humanly possible. it all comes down to, i hear, do you -- >> it's about the sport of it. dip the bun in the water or not because a soggy bun is better than nothing, i guess. great to see you, karen. thank you so much. i'm now starving. i doepn't know what that says about me. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. thank you, kate. welcome to a special holiday edition of "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your fourth of july with us. the maneuvering is intense as the president mulls his choice for the supreme court. ties to the bush family spells trouble for one leading candidate. strong catholic faith is a flash point for another. plus chutzpah and scott pruitt. cnn has told the embattled epa chief, told the president he should be named attorney general. if you are having a cookout

today or a picnic, take note of the menu. the ribs, beer cans, even the ketchup could soon cost more because of the trump trade war. this fourth of july, let us pledge to renew the bonds of love and loyalty that unite us together as americans. let us pledge to expand the blessings of liberty, prosperity and justice to all of our citizens and let us always remember that we are one people and one nation saluting one great american flag. >> we begin with the most american of metaphors. straight from the president himself. >> they have spent the last three days interviewing and thinking about supreme court justices. such an important decision.

we're going to give you a great one. we'll announce it on monday. i think you'll be impressed. talented people. brilliant people. you'll really love it like justice gorsuch. we hit a home run there and we're going to hit a home run here. >> supreme court and an election year confirmation battle. the president has spoken to a total of seven top contenders. while he plans to announce his pick next monday, he could make up his mind sooner than that. cnn's jeff zeleny is live at the white house. take us inside the president's process and his thinking. >> well, john, good day. the president right now is at his golf course just outside washington in virginia. probably a sign that he is well on his way to making up his mind for who will be his pick for the supreme court. as you said, he's talked to at least seven contenders this week. i'm told by people familiar with the process he's likely to make up his mind in a final way by

tomorrow or by friday at the latest. he's not going to reveal that to many people inside this leak-prone white house. why? because it might seep out. but i'm told that he's likely to give the name of possibly three people, possibly only a couple contenders to a small team of advisers who are working in a new war room here at the white house. they are going to prepare identical packets for capitol hill for the press, for others for that announcement on monday. but we are told that the president certainly is narrowing in if not already made that decision. but one thing very interesting, he has an open door policy when it comes to the telephone. and that is something that is being used extensively. senators are calling the president. senator tom cotton from arkansas called the president yesterday, i'm told, to weigh in on what he had some concerns about brett kavanaugh, the longtime appeals court judge in washington. he's served in the bush

administration. newt gingrich is weighing in, in favor of judge amy barrett. she's one of the leading female contenders. she's on the 7th circuit in chicago. there's just an outside push by donors, by friends, senators, conservative activists to get the president's ear before he makes that final decision. even though he's not announcing it until next week, i'm told he's expected to make it much sooner than that, as early perhaps, as tomorrow or friday. >> we'll see with whom he shares it. jeff zeleny, thank you. enjoy the rest of your fourth. joining me, cnn's abby philip, "new york times" michael sheer, politico's eliana johnson and sara murray. it's the lobbying part of this is remarkable. the president is close to his decision. for example, in the case of judge barrett there, a lot of social conservatives love her. they're calling up and saying, mr. president, stand with her. she's from notre dame, from the midwest.

she's a strong catholic and in the conservative view, she was unfairly attacked by dianne feinstein when confirmed to the current position. >> when we read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you. and that's of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for, for years in this country. >> that was a big deal then and it's a big deal now. a lot of people thought dianne feinstein was trying to apply a religious test. liberals get mad about the travel ban, calling it a muslim ban. was that a catholic ban on the supreme court? >> that interaction really put barrett onto the national stage. it drew tons of attention and made her a hero to christian

conservatives who saw her as sort of, you know, a martyr to what they viewed as the left's intolerance for christians, religion and so on. and i think if she is the nominee, she'll have dianne feinstein in part to thank for that. that's the irony of it all. but she's the least experienced of the nominees, and conservatives have typically looked, because they've been disappointed by people like david suitor, george h.w. bush nominee, they want to see a long record of legal opinions to reassure them that somebody is not going to become more liberal as they go on the court. >> easy to vilify democrats for applying what appears to be a religious test when you go through these confirmation hearings. it's not so tease vilify democrats for questioning why you'd put someone on the supreme court who has such little judicial experience. that's an argument they could make to say this is not actually a person who is qualified for this position at this time. and that could send the entire

