rico on and off for -- relief effort a ten. what are you hearing from people on the ground? >> reporter: well, i mean, let's put it this way. if you lived in one of donald trump's buildings and only 20% of the people had power and 50% had water and there was holes in the roof, would you give him a ten or an "a" plus? our president came up as a salesman on television and the thing about selling yourself on tv in puerto rico these days is no one sees it because they haven't watched tv since maria hit because there is no power here. >> appreciate you being there. thanks very much. the extraordinary moment at the white house today, john kelly, white house chief of staff, and gold star father, extended president trump's condo lens to sergeant la david johnson, one of four soldiers killed in niger. you'll recall congresswoman

wilson criticized the president. she told mrs. johnson that her husband, get, knew what he signed up for but i guess it still hurts. those were her recollection. tonight the congresswoman still stands by those words and the statement she issued last night. that statement reads in part "despite president trump's suggestion i have recanted my statement, i stand firmly by my original account of my conversation. this account has been confirmed by family members who also witnessed mr. president trump's incredible lack of compassion and sensitivity." chief of staff kelly is critical of the congresswoman. he was listening to the condolence call. killed in afghanistan in action since 2010. he has not wanted to talk about his family's loss publicly. today he did and didn't hold back much. take a look. >> i was stunned when i came to work yesterday morning. and brokenhearted at what i saw

a member of congress doing. a member of congress who listened in on a phone call from the president of the united states to a young wife. in his way tried to express that opinion. he's a brave man, a fallen hero. he knew what he was getting himself into because he enlisted. there's no reason to enlist. he enlisted. and he was where he wanted to be, exactly where he wanted to be with exactly the people he wanted to be with when his life was taken. that was the message. >> senior white house correspondent murray joins us now. the decision to send john kelly out to the briefing today, do we know who was behind that? his decision or the president's? >> anderson, the white house has been guarded about the details of how john kelly wound up in the briefing room today. he has been quiet about talking about his son's death in afghanistan. we also know, look, this is a

four-star marine general. this is not someone who is going to be pushed into doing something he doesn't want to do necessarily. he may have felt like he was the best person to deliver this message. he covered, frankly, a lot of ground when he was in that briefing room, a lot of emotional ground, things difficult to talk about beyond just the advice he gave the president. he went into detail about what happens to a soldier when they're killed, how their body is transported back, how they are assigned a casualty officer and the gravity and the magnitude that comes with that kind of job and with informing the family about what happened. and so it may have been john kelly feeling like he was the only person with the understanding to explain what was going on, what this family was going through. >> it was interesting, he chose his words in some parts very carefully. you can kind of read into them what you will, i guess, depending on how you want to read into them. but he was obviously critical of

the democratic congresswoman. some of his comments could have been interpreted as being critical of the president of the united states, though he certainly did not name the president in any way. >> no, he didn't name the president. he said the president sort of delivered his condolences in his own way. he was very forthcoming about the fact in that sound bite you just played he kind of explained to the president which is what i was told when my son died. this is sort of the best thing, i guess, that you could hear in that moment, the notion that he was where he needed to be, that he was around the people he needed to be around, that he knew what he was getting himself into. but anderson, this was a conversation that general kelly was having at the time with general joe dunford who was a close friend of his. this was a conversation between two men who signed on as servicemen serving this country. this was not the conversation between donald trump, a commander in chief, who has never served in the military, and myesha johnson, a woman mourning the death of her husband.

the way that that came across in this conversation was very different from the sentiment general kelly was hoping the president would be able to get across, or at least was trying to nudge him to. it is worth noting that kelly's initial advice to the president was you shouldn't make these calls? there's really nothing that you are going to be able to do to lessen this burden for the family. >> thanks very much. a lot to talk about with the panel. joining me tonight scott jennings, jen psaki and -- two tours in iraq. >> you're correct. >> what did you make of general kelly's statement today. >> general kelly's remarks were very powerful. equally powerful was the image of sergeant johnson's widow grieving. when i was in iraq i was an officer for a buddy of mine killed.

