back now gloria borger, john dean, and jeffrey toobin. jeff, reporting from "the new york times" that mueller is looking at the president's tweets, how big a deal is that? >> well, it's a very big deal because the issue with any sort of white collar crime is criminal intent, was there criminal intent? how do you determine if there was criminal intent? the words of the defendant. now, what's so bizarre is that in watergate we had to wait until the white house tapes corroborated what john dean said what went on in the oval office. but here you have the president himself essentially confessing to obstruction of justice. and that, so the fact they're looking at this is simply what responsible prosecutors would do. >> john, never before in the history of the presidency have we had a realtime look into the what the president's thinking is. >> that's exactly right. the tweets are a very unique source. i happen to take a look after the announcement about looking at the tweets came out at the bill of impeachment. and i noticed that article 1, the

with me gloria borger, aaron david miller and jeffrey lewis. gloria, to you first. after as we just rolled through it, the week that was, how does sarah huckabee sanders explain this? to do you think this all caps iran tweet is supposed to be a distraction? >> well, you never know with donald trump. he's very good at doing that. i personally believe that the truest donald trump you ever get is the one on twitter. because it's his thumbs doing the typing, and in this case all caps, and we know that donald trump doesn't like to be threatened, and he felt threatened by rouhani who said any conflict between iran and the united states would be the mother of all wars. so the president sprung into action. but, you know, he's springing into action everywhere against mueller, against iran. but not against russia, except when his back is to the wall, and he had to read that hostage video. appeared in the hostage video last week when he had to read that statement about the difference between would and wouldn't. and so i think what you're seeing here is kind of unvarnished stre

jeffrey toobin, author and investigative reporter carl bernstein, and our chief political analyst gloria borger. gloria, if he currently does have confidence in intelligence agencies as he currently said, but he doesn't believe that russia is continuing to attempt to meddle, to have a cyberattack, get involved in our upcoming elections in the next presidential election, if he doesn't really believe that, then he doesn't have confidence in what the intelligence agencies and the heads of his intelligence -- of his heads of intelligence agencies are saying because they are saying this is ongoing. >> right. and he can't say that putin's a liar either. he wilts. here is this strong guy, supposedly, this tough guy on russia, supposedly, telling us how tough he's been on russia, and he completely wilts on this. he has no outrage. i mean, you would expect, anderson, the president of the united states knowing and believing his intelligence agencies, never mind looking at the intelligence himself, which it seems clear he really hasn't done, but you would expect the president to be outraged and strong and

gloria borger, julie hirschfeld davis, thanks.ing up next, one of the senators who questioned the secretary of state today as they tried to do what we've been trying to do for more than week now, get answers about what actually happened behind closed doors at the helsinki summit. nasty nighttime heartburn? try new alka-seltzer pm gummies. the only fast, powerful heartburn relief plus melatonin so you can fall asleep quickly. ♪ oh, what a relief it is! this school year, get a new iphone from t-mobile and keep your whole family connected. or keep tabs on them. he skipped orientation for the beach? he takes after me. join t-mobile, buy an iphone 8, get an iphone 8 on us. whoooo. you rely on tripadvisor so you don't miss out on the perfect hotel... but did you know you can also use tripadvisor so you don't miss out on the best price? tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites to find the hotel you want for the lowest price. saving you up to 30%! so you can spend less time missing out... and more time paddling out! tripadvisor. visit

our country, very, very bad for our country. >> back now with jeff toobin, carl bernstein and gloria borger. >> good lord, what a pathetic interview. i'm sorry. he didn't -- you know, i would expect that from fox news. but the fact that jeff glor sat there and let him say all that stuff without following up, without saying why didn't you raise that with putin? i just thought that was such a missed opportunity. >> well, there are questions about collusion that ought to be raised. and, in fact, why won't this president of the united states allow the special prosecutor, mr. mueller, to come forth with his report and tell us whether there has been collusion or not? we have prima facie evidence of an attempted collusion with his son in the room in trump tower. >> right. >> it is unambiguous. they were open to collusion that were inviting collusion. so to listen to the president of the united states say there was no collusion, there was no collusion, let's let the facts come in, mr. president. that is what he is unwilling to do, and that is why his friends who are closest to him, why people in th

also bringing in gloria borger and alley koenig. gloria, let me pick up on that point. gloria, hearing from guiliani, saying no legal issue with the tape. they looked at the transcript, essentially saying not damning. it sounds like you have a source who says otherwise. >> who says that it is. rudy guiliani is making the case that this is exculpatory. i have spoken to one source with knowledge of the tape who says that the conversation between trump and michael cohen is not as rudy guiliani described and the source went on to say that in fact the tape is not going to be good for donald trump but the source refused to elaborate. so brooke, here wave te have the of the tape. you have rudy guiliani saying this clears my client, and another source with knowledge of the tape saying not so fast, it doesn't clear your client. there is a tape somewhere, there is a transcript somewhere, somebody is going to have to make that judgment. >> you and i were just chatting, you were saying you worked mob cases and in this case, talking about the parallels, you always wanted access to t

