so don jr.he didn't tell his father about that trump tower meeting to get dirt on hillary clinton. and yet in the mueller report on page 115 it states that michael cohen recalled being in a meeting where don jr. and trump talked about a meeting to get adverse clinton information. >> you know, i think if you're don jr. that's why you don't want to go testify. there are things that you said, probably may have said even in your previous interview with the committee staff and those might not line up with other statements and other information that's come out. we know that michael cohen has also togld investigators that donald trump jr. has more knowledge about the moscow project than he's previously let on. and you've got people on the senate intelligence committee saying he came once for a staff interview, the plan always was to get him on the record in public in front of senators. so they don't see what this excuse is about. it will be interesting to see how this plays out. is he taking the fifth?

don jr. now. is the president taking this too far on all of these inquiries saying no, no, no, no, no? >> both branches have constitutional interests at stake. congress has a right to conduct congressional oversight and the president has the right to keep some things secret, such as i would say discussions between him and the white house counsel. what the supreme court has made clear what president trump can't do is declare blanket resistance to refuse to send any witnesses to the hill to allow any documents to be produced. the supreme court has made clear it's an issue by issue, document by document process. you can't say i'm producing nothing. i think both sides here from i see rushing they want to have some kind of constitutional confrontation rather than stepping back and reaching a deal which is the way most presidents and congress settle these conflicts. >> thank you very much. david, before we go, happy birthday. >> happy birthday. >> thank you. thank you. >> you don't look a day over 50. >

on the don jr. just like mueller said, just like trump said the mueller report exonerated him and it say it exonerated his own son don jr. and surprised by the subpoena. but is he going to fight it? >> reporter: brook, this is the president letting -- letting loose on a lot of different things but watching the president's face as he speaks about his son don jr. shows you where he is on this. it was almost a pained expression on his face as you talked about his son getting dragged into this stuff in washington. you talk about how don jr. offered to help him on the campaign and now he's being dragged potentially before the senate intelligence committee. but there is a big question right now about whether the president or don jr. or both of them will try in some way to fight this, to resist having to testify. the president talked about the 20 hours of testimony that don jr. has already given on the subject. but the question is if they do that, how? in the past on other matters, the president and the wh

mueller didn't do anything with don, jr. the idea that the son of the president is now subpoenaed and may potentially take the 5th is a big deal. >> it sounds like what they want out of don, jr., is consistency. he sat down and was interviewed for hours, to kevin mccarthy's point. then other witnesses contradicted what he told them, particularly about the trump tower meeting, trump tower moscow. is it unusual to call back a witness with whom you may have consistency problems? >> not at all. as you gather information in an investigation you are learning things from different people, different witnesses. it is not unusual to speak to a witness again who you spoke to earlier on. you may hear contradictory things, let's clear this up. two important things. one is that they are continuing to look at russian interference. i don't think they are trying to get at perjury for don, jr., but they are looking at trying to stop it. none of the other republicans seem to want to do it. then we'll see what don, jr., wants to do with his 5th

. >> but don jr. is not in an executive role. >> what about the special counsel, abby, as you reported that for months and months trump attacked him and members of the team and today he sat there and insulted mueller himself, going back to saying it is up to barr to determine whether he testifies but did you catch what he referred to the mueller report as? >> yeah. the bible. brooke, this is the president trying to have it both ways on the mueller report. he spent a lot of his time today attacking mueller, the 18, 17 angry democrats on that investigative team who put together this report that he also calls the bible and said exonerated both him and his son and all of the associates around him who were in charge. so the president is trying to say that mueller can't be trusted but at the same time the mueller report is the final word on all of these matters and i think it is a difficult position to have because there are some matters that were left undecided particularly when it comes to obstruction of

someone like don jr.he committed obstruction and it was so bad and the case that was laid out against him was so damaged, he -- [inaudible conversations] >> to the point, to the point i made to you and this wonderful panel earlier, i think he gave that to congress to -- kennedy: no. >> to flush out. kennedy: no. he is special counsel. he had $35 million, endless resources, endless time. he can make those decisions. that was his job. if you want to make the case -- hold on. if you want to make the case that a sitting president cannot be charged, that's one thing. don jr., not a sitting president. therefore, your argument that any, any accountability, criminal or otherwise, for him goes to congress? that's b.s. on a stick. >> kennedy -- kennedy: and i will not buy that at the carnival. >> watch these words very quickly. the redacted portion of that report indicate that something in the middle ain't clean. and i'm willing to bet you, i'm willing to bet you that the republican-chaired intelligence committee k

