going to do that right away. i've spoken to alan wieselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding -- [ inaudible ] >> -- yes. i spoke to alan about it. when it comes to the financing -- >> what financing? >> after paying -- >> cash? >> no, no, no, no, no. >> so the trump campaign had repeatedly denied any knowledge of a deal with mcdougal or involving her. in fact, former head hope hicks had said, quote, we don't have any knowledge of this and it is totally untrue. >> it does appear at least the president had some knowledge of it. the recording also raises questions about whether the president was trying to cover himself with cash payments.

lanny davis says it is clear that donald trump says pay with cash in that recording. you hear the word "cash." the president's attorney rudy giuliani says the president said, don't pay with cash. no turning back now for michael cohen. this is a big, glaring split. we want to bring in cnn political analyst david gregory, attorney michael avenatti. david, i want to go with you first. i want to talk about the legal implications here. what legal questions, if any, does this raise? >> well, michael cohen is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in new york for a number of things, but one of those things is the potential campaign finance violations. when you are receiving money for

a campaign, you need to report it to the fcc. in fact, the president signed a form that actually it is a crime to lie on in which he said, you know, this is a list of the contribution to the campaign and expenditures and so on. so i don't think it was in the part we just played, but there was actually discussion about timing related to certain news about how we need to delay it past a certain point, suggesting that there is an importance of having some of this news delayed until after the election. that, i think, is a very important piece that prosecutors would look at. also, obviously a payment in cash. that will be hotly debated. one thing i would say is even if you believe the white house's take that the president is saying don't pay in cash, why would he think that michael cohen would make a six-figure payment in cash? the mere fact they're discussing that possibility is also potentially something that prosecutors are going to be interested in because you don't

make very large cash payments unless you want to hide something. >> i am. >> david, now there is a new wrinkle. we just had stu zaiken on. he worked for many years at the parent company, ami, and he said neither cash or a check would have been made because it wouldn't have been necessary. darrell haken, the head of the parent company, had such a symbiotic relationship with donald trump, they are watching each other's backs. maybe there never was that transaction. maybe it never had to be made because they had such a long friendship. still, the point is that the truth is now coming out. so payment or no payment, campaign finance law broken or not, the truth is coming out and the people around donald trump did not represent the truth to the american voters.

>> right, and the question is did they know? were they just going based on what he told them and not questioning it? were they lied to? that's a piece of it. the other piece is michael cohen on the tape and what's captured in this conversation makes it clear that they were both familiar with this process and that the president was not naive about it. michael cohen making a reference to all of that stuff, so there were other relationships and other kinds of business related to this that was out there. and what may be jermaine here is the stormy daniels payment where there was a corporation set up and that payment was made. that may be what prosecutors are looking at for bank fraud that michael cohen could face as a charge as well as a violation of a campaign finance law. and the bigger point even than that is where is michael cohen's head? he has been reported thinking the president is unfit for office. he clearly wants to brawl with the president. maybe he thought he would be

protected. and his lawyer lanny davis who has been hired as someone who can go on television and do battle with rudy giuliani wants to make it clear that michael cohen is not going to be pushed around anymore, and he says there's other tapes and other material. so does michael avenatti who represents stormy daniels. so the reality is there may be more to come that's embarrassing, or the other wild card is to what extent does michael cohen cooperate with robert mueller, the prosecutor in the russian investigation? does he have anything to add there. we don't know the answer to that but this will certainly poke at donald trump. >> you heard the way michael avenatti talks. he opens the conversation with "our friend david." that's like a ripoff of "godfather ii," to be sure. then avenatti goes on to michael cohen to talk about all the stuff, indicating there is more here. and david brings up the possibility that maybe michael

cohen has more. if you're making a public case, either a pr case or a legal case, don't you lead with your best, biggest stuff first? wouldn't you imagine this is the best biggest stuff that cohen has and he's trying to embarrass the president? >> potentially. it depends on what cohen's angle is. cohen may be trying to get a pardon here. don't forget, if he's really trying to cooperate with prosecutors, they already have this tape. they don't need to get it from michael cohen. they don't need to watch cnn to hear the tape. it's really interesting for all of us to listen to it, but federal prosecutors already have it. and they would prefer if michael cohen was talking to them in private. i generally, when i was a federal prosecutor, i did not want my witnesses going on television or anywhere else and getting themselves on the record where they could potentially have those words be used against them on the witness stand. so he's not here angling for prosecutors. he's trying to do something else. perhaps for the president to

