and the joe arpaio one?f the blue. >> i don't think the president does anything about thinking it through. is it possible that the president is trying to send a message. >> there's a game being played between mueller and his team. and raiding cohen's office is part of that game. you take it on face value, there's a lot of news, let's report that it was raided. behind the scenes, these teams are having a chess game back and forth. the mueller team is trying to get him to set down. the president is saying don't cross the lines. we're going to force you to cooperate. and there's sort of messages being sent like a cold war sending messages to each other. and i see some of this being a part of the message. he should pardon jack jackson and look at a lot of other cases like his. >> to say that a game, that means that a judge -- you're not saying that there's not potential reason to do those raids. a judge signed off on it. >> i think a prosecutor also plays games. i think, of course, we don't know they're just fol

that was widely criticized by people like senator john mccain who said that sheriff joe arpaio wasn'te, had no humility about what he had done, didn't think anything he had done was wrong and these can be incredibly controversial and that's why people use them sparingly. it's an enormous broad power and each one sends a political message. so it's interesting, president trump we know likes to change the topic when there are contentious topics in the news that he doesn't like. but, if you look at the timing of this, it really is interesting and came out of nowhere. and i don't think that -- i still think if he ends up pardoning people under the mural spotlight and intangled in that probe he will use judiciously. he sends a signal and we know his lawyers and advisors have spoken about this over the past year. the potential of using pardons on those people and i think it reinforces that message that you -- i'm looking out for you. and you might in the end enjoy a pardon if you need one. >> dana: that's right. very interesting. a.b. stoddard, thank you. >> thanks, dana. >> dana: james come

president trump, the pardon of scooter libby, joe arpaio, was not in that process. it's problematic, it's politically troubling, but as a matter of presidential power, there's no doubt that the president has the authority to do it. >> i'm so glad jeffrey's finally, finally learning that the president really does have these enormous powers under the unitary executive, to pardon, to fire, to end an investigation. it doesn't make them right. i don't condone the president telling people to stop an investigation or go soft, but i would distinguish and jeffrey now distinguishes between what's right and what's unlawful. >> thank you for patronizing me so gently there, but i actually don't think it's the same thing with the power to fire the -- the director of the fbi. and actually negotiating a pardon may well be an impeachable 0 fentoffense. if you say to michael cohen, don't cooperate and i'll give you a pardon, that may well be an 'em pitchabimpeachable offen. >> i agree with you. that could be obstruction of justice. if you offer somebody a presidential pardon in excha

he's also using the presidential pardon in unusual ways, his first one to sheriff joe arpaio convictedf criminal contempt of a federal judge's court order not to detain illegal immigrants. senator john mccain showed it a front to the rule of law. now it is "scooter" libby's turn. the former dick cheney aide was convicted in 2007 of lying to the fbi and obstructing justice, sentenced to 30 months in prison but had his sentence commuted by george w. bush. in a statement the white house said mr. libby presented credible evidence in support of his innocence. the statement included a comment from the president as well. i don't know mr. libby but for years i have heard that he has been treated unfairly. hopefully this full pardon will help rectify a very sad portion of his life. why is this unbelievable? because of the message it sends and it is also subtle. it is okay to lie to the fbi, it is okay to obstruct justice. if you do, i will protect you. that's at least how valerie plame sees it. >> the message being sent is, you can comment perjury and i will pardon you if it protects me and i d

challenge president trump's pardon power, this is all over the president's pardoning of sheriff joe arpaioe you launch -- >> what else is new. [laughter] stuart: isn't it in the constitution that the president can pardon whom whoever he pleases for whatever he pleases? >> for a federal crime, yes. no one is questioning his ability to pardon, the question is does the pardon fully eradicate the conviction so that joe arpaio can say i have never been convicted of a crime and quite frankly there's split on it, some courts say the pardon just sets you free and doesn't let you be punished in any way, if you lost license to practice law, you get it back. some theory says, the pardon wipes out everything, you can answer under oath i was never convicted of a crime. that's what the court is trying to resolve. in this particular case admittedly, the people challenging the president hate the president and joe arpaio, they came into the criminal case and invalidate the pardon, she said i can't invalidate the pardon, the pardon has the power, joe arpaio said invalidate my conviction, she said i won't in

