the door to all of them. this is for asylum. there are some exceptions. but it is still a major, major cutback, but one that is all but certain to face legal challenges ahead. and i know chris is going to have more on that. so let's go over to him. the news continues. chris? >> thank you, anderson. i am chris cuomo and welcome to "primetime." the president likes to appeal to those who hate. too few in his party say something. too many justify it. and they try to curry his favor and maybe the favor of the same hateful lot. it is all sickening. we have new reaction from the brown and black-skinned lawmakers he told to go back where they came from. is this president's penchant for division driving his i.c.e. roundups? we have the acting head of cbp is here. what happened this weekend and why are the occurrences so secret? and joe biden told me he was

looking for a fight on one of the biggest dividing lines for 2020. he just teed it up today. will he win or lose? what do you say? let's get after it. so the president told four lawmakers of color to leave the country. not because he thinks their criticism makes them unamerican. who has said more unamerican things than he, arguably? no one tells him to go back to where he wrongly said his father was born, in germany. he said it because there are brown and black and he knows saying that will work with people that he wants to like him. and the lawmakers that he targeted get that too. >> i am not surprised at what he's doing. we won't get caught sleeping because all of this is a distraction. >> this is a president who has said grab women by the pussy.

this is a president who is called black -- people who come from black and brown countries shitholes. this is the agenda of white nationalists. it's time for us to impeach this president. >> take your politics as you like. white nationalists do support a lot of what this president says and that should be troubling to someone who says something, right? not to this president. >> it doesn't concern me because many people agree with me and all i'm saying, they want to leave, they can leave. >> the good news is, many may agree. many, many more disagree. so let's start discussing how this president is putting his thoughts into action. we have the acting cbp head here tonight, mark morgan. it's good to have you, sir. i've heard good things about you. i do not envy your position tonight. but you have to deal with what is coloring the perception of

your job, which are these tweets. so, thank you for being here. you're always welcome to argue what matters to the american people. the border security matters. let me just put this simply, would you say what the president said? >> look, chris, i'm not the president's press secretary -- >> i know you're not, but you're doing a job that people will say is reflective of his feelings. and i want you to make it straight. would you say it? >> again, you're going to have to ask the president what he meant by his tweet -- >> we know what he meant. >> i am his customs and border protection commissioner. that's what i'd like to talk about today. i'd like to talk about the crisis that we have that congress has failed to do their job and to pass meaningful legislation to fix the loopholes that could end this crisis tomorrow. >> look, i'm with you. congress has to act. i don't think that the way the white house is doing it with its asylum change, i think they have trouble frankly because the idea of a safe country is undermined by what the president has said

about mexico. i think he's going to create his own legal hurdle. but just to be clear, boss. what you said about aoc and concentrations camps, you didn't have to talk about that either, but you found it offensive. a lot of people find this stuff offensive. i just want people to know where your head and your heart are. >> chris, that's the point. i'm a law enforcement professional and when i talk about the comments and the rhetoric coming from congress today, i talk about what's affecting the men and women of cbp. and the rhetoric that's coming out about the work the men and women are doing to address this crisis, it's unjust, it's unfair, and it does nothing to further a solution for this crisis. that is in my lane to discuss. >> look at the fight in this country right now is do we treat brown people different than we would treat white people? how many people do you have under your guide right now working down on the border who are of latino extract? do you think they like hearing

that? you cannot divorce the job that you do from the man who's telling you to do it. if what is driving him, i want people to know it's harsh, i want them to know bad things will happen when they come here, i want them to know they'll be kept in a way that sucks, and then they won't come. is that what you understand the policy to be? >> no, chris. stop asking me what the president's intentions are -- >> i'm not asking you about his intentions. i'm asking if you agree with what he said. >> you need to ask the president. i'm not his press secretary. i'm the commissioner. let's talk about the crisis. let's talk about the overcrowding that we have and the reason why we have the overcrowding is because congress won't do their job. let's talk about that we ask congress for months to pass a bill to get families and kids out of the holding facilities which we have been saying we agree for months they shouldn't be there and congress drug their feet and blamed cbp for the conditions, chris. let's talk about that. >> first of all, you got to investigate and make sure that