i had to pack up all his stuff and send it home. i don't know if i would have had the words to stay to his spouse and family, but i think all our nation can do is give as much compassion and the highest level of gratitude to these families. there should not be politics. four days into this i'm still in disbelief we're having these conversations. >> it is interesting. it's a tricky thing. because i don't think we would be having this conversation, and i don't want to sound like i'm blaming the president for it, but it was the president who brought this into the public discourse by using conversations with gold star families to divert from a question he apparently didn't like and to criticize former presidents. i feel like that's not something general kelly obviously talked about today because he wouldn't. that is why this is in the discourse, isn't it? >> what i saw today was general kelly in a bind. he is -- i see a man doing what he can to guide the president to a better place. not only guide the president, but to guide us to a better place. it is a shameful thing that this

man had to stand and remind america to quit scoring points off dead soldiers. what hasn't been talked about is he mentioned the conventions. during the republican convention gold star families became a political football in many respects. in that there's a big difference between comfort ing, supporting these families and exploiting them. if any political members get close to exploiting these families we don't deserve men like general kelly and his son and these men and women who spend their lives and pay the ultimate sacrifice for us. we don't deserve that. we are going to lose something very special if we didn't tell the difference. >> what struck me today i would say is almost like the tale of two speeches. the beginning part of general kelly's remarks were heartfelt. he shared information he hasn't talked about in the past about not only his son, but his

experience as a high level member of the military. and i think regardless of your political background that was a very heartwarming moment and it was really -- you just sat there stunned watching the television. the second half felt like that was more geared towards not what general kelly was feeling from his heart, but towards president trump and what he wanted to accomplish because he went and attacked the congresswoman, called her an empty barrel a few times. he talked about women being sacred, but seemed to contradict that. i felt the first half is who general kelly is and who he has been as somebody who has proudly served in the military and the second half is who he has been forced to be as chief of staff to president trump. >> he's now -- he's a former general. he's now in a political role and one has to consider that. >> i think he gave the president good advice, which is i'm not sure i would make these calls. when i worked for president bush he did a lot of private meetings and everybody got a letter.

and we didn't do it in public. these things weren't litigated in public. litigating this in public has done an extreme disservice, i think, to the family. the only person's opinion who matters here is the widow and those kids. i think trump thought he was trying to do the right thing. i think it's also possible he did it poorly. it's highly likely this congresswoman who hates donald trump is trying to score points off of it. i don't think kelly is wrong about that. i don't know that there's any good that comes from continuing to litigate this for the white house. i mean, the only thing these families deserve is our gratitude because i can sure as hell assure you they do not deserve our politics right now. >> the congresswoman was a family member. she actually knew la david johnson from the time he was a kid, created a program that he came up in, was there for a reason. it's not just any politician who's going to be sitting with a widow as she goes to retrieve her husband's body. let's call her what she is, in

effect, a family member. and across the board, the soldier's parents, the widow, this close family friend, all of them said something went horribly wrong with that call. it is a tragedy, i think, that what appears to have been a misunderstanding. general kelly explained what the president meant to say. i believe him. it sounds very plausible. it sounds like it was misheard for a lot of different reasons. it's really a tragic shame that with maybe a follow-up phone call, general kelly says he heard his end of the conversation, they couldn't have cleared the whole thing up. >> it's possible for this phone call to have gone horribly wrong and it's also possible for the president to have been trying to do the right thing. i agree with you, it's also possible for them to handle this privately at this point and stop litigating this in public because it's not helping. >> do you think that was an attempt today to basically put an end to this? >> yes, and i hope it does. >> i think everybody -- you know, i think everybody -- i

