meteorologist mike nicco who is getting minute by minute updates. >> thank you very much, jessica, hi everybody. here's a look at what's going on. flooding of the creeks and the streams is going to continue. sonoma county until 10:45 this morning and solano county, 10, 11:15 tomorrow evening. one area in the wind advisory. the rest of us are out of it. it expired. the winds are 14 to 20 miles per hour. they are definitely quieter at solano county. that's another indication that that system is starting to unwind. i kept it a 2 this morning. we have steady rain and a lot of standing water because of the breezes. once we're past the morning commute, i'll drop it down to a 1. there's not a lot of rain upstream. the atmospheric river moved on. that should be san jose at 87. i will flip that over real quick and show you that it's raining there. that's one of the areas steady

right now. everywhere else, we're going to be dealing with scattered showers the rest of the day and temperatures in the 60s. let's get a check of the commute with alexis. >> we have the sig-alert on the peninsula through the san bruno area. northbound 280 at the san bruno avenue. all lanes are blocked. this is due to a serious crash involving three vehicles. a van involved was flipped over. a person ejected from that vehicle. it sounds like there was paint in that van as well. that's spilled on to the roadway. the fire team is containing that right now. they're saying they need cal trans to help them clean that up. everyone is being forced off to is san bruno avenue. you have alternates. westbound 80, highway 4 to the maze 28 minutes, about 13 across the bay bridge. southbound 101 looking good if you're headed to the airport. san francisco to get there is about ten minutes. you're in the green. alexis, thank you. the big area of concern, sonoma county.

specifically along the russian river. >> people are told to evacuate as the water level continues to rise. amy hollyfield is live this morning. explain to viewers, you were trying to get to guerneville but you're now in forestville because there are road closures, right? >> reporter: this is as far as we can get, jessica. i won't be surprised if we have to move again. this is the blockade they've set up. i can see a car going through right now. it's slowing down. it's going through water right now. that water was not there an hour ago. the river is rising right now as we stand here. river road covered with water. and they're afraid if we did go on, we wouldn't get back out. that's why we're stopped right here. this is why. op in snt yesterday packing up their homes and their businesses and then getting out of there. they are expecting the russian river to hit 46 feet. that's the highest since 1997. people who decided to stay are expected to be trapped there for days.

>> we're rescuing people and talking to people, trying to get them out of their homes. quite a few people are refusing to leave. they're taking their lives in their own hands-on that one. >> reporter: they even brought in buses to move homeless people out of guerneville. they took them to santa rosa to help keep them safe. we're 7.5 miles outside of guerneville. that's as close as we can get right now. with the water on the rise, i won't be surprised if we have to move back even further. reporting live in forestville, amy hollyfield, abc 7 news. >> amy, thank you. now we're going to go to heelds burglary. this is new at 6:00. it shows you what drivers are dealing with on the roads this morning. a driver in a honda civic found herself stuck in a muddy mess after a mudslide came down off fitch mountain road. no injuries here but the road is now closed. >> there's flooding and reports of mudslides in kcazadero

northwest of mont rio. this is video of kid creek at the cazadero highway. a viewer tells us, austin creek is also flooding the highway. the water is 3 feet deep in places. a stretch of bohemian highway is closed because of a mudslide. it trapped two people yesterday. crews sloshed through knee-high mud to make that rescue. >> well, i fell into the mud when the tree went over the top of me. it happened so fast, you don't even really know. i see an image of a tree, it's not there. it's there. you know what i mean? >> crack, crack, crack. we heard the trees. we saw giant like these he wos down. >> it's not clear when the stretch of highway is going to reopen. marin county, fire crews are worried about a rising courte madera creek. they spent yesterday preparing

for flooding. members checked out different access points to the creek where they could deploy jet skis, watercraft or inflatable boat in case of an emergency. >> it's one of our last points we're looking at when we could have a potential victim going through the creek and ending up in a spot where we can get to them in a safe position. >> corte madera creek is the last place the rescue team can reach a person swept into the water before they reach the bay. let's check and see what the weather is doing to our airports. last check of flightaware, 16 dela delays, 18 cancellations. two delays and 13 cancellations out of oakland and mineta san jose, four delays and 18 cancellations. thousands of pg&e customers without power. here's the outage map. down from 11,000 an hour ago. most of the outages are in the north bay and east bay. drivers being told to avoid the sierra until tomorrow. officials closed i-80 from colfax to the state line.

