captioning sponsored by cbs >> mason: out of business. two presidential councils disband after executives resign in protest. a leading republican accuses the president of dividing the country. also tonight, she lost her daughter in charlottesville. >> i'd rather have my child, but, by golly, if i have to give her up, we're going to make it count. >> mason: they defeated the nazis in europe. >> it was just unbelievable that they had a nazi party here in the united states. >> ♪ memories. >> mason: and using music to preserve fading memories. >> it's knowing that she hasn't lost it all.

this is the "cbs evening news." >> mason: and this is our western edition. good evening. i'm anthony mason. as a rule, former presidents don't criticize their successors. but after the violence in charlottesville and president trump's defense of far-right protesters, former presidents george and george w. bush put out a joint statement today. without mentioning mr. trump, they wrote, "america must always reject racial bigotry, anti- semitism, and hatred in all forms." and business leaders, who thought they had a friend in the white house, abandoned the president today. here's margaret brennan. >> reporter: by the time the president tweeted he was disbanding his business advisory councils, almost a dozen members, including the heads of g.e., campbell's soup, and 3m, had resigned. labor leader richard trumka was among them and spoke to "cbs this morning." >> we believed that the symbolism of being associated

with that spirited defense of racism and bigotry was just unacceptable. >> reporter: this morning, the remaining members of the president's strategy council had a phone call to discuss quitting. as cbs news' julianna goldman reported, mr. trump's friend, steve schwarzman, the c.e.o. of blackstone called the president with the bad news. in a memo sent to j.p. morgan employees, jamie dimon said he strongly disagreed with the president and said it was "a leader's role, in business or government, to bring people together, not tear them apart." the president's comments also drew sharp rebukes from fellow republicans. ohio governor john kasich: >> he has to fix this and republicans have to speak out. >> reporter: in a statement, senator lindsey graham said, "mr. president, your words are dividing americans, not healing them." but house speaker paul ryan and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell chose to denounce the sentiment, rather than the president. >> and i stand with the president, and i stand by those words.

>> reporter: today in chile, vice president mike pence defended the president. >> the strength of the united states of america is always strongest as the president has said so eloquently, when we are united around our shared values. and so it will always be. >> reporter: anthony, top aide gary cohn was visibly dismayed yesterday by the president's comments, but he has no plans to resign. v.a. secretary shulkin said he's also staying, but it is a dishonor to all veterans to let nazis go unchallenged. >> mason: margaret brennan with the president in new jersey. thank you, margaret. after the ugliness of the weekend, charlottesville today celebrated the beautiful heart of heather heyer, killed in an act of domestic terrorism. david begnaud is in charlottesville. >> reporter: anthony, after a weekend of violence around charlottesville and a few tense days, it was largely peaceful here. this is where the memorial service happened.

locals lined up early this morning. they were here to pay their respects. about 1,500 people filed into the paramount theater. outside, supporters with pink bats and purple shields offered protection against any white supremacist who might show up and try to cause trouble, but there ended up being no trouble. you know, heather's mother told the crowd her daughter was something of a debater. she said going to dinner with her was an ordeal, a cross between listening and then again disagreeing. but there is no disagreement around charlottesville. what happened to heather heyer was an act of hateful violence. >> they tried to kill my child to shut her up. well, guess what? you just magnified her. don't look the other way. you make a point to look at it and say to yourself, "what can i do to make a difference?" and that's how you're going to make my child's death worthwhile. i'd rather have my child, but, by golly, if i got to give her up, we're going to make it count. ( applause )

