hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. 1:00 a.m. thursday in beijing. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we begin with breaking news. information uncovered by cnn's k file raises new questions about long-time trump confidant roger stone and his links to wikileaks. on the same day he sent an e-mail claiming he had dinner with wikileaks founder julian assange, stone warned that, quote, devastating information from wikileaks would soon be released. he said the information involved wrongdoing by the clinton

foundation. stone made the comment in an august 4 hth, 2016, interview o the info wars radio show. >> the clinton campaign narrative that the russians favor donald trump and the russians are leaking this information, this is inoculation because, as you said earlier, they know what is coming, and it is devastating. let's remember that their defense in all of the clinton foundation scandals has been, not we didn't do it, but you have no proof. yes, but you have no proof. well, i think julian assange has that proof, and i think he's going to furnish it to the american people. >> that same day, a source says stone sent an e-mail to former trump adviser saying he had dinner with jouulian assange th night before. stone now says the e-mail was sent in jest and he never met or spoke with julian assange. our chief political analyst gloria borger is with us.

our cnn k-files senior editor andrew kaczynski broke the story. what can we glean from all of this about roger stone and wikileaks? >> so this exchange with stone and alex jones actually provides the earliest example of stone claiming to know about forthcoming wikileaks. my team had pretty much put together this very extensive timeline showing that stone repeatedly claimed to know about wikileaks drops on clinton that were going to be coming. we had previously pegged the first date he had talked about that as august 10th, when he said he had spoken to assange. this shows him speaking about it on august 4th, nearly a week earlier and coincidentally enough the same day he sent that e-mail claiming to have dined with assange. >> you know, gloria, stone says he was simply joking in that conversation. from your sources, did nunberg think stone was joking? >> my source familiar with the conversation says that nunberg

thought it was a 50/50 shot that roger stone was telling him the truth, that it could have been an exaggeration, could have been pu puffery, could have been a joke. he asked if stone had new information on benghazi, which is what nunberg was really interested in. according to this source, he was told by roger stone service about the clinton foundation, which is what you hear on that infowars tape. >> andrew, stone also mentions he had spoke within then-republican nominee donald trump the day before the infowars interview. listen to this. >> i spoke to donald trump yesterday. he's in good spirits. he has no intention whatsoever of dropping out. you can say anything you want about trump, he's not a quitter. he's a brawler. he's a fighter. >> all right. so give us some context about what was happening, andrew, in the presidential race at that time. >> so in the presidential race around this time, the dnc had just happened, and trump was

them brawled in a number of controversies. we saw that trump had made those comments about the khans that were very controversial. we saw his poll numbers dropping out. there were people that speculated that trump would drop out of the race because of those sinking poll numbers. and this is sort of what him and stone are talking about. he's saying i'd spoken to trump, you know, he's not going to quit, and again, it's just very interesting with the timing of the claims about wikileaks and the e-mail about assange because stone has claimed that he never spoke with trump about wikileaks. >> and in terms of perspective, gloria, the robert mueller investigation, i presume, they're all very interested in this information. >> sure, they're interested in any link between wikileaks, julian assange, of course, the russians, and anybody who was involved in the trump orbit, not necessarily in the campaign, but in the trump orbit. and roger stone saying, you

know, they have to figure out whether he was joking or not, whether he had dined with julian assange. so i think that's something they clearly are going to want to get to the bottom of. >> gloria, stick around. we've got more to discuss. andrew, thanks so much. you guys are doing a great job over there with the k-file. a lot to discuss with our panel. also joining us, our cnn national security analysis and cnn legal analyst laura coates. we have confirmed that the president is not a criminal target of this investigation. >> right. sources familiar with the matter tell us, and "the washington post" reported this first, i should say, that the president's team has been told in recent weeks that they didn't consider him a target, but he was clearly more than a witness. the reason he's more than a witness is because some of the events they're investigating he was a part of. this came up in discussions they've been having for weeks now about whether the president