timeline of getting someone confirmed into a frenzy. we know, obviously, the white house wants to do this as quickly as possible before the midterms. >> interestingly, her inexperience might be something that actually draws her to president trump who is very sensitive to how old his potential nominees are. he wants someone who will be on the bench for 40 or 45 years. he keeps repeating that as something that's part of his criteria. so i wouldn't put it past him to look past that and say, well, she's young and she could be there for a really long time. that's what i want. and beyond tharktst, i think a of conservatives are trying to confirm a tougher nominee this time around on the expectation that perhaps he might have a third seat to fill later on. and it's possible that barrett might be a tough person to confirm for the reasons dianne feinstein identified. the democrats are going to feel very strongly that her views, however limited, that she's expressed about issues like abortion could be prohibitive.

>> her problem would be lisa murkowski and susan collins in the fact she's said, sure, sometimes judges have to overturn precedent. and susan collins has said on the question of roe v. wade. the second most important person here. the president's choice. the second most important is mitch mcconnell who will be among the last phone calls when the president makes his choice and will have, not only veto power but the right to say, i do the math here. it's 51-49. may be 50-49 if john mccain can't come back. mcconnell is telling all of these senators, if there's somebody you absolutely are positively will not select, tell me so we can have these conversations. he has a favorite, amul thapar. give me my guy, but -- >> i'm glad he's under consideration. i don't know who the president could have picked but, obviously, i have a favorite. >> as a favorite, we don't know

if the president will just do a favor for mitch mcconnell here, but the leader's choice aside, i'm right, correct? if he tells the president, look, i can't get the votes for judge barrett or for brett kavanaugh, would that do it? >> i think that kavanaugh example is an interesting one because what it shows is the extent to which there's a part of the republican party, the conservative part of the republican party that doesn't want a squish. they don't want somebody who they think is going to sort of be sort of conservative but at the sort of key crucial moment, do a kennedy and shift to the other side. >> or a john roberts and uphold obamacare. >> there's suspicion roberts had tendencies in that direction on other issues that have been hidden because kennedy was there and roberts could stay with the conservative side of the court but maybe he won't. and i talked to somebody yesterday, a conservative who said, look, what we should do is, what the president should do

is nominate the most conservative person we can find. if by some chance the democrats and murkowski or collins rally and defeat that person, this person said the democrats will take a real beating for that in november. they'll lose seats. republicans will gain seats, and the president can go ahead and nominate the person again in january and we'll get them on the court. in some ways the conservatives, this is a moment where they're saying, don't compromise. don't try to get a moderate that you think can sort of -- just do the most conservative person you can get and we'll win either way. >> that's a risky game. if the democrats do win seats, then they're in more trouble. >> the luxury of losing this time around. for that exact reason, the math on the midterms is not entirely favorable to the republicans right now. i don't think the president really believes that he can risk having a nominee go down. that would be catastrophic thing for him. >> demoralizing.

>> it would give off what right now is the only thing that unites the right around the president. people, the never trumpers and the people who are most enthusiastic about trump. so i think it would be a big defeat. >> it energizes the flip side. we already see democrats out there saying trump is going to nominate a conservative. this will be the end of roe v. wade and abortion rights. >> red state democrats to take a real stand and go sort of hard left in some of these states where that can be challenging for them. >> to me, the brett kavanaugh thing is fascinating. if you look at him and his history and work, this is why the republican establishment likes him. this is from the above the law blog post. judge kavanaugh well known to legal elites. the lower court judge, as clerks who then go on to become clerks for supreme court judges. kavanaugh clerks have gone on to work for every supreme court justice except for ruth bader ginsburg. the establishment says here's a

talented guy, a conservative, such a great staff. they move on to the supreme court, but he's associated with what is truly a four-letter word to conservatives, bush. the bush family. >> four-letter word to the president as well. that's a real thing because the president's knee-jerk reaction against the bushes is so strong. like you said, a lot of people, including the person running the show at the white house. white house counsel don mcgahn who believes kavanaugh should be the guy. it's hard to know who is going to win out on this one. on a lot of fronts, cavanaugh does fill some of the criteria the president wants. he's relatively young. has a long, legal writing -- history there. and he's pretty conservative. maybe not as conservative as certain trumpers want him to be. >> to borrow michael's term. tom cotton thinks he's been squished. rand paul says he worked with george w. bush on executive power and stonewalling congress in his view. >> if you lose those two, that's

