good evening. what is worse than a cover-up? a press secretary attempted gaslighting. if you haven't seen the movie and heard about this psychological manipulation, gaslighting is when someone makes you question your own sanity. at issue today, the former staff secretary, rob porter, who resigned after news broke that two ex-wives accused him of physical and verbal abuse. the white house hasn't put together a consistent explanation of who knew about

the allegationss and when they knew. they knew this might come up in the fbi background check and learn more details over the past year. last week, the world saw this picture, one of porter's former wives with a back eye. after this picture came out, porlte porter denied allegations. above all else, the white house would like you to think that the president supports victims. the white house spoke glowingly about rob porter just days ago. here's what sarah sanders said today. >> the president, along with the entire administration take domestic violence seriously and believe all allegations need to be thoroughly investigated. and the president supports the victims of domestic violence. believes that everyone should be treated fairly and with due process. >> she said the president takes

dmomestic violence seriously. this is what the president has said about the case and the aleblged victims. this was on friday. >> it's a tough time for him. he did a good job when he was in the white house. we hope he has a wonderful career. hopefully he'll have a wonderful career ahead of him. it was very sad when we heard about it. and certainly, he's also very sad. now, he also, as you probably know, he's innocent. and you have to remember that. very strongly, he said yesterday that he's innocent. you'll have to talk to him about that. we absolutely wish him well. >> the president takes domestic violence seriously. this is what he tweeted. people's lives are being shattered by a mere allegation. some are true and some are false.

there's no recovery for someone falsely accused, life and career are gone. the white house says the president takes domestic violence seriously. we're supposed to believe that because sarah sanders said so today. she said it once and again and again and again. she repeated the phrase four times in the briefing, nearly word-for-word. >> the president and the entire administration take domestic violence seriously. and believe all allegations need to be investigated thoroughly. the president supports the victims of domestic violence. >> if that's true, why didn't the president say that? why didn't he tweet that? why has he time and time again, this time included, supported the accused and not the accuser. sanders was asked why we haven't heard him say what she said. >> i spoke with the president. those are directly his words that he gave me earlier today.

>> why hasn't he said that. >> it's my job to pespeak on behalf of the president. he relayed that message to me and i'm relaying that to you. i am not sure how i can be more clear. the president has expoused his views on this. >> he wishes porter well. and he believes that people should have due process. but he hasn't addressed the victims of domestic violence. >> if you were paying attention to what i just read to you. >> we were paying attention. you just heard it. the president has expressed support for rob porter. nothing about the women, the same way he expressed support for bill o'reilly, and roy moore and mike ttyson. praising the alleged predators, nothing but the women but scorn for his accusers. we all hear what he says and doesn't say. no at of repetition from the podium suggesting that we didn't hear what we thought we heard can change that. at the same time, it's insisting

the president supports victims above all else. the white house is bobbing and weaving on the timeline. sarah sanders says the white house learned of, quote, the extent of the situation, last tuesday. that's their phrasing. last tuesday evening. been 24 hours, porter's resignation had been accepted and announced. she was pressed by reports that some in the white house knew about this for much longer, including the white house counsel. >> we reported that two others will have don mcgahn, over a period of months, was told by the ex-girlfriend, by the fbi, by others about the accusations and didn't do anything. can you explain why no action was taken by don mcgahn, the chief white house lawyer? >> the allegations that have been reported are not accurate. >> she batted that away in a general statement, said the reports are not accurate. but moments later, listen to what she said when she was asked to clarify. >> are you saying that the white house counsel never learned

until last tuesday that there was any allegation of any sort that was ever leveled against rob porter? >> again, i'm not going to go into the specific details of how the process works. i can say we learned of the extent of the situation -- >> who is we? i want to get to the white house specifically. >> the white house, generally. i can't get into the specifics. i can tell you we were in the process for the background was ongoing. the white house had not received any specific papers regarding the completion of that background check. >> she switches when asked about the white house counsel to say generally about people in the white house. and she claims that the background check was ongoing. she didn't receive papers about the end of it. the only part of the story that the white house was crystal clear on today was that the president takes domestic violence seriously and above all

