do you want a pulled park sandwich? >> we are cooking for 6,500 to 7,000 people. it is pretty special. >> it is an awesome event. the barbecue is stellar. >> it is the biggest thank you we can give those men and women that have served. to find out more or to nominate someone you think should be a cnn hero go to cnn heros.com. that's it. thanks for watching. i'll see you back here tomorrow. good evening. the second most watched show on prime time television showed ratings will not be seen at regularly scheduled time tonight or ever again. today abc cancelled the revival of roseanne after her tweet comparing senior adviser an ape.

vj is vallerie. you have her calling an african american the offspring of an achlt she took down the tweet and issued an apology. i apologized to valerie and to all americans. i am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her look. forgive me, my joke was in bad ta taste. it happened today, nearly 63 years after rosa parks refused to move from a seat tonight president trump is speaking in nashville. well talk about the star he embraced two months ago to the day. >> look at roseanne. look at her ratings. look at her ratings.

i got a call from mark burnett. he did the apprentice. he is a great guy. he said i called just to say hello and to tell you, did you see roseanne's ratings? they were unbelievable, over 18 million people, and it was about us. they haven't figured it out. the fake news hasn't quite figured it out yet. >> it was about us he said. >> what does it say about us now about where we are? in some ways we have never quite seen a moment like this one. abc pulled the plug for the network. today every single starbucks closed down so employees could receive training. when it comes to racism it looks like the marketplace is doing one thing even if it costs money in the short term.

not only does outlandishly speech often go unpunished it often goes rewarded by some. it rose after all touting conspiracy theory. saying the first african american. roseanne bar's is her own. how has america changed with regard to race? abc's actions represent a step forward or does the fact that the action surprise so many people represent the real sign of our times? let's talk with brian who is also with cnn media. you have been breaking news with

us. >> it is right now. and abc owned by disney wants to make a statement. corporate america will full phil that moral leadership vacuum. >> are you surprised? >> i was like this is amazing. this is a woman who has done a lot of commenting that really should have pushed them at least to be ready to push them. it should have been over we overwhelmingly surprised. hesitated to take action. here it was too much. it was too much. i don't think any of us are

overwhelmingly surprised this came out of this. >> and it is right. abc news who they were hiring. she has been very -- she has bsh been pushing other things far while. >> it was a business calculation that bringing roseanne back would be a risk. they all wanted the roseanne revival. >> a lot of attention but it backfired today as advertisers. she might tone it down. focus on the show. it said she was not able to. one said it was the third or fourth that's been a problem. >> we have to also point out part of the reason is because it

is speaking to the trump audience. >> she was connected. she said i'm a trump supporter. it is kind of all about the tone that has been set. >> i think she and others licensed to say more. >> does being a trump supporter -- >> no. i don't think it does. there should be shows on

television. >> what do you make of what roseanne bar said? >> i was blessed and washington d.c. a few hours ago reflecting on the life and legacy of martin luther king junior. >> it these days we need the spirit of martin luther king. we talked about racism and poverty and militarism. >> muslims and anti jewish racism. our challenge is how do we

fortify ourselves to make those who engage in such language and action accountable and responsible and most importantly how do we ensure that we are strong enough to help overcome the various forms of racism? what we don't want to do is fantasize these magical powers or these moments of vicious hatred. we have to decenter it and keep the focus on. people who are fighting, people who are trying to come to terms with what it means to overcome contempt and hatred. i think it was more important than anything else. trump will be trump. he is gangster. he mobilizes and appeals to the base. he is america's cherry pie.

which part of america is going to triumph? right now the kings part is very weak and feeble. we are getting stronger. >> i wonder if you were hardened at all by corporate america. black panther brought in african american audiences that disney had not seen before. is it just a money decision or is something changing in corporate america? >> no. there are human beings concerned with compassion and integrity in corporate america.

