iraq declared isis vanquished, yet their three years have likely consumed all of hers and the ruins from which she fled and which isis lie will take more declarations of victory to rebuild. mosul, iraq. just harrowing stuff. thank you for joining us. "ac 360" starts right now. good evening. thanks for joining us, on a day that began with the president of the united states sending a pair of tweets personally attacking a woman, expressing contempt for her appearance. i want to read you from a passage of a book. the president of the united states is the most powerful person in the world. the president is the spokesman for democracy and liberty. isn't it time we brought back the pomp and circumstance and sense of awe for that office that we all held? the writer went on to say, that means everyone in the administration should look and act professionally, especially the president. the writer concludes, impressions matter.

that quote is from a book called "crippled america," written in 2015, the author donald j. trump, the same donald j. trump who criticized this morning. i heard poorly rated morning jo speaks badly of me. psycho joe came to mar-a-lago around new year's eve and insisted on joining me. she was bleeding badly from a face lift. i said no. it's easy at this point to shrug and say this is what our president does, that's who he is. maybe some of it even seems normal. but it's not normal. this is the most powerful man on the face of the entire planet, a man struggling to fulfill promises he's made on a whole host of issues, lashing out personally at a cable news anchor making snide comments and allegations about her appearance. people say stupid things all the time. people say inappropriate things, cruel things. adults apologize for them.

the president sends his spokes people out to do just the opposite. >> i think he's clear that when he gets attacked, he hits back. i think the american people elected someone who's tough, smart and a fighter. that's donald trump. and i don't think that it's a surprise to anybody that he fights fire with fire. >> donald trump is many things, but tough is not one of them. tough is fighting for the health care reforms that you actually campaigned on. tough is rising above insults and actually leading. what our president does is not a display of toughness, it's a display of weakness of character, of thinness of skin. >> the things that this show has called him, not just him, but numerous members of his staff, including myself, and many others, are very deeply personal. so to then turn and pretend like, you know, this approach is -- i guess it's like we're living in the twilight zone. >> somewhere in the twilight zone, a teeny tiny violin is

playing the world's saddest song for the most powerful man on earth. other than that, few are shedding any tears for the president's plight. republican lawmakers are lining up to condemn his remarks. on top of all the other things she said today, this is her response when asked if the president's tone creates an atmosphere of violence. >> the president in no way form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence of anything. quite the contrary. >> now, sarah huckabee sanders is simply not being honest there. it's not the first time. here's donald trump on the campaign trail, encouraging violence or to the contrary discouraging, you can judge for yourself. >> i would like to punch him in the face, i'll tell you. >> president on the campaign trail early last year. there were other comments as well. however, there's no sign that anyone in the white house, even acknowledges the possibility that his statements are over the top. to the president, his spokes

people, even his senior adviser and daughter, this is all about the president or themselves as victims. >> it is hard, and there is a level of viciousness that i was not expecting. i was not expecting the intensity of this experience. but this isn't supposed to be easy. >> she's not talking about her father's viciousness. that's ivanka who made the dignity of women allegedly a central mission of hers. she's not commented on her father's attack, particularly about her physical appearance. here is the first lady on the issue that she said she wanted to champion as first lady, cyber bullying. >> my passion is the same, helping children and helping women. and also, in the 21st century the social media, it's very damaging for the children. we need to guide them and teach them about social media. i see a lot of negativity on it.

and we need to help them. it has some positive effects as well, because this is the life that we live in now. but has a lot of negativity as well. and i see more and more children being hurt by it. >> there's a lot of bullying that goes on online. >> a lot. >> as far as her husband's twitter attack today, her spokesperson telling cnn, quote, as the first lady has stated publicly in the past when her husband gets attacked, he will punch back ten times harder. which is not quite the same as sarah huckabee sanders said voters elected him to do. continuing the work done by our friends on "the lead," 750 tweets from the president since taking office. we found 206, or a bit more than one in four were about policy. almost 400 more were on meeting foreign dignitaries, holiday greetings, assorted other subjects. 84 were attacks on the press or coverage of him. 31 directly attacked a person or

people. sarah huckabee sanders say we focus on the 31 or the other big concerns of the country. what she won't acknowledge is these kind of tweets are taking away from the president's own agenda. this is energy week. we've been reporting on that. we've had infrastructure week and plenty of other weeks and initiatives this white house wants to accomplish, but so far has yet to. including, we should add, any major initiative yet on cyber bullying. in a moment, a republican senator weighs in. let's go to jim acosta at the white house first. nothing resembling an apology from the president of the white house, right? >> that's right, no apology from president trump, no apology from the white house. i don't think we'll have one coming. earlier today, sarah huckabee sanders essentially said this was an example of the president fighting back. but anderson, keep in mind, earlier this month, it was just a few weeks ago the white house said the president's tweets are official statements from the president of the united states.