the end for kavanaugh. who knows whether they would actually vote against kavanaugh when push came to shove, but if he did -- >> and i think that's why it's a very wise strategy that jeff zeleny laid out that the white house is about to go through that they're going to essentially prepare for the possibility of three different justices so the president who has been known to change his mind at the last minute can do so so if mitch mcconnell is getting these phone calls and realizes the person he was going to put forth isn't going to get the votes, they can do so. these are the things we see campaigns do when they are going to make a vp candidate. in the trump era, it seems all the more important. >> i'd like to see the ledger mitch mcconnell is keeping up here about the vote counts. that will tell you where this is going to end up. the controversies and scandals that keep adding up for pruitt. as we go to break, it's independence day. let's check out mcallen, texas, a bit earlier this morning.

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welcome back. cnn is learning more about, let's just call it an interesting proposal from the epa administrator scott pruitt. this delivered directly to president trump. in an oval office conversation with trump, pruitt offered to temporarily replace attorney general jeff sessions for the 210 days allowed under the vacancies reform act telling the president he'd return to oklahoma afterward to run for office. reminder, if you've not been following the news, pruitt is facing at least 14 federal ethics and conduct probes. pruitt's denying this cnn report saying general sessions and i are friends and i've always said i want nothing more than to see him succeed in his role. kaitlan collins broke this story. give us more of the details and, b, has the white house ever really considering this? >> the president seemed to be. for the last few months he's

floated this idea to outside advisers n aides of replacing sessions with pruitt. many wondered where that idea was coming from. it came from the epa administrator himself during that oval office meet with the president where he suggested this proposal. this is a time when the president's frustration with jeff sessions is at an all-time high this spring. he suggested getting rid of sessions. he'd take over the department of justice for the 210 days or so you'd be allowed to do so under the vacancies reform act since he's already senate confirmed. then he'd go back to oklahoma and run for office. aides shot down this idea explaining what a bad idea it would be. but it goes to show how the president and only the president has remained confident in pruitt despite the number of scandals made against him. sources have said pruitt does seem to be on his way out. the new reports that happened this week are troublesome, but

back in april they'd be evaluating what came out of those probes. he so far is still here. while senior administration official says he does seem to be inching forward to being on his way out, it does raise a question of what scandal is it going to take for the white house to push this guy out. when he does eventually leave, the question will be, what took so long? >> that's a very fair question. kaitlan collins, appreciate that. let's get to the list in a minute. but just the chutzpah of, mr. president, make me the attorney general. fox, send me to the hen house. help me. >> it just shows -- actually, it says a lot about the president. it says that a lot of people who work for him believe that he can be swayed contrary to what seems to be the obvious thing to do. most people you ask in washington would say, obviously, he needs to be fired yesterday. but there are people in trump's inner circle who say, if i can

present to him another idea that's maybe trecontrary to the conventional wisdom, especially if it helps him poke at someone he doesn't really like, maybe he'll go for it. and the president didn't apparently dismiss it out of hand so pruitt wasn't totally wrong. i mean, i think this is really remarkable and very trumpian. under no other administration would this even be contemplated. >> maybe there were only 13 scandals at the time so it's possible he thought this was a logical thing that solved a bunch of problems. >> if this were happening in an obama or hillary clinton administration, the republican congress would be completely silent just like it is now, right? there are a few people raising their hands. >> so scott pruitt becomes the new attorney general. he did not work for president trump's presidential campaign so he doesn't have to recuse himself -- >> we've got to go to ohio. jim jordan, republican

congressman, just finished a fourth of july report. he's facing questions about whether he knew about sexual abuse of wrestlers when assistant coach at ohio state university. >> just not true. that then to get an e-mail like 4:30 in the morning just seems like we should make -- i think our office will make the capitol police aware of it. >> any plans to meet with independent investigators? >> we searched -- our office went through everything, and no e-mail, no -- we don't have any record of them contacting us. and we've reached out to the law firm and said send us -- show us how you contacted us. give us a record of how you've contacteds. the same lawyer who said they reached out to us and didn't respond has been to our office. a few years ago to meet on a different issue with the bar

