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NFL Players Raise Fists, Kneel and Stay Off Field During National Anthem; Federal Judge Threatens To Hold A.G. Sessions In Contempt; Ingraham: America That We Know Doesn't Exist Anymore; N. Korea: U.S. Not Holding Up Its End Of The Bargain; Prosecution To Call Final Witnesses in Manafort Trial Today. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 10, 2018 - 07:00   ET




UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The national anthem kneeling controversy is alive and well in the NFL.

DONALD TRUUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a great country, you should stand for our national anthem.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a civil rights demonstration, this wasn't just a work place dispute.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A new detail on the special council investigation was revealed in a filing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The special council is talking to Rick Gates, they're still relying on him and his testimony still relevant.

TRUMP: She's going to talk to the prosecutors voluntarily. She is going to tell the truth, of that I'm certain.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a lot of tension and a lot of anxiety.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A state of emergency declared in Charlottesville, Virginia on the one year anniversary of the deadly protest there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy has gotten in the White House, this it's not even a dog whistle, this is a blow horn.


[07:00:52] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, welcome to your New Day. Alisyn is off, Erica Hill with me this morning.


BERMAN: Happy Friday, we've covered a lot of ground and a lot more to cover.

Controversy to kick off the NFL preseason, several players on several teams, they took a knee or they raised their fist during the national anthem last night to protest racial injustice in law enforcement. The President has railed against this protest in the past, will he react this morning?

HILL: A big question. Plus, a federal judge threatening to hold the attorney general of the United States in contempt. The judge erupting after finding out two asylum seekers fighting deportation were actually already on a plane in the process of being sent back to El Salvador as he was hearing their case.

He ordered that flight to turn back around to bring them back to the U.S. So, what's the next move here for the Trump administration?

Joining us now, CNN's Political Commentator Van Jones and Michael Smerconish. Good to have both of you with us.

Let's start actually with what we saw last night. So, I believe its all account (ph) with 11 players who decided to either some of them take a knees, that one sat on a bench. Some of them raising their a fist and there's been a lot of attention as to what would happen of course. Because we knew that there was a move from the NFL to make some changes. They could not come an agreement with the players association, and here we are.

The President remarkably silent on this morning, Van, but I imagine that won't last that long. How important is it for this to continue to be a part of the conversation and for that conversation to start with the players themselves?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think it's -- what's interesting is that, you know, the players are insisting that they have this -- the right to protest and they're not being fired by their employers. So that really should be the end of the conversation. I don't know why the President of the United States has to act like he's the owner of the NFL. But -- so, on the symbols, you know, you've got this conflict.

On the substance, believe it or not, President Trump is actually doing stuff. That the players might actually right, he's had a meeting with a bunch of governors yesterday about press reform, criminal justice reform.

Their protest despite, you know, anybody's who admit this has created an atmosphere where people want to do more and President Trump is actually having a substantive conversation yesterday about criminal justice reform. However, he tends to then go on Twitter and do bizarre stuff that then creates all kind of conflict and controversies.

So, the question for the President is going to be, do you want to actually stick with your policy agenda which might actually make the players better or your political agenda of making the conflict worse?

BERMAN: Michael, what do you think the President will do over the next several hours here? Because as Van correctly knows, there is an irony here which is that what the players were calling for quite literally on their t-shirts after game was prison reform. MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, SMERCONISH: He has to be sleeping in this morning at Bedminster. I mean, that's the only explanation as to why there's not already a tweet on this subject because politically speaking, this is right in his wheel house.

And, I think the NFL made a mistake. The NFL guaranteed, and I predicted this on radio last year, they guaranteed the perpetuation of this controversy by taking a stand on this. And when Jerry Jones and others speak out, I think all they do is in incense athlete to say, wait a minute, you're not going to tell us what to do. Of course, Malcolm Jenkins is going to raise a fist or of course others are going to stay in the tunnel. So, I think, you know, welcome to the brand new NFL season, this is going to go on for awhile.

HILL: More (ph) and I think because these are preseason games. As you say, much more to come. I do want to touch, too, on what we saw yesterday which was just remarkable. And the words from this judge are remarkable. Allow me to read some of this.

So this is a judge who learns in the middle of this hearing that two of the people who they're to talk about are, at that moment in time, on a plane being sent back to El Salvador.

