electrical grid. she's accused of steering recovery work toward cobra acquisitions. the company of cobra as well as a fema official who left in 2018 were also charged. thanks very much for watching. erin burnett "out front" starts right now. "out front" next, bolton bites the dust. the president firing his national security adviser not because they openly disagreed on policy. no, this was the cause of a personal vendetta. plus a trump slump. a new cnn poll revealing what could be a great concern to the president and his re-election hopes, and polls about to close in a crucial special election that has national implications. results expected to come in this hour. let's go "out front". good evening. i'm erin burnett. out front tonight. it was personal. we are learning more this hour about the bitter breakup between trump and bolton. a source tells cnn that president turned on his now

former national security adviser john bolton because he thought bolton made him look bad this week. bolton wanted to humiliate bolton in an exchange. there's bolton at the white house 8:44 a.m. this morning, work as usual taking a phone call outside and he then went in and led a meeting with top administration officials and then, boom, a tweet. the operative part of that tweet, quote, i informed john bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the white house. well, that's not bolton's version. sources tell cnn bolton was livid and it was a source for a story about how bolton told trump that hosting the taliban at camp david was a bad idea. trump, of course, was resoundingly slant right around the 9/11 anniversary and he thought bolton was the one who made him look bad. the president says he's the one who fired him last night. he said no way, i resigned and president trump said let's talk about it tomorrow. trump wanted public

embarrassment to bolton and he let him come to work and be on camera and a press release came out saying that bolton was going to be at a press briefing with secretary steve mnuchin. >> bolton was on the guidance to be here so were you two blindsided by what occurred today? last night you were told he would be here today. >> i'm never surprised, and i don't mean that on just this issue. [ laughter ] >> think about what trump thinks hearing that. look at their faces again. yeah. decided to freeze it. they get it. they work for a person whose sudden rage and focus personal slights means nothing is normal and nothing can surprise them. one source close to the administration telling cnn today after the president's, well, whatever word you'd like to use, resignation, firing, it's a real snake pit run by an erratic

president who is hard to manage and who brings out the worst sensibilities in people. caitlyn collins is live outside and what more are you learning about what went down here? >> we know there was an oval office meeting between president trump and john bolton which we are told turned into this bitter disagreement over that decision by the president to host leaders of the taliban at camp david, something john bolton strongly disagreed with, and not only that, he thought the taliban was getting too much leverage in the u.s.-taliban peace talks, but the president was furious about the fact that he believed bolton had made all, too, public how much he was pushing back to host them at camp david and it turned into this fight which is what led to this today where the president is insisting he fired john bolton and john bolton is insisting that he resigned. this was just the straw that broke the camel's back. it was not the only issue that lies with john bolton in the west wing and he was something that was essentially isolated by president trump and iced out by

mick mull vainy and barely on speaking terms with the secretary of state mike pompeo. essentially, you saw this coming and one evidence of that is at the g7 summit in france just a few weeks ago, john bolton was tentatively scheduled to go on the sunday shows and defending the administrations and he said he was uncomfortable defending their position on russia which you know had become a big topic during that summit and essentially his aides were defending it by saying they believed larry kudlow or a steven mnuchin was better suited on defending their position on tariffs and that showed you that if you work in a trump white house you have to be willing to go on tv and defend the president's policies and that's something that john bolton wasn't willing to do during that summit and now the president says he's going to announce has fourth national security adviser next week. until then, bolton's deputy, charlie cumberland is going to take over in the meanwhile, erin? >> thank you very much. he's had more national security advisers in the past three years

than the last few presidents had in their entire two terms. out front now, democratic congressman mike quigley who sits on the house intelligence committee. congressman, let's be honest. you didn't like john bolton. you mentioned you wouldn't be surprised if he got the united states into a war with iran over questionable intelligence. are you bottom line, happy, with what happened? >> i'm never fully happy with what the president does. i'm glad john bolton is gone, the unilateral action, using questionable intelligence, sure, i'm glad he's gone, but obviously two main concerns. first, it's hard to believe his successor won't be of the same cloth, and second, you mentioned this is the fourth national security adviser, second secretary of state, third chief of staff. it's a foreign policy in shambles anyway, but the lack of

