good evening, john berman in for anderson. four years after coming down the escalator at trump tower, the president officially declares he is running a second term. he filed the paper work the day he was inaugurated. this is his 60th campaign rally since then. still, tonight's events and you're looking at live pictures now is in orlando, florida. we'll go to the president live when he begins speaking. mike pence is the final speaker before the president. what we'll be listening for tonight is if he hits on the seem themes the president has been on these other campaign events or takes on new issues tonight. we'll be keeping them honest on what he says including the campaign slogan, promises made, promises kept and the latest on the chaos on his cabinet or acting cabinet as the case may be with the acting secretary of defense departing even as the confrontation with iran grows more serious. plenty to talk about.

plenty that matters. let's go first to kaitlan collins down in orlando. kaitlan, what do we expect to hear from the president tonight? >> well, john, the president has been sitting back for the last several months watching this expansive democratic field go out and launch their campaigns and now he wants some of the attention to be back on him. so the president is going to do that tonight. the campaign has the official launch of the reelection bid but john, the president has been running since the day he was inaugurated. the question of what you'll hear from the president tonight and whether that's anything different is another question and saying to expect essentially the same playbook from the president tonight and you got a little bit of a hint of that, john, from the president's tweets on immigration. >> right. that's right. the president insisted there is a mayor deportation next week.

we have reporting that suggestions otherwise, isn't that true? >> yeah, we're being told by senior officials they don't know what the president is saying when he's referencing these millions of people being deported. there is tentative plans to pick up families in july that have been given orders but been cautious to say the panels aren't final and it's not in the millions. and that's why you've seen in the aftermath of the president's vaguely worded tweet, the white house refers to dhs and dhs refers back to the white house. >> many of the president's supports, we're watching this rally live. mike pence is speaking now. a lot of those people have been waiting all day to get in. what's the enthusiasm like from where you stand? >> yeah, there is a lot of enthusiasm. we walked around earlier. there have been people in line since lunchtime yesterday. it downpours here in orlando earlier. there is a lot of excitement for the president.

john, one thing to note as we were walking around talking to some of the president's supporters, they say they will vote again for him in 2020. when we asked who is the one democrat they might be worried can beat the president, john, they said the same name you've been hearing. the president himself worried about joe biden. >> that is very interesting. one last point, mike pence is speaking from a teleprompter. i assume the president will as well. does this indicate there is a specific speech he plans to deliver? >> well, john, there is always a teleprompter for the president at these rallies. to work on the speeches for days but of course, as you know, president trump often goes off teleprompter in an arena where he got nearly 20,000 of his supporters according to the campaign here cheering him on. so if there is a teleprompter for the president, expect him to say what's on his mind tonight. >> thank you very much. i want to tell you we're looking at the president's family and adult children are attending this rally. donald trump junior has already

spoken. with us for the hour in washington, cnn political director chief political analyst gloria borger and jeffrey toobin and u.s. senator rick santorum and in charlotte, north carolina all by himself, former south carolina democratic state legislator bakari sellers. they are cnn political commentators. as we've been looking at the stage here, what do you think is the president's main goal besides ginning up the energized base. >> that is no doubt goal number one but to drive home the messages, promises made and kept and make sure he's telling the story how he delivered on the promise of that spectacular 2016 run that he had for the presidency and we'll see as you know one of the great frustrations of a lot of republicans on capitol hill, even some people inside his administration has been not to

have a relentless focus on the economic good news day in and day out and i am curious to see if that becomes a major thread in this speech as he tries to frame the reelection argument. >> gloria, one source told cnn campaign officials are hoping this event will satisfy the president's thirst for the spotlight and reset the campaign's efforts. this is the 60th campaign rally for the president. so is there any reason to think that this event could move the needle? >> not necessarily. i think it might make the president feel a lot better. he's been upset lately because there has been a lot of attention on democratic candidates. you know he's been taking on joe biden every single day and he's upset at fox news because they have the tenacity to host town halls with all people, democrats. he didn't like that programming. he wants the spotlight back. he'll get it this evening. this is his kick off rally. as you point out, he's been rallying since the day he's got elected and raising money since the day he got elected during

