welcome to "inside politics." i'm manu raju. john king is off. president trump ready to jet off to arizona. business there tonight, a campaign-style rally. last night the venue, very different. a military base for a new military policy to win america's longest war. what's clear -- relaxed rules for commanders. a direct challenge to an unruly ally and democracy is not part of the mission, but still unsettled. if the president thinks you deserve the answer to this question, how many more americans' sons and daughters will be sent to afghanistan? >> we will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities. conditions on the ground not arbitrary timetables will guide

our strategy from now on. >> while fog hovering over the future for u.s. troop, the president sounds an awful lot like the past. >> our commitment is not unlimited, and our support is not a blank check. >> this effort must be based on performance. the days of providing a blank check are over. >> from now on, victory will have a clear definition. >> as your commander in chief, i owe you a mission that is clearly defined. >> and where other republicans see equivocation on neo-nazis that compromise the president's moral authority and raise questions about his competency, his vice president sees pitch-perfect consistency. >> i know this president. i know his heart. and -- and i heard him. i heard him on the day that the charlottesville tragedy happened. when he denounced hate and violence in all of its forms

from wherever it comes. i heard him on that monday and on tuesday as well like millions of americans did, where he condemned the hate and the bigotry evidenced there. >> here to share their reporting and insights, julie pace of the associated press. bloomberg's representative and cnn nia-malika henderson. and foreign policy heavies and members of the leadership all with a similar message. president trump made the right call and now has the right approach. the amens echoing across republican corridors in washington shows shue sharply president trump moved from the past. bringing troops home from afghanistan. that the war was a waste of money and hopeless endeavor. acknowledged as much in a remarkable moment for a president who hates to admit he was wrong. >> my original instinct was to

pull out, and historically i like following my instincts, but all of my life i've heard that decisions are much different. when you sit behind the desk in the oval office. . >> more on the president's mea culpa of sorts in a moment, but first, just on the address, julian. meant to provide a new clearer strategy, a way forward. something people are asking for, but still a lot of unanswered questions what exactly this new strategy is? >> huge unanswered questioned and surprising actually for an american president to announce a plan we know from senior officials will include increasing the number of troops going overseas. to not lay that out clearly is generally something part of at president's responsibility to the american people. beyond that, he talked about victory, committing to winning this war and then gave pretty

broad parameters for what that would entail. and that has been kind of the problem that president bush and president obama had had. the situation in afghanistan is so complicated. dealing with a country that's quite poor, has corruption rooted into its government. that has a taliban that is resurgent now at this point. how do you define the end game here? the challenge that trump faced is that pulling out leaves a vacuum. it's really hard to see how that changes in the next couple years. >> also the question is, how many more troops sent and whether or not more troops, 4,000 number, that's the actual number that will actually make any difference to what we've seen, as you mentioned. a war dragging on and with no clear signs of victory. vice president mike pence was on the morning shows this morning. asked specifically about the troop level numbers. he suggested that they really have not made a decision on that quite yet. >> the answer to that, i think, will be based on the conditions on the ground. i think it's yet to the seen. we'll certainly be making that

information available as the president receives recommendations. >> do you expect the add min installation have to, at some point, detail how many troops are being sent? to inform the public what exactly is going on over there? >> they don't really have a choice, because this is something eventually that will go before congress. members of congress will call hearings want to know what the president's plan is and how much it will cost. they have the strings of the purse and have the ability to ask questions, and figure out what the end game is. the president said yesterday this is not going to be a time-based approach. a conditioned-based approach, meaning that members of congress will want to know, what are the conditions allowing us to have a drawdown in afghanistan? the milestones the president is hoping to reach to get to a point where this, america's longest war can come to an end? we didn't hear that last night. >> and some members of the foreign policy establishment are praising that approach.

some republicans appraising that approach. general michael hayden also saying that this was a good idea. suggesting that, as well, keeping this option of troops is a good idea and remarkable to hear the president last night sthaugt suggest he thought different on the campaign trail and coming to this position now because of what he's learned as president. he's, some of his surrogates including nikki haley were asked about that this morning. this is how she explained the president's change of approach. >> i think that really shows the signs of a president. you know? one thing is to be a candidate and talk about what you think. the other thing is to be a president and talk about what you know. the facts were put on the table. and he asked all the right questions, and you're going to see a very different approach. our enemies are no longer going to know what our timeline is, no longer going to know where we are and how many troops and all of those things. >> but, margaret, the, some

of -- president trump's allies in the past are not so happy. breitbart reporting this last night, saying, trump reverses course. will send more troops to afghanistan. calling him a flip-flopper and also laura ingerham tweeted, who's going to pay for it? what's our measure of juxz with didn't win with 100,000 troops. how will we win with 4,000 more? i thought we would drain the swamp in washington? not clear the land in the desert. >> look at the politics. this is going to be the first 345i67 major test of the trump presidency in the post-bannon era. only a couple day, remind everyone. we'll see it play out in terms of afghanistan and tax reform. coming soon.

