his biography of donald trump, "the making of donald trump." when we come back, the voting commission has its first meeting yesterday. donald trump addresses them. we will get the latest. then we will look at russia and the donald trump money trail. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: "rebel woman" by sena dagadu. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: the first meeting of a new presidential election commission was held wednesday in the face of weeks of controversy, seven lawsuits, and new calls for the resignation of its vice-chairman, kansas secretary of state kris kobach. president trump convened the presidential advisory commission on election integrity to look into his allegations of voter fraud during the 2016 presidential election. pres. trump: voter fraud occurs, it cancels out the vote of a lawful citizen and undermines democracy. can't let that happen. any form of illegal or fraudulent voting, whether by , andtizens or the deceased any form of voter suppression

that is donald trump jr.. donald trump jr.d nothing came of the meeting because the russian woman he met with wanted to talk about adoption instead of destroying hillary clinton's campaign. that story will probably work for donald trump jr.. as the investigation proceeds because this is not a donald trump jr. story. meaning he is not the person in the most trouble in this story. donald trump jr. is now serving as a very convenient heat shield for his brother-in-law, jared kushner, who was also in that meeting, and was included on the e-mails entitled russia, clinton, private and confidential. the e-mails that set up that meeting. >> donald jr might face some legal liability for soliciting something of value to a federal campaign from a foreign citizen. that is against the law. but it is not clear that law could be applied to this kind of meeting. jared kushner is facing a much more serious criminal liability as a result of simply having received that e-mail. that alone. the e-mail. that is a serious criminal issue. for jared k

a candy bar in the trump store at trump tower is $18.ea that donald trump can't have his neckties made in america and make a profit is absolutely absurd. this is bill is right. this is utter hypocrisy. steve is going off on all sorts of tangents about other issues. >> no, i'm not. >> you have to walk or talk or you have no moral authority authority. >> go ahead, steven. >> you talk about the big profits. when have you ever made a profit selling anything? this is what business is about. you have to provide the best product you can. >> i'm sorry, steve, i founded a successful company that makes a profit. >> right. >> well, look. >> i founded a successful company that makes a profit, steve. >> you never bought anything that was made abroad? >> nope. never did, not once. >> you never bought anything that was made abroad. >> never. >> you never made anything made in mexico or china or taiwan? i find that a little bit hard to believe actually. >> let me just interject another point. david k. johnson might be able to expound on this more. donal

what bannon did for trump was to take trump's impulses which trump developed on his own about free tradeand give it a kind of respectable intellectual framework. bannon used to say to trump, you know, you aren't a joke, you are part of a global populist uprising that we see sweeping across you're and great britain. do you remember in the campaign when trump was behind in the polls, who was ahead of him. niger. what did trump say he said we're going to be brexit. >> rose: it is to rise the forces of populism and nationalism. >> who is whispering in his ear telling him all that. >> rose: bannon. >> yes. >> rose: because bannon likes what had in brexit. >> he thinks he is in part responsible for brexit. one of the things -- bannon. one of the things bannon did at breitbart following the model of rene who is this tradition es who believes the path back to enlightenment to convert small pockets of people. what we consider today is thought leaders. bannon took that modeling started a breathe -- breathe parted in texas and los angeles and in rome to influence the vatican and started a breitbart

in trump world, it is okay to contradict donald trump jr. anyway. >> you know, you have to be a very, very, very flexible lawyer to take on this kind of assignment. these guys have to be nimble, pliable, you know, live. you know how it is. >> thank you, rachel. really appreciate it. >> thank you, lawrence. >>> well, tonight we are going to begin with this breaking news from "the new york times" that you've heard reported by rachel maddow. here is the first paragraph of that story. before arranging a meeting with a kremlin-connected russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about hillary clinton, donald trump jr. was informed in an e-mail that the material was part of a russian government effort to aid his father's candidacy according to three people with knowledge of the e-mail. the e-mail to the younger mr. trump was sent by rob goldstone, a publicist and former british tabloid reporter who helped broker the june 2016 meeting. joining us now, jill wine-banks, former watergate prosecutor, ron claim, former chief of