say, look, i have stuff on you, i can continue talking, but if i get a pardon, maybe i'll clam up. >> so, david, to put all of this into the landscape of donald trump yesterday saying to his rally, saying to his voters, don't believe what you hear, don't believe what you read, don't believe your own lying eyes. i'm paraphrasing that part of it. >> what you're seeing, what you're reading is not what's happening. >> that is a direct quote of what he said, because he is creating this alternative reality so that none of these facts seem to stick. >> well, and the truth is what rejects that claim from the president. it's so sad that the president of the united states would say publicly, don't believe what you're reading and what you're seeing. he's taking criticism of the press and of the media generally, which is certainly

fair, to a really dangerous level. and the other point that undermines him is that it really is an indictment of himself, because what he says and what you hear from him is what cannot be trusted because it's contradicted by this tape. he contradicts himself. all you have to do in the latest example, he says publicly we're not going to apologize anywhere around the world. less than a week of apologizing, blaming america for the relationship with russia. so it's an indictment of his own words and his own actions. i think that's what people need to take away from it. >> he said vladimir putin needs to help the democrats a week after he said he would help donald trump. he said he did not believe vladimir putin disrupted the election of 2016. the truth is the truth here. we all saw it and now we are all

hearing it when it comes to the michael cohen tape. one other sentence i want to highlight and talk about the legal implications. so donald trump asks, what do we got to pay for this? 150. he again is talking about this knowledge in possession by ami, the national enquirer. donald trump puts a price on this information, suggests it's worth 150. i imagine he's talking about $150,000, as it were. what does that tell you? if there is value, a monetary value placed on what ami has, does that not raise campaign finance possible violations? >> for sure, and also this suggests once again that this was a fairly commonplace type of transaction for the president at that time. if i told you i had some information about you and i wanted a payment or you could pay to have it hushed up, i doubt you would just pull a number out of the sky and say,

oh, sure, 150k? for most of us that would be hard to fathom. we would spend a lot of time figuring out whether we wanted to pay, why we wanted to pay, what that might be worth. it would be a different kind of conversation. for these two men, it seemed to b business as usual, the same way you and i would talk about getting coffee in the morning. >> go ahead, david. >> you brought up something earlier, allison, that i was just thinking about. we've seen this movie before, inspector of the national eninquiree enquirer and covering things up. he was lying about affairs and people do that. it's important to note politically a lot of people will take all of this in and say -- and compartmentalize it. >> we just heard senator mike rounds say that. mike rounds said, i can't really be focused on that because i have bigger fish to fry.

i get that. >> we think a lot of people will say that. we don't know if there's illegality here, but we know the president is skwaquaring off wi his lawyer. it's intriguing and potentially leads to other things. what the president is doing in other facets, denigrating the press, talking about not trusting or listening, don't pay attention to anything that's being said. those things cannot be explained away. his behavior with russia, with vladimir putin cannot be explained away. you can be critical of the press, you can be supportive of the president. you have to take a hard look at these things in isolation and not just dismiss it. >> david gregory and rahme rahmer mariotti, thank you for being with us. what are they thinking this morning? what do they plan to do? we have a key u.s. senator with

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cnn has obtained a secret audio recording between michael cohen and his then-client donald trump. the two talked about payments to buy the rights to a playboy model's story about an alleged affair with donald trump. let's get reaction from capitol hill. new jersey democratic senator robert menendez joins us. he is a ranking member of the senate foreign relations committee. senator, good morning. >> good morning. >> what do you think when you list ton this audio tape that's now, thanks to cnn, been made

public? >> well, it appears the president knew what the whole transaction was about. it appears that this is not an unusual transaction from the language that's used in terms of how much you have to pay, 150. but above all, it just goes to show an administration that is not transparent, wasn't transparent during the course of the election, and what i worry about isn't very transparent now as we deal with an administration that six weeks after north korea we still don't know anything about what truly transpired two hours plus with vladimir putin alone. that's why i'm looking forward to mike pompeo's appearance this afternoon. >> we are also. but first i want to put up for our viewers, the lack of transparency is stunning. it violates norms and precedent. here are just a few examples of what has happened in the trump white house. they've ended the summaries.