what sources tell us is don jr. had agreed to come before the committee on two separate occasions to answer these questions but then he balked. part of the reason he balked we're told is because sources told us he didn't want to have a re-do of the testimony he's already given. he testified before them and two other committees, one in the house and one in the senate. the concern is they want to retread this ground. there's a concern this could be a perjury trap because they're so focused on this. they were asking him to come in and they wanted to have a follow-up on this but when they got into the nitty-gritty, they wanted to cover 12 topics with no ground rules. >> one scenario you're hearing is maybe he would be willing to answer questions in writing, sort of the way his father did with the mueller investigators. >> yeah, that's right. one issue on the table is that there is a possibility that his lawyers will be open to don jr. answering questions about the trump tower meeting and the plans to develop in moscow b

don jr.'s team resisted in part they say because mueller's findings were still secret. >> the subpoena raises two major questions, why do senators want to speak with don jr., and will he show up? phil mattingly has more from capitol hill. >> reporter: christina and dave, case closed was the message from republican senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, it appears at least in the senate including the republican-led senate, the kacase is not quite yet closed. we have now discovered according to sources that a number of weeks ago the republican-led committee issued a subpoena to donald trump jr. as far as we know this is the first subpoena issued by anybody on capitol hill related to any of the president's children. now, the issues here while still not totally clear appear to really run through two different tracks, and these were comments that donald trump jr. made related to a june 2016 trump tower meeting with russian individuals who are claiming they had dirt on hillary clinton as well as di

if you look at what's going on with don jr. being called, for example, this is really an investigation not into criminal behavior, but into really trying to understand what russia did in terms of interfering with our election and gathering as much information as possible. that's definitely a role for congress, but i do agree that, you know, if you look at the polls anecdotally if you talk to a lot of people this just isn't what they're interested in. >> kirsten, a source close to don jr. told cnn overnight that this is a, quote, pr stunt from a so-called republican senator. this is senator richard burr, you know, this isn't like a former senator jeff flake, i'm not calling them so-called republicans, i'm just saying people who have had a big public beef with the president or corker. this is burr. how significant is that? ? >> well, i think in the trump era what being a republican means is being somebody who cow tails to trump. in their world you are not a real republican if you are not sucking up to trump and compromising every

now, don, jr., could not run out from this subpoena, his former trump lawyer don mcgahn think he will be able to? i take that question to my panel beginning with brittany cooper, professor at rutgers university. good to see you both. brittany, i begin with you on the political science of this. which this is not just about subpoena rules, it's an inner-branch clash. what does it tell you as we come on the air tonight that don, jr., actually buckled in the part of this clash? >> you know, what i'm more concerned about is the way that the white house is attempting to bully and subvert our separation of powers and checks and balances process. so yes, i am heartened by the fact that don, jr. has had to submit to this process. but the fact that the trump administration is fighting congress at every level is all about this sort of broader problem of obstruction of justice. the trump administration believes that they should not be held accountable to the american people to any levels of government. there are clear indicators and evidence that significant crimes and breaches of protocol have b

he's come under fire from his fellow republicans for subpoenaing don jr. what's interesting about this, in all of the examinations that are going on by congress, this was the only one that actually had the have a near of being somewhat serious, though led by a republican. richard burr has tried to keep some seriousness to their work. >> sure, and i think it's interesting because he could be nicknamed back channel burr since he was also the senate intel chair who was letting don mcgahn know in the white house who they were talking to, who the fbi was talking to. >> to that point, if richard burr calls don jr., every other possible person the president has stonewalled, if they're saying, yes, don jr. will come, but it has to be behind closed doors, can't that end on being president trump's dream, we showed up to testify, nothing there. >> this is a win -- the trump campaign won this round. what they did is something that probably the house judiciary committee, for example, or adam schiff's committee may not have done which is saying we will enable you to dic

