campbell. jim, let me start with you. we have the statement from the president. remind us what cohen now is willing to say? >> so in effect it's the president's word against his former long time personal attorney's word. to summarize what michael cohen says he's prepared to tell the special counsel robert mueller is a number of things. one, that the president did know in advance of that 2016 trump tower meeting of russians offering dirt on hillary clinton. michael cohen says he knows this because he was present montana room when don junior, the president's son, let the president know or then candidate trump know about this meeting. we're told michael cohen is also prepared to testify the that the president when told of this upcoming meeting approved of the meeting coming forward. the final detail, and this is an important one, is that we're told michael cohen says there were other people in the room besides then candidate trump and his son and michael cohen,

providing investigators if they are interested in this line of inquiry other witnesses to question to if possible corroborate cohen's versions of events. >> jeffrey toobin, legally speaking what does this mean? >> it's highly significant at many levels. first of all, it's relevant to the question of what was the relationship between the trump campaign and russia, which is the core issue in this investigation. donald trump and the people around him, certainly his son have said that donald trump, jr., the candidate, didn't know about this trump tower meeting, was never informed of it in advance or not even immediately afterward. this suggests that that's not true. is michael cohen telling the truth about this? >> but if he is, then what is president trump guilty of? what crime? >> well, i don't know what he is guilty of. it certainly raises the question of whether the trump campaign and the president and the people

around him are guilty of the conspiracy that has been charged by robert mueller at least on the russian side to interfere with the campaign illegally, the social media case, the hacking case. the question is did the trump campaign aid and abet and assist the russians in trying to get hillary clinton -- >> as i'm reading the statement from the president, this is as stark as you can get. we are told michael cohen wants to tell the special counsel that donald trump the president now the united states of did know, the president of the united states saying i did not know. >> that's right. and this he said, he said, involve said two people that have questionable motives and don't necessarily have reputations of people who always tell the truth. can i say this doesn't matter in the sense of mueller's investigation when it comes to the president denying something

in an official statement on twitter. because we've seen him tell lies before, essentially. what's going to matter is what is said to the special counsel by him or others in his orbit. can i also say none of us are the morality police. but most of us don't lie because it's wrong, it's not the right thing to do. even if you don't believe that, even if you're somebody who tells lies all the time, every day, every hour, it shows why politicians need to tell the truth because someday they're going to find themselves in hot water. and if they haven't built-up this reservoir of trust, that's why you need that reservoir of trust at these particular times. now the president is facing serious allegations and could be very hard to look the american people in the eye and say this is not true. >> donald trump, jr. also has a particular problem here because he under oath in front of the

intelligence committee said he did not tell his father about his trump tower meeting. if michael cohen is telling the truth and it can be corroborated and proven, donald trump, jr. could have a perjury problem. >> donald trump, jr. is the only one we know has testified under oath, and that's significant. michael cohen has yet to actually go to the special counsel to give this information. if and when he does, that will be significant because then he will be sworn on that issue. and also the president of the united states we know because we've been talking about it for months and months and months has not agreed to testify under oath about this. >> josh, help me understand that. why wouldn't robert mueller have talked to michael cohen? why wouldn't robert mueller reach out to michael cohen? >> there's so much about the mueller case we don't know. as we kind of get information from sources, but there's still a lot we don't know. what we can surmise is that a

lot of times in an investigation you're going to try to compile as much information as you can before you sit down with the major subject like michael cohen. you want to build that case so you can confront them with everything you know. >> you're working from the outside in. obviously doesn't get any closer. >> that's correct. >> jim sciutto, do you have reporting on michael cohen's mind-set? what we've been reading is he's been feeling hung out to dry over the past months as the southern district of new york has been closing in. he has sent up some flares i'm guessing for some sort of help from donald trump. i don't know what that would look like. and now to have his position diminished where donald trump has said he wasn't really that big a deal in my campaign, and now rudy giuliani calling him a pathological liar. what is michael cohen thinking? >> our understanding from people who speak to michael cohen is it's two things.

