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Trump Talks Denuclearization with Kim Jong-un; Former 'Fixer Turns on Trump in Explosive Testimony; U.S. Calling for India, Pakistan to Stand Down. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired February 28, 2019 - 00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


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WILL RIPLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining from us all around the world. I'm Will Ripley coming to you live from Hanoi, Vietnam.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN's special coverage of the second summit between Kim Jong-un and the U.S. president, an historic meeting which has been overwhelmed by testimony from Trump's former personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen.

Just as the President of the United States is about to begin negotiations with North Korea for what could be a historic deal to reduce the threat from nuclear weapons, half a world away on Capitol Hill, his former lawyer and fixer was testifying under oath that his old boss is a liar and a cheat, a man who's unreliable and cannot be trusted.

The U.S. president is meeting with Kim Jong-un in Vietnam. The White House is hoping a successful summit would change the narrative and be a win. But there's no escaping Cohen's congressional testimony. It went live to air on television networks around the world. And in that testimony, Cohen accused the president of lying to voters about his business interests in Russia, lying about hush money payments to cover up extramarital affairs, lying about emails stolen from the Democrats and Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: I'm ashamed that I chose to take part in concealing Mr. Trump's illicit acts rather than listening to my own conscience. I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is. He is a racist, he is a con man and he is a cheat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: CNN White House producer, Kevin Liptak is live for us in Hanoi.

Kevin, white House officials made it clear to any reporters who asks about the U.S. president, about Cohen's testimony. But clearly this is a split screen moment. They were desperate trying to avoid this.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Yes, you certainly saw that last night during the president's first meetings with Kim Jong-un. Someone did ask about Cohen's testimony and the president just said thank you and moved on.

After that the White House reduced the number of reporters who could enter in the next spray with the president. Now today the -- the situation has changed somewhat. The full press contingent was allowed into those meetings with Kim Jong-un and President Trump.

They did not ask about Cohen in there but they did get some questions to Kim Jong-un in these extraordinary exchanges. They asked him whether he was willing to denuclearize and he said he wouldn't be here if he was not.

They asked him about the prospect of the exchange of liaison officers with the United States, opening some kind of low-level diplomatic office in Pyongyang. He initially did not want to respond to that question.

The president goaded him into answering it and he eventually did. But nothing yet on Michael Cohen. That extraordinary testimony playing out on the other side of the world, just as the president wanted to really bolster his image as the negotiator in chief here in Hanoi. Cohen, the really extraordinary thing about the testimony, is the sheer range of matters he was able to speak about, whether it was the president's ties to Russia or whether it was the racist comments he had made about African Americans or predominantly black countries and the more personal things, the allegations the president is a cheat and a fraudster.

So those are the things that the White House was concerned about going into this; certainly the president was very closely monitoring it. We're told he watched some testimony from his hotel room here in Hanoi. Some of his aides responded in the lobby of his hotel, monitoring that testimony as well.

CNN spoke last night with Senator Lindsey Graham, which is one of the top allies of the president in the Senate. He's a Republican. Graham had spoken to Trump the night before and they had discussed this idea that there would be a split screen.

The president was concerned about it, according to Graham. He said he was worried that the Cohen testimony might provide a distraction from the negotiations he's trying to carry out here in Hanoi.

Graham responded --

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LIPTAK: "Mr. President, that's just the world that you live in."

VAUSE: The world we live in. White House reporter, Kevin Liptak, live for us in Hanoi. Cohen's testimony raises new questions about the legal perils the

president and his administration are facing and explained how and why and what is next, we head to Los Angeles. We welcome David Katz, a former U.S. attorney for Los Angeles and Jessica Levinson, professor of law and governance at Loyola University.

Obviously, Cohen credibility would be an issue. So he brought documentation and other evidence to support his claims. That included checks for $35,000, one signed by the president and the other one by Don Jr., both dated after the election.

These were two of 11 checks which were reimbursement to Cohen for hush money he paid to Stormy Daniels to maintain her silence about her affair with Trump.

Cohen put it this way, "The President of the United States thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws."

So, Jessica, this allegation of wrongdoing by a sitting President of the United States seems to put a whole different take on all this and puts it in a much more serious category.

JESSICA LEVINSON, LOYOLA UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: I think it does and doesn't. We already had Michael Cohen pleading guilty to violating federal election laws, campaign finance laws and to a sentencing memorandum by prosecutors that says, yes, we believe Michael Cohen when he pled guilty under oath.

And we have evidence that Individual-1 is President Trump and that he directed Michael Cohen to violate these campaign finance laws.

So for me, it's different to see it on TV; it's different to see him say -- and when he was president, he was repaying me. But I think we already knew, frankly, that president Trump was already susceptible to potential criminal liability for these federal election law violations.

VAUSE: It's one thing to know about the details. It's another thing to actually see the check with that -- Donald Trump's signature and knowing this was ongoing whilst he was president.

