ridiculist. that actually happened in our government on capitol hill. now to chris. >> anderson cooper, anti-baby, pro-kahlua. smack wolf away from my stash of kahlua. things i never thought i'd hear at least not tonight but it was good. i am chris cuomo. welcome to "primetime." tonight, the jussie smollett prosecutor is trying to explain a move that has the police and the mayor there fuming. the charges are dropped there but the case is headed straight to cuomo's court. and a new scare for the boeing 737 max 8 jet. this time in the sky over florida. what was it doing in the air in the first place? and the president stomps his victory dance just long enough try to trample all over obamacare. does the law support it and how can you do this with nothing to replace it? one of the president's big

backers in congress is here. can he make a compelling case for the move? the closing argument. why is the president saying the mueller report is great when he hasn't seen it? we don't know enough. maybe the president thinks he does. but the case for clarity will be made. what do you say? let's get after it. all right. it's a good night to be jussie smollett. the same prosecutors that said they had him dead to rights for making up a hate crime dropped a 16-count indictment with barely an explanation. the outrage and disbelief got cranked up to 11 after they got word the investigation of a supposed hate crime turned hoax was all for nothing. >> do i think justice was served, no. >> this is without a doubt a whitewash of justice and sends a clear message that if you're in

the position of influence and power, you'll get treated one way and other people will be treated another way. there is no accountability within the system. it is wrong, full stop. >> so, let's look at the court papers. can't. case has been sealed. that's what happens when the charges are dropped. his record expunged. so why were they so good to someone that they said did something so bad? in a cryptic statement they noted circumstances including his volunteer service in the community and agreement to forfeit his bond. they call the outcome an appropriate resolution to this case. ten grand and helping out at reverend jackson's charity and you beat 16 counts including felonies? how can that be justice? let's take it to the court. cuomo's court. i'm seeing a lot of agreement on this one, i think, tonight. laura, i mean, first of all, we

all agree, they have to say more about why they did this, yes? are we all in agreement about this? ken? >> yes. >> oh, yeah. >> tell us why. >> oh, yeah. >> the thing about this case is we had a press conference not only held by the police department but also by the prosecutors in the case and the office of the prosecution that laid out a series of facts that then led to a grand jury with a presentation of evidence where grand jury members found that 16 counts were warranted so to tell the grand jury that all of your service, thank you, we don't need it any longer, we're going to dismiss the case and a $10,000 bond forfeited is highly unusual. prosecutors do have discretion to be able to terminate cases and say we no longer want to prosecute or we decline to do so initially but to do so after a grand jury has indicted is unusual and to seal the record

and then say, oh, does anyone want more information, is totally off. >> it wreaks of politics. do you think there's a chance that they may have botched the case? when they let the brothers go, you have three people involved in the crime and it ends up being smollett and the other two aren't there. you think there's a chance, they were like, you know what, that was a mistake. and now we have to cut this guy a deal? >> this isn't a deal. this is a giveaway. a deal is you plea down to one of the 16 indicted charges. it isn't literally dropping the case. >> fair point. i'm just trying to give them some legitimacy. of a need to make this type -- >> you're a generous man. they don't deserve it here. this is a miscarriage of justice. rahm emanuel and i don't agree very often.

but if i'm the mayor of the city this happens in, you bet i'm ticked off. this is embarrassing for chicago and the police are curious and rightly so. it turns justice on its head and it makes it look like if you're rich or famous you just get treated a different way than everybody else. >> that's one potential reason. and it's a strong choice. but i'm going to say one that rahm didn't want to say, maybe because of the politics of it. could this be a perverse play on race here? this prosecutors said we're going to go after people for hate crimes, we're going to go after the people that attack people of color. we're not going to attack someone that's usually in the class of victims on this. it sends the wrong message. do you think that could be their explanation? of course they'd never say that but do you think that could be it? >> i think that could be setting prosecutorial priorities and saying if you're going to bring down the hammer of justice you want to likely impose the burdens of that crime and punishment on those who it was intended for. this happens all the time in civil rights cases where although the intended recipient

of the benefit is not a person of color, people try to judge. so we want to actually investigate these cases anyway. that's true. however, i'm going to play devil's advocate and just say this, the prosecutor may have botched the case in the sense of what if they, by releasing those two men, did not have an immunity deal. they did not have a plea deal with those individuals, they did not have any cooperation by the attorney late in the game, perhaps they found information that they either recanted or changed their stories. they no longer have the best evidence to be able to prosecute this fully and also the notion of celebrity justice. it cuts both ways. i do find it hard to agree that you would bring down 16 counts on a false claim to a police officer but for all the attention that this case got. so perhaps it was a sense of in a case with a false report we would normally not go to this

