tv Anderson Cooper 360 CNN December 5, 2017 10:00pm-11:00pm PST
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former white house chief strategist steve bannon is speaking at a roy moore campaign right now in fair hope, alabama. tonight there is no doubt despite moore being an accused child molester, he has the full support not only of bannon, but the white house and the president of the united states. sara murray joins us from the white house with the latest. the white house standing behind moore today saying the president's position had not changed. explain more. what more are you learning? >> anderson, it went from what is sort of a tepid backing of roy moore to this week a full blown endorsement. the position hasn't changed, but the president's willingness to go out and throw his support behind moore. here is what press secretary sanders had to say today.
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>> the president feels that he would rather have a person that supports his agenda versus somebody who opposing his agenda every step of the way. and until the rest of that process plays out, you have a choice between two individuals and the president's chosen to support moore. >> sarah, several weeks ago it cnn reported part of the reason the president was reluctant to speak out on this is he was worried the conversation would move to his past accusers. is the president not worried about that anymore? >> i certainly think the administration that has seen that the conversation has turned to the president's own accusers we've seen the access hollywood from 2005 being talked about again. oui seen billy bush who was the other party in that tape trying to rehab his image, as well as discussing it. the president has been discussing this tape privately with white house aides. it's clear this story has come back to light.
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but it's interesting, anderson. when you talk to senior officials within this white house, you hear comparisons, them saying, for instance, anyone who preys on children, that's a terrible thing. if these allegations are true, that's a terrible thing. they keep coming back to the bottom line which, as they say, look, we have no way of knowing if these things are true. and as you remember, anderson, president trump when he was facing these allegations for more than a dozen women himself as a candidate flatly denied them the entire campaign. >> sara murray, thanks very much. gary tuchman is at the rally in alabama. he joins us now. it look like bannon's been on stage for 20 minutes now. we were told he was going to bring fire and fury to the stage tonight. what is he saying? >> it is fire and fury inside the bar in southern alabama. he started off by saying there's nothing like spending a rainy with deplorables. that was the sweetest thing he said. he really lit into people, and he is continuing to light into people. democrats not surprised, the news media who he calls the opposition party. not surprising.
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but then he's really gone after people he calls establishment republicans. mitch mcconnell, senate majority leader, jeff flake, u.s. arizona senator. but he rereserved his most harsh treatment for mitt romney who ran for president of the united states eight years ago. mitt romney yesterday tweeted roy moore in the u.s. senate would be a stain on the gop and the nation. here's what bannon said about mitt romney. >> talk about another confusion, willard mitt romney. now i want you to understand something. it was willard mitt romney's, comment yesterday, his tweet, whatever it was, that the only reason i'm going there, mitt, is you started it. mitt had to go there. all the insults you made about the president, all that
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backwards. everything's fine. you've got to jump in here. what he said yesterday, honor and integrity. honor that judge moore lacks honor and integrity. that's why you can't support him, couldn't support him. >> i did say mitt romney ran eight years ago for president. it was in 2012, which was five years ago. but either way, he did run for president. you heard what he said about romney. it was harsh and continues to go right now. obviously people come here to see roy moore running for the u.s. senate here in alabama. many people wanted to tell us they wanted to see bannon and they wanted to hear him talk like this. he is treating the audience to what he is known for. i will tell you another person, people are talking about, donald trump, the president of the united states who has made his endorsement explicit for moore yesterday. donald trump will be coming down here, but in a wink and a nod he will be in pensacola, florida. which is about 17 miles exactly from the border of alabama.
