like to hear rats at night? >> oh, my god. it was crazy. i could hear them gnawing. but you can't see them. but i could hear it. and it just made me crazy. >> reporter: in a statement to cnn, kushner companies said it invests substantial amounts in the properties and is proud to own thousands of apartments in the baltimore area calling it a high-quality residential experience for their tenants. meanwhile, now a class action lawsuit is moving forward on behalf of 30,000 tenants. one tenant even claiming that paying their rent in full did not prevent them from receiving illegal and predatory notices seeking fees often under threat of eviction. randi kaye, baltimore, maryland. >> i want to hand it over to chris for "cuomo prime time." chris? >> all right. thank you, anderson. i'm chris cuomo, welcome to "prime time." live from the motor city. we're revving up for the first cnn debate in 2020 and we have one of the top five in the polls

with us tonight, mayor pete buttigieg on debate eve. how does he see this moment in our country? how can he beat this president and make this country better? in the context, new numbers from the polls, quinnipiac spelling trouble for him and the rest who are trying to take down front-runner former vp joe biden. so how will they all step it up on that beautiful stage we were just showing you tomorrow night? is the plan to step on one or more of their opponents. and we have new information on the latest mass shooting in california. kids stolen. a young man stolen. what happened and why are so many so quiet about it. what do you say? let's get after it. this president has a particular venom, that's the quote, for people of color,

according to the latest person of color caught in his racist web of attacks, al sharpton. the most blistering response comes from "the baltimore sun's" editorial board. we would tell the most dishonest man to ever occupy the oval office he's still not fulling most americans that he's even slightly competent in his current post or that he possesses a scintilla of integrity. better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one. i have never heard anything like that from an editorial board. "the baltimore sun" is a long and storied publication. so what does it mean? where are we? what is to be done about it? let's hear from one of the people who wants to lead us as president. we spoke a short time ago with mayor pete buttigieg here in detroit. >> appreciate you being here. >> thanks for having me on.

>> big night. big moment in the country also. so the debates will be tomorrow and wednesday. but we are living something right now. this editorial from "the baltimore sun," i've never seen language like that from an editorial board about any major politician, let alone a sitting president. how do you see where we are right now? >> well, it's a consequence of the president attacking his political critics by attacking an american city. and so you got a newspaper standing up for their city. baltimore is a proud city. we're all proud of your cities. and, you know, the president is continuing to go down this road of being the divider in chief, right? >> do you see it that way, as -- in terms of anything right now, two sides, people will say, well, isn't he right? isn't baltimore one of the ten toughest places to live -- doesn't it have a lot of problems? >> he's talking like he's the president of the united states. baltimore is in the united states. he's the president for the people of baltimore and he's talking about it like it's somebody else's problem. the question should be, if baltimore faces challenges, which it does, as every major american city does, what is he doing to help?

and, you know, what we see is a president whose response is to attack fellow americans, whether it's members of congress who have been critical of him or an entire city full of americans just because it -- that city is partly represented by a member of congress who is critical of him. and he continues down this path of dividing americans which is exactly why america is becoming weaker as a country under this president each passing day. >> you believe that america is weaker because of this president? >> of course. >> how? >> well, first of all, our reputation is collapsing around the world, but also our confidence in our own country is collapsing and the president needs to be able to bring people together. look, even when we're divided out of disagreement over a policy, the president is supposed to stand -- the presidency is supposed to stand as a symbol of something that we have in common. yet this president, has taken every single opportunity to turn

us against one another. this is why -- there's a lot of talk over exactly how far the extent of russian interference went. we spend far too little time talking about why. why did a very sophisticated adversary of the united states calculate that the best way they could undermine our country was to get a guy like this elected? and it was because they knew correctly -- anticipated -- that america would become weaker and more divided under his presidency. >> do you believe he's using words specifically saying infested so often when dealing with things that have a racial component. do you think that is intentional? >> well, there's no question. i mean, look at the pattern, right? this is a kind of terminology that he reserves for places and situations where there are a lot of minorities involved. and, you know, we can debate over how strategic it is, how intentional it is, but on its face it is racist. >> so, you articulate the message well. you see the problem. when we look at the polls that came out today from quinnipiac, you struggle with