is going to testify. now, saying that somebody is a subject doesn't mean they can't become a target. and laura, you know a lot more about this than i do, but at this point they never sort of specified what he is. but i think his team gleaned that somewhere between witness and target is subject. >> and there's been some suggestion the president can't be a criminal target of the investigation because the justice department and a special prosecutor really can't charge a sitting president of the united states. >> well, you know, you don't want to be in a position to have a semantics based argument going in to talk to the special counsel. am i a subject, a target, a witness? you don't want to be a defendant in any of these actions. so it's a very fluid discussion you can have. remember the dodge has some memorandum in their information about whether or not to actually indict a sitting president. it's not clear. there's debate between legal experts whether they can do so,

but you don't want to have that be the only straw you're left holding at the end of the day. one, this is telling me as a negotiation tactic, probably in crafting the extent and the parameters of a discussion with robert mueller, they probably said, well, what sort of legal expotion su exposure do i have here? are you talking to me because it's the end of your investigation and i'm the final piece of the puzzle? i think what happened realistically is they said what is it going to mean for us to talk, and mueller's team probably trying to placate and appease and coerce them to speak in a non-nefarious way. >> all this is really important because the president and his legal team, they have to make a decision whether he's going to sit down and answer questions from mueller and his team. >> and according to reporting i've done and evan perez has done, they're nowhere near making that decision now. i think it's safe to say that most of his lawyers think he shouldn't talk. >> even if he's not a target, even if he's not a subject. >> yeah, because you can get

yourself into a lot of trouble. >> if he lies to federal investigators. >> and don't forget, robert mueller knows a lot about the issues that they're going to be asking him about. as we've reported, they've given him four main areas. they're trying to figure out what to do right now. now, mueller can say, well, i'm going to compel you, and then you have to make the decision. do you want to take this all the way to the supreme court? which could, of course, occur. the president, i was told, is not any more eager to testify because he knows he's not a target. he keeps vacillating, i was told, back and forth about what he should do. >> whether he's a target, a subject, a witness, or just the president of the united states. we will see what happens in the weeks and maybe months to come. let's talk about russia for a moment. sam, you're with us. h.r. mcmaster, the three-star general who's been the president's national security adviser, gave a bit of a farewell address last night at the atlantic council, and he said this, listen. >> russia has used old and new

forms of aggression to undermine our open societies and the foundations of international peace and stability. russia brazenly and implausibly denies its actions, and we have failed to impose sufficient costs. >> he said he welcomed the u.s.'s decision to expel 60 russian diplomats, but when he uses the words "we have failed," i don't think the president of the united states likes to acknowledge that his administration has failed. >> exactly. and we have a scenario whereby president trump keeps doing this toughest guy in the room charade. he keeps saying i've been tougher than all of my predecessors on russia. wolf, that's a red herring at this point. we're still under attack. it doesn't matter if trump was tougherer, which he hasn't been, obama was tougher, or bush was tougher. at this point, we have the intelligence community as recently as february saying we're still under live attack. i think it's great that mcmaster

and actually john bolton are reading from the same sheet of music when it comes to taking real action to stop russia. but the fact is, it's just not working yet. >> the president says he wants to have a good relationship with putin. he had that famous march 20th phone call in which he congratulated him. he didn't raise some of the most sensitive issues, including the poisoning of an ex-russian spy in the uk or russian interference in the u.s. presidential election and the fear among u.s. intelligence and law enforcement officials that they're doing it right now ahead of the midterm elections in november. >> right. and he apparently invited vladimir putin to the white house despite the fact that again putin is attacking our country. and putin hasn't taken any good-faith measures to show that he wants to have a constructive conversation. it's almost like president obama implemented this russia reset strategy at the beginning of his administration to try to improve relations, and there again had to be confidence-building measures by both sides. now it's like trump is pursuing

a reset and putin is just continuing to attack us. it doesn't make sense. >> gloria, what do you think of mcmaster's statement, we have failed to impose sufficient costs to the russians? and the fear that if the u.s. doesn't do that, they're going to just keep on doing it. >> i think he's out of the box at this point. he's not working there anymore soon. he can speak his mind. if he were still if his previous job or knew that he was going to be there for a long time, i don't think he would have said it. i mean, i think what you're hearing from general mcmaster is the frustration that i think he feels that the administration has not done enough on cyber and prevention and has not been tough enough. i think that was one of the areas that he and the president probably clashed on. >> yeah, general mcmaster's a three-star general, active duty. he'll be retiring once he leaves the white house in the coming days. >> i also see this as also a critique of congress as well.

