>> i want to thank everybody. time for don lemon. thank you so much for watching "ac 360." join us tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. i'll see you this. >> the president answering questions for 40 minutes in the rose garden today and everything he said was good news, if you're donald trump. this is cnn tonight. i'm don lemon. the president thinks his administration has done a great job in response to hurricane response, even in puerto rico. >> i was very honored to see a man that i've had a lot of respect for, james lee witt of the clinton administration, the head of fema, he gave us an a plus. i just saw it just came out. and i've always had respect for him. he gave us -- he's the fema director of the clinton administration. gave us an a plus for how we

responded to the hurricane aftermath, all of the hurricanes. and that includes puerto rico. >> actually, he didn't. james lee witt told us that assessment was for hurricanes harvey and irma. on the subject of his combative relationship with senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. >> we are probably now, despite what we read, we're probably now, i think, at least as far as i'm concerned, closer than ever before. and the relationship is very good. we're fighting for the same thing. >> you know who else the president says he has a good relationship with? that's steve bannon. the same steve bannon who left the white house back in august. the same steve bannon who backed the candidate running against trump's choice in the alabama senate race. the same steve bannon promising to wage war against the leaders of the gop, like mitch mcconnell. >> i have a very good relationship as you know with steve bannon. steve is doing what steve thinks is the right thing.

>> and trump also thinks he is doing much more for the families of fallen soldiers than his predecessor. >> if you look at president obama and other presidents, most of them didn't make calls. a lot of them didn't make calls. i like to call when i think it's appropriate, when i'm able to do it. >> that's not true either. back -- barack obama during his time in the white house made calls just as other presidents had done. so let's discuss all of this now. i want to bring in now cnn senior political analyst mark preston, david axelrod and political analyst april ryan. where do we start here, mark? >> where do we start with this. >> let's start with mitch mcconnell because it was a united front as you have seen with other leaders who have come out with him, everything is fine, saying they are closer than ever before. we know how they have been feuding.

it has been on twitter. it's been going back and forth. are you really buying this love fest? >> well, a couple things. one is this is a classic donald trump stick and carrot approach because he beats you and then he'll throw out a carrot in front of you. we saw that happen today within hours of where he was very critical of the united states senate, particularly republican senators for not getting his agenda through and he took no responsibility for it. at the same time he knows that he needs mitch mcconnell on the senate if he's going to have any kind of success. if he's going to get any kind of victories. what's interesting about donald trump is he has this unhealthy obsession with his legacy, so early in his term. and the fact is donald trump likes victories and he likes wins, and without mitch mcconnell he's going to get none of those. >> he also has an unhealthy obsession with the former president. april, you called this news conference with the president and the senate majority leader a

hot mess. why is that? >> well, one, you know, those comments, james lee witt and also with president obama saying that the president never called or visited with any of those fallen soldiers, i couldn't believe that. and after sarah from cnn, the reporter from cnn asked that question the president said that, i leaned over and said that's not true. because i was there. you know, i remember going to the hangar when victims of benghazi came back and members of the embassy came back from -- coming from benghazi. i remember being there. i remember the president going to dover air force base. that was sacred for that president. that's a sacred moment. and to say something like that was very tough. and then at the end with the issue, you know -- well, a couple of times. reporters were asking questions -- some reporters got three

questions. but john roberts from fox news asked i guess his third or fourth question, i guess the third or fourth round, really, he asked about the nfl, and that's when i got my chance to ask about police involved shootings. the actual reason why the nfl players are taking a knee, and the president kept saying it's disrespect and i threw that question out and he kept saying disrespect. never discussing the issue, the reason why the players knelt. it was just -- when you listen to a president of the united states, words matter. and for us to hear that certain things didn't happen, it just leaves a lot to question his credibility and just what really is happening. >> yeah. what was interesting is that he hasn't spoken out about this, david, and the president was also asked today about his public silence for nearly two weeks on the four green berets killed in niger. he said he hasn't spoken to the families yet but he has written

