ronan farrow, terry cruz, the daily beast says am issued the same tactics were used against them by a.m.i. and it's something the media should be discussing. howie: when say there was involvement in the hush money payment. jessica: over the affair with playboy play mates didn't make it. howie: a.m.i. said this was a negotiation about naked pictures, not blackmail. they said the source to his was close to both jeff bezos and lauren sanchez. that's the line a.m.i. is taking. what's your take calling out the

"the daily beast" reports the brother of jeff bezos' mistress, launch sanchez, leaked the couple's privateexts to the "national enquirer." "the daily beast" says multiple sources inside the publisher of the "enquirer," ami, say michael sanchez supplied the texts to the tabloid. michael sanchez reportedly has personal and business ties to prominent figures linked to president trump. ami has refused to identify the source of the texts and declined comment to the "daily beast." michael sanchez also declined comment. besz accuses ami of trying to blackmail him. >>> "the miami herald" reports the woman whose abduction was caught on video is safe. the unidentified woman went into a tire shop friday to get away from a man. miami police released the video yesterday. a tire shop employee who didn't want to be identified witnessed the incident. >> takes her from the restroom and -- she's like 20 or 50 times. >> the man forced the woman into a car and then drove away. the worker says the woman was in tears and said she needed to hide because she feared for her life. police say they found the woman la

joining me, as promiseed, is the editor-in-chief of "the daily beast." i'm also joined by jonathan alter. a columnist for the daily beast and an msnbc analyst. and david christof. both have been to saudi arabia. i'm not going any time soon. >> you might like it, ari. you might not feel totally comfortable. >> i'm sure there are lovely people there. i'm not sure i would like the way the government plays ball, certainly the way they kill journalists. >> yeah. >> but before we get to that, walk us through new reporting tonight. most people who heard this story, even if you don't get into all the details say, wow, who thinks they're going to get away with trying to thuggishly take out and intimidate the richest man in the world. these cats. why? >> why? because they've been doing it foe decades. we talked to two private investigators today. they're both colorful characters, i might add. one is a former porn star turned private investigator. the other guy just got out of the joint for a gambling operation. >> our viewers can handle it. it's late friday night.

trump's campaign's national secretary kaley mcenany sent the following note to the daily beast. we are not in the business of taking pledges invented by the liberal online media. the pledge reflects real concerns about weaponizing stolen data after russians stole thousands of e-mails from the democratic national committee and hillary clinton's campaign chair during the 2016 election. this week we learned that a sustained and ongoing disinformation campaign on social media targeting democratic 2020 presidential candidates, some of it driven by foreign state actors, is already under way. politico reports there are clear signs of a coordinated effort of undetermined size that share similar characteristics with the computational propaganda attacks launched by online trolls at russia's internet research agency in the 2016 presidential campaign. which special counsel robert mueller accused of aiming to undermine the political process and elevate donald trump. the analysis by politico found that the same suspicious accounts engaged in this attack on 2020 democratic hopefuls were also li

is that possible for donald trump let's get to that and more with eleanor clift columnist for the daily beast political commentator and author she's an old dear friend she joins me from washington we surprise the. c.n.n. poll shows seventy six percent of you are approval of the save the union address. well first of all larry it's always good to talk with you i thought the president did a good job last night in all of this the at tricks of the state of the union the memorable moments that people in both parties can appreciate or a young girl you know battling cancer world war two heroes people surviving auschwitz i mean it was a it was a great made for t.v. movie he even brought me to tears at one point but the substance of the state of the union he didn't give an inch on the war he still holding out the possibility of declaring a state of emergency over the so than border and he really stuck it to the democrats you know basically saying that any chance of bipartisan accords on any of the issues he raised including an hiv unissued event and big reducing drug prices that nothing can happen as l

the daily beast is out today with some of the most detailed reporting on what preparing whitaker for his testimony tomorrow has been like. whitaker has gone through multiple practice committee hearings, known as muts, where justice department officials pepper him with questions that committee democrats mlob. that's according to multiple doj officials involved in the prep. they tried to prepare him for lengthy statements, harsh tones and leading questions. dozens of department officials have helped him prepare. those officials told the daily beast, working through the government shutdown to brief him and get him ready. among the questions they're preparing for him to field, did you have any communication with any white house official, including trump, about the possibility of your appointment as acting ag? did you consult with the white house about your decision to not recuse from the mueller problem before or after it was announced? and this one, have you ever received a briefing on the status of the special counsel's investigation? and if so, have you communicated any information yo