1, as you said alysn, he feels hung out to dry. now he feels the president is abandoning him. in addition to that we're told michael cohen wants to do the right thing now, he wants to show he values country over anything else, including his former boss. there's a positive motivation there as well. whether you believe that or not that is what people close to him say explains his change from being one of the president's defenders to saying, listen, i know what really happened here. and i'm willing to say that to investigators. the other thing i would say is this, someone is lying here, right? >> yeah. >> and that's the question and the question for investigators, perhaps juries and the american public to decide. but we also know -- we know that the president and his allies have given misleading accounts of this prior, right? because remember their

initial -- first of all, they said there were no meetings with russians that we learned, that there were several meetings with russians including one where the russians were willing to offer this information and trump's side was willing to take the meeting on that promise. but, two, after that meeting was revealed the initial explanation in which president trump himself was involved in gave a misleading account about what that meeting was all about saying it was about russian adoptions when e-mails showed within hours that that explanation was false. so there have been lies on a lot of sides about this meeting prior to today. >> that's a great point. someone is lying here, but all it seems involved in this have lied before as well. so determining credibility will be crucial, josh, in how will investigators go about credibility. >> a lot of this is going to come down in our reporting as far as what cohen said happened in that meeting. he didn't say he sat down with

trump on a one-on-one basis and trump knew that meeting was taking place. he said there were others. investigators are now going to be focusing on that. who are these others? we talk about how do you get at some of his information? there's witness testimony, records and you can figure did this take place, and then there's the question of recordings. he recorded a lot of meetings. is there a recording of this? so far we don't have evidence of that, but that would come into play to determine is this person telling the truth? >> there's also the issue of evidence that's already in plain sight. why did donald trump announce that he was giving a big speech about hillary clinton when this meeting was planned, and then when the meeting turned out to be a bust, never gave the speech? you know, donald trump, jr., sends an e-mail to robert goldstone setting up the meeting

saying if it's true, i love it. if he loves it so much why didn't he tell his father about it in advance? those are pieces of evidence that are related to the whole story. do they settle the issue, no. but it's important to remember, you know, as we look for secret evidence that public evidence matters a lot, too. >> thank you for that reminder. jeffrey toobin, josh campbell, jim sciutto, thank you very much. michael cohen says then candidate donald trump knew about this meeting with the russians. the president just doubled down on his denial on twitter, so we dive into more of that. greatness of an suv?do ye is it to carry cargo... or to carry on a legacy? its show of strength... or its sign of intelligence? in crossing harsh terrain... or breaking new ground? this is the time to get an exceptional offer on the mercedes of your midsummer dreams at the mercedes-benz summer event, going on now. receive up to a $1,250 summer event bonus on select suvs.

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which is what we do. crowne plaza. we're all business, mostly. all right, president trump is slamming michael cohen, his long time fixer and confidant just moments ago on twitter. this is in response to sources telling cnn that cohen says that president trump did know in advance about that trump tower meeting with russians. the president has just said i did not know of the meeting with my son don, jr. sounds like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out on unrelated jam, taxicabs, maybe. he even retained bill and crooked hillary's lawyer. gee, i wonder if they helped him make the choice. we need a big picture of this, okay? so it seems to me that since the helsinki summit a lot has

changed, a lot has come out. there's been breaking news on our watch every single morning. can you imagine if you were michael cohen, okay, the president's long time devoted servant and you watched that helsinki summit where donald trump seemed to defend or support vladimir putin more than he ever has since michael cohen got in trouble and now michael cohen is speaking -- yeah, he's speaking publicly. >> for somebody. you realize the big picture, this has been a good week for trump. 4% growth montana united states, the europeans backed down on trade, now looks like a winner on that front. the north koreans, more progress with remains coming back and stuff about michael cohen, i mean is he credible? he was trump's lawyer. if you are a trump supporter this is just blah-blah-blah.