it was very likely these tweets, which went after mika will be stored for all eternity, memorialized for all eternity at the library of congress. and earlier this evening, the president was asked about these tweets, whether he had any regrets, and here's what he had to say. >> mr. president, do you regret your tweets this morning at all? mr. president, how are you getting china to cooperate with north korea? >> no regrets for your tweets sent out this morning? >> and there you have the president not responding to those questions, anderson. keep in mind the video you were just watching there is the president welcoming south korean president moon to the white house. they're obviously going to be talking about weighty issues, including what's happening in north korea right now, and the threat that they pose to the region and the world. yet this white house is having to play defense about tweets. and we were asking earlier today, i tried to ask in the briefing room whether the president apologizes for any of

this. keep in mind, the president rarely ever apologizes. the only time i recall when the president apologized on the campaign is after he was caught on tape that it was okay to grab a woman by their private parts. and he pivoted quickly to an attack on hillary clinton and bill clinton. it's not in the president's dna to do something like that. >> the white house said in the past they wanted the president's tweets to speak for themselves. i guess that wasn't the case today. >> not the case today. anderson, keep in mind, this is part of a pattern, it appears, with the president's treatment towards women. it was just earlier this week that he summoned an irish reporter who is a woman over to his desk in the oval office and was making comments about her appearance and her smile. something that the -- that that irish reporter tweeted about that she felt was inappropriate. this is not the first time this has happened. you'll remember during the campaign when he went after megyn kelly in that very offensive fashion. but the white house was insisting time and again today,

sarah huckabee sanders from the podium insisting time and again today that this is not a pattern for the president, and not exhibiting any kind of rhetoric that encourages violence in this country. as you played in that tape, yes, he did say one rally in nevada, where he said i'd like to punch that protester in the face. keep in mind, this is also somebody that he said on the campaign that he could shoot somebody on fifth avenue and get away with it. >> republican lawmakers are taking their shots all day. ben sass from nebraska said, quote, please just stop. this isn't normal and it's beneath the dignity of your office. lisa murkowski of alaska, stop it. the presidential platform should be used for more than bringing people down. lindsay graham of south carolina, mr. president, your tweet represents what's wrong with american politics, not the greatness of america. susan collins of maine tweeted, this has to stop. we all have a job. three branches of government and

media, we have to have respect and civility. i saw your tweet about the president's comments earlier today about mika brzins skrks i. do you think the president does not show civility here? >> i think the president failed to show both respect and civility. the president should be modeling good behavior. and this language falls far short of that. >> does it demean the office of the president? >> it's unboworthy of the offic of the president of the united states. i'm concerned about how we look in the eyes of the world, as well as our own citizens. >> sarah huckabee sanders said earlier today, defending the president, that the president fights fire with fire. and punches back if punched. should the president be doing

that? i mean, is that appropriate for someone who has the highest office in the land? >> no, it's not. when you're a candidate for public office, i think you've got more latitude when it comes to your rhetoric. but once you become the public official, particularly the president of the united states, you're held to a different standard. and given how polarized and divided our country is already, the president's words simply add to that polarization. and i think that's harmful to the culture, and to our ability to work together to solve real problems. >> yeah, i mean, there was condemnation on this from a handful of republicans. but as you said in your tweet, this has to stop. it comes just days after we saw the awful shooting in virginia of congressman scalise, and the president spoke eloquently about, you know, turning down the rhetoric, about civility and

things like that. it seems that's forgotten. >> the president did speak eloquently after the shooting of the congressman and others at the congressional baseball game. and that's why i was particularly surprised to see him refer to this kind of language. because he clearly recognized that he has a role to play in uniting and healing the country. and unfortunately, he threw some gasoline on the embers today. >> let's talk about health care. i want to play something that you said earlier this week. and then we'll talk. >> this president is the first president in our history who has had neither political nor military experience. and that's -- it has been a challenge to him to learn how to interact with congress, and how to push his agenda forward.