sources close to don jr. said no we. what happened here? >> good morning, stephanie. i think what happened here is basically donald trump jr. decided it was in his interest to come and talk to the senate. i spoke to a source close to him yesterday. their version of the story was he was ready to defy the senate and ultimately got an agreement to come in and limit the scope of the topics he would talk about, five, six topics he would limit the amount of time to two to four hours. but in reality there's nothing that would stop democratic senators from asking him whatever they want to ask him about. and there's nothing that would stop donald trump jr. from basically taking the fifth at any point or getting up and leaving. the real question with all of that being the case and backdrop, why would he make an agreement to come in and talk to the committee, and the answer is he decided it was better for him to do that than not do it. perhaps even if he invokes the fifth at some point, better to appear to be prpiarticipating t not participating. >> he decided or doesn't have a c

plenty of reasons to bring don jr. back, don't you think? >> it's not even a criminal investigation. it's congressman won bipartisan attempt to get to the bottom of the russian interference campaign in 2016. and burr to his credit -- i'm sure it wasn't an easy decision for burr to issue this subpoena. he knew the full weight of fox news and republicans andm republican colleagues was getag come down on him for doing this. but to his credit he see as gap in testimony or a witness who may not have thought the full story to his committee. he wants to clear things up. what's lindsey graham go doing the next time he subpoenas someone and that person says no, i don't care. i don't have to come before congress. you guys don't matter. >> he'll just -- >> it's just so short sided. what's he going to say when rarltsz democratic president? it's situational ethics like i've never seen. >> he's a shape shifter and he'll find something he believes is different in his own mind and heel rrb make that an excuse. >> this is what he said about richard nixon ign

and you know don jr. was in his cross hairs and now these bozos think they're going get something from don jr. why work from people and you hit on something important and that is inspector general report in homing in on the fbi and the fact that they have a fake dossier, everybody in had the fbi knew that it was a fraud. and yet jim comey signed three times before a fisa court to get a qarnt to spy and i'll use word spy till the last -- breath i breathe, now because he wanted to defeat donald trump. and now, what they're saying is you know number one there was no spying. and number two, sturdy up bill barr and donald trump jr. to report to come out say it was political and getting even with us. >> well comey is in world of trouble not a credible witness in entire thing he signed first fisa first one that was based on bogus information from christopher steele that has been discredit bud. real problem they're going to have now judge is this, john report this week that hill was devastating we know how fbi at

if the trumps were telling the truth, don, jr. should be rushing to correct the record and to put his word against a known liar's word. i think burr was trying to help him and republicans are freaking out. >> here's the problem, elie. i agree, here's the problem in terms of putting witnesses on and going forward with cases. michael cohen is a convicted perjurier. should he be fined in front of a jury in you have to have a united states attorney willing to go forward. there is nobody to go forward and that's why it's a problem. it's so circular. >> junior should be willing to go up in front of the public and the senate and the congress and say michael cohen was lying. if he can't, that accrues to michael cohen's credibility, not don, jr.'s. >> particularly when michael cohen went under oath before and said what he had to say while he was facing jail time and he was now in prison. thank you both. next, so what was donald trump doing while he was losing a billion dollars over 10 years? would you believe flipping through fabric swatch

let me read a statement from a source close to don jr. not don jr. don is a private citizen who has already been cleared by mueller after a two year investigation. a source close to don jr. who is so brave that he had a source close to don jr. anonymously call someone a coward. joyce vance, is what this source close to don jr. true, that no lawyer would allow his client to comply with a lawful subpoena? >> every lawyer would compel his client to comply with a lawful s&p. as a lawyer you can move to quash a s&p. you can assert an immunity argument. but if your client is s&ped and doesn't show up there are consequences. i would expect congress will impose consequences on donald trump jr. if he doesn't show up pursuant to a lawful subpoena. >> let me play for you michael cohen's testimony that was described as blowing up don jr. let's play that from february this year. >> mr. trump frequently told me and others that his son don jr. had the worst judgment of anyone in the world and also that don jr. would never set up any meeting of significance alone and

