from people around, from my reporting, he thinks that don jr.'s part of this strategy to discredit him. this evolution in a year is staggering. and what michael cohen may know, i don't think it's making anyone in trump world sleep soundly. >> do you think he knows more about mr. trump, the president's behavior, or does he know about donald trump's business? >> i think that for ten years michael cohen had a window into everything that happened within the trump organization. he had a window into what the president was doing in some of his business dealings. what the children were doing in his business dealings. this is a man who knows a lot and a man who feels he's been hung out to try. >> his attitude appears to be about this recorded phone call discussing a potential payment to the playboy models. number two, so what, it just shows that the president -- that michael cohen in fact had authorization to make payments on his own, without even consulting with the president of the united states and then candidate donald trump. is the white house worrie

donald trump saying in a tweet i did not know of the meeting with my son don jr. joining me now is eugene, shann shannon pettypiece. i want you in that order, what does that tell us about trump? >> well, number one, this conforms to everything we knew about donald trump and donald trump jr. except for the denials, we had the denials but what we know about donald trump and what we know about his son and desire for his father's approval and the relationship, the way the organization worked and the way the campaign worked, it seemed inconceivable that he didn't know probably before that meeting and certainly right after, there are those phone calls. we know he made phone calls to a blocked number right before, right after the meeting. >> blasted out that he had some dirt. >> significant that there is a witness now who is going to say i was there at the meeting where he was told. >> i think it brings him closer to the co-conspirator. that was the phrase, if he knew about this meeting then he could have been involved in any conspiracy that could have come out of it. th

september of last year, don jr. says i did not tell my dad about the meeting. today rudy giuliani says, president trump did not participate in the that meeting. put all of this together, where does it lead us? >> it is a remarkable evolution you are describing there, chris, and bad facts for the trump administration. there were no contacts. by some counts there were 82 contacts between trump a's campaign and the russians. the fbi were in donald trump's campaign that russian intelligence were trying to infiltrate. we are not sure what specific things were said in that meeting but this much we know that there is no evidence that the trump campaign came clean and said oh by the way we had these meeting s with the russians and george papadopoulos' approach of e-mails. this drip, drip, drip looks awful for the trump folks and it is not surprising that rudy giuliani is relegating to arguing that conclusion is not a crime. what was charged of the indictment of the 12 russian officials, mueller says those known and unknown of the grand jury were complicit. >> let's dis

jr. " on don jr. " 0 when asked about cohen's claim the president's attorney rudy giuliani told fox, "not true". >> i expected something like this from cohen. he's been lying all week and lying for years. >> cnn citing unnamed sources reports cohen said he heard mr. trump talking about and approving the trump tower meeting. in it the russians offered to provide damaging information for the democratic rival, hillary clinton. the president has maintained that he first learned about the meeting more than a year later when media outlets broke the news in july 2017. in washington, ray bogan ktvu news. >>> today 55 flag draped boxes of the remains of u.s. servicemen retrieved from north korea were received in south korea in a somber ceremony at an air base. u.s. troops and a military hon nar guard lined up to receive the remains carried in boxes covered in the blue flags of the united nations. the return of the remains follows through on a promise made by north korean leader kim jong-un to president trump during their summit last month. a military plane flew to north korea to retrieve thos

donald trump saying in a tweet i did not know of the meeting with my son don jr. joining me now is eugene, shannon pettypiece. i want you in that order, what does that tell us about trump? >> well, number one, this conforms to everything we knew about donald trump and donald trump jr. except for the denials, we had the denials but what we know about donald trump and what we know about his son and desire for his father's approval and the relationship, the way the organization worked and the way the campaign worked, it seemed inconceivable that he didn't know probably before that meeting and certainly right after, there are those phone calls. we know he made phone calls to a blocked number right before, right after the meeting. >> blasted out that he had some dirt. >> significant that there is a witness now who is going to say i was there at the meeting where he was told. >> i think it brings him closer to the co-conspirator. that was the phrase, if he knew about this meeting then he could have been involved in any conspiracy that could have come out of it. there is

don jr. again. this is a repeated back and forth here. does the white house have credibility on this? trying to impugn the credible of michael cohen. is the white house a credible source? >> if look at the credibility on any number of issues, they don't have a ton of credibility. "the washington post" doing a running count of this. like 3,200 misleading claims over the last year or so. with this particular issue, if you go back a year, you've got donald trump basically intervening to craft a misleading statement about this meeting, essentially say that is it was about a russian adoptions and nothing about finding dirt on hillary clinton. the other thing that i think we found out this week from those cohen tapes is kind of a way things operated at trump tower. i mean, you have cohen there. not only taping donald trump but you get the sense that they're talking about any number of things. campaign issues. minor campaign issues. polls. surrogates an event in charleston postponed. you have people coming in and out of there. talking about, you

