Trump Denies Any Role In Pence Or Air Force Visits To His Properties, But Praises Pence's "Good Taste"
BURNETT: New tonight, President Trump denying he pushed the Air Force to stay at one of his resorts during the refueling stop in Scotland or Vice President in his resort in Ireland during an overseas trip.</s>TRUMP: I don't need to have somebody take a room overnight at a hotel. Mike Pence as an example, his family lives in Doonbeg, Ireland. He was in Ireland, so he said, "You know what I'll do? I'll see my family." I didn't know about that. But I can say he has good taste.</s>BURNETT: OK. Trump defending the controversial resort visits as the House Judiciary Committee plans to move forward this week with its impeachment investigation. Manu Raju is out front. So Manu, this is now going to be a part of the impeachment probe and it's going to be important. And you now know also the timeline. So impeachment has gone from being vague to this is what we're talking about, this is specific from Chairman Nadler to now you know timing.</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. They're expecting to get a result that they want to have a final decision by the end of the year about whether or not to recommend articles of impeachment against the President of the United States. And at that point, the House Judiciary Committee would presumably vote to impeach the President, then it could go to the full house. And then after that, the Senate, two-thirds of the Senate would have to decide whether or not to convict the President and try to remove him from office. Something that'd be highly unlikely, given the Republican control of the Senate. But nevertheless, this is a significant escalation and what we have seen over the last several weeks here. The Judiciary Committee on Thursday will be voting to formalize this process in considering how to deal with witnesses and investigations and hearings in the days and weeks ahead and essentially mirroring what the same committee, the House Judiciary Committee did in 1974 when it came to the Nixon impeachment proceedings. Afterwards, we expect Corey Lewandowski, the former campaign manager for President Trump to come before this committee to be asked questions under the expectations. These are essentially impeachment proceedings. But Erin, I asked the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi whether or not she agrees with Jerry Nadler, the Judiciary Committee Chairman that they are in "formal impeachment proceedings." She would not say, instead that is only a possibility that they may ultimately impeach. And just moments ago, the House Majority Leader, the number two, Steny Hoyer, who has been resistant, skeptical about moving forward the impeachment said all they're doing is continuation of the investigation that's been happening for months. So you're hearing a divide, Erin, still among Democrats about whether or not this is the way to go forward. But at the moment the House Judiciary Committee Democrats is pushing ahead and some of that could lead to them recommending articles of impeachment later this year, Erin.</s>BURNETT: Yes. They have made it very clear that this is a formal impeachment proceeding as they see it. All right. Manu, thank you. Out front now, Political Editor for The New York Times, Patrick Healy and White House Correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, April Ryan. So Patrick, I spoke to Democratic Congresswoman Madeleine Dean on Friday. And we had all said this is going to be really important this time that they go home for a lot of issues; gun control and impeachment. She's on the Judiciary Committee. She said she had a whole lot of town halls and the issue that was resonating with people was corruption and Trump profiting from office.</s>PATRICK HEALY, POLITICS EDITOR, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Right.</s>BURNETT: Exactly what we're talking about here. Not so much Russia, but this. Is this now the way Democrats are going to get to impeachment?</s>HEALY: I mean, it's a real issue for Trump, because a lot of Democrats have said for some time, "We don't know how Russia is going to turn out. We don't know how obstruction of justice in the Mueller report is going to turn out. But corruption is sitting right there. The reality is this president came into office owning a great many properties in Washington, D.C., around the world and there were questions about would there be conflicts of interest about government contract, government workers possibly staying at some of these places. And then we're seeing Vice President Mike Pence down to the Air Force to other parts, other branches of the government that are staying here. I think that a lot of Americans got used to the sense that the government would be above even the perception of a conflict of interest.</s>BURNETT: Yes, not the case at all.</s>HEALY: And here there's none of that.</s>BURNETT: Right. And now we're getting justifications of distant, distant relatives of whatever, being the justification when you're going to meetings 200 miles away. I mean, it's silly. April, is President Trump worried, ultimately is what this comes down to, about this focus on corruption when it comes to impeachment?