this is today graham suggested that don jr. should take the fit fifth. if i were his lawyer you'd be you'd have to be an idiot to put your client back into the circus. okay, so here is a member of the congress. senate. making excuses for someone and acting as lawyer. shouldn't as a politician shouldn't he stand up for what he does? for a living. >> of course, he should. >> represent the american people. >> of course. don jr. has a lawyer. he has real exposure. taking the fifth for him is lodge kalg. he's worried about potential perjury. it's not it's a bad. >> he's a private citizen. can he ignore it? >> he can plead the fifth. >> president trump seems to love a strong man. he invited another one to the oval office today and sat down with the far right prime minister of hungary. what message does that send to allies? these folks, they don't have time to go to the post office they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all

several people have contradicted don jr.'s claim under oath that he only told two people about his impending trump tower meeting. it's unclear if the president's son will comply with the subpoena, not show up, plead the 5th or choose another option. >> members of the president's inner circle are upset with richard burr. they believe the decision to serve don jr. give democrats a valuable talking point, and the chair does not want to discuss it. >> the white house is taking a big swing at you, nothing senator burr, you made a big move. >> nothing. we don't talk about engagements we had in the committee, never have. we're not going to start today. >> cnn has learned, burr explained the back story of the subpoena and defended his committee's investigation. mitch mcconnell publicly supporting burr even though just days ago the senate majority leader said case closed on the mueller investigation. >>> add james comey's name to the list of people who think president trump obstructed justice. he was asked about the mueller report in

forces are saying if you come after donald trump jr., if you come for don, you're going to have a problemhave a problem with the base. >> the senate is becoming pomor like the house with the lack civility. i'm hearing donald trump jr. is going to ignore the subpoena. >> he can say hold me in contempt. one ops would be to take the fifth in writing. and what we've heard is the most likely option all in washington y'all guys can guess is going to be some kind of compromise, probably answering questions in "morning joe"? just a bit. >> that does it for us on this friday morning. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside geoff bennett. "morning joe" starts right now. >>> how much are you worth right now as you're sitting right here? >> zero idea, david. it depends on what's happening with the world and the market. >> let's get back to the assessment of your wealth for ament. >> if you had to liquidate, if you just decided i'm going somewhere else, i'm going to live in a trailer and you wanted to sell off everything, how big would that check be that you put in your pocket when you headed west for the tr

that has some republicans now fearing that if don jr. returns to the hill to answer more questions he'll be walking into a perjury trap, a perjury trap. you know the best way to avoid a perjury trap? is to tell the truth. pretty simple, really, just tell the truth. so with his son and name sake and investigator's sights, russia is not as much in the rearview mirror as this president would like and that may be the reason that he's doing everything he can to try to polish his tough guy image, saying he is happy with the way his trade war with china is going. >> there can be some retaliation but it can't be very, very substantial by comparison. >> well, the president may be happy, but wall street, not so much. look at that. there are the numbers, stock market plummeting to do, the dow closing 617 points lower, the worst one-day drop since january 3rd. american farmers, big part of the president's base feeling the pain, while he insists everything is awesome. >> our farmers will be very happy, our manufacturers will be very happy and our gov

don, jr. take the fifth? let's play "hardball." >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. donald trump is defending his oldest son's attempt to get dirt on hillary clinton and he could plead his fifth amendment right to not testify on the grounds it would incriminate him. led by richard bur, he served the president's son with a subpoena. they want to question other things about the meeting with russians at trump tower in june of 2016, a meeting he took with the promise of negative kremlin oppo on hillary clinton. he was highly unlikely to appear in person. he could invoke his rights in a written response. the differences between what donald trump told the senate and what's contained in the mueller report itself. they want to ask donald trump, jr. about his account of what he told his father about that trump tower meeting. in his 2017 testimony, trump, jr. said he did not inform his father about the meeting beforehand. the mueller report shows that michael cohen said otherwise, recall

that will be up to don jr. and his lawyer. >> the fact is donald trump jr. did not testify to mueller. he declined even to sit down for a voluntary interview with the special counsel. and he was not exonerated. neither was his father. >> i could have stopped everything. i didn't have to give them a document. i gave them 1.5 million documents. i gave them white house counsel. i gave them other -- anybody you want you can talk to. at the end of the testimony no collusion, and essentially no obstruction. >> did you catch that? did you catch that? essentially. no obstruction. essentially no obstruction. the president usually claims that he has been 100% exonerated. this is the first time that he has hedged even a little bit on obstruction, slipping in the word essentially in there. but he's wrong. that's not what robert mueller said at all, not at all. listen to what he did say in volume ii of his report and this is page 182. please read the report, everyone. don't necessarily believe what the administration is saying and what barr -- how barr is framing this. t

