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tv   MSNBC Live With Alex Witt  MSNBC  July 29, 2018 10:00am-11:01am PDT

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up next, tapes, talks and tweets. rudy giuliani hits the sunday talk show circuit. >> he's capable, i think,
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unfortunately of doctoring tapes. hasn't done that. we have negotiations going on and an outstanding offer to him. >> have you advised the president not to tweet about his attorney general? >> good luck about tweeting. >> the president's attorney also keeps up the character attacks on michael cohen. >> and the man is a pathological manipulator, liar. these tapes completely demonstrate the president did nothing wrong. it seems like his default position is to lie. he's a bad liar. meanwhile the media is growing more intense, and the legal fight that could force the president to give up one of his most prized secrets. i'm alex witt in msnbc headquarters in new york. rudy giuliani is trying to give new insight for the
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trump-mueller face-to-face interview. >> it relates basically to the russia collusion thing, which we think there is no evidence and the president didn't do anything wrong, so we don't have much of a problem with it. but the obstruction thing, it's more a question of we don't see the legal basis for the president obstructing by merely taking an action in firing somebody that he had every right to fire and about ten good reasons to fire. >> when are you going to nail this down? >> i think a couple -- maybe this week, maybe next week. >> last time you told us it was july 4th, mr. mayor. >> well, a lot happened since july 4th. >> giuliani also revealing some new details about what may be on the audio recordings from the fbi-seized tapes there from michael cohen's apartment. msnbc's jeff bennett is there for us. jeff, what can you tell us? >> reporter: another sunday brings another round of tv interviews featuring the president's outside attorney,
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rudy giuliani. rudy giuliani is now saying a tape made between president trump and his former attorney, michael cohen, has been tampered with. there is no evidence to back that up. we hear the voices of the president and cohen discussing payment of karen mcdougal. she is the former playmate alleging she had an affair with the president before he became president, something the white house denies. take a look at what else giuliani had to say about these cohen tapes. >> we know of something like 183 unique conversations on tape. one of those with the president of the united states, the three-minute one involving the mcdoougal payment. there are 12 others out of the 183 in which the president is
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discussed nature length by cohen, mostly with reporters. all clearly corroborating what the president has said in detail on many of those tweets, in other words, that he didn't know about the payments to either one when they happened, that he only found out later cohen made them not for the campaign -- he didn't like the campaign. he said very derogatory things about the campaign. he said, i only made it because i personally love the president and melania, and that's why i made the payment. >> reporter: so this latest effort to discredit michael cohen comes, as we reported, cohen is set to tell the special counsel that president trump knew in advance about that june 2016 trump tower meeting with the russian lawyer and the russian advocates with the promise of the exchange of dirt on hillary clinton's campaign, something that, so far as we know, did not materialize. president trump is still at his private golf resort in bedminster. he spent much of yesterday uncharacteristically quiet on twitter, but this morning he was up and at 'em fairly early on
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twitter with messages like this one. the president writes, i would be willing to shut down government if the democrats do not give us the votes for border security, which includes the wall. must get rid of lot ttery, catc and release, et cetera, and must go on a system of merit. this is the wall that the president said time and again that mexico would pay for. and this rhetoric is not new. remember back in april the government threaten president threatened to shut down the government. this is something republican leaders on capitol hill has tried to convince the president this is not a fight he really wants, in part because government funding runs out in just a little over a month before midterm election day. >> okay. jeff bennett at the white house for us. >> msnbc contributor and white house reporter for the