letters that will be arriving soon. but it's this comment that drew criticism. watch this. >> the toughest calls i have to make are the calls where this happens, soldiers are killed. it's a very difficult thing. now, it gets to a point where, you know, you make four or five of them in one day, it's a very, very tough day. for me that's by far the toughest. the traditional way if you look at president obama and other presidents, most of them didn't make calls. >> and then he later backtracked, david, when questioned about his claim and he said he only knew what his generals told him. he said i heard that, i heard that. i don't know if that's true. i'm paraphrasing that. a former obama staffer wrote this on twitter. she said that is a -- i can't use the language -- lie saying president obama or past presidents didn't call families of members of soldiers kia.

he's a deranged animal. you were at president obama's side for years as countless service members were killed in war. what was your reaction to his comments today? >> well, i mean, it was outrageous. and not just about him but about previous presidents as well. any president feels as president trump said what when he started speaking that those are the toughest calls you have to make, those are the toughest meetings you have. that is really when being commander in chief comes home to you because you have the responsibility for these young men. you send them into battle and you are moved when there is a loss. i was there, don, in october of i believe it was 2009 when the president in the middle of the night flew out to dover to as april mentioned to receive 18 service people who were coming

back in coffins from afghanistan and met with the families of those service people in the middle of the night for several hours, consoling them. and i remember how sober he was the next morning in reflecting on that experience. so, you know, i don't know why president trump feels the need to throw those things out. he does it all the time. why does he feel the need to claim credit for this outstanding job in puerto rico when puerto rico is in such distress right now? any reasonable person would say mr. president don't say those things. but he does and he does and he does. i don't know why. >> i want to talk about puerto rico, but just to reiterate what happened. this is a former white house photographer that put this up on instagram showing president obama consoling the parents of army sergeant first class derek

monty killed in afghanistan. so again this president did not have his facts right. i want to ask you about what david just talked about and that is a response to hurricane maria. 44% approved how the president is handling the hurricane response. that is a 20 point drop from just a few weeks ago. that was after harvey and irma hit the mainland. how damaging are these numbers for the white house? >> they're very damaging. he might not be doing well with hispanics or puerto ricans who have moved here to the united states. but that is a reflection right now of his stewardship of the government. and i'm not saying that it's very easy, a very easy job to be doing what he is doing, because it is very difficult and i'm sure david can speak to that. you are juggling multiple balls, but the fact of the matter is that president trump continues to go out and say things that are false, misleading and flat out lies and also deciding to go to war with the mayor of san juan down in puerto rico. why would you do that? there's absolute no reason when

we heard from our own correspondents right now that while supplies are getting to the port, they're not getting out of the port. why isn't president trump more concerned about perhaps sending in the military or sending in more folks to try to start rebuilding that infrastructure and getting those supplies around? but, again, don, it all goes back to what we said at the top. president trump really, really is focused on his own legacy and he's focused on himself, and there's a bit of narcissism there that i think is really getting in the way of him really doing a solid job as president right now. >> how frustrating is it to sit there as someone who has covered the white house for, what is it, 20 years now and knowing in real time that this president should be fact checked and then not always having the opportunity to do so? it's got to be frustrating for people who if this is your vocation. >> yes, it is frustrating. you know, it was frustrating. i was trying to get a question in. i was smack-dab right in front of him and he made it a point not to recognize me. but towards the end he did, and

when he was saying these things, particularly when he talked about james lee wit, and i understand that he sometimes leaves other facts out or changes it a little bit, and i remember a conversation that he had with congressman elijah cummings at the very beginning of this administration when they came out and said after that conversation, oh, elijah cummings said that i'm the greatest president ever. that's not what he said. he said he would be the greatest president if you did such and such and such and such. so it's always a part of the fact and something else with it. and that's unfortunate to say about an american president because words matter. and listening to him today, particularly when he talked about obama and prior presidents. not just president obama, but george w. bush and bill clinton, i was there. and i was like, that's not true. it is frustrating. but that's why we're there. we're the first line of questioning an american president and we also have

