what a week it's been for the president. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. team trump was expecting to take a victory lap after the president's first address to congress. that victory lap turning into another political firestorm for the administration with revelations that multiple trump advisers, including michael flynn, jeff sessions, even jared kushner met privately with russia's ambassador before president trump's inauguration. plus with a new travel ban waiting in the wings, reports that homeland security is considering a proposal tom adul when they try to enter the country illegally at the southern border. let's get right to jonathan sanders from stony brook university school of journalism. also cnn political analyst

kirsten powers and david rode. i saw you shaking your head when i said that about separating children. >> it sounds like something stalin would do in getting people ready to go to the gulag. >> wow, that's a tough assessment. >> it's inhumane at a minimum, and i guess it's supposed to discourage people from coming here. but i don't think that people are going to be discouraged if they're trying to flee a terrible situation. and the idea of taking a child and putting them in detention away from their mother is just unamerican. >> we're going to talk about that later on in the show. i wanted to get to russia. but as i was reading it, i saw you shaking your head because it -- >> well, russia is always a good comparison for the extreme actions that we sometimes see lurking as proposals in american politics. >> what do you mean? explain that. >> well, we've seen russia, the 19th century philosopher says it was created as an experiment of

the worst things that can happen to humanity. we sometimes get hints of it in the most extreme american policies taken to their vast extremism. i have friends who were separated because their parents were labeled enemies of the people. they were sent to special children's camps when their mothers were sent to the gulag and their fathers were shot behind the kgb headquarters. so that's my comparative framework. >> that's an interesting one and a lesson to the american people. so, listen, i want to talk about how this is now playing out, this russian situation now playing out here in u.s. politics. the democrats, they're on a political witch hunt according to some, and i think the president is saying that. they're learning about these contacts between the inner circle, the russian officials, after minority leader nancy pelosi claimed she had never met with the russian ambassador, the president tweeted this. he said, i hereby demand a second investigation after

schumer, pelosi -- after schumer, of pelosi, for her close ties to russia and lying about it with a picture of the two meeting. then pelosi responded by saying, president trump doesn't know the difference between official meeting photographed by press and closed secret meeting. a.g. lied about under oath. i mean this is like school antics. >> it's like high school, and it isn't even high school. it's like grade school. >> this is very serious considering what our intelligence people have said about the election and russia. then you have all of these contacts now. this is serious, but it's playing out like schoolyard. >> the democrats should not have been tweeting out or claiming to not have meetings that they had. claire mccaskill did this as well. they shouldn't have done that. that was an unforced error. i would say claire mccaskill's meeting was four years ago. chuck schumer's was in 2003. it's not quite the same thing as jeff sessions forgetting a meeting he had a few months prior, right? so it's slightly separate.

it's also a different context. the cop text in which he forgot it was the context where the russians were interfering in our election, and it was pretty much all anybody was talking about in the news. so it makes it a little stranger. >> how can you be an american leader and claim you haven't met with russians? i mean with russia falling apart in the 1990 js, russia reconstituting itself in a different way now, to say that you didn't meet with these people shows just complete disregard for one of the most important things going on in the world. >> i would just say, though, again the context here is there was a unanimous agreement among all 17 american intelligence agencies that russia tried to influence our election and, you know, we'll never know if they succeeded. but this happened. this wasn't, you know, obama appointees, i talked to career people who served republicans and democrats. it happened. we can't miss that context. that's why it's very, very

different trump campaign officials having contact with russians versus chuck schumer as a gas station many years ago. >> and one that has been reported about is carter page. he was on with anderson earlier tonight. his name is out there because he apparently met with the russian ambassador during the campaign, but i want to play what he said about russia meddling in the elections. >> for that same reason, do you believe that russia meddles in the internal political affairs of other countries? >> i don't know anything about na. >> you don't know anything about that? >> listen, based on that intel report, it's all politics. if you read -- >> wait a minute. i got to jump in here. i only have an undergraduate degree, so i'm not as educated as you are, but i've studied the soviet union a fair amount. you have a ph.d. right? you can honestly say you don't knee anything about whether russia meddles in the internal political affairs of other countries. >> in the context of my life, which all this defamation approach by the clinton campaign