the midterm elections, there were a lot of candidating complaining that the president was out raising money for his own reelection. not for them. >> again, we're watching this live as we speak. the president comes up and speaks we will take that. senator santorum, do you ginning up the base is something you need to energize the base pleasing the president that's something also. you want the candidate in a good mood and the campaign wants to do that but persuading more how voters. how does the president reach more voters than the ones he already has? >> he can talk about his record of success and helping americans, people who he said he was going to help. if you look at wages in this country, they have grown now for lower wage workers, disproportionally, that hasn't happen in decades. if you look at poverty, the lowest recorded, i mean, look at employment levels, the highest recorded. the president's job on the

economy has been extraordinary. he can go out and talk about how he reached out and helped the working men and women and wisconsin and pennsylvania who relied upon him by going out and changing nafta to try to be more responsive to the needs of the communities. the president has a great message. for working men and women. he just hasn't done a good job articulating that. >> he has a chance to do it tonight if he wants to deliver the message but the message he chose to hit on today as he woke up or went to sleep throughout the day was this message bakari of undocumented immigrants and the notion there will be some massive roundup of undocumented immigrants in this country. aside from the policy, again, if the issue here, if the goal is to reach other voters to expand his base, do you think democrats are actually excited he's focussing on immigration? do you think his focus on that helps him? >> you know, i don't think

democrats have much to be excited about right now. i think if the election was today and this may throw people off but if the election was today regardless of what the polls say, i think that donald trump will be effected for another four years and democrat haves to get that in their head and focus soundly on beating the president of the united states. we can have these arguments over his economic policies and talk about how the tariff he's imposed have destroyed formers in iowa, ohio and illinois throughout the midwest and we can talk about the promises kept and in fact promised to bring back have left and what the president does best is actually talk to what is cultural anxiety. we know now the economic anxiety that the media and i'm part of helped create the narrative there is economic anxiety throughout this belt in the midwest and these working class voters. that's simply not the case and what we're seeing is that cultural anxiety play out and

that's why he goes to the cultural issues. the president of the united states is going to harp on culture wars and talk about cultural issues and i take no solis in that though it's davis sieve, he's won the presidency like that and trying to do it again. >> if the election were held today, the president would win. are you trying to set the bar intentionally low and scare democrats or do you actually believe that? >> well, i'm trying to do a little bit of both. i want to scare democrats into not being complacent. i think we're looking at polls for example that down in florida where i saw that joe biden was up nine points, the same poll that had andrew gillum up seven points. we can't take anything for granted. i think what democrats have to do is energize the base. one thing republican parties have going for them, when you look in orlando, they have a base that's excited. we're relying on donald trump for that excitement.

that's not a winning formula. we have to make sure our base is excited about whatever candidate is going to be, that's why the debate and primary, the sparring between the candidates is healthy. we have a long way to go as a party. >> we are showing the polls bakari was talking about. head-to-head matchups, an often long time before a general election would happen but if the election were held today, joe biden would be leading donald trump. the vice president just announced that the president will be entering the room. there he is. president trump with the first lady melania trump significant that she is there with him. this is a campaign kick off event but she will not be at all the campaign events and by no mains has she been up at all of them since then as we're watch thing walkup, jeffrey toobin, give me your thoughts. >> i want to talk away from the politics but to the policy. remember the president's tweet

today, he says millions of people are going to be deported in the near future. it's worth pausing to consider what that would mean to actual human beings. there are millions of people in this country without documents who have families, jobs who are have kids that are american citizens and the idea mass deportations could take place in this country, millions of people, that's what the president said is something that has never happened in american history. >> jeffrey? >> and only happened in authoritarian countries. >> again, we're waiting to see if he brings up that policy tonight when he speaks. let's listen to some of this as the president gets ready to speak. i don't know if we'll hear from the first lady prior to that. let's watch.

