Former Trump Campaign Chari Accused of Financial Crimes; Trump Takes Aim At Special Counsel Robert Mueller; Washington Post: N. Korea May Be Building New Missiles
JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour, from an iron fist to an outstretched hand. Just days after trading insults and threatening Iran's leaders, the U.S. president now says, he's willing to talk with no preconditions. Plus, the slapped that became the symbol of defiance. A Palestinian teenager has spent eight months in prison for slapping an Israeli soldier is now free, speaking out for Palestinians. She's a hero to many Israelis, nothing more for the troublemaker. And later, not closer to impossible. But 56-year-old, Tom Cruise, the action star is back. And somehow, Ethan Hunt being younger than ever. Hello everybody, thank you for being with us. I'm John Vause, and this is NEWSROOM L.A. Donald Trump has shown a glimpse of his rage at the Russia investigation with his most personal attack, yet, on special counsel Robert Mueller. Calling him out by name and trying to discredit his investigation. Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has also gone after Mueller, but Giuliani seems to only muddied the waters, sparking confusion and doubt, and possibly doing more harm than good. CNN's Jim Acosta begins our coverage.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Mr. President -- Mr. President, do you think other countries -- As his aides were nearly screaming into the ears of reporters asking questions in the Oval Office, President Trump declined to weigh in on the Russia investigation. On a later news conference with the Italian Prime Minister -- Do you feel betrayed by Michael Cohen, sir?</s>ACOSTA: A question from CNN about his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, and no response. Instead, the president unloaded in his usual safe space where there are no questions, on Twitter. Tweeting, there is no collusion and slamming the Russia investigation with a personal attack as a Robert Mueller rigged witch-hunt. And just after the president was tweeting, there was no collusion, his outside lawyer Rudy Giuliani was claiming on CNN that collusion isn't a crime.</s>RUDY GIULIANI, ATTORNEY TO PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Which I do not even know if that's a crime colluding about Russians.</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK.</s>GIULIANI: You start -- you start analyzing the crime, the hacking is the crime.</s>ACOSTA: Asked about that, the president relied on his aides to drown out the question. Mr. President, if there is no collusion, why does Rudy Giuliani, keeps saying that there's no crime in collusion. Giuliani also suggested the special counsel may have a conflict in the investigation that incredibly couldn't say what it is.</s>GIULIANI: Because he has to hear the conflict, not the president. And I can't tell you, I'm not sure I know exactly what the conflict. And I found a good idea what it is. It's one that would have kept me out of the investigation.</s>ACOSTA: The former New York City Mayor also railed against Cohen for secretly recording the president.</s>GIULIANI: He's a scumbag, he's a horrible person. I've never heard of a lawyer taping his client without the clients' consent.</s>ACOSTA: Giuliani is also blasting the trial that's about to begin for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Arguing the case is simply being used as leverage to take down the president.</s>GIULIANI: And he's just a big fish, the reason it -- reason I got Manafort in solitary confinement. And so, they will give up Donald Trump not because it'll give up some Russian or Ukrainian he did business with.</s>ACOSTA: Instead of answering questions on Russia, Mr. Trump returned to a pet issue for his base. Immigration, again, threatening a government shutdown if he doesn't get what he wants.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would have no problem doing a shutdown. It's time we had proper border security. With a laughingstock of the world, we have the worst immigration laws anywhere in the world.</s>ACOSTA: Trump also made the stunning announcement that he would be willing to meet with Iran's leadership without preconditions.</s>TRUMP: They want to meet on me anytime they want, anytime they want. Good for the country, good for them, good for us, and good for the world. No preconditions.</s>ACOSTA: The president did try to sound tough on Russia, insisting his summit with Vladimir Putin was great. And standing firm on sanctions against Moscow, saying they will remain in place for the time being. Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.</s>VAUSE: Joining me here in Los Angeles, political analyst Bill Schneider. And from Berlin, CNN's European affairs commentator Dominic Thomas. OK, here is the U.S. president on Monday with what seemed an always casual response when it came to a possible meeting with leaders from Iran.