afghanistan, a central premise of the trump campaign. it's to focus more on the united states, to stop trying to solve everybody else's problems, that afghanistan was a losing fight to be in, and although we can look at last night's speech in terms of all of the questions left unanswered, i think this is one of those inside the bubble, outside the bubble things. inside the bubble, i think president trump felt he was finally provided clarity after a summer of intense divisions internally at the white house. i mean, it's been weeks, maybe even months, since he essentially told mattis, look, your call on how many and that 3,000 to 4,000 range. and mattis waiting for the president to make those decisions. tremendously back and forth about what the president was willing to accept. whether -- i mean, this is months ago that the generals wanted to send a few thousand more from a tactical perspective

and just getting to that point. >> and a fierce debate within the administration. james mattis, secretary of defense, actually a couple months ago, june 6th, suggested something that essentially was a lot different than the president suggested last night. when the president said, there is some elements of the taliban where they could potentially reach a deal with. a political settlement with. now, mattis addressed this a couple months ago. >> we're up against an anatomy that knows they cannot win at the ballot box. we have to sometimes remind ourselves of that reality. that's why they use bombs. because ballots would ensure they never had a role to play, and based upon that foundation that they cannot win the support, the affection, the respect of the afghan people. >> and yet seems, uncertainly what the end game is here for the white house. >> that's right. you know, you had nikki haley

there talking this is a very different strategy. it's not really that different. a lot of the things they talked about here including whether or not the taliban ends up coming to the table and there is some sort of compromise, that, too, something that has been considered and talked about. so, you know, i think we will see how much bannon, breitbart, ban-bart, whatever you want to call it, speaks for the base. president trump has the power to change the base's mind on this. we've seen that in instances where he says something and the base essentially echoes what he says, even if he tweets something not true. sometimes you see in polls some of his supporters actually believe that falsehood. we're really going to see sort of how powerful that bannon wing is, and whether or not that affects what the president says. also, if he sticks to this. right? we've seen this president flip-flop, sort of go along on things and then go back and criticize them later on. we'll see.

see if he does that. >> a challenge for trump. we know he follows his coverage closely. >> right. >> and anytime that you're deepening in u.s. commitment to a war, your coverage isn't going to be great. americans generally are war wary at this point. does president trump have it in him right now to have day after day out of breitbart, for example, negative coverage to stick with it because he believes it's best for the country. we haven't seen him in that kind of situation yet. >> and we know now it's the president's war. he may not have been for it, suggested to withdraw the troops. it's clear the president owns this. >> even though he is, i think, still trying to get some separation not announcing the troop levels. trying to play coy, oh, don't really want to telegraph. he isn't owning it fully announcing we're putting these troops on the ground, whether 4,000 or 3,000. >> the troop range perceived at modest. not to say that's you or your child going off to serve for

you, your life is still on the line very much. >> right. >> but this was always viewed as a mod effort and tactical effort to try to hold gains and preserve the spashgs the ability for the afghan government to stand up. there are no quick fixes. this was never intended as a quick fix. >> the question, how long will this u.s. engagement be given it's the country longest war? a lot more to discuss ahead. an update on the u.s. destroyer leaving ten sailors missing. divers discovered some remains inside the compartments aboard the "uss mccain" workers working to identify the remains. ships continue to search the area. it's still uncertain how many sailors remain missing. the collision between a guided missile destroyer and oil tanker happened monday east of singapore. a military official tells cnn the "uss mccain" lost its steering before the collision and unclear why they weren't able to use a backup system

onboard. that investigation continues. up next, the president speaks out again about charlottesville while chaos breaks out in the city's council meeting. we'll show you what happened, next. >> [ bleep ] -- [ bleep ] -- [ bleep ]! [ bleep ] -- [ bleep ]. usaa to me means

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moments ago president trump boarded air force one at andrews bears. and visiting the border patrol in yuma and later tonight hold a rally in phoenix. we'll bring that speech to you live. protestors erupt in charlottesville this time during a heated city council meeting. watch what happened monday as council members met for the first time since last week's violent clashes between white supremacists and counterdemonstrators. [ chanting ] >> all: blood on your hands! >> slams city council members

for the response to last week's violence. at least three people arrested and another reminder that tensions are still very, very high. something that was not lost on president trump, who opened his address on afghanistan last night with a call for unity. >> the soldier understands what we as a nation too often forget. that a wound inflicted upon a single member of our community is a wound inflicted upon us all. when one part of america hurts, we all hurt. and when one citizen suffers an injustice, we all suffer together. when we open our hearts to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice, no place for bigotry, and no tolerance for hate.

