thanks one and all for joining me here. here is the ironic statement of the day. follow me on facebook and twitter at jake tapper. tweet the show at t "the lead." and i turn you over to the situation room with wolf blitzer. >> happening now. breaking news. follow the money. the fbi agents who raided the offices of president trump's personal attorney, were looking for errors about the two women who claim to have affaired with donald trump and the white house insists the president has the power to fire robert mueller and a top republican senator warns that is suicide. the democrats think -- what if the president fires rod rosenstein.

>> facebook mark zuckerberg is apologizing for failing to prote protect users, calling it a big mistake and vowing to make changes but is that enough to stop the scandal. and president trump is weighing military options to strike back in syria after promising everybody is going to pay a price for a chemical attack on civilians. we're going live to damascus. >> i'm wolf blitzer, you're in the situation room. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> breaking news. cnn learns the raids on president trump's lawyer targeted records relating to payments to a porn star and a former play sources say the president's anger at the raid surpasses all of his previous tantrums. the white house thinks special counsel robert mueller has gone too far and believes he has the power to fire him but there are bipartisan warnings from congress with a powerful

republican senator saying that would be suicide. i'll speak with ben cardin. and our correspondents and specialists standing by with full coverage. first straight to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta for the very latest. jim. >> reporter: it was a stunning statement from the white house that president trump believes he has the authority to fire special counsel robert mueller. while the white house is flirting with that possibility, top lawmakers as you said up on capitol hill are warning the president such a move could mean the end of his presidency. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> still furious but sieging behind closed door, president trump declined to answer whether he's considering a move to try to end special counsel robert mueller's investigation. but the white house made it clear the president thinks he has the authority to fire mueller. >> i certainly believe he has the power to do so. the president has been clear that he thinks that this is gone too far and beyond that i don't have anything to add. >> reporter: the other looming question is whether the

president could force out or constrain mueller by firing attorney general jeff sessions or deputy attorney rod rosenstein. who could name a different special prosecutor. asked about the fate of sessions, who showed up at of all places a celebration for the alabama college football team -- >> mr. attorney general, have you spoken to the president today. >> not today. roll tide. >> reporter: the white house didn't exactly hold back the blitz of questions. >> i think the president was pretty clear about his frustrations when he spoke about that last night. >> while the raid at the office of the president's personal attorney michael cohen was ordered bit u.s. attorney's office in new york and not mueller, mr. trump is outraged at the special counsel. according to justice department rules, rosenstein, a republican, had had to sign off on the cohen raid. why don't i fire mueller? i think it is a disgrace what is going on. we'll see what happens. but i think it is a really sad situation when you look at what happened. and many people have said, you should fire him. >> reporter: the president also vented his frustrations by tweeting. the russia investigation is a total witch hunt adding

attorney-client privilege is dead. a tension of the rant he unleashed while sitting next to top military commanders. >> and it is a disgrace. it is frankly a real disgrace. it is an attack on our country in a true sense. it is an attack on what we all stand for. so when i saw this and when i heard it, i heard it like you did, i said that is really now in a whole new level of unfairness. >> reporter: democrats are taking issue with the comparison. >> the japanese, bombing pearl harbor was an attack on our country. 9/11 was an attack on our country. when russia interfered with our elections, that was an attack on our country. >> reporter: republicans are urging caution. some with the hope the president is simply letting off some steam. >> i don't think he's going to be removed from this office. he shouldn't be removed from the office. he should be allowed to finish the job. >> reporter: while other gop senators are warning mr. trump to leave mueller alone.

>> i think it would be suicide for the president to fire him. i think the less the president said about this whole thing the better off he will be. and i think that mule ser a person of stature and i respect him and just let the thing go forward. >> reporter: it comes during another tush lent week at the white house after there is no longer trip to south america traveling with him, with the group going to latin america. this -- well, friday, saturday and sunday and japanese summit after that in florida. i don't think it is going to stop him. it never stops him. >> reporter: and as it turns out, he is not going to the white house -- the president is no longer going to south america to attend the summit of the americas so he could respond to the suspected chemical weapons attack in syria but the last time the president authorized air-strikes on syria when he was at mar-a-largo last year.

