you're driving them into it. >> david gergen, what do you think?> listen, i do think that cultural issue is a fair point. our culture does not -- has never been very, you know, hollywood culture never very sympathetic, for example, to the pro-life movement. not very sympathetic to the tea party movement. and there are a lot of americans who feel like they have been treated as second class citizens. but i must tell you, we have never had a president who is -- lit the fire and put the country on boil more than this one. i think if, you know, the culture has been here for a long time. what has dramatically changed is the nature of our leadership. and the incivility in washington, incivility preceded donald trump to washington. it was there long before he got there, the polarization and all the breakdown of norms was there. but it is accelerated, deep and has become much more poisonous. we're beginning to see threats to the way we live with each other. we're beginning to see threats to the whole idea we hold a democracy, that we may have our disagreeme

. >>> let's go through all of it with david gergen. glad you're here. very glad you're here this morning. let's just talk about the significance of that statement from the president this morning forte house that has a clear credibility issue, if not a lying issue, the preside is being remarkably truthful and candid this morning. >> about jeff sessions. >> but showing what prosecutors could argue, mueller could argue, is intent in obstruction charge. he's saying there, if you translate this, he's saying, i would've picked another attorney general if it would have stopped the russia probe, is he not? >> sure. that's exactly what he's saying and he's been dancing around obstruction charges for a long time and many lawyers think he's already obstructed. the significant development overnight was charges against manafort. here's the situation. manafort had already been charged with several federal crimes. he was going to go to jail unless he got a pardon or something like that. he after having all these charges against him, then committed new federal crimes,

david gergen, this is pretty significant. we just got this filing.is bail, that's significant. revoking his bail, the him allegations and we have only had a chance to scan pages of this 90 page report briefing. after being charged with federal crimes he has committed new crimes that is the allegation byitness tampering, and that's a serious charge. you go to jail for a long time and if it is witness tampering, it suggests there is a huge cover up. we don't know if this touches on the president. way too early to tell. but this briefing suggests there were at least three or four people involved in the witness tampering. >> gates, who is manafort's right-hand person has already made a deal. his former son-in-w has also made a deal. certainly a lot of folks lined up against manafort who are cooperating with mueller. >> there are. and he has been under pressure to cooperate as well. and i haven't had a chance to look at this document as well, but we have to look at it in the context of everything we are seeing play out in the public domain. in other words

joining me to talk about it is gloria borger, david gergen, and mike shields.ria, this administration, in president was saying days ago, an executive order wouldn't work, and now this reversal. >> right. look, he said it was up to congress, that it wasn't up to him. and of course, anderson, we know he didn't really need an executive order. he could have just picked up the phone and said do this, reun uu these families. even with his executive order, it doesn't do anything, as you've been pointing out, for the families already split up. that is because this was an ad hoc policy of zero tolerance that was reversed, sort of, in an ad hoc way. it was a crisis the president created. and then he said he fixed it. but he didn't really fix it. and that's because there is no plan here. and so maybe in a couple of days we'll find out that they've come up with a way to reunite these families and maybe we won't. but as of right now, it's up to the adults to try and find their children once they are out of protective custody, once they're free. and that's ridiculous. >> mik

let's talk about all this with david gergen, cnn's senior political analyst and a former white house adviser to four past presidents. david, this is now week two. the white house has gotten incredibly bad headlines. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have come out condemning this policy that's leading to the deportation and the separation of parents and children, some saying they're appalled by what they are saying. the president had to cave. he signed that executive order. what did trump gain from all of this? >> well, i think had he not signed the executive order and this weekend we were still talking about children being separated out he would have had a very heavy blow not only to his presidency but to prospects for the midterm, which he clearly has very much in his mind as he goes through this. what's now becoming an ordeal. having acted, i think he lightened the load some, ana, but overall the confusion that has surrounded the aftermath of signing that executive order, the sheer incompetence the government has had so far in telling us exactly where these kids are, where the pa

