for being here with us on this monday. "wolf" starts now. . >> it's 1:00 p.m. in washington 6:00 p.m. in london 8:00 p.m. in jerusalem. whatever you're watching from around the world, thanks for joining us. the words of the republican presidential candidate donald trump have created yet another firestorm. he'si he's offering no apologies and is lashing out of the news media claiming the remarks are being misreported. misreported. >> he's a war hero. >> he's a war hero because he was captured? i like people that weren't captured okay i hate to tell

you. he's a war hero because he was captured. and i believe -- perhaps he's a war hero. >> after receiving backlash for those words. trump came out swinging in an opinion piece he wrote in "usa today" saying and i'm quoting him now "mccain has abandoned our veterans, i will fight for them. the rhealeality is john mccain the politician has made america less safe sent our brave soldiers into wrong headed foreign adventures and has spent most of his time in the senate pushing amnesty. trump continued "he would rather protect the iraqi border than arizona's." this morning is the republican presidential candidate was interviewed on nbc's toadhe "today" show he vehemently criticized the news media for characterization of his comments. >> let me ask you this donald would you say to john mccain's face what you said?

that one comment, i'm using the one string of sentences together "he's not a war hero. he's a war hero because he was captured. i like people that weren't captured." would you say that to john mccain's face? >> no and that's what you don't do if you go on -- >> i'm saying -- >> excuse me, the next sentence was "he is a war hero." i said that they never want to play it but you want to play. >> it why would you say in the the first place? >> hey, matt savannah started it off by saying i said he wasn't a war hero. if you would have let it run just another three seconds you would have seen that i said very clearly he is a war hero. i have absolutely no problem with that. what i have problems with is that he called 15,000 people that showed up for me to speak in phoenix, he called them crazies because they want to stop illegal immigration. >> let me say this. the one portion you said "i like people who weren't captured."

let me highlight that moment for a second. if you're elected president you'll be commander in chief of this country and they have about 10,000 u.s. troops in afghanistan, about 3,500 serving in iraq. they face danger on a daily basis, donald. and they face capture on a daily basis. >> i agree. >> do you think you have sent the wrong message to those people that if they're captured somehow donald trump the commander-in-chief is not in favor of them? >> i don't think so. i think this. i do also respect greatly people that aren't captured. nobody talks about them. we talk about john mccain and i think it's great and he is a very brave man and all of that. but we don't talk about the people that weren't captured and that's what i was trying to refer to. >> senator john mccain later addressed the comments. here's what he said when he was specifically asked if donald trump owed him an apology. >> no i don't think so. but i think he may owe an apology to the families of those

who have sacrificed in conflict and the -- and those who have undergone the prison experience in serving their country. mr. trump said he preferred to be with people who are not captured. well, the great honor of my life was to serve in the company of heroes. i'm not a hero. those are my senior ranking officers, people like colonel bud day, congressional medal of honor winner to says are inspired us to do things we wouldn't have been capable of doing. those are the people i think he owes an apology to. i'd be interested to see, one, how that number is after these comments of his but i can assure you if you talk to our veterans and i've had a flood of calls from our veterans, they are not happy. >> let's discuss this. joining us our chief political

analyst gloria borger and political director david chalian. what do you make of it gloria? >> look i think the entire republican establishment was waiting for a moment when donald trump would implode. i think a lot of people believe that they have found it that this is one step too far and you saw candidate after candidate -- not all of them -- coming out and criticizing him. i think the big question we all have to see is whether this actually affects those voters and the very conservative part of the base of the republican party who are attracted to donald trump whether this alienates them from him. i'm not so sure that it will wolf. >> if you look at fols, spolls before this most recent incident the words about john mccain, he was atop the national polls and the key states whether iowa new hampshire, other states.

