>> chairman elijah cummings.on, tell us how he managed all this yesterday, the job he did. how did he do? >> i thought he did an incredible job. that phrase, "we're better than that," that's something that elijah cummings has been saying for a long time, the entirety of the administration in fact. it was a perfect point to bring us back there. he was accommodating enough to the republicans on the committee, he gave them their say, he gave them their chance to do what they did, which was stunningly bizarre. not a single republican that i heard made any sort of affirmative statement in defense of donald trump and what he might have done. not a one. it was all attacks on michael cohen. but elijah cummings gave them the room and the space to do that. he pushed back when jim jordan raised a spurious issue about a form that cohen had signed and whether he represented foreign government or foreign entities or whatever and claimed that he had signed it in error and later it was discovered that, no, actually he had compli

there are so many incredible, incredible leadership -- john lewis, elijah cummings, barbara lee and so many people of color right now in congress that are using this opportunity of being in that space and teaching our colleagues. i think the right way of talking about race in this country. and so just to go back, i think congress -- congressman meadows understood where i was coming from, he knew what my intention was at the end, and that's why he decided to take, you know, i think his objections back. and, again, somebody sitting in that room, i didn't feel like it was something to be silent about. i think i needed to express my frustration and also the hurt that i think a lot of us felt at the moment that that action of having her stand up like that in a committee hearing. >> but just to be clear, you still today feel that he is not racist? >> look, i feel like the act was. and that's up to the american people to decide whether or not he is. >> congresswoman rashida tlaib, we appreciate you having this conversation with us on new day.

his name is elijah cummings, and i have black nieces and nephews. >> he was looking for elijah cummings's like come on, you know me. >> he gets called out for tokenizing lynn patten. what does he do? he tokenizes elijah cummings and his own nieces and nephews. >> she did it of her own volition. >> i'm going to say that too. she likes the attention. she tweeted it aout ahead of time she was going to do this. she's part of that same cabal of trump attention seekers that were nobodies before, that have a taste of power now, and they're milking it. and allowing themselves to be used as props. and shame on the republican party for doing this over and over again. this was a frustration i had as a woman of color in the republican party for 20 years now, trying to get them to get past these kinds of racially tokenized acts. they think that this is what shows there's not racists and they aren't bigots, but it's racially insensitive and they don't have anybody in decision-making positions to they them, know, that's not how it work. >> in an interview, meadows clarified his remarks. i think it's a

elijah cummings says are potentially on the hook related to the payments, as well. and not just the payments in that case but the coverup of the payments. so the cohen prosecution on the hush money payments, cohen being pr prosecuted for those campaign finance felonies and naming the president as the person who directed him to commit the felonies is dramatic enough on its own terms but that case is turning out to be a legal nightmare for lots of other individuals and entities that surround the president from his business life, from his political life before he got elected and even now from his life as president. this is all today. [ laughter ] >> dramatic developments today on the roger stone case, michael cohen case and related cases. but as i mentioned, the really big one tonight is what just happened at the president's campaign chair, to paul manafort with prosecutors telling one of the two federal judges who is due to sentence him soon that they want a 19 to 24-year prison term for him plus potentially tens of millions of dollars in fines and restitution. the im

elijah cummings, chairman of the oversight committee, has released a whole bunch of documents tonightf government ethics. it's some handwritten notes, some type written notes. a big part of it appears to be redacted. this is what that release from elijah cummings looks like, but he says that what these documents show is that a couple of lawyers working for the president, one who worked for the white house and one who worked for the president in a personal capacity, gave false information to the office of government ethics about that hush money payment, the hush money payment that was the basis for the felony charges against michael cohen, the campaigns finance felonies he's going to prison for next month. those are the campaign finance felonies he's implicated the president as having directed him to commit those felonies. now cummings says other lawyers for the president gave false statements about those payments to the government office of ethics when they were working on the president's financial disclosure about some of these matters. is this something that is sort of slap on the w

