investigation and looking into whether or not it was an espionage effort. authorities with two chinese passports got past an initial security check at the club. chris is going to have more on this. let's hand it over to chris for "cuomo prime time." chris? >> i am chris cuomo and welcome to "prime time." total exoneration. that's what the president declared about the mueller probe thinking he was nailing the coffin shut. instead, it seems he's opened up pandora's box. mueller's team is pushing back. they say no complete exoneration. even the attorney general's account of the special counsel's findings, they say, isn't right. this is breaking at the same time democrats authorize a subpoena for the full un-redacted report. they've also opened up a new front in their new season of oversight. years of this president's taxes, personal and professional. they asked for them. will they get them? the other question is, will they be sorry if they do?

we're going to bliring in a powerful ways and means committee member to lay out the case. and the chinese lady at mar-a-lago, it started as a joke, but now our intel folks, they're not laughing. we have their reasons for concern. my friends, it is never boring. tonight it matters. so let's get after it. ♪ so here's the big story, "the new york times" reports some members of team mueller believe the attorney general failed to adequately characterize the findings of their inquiry that the stuff in the report is worse for this president than as summarized and the timing could not be better for the democrats. they're ready to send a subpoena for the full mueller report, and now the house ways and means committee, only one with this power, they can call for the president's taxes, they can call for anybody's taxes. they're asking for personal and professional taxes from the president from 2013 to 2018. along with, like, eight of his

business entities. so this is going to be a legal fight. it will certainly be a political fight. a general question is, is this about generating heat or light? we have the perfect guest for tonight. congressman tom swauzy, democrat from the president's home state of new york. welcome to "prime time." >> hey, chris. thanks for having me on. >> good to have you. so, first, the question of legitimacy. we all know -- well, i know what the statute says, that your committee is able to get this. do you think there is any check on your authority? >> i think it's very clear that the chairman of the committee has the power to make a request for anyone's tax returns from the treasure secretary through the irs commissioner. >> and it's just as simple as that? no pushback, no political tricks that can be done, not hanging you up in court forever? >> the language is pretty clear. it says "shall," and "shall deliver the." of course, i'm sure if the president decides he wants to or his team decides they want to, they're going to try to pursue

some legal strategy. it may be in their best interests to move forward and get this put behind them. >> is it a check on your authority if the president is under audit at the time? >> well, this is a very interesting thing that i don't think anybody's been talking about. the chairman of the committee has said very clearly that the reason he's asking for these tax returns is because there is a policy in the internal revenue service that says very clearly that every president is supposed to be audited by the irs. and the question he wants to find out has have they done their job? back in the carter administration, the irs put something in their manual that said we want to take the discretion away from the irs because we don't want to force irs employees to have to make a decision, should we or shouldn't we audit the president? and instead every president is supposed to be audited by the irs. >> so you get the can you do it. do you have the right, then you have the is it right to do it. what are you hoping for politically comes out in these and what do you see as the risk? >> i'm not really concerned

about the political aspects. i think this is a policy issue that we have to do in the ways and means committee. one great thing about our chairman, richie neil, he said from the very beginning he's going to be very judicious and deliberate throughout this process. he's going to following the rules, he's going to have hearings and he's going to make sure that whatever he does is going to be subject to scrutiny by people and it will hold up in a court of law, so he's been very, very careful throughout this process and he's made it very clear this is not about politics, this is about policy. this is a very narrow and targeted request. >> what happens is -- because we've never seen a president get put through this before. what happens if you get the taxes, there is nothing damning in the taxes that really matters in terms of what we're asking. could it backfire and make it look like you're beating up on the president for no good reason? >> listen, the chips will fall where they may. this shouldn't be about politics. we have a job to do to actually look at policy and look at legislation. this is the job we're supposed to do. it's a knife's edge, where we

have to do our job but at the same time we have to coverage and we can't go too far that it looks partisan and we can't go too far the other way that we don't do our job to actually do the oversight we're supposed to do. in this case, we're doing oversight of the irs to find out if they're complying with their requirement that they do an audit of the president without fear or favor. >> while i have you, congressman, what does "the new york times" report mean to you, that some identify-- i just wan careful about it. some of mueller's team are saying that they don't believe the a.g.'s summary did justice to their findings, but they wouldn't tell "the new york times" which findings they were talking about. >> i think -- >> what does that mean to you? >> it means to me that this is going to keep going on and on and on unnecessarily because if the president or if the attorney general, i should say, were to simply release the report, this would be over as far as a conversation. let's get the report out there. let's get it out. you want to redact things because you believe it's proper to redact certain things? we understand that you have a

