if donald trump jr.ared kushner took this meeting innocently, in ignorantly and sort of stepped into it -- it's possible. but mr. manafort? he would have clearly known what the russians were up to. >> two nights before the meeting on june 7th, trump greeted supporters with what now sounds like a curious promise. >> we're going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the clintons. i think you're going to find it very informative and very, very interesting. >> we just don't know if the speech that donald trump made is a coincidence or not. and so the timing seems awfully strange. >> for all the attention the trump tower meeting would later get, goldstone says at the time he hardly gave it a second thought. >> i didn't care about the meeting. it sounds bad, but it's true. i didn't care. i wanted my client to be happy. that's always my ultimate goal. >> coming up -- >> so tell us what happened. was the dirt on the democratic party and hillary clinton forthcoming? so a tree falls on your

impeach president trump! backin ordeal? impeach president trump! nixon resigned rather than face the humiliation of impeachment. he became the only american president ever forced impeachment. he became the only american president everforced out of office midterm. he was brought down by the biggest political scandal in america's history, watergate. five people have been arrested and charged with breaking into the headquarters of the democratic national committee in the middle of the night. we confiscated electronic eavesdropping dear. today's russia scandal appears to have echoes of the watergate break—in. have echoes of the watergate break-in. my sense that we must have the tapes themselves... elizabeth holtzman sat on the congressional committee that initiated the improvement of president nixon. the similarities between watergate and what's happening with mr trump are disturbingly similar. what you had with watergate is a break—in to the democratic national committee in order to get information that was going to affect the 1972 presidential electi

what does it mean for donald trump, jr.? and what about ivanka trump? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ cancer treatment centers of america. appointments available now. i felt i couldn't be at my best for my family., in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured and left those doubts behind. i faced reminders of my hep c every day. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. even hanging with friends i worried about my hep c. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. mavyret is the only 8-week cure for all common types of hep c. before starting mavyret your doctor will test if you've had hepatitis b which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b, a liver or kidney transplant, other liver problems, hiv-1, or other medical conditions, and all medicines you take including herbal supplements. don't take mavyret with atazanavir or rifampin, or if you've had certain liver problems. common side effects include headache and tiredness. with hep c behind me, i feel free... ...fearless... ...and there's no lo

to trump. the is there any indication, sara, that any one specifically asked him to lie. >> there's no smoking gun that has emerged, for example, dump saying this is our story and we're sticking to it. is it possible? sure. but we don't have proof of them but it's also that president trump didn't believe he had to have the conversation with michael cohen. this is a guy out there saying he'd be willing to take a bullet for donald trump, that he's more loyal to donald trump than anyone else, but obviously that has changed. >> what about the timing of this dramatic development? did he wait until trump send his answers? >> the timing, wolf, is very serious, and i can tell you i inside the trump day they were very worried about this, that the president and his team delayed when they responded to mueller. they waited a few days because they were concerned that robert mueller and his heam had up his sleeve and we known the know whether they specifically waiting until today and they have had the presid

next we've got donald trump jr. his infamous meeting at trump tower that included others, including paul manafort and jared kushner, the senior most level of the trump campaign. they met with that russian lawyer who was corrected nnecte kremlin to try to get dirt on hillary clinton. cnn has learned that president trump responded to mueller's questions saying he knew nothing about that meeting finally todg news, michael cohen and the trump tower moscow project. so he was found -- he pleaded guilty today for lying to congress. we learned that cohen kept trump, who was then the presumptive republican nominee for president abreast, updated of the developments on the trump tower moscow deal well into the campaign, until around mid 2016. we know that cohen tried to e-mail the kremlin press secretary about permissions for that project that would be needed but he never heard back from him at that point. so to recap all these overlapping business and political events, let's take a look at this timeline. you've got the plans

trump: well, look. we get along well. there are certain things i love what he does and there are certain things that i don't like that he does. do --ot that he doesn't he works so hard, he's doing an excellent job in many ways, there are a couple of things where it's just not his strength. it's not his fault, it's not his strength. >> such as? trump: i have not even thought about john in terms of this. john will move on. >> the 2020 is no longer -- trump: it could be. but let's see what happens. i have three or four or five positions on thinking about. maybe it's going to end up being two. but i need flexibility. host: what do you make of the president openly talking with the american people about what he likes and what he doesn't like? guest: you notice, he wasn't very specific about kelly. i suspect that one of the things he's referring to, one of the areas where he things that john kelly is weak as with his political ability. his ability to get things done on capitol hill. having said that, i really think that none of