don jr. was subpoenaed by the senate intelligence committee. and that mueller totally exonerated his son. watch. >> my son was totally exonerated by mueller, who, frankly, does not like donald trump. me, this donald trump. and, frankly, for my son, after being exonerated, to now get a subpoena? to go again and speak again after close to 20 hours of telling everybody that would listen about a nothing meeting? yeah, i'm pretty surprised. >> harris: a member of the house judiciary committee joins me now. republican andy biggs of arizona. so glad to get you on this breaking news. thank you for being with me. first of all, why subpoena donald trump jr.? >> well, harris, i don't really know. it seemed odd to me when i heard about it. there really is no explanation as far as i can see. he testified for a long time. unless they're going to conduct an additional investigation, it doesn't make any sense to subpoena donald trump jr. to come testify before the senate until committee. it doesn't make sens

he is right in saying that don jr. go up to capitol hill and testify for 20 some odd hours for three separate committees. another senate intelligence committee has issued a subpoena for him to come back again. this whole thing has been going on for, we are told by multiple sources, for several weeks now. the senate intelligence committee invited him to come back and talk to them. it seems that what they wanted to do with talk to him about ten or 12 subjects, including the trump tower meeting, including what he knew about the trump tower moscow project, in order to see if what they had been told before lines up with what michael cohen had told them and what he might have to say about it now. but they couldn't come to an accommodation. he suggested, don jr. said, "i could give you some more information in writing. maybe come back for an hour or in an hour and a half." the committee, i'm told, said, "this is an open-ended commitment, we want to talk to you about a lot of things. you could be here for hours." and he decide

what do those senators, burr and the republicans on the senate intel committee, want to hear from don jr., and how are other republican senators responding? >> yeah, i just got a chance to catch up with some republicans who are siding with donald trump jr. over the committee chairman, richard burr, who has issued a subpoena along with mark warner, the committee's vice chairman, to get donald trump jr. to come back to the committee to hear more from him after he first testified back in 2017. we understand there's some questions about what he said before. there could be questions that members have about whether or not, about some of his initial discussions about the trump tower meeting that he took back in 2016, the mueller report raised some questions about his initial testimony to a different committee, but the moment some republicans, including senator lindsey graham said he will be reluctant if he were donald trump jr. to come back and testify before the senate panel. >> i like richard burr. i just don't know, to me, mueller is the last word for me, so i'm over, i'm done. he testified

of people siding with don jr. here. >> what i'm hearing you say, at least in one part is, yet again, another example of me being naive to be surprised about anything and the motivations coming from how politicians react because it has to do with re-election. great to see you. >> joining me right now cnn political director david chalian, and shan wu, legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. david, since it all comes down to politics, from the contempt vote to the president trying to block release from anything with executive privilege with regard to the mueller report, now the threat of subpoena to subpoena mueller if they must to get him to testify, now don jr. what are people watching play out right now on capitol hill? >> well, i think they're watching two things here, kate. i think the first thing they're watching, and you heard from speaker pelosi, there seems to be a new red line here that may trigger an escalation which is whether or not bob mueller gets to testify. it seemed to me that speaker pelosi wa

don jr. that's the republican-led intelligence committee. what do you maybe of that? >> i was very surprised. >> from the department of justice your argument is that you can't break the law and if william barr were to making available he would be violating certain provisions. the white house wants to make it political where you see the legal argument coming from the department of justice. >> do you agreement with chairman nadler that the country is in a constitutional crisis? >> yes, i do agree with chairman nadler. >> wow. >> because the administration has decided that they're not going to honor their oath of office. >> the mueller report that we have seen, the redacted version paints a very damning and frightening picture. i wonder if they've read it. if they had read it, they should be as alarmed and frightened as the rest of us are for our democracy. >> breaking news. north korea fires two more short-range ballistic missiles, their second high-provide file launch in less than one week. >>

