>> the weather service calling this a life and death situation. we'll stay on top of this. brynn gingras, thanks for that report, be careful over there. that's it for me. thanks for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in the "situation room." erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. >> breaking news. john kelly revives the porter scandal and says he won't resign over it. white house staffers say he's not telling the truth. trump says a trade war is a good thing. his own cabinet and party say he's totally wrong. one of trump's sole defenders is outfront. the president takes on alec baldwin or is it alex? let's go outfront. good evening, i'm erin burnett. tonight, john kelly. just can't get it right. the president's chief of staff, tonight, with an explanation that stunned even his white

house colleagues. some say, point-blank, kelly is not telling the truth. kelly saying he learned about a serious accusation of domestic abuse against porter february 6th. that is the day the daily mail asked him for a response. the allegations, of course, were about verbal and physical abuse against porter by both of his ex-wives and a girlfriend who lived with him. get this, the chief of staff says he never thought of putting over the handling of the debach l saying i have nothing to consider resigning over. okay. it's no surprise that that's the statement or white house staffers say kelly isn't telling the truth because cnn reported they were aware of the allegations early last fall. none of this february 6th or 7th business, whatever it is. the day after it broke, the defense wasn't that he didn't know, it was that he wasn't

fully aware of the allegations until the story broke. what did fully aware mean? apparently, he knew of the domestic abuse allegations, but until he saw a picture, he didn't know what that meant. >> i want you to understand, you have used the term, fully aware. i don't understand what that means. what does that mean john kelly knew or didn't know. >> i know, for instance, he had not seen images prior to his statement on tuesday night. >> a sunny thing to see then and now. the latest episode in the white house reality show, one that seems to get more bizarre every day. keep in mind, it wasn't 24 hours ago, kelly was in the center of another twisted story, involving ivanka trump and jared kushner. trump is asking kelly to push his own son-in-law and daughter out of the white house. they say, quote, mr. trump

saying they never should have come to the white house and should leave. aides noted mr. trump told them they should keep serving in their roles, even as he asked general kelly for help moving them out. think on that for a second. this comes as the fbi is scrutinizing ivanka trump's business deals. that's holding up her security clearance. kushner has seen his security clearance downgraded. this is when hope hicks, the most trusted aide outside the family resigned. the economic adviser might quit and the national security advicer, h.r. mcmaster is likely to leave next month. boris sanchez is outside the mar-a-lago estate. it feels like kelly is more embattled than ever. president trump where you are, behind closed doors, with a friendly audience. the chaos around him is boiling over.

>> reporter: that's right, erin. just one of these controversies would be plenty for any president to handle. compound them all and all of them unfolding in the past week. it gives you an idea of the amount of pressure the president is under, specifically turmoil within his own staff leading to a number of problems. close allies to the president privately told cnn they are worried about him. they are concerned he is losing control. the departure of hope hicks, the president berated her for her testimony before congress shortly before she ultimately decided to leave the white house. the president frustrated at his chief of staff, john kelly for his handling of the rob porter saga and the issue of security clearances. further, he attacks jeff sessions yet again this week. there are questions about the future of a number of key administration officials, like the national security adviser,

h.r. mcmaster who the president long has disagreements with. porter threatened to resign over the issue of terrorists. the president frustrating conservatives with the announcement he will tax imports of steel and aluminum. the president is frustrated with his own family, his son-in-law, jared kushner, as you noted earlier, not getting a full vote of confidence because of negative press conference that kushner's financial dealings overseas led a number of foreign governments to potentially manipulate him. we have gotten used to a certain degree of chaos. allies are telling us this is different. they worry for the president. they believe he is losing control and, erin, we cannot lose sight that this could, potentially, soon get worse. the special counsel, robert mueller gives every indication he intends to interview president trump.

