Rudy Giuliani Slams The Special Counsel's Investigation As Illegitimate; President Trump Is On The Attack Once Again, This Time Taking Aim At One Of His Favorite Targets, The Russia Investigation
WHITFIELD: President Trump is on the attack once again, this time taking aim at one of his favorite targets, the Russia investigation. The President tweeting this morning, who is going to give back the young and beautiful lives and others who have been devastated and destroyed by the phony Russia collusion witch-hunt. They journeyed down to Washington, D.C. with stars in their eyes and wanting to help our nation. They went back home in tatters. Joining me right now CNN White House correspondent Boris Sanchez. So Boris, any word from the White House on explaining this tweet further?</s>BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Not yet, Fred. No indication as to who those young and beautiful lives the President was referring to, who those people are. The Russia investigation clearly on the top of mind for the President this week. And he has tweeted about it multiple times. No certainty there if he is talking about perhaps George Papadopoulos or Rick Gates or Michael Flynn and certain figures within his campaign. Many of whom have pled guilty to very serious crimes. The President's attorney, Rudy Giuliani was on "STATE OF THE UNION" this morning with Dana Bash, sort of echoing what we saw in the President's tweet suggesting that the basis for the Mueller probe is illegitimate. He describes to what he calls illegitimate leaks by former FBI director James Comey. Dana Bash actually pressed Giuliani on the question of whether the President would sit down with Robert Mueller one on one for an interview, something that is long been speculated about. We know that recently, the White House's legal counsel and the special counsel have been trying to iron out details and logistics about how this interview would potentially play out. Here's what Rudy Giuliani said to Dana Bash on "STATE OF THE UNION" this morning.</s>RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S LAWYER: Well, if he wasn't thinking about it and it wasn't an act of possibility, we would be finished right now, and we would have moved on to getting the investigation over in another way. But he is adamant in wanting to do it. We are -- the President. But we are more convinced as we see it, that this is a rigged investigation, now we have this whole new Spygate thing piled on top of it, on top of a ready very legitimate questions.</s>SANCHEZ: Giuliani there referring to that conspiracy theory suggesting that there was a spy in planted in the Trump campaign to try to benefit the Hillary Clinton campaign, something that the White House nor the White House's legal team has provided any evidence for. Giuliani actually suggested at one point during the interview that it was something that he and the President had to put out there in order to defend the President, not legally, but in terms of public opinion and potentially protect the President from impeachment. One final note, Fred, the President actually just tweeted out about something you were discussing moments ago, North Korea. Here is what the President said. Quote "our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the summit between Kim Jong-un and myself. I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial nation one day. Kim Jong-un agrees with me on this. It will happen." Two quick notes, Fred. This sort of optimistic tone about the summit, coming just a few days after President put out an open letter to Kim Jong-un saying that it would be inappropriate for both sides to meet with so much still unsettled between them. And further, we did hear from the North Koreans at one point last week saying that no measure of economic benefit to North Korea would force them to relinquish their nuclear program, Fred. So interesting that the President would mention that in his tweet.</s>WHITFIELD: Yes. No mention of the nuclear thing in that tweet. All right, Boris Sanchez, thank you so much. All right. Let's talk about the legal side of the President's latest war of words along with help from his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, CNN legal analyst Mike Zeldin. All right. So Michael, the President calling, you know, this investigation a witch-hunt. And then Rudy Giuliani saying it is illegitimate. Is this the issue or the strategy of, if you just say it 101 times, somebody out there is going to believe the same thing, that this is an illegitimate investigation?</s>MICHAEL ZELDIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Exactly. This is a public relations disinformation campaign to delegitimize the Mueller investigation for fear that if he comes out with the report that is damaging to the President, they will have lay the ground</s>WHITFIELD: You can't imagine that Rudy Giuliani may also be coordinating with the White House council on how to proceed this way.</s>ZELDIN: This to me seems more like a struggle between the President and Rudy Giuliani. And that the White House council, Flood, and private counsel, the Raskins are the ones who are doing the heavy lifting on the dealings with Mueller about the terms of an interview that might consist of.</s>WHITFIELD: And then there is the role of Congress. And this is what Senator Jeff Flake had to say about all that.</s>SEN. JEFF FLAKE (R), ARIZONA: I can tell you behind the scenes that there is a lot of alarm. There is concern that the President is laying the ground work to move on Bob Mueller or Rosenstein. And if that were to happen, obviously, that would cause a constitutional crisis. There is a concern behind the scenes. I have been concerned that we haven't spoken out loudly enough and told the President, you simply can't go there. And he is obviously probing the edges as much as he can, to see how far Congress will go. And we have got to push back harder than we have.