tv Cuomo Prime Time CNN January 15, 2019 6:00pm-7:00pm PST
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together we could own this town. >> there's a tweet and a commercial for everything. where is grimace these days? you don't see him featured anymore. life comes at you fast. fast food comes at you faster but you can always have your way at the ridiculist. special orders don't upset us. that's it for us. we'll he'd over to chris for cuomo primetime. >> thank you anderson. nice outfit. i am chris cuomo, welcome to primetime. robert mueller just dropped a new filing. evidence of paul manafort's lies after agreeing to cooperate. cuomo's court on what it confirms, what it conceals, and what we can read between the redr redactions. will bill bar protect the
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president that tapped him for the job or would he protect the integrity of the special counsel's probe? did his answer satisfy anxious democrats? we'll go one-on-one with a member of the senate judiciary committee, next. and the house stood as one today against steve king. in fact, even the congressman himself threw in a vote to condemn his own racist remarks. what do you say? let's get after it. look at the size of this baby. another fact filing filled with reasons that the mueller team believes manafort was up to no good while heading up to the trump campaign. not just before. not in his past life but then. it sends the message that this
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information is sensitive and that the investigation was over. it comes on the same day that rick gates had his sentencing delayed for at least the last couple of months and on the same day he fielded questions about the special counsel, he may soon oversee. if the president was watching, he might not have liked some of his answers. >> do you trust him to be fair to the president and the country as a whole? >> yes. >> when his report comes to you, will you share it with us as much as possible? >> consistent with regulations and the law, yes. >> do you believe mr. mueller would be involved in a witch hunt against anybody? >> i don't. i don't believe mr. mueller would be involved in a witch hunt. >> all right. so fair to mueller but sandwiched in the miller there, consistent with the laws it's a red flag. no matter your partisan stripe, he did not commit to publicly releasing the full mueller report. he was there today.
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he is a former state ag and a former u.s. attorney. perfect get for tonight. >> senator, thank you for joining us. >> good to be with you. >> well, another day. another filing by mueller. thickening out the proof for the allegations he made against paul man ford. but clearly they have a lot of substance that backs up their allegations. >> correct. and one of the conclusions that one might draw from the extent of the redacted information is that despite a certain amount of chatter in the press about how this is an investigation that's coming to its end and that it's wrapping up and all of that, there seems to be an awful lot going on and one reason you
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redar redact thing is so that people under investigation don't know what you're saying about them and if you mix that in with the rick gates investigation, statement, that he is still cooperating in multiple on going criminal investigations, i think it suggests what at least i believe which is there's no end in sight. >> his sentencing has been delayed. it's an interesting consequence that this declaration comes out with the proof against manafort the same day they push off his partner's sentencing. another consequence, what do you make of the fact that the places that the trump campaign targeted online wound up becoming -- being very similar to where the russian troll farms targeted online? >> it could be consequence, could be coordination, could be collusion. we don't have enough information
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to be seen. >> the other thing is the plank in the republican party platform for lethal aid to the ukrainian army against the russians and the change that manafort made as trump's political director against the wishes of a lot of hawkish republicans and it seems improbable that that changed prorussia would not be a matter for mueller's scrutiny. so i think there's another open threat and again too early to say that this investigation is coming to a conclusion. >> you were a u.s. attorney. you were a state attorney general and you understand how cases were made. the idea that manafort had
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nothing to do with changing the platform and the language was too strong and it was untraditional for any party platform. you don't buy that as a rational? >> i don't think it's credible. it seems highly improbable and because it pushed against strong, strong republican pressure from folks like john mccain, the previous presidential candidate that we needed to up our game for the ukrainian army against the russian little green men. >> the problem with the allegations is it was hard for him to do it alone. there's committees and delegates and all of that and he had to get the polling data from somewhere. somebody had to know that he had it and it leads to who knew what
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and when. is that your sensitivity here? >> i think that's very much the case. we're seeing what the conversations behind them were. that's the stuff out of which collusion gets drawn. >> you know this very well but 31 pages a declaration on such a narrow scope of allegations is a lot. and there's a lot of time spent in here, not just his funny money business before. >> correct. >> what did you think of william barr? >> he did a good job. in some respects he was gruff and candid and denied that it
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could be a witch hunt if it had bob mueller in charge. expressed high personal confidence in bob mueller so that whole area of inquiry seemed to go very much in his direction. the difficult areas were would he release the mueller report? he was very cagey about what he would release and when. and what he would do within the department of justice that a sitting president can't be indicted by the department of justice. so it's a self-fulfilling prof
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fireworks and the proposition that you can't indict a sitting president never gets tested so we have to look at ways to try to get that question before a court so that it can be determined where questions of law get determined and that's in the court and not the department of justice. >> does this betray a sense that you think that this president should be indicted? >> i think that if there with crimes that he has committed that he should be indicted. i don't subscribe to the theory that a president can't be indicted. i think the office of legal council and department of justice bends over backwards and are able to take the position it possibly can. but a court takes a look at this. they don't align with a president not being answerable to the public in this way.