>> no doubt, we've seen him surging to the top of the field nationally and there was a new poll out from monmouth university today of iowa voters wolf and we saw, granted, these are small samples, but they looked at their thursday and friday interviews before the comments versus their saturday and sunday interviews after the comments. no change in donald trump's support. >> really? >> still at second place at 13%. we'll see if that bears out. that may be too earl will toy capture the full reaction to this. i think gloria has nailed it. we have to look at this on two different tracks. i think there is the what does this mean for donald trump and his supporters? because one of the things they find very appealing is the brashness. is the ability to not sound like a politician. taking on the news media. that's right out of his play book. they plays into donald trump's strength because he doesn't sound like the other guys. then there's the republican party establishment who are just trying to figure out how they solve this problem of trump's candidacy because they don't think it's good for the brand.

it's one thing for his fellow candidates to position around this. the republican national committee is supposed to be the neutral arbitor inside a nomination fight and they put their thumbs on the stale, too, and said we shouldn't have comments like this. >> they've been waiting if this. they have a problem. they didn't want to light a match underneath donald trump and give him more oxygen then he's already had. this did it for them. it gave them an opportunity to say publicly everything they've been talking to us about. but if you look at all the candidate, not all have been the same about donald trump. rick perry came out, criticized him even before the john mccain comments because rick perry needs to get trakts.ction. he's got nothing to lose. he's single digits in the polls. ted cruz who would like to get trump supporters should trump leave the race has been very, very reluctant to directly criticize donald trump. so where you stand depends on where you sit in this race.

>> you raise a good point, david, that the republican party issued this unusual statement. reince priebus, the chairman of the party, i assume he authorized that statement. but they have to be careful right now because if for some reason trump were to drop out as a republican candidate and run as a pross perot like third party candidate, that could take republican votes away from the republican nominee and essentially help that democratic nominee as was the case back in '92 when ross perot took votes away from george h.w. bush and bill clinton was elected. >> that would be the nightmare scenario for the republicans because he would siphon off more votes from the republicans than he would from the democrats. no doubt about it. so that's why gloria is saying they didn't want to light a fire under him but they were waiting and ready to pounce. i do think, though donald trump shows no sign of putting his tail between his legs and walking away. he won't -- you mentioned the op-ed, he's not apologizing and

it's why we see ted cruz embracing it too. clearly he wants supporters if trump does leave but it plays into cruises, whole strategy in the wing of the party that cruz -- >> if he says oh you guys in the media want to do that that plays toplay s to cruz's benefit, too. >> turn it into the media versus donald trump. ted cruz saying you like to see republicans fight with republicans. ted cruz has just written a book about republicans fighting with republicans, i might add. but if you want to turn it into an issue against the media, that does play with a certain segment of the republican base. it's going to be interesting to see when there is finally a debate. and when you start talking about the v.a. and donald trump gets asked what would you do for the v.a. or a serious debate is on stage about solutions where are donald trump's solutions? >> but right now, make no mistake, donald trump is dictating the state of play inside the republican nomination race right now.

every candidate is being asked to respond, jeb bush giving a big speech today mentions how v.a. -- veterans issues will be a priority for him. donald trump is dictating the playing field right now. that is not where the republican party wanted to be. >> no he's controlling the conversation. republicans are attacking each other. hillary clinton, by the way, is getting off scot-free here. at this point in the race, the republican national committee wanted the republicans to be attacking one person and that would be hillary rodham clinton. that is not happening right now because they're too busy positioning themselves vis-a-vis donald trump who's controlling the entire conversation. >> i know he doesn't like to say he's wrong or apologize. but what would have been so bad if donald trump simply said "i misspoke i apologized to john mccain. obviously i have serious disagreements with him about a host of issues but i certainly appreciate the service he gave the united states." >> nothing would be so bad if he said that but it would be against his brand. that's not -- that is not the kind of approach that donald