excess and extreme and we would have a fine and perhaps community service. if that was the case all along they should have said that before the press conferences and all the resources but that may be what they're thinking. >> we're on the same page on that one. let me get your take on something else. ken, the idea of what the administration wants to do with this aca judgment in texas. i don't want to get too deep in the weeds but when you remove a part of a law, almost always the judgment is about what we call severability in the law. this part is no good but the rest of the law stands if it can. that seems to be the case here with the aca. in fact, that's what judge

roberts said. what do you think the legality of this move that's going on with the trump administration to try to get rid of the entire aca because of one provision found lacking by one district court judge? >> this is a provision that in earlier rounds, and the legislation itself was critical to the whole scheme. president obama said the same thing. so there's a legitimate legal case to be made that when that piece comes out, the whole comes down and the fact that congress went after it in the tax bill will be the only source of argument or the main source of argument against that contention but the case and the history of the legislation that this is a critical element and not severable is strong. this thing is going to come

down. >> now, they went to just you alone there for a second. i want to look something up here and make sure that i get it right. i agree with you conceptually but i think it should come out the other way. here's why. there's no need to guess about where congress' head was on this and sometimes a judge actually has to guess about whether or not the entire law would still be held by the lawmakers that made it. a republican-led congress in 2017 eliminated the individual mandate but they did not -- i want to get the year right, 2017, but they didn't get rid of the entire aca. right? part of that was political. they had nothing to replace it. i don't understand why you'd want to get rid of something with democrats in the house when you know they won't give you a quick fix. >> they didn't get rid of the mandate, they set it to zero dollars. >> they set it to zero dollars.

>> right. okay. >> the reason to say there's a play to support the invalidation is because of the composition of the supreme court. when you go back to the time when this was actually put into law and grappled with in the supreme court it was chief justice roberts that had to negotiate a pretty good deal to actually preserve obamacare and he had to try to convince and placate the liberal justices and the four that were there. that used to include scalia and kennedy as a swing vote. now it's changed to include gorsuch and kavanaugh. both of whom are probably not likely to side the same way. >> it puts roberts in a box. >> true. if you're the president of the united states that spent such

effort to do this, this is the prime time to do this. >> one other legal concept to introduce to people quickly. one of the expressions you learn in law school is equity is forfeiture. we don't like to see people lose things. here, if they were to win the legal case, ken, they have nothing to replace it. it almost guarantees that many millions of people are going to lose coverage and care. is that a smart move? >> well, remember, it isn't like the health care system goes away. the federal government comes back out of it. and, yes, there will be some displacement, no question about it. essentially health care will be handed back to the state where is the federal government, to a greater degree than before, took it over in obamacare. >> but there was a reason. >> and it hasn't worked. people's premiums have shot up. >> this is a political argument we can have all night.

you'll take me on the law. you won't take me on the policy of it. i've studied it too much. i appreciate the legal points and the analysis that's available. a pleasure as always and thank you. >> thank you. >> we'll get to the policy of it. we have shawn duffy, can he make the case that this is a smart policy move on aca? because if the whole thing goes you'll have a lot of issues about how do you cover these people, what is lost, and how do you replace it? i'm going to give you the facts first before the interview, next.

guys, i've got an idea! oooh, what is it? so people love iphone xr, right? well, it does have an incredible camera. and it comes in all those amazing colors. uh huh. what if we give the people iphone xr, when they join t-mobile? iphone xr on us? yeah, iphone xr on us! what's not to love about that? for a limited time, join t-mobile and get the awesome iphone xr on us. new tattoo studio gel pencil. from maybelline new york. smudge resistant. sweat resistant. waterproof. up to 36-hour wear. new tattoo studio gel pencil. only from maybelline new york.