"This is pretty outrageous", said District Judge Emmet Sullivan. "Somebody in pursuit of justice who has alleged a incredible fear in her mind and is seeking justice in the United States court is just spirited away while her attorneys are arguing for justice for her? It's outrageous. I'm really upset about that." And he also said, if they weren't brought back, he could was maybe going to hold the attorney general in contempt.

It's remarkable to see this and it also, I would imagine then it's not the last that we're going to hear about it.

[07:05:02] JONES: Listen, you're seeing a big conflict now about key questions around the rule of law in United States. There is a law in the United States that frankly most Americans have been quite proud of that says, if you are fleeing prosecution, you have a right to come to the United States and at least be heard. I'm afraid, I'm scared.

It doesn't mean we have to take care, no. It doesn't mean that anybody shows up can stay. But everybody gets a say, gets their moment. And we fought for that not just here, but around the world. It's one of the biggest achievements in the last century in terms of human rights law.

And this administration and Jeff Session says I don't care. I don't like that law, I don't like those people, I'm going to do what I want. This is the top cop. Session is supposed to enforce the law, he's plodding the law and our courts have to point at the end by, the way sir, you have to obey the law. The top cop has to obey the law. That's now a controversy in America.

This is so outrageous that we're now -- we're back to literally 11th grade civics whether or not you have -- whether or not, everybody has to follow the law. That's where what we are in this moment. BERMAN: I have to say, you note that Jeff Sessions is doing it publicly. He's proud of this. Stephen Miller, the key advisor on immigration issues inside the White House is doing this publicly. He's proud of this and that --

JONES: Lawlessness, this is lawlessness from the top.

BERMAN: It's not just an issue of the law, it's also a question of what is America. And there are also people who support the President on cable television who are saying things publicly. They're not hiding, they're saying it out loud. And Laura Ingraham, who's a host on Fox News, had this to say the other night.


LAURA INGRAM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: In some parts of the country it does seem like the America that we know and love doesn't exist any more. Massive demographic changes have been hoisted upon the American people. And they're changes that none of us ever voted for and most of us don't like. From Virginia, to California, we see stark examples of how radically in some ways the country has changed.



BERHAM: So Laura Ingraham fight (ph) a backtrack in a way over night saying it was about the border, but --

JONES: She didn't say a word on that. Listen, I know her. I've thought well of her in the past. That was racial. She -- listen, if she wants to talk about the border, she want to talk about security, she wants to talk about terrorism, she wants to talk about, you know, she's welcome to do that. She did not mentioned any of that stuff. In that thing, she talked about demographic change.

It doesn't matter if you're smart, if you're good, if you're law abiding whatever, the demographics, the racial demographics are the issue. There's no other explanation with the word demographic.

And so, that does not sound like anything but white nationalism. And I -- listen, I don't like to come out here and saying that kind of stuff because it's -- I always look for a better explanation if I can find it and you know I do. There is no other explanation for her comments. Then she's talking about the changing racial makeup.

Now, listen, conservatives always tell me we're color blind, we don't see color, why do you guys always raise the issue?

She raised the issue with no even pretence that there was some other dog whistle. This is -- you're seeing now mainstream media adopting the rhetoric and the rationale of white nationalism and nobody is doing anything about it. This is one of the worst things I've seen on cable television.

BERMAN: Michael?

SMERCONISH: I think it was one of the most cogent articulations of a viewpoint that exists among Trump supporters that explains his election in 2016, the unsettled nature in some people's minds, that Van is describing, as to the changes that they see in the country.

I see it in stark political terms. Laura Ingraham's articulation is what explains I think the why in which states like my own in Pennsylvania and other (ph) Rust Belt, Michigan, Wisconsin States, Ohio ended up going for Trump. People that she's speaking to are worried about the changing complexion of the country. What this country will look like in 2040 if not sooner.

So, I don't agree with it, but I appreciate in a sense the way, OK, it's not now out in the open. And let's talk about what really drives some of these voters.

JONES: And my point about it is, up until now they've tried to pretend that there's other issues. A more noble issues, more issues you could may be understand. What we're concerned about here is we're gangs or something like that. You can say it's all about safety which is where she tried to rant (ph).

But if we're going to literally now have the conversation, we just don't like having more brown people around. We just think having more brown people around makes us makes us feel weird and bad, then let's have that conversation. But you can't then say that and then turn around and say, every time a black or brown person says I feel like there's racisms here you're paying the race card.