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and roy moore supporters want their people to come out into florida for that donald trump rally where there is no question about it, roy moore in some way, shape and form will be mentioned. anderson, back to you. >> gary, thanks very much. roy moore is just taking the stage. you saw at the campaign rally. we'll keep an eye on what he has to say. lots to talk about. phillip bump, maria cardonas, scott jennings and brian fallon. jason, i want to start with you. i was looking back. you were on the program a couple weeks ago. you said you would urge the president not to endorse roy moore, and that he doesn't have a place in the u.s. senate. now that the president has endorsed him, what do you make of that? >> a couple things going on here. one, this was not the president's first candidate. the president supported luther strange in the primary, but now roy moore is the general election candidate. >> he was embarrassed, i think, reporting that he was embarrassed by backing the wrong candidate. >> yeah. i think he got bad advice on that, and strange was not a very good candidate. i think what the president's taking a look here now, especially seeing the
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revelations coming forward now with al franken and bob menendez continued legal problems that have put a cloud over it. there's no reason the republicans should go and unilaterally disarm and take one of their seats off the table when it's a majority. infrastructure and all the different things. i'm, again, not a fan of roy moore, don't think he has a place in the senate, but i certainly can see the argument for saying why should we go ahead and fight with one hand tied behind our back. there's a bigger thing going on here as well, and that's the fact that democrats are going to find a way to blow this election. they're falling into the same trap they did in 2016, attack, attack, and not define their candidate at all. you haven't seen any national prominent democrats going down to alabama to campaign for doug jones. no one on this panel could tell you anything about jones' message and what he's for. they're going to follow the same mistake they made last year. >> maria, are they doing that? >> first of all, i think it's smart that no democrats are going down to alabama because it is alabama.
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the fact that all of the polls have shown you all the trouble doug jones ahead i think tells you the trouble roy moore is in. i'm not saying doug jones will win, but there is a possibility. >> the latest poll was within the margin of error, as we saw in the presidential race, there may be a lot of people voting for moore. >> absolutely. but another thing could happen, which is, i think, something that we could expect. given that roy moore has these accusations of alleged child molestation, you have the women's vote, which i think is going to be very much up in the air. we don't know how many republican women are going to go up to the booth and say, there is no way i can pull this lever for roy moore. we don't know. that's a big unknown. i think what is underscored here with donald trump now saying that he's all for roy moore, all of the republicans that before were turning their backs on him and now are saying, okay, well, it's up to the people of alabama, your seeing a fleet flip-flop of the principles and values of a lot of these republicans who at the beginning were against having a senate candidate representing the
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republican party who was accused of child molestation. so i think what you're seeing is that a lot of people are looking at the republican party, and many republicans have even said this, that they are shamed about that flip-flop on the moral values. it seems like the moral values and principles are out the window. it is party before principles. i commend romney, i commend flake. they're in the right place. >> this is the same sort of tribalism we see on all sides. talking about john conyers as an iconic figure and not addressing the very serious allegations against him. >> yeah, in the absence of moral leadership on these issues people revert to their tribes. that's what's happening in large measure. although i would point out, i think the race in alabama is very close. this is a race that republicans ought to win by 20 or 25 points. it's going to be decided by a couple of points one way or the other which goes to show you the effects, the political effects of a candidacy like roy moore's. he might survive in alabama but you wouldn't survive it in a purple or blue leaning state. what i'm worrying about for the
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president on roy moore is, number one, there's no empirical evidence moore will be a solid supporter of the trump agenda. he opposed the obamacare repeal plan the president preferred in september. he is backed and sort of created by the liberal trial bar in alabama. he has been for years. i guarantee you the liberal trial bar does not support what the trump agenda is. i think roy moore is a party of one and my prediction is he's going to come back to be a burr under the saddle of the trump agenda at some point. he might be with the president most of the time. there will come a day that roy moore will be a problem. i have been against this moore proposition from the beginning. it's going to ultimately haunt the president. i understand why he did it. i understand why the rnc did what they did. i ultimately think it's a brand anvil on the republican party. >> the thing that was striking to me, if you listen to the steve bannon speech, you'd think roy moore is running against mitch mcconnell, not the democrat in alabama.