>> do you think it is the lack of military/political experience that is the challenge here on an issue, as important as health care, or is it something else? >> i think that's a large part of it. we've never before had a president who did not have political or military experience, so this is very new to president trump. this isn't like cutting a real estate deal in new york city, at which i gather he was quite skilled. this is an area where he has to persuade people. he has to bring them along. he has to make the arguments. >> he hasn't done that? >> well, he has begun to. and i give the president credit for the meeting held earlier this week. he listened very intently to all of our issues. i brought up four issues about the health care bill that are particularly troubling to me. and he sat there for an hour and

a half, and really seemed to be taking everything in. and that's what he should do more of. >> the president yesterday said that there's a, quote, big surprise when it comes to health care coming. do you have any idea what he means by that? >> i don't. it could have been the $45 billion opioid fund. but i wonder if perhaps he is going to suggest that the repeal of the tax, the 3.8% tax on investment income would be dropped from the bill, which i think would be a good start. because it would give us some of the funding that is needed for the medicaid program. >> how far away from being able to support a repeal and replace are you? >> well, first let me say that i think the republican leaders and the white house are making a sincere effort to listen to us and try to accommodate concerns. but for me, i have fundamental

concerns about the bill, and it's going to be hard for me to get oh to yes. >> senator collins, thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> breaking news in the gop effort to pass a senate health care bill before the holiday recess. we'll have late reporting on why it appears to be fizzling. are upgrading their watere filter to zerowater. start with water that has a lot of dissolved solids... pour it through brita's two-stage filter...

dissolved solids remain! what if we filter it over and over? oh dear. thank goodness zerowater's five-stage filter gets to all zeroes the first time. so maybe it's time to upgrade. get more out of your water. get zerowater.

will you be ready when the moment turns romantic? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis. and get medical help right away. it's not just a car, (work sfx) it's your daily retreat. the es and es hybrid. lease the 2017 es 350 for $329 a month for 36 months.

experience amazing at your lexus dealer. how if guests book direct ater, choicehotels.com and stay twice they'll get a $50 gift card? summertime. badda book. badda boom. got you a shirt! ...i kept the receipt... book now at choicehotels.com

here's the president's response to the attack tweets. >> mr. president, do you regret your tweets this morning at all? >> mr. president, how are you getting china to cooperate with north korea? >> mr. president, no regrets over your tweets sent out this morning? >> no reply. joining us is maggie and kirsten powers. maggie, i don't know where to begin on this, it's tough to overstate the mess the president created for himself today. again, it overshadows all the stuff he's supposedly trying to do. >> it really -- it's hard to find the words. it is not funny. his folks will say, you know, he's hitting back, he gets attacked, he's counterpunching, this is a television show where

the hosts have been guests of his. i have no idea whether that's true or not, at mar-a-lago. and they attack him. it is true they've said all manner of things about his mental state, and they've been very aggressive about some members of his white house. but he's the president. and he is supposed to set the tone and set the message. i can't tell you the number of times i have had my oldest child say something to me in the last six months, and when i said you can't talk that way, he says, why not, the president does it. there's a difference between there a cable show host and a president. i don't agree with those necessarily who say this will hurt him politically that he will lose support. it's almost two years ago he said the thing about megyn kelly. i think that he is damaging himself with people who could be friends on capitol hill. and i don't mean in the context

of current legislation. at some point there will be some crisis not of his own making, not related to russia, where he's going to need allies. and i don't know that he's going to have a lot of people who are inclined to defend them. >> it does seem he has -- he frequently goes after women, and often on the way they appear or the way he believes they appear or things he wants people to believe the way they appear. >> yeah. i think, you know, it's fine for a man to disagree with a woman, and even if he wants to attack her based on a disagreement. you know, if they were questioning his mental stanlt and he was questioning their mental stability. let's say they hit him, he hits back. what he did went well beyond that. what he did is misogynist attack against her. that's what you see in a lot of the other attacks. cnn.com has a story outlining the attacks he's made on women.

this is not the first time he's made cracks about plastic surgery that probably didn't happen. it's something that's meant to go at -- to demean the woman spefbly to her womanhood. a misogynist attack. that is in a different category. that's not really something sarah sanders should be defending. the idea that anything that was said on that show comes anywhere near about what he said about mika is preposterous. >> jeff, do you agree it's a misogynist attack? >> no, i don't. first of all, i don't think he should have done it. >> because? >> i just think that if you're going to go down that road, don't. just in general. there are other people, if they want to go out and do that kind of thing, there are other people in talk radio land -- >> is it beneath the dig any of the office of president? >> i don't think it's a good idea. it's also distracting. that said, though, there is another world out there. i mean, this business that this

is misogynistic, i find that so patronizing. mika is a liberal talk radio -- or talk tv host. like any guy. so if he would say these things about a guy, why not her. >> what man has he said this about? >> what man has he gone after in physical appearance? >> on having plastic surgery. seriously? who has he said that about. that's preposterous. >> i'm sorry, i don't mean to talk over kirsten. that's not true. he's attacked men. little marco -- >> that's a physical thing, right? little? >> that's the same as talking about a woman's plastic surgery that he claims happen? >> it's a physical appearance. >> i don't think he has a specific way that he has attacked women. it's usually -- he tweeted about ted cruz's wife. that was one of the only things i've heard him say was a mistake