>> reporter: sourcing telling my colleague gloria borger saying the truth is not a friend of rudy giuliani or of president trump. they're trying to make it clear that cohen is not going to be the president's punching bag. he's no longer willing to take a bullet for the president. and if he is forthcoming about what happened, for instance in the trump tower meeting it could cause some headaches. now, as you pointed out, rudy giuliani said put everything on the table. here's what he told cnn over the weekend. >> there's no evidence of wrongdoing with president trump. so we're very comfortable. if he believes it's in his best interest to cooperate, god bless him. he should cooperate. i think he'll tell the truth as best he can give his recollection and if he does that, we will be home free. >> reporter: you might be seeing a game of chicken with michael cohen and rudy giuliani. one thing important to note, we don't know what michael cohen knows and if prosecutors would even be willing to offer him a deal. wolf? >> did giuliani seem to confirm that donald trump, the president, asked the fbi di

and gloria borger, when you first saw this -- >> i did a double take.sn't quite sure what it was. i am trying to figure out whose eyes it is. looks like putin's. it is insulting to donald trump. he doesn't like it. he is being made fun of, which is the thing he hates most in the world, and he understands that in terms of sort of handing over ambassador mcfall for interrogation by the russians, people on capitol hill were laughing at him. laughing at him if it weren't so serious. and you know this whole notion that donald trump is a president who deals from strength, he's the great negotiator. the second sentence in his statement today is hopefully president putin will have the 12 identified russians come to the united states. hopefully? hopefully? is he sort of making a wish? i think you'd expect stronger language from a president whose election had been hacked and it is continuing, and i think that, you know, the cover is just one more example of showing that donald trump really got outwi d outwitted by vladimir putin in a big way. he just wasn't up to

here's gloria borger. >> reporter: from the election itself -- >> in many places like california, the probably heard about that. they always like to say, oh, that's a conspiracy theory, not a conspiracy theory, millions and millions of people. >> reporter: to the inauguration. >> we had a massive field of people. you saw that. it went all the way back to the washington monument. >> reporter: to statements like this. >> what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening. >> reporter: donald trump has had a fraught relationship with the truth, one that goes back decades, to the building and selling of trump tower, where barbara rez managed the construction. >> he pointed that princess di was looking for a trump tower in trump town. >> reporter: that didn't happen? >> no. but it made the papers. >> reporter: veracity wasn't a part of it, getting the buzz out there? >> yes. >> reporter: about trump? did you guys laugh about it? >> yeah. nothing so terrible about it. like puffing, like exaggerating. >> reporter: tony schwartz, co-author of trump's "art of the deal" has a na

here is cnn's chief igt political analyst gloria borger. >> from the election itself. >> in many placesvotes many times. you probably heard about that. they always like to say that's a conspiracy theory. not a conspiracy theory. millions and millions of people. >> to the inauguration. >> we had a massive field of people you saw that. it went all the way back to the washington monument. >> to statements like this. >> what you are seeing and what you are read something not what's happening. >> donald trump has had a fraught relationship with the truth one going back decades. to the building and selling of trump tower where barbara rez manage the construction. >> he planted the that priness di was looking for an apartment in trump tower. >> that didn't happen. >> no. >> but it made the papers. >> sure. so veracity wasn't a part of it it was just getting the buzz out there. >> yes yb yes. >> did you guys laugh about it. there was nothing so terrible about it. it was kind of like puffing, exaggerating. >> tony schwartz co-author of trump's art of the deal has a name for this. >> i came one t

gloria borger, i take it you heard from michael cohen's lawyer. what is he saying? >> i spoke with lanny davis who gave me a statement. obviously, he said, there is an ongoing investigation and we are sensitive to that. but suffice it to say that when the recording that's been widely reported is heard it won't hurt mr. cohen and any attempt to spin cannot change what is on the table. and, you know, reading between the lines there, rudy giuliani is the person wheno's been talkg today so you have to assume it refers to rudy giuliani saying that this conversation is exculpatory for the president and is good news for him. i spoke with another source with knowledge of the tape earlier who said that the conversation between trump and cohen is not as rudy giuliani described and that it's not good for trump so, wolf, here you have the tale of the tape. you have two sides. at some point we may see a transcript or hear the audio tape and you can judge. the context of it. and everything else. but at this point, we have two sides of the story here. >> knowing there is a tape in

cnn's chief political analyst gloria borger and tony schwartz, the coauthor of "the art of the deal" are both here to talk about that. but first gloria takes a long look at trump's history of lies. >> reporter: from the election itself. >> in many places like california, the same person votes many times. you probably heard about that. they like to say, oh, that's a conspiracy theory. not a conspiracy, folks. millions and millions of people. >> reporter: to the inauguration. >> we had a massive field of people, it went all the way back to the washington monument. >> reporter: to statements like this. >> what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening. >> reporter: donald trump has had a fraught relationship with the truth. one that goes back decades. to the building and selling of trump tower where barbara res managed the construction. >> he planted that i was looking for an apartment in trump tower. >> and that didn't happen? >> no. but it made the papers. >> sure. so voracity wasn't a part of it. it was just getting the buzz out there about trump? >> yes. >> did yo