to drag my name -- >> you're not making sense. yes or no? you can just tell me, yeah, i do not believe that russia ever meddles in the political affairs of other countries or, yes, i do believe they do. >> listen, i mean, you know, they may -- i think all countries, you know, or certainly the u.s., if you look at what happened in ukraine. >> i know you want to change. of course, the cia has done this for decades. >> yeah, i think that's a fair statement. >> i cannot think of a time when agents of the kremlin did not try and meddle in american elections. at the same time, if you remember that famous cover of "time" magazine from july 1996, americans to the rescue of yeltsen, we've meddled in their elections. nobody is a purist here. we're not dealing with choir boys. this is russian-american stuff. this is the second cold war we're in. what do you expect in.

>> but that doesn't make it right. >> no, it doesn't make it right, of course. >> hacking thousands of embarrassing e-mails all released that hurt one candidate, the democratic candidate. she had many other flaws. i had one intelligence official same to me the russians ran an opp and it worked beyond their wildest dreams. >> we're running the opp now the more we talk about it because if you think about the real dynamic of the election, it's pretty clear. donald trump won as fair and as square as american elections are, and it was a legitimate election. now talking about the actions gives great attention and credence to the russian campaign to interfere in all kinds of democracies to weaken them. they started out trying to weaken hillary clinton for their own reasons that they didn't like what she represented, and they got this big surprise. they got the toy in the cracker jack box, and the toy is donald

trump. >> but we should ignore the fact that they intervened in this election and tried to hurt one candidate? they're trying to do this in europe right now to other candidates. we should respond to that. we should investigate it. >> trying to get boris yeltsen reelected, i'm not saying either one is good. but i'm not saying they're not unprecedented. they're gambling going on in this casino. >> these are criminal acts. it was wrong in we intervened in russia, but we shouldn't sit back and -- >> we should have a special committee to investigate and put the people in jail who can be found guilty if there's enough to find them guilty. >> we don't have clarity. >> you're saying there should be an investigation, but we shouldn't be surprised that russia tried to intervene? is that what -- >> yes, absolutely. look -- >> i'm trying to follow you here. >> in the same article in which he coined the term "cold war," george orwell said that it's commonplace that the history of civilization is the history of weaponry. the digital era gives all kinds

of new weapons before they used to use communist party placards that had no effect. now it's a different era and we need to talk to them to get rules of engagement about cyber warfare. >> that may be the reality, but still i think what we should expect from a president of the united states is to be offended by it, right? i mean to not -- and i don't think we've really seen that from donald trump or seen it really from the people around donald trump. first of all, he's denyi the fi. they'r claiming the intelligence community is out to get them and barack obama is behind it. you know, versus actually, you know, condemning it, right? i mean this is something that whether it's something that happens or not, like we should not be -- you know, this is something that is not a partisan issue. it should go beyond like what -- >> but have you seen donald trump ever be offended by anything other than something he sees as a sleight on his own greatness and magnificentness? i haven't. >> if the russians interfered in

the election and possibly tilted the election towards him, wouldn't that be a sleight against him that he didn't win fair and square? wouldn't he want that to be investigated because i won fair and square. let's have this investigation to show just how big and how big i am and how big my win was. no? with your logic, that's what it sounds like to me. >> you also had general flynn basically indicating to the russians that just hold on, we'll lift the sanctions that barack obama put on you for interfering in the election. that's just not -- >> that's a really interesting piece of business. >> i've got to get david. he's sitting by patiently. i want you to get the last word. where do we go now? do you think there will be an independent investigation of this? >> i think the republicans will hold tight and they'll just want it to be, you know, the senate intelligence committee because that's less public hearings, less bad visuals and this kind of stuff. i can tell you we're not done. at reuters, we're following the money. we're looking at business

interactions, and i think the press isn't done. i think for now the republicans will sit tight, defend sessions and try to make it an intelligence committee investigation. when we come back, a week of ups and downs for the trump white house.

