posts that you will not see. we have explosive detective canines at every entry point so it's a great, safe event people should come out and enjoy themselves. >> reporter: of course nypd has the most incredible technology at their hands. this year they're going to be using drones. they'll be able to detect what's going on in the crowd. officers are able to talk to people from those drones if they need be. it's going to be an incredible show. of course they want to say no credible threats at all. it's going to be safe and a lot of fun. >> it's wonderful. it looks like a great day outside. thank you so much and thanks to nypd for keeping everybody safe. thanks for joining us. "inside politics" with dana bash starts now. hello and welcome to a special fourth of july edition of "inside politics." i'm dana bash. john king is off today.

joe biden and kamala harris are both in iowa celebrating independence day with their campaigns and in the last hour joe biden himself argued over the california senator's policy on busing. justin amash announces he's leaving the republican party and that, quote, modern politics is trapped in a partisan death spiral. president trump calls him a loser on the way out. plus new american citizens are being sworn in all across the country today, including right here in washington. transportation secretary elaine chao shared her personal story at a ceremony she attended with the vice president. >> every day i would sit in the classroom, not understanding a word of english, and i would copy everything on the black board onto my little notebook. and every night after a long day of work, my father would come home, sit with me at midnight and translate that day's lesson. that's how i learned english. i am here to affirm to you that

your sacrifices are worth it. so congratulations on becoming an american citizen. >> we begin this hour on the campaign trail. the 2020 democratic hopefuls out and ready to show off their patriotic best. many of the candidates are walking in parades, running 5ks, hosting breakfasts and swinging by cookouts focusing their fourth of july energy on early primary and caucus states like iowa, new hampshire and nevada. for politically focused voters by many in iowa, of course, it's not hot dogs and apple pie. joe biden was caught in a chant war. listen to this moment from the campaign trail this morning. >> it's time, it's time, it's time for a woman in the white house. it's time, it's time, it's time for a woman in the white house. >> i say joe, you say biden. joe. >> biden. >> i say joe, you say biden.

joe. >> biden. >> all that as biden has struggled all week to talk about last week's democratic debates. that is where senator kamala harris went directly after him and his record, ripping him for past opposition to federally mandated school busing to overcome segregation in schools. now harris is being asked repeatedly to clarify her own position on busing. here's her latest answer. >> busing is a tool among many that should be considered when we address the issue, which is a very current issue as well as a past issue of desegregation in america's schools. so i think of busing as being in the toolbox of what is available and what can be used for the goal of desegregating america's schools. >> cnn's arlette signs joins me.

you were with the vice president. he spoke about a number of issues including this one. what happened? >> reporter: that's right, dana, he did. you've seen this war of words between the joe biden and kamala harris campaign over the past 24 hours on that issue of busing. and i had the chance to ask the former vice president what he thinks about senator harris' explanation on her current position on busing. take a listen to what he had to tell me just a short while ago after the parade here in independence. >> what have you thought about her explanation of her current position on busing. >> i haven't seen it. >> she said it should be considered as part of the toolbox that school districts can consider when it comes to the issue of segregation. >> she's absolutely right. >> do you think there is any difference between what she was saying to you in the debate last week versus today? >> look, she's a good person. she is smart as can be. she feels strongly. it came out of nowhere.

it didn't seem to be something at all consistent with anything i had been accused of before. but i think the end of the day, we need to be talking about the future. busing is something that 99% of the american people don't even know what we're talking about here. but i've always supported voluntary busing, which she was part of. as a matter of fact, when we were president and vice president, we provided money for voluntary busing. >> reporter: now, biden also said that candidates need to start talking about the future, not issues of the past. he said that he's not bringing up people's previous political positions from 10 or 20 years ago. of course joe biden has a much longer political record than all of the other candidates combined, but he said that candidates do need to start talking about issues like health care going forward. dana, i also had the chance to ask joe biden about those slipping poll numbers that he's seen from the debates and he simply told me i'm still ahead. dana. >> i watched that live. thank you so much, arlette for

asking all the right questions as always. appreciate it. here with me at the table to share their reporting and insights, katherine lucy, molly ball, shawna thomas and cnn's own phil mattingly. hi, everybody, happy fourth. >> happy fourth. >> so before i came on, i called the harris campaign just to try to get a sense of clarity on this. and the answer that i got was what harris was doing in the debate was trying to focus on biden's position during the '60s and '70s when she was a little girl, as she talked about during the debate. and that the question now -- and she said federally mandated was the way to go, not voluntary, which biden opposed. the question now is what is the position currently? which she has answered as arlette said to the vice president, it should be one of the tools in the toolbox. i thought it was noteworthy that while biden said, okay, let's not focus on the past, let's