there's elijah cummings, the chairman of this committee.core that this hearing is taking place in part because the democrats won in november pap they're the majority in the house of representatives. they can decide what to do. i don't know if michael cohen would be testifying if the republicans were still the majority in the house of representatives. >> i know. i know. >> i say that facetiously. >> the truth of the matter is oversight is congress's responsibility. if you like the guy in the white house and the party that controls congress is doing oversight, then you probably think they're a bunch of partisan hacks. if you don't like the guy in the white house, you probably think it is the most noble mission there is. i wanted to ask you about the credibility of michael cohen. we're talking about watergate, we're talking about john dean versus michael cohen. there are a lot of differences in terms of john dean

and the powerful moment from chair elijah cummings. e powerfum chair elijah cummings. if your moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's symptoms are holding you back, and your current treatment hasn't worked well enough it may be time for a change. ask your doctor about entyvio®, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio® works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract, and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. entyvio® may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. tell your doctor if you have an infection experience frequent infections or have flu-like symptoms, or sores. liver problems can occur with entyvio®. if your uc or crohn's treatment isn't working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio®. entyvio®. relief and remission within reach. the one with the designer dog collar.(sashimi) psst. he

they're trying to get these documents that chairman elijah cummings had had requested in early february. they're really trying to get to the bottom of this family separation issue, which is a top investigation target for top democrats. and republicans are saying, look, this is really premature. they only just took over the committee. they only asked for these documents in early february. like, let's give it some more time before we rush ahead. but democrats are really itching to get to the bottom of this. and they're also weighing whether to issue subpoenas to get their hands on some documents related to the white house security clearance process. so, democrats are going to huddle monday night. they're going to do a tragedy session. how do we tackle not only just this hearing on wednesday with cohen, but how do we tackle these subpoenas? they're also bracing for republicans to do as many disruptive and delay tactics as they can, such as forcing motions to adjourn, which is something they can do to sort of disrupt the flow of things. and so, you're going to see republicans really go on o

elij elijah cummings told me they'll bring alan weisselberg and donald trump jr. who was a name signed on one of the checks to come to capitol hill as part of an investigation into those hush money payments. adam schiff he had shed they will drill down tomorrow when cohen comes back to a classified setting about the topics but today's testimony only going to fuel the investigation on capitol hill and will that begin that discussion over impeachment proceedings. right now the democrat leaders are trying to tamp that down. cummings i asked if there were impeachable offenses and said that, well, i want to proceed very cautiously. they want the investigation to continue. they want to see what the mueller report ultimately produces, but this information significant to how the democrats will plan to pursue and how the federal prosecutors also decide to pursue it. at least we know that -- the southern district of new york is still investigating the president according to what cohen said today. >> certainly, pretty blunt about it. he was cooperating and in the hopes that

the chairman of the committee, elijah cummings, says there's so much material to go through now that they're going to have to coordinate between five or six committees. >> that's exactly right. it's hard to imagine how much they have to go through and that if you kind of take a step back, it's not like this stuff wasn't out there the past two years. this is one of benefits and one of the burdens of having an opposition party in the majority. one thing, though, that i have been listening for very carefully is the i word, impeachment. from everything that i've heard both on air and conversations i've been having with house democrats, they're not going there yet. they're focused on what you just said, elijah cummings, that committee, other committees digging in trying to get more. they don't even want to talk about impeachment quite yet, perhaps not ever. they understand the rock and the hard place. you're talking about that legally. it's maybe even more so politically. >> laura coates, dana bash, thank you so much. >>> one of the more stunning things at the hearing, the claim of racial

people like elijah cummings, john louis. so when you hear them speaking out with such passion and credibility on the issue it's because they were on the front line and the fact that the hearing today in oversight took place on a hr 1 speaks to how important that bill to the house democratic agenda. it is foundational in my view. >> you were in a climate hearing today, which is i think the largest threat the planet and country faces. they say we have 12 years to cut emissions in halftime. twl hasn't been a hearing in six years in one, and airgt in the upgter. >> it was a breath of fresh air. i believe as you do that climate is the defining issue of our time. i think about it as young father as i know you are. my wife and i have a six month old and the world she will inherit. when you think of last year's election, the voters spoke in a resounding way and there is no problem bigger than climate change. so the fact the natural resources committee held its first hearing and the fact that was on a climate change speaks to resolve