♪ do you ♪ love me? ♪ ♪ i can really move ♪ ♪ do you love me? ♪ i'm in the groove ♪ now do you love me? ♪ do you love me now that i can dance? ♪ applebee's 3 course meal. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood.

but i'm more than a number. when i'm not sharing ideas with my colleagues i'm defending my kingdom. my essilor lenses offer more than vision correction with three innovative technologies for my ultimate in vision clarity and protection together in a single lens: the essilor ultimate lens package. so, i can do more of what i love! buy two pairs of essilor's best lenses and get a $100 back instantly. see more. do more. essilor our president said today that the gop will be known as the party of health care.

but it seems like he left out a word. the president will make his party about removing health care. whether he thinks he's delivering on another campaign slogan or out to undo anything obama, the doj is now trying to get rid of the entire aca. there's a significant legal issue but also a huge practical issue. this president and his party have no plan to provide care to tens of millions if the aca is gone. the best you'll hear is, it will go back to the states. or the free market will be the answer. those two conditions is how we got companies that didn't want to cover the sick. who punished for pre-existing conditions. companies that didn't want to give the right coverage for the right amount of time and not letting your kids stay on after college. you remember all of this. the president remembers.

he has said that many times. >> we will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions. always. >> i want to keep pre-existing conditions. i think we need it. >> we will always protect americans with pre-existing conditions. >> yeah, except for now because if he gets rid of the aca he won't be doing it. he knows the policy matters and he knows its popularity. this administration has seen a huge surge in enrollment numbers at the end of last year's window. we're talking about nearly 12 million people. they could all lose their coverage. 60 million more have medicare and young people up to the age of 26 all over the country get care because of the aca on their parents' plans. checkups, mammograms, birth control are available at no cost

because of the aca. it's also helped fight the opioid epidemic. something that this administration has wanted to prioritize. part of expanding medicaid was to cover that. you think companies want to cover addiction if they're not made to? now even trump's own administration is using this law to fight for lower prescription drug prices. more proof that if they don't have to do things, they won't do things in a free market. now he wants to remove the protection and replace it with nothing. remember, the house is run by democrats now, they disagree with the right's ideas. so there's very little chance of a quick fix. so, why get rid of this law before having something to replace it with for 21 million americans, including many of our most vulnerable? and there's a good chance it will balloon costs if you do replace it.

why, why, why? welcome to the new normal. there may be timing because the other issue is the legal issue and the strategy there has problems. this effort stems from a ruling by a district judge in texas, that when the republicans eliminated the mandate by zeroing it out, it made obamacare unconstitutional. did that remove it or zero it out? the judge's decision rejects another big legal principle called severability. they would have passed the law without that part but in 2017, a republican-led congress eliminated the mandate by zeroing it out. they left the rest of the law as-is. likely because republicans know the same thing that president trump knew. beyond the name obamacare, the benefits are more popular than

ever. the democrats' historic midterm victory came in large part by arguing that trump had not delivered anything better on health care. this move would almost certainly prove them right and make our health insurance mess worse. so, this new aca fight could be a political gift to democrats in 2020. he's doing a victory dance about russian interference. but that's not what drove people to the polls, for democrats. so how does he make the case here? we have gop congressman sean duffy from wisconsin, next. after walking six miles at an amusement park... bill's back needed a vacation from his vacation. so he stepped on the dr. scholl's kiosk. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain. so you can move more. dr. scholl's. born to move.

it's nice. ♪ you got this! ♪ woo! ♪ ♪ ♪ rewards me basically aeverywhere.om so why am i hosting a dental convention after party in my vegas suite? because hotels.com lets me do me. who wants to floss me? hotels.com. you do you and get rewarded. at jimmy john's, we know how much you care about freshness, quality and value. we want your sandwiches to arrive freaky fast®, so they're freaky fresh®. that's why we only deliver within 5 minutes of our stores and not...

and not farther. ...he's new. if you're in the zone or in the store, you can get a freaky fresh® sandwich. jimmy john's because sandwich. you won't find relief here. congestion and pressure? go to the pharmacy counter for powerful claritin-d. while the leading allergy spray only relieves 6 symptoms, claritin-d relieves 8, including sinus congestion and pressure. claritin-d relieves more. named 'park' in the u.s. ninety-six hundred roads it's america's most popular street name. but no matter what park you live on, one of 10,000 local allstate agents knows yours. now that you know the truth, are you in good hands? whooo!

