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tv   CNN Newsroom With John Berman and Poppy Harlow  CNN  August 16, 2017 7:00am-8:00am PDT

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good morning. john berman here. i want to go to charlottesville. we have pictures where people are beginning to assemble for the memorial service for heather heyer. 32 years old, she was the young woman who died on saturday or was killed on saturday in
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charlottesville because of what she believed in. she went to demonstrate against hatred, against bigotry and she lost her life in that city. also this morning, we are taking note of this moment in history. the president of the united states making clear how he feels about what happened in the city of charlottesville. the president of the united states noted that the demonstrations which began as a protest in some ways against the removal of a statue of robert e. lee and ended with people chanting anti-semitic slogans, he said there were very fine people at this assembly. listen. >> you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. you had people in that group -- excuse me, excuse me, i saw the same pictures as you did. you had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of to them a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from robert
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e. lee to another name. >> all right. we are getting new reaction from leaders all around the country. there are new developments this morning. want to go first to cnn's jeff zeleny, outside trump tower. what are you learning? >> reporter: good morning. the reaction here at trump tower and indeed at the white house is simply one of people putting their heads down and getting back to work. i talked to one senior administration official a short time ago who told me this. we have work to do and we are going to do it. they are trying to not get caught up in the intense criticism coming from republicans, coming from democrats across the board here at the president's comments yesterday. the question is, of course, how this will impact his agenda. don't forget, the press conference yesterday the president was supposed to talk about infrastructure. the plan was yesterday to turn the page beyond charlottesville but the president took matters into his own hands. he had been fuming privately behind the scenes, we are told, and vented quite publicly yesterday. but those words from trump tower are still reverberating, still
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causing so much controversy among trump supporters as well. let's listen again to the president yesterday. >> what about the alt-left that came charging at the as you say alt-right? do they have any semblance of guilt? let me ask you this. what about the fact they came charging, that they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs? do they have any problem? i think they do. i watched very closely, much more closely than you people watched it, and you had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. and nobody wants to say that. but i'll say it right now. you had a group on one side and you had a group on the other and they came at each other with clubs and it was vicious and it was horrible and it was a horrible thing to watch. but there is another side. there was a group on this side, you can call them the left, you have just called them the left, that came violently attacking
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the other group. so you can say what you want but that's the way it is. >> reporter: you said there was hatred and violence on both sides -- >> i think there's blame on both sides. >> reporter: it was those words, blame on both sides, that again sparked so much controversy and republicans wherever they are this month of august, the congressional recess, are certainly being asked about this. when you talk to advisers on capitol hill, republican strategists and others, they simply view this as yet another headache the president has dealt them, yet another unforced error here. the president for his part has not spoken this morning. he's tweeted a few times. he's scheduled to resume back to his vacation, working vacation here heading back to new jersey later this afternoon. again, though, all eyes will be on this president to see when he addresses this again. he surely will have to. >> jeff zeleny outside trump tower. we are getting some breaking
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news in terms of the reaction now to what the president said. breaking news from a very important front. the senior republican in the u.s. senate, manu raju has reaction from inside the camp of senator mitch mcconnell. what are you learning? >> reporter: that's right. a source close to the republican leader tells me the senate majority leader is upset at president trump over his handling of this episode, believing the president could be potentially opening up long-festering racial tensions. this of course, mitch mcconnell has a long history working on civil rights issues. the concern from the senate majority leader is that the president by his comments yesterday essentially could be undercutting the years of work that have been done on the civil rights issues. senator mcconnell has not put out a statement since yesterday raising questions about why he has not joined a lot of other republicans in going after president trump. one reason why, i'm told by this
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source, is that the senate majority leader is concerned about this looking like retribution because of their fight that happened last week. remember that spat that occurred between president trump and mitch mcconnell that occurred when the president accused mitch mcconnell of failing on health care, failing to deliver a key vote on health care, this after mitch mcconnell said the president may have excessive expectations about what he can accomplish coming in. mitch mcconnell not wanting to look like he's getting into a back-and-forth with the president but behind the scenes, i'm told mcconnell has had concerns with the president over this whole charlottesville episode, wants to make that very clear. i think we can expect him to say something publicly as soon as today on this, just adding another voice to this episode, but one other reason why is that there's some concern about going too hard after the president, they still have to work together, particularly in
