and part of it is the strange saga of michael cohen. and i really wonder what you think, now that we've taken it all in, it would be hard for people to understand at the beginning of this or if you saw this as a movie, how much ended up landing on mr. cohen's shoulders, including one of the longer sentences affiliated with the mueller probe. of course, it was handed off to new york. when he basically, apparently, did a lot of what was asked of him, first to help trump, some of which he later confessed to illegally, and what was asked of him by the congress. for context, we put together for your analysis, joyce, what donald trump said. he basically said, to use a common phrase, you better ask somebody, you better ask michael cohen, and ultimately the congress did. here was that condensed story. >> did you know about the $130,000 payments to stormy daniels? >> no. >> then why did michael cohen make it if there was no truth to the allegations. >> you would have to ask michael cohen. >> he asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he

what michael cohen pled guilty to. the da is looking inwhether any state laws have been violated, if they filed a false statement and how they reimbursed michael cohen. so now as part of the investigation we reported last week the prosecutors went to prison and interviewed michael cohen. now they want to see the president's tax returns. so part of this is following the money trying to understand the source of these payments. the trump organization, according to a different indictment in the federal case involving michael cohen, with different prosecutors, in that case the prosecutors said the trump organization treated this as a legal expense, which they thought was improper. so you have the state authorities looking to say was this improper and could that violate state law. >> the next step, they talked to michael cohen in prison and now they want the tax returns. what options does the accounting firm have in responding to the subpoena? >> unlike the broader fight to get access to the president's business records betw

let's talk about michael cohen's cooperation here. he has a view of what to say about trump and what he thinks about trump. where could there be a criminal violation by the president in regard to how he paid off stormy daniels? >> so it's early times in this investigation, chris. but what prosecutors seem to be focusing on is the idea that there would have been false business records that would have been submitted. normally that's a misdenener. but if you submit false business records in an effort to conseal another crime, here presumably a federal crime involving campaign finance fraud then it becomes a felony and you're really in hot water. >> because no one it seems to me would write into an accounting document for the irs or anyone else paid off porn star for night in wherever, wherever the hotel was. it doesn't seem he'd ever put that record together. so come up with something like entertainment costs. how would you file that information? it's a quarter million, in fact he paid almost up to $400,000 to pay tax kaus and everything

now they've interviewed michael cohen. this is still pretty early stages, and we do expect to have them interview other people who might have some information about this, anderson. >> and has the trump organization responded tonight? >> yeah. so we did hear from one of the lawyers from the trump organization, mark mukasey. he gave us a statement saying when you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas, an apparent reference to the credibility of michael cohen and how useful he may be to the prosecutors. >> but michael cohen worked for donald trump for many years, so was donald trump flea-infected? >> i think that's the question. >> i don't -- i'm not sure that's the greatest analogy for somebody you've employed for a long period of time. thank you very much. some perspective now from elliot williams, who served as deputy assistant attorney general under president obama. also with us, jeffrey toobin, cnn's chief legal analyst. is this -- i mean does this mean -- the fact that the southern district of new york just has hand

michael cohen makes a new agreement to tell all about the trump organization. then -- impasse as states star taking the matter into their own hands. and the scheme pulled off by north carolina republican while democrats were at a 9/11 commemoration.h >> if this is the way you believe democracy work, shame oi you. >> when "all in" starts right now."a >>> good evening from new hampshire. i'm ali velshi in for chris hayes. it's been only a day since the president fired his national security advisor john bolton or john bolton quit between who you ask.id a it's hard to pin down the exact reason for the split between the president's comments and different reports, it seems the two men disagreed on just about everything. for one we now know that one ofg the reasons trump got rid of bolton was because some of on trump's friends didn't like him either.fr >> take a look at what happened to gaddafi with the libyan model and he's using that to make a fi deal with north korea, and i don't kim jong-un for what he nothing to do with john bolton. >> so the north korean dictato