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you have a president that the public knows is the subject of criminal investigation and may very well be involved in criminal activity and you don get a resolution of that question. that doesn't seem like an appropriate way to deal with it. >> based on what you know right now, do you think you could make a case against this president? >> i'd like to know a lot more. i'm at the stage based on what i do know that i would be sitting down with the agents and say we need to run down this, we need to run down that. we need to pin down things before we go. but i do not believe that we're at the stage of actually being able to make the charge. >> do you think it's fair to say at this point, there's been no real proof of collusion between the trump campaign and russian interferers? >> i would not say that. i would say there has been no
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direct proof. there's a lot piled up that one could perhaps take to a jury but as a prosecutor and carry the burden of persuasion with reasonable doubt on the defendant's side. i'd want to keep investigating and get direct evidence of that. >> do you think he needs to recuse himself from overseeing the investigation if he were to get the job. >> at this point, yes. he has the chance to dispel that with a clear, factual, very thorough explanation with how the memo is prepared. layout the time line exactly. make sure that it's completely cleared and then maybe he could stand back from recusing himself. >> the real safe bet is that he would never do it if he gets in there and gets the office.
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senator, thank you so much for your perspective. two big stories tonigday. we'll have you back soon. >> thank you. >> who should be worried about this nominee? his position. his disposition? good or bad for the president, democrats? mueller? we'll set the bar for whom this new ag would help and hurt in the partisan battleground he's about to enter, next. looking good! at booking.com, we can't guarantee you'll good at that water jet thingy... but we can guarantee the best price on this hotel. or any accommodation, from homes to yurts. booking.com booking.yeah at first slice pizza lovers everywhere meet o, that's good! frozen pizza one third of our classic crust is made with cauliflower but that's not stopping anyone o, that's good!
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>> barr did not say mueller's report was supposed to be fully public. >> but he also said trump's lawyers won't be able to get connections and the whole idea is to get as much information to you as possible. >> my goal and intent is to get as much information out as i can consistent with the regulations. >> clearly the president would not have nominated bar if he said he might recuse himself from the mueller probe once bitten you get shy of a second session and barr said as much. he also defended his memo saying going after a president for bad intent could, quote, sensually pa paralyze the government. he was critical of james comey but didn't go as far as trump does about attacking the man. he also warned about focussing too much on russia. while he seems to open the door
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to being subpoenas. and maybe the biggest thing he said today is that he is loyal to the job and to the laws he discharges. not to any person. >> i am not going to do anything that i think is wrong. and i will not be bullied into doing anything which is wrong. >> what he clear will i things is wrong is bad mouthing bob mueller. >> you say you have known him a long time. >> he's not in a rush to change the laws protecting the president and not the biggest fan of investigating him. the swing factor on this plus
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minus is his ridged sense of independence. he said it many times and was thoughtful about the why in terms of what he said. and he's ready to leave if he is compromised. lots of news between bar's testimony and this mueller filing. cuomo's court is in session, next. to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing it's best to make you everybody else...