♪ ♪ and i'm proud to be an american where at least i know i'm free ♪ ♪ and i won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me ♪ ♪ and i gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today ♪ ♪ but there ain't no doubt i love this land, god bless the u.s.a. ♪ >> i will note the playing music, this is "proud to be an american." >> i believe you're right, john. >> all right. let's listen. [ applause ] >> usa! usa! usa! usa!

usa! >> good evening, orlando. >> usa! >> it has been my honor to serve as first lady of this incredible country for the past two years. and i'm excited to do it for six more. i'm proud of all that my husband, this administration and our entire family have done on behalf of the american people in such a short time. [ cheers ] >> he truly loves this country and will continue to work on your behalf as long as he can. all of us will. [ cheers ] >> thank you-all again for being here tonight and now, i want to introduce my husband, the president of the united states,

donald j. trump. [ cheers ] usa! usa! usa! usa! usa! usa! >> we had such luck in orlando. we love being in orlando. thank you. thank you, orlando. what a turnout. what a turnout.

you know, i said this is a very big arena for a tuesday night, i said, you know, if we have about three or four empty seats, the fake news will say headlines, he didn't fill up the arena, you know. i said maybe we shouldn't take a chance. maybe we shouldn't go to orlando. we should go someplace else. i said no, i think we'll go to orlando and -- [ cheers ] >> and not only did we fill it up, but we had 120,000 requests. that means you folks have come out very, very good. congratulations. i want to thank our great vice president mike pence and his wonderful wife karen pence and our magnificent first lady melania, thank you.

[ cheers ] >> i'm thrilled to be back in my second home. that's what it is. it's my second home in many cases, i think i could say it's my first home if you want the know the truth. it's the great state of florida. very historic because exactly four years ago this week i announced my campaign for president of the united states. and it turned out to be more than just a political campaign. it turned out to be a great political movement because of you. a great movement. it's a movement made up of hard working patriots who love their country, love their flag, love

their children and who believe that a nation must care for its own citizens first. [ cheers ] >> together we stair down a corrupt and broken establishment and we restored government of, by and for the people. our country is now thriving, prospers and booming and frankly, it's soaring to incredible new heights. our economy is the envy of the world perhaps the greatest economy we've had in the history of our country.

and as long as you keep this team in place, we have a tremendous way to go. our future has never ever looked brighter or sharper. the fact is the american dream is back. it's bigger and better and stronger than ever before. 2016 was not merely another four-year election. this was a defining moment in american history, ask them right there. >> usa! usa!

>> by the way, that is a lot of fake news back there. that's a lot. that's a lot. >> you know what i say? the amount of press we have tonight reminds me of the academy awards before it went political and their ratings went down the tubes. true. this was our chance to reclaim

our government. >> all right. we've been watching the president kick off his reelection bid. he's been on stage for about six minutes. within two minutes he did talk about the economy, within four minutes it was attacks on the media. he was on a bright rosie future but reverted to the same themes he talked about since he began running four years ago today. if i can, i want to bring back our panel to talk about what we've heard so far. david, it was notable to see one of the things we were watching for, rick santorum mentioned would the president focus on the economy and he did saying the economy is thriving, prospering and booming and called it perhaps the best economy ever. that message lasted about 30 seconds. >> yeah, if the test tonight was is donald trump obviously nobody expects donald trump to change. i don't think anyone will be surprised. is donald trump going to seize

this moment to frame his argument to the american people as to why they should renew his contract for another four years or is he just going to present us the trump show, you know, and air his grievances and start the bashing of the free press and he shows no desire whatsoever to try and actually seize this moment to do something different. again, i don't think that's terribly surprising. i will note this one thing, john, he said that i think is interesting. he said that 2016 was not your typical election, that it was a defining moment in history and it just struck me when he said that because that is exactly what the biden campaign put out in a statement in advance of this framing this as make donald trump an aberration. do not make it a defining moment of history. and i think you just saw how the biden and the trump teams are looking at where we are in just completely different terms.

>> looking at the same moment and completely different terms but talking about the same types of things which is interesting because they are the two candidates doing it in the rest of the democratic field is focused on something else. gloria borger, to you he hit it right away talked about going to washington, a political movement he called it and taking on the corrupt political establishment. that is a message that he delivered in the campaign three years ago. now he is the political establishment. now he is washington. >> well, he is washington. he's the political establishment. some would say that former members of his campaign are corrupt. one of them is in jail and others maybe be on their way to jail. look, donald trump tonight started out on the teleprompter doing what his campaign advisors wanted him to do talking about how he changed the system, talking about how he changed the country, talking about the good economy.

