good evening friends we start tonight with the president facing a backlash far more serious than anything ever seen from the russia investigation two hundred eight days into his presidency trump finds himself on a political aisle and business leaders wall street bankers military leaders and former presidents are all distancing themselves from the president at a torrid pace after his comments on the violence in charlottesville under armour's kevin plank kenneth frazier of merck and intel's brian christianity left the president's advisory boards on monday now the president has disband the strategy and policy form of the manufacturing council but j.p. morgan chase's jamie diamond says the strategy and policy for him decided to disband independently of the president after his remarks on tuesday the bush president sever least a joint statement condemning the charlottesville hatred showing the concern over the future of the republican party in the image of america to the rest of the world

this is leadership involvement by the bush presidents that we have not seen since then leaving office countries may hesitate to align with the united states after trump demonstrates the hate he accepts for more on this we turn to larry cohen ties the chair of our revolution the board chair there larry nice to have you with us tonight put it in you've been on a lot of boards you know how presidential counsels work al important they can be how damaging is this what kind of trouble is this for the president it's big trouble for the president because this is a president who boasts about being a colleague and billionaire to the c.e.o.'s who can't run fast enough to get away from him and what he stands for he is in big trouble and when you pile up his whole seven or eight months it's not clear how long he'll last. well how does the repair of the damage can he repair the damage i think he cannot repair this damage the

only good side of it is it will have people across the country talking about slavery what is the legacy from it what does it mean what did we learn from world war two what does fascism look like and what are we all going to do to build a country where we're united not divided as the president would have us now as far as that agenda is it fair to say it's just about dead i mean it's going to be very hard for the republicans to get something done at this political juncture and b. they haven't been able to do health care they haven't been able to do tax reform it's been nothing but executive orders so politically and everything in washington is political where does this leave the republicans i think they're in big trouble and it wouldn't be shocking to see more and more of them at least privately say to him maybe you need to exit this is not a t.v. show this is the united states of america and you're behaving like it's your t.v.

show it's not your t.v. show we're all on the show together mr president do you think it could come to that that the republicans would gather in caucus and make a formal request of the president to step aside. i think of his drama continues at this pace something like that will happen i actually believe it. but at the same time as you know these two groups that this band that we're supposed to be about american jobs today his administration began the renegotiation of nafta and all the people in the room are from corporate america so we have this huge gap between america's working families whether they're black brown or white and the demand for jobs and his campaign that i'm going to bring jobs like you've never seen and basically you know nothing to follow up on it nothing at all and now the groups that were supposed to provide the advice or go on and the people in the room to

negotiate the new nafta are the same people who were there for the t.p. pig so you were a union leader president communication workers of america for many years i've spoken with other union leaders just leo gerard earlier this week a lot of members voted for trump because they heard a different message and they watched the democrats passed trade agreements year after year that were not good for workers were in in the meantime were the workers left i mean this is wasting time with overseas pressure and outsourcing that's what's not on the front page where do you see this unfolding well i think it's up to us as as working families and political allies to continue to fight on the jobs issue and as you said we've had that fight with the past presidents democrats and republicans we're certainly going to have it with this one and he said for example my goal in the new nafta is that we're going to balance trade with mexico while we need to hold him accountable to that not the words but the actual deeds and the

results and there's nothing to indicate that this nafta is going to be a bit better in terms of those kinds of results than the old nafta from twenty five years ago. all right larry cullen board chair of our revolution good to have you with us tonight i appreciate it confederate statues were removed overnight in the city of baltimore the push to remove confederate statues has spread throughout the country to a number of states are to correspondent ashley banks has more on that tonight a sound of heavy machinery running out between eleven thirty pm and five thirty this morning in baltimore as contractors loaded in hold confederate statues away from their post and attendance was baltimore mayor catherine pugh watched as each confederate statue was removed he said the removal of the statues was unannounced in order to prevent a violent confrontation i thought that there's enough grandstanding and no speeches before me get it done you know i spoke with the council on monday morning i spoke

with the president city council. a with the climate of this nation that i think it's very important that we move quickly and quietly i also submit that to the entire body of the city council and said we're going to be moving quickly quietly to get this done and so that's what i did. that and thirty seven o'clock last night gathered and we moved the statues earlier this week the baltimore city council unanimously passed a resolution to remove the statues and it's happening i'm in national conversation after the deadly attack in charlottesville during a white supremacist rally according to local media reports on wednesday a group of protesters pledged to remove the robert e. lee and stonewall jackson monuments themselves at the city wasn't going to do it monday afternoon and durham north carolina protesters climb a statue of a confederate soldier toppling it during an anti-racism rally and take