campaign adviser donald trump jr add meeting at trump tower in new york on a day that donald trump was there. with a russian lawyer connected to the kremlin. also in that same meeting which was first reported by the "new york times" were the president's son-in-law, jared kushner, now white house adviser, and paul manafort. then the campaign chairman. that meeting arranged for june 9, 2016 directly contradicts what trump jr told the times in march. did i meet with people that are russian? i'm sure i did. but none of that were set up. none that i can think of at the moment and certainly none that i was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form. after the "new york times" confronted trump jr about the meeting he then explained its purpose was benign. that they were merely discussing a program for american families to adopt russian children, which was suspended a few years prior. within hours that explanation was revealed to be at absolute very least woefully incomplete. trump jr's real reason for meeting with the lawyer according to five different advisers to the white house who

president donald trump. also what we're seeing here as well -- there is a divide between what the u.s. and south korea want in their policy with north korea and how to deal with the country. and then what china and russia wants. certainly this is something that is being played out here in south korea. media is focusing quite heavily on this perceive d divide betwen the two sides, them versus us, how to deal with north korea. china and russia asking that there is a halt in the u.s.-south korea military drills in return for a halt or freezing in north korea's nuclear weapons program. it's been rejected in the past. china has suggested this in the past. but it is a divide that is concerning some here in south korea. hannah? >> paula hancocks, thank you very much. in seoul, south korea. >>> well, moscow is urging washington to end its joint military drills that it conducts with south korea. matthew chance is with us now live from the russian capital, moscow. the u.s. and russia at loggerheads again over what to

earlier this week, we saw evidence that the trump administration and the trump family eagerly intended to collude with russia, a hostile foreign-policy to influence an american election. today we learned a foreign russian agent was also present at the trump meeting. members of congress take a sacred of, i do solemnly swear, and that is to uphold the constitution of the united states with what our responsibility is. the president also takes that both. speaker ryan has avoided any response by the republicans, any positive action to uphold the constitution of the united states. in terms of our electoral system, our democracy. earlier this week, i called upon him to give us a vote on this independent commission. outside independent commission to investigate the ties to russia. what do the russians have politically or financially and any personally on donald trump? that he fonds over putin, questions sanctions, is reckless when it comes to article five of nato, the list goes on and on. people have a right to know. maybe it will clear the air. maybe it won't. we know one thing for sure, we h

doing we have been pulling from trump country. trump voters.ne thing you learn, a fair amount of them don't agree with the approach on health care or agree with what he did on climate change. they think that he is a change agent. he's the biggest change agent they can see. that's important to them. is not of the reasons he succeeding his washington is a hard place to change. there is a sign he is effective. they think he's fighting for their jobs when he strong arms american companies. they see that as proof he's going to washington and fighting for our jobs. those are still very powerful things. they get lost in the debate about policy prescriptions and policy legislation. trump voters are still very much in there. charlie: we will be right back. stay with us. ♪ ♪ charlie: steve bannon is one of the most divisive figures in american politics. a harvard business school graduate with blue-collar roots and was the driving force behind the right wing breitbart news website when donald trump appointed him the head of his campaign. widely credited w

league by trump.odel is to build his name —— directly. business model is to build his name -- directly. there is a figure from last yea r‘s -- directly. there is a figure from last year's c n n money. they looked into the whole trump organisation and that is the figure they came up with. what are you saying, that he doesn't build... he leases brand trump. to say there is 34,000 employees under the trump brand. ——i am just saying. is he more than a brand in that he stands for policies, very clear policies and he ta ps policies, very clear policies and he taps into the zeitgeist when he says, look, i'm not happy about globalisation. he said, in particular about globalisation in june last year, it makes that elite very wealthy that has left millions of our workers with nothing but poverty and heartache. he is not the only political figure poverty and heartache. he is not the only politicalfigure on poverty and heartache. he is not the only political figure on the right thatis only political figure on the

