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hi there, everyone, i'm j jacob soboroff in los angeles. we're watching a number of protests around the country right now. take a look at venice, california, where demonstrations are under way protesting the alt-right. they've just started, and in boston, massive crowds took to the streets in protest of a right wing free speech rally. that rally appears to be over but the counterprotest is still going on with an estimated 20,000 people in the area. nbc's garrett hague has been covering this all morning for us, and into the afternoon in boston. garrett, what are you seeing out there right now? any interactions between the two groups that came out? >> reporter: hey, jacob. i think if this protest and counterprotest ended right now, the counterprotesters would say this was a huge success for them. the counterprotest, the folks opposed to this free speech rally that they felt like was more of a hate speech event, drew something like 15,000 people, and by all accounts, the

folks in that free speech rally drew a few dozen. so, the interactions that did happen were very limited and very much favoring those counterprotesters today who felt like they successfully delivered a message of unity and inclusiveness and of saying no to things like neo-naziism and fascism and things that many of the folks thought in this crowd they'd finished saying no to years ago. we're in boston common. even now some of the counterprotest effort continues behind me. this is a black lives matter group that's been one of the more vocal groups out here today, making sure their voices get heard. you can see the top of the stairs up there, there are some boston police left. off to my left, your right, there are a bunch of police still waiting. they're going to close this down eventually, and there have been some confrontations between some of the counterprotester groups and police throughout the day

but no major violence. relatively small number of arrests that we know about so far and the message of the day seems to have been won by the counterprotesters. we are talking about the issues they care about, not the issues that this free speech group was trying to care about so they will consider that, i think, a victory on the day, jacob. >> i'm curious about the police presence out there. obviously, it was a major focus of concern in the aftermath of charlottesville last weekend. where were the police stationed today, how did they interact with the protesters and the counterprotesters out there? >> reporter: so, i was with the marchers today. i wasn't here in the park, so i can't speak so much to that angle, but i will say, along the march, the interaction between police and protesters seemed very positive. they were closing off streets. they were trying to make sure that the marchers were able to get where they were going. we saw a lot of those dump trucks, jacob, that have become sort of like the sign posts for crowd security in 2017. meant to protect pedestrians

from driving cars like we've seen in some of these terror attacks around the world. but the police presence was not particularly aggressive, not particularly in your face. again, along the march. you didn't see police on horseback or in riot gear or in that kind of thing, which can sometimes antagonize things. here in the commons, it's a little bit different. just because they've been trying to keep people contained in this area and as i said a few minutes ago, at some point, they're going to try to sort of clear out the remaining knots here in boston common. >> all right, garrett hague on the boston common. thanks a lot. . back over here in los angeles, a protest march against the alt-right is under ware as we speak. nbc's lucy has been watching it for us and is in venice beach. what's happening just the drive down the freeway from where i am right now? >> reporter: yeah, just a few minutes away from you, jacob. that's right. that's a small but very vocal group, the people that you see here behind me. this is largely a protest against president donald trump's policies, a protest against what these demonstrators say is

increasingly emboldened white nationalist movement across the country. this was supposed to be a case of duelling rallies. originally, we were expecting -- we'll actually keep walking as this small protest gets under way here. we were expecting a large demonstration against google by the so-called alt-right, and they were protesting the company's decision to fire james demor, the engineer who was fired who penned that memo that women were inferior to men. there were supposed to be nine of those rallies scheduled at google offices across the country. organizers canceled it saying without any proof, really, that they were experiencing terrorist threats from the left. now, i can tell you, jacob, the lapd has not been made aware of any sort of left-wing terror threats against these people. that protest was canceled.

but again, this counter-rally against racism, in favor of unity, still going on. these people marching now towards the google headquarters, even though, again, the anti-google protest had been canceled. >> all right, nbc's lucy kafanov in venice beach. i wanted to turn now to the white house where the resignation of white house chief strategist steve bannon, the man who has largely been credited with helping the president of the united states reach the oval office, is raising a lot of new questions. just hours after this announcement, steve bannon himself announced he was returning to the helm of breitbart, the alt-right media outlet he previously ran. speaking to the weekly standard on friday, bannon said "the trump presidency that we fought for and won is over." this all coming as president trump continued this week to blame both sides for the violence in charlottesville. nbc's kelly o'donnell is live in new jersey where the president is wrapping up his working vacation. kelly, president waking up for his first full day without bannon in the white house.