[07:10:08] I think you got to pick your lane. You -- either the country is beyond racism, we don't care about color anymore and it's the progressives making the issue, or actually progressives' right. We don't like you here and we we're going to defend the fact we don't like you hear, but you can't have it both ways.

HILL: I think also too in that and this really is part of what both of you are saying. But in terms of this changing demographic and that things look different, which is what she's pointing out, you can't ignore the fact too that she's also -- she's tying it to legal and in her words -- illegal and/or legal immigration.

BERMAN: And legal, yes, and that's --

HILL: And that's where we need to like, as you're saying, as you're bringing this all back together, this comes back to more people from Norway. This come back to, you know, I want people who are better without actually taking to look at not only -- I mean, forget where people are coming from for a minute, how about taking a look at the measure of the person and what they may need.

BEMAN: Or what they may have to offer.

HILL: And, you know, do they need asylum? What they have to offer? All of these things and all of that, too, getting loss in this conversation which becomes about this. I mean these gut moments that are truly the worst of the country.

JONES: Sarah Sidner --

SMERCONISH: But it's really -- Erica, if I could just say this. It's really not immigration that is changing the nature and character of the country as she articulates it. If really you want to talk about how America will be -- whites will be majority -- minority in 2040. I said that incorrectly, how the country will be comprised of whites who are now in the majority by 2040? It's more about birthrates than it is about immigration. So, this is a canard on which Laura Ingraham is playing.

JONES: Yes. And throughout the west, you're seeing this challenge where, you know, once you get that westerns in the living, you don't want to have one a bunch of kids. You tend to have, you know, one or just have a dog and then that tends to have sort of (ph) them. So, we get to --

HILL: I think they're a lot easy.

JONES: Yes, sometimes they are. But, listen, I thought -- I thought that we cross another line with that commentary. Sara Sidner had resuggest (ph) went out into, you know, some of the tough parts of America and heard NAZI saying this very point.

BERMAN: You know, we have that sound (ph) here, let's listen to it.



DABIEL BURNSIDE, ULYSSES RESIDENT: The rural America spoke up when they elected Trump. Rural America, we're starring down the barrel down here in white America. There's still 193 million white Americans.

Yes, the vast majority of them are in their 60s and 70s, will be in the ground in the next 20 years. And therefore, we have the possibility of becoming a minority in our own country, a possibility of becoming a minority in America.

SARA SNIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It sounds like you're afraid of being me and being me is great.

BURNSIDE: This is my country.

SNIDER: This is also my country.

BURNSIDE: You guys didn't win the culture war.


JONES: So, you have a guy he knows that he has a NAZI swastika on his chest, making the same argument that Laura Ingraham was making on cable television to millions and millions of our neighbors and fellow citizens. There is no difference between the argument that the NAZI made and the argument that she made, that having too many brown people is a problem. Not because their criminal, but because they're brown, not because they're cherished but because they're brown, not because they did anything but literally just because they're brown.

There is no other way to describe that argument than racist. I don't come on this station and call people racist. I don't -- I find any area I can to get people credit, I'd rather have a more dignified debate. But that is racism, period and point blank. It doesn't matter if its' coming from a NAZI standing in front of this trailer or from Laura Ingraham on Fox News.

If you say people coming here are a problem because of the color of their skin, because of where they came from, that is racism, period point blank. And it has no place in our country. I agree that it's good that it's out there.

But then now let's finally have the conversation, is somebody absorbing too much light through their skin a problem? Is that a crime? Is there something wrong with that? Or is there something more important about that person, about that child, about that father, about that mother that we might want to be remind ourselves to look at? Because I'm raising children in this country.

And Kindergarteners are taught better than Laura Ingraham. Third graders, kids going to college are taught better than how Laura Ingraham and that NAZI are performing in our country and it's wrong. And if we can't say that it's wrong, to say that somebody shouldn't be here literally just because the way they look, we are far down the rat hole in this country.

BERMAN: Michael Smerconish, John being (ph) here I just want to note that Melania Trump, the first lady of the United States, her parents became U.S. citizens yesterday through a legal --

SMERCONISH: Through chain migration.

BERMAN: The legal immigration process and I have not heard the same concerns about the impact of immigration.

SMERCONISH: There's new data out yesterday from Pew research and it delves into turnout among those different constituencies who participated in 2016 and it also scrutinizes those who didn't come out to vote. I highly recommend it.