</s>WHITFIELD: Do you believe all that might be top of mind for Mueller even Rosenstein, in terms of who is protecting their mission, their jobs or are they focused instead on this ongoing investigations?</s>ZELDIN: I think the later. I think that these guys being career professionals in the justice department and the FBI are just guard, put their heads down and proceed and let the politics be what the politics is and then they will deal with their reality of the political situation when they are forced to, but speculating is not going to be part of their analysis.</s>WHITFIELD: It's impressive. We don't hear anything coming out of the Mueller team.</s>ZELDIN: Right. I wanted the job of spokesman for the Mueller team. One of the best jobs, that you say nothing. Exactly. And I think it's a credit to Rosenstein and to Mueller, that they are doing their job. They are not leaking to the press. They are not pushing back against the Giulianis and this misinformation. And they are just going to let their indictments or their decisions not to indict, speak for themselves. So good for them.</s>WHITFIELD: Let's have another listen at Rudy Giuliani and really try an interpret what his objective is.</s>GIULIANI: They are giving us the material. I couldn't do it. They don't have the material. They are giving us the material to do it. Of course, we have to do it in defending the President. We are defending, to a large extent, remember, Dana, we are defending here, it is for public opinion, because eventually the decision here is going to be impeach, not impeach. Members of Congress, Democrat and Republican are going to be informed a lot by their constituents. So our jury, as it should be, is the American people.</s>WHITFIELD: If the objective here by Rudy Giuliani is to erode the credibility of the Mueller team, is that the credibility that is being eroded?</s>ZELDIN: That's what he is endeavoring to do. I think he should be ashamed of himself as a former law enforcement officer to attack the FBI and the DOJ in this way. But clearly that's what they are trying to do. And it's interesting, he says, well, they are giving us the ammunition. And so what else are we supposed to do? But the ammunition are made up stories. Spygate is made up, whether President Obama was, you know, sort of wiretapping the Trump campaign, all of these things are made up. The truth of the matter is, there was a counter intelligence investigation started in August of 2016, and Mueller has carried that forward pursuant to the justice department mandate by Rosenstein and that's what they are doing. This is a legitimate investigation. This is not as Rudy Giuliani has tried to portray it.</s>WHITFIELD: And the spy talk was debunked. It was, you know, put to rest or at least we thought it was put to rest earlier in the week when lawmakers said there is nothing there. However, it has been established that if there is anything untoward or seemingly untoward then it is in the purview of federal investigators to look to see if there is anything unusual happening or potentially illegal happening with an adversarial nation.</s>ZELDIN: Sure. There are a couple of things that this spy in the campaign issue arises to. One is, was it true that there was a spy implanted in the Trump campaign? I think everyone agrees now except for maybe Rudy Giuliani that that wasn't the case. The question is, also, whether or not there was any impropriety in the FBI. And the FBI inspector general will look into that and give us a report on it. But to say that we are getting material that requires us to inform the American people about the de-legitimization of the Mueller team isn't true, it's just made up.</s>WHITFIELD: Does another investigation imperil, distract in any way impede the Mueller investigation?</s>ZELDIN: Sure, of course. If you can create, you know, sort of smoke on the fringes, then perhaps people won't see what's going on. And that is the way it is. There's the old adage that if you can't argue the facts or the law, you attack the prosecutor. And that's what's going on here. They don't have facts. They don't seem yet to have law. And so they are attacking Mueller. And we will see how it plays out. If Mueller, you know, follows the course of the evidence and it gives an honest report, as when expects he will, then the American people will have something to make a decision with respective, but not the PR campaign and Rudy Giuliani.</s>WHITFIELD: And in all of this, I guess, whether it's speculation or, you know, trouncing of conspiracy theories, does that necessarily put a rush on the Mueller probe, when people say, you know, why is it still going on, it must not be there? Does that in any way influence the brevity or lack thereof over the Mueller team?</s>ZELDIN: I don't think so. I think that that is part of the mantra. We hear no obstruction, no collusion, witch-hunt, going on too long. That sort of like the five part mantra of the PR campaign. I think Mueller is doing his job. He is issuing grand jury subpoenas. He is interviewing witnesses. He is seeing what the facts require of him as a matter of law and then he' will issue his report. And then all of the stuff that they are doing is not going to impact the outcome of his decision. Now there is one thing that he may be mindful of which is the upcoming midterm elections and whether he wants to issue anything that interferes theoretically with that. And I think he will be mindful of that time line, but otherwise, I don't think he is going to pay one bit of attention to Rudy Giuliani.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, Michael Zeldin, we will keep it there. Thanks so much. Good to see you.</s>ZELDIN: Thank you so much. Bye.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. A state of emergency in effect in three gulf coast states, as Alberto churns closer to the coast. Eight million people are under tropical storm warnings. We will take a look at where the storm just might hit hardest right after this.