>> president trump: no. >> chris: why not? >> president trump: it just won't happen. the eight year limit is a good thing, not a bad thing. >> chris: we talked a lot about the cemetery and the fact they didn't go because it was a security concern and you did go the next day. >> president trump: excuse me, not security concern. they wouldn't allow me to go. they said -- secret service said sir, you cannot go, we are not prepared. you cannot go because there was supposed to be a helicopter but the helicopter couldn't fly. they said you cannot go. >> chris: here's the question, you are back in washington on monday, veterans day, why don't you go across the river to arlington for that ceremony? barack obama went every year he was here in d.c. >> president trump: i should have done that. i was extremely busy on the calls for the country. we did a lot of calling, as you know. >> chris: but this is veterans day. >> president trump: in retrospect i should have, and i did last year and i will virtually every year but we had come in very late at night and i had just left litera

to donald trump. it's a bombshell in mueller's russia investigation as trump arriving tonight in argentina calls off his weekend meeting with putin. and here at home, a huge reaction in the legal community. we have it all covered from the white house to trump tower, from the justice department to the fbi and c.i.a. as "the 11th hour" gets underway on a thursday night. >>> well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 679 of this trump administration. the day the president was hit with a legal bombshell as robert mueller secures a guilty plea from the man who was once one of trump's most loyal lieutenants. today michael cohen, the president's former personal lawyer, admitted to lying to congress about his boss's involvement in a project to build a moscow version of trump tower as he was securing the republican nomination back in 2016. and perhaps worse than that, cohen admits to being in touch with the kremlin during a presidential campaign. cohen's plea came this m

what does it mean for donald trump, jr.? and what about ivanka trump? and there's no shortcut to the right way. so when we roll out the nation's first 5g ultra wideband network, it'll be because we were the first to install the fiber-optics and small cells, and upgrade the towers that will change the way we learn, work and live. and i'll always be proud that we're not just building america's first 5g network. we're doing it right. i felt i couldn't be at my best for my family., in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured and left those doubts behind. i faced reminders of my hep c every day. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. even hanging with friends i worried about my hep c. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. mavyret is the only 8-week cure for all common types of hep c. before starting mavyret your doctor will test if you've had hepatitis b which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b, a liver or kidney transplant, other liver problems, hiv-1, or other

no, but for you, i mean, does being never-trump mean reflexively being against everything that trumptands for or is it possible to still separate and detach some of his policy achievements? for example, if he were to return to the tpp and renegotiate it and make it a better deal. how do you, as a never-trumper, navigate sort of the policy outcomes versus the need to reflexively stand against donald trump? >> well, i don't have any problem agreeing with donald trump on certain issues. no president is gonna get everything 100% wrong, and he certainly has not. he's done things that i've agreed with, like moving the u.s. embassy in israel to jerusalem, for example. he's done a few other things. pulling out of the intermediate nuclear forces treaty, which i think was an antiquated accord. and, you know, i've said so. i'm willing to support him on individual stances, but that doesn't mean that he is, therefore, a good president, because my opposition to him goes beyond individual issues. it's about his lack of fitness for the office, the kind of moral tone he sets for the country, the kind

trump's business dealings with russia. we're assessing the potential db damage to the president from michael cohen's stunning plea agreement with robert mueller. >>> 70 hours. cnn has learned that cohen talked extensive with the pounds n multiple meetings on a variety of topics. and a well-placed source tells me that mueller knows everything. what else has cohen revealed? "weak person." president trump slams his former fixer for flipping saying cohen is telling lies now to reduce his prison time. but is the president's current lawyer, rudy giuliani, undermining his argument? >>> and passing on putin. as mr. trump heads to the g20 summit in argentina, he abruptly cancels his meeting with the russian president citing the crisis in ukraine. given the timing right after the cohen guilty plea, is that explanation believable? >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> we're following a major breaking story now.

