we normally start off the broadcast saying good evening. but tonight there the doesn't seem to be much that is good about this evening because a few hours ago, the president of the united states revealed so clearly who and what he really is. today he ripped open wounds that have barely begun healing in charlottesville on a subject, race that, tormented this country from the beginning and nearly torn it apart more than once. he ripped open the wounds so he could show the world he did not make a mistake on saturday when he spoke words ill considered untrue incensetive. in thera, today, the president

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 angels of our nature to quote another former president. he vealed whether he can ever be a president for all people or just white ones. a president for people of all beliefs or just the alt-right. today he showed the world how little he knows or cares about u.s. history. he showed the world how much a mother's loss matters to him when weighted against whether or not she praised him, how far he'll go to avoid he's ever made a mistake. before we continue, we want to be real tonight. this was a unite the right rally. it was a clear from the beginning exactly what kind of people would be attending. white nationalists, white supremacists, neo-nazis, members of the kkk. they showed up with clubs and 'sheeds and long rifles. speakers were announced in advance. yet, on on saturday the president said there was violence on many sides. he returned to that line today.

here's some of what he said just a few hours ago. >> senator mccain 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, define alt-right to me. you define it. go ahead. >> define it for me. come on, let's go. >> senator mccain defined them as. >> what the old left. excuse me. what about the alt left that came charging at as you say the alt-right? do they have any semblance of guilt? >> this is senator mccain's statement. >> what about the fact they came charging, they came charging with clubs in their hands swinging clubs. do they have any problem? i think they do. so you know, 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. >> protesters on the same level as neo-nazis. >> i will tell you something. i watched those very closely, much more closely than you people watched it. you have -- you had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on 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 is saying, both sides were violent. today he seemed to go out of his way to whitewash the nature of what was after all an explicit lit white power rally. >> 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, robert e. lee. so, excuse me. and 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. >> he went on to claim that the people there to protest particularly on friday night the day before the main rally, those people were simply protesting the taking down of a statue of robert e. lee. president makes them sound like history buffs, fine people quietly protesting. >> and you had people and i'm not talking about the neo-nazi and white nationalists because they should be condemned totally. but had you many people in that group other than neo-nazis and white nationalists. okay? and the press has treated them 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 blackout fits and with the helmets and with the baseball bats. you got a lot of bad people in the other group, too. >> i'm sorry. i didn't understand what you

were saying. you're saying the press treated white nationalists unfairly. >> flow, there were people in that rally. if you look, they were people protesting very quietly. the taking down of the statue of robert several lee. i'm sure in that group there were some bad ones. the following day it looked like they had some rough, bad people. neo-nazis, white nationalists, whatever you want to call them. but you had a lot of people in that group there to innocently protest and very legally protest because you know, 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 to the country. >> so he's singling out friday night pointing to the groups there protesting the statue. i just want to show you a video from friday night. and when you look at this video,

it's about a maintenance and a half. it's worth you seeing the entire thing. ask yourself, do the people in there video chanting jews will not replace us and chanting blood and soil and all nazi slogan, do they seem to be quiet fans of the history of robert e. lee? this is video is from advice media. >> you will not replace us. you will not replace us. jews will not replace us. jews will not replace us. jews will not replace us. blood and soil. blood and soil. blood and soil. blood and soil. blood and soil. blood and soil. >> whose streets? our streets. whose streets? our streets. whose streets? our streets. whose streets? our streets. whose streets, our streets. >> whose streets?

