country, it's pretty special. >> this is an awesome event. the barbecue is stellar. >> barbecue is really about bringing people together, and for us this is the biggest thank you we can give those men and women that have served. >> to learn more about stan's nonprofit, head to cnnheros.com. while you're there, nominate someone you think should be a cnn hero. i'm ryan nobles in new york. i'll see you in two hours from now live in the "cnn newsroom." now live in the "cnn newsroom." "smerconish" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia. we welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. happy memorial day weekend to our friends here at home. so the president says everybody is calling it spygate, and if you listen to only the conservative media, you'll be

convinced he's right. it's a confusing story, but what does the evidence show? i think i can cut through the partisan noise and spell out what you really need to know. and with the midterms less than six months away, must mueller take account of the electoral calender as he decides when to wrap up his report? i say no. that was jim comey's mistake. plus, after the president kept bashing nfl players for taking a knee during the national anthem, the league imposed new roles and fines, but if they think that's fixing the problem, i'm throwing a flag on that play. and this is commencement season, and speakers of all stripes are addressing the political climate, but should they go so far as to name the president? plus, an exclusive interview with an author who is fighting the good fight to bridge the partisan divide and donating all his profits to charity. chris cuomo is here to question the eteamed author of a brand-new book, "clowns to the

rest of me and jokers to the right." that would be me. first, the president and members of conservative media have promoted a theory that the fbi imbedded a spy within the trump campaign during the 2016 election. this plot holds that the intel community, the so-called deep state, with the support of then president obama used this spy to destroy the trump campaign from the inside. and it was that work that spurred the mueller probe now being used to frame president trump. that's why the president has labelled the mueller probe a witch hunt or spygate. watching the ensuing partisan debate unfold, i find it to be big on sound bites but thin in evidentiary analysis. that the facts are a bit complicated only makes them more easily conflated, but i think i can distill it in about three minutes' time. start your timer. phillip bump offette "washington post" has published the best tick-tock to date.

he'll be here in a moment. if this were a book, i'd call it "the tale of two professors." joseph mifsud, the director of the london academy of diplomacy, met a young trump foreign policy adviser named george papadopoulos in italy. one month later, mifsud told papadopoulos that the russians had dirt on hillary clinton, quote, they had thousands of e-mails, he said. that's information that papadopoulos shared sunni thereafter with an australian diplomat named alexander downer. three months later on july 22nd, 2016, wikileaks began releasing e-mails stolen from the dnc. seeing this, the australians now realized that what papadopoulos told their diplomat was true. they reported this to the fbi and the russian investigation was launched. naturally, papadopoulos, given what he told the australian diplomat, was a focus.

so too carter page who was already on the fbi radar screen. painful had just travelled to moscow to give a speech and while there sent a memo to alert campaign staff of the desire of the russian deputy prime minister to work together. now enter professor number two. he's a confidential source who cnn won't name. a retired amerituss professor at the university of cambridge. he's also a former white house official from the nixon, ford and reagan administrations. his relationship with u.s. intelligence dates back at least to 2012 when he began work with the pentagon think tank named the office of net assessment. this confidential source had himself recently met carter page at cambridge university at a political conference. he would subsequently have interaction with papadopoulos and sam clovis, three different representatives of the trump campaign. there is no evidence to suggest

that the confidential source was a part of the trump campaign more anything to indicate he was ever imbedded into the trump campaign. he reportedly appears to have provided the fbi with information about his interactions with the three trump campaign officials as the fbi was trying to investigate russian meddling in the american election. that's the timeline. now, three points that i want to make. first, ask yourself this, when the fbi was contacted by the representatives of a u.s. ally, australia, and told that a presidential campaign operative had accurately predicted a hostile government's document drop of stolen e-mails of another presidential campaign, what should the fbi have done? run it down, of course. second, as noted by aaron blake of "the washington post," the reason these facts don't make sense as a spygate conspiracy is that if the aim were to undermine donald trump's election, then why did all of this remain a secret until after the election?