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september when the government needs to be funded past september 30th to avoid a government shutdown. they need to raise the national debt ceiling to avoid debt default. they have to do a lot of work togeth together. mcconnell has been cautious about this but expect potentially strong words coming out soon even as his home state of kentucky in lexington, demonstrations could take place there, white supremacists warning they may do that as well. >> one of the really interesting parts of this, of course, is mitch mcconnell's wife, elaine chao, was standing next to the president of the united states when he said all of these things which i'm sure doesn't make the situation any easier for the senator. >> reporter: yeah, that's right. in fact, afterwards, she was asked specifically by reporters about that flap that occurred last week. she said she stands by both men, referring to both president trump and the senate majority leader but of course, that adds a little bit of awkwardness, if you will, particularly if that
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event was about infrastructure, she's transportation secretary, she will have to shepherd this through and mitch mcconnell will have to get that enacted through, passed through the senate if they were to achieve one of president trump's chief objectives here. but just showing the president's remarks yesterday getting criticism from all fronts and making it harder and overshadowing things they are trying to do on capitol hill. >> manu, thank you so much for your reporting. want to go back to charlottesville, where the public memorial for heather heyer set to begin very shortly. there will be a lot of people there. the whole country will be watching. cnn is outside the theater where the service is set to begin shortly. what do you see and hear out there? i see a lot of purple. >> reporter: there is purple being heather heyer's favorite color. you can see people wearing purple stickers with heather's name, purple ribbons. this line stretches about three blocks down charlottesville's downtown mall, began to move just a couple minutes ago as doors opened to her memorial
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service. there are people in this line who knew and loved heather and there are people in this line who never got the chance to meet her, but are here to show their respect for a woman gone too soon. like donna price, a resident of charlottesville, you didn't know heather. why was it important for you to come out here today? >> there are so many reasons. while i did not know heather i do know the attorneys she worked with. i am an attorney. i'm a previous trial judge. i'm a retired navy j.a.g. captain so i'm a lawyer. the rule of law is very important to me. i'm also a christian. i'm taught that all of us are god's children and i chose to move to charlottesville a year ago because it's a city of love and inclusion and those who came and attacked us did so because we are a good, caring, loving people and we are here to show we are not going to be bowed. we will unite, we will resist and we will overcome this hate that has infected our country. >> reporter: what has heather come to mean to this community and to this country? >> sadly, she has come to
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represent for white america what has been happening to minorities, particularly the black americans, throughout many, many generations. my hope is that through the tragedy of what happened here last weekend, white americans will wake up and open their eyes and see that we must all stand up for what this country truly stands for. the constitution, the declaration of independence, equal protection under the law for all. i'm sorry. i'm really getting emotional as i think about the murder, the domestic terrorist murder that was inflicted here last weekend. >> reporter: how do you describe those emotions you're feeling? >> you cannot describe them. they go to the very core of what i believe about this country. i'm very sadly disappointed in what our country has done to this point but i'm hopeful. i'm optimistic that we will open our eyes, we will take the shackles off and we will actually be the america that we say we are rather than the america that we have unfortunately demonstrated of recent. >> reporter: thank you. we will let you enter today's service. >> thank you. >> reporter: john, we are just a
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block or two from robert e. lee's statue and a couple more blocks to my left is the site of that deadly crash that took heather heyer's life, as we now let people enter this theater to celebrate her life and remember a woman gone too soon. >> celebrate her life, remember everything that she stood for. that city really coming together there. remarkable thing to see. i want to note the president of the united states tweeted about a lot of things this morning. he has not mentioned heather heyer's name so far this morning. joining me to discuss, patti solis-do solis-doyle, former campaign manager for hillary clinton. margaret hoover, republican consultant and errol lewis, political anchor for spectrum news. sorry, guys. it's pretty emotional to see those pictures of the people in charlottesville turning out for heather heyer, knowing she was there to protest the hate and bigotry that people saw on the streets. we are looking at those live pictures right there. seas of people showing up
