tv CNN Tonight With Don Lemon CNN November 15, 2018 8:00pm-9:00pm PST
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this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. president trump launching an unsubstantiated attack on the mueller investigation claiming investigators are threatening people to get the answers they want and ruining people's lives. we now may have some insight on why because cnn is confirming trump has spent the last three days meeting with his attorneys over responses to the special counsel's written questions. the west is reporting tonight trump's lawyer rudy giuliani says some of the questions pose possible legal ob obstacles and traps for president trump. what role is the new acting attorney general matt whitaker playing here now na he is overseeing the investigation? we know whitaker has publicly criticized the special counsel's probe on multiple occasions before he started working at the
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justice departments including on this show where he also told me how the mueller probe could be ended. >> so i can see a scenario where jeff sessions is replaced with a recess appointment and that attorney general doesn't fire bob mueller but reduces the budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt. >> let's discuss, shall we? because matthew rosenburg here, national security correspondent for the "new york times." a former counsel to watergate special prosecutors and chris weeker. i'm so glad to have all of you gentlemen on this even. good evening to you. phillip, let's get into it. you saw the reporting we have that cnn is reporting that the president met with his lawyers three days in a row talking how to answer these written questions. rudy giuliani telling west that mueller's questions cos create more issues for us legally than others. so he's admitting there are some
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legal landmines for the president. what is he saying there? >> i think if the president gives truthful answers he's going to get himself into deeper quick sand and if he doesn't, he's going to be creating other problems either with the special counsel or now with the house judiciary committee about to be in the hands of democrats who have made no secret of the fact they want to investigate what's going on in this investigation. >> what about these quote ez says mueller's question may it be "possible traps"? but i don't know if he's -- he writes down the questions. he answers them. if he's telling the truth, then. >> that's why this whole notion of a perjury trap is so fanciful. it's only a trap if you're asked a question to which you don't want to give a truthful answer. if you give a truthful answer, it may be incriminating but it's not a trap. if you don't want to incriminate yourself, you can claim the fifth amendment but you can't lie. >> stand by. i can't to get the fbi guy in here quickly. chris, you were assistant
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director to the fbi. giuliani says some of the questions are irrelevant. mueller clearly doesn't think so. do you think mueller has something up his sleeve here? >> no, i served directly under mueller for two and a half years. if know mueller this whole thing about a trap implies that he's going to frame somebody. mueller's not going to frame anybody. robert mueller is an honorable person. he's going to do his job. he has a mission. he's going to do that fairly and within the bounds of the law. he's going to be proactive but he's not going to frame somebody. i've been saying this all along. nobody knows what he's doing behind the scenes because he's not leaking and he's just quietly going about his work. rudy ghoul god bless him hasn't had an unedited thought since he became trump's attorney. she's probably not the best attorney for trump at this point. >> matthew, what do you think of this? we've got lawyers, he's been meeting, he's got the questions.
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you've got "the wall street journal" report hag came out. you've got michael cohen in d.c. he's not there to have dinner, let's just be honest. what's going on here? >> i mean look, it looks like there's movement and it looks like the president fears something is coming down the pike. is he worried about his son, about don junior? is he worried he sudden will i has one hostile branch of congress that's going to be digging in both to the mueller investigation but to other aspects beyond the scope of that investigation or is it all that plus the fact that the midterms didn't go well for him, he went to europe and found out none of the european leaders wanted him around or had nice things to say about him, he thought it was okay to skip going to a cemetery for thousands of americans are buried for dying in a war for dying for our country and surprised people are upset about this. i don't know. he clearly is deeply, deeply out of sorts. >> listen, he's call -- "new
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york times" and other places, this is fake news. i'm not upset. but then he's rage tweeting. isn't that proving exactly your reporting? >> every time he says fake news, we get more subscribers. he encourage him to keep doing that. every time he sees a story he doesn't like, it's fake news. it's an utterly meaningless phrase at this point. >> these questions, reportedly only deal with things from before the election, right? which would mean they had nothing to do with possible obstruction of jutsd. so where do you think that stands now? >> well, i am one of the many people who thinks that mueller made a strategic decision abouting whether to press the obstruction case or just focus on the russia collusion case. but eve so, i think what trump fears is that the people around him like roger stone, jerome corsi and others who were involved in the campaign are the people who are by their own words likely to face indictments soon in connection with
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collusion with russia. so trump's main story over the last 18 months that there's been no collusion proved is exactly what's be to collapse on him i think. that's what he's worried about. >> say that again plainly and clearly for people like me who are a little. >> trump has been saying all this time there's been no proof of collusion and all these other zims and guilty pleas don't have anything to do with the activities during the campaign but some of trump's keel campaign advisers are the people who are now saying themselves that they will expect to be indicted by mueller in connection with russian collusion and they've said that within the past couple of days. and we know that manafort and rick gates who have pleaded guilty or are cooperating have been actively in there along with michael cohen just on the last few days. i think that's a sign that this is coming to a climax and i think trump knows that.