our kaitlan collins is reporting they will end the summaries of trump's calls with foreign leaders. in other words, the american public will no longer know what is said between president trump and foreign leaders on their phone calls. there is a limited release of the white house visitor logs. we don't know who goes in and out of the white house. they have stopped releasing the president's tax returns, as we know and remember during the campaign. top advisers used private e-mail for their government business. i seem to recall them having a problem with a different candidate who did that. they have held -- he held one solo news conference in 18 months, had high-level meetings with foreign leaders. that is what you're referring to with vladimir putin. they obscured the president's bad golf habits and they've discussed ending the white house daily press briefing. so that leads us to today. do you believe that secretary of state mike pompeo knows what

happened in that meeting with president trump and vladimir putin? do you trust whatever donald trump related to mike pompeo? >> well, allison, that will be one of my lines of questioning. i clearly want to know. i'm concerned that a two-hour-plus meeting with vladimir putin one on one with an interpreter, what did the president agree to, if anything? did he agree to easing up on sanctions against russia? did he agree to change our military exercises with nato? did he agree to give up on the invasion of ukraine and the annexation of crimea? did he say we're going to change our posture as it relates to syria? there is so much and so consequential that we don't know. while we don't get the president, we're going to have the secretary of state and we're going to ask him, were you debriefed by the president directly? do you have any notes as it relates to such a debriefing? were you debriefed by any other

staff that may have talked to the president, and this is one of the reasons we continue to press for the possibility of the interpreter to either come in a classified session depending on what she has to say. >> where are you with that? is that going to happen? >> we don't have an agreement yet. we're pushing hard to get it. it's one of the issues we will raise with him today. she's the only person in the room with president trump for two-plus hours that knows exactly what transpired by virtue of the questions and answers that took place. >> so will you trust what secretary of state mike pompeo relates to you today? he wasn't in there. how will you know if he has an accurate reading of what happened? >> well, we're going to test the degree of what he knows. we're going to ask him how do you know. when you ask a question to me, did the president agree to ease up on sanctions with russia, and whatever your answer is, if your answer is no, fine. how do you know that? how do you know that? and so the best that he could possibly know is if president

trump sat down with him and said, here's what the discussion was about and here's how it went. of course, he could characterize that discussion any way he wants which is part of the problem but not having somebody with you, like your secretary of state or your national intelligence director. you want somebody there to verify your side of the conversation. the president feels far more comfortable in not having anybody know what his conversation was. >> okay, and that leads us to the bipartisan bill that you are sponsoring with lindsey graham. i want to go through some of the highlights and tick them off of what you're hoping congress will do. you would like sanctions on russian oligarchs, cyber actors, energy and financial sectors. don't we already have that, senator? >> you don't become an oligarch of russia for putin to give you the path to become that

oligarch. the questions of energy, that is a chief source of income -- >> sorry to interrupt, but haven't we sanctioned these folks? >> we sanction them by ultimately stopping the individuals from having access to financial institutions that are critical for them to be able to enjoy and use their money. on the oligarchs, we also look at travel abilities. they will be limited in their travel abilities, at least to the united states. thirdly, as it relates to oil, just as we sanction iranian oil, we say to other companies, if you buy russian oil at the end of the day, there is a sanctionable activity, or if you're private and have done so, there is a sanctionable activity as well. so we use the reach on the market and we use a reach on travel and other elements to try to constrain and affect those who challenge putin. >> you would like a national center to respond to russian