The chairman of the committee, Elijah Cummings, was asked about the hush money payments and if he thought it was a crime. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you believe that the president committed a crime while in office?

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), MD.: Based on what -- looking at the checks and listening to Mr. Cohen, it appears that he did.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: David, if it is a crime, a violation of campaign finance laws, would that rise to what traditionally is considered grounds for impeachment, high crimes and misdemeanors?

DAVID KATZ, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, the president can be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, the definition for that, we say, is political. In other words, it is up to the House what they're going to impeach and it is up to two-thirds of the senators, whether they're going to convict and remove the president from office.

Certainly a campaign violation of this kind along with everything else and with the corroboration for it, like a check from Trump written in August 2017, when he's already the president.

He didn't write in the memo portion, "this is to reimburse you for paying out of your pocket" initially hush money to Stormy Daniels.

But what else would the $35,000 be for?

Coupled with the fact that Donald Trump Jr. also wrote a check during that same period of time and then you have the testimony. There's also going to be corroboration from the Trump Organization. They'll call at least two people from the Trump Organization for followup testimony in from of the House Oversight Committee.

The remarkable thing about today -- I agree with Jessica -- it really is something to actually see it and hear it under oath. We have heard before that there were leaks or it was second-hand. But we haven't heard in testimony, under oath, live in front of us form Flynn, from Gates, not from Manafort.

Here we suddenly hear from the ultimate insider, the person who Trump chose for over 10 years to be his lawyer and fixer. We heard from this ultimate insider who is allowed to testify, even though he's a former lawyer, because of the crime fraud exception to the attorney- client privilege devastating information about the president.

This is the day Trump dreaded.

VAUSE: Cohen went into great detail about the Trump Tower Moscow deal which Donald Trump repeatedly and emphatically lied about during the campaign. Cohen said Trump wanted regular status updates. He says Don Jr. and Ivanka were also kept updated. Here's part of the testimony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who were the family members that you briefed on the Trump Tower Moscow project?

COHEN: Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you recall, there's a question on the numbers of briefings.

Do you recall how many there might have been? COHEN: I'm sorry, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you recall how many of these briefings there might have been?

COHEN: Approximately 10 in total.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Here's part of Don Jr.'s testimony from September --

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VAUSE: -- 2017 to a Senate committee question.

"Did you have any involvement in this potential deal in Moscow?

"Like I said, I was peripherally aware of it but most of my knowledge has been gained since as it relates to hearing about it over the last few weeks."

Jessica, 10 briefings is a lot more than peripheral awareness. Cohen has put himself on the line with Congress.

Is Don Jr. facing a similar fate?

JESSICA LEVINSON, LOYOLA UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: I don't know. I think he may have hedged enough with that "peripherally aware," because, frankly, 10 meetings, yes, it is a lot. But what he could say is I have dozens of meetings every day and this was a fairly small portion of what I did.

I think the bigger question that the American public should be asking is, why was the president repeatedly, when he was a candidate Trump, lying to us?

That's not illegal. This is not news to the American public. Politicians can in fact mislead you and they do. So I think what we have with Michael Cohen is frankly more evidence to back up the fact that, yes, in fact, everybody was well aware of this Moscow deal and the president was actively trying to mislead the American public.

And what I think is interesting, it fed into Michael Cohen's overall narrative that this campaign was more of an infomercial. This was a branding and marketing moment and he didn't, in fact intend to win and therefore he was trying to really clamp down on discussions with the Moscow project, which could have reaped him hundreds of millions of dollars.

VAUSE: The only tactic which the Republicans on the committee decided to use here was to hammer Cohen on his untrustworthiness and the fact that he was a liar. His trial was a raging inferno. Here's some of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you lied, you are a liar.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything has been made of your lies in the past. I'm concerned about your lies today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A convicted liar.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're a pathological liar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So, David, if Cohen's lying, then que bono, who benefits?

KATZ: Well, I'm a criminal defense attorney these days. But when I was a federal prosecutor, too, we had cooperating witnesses. We never would have been able to prosecute any of these mob cases or any kind of sophisticated fraud case unless you're willing to use the insiders. They're people who've cheated somebody. They lied and gotten down into the same sewer with the people that they're testifying about.

You know they say you can't use bishops to try to get criminals. So they used Cohen. It people have to realize that Cohen was a very effective witness. I think he came across as very believable. I have seen a lot of cooperators on both sides of it from a prosecutorial point of view and now from a criminal defense point view.

And he came through really strong. This was a day that Trump dreaded. It came out terribly. The Southern District of New York, the prosecutorial agency, a federal one in New York City, will be on Trump and the Trump family for years over charity fraud, witness tampering and all kinds of other types of fraud.

I think it was a terrible day and I think the Republicans on the committee did about what they could do. It is like a day when you have a terrible witness against your client and you're trying to divert attention because, if you pay attention, it was devastating, the amount of different kind of fraud.