when he tweeted a side by side picture he got off the internet of his wife and heidi cruz, ted cruz's wife. the tweet was a picture says a thousand words. there was a cruelty to the tweet this morning, too. >> can i say one other thing? can we talk about the fact, i don't know if people talked about this, that this actually never happened, right? that's the other thing. he just made something up. there's picture of mika at mar-a-lago during this time and she looks quite fetching. there's no blood coming off of her face. so what is this? he just makes up something? even if there were no pictures, i could sit here with absolute certainty and say that mika did not show up at mar-a-lago with a bleeding face. let's use common sense here. he's actually making up something, you know, to try to demean her. i just don't understand what the argument is, how this isn't misogynist. why is he talking about her even -- why would mika even need a face lift? she's a beautiful woman, who looked great -- she looked great

a year ago and she looks great today. this is the idea he has that i guess a woman gets to be a certain age and they must need to have to get plastic surgery. explain that to me, because i don't understand it. jeffrey? >> well, i volunteered to be waterboarded instead of doing this segment here. >> you're the one who just said it was not misogyny. what is it? >> i believe in the equality of the sexes. and i think if you are a tv talk show host, and you're out there saying the president of the united states is mentally ill, which is what she has said, when joe scar brow is saying he is a schmuck -- a whole long list of things people are saying about him and he fights back. >> can you see that it's not proportionate? >> what did mika do in response? she put up the thing of little hands. hello? is that male hating? >> i don't know. i didn't see what she put up. >> i saw it. i saw it. and it was clearly a physical

reference. all right? >> i mean, i guess she didn't like -- >> the point i'm trying to make is particularly -- i'm old enough to remember when barry goldwater was said to be nuts. they put out a psychiatrist's report when he ran for president and said that he was, a, bordering on being crazy, and he was also -- but this is what happens to conservatives. all the time -- >> jeffrey, but he called her crazy. and he called joe psycho and a low iq. i don't understand -- okay, but like -- >> where's the -- >> let her respond. >> i'm suspending the fact that he's president of the united states here. which he should not be doing this as president. even if i'm accepting you hit back. fine, he hit back. but you don't see any difference in going after a woman and claiming that she -- >> i don't see -- i see her as an equal, as a talk show host, that's it. >> that has nothing to do with equality. equality would be not talking to the woman that way.

you're trying to make it out that somehow it's equal for women to be dee meaned. >> just like men, little marco. >> jeffrey, look, this is who donald trump is. and at this point, none of us should be surprised. he's someone that is incredibly accused of sexual assault, that bragged about sexual assault in the famous tape -- >> he hasn't been accused of rape like bill clinton. >> his former wife retracted it, but he was once accused of rape despite his wife's retraction. he is someone who -- he repeatedly has the habit of attacking physical characteristics of women, whether it's heidi cruz, heidi klum. if you're attacking heidi klum's looks, you've got problems. arianna huffington. >> reasonabosie o'donnell.

>> so i don't know how you can sit there and say donald trump doesn't have a history of going after women specifically on the way that they look. and i know you have this idea that that's -- it's your version of feminism that he attacks women -- >> it is feminism. >> but when you are a powerful man, a president of the united states, jeff, and attacking people well below -- >> oh, please, she's a powerful player in television. >> no one's more powerful than the president, jeff. conservatives used to make this point when bill clinton had a habit of some bad behavior. >> what about the dignity of the office? george w. bush insisted people were -- that seems like a laughable notion. >> anderson -- >> it's like why should any kid look up to the president of the united states now? >> i agree with that. all i'm saying to you is, there is another world here where conservatives are relentlessly attacked and nobody cares.

they can say the most outrageous things. these folks sat there on their television set and said the president of the united states was mentally ill. and nobody blinks. you called the president of the united states mentally ill. >> we have to take a quick break. we'll continue this conversation. we'll take a quick break. we'll be right back. of course, we'll be right back. what do you think? hate to play devil's advocate but... i kind of feel like it's a game changer. i wouldn't go that far. are you there? he's probably on mute. yeah... gary won't like it. why? because he's gary. (phone ringing) what? keep going! yeah... (laughs) (voice on phone) it's not millennial enough. there are a lot of ways to say no. thank you so much. thank you! so we're doing it. yes! start saying yes to your company's best ideas. let us help with money and know-how, so you can get business done. american express open.