african-americans, literally, defined almost at 0%. why? >> well, you know, african-american voters are tired of having been lied to or taken for granted by politicians, and so when you are new on the scene, when you haven't been known for years or decades and when you're not yourself from a community of color, you've got a lot of extra work to do in order to validate what you have to say and earn that trust. i've been table to do it before and i'm going to do it this time partly by explaining what i promise to do. the most comprehensive plan in the 2020 -- >> the douglas plan. >> it is about tackling racism in every aspect of life everything from making sure we invest in minority entrepreneurship to investing in dealing with health inequities. like the inequity that has black women three times as likely to die in childbirth as white women. it's looking at employment, housing, it's looking at economic empowerment as well as criminal justice and democracy. but it's not just the policy piece, it's the actual outreach,

it's the actual work of reaching out to voters where they are and recognizing that the black vote is not monolithic. in order to deserve to win, i need to reach out to lots of different groups of voters and that's exactly what we're doing to do. >> what is your understanding of your experience at home with the african-american community and why there's a difference in support and why there has been criticism of your reaction in moments of crisis? >> well, it's a journey and it's a difficult one. look, any urban mayor of a diverse city has to confront some of the most searing and difficult challenges that cities and communities face. and as somebody who is responsible for a community that is 25% black and is responsible for the safety and well-being of these residents and is also responsible for a police department, that means that the wall of mistrust between law enforcement and communities of color and black residents in particular is one that i've got to try to bring people together around and it's never going to be perfect, but we've made

progress and we're making more progress now. we're living right now in the wake of an officer-involved shooting. eric logan, a black man killed by a white officer. i requested and we now have an independent prosecutor to review what happened. the officer said he was attacked by a knife but the body camera wasn't on. we're not waiting for the information to come back to take steps together as a community. we're going to come together and review the body camera policy. we're working together -- >> it's got to be on all the time. we see this problem again and again and again. they all have to have body cameras. they all have to be on. i've been following this for a decade. i know the arguments on both sides. it's the only remedy. it's better for the police, it's better for the community, everybody's got a camera. >> that's one of the things that sounds good until you're taking evidence from a child or entering a sexual assault scene and you're creating footage that by law has to be handed over to anybody who asks for it. that's why these things aren't as simple as they seem. >> i think that you can oversophisticate it. >> it will automatically turn it on any time a gun is removed

from a holster. for example, so we'll continue working on -- >> the more transparency at the end of the day, it works. i know there are -- >> anybody who says there's a simple answer is wrong. there is never a simple answer. >> transparency is the simple answer. how you get transparency becomes a little tricky. >> that's for sure. and i don't think a city our size in the midwest has done it the way we have. but we started publishing incident-level data so people knew how many times there was a use of force and what was going on. now we're looking at how we can make that even more transparent. there's no question that -- >> good. that's always the key. people feel that there's something going on they're not being told and that hurts the perception of officers when it's unwarranted and the confidence in the community. so one more step on this. obviously, white politicians find a way to connect with african-american communities. i thought you would get some respect when you said i couldn't get it done having more black cops. i couldn't get it done. i tried. >> well, we have. i've been speaking to black audiences, a lot of people tell me i was candid --

>> people never usually shoulder any blame. what is the lesson you've learned to this point in the campaign? >> when it comes to reaching out to -- >> your appeal and why you're not getting more traction. >> well, again, you have to have serious plans and you have to have quantity, time. it took me years of work in south bend of people understanding where my heart was and where my work was going to be for my black support to go up as it did between my first election and my second in the primary, but this time i don't have years, i've got months and so it's going to be my job to communicate what we're going to do about gaps in education, what we're going to do to make sure black entrepreneurs have a chance to thrive. how we're going to go about by reducing incarceration in this country by 50%. that's my job to go out and sell it and i'm looking forward for the opportunity to continue to communicate about that. >> the mayor's got an interesting plus/minus, right? his age. he's 37.