now, the helsinki stuff was really bad for trump and he had to walk it back and the republicans were hitting him pretty hard for a day, and now he's basically said, okay, i'm not going to do the summit this year after all, i'm not going to recognize crimea as a part of russia. we don't know what happened in the two hour conversation, it's really weird. we don't talk about that a lot but nobody else is going to. >> i think it's fascinating is one of the things is you assess risk. what is the biggest risk here from the last two weeks in. >> i guess is what comes out eventually around russia. why is it that trump has such a personal fixation on treating putin well when even all of the members of his own administration, present and former that have left are saying privately we don't know why he does this. why wouldn't he include them in the meetings? i do think especially with the mid-terms coming up and now

we're getting the first public information about active hacking of the mid-term elections, that's going to be a problem. people are going to talk about them being rigged, the russian issue is going to become bigger. again, if we're talking about just blatant news this week, if i were talking to fox they would be telling me to run a victory lap. >> they are at the moment. the fact is it's been a great week for president trump, nationally or internationally? >> american traditional allies really don't like the guy. the german foreign minister came out this morning and said, look, our relationship with the u.s. is going to stay strong. we are bigger than just dealing with the white house. he's going to be gone eventually, and that is a -- that is the more mature response that we're seeing from a bunch of leaders. but we're also seeing when trump

decides he's going to go hard against ru, you've got to throw him something. it's been the south korean, brazilians, those are a lot of individual countries that have lined up and said okay let's try to find a better trade deal for this guy. and even in nafta, the initial back and forth with the americans has been pretty positive. >> it's interesting because they come in and seem to say let's figure out a way so that donald trump can claim victory even though it's not clear what's achieved. other than they decided not to make it work right away. >> well, a couple of things. one is they said they were going to buy more soybeans from the united states. that's significant. we don't have the details on it yet, but if the eu, if they make a commitment like that, really hard to back away from it. and they said they're going to resist the escalation as are the

japanese. the japanese are unhappy, they haven't gotten an exemption. china's the one to watch. because the bad news trump got on the international front that the chinese killed the qualcomm deal, which is going to cost a lot of money. and the united states and china are two trains that are heading directly at each other. everything he's done in policy has been focused on let's not hurt the economy short-term. we can hurt the economy long-term -- >> and that's what's happening in your assessment? >> on trade he kind of held up to the line and as soon as the markets were pushing back then it's about rhetoric and not follow through. >> you think he's backed off on trade in the last week. >> i think he's backed off china and europe a little bit. i think if he femt like he could do any escalation without damage

to the u.s. economy, i think it could have gone another round or two. didn't implement any specifics on $200 billion or 5$500 billio on goods. he hasn't done that yet. there's a lot more bombast around how bad this could get, but that also pushes folks into a better place. in a number of instances we have to recognize that's been effective. >> we've had several republican congressmen and senators on this week who are quite worried about the tariffs and how they effect their states, iowa, pennsylvania, et cetera. as you know president trump has proposed a bail out, $12 billion to farmers. how does this play out? >> long-term the way you benefit the u.s. economy isn't by raising tariffs and then throwing cash to your domestic constituents. but short-term you keep them

happy, interest rates comparatively low, who cares where the money is coming from. the beginning of the trump administration was about owning things and building a real business. after the bankruptcies it was about licensing deals, quick money for trump with people in weird parts of the world. there is a fear, certainly, that trump as president is going to run the country like trump as ceo of trump organization. when things get tough he moves from the real assets to vaporware, and i think long-term you have to worry some of the decisions the president is taking is going to damage the economy. >> the president invited vladimir putin to come to the united states in the fall, and a lot of people look at this and say, hey, wait a second hereafter what happened at helsinki you shouldn't be offering this invitation at all. and the president backed off and said maybe it's not going to happen until the first of the