eric trump denied the claim. donald trump jr. in 2008 touted the ties to russia at a real estate conference. saying russians make up a disproportionate cross-section of our assets. saying we see a lot of money pouring in from russia. then there's jared kushner. the postreports mueller is investigating jared kushner's finances. as kushner's company was seeking financing for its troubled $1.8 billion purchase of an office building at 666 fifth ach in new york. "the wall street journal" says they're investing possible money laundering by p.m. who's reportedly in debt to prokremlin interests for $17 million before he joined president trump's campaign. >> the ongoing probe by mueller says he's finding the strike zone, and is continuing to gather documents relevant to his choirry. and those include records and business dealings close to the trump campaign. we don't know what's happening in mueller's investigation but according to to a new report in bloomburg, which is based on an unnamed report, and has not been confirmed. mueller expa

trump. calling for mass protests against him. but are her radical policies a panacea for the current ills in the united states? naomi klein, welcome to hardtalk. happy to be here. you have just written a new book, no is not enough. is it anything more than just another liberal critique of donald trump? what i am trying to do with the book is really focus less on donald trump the personality, the extremist, the shock machine who has everybody gasping with his tweets and put him into the context really off the past 40 years of economic history and how we arrived here. and he makes sense in this culture where we have had the triumph of lifestyle brands where we have humans merging with corporations, we worship wealth, where consumption is a way of life. we have a dominance—based logic in our economy at every level so i think trump makes sense and i want to put him in context. and in what way does he epitomise or that the personification of the merger of humans and corporations because you say,

trump, jr. someone of that magnitude and that level, you would have to have some kind of explanations as to why you would be meeting. and again, at that time, this was around a very important time. the president -- well now president trump, but candidate trump at that time early on has major security and secret service there so if you were coming to that building there was a reason to come to that building. that reason according to this news article, this breaking news, that the reason was to give information about the clinton campaign so he had a reason. it makes sense. it sm what falls into place and understanding as to why there was a meeting. right now it's alleged. >> i did hear the conversation on getting into the trump tower, what did you have to do, show id, this was before he game the nominee. each time i one i had to show identification at the elevator to get up to the floor at least where the trump family. >> and explain. >> and explain why you're here. i'm from cnn i'm doing an inter

trump unquote. in a new interview tonight trump jr. siz he did not tell his father about a meeting with a russian lawyer. he claimed there was nothing to tell but the new york times is reporting that president trump was involved in the damage control about this story in recent days. signing off on his son's initial and incomplete account of his meeting with that russian lawyer. tonight cnn has learned that special counsel bob mueller is planning to investigate that meeting and that donald trump jr.'s email exchanges will be part of that as well. the times is also reporting the emails were only discovered after jared kushner updated his security clearance form after initially failing to disclose his involvement in the meeting. we'll ask president trump's lawyer what mr. trump knew and when. recover -- we're covering this breaking story from every angle. let's begin with the breaking emails. between jared kushner and goldstone. goldstone spells out that the russians were offering quote official documents and informations that would incri

donald trump jr. does it point to collusion with the russian government? and who is the lawyer allegedly claiming to have dirt on hillary clinton? >>> plus, donald trump and chelsea clinton dueling on twitter over ivanka. investigators want donald trump jr., the top democrat wants answers from the president's son. senator mark warner calling donald trump jr.'s meeting with the russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign the first, quote, clear evidence that members of the trump campaign met with russians with the specific goal of hurting hillary clinton's campaign. now, donald trump jr. was joined by paul manafort who was then trump's campaign manager and jared kushner and top adviser in that meeting. >> it's also a continuing pattern that we've seen since the election of trump campaign and trump administration officials who have conveniently forgotten meetings with russians only when they are then presented with evidence they have to recant and acknowledge those kinds of meetings. >> so what pattern is w

donald trump jr.'s revelation that he met last year with a russian lawyer promising dirt on hillary clinton. there's that and there's donald trump jr.'s changing story about it. there's also repercussions. more on all of it now from our jeff zeleny. >> reporter: the white house faces a new round of questions tonight over potential collusion between the trump campaign and russians during last year's election. fresh off president trump's meeting with vladimir putin, it is another meeting in june of 2016 between donald trump jr. and a russian lawyer that's drawing fresh scrutiny. the russian lawyer, known for her opposition to u.s. sanctions against russia over human rights, said she had damaging information about hillary clinton. the white house on the defensive again, insisting president trump didn't know about the session in trump tower that came only two weeks after he clinched the republican nomination. white house spokeswoman sara huckabee sanders said the president only learned about it in the last