want to take your next vacation to new heights? tripadvisor now lets you book over a hundred thousand tours, attractions, and experiences in destinations around the world! like new york! from bus tours, to breathtaking adventures, tripadvisor makes it easy to find and book amazing things to do. and you can cancel most bookings up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund. so you can make your next trip... monumental! read reviews check hotel prices book things to do tripadvisor

the mueller report was great. it could not have been better. it said no obstruction. no collusion. it could not have been better. >> see what it says on the bottom. he hasn't seen the report yet. we keep asking if they have because the statement makes no sense. they say, no, we haven't seen it yet. we know from the summary from the a.g. that there's no criminal case that could be made that this president or his people helped russia interfere in the election. we didn't hear anything about a ruling on obstruction because mueller didn't make one. nonetheless, riding high on word that he isn't being prosecuted the president is now opening up

another fight ahead of 2020, renewing his push to kill obamacare. is this a smart play? health care gave many democrats the edge in the midterms. let's bring in republican congressman sean duffy. >> thank you for having me on. >> you saw what i outlined as the political issue for me here. i get why people in your party want to change the aca but it was always repeal and replace. you do this this way, is that the smart play? >> i think you missed in your analysis of the bill, where i come from we were promised our prices would go down for a family of four and we could keep our doctors and health care plans. in my communities, if you get a subsidy in obamacare you love it. if you don't get a subsidy, your premiums have gone up. your deductibles have gone up. obamacare has been a failure for the american people which is why democrats are saying i'm not

going to defend obamacare, i want to go for medicare for all. it's an acknowledgment that obamacare hasn't worked for the american people. >> you gave me a check. let me give you a little check back. >> one, this is complicated, so there's a tricky statistic which is that the rate of increase in health care costs with the aca, obamacare, is lower than it was before. are costs still going up? is it still too much? yes, and yes. but it's hard to make the case that the aca made things worse. they're just not good enough. i hear you on that. i accept that as true. >> sure. >> the question, is what are you going to do? you're not going to be able to replace anything. why do it that way? why not do it politically where you have something ready so that when you remove, you don't hurt anybody. >> i'm sitting outside the house floor right now. what you know is that oftentimes

unless the congress is forced to act, it doesn't act. so if the courts overturn obamacare i think you're going to see the congress, republicans and democrats, come together and help the american people. competition is part of this. we also want to help out the poor. there's a way to do this. i think we can drive down the cost of care. the president said we'll have the party of health care but i wouldn't bet against president trump. he's been looking out for middle income americans. the forgotten men and women. who have not been taken care of under obamacare. he'll deliver for them. we'll put out a plan that will drive down the cost of care for the people that we represent. >> yeah, but you don't have one. it's not about me being a cynic. it's about being a skeptic. there's no plan and you can't get anything done that quickly and that's a political reality.

you shut down the government over a wall. how long will this take? >> you mention the wall, it's like me saying that you voted against the wall as a democrat but you have no plan for border security. >> they do have a plan. >> no, you don't. >> and you guys made it about a wall that doesn't even address the crisis that they're facing down there. >> tweet me the plan because it doesn't exist. he pulled our actual national guard off the southern border. there was boots and technology on the border. this stuff doesn't make sense. democrats are not about securing the border. they don't have a plan. it's never come out. >> they flood me. all of you guys flood me in plans but you never put them in effect. the border is something that we examine closely on this show and we know for a matter of fact that a wall is not the fix for what they're most worried about down there right now. these kids come in with their families and abuse the asylum laws.

hasn't been addressed by you guys. they don't have the resources, and they're worried. >> i'm going to come see you in milwaukee and i guarantee you when we go to the convention you'll see a big 12-foot wall around the democrat convention with gates where they'll funnel through it, because walls work. >> walls work if you try to sneak in. it's a deceptive argument but try to make it and i'll respond. >> if you have border security they're not going to make the journey. you're not going to have the caravans and the floods of people. >> i don't disagree with any of it. i would argue we've seen a rate -- if you watch the show, you know these are not the arguments we're going to be making. what i'm saying is the rate of people sneaking across the border is not the big concern. it's the people coming and presenting themselves for asylum. they don't have anywhere to put them. but they don't have the resources.

they don't have the case workers and you have done nothing about it. >> if you don't have an open border, they're advised -- >> i don't agree with that because they're not sneaking in. they're presenting themselves. but i want to ask you about something else. sean, i promise you, when we hit a crisis down there, and i fear it's coming -- >> we have one right now. >> what they're worried about, kids they can't keep from being abused, we'll talk about it. you're always welcome on the show. am i wrong on this, the president saying the mueller report was great. he likes he's not going to be charged as a felon but we don't know what's in that report. >> what we do know is that bob mueller is not going to charge anybody else with collusion or obstruction. he spent a lot of time doing it. and there's no charges coming.