It is also political. Politically, there's a swing vote in this country.

How does that swing vote, how do the suburban moms react to this sort of thing?

Here was someone that threatened people if they released his grades and who said terrible things about African Americans. None of this stuff is going to resonate with swing voters so it's a political problem but it's a mounting legal problem. I would expect impeachment is almost certain; that is that the House will vote articles of impeachment on myriad things dramatized today by Cohen's testimony.

VAUSE: Which is a process where he'll stand trial before the Senate and that's not the end of it. Next hour, we know you guys are sticking around. We want to talk about Cohen and what he knows about potential collusion between Trump campaign and Russia. Thank you for this hour.

Back to Will in Hanoi on the latest.

This must be an incredible moment for Donald Trump, facing this pressure in Washington and then going into these very delicate, very detailed nuclear negotiations.

RIPLEY: Absolutely. This testimony was happening in the middle of the night in Hanoi. We heard yesterday the president may have pulled an all-nighter. We don't have that confirmed.

But what we have not seen here are any outbursts, no tweet storm. Trump seems to be focused on the task ahead, which is quite a difficult task. Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are scheduled for a working lunch happening at this hour here in Hanoi.

The president spent the morning lowering expectations. He told reporters he's hoping for fantastic success, maybe not today or tomorrow or --

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RIPLEY: -- next year. Maybe a bit longer term. The White House saying the two leaders will sign a joint statement, an agreement in just a few hours.

What we still don't know is what in agreement might actually say. The president says when it comes to North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons, speed is just not that important. A while ago, reporters also got extraordinary, really unprecedented chance to ask the North Korean leader how the talks are going.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).

KIM JONG-UN, NORTH KOREAN LEADER (through translator): (Speaking foreign language).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I'm not willing to do that I wouldn't be here right now.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: That might be the best answer you've ever heard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: This is extraordinary. Kim Jong-un has never answered questions before from foreign reporters and he's done it at least a couple of times just in the last few hours.

Here to discuss, an all-star duo: Joseph Yun, a former U.S. state representative for North Korean policy, now a senior advisor for the U.S. Institute of Peace and a CNN global affairs analyst and John Kirby, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, former Pentagon and State Department spokesperson and now a CNN military and diplomatic analyst.

Admiral Kirby, Ambassador Yun, it is great to have you here.

Admiral Kirby, Trump seems laser focused. A lot of people were concerned he wouldn't be able to contain talking about Michael Cohen and yet -- tell us what you're noticing.

ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: Not only laser focused, I'd say relaxed. If you saw him in those couple of shots we just had, he's quite at ease. I think that's healthy.

It always is hard to compartmentalize your principal when you're on a trip like this because the world crowds in. We've got tensions in Kashmir; Venezuela protests are still going on. There's a lot to keep the president from becoming -- or staying focused. But he has managed to do that. We'll see how long that lasts.

And we should be done with this event in a few hours and we'll see what gets on Twitter after that. But so far, so good. I think he has been focused on the right thing and keeping Kim Jong-un front and center.

RIPLEY: You're predicting a tweet storm at some point?

KIRBY: I'm predicting probably on the way to the airport. He'll get on his phone and start tweeting away about Michael Cohen. But I got to say, I'm impressed with his self-discipline thus far.

RIPLEY: Ambassador Yun, the North Koreans obviously are paying close attention to this testimony in Washington and this meeting, yes, it is about denuclearization but it's also about building trust.

How damaging is this testimony from the North Korean point of view in dealing with Trump?

JOSEPH YUN, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Absolutely right. They're paying really close attention. They have very old experience, America has, ranging from the foreign minister to current foreign minister. They're all experienced. I have no doubt that they stayed up all night watching this and Kim Jong-un is getting real-time reports.

Their reaction will be number one, what on Earth is going on back in Washington?

And they will be saying, when Trump tells us, you're going to be a great nation, we have a great relationship, we can do many things, how trustworthy is he?

Second thing they will ask is, what does it mean for us?

Ultimately the goal is to keep the nuclear weapons and have economic benefits.

Can we get that?

Is it easier to get that?

So they're mulling over each item on the table at the moment, whether it is denuclearization and sanctions or opening a diplomatic office, like a liaison office, or whether it's doing an end of war declaration.

What does it mean for us?

All those calculations will be going on.

KIRBY: I suspect they're also mindful that Trump is not very popular at home. The clock is really on their side. They don't know if they will sit across from Trump two years from now. So whatever they agreed to do, I think the ambassador is right, they will do what they have to do to keep their nuclear weapons capability in the long term, try to get as much ground as they can and the concessions over the next couple of years.

But they're mindful that he's a damaged politician to a very large degree.

RIPLEY: Maybe run down the clock and see what happens.

(CROSSTALK)

KIRBY: They could be sitting against a president two years from now that is going to be far less likely to be accommodating than Trump.

RIPLEY: Ambassador, you sat across the table from North Koreans.

What is that like?