now at that event for the alabama football team, the president said he would have loved to go to south america and make sure viewers heard that, at the same event the attorney general was asked if he had spoken to the president fotoday and he and had and only added roll tide. so the attorney general has not been sacked just yet. >> jim acosta. thank you very much. we've been getting new details on the raids against president trump's lawyer and the president's reaction. let' bring in our crime and justice reporter and correspondent evan perez. we know the president thinking -- the white house said he could fire mueller directly but also a lot of concern that he could undermine this whole investigation by going after the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. >> right. well i think what the president is hearing is from people around him, people who support him who are telling him that obviously firing robert mueller is a red line that he cannot cross. and so the way to try to have an

impact on what robert mueller is doing is to perhaps fire rod rosenstein. and you could see the groundwork being laid by people close to the president and including the fact they blame rosenstein for the slow production of documents demanded by congress related to the fbi and the fisa application and the surveillance -- the surveillance warrant that they took out on carter page. and you could also see some of this coming out into the president's tweets as he explains his frustration that he believes rosenstein is essentially not doing his job which is to manage and to supervise robert mueller. so stay tuned and see where this goes as far as president and rod rosenstein is concerned. >> and if he were to fire rod rosenstein, could that be folded into a possible obstruction of justice case against the president? >> well, absolutely. there is no reason why it couldn't be. certainly the special counsel would look to see whether or not this is being done to send some kind of signal to investigators

much like perhaps maybe the comey firing. so this could fall within a purview of the special counsel and it could open the president up to more problems if he went ahead and did that. but you know, it is clear based on what we're hearing and what evan was saying, this could be a move by the president to rein in what they are doing with the special counsel because he thinks they've overstepped their boundaries or gone too far and now they need someone to pull them in. so he could perhaps be looking to put someone in that job that will tell mueller, you have gone too far here and enough is enough. >> what else are you learning -- evan, you do reporting on this, on the actual raids on michael cohen's home and his hotel room where he was temporarily staying and his office. >> so we've been told that there is some broad mentions in the search warrant for details and documents. and one of the interesting things -- and it goes far back to cohen's issues, his business

dealings and business records, that has to do with taxi medallions in new york. these are -- it gives him ownership of taxis in new york. they were highly lucrative back in the day before the -- before uber and lyft and something difficult to get and for some reason now according to sources we've talked to, the fbi has been looking into that, into his business records. they have searched his home and that is something they are look at as well. >> and what we have learned from some of the reporting we do is that there were 21 shell companies that michael cohen has created over the years in chicago and new york that control 54 taxi medallions. for much of the country this doesn't mean much but these are worth a million dollars back in the day when he bought them. and more recently they've plunged plunged in value to about $200,000. and it is not clear. but we know from the search warrant served at the three

locations, the office and home and hotel room, they are also looking into payments that michael cohen or -- that were made to women and that -- that includes stormy daniels, but also this playboy play mate you mentioned earlier, karen mcdougal who sued the president and -- rather michael cohen and allegedly paid $150,000 for her story by the publisher of the national inquirer and her story never made it out and so the question of whether or not there was some effort to try to keep this story out of the headlines before the 2016 election just as the stormy daniels' payment of $130,000 -- >> and quickly. >> and pointing out, that $150,000 payment to karen mcdougal the former play mate was in august of 2016, a couple of months before the election. the payment to stormy daniels was 11 days before the election near the end of october. and the connection -- what are you hearing about the connection between the president and the owner of american media, the

parent company of the national inquirer -- >> right. david pecker is one of the president's supporters. he cheerleads the president a lot. they have a long time relationship down in florida and the question is whether or not this story was bought with the purpose of keeping out -- keeping it out of the headlines. to essentially buy her silence. and so that is the reason why she has filed this lawsuit. and so it is kind of a surprising thing that this would be included in the search of cohen because he claimed he had nothing to do with this and to do with the american media and the national inquirer doing a private deal with this woman to be clear, american media said they are cooperating with all inquiries on this issue and they say they simply bought the story and decided not to publish it because they say they didn't find it credible. that is their story. >> karen mcdougal got $150,000 and stormy daniels got $130,000. >> and the people doing this investigation in new york are public corruption investigators. that is important in all of this. that is where this is being