president trump getting some r and r this weekend in florida following a busy week in washingtonment i want to bring

in talk radio host john fredericks and joe madison, a host on sirius xm. joe, i'm going to start with you this time. let's talk about the highs and the lows of the week. the president was widely praised for his speech to congress on tuesday night. that seemed like ths like four . >> i think he was widely praised because he behaved himself. the optics were great. there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it, but to print out the speech. once i printed out the speech and i read the text like any good political science student would, the reality is it was the same old donald trump. so for his supporters like john and others, it was a great day. but this administration is amazing. it's like a yo-yo. it's up, it's down. he should have been able to ride this week out and been on a

high. everybody expected a bump, and then bam. here we go with jeff sessions, and it's now a lull. >> john? >> well, this is the jobs president, and his speech and the week is about jobs, jobs, jobs. this is like the 1917 american workers revolution in reverse. he has a speech. he lays out his jobs agenda. he starts by saying, look, i'm going to do an increase in defense spending of 10%, $54 billion. i'm going to make america great again by rebuilding the military with american workers. then he goes to the newport news shipyard in virginia. i was there. there were 2,500 workers. they're going to get better hours. they're going to get better jobs. he's for that. then he lays out an immigration reform plan and says for legal immigration, i'm going to look

to restrict legal immigration coming into the united states so i can increase job opportunities for americans, and i can increase wages. and then he says, i'm going to have a $1 trillion infrastructure plan to rebuild the united states and put americans back to work. this is the jobs president. i think that was his message. >> okay. but, john -- >> if you look at the speech, there it is. >> so those are, you know -- that's proposals, what he would like to do. that has not come to fruition yet. but what did happen and what's taking over the news cycle not only on this network but every other network and on the front pa pages are these russian connections. as joe madison said, they thought it was in the rearview mirror and all of a sudden you have jeff sessions. why can't they seem to get this behind them? >> as you properly noted, john

laid out what were really headlines. >> mm-hmm. >> the devil is in the details, and the question is where do you get $1 trillion from? and those details weren't there. now, to be honest, you don't expect details in that kind of speech, and i've been around long enough to understand that. but notice what john just did. he didn't even touch the jeff sessions thing, and this is what they do. they sit there and talk about all the good things, but then everybody and their grandmother knows they screwed up big time at the end of the week. and quite candidly, i think republicans right now are very nervous because they have to decide, do we have an independent counsel? does jeff sessions stay? does he recuse himself? let me tell you, it's very serious. >> john? >> when an attorney general has to stand up there and has selective memory. he can remember christians going

into moscow, but he can't even remember what an ambassador said in reference to a very serious issue? >> john, how do you respond to that? >> well, joe and don, jeff sessions, attorney general jeff sessions, gave a very narrow answer to a very narrow question that technically if you analyze it through lawyers' eyes, it was a technically correct question. but he was not forthcoming with the entire truth, and i think he said that by saying, look, i need to go back and correct the record because three words of a statement were missing. those three words were "as a surrogate," i didn't meet with anybody. he did meet with them in his job as a u.s. senator on the armed services committee, and he should have been -- he should have been more effusive in the confirmation hearing. i think he did the right thing by recusing himself without a

doubt. >> yeah. >> you're choking, choking on words. >> this thing is not going to go away, though until -- >> you realize at one of those meetings when he went to the convention that he used campaign funds to go to the convention. he was acting as an adviser and a surrogate on behalf of the trump campaign at the convention when he met with the russian ambassador. yet that meeting was a meeting as a senator and not as a trump adviser? >> don -- >> also keep in mind there is -- any th they asked an oral question and a written question, and he responded similarly in both with his answers. >> well, don, in all fairness, the meeting at the rnc as we understand it, he had made a speech, and they came up to him. that was not a scheduled meeting. look, there is no doubt that the scheduled meeting in his office, although he had his aides there, that should have been within his

response to al franken in that meeting. and, look, he lawyered up. it was a very narrow answer to a very narrow question. >> so if he answered the question truthfully, why recuse himself? >> well, i think he's recusing himself now because he was part of the campaign. he was a surrogate in the campaign. so if you're investigating the campaign and you were part of it, i don't think that makes any sense. i think that jeff sessions should have recused himself even if this hadn't come up. it didn't make any sense tomy. lo the only way you're going to get to the bottom of this is if you have an independent commission, an independent prosecutor looking at this just like they did in the 9/11 commission. i had congressmen, conservative congressmen from north carolina, walter jones on my show today who said that's what they ought to do. that's the only way you're going to get to the bottom of it.

