call, visit or go to xfinitymobile.com. hello, i'm wolf blitzer, it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. 7:00 p.m. in berlin, 8:00 p.m. in jerusalem, wherever you're watching around the world, thank you. the president ignited a firestorm when he equated hate groups in charlottesville with the people who were there to protest against them. >> i think there's blame on both

sides. i don't have any doubt about it, and you don't have any doubt about it either. >> "the washington post" responded with a very, very tough -- tuesday was a great group for david duke and racists everywhere. the president of the united states all but declared he has their backs, close quote, two more ceos resigned from the president's manufacturing council, that brings the total so far of resignations to eight. let's bring in our senior white house correspondent. jeff, a senior white house official says the president's impromptu news conference yesterday was all him, those are direct quotes, all him. but others are encouraging surrogates to echo what the president actually said. what is the latest you're

hearing from inside the trump administration? >> reporter: wolf, inside trump tower here and in fact back in washington at the white house, advisors there, they have been unusually silent. there's been few defenders coming forward at least publicly to defend what the president said yesterday, and certainly no republican members of congress either. officials i have talked to here said that we're going to try to get back to the agenda and essentially do our jobs. but the whole point of the president coming out in front of the cameras yesterday was to talk about infrastructure, to talk about the agenda. so the agenda has been impacted by this, there's no question about it. but officials acknowledge that. but wolf, just moments ago in santiago, the vice president mike pence is traveling in south america. he was asked about this in a news conference, listen to what he said. >> what happened in charlottesville was a tragedy. and the president has been clear on this tragedy and so have i.

i spoke at length about this heart breaking situation on sunday night in colombia. and i stand with the president and i stand by those words. but today, while i'm here in chile, our hearts are in charlottesville. because just a few short hours ago, family and friends gathered to say farewell to a remarkable young woman. heather heyer. and we have been praying, we've been praying for god's peace and comfort for her family and her friends. and her loved ones. and we're also praying that in america that we will not allow

the few to divide the many. >> reporter: so listening to the vice president there say, we will not allow the few to divide the many. certainly a very different message than the president was saying yesterday, so the vice president has been traveling, he's been abroad for several days now, wolf, so he's not been involved in these conversations, but the reality here is, even as the white house tries to turn the page and they're trying to get the president back on track, saying he'll go to camp david on friday to talk about the afghanistan policy, it is still the words he uttered in the lobby of trump tower yesterday that will perhaps haunt his presidency, that he will certainly have to address, but obviously the vice president taking a much softer tone as you heard moments ago in chile. >> he didn't echo that there's blame on both sides, we didn't hear that from the vice

president. congress has all been quit to point out that hatred and bigotry is very, very bad. but many of them have actually stopped short of criticizing the president himself. give us a sense of how lawmakers, particularly republican lawmakers are reacting. >> reporter: that's right, wolf, we're seeing several republican lawmakers calling out the president by name. senator mitch mcconnell the majority leader who was silent until this morning, despite the president's stunning press conference yesterday afternoon. i am told by a source close too the majority leader that he was very upset at president trump's remarks especially given mcconnell's own work on civil rights issues over the yearing, but he did not call out the president by name in a statement released by his office this morning. but he did allude to trump's comments saying there were some very good people who attended that protest in charlottesville. he said there are no good

neo-nazis and those who's spouse their views are -- mcconnell also concerned about similar democrat demonstrations happening in lexington, kentucky. i'm told one reason why mcconnell did not mention the president's name is that he got into this flap last week with the president who reportedly blamed the majority leader for failing on health care, that the president was wary, it looked like he was piling on the president just to get back at him over their dispute, and also he needs the -- taking a tougher tone, like republican senator lindsay graham with, a frequent critic of trump, saying this, through his statements yesterday, president trump took a step backwards saying there's an equivalence between ne-o-na i