else, supports victims. based on what he says and tweeted, to barrow sarah sanders much-used phrase, that's not exactly true. jim acosta joins us now. we don't have a timeline from the white house as to who knew what and when. >> no, anderson. the white house is extending the timeline of the scandal because they're not giving straight answers at the briefings. you heard sarah sanders say while they weren't aware of the extent of what rob porter was accused of until last tuesday night, of course, we know for a fact, never mind that the deputy spokesman said they're fully aware in that general area, as well. anderson, we've known for months. we know they knew for months that this was lurking in rob porter's ground. he was having background check problems in the security clearance process. we know that. until the white house acknowledges that, they're going to have trouble answering this question. the other thing that's lengthening this process for the

white house, is just the way the president has been going back and forth on all this. i talked to a couple of republican sources. one that used to work for the campaign, who simply said -- and this gives you a sense of how people are feeling about this in the republican party. a former campaign official said the white house is not standing by the victims. a source saying why is the white house hedging on domestic abuse? this is doing lasting damage, obviously, across the country as the country is watching this. >> you pressed sanders about the president's tweet over the weekend. what did she have to say about it? >> you see this unfolds during the briefing. she read the statement from the president, she said was dictated to her by the president. they didn't want to take questions. and every question was about this. and uh wanted to get to the bottom of why is this you laid it out earlier, why was the president praising rob porter last friday and standing up for

him in that tweet over the weekend, when he was asking about allegations and how they can damage people throughout their careers. so, i pressed sarah sanders on that. here's what she had to say. >> is there a tone deafness there? being on the wrong side of things? >> i don't think the president, being on -- supporting due process for any allegation is not tone deaf. i think it is allowing things to be investigated. and a mere allegation, not be the determining factor. he's not taking aside necessarily one way or the other on any specific issue here. he's talking about mere allegations shouldn't be the determining factor for any individual that there should be due process. i think anybody here, if they were accused of something -- hold on, jim. hold on. hold ton. i'm saying, anybody here if they were accused of something, would want the opportunity to go

through due process. >> and the other area in all of this they weren't giving us a straight story on, was the white house security clearances. the white house has dozens of staffers that are working on interim security clearances, like the president's son-in-law, jared kushner. when they were pressed on that today, she said, that's up to the fbi. we've been pointing this out. the background check process is undertaken by the fbi. they bring that information to the white house. it's incumbent upon the white house to act on it. sanders left it out of the briefing, as well. one day after another, not giving the straight story. they're prolonging the timeline of the scandal, not us. >> jim acosta, appreciate the reporting. >> we don't have a clear timeline on what the white house knew when. we are getting breaking news on the timeline, specifically as it relates to don mcgahn.

matthew rosenberg joins us on the phone. what can you tell us that don mcgahn was being told by the fbi and what he was telling them in response? >> we're told that it was in november. that the fbi came to mcgann and said, there's going to be a problem here. that porter likely won't make the cut for permanent clearance. and that mcgahn requested the fbi go out and finish the investigation, see what happens. it's important to understand that the way this works the fbi and the intelligence agencies, they do their investigation and come up with any negatives. all up to the white house to adjudicate to give this guy clearance or not. and whether mcgahn can delay this final decision here or whether he wanted more information. that's not entirely clear. >> it could have been he wanted more information or it could have been a stalling tactic on the part of mcgahn. >> exactly. covering behind all this is kushner and his clearance. you know, if you start doing

everybody else's clearances, all the ones that don't have problems, you have to deal with the problematic ones. there's questions about cas kus. are there other issues there? >> do you know, can they just allow people to work on temporary security clearances they give out? >> yes, they can. this is all the president's decision. you don't have to have a final clearance ever. if the president says i want this guy to see classified information, he can. he can declassify information and he doesn't have to. he can give russian officials classified information and that's not a crime. >> mcgahn knew about this information with rob porter in at least in november. is that correct? >> that's what we've been told, yes. >> can you say how many sources you have on that?