threats, authorize assistance to institutions to defend against russian interference and senate approval required for u.s. withdrawal from nato since the president has threatened such a thing. president trump says that there is no one, no president, who has ever been tougher on russia than he is. is that true or false? >> no. look, president trump came kicking and screaming to sign the bill, the bill countering american adversaries. they have tough sanctions for russia. he didn't want to sign it. it was only a 90-2 voteinthe senate that led him to see it was a majority. there are critical elements of the law that are supposedly mandatory under the law that he has yet to invoke against russia. he cannot even say one thing about president putin and russia and their undermining of our election, which is critical even as they seek to do it right now. i would have stood alongside

putin in helsinki and said, you know, mr. president, here's what's happening. you interfered in our election, you're doing it now. here's a list of sanctions i'm now going to invoke. if you want to stop that. if you want to get out of crimea and ukraine, we can have a different relationship. until then we want to make sure we defend our democracy. >> that would have been a different conversation. senator, thank you for being on. >> thank you. hope hicks, when she denied that any of them had knowledge for this idea of a payoff for this playboy playmate who allegedly had a relationship with president trump, that was a lie. what would that have done? we'll ask presidea campaign man next.

cnn has obtained audio for then-candidate micha then-candidate donald trump and michael cohen making a deal about paying playboy playmate

karen mcdougal. hope hicks, a trump campaign spokeswoman, said of the agreement with ms. mcdougal, we have no knowledge of any of this. she said that ms. mcdougall's claim of an affair with mr. trump was totally untrue. we now have president trump on tape talking about such a deal. joining us, simone sanders, also campaign manager for hillary clinton, robert moore. i have you guys here to talk about the future of campaigns, but i want to wrap up the past. hope hicks denied that they had any knowledge of an agreement with karen mcdougal. had the campaign admitted they knew about this, would that have had an impact on the election?

>> i'm sure it would have had an impact if we had this tape. how much i can't say. but i will say we knew the president lied. we knew that before election daigh. we knew that the russians had some sort of bizarre influence over him. but coming out of election day, there have been so many things. meetings with the russians, other lies that he's told that we've learned, and i think the most important lesson coming out of this tape and everything else is we've just got to start believing that the president is lying when we hear it the first time. the pattern here is so clear, and i just hope some people out there don't get fooled again next time. this man is a habitual liar and all he cares about is his own fragile ego. that's all there is to it. this is one of a long string of lies that he's told. >> and yesterday, to the vfw, he said, don't believe what you see, don't believe what you read, it is not happening.

simone, i do want to turn now to the future and i'm asking you this and not robby because it's about james comey and i don't want to give him heart p palpitations here, but james comey is commenting on the democratic party, which is rich in itself. the former fbi director says, please, please don't lose your minds and rush to the socialist left. this president and his republican party are counting on you to do exactly that. america's great middle wants sensible balance, ethical leadership. forget that it's james comey and he comes loaded, as it were, here. but that's the message written by others as well, that what we've seen the last month is a lurch to the left of certain democrats on some issues. like you see them trying to abolish ice. does he have a point? >> it's hard for me to forget that this message comes from james comey, john. i will say this. the republican party has gone full on, in some places, white nationalist. i would venture to say it might

be okay, if you will. it's absolutely all right for democrats to get a little more radical in some aspects. i'm old enough to remember when medicare for all was a radical concept, that everyone said was too far left, that would tear down the fabric of health care as we know it. now we've got democrats from all over the spectrum talking about a universal health care, what could medicare for all look like? i think it is absolutely okay for democrats to be -- across the spectrum to be exploring all different types of issues. we are, in fact, the big 10 party, john. >> how far is too far, though, robby? i've had conversations with democratic activists over the years where they feel like what they want to do is triangulate, sit in the middle, try to find that common ground. conservative democrats. how far do you think is too far? >> first of all, that's up for primary voters to decide. i think sometimes we forget that in these house races and the

next presidential election, the whole reason we have primaries is so the voters can make a decision about who the best candidate is. and i will say, and i don't mean to take a cheap shot at james comey, but i think his political punditry is just about as bad in this instance as it was in 2016 where he claims he sent that letter because he thought hillary clinton was going to win and that it would be okay. this is not about idealogy. democratic voters do not go around all day saying, gosh, are we a liberal party or are we a more conservative party? they are looking for candidates who can tell a story about where we've been, where we are and where we're going to go, and they are looking for change. they are looking for fundamental change. and so i think whether it's the candidates we've seen win in these primaries so far, or if we're talking about 2020, the voters are looking for someone who can embody and speak to and articulate that change. and so i think this argument