>> this morning, vice president mike pence and u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley defended the president. >> i think he clarified the importance of unity, clarified the fact there is no room for bigotry in our country. >> the president specifically denounced white supremacists, neo-nazis and the kkk repeatedly, and he did it when he denounced hate on saturday and did it in his address on monday and did it again in the press conference. >> and there was no moral equivalency drawn by the president. >> so vice president pence sees consistencies in the president's remarks. >> if there had been's consistency, had been clarity, nikki haley wouldn't have had to have that question asked of her and make that response. mike pence wouldn't have had to do that. there hadn't been consistency or clarity. what there has been over these last days is a lot of outrage from republican and republican lawmakers. newt gingrich, for instance, donald trump's wing man for

months and months and months came out and said he was on an island on this and should have been clearer. corker, same thing. so you know, they're doing cleanup duty, but it's necessary. because as paul ryan said last night in our town hall, donald trump messed up on this. >> and perfect segue. >> didn't even plan it. >> paul ryan did address this last night. had not heard from him speaking about this. issued statements but did not call out the president by name. first time addressed this last night talking to jake tapper. >> not only immoral and ambiguo ambiguous. those remarks, messed up on tuesday. he was right on monday and right just about an hour ago. i think -- he was wrong on -- >> when reading from the podium? >> yes. >> do we think this is going to be enough for republicans, the fact that the president did make this remark.

last night, did not actually say the word "charlottesville." seems to be enough for paul ryan. will it calm concerns within the party? >> i think republicans want to move on as quickly as possible from this. cle clearly they've taken a hit and important to distance themselves from the president and draw clear lines between what the president set and where their position was on the issue of the kkk and these neo-nazis. the president gave a little room with his statement, something to hold on to and say this is something we agree with and all need to come together for unit pip remember what you just showed with the charlottesville, the city meeting, it's clear this is something that has touched a nerve across the country. there is a debate going on about confederate monuments. this is going to be something that continues on through much of the summer, even as congress has a number of other things to do between now and the end of september. >> right. one reason, interesting to see

ryan last night, not try to go too far in going after the president. would not call on him to apologize, but said he messed up. despite jake tapper pushing him on that issue. perhaps one reason why. look at these poll numbers from the abc news, "washington post," the president's approval how he handled the charlottesville response. among u.s. adults, just 28% approved of the way he handled it. 62%, however, of republicans approved of the way he handled it. do we get that -- is this, do we think republicans, lawmakers here, are seeing, you know, different things back home than what they may be hearing nationally? >> absolutely. it's been the challenge consistently with trump. 62% of his own party thinks he did okay is still not great, but a pretty loyal chunk of the party there and republicans look at their own electoral prospects

andy is if i turn on the president what happens to that group of vote jers i can't win without that either. a constant battle, how 235r to go in distancing them and maintaining support of trump's vote jer increasingly, they're okay turning backs on the republican party as we know it. >> right. seen it all along. interesting from the poll talking about people who hold actually neo-nazi views in this country. 9% of the country believes that that's acceptable. 83% -- >> that's scary. >> unacceptable. some surprised with that. surprised it's that low. one of the things the president last week, there are very fine people marching alongside those trying to get rid of the lee monument in charlottesville. today mike pence was asked about the monuments, removing monuments. this is what he said -- >> someone who believes in more monuments, not less monuments, but we ought to remember our history. but we also ought to celebrate

the progress that we've made since that history. >> margaret, do you think this is an issue the white house wants to be talking about? >> no. not a general election position. that's a primary position. when you look at the surrogates the white house has chosen to put out there today. nikki haley, mike pence. what you said earlier is important pap signaling to the republican party and two people, if president trump were not running for re-election, we can argue would most certainly be, heavily eyeing their prospects. so -- it's a woman. it's a man. >> a woman of color. >> a woman of color represented different swaths of the country geographically in terms. republican party but very much republican party names and faces. this is an effort to rally the party together. to keep the establishment and the party as supportive of the president as possible. while he continues to figure out how to message to the base in

way more politically acceptable. >> constant balancing act from the white house and republican party members. we'll continue to see it. more ahead, up next, trump back on the road for a rally tonight in arizona. usually an off-teleprompter ritual for the president. will he stay on message? hmm? is that the rest of our food? what? no. how come you have cheese in your beard? because switching to geico could save you 15% or more on car insurance. oh! ok. geico. because saving 15% or more on car insurance is always a great answer. whoa! gross!