>> the line has been crossed and image being dismerged that's what happened today. it's good for abc. he strikes him and he has got a real moral element in what he is doing. he has to run a business. he has enough money and going to make a profit. always going to be a combination of trying to do well and do good. the morality and there's a lot of people that say it's unfair

to link president trump to the comments made by roseanne bar. do you think it's unfair? >> no. i'm not. >> i heard her. i think she took a high road. she was probably honorable when she talked about the focus away from herself. the racism in our schools, the racism in our civic institutions, in our universities and colleagues and so forth and so on. >> the leader sets the tone. >> donald trump sets the tone. we should not be surprised. we have got to some how keep our focus on how do we fight with moral and spiritual content? how do we fight in such a way that the best of who we are can be accented? he will do what he is going to do. what are we going to do?

lukewarm. don't want to get involved. what is at stake? it is the future of the democratic society. this is a crucial moment, a serious moment, a pivotal moment. don't get full of panic and hysteria. no. not at all. >> wake up in the morning it's the blues. you wrestle with the blues all day and next morning it's good morning heart ache. how do you make that heart ache never a last word? over coming it with the love, justice, with compassion and most importantly with sense of community, cross color, cross sexual or yen statiientation. we should say this too. when they talked about the muslim brotherhood and the planet of the apes that might be a system that there's other persons who are also viewed as other.

we can't get all of a sudden hyped up about this kind of racism and not say a mumbling word about racism against palestinians we must be consistent across the board. that's the legacy of martin luther king. in the end either we build on

martin king. >> big money. big military. >> i have to take a break. >> the president has to say about the tweet and the reaction. he praised roseanne for her big rating. will he say anything in his speech tonight in we are monitoring that. >> new reporting on how he was trying to control the probe even after he recused himself. >> we'll be right back. coppertone sport.

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♪now i'm gonna tell my momma ♪that i'm a traveller ♪i'm gonna follow the sun transitions™ light under control™ roseanne is cancelled and the question now that roseanne revealed by a pair of tweets had the president's views changed. he has said anything about her show being cancelled or about race? >> not yet. we should point out he does have the teleprompters out for the speech tonight. they don't completely keep him from going off the rails. they do sort of keep them on track. we'll be monitoring to see what he says at this rally.

they said the president has more important things that do. he has been focusing on petty things as we have been seeing in his tweets. this morning accused robert mueller of plotting to meddle in the upcoming midterm elections coming up this fall. we should point out he is at this rally here not because he is worried about robert mueller because of jitters about losing

congress. >> it's easy to focus on racist comments by roseanne bar and lose site of the day-to-day racism that so many in this country face and indignities face whether it's on the world or in any walk of life. >> that's right. >> absolutely. the vicious forms of racism or whatever it is takes institutional forms since it delimits the life chances and possibilities of precious human beings to flourish. we have to keep the focus as much on those realities and those who were fighting against them. but i would also say this, the right wing brothers and sisters

disproportionately who are vanilla that sit the important to even condemn and indict but not to demonize. you hate to sin but try to love the sinner. they must be accountable. they must be responsible. you can change and all human beings do have the possibility of changing. if you get moderate republicans what are against forms of racism. we can disagree on a whole host of things but when it comes to those forms of hatred they have to step out. too many around the country are silent.

too many are with holding their moral tongues and there by are cullable to reenforcing high forms of immorality. that's what we are talking about. >> so what gives you hope? you were in charlottesville. you saw with your own eyes on that friday night when you had hundreds openly marching chanting jews will not replace us. blood and soil and the pot says there very very fine people on both sides of the protest that day. where do you see signs -- what makes you optimistic? >> well, one, i have never been an optimist. i'm not a pessimist either.

it is a sight of hope and hope is such a magnificent virtue. it could leave you defenseless. but hope in the deeper sense and the blues says low and behold never be optimistic. never be pessimistic. that is paralyzing and debilitating. >> so badly needed these days. i am in no way optimistic. i think there had never been a moment where we had grounds for optimism. no. hope is about creating the new evidence by loving deep enough, having enough courage to try to change the world and not of it

and not conforming to the idols but being a nonconfirmist. >> and action. that's where you put the focus. courageous touch. action takes a number of different forms. it's not just hitting the streets and go to jail. some of us must be willing to give our lives. so it is not to be viewed in a narrow way. you can be a poet. it is a form of action in that play. in that way you have to broaden it out.

