saying they did treasonous things, they were evil. we can never let this happen to another president again. extremely sharp. you can see how angry he is.
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>> reporter: that's right, wolf. this has gone from the president being kind of elated at the result of the mueller probe to kind of shifting, in his view, to the people who put this into existence. he clearly is thinking about what to do next. i think that's one of the big questions facing the president and facing the white house. he mentioned yesterday when he was talking to reporters in florida that he wants people to look at the other side. now today he's talking about the people -- the evil people who were involved in this, hoping that this never happens to anyone again, but what does that mean? is he going to then turn this around and ask his justice department to launch investigations into his political opponents, into people within the justice department who were involved in the investigation at the beginning? i think that seems like where president trump is going with all of this. and you were right that the question that he got at the end was about whether he wanted the
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report to be made public. he said it's up to the attorney general, which it is, and it wouldn't bother him at all. so he said that in the past. i think a lot of people wondered whether he still felt that way after all that we have now learned about this investigation gi investigation. given how positive it was for him, i guess it's not surprising that he wouldn't mind if it was released. his attorneys have other concerns over information relate to do his interview that it might not be a complete release that the democrats have been asking for. >> abby phillip, thank you so much. mark is here, thank you for coming in. now he said robert mueller acted honorably. that's in sharp contrast to what we've been hearing from the president about mueller and his investigation over the past two years. >> it's nothing unusual to have
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special counsels and people like this in multiple administrations that they face the brunt of criticism from both sides. one time they're hailed and they're later attacked from the other side, so i don't see anything unusual about that. what i think it is, we have the conclusions, we have the fact that there's no obstruction, there's no collusion, and it's now time for the american people to move on. >> i'll play a little clip of the president over the past couple years speaking about robert mueller because it's in sharp contrast to what he just said about him acting honorably. >> the entire thing has been a witch hunt and there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign. >> this is a pure and simple witch hunt. >> i think that the mueller investigation has been totally discredited. >> mr. mueller is highly conflicted. in fact, comey is like his best friend. >> robert mueller put 13 of the angriest democrats in the history of our country on the commission. >> it's all a big hoax. i call it the witch hunt. it's all a big hoax.
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>> this was an illegal takedown that failed. and hopefully somebody is going to be looking at the other side. >> so now he's saying that mueller did act honorably. do you think the president should actually -- he obviously likes the conclusion that there was no collusion, no conspiracy, no cooperation. the obstruction of justice a little bit more confused, but do you think he should apologize to robert mueller who spent so many years in government service, served as a marine in vietnam, now is, what, 74 years old, came back and did this job? >> i think if anybody deserves an apology, it's the president. he for two years got accused of being a traitorous -- for two years we saw people attack the president of the united states, call him an operative of russia, question the legitimacy of obstruction. we now know that was built on a
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hoax. there was no collusion, no obstruction. >> but should the president thank mueller? should the president say to him, you know what, we had our rough times, let's move on. i want to thank you for your service to the country. you did act honorably. i know the president doesn't like to formally apologize, but maybe do something like that to move on to another chapter. >> at the end of that news conference, i think he said he acted honorably, so that's an acknowledgment of the fact that he found the truth, which is there was no collusion, no obstruction, and it's time to wrap this up and move on. >> you're obviously in charge of the reelection campaign, strategic communications. the president said he has no problem releasing the report to the american people? >> there is information from grand jury testimony to classified information to information that may be derogatory to someone not charged with a crime, that long-time precedent of federal law would prohibit from being
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released. but as you see more and more democrats call for the release and all the underlying information, despite the fact that it's against the law to do most of that or long-held precedent, this is just another -- >> the attorney general can release whatever the attorney general wants. >> this is an example of changing the rules when they don't like the outcome. >> mueller is speckifically quoted in bill barr's report to congress, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. do you want to at least release all the information that convinced mueller that it's a question whether or not the president committed a crime or whether -- what led mueller up to that decision? >> ultimately the attorney general will decide what can be released on that. i think the key information is there was no crime that was charged. the attorney general, deputy attorney general, the office of legal counsel concluded it did not rise to a crime. in the united states we're innocent until proven guilty.