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associated press. ladies, welcome to you both on this sunday afternoon. betsy, what do you make about what giuliani revealed about the content of some of those audio recordings, and is there anything the white house should be concerned about based on what he has said? >> what we know is that giuliani is not the world's most reliable narrator when it comes to the content of the recordings that michael cohen made before lanny davis and michael cohen's legal team released the recording that came out last week. giuliani characterized it as being exculpatory to the president, showing the president was completely above rapproch and didn't do anything wrong. but it turned out that wasn't an accurate reflection of what the tape actually said. there are some debates about the tape, parts of it are hard to understand, there are people talking over each other, but i think we can all agree that the tape didn't make the president look completely above board. so the fact that giuliani is going on these sunday shows and saying these remaining tapes are
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all good news for the president are something we shouldn't take at face value. we should wait and see if the audiotapes actually emerge. >> let's hear giuliani discussing his present state of mind after the cohen allegations. >> first of all, the president feels disappointed. i think the anger is over. we've assured him in a very strange way this is a very good development for us because we do have all these tapes, and these tapes completely demonstrate the president did nothing wrong. cohen is on record over and over again stating his position. it would be hard to contradict that now. and he's done so many despicable things, his credibility is not an issue. the defense agreement is effectively over because he's made it clear he's not going to give us information. >> what do you make of the series of headlines this is
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having on the president? >> from the day the fbi raided michael cohen's apartment, the hotel he was staying in, his offices, the president is clearly shaken. he's been very, very angry about the whole development. there is thinking among friends in the white house of the president of the potential cohen could have on him because he worked so closely with the president for so many years, was involved in some of his affairs that this line of questioning coming from new york is potentially more harmful to him than anything bob mueller is doing when it comes to obstruction of justice or collusion charges. you can tell just by reading the president's twitter feed that he is rattled by michael cohen. you heard giuliani saying there that the president at this point is not necessarily upset about it, but the president is not somebody who lets things go lightly, he hold grudges against people, and the fact michael cohen has gone against him, these are two men ready to rip
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each other down to gain advantage. >> three months since that april 9 raid, in fact. betsy, you read about this. what are your sources telling you? >> on the evening last week when the michael cohen audiotape was being rolled out and received wall-to-wall coverage across all three cable news networks, the president actually hurled expletives at the television because he was deeply frustrated to see this report come out, to see these news stories emerge. so what we can tell you without a doubt is this is something that is really disturbing and rattling to president trump and it's something he's very concerned about. what i can also tell you is that the president's outside allies hounded by rudy giuliani are engaged and prepared to ramp up their attacks on michael cohen. for them michael cohen's liability is a huge liability. we don't expect to see the attacks on michael cohen's
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credibility coming from current white house officials. they'll try to keep their hands clean with things coming out of there. you heard giuliani say michael cohen actually had done many bad things. of course those bad things likely would be presumably at the behest of giuliani's current client, the president. that hasn't kept giuliani from dredging up michael cohen's past to benefit other witnesses. >> we certainly see giuliani, he's gotten quite the media blitz this week going after cohen, really casting doubt on his credibility and going back and forth on lanny davis. is there a palpable strategy, one you can figure out, jill? >> yeah, the strategy here very clearly seems to be that they are trying to throw as much negative material at the wall as possible, seeing what sticks so that they can muddy up whatever conclusion is reached here. i thought the back and forth
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this week over the meeting at trump tower was absolutely fascinating where you had -- there was a theory it was actually trump's team that had originally made that accusation, put that out there, the idea that michael cohen knew about this. the idea that the president knew about this, the idea that don jr. had told him and that all of these people, if that's true, had gone out there. they lied to congress about it. they publicly made statements that were inaccurate. the fact that the president's legal team was sort of willing to put that out there is just pretty extraordinary, all in the service of trying to undercut michael cohen, of trying to hurt his case here. >> what are you hearing, betsy, in terms of don jr., the likelihood of being brought back to capitol hill and having to testify again? >> i don't think -- i haven't received any information to that effect. it's unlikely that republicans on capitol hill will want to sort of put him through the
