Interview with Michael Moore; Rod Rosenstein Denies Reports of Intention to Reomove Trump.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: All right. Thank you, Anderson. A busy night. I am Chris Cuomo. Welcome to PRIME TIME. It's not just a busy night, it's a whacky night. Less than an hour from now, Christine Ford has to decide whether to take the Republican's terms to testify. She'll get a chance to tell her story, only if she agrees that there will be no other investigation and no other witnesses allowed. In other words, she is to go it alone. And, obviously, if she says no, they are more than fine with that. The proof? If Ford doesn't respond by 10:00 p.m., the Senate GOP says Monday is the vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. So, stick here -- the outcome is supposed to happen on our watch. Meanwhile, another political earthquake is striking at the same time. And this one could have huge implications for the Russia probe. Why? Because the fate of the man in charge of it is in question tonight. That's Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, right? Now, sources say Rosenstein plotted to oust the president from office last year, suggesting secret taping and trying to trigger the 25th Amendment. Rosenstein denies the story. But Trump folk are saying this is proof of the deep state and teaming up, that the president has political cover to remove Rosenstein. What would that do? Well, it would imperil the probe into Russian interference because it is run by Rosenstein. So, there is a lot to digest, and we're chewing on all of it for you. So what do you say? Let's get after it.</s>CUOMO: Ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein accused Republicans of bullying a survivor of attempted rape in order to confirm a nominee to the Supreme Court. That's how she refers to the 10:00 p.m. deadline determines it. We will let you know as soon as word comes in as to what Ford decides. And this is happening as questions about Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein potentially being fired continue to grow after this report from the "New York Times". Now, sources tell CNN the deputy A.G. openly speculated about wearing a wire to record President Trump and floated the idea of building support within the administration to invoke the 25th Amendment, which is obviously about removing a president of presidential succession. Rosenstein's response: not true. Here's the quote: I never pursued or authorize recording the president. And any suggestion that I have ever advocated for the removal of the president is absolutely false. Now in terms of the reporting, we have multiple sources on this, OK? Anonymous, yes, I got news for you. Most of the valuable reporting that we get is anonymous. Why? The people in power, people who are afraid of being exposed and having their access withdrawn or being punished for what they say. So this illusion that the president propagates when have you an anonymous source, you can't believe it, that if someone won't give their name, they're not for real, it's not only untrue, but oh, how ironic that the president often relies on anonymous sources, himself, and tonight, he and those closest to him are relying on a "New York Times" report, the failing "New York Times," subscriptions are up more than they have been in a long time since Trump has been in office, but they're relying on a report that's based on anonymous sources to justify going after Rod Rosenstein. Now, does the president need justification to fire Rod Rosenstein? I would argue that a cursory review of Article 2 would suggest no. Rosenstein is an inferior officer, that's not a pejorative, that's a term within the Constitution, and the president can hire or fire at his discretion. But this is about politics. Does the president have political cover to do it? So, that's the significance of that story. It's happening on real time as we're waiting on Christine Ford to make her decision about whether or not to testify. There is a lot going on. So let's talk about it with documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, who today coincidentally has a new film coming out called "Fahrenheit 11/9". Yes, he had "Fahrenheit 9/11". This is "11/9", and it's all about how we got into this situation with Trump and how Moore thinks we can get out. Michael, thank you for getting us again and so quickly.</s>MICHAEL MOORE, FILMMAKER: Thank you for having me back.</s>CUOMO: All right. Your movie comes out today, "Fahrenheit 11/9". And it really is touching on a part of the turmoil that is in our midst right now. We have two big news stories that deal with the level of chaos. Christine Ford has until 10:00 Eastern Time, we believe she's in California. So 7:00 where you are in California, to decide whether or not to accept the terms that Chuck Grassley and the Senate Republicans have laid out for her testifying next week. What do you make of that?</s>MOORE: Well, let's just repeat what you just said. The men are laying out the terms. But she has to accept. You know, this woman is saying that she survived a near rape attempt, that she somehow got out of a situation where she thought that she was going to possibly die. This is not how we talk to people who are find themselves as victims of violence. And it's so disgusting. I know we have been through a year-and-a-half, two years of some pretty disgusting talk about women and toward women. But this really, this has to be the line in the sand and, and forcing her into this situation -- she's indicated already that she wants to talk. She would like somebody in law enforcement to investigate what she has told them has happened.</s>CUOMO: Right. They say, no additional witnesses. There will be somebody independent who is doing the questioning. And you will do it now and we are giving you a chance to speak and we're not going to do anything more because they obviously believe that this is a delay tactic at the urging of the Democrats.</s>MOORE: Yes. Yes. Yes. Right. You know, this is what always happens, right? These women come forward and claim something happened to them and we all know that they're all lying when they say this. I mean, look, this is a serious incident that happened and you know what? It doesn't matter when you decide to finally talk about it. If it happened to you, it happened to you. And she's decided to talk about it. And she's taken courageous action here. I just -- I feel for her greatly. I just think that these Republican men should take a really close look at what they're doing here, because they are guaranteeing, guaranteeing losing in November. Women are going to come out to the polls and men who support women are going to come out to the polls in record numbers for a midterm election. That's what's going to happen here. And pushing her like this, pushing somebody who went through an act of violence to where she thought she was going to die is -- I mean, Chris, how -- I don't know how you were raised. I know I was raised. That's like, that's not -- it's just wrong. It's just wrong. Everybody knows it's wrong. If are watching this now in your Senate offices or wherever you went for the weekend, you know it's wrong. You know we're not going to tolerate it. The women of America aren't going to tolerate it and President Trump, what does he say today something about women support him on this?