institutional knowledge and memories sometimes that will help correct the misstatements. >> david, i want to ask you about this one because i thought it's important to point out here. the president also weighed in on hillary clinton supporting nfl player's rights to protest. watch this. >> i hope hillary runs. hillary, please run again. go ahead. >> she's at odds with you over whether this is disrespecting the flag. is she right or is she wrong? >> i think she's wrong. look, when they take a knee, there's plenty of time to do knees and there's plenty of time to do lots of other things. but when you take a knee -- well, that's why she lost the election. >> that's why she lost. what do you think of that? >> look, he would love to replay this election from now until the next election, you know. he lives in this world, this race with hillary clinton is the most -- i mean, think about what's going on in the world right now and that he wants to engage in that discussion. but i do want to go back to one

thing, don, which is mcconnell. and, you know, trump ran as an anti-establishment candidate. mcconnell is the ultimate establishment man, as mark pointed out, he needs mcconnell to some degree. but he loves having steve bannon out there strutting around in his johnny cash outfit threatening to gun everyone down and calling mcconnell cesar and calling for brutases to step up and do away with him and so on. he knows that he's got a gun cocked at mcconnell, figuratively speaking. in this day and age i shouldn't use that language. but he's got this implicit threat that bannon represents. so if i'm mcconnell i'm standing up there feeling deeply uncomfortable with trump says bannon is a friend of mine and he's doing what he thinks is right because there's a game being run here and mitch mcconnell is caught in the vice. >> thank you so much. i appreciate it. >> don -- >> i've got to go.

i'm sorry. next time, april. we'll see you soon. when we come back, an emotional john mccain choking up tonight as he blasts those who would abandon america's leadership in the world for the sake of what he calls half baked spurious nationalism. there's more and it's very powerful. you'll see it next. break away from everyone else. the bold lexus is. experience amazing. and i'm the founder of ugmonk. before shipstation it was crazy. it's great when you see a hundred orders come in, a hundred orders come in, but then you realize i've got a hundred orders i have to ship out. shipstation streamlined that wh the order data, the weights of , everything is seamlessly put into shipstation, so when we print the shipping ll everything's pretty much done. it's so much easier so now, we're ready, bring on t. shipstation. the number one ch of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv

and get two months free. my dbut now, i take used tometamucil every day.sh it traps and removes the waste that weighs me down, so i feel lighter. try metamucil, and begin to feel what lighter feels like. (cheering)

a triangle solo? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money sam and yohanna saved by switching to geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

you should sit down and really watch this because senator john mccain made an impassioned plea tonight for the united states not to turn away

from its role as an international leader. i want to bring in fareed zakaria now. it really was amazing to watch. he was awarded -- john mccain was awarded the liberty medal tonight and in his acceptance speech he took a shot at president trump. watch this. >> the fear in the world we have organized and led for three-quarters of a century, to abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain the last best hope of earth for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that americans con signed to the ash heap of history. we live in a land made of ideals, not blood and soil.

we are the custodians of those ideals at home, and their champion abroad. >> what do you think? >> i thought it was strong. >> it's an extraordinary -- i really urge people to listen to or read the whole speech. it's extraordinary. eloquent. he really tells it like it is. and you could tell it comes from the heart. and it really is -- i mean, one hates to politicize it, but it is a frontal attack on donald trump. and it is a frontal attack really on donald trump's essential world view. if you go back to trump the businessman, taking out ads in "the new york times" in 1980s, it was all this very selfish, narrow view of america in the world. we're being taken advantage of by the japanese. we're being taken advantage of by our nato allies. that has been trump's consistent

