"where's my roy cohn"?o his late mentor roy cohn, a cars mat charismatic brauns born prosecutor his methods were ruthless and in fact criminal. he began his career hunting suspected communists as the chief counsel to joseph mccarthy in the early 1950s. no client was too unsavory over the years who went onto represent a number of mafia figures among others. now filmmaker matt tyrnauer with a new documentary, "where's my roy cohn." here's a clip. >> the justice department was going of fred trump and donald trump for not letting blacks in their housing. rather than making a deal, rather than admitting guilt, roy said that, trump, you need to go full after the just department. >> roy was clear what to do, attack, don't settle, don't apologize, attack. >> roy would always be for an offense hit strategy. those are the rules of war. you don't fight on the other guy's ground. you define the what the debate is going to be about. i think donald learned that from roy. i learned that from roy. >> roy cohn began this wh

life of roy cohn.o much for joining us. and here's the question. what attracted joe mccarthy to this guy roy cohn? he trusted him completely, implicitly defended him no matter what he wanted and is it the same thing that attracted donald trump over the years? >> joe mccarthy was kind of an empty vessel. he wasn't really the sharpest tool in the drawer and i think he needed someone to manipulate and tell him what to say. the iconic footage of cohn is him whispering in the ear of mccarthy in the senate subcommittee and really kind of leading him into these persecuting questionings of usually innocent witnesses. he was a demagogue whisperer and he liked to sort of infect empty vessels and i think trump was sort of his latent life project, a demagogue in the making and he became the apprentice to roy cohn. >> you know one thing that impressed me by the beautifully made movie by you, and this is really good, what i liked about it is the artistic quality. i had no problem with any of the political messages.

many said donald trump is roy cohn. e question gary cohn might be answered with donald trump is his own roy zoan as you were working to disbar roy cohn, what did you learn about him? >> he was a thief, he stole from his clients and then lied about it. he was indicted three times and beat all three indictments. and he worked for five years to beat our charges. we pursued him for five years and got him disbarred in the process. he accused us of being left-wing yo-yos, dead weitzebeats, and w doing what people accused joe mccarthy of doing. the fact is he had excellent lawyers and in the end he brought in great character witnesses like donald trump who swore that he was a soul of integrity. that was donald trump. in the end i signed a petition seeking to disbar him on all four counts, and the court on which his father sat granted that petition. >> matt, how did you portray president trump in this documentary? >> as the apprentice. there's no question about it. in the period when cohn was the leading mob attorney, he was als

did trump get his roy cohn and attorney general william barr? or his ruthless methods was also a friend, lawyer, approximate mentor to the current president. now a new documentary titled after that question shows how his lessons helped mold the career of donald trump, changing u.s. politics forever. >> trump settled, but that for him was a victory because he didn't do anything wrong. it's very consistent with roy's advice. never admit you're wrong. never apologize. >> joining us now, matt tyrnauer, director of "where's my roy cohn," and martin london, a retired lawyer who headed the committee that disbarred roy cohn. who is roy cohn? >> he was a fixer and a super lawyer and the mafia's attorney. he was donald trump's mentor and creator. many people have said that donald trump is roy cohn. the question "where's my roy cohn" might be answered with donald trump is his own roy cohn. >> as you were working towards disbarring roy cohen, what should we remember today? >> he was a thief. he stole from his clients and then lied about it. he was very, very

david: this president from have a roy cohn now? s: he said that because he was dissatisfied with jeff sessions, who had recused himself as attorney general because sessions wasn't firing mueller. there is no real -- one roy c ohn he has is bill barr. bill barr seems to give a legal exclamation that vindicates trump every time an issue arises. but there is no one quite so underhanded, so ethically incorrect, as roy cohn. he would always find a way out, and that is what attracted him to donald trump? david: as we take all of this, 3500 or more losses, anything wrong about it? james: it is wrong because he had a litigious personality. five times as many seats as all of the leading real estate people in america had mine.-- ha d combined, at least as many as the top five combined. it is abnormal, it is unusual. when the --one of the reasons he sued people at the drop of a hat. his chinese partner says he likes litigation for lunch. royever he was sued, a la cohn, he would claim for a billion dollars. courtsthe bar in the have certain rul