>> reporter: sources that spoke to gloria borger and dana bash say he is sending a message to president trump and rudy guiliani saying that he is no longer the man willing to take a bullet for the president. remember, that previously michael cohen had said that about the president. guiliani made the rounds on television this past weekend in which he addressed what would happen if michael cohen flipped on the president. here's what he had to say. >> there's no evidence of wrongdoing with president trump. so we're very comfortable. if he believes that's in his best interest to cooperate, god bless him. he should cooperate. i think he'll tell the truth as best he can given his recollection. if he does that, we're home free. >> you hear guiliani saying michael cohen should tell the truth. the response we hear from sources close to cohen that truth is not necessarily the president's friend in this case. >> what are you hearing about the new demands that trump legal team is putting forward if mueller decides he wants to sit down, wants to interview the president. >> right. there seems to be a

our chief political analyst, gloria borger and shimon prokupecz. good evening. i'm asking if the president of the united states will defend the american democracy. what strange times. shimon, you first. break down what the indictments of the 12 russians military officers lay out because of the mountain of evidence. it is extraordinary. >> it certainly is. there is quite a lot of evidence in this indictment and the people that this indictment has targeted are not just some folks in russia. these are senior level military intelligence officials. you have a commander, a major, a lieutenant colonel, sort of running this hacking operation on behalf of the russian government and the indictment lists how they went about it. the hacking of the dnc and the dccc and then the spear phishing of people attached to the hillary clinton campaign and the chairman john podesta and then the indictment talks about how they went about distributing some of the e-mails that they were able to obtain, the information that they were able to obtain, creating two personas, guccifer 2.0 and

gloria borger and john dean and jeffrey toobin. jeff, everybody kind of knows michael cohen. this guy, weisselberg has been there longer and involved in a lot more aspects of the trump organization than michael cohen does. >> absolutely. he goes back to donald trump's father, how longs he's been with the company. if you were talking about financial crimes, the chief financial officer, which is what he was, is not only the person whose testimony you want but you want to get the records he has access to. white collar cases are almost always made not just on testimony but on financial records. he's the one who will know where all the financial records are. those are the records they will subpoena and that is the key to any case if there is one. >> gloria, as jeff said, he's been working for the organization decades and knows more than anyone outside the president's own kids and probably more than the president's own kids. >> i think he does. he has the trust of donald trump. when donald trump became president, he left the trump organization -- weisselberg was in charge, along wi

here to share their reporting and insights, margaret tolov with bloomberg, gloria borger, and manu raju. gloria, now that they have fully communicated in, you know, back and forth, they meaning michael cohen and the president through the media, through us, basically, salvos, break this down. what do you think this really means? what is michael cohen from your perspective and based on your sources trying to do here? >> what my sources are saying is what they are trying to do is respond to a message that they think they are getting from rudy giuliani and the president of the united states, which is that if he differs with them on his stories, on his recollections, i heard rudy giuliani there say, you know, his recollections, whatever he can remember, right, his recollections, that they will continue their attacks on his character. and they will continue to say he is lying. what we don't know, of course, is what he knows. >> right. >> because when you try and get details about exactly what he knows, he referred to his attorney and his attorney is, of course -- >> is there anything to flip

information, i also want to bring in cnn legal analyst, dana bash and our chief political analyst gloria borger. you guys are getting more information. let me start with you about this conversation, and i know you also had a chance to speak to the president's lawyer, rudy giuliani. >> the first is that the president had no idea, that liz long time lawyer and fixer was recording him, and that when the president found out about it, which i'm told was this week, his response was, i can't believe michael would do this to me. so as you can imagine, as somebody who felt that he had the most loyal of aids in michael cohen, and attorneys of michael cohen had this recording that the fbi as maggie was saying seized in a raid earlier this year. the second thing is that because this -- the information that was seized, any information that was relevant to donald trump has been shared with donald trump's attorneys on this case. they believe that there are other recordings of michael cohen and donald trump, but as far as they know when they have seen the transcripts, this is the only one of substance, that th

our chief political analyst, gloria borger and shimon prokupecz. good evening. i'm asking if the president of the united states will defend the american democracy. what strange times. shimon, you first. break down what the indictments of the 12 russians military officers lay out because of the mountain of evidence. it is extraordinary. >> it certainly is. there is quite a lot of evidence in this indictment and the people that this indictment has targeted are not just some folks in russia. these are senior level military intelligence officials. you have a commander, a major, a lieutenant colonel, sort of running this hacking operation on behalf of the russian government and the indictment lists how they went about it. the hacking of the dnc and the dccc and then the spear phishing of people attached to the hillary clinton campaign and the chairman john podesta and then the indictment talks about how they went about distributing some of the e-mails that they were able to obtain, the information that they were able to obtain, creating two personas, guccifer 2.0 and