What is it like to be in negotiations with North Koreans?

And how might they use this testimony against Trump?

YUN: In an official setting, they're completely formal. They'll be reading off the script. But what is important is when I talk to them, is to go offline.

What can you do for us and what can we do for you?

In many meetings I've had with them, they were laser focused on the U.S. president, whether it was Obama or Trump in both occasions. So they want to know everything about him --

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YUN: -- what he thinks of them. Now they have a setting, in which -- this is a dream setting for them, to get a meeting, second meeting with the U.S. president. So this is -- this is -- this is a huge opportunity for them.

ripple If they're staying on script and Trump is known for going off script, does that dynamic work for the North Koreans?

YUN: I think clearly it works to their advantage. Right now, I do believe that President Trump wants something big, at least rhetorically on paper. and that's something they can give without sacrificing their goal of keeping nuclear weapons.

RIPLEY: Admiral Kirby, is there a concern because Trump may seek a big headline to distract from the mess back home, that he might make a decision to do something without consulting with his advisors?

The first thing that pops to mind is the 28,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.

KIRBY: The troop presence; I know that that's been a concern by some of his staff. If you asked me that question yesterday, Will, I would have said yes. But what I'm seeing now and when you listen to Trump, just in the last hour, I'm not getting a sense that he's going to go for some big splash. I think he's lowering expectations, as you said at the outset.

I think they want something practical that both sides can agree that is a sequencing or a framework for discussions going forward and something less dramatic. I hope that is exactly what happens.

I understand he's not happy about what he sees with Michael Cohen but he's dealing with something far more momentous here, with the relationship between the United States and North Korea. I think practicality, pragmatism, being a little bit more self-disciplined is in his best interest.

RIPLEY: Based on the images that we're seeing -- obviously we don't know what's been happening behind the scenes -- are you encouraged, are you discouraged, are you waiting to see what the outcome is?

YUN: There's no question that we're better off now than we were in 2017. Tensions reduction, no more talk of war. That's got to mean something, you know.

But in the longer term, we have to ask ourselves what does it mean be that North Koreans are insisting -- and it looks like they're succeeding -- at keeping nuclear weapons?

What does it mean for us?

What does it mean for the allies, Japan, South Korea?

And that's a troubling development.

KIRBY: I'll reserve judgment until we see what the statement says and the details of it. But I'm reminded today of what President Kennedy said, it is far better to meet at the summit than at the brink. So I think I'm encouraged that the dialogue is going on.

I understand it has to be leader to leader because of the way Kim Jong-un runs the country. He's not going to trust anybody but Trump, so I get that dynamic. We will have to see what the joint declaration says.

RIPLEY: Indeed. Admiral Kirby, Ambassador Yun, great to have you both here. And you'll be here throughout the afternoon as everything develops. We'll see what happens. Really anyone's guess at this point.

We're live in Hanoi, Vietnam, an extraordinary day and an extraordinary moment earlier when Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, who has always ignored questions from foreign reporters, actually answered one. We'll show you that moment.

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RIPLEY: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. We're live in Hanoi, Vietnam. I'm Will Ripley.

This is the front of the Vietnam news, big photo. Headline said "Give Peace a Chance."

On the Vietnamese papers, on television, you're not seeing any mention of Michael Cohen or his explosive testimony. We don't know if that is a deliberate attempt on the part of this government, a one-party state that does control much of the media, if they're trying to control the message and keep the focus on the summit.

But obviously the rest of the world is talking about what is happening in Washington. As president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un try to focus, they're scheduled to have a working lunch at this hour, talking about a big issue: denuclearization.

The two leaders have been in talks all morning long. As they discuss North Korea potentially giving up nuclear weapons, President Trump has really shifted his tone. He's cooling expectations of a breakthrough at this summit while highlighting how bright North Korea's future could be if they strike a deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think we will ultimately have a deal. I think that's what is going to happen. It doesn't mean we're doing it one day or two days but it is all leading towards a very big success.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: I want to bring in CNN's Ivan Watson now, he's also in Hanoi.

Ivan, let's listen to this extraordinary moment that happened a couple of hours ago, when a foreign reporter, David Nakamura (ph) from "The Washington Post," he asked Kim Jong-un a question and, for the first time that we know of, Kim answered. Listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIM (through translator): Well, it's too early to tell. But I wouldn't say that I'm pessimistic. But from what I feel now, I do have a feeling that good results will come out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: That wasn't a hardball question; if it was, Kim probably wouldn't have answered it. But the fact that he answered the question itself, Ivan, talk about the significance of that.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: To the best of our knowledge, that's the first time Kim Jong-un has answered questions from a foreign reporter. This wasn't the only one. There was a prolonged interaction, improvised Q&A between Trump and Kim Jong-un and reporters from the pool.