it's something they are negotiating. >> boris, thank you very much. it's incredible, the list of things going on. outfront, mark preston, senior political analyst, john, editor and chief of the daily beast. thanks to all. there's so much to get to. let's start with the cnn reporting on john kelly, staffers are stunned about the rob porter scandal, before it broke in the news. reporting shows that is not the case. the staffers are clear, kelly is not telling the truth. they are now, obviously, talking ant it to reporters. is this bad for john kelly? >> this seems to be a feeding frenzy. everybody is shooting at everybody. it's clear kelly is consolidating power. the stream of hits against jared and ivanka seem to be something that kelly would be encouraging as he tries to consolidate and professionalize the white house further. the fact folks are coming out against him saying he's not

telling the truth about what he knew when with the porter saga. it speaks to blind spot in kelly because it's not what they knew. we know they knew in the fall. but, the military background he comes from, did they appreciate the seriousness of the charges against somebody porter, on the surface showed as good. >> the big question here, when you look at the issues in the white house right now, h.r. mcaster and gary cohen questioning whether they are going to be there very much longer. hope hicks departing. jared and ivanka in this position. has kelly lost his authority, his control, his ability to do his job? >> that's an excellent question. i think we have to go back to the premise, did he ever actually have authority in that position? we hoped, john touched upon the fact he had this military background, would he be able to bring order to a white house

that has been in chaos from day one? clearly, he hasn't been able to. in a lot of ways, the critics lodged reince priebus keeping trump in line could be lodged to kelly. he's brought some order. we have to give him credit for bringing some order to the office. in the meantime, he's med enemies. that's why aides are coming out, trying to stab him in the back. he's in a difficult position. >> you see the back stabbing going on. it's hard to keep track of it. everybody is stabbing everybody else in the back. what are you hearing about john kelly right now, julie? >> reporter: in the aftermath and the flop of his resignation, the white house's refusal to speak openly until a month later, who knew what when and how this unfolded, there was a point after porter resigned when it was clear to any of us who

spent time in the building, that john kelly lost the building. people felt like he was not being forthcoming, he was protecting his own flank and not being honest about what happened, not taking responsibility for what had gone down. that had somewhat faded the last couple weeks. that episode was in the rear-view mirror. for some reason, whatever reason, today, john kelly appears to have reopened that whole issue. now, you have a lot of people in the west wing who feel very distrustful and he does not have their best interest at heart and wonder what it's going to be like in the coming days, ever since the porter situation exploded you had the back stabbing that's always gone on in this white house become more overt. i think this will only enhance that process right now. >> look, i think it's important to realize, a chief of staff has an enormous amount of power in

the west wing. at the end of the day, tone comes from the top. if the white house is in chaos, president trump is kept in chaos. that's been a management strategy of his in the past. >> i remember, you know, his novel ages ago, a year ago, coming on the show saying chaos, that's how he manages and how he likes it. what about this quote in the new york times, mr. trump saying he never should have got to the white house and should leave, he's talking jared and ivanka. they should be serving in their roles as he's asked mr. kelly for help in moving them out. this is a stunning thing. trump is loyal to ivanka. this is incredible. he's asking somebody to get rid of her? >> this is a profile encourager here. the original sin is bringing in your family into the west wing. there's a reason we have these laws. here we have, the president trying to unwind it. he's basically asked the chief

of staff to do the dirty work, but get through thanksgiving dinner without taste testers. this is a tough line to walk. if you are going to try to force out your family and say we made a mistake, do it rightly because it's going to appear in the press someplace. you can say it's fake news, but it's got a ring of truth. >> it is stunning. >> i don't know what to say. it's unbelievably stunning. i feel like i have a jeffrey toobin outrage. the fact of the matter is, this was a problem when john f. kennedy put his brother in an attorney general, except it's not what we are seeing now. when there's dpoung to be a division or fight between a family member and a staff member, whose going to win? the family member is always going to win. the fact is, it does say something about donald trump's inability to look beyond his family for advice, specifically from people who can actually

help him in the white house, policy experts. we are not necessarily seeing pollty experts beating down the front door to get a job. >> this is the thing. the president can yell fake news all he wants, but cares more than anybody has about what the press thinks objeabout him. he doesn't like the negative coverage jared is getting and the business deals and loans for the white house and the timing is suspicious. what happens, julie, if jared and ivanka aren't there? talk about being an island? >> this is part of what we are seeing this week with the chaos and the president seeming to make a trade decision where he didn't tell anyone in advance. his lawyers were saying please don't do this on the steel t tariffs. he is feeling isolated. the idea that jared and ivanka may soon leave. it's not as if he has a