consider that one week before the election, "the new york times" reported on the russian investigation but the story said that agents had uncovered, quote, no conclusive or direct link between mr. trump and the russian government. if this was a deep state conspiracy to deny trump the white house, then that was the time to drop that bomb, but that didn't happen. and finally, what it all suggests, to me, at least, is that for the president and his partisans, this is not about evidence, it's about inokaylation. the aim is to prepare the country for a scenario whereby special counsel robert mueller gives to deputy a.g. rod rosenstein a report outlining a colorable case for obstruction of justice that would then go to the congress for debate. if spygate is effectively sold, half the country will already be of a mindset that the mueller report is the product of a flawed investigation, even though that's unsupported in the

facts. joining me now is phillip bump, a correspondent for "the washington post." he wrote the piece i referred to, "how the fbi informant's outreach to trump staffers fits into the overall investigation." phillip, what can you tell us about the interactions this confidential source had with the three trump campaign officials? >> well, i think you nailed the overview, which is that he had some limited conversations with page, he had met him at a conference and had some subsequent e-mails with. he had a brief interaction with papadopoulos in london in september, and then he had one coffee sitting down with sam clovis. sam clovis' role in the campaign was among other things to help negotiate the foreign policy advisers, which page and papadopoulos were. as you said, it's very complicated. but all that being said, the important thing to take away here is that the contact between this informant and the members of the trump campaign was fairly limited, but more importantly, it all happened after the fbi had already started

investigating these folks. the fbi had a conversation with page in march of 2016. they already had a conversation with him back in 2013 when it looked like the russians were trying to flip him. the confidential informant did not speak to papadopoulos until mid-september, a month and a half after the investigation had opened, as you pointed out. all of this suggests that this was adding evidence to what the fbi was already looking at, not that it was in any way a predicate for the investigation itself. >> i want to put on the screen a tweet from the president of the united states that you used in your column. he wrote this, reports are that there was, indeed, at least one fbi representative implanted for political purposes into my campaign as president. and long before the phony russia hoax became a hot fake news story. if true, all-time biggest political scandal. is that tweet factually accurate? >> no, it's nonsense. what we see in that tweet really is president trump trying to make up the story that he wants

to tell, not any sort of representation of what actually is going on. as i said, the interactions between this informant and the fbi happened only after the fbi had already looked at this. he was in no way as you pointed out earlier actually part of the campaign. i spoke with a former fbi official several weeks ago before a lot of the details were known and i asked him because it was pretty clear at that point in time that would be a clear distinction, was someone actually implanted into the campaign or was this someone talking to folks and trying to suss out what happened. if they actually planted someone in the campaign, that's a big deal. if it was just them trying to figure out if someone committed a crime working in the campaign, it wunlt at all. the analogy of someone trying to rob a bank. if you were investigating an employee stealing from the bank, it's not an investigation of the bank, it's an investigation of that employee, and that's the line that he drew. >> it's very easily conflated because it is confusing. i said at the outset, you've assembled

the best tick-tock off what this is all about. anybody that wants to know what the facts are should google it or find it or find it in my twitter feed. phillip bump, thank you so much. we really appreciate it. >> of course. up ahead, there's been a lot of talk that robert mueller needs to wrap up his investigation soon so that it won't impact the midterms. i beg to differ and i'll tell you why. 10 miles on every dollar they spend at thousands of hotels. all you have to do is pay with this... at hotels.com/venture. 10 miles per dollar? that is incredible. brrrrr. i have the chills. because you're so excited? because ice is cold. and because of all those miles. obviously. what's in your wallet? i'm not sure. what's in your wallet?

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question, by what date is it too close to the midterms for special counsel robert mueller to release his report? my answer is none. let me explain. the president's lawyer rudy giuliani claimed that the special counsel hopes to finish the obstruction inquiry by september 1st, because according to "the new york times," waiting any longer would risk improperly influencing voters in november's midterm elections. but a report by reuters suggests that giuliani's deadline was self-generated in an effort to pressure the special counsel to hasten the end of his work. i don't think that mueller should take into consideration the election thine imeline at a. to do so would be to repeat james comey's mistake. july 5th, 2016, comey held that

