i'm chris cuomo, and welcome to "prime time." president obama sound an alarm for us as a country tonight, and specifically, an alarm for his democratic party. is the fate of the democrats really in the hands of one man? no, not president biden, joe manchin, senator from ruby red west virginia. he does appear to be the key 50th vote in the senate, and he has struck a position that is praised by trump, not his own party. manchin most recently said i believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the weakened binds of our democracy. and for that reason, he will vote against the for the people act. furthermore, he will not vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster.

he said he does support the john lewis act, which is the companion piece to the voting legislation from the democrats, the other part of the for the people act. the john lewis act would block states from passing the laws we have seen restricting the ability to vote, but if the party can't get any buy-in from the right and can't get their full 50, are they done? this prospect has one progressive congressman from new york calling manchin out as the new mitch mcconnell, who of course did everything in his power to block obama's agenda. remember, he said my job is to make him a one-term president. you heard him say just last month, in case you didn't get it the first time, that he is 100% focused on blocking biden's administration. but is that fair criticism of joe manchin? manchin says his party critics are, quote, all my friends. how long can that last if the

senator blocks democrats from getting anything passed? obama suggested the democrats need to get together, all of them, to fight against what he sees as a uniquely toxic opposition. listen. >> i think we have to worry when one of our major political parties is willing to embrace a way of thinking about our democracy that would be unrecognizable and unacceptable even five years ago or a decade ago. when you look at some of the laws that are being passed at the state legislative level. and when that's all done against the backdrop of large numbers of republicans having been convinced wrongly that there was something fishy about the last election, we've got a problem.

>> no kidding that we have a problem. now one step sideways to process here. the former president said they're one of the major parties has a problem. the real problem is there are only two parties, right? you really have the democrats and the republicans, or whatever you want to call them right now. i just want to keep the idea in your head that, you know, it doesn't have to be that way. imagine if we had more parties, more stakeholders so that you had to have deals made in order to get to any kind of position of strength so that you could keep a position of power. just think about that. now in terms of what the former president is trying to accomplish here in his interview, he's never been known as a hammer, okay, but he did nail trump as the agent of the animus that is around us right now and faulted the right, the party of the republicans for being little more than a water boy. >> i thought that there were enough guardrails

institutionally that even after trump was elected that you would have the so-called republican establishment who would say okay, you know, it's a problem if the white house isn't -- doesn't seem to be concerned about russian meddling, or it's a problem if we have a president who is saying neo-nazis are marching in charlottesville. there are good people on both sides. the degree to which we did not see that republican establishment say hold on, time out, that's not acceptable. that's not who we are, but rather be cowed into accepting and then finally culminating in january 6 where what originally was oh, don't worry, this isn't

going in where. we're just letting trump and others vent, and then suddenly you now have large portions of an elected congress going along with the falsehood. i didn't expect that there would be so few people who say well, i don't mind losing my office, because this is too important. america is too important. >> some things are more important. >> our democracy is more important. >> isn't that interesting that a former president, a man of his sophistication is surprised that the party of trump is choosing to stay in power versus throw themselves on the mercy of any kind of higher democratic appeal. look, we're all past being surprised by just about anything in our politics, right? obama sees the problem, but he didn't articulate a solid solution, not that that's his job. i don't know that there is one.

is there a solution for his party or for our country in this moment? let's bring in a better mind. long-time democratic strategist james carville. i hope you had a good vacation. thank you for join me on the rebound. >> i had a nice vacation. i was in great las vegas and probably a little slow today, but that's okay. >> you'll still be two steps faster than me. but we need the raging cajun. do you think that obama gets what needs to be done? do you think any democrat gets what needs to be done to counter what it's against? >> i think that president obama obviously has a sense of the country what needs to be done. understand the democratic party is more of a coalition. and the republican party is more of a personality cult. so in a democratic coalition, you have congressman brown, who i don't think a republican has won a precinct in his congressional district in this century is critical of senator manchin who as a democrat has not carried a county in his state since 2008. when you have a coalition like