strategy, we are going to move them out of the white house. it's extreme to extreme. one minute, he's upset with john kelly, one minute with jared and ivanka. he feels there's nobody he can trust and has his best interest at heart. that's why he is lashing out. >> thank you all very much. next, president trump appears to have changed his tune on gun control. is he the one afraid of the nra? s a former trump adviser and billionaire cashing in on steel stocks he sold days before trump revealed the plans to tax steel imports. he made a hell of a lot of money. just a coincidence? and the people who trump trump in the white house, jumping ship? >> we are not going to stand for tearing people down. we are not going to stand for bullying people.

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director for the nra says i had a meeting with the real donald trump. support the second amendment, strong due process and don't want gun control. okay. no gun control. on so many levels is the opposite of what the president said on wednesday in his meeting with lawmakers. he wants to raise the minimum wage to buy assault weapons to 21. he supports background checks. the opposite of what the nra says he said last night. a friend of donald trump, rob and white house aide, keith. keith, you are closest to me, let me start with you. the white house says trump did not change his stance on guns. is this what it sounds like to you? >> it sounds like the president doesn't have a stance on guns. he's been all over the map. i love the due process and taking away guns without due process. if president obama said anything like that --

>> i would say that's true. >> here is the republican president of the united states in a meeting with bipartisan legislatures talking about taking away people's guns, the next day meeting with the nra -- >> and saying we will deal with due process later. >> the meeting with the nra is a totally different story. it's a man with no political core. donald trump believes in nothing except donald trump. the only thing he's consistent with is trade. any other issue, he's malleable about his positions. >> rob, another way of putting this is he's like a bowl of jell-o. i say that because that's what chuck schumer said. here is how he put it. >> when i dealt with the president on immigration, i said negotiating with him is like negotiating with jell-o. here, with guns, it's a typical pattern. with the bipartisan group and

camera lights on, instincts do the right thing. the hard right puts pressure on him, in this case, nra, and he does a 180 flip. >> if he meant what he said wednesday and the nra says the president supports due process, he's not afraid to go on twitter and say whatever, whatever, whatever. you are wrong. he didn't. he let that stand. now we have him saying this one day and the exact opposite the other day. does he stand for anything? >> yeah, i think he's a strong advocate for gun rights. >> oh, wait a minute. >> gun rights. he's been pretty consistent on that. this is a difficult problem to solve. we have seen it through many administrations. a new poll came out the other day. this is scary to republicans and gun owners because it really cements their fears. what we have in this poll, a third of democrats say they would do away with the second amendment. half said they would do away

with all guns, including handguns except law enforcement. 80% will do away with rifles or so-called semiautomatic rifles. that says to republicans and others, this is exactly what we say. when you say common sense gun control, we are worried about what you want to do and the next step. >> that's only 30% of democrats. >> half want to take away all guns. that's a lot of people. >> i don't know what this has to do with anything. people have different opinions. >> are you saying he's convinced i can't do common sense gun control because people will think i'm taking guns away? >> let's think it through the next step. here are our concerns. we agree there needs to be stronger background checks. there's a massive failure of the system and that has to be part of this, too, if not the real reason why there have been so many of these mass shootings. what will be the next step? say the next unfortunate,

terrible incident is with a semiautomatic handgun. you can have a glock 17 with with a magazine that holds 17 bullets. if you have ten, a mass killer can have that. >> you are having a conversation about guns, that's fine. the point is, the president came out and said, take the guns away now, deal with due process later. enforce stronger background checks, enforce the age of 21. >> i think he threw a lot of things. >> but he didn't mean what he said. >> the president doesn't know what he's talking about half the time. when he talked immigration, health care where he had meetings with legislatures and we find out he didn't care about the details. the president of the united states spoke with the clarity you spoke with, i didn't even understand what you were saying, we would have a better discussion. the president is all over the map. this is the consequence of a president with no political experience or loyalties to