speak for myself, i hope -- this is an awkward thing to talk about, an uncomfortable thing to be discussing in such a public, politicized environment. >> unfortunately we're still talking about. bonny carol from taps was in our office today and families who lost family members who called in tears to her program looking for support. taps is an organization that anybody who's watching should consider supporting because they're there before the president calls and well afterwards. >> we had on the beginning of the 8:00 program, the murphy family, mr. and mrs. murphy whose son died in afghanistan when his vehicle rolled over. and what i thought was so powerful, what they were saying is, look, we're not talking because we want to be involved in this political discussion. we want people to know about our son. we want people to know about how he lost his life, but how he

lived his life. i think you hear that from a lot of gold star families who are happy to talk about -- and that's all we've really talked about with them, who he was. >> what i think was -- for me who worked for president obama for eight years, i know you worked for a long time for president bush is so many of these conversations happened quietly and they're never publicized. it's always the call of the family. and that's the case with calls, whether they -- they don't all want a call from the commander in chief, regardless of who you are. they don't all want to come visit the white house. it's driven by the families. i think that's important for people to understand and the best thing that could happen is for this to go back underground and be private greetings with president trump. he should invite families there. he should invite wounded veterans, he should go visit people who are still recovering. i hope he does do that. that could be a positive next step by the white house. >> specialist murphy was killed in syria, not afghanistan. right around memorial day.

we'll take a short break and continue this discussion. my conversation with leon panetta is next, john kelly is his -- both presidents, bush and former president obama today taking a few swipes at the current president's policy. what they said and the panel reaction ahead.

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comments. she believes the president was insensitive. hours after she was criticized by white house chief of staff john kelly who told reporters he was stunned by her comments. he also said this. >> when i was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country. women were sacred. looked upon with great honor. that's obviously not the case anymore as we see from recent cases. life, the dignity of life is sacred. that's gone. religion. that seems to be gone as well. gold star families, i think that left in the convention over the summer. but i just thought the selfless devotion that brings a man or woman to die on the battlefield, i just thought that might be sacred. >> back to our panel. what do you make of that? >> i think he was venting. i think, listen, he is a guy who serves trump, and we first see

him as a member of the military. clearly he does have political thoughts and i think the white house has to be very careful about how they use general kelly. clearly he is by far their most effective messenger at this point. >> second time he's come out in a week. >> he brings credibility to that podium that has not existed at that podium through trump's entire campaign. if they keep putting him out to do these messages, he's going to lose credibility. i hope he edits himself a little better. what he did in talking about what happens to a slain soldier, i've never heard that timeline. we all need to hear that timeline, just picturing a soldier being packed in ice to preserve his body so his family can -- can greet him. we need to hear that because we may see pictures of a casket and the president saluting and greeting them. but i don't think we have enough exposure to the sacrifices our fellow men and women make.

>> to amanda's point, he is very effective at the podium. in many ways he comes across as more presidential than the president of the united states in terms of how he conducts himself. he can be personable, but also very serious. now what is striking to me is that he is still seems removed from who he's working for. i mean, he was clearly referencing harvey weinstein in respect for women, or i think that would be the best guess. but he's also working for somebody who has talked about grabbing women in not a place they should be grabbed. and many other comments that have been made by the person sitting in the oval office. so it's almost like he's disconnected from the person he's serving at times. but he is doing an effective job of bringing some presidential characteristics to that building. >> the level of detail that amanda talked about, i do think many civilians don't know that process. is that something you knew?

as a member of the military, is that commonly known, the exact process? >> oh, absolutely. i mean, there are soldiers who leave the battlefield and hop on a plane to make sure their body makes it to germany before they make it to dover airfield base. many officers are assigned as casualty assistance officers, which i think general kelly talked about today. which means you're there not just for a phone call or to write something or to knock on a door. that happens too. but to carry that family through the process, which ends well beyond what we've seen in headlines these days. >> we're going to take a break, and thanks for the discussion. coming up when we come back we'll hear from former secretary of defense leon panetta. john kelly served as his military assistant.

