good evening. with terngs of millions of americans wondering what becomesful their health care. with tension between the united states and north korea rising, we begin tonight with what the

president of the united states appears to be focused on instead. the issue he's spoken about and tweeted about repeatedly since friday, athletes in the nfl and elsewhere taking a knee during the national anthem to protest what they see as racial injustice. >> wouldn't you love to see one of these nfl owners when somebody disrespects our flag to say get that son of a bitch off the field right now. out. he's fired. he's fired. wouldn't you love it? >> the president friday night in alabama. over the weekend protests spread across the nfl. suddenly sobs as he called them were everywhere. yesterday he tweeted this. sports fans should never support players that do not stand for their national anthem. nfl should change policy, change the rules. what san francisco's colin kaepernick started doing last year, what candidate trump said was his absolute right to do

even though he disagreed with it. someone must have forgotten to tell his press secretary though because today she said that's not what he's doing at all. >> look, this isn't about the president being against anyone, but this is about the president and millions of americans being for something, being for honoring our flag, honoring our national anthem and honoring the men and women who fought to defend it. >> this isn't about the president being against anyone. really? keeping them honest, let's just listen once again to the president's own words. >> wouldn't you love to see one of these nfl owners when somebody disrespects our flag to say get that son of a bi thc off the field right on you, out. he's fired. he's fired. >> sure sounds like he's speaking against people. >> and you see those people taking the knee when they're playing our great national anthem. >> those people, our anthem. yesterday the president denied his focus on those people had

anything to do with razor stoking racial divisions. >> it has nothing to do with race. i've never said anything about race. this has nothing to do with razor anything else. >> well, you can decide for yourself if that is true or not, but as many have pointed out in the last few days, the president is tweeting and speaking about those people kneeling before football games with greater sustained outrage than he ever spoke about neo-nazis marching the streets of charlottesville with torches chanting jews will not replace us. since speaking in alabama he's tweeted 15 times either directly or indirectly about the nfl and the flag. he's tweeted seven times about health care. twice about north korea and not a single time about the millions of american citizens, prosecutor prosecutorness suffering right now on an island without electricity. more now on this, cnn's jim acosta joins us from the white house. >> well, anderson, the white house was clinging to the fantasy today that everybody is out of bounds except the president and we saw that in the briefing room earlier today. i tried to press sarah sanders

on the president's comments and whether he was trying to ignite some sort of kurlt war in this country with he spent the better part of the week as you mentioned going after predominantly african-american athletes while earlier this morning praising nascar and the way their fans honor and salute the flag. here is a bit of that exchange. >> is he trying to wage something of a kurlt war? >> not at all. the president is not talking about race. the president is talking about pride in our country. what you saw yesterday were players and fans of all races joining together as americans to honor our service members. that's what the president is talking about. that's what his focus is on. as you guys know, the president has got an event here in a few minutes, so we're going to close there. thanks so much. have a good day. >> couldn't get a follow-up question there, anderson, but we should point out, i talked to a republican adviser who talks to this white house all the time, advises this white house on what it should do with its political strategy who said yes, the

president is in fact waging a culture war. in the view of this adviser he's winning by turning a millionaire professional athletes into hillary clinton. this adviser sees as the president as essentially trolling those athletes as he trolls hillary clinton. >> the chief of staff has weighed in on this. >> that's right. he talked to my colleague earlier tonight, made a brief comment saying that he believes that everybody should stand up and honor the flag for what he described as a lousy three minutes. now, earlier today we were hearing from sources saying that john kelly the chief of staff was not pleased with what happened over the weekend with what the president had done in igniting this controversy. the president registered his displeasure with that. he put up a couple of tweets so we can show you those tweets, around son, if we can show them on enskroo. here is one. it says general john kelly totally agrees with my stance on nfl players and the enact that they should not be disrespecting our flag or our country. and then there's another one that says that there's a

tremendous backlash against the nfl and its players for disrespect for our country with the hashtag stand for our anthem. but, anderson, i was talking to an associate of the president earlier today who was saying that, listen, this is something -- these kinds of cultural comments, these indendary comments that he makes at these rallies from time to time. he actually thinks about these in advance. these are premeditated and he'll talk about these sort of comments with his aides, batting them around before he goes out and makes these kinds of comments publicly. and sometimes his aides and his advisers and friends will say no, no, mr. president, don't do that, but the president often goes with his gut and will make these kinds of inflammatory comments. and i think that's what you saw over the weekend here. keep in mind, we spent the better part of today talking about the nfl and so on and not those items you mentioned at the beginning of this newscast, which is all of those people suffering in puerto rico and health care and so on. those issues got short shifted at the white house. >> it's interesting. you say he plans these things