anything or anyone. it was sold as an asset, but became a liability. he's shown inability to govern because of that. >> after the president's tariff announcement that he sprung on everybody and went against his own party. there's no practice with this administration. every day is a new adventure for us. that's not a compliment. >> look, i think things can be done a lot better. there's so many unforced errors. they are coming from within and by him. i think if they were seeing things through more clarity, if there's a pause. unfortunately, everything is a comma with this president. he feels like he's got to fill every void. >> he's not okay with a moment of silence. >> no. and that's been an enemy of him. he gets in trouble when that comma continues. >> i think the president has shown, he hasn't grown in office. that's a big strategy of this. president obama says the white house changes people. clearly, president trump is the same person he was before he

took office. that should concern people. he's not just a leader of a family run corporation, but the leader of the world's largest democracy and nuclear power. >> thank you both very much. next, the commerce secretary savaged for what he did and said defending trump's tariff plan. wilbur ross is my guest. we'll tell you what he was thinking. plus, the president's growing war with his own party. bundle and save big, but now it's time to find my dream abode. -right away, i could tell his priorities were a little unorthodox. -keep going. stop. a little bit down. stop. back up again. is this adequate sunlight for a komodo dragon? -yeah. -sure, i want that discount on car insurance just for owning a home, but i'm not compromising. -you're taking a shower? -water pressure's crucial, scott! it's like they say -- location, location, koi pond. -they don't say that.

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new tonight, president trump going to war, a trade war, defending his widely criticized plan for steel and aluminum tariffs. when a country, usa is losing on trade, trade wars are good and easy to win. this is his commerce secretary, wilbur ross said price hikes are no big deal. >> this is a can of campbell's soup. in the can of campbell's soup, there's about 2.6 cents, 2.6 pennies worth of steel.

so, if that goes up by 25%, that's about 6/10 of one cent on the price of a can of campbell's soup. who in the world is going to be too bothered by 6/10 of a cent? >> wilbur ross is my guest. i'm going to talk to him in a moment. first, the facts. the tariff sent the dow plunging. almost everyone in the president's circle thinks it's a bad idea. what is the deal? >> the deal is, you have to look at the numbers to see if you can figure out what it means. it's confusing. the u.s. imports a third of the raw steel it uses, 90% of the aluminum. the tariffs push up the cost 25%, 10% respectively. in theory, that would be paid by the foreign companies trying to get their products into the u.s. yeah, if their stuff is more expensive, that could help u.s.

producers who long complained about unfair practices, anyway. but, what about all the companies that use that raw steel and aluminum to make cars, airplanes, appliances, aluminum cans and everything else? they will face a disrupted supply. you don't know what the cost is necessarily going to be as it shakes out. based on one study, more than 80 times as many people work making things out of steel and aluminum than make steel and aluminum. they potentially face uncertain wages and hours, maybe more offshoring of their jobs, we don't know. we don't know what is going to happen to consumers. there's an estimate that some products could go up 15% or more. i don't think we really know. what we know, erin, there's a lot of uncertainty about this. >> so, you know, you are talking ant the steel makers benefiting, the steel users getting crushed.

they obviously employ, many, many times, 80 times more people. the administration argues something's got to be done to punish foreign countries that are using unfair trade practices to compete with american steel and aluminum. will the tariffs do anything about that? >> depends on how they are applied and to whom. we are the biggest steel importer in the world. if you look at foreign suppliers, this is where it's coming from, canada, brazil, mexico, russia. these are the top providers out there. you know who is not on the top ten list? china. the country president trump looks at and says this is a serial offender in terms of bad trade deals. if you are trying to get to china with this deal, you have to go through a lot of long standing trade allies, first. along the way, unleash the trade war, which the president may say he's not worried about, but you

know a lot of other people are. >> certainly are. they don't have to slap back on the same industry. they could say they are going to do things on clothes and toys and go to walmart and affect us other ways. thank you very much. tom, i appreciate it. i want to go straight out front to speak to commerce secretary, wilbur ross. i appreciate your time. tom is going through the numbers there, the american companies that use steel to make things like cars employ as many as 80 times workers as american steel or aluminum companies. you saw the op-ed today. they say 6.5 million americans work for companies that use steel and 140,000 work for companies that make steel. why is it worth hurting so many to maybe help so few? >> first of all, the fact that there are more workers in steel using isn't the important issue.