continuity certainly hurts. >> you know, the thing about it is bolton did fight the president strenuously on this idea of bringing the taliban to camp david which the president was resoundingly criticized for on both sides of the aisle? could it be that trump is worse off without bolton? i know you disagreed with builton on a lot of thing, but is it possible that having him gone is worse? >> well, it could be, but only in one sense, and that is the overriding problem whether it's bolton or not is the president doesn't want anyone who is just going to say yes or agree or show him great adulation. so that's the bigger concern, it isn't that it's john. he doesn't want anybody who will disagree with him. foreign policy especially now is a difficult task enough as it is without these internal problems. the president of the united states should be surrounding himself with a team of rivals who are going to disagree with him, and at the very end using all of that advice, good and

bad, the president hopefully makes the right decision. >> want to play for you the secretary of state mike pompeo who is no fan of bolton's. we all know that, oil and water, policy wise, as well. he was asked whether he knew bolton's departure was coming and i have to play that because i have it is a he doesn't usually crack in terms of his reaction, but this was telling. here he is. >> bolton was on the guidance to be here. so were you two blindsided by what occurred today? >> that he's no longer with the administration? was it news to you today because last night you were told he would be here today. >> i'm never surprised. [ laughter ] >> well, let me -- and i don't mean that on just this issue. >> never surprised, not just on this issue as he's laughing. what do you make of that? >> you know, it's the second half of the problem of the trump administration's foreign policy. our allies are constantly surprised. they don't know what to expect.

if anything, they want certainty, and anything -- any number of things that have taken place in the last several months have given them no assurance that they can trust us, that they can count on us or know what the president will do next. >> secretary pompeo, of course, has been loyal, but he's very respected. was he standing up to the president? there? in his own mild way, yes. that's as much as anybody can stand up to the president at this point. >> so i want to can you about one other major story tonight. multiple senior officials, congressmen, who served under trump are telling us that the president has repeatedly expressed opposition to using basically spies, right? you know, covert sources of people who are not american to get information. he doesn't trust them, and he thinks it will damage his relationship with the foreign leaders because the united states is -- is using spies from those countries. do you think that he has a point? >>. >> i think the president has no

clue what he's thinking about or talking about when he says that. the fact of the matter is our country is safer because other countries share critical information with us. if anyone thinks our intelligence service can get all of the information in the world, it is a big, complicated world and some of those countries and in eastern europe, for example, they don't have the military might and maybe they don't spend enough of their percentage of gdp on the military, but i can tell you my third term on the intelligence committee they keep us safe. our allies share critical information that saves americans' lives and when the president does something to denigrate them as he denigrates our own intel service, we are less safe. >> so this comes after we learn that the united states, you know, extracted one of the highest-level sources that the u.s. had inside the russian government, senior source that the united states had cultivated for years. a source who is central to the

crucial conclusion, right? to knowing that vladimir putin directed russian intervention and this is as important and significant and longstanding of a source in the russian government had. the reason the united states did this and pulled this person out of moscow was fear that trump could expose this person. do you think that president trump would purposefully have given that information to the russians or would it just have been out of cluelessness? >> well, the president can do any number of things wittingly or unwittingly. i can't comment on the merits of that extraordinarily sensitive story. what i'll say is this, the mere fact that the reports are out there and not just of this incident, but the meeting in the oval office with the russians, the satellite photos involving the iranians and the fact that the mere reports are out there are enough to discourage our allies from sharing critical information because they don't think that information will be

kept safe, and obviously, that will impact their sources and methods making them less safe. >> just so that we understand, i know it's highly sensitive, but can you tell me whether your committee has been briefed about this spy and what happened? the extrakction and the merit. >> just doing my job, i can't comment on that, i apologize. >> i appreciate your time, congressman. >> thank you. >> breaking news, north korea has reported it has fired a super large multiple rocket launcher coming on the same day that the hawk, john bolton, is cut loose. is north korea emboldened? plus elizabeth war ben to speak to another big crowd in texas. what does the enthusiasm tell us about her campaign and the breaking news, the polls about to close in the special election that could set the stage for 2020. at fidelity, we believe your money

