. >>> joining me now, cnn political commentator, errol lewis. and cnn presidential historian tim naftali. good morning. errol, let me start with you. the polls show there is no measurable consequence for the alleged affair with stormy daniels for the president. are there any indications that there will be consequences with the american people, there are consequences for just flat-out lying to them about knowing about the payments? -- >> i'm not even sure there will be consequences politically speaking. the people who support the president have factored in the strange and untruthful statements that often come from the oval office. i think this might be the tip of the iceberg. that's the -- suggests to me that some of the actions we're seeing from the white house about an affair that allegedly happened in 2006, a onetime encounter, it's out of proportion. if you start to piece together some of the other things that have been reported about possibly there are others who are out there, that there was enough ndas, nondisclosure agreements, floating ar

errol lewis joining us with the latest on rudy giuliani. >>> if you are innocent, why are you takinghe fifth amendment? >> are you confident of the fifth? >> how can i not be confident of that? >> that is one headline from the head-spinning interview with president trump's newest attorney rudy giuliani. >>> and the president's nominee to lead the cia is offering to step aside. why gina haspel decided to fight on for now. >>> and dozens of homes destroyed and concerns of toxic gas as the kilauea volcano remains a threat in hawaii. good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. it is monday, may 7th. 5:00 in the east. 11:00 p.m. in hawaii. we check in there shortly. we start with another eruption. rudy giuliani generating startling new headlines in the defense of president trump. among them the new member of the trump legal team did not rule out the president taking the fifth invoking self incrimination as the special counsel investigates the russia issues and as that rolls on. >> are you confident the president will not take the fifth in this case? >

errol lewis that a new op ed.ng. >> you have been reporting on new york politics for decades. were there ever any even wheu per about this violent side. >> apparently there were. i did not hear any of though wheu percent. i talked to those who were part of the albany scene. there were stories over the years. nothing nearly ashoking a what was reported. but he was known to go outside the lineses in some of his personal relationship, according to some women. >> now what that been alleged is so appalling. it feel like this is just the beginning. it feel like there is a lot more to uncover. governor cuomo is asking for a special prosecutor so the manhattan district attorney doesn't have to, what, investigate his old bo? >> not his old bo so much. they already had a conflict that was going on. when the harvey weinstein scandal broke, there were allegation that the manhattan district attorney was not nearly a tough on earlier sort of allegation about harvey weinstein as it should have been. and schneiderman was directed

i asked our political analyst, errol lewis, this at the top of the last hour. from your legal perspective, does it matter whether this would have been made, whether he was running for office or not? >> of course it matters. it matters to the extent that in you're doing it, does it aid you in the campaign in any way? in that case, it could be. you could draw the dots and make the nexus between an illegal campaign contribution which would become problematic. what i find fascinating, as much the president said rudy came on yesterday, what does he know -- as lawyers, at a minimum, we spin facts. that's our job. we're advocates. that's our job. at a minimum, you know what the facts are. i find it incredulous that now he's -- the lawyer's putting out a statement to clarify what the lawyer said. now to be clear, what a lawyer says is not evidence. it's what the client says is evidence. but we already know the client denied it, but then the client didn't deny it, so which is it? and briefly, this is troubling to me in the broader sense. what are we facing now? we're fa

. >> joining us is political commentator errol lewis. >> good morning. >> i hope you enjoyed rudy giuliani with george stephanopoulos. it is clear they are going to the mattresses. they don't plan to sit down for an intervieinterview. what is the consequences? >> the idea he could not respond to the subpoena is a non starter. you have to respond. if you are going to come in and say i invoke my fifth amendment privilege, you could do that. politically, this would be devastating. this white house has tried to push the boundaries of what is acceptable. we keep talking about this is not normal or never been done before. rudy giuliani is trying to warm us up for one more big step into unprecedented land. the notion of the president invoking the fifth and saying it would incriminate me, legally, he could do it. where would that leave us? unknown. >> why is it devastatindevastat? his 40% is not going anywhere. what would it change? >> look, first of all, we don't know what the base will or will not swallow. at some point the president likes to say i could shoot people on fifth avenue and my peopl

. >>> joining us now, cnn political commentator, errol lewis and bianna golodryga. let's start with john mccain. his wife has to go on twitter and say he's a father, a grandfather and served this country his entire life. the white house is trying to back pedal this and trying to say this is a joke. it's not a joke. it could never be a joke. why isn't the white house apologizing? >> that's right, if it was a joke, you could simply apologize. it was a joke in poor taste and we're sorry. the reality is this is where some of the chickens come home to roost, something we've seen since the campaign. the crudeness of the president, the cruelty of the president verbally and otherwise, where he has mocked the disabled, he has mocked senator mccain. specifically marked his heroism. to do that over and over and over again really sets the tone from the top. on what grounds could you now chastise a staff member for doing what the president has done over and over and over again for years. >> leadership really does take the tone here and you see the president doing this repeatedly