our streets. >> whose streets? our streets. >> no kkk. >> black lives matter. black lives matter. black lives matter. black lives matter. >> whoo. >> no nazis. >> white lives matter. white lives matter. >> so those were the people protesting the robert e. lee statue being taken down or the idea of it being taken down. the people president trump saided were quietly there, just good people. when the president was asked by a reporter why he waited two days before calling out racists

and klansmen and neo-nazis for their role in charlottesville including the killer of heather heyer, this is what he said. >> i didn't wait long. 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 fact. 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. it's a very important statement. so i don't want to the go quickly and just make a 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 note 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 lied so frequently and so fast as this one? but even if the president was really waiting for the facts in the case of the rally in charlottesville, the facts were plain before, during and after the blood shed. a fact the president had his disposal saturday while he was waiting for all the facts, the fact he had weeks before when it became known who would be attending and speaking at the rulely, a fact his daughter recognized saturday when she reportedly urged him to call out the thugs by name his jewish daughter whom we have not heard of fra for dpapz president preferred to feeks on the at that time the statues and displaying his.of american history. >> you had people there to protest the taking down to them of a very, very important statue and the renaming of a parking 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 -- excuse me. are we going to take down -- are we going to take down statues to george -- how about thomas jefferson? what do you think of thomas jefferson? you like him? good. are we going to take down the statue because he was a major slave owner. are we going to take down his statue. >> thomas jefferson and george washington were both slavers on. one country's founding document. neither one df what lee did which is take up arms against it. if history doesn't matter, let's try current events. the murder by vehicle of 32-year-old heather heyer. today the president neither mentioned her nor her mother. she did mention miss bro had written words of praise about him. he thanked her twice. when asked whether he will be speaking to her he quickly segued to talk about the winery

bearing his name. >> i own a house in charlottesville. does anyone know that? oh, boy. it's going to be -- it's in charlottesville. you'll see. >> is it a winery? >> it is the winery. i mean, a know a lot about charlottesville. charlottesville is a great place that's been very badly hurt over the last couple days. i own actually one of the largest wineries in the united states. it's in charlottesville. >> he owns one of the largest wine pripz as you might mane, his words just like on saturday are drawing fire including top republicans. paul ryan tweeting we must be clear, white supremacy is repulsive. this bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. he's not alone. 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 from david duke. >> first, senior white house correspondent jim acosta, 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? >> 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 cabinet secretaries and make some remark and go back into trump tower and these cabinet secretaries will take your questions. what happened after that is that thing as we've been saying all day long went completely off the rails because as the president wrapped up remarks on infrastructure, he was again peppered with questions about this lackluster response to the violence in charlottesville. and the shifting explanations. and the president essentially as you just pointed out revertsed back to his initial response blaming both sides for all of this and sort of echoing some of the complaints from white nationalists that well, if you start taking down statue of lee,

statues and monuments to george washington and thomas jefferson will be next. anderson, 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 which is obviously a publication that espouses a lot of white nationalist views. and according to the source who is familiar with this thinking 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 more moderate leaning people inside the white house. and steve bannon who really represents this base that according to this source trump does not want to offend. and so 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 this is this evening. in just the last few moments, i was told by a republican source 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 down and tripling down. i don't know if you can call it quad ruping down. they are firmly cemented in this view that the president's initial response to all of this in charlottesville was the correct one. >> what about his statement yesterday in which he did what many people wished had he done on saturday. i saw someone referring to as a hostage video. did someone else give him the

script to read and today he's expressing his real thoughts? there was nols teleprompter today. these weren't written remarks. this is what he thinks in his head. was yesterday just a lie? >> yed was forced. it was not heartfelt. i was in the room with the president. you could see that on his face. what you saw inside trump tower was there for trump tower earlier today, you could see his chief of staff john kelley waiting off to the side with his arms folded looking down at the floor. there were no attaboys. there was no black slapping and high fives after this performance from the president inside trump tower. and just to give you an indication how republicans are feeling about this tonight, anderson, 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." clearly 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, thanks. i want to bring in three people with decades of white house experience. van jones, david axelrod and host of the ax files on cnn and david gergen who worked closely with republican and democratic presidents dating back to the reagan administration. david, how do you view what the president said today reversing what he said yesterday and going back to what he had said on saturday? >> i must tell you, anderson, after watching presidents for a long, 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. in creating once again an equivalence between the neo-nazi and people who came to protest what the neo-nazis are saying, you know, it's just so

