just about every time the president is on the road, but we'll see. strategy might be interesting. thanks for joining us. see you back here this time tomorrow. wolf starts right now. i'm wolf blitzer. it is 1:00 p.m. in washington, 6:00 p.m. in london. wherever you are watching, thanks for on joining us. kim jung-un's former top spy the one suspected of masterminding the sony hack is coming to america as talks over president's summit heat up. the president meanwhile floating another conspiracy theory without evidence, without explanation. why he says robert mueller is meddling in the midterm elections. is the president's strategy working. and ivanka trump firing back at

new ethics questions over china's granting her businesses new trademarks despite the economic standoff between the two countries. all that coming up, but let's begin with president trump's latest conspiracy theory designed to undermine the russia investigation. this morning president trump tweeted this, the 13 angry democrats plus people who worked eight years for obama working on the rigged russia witch hunt will be meddling with the midterm elections especially now that republicans stay tough are taking the lead in polls. no collusion except by the democrats. that was part of the president's twitter tirade aimed at robert mueller's investigators. president trump's attorney rudy giuliani admits the strategy is to discredit the investigation in an effort to sway public opinion here in the united states. our white house reporter jeremy diamond is standing by live. did the administration provide any information to support or explain the claim that mueller's team will meddle in the midterm

elections in november? >> the short answer is no. neither the president nor white house officials have provided any evidence to back up that claim. but we do know that the president has previously tried to discredit the mueller investigation and has suggested that mueller will be meddling in the upcoming mid terms by the very existence of that investigation, suggesting that the ongoing investigation will hurt republicans' chances of holding on to congress in 2018. but we also know that bob me mueller has been seeking an interview with the president to wrap up the investigation, something that they have so far resisted. and there is also no evidence for a series of other claims that the president has made recently, most recently of course his claim that a spy was planted inside his campaign for political purposes by the obama administration. there is of course as you know no evidence for that claim either. but it is a part of the president's overall efforts to undermine the mueller investigation. and so far with regards to republicans, he has had some

success in undermining the credibility of that investigation. but the president this morning also tweeting that he plans to now focus more on north korea and other pressing issues and less on the mueller investigation. we know that this week kim yong-chol one of the most high ranking north korean officials will be in new york this week to meet with secretary of state mike pompeo as they prepare for that upcoming potential summit that appears to be back on track. but even moments after that twooit you tweet, he was once again going on the attack this time attacking the news media saying that they were orchestrating a campaign against him. of course there is no evidence for that either. >> all right, jeremy, thank you. as the white house scrambles to salvage the summit with kim jung-un, north korea's former spy chief once again as jeremy reported is heading to the united states. supposed to be in new york city fairly soon. kim yong-chol will be the highest ranking north korean

official to visit the united states in almost 20 years. he is considered kim jung-un's right hand man. he is accused by the south koreans of sinking one of its naefr sh navy shipped and allegedly behind the hack of sony pictures out in hollywood. let's bring in our panel. we have elizabeth sherwood randall and governor bill richardson. governor, let's talk a little bit about this high level north korean official now about to land in new york city. he will meet with mike pompeo the secretary of state, former cia chief who position went to pyongyang twice over the past couple months to either is the stage for this june 12 summit. what do you know about this individual who clearly is the point man right now in these

negotiations? >> well, despite the roller coaster of diplomacy, this is a good step. this individual, kim yong-chol, is a very trusted aide of kim jung-un. he is spy chief. he is involved in recognizance. he is always at the side of kim jung-un. that is a good sign that he is going to new york. interestingly, north korean diplomats if they go to washington, they have to get a special waiver. so i think that it is good that the secretary of state is meeting him. another good sign is that the senior people from the north korean foreign minister, mrs. choi for instance that you met when you covered my trip years ago, is involved in the negotiations there with some of our people on the substance of the negotiations. so i think that they are good signs. both leaders want this summit badly. president trump and kim jung-un. and it looks like heiit's going