focus on the now and future, he also made a little bit of a dig saying it is still an issue and it is something we still need to focus on. meaning she needs to be more clear on her position currently. >> so you have clarity on where this all is right now? >> no. >> because i've been -- >> it's then versus the now is what the campaign is saying. the question is whether that's coming through. >> right. and i think the confusion right now, particularly given senator harris' answer yesterday and where joe biden has been on this based on his campaign as he's put it is that they seem very much in line about the now. what the harris campaign has been saying and probably what they told you is what they were talking about is the then. >> exactly. >> this is about the future. even if you want to talk about it's time for people to think about things moving forward, when you have a 40 or 50-year congressional record, people will look back on those votes, particularly given the fact not just where the party, where the country is now is in such a different place now than it was then. even if you have evolved and

took those positions, what does that mean to you as a candidate. that seems to me where things are but i've been lost multiple times. >> also the former vice president's answer, it does make sense. he wants to move on and try to move on. sorry, you're not totally going to be able to move on if you're running on the fact that i have lots of experience. some of that experience from the past means that i have to answer for a couple of things, but some of that experience are things that i can run on like the violence against women act. he's not going to divorce that and she's not going to stop this attack to try to define each other. the thing is we have 24 or 25 candidates, some of which are viable, some of which are not. this is where we are in this debate. this is where we are in the campaign. they have to figure out how to differentiate themselves. the one thing the debate did and i have to admit i didn't think it would last week or two weeks ago, i don't know, time runs together, is there were differentiations. there were health care questions where i was like, oh, there is something to talk about. talking about race and how you handle it, which is really what

this busing thing is a proxy for is something that will differentiate people. >> and this comes as they are both talking in iowa, they're both out there campaigning. one thing to note the backdrop for this is harris has been rising in the polls since those debates and the latest iowa poll that i saw this week showed that when you took people's first and second choices in iowa, biden and harris were virtually tied or very, very close. so she's getting a lot of momentum here, which is part of the reason the biden campaign would like to turn the corner. >> but with momentum comes attention. the answer may be technologically consistent but it's very tortured. just as shawna is right, biden can't run away from his record, she also can't run away from this issue when she's the one who brought it up. >> tortured meaning that federal mandated busing was fine back then but -- >> now her positin is -- she's

saying she takes basically the same position as he does now, even though many studies show that segregation in american schools is worse now than it was then and a big part of the reason is the end of mandatory busing. so if she wants to bring up this issue as an issue of racial justice and talk about what's needed to desegregate america's schools, she needs to have a position that is clear and consistent, especially if she wants to attack other candidates on. >> it or she has to pivot real fast. what are we talking now, how do we desegregate schools. >> there was somebody else that talked about things changing in the way the field is. elizabeth warren is also out on the campaign trail and our m.j. lee asked her about this issue that's between her two opponents. >> i think it is important that on an issue of this magnitude that everyone makes their positions clear. >> but do you think this is the way for the two camps to engage on this issue?

>> they started engaging in a very public forum last week and obviously haven't reached a resolution on it. this is one way folks talk to each other. me, i'm here to talk about why i'm running for president. >> she's often so direct but sometimes when she's not, it says more than -- you don't have to read too far between the lines. >> you definitely don't. perhaps this is not an issue i will not take on unless someone directly asks me about it. that's one of these -- i like . m.j. lee a lot but the question of what do you think about other the other candidates are doing is so easy for a candidate to say i think that's their problem. >> i think she did answer it. i think she said kamala harris has to tell us what her position is. >> we saw in the debates with the groupings, warren was able in her half of the field to really stick to her policy positions, stay above the fray,

stay in her lane. that's kind of what she's doing here. >> no one came after her. >> but we have more debates coming up and the new groupings. >> you know who they all did go after? joe biden. and when you talk to reporters just within the last hour, he was asked about that and a few other things. i want you to listen. >> the last thing as barack said we don't need to have a circular firing squad. i'm not following anyone else's rules, i'm following my rules. i'm the guy everybody else is talking about. anyway -- >> what do you make of the polls where you've been dropping since that debate performance. >> i'm still way ahead. way ahead. >> they're following my rules. that's a really telling statement. >> i also don't think that people are following his rules. i think people are campaigning in a very different manner than he is and that's why there's been some concern. perhaps because he's been up front and other candidates are catching fire, maybe his rules aren't necessarily effective given where things stand right