>> that's the streets. it is as you do your job in pursuing the job and recognizing all of us are foulable. they are all small truths that were willing to live and die. >> thank you for being with us. appreciate it. >> she has had her moments before. . >> she was hard to listen to as she sang the national anthem. when she was done barr cemented this moment in history. she grabbed her crotch then she spit as if to mock baseball

players. >> my reaction is it was disgraceful. that's the way i feel about it. i think a lot of san diego fans felt the same thing. >> barr eventually apologized. >> the lesson here is people make mistakes and after they have apologized 9,000 times they should be forgiven and it should be forgotten. >> barr said i started too high. i knew about six notes in i couldn't hit the big note so i just tried to get through it. the crotch grab, she told the post if the song had gone better she would have taken a longer beat between the anthem and her quote tribute to the players. she just wanted to get out of there. roseanne barr has never been a strange tore controversy. >> at her request she was photographed as hitler for a

jewish humor magazine. apparently she is mocking the holocaust. >> as part of that shoot barr baked what she called little jew cookies. she later said she was making fun of hitler, not his victims. a year later after marine oz -- -- barr suggested he did so because he was gay and the church drove him to take his life. she later apologized after learni learni learning osman's son was not gay. in years she has been known for promoting mild right wing conspiracy theories. she accused of giving the nazi salute. she suggested president trump helped break up a child sex trafficking ring that was run by prom nant democrats. the ring was based out of a washington d.c. pizza restaurant

and dubbed the pizza gate conspiracy theory. it was all made up. just a couple of months ago it was trademarked roseanne. when jimmy kimmel she ksuggeste hillary clinton was a murder. >> i deleted it. >> cnn, new york. coming up there's more breaking news. new york times reporting after he recused himself. that request is being investigated by robert mueller. details ahead. ♪ do you still think i'm crazy standing here today ♪ ♪ i couldn't make you love me applebee's 2 for $20, now with steak. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood.

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he said he should reverse his decision to recuse himself. according to the times the confrontation is being investigate bid robert mueller and raises questions about obstruction of justice attempts. so if you can, walks through this when and how did the president approach the attorney general to unrecuse himself

essentially? >> sure. almost immediately after the recusal. the president was upset it had taken place. the wiretap treats, there was a dinner where the president directly asked the attorney general to unrecuse in the russia investigation. sessions said no. he was told that the recusal was overly broad. now special council robert mueller is looking into this. >> and according to the times report a number of the questions that the trump team believes mueller wants to talk about, a number of those refer to effort

to get him to unrecuse himself. >> correct. or at least efforts to talk to him about sessions and sessions recu recu recusesal. it would be part of that. >> is it known what -- i mean was there, what was the back and forth what tit was like? the president had been avoiding talking to sessions for days, correct? >> my understanding is not that it was -- but again, i'm not certain. i don't believe it was an overly exchange. we are not talking about the president in most examples. but we don't have enough information about that one way or the other. >> the president still hasn't really forgiven sessions for his recusal has he? >> no. it has actually gotten worse as

i understand it. they described him as the original sin by sessions. he is not the fbi director. the list goes on. the president has not only not forgiven it, he has dug in harder and seems to be trying to torment him until he leaves. >> it has come up in several interviews. >> rudy giuliani weighed in. what did he say? >> that i'm not sure because i haven't had the conversation with him. i think the president believes that the question is less ability the appropriateness of