happen. the issue is will it be june 12. i hope they don't rush things despite these positive movements. and the big issue is going to be will it be successful in terms of the denuclearization issue. i still have my doubts whether the north koreans are going to move forward on full denuclearization. maybe step by step, we'll see. >> have you actually sat down for a meeting with kim yong-chol the former foekinorth korean sp chief who is on his way to new york right now? >> i've never met kim jung-un, but i'm fairly certain i met the spy chief in 2007 when i negotiated the remains of our soldiers, seven came back. i'm pretty sure he was in the meeting. he was then an associate of kim jung-un's father. he was close to him. but now he has major power. and the fact that he is coming in possibly meeting with secretary of state pompeo is a

good sign that the north koreans are serious about negotiating. whether they go the full denuclearization, i still have my doubts. >> let's get liz's assessment. what do you think? all of a sudden there is a lot of activity going on now in new york, in singapore clearly along the demilitarized zone, in pyongyang. good, bad, what do you think? >> i agree with governor richardson that what is good is that a process has begun about that whether or not a summit takes place in two weeks time is less important than we begin to either is the terms for what would be the denuclearization of north korea. >> we know what denuclearization means from the u.s. perspective. the u.s. didn't want north kooe korea to have any nuclear weapons capabilities at all. but the north koreans have their own definition of denuclearization. what do they mean? >> they mean denuclearization of the entire peninsula which would include the united states withdrawing its guarantee of extended deter he rens to our

allia deterrence of our allies in south korea. >> would it prevent the b-52 bombers or warships there deploying? >> clearly the interest of the south korean and chinese is to reduce military presence. it is not our interests to do so. we have multiple reasons to have capabilities included the extended determent which comes from the united states and can bring nuclear weapons to this region and submarines which are under water and patrolling constantly. so what we want to do is pursue the denuke saiks of t nunuclear north without committing to any reduction of our capabilitiecap. >> governor, what do you think? is that doable to key denuclearize north korea but still maintain the ability in south korea? >> i believe that will be a major sticking point for us that

we keep that. because japan, south korea, especially japan that has been left out, they kind of feel slighted. and the fact that we have major security treaty interests with south korea, that there will be some compromise on the american military presence in south korea. maybe on the military exercises. but i think kim jung-un has kibts of hikind of hinted that he is ready to keep the united states and south korea with the current military capability. i think the big sticking point is going to be on denuclearization. and i agree totally with secretary randall, that is this, what the administration has kind of said they are ready to see is a phased denuclearization. the president himself said it. in other words, the north koreans take certain steps on on denuclearization, on missile activity, and then they get in return some kind of peace treaty

or sanctions relief. in other words, the administration has budged a bit in a positive way from saying that they have to fully denuclearize immediately and then we'll do something. or the other option i think that hurt these talks which was the libya model. so i think we're moving in the right direction. and -- but i think secretary randall has talked about the importance of this treaty that we have with south korea and japan and i don't think that that nuclear issue taking our ships off our nuclear capabilities will be something that the u.s. gives up because south korea and japan are definitely not going to want that to happen. >> you're right on that point. south korea and japan, but china as you point out would like to see the u.s. reduce its military footprints in south korea. the u.s. still has about 30,000 troops along the dmz and elsewhere. president trump has suggested for a long time get those troops

out of there, get u.s. troops out of japan, get the u.s. troops out of germany, why do we need those troops there all this time. certainly china would like to see that unfold. and this whole chinese connection to what is going on with kim jung-un and north korea is still a bit confusing. where do the chinese stand? >> they are playing a complex game. they have a reason to be very concerned about instability on the peninsula. they don't want the american presence to grow. they observed our reactions to the threats that the north koreans were presenting to the south koreans when we decided to deploy additional capabilities in the obama administration to support our allies. and let me just note, our alliances in asia and in europe are not about charity. they are when the nationare abo interests of the united states. so forces forward deployed is to defend the interests of the united states in these regions. therefore as we think to the future of a region in which we might pursue a denuclearization

process, we have to put it in the broader context of what role we will play post denuclearization. and in the meantime, we need to focus on the two important dimensions of the denu denuclearizati denuclearization. one is end of development of nuclear weapons and also the dismantling and destruction of what he has. and we need to destroy the struck the capabilities and plants and sites. so it is not enough to just say we'll get rid of the nuclear weapons. it is a long complex process. >> it certainly is. and the question is what will the u.s. give north korea in exchange for all those concessions. that is why all these gosh yoigyoigs negotiations are going on. liz, thank you very much. governor, thank you to you as well. we'll stay on top of this story. there is another story sparking a lot of outrage today. i want to get to that.