unusual press conference about ending the inquiry into hillary clinton's e-mail server. he acknowledged that the fbi did not normally make public its recommendations to prosecutors to bring criminal charges, but added given the importance of the matter, i think unusual transparency is in order. he then went on to editorialize while secretary clinton and her colleagues had not intended to violate any laws they were, quote, extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly-classified information. blasting the subject of a criminal probe who is not being indicted, highly unusual. then october 28, 11 days before the election, and when early voting was well underway across the country, comey revealed to the congress, knowing it would be revealed in the public domain, that he had re-opened the hillary investigation because of anthony weiner's laptop. again, highly unusual. why did he do it? it seems that comey, like many, was placing a bit too much stock in the prognostications of nate

silver and others, believing hillary was about to be elected and not wanting anyone later to believe that he kept the matter silent so as to protect his future boss, especially where donald trump was claiming the election was rigged. so by reporting to congress on the re-opening of the probe, he overcompensated. just as he had done months prior with the public dressing down of someone who was not being indicted. then on november 6th, two days before the election, comey informed the congress that the fbi had seen the new e-mails and that the bureau had not changed its conclusion that clinton should not face charges. two days later, donald trump was elected. so americans had voted knowing that hillary clinton had been the focus of a federal probe but not realizing that the trump campaign was also being investigated in connection with the russian meddling. that conflicting scenario was brought about by james comey taking politics into consideration.

and i say that robert mueller should not make the same mistake. instead, he should finish the task expeditiously and release his report whenever his work is concluded, whether that's now or come september, obligation, november. besides, donald trump's name won't be on the ballot. joining me now is nellen cunningham. he served as a federal prosecutor in the southern district of new york under rudy giuliani. he also served as general counsel of the senate judiciary committee under joe biden. and white house general counsel of the office of administration under bill clinton. not bad. he's the author of this politico piece, "three predictions for what mueller will do next." nelson, i think you disagree with me. for politico, you said there is an iron-clad principle that prosecutors should not take action that could influence an election. respond to what i just said. fighters. >> sure. thank you. it's great to be with you. it is an iron-clad principle. we need to maintain the

integrity of our prosecution system and of our criminal justice system. it is drilled into every prosecutor who is working on a case that touches public figures not to take an action in the window before an election or in any way that could shape the election. this was so obvious that in 2008 george w. bush's attorney general, mike b wrote a memo to prosecutors at the department of justice saying, warning them against this. and in 2012, barack obama's attorney general, eric holder, simply took the same memo, put his name at the top and reissued it virtually verbatim. this is something that goes beyond politics. it's something that every prosecutor considers because no prosecutor wants to be in the position of james comey and having to ask later in his member eye memb memoirs, gee, did i somehow

affect this election? >> to july, you say mueller either needs to put forth his record or keep his powder dry until after the election. >> well, of course, there is no magic date, but what i did is i took a look at past cases. so the hillary e-mail investigation, comey pushed his agents to finish the work in june. she was interviewed july 2nd. he held his famous press conference that you just referred to july 5th. another high-profile case, senator ted stephens was brought up on charges of corruption and he was charged on july 29th of an election year in which he was on the ballot. july seems to be -- would seem to me to be about the last window. rudy giuliani says september 1. fine. july or august. >> okay. now it's memorial day weekend and mueller has not had the opportunity to question the president. if i'm the president and buy

into the idea this could be a setback for the gop and the midterm elections. in other words, if i want to delay this, i want to stall some more, bring on the summer with the confidence that that report won't see the light of day before americans going to the ballot box. that's one of the reasons i think mueller's got to just block all of this out, do his job, finish it and issue it. >> first of all, i think it's very hard for mueller to block it all out. he knows that anything he does is going to be picked apart, is going to be scrutinized, is going to be second guessed, triple guessed, quadruple guessed. he does not want to be part of the political equation. he just wants to get his job and get it done. can the president delay? of course he can. but bob mueller has something in his hands that he can issue at any moment, which is a grand jury subpoena to the president, commanding him to appear at the district court on the below date and time and not to leave until relieved by the district court

of that judge -- district judge of that court. he can give that to the president at any time and force the president to testify. now, will they fight over the day? >> quick final question -- >> go ahead. >> quick final question, you think he has that subpoena in his possession already? >> it's a very simple document. all it requires is his signature and then duly serving it on the president. then you get into a legal fight over when and where but that's his ultimate trump card. >> no pun intended. nelson cunningham, thank you for being here. >> thank you very much. next week, my seventh book will be released. i've got an advanced copy. "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right." it's a election of 100 of my most memorable newspaper columns of more than the 1,000 i published since 9/11. what i got write and owning what i took wrong.