ming up the remarkable hearing that ended and why so many people are talki about what elijah cummings said to close the hearing. >> you got it, scott. yeah, that marathon hearing today ce to a very fiery close as you heard scott there courtesy of eliegjah cummings. he said overga and over we're better than this. >>> we're learning more about president trump's intewictions north korean leader kim jong-un at their summit in vietnam including who wasn't there during their private sit down. news 4's erika gonzalez joins us now from the live desk with why at one-on-one could be important. >> you had on one side president trump and on the other kim jong-un. other than two interpreters e there was no lse in the american that means n was at the private meeting to take notes. that raises concerns. mr. trump may have made concession tuesday the north koreanerle mr. trump says their relationship is a really good one. they met in singapore last june. the president called that first nuclear summies a sus, and he's looking for even bigge and better things out of this meeting in hanoi, vietnam. t it

i thought elijah cummings' response to republicans saying he's not credible, et cetera, why are you bringingup here, this is a charade, a show. the fact that cummings said, well, to our knowledge he's the only one we know is pointing to the president directly and saying you committed a crime. so we owe it to the president to hear his side here. it was interesting. >> that's a clever spin on it, no question. yes, republicans will beat him up. why wouldn't they? he is a convicted criminal and one of the major crimes he's convicted of is lying to the very body he's going before right now. >> right. >> so that's an obvious point of criticism for those defending the president. as we speak, michael cohen is on capitol hill behind closed doors. the senate intel on thursday, he'll go before the house intel committee. in these sessions he's able to talk about things that are not public knowledge, classified. in the public testimony we don't expect him to be able to go there on all things russia. not so in the private -- >> that's great. >> so whether or not he will give answers for example to the spe

got to go. >> you just heard elijah cummings there emphatically defend what the oversight committee said. he said we never used the "i" word, impeachment. the republicans did. i left you with a small cliff-hanger. o tell us who would have the answer to this. allen weisselberg. >> allen worked frd donald's father. allen had one of the first officers when trump moved into trump tower. he has a staff which is weird for anybody at a trump organization. >> why is that? >> because people don't -- he runs a very lean operation. >> the only person with staff is supposed to be trump. >> this isn't a criticism of the trump administration. but you do your work and you have to do the work of five people when you work for donald trump. and he's somebody that the president greatly trusts. also he's handled all the finances. now, another issue -- >> if he got subpoenaed and he was coming to capitol hill, how nervous would donald trump be? >> he would personally hate it. allen prepares all the final statements. >> and they go over what to say. >> i could have to send trump reports of certain things. all

that's why chairman elijah cummings said he believe donald trump committed a crime while in office. this is why democrats are starting to talk about impeachment. this is a serious investigation that may last long after robert mueller has filed his report. >> what do we imagine is going on behind closed doors right now? >> reporter: the house intelligence committee is grilling michael cohen about russia. as donald trump said michael cohen did pour cold water on the russian collusion narrative. he said he was aware of no evidence that donald trump or his campaign colluded. he said he had never been to pr prague -- >> people were saying ask about prague. finally. >> reporter: finally they did. he said under oath he was not there. i think most people are accepting that as the final word on that issue. and my sources in congress also believe that he was not in prague. he did raise a couple of issues he will be sure to be grilled on now behind closed doors. he said he overheard a conversation between roger stone on the phone with donald trump giving trump advanced knowledge of a document

two things come i thought the clothes that elijah cummings did was very powerful and calling sort oftter angle of our nature because it gets so ugly everywhere these days. and then that exchange, and we have a picture of this moment, lynn patton a long time associate an employee and she's worked with the trump family and the business for many, many years. she came into the hearing basically to vouch for her boss who is or president. what did you think of all of that, governor? >> mike: well, i'm going to say chairman cummings put it very well in the closing statements. and frankly, it was the high point of a day of testimony from michael cohen that was lower than a snake's belly at the dead sea. it was really come a very disappointing today to hear him given that kind of platform. but i thought that chairman did a great job of showing his civility to mark meadows and to calling down the congresswoman who made that ridiculous statement. the same congresswoman who publicly shouted out that she had told her son, her teenage son, that she was going to speaking of trump, impeach that mf.

