Muller Questions for Trump; Pence and Ronny Jackson
CAMEROTA: "The New York Times" reveals 40 plus questions that Special Counsel Robert Mueller wants to ask President Trump if the president were to sit down for an interview. What is the political fallout of this and we have more political topics to discuss with our CNN political analysts John Avlon and Brian Karem. OK, so --</s>BRIAN KAREM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, guys.</s>CAMEROTA: We'll start with just a question that's impossible to answer, John Avlon, which is, does the release of these questions, now that they're in the public sphere and we can all read them in "The New York Times," does that make that more likely or less likely the president's going to sit down with Robert Mueller's team?</s>JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, as you kindly pointed out, it's impossible to actually answer that question. But, look, I think it does show the thinking of the Mueller team. It connects the dots in a lot of ways we haven't quite seen before, including highlighting the contradictions in many of the president's past statements. One other theme I thought was interesting is that a lot of these questions aren't really covered, could not reasonably be covered by executive privilege. That's fascinating in and upon itself. I also don't think there's any reason to think this is a comprehensive list. That's important. But it really does lay out a series of arguments that shows that there are a lot of contradictions in the president's testimony. That's a political problem, that's a practical problem, that's a legal problem.</s>CUOMO: You know, the first time I read through these, Brian, I did it as a journalist, you know, and I was reading through the questions, would I ask --</s>KAREM: So did I. Yes.</s>CUOMO: Then I read them again and thought about, if I were legal counsel to the president of the United States. And I have to tell you, Jeffrey Toobin feels a little differently about this, feels it's a plus and minus. They would scare me because I don't trust -- if I'm the lawyer, I don't trust the investigators. They're in the business of finding proof of a crime. And I have no reason to believe that this is everything they know. In fact, I'd be surprised they want to talk to me at all if this is all they have. And the unknown is what is most scary, should it not be?</s>KAREM: Yes, absolutely. And I think, as it was pointed out earlier, these are merely topics. And I have to tell you, when I first read them, I went through them and I go, oh, there's a Jim Acosta question. Oh, there's a Jon Karl question. Oh, there's a Brian Karem question. A lot of these questions have been asked in the press room. And so I -- I -- the open-ended questions are just a mere starting point. And it's where they go from there that will take them in probably areas that the president doesn't want to go because as I said, since we've asked some of those questions in the press room, those answers have always been, we're going to refer you to counsel or we're not going to answer those questions. So it's not anything that they really want to answer to begin with. And if you've got Mueller sitting across from you, it's really not anything that you want to sit down. But I think it's an opening salvo to try and find out if the president -- to force him into a decision, to see if he'll sit down. And it gives people kind of an idea of how much Mueller knows or how much Mueller wants to look at or what he wants to look at.</s>CAMEROTA: All right, let's move on to some other political issue, because, as Chris has pointed out, there's a lot on the president's plate this week.</s>KAREM: It's been a busy day, hasn't it?</s>CAMEROTA: Yes, as -- as is every day. But, listen, there are still so many lingering questions about what happened with Dr. Ronny Jackson, OK, who was the long-time White House president's physician. And so, what happened? You know, why was it torpedoed without ever a hearing? So now we have a little bit more information. This comes from our Manu Raju. And CNN obtained some documents that I think are pretty telling. Let me just read to you what our CNN reporting is. According to copies of internal documents obtained by CNN, Pence's doctor, so the vice president's doctor, accused Dr. Ronny Jackson of overstepping his authority and inappropriately intervening in a medical situation involving the second lady, OK, so Mrs. Pence, as well as potentially violating federal privacy rights by briefing White House staff and disclosing details about Mrs. Pence to other medical providers but not appropriately consulting with the vice president's physician. So, that was in September, OK?</s>KAREM: Well, yes.</s>CAMEROTA: So, go ahead. Well, hold on, Brian. Go head, John.</s>KAREM: Sorry. The whole point about that is, I think what happened was, if you take a look at it, the president likes to move when the president likes to move and how the president likes to move. And if he gets an impulse to do something, he's an impulse. You want to take him to wherever the sales are at Kmart. I mean he'll walk in and just buy what's on his mind. Hey, blue light special. And I think that's what happened. Dr. Jackson came out and supported the president, said he could live to be 200, and the president decided, hey, I liked this guy. And in --</s>AVLON: That kind of positive re-enforcement goes a long way. Yes.</s>KAREM: Yes, it does. And it -- and he ignored everything else. And there were plenty of warnings. And this points out that there were and that he ignored them.</s>AVLON: Right.</s>KAREM: And that type of impulsivity is not conducive to good leadership.</s>AVLON: But I think it -- I think it's bigger than the impulse problem, which is well-known. This is actually concrete documentation that was presumably floated to at least the vice president that there was a problem with Dr. Ronny Jackson.</s>KAREM: And he ignored it.</s>AVLON: And -- yes. And it was utter -- utterly ignored. And it's not just questions of violating privacy. And Manu's reporting is phenomenal. WE don't know exactly what that alleged violation was. But then also the Vice president's doctor felt intimidated by Dr. Jackson and almost, you know, refused to meet with him anymore.</s>CAMEROTA: There was an angry altercation of some kind.</s>AVLON: An angry altercation, which Jackson apparently owned and said, you know, that's a problem.</s>KAREM: Well, I guess he wasn't Dr. Feel-Good for him then.</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>AVLON: That's the point.</s>KAREM: I mean everybody else. Yes.</s>AVLON: So there may be a kiss up --</s>CUOMO: All right, but let's -- let's try and put it into the category of, what does it mean? I'm of two minds on this. So this documentation comes out. No reason to believe it's not legit. Good. It's a good data point.</s>KAREM: Right.</s>CUOMO: The White House pushes back and says, this was a dispute between doctors. They don't like each other. That's all it is. It doesn't show anything nefarious. OK, fine. Then they say, and by the way, all the other allegations that came out are false. And it's not just the White House that's putting this out. Friends of theirs. Ari Fleischer, a respected guy, you know, who did the job down there with the Bush administration, he puts -- it was in a tweet, right, so it's inherently incomplete and Ari would have to speak for himself, but he says, all of the allegations are false. But we don't know that. We know that there was proof that rejects some of those, contradicts some of those, but not all. And then it raises the big question, if they had it and said, ah, we got you, media. You went after this guy wrongly with false allegations. Why did they throw him under the bus? Why didn't they push back, John Avlon, and say, you can't prove any of this.</s>AVLON: Well --</s>KAREM: Well, that's a great question. That's the point.</s>CUOMO: Let's let the process go forward. And he's going to fine and there's going to be egg on your face?</s>CAMEROTA: You've got five seconds.</s>AVLON: That's the subtext of why they didn't push back.</s>KAREM: Because he doesn't want to.</s>AVLON: That's right.</s>KAREM: He doesn't want it.</s>AVLON: But, I mean, look -- yes, so --</s>KAREM: At the end of the day, that's what it boils down to. He's afraid of the facts coming out. So squelch it, make fun of it and walk away from it.</s>AVLON: There's a lot of fear in this.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. Time up. John Avlon, Brian Karem, thank you both very much.</s>CUOMO: All right, so big, big international development. Israel's prime minister says Iran is lying -- the i-n-g is important there -- about its nuclear program. He claims he has proof. He put on a display the likes of which we have never seen from a leader of that country, certainly from Bibi. Why did he do it this way? What is new? What does it mean? The man himself Bibi Netanyahu answers for you.