that's great news for the president, america has been drug through the wringer for two years. this is a time to celebrate. let's not speculate -- >> why not. >> i don't think you should speculate about it. >> because you spent two years speculating. >> it was never about criminality but it was about wrongdoing. who did what and what did the president know so he can have accountability. >> i think you want to know who duped us. >> i want to know that too, but you guys have to figure that out. >> you have been talking about this for over two years, you should say who set this up? >> you should figure that out. what do we do to make ourselves safer? >> chris, what you guys did is you reported on it and you took all of the salacious, you know, reports of all of the scandal and for two years and you have to say, we have to analyze how we get our information because for two years every single hour of every day we talked about it

and i don't want to cast blame on you. you have been fair. but the american people say, do i trust the democrats and the media? >> part of the reason is because for the first time in our history we have a president that tells everybody that the media is their enemy and institutions of our democracy can't be trusted. >> but if the media was doing its job, they would be far more skeptical. >> we're not the investigators. >> but you're the reporters. you have a job to make sure you're putting out the right facts. you put out the wrong facts. >> what wrong facts did we put out? >> that there's russia collusion. you're telling me i have to present the bottom line that there's no collusion. >> it's 100% behavior by people around the president that qualifies as collusion. collusion is not a crime. it's a behavior. >> but collusion with russia didn't exist. >> that's not true. mueller says he couldn't make a

criminal case that any of those people helped the russians interfere. it's one issue. >> you don't have to report more on russia collusion. now we can report on the good news. unemployment is down, we've crushed isis. far more times for the networks around america to report on the great news that are making americans lives better which is a good thing for our country and if we start focusing on those issues and less on the salacious scandals that don't end up being true, we'll be better off as americans. >> there's nothing salacious using that in the context of meaning not important saying these guys lied about meetings and contacts in a way that would worry you a lot if you changed the "r"s and the "d"s. you can look at the other issues too. >> i think there were liars lying about their taxes and not russian collusion. you have barack obama knowing they were going to tap into -- >> they did. manafort lied about the polling data.

stone lied about trying to get the e-mails. michael cohen lied about things that went on. >> how high did this go? >> sean, so you don't like these questions, they're salacious speculation but not when it's the other party. >> for two years, you reported on it, and it wasn't true. >> it's not true that obama wiretapped trump. that's not true. >> but do you know that? >> yes. >> how do you know? >> because you wound up having the intel agencies look at this and they investigated it and they found out that there was someone in the tower that was the subject of a wiretap that has nothing to do with trump. >> listen, chris -- >> you're doing what you say you don't like. that's why people are turned off on politics. >> here's what i want -- we have a right to know who started this crazy story about donald trump and russia collusion? was it someone inside the white house of obama? haters on the clinton campaign? >> the president said russia

didn't interfere in the election. will he accept that now? mueller says there was russian interference. why does he believe putin and not the intel? >> do you not care how the story started? >> yes. i do. i do passionately. i just think i know. >> we need to know who started it. what obama knew and when he knew it. all of us should have this information. >> we do. they gave us a whole report on it. >> i don't want to go here but i'm going to for one moment. >> you hate it, but you'll do it. that's what i love about you. >> the only russia collusion that happened was hillary clinton getting the dirty dossier. >> not true. >> it is true. she paid for it. >> that's not true. >> it is true. how can you say -- >> i'll say two things. one, you can't be upset about the clinton stuff and not be upset about the trump stuff, but you do. because you're a partisan. okay. the second part is collusion is when you're doing sneaky things with people that you know you're

not supposed to do it with. might it be a crime? maybe, maybe not. that's what was going on with the trump people and we don't know whether or not they knew about it. they may not be crimes but shouldn't they be things that the american people should know about? >> let me tell you a dirty secret. with both campaigns, representatives are trying to make contacts with them so they can know. everybody, this happens. >> they were geared toward helping trump and reached out to them repeatedly. >> do you know what the russians want? toe divide america. >> true. >> that's what they want and that's why they were promoting different sides of different issues and the media played into that for two years. >> i feel like i was calling it out to stop it from happening. >> not everybody. but you were. >> i only control half the time what comes out of my mouth.

do you know what a good antidote is? you get your case out to open minds here. and you're always welcome. >> sean duffy, you're not just handsome, you're smart. >> you're a funny guy. >> people come on here and they get tested and you get the benefit of it. another scare in the sky. got a report on this. the 737 max 8 in the air over florida forced to make an emergency landing this afternoon. what was it this time and why was it in the air? there's an answer to that. miles o'brien is here. he has it, next. and this twist in the jussie smollett case. the mayor of chicago is livid. so is his police superintendent. does d. lemon see this as justice? i'll argue the easy side of, no. let's get after it, next. what stiff joints? what bad back? advil is... relief that's fast. strength that lasts.

you'll ask... what pain? with advil liqui-gels. ♪ behr presents: tough as walls. that's some great paint. ♪ that's some great paint. ♪ that's some great paint. behr ultra, a top-rated interior and exterior paint. paint, prime, protect - all in one. now that's some great paint! find it exclusively at the home depot.