he seems to miss him already. i've been watching these tweets. is this an olive branch of sorts to steve bannon? >> reporter: well, i think the president recognizes, jacob, that steve bannon has his own power base on the outside, funded by the conservative donors, the mercer family, now back at breitbart, as you pointed out, on a very day that he was still employed by the white house, wonder if he'd turn in his pass yet, he was already back, named as the executive chairman of breitbart. because bannon has also come out swinging, he had while he was a member of the team, been warring with some of the other advisers who he called globalists or at times the northeast democrats, as he would refer to them. really trying to win the day in the white house over policy. well, that time has now passed with chief john kelly making the decision and the president agreeing. but the president recognizing that bannon has this power, certainly tweeted in a friendly tone. the president had two tweets

related to bannon today. one was thanking him for his service, and that he had come a along during the campaign. the president, very subtly there, wants to point out that he had won a number of the primaries before steve bannon was brought on to be the ceo of the campaign. and there you have him during my run against not the primary opponents but there, he referred to hillary clinton. and then more recently, the president is praising this new chapter for bannon, saying he will be a tough and smart new voice at breitbart news, maybe even better than ever before, and then the president suggests that perhaps the, quote, fake news media, needs the competition. so, this is one of those cases where you're treating a friend, perhaps more gently because he will have his own ability to challenge the president on policy and to fire up a base they have in common, where the president, who had his populist views long before bannon was a part of the campaign team and the white house, but also now a voice where people who might be

frustrated with the president may look to ban to be one of those media sort of center weights to talk about issues white house might find more complicated and more difficult. >> kelly o'donnell, out there in new jersey, appreciate it very much. and we'll check in with you in the next hour. joining me now are paul singer, "usa today" washington correspondent, erin mcpike, chief white house correspondent for the independent journal review and msnbc analyst robert, a former bush/cheney senior adviser. i want to get your take on the images we are seeing out there today, thousands of people, boston, pretty remarkable to see. other cities as well, los angeles, we just saw one starting up right now against hate and for some, the president's comments over the course of the past week. robert, let's start with you. is there a sense that he's going respond to what we're seeing taking place out on the streets of the united states today and maybe use it as an opportunity to reset his message. >> well, one would think from a political standpoint, but also

quite frankly from a humanity standpoint. i probably should have started off with that first. from a humanity standpoint frrks a compassionate standpoint, you would think that the president would come out and say something to the country overall. but that's not the president's instinct. i think he realizes that he really went up to the hornet's nest here and i think he even realizes that anything he says right now, his true thoughts, his true inner feelings, would probably exacerbate the problem anymore. the president doesn't like to see this. he doesn't like the fact that there are millions of people out there that are pushing up against his philosophy. he doesn't think that this is -- let's put it this way, the alt-left, using his terminology, he views it as evil people, nothing but evil people. these are ordinary americans that are standing up against the president so if he's smart, he would sit in the oval office and let sleeping dogs lie. >> let's check out this statement real quick from the naacp, talking about the ouster of steve bannon. the quote was, "ousting one key

staffer cannot erase the words used by president trump this week in defense of domestic terrorists, neo-nazis, and white supremacists. president trump provided permission for these hate groups to exist." erin, is this something you agree with? >> yeah. look, i mean, it's clear that when president trump gave that press conference on tuesday, he was speaking his mind. that was not a scripted press conference. that's not something that steve bannon went out and told him to say. president trump decided to make those comments on his own so he is not going to be changing just because steve bannon is gone. i do want to say something else, though, about steve bannon. there has been this debate about whether steve bannon is more dangerous inside the white house or out. i think it's you have to predict what is going to happen with this white house going forward because the president is so unpredictable. but i can tell you what will happen at breitbart, and it is very clear that steve bannon has