that is what he should be talking about. he should say i've changed the country for the better but can't keep himself from talking about his grievances. and i'm sure later in his speech he'll get to his grievances with the democratic candidates when he wonders off but his first grievance as always was against the press and he couldn't help himself by going there after, what, four or five minutes? >> yeah, it was starting at 8:14. it was four minutes in. >> exactly. >> two minutes in with the economy and four minutes in was that other. >> you could probably see his speech writers holding their head in their hands going oh my god, just read the prompter. >> jeffrey toobin, your take? >> remember he won the last election. you know, all this oh, isn't it terrible he's attacking the press? he won by attacking the press. he won by being donald trump. he won by attacking immigrants. i mean, you know, the idea that

donald trump should listen to some speech writer rather than his own political instincts seems crazy to me. i mean, this is who he is. this is how he won. and like why should he change? >> rick santorum, you called on him to focus on the economy and for a second, for a minute maybe even i thought that's where he was going in this speech. is it enough? >> yeah, look, donald trump has been successful because in his campaign he was a disruptive force. he was something that completely unusual in the field of american politics. he has been equally that if not more than that as president and as jeffrey said, it has worked well for him and so i don't think he's going to change. i'm glad he did lead with the economy. i have no doubt he will come back to it throughout this speech and he will -- that will be the central focus of his campaign but he will talk about how he took on the establishment, by the way, whether you like it or not, john, the media is part of the

elite establishment. so it's not something different. it's not like i'm going to go and take on the media. the media is part of the washington establishment. the voters out there across america see this not congrewing saying i took him on and took the policies on, i took on the establishment. i think this is all part of his stick and as jeffrey said, i think it was successful and will be successful again. >> bakari sellers, which message scares you more? would it scare you more if the president did stick to the economy or does this anti establishment or media message, is that something you think will resonate with swing voters? >> well, i don't really think anything matters anymore when it comes to donald trump. when he went down this path as jeffrey rightfully pointed out earlier where you bash immigrants and the media, this is how he became president of the united states and the irony

to this, the reason i say nothing matters anymore is because voters have to set aside what donald trump says because we know that to not be the case. donald trump is the most unethical president we had in a long time. you talk about draining the swamp and replacing with their own gators. the trump family made a racket off of being in the white house that say fact. i mean, small things from kellyanne conway being just chastised and told she needed to be removed from office for her violations of the hatch act to even more grave things like the secretary, like mitch mcconnell's wife actually going out and profiting off of her office and not being clear about her ethical conflicts. so this -- nothing matters anymore when it comes to donald trump. i think that's the frustration and what democrat haves to do whether or not he's talking about his divisive cultural war rhetoric or the economy is giver the american people something to look forward to. it's not enough to say what donald trump is.

many of us knew for example donald trump was a racist in 2016. voters knew that and they still voted for him anyway. that is not enough to say that. you have to give voters a reason to come out and vote for you. that is what the american public is looking for. that's why this primary has to be exciting. >> stand by. we have a lot more to talk about. we'll take more to the speech and analyze what he says and also ahead, the departure of history's longest serving acting defense secretary. the vetting that apparently was not fully done and what it says about the west wing.

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on top of that, the orlando "sentinal" endorsed him. mostly endorsed republicans. endorsed not trump. after two and a half years we have seen enough of the chaos. the division, schoolyard insults and corruption and establishly especially the lies told out of ignorance, laziness, recklessness or opportunity. back with gloria boringer, jeffrey toobin, south carolina democratic state legislator bakari sellers and rick and bakari are cnn political commentators. we are monitoring the event for news. if the president makes news, we'll get back there.

the endorse want of not trump. greeting the president when he arrives, gives the sense there is fatigue among some people. >> this paper i think endorsed hillary clinton in 2016 so i don't think that it has necessarily a ton of sway in terms of an election outcome, john, but i think it is an argument putting forth an argument of what you're describing and quite frankly, what i think we saw in the 2018 mid terms, right? this is so critical for us to think about as we think about trump's reelection. remember that donald trump vested hillary clinton among independent voters in 2016. that was part of his success. independent voters went fleeing from the republican party in 2018 because of the behavioral stuff that the paper put in that

editorial and that tonight, he is not going to adjust that stuff in any way which begs the question how he plans on getting independent voters back into the fold. >> that's right, the chaos, the division, the schoolyard insults. gloria, as david was saying and the six minutes we saw the speech, it was already there. he will not put that aside and that does seem to be something at least in the midterm elections that swing voters did find a problem. >> well, they did and donald trump said the other day, i'm going to run in 2020 the way i ran in 2016. so he's not going to change. because it worked for him once before as jeff toobin was saying, it worked for him to attack the media, attack the media. say you're going to drain the swamp, drain the swamp. you're going to build a wall, he's still going to build a wall. he'll run that way again because it worked once.