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. as we've been talking about tonight, chief of staff john kelly was thrust into the middle of this debate to making phone calls to gold star families by himself.

on tuesday president trump suggested in an aid owe interview -- kelly addressed those comments today frat white house podium. >> he asked me about previous presidents, and i said i can tell you that president obama, who was my commander in chief when i was on active duty, did not call my family. that was not a criticism. that was just to simply say i don't believe president obama called. that's not a negative thing. >> when his son was killed kelly was serving as military assistant to secretary of defense leon panetta who joins me now. >> you know john kelly very well. what did you make of his press conference today? >> you know, because i know john, and because he served me as my military aide when i was defense secretary, i have a lot of respect for him and for his service to this country and for the fact that he did lose his son and he understands better than anyone the terrible

emotions of what's involved when somebody loses their life in the line of duty. at the same time he is now chief of staff. and i think what he was trying to do was a little damage repair today because this issue, frankly, has gotten a little out of control. and he was trying, hopefully, to put it in a better place. whether or not he's successful at that still remains to be seen. >> when you say he's trying to put it in a better place, is he trying to put it in a better place in terms of for the president or trying to just put it in a better place, a more respectful place in the national conversation? >> i think he's trying to make -- make americans understand what's involved here when a loved one is lost. i mean, i do think, as much as i regret the kind of politicized debate that's gone on here, i do

think that one thing that has been important for this country is to remember, again, that there are men and women in uniform who are serving in dangerous places and putting their lives on the line. and at times losing their lives because they love this country. and i think it's important to remember that. i would wish that the focus would be on those men and women who are willing to serve and put their lives on the line and on the families that have lost loved ones, that's where the focus ought to be. >> it does seem like this is a conversation that probably would not have been -- that we would not be having, and that would not be such a public conversation, if it hadn't been for president trump essentially deflecting a question about why he had not spoken up over the course of 12 days about the death of four service members in niger, deflecting that, which i guess he interpreted as a hostile question or some sort of

inherent criticism of him, by criticizing former presidents about their treatment of gold star families. >> i think what happens with this president in particular is that he has a bad habit of when he's asked a question that is uncomfortable, or that raises questions about whether or not he handled something correctly, that he tends to look for scapegoats, and he tries to change the issue. and the first thing he usually do is either go back to president obama and how he handled it, or other presidents handled it, and tries to raise issues that somehow justify how he handles things. >> i want to play something that the general kelly said during the press conference to get your reaction. >> when i was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country. women were sacred, looked upon

with great honor. that's of course not the case anymore as we see from recent cases. life, the dignity of life is sacred. that's gone. religion. that seems to be gone as well. gold star families, i think that left in the convention over the summer. but i just thought the selfless devotion that brings a man or woman to die on the battlefield, i just thought that that might be sacred. >> incredibly, obviously very powerful words. they could be interpreted in different ways, i guess, depending on how you see them. they could be an implicit criticism of the tone and tenor of this overall conversation. but then again, general kelly is the chief of staff for a president who, you know, during the convention, which general kelly was referencing, did go after a gold star family who made a public criticism of the president during the conventions, you know, obviously the president has made past comments about women that certainly raised a lot of

questions. >> i think john kelly is not a politician. he has never been a politician. he's a marine. he's dedicated to the mission that this country's involved with. he's dedicated to whoever is commander in chief. and john, you know, speaks from the heart. so i respect, you know, john's feelings here. but i think john also has to recognize that when he goes out there he's no longer a four-star marine. he's chief of staff to president trump. >> secretary panetta, i appreciate your time, thank you. >> thank you. >> up next tonight, more breaking news, two former presidents take on the current commander in chief and the state of politics in america, the critiques president obama and bush have for the trump brand of politics in a moment. at stanford health care,