out. a the of people raise the question is he just suspension alley trying to do this, a, to distract from failures on health care or any other issues of the day or is it to stocky racial divide? i mean, is it about appealing to the base, you know, he referenced those -- he referenced those people. is that what it's about? >> anderson, i can't tell you what in the president's heart after covering him for a year and a half. but what is past is prologue. the president questioned whether or not barak obama was born in this country, the first african-american president h. just a few weeks ago over at trump tower he described people in the white supremacist movement as having very fine people. but again, when i talk to advisers, aides to the president they claim and had they swear up and down that he's not racist, but they do admit privately that he does like to stocky these kinds of controversies because they do at times serve as a distraction and that bright shiny object that you hear from

time to time and pulls our attention away from some of the other pressing issues that are out there. this is a president who is losing on health care tonight. he is not going to repeal and replace obamacare, something he said he would do the very beginning of his administration. we're not talking about that quite as much as we're talking about the nfl. >> all right. thanks very much. bennett, the political and personal side of this story overlapped for him. he said police in las vegas stopped him as he and others were fleeing what sounded like gunshots after the floyd mayweather connor mcgregor fight. he said officers singled him out for nothing more than being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time. police held a gun to his head. i spoke with bennett late today about his decision and his teammates to stay in the locker room for the national anthem. >> michael, when you first heard when the president said friday night calling players who kneel sons of bridges, saying thebd be

fired, i'm wondering what went through your mind. >> a lot of things were going through my mind. the first thing i did i started thinking about my mom and how much they sacrificed for me as a child and what she did for her community, how she dedicated most of her life to teaching in the inner cities in houston. i didn't understand why the president thought to stoop so low to call my mom the b word. i couldn't fathom that it would come from the leader of america, but at the same time i knew it would be something that would unite us as players and us as people. and the ownership and us as the nfl, we aum came through together collectively and just stood together. and i thought that was a powerful message. >> two teams, the steelers, your team, the sea hawks decided not to take the field during the national anthem. can you talk about what was behind your team's decision to do that? >> we talked for maybe two or three hours and we just kind of talked about -- i think it was less about donald trump and more about equality in america, things that people saw what was

going on with all types of minorities and just people in general, the hate and discrimination going on right now. and we just felt to show our unity on top of what happened with donald trump and more about the equality, it just seemed to bring our team together. we just wanted to not isolate who was scared to go and kneel. we wanted to be ale to find a way not to put anybody in the lime light, just to know that we made as a decision as a team to stand for what we believe in. >> i wonder if you think the president's comments were motivated by razor racial attitudes that he may have? >> i think it had palgts bit to do with race. i think so. i think a lot of people agree with that. but for us it's just -- we're just want to help find a way to change our community. and i know a lot of people don't like it because we empowering people of color, empowering people who choose what to believe in. >> and just as someone who doesn't understand, you know, the idea of taking a knee during the national anthem or linking arms, to you what is the message

of it? what is the purpose of it? >> it's about us taking a stand for equality in the america, all of the people that's being discriminated against light now. and we just want to bring up those issues and have those conversations. and people, you know, they think that we are attacking military. that's not true. we believe in the military. we do so many things with the military from working with families to working with the kids and doing camps and just our families have been in the military. so we love the military. all we're trying to do is bring the issues up in equality, police brutality, all these things against minority people in america, that's what we believe in and we just want to bring up those issues every single weekend. people get mad about it. what are we supposed to do? these are challenging times and we can't let our job define who we are. outside of football we're human beings. we want to be able to express the love for other humans. >> so those who say it's disrespecting the nag or unpate on theic. what do you say? >> no. i say it's the opposite. we're honoring the things that

everybody in america fights for, equality, liberty, justice and freedom for all. >> i wonder who when you saw the pittsburg steeler defensive lineman alejandro villanueva, who served in the military, he came out and stood during the anthem. everybody else in his team department. i'm wondering what you thought of that decision? >> i thought that's shows america. that's the freedom to express what he believed in and he expressed what he plooefd in. that's what it's really about. what's the difference between a guy kneeling and standing up for what he believes in? we're all standing for the same thing. bullet i don't think we should be judged as unamerican because we believe in equality. just like he believes in what he believes in, i applaud him for standing up for what he believes in. and that's what america is about. and i'm very honored to have somebody like that in the nfl and just to be able to go through what he's been through and still stand up for what he believes in. >> i saw that his jersey has

become a top seller just in the last 24 hours. i wonder what you make of that? >> i mean, kaepernick jersey, it's still the number one jersey and he hasn't played for the team all year. it's just to show you what people person -- >> you were detained, you were handcuffed after the mayweather mcgregor fight in las vegas. i wonder what about that incident has impacted your views on speaking out or demonstrating dur the national anthem. >> it just makes me know that everything we're talking about, every issue that we bring up is a reality for any one of us at any time. it can happen to me and it can happen to anybody. at the end of the day, i don't hate law enforcement. i don't hate any ploofrsz, but i think there's some people out there that could, will judge you on the color of your skin. i don't believe that every single officer is a bad person, you know what i'm saying. i'm not going that way, but at the same time i know the issues that happened to me there just made me want to keep pushing

