something very many people are willing to say, including you yourself steve, as you said. i don't know anyone who is. david duke is today, there's one. thank you very much to both of you. thanks to all of you for joining us. watch us anywhere, any time. anderson is next. we normal hi start off the broadcast saying good evening. but tonight there doesn't seem to be much that is good about this evening. a few hours the president of the united states revealed so clearly who and what he really is. today, the president of the united states ripped open wounds that have barely begun healing in charlottesville on a subject, race, that's tormented this country from the very beginning and nearly torn it apart more than once. he ripped open these wounds to show the world he did not make a mistake on saturday when he spoke words that were untrue and insensitive. in the remarks he made today, he revealed what he truly thinks about race in america. he revealed what he thinks about fundamental fairness, about a president's role in binding up the nation's wounds and

appealing to the better nature of our angels. he revealed about whether he can ever be a president for all people or just for white ones. a president for people of all beliefs or just the alt-right. today, president trump showed the world exactly how little he knows or cares about u.s. history. he showed the world how much a mother's loss matters to him when weighed against whether or not she praised him. so before we continue, we want to be real tonight. this was a unite the right rally. it was a clear from the beginning what kind of people would be attending, white supremacists, neo nazis, members of the kkk. they showed up with clubs and shields and some with long rifles. speakers were announced in advance. yet on saturday, the police said there was violence on both sides. he returned to that discredited line today. here's some of what he said just a few hours ago. >> -- said that the alt-right is behind these attacks and he

linked that same group to those who perpetrated the attack in charlottesville. >> i don't know -- i can't tell you -- i'm sure senator mccain must know what he's talking about. but when you say the alt-right, definal right to me. you define it. define it for me, come on. define it. >> senator mccain defined them as the same group -- >> what about the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say the alt-right, do they have any semblance of guilt? let me ask you this, what about the fact that they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs, do they have any problem? i think they do. as far as i'm concerned, that was a horrible, horrible day -- wait a minute, i'm not finished. i'm not finished, fake news. that was a horrible day. [ inaudible question ] i will tell you something, i watched this much more closely

than you people watched it. and you have -- you had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent, and nobody wants to say that. but i'll say it right now. you had a group -- you had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit, and they were very, very violent. >> both sides had some bad apples is what the president was saying. but today the president seemed to go out of his way to whitewash the nature of what was a white power rally. >> not all of those people were white supremacists. by my stretch. those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue, robert e. lee. so -- excuse me. you take a look at some of the groups and you see, and you know it if you were honest reporters, which in many cases you're not. but many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of robert e. lee. >> now, he went on to claim that the people there in protest

particularly on friday night, the day before the main rally, those people were simply protesting the taking down of a statue. the president makes them sound like history buffs, just quietly protesting. >> and you had people, and i'm not talking about the neo nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally. but you had many people in that group, other than neo nazis and white nationalists, okay? and the press has treated hem absolutely unfairly. now, in the other group also, you had some fine people, but you also had troublemakers and you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets and with the baseball bats. you had a lot of bad people in the other group, too. >> i just want to understand what you were saying. the press has treated white nationalists unfairly? >> no, no. there were people in that rally, and i looked the night before, if you look, there were people protesting very quietly the

taking down of the statue of robert e. lee. i am sure in that group there were some bad ones. the following day, they had some rough, bad people, neo nazis, white nationalists, whatever you want to call them. but you had a lot of people that there were to innocently protest and very legally protest -- because i don't know if you know, they had a permit. the other group didn't have a permit. so i only tell you this, there are two sides to a story. i thought what took place was a horrible moment for our country. a horrible moment. but there are two sides. >> so he's singling out friday night, pointing to the groups that were there protesting the statue. i just want to show you a video from friday night, and when you look at this video, and it's about a minute and a half, but it's worth you seeing the entire thing, ask yourself do the people in this video chanting

"jews will not replace us," do they seem to be just quiet fans of the history of robert e. lee? this video is from vice media. [ chanting "jews will not replace us" ]