theme of his view of the world. what america has been about for the last 75 years is the opposite. it has been about a country that tries to uphold international order, to try to create a word of peace and prosperity and rules. and if you think about its coming at the end of a week where trump is trying to pull out of the iran deal, where he has pulled out of the paris agreement, where he's pulled out of the trans-pacific partnership, where we learn nafta is on the brink of being of collapse. we are watching the foundations of that international order that john mccain was praising. we're watching it crumble. >> there's so much to talk about. first, let's talk about the blood and soil, because that was a direct reference to what's happened in charlottesville, those white supremacists. they were saying blood and soil, jews will not replace us. >> i think it was clearly tied to that. it's that idea of european nationalism, which has always been about blood and soil. and what he was contrasting it with was america, which has always been based on ideas and

ideals, not blood and soil. >> in the last segment i was sitting there, asked april how frustrating it is because as i sit at home before i come in i watch these speeches before i come on, that's not true, that's not exactly right. okay, he has a point about that. but i've never had to fact check in my mind speeches or comments by a president of the united states ever. and people will say, oh, well, the news is just being anti-trump. the news needs to point out -- that is our job to point out inaccuracies and falsities and lies. and it happens so many in just one speech today. what is going on, fareed? >> well, you even saw it -- as you know, i've always said that the problem with trump is there is no such thing as truth and lies. he's just making this stuff up. he's making it up on the spur of the moment. it's almost like performance art and i don't want to keep using the same word, but we all know what it is. you saw this moment where he looks down and he says, you know, james dewitt --

>> james lee wit. >> james lee wit has given me an a. plus for our hurricane efforts, and he says james lee wit, director of fema and under clinton, a man i really know and respect. you know that that's nonsense, that he never heard of that guy before this moment. and he gave it to me for all the hurricanes, including puerto rico and it turns out that wasn't true. it was given for just the first two. >> irma and harvey. >> so you think to yourself, there's something almost pathological about it. you know, he can't stop himself from just -- in that moment he feels like this will sound better. why don't i say i know this guy really well. >> people embellish all the time, but when you're the leader of the free world, that's a whole other level. >> really interesting question that's why i think it's pathological. why do it? it doesn't really give you much advantage. it ends up producing this firestorm of fact-checking and criticism.

i'm not sure that he can stop himself. >> yeah. the canadian man who was just rescued by the taliban in pakistan says that when he was told by his captors that donald trump is the american president, he thought they were joking. if someone told you five years ago that donald trump would be the next president, would you have believed them? >> no, of course not. >> can you imagine that, though? you've been captive for five years and then you come out -- >> rip van winkle and your biggest surprise is donald trump is president. look, all of us were surprised. all of us got it wrong in that sense. but i think that the important, perhaps the part that i'm most surprised by is i did think that trump would behave a little bit more like a conventional president in this sense, that he would try to broaden his coalition, he'd try to appeal to the whole country, he'd try to figure out a way to do the things that a majority of the country wanted rather than just his base.

in that respect he has been more peculiar and again, somewhat self-defeating. i'm not quite sure -- >> did you think that or did you hope that, fareed? >> i hoped that, but i also thought, look, the guy -- he's an intelligent man, i assume. he's a successful businessman. the obvious thing to do would be pivot to the center. go for big infrastructure project. unite the country. i still don't understand what exactly the game is. you know, for example, if you're trying to pass tax reform to belittle bob corker, maybe there's a genius strategy there that -- or mitch mcconnell, i don't understand it. if you're trying to get a legislative agenda passed and you are systematically insulting the senators who you need to pass that agenda, again, now, as he would say he's president and we're not. so obviously there is some talent there, but -- >> yeah. thank you. by the way, good to see you.

by the way, the interview with hillary clinton was really great. really great. very interesting. >> thank you. >> responses that you got from her. so for anybody who missed that, make sure you check it out. cnn.com/fareed. when we come back, the president standing side by side with senator mcconnell today despite very publicly calling him out multiple times throughout his presidency. but what's really behind their sudden show of unity? ♪ ♪ you nervous? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ listen up, heart disease. you too, unnecessary er visits.

and hey, unmanaged depression, don't get too comfortable. we're talking to you, cost inefficiencies, and data without insights. and fragmented care, stop getting in the way of patient recovery and pay attention. every single one of you is on our list. at optum, we're partnering across the health system to tackle its biggest challenges.