none of your men and women are doing anything wrong. there are allegations. you know how i've been arguing about the border and the need for action. >> and you've been there. and i appreciate it. i wish more people like you would go to the border. >> and i will be back. although you don't have to be down there to know it for what it is. but just to be clear, i don't envy your position. i don't like that you have to own his words. but you have to because you can't argue what you're about with a clear conscience and say i'm not the press secretary. you ask him what he meant. i'm not asking you what he meant. i want to know whether you agree the same with him. would you say that about brown lawmakers, if you don't like it here, you should go back to wherever you're from, even though they're american? >> you know that's not my position. i'm not going to comment on what the president says -- >> you don't want the american men and women of this audience and of this country who are going to watch this to know where your head is when it comes to equality? >> yes, i want them to know where my head is at.

it's at the rule of law and the integrity of the system, and doing that and enforcing that with humanity and compassion. that's what i want. you can ask me where i stand, what i think, absolutely. i'll be fair and honest about how i feel. >> how do you feel about the administration separating kids and parents and saying they like the deterrence and the harshness? >> when you enforce the rule of law and consequences are applied, history has shown as the numbers go down -- >> separation is not a consequence of law. it wasn't supposed to be meant as a punishment. you see what i'm saying? >> correct. >> but they used it as a punishment. >> no, no. that's where you and i are going to have to disagree. there was never such thing as a family separation policy. >> i have the paperwork of the policy. i have the paperwork of what was submitted to nielsen. we like this option because if you separate kids and families, it's going to freak them out and

they won't want to come and the message will spread. don't go there. they're going to take your kid from you. it was in the papers. she signed it. >> so chris, i wasn't there. i wasn't part of that discussion back then. all i can tell you is where i'm at today, and what needs to be done. and i can tell you right now, we are doing everything we can to address this issue with humanity and compassion. we are putting children first. we're putting families first. we're developing new facilities, costing taxpayers millions and millions of dollars to make sure we get them out of these facilities and we care for them -- >> i think it's a strong move what you're doing. i wish you would have been able to do it sooner, i wish the fence debate didn't go the way it did, i wish congress didn't play with this the way they did, but we're here now. and you want to talk about what you have to deal with. these i.c.e. raids, i'm not against law enforcement, all right? i'm an officer of the court. i'm a lawyer. but you are overwhelmed, you cannot handle the flow, i'm not judging you. i'm saying you can't handle it.

you don't have the resources and personnel. >> that's correct. >> and this is the time to do a roundup? where are you going to put them? who's going to process them? why now? >> chris, look, one of the biggest -- this is a great question. i'm glad you're asking this. the american people need to understand this is not just an issue that you solve at the border. this is a continuum. and one of the largest pull factors for people coming right now is families. you grab a kid and you know this because you've been there. you grab a kid, that's your passport because our laws are broke and once you get here, you're allowed to stay, nothing happens to you. if we don't apply consequences on the back end, then they will keep coming. they will continue to take advantage of our loopholes and on the back end, they know they're going to stay -- >> when you're in crisis, attack this analogy, you're in the middle of a riot and running around with a limited amount of officers to grab people who have unpaid parking tickets. that's what you're doing right now.

against a million people, trying to round them up when you're overwhelmed at the border. deal with the border first and then do the roundup. >> i disagree with the analogy. if you enforce -- we did this under the obama administration. we removed families under the obama administration and you saw the numbers go down at the southwest border. it had a positive impact on the crisis. you remove them on the back end, it has a positive impact on the front end. the numbers go down, the crisis is helped. >> but context matters. let me ask you something, there's all these secrets around what you did this weekend. be straight with my audience. how many people did you round up? where did you get them? what's the deal? >> you're talking about another agency. i know i did just come there -- >> you're the i.c.e. commissioner. who's going to know if you don't? >> because i'm the cbp commissioner right now. i.c.e. handles that. what i would say, here's something important for the american people because words do matter. these aren't raids, these are targeted enforcement operations. let me give you one example, what they do. these are individuals, families who have come here illegally,

have received due process, more due process than any other country would give somebody who comes here illegally, and they received a final order of removal from a judge and they refused to go. so, chris, what would you do? >> i think time, place, and manner works and i think you're sending a message to get out. >> what do you do with the individuals who have come here, received due process, received a final order and they still remain here illegally? what do you do, chris? >> here's the answer to the question. you enforce the law. like i said, that's why i came up with the analogy i had. you're overwhelmed with people coming in and that's where your kids are. 50% you guys own now. the president said they're all military age, gang members, now 50% at least are kids and families. okay, deal with that first. they'll still be here. you can still get them. what i don't like is you won't give me the numbers. why won't you give me the numbers? you guys know the numbers. cuccinelli said the same thing.