we have eleanor clift, who is an msnbc cent contributor, contributor for the daily beast and i used to watch her on mclaughlin group back in the day and we are moderated by bob cusack, editor in chief of the hill. >> thank you very much. thanks for coming out. and i think this will be a very fascinating discussion because you have veterans of washington politics. i first want to start with what's going on right now. not the snow, but the government shutdown. this is the longest shutdown ever now. we're entering week number four. congressman moran, how is this going to end? >> i wish i knew. the president doesn't know how it is going to end. nor do nancy and chuck. that's almost one word now. it's got to end pretty soon. the people are suffering. i think as soon as wall street reflects a certain amount of loss to the national economy, that may get the white house's attention more than the pleadings on behalf of federal employees. my guess is that we could easily go into february though, before we have a resolution. the resolution clearly is to pass all of the other appropriation bills t

the daily beast is reporting that michael sanchez, lauren sancnchez's brother, is also sususpected ashe source of the leak. denver public school teachers begin a strike today after 11th hour negotiations between the teachers' union and the school district failed over the weekend. the denver classroom teachers association is demanding an increase in teachers' base salary rather than putting money in incentives and bonuses. this will be the city's first teacher's strike in 25 years. transcanada said friday the keystone pipeline is likely responsible for an oil spill last week in st. charles county, near the mississippi river. a new study released thursday counted 137 oil spills in the us in 2018. in new york city, protesters took over the guggenheim museum saturday night to call out the museum's relationship with the sackler family, whose company, purdue pharma, produces the prescription painkiller oxycontin. artist nan goldin, who herself became addicted to oxycontin, has been leading calls for art institutions to stop taking money and disassociate themselves from the sacklers. goldin

. >> nancy cook, i want to read something from "the daily beast" today and get your take on it. this is about the white house legal team. "the president made clear to his outside legal team, which includes rudy giuliani and jay sekulow, that he didn't want his lawyers going anywhere even after the mueller probe ends, the conversations served as a private admission that investigations will be haunting him for possibly years to come. let's avoid passing judgment on competing journalists, but let me ask you if you're, in fact, hearing same thing. >> absolutely. and i think that that is why the cohen testimony is going to be so key this week because it basically will chart out other avenues that house democrats could take to investigate trump, but also federal investigators and prosecutors in new york could take. there are very few trump organization executives who are willing to speak publicly about what happened there the way they did insurance payments, paid taxes, potential other money that was paid to women. there have been two executives in the past, female executives who have

one thing the daily beast reported is the fact that the trump administration has forced interns to sign ndas and hasn't them them keep copies of them. nerd, if you're a young perhaps a college student trying to get started in the white house, trying to get your foot in the door in politics and you want to work in this white house, the prospect of financial ruin will be hanging over your head because of these ndas. to be crystal clear it is very much unclear whether or not they are legal or can be enforced in court. there is an interesting argument first amendment rights for these federal employees can't be enforced because the nda rather than the president being the person they're making the commitment to they'd be making the commitment to the united states as a country. the legal side is interesting and if an intern to tries to sue, it will be fascinating to watch but this is just trump's m.o. how he works. >> you heard her attorney saying they think it's totally null and void but another part. you talk about teflon don. this amazing thing about the equilibrium of his approval rating.

ronan farrow, terry cruz, the daily beast says am issued the same tactics were used against them by a.m.i. and it's something the media should be discussing. howie: when say there was involvement in the hush money payment. jessica: over the affair with playboy play mates didn't make it. howie: a.m.i. said this was a negotiation about naked pictures, not blackmail. they said the source to his was close to both jeff bezos and lauren sanchez. that's the line a.m.i. is taking. what's your take calling out the extortion for what he seize as extortion, and for trying to pressure him into dropping his investigation -- "the washington post" investigation into this mess. buck: people have mixed feeling about bezos' decision make on a number of levels. we saw this with peter thiel when he decided to go after gawker. a lot of conservatives believe it was a great service to the public. when you play games with billionaires and decide you are going to ruin their reputations and use your media outlet to do that, you open yourself up to this kind of retribution and counterattack. i think bezos understan