recusing. you know they believe that any questioning of the president would fall under executive privilege. >> thanks very much. did the president cross any lines? it is hard to know. he did what was required of him under the regulations. there are specific regulations that require him to recuse himself from an investigation of a campaign about which he has been a senior adviser. so really he had no choice. if there's a blame anybody here it is the people who advised the president in the selection of sessions at the outset for not knowing what the regulations are regarding people who are

advisers it may be smk by incesting that he do something which regular lagtss prohibit him from doing. we know from the 49 questions earlier this month. >> it says take responsibility and handle it correctly. is that an arlgt you think would hold up? >> he is try to go say that the president has the right to ask the attorney general to unrecuse

himself. >> our focus has been ton firing of comey which comes plalater. >> it is an earlier in time investigation. >> how much could this add to a possible obstruction of justice investigation? >> so he is right to say let's look at the time line of things. i call it abuse more than obstruction of justice. >> you ask about the flynn

investigation go. you thought it might be the first act. if the pressuring of sessions to unrecuse himself is thought to be part of abusive chain of behavior. it is everything alekked to have done. i want this to end and i'm going to do anything i can to ensure that's the outcome i achieved. >> you know, i'm wondering is he going to tell trump what mueller asked him.

>> i think sessions is free but i'm sure that muelle rand his team asked him not to share his testimony. >> thanks very much. appreciate it. more breaking news just ahead. court documents show that a sweet art plea deal, the guy known as the taxi king got a lot sweeter after cohen's office was raided. we have details on that in a moment. your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. flonase.

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you may remember when the taxi king agreed to jail time if he cooperated it was the personal lawyer to president trump. today we learned from court records that the final deal got a lot better. the home and hotel room. so explain how the new deal compared to the deal that the taxi king was originally offered. >> en essentially it means no jail time. it showed he was offered a deal where he would serve between 2 and 6 years in prison and pay a million dollars.

he was charged with not paying $5 million in taxes. that was the initial deal that was on the table. >> he rejected that deal. >> the prosecutors said we are going to go ahead to tlirial. we learned he struck a different deal that allowed him to avoid jail time all together. >> they haven't said it was in any way. >> that's right. >> it certainly seems coincidental. >> right. if you look at the time line here plea deals can be sweetened because of the trial date that's coming up. we see it was march 21st. he rejected it. >> it is two to six years in prison. >> right. they reject that deal. they say we are not going to make another offer. michael cohen's office is raided

in manhattan. after a referral from robert mueller. we flash forward about a month and we see the other offer where he needs guilty. >> that's an awesome picture of freidman with his glasses on. we don't know what, if anything, any cooperation by freidman may relate to. it may rerate to just some kind of business deals. >> that's right. i mean the raid does conducted by the u.s. attorney's office in manhattan. they have said they are looking into michael cohen's personal financial deals. sources have told cnn relates to -- looking for items that have to do with any payments that cohen made as well as this business.

that's the limitation of what we know. we no he has owned medallions for about two decades. one of his business partners was freidman. cohen has since thought to distance himself. he said he was never a partner. he told me last month before this deal came about that michael cohen is a great friend and wonderful client. >> all right. we'll see what happens. just ahead, roseanne barr's show cancelled after a twitter rant. we came with big appetites. with expedia, you could book a flight, hotel, car, and activity all in one place. ♪

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we're going to turn back to our lead story about roseanne barr. we'll continue to monitor president trump speaking right now in nashville. president trump has talked for half an hour and not said anything yet. if you glance at roseanne barr's twitter. you know she posted a racist tweet about valerie jarrett, the planet of the apes and muslim brotherhood had a baby. they would be vj. she also tweeted a fake claim about chelsea clinton, and her show was cancelled and her