association or the legal aid group here in the state. >> anything scheduled to meet with him yet? >> no, i don't know of any, no. but we've -- obviously, we're willing to talk with whoever is doing the investigation. >> how many e-mails -- how in touch have you been -- >> i haven't talked to him since march. march or april. it was right after -- late march, early april. somewhere in there. >> prior to that, how would you characterize your relationship? >> mike russellfors was, you know, was a friend. but something has changed. you know, things he said are just not true. we knew of no abuse. never heard of abuse. if we had, we would have reported it. if, in fact, you know, if, in fact, there's --

we want justice for the victims. we're happy to talk with the folks doing the investigation. but nothing -- i mean, things they said about me were just flat-out not true. >> comment us to yesterday speaking about the conditions in the training facility, open showers, things of that nature. can you comment on any of that? >> it was a fact, yeah. >> did you remember dr. strauss? does any of this -- the allegations made against him, by anybody, have any credence at all? >> i did know dr. strauss. he was there when we got to ohio state. and was continuing to work at ohio state once i left. so, yeah, you know, knew the doctor. but there's no truth to the fact that i knew of any abuse. i've talked to other coaches. they didn't know of any abuse. that's just not accurate to say those things that we knew of it and didn't report it. >> is that uncharacteristic for

dr. strauss? how do you characterize the accusations against strauss, against him? >> you know, all i know is i never knew of any abuse from dr. strauss, plain and simple. the conditions as you described? yeah. a separate locker room but, you know, the shower facility was in the general area. yes, he would do that, but faculty staff, students, just the nature of how the arrangement was. >> can you comment on the timing of this, three decades later and your name has been brought up as possible -- >> you know, look, the timing makes you wonder. all i know is it's not true. nothing that was said about me was true. and if there is any type of

abuse of these folks, we want them to get justice. but it's interesting that the timing is what it is in light of things going on in washington. but all i know, it's just not accurate and we want -- >> what type of justice do you believe they should have? >> i'll let the investigation fig are that out. >> do you think there will be any longlasting political damage to you? >> i mean, look, i -- my job is to go fight for the principles. i told the folks i just spoke to here that i would fight for it. i'm going to continue to do that. it's been amazing the number of people that have walked up to me at the event in merion and here and been nothing but positive. i certainly appreciate that. thanks, guys. >> you've been listening to congressman jim jordan. if you follow the russian meddling investigation, spending fights in congress, one of the more conservative members of the

house of representatives facing big credibility questions. the congressman saying he knows nothing about alleged sexual abuse of wrestlers at ohio state university during a time that included a period when he was a coach there. he knew nothing about this. he was not aware of it at all. he was assista anant wrestling h from 1986 to 1994. dr. strauss, part of the medical program, the allegation is he regularly showered with and some former wref eer wrestlers say h them. this is one of the wrestlers. he says this just didn't happen. this is mike desabateau saying the congressman, then jim, an assistant coach, did know about this. >> i know jim knew about the -- what i call the deviant sexual atmosphere that we were -- >> how do you know? >> we all had conversations. jim was more like a big brother than a coach. >> do you remember specifically talking to him about this back

then while it was happening? >> absolutely. it was -- like i said, it was something that we would discuss on a regular basis. mainly with nervous banter, locker room banter. >> how do you resolve this? the congressman says never happened. he says i know mike. i know that guy. remember him well. it never happened. just never came up. i knew nothing about it. nobody ever raised it with me. and this gentleman saying, a bunch of us talked to us about it. how did this get resolved? >> it's tricky to talk about this because you don't want to dismiss somebody's personal testimony. if we're going to compare them to these past me too issues, it does seem that you need sort of critical mass of people to come out against, you know, whoever it is that's being accused. and so it's going to take more than a single person's

first-person testimony to take somebody -- take a congressman down. now paul ryan has already called for an investigation, and all of these claims have a certain amount of credibility now because of the me too movement. but it does seem like with all these things, there comes to be a critical mass of testimony where it reaches the point that the person can't -- >> you did hear the congressman there. he was asked. will you cooperate with the investigation going on in ohio? there could be an investigation on capitol hill as well. i suspect they'll wait and see and let the process play out in ohio. he was saying the investigators said they have reached out to the congressman and they've tried to reach him. the congressman says he's had his staff scrub the incoming and they have no record of it. they can't find it. he says he will cooperate. >> these wrestlers in these interviews and there have been more than -- there's been more than one person who has come forward to bring allegations against this doctor, of course, who allegedly fondled these boys