cal trans says it will reevaluate the conditions later this morning. but take a look at this. abc 7 news reporter kate larsen this video while crossing the golden gate bridge. the wind and rain did not stop people from taking in the sights. tlrn still tour out there yesterday afternoon. you can check the conditions where you live using the app. click on the blue live bar at the top. you can enable push alerts to get weather and news updates sent to your mobile device directly. police are searching for a man who brutally beat a tourist in mountain view. the victim was walking along a trail near the bridge to creekside park when she was attacked late monday night. the man initially tried to talk to the woman. he introduced himself as jerry. she ignored him. that's when the man grabbed her, pushed her into the bushes and started punching her in the face. the suspect ran away after someone saw what was happening and started shouting at him. the woman is recovering from serious injuries to her face.

santa clara county supervisors approved funding to relocate a homeless encampment called hope village. the mercury news reports that the 14 to 20 residents face a march 30th deadline to vacate the city-owned site on rough road. the board of supervisors also approved more than $3 million for a tiny home community project to open as soon as possible and operate through january 2021. some san francisco officials say we're in a climate emergency. the action they could soon take. actress selma blair opening up about her battle with m.s. what you need to know about the disease. here's a look at the current areas flooding. mark west creek, sonoma creek, petaluma river, willowbrook, moderate. laguna desanta rosa is still flooding at a moderate level.

we'll look at the rivers and what to

i went on linkedin, i connected with someone, and they introduced me to my boss. there are people that are willing to help, and once you connect with those people, you can write your own narrative. if you live in danville, san ramon, alamo, the cut through from san ramon to castro valley, it is wet right now with morning likely -- more than likely standing water. let look at elsewhere. the south beach camera shows the

bay bridge, which is wet with a little bit of light rain falling for you. as you head throughout the day, you'll need the umbrella from time to time. if you're out and about, exercising or just doing errands, we're going to have on and off scattered showers today. if you want to play on the bay, wait until tomorrow. be much better. as promised, here's a look at the flood warning until 4:25 tomorrow morning. for the napa river. here's the latest. moderate flooding just like we have with our last atmospheric river event. the new diversion that they have on the napa river is really working well to keep it from flooding. unfortunately, we don't have that luxury with the russian river. it's flooding now and will continue flooding through saturday morning. we're still looking at a crest at about 46 feet at 10:00 p.m. tonight and that is the sixth highest crest ever for the russian river at guerneville. we're going to have major damage there. alexis? e peninsulaerhi morning. let's take you into san bruno,

northbound 280.we have all lane. just before san bruno avenue. everyone is being diverted off there on to san bruno avenue. thee vehicles involved in this. one person was ejected from a vehicle. so you do not want to take northbound 286 to el camino real or 101. on top of that, a full closure of state route 37 as well. between atherton and 101 due to flooding. this is the first time i've seen backup as well. you can take -- you can use the richmond-san rafael bridge. thank you, southwest airlines hits a major milestone in its plan to fly from the bay area to hawaii. hawaii. >> we're introducing you to the

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this was an emotional and raw interview that captured eye lot of people's attention. selma blair opening up in an interview about her battle with m.s. and the struggle she went through before getting the diagnosis. >> i was self-medicating when he wasn't with me. you know, i was drinking, i was in pain. i wasn't always drinking. but there were times when i couldn't take it and i was really struggling with how am i going to get by in life.

>> this morning, on gma, dr. jen ashton explains why it takes people years to be diagnosed with m.s. >> when you talk about making a diagnosis, this is not like strep throat. there's not one single definitive test to make this diagnosis. so what's required is two different episodes separated in time and location in our anatomy in the central nervous system where there's been damages for flares. a lot of the symptoms that present with m.s. often present with other conditions as well. >> common symptoms include vision problems, gait difficulty sich means ab norm walking,ess declare a climate emergency as it tries to reduce carbon emissions in the city. they report a resolution was introduced yesterday and has received more than six votes needed to pass. the proposal directs the department of the environment to

issue a report within 100 days detailing the steps the city could take to reduce carbon emissions. san francisco would join berkeley, hayward and oakland in declaring a climate emergency. this morning, we're getting our first look at the new gerber baby sniel she's from north carolina. she's 15 months old and already making history. kyrie yang is the first gerber baby from east and southeast asia. she beat out 544,000 other entries on instagram as the ambassador for the year. she'll be featured on social media channels and her family gets $50,000. >> congratulations. she's a cutie. not so cute is the weather. >> it will get cuter. we have to wait a few days. sunshine is coming back tomorrow. >> that is cute. >> tomorrow and a little bit friday before more rain st. saturday and sunday. we're locked into a wet pattern.