. >> joining me now with the inside scoop, reporter for the daily beast and elliott williams, former ssistant attorney general at the department of justice. lauchlin, your reporting goes to the source, i have to say michael sanchez, the brother of lauren sanchez has denied it as the attorney just said. you have reported that you have other information based on your sources. a yeah, it's interesting because we've been talking or trying to talk to michael sanchez for about two weeks now and he has steadfastly refused to deny that he was the source. but we do have multiple sources both within ami and within -- among folks who have spoken with ami leadership who have told us definitively that he is the source. obviously that still leaves many unanswered questions, why he did it, if his sister lauren had any involvement with it. these are things we're going to continue reporting out. but we are confident reporting at this point that he was the source of the text messages. >> we still don't know how these photos and texts were illegally obtained, whether it was a hack, or some other way at

he's got a new column at the daily beast and it's called "we have finally normalized trumpism." nger line at the end is this. "they say you never stand so tall as when you stoop to" -- can i say this on cnn? "kiss someone's ass. if 24s trthis is true, then tru surrounded by giants." matt lewis with the zinger. good to have you back, matt. that's quite a statement. can you tell me what you mean? >> well, in writing columns if you have a good lead, the opening, and a good kicker, the ending, then you've got a good column. >> congratulations. >> i think i succeeded at that. no, look, there's a real conundrum i think republicans have. let's look at lindsey graham as an example. >> sure. >> you have the choice to kind of stand up and be brave and tell the truth about donald trump in the case of the emergency order that it's not constitutional, it's not appropriate, it's -- the same thing that republicans and conservatives attacked barack obama for doing, for overstepping his authority. you can either have influence or you can have your dignity and your integrity. you can't have both i

according to "the daily beast," jeff bezos private texts to a woman were given to the "national enquirerby the woman's brother who was a trump supporter and friend of roger stone. michael sanchez and roger stone quote were in touch about the "national enquirer" story in the days after it ran. "the daily beast" received documents showing michael sanchez believed "the enquirer" perceived with president trump's knowledge and appreciation. they said saudi arabia could have an interest in harming him, since the newspaper he owns, "the washington post" has been so critical of the saudi arabia dictatorship after the saudi government had washington post columnist jamal khashoggi more murdered and dismembered. the "national enquirer" was concerned enough it may have acted as an agent of saudi arabia that it quote sought advice last year from the u.s. justice department over whether the publisher should register as a foreign agent after publishing a 97-page glossy magazine praising the kingdom and the saudi crown prince. as predicted on this program, when this story broke on thursday night, federa

and keene was hoping to meet putin according to an organizer's e-mail obtained by the daily beast. ne, who was on that trip, has not responded to cnn's calls for comment. but tonight after reporting from abc, the daily beast, and cnn, the national rifle association is now going on the record, distancing itself from that 2015 trip. an nra spokesman tells cnn, "nra president wayne lapierre was against the trip. and convinced the nra's president not to go." but democratic senator ron wyden who's investigating the trip, says that doesn't wash with him. >> it's just not credible to say that this was not an official trip. if you just look at the pictures which have come out, it's got official trip written all over it. >> reporter: the house and senate intelligence committees are investigating, because of concerns that russia may have been using the nra to support trump. >> we heard credible allegations that the russians may have been funneling money through the nra. so yes, we wanted to pursue this. >> reporter: robert mueller's team has also been asking recently about the trump campaign'

this is according to the "daily beast." this a possibility it leads back to the white house? >> it is a real possibility. it is important to be extremely clear about what it is we think we know and what we truly don't know. what we think we know is michael sanchez, the brother of the woman that bezos appears to be dating, that he's the one who supplied ami with these texts, with these stolen texts and photos. what we don't know, however, is why he did this. who asked him to do it? what he was paid or what he was compensated for doing it. why ami seems so interested in making sure that bezos doesn't suggest that the leaking of the initial information, that he had a mistress, was politically motivated. a lot of people are considering the possibility that this all ties back not just to the trump white house but to saudi arabia, the possibility that ami is working on a business arrangement with saudi arabia, with the crown prince, and that they didn't want anything to come between that business relationship. at the end, ami wasn