choicehotels.com. badda book. that's it?. get business done. he means book direct at choicehotels.com for the lowest price on our rooms guaranteed. plus earn free nights and instant rewards at check-in. yeah. like i said. book now at choicehotels.com

we're with a panel talking about the president's attack tweet, particularly this morning. his spokesperson's defense of them that he's the real victim. no one is defending them. this is what republican susan

collins said about it. >> it's unworthy of the office of the president of the united states. and i'm concerned about how we look in the eyes of the world, as well as our own citizens. >> back now with the panel. maggie, you were about to say something. >> we were talking about why is it okay for people to sit on a television set and call the president crazy. it's very heated type of rhetoric. it certainly is advisable, psychiatrists say people should not diagnose in the media. that's all fair. but part of becoming president is that you get criticized. that is just what comes with the job. and i think we can all remember the current president criticizing his predecessor and questioning his birthplace. which that president had to basically sit and take and eventually put out his birth certificate in response to what were pretty demeaning statements. no one said donald trump didn't have a right to do it. people questioned whether it was okay or not. but there is free speech in this

country. this is how this works. every president gets criticized. every president ends ul feeling like he is the only one who do. he's the only one giving realtime venting to it and basically put himself on par with everybody else. that can work in some circumstances, but it doesn't really work here. >> to me, it's so interesting, kirsten, that the president's spokespeople are defending him as being strong and tough, when this seems like the exact opposite of being tough. tough is actually leading. tough is having thick skin. tough is actually doing your job, not all these other distractions. not watching cable news in the morning and going after the, you know -- we're talking about basic cable here. >> yeah. i think often the hardest thing is to not respond to something, like maggie was talking about with president obama not responding to being told that he wasn't born in this country. and so, you know, i just -- i don't see this as a proportional

reaction, even if you accept the fact that the president should be doing this. which i don't. and i also think that, you know, we've listed off a lot of the things he said about women. but there is also the thing about the blood. what's up with the blood? he talked about megyn kelly she was supposedly bleeding. now mika is supposedly breeding. there's something very, very bizarre about this. and i think jeffrey, i'm just going to keep doing this consciousness raising with you and maybe some day i'll get through to you, but you should spend some time on the time lines of the colleague journalist and see what we deal with on a regular basis. especially trump supporters who do frequently say these kind of things. i don't know if they got it from trump, the chicken or egg or how it works exactly. but they're specific to trump supporters. i would think you would maybe see there is a double standard, that women are treated quite differently. there is a real focus on appearance that you just don't see with men. that's what the president was

doing today. like maggie was talking about her son. people should look to the president for example. he's reinforcing the worst behavior that drives some women off of twitter and sometimes out of public -- being in the public domain because they find it so humiliating. >> there is, i think, anderson, something that we're not looking at here. and that is the way the media functions. i was listening to rush limbaugh today who was talking about this at length. in essence what he's saying is, we here are the -- not just here at cnn, but cable television, "the new york times," the "washington post," are the old elite media. the new wave, the new media is twitter. and facebook and this kind of thing. and that he is overriding that appealing just to that audience. it angers the people in the old media, across the board. >> do you think that's what people are angry about? that's not rational. >> first of all, quoting rush

limbaugh as some kind of icon of modern media, and what the kids are doing, is -- >> he's got 20 million listeners a week, ryan, hello. >> i know. >> that's not exactly -- it's not -- >> it's not a zuckerberg is what i'm saying, okay? look, the -- what the media is reacting to, jeffrey, is not that donald trump is a master of new media and we're all jealous that he's so good at twitter and has so many followers, if anything, we in the media thrive on the insane situation he's created on social media. it's his aides and lawyers that want him to stop tweeting. what we're reacting to, jeffrey, is literally the content of what he said, all of us who have covered politics for a long time can't wrap our minds around what's happening, the president of the united states who attacks women based on their looks, and calls them crazy. and uses these old gendered

stereotypes. that's what we're reacting to. we're not reacting to jealousy -- >> ryan, are you telling me difference between calling a woman crazy and calling a man crazy, seriously? >> yeah. >> wow. wow. that's sexist, don't you think, ryan? >> i don't think it's sexist, jeffrey. just as raising certain stereotypes about italians or irish or jews, sometime when you say them about one group, it actually is more offensive than saying about another group. context matters, jeffrey. >> women are held to a different standard. when a woman walks down -- you must have seen this -- a woman walks down the street, guys whistle at her and say things to her all the time. they don't do that to guys. women have to put up with stuff all the time that you or i have no idea -- >> it was my understanding that the world we're headed to is a world of straight-out equality. i believe in that passion atly. race or gender. >> but jeffrey, we accept that. >> when is the president going