hi everybody. it was so wet yesterday. all-time daily record rainfall in the city of santa rosa. 5.66. 5 and 2/3 inches. inches. it beat a record from 1981. these records kept since 1902. that's impressive. almost 8 inches. 7.75. venado, nearly 21 inches. look at san francisco, almost an inch. what a difference. that little stretch of land makes and the topography that makes it so wet in marin and sonoma counties. oakland, about an inch. a quarter in hayward. about an inch in concord. a third of an inch in livermore and san jose, .17. we knew you would get rain shadowed. that was pretty extreme. tiburon and sausalito, thankfully the 4 inches of rain hasn't caused more damage.

they had over 9 inches in san anselmo. right now, light rain moving across the san mateo bridge headed towards hayward and hesperian boulevard. the bulk of the steady rain in the santa cruz mountains and spilling into the western side of the santa clara valley. we'll zoom down to where 280 and 17 are in park more. this is what it looks like. the light rain is coming down. you can see the clouds opening a little bit as that down sloping makes the western side or the eastern side of the santa clara val a drier than the western side for the morning commute. morning rain steady. next system is friday evening through sunday and another one tuesday into wednesday. here we are at 7:00 in the morning, transitioning over to showers. light to moderate in the lunch-hour. notice the best chance overnight and through tomorrow morning is well south of us and the cloud, the gray you see they are clearing out. expect sunshine tomorrow afternoon. the storm saturday, sunday,

tuesday and wednesday are 1s. checking out the roads. we have the significant alert. a person was ejected on northbound 280. all traffic is being diverted to san bruno avenue. there's a 30-minute delay. don't do it. take el camino real. take 101. this is a rare instance where we have alternates that you can take. not worth your time to get stuck in that this morning. looking soggy here in walnut creek. southbound 680, quite heavy. north of the 24 split. on the other side, the northbound side of the roadway near treat boulevard, reports of a solo vehicle spin-out crash. we're not out of the woods yet. still have rain coming down and windy conditions as well. southbound 680, walnut creek to dublin, 20 minutes for you. southbound 101, santa rosa to san francisco, 1 hour 6 minutes and northbound 17, highway 1 to los gatos, about 27 minutes through the santa cruz

mountains. > ♪ >> i love this song. >> ♪ >> wow. you really do? >> i don't know anything about this. >> latin rock band is coming to the u.s. and making a stop in the bay area. they'll be performing in san jose on september 27th. tickets go on sale this friday. other california stops include los angeles and san diego. they have a huge following. mana, has been playing across the u.s. for decades. they really made it big in the '90s. they formed in the '80s. huge in the '90 eads. one of my favorite bands. >> i was this many years old when i found out about mana. taylor swift, speaking of music, could she benew al >> i don't know her.dicated swi

posting more often on instagram. the caption did not explain the photo's significance. two days ago she posted a picture of herself on a stairway and then through a fence much fans believe she's counting down to an important announcement for album release date. how fascinating. huge taylor swift fan right here. 100,000 tulips headed for san francisco city hall this weekend. we'll show

you're never more than seven minutes away from your accuweather forecast. looks like yesterday. the atmospheric river down to the south. we're transitioning to steady light rain for the morning hours. we're still a 2 on the storm impact scale. we still have standing water and it's breezy. all that will taper this afternoon and we'll drop this down to a 1. the hardest part of the storm today is what you're going to deal with this morning. thank you, mike. southwest airlines is now awaiting official approval from the faa to launch service to hawaii from san jose. usa today reports southwest ceo told employees of the news on monday and he told employees the airline successfully completed its test flights.

