i knew charles well. he was a good friend. we went to many baseball games together. he was only 68 years old. my deepest, deepest condolences to his wonderful family. may he rest in peace. "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next, chaos, confusion, thousands of kids separated from their parents still this evening as the attorney general says it was never the administration's intent to split up the families. then why did they do it? and melania trump visiting children held in detention centers. the jacket, though. the words on the jacket specifically seemed to overshadow her trip. trump at odds with his defense sdraer, why are they on completely different pages? let's go troent. "outfront." good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, chaos. more than 28 hours after president trump signed an executive order to end his own

policy of separating parents and children at the southern border of the united states, the kids, as far as we know, are still separated. and no one in the administration seems to know how to reunite them. secretary kirstjen nielsen, asked by cnn about plans to reunite the families, gave an acronym-filled answer that said nothing. >> secretary, is there any plan for reuniting the children who have already been separated from their parents? >> we have a plan to do that. as you know, we do have a back end. a combination of dhs, doj, hhs reuniting as quickly as we can. >> yes, reuniting does happen on the back end of separating. that doesn't answer the question of how you're going to do it and when you're going to do it. the president said, quote, anyone with a heart would not like the sight or feeling of families being separated. but so far, there does not seem to be either the urgency or perhaps ability to fix the damage being done to the kids. let's be clear.

there's no sign of the 2,300 kids being back with their families. some of them are sleeping behind chaing link walls tonight. the department of health and human services released a statement saying it is quote awaiting further guidance on the implement talgs of the executive order. they're waiting. first lady melania trump, who made an unannounced trip to a texas facility, did not seem to have a clear idea of her husband's plan. >> and i also like to ask you help these children to reunite with their families as quickly as possible. >> hundreds of kids were taken from their families a week in the two months the trump administration separated families. they were able to do it quickly, hundreds a week. it was a policy without precedent, and so these kids were sent a whole lot of places. some of them tonight are thousands of miles away from their mothers and fathers. there are kids in michigan,

virginia, new york, and many states in this country. in new york, the governor, andrew cuomo, says the feds won't tell him how many children are in his state or where they are in his state. new york congresswoman kathleen rice telling cnn officials didn't take basic information when they seized the kids so some of them are so young, they don't actually know their own names. meantime the president speaking today, has a different picture, he says these kids have it good. >> they're really running them well and i give a lot of credit to secretary nielsen and all of the people that have worked -- it's the nicest that people have seen. but it's still something that shouldn't be taking place. >> again, just to be clear here, it was his policy, done at his personal discretion. yet the president's attorney general, jeff sessions, who has explicitly defended the policy, said the administration never intended to separate children from their parents, so here's jeff sessions today, and then just listen to jeff sessions 45 days ago.

>> it hasn't been good. the american people don't like the idea that we're separating families. we never really intended to do that. >> if you don't want your child to be separated, then don't bring them across the border illegally. it's not our fault. that somebody does that. >> sometimes the tape is the best way to find the truth here. they did intend to separate families, and frankly, from the very top, the president never minced words about it. >> when you prosecute the parents for coming in illegally, which should happen, you have to take the children away. >> okay. meantime, as the president's standing by his zero tolerance policy of people coming into the country illegally, his administration is saying americans better be ready for more kids. we're learn tonight the defense department is being told to prepare to take in 20,000 unaccompanied immigrant children on u.s. military bases around

the nation. boris sanchez is "outfront" live at the white house. boris, look. the president says that anyone with a heart would have a problem with this. here's the problem. tonight there's 2,300 kids that we are aware of at this time in custody right now, and there does not seem to be any plan. >> that's right, there's no clear path to fulfill this promise of reunification for these 2,300 or so kids and their families. we've heard conflicting messages from the administration. just yesterday an hhs official said that these kids would not be reunited with their parents only to have that comment then walked back. several promises being made from within the administration that this indeed would take place. it's not going to be an easy task as you noted. these kids are scattered across the country in different states, different facilities. their parents are still detained. we don't have a clear answer as to where these families would be held, if they're reunited. the administration not providing a clear answer on that. or whether they have sift