to talk about guys' face lift and -- >> little marco. >> that's the only -- that's one example. what else -- what other physical attributes -- >> i'm sure if i looked i could find lots of them. >> i think kirsten's point about what happens on social media, which is this president's favorite medium to use, what happens to men versus women is very different. and i think that that in particular is something that is helpful for everybody around this discussion. >> i think it's not helpful when it's coming from the president of the united states. >> exactly. >> i think it sets the wrong tone. >> jeffrey, even if we accept your view -- hold on one second. even if we accept your enlightened view of feminism, jeffrey's view of feminism, who cares. this is the president of the united states taking to twitter in the middle of health care negotiations, in the middle of dealing with north korea, in the middle of more important issues, waking up, turning on basic

cable and tweeting attacks on people. don't you find that slightly unsettling? >> ryan, all i can say, look, do i think he should have done it? no? i think mika and joe should apologize and get the ball rolling. they won't do it because they love to say this stuff. let's move on here, for god's sakes. >> you know, i've heard this all day from people criticizing us in the media for talking about this and move on. we're not the president of the united states who tweeted this out. we're not the ones who -- you know, the move on has to come from the most important person in the world, jeffrey. >> this smacks too much of elitism for my taste. i think it was wrong. i think -- >> why do you think it was wrong? >> why do i think it's wrong? i don't think the president should be doing this kind of thing. >> that seems like the beginning and the end of the conversation. >> the fact that he does do it doesn't mean all these things are being attributed. do you think sarah huckabee

sanders, is she not a woman, because she stood up there and defended him? >> she's a paid spokesperson who is going to say anything -- >> in the guidelines i'm hearing from everybody here tonight, we have to treat her as a woman and not a presidential spokeswoman, right? >> you said the president should not be doing that. >> from a practical sense, it has us all talking about this instead of health care. two, i don't think he should be doing this as president of the united states. >> what's the rest of that sentence, because why? >> because i don't think it's the right thing for a president to do. okay? >> because why? >> because it causes all this controversy. it's unnecessary. >> what you're saying is it's unseemly? >> dealing with mika as an equal is a good thing. not a bad thing. >> it seemed like -- first of all, an imbalanced situation. he's president of the united states. she's a cable news host. not even part of the premium package. you know? >> anderson, that's a terrible

thing to say -- >> i'm saying as a basic cable host, i'm not part of the premium package either. >> we're not part of premium? >> no, i think we're just basic. >> we're the real story. >> can i just say, i think that it is equality, not using gendered attacks. that's the point. when you bring up little marco, it's -- i don't even see it as being the same thing. even if it is saying the same thing, it's one example. we have a long list of him doing this to women. the point is that it is a gendered attack. he also, by the way, i'm sure unleashed -- i can't imagine the kinds of attacks mika is getting on top of -- >> miss universe pageant is for women, it's not like there's a track record here and his relationships with women. he's not to -- to say this is

all equal, he's not dealing with -- >> anderson, all i can say is, by way of example, when clarence thomas had his problem, women wrote these things in "the new york times," women tell the truth, et cetera, et cetera, listen to us. then we get down to bill clinton with allegations of rape and all this stuff, suddenly it's only about sex. that's what i'm talking about. there's a double standard here. there's a double standard the way donald trump is being treated. >> that makes no sense. >> the "times" actually wrote during the campaign about those allegations. i don't think that's -- i also think that bill clinton was not running for president in -- >> i think this is a rare day where there's a single standard where every media voice, every liberal and conservative voice has said this is beyond the pale. and the only people that are defending it are either paid, or paid white house spokesman, and they'll have to deal with their own conscience on that. frankly, so far that i've seen, you, jeffrey. >> i'm not defending it.

i'm simply -- >> you're kind of defending it actually. you said he shouldn't have done it, but -- your reason for him not doing it is you think it was politically stupid it sounds like to me. >> no, i think it's the wrong thing to -- >> you think it's morally wrong? >> i think it's wrong to get -- no matter who they are, no matter who they are. but you can't have a double standard where, you know, the -- >> where's the double standard? >> "the new york times" saying he's racist and all this sort of stuff, and you slam him all the time for this stuff. then he fights back and everybody goes, oh, you can't do that. >> we're just holding the president to a high standard, that is true. >> if you want to do what kirsten was doing earlier, we're also just covering it and we were criticized by the white house for covering it and asking questions about it. of course we're going to ask questions about it, he's the president. >> more to talk about. as we've been discussing some of the details of the president's past attacks on president.

a biographer joins us after the break. use those copycat wipes. hi...doing anything later? ooh, the quiet type. i like that. armor all original protectant. it's easy to look good. are upgrading their watere filter to zerowater. start with water that has a lot of dissolved solids... pour it through brita's two-stage filter... dissolved solids remain! what if we filter it over and over? oh dear. thank goodness zerowater's five-stage filter gets to all zeroes the first time. so maybe it's time to upgrade. get more out of your water. get zerowater.