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wearing the color purple. let's start with some politics here. mitch mcconnell, the breaking news is he's uncomfortable right now which is an emotion and a feeling being held i think widely within the republican community. i got texts last night from some pretty important republican officials saying they did not like one bit what they were seeing or the position that puts them in this morning. >> you know, i don't have a lot of sympathy for people who feel they are in an uncomfortable position because there is -- this is one of those moments in time, john, i speak as a republican, as a life-long republican that comes from a long line of republicans in american history, this is one of those lines in the sand. this is a moment where republicans, every single elected republican has to choose whether they are going to stand on the side of moral equivalence of racism and of the darkest currents in american political history, or they are going to stand on the light and on the
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side of the highest principles of the american declaration. there is no choice here. mitch mcconnell can't feel uncomfortable. he needs to know exactly what he has to do, which is to come out and clearly decisively denounce what the president said, denounce that history in american politics and say that he as a republican is going to stand for the higher principles, for a republican party that is inclusive and not even distance, denounce. this is absolutely unconscionable what has gone down yesterday and it is on not just mitch mcconnell, not just paul ryan, not just every asperant who wants to challenge the president in the primary in a few years, but every republican elected. it is specific to republicans because republicans have a history in modern american history in the 20th century of too often being too close to that line of bigotry. this is a straight line. it is very clear, you are going
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to pick one side or the other and i need to hear as a republican, here now, for some reason to continues to self-identify with the republican party, there is no choice. there must be a clear differentiation between bigotry, racism, the worst instincts in american history, and the highest principles of the declaration. >> just to be clear, if you denounce the statements and come out clearly as you said against the bigotry and hatred seen in charlottesville, do you think then the republican leaders should then tomorrow morning continue to work with the president on his agenda? >> republican leaders have already, john, decided that they have their own agenda. all right? that's actually been clear since the beginning of this presidency. health care wasn't the president's agenda. that was the modern american conservative movement's agenda, paul ryan, mitch mcconnell. all right? i'm not so sure that anything is
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going to get done, all right? this is beyond what's the policy of the moment because nothing has gotten done so far. this is about what makes the fabric of america work. >> so errol, we are getting breaking news, new developments on this story, fast and furious. we have been hearing from military leaders including all the members of the joint chiefs who have weighed in, not coincidentally on the issue of race in this country, most recently we heard from general david goldfein from the air force who says i stand with my fellow service chiefs in saying we are always stronger together. it's who we are. the other service chiefs coming out with even stronger, more direct statements saying racism and bigotry, there is no place for this in the u.s. military. again, this is not happening in a vacuum. this is u.s. military, apolitical, the most apolitical individuals in the country or should be, who feel like they need to say this out loud today. >> that's right. i think what we are seeing, we saw corporate leaders yesterday, military leaders today,
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incredibly eloquent individuals like you just had on the show, the woman from charlottesville. what we have got is people stepping forward and providing the leadership that the president has essentially abdicated, on something, in a situation like this where there is a fatal terrorist attack, when there is an attack on our values, on our system, on our constitution, somebody's got to step up and defend it. now, we are all incredibly shocked that the president has willfully specifically and deliberately chosen not to be that person. it's part of why we elected him, part of his job description. he doesn't want to do that job. it is gratifying, however, to see that others are sort of doing what you are supposed to do in a self-governing democracy which is the rest of us step forward. so increasingly, the question is not what does the president think and what is the president going to do and what does the president stand for. the question is what do we think, what are we going to do and what do we stand for. i think he's given birth to something that's probably much
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bigger than at this point his entire presidency. >> patti, interesting observation right there. i opened this show by asking what now, because this feels like a different moment that we are in right now. we haven't heard this type of thing before from a president and maybe there are supporters of his who like what he said but it is a new direction. where do you see this going over the next few days? >> well, i agree with you and i agree with margaret and with errol. this is a moment. this is a moment in history. it will stay in our minds and hearts forever. history is going to judge where people stood on this. they will judge members of congress. they will judge the white house staff. you have to look in the mirror and you have to ask yourself, what are you going to tell your children when they ask you what did you do when this happened, what did you do when the president of the united states stood behind the white house podium and sympathized with white supremacists? what did you do? what did you say?