</s>CUOMO: We have to fight for Kavanaugh. I don't care about the other side and more women support that than anyone would know.</s>MOORE: More women? Wow, yes, he would know. This man who may we just remind everyone is an admitted, admitted. Not accused. Not alleged, admitted sexual predator. He told Billy Bush exactly how he likes to do it, when he likes to do it and how much of it he hopes to get of it, and against the will of those who are there with him, adult women or younger. We don't really know because of the jokes he made on the Howard Stern show about wanting to open up the doors of Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, all that to see them naked.</s>CUOMO: So --</s>MOORE: This is, I mean, seriously, we have a sexual predator president who is now telling a woman who is telling him that she was a victim of a sexual predator and abuser and she has told them who the witness was in the room. The witness, by the way, Mark Judge, as we described the other night, also went to Georgetown Prep. A few months after this incident of violence occurred, he writes on his yearbook page at Georgetown Prep, he puts a quote there that says, certain women deserve to be struck like a gong. That's his -- that's his line on his yearbook page. These are seniors in high school. They're adults or near adults. We've got 16 and 17-year-olds locked up in jails in prison across America for crimes that they allege to have committed and they are there. And if we allow this, if we put somebody on the Supreme Court, who has committed a crime like this and nothing ever happened to him, what's the message, really to everybody else across the country?</s>CUOMO: Look --</s>MOORE: You can do whatever the hell you want, and some day, you could even end up on the Supreme Court.</s>CUOMO: Look. there is no question and this is happening at the same time today that this big "New York Times" story breaks, the same day your movie comes out that's talking about the chaos that Trump has brought and what to do about it, and the story is that Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, had spoken about the potential need for the 25th Amendment, which is about presidential incapacity and succession, and getting cabinet members behind him, maybe secretly recording the president to show the distress. Now, I'm shocked by that, you probably aren't, because it's what you are assuming may happen in your movie. So good timing aside, this is a pretty scary prospect for the democracy. Rosenstein says it didn't happen. He didn't say it. But what's the impact to you?</s>MOORE: Well, I guess we'll find out he did or didn't. If he did, he's a patriot, no doubt about it. He as many others who have written books, who have talked to Bob Woodward, have come on your show, have told you similar stories about their concern, about Trump and that we are in danger as a country with a malignant narcissist and sexual predator who is running this country. I -- we've never been in a spot before. And I want to add something to Rosenstein's -- his -- I don't think that if this happened, I don't think he was saying from what I read that the president is like mentally incapacitated where he can't do the job. I don't believe that about Trump. I've told you on your show, that actually I think he's a bit of a genius, an evil genius, but he's not stupid. And I think one of the things, one of the problems that Mueller has probably had in his Russia investigation, my guess now, is that Trump was probably never and made sure he was never in the room when any of these crimes were being committed. He was probably smart enough to do that.</s>CUOMO: Let's end on this, when people watch the movie, it is not simply a dirge, what do you want people to take away from that it that will give them hope for change that you believe in?</s>MOORE: I want people to come to the theater this weekend and realize that there are literally millions of like-minded people, just like them, who feel the same despair about what's going on but who believe that we are the majority. We got 3 million more votes than he did. The American people want us running the country and now, we have to find a way. In the movie, I proposed certain ways out of the madness. But, yes, now, it's not a dirge. You are not going to leave the theater going ugh. I am -- you come to this movie, we are going to tell you a story that you haven't heard. You haven't heard it on the nightly news. You haven't heard it on the show. I'm going to show you some things and then I'm going to propose a way out. And I think so far already today, we're hearing from theaters. The theater man can't get them to leave after the credit because they're all in there talking about what we're going to do. So if are you in need to be around a couple hundred people in a theater who are -- who are where you are at, you should come see this movie this weekend. I think you are going to be very pleasantly surprised and enlightened to the point where you'll see that we don't have to put up with this for the next two-plus years.</s>CUOMO: All right. Fahrenheit --</s>MOORE: Or 1,600 days, however you want to count it.</s>CUOMO: That's right. "Fahrenheit 11/9", Michael Moore's new movie. Thank you for being back. Good luck with the movie.</s>MOORE: Thank you. Thank you, Chris. And everybody out there, don't give up.</s>CUOMO: All right. The 25th Amendment, what is it about? Have we heard this before? Yes, Omarosa mentioned it, for what it's worth. But so did that anonymous op-ed writer this month. Is there a connection to the reporting from the "Times" about Rosenstein and that op-ed? So, what we're going to do is let's look at what this is all about, the 25th Amendment, how it works, what it means. Is it likely or not? And remember, on our watch right now, there are about 45 minutes left, as silly as that seems, that it's like some kind of a countdown for rocket. But that is the deadline that has been given to Professor Christine Ford to tell her story about an attempted sexual assault she says involves Judge Kavanaugh. We're keeping an eye on that. We'll be right back with a magic wall for you.