forward and keep pushing forward no matter what happens, just keep pushing forward. you can be scared or you can stand up. >> i understand that you've been having on going conversations with colin kaepernick who has been silent since the president's comments on friday. have you spoken to him at all since then? >> i've spoken to him. and i wish that we could -- that unity we showed for this weekend, i wish we could have showed that union if i tore him. i wish we could have brought a group of collective people and players to stick up for our brother when he went through something like this. we talked about that. we just talked about the moment that we're living in now and it's to see everybody come together. i think what was what at the end of the day what he wanted to have happen. >> i'm wondering if the president was watching tonight, you know he watches a lot of tv, what would you want him to know. >> i would love to stit down with the president and talk about these issues and find a way to fix them or find a way to have the voice of the people, you know, the people that don't

have the voice that they're not listening to. i can't sit here and say that he's not my president, he's not that because at the end of the day he is the president of the united states and for him to say that it's a privilege and we shouldn't speak on what we believe in because we're making money that, i enmedia, he was a rich man too and all of a sudden he's speak on the ground what he believes in and he still stand up for what he believes in and he's the president of the united states. so what makes him different. >> pleasure to talk to you. >> the president is also at odds with the enbalance uninviting the goal enstate warriors. the lebron james called the president in his own words a bum. then he said this. >> the thing that kind of frustrated me and missed me off a little bit is the fact that he's now -- he used sports. he used the sports platform to try to divide us. and sport and sports is so -- is

so amazing what sports can do for everyone no matter the shape or size or razor et nisty or religion or whatever. i'm not going to let -- while i have this platform to let one individual, no matter the power, no matter the impact that he should have or she should have ever use sport as a platform to divide i say, because the people run this country, not one individual. and damn sure not him. >> two views now from two cnn political commentators. so the white house says the president isn't against anyone. he's just pro flag. do you buy that? >> i mean, i think that that's an as nine discernment. but this isn't about the flag per se. this isn't about disrespecting the national anthem. this isn't about disrespecting

the flag or disrespecting the military. in fact, all of us, i know paris included, but everybody who has taken a knee has the utmost respect for the people who died for our freedoms. one of the freedoms that they shed blood for and one of the freedoms that they fight for overseas daily is that freedom and right to protest, to express yourself. this is fundamentally about police brutality and the fundamental inequalities that individuals and people of color face this this country every single day. the reason that we kneel, the reason that we take a knee, it's to fight systemic injustices. and i'm glad that people recognize that and i'm glad that people are now beginning to be aware of what's going on in these communities of color throughout the country. >> paris, how do you see it. >> i disagree with ba carry on the sense of why the players are kneeling or refusing to acknowledge the national anthem or the pledge of allegiance. i think it's because the past 48 hours or so it's been in protest to the president of the united states, donald j. trump.

because westerly when colin kaepernick first did this, you didn't have this widespread quote unquote support or outrage. and people in the enfal and owners running to his defense because he was standing up or in the case kneeling down in solidarity with white supremacy or police brutality and things of that nature. what we have seen over the past 48 hours is a gross miscarriage of justice in my opinion because instead of doing what ba carry is talking about and focusing on the issues that colin kaepernick was originally talking about, we're focusing on whether or not president donald j. trump is a racist or if he's race baiting. if we want to have a real teachable moment, conversation about cultured, about american history, pride, nationalism and pride in our country and respect in our flag, the president could be opening the door for that, but instead what we focus on is whether or not he's a racist and i think that's unfortunate. >> but to talk about opening a

door and having that conversation is a completely valid point. the president is the one who called those people sons of bridges to use the president's words and, you know,ed that they should be fired. do you believe those sons of bridges, to use the president's words, should be fired? is that right for the president to say? >> well, the president can say what he wants. if i were president i would not have used the term to describe someone in that public setting. but i would say when you look at corporations or businesses, you have standards. the nfl won't let players wear pink in honor of breast cancer awareness outside of the month of october. the nfl won't let their players put certain markings on their helmets in honor of police. so they have certain standards. and when you are in the private sector, the ceo or the owner can make decisions about what you can and cannot do. so i think if donald trump or if i were the head of an organization and part of what my team or my staff needed to do or was required to do was we would

