the two most powerful republicans in congress. in phoenix, he made a point of not mentioning their names. he's threatening to shut down the government if congress doesn't fund the wall on the mexican border and he's drawing criticism on a number of fronts from his fellow republicans. here's mitch mcconnell a little more than two weeks ago. >> our new president of course has not been in this line of work before and i think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process. >> well, things reportedly got less cordial on the 9th of this month, evolving to a shouting match. here's governor tim scott on charlottesville. >> what we want to see from our president is clarity and moral authority and that moral authority is compromised when tuesday happens. >> tennessee republican senator bob corker went further.

>> the president has not yet -- has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful. he also recently has not demonstrated that he understands the character of this nation. >> well, today, white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders was asked about the senators' comments. >> i think that's a ridiculous and outrageous claim and doesn't dignify a response from this podium. >> and so it goes, with the debt ceiling deadline coming and budget deadline coming, manu raju is reporting from capitol hill. what's the mood right now between capitol hill republicans and the president given what he's leveled at mitch mcconnell and speaker ryan. >> congress is on a recess so a lot of members are avoiding the back and forth that's happening between the president and republican leadership. i can tell you, from the number

of members that i've spoken to on the phone and over text and aides as well, they are, frankly, flabbergasted because they don't understand why the president is directing all of his frustration, his anger on his own party. essentially passing the blame for their failure to get legislation through on capitol hill when a lot of republicans say one big reason why, for instance, they didn't get health care done, is because the way the president went after members of his own party, singling out people like lisa murkowski, john mccain, that they did not help their case in getting legislation through. one republican that i talked to yesterday said to me, look, if the president wanted to actually get legislation through congress, he'd get on the phone

and talk to these members, understand their state and their needs and understand themselves and then perhaps could help both build a better relationship to move forward, that's not what the president has chosen to do. instead of attacking members by name, including jeff flake, a potentially tough senate race next year. those things are not going over well at a key time when they'll have to come back and legislate next month. >> what about the threat of the government shutdown if he doesn't get funding for the border wall. where does that go from here? >> a lot of republicans i talked to think that trump's talk about a shutdown is just talk. they believe it's bluster and they are not going to go for money for the border wall. that means that they're not going to be able to get it built out of the senate most likely. and a lot of republicans, frankly, don't support the idea of spending money on the border wall, including the number two senate republican, john cornyn of texas, is not in favor of that approach. so the president does not have support to get that through. the thinking is that on capitol hill, they are probably going to pass a bill to keep the government opened past september 30th and the president ultimately will be able to sign it perhaps against his will.

the question is, anderson, what if he vetoes it. then there's a shutdown and a lot of republicans don't think he'll do that. >> manu, thanks. >> thank you. unfortunately, any infighting with the panel will be possibly entertaining. kristin powers, david gregory, bakari sellers and susan page. is there a strategy -- lindsey graham was on television earlier saying it's not just that people think he's unhinged. there's a strategy. is there a strategy and is it a smart strategy? >> i think it absolute is he a strategy and how smart it is, we don't know yet. president trump as a candidate made it very clear that he was going to roll through both the democrats and the republicans and, of course, he started with the republicans saying that establishment republicans weren't getting the job done, weren't responsive to concerns of too many americans and i think we have to remember, this is an astute part of how he ran and how he's governing. where i think it's less smart is what manu referred to, which is

if you're actually going to get the legislation done, you've got to work the process. even if you want to play more of an outsider. right now he's just trashing everybody in the party and running against everybody at the same time. >> i think what we're seeing, starting yesterday, when he reiterated his commitment to getting the wall built and now saying that it may go through raising the debt ceiling or forcing americans to pay for it, this shows he's committed to this. a recent poll by cbs comes out and says that 22% of republicans want to see the wall built and i think that's something that he's committed to doing. yes, throughout the campaign he says we're going to build the wall and who is going to pay for it? mexico and he's going to get push back from it and understandably so. more than anything, this is something that he wants to get done, not just because it's something he campaigned on but he believes it's something for our national security and it's a big part of his immigration component that he ran and won on. >> this is most definitely not the way to get a wall built. right? this is not the way to get money appropriated for the wall if he wants to fulfill this promise.