gloria borger is with me, the senior chief political analyst, i was talking to jeff zeleny last hour.hy what he said that the news seeped out by design. >> absolutely. spread like wildfire. by the white house, by the white house, when they want the word out, they want the word out. and it is clear that john kelly has gotten a lot of publicity either, a, he's leaving, or b, nobody listens to him anymore. and you can't function that way. and i think there was probably a conversation in which he said, i can't function this way, let me know. of course, the president said, i want you to stay. it doesn't mean kelly's going to stay. but it means at least he gets his sort of mojo back a little bit. and his authority back a little bit. and when and if he decides to leave, he can do it on his own terms. >> so that's john kelly. let's go to the president's latest tweet. this is what he says, i don't care what the political ramifications are. our immigration laws and border security have been a complete and total disaster for decades. and there is no way that the democrats will allow it to be fix

chief political analyst gloria borger joins us now along with steve hall. is this a well planned out and thought out idea? two of the people at the white house were looking to revoke his security clearance to don't even have a security clearance, mccabe and comey. but does this seem thought out the you? >> no. what does seem thought out lately. >> that's true. >> these days. no, not at all. i mean, it seems to me that the president had a meeting with senator rand paul earlier today who suggested that, you know, he didn't like what brennan had been saying about the president and that he ought to have his security clearance revoked. is so they had a conversation, and then after that, at some point, i guess the president decided that would be a really good idea and decided to add other people to a so-called public enemies list. at least nixon's was private. this is out there, of his critics, and added this. and then sarah sanders gets a question. she is completely prepared for it, by the way, a list of people, and i think this is something the president just d

even if it is not true. >> reporter: gloria borger, cnn, washington. >> and that is "cnn newsroom."tching. i'm natalie allen. >> i'm george howell. for viewers in the united states, "new day" is next. for news around the world, erin burnett out front is ahead. >> see you later. ♪ oh, look... another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® works in just one week. with the fastest retinol formula available. it's clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles. one week? that definitely works! rapid wrinkle repair®. and for dark spots, rapid tone repair. neutrogena®. see what's possible. your hair is so soft! did you use head and shoulders two in one? i did mom. wanna try it? yes. it intensely moisturizes your hair and scalp and keeps you flake free. manolo? look at my soft hair. i should be in the shot now too. try head and shoulders two in one. more important than your brain? your mind is an incredible machine, but as you get older, it begins to slow down. blood flow declines, neurons misfire, and your brain even shrinks. you may

gloria borger, the last time there was one of these two on twos it was in helsinki. i was there. some of our friend were there. and the president of the united states was asked two tough questions from two american journalists as you will remember. >> i do. we will have to see who he calls on today. i'm sure the president has that memory as well. it didn't go so well for him. we will have to see. there you are. >> there they come. the president will speak first. >> i'm honored to welcome my new friend. we got along very well right from the beginning, prime minister gee seppi conte to the white house. mr. prime minister, i want the begin by congratulating you once again on your tremendous victory in italy. it was something that all the world was watching. and it excited the people all across italy. and i can tell you, all across the united states as well. congratulations. in your election, the italian nation has reaffirmed the great traditions of sovereignty, law, and accountability that stretch all the way back to ancient rome. this proud heritage sustains our civilization and mu

i want to go to gloria borger and dana bash. gloria, if we're looking at profiles in courage in congress standing up, we might want to get a magnifying glass out here. >> it's only the people who are leaving who are able to call this disgraceful and shameful, as jeff flake did, because just in trying to take all of this in this morning, and there's so much. i was sitting back and thinking am i watching an american president appease vladimir putin, who admitted that he did want donald trump to win, even though as jeff points out trump said during the campaign, no, no, no, no, no, putin would really want hillary clinton to win, not me. he admits he wanted donald trump to win. he calls the american justice system and the charges against his intelligence officials utter nonsense. utter nonsense. and the president just sits back and starts talking about the democrats and hillary clinton. and i think this is a moment for people to decide not only members of congress, particularly in the republican party, but also for people inside the

carl bernstein, gloria borger as well. up next tom friedman joins us. he's had tough words recently for the words of vladimir putin and the russian threat. does he buy today's presidential, quote/unquote clarification. >>> find out when we return. >>> her gun advocacy and the campaign appearance she made and the question for candidate trump that is raising eyebrows. i can do more to lower my a1c. and i can do it with what's already within me. because my body can still make its own insulin. and once-weekly trulicity activates my body to release it. trulicity is not insulin. it comes in a once-weekly, truly easy-to-use pen. it works 24/7. trulicity is an injection to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. don't use it as the first medicine to treat diabetes or if you have type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't take trulicity if you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, you're allergic to trulicity, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. stop trulicity and call your doctor right