>> do you agree with that, joe? >> mark this as a moment -- >> you do the investigation. >> mark this as a moment of agreement. he is absolutely, 100% correct. and basically it's good for the country. this has to go beyond partisan politics. you know, this is interesting, and i heard somebody say it's like the second cold war. i have never seen an incoming administration spend so much time with so many freakin' russians in my political life. and, man, something is going on. >> okay. >> that we need to get to the bottom of this and quit thinking that russia is an ally. it is not an ally. they are an adversarial government, and we need to understand that. and this administration needs to come clean. >> the trump campaign and the

president himself trying to get back on message. they released a new video. we'll play it and get your reaction right after the break.

we're back now. john fredericks is here. joe madison as well. president trump tweeted a video today with the words "make america great again." let's watch part of this video. ♪ >> a new chapter of american greatness is now beginning. a new national pride is sweeping across our nation. and a new surge of optimism is placing impossible dreams firmly within our grasp. what we are witnessing today is the renewal of the american spirit. >> so now private citizen trump has always been about branding. what did you make of that video, john? >> it's like i said at the beginning of the show. it's about renewing a revival of jobs in america. as i've said over and over and

over, jobs, a growing economy, economic prosperity makes everybody happy, and if is the great equalizer that's really what he needs to be focusing on is bringing jobs back to the united states, getting people back to work, keeping them working, raising wages, creating opportunity, expanding the economy for everybody. if he can do that, he's going to get reelected in 2020 by a bigger margin than you can imagine. that's what he's trying to work on. >> joe? >> this other stuff is a distraction. that's why i'm for an independent prosecutor in order to get this truth out. they didn't do anything. let's put the whole thing to bed, stop the constant drip, and get back to getting people back to work. >> go ahead, joe. >> well, real quick, look, i can't disagree with the goal of what john just laid out. i mean who would do that? of course that's what everybody wants. but it's a question of how do you get there? you don't get there when you don't invest in public

education. you don't get there when student loans are more than credit card loans. you don't get there when you allow flint, michigan, to die because they haven't dealt with the lead in water, and yet you cry about the importance of urban cities. you don't get there by demeaning people who have happen to look different than you. if you're going to get there, you get there with everybody, and you have to deal with the issues that all of us are dealing with. so i don't disagree with what john says, but we've got to quit this demonizing of people because they look different because when i hear, again, that term "make america great again" i've got to say, where do i go back to because the reality is this. the proof isn't going to be in that budget. you don't get there when 20

million people need health insurance and you take it away from them because good health means you can go to work with these jobs he's supposed to create. >> i've got to let you respond to that, john, because your reaction is priceless. >> joe, i love you, man. i really do. but nobody is taking away 20 million people off insurance. president trump has said over and over and over -- >> yes, they are. >> no, no. he said -- he has said that he's not going to go with a repeal of obamacare until there is a legitimate replacement, and he said whatever the number is, 15 million people that have insurance today, that didn't have insurance before obamacare, are not going to be simply tossed off the rolls. they're going to have to find a way in order to keep those people covered in some period of time. so he hasn't ever said that. so we don't even have a plan. there isn't even a consensus plan that has come out, and until the president gets behind a plan and says, this is the plan to replace obamacare, then

i'm in favor of it's all conjecture. he said over and over and over he is not in favor of kicking off 15 million people that have insurance today that didn't have it in the past. >> he better tell his colleagues in the republican congress that because they obviously haven't gotten the memo. >> joe. >> we have president trump of the ineffectiveness of the republican congress. if they haven't been so effective, he wouldn't have even been the nominee. he doesn't care what they say. it's going to be his plan. >> excuse me. he better care. they're going to be looking at his budget real soon. are you kidding me? come on, john. this is america. >> president trump is going to drive this plan, joe. it's not going to be paul ryan. it's not going to be mcconnell. president trump is going to drive the plan, and then we'll see what happens. but right now there isn't even a consensus plan, so we have to wait and see.