it's a way to shift blame on to somebody else but to fellow republicans which i think is quite a mystifying strategy. >> i think that most americans, outside of donald trump's base who he spoke to in arizona, understand that the wall's not going to be built and if the wall is going to be built, then it's coming out of our pockets, not mexico. the american public is smarter than that. the question of whether it's a smarter strategy is the wrong question. i think what results has this strategy led to. if we go back to the 44th president of the united states, when he controlled both the house and senate, they passed the lilly ledbetter act and were able to bail out the auto

industry. all of these things were legislative accomplishments in the first few months in office. donald trump says he comes at this point where he's seven months in and has no legislative accomplishments. i think that we've had enough time to judge whether or not it's a smart strategy or not and he gets a d minus. the only reason why it's not an "f" is because it's highly entertaining. >> the only question is if it is a strategy and it does seem to be a strategy. >> it's not just emotional lashing out, there's a reason he's -- >> that's my impression of it. it's clearly not over the agenda, right, because jeff flake supports his agenda. so this is about something more. this is about, you know -- it's not just about people defying him on his agenda. it's about him being upset when people criticize him and he really wants people to get in line behind him. whatever that means to him. because otherwise it doesn't really make sense what he's doing. i do think today when sarah huckabee sanders responded to what senator corker said, they have a right to be mad. that's not usually how people talk about the members of their own party. >> the president has done things that has warranted that kind of criticism and judgment within his own party, but i agree with you, you made the point in the last hour, which is this may be a bluff, may be the opening of a negotiation. >> right. >> there's a big negotiation. he went from mexico's going to pay for this, i'm sure that's not going to happen. i doubt they'll be a wall per

se. there may be some barrier. there could be some compromise. and so bakari, to your point, i think we don't know in this instance. he's actually forcing a big fight as a total outsider saying, neither party is working for you. not even my own. >> just to finish what i was saying, alice, it seems like what he's trying to do is scare people into submission. if he goes after people like flake and he can defeat them, that sends a message to everybody else. basically, watch out. if you don't do what i told you to do, if you don't get behind what i want you to do, you vote against my health care bill or criticize me, i'm coming after you and my people care more about me than -- >> and it bolsters the base because it shows he's not beholdened to anybody that he's therefore the base. >> he's doing this for his base. three fourths of republicans

want to see this wall built. i truly believe his talk about i'm going to shut the government down if we don't get funding for this wall, that's part of the strategy for the art of the deal. the most extreme option for getting that wall funded and try to negotiate with members of congress. as far as him going after flake and others, whether on twitter or directly or at events, they are going to -- as we saw with health care, these members of congress are going to be beholden to the members of their district. they are not beholden to donald trump. >> rally people behind somebody against flake. you don't think that would scare other members of the senate into maybe -- >> flake and others, you know, he pressured heller with regard to health care. >> heller literally did four different things. let's be clear. >> flake knows what he's up against. he knew he was going to be

primary, you know, well earlier this year. he knows what he's up against and what he's doing, you're right. but we've seen him do this. that is the impulsive part. >> i think it's also fair to say that -- i think bob corker was correct. it's also fair to say that an element of this actually delves off of being a strategy into being unhinged because i don't know what part of a political strategy tells you to go to arizona and trash a senator and actually give more praise to the dictator of north korea than you do a pow who is a united states senator who is fighting brain cancer. like that to me, that delves into unhinged. that's no part of a political strategy that will work. >> he bolsters himself with a base perhaps at the cost of a republican senate seat, in nevada, in arizona. i wonder if that looks smart. i wonder if it looks smart in terms of -- you know, he can burnish his credentials. he's an outsider and not part of the political system that no one likes but then does he go to re-election not having achieved

anything and at war with his party. >> i don't know the answer to this. does it actually really hurt his agenda if folks on capitol hill don't like him or are upset by him or angry at him. i mean, they are republicans. they probably want most of his agenda to move forward anyway. does it really matter -- >> i think we have to pay attention not to what the establishment classes are saying in both parties who will look at that -- it's not that i disagree with you. i just think that using this kind of political calculus, we've been so wrong predicting outcomes until now. and so we have to give trump credit for some theory of the case of which he's advancing which is, he's willing to take the criticism in the media from democrats to say i could still argue for a certain constituency and there are enough conservatives who want a wall in some fashion, whether they literally want the wall, whether they will settle for something else, he's onto something there. >> david, let me ask you a question. after seven months, name one trump legislative victory. and the point is, he has none. >> neil gorsuch.