. >> betsy woodruff of the daily beast says whitaker has been preparing extensively for this testimony, she writes, a person familiar with whitaker's preparation told the daily beast, he's been gearing up for an intense few hours. they hate this guy so much, the source said, referring to the aggressive democrats on the committee, whitaker has gone through multiple practice committee hearings where justice department officials pepper him with questions the committee democrats may lob. also important here, the committee better hurry, because whitaker has days left on the job. bill barr has passed through the senate judiciary committee vote. once mcconnell calls the vote, he'll likely breeze through full senate confirmation, then he'll get sworn in and become the permanent and actual attorney general for the second time in his career. while whitaker gets to spend more time with his family. with us to talk about it, peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times," maia wiley, now with the news school here in new york and we welcome to the broadcast tal kopan. well com

so he posts this blog and then all of a sudden we hear from roan anyone farell, the ap, the daily beastefield a lot, brian. >> this story has everything. we're talking about the world's richest person, alleged blackmail plot, his sex scandal, love affair, alleged connections to president trump. but just on the specific idea of blackmail, there are more and more allegations as the hours go on that the "national enquirer" has engaged in this for years and that bezos is not the only one to experience it. ronan farell has been experiencing this. and we've seen more of this coming out and given the legal consequences here the stakes are enormous. >> i think we need to make clear what's going on is that bezos was investigating the "enquirer." >> trying to find out who leaked his love life, basically. >> and the inquirer is saying to them, brian, just to be clear, if you don't stop this investigation, if you don't back off this we will do what. >> we will pushliblish more of e photos we have of you. but if you come out and say we don't think was politically motivated, we'll bury those pictures

who has reported on the donald trump and the "national enquirer" and white house reporter for the daily beast reported. thank you, i'm going to go to you first. that ronan farrow tweet was intrigued. do you have anything more on whether or not there were -- because he says at least one other reporter, on other reporters that may have been threatened by ami. >> we at the daily beast will have more on what you were just talking about coming out soon. i'm sorry i can't get into it at the moment. to give your viewers a back story on this, as we reported at the daily beast.com last week, jeff bezos personally underwrote this private investigation headed by a guy named gavin debecker who has been jeff bezos top security guide, into how the leaked text messages got to the "national enquirer" and throughout the course of their investigation, their list of suspects became so narrow that in terms of who the leaker was, in terms of their top suspect, one name came to the fore and that was michael sanchez, the brother of lauren sanchez who is the jeff bezos to be a close as, both business and personal wi

the editor of "the daily beast" says one of its reporters was threatened with a lawsuit just days ago. >> they, in fact, threatened one of our reporters with a $5 million lawsuit if he didn't lay off. it's an outrageous tactic. >> reporter: ami has not responded to the latest accusation. the company that's used to exposing others, others are trying to expose. stephanie gosk, nbc news, new york. >>> this is peter alexander. tonight that jaw-dropping blog from jeff bezos may have plunged ami back into hot water. with federal prosecutors now reviewing an agreement the company made last fall to avoid prosecution. "the national enquirer's" publisher at the time admitted coordinating with the trump campaign to keep potentially damaging stories about then-candidate trump out of the headlines. by paying for the ories with us that practice to an allegation he's vehemently denied. >> they wanted to squash the story. >> you're sa wanted to protect donald trump? >> i'm assuming so, yeah. >> reporter: former trump lawyer, michael cohen, pleaded guilty to a campaign finance violation for arranging

reporter betsy woodruff at "the daily beast" has quotes from his mia e-mail in a new piece that "thest" just published today. the former nra president who was leading the delegation to moscow was angling on the trip to get a private interview with russian president vladimir putin. he said that the russian official organizing the trip had, quote, dangled the possibility of such an interview and therefore the nra delegation really needed to impress their russian hosts. quote, high stakes all around. erickson also appears to spell out in this e-mail that the trip to moscow was much more than a gun rights networking event. he wrote this to a member of the nra delegation who was about to head to moscow, quote, as we discussed over lunch in iowa, russia believes that high-level contacts with the nra might be the best means of neutral introduction to the next american president. this simple goodwill trip would have enormous diplomatic consequences for a future u.s./russia bilateral relationship to the world. it certainly appears from that e-mail that paul ericen is and one member of the nra