duty to do, but let's just release the report. that's what the public wants and the country needs to move forward. >> but the a.g. says that is what he's doing. he's just saying you guys only gave him a couple of weeks. it takes time. >> well, the mueller team did summaries of their entire investigation and i don't believe it's going to take the weeks that he's saying to get this out there. you know that they're focused on this 24 hours a day. you know this is a very important part of what they're working on right now and i don't believe it's going to take -- shouldn't take weeks for them to get this report out. >> one of the questions that you guys will have to deal with politically is, you know, nowhere in the guidelines does it say that the a.g. should answer a and if the special counsel can't. i don't know why mueller and his team didn't answer the obstruction question. that was his job. i thought he was in there because he was tough enough to make the tough calls. they didn't make a call on obstruction. the a.g. stepped in with the deputy a.g. and made it. that's not in the guidelines. is that an issue for you guys? >> i can't really comment on

that because i don't know what the report says or the findings say. i have great respect for mueller. i think most people in america do. as mr. barr said, he's a straight shooter. listen, the public just really wants to have the information. and we have to be very careful about all this stuff because i understand when people say you're getting too partisan. we have to try to be balanced, as i said earlier. do our job as the equal branch of government to do oversight of the executive branch without going too far that it's partisan. that's a knife's edge that we have to balance on constantly. i think it was very helpful, for example, when speaker ploelosi said i don't think impeachment is a good idea. that was before the mueller report came out. we need to be judicious and deliberate. i think the ways and means committee is doing that related to the tax rushes of the president and i hope that's what happens with mueller's report as well. >> this is going to be tough with the taxes because you're going to get a fight and then there is going to be an expectation set. it will be a tricky balance.

we'll see how it plays out. great to have you on the show. hope to see you again. >> thanks, chris. >> be well. so my next guest is confident that congress will be able to get what it's looking for. the question becomes what are they lookinger for? just the taxes or something in them. the reason he's a good guest is he was once able to return the president's tax return of 2005. he knows what's at stake for the president. and we'll be talking to him about that and what the attorney general he has to worry about next as well. ♪ ♪ this simple banana peel represents a bold idea: a way to create energy from household trash. it not only saves about 80% in carbon emissions... it helps reduce landfill waste. that's why bp is partnering with a california company: fulcrum bioenergy. to turn garbage into jet fuel.

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that's why you get $200 when you leave your old tax service for us. so switch to jackson hewitt today and get $200. house democrats are now requesting to see president trump's personal tax returns from 2013 to 2018. they also want his business tax returns. when asked about the six-year request, the president feigned surprise that the democrats only want a few years. listen to this. >> the chairman of the democratic ways and means committee asked months ago for the irs for six years of your tax returns. >> is that all? >> that's all. >> oh, usually it's ten, so i guess they're giving up. i've been under audit for many years because the numbers are big and i guess when you have a name you -- you're audited. >> the president told me on television after a debate that he thinks he gets audited all the time because he is such a

devout christian. okay. so let's put all the trappings of this aside and figure out what's going to really happen here. especially this context of our other breaking story, about the disclosure that is being demanded now of mueller. this kind of all works together if you think about it, especially with some of mueller's team coming out and saying the a.g. did not tell you everything you needed to hear. so let's bring in someone who understands all this very well. david k. johnston once got access to stop of donald trump's 2005 tax return. welcome to "prime time." always good to see you, brother. >> good to see you. >> all right. so let's start with the will they. do you think there is any way that the president can block the chairman of the ways and means committee's request? >> no. under a 1924 anti-corruption law, the chairman of the ways and means committee, the senate finance committee or the employee of congress who is the chief of staff for the joint committee on taxation all have a right to see this. the law says the treasury