., knew him he said i have more information beginning of june don, jr., says great see you end ofthe summer, no if you are looking for some kind of collusion you don't put off almost two months if russians are serious about it not go doing having a meeting in trump tower then gets back to don, jr., i am in town can i come over tomorrow, he says come on over, person posts selfie of himself worked through lobby of trump tower walks through trump tower probably shouldn't have meeting that is not collusion that was a mistake in judgment, i doubt if russian spy agencies russian government works that way certainly nothing was done with it meeting lasted 20 minutes, nothing came out of it again, it was a meeting don, jr., trying to put off. >> democraticallimens of the committees they want more information on all this, here is your colleague adam assistive. >> there is no executive privilege over the hundreds of thousands of documents regarding events that took place before donald trump was president, you can't have a privilege an executive privilege when you are not the executive, so th

i want to get to don jr. first to house speaker nancy pelosi who is joining how judiciary committee chairman jerry nadler saying, you know, what, this country is in a constitutional crisis. this is after the committee voted to hold the attorney general barr in contempt. watch this piece. >> this administration wants to have a constitutional crisis because they do not respect the oath of office that they take to protect and defend the -- to support the constitution of the united states. >> we've talked for a long time about approaching a constitutional crisis. we are now in it. we are now in a constitutional crisis. trish: a constitutional crisis of your own making. is this another talking point? >> it's worse than that. it's so cynical. these people are total charlatans. it's not a constitutional crisis. it's ooh political stunt and they know that. they go on and on about wanting the unredacted report. they've had the unredacted report. trish: they haven't head it. >> but they haven't bothered to look at it.

laura: the debate over don, jr.'imony comes after democrats ted to hold attorney general williabarr in contempt because he refused to hand over an unredacted version of the mueller report. congresswoman madeleine dean of pennsylvania supported the vote, and i spoke with her earlier. thank you for joining us. your committee held that the attorney general of the u.s. is in contempt of congress. the speaker of the house says this is a constitutional crisis. what happens now? rep. dean: it will come to the floor for a full vote of these house of repatives here in congress. it is a grave moment. both the speaker and jerry nadler have identified this moment as a constitutional crisis. i seit as a constitutional clash between coequal branches of government. us wanting to uphold the rule of law and the institutions that surround that, and the administration that is obstructing everytng, whether it is investigations into their behavior or our own oversight roles. it is an extraordinarily grave time. laura: given, as you say,

interference in the last few years, and republican john cornyn also splitting with burr over the subpoena to don jrsenator susan collins are standing behind the senate intelligence chair. >> mr. trump jr. has cooperated extensively with the committee. i can understand his frustration at being asked to come back. it's not about finding facts, this smacks of politics. i think we have an important job to do to try and keep the intelligence committee out of politics and just keep yourself focused on our mission. >> i believe that senator burr has been a very good chairman, he has been an excellent at conducting this investigation. i'm sure the report that we produce is going to be comprehensive and fair. >> lisa: david, mueller found no collusion. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell gave a speech thing case closed. so why isn't this close for senator richard burr? >> david: i've no idea. why doesn't he just come out as a democrat? let's call it what it is. if you look at his history, this is someone who clearly falls more along the liberal line then the conservative line. susan collins, i don't know

don jr.'s team has provide documents to the committee. you know, they are posturing that they want to cooperate, but it looks like they are really drawing the line here and having don jr. show up anywhere on capitol hill or near the cameras. >> you've been talking to trump world and you've got reporting in terms of what their thinking is. what are you hearing? >> they are frustrated because they think burr just handed democrats a talking point because republicans were finally getting behind mitch mcconnell's whole case closed and now democrats can say, hey, look, even members of your own party think that all of these inquiries into the russian investigation are not done yet so they are frustrated by that, but you see john cornyn there, no secret why he's doing it. he knows he needs people's help like donald trump jr. so he doesn't want to get on their bad side when he's up for a tough re-election fight. look at the role that donald trump jr. played in the mid terms last year and had a pretty big role and a lot of republicans wanting him t