the president's latest attack is not unprecedented. there are many examples of him lashing out in this way. randi kay tonight looks back. >> reporter: donald trump has been dishing it out for decades. there's his long-running feud with rosie o'donnell that he called a fat pig. and later when she announced she suffers from depression, he said this. >> i said, i think i can cure her depression. most of you heard this. if she would stop looking in the mirror, i think she would stop being so unhappy. >> reporter: this doozy about former fox news anchor megyn kelly following a presidential debate. >> she started asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of -- wherever. >> they charged he was referring

to men instrumentation. trump admitted it was a big miss understanding, after mocking a disabled reporter. >> oh, i don't know what i said. i don't remember. he said, i don't remember. maybe that's what i said. this is 14 years ago. they didn't do a retraction. >> reporter: he later said he never even met that reporter, and would never have mocked him. on twitter, he takes aim in 140 characters or less. >> why wouldn't i use it? if i have all these millions of people, and it's a great way to get a message out. >> reporter: his message about carly fiorina during the campaign? look at that face, trump told "rolling stone" magazine, adding, would anyone vote for that? can you imagine that, the face of our next president? trump also made inflammatory remarks during a 2005 interview with "access hollywood." the tape was leaked just weeks before the election. on it then candidate trump is heard bragging about grabbing women's genitals without

invitation, saying he can do so because he's a star. >> grab them by the [ bleep ]. do anything. >> he apologized. i accept his apology. i hope the american people will accept it as well. and it was many, many years ago. he's not the man that i know. >> reporter: trump especially likes to go after political types. in his twitter feud with massachusetts senator elizabeth warren, trump attacked herr i damage, calling her poke a han tas. it's a controversial issue dating back to her 2012 senate campaign. trump tweeting, let's properly check goofy elizabeth warren's records to see if she is native american. i say she's a fraud. others he's lashed out against on twitter? media executive arianna huffington. in 2012, trump wrote, she's unattractive, both inside and out. i fully understand why her former husband left her for a

he also tweeted about what he called about actress bet bette midler's face and body. >> when he tweets, he gets results. >> results, really? randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> we're back now with the panel. joining the panel is michael de antonio. for a guy who has reached the pinnacle, he's now president of the united states. he has won. you know, it's as high as you can go. he still is so thin-skinned that he wakes up in the morning and watches "morning joe," which he claims he doesn't watch, and is so outraged that he launches this attack. if i'm a world leader, i read his tweets and you can kind of

figure out what his weaknesses are. >> that's true. and this is an unusual thing to note, i think, is that despite his achievement and the fact that he's now the most powerful person on earth, donald trump's life experience is actually quite limited. if you think about what makes a person strong, what makes a person thick-skinned, it's adversity, it's suffering. he's never really been in a situation where he personally suffered over anything. he was broorn into great wealth. his bankruptcies were burdens for his bankers, not for him. he always had this life of guaranteed luxury and he's always been the most powerful person in the room. even if you think about his personal relationships. when wives didn't please him, he got rid of them. and i think there's a problem here of people who haven't pushed back against this kind of behavior in the past. he hasn't paid a price for it. and as a result, he's actually

quite sheltered. the rest of us here, i think, have heard more negative feedback from our families and friends than he has in his own life and we benefit from it and now he's really at pains to adapt to this level of criticism and not respond with this ten times harder thing. >> growing up, the physical attributes, going after somebody like ratings or poll numbers and physical attributes, that seems for him to be the deepest cut of all. >> he has certain go-tos and we saw them over and over again on the campaign. >> he's afraid of what people are criticizing him on. >> i was thinking about this over the last year, that when he's had times when he should be, to your point, feeling like he's at the top of the summit and climbed the mountain, when he -- the day that he was given the nomination formally in 2016, what was preoccupying him that day was something that his former ghost writer tony

schwartz had done publicly. when things are very -- and i don't know what michael thinks about this, but when things are getting very intense or possibly uncertain or anxiety provoking, he focuses in on these little sli slights and pushes back on them. part of his success is he brands things in certain ways, he says things that are memorable and sticks. nobody has forgotten the megyn kelly blood comment. he made it through the campaign very rarely talking about any specifics on policy, and right now you have a major debate about the future of health care in this country and that's not getting talked about at all. and there are millions of people who are facing the potential of having their coverage severely impacted if this senate bill goes through and he has created a storm where that's not being discussed. now, i don't agree with people who think everything is an intentional distraction but i think that's the net effect here. >> mike, has he always -- i