facilities for new families that are coming in. how are they going to handle those families? especially if they're promising not to separate those children. it appears the administration is trying to figure this out on the fly with no clear strategy for how to solve this problem and fulfill that promise of reuni reunification with thousands of these children's lives and their well-being hanging in the balance. >> thank you very much, boris. "outfront" tonight, alan burrson, former border czar under presidents obama and clinton. juliette kama, homeland security during the obama administration. mark preston, political analyst at cnn. there's a lot of confusion here. kirstjen nielsen rattled off every single acronym it seemed in the government of who was going to be dealing with this and said of course this happens on the back end. which, as we said, yes, reuniting happens on the back end of separating. but there's no plan. >> there is no plan. this is a situation where we see an administration that is not fully staffed, with folks who

understand this process very well, folks like stephen miller who is really dictating an immigration policy right now without having any end game. that's the problem right now. there's no end game right now for president trump. and specifically, when you look and notice that the department of defense may have to take in 20,000 children -- >> our military bases. >> our military bases, while we are dealing with conflicts still in north korea, in iran, in iraq, in syria, all across the world. i don't think that's the appropriate place for them. >> by the way, a quick point, if there was a deep state as the president says, this policy wouldn't have been implemented. >> absolutely not. >> they did exactly what he told them to do in everway, now he has to deal with it. no deep state stopped him. the people who work for the government did what the president told them to do. >> no question about that. the fact that he signed an executive order, which is basically meaningless because he didn't have to sign an executive order. he did so in order to try to

assign blame for his mistakes and his problems on the democratic party. >> alan, clearly there is no plan tonight how they're going to fix this problem. are they going to be able to reunite these families as easily as they separated them? we're talking about hundreds of kids being taken from their parents a week over the past couple of months. now they're all separated around the country. how easy is it going to be? >> it's not going to be so easy to unscramble this egg. the important thing is that we're no longer breaking the eggs in that way. but it's going to take time for the department of homeland security and the department of health and human services and downstream with the assistance of the defense department to get these kids back into the arms of their parents where they shouldn't have been taken in the first place. but there will be a plan that's presumably being worked on right now to unscramble this mess. >> juliette, a spokesperson from the department of health and human services, which

technically right now as we understand it is in charge of most of these kids told cnn they're quote awaiting further guidance on the implementation of the executive order. as i said. so they're awaiting the implementation. who is going to give them that guidance? >> the white house should. there's a national security staff and a homeland security staff. there's a new homeland security adviser. this is a complicated issue and it's requiring not just hhs, dhs, dod, all the acronyms we talk about, but state and local officials, ngos, nongovernmental organizations helping out, the private sector with the prison -- the child prison owners. so this is the white house -- the white house is the planning entity and they're punting it. so you create a task force. you determine what your pool looks like. it's 2,300. how many of those kids actually names are known and you identify where the parents are. get them together. how many kids don't know where their parents are? figure out how you get them together. it is hard but this is not

rocket science. this is a logistics challenge. i don't mean to sound heartless about it. but someone has to own it. the white house. a mere agency can't do it. and they're just -- they don't know how. not only do they have bad policy, they just -- and bad ideas, they just don't know how to do anything. and that's what we're seeing. >> part of the problem here is also, frankly, the lack of candor. >> right. >> on what is happening and who's responsible and who's doing it. jeff sessions, right, we never intended to. well, jeff sessions himself said that's exactly what they detended to do. >> as a deterrent. >> the president said, anybody with a heart. the day before he said, this is what we have to do. republican senator mark sanford in a war of words with the president to be fair put it this way. >> do we give a pass to the highest office holder in the land in uniformly and constantly

or rather constantly saying things that aren't true? >> he's right. so here's the problem. so people look at mark sanford and say he's a sore loser because president trump opposed him in his primary and mark sanford lost. let us be clear for all our viewers. mark sanford is probably one of the most conservative members of congress. he is extremely conservative. so this isn't a partisan issue when it comes down to flat-out lying. we've seen on it this issue from this white house. we've seen it on other issues from this white house. i suspect we will continue to see it on other issues going forward. >> the president today says, okay, now, because i have zero tolerance, i'm not going to separate the families but no one's allowed in who isn't allowed in. guess what, ted cruz, you're right, i do need a whole lot more judges. he said a very different thing the other day. here is the president detoday, d then. >> we have to hire thousands of judges. no country in the world is hiring judges like that. i don't want judges, i want border security.