about do we go this far left or that far left, i honestly don't think it's relevant, and i think it's more about somebody's ability to represent and articulate where we need to go. >> well, look, it is playing out before us. we have seen evidence of this debate actually taking place. and yes, it's happening in specific races between specific candidates, but there is a genuine issue about positioning the party going forward, simone. you look at what happened here in new york city, and everyone is talking about alexandria cortez. perhaps too much has been made of that. but she ran to the left of a pretty liberal democrat and now she's campaigning around the country for pretty liberal or oppressive democrats and saying things that make some democrats uncomfortable. do you not think there is a genuine discussion about the positioning of the party, simone? >> so, john, i think what alexandria cortez -- what alexandria did in new york

worked for her in new york. what clair mccaskill is going to do in missouri will work for clair mccaskill in missouri. what will work in the 32nd district in dallas will work for him. when we talk about the midterm, we're talking about very specific districts. i think there is a separate conversation to be had about a presidential campaign. but we are a little over 100 days out from midterm elections and i think that's what democratic voters, democratic strategists and candidates alike are focused on. when people are out there in their districts, john, they are talking about health care. they are talking about the economy. they are talking about the fact the republican party is just okay with putting kids in cages. and those are things that are resonating with voters across the spectrum. so i think there is a conversation to be had about what -- like, who is it that we want to be? i think democrats have been very clear that we want to be the party that gets things done, we want to be the party that keeps health care for millions of people in this country.

republicans, that's just not what they're interested in. i actually reject the idea that there is this large, idealogical struggle going on inside the democratic party. i think there is room for the most progressive democrats and even the most conservative of conservative democrats in this big 10 party. >> simone sanders, robby mook coming out against the democratic party. who holds the mega millions ticket? we'll take you to the small store where it was sold.

okay, president trump has just tweeted moments ago, and it is about our big story of this morning. so he tweets, what kind of lawyer would tape a client? so sad. is this a first? never heard of it before. why was the tape so abruptly terminated, cut, while i was presumably saying positive things? i heard there are other clients and many reporters that are taped. can this be so? too bad!

>> exclamation point. >> he is referring, of course, to cnn's exclusive where there was a secret audio recording between michael cohen, donald trump's long-time attorney, and donald trump. they were basically talking about quashing the story of this playboy model who had an alleged affair with donald trump. so we have the president's attention. he has been tweeting about this. it's on his mind. let's bring in cnn's chris cilliza joining us now. let's die gram thagram this twe. he said he was presumably saying something positive. about what? about whom? >> about paying her off for the karen mcdougal story? >> as we know, the trump tweets

contain multitudes. he's trying to stoke a little bit of a conspiracy theory by saying, why did the tape cut off so abruptly, as if to say, there's more there and i was saying good things. that's not the point. let's remember here that donald trump's campaign, hope hicks on november 4th said, we know nothing about this and donald trump denies the affair. so why in september, two months before, was he on the phone with michael cohen discussing setting -- >> because he's trying to squash it. we know this. he doesn't want the public to know he was having an affair. that part, i think, makes sense. a lot of presidential candidates don't want you to know about an affair. but it's that the people around him felt they could say something so definitive when most of the american public, this did not come as a surprise to them. >> my guess is they either didn't ask him, or if they did ask him, he didn't tell them the truth. again, i think the big story

here is the fact that you now have -- michael cohen has now flipped on donald trump. whether or not he's agreed to sort of a legal deal, which he has not yet. but this suggests, between the tape being provided to cnn by lanny davis, cohen's new lawyer, or the lanny davis interview with chris cuomo last night, it also suggests a level of aggressiveness, a level of anti-donald trumpness that we have not seen before. that going forward is problematic for donald trump, because, as you mentioned, allison, this is the guy who fixed the problem for donald trump like the ones we've heard about, stormy daniels, karen mcdougal, that no one else wanted to fix. which means figuratively speaking, he knows where the bodies are buried here. that is concerning for donald trump, if not legally speaking -- we don't know that yet -- certainly concerning for him from an embarrassment perspective or public image