now. but he's right. he's the one everybody is talking about. i also appreciate and that he and j. mart coordinated their polo shirts. he is in that role going to be the one that should be attacked. you could say we shouldn't have a food fight. this is the reality. people have to differentiate themselves, whether it's a big field or small field. they're going to do that. when he's the top guy, he's the one taking the hits. >> i totally agree. but if you want to stay in that front-runner position and be above the fray, you have to look that way even when you're surrounded by other candidates. the problem for biden in that harris/biden exchange during the debate wasn't even so much his position as his inability to explain it in a clear way. what people, i think, his supporters worry about is does this look like a candidate who is vigorous enough, energetic enough, quick on his feet enough that we still believe he's the best person to take on donald

trump, since that's such a huge part of his appeal to voters in the polls. >> and we have an example of where we'll be able to test that and that is right here on cnn. tomorrow we have a cnn exclusive and that is democratic front-runner, you see him right there, joe biden with his wife, jill, are going to sit down with our colleague, chris cuomo. this interview airs tomorrow morning right here on cnn. up next, the trump administration's reversal on the census question. how they're handling it now. but first, another joe who's running for president gets a warm welcome on the campaign trail today. >> vote for joe! vote for joe!

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president trump's first tweet for the july 4th holiday acknowledged government employees don't all get the day off. largely in the case he's talking about, it's because he reversed his own administration's decision in the last 24 hours on the 2020 census. here's what the president tweeted today. so important for our country that the very simple and basic are you a citizen of the united states question be allowed to be asked in the 2020 census. department of commerce and the department of justice are working very hard on this, even on the fourth of july. where are we now? the doj has until 2:00 p.m. tomorrow to give maryland federal judge clarification on what is happening. are they still printing census

forms and moving on like the administration said on tuesday or is the plan now to move forward with the citizenship question? arian devogue joins our conversation. because this is so confusing and the questions and answers are changing almost hourly, i want to put up on the screen a little timeline of the zigzag. tuesday, doj spokesman and the commerce secretary, wilbur ross said explicitly the census has started the process of printing without the question. meaning without the question of citizenship. wednesday morning, yesterday morning, the president says we are absolutely moving forward, meaning adding the citizenship question. so because of that, there was an emergency call yesterday with a federal judge in maryland. members of the department of justice, where you had a couple of mind-blowing quotes from the president's own department of justice, people working on this. joshua gardner. the tweet this morning was the first i had heard of the

president's position. i am doing my absolute best to figure out what's going on. then doj assistant ag joseph hunt. if we continue to examine the supreme court decision and believe that we have a viable path forward, to that work, our current plan would be to file a motion in the supreme court. as mr. gardner said, it's very fluid at present. that's a trump nominee. the first one is a career person. this is so extraordinary. i know we say the word "extraordinary" so many times in the trump era, but this is remarkable that you have a justice department official the day before a holiday basically telling a federal judge, come on, dude, like help me out here. i'm doing my best. i was just told to reverse this decision again by the president of the united states by tweet. >> it's a remarkable reversal because as you said the doj goes in, says something, and then the president tweets, well, that's fake news. he's saying that what his department of justice told a judge is fake news.

and then the judge says i'm on twitter. i'm on twitter, i follow the president, and excuse me, the thing that you are saying or the president is saying here is exactly contrary to what you've been telling me. what is going on? >> so i wanted to bring everybody up to speed. you have some new reporting. >> right. first of all, the president signed off on the first hearing. he signed off on what the department of justice and the department of commerce said. and then he -- >> meaning he signed off on going ahead with printing the census without the citizenship question. >> they wouldn't -- >> that's key. >> barr wouldn't have sent anybody in there to say that without the president signing off. the president did sign off on it. and then decided on this reversal. and top doj officials knew about it slightly before the tweet, but some of the others didn't. and so this judge basically is saying you go back to the drawing board, figure out what's