. >> congressman, you know, when michael cohen's case became public and the indictment came out and michael cohen pled guilty to it, it seemed to me that what we were looking at in the federal indictment was an obvious article of impeachment because the federal indictment said that michael cohen committed his crimes in paying off stormy daniels and the other woman in order to hide their stories during the campaign as a conspiracy against the united states. and it said that he committed those crimes at the -- at the direction of donald trump. and that just seemed to me right there as the strongest impeachment case i've ever seen, right there made by federal prosecutors. that seems to be what your committee, the judiciary committee, is now going to bring out in public testimony. >> yes. it's an open and shut case, and obviously we've had to wait for the other federal prosecutors to do their thing with the witnesses and the facts, and now it's our turn, but, look, it's very clear what happened from michael cohen's testimony, from the documentary evidence like the cancelled checks. the ami grou

meanwhile, at a federal prison in upstate new york, inmate michael cohen has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as they investigate if the trump family business cooked the books to pay people off. >>> and ten democrats now just hours away from their next debate. will they go they attack cheeses or donald trump as the 11th hour gets underway on a wednesday night. >>> well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 965 of the trump administration. september 11th, 2019. that makes it the 18th anniversary of the largest loss of life on u.s. soil since the battle of antietam in the civil war and the day that launched our longest war still ongoing tonight. the president started this anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with his own attacks on social media, railing about a poll done "by one of the worst pollsters of them all, the amazon "washington post"/abc. sleepy joe, pocahontas, virtually all others would beat me in a general election. i haven't even started campaigning yet and am constantly fighting fake news like russia, russia, russia." the president ha

why did the justice department end it after only charging michael cohen? joining us no uh is tom hamburger, reporter at "the washington post" who is part of breaking this story. mr. hamburger, really appreciate you making the time to be with us tonight. thanks. >> good to be with you, rachel. thanks. >> so i say this is surprising news, because while this seemed to me like a big dangling thread in terms of the scandals that have surrounded the president, this one a particularly interesting one because of what federal prosecutors told the judge about the president's own involvement. we didn't have any sense that the democrats in the house were interested in pursuing this on their own terms. am i right that this is is the first we've known that they've been interested in going after this? >> this is the first indication we've had from the judiciary committee that they are putting this on their list of priority topics to investigate. we knew, rachel, already that they were focused on some of the things that were -- that were front and center in the mueller re

likeyou bring people michael cohen before the committee right before they go to jail for lying to congress, that hurts your credibility a little bit. theink there are things oversight committee can look into. host: such as what? guest: my question is what role is rudy giuliani playing? i think that is a legitimate question. role was the biden family playing in all of this? why was hunter biden getting plate -- getting paid by ukraine? ethics rules are clear that family members -- or anyone is supposed lobby of foreign agent you have a severe conflict of interest. i know democrats are quick to always point out potential conflict of interest with members of the government staying at the trump hotel. what about the son of the vice president getting paid by a ukrainian oligarch to do who knows what at a time when relations with the united states and ukraine are somewhat contentious? i think there are a lot of questions that can be asked in oversight. democrats have a right to ask questions about president trump, but i think republicans have a lot of questions. a jim jordan and mark meadows and

>> if you remember back almost a year or more ago, michael cohen came into court, stood up in court and pleaded guilty to a crime and essentially on the record implicated then candidate, now president trump as the person who essentially directed him to break the law to which he was admitting to right there in court. for whatever reason, the federal government has concluded its investigation with michael cohen and these payments is over, but the manhattan d.a.'s office think it's not over, in subpoenaing documents to make out a case for filing false business records. in new york it is a state crime to file false business records if you do so with an intent to hide a crime. so the manhattan d.a. is picking up where the federal government left off where it would not investigate criminal activity. when michael cohen stood up and implicated the president, that was powerful evidence, at least an allegation against donald trump. i'm not surprised be there echos being heeard whether in the federal system or state system. >> why would the southern district of new york not have pursued that or th

cohen about this. now cohen is one of many people that the state investigators want to interview. their investigation is in the early stages and it began after federal prosecutors had closed their investigation in july and that is the investigation that michael cohen had pleaded guilty to where he implicated the president and this hush money payment scheme and why he's servicing this three-year prison sentence. so this investigation is in the early stages. a lawyer for the trump administration couldn't be reached for a comment and he called this a political hit job and one investigation that comes to an end, others continue to pop up so there is a lot of legal issues still swirling around the president and his business and his family, jake. >> thank you so much. appreciate that reporting. >>> in our sports lead, one of the nfl top wide receiver's antonio brown is being sued for rape. his former trainer is accusing him of multiple instances of sexual assault after he signed with the patriots. we must wa