new this morning, the biggest starbucks roastery is preparing for owning day. a 3200 square foot roastery opens in tokyo tomorrow. they have an inspiration lounge to host events and a tea bar.ca drinks like black tea and lattes like turmeric cotton candy. tokyo is living its best life. looks beautiful. this weekend it will look beautiful also and like spring in san francisco. 100,000 tulips will be in union square to celebrate american tulip day. you are invited to pick a bunch of flowers to take home for free. the event is set for saturday from 1:00 to 4:30. next at 6:30. live team coverage of the flooding. >> the road closures and the evacuations this morning. matt keller is tracking the conditions in the south bay where some people are in the

dark this morning. an update on the power outages. the weather is causing issues on the roads as well. we have the sig-alert northbound 280. just got the good news t the one with the designer dog collar.(sashimi) psst. hey, you!

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area. the city cut off this morning plus school closures and update to the effort to get the power back on for thousands in the dark. plus, we're standing by for an abc news special report. michael cohen arrived on capitol hill. this morning, we're learning what he's going to say. i've been reading about it. his comments are printed. it's explosive to say the very least. it is wednesday, february 27th. thanks for joining us. >> we want to start with storm coverage and mike nicco track tg all. here's what's flooding right now. laguna de santa rosa. this is how long the flooding will last. napa county until 8:30 this morning at least. sonoma county, 10:45 a.m. solano county, 11:15 tomorrow evening. it could take longer for the

creeks to return to its banks. the only area of wind concern is in solano county. it's until noon today where we could have gusts up to 50 miles per hour. here you're looking at be san leandro, bancroft avenue, lake shah bow road, west washington avenue. more slick streets like you're seeing here. san jose and 87. steady rain is ending right now. scattered showers and mild temperatures the rest of the day. alexis? >> all right. i want to take you back to the major traffic alert here. we have a sig-alert in effect for northbound 280 at san bruno avenue. that's where all traffic is being forced off of the roadway. or it was up until a moment ago. i should have that. lane number 5, the far right lane has reopened. it sounds like it's going to be a while for the rest. they may be able to get more lanes open in about 30, 40 minutes. cal trans has to get there to clean up a paint spill. a person was ejected from a vehicle and paint that flipped that spilled on to the roadway.

camino real or 101 for an alternate. the bay bridge toll plaza, looking pretty busy as usual. starting to dry out. starting to wind down with the storm. the metering lights on however. that's been the case since 5:22. alexis, thank you, this is new video of storm damage in the east bay. a large tree fell on yig nas yoe valley road. some of the power is out and police blocked off the street. the street is expected to reopen this afternoon. now we want to turn to abc 7 news reporter amy hollyfield. she's live in forestville this morning for us. >> amy tried to make it to guerneville where all the flooding is happening, but officials wouldn't let you drive there. >> reporter: that's right, reggie. this is as far as they would let us get. look behind me. they were worried that the worried would come over river road. they were right. look at it. that wasn't there at 5:00 this morning. but now river road is covered.

people in guerneville, i don't know how they'd get out unless they had a boat or some kind of canoe or jet ski. we are in forestville. we're 7.5 miles from guerneville. this is as far as they'll let us go. that is where they were really predicting devastation in guerneville. yesterday we saw residents packing untheir homes and their businesses and getting out of here. officials say the river should crest tonight at 46 feet. that will be the highest it's been since 1997. they say it is not safe for people to be here. >> telling everyone that for your own safety, your life is at risk. you need to leave this area. it's going to be extremely dangerous out here tomorrow. these roads will be impassable. nobody will be getting in or out without a boat or some type of high water rescue >> reporter: they even brought in buses to get the homeless out of guerneville. they took them to santa rosa to

keep them safe. we just saw fire crews taking jet skis and rafts into guerneville to have them ready to go in case people need rescuing. they are preparing here as the river is continuing to rise. reporting live in forestville, amy hollyfield, abc 7 news. thank you, amy. the napa river is expected to peak above flood stage this morning. abc 7 news discovered several areas in napa valley already waterlogged, including, as you can see, vineyards and roads. the city of napa closed parks and public areas. flooding is not expected downtown. city officials say a bypass built in 2015 river water is working as designed. this morning, many people waking up in the dark. >> 6 mun k-- without power. >> reporter: since i last saw you an hour ago, the pg&e