that, they can be messy, but that's governing. that's how you govern with coalitions. and i'd much prefer being part of a political party that is a coalition that has many different elements in its coalition than a political party that volleys around the cult of a single person who by the way in my opinion is not a very bright person. but that's their choice. we have to understand this is what we are. we have a very thin read that we're holding on to power with. yes, it's going to look a little messy from time to time, but these things got to work through it. and i think they will. >> how? why do you think they're going to work through it? and if it stays the way it is right now, you guys think you're going take a beating in the midterms? >> first of all, i think president biden completely understands where we are. i think senator manchin has a good grip on the country and some of the problems we have. and i think that the talks are going to have to transpire between senator biden, and senator schumer.

we're not going to get it solved from the peanut gallery here. and understand he is not going to be for an 800-page bill. so they got to get down and make some changes and bring him along. he really cares about infrastructure. they might be able to cut a deal there. i think we're all get too depressed by one event. i think we'll be fine. it will take time. it's not going around the corner because we're part of a difficult coalition. >> 2006, every republican voted to reauthorize the vra, the voting rights act. 2019 between, mcconnell wouldn't even bring the john lewis act to the floor. what does it tell you? >> it tells me that it's a cult. back then, it wasn't a personality cult. they actually had some coalitions in their party. they had contacts cut, deregulate people, you had the christian people, you had the muscular foreign policy people. now it's nothing but the whim of donald trump.

and mitch mcconnell just follows that along. that's what that tells me right out the bat. it's just more proof that it's a cult in one party and a coalition in another. >> but if you're a coalition party, why does it come down to one senator? >> because we didn't do that well in the midterm elections. all right? we lost house seats. now we have a very favorable -- one of the things, if you look at the whole court here, chris, we have a very favorable 2022 map. you know if we're smart politically and pick up senate seats in 2022 and hold the house, you have two years of joe biden's term. somebody's got to think beyond next week. and i think president biden knows that, and i would be not surprised if he and manchin are holding talks and discussions about how they can do some things and try to bring the country together. because i think both of these gentlemen -- yes are much like president obama think that the state of our democracy is pretty fragile right now.

and i think they're both people of good judgment. let's see if they can come up with something. i'm totally think that there is some way we can do this better and pick up seats in 2022. we're talking about having 7% growth now. we have that, that would be great. >> what would you say to manchin on the filibuster? >> i'd say first of all, presumptuous because i know the state he runs in and how he does things. but you know, senator, we can keep it in place. the republicans made a carve-out to the supreme court, sent a raid, made a carve-out for a corpse of appeal. and maybe on this issue of voting rights which is so fundamental and so important to the cohesion of the country that maybe you and president biden and senator schumer can work something out that satisfies all of the parties and gets this done. i would work on that. i sure would. and i think senator manchin, first of all, he is a democrat.

he had a tougher race than you think in 2018. he would have won by 35 points if he changed parties. i don't think he is going to change parties, and i think he has an elemental sense of fairness. voting is an issue he thinks ought to be something that people are allowed to do and express their opinions. i think there is some ways to get from here to there. but it's not going get done from the peanut gallery. it's going to have to get to the highest level and just gutting through. this you know, senator schumer is already scheduling things. i think -- i don't know what they know, but i think they know more than we know. if that makes any sense. >> obama spoke about the state of play within his own party. i want your take on what he said. here is his sound. >> i think democrats, lord knows when i was president, i was getting a lot of incoming from my own base. so it's not symmetrical. but what is true is for all of us there.