trump has been selling and meeting success with leading in the polls right now. so that would be sort of anti-his brand to do that. >> to simply say "i misspoke i apologize. ". >> he claims if you look at the words, he doesn't feel that he necessarily misspoke. and he points to some fact checkers who have backed him up on this. but to his point, that's what i'm saying. if we go word by word and parse the words, we miss the point. he questioned john mccain's hero status and that got him into hot water. but he's embracing it to fuel his fire. >> and turning it against john mccain saying "he started it." this is a sandbox "he started it because he called those 15,000 people who came out the so-to-o see me crazies, i'm insulted for them. they are not crazies." which somehow in his mind seems to justify not calling mccain a hero. but it's not in donald trump's

brand to walk away from any fight. he's going to embrace it. he's not going to apologize for it and he's going to continue on and then there will be something else. >> donald trump always likes to point out as you guys know he went to wharton at penn at the university of pennsylvania he was a very good student and john mccain finished last in his class at the u.s. naval academy. he likes to point that out as well. guys thanks very much. trump's controversial comments have been getting a lot of attention since day one of his campaign. is being provocative part of his political strategy? much more on this part of the story coming up later. also, we're getting new details about writings authored by the man who shot and killed five u.s. military personnel in tennessee. what they're revealing able a possible motive.

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terror attack against turkey. a bomb ripped through the border town of suruc where people were calling to rebuild a syrian city taken back from isis. this calls around the heels from one of isis' deadly attacks so far. more than 120 people lost their lives friday in iraq when they were lured to a truck advertising discounted ice. it was instead rigged with explosives. joining us is arwa damon and paul cruickshank. arwa arwa you're on the scene in turkey. isis has refrained from attacking targets in turkey. what's going on based on your analysis? >> well wolf we just arrived to the scene of what took place today. this horrifying attack where the blast captured on camera ripped through a sizable crowd of

kurdish activists. there are forensic experts on scene right now quite a somber move heavy security. the turkish government is blaming this attack with isis saying it's in rheale retaliation for the war on terror the timing of the attack being at the end of eid as well as the target, the kurdish population. perhaps in retaliation for the battle that took place in kobani, the town just across the border here in syria, the kurdish town that was the scene of fierce fighting between isis and predominantly kurdish fighters backed by coalition air strikes, eventually driving isis out. this gathering was meant to be part of the reconstruction

effort for kobani so perhaps isis if it is responsible is sending a message to the turkish government but also to the kurdish population as well. >> what other ramifications, paul of this? if in fact this is an isis attack on turkey what's the turkish government going to do. >> isis have not gone off to turkey in any big way before. they've seen turkey as a crucial recruit, logistical supply hub for their efforts and they haven't wanted to jeopardize this by launching major attacks inside turkey. if that is changing, that will be a big problem for the turkish short s shorts more than a thousand turks have joined isis. they are operating in places like istanbul recruiting people bringing them over to syria to join the isis terrorist

organization so if isis pulls the trigger, turkey could have problems indeed. there's got to be concern about western tourists inside turkey as well as facilities in ankara and istanbul. >> ar a, you have spent a lot of time in baghdad, in iraq, in iraq over the years, the horrible suicide bombing in iraq over the weekend, the death toll now up to 120. some guy pretending to sell ice at the end of ramadan, during people there causing a huge explosion. there seems to be an uptick against shiite elements inside iraq. >> and this was targeting one of the very delicate potential fissure points inside iraq by going after the predominantly shi'a population in the town in the diyala province. and of course you have the horrifying tactics playing out

once again where you mentioned theed is bomber as as man selling ice, luring customers in including children. what's happening in iraq and taking place in turkey is isis going after targets that it knows are potentially going to have ramifications for each nation. and iraq trying to deepen the growing divide between the shi'a and sunni population, perhaps here in turkey trying to exploit the pre-existing tensions between the kurdish and turkish population which is part of the reason why the country's prime minister is saying that the nation the turkish nation needs to stand together at this critical juncture fingers of blame should not be pointed and that this was an attack on the nation not on a particular segment segment of the population and the country needs to come together at this crucial stage, wolf. >> certainly does. what a story.