year. what do you see going on? >> i think the soccer ball -- the fact is they weren't able to accomplish anything substantive in terms of policy. everybody got so worked up, and the press conference he held in helsinki was really weird. yet if you look at concrete deliverables coming out of it, they're not sus spending any military exercises in nato countries under trump. advance forces rotating in and out of the baltic states, they're in poland. the united states isn't pulling out of syria. they're not recognizing crimea, and i suspect we're going to see more sanctions against russians from congress later this year. really hard for putin to come over to the united states and say, hey, you're my buddy-buddy. he said after the witch hunt is over, which may imply there

aren't anymore meetings. i suspect he'll change his mind on that. the fact is as angry as everyone including main stream republicans were on the back of this helsinki meeting, very little concrete that we know of has come out. >> we don't know what was discussed, what really went on -- >> but we do know u.s. policy and we haven't seen a move on u.s. policy. >> great to have you. all right, the deadline has expired for reuniting immigrant families. how many children remain separated from their parents? that's next. i landed. i saw my leg did not look right. i was just finishing a ride. i felt this awful pain in my chest. i had a pe blood clot in my lung. i was scared. i had a dvt blood clot. having one really puts you in danger of having another.

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>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. staying on top of the breaking news, the president has given his first statement since sources told cnn that michael cohen claims that then candidate trump knew and approved of the trump tower meeting in 2016 between his campaign and russians promising dirt on hillary clinton. our joe john live at the white house with the presidential response. joe? >> reporter: good morning, john. a forceful denial from the president on twitter to the cnn reporting that michael cohen is prepared to say that the

president was aware of that 2016 meeting that has become so infamous over the last several months during the russia investigation. the president's tweet, i did not know of the meeting with my son, don, jr., sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam, an apparent reference to the president's former lawyer, michael cohen. he goes on e, he even retained bill and crooked hillary clinton's lawyer. gee, i wonder if they helped him make the choice. so that, of course, a reference to lanny davis, who happens to be one of the lawyers who worked for bill and hillary clinton, bill clinton during the impeachment phase back years and years ago. of course, what's very clear here is that the president is angry, according to the reporting from cnn's jeff

zeleny, from jeff last night. a republican source telling jeff, as a matter of fact, it's getting closer and closer to his inner circle. how do you think he feels? so so far a forceful denial from the president of the united states. he's denied it before. back to you, alysn. >> thank you very much for all of that. now to this, about one in three children who were separated from their parents at the border are not reunited. they are still in government custody. as you know there was this government deadline to reunite them yesterday. that has expired. so the government offering no time line now for tracking down those hundreds of parents who were deported or now unaccounted for, and what happens to their children and where they are? cnn's rosa flores has been following this for weeks. what's the latest, rosa? >> reporter: alysn, good morning. well, the u.s. government is declaring that the reunification is complete.

they are praising their work. but here is the bottom line, not every child who was separated by the u.s. government was reunified by deadline day. and let me take you through these numbers because according to the u.s. government they separated about 2,500 children. by deadline day they had reunified about 1,400 of those children. 700 of the children remain in the custody of the united states. but by definition they are not in the custody of their parents. there's another subset. more than 300 of these children were released. so they were released to either sponsors who could be friends or close family members. could be parents, but in this case we know they're not the parents. otherwise they would have been in the other category. and there's another subset of numbers. and those were the parents who were deported outside of the united states. so those parents are not sitting

in guatemala, honduras, grappling with the fact that they have not been reunited with their children, and they're trying to figure out a way to reunite with their children. so while the u.s. government is patting itself on the back for a great job, these parents are still trying to figure out how to reunite with their children. >> rosa, i am so glad that you're staying on this and we're staying on this. hundreds have not been reunited. and we can't just believe the administration when they say problem solved. rosa, thank you very much. okay, there are new numbers just out on the economy. we'll tell you what it means for you when we come right back.