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and i think that the most striking and surprising thing to me is not that you've seen donald trump aligned with roy moore. donald trump can't surprise me anymore. and it doesn't surprise me that the rnc is lining up with donald trump. they are the political arm of the president. what i was surprised by was mitch mcconnell's comments on sunday where he seemed to backpedal a little bit and say it's up to the people of alabama. this is not a one-off issue, mitch mcconnell is in all-out war with steve bannon for the future heart and soul of the republican party. and if steve bannon prevails and roy moore wins in this alabama race, he's going to be emboldened. you're going to see him enter races against other republican incumbents. if i was mitch mcconnell, i wouldn't be backtracking at all. i'd be drawing a line in the sand and put this idea that steve bannon is some goliath in the republican party. >> we've heard the media spin cycle about this. mitch mcconnell did not backtrack at all. he stated a fact. there's going to be an election in alabama. mitch mcconnell and a whole bunch of republicans tried everything they could to get the
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governor of alabama to move this election, to disown roy moore. they wouldn't do it down in alabama. so we are going to have an election. today mcconnell was very clear, said what he said from the beginning, i suspect if roy moore gets to washington there's going to be an investigation in the senate ethics committee. and you know what? if there a silver lining, these women who have accused roy moore in alabama, they're never going to get a court hearing down there, but they might get to tell their story under oath to the senate ethics committee. >> do you really think that's going to happen? >> yes, i do. >> everybody's saying once we gets to washington, that's it. republicans won't do anything about it. >> mitch mcconnell said, before we came on the air tonight, i suspect he's going to have a problem with the ethics committee. they're investigating al franken already. >> cory gardner, and i'll say, if he wins, i'll go ahead and vote to unseat him. why not go that far and send a clear message this guy does not belong in the senate. >> he has said he doesn't belong in the senate. >> follow that through with a commitment to action. if he wins the election, he will support not only putting it
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before the ethics committee, but voting to unseat him. >> i don't know what the legalities of of seating or not seating, but i know this. the clearest way to expel someone is go to the ethics committee and get a clear finding of what's come out in this election which is, of course, very troubling. >> let's take a quick break. we'll continue this discussion ahead. also ahead, more charges could be coming against campaign figures indicted in the mueller investigation. the latest on what we though about that when we continue. this is a power plant. this is tim barckholtz. that's me! this is something he is researching at exxonmobil: using fuel cells to capture carbon emissions at power plants. this is the potential. reducing co2 emissions by up to 90%... while also producing more power. this could be big. energy lives here.
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about senator mitch mcconnell. here's what bannon said about the senate. >> mitch mcconnell from day one, and this is what you've got to understand with flake and romney and mcconnell and the whole crowd, this is the scam. they don't mind giving up a seat to a democrat. you know why? they don't mind being the minority party. they don't mind being out of power. they don't. because here's the joke. they can make as much money on the way down as they made on the way up. right? they would just -- as long as they can control the apparatus, donald trump won in wisconsin and brought ron johnson across the finish line, he won in pennsylvania and brought toomey across the finish line, won in missouri and brought blunt across the finish line. he won in north carolina and brought burr across the finish line. mitch, you owe your job to donald j. trump. >> i'm back now with the panel. it's interesting, phil. the president by finally endorsing roy moore, it seems like giving coverage to the rnc
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to reverse themselves and other republicans. >> again, to the point that was made earlier, this isn't a huge surprise. president trump, the leader of the republican party, the republican party lining up behind him. the fascinating thing about this is that steve bannon's vision for the republican party is essentially a completely splintered and fractured republican party. he has gone after the establishment. he wants to have a republican party that is completely different than the party as it is right now, which is why it's sort november the abstract, baffling that the rnc is coming down and taking steve bannon's side essentially. but when we look at a poll that came out today from pri that says half of republicans and half of democrats view the other party, their policies as an actual threat to the nation, that's the motivating factor. it's less about the party and the republican party and the leader mitch mcconnell as it is about the ideas that the republicans broadly stand for. that's what bannon and trump have tapped into and what moore has tapped into as well. and it's hugely dangerous for mcconnell down the road.
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>> a point made earlier, this won't go away if moore does win, very possible there will be this ethics investigation. >> there may be. my issue with this is that right now the one check that is failing to perform its function is congress. and, you know, we need people in there who at least have a minimum ethics bar. this is someone who's been removed from the alabama court twice for ethics violations. he's expressed an interest in being on the judiciary committee which as we know is overseeing some of the most sensitive and important investigations that are going on. it feels like, okay, he's just one person. but there's a boiling frog syndrome that can happen where once you cross this line it becomes easier to cross, you know, the next one. well, if, say, trump fires mueller, which a lot of republicans have said, that's going to be the line. well, is it? you know, you've already let in
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a child molester into your chambers. so what's -- where does the line stop? and i think it can infect the entire body. we need that branch right now. >> jeff flake, right after, i guess hours after he was sitting next to the president at the white house write a $100 check and instagram it out to the doug jones campaign saying country over party. does that help roy moore more than anything else. $100 is not going to help doug jones. that whole thing, does it just hurt? >> first of all, can we talk about what a wimp? write a $2,700 check. or get some other people. if you're going to write the check and put some name out there, then write a real check. $100 for someone for a career politician like flake. one of the things, going back to a point phil was touching on a moment ago, the republican party that helped to elect president trump and that president trump has now created is a lot different from the republican party that jeff flake came to washington with in 2000.