remember, there are these dueling parallel investigations between what mueller is doing in terms of a criminal probe, about whether or not an american citizen has somehow colluded, or whether there's a legislative action that can be taken to prevent what's actually going to occur perhaps in the midterms and in the next general presidential election in 2020. in a way of addressing both of these, a failure to effectively sanction, we have to call to attention there have been these dueling, competing parallel investigations. neither seems to have had a sufficient impact on russia, but for the talking indictment that was led by mueller of those 13 russian nationals that addressed how it was done. >> but you know, remember mcmaster also came out weeks ago and said that it was clear and it was incontrovertible that the russians were bad guys and had hacked the election, et cetera. >> late in the game to say it. it took a long time. >> but the president wasn't happy about it. so now mcmaster's like, well, okay, the president's not happy about it. i've been fired anyway. what's the point. >> the president i'm sure was

not happy to hear his national security adviser, albeit his outgoing national security adviser, say we have failed. that's not something the president wants to hear. guys, thanks very much for all of that. gloria, laura, and samantha. we're following breaking news on syria at the same time. president trump says he's okay keepi keeping u.s. troops in the war-torn region, at least for now, but he wants them out soon. we're going live to damascus. that's next. plus, china hits back, announcing tariffs on american products. the news rattling u.s. stocks, stoking fears of a trade war between the world's two biggest economies. you see the dow jones down 100 points right now. and today marks 50 years since the assassination of dr. martin luther king jr. massive crowds are spilling into washington to honor the civil rights icon. i'll speak with his daughter bernice king later this hour. dnt an incomplete job from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't.

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breaking news we're following on the u.s. plan for

syria. cnn has learned the president told his national security team he's willing to keep u.s. troops in syria in the short-term, but he also made known he wants an exit soon. let's go to our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. joining us from syria right now, our senior national correspondent fred pleitgen. barbara, we're hearing a decision has been made regarding the status of those approximately 2,000 u.s. troops in syria, at least in the short-term. what else can you tell us? >> reporter: well, it is, at best, a short-term, perhaps, wolf, because the president generally does not change his mind about things, as we all know. so he's put on the table that he wants u.s. troops out of syria, about 2,000 troops there now. but his generals have not really agreed to that. they have been telling him, telling defense secretary mattis that troops need to stay there, that the fight against isis is not done. security is not guaranteed. and making the situation very

complicated, if the u.s. pulls out, there's every reason to believe that iran and russia would strengthen their position there, continue to support the assad regime, and isis would move in, in the areas that are essentially ungoverned at this point. so it could cause even more problems than they have now. the concern that most commanders have is that it's too soon, they say, to go. if they do go, it will unsettle the situation significantly. wolf? >> and just to be precise, barbara, the other day when he said he wants all u.s. troops out of syria, quote, very soon, that took military officials over where you are at the pentagon by surprise, right? is. >> reporter: well, it certainly did. there was a lot of perplexed looks and raised eyebrows about exactly what the president meant. it's not that he hasn't said before that he wants to get the job done with isis and wrap things up, if you will, but he was so adamant that he wants

troops out soon. and that's really the crux of the question now. even as the president was talking about, there's the top commander in the region publicly saying here in washington u.s. troops need to stay, that the job is not done. wolf? >> yeah, the head of the u.s. military's central command. fred, you're in damascus. it's not often we get someone reporting live from damascus. you've spent a lot of time in syria over the years. a quick withdrawal of these 2,000 u.s. troops from syria, what would it mean for the people, for the war over there? >> reporter: well, i think even that announcement that president trump made certainly undermines the united states' credibility here on the ground. you know, one of the things that president trump said, wolf, is he said he wants other countries to step up in syria for the u.s. to when abbe able to move out. certainly there are three countries saying they're quite happy to step up. that's turkey, iran, and first and foremost russia. those three countries held a summit today in turkey, where