he's right, he doesn't have a lot of time in this campaign. he also doesn't have a lot of time to develop his record, right? and that's something that will play out for better or worse on the stage. and he's also right about african-americans. you can't look at them as a group of monoliths. they tend to favor moderate policies. how will we connect tomorrow night? how is mayor going to fix that tomorrow night? our special predebate coverage continues from motown next. at t-mobile, for $40/line for four lines, it's all included for the whole family, starting with unlimited data. use as much as you want, when you want. and if you like netflix, it's included on us. plus no surprises on your bill. taxes and fees are included. and now for a limited time, with each new line, get one of our latest smartphones included. that's right, only $40/line for four lines and smartphones

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mayor pete buttigieg is a smart guy. i mean, objectively, he is. he's also stuck in the polls, objectively. he got a pop from the rest of the field, but since, he hasn't grown in the last couple of months. how does he explain his

wrestling with this? here's what he told us a short time ago. >> everybody who gives an appraisal of your performance, you check all of the obvious boxes of being smart, articulate, you have an interesting background, you're young. which cuts both ways. now that we see what we're living, this is going to be an identity politics election. i'm not saying it should be. i'm saying it will be. how do you communicate to people that i can take president trump on toe to toe. and what he does to other people, he will not do to me. i can't beat this president. >> i'm not scared of this president. this is a guy who's working season 7 of "celebrity apprentice" when i was driving armored vehicles outside the war in afghanistan. i'm not afraid to take him on. the question is how do we take him on in a way that doesn't empower him? the gift of this president is to take any energy that goes his way and turn it into a kind of

food that he grows off of and gets bigger. that's the code that we got to crack. and i think the way to do it is to name and confront everything that he does wrong but then immediately go back to talking about the impact that we will have on voters' lives. if we're talking about him, that means we're not talking about you. if we're talking about your everyday life. that's what gives the voters a different stake in this election and unifies voters who have been divided by this white house's masterful practice of white identity politics. >> but this is how he one. and the trick is, you have political correctness and perfect candor. okay? that's what he's playing to. this talk of his, it's not that his supporters are deplorable. you've been traveling this country. you know the disaffection is real. the pain is real. there's a lot of white americans who feel forgotten. they see him as a proxy, a white

proxy. >> he's playing them for suckers. the message that he's telling to these americans is, yeah, you're not making enough money, yeah, your housing is becoming unaffordable, college education is out of reach for your children and your job may be automated away in ten years, but your big problem is political correctness. that's what he's trying to get people to believe. a lot of people voted last time because they had been so let down by people on both sides of the political spectrum that they decided to vote to burn the house done. this isn't to excuse the racism or misogyny or xenophobia in that campaign. i think what we got to say to these voters is, okay, you voted to burn the house down. now the house is on fire. but he has not done one thing to make your life better. if you think your problem is brown people when your job is about to get automated away and you don't have the retirement savings you need in order to actually have a dignified remainder of your life then

you're not going to make it -- >> you'll say i gave you the best economy ever and i'm finally speaking the truth. >> yeah, the best economy ever. under obama, unemployment goes from, what, 10 to 5. trump sees it go from 5 to 4. it's like the rooster in the morning. he thinks he made the sun come up. there's the fact that while gdp is going up, life expectancy is going down. yeah, the dow's up. there are some nice economic numbers. fantastic. 90% of americans have not seen their incomes budge more than the slightest amount the entire time i have been alive. this president -- i mean, this is a problem that goes back before this president, but he has done nothing. he and his ally in the senate, mitch mcconnell, are killing the minimum wage bill that was passed out of the house. they're killing every serious effort that has come about -- >> they say the minimum wage winds up reducing wage roles because people are going to lose their jobs to make up for the mandate. >> they say that as if it's a theoretical question. as if we didn't have decades of