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and so for some of these folks that are in washington, whether it be flake or mccorker, more mcconnell who came in 1984, the party has changed a lot since they've been in washington. they're just now realizing it. when we talk about issues like trade, when we talk about certain things that president trump, this coalition that the president was able to put together, it's a different party. that's why they seem so out of sorts. >> very quick point. i'm not sure they're just realizing it. i think they realized it during the tea party. i think they're just realizing they can't control it. i think during the tea party they were okay, there's this grassroots movement. we can stay on top of it. >> this the different. the coalition trump was able to put together with union voters, with a whole budge of different coalitions. >> this is much different than the tea party. >> it's an anti-washington anger, yes, but now it's not just purely on ideological terms, but it's also anti-establishment. >> have us versus them talk
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inside the republican party, mr. bannon says that mitch mcconnell owes his job to donald trump. let's see what donald trump owes mitch mcconnell, 12 circuit judges by the time this year is over with, one supreme court justice, a complete rollback of the obama regulatory state, and oh, by the way, the tax reform plan that mcconnell and trump have been working on together for months and months and months. for all the us versus them in the party, the congressional republicans and the president are going to end the year unified and having accomplished quite a lot when that seemed not probable a few weeks ago. >> maria? >> here's the danger for the republican party. yes, trump won in november 2016. he didn't win by a lot. the coalition that he put together isn't sustainable. the guy is at 35% approval rating which is a record low. for the republican party and frankly for the democratic party too to grow you have to be able to expand your base. he has been completely unable to expand his base. and by -- by supporting somebody like roy moore in a political environment where you need more
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women, where you need more minorities, where you need more immigrants who are becoming citizens, the republican party is absolutely not poised to be able to attract more -- >> isn't that same argument being made during -- i seem to remember that argument during the campaign a lot. his base is too small. he hasn't grown it enough, not enough diversity in there. he won. >> he did. he's the president now. so i think the argument has a certain added urgency to it now. you've seen it in special elections across the country where democrats have won, states that trump won by triple digits. in oklahoma, new hampshire, florida. you're seeing democrats flip those seats. you saw it in the suburbs and exurbs in virginia. saw it in virginia during the gubernatorial, just to disagree with jason, when jeff flake does something like that, it is a good thing even if it is an insignificant amount of money. what doug jones is going to need in alabama is a lot of republican voters to cross over
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and vote for the democrat. when national republicans like jeff flake say it's okay to do that, it sends a signal to rank and file republicans that you can vote democrat in this one election and you're not betraying your party. >> much more to discuss overhead. the white house won't say when president trump knew michael flynn lied to the fbi. that's leading to more questions. we'll get into that in a moment. i can guide you in. no, thanks , santa. i got this. santa: uh, it looks a little tight. perfect fit. santa needs an f-150. that's ford, america's best selling brand. hurry in today for 0% financing for 72 months across the full line up of ford cars, trucks and suvs. for a limited time, get an additional $1,000 cash back on top of 0% financing for 72 months. get these exclusive offers during the ford year end sales event.
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back to that lawyer's tweet, and she didn't answer the timeline proposed by reporters. he lied, and that was the reason for his firing. the lawyer for rick gates who was indicted along with paul manafort said in court federal prosecutors have told him more charges could be coming against his client. back now with the panel. asha, legally speaking, how common is that there would be more charges coming against somebody who already has charges filed against them? is that to pressure them? >> in complex criminal cases, that can happen. it's called superseding an indictment. they call it amending, but that's what it's effectively doing. it could be there is no evidence or new charges, or new defendants. in this case it sounds like they told him there's going to be new charges. and yes, my -- my gut would tell me that this is to say this is going to keep going. and it could get worse. and we have more on you. he was a deputy aide. >> to manafort. >> to manafort.