they were essentially talking about the future of syria and what they wanted future to be like. the united states simply was not at the table. the russians, i would say, certainly are by far the most powerful outside nation so far in syria. if you look at where i am right now, in damascus, the syrian government forces have been making major gains. what they're doing right now just outside of damascus, essentially negotiating for the rebels who are against president bashar al assad, to leave those areas. it's the russians leading those negotiations, not even the syrian government. you look at some of those forces, wolf, that were fighting with the united states against isis, the kurds in the north of the country, a lot of them are quite angry, even at those announcements by the u.s. they said, look, we were essentially your ground force against isis. we thought you'd be in it for the long run. now they're not really sure if that's going to be the case. they're getting squeezed by the turks. in effect, some of those groups are already talking as well to the russians. so it seems as though the russians are gaining momentum here while the u.s. already

undermining its position simply by president trump coming out and saying he wants that u.s. withdrawal. certainly not many people here in this country that believe america is in it for the long run. >> yeah, the russians clearly gaining momentum. the regime of bashar al assad gaining momentum. the iranians and their hezbollah allies gaining a lot of momentum at the same time as the u.s. considers a withdrawal of its troops from syria. lots to unpack there. we're going to continue our coverage. barbara and fred, thanks very much for your excellent reporting. meanwhile, u.s. stocks have been on a roller coaster here in the united states as fears of a possible trade war with china escalate. plus, beefing up the border. the president renewing his promise, vowing to take strong action today. his words, strong action today. stay with us. oh good, you're awake! finally. you're still here? come on, denise. we're voya! we stay with you to and through retirement...

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a possible trade war between the world's two biggest economies are sending shock waves through the marks right now. the dow is down about 150 points as investors react to news that china's threatening to retaliate against planned u.s. tariffs with the threat of new tariffs of its own. china says it will target $50 billion worth of u.s. exports to china, slapping a 25% tariff on 106 products in all, including soybeans, cars, and aircraft. the news comes just hours after the u.s. published a list of proposed tariffs affecting more than 1,000 chinese exports, including aerospace, tech, manufacturing, and medical industries. cnn money editor at large richard quest is over at the new york stock exchange. our white house reporter is on the north lawn of the white house. katelyn, how is the president responding to all of this? >> reporter: well, unsurprisingly, he's tweeting about it, essentially saying there's no point in backing down because he believes the united

states is already on the losing end of this trade partnership with china. he wrote a little earlier today on twitter saying we are not in a trade war with china because that war was lost many years ago by the foolish or incompetent people who have represented the united states. now we have a trade deficit of $500 billion a year with intellectual property theft of another $300 billion. we cannot let this continue. and then he added a little later on, when you're already 500 billion down, you can't lose. of course, wolf, markets seem a little unconvinced that we're not on the brink of a trade war, but it does seem the white house is a little concerned about this because they trotted out the new director of the national economic council, larry kudlow, who i should note has only been on the job for three days, to do some interviews earlier this morning. he spoke with reporters on the north lawn of the white house, essentially saying that he believes this is more of a negotiating tool. he noted that these tariffs have not gone into effect yet. he said the chance these tariffs against china never materialize isn't zero. so certainly he sought to tamp

down some fears of a potential trade war there, but right now, wolf, many people are left wondering what exactly is going to happen here and if there is going to be this tit-for-tat trade war between two of the world's largest economies. . >> richard, the tariffs have not gone into effect. kudlow says it'll take a while, that they're both posturing, china and the u.s. there's some uncertainty about what will happen in the long-term. that's clearly having an impact, fueling the market volatility right now. what do you think we can expect, at least in the short-term? >> reporter: more of the same and similar, wolf. just look at the way today has gone. we started off with the market down 500 points or so. then, as obviously many stocks are looking cheap, so the market has pulled back quite a lot. the s&p has even gone positive once or twice. the dow nearly. the large ere market, the