♪ book now and enjoy free unlimited open bar and more. norwegian cruise line. feel free. so let's promote our spring ftravel deals, on choicehotels.com like this: (sneezes) earn one free night when you stay just twice this spring. allergies. or.. badda book. badda boom. book now at choicehotels.com. i'm a fighter. always have been. when i found out i had age-related macular degeneration, amd, i wanted to fight back.

my doctor and i came up with a plan. it includes preservision. only preservision areds 2 has the exact nutrient formula recommended by the national eye institute to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd. that's why i fight. because it's my vision. preservision. also, in a great-tasting chewable.

tto harrison, the wine tcollection.. to craig, this rock. the redwoods to the redheads. the rainbows to the proud. i leave these things to my heirs, all 39 million of you, on one condition. that you do everything in your power to preserve and protect them. with love, california. here's what we know. a southwest airlines boeing 737 max 8 was forced to land after taking off. the pilots reported an engine problem this time.

no customers aboard. let's bring in our aviation expert. miles o'brien, different problem. this was about an engine. do you see this as a deeper concern? >> well, it's too early to say if there's some grand problem with the engines. i'll tell you this, chris, these are new engines. they were put on board the 737 which had to do with why the antistall system was put on board in the first place. they were put more forward and caused the stability problems. i would say this is completely unrelated to the software problem but it's also under a tremendous amount of scrutiny right now and this would be a fairly routine semiemergency in the world of airline flying will get much more scrutiny than others.

>> people will say why was it flying? i thought they were supposed to be grounded. this is part of that, right? >> it's very expensive to park an aircraft on the ramp of any airport and the calculation by southwest and the other airlines is that this is going to go on for a while. it's cheaper to fly them to a place where the weather is conducive, the desert southwest is always good. and it's cheaper to park them there. they'll fly them all there to the desert, and when this fix comes in they can do it in one place. >> now, what we know about the software. there was experimenting to see how much time a pilot has if this software glitch happens. they came up with a number of 40 seconds. do you buy that as a rational assessment? and what does that time period mean? >> i have been saying all along that everything had to be perfectly right for the crew to do the right thing and save the day. this was a system that had too much authority.

meaning it pitched the nose over in too severe a manner. and these accidents occurred shortly after playoff. there wasn't a lot of altitude to play with. on the most recent flight the pilot was flying with only 200 hours of experience, and precious seconds elapsed. so this was a situation where they weren't fully briefed on the system. didn't really train for it in the simulator. they had to identify that problem with precious little time. everything had to go perfectly right and of course it didn't. >> as we know from television, 40 seconds can be forever or a flash. it depends on your experience. no one has more than you. miles o'brien, thank you so much. next question of the night. how is dropping a charge -- all charges against jussie smollett justice? is this about celebrity? is it about race? is it about incompetence? why did this happen? let's see if d. lemon can see what i'm missing.

looked at chart patterns. i've even built my own historic trading model. and you're still not sure if you want to make the trade? exactly. sounds like a case of analysis paralysis. is there a cure? td ameritrade's trade desk. they can help gut check your strategies and answer all your toughest questions. sounds perfect. see, your stress level was here and i got you down to here, i've done my job. call for a strategy gut check with td ameritrade. ♪ from maybelline new york. fits skin tone and texture. in 2 finishes: matte and poreless and dewy and smooth. 64 fits. fit me foundation. only from maybelline new york.

woman: ahh! need a change of scenery? kayak searches hundreds of travel sites and lets you see how your baggage will affect the cost of your flight, so you can be confident you're getting the right flight at the best price. kayak. search one and done.

but i'm more than a number. when i'm not teaching, i'm taking steep grades and tight corners. my essilor lenses offer more than vision correction with three innovative technologies for my ultimate in vision clarity and protection together in a single lens: the essilor ultimate lens package. so, i can do more of what i love! buy two pairs of essilor's best lenses and get a $100 back instantly. see more. do more. essilor first it was mueller and potus, then the prosecutor and smollett.