generated and those are the investigators that are going through all of this now. >> excellent reporting. as usual. joining us now ben cardin of maryland. senator, let me get your reaction. the white house press secretary sarah huckabee-sanders said the president believes he has the power to fire mueller directly. do you believe he has the power? >> under the rules for special counsel, the power to dismiss is with the -- rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general and only for cause. that is how the rules of special counsel are written, therefore if the president dismisses mr. rosenstein, it is the first step to dismissing mr. mueller. and clearly, and i think in many views, that would cross the line. >> the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is reluctant to consider legislation to protect the special counsel robert mueller. he said it is unnecessary. because he didn't believe the president will actually remove

the special counsel. how do you see it? >> well, you listen to the president. he really is -- is selling doubt in the investigation which is obviously attempting to influence the investigation. we could protect the integrity of the investigation by passing a pretty simple statute to protect the special counsel, that protects mr. mueller. we should have done that a long time ago. the president's threats should not be used to try to influence this investigation. >> how would t-- would the congress react, senator, if the president were to fire mueller. >> i do think that would create a constitutional crisis and you would see the american people and the members of congress take steps in order to make sure that investigation goes forward in the firing -- and the firing is reversed. >> republican certainly john cornyn of texas, the number two republican, warns of serious repercussions for the president if he were to fire mueller but he wouldn't say what those

repercussions might be. it would require as you know 67 votes in the senate to remove the president from office if he were first impeached in the house of representatives. are there enough senate republicans, do you believe, willing to take that vote? >> i think where we would have the support of american people and the support of congress is to make sure the mueller investigation continues regardless of what the president tries to do. so that investigation can reach its logical conclusion. i would hope that we would have strong bipartisan support to protect the integrity of that investigation regardless of what the president wants to do. >> do senate democrats have a plan, if the president were to fire the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein? >> i would hope that congress would have a plan. i hope that this would be responding to a constitutional crisis. it would not be a democratic plan or a republican plan, it would be a plan to protect the constitution of america, that no one is above the law. it is not about pleasing the president of the united states,

this is about the rule of law and protect the rule of law here in america. >> and let's talk about the specifics of the fbi raid against michael cohen in new york. based on what you've seen, what sort of legal trouble is cohen facing right now and how do that affect the president himself? >> well clearly they're concerned about the cash payments that he made and whether that was appropriate or not. the manner in which it was not reported an the manner in which the investigation has been affected by what he has said and done and the records that may prove that. so it is clearly important information in regards to a criminal investigation. it is gone through the normal procedures of a u.s. attorney's office with the appropriate approval process, it is part of a normal way that investigations are done. and it was executed against the lawyer. >> senator ben cardin, thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure. more breaking news coming up as the white house issues veiled threats about firing robert mueller. will lawmakers do anything to

protect the special counsel? the situation room with wolf blitzer brought to you by new tech. your business solutions company. visit new tech today. it was my very first car accident. i called usaa and the first thing they asked was 'are you ok?' they always thank you for your service, which is nice because as a spouse you serve too. we're the hayles and we're usaa members for life.

my secret visitors. hallucinations and delusions. the unknown parts of living with parkinson's. what plots they unfold, but only in my mind. over 50% of people with parkinson's will experience hallucinations or delusions during the course of their disease. if your loved one is experiencing these symptoms, talk to your parkinson's specialist. there are treatment options that can help. my visitors should be the ones i want to see.

there are treatment options that can help. ♪ (buzzer) ♪ olly. following multiple breaking news including a new warning from a top republican on capitol hill that it would be, quote, suicide, end quote, for the president to fire special counsel robert mueller. let's go to manu raju. are lawmakers doing anything to protect the special counsel right now? >> not legislatively, wolf. republicans are concerned about any move to fire robert mueller or rod rosenstein. the deputy attorney general --

they believe it is political by damaging to the party and presidency but making something very clear. they are not ready to confront the president on this yet. because they are placing blind faith in the white house that the president will not move to fire robert mueller. >> i think that would be serious repercussions and it is hard to predict exactly what that might look like. but so i think director mueller ought to be free to do his job and let the courts and let the lawyers and -- work it out. >> why not pass legislation proactively to protect him given the president's threats here. >> i don't think it is necessary. >> are you concerned that the senate is not doing enough to prevent this possible outcome. >> it is still my view that mueller should be allowed to finish his job. i think that is the view of most people in congress. i haven't seen clear indication yet that we needed to pass