horrible terror attacks in turkey and syria. paul cruickshank, arwa damon, thank you very much. still ahead, new details about what might have motivated about killings of five u.s. service members in chattanooga, tennessee. the family of the deceased gunman, that family say he was depressed, they say he was bipolar, that he abused drugs. we'll talk about it. congressman peter king of the house intelligence homeland security committee is standing by live. ♪ ♪ food should be good. strawberries should sing. lettuce should be dirty. dressing, clean. debates should be healthy. hatchets buried. tables should be full. and good food should be good for you. we're not saying these are the rules we should all live by. but it's a good place to start. panera. food as it should be. benny's the oldest dog in the shelter. he needed help all day so i adopted him. when my back pain flared up,

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had, in fact accused drugs. friends and relatives say they noticed a change in abdulazeez's behavior after he returned from jordan last year. so does it all add up to a motive for last thursday's attack that kill ded four u.s. marines and a sailor? before the shootings abdulazeez tested this "whosoever shows enmity to a friend of mine i have declared war against him." republican congressman mike mccaul, chairman of the house homeland security committee has drown his own conclusion about the motive. >> we've seen so much of this traffic, there are too many warnings signs, the targets are identical to the targets called by isis to attack. so my judgment in my experience is this was an isis-inspired attack. >> joining us from west babylon in new york peter sing serves on the house homeland security committee. congressman you agree with the

chairman mike mccaul? >> i agree basically that actions like this or by al qaeda, whether or not there's a direct connection, there's enough evidence to say that. there's no doubt if there was not an isis or an al qaeda that that he would not have carried out this attack. so whether it's a direct inspiration or what he sees on the internet and that put him over the edge we don't know yet. isis doesn't have directly control someone or have direct contact with someone. the way they articulate and express their vision of an islamist world appears not just to -- appeals not just to hard core islamists but also people on the fringes, people on the edges of society we saw this in new york where a deranged muslim attacked two police officers with a hatchet. isis is not directly contacting

him but he was inspired so it's a question of definition. there's no doubt in the world in which we live that this assailant would not have carried these actions if it were not for the islamist movement. >> do you know congressman -- he visited, he traveled to kuwait that's where he was born that he went to jordan as recently as last year spending several month there is. do you know if he also visited any other countries in the middle east? >> i've never heard of it. i know this is being looked at exhaustively by the fbi and certainly it could be when it got to jordan one thing going for us right now is that the jordan intelligence agencies are first rate they will cooperate with us completely and whatever information they have we will get. it's really seamless, the cooperation between the united states and jordan. so that's one advantage we have going for us here.

they are top rate professionals and a strong strong ally. >> the u.s. has good cooperation with kuwait. a quick unrelated matter about donald trump, his comments. your reaction. >> totally wrong. i'm not one of those people who generally attack donald trump he loud mouthed new york. that is so wrong, it's morally wrong. john mccain is a genuine hero and the thought that anyone who spent five years in a prison and passed up the opportunity to get out before the others i can't imagine anything more hero yikic it's sacrilegious. it crosses a line that's totally indefensible. it goes beyond politics. we could say a lot of things about each other but i would never question the patriotism bravery, courage, heroism of john mccain.

>> as some republican presidential candidates say, this disqualifies donald trump as a candidate. should he drop out of the race? >> i think he has to apologize, let the voters decide. he's made himself untenable as a candidate. what he's going to end up with is hard core within the party, it might be anti-immigrant or anti-mccain, that's a small segment, as far as normal people regular people intelligent people everyday people they won't stand for that. again, i was at a ball game last night in new york in brooklyn and i had people coming up to me not political ideologues at all, they came from different races, backgrounds, whatever and they said the same thing, what donald trump did is wrong. you should never say anything like that about john mccain, this man is a genuine hero. i can't begin to appreciate what john mccain went through questioning his heroism is beyond me. >> congressman king thank you