is a great danger that we just shut out anything that contradicts our own sense of righteousness in these big debates. >> what does that mean to you? >> it means exactly what he is saying, that god gave everybody two ears and one mouth. what he is saying some of the people in the democratic base can get so self-righteous and so how can you possibly disagree with me that we're the answer to everything, and it puts people off. it puts people off like president obama who understands politics is about coalition, is about getting votes, making things happen. and i've spoken out against this before, that you are tall rant about everything that people don't think like you then you become intolerant. part of being tolerant is being able to tolerate ideas different than yours. that's part of the whole tolerance thing. i think the frustration that

president obama is expressing is a frustration that i hear often. >> you know, i was being taught something the other day, and i was being instructed to close my hand because on open hand like this can block a fist. if you guys are a coalition and you are splayed fingers of different coalitions and you have a fist coming directly at you which is what the party of trump is, they are galvanized, how does the coalition block the fist that's coming their way? >> well, first of all, the fist is not that popular. if you look at -- the fist got 46 in 2016. got 47 in 2020. and he's not that popular right now. and one of our fingers, our main fingerer is president biden. and he is doing pretty well right now. >> which fingerer is biden? >> excuse me? >> which finger is biden? >> he's probably the southern index finger. >> i know which finger your want

to be. the point is, do you think you guys can hold together? because i don't believe it's just about manchin. i think a lot of this has been unfair to him. i don't think he is loving the moment. i don't think he loves the position he is in. i think there are other senators he is speaking for as a proxy. we've seen this before in your party. and i don't know where you get the optimism that you guys are going to get it together and get something done here before the midterms. >> because, chris, i don't think senator manchin is enjoying this at all. i think people say that just don't know human nature, don't know senator manchin. and i totally agree with you, because i'm always optimistic. because once you say you can't do something, then you can't do it. so i never go into an election, i never go into a contest where i think that we can't do it. now i know it's going to be difficult, you know. i have confidence that some people in the party have some real ability. we've got some real common people we can bring up. i don't see it right at this

moment, but i think it is going to unfold. and you can't just come in and throw up hands and say oh, we're too disorganized. hell, we'll lose the next election. no, you can't do that. and the whole process is going to evolve and different things are going to come up and talks are going to be had and negotiations are going to go on. and that's the way the political world, it's always been that way. it's particularly perilous now. but i think we're going to do fine. i think we're going to get through. this i think we're going pick up seats in 2022. i honestly do. be i always think that. so that's my t way i look at life. >> well, you're not wrong about the map. but you also had a good map in this last election in terms hough it was supposed to go in congress. you don't have a bad map this time. but look, let's do this. i'll let people into the private process. i asked carville to come on the show on a regular basis. that's how i know he was on vacation next week. i'm going keep doing it. i believe that where your head is about how the party does its

best is in short supply and needs to be heard just for the quality of the debate that's surrounding us right now. so you take the invitations as you want, but they're going to be coming your way. brother carville, be well. >> yes, sir, thank you. >> all right. so trump, he is really going. he got up and left. trump is declaring himself. democracy safe. you roll your eyes, but he's got his people behind him. animus sells. demagogues can get a lot of power. that's why there is no positive opposite to that term. what's the positive opposite to a demagogue? we don't know, because we know negativity overwhelmingly works. he is out there talking about this being the crime of the century, right? this is the man who could be face do you think potential criminal indictment. why is he resonating? let's ask his niece mary trump about the investigations into the trump organization.

she too is accusing him of financial crimes, and she is here with a perspective that only she has, next.

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donald trump is a man getting less attention yet still commanding the entire focus of half of our political system. even as he looks for more of this attention from the crowd, cheering support. >> elected members of his party are still consumed with his lies. all you have to do is ask those who tried to speak the simplest of truths about january 6. listen to this. >> i think what donald trump did is the most dangerous thing, the most egregious violation of an oath of office of any president in our history. so the idea that a few weeks after he did that the leader of the republicans in the house would be at mar-a-lago essentially, you know, pleading with him to somehow come back