</s>TRUMP: I'll meet with anybody, I believe in meeting. You meet. There's nothing wrong with meeting.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have preconditions for that meeting?</s>TRUMP: No preconditions. No, they want to meet on me. Anytime they want. Any time they want.</s>VAUSE: You know, Bill, there was a time for Republicans when just a mere presidential candidate talking about a meeting with Iran would send them into apoplectic shock, though. Like their hair on fire and they would scream at the end of the world. But, what now, it's OK?</s>BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: This is OK because he is Donald Trump. And his claim is that he is the master deal maker, the negotiator. He rejects all deals that anyone else made even before his time. He's critical of NATO, he's critical of the United Nations. Those were all deals that were made, he had nothing to do with them. His claim is that once he's in office now, any deal he makes will be a masterpiece. He could deal with North Korea, he can deal with Iran, he can deal with anybody, and there'll be great deals. That's his real claim to office.</s>VAUSE: Yes, Dominic, the U.S. allies in Europe, especially, those countries which would part of the negotiations of the Iran nuclear deal. What -- what's the reaction there, is it like so from head-scratching to confusion, to outright frustration, and then, some?</s>DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR (via skype): All of the above, and mostly, and then, some. I mean, this is a sort of a continuation for what is now being a two-year and fairly consistent pattern of complete and irrational and inconsistent behavior. And not only -- and are they frustrated because of previous standing multilateral agreements and deals, whether it's Iran, the Paris appalled, NATO, and so on. They're all up in the air. This creates tremendous uncertainty, and of course, at the same time as we see. For example, with the meeting of the Italian Prime Minister, Donald Trump is increasingly and vocally aligning himself with detractors of these institutions such as the European Union. And this is also very problematic.</s>VAUSE: Well, it hasn't even been two months since Donald Trump declared the nuclear threat from North Korea was over. And that happened after the summit in Singapore between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un. But it seems someone forgot to tell the North Koreans. The Washington Post is reporting, "U.S. spy agencies are seeing signs that North Korea is constructing new missiles and a factory that produced the country's first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States, according to officials familiar with the intelligence. The new intelligence does not suggest an expansion of North Korea's capabilities but shows that work on advanced weapons is continuing weeks after President Trump declared in a Twitter posting that Pyongyang was no longer a nuclear threat." To Seoul, South Korea, CNN's Paula Hancock's live this hour. You know, it may not break the deal which was made in Singapore. But is this the kind of behavior you would expect for the country committed to denuclearization?</s>PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this is the sort of behavior that most North Korean observers were expecting. The Trump administration is coming up against exactly the same issues the previous U.S. administrations have come up against when they're trying to pin North Korea down to were to keep two pledges to denuclearize. So, one U.S. official said that really this Washington Post story is consistent with what is publicly known, that the Singapore summit between President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong- un, gave Kim what he wanted, the nuclear recognition. But the negotiations for denuclearization are still ongoing. It was vague wording, the fact that they would work towards denuclearization. And even the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a Senate hearing just last week admitted that this activity was continuing.</s>SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA), HOUSE NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE: North Korea continues to produce fissile material, nuclear bomb material, is that correct?</s>MIKE POMPEO, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: Senator, I'm trying to make sure I stay on that correct. Yes, that's correct. Yes, just trying to make sure I don't cross into classified information I am not trying to hesitate. Yes, they continue to produce fissile material.