but i'll bet under the redaction it said that don jr.' said he would revoke self-incrimination. now fast forward. here we are. you asked the question, what does the committee now want from don jr.? i think they want all the information to determine the extent of russian involvement and interference. >> which goes to the oversight powers. how much will you bet? >> i will bet at least $1.50. >> will you bet all your old pictures of you and bob mueller that we share sometimes? >> i will not give those pictures up for anything. >> i heard people want those signed pictures but they want them more signed by him than by you. >> i don't disagree. >> my signature and $4 will get you a cup of coffee at starbucks. >> i'm kidding. i would like your signature. you've been there and you are quick the facts and the details. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thank you. up ahead, we have grammy winning, musician/actor common. in 30 seconds, donald trump echoing an else of "veep." the executive producers of the show joining me. we're back in 30. joining m

to be fair, every meeting with don jr. involves limited intelligence. ( laughter ) ( applause ) but still-- still-- still, this is a big change. just last weekend, junior's lawyers drafted a letter to the committee, telling its members before a panel that included multiple democrats running for president. well, come on! you walk into any room, you'll find multiple democrats running for president. ( cheers and applause ) i bought, this morning-- this is true. this-- i bought a coffee this morning, i bought a coffee this morning, and i'm 90% sure my barista was beto o'rourke. ( laughter ) so at the last minute, the committee agreed to an interview with the questions limited to about a half-dozen topics and the time limited to no longer than two to four hours. that's a good deal for him, actually. as the "times" put it, the move was "straight out of his father's playbook: set the terms of the debate at the most extreme end of the discussion by saying he would not appear, prompt a controversy, then cut a deal on his own terms.

give them the report, let don jr.n and tell him to make a statement saying whenever obstructed justice. >> chris: 3 minutes, i want to talk about one more subject, joe biden, who clearly has opened up a sizable lead in the democratic presidential race. take a look at these polls buried in the latest real clear politics average of polls, biden leads by almost 3:1 over bernie sanders, almost 2:1 in new hampshire and as you can see neroli and iowa. how real is his lead at this point? and how do you explain it? >> he is a formidable front runner. there's no question there's a wrong way to go until his primary is over but being up front by this kind of margin is very valuable and it's notable he took the vulture from, which is bernie sanders. in many polls early in this process you would see joe biden voters saying bernie sanders was their second choice and bernie sanders voters saint joe biden was their second choice. joe biden is the more establishment guy, bernie sanders is way out on the left, but really both of them h

it leave as whole host of concerns about the ethics och of this kind of marketing move and don jr. this is what real estate edevelopers do and this is a real estate business being run by the president of the united states's family. >> journalist angly spent more than a year investigating trump projects in india. and what she found is deeply concerning. >> india, particularly when it comes to real estate, has this reputation for being very corrupt. >> which don jr. appeared to acknowledge at a conference there. >> are you willing to bend rules when it suits them? >> i think there's an entrepreneurial spirit here that is -- >> so in order to make even just simple warehouse in a city like mumbai you'd need 40 different permits and each step what helps facilitate the process, what moves it long so you're not waiting years is a bribe. >> every other country goes into these places and they do what they have to do. >> but it can be a violation of the foreign corrupt processes act. the law makes it a crime in the united states for american businesses to knowingly pay bribes to foreign gove

>> approximately ten in total. >> that could undercut don jr.'estion, did he have involvement in the moscow deal? he told congress he was only peripherally aware of it with no discussion in 2016. his discrepancy may have the attention. the subpoena for a sitting president's family member who is not in the government is a big deal. i want to point out one more thing. this is even more striking. they didn't have overwhelming evidence for the trump tower meeting. in fact on the very day mueller report came out, we were reporting how mueller detailed the lack of sufficient evidence against trump jr. which was for him some good news. >> good news for donald trump jr. mueller writes, we decided not to pursue criminal campaign finance charges against donald trump jr. >> that was the mueller report date. tonight the picture looks a little different. apparently like some other former trump aides, the senate is report about whether he perjured himself according to mueller may not have been legally incriminating in the first place. nick ackerman is here to

don jr.016 trump tower meeting with russians who were promising dirt on hillary clinton. >> mean while, the house judiciary committee has voted to hold attorney general wolf blitzer -- william barr in contempt of congress. as for mueller himself, judiciary chair jerry nadler says they will subpoena the special counsel to testify if they have to. also we're following breaking news this morning. south korea's military says north korea has fired two short-range missiles, two missiles. this is the second time this week that north korea has done something like this. what does this say about the president's chummy relationship with kim jong-un and his claims for more than a year that it was a victory that north korea wasn't doing any nuclear tests or any missile tests. that appears to have changed. joining us now david gregory, cnn political analyst and jeffrey toobin former federal prosecutor and cnn chief legal analyst. this morning the president's son ask under subpoena. >> that is true. >> i ca