took umbrage with the miss universe schlapp. long before the #metoo movement. i may or may not have written this, quote, if the pageant wants to become a televise men sa meeting, that their choice, but i have a hunch america wouldn't mind an old fashioned beauty pageant. bring back the busty baton twirler. coming up, chris cuomo interviews me about my new book. >> "jokers to the right, clowns to the left." biased? nobody's as afraid of jokers as they are of clowns. >> no, i'm casting equals apersians on each. so we're committed to helping veterans through job training when their service ends... and to hiring 10,000 veterans and military spouses to be part of our workforce in the next 5 years. because no matter where you serve... or when you serve... t-mobile stands ready to serve you.

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i'm a small business, but i have... big dreams... and big plans. so how do i make the efforts of 8 employees... feel like 50? how can i share new plans virtually? how can i download an e-file? virtual tours? zip-file? really big files? in seconds, not minutes... just like that. like everything... the answer is simple. i'll do what i've always done... dream more, dream faster, and above all... now, i'll dream gig. now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. i was for the iraq invasion but i'm against the cuban embargo. i've supported capital punishment but i think there is too much fighting in hockey. i was for profiling at airports

post-9/11 and for using harsh interrogation methods to gain intel from terrorists. all pretty conservative stuff, right? on the other hand, i think pot and prostitution should both be legal. i want to end the s.a.t. or sclaftic a.p. duty test, but i think we should continue to teach cursive writing. i'm for breaking up my state's monopoly on the sale of alcohol and i'd like to see the u.s. treasury discontinue manufacture00 of the copper penny. those are all my opinions, or they were at one time expressed in newspaper columns. maybe right now i should be saying, i'm michael smerconish and i prove this message. explains the title of my next book, "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right: american life in columns." with an introduction by david axelrod and a blurb by governor arnold schwarzenegger. i'm not making a penny, copper or otherwise, on the project. all of my proceeds are going to

benefit the children crisis cent center here in philadelphia. who better to dig in than my co compatriot chris cuomo, who launches "cuomo prime time." we spoke earlier. >> "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right." this may be one of the most perfect titles for what we're living right now and for your role in it ever. >> i love it. it's what i used on my sirius xm radio program as the theme song. i was thrilled we were able to get permission for the book. >> let's test some of the theories in this. people if they listen to you, they love you but they may not know the whole thing. you were in love with reagan. >> true. >> you worked to bush i. >> you are a republican? >> true. >> you're admitting you're a republican.

>> i'm admitting a was a republican. i wasn't listening closely enough. >> that's a problem. tell them how you got to where you are. >> i grew up in a republican household. i came of age in the reagan '80s. when i registered to vote when i turned 18 in 1980, there was no question as to which party i would join, i would join the republican party. for 30 years, i was not only a loyal republican voter but very active in the party and i had unique experiences at all levels that culminated when i was 29, in being appointed to a subcabinet level position in papa bush, bush 41's administration. papa bush was my kind of republican. if papa bush and those of his ilk were still running the republican party, i'd still be a republican, but by 2010, i'd had enough. barack obama was the first democratic presidential candidate for whom i ever voted. i voted for plenty of "ds" but that was the break point. it's a long story told in the

book, but it was largely over foreign policy that i got off the gop train. i didn't believe we were any longer hunting those responsible for september 11th. >> you wrote articles over 15 years and put them into categories, what is it politics, profiles, life and misc. what you do after each of them, you think about where your head would be today on the same topic. that is great value and a lot of people don't do that. >> thank you. >> they don't do it because they're afraid. they don't want people to think what i said then was wrongs. where is my continuity, consistency. you did it right out of the box. wrote a piece about hard work. very reagan-value era. as long as you work hard, you will be fine. that's not as true as it used to be and you reflect so in your afterward. how sow s.. >> as i combed through "the