play the national anthem or say the pledge of allegiance and if that's what i wanted them to do, i have the right and the prerogative to do that in the private sector. but the president cannot dictate or force anybody to do it, but i'm sure if he were the owner and that was the standard, he would have them go. and i think he's well within his right to do that, as are the owners. i think the nfl should come out and make a statement and say if we're going to play the national anthem, which is new because it started in 2009, then players have to do x or y. if not, they're going to have the slippery slope argument on whether or not you can do certain things or whether you can do other things, which in this case i believe is just offensive. that's the issue. >> it's not offensive. >> let me -- just real quick. you can protest. you can be so upset at which i agree with some of the things that are going on especially to our community, ba carry, but when you do something like protest in a way that is so offensive to the flag or to the soldier, veterans or to soldiers and to the national anthem, you

detract from the message. so i hope they can find a different way to keep this on message. >> okay. first of all, paris's view is not one that's new. paris's view is actually not one that's new for some african americans. in fact, 61% of individuals during the 1960s felt like the montgomery busboy cots and the freedom riders were unpopular, were goog the wrong thing. should have done it another way. when dr. martin luther king zwrr decided they were going to start a sit in movement. do you think that was comfortable? do you think that people were choorg them on? they were not. protest is messy s. protest uncomfortable. protest is supposed to shock the conscious and that is what we're doing. and you know what? military people, they will tell you today they go overseas and fight so we have the freedom to protest in this country. and i'm glad that it's making you uncomfortable, paris. and i'm glad that it's making people uncomfortable because now we are dealing with the original sin of this country. we're dealing with race.

and if anybody thinks, anybody thinks that donald j. trump went to alabama. he was in alabama talking about black athletes and calls them sons of bridges, we've heard this before and it's the same ten or, the same tone. we've heard this language before from white supreme in the deep south referring to african americans and especially black athletes who they feel is taking their place. and so this wasn't a dog whistle. this was a bullhorn of the and we're going to keep protesting. people are going to keep kneeling. colin kaepernick, his mother theresa kaepernick is not anybody's bitch. and we're going to make sure that we understand there are fundamentally inequalities in this country. oh proegs and white supremacy run amok and we're going to shatter those systems one knee at a time. >> paris, when you see donald trump, i mean, to ba carry's point in front of an overwhelmingly white crowd in alabama with the history of all that happened there not too long

ago, calling, you know, referring to those people who are kneeling during our anthem, calling them sons of bitches, do you see a racial element in that? >> look, you can see a racial element in every single thing that anybody does. >> i was wondering if you see it? >> no, i don't. i look at the president -- wherever the president goes where there's a large majority of his base in terms of political rallies they're probably going to be predominantly white audiences because only 8% -- that's probably going to be the norm. let's take that off the table. i think what you saw in alabama and you know very well they take their football very seriously was a president that was talking to the base and got them riled up about an issue that he knew they were going to care about which is the american flag, which is the national anthem which is pride and country. that is what that was about. and he knew that they cared about football -- >> so it's about riling up the base, you're saying. >> i think it was about riling up the base about an issue that is a very, very important issue. and i think, again, ba carry, i

agree with you. i wish the president would not have used that phrase, son of a bitch, but i will say this. i think we should be just as upset when we hear rarps and other people refer to women in that same regard. because i think it has no place. so if you're going to criticize one, let's be consistent across the board. you should not use that phrase. >> is it appropriate to use the flag that people have fought and died for to rile up the base? >> again, what i was saying was he used it as a point for a base that was going to respond in a way to raise awareness about this issue. >> you said it was to rile up the base. >> because they were doing something so disrespectful, the president knew by raising this issue with them, that would get attention. >> right. he was bringing up an issue about colin kaepernick -- >> disrespecting the flag. >> but that was last season. he's not even employed any more as a football player because of

what he did, in all likelihood. he's not employed as a football plair, so the idea that the president would reach back and to bring this up in front of this particular audience to rile them up, as you say, doesn't that seem inappropriate? i mean, isn't that using the flag? >> well, in september 9 owed an nfl player who happens to be caucasian tweeted about him wanting to actually stand for the national anthem and said he was going to write pat till man's name on his shoe. so this is not an issue that is just somehow just coming bang to the mind-set of american people. that tweet had thousands of retweets back in september the, well before the president made this comment. and i think it's an important moment for the president to make and he should be able to opine about cultural issues. >> i mean, to use this about riling up the base? >> i mean, it was about riling up the base. it was about the number one currency we have in this country right now. i mean, it's not gold. it's not silver.

the number one currency we have in this country right now is race. and the president used that. and he knew he was using it and he knew where he was using it. and, yeah, it riled up his base because i think that people -- the irony in this discussion, anderson, is that people take more offense to a knee while we're singing the national anthem than they took to a knee in the back of freddie gray when he was murdered in baltimore. i mean, you think about the fact that paris denard and others sit here over the last two weeks and defended confederate monuments that are up throughout the south and throughout the country saying that they should be able to stay there. many of those same people in alabama fly the confederate flag. so you're telling me that something is wrong with me and i'm not pate on theic and actually protesting which is my first amendment right yet you want to glorify, memorialize treason.