as for the president's personal lawyer, michael cohen, he is also in federal prison. he may finally be getting a little vindication or something to hope for. earlier this summer, federal prosecutors ended their investigation into payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to women who claimed they had affairs with then candidate donald trump. the payments were to keep them from talking about those alleged affairs before the election. michael cohen has been complaining loudly from prison about the fact that he was prosecuted for those campaign finance felonies while everybody else involved in those fell knees, including the president, seems to have gotten off the hook. now house democrats say they plan to launch an inquiry into the matter starting as soon as next month. from what we know, michael cohen is not expected to be brought in to testify during these hearings. i should mention, there's precedent in terms of calling federal prisoners into congress to testify at important hearings. the senate finance committee did it in 2007 when they brought in a convic

. >> recent prosecutors interviewed the president's former personal attorney, michael cohen, in prison. this is important to the hush money payments. how significant could his answers be in this investigation? >> michael cohen has been interviewed about these, so it could be that they had follow-up questions they were going to ask him. you know, he's already in jail so it's not going to change the outcome for him, but it could be that there were additional questions to ask him. with respect to the congress, though, they have a far broader mandate to look at what they're considering for impeachment purposes. and so michael cohen and how that information ends up playing out or whether or not there is some type of criminal charges down the road. there is a lot of other cases, emoluments, in addition to all the destructive and potential acts described in the report that they need to consider. >> carrie cordero, thank you so much. >>> meanwhile, over at the white house, cnn is learning that the president is considering having secretary of state mike pompeo take over john bolton's role of na

from what we know, michael cohen is not expected to be brought in to testify during these hearings. i should mention there is precedent in terms of calling federal prisoners in to congress to testify at important hearings. the senate finance committee did it as recently as 2007 when they brought in a convicted felon to testify about identity theft and tax fraud. there he was in his blazer over his orange jumpsuit. whether or not an orange jumpsuited michael cohen is put before the cameras before the democrats and congress, he may in prison have his vindication if house democrats launch their own inquiry into what happened to the other people who were involved in the commission of those campaign finance felonies. remember, federal prosecutors described the president as individual one who directed the commission of those felonies. >>> well, against this backdrop, this sort of where are they now backdrop involving all of these people very closely related to president trump and his campaign, well, today we finally got a case where somebody caught up in an offshoot investigation from the

so as you heard cakara scannell prosecutors visited with michael cohen in prison for his role in these hush money payments partially. in recent weeks do you think that that is part of this? >> it could be. so if it was the same prosecutors which i understand that it was and again these are tate prosecutors, manhattan d.a., not federal prosecutors, if they went to go see michael cohen they could have asked him for information to guide what they put into the subpoena. so the subpoena went to trump organization and trump personal tax accountants and so he might have been able to give them some kind of guidance about here is what you should look for, here is who prepared them, here is specific information to put in the subpoena so the subpoena was targeted. >> so let's assume that the prosecutors are successful and they're able to subpoena these eight years worth of tax returns of mr. -- president trump personally and the trump organization. does that mean that ultimately the public will finally get to see the tax returns. >> that is a long way down a path. so i think what will happen is f

michael cohen's testimony was a bust, john dean's testimony was a waste of time. speaker pelosi's decision to pursue impeach on allegations only shows that the speaker has suck comed to the socialist wing of the democrat party. this was never about russian collusion, it's all about undoing the 2016 people and the will of the american people. we will hear from kevin mccarthy in 15 minutes and he will make a statement. and we will have it live for you. joe is on the democrats' line. caller: i'm so proud of the speaker here and the king is not the law the law is the king. and imamazed at the calls you are receiving. we watch different media and have a different bias. i don't want to sound craft but i don't want to make up my mind before the facts. if you don't fight hide enough, at the end of the day you don't believe in them. and i really believe that my congressman has been listening to me and my congressman has done what i have asked and that's to wait, to wait patiently until we have enough people and enough facts have come forward to change the americans' opinio