data showing that it's not true. this is what we're learning in this moment, is that reagan conservatism economically is just like communism. it sounds good in theory, but we tried it and it failed in practice. >> tomorrow night there's a chance you're going to have to show that you can take a punch. we heard that beto o'rourke and there are some others now see you as a target. in this recent polling, it's interesting to see how biden recovered since that first set of numbers after that debate. you are in that same place, 5% to 7%. you got there quickly and surprisingly to people. you stayed there. now you're a target. how are you going to take a punch tomorrow night? someone comes at you and starts talking about your age and inexperience? that's the first one. how are you going to take that punch? >> i'm going to talk about why i'm the best person to be the nominee and the president and folks can poke holes. it's what they do. it's part of what a debate is for. i welcome it. and, you know, this is an opportunity for many americans -- many of whom, by the way, have not been following the blow by blow of the process the way

folks like you and i have to take our measure, see what we're made of. what they're going to see is a different message and a different kind of messenger. i'm not like the others and i think that's going to come across tomorrow night. >> do you have vulnerability digging into your past. what you were doing over there. the contract. >> no, i did good work. i never worked on anything i didn't believe in in my private sector career. i figured out that my heart was in public service. after two or three years in business, i decided to commit myself to public service. it was definitely a pay cut, it was definitely a life change, but it's a good one and my military service and my public service has really shaped me and it shapes the heart that i bring to this presidential campaign. >> i always say to people when they come on the show in your position, one, i rarely get to say this, thank you for your service to the country, and, two, i wish you good luck because everybody is going to agree that we need better in terms of your dialogue and our relationship with politics and the people than we're getting right now. >> now is our chance. >> good luck to you tomorrow night.

mr. mayor, appreciate it. >> pleasure. all right. i mean what i said. thanks again to mayor pete buttigieg. critics say racist rhetoric helped this president win in 2016. is that true? if so, how? and will it work this time? one of the biggest names in his base is rushing to his defense, word play included, rush limbaugh. explosive reaction from our "prime time" primary experts live from detroit. i don't know that it's explosive but i'm betting it will be. next. hy-a-lur-on-ic acid. it's in here. revitalift derm intensives hyaluronic acid serum. with our highest concentration of hyaluronic acid in a serum. visibly plumps skin in just one week. bounce back! and reduces wrinkles for younger-looking skin. powerful results validated by dermatologists. see why there's one serum sold every minute. revitalift derm intensives hyaluronic acid serum. from l'oréal paris.

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those are the words of this president talking about a city just miles away from the white house, baltimore. and it didn't take long for conservatives like rush limbaugh to praise this president for his comments. take a listen. >> detroit, flint, los angeles, san francisco, massive homeless problems. wherever you find this decadent decay, you're going to find democrats having run the operation, the democrats take every one of these minority groups' votes for granted and it's about time somebody pushed back against the real human misery. >> now, i'm going to be honest, i see that as a distraction. i could give you numbers all night about how many of the best places to live in this country are run by democrats. and some of the hardest places to live are run by republicans. i think it's a distraction. it's important for you to see

what the defense is for the president. dave, the argument basically is -- and thanks to each and all of you for being here. this is just the truth. baltimore has a lot of problems. it does have these infestations, that's all he means. do you expect that? >> no, listen, i think what happened is the president got in here with representative cummings, who is an honorable guy. everybody likes him on both sides of the aisle. representative cummings took a punch at the president, the president punched back and then it devolved into something from there. we're in detroit, michigan. the president is losing a big opportunity here, and i said this to him before, tweet out about how great things are in michigan. unemployment is down, jobs up, 120,000 new jobs in the state of michigan. 30,000 manufacturing jobs. real wage growth at the bottom end of the rung here, increasing, economic opportunities abounding in michigan under this president and he's losing the opportunity to speak about that because he's stuck on this. >> you were pointing out an interesting metric. people who approve of the economy, good number, people who