but more than one wrestler who said they brought this up with jim jordan. the reason they brought it up was not to try to bring down a congressman but because they wanted him to use his platform to bring attention to this. they wanted his help. they wanted to be able to get at media attention, cut through the red tape to further this investigation. these guys if you watch this whole interview, it seems like they're wrestling with a couple things. one is this experience that they had with this doctor and he says like we kind of joked about it at the time. we didn't really understand what it was. but, two, a couple of them have this firm belief this was known within the locker room that jim jordan knew. they don't seem to understand why he'd be denying it at this point. and they really seem to be having a difficult time wrapping their arms around that situation. >> two features of these issues over the last year or more is, one, that people who come forward tend to beget others. there has been, in all of these stories, a harvey weinstein

story, et cetera, as people come forward, it frees up other people to come forward. the other feature that seems to be present here is this question not of just the behavior itself but of the sort of cover-up around the behavior. we've seen that in a lot of these instances where large institutions, whether they're colleges or in weinstein's case the hollywood, you know, institution of hollywood around them. and the question becomes, did people enable the behavior? did people hide the behavior? did people look the other way? and i think those two forces will come together. will there be a critical mass of people who both testify to the behavior and then also to testify to the sort of alleged cover-up of -- >> i think the penn state example of several years ago gives you a sense of how this will play out. good for the congressman saying he's going to communicate and cooperate with the investigation. up next, why that tit-for-tat between president trump and america's trading

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have a little break. we'll do that after work today. as we celebrate america's birthday, one of the big conversations around the world is america first and the big debate over the president's trade policy. let's take a peek at what tariffs are in place or potentially in place. the united states fighting canada, fighting mexico, fighting the european union and china. as the president says, i promised during the campaign to get tough or trade. now i'm going to do it. so tariffs or potential tariffs against the united states? $3.2 billion from canada. the european union, a little over $3 billion in the pipeline. $37 billion threatened from china. this against u.s. products. so take a look at it for the fourth of july. fireworks at the moment not covered but $900 million in the american pyrotechnic association says will be spent on fireworks by americans this year. china makes 99% of those that you make in your backyard.

7 70%. at the moment not involved in the tariff fight but china a big player in just about everything we do here in the united states. think about your cookout or picnic today. if tariffs go into effect, like the canadians threaten and europeans and china is threatening, they'll be against pork. ribs at your barbecue? prices there may go. up canned drinks? soda, beer, aluminum tariffs going up. ketchup, california and florida growers could be targeted. whiskey. if you're from kentucky or tennessee, you, too. what you pay and imagine this. the american -- national retail federation says america spends $75 per person for their entertainment, their food, alcohol, for the fourth of july barbecue. what you pay this year could go up next year if this trade war kicks in at full force. the chancellor of germany saying she's prepared to fight back but she wishes the president would negotiate a solution.

>> translator: we now have tariffs on aluminum and steel and we have a discussion which is very serious. it appears cars, too, will be imposed with tariffs. and they are imported into the united states. ladies and gentlemen, this has the character of a trade conflict. i don't want to use any other word for now. it's worth every effort to try to defuse this conflict so it does not turn into a war. but this, obviously, takes two. >> relatively conciliatory language there because, if you think about all politics is local, the president very unpopular. across most of europe. you could see a european leader saying this is going to help me at home to pick a fight with the president. she's trying to say can we turn the temperature down here and cut a deal? >> a lot of the rest of the world is forcing trump to be on the forefront of this. the president keeps saying we're in a trade war and already

losing that's why i'm doing this. we saw china announcing they're going to make sure trump's tariffs go into place first, and then they'll retaliate. so that it's clear that in the optics of this, that president trump is the one waging a trade war on europe. and waging a trade war on china and potentially waging a trade war on allies and canada and mexico. so that the narrative is pretty clear here. the president is in his behavior, in some ways, moving away from the principles of the wto that, by the way, the united states created. and creating problems for the united states consumers that all these other countries are going to say, we were only forces to do what we had no choice but to do which was defend ourselves. >> where's the off ramp? >> well, there doesn't look like there's an immediate off ramp and part of the problem is, to the extent you can have a policy dispute between the united states and its allies over this particular issue and say to each other, you know, we're friends.