this is the list of topics that elijah cummings announced. quote. after consulting with the department of justice and with chairman adam schiff of the house intelligence, chairman cummings set the scope to address the following issues. number one, you can just stop me here.ne number one, the president's debts and payments relating to efforts to influence the 2016 election.d now the only debts we know about for the president involve supposedly business related bank loans with institutions like deutsche bank. we don't know why they believe it may be related to efforts to influence the 2016 election. let alone why that committee's payments of some kind. they think michael cohen will be able to testify. if that were the only issue they said they would be discussing with michael cohen, that would probably make for a lot of people watching that hearing with great interest. we don't know what they mean by that. that will be fascinating to see. but that is only one of ten according to elijah cummings, the president's compliance with campaign finance laws. th

and elijah cummings said something interesting, the chapter house oversight committee.said, people may not know but mark meadows does she said, "my best friend." >> that was one of the craziest peopl pieces of news out of the whole thing. another thing that meadows to death in of the hearing was cummings said, hold off on submitting all of these articles until we are done. there were just a few members of congress left. one was aoc, one was congress woman pressley and the other was congresswoman to leave. you had three women of color waiting their turns, having waited all day, and mark meadows did not follow cummings' request and basically try to stall rashida tlaib just minutes before she said that was a racist act, then he threw his hissy fit. amy: and it was amazing. ayanna pressley called out the racism. the freshman congresswoman, first african-american congresswoman to represent massachusetts. you had burned a lawrence, also detroit and michigan, talking about the racism of prpresident trump.p. >> right. and cohen said one of the reasons he started thinking differ

this is the list of topics that elijah cummings has announced. quote, after consulting with the department of justice and with chairman adam schiff of the house intelligence committee, chairman cummings has set the scope to address the following issues. number one, you can just stop me here. number one, the president's debts and payments relating to efforts to influence the 2016 election. now, the only debts we know about for the president involve supposedly business-related bank loans with institutions like deutsche bank. we do not know why the oversight committee believes that the president's debts of any kind may be related to efforts to influence the 2016 election. let alone why that same committee believes that the president's payments of some kind may be associated with efforts to influence the 2016 election, but apparently they think that's app issue thn issus to be discussed and they think that michael cohen is going to be able to testify about that issue on monday. oh. only if that was the only issue they said they were going to be discus

. >> the chair of the house oversight committee elijah cummings spoke about protecting voting rights. his committee is working on h.r. 1, a campaign finance and voter rights bill. reminder the house is in a brief recess. we do expect them to return shortly when they do we'll have live coverage here on c-span. mr. cummings: thank you very much. i am going to yield myself a few minutes. ms. the things that hobert and mr. mehgrani gave me hills when i read it was the 2016 opinion of the fourth circuit court of appeals. you know, we're sitting around here acting not like it's not inalienable right to be able to

doing an investigation is hard and tedious and could take a long time, and, you know, elijah cummings and the leadership is going to have to make these decisions. but there is clearly a grounds for a much more extensive investigation. >> carrie, just from a legal standpoint, what do you do? >> well, one of the things that i'm most interested from a legal and a national standpoint is the interaction with wikileaks. and michael cohen said today that he believed that donald trump had advanced knowledge regarding the release of hacked information so it relates to the crime of hacking the dnc and unauthorized access into hillary clinton and her campaign's e-mails. cohen says trump knew in advance. and what's happening is there is a two-week timeline in july of 2016 that is now becoming more clear when we connect information that is in the special counsel indictments of the russian agents combined with now other information that was revealed, including this new data point from cohen today that indicates that there really may have been back and forth communication between julian assange of w