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so i heard reports this morning that gary cohn was disgusted and very upset. what are you going to do about it, mr. cohn? are you going to stay there or walk away? >> you have been inside the white house. is that decision as easy as that? >> the president of the united states of america addressed the american people and sympathized with white supremists. yeah, it's easy. walk away. >> all right. i appreciate your time this morning. thanks for coming in. he co-authored "think big" with the president of the united states but what does this businessman think about the president and the way he's treated the events in charlottesville? stay with us. a penny it's ourr back to school one cent event at office depot office max. notebooks! one cent! rulers, glue and 12-pack pencils! all one cent each! hurry to office depot office max! ♪taking care of business
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new reaction this morning from the president's new statements about charlottesville. herps here's a reminder about some of what he said. >> you had some very bad people in that group but you also had people that were very fine people. they were people protesting very quietly the taking down of the statue of robert e. lee. you had a lot of people in that group that were there to innocently protest. >> joining me, a friend and business partner of president trump's, bill zanker who co-wrote the book "think big" with president trump. look, there's been some reaction from inside the business community on what the president said. several ceos have left his manufacturing council. what do you make of it? >> listen, these guys are the
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titans of industry. they are huge ceos. listen, i can understand because they are ceos. they have to answer to board members. they got to answer to shareholders and it's very difficult for them not to get politics involved with this. unfortunately, politics did get involved but the president is right and he's absolutely right, we have to bring jobs back to america. we got to get people working again in america. unfortunately, these guys who are great ceos, great head of organizations, they are terrific guys, but politics got involved. they got to answer to shareholders. what i think the president should do is maybe bring in entrepreneurs who don't have to really respond to shareholders as much and can get it done, bring back jobs and bring back business back to america again. >> a lot of what the president said and most of what he said that is controversial is not
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about jobs. the president made statements about the people who were at the events since saturday and did not make statements since saturday in certain ways that upset a lot of people. are you proud of how your friend the president of the united states has reacted to the events in charlottesville? >> look, i think i'm here to talk about job creation and making jobs and i think the president has done a great job doing that, and he continues to do that. i think this is a president who will create, he's already created a million jobs in america, brought them back here. we just got to keep on doing that. this was a tragic event, just tragic. >> right. >> it was terrible. >> but there are people saying, there are people saying that what they have seen now is the president's heart and that there are people now looking at this administration who say no matter what it does, is it being done with someone who doesn't have my
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interests as maybe a black american or a jewish american or look, you famously started one of your giant companies with $5,000 in bar mitzvah money. i'm curious, i don't know if you have seen the video, vice video shot this of some of the demonstrations. let me play some of this for you. [ chanting ] so the president of the united states, they are saying "jew will not replace us" is what they are saying, he condemned the neo-nazis by name finally but also said there were very fine people or also good people who were also demonstrating that night. from where you sit, do you think good people or very fine people would be involved in the same
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types of events as the men you just heard? >> you know, i have worked with the president for 15 years. we wrote a book together. i sat with him for hours. i talked to him on the phone for hours. never once, once, never once did i see him as racist, did he utter anything inappropriate as a bigot. never once. in 15 years. so that's who i know. that's what i have experienced. the president has never been racist and he's always cared. listen, he's a very demanding man and he wants everything, as any entrepreneur would, but he's never been racist, he's never been inappropriate. i have never experienced any of that in my life. >> again, did you listen to his full response yesterday and was that as you would say completely appropriate? >> look, i just know him as being totally -- he's never said anything racist or bigot in my life. that's my experience with him.
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>> i believe you 100% in terms of your relationship with him, but david duke was thrilled with what the president said yesterday and i can't imagine that's someone whose praise you would hope the president would be getting. >> of course not. listen, the whole thing is tragic but what i'm here to talk about is the job creations in america that the president's doing, the million jobs that he brought to america already and more jobs to get there. this tragic event is just terrible and it's just terrible but again, i have never experienced the president ever being racist or having any statement of bigotry, saying anything inappropriate to jews, to blacks, to women, ever. ever. that's my 15 years with him. that's what i know. that's what i've experienced. >> 15 years of experience with the president of the united states, as you said, talking about the jobs and the manufacturing council or the people leaving, some staying on. thank you for your time. thank you for your insight on this.