they'll keep it interdepartmental. give us the numbers. >> chris, i never said i'll give you the numbers -- >> i'm asking you to give me the numbers. >> so i'm telling you, i don't know the numbers -- >> how can you not know? you're the guy's boss. >> i'm not the boss. i'm the commissioner of cbp. i.c.e. is enforcing that operation -- >> you were at i.c.e. you were there helping plan this stuff and now they cut you out? >> they don't cut me out. it would be inappropriate for me in my current position to talk about another agency's targeted actions. i think you need to talk to the director of i.c.e. >> i'm not trying to beat you over the head with this. >> that's okay. >> he's not at i.c.e. anymore. he's at cbp. i totally get it. what i'm saying is this, the message on top of the context of the president, and i know you don't want him coming after you, i understand, it's working throughout the whole party, what i'm saying is this, you could talk about it, you didn't have to talk about the aoc stuff, but you did. that's your choice. >> i needed to talk about the aoc because it specifically targeted the men and women that i represent and i'm not going to accept that.

>> so does this. he's coloring the perception of your men and women by making them look like stormtroopers. >> i disagree. if somebody attacks the men and women of customs and border protection, i'm going to go and set the record straight. with truth, not emotion or hyperbole. >> i have no problem with that. >> like saying that the men and women of cbp force immigrants to brink out of a toilet. that's false. when that happens i'm going to come back and set the record straight. >> what was the woman told? >> she was not told to drink from the toilet. i can tell you that. >> how do you know? >> because we've actually talked to the individuals that were there. we've talked to those agents. >> all i'm saying is this, the entire country is watching, you are not my enemy. you are doing something that's good for me and my family, you're keeping us safe. >> thank you. >> we take it case by case, you do something wrong, they got to come after you.

>> as you should. >> but i'm saying when the president says what he says, it colors the perception of why you're rounding people up, how you're keeping people at the border, how people are separated, that's why i have to ask, this country must do better than what we see around the world in terms of how people -- >> chris -- >> that's why i'm asking you. it's not a gotcha game. i don't give a damn about the politics. >> could we talk about just as much equal air time that congress has failed again and again to pass meaningful legislation? >> you got to watch this show, mark. you're hurting my feelings now. that's all i do on this show is to go after congress to do more. i don't want to see their tears, i want to see their action. >> and you do. it's not you personally, and you've been at the border as well, i wish more would.

but there's a lot of different levels of culpability to go around. that's why i need you on this show and you're always welcome. mark morgan, thank you very much. >> thanks, chris. >> all right. look, you got to keep banging on these doors. they know what the numbers are. the president is exaggerating the reach because he likes the idea of i.c.e. catching everybody. you got to stay on it. we have to. and it extends to what the president has said, why is he saying this, get out of here if you're brown? because it's all part of the same message. and what is his justification? a lot of people agree with me. really? so will what he said help or hurt his re-election efforts. how about that for a great debate with these two, next.

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this is a time to be counted not to be quiet. is it really that hard to say saying racist things is wrong? stop, mr. president. doesn't feel that hard. still, too many in the power positions of the gop are quiet or worse, spinning this poison as pablum. that is the start of tonight's great debate with ana and mike. help me, mike, help me understand, a real conservative, how can you cotton to this kind of speech. >> i don't know what you mean by cotton. i don't agree with the way the president said this, or using those types of words. i'll say that from the beginning, but your question is why aren't republicans speaking out about it. and i have three reasons i can tell you that. first is, i believe the president inartfully was trying

to start a conversation about whether or not people on the left are at a place where they don't like the country. i think conservatives love america and think it needs to be better and there are some people on the left that think as a sum, america's bad. and they kneel during the national anthem, there was an i.c.e. facility that was attempted to be firebombed. the left isn't speaking out about that today. >> here's the problem, mike -- they put up a mexican flag and it's wrong. but here's the problem. this doesn't work anywhere in humanity. the idea of i'm not going to say that what i did is wrong because you did something that is wrong. >> what i'm saying -- >> you cannot do that here. >> that's not my point. you're wondering why republicans aren't speaking out. and i'm telling you the reason, as a republican, as a conservative, the second reason is, they don't get a whole lot for it. there was a couple of senators -- >> what do you need to say that saying racist things is wrong?