he says that's one of the reasons he was in the room with -- at trump tower with the trump teal.here's an entirely different story coming out of those e-mails from goldstone. but rinat, the fact that his presence at the meeting was only disclosed yesterday adds a new layer of ip trying to this meeting which obviously is dogging the trump team and the russian investigation. >> knowing now that there are more people in the room, what more have we learned about the details of the actual meeting? >> well, you know, veselnitskaya gave an exclusive interview to nbc news early last week and we learned a lot then. rinat akhmetshin has now added to the story. we're learning more about a document that they may have either shown to or turned of to the trump team that purported to discuss what they viewed as questionable b contributions to the democratic national committee. but it seems like the trump team didn't think much of this, didn't think it was actually derogatory information that they could use in the campaign and they sort of dismissed it. at least that's the account we're getting

son donald trump, jr.. kushner also testified during a closed-door session with the house intelligence committee for about three hours on tuesday. meanwhile in a direct challenge to president trump, the house of representatives voted 419-3 tuesday to give progress the power to block any effort by the white house to weaken u.s. actions against russia. this is congressman david sizzling. cannot allowply any foreign power to interfere in our electoral process given our residents complete unwillingness to hold russia, but for their attack, let's not mistake it for anything else, it has become necessary for commerce to assert itself in this area and ensure russia will be held accountable. amy: president trump intense but his threats during a rendering a speech in youngstown, ohio, on tuesday. pres. trump: the aranda, which may be the single worst deal i have ever seen drawn by any body conformat deal does not to what it is supposed to conform to, there is going to be big, big problems for them. that i can tell y

trump. government. donald trump jr.' quote, if it's what you say, i love it, especially later in the summer. in other words, closer to the election. and now this tonight. >> do you tell your father anything about this? >> no it was such a nothing there was nothing to tell. >> so let me ask everybody at home this. why should you -- why should any of us believe that? this interview is like his fifth attempt to defend the indefensible. don junior is the latest person to mislead you about the russian dealings. michael flynn, attorney jeff sessions, his own son-in-law and now the closest yet, his name sake, donald trump jr. so no one knows exactly where this investigation's going to end up, what it's going to uncover. the president and his supporters have said time and time again this is fake news, it's a witch hunt. please, it's time to end that garbage. read the e-mails

trump.ts. it is like jared -- if you received an e-mail that said that and you were unaware of russian government efforts to support your campaign, wouldn't your answer be, the what efforts? the what russian efforts? he said, i love that. especially later in the summer. he takes it in stride. took the meeting. they took the meeting as a courtesy, he claims. nothing came of it. but i took meeting as a courtesy to an acquaintance. was trump jr polling cush mer and manafort, was he pulling them into meetings as a courtesy to someone he didn't even know that well? other thing is i feel like people are taking it as a given that the story about nothing came out of the meeting is true. i think that's possible. russian oligarchs want sanctions appeal. they would ask for that even if nothing offered in return. people all have good reason to want us to think that nothing good came out of the meeting. we should consider the possibility that something came out of meeting. >> latest breaking news from ne

that's how trump talks.said the decision on recuse ultimately led to the appointment of robert mueller as special counsel. he said mr. mueller was are running the office rife with conflicts of interest and they would cross a red line if they delve into the trump family finances unrelated to russia. author of the new book, devil's bargain. steve bannon, donald trump and the storming of the presidency. the white house correspondent with reuters and he quent "the new york times." i pick it up here. he basically threatens mueller here in your interview with your paper. it means don't ask for my tax returns. >> even more so. he leaves open the possibility of potentially firing mueller if he crosses him, including on this red line that he just seems to lay out regarding his business. it is important to note that it is not delving into his businesses generally but that are not related to russia. what you see here throughout the interview is his obsession on the russia investigation. the reporters here tried to talk