we know what president trump did for joe arpaio. i believe that president trump would be talking about pardoning mike flynn. paul manafort i don't think is as important to him personally. i only remembered this for a couple of days. and the ex pull hun -- the expur diplomats was more important. howie: he says no. mara: cable news has 24 hours worth of news to fill and they don't have 24 news to fill it with. the expulsion story was on the front page of the "new york times." it's all our allies doing the same thing. it raised questions that were duly covered whether president trump is getting tougher on vladimir putin. but it should be pointed out that it doesn't reduce the overall size of the russian mission. those 60 diplomats can be replaced with 6 other ones. howie: the president firing david shulkin by twitter. the story is this is chaos. everybody is getting fired. shulkin got himself in trouble with a lavish trip to europe and he accepted free wimbledon tickets. gayle: that should have been reported more. many of the stories d

about his pardon powers and he's been pardoning people quite recently, like scooter libby and even joe arpaioey. >> juan: yeah, and yesterday he was talking about he was going to pardon -- >> kimberly: i didn't say he was going to. i asked him to come along with sylvester stallone. >> juan: a lot of talk of pardons. therefore his ability to impact the mueller investigation. specifically a lot of interest in michael: and whether cohen is going to flip and provide evidence that could be damaging. >> greg: he should pardon anthony weiner as a thank you for helping him win the electio election. to jonathan carl's question, it wasn't designed for any answer. it was designed for a reaction. a question that wants an answer, what time is it. a question that wants a reaction, why are you a jerk? it wasn't asking a specific thing. very entertaining response. >> katie: in order to pardon someone, you have to be convicted of a crime or charged with a crime. >> juan: no. >> katie: essentially. he is not going to pardon someone before they been charge charged. >> juan: nixon was pardon. >> katie: that's fa

maricopa, seat of the anti-immigrant ex-sheriff and convicted criminal joe arpaio.re a lot of ryetirement communities in the district where the residents are odor and whiter than the rest of the population. the gop in this case backed a fairly generic candidate, former state legislator, no big skeletons looming in her closet. this was not in other words roy moore. her opponent had never run for office, she's an indian immigrant who ran on a pretty openly progressive platform and still and still national republicans had to spend $1 million to hold onto the seat while democrats didn't spend a dime. a five-point margin in the race does not bode well for gop lawmakers around the country especially districts donald trump lost or barely won in 2016. as dave wasserman put it, there are 147 gop held house sees less republican than the arizona eighth. it's time to rethink how many of those are truly safe in november. nevertheless, the president took a victory lap this morning tweeting congratulations to debbie lesko. debbie will do a great job. press is so silent. how the wh

. >> this president has already pardoned scooter libby and joe arpaio. is president trump sending a message with all this pardon talk? i want to get to our breaking news straight off. george h.w. bush in intensive care tonight. >> presidential historian author of the latest republicans, you were at barbara bush's funeral, correct? >> thank you all for joining us, you have been talking to your sources. what's the latest on the former president? >> what we know is this, you showed those pictures, and he was doing as well as could be expected at the funeral. he was obviously very emotional, and then i'm told that sunday morning he came down with an infection and sepsis which is very dangerous, to someone of his age, in his medical condition. he suffers from a form of parkinsons, and he was rushed to houston methodist hospital and put in the icu. and that it was really a rough day on sunday. twice his blood pressure dropped and they weren't sure if he was going to make it. the good news is that he has been given treatment, antibiotics, fluids for the infecti

arpaio one. you have to ask why did he do it now? i think part of it is that joewho you just mentioned have trump's ear and anybody who have trump's ear can get him to do something if you're the last person in the door. that's part of it. the second part is he trying to send a message and be mr. macho, i have the pardon power, so i've got your back. just hang tough. don't cooperate and you're going to be pardoned ultimately. >> funny you should say that and also say new york times reporter. judith miller, the reporter in question for the new york times and you'll recall she was one of the people who made the very vigorous case for invading iraq based on some really poor reporting and her main source has resurfaced. she is on fox news on friday and here is what he said about the pardon. >> i have no insight into what president trump thinks or tweets or why he does it. i can simply say that his critics will surely say that this is a signal to anyone who is thinking of cooperating with robert mueller don't do it because president trump will pardon you. i hope that's