what do you want for that? >> how about a couple senators today criticized the president and immediately were attacked on the left for not going far enough. there's an atmosphere -- >> people are being attacked on the right because you're not saying anything or spinning it. listen, ana, the reward for doing the right thing is not supposed to be a pat on the head by the president or anyone else. this was your party. i grew up around real conservatives, okay? character counts. respecting humanity. that is not your party anymore. >> why don't you tell me something i don't know. listen, it's very painful to see what's going on in the republican party. it's very painful to see what's going on in the country. and i think it's particularly painful for people like me who get this daily, go back to your country. i've been in this country for 40 years now. this is my country. this is where i live. this is where i love, this is where i've built my life. and there are people like me all over this country who get this on a daily basis.

i'm sure your father got it all the time, chris. i'm not sure if your generation still gets it. here's what people need to understand, not being racist is not a passive act. being silent while other people are racist and divide this country and build up these hostilities and fan the flames of division, of them versus us, that is not a passive act. if you want to say that you are not racist, then really you should -- you've got to go further in not enabling, not legitimatizing a racist. not looking the other way. at the very least, you've got to be able to call a spade a spade. call a racist a racist, even if it is the president of the united states. you've got to be able to have conviction and principle and backbone and you've got to love this country enough to know it's

been built by people who have come from everywhere else. >> are the squad anti-semitic? >> when ilhan omar made some of those comments, i picked up the phone and texted and called her and told her i was very uncomfortable with some of the things she had said about venezuela, things she had said about israel and i explained to her why. and i called her out publicly. i called her out on twitter. the same way that you can call them anti-semitic, you see that's where it is -- >> i don't get the equivalency argument. i really don't. she's said things that deserve -- i get it, ana. i just don't get the rationale, mike. i got to tell you, i can't believe that you're making the argument. look, here's the only tweak, the only tweak is this, i don't know why he says this ugly stuff. he says he's not a racist, but he keeps saying this ugly stuff and it's killing us with the majority of this country. and, look, i get why he's upset, because the left does this and this. that's the only tweak to the argument.

but you will not inhabit the first part. and i can't believe it. >> chris, you asked -- look, i just told you. i don't think he should have said it. >> but that's not enough. why shouldn't he have said it -- >> do you think what he -- >> that's my point. you actually made my first point for me which is i'm trying to agree with you, and it's not enough. >> you said he shouldn't have said it. that could apply to when he gets a number wrong. but this is racist stuff. >> can i ask a question? >> actually that's my job. but go ahead. >> do you think the tweet was racist, mike? >> yeah, i do. i don't think it's the right thing to say. and i think -- >> i'm not asking if it's the right thing to say. do you think it's a racist tweet that needs to be condemned? >> you should start with that and everything you say is ten times as powerful. >> here's the thing. here's the third reason, there's such a -- the reason it is relevant to talk about them

being anti-semitic is because there's a massive double standard that you're calling on all of these republicans to speak out and yet democratic leadership has done almost nothing to the members of their caucus. there's a governor in virginia who appeared in blackface who is still in office, there's no one picketing his office right now. if that had been a republican, there would be wall-to-wall coverage. so what happens is, the president says something. i believe he's now tried to correct what he said. >> you know what the irony -- >> let me finish my point. >> i'm not going to let you say he's trying to correct anything let me be very clear about something, this president has once again been given ample opportunity to fix and explain. and he hasn't done any of those. and that guy in virginia, played by trump's playbook, deny that you did it. keep denying, and the media will go out of way. i'm out of time. >> the president --