they still do whatever they want in syria, so trump campaigned on putin likes trump, trump will use thatetter relationship. why isn't this meeting just an extension of that effort? >> you know, chris, i'm not sure that the american people, the average american, the majority of americans support a weak policy towards russia. we need to be effective in the world. we're the global leader and be need to stand up for nato. president trump has to be careful here. the issue that he is chosen as president and presidential candidate to make a single policy issue, i'll make a better relationship with russia, he's not playing it correctly. putin has been 18 years in this game. he's very tough minded and very cynical. the way i think we've dealt successfully with him in the past, president clinton, president george w. bush and president obama, is you have to draw the line. you have to show putin where he can't go and president trump has not done that. i think you're seeing a rebellion by senior republicans in the senate who want this sanction bill to pass. they voted 97-2 to pass it. the trump admin

about his trump hotels. i mean, he did nothing but, you know, throw obama under the bus for ever going on a holiday or anything. trump has taken more holidays than i think any president living, you know, or any president. he's taken -- i mean, he just started and he's taken like 40 different days. so he's a complete sham as far as i'm concerned. host: steve, thanks for weighing in. we'll get to more of your calls in just a minute. some of your tweets. it is alarming how many trump supporters ignoring the facts that it is not hillary or obama that documented russia's help. i'm concerned that the republicans will tramp whatever it takes to block him. send us a a tweet at @c-spanwj. shawn here on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. . trust mueller 100% trump is a crook. it is amazing how trump supporters just ignore anything. and that one trump supporter caller that you had talking about obama lackeys, that's like blaming the black man for everything. i mean, trump's son got caught in the

and that is what donald trump jr. was expecting, according to those e-mails. >> and welcoming. >> i love it. we will never forget that quote. >>> chris snyder outfront for us at the white house. jessica, what is the white house saying about this -- these ever evolving details of this meeting? >> reporter: nothing just yet, kate. the president himself staying silent. he said nothing aboard air force one, has said nothing now that he's arrived in nurng at his golf club and also hasn't said anything of these new details on twitter. his son has not been eager to issue a subsequent statement as he was this past weekend when he issued one statement on saturday, one on sunday and released those e-mails and did an interview on tuesday. donald trump jr. saying nothing tonight. also his lawyer who said earlier this week that all of this was much adieu about something, cnn has reached out to that lawyer. he has not gotten back to us. but one person who is speaking about this is michael caputo. he actually met with the house inte

trump, closed quote. trump jr. replied, quote, i love it. the russian lawyer who met with trump and his colleagues said they want the information badly. president trump has been uncharacteristically silent on the russia meeting and his son's involvement but issued a simple statement today saying, and i'm quoting, my son is a high quality person and i applaud his transparency. lawmakers are not staying silent. there are bipartisan calls for the president's son to appear before congress while hillary clinton's former running mate, senator tim kaine, said trump jr. may have even committed treason. i'll talk with senator richard blumenthal. the white house is clearly on the defensive right now over this truly stunning revelation by donald trump jr. let's begin with our senior white house correspondent jim acosta. jim, take us through the e-mails and the president's rather subdued reaction. >> they are not loving it over here at the white house, wolf. the president defended his son today not in a tweet but in a sober statement read by the white h

trump." government. donald trump jr.'s response back then -- "if it's what you say, i love it, especially later in the summer," in other words, closer to the election. and now this tonight. >> do you tell your father anything about this? >> no. it was such a nothing, there was nothing to tell. >> so, let me ask everybody at home this. why should you, why should any of us believe that? this interview is like, i think his fifth attempt to defend the indefensible. don junior is the latest person in the president's orbit to mislead you, the american people, about their contacts with russia. former national security adviser michael flynn, attorney general jeff sessions, his own son-in-law and top aide, jared kushner, and now the closest yet, his namesake, donald trump jr. so, no one knows exactly where this investigation is going to end up, what it's going to uncover. the president and his supporters have said time and time again that this is fake news! it's a witch hunt! please, it's time to end that garbage. read the e-mails