for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. coming up more on donald trump's gop rivals. they're not wasting any time. they're going after him. you'll hear their angry reaction about his comments about senator john mccain's war hero status. no even the white house, the press secretary, they are weighing in stand by we'll tell you what the white house is now saying. i'm gonna crack like nobody's watching and eat like i skipped lunch. why? because red lobster's crabfest is back. and i'm diving into so much crab so many ways. like crab lover's dream with luscious snow and king crab legs and rich crab alfredo or this snow crab bake. who knew crab goes with everything? whoever put crab on this salmon, that's who. with flavors like these, i'm almost too excited to eat! hey i said almost. and now that it's back get crackin' while you still can. when you have a migraine you'll reach for anything to make the pain go away. truth is, most pain relievers don't work like excedrin migraine. it relieves my pain starting in 30 minutes. that's fast!

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liberty mutual insurance. ♪ even in the midst of their 2008 campaign for the white house, senator barack obama expressed his deep respect for senator john mccain's heroism. there are political differences between president obama and john mccain have not reduced while he's in office but it does not reduce president obama's admiration for senator john mccain's service. the most notable comment came from senator john mccain himself

where he said he didn't care about an apology but he did believe that our military veterans are entitled to one. >> the white house as you just saw weighing in on donald trump's headline-grabbing comments over the weekend. stating senator john mccain is not necessarily a war hero because he was captured. this morning republican rival general bush weighed in on trump's remarks while voicing support for a military spending proposal of john mccain's. bush said this. >> i support initiatives by the respective chairman of the senate and house arms services committees jamaica plain a real hero by the way. [ cheers and applause ] >> bush's biggest applause line by the way. now listen to trump's other republican rivals blasting his comments about senator mccain. >> it's not just absurd it's offensive. it's ridiculous and i do think it's a disqualifier as commander-in-chief.

>> donald trump owes every american veteran and in particular john mccain an apology. >> he crossed a line today that will offend most everyone that i know and in my view the democratic process is going to lead to him hearing what he is so fond of saying. "you're fired." >> it's a true and humbling privilege to serve in the senate with an american hero like john mccain. >> this is an honorable man and you may have a policy disagreement with him here or there but we should never, ever ever question the patriotism and the heroism of someone like john mccain. >> john mccain is a hero. what john mccain did was the most honorable, sacrificial service that a man could give to his country. >> joining us michael smerconish, the host of cnn's "smerconish" joining us from philadelphia. also joining us cnn political

commentators kevin madden and paul begala they're here with me in washington. michael, first to you. do you think it's going to sink the trump campaign? >> i do. i think this is the beginning of the final act and i think the ripple effects of this extend further than donald trump. i appreciate what you just rolled of all the gop candidates doing now what's obvious, and that's condemning his speech. but they should have done it two weeks ago and i think jeb bush in particular blew a great opportunity. he should have taken on the don't when trump made the statement about mexican rapists which was jeb who said you need to be prepared to lose primaries to one the general. trump teed up a great opportunity and jeb didn't hit it. and he should have. >> kevin, do you think this is over now for all practical purposes? the trump republican quest for the presidential nomination? >> it's the beginning of the end. i think it's part of a process. i think this information will get to voters and even those that initially may have had some

level of support for donald trump i think they'll see they're going to see a revelation in his character as well as temperament that will lead them to look at other candidates. >> paul? >> wishful thinking. it is to paraphrase churchill, not even the end of the beginning. mr. trump will continue to say outrages you things. the problem is with the republicans the base, the party, the heart of the base republicans, they all admire john mccain and admire his heroism but the base of their party is as john mccain said crazy. michael is right, jeb bush wasused out when donald trump called mexican immigrants rapists but he moved up in the poll. he was rewarded by crazy base voters. the republicans' parties is that they agree with this kind of hate. >> i think the candidates with too careful at first when the --