let's work this out. we disagree about this policy issue but we have a good relationship so we'll figure it out, the relationship itself is in tatters, right? he's about -- president trump is about to go to europe for the nato meeting and is going to have terribly tough conversations about other issues. he was at the g7 and blew that meeting up over this issue. it's difficult to see how angela merkel and the other european leaders and president trump sit down and work this out when the relationship itself is so bad. >> let's listen to the former u.s. ambassador to canada. he's not alone in making this argument. the president thinks that america comes out on the short end of all the trade deals. wait a emptminute. unemployment under 4%. the stock market was going like this. maybe, mr. president, you should think again. >> he thinks somehow everybody in the world is taking advantage of the united states of america. amazing how we've been able to grow our economy, become the number one economy in the world under all these really bad

agreements we have. >> but the president doesn't accept that argument. >> he doesn't. i've had somebody -- white house aides say no matter how many times you explain to the president that a trade deficit doesn't mean that we're getting taken advantage by another -- of by another country or that it's a bad deal for the u.s., he doesn't perceive it that way. so i think you ask about off ramps. there are many, many trump aides who will be trying to provide him off ramps should he ever get to a point that he's looking for one. >> somehow that he can somehow declare victory or we'll see if he can cut a deal. up next, michael cohen. remember him? makes a small but potentially very important change to his twitter profile. we continue to watch july 4th parades around the country. here, aurora, illinois. love that. happy independence day.

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topping our political radar today, fourth of july gas prices, the highest they've been in four years. aaa says the national average is $2.86 a gallon for regular unleaded. but the price varies dramatically depending on where you live. gasbuddy.com shows the cheapest gas mostly in the southeast while drivers out west are paying the most by far.

alan dershowitz may be the talk of martha's vineyard after saying he feels shunned because he supports president trump's view that the special counsel review has gone off the rails. he can live from the cold shoulder from his mostly liberal neighbors but laments what it says about america. he's proud of taking an unpopular principled position even if it gets him shunned by partisan zell otss. he calls it a dangerous sign of the times when people avoid points of view they disagree with. take a peek here. michael cohen's twitter page. a very important difference compared to just an hour ago. he used to refer to himself as the president's personal attorney. not anymore. cohen, the subject of intense speculation over whether he might turn on the president and cooperate with the feds to avoid or reduce criminal charges. he said this week he'll put his family and country above all else. president trump is enjoying one of his favorite pastimes. he's at his golf club in

sterling, virginia. he'll attend a picnic for military families later. he combined the two last night speaking at the pga tour event which is dedicates to the military. the president thanking the men and women in uniform and praising some of the golf pros on hand. >> john daley, john -- john. boy, he's -- john, i played with john in a tournament that we won, meaning that he won. it's funny. he won and then i go back. everyone says how did you do? i won! >> what do we make? michael cohen, reinventing himself. >> i guess we'll know for sure when he updates the twitter b bio to say cooperating witness. then wool know for sure. >> obviously this relationship is over. and just like you would with any bad boyfriend, you break up with them and scrub your social media feed of all remaining mentions of his name. that's what michael cohen is

doing. >> he's doing it on the president's preferred medium. we know how much president trump loves twitter. people have been tweeting about this. noting this change to his twitter bio. certainly another way for cohen to send a signal to president trump that he's losing his allegiance. >> the president didn't respond after he had the interview with george stephanopoulos the other day. maybe this is attempt number two of getting a response from the president. how proud are you to be an american on this independence day? well, sadly, it just may depend on whether you're a democrat or republican or independent. as we go to break, look at the boardwalk. seaside heights in new jersey. i'm really into this car, but how do i know if i'm getting a good deal? i tell truecar my zip and which car i want