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>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. on a morning of breaking news it just continues. the commerce department has just released the latest quarterly economic numbers, and they are big breaking news. so let's get right to cnn's chief correspondent christine. tell us about the numbers here. >> 4.1%, and this is the strongest economic growth since the fourth quarter of 2014 when we had a 5.2% reading.

you can see that is nice rebound from what was a disappointing first quarter this year of only 2%. that's from recent quarters here. and again four times during the obama administration, and so you saw 4% or higher. but this is definitely an improvement over recent quarters. here's what the impromvement is from. personal spending. exports are up, specifically pointing out soybean exports. because you saw customers rushing ahead to secure orders before retaliatory tariffs, before there was going to be -- >> so can you say the president's gambit on tarifficize working at the moment? >> his gambit is one of the reasons why you saw this russia head. also the tax cuts were in here, that's an important part of this. the tax cuts are appealing to the economy. that could fade later in the year, so a lot of economists are

saying don't think the 4.1% maybe is all that sustainable. on the soybean part in particular on the second quarter morgan stanley noticed soybean exports are up 9,000%. again, that the stockpiling ahead of what many feared to be a trade war. you're going to start to see companies and businesses make a move to try to get out from some of these trade numbers here. but this is solid number. >> that is what donald trump promised i think during the campaign that we would see 4% growth, so it's happening. >> we would like to see a whole year of 4% growth. running in the 2s really here. so can you sustain this? later in the year a lot of economists are saying maybe it'll slow down from there. >> thank you for all of that great context. >> let's talk more about this. joining us now steven moore, former trump economic advisor. steven, first to you, your take

on the number. >> it's a powerful number. i think it's a case when you combine that with the numbers we've gotten on jobs this is an economy now really firing on all cylinders. i was speaking last week at a major manufacturing conference and the number one complaint of these businesses now is they can't find enough workers. so it is a very strong economy. haven't looked at the final numbers in this report. it came out three minutes ago. but i have been tracking the numbers, and this growth is really being driven by pretty strong consumer spending and more importantly business investment. businesses are investing again, and that's a very good lead indicator where the economy is headed in the months ahead. >> catherine, your top line take on this. >> i think it's good. of course we want strong growth. but one quarter of growth does not atran transformed economy m. as we all know the numbers bounce around a lot from quarter to quarter. we had relatively weak growth

last quarter. also of course as was already pointed out, a large part of this growth was likely because companies are trying to front run the tariffs, right, exactly the kind of thing that makes it look like trump's policies may be improving the economy may be evidence it's backfiring. and companies like farmers that grow soybeans had a huge surge in exports, somewhere in the 3,000%, 9,000% in annual increase in soybean exports that probably contributed to growth. and we're going to see that reverse next quarter or at least later this year. so, again, i wouldn't read too much into this. it's good news, but it's not the end-all deal. we had stronger quarters during obama that were one off, and the overall trend was lackluster. >> 4% is always a good number to see in growth. the question is will it last, and steven, what about that

interesting notion of stockpiling in advance of the tariffs? i know it's hard to wrap your head around, but the president has instituted tariffs in some ways and soybean farmers and other farmers in the united states are terrified about this. they've been complaining it has hurt them and hurt them badly. soybean production was up 9,000% because they wanted to get in front of the tariffs. what happens next quarter? >> first of all, let me address this issue of reversion to the mean. let's not forget the economy was decelerating when obama left office. over obama's last year in office the economy grew 1.6%. now the economy is growing over 3%. i was during the campaign, most economists said it was impossible to get that 4 he% growth. there's no question there's been

a kind of trump effect here in terms of his policies. now, you asked the question about trade. look, i think the media is really very relieved here what happened the other day with this eu deal. i've bip following this very closely. i've talked many times to donald trump. i think this is game changer what happened on wednesday where the europeans basically said we can't live with these tariffs they're proposing, especially the german auto tariffs and what happened was the europeans said we will reduce our tariffs over time. ultimately what we hope to get to would be a zero tariff policy with the yoounls and now that allows us to focus on china. so i think the trade picture has improved a lot. >> look, i don't think trump gets credit for taking the pin out of the grenade and putting it temporary back in the grade.