>> does the president a know what he wants? what zero tolerance means? what it means to get there, alan? >> yeah, zero tolerance is a policy that's more about rhetoric and sound bites than it is something that can be sustained here on the border in terms of prosecution. there are far fewer resources in the federal court system, let alone in the immigration court system, to be able to handle it. so in fact, the president's identified the problem which is that we have a broken immigration system, and a few parts of it as broken as the asylum system. but you can only work to build up the immigration court system over years, not days. in the interim, when they try to prosecute everybody who crosses the border, you're going to end up with an impossible situation in the border courts of the federal system, and in the detention centers. and there's a big problem looming out there because you

can't keep people -- you can't keep the children detained with their parents for more than 20 days unless they get an adjustment of the order that's now governing it. >> the president indicate head would want to be able to detain them at least until the end of the year. department of defense is told, get ready for 20,000 kids a s u.s. military bases around this country. backlog, tens of thousands of people living on u.s. military bases? >> that seems to be the plan. i would suspect the pentagon is not -- first of all, the pentagon is not only -- doesn't want this, the pentagon is not equipped for this. the president consistently believes the military is a solution for everything. it is not. these are children, these are families, this is a legal issue, a social issue, a health issue. it's not a military issue. and so once again, the fact that they are prepping the military

as a solution means that they have had no planning. and i just have to say it again. what government separates children from families, period, but what government separates them with no plan for reunification? no data. no databases. no blood tests. no identification. this is -- the heartlessness of this just comes out each day. i just cannot believe that they separated these kids from these families with no plan to reunify them. then once reunified, we're going to put them on a military base. that's not a plan. >> thank you very much. the president and his defense secretary on extremely different pages in a fundamental way. and the president deflecting blame on the immigration crisis, turning the tables on democrats. >> we have democrats, open-border democrats, democrats say no. the democrats are causing tremendous damage. plus the first lady, famous

for her fashion, melania trump visiting children in detention centers. then why did she wear this jacket and now say you're weird if you ask why? the desperate struggle of a father trying to reunite with his 12-year-old daughter. that story this hour. [music playing] (vo) from day one,

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breaking news, the gop-led house postponing a vote on its so-called compromise immigration bill. the votes will wait until next week after a more conservative immigration bill was defeated earlier today. why? 41 republicans voted against it. this bill could pass with republican votes alone in the house. that fact not stopping president trump today from blaming democrats for the lack of an immigration bill. >> that's what they are. they're extremist, open-border democrats. people are suffering because of the democrats. every time we ask for resources, the democrats say no. they say no to everything. they don't care about the children. they don't care about the injury. they don't care about the problems. they don't care about anything. all they do is say, obstruct. >> just to say it again, the gop in the house can pass a bill without democrats. "outfront" now, democratic congressman from california,

eric swallow. the president actually just tweeting about all this moments ago. you know, saying, you can't pass legislation on immigration without getting democratic votes. and of course then went on to say you guys don't care about security. your response to the president? >> well, erin, good evening. i think it would be better for the country if we could collaborate and find a pathway for the dreamers, immediately reunite these families who have been separated, have certainty for the undocument the who are in our country to have a pathway to citizenship. issues that have consensus in our country. but the president isn't interested in that. i will give you that the president's best day in office was when he convened republicans and democrats around the dreamers crisis and said, you pass the bill, i'll take the heat. lindsey graham and dick durbin brought him a bill two days later, he didn't like it, he said those awful things about immigrants, and we've never made progress since then. >> president trump last night also claimed that he says

democrats care more about illegal immigrants than they do about american citizens. here he is. >> democrats put illegal immigrants before they put american citizens. what the hell is going on? >> and of course, congressman, there are so many children in america who are suffering. nearly 20% of kids under 18 in this country, citizens living in poverty, according to the census bureau. does the president have a point? that more of the focus should be there? >> no, erin. we spend a lot of time in congress trying to advocate for children in america. and the president is cutting and privatizing education programs. but we can have big hearts at the border, allow people to come in if they have a lawful asylum case, have a secure bored fer they are not lawfully seeking asylum. we can do that but he seeks to divide our country with his really, really vitriolic language and hateful speech. it started day one. when he walked down that

escalator and said that mexicans are sending rapists and murderers to our country. he's never shown empathy or compassion for people who seek to come here. erin, he can't understand what a family would leave behind to make the journey here. they're leaving behind gangs, violence, abject poverty. >> so look, you use the word vitriolic and there's been language that's been just that from the president's defenders about why separating families is okay. we've heard it in recent days. his own word, infests. others close to him calling them invaders. and it got even worse. now we're seeing behavior many consider inappropriate from the left too. members of the congressional hispanic caucus screaming at the president this week, here they are. >> mr. president, don't you have kids? don't you have kids, mr. president? >> white house senior adviser stephen miller, congressman, reportedly called a fascist when he was at dinner.