the important issue is what will be the actual effect. on an average car, which is in the $25-30,000 range, the actual impact will be a fraction of 1%. that's all. you can't even notice that in the overall price. for beverage cans, there's about 3 cents of steel or aluminum. in this case, happens to be aluminum, in it, to begin with. if that goes up 10%, you are talking a fraction of a penny. these products sell for over $1 in the store. so, it's nonsense to say there's a great tragedy looming. in addition, if you just took the biggest picture, let's assume that every product would go up, if it's steel, by the same 25%, based on the steel content and aluminum 10%.

you know what that adds up to? one-half of one percent of our economy. it's fine to talk about big, broad things. these are the facts and the facts don't support the argument that people should be worried that it will hurt the economy. it's rubbish. >> so, obviously, campbell's soup, as you know, said any new broad based tariffs on steel, insufficient amount of which is produced in the united states will result in higher prices and the safist more affordable parts. toyota said it will raise the cost of cars and trucks in america. you talked about the average cost of a car, $35,000 would go up .5 percent. >> $20,000.

>> buy a used car, it's more complicated than that. you are talking 100 bucks or something like that. you are saying that's not a lot of money. if you add that up to a new appliance or home republican novation or the cans over a year, compare it to the median tax cut, the median family got 670 bucks. you could talk about eating up all that tax cut with this tariff. that sounds like a lot more money, doesn't it? >> first of all, the prices won't go up by as much as the tariff. the reason they won't is that each of these industries still has 20% or more unused capacity. so, there will be a lot of competition to take over the market share that's forsaken. so, it will be something less. it remains a fact that's only around half or two-thirds of a percent on a car that remains a fact that it's less than a penny

on a can of whether it's bud riser beer, campbell's soup or coke. you notice the companies complaining never say what's the actual impact. they never say what's the actual amount. this is nonsense. these are the actual figures. i used to be in the steel business. i sold to car companies. sold the can manufacturers steel. those are the facts. >> i know you know this industry well, you know manufacturing well. one of the most interesting we have is this, president obama put tariffs on chinese tires in 2009. the goal was to protect u.s. tire companies and they were loving it. he saved 1,200 tire jobs. 3,700 retail jobs were lost as a result. that's according to an analysis. that would show tariffs hurt more than they helped in that

case. >> yeah, well, first of all, i'm not familiar with that event. i had nothing to do with it. but, the peterson institute never met a tariff they like. the forecast of what would be the outcome of china entering the wto and the u.s. entering nafta and the u.s. entering chorus. in every case, they had huge increases that never happened. it was the reverse. take korea, for example. our sales exports to korea, since the chorus trade agreement barely changed whereas the sales to korea by us are up. peterson institute denied free

trade. their statistics have never been accurate. >> i want to ask you two personal questions here. the first about someone you know, carl icahn, one of your closest allies on wall street. fcc filing on february 22nd shows he sold $33.1 million of stock, a company heavily dependent on steel. that was just a week before the steel announcement. he obviously made a lot of money on that. >> what was that? >> he sold, sorry, carl icahn sold stock from a company heavily dependent on steel. he made a lot of money. he sold that february 22nd. are you 100% sure that was coincidence, he didn't have advanced warning from the president? >> well, he certainly didn't have advanced warning from me. i can't imagine that he had any from the president, but steel

tariffs should not surprise anyone. go back to the presidential campaign. look at how many hundreds of times the president said he was going to do something to protect american steel. it shouldn't be a surprise to anybody in the whole wide world that he put tariffs on steel. >> yes. the timing obviously is the crucial question of the february 22nd sale. i understand all you can do is speak for yourself and you have done so very clearly. one last question, if i may, secretary. you are on this show depending this. you are among the few in this administration that support these tariffs. there's a big argument going on in the white house. there are moderates very much opposed to it, we are aware of them, including gary cohen, politico, among others reported this could be the straw that breaks the camel's back. are you okay with these tariffs with gary cohn is out? >> i think you are making a very