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welcome back. president trump is back on the trail today and visiting the home of two of the most outspoken senate critics from his own party in arizona. his visit starts in yuma. trump will tour a u.s. customs and border protection facility and meet with u.s. marines before heading to phoenix for a nighttime rally expected to draw thousands of supporters and protest es. besides how peaceful it will be in the run-up, whether the

president will follow-up this tweet with an official endorsement of senator jeff flake's challenger in the primary. cnn asked flake about that yesterday. >> how about the president calling you a non-factor in the senate and toxic? >> don't -- don't worry about it at all. go ahead and doing my job. >> reporter: is it the president's place to endorse a primary challenger? particularly somebody against his own party? >> that's not my realm. i'm running my own campaign. it's going well and what the president does is his prerogative. >> and yet another subplot we're watching as trump heads west, the possibility he'll harden former maricopa county sheriff joe arpaio, found guilty of criminal contempt refusing to follow a judge's order barring from racially profiling latinas. trump hinted last week we may let him off the hook. arpaio has not said he's been

invited to tonight's rally. we have three white house reporters at this table. what are we hearing? is the president going to issue a pardon of arpaio tonight? >> a big question. arpaio has been cute and the white house cute as well. a controversial thing for the president to get onstage and do. typically presidents don't order pardons for someone like this in general. the flake subplot is a more interesting one. you can see the awkward position flake is in written all over his face in that clip there. the idea that a president seven months into his term is targeting a senator of his own party. i mean, that's not normal. that doesn't happen. i think sometimes we lose sight of that in all of the hecticness and antics we go through here, but that is not normal. >> remarkable. not seen an outward level of

agres towards a single senator from your own party. typically e want to preserve your seats and go after democrats. >> right. >> on the rally tonight, a lot of concern from republicans about what he's going to do and how aggressive he'll be. off script? take himself off message after his party thought he had a good night? a lot of people, including the mayor of phoenix, asked president trump not to attend, and if he is attending, this is the message from the mayor of phoenix. >> talking about pardon people, getting involved in intraparty fights for the republican nomination for senate, instead, the president should take this moment, speak directly to the american people. >> what are you hearing from white house officials about this event tonight? do we expect him to be -- not throwing the red meat he tends to do? expect a red meat speech or try to stick to the script like he did last night? >> well, unfortunately for white house officials, they have a limited amount of power over what the president can do. remember the press conference

last week at trump tower where the president went rogue and started taking questions. much to the chagrin of the white house officials who wanted him to talk about infrastructure. that could be the case again here in arizona when the president has a rally. we've seen these rallies in the past. the president gets riled up, sees a big crowd. sometimes protestors, and he let's loose. he attacks the media. he attacks his opponents, democrats, a lot of times even members of his own party. >> and that person could be jeff flake, as we just talked about. even john mccain. >> which would be, goodness. lacking empathy. just had chemotherapy, suffering from brain cancer. we'll see what he says. last week sort of referred to john mccain as the one who voted against the health care bill. so we'll see what he says. you know, i think to the base, arizona is ground zero for anti-immigration policies. policies they liked in many ways. certainly i think he's going to the border, talking about the crackdown in terms of flow of

illegal immigrants to the country. but does that, again, sort of contradict his message from yesterday? this idea about unity, and coming together, and sweetness in life, does he overturn that with whatever he does today? >> and civil war within his own party intensify after tonight? talked about jeff flake. he was asked about this rise of populism within his party. it's pretty clear who jeff flake is talking about right here. >> i'm very concerned where we are today. concerned that the party is going down a populist route. you know, populism is calmed populism for a reason. might be popular. you might be able to win elections that way but not a governing philosophy and i'm concerned where the party might be going there as well. if we follow the lead, some individuals who would give in to that kind of destructive behavior. so you could have a partisan debate, but it can't get ugly