. >> "the daily beast" reports one possible source is michael sanchez, the brother of bezoss' mistress vocal supporter of president trump. sanchez has denied any role. >>> a stunning report revealed hundreds of cases of alleged abuse in the southern baptist church. nearly 400 church leaders and workers have been accused of sexual misconduct in the last 20 years against children and adults. more than 200 of them, including pastors, have been convicted or taken plea deals. the church is accused of mishandling allegations. the president of the southern baptist convention says he's committed to making sure the church does a better job preventing abuse. teachers in denver are set to go on strike for the first time in 25 years. schools will remain open with substitute teachers. only early childhood classes will be canceled. >>> the big weather story is in the pacific northwest. another sorm is dumping more snow. this could be the snowiest february on record for seattle. hundreds of flights have been canceled. schools are closed there. farther south, this is the scene near lake tahoe, califor

is that possible for donald trump let's get to that and more with eleanor clift columnist for the daily beast political commentator and author she's an old dear friend she joins me from washington we surprised. this should be as the c.n.n. poll shows seventy six percent of you are approval of the state of the union address well first of all larry it's always good to talk with you i thought the president did a good job less. tonight in all of the theatrical of the state of the union the memorable moments that people in both parties can appreciate or a young girl you know battling cancer world war two heroes people surviving auschwitz i mean it was it was a great made for t.v. movie he even brought me to tears at one.

the state of virginia i actually wrote a piece for the daily beast making the case that one of the first rules of political scandal is if you can hang on long enough you can probably survive bill clinton used to be exhibit a in that regard i think president trump certainly after the access hollywood tape is his now the prime exhibit but there are countless people even even in the state of virginia you had. former. governor chuck robb who survived allegations that he had had a on the saw as she went and inappropriate behavior and allegations that he was at parties where there was cocaine i mean he he survived there are any number of people on the republican side steve king of iowa who's made racially important remarks for a good long time is still in congress and. the governor of virginia it's a one term governor. it doesn't look like the legislature there has the appetite to impeach because pietschmann implies well fees and in the job and this is something that goes back and now there have been unsubstantiated allegations about the lieutenant governor and the attorney general has now ste

host: guest let me get your comt on what met lewis wrote for the daily beast. trump rested not on his character but on the fact that he said you would build a wall. they never stop to think that the guy who can't others -- who conningthers might be them as well. republicans need to be patient, and president trump cannot do this by himself. it is an effort that needs to be assisted by republicans in congress. paul ryan did not follow through on his promise after president $3mp is signed off on that trillion spending bill. paul ryan was supposed to help with the wall. that does not happen. he is no longer there. is republicans are not serious about the wall or immigration or security enforcement, that people need to look at the republicans as well. coulture anbnn and others who criticized the president, these are not people in the trunk republican party. some of them are just looking for attention, media attention to get their faces out there. host: our guest is stephanie hamill. people can follow you on twitter at -- guest: stephmhamill. host: and also at the dai

. >> reporter: the national enquirer" refusing to identify the source, but the daily beast reports it was sanchez's own brother, michael. in his bombshell blog post, bezos accused the pub lake of threatening to release explicit photos unless he stopped his investigation into how "the enquirer" got the photos and declare he has no knowledge or basis the coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces. the attorney for the chairman of the tabloid's parent company, david pecker, a long-time friend of the president, denying those allegations in an interview with george. >> jeff bezos says extortion, blackmail. >> it absolutely is not extortion and not blackmail. >> reporter: as for sanchez's brother, he's denied he was involvednexposing his sister's affair, but tells "the washington post," which is owned by bezos, the enquirer set out a takedown to make trump happy. >> amy, great to have you here. the focus might be on whoa leaked the text messages, the photos. the other major question in this case is whether or not federal prosecutors are still looking into what bezo

is that possible for donald trump let's get to that and more with eleanor clift columnist for the daily beast political commentator and author she's an old dear friend she joins me from washington we surprise the. c.n.n. poll shows seventy six percent of you are approval of the state of the union address well first of all larry it's always good to talk with you i thought the president did a good job last night in all of this the at tricks of the state of the union the memorable moments that people in both parties can appreciate or a young girl you know battling cancer world war two heroes people surviving auschwitz i mean it was a it was a great made for t.v. movie he even brought me to tears at one point but the substance of the state of the union he didn't give an inch on the war he still holding out the possibility of declaring a state of emergency over the so than border and he really stuck it to the democrats you know basically saying that any chance of bipartisan accords on any of the issues he raised including an hiv unissued event and big reducing drug prices that nothing can happen a