so there is so much hypocrisy in this. we have to deal with this issue of race in a substantive fashion. that's why i'm glad that you had mr. bennett on for me, because people need to see that these are real athletes. lebron goes home every day and he has to make sure that he leaves this country for them as brown kids better than the one that he inherited. and if they can write on his face then imagine what they'll do for a poor kid that look like me and paris. >> they do do it. the issue what i was bringing up about confederate monuments is they've been up there for years. and i missed the democrats and lynn rals trying to pass these laws to take them down until president trump -- >> i marched from charleston, south carolina to columbia south carolina in 2000 #, 15 years old trying to take the confederate flag. >> i'm not talking about the confederate flag. i'm talking about monuments. and a republican governor took

it down. republicans stood with her in south carolina. >> no, no, no. nine people died -- no. nine people died so that flag could come down. do not dare bastard eyes that. >> i'm not bastard eyes anything. i'm pointing out the facts. and the last thing is this. colin kaepernick did this over a year ago. i missed the nfl, the owners and the general -- all of the teams standing in solidarity or kneeling in solidarity then. i'm saying right now what we see is people doing this because it's politically expedient for them to go against the president. be fair and be honest about what they're doing. >> i want to continue this discussion, if you can, just stay tuned. we're going to take a quick break. you're trying everything to get pregnant. new one-a-day couples pack gives you both nutritional support you may need. for her to prepare for a healthy baby and for him to support healthy sperm. be in it together.

whstuff happens. old shut down cold symptoms fast with maximum strength alka seltzer plus liquid gels. there's more breaking news. just moments ago the cowboys linked arms and took a knee and they did it before the singing of the national anthem. then during the anthem they stood. that just happening moments ago. i want to continue the

discussion. so the white house says the president isn't against anyone -- i mean, we said this, that he's just pro flag. you argue that -- and he's also said that race is not part of this. you argue that race very much is at the center of this. >> there's no question about it race is at the center of it. >> and when you say that both in why the players are kneeling and also in the president's use of this? >> correct. i think that he's using this as a wedge issue. first of all, i mean, i don't know why on god's green earth the president of the united states has time to or wants to wage culture wars. i mean, that's a conversation for another day rngts but it makes no sense to me with everything going on around us. but yes, the issue is about race. the issue is about race in this country and race relations in this country and even more specifically structural inequalities that we have. you have environmental injustices in flint mib and east chicago indiana.

you have tray von martin. you have at that mere rice, sandra bland. no convictions. no convictions for their murder. so you have all of these systemic issues which lead people to kneel. but i do want to point out something that paris was kind of right on in his own way. what you saw yesterday were owners coming down to the field and the hypocrisy is rich with them because you have owners like daniel snierd and jerry jones who donated a million dollars to the president and his inauguration. but the fact remains that when he came down talking about bastardizing mexicans two years ago, they weren't locking arms with anybody. when he was talking about and picking on a washington post reporter for being disabled, when he was actually talking about grabbing women by their private parts, when the list goes on and on and on, he talked about everybody and they felt as if that he would never come for them. and then he did. and so now they stand up. and so between them and ray lewis and jim brown, you know,

it's all good and dandy, but we're out here protesting systemic injustices. they were protesting their feelings being hurt. >> paris, why don't you respond. >> yeah. you know what? listen, i think ba carry makes excellent points as to why some of the people, especially colin kaepernick takes the knee. my only point is the act of taking the knee or not putting your hand over your heart or not standing for the national anthem or the pledge is disrespectful and it takes away from the original message. look, when mow happened allee was so upset about the injustices he faced and tossed his gold medal into the rifl down there where he lived, that was -- that was a medal that he earned. that was what he fought for. that was his. when you do this about the flag, when you do this against the national anthem, you're doing this to something that people bled and died for --

>> wait a minute. wait a minute. hold on. mow happened allee was a -- >> there's a difference in my opinion. >> mow haemd allee was a despised figure in the united states when he refused to serve in the war. i mean -- >> he could not -- >> he actually years later -- >> and years later mow happened allee came to the george w. bush white house, stood there and allowed the republican president of the united states to put the highest honor around his neck on maf of a grateful country and a grateful nation and now you fast-forward -- >> it's very easy in retrospect to look at protests in the past and say i would have taken part in that. i would have done -- that was the right thing to do at the time it is despised. i mean, you made the point about 60% of people didn't want to have -- didn't think there should be a march on washington or -- >> but -- this is the point -- >> this is the point --

