good morning, everyone. it's thursday, february 28th. we are picking up the breaking news coverage this morning. president trump's summit with north korea's leader kim jong-un has come to an abrupt end. no deal reached between the two leaders. >> president trump wrapped his news conference just a short time ago. here he is discussing why the u.s. had to quote, walk away. >> on north korea we just left chairman kim who had a really -- i think a very productive time.

we thought and i thought and secretary pompeo felt that it wasn't a good thing to be signing anything. i'm going to let mike speak about it. we literally just left. we spent pretty much all day with kim jong-un who is -- he's quite a guy and quite a character and i think our relationship is very strong, but at this time we had some options, and at this time we decided not to do any of the options, and we'll see where that goes, but it was a very interesting two days, and i think actually it was a very productive two days, but sometimes you have to walk, and this was just one of those times. this wasn't a walk away like you get up and walk out. this was very friendly. we shook hands. you know, there's a warp that we have. >> did you have it was premature to have held the summit when all these things had not been tied?

in the white house schedule last night it said signing agreement today. it's a follow-up question whether you could just sketch out what the next few months look like? >> you always have to be prepared to walk. i could have signed an agreement today, and then you people would have said, oh, what a terrible deal. what a terrible thing he did. no, you have to be prepared to walk, and you know, there was a potential we could have signed something. i could have 100% signed something today. we actually had papers ready to be signed, but it just wasn't appropriate. i want to do it right. i'd much rather do it right than do it fast. >> prior to the president's news conference, the white house issued a statement saying that president trump and north korea's kim jong-un had ha quot, very good and productive meeting. the two leaders discussed various ways to -- no agreement was reached at this time, but their respective teams look forward to meeting in the future. >> let's start first in hanoi,

vietnam where bill neely is joining us. good to see you today. expand on some of the reasoning that the president and of course secretary of state mike pompeo are giving as to why they are walking away from a deal today with kim jong-un. >> reporter: yeah, i mean, there's no question that this was a surprise. president trump said that there was an agreement on the table. they had the papers written up, but he just couldn't do it. d diplomats here and analysts say this speaks to a lack of preparation. that's what they are saying here in hanoi, and i think from that press conference you can pick out three areas where i think there were three sticking points if you like. the first one was on the definition of denuclearization itself. you know, for president trump and for the u.s. side it means one thing, as he says. north korea has to get rid of its nukes.

for north korea denuclearization means removing the -- the bombers, the submarines, the lot. they could not agree on that definition number one was sanctions and number two were the specific nuclear plants themselves. let's take that in order. let's start with sanctions, and let's listen to what president trump had to say about what went wrong on the sanctions issue. take a listen. >> it was about the sanctions. >> will there be a third summit, mr. president? >> basically they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn't do that. they were willing to denuke a large portion of the areas we wanted, but we couldn't give up all the sanctions for that. so we continue to work and we'll see. but we to walk away from that particular suggestion. we to walk away from that.

>> will all the sanctions that are currently existing remain, sir? >> they're in place. i've been watching as a lot of you folks have been saying oh, we're giving up. we haven't given up anything. we're going to end up being very good friends with chairman kim, and they have tremendous potential. i've been telling everybody they have unbelievable potential. we'll see. it was about sanctions. they wanted sanctions lifted but they weren't willing to do an area we wanted. >> so they wanted sanctions lifted in their entirety, and the third issue was on the specifics, and it was after a question from david singer of the "new york times," president trump talked about the pea i don't think -- nuclear plant. it really is at the heart of the north korean nuclear program. president trump said kim jong-un would do that. he would dismantle and destroy

that complex, but he wanted too much in return. in other words he wanted all the sanctions destroyed. he said that facility, while it was big, wasn't enough. we had to have more than that. mike pompeo added there were other issues like timing, sequencing and what warheads and weapons would be left. so clearly a number of sticking points but interestingly the south koreans are bewilders by this. the strongest statement i've ever seen from the south korean government saying we are perplexed and interestingly president trump did not inform the south koreans either in advance or before his news conference. that would not have gone down well, guys, in seoul. >> we heard it in the news conference as well, the president saying when he gets on the plane he's going to be making a call. bill talking there that they weren't informed as to what went down with kim jong-un early on