trump. i can also send this information to your father, but it is ultrasensitive, so wanted to send to you first." trump jr. then replies, "thanks, rob, i appreciate that. if it's what you says, i love it, especially later in the summer." it appears former presidential campaign paul manafort and donald trump's son-in-law, jared kushner, knew about the e-mail prior to meeting with the attorney because trump jr. forwarded them the e-mail. joining me now is cnn political director david. it's interesting to hear sarah huckabee sanders refer all questions to the attorney. >> we know that's nothing to applaud because "the new york times" was going to release these e-mails, but yes, the other thing i thought was interesting that sarah huckabee sanders did in the brief, anderson, was this commitment to saying that there's no distance between the vice president and the president. she was asked about that, because the vice president has issued a statement saying, you know -- >> yeah, i have the statem

trump. she actually got it, and she sank manafort's position. would you start prosecuting people from the dnc for having done that in january? >> that's a false equivalent. that's not quite the same as russia, who is about to be med 88ing or has been meddling into the election. and who the intelligence community would later show they wanted to sway the election in trump's favor. >> that's certainly our assumption. and let's face it, from an optics viewpoint that is different. from the viewpoint of law and what bob mueller has to prove -- i feel sorry for him. he has to prove this is different from solicitation. i'm not sure that's going to be easy to do. >> the law and politics, sometimes not always on the same page. thank you very much. appreciate your time, sir. thanks for coming in. >> most relations on capitol hill refuse to break ranks with trump on the russia investigation until now. this time, it's different. we'll head to the capital for a live report. and more breaking news moments

the fact the trump campaign paid 50 grand to trump junior's attorney? i'm not involved in the discussions with the lawyers on who paid what entity and i don't represent donald trump junior. in a situation like this, this is not an unusual situation where the individual that's being questioned or subject to questioning, donald trump junior, retains counsel. involved in an incident that involved an e-mail campaign and when he was working, doing work for the campaign. that is not an unusual scenario or set up at all. i don't know the final determination of who is paying what bills to whom. i think that's still in process. >> i think a lot of people who give money to the trump campaign will be surprised they are paying for the legal bills for donald trump junior. thank you so much for your time. we appreciate it. >> thanks, jake. appreciate it. >> donald trump junior says he is happy to share what he knows with the senate committee investigating. will he be willing to testify publicly? that story is next. [car tires screech] [bell rings] when you switch to

trump got elected and putin got trump. know what, coming out of that meeting, that is very much the way it looked. it's certainly the way the russian public took it as we reported out of moscow. they basically said these are two alpha males and one of them went belly up and flopped on his back. that was president trump. look at the situation here. you have two of the most experienced leaders or statesmen, if you will, in the world, vladimir putin and sergey lavrov on one side. and then amateur president and amateur foreign secretary or secretary of state on the other side, rex tillerson. who do we think got the best of that discussion? why did it go on for two hours and twenty minutes. was that, in fact, because of translators or was it, in fact, because -- i don't know this but one can expect that putin decided he needed to explain a few things to president trump, who clearly doesn't understand a lot about the way the world works. so putin can tell him, this is the question with cyber war, cyber security. it's a big probl

trump called it the trump's show in the '80s.n he's creating his celebrities by turning his extramarital affairs into a life action soap opera. he said the show is trump and it sold out everywhere. he understood the power of distractions and now we got the trump show and trump is directing some of it. some of it is imposed on him and being directed by others. all of it is reality of tv show and who's going to be voted out of the administration next. comey or steve abandon or trump himself will be voted out through impeachment. you cannot compete with that. that's the argue. this is so dramatic that how could we possibly spend ten minutes really unpacking the influence of goldman sachs on the administration and what his tax policy is going to mean todt to daily life. that requires qualifications. it does require digging in and that was not done during the election in terms of explaining the stakes. it is no t beit being done and g as it is reality tv show. trump knows that game and he knows it better than anybody else. >> that's w

trump. and the big question was, were there any links? was there any collusion? of course, there was lots of back and forth on that, and that was something that was denied at every single step by the white house. by the vice president, by the president, consistent denials of that fact. and then it's not fake news. it's not cnn, it's not the "new york times," it's not the "washington post," anybody else the president has labeled fake news, it is his own son who said essentially i was looking forward to a meeting with a russian attorney who told me that they had incriminating information on my opponent. so in some ways, the question of whether there was a link now has been solved much to the destruction of the white house's credibility. now our job is to figure out what else is there? you know, was there further contact, was there further working together? does this rise to the level of a prosecutable crime? >> and congressman, speaking of more evidence, could there be more e-mails out there?