homeland security secretary nielsen accosted eating dinner, she had to leave the restaurant. >> shame, shame, shame! >> family separation! >> speaking of crass behavior, after peter fonda tweeted in port, it's horrible to read this, we should rip barron trump from his mother's arms and put him in a cage with pedophiles and see if mother still stand up to the a-hole she's married to. robert de niro using the f-word at the tony awards. are the democrats and the opposition to trump stooping too low too? >> when you separate a baby from its breast-feeding mother and put that child in a cage? you're going to see emotion in this country. and if you saw the text messages coming to me saying, congressman, what is congress doing about this? people who have never contacted me about politics before. and then i told them, the

judiciary committee, we're meeting on tuesday. but it's not on this issue, it's on secretary clinton's e-mails. people are passionate. this is life or death. and people respond in different ways. some of them are more productive than others -- >> i understand your point, but just to be clear, you're not defending what -- or are you? de niro, fonda, those kinds of things? >> i will say my colleagues who went to the president and wanted to confront him had the passion of their constituents behind them. certainly fonda apologized, rightfully, for what he did. >> yes. >> the president has to be confronted about what he's doing. he has shown no empathy at all on this. the only reason he changed the policy is because it was unpopular. not because it was the wrong thing to do. and it seems that getting the american people to speak up, call their members of congress, tweet, show up at rallies, that's the only thing that gets this president's attention. of course we should never resort to violence, we should do it peacefully, as leaders before us

in this country have done in other trying times. this is an awakening for our country. the president is doing exactly what he said he would do during the campaign, now we just must be louder. >> congressman swallow, thanks to are your time tonight. first lady melania trump's message. why did she wear a jacket with the words, i really don't care, do you? as she headed to visit a child detention center on the border. mixed messages over north korean nukes. the president is saying something that completely contradicts perhaps the most storied and respected member of his administration, defense secretary mattis. , so i'm not happy unless my hands are dirty. between running a business and four kids, we're busy. auto insurance, homeowner's insurance, life insurance policies. knowing that usaa will always have my back... that's just one less thing you have to worry about. i couldn't imagine going anywhere else. they're like a friend of the family. we are the cochran family, and we'll be usaa members for life.

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the first lady's own communications director today already answered the question and she did not answer it the way you answered it. she said, it's a jacket, there was no hidden message. one can be extremely skeptical of that explanation in and of itself but even a republican who is close to the white house tells us trump's tweet is quote revisionist history. kate bennett traveled with the first lady, she's "outfront." >> i'm here to learn about your facility, and i also like to ask you how i can help. >> reporter: the first lady on the southern border today to see firsthand the reality behind her husband's zero tolerance border policy. but it wasn't what she said that created a stir. it was what she wore. this jacket with the words "i don't really care do you" on the back as she left for texas, again when she got home. the first lady's communications director stephanie grisham said, it's a jacket, there was no hidden message. while in texas, she lost the

jacket and visited a children's holding center. >> when the children come here, what kind of stage, you know, physical and mental stage they come here? >> usually when they get here, they're very distraught in the sense they don't know where they're at -- >> reporter: she sat down with kids separated from their parents after being captured trying to illegally cross into the u.s. >> how many times they speak with their relatives or families per week, for example? >> well, the children are allowed to communicate with their family twice a week. >> reporter: we weren't allowed to film her meeting the children, out of concern for their safety. but in one room, young girls made her this large paper american flag. and signed their names to it. this facility holds almost 60 kids, most of them ages 12 to 17. and was chosen knowing media would be traveling with the first lady. one of many around the country designed to hold the almost 2,300 children separated from their families.