russell 2000, has. wolf, this is a very risky strategy. if this is a negotiating ploy, as katelyn was discussing, by the white house, then unfortunately, somebody has forgotn forgotten to tell the market. boeing is down. caterpillar is down. 3m is down. mcdonald's was lower. microsoft was lower. every company that has pinned its future growth strategy in some shape or form on china is down. and for good measure, general motors today, gm, puts out a statement reminding the administration the significance of coming to a deal and the importance of china to the company. >> in terms of the big picture, richard, how bad is this potentially? >> reporter: that's a really tricky question, wolf. if it's a negotiating strategy, then one assumes cooler heads will prevail and there will be no tariffs. but if this is mine is bigger

than yours and i'm going to push this as far as i can, then you're looking at a really serious situation here. and we don't know. we don't know because there's no policy statements. we don't know because it's all done by tweet at the moment. yes, the president tweets, and then larry kudlow has to come out and repair the damage. you know, as my grandfather used to say, this is no way to run a railroad. >> richard quest at the new york stock exchange, thanks very much. katelyn collins at the white house. thanks to you as well. meanwhile, president trump is vowing strong action on the border with mexico as he calls on u.s. military troops to stand guard until his long-proposed and promised border wall with mexico is complete. sometimes a cough gets in the way of a good night's sleep. that's when he needs vicks vaporub. proven cough medicine. with 8 hours of vapors. so he can sleep. vicks vaporub. goodnight coughs.

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welcome back. the president is promising what he calls strong action today, his words, strong action today on securing the u.s. border with mexico, although it's still not clear what he means by that. his announcement came at the very end of a tweet that also railed against what he blamed weak obama-era border laws and accused democrats of wanting people to, quote, pour into the country unchecked. we know the president surprised the pentagon by saying he wanted to send national guard, u.s. military personnel to secure the border with mexico until his long-promised wall is complete. joining us now, democratic congressman of arizona. he sits on the armed services committee. he also served in the united states marine corps in iraq. congressman, as you know, president obama sent about 1200 national guard troops to the border back in 2010. is there any difference from your perspective of what former

president obama did and what the current president, president trump, is now talking about? >> well, we really have to wait for the details, but clearly, you know, the problems we have with president trump is he doesn't really have any plans. he kind of just rules by emotion, doesn't actually govern with logic and is just doing this to find a political solution, not an actual national security solution, versus what i think president obama and president bush did, which is they decided they needed to send military to the border to assist the border patrol. that's what's going to end up happening here. if anything happens, it's not as big as president trump is going to say because there's no way that we could secure the border and not break the defense budget. he's basically just going to use this as a show of force so that way he could appease his base and really not be part of an actual solution, which is comprehensive immigration reform. >> we don't know how many u.s. troops the president is proposing sending to the border with mexico, but as someone who represents a border state with

mexico, you represent arizona, is there any number you would support given your military experience and your experience with the border? >> well, the reason i wouldn't actually support it is for two reasons. we don't need to be sending military to the border because you have the custom and border patrol. it's the largest law enforcement agency in this country. it's actually bigger than most standing armies in the world. we have enough border patrol. we actually have enough border patrol that are even in the pipeline to get hired. the reason you had bush and obama doing that in the past is because there was not enough border patrol. we've continuously put money, billions and billions of dollars, into the border. so let's use the money appropriate rated for that. the reason i'm not going to support this is because this is just a political fix for the president because he made a stupid campaign promise over a stupid border wall that mexico is not going to pay for and congress doesn't want to fund. so he's just trying to appease his base by quote/unquote putting troops on the border,

when in reality in the past troops are not allowed to arrest anybody, not allowed to have loaded weapons, so what are they going to be doing on the border? all they're going to be doing is draining our resources and time from our military. >> as you point out, the president was at least in part elected on the promise that he would build a wall along the border with mexico, secure the border. with mexico, have mexico pay for that wall. here's a little reminder. listen to this. >> we are going to build a great border wall. we will build a great, great wall. we're going to build a wall, don't worry about it. we'll build a wall. i promise, we will build the wall. it's not going to be a little wall. it's going to be a big, beautiful wall. going to be a very tall wall, very strong wall, very powerful wall. it's going to be such a beautiful wall. it's going to be so big. it's going to be so powerful. it's going to be as beautiful as a wall can be. >> all right. that's what he promised the