abc now remaining silent, remaining silent, after the are star of roseanne went on a racist and very offensive twitter event earlier today. row sseanne barr tweeted muslim brotherhood and "planet of the apes" had a baby equals vj, vj has in valerie jarrett. roseanne barr is also promoting a debunked conspiracy theory on george sore rows saying he is a maz zi who turned in his fellow jews to be murdered in german concentration camps. all while falsely suggesting chelsea clinton is married to so sor soros' nephew. roseanne barr later apologized. brian stelter is joining us now live. first of all, abc has been silent thunderously silent, but we do expect them to be issuing a statement fairly soon.

are they going to fire her? >> i'm standing by from a statement from abc. i don't know what it will contain. i expect it will be some sort of condemnation, but hard to imagine abc parting ways with roseanne barr because the revival of roseanne was one of the biggest shows of the year. it debuted to more than 20 million viewers. and it leveled out to 20 10 millimil million, which is a huge number. so they makes millions for abc and the network kind of knew what they were getting. she's been an outspoken promoter of conspiracy theories on her twitter account for a long time. but these particular tweets do seem to have gone even further than she had gone before by promoting these ideas that are racist and anti-semitic, she has caused a widespread outcry including within abc. so i come expect a statement shortly from the network. the big picture here, wire seeing conspiracy theory thinking from a huge a-list celebrity. she reads fringe websites about how democrats are evil and gorng

sor george soros is out to get her and she promotes it. so screen, she is very entert n entertaini entertaining. but off air, she is promoting dangerous ideas. jarrett taking the high road declining to comments. >> roseanne barr did issue an apology on twitter after saying that i'm now leaving twitter, i apologize. she said this, she said i apologize to valerie jarrett and to all americans. i'm truly sorry to making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. i should have known better. forgive me. my joke was in bad taste. but as you point out, abc knew what it was getting in roseanne barr. we did? checking ba some checking. in december 2013, she had a similar tweet about susan rice, president obama's national security adviser. i won't even read it, it is an awful tweet. once again making comparison to an ape. so this is something that she's

been doing for a long time, but abc decided to go ahead and hire her any way, right? >> yeah, that's right. because this show, it was time for a reboot. tens of millions wanted to see it brought back. she of course plays a pro dutru character. and throughout the first season, it was a big hit. season two production is now under way. however today just a few minutes aing a one of the producers wana sykes said she was quitting. she will not return for season two. this seems to be a reaction to roseanne's tweets although sykes is not saying that directly. it does make you wonder if there could be further fallout for the network, wanda sykes being one name who says she will not take part in season two. but the show is scheduled to return this fall. and on the air like i said, very entertaining show. but off the air, abc up until now has just held its nose, just looked the other way when it

comes to barr's tweets. an executive said her tweets are ugly, but that is roseanne being roseanne. what can we do. we'll see what the network decides. >> suns as soon as you get that statement, let us know. is the president's strategy against robert mueller actually working politically? we'll discuss. and the current white house atmosphere being compared to the "game of thrones" as president trump takes the lead on his communications strategy. there is no reporting, we'll share it with you when we come back.

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get your coupon for 20% off services, technology and more at office depot and officedepot.com. president's latest twitter tirade includes a new and unsubstantiate the conspiracy theory. now the president is tweeting that robert mueller's investigators will be meddling in the midterm elections in november. part of a stepped up effort by the president to discredit mueller and his entire russia

probe. but is it working? let's bring in kim whaley, gloria borger. is it working? >> it is with the republican base. bob mueller's afternoon approval rating among republicans in the latest polling is 17%. now, it was never high. it was 29% in the poll we took before that i believe. he is still above water when it comes to the public at large in terms of his approval. but obviously the president is playing to his base because if something happens to him, to his family, or mueller issues a very tough report, he wants to be able to say they have no credibility or if he decides not to go and testify before mueller, why would i sit down with these people who are out to get me. so this is part of a strategy and it is something we've seen trump do over and over again.