approve of him even though they approve of the economy, whoa, why is it upside down? because saying things are good in michigan, angela, doesn't seem to cover up for what seems to be code for the people who live in baltimore. >> david, to your point, it sounds interesting because it sounds like he's the president of michigan but not of maryland. there are some great members of congress doing some amazing work here. rashida tlaib is one and brenda lawrence is the other. they have detroit in their districts. it's interesting that he's the president of an area that's doing well, but he's not the president of an area that's not doing well. i wasn't finished. i think the other thing we have to acknowledge here is to your point, again, yes, congressman cummings is honorable. congressman cummings should not be susceptible to these kinds of attacks. and most importantly, this president has to figure out a way to conflict with folks on policy and not personally to the point where it makes them susceptible to death threats and antagonizing attacks that they

don't deserve. >> listen, death threats and attacks, entire trump family, myself, anyone who supports the president -- people have been shouted at a restaurant. >> i've also been susceptible to -- you can clap back all you want to. the reality of it -- >> the reality is nobody has the market cornered in terms of bad behavior. we're all feeling it. i'm just saying, he's had a hard time. i've had a hard time. you've had a hard time. there's a lot of reach there in terms of people who are having a hard time. what i'm saying is this. michael, the idea of this is what we're living right now and i believe the president believes it works for him. it's the only metric i think he follows. is this good for me to fight elijah cummings about how lousy it is in baltimore. is it good for me to talk about the guy that did the shooting in gilroy? no, it's not good for me. i'm not going to do it. >> i think it's all with malice afore thought. i don't think the elijah cummings battle is a battle he seeks. i think a confrontation with al

sharpest sharpton, that is a confrontation that he welcomes. going after the so-called squad drove up numbers in his base. i pay attention closely to some data that's being drawn from swing voters, people who went from obama to donald trump or romney to hillary clinton, people who really hang in the balance. there's a mentailility among the folks of send them back, meaning those who are there illegally, not a citizen who's a member of congress. a lot of this bleeds together. and my point is this, we can't make the mistake that many of us, yours truly made in 2016 which was to think every time he said something beyond the pale, you thought, he's done. john mccain, a war hero, he's done. mexico sending us rapists, he's done. time and again he disproved all that conventional wisdom. so who knows how it plays in 2020. there's 15 minutes on the clock. >> true. why is it different this time? >> this is why i hope it's different. when you consider the fact that

people haven't had enough, that doesn't make me afraid of donald trump, it makes me afraid of people who i share spaces with in restaurants, people who i share work spaces with. the fact that there is a quinnipiac poll that says that 45% of white americans approve of this president even right now based on results that came out today is troubling to me. i'm wondering what will it take for people to stand up to righteousness. this is not a sidebar issue. this is not a distracting issue for someone who is a black american the this country. it is my primary issue. >> it's also not an issue that he's being chased with, dave. joe biden, this was brought up by other opponents who said, look, you got to explain this. this president is taking this fight. he's like i'm happy to talk about this all day. remember when he said i'll give you my health care plan after the election? this is his plan. let's talk about who we are and who we're not. >> listen, again, i advocate talking about what he's done, right? arguing completely on the record. this president can talk about the first step act, opportunity

zones in detroit and other big cities. i mean, he's got a great message to take to the african-american community. he is not doing that -- >> except for bringing back the death penalty. kind of undercuts the first step act. >> the federal death penalty is completely different than the state's death penalty in my estimation. >> either you want to kill people or you don't -- >> it's much smaller. >> either you want to kill people or you don't. >> i'm not going to argue in favor of the death penalty. i think it's something else. think the president has a very strong record to stand on. he should be stand on it. when you are winning, use the facts. when you're losing, resort to these types of things. the president in my estimation is losing arguments he should be winning day in and day out. >> tomorrow is the test, right? we're going to see if somebody can put together a pitch of here is the message and i'm the right messenger. so let's take a break. let's come back and talk about what we're anticipating on this stage. who's got the best plus side, who has to worry about what happens. let's go through all of it. all right. also when we're talking about

who will be on the stage tomorrow night, some good news for the former vp on this debate eve. have you see the latest poll numbers? he took a beating in that first debate. whether his supporters want to own that or not. but he bounced back. why? let's go through these latest numbers. who came up and who didn't? let's figure it out. next. we tried to get the politicians to deal with the problem. but they wouldn't. so we took it to the voters and forced big tobacco to pay its share of healthcare costs.