into the fold, or whatever it was he was doing, to me was inexcusable. >> was it inexcusable or was it unavoidable? look what happened to her? that's the state of play in the party. now, here's the problem for trump. one place that he is getting a lot of attention is from criminal prosecutors. so where does the former president go from here? his niece is also a psychologist. she has a new book coming out august 17th. it is available for preorder i am told. it is called "the reckoning: our nation's trauma and finding a way to heal." mary trump, powerful title. thank you for being with us. good luck with the book. >> thank you. >> so here's what i want to know. his personality type, he is able to ignore the negative and focus

on the positive. and now the positive for him is a defining term, what is good for him. in a way i've never seen in politics before. how does that carry forward for him in terms of what he is facing now? >> first of all, what's good for him has always been his only calculus, really. that's the only calculation he makes ever. so going forward, i think what he believes is that there is still an opportunity for him to somehow undo the results of the last election, and his main method for making that happen is, as you've mentioned, keeping the republican party at his beck and call. >> here is the problem. the problem is he knows he's lying, okay? i don't buy that trump is delusional arguments. i don't. i think he has an amorality to him when it comes to what the

cost is of what he is selling. and i know you get the distinction. but i'm not saying it immorality. i'm not saying he is evil necessarily. i don't think he processes it that way. i think he thinks this is good for me, man. and whatever the cost, the cost. january 6? it's not as bad as they said it was. and at the end of the day, they were here for the right reason, which is me. so what is any kind of expected end point for him in terms of what lies would be too much? >> none, you know. because really, the only way he can perpetuate the myths he is attempting to perpetuate is to continue to lie. there is no truth here. and there is no end game in terms of helping the party or the country, you know. that's all just window dressing. so i think by keeping the republican party in line and he's been doing this since the election by threatening to start a third party or threatening to

run again. i believe that it's about maintaining power and using that in the event that he gets indicted, which it looks like there is a possibility at least on many fronts that may happen. >> well, look, i said to the audience in the tease leading up to this segment, you're suing him. you have your own issues with him and your own theories about his perfidy or his wrongdoing and his knowledge where finances are involved. here is my question. understanding the family the way you do, what would it mean to donald trump if they came after his kids in an organization like this? i'm not wishing that. i don't wish it on any family. but what i'm saying is the facts what the facts are. would that change his disposition, do you think? would he take one for his kids? >> no, he wouldn't. i think if that were to happen,

if prosecutors were to go after his children, he would fully expect them to take a hit for him to benefit him. what he probably doesn't understand is that's not really how it works, you know. they always try to get people to flip so they can go after the bigger target. but donald would never imagine in a million years that his children would do that, although i'm fairly sure they would. so it's -- if that indeed happens, it's going to be fascinating, because he would never do anything to protect them if it were at his expense. >> how you know? >> i've known him my whole life, and unfortunately, i've had to analyze him pretty closely over the last four or five years. this is something who's never changed. he doesn't evolve. and as you said earlier, he has one thing he cares about, and that's himself.

that will never, ever change, no matter who gets in his way, no matter who gets hurt, even if it's his kids. >> knowing what you know about the organization through your own attorneys, what do you think the chances are that they're going to find something that he knew about that is demonstrably criminal? >> speaking only as somebody who has my own information about this because of my case. >> that's why i'm asking. >> yeah, of course. i would say even though my case on its own isn't in the grand scheme of things very important except to me, what it does do is help prosecutors hopefully establish intent and state of mind because we know that the behavior that's being looked into, tax fraud, tax evasion, et cetera has been going on for decades.

so we're looking at setting precedent, and we're looking at state of mind and intent. and that's incredibly important when we're talking about criminal cases. >> and you said many times that whatever was happening, he would have known because control is everything. mary trump, thank you for being with us tonight. good luck going forward. >> thank you. >> all right. now, there is another window into potential distress for the former president, and that is the ongoing criminal investigation into rudy giuliani because of his dealings with ukraine. cnn has just obtained exclusive audio that exposes how trump's former lawyer pressured the country to investigate bs conspiracies about joe biden before the election. this reveals things. we'll show you, next.