>> the argument was that mu haemd -- >> what we're doing right now is we're whitewashing history. mu haemd allee got his belt stripped. lost years of his prime because he decided that he was not going to go to vietnam because he felt like it was an unjustice war. they took everything from him. he had to come and earn it back of the he was not a beloved figure. you know who else felt as if the vietnam war was an unjustice war and chose not to go and fight that war? my father, cleveland serls. they took months away from his life. he was charged, tried and convicted and went to federal prison for that. there are people who paid an ultimate price. so do not give me that we are disrespecting our country because we're not. what we're trying to do is make it a more perfect union. there are people in this country who are given a check for liberty, justice r freedom and it's been marked unsufficient funds. and so what we have to do is to

make sure that we understand i don't want anything from anderson cooper. i don't want anything from any white person in country to be plainly, plainly blunt, but what i do want is just an opportunity. i want an opportunity for equality. i don't want to bring anderson down. i just want to have the same playing field. that's all we're asking for. that's why people take a knee. >> and you will at president is saying when you're on the playing field don't diswant the plague or the national anthem. it's very simple. and you know what? if you're a white person -- if that had been a white person that kneeled -- >> i mean, you would have been making that argument against mu happened allee back then and yet you're praising george w. push for giving him the highest civilian award there is. very. >> no, no, no. no. anderson what i was actually saying was mu happened allee actually came to the white house because he understood that the honor was not about president george w. bush doing it. it was about an entire naugs.

it was about what the presidency and the white house represents. and that is not what -- >> but they despised him decades before that. and to ba carry's point he had to earn that back. i just wanted to ask you, you spoke eloquently before about the need for a conversation. and obviously we always talk about the need for a conversation and unfortunately we only talk about it only when there has been some sort of racial conflict that brings it into the forefront. it is a conversation that should take place not just when there's a headline about it but in ways large and small all the time. do you really think, though, that president trump is adding to that conversation in a positive way by calling people, you know, referring to them as those people, you know, who are refusing to stand during our national anthem and calling them sons of bitches? >> again, for the third time, anderson, i will tell you that i do not think that the president used the right term to describe the people who decided to not stand for the national anthem. what i will say is when you look

at the action taken today and the presidential memorandum that talked about computer science and that $200 million grant opportunity for sprunts across the school districts, there's specific language that says you must look into support african-american children and women children -- african americans and children. >> how many tweets did the president send about that today? >> you know what? i'm not controlling the president's twitter but i know that sarah huckabee sanders talked about it and ivanka trump talked about it and they had children with very diverse -- >> it doesn't seem like -- the president is not talking about it. >> and he shiepd that presidential memorandum today. so my point is this. that is a way for us to talk about what the administration is actually going to do. we can talk about the flag, which we should. president obama as we know opined about the redskins because he felt that was something that was disrespectful. >> and then candidate trump actually criticized the president for opining about that, saying he should have more

important things to talk about. we've got to leave it there. >> true. >> thank you. appreciate both of your perspective. just ahead, we'll take you to puerto rico an island of americans in deep trouble after hurricane maria caused apok lip particular did he have taking. they need help. we'll show you what he found next. t-mobile's unlimited now includes netflix on us. that's right, netflix on us. get four unlimited lines for just forty bucks each. taxes and fees included. and now, netflix included. so go ahead, binge on us. another reason why t-mobile is america's best unlimited network.

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officials are begging for help. and with more than 95% of wireless cell sites out of service, people are having trouble just getting in touch with their family members. it's an unbearable silence of bill we're is there. he's what he's finding. >> reporter: it is so hard to move around this island because puerto rico is a tangled mess of shattered trees and downed power lines and endless gas lines where the desperate can wait half a day under a blazing sun for a few prerns gallons. in the highlands sought of the capital it looks like a bomb went off. once lush green hill sides are now brown and broken by the power of maria's wind. and it's up here where most of the 28,000 residents had no choice but to shelter in place and pray. as this camper was tossed like a toy, she and her family were huddled.

in their home across the street -- how are you? how is life? how are you surviving? i thank god i'm still alive, she tells me. i can't describe the storm. i've never seen anything like it from my life. it's hard to tell from the reside, but the back end of this house is built on concrete stilts driven into the hill side so imagine the anxiety as maria really picked up strength. she's caring for her invalid husband. she's worried about the back end of the house's bedroom is going to slide into the ravine. they hear the crash of this power tower go down on the neighbor's roof. water is coming in through the shutters. she's trying to keep it up. and at one point she tells me they prepared to die together. which is scarier, combat in vietnam or hurricane maria? the hurricane is worse. miguel survived a combat tour in cambodia and now she worries about the last vial of his