hypothetical point there, but the idea that there's healthy discussion of alternatives and healthy disagreements that are all brought to the president before he makes his decision, that's true. and i view that as very, very constructive because that makes it certain that the president will hear all sides of an argument before he makes as big of a decision as he just made. that's healthy. that's not a problem. >> secretary ross, i appreciate your time, thank you so much, sir. >> thank you, erin. nice to be on with you. >> all right. next, a top republican in the senate calls trump's gun meeting a reality show. how bad is it between trump and his own party? will evangelicals support this president in 2020 as he already announced who his campaign manager is? >> we are seeing people say, enough is enough.

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new tonight, president trump facing criticism from his own party, on his waffled position on guns, attacks on sessions and the tariffs. the gop has not been shy about slamming the boss. here is what the number two, john cornyn said about guns this week. he said, you may have noticed that interesting reality tv show at the white house the day before yesterday. that is when he was explicitly asked about the president's position on guns. republican congressman massey is out front, the chairman of the caucus. i appreciate your time. thanks so much. you hear what john chaornyn hado say. are you confident you know where the president stands on, let's

start specifically, because he was talking about guns, on guns? >> yeah. yeah. well, look, the president's lack of regard for due process concerned me greatly. you know, john cornyn as a bill with the same problem. he would take gun rights away from veterans, then do the due process later. the second amendment is later, but due process is foundational to our country. >> when the president said, police should take guns away from people without due process, he was talking about the mentally ill, obviously. you did slam it on twitter. you said he said police should take guns away from police. is anyone okay with this because i'm sure as hell not. >> look, you are not afraid to take him on. that was pretty direct. you didn't mince your words. doesn't sound like you have

confidence in what he's saying. now the nra says the opposite. do you have confidence you know what he believes in? >> well, you know, the president won my congressional district by 40 points, but if he's wrong, i'm going to call him out on it. obama was wrong, too. people's rights to own a gun are taken away without judicial process. john cornyn's bill called fix nics. due process, you have a day in court. you can't have your rights segregated without a day in court. >> that's the issue of guns where the president is saying something you disagree with and many in your party do, too. they disagree with other things he says about guns. the age at which you can buy a semiautomatic rifle. i want to ask you about the

president's tariff announcement. 20% on steel, 10% on aluminum imports. many in your party are upset calling it a huge job killing tax hike on american consumers. there are a few of many, many in your party who think this is a bad idea. do you support the president on tariffs, or not? >> look, if you want to do away with the income tax and replace it with a general tariff, you know, we can talk about that. i think it's dangerous when you go in and pick winners and losers and try to put tariffs on one industry. back to your point on the age at which you can buy guns, look, 18-year-olds can be called upon to die for their country in the military. i don't agree with the proposals to raise the gun to buy a long arm from 18-21. that's taking away someone's constitutional rights based on age. >> just in this interview, you

disagree with him on guns and the age of buying a rifle and disagree with him on tariffs. your colleague in the senate, john boon summarized it by saying there is no process with this administration. every day is a new adventure for us. do you trust the president is on your team, he agrees with the same values you do when you have gone through three things this week that you agree with nothing that he did? >> well, there is one thing i agree with. he said we need to arm teachers. i completely agree with that. 98% of public shootings happen in a gun-free zone. we shouldn't label our students as being in a gun-free zone. >> i just want to get this point. do you trust him to support your values? >> well, we have three branches of government. he can go out and put forward ideas, then we'll sort through

them and see what we like and put them in law or not. one of the ideas i like is allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons. it's the only way to stop the mass shootings. the options to enhance background checks wouldn't have stopped a single gun shooting. >> i understand the point you are making. it sounds to me it is clear you don't trust the president to fight for what you want to fight for. there's three branches of government. you are talking around it. i hear what i hear. am i right? >> no, you know, look, there's three branches of government. our founding father's didn't trust one person to run the whole government. when he's right, i'll acknowledge it. when he's wrong about short circuiting due process like obama did at the v.a. and social security, i'll call him out on that, too. >> i appreciate your time tonight.