unacceptable to masses of people in this country. i'm shocked that i went back there. but anderson, the bigger question for me, the harder one that is more worrisome is what's going on inside donald trump? this is a man with such massive insecurities. we haven't seen anybody in the white house with such massive insecurities since richard nixon. increasingly people feel he's posing a danger -- not just to his party but to the country. and you know, he's going to tear us apart. >> you really think he poses a danger to the country? >> this is a tough tough night. >> what's that? >> that's a strong statement for someone who worked for both republicans and democrats in the white house. i really believe donald trump is posing a danger to the country? >> i believe when i worked for richard nixon, ultimately he needed to leave office just as most of my colleagues at the nixon white house. we thought he was posing a threat given did 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 parent now. and we see a man lashes out, can't control himself and he's only a short way away from the nuclear button. he's the man who tells whether we go to war or not. yes, i think there's some dangers here to the country. >> david axelrod, we've seen time and again this president stepping on the white house's oh message. today there were a lot of positive things he could have been talking about, north korea seemed to have blinked on the whole issue of guam. you know, president wanted to talk about infrastructure. the stock market at a high. and yet, i mean, is this probably one of the worst days for this president you've seen? >> yeah, it's hard to rate them. you'd 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 in 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 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 he did. 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 praise 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 just how are they going to move forward, not just dealing with donald trump but dealing with the forces that have propelled donald trump unlike richard nixon hop 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, that's his base. he's catering to it clearly. >> van, want to read what david duke tweeted after the president's remarks today. thank you, president trump for your honesty and courage to tell the truth about charlottesville and condemn the leftist terrorists in blm and anty fa. we don't know what the president's motive is but we can say his words have absolutely emboldened white supremacists.

>> you know, this is a tough night. i think for normal people. you got a lot of people at home going through kleenex right now. he got a lot of people at home who are keeping their kids away from tv tonight because we're spiraling away from each other. we're spiraling away from each other. and you want the president to be the person who comes and grabs us by the hands and pulls us back together and reminds us what this is all supposed to be about. instead he's picking a fight. even if he's right, which he's wrong, he's picking a side in a food fight. by his own understanding. and he's actually cheerleading for one side and defending one side. he's not defending 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. you can't distinguish between the founder of our country who was a flawed individual, but who

did great things. and the person who led a rebellion against this country. robert several lee should not be in the same sentence as george washington. he can't distinguish between nazis with torches saying anti-jewish, anti-black stuff who went there chanting things that people died by the millions in the last century over. he can't distinguish between them and the people who went there to try to defend people from those thugs. >> i keep wondering, van, i mean, he's surrounded by military people. h.r. mcmaster has had an incredible career in the u.s. army. they fought the nazis in europe. you know, kelly who was a mr., most of the marines were in the pacific theater but there were marines fighting against the nazis in europe, as well. what did these people surrounding him think? ivanka trump. i mean, jared kushner, what are they thinking? >> i don't know but i'll tell what you i'm thinking. i'm thinking about my godmother, do they zellner who is jewish. i think what she's gone through in her life sticking up for

civil rights. the stories 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 can't turn on television see the president of the united states show any sympathy for her, 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 it's not just the people you're emboldening. it's the people you're abandoning who now 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 and i know david does. all of us do. everybody's trying to hold it together tonight. >> i'm the son of a jewish refrg. yes, i feel it strongly. 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 who is going to stand up and provide the moral leadership that the country deserves. at some point, we have to conclude 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 disappointed us. he is who he is. he's not going to change. this was dev fintive proof that have today. >> david, thank you, david gergen, van jones. there are many more aspects to this to explore including president's claim he's all about having the facts before he

speaks. the civil war and race in this country. the president's claims about violence on both sides and more. the panel joins us, as well as we continue. americans - 83% try to eat healthy. yet up 90% fall short in getting key nutrients from food alone. let's do more. add one a day women's complete with key nutrients we may need. plus it supports bone health with calcium and vitamin d. one a day women's in gummies and tablets. get your ancestrydna kit.here. learn about you and the people and places that led to you and see yourself in a new light. ancestrydna. save 30% through august 15th at ancestrydna.com. with at&t you can get your entertainment right here. right now, when you get the incredible iphone 7 from at&t you can get unlimited data and live tv. the channels you love. your favorite shows and movies. making your iphone into more of a... oh my tv is ringing. hey...i'm in the middle of a...a second iphone from at&t? okay!