>> so those were the people protesting the statue of robert e. lee being taken down, the people president trump said were quietly there, just good people. when the president was asked why he waited two days before calling out racists for their role of the violence in charlottesville, induding the killing of heather heyer, this is what he said. >> i didn't wait -- i wanted to

make sure, unlike most politicians, that what i said was correct. not make a quick statement. the statement i made on saturday, the first statement, was a fine statement. but you don't make statements that direct unless you know the facts. it takes a little while to get the facts. you still don't know the facts. and it's a very, very important process to me. and it's a very important statement. so i don't want to go quickly, and just make statement for the sake of making a political statement. i want to know the facts. >> president donald trump wanted to know the facts. just let that sink in for a moment. president trump says he wanted to know the facts. if there is anything we already know about this president is that he does not wait for facts to become clear before speaking. has any president in modern history lie sod frd so frequent so fast as this one? in the case of the white

nationalist rally in charlottesville, the facts were plain before, during and after the bloodshed. the fact that the president had ht his disposal saturday, a fact he had friday night when they marched. weeks ago it was known who would be attending the rally. a fact that his daughter recognized saturday when she urged him to call out these thugs by name. his jewish daughter who we have not heard from for days. the president today preferred to focus on the statues and displaying his grasp of american history. >> you had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue, and the renaming of a park from robert e. lee to another name. george washington was a slave owner. was george washington a slave owner? so will george washington now lose his status? are we going to take down statues to george washington?

how about thomas jefferson, what do you think of thomas jefferson, you like him? he was a major slave owner. are we going to take down his statue? >> it's hard to know where to begin on that. jefferson and washington were both slave owners. one wrote the country's founding document, the other led an army to establish it. neither took up arms against it. yet they lived together on the same historical planes. the murder by vehicle of 3 -year-old heather heyer, the president never mentioned her today but he thanked her mother twice for praising him. when asked whether he will be speaking to her or visiting charlottesville, he talked about the winery bearing his name. >> i own a house in charlottesville. does anyone know i own a house in charlottesville. oh, boy. it's in charlottesville, you'll

see. it is the winery. [ inaudible question ] charlottesville is a great place that's been very badly hurt over the last couple of days. i own actually one of the largest wineries in the united states in charlottesville. >> he owns one of the largest wineries. the president's words, just like his words on saturday, are drawing fire from top republicans. paul ryan tweeting -- >> however, the president is drawing praise from at least one voice. thank you, president trump, for your honesty and courage to tell the truth about charlottesville. that tweet is from white supremacist david duke. jim, what was that today exactly? what was that supposed to be and how did it segue into this press conference unlike any i recall

ever seeing? >> reporter: anderson, that was a press conference from hell, no question about it. essentially what happened today, the white house came out to the reporters gathered in the lobby of trump tower and said to all of us, listen, the president is going to come down with a couple of cabinet secretaries and make some remarks and go back up the sell va f elevator. what happened after that, things went completely off the rails, because as the president wrapped up his remarks on infrastructure, he was peppered with questions about this lackluster response to the violence in charlottesville and these shifting explanations. and the president essentially reverted back to his initial response. and then sort of echoing some of the complaints from white nationalists that well, if you start taking down statues of robert e. lee, that statues and monuments to george washington and thomas jefferson will be next. i talked to somebody who is familiar with the thinking of steve bannon, the president's chief strategist.

you heard the president was asked about steve bannon earlier today. the president said he wasn't sure how things would shake out with steve bannon. steve bannon is very much plugged into the alt-right. he used to run breitbart online, a publication that espouses a lot of white nationalist views. and according to this source that is prevalent in bannon world, the president is torn inside this white house between two rival factions. one representing jared and ivanka and other moderate leaning people in the white house, and steve bannon, who really represents this base that, according to this source, trump does not want to offend. i think that's why you saw in this very strange, bizarre, surreal press conference, the president defending these views of the alt-right and was really damning the torpedos from anybody else. i can tell you, there do not appear to be many regrets inside

the white house about in this evening, anderson. in just the last few moments, i was told by a republican source that a messaging memo is going around to trump surrogates tonight telling them to emphasize that both sides, in the view of the white house, acted irresponsibly in charlottesville. anderson, that is a very clear indication that there are no regrets coming from the president's inner circle. he's beyond doubling and tripling down, but they are firmly cemented in this view that the president's initial response to all of this in charlottesville was the correct one. >> so what about his statement yesterday in which he did what many people wished he had done on saturday. i saw someone on twitter referring to that as a hostage vid video. was that someone else give him a script to read off the teleprompter and today he's expressing his real thoughts? was yesterday just a lie?