secretary shall produce not just the tax return but any tax return information. that means if they have copies of the books and records of donald trump's companies, transaction records, audit notes, audit notices, many other things, and i suspect, by the way, this will also eventually get into any gift tabs returns donald trump may have filed. >> now let's get into why they want it, what he should be concerned about. this is an interesting take from his former personal attorney michael cohen. now i don't know that cohen ever saw the president's taxes or had anything to do with their preparation, but here was his take before congress about why the president didn't want them out. >> statements that he had said to me is that what he didn't want was to have an entire group of think tanks that are tax experts run through his tax return and start ripping it to pieces and then he'll end up in an audit and he'll ultimately

have tax -- taxable consequences, penalties and so on. >> do you think that's what it is? >> i think that's exactly what it is. keep in mind, donald trump has had two income tax fraud trials, the state of new york and the city of new york. he lost both of them and the opinions written by the judges excoriated him. his own witness, his then tax lawyer and accountant who represented donald's father, fred trump, testified against him. he was shown the tax return and he said that's my signature on the tax return, but neither i nor my firm prepared that tax return, which is a pretty strong badge of fraud. >> now, let's look at the other side of the balance here. if the democrats do this, this is an unusual move. it's a power play. we haven't seen it done to other presidents. now, the pushback will be they usually put out tax returns, that this president didn't, but isn't the bar going to be kind

of high for them? that these tax returns better show something other than he didn't pay enough in taxes? >> well, if the -- if the democrats find there is nothing there and come out and say, hey, guess what? donald trump's clean as a whistle, i would expect the republicans would jump up and down with joy who decided to back donald trump. the issue here is really about oversight and preventing corruption. and what the tax returns will tell us are things like did trump overvalue and undervalue things to game the system? did he take deductions as he did in the cases where he was tried for which there was no substantiation or basis? and did he have money flowing to him in ways that suggest that he may be in violation of american law or subject to some kind of pressure or blackmail from people overseas? >> you know, we just had tom suozzi on, he's on the committee. he said there is a law that the irs ought to audit every president.

it's a clever answer. we know what this is about. we know what this will be perceived as being about. if you really think that's what the american people want. i thought the suspicion was if you watch other tv shows on at this time if you follow his money, david, you're going to find out he's compromised. if they don't find that in his taxes, i don't think that you're lending history. isn't there going to be a threshold if this isn't met, this is bad for the left? >> it could well be bad for the democrats if they mishandle it. i think that's why richie neil has been careful about couching it the way he has. they don't get to put the returns automatically out in the public record. it says they'll be received for closed-door sessions, but i do think as in the case of richard nixon we need to know whether our president is a kprook. >> right. i hear you on that. it's going to be an interesting political test. people will say this is all from the past. he's been weighed and measured. let me ask you something else. "the new york times" headline. we knew this was going to happen.

some of mueller's team is saying, hey, he didn't get it right. where do you think this takes us in terms of how much comes out? >> well, you know, william sapphire wrote a column about barr when he was attorney general for george h.w. bush called the patsy prosecutor and how he did something just like he did here. he distorted facts and tried to do everything he could to protect the president. we've seen the other independent counsel and special counsel reports with very minor redactions in only a few of them. why are we not seeing the report? there must be a reason they're wi withholding the report and i'm not surprised some of mueller's team are ready to talk to reporters and say whatever you read, that's really not what's going on here. we need to see the report and we need to ask a fundamental question, if it exonerates you, why don't you want us to see every word of it? >> look, that's a fair point. if the president wants closure, clarity brings closure, and barr did do something that aren't in the guidelines. he says it's all about guidelines. got to hue to the law. doesn't say that he takes the

decision from the special counsel when the special counsel can't make a call. you know, you would think that would default to congress, but the a.g. took the step with the deputy a.g. to make a call on obstruction. that's not in the guidelines either. >> no, it's not. and, chris, if you very carefully parse the letter, which is, you know, what lawyers and people who teach law like i do do, there are a lot of missing phrases. it refers to the russian government. the russian government operates through oligarchs in many cases. there is other language that suggests this was a very artfully written letter. >> look, he's a sophisticated guy. we know that the president put him in -- didn't put him in there to be his enemy. there is a little precedent, by the way. the only other time we've had a special counsel since they rewrote the rules or wrote the rules for the special counsel, that was janet reno. she actually directed the special counsel in that case, release it right to the public. there were redactions but it only wound up being a dozen or so pages out of 200.