>> reporter: it was a powerful service, let me tell you. by the way, we just heard from city officials. come to find out the counter- protesters like heather had two permits to be in two different parks around charlottesville on saturday. but they didn't have a permit to be in emancipation park where the white supremacists had gathered. however, this city official told us, even if they had gone into emancipation park they probably wouldn't have been arrested because it is a public park. anthony. >> mason: david begnaud in charlottesville. thank you, david. the violence there in charlottesville began with a rally by white supremacists against the removal of a statue of confederate general robert e. lee from a city park. similar monuments are being removed around the country. omar villafranca is in alabama. >> reporter: as night fell in birmingham tuesday, city workers raised a blackened plywood wall around the confederate memorial that stood here for more than a century. by this morning, roy brook, carrying an american flag, marched alone in protest. >> i just hate seeing history

destroyed. >> reporter: the violence in charlottesville reignited the debate. birmingham mayor william bell says these monuments don't belong in what he calls the cradle of the civil rights movement. >> i want it gone. >> reporter: you don't want to see it. >> nope because again, think about what it represents. the confederacy was an act of sedition. it was an act of treason. >> reporter: the southern poverty law center found some 1,500 confederate memorials across the country, including 718 statues and monuments, and 10 u.s. military bases named after confederate officers. but the list has gotten a little smaller. baltimore's mayor ordered the city's four confederate monuments removed. protesters in durham took matters into their own hands and feet to remove this county courthouse statue. and even on capitol hill, where 10 statues, including those of

confederate president jefferson davis and general lee stand in statuary hall, critics want them gone, too. >> it sends the message that we have not learned from our past. we have not learned that all god's children are created equal. >> reporter: the alabama attorney general is suing the city of birmingham and the mayor, saying this wall obstructs the view, and that violates a law that went into effect this year. anthony. >> mason: omar villafranca in alabama. thank you, omar. while confederate statues stand silent and lifeless, violent extremism is very much alive in america. in charlottesville, we saw and heard jarring reminders of america's darkest days.

>> i'm here to spread ideas, talk, in the hopes that somebody more capable will come along and do that, somebody like donald trump who does not give his daughter to a jew. >> so donald trump but more racist. >> a lot more racist than donald trump. i don't think you could feel about race the way i do and watch that kushner bastard walk around with that beautiful girl. >> mason: bryan stevenson is a public interest lawyer and founder of the equal justice initiative. mr. stevenson, thanks for being with us. >> delighted to be with you. >> mason: the events in charlottesville and the president's response have opened some very deep and ugly divisions in this country.

what do you think needs to happen now to heal this? >> well, we have a tragic history of racial inequality in america that we haven't done a very good job of confronting or acknowledging. and it continues to haunt us. it compromises our ability to get to the kind of society we seek. so i think we have to own up to that and begin dealing with this legacy in a more direct way. i mean, white supremacy has done horrific, destructive things, but despite all of that, the true evil of that era for me wasn't the forced labor. it was this ideology of white supremacy. we said that black people aren't as good as white people. and even though we passed the 13th amendment in 1865, we didn't deal with that ideology, and so it endured. so what we've seen in charlottesville is a manifestation of our failure to confront this history. you've got to tell the truth before you can have the kind of reconciliation that eliminates the problems that confronts and deals with the problems that we saw in charlottesville this weekend. >> mason: is there still a role for the president in this reconciliation, in this

conversation, if you will, after his remarks yesterday? >> i think the president needs to step back, understand this history in a new and different way. he didn't get it when he should have gotten it, but most people don't get it because we don't talk about it. but it's never too late, and we do need leadership on these issues. we cannot be ambivalent about the danger posed by nazism and fascism and any ideology that says i'm better than someone else because of my color, because of my place of birth. >> mason: you're in alabama where there are still hundreds of monuments to the confederacy. in your view, what should happen to them? >> one of the things we're trying to do is to actually erect markers that talk about the legacy of slavery. we've got to make that visible. in berlin, germany, you can't go 100 meters without seeing a marker or a stone that's been placed next to the home of a jewish family that was abducted during the holocaust. the germans want you to go to the holocaust memorial. they're trying to recover from the damage done by the holocaust. we're not doing that, and we've