this is the bill i have with congressman elijah cummings from maryland. we have to put real resources into this. it's also the other piece, health care, medicaid, housing, it's all of the pieces it takes. we have to look at this holistically. here's the best thing i can do between now and 2020. that is to keep talking about it every chance i get. to keep talking with you in the hopes that you will talk with someone else, to keep taking these questions, asking the questions. how many people know someone with an addiction problem? look how many people in this room. we are here for them. this is part of our responsibility. this is part of who we need to be as americans. i'm going to keep banking on this. i will try to introduce bills right now. mitch mcconnell controls what you get a vote on. you don't get what you don't fight for. i'm fighting all the way. thank you. what else? >> thank you very much for coming out. >> tell me your name. >> i'm joseph. you endorsed the green new deal. i have a couple of things i wanted to read off of it. upgrading all exist

elijah cummings will inquire into his interactions with the president. watch the hearing live wednesday morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span3, c-span.org, or listen with the free c-span radio app. >> house speaker nancy pelosi and fellow house democrats held a news conference to discuss the resolution to block president trump's emergency declaration for the u.s.-mexico border. texas a result of authored the resolution and spoke about the need to get it passed. this is 20 minutes from the u.s. capitol. ms. pelosi: good afternoon, everyone. we gathered here about a matter of utmost importance to our country. every one of us, every member of congress, every official across officentry in serving an takes an oath to uphold the constitution of the united states. to support and defend it. the constitution which begins with our beautiful with the people. the preamble to the constitution. , the wordsur purpose following the preamble, article one, the legislative branch. ,he beauty of the constitution the heart and the soul of the constitution is the separation

questions] [chatter] announcer: after the end of the hearing, house oversight committee chairman and elijah cummings talked to reporters about the testimony offered by michael cohen. this is 15 minutes. rep. cummings: two years ago, i said that when hillary clinton and donald trump were running against each other, i said that this is not about hillary. and this is not about donald trump. this was a fight for the soul of our democracy. that statement is truer now than it was then. today i think was a very important day. i tell my staff that 200 years from now people will be reading about this moment. so i will say to you, the press, get it right. we have a situation where we have strayed so far away from normal in our country, and we have got to get back to center. and i think today was at least an opportunity to do that. a lot of people, we got a lot of criticism, as you could hear, about michael cohen coming before our committee. but just think about what we are dealing with. we have rosenstein, who said that it is quite possible that the american people will never see the report or just about anyt

especially elijah cummings.ow, the one thing i took out of this whole thing, and i think the rest of america should pay attention because i believe the fix has been put in already. , there willn said not be a peaceful transfer of power. intentionsp has no of giving up the presidency. that is why he is trying to get this emergency thing through. he knows congress is not going to stop it. neither will they stop him when he says, the election was faced, and this is a national emergency, and i am not giving up the presidency. this is his first way to being a dictator. host: about jim jordan, rod get them,ing go tiger. you can add thoughts on twitter on twitter and facebook. tony in pleasantville, new jersey. the democrats line. caller: good morning, c-span. really quick, i wanted to say two things. the republicans are mad. they are trying to blend the democrats. they are mad because -- blame the democrats. they are bad because this man decided to stop lying. he wanted to redeem himself. yeti thing i wanted to say wa

jordan. >> elijah cummings. you just saw michael cohen caught up with some emotion as the chairman quoted martin luther king to him. we're about to hear from the ranking republican on the committee, jim jordan. let's tune in. >> your first announced witness, michael cohen. i want everyone in the room to think about this. the first witness for the 116th congress is a guy who's going to prison in two months for lying to congress. mr. chairman, your chairmanship will always be identified with this hearing. we all need to understand what this is. this is the michael cohen hearing presented by lanny davis. that's right, lanny davis choreographed the whole darn thing. the clintons' best friend, loyalist, operative, lanny davis put this all together. you know how we know? he told our staff. he told the committee staff the hearing was his idea, he selected this committee. he had to talk michael cohen into coming. and most importantly, he had to persuade the chairman to actually have it. he told us it took two months to

is no way to be remembered. >> dana: i don't know about that in terms of the entire career of elijah cummingsressive. now you saw some art there at cpac? >> oh, yes, so this was downstairs, his name is julian raven, they have been talking about this thing. he created this huge piece of art and did it in 2015 before donald trump was even a candidate. he painted this thing. and is displaying it here. and listen, it is kind of amazing. and kind of, what are we talking about here? but there is one thing that i will give it credit for. if the conservative movement is going to thrive, if the republican party is going to thrive. if the political right is going to thrive come of the arts and culture is a big part of it. and there should be art galleries at cpac. if this is the start, great, this is a pretty far out their amazing piece. >> dana: is there anybody else that you are looking forward to hearing from in the next two days? >> of course the vice president and president will be here. i got to speak to mike lindell today, an interesting story. not only did he talk about his faith, but he put up