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wringer again. from testifying before, they have his comments. if he testified and goes against the claims michael cohen intends to make, that could cause discussion. but as long as republicans control congress, i think it's unlikely they would try and bring don jr. back for a second round of interviews. i just don't see that happening. >> allen weisselberg, his role as finance chief and what kind of information he might be able to offer short of the president's tax returns, or might it build up to having to release to some degree information from those tax returns. >> that's an interesting question. weisselberg is someone the public might not have known about before this week, but he's been a long-time ceo of the trump organization. he's the only family member appointed of the trustee of the trump trust right now who holds all of his business holdings, and he is someone who was deeply
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involved in all aspects of trump's business activity and other activity. we heard his name mentioned on that secret recording that cohen had made fof him and the president as they were discussing the mcdougal payment. who knows if he took part in that which is why he's been subpoenaed. i don't know if the fbi already has trump's tax returns, but trump's tax returns are something all of us have been interested in and trying to get ahold of for years. >> thank you, ladies, both so much. overtures between president trump and vladimir putin. why the back and forth is raising more questions about the president's judgment. (beep) ♪can i get a connection? ♪can i get can i get a connection?♪
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the president met with the national security council friday ordering them to harden our electoral infrastructure against russia and other actors for the 2018 election. best presidential leadership i've been looking for. >> right now you hear from television officials they don't have directives from this president to stop the interference campaign, so it's really on congress. if the executive isn't going to defend the country, then our congressional leaders need to unite and say these elections belong to us. we're going to do all we can to protect the ballot box. >> the first ever security
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meeting on friday. the meeting ended with no overall strategy to prevent hacking or meddling, despite reports that three 2018 campaigns have already been attacked, senator clair mccaskill saying hers was unfairly targeted. john is a third-year veteran in russian affairs. he's also an msnbc global analyst. john, welcome to you. can we talk about the meeting, 30 minutes? that was it. was that time to discuss strategy in this big picture problem? >> no, it wouldn't be, alex. i spent, in my career, a fair amount of time in that situation room in such meetings, and typically 30 minutes is just enough time to make the introductions and get started. normally a meeting like that is going to last about an hour, hour and a half or so, and given that it's the very first one, it's really hard to believe they
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got very far into the subject. >> this president's reputation, he's notoriously hard to brief and get details in a comprehensive way. he has sheets of details put on one sheet, they call it. this, do you get a sense you would be even interested in listening to points on this topic? >> everyone says he's heard it, but in truth, a couple things on this whole issue. first, the white house has eliminated its cyber security coordinator. the way i look at this, no one is really in charge across the entire government, which is important for a couple of reasons. for one thing, many parts of government have a piece of this problem. the technical side would be the national security agency to monitor russian behavior, also attempts to influence the election. homeland security has a piece of it that is supporting the state and local election offices. and then on top of that, you know, it's a complicated
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country. we have 3,000 counties across the united states who administer these elections. so unless there is someone with their arms around this entire problem pulling things together, that's the first problem. second problem is, my experience in the executive branch is that unless the president forcefully speaks out and gives direction and drives something, it doesn't really happen with the conviction and vigor that's required, and that hasn't happened here. >> is it fair to make an analogy to the era before 9/11 where there were all these unique intelligence agencies working on their own accord, and so mistakes happened in terms of maybe not the right information going from one place to the next post 9/11, after a huge, huge debacle that desperately hurt this country, things pulled together. homeland security gets created and everyone starts working in more concert together. is that a fair analogy?