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he either gets the information from whitaker about that or he at least has the ip tuition that the walls are closing in on him on russian collusion. >> mr. fbi sounds like cue the mom news music here, no? >> yeah, this is another thick i've said all along, former director mueller was not going to do anything before the midterms just because you don't want to interfere with the election in any way. but clearly he doesn't make a deal with the people he's made deals with there isn't something coming down. something's in the chute right now. whether it's a very detailed report or whether it's another indictment, i think that's up in the air. i personally think it's another indictment. we don't know who's in those crosshairs for that indictment. but he's -- these are the building blocks of a conspiracy case. you make deals, you flip the middlemen or people further up the chain so by definition, that means there's somebody further up the chain. >> interesting. >> don, just one more point to
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make. there an apparently are about 50 sealed indictments on file in the district court in washington, a bunch of them were filed in september right before the silence period that mueller had to observe. sophie think a lot of court watchers are saying there are more shoes just about to drop. >> so matthew, you talked about possibly members who are his family are close to him. he's worried about his own son. >> definitely. you know, his son don junior was the central player in a meeting in trump tower in july of 2016 in wila russian lawyer showed up, the connection to the russian government allegedly bringing dirt on hillary clinton. >> willingness to collude already proved in that case. >> they certainly were collusion curious. but i movie, the other thing too is during the campaign, if all these questions trump is facing are about to the campaign, during the campaign they didn't open an investigation, none of us knew about an investigation.
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there was no obstruction to be had then. there could only be focusing on some kind of collusion conspiracy type situation. that's what would orry the president. i don't want to go too far speculating here. what else are you looking at if you're looking at during the campaign except were you cooperating with russia, was somebody in your circle, camp, associates, whatever. >> the thing is the one thing that the president specifically tweeted about here, he said that the inner workings of the muellerer investigation was a mess. all these things about oh, they're a mess. he's looking for answers that he wants specifically. they're ruining people's lives. he may be bloviating. didn't he just appoint a new acting ag to oversee this investigation? is that a coincidence? >> i think that's likely to be the source of what trump is construing as being efforts to wreck people's lives and don junior might be one of the people that he has foremost in his mind. i think whitaker as the acting ag would know what mueller has
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up his sleeve including any sealed indictments that may be just about to be released. >> fascinating conversation. thank you all, thank you, chris, i appreciate it. >> nancy pelosi says she is the best person for the job of house speaker as the newly minted democratic majority assumes control. not everybody in her party agrees. is this a case of sexism? we'll talk about it next.