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>> and clearly was very close, very involved according to the charges so far. >> that's right. and manafort so far we know has many of these connections to russia and russian intelligence, and all that is detailed in the indictment. so, you know, this is, again, the strategy in these criminal investigations. you get people to flip, to get to the people that you want. and if what he -- right now he wants manafort to talk and manafort is not talking. he's actually continuing to spy while he's under house arrest. he ghost wrote an op-ed on behalf of -- for ukraine newspaper. you know, this could be, once again, more pressure for mueller to use against him. >> jason, do you still believe -- because the white house is, you know, kind of arguing that -- or asserting the investigation is going to be wrapping up soon. do you believe that? >> i don't know if soon. maybe there could be some interesting definition to soon.
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>> okay. >> but one of the things we've really kind of missed over the last few days here is the fact this announcement last week with general flynn had nothing to do with the campaign. and so for months and months all of the speculation and this talk that there was some coordination between the campaign and a foreign entity, we haven't seen anything about that. paul manafort and rick gates, they definitely have their own problems. general flynn obviously lied to the fbi. that's a pretty obvious no, no. can't go and do that. still haven't seen anything that says that president trump did anything wrong or anything connected to the campaign. look, i know the election deniers like to get back and say the russians somehow swung the election. not true at all. again, going back to the point about soon, it doesn't look like it right now. >> i mean, jason, don't get too excited thinking the extent of what you read on friday as it pertains to mike flynn covers it. the reason that we learned so
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little about what flynn may be guilty of is he's apparently cooperating to such an extent that bob mueller is willing to let him plead guilty to a single 1001 count when his known exposure based on all the press reports reeve read cover everything from violations to potential payments he didn't report, tax evasion, from my vantage point his exposure far exceeded manafort's. and he basically got off with a slap on the wrist in terms of what he was allowed to plead guilty to on friday. the clear sign to draw from that is that he's cooperating and may well be shedding light on activities that happened during the campaign. >> or it could be just to cover his rear end or help out his son. >> the fact that it's a potential superseding indictment today, i think back to a couple weeks ago when we heard of manafort and his deputy's initial indictments being brought against them, people said well, this doesn't have anything to do with the campaign. and now we're learning that there's additional charges that may be coming. you can't judge from any one news development that happens, that that represents the entirety of what mueller has under his sleeve.
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>> worth pointing out we've heard this refrain consistently that this hasn't been tied back to the campaign, even after things obviously involve the campaign. the trump tower with don jr. and the russian lawyer. just last week we saw another example of someone from russia reaching out through rick dearborn trying to reach out to the trump campaign. we saw someone from russia sat next to don jr. there has been shown interactions between russian individuals and the campaign which have consistently, you know, the most significant of which being the trump tower meeting, consistently being brushed away as this doesn't necessarily prove collusion. which it doesn't. which it doesn't. >> it does with a foreign entity. >> when don jr. responds to an e-mail and says if it's what you say, i like it, the first e-mail he got, part of russia's effort to swing the election to you. i'm not a prosecutor, not going to prosecute him for that. but there's a lot of smoke coming out of that gun. >> to follow that up, the collusion thing, right, it has been proven that there has been collusion. the issue is, is this type of
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collusion illegal? we don't know yet. we don't know. we haven't gotten to the bottom of it yet. i think what is so dangerous about the flynn thing for donald trump is that -- and again this hasn't been proven yet. when did donald trump know that flynn lied to the fbi? his tweet was very telling. and this is why i think the white house is so scared and why they had trump's lawyer try to cover it up for him. because i don't know that there is a single person in this country that believes that flynn would have acted alone or that anybody in the transition would have acted alone in having the conversations with russians and that trump didn't know about it. i don't think there's anybody that believes that. whether that can be proven we'll see. >> you said collusion has been proven. that's false. >> everything that philip said is collusion. >> lay off. >> meddling is different. i believe the russians tried to meddle in the election. i've thought that for a long time. that's different than collusion. regarding the tweet this weekend, dowd says he wrote it. we have sources that say he
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wrote it. i will say this, i'm nervous for the president. i want the president to succeed. i'm nervous he's not getting the best legal advice from dowd, if what he put in that tweet publicly is the advice he's getting privately, i'm nervous about that line of advice the president is getting. he needs great advice. because the presidency is on the line here. that tweet makes me think. >> the lawyer says pled guilty. >> he said he dictated it into the phone into the white house social media director. you can see how things get messed up. the president needs the best advice he can get. >> another quick break. then more with the panel. international concern after pickup calls arab leaders to move the u.s. embassy to jerusalem. now in 12. now palestinian factions are calling for, three, quote, days of rage. we'll get into that next. 9 out of 10 u.s. olympians grew up drinking milk.