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>> i think there's some fairness to it. there is some differences as well. what's fair about it, i think, is that in both cases, there was a lot of warning of a coming attack before 9/11. not the specific attack on the trade tower, but the idea that we would be attacked, and yet there wasn't a lot of response in congress or, for that matter at that moment in the administration as there is now a lot of warning about what's coming in the 2018 elections and maybe 2020 as well. so there's something to that. the difference, i think, is that in this case we've already experienced the problem. in other words, the kind of clarifying event that 9/11 turned out to be has already occurred. we have all of this data on what the russians did in 2016, so there's really no excuse for the lack of a concerted vigorous approach, whereas before 9/11, one could say, well, the country
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hadn't seen graphically what could happen. after 9/11, everyone kind of got it together. similar in some ways but maybe different in one or two important ones. >> importantly, you've pointed that out. so we have the president who has really complained about the so-called deep state. he is now, as you know, threatening to revoke security clearances of those who criticize russian interference. do those he threatens no longer have security clearance? if you're fired, i know that no longer exists. >> i think the whole idea of removing security clearances in the circumstances the president has discussed is a ridiculous idea. essentially he's threatening people who have exercised their first amendment rights to speak
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their mind, and so the reason for removing them is not there. typically when clearances are removed, it's as you suggested -- you have a hearing, there is an appeals process, it can go to federal court. none of that has happened. this is just the president sort of waving his hand and i might want to do this. i don't think it changes the way intelligence officers deliver their message, though it does send a chill through that process if you're saying to people who possess classified information, if you say something i don't like or i find personally offensive, your clearance could be in jeopardy. because frankly, in my old business, a lot of what you do is pass on unpleasant news. so you do need that a sthaurns you're okay to do that.
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that's the essence of the job, essentially what the job is. >> you have said the president is not prepared for his interview with bob mueller and the special counsel. find out what mike pompeo found out about that meeting. >> i was president in the briefing of what transpired during that meeting. i was also there when they gave us a sense of what happened in the meeting after. i also chatted with sergei lavrov twice about what took place. i think i have a pretty good understanding of what took place in that meeting. >> did you speak to the translat translator who was at that meeting? >> no, i haven't. >> do you get the sense he got most of his information from russia? is this concerning to you at all? >> that was an unusual hearing, and i think a lot of the senators came away doubting that
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the secretary had, from the president, a very clear readout on what occurred in that two-hour meeting. first off, a two-hour meeting is a long meeting -- you talked earlier about length of meetings. that's a two-hour meeting. it's a long meeting for a president and a foreign and then you bring in your officials. in this case, we don't know because mike pompeo didn't say specifically what he had learned about the content of that meeting. as far as i can tell from what i've seen publicly otherwise, what we know comes mainly from the russian side. the russians have already issued statements that they are prepared to follow up on agreements on syria and on military cooperation.
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they said they're willing to meet with our offices here of what we call our general staff. they mean the joint chiefs and so forth. so there is something there they are shielding which we haven't heard from our side. maybe the president said we covered the following subjects, but so far the pentagon is saying they have any guidance. >> john mclaughlin. it's interesting times, to say the least. thank you very much for weighing in. michael cohen might have some explaining to do on capitol hill, and will all that eventually backfire? ♪ ooh, heaven is a place on earth ♪ uhp.
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congress weighing in on the results of the cohen investigation. lindsey graham doubting cohen's reliability earlier. >> you should be suspicious of anything he says. he's on the hot seat. he's looking to going to jail, so people like him are subject to making things up.