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breaking news. kim jong-un overseeing a weapons test. north korea reporting it fired a super large multiple rocket launcher. the news coming just hours after a longtime north korea hawk tenure as trump's national security vaeszor ended in a complete breakdown with trump. out front now, david gergen, our chief political analyst gloria borger and graham wood who wrote an article last year titled john bolton may save us all. david gergen, there is obviously no love loss between north korea and john bolton. the country has called him human scum and a defective human product, quote, before. could bolton's abrupt and nasty departure embolden kim? >> absolutely. i think it will embolden some other countries. initially, they're going to wait and they'll poke and see if they can cause mischief and mayhem and see how we'll snap back

realizing that the national security team under the president is not complete. there is yet another acting person coming into the nse. the nse staff is very loyal to bolton. they don't know where they're going so this is a good time for our allies -- our rivals to experiment. that said, i think that most people in the foreign policy community e special me in the democrats and foreign policy are relieved where they're going and it makes it less likely they'll be going to war. >> is it be careful what you wish for tonight? >> bolton took him on, right? and that is in stark contrast to trump who at least has publicly acquiesced and ending u.s. mill tear drills and even as kim has ramped up missile tests and bolton's longstanding views on north korea and trump's position could not be more stark and left anyone forget, here they are. >> we can overthrow kim jong-un's regime.

>> he sa's a funny guy. a great, smart guy and a great negotiator and loves his people. >> the way you eliminate the north korean nuclear program. >> and this has been in particular a great friendship. >> the fact is we failed for 25 years because of diplomatic efforts to chit-chat north korea out of nuclear weapons. >> he wrote me beautiful letters and they're great letters. we fell in love. >> now the love narrative, gloria, wins out. >> right. and it makes you wonder. just looking through all of those clips, it makes you wonder why donald trump hired bolton in the first place? they disagree on just about everything, particularly something like north korea and he could have just googled the guy's name and found out exactly what he thought. so it's really no surprise in the end that over the taliban

going to camp david and the question of who leaked disagreement within the administration and trump pointing the finger at bolton, it's, you know, it's no surprise that in the end it all fell apart. >> it all fell apart. >> yeah. >> of course, it should be no surprise it didn't fall apart for any substantive reason other than personal vendettas and issues. graham, you remember the scathing op ed, and many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and worse inclinations and we fully recognize what is happening and we recognize what is right even when donald trump won't. >> you know that bolton was the last adult in the room. >> bolton was the last person in the trump establishment that had some experience in a properly funking white house and he was an important person just because he brought some experience to the table. what he might have been is a crazy, bellicose adult in the room, but he was an adult in the

room and he was important in at least that regard. >> when you say he could be the one that saves donald trump, you weren't referring to this specific moment, but you're making a bigger point here which is each if you don't like what he thought, he provided a value. >> he'd seen a process work and he'd seen a proper white house working. those processes didn't matter that much because all that really matters is staying in the good graces of donald trump which john bolton was not able to do. >> right. >> that is what it comes down to, right? it wasn't the disagreements on policy which are known as gloria points out well before john bolton took the job and it was bitterness and acrimony and trump choosing to do it in a humiliating way this morning. there have been four national security advisors for trump in less than three years which is more than the last three presidents had in the entire two terms combined. so is this hurting the united states security? >>. >> i think it does weaken the united states security and in

one thing he was right and john bolton was the adult in the room or the more experienced person in the room and when you are into your fourth person in three years you're reaching down into the second or third string. you know, you just don't get the kind of competence knowing if you go to work now with this president you're not going to last and he'll turn on you at some point. he will be bitter toward you and you'll be dumped out the door. i just think we don't get the kind of high-quality people that you want to get and you need to have around a president whoever he is. >> so, graham, you've spent a lot of time around john bolton, right? you've written about him in depth. he's now come out and contradicted the president. the president is, make it clear, i fired him. and he comes out and says no, make it clear. i resigned. >> i think he's started with that. >> tell all, fight back. the president's tweet was an undignified tweet to dismiss a