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breaking news, a short time ago u.s. officials confirmed president trump will announce tomorrow the u.s. will recognize jerusalem as the capital in israel and will begin the process of moving the embassy there. this comes as palestinian factions are calling for three, quote, days of rage, and the u.s. state department is warning of violence due that announcement.
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cnn's michelle kosinski is at the state department, joins us tonight. so what are the outlines of the president's plan tomorrow that we know about? >> we know he's going to sign the waiver again. for the time being the u.s. embassy is going to stay in tel-aviv. this time around the president is going to declare the u.s. now recognizes jerusalem as the capital of israel. he's going to direct the state department now to move that embassy to jerusalem, but it's going to take a lot of time. there's no time frame on it. and it is bound to take at least several years. so how do you account for palestinian claims? well, the white house is saying the president is going to emphasize a commitment to the peace process, commitment to a two-state solution and that this move doesn't, by any means, settle the boundaries of jerusalem. they see this, as they framed it for reporters tonight, as simply stating the truth. they called it a historical and modern truth that jerusalem is the capital of israel. but what they wouldn't answer
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is, how does this advance or help in any way the peace process? they would only say, basically, well, it doesn't hurt it, anderson. >> what are you learning about why he's making this decision now? >> well, like i said, the white house is framing this as this isn't -- doesn't really change anything, just stating the truth. i mean, jerusalem functions as the capital of easy israel. just internationally it's not recognized as such. but of course sources say this is more the president wanting to keep his campaign promise, which he stated very forcefully multiple times during the campaign, and he wants to appeal to his base, that he's very worried right now about losing parts of his base. >> and obviously other countries have weighed in about the decision? >> yeah. we've heard this throughout the day. aside from israel which supports this plan, the reaction from u.s. allies in the region and beyond range from confusion, like why even do this now, to condemnation.
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i think it was remarkable, even from saudi arabia, which was quiet for a while and has been working so closely with the president and son-in-law jared kushner on trying to solve middle east peace and other issues, they came out with condemnation, describing this plan right now using words as obstructing, complicating, and provoking, anderson. >> michelle kosinski, thanks very much. back now with the panel. how does this possibly help the peace process? i mean, if you believe in a two-state solution? there was the senior administration official not named essentially, as long as the embassy has been in tel-aviv, there hasn't been peace. so maybe this isn't a stumbling block anyway, which i guess is the best case that was offered. from a political standpoint, this is very true to donald trump. donald trump came to washington, had a sense that the things he'd been arguing for, the positions he was taking were the right thing to do regardless of what the establishment in washington said.
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this is almost as clear cut a case as you're going to see of the establishment saying, hey, maybe we should not do this thing because it will inflame tensions. donald trump going ahead and doing it anyway. >> also, to be fair to the president, plenty of republicans have run saying oh, this is what i believe, and then let it go once they actually get elected. >> not only democrats. >> not only republicans run on this, this has been in the last four democrat national committee platform documents, '16, '8, '4. barack obama, they've said jerusalem is the capital of israel. jacobs is reporting he's going to sign a six-month waiver, exactly consistent with what presidents have done for the last two decades. so this is -- i think people are trying to spin this up today. but what the president's doing -- trying to be portrayed as sort of counter to what everyone else wants. this is exactly what everyone has always done on both parties. >> i agree with scott on this point. the reason why it's a fairly uncontroversial position that you see both sides take election
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after election is it's actually u.s. law to consider jerusalem the capital of israel. since 1995, it has been the law. what happens is every six months the sitting president of the united states signs a waiver that stops the process is of moving the embassy from tel-aviv to jerusalem. according to cnn's report, the president tomorrow is going to sign that same waiver once again for another six months. i'm sure what happened, they sat in the oval office. they told the president the six months is coming up. you're going to have to sign this waiver again. he probably said, dammit, i hate violating my campaign promises. let's come up with some dog and waiver show and sign the waiver anyway and nobody will know the difference. >> i think the big question in six months from now whether he will then sign the waiver again. i agree it is vintage donald trump to do this, something he promised his base. we've already seen how unpopular he is. he's afraid of losing his base. he needs to prove that he has some accomplishments under his belt after a year they've done nothing legislatively thus far. >> they've done a ton of stuff, >> they've done nothing legislatively thug thus far.