[07:15:14] But What I took away from it was the level of passion that existed among some communities, some white communities that didn't exist among people of color.

And I would say -- I view this all in political terms. I think we're now discussing a large part of the success that Donald Trump had in 2016 in driving his core constituency. And I'm not castigating all those who supported him far from it, but I think here in lies an explanation as to why forecasters, pundits didn't see coming the outcome of that 2016 race. And so, I welcome the dialogue, I really do. I have felt this coming for a long, long time from certain callers in my radio constituency, the unsettled nature as to what this country will look like from a demographic standpoint in the next 40 or 50 years. So, now it's laid bare. Let's discuss it.

BERMAN: Michael Smerconish, Van Jones, I want to thank you both for coming in and having this discussion this morning. I really appreciate it.

HILL: And you can Van tomorrow when he talks to comedian SNL cast member Leslie Jones here what she has to say about the silencing of comedians. That's tomorrow night, 7:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

BERMAN: North Korea claims the United States is failing to adhere to the spirit of the Trump-Kim Summit in Singapore. And according to a senior diplomatic source, the U.S. has made special proposals to move denuclearization process forward, but all of them rejected by the Kim regime. So let's go live to Hong Kong and bring in CNN's Will Ripley.

Will, are you all learning here?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've learned that this meeting that Secretary Pompeo had in Pyongyang in early July was very contentious, the United States proposing a bold move for denuclearization on North Korea to give up a significant amount of its nuclear arsenal. The North Koreans flat out, rejected that.

Pompeo asked again, the North Koreans said no again. They went back and forth to the point that both live -- both sides really left so frustrated than what we've seen play out in this, you know, following weeks has been this very public back and forth.

Secretary Pompeo, Nikki Haley over to U.N., Ambassador John Bolton, all accusing North Korea of not living up to its vow to denuclearize. It's pledged that was signed in Singapore in June 12 with President Trump, and now we have this, this statement from the North Koreans saying that the United States acting an against gangster like manner. We heard that statement from North Korea's foreign minister.

Let me read you a portion though, because this is what I think is so interesting about this statement. They're actually calling to question U.S. intelligence that claims North Korea is doing things like building more ballistic missiles and enriching nuclear fuel.

It says, "The U.S. is attempting to invent a pretext for increase sanctions against the DPRK by mobilizing all their servile mouthpieces and intelligence institutions to fabricate all kinds of falsehoods on our nuclear issue."

The North Koreans questioning U.S. intelligence, does that sound familiar to you? And the statement also says there is no guarantee that the hard one atmosphere of stability on the Korean peninsula will continue. In other words, North Koran basically saying, if the United States doesn't budge on the issue of sanctions and on the issue of a peace treat and in nuclear war, we could be right back to where we were before the summit. The tensions, the launches that haven't happened since July, all of that to restart, the North Koreans are saying Erica.

HILL: Well, and that is something, I really appreciate it, thank you, Will.

Mike Pence going where no vice president has gone before, calling for the creation of a space force by 2020. John Berman is all in. Back in June President Trump you may recall directed the Pentagon to establish a six branch of the military that would oversee operations in outer space.

The move, of course, would require congressional approval. The Trump reelection campaign though is moving at warp speed here. So, listening help and selecting the official space force logo. This will be displayed on merchandise on the reelection website.

BERMAN: Space force.

I will say two things here that will or pretty much will make everyone. Number one, if you hear from people, there are real threats, genuine threats that need to be addressed in outer space with the Russians and the Chinese getting nuclear abilities to shoot down our spy satellites among other things, there's a debate about whether or not a new branch of the military is the right way to do that.

That said, whenever I hear space force, I want to show people what I think. There's a Japanese anime cartoon from the 1970s called G-Force which I watched and didn't really liked. I'm just saying, that's what I think of when I hear space force.

HILL: You know, it's interesting maybe they should've looked lived to G-Force for some of the other logo options.

BERMAN: I think they sought of did. I think the logo options are in that same graphic names as G-Force.

HILL: Yes, there's something and they're given everybody a lot to talk about especially the late item.

BERMAN: It's great cartoon whether it's great policy.

HILL: I also like it when you say that space force.

BERMAN: Space force. The Washington Post Fact Checker say President Trump has made more than 4200 false statements in office. But our next guest says his team is learning a tough lesson about where facts still matter. Susan Glasser joins us next.