>> there's at least one. >> matthew rosenberg, appreciate that. thank you very much. with me is kirsten powers and jason miller. it's been six days since rob porter resigned. is this smart the way the white house is handling? it the story is changing. they don't want to go into details when it's all about the details. >> you're right that the messaging from the white house isn't good on this. there's an important point that we're missing, that we've not heard brought up over the last few days, that domestic violence is a crime. if the allegations against mr. porter are accurate, and i have no reason to believe they're not accurate. they were very credible, especially ms. willoughby next week. that means that rob porter was working as chief of staff to a

senator, being someone who committed these crimes. he entered the transition as someone who committed these crimes. and someone brought him into the white house, as someone who committed the crimes. what i would want to know, is who brought rob porter into the white house, at this very beginning? who brought them into the transition. and senator hatch should be figuring out who the heck brought him in? this is problematic. i don't think it's good that rob porter resigned. when you have such overwhelming evidence like this, someone like that should have been fired. >> kirsten, one of the things i don't understand is that the president has no qualms about speaking directly to the american people via twitter, why does he need to be issuing that statement through sarah sanders? >> that's a great question. he had an opportunity. he talks on twitter all the time, as you just said.

he had an opportunity to say this on camera. he had nice things to say about rob porter and nothing about the women he victimized. it's hard to believe this is a white house that takes domestic violence seriously. we heard it from sarah sanders today. general kelly went out a memo saying this. if you look at all of the markets, i'm not going to argue when they knew about it, the point is when they were confronted with it, when the story broke, they didn't fire him. they defended him. they said he was a man of integrity. this is what general kelly said and sarah sanders said. anyone who has worked with him is lucky. i'm paraphrasing. are lucky to have known him. this is after the news broke. so, these are not people that

are taking nee ining domestic v accusations seriously. >> jason, the other thing about the president's comments, which were on friday. it wasn't like the president was talking down the hall and someone with a camera jumped out. they ushered the press corps into the oval office for the president to make a statement about this. and that statement, i don't know if somebody had advised him, maybe you should say domestic violence is a serious thing that i care about. but he said nothing about that. >> well, and that, in a lot of ways, cuts against the president trump that i saw on the campaign trail. at one point, there was a celebrity in hollywood that came up about domestic violence in the news that day. and the president reacted strongly to it. he called him a sick s.o.b. or a sick puppy. he was really ticked off. he said, what kind of lowlife

would do this? i wish we had seen the same emotion from the president on friday. he hears this and he was horrified. going back to the point i was making earlier, anderson, i think this process really let the president down. going back to the fact that who brought rob porter into the white house? who brought him into the transition? who made him a chief of staff in the u.s. senate? this is a process by the time the fact he was in the white house for this long, i think is problematic. we can't put the president of the united states in this position. that's not fair to him. that's not fair to the white house. that's not fair to the country. >> kirsten, jason is intimating this burns like a fire within the president. and he spoke out harshly about this. the only tweet i recall from a citizen is about chris brown and rihanna. he said, something like, once an abuser, always an abuser, it would berihanna goes back to chris brown. he had an opportunity to talk

about bill o'reilly, roger ailes,tyson. it seems like there's a pattern here. >> the problem is, i'm sure it's true that if somebody hit their wife and he knew for a fact that it happened, that would be offensive to the president. i would be surprised if that's not true. the problem we're having here is he doesn't believe the women. he doesn't seem to think this happened, despite all of the evidence that it did happen. that's what we saw with the roger ailes situation. that's what we saw with the bill o'reilly situation. i interviewed him and asked him about the fact that he was defending roger ailes. and he said, i just don't believe he did that. he's not that kind of person. he never did those things in front of me. why did the women complain, they said nice things about them before. all of the things that people say when they don't understand domestic violence. they don't understand that a woman can say something nice

about somebody and have been abused by them. in this situation, and we saw through the white house, his accusations were made. it seems that the assumption was that the women weren't telling the truth. coming up, the president's newfound appreciation for due process didn't happen in the central park jogger case. those young men were exonerated after years in prison. i'll speak with two of them, next. plus, unlimited family plans come with netflix included. spectacular! so, you can watch all your netflix favorites on your new samsung phones. whoa! join the un-carrier and get a samsung galaxy s8 free. all on america's best unlimited network.