and donald trump jr.'uing the trump tower deal in moscow. "outfront" now, hunter walker, white house correspondent for yahoo news. he broke the story. and by the way, he reported earlier this year that cohen's discussions, you know, lasted longer than he was claiming, right, this whole january, june thing, hunter, obviously, you had this a long time ago, and what have you learned tonight about ivanka and don junior? >> right, so, all the focus today has been on michael cohen's work with felix to build a trump skyscraper in moscow and what i've learned is that don junior and ivanka trump were separately pursuing efforts to make a trump branded skyscraper in moscow. they also both did have involvement with michael cohen's work. ivanka was recommending architects and as a source familiar with the trump organization put it to me, don junior was, quote, peripherally aware. >> so, let me ask you about this. i mean, how do you interpret this? they're working separately and my understanding from your reporting is

the new trump wall, not one foot of trump wall. and that doesn't feel like winning for trump voters. and so there's not a word at trump rallies now about mexico paying for the wall. those people in the red hats are not tired of winning. and so donald trump has to keep them scared. and if that means we see the words and ideas of donald trump in another mass murderer's final social media posting before going in for the kill, then that's the price donald trump seems willing to pay for keeping his voters scared. have we now seen america's last mass murderer to use donald trump's language and ideas in his final social media posting before he kills as the mass murderer in pittsburgh did? we don't know. but we do know tonight that no matter how scared donald trump gets, his sane supporters -- most of his supporters, no matter how scared he gets them to feel tonight, none of them, not one of them are as scared as donald trump, who is running scared. more scared than he has ever been in his life. joining our discussion now, stuart stephens,

he talked to trump more times. they have not given us an exact number but he spoke with the president repeatedly about this. and they also say he briefed members of the president's family. and, of course, don jr., at least, has also testified on the hill. we were closely reviewing the one transcript that's been public from his appearances there to the judiciary committee today to see how they square. i would imagine that mueller's office is looking at his appearances that we don't have in front of senate and house intelligence as well to see whether or not he was truthful about these events. >> we should note that the wall street journal reporting that investigators have e-mails from late 2015-2016 in which cohen copies don jr. and ivanka on exactly this, that ivanka recommended an architect. we'll talk more about as the night goes on. thank you both for being with me. >>> i want to bring in daniel goldman. the first question i want to ask you, and tom made this point earlier when he was talking to some of us here

it's just 100% donald trump doing what donald trump wants. neera tanden, can anyone turn donald trump into someone who can appeal to voters who aren't already supporting him? >> i mean, the reality of this last two years is that donald trump has not built on his base. and i think that you pointed out the numbers amongst republicans, but i think what's an even more clear warning shot is how well democrats did across the country with independents. they won independents dicively even in places like texas. and david is right there are places democrats should focus on and try to shore up. but when you look at the breadth of the victory from one part of this country to basically every corner, democrats put together a winning coalition. a large scale coalition of suburban women, a lot of college educated white men, in fact it used to be the base of the republican party, as well as millennials who no one expected to turn out and luteenees because of the ret rrk around the caravan. donald trump is in a day's long fury because his strategy backfired. h

to donald trump. cohen admitted to making false statements to lawmakers on senate and house intel committees in 2017. the court filing refers to individual, one, who cohen confirmed in court was donald trump. it reveals cohen told lawmakers that the development effort, quote, ended in january 2016 and was not discussed extensively with others in the company. meaning the trump organization. now cohen admits the project, quote, was discussed multiple times within the company and did not end in january 2016. he added, the discussions went on until june 2016, that he spoke with trump at least three times, and with trump's family members about the project. cohen told congress in 2017 that he, quote, never agreed to travel to russia for the project and never considered asking trump to travel. he now says he, quote, agreed to travel to russia and began planning trump's possible travel to russia. cohen also originally said he, quote, did not recall any russian government response or contact about the moscow d