a look at some of the protesters reactions. honestly i like the way that the d.n.a. rather than the government coming in taking it down because i'm sure there. were the people there on an interview like this that said this place here you know this is better here in the heart of this story you know. this place better state that. i mean that seems that this stuff even struck me as out of place in town for some time. bob was surprised to see the list but it's not small this is right. citizens unlike say ten kentucky and gainesville florida are asking for confederate statues to be removed and in brooklyn new york confederate symbols will be removed as well at this time the city of baltimore is still deciding on what should be done to the statues pews suggest that they may be relocated to confederate cemeteries elsewhere some residents say they are happy with the removal of the statues but

argue racism and white privilege are in deeper than the presence of confederate statues and washington ashley banks are to pay. for more on this we go to our political panel tonight this evening we have it cesar former democratic party chair of the state of florida and also amy tarkanian former nevada g.o.p. party chair great to have both of you with us tonight michel start with you senior from florida and there are confederate statues in the state of florida you heard in ashley's report that the city again still is thinking about removing some statues is this important to remove confederate monuments and if it's necessary why. it is very important that in fact in this county broward county we're in south florida there is an issue coming up in the next two weeks not through statues both remove the names of streets in the city of hollywood florida that are named there are confederate folks are specifically there's a street name they have to the head of the ku klux klan in florida the city

commission has already indicated a willingness to do it they'll be a final hearing on that a few weeks actually which i will be at most for simply this is a big issue because it is part of the south and i think this is part of the growing trend look the the all right in the neo nazis and all these other groups already said they're going to be in boston and doing other tours around the country this is a very serious issue in our history and i think for like anything else is always part of the national conversation so yes let's turn to donald trump's issues amy he said today that he has no regrets for his comments about charlottesville has trump to find his presidency to the point of no return i don't believe so and not only did the president make a very strong and bold statement in a very honest statement multiple times but he also had the vice president's backing he had the r. and c. also come out and say multiple times of the president had said was honest it was

truthful i don't think that this is defined his presidency i think that what the left wing media would like to do and the elite leftists and even some of the elites establishment of the republican party who want to see him fail they would like to me this the definition well his presidency mitch mcconnell is not the left wing media and neither is paul ryan and neither is governor john doe they are part of the establishment. well they're also republicans that you know go to conventions and supported donald trump and it seems like just my question to you is do you i don't think you have ever better hundred percent on board. well he got the nomination and he won a bunch of states he won the electoral college you can't deny that the point i'm trying to measure here is do you ask you do you think the president's support is starting to wane among republicans not the republicans that i talked to the

republicans that actually supported the president from day one that republicans that supported him as the nominee the republicans such as myself who were delegates at the convention we have not wavered now he does have his own style i will get on that maybe make some people nervous and we don't exactly mirror but once again this is the narrative that's being pushed to destroy the president that i don't agree with well one of the people very close to the president is steve bannon and he gave an interview tonight saying that they all right is a bunch of clowns this is quite a reversal from running breitbart mitch is this a political opening for the democrats. we have to see if it is you know bright board or steve bannon all right they're all kind of the same thing this was me might be actually part of the donald trump show any object theory he's used for the last two years you know here watch this hand but something's going on over here i

don't really buy that you know it's interesting that the folks from the business community all stepped off the trump train as a group they had had an earlier morning conference of starting to do it not individually as a group they've been willing and have done things that the republican leadership has been unwilling at large and generally to do and that is say this is wrong and we're going to show it's wrong so they've actually been more gutsy and said we wanted to join this group by saying we want to do some that shared our values american you know yours and clearly by resigning they said this president does not share them amy what about your state of nevada how do you think this is going to play with citizens there who supported donald trump they still support donald trump they still support him and the fact that we're not talking about the fact that he held a press conference yesterday on infrastructure that i think most americans would agree with it's nonpartisan issue who would be excited about about streamlining

projects at a quicker pace so that we can get more accomplished here in the united states on i got is amy i have to ask you do you really think the president came out yesterday to talk about infrastructure i mean it seemed to me as an observer he came out loaded for bear to take on the media to try to set the record straight and he's created a real political quagmire for himself what about that. no he did come out to speak slowly on infrastructure and i found it incredibly rude of the press and the way that they handled the entire press conference they interrupted him constantly when it was time for questions he asked for questions specifically on infrastructure the very first one out of the gate had nothing to do with it had to deal with a c.e.o. situation and then the next one i believe even had to deal with a charlottesville and it was just one antagonistic question after the next. will trump blaming the media will that dog hunt mitch i mean he's making the media the