>> well, other than neil gorsuch. i mean -- >> which is a big deal. >> which is a big deal to conservatives. i was speaking of a piece of legislation. >> i think -- to your point, if he wanted to have a successful piece of legislation, he should have gone to infrastructure. infrastructure is something very simple to -- >> they don't reward you for trying. they reward you for delivering. >> we're going to take a quick break. more of the conversation. we've been discussing his temperament and chief of staff general kelly and whether he can impose a military order on the famously free wheeling boss. a breakthrough. ♪ it's in our nature to need each other. ♪

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president trump is not the first chief executive to find himself at odds with his own party. rarely does it get so heated so soon. on the president's part, the very same traits that seem to be amplifying his differences, the combativeness and excessive self-regard is drawing the attention of distinguished national security officials, like james clapper and michael hayden who commented on those comments earlier tonight. >> this is not reflectively anti the president. it's simply based on performance and great concern. look, if you get a fellow like jim clapper with all that experience saying what he said, whatever you think of what jim

said, you have to admit that it seems to reflect some genuine concerns among foreign policy professionals so it's not surprising that you're seeing people like senator corker kind of say these sorts of things. >> general hayden said he would not have used the words that general clapper had used. have you ever seen somebody at this stage be at odds with his own party? >> no. and not just these comments. he made it so clear that he did not want she's sanctions and we know behind the scenes was yelling at people about it and they chose to defy him on it. that alone is pretty unprecedented in the first six, seven months of a presidency where you get so openly defied by your party and they're saying, no, we're just going to defy the judgment. >> and who is doing it is more astounding to me and senator corker is a well-mannered individual who is very deliberate in his thought and somebody else said something.

i can't recall which show it was on, senator tim scott from my home state, refrains from delving into things that would draw a lot of attention or exacerbate a situation. but he was very poignant in his remarks and said that what donald trump was talking about as it related to charlottesville was not in line with the character of the country. people are making very sharp remarks and it's not just the remarks that are being made but actually who is making them which i think you should take notice of. >> i think there have been cases before where presidents have been at odds with their parties on the vietnam war, the civil rights movement. what makes this different is this party is at odds over the qualification and stability and character and leadership qualities of the president. it's not over a big policy issue on which you can see a party

having a legitimate and difficult debate. >> here's the thing. clearly the charlottesville situation and his response to it has elicited a lot of emotions and criticism and there's still a lot of people who are -- i agree with many people across this country, that his placing a moral equivalency on those who were the white supremacist and neo-nazis and ku klux klan, placing a moral equivalency on that. he did denounce the actions of the hate groups and the racists. he did denounce that and the republicans across this country, that is all they hear. they only remember the fact that he denounced the bad activity and he denounced the racial actions and the hatred and the ku klux klan activity. that's what they remember. when people get up here and act like psychologists and say he's mentally unstable to be president, you have to remember, many people across this country voted for him and still support him. >> he wasn't all that different during the campaign. >> absolutely. >> it's not as though people voted for him -- >> this is not new behavior. >> one of the things that general hayden said in this

interview today is that based off what clapper was saying, intelligence chiefs around the world who know jim clapper and know him to be deliberative and stuff are going to listen to what clapper said and in the number of things that they are going to task their intelligence services to look at is who really speaks for the united states. who is really making decisions in the united states and sort of incorporating all of what this discussion is into their intelligence work because i think it is a question of exactly how is policy being made because the president will say one thing, tillerson says something different, mattis -- >> first of all, they didn't need jim clapper to get that intelligence work done. president trump has been impulsive, destructive, self-destructive. you know, and -- and he lacks coherence on so many different policy areas. and his own supporters thought he was temperamentally unfit for the office during the campaign and he's demonstrated this in the way he speaks, the way he