don jr. and manafort and jared kushner, they may not be compelling witnesses but there are others who haven't been identified yet. that may be relevant. then i have a list of things, fredricka, who i think may be indications of corroboration. one, hope hicks may know something about this. she would be, to me, a key witness to know what, if anything, the president knew beforehand. we know she was on air force one when they were writing the statement after the fact, but what did he know before the fact? we know there was calling to a blocked number. that, once unblocked, will perhaps be corroborate of this. and then as you said, the june 7th statement and just the general nature of the father/son relationship on this campaign i think would be indications of possible knowledge. i think most importantly if there are other people in the room, as cohen's testimony seems to be, we node to know who they are and what was told to them. >> and then erica, in addition to, you know, who else was there, wh

jr sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam anywhere on the tweet indirectly refers to cohen now being investigated by federal prosecutors for potential campaign finance violations as he attempted to suppress negative news stories about trump cohen may now be cooperating with special counsel robert mueller investigating russian interference in the twenty sixteen u.s. election and whether trump's campaign colluded with russia cohen statements could complicate the president's legal troubles but there are questions about the credibility of cohen's claims in two congressional interviews and subsequent reports there is no mention of cohen's allegations again. the president trump's claims are also in question as e-mails between trump's son and russians went back and forth in two thousand and sixteen then candidate trump told supporters i am going to give a major speech on probably monday of next week and we're going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the clintons i think you're going to find it very inf

jr.'s attorney. i'm going read that now, he says quote, we have investigating this matter for over a yearened are in command of facts. we are confident of the information that has been provided by donald trump jr. in various investigations. so that there comeing from the president's son. seeking to stick by his public comments, which i'll remind have said he did not tell his father about that meeting in trump tower in 2016. you heard a number of different stories from the president's attorney. >> in a perplexing revelation today, the president's lawyer outlined a previously unknown meeting among high level trump campaign operatives in the days prior to the infamous june 2016 trump tower sit-down with russians. only to turn around and say the get together he had just brought up never actually happened . >> it wasn't another meeting that has been linked public yet. three days before. >> in a series of confusing and sometimes contradictory ke television interview, he said reporters asked him

, and the meeting cohen claims took place where don, jr got his dad's approval for the russia meeting. but today, rudy accidentally revealed a third meeting we've never heard about before. >> cohen also now says that-- he says too much-- that two days before he was participating in a meeting with roughly the same group of people, but not the president, definitely not the president-- in which they were talking about the strategy of the meeting with the russians. >> stephen: so according to giuliani, michael cohen says that two days before the trump tower meeting with russians, there was a strategy meeting, which they probably should've had before they hired rudy giuliani. because, there's no indication this planning meeting was public knowledge before giuliani brought it up on-air. ( cheers and applause ) in other words -- surprise! in other words, he's bringing something up just to tell you his client isn't guilty of it. ( laughter ) "that body that no one's found in the creek? the president definitely didn't put it there." he's just giving away damaging information! he's going to be

and only one voted to wall. >> come on up, diane black. >> i am don trump jr. and i support mark k oobach for governor. >> and so what is happening with ron desantis in your state? >> well, he is winning republicans and a lot. for all of the bad press that the president has gotten, understand that his base does not really believe the press. and based on the tweets and the endorsement that you just played there supporti ining desantis' support is through the roof. and most of the likely voters support president trump and once he blesss a candidate, that saul they need. >> is that a good thing for the general election in florida? might win a republican primary, but what about running gaiagaina democrat? >> that is great. and remember when we were talking in 2016 thinking, oh, boy, donald trump is going to have trouble in the general election and in florida he won. i talked to a democratic po pollster about the trump's arrival and the total dominance of the republican politics in florida and he said when my side says that ron desantis is too right wing and better

that's what don jr. testified to. now there's some debate whether he did or didn't know. rudy guliani said he didn't attend the meeting. now there's talk of a second meeting. now we have to sift through that and see where that is. the next thing is this manafort trial starts tomorrow. i think you're going to start to see some of -- at least that piece of the mueller probe unfolding before our eyes about what they're trying to do or pinch paul manafort as far as getting him to testify. >> harris: it is interesting. you know, rudy guliani said that he was talking about that second meeting when he said that the president was not there. again, telegraphing information that is coming down the pike that we're not privy to. and we followed up on that point. it was information that we didn't have yet about a meeting that apparently did not happen. but i want to move on to this aspect of what guliani said. five co-counsel but it's the president's decision. back to that political landscape now that seems to be shifting. what is the reporting on that? >> i think john roberts has som

jr sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam anywhere on the tweet indirectly refers to cohen now being investigated by federal prosecutors for potential campaign finance violations as he attempted to suppress negative news stories about trump cohen may now be cooperating with special counsel robert mueller investigating russian interference in the. twenty sixteen us election and whether trump's campaign colluded with russia cohen statements could complicate the president's legal troubles but there are questions about the credibility of cohen's claims in two congressional interviews and subsequent reports there is no mention of cohen's allegations against the president trumps claims are also in question as e-mails between trump's son and russians went back and forth in two thousand and sixteen then candidate trump told supporters i am going to give a major speech on probably monday of next week and we're going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the twins i think you're going to find it very informa