>> how long is the time that -- the max time that somebody spend here, not reunited with their family? >> right now we're averaging 42 to 45 days. >> reporter: expressing concern for unaccompanied kids. >> are these children, most of them come here alone, without parents? >> the majority of our children, yes, ma'am. they are unaccompanied. >> reporter: now this trip, the first lady's office tells us, was something the first lady wanted to do. she's informed the president she wanted to travel down there, told her staff two days ago she wanted to visit and see it in person. as for the jacket, she wears what she typically wears, but thinking about it, she's very thoughtful about her fashion choices. it's a bit confusing why she chose to wear that jacket on and off the plane. >> all right, thank you very much. "outfront," our cnn reporter henderson, patrick healey, former white house staff under george w. bush, margaret hoover.

so it's just a jacket from a first lady who knows fashion better than any other first lady in history, a former model, someone whose fashion choices are incredibly curated. just a jacket. >> you can't say it's just a jacket this one time when it means more and has an explicit message, especially at a time when there's national outrage over this government's policies and treatment toward these children. it's quite clear that melania went there because -- i mean, i'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt that she cares this is happening and she's deeply uncomfortable with it. she let herself be used as a bit of a prop, i think, for her husband's administration. but it's hard to read who the message is directed at. is it directed at the children? is it corredirected at her husb? her husband's defensive tweet in response trying to redirect the messages of what her jacket's message was about, suggests that maybe it was at him? the point is it doesn't matter. the point is, there are children, 2,300 of them or more,

who have been separated from their families. and an executive order hasn't fixed it. they have to be reunited with their families. there's a moral imperative on us as a country to ensure that that happens. >> and she went down there today, patrick, sort of asked them, what can i do to help you? not that the first lady would be expected to set policy, but was no one in the white house making her aware what was any of these policies would be? obviously no one knows. jeff zeleny, white house reporter, is saying the president's tweet when he sent that out saying it was the media led to an urgent staff meeting at the white house. they don't know who came up with the idea of blaming and saying this is pointed at the media but they got excited about it, they decided he was going to go ahead and do that. stephanie grisham, the first lady's spokesperson, said today's visit with the children in texas impacted float does greatly. if the media would spend their time on kids instead of her wardrobe we could get so much more accomplished on behalf of the children.

why did she do it this. >> this is not speculating on the wardrobe, this is speculating on a message -- >> this is not discussion about her fashion choices. >> there was the issue with the stiletto heels when she went to texas after the hurricane, yes. that was focused on fashion. this is about a message from a first lady who hasn't been seen much in public, there's been a lot of reporting about her and the president being sort of angry about these questions about why she hasn't been out in public. so here she is, she's going down as sort of the emissary of empathy from the white house after days of criticism when the white house and president trump did not seem empathetic to these children. she has her visit, she gets on a plane and has this message that seems to be saying like, hm, to the people, i don't care. she knew that there were -- the white house invited the television crews along. there were several print reporters they did not invite. they knew they were going to get that coverage. they also knew president trump very careful, and she knows,

very carefully, president trump watches the coverage of mrs. trump closely. so was this a message to him about something that we don't know, was it trolling the media because of the coverage going on? i can't believe it was to the kids. >> that is so nonsensical. >> why does the white house want that takeaway from this? wondering what this message was? >> to make it clear here, it's 85 degrees. she's wearing a jacket. she wasn't wearing it because she was cold. even if she was, let be clear. forget her resume, fashion model known for style. her own press person, stephanie grisham, said mrs. trump wears what she likes and what is appropriate for the occasion. this is not appropriate. look at her in riyadh. perfect, everything was perfect. long dress. with the pope she wore the exact perfect outfit. colored her hair. culturally appropriate. republican national convention, dress from a designer born in

serbia, to recommend sort of the region from which she had come. one of the debates during the campaign, she, well -- after the president made that comment on the "access hollywood" tape. the point is, she is very thoughtful and very careful with what she does. she's never worn anything like this before. it wasn't like i grabbed it out of the closet by mistake. >> yeah. i mean, the sole purpose of that jacket is the message on the back. right? it's not some beautifully designed jacket in some brilliant color or something. it's a sort of jacket you would wear as a teenager during your angsty phases. it's really odd she wears it today. i think it was certainly inappropriate. the thing about the first lady, any first lady, is that they primarily convey messages visually. these messages or pictures of them with kids or pictures in

some audio and video of her down there. so again, i mean, she knew that this image was going to be telegraphed. not just here in the united states, but around the world. these messages. i think the first story was from the united kingdom on this jacket. so it was certainly a misstep. then you have the white house essentially saying, oh, either this wasn't a message, it's just a jacket, or that it is a message. either way it's a misstep. if it was meant to be a message to the president or the press, it makes the first lady look petty and small on a day that i think called for grand gestures and bigness. certainly big-heartedness, which i think she displayed. again, the jacket stepped on that message. >> she emblazoned those words instead of what else she wanted to convey. >> what you see is melania trump kind of freestyling in her own way. in her own lane, she has a way of making an influence. through fashion, through her messaging. that's a place where -- nobody's