>> let me give you -- >> i got to go. i don't want to go down any rabbit holes. >> a fourth reason why republicans don't say anything, fear, cowardice, and kissing donald trump's ring because they're afraid of his mean tweets and that he will go after them and knock them out of their political -- >> i don't think the president meant to say what he said today. and i think he fixed it later on today. >> he meant it. of course he meant to say it. he didn't fix it. he doesn't want to fix it because the effect is to get the people who believe it to like him. but, mike, let me tell you this. you admitted something that's hard to admit right now about the president. nobody wants to say that about the president. >> the president is not a racist. i think that was the wrong words to use. they're inappropriate, they're a part of old tropes. i don't know that he understood that. i think he tried to fix it -- >> i got to go. end on a win -- >> for years and decades, what do you call somebody that calls black people sons of bitches. what do you call somebody that --

>> i think people would agree with the president's agenda -- >> what do you call somebody that call brown and black -- >> mike, you're going to fall down, you're backing up so fast. ana, i got to go. >> people who do racist things are racist. like i said before. >> so, anna, mike, thank you. mike, i got to take away half the credit because you backed away from it at the end. but what does that tell you? the only thing that makes sense, there's too big a price to pay right now in that party to go at the president. you can say it's always that way. no, it's never been this way. we've never had this kind of conversation in this country in my lifetime. can anybody beat this president? i don't know. former vp joe biden thinks he can and he believes the way to do it is going to be health care, that's what america will resonate and it will be the policy thing to set up a showdown.

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xfinity mobile has the best network. best devices. best value. simple. easy. awesome. click, call or visit a store today. former vp joe biden knows support for the aca has been steadily growing, especially with this president giving people nothing better. that's why his plan is essentially what they wanted the aca to be. more tax credits, new options for people in the mostly republican states that resisted the aca's expansion of medicaid and it brings back the

individual mandate which is that personal penalty if you do not get health insurance. i got to go fast, meanwhile medicare is also very popular which is why folks like bernie sanders are running with the idea of medicare for all. that would be a full overhaul of almost 20% of the economy. that's the big picture, the micro is in the execution. when you stack up the plans on both extremes, okay, let's take a look, on the far left of the party, you got sanders, warren, harris, okay, all americans will be covered. biden's plan, 97%. medicare for all ends insurance through work. it's over 60% of the country. biden's plan keeps for most people. sanders, no premiums. biden does the same but not for everyone. what's the big ticket? paying for it. folks like bernie sanders admit taxes are going to go up for the middle class, but he says health care costs would come down, but not right away. and the biggest problem for sanders and those on the far

left is that estimates of transition costs going from what we have now to his plan would be in the trillions. biden counters with taxing the income wealthy make off of their investments. and while expensive, it's nowhere near medicare for all and scrapping private plans. but medicare for all gives the government power also that it doesn't have right now to regulate prices. that could be a good thing or bad thing. biden ramps up the government's negotiation power, but high prices and deductibles are still going to be a way of life for us 160 million americans who still get insurance through their jobs. the reality is, neither plan is an easy sell and how do you take on an industry, the health care industry, that employs more people than any other business? that's the big question and that's the fight for whomever the democrats pick. now, i want to bring in someone who knows a lot about elections and this stuff with the president and what he's saying,

this poison he's pitching, ron brownstein, whom i call the professor, sees a reason behind it that could change american politics. what is it and why? next. ♪ ♪ award winning interface. award winning design. award winning engine. the volvo xc90. the most awarded luxury suv of the century. to bring all of these stories thatityvo xc90. i've heard to life. i wanted to keep digging, keep learning... this journey has just begun. bring your family history to life like never before. get started for free at ancestry.com but it's not really something yoyou want to buy..

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president trump had opportunities to fix what he did here. he could have apologized for the racist bile that he tweeted. instead he doubled down. why? he sees advantage. let's get some perspective from ron brownstein, look, and i keep saying this to the mike shieldses of the world, i take no pleasure in calling out what is obvious about this president. but what's just as obvious, ron, is that his party is afraid of it. so help us understand. why would the president say this and say he thinks he sees advantage? >> look, i think this was the most extreme example since charlottesville of his basic political goal, which is to define the electorate along an axis of attitudes towards the