target will his supporters by that rationale. i think his supporters will but i think that around the edges you know there are a lot of folks who are a lot of focus groups even exist now where they pick people who voted both times for barack obama and this time voted for trump it's the same type of hope to reassure really i think around the edges that's where he's going to lose people among republican party stalwarts you have to see how far below eighty percent that number dips but he's lost literally all the independents so the diehards never but everybody else it's beginning to crack a little bit. mitch caesar amy tarkanian great to have both of you with us tonight appreciate your time thank you. and the funeral for heather higher was held today in charlottesville virginia virginia governor terry mcauliffe and senator tim kaine were in attendance highers mother susan breaux spoke during the ceremony calling on

others to follow the example of her daughter and stand up for social justice and the fascist protesters attended the funeral but remained mostly silent and respectful at the wishes of highers parents. deaths among opioid users continued to climb according to the c.d.c. thirty three thousand fatalities in two thousand and fifteen were the result of opioid use officials believe the numbers have been dramatically risen since then some states are fighting back a drug companies for instance south carolina has sued purdue pharma that unfolded on tuesday accusing the oxycontin maker of deceptive marketing practices for more on this we're joined tonight by mike half attorney a host of america's lawyer might nice to have you with us this it could be a just a head rock for a. lawsuit here i mean this could have sweeping changes depending on the outcome of

this lawsuit purdue pharma what did they do wrong and where do you think their liability is. oddly enough our focus is cases on focusing on state to state that we represent counties in cities in ohio kentucky a west virginia florida alabama here's what's wrong with with what south carolina is doing we've seen the history of attorney generals has not been good where comes to dealing with the manufacturers there's two parts of the case the manufacture and the distributor for example mckesson takes the purdue drug and they're the ones that distribute it the problem seems to be if we're looking at you know who's most at risk is most responsible it seems to be the distributors the distributors have become nothing more than pill pushers they don't look like bill pushers because are dressed up in armani suits but when we follow these places all over the country. and again we've been hired i think at this point in forty seven different counties

and in cities from ranging from kentucky to west virginia the stories all the same the distributors understood that the numbers of drugs that they were selling far exceeded anything plausible but it was the decision makers who were on the street for example a pill mill would be on fifth avenue the distributors sales person would be on third avenue they could drive by the pill mill every day see people lined up around the pill mill sometimes at seven o'clock in the morning wearing their pajamas so they could buy the opioids so i really the thing we're focusing on and i think it's going to be the thing that really changes the nature of this case is it's going to come down to the manufacturers at some point our focus really is the distributors the attorney generals have not done well where it comes to settling these cases with the with the manufacturers they've taken away a little way too little money for the conduct that we're seeing from the manufacturers mike what responsibility do you think the medical community has and

all of us. well the medical community with the manufacturers and the distributors both created this body of men of medical science that was created by bias to toots they went out and hired doctors and scientists to actually tell doctors they would have the sales people show up in the office and tell the doctors that are opioid is special it is non addictive it does it doesn't have the same addictive qualities so that an if was created by the industry that myth unfortunately state or a state in the air for a very long time and really when it comes right down to it these distributors understood that a county with one hundred thousand people certainly should not be receiving four million four million opioids over a period of eight months it was the distributors that understood that mckesson cardinal these folks knew exactly what was going on although i'm not excusing the manufacturer we're we're looking at them too but right now our focus has been hugely on these distributors that were on the ground had the notice first hand they

could see it. like happen tony america's lawyer post here on our tape thanks mike pre-shared it will follow the story in other news tonight mike pence believes a failed state in venezuela threatens u.s. security and stability the vice president spoke while touring latin america this week artie's marina porton i reports tonight. the vice president says the u.s. will use all its economic and diplomatic power to see democracy restored in venezuela but latin american leaders even those who have sparred with caracas are urging washington to keep its actions restrained and peaceful vice president pence is in the midst of a weeklong trip to latin america building ties with allies while speaking out against the growing crisis in venezuela during a joint news conference the argentinean president advised against military action in venezuela saying the plan for restoring stability should not include the use of

force mr pence says america and its allies agreed the need to keep pressure on the doro through possibly more sanctions however the vice president warned the u.s. will not stand by as venezuela sucks the region into a war tax of instability the united states will continue to bring the full measure of american economic and diplomatic power to bear until democracy is restored in venezuela as the president mentioned a few days ago. the united states has in his words many options for venezuela. but the president and i remain confident that working with all our allies across latin america we will achieve a peaceable solution to the crisis facing the venezuelan people pence's visit to colombia argentina chile and panama comes less than a week after president donald trump threatened military intervention in venezuela speaking at

a pro-government rally on monday president nicolas maduro referenced the violence in charlottesville when he vowed to take up arms and fight extremists and racists from the united states on this homeland will not be intimidated and will not be defeated by anyone our people are ready to face these extremists the premises and racists from the united states and defeat them with the courage and the bravery the force of the mixed race venezuelans when american and boulevards trumps threat of military intervention was greeted with anger across latin america with condemnation coming even from countries who have cut diplomatic ties with venezuela russia also recently called military interference in venezuela on acceptable reporting from miami. r.t. . ambassador nikki haley has signaled the united states may not abandon the iran