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>> texas, judges, regulatory, come on. >> he has a 35% approval rating. this announcement to brian's point was more political grand standing. he did sign the waiver, the big question is going to be in six months from now is he going to listen to his foreign policy advisers that are going to say this is going to ratchet up tensions, this is going to cause -- and wreak more havoc. this is going to make your son-in-law's job of acquiring peace in the middle east a lot harder. >> no, it's not. >> will he listen. >> you can't go and move the embassy overnight. it takes a while to go and do it, the security protocols. >> there's a consulate in jerusalem. call it an embassy. >> it's not security ready. that's silly. >> you're saying it's not going to happen for several years? >> well, it will take hundreds of millions of dollars. >> what we're seeing is the news coming out is the president is going to give the speech tomorrow, i think israel is really seeing who of these u.s. politicians are going to be their allies. and for all the lip service they've been given over and over, scott referenced one of the votes. i think it was 90-0 last year.
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the same people who are running for the hills and saying our recall from tpp and from the paris accord and all these things are going to go and make the sky start falling, that's totally nonsense. trump is making good on his promise. good for him. >> the government did issue a warning to people living in jerusalem. >> more after a quick break. more ahead. you shine through? maybe it's time for otezla (apremilast). otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months,... ...with reduced redness,... ...thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and the otezla prescribing information has... ...no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. tell your doctor if these occur. otezla is associated with an increased... ...risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have... ...a history of depression... ...or suicidal thoughts,... ...or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla... ...reported weight loss.
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86 countries have embassies in tel aviv. zero have embassies in jerusalem. back now with the panel. if this doesn't mean much other than appealing to a base is it worth the violence it might stoke up in the region? >> that's the argument that -- i mean a lot of the foreign policy experts are saying is that it looks like it's not going to help the peace process and there was a warning, you mentioned this earlier, phillip, they're telling americans, giving warning of americans in israel this is happening. we already saw that there's going to be the days of rage. this, i think, from the analysis of a lot of national security experts will put the peace process in jeopardy. and i just don't know to what end other than fulfilling a campaign promise, other than fulfilling something that he believes will shore up his base, which i guess he thinks he desperately needs. >> it impairs the united states' ability to act is the intermediary. and be the third party that
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brings the two parties to the table. that is the project donald trump's own son-in-law is supposed to be in charge of. i hope -- what i hope is the case is that this is just another one of those instances where trump gets out ahead of his skis, tweets something irrationally or announces something, and then the sort of career civil servants that operate within the government actually prevail. so you saw this -- you saw this, anderson, remember, the president tweeted sort of rationally that he was going to ban all transgender individuals from serving open in the military. the general said that's not a great deal. and then a court came in and said you can't actually do that. so that threat has sort of gone away. the threat is still real for those in the military, but the policy change. and on daca the president did the same thing. i'm going to start ending the policy, deporting all the kids. but i'm going to give it a six-month on-ramp and hopefully at the end of the year or shortly in the new year we'll see a deal that protects the daca children. i hope that's what happens here where the president says something that seems to keep a campaign promise but then the state department career civil servants carry out long-standing
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u.s. policy. >> this is the consequence of having a state department that's basically being gutted, right? you have this head of state, our president, who engages in what i call donkey kong diplomacy. we've seen it with north korea. it's kind of like bong, bong. then there's fallout. you need -- you do need people to pick up the pieces from that because he is not one for subtleties. i don't think fully appreciates that it's not just -- i'm going to do this and then, you know, for everybody will forget and think i did my campaign promise. it has actual repercussions on the ground. >> and what we're doing, we're actually recognizing the capital that israel recognizes their capital. i don't know why this is such a revolutionary thing. >> it's a geopolitical issue. it has ripple effects. >> they say that their capital is jerusalem. that's where all of their elected officials are. that's where their center of government is. so we're actually recognizing what they want as their capital.