right now when you buy a new iphone 7 from at&t you'll get a second iphone 7 on us. and power both with unlimited data and live tv. nitrites or artificial ham has preservatives.tes, now it's good for us all. like those who like. sweet those who prefer heat. sfx - a breath of air and those who just love meat. oscar mayer deli fresh. sweet!

or a little internet machine? it makes you wonder: shouldn't we get our phones and internet from the same company? that's why xfinity mobile comes with your internet. you get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost, so all you pay for is data. see how much you can save. choose by the gig or unlimited. xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com.

talking about the president's off the cuff press conference today at trump tower and his insistence he did not speak out against the racists on saturday because as he put it, he was waiting for the facts. >> 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 while 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 fact. i want to make a statement with knowledge. i wanted to know the facts. okay. >> president trump claiming he likes to know the facts. the press event began with a question about ceos leaving his advisory panel in the wake of charlottesville. that number now stands at six. tar set mayor, charles blow,

paris denard, paul begala. charles, where were you at tonight? >> 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 -- 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 miss sojnist, that this man is a bully and people like me and other people saying the exact same thing that this thing, you have to ask yourself a 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 them of him. or is there a symbiotic

relationship happening here where they are feeding off of each other. 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 rachellized energy well short of the vehicular homicide and people -- 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 power 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 animus. there are people, 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 nthem. there are people today who detest the violence in charlottesville and yet do not believe that black people are equal to them. that is what white supremacy is. that is what it is. once you order people, once you make a hierarchy people and devalue some people and lift other, that allows you to do things. >> paris, as a supporter of the president, how is it that this president, yesterday he gave this teleprompter speech in which he renounced the white supremacists and kk and

neo-nazis. today he's saying the people rallying around the robert e. lee statue on stride night with the tiki torches chantding jews will not replace us, blood and soil, calling the small group of counter protesters there calling them faggots, how do you defend the president for what he said today those people he was saying they were just quietly protesting a at that time to you. >> the interesting thing that i saw in the vice clip of the entire night, the one-minute clip that you showed from that entire night on friday, was there was people on the other side chanting black lives matter. >> how dare they? is that what you're saying? >> i'll finish my comment. my point is, there were other people there that night that were not saying alt-right things that you were saying. >> there were a couple of dozen counter protesters who surrounded the statue when several hundred guys with torches arrives and they were

basically overwhelms and the police came once they were chased off. >> the only point i'm making is everybody there friday night were not doing the things that you're saying the majority were doing. >> there's hundreds of people with tiki torches. >> it's very simple. >> jews will not replace it. were there quiet people walking with them. >> when the black lives matter -- let me start by saying i'm not equating black lives matter to anything of these neo-nazis, fascists and white supremacists. there was a strong push in the media and a lot of people saying when you see the black lives matter saying f the public police, burning cars and doing this. the pushback would say that was a small fragment of those people. the majority of these people were peaceful, quiet and angry at the situation. only point i'm making is in the vice clip you just showed there were people chanting black lives

matter. it is unfair to characterize everybody there as neo-nazi. >> what you're saying literally makes no sense. i'm not characterizing the black lives people as neo-nazis. there were a small group of them of mostly uva students and supporters around the statue when the neo-nazis arrived. it's the people with torches that the president is talking about as just being quiet good people who were just there to protest the statue. they're frigging chanting jews will not replace us on the streets of america. >> the event said it was a pro white demonstration. that's what those people were there to do. so why are you acting like it's just a few random bad apples? these people are you're saying because there was somebody there saying black lives matter because it is an appropriate thing to say. these people were there organized to do a pro white demonstration with david duke and richard spencer. i mean, where do you not condemn