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>> we're at our best not when we're trying to put people down, but when we're trying to lift everybody up. candidates are rewarded for pandering to the extremes instead of trying to keep common ground and forging consensus. instead of our politics reflecting our values, we've got politics infecting our communities. instead of looking for ways to work together and get things done in a practical way, we've got folks who are deliberately trying to make folks angry. to demonize people who have different ideas. to get the base all riled up because it provides a short-term tactical advantage. >> well, he wasn't the only former president speaking out today. former president george w. bush

issued a scathing critique in a new york speech. >> we become the heirs of martin luther king jr. by recognizing one another not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. this means that people of every race, religion, ethnicity can be fully and equally american. it means that bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the american creed. we've seen our discourse degraded by casual cruelty. at times it can seem like the forces pulling us apart are stronger than the forces binding us together. argument turns too easily into animosity. disagreement escalates into dehumanization. we've seen nationalism distorted into nativism, forgotten the --

immigration has always brought to america. >> back to our panel. joining the conversation is kirsten powers. jamie, what do you think made the president speak out today in the way he did. >> it was a big surprise he spoke out. after all he went eight years without criticizing barack obama, a democrat. on the other hand it's not a surprise. we know he didn't vote for him. his father voted for hillary clinton. he said privately in a meeting during the campaign he thought he might be the last republican president. so there's no love lost. but why today? i think it's simply enough was enough. this speech is planned for a year and he didn't say trump's name, but he was very specific. it's very pointed. you don't have to look too far. i think there have been some inflection points. i think charlottesville was an inflection point. i think north korea and national security are inflection points.

i think that being presidential in the bush family is an inflection point. words matter, tweets matter. but i think at the end he really sees, and we heard it in that sound, that he feels as if trump and what is going on is tearing the country apart. this goes way beyond the republican party. >> and scott, you worked for his administration. i mean, the warnings that they are both sounding are actually really frightening. the fact that both former presidents are coming forward and saying these things, you can look at it just through political prism and clearly president obama was campaigning for a candidate. but, i mean, it's serious stuff they're talking about. >> no doubt. and they're not the only people that feel this way. in fact, listening to president bush today reminded me of something i read about secretary of defense mattis. he did an interview earlier this year. at the beginning of taking this job, and the person said what is

it that scares you the the most? you'd think some foreign issue. the lack of fundamental friendliness. what he was saying is we can't disagree without hating each other. politically we're unraveling and losing the sense we're all in this together. then you start, as he said at the end, if you're not part of something bigger, you stop caring about your fellow man. this is general mattis earlier this year as he was becoming secretary of defense. i do think there's a sense in this country that we're unraveling politically. i'm glad these presidents are speaking out. i don't think political divisiveness started with donald trump, but i do think it's something we have to get our arms around in this country. >> i think people are quick to assume that everything george bush was saying was about donald trump. i don't think that was probably the case. you would know better. you played the quotes. another thing he said, too often

we judge others by their worst examples when we judge ourselves by our best examples. and, you know, i think we're all guilty of doing that. and i think he is talking about the discourse that we have in this country that it's donald trump isn't the only one who's guilty of demonizing, as president obama said, people demonizing their opponents and things have de-volve de. since he's president. he's not setting a good standard. it's something that's infiltrated all parts of political discourse. >> i was interested in the way bush focused on nativism. this is something we recognized during the 2016 election. there's no signs of it stopping. in his speech at the heritage foundation this week i saw him frame the issues of nativism better than he ever has. i would almost call it trumpism. he is so good at making people choose between the flag, the anthem, strong borders or just hating america.

he's excellent at it and he's getting better and better every single day. i see no opposition to that that's been able to mount a counterargument in any productive way. i think he's going -- if he continues this, he's going to do very well in 2020. if it's a debate between donald trump, the flag and the liberals, the flag and donald trump are going to win. but i'm wondering as republicans are we going to be able to guide him to a better place. i agree, people should stand for the anthem. i worry when donald trump tells a private corporation that he needs to make their employees stand, that's dangerous territory. if there's no reasonable, productive, democratic resis tans, i don't know how we're going to stop him. we need to be thinking about that. >> the other piece that stuck with me was that president bush was junivery outspoken on bigot and racism.