goes after people, how personable he makes it. it's not presidential behavior. if you look at the scope of our history. and that doesn't even say anything about the complete failure of moral authority with regard to charlottesville. so these conclusions are not about casting aspersions or not for me to judge his stability. we can make judgments, though, in the media and so can citizens about whether he appears to be a stable force in terms of how he's governing. >> i think we also have to be clear that, you know, there are a lot of people who don't agree with what you just said. he still has approval ratings in the republican party that are in the high 70s and they'll probably go back up to the 80s. so what's going on here? they're looking at the exact same thing and i think there certainly are people who even have said that they didn't like how we responded to charlottesville and found it unpresidential and yet -- >> that's the crux of the problem. i think what you're pointing out and what alice pointed out is

the crux of the problem. the people who want to set aside the fact that the president was the moral authority or character to lead this country through its first kind of national crisis under his watch in charlottesville, the people who simply say that they want to hear that he denounced the -- he didn't even say all right. let's not get there. he denounced neo-nazis, which is a very low bar but didn't want to put these people on a false equivalence and same moral playing field, that is a problem. until individuals want to step up and say that we cannot normalize this president and the republican party, those 79%, those good people who we know and throughout this country who still support donald trump, they're normalizing this behavior and just because we saw it 19 months ago and we still see it today, that does not make it right. >> plenty of republicans may not like his behavior and have spoken out against it but believe in the agenda and want to see the agenda moving forward. >> we're not even clear on what the agenda is and he's, by the way, never been a conservative. he's never truly been a republican. all of those are facts. and what you're saying is right,

people may disagree, but it's also not a revelation. we know people are going to view him, view facts, view circumstances through the prism of their own beliefs or own bias. that doesn't change. it doesn't stop other people like jim clapper who has such long experience to be able to make a judgment about a president. >> when we come back, we touched on it a second ago, a white house back flip almost as high as the big beautiful wall, the president is reversing himself on who is going to pay for that big, beautiful wall. >> build that wall! build that wall! 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

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between pay per gig and unlimited. no one else lets you do that. 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. we're talking tonight about the issues that on paper shouldn't be causing such a rift. that said, this president's instincts certainly don't seem to be calming waters at times, whether it's antagonizing gop senators, second-guessing house speaker ryan, congress doesn't fund the wall, the wall that the president promised would be financed by mexico. >> we will build the wall 100%. >> i promise, we will build the wall. >> and who's going to pay for the wall? >> mexico! >> who's going to pay for the wall?

>> mexico! >> who? >> mexico! >> it will be a great wall. mexico's going to pay for the wall. mexico is going to pay for the wall. mexico will pay for the wall. and mexico's going to pay for the wall and they understand that. mexico is going to pay for the wall. believe me. 100%. >> back now with the panel. believe me, 100%. i mean, and there is an irony that he campaigned on mexico paying for the wall and not only does it seem like he's asking tax payers to pay for it but congress will be shut down if -- >> this gives him way too much credit. the idea that this was a coherent theory of how to save the american people from the immigrants streaming across the border, i don't think he's really thought that out. >> he didn't think something

out? >> i'm not trying to be overly flip. a little bit. but i do think that there was a theory about american strength, about if you want to put it in a historical context, manifest destiny. like when teddy roosevelt wanted to invade cuba to drive out spain -- >> according to his reporting, this was essentially not an exactly pneumonic device but a memory aid to help the president to remember to talk about immigration. they would say, you know -- >> there was also a sense when this would come up at rallies. he would talk about building the wall and say who's going to pay for it. they would say mexico. it really ginned up the crowd and, yes, it was a way to remind him like tieing a red string on his finger. >> the first time it worked. >> exactly. going back to those quotes where he said this repeatedly, today at the press briefing, sarah huckabee sanders was asked numerous times about this and she said, look, he's still not saying that mexico is not going to pay for it. we'll take that for what it's worth and she also says he has