american people during the campaign. many people voted for him in part because of that promise. he argues that democrats are now standing in the way of that. you saw his tweet earlier in the day, congress must change these obama-era and other laws now. >> well, look, if the president was actually, you know, the master, the art of the deal he likes to call himself, he would have actually had most of these initiatives done. he would have had a big portion of his wall funded, and he actually would have had some of these immigration laws changed. you know, there's a bipartisan group of democrats and republicans that went to the president just a couple months ago and said, here's the deal, in exchange for daca, we'll change our immigration law. we'll put a big down payment and start building a border wall. he didn't take the deal. so the reason why this is not happening is not because of the democrats in the house or the senate or even the republicans in the house or the senate. it's because the president is a bad president. he does not know how to deal. he doesn't have the administration around him, the administrators around him to actually know how to accept a good compromise. and now he realizes that he's

not going to be able to fulfill his campaign promises before the election. so he's going to do all these theatrics. part of those theatrics is using our troops, our man jpower, and sending them to the border when it's not needed. >> let's talk about syria for a moment while i have you. as i pointed out, you served with the u.s. marines in iraq. the president told his national security team he's now willing to allow u.s. troops, about 2,000, to stay in syria short-term, but he's publicly made it known that he wants them out very soon. listen to this. >> i want to get out. i want to bring our troops back home. i want to start rebuilding our nation. we will have, as of three months ago, $7 trillion in the middle east over the last 17 years. we get nothing, nothing out of it. nothing. >> clearly asuggesting the u.s. military involvement over these 17 years in afghanistan, iraq,

now in syria has been a total waste. does he have a point? >> he does actually have a point, but i want to point out this is the same president that chastised president obama for telegraphing that we're going to leave iraq. now he's essentially doing the same thing. so again, president trump really has a black belt when it comes to hypocrisy. look, the middle east is a very difficult place. i fought up to the syrian border, actually, and i know exactly what many of our men and women are dealing with over there. the best way to deal with this is to have steady leadership with steady alliances all around the world and in the middle east instead of this bouncing off the wall and just kind of going by your gut reaction the president's having right now. that causes a lot of instability. that causes our allies in the region to overreact or underreact, and more importantly, it empowers russia to be the big mover in that

region, and iran, because they're at least having some level of stable leadership versus president trump who's basically just all over the place. so what he needs to do is act more presidential, talk to the national security advisers, come up with a plan for the region, and not just basically, you know, see what sticks on the wall. >> congressman gallego, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. today, 50 years after his assassination, thousands of people are marching here in washington in honor of dr. martin luther king jr. up next, i'll speak with the civil rights icon's daughter on his legacy. i'm so frustrated. i just want to find a used car without getting ripped off. you could start your search at the all-new carfax.com that might help. show me the carfax. now the car you want and the history you need are easy to find. show me used trucks with one owner. pretty cool. [laughs] ah... ahem... show me the carfax.

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maybe i could understand the denial of certain basic first-amendment privileges because they have committed themselves to that over that, but somewhere i read of the freedom of assembly. somewhere i read of the freedom of speech. somewhere i read of the freedom of press. somewhere i read that the greatness of america is the right to protest for rights. >> powerful words from dr. martin luther king jr., delivering his final, very famous speech back in 1968 in memphis before his life was so tragically cut short by an assassin. today, 50 years later, commemorations are being held nationwide to honor his life and his legacy. joining us now, dr. king's youngest child, bernice king.