he said hey, i've got this pardon power, i pardoned joe arpaio, i can do whatever i want, i can do whatever i want with the justice department. that was his line. and that's a very problematic attitude and i think mueller is going to go right to the heart of that and use these issues as part of the obstruction of justice argument. >> last word, is that your sense of where mueller is heading? >> just back on the lawyer issue. the reason john dowd left is that the president wouldn't listen to his advice. >> to not talk to mueller, right? >> and john dowd said i've had enough. i've got a client that will not listen to what i am telling him. trump went out and said, yeah, i want to sit down with mueller and then dowd tried to put out a statement saying no, no, no, that's not going to happen, i will be the one doing the negotiations here. that's why he left. he couldn't control his client. >> you want to get in on this? >> no, that's -- mike's exactly right. i would just point out one thing when we're talking about cohen and whether mueller can flip him, he's a different -- >> don't you have to

he said that about in a way sheriff joe arpaio. jack johnson was the victim of a law that tried to make it a crime for somebody to be in an interracial relationship where he was dating a white woman. the law was designed to ensure he would not have human trafficking. it was racially motivated and often used against black men to do just that and prevent interracial affairs. he himself was the victim of some kind of racially targeted motivated witch hunt to which he suffered greatly. he later died in a car accident. he did go to prison for some time and fought in cuba. people like mccain have fought to have this person pardoned at one time. presidents are usually reluctant to try to pursue pardon power because they usually have a great deal of respect for the law. this law in particular under which he was convicted is not one that should have been respected in the same way. the president would like to use it to show his respect level for pardoning power. >> the law was appalling back then. some presidents including obama tried to giv

. >>> the son of outgoing arizona senator jeff flake wants a new trial a flake, joe arpaio. the former phoenix sheriff last year, the pair claimed arpaio pursued an animal cruelty case against them to embarrass jeff flake and gain publicity. arpaio was pardoned by president trump last year after being found guilty of racial profiling. jillian: turning now to extreme weather, heavy snow and wind causing a plane to slide off the runway as it landed in south dakota. todd: none of the 155 passengers onboard the plane are hurt, that's the good news, but janice dean has more on that snowmaker moving across the country. >> reporter: it's true, sometimes it snows in april. 32 in new york, it is cold across the midwest, currently snowing in chicago, des moines and 24 in minneapolis. so it's cold. we're going to get a bit of a warmup across the midwest, the central u.s. and the northeast this week and then back to cooler than average temperatures, and i mean, it is snowing. it's snowing across the ohio valley, parts of the midwest in towards the mid-atlantic. it is going to bring some

if i could address the pardon, when it comes to joe arpaio, that was a name we heard throughout the campaign trail. we sort of anticipated that that pardon would come. with all due respect, i don't think i ever heard the president mention scooter libby's name or this boxer up until now. so when it comes to timing, i would have to second what we heard from the other panelists, that the timing is a bit suspicious. >> a lot of people believe that. and on top of that we're learning that the president is increasingly using his cell phone to make calls to whoever he wants to sort of skirt around his white house chief of staff who had been monitoring all of his calls. >> yeah. this is the most predictable thing possible in the donald trump presidency which is it doesn't really matter who the chief of staff is or who the communications director or who any of the people are, because donald trump will not be happy with reince priebus, then he brings in john kelly, he won't be happy with john kelly and ultimately going to do -- breaking news -- what he wants to do. >> take a look at. this we have live

even joe arpaio. his course hadn't even run its course. earlier this evening i was at a screening for a movie, active measures, it is a document, and it lays out what russia did and all of the trump family members who worked with him. looking at individuals like michael cohen and paul many of the it is rare hazing and un-american and it's frankly surprising to me that more republicans aren't coming forward and just saying we are going to unite and do all we can to keep this from happening again. >> why do you classify it as hair raising? what about it is hair raising? >> that we allowed it to happen and we didn't stop it while it was happening right in front of us and that we continue to allow the russians to be in our systems, interfere in upcoming elections as they have said they will and we are not showing the unity, putting up the she would that republicans and democrats would normally put up when our country is attacked. >> mike short said there is no need to pardon cohen at this point. that's quote. do you think pardoning him at this

