Michael Cohen Begins Day 3 Of Cap Hill Testimony; Cohen Alleges Trump Committed Crimes While In Office
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: All right. The president's former attorney, Michael Cohen, is back on Capitol Hill today, behind closed doors, testifying before the House Intelligence Committee. This follows a day of explosive public testimony, Republicans getting used to the Democrats, leading these committees, and Democrats trying to determine where this Cohen testimony takes them next. But in all the back-and-forth did we lose sight of what we really learned yesterday? Jim.</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Here with us to discuss CNN Political Director, David Chalian. And David, this is a frequent phenomenon here, right? So much news comes across the transom, it's hard to take stock. But help us take stock with how, if at all Michael Cohen's, testimony and revelations move the dial here. Does it, for instance, move the dial closer to Democrats seeking possibly impeachment of the president?</s>DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, it's a good question, Jim. I think we have to look at this two ways, a little bit more micro, sort of, what investigative threads did Michael Cohen leave behind for Democratic members of Congress to sort of pull that going forward. Clearly, insurance for fraud, bank fraud, tax fraud, kind of allegations having nothing to do with Russia, of course, but just into potential wrongdoing that the president may, or his organization may have been engaged in. So that's sort of on the immediate investigative threats. But your point of where we are in the in the larger picture here of Donald Trump standing after Michael Cohen delivered what was clearly damning, damning testimony yesterday. It is a sign of the times. I think that the American people got more evidence yesterday, Jim and Poppy, than at any time in the last two years that Donald Trump was likely committing a crime, a part of committing a crime as president of the United States. And yet, I am skeptical that Americans minds are going to be changed.</s>HARLOW: Right.</s>CHALIAN: The projections about Donald Trump are so locked in, and yet the country just heard more convincing evidence than ever that he actually may have committed a crime. That is the state of our politics right now --</s>HARLOW: Yes</s>CHALIAN: -- and where we are as a people.</s>HARLOW: And David, I think you're so right, and I wonder, is if that's why we really didn't hear the word impeachment. The "i" word from Democrats yesterday, and we haven't heard a ton of it in the aftermath. Yes, representative, Jackie Speier, mentioned the possibility, but Democrats aren't jumping all over that following the testimony and that's you know, I wonder if that's because impeachment is a political mechanism, and they see what you see.</s>CHALIAN: Without a doubt, Poppy, and I think it is a really smart observation. When I heard Nancy Pelosi give remarks yesterday to reporters, and she said she hadn't been watching all day, but then she followed up by saying very clearly. I am not looking to get involved in all of this. My job is to fight the president as hard as possible on his policy positions, on is tax cuts for the wealthy, on what he's trying to do, was stripping away health care. She went right back. She did not sound like a speaker who was trying to lead her party in the aftermath of that testimony towards impeachment.</s>HARLOW: Yes.</s>CHALIAN: She sounded like she was trying to pull them away from that.</s>HARLOW: You're right.</s>SCIUTTO: And she knows she knows that a number of the gains Democrats made in the mid-term elections were in flip districts, where relatively moderate Democrats were able to flip.</s>SCIUTTO: And you're a couple months into her leadership, and Democrats -- you have the wall issue, you have the Cohen testimony. Some -- a couple talking about impeachment there, but no progress on, or less progress so far on the bigger issues of what was an ambitious, ambitious Democratic agenda. Is that a danger for the Democratic Party?</s>CHALIAN: I doubt they're much in danger yet. I mean yesterday, they did pass in the House a gun control legislation, a big promise back on the campaign trail, but obviously that's not going to go anywhere in the Senate. I mean, I think, that'll be the story right that the House will pass big agenda items, but likely to be blocked in the Republican-controlled Senate, and not get to the President's desk. But they'll be able to move through some of their big agenda items. But I think that the Democrats would tell you, Jim, that the shutdown over the wall allowed them to talk to some of their key items, because they were on the political winning side of that shutdown, obviously, when the president caved on that. I do think that you are right to note that much of the Democratic majority, the reason they're in the majority is, because a lot of Republican districts were flipped. So you do have these more moderate members, but there is also a real tension with the Democratic base that wants to see every day Donald Trump be held accountable, and a portion of that base really does want to see impeachment proceedings begin.</s>HARLOW: Yes. It's a good point. This is, sort of, the tightrope that they're walking. David, always good to have you.</s>CHALIAN: Thanks guys.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes.</s>HARLOW: Still ahead, Pakistan this morning, attempting to defuse rising tensions with neighbor India, as the world watches this escalating crisis between the two nuclear powers. We will explain what's going on, and the potential consequences ahead.