when donald trump made those very offensive remarks about mexican americans. but i think right now what you're seeing is the party take a dramatic shift this weekend, taking the -- taking donald trump head on to confronting this type of rhetoric. and, you know, many candidates right now will see it as an opportunity that this is their chance to really draw some stark contrasts about the direction of the part yeey. this is an opportunity for these candidates. >> do you think, michael it's possible -- because there's a lot of speculation out there that if he were to drop out as a republican presidential candidate he could pull a ross perot and run as a third party independent candidate. certainly he's got a lot of money to do it as ross perot did. >> i'm glad you asked. i've been paying close attention to peter ackerman and his changetherule.org group. i spoke with frank farenkopf, the co-chair of the commission on presidential debates.

independent of the donald there is a move afoot to expand that debate stage in the fall. and it could be that individuals having no motivation to help the donald are setting the table for him. and one thing about it we can all debate even know and these two guys are brilliant, we can debate whether ross perot really pulled from george herbert walker bush or whether, in fact he took from bill clinton. but we would all agree if he's on that stage with a republican and democrat he's pulling only from an "r" and helping hillary clinton. >> is that true? >> that's a very big risk right now for republicans. that's why i think they were careful not to engage. many folks -- never find just the candidates but inside the establishment, folks at the rnc, they didn't want to give donald trump what he wanted more oxygen more attention. i think one of the big worries is that if you push him into a position where he says -- and he said this he said he'll run as

an independent. >> if he were to run a la ross perot. >> not a la ross perot. there's data on this. there's mythology and data. the data are clear. mr. perot drew equally from governor clinton and president obama. it -- president bush. they asked perot voters if you had not had the choice of perot, who would you choose? equal numbers said bush and clinton. this is different. michael is right. we don't need to debate facts. there's no doubt if mr. trump runs as a third party candidacy he will draw from the crazy base not moderate swing voters the way perot did. >> we'll see what happens. that's obviously a nightmare scenario for the republicans right now. >> dream. >> a nightmare scenario for the republicans, i said. a dream scenario for the democrats if that were to happen. >> and cable news. >> obviously. thanks very much guys. we're just hearing now from a

friend of the chattanooga killer mohammad youssuf abdulazeez who says he discussed the terror group isis at length with abdulazeez. the interview that you will see and hear only here on cnn. that's coming up next.

gunman is offering new clues into the mind-set of mohammad youssuf abdulazeez. abdulazeez was killed in a shootout last thursday after attacking and killing four u.s. marines and a u.s. sailor. our senior investigative correspondent drew griffin is on the scene getting new information. drew tell our viewers what you're learning. >> reporter: james petty has been a friend of mohammad youssuf abdulazeez for about a year. he's a southern baptist who converted along with mohammed's help to islam. he last saw him on july 10 at

prayers. everything from what we've heard is the same he was happy go lucky, there was no problems we had a wide ranging discussion about shooting guns about smoking pot and also isis and the conversation is not what you might expect. take a listen. did you ever talk about the conflicts in the middle east? >> not too much. it was more like a -- what they're doing is wrong. >> reporter: who? >> mohammed -- who was doing wrong or? >> right. >> isis mainly. groups any terror groups like isis. >> what did he say? zblfs >> that it was a stupid group and come letly against islam and not to think about going towards them. and i wasn't thinking about like i'm with their group so i don't want you to do like me it was more like just that way this is not where you should be going towards.