</s>HANCOCKS: So, John, the key is from, from the U.S. point of view, according to a U.S. official is the big challenge is to find out exactly what North Korea has at this point before it does an inventory, and before it publicly acknowledges what it could give up to make sure that there's no disconnect between what they say they have and what they actually have. John.</s>VAUSE: Yes, if only they could have an agreement on that, I'm doing like a summit or something that would have been not a bad idea. Paula, thank you. Paula Hancock's there for us in Seoul. Let's get back now to the Bill and Dominic. Here's a little more from the Washington Post reporter who broke the story about North Korea. Listen to this.</s>JOBY WARRICK, JOURNALIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: What we see is in real-time, evidence that North Korean officials don't really take this very seriously. They want to offer some token gestures to dismantling their nuclear arsenal, perhaps, giving up some weapons allowing inspectors to see some facilities. But they have no intentions of giving up everything. And that comes as no surprise when you think of nuclear weapons as being essential, at least, in the eyes of the regime to the survival of Kim Jong-un and his family.</s>VAUSE: You know, Bill, given North Korea's past behavior, this is a surprise to pretty much no one it seems except the President of the United States, perhaps.</s>SCHNEIDER: That's right. We've seen this before where they've made gestures about denuclearization and then, they've done nothing. They keep making the promises, and then, they don't keep them. It's nothing new. What appears to happen is that the Singapore summit is really a propaganda victory for Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea. He saw an opportunity to make an appearance, to look legitimate, to be recognized as a nuclear power, which the United States has always been reluctant to do. And he took advantage of it. It looks like a propaganda victory for Kim.</s>VAUSE: And with that in mind, this is pretty much all we hear these days from the president when it comes to North Korea and Kim Jong-un. Listen.</s>TRUMP: He's got a great personality. He is very talented. Great personality and very smart. Good combination. He's -- you know, funny guy.</s>VAUSE: Dominic, given how the North Korean's pretty much got everything they wanted from Donald Trump, is it surprising the Iranian have already turned down this offer from the U.S. president? It would seem they would be packing their bags eager to make a deal from the self-described world's greatest deal maker?</s>THOMAS: Greatest deal maker also have some issues with how he goes about assessing, how he's engaging with people. And if the meeting in Singapore was a resounding success for the leader of North Korea, the meeting in Helsinki was a resounding success for the leader of Russia. And this is the problem in these negotiations, Donald Trump walks away from every engagement whether it's with Angela Merkel, whether it's with Theresa May. Feeling like he's established a tremendous rapport that he has not. And there is a tremendous naivety and that we could see in these relations. And certainly, when it comes to Iran, and the skepticism is well justified, and they are currently in -- you know, extensive process of ongoing talks with the European Union and with other partners in the original and Iran deal. And it's very difficult to them because -- be their own people. And to imagine any kind of kind of rational engagement with this president, here on one day is attacking them and threatening, so at the end of that nation on Twitter, and the next day being very open to negotiations. And this kind of inconsistency isn't going to work with every leader and every particular country that he decides to speak to in this particular way. The problem and risk, of course, if these negotiations or discussions do break down, at what point do we start seeing an administration being much more aggressive and potentially triggering conflict with these nations?</s>VAUSE: Well, it seems that there is some kind of relationship therein the -- you know, in the early stages are between the U.S. president, and the new Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who is at the White House on Monday, they could be besties.</s>GIUSEPPE CONTE, PRIME MINISTER OF ITALY (through translator): Yes, open to dialogue with Russia. We do believe that Russia plays a fundamental role in all international geopolitical crises. So, thinking that Russia can be kept out of a dialogue, as President Trump said, if we want to solve problems, we cannot choose the counterparts to deal with. We must accept and sit at the table, and negotiate and have a dialogue with those who aren't.</s>VAUSE: You know, Bill. Conte and Trump, eye-to-eye on not just Russia but immigration, on NATO, a whole bunch of issues. Is it possible he could be -- you know, the Trump whisperer to Europe? The many thought that France's Emmanuel Macron may have been able to. A role he may be able to pull off.