s lawyer says we're very confident of the cu provided by don jr. for now, no proof of whatever went down, a he said, they said situation. as for donald trump jr. he was seen today at the airport waiting for a flight a few feet from none other than the special counsel. you see him on the left there. robert mueller's spokesperson says the two did not interact but, lester, it's a d.c. moment you can't make up. >> that's a picture that will get around. hallie jackson, at the white house, thanks. >>> is your vote at risk in the critical midterm elections? current and former ws the trump administration has no central strategy to stop russia from meddling again. this as a democratic senator up for reelection says >> reporter: explosive revelations, russian hackers targeted the senate offices of missouri senator claire mccaskill. an issue she's railed against in the past. >> i never thought i would see the day russia would go after the heart of our country. >> reporter: the democrat is facing one of the toughest races in the fall. in a fiery statement, mcc

this morning the president tweeted, no, he did not know of the meeting with his son don, jr., cohen recently said he was going to share information about that meeting with mueller. >>> facebook and twitter making headlines for all the wrong when heartburn hits... fight back fast with tums smoothies. it neutralizes stomach acid at the source. tum tum tum tum tums... smoothies... ...and introducing new tums sugar-free. with pg&e in the sierras. and i'm an arborist since the onset of the drought, more than 129 million trees have died in california. pg&e prunes and removes over a million trees every year to ensure that hazardous trees can't impact power lines. and since the onset of the droughte ubrt i grew up in the forests out in this area and honestly it's heartbreaking to see all these trees dying. what guides me is ensuring that the public is going to be safer and that these forests can be sustained and enjoyed by the community in the future. >>> funeral services were held today in arkansas for two victims in last week's duck boat accident. 53-year-old steve smith and his 15-year-old son la

jr. came in and told them that the meeting was about to take police. well, there are two witnesses who said it didn't happen. >> the president and his son. >> reporter: the president's lawyer also bringing up the possibility of another previously undisclosed meeting before then saying it did not happen either. >> there was another meeting that has been leaked but hasn't been public yet. that was a meeting, an alleged meeting, three days before. he says there was a meeting with donald jr., with jared kushner, with paul manafort, with gates and possibly two others in which they out of the presence of the president discussed the meeting with the russians. we checked with their lawyers, the ones we could check with, which were four of the six, that meeting never, ever took place. it didn't happen. it's a figment of his imagination or is lying. >> reporter: giuliani telling cnn that reporters have been asking him questions about this alleged second meeting. and he was trying to get ahead of th

us to believe that don jr. set up this meeting all by himself without consulting his father. do you believe that at this point? >> well, i know what they said publicly and i know what they said under oath and simone said something before the break. the story they told publicly and what we know they said under oath released to some comm committees. verses of donald trump jr. said and sarah sanders, at some point all those stories don't match, all of those stories will be in trouble. a lot of these investigative situations, people don't go line for the over line crime, they go down for an under line obstruction or perjury or lying to committee or something like that. this whole thing has been unfolding. that's what i have been wondering about. who has said what to what committee or under oath. >> let's just put aside tonight's breaking news and you consider the different story that's been told of this meeting and they denied he had anything to do of the drafting and hope hicks and on and on. do you believe any of

. >> jessica: we got rick gates who now according to michael cohen was present when don jr. was talking about it. rick gates is going to be key here. worked with paul manafort for a very long time. so there's a lot more that we don't, that may be fine but i don't know if he just worked with him on the stuff and he was in the room when don jr. was saying i got an email from a kremlin lawyer. >> lawrence: i think that's speculation and americans are getting tired of it. >> harris: president trump is warning lawmakers again that he is willing to shut down the government if lawmakers want step up for funding with the wall and border security so will it shutdown happen and how the fight affect the midterms? plus controversy across the country as some mayors are siding with apologize protesters over law enforcement. whether that is a good move or if they will face backlash, we debate. high protein to help get us moving. and help you feel more strength & energy in just 2 weeks. i'll take that. ensure high protein, with 16 grams of protein and 4 grams of sugar. ensure® tap one litt

don jr., this is nine months after it happened, quoting him, did i meet with people that were russian? i'm sure, i'm sure i did, but none that were set up. and certainly none that i was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form. that was then. then in july of last year, "the new york times" broke this story. and the story became that, yes, there was a meeting, but it was on russian adoptions or more accurately sanctions. very soon after the trump team was then forced to fess up that the meeting was actually to get dirt on hillary clinton, and then the public was told, okay, yes, there was this meeting, but no dirt on hillary clinton actually came from it. don jr. reportedly said this about the russian lawyer with the supposed clinton dirt, quote, her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. today the president and his attorney say collusion is not a crime. so jeff toobin, back over to you on this. first, just legal definitions. it's not collusion technically here, right?