not abandoned efforts to get mexico to pay for it. all that being said, clearly his motivation moving forward and his agenda moving forward is to say, look, we're going to build this wall. this is going to happen. plain and simple. it's part of our national security and if we have to shut down our government to get that done, i'll take the risk. >> the president should get credit for a significant drop of people crossing over illegally, apprehensions on the border are down significantly. it depends what study you look at but anywhere 46 into the 70% in various areas and that's really without doing anything differently. >> and he's not doing anything differently and part of the problems that many individuals had, especially in the certain constituency groups had with barack obama is that he ratcheted up the number of expulsions from the country himself. but can we really get back to this wall for one moment?

donald trump -- i cannot fathom and i don't understand how people believed at that point he was going to build a wall and mexico's going to pay for it. i'm having trouble understanding how people are still sticking with him to this point where they still believe mexico's going to pay for the wall because we all know and we're talking about voters, many of these voters are in rural america and many voters are low income. many of these voters, it's coming out of their pockets to build this wall. and i think democrats are not doing a good enough job stepping up to the plate explaining to them the failures of this president but even more importantly, as david was saying earlier, assume that the wall is going to be made out of invisible line or fish net or something like that and it's already going to be there, you just don't see it yet. he's selling a bill of goods and i have trouble understanding why he's still able to use it and why voters still accept it. >> we don't know that they do

accept it except to your point i think there's enough conservatives who think border security is worth it, whatever form it takes. look how cynical he was in the conversation that was released with the mexican president. why don't we just agree not to talk about you building the wall. >> right. >> so that part of it goes with the reporting from josh green about how cynical all of this has been. and continues to be. and now it's exposed for -- if he's going to declare a victory that he gets something and the taxpayers pay for it, that's going to be quite a political exercise. >> of course, that's jumping ahead a step. >> sure. >> he's now threatening a government shutdown if he doesn't get the money and the funding bill to keep the government going after october 1st. this is quite remarkable. this would be the first time in our history that we've had a government shutdown with unified control of the government. and if you'll remember the experiences that republicans had the last two extended shutdowns we had, the one with clinton in 1995 and 1996 and the one with obama in 2013, republicans took it on the chin on both of those shutdowns. you're not entirely sure whether it's a republican in the white house or -- >> one of the things it's being

associated with donald trump especially when you go around and talk to groups of undocumented immigrants, you're understanding the violent nature by which he's detaching individuals from their families. i mean, this is not just more immigrants are being removed from their households or being removed from the united states and deported to mexico. i mean, you literally have i.c.e. agents picking up individuals from school while they're dropping off students. you have an element of brutality and violence going along with these very high numbers that you mentioned earlier, anderson. >> but what you said initially is what i think is still very important. in the end, trump has to mean something. his leadership has to mean something. it has to improve the country. if he can't demonstrate that, then he's just going to be screaming from the rafters. >> is there a value in just being a disrupter and for people who aren't happy with washington

and don't like people in d.c. and the media, trump's a disrupter and isn't that enough? >> no. clearly he was elected for many reasons, one of which he promised to drain the swamp and do away with business as usual in washington and that's what a lot of his voters and supporters wanted to see happen. yes, to your point, since he's come into office and really put pressure on beefing up our immigration and really making a commitment to secure the border, illegal immigration into this country has gone down 74%. from that standpoint, i think he can take credit for at least curbing the tide on the front end. keep in mind, a big part of this push for securing the border is tied directly to the opioid crisis we have in this country. that's a part of also why -- >> that's not saying the same thing. opioid crisis usually starts because they're overprescribed and the pharmaceutical -- >> but bringing in illicit drugs into --

>> the opioids are expensive and controlled so after someone gets addicted they move to heroin because it's cheaper and more easy to get. we're going to take a quick break. when we come back, trying to get trump's attention and keep him focused. is it working? we'll talk about that next. yeah, well it was $30 before my fees, like the dog-sitting fee... and the rummage through your closet fee. who is she, verizon? 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. listen up, heart disease.) you too, unnecessary er visits. and hey, unmanaged depression, don't get too comfortable. we're talking to you, cost inefficiencies and data without insights. and fragmented care- stop getting in the way of patient recovery