you have donald trump jr.a substantial portion of our assets are coming from russia, you have trump selling lots and lots of real estate, condos to russians, over and over again. have you in your reporting all these decades on donald trump seen a pattern of him making, doing this much business with anyone else or are russians sort of uniquely positioned to constantly feed him money? >> donald is deeply involved with the russians and to some extent the communist chinese banks that he owns money through, through various business entities, because american banks won't lend money to him. remember, donald said after the fact, i borrowed money knowing i wouldn't have to pay it back. well, try that with your banker and see if you can get a loan. and the russians have exploited this. they clearly think of him as an asset, and if you look at what's just leaked that was in the earlier segments being discussed, how convenient, when you're trying to find a way to get rid of your prosecuteor, in trump's case, robert muelle

president trump has taken a very different look at that. you couldn't think of two more opposite figures in temperament, personality and outlook on life than president trump and president obama. president obama was reserved, not a people person, not given to bombastic statements, sometimes cautious to a fault. sometimes his own staff would grow frustrated by the lengthy policy reviews before he finally came to a decision, but he was a very, you know, controlled, disciplined figure. president trump is the opposite. he's impulse, unrestrained, there are no unfiltered thoughts. he sun managed by his staff, something his supporters think is a good thing, and he has decided to basically govern in the way he ran his reality television show. it's basically a very much ad hoc kind of sometimes unprecedented sort of, you know, type of presidency. >> glasser: yeah, but barack obama, just to offer the counterpoint, came into office also determined to undo george w. bush's legacy and talked a lot about restoring america's standing in the world. obama c

donald trump jr. and paul manafort are also working with the judiciary committee to be interviewed, at least behind closed doors. all of this is in the front. this is the important stuff. then you have the other stuff, this shake-up in the west wing on who is going to speak for the white house. sean spicer resigning and anthony scaramucci taking over today as communications director. >> i'm close personal friends with jay sekulow and with john dowd. and i'm making sure that we're on message and handling ourselves in the most aprop pree eighty way possible. i haven't been briefed yet by the white house counsel about what is appropriate to talk about from this podium. therefore, i don't want to take any questions related to russia. >> a source close to kushner said while he doesn't have an exact plan for an overall russia response, he's been angry there wasn't a more robust effort from the communications team. an outside adviser says spicer has publicly griped about the demands from kushner. joining us

donald trump jr. provided cnn with the following statement. i quote, i was asked to have a meeting by an acquaintance i knew from the 2013 miss universe pageant. i was not told her name prior to the meeting. i asked jared, and jared and paul to attend, but told them nothing of the substance. we had a meeting in june 2016, after pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated she had information that individuals connected to russia were funding the democratic national committee and supporting miss clinton. her statements were vague. and ambiguous, made no sense. no details or supporting information was provided or even ordinary. it quickly became clear she had no meaningful information. she then changed subjects and began discussing the adoption of russian children, and mentioned it. it became clear this was the true agenda all along and claims with potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting. i interrupted and advised her my father was a private citizen, and that her comments and conc

friday nights are very news heavy in the trump administration. according to night's front page scoop in the washington post, mike flynn was warned explicitly that his conversations with russian officials was quote undoubtedly being monitored by the fbi and the nsa. there are interesting questions about what's happening with the department of justice and paul manafort. is jeff sessions involved in any work at the department of justice concerning paul manafort or is he recused. we can report tonight that the justice department will not say. we started asking yesterday. we asked throughout the day today. we have asked it five times in five different ways including me making the request myself personally multiple times in as many different ways as i could think of it. they will not say whether or not he's recused. he has recused on flynn they say. he is recused on things related to the trump campaign broadly. they won't say about manafort. so we have news to break tonight. another subpoena has been issued as part of the ongoing investigations into pr