national security adviser and it was not the type of tweet that would send someone off with appreciation. john bolton is a very prideful man and he's someone that does not let vendettas disappear. he holds grudges and best known in washington for doing that, so i would be surprised if those grudges were not coming within a matter of hours and not days. >> gloria? >> let me just add something here because i heard from a senior democratic foreign policy maven, if you will, unsolicited today and he made the point to me about how we all ought to be thinking about national security -- the national security operation inside the white house which he called completely dysfunctional, and he said, look, it's important to reflect on the fact that mike pompeo is now the last person standing. everyone else, mcmaster, mattis, coates, tillerson, kelly, kee t

kierstjen nielsen, will he talk about it? i think he approximately. >> and it will put pressure mike pompeo, which i do emphasize it is not in his normal way to sort of make a joke about how, you know, you never know what you're going to get from that guy who works two doors down today, that he laughed at the president. >> but listen, this is a big victory of pompeo and -- >> he didn't like bolton. he's got the whole agenda. i think it will make it tougher for him to invite invitations to come out and run for the senate because he is the last man standing. i would think he'll be under heavy pressure to stay in, but still, you can't do -- you can't run this government with a strong burn out of the state department and you need first-class people to do it and that's what's missing here.

>> all right. thank you all very much. next, a new cnn poll could spell trouble for trump in 2020 or could it? plus breaking news, we are minute away from polls closing in a special election and results are about to come in so, of course, we are going to go to the wall and john king. i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved... ...90% clearer skin at 4 months... ...after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections... ...and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment your doctor should check you

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>> right now, elizabeth warren getting ready to speak to a big crowd in texas. you see that live there. it is a red state that she wants to put into play and you know, when you look at those people gathering, she's not yet on stage, it does bring to mind something interesting. some of her crowds lately have

exceeded some of trump's bragged-about crowd sizes and he's bragged about crowds and she's grabbed a crowd even bigger. jennings, former assistant to president bush. >> she's rising in the polls. her crowd, wherever she is, by far her crowds overall are the biggest in the democratic field and as i point out, rivalling trump's in some cases. is this a sign he should be worried? >> i don't think it's a sign that trump should be worried, but it is a sign that the democrats are enthusiastic about her candidacy and the problem, though is how do you determine how this fits into the 2020 cycle? and that's something nobody can really figure out. i'm skeptical to read too much into the polls at this point, but i do think it's a good sign for elizabeth warren. remember, back in december, new

year's eve when she announced her candidacy, a lot of people thought she was dead in the water and she's drawing tens of thousands of people in her crowd. >> this is in the context of the whole pocahontas thing in putting native american ancestry, and they already know it. he has to find something else because they clearly don't care. these crowds are getting the attention of president trump and they are and they're irking him. listen. >> i have crowds that are many times what her crowds are. nobody ever talks about them. nobody wants to talk about them. with her the other day they say she had 15. if you really count them up, it looked like about eight or nine and the biggest story was her crowds. that's like a small crowd for me. >> you know, scott, you want to hear something like that i want to laugh and then i realize this is the reality of the world we live in. okay. is he underestimating here as a challenger and is his obsession there as strange as that was proof that he is not underestimating her?

>> well, i think he's probably -- he watches more news coverage of the primary than any of the three of us sitting here and when he watches someone say big crowds they'll perk up his ears and the same way they run against any of them and they're all basically coming out for the same kind of programming across economic immigration and national security issues and so i think they'll end up treating her the exact same way, and try to make it a real choice instead of a referendum on him. do you want a more left-leaning socialist country or do you want more free-market type of programming that i'm offering? >> you strategist types may want to do that, but he'll be yelling about pocahontas and crowds. >> oh, sure. that will be part of the matrix, as well and by the way, he'll be running again in a campaign environment where he's almost certain to have his own image will probably be worst, at least at the outset than the