in the day. so all of this is coming as nbc news has learned that the trump administration had dropped the u.s. demand that north korea agree to a full disclosure of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs as part of this summit. that list is exactly what caused the last round of serious negotiations to fall apart a decade ago. recent reports reveal that north korea has as many as 20 undisclosed secret ballistic missile bases. >> it will be absolutely imperative in thisfecti next su that we come away with a plan for identifying all the weapons in question, identifying all the development sites, allowing for inspections of those sites and a plan for dismantling nuclear weapons. >> let's discuss all this with our panel, bring in former under

secretary of state for political affairs and former special adviser for president clinton and an nbc news and msnbc korean affairs and correspondent and host of andrea mitchell reports rkts andrea mitchell in washington for us. i know you have covered many of these summits. many of them are very well coordinatored knowing that before you go in there at the end of it there is some type of signing ceremony to send a message that the summit was a success. obviously this one did not have that. help us understand how significant of a setback is this on the issue of north korea and the subject of denuclearization or is there something bigger here that we are missing in what the president is pulling away from? >> i don't think you're missing anything. that i think that this summit

failed. it wasn't well-prepared. it probably shouldn't not have happened. it was based more on personality, letters and all sort of personal diplomacy the president believed in rather than the hard sh log of negotiating a nuclear disarmament with north korea. we don't know how much of a failure. is this going to result in some hard work that is now done? will they go back to the basics and try to see how much north korea is willing to give about those secret sites now that we have basically told them at the senior leader level we know what you've got, and you're not disclosing everything. that's one facility that we know about with both uranium and plutonium enrichment for the key fuel to go into nuclear weapons. you already have your missiles. you've already tested your missiles. you've got these other bases that have not been disclosed and you have to deal with that first before we agree to lift sanctions. that's where i think the

sticking point was. if north korea now gets down to work and if this is important enough to kim jong-un going forward or does he have that much more time being younger, not being limited by the term of office, does he have time to wait this out and not get back to the negotiating table? so that's the question now. will they revert to fire and fury. we don't know what the reaction is going to be in the north and whether or not there's going to be serious negotiations ahead. certainly there have not been successful negotiations since singapore. they've gotten very little progress so far. >> ambassador, jumping off what andrea had to say, was this a failure from the get-go? setting up a meeting at this high level, having them meet even in the first place was sort of out of the norm in a level of diplomacy that should have been happening? >> it was a very unorthodox beginning in singapore. you can do that once when you're

going to have an agreement that says here are four sort of principles going forward. you can't do it twice. the second time you have to accomplish something, and the white house set themselves up. they told the press they had an agreement ready to sign. i'm waiting to see what that agreement was because it clearly had not been negotiated to the point that everybody was truly ready to sign. this was more like a shotgun wedding out of the bromance. now we're worried whether the wedding's going to happen at all. we don't know where this is going to go and the fact that the president didn't keep his -- if you want to keep the analogy going, the bridesmaids and groo groomsmen with him, not having talked to the south koreans, not having talked to japan before this press announcement, probably not having talked to china, this is astonishing. >> going forward, looking forward, where do we go from here in terms of where these

boerkss sta boer negotiations stand? who has the upper hand going forward? is it the north koreans now that are going to sit back and wait to see what the u.s. puts forward or is the impetus on the north koreans to come forward and are make some declarations to not lose this relationship that president trump talks about? >> it's a really good question. when the leaders can't agree, it's not clear whether diplomacy goes after that. there are a few issues we have to consider, whether we're going to continue to do military exercising. the other is whether the north koreans are going to continue to develop weapons. experts say they develop probably about eight new weapons in the time from singapore to this hanoi summit. are they going to continue to grow their weapons capability? this is another important question. are we going to increase sanctions. the other thing we're going to see is we're going to start