daily news" and "philadelphia enquirer" archives, i found a column from 1985 i forgot i published. i was in law school. >> first year. >> an opinion piece about america being the land of opportunity. now, i still believe that america is a land of opportunity, but that luck has a great deal to do with it. and some get dealt a bad hand from which they never recover. and so, yeah, that's a great example of where -- when i dusted that baby off, of course i wanted to publish it again but with the reflections of someone who is now 56 years old and taking a vilook at what i now vw of life. i have no problem calling myself out and admitting the many instances i was wrong in this book. >> you evolve also. times change, principles remain the same if they were hard set to begin with. the idea of when you started this journey, just after 9/11 -- >> right. >> what an interesting time to

come into the perspective business. >> true. and the very first column that i published as a columnist is one that advocates rudy giuliani, a name very familiar to you. you just interviewed him again last week. i advocate that he's the appropriate choice to be the nation's first secretary of homeland security. that's how i used my first 700-word column. by the way, in let susperesearc, i was wrong. >> why? >> tom ridge, having nothing to do with his representation of the president. the first -- tremendous. hell of a guy. did a great job. >> you started off in this business, you've done politics, you've run for office. >> i have when i was in law school. i ran for the state legislature. >> would you do it again? >> i've got a lot of kids i'm educating. >> not a no. i'd like a yes or no, if you don't mind. >> what is this, cuomo live? it's a maybe. >> so, good. you're not closed off to it. >> no, i'm not closed off to it.

>> i push you on that because what a rare commodity you are. someone who takes so much time to understand things here but also here and dealt with the wins and losses down there. that's the trifecta how you come into your own as an adult. your gumption. you have gone through all of those phases. you know who you are, you know what you're about, that's why you believe the thinks you do and argue for and against what you do. rare qualities in leaders these days on the elected side. >> well, we don't reward people who are evidentiary thinkers and independent in their view. i just don't subscribe and i watch enough of chris cuomo to know where kindered spirits in this regard. i don't subscribe to those faux idealogical boxes. it's not how i view the world or people i interact with view the world. >> why do people like that keep getting elected?

>> because passion rules. it rules the airwaves, as much as i hate to admit it, and consequently the stranglehold many of those have over the elected officials and primary voters i think has discourttorte entire process from the country. >> smerconish family comes from coal country. in terms of the immigrant process, do you think your family would have the same success if they came to the country now as they did back then? >> i would hope so -- >> by the way, no easy path. you'll read it in the book. >> right. >> i'm saying, what do you think? >> i think that we were very fortunate. my father's side of the family is from the austrian/hun gar yeah. i talk about those roots. i've been blessed with not only the right area to grow up. i think the philadelphia suburbs were a perfect match for me, but also that somewhere in this dna that has so many shortcomings is a pretty good work ethic.

>> "jokers to the right, clowns to the left." biased? nobody's as afraid of jokers as they are about clowns. >> no. i'm casting aspersions on each. clowns and jokers, in my view, are synonyms for this book title. >> so let me ask you something, because, you know, this is the blessing and the curse. the blessing with you is that you look at things from both sides. now because there are very few generalists. very few shows like ours where you bring on both sides, they come on and go at it. they don't want that. that's frustrating. don't make me think about why i believe what i believe. it's already engrained. i'm done with this. you can't be open to the other side if you're in that mindset. it's a problem. >> i think that people who hold views who are independent and not ideologically tethered have allowed themselves to be cast as being weak or as in lacking conviction. i have plenty of conviction on a whole variety of issues. i know you do as well. they just don't fit neatly into

one side or the other of an ideological spectrum. >> when does the next book come out? >> i think this is it. >> this is the only book you have in you? >> this is the only one that matters to me now. how's that? >> for you to put this kind of work in this -- >> chris, i recorded every column and afterward for audible.com. that was perhaps the hardest part of all. if that outtake reel should ever see the light of day, i'm done. >> listen, you put a lot of work into it because you're doing it for two causes that mean so much to you. public dialogue, people understanding ideas. then you're helping kids in the worst kind of battle. what could be better than that? michael smerconish, you are a mentor -- >> thank you for everything. good luck. >> we need you. the nation needs you in prime time. >> june 1st. "clowns to the left of me, like right now, jokers to the right." >> that would be you the clown, me the joker. >> that's right. >> thank you. always a pleasure. >> you can tell, i'm proud of the book, which comes out next