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important pictures to show you here. republican senator lindsey graham, elizabeth warren spending the fourth of july in iraq. pictures of them visiting troops. moving on to baghdad as well. on this independence day back home, are you proud to be an american? hope so. if so, how proud? let's take a look at new numbers. this from the gallup organization. 47%. nearly half of americans say they're extreme leproud to be americans. another 25% say they're very proud. 16% say only moderately proud. 3% say not at all. 7% only a little. and like everything else in the country on this question here, it's divided by party lines. 47% of all americans, that's down 4 points from last year. only one-third of democrats are extremely proud to be an american. that's dropped 11 points. you can guess why. republicans, 74% say they're

extremely proud. that's up a little bit. independents, dropped 4 points since last year. that's a tough constituency for president trump. you see all this play out. we go through it here. are you proud or embarrassed to have donald trump as your president? half of americans say they're embarrassed. 31% say proud. 18% say neither. views of the president impact views of just about everything else, including whether you are proud to be an american. now on this debate, democrats would say maybe i'm less proud this year because i don't like donald trump. rush limbaugh would say the democrats are the problem here. >> be american. go out and do what you would normally be inclined to do, but don't be intimidated into flying the flag. don't be intimidated by any patriotic activity. whatever it is, guilt or hatred, there's a rising percentage of the democrat party that simply doesn't like this country and does not think america should

remain america. >> even the fourth of july is subject to our polarization. really? >> i think -- it was interesting with those statistics you showed. you showed year over year, which would have meant july of 2017. trump was president then. would have been interesting to see 2016 where you would have probably seen more democrats saying they are proud of america and -- >> fewer republicans. >> trump had clinched the nomination, so -- >> who knows. go back to '15 or whatever. but what it shows is less about fundamentally where america is and broadly and more about this partisan divide specifically about our politics in the white house. >> the peak, extremely proud was in 2003 which was a year and a half removed from 9/11 which the country rallied around. so senator majority leader mitch

mcconnell. how critical is the supreme court nomination. he's home in kentucky this week. he understands some democrats are completely freaked out by trump. he says some republicans are completely unnerved by president trump, too. mitch mcconnell says take the long view. america is 242 years old today. we'll be okay. >> whether you're freaked out on the left or freaked out on the right, don't worry. nobody can break this country. >> can we at least all agree on that or no? >> -- the panic that we live in day-to-day. >> but i think a lot of people are worried that maybe no one can break it but they can certainly damage it. that's really the concern. >> but like a lot of republicans felt that way when obama was president. the reality is this is still a country where both sides are allowed to be freaked out. both sides are allowed to be out there explaining who is freaking them out and why. you have a lot of free will and

a lot right ofs, and that has not changed based on who the president is. >> the definition of somebody who never seems to be freaked out is mitch mcconnell. i don't know what i would do if i saw a freak-out by -- >> calmer than most. >> that was his freaked out look. his counterpart, again, this is not just chuck schumer. we live in a 365-day political cycle, 24/7, trying to use the fourth of july to make a point. today i'm celebrating the freedom, all caps, of women to make their own health care decisions as established by the supreme court in roe v. wade. today i'm celebrating the freedom of every american to marry the person they love as established by the supreme court. will you join me @real donald trump? try to keep his liberal base happy and stir up a little conversation on independence day. >> politics does not take a day off. not even on the fourth of july. i'm surprised we haven't seen more from the president but he's made it clear, he thinks america -- >> he's golfing.

>> yeah, he's golfing. he thinks america is great but if you'd ask him two years ago he probably would have said america is going down the toilet. look, partisanship is what rules -- >> it's being made great. >> i'm going to work this in and i'll probably get yelled at. but hillary clinton tweeting on the fourth of july. 242 years ago we set out to build a more perfect union. we're not finished yet. you can say that any fourth of july because we'll never be finished. some will take that as her making a point. >> sure, look, america is very much still a work in progress. and it's going to ebb and flow. that's going to freak some people out, whatever direction you're going like it did under obama and under trump. still the united states of america. >> 242 is the new 30. thanks for join iing us on "inse politics." jim sciutto is in for wolf. have a fabulous fourth. stay safe.

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hello and welcome to a special holiday edition of "wolf." i'm jim sciutto filling in for wolf blitzer. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks for spending our fourth of july with us. fired jeff sessions, hire me. that's what the embattled epa chief pitched to president trump despite being at the center of more than a dozen investigations. now we're learning the president's patience with him is at a tipping point. russia attacked the u.s., so says a bipartisan group of senate investigators. along with just about everyon