that didn't happen with sheriff joe arpaio. >> right. it didn't happen with arpaio, right? the indications are that -- they haven't filed anything, right? >> this case is also being handled in the same way. no application that has gone to the justice department, but it appears according to sources we have talked to our team at the white house that they have been discussing this with people at the trump white house for the better part of a year. so it is unusual way to do this. >> so stand by to stand by on this one. gentlemen, thanks. great to see you. thank you. >>> the battle between the president and james comey reaching new heights and new lows, exactly, this morning as the former fbi director breaks his silence in his first television interview since his firing. the president is calling for comey now to be prosecuted. simple goodness is ahhhmazing! meaty morsels. a tender texture. with real meat and a blend of peas and carrots i can see. a totally new kind of awesome going on here! (avo) new beneful simple goodness. tender, meaty morsels with real ingredients you can s

republican golf oriented sun city retirement community, home of many of the staunchest supporters of joe arpaioanti-immigrant maricopa county sheriff who trump infamously pardoned last summer. in light of all, this it would be a genuine shock if the race were won by the democrat, doctor and indian immigrant hiral tipirneni. republicans are spooked. outside groups have spent more money to boost debbie lesko. even if lesko wins, as is likely at this point, keep an eye on the margin. if the democrats keep close in a district trump took by 21 points, it will be yet another sign of what even some republicans admit may well be coming in november. >> certainly the energy, the enthusiasm, and the anger is on the democratic side in this election. there is no sugarcoating that. so there is a big wave coming. and some members are going to have to get off the beach. >> when we come back, "new york times" reporter who took the lead in covering hillary clinton's 2016 presidential campaign will be here to discuss her new book on the behind-the-scenes drama and why republicans are still targeting clinton in 20

that refuse to cooperate with the special prosecutor, a it is the message he sent when he pardoned joe arpaiosheriff in arizona and a clear message for his having pardoned scooter libby. and it is a mistake and threat to dem kra i s and i want to add something about the tape, because the tapes were the critical evidence in the watergate case. the discovery of them was the end of the white house. and people talk without realizing that they are being taped which includes even cohen would forget that he is taping and they say things, and we are talking about comey's contemporaneous memo, and nothing as dramatic as the recording of the conversation, and remember that comey said of his meeting with the president, lor dirks i hope that there are tape tapes, and it turns out that there are some tapes, but not with the president, and although he may be a participant in some of the tapes, but it is a very important piece of ed. it cou -- piece of evidence, and it could turn the case around and also that cohen were in prague is changing the dynamic of the investigation. >> it is a funny thing they star

one to joe arpaio. is there a commonality in terms of what the president looks for when he pardons individuals? >> again, every case should be reviewed on their own merits and that's what the president has done in each of those. >> sara, i'm wondering if the administration has reacted with any message to moscow after officials there today said that the chemical attack was faked and staged with britain's direct involvements. >> certainly our intelligence tells us otherwise. i can't go beyond that, but, again, we have a very high confidence that syria was responsible. once again, russia's failure to stop them and their continued disaction on this front has been part of the problem. april? >> reporter: question into the syrian. cause for the delay in the strike time? >> we're continuing to have ongoing conversations with partners and allies. assess the information and once a decision is made, we'll let you know. >> thank you. justice department inspector general came out with the long awaited report this a

scooter libby outside of the normal pardon process in the department of justice, that he pardoned joe arpaio the normal process that he suddenly is talking about jack johnson and with a posthumous pardon, is that a message to michael cohen and paul manafort, hang in there, don't worry, the calvary that is a pardon is on the way. it depends on suspicious a turn of mind one has and there is plenty of reason to be suspicious. >> perhaps just a side benefit. fill mudd and jeffy toobin. breaking news in the deadly waffle house shooting. the suspected gunman now in custody. you see him there. the latest from police is next. >>> plus any moment now, toronto police are expected to give an update on the van attack that cnn was told was a deliberate act. ♪ if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months, ... with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and the otezla prescribing i