>> reporter: that's right. yesterday was forced. it was not heartfelt, anderson. i was in the room with the president and you could see that on his face. what you saw today at trump tower, you could see his chief of staff, john kelly, waiting off to the side with his arms folded, looking down at the floor. there were no atta-boys. there was no back slapping and high fives after this performance from the president inside trump tower. to give you an indication how republicans are feeling, i talked to a top republican congressional source who said tonight that the president's ability to effectively govern this country is "dwindling by the hour." so clearly, anderson, the republican party is losing patience with the president tonight. but if they don't really do anything about it, anderson, this is really becoming the party of trump, not the party of lincoln. >> jim acosta, thanks. i want to bring in three people

now, van jones, david axelrod, and david gergen. david gergen, how do you view what the president said today, specifically reversing from what he said yesterday and going back to what he said on saturday? >> i must tell you, anderson, after watching presidents for a long time, i was shocked by today's performance. on two grounds. one is that -- on the issue itself of charlottesville, he so clearly is wrong. he so clearly sees the world differently than most of us do. and creating an equivalence between the neo nazis and people who came to protest what the neo nazis are saying. it's just so unacceptable to the masses of people in this country. i'm shocked he went back there. but anderson, the bigger question for me, the harder question that is more worrisome

is what is going on inside donald trump? this is a man with such massive insecurities. we have not seen anybody in the white house with such massive insecurities since richard nixon. people are increasingly feeling that he's not just a danger to his party but the country. he's going to tear us apart. >> do you really think he poses a danger to the country? i mean, that's a strong statement. you really believe the president of the united states, donald trump, is posing a danger to the country? >> i believe when i worked for richard nixon he needed to leave office, just as most of my colleagues did. we thought he was posing a threat, given the violation of the laws. you simply couldn't do that. i don't think we're there yet with donald trump. but i do think there is an issue about his insecurities and where they may lead. we saw the real donald trump

today, the unapologetic, unmasked donald trump. yesterday was a fake donald trump. that's apparent now. and we see a man who lashes out, who can't control himself. he's only a short way away from the nuclear button. he's the man who tells them whether to go to war or not. so yes, there's some dangers to the country. >> david axelrod, we've seen this president stepping on the white house's own message. today there was a lot of positive things the president could have been talking about. north korea seemed to have blinked on guam. the president wanted to talk about infrastructure, the stock market at a high. and yet he -- is this probably one of the worst days for this president? >> yeah, you know, it's hard to rate them. but you would have to say so. yeah, i would love to have been a fly on the wall in general kelly's after action meeting on the infrastructure event. i don't think it went very well.

but look, you know, michelle obama said if her convention speech last summer that the presidency doesn't change people, it reveals who they are. and as you said at the outset, this was -- this is who donald trump is. this is who he was throughout the 2016 campaign. there was this hope that somehow the presidency, with all its responsibility and all the majesty and gravity of it, would change him. he's not going to change. what we saw yesterday was a hostage video. he practically blinked out in morse code i don't believe a word of what i'm saying. today, we saw his true character. we saw his true views. he gave aid and comfort to neo nazis, to these white nationalists. and they rewarded him with praises, as you point out. the question for the republican party is, not just whether they're going to put statements

out, condemning this particular incident. but are they going to go after the issue of this element within their own party, and how are they going to move forward, not just dealing with donald trump but dealing with the forces that have pro-telled donald trump, unlike richard nixon who david worked for, donald trump is not a creature of the republican party. i don't think he cares much what the establishment republicans think. that alt-right group is his base and he's catering to it. >> i just want to read what david duke tweeted after the president's remarks. thank you, president trump, for your honesty and truth about charlottesville. we don't know what the president's motive is, but his words have emboldened white supremacists. >> you know, this is a tough night, i think for normal people. you have a lot of people at home going through kleenex right now.