changes to the fundamental demographic. he's building what i have called a coalition of restoration, focus centered on voters who are most uneasy with the way we are changing, the role of women, rights for gays and transgenders. even the economic changes, toward an information age economy. and that is what he believes whenever he gets in trouble, whenever he feels that he's faltering politically, he turns back towards animating that coalition, usually with a racially charged confrontation. and chris, the point is, this is a conscious trade that he's imposing on the republican party. if you divide the electorate in this manner, you are trading young voters for older voters, diverse voters for white voters, white collar voters for blue collar voters, metro voters

for nonmetro voters. he's essentially putting the chips on squeezing bigger advantages out of groups that are shrinking in society and the republican party is following along with him almost without a peep. >> so let's look at the second part because even if you don't want to look at it in terms of principle, i don't like that trade if i'm in that party. and yet we see all this silence. is it just fear of him coming at them? why are they buying in? >> i think there's more to it. it's self-reinforcing. the people who are the most offended and threatened by this in many ways have been weeded out of the party. less than 10% -- excuse me, only about 10% of the republicans in the house now represent districts where immigrants exceed their share of the national population. less than 20% of the house republicans are in districts where the minority population exceeds its share of the national population. if you look at the senate, the republicans are down to 8 of the 40 senate seats in the 20 states that have the largest share of immigrants in their populations, 45 of the republicans are from the 30 states with the fewest share of immigrants. in many ways, the republican

party has barricaded themselves off from the changes remaking america. and so it is becoming trump's party in the sense that it is counting on the same voters, the same coalition of restoration that he is looking to re-elect him in 2020. >> i don't know that you'd get canned or let alone consensus among that base. if you could poll it, what you want to see is if you have a nexus on a poll and sympathy to the ugly things he says. >> there is polling that tells us a lot about this. one of the questions the pollsters ask is, do you think the growing number of newcomers strengthens american society or threatens traditional american customs and values? 60% of the country overall says it strengthens american society. two-thirds of republicans say it threatens american customs and values. that's about equal among college educated and non-college republicans. you'll see the same things on gender roles where substantial

numbers of republican voters including women are uneasy with the changing role of women in society. he basically is drawing a line in the electorate, and we were heading this way for years. but trump has consciously accelerated this. steve bannon said when we're talking about culture, we're winning, but the point -- that is their view. they can squeeze out an electoral majority by getting bigger advantages from groups who are shrinking. but there is a price to this. turnout was elevated among minorities and millennials and republicans had their weakest performance among suburban white collar, white voters who moved against republicans in the midterm. >> it's a clear divide he's trying to make. what it will do, we will see. ron, thank you. that explains like people say paying women the same as men depresses men. shouldn't do it.

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this president has probably faced more claims that he's a racist than any non-racist ever. d. lemon confronted him on it. remember this? >> are you racist? >> i'm the least racist person that you have ever met. i am the least racist person. >> are you bigoted in any way? >> i don't think so, no. >> d. lemon, here's my argument, that if he isn't racist, then his words and deeds are even more wicked because he has no defense of ignorance. he knows what he says is wrong, but he does it anyway. >> i only know what you say and what you do. i know the if part does not even compute to me. >> he said to you he isn't -- >> from your words and his words and his actions, there's no other way of putting it. there's no other way -- if it walks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it's a duck. if it walks like a racist and it talks like a racist, then it is a racist. >> i hear you.

let me ask you something. do you regret not saying in that interview, i'm not going to ask you, i'm going to tell you, you are a racist? you need to own it and here's why. >> yeah. well, that was one of a number of interviews where he started the whole racist thing. this is what you should know, i confronted him on his racism the night that osama bin laden was killed. we had a huge argument. and he said he would never do an interview with me. because i was racist, because i confronted him about birtherism. and i said it's going to be a big story, an hour later, osama bin laden was killed and i didn't really make headlines. if you go back, you can see it. after that, i started doing interviews with him and i would ask him if he was racist, but the evidence just wasn't there yet. plus he was a candidate and he was not the nominee at the point where i did those interviews. >> right. >> so i didn't then, but i would now, which is one reason he probably won't do interviews with us because he doesn't want to deal with the facts of the

matter. >> only one reason. i'll check back with you in a second. >> i got to tell you, this book, "american carnage," he knows he's going to talk to us about why this is happening with this administration and the white house, and to answer your question as well, is he really a racist or is he just doing this for political expedience? >> thank you, brother. i'll see you in a second. >> see you. the time to ask the question is over. the closing argument is next. can my side be firm?