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so he took aleve this morning. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. tylenol can't do that. aleve. all day strong. all day long. and for pain relief and a good night's rest, try aleve pm for a better am. as we reported today, the white house, sarah sanders said the president takes domestic violence seriously, despite he hasn't said that himself and has only tweeted and spoken support for the accused. now, the other part of sander's statement is more aligned in what the president tweeted this weekend. lamenting that there's no due process for the accused. >> above all, the president supports victims of domestic violence and believes that

everybody should be treated fairly and with due process. he certainly supports the victims of domestic violence and believes that everybody should be treated fairly and due process. supporting due process for any allegation is not tone deaf. there should be due process. but the president also supports due process. if anybody here accused of something would want the opportunity to go through due process. >> that is certainly true. but the president talking about due process it is a notable exception of the president's newfound love of due process. or that hillary clinton should be jailed or police officers not being careful not banging their heads in police cars. or running a full page ad. demanding the death penalty for the young men accused of attacking a jogger in central park. they were exonerated years later

after spending time in prison. the president has never admitted that he was wrong and has never apologized. the irony was not lost on one of exonerated, raymond santana is his name. he tweeted the president and said, you should have spoke like that back in 1989 when you called for the death penalty. we were 14 and 15 years old. raymond, were you surprised the president calling for due process now, when he rushed to condemn you and the others in 1989 to death? >> when i first saw the tweet, i wasn't surprised because of all of the stuff he has done already leading up to this. it was all right, here we go, another day that he does something that is dumb and is ignorant. but it goes back to '89 and goes back to us saying we told you

so. as far as, you know, the public, the general public. so it wasn't really surprising. it was one of those, here he goes again. and we told you, once again, this is who you are dealing with. this is the president. >> you said when it comes to president trump, there are two americas. what do you mean by that? >> this is the great thing about what is happening now in the shape and the way the country is moving. clearly there is two separate americas. one america for blacks and people of color and one america for whites and people of influence. what he is doing for the good old boy's club. let's not rush to judge. the guy says he is innocent of these particular charges. he strongly said it. we strongly said it back in 1989. we strongly said we did not do this crime. and the rush to judgment. the whole city, the jury pool

was muddied and so looked at what was going on. they said these guys had to be guilty of something, look at them. >> kevin richardson this man is obsessed with rape and black and latino men. do you agree with that? do you think that's the issue here? >> to point to the point of the good old boys' club. this man has positioned himself where he is the top and everybody else is inferior to him. at the end of the day, race does play a part in this, right? here we were, black and latino boys, who were 14 and 15 years old. and he didn't mind giving us the death penalty. now, here, you also have women, who he is speaking out against, with the sexual assault stuff. at the end of the day, this is his character. it all plays a part of that. there has to be some on the top and someone on the bottom. he chooses to stay on top and we

are all on the bottom. >> trump, when he was a citizen, he has never apologized or said, yeah, it was a mistake to call for the death penalty for you because you were all exonerated, through a confession and dna evidence. it wasn't as if it was through some sort of legal trickery and court or anything. even as recently as 2016, trump was still saying all five of you were guilty of the crime. do you want an apology? >> we have given up hope that donald trump is going to be anything other than who donald trump is. it amazes me that he stays on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of everything, really. kind of like it's this weirdness going on in the white house. we all hope we're going to wake up from this nightmare. every day, we wake up and realize it's not a nightmare. we're living this thing out. early on, i said, man, it would be great if donald trump took out full-page ads saying he was

apologetic. we needed housing. give us an apartment to live in. you had all these pieces of real estate. that would have been wonderful and excellent. but at the same time, i realized that i can't count on an apology from someone who doesn't know what it is to apologize. >> if apology is not possibility, would you want them to acknowledge? >> we are talking about a man who would call for the death penalty. if he had it this way, we wouldn't be here right now. our kids wouldn't be born. we're just whispers. he had a time when he could have said, i was wrong and i apologized or i just messed it up. he has stood fast on his course saying we're still guilty. at the end of the day, we're beyond apology. it will be a continue and ongoing battle between the central park five and donald trump.

>> i want people to understand, going to the really investiga investigatory process of finding out what happens when you have a central park five? what happens to the families that central park five come from? the hopes and the dreams and the aspirations we have, we're trying to realize some of that. >> the ripple effects on you. not just you five. >> when he said the tweet the other day about people's lives being ruined just from an accusation, i took personal offense to that. if donald trump said, you know, oversight, it slipped my mind, i apologize. it has to be something so far more than that. that wouldn't be enough at this

particular point. >> i appreciate you being on. thank you. up next, more on the questions over security clearances at the white house. rob porter worked under interim security clearance. the same applies for 40 others. who the white house blames for the delay in background checks, when we continue. or maybe it's watching satisfyingly-satisfying things. organic avocado on everything thing. doing it yourself or tagging a friend thing. more checking-in or checking out things. like faaaaaaaaaar out of this world things. far out. more revolutions in the making thing. that play like a girl thing. is it a '4 your eyez only,' thing. more of a 'no role modelz' thing. that triple-double thing. "is he the g.o.a.t.? thing." no, not that goat thing. no no no no no no no more saving the world from the darkness thing. that selfie game strong thing.