you have a lot of people at home who are keeping their kids away from the tv tonight because we're spiraling away from each other. we' and you want the president to be the one that pulls us all together. instead, he's picking a fight -- even if he's right, which he's wrong, he's picking a side in a food fight. even by his own understanding, and he's actually cheer leading for one side and defending one side. he's not defending the humanity of the people who were run over. 19 people were run over. he's not telling their story. he's not defending their humanity. and you can't draw basic distinctions. he would flunk second grade. he can't distinguish between the founder of our country, who was a flawed individual but did great things. and the person who led a rebellion against this country, robert e. lee, should not be in

the same sentence as george washington. he can't distinguish between nazis and people who went there -- people died in the last century over. he can't distinguish between them and the people that went there to defend people from those thugs. >> he's surrounded by military people. h.r. mcmaster, who has had an incredible career in the u.s. arm army. the u.s. army fought the nazis in europe. what do these people think? ivanka trump? i mean, jared kushner, what do think think? >> i don't know, but i'll tell you what i'm thinking. i'm thinking about my god mother, who is jewish. i think about what she's gone through in her life sticking up for civil rights. the stories that she's told me about her family and the things that her family suffered in europe and the fact that she can't count on the president of

the united states to stand with her when a nazi ran over an american citizen, killed an american citizen with isis tactics in our country. and my godmother -- the father of a jewish daughter, i mean, this is not funny, it's not cute, it's not a sound bite war. at a certain point, you have a lot of people now just not -- not just the people you're embold emboldening, but the people who you're abandoning who don't know if they have a government that gives a damn about them. those are the people you have to worry about, too. because we're spiraling away from each other. we're spiraling away from each other. and i don't know what to say tonight. i usually have something clever, something smart. i'm just hurt. i'm sitting here hurt. and i think a lot of people are hurt tonight. >> you feel this personally? >> i do. i don't know if david does. all of us do. everybody is trying to hold it together tonight.

>> i'm the son of a jewish refugee. so yes, i feel it strongly. but here's the thing. how many times are we going to sit here and say we're disappointed in the president of the united states? we're disappointed that we don't have a president that's going to stand up and provide the moral leadership that the country deserves. at some point we have to conclude it's not coming. it's not coming. he's throwing kerosene on the fire. he's exploiting our divisions. and it's up to the rest of us to pull together, to defy that, to say we're better than that. to rise above that. i'm tired of saying that donald trump is disappointing us. donald trump is who he is. he's not going to change. this was definitive proof today. >> thank you all. there are many more aspects to explore, including the president's claim that he's all about having the facts before he speaks. the president's claims about violence on both sides and more. the panel joins us as we continue.

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and that's why every memorial we create is a true reflection of the individual. only a dignity memorial professional can celebrate a life like no other. find out how at sanfranciscodignity.com. talking about the president's off the cuff press conference today at trump tower and his insistence he did not speak out about the racists on saturday because he was waiting for the facts. here again is that moment. >> it was very important to me to get the facts out and correctly. i couldn't have made it sooner, because i didn't know all of the facts. it takes a little white to get the facts. i had to see the facts. i want to know the facts. i want the facts. i wanted to see the facts. before i make a statement, i need the facts. you don't make statements that

direct unless you know the facts. i want to make a statement with knowledge. i wanted to know the facts. >> president trump claiming he likes to know the facts. the press event began with a question about ceos leaving the manufacturing council. that number stands at six. i want to bring in now my panel. charles, where are you at tonight? >> umm, it's -- part of me is not responding the way other people are responding, because part of me wants to say to america, where have you been? what were you reading? what were you listening to? why does this take you by surprise? i've been howling into the wind since before the election that this man is a bigot, that this man is a misogynist, that this man is a bully, and people like me and other people saying the

exact same thing that this thing -- you know, you have to ask yourself a very profound question, whether or not trump is an articulation of them or whether he is an articulation -- whether he's an articulation of them or they're an articulation of him, or whether there's a symbiotic relationship here. the republican party has to ask itself, i mean, america has to ask itself a question. these people exist. there's a lot of negative, racialized imagery, well short of vehicular homicide a. if you know full well that the war on drugs has a disproportionate impact on black people and you support it, where does that place you? if you know that mass incarceration is devastating black communities and you support it, where does that put