we have had a trade war with europe, with china, basically every trading partner in the world. and the idea everyone wants to move towards zero tariffs, that's great. but that was part of the negotiating we had under obama, and trump paused it and instead decided to pick a trade war with allies in the eu. i don't think he gets credit for starting a crisis and saying we're going to pause that crisis when there was no actual deal made. all he said was we're going to pause the tensions right now. >> let me jump in and change subject if i can what this means for you. by you i mean the american people. bloomberg was the first to point this out this week. i think it was real wage growths. and they noted under the trump administration change said in real wages since 2006 even with the growth we're seeing right now you can see there's not a

positive move in real wages. how do you explain that? >> it's very difficult to explain right now given that unemployment is relatively low. it's usually low. employers say they can't find workers, and yet as you point out wages are flat. it's unclear what's going on. wages always rise during a recovery, but we're in like one of the largest recoveries on record. some of this may be compositional, the younger people coming into the work force, maybe earning less than the boomers who are retiring. some on the fact employers are relying more on one time bonuses rather than wage increases. if we want to talk about whether trump economics is working, it's certainly not working for workers but we don't know why. >> wages hasn't been rising quite as fast as we'd like. the numbers i've been looking at, they've shown a bit of a bump up in wages. catherine made a good point, the

wages don't reflect bonuses. and more of the benefits workers are getting now are in the form of bonuses rather than wages. also it points to we have to bring health care costs down. the higher and higher cost of employers providing health care has eaten into people's normal wage increases. >> thank you so much for being with us. again, the breaking news, 4.1% economic growth last quarter. appreciate it. well, john, it doesn't look like michael cohen will be getting that pardon of all. >> or invite to the trump dinner. >> what the former confidant is now saying about his trusted boss, donald trump. what about him? let's do it. ♪

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okay, so a lots happened already during just our program. president trump is now slamming his long time confidant, fixer

and personal attorney michael cohen. he's just done it this morning, and this in is response to sources telling cnn that michael cohen says the president knew about that meeting in trump tower with the four russians. he knew about it in advance and he approved it. here's the president said in response. i did not know about of the meeting with my son don, jr. sounds like someone is trying to make up stories to get himself out of an unrelated jack, taxicabs, maybe. he even retained bill and crooked hillary's lawyer. gee, where wonder if they helped him make the choice. we also have standing by cnn chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin. >> carl bernstein broke the story. >> carl, has broken so many stories. tell us the significance of this one today. >> well, the significance is that the lawyer for the president of united states or the former lawyer for the president is alleging and has

told a fair number of people that the president knew in advance of this meeting to take place at which russian operatives were to deliver dirt on hillary clinton for use in his campaign. it would be a stunning development if indeed the president of the united states then about to become the nominee of his party knew of that meeting in advance because the meeting itself that did take place suggests a kind of collusion in the sense that those present expected to receive information from the russian participants. if the president himself knew of it in advance, it is a very, very damaging piece of information. especially while he and his campaign are under investigation by the special prosecutor. >> it is interesting because this morning the president has

flat out denied it. again, he has done it on twitter, so someone is lying here. is the president lying on twitter, or michael cohen is lying as he's telling people that he will testify to the special counsel. i will note, carl, that neither the president nor michael cohen has said these exact words under oath yet in any way or form as far as we know. >> as we have seen the president of the united states aside from lying and sometimes he's been truthful about some matters, but he also sometimes finds some wiggle room. whether any wiggle room is possible here in the two versions, i have no idea. we're talking about two people here. mr. cohen and the president of the united states who have not the most sterling credibility especially in the kinds of matters that we're discussing here.