nuclear deal the united nations insists the agreement should hold artie's jacqueline vogel has the story tonight. the u.n. secretary general antonio considers the iran nuclear deal to be one of the utmost diplomatic achievements in our collective search for peace and security we need to do whatever we can to preserve it iran cannot be allowed to use the nuclear deal to hold the world hostage the nuclear deal and become too big to fail her comments come after the iranian president warned earlier this week that his country could backtrack on the two thousand and fifteen agreement in short order should further sanctions be imposed by the u.s. i got to tell you well shot if the u.s. administration is willing to repeat previous experiences iran will certainly within a short period know to the scale of weeks or months but on the scale of hours in days we turn to a much more advanced position than when the talks started earlier this month president trump signed a fresh wave of sanctions against iran into law

a move to iran considers to be a violation of the nuclear agreement under that deal iran officially agree to hold parts of its nuclear program in exchange for western countries lifting sanctions against them and at the time they dream it would be used as a landmark diplomatic achievement by most major world powers including all those who had signed on to it russia of course is one of the signatories and its foreign minister has warned that u.s. sanctions against iran could in fact undermine the regional balance of stablish by the j.c. . the startling new sanctions are illegal in principle but when they sanctions are used to get advantage in a carefully collaborated balance and such a balance has been reached off the iran nuclear do these are irresponsible actions that can undermine this balance the u.s. shouldn't use such provocation here we are talking about an individual's national interests but about the interests of the whole regions where we are trying to secure non-nuclear states the recent sanctions were approved despite washington

having confirmed that iran has in fact stayed in compliance with the terms of the deal and at this point. both sides have accused the other of violating the quote spirit of the agreement iran for carrying out rocket test and the us for imposing new sanctions but of course the two countries also claim known fractions have occurred on their parts meanwhile the threats to vacate this monumental agreement continue to fly and fact escalate in severe leaving the future of it unclear. the syrian city of deer is or has been under siege by isis for several years living conditions are dire and humanitarian airdrops few and far between syrian forces along with russian support are making inroads in liberating the city for more on all of this tonight let's go to manila chan she has the story manila that's right adhir as or is the largest city in the east situated just two hundred eighty miles from damascus it's home to about a quarter million people but the locals have been living under siege by isis for

about three years now r.t. was able to film exclusive footage of just what the civilians have endured. they are going to have edge over there was a. lot of. shooting there's. a large. majority of the morning. now in recent weeks listeria forces have made huge advances with assistance from russian airstrikes in the area driving out isis militants militant dens still surround the city limits but according to reports from the ground syrian government forces are closing in on them and are expecting to completely liberate the city in the coming weeks syrian forces have advanced in the southeast region with help from iran this is a big deal for those fighting isis since border's iraq now this move will break apart the stronghold of the militants between the east and the west sides of the

city if the syrian forces with russian air support and iranian ground troops can successfully accomplish this they will essentially have isis surrounded so add the civilians of darrow's or have really hung on to slivers of hope for the last three years they have no electricity no water supply no basic necessities they're burning wood to keep warm at night and cook whatever little food that they can find their staving off the fringes of a humanitarian crisis here but if the s.d.f. and their allies can pull this off hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians will be freed at. really a sad situation thank you mel appreciate that and that is our news tonight follow me on twitter at news with me on the facebook page we've got a. reporting tonight from miami thanks for watching.

to do just that and you're watching are. called the few we don't go to. every in the world should experience lead. role in. the old. world come along. our culture is awash in lives dominated by streams of never ending electronic hallucinations that. until they are indistinguishable we have become the most. society on politics as a species of endless and needless political politicians. celebrities.

ruling parties are in reality one party. and those who attempt to. breathless universal me just push through the cruelty and exploitation of the neo liberal are pushed so far to the margins of society including by a public broadcasting system that has sold its soul for corporate money that we might as well be squeaking against an avalanche. what squeak we must. on larry king now from london be indelible any ill effects if i feel like i want to write music and continue recording i think will be a time for that i like to be free i don't like to schedule i'm one of those performers that is i get nervous and i put so much into my performance that i find

it exhausting to get a lot of musicians love nothing better than being on stage and i don't get that i don't think i think i think about one and a half hours is really maximum you can change one thing i would give a gift of intelligence and humanity and compassion to anybody that was in a position of power so that they would make sensible decisions plus we've gone through a lot of political correctness and i think for good reason because we were actually asking people to respect each other but of course political come. can go into strange places too all next on larry king now. well good on larry king now we're shooting today from london where we're joined by award winning singer songwriter philanthropist humanitarian and activist the i.