</s>APRIL RYAN, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN URBAN RADIO NETWORKS: When it comes to impeachment, this President is worried. He's pulling his hair out. Well, I'm not going to say that. Maybe he's putting more hairspray on his hair to hold it down. But the bottom line when it comes to impeachment, the I word is an albatross around this President's neck. He is allergic to it and this is just yet another nail in the impeachment coffin. This is not just about good taste as the President says. This is about taxpayers' money being used to line the President's pockets, bottom line, by his vice president and by the military. This is not good. This is worse than a conflict of interest. And Erin, when you see something like this, the American public gets this one. We may talk about Russia and if there was collusion or obstruction of justice, that's kind of heavy sometimes and cerebral. We have to ...</s>BURNETT: Yes.</s>RYAN: ... bind, connect all of the dots.</s>BURNETT: Right.</s>RYAN: But this one, you can connect the dots. Everyone can connect this one.</s>BURNETT: Well, he said he was going to divest himself and he hasn't and he's still getting the profits. And I think we need to always be very clear about that ...</s>RYAN: That's right.</s>BURNETT: ... when we do these stories. So the President today tweeted about the visits by the Air Force and Pence. "I know nothing about an Air Force plane landing and an airport (which I do not own and have nothing to do with) near Turnberry Resort (which I do own) in Scotland, and filling up the fuel, with the crew staying overnight a Turnberry (they have good taste!). NOTHING TO DO WITH ME." Then continued, "I had nothing to do with the decision of our great VP Mike Pence to stay overnight at one of the Trump owned resorts in Doonbeg, Ireland." April, let's just be clear, Pence's own chief of staff said Trump did want Pence to stay at the property. The quote from Marc Short was quoting the President, "You should stay at my place." OK. So the President says he knows nothing about it, so who's lying, Trump or Pence's chief of staff?</s>RYAN: Well, we know Marc and I believe Marc has more veracity and validity, unfortunately, than the President of the United States. We've caught the President saying untruths before, lies if you will. He said it on Air Force One, "I did not direct Michael Cohen." And then we heard tapes, he did direct Michael Cohen.</s>BURNETT: Right.</s>RYAN: So I think the President needs to be very careful in saying what he has not done, because someone or a tape will come up and say, "The President has no credibility when he denies something." But there's ultimately someone else comes out and says it and unfortunately we're believing other people other than the President.</s>BURNETT: So Patrick, when it came to the stays by the Air Force and Vice President Pence at this particular resort, Trump said, "Nothing to do with me. I know nothing." OK? Which when you hear that is an echo of something that he has said before about certain things like this.</s>TRUMP: I know nothing about David Duke. I've nothing to do with Russia. I know nothing about the inner workings of Russia. I don't deal there. I have no businesses there.</s>BURNETT: OK. Just to be clear, the statements were false. He had done plenty of business in Russia and he had known about David Duke for decades. Here he is denying any knowledge about the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, OK, which, of course, subsequently turned out to be a complete lie. Here he is.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?</s>TRUMP: No. No. What else?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know where he got the money to make that payment?</s>TRUMP: No, I don't know.</s>BURNETT: OK. So he didn't know about it and he didn't know where he got it. But this is what Trump says about things when he seems to know a lot.</s>HEALY: Right.</s>BURNETT: He says he knows nothing.</s>HEALY: Right. And this is a go-to and this is a guy who feasted for years on sort of tabloid journalism calling up tabloid columns and basically planting stories either saying this is his inside information or he knew nothing. And he speaks in these vast sort of generalizations looking for kind of big headlines, "I know nothing about it. I know nothing about it." Any expects - and look, the reality is 90 percent or so of the Republican Party gives him a high approval rating. The reality is says I know nothing and he sort of expects the American electorate to just go along with it, even when it's demonstrably proven false time after time after time.</s>BURNETT: Right. I mean why would Marc Short make that up? It's absurd. We all know what the truth is in that situation but the question is has he put us in a world where the truth doesn't matter.</s>RYAN: Yes. And you know what? Erin, you know what?</s>BURNETT: Yes.</s>RYAN: And you know what, Erin, for the President to say that he knows nothing about it, that's fake news.</s>BURNETT: That's true. That's a fake fact, whatever that might be. Thank you both.</s>RYAN: Fake news.</s>BURNETT: And next testing Trump's clout, the President rallying supporters tonight just hours before crucial special election. So will he make a difference? Why is he there? Wait until you see who's with him. Plus, the President's campaign predicting the Trumps will be a dynasty that lasts four decades and this is the word that has been used, a dynasty. How does Trump's Republican critics feel about that?