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♪ lean on me, when you're not strong ♪ ♪ and i'll be your friend ♪ ♪ i'll help you carry on ♪ ♪ lean on me. house democratic leader nancy pelosi wants to have a second go at being the house speaker next year. but at least 17 democrats are standing if her way. in a letter they vow not to support her bid to become speaker. let's discuss was charlie dent, hillary rosen and david swerdlick. hello, everyone. always drama. always drama. so hillary, you first. democrats won the house and picked up 33 seats. they might win a few more. but now some in this caucus want
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to get rid of their leader. what's going on? >> nancy pelosi was key to winning those 33 and maybe four or five more seats. i think the majority of the democratic caucus knows that and wants her to serve as speaker. look, i think there's a bunch of moderate democrats who have decided that the republicans are, you know, are going to pick on them if they support nancy pelosi. and i just don't think it makes any sense for democrats to let republicans pick their leader. reason they do that, the reason they try and demonize nancy pelosi is because they know she's effective. why would we buy into that. >> that's a good question. let's talk about that. congressman, because republicans have made pelosi a punching bag in just about every race, every national race even state races. did they succeed in making her too politically toxic do you
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think? >> yeah, i do think that the republicans were effective at turning nancy pelosi into a pinata. sure, they were able to damage her. but i don't think that her problems though are simply the cause of republicans. it's clear that many democrats in the house i served with them, many of them want a new generation of leadership. you know, republicans i believe went through changes in leadership at least four or five times since i've been in congress. i could go list them. nancy pelosi has been the leader of the house democrats now since 2003. and when republicans would lose, we lost the majority in '06, dennis hastert step ad side, john boehner was forced to step aside. there tends to be some consequences when there's a perceived to be a failure in an election. when nancy pelosi and the democrats in 2012 and 2014, they may be attained the same leader. a lot of drafts were frustrated by that. >> this is from dan pfeiffer, a former obama adviser.
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he says i'm very something to the desire for a new generation of leaders. the main argument against pelosi seems to be the republicans like to attack her in campaign ads. >> dan pfeiffer has a point. hillary had a similar point. i agree with congressman debt that there is some restlessness on the democratic side. democrats need to ask themselves this, which model has worked better for republicans, sticking with mitch mcconnell nondescript inside player an elitist maybe who has marched the republican agenda through the senate, got kavanaugh over the hump without raising his voice, breaking a sweat, got the 2017 trump tax cut through without breaking a sweat, do they want that model which is what will pelosi former speaker pelosi would be on the democratic side or do they want to go with a new jack speaker who will be like speaker boehner or speaker ryan.
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ineffective, besieged by their own constituencies and youly leaving with their tail between their legs. i don't think they want that. speaker pelosi has raised between $120 million, $130 million just this last cycle and kept her caucus together from the iraq war till now. why would you -- and she just won back the house. why would you switch horses now? it makes no sense. >> okay. >> >> effectively a mike drop but go on. >> i would make one quick point. i think david is exactly right. you know, if those folks who oppose nancy being speaker actually came up with some fresh strategy or some new message or something that's going to kind of unite the caucus in an effective way, that would make some sense. but now they seem to be putting forward congresswoman marcia fudge who frankly is not much younger than nancy pelosi and you know, is not even a true
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progressive. she's against the gay rights bill for god's sakes. you can't be against the gay rights bill and be a successful democrat in the house caucus. so there's just -- it makes no sense. the strategy is flawed. i think that's because really thoughtful members are not going to look this gift horse in the mouth of having nancy. >> not disagreeing with hillary. i don't think it's the job of the speaker regardless of party to be a progressive or to be a staunch conservative or ideological. it's to hold the caucus together and move it forward, keep it together to be effective. >> but you have to stand for -- you have to at least let the caucus know that you believe in the values that they bring. >> go ahead, congress man. >> well, look, i've always been a great steny hoyer fan. i always thought he would be an ideal speaker if i were a democrat. that's just me. that said, the reason i say that is because steny hoyer is somebody -- you could take him
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anywhere in the country. a lot of the democratic house members and candidates are concerned they can't take nancy pelosi into a lot of districts aren't the country. >> but congress dent, that's because republicans have vilified her for the past decade. if i can make that point. look, you be in the house, congressman dent. i defer to you on what's really going on behind the scenes. i just want to make this point. the days of taking steny hoyer anywhere as if there are still reagan democrats out there to be won, they all belong to trump. so the idea that you're going to win back these working class reagan democrats i think democrats are starting to move on from that idea. >> bulis be, congressman, does it matter if perception is reality? i'm not saying that nancy pelosi actually is toxic. it may be messaging on the republicans' part. does it matter if it's working and that's the perception out there? go ahead, congressman. >> my point was steny hoyer not that he would bring back reagan