week. as they say, wherever books are sold. my author proceeds will benefit the children's crisis treatment center, which is near and dear to me. my wife is a board member and it's dedicated to addressing the impact of child abuse, the neglect, traumatic events and other challenges to early childhood development and helping children reach their full potential. still to come, with the president attacking the nfl and ratings in a spiral, the league has clamped down on kneeling during the national anthem. are they making a bad problem worse? and it's commencement season and speakers are using the political moment to make a statement to graduates. should the speakers be calling out the president by name? i chose not to go there. >> be active in your communities. vote, volunteer, take ownership of the country. because it's your watch. growing up, we were german. we danced in a german dance group. i wore lederhosen. when i first got on ancestry i was really surprised that i wasn't finding all of these germans in my tree.

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what's your reaction, mr. president? >> well, i think that's good. i don't think people should be staying in locker rooms, but still, think it's good. you have to stand proudly for the national anthem or you shouldn't be playing. you shouldn't be there. maybe you shouldn't be in the country. >> so that was the president on fox, essentially saying if you're not willing it stand for the anthem, you shouldn't be playing football. makes me wonder what other professions he would say you cannot fulfill unless you stand for the national anthem. the league's 32 owners decided on wednesday to overhaul nfl

policy on protocol for the national anthem. and under the new rules, quote, all team and league personnel on the field shall stand and show respect for the flag and the anthem. and there is this. personnel who choose not to stand for the anthem may be in the locker room or in a similar location off the field until after the anthem has been performed. plus, a club will be fined by the league if its personnel on the field do not stand and show respect for the flag and the anthem. i need to throw a flag on the nfl. it's a mistake. i mean, i get why they did it. they don't want to be at war with a president or his red-state supporters at a time when television ratings are in the tank. audiences for nfl games are down 20% from just two seasons ago. and according to "the new york times," quote, while it's impossible to know how much of that is a result of fans being turned off by the protests during the anthem, industry experts have said data show the nfl's handling of the issue is

at least partly to blame for the drop-off. here is my prediction, the nfl just made it worse. first, how long will it take for someone to come up with a standing form of protest. anyone remember john carlos at the '68 olympics? i'll take the over/under on the first week of the season. second, prohibiting players from taking a knee flies in the face of what the flag represents. i know it's cliche, but this memorial day weekend, remember that people really have died for colin kaepernick's right to take a knee. by the way, i don't like him taking a knee. i wish he wouldn't take a knee but i don't think he should be blackballed for expressing himself. instead, i stand with "the new york times" editorial board, which said that the nfl owners and the president had concluded, quote, that true patriotism is not about bravely standing up for democratic principle, but about standing up, period. rather than show a little backbone themselves and support the right of athletes to protest peacefully, the league

capitulated to a president who relishes demonizing black athletes. here is my other osivation. news coverage says this move was made in seeking to end the controversy that has embarrassed the nfl. well, the only thing i'm positive about is this has not ended the controversy, this will perpetuate the controversy. this is what i like to call the boobie bracelet principle. you remember the bracelets five years ago, a federal appellate court settled a federdispute, challenged a ban of bracelets that said i heart boobies. in support of breast cancer awareness. the kids loved wearing them. one school district made a huge deal over it saying they were lewd. i knew the school was making things so much worse, usually such a fashion item would be a passing fad, like a yo-yo, soon forgotten. when a school says, you can't

wear them, kids get their back up and wear them defiantly. after years of litigation about free speech rights, the third circuit court of appeals ruled in favor of the kids. by making this a point of contention and saying you can't to it, they're going to be perpetuate it. it will be about who is staying in the locker room, who is standing in a slouched position. the only thing certain is that the nfl just extended the knee controversy. still to come, it's commencement season and speakers seem to be mostly going out of their way to send a message to graduates about the current administration without saying the president's name. is that the right way to go? >> listen to people you disagree with, without trying to censor them or shout over them and have the courage to say things that you own side doesn't want to hear. hey julie, i know today's critical, but i really need...