seeing a flurry of diplomacy. this is a failed summit. there is no other way to put lipstick on this pig. this was a huge failure. kim has a long train ride back to his home. he's probably going to stop in china on his way back. the south korean leader who is probably terribly distraught is going to want to come to washington as soon as he can, so will the japanese prime minister. we'll see a flurry of diplomacy to repair and pick up the pieces. you don't want to put yourself in a position like this where you cannot make a -- if you cannot agree on a deal, the leaders should not be meeting, and yet this is where we are. >> victor, quickly, would this have been a failed summit had they made a deal with kim jong-un and said okay, we're going to lift some of the sanctions we have right now and made a deal that promises necessarily wouldn't have been kept as we've seen in the past with kim jong-un? >> i think that's an interesting question. i think what happened here was

there was probably a small deal on the table. >> right. >> but one, the president doesn't like small deals. he likes big deals, especially given what was going on at home, and two the north korean leader wanted all the sanctions lifted. if they want a bigger deal, they have to give one. i'm sure that's what the president said to the north koreans. i think frankly the north koreans walked out. if they were not going to get full sanctions lifting they were not requesting to make a deal. >> i think this was certainly a surprise to all of us, we certainly thought the president was going into this -- >> trying to steal some of the thunder from those headlines. >> that is not what has taken place. w you're going to have full coverage of all of this. make sure to get some sleep between now and then. >> not too much. >> we've got so much still to cover this morning, including the other huge story that is playing out right here at home. >> michael cohen is going to be back on capitol hill today

following yesterday's explosive testimony. we're going to run through all the key moments on that straight ahead. you know, i used to be good at this.

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and have professional monitoring backing you up with xfinity home. demo in an xfinity store. call, or go online today. kim promised me last night, regardless he's not going to do testing of rockets and nuclear, not going to do testing, so you know, i trust him, and i take him at his word. i hope that's true. in the meantime, we'll be talking. >> welcome back. as we've mentioned president trump and north korea's kim jong-un have ended talks in vietnam early and without any agreement. >> president trump indicated that the talks broke down over kim's demand that all sanctions on north korea be lifted before denuclearization takes place. we've got more on that straight ahead. first let's turn to our other big story of the day. president trump is reacting to the seven and a half hours of testimony from his former attorney, business associate and legal fixer michael cohen, and and "the washington post"

headline really just says it all. cohen paints trump as crooked. cohen made forceful accusations against the president's character and conduct, alleging widespread misconduct in business alluding to other potential crimes under investigation and providing documentation of trump and his business associates secretly funding his payoff to a porn star during the 2016 campaign. cohen also suggested trump had advanced knowledge of clinton e-mail releases and the 2016 trump tower meeting with russians but responding in hanoi this morning, the president seized on this moment. watch. >> questions have been raised about whether i know of direct evidence that mr. trump or his campaign colluded with russia. i do not. and i want to be clear, but i have my suspicions. >> he called you a liar, a conman, a racist, what's your response to michael cohen? >> well, it's incorrect, and you

know, it's very interesting because i tried to watch as much as i could. i wasn't able to watch too much because i've been a little bit busy, but i think having a fake hearing like that and having it in the middle of this very important summit is really a terrible thing. they could have made it two days later or next week, and it would have been even better. they would have had more time. but having it during this very important summit is sort of incredible, and he lied a lot, but it was very interesting because he didn't lie about one thing. he said no collusion with the russian hoax and i said i wonder why he didn't just lie about that too like he did about everything else. he lied about so many different things. i was actually impressed that he didn't say, well, i think there was collusion for this reason or that. he didn't say that. he said no collusion, and i was a little impressed by that frankly. he could have gone all out. he only went about 95% instead

of 100%. >> this is an extraordinary exchange between cohen and congresswoman jackie speier on cohen's role as the president's former enforcer. >> how many times did mr. trump ask you to threaten an individual or entity on his behalf? >> quite a few times. >> 50 times? >> more. >> 100 times? >> more. >> 500 times? >> probably over the ten years. >> over the ten year he asked you -- >> and when you say threaten i'm talking with litigation or an argument. >> wow. >> wow. >> so michael cohen was also asked about the trump campaign's connections to russia and whether it was a real possibility that president trump would lean on moscow to help him win the election. >> given all those connections, is it likely that donald trump was fully aware and had every intent of working with russia to