to find smarter solutions. to offer more precise and less invasive treatment options than before. like advanced genomic testing and immunotherapy. see how we're fighting to outsmart cancer at cancercenter.com/outsmart

to hear president trump tell it, he and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell are bffs. i want you to listen to the president today. this is in the rose garden. >> my relationship with this gentleman is outstanding, has been outstanding. we are working very hard to get the tax cuts. we will continue to work hard to get the health care completed. i'm going to be surprising some people with an economic development bill later on, but i haven't even told mitch because i want to focus on tax cuts and some other things right now. >> he hasn't told him, but they're bffs. that is a tall order for a party at war with itself and facing what could be devastating midterms next year.

thank you gentlemen for joining us. curt, you first. the president giving a big public show of support to the senate majority leader someone he has very publicly rebuked for pailing to repeal and replace obamacare. this is just two weeks ago. he said the only problem i have with mitch mcconnell is after hearing repeal and replace for search years he failed. that should never have happened. so is this a mending offenses? what's going on here? >> i think the operative word that you said was it's a show. it's just for show. there's no sincerity behind it. mitch mcconnell certainly doesn't believe that donald trump is his friend. i think if anything maybe in that moment during that press conference donald trump probably believed that he was mitch mcconnell's guy. but we all that whether it's tomorrow morning or over the weekend or a week from now he's going to end up criticizing mitch mcconnell. and he has these irreconcilable forces here. you cannot say on one hand steve bannon is a good friend of mine, i support what he's doing. i understand the frustration that he represents with members

of the senate, who are mitch mcconnell's colleagues and part of his caucus, and on the other hand try to say you're also mitch mcconnell's best friend. it was just a few weeks ago that donald trump was in alabama next to luther strange trying to convince everybody that they didn't know who mitch mcconnell was. >> let's talk about that because the president also voiced some frustration at the senate's inability to push his agenda forward. the reason i bring that up is because steve bannon was on the opposite side of him in that race, right? so here is what he has said publicly, bannon, about mitch mcconnell. watch. >> right now it's a season of war against a gop establishment. we've cut your oxygen off, mitch. >> so bannon has made no secret of the fact that he wants to purge as many establishment republicans as possible in the upcoming midterms. how can the president be aligned with bannon and mcconnell at the same time? >> well, i don't know that that's possible. and i think you have competing interests here. i think for a while steve bannon and now president trump came together to help get him elected

president, but i don't think that their goals are the same. i think president trump wants to get a deal done. he wants to deliver on the campaign promises that he talked about, and i don't think he really cares about who is involved and what the deal looks like. he just wants to say he got it done. steve bannon on the other hand has kind of aligned himself with trump, but i think he's using president trump as a way to either destroy the republican party or remake the republican party into something he thinks it should be. i remember last cycle i was getting e-mails from speaker paul ryan -- about speaker paul ryan's challenger saying speaker ryan wanted to elect hillary clinton and he was amnesty and i think he was clubbing baby seals and i thought they were from paul kneeland the challenger, but it was actually from breitbart. so i think there's competing interests here and that's what makes getting something done more difficult. >> you're a numbers guy. i want to take a look at some of these numbers in the upcoming midterm about the current balance of power in the house. republicans 241 to 194 majority.

your analysis shows that democrats likely are to pick up some seats there. your projections show a lot more republican seats up for grab than democratic ones and you say there are 48 gop seats in play with only 14 democratic seats in play. the democrats would need a net gain of 24 seats for a majority. how likely does that seem to you? >> well, history is on the democrat's side. in 18 of the last 20 midterm elections the president's party has lost seats. and the average seat loss in those 18 elections is 33. and you mentioned democrats need 24. democrats are recruiting i would say a strong crop of candidates and challengers, but one of the big unknowns right now in this cycle is traditional midterms are bad for the president because they become a referendum on the president. right now most voters don't believe president trump is the head of the republican party. he's kind of his own entity, and