got to do that. i think that truth-telling has to begin for us to make the progress that needs to happen. >> mason: bryan stevenson, thank you very much for being with us. >> my pleasure. thank you. >> mason: with the president under fire, mark strassmann checked in with some republicans who voted for him. janelle jones, ellen diehl, and lucretia hughes. >> reporter: has your support for trump lessened one bit? >> absolutely not. >> not at all. >> no. >> reporter: not one bit. >> no, i don't look at him as, you know, my pastor or my moral leader. i look at him as the leader as it relates to governmental issues. >> we're not looking for somebody charming. we're looking for a man who knows how to turn things around, and he's got a track record of turning things around. >> reporter: when you saw charlottesville what, did that say about where we are as a country? >> it wasn't necessarily a completely black-white issue, but i think that the media is turning it into a black-white issue. it's definitely a left-right issue, but it's left fringe and

right fringe. >> reporter: the confederate statues don't bother you? >> no. it's history. i wasn't born back then. you wasn't, either. so why is that affecting us? if anything, we should grow and learn from it just like martin luther king said. you don't judge people by the color of their skin. you base that on their character. >> reporter: how do you explain what your support is for a president, given the criticism that he's had on this race issue? >> i think for myself, period. nobody's going to tell me what to think or how to think. i'm not gullible and i'm not blind. it's my decision if i'm going to support someone or not, not go by what other people has to say. and to me, what i've seen, and what i love, i'm not-- he's not going to lose my support any time soon. >> i've been a republican before donald trump. i will be a republican afterwards. i honestly don't think we will see this issue of racial divide addressed until we remove identity politics out of the political process. >> reporter: these republican women say if a president deserves blame for making racial tensions worse, it's obama, not

trump for the identity politics they say the democrats have practiced for last eight years. anthony. >> mason: mark strassmann, thanks. following president trump's news conference yesterday, louisiana congressman steve scalise tweeted, "we must defeat white supremacy and all forms of hatred." the house republican whip was critically wounded in june when a gunman opened fire on g.o.p. lawmakers practicing for a congressional baseball game. scalise plans to return to work next month. we look forward to that. coming up next on the "cbs evening news," music helps preserve precious memories. ugh. heartburn. sorry ma'am. no burning here. try alka-seltzer heartburn relief gummies. they don't taste chalky and work fast.

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important hat i've ever owned. discover the story only your dna can tell. order your kit now at ancestrydna.com. ♪ those oldies but goodies ♪ those oldies but goodies >> mason: music has a way of triggering memories, and now dr. jon lapook tells us it's being used to help alzheimer's patients. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: each week, the d.j. spins oldies but goodies at the todt hill senior center on staten island. also taking a spin-- 74-year-old carol daly, who was diagnosed with alzheimer's 12 years ago. we've been following carol and her husband, mike, since 2008. >> me and my husband, mike. >> reporter: charting her decline. what's your husband's name? >> my husband's? >> reporter: your husband's name. witnessing their love story. when we met again this spring, carol was barely talking. i really see a tremendous difference.

>> uh-huh. >> reporter: in carol. what do you see? >> sadness. this is what we live so long for? >> reporter: caregivers like mike daly are desperate for anything that can improve quality of life. so we introduced the daly's to the music and memory program, created by social worker dan cohen. >> senses-- sight, smell-- really light up a very small part of the brain, but music lights up many parts of the brain. so even though the brain may deteriorate in certain areas, other areas the brain is still very much there. >> reporter: and that gave cohen an idea. in 2008, he started handing out ipods to nursing home residents so they could have personalized music. cobble hill health center in brooklyn was one of the first to give it a try. a decade later, it's in some 4,500 sites. >> okay, we're going to play some music.

>> okay. >> reporter: in the music and memory program, family and friends create the playlist. cohen says the headphones help eliminate distractions. she said "pretender" exactly as it said pretender, so she's on the beat. >> since the music we love is really tied to our emotional system, and our emotional system is still very much intact, that's what we're connecting and that's what still works. >> reporter: emotional for mike daly as well. >> it's more than i can deal with, i can handle. >> reporter: it's poignant. is it a good poignant? >> yes, it's knowing that she hasn't lost it all. ♪ there isn't an ocean too deep >> reporter: now you're looking right in my eyes which you weren't doing before and you're singing beautifully. we always talk about the risks and benefits of therapies. well, it's hard to find much of a down side here. and it was so moving to watch carol start to sing and give us a glimpse, if only for a few seconds of who she used to be,

anthony. >> mason: very moving. the power of music, thanks, john. the music of elvis presley is bringing back memories on this, the 40th anniversary of his death. fans gathered at graceland, his mansion in memphis. a cbs news poll out today finds 8% of americans still believe presley may still be alive. if so, he wasn't home. we'll be right back.