help make sure that he could win the presidency at all costs? >> so let me say that this is a matter that's currently being handled by the house select and the senate select intelligence committees, and so i would rather not answer that specific question other than just to tell you that mr. trump's desire to win would have him work with anyone. >> we still got a lot more from michael cohen's testimony coming up, including his bomb shell claim that donald trump actually knew about the wikileaks e-mail dump before it happened. >> we're going to show you how both wikileaks and roger stone are reacting. we're back in a moment. a moment

there hasn't been one republican yet who's tried to defend the president on the substance, and i think that's something that should be concerning to the white house. why are no republicans standing up and defending the president on substance? and that's either a failure of those republicans on the hill or a failure of the white house to have a unified strategy with them. they knew what was coming with michael cohen. as the day goes on, it's going to get tired of hearing the attacks on cohen's credibility. he's not a credible witness but he does have corroboration on certain things. where's the defense of the president?

>> that was basically an overarching point. former governor chris christie reacting in realtime to the republican questioning of michael cohen. yesterday saw a response to michael cohen's allegations about president trump being tipped off about wikileaks disclosures by roger stone in july of 2016. watch this. >> he had advanced notice that there was going to be a dump of e-mails, but at no time did i hear the specificity of what those e-mails were going to be. >> but you do testify today that he had advanced knowledge of their imminent release? >> that is what i had stated in my testimony. >> and that he cheered that outcome? >> yes, ma'am. >> but wikileaks is objecting to cohen's claim that he overheard roger stone tell trump about a call from them tweeting this statement, wikileaks publisher has never had a telephone call. wikileaks teased its pending publications on hillary clinton and published 30,000 of her e-mails on 16th of march 2016,

yet those e-mails were released by the state department itself. wikileaks later added that their dnc publication on july 22nd of 2016 was also publicly promoted for over a month before hand from june 12th onwards. those included e-mails that u.s. intelligence says were stolen by russians and passed onto wikileaks. >> roger stone also reacted to yesterday's hearing quote, mr. cohen's testimony is entirely untrue stone wrote wednesday in an e-mailed response to vice news. stone's denial came despite a gag order in his case amy burr m. >> the question now is is he going to get into trouble for speaking out? >> we're going to have to wait and see. he got reprimanded once. >> still ahead, much more from president trump's news conference this morning. he and kim jong-un cut short their summit after failing to reach an agreement.

>> we're going to bring in our panel to talk about what this means. we're back in a moment. about wh means. we're back in a moment

president trump makes the unprecedented move of declaring the national emergency to build his border wall. >> tonight's other major piece of new reporting broken by nbc news. welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian, it is the bottom of the hour. we begin with the latest from the hanoi summit. the white house has issued a statement saying president trump and north korea's kim jong-un had a quote, very good and constructive meeting. the two leaders discussed various ways to advance denuclearization and economic driven concepts. the statement continues quote,

no agreement was reached at this time but their respective teams look forward to meeting in the future. a press conference scheduled for after the summit was moved up two hours due to the lack of a signing ceremony, and president trump addressed the entire situation. listen to this. >> on north korea we just left chairman kim who had a really, i think, a very productive time. we thought and i thought and secretary pompeo felt that it wasn't a good thing to be signing anything. i'm going to let mike speak about it, but we literally just left. we spent pretty much all day with kim jong-un who is -- he's quite a guy and quite a character, and i think our relationship is very strong, but at this time we had some options, and at this time we decided not to do any of the options, and we'll see where that goes, but it was -- it was a very interesting two days. and i think, actually, it was a

very productive two days, but stams you ha sometimes you have to walk and this was just one of those times. >> it was about the sanctions. >> will there be a third summit, mr. president? >> basically they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn't do that. they were willing to denuke a large portion of the areas that we wanted, but we couldn't give up all of the sanctions for that. so we continue to work, and we'll see but we had to walk away from that particular suggestion. we had to walk away from that. >> will all the sanctions that are currently in existence remain, sir? >> they're in place. i was watching as a lot of you folks over the weeks have said, oh, we've given up. we haven't given up anything, and frankly, i think we'll end up being very good friends with chairman kim and with north korea, and i think they have tremendous potential. i've been telling everybody they have tremendous potential, unbelievable potential, but we're going to see.