so i'm not sure that even if voters don't like what the president is doing, if they're going to take it out on republican incumbents. >> so, curt, a white house reporter had some reporting about republicans in and out of the white house trying to let president trump know if the democrats take the house, he could be facing impeachment. how realistic do you think that democratic majority is now? >> i think it's incredibly possible. think about this. right now we're just nine months, ten months into the presidency of donald trump. imagine a year from now, how tired we're all going to be of this daily charade. and you have to imagine that the american people at that point, especially if not much is happening in congress, will hold the president accountable for having this united government of republicans in control and not being able to get anything done. and that's why republicans are so concerned right now with donald trump's fixation by driving these wedges with his own party. i'll tell you, if democrats take control of congress they will have oversight authority. they can effectively cripple the obama administration -- or the

trump administration the minute that they have that power. it's the same experience we had when i worked at the oversight committee and we took control of the majority while we were working with darrell issa. we were able to successfully launch investigation after investigation and really get a lot of the white house's attention and slow down the obama presidency. >> thank you so much. i appreciate it. when we come back -- president trump today blasting sexual assault allegations against him that surfaced during the campaign as fake news. we're learning today his campaign has been subpoenaed. gloria allred, who represents one of trump's accusers, she joins me next. my name is jeff sheldon, and i'm the founder of ugmonk. before shipstation it was crazy. it's great when you see a hundred orders come in, a hundred orders come in, but then you realize i've got a hundred orders i have to ship out. shipstation streamlined that wh

the order data, the weights of , everything is seamlessly put into shipstation, so when we print the shipping ll everything's pretty much done. it's so much easier so now, we're ready, bring on t. shipstation. the number one ch of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get two months free. custom t-shirts and other great products for every occasion. for the first day of school to game day and everything in between. with the best collection of styles and graphics to choose from, it's easy to go online and create

custom t-shirts, and more, for all of lifes events. (drumming) get start-to-finish help, free shipping, on-time guaranteed. (drumming) for a limited time, save 10% now on your first order of six or more shirts with code tv10. get started today at customink.com.

president trump's campaign being subpoenaed by lawyers for summer zervos, a former contestant on the apprentice who accused donald trump of sexually assaulting her in 2007. the subpoena requests, all documents concerning any woman who asserted that donald trump touched her inappropriately. asked about it, the white house today, the president called the subpoena fake news. joining me now is gloria allred. gloria, thanks for joining us. explain why your legal team is subpoenaing the trump presidential campaign. >> well, first of all, don, this

is not fake news, as president trump said. as a matter of fact, this subpoena is in the court file lodged with the court in our lawsuit against president trump. and in fact, along with the subpoena is a letter from the trump-pence campaign acknowledging the subpoena and agreeing that they will produce all documents after the court decides whether or not to grant their motion to dismiss our case. if the court decides to allow us to continue to litigate this case and deny trump's motion to dismiss, then they will have 30 days to produce all the documents that we requested. so this is about as real as it can be, and apparently trump's lawyers know that. the campaign knows that. but donald trump himself is the only one who thinks that's fake.

>> what do you think the documents in the campaign, they're going to be relevant to your lawsuit, gloria? >> well, there are many documents. of course, our lawsuit is a defamation lawsuit, because during the campaign, of course, we heard the "access hollywood" tapes and the billy bush on the bus tapes in which the president is alleged to have said or we heard his voice saying that he felt he could grab and kiss a woman because he was a star, that in fact he could grab them by he mentioned their genitals, and then when anderson cooper in the debate with then candidate trump and former secretary of state hillary clinton asked mr. trump did you in fact do what we heard you say that you did on those tapes, the "access hollywood" tapes and the president said it was just locker room talk. he denied ever doing that. after that women began to come out and they came out to "the new york times." then many of them came out with me at press conferences and