don, jr., met with russians. let's be clear. i like don, jr., he had a meeting. by the way, none other than than steve bannon said was treasonous. remember here, two sides to this story. it was a fascinating hearing though. back to you guys. trish: thanks so much, charlie. joining me our own ashley webster as we look at live pictures coming in to us from england right now. >> yeah. trish: ashley? >> yeah. trish: the president, the first lady there, in oxfordshire in england. >> blenheim palace is one of the most remarkable buildings in the uk. the only non-royal residence to be called a palace by the way. one of the biggest homes in england. it was built in the early 1700s. a truly spectacular residence and area itself is absolutely beautiful. so tremendous setting for the president and first lady and of course theresa may there on the right. trish: really, you know, pretty -- i'm going to fall into the female trap here, just say that melania trump's gown is truly gorgeous there. >> yeah. trish: it's a spectacle to see her there, you see theresa may. of course ou

she met don jr. she was trying to establish back roads according to the indictment, back roads to the campaign. there was a picture of don jr. at some sort of nra event with her. and she was, i guess, working with the nra and bragging about it. >> right. and what's peculiar in reading the indictment is that you look at her conduct. she's going to meetings. she's asking questions. she's trying to arrange meetings. in and of itself is not illegal. but what's illegal about it is doing all that on behalf of the russian government without registering. if she had registered, this all would have been legal, but the question -- the big question is who got her to do this and why was she doing it and of course was she successful in integrating the russian agenda into the trump agenda? >> what do you think about the timing that this was on the same day that president trump expressed his deep trust of vladimir putin and that it comes right after the mueller indictments of those russian military officials? do you

cohen's tweet coming on the very same day don jr. released e-mails about the russian meeting at trump tower. joining me now is msnbc white house correspondent, geoff bennett, christopher dickey, world news editor at the daily beast. also an msnbc contributor. and sara mchammond, covering the white house. geoff, i'm describing the main event, lawyers fighting lawyers. give us your perspective here on what's going on and what's going to happen next. >> where to begin, wolf. you begin with lanny davis saying that rudy guiliani waived some weeks ago. remember, after the fbi raided michael cohen's properties, a system was set up so someone known as a special master would give the trump team and the cohen team a chance to sift through all of the evidence to determine what was privileged. before that tape was released, the trump side waived privilege, attorney-client privilege, on that tape. that's one of the ways we now -- the public has been able to hear it. so that's what lanny davis is alluded to in his statement. and, of course, he's a

june 9th don jr. and paul manafort and jared kushner meet with natalia veselnitskaya and six others and junior 9th donald trump jr. makes a call to a blocked number two hours after the trump tower meeting. ken dilanian, if this meeting exists, this other new meeting that michael cohen might be alleging, according to rudy giuliani, but we haven't yet seen, it would come where in that timeline? >> well, we are not sure, katy. we have to take it with a giant grain of salt. this is rudy giuliani channeling what he has been told by reporters who have not yet published the story. we don't know whether michael cohen is alleging this. his lawyer, lanny davis, has designed to comment. here's what i can tell you. many of the participants in this meeting have testified to congress, both the senate intelligence committee and the senate judiciary committee. none of them ever brought up a sort of prestrategy congress. none of them ever brought up a sort of prestrategy meeting. so if this did happen, it would be ver

jr. and a russian lawyer. giuliani saying today the odds are against the president doing an interview with robert mueller, though he wants to, but mr. trump did make headlines saying today he's willing to meet with the president of iran without preconditions. lester? >> kristen welker, thank you. >>> a former top official at fema is under fire, facing an investigation over allegations that he created an atmosphere of widespread sexual harassment. nbc's pete williams has that story. >> reporter: the federal agency in charge of responding to natural disasters now has a crisis of its own. the former chief of personnel at fema is under investigation after employees accused him of sexual harassment. among their allegations, that he assigned female employees to various offices so the male friends he hired could try to have sexual relations with them. corey resign two weeks ago and has not been questioned. he was not available for comment. fema administrator brock long calls the allegations deep

first off, well like of course don jr. is the kind of guy who owds the gate. [ light laughter ] while mueller is sitting patiently like, trust me. you're not going anywhere for a while.la hter ] second, where are they both going? don's dressed like he's on t first flight out of cancun. [ light laughter ] and mueller is on the first flight period. [ laughter ] oralaybe that just is his ca wear. "you probably noticed my top button's unbuttoned. that's because i'm going to the beach." [ light laughter ] according to axios, during discussions about renewabl energy, president trump has more than once declared to administtion officials, quote, "i hate the wind." [ light laugher ] which is bad news r his lawyer who also blows. [ laughter ] [ cheers and applause ] former president obama and michelle obama were spotted this weekend at a beyonce and jay-z concert. take a look. ♪ [ scattered cheers ] >> seth: oh, no. you know what that means. they are not coming to save us. [ laughter ] they're like trump who? play "crazy in love."