something to keep him from being removed. because i don't think that's gonna happen. >> what gives you that confidence, sir? because he keeps -- >> i'm not going to answer the hypothetical. because i don't think he's going to be removed. >> well i think he said similar things before so i don't think that is anything new in my opinion. >> [ inaudible ] the possibility of firing him? >> um, nor did he say he was going to so we need to say where that plays off. >> and from tom till is the republican and the co-authors of the two bills awaiting action in the senate judiciary committee and tillis not having a sense of urgency at this moment to move on his legislation. similarly chuck grassley did say it would be suicide for the president to fire robert mueller, the judiciary chairman has not scheduled a vote on any of the pieces of legislation yet. he wants these two bills to be reconciled and eliminate what he

considers constitutionality concerns, and wolf, in a sign republicans are not as concerned about the process of the firing yet, they had an our and a half lunch behind closed doors and members did not bring this topic up at all, even though it is dominating the news since the president's remarks yesterday. so a real sign that republicans are ready to move on. they hope the president doesn't take any steps to fire robert mueller but they speci-- they certainly will not do anything to confront him proactively. >> thank you. new details about what investigators were looking for during the raids on the trump attorney michael cohen's office and residents. what does it tell us about where this investigation is now headed.

liberty mutual saved us almost $800 when we switched our auto and home insurance. liberty did what? yeah, they saved us a ton, which gave us a little wiggle room in our budget. i wish our insurance did that. then we could get a real babysitter instead of your brother. hey, welcome back. this guy, right? (laughs) yes. ellen.

that's my robe. you could save $782 when liberty stands with you. liberty mutual insurance. but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember.

if you'd have told me three years ago... that we'd be downloading in seconds, what used to take... minutes. that guests would compliment our wifi. that we could video conference... and do it like that. (snaps) if you'd have told me that i could afford... a gig-speed. a gig-speed network. it's like 20 times faster than what most people have. i'd of said... i'd of said you're dreaming. dreaming! definitely dreaming. then again, dreaming is how i got this far.

now more businesses in more places can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. keeping our ize on the trump white house right now. earlier at this afternoon press briefing, the press secretary sarah huckabee-sanders told reporters, the president certainly believes he has the ability to fire robert mueller directly. let's bring in experts in joey jackson. does the president have that power? the assumption i had based on the legal experts i was talking to, he had to first go through the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein? >> well, you know, wolf, that is the conventional wisdom but i believe that he can, in fact, fire mueller should he decide to do so. and here is why. you know this is the code of

federal regulations and that is what they are relying upon. everyone who said no, they can't fire him points to the 1999 regulations that say in the event you want to fire the special counsel had to be done for good cause, like conflict of interest or dereliction of duty or misconduct but the president could get rid of or otherwise repeal that code of federal regulations opening him up to firing him directly. if that were not the case, we wouldn't be having the discussions about special legislation that congress might consider in order to protect the special counsel. so that is an end to run around. so could he do it? absolutely. in my view, he could. but however there is that code of federal regulation procedure that i believe he could very well circum vent. so i'm one that is of the belief unless you have that special legislation, in the event the president wanted to act to make the firing, he could do so. >> very interesting. dana, the president did try to fire mueller last summer and it is widely reported -- "the new

york times" report and he backed off when the white house counsel don mcgahn threatened to resi - resign and much more advanced now and so what do you think? >> well from everything that i'm hearing and my colleagues are hearing about where the president's head is right now, it doesn't seem to be focused so much on mueller per se, but his rage is on the people he personally appointed, meaning jeff sessions for recusing himself and the president said that publicly yesterday and more importantly in this case rod rosenstein the deputy attorney general because of sessions recusal is in charge of mueller and apparently was part of approving this search warrant and so forth. so that is where his ire is. i know just -- i was on capitol hill today that democrats in the soebts were huddled during one of the votes on the senate floor

talking about the what-ifs. if the president fires not mueller but rosenstein and/or sessions, what will they do. and the hope that republicans would come along with them. on the other hand i talked to many republicans who should be in the know on capitol hill about whether or not the president is seriously considering it and they all said to a person they can't imagine the president doing that. and when i say that, i mean not mueller, but the people who he reports to, rod rosenstein and even jeff sessions. >> because the republicans clearly are not eager to go ahead and pass legislation to protect robert mueller. the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said he doesn't think the president would go ahead with the firing. but some believe these republicans are being naive. >> they are definitely gambling. trump is somebody who has done a lot of things he said he would do and repeatedly said he won't do that or that is too far and