cohen investigation when there was questions about should we pardon michael cohen or not pardon michael cohen. and he's just risen again. and people in the state department and the national security agency are probably -- and kylie would know about this -- are probably pulling their hair out about this because they don't know how to handle him because the president wants him around. >> thank you so much, you guys. as we've said, there is much more breaking news to come. remember, i'm just going to give you another programming note. later this afternoon the president is sitting in that bilateral meeting with the president of ukraine. that is going to be the next chapter in this wild tale of today. most importantly, this is the beginning, the most important thing i'm going to say once again, yes, the call is one thing and part of it, but the whistleblower complaint is the core and the impetus of the impeachment proceedings and that is yet to be revealed what all is in that whistleblower complaint. we have much more after a quick break. orlando isn't just the theme park capital of the worl

michael cohen pleaded dpguilty over the payments. here is what michael cohen told the committee this year. >> i am providing several documents. this includes a copy of a check mr. trump wrote from his personal bank account after he became president to reimburse me for the hush money payment i made to cover up with the affair with the adult film star. and prevent damage to his campaign. >> we should have known that trump and his lawyer denied this. regarding the payments. 134 democrats. one independent supported the impeachment vote for inquiry against the president. for now, we are happy to be joined by ted liu. with the state of california. who happens to be a member of the house judiciary committee. thank you for coming on. can you convince me taking your summer break was not a complete momentum killer for democrats in the house? if you have to come back and say to the people watching oh no, we are going to tell a different story now, this one is about an adult film star, playboy bunny of hush money. >> thank you, brian. we are goi

michael cohen described it well. >> he doesn't give you questions. he doesn't give you orders. he speaks in a code. i understand the code because i've been around him for a decade. >> it's your impression that others who work for him understand the code as well? >> most people, yes. >> most people. the judiciary committee is on this as a real issue investigating trump's push to host the g7 summit at another one of his properties. personal financial interests shaping decisions about u.s. government activities according to those investigators. that's what they want to probe. this is not okay. it's not a good use of the u.s. treasury. here is part of why donald trump could be steering all of this money so desperately, so brazenly, so publicly. . some of trump's properties are bleedsing profits. we have seen the names come down in hotels. at the doral resort, heavy knew h -- revenue has fallen by 69%. 24 trump cabinet officials have spent time or money there. it goes back to donald trump. he runs the newsletter tracking these statistics. we're also joined by david corn. good to hav

>> well, what we know already is that michael cohen is serving jail time for campaign finance violations involving paying money in violation of campaign finance laws to affect the election of his then boss, donald trump. we know that the southern district investigated it. we know that the d.a. in manhattan is still investigating it, and just recently, just at the beginning of august, issued some more subpoenas. so there are active facts there that should be looked into. i think it would be malpractice of the judiciary not to look into is the t president authorized payments to anybody to try to impact his election. >> i guess that's my question, because i've seen some of my colleagues. one of your colleagues quoted already satisfied that the evidence is there that shows the president was a co-conspirator. is that your view or not? >> there may be evidence there, but our committee hasn't seen it. congress hasn't seen it there was evidence presented to the grand jury. the u.s. attorney up there refers to someone who can only be the president as individual number 1 as having authorized payme

>> you'll have to ask michael cohen. michael is an attorney, and you'll have to ask michael cohen. >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> i don't know, no. >> so you're saying he doesn't have a very good poker face? >> i'm saying the i don't know, in both of these cases we know it was a lie, right? now we know it was a lie. it was a lie then, but he said he didn't know. it was the same sort of i don't know, i don't know, i don't know. >> it's a way to get out of it. >> given how much he lies, you'd think he'd be better at it, but he's not. >> juliette, why can't he just let this go? >> oh, that's a psychological question. i mean that's a hard one to answer, but i don't think that this is trivial. i mean for the points that brian said. i come from the world of disaster management, so let me just explain very quickly how it works. you have an incident command. you have the professionals who are assessing water and air and wind and resources and what people need to be told to do. then you have the po