>> and with that base, it seems to be resonating. >> yeah, he has an incredible hold on his supporters because of the way the media is so fractured and because of the sort of direct line he has to his own supporters, he has an incredible ability to shape the narrative of this investigation in a way that benefits him and he and giuliani and some of the other people in the conservative media that support him have been slowly and steadily chipping away at the credibility of the prosecute torts of tcessecutorsn and using alarm over the tactics that the prosecutors have used to turn it into an investigation that is somehow not justified. going after the fisa warrant and saying that process was corrupted, going after this confidential informant that was used to fid ond out information about the trump team and calling that a spy. so in the meantime, i think what is happening is the white house

has very slowly been trying to exercise more and are more control over rosenstein and the justice department. right? started with firing comey. but little by little, they have sort of pushed the line that separates the white house and justice department traditionally and this is another step in that process. >> from a legal standpoint, could the president's falsehoods be used against him down the road? >> well, to the extent to which there is an ob stwrustruction o justice charge, this could go to the intent to interfere with the investigation. but i agree this is more of a pr campaign. that is this is someone who doesn't seem to havei integrity and he has created sound bites and branded. crooked hillary, witch hunt, spygate, all of that is a distortion, it is not accurate, it is not true, but it gets picked upcoming out of the white house. people have these conversations and somehow it gets imbued with some level of truth in it.

and the fall guy here is really the integrity of the justice department and our system of justice. robert mueller is not one person, he is this notion of accountability for any elected official for anyone in this country. nobody is above the rule of law and that is what is being attacked with lies. >> and you could make the case one of the reasons this is dragging on is because the president's legal team has been in this long negotiation over whether the president will or won't testify. and that kind of drags things out a little bit here. and, you know, because we reported i believe it was last week that there was an offer on the table on january 27th which never happened. >> in the whitewater guess, it took seven years and that was small potatoes in comparison. my guess is the information and number of witness, we've already

had 19 indictments, five guilty pleas, but i do agree that this public dance around testifying is probably tactic on the president's tart to push the envelope down the field here because he really doesn't have any strong defense on the merits to refuse to testify. >> there has been a debate, do you call the president's false statements falsehoods or false statements or outright lies. listen to maggie haberman from the "new york times" said earlier today. >> to me the label is much more of a semantics game and i understand that there is a lot of anger out there and i understand that there is a feeling that this president is not being held accountable. he says so many things that are not you true that i would literally be use the word "lie" probably 20 times a day if you were just going on a day he gave speeches or through tweets. to me that loses power. and also we are dealing with someone and you know this very well who tries to create his own

narrative and his own facts. >> what is your reaction? >> i have a lot of thoughts about this. if you watch the documentary about the "new york times" that just was released on showtime, editor in chief of the "new york times" has a lot of interesting things to say. his argument is that the "times" doesn't use it -- that they have used it in headlines reporting on trump which was a major break with tradition there, but he argued that they didn't use it -- they didn't want to use it so often because it lost his its power. factually saying a politician lies means you know their mental state, they were intentionally trying to deceive. i think donald trump does that quite a bit and i think we all should be very -- we shouldn't hesitate to call out lies when they are obvious. i think in some ways what trump does is almost worse in that what he says is situational and so frequently untethered from

reality. he literally says whatever he thinks is necessary in that moment. and in that sense it is even worse than a politician who lies just on occasion very consciously in that he is just constantly spreading a stream of bs at any given moment. and it is even worse -- >> he also tweeted this this morning, he said sorry, i've got to start focusing my energy on north korea, nuclear, bad trade deals, v.a. choice, the economy, rebuilding the military and so much more and not on i go ared russia witch hunt that should be investigating clinton, russia, fbi justice, obama, comey, lynch, et cetera. he is spending a lot of time on russia. >> and that tweet says everything you need to know which is that even he understands that he is focusing on the russia story to the exclusion of other things which he needs to start focusing on. and by the way, if this is now

that he is only focusing on north korea, i think it is kind of a little shocking to be honest. and, you know, one thing on the lying question, this is a president who accuses everybody else of lying 50 times a day. including the fake news media. and so i think that we ought to call it out when we see it. what we don't know is for example what he knows when he tweets sometimes. we don't know that he knew that there was a background briefing from his own staff when he called it fake news, you know. so -- >> so is he lying there? >> or was he uninformed. >> that is a good point. thank you very much. lots more news coming up. a new report that describes how president trump is now stepping in to the role vacated in calling all the communication shots over at the white house. why some white house staffers are comparing the atmosphere over there to the "game of

thrones" and the complicate journey of rudy giuliani, once known as america's mayor, getting booed, yes, booed at one of his favorite places in the world. we'll discuss. behr presents: ordinary versus overachiever. a lot of paints say they can do the job, but just one can "behr" through it all. behr premium plus, a top rated interior paint at a great price. family friendly, disaster proof. find it exclusively at the home depot. i think, keep going, and make a difference. at some point, we are going to be able to beat als. because life is amazing.