some enemies. he's said that he's going to declare war and use his weapons. i think if i were h.r. mcmaster, i would really be watching out because he is going to launch a smear campaign against h.r. mcmaster and that is a huge problem when the vaunted national security team is trying to come up with some kind of way forward on afghanistan. sure, there should be public debate on both sides of that issue, but when he's targeting the national security adviser in the way he's about to do at breitbart, this is not going to be pretty. it's going to be a mess. >> paul, erin raises this really interesting conundrum the president of the united states is going to find himself in if this does happen. what to you do if your former senior advise ser launching an all-out media war on your national security adviser on the inside. >> well, and steve bannon is now in position to launch an all-out war on all the things or any of the things he lost as an adviser to the presidency in the white house. so, it's an interesting moment for breitbart as well. keep in mind that they lost

something like 90% of their subscribers up to june of this year. the organization's been trying to get press credentials both in congress and in the white house, which was being blocked in part because their connections to steve bannon and bannon's role in the white house. now that might be easier for them. in some ways, this very much empowers breitbart and steve bannon to sort of rally the base that helped elect trump against the trump administration. it is a very interesting moment where the president now has his most senior adviser instead of competing with other senior advisers in the white house and the oval office in a discussion, now the most senior adviser has gone back outside and is yelling from the tree tops all the things that he wants the president to hear. it's going to be a very challenging thing for any of the other opposition within the white house to answer back to that. >> yeah, and robert -- >> hey, jacob. >> go ahead, robert. >> well, just very quickly. could i just reframe this conversation. here we are having a conversation about a former senior adviser waging a war

against the national security adviser. i mean, this is ridiculous. this is america. our country is facing some asymmetrical threats out there, china, russia, north korea, and you have a former staffer that is now going to use his media empire to go against the national security adviseer? >> well, for me, robert -- what this makes me think about, robert, is there were all these mediums a medi memes and jokes that steve bannon was the true president of the united states, pulling the string behind president trump as he amamade policy decisions. do you get the sense that he did believe that he was the president of the united states in some way? >> no, i don't think he was the president of the united states. i do think he thought he was the chief of staff. as i understand it, and steve bannon's west wing office, he had a huge white board that had all of the campaign promises going back to 2016. >> oh, yeah, we all saw those pictures. >> and every single morning,

steve bannon went into the oval office and reminded the president of those incidents. erin's right. the president said what he said on monday, those were his true extemperature rain extemperatu extemporaneo extemporaneous thoughts. it is really scary that we have someone that potentially could have a platform to undermine the full credibility of this united states from a national security standpoint. i mean, that's the question that we should be asking and quite frankly, the answers are what do we do about it. >> yeah. erin, you know, steve bannon very well may have egged on donald trump, but donald trump is the one who was the birther in chief. donald trump was the one who came out against the central park five in a full page ad in "the new york times." donald trump was the one sued for racial discrimination in housing. i mean, you know, steve bannon's out the door, but donald trump is going to stay donald trump. >> he is. and look, he's gotten very little done since he has been in the white house since january 20. so, he's done nothing, really,

but distract so i think you're seeing republicans start to move away from him. i mean, look, one of the things that i don't think has been reported in great detail over the last couple of days is that these business councils disbanded, yes, because you had these ceos deciding that they couldn't support donald trump after the comments that he made, but they probably also made some kind of calculation that some of the things president trump has promised, like tax reform, like infrastructure, are not going to get done, and so why do they need to associate with the white house at all. >> paul singer, last word here. >> it's also true, bannon is right that the presidency that trump ran on is over but it was over on january 21. you can't run on a primary policy of burn this thing to the ground and throw bums out because once you become president of the united states, you are the bums. the fact of the matter is, you now are the ceo of a corporation with 2.5 million employees. you can't just burn it down. the bannons of the party, that wing of the party, they want more rebellion than they want governing and they're going to get more rebellion than they're

going to get governing. >> paul singer, erin, robert, good to see you. coming up, two sides with opposing views, the alt-right and the anti-fascists who clash with them. next, a closer look at the history between these two groups. don't go anywhere.