So there was a bit of a conversation that went on. And that broke precedent. The press' relationship with the summit has been odd to say the least. We're taught, as young journalists, don't get in the way of the story. But that has happened at this summit, starting with the demand that the U.S. press evacuate the Maliya (ph) hotel here in Hanoi on the eve of the summit, where Kim Jong-un was going to be staying, at very short notice.

Then last night when the White House removed four journalists from the White House press pool for a photo op that took place at the dinner that Trump and Kim Jong-un shared, that intimate dinner. And that attracted condemnation from the White House Press Association.

Then this remarkable moment, where journalists were ushered in and then were allowed to ask a number of questions of the two leaders. Not only did Kim Jong-un respond more than once to some of these questions but Trump actually seemed to use the journalists to get some answers from Kim Jong-un himself.

When a member of the North Korean delegation said, wouldn't it be better for the journalists to leave now, Trump actually said, no, I would like to hear the answer to that question.

The question was, would you be open to a U.S. liaison office opening in Pyongyang?

Then when asked about this, at the president's behest, Kim Jong-un responded, saying he would perhaps welcome that. President Trump went on to say that's a good idea. So that gives us insight into some of the matters, the issues that may be on the negotiating table right now between these two leaders -- Will.

RIPLEY: Ivan, I want to play a clip from your trip to North Korea six years ago, when you came very close, I think you almost bumped into Kim Jong-un.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RIPLEY (voice-over): During an unprecedented moment of informality for a North Korean leader, he directly walked through a throng of foreign journalists. Though when asked whether he had a message for the world, Kim Jong-un preferred to stay silent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: How times have certainly changed. Ivan Watson, live here in Hanoi, thank you for your reporting.

We're going to go back to the United States and just, really, a stunning day on Capitol Hill. Of course, we'll also continue following developments here. But let's talk next about the Republican strategy for dealing with Michael Cohen's testimony.

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RIPLEY: Welcome back to a special edition of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Will Ripley, live in Hanoi, Vietnam, covering the second summit between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause at the CNN Center. We're following an explosive day on Capitol Hill, with public testimony from President Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen.

For more than six hours, Cohen repeatedly accused Donald Trump of lies, cover-ups and blatant violations of campaign finance laws. Much of Cohen's testimony was already known, but he did reveal new details, including as a candidate, Trump was aware his long-time advisor, Roger Stone, was in contact with WikiLeaks and he knew in advance about a dump of hacked e-mails stolen from the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Cohen also said Mr. Trump directed him to pay hush money to two women. And he submitted to Congress a $35,000 check signed by the president as proof.

To Los Angeles now. CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist, Dave Jacobson. Also with us, Republican strategist Charles Moran. So thank you guys coming in.

DAVID JACOBSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thanks for having us.

VAUSE: OK, the Republican lawmakers, they came with a plan, and it literally included the accusation, "Liar, liar, pants on fire." Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARK GREEN (R), TENNESSEE: The majority party's star witness on the president's compliance is a guy who broke compliance laws himself.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R), OHIO: When you fail to pay 1.4 million in taxes to the U.S. Treasury, was that out of some blind loyalty to the president of the United States?

REP. PAUL GOSAR (R), ARIZONA: You did it for you. This is -- no, this is all about you. This is all about this Twitter feed.

REP. MARK MEADOWS (R), NORTH CAROLINA: You indicated that you had contacts with foreign entities.

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R), KENTUCKY: How could you give your client legal advice when you're not even considering whether it's legal?

GOSAR: Liar, liar, pants on fire. No one should ever listen to you and give you credibility. It's sad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Charles, yes, it is sad. But tell me why did Republicans not defend their president? Not one word. Not one Republican came to his defense.

CHARLES MORAN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Good to see you, John.

Factually, because they don't necessarily need to. This whole farce that went on today on Capitol Hill was just a distraction that the Democrats were putting up to distract against the work that President Trump is doing in Vietnam with -- with respect to North Korea.

And really, Michael Cohen just owns all of it. He lied to his wife. He lied to his kids. He lied to the IRS. He lied to Congress. He lied to the president. He lied to his banks. He's lied about his clients. He's lied consistently all the way through.

And really, at this point, you know, the Cohen testimony is so tainted that there's really no reason for him to be even going on Capitol Hill, except to be a distraction. And what we got out of it at the end of the day was a giant nothing burger, compared to what he was brought in there to talk about, which is Russian collusion.

And he -- he said there was no Russian collusion.

VAUSE: Yes.

MORAN: He didn't see any. There was no part of that. So if you're going to take anything that he said, you know -- he can talk about the moral failings of the president all he wants to, but at the end of the day, what they were really going after resulted in a big, fat zero.

VAUSE: We will get to the Russian collusion part next hour with Jessica and David. But David, can you explain to Charles why the Republicans didn't defend the president?

JACOBSON: Because they can't. I mean, look, the president is supposed to be, John, the moral compass of the country. This president is not. Right?