there was nothing that happened at the trump organization from whether it was in response as the daily beast story that you referred to ranking member that did not go through mr trump with his approval and sign off as in the case of the payments how many how many times did the president michael. ask you are direct you to try to reach settlements with women in twenty fifteen and twenty sixteen and i'm sorry ma'am i don't i don't have the answer to that i'd have to go back and try to recollect it's certainly the two that we know about. and. why why do you think the president did not provide the accurate information in his twenty seventeen hour financial disclosure form what was he trying to hide corrected other forms but it incorrect is the payments on the reimbursement of the funds that i extended on his behalf but can you elaborate more but going back into the story as i stated when we alan weisenberg and i left the office we went to his office in order to make the determination on how that money was going to be wired to the iola the interest on the lawyers account for keith davidson in cali

earlier i spoke via skype to know a shock man the editor in chief of media news website the daily beastit was being illegally threatened in the past by the national enquirer the national enquirer and its parent company trying to. cajole blackmail and otherwise harass syntax for years and i think it's really great that's not standing up to them they try to. process or reporting on you know the national enquirer experimenting and going about other threats are going to work with us and start to work with a lot of people so i hope it really starts to hold the scab also of what's been a really ugly practice for a very long time. two palestinians have been killed by israeli army fire during protests and on the gaza israel border one of the dead was a fourteen year old boy who was reportedly shot in the abdomen ican yunus at least seventeen other palestinians have been injured people in gaza have held weekly protests around the border for almost a year calling on israel to lift the siege and blockade. amnesty international is urging the african union to make sure egypt's upcoming chairmanship

joining us now is the reporter who broke the story, daily beast political reporter betsy woodruff. 's great to see you. thank you for being with us tonight. >> sure thing. >> i feel like there's two things happening at once. the nra appears to be kind of falling apart. appears to be kind of in meltdown. and they appear to be freaking out about whatever happened between them and russia. is it your understanding that this is about their worries about the moscow trip in 2015? is it about the arrest and the cooperation agreement of maria butina? do you have a big picture sense of what is so concerning to them? >> what i can tell you is that ironically the trump administration time period has been a surprisingly challenging window of time for the nra. historically the nra is at its most successful. it gets the most members and the most money when democrats are in power because the nra can push the narrative that a democratic president is going to steal your guns and use the regulatory power to drive up the cost of ammunition. so often when democrats become president or when they expand t

talk to your doctor about mavyret. . >> sam stein has a new piece in the daily beast. king about what the problems were in 2016 campaign. and i remember going through the 2018 cycle and the two campaign committees tried to find a pact to not use that data if it happened in 2018 and they couldn't come to an agreement so the question became what would happen in 2020? and the first instinct was well, let's see if every democratic candidate would come to some sort of pledge to not knowingly use anything hacked online against their opoens. and all the democrats said we'll have to ask the republicans too. and trump said he would not use posts by liberal media. >> so if wikileaks digs into someone's e-mail and publishes, they're on record saying they will not knowingly use published hacked material against their opponents. now, the tricky part which prohibited a pact from being formed in 2018 is what happens if a member of the media writes up something like this? a hacked document becomes a front page story the the "new york times," can the candidate realistically avoid talkin

now, let that all sink in and look at a brand new report from the daily beast which details the larger patterns. private investigators who have literally directly worked for them and the quote, war of blackmail that goes on and helps explain their business model and perhaps their brazenness they thought they could get away with this against the richest man in the world. joining me now as promised is the editor in chief of daily beast who can give us a lot more details. i'm joined by jonathan alter. both have been in saudi arabia and i have not. don't know i'm going any time soon. i couldn't pre-judge a whole region. >> you'd like it. you may not find it totally comfortable. >> maybe part of it. i'm sure i wouldn't like the way the government plays ball. certainly the way they kill journalists. before we get to that, walk us through new reporting tonight. most people who heard this story even if you don't get all the details say wow. who thinks they will get away with trying to thuggishly take out and intimidate the richest man in the world? these cats. why? >> because they have been do