." >> and he pointed out that he s doing very well in arizona, that he had sheriff joe arpaio with him, and he w going to roll and told me i would lose in nomber, not knowing that i wasn't up in november. >> narrator: but donald trump would not forget jeff flake and the other republicans who challenged him. >> just like you don't mess with a sleeping dog, don't mess with donald trump. if he doesn't get the better of you in the meeting, he's going to get the better of you in his tweets, and you may have thousands of followers, but trump's got millions, and d donald trusn't forget. >> any tough questions, mr. trump? any concerns? >> things did not go well as trump called out some members... >> narrator: the confrontation between flake and trump signaled a crisis in t.o.p. >> between donald trump and senate republicans... >> narrator: and raised the question of who would control the republican party. >> the 2016 presidential race is underway. >> 2016 presidential race starts to take shape. >> it's game time for thebl rean national convention. >> establishment republicans skipping the even

that's what president trump did in his practice pardon of sheriff joe arpaio who had been convicted on the federal charge of contempt of court. that's what president trump did in his spring training pardon of scooter libby who was convicted of obstruction of justice and lying to investigators while working in the bush/cheney white house. but michael cohen hasn't been convicted of anything. hasn't even been charged with anything. so pardon him for what? president trump issued the scooter libby patterned days after michael cohen and president trump were shocked by the fbi raid on michael cohen's home, his office, his hotel room, and his safety deposit box in manhattan. several observers have noted that the sudden patterned of scooter libby in the same week as the michael cohen raid was probably intended to show michael cohen how ready the president is to use his patterned power for his old friend michael cohen. and after pardoning scooter libby, president trump delivered the message through one of scooter libby's lawyers that he didn't even really care about scooter libby. >> i saw him,

that came out today, the president so far has issued three presidential pardons, one of those to joe arpaio. is there a commonality in what the president looks for as he pardons individual? >> again, every case should be reviewed on their own merits. that's what the president has done. >> i'm wondering if the administration reacted with any message to moscow after officials there today said that the chemical attack in douma was faked and staged with britain's direct involvement? >> certainly, our intelligence tells us otherwise. i can't go beyond that. again, we have a very high confidence that syria was responsible. and once again, russia's failure to stop them and their continued disaction on this front has been part of the problem. april. >> sarah, what part does the president bring russia into the syria equation now as cause for the delay in the strike time line? >> again, we are continuing to have ongoing conversations with partners and allies, assess the information and once a decision is made we will let you know. dave. >> thanks sarah. the justice department inspector general came o

trump recently did a pardon when there was no pardon requested -- >> joe arpaio. >> right.advancing political and personal interests by way of this pardon. >> what does this do in terms of precedent, danny? this would seem to be something that should be troubling to folks when you take a step back and look at what this might mean for future administrations. >> pardon power is interesting. it is almost unfetterred. it is one of the most limitless powers bestowed on the president by the constitution. yet there are self-imposed restrictions as we heard talked about. there is a process. there is an office that reviews these requests. so even though the president theoretically can bypass -- i shouldn't say theoretically. even though the president can and has bypassed that office, it's supposed to go through the process. yet the power is clear in that the president can just announce a pardon and place any conditions on it that he wants. it's interesting, you mentioned scooter libby's law license. one of the things the president cannot do with a federal pardon is affect those coll

the president says asking about pardoning michael cohen is stupid but he pardoned scooter libby, joe arpaiot about pardoning a boxer who died just the other day. if cohen knows a pardon would be coming if he were charged and convicted, which has not happened at this point, he might be less likely to say bad things about the president. is the question stupid? >> it's not stupid. the potential for a pardon could influence somebody's testimony and because the president keeps talking about pardons. that's why he got the question today. what's important here is that there is actually a pardon process in the department of justice that in normal times people go through. if you want a pardon, there's a way you can get one. but this extra process that the president is putting on where a film actor can call up and say pardon this person, or someone who's giving him legal advice can say pardon my other client. that's not normal. that's not how the pardon process is supposed to work. when you don't have a functioning pardon process, people will assume it's done for a bad reason. >> so, carrie, these ar