for his roy cohn. he wants giuliani to be roy cohn number one and barr to be roy cohn number two. should the committee take a look at that? yeah, they should take a look at that. but this is a president who shook down a foreign leader using taxpayer dollars that congress voted for. in terms of whistle-blower protection, i call on chuck grassley to just get out there now. i worked with him on the whistle-blower protection act many times. where is he? where are these republicans? they know, they say quietly according to republican friends of mine, that they're just disgusted, troubled and worried. get out there, put your country over your party. this whistle-blower complaint is so clear. a republican inspector general said it was credible, and we have a president who is breaking the law and we have his minions covering it up. it's up to the republicans to do what the republicans did during the nixon days, step out and lead the way here for justice. >> i believe the expression that you were referring to w

where is my roy cohn? >> he knew, roy cohn was trump's men tire.ing in the ear of mccarthy all of the time, and he brought us back to his version of the bad hold days. now we call it trumpism, but we need to understand what this is to understand where we are now. >> so his dark evil menacing spirit was first board leaning over the shoulder of joe mccarthy, the army of mccarthy hearings. nationally televised. roy cohen dies years later of aides. my question to you is his inability in that age and that era to be who he was. an openly gae man, he was prohibited from doing that. >> you have to look at the context. so we can't fault him for that. he was a deeply closeted gay man who was also j. edgar hoover. but this difference between the rest of the people. part of the witch hunts was going after the state department. so this level of hypocrisy and destroying of people who are the same of you is really world class and this becomes the problem and he repeats this throughout his career, and he is the one that gets the electric chair. this expresses a se

they're doing things where if you have not seen the roy cohn movie, where is my roy cohn?ness and turn it into a strength. and so they know they are in deep, deep trouble with this. the president's personal lawyer, he does not work for the administration. he's not a federal employee. he's a personal lawyer. the reality is, this is benefiting the democrats and ts that the more the democrats are pressing for the investigation of what was done in the ukraine, i invite it, because i am doing my job as poor defenseless lawyer who is defending his lawyer. >> what? >> we know he has gone on television and admitted that of course, i went there and asked them to investigate hunter biden and investigate joe biden and again there, he is saying that y'all keep reporting this story and i will keep saying what i am saying, and they are hiding in plain sight, and they are trying to throw dust in our eyes and get us off of the original story is which is what i think that is happening is that it is not going to work this time. it worked in '16, but it is not going to work now, because we a

that's how this attorney general is being used, as a roy cohn basely. and we also know he sided with the president in terms of the mueller report before, during and after. everything was basically juiced for the president's purposes by this attorney general. now you cite the attorney general as the one to deliver the call as if it's an institution immune to politics. this department of justice is totally politicized. >> the department of justice under our constitution, chris is part of the political branches of government. the a.g., like it or not, is a political appointee. that's why this is not fundamentally going to be solved by lawyers. this is political conflict between the two political branches of government and it's got to have a political solution which is either an election or an impeachment. >> you've said what i've been thinking so articletly now for months. lawyers are not going to solve this. it may not be about the letter of the law. it's like pornography, you'll know when you see it. and this has been committing a high crime. anyway, tha

. >> who also has a reputation as a roy cohn type and will do anything for this president. whistle-blower complaint also raised questions about mike pence's role and has presented a big test for the president's most loyal soldier. the vice president has been not addressed questions since the release of the whistle-blower complaint since thursday morning, hasn't said a word. and in may of this year the president instructed the vice president to -- meanwhile wall street germ reports privately against releasing, the vice president raised concerns about the pres dependent but ultimately fell in line with trump. after the notes were released from the whistle-blower president trump seemingly threw the vice president under the bus noting pence also had communication with the ukraine president during this same time period of the complaint. >> actually that was the second conversation. i should you should ask for the first conversation also. i think you should ask for vp pence's conversation because he had a couple of conversations also. i could save you a lot of time. they're all p