pure trump. you know what else is pure trump? lying. >> so michael cohen has made many statements to the house, as i understand it, and the senate. he put out a statement talking about a project which was essentially i guess more of less of an option that we were looking at in moscow. everybody knew about it. it was written about in newspapers. it was a well-known project. so he's lying about a project that everybody knew about. this deal was a very public deal. everybody knows about this deal. >> so that is not true. the potential deal for trump tower moscow never came to light until after trump took office. long after the deal was cancelled. cnn did some digging and found that the project was first mentioned briefly in an article in "the new york times" in february went. -- 2017. the details were few and far between until cohen testified on capitol hill in august of 2017. so, no, it was not a very public deal and it certainly was not public while donald trump was running for president, and that is because trump never mentioned

trump. he arrives just minutes from now in argentina for the g20 summit. just before he left for the airport as crow know michael cohen, his former trusted advisor and lawyer stood up and admitted to lying about trump business dealings with russia. he admitted the dealings continued far into the campaign up to and including when candidate trump was the republican nominee. the charging document lays out conversations mr. cohen had with russians, including a close adviser to vladamir putin about the potential trump tower project in moscow. they went on, according to the document, until mid june of 2016, "on or about june 14th," according to the charging document. why is that date important? that happens to be the date that "the washington post" broke a big story that russia had hacked the democratic national committee. the timeline is far longer than what mr. cohen told the house and senate intelligence committees last year. today he said he lied to help the president. i'm quoting, i was aware

>> i don't know. >> you know trump. you have a book called "trump's enemies."why he would do that? >> in that picture there are some enemies of trump. the guys who use their badges to spy on americans on domestic soil because they don't like their political parties, mccabe, those guys are enemies and there has to be accountability. >> why are they enemies of trump? >> what made them enemies were they used their badges as fbi agents. they had an insurance policy to make sure donald trump was never elected. >> the democrats? >> no, no. they didn't want donald trump. >> basically you're saying these are the most idiotic conspiracy theorists because if they're goal was to stop the president from getting elected, they failed tremendously. the issue is the terminology and the visuals this president puts out endangers people. that leads to crazy people in this country committing violence. that's why this is dangerous. it's not just cute or people lying. it endangers the sanctity of this country and our elections and our integrity. >> did obama know about the fbi's pla

of a bargain in which kelly agrees not to tell trump stuff he does not want to hear, and trump keeps them there. and that's a bad formula for governing. i'm reluctant to name people or suggest people and quite frankly, as a said before, there are few people on the face of this earth who can tell donald trump what he does not want to hear. it's a tough situation greta brawner what about his family? including the first lady, who has been vocal about her displeasure with staff, he has his son-in-law and daughter who are advisors. what about the role that they play? does that help or hurt? chris whipple i think it helps. i think family always helps. and i think with trump, clearly gerrit and a vodka -- jared and ivanka and milani a have been helpful. i think they care about trying to make this white house unction more effectively. nancy reagan was famously called the white house personnel director. but she never suggested firing someone in public. as milani did recent. she may have more influence than we realize time the scenes. and we will see going forward, but family is important for

well what we're seeing is a president trump is consistent in his trump in rhetoric and he promotes the america first agenda his rhetoric should be understood with and the context of the . american mode at the moment and the american mode whether it is in the media or in the foreign policy establishment or with india congress that business as usual between the united states and saudi arabia cannot continue and and this path that we have been on dow for the past two years will not no longer be tolerated so president trump was essentially trying to provide rhetorical support for salvaging what is left of the u.s. saudi relationship because the congress is now moving forward with imposing sanctions on to saudi government including potentially on prince mohammed himself but do you think it strange that doesn't fully absolve mohammed bin solomon of involvement in this matter when he says it could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event that he's still very much sitting on the fence isn't he. i think that he is deliberately seeking to be ambiguous about it becaus

trump for president trump as i was when he was president of the trump organization. >> i assume in thatt being a government role, that you would have attorney/client privilege with president trump? >> yes, of course. >> michael cohen doesn't have that role any more, but the man that had that role and continues to advise the president from time to time is jay goldberg, joins me by phone. he has a new book coming out kboem t "the courtroom is my theater." thanks for making time tonight. >> happy to be with you. >> happy to have you. let me ask you point blank. if true, do michael cohen's allegations hurt trump and concern you? >> they don't concern me because i don't know as i said, and neither do you, whether they're true. people who testify for the government are in the criminal justice system. cases are replete with government quote cooperating witnesses embellishing, making up stories in an effort to lead the government to believe they should be entitled to leniency. >> you're not using the key two words i started with, i was curious whether you thought if true, the allegations are pr