but actually, the group he handed over control of his business to is his two sons, don jr. and eric, but also, allen weisselberg. he is the lynchpin of all trump financial matters. not incidentally, he is also reported to have been personally responsible for preparing donald trump's tax returns for years. if he has now been subpoenaed in the southern district of new york, that is a potentially very big deal. we know the president has been particularly sensitive, even particularly emotional around investigators and even the press pushing too hard when it comes to his personal finances and the financials around his business. allen weisselberg has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in new york. that is the kind of thing likely to push the president's but the onlies. but oh, wait, there's more. brews beyond that from the daily beast. this is an important story. tomorrow there will be a little bit of a strange scene at the white house. they are apparently planning tomorrow on bringing in the president himself to make big a show of him personally chairing a national security

. >> i know you're no fan of his son, don jr. he raised a point, what if somebody had done this to obama? do you think that comedian would have received the same kind of ire? >> did you do any research? are you going to really act like you didn't see the eight years of all that crap on facebook with everybody's racist uncle sending somebody a picture of obama being lynched? >> we didn't have a prominent comedian hold up a mock severed head of president. if there had been i think it's a fair question to ask, what would the response have been? >> first of all, barack obama never gave anyone a reason to hold up a photo like that. remember the "access hollywood" bus. barack obama was clean as a whistle, people just didn't like that he was black. >> should there be any limits on what you can say as a comedian? >> there are laws, you can't yell "fire" in a theater. i want to say, i want you do know i didn't break the law, i didn't do anything wrong. that photo is very much covered by the first amendment. >> reporter: throughout her car

. >> i would believe don jr. aenlt president in light of worrying that michael was taping conversations. >> reporter: federal regulators have more than 100 recordings cohen made of his meetings with clients. trump team says none talk about at meeting. >> now i listened fortunately for my client's point of vie to many, many hours of tapes. and the man is a pathological manipulator, liar. >> cohen's lawyer did release a tape last week where the president allegedly discued king a payme to a former "playboy" model who claims she had an affair with mr. trump. today t president blasted mule oern twitter and writing he t read play hard ball on immigration tweeting "i would be willing to shuov downnment if the democrats do not give us votes for border security, which includes the wall." . mocrats say it's the republicans stopping reform. >> democrats want to work on a comprehensrme immigration re package to address all of our issues across the country. >> the president raisi the akes on the immigration battle as the sept

first off, well like of course don jr. is the kind of guy who crowds the gate. [ light laughter ] while mueller is sitting patiently like, trust me. you're not going anywhere for a while. [ laughter ] second, where are they both going? don's dressed like he's on the first flight out of cancun. [ light laughter ] and mueller is dressed like he's on the first flight period. [ laughter ] or maybe that just is his casual wear. "you probably noticed my top button's unbuttoned. that's because i'm going to the beach." [ light laughter ] according to axios, during discussions about renewable energy, president trump has more than once declared to administration officials, quote, "i hate the wind." [ light laugher ] which is bad news for his lawyer who also blows. [ laughter ] [ cheers and applause ] former president obama and michelle obama were spotted this weekend at a beyonce and jay-z concert. take a look. ♪ [ scattered cheers ] >> seth: oh, no. you know what that means. they are not coming to save us. [ laughter ] they're li

donald trump's eldest son, don jr. let's look at this from "the new york times." they did meet with mr. torshin, her associate, and miss butina at an nra sponsored dinner. mr. trump's lawyer called the encounter brief. congressional investigators have obtained a photograph of the three at the event. people familiar with the inquiry said that. how significant is this going to be or is it going to be significant at all for somebody like robert mueller? >> i think robert mueller is going to be paying and has likely already paid pretty close attention to all of the tentacles of butina's connections. we know about the nra now. we know her connection to torshin. but my guess is that it didn't necessarily stop there, and we don't, as in the public, know everything that the prosecutors know. so i think he is likely to be monitoring it very closely, and there may be evidence sharing between the prosecutors on this case and the prosecutors in the special counsel's office. >> so everyone knows, alexander torshin is a former top russian government official. he was the one tha

we don't know if it's true. >> if it's true, it's trouble for the president, trouble for don jr.? >> if it's true, everybody has more questions to answer. but, again, remember this, too, if it's just one person, you know, corroborating this kind of stuff is very difficult. especially if you're going for the president of united states. you better have some serious kr krob ration. >> robert mueller keeps working. thank you very much. >>> we want to turn now in that disastrous day for facebook, the biggest one day loss in wall street history. abc's eva pilgrim is here. some investors are calling for founder mark zuckerberg to step down. >> reporter: that's right. mark zuckerberg is waking up to monumental loss this morning. thursday, facebook's stocks plummeting an astounding 19%. the company losing a historic $119 billion in just 24 hours. no other company has ever lost more than $100 billion in market value in just one day. some are calling for zuckerberg to be removed from the company. citing concerns he wields too much power and answers only to himself. now zuckerberg personally