workers finished up at this be intersection. they were working on the power line and transformer. they left about 40 minutes ago. you can see why. let's turn you over to the 7-eleven. the power is back on. all 661 people without power from 10:45 last night to 6:00 this morning, now they have power on. the people watching us now on tv, good morning and welcome back to the world of electricity. take a look at the video from the santa cruz mountains from earlier this morning. this is the summit on highway 17. they're seeing steady, moderate rain up there, also windy conditions. there was a wind advisory in effect until 6:00 this morning. that has expired. that's good news for drivers this morning. i checked the chp website and shows no major issues there on highway 17. reggie, i want to show you something here. this is the slurpee machine at 7-eleven. the red lights are on next to the machine. that means it's not working right now. the power was out so all that slurpee goodness was melted. it has to freeze back up again.

i'll let you know when the red lights turn off. >> you know how to speak to me. you know i love some coke slurpee. i appreciate that private report. >> coke and cherry mixed together. >> okay. >> on the wild side. two more school districts and a charter school have announced within the last hour that they will be closed today. >> the two districts just added to the list are west sonoma county union school district and sebastopol district. that's in addition to several others. that's due to flooding or storm-related issues. we have a list of closures on the ticker at the bottom of your screen or going to abc7news.com. reminder, you can track the rain anywhere you live by downloading the abc 7 news app. you'll see live doppler 7 right on your phone. happening tonight, san francisco city officials will hold a candlelight vigil for late public defender jeff adachi. they will march from the public defender's office to city hall

starting at 7:00. adachi passed away on friday. an autopsy was performed sunday but the cause of death has not been released. police say there are no signs of foul play. today marks day 5 of the teachers strike in oakland. >> this morning, we're learning about the financial impact of the district. both sides say some progress has been made since state superintendent arrived. but an all-day negotiation session yesterday did not produce a deal. the district says only 6% of students have shonn up each day. the district is losing about a million dollars each day because funding is tied to attendance. you're never more than seven minutes away from your accuweather forecast. >> everybody else around 50 to 56 degrees as it feels kind of humid outside this morning and very mild. we've got light rain once again in pleasant hill, treat boulevard and walnut creek heading towards danville.

alamo, san ramon and down to dublin and livermore. the 680 corridor getting light rain right now. that's the way it looks in san rafael. it's still a little bit of light rain and very wet as we look south on 101 of the the wettest commute is this morning. drier this afternoon and evening. mass transit, have your wet weather gear ready for the morning and scattered showers this afternoon. it's going to be calmer on the bay today. albeit wet from time to time. scattered showers are best from 10:00 to 2:00. on either side of that, pretty quiet. temperatures in the upper 50s. san francisco will be in the mid-50s to upper 50s with 10:00 to 56 random showers rolling through. east bay valleys 55 to 59. low 60s through 2:00 and shut off the spigot and drop down to 56 at 8:00. the east bay shoreline, 10:00 to 2:00, notice the temperatures around 63. we'll hit 60 at the peninsula. from 10:00 to 8:00, you have a

chance of wet weather. the last stop is the south bay where we've got wet weather lingering because of 10:00 to 8:00 -- you'll reach the low 60s. >> so want to talk to alexis and talk about how the commute is going. the rain is letting up quite a bit. >> it's really -- we'll look at big issues here. san bruno, still have the sig-alert in effect. we have one lane blocked. this is a serious rollover crash. someone who ejected from a vehicle. we had a paint spill. just the far right lane is getting by. adding about 30 minutes to your drive if you troo toy use 280. state route 37 is closed between 101 and atherton. that's due to flooding. no estimate on when that will ropen. seeing a little bit of backup on the westbound side. you'll want to use either 121 to highway 116 or the richmond-san rafael bridge.

we have a sig-alert in yountville. northbound and southbound route 29 at hoffman. one lane closed in each direction due to a crash. we have a lot of surface street closures throughout the north baidu to flooding as well. here's something that we don't see every day. it is a llama. you heard me. taking public transit in oregon. cesar the no drama llama was spotted riding a train this weekend. the portland -- tweeted a poe um about cesar explaining that llamas were banned from the tram. the poem says llama, llama on the train, trying to escape the rain. but llamas aren't allowed on max no matter how good your llama acts. >> as a former resident of my beloved sa that's peak portland. not only a llama on max but

someone wrote a poem about it. >>rtlaiaiv up to its reputation. >> didn't look like he was bothering anyone. >> better than a peacock on the airlines. a live loob at capitol hill. we're counting down to michael