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michael cohen has already appeared before congress talking about a lot of things. and this idea he told trump about the russia meeting before it happened is, to us, very much new news. so mr. cohen, if you've got something new to say, you need to come to congress and say it under oath. >> joining me now, congressman of tennessee. i want to get your opinion of what lindsey graham just said about michael cohen. do you think he makes a good point, or do you think it's the president that loses in the credibility department? >> i think that michael cohen, rudy giuliani and donald trump have about the same amount of credibility. they all use at best situational ethics but probably more likely they just lie constantly and they're all three pathological liars. >> okay. well, that's saying something. i want to play for you what rudy giuliani said about michael cohen here from an interview earlier. >> and the man is a pathological
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manipulator, liar. i didn't know that. i didn't know him well. i would have been surprised back then, but now that i know all this about him, it seems to me his default position is to lie. he's a bad liar. >> it looks like you took some of the words from giuliani's mouth right there in reference to cohen, but a few weeks ago it was a different tune. giuliani and the president were singing michael cohen's praises. they were saying how great a guy he was. what happened? >> well, i think things changed, the situation changed and they decided to go on the attack, and the same thing might have happened with michael cohen. he was willing to take a bullet for donald trump and he was testifying nothing happened. now he's in a different situation. i think robert mueller will use his testimony if he finds it credible. robert mueller has had other people who have turned and he knows how to ascertain with a good degree of center whether the person is being truthful to him, and he's not going to put
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anybody on the stand or put them in his report if he doesn't think they're being truthful. michael cohen might have had a come to jesus moment, especially here on sunday, and decided to seek the truth and be an american hero, you don't know. but he's had lying problems in the past. as far as giuliani, they say you can't con a con man, and rudy giuliani should have known what michael cohen was because they're birds of a feather. >> what about the chances that donald trump jr. could be brought back to congress and the level of trouble that he might really be? ? can you weigh in on that? >> only in the senate. the house will not do it. the house judiciary committee has done nothing to look at election interference and nothing to look at the trumps. the one committee that should be working on this has done nothing. he had testified before, i think, senate and house intel both, and he may be called back.
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if he does, i suspect he'd lie again. in the clips i've seen of him, he looks as guilty as he can be. >> in the last half an hour or so, he was talking about protecting the election. meanwhile, you had republicans who passed down all additional funding this week to protect the state and local elections. in your opinion, what do you think it's going to take to get this whole issue taken seriously on capitol hill? >> well, it's going to take republicans and paul ryan and the freedom caucus to have a come to jesus moment. you know, they put up additional funding protecting our elections and the president hasn't done
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anything about it. the media was just show business. there was nothing more to it. we've already seen where clair mccaskill was a victim and there will be other victims. the republicans didn't do anything. in fact, i was the one that started the democratic chant after that that was very strong. usa! usa! usa! it went over very well. we had another attack in our country and they sat on their hands. they will have to see the government judge them sharply in the long run, not the short run. >> thank you, representative. why president trump's hotel could be
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throw out a lawsuit against the president on wednesday, so this suit accuses him of improperly benefiting financially when foreign or state governments stay or use space at his hotel just about four blocks or so from the white house. joining me now, jill weinbanks. she was a federal prosecutor. do you think this could hold up
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in court and why? >> it has already held up in court and it clearly is a valid case. it's one of the least focused-on stories of the week and it's one of the most important because it could lead to not only trump being forced to give up his interest in many of his businesses, certainly in the washington, d.c. hotel that is specifically discussed in this lawsuit, but it could also lead to impeachment because what the judge said is that he can be looked at for violating two clauses of our constitution, for foreign gifts and corruption and for domestic. what the constitution says is that no one who holds a position of trust or profit, which the president certainly does, in the u.s. government can accept anything from a foreign government or from another state. and in the case of his trump hotel, which is the one that's named, he is allowing profit to be made from foreign governments
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renting out huge halls for bang the questi -- banquets and rooms and for states doing the same thing. he's also hurting other hotels in the area because they're losing business for this because people want to exert influence over the president by giving him this profit. and the emoluments clause is really an anti-corruption, anti-bribery conflict of interest suit. so the word emoluments isn't very well understood, but it means if you're getting a profit from anything other than your salary as a government employee. and that's what's happening here. so i think it's going to be very good, and it's important because it can lead to discovery. and that means that he will have to reveal the profits he's making from the hotel and from other places that may be benefiting. his golf clubs, for example, where the government is paying thousands and thousands of dollars every time he goes there and he's there, as we know, like a third of his time as president. >> so, jill, in terms of how
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that information gets revealed, is that done through tax returns? >> not necessarily. i think personally you need to go to his financial records, to his bank statements much more than to his tax returns, although clearly that would also be one thing that would have to be revealed. and forensic accounting would have to take place because we're looking at what is the profit that he has gotten as a result of his ownership in these? now, there is another part to the lawsuit, which is also simply that the lease that the government wrote says that no one who works for the government can be a beneficiary of the lease. so just on terms of the lease itself, he's violating the terms of the lease. and it was illegal for him to have any interest in the hotel.