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if you hate our country, if you are not happy here, you can leave. >> the president's defenders are saying, you see that? this isn't about dividing on race or playing on prejudices, but notice it's not what this president is saying. think about that. his justification is that people agree with him. they and he cling to this dated notion that if the president doesn't say hesitate a racist, well, then he can't be one. here's their problem.

their own safe space of if he won't own the it, he ain't it, exposes him as something bad and even worse. here's why. he knows his words are ugly and untrue and divisive, un-american even, but he does it anyway to curry favor with those who reject diversity. that's why he always says "but a lot of people agree with me." see his play. he wants to lead the mob. the greeks had a word for that, demagogue, one who is popular with the masses by selling bias and prejudice. that's what he is. that's why i have called him that for a long time. and he has always been this. listen to him on the central park five, birtherism, immigrants. listen closely. >> of course i hate these people. and let's all hate these people because maybe hate is what we need if we're going to get something done. >> perhaps it's going to say

hawaii. perhaps it's going to say kenya. perhaps it's going to say -- i'd like to see place of birth. >> when mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists, and some, i assume, are good people. >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states. >> you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. >> they got a lot of rough people in those caravans. they are not angels. they are not. >> you should go back and look at that clip of right before he said "very fine people." you see him think, what do i call them, what do i call them? i've always said it and i mean it, he is too smart to say things that are this stupid. that's what a demagogue does. he wants the pinos of this

country to love him. you remember pino from "do the right thing?" >> take your [ bleep ] piece of pizza and go the [ bleep ] back to africa. >> pino is an immigrant fool. i grew up around a slew of pin owes. i get it. this president is something far more dangerous than he. and his defenders should know it. i keep saying the president and his defenders intentionally. hiding in his shadow 100% of the time, no good. time to shine the light. number one. >> there's a huge level of frustration across america that there are people in america that aren't proud of america, they're always calling on the president to be impeached, they're always criticizing. >> representative comber, republican from kentucky, how dare you empower this ignorance. you don't tell americans to go back to where they come from. they come from here.

you know what the suggestion is, that if you're brown you're an other. political frustration doesn't find its satisfaction in bigotry. not here. and then this guy. >> we all know that aoc and this crowd are a bunch of communists, they hate israel, they hate our own country, they're socialist, they're anti-semitic, they stand for all the things that most americans disagree with. >> what happened to senator lindsey graham? you know, he once called this president a race baiting xenophobic religious bigot. look it up. but now this. the senator swallows every serving. he does nothing but affix himself to the presidential posterior, and that comes with an owed? dor and it will remain. my team reached out to all these republicans in leadership. nearly every committee chair or ranking member plus every

republican in leadership in both chambers of congress. it was a big job. we needed to do it. more than 50 offices called, all right? we emailed, called. you're looking at the gop leaders whom we still haven't heard from. three commented to the team. by our count, ten others spoke out elsewhere. that's it. it's been more than 36 hours since the president tweeted. and i no longer want the off the record calls, the helpful people who call to say, oh, you know, we've basically had to add another "p" to gop, it's the grand old pity party now. we don't like what he says. you got no sympathy. if you hide, your weakness is obvious. what you ignore you empower. what you rationalize as something other than what it is, you now own. if you don't call racist bs like what this president said and did what it is then you're as bad as this president for saying it, and the worst part is you all know it. you know everything i just said just like this president.

now, that's the easy part of the argument. the hardest part is what to do. sadly, this political -- does not make the most important part. the satisfying thing is calling the president out, calling out hate, calling out those who enable all matters. there is satisfaction to the confrontation. righteous indignation, indeed, and yet those who oppose are still playing the president's home field in that way. you got to change the game. you can't let the game change you. the solution here is not the most satisfying part. it's not calling out what's wrong. it's doing that and, all caps, showing what's right, showing who we are at our best. do that more than ever. find ways to show it. pander to it. be better than what and whom you oppose. that is the power that heals. that's what we need. d. lemon is also what we need. "cnn tonight" starts right now. so when i was c