democratic nominee and he'll have to figure out how to win in that environment and he did in 2016 and he'll have to do it again in 2020. >> so here's the thing. this comes perhaps to what you are arc lewding to, scott. a new poll shows 60% of americans say that president trump does not deserve a second term. his approval now is 39% and which is the lowest at nine months and obama, and clinton were at 44. 39 versus 43 doesn't sound like a big difference. does it really matter? >> i don't think the five-point spread between obama and trump is statistically significant in terms of where trump stands. what's more important is the larger trend, and the fact that for the entirety of his administration he's never once been above 50% in the public opinion poll averages. that's never happened in modern polling before. we've never seen anything president in modern history who

has been so despised and not only that, we've also never seen a president who has made no attempt whatsoever to reach beyond his base to expand the electorate to get democrats to vote for him and he's running on entirely on getting his base and he has no intention of convincing anybody else. >> scott? >> this this cnn poll i was looking back on the polling on him in the last two weeks of the campaign in 2016. >> yeah. >> his favorable and unfavorable was about 39 to 58 at the end of the election and he is ten points better than that. and he's pretty much frankly about where he and was he figured out how to win an election when he was a little bit more unpopular than his opponent. so what does that mean? you will try to define your opponent in a vacuum. you can say that i don't want to re-elect trump and elections are vacuums and you get those people that are uneasy about you and say the other choice is that much worse. so i think you'll see him run against these democrats

virtually the same which would take us in the wrong direction. >> it's an interesting point you make, keith. he won with a pretty despising set of numbers, so he won and here he is, and one of the things and i don't know if this is directly linked to approval, but i will note, his approval has dipped in the economy below 50% and that was something really holding him up and that has now dipped below and another poll from abc news and washington post say the voters expect a recession within the year. okay. if there is not a recession which we should all hope there is not, could trump's numbers surge? part of the reason people are expecting something bad will happen to them and it doesn't. >> i don't think the recession or not really matters because ms. numbe his numbers have been low despite that the public has assumed the economy is strong. if you think of the catastrophes that has happeneda ever t after

cuts and for not lowering interest rates and you see the president launching trade wars and he has to be out to farmers. the deficit is rising to almost -- >> the debt has increased by $2 trillion, and we have a president who seems to be completely unaware of all of this because he's just telling everybody the economy is great and don't pay attention to all of the indicators that are telling you that you should be alarmed. >> scott? final word. >> think macro indicators mean less to voters than microindicates. is my own paycheck going up and am i secure in my job and those are the things that if you're an incumbent presidential campaign you're more worried about and to the extent that you see white-collar workers in the suburbs that stuck with trump are feeling worse on those personal indicators in 2020. that is a red flashing light for them and they've got to get the president focused on talking to them about, a, how he's working to shore up those indicators and b, presenting the democrats as a riskier alternative. so if you're worried about the

future today imagine if say elizabeth warren shows up and raises your taxes. so the macro indicators fascinate the media, but it's the microindicators is my own paycheck and my own job, my own 529 account for my kids, does that stuff feel good to me. >> and crowd size, perhaps, is the derivative indicator of how people feel. you're not going to show up at something unless you're passionate about somebody. it takes a lot of time to do that. >> thank you both. next, we're standing by for the first results of a special election that could alter the race. john king is at the magic wall. >> a new investigation uncovering tax-payer funded stays at trump resorts is surging and the president is benefiting. so what will be done? back then, we checked our smartphones

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breaking news. polls just closing in a crucial special election. an election the president is watching extremely closely. it's north carolina's 9th congressional district. darryl mccready versis dan bishop. pence came, don junior came, he

cares. outside now is the host of inside politics john king who also cares about this one because it matters, john. trump won the district by 12 points and this one is close. why does it matter so much to trump? >> it matters so much, erin, because he's trying to see the climate into 2020. six in ten americans say they want a new president and the president wants to prove that wrong as he tries to re-create this. the this is the 2016 map. no, he doesn't like to be reminded he didn't win the popular vote. north carolina was a big part of that, but the president won over hillary clinton and by a pretty decent margin so what about north carolina? i'm going to bring this up. this is the district at play tonight and you mentioned the president won it by a healthy margin. we come forward. the president won the district by 12 points. why are we talking about this tonight? because of what happened in