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you get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost, so all you pay for is data. see how much you can save. choose by the gig or unlimited. xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com. i'm jacob soboroff and you are watching msnbc. we're looking at pictures from just moments ago in boston, massachusetts, in the aftermath of a large rally deemed as a free speech rally that actually drew many more counterprotesters, as many as 15,000 or 20,000 according to reports on our own garrett haake on the ground. this skirmish that we're looking at appears to be boston police officers dispersing what we are

hearing is groups that have sort of splintered in the aftermath of this large protest and counterprotest. we don't have any reports of anybody injured at this point, but again, we're going to continue to monitor this situation. other splintered groups after the boston protests and continue to bring you updates as we have them from boston, massachusetts. joining me now is brian le vin, the director of the study for hate and extremism at california state university. good to see you again. you and i watched the charlottesville attack and protest and counterprotest unfold in realtime last weekend and you told me the difference between alt-right white supremacist, white nationalist, neo-nazis, was basically same corn flakes, different box. what are you seeing right now in boston and over the course of the last week? do all of these groups want to associate with one another? are they the same thing? >> well, what's interesting is, particularly the critical mass

centrality of it is the same thing, but the folks today were more like the jc diet kind of version. their bigotry, the depth of it, is a little less. they're not as overt and over the top. a lot of conspiracyists in there. but what's really interesting in the last week, we've seen a division within the alt-right itself over violent tactics, over terrible things that mrmr. mrmr. mr. kessler said about heather heyer, has caused others in the alt-right to segregate him out. this crew today, though, was really regarded as, quote, the not ready for primetime players. >> brian, if i could stop you for a second because we are playing back this video from moments ago in boston. we're looking at police there detained someone. they're putting this person into the back of a what appears to be a boston police vehicle. looks like an ambulance, but it actually says, if i'm not mistaken, boston police on the side of this vehicle. we do know that there have been

now confirmed a number of arrests today, and this person seems to be the latest person there. if i could ask you, brian, just along the lines of, you know, the folks that we're seeing out there today, many of the counterprotesters have sort of adopted or have gone out under the name of antifa, this movement of activists who sort of track and follow white supremacists in order to fight them. we're seeing them today in boston. we saw them at berkeley in april. we saw them in charlottesville last weekend. describe who these people are, the antifa and how are they different from a progressive or liberal who's outside and speaking out against racism. >> the overwhelming majority of counterdemonstrators are peaceful and indeed, many of the antifa people are peaceful as well. however, they trace their roots back to the 1936 battle of cable street when british fascists were going to march into a jewish neighborhood, and a consortium of irishmen, jews, trade unionists and communists

battled them and police. but today, we saw the first amendment in action. some of the templates we've seen in the past for antifa included the murder of five communist workers party members by white nationalists in greensboro, north carolina, in 1979. then we saw peaceful protesters being set upon in '87 by white supremacists in forsyth county, georgia. but more recently t world trade organization and the occupy movement as well as protests against police use of force have created a splinter group, and what they believe is that the first amendment is oppressive and hurts people of color and poor people and also that violence is an appropriate way to stand up to nazis and white supremacists. but they are not like the progressives that we saw peacefully protesting today or the ones that we saw earlier in washington. >> brian, just sorry, stand by again. i'm sorry to keep interrupting

you but of course we're watching an ongoing situation. the president of the united states is now tweeting, "looks like many anti-police agitators in boston. police are looking tough and smart. thank you." i don't know if the president is seeing this coverage live as we're following it in boston as police just loaded someone into the back of a police vehicle, but brian, talk to us about what the president has said about this. the president's referred to these anti-nazi, ant fascist protesters as the alt-left. the president has implied that they're going up against police, they're just as violent as white supremacists. you, i gather, would say that this is a false equivalency. if so, how come. >> it's a total false equivalency because there is no alt-left. the alt-right was a name that these white supremacists and white nationalists gave themselves to sugar coat their bigotry. there is no alt-left. we have progressives and there is a splinter group of antifa folks and depending on where you are in the country, some chapters are indeed quite violent and oftentimes, they do