that went right to the people. that could have been done here, same set of guidelines, didn't happen. so there you have it. >> zblult. >> david cay johnston, i call on you early and often because you make it better for my audience every time you're on. thank you for helping us understand these things. >> have you. >> all right. all right. so we're seeing some video for the first time from former vice president joe biden on the controversy that is surrounding him before he's even said whether he's running. so we're going to show you the message and then we're going to debate. is this enough to deal with these allegations of what is termed unwanted touching? dp that's where we start. where we finish, no one knows. congratulations. thank you. how many kids? my two. his three. along with two dogs and jake, our new parrot. that is quite the family. quite a lot of colleges to pay for though. a lot of colleges. you get any financial advice? yeah, but i'm pretty sure it's the same plan they sold me before. well your situation's totally changed now. right, right. how 'bout a plan that works for 5 kids, 2 dogs and jake over here?

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all right. so here's the headline to start with. the former vice president joe biden has put out a new video dealing with these questions surrounding his behavior in the past. let's take a look. >> in my career, i've always tried to make a human connection. that's my responsibility, i think. i shake hands, i hug people, i grab men and women by the shoulders and say you can do this, you know, our social norms have begun to change, they've shifted and the norms of respecting personal space have shifted. i get it. i hear what they're saying. i'll be much more mindful. that's my responsibility, my responsibility, and i'll meet it. >> is that enough? let's use that as the beginning of the great debate. angela rye and scott jennings. angela rye, not an apology to women who have come forward, but he says i get it, assuming that he will be different going forward. your take?

>> well, first of all, i have always respected former vice president biden's ability to tell the truth, to correct -- connect on an authentic level and be extremely transparent. i think the challenges here with this video are several. one, this is his first kind of video appearance since, you know, people really began to speculate that he was going to run for president this election season and he's not even mic'd up. this video looks bad. i'm just saying from a pure optics standpoint, that doesn't go in his favor. true, of course, it is authentic and make it was in the moment and kind of a spur of the moment type of thing. i just don't like those particular optics. i do think it is a problem. if folks felt like they were that disrespected or that harmed that he didn't apologize for how at least he made them feel. i think that would have gone a lot further, but he is completely right when he says times have changed. that doesn't mean that the times that were were right, it means

they were different. and i think joe biden saying i'm really going to take an opportunity with the way that i've engaged and determine where i need to course correct. i think the most important thing is it looks like consent doesn't just apply to, you know, what people do sexually, it also applies to people respecting physical space. i feel that way every time someone is right up on me in the line, chris, at the grocery store. >> i thought you were calling me out in the makeup room. i was at least seven feet away. >> i would have told you and then i would have tweeted. no, i'm just kidding. >> scott, to you. lord knows he's got no high ground on this issue. while this may be tough intraparty for joe biden, at least early on, he hasn't even announced yet. what does this mean for you guys? >> it means nothing for us. we should not talk about this. it appears to me the democrats are going to rip joe biden apart over this. i'm a political operative. i look at it through that lens. this looks like a

well-orchestrated hit job from one or more of the other democratic campaigns. obviously they're not going to let it go. look, these other campaigns have a reason to attack biden for something, for anything, because he's one of the two clear front-runners in this case. i think republicans can step back and let democrats sort this out. i agree with angela, i don't like when people get on me either. >> horrible. >> i think it's weird. joe biden, we're not talking about his behavior four years ago. he was barack obama's vice president. this was in the very, very near past, and for eight years he was grabbing people, you know, gripping them, sniffing their hair and nobody in the obama white house walked up to him and said, hey, man, cut it out with the creepy mccreeperson bit. >> i got to tell you, i don't think you can even use the verb grabbing because every time one of you guys says the word grabbing, it reminds this entire country of what our now president said on that video. that's why you don't have high ground. but one other caution, angela, i do understand what scott's saying. full respect looking at it through the lens of politics.

but it's also probably the only way the trump campaign look at it, can look at it, is to mock it and make a joke out of it. he can't be on the side of respecti respecting time's up and the me too movement. he is exhibit "a" of what you're not supposed to be anymore. >> right. he's 20-plus accusers deep into the me too movement, and i think that is part of the issue. what's so funny is, scott, you talked about the democrats are going to tear him to shreds. it's interesting to see that contrast, right? on one side of the aisle you have not just the candidate, but the commander in chief who had all those accusers and was still elected president, maybe by some outside help, we'll never know until that 400-page report comes out, but i digress. now on the other side of the aisle you have, well, let us look at the definition of content when you talk about sexual assault. let us talk about what it means to respect someone's physical boundaries. let's at least analyze hat. >> that's all good.