the question is, these voters who held their noses and voted for him because they didn't like hillary clinton, what are they going to do now? look at the polling in florida. it's early so we have to give caveat. you look at the polling in florida, they are saying well, what was interesting in this poll was that a majority of florida voters in this same poll, 54% say they are better off financially today than they were in 2016. so the question is what are they going to decide on? will it be this so-called character issue we say in the end people never vote on character? will that become a huge issue in this campaign? that's what joe biden and a lot of democrats want. >> bakari is with us now . you have this issue of a diconomy.

between the approval rating. which never cracked 50%. and the economic numbers. there is this split and one of the biggest unknown is will voters vote against the president despite the economy? what's the best way for democrats to address that? >> well, again, i have to go back to this age-old saying of actually giving voters a reason to come out. i mean, there are a lot of us that believe this is simply a continuation of the obama economy. rick would jump on me for saying that would not work because donald trump is the president of the united states and he gets an opportunity to own that. so if in fact donald trump was able to stay on an economic message and saw things like wages increase and unemployment rates stay steady, democratic voters have to go out and talk about bread and butter issues and the fact the tax bill was nothing but a sham.

it won't pay for itself. there are voters that work hard every day who are not feeling the benefit of that relief that the president is talking about. that's substantively. we'll fight this on cultural grounds and the beto o'rourkes and pete buttigieg talks about. a new moral america. democrats have to weave that closely. i will caution is this. we saw a decrease in african american participation, percentage of participation down from 2008 and 2012. that number for example has to go back up. in wisconsin and michigan and pennsylvania, the three states where this election was lost you had donald trump and hillary clinton on the ballot but many voters chose the coach and did not come out and stay at home. that's a very, very concerning problem for democrats, we have to give those voters a reason to come out. >> go ahead.

>> what bakari is saying, several times now i think it is really instructive when you look there is this notion of people pitching tents and waiting for two days to get into the trump rally to -- for people coming out of the wood work because they are so committed and loyal to this mammoth they want to see and join this effort of this reelection, you have to have 23 democrats which one will you have people the day before the rally to get inside and show support and i think obviously i don't mean that literally but as an instruction that you have to think through which one of these democrats can enthusiasm their supporters that much that they can take this battle. that's the question in this primary season. >> he's thinking that kamala harris did draw 16,000 in the announcement. that's the only thing the

numbers approach anywhere near what the president claims. i do want to ask you, the president was talking about the economy now. i saw yesterday j.p. morgan chase said there is twice as much of a likelihood they were predicting at the beginning. of a recession. you're nodding your head no. i want to know what would happen if there starts to be economic problems. the president seems to get very nervous when the stock market goes down and you have people concerned about for instance more and more people and proud of the fact and a couple months or next week. if the economy isn't as good eight months from now, how much of a problem is it for him? >> clearly, the economic record for the president is one that's the calling card to the american public and will be in this campaign and if the economy drops, which i don't think it's going to happen is it would be damaging to the president, no

doubt about it. but i also throw the fact that if you look at what the democrats are proposing, there is this mad rush to the left. guaranteed health care for everyone with medicaid for all, we're going to pay for free college and pay off your student loans and pay your rent, we're going to guarantee your income. people are going to be -- particularly everyone if you accept what you said, which is the economy may be heading down and hear all of this huge infusion of government, all of these increases in taxes, i think look, i think the president has an achilles heel and it's his personality. i agree with that. it's what energizes people and turns off people. the democrats achilles heel is they have gone crazy on over socialism and i don't think that sells and that's going to be the divisive point in a bad economy, that kind of heavy rhetoric on socialism, i don't think sells. >> everyone stick around. jeffrey toobin, i owe you one.

the fall out from the resignation of the the acting defense secretary after a new report on domestic violence in his family. what happened at the white house vetting process? ♪