for their take on all this, cnn senior political analyst david gergen and cnn political analyst gloria borgerd, for the president of the united states to tell people to stop believing what they see or what they read, it's what dictators, it's what authoritarian rulers say. it's kind of unbelievable in the truest sense of the word. it reminds me of there was a quote from orwell in "1984." he said the party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. it was their final most sensible -- essential command. it really sounds a lot like what the president is saying. >> i'm afraid you're right, anderson. a healthy democracy depends heavily upon a robust debate with different points of view being freely expressed. that's the whole essence of the first amendment. and the president for a while now, but more relentlessly is trying to suppress the voices of democracy, suppress the voices of the press, denigrate the press. you can't believe what you hear or see, only believe me. listen to us, stick with us. this from a president who routinely lies, five, six, seven times a day according to vario

carl bernstein, gloria borger as well. up next tom friedman joins us. he's had tough words recently for the words of vladimir putin and the russian threat. does he buy today's presidential, quote/unquote clarification. >>> find out when we return. >>> her gun advocacy and the campaign appearance she made and the question for candidate trump that is raising eyebrows. yeah! yeah! we hide hotel names, so you can find four star hotels at two star prices. h-o-t-w-i-r-e sfx: [cell phone dialing] at two sno. prices. no, no, no, no, no. cancel. cancel. please. aaagh! being in the know is a good thing. that's why discover will alert you if your social security number is found on any one of thousands of risky sites. -i think it'll look really good without the stripes. behr marquee presents: it's got potential. margo and sam had a vision, brought to life in one coat. whatever your home may hand you, behr through it, in one coat. behr marquee, #1 rated interior paint. guaranteed in 1,000 plus colors. find it exclusively at the home depot. almost 250 years ago, two

and gloria borger, i'll play the clip, this is sarah sanders, white house press secretary, making theement. >> not only is the president looking to take away brennan's security clearance, he's also looking into the clearances of comey, clapper, haden, rice and mccabe. the president is exploring the mechanisms to remove security clearance, because they have politicized and in some cases monetized their public service and security clearances. >> it's clearly the president has the authority, he can remove someone's security scleerclearaf he wants. but why is this threat so troubling? >> look, these are people who are critics of the president. they're also public servants who have been public servants for decades in many cases. who have served under democrats and served under republicans. president doesn't like them, because they have been critical. some of them were served for obama, so that's another -- that's another strike against them. it also makes the president's case not only about the obama administration being out to get him, but also about, you know, the deep state that exists

cnn global affairs analyst kimber kimberly dosher, nia malika henderson, and gloria borger. gloria, we've sat together countless times after shocking moments. i think it's fair to say this moment was different in that the president has taken shots at a whole host of american institutions before, but to stand next to the man who orchestrated this attack on the election and say the same thing, that is substantively different. the question is will the reaction be different? >> well, it remains to be seen. we've heard the words. we've heard the democrats call for stronger sanctions, for testimony from the national security officials. i think they want some kind of transcripts or notes from the translator. they would like to see what was there. you have marco rubio and dick durbin calling for more sanctions, democrats saying we've got to protect mueller, we've got to do that, figure out ways to do that. but the democrats are ham strung. they don't control the congress. republican leader mitch mcconnell, while coming out and saying, yeah, the russians are not our friend -- >> throu

recent inspector report raised questions of select bias, sources them our colleagues, dana bash and gloria borger that trump's attorneys now fear that trump's demptial treatment of putin and the indictment of 12 russian intelligence officers accused of conducting cyber attacks on americans in order to interfere with the process could start to blupt the momentum that they had created through their campaign of relentless attacks on muel r mueller. obviously this comes on president trump and his attorneys negotiating over the prospect of going an interview. it is not a good time for the white house to have a weakened hasn't in the court of public penalties as well as facing down this putin meeting as trump's attorneys try to avoid an interview altogether or severely limit the scope of one, if it occurs. >> sarah westwood, traveling with the president. thank you. walk bureau chief, chicago "sun" times is with us. and cnn historian and professor of history and policy at new york university and a cnn legal analyst and federal prosecutor with us. thank you all. lip, straight to you. does what we are see