mean, you've spent time with him. >> this is a problem for him and i think when you're not serving constituents, it's okay. you know, if his only concern was the bottom line of his companies and this attention-seeking work for that bottom line, that makes sense. the few times that he's had obligations to large numbers of people have involved stockholders who bought shares in his company and bond holders who invested in his bonds and in both of those cases, the results were disastrous. the stockholders lost 90% of their investment and the total loss for bond holders and stockholders combined is 1.5 billion. so i think this move now into an environment where he serves the american people is really challenging for him. i don't think he's yet grasped that he can step back, pay attention to the people's business, let these things roll off him and maybe achieve a few

things. >> kirsten, do you think this argument that sarah huckabee sanders makes and his wife makes it, he's a counterpuncher, he punches back, do people continue to buy that? there's one thing during the campaign and the argument is, i'll punch back for you, i'll do this for you. >> right. >> at a certain point, maybe people continue to believe that's what he's doing. but it doesn't seem like he's doing it on health care right now. it's really about punching back at mika brzezinski. >> right. i think pbs "newshour" and marist had a poll that came out and did no group of any voters go over 50% of people who thought the tweets were helpful or good. i think the overall number was that 70% think that they are unhelpful and sort of a distraction. so even among his own supporters they don't even find the tweets

to be that helpful and i think these kind of tweets fall into there's own special category where i think they're even less helpful in terms of moving an agenda forward and even -- i know jeffrey is kind of hanging on and defending him and we've heard other republicans coming out and saying, no, sorry, this crosses a line. and i think that it doesn't help him. >> i just want to be clear. i want the same standards for everybody. >> no, you don't. no, you don't. >> yes, i do. >> no, you don't. you want women to be on the receiving end of mass soj nift remarks. >> that's not true. what i'm saying to you is when you have liberals who are charged with all sorts of things, you give them a pass. >> no. okay. can i just -- i think -- can i just -- let me address this. i think that that's a totally fair complaint. and i've talked about that before and i think that there

can be a double standard and i think the bill clinton is a good example of that. >> and ted kennedy. >> ted kennedy is a good example as well. today -- you're going back quite a ways, jeffrey. ted kennedy was a long time ago. bill clinton was a long time ago. today bill clinton would not -- bill clinton would not get that pass and we saw it in hillary's campaign, blow back from people on the left, particularly younger people, who were hearing about this for the first time saying that's not okay. i don't like that women have accused bill clinton of this. in today's world, bill clinton would not be defended. he would not get away with what he got away with. i firmly believe that. >> all i'm saying, the standard should be the same for everybody. >> i agree. >> that's it. that's my point. beginning and end. >> right. and it's not. and that's my point. my point is with donald trump, he's feeding into a long history of misogyny that we've gotten to the point where most people

agree is not acceptable and now we have the president of the united states engaging in behavior that's reinforcing it. and like i said, i guarantee mika brzezinski is on the receiving end of unspeakable attacks against her personally and her physical appearance all spurred by, who? the president of the united states of america. >> maggie, you've reported a lot on the inner workings of the white house. i'm fascinated how this white house works and what this president does all day long and how it compares to what past presidents have done. i mean, are there -- do we know, are there briefing books that he's reading? are there -- you know, meetings where he's going into the weeds on policy issues? because it seems like past presidents have done that. even one who is did not delve all that deeply, it seems like there were -- i don't know of any past presidents who watched tv as much as donald trump does. >> this president prefers, all of his aides say, a fair amount

of slack time, unstructure itd d time. he has a very large television that got installed off the oval office and spent a lot of time in there. his office is more like grand central station and firmly structured in guarded space. people are coming in and out all the time. people have told stories of trying to brief him on things and they constantly get interrupted. he does read briefing books. one of the complaints that came out of this meeting with senate republicans earlier this week on health care is that there was a level of granular detail that he didn't possess about their bill. and that was -- i don't know if it was troubling to them or if they just noted it. but he's not a deep reader. that is known about him. and where i think sarah huckabee sanders is correct, something that she said from the podium,

pretty honest, people knew what they were electing when they were electing president trump. >> that same specific criticism was made of ronald reagan, by the way, throughout his eight years. >> he had been a governor and had done -- >> right. but he was always accused of not knowing the details. one other thing. everything we're talking about tonight as in a sense been litigated already. we had the election. this may be the latest episode, but these episodes have been had many times during the campaign. this discussion was had and he won the election. >> but that doesn't make it right. >> i'm not saying it's right. >> somebody says something disgusting, i think it is incumbent on decent people to point it out and say, you know what, this is not normal. yes, people know this guy does this. they voted for him anyway. that's what is great about our country. but people can also stand up and point out routinely this is not