matt lewis, the white house has at times tried to hit comey's credibility. will that work?i don't think it will work, but i think it's a strategy. i think they are going to try to do sort of what democrats and hillary clinton and bill clinton did to ken star, which is put him on trial. itten shouldn't be about bill clinton. it should be about ken star. got the former fbi director want to put him on trial. they are already saying kellyanne conway is saying nobody liked him in washington. donald trump called him a show boater. i think that you're going to see more of it ramping up this week. they are going to go after him, try to impeach him as a witness and take him down. they are going to call him a show boaters. they are going to say if he felt like this was intimidated, why didn't he say something about the time. why did he wait? that's going to be the big question. to answer that question. >> standby. we'll be back in a moment. reminder, cnn's special live coverage of james comey's testimony starts this thursday at 9:00 a.m. eastern. you can watch it live on air or strea

matt lewis, to you. let me read the tweet from the president -- or again, i'll call it a statement he wrote on twitter. "the fake mainstream media is working so hard to get me not to use social media. they hate that i can get the honest and unfiltered message out." this seems like a direct response to his over stanz, who said, no, no, the tweets don't matter. the president this morning said yes, yes, yes, they do matter. >> look, it's not the mainstream media who wants to discourage this. we love the tweets! this is actually great business. i mean, you know, forget investigative reporting. just sit on twitter and write about what donald trump says. it's fascinating and it's great content, and i honestly think it's very revealing. i think that you could argue that it's more authentic in what donald trump really believes. >> he says it's authentic. he says it's unfiltered. >> totally. and the people who -- it's not the fake media who is trying to discourage this. it is people like kellyanne conway's husban

this is what matt lewis saw fir firsthand last night where people said things about james comey out loud and lipublicly t muddy the waters. what's the danger in that? >> let me take it and slice it -- take your last point first. the danger is, of course, it could backfire and you create sympathy for comey. where you have such a split decision on him going into this episode for remember we started this with democrats being mad at him for talking about what now some say is out of school on hillary clinton. here's the strategic issue i think that the white house is facing. they're just not sure. they are throwing this out there. we may do this. we may do that. i think they just want to see where things are going if they learn more, if any of comey's friends drop hints about what he might say but if they invoke executive privilege, that could be a side show and fight and buy more time maybe to their advantage. >> jackie, i'm struck by the -- i didn't mean to cut you off. next thursday, 10:00 a.m., big day. >> during this show. which of course they pegged it to be on this show. >> clearly. >>

in our panel, cnn political analysts april ryan and john of aron and cnn political commentator matt lewis. matt as our resident conservative i want to start with you. something has shifted this morning and it seems as though republicans and some conservatives like newt gingrich are now going after not just james comey but robert mueller. at first it was oh, bob mueller is the best person equipped for this job, he has a sterling reputation and now something shifted. here is fwng fwng's tweet this morning. he says "republicans are delusional if they think this special counsel is going to be fair. look who he is hiring," meaning mueller. "check fec reports, time to rethink." what's going on here, matt? >> look, this is not a mistake. this is a concerted effort, in fact my last column at "the daily beast" was about how they were going after james comey. this is what you do when you don't have the facts. you go after, you try to impeach the other side. you try to discredit them. i think that's continued here and you know, mueller, just like comey, has a sterling reputation. you would assume be

>> matt lewis, the sort of "and," "but" to this, these intelligence chiefs say they did not feel the president asked them to do anything illegal or immoral and both say according to dana the reporting, again, who is right here, they do not feel as if they were ordered to intervene in the investigation. that's important, matt. >> yeah. it is. although i would say to anybody out there watching, if your boss suggested you do something, would you feel that that was a suggestion or an order? you know? i think -- most of us would feel like if our boss said, hey, i suggest you do such and such -- that is tantamount to an order and it's good for them they felt they had the independence to act independently. to take it as a suggestion, not as an order, but i tell you, you know, from a legal standpoint, it's a suggestion. but i'm telling you, for most people, if the president of the united states tells you, makes a suggestion to you, that's not a suggestion. >> right. and, again, perry, this points to, i think what is just a huge gray area here, which is, what is robert mueller going to do wit

matt lewis, we heard one of trump's sons say in a sound bite, the clouds are gone. he's implying the clouds have parted. this is all over, all behind his father now. i understand a son wanting the best for his father, but come on. isn't it misleading? isn't it damaging to hannity's viewers to have trump's son telling the viewers this is all over, this is passed now. >> we have always had apologists and spokespeople and spin meisters who would do that. they would say, oh, he's exonerated now, or oh, he's guilty now. the difference now is we have entire cable networks that present these really very different world views. same event. we all watched the same hearing, and the interpretation is a stark contrast. so it's not just surrogates who are spinning. it's entire networks who are doing it. look, i would say this. i think anybody who watched the testimony, you know, i think it's fair to say there are a couple different storylines we should be talking about. i think we should obviously be talking about james comey's sense that he was being pressured, whether or not th