saying no case will be made, but i can't exonerate. the actor maintains his innocence. listen. i have been truthful and consistent on every single level since day one. i would not be my mother's son if i was capable of one drop of what i have been accused of. >> the facts don't match his feelings but let's bring in d. lemon. what is this about? why did they let him go? >> i can tell you, it's what they worked out. i can't tell you why they let him go, specifically. i can speak to what you were saying there. it seems there's a very interesting thing going on in our justice system right now. you have the president where he says there's no collusion but this does not exonerate him. you have hillary clinton back during the 2016 election. they said we're not going to prosecute her, we're not going to seek to prosecute her. >> but she was negligent. >> negligent or acting recklessly and then the prosecutor in this case saying this is not an exoneration. we still believe he made this up and the evidence from the police

department and the investigators but we're dropping the charges. i can't explain to you what's going on here. but that's one of the things i want to ask his attorney. she will join us here, smollett's attorney will be here. >> it has to be one of two things. one, maybe the prosecutors botched this. when they let the nigerian brothers go. you had three people involved in the crime but now only a case against one of them. maybe they weren't as reliable. maybe they didn't have the deal set up to secure them in a way that they could guarantee what they were going to say at trial and make the case. that's the best answer i can think of for prosecutors. the other one gets into politics. is this about going easy on a celebrity? is this about where his race is relevant to where you want to prosecute in a situation like this? >> well, i will tell you, i have been speaking to my sources and they will tell you, i was going to say this on my show, but i'll give it to you now. >> my man. >> they tell me that the

brothers were consistent all the way through. that they were not notified. they were cooperating witnesses. so it wouldn't seem that the prosecution screwed it up, if you believe the source who told me that. what most people believe -- and listen, i don't know, i'm not there, i'm just reporting -- that this was political in nature, because the people who had been trying to prosecute him, which was the people who decided to drop the charges, did a 180 and when they spoke to him today, as opposed to yesterday or the day before, they were like, who are you? i have never met you before, even though you look like the same person i have just spoken to. so most people believe that it came from on high. i don't know from who. >> wasn't the mayor. >> but it's certainly unprecedented. >> the mayor, i spoke to him when this happened. i spoke to the police superintendent as well. we asked for both of them tonight. the mayor ended up going on wolf and spoke to him and a great conversation. i don't want to interrogate her, but there are a lot of questions that i want to ask her attorney. and also that i would like to

ask jussie himself, right? >> i would love to see that. you've got a great guest tonight. person to have, i'm going to be working for sure. i'll see you in a second, d. lemon. so the jussie smollett case is one of two big legal conversations going on across the country tonight. stay with me on this. because i don't think it's a big stretch to compare this smollett investigation or problems with it with the mueller probe. both beg for more information and there is a lesson in both and it starts with this. don't be a sucker, next. clariti. and relief from symptoms caused by over... 200 outdoor and indoor allergens. like those from pollen, pets and dust. because new memories start with dusting off old ones. feel the clarity and live claritin clear. we can go down this what do you think? ♪ woo! yeah! it's good! it's refreshing. ♪ at northwestern mutual, this is what our version of financial planning looks like.

tomorrow is important, but she's only seven once. spend your life living. find an advisor at northwesternmutual.com. before the trip, jessica sent 22 texts to a swim instructor to help manny overcome his fear. their gps took them to places out of a storybook. and they called grandma when manny felt sad about not being able to swim. overall, they shared 176 pictures. but when the moment came, they held their breath, and watched their son learn to believe in himself. -jamie, this is your house? -i know, it's not much, but it's home.

right, kids? -kids? -papa, papa! -[ laughs ] -you didn't tell me your friends were coming. -oh, yeah. -this one is tiny like a child. -yeah, she is. oh, but seriously, it's good to be surrounded by what matters most -- a home and auto bundle from progressive. -oh, sweetie, please, play for us. -oh, no, i couldn't. -please. -okay. [ singing in spanish ] -please. -okay. each day justin at work... walk. and after work. he does it all with dr. scholl's. only dr. scholl's has massaging gel insoles that provide all-day comfort. to keep him feeling more energized. dr. scholl's. born to move.