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democrats is that he can go into progressive districts, he can go into moderate districts. it's very hard to demonize him and say whether you like it or not, nancy pelosi is toxic. >> i'm sorry. steny hoyer is the same age as nancy pelosi the same age as jim clyburn. >> we'll be right back. we'll be right back. antacids here... t have to sh here... or here. kick your antacid habit with prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. your insurance rates skyrocket you could fix it with a pen. how about using that pen to sign up for new insurance instead? for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪
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there is one more race left in america where votes haven't been cast. it is a runoff to decide who will be mississippi's next senator. and with two weeks to go before the election, a new video shows cindy hyde smith appearing to say that making it harder to vote is a great idea. it's a little hard to hear but it's subtitled. here it is. >>. >> so her campaign released a statement saying obviously senator hyde smith was making a joke and clearly the video was selectively edited. back with me, charlie dent,
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hilary rosen and david swerdlick. so sorry i had to get to the break. hillary, hyde spith's campaign says she was making a joke. this is mississippi we're talking about, the a state with a history of voter suppression. what's your response. >> my response is it's not funny. she didn't actually look like she was joking in that video. she looked like she was dead serious and when we've seen the history we've seen with these republican secretaries of state in mississippi and in georgia, you know, it is believable. that is what they are trying to do is stop people from voting. we've seen it time and time again and in this election, it will heartbreaking because these races are so close. there's a huge upswing in turnout from low voting public and these republicans just want to stop people from voting as much as they say that they think that you know, they're living in a great democracy, they don't
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really like this democracy very much. >> david, when she says this is a quote liberal folks in those other schools, who is she talking about? >> well, she's definitely talking about liberals and look, we know there's a track record of republicans using voter suppression efforts to try and tamp down the democratic coalition which relies heavily on voters of color, younger voters in some cases, seniors. there have been other to hillary's point, even if she was joking it's not funny because there have been other republicans caught on tape saying things like this like income 2012, the republican house leader mike telzai said voter i.d. would let romney win. it didn't and there have been other cases of this. so the idea that this is okay, i mean, it's beyond the pale for an elected official. >> charlie, with all the controversy over voter suppression and selection, why
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would voters even believe that she was joking? >> well, a comment, look, i don't understand the entire context but it certainly was a bad joke. it was insensitive. i don't think it's going to affect her race. i take her at her word it was a bad joke. it was a dump thing to say. she said also something about attending a public hanging. same kind of thing. just mistakes. i don't think it's going to affect the outcome of that election. >> i want to play the one you're talking about where she praised a man she was campaigning with talking about public hangings. here it is. >> if he invited me to a public hanging i'd be on the front row. >> i mean, hillary, this election is less than two weeks. do you think these -- charlie says he doesn't think these gaffes will affect the outcome. what do you think of this. >> mike espy running against her has gotten more votes than anybody thought he would get. he's been a fairly popular
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politician in mississippi. who knows? think the voters of mississippi really pay attention to their senator then they're not going to elect this woman. she was appointed to this office. she hasn't won yet on her own statewide. and so i think that you know, this is a race worth watching. i don't think we should give up on it. i think we should keep our protests out there. >> you mentioned her african-american opponent which is former representative mike espy. and you know, do -- is this a deeper problem? these remarks highlight a deeper problem with the republican party? quick answers please, david first and then i'll go to the congress pan. >> yeah, they definitely do. as congress man dent said a few days ago she made that comment about attending a public lynching which isn't even a expression. a few days before that, governor per dual made the comment about
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cotton picking about the florida race. at least that's an expression. this is just out of nowhere makes you wonder what senator hyde smith is thinking. so just to wrap it up, i think that we're -- it's unfortunate republicans can't get a handle on this. >> charlie? >> well, look, i would have to say this. if you're running for office for senate or governor, you have to choose your words very carefully particularly if you're down south and using certain terms like those public hangings, voter suppression, you should know better. like i said, i don't think these are huge issues to be quite honest. these are gaffes. and. >> public hanging even in the context -- congressman, a public hanging even not in the context of race is not really you know. >> i mean i hope that this brings out african-american voters in a way that we haven't seen yet in mississippi. and just like in georgia where you know, there's such a low
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voter turnout for potentially unregistered or registered voters that if african-americans voted in the same proportion as their population actually we would have more leadership, more african-american leadership in both states. thank you all. i appreciate it. my next guest wrote the book on how to get rid of a president. and he says any effort to impeach trump would likely fail. i'm going to ask him why next. -these people, they speak a language we cannot understand.