. >> hmm, so i want to discuss now with matt lewis, margaret hoover, kevin mattis as well as mar maria cardona. here we go. it's 2016 all over. first i want to get your reaction to hillary clinton speaking out on the russia meddling, why she says she lost the election, and also speaking out about president trump. what do you think? >> look, she asked something at the very beginning of that clip she said something i think that's very important that almost nobody has picked up on. it's what might the collusion have been. i've always thought, like why would russia, you know, look, russia obviously tried to meddle in our elections. but why would they need trump to help? doesn't make sense. russia is smart. they have got spies. they are very sophisticated. why would they need to collude? hillary is arguing there that what potentially happened is that the mercers have this company that does micro targeting and data, that they may have colluded with russia to provide them with information that would help them target voters in places like michigan and wisconsin, to push them to vote for trump

. >> let's bring in cnn political analyst, mark preston, matt lewis, kirsten powers and margaret hoover. the president taking a victory lap, as well he should. and mark preston, the president tweeting out congratulations to karen handel on her big win in georgia sixth. fantastic job. we're all very proud of you. it was a win for the trump administrati administration. >> no question. imagine had jon ossoff won tonight, he put his neck on the line and provided support for karen handle in the days leading up to this, including tweeting today, trying to get his supporters out to the polls. so donald trump who's had a pretty rocky time -- past few months can look at tonight and say this is a victory for me, for my party and as we're talk bouth the democrats in trying to figure their way out of the woods, this is quite an adrenalin boost to a republican party who in itself is trying to work throughout some things. >> more democrats saying the democrats need to figure out their messaging, the future. jobs. democrats are having trouble. right into this race. the liberal side wing of the party a

from the president of the united states this morning is a statement that objectifies women and matt lewis is a direct attack on a woman's appearance not to mention using words like "crazy" and "psycho" to describe these people? your take? >> yes. it doesn't several things. a window into his soul and i think that on one hand you're right. i think that this just confirms or reinforces per senceptions h they this about women and treats women. i was defending him on cnn last night for complementing an irish journalist on her smile, and some people thought, well what he said was sexist, inappropriate for him to do that. this morning i think this reinforces some, you know some not terribly pleasant, you know -- the way that he treats women. the other thing is obviously the media. he has made it a concerted effort to diminish and attack the media specifically his critics, which "morning joe" has now become, and lastly, it's a reflection of a course in culture of a cultural degradation. the fact we have a president who talks this way and that the public isn't more outraged and that he has support

. >> jason miller, and matt lewis as well. jeff, i mean the president does have legal authority to do that, doesn't he? to hire a special prosecutor? >> under the regulation, this is how it works, that if he wants to get rid of the special counsel, it actually has to be a decision by the attorney general, the attorney general is the one that has to fire him. the attorney general, presuma y presumably, as jeff sessions is recused here, so it would be up to rob rosenstein, who was the person who appointed bob mueller just a couple of weeks ago. so the question is would rosen stein acce rosenstein accept an order to fire mueller, or would he refuse and resign and would the order be followed by someone lower down in the hierarchy in the justice department. that's -- it's technically up to the attorney general. >> matt, do you agree with that legal assessment? >> i do, and the special counsel is just an attorney in the department of justice, it's appointed, there's no statutory construction like we had with the independent counsel

. >> matt lewis, i have time for a ten-second question. do you think there will be a vote on health care before july 4th resen? >> yes. >> david? >> yes. >> betsy? >> yes. but i can't say if it will pass. >> very interesting. a lot of faith in mitch mcconnell to get a vote. thanks so much for being with us. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> other major news. the question this morning, how will the white house act. >>> plus, we have heard all the analysis. what do the voters inside this georgia congressional district think other than i want it all to end. >>> too hot to fly. extreme heat. airlines grounded dozens of flights. last year, he said he was going to dig a hole to china. at&t is working with farmers to improve irrigation techniques. remote moisture sensors use a reliable network to tell them when and where to water. so that farmers like ray can compete in big ways. china. oh ... he got there. that's the power of and. rumor confirmed. they're playing. -what? -we gotta go. -where? -san francisco. -when? -friday. we gotta go. [ tires sc