want confrontation. but a lot of their confrontation is rhetorical. i will say this. there's a kernel of truth in every stereotype and that is the antifa movement has the belief at its core, not every chapter and not every one, that violence is appropriate to shut down nazis and that free speech under our first amendment is an oppressive tool. both of which i disagree with. it's not okay to punch a nazi, but the problem is we've seen an escalating arms race. let me just say this. up until earlier this morning, we saw as many arrests at the show that we had this gathering of 15,000. this has been very successful and i think it's because the police were prepared. they had it segregated so the people would have to go through searches, and they planned for this and no weapons. one other thing i think we have to look at. anti-masking statues and ordina

ordinances this various places with respect to public demonstrations but with regard to policing and i'm former nypd, donald trump doesn't know what he's talking about. this -- except for these scattered -- >> stand by again. one more time. sorry to keep interrupting you. weav we're watching what seems like a bit of a foot race in boston. live pictures of police chasing what looks like a demonstrator through, you know, sky rise buildings in near the boston common. and again, you know, the president, if i could go back, brian to, what the president has tweeted and what you were just discussing, the president continues to call for law and order in the wake of these protests. and by all accounts, we should, these are peaceful protests that have been ongoing in the streets of boston today. we looked at protests in the streets of los angeles earlier. >> but this is what the president has consistently done. he takes a stereotype, a small anecdote, and makes it a truth. so, for instance, with regard to immigrants and undocumented

persons, he says, wow, they're a massive cross-claim wa massive crime wave, they're all ms-13 when undocumented people have a lower cross-claime rate. people marched and they got their ideas across peacefully and that's what will win this. because we have the moral high ground. five seconds later, we remember the march on washington. we don't remember the scattered people who committed violence. and that's what we must keep our eye on. however, what i am worried about is in other communities where there are open carry laws and the police are not as prepared, boston is a wonderful police department, and let me just say, they had practice in this. in 1976, a pulitzer prize winning photo showed an african-american being attacked by a flal-wielder protester over bussing. boston has been prepared for this for some time. they had the first hate crime unit in the united states. but don't kid yourself. this is going to be an ongoing problem in many cities who may

not be able to have the kind of resources and planning that boston had. >> all right, brian, appreciate you been here and you said ongoing. this is an ongoing situation again today in boston, just moments ago, we're watching on the screen right now. protester running away on foot from boston police. 20,000 people decimal stramonst largely peacefully in the streets of boston today. we know the president has been watching. we will be talking about this more after the break on msnbc. we will be right back.

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police are looking tough and smart. thank you. i think we have another tweet from the president that has just been posted online too. great job by all law enforcement officers and boston mayor marty walsh. when it comes to the president saying there have been many anti-police agitators, that's not particularly what we have been seeing. there have been confirmed arrests but a largely peaceful demonstration in boston where 20,000 counterprotesters have drowned out the voices to the alt-right today in the boston common. moving on now, of course there is a surge in efforts to do away with confederate statues after last weekend's violent clashes in charlottesville, virginia. this morning, duke university in north carolina removed a statue of confederate general robert e. lee from its chapel, following growing calls from its students there. the statue had been vandalized earlier in the week. early on wednesday, baltimore removed three confederate monuments, including a statue of former supreme court justice robert b. taney. he authored the dread scott

decision, upholding slavery and denying slaves citizenship. and on tuesday, birmingham's mayor ordered a confederate statue covered up with plywood since alabama law prohibits the removal of such structures. those are just a handful of statues across america. not everybody agrees they should be taken down, by the way. most notably, the president of the united states himself. he tweeted thursday that it's sad to see the history and culture of our country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. joining me now to talk about all of this is the mayor of the great city of houston, sylvester turner. mayor turner, great to see you. thanks for joining me. on tuesday, you requested -- thanks. of confederate statues. what is the goal of this study that you requested? >> well, number one, i requested a study to do an inventory of everything that we have with the city of houston to make the determination of whether or not -- what is the appropriate