</s>SCHNEIDER: That's right. That's what Conte seems to be aspiring to. He wants to be the interlocutor between Trump and Europe. And the European Union which Trump declared recently was a foe of the United States. Conte is part of a wave of politician selected all over the West, the United States, the Brexit vote in Britain, Hungary, Poland. These are politicians who were elected mostly in response to immigration, illegal immigration. Italy, certainly, has a terrible illegal immigration problem. And that's one of the reasons why these unusual parties -- two of them won the election. This guy, Conte, he didn't run for reelection, he didn't campaign, he's not a politician, he was appointed in a deal between the two largest party -- parties in Italy after extended negotiation. President Trump didn't appear to know that when he congratulated Conte on his astounding victory in the Italian election. He wasn't even a candidate.</s>VAUSE: Yes. Very quickly, Dominick, this Conte, run the risk that so many other European leaders have had run and been burned by getting too close to this U.S. president.</s>THOMAS: Well, yes. And, of course, we have to sort of think very quickly about what it is that the Italian Prime Minister hopes to and to get out of this. And by speaking with Trump, he's also sending a message to European leaders that he has the the ear of the -- of the U.S. president. And, of course, the bigger primary objective at Italy is to put pressure on the European Unions. The European Union finds itself that a tremendously complicated historical crossroads between those countries that are embracing more nativist sort of a liberal democratic kind of model, and those doesn't been want to hold on to the liberal democratic values of these institutions. And by speaking with Trump, he's signaling to Europe that he has his attention and is trying to pressure them to provide Italy with a better deal and support on migratory policy which is what brought Conte's government to power in the most recent elections.</s>VAUSE: OK, we'll just finish up here with Rudy Giuliani, the president's outside lawyer who seems to have taken the sideshow bob approach to defending the president. Saving a lot of rights it started out with this claim on CNN about collusion. Listen to Giuliani.</s>GIULIANI: Which I don't even know if that's a crime colluding about Russians.</s>CAMEROTA: OK.</s>GIULIANI: You start -- you start analyzing the crime, the hacking is the crime. The hacking is the --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's certainly is the original problem.</s>GIULIANO: Well, the president didn't hack.</s>CAMEROTA: Of course, not. That's the original --</s>GIULIANI: He didn't pay them for hacking.</s>VAUSE: OK, that was just the start of Rudy Giuliani's weird, awful, not really kind of sensible day. He also gave details about a strategy meeting two days before that infamous Trump Tower meeting with Kremlin links lawyers. That meeting is at the center of the obstruction of justice investigation. Giuliani talked about a new meaning that no one had ever heard about before. And then, he won't on the stress that candidate Donald Trump, absolutely, positively wasn't fair.</s>GIULIANI: He did not just fit any meeting about the Russian transaction.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president?</s>GIULIANI: The president said none. And the other people at the meeting that he claims he had without the president about it say he was never there.</s>VAUSE: They went on, Bill, to say that, that meeting never happened. It was just Michael Cohen was going to talk about it because on report. You know, it was a whole mess. I guess, the bottom line here is how much harm is Giuliani doing right now to the president.</s>SCHNEIDER: Well, he is doing a lot of harm. And right now, Michael Cohen looks like the shrewd guy in this entire confrontation. Because Michael Cohen is the one guy who really does know what happened. He was Trump's fixer. He was Trump's lawyer. And the whole country, if not the whole world is waiting to hear exactly what Michael Cohen knows. Giuliani is attacking Michael Cohen and his attorney. But Giuliani doesn't appear to know what he's talking about.</s>VAUSE: Yes, just hatefully, absolutely. It was -- it was not a good day for the former mayor of New York. Bill, thank you being with us. Also Dom, thanks for getting up early there in Berlin. Appreciate it.</s>THOMAS: There's thanks, John.</s>VAUSE: OK. Next here on NEWSROOM L.A. The Palestinian teenager, who slapped an Israeli soldier last year, has been released from prison. She has big plans for the future. We'll tell you what they are in a moment. Also, ahead of wildfire raging in California. So big and so hot, it's creating its own weather system. The very latest on the fight to trying to stop it.