. >> i told you, i told alice, i told matt lewis.e trying to normalize this and look what happens. >> as always she was right. >> thank you, don. i appreciate that. she's nationally recognized for her compassion and care. he spent decades fighting to give families a second chance. but to help others, they first had to protect themselves. i have afib. even for a nurse, it's complicated... and it puts me at higher risk of stroke. that would be devastating. i had to learn all i could to help protect myself. once i got the facts, my doctor and i chose xarelto®. xarelto®... to help keep me protected. once-daily xarelto®, a latest-generation blood thinner... ...significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem. it has similar effectiveness to warfarin. xarelto® works differently. warfarin interferes with at least 6 blood-clotting factors. xarelto® is selective, targeting just one critical factor interacting with less of your body's natural blood-clotting function. for afib patients well-managed

cnn political commentators alice stewart, matt lewis and simone sanders.to all of you. >> hi, don. >> alice, particularly to you. here is the ad that takes aim at the nevada senator. watch. >> senator heller made his opposition clear. that is unacceptable to us and the millions of americans suffering under obama care. heller is now standing with pelosi. unacceptable. if you're opposed to this bill we are opposed to you. >> so alice, they haven't really run these ads yet, but is intimidation the right thing? and it is going to work? >> it's not going to work and certainly not the right thing in this case. heller is not going to be influenced by a group's ads on nevada television. look, he is beholden to the constituents of nevada, and he is not beholden to washington. and his position is really no different than a lot of other republicans who have come out in opposition to the texas on the table right now. it doesn't go far enough and it doesn't lower costs and it doesn't address the medicaid issues that they campaign and won on. look, he wants to come to y

. >> matt lewis, jeff sessions also with really major testimony today. really two separate areas, right? russia, his own interactions with russians and then his own interactions with james comey who testified last week. how hard do you think jeff sessions will go after the james comey version of events and what's the risk/reward there? >> the thing i'm really interested in is the question about when president trump, you know, allegedly asked to speak with director comey alone and attorney general sessions at first wanted to stick around and then ended up leaving. i think he should be asked why did you leave? you were comey's boss. why didn't you stick around? my guess is, any time there is a testimony like this, there is a potential for an explosive development. my guess, though, is that sessions having been a former senator, being been a state attorney general and prosecutor will be adept in answering these questions. if you go back to his confirmation hearing, he really came across well. my guess is that he'll be able to smooth things over and have a l

say, i told you so last night when we were talking about -- >> i told you, i told alice, i told matt lewisguys were trying to normalize this, and look what happens. >> as always, she was right. >> my apologies. >> thank you. >> we will be right back. >>> closed captioning brought to you by -- act® strengthens enamel, protects teeth from harmful acids, and helps prevent cavities. go beyond brushing with act®. >>> oh, man, i'm getting happy every minute. >>> you are so bad for my waistline. i'm sure people tell you, anthony bourdain from "parts unknown" joins us now. cnn "parents unknown." do people tell you that you're bad for their waistline cincinnati. >> yes, especially after watching cheese porn like that. that is from portugal. >> tell me about that, why is it so special to you? >> one of the first places i went outside of the united states and one of the first places i ever made television was in this area of porto with my good friend and former boss from the last restaurant i worked in, jose. he took me to his family farm and introduced me to his city, and had a wonderful time. saw w

. >> matt lewis, was today a good day for the trump administration? again, no real details came out about those conversations that obviously a lot of the democrats wanted to hear. >> yeah, i think it probably was. if you're looking at it from a political standpoint, it's probably a good day for trump, for the trump administration. by the way, i thought that senator heinrich had the best questions today and he made the point that said either you take executive privilege or if it's classified information you don't have to talk about it. otherwise, if you pledge to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, then you have no excuse for not answering these questions. having said that, i think that most -- in terms of the news value and the possibility that down the road -- if sessions, if attorney general sessions had answered questions with more specificity, more specifically today and he had gotten something wrong, even if he had misremembered, down the road it might have come down to haunt him. he answered very few questions, so i think

i want to bring in the panel, ryan lizza, matt lewis, jeffrey lord and dana bash is back.way must have known her husband was going to be tweeting about this stuff. is this some kind of back-channel direct message to president trump from kellyanne conway through her husband? this is surreal? >> i'm not so sure she knew. he seemed to be quite exercised about it, given the fact that i went back and looked at his twitter feed. the last tweet he sent out was in 2015 about football. >> if your wife is a top aide to the president, you would think that you would check. >> except that he also, my impression is he understands if he does check with her, then she has sort of political kul culpabili culpability. >> better to ask for forgiveness -- >> better to not talk about it. >> look, but at the end of the day, he obviously did it in a very aggressive way and in a very overt way, but he didn't do anything that kellyanne conway in a much more kind of under the radar way and other people who want to affect donald trump do by using twitter and television to try to send messages to the