you? if you know that stripping the votes or voter suppression is having a negative impact on some people and therefore increasing the vote of other people and you support that, where does that put you? america has to ask itself some really profound questions about what white supremacy actually is. because it is not simply -- there were abolitionists who hated the idea of slavery, and yet had no concept or will to entertain the idea that black people were equal to them. there are people who today detest the violence in charlottesville and yet do not believe that black people are equal to them. that is what white supremacy is. so once you order people, once

you make a hierarchy of people, once you devalue some people and lift others, that allows you to do things. >> paris, as a supporter of the president, how is it that this president, you know, yes, yesterday he gave this teleprompter speech which he renounced the kkk and white supremacists. today he's saying that the people who were rallying around the robert e. lee statue on friday night, with tiki torches, chanting "jews will not replace us," calling the counter protesters who were there, calling them faggots. how do you defend that? how do you defend the president for what he said today, those people -- he was saying that they were quietly protesting the statue. >> well, the interesting thing that i saw in the clip of the entire night, the clip that you showed from the entire night on friday was that there was people

on the other side chatting black lives matter. >> how dare they. >> let me finish my comment. my point is, there were other people there that night that were not saying -- >> there were a couple of dozen counter protesters who had surrounded the statue when the several hundred guys with tiki torches arrived and they basically were overwhelmed and the police came once they were chased off. >> the only point i'm making is that everybody there friday night were not doing the things that you're saying that the majority of them were doing. >> look, there's hundreds of people with tiki torches -- >> it's very simple -- [ overlapping speakers ] let me start off by saying i'm not equating black lives matter to anything of these neo nazis and fascists, with ybut there w

strong push in the media and a lot of people saying when you see the black lives matter people saying "f the police," burning cars and doing this, the majority of the people were peaceful, quiet, and angry at the situation. so yes, in the clip you just showed, there were people chanting black lives matter and on the other side. so it is unfair to characterize everybody there as neo nazis. >> what you're saying makes no sense. i'm not characterizing the black lives matter as neo nazis. it's the people with tiki torches that the president is talking about as just being quiet, good people there just to protest the people. they're freaking chanting "jews will not replace us" on the streets of america. >> the event said it was a pro white demonstration.

that's what they were there to do. why are you acting it's just a few random, bad apples. >> that's not what i'm saying. >> yes, you are. you're saying because there was somebody there saying black lives matter -- these people were there organized to do a pro white demonstration with david duke and richard spencer. i mean, what -- where do you not condemn this? >> how do you say i'm not condemning it? >> i department hear you condemn it. >> -- to km out and find a talking point spin -- >> no, hold on, this is what i believe. >> you got your shot. the part about this that bothers me about the conservatives that are trying to spin this and come out and even friends of mine who are trying to cast aside the fact that the president of the united states went on a victim blaming rant today where he

disgraced the off of the presidency, and potentially planted the seed for even more division in this country that we've already seen today. and shame on you, paris, and everybody else that's coming out here today, shame on the staffers in the white house that are still standing behind the president that this was black lives matter people's fault. i have issues with black lives matter, i have matters with intifa. but they didn't kill anyone on saturday. they don't have the history that white supremacists do in this country. and for people to come out, and that's the position they take, when the president of the united states made it about him, made it about his grievances. he gave the alt-right and these white supremacists a platform to praise him, shame on you, shame on the president, and shame on anybody that continues to enable him in this respect. >> anderson, i'll tell you what i'm hearing from republicans

tonight, and that is a very simple message for the president. mr. president, we want to be with you in policy. but you are making it impossible for us to be with you in spirit. moral clarity is required of the office of the president, because that is the spirit of being an american. knowing that the rest of the world looks to our country and our president to provide absolute, unequivocal memorial clarity. you cannot say that there are good people standing in this rally, because if a good person left their house and went to this event, and showed up and the person next to them was holding a nazi flag and they chose not to go home, by definition they checked their good person card at the gate. so the only people left at the rally were not the good people. and to try to say that there was a smattering of bad people mixed in with good people, absolutely vacates the moral clarity required of the office of the