we fought oil companies for new clean air laws and closed a billion dollar corporate tax loophole to fund public schools. by going directly to the people we got results. that's not something you see a lot of from washington these days. i'm tom steyer and i approve this message. let's make change happen. so, every day, we puts aour latest technologye. and unrivaled network to work.

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joe biden actually expanding his lead even after the first debate. if you look at the field, right here as we're on the eve of the cnn debate in detroit, he's up nearly 20 points in the latest poll. what happened? let's bring back our team. i'm surprised by this. >> i have an answer. >> please. >> i have the answer. so he's 22 a month ago. he's 35 now. nothing has transpired in the last 30 days. you cannot name an event where you can say, what a shining moment that was for joe biden, what explains it is the behavior of the president that we've been discussing. the more he acts like he's been acting, the more harded democrats say, we have got to beat him. if you go to the internals of the survey, 51% of democrats say he's the one with the strongest shot. >> smerconish reading the cross tabs.

in the commercial i was saying, i don't know what this is. he's not running targeted ads in a place that would explain this. do you think that's what it is? >> i think it's that and also a name recognition piece. part of the listen people think joe biden can beat donald trump is because he spent the last eight years before donald trump in the white house with president obama. he also has a tremendous amount of support from at least older african-americans, which i think is a huge support base for him, but i think right now this is mostly a name recognition piece. nobody knows who anybody else is, especially the folks who are not paying attention to this race and there are a number of people who are not yet paying attention to this race. >> how big is tomorrow night for biden? >> i think it's huge. biden has to show up and deliver. >> what does that mean? >> i think it means he has to show what his policy appropriations are, how he stands out, how he's different. he's normally been the guy who can go to middle america, he needs to demonstrate that he still has those bone fides.

i think he has to look like he is -- i'm not saying this because he's older, a senior statesman who has a way of bridging this gap that exists under the big tent party. >> what are you looking for? >> i think both angela and michael are correct here. i think angela is partly right in he's the person that anybody knows. they look down the list and say, here is the name, they know he was vice president. michael and i were talking about this earlier abob mueller's performance two weeks ago. to angela's point. they're the same age, right? senator biden -- vice president biden. >> seems like two weeks. it was last week. >> there we go. but he's lost a step, you know? >> so you think mueller having people in part critique his performance as a -- he's not who he was ten years ago. >> yep. yep. >> is going to -- >> trump is old, too. >> mick jagger turns 76 and performed in washington in front of 100,000 people. >> that's the exception, not the rule. >> there is 76 and there is 76. >> if i was joe biden i'd break

out that trans am and start polishing it and driving it around. he's got to do something to look a little more crisp, a little more appealing to people that he's here for the fight. >> here's one thing i would like to see from joe biden, too. it's frustrated me that he doesn't feel like he has to appeal to african-americans who have been the most loyal voting block in the democratic party. when asked about a black agenda, joe biden kind of blew it off and almost said barack obama-esque, a rising tide lifts all boats. every credible candidate has a black agenda. >> he is the only one with a legacy of service that you can get to policy. that's a problem with being a senator. the reason they struggle at a presidential level. it's hard for them to put than you that on signature achieves and joe biden can do that all day long because he's been in the white house. >> keep your eye on the fringes. this is go big or go home for half the people who are going to be across the street.