going on and report back to me. i've also known today they're all working behind the scenes and there are some options on the table that they're dealing with to do this path forward. one is an executive order. that's pretty fraught, it would go right to the supreme court and be very legally complicated. i had one government official said at this point that's not realistic. another thing, okay, maybe do an addendum, some kind of supplement after the fact. that's a little troublesome. or maybe go back to the supreme court with some kind of motion to reconsider. basically i talked to somebody who said, you know, it's not unethical or crazy for them to look at this issue a little bit harder. but when you look at the hurdles before them, having to do with deadlines, possible injunctions and everything else, they might at the end of the day come to the conclusion that resources could be better spent. >> because it is in the constitution that the census must go forward every ten years and that deadline is

approaching. so let's just go back to the heart of this. this is a big fight over something that has never been in the census before, which is the citizenship question. i want to go back to monday. >> it hasn't been for several years. >> thank you, thank you. to monday, when the president was asked about this at the white house. here is his explanation. >> why do you think it's so important that that question be asked? >> i think it's very important to find out if somebody is a citizen as opposed to an illegal. i think that there's a big difference to me between being a sitten of the united states and being an illegal. >> so that's at the heart of it. a lot of his opponents say, come on, you're trying to kind of diminish the notion of the latino vote, the latino population. but let's just get back to the reversal. it's probably not a coincidence that conservatives went bananas saying the president caved and that's when he changed.

we've seen that before. >> many times. many times. that's what differentiates this president from others is the ability for headlines or certain talking heads or certain people on television to have a very distinct effect on the decision-making that he has. it's also a very clear path for this president to kind of tweet something and then the government has to come in behind him and figure out what it is. you can go through the lines. whether it's troop withdrawals, a new health care plan, a 10% tax cut that nobody knew about, transgender ban, all of these things that he tweets and then the government and lawmakers have to figure out how to make it a reality. what's been so interesting about this case is you can see it in realtime. that transcript is amazing and frankly reflects what a lot of us go through when editors call us about what does he mean about this tweet? i need to call people and figure out what's going on. but this is laid out in black and white what the reality has been at times in this administration. it's complicated for career folks and complicated for politicals and complicated when you're in a legal fight and judges matter a lot here and

don't take too kindly to all of this. >> this reminded me back in december when there were indications they were going continue to fund the government and at the last minute he decided to go into the shutdown. in that case there was a lot of pushback from conservative commentators on tv. he heard from a lot of people. so i'm sure part of this also is that there were a lot of headlines that this is a reversal for the administration. i also think that for the president and his allies, the longer they keep this fight going, whatever the outcome, they see as a positive. it keeps it going, it keeps it out there and there's some thought even if it's ultimately on the census, this could have a chilling effect, the conversation alone. >> we have to take a quick break. we'll get to you shawna in the next segment. so far you have the quote of the day, we are all joshua gardner. up next, one republican congressman decides to jump the party ship and declare his independence on this july 4th holiday. republicans might not be thrilled, but this guy sure is.

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happy independence day!

>> happy independence day. >> justin amash this morning getting some support as you heard from the fourth of july parade in his home state of michigan just a few hours after making this announcement. he said today i am declaring my independence. now the former republican congressman is making his big announcement with a "washington post" editorial this july 4th. he writes modern politics is trapped in a partisan death spiral, but there is an escape. i'm asking you to join me in rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us. i'm asking you to believe that we can do better that this two-party system and work toward it. of course it didn't take long for the president to weigh in. and he said that it is great news for the republican party. he deemed amash one of the dumbest and most disloyal men in congress. he speculated that the move

comes because amash knew he couldn't get the nomination to run again. we are back with our panel. so first question to you is, obviously this is principled. he wouldn't have come out and said the president should be impeached as a republican, the lone republican to do that on both sides of the capitol if it was in principle, but in terms of his decision to change parties, in my experience covering candidates on capitol hill, they general low don't change parties unless they don't see a path forward in their own election as whatever party they're in, in this case a republican. so would he have lost the primary? >> it's certainly a possibility. i haven't spoken to him since the op-ed so i can't say what his thought process was here. but the reality was he was facing a couple of primary challengers. one that had name i.d. in the state legislature. there had been a lot of rumblings from donald trump jr. that the trump operation was going to help anyone who had a legitimate challenge against him

and that would obviously be problematic for him. he's in his fifth term in congress so he has high name i.d. but the real question is if he had a chance to win. i think he had a chance to win, but could he win? i agree with your assessment. one of the things i heard a lot this morning, obviously a lot of chatter for those who aren't on vacation about what this all means. i think the big question is is he not going to run again and that's why he's saying this right now for congress? if he doesn't run again, what's he going to do next? >>less at also the conversation trying to start is an interesting one. we do have to give him that. is our politics only about loyalty and the president in his tweet said yeah, i think it's only about loyalty. but justin amash's problem is that our two-party system basically controls everything. so whatever he wants to do, if he is going to, for lack of a better term, piss off the head of the republican party, come out against him, then the two-party system is not going work for him any more. >> you do hear some angst from