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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. more breaking news involving the firestorm, true firestorm swirling around the abc star roseanne bharr and her ugly twet storm. write brian stelter is joining us. another cast member weighing in? >> it is interesting because we were talking about abc having no comment about these racist and in one case anti-semitic tweets, but we have heard from sarah gilbert one of the other stars of roseanne. of course she plays roseanne's daughter on the show. here is what she has just shared with her fans trying to distance

herself from barr. she said roseanne's recent comments about valerie jarrett equating her to an ape do not reflect the beliefs of our cast and crew or anyone associated with our show. i'm disappointed in her actions to say the least. she went on to say this is incredibly sad and difficult for all of us and we created a show that we believe in, are proud of and that audiences love. one that is separate and apart from the opinions and words of one cast member. so you can see there sarah gilbert trying to create some space between what roseanne barr says in her personal life on twitter and how the show feels and how the show reflects america. but let's be real about this, there is no real way to separate the star of the sitcom called roseanne from what she says on twitter. that is why social media is full of complaints about this, calling for abc to say something or maybe do something in reaction. just to remind our viewers, one of the tweets about former aide

va valerie jarrett was clearly racist, calling chelsea a relative of george soros. really ugly stuff even by barr's standards. she's always been controversial, but today she took to a different level and i am expecting some comment from abc in the coming hours. but so far silence. >> as soon as you get something from them, let us know. other news, president trump making it clear to everyone in the west wing that he is the one certainly calling the shots. a new report from the "washington post" details the dynamic in the white house after the dramatic staff turnover in president trump's first year. the president himself is stepping into roles of many senior aides leaving them scrambling to make his vision a reality. josh, you worked on that article for the "washington post." one part of your reporting says at least two people in his inner

circle, devote, liken the dynamic in the west wing to "game of thrones." they chose the show they said not because of the conflicts and deadly family feuds, but because of the general sense of confuse and see sawing fortunes. tell us more about what you're hearing. >> first year was dominated by in-fighting. reince priebus, steve ban non, jared kushner clashing. and this year it is not the same. rudy giuliani the president's laurie, larry kudlow, john bolton. they are all contemporaries of a certain age of the president. he sees many as peers. and it is not the in-fighting. but what is different is that far less people have been replaced and they are not necessarily always coordinated

with one another. so a different place where president is serving as his own political strategist, his own communications director and he has a few advisors around him who are giving him some guidance and wisdom, but for the most part he is calling the shots. and he is not leaning on adviser like he was at much in the first year. >> and the white house announced this morning that china tariffs are now back on. that is a rather abrupt about-face from last week where the treasury secretary steve mnuchin that they were on hold. what do you know about .shift? >> tariffs are the biggest i will straladministration in our article. for the first year, some aides really tried to stop him from doing it. s president kept illustrating in his mind why all these countries are he thinks taking advantage of the united states. what we're seeing now, the president is trying to impose

tariffs on automobiles, on china. you know, and other countries as well. what we are seeing, his restrictionist policies that dominate how the president sees the world are really manifesting themselves now when you don't have a number of folks around him who are prohibiting that from happening. >> and dow jones clearly not very happy right now with this announcement. down about 450 points. we'll see what happens in the coming few hours. josh, good reporting as usual. thank you very much. a frigid reception, former new york city mayor rudy giuliani booed on his birthday at one of his favorite haunt, yankee stadium. what is behind the anger? we'll take a closer look.

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from america's mayor to the president's controversial personal lawyer, in recent weeks rudy giuliani doing interview after interview defending the president in some rather interesting ways. >> if you are innocent, you got to fight back. poor little hillary, we have to be nice to her. a damn witch hunt. i'm not an expert on the facts yet. i'm getting there. >> and at one of his most favorite places, yankee stadium on his birthday. rudy giuliani is getting booed. >> happy birthday to mayor giuliani. >> so what happened to new york's former golden boy? our politics reporter is with us to take a closer look. wow, what a change. >> that is rough. let's go through -- because rudy giuliani has been in public life for a very long time.