accused the president of, in fact, doing some of what we heard him say on the tapes. after that president, then candidate trump at some point said they're all liars, all the women are liars. what they said was fabrication and fiction. i'm going to sue them all after the election. well, he did not sue them all after the election. i called on him to retract his threat. i called on him to acknowledge that what summers had said was in fact true. he did not take the opportunity to retract or acknowledge. therefore, three days before the inauguration i filed a lawsuit on behalf of summer, who is a real hero. and she's the only woman who did accuse donald trump who then went ahead and filed a lawsuit, because her reputation is important to her. >> can i -- >> because truth matters, and she would like him to acknowledge what in fact is the truth, and she says that what

she alleged about him is true. >> you heard the response from the president. i don't need to play the sound bite. he said it was fake news. listen, this is the attorneys for the president, also released a statement that i want to read for you. miss allred has served a far-reaching subpoena on the trump campaign that seeks wholly irrelevant information intended solely to harass the president. indeed miss allred herself has questioned how the president could run the country if faced with broad discovery. what's your response to his denial? >> well, first of all, everything that we requested in the subpoena is relevant. we want -- for example, all documents concerning any woman who asserted donald trump touched her inappropriately. any basis that any such women or woman fabricated or lied about her interactions with him or were motivated to come forward by fame or, quote, ten minutes of fame, end quote, money, politics or pressure from the clinton campaign.

by the way, we also are asking, and this involves cnn, we say that we're requesting all documents concerning david bosey's statement to jake tapper of cnn that there, quote, is not one shred of evidence, end quote, of any of the women's allegations that donald trump touched them inappropriately or his statement that these women are, quote, people who put out by gloria allred and the dnc and the clinton campaign, end quote. so all of this plus more we need in order to prepare our case against president trump. >> okay. >> and we believe that all is relevant. they think it's far-reaching. we would respectfully disagree, and we're looking forward -- >> i need you to stand by, gloria. >> to receiving all the documents if as and when and we're hopeful of this allowing us to proceed with our lawsuit. >> i need to get to the break. when we come back, hillary clinton slamming the president, comparing him to harvey

weinstein. we'll tell you what she said and more with gloria after the break. when did you see the sign? when i needed to jumpstart sales. build attendance for an event. help people find their way. fastsigns designed new directional signage. and got them back on track. get started at fastsigns.com.

the trump campaign subpoena for documents by lawyers representing summer zervos a former contestant on the apprentice.

she accused trump of sexually assaulting her in 2007. the president saying this today. >> all i can say is it's totally fake news. it's just fake. it's fake. it's made up stuff, and it's disgraceful what happens, but that happens in the world of politics. >> summer's lawyer gloria allred is back with me. and we're joined by cnn's chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin and ed martin. welcome to the panel. gloria, welcome back. jeffrey, how stopping of a case does she have against president trump? does she have a chance of getting anything? >> i don't know. i don't know the evidence at this point, don. but i do know that a sitting president can be sued, because that was established without question in the paula jones case where the united states supreme court said even though it's potentially a distraction to a sitting president, people are entitled to their day in court, so the lawsuit can

proceed. whether this lawsuit has any merit and whether a court will allow depositions to go forward, discovery to go forward, that's a separate question. it's a harder question. >> but jeffrey, you agree, jeffrey, i mean, you're smart enough to know, you agree that when someone threatens that they've been harassed, doesn't have a suit and then files against a public person saying i was defamed, that's the kind of classic long shot play, right? >> excuse me.

the more realistic approach is it's right. the president can in fact be sued, but the idea of fake news being one of semantics does not go very far in a defamation allegation where you know that truth is the ultimate defense to it. and so it is certainly -- >> right. >> -- appropriate for somebody to investigate before they have a defense or -- harvey weinstein is a separate matter. >> but the president also admitted to, as well, what is sexual assault saying that he can grab women by the genitals. that came out of his own mouth. >> he described he was talking in a way as he said and others have agreed was kind of jocular and silly and all tat. no matter what, you changed the subject from -- weinstein has admitted -- >> this has nothing to do with harvey weinstein. this suit was after -- gloria, can you please take us through? >> mr. miller, the suit was . filed on behalf of -- in january of this year.