perspective. >> so we do not know if there is a legal official flip, a capital f in this case as you're referring to, but certainly a lower case f, a lower case flip for michael cohen here, and now we have a flip from president trump as well. so sad, exclamation point. too bad, exclamation point. those are pretty much the ultimate of insults from president trump. he's poking the bear. he's poking michael cohen. michael cohen's lawyer says there might be more tapes out there. we don't know if there's more out there. >> didn't they confirm there are -- >> we know there are more -- >> we just don't know if they're trump and cohen. >> exactly. we don't know if there's more that involves the president. lanny davis suggests that there is more the president would be interested in. we will see. we will see at this point and we will see how michael cohen handles it. what we do know is on the tape that we have now all heard, there is the phrase from michael cohen, all the stuff, all the

stuff, indicating there's maybe more than karen mcdougal, the $150,000 the president raised the possibility of paying to cover it. >> john, too, there is some efefr evidence -- the tape isn't the easiest thing to listen to in that the quality isn't great because it was being secretly recorded. there is a pattern here. what do we know about the stormy daniels situation that we know more about than the karen mcdougal one? michael cohen set up an llc, a private company in which he was able to move the money to her without any names or fingerprints attached to it. in that tape, the mcdougal tape that you're referencing there, john, i'm going to have to set up a company to handle all this stuff. that sounds quite familiar to what we know was michael cohen and donald trump's m.o. on all this. big picture, i don't know if it matters, amazingly enough. it's not as though people voted

for donald trump because they thought he was a moral paragon. >> i understand that it may not move the polls. things matter even when they don't move the polls. honesty matters even when they don't move the polls. when the president is bragging about the truth not mattering, which he did -- >> yesterday. >> -- i think that matters, too. one last sort of dissection of this statement when he says he was cut off before presumably saying something positive, i don't know what that could be. what's on the tape is the president discussing this payoff which contradicts -- >> hold that thought, because i think you'll want to comment on this, chris cilliza. i think what you're getting at is the larger picture which is encapsulated in what the president said yesterday. what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what's happening. and so it is that never-ending effort to hypnotize the american public. but i don't think the public is

easily hypnotized when they see something with their own eyes and hear something with their own ears as they did in helsinki when he sat next to vladimir putin. this is typically the president says, you can't believe this even though it is my own words. >> that's exactly right. it is his own reality show donald trump is pushing. the point is, do focus -- if you're going to highlight something, do focus on that. it was cut and i said a lot of positive things. john is right. there is no relevance because what he said before is the key, but he is opening up that conspiracy theory possibility that something odd, something nefarious is here that's being targeted against me even if there's no evidence for it. that's why it's in there to talk to his supporters to believe whatever he said. >> john's right is what i heard there. >> you hear that a lot. >> play it on a loop. >> thank you very much. the $500 million question.

who won mega millions? we're live at the store where the winning ticket was sold, next. plus, the music mogul when his health took a turn. now having lost 100 pounds, he is biking across the country. >> at a young age, i started getting into hip-hop. we won a grammy and built a business up to do over $15 million a year in revenue. the bigger my business got, the bigger i got. something weird that happens in your head when you're binge eating, you can't get full. >> i've been overweight my whole life. >> i would probably eat between 10,000 and 15,000 calories a night. >> my addiction to food just beats me down. >> i honestly didn't know if i would live long. i was diagnosed with a brain tumor. it had grown and they said it could start co roadi icorrodingf my spinal cord.

i remember the morning and the room started spinning, and i passed out. i knew everything had to change. i walked away from my business. i decided to change how i was going to eat. i went just to plants. i eat living food. real food and that's what has saved my life along with exercise. losing the 130 pounds has been life changing. my brain tumor is under control. i've run four marathons under ironman, and right now i'm biking across america, talking to everybody, getting people to think about their dreams. i want to help transform a million people's lives. that's the type of person i want to be. it was always our singular focus, a distinct determination. to do whatever it takes, use every possible resource.