they believe his decision to serve don jr. with a subpoena gives democrats a valuable talking point, and the chair does not want to discuss it. >> the white house is taking a big swing at you, nothing senator burr. >> nothing. >> you made a big move. >> nothing. we don't talk about any engagements we have in the committee, we never have. we're not going to start today. >> cnn has learned in a closed door senate republican lunch burr explained the back story of the subpoena and he defended his committee's investigation. and mitch mcconnell is supporting burr, we're told in private, even though just days ago the senate majority leader said case closed on the mueller investigation. >>> add james comey's name to the list of people who believe president trump obstructed justice. the former fbi director was asked about the mueller report in a cnn town hall live event last night. the report had several examples of possible obstruction by the president but attorney general bill barr decided not to bring charges because he could not de

. >> he would go to places with his family, with his children, don jr.ic and they would make these representations that this is a trump project, we're putting something in. >> often, what they put in were themselves. >> ivanka got up on stage and talked about how she, you know, purchased one of the units and that she'll be frequently visiting. she kind of mingled her way to our area and she said, well, if you ever need to borrow sugar, you know, come knock on my door. >> sapol thought ivanka was there as a future -- that will make one publicity visit. it helped send the message that the world's best known real estate developer was developing. >> now, each case it would be a little different but they would convey to people that were thinking of putting up their money that it was a trump development. >> it wasn't. time after time he lied or misled about his role. baja, hawaii, where in a 2007 letter to the wall street journal trump wrote this building is largely owned by me and being developed by me. false. tampa, where he told a local paper in 2005 that h

. >> laura: we will get to don jr. testifying in a moment. did the executive branch waive executive privilege already? that's what the democrats are saying already? >> their are two things. they waived executive privilege with respect to the mueller report released to the public. congress doesn't just want the un-redacted mueller report. they want all of the background information. witness interviews and grand jury information. with respect to the question about mcgahn, you can testify in a proceeding. i can decide to testify at the grand jury if i am later indicted. i can make the decision at trial i won't testify. it's a different proceeding. >> laura: can mcgahn say i want to testify. with the president prevent him from testifying? does that look like the president wants to hide something? >> this is the core of executive privilege upheld by the supreme court in the watergate tapes case. the supreme court said communications between the president and his top advisors are protected. in that case, they might have been protected against the n

how the heck did they get to the point where a republican senate committee had to subpoena don jr.? they refuse to do and why? >> jared kushner here, and mark warner doesn't say him by name, he makes the point that they ran into this stone wall from jr. when everybody else who had appeared, agreed to come back including members of the trump family. jared kushner came voluntarily. they were looking for him to come voluntarily. >> and i think this is the signal that what happened was they tried to negotiate with donald trump jr. for some reason, and frankly, it is about something, i'm not sure what, but if you look at senator burr, he is not a flame thrower. he does travel under the radar. and he said, and he's been working really closely with mark warner during this entire time. if anything, the senate intelligence committee has been operating in a more bipartisan way. >> i'll be honest, it feels like the last guardrail. doesn't it? the one place where we can say, they're working together. >> so to me that says that they really tried to come to some kind of an accommodation with dona

. >> don jr.'s problem is that his senate testimony in 2017 would appear to conflict with the mueller report in a number of areas. among those areas, that he was only peripherally aware of the e did not tell his father in advance about the trump tower meeting, and whether he knew the meeting's purpose beyond asking if they could attend. and let me expand on whether he told his father about the trump tower meeting. he told senate investigators, quote, i did not. however, this is what the mueller report says. michael cohen recalled being in donald j. trump's office on june 6, 7 where trump jr. told his father that the meeting was going forward. if they get him to testify, is donald trump jr. in trouble? >> yeah, i think he is in hot water. first of all by the way i believe that the subpoena did issue before mcconnell put his line in the sand as much as a couple week ago. but, yeah, he is in a fix. recall that trump jr.'s thought before he was going to be indicted and this was the reason. it looks pre