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comcast business built the nation's largest gig-speed network. then went beyond. beyond chasing down network problems. to knowing when and where there's an issue. beyond network complexity. to a zero-touch, one-box world. optimizing performance and budget. beyond having questions. to getting answers. "activecore, how's my network?" "all sites are green." all of which helps you do more than your customers thought possible. comcast business. beyond fast. president trump making unsubstantiated claims of chaos in the mueller investigation while telling us the white house is running very smoothly. but there are multiple reports
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of pending staff turnover in the administration and the president's foul mood while hanging over the west wing. david priest is a former intelligence officer who spent over a year as a day little intelligence briefer to then fbi director robert mueller. his new book titled "how to get rid of a president." certainly a very interesting title. good evening, welcome to the program. good to have you on in person. >> good to be here. >> let's talk about the president, some of the tweets some of them were in caps, a total wichb hunt like no other in american history. he has lashed out on twitter about the supposed inner workings of the mueller investigation saying people are being screamed at and threatened. number two, as i said you spent over a year briefing robert mueller when he was the fbi director. does this sound like the way he, would, robert mueller conducts him? >> the first part i think is projection. this is what donald trump does and behaves like. i think he's putting some of
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that on to mueller. it may be that people are going in and talking to the special counsel and then they're going ahead and coming back and telling trump what they think he wants to hear. it wouldn't surprise me if we have a situation where trump is hearing what he wants to hear and it's not exactly reality. so that's that part of it. i briefed bob mueller every working day for a year. and i never saw him lose his temper in a way that i would call it yelling that i would think he was angry. in fact, he only raised his voice with me once and he promptly apologized for it when he did need to. it was worth getting angry over. but it wasn't yell. that's not the guy i got to know. >> so democrats are going to take control of the house. some in the party have brought up impeachment. you have this book called "how to get rid of a president." you said even with evidence of high crimes impeaching trump would probably fail. >> uh-huh. >> why do you think that? >> impeachment has a really high
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bar. that's by design. founders did not want to make it easy to overturn the will of the people. to impeach you have to get the majority nest house of representatives which is a cakewalk. that could happen within days of the democratic majority coming in. but the conviction in the senate, two-thirds is a high bar. >> you said you don't use the term collusion, right? you want to call it criminal. >> talk together attorney who's do this stuff they will say collusion has no specific legal meaning. they end up going to criminal conspiracy or issues like that. if the mueller investigation turns up actual criminal conspiracy, then we've got an interesting thing going on because that might move the ball forward a little bit. based on what we've seen so far, any democratic impeachment resolution would not reach a conviction in the senate. they just don't have enough to convince republicans that there have been violations of the constitution. >> but here's the thing though, david. when you say impeachment, even