but it was about sanctions. i mean, they wanted sanctions lifted but they weren't willing to do an area that we wanted. >> with all that as the backdrop, let's bring in our panel, msnbc military analyst jack jacob, former executive director at the wmd commission, dr. evelyn farkus and an msnbc national security analyst and msnbc nuclear analyst, great to have all of you with us. give us your takeaway from this summit, from the perspective of the buildup going into it, what we know about the president in terms of his preference for reaching big deals against the backdrop of what was happening in washington and the desire to have a big victory or a big headline. all of that coming up empty handed not even an agreement to continue those talks on paper. >> right, i mean, this was basically a disaster for the

president. it wasn't a disaster for america because it doesn't look like he gave away anything we can't reverse, but i will say it was all backwards. to use a diplomatic term it was cockamamie. you should not have had the president negotiating this deal without knowing what the north korean red lines were, without knowing we could overcome them. so in 2008, i went to yongpeon, i saw the facility, at that time they were dismantling and moth balling it. unfortunately for president trump, obviously this is a failure. >> there was a moment where the president was asked about otto warmbier and what happened there, and in that moment the president alleviated responsibility from kim jong-un and basically said he doesn't think kim jong-un even knew about what was happening and in fact, he was very affected by

otto warmbier and so on and so forth, and it can't help but bring up memories of khashoggi, and the murder of jamal khashoggi the journalist from "the washington post." talk to me about the president's answer to that question with regards to otto warmbier and what that says about his state of mind with regards to the leader in north korea? >> that's exactly right. you pinpointed it. that answer is going to haunt the president. it was basically excusing another autocratic leader of the effective murder of a prisoner that was held under his regime. otto warmbier never should have been arrested. he never should have been held. he never should have been denied medical treatment. that kim didn't know about this is strange -- just as mbs didn't know about the murder of jamal khashoggi. it gets to this whole issue that has haunted, that has

characterized his presidency, this love affair he has with autocra autocrats, with dictators and where he's willing to excuse the worst kinds of behavior because, what? he thinks they're like him? this is a major setback for -- not just for the trump presidency, i think this is going to haunt him, but for the image of america and the world, especially to be saying this in asia where asian allies know what kim jong-un is like and know that he was responsible for this murder. >> and this love afarfair, thes friendships prove to be a disservice to these diplomatic talks. >> yeah, when the president puts so much in a personal relationship and at the end of it says he takes the word of the north korean leader that he didn't know about the killing of an american citizen. it's distressing. put yourself in the pentagon for us this evening. you're waking up to the news that this was a failure, you're also waking up to the historic comments the president has maid about war games, which everyone has said is the language that is

used by the north koreans to describe american military exercises and preparedness on the korean peninsula. this morning if you were in the pentagon, what are you preparing to do with the failure of these talks? what are you preparing to advise the president going forward? >> well, national security people, people in the pentagon and elsewhere are happy about one thing, and that is that the president didn't give anything away. he has a habit of over promising and under delivering, so i don't think it was too much of a shock that the summit failed. i don't think that the president listens to any military advice from the pentagon, hasn't for a long time. i think he listens to a very small number of people, many of whom have no military experience, and you can hear it in the kinds of things that he talks about, especially when he's discussing things like military exercises, which he

says are games, which they're not. he misunderstands the nature of them, their purpose, and even their cost. they're very, very important for us to test out our strategies, our tactics to see what the inner relationships are not only inside the american military service but also with our allies, and they're particularly important in the western pacific where everybody is on edge because of china's continued expansionism and the development of nuclear weapons inside north korea. so if there is any place where we have to be able to visibly test our military capability and not call them games, it's in the western pacific. so i think the military establishment is at least relieved that nothing was given away. >> all right. you guys, stand by. we had some important reporting from msnbc news preceding all of this. i want to bring in from hanoi,

vietnam, carol lee. good morning to you, thanks so much for joining us here. you reported that the trump administration had dropped the u.s. demand that north korea agree to a full disclosure of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs as part of this summit. break down, carol, how that played into ultimately what we saw transpire over the last few hours? >> reporter: well, based on what we know now given that the talks kind of collapsed between the president and chairman kim, it was sort of foreshadowing what was going to happen because, you know, the u.s. has wanted for a long time a full accounting of north korea's nuclear and ballistic missile weapons programs, and that's obviously going to have to be something that is disclosed at some point in talks, and there was an argument for making that happen on the front end of things to kind of test how serious north korea is about actually