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it's all on us, and it's all coming soon. you've got some serious watching to do. >> it's a declaration from one of mueller's agents. it has 157 pages of exhibits, okay? and these are all the contracts and different interviews that back up what's in the pages. manafort allegedly lied to federal prosecutors after agreeing to cooperate. what about? his contacts with constantine. it's a big deal for the
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prosecutor. why all the lies? and what more is mueller planning to layout? obviously something that's why we have all the reactions. good to have you both here. all right. does everybody agree that redaxs mean there's more to come and maybe a touch of sensitive information for national security? so let's talk about what this means and doesn't mean to each of you. and also plenty of time spent about what he was doing while he was campaign chairman and how he lied about it.
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what do you read between the redr redactions. >> there has to be some reason he appeared to lie to mueller and his team. and also not a good thing for manafort and i agree with you, this looks to me like there's a lot more to come and a lot more than we do know about what he is under investigation for. >> what gives you comfort in all of this? >> i agree. we know they're looking into other issues and the fact that manafort was having those discussions with him are certainly disturbing and troubling so there's a lot to come as it relates to manafort. his lawyer is between a rock and a hard place here. they don't want to admit that he
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lied but at the same time, they probably don't want a full fledge hearing and this is a big problem for paul manafort. at the same time, there about, that the party platform is being changed. we don't know that manafort directed it but we do know that the trump team made sure that the platform was changed in a way that was better for the russian perspective. how troubling is that to you? >> it's really troubling. there's a policy shift by a
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nominee. what should you not have done and who knew. but i hear you about it being a felony. second piece of consequence here, the places that much of the trolling that was engineered by russians, the places and the people that they targeted, jimmy, were some of the same places and people that internal polling for the trump campaign said he should focus on. consequence or troubling? >> clearly they saw the trolling. >> did it actually go back to the russian trolls? is this information that manafort handed out get that far? >> if it did, absolutely disturbing if it did and problematic if it did. >> it's important to try to determine what was manafort acting on his own.
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he hasn't been charged with conspiracy. if he were charged with that, there could be speculation that there were other campaign or the campaign itself was involved. i don't think we're ready to take that leap at this point. >> true, but it's about what questions are right to be asking right now. we all agree that none of this is wild speculation. the last one, you guys are not politicians. thank god for you guys. i warn you against it. here is a question that crosses over on both. the idea of them trying to relax sanctions in the white house on one of the russians that is part of this investigation that has connections to manafort. >> to say that's one group of individuals in the white house there's a national security team
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that looks into the issue. >> why reduce the sainctions on any russian. >> we have to presume that they're doing things in the interest of the country in terms of the administration actions you would hope the decisions are being made appropriately and there's been no indication that they haven't been made appropriately. >> what i would argue is there's only been indications that this president has done things because of this probe. how he feels about the people that are investigating it. it's all about his best interests with the probe so why would anyone that wants to help the president try to push to reduce sanctions on a russian right now? you just had the senate, knock it down. as an american it doesn't make much sense to me.
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frankly the words and the actions out of the administration at time have been too friendly to a nation that just attacked us. it's a con tern to me. >> you and i are going to look like twins inside of two weeks. thank you for being on the show. appreciate your genius as always. so, this question, it's a real question, is the white house playing nice with putin and his puppets? should the president take one for the workers and reopen the government and the shutdown? should he say something to steve king? reaction to all of this from a man in the middle of the last presidential election and knows the issues. ohio governor josh kasich next. easy as dates, deals, done. going on a work trip? dates, deals, done. destination wedding? dates, deals, done. because with tripadvisor all you have to do is enter
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in the last hour the new york times reports the white house's own economists are acknowledging the shutdown's economic impact may be double previous estimates. the damage is putting the u.s. economy at a risk of contraction. former ohio governor john kasich, cnn's newest senior political commentator joins me now. welcome to the team. we're benefitted by your president. >> people want to know, what's he doing. as you know i had many years of experience. it's my job to try to explain things to people and i'm not going to explain them from any particular perspective. just what i think.