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have the kids ready for wet weather. especially during the morning hours. you can see when the sun starts to pop behind the clouds there, that's a sign of scattered showers that will develop during the morning hours into the afternoon hours. temperatures reaching the low 60s. one of the milder days in a long time. here's a look at the south bay. you can see right along 85 where it reaches 17. some of the areas, university avenue in los gatos receiving light steady rain. it will reach as far south as l.a. with the mountain snow continuing. in fact, travel, don't do it. winter storm warnings continues until noon tomorrow. another foot to three feet is possible. it is snowing rather nicely on lake tahoe. it will snow about every day for the next seven days. the heaviest being today, though. mike, thank you. right now, president trump's former lawyer michael cohen is back on capitol hill. it's for the second day of testimony. this time, though, it will be televised. >> here's a live look at the

u.s. capitol where cohen is set to testify before the house oversight and reform committee. the testimony is expected to start at 7:00 a.m. a special report is going to start any moment now. we'll continue to air the rest of abc 7 mornings until 7:00 a.m. right here. historic day in our nation's capitol. michael cohen, the personal lawyer and fixer for donald trump will testify against the president in that hearing room in the rayburn house office building. there you see him moments ago making his way towards the capitol. behind the scenes hearings today, senate intelligence committee, house intelligence committee tomorrow. today, public testimony for the house oversight committee and what a dramatic day this will be. the last time congress heard testimony like this, more than

four decades ago when president nixon's lawyer john dean implicated nixon in the crimes of watergate. echos of that with cohen today. the testimony, cohen intends to give a raw and broadside against the president's character and implicate trump in the finance campaign felony that's sending cohen to prison, claims of a moscow tower and cohen will face direct attacks on his own character with tough questions, already threats from allies of the president. our senior congressional correspondent mary bruce already on capitol hill. mary, this hearing a direct result of democrats taking control of congress. >> george, this is just the beginning. this is the first blockbuster oversight hearing that will shine a light on a member of the president's inner circle. it is safe to say that we would not be hearing this testimony today if republicans were still in charge. to set the scene here a little bit, the line here to get inside of this hearing room stretches as far as i can see down this hallway.

members of the public have been lining up before dawn to witness history in what we now know will be a blistering takedown of the president by his former trusted adviser. michael cohen is now behind these doors, about to enter the hearing room where he will raise his arm, take an oath and tell automat all of what he witnessed during his decades of working with the president. >> a blistering attack by michael cohen and he's going to face a blistering attack as well. >> 42 members of the house oversight committee stand ready to grill michael cohen. he has a long list of things he wants to cover but they can also cover a wide range of topics. they want to know what michael cohen witnessed, what he heard on a huge range of things. and remember, there is one thing that we are not likely to hear a lot of detail about and that is the russia investigation. because the special counsel's probe is still ongoing, members of this committee have been told

to steer clear of that topic. otherwise, george, it is game on when it comes to the questions. >> we'll see if michael cohen steers clear of it. i want to bring in our senior justice correspondent pierre thomas for more as well. perhaps the most substantive thing we are going to hear, we know he's going to jail for things he said he did as directed by president trump. today he's going to provide some evidence. >> reporter: i'm struck as this hearing is about to begin that we now have a relationship that's come full circle. cohen be worked down the hall from president trump at trump tower, a counsellor if you will. they're now mortal enemies. cohen is trying to make the case that he's going to jail in part because he was directed to commit two felonies by the president of the united states, then candidate donald trump. he's going to make that case, providing some evidence, checks if you will, that he says that were personally written by donald trump to consummate this deal in which the hush money

payment was made for a porn star. he's going to bring a check in which he's going to show that implicate don jr. if you will in terms of providing a check as well in connection with this, what the justice department described as efforts to s circumvent campaign finance laws. >> michael cohen still cooperating with the counsel district of new york. he's facing three years in prison and has some hope at least that that sentence can come down. >> reporter: that's very important, george. our sources are telling us that he is cooperating with the southern district of new york. as you'll recall he had a very difficult relationship with the southern district. they were far more skeptical of him than say the special counsel. so this is potentially important for cohen in terms of maybe getting that sentence reduced. >> perhaps nothing reflects the split in this relationship than the split screen we are seeing today. the president thousands of miles