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there's been a lot of questions about where the president gets his information, whether it's "fox & friends" or twitter accounts or the last person he's talking to about any given issue. now we're learning more about john kelly's attempt to streamline the information that makes it to the desk of president trump. according to politico, kelly and one other staffer must approve any document before it goes to the president. they write decision memos that lay out the pros and cons of a given issue and give the president clear options. the outstanding question, of course, is how much of a paperwork system can make a difference if the president doesn't give up his tv or reading his twitter feed. i want to bring back in the panel. people may be snarky about this idea of controlling the information but this is the traditional system for how information is put in front of the president. >> did you say one person has to approve -- >> kelly and one other person. >> i mean, that would be --

usually like an army of people are approving things to get to the president. i suppose that's better. that just shows you exactly how bad it is. >> i was talking to paul begala during the clinton years and he said it was basically the same. the position -- it was the staff secretary. >> i see what you're saying. they're taking something that's been put together by other people and then clearing it. i misunderstood. >> they have eyes on it to make sure it's not something that jared kushner read and wants his father-in-law to see. >> and begala -- you know, president clinton was someone who was getting information independently, was talking to people. it was a big deal during the reagan white house when he was getting magazine subscriptions. it was human events and a conservative magazine and why is he getting that because he's making policy after reading some

of these things. the fact that we have a president who was so tuned in to social media and media of all kinds is a sign of the times and it is a sign of his political potency but there's no question that it has to be reined in, particularly how chaotic the white house has been. >> you have to spoon feed this -- like with a really small spoon feed this president. if you look at barack obama, he was editor-in-chief at the harvard law review. bill clinton was a road scholar. and so this president does not consume information or analyze information in that fashion. and i love the timing of this piece because here we are, again, writing these kinds of john kelly saves the day type pieces and, oh, my god, the white house is changing. john kelly's been there and we had a very poor response from charlottesville. he's been there. we had the press conference from charlottesville. he's been there and we had the president today tweeting -- retweeting himself, standing in front of barack obama in the fashion of an eclipse. >> that off the rail charlottesville press conference was actually an infrastructure press conference.

>> you can't control what he says when he goes out on the stump and you can't control what he puts on twitter so -- other than that, everything's great. >> i don't think that's fair, actually. you know, i think it's a good thing that general kelly's putting this system in place. it's remarkable that for seven months trump has been president and they haven't had a system like this in place. he tried but didn't have the stature with trump to do so. and it's not that he's going to change the essence of trump. but to have a more orderly process is a good thing for the country. >> the other point made in this article, which i thought was interesting, it made a lot of staffers in the white house appreciate this because it makes them feel like it's a fairer system, that their ideas can be heard.

whereas if anybody work in the office where dad was boss, the kids are always going to have the president's ear and this gives a little more merit-based system. >> and many still realize -- and i think this was one of kelly's main objectives, to be the gatekeeper for the president and make sure if you visit the president, you have an appointment and it has to have several layers of approval and that helps reduce the flow of bad information to the president and he's also instilled a lot of discipline amongst the staff which is key but i think we can all agree that the wildcard is what the presidencies on television, on twitter, what he retweets and that's going to be one of the most difficult things. but anything you can do, having been on many campaigns where people come in and give this great theory you need to go with and here's one thing, anything you can do to minimize the incoming information that will get them off track and off message is a good first step. but that's never going to -- >> two cool points. one of the things -- i'm interested to see how long this is going to last. one of the things we know from watching this president operate not only as a president but as a candidate, the only thing that's a constant and remains is his family.

and so we all know that general kelly still has the second place behind ivanka and jared and donald junior and one of the fascinating things about that politico article, he had to stop the president from getting his information from info wars. it's like the president of the united states, prior to general kelly becoming chief of staff, was going to info wars to seek out information. >> right. sandy hook truthers. >> that's dangerous. this is all about the inner agency process working well, throw of information within the white house working well. this isn't the first white house to face with this criticism but he's in a different category in terms of criticism. a little boy at the center of the most gripping social human dramas of the clinton era, elian gonzalez. we'll have a preview of the incredible documentary "cnn films" when we come back. i make it easy to save $600 on car insurance,