. >> let's bring in chief political correspondent dana bash and gloria borger. oria, what's cohen's strategy going forward right now with his decision to go ahead and release this audiotape? >> this is kind of shakespearean. this whole thing. there was nobody more loyal to donald trump for years and years and years than michael cohen. any one of us who has spoken to michael cohen know he was the president's greatest defender during the campaign, both privately and on television. now i think they are at a bit of a crossroads where michael cohen, and this started shortly after july 4th, right around when he hired lanny daufrks when he decided, look, i've got to go my own way and declared his independence. we see this progressing to lanny davis releasing this tape. i think the strategy is to establish a distance between yourself and the president to perhaps let prosecutors know you have a lot of information that perhaps you are willing to share, and lanny davis portrays it as a sea change that cohen has decided to be a different person. we really don't know what's i

let me bring in gloria borger, our chief political analyst and glen keshner to go through all of this. gloria, you have been working sources who are tell iing you hs seconding a signal to donald trump. what is that? >> the signal to donald trump is the truth is not you orr your clients friend. i think what michael cohen is trying to say through his emissaries and sources is, in fact, that they believe they are kind of being bullied by rudy giuliani. they believe that rudy giuliani and the president are trying to send him a message. that message would be if cohen were to cross them, then they will continue their attacks on him and on his character and they believe that they want cohen to mimic what the president wants him to say. the clear message is i was told that cohen will not be. a punching bag for anyone's defense strategy. >> taking all that in, let me go to you for a second. what's your read on cohen's state of mind in this whole signal the truth is thot you or your client's friend. >> based on my 30 years of experience as a prosecutor, i tend to agree with everything gloria ju

gloria borger is with me, national political reporter m.j. lee, and legal analyst, a former federal prosecutor. so, m.j., straight to you on your reporting. tell me more about weisselberg and why he's a key piece. >> remember that weisselberg has been with the trump organization and working for donald trump for many, many years. so a part of it is sort of the length of time that he has worked for donald trump is so long. and in his position at the trump organization he knew anything and everything. this is what a former trump organization employee told me. this former trump organization employee says allen knows where all of the financial bodies are buried. allen knows every deal, every dealership, every sale, anything and everything that's been done. anything you can think of this person says that goes to show and i want to make clear when this person is referring to financial bodies, if there are financial bodies to be buried this is the person that would know and the fact that he has been subpoenaed i think is important to note that we don

analysis from our legal analyst, rachel coates and laura bates and our chief political analyst gloria borger. all of a sudden rudy giuliani is saying he doesn't know if collusion is a crime. >> that's moving the goalposts a little bit. what he's saying is if it were collusion trump would have had to pay for the hacking for russia's hacking the american election and he said hacking is a crime and then he went on to say and disparage michael cohen. they are punching back. i know he's quoting shakespeare here and how it has dissolved. it's up to bob mueller to figure out who's telling the truth here and what occurred and what did not occur and what cohn knows and what he doesn't know. and laura you can talk about this. >> if he says collusion is not necessarily a crime, rudy giuliani. alan desh wits hr show wits sayt a crime. >> let's put it to bed. when it's used here in terms of an umbrella showing there is two coordinated people showing there is a conspiracy, it could be a whole host of things. to have rudy giuliani focus on the underlying substance, if you tell everyone, no, no, no, he didn

according to report i by gloria borger and evan perez, the president has waived privilege. trump's lawyers have sent a letter asking to withdraw the privilege. from the perspective of prosecutors, perhaps the biggest questions is whether any payments were made to protect the family than affect the electi election. the last time the president's voice was heard on an embarrassing tape, the subject matter was more carnal. in that case, he emerged unscathed. while the person who whom he was speaking lost his job. whether this ends the same way? join will the contents of michael cohen's recordings hurt or help? i'll give you the results at the end of this hour, joining me now a trial lawyer, named by the national law journal as a top ten litigators in pennsylvania. he teaches at hastings, stanford, berkeley and the penn law schools. full disclosure, i'm affiliated with his firm of klein and spector. i need to show you a remarkable tweet from president trump from earlier this morning. put it on the screen inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer's office early

gloria borger is our chief political analyst with us now.ow that ivanka president trump has come under repeated criticism for her company, the appearance wthat she has benefitted from being in the white house. why is she dropping her business now? >> it seems to me that first of all, as you point out, the business has been a lightning rod. it's privately held. we're not sure how profitable it has been since she has been in washington. all kinds of ethics issues have been raised. and if as ivanka trump says if her statement, she really is not sure if she wants to go back into that world, then why have the business? and why not shut it down if, in fact, she wants to continue to pursue public policy, as she says. i think that's kind of an interesting part of her statement. don't you? >> i agree. and that's what i wanted to also follow up with you. we've talked through the months about potential aspirations that she may have. maybe the bug has bit in terms of being in washington and being all around government. when she wants to pursue her caree

gloria borger, let me play this clip, the president had this exchange earlier and they were talking aboute deep state accusations some of the president's supporters have made about the u.s. intelligence community. >> do you think any u.s. intelligence agencies are out to get you? >> certainly in the past it's been terrible. you look at brennan, you look at clapper, you look at hayden, you look at comey, you look at mccabe, you look at strzok, his lover, lisa page, you look at others in the fbi that have been fired that are no longer there. certainly i can't have any confidence in the past, but i can have a lot of confidence in the present and the future. because it's getting to be that we're putting our people in. but in the past, i have no confidence in a guy like brennan, i think he's a total low life. i have no confidence in clapper. you know clapper wrote me a beautiful letter when i went into office and all of a sudden he's went hay wooi because they got to him and got him to say things he probably doesn't even mean. i certainly have no confidence in past people. you take a look at a