jon: president trump this morning said, "i did not know about the meeting with don jr. in many like so is stories to get out of an pres. trump: thank you very much o om everybody. >> are you going to moscow? jon: there were no shouted questions on the economy. suey were all russia, the that won't go away. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. jane: a short time ago i spoke with heather long "the washington post." what is behind the growth? heather: there are two key things behind the 4.1% growth in the second quarter. the first is good thing, that american consumers are still spending. they are opening utheir wallets, using some savings from the tax cut to buy things. that is good news for the economy. the other thing is the magic bean, and that is a bunch ofco tries overseas bought a lot of u.s. soybeans andlt agrial products in the second quarter because they wanted to buy them before the tariffs went into effect. that boost helped get us over 4% in the second quarter, but it is not going to last. jane: does that mean that the riffs could undermine th growth we are seeing?

, jr. about that offer -- >> trevor: wow. that is shocking information. donald trump had an actual in-person conversation with one of his sons. ( laughter ) ( applause ) also, this is russia thing is pretty big, i guess. but, i mean, yeah, if they can prove that trump knew his campaign was meeting with the russians it would go a long way towards proving collusion. so trump knows he needs backup, which is why he immediately sent out the bat signal. unfortunately, all he got was the bat boy. yes. rudy giuliani. once again unleashed upon the world this weekend, and he was a man with one mission, destroy the reputation of the guy who used to have his job. >> the man is a liar, a prove -- a proven liar. there's no way you're gonna bring down the president of the united states on the testimony, uncorroborated, of a proven liar. >> one of the biggest liars in america. the guy is unethical, a scumbag, a horrible person. >> trevor: which is why president trump hired him in the first place. ( laughte

jr. what to say, then people will shrug their shoulders and say all politicians do that. cynicism works in favor of the liar in chief. >> so do you think that that is what's happening now? there is an extraordinary moment. the tape that cnn played, which to be frank the tape that he was angry about between michael cohen and himself led to the canning of kaitlan collins from the ceremony. he was very angry. the tape is out there. words are out there for everybody to see, yet he is teflon don. it doesn't stick. >> i know. what we don't know is because, you know, maybe we will find out. it won't stick with the cult devotees. we don't know how many there are. a quarter or a 30 of the country that he said i could go out on fifth avenue and shoot someone and have no consequences. maybe they are more interested in loyalty tow the supreme leader than they are in the first amendment. they are in truth. the complicated homework-like idea that the imperishable legacy of our constitution and what the

jon: president trump this morning said, "i did not know about the meeting with don jr. in manyike someone isst ies to get out of an unrelated jam." pres. trump: thank you very much from everybody. >> are you going to go to moscow? jon: there were no shouted questions on the economy. they were all russia, the issue thaton't go away. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. jane: a short time ago i spoke with heather long of "the washington post." what is behind the growth? heather: there are two key things behind the 4.1% growth in the second quarter the first is a good thing, that american consumers are still spending. they are opening up their wallets, using some savings from the tax cut to buy things. that is good news for th economy. e other thing is the magic bean, and that is a bunch of countries overseas bought a lotb of u.s. ns and agricultural products in the second quarter because theyem wanted to buy efore the tariffs went into effect. that boost helped get us over 4% in the second quarter, but it is not going to last. jane: does that mean that the tariffs could under

taping his client, which is a disbarable offense. >> in the testimony, don jr. said his father was not aware of the meeting. and his attorney said donald trump jr. has been professional throughout the investigations. we're very confident of the accuracy and reliability of the information provided by mr. trump jr. on his behalf. >>> meanwhile, the trump organization's chief financial officer has been subpoenaed in the investigation into michael cohen. allen weisselberg has handled f decades. he was mentioned twice in the cohen recording about the payment to karen mcdougal. >>> and breaking overnight, a homecoming decades in the making. the remains of what are believed to be american service members have been flown out of north korea. they arrived this morning at an air base near seoul, south korea on board a u.s. air force plane. the handover of 55 cases of remains follows through on a promise that the north korean leader made to president trump during their summit. the remains will stay in south korea until next week when they will be flown to hawaii for testing

they know don trump jr. lies, whether behind closed doors, to the public, doesn't matter to republicans on the hill. don jump jr. is who we know he is. jonathan rightly points out, the legality is what matters i don't know any republicans on the hill have a reason to get involvedfine with him re-appearing, he's again going to lie. this family looks us in the face and lies to us. a segment of the republican party buys that and another part of the part that rejects that. frankly, i agree, it's early. no problem with don trump jr. going to the hill and clarifying what he said before, but my sense is that he's going to go and he's going to lie again. the trump organization as a whole always wins out by saying, look at the democrats. look at the liberals. they just want to take us down. >> jonathan, you mentioned the tapes. 100 of them reportedly in existence. listen to lanny davis, michael cohen's lawyer. responding to questions about why these tapes were made in the first place, or how. here it is. >> michael c