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my cholesterol is borderline. so i take garlique to help maintain healthy cholesterol safely and naturally. and it's odor free. i'm taking charge of my cholesterol with garlique. it's interesting, and you should note how many people discuss rudy giuliani's interactions with ukrainian officials as if it's a conditional, as if it's an if. we know that rudy giuliani relentlessly pressured you crane -- ukraine in 2019 to investigate baseless conspiracies about then candidate joe biden. he doesn't think they're baseless, or at least he doesn't say that, but we know he did it.

partial transcripts have been released. but tonight cnn is exclusively obtained that 40-minute call. this is one of the moments giuliani pushed ukrainian leaders into push an investigation into biden and suggests improved regulations with the u.s., including a white house meeting in exchange for that help. listen, and then we'll discuss. >> what we need for the president is to say -- to put an honest prosecutor in charge. he is going to investigate and dig up the evidence that presently exists, and if there is any other evidence about involvement in the 2016 election. and then the bed of the thing has to be run out. if he could make some statement at the right time that he supports fair, honest law enforcement system and that these investigations go wherever they have to go, they'll be run

by honest people, that would clear the air really well. and i think it would make it possible for me to come and make it possible i think for me to talk to the president and see what i can do about making sure that whatever misunderstands are put aside. >> yeah, i think rudy was eating during that conversation. but that's the least of it. i want to bring in former deputy fbi director andrew mccabe. just to be very clear about this, because sometimes it's -- well, it may sound that way to you, but it didn't sound that way to ukrainian officials. it wasn't so damning. yes, it was, and we know that, andy, because on this show, we had igor novikov on who was an assistant to then president zelensky, or then was an assistant to president zelensky, and here is his reckoning of what rudy was doing. >> there was an attempt at a quid pro quo. so basically, he was asking for investigations and public

statements and many other things, and in return towards the end of the conversation he mentions that that would make it possible for him to go and speak with president trump to solve a problem that he admits to kind of putting in president trump's head. he reminded me we are a country actively fighting with russia for many years. so anything to do with swapping, you know, favors within our bilateral relationship in exchange for getting involved in u.s. domestic politics is just wrong on many levels. morally, ethically and probably even legally. >> so one, those were saying that novikov wasn't being truthful. rudy giuliani's own voice authenticates everything he said happened in the call. the question is so what in terms of the overall investigation, what does this demonstrate? >> well, chris, we don't know until it's been actually fully investigated and evaluated.

i think one of the things this highlights is the masterful job that william barr and the barr justice department did in throwing a wet blanket over this entire thing before it could be fully evaluated. so you'll recall they supposedly looked into it before the whistle-blower complaint became public, and of course once it did become public, they said oh, there's nothing to see here. i think now we know just from listening to this tape there is plenty of questions that come up about what giuliani was asking for, why he was asking for, what was he soliciting, what was he pressuring the ukrainians to do in return for a clear political benefit. and those things should be fully evaluated and investigated. it could be done in the course of the existing investigation that's ongoing targeting giuliani. but it should be looked at by the justice department. >> do you think that giuliani being used by the government,

you know, him changing and saying all right, look, fine. you think the stuff i did was wrong. i was only doing it because my client wanted me to, and he told me to do this, he told me to do that. some would call that turning on trump, but do you think that that is a possibility here, and what would it mean? >> it's almost i think harder for giuliani to say that, because if he comes out and says look, okay, i know it sounds shady, but i was doing it in the course of my representation of donald trump, then it's perfectly clear the only reason he was doing it was to benefit trump, to benefit trump politically, and that detaches this effort from any sort of legitimate concern about potential corruption or any sort of legitimate diplomatic effort. so if he says that, he is basically admitting that he was doing it to benefit trump's political fortunes, and that