context. that's number one. and whether or not the venue supports that context. and depending on what the results are from that particular study, which i anticipate would be done, you know, fairly quickly, then we'll make the determination as to whether or not there's a more suitable place, whether or not they should remain where they are or if there's another suitable place for them. up to this point, we have identified two that exist within our inventory. one was placed in 1905 and one was placed in 1908. but we want to be very thoughtful. we want to be very deliberative and we want to do it in such a way where we're not trying to eliminate history, no matter how dark it may be, but we want to make sure they're placed in the most appropriate venue, considering the context. we don't want to celebrate or glorify that dark history, so we don't want them to be placed in such a way where they're celebrated, where we are glorifying their presence, but we want to place them in such a way where people understand what that history is, what it

reflects, and that the city as a whole can move forward in a very unified fashion. >> mr. mayor, let me ask you about what i believe to be one of those two that you just mentioned. more than 2,500 people have signed a petition to remove what is called the spirit of confederacy monument. >> that is correct. >> what do you say to those folks that think that you should move that immediately and get rid of all these confederate symbols and the others that say, let's keep it there. >> well, i think it's important for us to take a look at our inventory. that particular statue, the spirit of the confederacy, is located in the sam houston park in the downtown area, and i think it was placed there in 1905. and so we are taking a look at it. i've established a committee, and once they have reviewed it and determined the appropriate context of that particular statue and made a determination of whether it's in the best place, then we will act and we'll act very quickly on it. but i do believe it is very

important for us to be very thoughtful and very deliberative in our decision making. it's not -- you can't eliminate your history. no matter how ugly it may be, and that was a dark, ugly part of our history, the question is, what is the best place for this particular statue, or this particular monument. and we're going make that assessment. but we're going to do it in such a way that we don't breathe life into that ugly history and bring it forth where it's destroying our community and we are the most diverse city in the united states of america, so let's do it in such a way where we are very thoughtful, very deliberative, and we make a decision that's in the best interests of the city of houston. >> and hopefully the residents of houston and the united states as well. the mayor of the great city of houston. sylvester turner, great to talk with you this saturday. appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up, all of this talk of removing confederate statues and monuments raises a lot of questions. are we toppling down history and in this case, is that a good thing? following last weekend's violence in charlottesville, a

poll found 62% of those surveyed say confederate statues should remain standing as historical symbols. joining me now is the author of "the warmth of other sons, the epic story of america's great migration." thanks for joining me today. let's get you weighed in on this debate. are we racing a part of history. >> i think it's important to recognize there's a long history of americans reassessing themselves and making the decision to tear down monuments that do not reflect their current values and one of them has to do with king george, whose statue was removed during 1776, at the time of the american revolution. there was -- it made no sense to have a foreign monarch being shown as lording over the united states, and you know, when you think about the confederacy, the confederacy became and made itself a foreign country. it seceded from the union, it created its own president, its own constitution, and so when

you have a war such as this, you know, the end of war does not mean usually glorifying those who were vanquished. it means to call the vanquished into account and so this is a time to reassess ourselves as a country and to figure out what do duo wiwe do with our history. >> it's not just statues. there's a focus now on military bases named after confederate leaders. the southern poverty law center says there are ten of those major u.s. military bases named in honor of confederate military leaders. will this become a part of the conversation? should this become a part of the conversation. >> well, all of this has to do with, you know, what do we stand for as a country, who are we as a country, and what do we -- how do we want to perceive ourselves going forward. you know, it's interesting that we're talking about this as we're about to recognize or see a solar eclipse and that solar eclipse is going to cross over much of the american south and end in south carolina which was

the first state to secede from the union and i think it's calling upon us to wake up from the darkness and to recognize our history. the history needs to be remembered. the history needs to be recalled and known so that this will not happen again, but there are more, more ways that it can be remembered. there need to be these monuments can be put into context for educational purposes, in museums. there are many, many things that can be done to remember this history. we need to know the history, and if there's anything that's -- that actually is -- can come out of this moment it's to have americans recognize that this is what happened in our country, this is how we got to where we are, and to encourage us to come to grips with and to reconcile our history, to recognize where we are now and where we need to go forward. >> yeah, just want to read again, before i let you go, that quote that you just said. the reluctance to hold the vanquished accountable as in most wars is at the heart of our continuing divisions. thank you very much.