president trump is bringing up that cohen said that don jr. was an honest broker just last year. what are they trying to do here? >> they're obviously trying to undermine cohen's credibility and there is a real concern about michael cohen's credibility. he is under serious investigation for a wide variety of crimes. the fbi raided his office not to get information on donald trump but because there was evidence of a possible crime and crimes by michael cohen. so he is not the ideal witness that you want which is why i say again, anything he says they're going to want corroborated. they're going to want to be able to back it up with other witnesses and other evidence. >> okay, thanks very much. >>> now let's bring in republican senator james lankford. he sits on the senate intelligence committee which is investigating russian interference in the 2016 election. good morning, senator. the president tweeted in response to the cohen news that, no, i did not know of the meeting with my son, don jr. do you unequivocally believe the president? >> i don't have any evidence that would say t

and sources saying she met the president's son don jr. at an nra convention. all the while receiving funding from a russian oligarch and maintaining contact with russian intelligence. the charges against her, not part of the mueller investigation. officials say butina's case is reflective of how broad and deep ongoing russian infiltration efforts are, beyond the indictment of those 12 russian military intelligence officers now charged with hacking. when putin was shown the indictment -- >> i have the indictment that shows the 12 members of russian military intelligence, talking about specific units, they say -- you smile, let me finish. they say these units were specifically involved in hacking into democratic party computers, stealing information, and spreading it to the word to try to disrupt the american election. may i give this to you to look at, sir? >> i want to say now, again, and i really wish for our american listeners to listen to what i say. russia as a state has never interfered with the internal affairs of the united states, let alone its electio

and he has worlds about that infamous trump tower meeting when don jr., jared paul manafort sitting down with a russian lawyer they were told had dirt on hillary clinton. cohen calls the meeting "a mistake" and "an example of poor judgment." but when i asked him if donald trump knew about the meeting in advance, cohen would only tell me this, "i can't comment under advice of my counsel." >> george, the big question tonight, why is michael cohen speaking out? is he trying to send a message? >> reporter: definitely. sending a message, as i said, to prosecutors, to the president and to the country, but tom, i also think it's deeply personal for michael cohen. he's been taking a lot of hits out there from allies of president trump, in the press, in the public. he wanted to tell his story. he wanted to send a signal that he's becoming his own man and ultimately, wants to work for what he calls resolution to this matter. >> now, we do want to mention, michael cohen has not been charged with anything, but he has changed his lawyer, which is very significant. >> reporter: for two reasons. number

jr., he testified under oath contrary to that. >> right. he is the one that very much could be caught up for a lie if that's in fact what it turns out to be. sham -- shan wu, thank you. >>> no details have been shared how to improve election security, but politics reporter is with us and cnn national security analyst. thank you for being here. jeremy, i understand you would not want to give too much into a strategy because you toent wado to compromise information. do we know if there's in fact a solid plan to try to combat this? >> the concern we have been hearing from lawmakers for months is that there isn't one from the administration and that there's no one in charge of combatting russia's election hacking, whatever they're planning to do for 2018. intelligence officials testified they expect russia and have seen russia undergoing measures we saw in 2016. we learned senator claire mccaskill was the victim of attempted phishing attempts. the question is who is in charge. the meeting was the first time we saw the white house bringing peopl

and sources saying she met the president's son don jr. at an nra convention. all the while allegedly receiving funding from a russian oligarch and maintaining contact with russian intelligence. like the one prosecutors claim you see here in this photograph. the charges against her, not part of the mueller investigation. officials say butina's case is reflective of how broad and deep ongoing russian infiltration efforts are, beyond the indictment of those 12 russian military intelligence officers now charged with hacking. when putin was shown the indictment -- >> i have here the indictment that says the 12 members of russian military intelligence, they say -- you smile. let me finish. they say these units were specifically involved in hacking into democratic party computers, stealing information, and spreading it to the world to try to disrupt the american election. may i give this to you to look at, sir? here? >> translator: i want to say now, again, and i really wish for your american listeners to listen to what i say. russia as a state has never interfered w

there was a blocked call from don jr. to a number we don't know who he called, so if cohen's information is accurate, then it would be significant. >> and david, cohen has represented trump for years. they certainly came across publicly as being very tight, even cohen saying he would take a bullet for trump. now the president's attorney, rudy guiliani, is calling cohenna liar, a cohen a liar. what is going on. how much does this reveal about how nervous donald trump is or people around him might be. >> so that seems to be the strategy from mayor guiliani and others to discredit cohen. we don't know what he said or reportedly said is true. just like cohen's credibility will be investigated, so will the credibility ultimately of the president and some of his spokespeople be challenged or called into question. mayor guiliani, you played a clip of him saying months ago he thought cohen was an honest, trustworthy individual. now shifting to cohen has been lying for days, years, you played that clip with sean hannity and trump

