>>eporter: rick wilson has run the new leaf mentoring program since it started eight years ago. >> wehave had several of the kids in the program-- over hf their life. ve been a part of their lives for over half their life. it's like a big family >> reporter: 10-year-old devon rush has been in the program for six years. his mentor is joler, a local college student. devon's sister natalya's in m,te progtoo. >> you ready freddie? >> not yet. >> reporter: their father is in prison, serving a 30-year sentence for dealing cocaine. their mother jennifer has also been to prison three times, also for selling cocag e, and violatobation. >> my kids suffered big time. big time, these babies suffered. >> reporter: jennifer me from her last stint in prison in 2015. now she's pursuing degrees in electrical engineeri business. >> i've made a lot of mistakes. bulllike, i go to school fu time. i'm really working on these degrees. >> reportendr:he swears she's changed for good. but the experience bs her kids han through are still whfficult for them to talk about. do you miss? >> i miss daddy. >> that we

i want to bring back in stephen cash as well as rick wilson. steve, let me begin with you. with the fbi reportedly obtaining secret wiretap conversations and let's be clear. donald trump jr. is not on the wiretaps. there may have been mention of him but not himself. he's not recorded on that. what is the significance of these wiretaps? >> i think the united states government, it's no secret, has relationships all around the world with countries that listen and it's two foreign nationals talking about perhaps trump jr. i don't think it means all that much. the only unusual thing here is that we're seeing a tiny little bit of what mr. mueller is up to. and it's not from him ven it's from a spanish prosecutor talking to michael is could have. this is a wide-ranging counter intelligence program and it's not surprising that they're getting all kinds of information from our allies and our capabilities at home and abroad. and our own national capabilities capabilities we should expect. that. >> one of the more interesting revelations came from senator chris cone. he wrote a letter

here to discuss cnn political commentators and republican strategist rick wilson. hello all. ck, i can't wait to hear from you. so give me your read what we're learning about michael cohen and these payments. >> look, michael cohen clearly was a guy who was basically taking donald trump's message of draining the swamp and instead he was standing under the street corner with his skirt hiked up saying hey sailor, this was a guy who put himself out there saying he could sell acceass to donald trump and this white house. he was doing it entrepreneurially. i'm blown away by on the one hand how shocked people are by this. do they not know who these people are at this point? it's michael cohen, it's donald trump. these guys have a pretty low boundary for ethical behavior to begin with. none of this surprises me, but we're going to have some more hilarity on this because this is a guy who decided as i like to say there's a golden pyramid of sleaze, and he's hat the peak of the damn thing. >> sorry. >> we're going to follow that, don? >> i'm sorry. i'm just like marilyn monroe, skirt b

. >> larry noble, republican strategist rick wilson. he was also the strategist for rudy giuliani's 2010 campaign, and media correspondent host of financial services, brian stelter. good to see all of you. brian, we begin with you. what in the world just happened, giuliani, avenatti, on the air to defend their best clients, right? is this who can win in the battle of public opinion well before possibly going to court? >> yeah, my generous explanation of rudy's tv tour is he's giving the interviews the president wishes he could give himself. the president would love to be out there on tv defending himself, but his aides and lawyers are constantly telling him not to do that. so he almost never gives interviews. he has his old friend, rudy  giuliani, playing surrogate -- playing surrogate more than lawyer. some of the quotes here are, i'm getting up to speed on the facts here, i'm about halfway through. he admits he doesn't know all the facts. that's going to be taught in law schools not as a way to represent your clients. >> so, then, ri

i want to bring in scott ginnings and rick wilson. rick, are you surprised to hear this glowing health assessment from trump's one-time doctor that he issued which was dictated by the president according to born steen? >> you talking about his rippling fa sikh, stamina and his full head of hair? man with run and not break a sweat? the way trump tells it from the beginning should indicate he was at least hutting his thumb on the scale. the most fascinating thing today, i want to know what david dennison's medical records show as well. the doctor revealed today he did trump's lab tests under pseudonyms. every day we always say it can't get more crazy than today and it always does. >> so, after that nowing review, nbc asked dr. borenstein about his choice of language in the letter and here's what he said. >> is that the way that you write most of your medical letters? >> no put for mr. trump i wrote that letter. >> did le ask you to describe it that way, to pick up his kind of language? >> i probably picked up his kind of language and the