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if he's impeached it doesn't necessarily mean he's going to having to leave office. remember bill clinton was impeached. >> that's one of the things i write about the idea that impeachment originally was designed to be a stern rebuke in and of itself. that's not the lesson of the clinton impeachment. the lesson is if you fail to convict the president, the president wins. clinton's ratings went up during the impeachment trial. >> so criminal conspiracy. let's just say for the sake of argument, okay, they find that. still doesn't mean he has to leave office. is that what you're saying. > that's right. bill clinton did, andrew johnson did in the 1860s. that can happen. if you're convicted and remove of course, then you're out. but the most likely scenario is that an impeachment resolution would pass the house and fail to convict. that's most likely. >> so you write about you know, successful and unsuccessful attempts to remove presidents and then you quote this from a
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now defunct new york independent newspaper about johnson. okay, you said the people have been witness to the mortifying spectacle of the president going from town to and you accompanied by the prominent members of the cabinet and election nearing raid, denouncing his opponents epithets with men in the crowd and praising himself and his policies. sounds a lot that you yourself could have written that two weeks ago about the current president. >> uh-huh. >> what did it end up being andrew johnson's legacy. >> his legacy is not a good one. he was a racist, he was a boar. he was stubborn, obstinate. he was a difficult man to get along with in every way and he alienated the very people who could have helped. legacy of andrew johnson is help yourself because he was one vote short of being removed from office. the quote you just showed was interesting because johnson's behavior going out on essentially a campaign rally
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while he's president talking bad about his political opponents, that was not the norm. that actually was changing the norms. it was so different for the time that that was an impeachment article against him. we're used to articles being things like obstruction of justice, being things like abuse of power against andrew johnson, they had some of those but they had one article of impeachment he's saying bad things about congress. i can't messenger that happening now constitutionally. is that a reason to remove a president from office? probably not but there are a whole bunch of other methods you can do to weaken or remove a president that aren't impeachment. >> don't ask me that question. there are a lot of ways a president should conduct himself in office. if they don't, impeachment should be considered. but that's just me. >> it's an ogs anyone in congress can interpret how they want. high crimes and misdemeanors is very vague. >> the office deserves a certain level of respect.
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should happen everydred five hundred years, right? fact is, there have been twenty-six in the last decade. allstate is adapting. with drones to assess home damage sooner. and if a flying object damages your car, you can snap a photo and get your claim processed in hours, not days. plus, allstate can pay your claim in minutes. now that you know the truth... are you in good hands? the existence of outtakes from donald trump's tenure at host of "the apprentice" has been debated sis he announced his candidacy for president. they are rumored to contain footage of trump using offensive language. well, trump claims they don't exist. now a court case filed by a boston-based civil rights group has resulted in a subpoena for the tapes. i'm going to speak to one of the lawyers behind that suit in a moment.
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but first, cnn's athena jones how we got to this point. >> reporter: it's a tape that may or may not exist. ♪ money money money money and a story that just won't die. the mythical recording has never been release publicly but former white house aide omarosa manigault-newman says she is heard the outtake from the "apprentice" and in it then reality star donald trump uses the "n" word when referring to kwame jackson. it's an allegation the president strongly denies tweet ooths show's creator mark burnett called him to say there are no tapes of "the apprentice" where i used such a terrible and disgusting word as attributed by waccy and deranged omarosa. she made it up. jackson himself said in 2016 he never heard trump use the "n" word but said trump's actions like touting the false claim that president obama was not a u.s. citizen suggests trump held racist views.