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all right, someone is a whole lot richer this morning after hitting the mega millions

jackpot. this was a single winning ticket sold at this liquor store in san jose, california. it is worth $522 million. >> before taxes. >> cmnnn's dan simon is at ernis liquors in san jose. he joins us live. do we know who the winner is yet? >> reporter: not yet, but i should tell you here we are in the heart of silicon valley. obviously a lot of wealthy individuals here. i suppose you can add one more person to the list unless, of course, the person who bought the ticket happens to be one of those silicon valley millionaires. we just don't know at this point. here in california you have to come forward if you want to get the cash, you cannot remain anonymous, but they have six months to do so. for ernie's, a pretty good payout for them. the owner is not named ernie, he is kalo soktev.

here's what he had to say. >> an amazing feeling. my wife is here, everybody is kind of in a jolly mood. >> reporter: and he also says he was taking a nap when he got the call from one of his employees that they, in fact, sold the winning ticket. this mega millions jackpot had been growing for 11 weeks, and this happens to be the 11th largest jackpot in u.s. history. as you said, $522 million, $308 million if you take the one-time payout. john and allison, back to you. >> yes, mr. wet blanket. what do you have to say about this? >> i have done too many live shots from outside convenience stores to be at all objective about lottery stories. as much as i hate the lottery and lottery stories, i love the fact that the places who do sell them get money. that's fantastic. >> it's fantastic. as you heard him say, he's feeling very jolly this morning. >> ernie who is not actually

named ernie, congratulations to you. you are the big winner here. "the good stuff" is next. fire fighting is a very dangerous profession.

we have one to two fires a day and when you respond together and you put your lives on the line, you do have to surround yourself with experts. and for us the expert in gas and electric is pg&e. we run about 2,500/2,800 fire calls a year and on almost every one of those calls pg&e is responding to that call as well. and so when we show up to a fire and pg&e shows up with us it makes a tremendous team during a moment of crisis. i rely on them, the firefighters in this department rely on them, and so we have to practice safety everyday. utilizing pg&e's talent and expertise in that area trains our firefighters on the gas or electric aspect of a fire and when we have an emergency situation we are going to be much more skilled and prepared to mitigate that emergency for all concerned. the things we do every single day that puts ourselves in harm's way, and to have a partner that is so skilled at what they do is indispensable, and i couldn't ask for a better partner.

well, here's to first dates! you look amazing. and you look amazingly comfortable. when your v-neck looks more like a u-neck... that's when you know, it's half-washed. add downy to keep your collars from stretching. unlike detergent alone, downy conditions to smooth and strengthen fibers. so, next time don't half-wash it. downy and it's done. . time now for "the good stuff." a homeless man needed a little help to try to land a job at

mcdonald's, so a florida police officer gave him a clean shave. he noticed the man named phil was having trouble with his razor, didn't have a mirror. been there. this act of kindness was caught on camera ask shared on social media. >> i was like, you know, if he's wanting to help himself, i need to be more helpful and try to help him out. >> mcdonald's spokesperson says phil did fill out an application and we wish him luck. >> we need to follow up to see if he got the job. that's important, i feel. but i'm so glad we highlight the stories of police officers who go above and beyond every single day. >> it happens all the time, and it's a matter of just noticing and opening your eyes when you're on the streets. and when you talk about community policing, people know what's happening on their streets and they want to be involved. >> we'll have to find out if he got the job at mcdonald's. in the meantime, time for cnn newsroom with poppy harlow. we'll see you tomorrow.

top of the hour. good morning, everyone. i'm poppy harlow in new york. we do begin with breaking news. moments ago we received the first response from president trump to that audio recording the world heard first here last night on chris cuomo's show on cnn. quote from the president this morning: what kind of lawyer would tape a client? so sad. more on that in a moment. this tape was made in september of 2016 and that timing matters. why? because it was two months before the election by the president's long-time fixer and lawyer, michael cohen. the same michael cohen who is under federal investigation here in new york and has made it very clear that his loyalties no longer begin and end with the trumps. candidate trump is heard discussing how to prevent a former playboy model from revealing an alleged affair years earlier. the plan is to buy the rights to her story from theio