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the other thing too, we don't know on the peace process how long that's going to take. i think kind of waiting around for, you know, until israel and the palestinians come to some magical agreement, that's probably not coming up in the next couple years. as much as i'd like that to happen. >> you think this was a decision taken with very careful consultation with foreign policy experts, middle east experts, deliberated -- >> we're not going to get some, you know, come buyia every single country in the world is going to agree to this. jerusalem is israel's capitol. i like it. >> there's a lot of talk of campaign promises. he's keeping the promise of every presidential candidate for the last 20 years. i'm with jason on this. >> thank, everyone. up next, today marks one month since the texas shooting. i recently spoke to the pastor and his wife. their 14-year-old daughter was among those killed in the attack. they talk about their new normal when we continue.
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four weeks later, life is not the same for the families. it is never is after a tragedy of this magnitude. for the pastor and his wife sheri amid their grief, their faith remains incredibly strong. i spoke with them in their first in-depth tv interview. they both were out of town the day of the attack. here's more of our conversation. do you -- this may be a dumb question, but do you wish you were there? >> yes. >> you do? >> i do. >> can you say why? >> so she wouldn't have been alone. and i have my moments. i know i need to be here for the rest of my kids, but when i'm at my worst i wish i was there so i wouldn't have to be sad. >> you wouldn't have been to be going through this now? >> there are times that i wonder
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if i had been there because normally i do conseal carry -- and that's another thing. all the men that conseal carry, that we had active shooter plans, for whatever reason none of us was there, which is so rare. even if i had passed, i feel as though some -- even if i was down, could i hit him in the legs or anything so he wouldn't keep going. maybe i could have stopped the devastation that happened. people would have died, people would have got hurt, but maybe i could have made it half of what it was. it goes through my mind. i can't change the past. i've just got to move forward from now. >> it's hard not to think about -- i mentioned my brother. my brother killed himself in
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front of my mom. my mom was -- my mom to this day out of the blue will turn to me and say if i'd been able to -- if i'd been able to hit him over the head and stop him or something, maybe it would have made a difference. it's interesting, because it's 30 years later and that thought is still stuck in her mind. >> i don't think we ever step away from the what ifs because we want to change. we want to do something different. i'm sure you're familiar with the 23rd psalms. yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death. you go through it. you stop and harken those kind of thoughts, the ifs and what ifs, i think we're staying in the valley of the shadow of death. i think we have to keep on moving. >> do you still think through? >> i still have my moments. i still sit and think. in fact i was laying in bed and
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thinking i'm so thoughtful i let her out at school, for whatever reason, i got up early and made her a good breakfast. we had a great breakfast together. she liked watching hunting shows, so we sat in there watching hunting shows eating breakfast in the living room where she wasn't supposed to. that went through my mind last night. the last time i was with her, there was no why didn't you clean your room or why'd you get this grade. there was no -- the last moments she and i had together was great. before school, friday morning. my last words was you'd see me monday. we'll go out to eat dinner monday night. i still remember it very clearly. now, that was great, but laying in bed last night it hurt. i won't ever take her to dinner.
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so i have my -- i have my moments. >> sunday service is now held in a tent next to the church. the church stands as a temporary memorial to the victims. i'm glad that we're talking now because i think in the immediate aftermath of something like this we were talking about reporters descend, people around the country pay attention. and then the cameras leave and people move onto other stories and people go on with their lives. but for you and for everybody whose lives have actually been forever changed, i mean it's going back to when you -- i mean you have to figure what the new normal is. >> yeah, i think everything's still too early to see what the new normal is. i'm ready to see what it's going to be. i'm excited to see what god's going to do. the neat thing about sutherland springs, there's not much there. but it's on a hill in wilson county. and i think the new normal is
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god's going to build us a church there, and the people there, and we'll become the beacon on a hill to the people in the community. >> incredly strong family. time to hand it over to don lemon. "cnn tonight" starts now. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. a dark cloud of the russia investigation looming over the white house. the president's overall approval rating at just 35%. so it is no coincidence that he is doubling down and playing to his base tonight. because that's all he's got. that includes standing by republican senate candidate roy moore, a man who has been accused of child molestation. a man the president explicitly endorsed on monday despite multiple accusations against him. in today's white house press briefing, sarah huckabee sanders asked over and over how the president justifies his support of moore. >> you have the choice between two individuals and
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