controlling what she's doing. nobody's telling her what to wear. she's doing it herself. she is exerting her first amendment rights in her own way. and making sort of her voice heard. she's tipping her hat. nobody approved that. that was her on her own. >> this is an insecure tweet from the president. he really likes to convey -- >> it wasn't at me, guys! >> it wasn't at me, it was the fake news media. >> i think we know it was about him. >> maybe he should have said, if it was about me, i don't want it to be a $30 coat. make it $30,000. thank you all. up next, a father's struggle to find his 12-year-old daughter separated, now in detention, as again this policy is supposed to be over but these kids are not with their families tonight. and then the president versus mattis. the defense secretary. why are they on such different pages, and what it could mean. little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla.

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new top night, mass confusion, health and human services admitting it's still waiting on guidance. they don't know how to reunite the over 2,300 children taken away from their parents at the border. it's been nearly 30 hours since

president trump signed an executive order to end his own policy that did just that, separating those families. that means right now parents are desperately trying to track their children down. some of the parents are in detention. the kids, some of them too young to fully know their own names. ed lavandera is "outfront." >> reporter: the day after president trump signed an executive order billed as a plan to stop the separation of undocumented families -- >> i'm directing hhs, dhs, doj to work together to keep the illegal immigrant families together during the immigration process and reunite these previously separated groups. >> reporter: rochelle garza, an immigration lawyer in brownsville, texas, says she's still trying to make sense of it all. >> the order doesn't reunify my client with his daughter. it doesn't speak to reunifying any of the parents with their children. >> reporter: garza represents one central american father separated from his daughter in

early june. over 2,300 children separated from their families since the trump administration rolled out the zero tolerance policy in early may. >> if you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you. and that child may be separated from you as required by law. >> reporter: the confusion is rampant. this group of almost 20 undocumented immigrants were shuttled in and out of the federal courthouse to face the misdemeanor charge of illegal entry. this image has become a daily ewe teen at th-- routine at thi courthouse. prosecutors dismissed their cases and the group was taken out of the courthouse. a few hours later, prosecutors insisted the charges were never dismissed. >> i think it's a direct result of what's going on with our administration, that they're changing things on the fly. >> reporter: rochelle garza says the re on the on the border is much darker. >> the damage is done. all we're trying to do right now is pick up the pieces and see

how we can connect these parents with their children. >> reporter: that really seems to be kind of the word of the day we've heard from a number of people we've spoken with about how they're handling their clients and these stories of undocumented immigrants, is that confusion kind of seems to be reigning right now. >> thank you very much. next, president trump splitting with his defense secretary, jim mattis. so, why? and don lemon introducing you to something near and dear to his heart that's changing the lives of some remarkable young people.

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in fact, it was actually four of their big test sites. the big thing is it will be a total denuclearization, which is already starting taking place. >> of course, that doesn't really add up. it's very different from what the defense secretary, jim mattis, said. mattis in a very interesting moment went quiet when the president tried to engage him in a discussion about japan and north korea. >> i spoke to prime minister abe, and he is so thrilled. he doesn't have rockets going over japan. that makes him very happy, general, you know that, right, he's very thrilled not to see rockets going over japan. there were plenty of them sent right over japan. >> barbara starr is the one who questioned -- after that questioned the defense secretary mattis about north korea and its denuclearization. of course, none of the weapons are gone at this point. what did he tell you, barbara? >> good evening, erin. the defense secretary once again in the position of playing a little bit of cleanup before and

after the president's remarks. when we saw him yesterday at the pentagon i asked him about denuclearization. and he said he'd seen no evidence of it. that it has not begun yet. none of these sites in north korea have been blown up. and he actually said he wouldn't expect to see it right now because there will still have to be very detailed negotiations. so where president trump today got the idea that four of them had been blown up inside north korea pretty much is anybody's guess. >> i mean, it is just like making up a number, it seems like. i don't know, obviously i don't know any more than anyone nose. he says four sites are blown and up we're going complete denuclearization. the defense secretary says there's no evidence of it, ask frankly this isn't the first time he's had to do a complete cleanup, a 180 from the president. >> that's right. i mean, this is sort of somehow now the position that secretary mattis finds himself in. a couple of quick examples. the other day the president said he's going to have a space force just like the air force, the navy, army, marines. secretary mattis says, well,

it's going to take a long time, there will have to be legislation, it will all have to be looked at. you'll remember president trump wanted to have no transgender members in the united states military. secretary mattis had to say, wait a minute, we will have to study it, there's legislation, there's court cases about all of this, it's going these are some of the examples we continue to see of secretary mattis having to step in another one. the president wanted troops out of syria in something like six months. the secretary said, well, we're not done fighting isis there just yet. erin. >> thank you very much. pretty stunning. no evidence of denuclearization and the president of the united states says they just destroyed four sites of which the defense secretary said they did not. mpb don lemon showing us a program that will truly lift your heart tonight.