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no one is going to pressure me or talk me into anything. this is not me promoting myself for anything other than myself. this is me doing a job for cnn and help people understand the way things work inside and sometimes we'll talk about stories that have nothing to do with politics that can give people some hope about what they can do to change the world as we have done on your show before. >> i like all of it. you're always welcome. >> let's get at it. >> let's get after it. >> let's get after it. >> so here's the first pitch for you, william barr, do you believe the american people can trust what he said today? that he is independent? that he is about himself and the laws he discharges? he pays feelty to no man, not even the president. >> he did a good job today from everything that i heard. i didn't see the testimony but i read a lot about it. the report is going to have to come out. there's no way to hide that. people want to know at the end of the day what's in it. if they start monkeying around
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that will be the problem. barr said today he doesn't need another job. he's not going to be bullied. i like all of that. >> do you trust him? >> i don't know him but i don't have a reason to say i don't trust him. he was raised under george bush. senior george bush and quality people in that administration. >> he was ag before. i can't imagine he's going to say one thing and do another but we'll have to see. >> but he wouldn't have gotten this nomination if he had said, hey, look, i think you got trouble. >> the other side of it is maybe he didn't need the job. maybe this is something he felt a calling toward. >> he didn't say he would defend roe v. wade. he said it's very clear that
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row v. wade was the law. he said would you defend it? he side stepped and had to figure something out. so you believe take him at his word. >> i don't know how else to do it. >> ordinarily i would say yes, but this is no ordinary time and this president inspires such misgivings about what you can trust. i have never covered anybody -- in fact, i grew up in politics, i have never seen someone in the game that can be trusted as little as the president can on things that matter. >> i have people that walk up to me all the time and they have looked at me as a straight shooter, and they're of both political parties and they're beside themselves about all the craziness that's happening. just like this report on the shutdown. the shutdown drags on and on and now even the president's economic adviser is saying this could slow the economy down and
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today before i came to new york, there was a guy yelling at another guy and they were like do you know what it's like to not get paid? so this is real stuff. >> we have heard nothing. now when they said -- when you said they have to get this done, do you believe the president should take one for the workers and say you want to stiff me on the money for more fencing and physical security on the border, fine, but i have to reopen the government. >> i believe that they can make a deal and here's what i think it should be. okay. you're not going to have a wall. but you're going to have border security. the people want it. the democrats can give a little bit more money and the president can say all of the dreamers and the daca people in the country, let them stay. they didn't do anything wrong to get away from here. >> keep talking to them about it because at the end, this economic report is going to pressure him. he's hanging on to his base but at some point they're going to say do something.
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now a little birdie told me yesterday they suspect he calls this a national emergency and then it goes to the courts and he can say he tried and life moves on. i don't know if that's true. it will be better to get a deal and that's why i think this has to end. how long is this going to go on? forever. >> it is looking like it's going to go weeks because it doesn't seem that the pain of the people matters and that's a mistake politically for both sides but this is clearly being owned by trump now because he told the american people that. mcconnell, shame on him for political malpractice or is he a good boy? >> if i were there i would be urging the leaders to send him something. let him veto it. >> he's saying he won't put it on the floor if the president doesn't pat him on the head. >> it's not your job to cow tow
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to anybody. remain an independent person. let's look at the problem and let's go fix it. here's another thing, chris, at the end, the president needs to leave. you just can't disrupt, disrupt and play politics and i don't care who the president is. the president has to lead and he has to be big enough to say let's get this behind us. if he did, there would be voices that yell and scream at him but maybe he could think about expanding his base. it's not growing bigger. it's probably getting smallerer. i don't understand this. i don't understand this mode of operating because you're not solving problems. that's why you're in office to try to fix problems. >> and to lead. >> and to lead. >> that's a great pivot to the last one. the steve king issue was a vote today on floor of the house. it was unanimous. one guy didn't vote for it but it's only because he doesn't
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feel it doesn't go far enough. he's in favor of this the president said nothing. here's why i won't let it go. steve king ain't new. these thoughts ain't original, right? the problems is that leaders like you and others always shouted these people down, keep your mouth shut. you have the right to believe it. but it doesn't matter, keep it quite. this president is saying nothing but that's empowering more of the same. >> my biggest problem is i believe our presidents need to be healers and they need to set a positive mood for the country and when you see something that divides us, you need to call it out. do you want me to try to figure out how he's thinking? >> that's what you're getting paid for? >> they're not paying me enough to go down there and get inside
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that head. >> we'd have to switch seats. >> i was on the stage with him for a long, long time, and i could never figure it all out. but he represents a group of people that feel they have been neglected. let's raise them up. >> i have so many people in my life that support the president. they're not bigots and they don want any of this nonsense to be revived. >> no, they want a fair shot and fair shake and decent job and something for their kid. but if you go and you sit down with many of them and you say to them, should we take kids away from parents at the border, they'll say, of course not. >> some will say not, but most will say. >> there's a few on every side. >> some will say shame on you. >> we have some democrats that say they tried to compare i.c.e. to the kkk. what do they want? open borders?