he's done it. there is a lot of pressure and pressure behind the scenes and they are hoping cooler heads inside of the white house will prevail. but we've seen a lot of people leave this white house. who are the cooler heads? the lawyers are changing and a fired national security adviser now and there is a sense of we hope so, but i don't they they know. >> and let me ask bee anna how she sees it. >> they have a midterm to consider in the next few months and one of the gambles could be how voters would react, positively or negatively. if they do clamp down and pass legislation -- bipartisan legislation that would virtually make it impossible for the president to fire mueller, they've done that in the past when it came to russian sanctions so while on the one hand they call it political suicide, the end of the president's career and his presidency, i don't think many would expect them to pick up the phone and call church and start drafting the articles of impeachment if the president does fire bob mueller. having said that, i think for

the first time in a long time aside from just focusing his ire against session, we're seeing a lot of anger against rosenstein. so it is interesting to see if we have any photo op dinners tonight with rosenstein and sessions and others from the justice department supporting rosen stein. >> if we were to fire rosenstein, joey, do you think that could be folded into a possible obstruction of gijusti case. he has to approve the decisions that robert mueller makes and if someone came in and rejected those recommendations, could that be seen as obstruction of justice? >> you know, wolf, there are two schools of thought on that. the one school of thought is if you are a republican, of course it is not obstruction of justice. are you kidding? the president fires a number of people. in addition to that, the president has a constitutional certain obligation, duty and responsibility to have the cabinet and people they want around him or special counsel or anyone else and if he does that, that is his prerogative.

ant on the other hand simply because you have the constitutional authority to do something with and if you do it with corrupt intention, it is obstruction of justice. and if you are looking to get rid of someone in order to impede or impair justice, then, yes, that would constitution obstruction. it is all about the state of mind. what lawyers do is they examine state of mind, what prosecutors do is do that and to the extent that he would do it for a corrupt and unlawful purpose, you could deem it as obstruction. but those will be the two narratives by the both sides in order to demonstrate is it obstruction on the one hand or is it simply the president being the president who fires whoever at any time on the other. >> i could tell you the president's legal team is saying privately to people who aren't their client and of course to their client, they don't agree with joey's interpretation of obstruction of justice when it comes to the president of the united states. they believe the president has the legal ability to fire whom

he wants and the executive branch regardless of cause. and they're preparing -- >> let me clarify that, dana. >> please. >> let me clarify that. that is what i'm saying. there is two schools of thought. the president on the one hand has the ability to have serve with him whoever he wanted. and i think that's what the republicans will say and what his administration will say. on the other hand if you do something with a corrupt purpose, whether you have the authority or not, it is impeding. so i'm not taking a position, i'm merely demonstrating -- >> i understand. >> and the gray area that is argued. >> absolutely. but what they argue is that second way to look at it, which may be the way that robert mueller is looking at it, depending on how far along he's going in this pursuit of this obstruction of justice question, they argue and are preparing an argument that is just not legal. >> go ahead -- >> i think it is harder now to see a scenario where you see the president sit down with bob mueller given the latest developments this week.

and his lawyers had been advising him not to do so even as recently as last week. the president said he would still sit down with him. i find it hard to believe that the president would consider that right now. >> and to go back to what deanna said about the midterms. he fires mueller or rosen steen and we have the school of,a constitutional crisis. and the republicans want to walk into the crucial mid-term elections with a -- the courts and everybody commentators weighing in on what the constitutionality of this all -- whether the president has broken the law. that is not where you want to be when you are facing crucial elections. >> everybody stand by. we have more on the breaking news right after this. hat all money managers are pretty much the same. but while some push high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better.

maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management. but their nutritional needs remain instinctual. that's why there's purina one true instinct. real meat #1. a different breed of natural nutrition. purina one true instinct. now, try new purina one true instinct treats.