I mean, "The Washington Post" has tracked the president's lies. He's lied over 8,000 times. I'd actually -- I'm curious whether or not Michael Cohen has lied that many times. Clearly, he has more credibility than someone who has lied 8,000 times as commander in chief of the most important and powerful nation on the planet. So the reality is the hypocrisy here by Republicans is beyond the

pale. The reality is, these Republicans were not on a fact-finding mission. They did not do their job as providing oversight and accountability on this committee as members of the House to question Michael Cohen and to find new information.

Democrats were fact finders. Democrats were trying to get to the truth. They were inquiring various issues, whether or not the president broke the law, which potentially, we found out, is a possibility.

And we also found out information like the fact that the Southern District of New York is now investigating the president, which is an entirely different investigation that we didn't even know about earlier this morning until this -- until Michael Cohen testified.

So the reality is, there was a lot of new information that came out the sort of earth-shattering, historic testimony that we saw from the president's fixer. The reality is, Republicans politicalized this issue -- testimony. Democrats were trying to get to the facts.

VAUSE: You guys obviously watching different planets' televisions.

OK, Cohen's opening statement took a sledgehammer to the president's character. Here's part of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP LAWYER: I am ashamed that I chose to take part in concealing Mr. Trump's illicit acts, rather than listening to my own conscience. I am ashamed, because I know what Mr. Trump is. He is a racist. He is a conman, and he is a cheat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And to prove the president is not a racist, Representative Mark Meadows put on display Lynne Patton, a black woman hired by Donald Trump. That's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEADOWS: You made some very demeaning comments about the president that Ms. Patton doesn't agree with. In fact, it has to do with your claim of racism. She says that, as a daughter of a man born in Birmingham, Alabama, that there is no way that she would work for a --

for an individual who was racist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Charles, can you explain why the congressman's actions are demeaning, offensive and racist, in and of themselves?

MORAN: I think it's entertaining that you didn't finish showing the rest of that clip, where Congresswoman Tlaib got into it with the chairman, Cummings --

VAUSE: We needed that.

MORAN: -- and really talking about, you know, the rest of that statement.

I mean, what this really comes down to is Democrats trying to, you know, contain their flare-up of the Trump Derangement Syndrome that went on today.

President Trump was elected by the American people. The referendum on President Trump that Dave was talking about has already been settled, because President Trump won the election. And his moral failings of whatever they are, a lot of them, President Trump takes responsibility for, is not what's on trial. It was whether or not he was actually breaking the law in -- in the things that he did, whether or not they impacted his election over Hillary Clinton.

And again, what we got at the end of this -- at the end of this is that it didn't.

VAUSE: David, can you explain to Charles why the congressman's actions are demeaning, offensive and racist?

JACOBSON: Well, let me just say, John, like, let's not forget back in the 2016 campaign that it was Donald Trump who hugged David Duke, you know, the white supremacist, of course, during the 2016 campaign. He refused to denounce David Duke. He refused to denounce white supremacists that supported him and neo-Nazis that supported him, both throughout the 2016 campaign and then, over the course, throughout his presidency, where he equated protestors and neo-Nazis as both sides being the same.

[00:40:03] This is a president whose -- part of his base are racists, are Nazis, are white supremacists. That's a fact, period. There's no way to argue against that.

VAUSE: OK. And we should also note Cohen is the guy who did the dirty work for Donald Trump, and he did it for decades. Stuff like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JACKIE SPEIER (D), CALIFORNIA: How many times did Mr. Trump ask you to threaten an individual or entity on his behalf?

COHEN: Quite a few times.

SPEIER: Fifty times?

COHEN: More.

SPEIER: A hundred times?

COHEN: More.

SPEIER: Two hundred times?

COHEN: More.

SPEIER: Five hundred times?

COHEN: Probably over the -- over the ten years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Cohen went on to testify that Trump directed him to even threaten past schools not to releases his grades or SAT scores. Charles, why would the self-described stable genius be worried about his high school grades?

MORAN: When you're -- you know, the practices that was just described there, using your lawyers to try to defend and contain your information, that goes on in Hollywood every day. And in fact, the mainstream media goes along with this. Sometimes they actually do what they're supposed to do and continue to try to investigate this type of work.

But what was just described in that very short clip is very common, especially in places like Los Angeles and in Washington, D.C. You know, the constant obsession with nondisclosure agreements, again, very common in a lot of sectors of the economy.

So again, they're trying to dig into things that sometimes are just generally routine, and this is one of them.

VAUSE: David, last word to you, because clearly, you guys obviously saw different testimonies and different hearings. So how did you see this all wrapping up? Especially that last bit about Cohen being, you know, the threatener, the fixer? The knee-capper of Donald Trump.

JACOBSON: I just want to go back to your last point, John.

You know, the fact is, Donald Trump said during the 2016 campaign that he has a very good brain and that he listens to himself and he talks to himself. And he knows more than the generals. Right? And we saw that, obviously, a number of times throughout the course of his presidency. We see that every day when he does his, quote, "executive time." And we see that, you know, through his Twitter feed on a regular basis.