this week we've been telling the stories of extraordinary people and organizations that are making a big difference. tonight, don lemon explores a unique program. it's called oliver scholars. oliver prepares black and latino students for success at the nation's best schools and colleges. >> good morning. hi. you're theer here to be intervi. >> good morning. >> i'm feeling a bit nervous. >> we are looking at 100 students. it's a very selective program. >> i'm the director of program development at oliver scholars. >> the most important thing

today is to have fun. we're asking questions of you but you should have questions of us. >> any one or any organization that gives access to children who would probably not have it, i think it's important. to be honest, a lot of kids look like me. >> good morning. >> she's going to graduate. >> wow. ten years since my first introduction to oliver. this is where i am. i'm so excited. >> i went through two rigorous summers with the program. >> i had a similar experience. my mom said this program is the best shot we got to great future. >> they teach you to be very well rounded. it's not just about your academics. >> i give credit to oliver for giving me the opportunity back when i was 12 years old for

transforming my life to grow outside the bounds of zip codes and area codes and equiconnect the globe. >> manny is the ultimate give backer. he walks the walk and talks the talk. he was so grateful that he felt obliga obligated, in a good way, to go back and share and make those cheer experiences happen for other people. >> you're a 2004 graduate. >> live and breathe oliver. i've been working here for the past eight years. >> one of the things that is engrained is the three tenets of leadership, scholarship and service. >> it's going to help build my future. >> my favorite of those three is probably leadership. there's so many different types of leadership. i play quarterback. that's the leader of the team. having gone to oliver and having experience with leadership does prepare you in the classroom, on

the field. anywhere you go. >> i had to dig in the tunnel. i had to go into the tunnel. kevin, what was that? >> you were walking down the stairs and you fell and this was a dog. you had gotten dog i would have said you fell. >> a dog is this. that's a dog. >> since you've been an oliver scholar, do you feel different? >> i do. oliver has made me proud of who i am. as a person of color you sometimes doubt yourself every now and then. it makes you solidify yourself. >> i was eating and i got sick. >> you understand the best parts of yourself. >> do you speak chinese? are you fluent? >> four years into it. >> give me a little. >> every scholar must complete 150 hours of community service.

she completed 452 hours of community service in the u.s. and abroad. >> she is one of my favorite students. she's a leader. her decision to play on the football team. she's incredibly fearless and made her mark here. >> what oliver does is forces you to look into the future. >> it's rare gem that every child deserves. >> you have like an idea of this is like what i want to do with my future. these are things i need to do to get help with it. >> did you pick your college? >> i'm going to yale. >> you're going to yale. oh, my gosh. she's going to yale. >> oliver opens those doors to provide the foundation, mentorship and tough love. >> anything can happen. literally anything can happen.

i'm at this amazing juncture right now where this is the first time that i don't know what's coming next. >> that's incredible and uplifting. yale. these are incredible achievements. why is this organization so important to you? >> well you mentioned yale, harvard, all these ivy league schools. traditionally in america, african-americans, people of color, especially people from underserved communities and women to a certain extent, have not had the chance to build generational wealth which is important. what will really make the difference in having the playing field being as level as possible. i think oliver scholars is great start. you go to a school that's not such a great school and get to go onto an ivy league college, that's amazing. you're on your way to not only success but to wealth and to high achieving success.

>> something you can pass on no your kids whether the wealth or the education. >> you know how to fill out a college application. you know how to deal with people in the work force. it's an amazing program. >> it is. thank you for sharing it with us. we are going to continue to share all of these inspirational stories this week. anderson starts now. good evening. thanks for joining us. we begin with political and policy confusion and the children suffering as a result of it. yesterday president trump signed that executive order to solve a problem that he himself created. some 2300 kids taken from their border scattered to all corners of this country. he promised it would end family separation. then we were told it would not apply to the kids already in custody. the ones who had been separated and later it would and today on