has been blurred in the trump administration you know, trump oftentimes says, "i'm looking for my roy cohntates and i fear that he has found his cohn in bill barr, who surprisingly to me has not lived up to what i expected him to be as an attorney general he's a little too compliant. a little too close to, you know, the president. >> seth: you've now taken on, i should say, are combatting gerrymandering and redistricting. >> yep >> seth: this is a huge issue that happens on the state level. and while we're all focused on sort of the presidential election, this is happening in real time. do you -- explain exactly how bad things are right now and what you're trying to do to combat it. >> well, we are trying to make sure that come 2021 when we redistrict, we have a fair process. i'm not gerrymandering for democrats. let's make it a fair process and if we do, democrats and progressives will do just fine but gerrymandering has resulted in really kind of things that are inconsistent with the will of the people. 90% of the american people favor background checks. you know, overwhelmingly also sup

he learned at the foot of roy cohn, who was one of the most despicable human beings ever to disgrace the earth. >> speaker pelosi still hasn't publicly endorsed impeachment proceedings. she says the situation with the whistle-blower and ukraine could precipitate what she called a whole new stage of investigation. do you need her onboard in order to move forward with impeachment, or is there willingness to do this with or without her blessing? >> we need her onboard to get the 218 votes to have the house officially impeach him, which would put the senate on the spot and cause several senators to have to show the american people are they with the constitution and the rule of law, or are they with donald trump? and for republican senators that are in difficult seats to defend -- and i would suspect that's arizona, that's maine, that's colorado, could even be texas -- it will be important to see whether they uphold their oath to the constitution or whether they go down as trumpers. >> congressman cohen, i appreciate your time. thank you. >> anderson, good to be with you. >>> we're going

birmingham have been made a scapegoat in this world in which trump trained at the knee of his con sillary roy cohnyou never back down, you fight back. makes this blunder. he doubles down on it. and where i think it's scary is not necessarily that life was, you know, in the balance, but the punching down. trump likes to punch down. he was hitting at the 1% during the primaries. here he's hitting -- or the administration is hitting gs-13 civil serve aantsservants. they're not the ones that can get fired. there are only three or four political appointees that serve at the will of the president and can be removed at will. the others are civil servants and there are protections for them. in is the most powerful man in the world pumpbing back at not a low level but a civil servant who should not be in his line of fire. that's disgraceful. >> that's scarier than -- >> i want to bring in peter beck. this is your reporting we're talking about here. correct me if i'm wrong, what i understood from your reporting, the concern wasn't that what birmingham had put out on twitter was necessarily inaccurate inform

the fact that this was based on the roy cohn school and the roger stone school, make a lie up.oe biden did not stop the investigation of the energy company to defend his son. he fired the investigator because he was not investigating the fuel company. the model is make up, distract, put the vision on something else . there is clearly evidence. why does the president have rudy giuliani acting as an ambassador? the constitution says any appointments must be confirmed by the senate. why doesn't he use his ambassador? because rudy giuliani is a whipping boy of the president. the fact they are picking on trump is absurd, we have to wait until we hear what the whistleblower has to say and what the report reveals. host: a lot of reaction to all of this yesterday on capitol hill if you were following us on the c-span networks, you were able to catch most of it. especially the action on the senate and house floor from c-span 2, here is senator mitch mcconnell, the senate majority leader giving his reaction. [video clip] >> the facts disappointed them, but the impeachment parade marching

which could wind up being then used by william barr, who essentially is behaving as donald trump's roy cohn. what's to stop mr. barr from, to please donald trump, to go ahead and prosecuting former secretary clinton, even if it's for nothing? what's to stop william barr from following through on what the whistle-blower said that he and mr. giuliani were going to work together to find a way to dig up some dirt on the family member of another private citizen, the son of the former vice president. i mean, do you trust these people, mr. pompeo, mr. barr, not to use their power to attack private citizens? >> okay, so the statute of limitations on all of this email stuff is five years. so we're way passed it. so i don't think that the criminal pieces of this can be resuscitated. but i take the spirit of your question, which is the trump administration and this president corrodes on downward. and you know, really undermines the independence of those at the state department, at the justice department, in places like that. and certainly, there are tools that they can do to try to exact retribution,