michael cohen's sentencing memo in that case is crystal clear saying this, quote, cohen himself has admitted he acted in coordination with and at the direction of individual one. joining our conversation former deputy assistant soerng and host of "the talking fed's" podcast. i have always been told by trump insiders that it is this criminal campaign finance investigation that was first run out of the southern district of new york that is now being pursued by state prosecutors that has always represented the most legal peril to individual one, aka, donald trump. >> yeah. i think we've heard that part because of the aggressiveness of the sdny. but even now under the manhattan d.a. they can do a lot of damage and they've laid a lot of groundwork for a lot of evidence. now cohen appears to be cooperating with them as well. so this really does open a new front in the whole war about getting his tax records. notice they would still be secret if the d.a. got them. but as opposed to the federal campaign where they're trying to get them from the secretary of treasury who's resisting for no good reaso

they requested those documents in order to corroborate claim by michael cohen, the president's former attorney and fixer, that the president was essentially artificially inflating and deflating the values of his assets in order to seek his personal financial benefit. these allegations that the manhattan d.a. is looking into are similar in that they're looking into whether the trump organization falsified business records related to the president's reimbursement of michael cohen, for those hush money payments that you guys were discussing earlier. so the documents themselves are similar. but the allegations are slightly different at the state versus the federal level. >> andrew, live in dc for you tonight, we will talk to you again in just a little built. >>> still ahead, the trump impeachment hearing gets under way in the house today with former trump campaign manager corey lieu wan do y core lewandowski set to testify. and it appears the white house has told him what to say and not to say. >>> a contentious day on capitol hill. and a check on weather. when we come back. i didn't have

and, remember, michael cohen, if he wouldn't talk about a quid pro quo, michael cohen testified to congress that's not how trump -- he doesn't say, okay, i'm going to prescribe yone to . i don't know maybe by mentioning biden eight times in a conversation with the ukrainian president and at the same time he's saying unless you do this corruption investigation, you are not going to get your $250 million. >> you know, there's no one to blame but the person who did this, and that's donald trump. but has there been a culture of per missiveness some robert mueller delivered a report that didn't clearly articulate whether things had been. not wrapped in a clear message of whether crimes had been committed. nancy pelosi put impeachment off the table the day after the mueller testimony donald trump gets on the phone and solicits election meddling from the ukraine. >> i'm not sure anything congress does or doesn't have has much impact on this guy. he clearly is using -- i mean, there's two or three things there. first, i used to do circumstantial arson cases. there is so much circumstantial evidence

we know they're talking to michael cohen. we know cohen has made a proffer offer to them. we know they have now subpoenaed the president's tax returns from the last eight years. this is a criminal grand jury sitting in manhattan that has issued this subpoena. the trump administration and his lawyers will fight this subpoena, no doubt, but at this point, they're fighting with, like, a giant squid with a thousand arms. i mean, at some point with this many different points of contact, even through the legal system, this stuff is likely to come out. so we're watching all of that unfold. just in today's news. but, of course, what has dominated the news today has been what now seems like an inevitable national circling back to the controlled implosion that was the supreme court confirmation of brett kavanaugh. >> my family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed by vicious and false additional accusations. you have replaced advice and consent with search and destroy. since my nomination in july there's been a frenzy on the left to come up with something, anything

cohen legal fees as a business deduction because they, in fact, as michael cohen says it, were not legal fees. >> i think that that's right. i think that, you know, if you're prosecuting this case, you're not going into it with a conclusion about what you'll be charging. but i don't think the manhattan d.a. is looking here to get a misdemeanor. certainly they're looking for a felony, which means proving false business records were filed and that filing was made in order to conceal another crime. tax fraud looks very likely here, and with this news of the subpoenas, i think we have to at least for the moment assume that that's one of the theories that they're pursuing. >> now, in a -- this is new york state tax law. there are new york city taxes that also could have been underpaid because of this. so in federal tax evasion cases, they tend to be guided by the same principles. who's liable? if donald trump signs -- when he signs his personal tax returns, he takes on the legal liability for whatever is in it. but what about the preparers of the tax returns or other peoe involved who might k