they're looking at kamala harris as the playbook as to how you stay alive in all of this. >> do they go at harris or biden? >> i think they go at biden. the new yorkers are the ones i have my eye on. kirsten gillibrand and bill de blasio. >> wait, so a philly guy is telling me you have jaundice on people from new york? >> no jaundice. i meant it as a compliment. >> oh, i bet you did. so in terms of who gets targeted, i had mayor pete buttigieg on here. i think he's going to get some heat last night because people want what he wants. he popped out of that main bubble. they want to be that spot on the outside of the bubble. we have reporting it's going to be beto o'rourke. that's why i asked him about the baker mckenzie stuff. we need to see people take a punch. i know it sounds sophomoric. if you don't deliver it well, ala joe biden, you lose. >> i think the biggest fear these two nights is simply being ignored, right? you lose if you don't come out with some media. there's 20 folks on the stage. it's pretty hard to break through.

so the worst possible thing you can be is ignored the next two nights. >> that's true. it would be nice to see somebody have a moment that is positive. that distinguishes them. >> and also authentic. >> they're all going to be mad at me for saying -- what do you mean? i'm saying that someone who says that something that galvanizes not that, ooh, did you see what cuomo did to rye. she wasn't ready for that. >> that happens every great debate. >> i know. it takes me, like, ten minutes. somebody's like she smacked you right on the nose. >> that's not true. >> you know what? that's a reason for people to believe. >> the format is tough. 60 seconds. a 60-second response. i think those moments get easier when we get into the fall. >> you're so reasonable. michael smerconish, dave urban, angela rye, thank you so much. it's always interesting to see what we expect because when it happens we are all taken by surprise. all right.

so let's look at what the president is saying. he is disgusted by the conditions in baltimore. that's what it's about for him. okay. then why didn't he take on his own son-in-law? why would he do that? i'll give you the facts and then we'll figure out the feelings with d. lemon next. ♪ applebee's all you can eat is back. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. (gasp) (singsong) budget meeting! sweet. if you compare last quarter to this quarter... various: mmm. it's no wonder everything seems a little better with the creamy taste of philly, made with fresh milk and real cream. has been excellent. they really appreciate the military family and it really shows. with all that usaa offers why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. it was funny because when we would call

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now, listen, here's the problem with abusing the facts. if the president wants to take baltimore's housing issue seriously, if that's what this is really about, he should pick up the phone and call his son-in-law, jared kushner. "the baltimore sun" reports, kushner's companies own nearly 9,000 rental units in maryland, most are in baltimore county. in 2017 the company was cited for more than 200 code violations county wide. for what? mice, mold, lack of plumbing, maggots, all the while profiting from lower-income tenants. at least $90 million a year according to "the washington post." why didn't he bring that up? let's bring in d. lemon. your take. and first of all, seriously, i'm very happy for you tomorrow night. >> thank you, brother.

>> do the people proud. >> thank you. i think we will. thank you. i appreciate it. listen, if you want words of advice you could say to this president, number one, people who live in glass towers shouldn't throw bricks or verbiage around like infested and rats. you know, you live in new york city. you don't know where you're going to see those things. >> it's true. >> and i think, you know, he should clean up his own house, meaning, within his family before he says things like that. it is obvious that he was trying to insult, right, elijah cummings, but i think it's obvious that he was trying to bring up certain things and make people think, infestation, vermin, rodents, rats -- >> no human would want to live there. >> it's very insulting. i have to give a shout-out to our colleague, victor blackwell. i'm very proud to work with him. i'm happy that he stood up. it was very personal for him and emotional. and i think that was important

because it's very personal and emotional for people who live there and if you have family members on there. good on you, victor blackwell for doing what you did. >> there's a pattern of watching this president pick fights he should not pick and avoid fights that he should take up. >> but then there are -- rarely does he suffer consequences from his base. but also rarely does he suffer consequences from people who may be independent, right, or may be democrats who voted for barack obama and voted for clinton or whatever because they are allowing him to get away with that -- with horrible language. and, again, just imagine someone speaking about your family member that way. it has been made on this network and others and all sorts of media, that there are poor elements of almost every single city -- every place in the country. >> oh, sure. i think 8 of the 9 -- correct me

in the control room if i'm wrong, but it's 8 out of 9 or 9 out of 10 hardest places to be in you know, what that is insulting to what has happened on the federal level that local politicians have not been able to defeat. >> you say, a lot of people agree with me. that doesn't make it right because you're the president of all of america. >> a lot more people disagree with him on this stuff than agree. >> there's a lot of good things about elijah co cummings' distr. if you look at the medical innovations that have been done in maryland and baltimore. >> they have a long way to go. >> everybody has a long way to go. >> that's right. >> skid row is not l.a.