yeah you know it's official donald trump did it herself. yes big surprise for everyone probably even for himself. in the meantime fact checkers have exposed thousands of lies told by donald trump yet that does not seem to bother his supporters indeed and apparently outrageous claim he once made on the campaign trail could actually be true i have the most loyal people did you ever see that where i could stand in the middle if if they have a new and shoot somebody and i wouldn't lose any voters ok it's like incredible the trump phenomenon to begin with. is the dissolve of any objective reality in our politics central to donald trump is the big. cedar rapids. just two years after trump's election triumph i am back in the u.s. to investigate the apparently unshakeable alliance between trump and his supporters i drive through the midwest flyover country as the americans call it the journey takes us through small towns and agricultural regions with largely white populations. these constituencies once back to rock obama. in two thousand and sixtee

it appears to be donald trump.give the false impression that the moscow project ended before the iowa caucus and the very first primary in hopes of limiting the ongoing russia investigation. and so clearly michael cohen, according to these court documents and according to what he told a federal judge had misled congress so that it didn't look bad on donald trump at the time that this deal was ongoing while he was the presumptive republican presidential nominee. but now we're finding out that donald trump was briefed about this project while he was the republican nominee and his family members were briefed and now we're finding out about a discussion for donald trump to go to russia. it also puts more of donald trump's comments when he talks favorably about vladimir putin. people had criticized him for not being harder on russia. we're learning that michael cohen is but what's really fascinating about this jim and poppy, is the fact that now michael cohen could be the most dangerous witness to the president and the

it gives us a window into what was going on into the trump campaign and certainly the trump family in 2016, guys. >> okay. and we're going to get more on peskov and the person named as individual two in this information, because that's significant. but first i want our lawyers to weigh in on what evan just told us. >> i think evan is clearly correct that the response is going to be that michael cohen is a liar, he's trying to save his own skin. that's going to be the response from the trump camp, however, one problem trump is going to have or that trump lawyers or whoever is responding is going to have is that in this document its not just michael cohen's statements that are referred to. there are emails here about the continuing negotiations over trump tower in may of 2016 after the iowa caucuses, after donald trump is the presurfi -- nomine. trump forces are going to have to explain if he's making all this up that the deal was still going on, why is there emails about the deal in may of 2016? >> the president and his supporters call everyone who contradicts the president a liar or t

amy: president trump fires attorney general jeff sessions, replacing him with matthew whitaker, a trump loyalist who has been called -- has called special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation a witch hunt. will robert mueller be next? we speak with david cole, national legal director of the american civil liberties union and elizabeth holtzman, former -- the youngest member of the watergate committee that voted to impeach richard nixon, author of the new book "the case for impeaching trump." >> richard nixon did not care about the law. he wanted the special prosecutor out of the way. and while it is s not an exactct similarity here because so far we don't know that there is a cover-up, but what we have is the same mentality of abusing power, of taking power into your own hands s and saying, "i'm first. not america first, i'm first." amy: then to new mexico, where deb haaland hahas made history. >> you are sending one of the very first native american women to congress! today we all came together and we said we still believe in the american dream and american democracy and in ho

i saw donald trump alone.t republicans were historically rejected despite having every structural advantage on their side by the voters. they rejected trumpism in america. that was a message heard across all four corners of the globe. mueller who is silent. obviously donald trump has to know indictments are coming. >> right. >> maybe for some people closer to him. i don't know. to me it looked not like america alone this weekend, it looked like trump alone. what was your take? >> it did. you could imagine him figuratively we don't know but maybe in his bathroom, bedroom in paris, thumping away, sending out tweets about forest fires at a time that any other president in american history would have been so proud to be in paris, celebrating the more than 116,000 americans who gave their lives in world war i. huge heroism. it doesn't take much. the other thing that imaginary president and i can remember a few of those presidents before 2017 would have done would have been proud to be there, reaffirming our great a