insulin at risk of spoiling in a powerless refrigerator. yet with textbook hospitality, she takes the time to make us coffee. a few miles up the road, more kindness and much more misery. here is a drone shot of this area before maria and here it is today. this is what a category 4 hurng will do to wood construction. the roof, who knows what happened to the roof. it's amazing the walls held the way they did. trophies earned by his grandkids still stand in a room with no roof. he was released from prostate surgery the day the storm hit, hold up with his whole family in the local church and they all survived. but now he has little left but his faith. how would you describe peoples' desperation? are you seeing looting? are you seeing anger? there has been looting. the mayor telds me there have

been robberies. and when it comes to the feelings of the people in this town, we are saddened because we're still looking for people. as an american i wonder how do puerto ricans feel about being american territory in times like this? do you think america will come save you? do you hope they will? yes, he tells me. president donald trump has approved disaster declaration. we will move forward with the help of the united states. >> what they can give us we'll receive with a lot of love. thank you. >> you're welcome. you're welcome. >> very much. >> we're thinking of you. >> and bill, we are joined just now from san juan. it seems like all of the bill you met obviously are incredibly strong in the face of this. how bad could it get given the outlook and given just the difficulties of getting around? >> reporter: it could get so bad, anderson. don't let the resolve, the toughness of the puerto ricoen people deceive you. they're grateful to be alive.

deeply faithful people as you saw there. they don't want to create a bother i say specially in the rural areas, but we are on the brink of a major humanitarian crisis. so much worse than irma, than the storm in texas because we're a thousand miles from miami. the only way to get aid in here is by boat or plane. and there's so much damage. that was 20 miles as the crow flies from the capital of san juan. there are search and rescue efforts that haven't even scratched the surface of what's out there in the central part of this island. so 3 million fellow americans, they fought in wars. they've manufactured most of your pharmaceuticals down here for many years. and now they need help unlike anything they've needed in a century. >> yeah. it's extraordinary. bill we're wooer. i'm glad you're there. large parts of the island very difficult for reporters to get there and certainly relief efforts. we'll continue to fan out to as many parts of puerto rico as we can in the days ahead. at the white house today a

reporter pointed out that in the past few days the president has tweeted more than a dozen times about sports and zero times about puerto rico. when asked what message that sends white house press secretary sarah sandsers had this to say. >> when it comes to puerto rico the president has sent long and tom bossert to puerto rico today. they're on the ground to assess the damage. we've done unprecedented movement in terms of federal funding to provide for the people of puerto rico and others that have been impacted with these storms. we'll continue to do so and continue to do everything that we can possibly under the federal government to provide assistance. >> joining me from san juan, the governor of puerto rico. you've heard sarah sanders say they've done unprecedented movement in terms of federal funding. are you seeing an impact on the ground yet? >> well, yes. anderson, we have had great collaboration with the federal

government, particularly with fema. the administrator brock long was over here just today seeing the damages. of course, this is an unprecedented situation and we're going to need an unprecedented response. so our petition is to continue on the aid, to recognize that now the next step is for congress to act and to know that we are proud u.s. citizens, proud u.s. citizens that, you know, when other u.s. citizens were in need, puerto rico was a base of support that gave others shelter, food and have them go back to their home whenever they were ready. >> so i mean, in terms of where things stand right now, what is the greatest need? >> what is the greatest need? well, of course, there are several things. number one, food, water and fuel are some of the needs. but we have plenty of them. we just need to distribute them appropriately. right now because of the storm, you know, this is a supply chain

effort, we don't have as many bus drivers. we don't have as many operators in the gas station because some of them are still stuck. so what we've been doing is assessing where they are, making sure they get to the operation stations, making sure that they have police escort getting them to the different places so that we can get food, water and supplies to those that mostly need them. >> the lack of electricity obviously causes huge issues for you. do you have any better sense of how long it's going to take to restore it and is there any help for people until it can be restored? >> well, the devastation has been enormous, anderson. and this is something that the fellow viewers have to understand. this is an unprecedented event. literally two category 5 storms came to puerto rico in the span of two weeks. and the devastation to the infrastructure has been severe.

we only have weak energy infrastructure in puerto rico. now after the stormy can tell you that the transmission lines have been devastated. severe infrastructure damage. and in some areas of puerto rico it's going to take months to repair. >> governor appreciate your time. thank you very much. coming up next, breaking news on the apparent demise of the latest gop healthcare bill. o by forcefully stimulating the nerves in your colon. miralax is different. it works with the water in your body to hydrate and soften. unblocking your system naturally. miralax.