remember sheriff joe arpaio.he ran the district by eight points but he lost the county by 13 points. there is ducey's challenger, bennett now says he will challenge ducey in a primary, setting up another intraparty battle. the last thing if you are an incumbent republican you need to deal with right now is you have independent voters moving one way and your primaries moving theary. arizona, we are going to be taking a lot about it in the next few months. we'll be right back. >>> time now for the panel. this ronny jackson situation, i've never seen so much damning information come out on a cabinet secretary and that cabinet secretary is still stick it out but i'm also surprised at how this -- i mean, john tester just putting it out there. we're hearing this and we're putting it out there. we're not yet sure how verifiable it is. >> it is surprising and troubling. it's like it's just raw information. the drunk driving, crashing the car allegation, for example, we don't have a date or a place. we don't know any part

discovered that he had pardon power and what that meant, which he didn't really process until after the joe arpaioe, according to my reporting. the president was really enthralled by this and loved talking about how he could pardon anybody he wanted to. not entirely true, but it's close enough. i do think it is hard not to see given what we know about how his folks, his legal team has approached the issue of pardons with potential -- with witnesses in this case and targets in this case, flynn and manafort, it's hard not to see this as somehow not related. >> maggie, what's your sense of whether or not, whatever the atmosphere is inside the white house, whatever it is that they're concerned about, that that will motivate doing something in syria? >> that's a real question. i think that there's a high level of concern about that. one school of thought within the white house is that you will see a strike this weekend in part as a way to get comey off of television, knowing what we know about this president, it's impossible to say that that's not in the air and one of the options they're looking at. i

and earlier he also pardoned joe arpaio, both arpaio and scooter libby, were pardoned outside the usualepartment of justice pardon process. which is very slow and meticulous. this is just the power of the president and he wanted to do it. he has sent the message, i could pardon anyone i want, any time. >> but scooter libby, theoretically, a guy who took the fall for covering up a secret that that administration didn't want to get out. >> and a republican hero, a dick cheney protege. even more than this jack johnson discussion, that was a message, i think, that if you hang tough, you can get a pardon from me. i will stick by my friends. >> so let's start with the basics. flynn, he has an active case against him. he has -- >> he's looking at sentencing. >> exposure. he will in likelihood have some kind of sentence handed to him. the president could pardon him, absolutely, and it could be done like that. >> tomorrow. >> michael cohen, we have no clue what this investigation will yield, if it will be any charges f there will be charges that are threatening to michael cohen's ultimate freedo

i pardoned joe arpaio. i can do whatever i want. i can do whatever i want with the justice department. that was his line. and that's a very problematic attitude. and i think mueller is going to go right to the heart of that and use these issues as part of the obstruction of justice argument. >> last word, is that your sense of where mueller is sitting? >> just back on the lawyer issue, the reason john dowd left is the president wouldn't listen to his advice. >> to not talk to mueller, right? >> john said, i've had enough. i have a client that will not listen to what i'm telling him. trump went out and said, yeah, i want to sit down with mueller. dowd put out a statement saying, no, that's not going to hachlpp. i will be the one doing the negotiations. he couldn't control his client. >> do you want to get in? >> that is exactly right. i would point out one thing talking about cohen and whether mueller can flip him. he's a different -- >> do you have to have some value to be flipped? would he be flipped to sing about trump organizatio

president so far in his time in office has issued three presidential pardons, one of those was to joe arpaio. is there a commonality in terms of what the president looks for when he pardons individuals? >> again, every case should be reviewed on their own merits and that's what the president has done in each of those. >> sarah, i'm wondering if the administration has reacted with any message to moscow after officials there today said that the chemical attack in douma was fake and staged with britain's direct involvement? >> certainly our intelligence tells us otherwise. i can't go beyond that again, we have a very high confidence that syria was responsible and once again russia's failure to stop them and their continued disaction on this front has been part of the problem. april? >?[inaudible] president for the syria delay in the time line? >> again, we are continuing to have ongoing conversations with partners and allies, assess the information, and once a decision is made, we will let you know. dave? >> thanks, sarah. justice department inspector general came out with his long awaited repo