>> this man who may be a candidate is saying i'm willing to succumb to the fact that times have changed and i may need to do something different. >> that's all good and that's a conversation only one side can have and that sucks. it's something that needs to bring us all together. >> it should be nonpartisan. >> let me ask you something else while i have you guys. scott, this "new york times" reporting, i knew it was going to happen. not because i'm smart, it's because it's obvious. the longer it goes without the report coming out, the more people are going to nibble around the edges. people of his team saying barr didn't get it right. he didn't summarize it right. there's a lot more in there. do you think we're going to get to see things? there is a lot of precedent to see a lot of this report. there is not a lot of precedent to only see a little bit of the report. which way do you think it goes? >> i think we're going to see most of the report. i think there are going to be proper redactions for intelligence material and they'll redact the names of people who are purely innocent and did nothing except cooperate willing this investigation. what concerns me about "the new york times" report, again, i think we should see the whole report and i defend mueller and

his team from the beginning. i didn't agree with the president attacking the fbi agents the way he did. people on mueller's team are concerned about the narrative. look, i think this is what got jim comey in trouble, his obsession with political narratives. i don't want them to tell me what i should think politically. i want to see the facts. they haven't leaked once from the beginning, the fact that they're leaking at the end -- >> that's not what they say. do you have the full screen? >> they're worried about the narrative. it's going to -- listen, it's going to lead people to believe that maybe trump had a point. >> i don't think so. >> some of these people wanted an outcome. >> put up the piece of the piece just so we can get the context right. some of, remember, this is what they were hearing from people who know what these investigators are hearing. this is a few levels deep. i'm not questioning the accuracy, just just saying the context. they were more troubling for president trump than mr. barr indicated. that's not about narrative. that's not about shaping.

it's about how barr shaped what's going on. angela, i think it takes us to the same place. my concern about the ways and means chair going after the taxes is when you want something, it raises a level of expectation. here with this report it's the same thing. when you -- in reverse. when you hide something -- >> right. >> -- it creates a level of expectation. i don't get if the president wants closure, clarity brings closure. let it come out. he says he was exonerated. >> well, and that's just it. he says he was exonerated, but, chris, we know he says a lot of things. in fact, it's to the tune of 9400 things that are not true, aurz this very administration coined the term alternative facts. so what we should be hoping for is not a redacted report but a full-on report so that the american people can judge for themselves what's in it. i do not want to rely on attorney general barr's interpretation because we already know that he's been bought and sold at a price. it was clear before he was even nominated that that was going do be the case. >> bought and sold? that is an outrageous

allegation. bought and sold? are you suggestion corruption or bribery? this man was confirmed with a bipartisan vote. that's an outrageous thing to say. >> i told chris i wasn't going to do this tonight. you go for it. >> hold on. what you said was very provocative that he's bought and sold. >> bought and sold at a price. meaning he's another yes man in the same cabinet of people -- >> it sounds like you're saying there was corruption and that's why i let scott push back on you because we have no belief of that. >> i'm sorry. that is a colloquial term. >> all right. good distinction. >> he might not be bought and sold at a price, but there are a number of players around donald trump who are corrupt. it's clear they've been indicted. some of them convicted. so let's just be very clear about what is around him, what is surrounding him and why suspicion is so clear. >> i'm glad you qualified it. scott, i'm glad you pushed back on it. all right. be have more information coming in just the past few minutes on that mar-a-lago arrest. i'll be honest, i thought it was