bernice, you were just 5 years old when your father was killed. what does it mean to you to see these major tributes to your dad, people marching, listening to his speeches, remembering his legacy all these years later? >> first of all, wolf, thank you for having me on today. i'm always honored and humbled whenever i hear people referring to my father and whenever we have these moments because, you know, i was raised in a household where my mother taught us about my father, always invoking his words. so i developed a deep appreciation through the years of his teachings, and i think in the way that our world is today, that now, perhaps more than ever before, we need the teachings of dr. king. his words were so poignant at the time, and they're still very relevant now. the legacy that he's left for us

of nonviolent, social change, and peace with justice is something that, you know, resonates. you know, i hope that people will use this day to not only just commemorate and remember but really act in his spirit to bring about the changes that are needed to create a if your dad were with us tea, bernice, what do you think he would say about the things that have unfolded like meet too movement or rallies against gun violence? what do you think he would say about what's happening in our country today? >> first of all, i think he would be excited. my father never lost hope. even when it became dark and dismaland looked like his dream became a nightmare. he said he still maintained hope and that hope is because he knew that there would always be a -- what do you call, dedicated

minority who would be committed to justice and peace and equity and to see young people rising up the way that they've been rising up, starting with the black lives matter and coming forward to the women's movement and the young people that have been raising their voices with march for our lives. he would say there was a resu e resurgence. these are revolutionary times. what he said back then. these movements now are beginning to cause conversations and dialogue that have been need through the years in terms of violence in our culture, in terms of white privilege, systemic and racial injustice. and so he would be extremely

excited and i'm sure that he would be making connections with these movements to ensure that they had what they needed to ensure strategy and planning so they could bring about effective change. >> speaking of young people, your niece is only in the fourth grade but am a very public role at that march for our lives event here in washington. listen to this. >> my grandfather had a dream that his four little children will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. i have a dream that enough is enough. and that this should be a gun-free world, period. >> she grows up and she is amazing. what is the number one lesson you would like her to hold on to when it comes to her

grandfather? >> well, i think just as the rest of us, nonviolence is the most potent weapon we have to bring about social change, it's something that all of us must embrace as a lifestyle. and so a lot of this stuff that comes out of her, it comes from her. it's not being prompted. people should know that. and we thank god that there will be a generation behind us that will continue in the tradition of our parents and us and, you know, yolanda renee is going to be something to watch. >> an amazing little young girl and all of us watched and admired her appearance there. bernice, thank you so much for joining us on this important day. >> thank you, wolf. i appreciate it. >> let's go to cornell right

now. cornell, what is it about dr. king that continues to influence younger generations that weren't even born 50 years ago? weren't even around during his lifetime? >> so one of the things i'm just morally mindful of is the fact that we have this generation of young people who understand that america's most morally prominent apostle of nonviolence was himself a victim of gun violence. commemorating the anniversary of his death as his legacy lives on in literally -- not just his granddaughter but the grandchildren of dr. king, of every hue and heritage who are standing against gun violence across the country, whether perpetuated by police officers or mass shooters in schools. these young people literally understand that dr. king's legacy is not about inheritance

but rather instruction. we have to share it with them. we have to teach it. we have to understand and appreciate the fact that today is not merely about moral -- i should say nostalgic commemoration but rather about moral emulation. they're, in fact, emulating dr. king through registering people to vote. his legacy lives on. that is something that we should all celebrate. >> i know we made tremendous progress but there's still a long way to go. if he were with us today, what do you think he would say? >> i think dr. king would be tremendously concerned about the amount of violence that we have in our culture. the fact that we have literally thousands and thousands of americans who lose their lives at the hands of guns, carried by civilians and we also have 950 to 1,000 people lose their lives at the hands of guns carried by police officers. he would be concerned about a

culture of gun violence. he would be concerned about the sophisticated voter suppression 50 years later as opposed to the crude vote of denial 50 years ago. but more than anything, dr. king would preach to us about the necessity of having hope. you can't make the empirical case for hope because hope is not a matter of an empirical proof but a moral choice. dr. king would call on us to persist and prevail in terms of nonviolence and to perpetuate and move his legacy forward. that, i believe, we're doing in spite of all the challenges. and i would also note this, wolf. he would call us to love. because when we are in the era of rising hate crime against muslims, against jews, latinos, african-americans, trans folk, dr. king would call us to love, practicing unconditional love. at the end of the day, love is

not a secular nicety or civic platitude. it's the substance of this democracy. we need it literally to survive as a country, community, as humanity. i believe he would say that to us. >> good point. cornell william brooks, thank you for joining us on this important day. that does it for me. to all our viewers, thanks for watching. the news continues after a quick break.

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