1980, he is -- this is where he comes to prominence. he is the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, area that is handling michael cohen's case now. but he is a prosecutor of real note. he prosecutes the mafia, he raises his profile significantly enough that by 1989, he runs for governor and loses to david dickens in the narrowest election result at that time ever. let's go forward a little bit to our next one here because the '90s, so rudy giuliani becomes the first mayor, in 1993, he is elected the first republican mayor since john lindsey in 1965. i think we have some footage of that when he was elected in '93. >> thank you, thank you. >> so he builds up a reputation

as a tough on crime, cleaning up new york streets, and then obviously in 2001, another iteration of rudy giuliani where he goes from a big figure in new york city to a big figure nationally and that is because of september 11th, 2001. it comes at the very end of his second term as mayor. it makes him into a massive figure for his handling of it, for the calm. he becomes and i think we have video of this, you see chuck schumer and hillary clinton, the two senators at the time, he becomes there it is tim"times" person of the year. that profile makes him into someone who is hugely wanted in republican circles. i remember in the 2000s, he is not running for anything, he briefly ran against hillary clinton for senate, he had to drop out of that race, but he becomes someone that everyone wants on the campaign trail. he is america's mayor. without question the most hotly desired person in politics.

he runs for president and he doesn't win a single state. 2010, which brings us up to where we are now, he is kind of out of the spotlight and now he has become donald trump's lawyer and that brings us to where we are, he is in the mix constantly, quoted constantly. i don't know if he is a good thing or bad thing for donald trump. he has said things about the stormy daniels case, about north korea and the frees of the hostages that turned on out to be incorrect. but at the moment, he shares donald trump's confidence and we know that is the only guy's vote who matters. so rudy giuliani from 1980 to 2010, he is a chameleon. who he is today is very different than who he was in the 1980s. >> and being booed on his birthday at yankee stadium, that 34u6 hu must have hurt. >> he did the time so the phone bit. >> not nice, but that's what he

got. >> anybody who has been in public life as long as he has -- >> "time" said he was a tower of strength when he was person of the year. thanks. a democratic congressman is getting called out by president trump after he proposed a bill to repeal the republican tax cuts. and that colorado lawmaker is standing by live to respond to the president's tweet. also a new study estimates that the death toll in puerto rico from hurricane maria is far higher than the government had said. we have details. gives us the best nights sleep ever. experience the most highly recommended bed in america for yourself. now through june 3rd is your last chance to save up to $700 on select adjustable mattress sets during our memorial day sale. visit tempurpedic.com to find your exclusive retailer today.

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hesumatra reserve told in the time it takes to brew your cup. let's go to sumatra. where's sumatra? good question. this is win. and that's win's goat, adi. the coffee here is amazing. because the volcanic soil is amazing. making the coffee erupt with flavor. so we give farmers like win more plants. to grow more delicious coffee. that erupts with even more flavor. which helps provide for win's family. and adi the goat's family too. because his kids eat a lot. all, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee roasters. packed with goodness. your plaques are always there at the worst times. twitter rant earlier in the day. let's go back to brian stelter.

what does abc say? >> roseanne's twitter statements, these race eist rems are abhorrent, and we have decided to cancel her show. dungy, one of the most prominent african-american women in network television, in hollywood, she and other abc executives were horrified with her tweets earlier in the day. they decided to pull the plug on this sit com. i told you i koncouldn't imagin roseanne being fired because she was much a money maker for abc and abc knew who they were

hiring. she had a long history of controversial, sometimes offensive remarks on twitter. yet abc mipicked up the show because they knew they could draw millions and millions of it. however, they cancelled the show, not long before they had to renew for a second season. they made a statement about what was appropriate and acceptable in mainstream america. at a time we talk about trump's america and the strain of intolerance we've seen, the idea that president trump and his allies may be normalizing racist belief or behavior, i think we see disney, one of the biggest companies in the country, make statement against that and say there are certain lines you cannot cross. you cannot compare a black woman, a former obama aide to an