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so, just as we started the show tonight we got some new details about what the suspect in the security at mar-a-lago is revealing about herself. the chinese woman who was charged in the case has told the judge she's an investor and consultant for a chinese company. today we learned the fbi is now investigating to see this weekend's incident and whether or not it could be part of an espionage plot. house intel chief adam schiff wants a briefing from the secret service, among others, which is defending its response. as for the president, nothing to see here. >> gave me a little bit of information. no, i'm not concerned at all. i have -- we have very good control. we have extremely good -- and it's getting better in cyber, frankly, what we're doing with cyber is -- is a story in itself. no, i think that was just a fluke situation. >> god love him, but i don't even know what he's talking about here. if it weren't for his

receptionist, this lady would have found her way wherever she wanted to be at mar-a-lago. raid the complaint. the complaint is out there for you to read. the receptionist said, wait, what are you here for? that's not on the list. then she brought back the secret service and they wound up taking her for more questioning because her story fell apart. let's get some insight into what this could all mean. former cia operative bob baer. full disclosure, i thought this was a joke. i thought it was just funny she made it that far. now the fbi and other intel agencies are saying not funny. why? >> well, chris, mar-a-lago has been a nightmare for the secret service and the fbi right from the beginning. it's indefensible, they know it. it would take a cia team, for instance, a couple of hours to wire the place, in the light sockets, sending out signals that are masked, that are encrypted, covered un-am/fm

radio. we have caught in this case i believe a chinese agent because there is no cyber security firm in china which does not report to the intelligence service. so the chances of her directly or indirectly working for chinese intelligence are very good. >> now, is the relationship good enough, bob, where you can call over there during this, you know, big, you know, this big trade deal that's going on. is the relationship big enough to call over and say, is this one of yours? >> no, the chinese are going to say no. they're going to absolutely deny it. but you have to remember the chinese, this is their most important target. they don't understand trump. he's a complete mystery. so there's an obligation of chinese intelligence to get inside mar-a-lago because they can't get in the white house. so go to mar-a-lago. what goes through this guy's mind? you know, good luck of the chinese finding out. >> how are they going to get that? that's what the malware is about. >> audio. they go to their room, get on their cell phones, you wire the rooms or get in the wi-fi and you can get all those conversations going out. it's amazing what you can get.

sweep it right up. >> that's what can fall under the category of malware? >> mr. malware, yeah, get get into the wi-fi, get into cells. you can get into the whole system in the hotel -- >> and the chinese would use something as clumsy as someone coming up to the front gate and saying i got invited to a party? >> well, you know, there's a lot of mistakes made. there's probably a lot of chinese trying to get into mar-a-lago. the cia has made mistakes. so has the kgb. they seem comical to you, but this does happen. but i guarantee you that every intelligence service worth its salt is trying to get into mar-a-lago. and we simply got the low hanging fruit. >> you think it's too dangerous to have him there? look, for all the partisan battles going on, and i test the president almost every night. god forbid anything would happen to him. is this about the secret service falling down on the job or is the job too tough to secure that place? >> you can't secure it. it's impossible. the only places you can secure are place areas in the white

house, the fbi, the cia, they're called scifs. they're like lead walls. you call anybody in the federal government with security clearance, they'll be gone all day because they can't have a cell phone. they have air gap commuters. the same applies to the president but he simply refuses to comply. he doesn't understand it. >> so what are the questions for you here? >> you know, just hold this lady. what concerns me is the rest of mar-a-lago and the professionals that are able to get in so easily because, remember, the secret service does not control the doors. and that is a catastrophe. >> i'm not saying that as a slight on the secret service. >> no, not at all. >> but the receptionist, you know, this lady talked her way past the secret service. she just did. she wound up getting to the gate. she may have been driven there by a secret service guy, but she got up to talk to the receptionist. the receptionist pushed back on her and that wound up cycling into her dedetention. >> that's a total accident

because at the white house the secret service controls entry. they trace everyone who comes in. you can't do that at mar-a-lago with members and their children and the rest of it. you've got this flow of people. it's a place that is wide open. >> it is true. i have gotten reports of people eating dinner there and the president's there. we all know what happened during the north korea situation where there were big shots around him, but other people eating dinner and hearing their conversations, hearing what's going pawn. i guess it's a tough balance. you want him to live his life, but we only got one of them, we've got to protect him. >> chris, when you become president, you sell your private life for the time you're in office. that's the deal. that's the contract. he's not abiding by it. >> if this woman turns out to be a spy, that would be a real twist in the story. it seemed so obvious. if that is really what it is, that's impressive. bob baer, thank you very much for your take on this. appreciate it. all right. we're still trying to wrap our heads around the president's story when it comes to his own father, by the way.