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fireworks, separation, or any other anxieties, (announcer) if your dog suffers from fear of thunder, thundershirt may be the answer. thundershirt, absolutely, 100% works. as president trump enters, there are a number of uncomfortable questions about the vetting process after the nominee for defense secretary not only pulled his nomination but resigned as acting secretary. patrick shanahan sited a painful and deeply personal situation from long ago. first documented a graphic detail in a new story for "the washington post."

despite the details including a horrific attack by shanahan's son using a baseball bat and the questionable actions afterward, president trump said today we have a very good vetting process. he also said he had only heard about nominee's problems yesterday for the first time. 360est randi kaye has more about the acts of domestic violence at the center of this controversy. >> my husband is throwing punches at me. >> reporter: patrick shanahan caught in a violent argument with his wife at the family seattle home in 2010. his wife kimberly shanahan called 911. >> he's been hitting me. i don't need a medic but i need you guys to get him out of the house. >> reporter: police report shows his wife insisted patrick hit him and struck her several times in the stomach. yet responding officers found kimberly did not have any visible marks on her. police also noted in the report

patrick had a black eye and a bloody nose. patrick denied hitting her saying that she was the aggressor according to police. patrick shanahan told police his wife threw his clothing out of their home and tried to light it on fire. he said she struck him multiple times in the face. his wife was arrested and charged with assault. though the charges were later dropped. one year later, another violent incident in the family. in november 2011, the couple's son william shanahan brutally beat his mother with a baseball bat. she was left with a bloody head wound and a fractured skull according to the police incident report. still, patrick shanahan defended his son at the time saying in a memo to his ex-wife's brother, use of a baseball bat in self-defense will likely be viewed as an imbalance of force. will's mother harassed him for nearly three hours before the incident. last night shanahan told "the

washington post" i regret writing that. i don't believe will's attack on his mother is justified. or act of did he feel self-defts. i don't believe violence is appropriate ever. shanahan's ex-wife who changed her name to kimberly jordanson stood by her allegations in the august 2010 domestic argument. randi kaye cnn new york. >> our thanks to randy for that. back with the political team. jeff, we should say that the story here, the background on patrick shanahan and what happened in the family is simply horrible. the larger question for the white house is that this was all out there in documents. did the vetting process fail? >> right. just to emphasize what you said. this was a very sad situation. obviously, i don't know what happened, what the cause was, all circumstances but there is a way to deal with this and there is a way not to deal with it.

if you want to nominate someone who has an event like this in their past, first of all, you air it out. you tell the members of the senate. he was confirmed to be deputy secretary of defense. he's already been through this process. he has a very high level security clearance. the way you deal with this is you address it early on. you try to explain what happened and then decide whether you can go forward with the nomination. to spring this on the public and on the senate who would have to vote on his nomination to be secretary of defense at the very last minute, he was -- the vote would be coming up soon. it's completely incompetent on the part of at least the white house and certainly the fbi has a lot to answer for if they didn't raise this as well because divorces are a classic area to investigate when you are doing a background check on someone. >> gloria, it's not like there

is nothing going on in terms of national security these days. there is a full blown crisis with iran with 1,000 new troops headed to the region. this is a heck of a time to be in between acting defense secretaries. >> right. doesn't forget, it's been about pds so we haven't had a real secretary of defense that isn't acting in a long time and this administration seems to have a lot of prps that way. the president once said i like to have actings, as he put it, because they're more flexible which means they don't need to be confirmed. but the problem with shanahan was that the fbi was continuing to do its background checks but couldn't conclude it and so the congress had to keep putting on the confirmation because they couldn't get all of the paperwork in. and as you point out, this comes at an incredibly inconvenient time. the president has appointed

somebody else to be an acting secretary of defense, but there's a crisis going on in the gulf of oman. there are questions about what's going on with north korea. we do have a secretary of state, obviously, but this is a president who hasn't been able to settle on one of his chief people and that's really a problem, and as jeffrey says, it says something about the vetting process in this white house. you know, they nominated a couple of people they wanted to serve on the fed. that didn't go so well. their va secretary nominee ronnie jackson didn't go so well. they have a problem here. >> very quickly, david, does it fight the message that he's trying to deliver on the stage tonight in orlando that he came here and fought corruption and fought the establishment problems in the establishment, when there had been so many problems within his own cabinet? >> yeah, and i think the republicans on capitol hill have made clear that there's no time

this fall to deal with a controversial nominee here. so they're looking for a cleaner process than has existed to date. more to talk about next. including the president's threat, warning, tease, it's hard to know what to call it, that he will deport perhaps millions of people starting next week. calling all sunscreen haters. you're gonna love this. new coppertone sport clear. not thick, not hot, not messy, just clear, cool, protected. coppertone sport clear. proven to protect. through other people's you can vacations, scroll or you can be the kind of person that books their own vacation. a booker. scootin' through life at 7 miles an hour... [awesome] you see, bookers just go for it, they book a surfside resort,