neo-nazis, kkk members and white supremacists. the question is exactly how republicans will fight back, whether there will be hearings on capitol hill, or at least symbolic votes rebuking the president, as some democrats are pushing the house right now, but we're not getting any indication that republicans are joining that effort as of yet. but this all is overshadowing what the president's trying to do on capitol hill, wolf. >> he certainly is. in addition to blaming violence on both sides, mr. trump also defending white supremacists and others. >> you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, they were people protesting very quietly the taking down of the statue of

robert e. lee. you had a lot of people in that group that were there to innocently protest. >> we now want to show you our viewers here in the united states and around the world who actually attended the rally in charlottesville, virginia, and what their stated intentions were. a group of white supremacists gave vice news exclusively access over the weekend. this is released by vice, but we want to warn all of our viewers, some of the views expressed in these clips are very disturbing. >> jews will not replace us! jews will not replace us! >> when did you get into as you said the racial stuff? >> when the trayvon martin case happened, and tamir brown and

all these things, and the little [ bleep ] behaving like a savage. whatever problems i might have with my fellow white people, they generally are not inclined to such behavior and you have to kind of take that introconsideration when you're thinking about organizing a society. >> oklahoma city. >> exactly, you have to go back to oklahoma city to talk about a white act of terrorism. >> dylan roof. >> you can remember dylan roof's -- i'm trying to make myself more capable of violence. [ chanting ] >> we have been told to disburse, some are being outright pushed out. it's a half hour before the speakers are supposed to start. >> we're obeying the law, we're

doing everything we're supposed to two trying to express opinions and the criminals are over there getting their way. >> you're the true nonviolent protesters? >> i'm not even saying we're nonviolent, i'm saying that we [ bleep ] did not initiate force against anyone, we're not violent people, but we'll [ bleep ] kill these people if we have to. >> they just literally came down the street at 80-mile-per-hour to hit us just now. there are people, bodies laying on the ground right now. i seen bodies flying after being hit by that car. this is my town, we did not want them [ bleep ] here. and now we got bodies on the ground and they're trying to revive somebody right now. >> i'm not saying it was worth

it. we knew we were going to meet a lot of resistance. the fact that nobody on our side died, i would go ahead and call that points for us. >> but the car that struck a protester, that's unprovoked. >> so the video appears to show someone striking that vehicle. when these animals attacked him again, and he saw no way to get away from them except to hit the gas. and sadly, because our rivals are a bunch of stupid animals who don't pay attention, they couldn't just get out of the way of hiss car. >> so you think it was justified? >> i think more than justified. >> all right, with us now, our cnn politics reporter and it for at large, chris calizza, and cornell william brooks who's now a cnn commentator and gloria borger, that was incredibly hard

to watch. we saw them friday marching in long, long lines, with those flames reminiscent of what we saw in germany in the '30s, screaming "jews will not replace us." "you will not replace us." and then the president came out last night and said what he said. >> i'm wondering whether he watched this vice footage because what the president said is, you also had some very fine people on both sides. you had a lot of people in that group that were there to innocently protest. this was not innocent. this person that was interviewed on vice didn't care that heather heyer died. he had absolutely no concern about this, he called the other people, demonstrating on the other side stupid animals and

worse. and the president has said that there were fine people, and the president said i saw the same pictures as you. so my question now to this president is, what pictures were you looking at? >> because you see those pictures, cornell, you and i have looked closely at those images that we saw, so reminiscent of the video we have seen, the film over the years that we have seen going back to na nazi germany. >> the president said he saw images from the night before, where we had protesters wearing polo shirts and golf shirts with nazi insignia, when you wear a swastika, it's a statement about the president, your capability and your willingness to engage in violent, but it's also a statement by the lineage and legacy of violence that you come