>> thanks, erin. >> evangelicals are a big part of the president's base. they are questioning whether to vote for him. trump's favorite targets, himself, as played by alec baldwin. >> it may sound like what's coming out of my mouth is bananas. and serve with confidence that it's safe. this is a diamond you can follow from mine to finger, and trust it never fell into the wrong hands. this is a shipment transferred two hundred times, transparently tracked from port to port. this is the ibm blockchain, built for smarter business. built to run on the ibm cloud. this is the ibm blockchain, built for smarter business. want us to do about what woulthis president?fathers i'm tom steyer, and when those patriots wrote the constitution here in philadelphia, they had just repelled an invading foreign power.

so they created the commander in chief to protect us from enemy attack. the justice department just indicted 13 russians for sabotaging our elections. an electronic attack on america that the chief investigator called "warfare". so what did this president do? nothing. and is he doing anything to prevent a future attack? the head of the fbi says no. this president has failed his most important responsibility- protecting our country. the first question is: why? what is in his and his family's business dealings with russia that he is so determined to hide, that he'd betray our country? and the second question is: why is he still president? join us today. we have to do something.

president trump and the first lady attending the funeral service for reverend billy graham today. there are signs of a split. alex mark kwaurd is "outfront." >> reporter: pastor greg lot preaches to pews.

>> i am proud of him. i voted for him. i will vote for him again. >> reporter: the vast majority has stuck by him. amid allegations of massageny. >> i think it is a lot of it. whether he is or whether he isn't, he is giving evangelicals a platform. so with a lot of evangelicals, it is not blind followship. >> reporter: rita freedman won't say whether trump is a christian, but she is one. >> none of us without sin. >> reporter: tennessee has the highest percentage of

evangelicals in the country. senate race will be one of the most closely watched. and evangelicals are a critical voting block. today's trump approval stands at 63%. solid but cracks are showing. grace point church is a haven for christians who no longer feel at home in the evangelical movement. they tell us there is an existential crisis. >> a paradigm shift or existential, or whatever you want to call it. the phrase, this thing is disappearing in front of us. >> we are seeing people say enough is enough. we are not going it stand for tearing people down. we are not going to stand for bullying people. >> reporter: dan scott is a pastor as nashville evangelical

christ church. >> what do evangelicals want? do we want to spread the gospel of christ? or do we want power. >> reporter: do you think the core of evangelicals these days have lost their way? >> yes, i do. a phenomenon mostly of white churches. it is a mistake. >> reporter: you sound frustrated. disappointed. >> i am. i think the church in america is losing its way. >> reporter: for decades has become more and more a political term rather than a religious one. so many of them thrilled that their priorities are now at the top of president trump's list while many more can't stomach the idea of supporting him which

could mean the end of evangelicalism as we know him. >> next, the real trump versus the fake trump.

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mocked president trump on snl from kiddie desk to a shower scene. >> mr. trump, everyone can see your tweets. >> really? and i'm still in this thing. >> reporter: their latest blow yup started with playing trump. it was agony for those forced to watch. >> wrong, wrong, wrong. >> calling alec, alex and killing the english language with dying. >> reporter: in response to the president's tweet about baldwin being agony to watch, the actor

fired back four times. the resignation speech, the farewell helicopter ride, you know, the good stuff. these two treat each other like. >> bad boys, bad boys. >> reporter: baldwin then imagined what would be in the presidential library, a putting green. baldwin brought in melania trump. and mr. president, please ask your wife to stop calling me for tickets. and not even a remote chance of this. >> i deeply apologize. >> are you trying to say apologize? >> no i would never do that.

>> reporter: jeanne moos cnn new york. >> thank you for joining us. and you can watch "outfront" any time anywhere go. "ac 360" starts now. we begin tonight at the end of the week like any we have never seen before. having heard so many misrepresentations or incomplete statements from the white house, we could not imagine they would bring it up again. the subject of spousal abuse. this is a photo of what porter allegedly did to her. there is a word in what the white house engaged in. the word is gas lighting.