this? i mean. >> how do you say i'm not condemning it. >> i didn't hear you condemn it. >> it your reaction was to find a talking point spin. >> it is. >> hold on. it's what i believe. >> you got your shot. the part about in 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 self-aggrandizing victim-blaming rant today where he was disgraced the office of the presidency. and potentially planted the seed for even more division in this country than we've already seen today. 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 president trump and trying to spin this into it was

charlottesville's fault, a couple of black lives matter people's fault. i have issues with antifa. they've said horrible things to to you but they didn't kill anyone on saturday. >> they don't have the history that neo-nazis and white supremacists do in this country. for people to come out and that's the default position they take when president of the united states made it about him, he made about it about his grievances. he gave the alt-right a plas form 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 what you 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 moral 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, then 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 vacas the moral clarity required of the office of the president. we are not the party of robert several lee. we are not the party of jefferson davis. we are the party of abraham 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 inoperable. >> but the problem there is that, story, paul, but 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" where they said our enemies, this is 1968, our enemies are blacks and hippies who are anti-war. 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." and he says we want more blacks to register as democrats because the negro phobes that was his word, will flock to the republican party. that is -- that was a southern strategy. that's my lifetime. i'm born in 1970. that interview is given. 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 is it. >> that's not the whole history. >> nothing is ever the whole. tara, i'm sorry. >> be fair about this. >> i'm going to finish. i'm going to finish. i'm going to finish. i'm 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 that he proposed when he was in the legislature are no different than the republican bills that they do now. i'm sorry. >> charles, come on. >> that is true. >> and the democratic platform, i have to counter something. you can't blame the republican party for all racism in america and leave out the history of democrat racism. it was the democrats. >> do you want to have a magazine you want to quote. >> that the wasn't against the jim crow law. against anti-lynching. what about tanny? dred scott. he was a democrat. we could go through this. that is not what we're talking about tonight. be fair about that. >> i'm fair about that. >> paul. >> we come to this with a great deal of history. you know, jefferson, a slave owner said that slavery was a fire bell in the night.

more recently, bill bradley said it was our original sin. we've never gotten over it in america. we're wrestling with this tonight. this is not richard nixon with dog whistles. this is donald trump with a fog horn. this is a bull horn. say what you will about the recent history of republicans on race. i grew up in texas and fighting them all my life. this is different. ronald reagan disavowed the ku klux klan when they endorsed him. eisenhower not only defeated the nazis in battle, he opposed joe mccarthy. george h.w. bush when duke was in the legislature and running for governor, disavowed him. this is no longer republican versus democrat. this is nazis versus americans. freedom versus fascism. the moral blinds they that our president showed willful moral blindness today was unlike anything i've seen in american politics. >> if that person is nominated as the republican nominee, what does that say? you can't divorce him from them. there is no way to do that.

there is no way to do that. we can't both -- we can't both say this is not a left/right issue. if the person you just described was the republican nominee and now is president of the united states and most white people in america voted ford that person, what does that say? i'm sorry. there is no way to wiggle out of that. >> coming up, trump blamed so-called both sides for violence. the white supremacists and those who prestded against their hate. we'll hear in dr. cornell west there at the rallies. we'll be right back. hey dad, come meet the new guy. the new guy? what new guy? i hired some help. he really knows his wine. this is the new guy? hello, my name is watson. you know wine, huh? i know that you should check vineyard block 12. block 12? my analysis of satellite imagery shows it would benefit from decreased irrigation. i was wondering about that. easy boy. nice doggy.

what do you think? not bad. what do you think? what's going on here? um...i'm babysitting. that'll be $50 bucks. you said 30 dollars. yeah, well it was $30 before my fees, like the pizza-ordering fee and the dog-sitting fee... and the rummage through your closet fee. are those my heels? yeah! yeah, we're the same size...in shoes. with t-mobile taxes and fees are already included, so you get four lines of unlimited for just $40 bucks each. and now get zero down on the hottest smart phone brands like samsung galaxy. more reasons why t-mobile is america's best unlimited network.