from, going back to world war i ii, so suggesting that these phoen folks were on the same moral plane, he might as well say there's no moral plane. look at those people who lost their lives fighting against naziism, and say that these people are on the same moral plane as these protesters. >> they were chanting jews will not replace us. you will not replace us. and blood and soil. a common nazi statement. you hear that kind of rhetoric, coming up from long lines from the folks with the torches moving forward. it's pretty alarming. i don't know if the president saw that video or if he didn't see that video, but to come out and say there's blame on both sides is causing all this outrage. >> what was particularly interesting to me is to see just

how well organized these folks were. some like to say it's a very small segment of the south, but these are people that look like they could be my next door neighbor or your next door neighbor. one thing that struck me about what the president said yesterday, he didn't want to rush out and make a statement, he wanted to make sure that he had all the information, at least from the footage that came out of charlottesville, virginia, when you see swastikas, you need to stand up and denounce that, you don't need a lot of information. this is a president that in the past has leapt and made big statements about terrorist attacks before information has come out labeling them as that. and made judgments time and again throughout history time and begin sand now in the oval office. when y he did not make that same leap. i have to wonder what did he see

and why in this moment did he not do so? >> and there are certain talking points th points from the white house. >> the president was right, the president expressed empathy for the victim. he didn't say heather heyer's name on saturday, he did say this violent was on many sides. and then sure on monday he said something that i think most people thought sure, a little bit late but better late than never. and then what he said monday, what he said was effectively how he feels. where was the alt-right, why don't you show those people. >> there are people who are for me and people who are against me. and the people that are for me

get a bad rap by the media and democrats. this does not fit into that. this is not something that fits on that spectrum. and unform, his world view is such, we are willing to not even talk about it now, but this guy tweeted over the weekend, this conspiracy theorist, it doesn't matter if this guy was engaged in conspiracy theory before, because he's making nice with trump. being a moral person is not saying people are good because they agree with me. and that's the problem that we have got. >> just a molt ago, he tweeted, the president of the united states tweeted this. this was two minutes ago, rather than putting pressure on the business people of the manufacturing council in strategy and policy form, i am ending both, thank you all. eight ceos have already resigned. >> and we know that people on the strategic and policy forum were discussing this morning

what to do as was the manufacturing council, eight people had resigned from the manufacturing council, so it's embarrassing to the president, particularly since these were the business people he was supposed to bring in and they were going to rally around him and make america great again. so what that was, was damage control, allegedly from the president trying to kind of beat them to the punch before they all abandoned him, which is exactly what they were beginning to do because his remarks yesterday to ceos and business leaders in this country were completely unacceptable as they should have been and he was kind of like, okay, you quit, i'm firing you. >> that tweet reminds me of seventh grade when i would get word that a girl was going to break up with me and i would call and be like, i broke up with you. that's what that is. it's well, we're going to disband this before you all leave and embarrass me. >> and no acknowledgement

whatsoever about the very real criticisms and concerns that all of these executives from different walks of life have of these statements. >> the first one to resign was the ceo of merck pharmaceuticals, he was the only one of the ceos that was under attack directly by the president. >> and the president has consistently acted as a craven candidate, seeking to retain his racist base, as opposed to standing up to the full measure of his office, and conducting himself with some gravitas. this young woman, heather hieye was become memorialized today. this was a revenge tweet instead of speaking of the moment. her father spoke of love, love

in a democracy is a verb meaning justice, he's not spoken about justice for her, in terms of holding her killer accountable. he's not shown up at at her memorial service. >> what about saying to the leaders of the business community, as someone else would do, you have a problem with what i said, let's meet, let's talk about this, let me hear you out, inste inste instead, he doesn't want to hear from them because now they're on the enemies list. >> everybody is on the doesn't like me list and therefor should be ignored and attacked. >> trump's presidency is the headline, trump's presidency is on the brink of total collapse. >> i mean, look, he's going to keep a certain part of his base, no matter what. they will be for him solely

because there are people criticizing him and they think those people are bad and they won't be for him. so he will keep those people. there's not a lot for the president in the first six months, immigratihealth care, t, immigration, what has the president gotten done? there hasn't been a lot of momentum there, this not only takes it from sort of a political failure, which it has been, now six months in, now morally, and more important frankly, this is a moral failure on the part of the president. this will go down, whatever is eventually written about donald trump's presidency, this will be a part, that the president of the united states vacated the moral leadership that every past president in the modern era has issued, stepping up in times of crisis, stepping up to be big to lead.