reporting from a number of key lawmakers that are involved in these hearings this week, namely elijah cummings and chairs the oversight committee who will host that public hearing tomorrow. what is his goal? i thought his response was interesting to the republican criticism of this whole thing. >> reporter: i spoke to him last night about this public hearing that is going to happen tomorrow which we expect to cover a whole range of issues and whether the president committed crimes while with michael cohen as well as other thij things he may have with trump organization he has a lot of skepticism about his own credibility here on capitol hill after he lied to multiple congressional committees back in 2017. but cummings still talking about tomorrow's hearing as a rather dramatic moment last night saying it may very well be a turning point in our country's history. i don't know. what we want to do is conduct a fair hearing, a civil hearing and we want tobe effective and efficient. now, today's hearing is not going to be about that. it is going to be behind closed doors about the russia investigat

i have a bill with congressman elijah cummings that would hit people head-on and get the bill we need. to fighteal resources back for all of our families. so change the rules in rules inn, change the our economy, and change the rules and politics. i want to see a constitutional amendment to protect the right to vote and make sure every vote gets counted. and i want to overturn citizens united. democracy is not for sale. [laughter] -- [applause] sen. warren: and by the way, new hampshire, i don't take corporate pack money -- corporate -- or you had the option to have a ticket with a number on it. i will choose these numbers at random. i will choose by saying the last four digits of your ticket. when i call your number please come down to the microphones on either side. they will be with wonderful volunteers, you can ask your question. i'm going to call a few numbers at a time so please listen carefully at we will try to get as many questions as we can. senator warren: just trying to give everybody an equal chance to ask a question. >> and as you can see, we spared no expense. 4970. sen

jake, of course, with house oversight chair elijah cummings saying he expects widespread investigationsral committees, it appears these three days of testimony from michael cohen may just be the tip of the iceberg. jake? >> thank you very much, jessica. >>> legal reporter laura jarrett, laura coates. let me start with you. if you take cohen at his word -- that's a big if. that's a big if. but if you do, he gave lawmakers a lot to examine. one day removed now here are a few of the potential crimes that he's alleging the president committed. perjury, bank fraud, insurance fraud, election fraud, witness tampering, making false statements and there are a lot more. what do you think is most potentially legally problematic for president trump? >> first of all all of those are problematic. the one that was very problematic to me was the idea of the campaign finance violations. the reason for that is because you already have a u.s. attorneys office in new york who has said that this person, donald trump, is essentially an unindicted co-conspiratorer. they've already signed on past investigation

. >> this is something that elijah cummings had been investigating for a number of months when he was a ranking member. now with democrats control of congress, he's launching a full blown investigation to what was going on. according to a report that i read, according to whistle-blowers a staff report from the committee, multiple whistle-blowers have come forward to express concern that the former national security adviser michael flynn was helping to spear head this plan to send nuclear power technology to saudi arabia. flynn was an adviser to a company called ip3 that was developing a proposal to build nuclear power plants in saudi arabia. the whistle-blowers also say that flynn failed to disclose on his security clearance renewal application a trip that he took to saudi arabia in june of 2015 on behalf of ip3 which we point out has several retired generals on its board. one senior political official stated the proposal was not a business plan but rather a scheme for these generals to make some money. that official stated okay, you know, we cannot do this. the whistle-blowers, the m

elijah cummings who is chairman of the committee told some of us last night that he has been in consultation with the southern district of new york which was involved in the investigation of michael cohen and the president's involvement in this hush money payments to silence women, cummings said he has been in consultation with them and with special counsel robert mueller's team to determine what questions they plan to probe. while russia may not be the dominant focus, it is behind closed doors today and tomorrow we will hear more about trump organization activities and those hush money payments and what the president did and did not do. >> i think that is fascinating information that you are getting from cummings. great reporting. thank you so much. joining me right now cnn political commentator, mia love, tim roamer, former democratic congressman from the great state of indiana. and also cnn legal analyst jennifer rogers, former federal prosecutor with the southern district of new york. can i just start with what elijah cummings said, that he has been consulting with sdny and special couns