you wto progress.move. to not just accept what you see, but imagine something new. at invisalign®, we use the most advanced teeth straightening technology to help you find the next amazing version of yourself. it's time to unleash your secret weapon. it's there, right under your nose. get to your best smile up to 50% faster. visit invisalign.com to get started today.

just take a moment to summarize where we are since the weekend. neo-nazis, kkk, white supremacists, white nationalists gather for a rally in virginia. they chant racist slogans. a young woman is killed in broad daylight in an attack like the ones we've seen isis carry out. a car plaus into people trying to stand up against hate. today we learned more how the president of the united states sees those events. >> what about the alt left that came charging them excuse me.

what about the alt left that came charging at as you say the alt-right. do they have any semblance of guilt? >> sir, sir. >> 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. so you know, 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. >> protesters on the same level as neo-nazis? >> i will tell you something. i watched those very closely. much more closely than you people watched it. and you have -- you will 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. 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 is dr. cornell west at harvard's university divinity school. dr. west, thanks for being with us today. you were there friday night, you were there saturday. when you hear the president of the united states saying the people who were marching with torches saying jews will not replace us, and saying you know, chanting nazi slogans, blood and soil, an that there were good people who just were there because they were upset about the at that time to you, what do you think? >> you know, brother anderson, i'm not surprised. donald trump is a neofascist. 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. accent love and justice and humanity of all of us no matter what sexual orientation, race, national identity and what have you. the sad thing is, we're dealing

with the life and death of the american democratic experiment. what i mean by that is the spiritual blackout, the eclipse of honesty and integrity, moral meltdown where there's no space for prophetic witness of love and justice and it's in a matter of just the president. i have no expectations for donald trump. i've been a black man in america for 64 years. donald trump is not 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 jews and black people and gays and lesbians. the real challenge is

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. the problem is, look at corporate america. they've been relatively silent. we've just had two recent brothers break loose. where is the anti-racist orientation? where is the church? where is the synagogue? where are the mosques? where are our fellow citizens who ought to occupy that prophetic space of 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 xenophobia 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 must not be fetish-ized. he 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 accountable. for its silence. the democratic party has to deal with its relative silence regarding some of the things like massive incarceration 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. can't just be revenge, can't just talk about power. 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 both 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 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. let's see, there are the wildcats 'til we die weekenders.

the watch me let if fly. this i gotta try weekenders. then we've got the bendy... ... spendy weekenders. the tranquility awaits. hanging with our mates weekenders and the it's been quite a day... ...so glad we got away weekenders. whatever kind of weekender you are, there's a hilton for you. book your weekend break direct at hilton.com and join the weekenders. no splashing! wait so you got rid of verizon, just like that? uh-huh. i switched to t-mobile, kept my phone-everything on it- -oh, they even paid it off! wow! yeah. it's nice that every bad decision doesn't have to be permenant! ditch verizon. keep your phone. we'll even pay it off when you switch to america's best unlimited network. it survived 4 food fights,ew but old, home: a one-coat wonder named "grams",

and rolled with multiple personalities. number one rated marquee interior. behr's most advanced one-coat hide paint. only at the home depot. over the course of 9 days steve chthat's a marathon. miles. and he does it with dr. scholl's. only dr. scholl's has massaging gel insoles that provide all-day comfort to keep him feeling more energized. dr. scholl's. born to move. when you switch to progressive. as easy as saving $600

winds stirring. too treacherous for a selfie. [ camera shutter clicks ] sure, i've taken discounts to new heights with safe driver and paperless billing. but the prize at the top is worth every last breath. here we go. [ grunts ] got 'em. ahh. wait a minute. whole wheat waffles? [ crying ] why!

the president revealing who he is, what he is. he went before reporters and spoke off the cuff about the tragedy this weekend in charlottesville. 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.