when i was joking about it with don last night, again, it was another one that i wrote off as not as serious as other stuff, but, you know, it winds up being symptomatic of a bigger problem. so the white house won't set the record straight about where the president's father was born. what is this about? is there so much fear in the white house to do anything that the president doesn't want you to do, anything that might reveal some type of weakness that you can't even answer a question like that? the latest chapter, next. mirac's next big thing. performance organics. finally organics that work. tested and refined by plant scientists... for twice the results, guaranteed. don't grow a snack, grow a feast. don't grow a flower, grow a million dollar view. this new organic collection of soil and plant food is what you always wanted. no compromise, just results, guaranteed. miracle-gro performance organics. so let's promote our spring ftravel deals,

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telling you something different. >> my father is german, right? was german. and born in a very wonderful place in germany. >> my father's from germany. both of my parents are from the eu. >> both of my parents were born in eu sectors, okay? i mean, my mother was scotland, my father was germany. >> from germany, fine, you know, my father's family is from italy. but he was born here. just like the president's father. now, for the last two days we've been doing something that is very routine that you don't get to hear too much about, which is we report on something, we hear about it, we go to the white house for an explanation. well, what was at first radio silence, which is not unusual, has turned into deflection. one adviser says this now. "obama thought we had 57 states. sometimes mistakes happen.

" now someone who makes a lot of mistakes is d. lemon, but he's never said anything like he doesn't know where his mama was born. wake up, don. like i said, makes a lot of mistakes. >> i was actually talking to and doing -- what do you want to know? i'm actually doing research on this. how are you doing? >> i'm good doing, brother. >> wake up. >> i'm doing good. >> as you know, as we say -- i am. a couple of things there. he said his dad was born in the eu. well, i don't think -- >> i'll give him from germany. you can say your parents are from somewhere if that's where their blood is. >> okay. fine, he says he's from germany. that's fine. but to say he was born there. >> not fine. >> not fine because he wasn't. >> not accurate. >> is it a big deal? in the whole scheme of things, i'm sure the mueller report and the findings, that is a much bigger deal. >> yes. >> but it just shows you how

this president -- the point is they don't care, this administration, because for them to come out with an explanation saying well, you know, president obama or candidate obama when he was on the campaign trail he said, you know, he had been to 57 states, right? okay, so, here's -- and at the time the press held obama to account. asked him about it. he addressed it right after. and then went on to say i think i made a mistake. i hope i said 100,000 people talking about the cyclone in burma and 100 million people. and then at that point he had been on the campaign trail for i think 16 months at that point, and he said something dumb. we do it all the time. >> yes. >> but guess what? he said i made a maistake. >> and he said it once. it's not about something he should have -- obviously we all know there are 50 states but, you know, you can misspeak. you say that your father was born somewhere that he wasn't repeatedly. >> over and over. it's not a slip of the tongue. >> at a minimum it's that this is something that he's convinced himself of for some reason from

a long time ago and he just forgot the truth. >> yeah. >> but that's the best case scenario. the only part that bothers me is the white house. this white house, this administration and the people around this president will never admit a mistake. it's just like him during the campaign. what's the biggest thing you ever asked god for forgiveness why would i have ever asked god for forgiveness? >> sins, lying, but who knows, who knows? this big news that we have been saying, we've been talking about barr's four-page summary and that it didn't really show everything, how can you sum up 400 pages in just four pages? well, here it comes. "the new york times" reporting tonight, and sheila jackson-lee is here. >> oh, good. >> she's going to tell us what she thinks, where they're going to go from this, asking, issuing subpoenas, how soon. she's got information i don't think you'll hear anywhere else. stay tuned for that. >> beautiful, i will be up once

again watching d. lemon, the closing is the anatomy of a crisis in public confidence. >> i've been to all 59 states and i only have -- i mean, i've got a couple more to go to. >> you'll get there. >> i'll get there. >> see you later, bud. now, we don't know what's in the mueller report, but you should. and why? because the longer it goes this way the more nibbling around the edges. the more corrosion of public trust there's going to be. now you hear some of mueller's people saying i know what's in the report and the attorney general didn't tell you what he should have. now what? i have the closing argument about there's only one antidote to this, next. ritin-d. while the leading allergy spray only relieves 6 symptoms, claritin-d relieves 8, including sinus congestion and pressure. claritin-d relieves more.