now i will say that gloria borger has been talking to sources familiar with michael cohen's thinking. she was told that he believes that it's actually giuliani and the president who are trying to send the messages to him. trying to send messages, okay, you know the line here. let's tow the line and everything is going to be fine. that's his perspective how he reads it. and but at the same time, he's trying to send his own messages, which came first, ween don't know. the key question here that we don't know the answer to is aside from all of this back and torte and the frame of this relationship does michael cohen know what he's saying about donald trump that et he could flip with. giuliani insists the answer to that is no. the cohen team is being coy. >> that is the question. dana, thank you. more news out of your interview. let me get to that in the sunday media blitz. he also quoted out major contradictions. giuliani confirming an essential piece for obstruction of justice whether he asked to drop the investigation into former white house national security adviser michael the flynn.

joining me now, gloria borger who has new reporting from multiple sources, gloria, that the message isetty clear here from michael cohen to giuliani and the president and that is, quote, the truth is not your client's friend. what can you tell us? >> reporter: i think what they're doing is they're hitting the reset button, as i was told, and this looks like it's war here, pretty much, between rudy giuliani, his client, donald trump, and michael cohen, you know, for the past year, cohen has denied vehemently participating in or knowing about anything about collusion with russia. and so these new comments from sources close to cohen suggest that he's dangling some information about president trump and others in the president's orbit that he might want to share with investigators. now, we don't know any details yet. we also know that his attorney, guy patrillo, is not necessarily meeting with prosecutors at this point. my sources have referred any inquiries about the case to patrillo, who is not commenting. so it is possible they're trying to say to the prosecutors, hey, maybe we have som

i want to bring in cnn's gloria borger who i worked with this reporting on. loria, let's start with the things that we're hearing, concerns inside the president's legal team that it could make the president and i say it, the helsinki summit and that performance, seem less sympathetic and conceivably embolden mueller. >> right. the lawyers were feeling that they had the wind at the back, dana. you know this. they looked at that attorney general report that panned the fbi, they looked at public opinion that was heading in their direction and against the special counsel mueller, so they were pretty good about where things were going. and then the president goes to helsinki and there's a question according to the sources that you talked to and that i talked to of whether it's an inflection point of some sort and that perhaps mueller now might be sort of sitting back. he just did his russian indictments a week ago today of 12 russians and could be sitting back waiting to see a little bit how it plays out before dealing with them specifically on any kind of an inter

rudy giuliani at least telling gloria borger and dana bash that the dpib has it. i think there are more, and you made the point earlier that i cannot believe michael would do this with me. >> as katelynn noted earlier, the angriest we have seen him, the most sort of out of control inside the white house is when michael cohen's office was raided and he, i think, he presented it at the time that this man was loyal to me and i'm outraged on his behalf, but i think we can all see in speaking to people around donald trump understood that part of the reason he was so angry was because he recognized what the implications could be for him. and now these prosecutors, the fbi had in their possession possibly all this damaging information. clearly it seems like there are other recordings a and it obviously raised the question in the president's mind, even if he doesn't flip, as i said earlier, what does michael cohen have that could further damage him and put him in legal jeopardy. >> it's a credibility crisis for the about, are there issues about the timing of the payments

let's bring in our chief political analyst gloria borger who's been doing a lot of reporting on this. what are you hearing from cohen lawyer lanny davis? >> here's what he says in a statement to us, wolf, obviously there is an ongoing investigation and we are sensitive to that. but suffice it to say that when the recording that has been widely reported is heard it will not hurt mr. cohen, and any attempt to spin cannot change what is on the tape. >> so where is this moving from now? you're getting a lot of indications from various sources on the trump side, on the michael cohen side. where is this heading? >> i think it's headed at some point, we're going to see what's on the tape or hear what's on the tape. there are privilege matters, et cetera. but what we have here is a tale of a tape with two sides. rudy giuliani saying it's exculpatory, it helps his client. and michael cohen's attorney making it clear this is not bad for michael coman, and then i spoke with another source today who said in fact it's not good for the president. so the president's attorneys have always indicated t

our gloria borger and dana bash reporting members of the president's legal time and allies growing increasingly uncomfortable about the role that the helsinki summit and the subsequent meeting planned for the fall could impact discussion was robert mueller and the special counsel's investigation into whether or not the trump campaign had any ties to russia during the election of 2016. they're worried because this in many ways has become a pr battle, not necessarily legal battle. and the trump team was very successful in discrediting mueller's team to a certain extent with the president's frequent tweets calling it a witch hunt and saying there was no there there and that the investigation should come to an end. the fact now that the president is cozying up to vladimir putin could complicate that narrative to a certain extent. and right now that's something his legal team doesn't want to have to deal with. that is another layer ever intrigue to this whole thing. why did the summit in helsinki happen in the first place? and why now is the president inviting vladimir putin to washington this fall.