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as many as 40 white house

and administration officials still do not have full security clearances, including the president's son-in-law, jared kushner. neither did rob porter who resigned last week as white house secretary. today, sarah sanders said, don't blame us. >> this is a process that doesn't operate within the white house. it's handled by our law enforcement and intelligence community. and we support that process. it's the same process that's been used for decades in other previous administrations. we're relying on that process at this point. i do think that it's up to those same law enforcement and intelligence agencies to determine if changes need to be made to their process. >> keeping them honest, that's not true. evan perez joins me now with the facts. where did sarah sanders mislead us today? where does the process work? >> the way it works, the fbi does the background investigation on people who is applying for security

clearances. that's what happened here with the rob porter investigation. the fbi found this information very quickly, as they were doing that investigation. they reported back to the white house, as they were doing it. the white house chose to, basically, tell the fbi, keep digging, keep investigating. and they came back again and presented their findings pack so the white house. that's how it works. the white house decides who gets the security clearance, based on the investigation that the fbi does. it's up to the president who decide who he wants on his team at the white house, anderson. the president is, frankly, the ultimate classification authority. if he wants to have rob porter get a security clearance, he can do that. what's astounding today was simply that they were basically saying, this is not us. they were taking no ownership of what really is a function of the white house. the white house counsel's

office, the white house security office. this is the people who, based on what the fbi found, whether or not rob porter or anyone else gets a security clearance. it's just not true the way she said it. the fbi addressed this last week, by the way. they issued a satatement on thursday. the fbi does not grant, deny or adjudicate peerclearance. nor does it make clearance recommendations. after the fbi has conducted a background investigation, they give the information to the agency, ajudjudicajudicator or , who determines what to do with the information. jackie spears, a member of the white house intelligence committee, i spoke to her earlier. congresswoman spears, for sarah sanders to say this investigation is ongoing, that defies how the fbi

investigations work. the fbi passed along what they discovered about rob porter and it's left in the white house's hands. when you heard her claim that it's an ongoing process, does that make any sense to you? >> no. it makes no sense to me. when the fbi does a security clearance evaluation, it is completed and handed over to the agency. and the individual gets the security clearance or doesn't get the security clearance. they are tripping all over themselves because they had knowledge and chose not to act on it. and then, because it came out in a newspaper, they had to scurry around and come up with an ally. >> what do you think about this white house? they kept this man and that they they seem to be covering it up? >> it would suggest to me and i

would guess to most american, this is a white house that doesn't believe the rules apply to them. they have another 30 or 40 persons in the white house, who have not received security clearances and are operating on a temporary security clearance. they have access to some of the most highly classified information, are targets for any number of blackmail and other circumstances. >> jared kushner being one of those people. >> and i would say that that has a lot to do with it. that's why they're not acting on the 30 or 40 other ones because jared kushner can't pass a security clearance. and he's been operating on a temporary security clearance. i think what they're going to do is just have everyone continue to have access and have temporary security clearances. and at some point, congress is going to have to step in and say that you are violating the law. >> i want to ask you about the tweet that the president sent over the weekend, saying

people's lives are being shattered and destroyed by allegations. there is no recovery for someone falsely accused. is there no such thing any longer as due process. i wonder what is your reaction to that? is there a difference between due process and believing someone who says they've been abused? >> you know, i was furious by that tweet, anderson. virtually anyone, man or woman, who sees the testimony and the photographs of the former wives and the former live-in girlfriend of mr. porter, from is a pattern of behavior that is frightening. and yet, the president doesn't say one word, not one word, about the lives that have been scarred by the actions of mr. porter and is totally focused on the abuser. one of his ex-wives got a

restraining order against him. so, there is plenty of evidence. >> regarding the democratic response memo, what is the status of it now? can you say? >> so, the status of the memo is, that the fbi and the department of justice now, are going to meet with the minority members of the committee, particularly adam schiff is the ranking member. and determine what, if any, has to be redacted. ironically, the president issued the memo, redacted nothing. and yet, there were sources and methods that were actually made public. >> so, you're saying, in the republican memo, there were sources and methods. the white house was paying attention. they say they were paying attention to the fbi, when it comes to the democratic memo. you're saying they didn't pay attention to the fbi on the