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no crime has been charged. no obstruction. >> there's been plenty of crimes charged by mueller. >> as it relates to this. >> mark louder, thank you for coming in. stomp co coming up next, democrats plot their next move in the wake of the report. we'll meet with one democratic congressman who calls mueller's work hasty.
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two-year investigation. you've already suggested that the barr letter, this four-page letter, you called it a hasty summary by the president's hand-picked man. what are you accusing the attorney general of the united states of doing? >> he's just being awfully quick about this. it took 22-plus months for mueller and a huge team of fbi agents and justice departments to put this together, and he says, after less than 48 hours, concern that there absolutely was no collusion or corruption. i think what we know, based on the 16 or 17 people that were indicted, some convicted and some pled guilty, was that there was a lot of collusion within the trump campaign. clearly i guess what mueller was saying was trump himself did not collude. >> this is the attorney general writing what mueller concluded. the special counsel did not find that the trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with the russian government in these efforts despite multiple offers
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of russian affiliated individuals to assist with the campaign. not just trump himself, anyone associated with the trump campaign. >> i heard the other gentleman who was on here talk about no collusion, no obstruction. mueller said he was not satisfied and there was no kpon rati -- exoneration of obstruction. >> it was then that the attorney general decided, after talking with deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and other department officials, that he would conclude there was no obstruction. >> we have to remember that this attorney general was a hand-picked guy who some weeks ago wrote a letter about why he didn't think there was obstruction of justice. i think what's really appropriate is that the entire report be released to the american public and certainly to congress. that's what the president said a few minutes ago -- >> he doesn't have a problem.
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what do you think of the president now saying mueller did an honorable job? >> i think he does need to apologize. we said all along -- >> do you have kfconfidence in mueller? >> absolutely. >> when he concluded that there was no collusion, no obstruction, you accept that? >> i accept that. i would like to read the whole report, because there will be other things to follow up -- >> we would all like to read the report. >> as democrats and american people, we should still see the tax returns. >> so you want all the other investigations full speed ahead, because there are some democrats saying, forget about impeachment. nancy pelosi said a few weeks ago, forget about impeachment. he's not worth it, she said, we have to move on. but there are a number of democrats saying behind the scenes we need to move on. let's talk about health care, drug costs, substantive issues and not necessarily delve deeply
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into this. >> i agree with that, but we've done that all along. the last meetings were about health care, prescription drug costs examiand cleaning up washington, d.c. so it's not going to be about a collusion or obstruction charge, it's going to be about our vision for america. >> we've been speaking to our reporters and producers are out there with democratic reporters. they go to town halls. rarely does anyone bring up russia. they're talking about national security issues, stuff like that, veterans. >> we have 67 democrats win new seats in november. i don't know that a single one of them ran on collusion or corruption. this is important because we want to have presidents, our leadership, to be responsible, honest, authentic. and he said this should never again happen to another president. it's going to happen to another president when it's reasonable that something may go wrong. >> you have oversight responsibilities, so i assume
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the judiciary committee, the oversight committee, the other committees will continue to pursue this. thank you very much for being here. >> thanks. i'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room." brie anna keilar starts right after a quick break. so, you're open all day, that's what 24/7 means, sugar. kind of like how you get 24/7 access to licensed agents with geico. hmm? yeah, you just go online, or give them a call anytime. you don't say. yep. now what will it take to get 24/7 access to that lemon meringue pie? pie! pie's coming! that's what it takes, baby. geico®. great service from licensed agents, 24/7. ♪
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. i'm brianna keilar live from washington headquarters. the mueller report is over and the questions are just beginning. the report does not conclude that the president committed a crime but specifically does not exonerate him. no finding of collusion, but on obstruction of justice, mueller leaves it to the attorney general to decide and bill barr says the president's actions don't constitute a crime. plus, politics. the president scores a big win and democrats who hung so much on this report wonder, where do we go from here? we begin with breaking
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