is not beverly hills, right? if you look at the places that are hurting in new york city. it's not trump tower or fifth avenue. every place has issues. many people have been calling in racist. some of the black pastors visited the white house today. we'll have one on that defends him and says it's not racist. >> that i want to watch. >> don's dream for us to do a show together. they elevated his seat. artificially. >> remember when the president says that he doesn't see white nationalism as rising threat. it wasn't that long ago. this is pattern we have to point it out. i'll tell you something about elijah cummings that i learned firsthand. that's closing next. ...you can do no wrong. where did you learn that? the internet... yeah? mmm! with no artificial preservatives or added nitrates or nitrites, it's all for the love of hot dogs.

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if you want to talk about the shooting in gilroy,

california, this is the pick which you shall to see. 6-year-old steven. this is the picture to see. 13-year-old. they were shot dead along with trevor in his 20s. all three stolen from their loved ones by hate. a dozen others were injured. the murderer legally bought the rifle. of course in nevada. took it into california where it's illegal to buy the same weapon. that's a problem we can't seem to fix. he cut a hole in the fence to sidestep detecters. i want to talk about why he did this. he posted two instagram messages right before the attack. that's called a present sense impression in the law. it's not a maybe. that was on his mind right before he killed these people. the book he suggested is a white supremacist book from the 1800s. don't dismiss what this murderer believed. there are more like him. we have to stop hiding from that fact.

just ask trump's fbi director christopher wray. >> i will say that a majority of the domestic terrorism cases that we have investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacy. it includes other things as well. >> number of hate crimes up. white supremacist groups up. racist rallies up. number of propaganda up. too many are saying we don't know this guy was a real racist or white supremacist. that rational is extended protection to the president for not addressing what seems clear about why this happened. i'm not blaming the president. but what you ignore you empower. why strain to defend people in charlottesville and down play what happened in new zealand and

why. he says the killer was wicked but what explains his not mentioning what the murder was about. fear of being wrong? please. what other president would stop where he did. condemn the motivation. condemn who people who think that way as un-american. we're more powerful than they and root them out and punish them for acts on the worst of ideas about the rest of us. no problem calling baltimore infested. no human wants to live there. no problem stoking that feelings again. look at what the paper said. i have never seen anything like it. they call the president of the united states a rat. that is the an mouse he is engendering.

this cannot be us. continuing that fight with a congressman. elijah cummings, who returns home to baltimore every night. i don't give a damn about his politics. this is about people. cummings walked me through the streets of baltimore during riots. i saw a level of respect for that man and connection to his community that is rare in politics. know that. this president picks the wrong fights for the wrong reasons. it's not enough to say he's the least racist. okay? he's supposed to be antiracist. not just the least racist. words must carry the weight of resolve to elevate who we are. and promise action against those who try to divide us and worse. he doesn't do it. he picks the wrong fights and runs from the right ones. if you support him you must as well.

even when someone else writes the correct words on a teleprompter he struggles. and ad libs. this isn't about style, it's about substance. he says something to distort the right message. why? i don't see how he wins empowering a minority in the way that is galvanizing the majority. i know there are few one term presidents especially with a good economy and no massive threat abroad. this is not a normal time. this is not a normal president. know this about the debate tomorrow night the man or woman that shows this country they can be strong by building us up and bringing us together will find a country desperate to go along. thank you for watching tonight. the eve of a big occasion. "cnn tonight" with one of the stars of tomorrow night. starts now. >> he emboldens bigots. but bigots embolden him as well. not all supporters are bigots.