and once again the president has chosen to try to make the issue here hillary clinton rather than his own actions. but if indeed this is real denial, i'm going to presume that the special prosecutor is going to try and find out what version of events is true. >> jeffrey, if michael cohen, the person who was beside donald trump for years, his confidant, his fixer, if he is willing to talk to robert mueller, which sources say that he is, is that a game changer? >> well, you know, i think the key question here is what is michael cohen's corroboration? what is his proof that he's telling the truth? i think one of it most interesting things in carl's story about michael cohen's version of these events is cohen says other people were president when donald trump, sr. was informed of this meeting. what do they have to say?

is there any contemporaneous record? are their tapes, are their e-mails, or their textess that discuss donald trump, jr.'s knowledge or lack thereof of this trump tower meeting? that is what these contests come down to when two people tell conflicting versions of the story. >> even beyond the trump tower meeting, michael cohen talking to robert mueller, isn't he a gold mine? >> you would think. he is the person who has dealt with all of trump's most embarrassing problems with women, negotiating these payments to these women. all of that will presumably be spelled out. we now know, i mean the trump developments happen so fast. remember way way back two days ago when we first heard the tape of donald trump and michael cohen, you know, that -- you know, does he have other tapes? what do they say? what is the corroboration? all of that needs to be spelled

out, and cohen if he's willing to cooperate and if they can get around the issues of attorney-client privilege -- >> there's been so many questions about why, why michael cohen is coming forward now. how do you explain the change in psyche of michael cohen, and you brought up a historical example, one of which you have deep personal history with and it's john dean. >> well, let's first say it's very clear that mr. cohen is looking for a get out of jail card from the special prosecutor in exchange for information that he says is truthful. and in the past, of course, there has been witnesses who in all kinds of criminal cases who have a record of not being truthful who turn around and become prosecution witnesses and become truthful.

whether or not this is the case right now, we don't know. in the case of john dean 45 years ago in which mr. dean and his attorney before he testified before the senate watergate committee, they went around putting out a version of events that said that mr. dean would indeed turn on the president of the united states and disclose what he knew about the watergate cover up. and in that instance i was in touch with mr. dean's lawyers who were indeed telling me that dean was about to do what we saw him do before the senate watergate committee and start testimony, and the story we wrote was, of course, correct in what he was going to say. we do not know if the facts that mr. cohen is alleging here are correct or if the facts as told

by donald trump in this latest tweet, except that hillary clinton is not the real issue here. the issue is the conduct of the president of the united states and those around him in the campaign. but we do not know yet whether or not mr. cohen is being truthful, what he will elaborate. we also we have to be very clear in saying he has a trove of other information to disclose. so let's wait and see how the facts develop. >> yes. carl bernstein, thank you very much for sharing your reporting with us. that is really helpful. jeffrey, thank you for all that. we should say it's just been announced president trump will be speaking about the economy. they're going great for this quarter. 9:30 eastern. >> on the south lawn of the

white house. woo do not know if he will take questions or and we also don't know if reporters will shout questions. there's been so much breaking news this morning. we're staying all over it on cnn. special coverage continues shortly. >> have a great weekend. ahoy-hoy. alexander graham bell here... no, no, my number is one, you must want two! two, i say!! like my father before... [telephone ring] like my father before... ahoy-hoy! as long as people talk too loudly on the phone, you can count on geico saving folks money. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

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breaking news. all right, top of the hour, 9:00 a.m. eastern. good morning, everyone. i'm poppy harlow in new york, and there's a lot to get to. breaking news just into cnn. we have learned that russian president vladimir putin says he is preparing to go to washington. speaking today he also extended another invitation to president trump to meet again. this time it would be a visit to moskow. our senior national correspondent sam kylie joins me with more. what else do we know about what putin said? >> reporter: well, he was very interesting in answer to a question from a russian journalist in the brits meeting in johannesburg. he said he was always keeping his campaign promises, and one of those campaign promises was to improve relations with russia. he said that he had extended and