denuclearizing, and at some point in the negotiations between the u.s. and north korean officials it became clear that that was not something that was going to be able to happen in this particular round of talks between the president and kim jong-un, and so they decided to drop that, and now we see that it was a kind of precursor to kim not being ready to come to an agreement on denuclearization. >> joe, let me get your thoughts on that reporting from carol really quickly. you know, wearing your nuclear analyst hat for us for a moment, obviously is no deal better than a deal? had we reached an agreement in which we would have lifted the sanctions but had zero oversight into north korea's program, is it safe to say or is it possible to say that, you know what, although this summit was a failure we haven't given up too much in our ability to understand their nuclear program? >> as the president said we have a very good understanding of north korea's program, for example, as we have of iran's program. we watch them very closely.

he said we know every inch of their country, that's an exaggeration but we know a lot and we know most of it. carol's absolutely right. the inventory was essential at some point in the process, coupled with a verification regime, an inspection schedule, a dismantlement schedule, but it wasn't really necessary for this, the beginning of the process. you have to take a few preliminary steps to get the process going before you've built up the sort of track record to get a full inventory. the danger of this deal, of this failure, is that it -- this lack of progress may indicate that the process itself is going to break down. that's got to be what south korea's worried about. that's what people like me are worried about. can we keep this together long enough to pick up the pieces perhaps in the next administration? all right, carol lee, i appreciate all of your insights this morning. still ahead, everybody, more on the morning's other big story. the testimony of president

trump's former fixer michael cohen. >> who in the president's family cohen says was involved in the trump tower meeting and his warning offering republicans blind allegiance to the president. d allegiance to the president.

mr. trump did not directly tell me to lie to congress, that's not how he operates. in conversations we had during the campaign at the same time i was actively negotiating in russia for him, he would look me in the eye and tell me there's no russian business, and then go on to lie to the american people by saying the same thing. in his way he was telling me to lie. >> during his testimony before the house oversight committee yesterday michael cohen apologized for lying to congress about when negotiations over the trump tower, moscow project ended and also accused trump of

indirectly telling him to lie. >> he said, quote, mr. trump did not directly tell me to lie to congress. that's not how he operates. end quote. can you explain how he does this? >> sure, it would be no different if i said that's the nicest looking tie i've ever seen, isn't it? what are you going to do? are you going to fight with him? the answer is no. so you say yeah, it's the nicest looking tie i've ever seen. that's how he speaks. he doesn't give you questions. he doesn't give you orders. he speaks in a code, and i understand the code because i've been around him for a decade. >> and it's your impression that others who work for him understand the code as well? >> most people, yes. >> amid his testimony michael cohen also claimed that two of president trump's children were in the loop about the plan to build a trump tower in moscow. >> who were the family members that you briefed on the trump tower moscow tower?

>> don trump junior and ivanka trump. >> did the president or family request the briefings? >> this is the regular course of business. >> the project was ultimate scrapped by cohen's account of these events could create problems for donald trump jr. in his testimony in 2017. trump jr. was asked did you have any involvement in this potential deal in moscow. trump responded, like i said, i was peripherally aware of it, but most of my knowledge has been gained since as it relates to hearing about it over the last few weeks. >> also yesterday michael cohen brought to congress a check with donald trump jr.'s signature that cohen says was part of his reimbursement for buying the silence of porn star stormy daniels, stopping her from speaking out about an alleged affair with the president in the final days of the campaign, but trump jr. seemed unconcerned by cohen's testimony tweeting this, this sounds like a breakup letter and i'm keeping your

sweatshi sweatshirt. and later when cohen said all he wanted was to be the president's personal attorney, trump jr. tweeted laughter, michael cohen begged to work at the white house and everybody knows it. still thinking about that sweatshirt. >> yeah, i don't understand the analogy. >> trump organization chief financial officer allen weisselberger was mentioned several times. media outlets reported he received immunity to testify before a grand jury in new york during the course of the investigation into the hush money payments. three people with knowledge of that matter tell nbc news that weisselberg is not cooperating and has never been a cooperating witness and has proved limited details in the course of his testimony. a person close to the trump organization telling nbc news that weisselberg is still with the trump organization and defends trump and the company. >> michael cohen was grilled about president trump's alleged