great to see you. and appreciate you joining on this saturday. >> thank you so much. we of course are still monitoring a massive protest in boston where crowds have gathered in response to a right wing free speech rally. stay tuned. electric light orchestra ] ♪ sailin' away on the crest of a wave, it's like magic ♪

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we are monitoring the continuing situation in boston, massachusetts, after a largely peaceful and massive protest of 20,000 demonstrators around the boston common today. it was in response to a planned protest by the alt-right, what they called a free speech rally. the counterprotesters, by and large, completely drowned out the alt-right protesters. again, numbers 20,000 strong. police have been making some arrests this afternoon, and some scuffles have occurred with police. we've been showing you those live on the air here on msnbc. but nothing that appears to be violent, nothing appears to be dangerous. we expect a press conference by boston police later on this

afternoon. in the meantime, joining me now is former new york state homeland security adviser. michael, as you look at these pictures from today and earlier today in boston, what goes into securing an event like this. >> first of all, it begins way before the actual event itself. so it begins with a notification and then the parade route is discussed and then what you do there is try to secure the parade route and obviously with all the things that have happened not only here in the united states but certainly in europe, vehicle attacks become a major focus so that -- the concern then is about barriers and protecting the parade route itself. it's also the things that boston has experienced. unfortunately, with the boston marathon bombing, make sure that you've take an look at what cars are parked. move them if you can. make sure you know what has been done, if anything, to any type of receptacles around the parade route, but it is also about putting folks into the parade route in terms of undercovers, in terms of officers who are very visible, and it's also about understanding what the

tempo of the event is. >> i want to read to you a couple tweets from the president of the united states. the president in watching this coverage today said that it looks like many anti-police agitators in boston. police are looking tough and smart. thank you. again, that's a direct quote from the president of the united states on twitter. many anti-police agitators. is that what you are seeing today? >> well, it's so hard to be able to determine what people's motivations are but certainly what we see so far is not the kind of clashes that you've had in other types of events. and it looks like the boston police have really done a very good job in making sure that the 20,000 or so people that are in their city right now are getting the opportunity to voice their opinions in a very safe environment. you know, the danger with all of this is that anything can change at any given moment, and when you talk to the men and women who protect these types of events, they are always a lot -- there's always a lot of tension, and because people can do stupid things in the middle of these

things and they can do something that is malevolent so there's a lot of tension going on here now and the goal is to make sure that they anticipate what could happen, respond quickly, but in a deliberative way so that you make sure that you don't escalate the situation. >> when you look at what happened last weekend in virginia, and then you look at what happened just this week in barcelona, these are car attacks, and we're only seeing more of them. you mentioned them earlier in them being one of the biggest challenges in terms of a protest like this. what's the solution or is there one to attacks like that? >> it is why isis has been talking about car attacks and also using a knife, because it's a very low-level, low-grade attack. you don't need to be trained. you don't need to have any real planning or preparation. you don't have to do any pre-operational surveillance and in fact, from a law enforcement perspective, until the car actually comes in contact with the victims, there is no crime.

so, it's not like you can pull somebody aside if they were carrying a weapon that was unauthorized. the same thing with the explosive devices. you know, in spain, we saw that house blow up. that was -- from reports we have, they were preparing explosive devices. again, an opportunity to interdict, to find out what they were doing, stop it then. you get into a car, turn it on and take it and go after innocents, it is so inconvertibly difficult which is why we are probably going to take a look at gathering places at least from a tourism perspective as assets that need to be protect, which means that we should probably take a look at bollards. we pay toenattention to where pe gather and that is an important step because it comes to the ability to basically say to the folks, don't come here, to deter them, and of course delay and then defeat any type of attack that might happen from a vehicle standpoint. however, when you have a protest