trump. we have not seen the last of this particular issue. >> we know that wrangles the president. he is 5,200 miles from washington. abby, thank you. great reporting. >>> more details on the former lawyer and fixer turning on the president. michael cohen pleading guilty to lying to congress. admitting he misled lawmakers about the trump tower moscow project during the campaign in order to protect mr. trump. let's get more on that from cnn's evan perez. >> reporter: dave and christine, the former fixer michael cohen, pleaded guilty to congress over how much he knew about the moscow project and when it was terminated. telling the court he lied out of loyalty to the president. the plea agreement says the man who once said he would take a bullet for the president, gave information to special counsel robert mueller during more than 70 hours of questioning between august and november. the deal to build a trump tower in moscow was one of the many topics discussed according to a source. the court d

trump: what? >> is this a rebuke of the message? is this more reflective of multiethnic are multi-cultural america? pres. trump: i can only say this. you look at the employment and unemployment numbers for african-americans, for asian-americans, for hispanic americans, they are at an historic high. a poll came out recently where my numbers with hispanics and african-americans are the highest. the best they have ever been. that took place two or three days ago. i have the best numbers with african-american and hispanic american that i have ever had before. and you saw the same polls. i can say this. you look at median income. all of the employment and unemployment numbers. they are doing the best they have ever done. it reflects, it is really reflective in the polls. >> mr. president, i am from brooklyn, so you will understand me. pres. trump: i understand you very well. >> my question is on health care, how is it possible to keep premiums down and cover pre-existing conditions without the individu

trump tower moscow is next.at enough for you to look at all of the financial records of the trump organization going back to 2012? >> i don't want to comment on what period we're going to look at, the specifics of the next investigative steps. we have to prioritize as all the committees are, what are the most concerning issues, what are the investigative threats we were not allowed to pursue. if you look, chuck, and this is available publicly at the majority report on michael cohen, it accepted everything michael cohen said as perfectly true and proven. this, if anything, should show the flaw in the reasoning that you can accept people at face value when they testify if they have interest to the contrary. >> i am guessing the majority of that report may be in a shredder. adam schiff, incoming chair of the house intelligence committee. thanks for coming on. >> thank you. >>> we know a lot of people would be happier if president trump hadn't been elected president. when president trump could be one of them. >> i d

trump. the court documents lay out cohen's multiple false statements which center around the proposed trump tower project in moscow. cohen saying discussions of the project did not end in january 2016 as he had testified to congress but continued at least through june 2016, the same month as that trump tower meeting with the russian lawyer who promised dirt on hillary clinton. june 2016, well after the time that trump was the presumptive republican nominee for president. cohen also says he briefed donald trump and members of the trump family on the project multiple times. president trump this morning told reporters cohen is lying in exchange for leniency, but the president stressed even if he did do the deal that he did not do that would be fine. >> it's very simple. he's got himself a big prison sentence, and he's trying to get a much lesser prison sentence by making up a story. now here's the thing. even if he was right, it doesn't matter because i was allowed to do whatever i wanted durin

trump about travel to russia. he then says, i would like to note i did not in fact travel there nor have i ever been to russia. he says, quote, i made these misstatements to be consistent to mr. trump's political messaging and out of loyalty to mr. trump. >>> at that point it kind of feels like it's over. but it turns out he left something out, something that turns out to be important. and so the prosecution sort of jumps in to fill that in. the judge at this point says, quote, any further allocution requested by the government? and the prosecutor from the special counsel robert mueller's office, rush atkinson, says, yes, your honor. as set forth in the criminal information, which is like an indictment except you get a criminal information when you plead guilty instead of going to trial. as set forth in the information, they reached out to the kremlin in 2016, he had not received any response. in fact, he had received a response from the kremlin. so, in essence, mr. cohen minimized his contacts with the russian go