and we've got to get away from calling our opponents losers or clowns. >> pretty clear who he's talking about there. >> losers, a dead giveaway. >> you know, last week the president did something remarkable. coming out, saying that he's essentially endorsing kelly ward, one of the primary challengers against jeff flake, julie was discussing. have you heard whether or not the president will offer an official endorsement of her tonight? >> we've heard very little from white house officials asked about what his messaging tonight? other than what's obvious on a policy front. to emphasize during this trip the apprehensions at the border which actually changed dynamics. the numbers don't lie. numbers tell the story. >> i want to show you just one quick ad from a group that was linked to senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. super pac going after jeff

flashgal flake's opponent showing what's happening in party now. >> now after losing big league to john mccain, kelly says he should resign so she can be senator. >> step away as quickly as possible. i should be at the top of the list for appointment to that senate seat. >> embarrassing behavior. dangerous ideas. no wonder republicans rejected her just one year ago. not conservative. just crazy ideas. >> brutal ad from -- >> basically calling her crazy. >> yes. they are. >> they are! >> yeah. and add that jeff flake himself, an ad he will never personally -- >> exactly. kelly ward ran against john mccain, lost handedly. is the president getting the message from republican leaders saying, all republican senators saying, stay away from these intraparty fights. >> no, no. no. he's not at this stage and this is meant to send a signal to

other lawmakers could face primary challenges. if they cross the president, speak out against him, don't go along with policy approaches could be in trouble at home. got to get through a primary to stand in the general election for re-election. that's still the dynamic we're looking at heading towards the end of this august recess into this really important chapter in the trump administration where we see everything from the dell ceiling fight, government shut down, tax reform. three moss that will tell the story to shape the midterm elections and the president's popularity. >> coming up next, the president criticizing his own party he doesn't tend to mince words. house speaker paul ryan still tries to strike a balance between backing the president and calling him out for his mistakes. at whole foods market, we believe in food that's naturally beautiful, fresh and nutritious. so there are no artificial colors, no artificial flavors,

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saying the president needs

to apologize. >> he needs to do better than today. tweets i prefer not to have seen, of course there are. end of the day i control my own actions and i think the president, my own view of it, he likes the unpredictability side of this. it's important that kim jong-un is called to the carpet when he does this kind of reckless rhetoric. >> that was speaker paul ryan last night with jake tapper at a cnn town hall event. republicans struggled to distance themselves from the president seeming to equate neo-nazis with those protesting against them without taking it too far. here's what the speak her to say when asked whether he would support a censure of the president for what he said. >> i will not support that. so counterproductive. if we descend this issue into a partisan hack-fest, into some biggering against each other and demean it down to some political food fight, what good does that do to unify this country?

>> president trump in recent week has been more han happy to take on republicans via twitter. remember this -- the president slammed senator lindsey graham calling him "publicity seeking" after graham slammed his charlottesville response. and then the president's feed with senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. hammering him for a failed effort to repeal and replace obamacare. and trump did not spare senator lisa murkowski either after she came out against a gop repeal plan. the question, how come the president is so quick to go after his own party, when there are so many democrats up for re-election. just a list of vulnerable democrats up for re-election in states trump actually won by more than 19 points? joe manchin of west virginia, heidi hidecamp of north dakota, claire mccaskill. the president spends most of his time going after his own party? >> it is really bizarre.

i mean, democrats are really worried about all of those races you just put up on the screen, because trump won in those states. they tend to be states that tend to be a little more conservative and know that they're going to have a hard time even in a midterm election year where the president's party tends to do poorly. they're kind of watching in awe about trump not going after these people. this is a gift to claire mccaskill giving them breathing room in their home state to be able to push think own message forward instead of worrying about the president tweeting about them every morning. >> and discussed this in the last segment. the challenges in balancing this. the president going after them, or attacking the president, staying with the president. deciding this is, go after him in specific issues and with him behind others. one reason why, we discussed it earlier. the agenda is intense in september. raising the debt ceiling, a perennial problem for republicans. pass a spending bill to keep the

government open past september 30th and big things, tax reform. difficult to accomplish. infrastructure. no agreement wynn their own party or with democrats and potentially even a fix on the obamacare exchange in individual insurance markets. do we expect this feud within the party is going to make it harder for that them to get this done? >> imagine, too, the big question for donald trump all along, why can't he make friends more easily? right? not only why is he not going after democrats? why didn't he try to bring them into the tent? and then maintain those relationsh relationships? talk to republicans early on, they want the president to succeed, be for him and have been disappointed but have, typically, been with him. flake even. flake hasn't really done anything to go against this president in terms of policy. jit right? on the president's side in terms of health care. i'm interested to see whether or