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when they fled cuba by sea in november 1999. elian was 6 at the time and placed with family in miami. his father demanded he be returned to cuba. the miami family refused. five months later federal agents stormed their home, took elian by gunpoint and returned him to cuba. elian is speaking to cnn along with his dad both of them sharing details of what happened 17 years ago and how it impacts their lives today. here's a preview of "elian." >> what do you think your life would have been like if you stayed in the united states? [ speaking foreign language ]

>> there are a lot of people who argued against sending you back to cuba because they said you would be brain washed. what do you say to those people now? [ speaking foreign language ] >> you're still hopeful there could be a reconciliation between your family here and

your family in miami. [ speaking foreign language ] >> you watched president trump's speech about cuba. what did you think? [ speaking foreign language ]

>> you feel like you have a foot in both countries? [ speaking foreign language ] >> patrick ottoman joins us now from atlanta. what is elian gonzalez do? what does he do for a living? does he have a public role in cuba? >> he graduated last year from military academy. right now he's working as an engineer for the cuban government. i went to his house where he still lives with his father in their small hometown. he's studying to learn english. he's engaged to be married. and everywhere you go with elian gonzalez people recognize him. with fidel castro's death the cuban government needs new

charismatic figures who can continue to inspire faith in the revolution particularly amongst young people. expect to see a lot of more of elian gonzalez. >> cnn presents elian. that's just in a few minutes here on cnn. when we come back we're learning the identity of the ten sailors lost when the "uss john s. mccain" collided with a ship from singapore. we'll tell you about them when we come back. ners insurance. had an accident with a vehicle, i actually called usaa before we called the police. usaa was there hands-on very quick very prompt. i feel like we're being handled as people that actually have a genuine need. we're the webber family and we are usaa members for life. usaa, get your insurance quote today. on a hotel just go to priceline. they add thousands of new deals every day at up to 60% off. that's how kaley and i got to share this trip together

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phones really have changed. so why hasn't the way we pay for them? introducing xfinity mobile. you only pay for data and can easily switch between pay per gig and unlimited. no one else lets you do that. see how much you can save when you choose by the gig or unlimited. call or go to xfinitymobile.com. xfinity mobile. it's a new kind of network, designed to save you money. tonight we're learning the identities of the ten navy sailors lost this week when the ""u.s.s. john mccain"" collided with a ship off the coast of singapore. they are now presumed dead. we wanted to take some time to honor each of them and their selfless service.

kevin bushell who enlisted in 2011. dustin doyon from connecticut. he was an electronics technician third class and served in the navy for a little over two years. jacob drake was 21 years old from cable, ohio. also an electronics technician second class. he joined the navy in 2013. timothy eckles jr. from maryland. an information systems technician second class he reported for duty on the mccain last october. charles findley was an electronics technician. he leaves behind an 8-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son. his sister said he loved his job in the navy. john hoagland, iii. he was from texas, just 20 years old. he was an electronics technician third class. his mom said he wanted to join the military since he was five. cory ingram was from

poughkeepsie, new york. he was 28 years old. he served in the navy since 2008. we don't yet have a picture for him. abraham lopez was 39 from el paso, texas. he enlisted in the navy in december 1997 and served as an interior communications technician first class. logan palmer was 23 years old. he was an electronics technician third class. palmer's older brother described hip as a determined young man. kenneth smith is the one sailor whose remains were found and identified. he was 22 years old from new jersey serving as an electronics technician third class. smith's mom said he was a great young man who truly loved his navy, family and ship mates. two of these men were in their 30s most were in their 20s. they had their whole lives ahead of them. they chose to devote some of their lives to their country, to

serving us all, and keeping us safe. we thank them. thank you for watching 360. the cnn film "elian" starts now. >> announcer: cnn films presented by volkswagen. ♪ [ people speaking foreign language ]