The reality is this president is reckless. It's clear that, potentially, he may have committed crimes while being president of the United States, independent of potential crimes that he did before that, of course. And so I think this -- this testimony was extraordinarily telling. And we'll see where the committee takes it in the months ahead, whether or not they're going to continue the investigation or expand it.

VAUSE: It seems like they have set up, you know, further hearings to call others involved with the president and to try and, you know, dig into some of these dealings a little more.

MORAN: Yet, Nancy Pelosi is still saying that we're not going to move into impeachment. VAUSE: OK, exactly. What's the point?

MORAN: So once again, political theater.

VAUSE: And we will talk about this next hour.

MORAN: There's no end to this.

VAUSE: We have another hour to get to all of this. So Charles and David, it's been a while. So thank you so much. Appreciate you coming in.

JACOBSON: Thank you.

MORAN: Thanks.

VAUSE: Back live to Vietnam after a break and what lies ahead in the final hours of this historic summit between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:45:28] RIPLEY: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Will Ripley live in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump will likely soon be wrapping up their second summit. About 90 minutes from now, we are expecting the two leaders to sign some sort of joint agreement between the United States and North Korea. We don't know exactly what this agreement is going to say. It's going to be a document, analysts are hoping, that's more specific than what they signed in Singapore back in June.

Now, earlier today here, the North Korean leader said that he thinks this summit will end with good results, although his definition of good results may differ from that of the U.S. president, who did say a short time ago that he is in no hurry to reach a final deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm in no rush. We don't want the testing, and we've -- we've developed something very special with respect to that. But I just want to say, I have great respect for Chairman Kim, and I have great respect for his country. And I believe that it will be something, economically, that will be almost hard to compete with for many countries, it has such potential.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: The U.S. president lowering expectations.

I want to bring in Paul Carroll now. He is a senior advisor at the nuclear disarmament group N Square, and he joins me now live from San Francisco.

Paul, it's good to have you here. So what are your thoughts about this potential deal that they will be announcing later today? Are you optimistic that it's going to contain specifics about denuclearization?

PAUL CARROLL, SENIOR ADVISOR, N SQUARE: Well, thanks for having me, Will.

You know, I usually say I'm optimistic. I think this time around, I would say that I'm curious. Because as you said in your intro, there's a lot of speculation about what the elements of this statement will be.

Last June, the statement was quite vague. It was more about aspirational goals than anything concrete. This week, leading up to the summit, we've heard discussion and ideas about will there be an opening of interest sections? Will the U.S. have an office in Pyongyang? Will there be some type of a peace declaration or a statement about an end to the war?

All of these things are OK, as long as, in return, the North says it will do something specific and time-bound. And really, the brass ring is to allow some type of presence, some type of inspections inside North Korea to verify what they are doing.

RIPLEY: But you probably know full well that, even if inspections are allowed, that in itself is quite difficult, because what are the North Koreans going to allow outsiders to actually see?

CARROLL: You're absolutely right, and that's why you really -- you have to crawl before you walk; and you have to walk before you run.

When President Trump said he's not in a rush, I think you're right: he was lowering expectations. That doesn't mean you don't have an end goal ever.

This discussion about the Yongbyon facility. It's actually more than just a facility. There are a number of facilities there, from a reactor that produces plutonium, reprocessing facilities that extract from plutonium. And several years ago, when a contingent from the U.S. went, we discovered there was uranium enrichment.

If the North is sincere about freezing or halting operations at that entire complex, that is actually an enormous first step. And if they allow U.S. or some type of international (AUDIO GAP) --

RIPLEY: And there was -- OK, sorry. I lost your -- I lost your last sentence there. But I just wanted to say on the point that you were making, Paul, the monitoring group 38 North did actually put out some satellite imagery showing no activity, from what they could observe, at Yongbyon, the nuclear reactor.

So that begs the question, if there is a pause in activity at Yongbyon, and also a pause in nuclear and missile testing, does that, in itself, diminish the nuclear threat from North Korea?

CARROLL: I wouldn't use the word "diminish." What it does is it caps and it sort of leaves in stasis the nuclear threat.

General Abrams, the U.S. commander of forces in Korea, made a statement recently, and I completely agree with him. The nuclear threat, in fact the military threat that North Korea poses to its neighbors and to the U.S. has not changed one iota since last June. But it hasn't necessarily increased or been enhanced. That's what happens when you stop testing missiles and nuclear tests.

[00:50:10] That's great. Again, that's a first step. But to then reverse or roll back their program, there's a whole other set of things that need to happen.

And this process of summitry and of working-level meetings with Secretary of State Pompeo and his counterparts in the North are essential to taking those other steps to begin to roll back their program.

RIPLEY: Paul Carroll, I know you and many others are watching all of this very closely. Thanks for joining us from San Francisco.

CARROLL: My pleasure.