[07:24:02] BERMAN: It is day nine of the Paul Manafort banking tax broad trial. Prosecutors have said they called their final witnesses and expected to rest their case today. There's been a lot of drama inside the court room.

Susan Glasser, CNN Global Affairs Analyst and Staff Writer for the New Yorker was inside the courtroom yesterday, watched it all unfold and she joins us now.

Susan, thanks so much for being with us. I always find it fascinating to speak with people who have been watching this because it's had so much drama. And then reading your piece, you had an angle. You looked that through a really fascinating window. Not so much about the drama, but looking at this through the notion that this courtroom, or a courtroom in America is still a place, maybe the only place where it's all about facts.

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I have to say, first of all the thing to realize about when you go to the Alexandria Federal Courthouse where this is taking place is that they take away all your electronics and I mean everything. No phones, no iPads, no laptop. So, you're forced to sit there.

[07:25:02] It might be, as I said in the piece, the most blissfully Trump Twitter free place in the planet right now. And in many ways, there's a reminder actually of just how much we're overwhelmed and often unable to focus on the facts. And then, of course, our legal system is all about, you know, making a narrow provable claim and then going through methodically improving it. And that's what's happening in the court room.

As you said, there have been a lot of theatrics and I can see why the judge in the case -- Judge Ellis has come in for a lot of commentary on CNN and other outlets. And, you know, spend an hour there and you can see why this guy loves being in the center of attention.

He's been very, very tough on the prosecutors. But ultimately, I also came out thinking that he was a bit of a distraction, right? You know, on some level, who cares if the judge is kind of a jerk which he kind of is. You know, if it makes a difference with the jury, I think that's a concern that Mueller's prosecutors have.

But in effect, what we're looking at is the difference between the Mueller investigation and the Trump approach of all P.R. all the time. In the end, you know, the court system relies upon standards of evidence and fact.

And the case against Manafort is devastating in many respects. It portrays a corrupt international lifestyle of massive amounts of money from Ukraine, a poor country. People earn a couple hundred dollars a month. There, he's being paid $4 million from official funds, billions more from a Ukrainian oligarchs associated with the government. He's spending it on $15,000 ostrich jackets. It's pretty devastating stuff.

BERMAN: You note in your piece that, "The President may have inadvertently provided the most obvious frame for the understanding the nature of their crooked business when he complained any tweet on the opening day of the trial that under Mueller, Manafort was treated worse in court than even a legendary mob boss Al Capone." What do you mean there?

GLASSER: Well, you know, it sees like when you see the allegations flying back and forth between Rick Gates who was, of course, Manafort's deputy he turned on him and that's the central drama of this courtroom cases he's played out, right. You have the long-time lieutenant who's that turned on him.

There's allegations that, well, no, he is the liar, he's got, you know, the secret mistress in London, and the like, you know, you really get the sense that this is a sort of a crooked family business that's being portrayed by the prosecutors in this case.

And, you know, Trump himself seems to have mobsters and Al Capone on the brain when talking about Paul Manafort who is after all the guy he chose to be the chairman of his 2016 campaign.

BERMAN: How does it play in the courtroom? You brought up the juxtaposition of the drama and the dry here. I mean, on the one hand, you do have this fear. You have Rick Gates who is such a flawed human. And, you know, now an admitted embezzler and Adulterer and liar to the FBI. On the other hand, you have this mountain of documentation, e-mails and facts being provided by the prosecution. Have you watched how the jury has received this information?

GLASSER: Well, you know, of course the jury is an object of fascination. Nobody really knows what's on their mind. They struck me as a very northern Virginia jury, very middle class Northern Virginia. Of course, it's one of the most educated areas in the country, very suburban middle class, presumably hard working parents, taxpayers, I can't imagine, you know, as a hard working middle class taxpayer that you would not be thrilled to hear this evidence assembled of massive alleged cheating on your federal income tax through the series of elaborate off shore accounts that you're spending all of this money on.

There's seven figure landscaping bills being paid through this off- shore these accounts. Again, nobody really knows but it's hard to imagine that this would go over well with the kind of jury like that.

BERMAN: Susan Glasser, thanks so much for being with us. The column up in the "New Yorker" as we speak, I recommend that everyone check it out, thanks Susan.

GLASSER: Thank you.

BERMAN: Erica?

HILL: One year after the deadly protest Charlottesville, the city is under a state of emergency. The mayor is with us to tell us what she expects and where her see is one year later.