makes it look even more like bribery or extortion. >> but it does help them out on registering as a foreign agent, that if he was doing it for his client here in the u.s., you know, it helps them on the registration side which i know is what he has offered up before. here's what we now know. with this tape, everybody now knows what was being done, what was the liquid, what was the quo, and that it was actually happening. it is not speculation. it is not an allegation. it is not a suggestion. it's his voice, as confirmed by the person who is listening to it, because the sum and substance is the same. andy, thank you very much. andrew mccabe, have a good night. what it means legally, we'll see. we'll see. no more with that's not what he said, that's not how it was taken, that's not what they meant there it is, okay? plain speak. we're not out of the pandemic yet. you know that. do you care? here's why you should care. we still haven't even discussed

how we got into it. i'm not talking about the wuhan lab. it's a way bigger troubling situation than that. we should have never been in this pandemic. fact. how do i know? there was a movie a decade ago that is exactly what we just lived through. and you know how they came up with the ideas? they looked at mers and sars. guess who is on it? captain handsome on the other split of the screen. dr. gupta. what does that film mean to him, and what do we have to make sure happens now? next. >> jess: at safelite, we have service the way you need it. when you have a cracked windshield, schedule safelite's drop and go service.

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you think we'll be ready for the next one? you know this will happen again, right? we're going to have another virus. this virus brought the world to its knees, infected over 33 million americans, killed nearly 600,000 of us. this week, i want to do something that we haven't done at all. we have not looked back to figure out what went wrong here, okay, and what we need to learn from this pandemic. because we need to know what we did wrong and how to do it right. after all, we keep not learning

what we need to between ebola, zika, but we still aren't ready. mers, sars. filmmakers drew on that to make a movie in 2011, ten years ago called "contagion." if you watch this movie, you will be shocked at how similar it is to what we've just lived through. and a simple movie. it's what we just lived. how bad can things get when the government doesn't respond right. we were in a deep denial of a threat we should have seen coming. and that denial comes in many forms. the clip i want to show you features dr. sanjay gupta, and i want to show you. and i want you to see the parallels that are uncanny between then and now. amid waning truth and transparency, and growing disinformation. listen.

>> can you tell us to date how many people have died from this virus? >> very difficult. we're still working on confirming that number. there are 50 different states in the country which means there are 50 different health departments followed by 50 different protocols. >> today on twitter, you wrote the truth about this virus is being kept from the world by the cdc, by the world health organization to allow friends of the current administration to benefit from it both financially and physically. you also wrote that the world health organization is somehow in bed with the pharmaceutical company? >> because they are. the hand is reaching into our pockets. >> uncanny. dr. sanjay gupta is here. by the way, he has a new book out in october called "world war c: lessons from the covid-19 pandemic and how to prepare for the next one." that is a book -- you know i don't hock product.

i love sanjay gupta. that's the least of it. you to read the book. we didn't learn anything. you look better now than in the movie. the hair may be a little different on the cheek, but we'll talk about that another time. when you look back at where we were in 2011, how do you explain how we weren't ready for this? >> well, it's a tough reckoning, chris, because as you point out, i mean, you can look to art. you can look to these various tabletop exercises, all sorts of clues and warnings, and even well laid out plans in terms of how to handle a pandemic. and most of that just didn't happen when we were actually confronted with this. there was an exercise. that movie "contagion" was in 2011 there was a crimson contagion exercise that was done just a coupe of years ago that showed exactly almost to the numbers of what would happen if

a respiratory virus escaped and started to spread much like the covid did. it's sort of -- it's really troubling at times to sort of look at the parallel there's in terms of the virus emanating, in that case from china, this case from china, origin is ultimately a mystery. in the movie it came from a bat we're still discussing the origins. even a medicine, forsythia in the movie, which is being pushed and hocked, people are making a lot of money. it doesn't work. similar to hydroxychloroquine. all the story lines that were in the movie played out in real life because the movie makers went to the world health organization, the cdc. they looked at h1n1. they looked at sars. they said how is this likely to play out? this is what we think is going to happen. ten years later it's exactly what happened. >> you know my wife christina is in the wellness business. she made a good point. the book shouldn't be necessary.