gloria borger, let's listen to the president in his own words. >> just stick with us.on't believe the crap you see from these people. the fake news. just remember. what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening. >> what do you make of that kind of language by the president of the united states, especially before a v.f.w. convention? >> well, it is completely inappropriate but it's also completely expected from donald trump. i mean, this isn't the first time we heard him talk about the fake news. i think what was really interesting was this afternoon the manager of communications and public affairs for the v.f.w. put out a statement saying that we were disappointed to hear some of our members boo the press. we rely on the media to help spread the v.f.w.'s message and listed a number of networks including our own saying they're invited guests and we were happy to have them there so good for them for doing that. >> look. i mean, it is orwellian the idea saying don't believe what you see and hear. nothing to look at. the only truth is me. it's dangerous

. >> i want to turn to new reporting from dana bash and gloria borger at cnn.es are telling them that trump's legal team is worried that the president's poor performance at the summit with putin helsinki may actually benefit the special counsel here, may benefit robert mueller and his investigation. trump's lawyers say it is hard to actually make a case for they keep calling this a witch hunt when you have so many that were appalled, steve, at the summit behavior with putin. you were just saying that you believe perhaps now it is kompromat that the russians have on him because of the way he acted. >> i think trump is -- should be worried about this. i think mueller continues to look and it is not as exciting as the idea of tapes and stuff like that, it is the money, it is how he got his empire essentially, he being trump. i think mueller is taking a close forensic look at that. i think even if you look at open source reporting on this in the press, you see a whole series of very disturbing in my counter intelligence view connections between how trump managed to

sources tell dana bash and gloria borger that trump's team now fears the president's disastrous performance in helsinki as well as the indictment last week of 12 russian intelligence agents accused of conducting cyber attacks against americans during the election could stop trump's momentum and embolden the special counsel robert mueller. the shifting tide comes against the backdrop of negotiations between the white house and special counsel over the prospect of trump sitting down for interview. trump's lawyers sought to avoid interview all together or severely limit the scope of what investigators could ask of the president. clearly this is not an ideal point in the process for trump's legal team to have a weakened hand. >> we appreciate it. thank you. >>> this morning, russia is giving its version of the helsinki summit, calling president trump's date with vladimir putin better than super. the white house was quick to release information that president putin is visiting washington in the fall, it is not giving out any details about what happened in helsinki. sam kylie is live in moscow. h

gloria borger, i want you to listen and all of the viewers to listen first of all to some of the comments has made over the past couple of years or so about the russian leader vladimir putin. listen to this. >> donald trump is a friend to putin. well, actually, putin did call me a genius and he said i'm the future of the republican party. i think put season a strong leader for russia. put season the leader of russia. russia's a strong country. if he says great things about me, i say great things of him. very smart cookery. much smarter, much more cunning than our president. put season a nicer person than i am. putin's fine. he's fine. we're all fine. we're people. wouldn't it be nice if we got along, as an example, with russia? i'm all for it. >> putin's a killer. >> a lot of killers. got a lot of killers. you think our country's so innocent? >> do you think vladimir putin is a friend or a foe? >> i really can't say right now. as far as i'm concerned, a competitor. a competitor. >> from today calling him a competitor rather than a friend or foe. gloria, if the president doesn't see putin

is let's discuss this and more with our chief legal analyst jeffr jeffrey toobin and gloria borger. the addition of davis, who we all know going back to the bill clinton impeachment process, to his strong support for hillary clinton, that's really a significant message that cohen is sending. >> it is. and the message from my sources is i'm no longer going to be the punching back for anyone else's defense strategy. and that they are upset at what rudy giuliani has been saying. and that michael cohen believes that giuliani and the president are trying to send him a message. they think that message is that if he differs with them on his recollections, then they will continue their attacks on his character and will say he's lying. so he's decided, along with davis, who's his spokesman. i mean, he has an attorney. they have decided to hit the reset button, as they put it. >> guy, the new defense attorney for michael cohen, is a former criminal prosecutor in the southern district of new york. i think he was in charge of the criminal division. what does it say to you? >> it certainly seems

let's bring in former department of justice prosecutor joseph morino and our gloria borger. what do you think? >> it's really surprising since we have known through our reporting that the president's been calling around to people asking for potential replacements. it seems to me, and julie knows more about this than i do, that this is a story the white house wanted out there. maybe it's a way for kelly to rehabilitate himself because there are plenty of stories about how he wasn't really in charge, that jared and ivanka could walk into the president's office any time they wanted, and he had tried to put a stop to that. obviously the rob porter case was a problem for him. we all watched his face during helsinki. he didn't seem to be smiling a lot. so it seems to me they're putting this story out so that as long as kelly decides to stay, the message is i'm in charge here, the president likes me, and if and when i decide to leave, it will be my decision and nobody else's. now, maybe i'm being cynical about this. maybe he will stay through 2020. but that seems a little far fetch