>> reporter: you felt he truly believed in his heart at that moment that what isis is doing was wrong? >> . >> and that any kind of radical islamic terrorism is wrong? >> yes, sir. >> and he discussed that? >> he did. >> did you ever notice anything out of sync with this guy? >> i believe not. he was the most genuine, kind sweet person. >> reporter: mohammad youssuf abdulazeez described by his friend james petty, was more american than i was, never talked disparagingly about anything in the u.s. he said his friend did have a big problem, wolf with marijuana. he didn't drink but he smoked a lot of marijuana, he took pain medications, supposedly from a back injury because of wrestling and james petty spent time at

the home sleeping over he said he never noticed in the year he knew him anything resembling any kind of mental illness or depression whatsoever. we just completed that interview. again, he is questioning like every other person we know questioning what could have motivated or snapped, as he said in mohammad youssuf abdulazeez's mind to do what he did. >> his family said he was suffering from depression, die bipolar disease and other ailments as well. thank you, reynolds wolf. and scott walker is generating attention because of a statement about gay boy scout leaders. raising lots of questions as he seeks the republican presidential nomination. [baby cooing] your baby looks at the world... ...through those delicate little baby lashes. and one of those chubby baby hands... ...latches onto your finger so hard...

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the united nations is now firmly behind the iran nuclear deal. the u.n. security council voting unanimously to give its endorsement to the agreement and the u.s. congress is now officially reviewing the agreement after receiving the official copy from the state department over the weekend. president obama says he will veto any attempts to change the nuclear deal. meanwhile, the u.s. defense secretary ash carter is in israel today trying to smooth things over with critics of the agreement. the white house wants to reassure israel that the u.s. will continue to support israel's security in the region. >> israel a our cornerstone for our military and for me personally. that's especially true when it comes to preventing iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, which the deal reached in vienna last

week which is a good deal is designed to do. friends can disagree about whether it will work and we'll be watching iran very closely to see. >> the defense secretary will also visit saudi arabia and jordan this week before heading back to washington. in political news here in the united states the democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders' campaign is continuing to pick up steam. the vermont senator drew around 8,000 people in dallas texas. in phoenix 11,000 people showed up for his events. that's the most so far. he continues to push forward. a week into his presidential campaign wisconsin governor scott walker is being overshadowed by the controversy surrounding donald trump. but walker is making headlines of his own, especially for his stance on gay leaders in the boy

scouts. the organization is currently taking steps to end its ban on gay leaders. our chief congressional correspondent dana bash caught up with him and spoke exclusively with him about his campaign. they met on his campaign bus. >> reporter: earlier this week you said that the boy scouts of america should keep its ban on gay leaders because the policy protected children and values and your campaign clarified to say it was really protecting the scouts from the political and media discussion about that. i'm having trouble understanding that. what -- at the end of the day, what is your position? >> i'm not talking about personal protection. i'm talking about -- for me the reason i have a problem with it it puts it into a cultural and political debate. scouting is about camping and citizenship and instead of pulling all of these other issues out there and i hope we can stay focused. that's all.

>> so -- but should there be a ban on allowing gay men to be scout leaders? >> that's up to the people who run the boy scouts. one thing that is unique people ask me a question i'll answer a question. >> but you're not answering this. >> sure. in this case i thought the policy was just fine. when i was in scouts it was fine. you're asking what should the policy be going forward and it should be left up to the leaders and the scouts. >> do you think being gay is a choice? >> that's not even an issue for me to be involved in. the bottom line is, i'm going to stand up for every american, regardless of who they are and no matter their background. i'm going to fight for people and whether they go from here. >> to act on behalf of people to do that properly you have to understand or at least have an opinion on who they are and where they are coming from. >> again, i don't have an opinion on every single issue out there. to me that's -- i don't know. i don't know the answer to that

question. i don't know what the answer to that is. and, again, i'm going to spend my time focused on what i do know and what i can focus on. >> good interview by dana bash. "amanpour" is up next. for those in north america "newsroom starts with brooke baldwin starts right now. all right. well thank you so much. great to be with you on this money. i'm brooke baldwin. this is cnn and this is the kind of behavior we have come to expect from donald trump. make a provocative statement. if challenged do not apologize, double-down. today, donald trump is refusing to apologize for remarks over the weekend about long-time senator and fellow republican john mccain. as you know the party's 2008 presidential nominee spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in vietnam. these