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the bipartisan debate on health care. republican senators lindsay graham and cassidy will face off against bernie sanders and amy oef char. just tonight republican senator susan collins said she'll vote no. phil mattingly joins us from capitol hill. what do we know about what got collins to "no"? >> the interesting thing about collins throughout the health care debate, anderson, it's never been a secret what her priorities were. after he voted tonight and put out the statement opposing the bill, she made very clear it was the fact they were overhauling the medicaid program without a significant number of hearings or a deep look into why they were actually doing it. when it came to the actual graham/cassidy proposal itself, even though there was an effort to set maine in a better place, she made the point, just because you can do this in a partisan

fashion now, what's going to keep it going a couple years from you from now? preexisting conditions has been a concern for her. this bill goes pretty far in giving the leeway to cut way back on medicaid. it underscores inside the republican conference, as has been the case for the last nine months, ideologically they are not unified right now. >> senator graham spoke tonight, what does he have to say? does he believe it's over? >> he's still trying and working. it's still clear, phone calls are still being made. but the difference on lindsey graham today from the last couple of days, is instead of of guaranteeing there would be a vote, saying they would get to 50 votes, when he was asked whether they would be a vote, he said i don't know. it's very clear things were moving in the wrong direction. he's still working on it but it's clear if you talk to anybody, there's no clear pathway forward.

the numbers right now just don't add up. >> phil mattingly, thank you. joining us is rick santorum. also kirstin powers. senator, with collins a no vote, is this fight over. >> oh, no. it's not over by a long shot. whether this week this bill is going to pass, it's looking less likely, but i'm not even 100% sure of that. what i can tell you is that i think what's been determined particularly with the hearing today, which i testified at the finance committee, i think there is broad support among republicans for this approach that does two things. number of one another, block grants, a cap grant on medicaid which bill clinton proposed years ago. whi

and the second thing it does is it takes the money from the affordable care act, puts it in a block grant and says, state, you deal with this problem instead of federal government and gives them resources to do it, dividing the money on a per capita basis across the country these are things that used to bipartisan. so when you hear susan collins say what she says, i get it, she would like it to be buy partisan. but these ideas used to bipartisan, and now we need a little bit more time to drill that message through. >> kirstin do you see any chance of this going forward? >> not in the immediate. i would be interested to know, senator, what they could do to move along a susan collins or john mccain. john mccain obviously has complained -- he's upset with the process. he does think it should be more buy partisan, and there should be more bringing up amendments, and he's, not movable on that. and susan collins has these

conditions on preexisting conditions and medicaid cuts. i know you're saying they're not cuts, but it's slowing the growth of it which is a cut in her eyes. how do you move these people? rand paul doesn't seem movable and tez cruz has indicated he might not vote for this. how would you move all those people? >> look at rand paul. rand suggested that he could vote for the medicaid per capita caps, but that he had some concerns. if you think about from a logical standpoint it's unsustainable and puts it on a budget, puts it on a cap. what we do with obamacare is the same thing, it's open ended and puts it in a block grant with a cap. so he can say, you know, they like one, but not the other, but from a logical point of view, they in a sense do the same thing. i think there's some room, particularly with ted cruz, with rand paul and others to work on this.

whether, again, we can get that done this week, there's still a couple other votes that are unsure. again, i'm not sure that are necessarily decided against us. so bottom line is, again, it's getting tight this week, but overall i think this is the bill that's most likely to be the bill that replaces obamacare whether it's now, in a couple months or maybe in six months. i think this will be the bill. >> senator santorum, chuck schumer a while back at the last effort had said if republicans came to them, seems like that he had couple preconditions for any kind of bipartisan effort on the democrats' side, in essentially not doing away with obamacare, just trying to fix it. is that for any republican a nonstarter? >> you can't run election after election saying you'll repeal obamacare and then make a tweak to it or two and keep it in

place. the bottom line is if you talk to senator alexander and others on the health committee, they'll say the democrats will say there's nothing fundamentally wrong, we just need to give more to the markets. and that's not going to happen. the president said he's not going to sign continuing payments. the speaker have said they're not going to pass a bill. so there's going to be no money to prop this up. starting next week $5 billion of taxes on 90,000 employers are going to go out if -- based on the obamacare man date. so now you'll see a whole new wave of taxes that have not been assessed before. you're going to see insurance markets that are going to be unstable because you're not providing federal support for them anymore, and i think maybe in a couple months there might be a prime time to come back and look at this bill. >> just a couple seconds. it's incredible that the republicans haven't been able to do this given the seven years of campaigning on this. >> yes.

before you a make a campaign promise, you should probably have a policy you can offer up. and i think that's been the problem, and they don't have enough ideological cohesion to all agree on something. >> thanks very much. thanks for watching 360. time for dom lemon. >> this is cnn tonight i'm don lemon. we're going to start by setting the record straight here. taking a knee at the nfl game was never about the flag or the military. that's what the president wants you to believe. it gives his insulting sons of bitches comment covers. against hardworking men and bringing their mothers their down as well. taking a knee falls within