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that's not where democrats are. it's the majority of them so there's things that happen on either side, either party but these poll situations have to get their act together and raise their game. final thing. do you know what people want to know, do you care about me? before you talk about all the political issues in the world, do you get me? do you care about me? will you mourn with me and will you celebrate with me. that's the politics of the future and the people to do that will be rewarded. >> this country is a matrix of minorities and when it comes to something like steve king, it resinates. they need to say what he says is wrong and people that believe that stuff are ugly. >> this is a message to the republican party. the demographics in this country are changing. we are a more diverse country all the time and if republicans want to be successful, they have to get with the issues that those folks care about and the democrats have to build a strong
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one third of our classic crust is made with cauliflower but that's not stopping anyone o, that's good! >> there's a new gillette ad that's got nothing to do with shaving. it's how we define masculinity. >> is this the best a man can get? is it? we can't hide from it. it's been going on far too long. we can't laugh it off. >> what i think she's trying to say. >> making the same old excuses. >> boys will be boys. >> boys will be boys. >> but something finally changed. >> allegations regarding sexually assault and harassment. >> because the boys watching
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today will be the men of tomorrow. >> let's bring in d. lemon on this one. look, does the ad work? yeah, i'm talking about it. what do you think about the message? >> who is mad at this ad? is anybody mad at this ad? speak up? anybody mad? anybody upset? anybody think it's an attack on masculinity. that's the dumbest thing i have ever heard. i don't understand it. just because someone tells you not to be violent, don't teach your son to, you know, harass women. don't get into fights with people and be a bully, what does that have to do with masculinity? that's not even an attack on masculinity, we're talking about toxic masculinity.
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things we have been told was okay. this world is evolving. the same people upset by this ad are the same people that you and i talk about and you just talked to john kasich about, about the country changing. people becoming more aware and more evolved. and even now, commercial advertisements are not centered around those that have never been challenged. their way of thinking has never been challenged. they're used to being panderred to so they're upset because something is now challenging them in society. >> well, they want to reinforce a false assumption. >> being a man is not punching somebody in the face. >> being a man means you can be vulgar and sexist and cha inappropriate. that's never what it has meant to be a real man. it's our respect for the definition that changed.
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i have a son. all of this is good for him. i have two daughters. all of this is good for them. people should know how you behave matters and you don't get away with something just because that's the way it's always been. that doesn't work on any level. >> there's a gq article about this. this controversy is very small and it's fringe. but listen, my friend, coming up, you have been a lot about russia, we'll talk a lot about russia and a lot about barr. >> another heavy-duty show for d. lemon. i'll see you in a second. another controversy with very deep roots. steve king. it's not about the man, it's about the message. there is a truth that this country needs to face. let's get after it, next. to make you everybody else... ♪ ♪
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the latest inisn't just a store.ty it's a save more with a new kind of wireless network store. it's a look what your wifi can do now store. a get your questions answered by awesome experts store. it's a now there's one store that connects your life like never before store. the xfinity store is here. and it's simple, easy, awesome. good news. the house voted 424-1 to approve a resolution rejecting white supremacy and white nationalism. it was unanimous. the lone holdout was
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african-american democrat bobby rush of illinois. he only voted against the resolution because he said it doesn't go far enough. unanimous. that means even steve king voted for it. >> i've carefully studied every word in this resolution and even though i'd add some more that are stronger language, i agree with the language in it. so i want to ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, let's vote for this resolution. i'm putting up a "yes" on the board here, because what you state here is right and it's true and it's just. >> king even defended himself. >> that ideology never shows up in my head. i don't know how it could possibly come out of my mouth. >> whatever. maybe steve king doesn't really get what he says or why he says it. i don't care. on one level, it would make sense, because bigotry is often born of ignorance. my argument is, this is way bigger than steve king. a congress member who supports