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xfinity watchathon week. free starting april 8th. boop! the argument is that the anatomy of a crisis of public confidence is taking shape regarding the mueller report. now that the probe is over the legendary quiet that mueller compelled among the ranks is over too. sure enough the first wave shakes the foundations of trust in what the a.g. and the administration will do with the report. here's the quote. "some on mueller's team see their findings as more damaging for trump than barr revealed" blasts a "new york times" headline. we don't know what findings they're talking about. but it sows doubt. the president made it worse by trying to make it all go away. >> it was a complete and total

exoneration. >> now, this is misleading to the point of a lie. why? well, because it's an obvious deception. he has to know that the one thing he can't say accurately is that he's been totally exonerated because mueller and barr went out of their way to say there was no exoneration on the issue of obstruction, one of the two big things he looked at. so why deceive this way? because the president doesn't think it will be exposed. why would he think that? because maybe you won't get to see all the facts. this is a suspicion that the a.g. has fed, little by little, ever since his confirmation hearing when he told congress his intention was to let as much come out as possible. recall -- >> i also believe it is very important that the public and congress be informed of the results of the special counsel's work. my goal will be to provide as much transparency as i can, consistent with the law. >> consistent with the law. but remember, he decides how much that is. there is no review. it's what he wants.

and he seems to be limiting the amount more and more. what does that do? it fuels frustration and calls of a cover-up more and more. so the right then says to the left, you people are sore losers. you just want to hang the president, and you don't care if you expose national security issues and confidential sources in the process and the left says, really? like you want to do with the pointless fisa reveal that can only distract from the president's problems? and the right says, well, yeah and then we all sigh and then the left says we need to see it because we have a duty to check potus and wrongdoing need not be criminal so enjoy these subpoenas and we'll take the taxes too while we're waiting. and for all that ensuing drama there is something obvious here. while there may not be a crime of conspiring with russia to affect the election we all know there must be considerable wrongdoing when it comes to obstruction. because we know for a fact it

was enough to keep mueller from deciding whether he could prosecute for obstruction. so it can't be nothing. nor a mere scintilla, or something that really isn't that much. because if it were, it would not have stymied the special counsel, especially when he knows that it is awkward, if not embarrassing, for him to not make the call on whether to prosecute. same goes for barr. he says i have to do it with what the law allows. okay, where does it say in the law that you fill the void and decide there's no obstruction when the special counsel will not? it's in the in your guidelines. now, some of the mueller team saying there's stuff in there that barr didn't do justice to, the doj insiders that are loyal to barr hitting back and say, oh, yeah, if it's so obvious why couldn't you do a job and make the call on obstruction? more and more as this goes back and forth. it's corrosive. and the public will pick up pieces of all this diet of

dysfunction, chew it over and swallow different assumptions and the collective guarantee is a belch of bad feelings about the process and no confidence in anything that must have public confidence. the answer, now also the antidote to this damn dyspepsia, release the report, show everything to the gang of eight, show all but the most intensetive classified info to the full congress. people assume there is maybe to slow the process. then let as much as can possibly pass muster come to the rest of us. the president says he wants closure. you want closure, you need clarity, you want clarity, you need transparency. that's the only way you'll get it. the democrats want to see what they have to act on. well, there it is. the right wants to be about the rule of law, well, then do this the right way. ideally you should get the same, if not amount, the same timing as congress.

any layer, any delay will breed suspicion. let's be honest, there's not a lot of great reason to trust the people in power, especially right now. and there is precedent for more coming out. the only time we've had a special counsel under janet reno, branch davidian, she had the report go right to the public. redactions, but not much. no matter how this goes if it comes out it will be in a better situation and put us in a better place than the way we're headed right now and headed fast. thank you for watching. d. lemon right now. >> a couple things. i told you -- give you a little bit. >> please. >> don't want to give away too much. she made a point to me and i thought it was accurate. she said members of congress have the highest levels of security. >> security clearance. >> top secret. they see sources and methods all the time. they take an oath not to reveal those sources and methods. so they're pushing back on that whole thing about, you know,