>> i just want to add something to that. i do not believe that a large majority or a large portion of the president's base would condone this. i don't think so. >> hold on for -- >> whoever it is, i don't know that they're at the base of anybody except themselves. >> the breaking news, i want to just reiterate the president's tweet, that which just reported on, rather than putting pressure on the business people of the manufacturing con council of strategy and policy forum, i am ending both, thank you all. i want to bring in our business correspondent. this is a moment that certainly the president didn't want, he thought he had the big business community on board and now they were abandoning because of the comments, because of the reaction to what happened in charlottesville, virginia and now he has to go ahead and disband these two forums. >> reporter: that's right, wolf, and this is really a missed opportunity for president trump, he had the full support of some

very big brands that carried a lot of weight, the largest commercial bank in the united states, jpmorgan chase, you're talking about one of the biggest investment advisors in this country, black stone, and plenty of other brands like ibm for example was in this group, they represent a cross section of these industries, they were supporting the president. they may not have accomplished much during that short time when they came together. but they were at least giving him legitimacy and support to the public, and now those two groups, we're talking about two separate groups here, the one i was talking about was the strategic and policy forum, that was the one that comprised a lot of the brands that i mentioned earlier, the ceos of those brands, there was also another group, the manufacturing council, which was really focused on creating jobs, bringing manufacturing jobs back to america.

and in both cases, it really gave trump a lot of legitimacy, and a lot of firepower actually, these images of these business leaders sitting next to him, really gave president trump a lot of legitimacy on wall street. it was one of the reasons that a lot of investors had confidence that we would get tax reform, is because we had these large names and these important thought leaders sitting next to him. now that they have disbanded, effectively the president has gotten in front of this by tweeting it out. but the reality was they were under immense pressure from consumer groups and activists to denounce the president and his remarks about what's happened over the past couple of days. so, wolf, none of this is surprising, it's made it -- they have obviously made it easy for president trump because they allowed him to get in front of it without each one peeling away and making it, you know, a bigger story for several days.

he's just cutting the kortcord they're allowing him to do it. >> let's not make any mistake, he was losing the support of the ceos very, very quickly, he started with one, then two, then five, now eight. and a lot more. if you take a look at these companies, armour, merck, camp bell, you can go on. the leader of one of the largest unions in the united states, the largest trade union in the united states, the alliance for american manufacturing, they were bolting and more were ready to bolt right away. and there's no doubt the president had no choice, either he announces he's d ee's disban these two councils or they're all going to quit in a matter of days. >> that's one group, the group that you just showed on the screen there, that's the manufacturing council, the other group was solidly together and

they decided to act sort of as one and allow the president to pull the plug on it and that was the ceo group comprised of jamie dimon, all of those leaders. look, the larger picture here, is that there was an opportunity to do something with the ceos of america. there was a real chance that this group, the manufacturing council and the ceo group could have affected change, but the really is, that they were under so much pressure from the outside, probably from investors as well. remember, all of these people, all of these ceos, not only do they have to make their consumers happy, they also have to make their shareholders happy. and once there is less up side for them, once they start hearing from those two constituencies, then it's pretty much game over here, and i would

think at this point from an economic policy, we're going to have to see how this plays out, how wall street reacts to this. this is definitely a negative term for the president. and probably opens the door for a lot of other supporters to maybe see this and say, maybe sticking by president trump isn't the best thing to do. and i think that's the next story line we're going to see, this is the business community, the question is who's next after this? >> and the -- and christina, the thank you very much. gloria, who's next? the question is, will folks who are working for him inside the white house at the treasury department, elsewhere in the administration, will they decide now, you know what? i can't stay, i have to leave? >> you know what i thought of as i was listening to christina, he cannot disband the congress. he can disband his manufacturing council and the strategy and policy group. and people can quit in the administration or not quit.