away in hanoi, has just finished dinner with kim jong-un, their second summit. david muir is there, and david, the president may be thousands of miles away but he's back in his hotel room now sure to be watching. >> reporter: this is a stunning juxtaposition, george, no other way to put it. as you pointed out, the president is now back in his hotel here in hanoi. the one and a half hour dinner with kim jong-un finishing just moments ago, plenty of time for that motorcade to get back and good timing for the president who is very likely to be watching michael cohen testify with great interest. this all plays out a short time after president trump met with kim jong-un the second time in their relationship together. this is of course the second summit with kim jong-un, saying, we have a very successful, a great relationship. the president was pointedly asked has he stepped away from his demands for complete denuclearization. he said no.

but he acknowledged his critics here in hanoi, george, and saying that many felt that this was going to be much more quick, and we heard him try to temper expectations going into this second summit, saying, i'm satisfied with where we are, i'm in no rush. but he knows that there are skeptics back home, that we have elevated a north korean dictator yet again to the world stage. they need concrete results. no question that they have not revealed where they think this could go. in fact, they haven't even revealed the schedule for tomorrow. we know they'll meet again one-on-one but the president in questions today revealed that there will be a news conference. very likely the president will wouldn't to answer questions on kim jong-un, the summit, but also on michael cohen, aware that back home there is that split screen. george, it was really quite striking to me that even before we saw them shake hands, there were no smiles at first, then shaki hands. even before that, a tweet from president trump about what was happening back home, a tweet about michael cohen, saying that

he was one of many lawyers unfortunately and that he did bad things unrelated to trump. the president adding, george, he is lying in order to reduce his prison time. so make no mistake, the president needs a political victory while he's here in hanoi, but he is very aware of what is playing out back home. >> david muir, thanks very much. cecilia vega, our senior white house correspondent, also here. several weeks now, basically ever since michael cohen was sentenced, the president has been attacking. >> i was just looking over tweets from the last couple of months. he called him a rat back in december and he's been ramping up the attacks as david said. this morning's tweet was really interest tog ing to me because president's attention should have been on his meeting with kim jong-un which was happening just hours before that and instead he was out tweeting about michael cohen and really trying to distance himself from it. we know from our sources on the ground, jon karl is traveling with the president -- you can see the tweet that we were just referencing -- that people close

to the president, the president's team, they are livid about what's happening right now. the president is pretty mad himself about this right now because this is take attention away from the president on the world stage. it's the white house, the rnc, the onslaught of cohen's attack. >> chris christie is here, former ally of the president. one of the things that's going on is this personal vendetta between michael cohen and donald trump. they've got each other's numbers. >> this is what i've said a long time about the personnel choices the president's made over time. unfortunately for him it's coming back to roost again. michael cohen is a guy who never should have been close to anybody, who was in a responsible position, certainly not in a certainly position to ultimately become president of the united states. whatever michael cohen says today about donald trump, michael cohen is a bad guy. he's a guy who did a lot of bad things and he had conscious

decisions to make as a lawyer and he made thoem. it also reflects on the president because the president allowed this guy to be close to him, gave him responsibility and access. >> what cohen is going to testify is the president had me around to do these dirty deeds for him. >> george, listen, i know that's what michael is going to say and he's going to present evidence to corroborate that, but also, george, you have to make the conscious decision as a lawyer to do this. i think dan knows this too. we're trained from the time we get into law school that our first responsibility to the law. it's clear that michael cohen is going to admit today that he failed in that regard. that doesn't exonerate the president but it puts michael cohen in the right context. >> the question, dan, how much does that impugn his credibility? >> there's no question he's a flawed witness. he has credibility problems, but every day in courtrooms around america we see people testifying who have credibility problems, meaning prosecutors -- and this is not a criminal trial, but