>> i think you ever to understand that in the trump world, pleasing the boss, pleasing donald trump isry one in his orbit is all about. michael cohen maybe more than the rest. you can kind of understand why it was that michael cohen thought that bringing this deal home finally would be such a coupe for him if he had done this. he goes in 1997 and 1996. he signs a deal in 2005. he had wanted to be in moscow for 30 years. here is plimichael cohen workin with felix sater. using the presidential campaign to boost their ability to try to get this done. >> we know that cohen was contact i contacting putin's spokesperson. he's not sarah sanders. this is somebody who is closely involved, side by side with vladmir putin. talk more about that. >> there's a 20-minute phone call that took place between michael cohen and who we believe to be a representative. through our reporting and what we learned through the gifting of a penthouse there were additional conversations in which michael cohen discussed that. he denied he spoke to anyone about that. it appears that he was moving forward trying to ge

trump. more now from cnn's evan perez. >> reporter: dave and christine, the former fixer michael cohen, pleaded dpiguilty to congress o how much you knew about the moscow project and when it was terminated. telling the court he lied out of loyalty to the president. the man who once said he would take a bullet for the president, gave information to special counsel robert mueller during more than 70 hours of questioning between august and november. the deal to build a trump tower in moscow was one of the many topics discussed according to a source. the court documents revealed that quote cohen discussed the status and progress of the moscow project with trump. referred to as individual one on more than three occasions. while cohen told congress last fall that the moscow project ended in january of 2016, he now admits the discussions lasted until june of 2016. cohen now admits he made the false statements to protect donald trump and give the false impression that the project ended before the io

trump. >> i know mr. trump. i've stood by him shoulder to shoulder for the past decade. >> i understand michael cohen very well. turned out he wasn't a very good lawyer frankly. >> more breaking news. the president canceling his saturday summit with vladimir putin because of russia's new aggression against campaign. holy cow, when the best people become incredibly weak. that is the term the president of the united states took this morning on his former attorney general and fixer michael cohen who previously said this about his longtime boss. >> i know mr. trump. i've stood by him shoulder to shoulder for the past decade. i've seen him in action. i know when donald trump wants something, there's nothing that's going to stop him from achieving his goal. the words the media should be using to describe mr. trump are generous, compassionate, principled, empathetic, kind, humble, honest and genuine. >> i'll do anything to protect mr. trump, the family, now vice president elect pence, as well as the campaign. >> well,

trump: what? no, they are all finished. the written answers are finished. i don't know, the lawyers have them. i don't know. they will. they will. the written answers to the witchhunt that has been going on forever. no collusion, no nothing. they have been finished. finished them yesterday. the lawyers have them. i assume they will turn them in today or soon. >> [inaudible] pres. trump: no, i am going to a war zone, yeah. >> [inaudible] pres. trump: what? >> are you happy with the sanctions on iran? pres. trump: yeah, the sanctions on iran are very strong, very powerful. they are sanctions i think that have had a tremendous impact. more sanctions are going on. we have a lot of tremendous support, and iran is not the same country it was when i became president. it is a much different country. and hopefully at some point we will be able to make a fair deal and help iran and help the people of iran. >> when you talk about the markets today, do you really believe the dems are behind the market drop to

trump and members of the trump family on multiple occasions. president trump abruptly canceled the meeting with vladimir putin scheduled for tomorrow morning at the g20. he says he did it because of russia's aggression against ukraine. the kremlin claims he did it for "domestic reasons." jim acosta is traveling with the president as well as jeffrey toobin, dana bash, phil mudd. jim, start with you. tell us the significance. >> yeah. alisyn and john, this was a significant silence from the president when it comes to the russia investigation, comes to the bombshell revelation from michael cohen yesterday he pled guilty to lying to congress about the trump tower moscow project during the 2016 campaign. the president meeting here with enrique trudeau and pena nieto. and you saw during the event that wrapped up a few moments ago, the canadian prime minister challenged the president on the steel and aluminum seraphs imposed and canada but signed it anyway. also absent any mention how mexico would paper for the wall on the border with the u.s. and mex