. >> susan, elijah cummings said congress has an obligation under the constitution to conduct independent of the executive branch, and this hearing is one step in the process. they want to talk about his personal life and his financial dealings with his father-in-law. what? are you concerned this will turn into a partisan circus? >> that statement from the congressman echoes very much the vague threats and tweets that president trump himself has issued against cohen since he became a cooperating witness against president trump. essentially the president of the united states has used language echoing that of a mob boss and suggesting he has become a rat that's turned against him, raising the possibility of some unspecified criminal acts that should be investigated by cohen's father. that seems to be what the two republican congressmen are doing, picking up and amplifying on the president's theme. this goes to max's point about what is the role that these republican members of congress see themselves in. it seems at times that they view themselves really as president trump's defenders and h

then elijah cummings jumped in and said, mark meadows is one of my closest friends. there's a lot going on there. we have an update, our own marianna sotomayor on capitol hill witnessed mark meadows and rasheed th -- rasheedida tlaib g it out on the house floor. >> what it spoke to i think is the fact that there was a lot of miscommunication about how that type of an action would be perceived by some other members there, how it might be perceived by the broader public, and really spoke to how complicated some of these conversations are around race in general, but specifically right now. and i had the ability to follow up with congresswoman lawrence who also spoke out there yesterday, andrea, who said she was quite offended by what happened and she didn't back down, she said this is a real problem, you cannot hold up one person and make them a broader example. we also heard from the woman who was standing there this morning, she said she does not feel like she was a prop. so very complicated and a lot of heated emotions around it, andrea. >> thanks so much, kristen, f

at the end, if you look at elijah cummings and that speech at the end and he saved it up, no notes. it was stirring and probably something that's good for everyone to have heard. if you only to dan because he wanted to watch "the five" and we are glad you stuck with us, if you heard that, i think it's good. >> jesse: that was a powerful moment. you also have to remember that the democrats and lanny davis and michael cohen convened this hearing today on the very day that the president is doing a summit in vietnam with kim jong un. coincidence, juan? >> juan: it's a coincidence in the sense that the congress wanted to hear from michael cohen and especially they wanted to hear from him in open session. there are so many rumors flying around. what you have to also recall, jesse, is that he was threatened last night. matt goetz, congressman, was threatening him about his family and extramarital affairs. we don't know if it's true or not. the president also wrote tweets that were taken as a threat against michael cohen which is why he didn't testify earlier. that's why he's there today. i

here's what elijah cummings says they don't want to talk to him about. the open public hearing will not include questions relating to the intelligence committee's investigation of efforts by russia to influence the 2016 election and other matters. what do you ehere an what's going to happen? >> that's a clear bright line but the headline is the revelations will finally be televised. this has been delayed several times under intimidation of his father, he said. it's significant because he has knowledge not only of the campaign and you saw the note, but also of the business practices. this is going to be wide ranging and i think pretty ref la tori testimony. >> i wonder what makes us think he's going to show up. everybody thought he was going to show up february 7th nel canceled it and ed said under threat of rudy giuliani and the president. >> in part the house dems say they won't permit it. it's understand to have a little bit of loosy in the football about this, but he's committed to the date and the judge has extend his time before he has to report to

elijah cummings is the chairman of the house oversight committee. a memo to democratic members on the committee, making it clear that they don't want them to deviate from the lines of questioning that they have agreed ton and discussed tomorrow. those are the president's alleged complicates of interest, of course, the hush money payments to silence those stories about women making those allegations of affairs during the run-up to the 2016 campaign, the trump organization and the like. what cummings is making very clear is that there should be no discussion about russia, russia interference, nothing pertaining to ties between the trump organization and the rnussians. all of that needs to be relegated to behind closed doors to the house intelligence committee on thursday. now, there are some democrats who are not pleased about this. on the same committee. they want to be able to ask a wide range of questions. they believe this is the one opportunity for the public to see exactly the entire scope of what michael cohen is saying and to shut off this lin