>> i'm going to put this up because this is also something drawing some controversy. this photo has been circulating among right-wing outlets. when trump tweeted this photo, it was already on the home page of the drudge report. the president has also praised a french website operated by alex jones, who claims that 9/11 was an inside job. what do you get of the president getting his information from these sites? >> i wouldn't even dignify it with an answer. alex jones is a fraud. shouldn't even be in the business to be quite candid. and the reality is the only controversy in that video is the fact that they were eeating krispy kreme doughnuts. that's about it. >> john? >> joe, i think you're being way too kind to alex jones. that stuff is so ridiculous. 50% of the stuff on that show they just make up. i don't have time for that.

i want real news, real information. that is absolute nonsense. anybody that's going to those sites -- >> but my question was are you concerned that the president is using that as a source? >> that's the point, yeah. >> i think anything that has to do with any of these ridiculous fake news sites that make up stuff in order to gain advertisers so that they can sell something, i mean that is ridiculous and a complete waste of time. >> tell the president that. >> thank you, gentlemen. >> well f i see him, i will. you know what? >> you can tell him now maybe. he could be watching. >> he said he listens. >> he listens to your radio show. >> president trump if you're listening to me, half the stuff on alex jones is just made up. that stuff is ridiculous. who's got time for that? i have to decipher what's true, what isn't true. i don't know about you. i don't have the time for that. >> boy, oh boy, oh boy, you guys are -- it's always interesting

when you're here. i go the to go. thank you. >> have a good weekend. >> we'll be right back. the to g. thank you. >> have a good weekend. >> we'll be right back. e to go. thank you. >> have a good weekend. >> we'll be right back. to go. thank you. >> have a good weekend. >> we'll be right back.

under fire for a controversial oval office picture, but some people may be taking it too far. let's discuss now with joseph per really, the councilman for the 51st district of new york city, cnn political contributor hillary rosen, and bakari sellers. good evening to all of you. shar main, i'm going to start with you. the representative made a cringeworthy joke about this picture of kellyanne conway kneeling on the oval office couch. he said, i want to know what was going on there because i won't tell anybody, and you can just explain it to me that that circumstance because she really looked kind of familiar there in that position there. but don't answer, and i don't want you to refer back to the '90s. what's your reaction to that? >> don, this is just absolutely appalling and there's no excuse for it. the thing that's really troubling to me is there's been so little commentary coming from the left. you know, where is nancy pelosi

condemning this? you know, he really should have by now come out with an apology. instead, he started dancing around and trying to say that it was just a southern expression. well, look, i'm from the south, and that dog won't hunt. this is just a really, really appalling, undermining of a woman in power that should be being condemned across the board. i saw that hillary had condemned right before we came on air. i appreciate that. but we need to see that a whole lot more coming from the left. >> hillary, go ahead. >> i thought it was a stupid thing to say. you know, kind of shocking from a congressman. but, look, i don't think it's a -- i thought the whole picture story got a little bit too much attention anyway. you know, kellyanne sort of kneeling on the couch was an sn internet meme for two days. really? it was more interesting that the hbcu college presidents who met with president trump actually were kind of unsatisfied with

the results of the meeting and disappointed at sort of his lack of support for education. that to me was a story. instead, everyone talked about kellyanne kneeling on the couch for two days. i thought it was stupid, and i thought congressman richmond was obnoxious for making a joke about it. >> we didn't do the story on this particular program because a picture of the photo you see there was taken out of context. he was trying to get a picture of the people, and maybe she was, you know, sitting back down, looking at our camera, whatever. we didn't actually see it was a story. there she is. she's taking a picture. what has become the story now is really the response to this picture. so, bakari, a few minutes before that comment, the senator said has anyone seen the controversy around kellyanne conway. come on, people. you remember the '90s. that couch has had a whole lot of worse things. come on now. you say both men crossed the

line. >> i think it was inappropriate. anytime you're talking about a woman who is of that stature, regardless of how you feel about kellyanne conway and her, shall i say, lack of affinity for the truth or propensity just to tell falsehoods, i think that was disrespectful and it crossed the line for both of them. >> i will say this to both of their faces because i'm actually friends with senator scott and congressman richmond. i think both will tell you in hindsight it's probably something they should not have said. but i don't think i'm any better than them. i've made the same mistakes before, and my goal is to make sure that my daughter and my wife look at me proudly every time i come in. i think that this is a moment that we can all learn and say that sexism against anyone, no matter your political differences, is untolerated. >> i said sexism because i don't think that comment would have been made about a man. >> exactly. >> that's what i was going to say. had that been steve bannon or jared kushner or anyone else in