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the person in charge told him that, and he fired a new person in charge who said, oh, no, it's okay. so there could a criminal act that has to do with the firing of that person. >> so, jill, if the president is found guilty of violating the emoluments clause in the constitution, then what happens? i'm just going to remind our viewers that earlier today, barbara quaid suggested that it could come to a point where the president has to choose staying involved in trump, inc and all the manifestations of that versus the white house. he would have to choose between the money he's made as a businessman versus staying on and running the business of the country. >> that is correct. i believe that is exactly what would happen. he cannot put it into a blind trust because there is only a limited number of things. it's not like someone who owns thousands of stocks that can be traded at random will. he knows what hotels he owns.
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he knows what properties he owns. and he knows which ones will benefit from his foreign policy decisions and from other things that he does. so he would have to give up complete interest in them. he could earn no income from them. and that might be a very tough choice for him to make, because so far he has shown that he is much more interested in profit than in protecting the american people or doing their work. he's causing the taxpayers to pay a lot of money toward his hotels, and that does not seem like someone who is interested in the good of the american people. >> you were right, this is a huge story. i'm glad we've discussed it and i have all certainty we'll be discussing it going forward as this lawsuit moves forward. >> i hope so. >> jill wine-banks, thank you very much. >> thank you. the war against the news media. how far will he go to not meet the press? and california congresswoman
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russian thing. he's made it clear he didn't know about the meeting beforehand. >> president trump's lawyer rudy giuliani commenting on a "new york times" report saying special counsel robert mueller is examining mr. trump's tweets for a possible obstruction case. let's bring in democratic leader john car ro way and chief correspondent for bloomberg news. carrie, to you first here. do you think rudy giuliani really believes the president's tweets are helpful? after all the swipes he's made at intel, are they helpful? >> i think they are because it is the president speak to ing t, the people, without having to go through a third party where it can get distorted. also on obstruction which rudy has hit on in interviews, says
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that obstruction is something done to the department of justice. he told the president three times, you are not under investigation. the definition of obstruction is to impede an that the president and he has laid out in his tweets, he is calling out the injustice of the situation. so i think that the tweets are valuable. >> don, what's your take? >> i agree that they are very valuable to robert mueller. you got to go back to june 2017. none of this stuff exists in a vacuum. that was the day that sean spicer on the instruction of both the president and white house counsel came out and said that both twitter handles of the president @realdonald trump and @potus are official statements of the white house. therefore, everything that they say is on the record, particularly when this president does not do media briefings like president obama and president bush did, and when sarah huckabee sanders and raz shaw do
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not do regular press room briefings. what we have from this president is what he tweets. that is a part of the official record of his presidency, and it is useful and mr. mueller has ever right to go into it and compare it and contrast it with actual contradictory statements he has made both in private and in public in the course of this investigation. so rudy giuliani saying that these tweets don't amount to much is absolutely wrong when this administration said that they are officially statements of the white house and the office of the president. >> there could also be the question of intent, which could be more clearly revealed with regard to tweets and the like. kevin, giuliani said that the president made it clear he didn't know about that 2016 trump tower meeting before it happened. there is a source telling nbc news that michael cohen is willing to tell mueller, yeah, he did know about that meeting in advance. so does this come down to the president and donald trump jr.'s word? he has testified about it as
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well on capitol hill, versus michael cohen's? >> yes, it has, completely. in fact, what's going to be interesting is how the administration has how sought to argue that michael cohen, president's former personal attorney, was once at one time, they were very complementary of him, and now given his recent public comments there has been clearly a change and a shift, alex, in terms of how they are perceiving him. look, conservatives feel that michael cohen is not someone to be trusted. there are folks within the republican party as well as democrats who feel he is someone that can be trusted. all of that is setting up a monumental legal battle. the question becomes whether or not bob mueller will be able to get michael cohen to hand over any evidence. and a key part here that i think we should all note is that with the developments of these tapes, michael cohen is not saying that he has audio recording proof of the president, then-candidate
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donald trump, being able to be made aware of that meeting. so it's turning into, as you noted, two parties making two very different cases, and that's why you are seeing this escalation and political back and forth. >> kevin, of all the major dramatic events this week, which is the most damaging to the president? >> well, look, i think that there is no question that this was a turning point, alex, in terms of how the investigation has proceeded with the developments of michael cohen working with lanny davis, a former top clinton attorney, and it clearly shows that he has 1,000% shifted in terms of his work with regards, in the investigation. the second point i would note is what the administration is pushing out, which is that fourth quarter -- sorry, the second quarter gdp of the 4.1% growth. if you look at polls, it would suggest that the base of the republican party is not making much of these types of developments heading into the midterm elections.