cohen's why, he is in jail for theft. >> did you just say that michael cohen lied? my goodness. >> he is their only witness for this and that has not stopped them from bringing the repeat liar to congress and i think lou, you and i would agree that there's lots of liars on there. but this is desperate and this is what people do when they don't have an agenda to pursue. maybe the action of american people about pursuing the agenda in this very divisive thing of the leader. lou: here is stunning stuff to think that the 93 trillion-dollar new green deal favored by aoc and the radical dems is really the only problematic initiative put forward in the democratic ran house, and were in september for crying out loud. >> we will hear a lot more of the nonsense at the upcoming debate. it is almost a violation of unusual punishment to expect to make and voters to sit through this. ultimately the american democrat voter is not even as liberal as people are painting themselves in a corner four. i think it's divisive for the country about freedom cuts. lou: the republican respons

michael cohen went to jail. in to this investigation. what is weiss el bergs role in the investigation. >> he knows a great deal. that's why he got immunity. right? i think what's being so frustrating with all the efforts to look at the trump organization finances, trumps finances, until now it's pointed out there's been a shield. and they hid behind legislative purpose. and so i think that what will be interesting about this state prosecution having a grand jury is potentially, it may take a long time, that potentially it could bear more fruit. probably not in time. for the election. >> vic can knows a bit about the law. it seems. >> a little bit. >> we have seen battles over congressional subpoenas. this is a different ball game. this is state grand jury criminal subpoena. and prosecutors have very broad discretion to serve the subpoenas. i expect the trump to fight this. as they fought everything. all you have to show is conceivable relationship to anything relevant to the. they'll fight it but they will lose. >> this is crazy how lon

he backed over michael cohen, no, no. what else, there was this, the tweet about trump tower and the russia meeting, i did not know the meeting with my son don junior, remember, he wrote the statement in don junior's name that came out of that meeting. sound two. let's play a clip, we'll come back and talk about it. >> it doesn't matter what i discussed. it's a partisan whistle blower. shouldn't have information. i had conversations with many leaders that are always appropriate. i think scott can tell you that. always appropriate, at the highest level always appropriate. >> not sure what at the highest level always appropriate means. michael cohen said, i was the one that made these payments. >> the meeting was about russian adoptions. >> let's play the clip. >> largely corruption, all the corruption taking place. we don't want our people like vice president biden and his son creating the corruption already in the ukraine. >> right there, getting pretty close to saying, yeah, i had the conversation, it was totally appropr

michael cohen ends up in police oo prison. didn't we hear him say hey, ask rudy giuliani what he did there in ukraine. it hats ts the same feel and i k the president will start pointing fingers. >> and he said hey, check the vice president's phone calls as well. so already this was the blame being spread around. but i want to come back to the attorney general. you know, i misspoke in the previous segment speaking with the congresswoman about impeachment because, you know, william barr i guess was on my mind because this is somebody who is supposed to be the attorney general of the united states. great britain and israel, those two prime ministers are also in legal trouble because their attorneys general are looking into potential illegal activities that they may have committed. in our country, this attorney general could not say whether it would be in fact illegal to seek help from a foreign country. he couldn't say it at his confirmation. and he seems to have done nothing other than try to protect donald trump from the conseq

cohen and flipping on everyone. so you're saying the pressures we're seeing could lead, you think, to people turning. >> i think part of the house strategy is to put pressure on all different avenues. so it's to actually do an inquiry and see what kind of new information they can find out and to kind of force their hand. i think that's important in the letter that went out that said, if you do not do this, we'll look at obstruction on multiple fronts. but it's also to see who is essentially going to flip and pit these people against each other. we're already seeing kind of a crackdown in donald trump. that's not surprising. he always gets pretty intense in moments like this. we've seen that before. but now we're seeing a crackdown in rudy giuliani, and now we're seeing the house put pressure on all different avenues, including pompeo. we need to get people to sort of spill their guts and what kind of information you can come up with during the course of this inquiry. many they're demanding any records generated or r

just days ago, we learned that former trump attorney michael cohen is cooperating in this case. you'll recall while serving a three-year federal sentence for, among other crimes, his role in making those payments to the porn star, stormy daniels, which constituted a campaign finance violation. a case in which the president was an unindicted co-conspirator. the house ways and means committee has already subpoenaed trump's tax returns. that was back in may. he's fighting that request in court presently. tomorrow, trump's former campaign manager corey lewandowski is expected to testify publicly as part of the house judiciary committee's obstruction investigation. two other witnesses, and this is notable, former trump administration aides rick dearborn and rob porter were also scheduled to testify but the white house has told them not to appear. and there's also an explosive story as we mentioned having to do with supreme court justice brett kavanaugh who was sworn in almost a year ago now after that contentious confirmation process which included the emotional testimony from dr. ch