trump say who cares.mp is deep in the campaign needing to please the russian government. >> trump stands in front of the white house today says no big deal, i didn't think i was going to win, i'm a businessman, i was doing both at the time. explain why there would be a problem. >> for a couple of reasons. first while this project was going on according to michael cohen and believed by mueller, you had the republican national convention occurring in the summer of 2016. a platform was being prepared that had to do with how we treat russia, how we treat ukraine. you have to fast forward to the election itself, what a close election it was with hillary clinton. if the voters knew that trump was trying to work a project in moscow to help his business while running for president, would that have shifted enough votes to shift the election? i think you can make an argument that it may very well have changed the election. point number two is let's go after the first of the year. trump is sworn in in january of 201

he claimed he never agreed to go to moscow, yet, he did agree and asked trump if trump would go as well. cohen also claimed he didn't recall getting a response from the russian government, but in fact, he did remember dealing with the office of a top kremlin official. all of those statements were deliberate lies, and apparent effort to cover up to protect the president. as the charging documents state, cohen's intent was to minimize links between the moscow project and trump, in hopes of limiting the ongoing russia investigations. the big question, why did he lie so much? why did he commit a felony so often? and why would cohen commit a felony to cover up his boss' dealings with russia during the election? now the president is accusing cohen of making up the whole story. here's how trump reacted to the news early today. >> what he's trying to do because he's a weak person and not a very smart person, what he's trying to do is end, and it's very simple, he's got himself a big prison sentence and he's trying to get a much lesser prison sentence by making up a story. so very simply, michae

trump: ready? then you are going to -- if that happens, then we will do the same thing, and government comes to a halt, and i would blame them, because they now are going to be coming up with policy. they are the majority in the house. i expect that they will come up with some fantastic ideas that i can support on the environment, on so many different things. including prescription drug prices, which we have made a big dent in already, including some of the things that we are working on for the vets. we have gotten choice approved, we have got a lot of things approved, but they have other elements we want. there are many things we can get along on without a lot of trouble, that we agree very much with them, and they agree with us. i would like to see bipartisanship. i would like to see unity, and i think we have a very good chance -- and maybe not on everything, but i think we have a very good chance of seeing that. go ahead. >> one question on the lame duck, sir, and one on your cabinet. you toyed

trump and his dealings with russia. that is the heart of the issue that i think bob mueller is looking at right now. >> do you believe that this russia investigation has now become an existential threat to the president trump presidency? >> i think what has happened in these last few days is that the mueller invis gaestigation has crossed the bridge that president trump had warned them not to cross which was to look deeply at his finances and particular finances that related to russia. in doing so, in beginning the investigation in that issue and beginning to connect the dots as to whether these relationships were extensive, who they affected, who were they related to, what were the decisions that were made based on those financial ties, those are all the issues that bob mueller is investigating. we are without question at a very critical point in terms of the mueller investigation that will determine whether or not this president faces serious problems or whether or not we will have two more years of the trump presiden

to donald trump jr.aware of some of the -- of this project as well as ivanka trump being aware of this project during that time. that it was under consideration. and so the question now is, how much more further do the mueller prosecutors delve into this? or do the other prosecutors from the southern district of new york delve into this? and i can tell you this is one reason why people who talk to the president, they can tell you, this is one of the things that bothers him so much about this investigation. he believes that it is unfair for the mueller prosecution, for the mueller investigators, to be going not only into his personal business, the business of the family, but also to be looking into the work of the kids, his daughter and his son, because he believes that they should be off limits. if this investigation was initially supposed to be about russian collusion, the president and his lawyers believe, and certainly people close to the president believe, that all of this should be off the table. an

donald trump on nato. [applause] donald trump made it clear to the campaign that it was up to him nato countries would not be involved. david sanger of the manner -- "new york times" if it's up to him estonia is a nato partner. i don't need to talk about the trump foreign-policy. these parties do you advise their year they'll have some sinister murky connection to russian power. your italian friends and i'm not putting this on you. know you were the uniform but i know how you having worn the uniform can say that these people who have these sinister connections and no someone else does not have the interest of your country, my country and he is calling for all of these populist parties. [applause] e i want to return to russia in the second but my daughter when she had her last command comanche was at west point where she's on the staff. think she had 15 noncommissioned officers all of them african-american or hispanic. i think something like 40% of the army today is made up of african-americans alone. donal