this should have been out there already. the government should be telling us we know what to do now. we do this and this and this. i had francis collins on, the head of the nih, and he was using terms like "hope" and "they" in terms of what we need to change." i hope we blah blah, and they blah blah. he is they. there should be no hope. we know what we need to have ready for ppe, for vaccine trials which he talked about a little bit, for testing, for all the reagent and everything we need, the swabs. do you think they're doing that? >> no, not right now. what's striking to me, chris, if you look at preparedness indexes from around the world, the united states always ranks either number one or very close to the top of the list. we are a wealthy country. we have, as troubling as the public health infrastructure may be at times, it's still much stronger than many other places around the world. it wasn't a question of capability. it was a question of execution. that's the sad truth.

you look at basic things like personal protective equipment. and again, these exercises showed exactly how much we need. i can show you sort of where we were at the beginning of the pandemic when it came to n95 masks. we were making 35 million per month at that point. well knew we would need a lot more if there was ever going to be a pandemic. and by the middle of the year, we were basically importing half a billion masks from other countries, paying a loft money for that when we could have manufactured that on our own. april 2021 a couple of months ago we're sitting around 375 million. roughly, one mask for every citizen in the country. that's not an effective stockpile if we're suddenly going get hit again. there is two swab companies in the entire world. one in maine, one in italy. we got stymied by nasal swabs for a period of time. we didn't have enough reagents. we didn't have enough beds. all the things we knew we would need, it wasn't happening?

we actually thought would really happen. it's kind of like. i'm not going to worry about it. it's a philosophical, sort of, decision, to say hey, look, we have got to prepare ahead of time. >> well, i don't know what the excuse is. i have to tell you, it's embarrassing. and even now, all this energy we are wasting on, was it the lab? was it a bat in the wild? or at the market? or whatever it is. these were the same people, who are so curious now, that they want to be right. at the same time that debate was happening early on, they were saying there is no pandemic. that it's a hoax, that it's just like the flu. that it won't be a big deal here. so, sanjay, thank you for writing the book. it is so necessary. and i'll tell ya, at home, you watch this movie, you don't just get to see the less-handsome version of sanjay. you will see, that we should have never wound up where we were. i love you, brother. be well. we'll be right back. >> love you, too. talk to you.

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i don't know how much this will matter, but it should matter. former-president obama took time to call out a certain section of the media. listen. >> i, also, think that there are certain, right-wing media venues, for example, that monetize and capitalize on

stoking the fear and resentment of a white population, that is witnessing a changing america. and seeing demographic changes. and -- and do everything they can to give people a sense that, um, their way of life is threatened. and that people are trying to take advantage of them. and we're seeing it right now, right? where, you would think, with all the public-policy debates that are taking place right now. that, you know, the republican party would be engaged in a significant debate about how are we going to deal with the economy? and what are we going to do about climate change? and what are we going to do about, low and behold, the single-most important issue to them, apparently, right now, is critical-race theory. who knew? that that was the threat to our republic. >> once again, he's right about the problem. what is the solution? we'll be right back. hearing is important to living life to the fullest.

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"don lemon tonight" and its big star, d lemon. >> yes, sir. what you -- looks like you had a question. did you? >> how do you think the former president will resonate, in terms of the current state of play, within his party? >> you mean, the interview he did tonight? >> yeah. >> whoo. that's a big question. well, i think, look. i think, people -- the more people see of the former president, i think, the better. i think there is some need for clarifications about -- clarification about what he -- why he did some things. why he didn't do some things. and by the way, i will have the person who was closest to him during president -- the presidency, beside his wife, valerie jarrett is coming up on the show. i will ask her this question. i do think there needs to be some clarification because believe -- i mean, donald trump was, you know, a direct, you know, sort of answer to some people to barack obama. i, you know, personally, i think that it -- it'