republican one? >> on the republican one, yeah. the fbi and the department of justice both said they had grave concerns that this was reckless action to make this memo public and release what is, in fact, classified information. the president, before even reading it, said he was going to release it. this has been a political process from the very beginning. the president then tweets, i'm vindicated because he thought this was going to be his silver bullet. somehow the investigation would come crumbling down because of this, you know, memo that everyone said after everything was said and done, like, there's no there there. >> congresswoman speier, appreciate your time. what some women think about the president's statements defending porter. and the republicans reveal their immigration plan. will the president get his wall?

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as the senate gears up for more debate on immigration, whether so-called dreamers will be able to stay in the united states, president trump said it was up to the democrats to ensure the passage of any agreement. >> i hope the democrats are not going to use it just as a campaign. they've been talking about daca for many years and they haven't produced. we started talking about daca and i think we'll produce. if the democrats want to make a deal, it's up to them. i can tell you, speaking for the republican party, we would love to do daca. we would love to get it done. we want border security and the other elements you know about. the visa lottery, you know about. but we think there's a good chance of getting daca done, if the democrats are serious and they actually want to do it. >> joining me tonight for his take on it, univision anchor

jorge ramos. how much does a daca deal fall on the shoulders of the democrats right now? >> well, it's not going to be easy for democrats to accept everything that president trump and the republicans want. they're not proposing immigration reform. they're proposing immigration revenge. they not only want to help the daca students, but also they want a wall, they want more border security, they want to end the so-called chain migration, which is really family reunification, and then, the visa lottery. i don't see a deal possible. for the dreamers, what they're asking them is the impossible because republicans are saying, you know, we want to legalize you. however, we want to deport your father, your mother, your siblings. that's an impossible choice for them. >> it is -- don't you think it is up to the democrats to make some concessions here because they're not in control of either chamber of congress.

republicans do hold the cards. >> the fact is, republicans with these negotiations, they want to change the essence, i think, of the united states. i mean, do they really want to make america white again? is that the deal? what i have seen from the democratic side and from talking with the dreamers, is that they're willing to negotiate daca, for a few miles of wall. maybe 300, 350 miles of wall. that's as much as they can go. but to tell them that from now on, everything is going to change, that change migration has to be stopped, that family unification is not going to be the immigration principle that's going to guide us into the tolerant, diverse, multiracial and multicultural country. daca for a few miles of wall. but nothing else. >> to those in the republican party who are talking about chain migration and see it as an issue and to talk about merit-based immigration, what is, in your opinion, wrong with

merit-based immigration, in terms of somebody's professional capabilities? somebody's educational background? >> i think family reunification has merits, too. it's worked beautifully since 1965. 40% of all the founders of fortune 500 countries are immigrants or sons of immigrants. in other words, this is a system that works. when they talk about chain migration, they're really saying, you know, we want to have a white country again. we want to go back to 1965, when almost 80%, 90% of the people were not hispanic, whites. that's not the idea of this country. we agreed after 1965, we wanted a diverse, multicultural country. the way they want to do it is, i think, they want to reverse this incredib incredible demographic trend, that would make america a

minority-majority country. >> if the president gets some of the wall built, that would be a big win for him politically. >> probably. but it is a useless wall. mexico is not going to pay for that. >> cdo you think that would matter to the president's base, whether or not mexico pays for it? >> i don't know. he keeps on insisting on that. however, i agree. that's not really important. if he wants a call, if he wants -- look, the border between mexico and the united states is almost 2,000 miles. there's physical walls on 200 walls. if president trump wants another 300, 350, with that, we can get a dream act, most people would accept that. but to go beyond that is going to be impossible, again. what we're asking the dreamers is to legalize them and to deport their parents. and democrats, believe me, they don't want to have 100 kids, the following morning, in their

offi offices, telling them, they betrayed them. as much as they want a deal, it would be a wall for daca, but nothing else. >> to immigrants being protektded by daca, how much faith should they have that something will be resolved, that they will have protections by the march 5th deadline? >> probably nothing will plan be is daca. or really immigration reform. after 2020. unfortunately that might be plan b. but i don't think the dreamers will take anything that will effect their parents. look, when somebody is trying to hurt your parent ands brothers and sisters you'll always remember. so i don't see any way in which the dreamers can accept anything that will hurt their family. they won't take it. >> thanks very much. up next. president trump is sympathy for