that is spontaneous, that is incredibly difficult to be able to anticipate and interdict any type of car attack. >> all right, michael balboni, the former new york state homeland security adviser, appreciate you and your expertise today. we are going to take a quick look at some more pictures coming out of the boston, massachusetts, where again, 20,000 people showed up today in the streets to counterprotest the planned demonstration by the alt-right. by and large a win for those counterprotesters as they drown out the message that took such national prominence last weekend in charlottesville. we'll continue to follow what's going on in boston as well as protests out here in the city of los angeles. stay tuned with us here on msnbc. right now, and tonight, because coming up at 7:00 p.m. eastern, joy reid hosts a special report, politics of hate. joy is going to be joined by a very special panel of guests to discuss the aftermath of charlottesville and of course today's anti-racism rallies. watch politics of hate at 7:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc.

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following president trump's remarks on charlottesville, one ceo after another quit the two white house business panels to the point where wednesday, the president tweeted he was going to disband all them. his tweet came moments after two more executives announceded resignations on wednesday. leaders said they were disbanding because the charlottesville debate had become a distraction to their purpose. the two counsels included major finance and business leaders and it was seen as way for the president to hear advice from top ceos to create more jobs. joining me now is branding expert, author of all b about them. bruce, how impressive is this for a p president to lose multiple business lead rs? >> absolutely unprecedented. what could be more prestigious than being plucked from your

company and being asked to help lead the country forward. but what's happened is the ceos now have control because what they've said is they do not want to be associated with this president or administration. >> he loves the point that the stock market continuing to go up. of course, this was happening under the previous administration as wem. what's the deal with the relationship with these businesses and their leaderses have with trump? how is it affect their bottom lib or will it is this. >> three critical things. first of all, the stock market has been going up month after month. more long before he came to office. that's a specious claim. second, customers, board members, employees and shareholders vote much quicker than voters do. so the fact they are pulling out now means they understand that if they stayed, this would cost them business long before we get to vote and third, you noticed that the stock market dropped

precipitously two days ago. none of these stocks dropped any more than anybody els. this will not harm their businesses. >> what do you mean? because you mention ed on thursday, the dow was down 274 points. what's the significance of that? >> well, the significance can be a lot of things. i believe it's because people are saying what the hell is going on here and how can we be a part of this, but specifically, they cannot afford to have their brand value drop and it drops when their consumers and shareholders have an emotional response, not an intellectual response. not what stock i'm buying, but how i feel about the company and i don't feel good about the company when the logo is a confederate flag of swastika. >> the persresident is personal attacking people who go against him. the ceo of amazon.

is this going to hurt his probe? does he have any friends in the business community left? even carl icahn said i'm ending my relationship with you u as an adviser and he was the guru business adviser he constantly cited on the trial. >> it goes deeper than that. because here's the big issue. your authentic truth is where your brand lives, so when trump didn't do well with foreign policy. people said he's not a foreign policy guy. when he didn't do well with legislation, people said he's not a politician. he's a business man. tha his truth. what we're finding out is his authentic truth is lie. he is not a business man. he can't hold businessmen together. this will be devastating for his brand. >> all right, bruce, got it wrofirst time. thank you so much. great to see you. >> thank you so much. >> and to all you at home, stick around. i'll be around at the top of the next hour. we are live in boston where

thousand have gathered to protest a right wing rally expected to attract right wing nationalists and we're live in venice, california where they're taking part in a rally against the alt-right as well. be right back. here's to the safety first... i think i might burst... totally immersed weekenders. whatever kind of weekender you are, there's a hilton for you. book your weekend break direct with hilton.com and join the summer weekenders. [radi♪ alarm]

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we'll do anything, (spiritual chatter) seriously anything to help you get your home. ally. do it right. hey there, everyone. right now, we are watching police in boston, massachusetts try to clear the streets after tens of thousands of people demonstrated in opposition to a right wing rally. arrests are being made and police in boston are planning to hold a news conference at the bottom of this hour. we'll bring you when it happens, although the protests are mostly peaceful. the police tweeted this, asking individuals to refrain from throwing urine, bottles and other harmful projectiles at our officers and then confirming rocks being thrown at tree monte and west. a short time ago, the president of the united states tweeted looks like many antipolice agitators in boston. police are looking tough