not, we always talk about this, whether or not a new version of trump. really, will there be a new version of trump post-bannon. whether bannon was in the white house sort of stoking an intraparty fight among the gop and we all know that bannon is anti-establishment and going forward whether or not there is sort of a more kelly influence? and we'll see something different. whether or not he drops, you talked about before, stoking the primary challenges. >> one of the things moving over this as well, the russia investigation. of course, continuing to percolate today, actually glen simpson, co-founder of the research firm fusion gps, the one that actually hired that british intelligence agent to investigation possible campaign and infamous dossier that a lot has unsubstantiated allegations the president has gone after, clandestine meeting, and earlier today part of their investigation. still that committee wants to

talk to donald trump jr., they want to talk to paul manafort. there is still, the special counsel's investigation. this is going to be a huge thing. we have not talked about that a lothovering over this presidency. >> it is. and why isn't the president going an fights in his own party when he has democrats to worry about? seems to me the president calculus thus far, democrats are not well enough organized to take advantage of it and it doesn't do much good to have your own party in control when your own party is investigating you? and stuff on health care, won't pass the bills he wants passed. the alternative, much worse for president trump. reaches a point democrats are poison taking over the chamber, i think, not sure, you probably would see a slightly different approach politically. for now, those primary fights, the threats to the primary fights, and potential to shape the way republicans behave i think is very much part of his

thinking and he's very frustrated with his own party for seeming to go along with democrats and not take a bipartisan approach. >> absolutely. more on that ahead. next, the wife of one of the trump key cabinet secretaries gets a lesson in the perils of social media. you can hashtag, #dcproblems. where are we?

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words to the wides -- engage strangers on social media at your own peril. everyone will see what you say. maybe it's advice louise linton should have taken. linton is treasurer secretarily stephen mnuchin's wipe and might have what you call expense ib tastes and few reservations about showing them off. take this post on instagram. a great danger to kentucky, linton wrote before tagging the designers she was wearing.

brands such as tom ford, hermes and valentino. that prompted one user, jenni military post -- glad we could pay for your little getaway. #deplorable. miller's response sent linton off on a rant you could charitably call out of touch. have you given more to the economy than me and my husband, linton wrote. it guess on. i'm pretty sure we paid more taxes towards our day trip than you did. pretty sure the amount we sacrifice per year is a lot more than you'd be willing to sacrifice if the choice was yours. now -- the treasury department has not yet apologized. mnuchin's wife hasn't apologized for this. not really commented. other than saying they reimbursed the government for their travel. do you think they're going to have to apologize or there's, move on, ignore it? >> difficult for them to move on, because of the next thing they want to do is pass tax

reform. it's going to be -- not easy for them to say, this is our tax plan and this is what it does for rich people, because most people expect this tax plan is going to reduce taxes on the rich, and when you have this imagery of a very wealthy treasury secretary and his wife getting off a taxpayer-funded plane and supporting all kinds of designer fashion, it's going to be difficult for them to say this is tax reform for the middle class. >> also, speaks to two things. one a lot of millionaires, multi-millionaires and billionaires in his cabinet and those who did not serve in government before. first time enduring public scrutiny. >> and don't understand being in government is about public service. not about being glamorous, or about, you know, what name brands you're wearing or sort of seeming to channel the kardashians in terms of name-checking all of these brands. it was tacky. cheap of her to do that.

on an engagement with that woman as well, we'll see if they come out and apology. this is the "no apologies" administration. we'll see what happens. >> i think about the obama administration and thinking how sensitive they were to any perception they were getting advantages or michelle obama would go on expensive vacations and it would become a big embarrassment. there's not really that sense from the trump administration. they've embraced the wealth even when it gets some folks in trouble. >> right. and also they, they don't apologize and at the same time have a base of working-class voters who put the president in office and one that he says he's vowing to protect. we'll see how this one plays out. thank you all for joining us, panel. thanks for joining us on "inside politics." wolf blitzer is up after a quick break. baa baa black sheep, have you any wool? no sir, no sir, some nincompoop stole all my wool sweaters,

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hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 10:00 a.m. in phoenix. 1:00 p.m. isn't jerusalem. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. right now, president donald trump is wheels up on his way to arizona. the president continues to march to his own drum, following up on last night's nationally televised address on afghanistan with a campaign-style rally in phoenix later today's in his speech last night, the president admitted he has changed course on afghanistan saying he originally wanted to pull all u.s. troops out of afghanistan and the war there for the united states, but now will actually