>> mason: an army black hawk >> mason: an army black hawk helicopter with a crew of five crashed overnight off the hawaiian island of oahu. they were on a training mission. search teams found a debris field, but no sign of survivors. hopes of finding survivors are dimming in the west african nation of sierra leone. a mudslide killed at least 400 people this week outside the capital. more than 100 were children. 600 are missing. more than 3,000 lost their

homes. up next, world war ii vets on the images of neo-nazis marching in america.

>> mason: images of neo-nazis on >> mason: images of neo-nazis on the march in charlottesville and elsewhere, are especially disturbing to americans who risked their lives fighting and defeating the nazis overseas. we give these world war ii heroes the final word tonight. here's jericka duncan. >> i am a tuskegee airman. >> i can still tell you my army serial number. >> i went into the army believing that we had to defeat the nazis. >> reporter: all of these men

fought on the side of history that believed in freedom for all. edward field flew on planes that dropped bombs during world war ii. >> i flew 27 missions, and on all of them, we were shot at. >> reporter: so even after fighting in that war, you thought things would change for the better. >> it did. >> reporter: when you look at what's happening today? >> it's terrible. >> reporter: the 93-year-old calls the images out of charlottesville repulsive. when the president of the united states makes a comment saying, "what about the alt-left that came charging?" >> well, it's idiotic. >> unbelievable that they had the nazi party here in the united states. >> reporter: henry becham jr. was drafted in 1942 and served as a mechanic for the army air force. he said there's no place here for the nazi flag. >> god wrote the bible. it doesn't say anything in there about the color of the skin makes one better than the other. >> reporter: and 90-year-old

william johnson was with the tuskegee airmen, a segregated group of black military personnel who weren't allowed to serve alongside whites. >> and it is not a better world when the president of the united states gives in to racism and bigotry and don't understand how far we've come towards freedom and equality for everybody. >> reporter: more than 70 years later, the fight to defeat a hateful ideology is still alive, and on the front lines, once again, people willing to stand up and face what's in front of them. jericka duncan, cbs news, new york. >> mason: our thanks to those great world war ii vets still going strong. that's the "cbs evening news." tomorrow on "cbs this morning," virginia governor terry mcauliffe. i'm anthony mason. thanks for watching. good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

charged rally to san francisco's crissy field. our exclusive new poll shows most people in the bay area say -- let the prot we begin with a battle over bringing a politically charged rally to san francisco's crissy field. our exclusive new poll shows most people in the bay area say let the protest go on. good morning, i'm veronica de la cruz. >> i'm allen martin. senator feinstein is the latest leader calling on the feds to pull the permit for a patriot prayer rally in san francisco fearing the kind of violence that broke out in virginia. but our exclusive kpix/surveyusa poll shows, 47% say that the group should be allowed to hold its protests at crissy field. 34% said it should not. the poll also found 37% of people think that the bay area is becoming less tolerant of different views. 27% say it's becoming more tolerant. but when it comes to pro active rallies, kpix 5's phil matier talked to those who say it is

best not to play into their hands. phil. >> reporter: that's right. one of the questions being out there is if you protest the protest are you basically bringing attention to the people you oppose? we have seen it in berkeley and portland and in seattle. question, should it be seen here in san francisco, as well? here's a thought from house minority leader nancy pelosi. >> i would say not to play into their hands. we expect if they're there, that other people were there to protest them. i would recommend that they do so with dignity and silence. >> reporter: sam singer, corporate crisis manager, agrees. >> there's no counterprotest, all the public sees is a bunch of nut jobs talking to themselves. what's going to get them the