president. we're not the party of robert e. lee. we're not the party of jefferson davis. we're the party of lincoln. we revere george washington. we're the party of dwight eisenhower, who defeated the nazis. so the message i hear from republicans tonight, mr. president, do not make it impossible for us to support you. you have an agenda. the republican party largely supports your policy agenda. don't render it imoperable. >> the problem here is that -- the problem there is that beginning in the late '60s and early '70s, they were the party of racial division. and these are not like things that you can't find. they were -- nixon's top aides were literally going to newspapers and magazines and giving on the record interviews. one top aide gave an interview to "harper's bazaar" who said our enemies are blacks and

hippies who are anti-war. now, we can't make laws to outlaw blacks and hippies, but we can associate in the mind of the public hippies with marijuana, and blacks with heroin, and we can punish those crimes to the point that we break those communities. that's a quote from "harper's bazaar." two years later, another nixon aide gives an interview to "the new york times," which he says we want more blacks to register as democrats, because the negro foes, that was his word, will flock to the republican party. that was the southern strategy. so i was born in 1970. that interview was given in 1970. the entire history of my life is surrounded by the idea of people accommodating these people and putting a better face on them. i just came back from

louisiana -- >> that's not the whole -- >> nothing is never the whole. i'm sorry, but -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> i am going to finish. i am going to finish. i am going to finish. i just came back from louisiana. david duke is prominent in this story. david duke was elected to the louisiana house, and then he ran again for governor of the state and won most of the white vote in louisiana. and the platform that david duke ran on and the bills he proposed in the legislature are no different than the republican bills -- >> charles, come on. >> that is true. [ overlapping speakers ] >> you can't sit there and blame the republican party for all racism in america. >> i'm quoting a magazine. you have some magazines you want to quote? >> how about the democrat's

platform in 1924 that wasn't -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> all right. paul? >> we've come to this with a great deal of history. bill bradley, the senator from new jersey, said slavery was our original sin. we've never gotten over it. but this is not richard nixon with dog whistles. this is donald trump with a bull horn. say what you will about the history of republicans on racism. this is different. ronald reagan disavowed the klu klux klan when they endorsed him. george h.w. bush disavowed david

duke. this is nazis versus americans. freedom verse farc itscism. and the willful, moral blindness the president showed -- >> but if that person gets nominated, what does that say? you can't divorce him from them. there is no way to do that. you can't say this is -- we can't both say, well, this is not a left-right issue. if the person you just described was a republican nominee and now is president of the united states and most white people in america voted for that person, what does that say? >> we've got to take a break. coming up, trump blamed so-called both sides for violence, the white supremacists and those who protested against their hate. we'll hear from dr. cornell west who was there at the rally. we'll be right back. fety first.. i think i might burst...

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just to take a few moments to summarize where we are and how we got here. kkk, white supremacists, is white nationalists gathered for a rally in charlottesville, virginia. they yelled, chanted racist slogans. a young woman is killed in broad daylight in an attack like the ones we've seen isis carries out. today, we learned more about how the president of the united states sees those events. >> what about the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say, the alt-right, do they have any semblance of guilt?

let me ask you this, what about the fact that they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs, do they have any problem? i think they do. as far as i'm concerned, that was a horrible, horrible day. wait a minute, i'm not finished, fake news. that was a horrible day. [ inaudible question ] i will tell you something. i watched this very closely, much more closely than you people watched it. and you have -- you had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. and nobody wants to say that. but i'll say it right now. you had a group -- you had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit, and they were very, very violent. >> mitt romney just tweeted "no, not the same. one side is racist, bigoted." joining me now is dr. cornell

west. thanks for being with us again tonight. you were there friday night, saturday. when you hear the president of the united states saying that the people who were marching with torches, saying "jews will not replace us" and saying "blood and soil" that there were good people in there that were just there because they were upset about the statue, what do you think? >> you know, brother anderson, i'm not surprised though. donald trump, he's a neo fascist. he's a right wing gangster. therefore, i don't have expectations for him. those of us who were in that church were trying to keep alive prophetic witness. to accent love and justice. the sad thing is, we're dealing with the life and death of the american democratic experience. and what i mean by that is, the spiritual blackout, the eclipse

of honesty and integrity, moral meltdown where there's no prophetic space of love and justice. and it's not a matter of just the president. i had no expectations for donald trump. i've been a black man in america for 64 years. i've been dealing with white supremacists and so on. i can discern them. my concern is, neo fascism is a rule of big money, big military adventurism, escalating wealth and equality, the collapse of public life, and the scapegoating of the most vulnerable, of the immigrants and muslims and arabs and relative silence of those americans who ought to be part of an anti-fascist coalition.