i want to discuss this now with van jones and michael shields and republican strategist rick wilson. good evening, everyone rick, i want to start with you. no apology from kelly sadler after that callous comment about john mccain. now we're in the fifth day of the story they simply won't apologize for such a heinous remark. why not? >> they believe any time they apologize for anything at all, it plays by the rules of decency and civility that the transgressive nature of donald trump would transcend. they have decided they will reflect. the institution is the lengthened shadow of a man, well, this is the lengthened shadow of trashing a human being. so they will insult the disabled, insult others, and the once people are off the field or are civilians in the game, they ought to have a little decency. that includes people with terminal cancer. i'm not out there dig qualifying harry reid. john mccain has brain cancer. we ought to be praying for the man. instead the white house drags this story day after day after day because they have no civility or humanity. >> they're public servants, b

i want to bring in now cnn political commentator scott jennings and republican strategist rick wilson, are you surprised to hear this glowing health assessment from trump's one-time doctor that he issued was actually dictated by the president, according to born seestein? >> the mean the thing about his rippling physique and astounding stamina. >> six pack abs. >> the man can run a and not even break a sweat. it was a ridiculous and overly colorful thing. it had a lot of trump tells in it for the very beginning that should have at least indicated he was putting his thumb on the scale in terms of the creation of this memo about his health. i want to know what david denison's health records show as well. the doctor revealed today he did trump's lab tests under pseudonyms. there is a whole story here. every day we always say to ourselves, it can't get more crazy than today. it always does. this guy, i mean, he's meme worthy. it's fantastic. >> just after that glowing review, nbc asked dr. bornstein about his choice of language in the letter, and here's what he said. >> is that the way tha

rick wilson, the author of the book, "everything trump touches dies" and conservative commentator carrie sheffield. roseanne barr is tweeting now. i understand she tweeted something about me retweeted and then deleted it. but it's not roseanne it's not don lemon cnn. just @don lemon, but she deleted it. she said, don't feel sorry for me, guys. i just want to apologize to the hundreds of people and wonderful writers, all liberal and talented actors who lost their jobs on my show due to my stupid tweet. i will be on joe rogan's podcast on friday. what do you say? own your own stuff, right? >> you know, everybody needs to own their own stuff. but roseanne also needs to understand that old rules about holes and digging universally applies. and she ought to just take a deep breath and step back from twitter for a little while. this is not going to help her. it's not going to help those folks. i think we need a national breather on this particular story because it's just a remarkable moment where we're actually arguing whether something was racist, it's the era we seem to find ourselves in. wh

but rick wilson, the republican consultant who is very anti-trump is fond of saying that trump kind ofnd i think what we're seeing is the broader circle around the president right now just kind of one by one, whether it's just staff in the john kelly case at the top of the show or his lawyers, his intimates, that circle is just getting closer. each time someone is hived off, they're turned against with a certain ferocity. that's a bad place to be at the center of. >> yeah. ask michael flynn. ask george papadopoulos. ask rick gates. these were all the president's boys and they all turned on him. >> and nobody is a bigger boy of donald trump than michael cohen. i mean of all the people, of all the associates you've just mentioned, michael cohen was the one who was by his side for ten years. and not just handling sort of high profile litigation or some of the big business deals, but we have now seen growing evidence that his job was to cover up damaging information about trump. so if there is somebody -- if there is somebody who is a danger of flipping, he's -- your guy. >> the fascinatin

on that note, rick wilson, marc lotter, thank you very much for the conversation this morning. have a great weekend. "cnn newsroom" with john berman and poppy harlow picks up after this break. have a great mother's day, everyone. i become a model? yes. no. start the challenge today. and try new tropical citrus flavor with collagen. nature's bounty. >>> good morning, everyone, i'm poppy harlow. >> and i'm john berman. so this shouldn't be about politics or policy or partisanship, this is about basic human decency and manners. when someone is battling a particularly insidious form of brain cancer, you don't make fairly public jokes about that person dying. you don't do that to any person, and that includes arizona senator and former p.o.w. john mccain. >> but that's exactly what white house aide kelly sadler did after learning that senator mccain opposed the president's pick for