the administration, no one would have been making a comment like that. it was inappropriate for both of them to make such a thing. this is not late night comedy. snl can have their way with kellyanne. that's part of being in government. that's part of the culture we live in. senators, members of congress are not late night comedians and shouldn't be making sexual comments, sexual innuendos about a woman who is in the liehighes level of our government and rightfully one of the most successful women of our generation. >> by the way, at the time i said the "saturday night live" skit was out of bounds as well and sexist. >> that's it exactly. i was going to say exactly the same thing, that snl really kind of started this hypersexualization of critiquing kellyanne and doing it in such a misogynistic way. the fact that she's a conservative, pro-life woman in such a position of power has made her a real target in a way that is unprecedented hostility

to a woman in a position like that. >> that's not true either. that's just -- that's not true either because what we did not hear you coming to the rescue of michelle obama when republicans were criticizing her arms out. the criticisms went above and beyond -- >> you don't know what i said about michelle obama. >> just point it out. prove me wrong. from the former first lady. the fact is that this is not a partisan issue at all. i mean you have me and joe, who i think the only thing we like politically in common is the style of new york pizza. we don't really like anything else. we're sitting here telling you this is sexism and misogynistic. please do not make it something it's not. if you were someone who came to the rescue of michelle obama during these attacks where people called her butt fat, people called her looking like a gorilla or -- >> whenever i have not -- >> please correct me if i'm wrong because i would like to be corrected. >> bakari, i actually agree with

you. >> i can say those kind of comments about michelle obama were out of bounds. but i'm saying that kellyanne conway has been attacked -- >> when did you come to her rescue when this was going on? i mean you cannot be hypocritical and say that, oh, my god, now kellyanne conway is some type of feminist hero because she's being criticized but you didn't come to the rescue of michelle obama. >> you're completely doing a strawman here about bringing up a record that has nothing to do with the current situation. kellyanne -- the way that kellyanne is coming under attack right now is so out of bounds, and is so over the top, you know, the snl and open the door for this kind of thing from a sitting congressman to attack a woman of power in the white house, it's really -- it should have been condemned really strongly. >> okay. >> i feel like you bringing that back around is really a complete straw man. >> i've got to get to a break.

we'll discuss on the other side. we'll be right back.

we're back now. a cell phone video captures a very disturbing scene when a customer in a texas walmart goes on a racist tirade. back with me now, joseph per really, hillary rosen and bakari sellers. this is a shocking video that was originally posted on facebook showing a man at a texas walmart berating an employee who he believes to be an immigrant. the employee says the man in the video couldn't see well with the glasses he had just picked up at the vision center. when she referred him to a doctor, she says he requested to see a white employee instead. she began filming after she called for her supervisor to come over. >> she'll be back in a few minutes. >> who do you think pays her hospital bills?

>> i don't know. >> i do. i pay her hospital bills. she's a foreigner. she come over here. she gets sick and fat and obese, and she can't do anything. she can't work, but i have to pay her bills. >> okay. >> you see what i mean? am i fat and obese? i go to work every day. i pay taxes. >> okay. me too. i pay my own taxes too. >> all these foreigners are living off of us good, working, white people. >> oh, yeah? >> yes. i'm just telling you the truth. it's all right. i mean i know you ain't leaving. i know you're here to stay. y'all should go to your own countries and fix up your own countries and try to get your own country to be -- >> okay, sirment. i don't want to hear that anymore. that's it. she's going to help you, okay? >> so hillary, cnn has reached

out to the person we think is the man in the video and have not heard back yet. what's your reaction? >> honestly my reaction is, you know, finally this guy has a president who understands him. you know, there's a coarsening today that we have seen time and time again across this country where more people are feeling engaged and privileged enough to speak out in that way, and i find it nauseating. and i think that the constant incidents, whether it's anti-semitism or racism or, you know, the high school principal this week who had to apologize for his basketball team screaming trump, trump, trump at an opposing school filled with african-american kids on their team. it's just -- it's enough. we have a divider in chief as president here. >> in fairness, in the part of the video --