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>> and i agree with you. >> okay. real quick. >> just that as far as the president's weak, if you want to give an additional list of things that happened this week, we had 4.1% gdp growth. that's phenomenal. we also had the first time since the '50s that the united states is a net exporter of natural gas. that's phenomenal. we had record low african-american and latino unemployment. that was a record, too. that's why a lot of conservatives are not getting distracted by this. >> don, your reaction to the question. what do you think was most damaging to the president? and taking into account great economy and great points on that. >> i think quietly what continues to be the most damaging is this chummy relationship between vladimir putin, the creme wlkremlin, thed donald trump white house. my home state senator, clare mchaskill, says her office was clearly, very clearly hacked by
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russian intelligence officers and the one person, the one entity in this country who could have gotten to have the department of justice to stop it and the cia to take action to stop it did nothing. the donald trump white house. they appealed to them. and the cia said they were interested in stopping it but they have not gotten clearance from the white house to stop it. as we move into the midterms 100 days from now we see no plan to have anything different than what happened in the 2016 election when this company was attacked by russian intelligence officers, we see no different plan for that to not happen this year. that continues to be the most damaging thing for this white house. >> all right. kevin, last word to you regarding "the new york times," the meeting with the president -- that he had with publisher of the "new york times." the president putting out a tweet this morning. really a response by a.g. sulzberger, the publisher who says the main purpose to accepting the meeting was to raise concerns about the president's deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric.
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i implored him to reconsider his attacks on journalism. he didn't ask him to go soft on "the new york times." if he doesn't like what he is hearing, emphasize that. your takeaway? >> i grew outside of philly watching "meet the press" with my dad every sunday. tim russert said, quote, the primary responsibility of the media is the accountability of government. sometimes that's going to make the left mad. sometimes that's going to make the right mad. all we can do as journalists is make no mistake. people are mistrusting of institutions, but just stay the course. report the facts and people can make up their own minds. >> that will have to be the last word. you guys, thank you so much. happy sunday to all. coming up, the president renews a threat to shut down the government. we will get reaction from california congresswoman maxine waters in the next hour. [phone ringing]
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siri: destination ahead. and discoverers of new places. it's the internet in your hand. that's why xfinity mobile can be included with xfinity internet. which could save you hunreds of dollars a year. plus get $150 when you bring in your own phone. its a new kind of network designed to save you money. click, call or visit a store today. we have hit the top of the hour, which means i am out of time. i'm alex witt. thanks for watching. >> i'm david a gura at msnbc headquarters in new york. legal drama. rudy giuliani goes after the president's former personal lawyer, michael cohen. at issue a conversation he secretly recorded. and michael cohen's attorney has launched his own attack on rudy giuliani. war on the press. president trump tweets about a meeting he had with the publish her of "the new york times" during which the publisher says
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