representation left here. we're joined now by the panel. were you surprised with the speed with which abc moved on this? >> yes and no, no because there has been sustained pressure before we all heard about it and also notably this is valerie jarrett, a black woman, and i feel there has been pressure from social media, action from the network, sponsors, she a part of a trajectory happening for a while. literally between shows, it got cancelled. so i do realize a few of us are catching our breath and have been doing sustained activism for a while. >> disney has a huge success

with "black panther" and also a new head of abc entertainment. >> yes. >> so there is increasing importance that disney and abc is placing on african-american audience. is this a part of that? >> it could be, one thing that isn't talked about who is valerie jarrett? you can't have a bigger contrast than the classless roseanne barr and the 1,000% class act that is valerie jarrett. if barack obama and michelle obama were king and queen, she was the queen mother. when you worked in that white house you were more worried about offending valerie jarrett than you were the chief of staff or anybody else. she held the standard. for her, in particular to be subjected to this sort of crap shocked a lot of people. roseanne barr picked the wrong african-american woman to mess with. people were unbelievably outraged today. you take those jobs in that building, in that white house, it is 24/7 pressure.

she never cracked. it is the 24/7 opportunities to be rude, offensive, to lose your grace, to lose your place. she never did. then she leaves, goes out, does good stuff in the community. helping causes. why pick on her? so part of this story not only do you have a classless moron, you have a class act and the entire country stood with her. that's important. >> would you expect president trump to say something about it? >> i would hope him to. i don't expect him to. which is really unfortunate. you talk about roseanne barr and the spreading of conspiracy theories, misinformation, and racist comments, donald trump has done some of this, himself, this is a truly teachable moment when someone makes such a disparaging moment, this is an

opportunity about political correctness. it's about human decency. you don't talk like this without seeing serious consequences, right now we are monitoring this speech, the president hasn't denounced this at all. it's sad mickey mouse is taking more of a stance on racism than the president of the united states. abc did the right thing. they have 18 million reasons, 18 million viewers behind the show. they took a stance. unfortunately, roseanne barr did a good thing in giving conservatives a seat at the table. the entertainment industry said we can entertain an idea without accepting it. hollywood didn't ignore half of the country for the first time in a long time. unfortunately, this has done tremendous damage to them. >> i agree with you 100%. we need to have more red state heroes and voices, but red state

america can have a better state than roseanne barr. >> we're going to take a quick break. the president called rosanne to congratulate her on her ratings. we'll see if he mentions her tonight. more ahead. y momma♪ ♪that i'm a traveller ♪i'm gonna follow the sun♪ ♪now i'm gonna tell my momma ♪that i'm a traveller ♪i'm gonna follow the sun transitions™ light under control™ transitions™ with tripadvisor, finding your perfect hotel at the lowest price... is as easy as dates, deals, done! simply enter your destination and dates... and see all the hotels for your stay! tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites...

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roseanne barr compares an african-american woman, former adviser valerie jarrett to an ape. she called it a bad joke. she apologized to jarrett and the country, but the damage was done. abc cancelled the show. across the country people are certainly talking about it again and the panel again with us. rich, is it disingenuous for the white house to say the president is too focused elsewhere to comment on this given that he has certainly commented on a lot of things and spoke in a speech about rosanne's ratings for quite a lengthy amount of time. >> it would have been better if the white house looked around the corner a little bit. it's not a shocking story or a new phenomenon that she is a kook with some vile views.

it's readily available if anybody looked at her twitter feed arc weakness of the right. it's a weakness of the right. we disdain celebrities but we crave our own celebrities. we disdain popular culture and definitely want successes in the popular culture heroes. i'm at a disadvantage, i've never seen the program. i only watch news and sports. i haven't watched the sitcom since the 1990s. as van said, if you want someone who represents a red america, finds someone better. >> brian, you have been reporting about this all day. what's the latest you have learned about this? >> a sense of pride in abc and disney and how quickly it happened. there was a question about what rosanne might say next. she was speaking about a statement of contrition. one of the producers said i hope she seeks help. we have seen this act before with other celebrities when they say they will try to say the