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ithe race for governort. has turned into a scam. gavin newsom's trying to elect a republican who was endorsed by trump. and villaraigosa's being bankrolled by a handful of billionaires. it's everything that's wrong with politics. and none of it is helping struggling families. here's my pledge to you. i'll keep our budget balanced. invest in affordable housing. fight for universal healthcare. and stand up to donald trump. as governor, you can trust me to do what's right- because i always have. i thought after sandy hook, where 20 six and seven year olds were slain, this would never happen again. it has happened more than 200 times in 5 years. dianne feinstein and a new generation are leading the fight to pass a new assault weapons ban. say no to the nra and yes to common-sense gun laws. california values senator dianne feinstein

it's commencement season, the time of year when speakers of all stripes try to inspire graduates about their role in world they're heading into. and this year, most speakers have gone out of their way to avoid criticizing president trump, at least by name. this phenomenon was noted by former president obama speech writer david litt, who we've had here on the program. he wrote a "daily beast" piece call, "why won't a commencement speaker just say the word trump." quote, as we enter the final few weekends of graduation season. i hope somebody traies it. there are times where patriotism requires us to be impolite. this is one of those times and that's something i think the

class of 2018 would be well-served to hear. well, i had the chance, but i didn't go there. for many others, trump has been the voldemort of graduations. not said by name, but they still manage to go after him. hillary clinton at yale brought a russian hat and made a joke about it but she never uttered his name. >> no, i'm not over it. i still think about the 2016 election. i still regret the mistakes i made. i still think, though, that understanding what happened in such a weird and wild election in american history will help us defend our democracy in the future. >> jimmy carter, age 93, told those at liberty university he heard his crowd was bigger than the previous graduations. that was an obvious dig at you know who. michael bloomberg spoke about the importance of an honor code at rice university. oprah urged usc trojans to

strike down deceit and be the truth. rex tillerson warned that a crisis of ethics and integrity puts american democracy at risk. apple's ceo tim cook spoke to the larger problem -- >> you enter the world at a time of great challenge. our country is deeply divided and too many americans refuse to hear any opinion that differs from their own. >> but then senator jeff flake, perhaps taking advantage of his lame duck status, broke ranks and he made headlines. speaking at harvard law school, he may not have said trump's name, per se, but he definitely called him out. >> first, the good news, your national leadership is, well, not good. at all. our presidency has been debased by a figure who seemingly has a bottomless appetite for destruction and division. >> the president himself weighed in in a commencement address friday. he was speaking at the naval

academy to graduates in annapolis. he criticized those who he says denigrate america. >> a growing platform use their numbers to denigrate america's incredible heritage, challenge america's sovereignty and weaken america's pride. but we know the truth. we will speak the truth. and we will defend that truth. america is the greatest fighting force for peace, justice and freedom in the history of the world. >> when considering what i would say to graduates at delaware valley university last saturday, i chose not to mention the president by name. my thinking was simple, this was about the graduates, not about the president, and i thought that to say anything about him pro or conviolated the time and

place rule by which i had been raised. instead, i addressed the need for graduates to become good citizens. >> like your parents, like your siblings, like your friends, like the faculty, i too want you to go forth and conquer your professional goals. that you be prosperous, fall in love, raise families, be kind, but also that you be good citizens. pay attention to public affairs. get out of your bubble and sample a variety of news outlets. be active in your communities. vote. volunteer. take ownership of the country. because it's your watch now. >> good lesson for all of us, don't you think? have a wonderful memorial day weekend. remember to follow me on twitter and facebook and check out my website at smerconish.com. and you can catch up with us any time on cnn go and ondemand. see you next week.

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tonight on "the axe flies." former acting attorney general sally yates, the first political casualty of the trump administration, famously fired just ten days after president trump took office. forced out for refusing to defend trump's travel ban, which she was convinced was unlawful. >> i looked at this, i made a determination that i believed that it was unlawful. >> yates suddenly thrust into the national spotlight after 27 years working behind the scenes in the justice department. before being fired, yates warranted the white house that then national security adviser michael flynn had