history of tax fraud and offered up names of who he believes would have access to that information. >> to your knowledge did the president ever provide inflated assets to an insurance company? >> yes. >> who else knows that the president did this? >> allen weisselberg, ron lieberman and matthew calamari. >> and where would the committee find more information on this? do you think we need to review his financial statements and tax returns in order to compare them? >> yes, and you'd find it at the trump org. >> michael cohen offered a warning to republicans in congress who continued to defend president trump saying he is the example of what happens when you, quote, blindly follow him. you've got to watch this. >> i'm responsible for your silliness because i did the same thing that you're doing now for ten years. i protected mr. trump for ten years, and the fact that you pull up a news article that has no value to it and you want to

use that as the premise for discrediting me, that i'm not the person that people called at 3:00 in the morning would make you inaccurate. in actuality it would make you a liar, which puts you into the same position that i am in, and i can only warn people the more people that follow mr. trump as i did blindly are going to suffer the same consequences that i'm suffering. >> so of course the president's team came out with firm denials against cohen's testimony. in a written statement president trump's attorney jay sekulow commented today's testimony by michael cohen, that attorneys for the president edited or changed his statement to congress to alter the duration of the trump tower moscow negotiations is completely false. the trump campaign also released a statement that said in part, this is the same michael cohen who has admitted that he lied to congress previously. why did they even bother to swear him in this time? still ahead, a pair of

potential 2020 hopefuls shedding light of when they may jump into the crowd of democratic contenders. stay with us. stay with us rakooten... ♪ rakuten oh! is this my money? whoaaah! haha! rakuten ♪ ahhh! rakuten!

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botoxchronicmigraine.com to enroll. n welcome back, former congressman beto o'rourke has decided not to mount another senate campaign. >> that raises a question. >> the dallas morning news reported that according to people close to o'rourke, the democrat will not challenge republican incumbent john cornyn in next year's senate race with numerous people saying they

expect him to announce his presidential campaign within weeksment o'rourke refused to reveal his political plans but said he has made a decision. in a statement to nbc news he said this, amy and i have made a decision about how we can best serve our country. we are excited to share it with everybody. the question is will the decision come from a dentist chair on instagram live. >> or facebook. >> eric swalwell is getting closer to deciding if he will join the crowd. he told the san francisco chronicle he is getting pretty close to a decision and he will give up his house seat if he decides to run. >> i think if you're seeking such a big job that would affect so many people, i think you have to assure the people you're asking to vote for you you're not hedging and you don't have a lifeboat waiting for you. >> earn the votes, he stormed the land and had them burn the

ships behind him so there was no looking back. i would want people to know i'm putting my all into this and i don't have a life insurance policy. >> the republican political operative at the center of a midterm ballot tempering scheme in north carolina's district 9 house race has been indicted. leslie mccray dowless was arrested and charged with seven felonies including obstruction of justice yesterday. four people working for him were also charged. it follows a month's long investigation into the absentee ballot irregular teaitieirregul. mark harris led dan mccready by 905 votes on election day. more charges are likely on the horizon. prosecutors continue to look into who was, quote, aware and helped finance the absentee ballot scheme a nod to potential

legal perils for harris who hired the political operative in question. mark harris announced he will not run in the newly requested house election citing medical issues. coming up, everybody, the latest on president trump's summit with kim jong-un as the talks break down. >> we're going to go live to vietnam as the president abruptly ends his nuclear summit with the north korean leader after failing to reach a deal saying sometimes you have to walk away. >> have to walk. >> got to walk. >> have to walk. >> walk away. >> we're back in a moment. aldi.

it is thursday, february 28th. i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside yasmin vossoughian. president trump's summit with north korea's kim jong-un has come to an abrupt end with no deal reached. >> president trump is making the long trip home, wrapping up his closing news conference in vietnam. it was decidedly shorter than the one he delivered after the singapore summit back in june. here he is discussing why the u.s. had