but the one thing he can't do is say, i'm dismissing you in the congress. and what we are seeing is members of congress, some of them addressing him more directly, like lindsay graham and like john mccain. others doing it a little bit more obliquely, but what you are seeing in the congress is that people, members now, may get a little more muscular and start saying to the president, you know what? we're not going to -- we're going to deal with, whether it's some of his staff or whether it's kelly or--maybe members of congress now are going to get a little more bold about house they regard this president. because he cannot fire them. >> and what's interesting, only yesterday, cornell, the president had a very different tweet when some of the ceos started resigning it. he tweeted this, for every ceo that drops out of the manufacturing council, i have

many to take their place. grandstanders should not have gone on. jobs. so this is clearly a failure. he thought he had many ceos ready to replace those who were dropping out. he apparently did not. >> he misread the character and conscience of the ceos as well as the public, when their recent poll reveals that 31% of the american public thinks that the president personally supports white nationalism, only 22% believe that he's opposed to it. and 24% that he doesn't care. unless you believe 30% of your consumers, 30% of the voters personally support white nationalism, everybody in congress needs to be concerned. >> he doesn't like too admit defeat, the president of the united states, here he is admitting two of his major advisory councils that he put together early on in his administration, with some very high powered, very effective

talent, he has no choice, he's got to disband these two councils because the ceos were fleeing. >> it's like on the one hand he's he e he's admitting defeat, you don't see him lashing out and attacking these newly departed ceos or this new group the way he did the head of merck that he went after. he's trying to move it along. and i'm sure there will be another tweet of the president to distract attention away from the fact that here he has failed, there's been consequences for his actions, and i think to gloria's point, on his ability to fire the congress, lawmakers are at home in their districts for the august recess. you'll hear these people get these questions. we heard republican cory gardner of colorado get this question

from his constituents. i think people want to know whether their lawmakers stand and associate themselves with this president. and they're going to have a lot of questions to answer before they return back here to the capitol. >> are you getting statement s more reaction from some of these councils that the president has d disbanded that he had no choice because they were all leaving? >> we just heard from the parent company of carrier. this was the company, this was the heating and cooling equipment manufacturer that gave president trump his first big win with ceos and the business community because they kept some jobs here in the u.s. instead of outsourcing them to mexico and shifting some of the work over in mexico. and the parent company united technologies has issued a statement, just now we received it and it's a long statement, so

i'm not going to read it all, but it it says as the events of the last week have evolved we need to stand together to denounce hate, intolerance and racism, the corner stones of our community must be e affirmed by our actions every day. accordingly i have tendered my resignation from the council effective today. again, greg hayes, big supporter of this company, and one of his subsidiaries, carrier was the poster child of what donald trump was supposed to do for american workers and now by president trump sticking by his base and not denouncing as strongly the events of charlottesville as some of his critics would have liked him to do and others, not just hiss

critics of course. what he has done is essentially risked the -- he has risked his ability to create jobs here in america by not having these business communities, the business community behind him. and that's the larger picture, it's almost like he jose the ability to get more jobs back to the u.s. and potentially even strike these one off deals with companies to keep jobs here. and all of that now seems very much at risk, given the events of the past few hours. >> i quickly want to get chris calizza's reaction. the trump presidency is on the verge of collapse. >> i don't know if they made the point earlier, but this is an important one. the whole reasoning of donald trump was, barack obama, democrats, even a lot of republicans, they don't know business leaders.