RIPLEY: And we have just learned that President Trump's press conference, the time has been changed. It will now be happening in just about an hour, 2 p.m. local time. So we could get some key insight into what has exactly happened behind the scenes. We're counting down.

But in the meantime, we're watching another developing story: the situation in India and Pakistan. And there is a new message for both of those countries. Calm down and calm down now. They're trading airstrikes as their fight over Kashmir escalates, and world leaders are saying that these nuclear-armed neighbors need to stand down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: The U.S. is calling on nuclear neighbors India and Pakistan to step away from the brink after both sides traded airstrikes for the first time since 1971.

The latest development in this crisis, Pakistan has closed its entire airspace until further notice. That's causing air-traffic chaos around the region.

Earlier, Pakistan said it shut down two Indian war planes over the disputed region of Kashmir and captured one of the pilots. That followed an air strike from India on Pakistan territory. India says it was targeting terrorists after a car bombing and shot down a Pakistani fighter jet, as well.

China, Australia, the U.K., all calling on both sides to deescalate the situation and do that right now.

For more on all of this, Delhi bureau chief Nikhil Kumar is with us. We also have Ben Farmer, correspondent for "The Daily Telegraph," who is standing by in Islamabad.

First to you, Nikhil. Pakistan's prime minister, Imran Khan, talked about talks about terrorism that -- that came with sort of a -- you know, a veil of -- you know, a threat of nuclear annihilation, if there's a miscalculation here, as well. It seems New Delhi sees that offer as certainly not being enough to, you know, step away or de- escalate what is, you know, a crisis that's getting worse.

NIKHIL KUMAR, CNN NEW DELHI BUREAU CHIEF: That's right, John.

Delhi so far he hasn't said anything since that statement yesterday, in which they said that one of their planes had gone down. They also said that they brought down a Pakistani plane, and they confirmed that one of their pilots was missing. Pakistan later in the night said after earlier saying there were two Indian pilots in custody, later at night yesterday they said they only had one.

And so now all the focus is on that. What happens next with that pilot? India has called for the pilot to be released, to be returned to India. They haven't made any official statements so far today.

But everyone in the region and around the world is watching the situation very carefully, because there's always that threat of further escalation, and then nobody knows where it end up.

You mentioned the car bomb on the 14th of February which took place in Indian-administered Kashmir where 40 Indian paramilitaries were killed. The worst attack on Indian forces there in several decades.

India's response was airstrikes in Pakistani territory, across the line of control, the first time since the 1971 war between the two countries that Indian jets had crossed over.

The account of what happened varies country by country. India says they went in. They hit the camp, as you mentioned. Pakistan says that, no, the jets just crossed, and they were pushed back, dropped their payload in haste.

[00:55:08] And then there was, of course, the Pakistani retaliation yesterday in which this happened, where the jets came down.

Now, everyone is just waiting to watch what happens next. It could go either way. There's always the risk of further escalation. Will India, the fact that Pakistan now has an Indian pilot in its custody. How will India react to that? Can this be resolved amicably?

These are all questions to which nobody has an answer yet. But everybody knows that the ultimate threat here is nuclear war. Because these are, after all, nuclear armed neighbors who have been to war several times in the past. There have been numerous smaller skirmishes. And that threat looms large over this region -- John.

VAUSE: Yes. And each time there's been a war, the Pakistanis have lost.

Let's go to Islamabad now. So Ben, Pakistan believes that the United States has basically delivered an unspoken endorsement to New Delhi for its actions, and they say that's emboldened India in this military adventure. BEN FARMER, CORRESPONDENT, "THE DAILY TELEGRAPH": Yes, they do. They

believe that America is backing Delhi. They here are calling for Delhi to sit down for -- to have talks. They say that there is -- there cannot be a risk of miscalculation, given that they have nuclear weapons.

But on the other hand, they're saying that if there is further military aggression from India, they will take action. So there is still -- it's very tense here, and there is that risk of escalation. There's been reports overnight of more shelling along the border. And so it's very tense here. We're waiting to see what will happen.

VAUSE: Yes, thank you, Ben. We're out of time. But this is one of these stories which we're going to monitor for a while and see where it goes. As Nikhil was saying, it could actually escalate in any direction. So Nikhil there in New Delhi and Ben in Islamabad, thanks to you both.

Thank you for watching this special edition of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Will Ripley will rejoin me, live in Hanoi after a break. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RIPLEY: Hey there and welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. I am Will Ripley, live in Hanoi, Vietnam. And we continue to follow North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's second summit with the U.S. president, Donald Trump.

VAUSE: But it's an historic summit being overshadowed by events half a world away. Hi, everyone. I'm John Vause with details on explosive testimony from Trump's former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen.

Michael Cohen was Donald Trump's loyal right-hand man for ten years. But in Wednesday's congressional hearing, he turned on his old boss like a Shakespearean tragedy. Cohen said Trump directed him to make hush-money payments to two women during the campaign.