>> he never said the president's name. that's right. i understand that. >> not only does this man insult the walmart employee for appearing to be an immigrant, he also verbally attacks a black woman in a wheelchair. frankly this is what a lot of people worry what has happened as a result of our polarized political client. wh -- climate. >> the man in that video is a racist. that doesn't mean that anyone who supports donald trump is of the same skin. >> i didn't say that. >> but you are implying that. you're implying that because people support trump, because people may have different opinions -- >> dmno, no, no. i'm saying donald trump encourages that behavior. >> so how does donald trump encourage the behavior when it's leftists doing acts of violence against people on the right. you have someone like milo who is offensive. i get that. you have other right wing speakers who can't speak on

college campuses because they're the victims of assault. so it's wrong to sort of blame this on president trump. it's wrong to assume that this only happens from people on the right attacking those on the left. i think this is a dangerous road the democra are going down, and they may lose moderate voters as a result. >> bakari? >> i kind of want to piggyback on what joe said just briefly. donald trump didn't cause the divide that we have in our country. he preyed upon the divide, and he enhanced it as if it was on steroids. i will say that. but he didn't cause the divide we're having in this country. i'm actually glad we have cell phone video. for far too long, people thought racism didn't exist because we no longer have colored water fountains or bathrooms. that's the abuse that african-americans, gays, have been going through for a long period of time. to hillary's point, i'm glad that donald trump is president so now the scab is pulled off and people get to see it and now maybe we can have a

conversation. i would chastise joe just briefly to not make this a partisan issue. yes, college campuses have to be more in the vein of having free speech, but people also have to understand that there are african-americans and immigrants and hispanics and gay people who feel others if they're being persecuted by the president of the united states. >> but hillary made it part -- >> this is a discussion that has to be had on both sides, and donald trump has an opportunity to be a leader. but the problem is donald trump is afraid of his own greatness. >> shar main, i have a minute. quickly can you please? >> i think one of the big moments from the speech on tuesday, the president's speech to congress, was he started out by celebrating black history month, and he went on to roundly condemn racism. i think that was a high moment. it was important. it started showing leadership of trying to bring everybody together. i'm going to predict we're going to see more of that. this is a president who is married to an immigrant. i think they're going to build on that. i think that will be an opportunity to show leadership and to start bringing people together. frankly, you know, i'm sorry that this guy got even 15

seconds of fame from this because what he was saying was despicable. >> thank you all. i appreciate it. so before we leave you tonight, i want to take a moment to say good-bye to our executive producer, mr. jonathan wall. anybody who has ever worked for jonathan -- where is he? jonathan, come in here. >> i don't think i should. >> there he is. we'll tell you he never runs out of great ideas. i know he's embarrassed. he often comes in the studio at this hour. he's inspired us to make this show the best it can be night after night. now he is moving on. every one of us is going to miss you, jonathan. we are better for knowing you. so for our entire cnn staff, you see cnn tonight staff, cnn tonight with don lemon, which you helped rename, we say good night and good luck, jonathan wall. what do you have to say for yourself, young man? >> thank you, don lemon. >> that's it?

>> that's all there is. say good night. >> see how he bosses me around. don't they have your i.d. yet? >> not yet. i still have two minutes. >> all right. come here, jonathan. i'm going to miss you, buddy. >> i'm going to miss you too. >> thank you for doing this for me. i'm losing an executive producer and a friend. >> you're not losing a friend. >> thank you. >> well done. >> good night. he's so embarrassed. an unlimited data plan is only as good as the network it's on. and verizon has been ranked number one for the 7th time in a row by rootmetrics. (man) hey, uh, what's rootmetrics? it's the nation's largest independent study and it ranked verizon #1 in call, text, data, speed and reliability. (woman) do they get a trophy? not that i know of. but you get unlimited done right.

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the u.s. president heads to his florida resort while controversy grows around his attorney general and conversations with the russian ambassador. and officials in yemen insist a raid that killed a u.s. navy s.e.a.l. provided new intelligence. and a new hotel on the west bank blends art and regional politics. we look inside this unusual retreat. that's all ahead here on "cnn newsroom." we're live in atlanta. thank you for joining us. i'm natalie allen. u.s. president trump is at his florida resort for the weekend, but