he said it a billion times on the campaign trail. i know all the smartest people. he would always say carl icahn. i know them, they respect me, they're going to do things for my administration that no one else would do. now this isn't every business leader, these are two advisory councils, but, again the promise of donald trump was i'm a businessman, i make great deals, i will get things done. no matter what you think of charlottesville, and i think you have to think something, but no matter what you think of it, those two basic promises have simply not been met. now, it's a four-year term, we're 208 days in. but that is how he will be judged, even by people who voted for him, and right now, it's just -- it's not only he hasn't fulfilled those promises, it's that it's like backward. rather than even staying neutral. >> and the angry reaction is continuing to come in. we're going to continue our special breaking news coverage

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very moving memorial service just wrapped up for heather hey heyer, the young woman who was killed at that protest rally over the weekend. her mother said that she was a strong advocate and this was a country deeply divided. >> no father should have to do this. but i love my daughter. and as i listened to her friends, and heard stories of my daughter and the way she was.

she loved people. she wanted equality. and on this issue of the day of her passing, she wanted to put down hate and for my part, we just need to stop all this stuff and just forgive each other. i think that's what the lord would want us to do. is to stop and just love one another. >> here's the message, although heather was a caring and compassionate person, so are a lot of you, a lot of you go that extra mile. and i think the reason that what happened to heather has struck a cord is because we know that what she did is achievable, we don't all have to die, we don't all have to sacrifice our lives, they tried to kill my child to

shut her up. well, guess what, you just magnified her. >> all right, let's go our correspondent brian todd, he's on the scene for us, a very moving memorial. tell us a little bit more about this service honoring the memory of heather heyer. >> reporter: wolf, a lot of emotions inside this theater behind me, heather heyer's grandfather talked about holding her as baby and singing to her when she was a baby and her father and mother speaking we spoke to senator tim kaine, democrat of arizona. we have heard the president's remarks that people on both sides of that protest were violent. >> there's a complete lack of leadership in the oval office right now, his unwillingness to

call out white supremacy for what it is, to criticize it, to be unequivocal when condemning bigotry, it's shocking, it's not surprising because hiss very campaign was rooted in that, but it's shocking that a president of the united states is going to have moral clarity in a moment like that. >> reporter: there were more people committing violence, there were people on the counter protesters side who committed violence as well. >> any violence should be condemned and it should be condemned unequivocally, madison and the drafters of the constitution said that people should have the right to protest, or peacefully assemble to protest and present their opinions, so you need to be peaceful as you make your points known, and that's very, very important. but the president's confusion and attempt to suggest that there's an equivalence, who were the left running down in automobiles. he couldn't see to call out.

and now we know that his own staff urged him, urged him to call out budgetary and white supremacy, and he wouldn't do it when he was at the mike, that tells you that there's a vacuum there. >> reporter: what do you want to see the president say next? >> i don't have a request of the president, in virginia, we're not expecting him to lead on this issue because i think he's shown who he is. >> reporter: i also asked senator kaine about how he thinks this investigation is going, because here on the ground, only five arrests have been made after saturday's violence. senator kaine said that arrests are slow, but police are making appeals to the must be public for more information.

>> and the president tweeted just moments ago that he was ending his strategy and policy forum, it comes after a growing backlash from that white supremacist rally in charlottesville. the torch bearing men and women who were chanting anti jewish slogans, racist slogans, the president insisting not all of those people were necessarily neo-nazis, and not all he says were white supremacists, so let's get some reaction from democratic third in line among democrats in the house. i want to get your immediate reaction to these ceos, these other business leaders bolting from these two councils because of the president's statements or lack of statements.