. >> according to "the daily beast," the private consultant finished the source of the leaks and turnedt over to private lawyers. it's unclear if that happened or if the parties involved now just want this to go away. drew griffin, cnn, atlanta. >> rapper 21 savage is set to be released on monday wednesday. he was born in london and raised in atlanta. immigration officials say he had been in the u.s. illegally since 2006, when his parents failed to renew his visa. he was nominated for two grammys and was scheduled to perform at the show this past sunday before his arrest. >>> prison life seems to agree with comedian bill cosby, who calls it an amazing experience. he is serving three to ten years for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2004. his spokesman, andrew wyatt, says cosby is trying to stay in shape, even at 81. >> he says wake me up at 3:30 a.m. they wake hup im up and he exercises. in his cell, he does leg lifts and he pushes up against the bed to do push-ups to stay in shape. he showers and he waits for breakfast. >> aside from his attorney, wyatt is cosby's only visit

also with us, rick wilson a republican strategist and contributor to the daily beast, author of the book "everything trump touches dies." john, this is the end of the line for donald trump's wall, and tomorrow in the rose garden he tries to turn the corner apparently on the emergency idea. >> yes, he will -- he often claims victory when he loses. he often changes the subject when he loses. he will try to do both tomorrow. but i do think it's super important in the long arc of his presidency, you think of the past two years and two months, we have not seen any instance, until now we have not seen the congress assert itself, certainly not the republicans in the congress have said i'm sorry, we're done, the political consequences of sticking with you are too high until exactly now. and i think that is a water shed moment in this presidency because, to me, it is the most important math calculation of all math calculations that every united states senator has to do. does it cost more to stick with trump or cost more to -- does it cost more to abandon trump? for two years and two months the an

. >> julie pace with the associated lopes, jackie cosinik with "the daily beast "snoochlt. >> the president is right when he says they're not firing missiles in our neighborhood. michael cohen is going to be up before congress, a house committee asking him publicly for the first time about everything from stormy daniels to trump tower moscow to a whole bunch of other issues. my question is will the president keep his focus on chairman kim, or will he be furious about what's happening here in d.c.? >> i think there is no doubt he'll be watching what's happening in d.c. in the middle of the night in hanoi. we suspect he'll have a full day with kim on thursday, but perhaps something on wednesday as well. so this could be right in the middle of two delicate meetings. certainly michael cohen's situation has really infuriated the president. this is someone who, despite what he says publicly about cohen being level-headed, this is someone really central to his business. >> for decades. >> for decades. what he has full insight into is trump's businesses and that is part of trump's identity, and his

previous counsel and joe lockhart, i assume means he's running and the washington bureau chief at "the daily beast." i want to speak to this lawsuit. 16 states filed overnight essentially making two arguments, number one, the president can't go around congress and spend money and number two, there is not an actual emergency. the lawsuit states explaining rationale for the president the president candidly admitted the emergency declaration reflected his personal preference to construct the law more quickly rather than an urgent need for it to be built immediately. they cite this statement he made at the white house on friday. listen. >> i could do the wall over a longer period of time. i didn't need to do this but i'd rather do it much faster. >> the two arguments there, not an emergency, i didn't need to do this, number two, he can't spend money congress won't spend. which is more likely to sway the courts. >> i think actually the stronger argument legally is going to be the argument he has diverted the will of congress, he is misusing statutory authority as opposed to the argument that there isn'

. >>> joining us now, washington bureau chief for the daily beast jackie kuninich. you are hearing the message from the speech will be one of unity, bipartisanship. is that a message the president can deliver? >> not at this point. given the divisions between democrats, divisions in his own party, it's too little too late to say the least. not to mention his recent actions and the actions -- look at what phil was talking about with the shutdown. there could be another government shutdown in just a few days because of the president's and the congress's stalemate over what to do about the border wall. there hasn't been trust. there continues not to be trust. i don't think a state of the union speech will heal a lot of divisions that are very present right now in this country. >> it was a similar message to last year. a message of unity. we saw how that went. david, is a shutdown a real possibility? now hear on the hill, republicans included, working on a plan without the president's involvement here. if they don't have the president's support will they just find a way

i'm joined by white house correspondent for pbs and politics editor for "the daily beast." e white house. any indications beyond that trump tweet this morning about what kind of reaction from the president himself or those most cla closely around him. . >> reporter: you have the president wanting that to be thesenter of attention but really the center of attention was washington d.c. only a few people were left in the communications team. but calling michael ecohen a liar and i've been texting with personal lawyers and they say he shouldn't be believed. >> what are you expecting? the official word 100% dialled in on high staked meeting. is this something he's going oog have to be uncharacterestically quiet about until he's back here? >> who knows. i think the idea he's 100% dialled in is absurd. his twitter feed obviously contradicts that fact. one of his things is he tries to do things on the fly. he trusts his gut. so that is his negotiating tactic. tltsz that's what he's done in past meetings with kim and makes it a little bit disconcerning that what's proceeding this is