back with our experts. back to joey jackson our legal analyst. help us make sense of this. the fbi pa-- apparently going after the residence and the hotel room and the office of the president's personal attorney and including this medallion or permit as they are called and payoffs to womens who allegedly had affairs with donald trump. but what is at stake here. there seem to be have very different points of interest. >> you know, absolutely. i'll say this here, the southern district and all districts, but the southern district very aggressive. they know what they are doing. i've litigated cases and had trials there. these are experienced people who know exactly what is going on. now let's talk about that. the fact is that i don't think

they're after taxi medallion orz anything else. i think at stake is the presidency of the united states. they're looking at what if any communications happened with the president and/or the president's surrogates that centered around this entirety of the payment. and so if you have this $130,000 payment, we've heard a home equity loan and the president had nothing to do with it. so the fbi, i believe, is examining that and putting it to the test. were there any directions from the president or any guidance whatsoever by the president or any of his parties or his surrogates and to the extent there would be, there could be potentially crimes there. and you don't ignore other crimes when you are looking at and investigating. so i believe they are focusing on that money and what they find an that is why the issue of privilege that we talked about is so big here too. if that is privileged, there are arguments about not so fast, is the crime fraud exception which would eliminate the privilege. anything the president might have suggested, not saying the president did figure, i don't

know. but if he suggested to michael cohen that he would pay this person off, you know what, and avoid campaign contribution violations, that is highly problematic. >> and bianna -- >> that is another reason why you could say the president is more angry and outraged than he's been over the past few months. definitely you look at what robert mueller has done and aside from not wanting to appear to be out of his lane or purview or to look at if he's drifting away from the russia collusion investigation, you could also say that, look, the michael cohen train has already left the station. even if the president does fire rosenstein and even if he does fire bob mueller, this investigation in new york has already started and it is hard to see how it would come to an end, even if he does end up firing rosenstein. >> this relationship with the president had with michael cohen for a decade or so, it is pretty unique relationship. >> it is. there is no question. and michael cohen has said --

given various adjectives about the kind of relationship that he had. fixer and even compared to ray donovan, that kind of thing. but at the end of the day, it seems like people were sort of saying, wait a minute, who pays $130,000 out of their own pocket to protect somebody like donald trump. and people -- it is hard to believe. and i'm not saying that i do believe it. but if anybody were to do that, it would be michael cohen. that is how loyal he is to president trump. that is how much he adores president trump. and look, it has been reciprocal for many years. we'll see what happens at the end of the day with this. but it is not looking good for michael cohen when it comes to his -- the legal jeopardy that he's clearly in and whether or not that translates to the president is the open question. >> matthew, it is very interesting, mueller is involved

in all sorts of areas and mark zuckerberg is testifying up on capitol hill today about facebook and he said that some facebook employees have had conversations with the special counsel robert mueller. >> we don't know exactly what they are looking into. zuckerberg said it is confidential and can't provide any details. but look, the broader investigation is obviously looking into russia interference. facebook had people embedded with the trump campaign and we also know that russian propaganda placed thousands of ads on facebook. so it the not surprising that they've met with mueller investigators. it is not clear how deep the conversations have gone and whether they are looking into any wrongdoing by facebook. but they want to know what was going on in side of facebook and what facebook would tell them. >> what does this say to you. >> some ads paid for rubles and for mark zuckerberg and this is of interest to robert mueller.

to the extent of the involvement of the trump campaign, that is a different story. but russia's involvement in facebook and russia's involvement in interfering in our election is definitely something that you would think would be high on the priority list for mueller. >> and joey, you want to add? >> just that social media has consumed our times, wolf. and to the extent we talk about collusion, we already know based upon the prior indictment of the 13 russians and addition to the company, the involvement of social media, the involvement of interjected into our political system information which is false and fictitious, you already know that facebook has to be the center of much attention in terms of investigation. >> i'm sure it is. and we'll stay on top of this part of the story. the investigation as well. everybody stick around. we're going to have much more on what investigators were targeting during the raid on the residences and offices of president trump's attorney michael cohen. there you see him walking on the streets of manhattan today. and up next, will the president order a u.s. military strike on

syria? we're going live to damascus. i'm very proud of the fact that i served. i was a c130 mechanic in the corps, so i'm not happy unless my hands are dirty. between running a business and four kids, we're busy. auto insurance, homeowner's insurance, life insurance policies. knowing that usaa will always have my back... that's just one less thing you have to worry about. i couldn't imagine going anywhere else. they're like a friend of the family. we are the cochran family, and we'll be usaa members for life. save by bundling usaa home and auto insurance. get a quote today. moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis was intense. my mom's pain from i wondered if she could do the stuff she does for us which is kinda, a lot. and if that pain could mean something worse.