prosecutors make deals with witnesses where they admit to really bad things sometimes that go to the very heart of telling the truth, and yet prosecutors present them on behalf of the state or on the federal government to say, we believe this person, we have corroborating evidence to back up what he or she is saying. as a result, we're going to put that person forward. so the notion that, well, i don't understand why any witness who's a convicted felon and known liar would be called, the answer to that is every day that happens. the question of whether he's credible or not is a separate question. >> i've put convicted felons on the stand every month that i was u.s. attorney for seven years. the key thing that dan said there is corroboration. as we go through michael cohen's testimony today, let's break down what's corroborated by independent evidence and what isn't. the corroboration will be much more credible with the public than the uncorroborated statements. >> on the campaign finance

stuff, we should remind everybody, dan, that the facts of the campaign finance felonies are testified to not only by michael cohen but the southern prosecutors in new york. >> the southern prosecutors in new york clearly believe that michael cohen committed this crime and michael cohen has said that it was directed by the president which i think the prosecutors believe as well. i think as we listen to his testimony today, let's separate out embarrassing information, lack of truthful accounts from crimes. it's an important distinction because there's going to be some embarrassing stuff here, right, about the president's grades and the reason that he avoided the draft. >> and calling the president a racist. >> calling the president a racist. all of these things are the sorts of things that's going to bother the president but they don't go to the issue of was a crime committed. >> terry moran, what kind of impact is this going to have on the congress separate from

whatever happens in the criminal courts in the southern district, what impact is this going to have? >> and getting pressured by their base. no question about it, george, that there is a significant number of democrats who want this president out not through the election but sooner, through impeachment because they believe that he's committed high crimes and misdemeanors. as dan was just saying, michael cohen is going to produce these two checks which are payment for the crime that michael cohen committed. they're the hush money to stormy daniels. and so those are after the president took an oath to faithfully execute the laws of the united states and there he is violating them. that is going to get some attention in congress, you're absolutely right. the problem is if you're going to aim at the king, the old saying has that you better aim straight and score a direct hit. that question, it can only be answered by the people of the united states. if they think that this crime, if proved, is sufficient to

impeach, then it will move. if not, it's not going to happen and getting two-thirds of a senate to impeach this president seems a long, long way away. >> almost 90% approval among republicans. cecilia. >> this arms the president's allies. republicans are already saying that this is a charade setting up the democrats to begin impeachment proceedings. the democrats say that's not actually the case, but republicans are really armed with this. every time we talk about impeachment, every time the accusation gets hurled in the way of the democrats, they're saying that michael cohen shouldn't even have a platform like this, that he is, in fact, an admitted liar. he will be going to jail for lying to congress. >> in fact, during the last campaign, republicans were talking more about impeachment than democrats were. chris, i want to bring it back to the southern district. you're a former u.s. attorney as well. we know in michael cohen's plea agreement that individual one is donald trump directing him to commit this crime. we're going to hear that from

michael cohen today. what's harder to figure out is what the southern district does with that fact. do they abide by what it appears robert mueller is going to abide by, the idea that you can't indict a sitting president. >> i think they do. when you're in the justice department and here you have a u.s. attorney who's recused in jeff berman so you have someone lower down the chain making key decisions, they're not going to go against justice department policy and this is the kind of decision that would have to be run by the deputy attorney general and the attorney general. if you were going to bring an indictment to the president of the united states, it would have to be reviewed. >> michael cohen coming into the hearing room right now. as we said, he was before the senate intelligence committee behind closed doors yesterday. he's going to be before the house intelligence committee tomorrow. very different from what we're seeing today when he's going to be in public. >> also on the impeachment thing, i agree with cecilia. they better have an end game. the president took a lot of criticism, rightfully, for closing down the government without an end game.

if the democrats go down this road, they better have an end game because there's no way the senate is going to remove donald trump. >> we're coming up on 10:00 right now. we're covering of course the hearings of michael cohen, michael cohen testifying, the president's former lawyer and fixer, testifying on capitol hill. mary, we just saw michael cohen make his way into that room surrounded. >> george, the crowds here are just tremendous. there's a level of interest in this hearing -- i'm right outside the hearing room and you can still see just a mass tif line of people waiting to get in and have a chance to hear what some have told history. michael cohen has of course testified before congress. he has pleaded guilty to lying to congress before. today he says unlike before when he came to protect the president, today he says he is here to tell the truth. this is his chance to do so publicly and on camera. >> you hear that flutter of cameras as michael cohen prepares to take his seat. he will be testifying under oath. first we're going to have opening statemen f