want more from your entejust say teach me more. into your xfinice remote to discover all sorts of tips and tricks in x1. can i find my wifi password? just ask. [ ding ] show me my wifi password. hey now! [ ding ] you can even troubleshoot, learn new voice commands and much more. clean my daughter's room. [ ding ] oh, it won't do that. welp, someone should.

just say "teach me more" into your voice remote and see how you can have an even better x1 experience. simple. easy. awesome. all right. new cuomo cups. we give them to the guests, we ran out. a little hard to read on tv. big, like my hand. don't be a sucker. part one and part two. here's part one. actor jussie smollett's story is no more believable now after charges were dropped. the video, the accounts of the brothers and his own account have never made sense. hence the charges and the apologies from the brothers. even in dismissing the charges, the first assistant state's attorney said this. we did not exonerate mr. smollett. there's that word again. the charges were dropped in return for mr. smollett's

agreement to do community service and forfeit his $10,000 bond to the city of chicago. here's what i don't get. why are you processing this as a mystery? we should hear more, but they cut him a deal, period! why, why? celebrity? a perverse play on race? did prosecutors screw up here? did they mess up with how they treated the other two members, the three people involved in the crime. did they screw it up? is there some unknown other reason? whatever it is, the prosecutor owes their city and frankly all of us an explanation, because this reeks right now. the main argument right now is this. these calls that charges are being dropped means that smollett was telling the truth. that's what he says, but don't be a sucker. even the prosecutor says, that is not the case. they said they don't believe smollett is exonerated, meaning innocent. the legal standard is guilty or not guilty, not guilty or innocent. so maybe there is a hole in the case that made this an easier

path to make this deal, but it was an odd word to use. in fact, it becomes the word of the day in my opinion. exonerated. and it takes us to part two of don't be a sucker. how is the mueller report case closed when no one has seen the report? these four pages that we saw, these are the ag, bill barr's, letter summarizing the report. didn't stop our president from proclaiming this today. >> it was a complete and total exoneration. >> not today, sunday. but he'll say it again. and once again, the president can't go with the truth, even when it is on his side. let's just be straight about this. mueller said barr echoed, no charge of criminality. can't make a case. a criminal case when it comes to the president or his people being involved in russian interference into our election. that's the good news. but on obstruction, mueller went out of his way to apply an unusual standard. and barr went out of his way to repeat our word of the day. the special counsel states that while this report does not

conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. that means mueller can't show that trump did nothing wrong, which would be a tough thing to do, with the nonexistence of a fact. and that's not his burden. his burden was to prosecute or not. not to prove the president innocent. so why did he say it? it's another question we've got to get the answer to. the big point is, the president is wrong again. there's a lot more to know. again, the ag didn't use the word "collusion" in his summary. why? because collusion is not a crime and mueller was looking for crimes. that was his essential job. collusion is a behavior. and there could be ample proof from that kind of behavior in mueller's full findings. manafort giving the poll data, stone's efforts to get stolen e-mails for advantage, the trump tower meeting and more all could be folding into the counterintelligence investigation that the ag didn't even mention in miss summary. what did the president know? what was done by those around him with respect to meetings and contacts with people that we

know they knew to stay away from? that could be in the counterintel. could be somewhere else, could be nowhere. we may know in a few weeks, we're told. we'll be asking on this show all the time. that's our job. you should demand we do our job and that congress deliver. are there more crimes related to russia to come? no! that part is done. but maybe in the bucket of other probes, maybe. i say unlikely, maybe i'm wrong. it happens all the time. here's what's completely right. you have the right to know of any wrongdoing. i'm not calling for an unending obsession. that's a different 9:00 p.m. show that does it that way. we paid for this probe, as taxpayers. the interference matters. we should know what we paid for what were the fruits of the labor. don't be played for a sucker. demand the report, read it for yourself and then you decide what matters. that is the right conclusion. thank you for watching. "cnn tonight" with d. lemon is always the right conclusion to this show, because then his begins.

>> i like that subtle 9:00 p.m. shade. but listen, here's what -- >> not that subtle. >> i know. slightly subtle. exonerate. especially of an official body, absolve somebody of blame from a fault or wrongdoing, especially after due consideration of the case. and the second, it says, to absolve, clear, acquit, to pronounce not guilty, discharge or release from a duty or obligation. so, is that what we have in a lot of cases going on? i don't know. i mean, i seem to -- >> almost never. prosecutors almost never use it. you get guilty or not guilty. we either made the case against you or we didn't make the case. innocent means, you did nothing wrong, which is often a different standard and often a