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>> he never used the "n" word or said something racist to me. what i did get from donald trump was what he saw through the berger movement. >> still rumors such a tape surfaced in 2016 after the release of the of the a former apprentice producer tweeted as a producer on the apprentice i assure you when it comes to the trump tapes there are far worse. and trump critic tom arnold told seattle radio station in 2016. >> i have the out tapes to the prejudice where he says every bad thing ever, every dirty, every offensive racist thing ever. >> reporter: but arnold hasn't backed up his claim by releasing the supposed tapes in his possession. and despite intense public interest in out takes, he found
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no takers. while not answering the question directly white house counsel kellyanne conway seemed to acknowledge discussing the rumors with trump during the campaign. >> it was my job to tell the president every rumor, innuendo, fact, fiction. >> reporter: in her new book man got newman writes about her 2016 conversation she had with campaign staffers about how to handle the fallout should such a tape be released. though no one on the call had heard the allerged tape at the time. pearson said on fox that call never happened. >> katrina cursed and said that happened. did it happen? >> no, ed, that did not happen. sounds like she's writing a script for a movie. >> reporter: man got newman sharing with cbs what she says is a snippet of the conversation. >> i'm trying to find out at least the context it was used in
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to help us maybe try to figure out a way to spin it. >> reporter: she said she had a conversation with mr. trump. >> i said can you think of any time this might have happened and he said no. >> well, that's not true so -- >> and how do you think you should handle it, and i told him not the way you said omarosa, which it depends on what scenario you're talking about it, and he said why don't you go ahead and put this to bed. >> reporter: in a new statement pearson made knowledge there were new comments about such a tape but always said they were being circulated by newman alone. >> oh, boy, what a mess. the trump administration has sought to end the program that allows people from certain countries to live in the united states. immigrants are at risk of
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deportation. last month a federal judge granted an injunction temporarily halting the deportations in a suit filed in boston by a group of lawyers for civil rights it claims it's racially motivated. in an attempt to make that point a subpoena has been issued to trump productions and mgm seeking unaired footage from trump's days of hosting "the apprentice." oren, so glad to have you on. good evening, by the way. there's no hard evidence these tapes actually exist, and even if they do, what does it have to do with your case? >> so last spring lawyers for civil rights filed a lawsuit against the trump administration to challenge the terminations of temporarily protected status on behalf of haitians, salvadorians and hondurans. as part of that case we're asserting those terminations
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happened as a result of racial bias, coming directly from the president and affecting the trump administration. we're now seeking these tapes to bolster those claims there is racial bias present. we've already seen that racial bias from public statements -- >> got it. you said bolster the claim because that was my question. there's ample evidence of the president saying racially charged and insensitive things so i'm just wonder why you need the tapes. you want to bolster the argument. >> exactly. if these tapes exist, you know, we need to bolster that evidence as much as we can. >> okay. so mgm and the apprentice producer mark burnett even releasing a joint statement back in 2016 saying they don't have the right to release the footage, and there's the statement there up on the screen. it seems likely they're going to fight this. can they be compelled to do it? >> if the tapes are relevant to
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our case mgm and trump productions will likely oppose the release of those tapes. we think those tapes should be produced. whether or not that's under the confidentiality agreement or not. >> mgm have until december 13th to comply. what happens if they refuse? >> if they refuse then we would go to the court and the court would decide what and when mgm and trump productions have to produce. >> okay. a number of legal experts say about this if trump were found to have made anti-immigrant remarks it would be irrelevant. quickly before i run out of time, how do you respond to that? >> all of those comments are relevant. they all build upon these bias that we know is affecting the trump administration. and any piece of evidence just adds to the overwhelming sum of evidence we already have. >> thank you for your time. i appreciate you coming on. >> thanks so much.
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since you're heading off to dad... i just got a zerowater. but we've always used brita. it's two stage-filter... doesn't compare to zerowater's 5-stage. this meter shows how much stuff, or dissolved solids, gets left behind. our tap water is 220. brita? 110... seriously? but zerowater- let me guess. zero? yup, that's how i know it is the purest-tasting water. i need to find the receipt for that. oh yeah, you do.
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good evening from washington, d.c. there is breaking election news out of florida. hand recount being ordered in the undecided senate contest there. and it turns out that this happened without more than 700,000 ballots from florida's second biggest county. the reason for that, a deadline missed by just a few minutes. no recount in the governor's race, which appears all but over. we'll bring you that shortly. we begin though, tonight keeping them honest with an eruption of presidential anger at the russian investigation. however yo see it, it's clear that robert mueller is very much on the president'sd.
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