the allegations against mr. weinstein did not surface publicly until just recently. one has nothing to do with the other. >> you're doing a round of publicity with a subpoena trying to say as you've admitted, you're a political operative trying to hamper the president. you're out there saying we want to tie up the president and make it difficult and have subpoenas. i'm a lawyer, too. if you look closely it's a case that is a long shot case that's done to cause trouble on a public official. you've already said that. it's about making -- >> i'm glad you told me you're a lawyer because i wouldn't have guessed it from what you're saying. but thank you very much for your argument. let me just share with you that this has nothing to do with that -- and your name-calling -- >> with what? >> wait. don't interpreter me.

>> what name-calling? >> you're interrupting me again, which men do way too often. >> we're waiting. go ahead. >> what i'm saying is when you name call and you try to -- >> what's the name call? >> knock it off. >> that you do not have a good argument on the merits, so thank you for letting me know you can't defend this. >> look, gloria, this is a >> what i'm saying is when you >> moving on. see how you do this, you interrupt because you use the status of you're the fighter and everyone has to take it. >> i need to interrupt because

we have to go to a break and you can do all the interrupting on the other side. we'll be right back. looking for balance in your digestive system?

try align probiotic. for a non-stop, sweet treat goodness, hold on to your tiara kind of day. get 24/7 digestive support, with align. the #1 doctor recommended probiotic brand. also in kids chewables. and i'm the founder of ugmonk. before shipstation it was crazy. it's great when you see a hundred orders come in, a hundred orders come in, but then you realize i've got a hundred orders i have to ship out. shipstation streamlined that wh the order data, the weights of , everything is seamlessly put into shipstation, so when we print the shipping ll everything's pretty much done. it's so much easier so now, we're ready, bring on t. shipstation. the number one ch of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv

and get two months free. ♪ ♪ you nervous? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

interrupt on the other side. we'll be right back. so the panel's back. laura, you first. you say defamations's only defense is truthfulness, and the president is damaging his own case by calling them liars also. how so? >> one of the most important things in a defamation action is to prove it's a false statement that's damaging to one's reputation. so if there is evidence to suggest that the statements are true, then you very well can't say that you are being defamed or if there's no change in the reputation, you're not being damaged as well. there is some validity in an investigation into figuring out whether this is false or true. but the only way to do that outside the court of public opinion is to discover, which is what's been asked for. >> one of the problems potentially with this lawsuit is that it really is sort of a bootstrapped sexual harassment

case. clearly the underlying offense here, according to gloria's client, is sexual harassment. but because of the statute of limitations has lapsed they've sort of manufactured a defamation case out of trump defending himself. now, this was successful in massachusetts, that in the bill cosby case was allowed to are proceed. but i'm not sure every court will say that the same way. >> do you think he'll be deposed, jeffrey? because i mean, it -- how damaging, because remember paula jones, it -- >> led to his impeachment. i think it will certainly be a while until he is deposed. there will be other discovery first. gloria allred has filed a very voluminous discovery request. i think the judge narrow

somewhat, but i think the judge, he or she, i don't know the gender in this case, will give some discovery in this case and then it'll proceed to a motion for summery judgment. and if that's denied, i expect there'll be a -- >> gloria? >> and it's a woman judge. we had a male judge assigned to the case first. he recused himself for reasons we do not know. and that's fine. and then it was assigned to a woman judge in new york supreme court. >> ed, let me ask you, nearly a dozen women have accused donald trump of sexual assault or misconduct. you don't think there's any truth to any of those dozen or so women? >> one of the things phyllis, my old boss used to talk about, when you run for office at a hiel level, she ran for congress twice, i ran for congress, you learn a lot about how the game is played. with donald trump having run for president, becoming president, if there was evidence, if gloria's client or others had evidence of these kinds of things i think we would have a different kind of outcome. so at a certain point you have to say