>> we should have been thousands and thousands vowing witness against the neo- fascist. they were emboldened by donald trump. they know he has neo- fascist sensibilities. look at corporate america. they've been relatively silent. where is the anti-racist orientation? where is the church? where are our fellow citizens who ought to occupy love and justice and put a smile on the face of martin luther king junior and others. all of those who said we must be honest and tell the truth about those who would use arbitrary power for wealth and equality and the military adventurism in various part of the world. the american empire can devour american democracy. only the people can do it. donald trump doesn't have

magical powers. he has too much power as a president, but he can be pushed out. by pushed out i mean impeachment, and the republican party can be rendered accountab accountable. the democratic party has to deal with things with regard to massive ib cars ration tied to wall street. that's the kind of revival moral and spiritual revival we need. that's my tradition. that's what the others are trying to talk about. >> do you see that happening? do you see an event like this and it's not just this event. it's what we have seen so far in -- from this president, and what we are likely to see in the future given the fact that he's 71 years old and unlikely to change. do you see that revival happening? >> i absolutely see it happening. sister heather was standing right next to the 20 of us who were almost crushed like the

cockroaches that the neo-nazi view us to be. she along with the anarchist and the anti-fascists were protecting us. she is a freedom fighter. the memory of her sacrifice, the 19 who are in jail, that can generate an awakening, but it has to be a moral and spiritual awakening. it's got to be talking about what is right, moral, just, and morally consistent. that means it's going to be a critique of the establishment of parties and the churches and mosques and synagogues and universities. all the comfortable middle class folk who don't want to intervene into this, and most importantly, our young people. they are thirsty and hungry for precisely this kind of awakening. i see it escalating, and in that sense, i see it as hope in motion. i'm not in any way disempowered by the neo- fascist

sensibilities of donald trump. i've been seeing it all my life in a variety of different places. i'm more emboldened by the folk who are waking up and shattering the silence, shattering the complacen complacency. shattering the kind of distance and detachment from engagement and struggle around injustice. i don't care if you're muslim, buddhist, christian, we can come together. we can make a difference. this is the moment for them. >> i appreciate you being with us. thank you. much more ahead tonight. we'll have more reaction to what the president said today. what it means for the white house, the country, and in case you missed it, we'll hear from donald trump in his own words after a quick break.

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zplnchts t the president revealing who he is, what he is. he went before reporters and spoke off the cuff about the tragedy this weekend in shifl. unlike yesterday's prepared statement which called out the groups directly. today's collection of thoughts were so kind to this collection of haters, it left supporters dumb struck. first an extended sampling of what the president said today. >> you said the alt-right is behind the attacks and linked them to the groups who perpetrated the attack in charlottesville. >> i can't tell you. i'm sure senator mccain must know what he's talking about, but when you say the alt-right, define it. you define it. -- >> i -- >> you define it.

what about the old left -- excuse me. what about the alt left that came charging at the alt-right? do they have any semblance of guilt? let me ask you this. what about the fact they came charging with clubs in their hands swinging clubs? do they have any problem? i think they do. as far as i'm concerned, that was a horrible, horrible day. wait a minute. i'm not finished. i'm not finished, fake news. that was a horrible day -- [ inaudible question ] >> i watched those closely, more than you watched it. and you have a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. and nobody wants to say that. but i'll say it right now. you had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit and they were very, very violent.

>> reporter: do you think what you call the alt left is the same as neo-nazi? >> those people, all of those people -- excuse me, i've condemned neo-nazis. i've condemned many different groups. but not all of those people were neo-nazis. believe me. not all of those people were white supremacists, by any stretch. those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue of robert e. lee. this week it's robert e. lee. stone wall jackson is coming down. i wonder, is it george washington and then thomas jefferson. you have to ask yourself where does it stop? >> reporter: do you think things have gotten worse or better since you took office? >> i think they've gotten better or the same -- look, they've been frayed for a long time.