he is very similar to trump.got his company to license a show and then remove the host so he could host the show. they're very similar. who better to host the show than someone like trump? >> it does seem what donald trump is doing is he is amassing a mini army of people who will go around the table and tell him how wonderful he is but also have that secondary element of looking tv the way donald trump expects a person to look on tv? >> sure. the good suit, the hair product, the wall street look. he is this titan of industry. and scaramucci tries to play that same kind of role. with the relentless sucking up vacuum. he is on fire with how much he lost donald trump. >> there is something about it that is a bit authoritarian. the way people around those leaders talk about it. but it is interesting. i want to turn back to sessions for a moment. one of the things we do see reported in the "washington post." an attempt to undermine bob mueller. to try to cast dispersions. one way they're doing it is by talking about,

trump loves general. -- less generals -- trump loves generals.ie: at every stage in which trump was in trouble, he seems to go back to the base. is that the influence of bannon? josh: i understand why it was covered the way it was. the puppet master, as president -- that was the "saturday night live" for trail. i think that got him slightly wrong. to do something that trump doesn't want to do, the kind of pitbull that will go out there and fight for him no matter what. that is what donald trump wants the staff to do. it seems like people fall out of trump's orbit, but never forever. roger stone was in and out, and trump still calls him. his lawyers don't want him to do it. one of the things that bannon did to prop up this legal team is to reach out and try to find a model for what trump should do. the model he landed on is the lenny davis model. what bill clinton had done to try to protect his administration from the whitewater probe. at every stage, exactly. and was also a lawyer and very good at doing this on television. bannon thought that is

trump. again, this was actually written in an e-mail to don jr. i can also send this information to your father, but it is ultra sensitive. so wanted to send to you first. and, also, check out what don jr. in part replied. thanks, rob. i appreciate that. if it's what you say, i love it. okay. just want to stop there so we can digest this part of it and the magnitude of what this may or may not mean. i want to bring in jim sciutto and jeff zeleny. jim, talking as we were getting ready to go on, both just aghast this is actually in an e-mail, never mind actually happened. >> this is momentous. right? we've been covering the story, this question of collusion, for months now. still a question. based on meetings, perhaps an unusual number of meetings with unusual parties. russian parties. to this point, that's what this question in the investigation has been based on. meetings. but we didn't know the reason for the meetings what it was, or what happened in those meetings. now we have a meeting an

trump.he response to ted cruz, senator cruz, i'd love to talk about that. >> we did. just for their information, we did talk about poland. we find that kind of stuff interesting. we want to bring in jaf rery jacob vich, represented officials in the clinton white house. i don't know if you had a chance to look at e-mails, put out via twitter by donald trump jr. himself. they directly contradict those statements he also put out on twitter himself in which he said this woman as she said publicly was not a government official. i guess that may be technically accurate but the e-mails show clearly this is russian government information gathered by the crown prosecutor of russia to help donald trump and his campaign. >> that's right, ali, what you have is definitive information showing that the russian government is involved and that trump jr. and kushner and manafort are going to a meeting where they are expecting to obtain information that was helpful in terms of dirt on hillary. >> what now what

donald trump jr. changes his story about a 2016 campaign meeting, now admitting he met with a russian lawyer hoping for information on hillary clinton. >>> impenetrable or not? president trump changes his story about working with russia to form an impenetrabl erke cyb security unit. he dropped the subject as soon as he brought it up. >>> false accusations of classified information. >>> world leaders let kim jong-un's long-range missile test pass without any apparent consequences. are they giving north korea a green light? >>> i'm wolf blitzer. you're in the situation room. >>> breaking news. the vice chairman of the senate intelligence committee, senator mark warner, said the president has clear evidence that the trump campaign saw damaging information about hillary clinton from a possible foreign agent. that comes as donald trump jr. changed his story about a meeting during the campaign, admitting he met a russian lawyer hoping to collect information on hillary clinton. also attending were then-campa