2018. republicans got hammered in the suburbs, a revoemelt against th president of the united states that made nancy pelosi speaker and cost the majority. is it carrying over? 2019 to 2020, is it carrying over? let's take a closer look at the district and stretch it out and here, near charlotte, this is the biggest part of the district and if you go back to 2016 to invoke these days to draw on map, erin, this is the entire county, and the exact shape. >> and hillary clinton won in 2016 and she won the parts of the county that are in the ninth district, and why is this important? charlotte, suburbs and the beginning of the excerpts and this is an area that's been trending from the republicans to the democrats and does it continue tonight did the president's visit turn out republicans or does it turn out suburbanites and people who are tired of the president and those are some of the things that they're going to learn and not only in that end of the

district, and not only in cumberland county. find an urban area and it's likely to be blue. if you move away, this is the area farther out and the republicans have been protecting and these are a lot of votes in this district right here. does this stay tonight? we'll get the votes in 30 minutes or so, but look how close cumberland county was in the presidential race. can the democrats turn out enough people? can the republicans fire things up? both parties are in testing technology in this race as they go into 2020, as well. just one district, but it could be important. >> thank you very much, john king. out front now, our reporter nia malika henderson. the bottom line, it's clear. he is watching this one incredibly closely. >> everyone. i mean, republicans and democrats are both watching this. a lot of money poured into this race. $11 million of the outside committee for republicans poured a lot of money and a lot of ads on the air because they know this is going to tell them something about trump's

strength. if you think about dan bishop. he's the republican and he is running on trump. he has said it's all about trump. he would be essentially a foot soldier in trump's culture war, if you will. he's run a campaign against the democrat there, dan mccready basically calling him a socialist. that, too, is the republican playbook and it's trump's playbook, as well. a lot of eyeballs on this race. listen, we might not know by the end of the nice if you think about the last race that was tossed out and that was only a thousand votes or so, so we could be here a long night. all of the people i've talked to on both sides say this will be tight, tight, tight. >> to the point john is making, so trump wins this district by nine points. okay, and there's if the democrats win, fine, we all get the message, but what if republicans lose, but by substantially less. >> this idea that folks and republicans who are white and

college educated and these are suburban republicans who are traditionally a part of the republican tent, it will tell us something about how they're feeling about the republican brand, and obviously the -- if it's a gop, but by three -- it still shows that reps are losing a bit of their edge with this population of voters. >> and these are he can get and they're disaffected with the party and the president in terms of any number of issues and also the tone and the chaos which again, he is underscored by what happened today with john bolton. >> thank you very much, nia. next, democrats with a new game plan tonight to get to the bottom of why the air force has been staying at trump's resort, plus jean moos on the president returning to the trail to nowhere. >> the tallahassee trail, and

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. new tonight, the house oversight committee threatening to subpoena the department of defense for documents related to president trump's golf resort in scotland. the committee investigating air force crews staying at the president's resort. the top house republican dismissing concerns. >> the president's resorts are hotels that he owns. people are traveling. it's just like any other hotel. is it different that if i go and stay or eat at a marriott here or eat at the trump? the president isn't asking me too. he's competing in a private enterprise. >> of course the president has said he would not be in private enterprise because he is the president, and he has broken that promise. and, you know, this isn't like any hotel. it's owned by the president of the united states, who is personally profiting from taxpayer money being spent there. outfit, eric lipton. you know, eric, look, we know