sources say she briefly met the president's son don jr. at an nra convention, all the while receiving funding from a russian oligarch. charges against her not part of the mueller investigation. officials say butina's case is reflective of how broad and deep ongoing russian infiltration efforts are, beyond the indictment of those 12 russian military intelligence officers, now charged with hacking. when putin was shown the indictment -- >> may i give this to you to look at, sir? here? >> reporter: butina's attorney says she's no flight risk. that she had been searched by the fbi in april and did not seek to flee. but they say she could get into an embassy or get into a diplomatic vehicle and be beyond reach. pierre thomas, abc news, washington. >>> that military parade proposed by president trump will cost taxpayers at least $12 million. it's tentatively set for november 10th and will mark 100 years since the end of world war i. it would stretch from the capitol to the national mall. it would be the first military parade since 1991. that eve

if you could spare a few minutes of your time, fine, if not, oblaedon jr. being don jr. said i'll do it if you're asking. "and jr. said he could not recall if they had connected priorer to the trump tower meeting. >>> michael flynn appeared in federal court in washington yesterday where his lawyers said who's eagererer to proceed to sentencing. this after robert mueller post ponned instancing for a third time. he cut a deal for lying to federal agents. the court said thenixt status report is due in late august. in the meantime there was confusion over the next move. flynn was part of a firm for demistic and foreign clients. and short laeafter that report was published, flynn's attorn itty called it a misunderstanding. they added flynn was aware a statement was being drafted but he did not intend it it be issued at this time. >>> the nightmare is over for a youth soccerer team and their coach. the latest on their condition after being rescued. >>> welcome back. the soccerer team rescued from had it cave in tiitland are said to boo in good health. they'll be quarantined fo

and he had tough words about that infamous trump tower meeting when don jr., jared kushner and paul manafort sat down with a russian lawyer they were told had dirt on hillary clinton. cohen calls the meeting "a mistake," an "example of poor judgment." but when i asked him if donald trump knew about the meeting in advance, cohen would only tell me this -- "i can't comment under advice of my counsel." >> and george joins us now in studio. george, a very telling interview there. but the big question tonight, why is michael cohen speaking out? is he trying to send a message? >> reporter: oh, definitely. that's part of it, strategic. sending a message, as i said, to prosecutors, to the president and to the country, but tom, i also think it's deeply personal for michael cohen. he's been taking a lot of hits out there from allies of president trump, in the press, in the public. he wanted to tell his story. he wanted to send a signal that he's becoming his own man and ultimately, wants to work for what he calls resolution to this matter. >> now, we do want to mention, michael cohen has not been char

jr. and he's now caught up in the wide-ranging financial investigation of former trump fixer and personal attorney, michael cohen. prosecutors in new york also examining whether cohen broke laws trying to quiet women who claimed to have had affairs with trump. weisselberg front and center in a newly released secret recording where you can hear trump and cohen apparently discussing a plan to buy the rights to the story of a playboy playmate who says she had a relationship with trump. on the recording, cohen proposes creating a shell company to do the deal. >> and i've spoken to allen weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding. >> so, what do we have to pay for this one, 150? >> yes. >> reporter: prosecutors now using a federal grand jury to question weisselberg, the president's loyal long-time deputy who knows all there is to know about the trump family business. >> all right, so, let's get to pierre thomas, with us live again tonight from washington. and pierre, we know

trump tweeted, "i did not know of the meeting with my son, don jr." cohen is under federal criminal investigation for his business practices, and now the former trump ally says he is willing to tell special counsel robert mueller that then-candidate trump was aware of a meeting with russians offering to help his campaign. the meeting happened on june 9, 2016 at trump tower in new york. in attendance, donald trump jr., jared kushner, the president's son-in-law, and campaign chairman paul manafort. russian lawyer natalia veselnitskaya claims to have potentially damaging information about democratic candidate hillary clinton but it turned out she wanted to discuss adoption policy. donald trump jr. testified before the senate judiciary commit they his father wasn't aware of the meeting. the president has also denieied any knowledge. >> it must've been a very unimportant meeting, because i barely heard about it. >> reporter: the president's lawyer, rudy giuliani, says he isn't worry that mr. trump's former fixer is willing to cooperate with mueller. >> the

. >> reporter: he currently runs the family's company, along with the president's sons eric and don jr. and he's now caught up in the wide-ranging financial investigation of former trump fixer and personal attorney, michael cohen. prosecutors in new york also examining whether cohen broke laws trying to quiet women who claimed to have had affairs with trump. weisselberg front and center in a newly released secretcord you trp and cohen apparently discussing a plan to buy the rights to the story of a playboy playmate who says she had a relationship with trump. on the recording, cohen proposes creating a shell company to do the deal. >> and i've spoken to allen weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding. >> so, what do we have to pay for this one, 150? >> yes. >> reporter: prosecutors now using a federal grand jury to question weisselberg, the president's loyal long-time deputy who knows all there is to know about the trump family business. >> all right, so, let's get to pierre thomas, live again tonight from washington. and pierre, we know that prosecutors are listening