>> thank you so much for shavin me. wolf. i think what these ceos were doing were demonstrating what this country is all about. i applaud them from stepping away from this charade. ken fraszer, and i think him so much for leading. what we're seeing is a tremendous morality gap that's developing in this country and the business community is stepping up to do its part to fill that gap. now it's time for the united states congress to step in. someone said earlier on your show, that he, the president can not fire the congress, that is correct. and the congress needs to demonstrate that we are in fact co-equal branch of government and i think it's time for the speaker of the house, the leader of the house, the democratic leader, nancy pelosi and for both senator schumer and senator mcconnell to bring together their leadership teams and let's

begin to put together an approach to governance that will bring people together, that will pass legislation, that will move this country forward and pass it in a bipartisan way. get 145 house members on the republican side, 145 democrats and let's get the 290 votes that are necessary to have a veto proof piece of legislation, pass it, send it to the president. if he doesn't sign it, let's override the veto and let's go forward. same thing in the senate, 35 senators on either side will pass legislation. we have got to bring this country together. and i think when you have a moral crisis in the white house, and that's what we have got, it's time for us in the congress as a co-equal branch to step into the gap and bring this country together, we can do it.

we did it back in 2008. we did bipartisan legislation to bring this country back from the brink of economic disaster. we are now approach tarrant county brink of what i would call a morality disaster, a moral disaster in this country. i think the congress can serve that same purpose here today. and so i'm calling upon the leadership of the house and the senate, in a bipartisan way, they're going to do what's necessary to demonstrate who and what we are and let's move this country forward in a bipartisan and in a multiracial way. >> well, let me ask you, congressman, because you have been a leader in the civil rights movement in our country for a long time, going way, way back. give us a little sense of history right now when you saw those marchers with torches screaming out anti-semitic slurs, and you heard them chanting jews will not replace

us, then they started screaming out you will not replace us, referring to african-americans, when they uttered the slogan, blood and soil, blood and soil. a clear statement that we heard nazis speak out in the '30s in the germany. what was your reaction as someone who has worked so hard in this area of civil r50i8gs all of these year sns? >> you know, i've been saying for a long time, and miss colleagues at the congressional black caucus would agree, i was around in the '60s as you said, and i remember some of those slogans and i remember what some of the political leaders had to say. that was a different day and a different time. we remember in our studies what happened in the 1930s in germany. i told a business group down in hilton head a little bit before

the election that what i saw coming was a replay of what we saw happen in nazi germany. and what happened, hitler was elected chancellor of germany. he didn't become a dictator until people began to be influenced by his foolishness. we just elected a president. and he ee's got a lot of foolishness going on and i'm afraid a lot of people are being influenced by that foolishness. so i want republicans to stand up and say we are not going to misuse the constitution of this county to turn this country on its head. i think the congress and the house need to move -- we have got to raise the debt ceiling so that this fool that's president of the united states cannot

reject it. so long as it's bipartisan, let's do what's necessary to reform our tax code. do that in a bipartisan way, do the same thing for fixing the affordable care act, there are problems with the affordable care act and we all and then let's do a bipartisan infrastructure bill that will do more than build roads and bridges. let's have water and sewage going into communities that need them, and let's target resources into communities of need, and let's have broad band deployment so our kids can get the education that they need. the house of representatives and the senate need to step into the gap, and let's do what's necessary to move our country forward, because this president has marginalized himself in such a way, he is never going to be able to provide any moral leadership, which is what is needed from any president in order to move an agenda.

>> very strong words from congressman james clyburn who pointed out goes way back to the civil rights movement, to the '60s, congressman, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you so much for having me. gloria, let's get some reaction. you heard him. he has lost complete faith in the president of the united states. >> look, i mean, what he is effectively saying, since the president can't fire the congress, is that the congress ought to make the president irrelevant. period. i think that's very difficult to do. there are lots of people whose districts and states have an awful lot of trump supporters who will remain loyal to this president, and so it's going to take an awful lot of political sort of discussions among leaders to see what they -- how they can lead their troops, and i do believe it's up to the congressional leadership now to get together and say, what is it we can do as members of congress