. >> look, he became michael cohen. the president's personal lawyer and henchman and fixer when president trump alienated michael cohen. and now rudy giuliani is playing that job. i think we have to take a step back and realize there's a broader context here. no limit, no boundaries. that's how donald trump has lived his life personally, as a businessman, and conducted himself as president. those are the facts. and whether the minority leader in the house kevin mccarthy who i thought was a republican who stood for national security and i'm sure he's got statements in the past with the invasion of crimea in the ukraine now all of a sudden doesn't want to go near this topic because he thinks democrats are coming after the president given what the president has said he already did. so the fact that giuliani is freelancing here is really at the behest of the president. the fact that mike pompeo is going on television saying the bidens should be investigated for something that is completely unfounded. when he's secretary of

we have in the sdny an unindicted coconspirator, michael cohen, who's in jail. what do you mean nothing happened? >> that was not relate to -- the president didn't do anything, though. that was michael cohen. >> so the president is the unindicted coconspirator, that's not doing anything? >> the president is individual number one. >> but individual number one didn't do anything? >> here's what i will say. >> individual number one is probably the president who couldn't be indicted? >> it's great. republicans want there to be an impeachment inquiry. we want this to be the strategy. >> why don't the republicans in congress vote for it? >> no, we want the democrats -- we want this to be the sole strategy for 2020. if this is all the democrats can bring to the american people in 2020, there's no solution for health care reform, there are schools that are failing, employment -- >> there's no what? >> the democrats are not bringing real solutions. >> the democrats brought up affordable care. what happened to the promised health plan that was supposed to be better than t

for example, in bringing michael cohen before our committee, he lied about the moscow/trump tower project that president trump was pursuing even as he was saying he had no business dealings with russia. we're trying to determine were others involved in the creation of that lie. >> just lastly, president trump suggested today that instead of continuing to investigate him, the house judiciary committee should instead spend its time investigating -- looking into president obama and the president tweeted, quote, i have a better idea -- i have a better idea, look at the obama book deal or the ridiculous netflix deal. do you have any idea what he's talking about? >> no. it's just gibberish. it's "don't investigate me, there's no conflict of interest here. never mind that i'm enriching myself through my properties and, you know, that military jets are going to airports that don't make any sense or staying at my resorts that don't make sense. look at obama. this is just a variation, frankly -- >> and a book deal and a netflix deal -- it's not even something that happened during his presidency. >>

remember when michael cohen says trump speaks in code? >> 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. >> although you don't have to have been around him for a code to understand the code here. now democratic leadership is trying to figure out its next move with some reports saying nancy pelosi wants to move quickly on this impeachment on this ukrainian scandal and others want to broaden it. i'm joined by danielle moody mills and congressman from oklahoma. i saw reaction to they might move with these facts and move with that and i saw both sides that they should keep it wide and look at emoluments. what do you think? >> i think if you keep it wide, you will distract the american public. the american people need something that is very clear and cut. this ukrainian incident is as clear and cut as you get. i've been railing against nancy pelosi for the past six months. after the mueller report came out, i was like what are we doing? when a

the michael cohen hearing didn't work for them. the john dean hearing didn't work for them. the mueller report and mueller hearing didn't work for them. the lewandowski hearing didn't work for them. let's do a press conference and let's talk about something we haven't even seen because maybe that will work. that's how desperate and ridiculous this has gotten. i think the american people see through t they see clearly the job that this president has done and they appreciate that and they think what the democrats are doing is ridiculous. frankly, the precedent it sets is dangerous as well. look, we'll look at the document. but i think the facts are that they got nothing else and they are doing the kind of things they did yesterday. 160-some democrats are wanting to move forward about something they haven't even read or seen. i don't know we have ever seen that in the history of the congress. with that i'll yield to our leader who is doing a great job leading our team, that's chairman mccarthy. mr. scalise: yesterday was a low point in nancy pelosi's speakership. when you see a