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neo-na neo-nazis, tweets about not being able to restore our civilization with someone else's babies, characterizes migrants a drug runners with cantaloupe castles well-developed from hauling illicit drugs across the border. of course, bs. it is the message that must be attacked and his defense that this is an assault of his first amendment right is as ignorant as not getting the meaning of his own message. of course he has the right to say it. that doesn't mean what he says is right. and it does not mean that he gets to say it without criticism or consequence. the outrage is not the reaction. it is the reticence. the outrage is that it took this long for his party to step up and strip him of committee assignments, which does render him basically powerless. king's ideas are not original nor new. we had a similar situation to this almost 20 years ago. it was handled very differently and frankly, better. quickly, trent lott back then made a bigoted crack at a 100th
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birthday for strom thurmond who had run early on. there was no social media back then, but the implication of those comments quickly turned into a firestorm. and president george w. bush quickly followed congress and condemned the comments. >> recent comments by senator lott do not reflect the spirit of our country. every day our nation was segregated was a day that america was unfaithful to our founding ideals. >> contrast with our president now. >> mr. president, what about steve king's remarks. >> who? >> steve king. congressman steve king. >> i don't -- i haven't been following it. i really haven't been following it. >> come on. we know that's not true. he has been following this. and the terrible part is, he's been following in king's footsteps. trump shares beliefs with king, doesn't he? i hate to say it, but it's true.
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king even defended himself by saying, wait a minute, you know what i am? i'm a nationalist, the same stained term our president uses for himself. laced with bigotry and false preference. what is new is that not-so-subtle encouragement of people who believe this bigoted bs. allowing them to get mouthy again. our leaders have traditionally, in the modern era, at least, like bush, shouted down bigotry. let haters know there are not some good people among them. that there is not a "both sides" kind of blame on these issues. that the different are not to be demonized. this country is people by those who rarely look alike, but believe as one that we will all be treated the same. that's our national religion, the laws that guarantee our equality. e pluribus unum. one out of many. the president will get no pass on this, at least not from me. i get that he's compromised. going after obama's birth, the
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central park five. that was then. and i get that he has been a disciple of king's xenophobia and that he has used the highest perch in the world to encourage the worst to be first when it comes to spreading this toxic message. and all of that is precisely why we must come forward. either the president should own that he agrees with king or he must condemn the message. you say you're a fighter. show us what you're made of, mr. president, because the silence is deafening. on this crap, what we ignore, we empower. this took too long. and in delaying it, you and your party took us back. people, certainly in the media, are often too quick to jump on what this president says, right? you guys complain about it all time. well, then don't be satisfied with his silence here. don't move on. don't get distracted. this issue matters as much or more than mueller, barr, even the shutdown.
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why? this is about who we are and what we would die for. america must always stand as an active opponent to bigotry. what king says that he speaks about without understanding, we all get the reality of it. and we get why the president is quiet. and it cannot be tolerated, especially not from a president. not now, not ever. the president must do his job and as john kasich said earlier tonight, that is to lead. that is to give this country hope and to remind us, as our greatest ideals -- and i know some of you are saying, that's not what trump's about. he believes what king believes. that's not who he is. too bad! that's his job. and he disagrees with you. he says he's not about bigotry. then why the heck is he so quiet now? this shouts out for his voice. it shouts out for leadership. don't think it's one and done.
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it's one congressman. it isn't. this country is a matrix of minorities. his words echo. they redound to african-americans and latinos, anybody with an ethnic background, lbgt, anybody who feels less than. this country is about uniting and it has to happen now at the top. thank you for watching. "cnn tonight" with d. lemon starts right now. >> on what we ignore, we empower. you just said that, right? >> yes, sir. >> okay. i agree with you. and also, i know this is going to be controversial, so to challenge all the supporters of this president, when you said to john kasich, i know people who support donald trump, they're not bigots, but for people who look like me, other minorities, women who have -- well, let's just leave this to race, this president has said and done so many insensitive and bigoted and t
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