kennedy: elijah cummings says it really is a watershed moment. there are very few moments in history where everything boils down to this very moment. and he has been through a lot and as a civil rights leader and activist he says this is right up there on the podium. >> this is their chance to get a lot of cameras in the room. but if there was something more serious and sinister here, believe me, mr. mueller, who knows -- will see more than congress ever will. he would have convicted him or at least charged him and tried to do that. but he's convicted of things that don't have to do with russia. by the way tomorrow, -- kennedy: can't talk about russia excellent. >> so what is he really there to do? he was never a government employee. he was not an executive branch. what is he there to do? only to embarrass the president. kennedy: you know, their people close to michael cohen that say part of the reason he's turned so drastically on the president is because he wanted to be part of the administration. andy figure because of their proximity and clos

and later in that exchange between meadows and elijah cummings, ultimately talib apologized said i didn't calling you gu a racist, that's not what i meant. >> i'm surprised she retracted it because what she said was quite clear and what she said had some foundations that malik was speaking about. what better way to combat an accusation of racism than to bring somebody out in a stereo typical fashion he doesn't hate black people, he knows one, he hired one, he has friends of one. i don't know why congressman meadows thought that was an appropriate tactic to use. what did it did was overexemplify when cohen came back to say the truth in reality is who he has hired in the long run. how many executives are black in the trump organization in the assistance zero. that was left out there lingering. and this farce that no black person has had a racist or ideologies or anything else belies the entire history of america. it's why there are so many diversity initiatives across fortune 500 companies across all spectrums because race say very, very polarizing yet existing occurrence in america. the id

after house oversight chairman elijah cummings announced the hearing yesterday, cohen tweeted, "the schedule has now been set. looking forward to the #american people hearing my story and my voice #truth." with a link to his go fund me defense page. one of the house oversight committee members who will be at that open hearing on wednesday joins me tonight. congressman katie hill of california. it's great to have you here. >> nice to be here. thank you so much. >> i understand this may be a thing that the chair of this committee was handling. it was on and it was off. now it's back on. what should we make of that? >> it was very clear that both president trump and his lawyer, rudy giuliani, were intimidating michael cohen. so he was -- it came off because of that exactly. his family was in jeopardy. he felt credibly in fear for his family's safety. the fact that we've been able to now get him to come voluntarily is something we're very happy about. this is something that the american people do need to hear in an open setting. >> there was a sort of document put out by elijah cummings' office

the chairman of the house oversight committee elijah cummings released a list, the list rachel was just talking about, of the subjects that michael cohen will testify about. the chairman's statement says that this list was the result of consultations with the department of justice, which probably means consultations with the office of the special prosecutor robert mueller in the department of justice. and that might be another indicator, another clue that robert mueller is very close to completing his investigation and might even be submitting his final investigative report to the attorney general next week, maybe even before michael cohen's testimony. "the washington post" is reporting tonight that justice department officials are preparing for the end of the special counsel robert s. mueller iii's nearly two-year investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election and believe a confidential report could be issued in coming days, according to people familiar with the discussions. the special counsel's office agreed to delay the beginning of michael cohen's prison sentence so t

elijah cummings wants to look into that further along with other people named throughout the hearing, to reach out to them -- question them or even bring them into a hearing. that could potentially include some of the president's family members, who could be contacted by this committee. >> following the transcript if there were names that were mentioned or records that were mentioned during the hearing, we'll figure out who we want to talk to and then bring them in. we got a lot of information that i think will be -- we may not look into it, our committee, but one of the five of the committees will. >> so that could potentially include donald trump jr. whose name was on one of those checks as well as potentially ivanka trump, her knowledge of the trump tower moscow project. we'll see how they decide to pursue that. alan weisselberg, cfo of the trump organization. cohen alleged yesterday that he had significant involvement in those hush money payments. this is the not over any time soon. he says there could be five or six committees in the house side, investigating all of the investiga