joint pain could mean joint damage. enbrel helps relieve joint pain, and helps stop further damage enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders and allergic reactions have occurred. tell your doctor if you've been someplace where fungal infections are common. or if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure or if you have persistent fever, bruising, bleeding or paleness. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. since enbrel, my mom's back to being my mom. visit enbrel.com... and use the joint damage simulator to see how joint damage could progress. ask about enbrel. enbrel. fda approved for over 18 years.

the white house says all options are on the table following trump's warning that syria could pay a big price in response to syria attack. let ease go to fred joining us

from is syrian capital of da m s damascus. >> reporter: it's sinking in that it's real and could happen soon. it's been put on the heightened state of alert and there's some movement. it's not clear whether or not that's directly related with the threat of an american retaliation but it does seem to be a telltale sign. we managed to speak to senior member of the the assad government for the first time about all this. it's interesting to hear from them. on the one hand they claim they are not frad of american military action but it's not gone unnoticed that president trump wants to pull america's troops out. here's what they had to say.

>> translator: of course not. if you can stop any child in syria, any young person or woman, they won't be afraid. we weren't afraid. we won't be afraid and we'll never be afraid. tru trump's earlier tweet about exiting is a correct decision. we consider toyota be occupation. >> reporter: the syrians don't believe the americans are in it for the long run. they are still quite, not afraid but thinking ahead if this happens the syrians are saying they don't mind if international investigators were to come here to damascus to go to that site where that chemical weapons attack allegedly happened. >> would any u.s. military action, fred, have any impact, let's say on russia's support for the bashar al a sad recrea.

>> reporter: it doesn't seem likely that americans would do anything that would deter the russians from sticking by his side. the russians have shown they are in it for the long run here. it would be very difficult to see the russians would give up the gains that the assad government has been able to make thanks to the russians. first and foremost around the damascus area where the horrible attack happened but in places like aleppo as well. the u.s. could have to put a lot more chips on the table if it were to try to deter the russians or drop bashar assad, wolf. >> thanks very much. coming up, the breaking news.

president trump's lawyer michael cohen speaking to cnn. his first comments since the fbi raid on his office and residences. that's next. you might take something for your heart... or joints. but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. are finding themselves morin a chevroletple for the first time. trying something new can be exciting. empowering. downright exhilarating. see for yourself why chevrolet is the most awarded and fastest growing brand, the last four years overall. switch into a new chevy now. get 20% below msrp

on all cruze and malibu lt models. that's over fifty four hundred dollars on this chevy malibu. find new roads at your local chevy dealer. almost $800 when we switched our auto and home insurance. with liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. hey! oh, that's my robe. is it? when you switch to liberty mutual, you could save $782 on auto and home insurance. and still get great coverage for you and your family. call

for a free quote today. you could save $782 when liberty stands with you. liberty mutual insurance. a cockroach can survive heresubmerged ttle guy. underwater for 30 minutes. wow. yeah. not getting in today. terminix. defenders of home.

internet providers promise business owners a lot. let's see who delivers more.

comcast business offers fast gig-speeds across our network. at&t doesn't. we offer more complete reliability with up to 8 hours of 4g wireless network backup. at&t, no way. we offer 35 voice features and solutions that grow with your business. at&t, not so much. we give you 75 mbps for $59.95. that's more speed than at&t's comparable bundle, for less. call today. breaking news, cohen speaks out. tonight, the first reaction directly from the president's personal lawyer after the fbi raid on his private records, including communications with mr. trump, stand by for a cnn exclusive with michael cohen. wooern learni inwe're learn agents were on the hunt for

information involving play mate karen mcdougal as well as porn star stormy daniels. what secrets might be uncovered? firing mueller. the white house says the president is convinced he has the power to oust the special counsel as his furry goes beyond his past rants about the russia probe. will mr. trump say you're fired and potentially risk his presidency. facebook apology as found erp t eer tries to make amends. he tells senators the social media giant is cooperating with the special counsel russia investigation. we'll have the latest on his unprecedented testimony. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in