. >> with us is jen psaki and matt lewis. the president promises a big surprise on health care. what he's talking about or do you think he actually does have a surprise or is he just being optimistic that there is going to be some sort of resolution like there was with the house bill? >> i don't think he has a surprise. i think he senses that he might be losing the audience, that people might give up hope that this is going to happen. he knows he has to keep the media engaged. he has to keep the activists and even the u.s. senators believing that it's possible. they don't want to throw in the towel, believing it's possible he has a rabbit in his hat or up his sleeve or whatever the expression is, that he might be able to pull off another miracle. he's done it before with the election, for example, nobody thought he could do it. so we always have to have in the back of our heads, i don't think there's a surprise but maybe he has something. and as long as we think maybe he has something, he keeps us in the game. >> doug, is there a power to positive thinking or positive statements

i want to bring in the panel, ryan lizza, matt lewis, jeffrey lord and dana bash is back. i don't understand. kellyanne conway must have known her husband was going to be tweeting about this stuff. is this some kind of back-channel direct message to president trump from kellyanne conway through her husband? this is surreal? >> oi'm not so sure she knew. he seemed to be excite exor sizsize ed a about it. >> if your wife is a top aide to the president, you would think that you would check. >> but he also, my impression is if he does check with her, they be she has sort of political culpabilit culpability. >> better to ask for forgiveness -- >> better to not talk about it. >> look, but at the end of the day, he obviously did it in a very aggressive way and in a very overt way, but he didn't do anything that kellyanne conway in a much more kind of under the radar way and other people who want to affect donald trump do by using twitter and television to try to send messages to the president, because they understand that that is how he consumes information. >> matt, is there hyp

. >> joining us now, kirsten powers, matt lewis and jeffrey lord.as we just saw, kirsten, the anger from some constituents who face losing health care is obviously very real. when the senators go back to their districts, they could get an earful. do you think they're concerned about that or do you think some will not have town halls? >> well, i think we've already seen some members of congress avoiding having town halls precise hi becauly because they want to deal with this. they're still going to hear from their constituents and the problem from the republicans is they get it from both sides. they're going to hear people who are complaining about not wanting to lose their health care and they're also going to hear from people who have said, you promised that you were going to repeopal obama care. so they are very much caught in the middle of this campaign promise they've been making over and over over the last many years and the fact they're in position to take away health care from a certain number of people. as you can see in what we just watched

want to bring in our panel, matt lewis, kirsten powers, ryan lizza, jeffrey lord, and charles blow.y want to hear things i want to hear. thank you, jeffrey lord. charles? can you remember another time when the fate of the white house press secretary was so sort of publicly discussed? >> no, i can't. and it's somewhat odd because almost every senior adviser since january, since when they started, has gone through a phase where it was leaked that they were imminently on their way out. remember when steve bannon was going to be fired. remember when reince priebus was going to be fired. >> kellyanne conway sort of disappeared fire while and she came back. she was always there. >> and poor sean spicer, his associates in the west wing have been leaking that his job has been on the line for weeks and months. it does seem he's gotten a little bit of control over the story now because the story is that he is now being the one who's going to find his own replacement. so that suggests that he's not being pushed out but that he's going to retain this tieflttle communications director, which is

just ahead, we'll read from matt lewis's great new piece in "the daily beast" on why conservatives won'tance to the dear leader donald trump tune. that's ahead, plus steve kornacki and polls. need we say more? >> he's so angry. at bp's cooper river plant, employees take safety personally - down to each piece of equipment, so they can protect their teammates and the surrounding wetlands, too. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better. >>> >>> a new politico morning consult poll shows support for impeachment of the president is ticking up five points, 43% for, 45% against. but steve kornacki -- >> it's interesting. on one hand the impeachment numbers tell you a lot about the intensity. it's not just the democrats especially against him, it's that they're really, really against him in that polarization. the other thing that's notable is last week we had a lot of stories about trump's approval rating falling back into the 30s and we were asking the question is this the sort of new norm, is it going to get lower, will there be republican defections. we saw it di

matt davis and has said that he expresses concern, calling for generous packages for the staff. —— carwynjones. offering financial help as well, rather the job stayed in wales. the actor daniel day lewisend to sign the 13th amendment. lincoln was textbook daniel day lewis. the actor almost disappearing into the character of the president. i am the president of the united states. clothed in immense power. and it achieved something that no one had ever done before. a third best actor oscar. i think daniel day lewis will be remembered as one of the best actors of all time. he's terrific. he invests himself in every role, he goes the extra mile, and you really see the results on the screen. ladies and gentlemen, if i say i am an oilman, you will agree. i am a family man. there will be blood was another oscar winner. but it appears his career is now over. a statement from his spokesman simply says, he will no longer be working as an actor. there's no explanation but it has long been clear he has doubts about fame. and that phrase "invests himself in every role", shorthand for an actor who takes the process very seriously. in my left foot, fellow actors said he stayed in character in the wh