president obama's remarks were short during the campaign rally. it was a reminder that a white president can speak effectively to that and can talk about divides along racial lines this our country. that's something i think other leaders need to probably rise and do. but that really stuck out to me as part of his speech as well. >> it was anticipated that if hillary clinton had won there was immediately going to be, we've all talked about this, a civil war within the republican party, that there was going to be this blood bath. >> that's been going on since 2009. >> and it continued today. what i heard george w. bush was talking about was a different kind of conservatism, a different kind of way of being a republican that he's willing to fight for, you know, because it wasn't just aimed at donald trump. he didn't have to say his name. donald trump is not just -- you know, he's the head of and the embodiment of a large faction, a large movement within the republican movement, within conservatism, and there are a lot of people who tried to fight it in 2015 and 2016.

the fight is not over. it's just not taking the form we anticipated. we thought they might be losers on the outside and incriminations, they're winners on the inside. and they have gridlock and things they have to work out. >> president bush was talking about angry, divisive people in both parties. we're all one -- we want to apply this to trump because he's the president. that's natural for us to do that. we have people in both parties who have contributed to this coming apart, this unraveling. i think that president bush d -- >> i though cable news in there as well. >> he wasn't just talking about a republican civil war. he was talking about two groups of people in america, who tribes that don't understand each other anymore and have forgotten we're all in this together. >> when he talked about nativism, that's something president obama spoke about quite frequently, privately and publicly in the last year or two of office and it was a reminder that there actually is more

alignment on a lot of international issues. we used to be a country that was headed, we believed globalization was pods positive, that we should reach across the country, trade provided economic opportunity. we've dialed back from that. there's actually agreement between president obama, president bush, people of both parties on some of those issues. >> jamie, do you expect to hear more from president bush? >> i don't think so. he put his toe in the water. he did this. it is true these are themes he's talked about in the past. i think the fact that we listened to that speech today and we saw connections between that speech and donald trump says everything you need to know about that speech. but i think he will go back to being very quiet for a while. >> do you agree with that? i don't think he's one to go out and make speech after speech. he doesn't tweet. he says what he has to say. we're talking about. he'll go back to texas and i think everybody should go visit the bush center down there.

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[ bloop ] huh? hey? i paused it. bam, family time. so how is everyone? find your awesome with xfinity xfi and change the way you wifi. today the governor of puerto rico met with the president at the white house four weeks after hurricane maria and more than 28% of the island has no drinking water, more than 78% has no electricity. today a reporter asked the president how he thinks it's going. >> between one and ten how would you grade the white house response so far to the hurricane? i would say it's a ten, i give ourselves a ten. i would give a ten. >> just before air i spoke with the governor of puerto rico, ricardo rossello. >> governor, the president gives the federal response in puerto rico a ten. would you give him that? >> the president has responded to all of our requests,

certainly the men and women in uniform and a lot of people have been helping. but as i stated today, there's a lot to still be done and we were glad to have the meetings today in the white house and in congress to get that full long-term support for the people of puerto rico. that's the important part right now. this is far from being over, but we are glad to have the white house support of this effort. >> you've said that you came here to, quote, establish a path forward, to establish a commitment to treat u.s. citizens of puerto rico equally. i know when i was there i talked to a number of people who felt like they weren't being treated equally or it was responded to equally in many parts of the island. do you feel that, that citizens have been treated equally? >> well, this is a historical question. puerto rico is a territory of the united states, and u.s. citizens in the territory don't have the same political power as u.s. citizens in the contiguous states. but certainly there is a lot to

do with the logistics of getting support to puerto rico. it's been quite a challenge, you know, our ports were closed for a couple of days. our airports did not come to full effect until just a couple of days ago. so that has limited some of the response, but, really, we have been full hands on deck working with the federal government and the local municipalities to make sure that the people get what they need, recognizing, again, that even though the support is there, even though we're doing everything we can, we still need to augment that effort on behalf of the people of puerto rico. >> a reporter bill weir who's on the ground there, seeing a lot of continued destruction to rural parts of the island. he spoke to a local fema director who said they don't sneeze more troops or help on the ground. is that true? fema is saying too many people can create more of a problem. >> well, i think we've reached the number that was identified in the onset.