this largish contingent of republicans who don't like trump particularly in the establishment circles, they do worry about what's going to be left of the party after trump departs the scene and whether it's going to continue to be viable as a party of conservative ideas rather than a cult of donald trump. but they would like to see someone like justin amash stay and fight, try to change what the party stands for. try to lead the party out of the post-trump period. and amash is saying with this decision that he doesn't think that that's possible. he doesn't think the republican party is the vehicle for conservative ideas anymore. that's a pretty strong statement. >> well, maybe this is an example of why. june 11th, so almost a month ago, his own leader in the house, kevin mccarthy, was asked about his opposition to the president and his call for impeachment. listen to how he responded. >> what is your reaction to the news that justin amash is leaving the freedom caucus? should he also leave the gop

conference? >> justin amash can determine his own future, but i think in a fiphilosophical basis he's in a different place than the majority of us. >> is he still welcome in the gop conference? >> yes, he is. >> as you answer this question, back to what phil said, which is his future. and whether or not it could be that he sees a place on the presidential campaign trail running as a libertarian as an alternative to conservatives, libertarians to donald trump. he himself has not totally ruled that out. >> given how many people are running on the other side, you know, nothing would surprise me, i guess. it seems like everyone wants to get in on that game but i can't speak to whether he actually would or not. i do just think the comments from mccarthy and others underscore this is donald trump's party and there isn't space in this party for trump critics. >> we've seen that play out in elections before, right?

there have been anti-trump republicans like bob corker and jeff flake who have not even tried to stay in the race. but then you have someone like mark sanford who did loose his primary after being critical. >> before we go to break, it is not fourth of july without hot dogs. but the question that is being asked here, and i want you to really ponder this at home. is a hot dog a sandwich? well, the senate is weighing in. >> it's a sandwich. yeah. >> it's not a sandwich, it's a hot dog. >> it's a hot dog. you don't ask for a hot dog sandwich. wireless network ims are so confusing. america's most reliable network. the nation's largest and most reliable network. the best network is even better? best, fastest, best. enough. sprint's doing things differently. they're offering a new 100% total satisfaction guarantee. i mean i think sprint's network and savings are great, but don't just take my word for it. try it out and decide for yourself. switch to sprint and get both an unlimited plan and one of the newest phones included for just $35 a month.

topping our political radar today, vice president mike pence spending part of independence day at a naturalization ceremony. it was this morning at the national archives just outside of washington, d.c. pence congratulated the 44 new u.s. citizens more than once for following the naturalization process legally. >> but all of you aspired to be americans. you stepped forward. you followed the law. you went through the process. america has the most generous system of legal immigration in the history of the world. >> and a federal court says no again to a white house plan to use defense department money to build a wall on the southern border. it was an appeals court this time agreeing with an earlier decision to block that plan. it's a major setback for president trump. remember, he declared a national

emergency in february, hoping to divert billions of dollars from the pentagon budget into wall construction. and elsewhere on the border, senator cory booker walking across from mexico into el paso, texas. he did it with a group of people seeking asylum in the u.s. the democratic presidential candidate told reporters he wanted to use his office to help people through the process. >> my office will continue to follow up. my belief is they should be granted asylum, but they have a process to go through. we're going to try to follow them all the way through that process. this is not my first time here. one year ago i was down in mcallen, texas, and i did a similar thing. i walked into mexico and my staff and i tried to help people better present themselves for asylum. >> before we go to break, bipartisanship this fourth of july on the very critical issue of food. democratic presidential candidates, congressman seth

moulton, cory booker and susan collins all tweeted photos of their holiday breakfast. it turns out pancakes can be patriotic too. we'll be right back.

what you're looking at is a parade that is going on. these pictures happened moments ago right here in the nation's capital.