that the president told mike pence to stay at his resort in ireland, that pence's chief of staff said that that's what happened. and now we've got the air force apparently staying at a trump resort because they were refueling at an airport. trump tweeted, i know nothing about an air force plane landing at an airport which i don't own and have nothing to do with near turnberry resort in scotland, filling up were fuel, with the crew 125iing overnight at turnberry. they have good taste. nothing to do with me. just to make it clear, the tweet is false because you report trump has something to do with that airport. what did you find? >> yeah. i mean this is sort of an unprecedented situation in modern united states history to have a president who is, you know, essentially the beneficial owner of a chain of hotels and golf courses at the same time he's the commander in chief. what we know is in 2014 when the trump family first bought this property, they immediately began negotiations with the local

airport there to try to increase airport traffic, to look for ways to boost an airport that's struggling financially. in addition to talking about ways to increase airport traffic, they had negotiations with the airport management about potentially referring air crews that were landing at the airport to their hotel. and they discussed what rates they would charge and tried to get on a list, which they ended up getting on such a list. now they're one of a dozen hotels that the airport refers air crews that are arriving to, and that's why the air force crews are heading to the trump turnberry along with other hotels in that area, because when they land and they ask where should we go, they -- >> what's interesting, i'm just making the point he has nothing to do with it, well, that's not true because you've done the reporting, and they've negotiated, the trump organization, a very specific thing here. you also found the result of that, eric. the number of stops by air force planes, again, taxpayer-funded, at this airport rose from 180 in 2017, trump's first year in office, to 257 last year, 259

already this year and we're at the beginning of september. so we know trump has not divested from the trump organization. he is clearly benefiting from this surge, and this is taxpayer money. >> yeah, and this is, you know, be it the mar-a-lago, the trump hotel in washington, d.c., bedminster in new jersey or any of the other, there are millions of dollars that are going into the trump businesses that are coming from candidates spending there, lobbyists, evangelical groups, and also from the u.s. military from the state department. it's a very unusual situation that creates all kinds of ethical questions. >> it certainly does and certainly he is profiting from his role as president. i guess we know that there is some investigating whether it's inappropriate or illegal or not. eric, thank you. >> thank you. next, jeanne moos on the hunt for trump's tallahassee trail. >> tallahassee trail. the tallahassee trail. do they have a tallahassee trail? argentina? i can.

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. president trump can't get his attacks on rival mark sanford quite right. here's jeanne moos. >> reporter: when president trump flings mud at his latest primary challenger for having an affair, well, no wonder someone responded, let him who hath not had an extramarital affair cast the first tweet. but not only does the president keep casting, he keeps taking the wrong trail. >> mr. tallahassee trail or appalachian trail. he's the appalachian trail, right? the tallahassee trail is nice too. >> reporter: the appalachian trail is where mark sanford's aides said he was hiking when the then-south carolina governor was actually in argentina with his mistress. but president trump keeps getting lost. >> on the tallahassee trail, but he was actually in argentina. the tallahassee trail. must be a beautiful place. do they have a tallahassee trail

in argentina? i don't think, right? no? >> here's a shocker. there is no tallahassee trail. >> reporter: well, actually there is. the tallahassee saint marks rail trail but it had nothing to do with mark sanford's saaga. president trump didn't just get his trails crossed. he called sanford's lover his flaming dancer friend. flaming dancer? this calls for some trump translation. >> now, we think he meant to time flameningo dancers. >> reporter: but unless you mean dancing flamingos, the correct word is flamenco dancer. >> which also would have been wrong because there is no evidence sanford's mistress had ever been a flamenco dancer. >> but it caught fire on the internet. people kept changing the lyrics to elton john's tiny dancer.

hold me closer flaming dancer ♪ hold me closer tiny dancer >> reporter: even if she's not a flamenco dancer. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> thanks for joining us. anderson starts now. good evening. thanks for joins us. polls are closed, and the vote count is under way in north carolina, where the final race of the 2018 congressional midterms is finally being decided and could have a lot to say about 2020. we're going to bring you the latest on that as we learn more, as the votes are being counted, along with new cnn polling on whether voters think that president trump deserves to be re-elected. new numbers out tonight. we begin, though, keeping them honest, with the forced departure of the president's third national security adviser, john bolton, from a white house that a source close to the administration calls, quote, a real snake pit. the source, who spoke to the lead's jake tapper, goes on to say