ape and still be employed by abc. >> back in 2013 she made a comparison of susan rice, president obama's national security adviser, also an african-american woman to ape. the tweet she had on valerie jarrett this morning was also disgusting. >> i have a theory on what abc might have been thinking. up until now the attitude of the executives was that they were going to hold their nose about her tweets. she had posted horrible stuff in the past, they were going to look the other way and try to get her to focus on her show, making her sitcom the revival it could be. but today they couldn't take it anymore, they had to take action. they are losing one of its biggest sitcoms, giving up millions in revenues but it's

making a statement on what is acceptable in the public domain. let's go van jones' reaction. what do you think? >> well, i also did not predict this and did not expect this, but in some ways if feels like we've been in sort of a moral freefall for three years where standard after starred and is lowered and lowered and lowered, things that were considered completely off the rails, out of bound and out of other parts of society as well and it started to feel like there was going to be a new normal of intolerance. this is one. first signs i've seen that there is a limit how much obnoxious behavior and speech is going to be tolerated at least by people know better, whether it's a starbucks or disney, you're

getting corporate america standing in to say enough is enough and enough. >> and abc, to its credit, they reacted very quickly, as you point out. earlier this hour i asked you do you think they're going to fire her, you didn't think they would. at least to me it looked like how could abc continue with her given the disgusting racist and anti-semitic tweets? >> a bridge too far, a line too far. there will been rumors that the show might get cancelled. even 30 minutes ago, sara gilbert didn't seem to be aware the show was going to be cancelled. she went out and distanced herself by saying the comments were abhorrent. i think there was an attempt to save the show but instead abc is making it very clear what is unacceptable. earlier in the day, we heard there was going to be some sort of decision. they're making the boldest

statement they can make, a show that was a huge money maker, a show that was going to be bringing in tens of millions of dollars and viewers on a weekly basis and go ahead and yank it because of a star's off-air behavior. abc is known as the american broadcasting company. what we're seeing here is a basic advocacy of american values. she had also, roseanne barr posted anti-semitic information. she was giving this from the fever swamp of the internet, fringe forums. some people buy into it because it makes them feel good to

believe the worst as the other side. in this case she portrays lynn ra -- liberals as absolute enemies. >> i assume a decision like this, given all the stakes involved isn't just a decision that abc makes, but their parent company has to be involved as well and the highest levels of that parent company. >> yes, bob iger is the ceo of disney. he would have been involved in this decision along with ben sherrwood. most media companies run frankly by white men like bob iger, who want to make it clear they satad on the right side of history when it comes to diversity. last year iger was thinking about running for president against trump in 2020. he later backed away from those plans. he's going to be running disney for the foreseeable future. but he's the head of disney.

disney is a multi-national company, van was referencing corporate america. disney has to reference its place in the world and it's decided it can't be affiliated with roseanne barr. >> cornel, what's your reaction? >> i'm absolutely horrified by roseanne barr's comments and heartened by the decision of the network to drop her show. just to be clear here, the indication, if we can say that, of this imagery of african-americans or blacks as monkeys is worn wione with an u long history. and just to be clear here, her use of this imagery, this metaphor is racist, is

islamophobic, but it's dangerous. when we have the president of the united states referring to certain groups as animals and where we have a storied comedienne comparing the senior adviser to former president barack obama as an ape, this is dangerous for people on the street. these stereotypes kill, they maim, they hurt. the anti-semitism of this woman is dangerous for ordinary people. so it's not merely offending the sensibilities of citizens, it's also a matter of posing bodily injury to people. stereotypes really hurt people. so i'm glad the network has dropped her, but this should be more than a cautionary note in terms of comedians for advertisers. it should be a wake-up call. because what roseanne barr has said and done is characteristic

of the rising hate crime in this country. so this is a serious moment. and i'd certainly like to see our president, donald j. trump, who opines on a great many things opine on this, call it out and call it for what it is. >> and we're going to continue our special coverage, roseanne barr making not only racist anti-semitic and anti-islam statements but now losing her show. our special coverage continues right now with brooke baldwin. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. wolf blitzer, thank you so. we're going to pick up right where you left off. breaking news in the world of entertainment. the top had much ra-rated, teles of the year is now cancelled.