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back to our top story. sarah sanders insisting president trump takes domestic violence very seriously. he hasn't said those words himself. he tweeted suspicion over the me too movement. defended rob porter, the former aide accused of assaulting his two ex-wives. porter has denied the allegations against him. the question tonight, will the women who supported the president at the polls now walk away? here's what our randi kaye found out. >> if the president walked on water, the press would say he doesn't know how to swim. he's become a little bit, i guess, overcriticized. >> reporter: these republican women from miami all support president trump. and to say strongly would be an understatement. but what about this weekend's tweet about how people's lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation? it was just right. >> he said, some are guilty, and some are not. and not every accuser is telling the truth. i think that's important to know. >> reporter: in his tweet, the

president didn't mention rob porter by name, but he also failed to mention porter's two ex-wives, who claim they were physically abused by the now former white house aide. >> some might look at this tweet and say the president is dismissing rob porter's ex-wives. >> i think he's speaking generally. i think he's speaking from his own position as someone that has been accused, wrongfully accused. so i give him the benefit of the doubt. >> do you think the president's compassion may have been misguided. >> i don't think it means he doesn't have compassion for women. i think if you leave something out of a sentence, or you leave someone out, it doesn't mean you're not thinking about them. >> i think that we're victimizing the president, if you will, by the sense that every single word, every single tweet that he puts out is being scrutinized to the last molecule. i think what he voiced is valid. should we take the victims into consideration? absolutely. but should lives be condemned without due process? absolutely not. >> so despite this tweet, you all do believe that he is a great supporter of women --

>> sure. >> and stands up for women's issues? >> absolutely. >> as women, do you expect your president to be a voice for women? >> he's not my moral leader. he's not my marital counsel. he is our president, and he's doing a great job as president. >> when you look at this picture, though, what do you all feel? >> it's a terrible situation. >> it's horrible. >> should he have said from the start, in a tweet or elsewhere, that there is no place for domestic violence in our culture, in our society? >> i think what he said was what he was feeling at the moment, and that was what came -- you know, and that was enough. >> reporter: if these women could get an audience with the president about publicly addressing matters of sexual abuse or assault, most say they'd tell him not to change a thing, though one had this piece of advice. >> maybe he should tweet, domestic violence is never tolerated. me too. maybe he should do that. >> are you joking, or are you serious? >> well, no. in part i'm joking. in part, i'm serious. we're never going to make 100% happy.

unfortunately that's just the truth of the matter. >> reporter: anderson, only one of the women we spoke with today actually thought the president perhaps should have shown a little more consideration towards rob porter's two ex-wives, but they all agree that the reason that the president talked only and tweeted only about rob porter is because he knows rob porter. porter worked for him. they said he doesn't know these two ex-wives, so why would he be tweeting about them? the women also said that it's not the president's place to play judge and jury in an investigation and in a situation like this. and, anderson, i also asked these women about the fact that the president has supported other men who have been accused of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, sexual assault such as roger ailes, bill o'reilly of fox news, and also roy moore of the alabama senate race. and they said to me the only reason they believe the president supported roy moore was for the good of the party, so he could hold on to that republican senate seat despite these disgusting allegations against him. they said that was only for the good of the party, anderson.

>> randi kaye, thanks very much. up next, the conflicting white house stances on accused domestic abuser rob porter and the questions about a possible cover-up. patrick woke up with back pain. but he has work to do. so he took aleve. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now.

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cohigher!ad! higher! parents aren't perfect, but then they make us kraft mac & cheese and everything's good again. welcome to the second hour of 360. on the table tonight, the white house cover-up over accused domestic abuser rob porter deepens much the white house says the president supports victims despite the fact he hasn't mentioned them, only support for porter. security clearance questions at the white house for porter and dozens of other staffers who don't have it, including jared kushner, what the white house is saying and who it's blaming. and budget deficits and hypocrisy, a question pose to the white house secretary. if the national debt is a crisis, why hit the gas pedal instead of the brake?