also david gergen. you then heard what then e obama said that was then, 2007, and this is now. is ibecause he nature of the threat has changed? >>no. it is because who is in charge has changed and that is that we have moved to a republican president and do everything we can to protect him. i must say anderson, overall, i do think republicans and the press really ought to give the president more credit. as you well know, winston churchill came to the white house in the mid-'50s, and he said it is always better to jaw jaw than to war war. and that has been a guiding principal for many presidents since. it is better to sit down. so this was good and i think the press ought to be responsive to it. there are lots and lots of issues that need to be resolved and i don't think the president is getting the kind of political lift that he might have anticipated from this meeting. >> director clapper, i know i heard you say on the air earlier to david's point you think this is a step in the right direction, jaw jaw, less war war. >> i do. it just struck me how stuck on their narrative they

and now, let's go to former federal prosecutor, former clerk and david gergen, former adviser to four presidents. david, let me start with you. the republicans can barely contain their excitement. yesterday, there was no retirement, they didn't know. now all of a sudden, kennedy says he's going to retire. john cornyn smiling, say iing t reporters quote, am i maintaining composure, wow. an honest reaction if ever there was oneful how big of f a win is this for trump ? this happening just over 100 days from the election. >> this is enough for trump to establish the most important part of his legacy because it's going to last long after he leaves office. when ever that is. you've got essentially a group of younger justices have been appointed as conservative before with the intention of having decades long power. there hasn't been a reliablely conservative court over a period of year, you have to go back to at least the eisenhower years, some would argue back to the roosevelt years to see a conservative court and that means, sends out dangerous signals on abortion, gay rights and marriag

also david gergen. you then heard what then candidate obama said that was then, 2007, and this is now. is it because of the nature of the threat has changed? >> no. it is because who is in charge has changed. and that is that we have moved to a republican president and they will do everything they can to protect him. i must say anderson, overall, i do think that republicans and the press really ought to give the president more credit. as you well know, winston churchill came to the white hou said it is always better to jaw jaw than to war war. and that has been a guiding principle for presidents since. it is better to sit down. in this case, it was better to sit down and have a continuing rattling of the cage and we might have a pepdi ipending ari between the two countries. that having been said, there are lots and lots of issues that need to be resolved and i don't think the president is getting the kind of political lift that he might have anticipated from this meeting. >> director clapper, i know i h

david gergen is with me. frank rooney and joe lockharto president clinton. thanks to all of you. d, her question. she's the press secretary. her job is to communicate back to the american people. obviously, she has done so time and time again. and those facts have turned out to be b fiction. >> correct. can we trust her at this point? >> no. trust but verify. listen, i have some sympathy for her because i've been in similar situations. if you're a communication person inside the white house, you depend entirely upon the truthness of your colleagues tell youg what if facts are before you go out. if they lie, you go out on the podium and you lie to the country and you lose your credibility. just get shot down. the only leverage you have is a threat to resign and carry out your threat. if they lie again. she's in that position now. i must saw one ore thi. there has to be somebody in the white house who protects her. that's the b job of the chief of staff. the chief of staff is the one who'ssed to ensure that the press secretary gets accurate information and goes out there -- >> he ca

all of this bringing me to where else cnn senior political analyst david gergen and political commentatorrt. my intro to you doesn't follow nor does what this briefing was supposed to be about and what the president actually ended up talking about, you guys. i wonder what you think, joe, especially considering the seriousness of what this should have been. the president did not address what is now believed to be the true death toll of hurricane maria in puerto rico as we understand it, it's almost 5,000 but the official toll is 64. what do you think about that? >> i think it gives you a window into the president's character. remember, when he first came into office he went to the intelligence community, the cia that he had criticized roundly during the campaign and went in as a moment where they could make peace and he talked about the electoral college and how many states he won and critiqued hillary clinton's campaign and strategy. so it's pure narcissism, so that isn't surprising. it really, though, underlines the scandal, though, of fema, the administration and our response to puerto

david gergen who advised many administrations was just on and he said that he looks at this and he worries moving forward you're not going to see the u.s. essentially upholding -- not going to have the company of these other countries that it is normally counted on as allies to move forward with, like, a united idea about what the world should look like and shared values. do you worry about that when you look at this, doug? >> absolutely. again, if you talk to our allies, they're concerned, they have a million different questions. the uncertainty is one of their biggest problems. forget the decisions that donald trump makes, which they may agree with, may disagree with, the uncertainty is what causes them so much concern. and look at everything that you talked about just in this segment and the previous one. these are a whole lot of things we didn't necessarily think the trump administration was going to be having to deal with, we know every administration has things that come up by surprise, zte was on no one's radar screen as we were talking about. the access hollywood tape or hillary's