the white house says that president trump is hoping for a good-size crowd to salute america at his event tonight, the one that he is hosting. in fact some white house aides are working overtime to make sure the national mall where the president will speak will be filled. the president doesn't seem to be worried, though. he at least is saying so on twitter because he said, quote, people are coming from far and wide saying this is going to be one of the biggest celebrations in the country's history. trump promises a large flyover of an air force one appearance too. flyover and an air force one appearance too, i should say. so let's talk about this. first of all, the facts. at least as we know them because there are lots of facts we don't know and our team put together what we do and don't know about what we're going to have tonight. white house and agencies have not provided cost estimates on this event tonight. but we do know that the costs go bay beyond fuel, security and logistics as the president has suggested. according to "the washington post" we saw the national park

service is going to divert $2.5 million for this. up to 900 national guard members are called in. commercial flights will be suspended for flyovers and fireworks, which is not surprising at all. so where do we think we are with this? as somebody who covers the white house. >> well, where we are is where president trump wants to be, which is that we know he's wanted to have sort of a grand display of military might. he wanted this parade ever since he went to france for bastille day celebrations. he's been really trying to do something like that. and the effort to do a parade seemed to have stalled for now and he has really sought to put a lot of those elements into july 4th. and he wants -- i was in the oval on monday and i asked him about this, about the talk of tanks. he talked at length about it. he wants tanks, he wants flyovers, he wants a big show. and he's going to get a certain amount of it. there are things harder for them to control.

they're trying to give out tickets. the rnc has been giving them out, the campaign, tickets have gone to the military, there's a vip ticketed area, which is new. he's drawing a lot of criticism over the idea that this could politicize what is typically a nonpartisan celebration on the mall. >> and that's one of the things that we don't know that's not on the list is what will he say tonight. and i am sure there is a white house scripter, speechwriter, who has written a very like rah, rah america speech out there but you never know what he's going to say. the moment he starts to talk about campaigning or how bad chuck schumer is or anything that smells of 2020 politics, then you are in a place where it's not that he is breaking the law necessarily because the hatch act does not apply to him, but if it's taxpayer money is used for a political event, that is problematic. >> exactly. >> also we're talking about it's a holiday. one way we have to look at this is that the fourth of july is an

inherently political holiday, right? it is celebrating the birth of america. somewhere along the way we have decided this is one way we can all come together. we all like barbecues, we like flags, we proud of the united states. we don't need division on this day. and there's no way to say he is not introducing division into this day. >> but to be sure we've talked to people, we don't have time to do this right now, on the mall of all stripes, political stripes saying, you know what, it's not so bad. so he wants to do this. okay, it's a nice way to show patriotism. very different views on this. and you mentioned what is the president going to say. well, here at cnn we are going to let you decide. we're going to play this speech for you live. is he going to be political or is it going to be a show of patriotism that is nonpartisan. you can decide for yourself right here on cnn. it is going to be in the 6:00 p.m. eastern hour. we'll be right back. eebles. h- ending montage of comfort. [tv sfx]: where have you been all my life?

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warning against people like julius caesar or oliver cromwell. the idea that we need to militarize the fourth of july in this frenetic display of tanks and airplanes seems to me to be a mistake. i think president trump is better off when he was golfing and giving people a rest from politics of that nature, partisan politics on july 4th. but alas this is what he wants to do. let's hope it goes off well and we can all put it behind us. >> all right. so you give us that historical perspective going back to the founders. it's not as if there haven't been political displays on july 4th particularly aimed at the president or around the president and his policies. richard nixon july 4th, 1970. take us back then. >> that was nixon, you know, vietnam war going on. there was a big counterculture protest. he decided he wanted to do an

honor america thing just like donald trump is doing. and it's very, very similar. nixon had reverend billy graham bring the christian element into play. bob hope was the impresario of the event. j.r.hallediman wrote a note keep it corn ball. donald trump yet again is taking a page from nixon on today's proceedings. >> very different time back july 4th, 1951. a big birthday for the president then and that president was harry truman. he gave a speech on the mall talking about self-control, patriotism, faith and institutions. meaning he gave a pretty political statement and speech at that time. >> yeah. truman only had about 150,000 people there. nixon in 1970, which you asked me about, there were about 400,000 people.

this was in the middle of the korean war. the election cycle was coming up in 1952. they used to say he had a 27% approval rating. he thought by speaking at the mall it might bring him up, it didn't and truman couldn't run for re-election. >> thank you, doug, appreciate that. sorry to cut you off. brianna keilar is picking up now. we'll be right back. i'm brianna keilar live from cnn's washington headquarters. welcome to our special fourth of july coverage. it is independence day here in america and celebrations are under way across the country. here in washington the july 4th parade is going on right now. later president trump will hold his controversial salute to america. cities and towns big and small across the country are decked out today. this is darian, connecticut, wher