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immigration took center stage for the president tonight in orlando and he set the scene with a tweet overnight. he said next week, i.c.e. will be in the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly pound their way into the united states. the catch, along with possible legal and humanitarian considerations, it wasn't immediately clear what plan he was even talking about. when asked, a senior administration official told us there were not a lot of happy faces around the department of homeland security. when asked today, the president insisted that top immigration officials are, in fact, aware of the deportation initiative. cnn polling shows skepticism of the president's handling of immigration with 41% approval and 54% disapproval.

back now with our gang. senator santorum, the president's tweet, there are no details about how he plans to round up millions of undocumented immigrants, how that would actually work. the president insisting that i.c.e. is aware and they'll start this initiative next week. but we saw how the family separations played out for the president. one would think this administration doesn't want a repeat of that. >> what the tweet said is he will begin deporting the millions of people who are here. he didn't say he will dedeporbe deporting millions. he said he will begin deporting the millions who are here and there are 11, 12, 13 million illegal people in this country. let's focus on who is deporter in chief and that was barack obama who deported almost 3 million people, many more than donald trump, so -- >> senator, we're just talking about the details and whether or not he has an actual plan here. >> well, the reality is, donald trump obviously has plans. i.c.e. has been working on plans. they've admitted that they've been working on different plans to try to increase deportations and the reason is, this is why i

disagree with bakari and the way he framed the issue and the way jeffrey framed the issue. the immigration issue for the president is not a cultural issue, it's not a moral issue, it's an economic issue. if you look at why barack obama deported so many people is because we were in a recession and they were taking jobs away from americans who were in need of jobs. i mean, this is an economic issue and it's one of the reasons that clump is doing well among lower wage workers because they see this as not a result ral issue cultural issue or a moral issue, they see it as an economic issue where you're deporting people who are competing with low-wage workers. >> that competition is not existence. that's a political trope that we hear often times that somehow illegal immigrants or undocumented immigrants are here to take jobs from other black and brown people, and that's simply not the case. i actually do agree with rick that the president is not looking at this as a humanitarian issue. that's pretty clear and evident. i think that this president along with his former secretary

of homeland security are going to be remembered for their border separation policy. where you have children as young as 4 months old being separated from their families. he's going to be remembered for the inhumanity, the cruelty, the lack of heart and compassion in dealing with this issue. this is a very difficult issue that president after president after president has failed to adequately resolve or handle. i can admit that. it takes a bipartisan resolution to get this done. it takes the gang of eight and many others which have been lambasted by the right for a very long period of time. the president of the united states, though, is ill equipped to deal with this because the president of the united states does not have the character, the patience or the compassion to deal with this issue the way it should be. >> there was a bipartisan deal to talk about on the senate side. we'll see if it gets through the house and the president's desk. david chalian and gloria, we have about ten seconds each for a last thought. david? >> it's crystal clear that the president believes this issue works for him. it works for him politically, it energizes his base and he thinks it's what delivered the oval

office to him. and i would question, he tried this in 2018 in the midterms to lean into this issue and i didn't work. why does he believe this will get him re-elected? that is not clear to me. >> gloria, very quickly? >> promises from donald trump. i mean, before the midterms he talked about a new tax cut, which we haven't seen. he's going to talk about rounding up immigrants, about building the wall. he's going to throw everything he can against any wall as he tries to win this election. he's saying he's tried to keep his other promises, the democrats have got in the way. >> thank you very much, friends. for watching this with us and helping us understand it. the news will continues and we'll hand it over to chris right now. "cuomo prime time" starts right now. i am chris cuomo and welcome to "prime time." the president is relaunching his re-election bid as we speak. we took some of the rally in the last hour. his plan is obvious, more of us versus