we have about 15,000 personnel helping on clearing roads, abou dod personnel that are helping clearing roads, making logistics, helping on the medical front and delivering supplies to the more vulnerable areas. so we do have the resources in terms of human resources. now, we need to continue getting some of the aid in terms of more provisions, water, food, medicine, generators and so forth. and anderson, something that is critical from my vantage point, we have to be focusing on getting our energy grid back up. so i've laid out an aggressive agenda for our power authority for the corps of engineers and for fema so that we can achieve a significant amount of growth in terms of the energy access in puerto rico. >> i want to ask you about that because you said the goal is 95% of the island power back by

december 15th. the ceo of white fish energy the contracting company told bill we're wooer that they're going to need a lot more manpower than they currently have today if they want to meet that deadline. >> i agree. our expectation is to have about a,000 or 1,200 regained here in puerto rico. right now what -- we had about 231 big aides from the power authority. that number has started growing. we're about 400 right now. we're getting more equipment. we're getting more materials. but if we want to meet those aggressive milestones, we're going to need more support, and that's what we've been asking the corps of engineers. >> thanks so much for your time of the i wish you the best. >> thank you, anderson. and we'll be right back with tonight's ridiculous. you nervous? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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time now for the ridiculous. and tonight we're briefly delving back into the horrific harvey weinstein story. the hollywood producer accused of multiple allegations of sexual assault and harassment. she's disappointed in weinstein who supported many democratic colleagues and she also said this to local tv station. >> i grew up in a time when it

was as much the woman's responsibility as the man, how you are dressed, what your behavior was. so i'm from the old school. >> let's just hang on for a moment because that's beyond old school. it's not even prehistoric school. that's before schools were even prevented. she must have misspoken because surely she's not suggesting that sexual assault has anything to do with the way a woman dresses or behaves that's somehow the woman's responsibility. surely she's not suggesting that, right? >> you can have behaviors that appear to be inviting. it can be interpreted as such. that's a responsibility, i think, of the female. >> and i guess that's exactly what she is saying. now, if a man said this or a republican congresswoman said this it would probably be getting a lot more attention and for all the people expressing surprise, you know who isn't surprised? women, a lot of women. >> we women have known men were gross since our sixth grade gym

teacher said good job at the end of class and then massaged our shoulders that were somewhat on the front of our bodies and it doesn't get any better in adulthood because sexual harassment is ramp ant in every profession imaginable, medicine, finance, technology, ep deema, publishing, restaurants. we tried to find one place where women were safe so we googled sexual harassment and we found this article from five days ago. you can't even go to the most remote part of the planet without some dude -- >> as for representative johnson, since her initial comments came out she's issued a statement saying, quote, i do not blame the victims of sexual assault. i do acknowledge that my comments come from an old school perspective that has shaped how some of us understand the issue, but that does not detract from the fact that criminals need to be held accountable for their actions. she went on to say that because of the bravery of harvey weinstein's accusers we need to

have a dialogue. in that spirit i'd like to end this keeping the blame where it belongs, not on women, just where it belongs. that's for watching 360. time to turn things over to don lemon and krirn tonight. this is cnn tonight. i'm don lemon. it has been an extraordinary day to be an american. to sit back and watch true patriotism unfold. real patriotism, not the symbols of patriotism that some have been using to divide us. like whether someone stands or neels at a ball game. i'm talking about real patriotism, the real patriotism we owe an incaulkable debt of gratitude and that's our gold star families whose loved ones made the ultimate sacrifice. general john kelly is one of them. his 29-year-old son was killed fighting for our country in 2010 in held man