Cohen Met With Russian Oligarch At Trump Tower
NOBLES: Amid the growing pushback of the Trump administration's policy of separating children from their parents if they cross the border illegally, the president took to Twitter this morning to blame Democrats. Here's part of Mr. Trump's tweet, quote, "put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from their parents once they cross the border into the U.S., catch and release." Now, you may remember earlier this month Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the Trump administration's stance clear saying, quote, "If you cross the border illegally, your child will be separated from you." Well, after President Trump's tweet, Congressman Ted Lieu of California called out the president tweeting, quote, "Dear Real Donald Trump, your administration made the policy change to separate children from their parents. If you don't have the courage to own up to it, then reverse it. Disgraceful and weak to blame others for your own evil policy." Congressman Ted Lieu joins us now live to talk about this. So, Congressman, tell me how you really feel about the president blaming Democrats for children being taken away from their parents at the border.</s>REPRESENTATIVE TED LIEU (D), CALIFORNIA: Thank you, Ryan, for your question. Let me first say as a father of two children I can't imagine having them ripped away from me. And for the government to lose track of them, that's unconscionable. Donald Trump needs to reverse this policy now. And how do we know it's his own policy? Because Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced it a few weeks ago. For the president to now blame Democrats is disgraceful. He could change the policy right now if he wanted to.</s>NOBLES: Is there a way for you and Congress to do something, though? Could you put it into a statute and force his hand on this issue?</s>LIEU: The Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House, so Republicans could move on this if they wanted to. I'm calling on that GOP-controlled Judiciary Committee to at least hold hearings on it because we have oversight over the Department of Justice and this is a policy change made by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.</s>NOBLES: All right. Let's get to some other topics of the day. Top leaders in Congress spoke with some top intelligence leaders to get the low down on the confidential source the FBI used to make contact with Trump campaign members. It was to investigate any Russian meddling in the U.S. election. Now, there were two separate classified briefings held Thursday. There was one that was designed for Republicans, the other for the Democrats. But someone dropped by both of those meetings and that was a surprise visitor, the White House lawyer, Emmitt Flood, who is tasked with representing President Trump in the special counsel investigation. Congressman Lieu, do you think it was appropriate for the president's attorney to attend these two classified Justice Department briefings with lawmakers?</s>LIEU: Not at all. That was highly inappropriate. Ordinary Americans who are the subject, the target of investigations don't get to see the evidence against or the sources against them during the investigation. So, for the president's own lawyer to show up to these meetings is highly inappropriate. And I don't even know why they had to have two separate meetings, one for Republicans, one for Democrats. They should have briefed both parties at the same time. Otherwise, what are they telling Devin Nunes that they're not telling the Democrats?</s>NOBLES: Should the Democrats have walked out of the meeting when they saw Emmitt Flood there?</s>LIEU: No. I think it's always important to stay engaged and to be present at the meetings. But let's just take a step back here. There is nothing wrong with the use of confidential informants by law enforcement or counterintelligence units. I'm a former prosecutor, the use of informants is a normal and necessary of law enforcement. It's so routine that you don't even need a warrant to use a confidential informant.</s>NOBLES: OK, you signed a letter this week, Congressman, that Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee sent to President Trump. I want to read part of it. You wrote, "we write to advise you stop stalling, stop blaming the investigation for your political troubles and submit to an interview with Mueller, the special counsel, rather than casting wild and unfounded accusations against your own Justice Department or seeking to expose a confidential informant at great risk to his or her safety and international security. We urge you to let the Justice Department do its work while you do yours." Congressman, given the tone and attitude of this letter, do you think President Trump will take this seriously and will even read your letter?</s>LIEU: I do expect that the White House will read letters from the Judiciary Committee members, but look at the actions of the president, it doesn't take a prosecutor to know that those are not the actions of an innocent person. An innocent person would not be scared of going to an interview, wouldn't be trying to obstruct the investigation at every turn. An innocent person would simply let the investigation play out because that person would not be scared of what the investigation would reveal.</s>NOBLES: Do you think that -- I mean, there could be some criticism of this if this is just a political move on behalf of you and your colleagues on the Judiciary Committee. I mean, if you truly wanted the president to cooperate with the special counsel, wouldn't there be a way to do it that wasn't so confrontational?</s>LIEU: We have tried a lot of ways do it. We've tried to have our GOP colleagues on the Judiciary Committee work with us. They won't even hold a single hearing on any of the important issues over which the Judiciary Committee has oversight, such as the Department of Justice and the FBI, so we thought this was the only choice we have.</s>NOBLES: What is your hope that the ultimate impact of this letter will be? Do you think there's a chance it will even change President Trump's mind even one iota, especially as it relates to having an interview or sitting down for an interview with Robert Mueller?</s>LIEU: I've learned not to predict how the president of the United States acts or thinks, but I do know that an innocent person would not be scared of going to an interview.</s>NOBLES: All right. Congressman, I want to play an exchange with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this week. This was the same day that President Trump tweeted about a criminal deep state trying to sabotage his presidency. Take a listen.</s>LIEU: Do you believe there is a criminal deep state at the State Department?</s>MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: I haven't seen the comments of the president. I don't believe there's a deep state at the State Department.</s>LIEU: That's your experience also when you interact with colleagues at the FBI and the Department of Justice as well?</s>POMPEO: Yes. There are always exceptions to every rule. I've never led an organization that didn't have bad actors. I don't think any government organization is exempt from having malfeasance as well.</s>LIEU: But in general, you're confident that the members of the various agencies are honoring their oaths to the United States constitution?</s>POMPEO: Yes. In general, yes, sir.</s>NOBLES: Congressman, that was, of course, your line of questioning. Were you surprised by the way the secretary of state answered?</s>LIEU: Not at all. Mike Pompeo was a former CIA director. If he thought there was some sort of criminal deep state, he would have been talking about it and he'd be trying to root that out, but there isn't one. The president of the United States seems to think that just because he's being investigated somehow this is a deep state. No. It's just federal employees honoring their oath to the U.S. Constitution. And let's be very clear here. Agents and prosecutors and all federal employees don't take an oath to the president. They take an oath to the United States Constitution. That's what everyone is following, and that means you investigate people and you find out if they did bad things.</s>NOBLES: Congressman Ted Lieu, thank you for spending part of your Memorial Day weekend with us. I certainly appreciate your time, sir.</s>LIEU: Thank you, Ryan.</s>NOBLES: All right. Coming up, Democrats and Republicans haven't agreed on much lately except that the briefing by an FBI informant doesn't seem to back up the president's campaigns that his campaign was being spied upon. So, why is Trump unable to let go of this latest conspiracy theory? We'll take a look at that next.