that the president short circuited that process in the scooter libby pardon just as he did in the joe arpaio pardon. that is his right under the constitution. that is his inherent authority to offer those pardons on his own without consulting anyone. but presidents who want to be careful in the past have followed this procedure of going through the justice department. and the libby pardon is not -- when you mention the libby pardon, you're right that don mcgahn would have to testify about it, but that's not the only area of pardons in which don mcgahn or others in the white house may have to talk to the special counsel. we know that the president or i shouldn't say we know the president instructed his attorney. we know that his attorney john dowd reached out to mike flynn and paul manafort through their counsel and dangled the idea of pardons in front of both of those people. if anyone in the president's inner circle knew about those conversations and knew that he was offering those pardons or raising the prospect of those pardons, to try to keep them from testifying, that could be another p

the pardon of joe arpaio, that's for the base.ple have forgotten about this story politically. there are some interesting elements. what it does say is for people who have been charged with obstruction of justice and what they call procedural crimes in the moore investigation is these are things that we feel you get a pass for and there is perhaps a pardon in your future. that's how i see it. >> neil: so if you behave, there's a pardon? >> behave. >> neil: right? okay. what do you make of the dust-up on the book? apparently there's a lot of say la--salcious stuff in there. he harbored obviously dim views of the president. >> this is the permanent record. this is what you are putting out there that will live beyond et earn at this. this is -- eternity. you feel this is so important and you make sure this is the record that you want to put out and that represents you. apparently jim comey wants to put out that he thinks the president has long ties and kind of small hands and doesn't hug strong and he's orange. you would hope -- and

in this district, this is the home of joe arpaio. she has an uphill battle.ven the things we've seen coming out of this administration and this white house, there are some sinking feelings of republicans who are starting to question their party. some elected republicans aren't endorsing him for the 2020 race. this is the district that's overwhelmingly white. they have a pretty high level of college educated voters. the fact that they're spending millions of dollars trying to win what used to be a safe district, they call it a solid republican district, it says a lot to democrats. i would challenge the democrats on the ground to not take anything for granted and even though it's a small percentage of people of color in this district, reach out to them. that could be the narrow margin that puts her over the top. i think she's done a great job of getting her message out there and this is a district that wins if you deal in fear-mongering. if you point out the old facts, point out the ridiculous insignificant border wall. i think she does have a shot. >> so i lov

donald trump has done so many things to me that seem like interference with witnesses, the pardon o joe arpaio lib by, are clearly intended to influence witnesses and to say i've got your back, i'll pardon you, don't worry about this, don't cooperate, lie, you can be in contempt of court, i'll still pardon you. so yes, this is one more aspect of it. but i think that cohen has to think about, he also has state crimes that he could be facing. and would he rather serve his time in a federal prison or in a state prison? he's going to obviously opt for the federal prison system instead of the state prison system. so we have to just see whether he will or won't. he said i would take a bullet for the president, which is something gordon liddy side during watergate, and gordon liddy lived up to it. cohen seems much more like a thug and a bully who frequently bullies are just really weak people and will flip. so we'll have to see. >> and, you know, there's another feature of a person like donald trump who can be part bully, part concierge. one of the things we've heard about him is donald trump will fl

what we saw here over the last several days is a district that was really the backbone of sheriff joe arpaio'shan a quarter of a century. jan brewer's rise. this was an area that is about 80% of the voters over 55 plus. just like in p.a. 18 where you had conversations with people, coal miners, coal miner's pension benefits were the driving factor for them. you talk to independents and republicans, what did we hear over the last week? it was education. teachers will be walking out tomorrow from classrooms. when it comes down to it, the democrat talk about whether she fit the district or not, she spoke to the issue that was most prominent here in this district. lesko tried to run on the trump agenda. i want to play you sound with three republicans that we talked to here just before the polls closed. what party are you registered? how do you usually vote? >> i'm registered as a republican. >> you usually vote republican? >> yes. >> this election you voted for. >> democrat. she is looking for change and we need it. we need to make a future for our children here in arizona. and have good schools fo