to try and get this country on the same page on these kinds of important moral issues without which we can't do anything. because that is the base of the country. not anybody's political base. it is the base of this country. >> and to gloria's point, we had a primary yesterday in alabama. three candidates, sitting senator, roy moore, who many people know from his fight with the ten commandments and a member of congress. the battle was not who's the least like trump. the battle was, who's the most like trump. who is the one that trump really wants. he's endorsed luther strange, so i think gloria's point is really important. let's not assume that the congress as a whole thinks, oh, i got to get away from donald trump as soon as possible, because frankly, they've stayed with them as long as they have despite a track record of very controversial things on race and ethnicity, comments he's made about women. i do think, however, the

republican leadership, they have to figure out, okay, what are we going to do next here. they -- there's not going to be any cooperation with democrats and donald trump. i think a lot of republicans and donald trump are a little iffy in terms of are they going to cooperate. so what does the republican leadership do? that do they take up tax reform? do they follow donald trump's lead as they did with health care? what do they do about the border wall? how do they handle what donald trump wants to do with the debt ceiling. they have to decide how they position himself against, for, sideways, ni don't know, with driven. >> cornell, as we heard from congressman clyburn and so many others, this is a critical moment in american history right now. i tweeted before the show and i'll read it to our viewers. it's not often when the army, navy, marine corps and air force chiefs all find it necessary to

speak out against racism and hatred in america. that says a lot right there. >> it says quite a bit. the military is -- our flag officers, generals, speaking eloquently to the moment. the military has long been a laboratory for equality and justice in this society. it is a green meritocracy but we need the generals having to lead the president, it's an indictment of the president, and congressman clyburn talked about the co-equal branches of government. we have the judiciary leading with respect to voter suppression, the muslim ban, congress notwithstanding the political trend line should take note of the moral trend line and determine how long do you want to embrace this president while his poll numbers continue to sink, his credibility continues to sink, the stature of the office of the presidency continues to sink. i believe that they will reach a point at which they're going to have to distance themselves,

both in terms of getting something done and in terms of remaining politically viable and let's not forget this. everybody wants to be remembered, have a legacy in politics and other things, as having stood for something. >> were you surprised to hear congressman clyburn say he doesn't have any faith in this president any longer? >> no. i wasn't. i think to chris's point, this is a president who we've heard make these, frankly, stunning comments about what happened in charlottesville and the latest hatred and bigotry we saw there. we've seen him have a history of making degrading comments about women, mexicans, about muslims in this country, and i think that he's also shown that he lacks a capacity with one very important part of his job and that is being someone who can console a country and bring it together in a moment of strife, something we've seen from past presidents, republican and democrat, you don't see him in charlottesville attending that memorial service for heather heyer. you don't see him speaking out about the need to come together in the way we've seen so many

past leaders do so i think we're seeing a vacuum of leadership there. >> this is clearly a critical moment in our country's history. we'll stay on top of it and watch it oh so carefully. thanks very much partnfor watch. for our international viewers, "amanpour" is coming up next. for our viewers here in north america, "newsroom" with brooke baldwin starts right after a baldwin starts right after a quick break. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com my dad called them up and asked for "the jennifer garner card" which is such a dad thing to do. after he gave his name the woman from capital one said "mr. garner, are you related to jennifer?" kind of joking with him. and my dad was so proud to tell her, "as a matter of fact, she is my middle daughter". so now dad has the venture card, he's earning his double miles, and he made a friend at the company. can i say it? go ahead!

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and these kids. and these guys. him. ah. oh hello- that lady. these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh. sure. still yes! you can get it too. welcome to the party. introducing gig-speed internet from xfinity. finally, gig for your neighborhood too. here we go, top of the hour, you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. the breaking news continues. this presidency in crisis. it gets worse. just in, two of the president's ceo groups for jobs now totally gone. disbanding in the wake of the president's controversial remarks about the violence in charlottesville. heads up, any moment now, we may get the first images of the day of president trump as the nation