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>> thank you. president trump compared robert e. lee to george washington and thomas jefferson, defending the people who protest to keep confederate monuments. what should happen to this history and these statues? we, the people, are tired of being surprised with extra monthly fees. we want hd. and every box and dvr. all included. because we don't like surprises. yeah. like changing up the celebrity at the end to someone more handsome. and talented. really. and british. switch from cable to directv. get an all included package for $25 a month. and for a limited time, get a $100 reward card.
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white supremacy. it is about confederate statues. it is about what you should be doing for the people in your city, in your communities. >> baltimore's mayor talking about the removal of monuments to confederate icons. overnight, four were taken down barely two days after the city council voted to remove them following the violence in charlottesville. joining me to talk about the history here, president trump asked a key question. if you take down statues of lee and jackson, should george washington and thomas jefferson be next. james grossman, executive director of the american historical association and larry sabato, director for the university of politics in the university of virginia. the president made a fairly direct comparison between stonewall jackson, robert e. lee and george washington. historically speaking, is that apt? >> no. it's a specious comparison. yes, these were all slave holders and in that sense,
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washington and jefferson were deeply flawed individuals. washington and jefferson, however, participated in the creation of a country, in a democratic experiment. jefferson has other aspects to his life that are worth honoring, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be critical of them for being slave holders. lee and jackson, however, have been honored for one thing, which is the attempt to create and then defend a new nation that existed for one reason, which was to protect the rights of some individuals to own other individuals. it's there in the declarations of secession, very straightforward. >> to be clear, washington and jefferson created a union. robert e. lee and stonewall jackson fought to leave that union, our union. professor, you are at the university of virginia in charlottesville, obviously the site of these demonstrations but also in virginia, of course, which the key state of the
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confederacy. this is not a new debate about confederate monuments and people always point to the heritage. there is history here. this is something people have struggled with in virginia for a long time. >> well, of course it is. i'm at the university founded by thomas jefferson. i live in a building on the lawn where i witnessed the outrage of the neo-nazis last friday night, in a building designed by thomas jefferson. how do we deal with this complicated legacy? we honor, as mr. grossman suggested, thomas jefferson's tremendous accomplishments, author of the declaration of independence, founder of the university, author of the declaration of religious freedom, louisiana purchase. we could go on and on. i think that balances in some way the unfortunate part of his legacy about slavery. we certainly do not support that. but john, we are building a monument to enslaved laborers right here. we have a dormitory named after
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enslaved laborers. we are doing things that matter. but this is more false equivalency from president trump. just as he falsely equated the neo-nazis with those showing up to protest their fascism, so too is he trying to make equivalent robert e. lee with thomas jefferson or george washington and mr. grossman just explained it is outrageous and wrong. >> in fact, the statues, even beyond the role of these men in history, the role of these statues in history historically speaking, most of the statues built to confederate icons came up during jim crow or in the 1950s during the civil rights struggle as a specific statement against either integration or equalization for african-americans. one other historical point, james grossman, someone who was against statues of robert e. lee, robert e. lee. he didn't think it was a good idea, james grossman, to
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memorialize him. what do you make of that? >> i'm impressed by his level of humility and perhaps his wisdom in that regard. i wish his political descendents had listened more closely. you just mentioned the absolutely crucial issue which is when people say we can't whitewash history or we can't erase history, the history that is being addressed with these statues is two things. one is the confederacy but more important is the historical context in which these statues were built, which as you say were during the jim crow era. most of these statues were built between around 1900 and 1917, 1920, and between 1955 and 1965. they had a specific purpose. that purpose was less to honor individuals like lee or jackson, which they did, but they did that for a purpose.
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that purpose was to maintain white supremacy. if you look at the historical context. so yes, take down the statues, maybe leave the pedestals, because the erection of the statues, that is itself an important historical moment. >> james grossman, professor, thank you for being with us. the events in charlottesville started a national conversation now that the joint chiefs have chosen not to ignore. rare remarks from the nation's top military brass. important to hear, next. (vo) my name is bryan. i'm proud to make dog chow in davenport, iowa. dog chow's been a part of my family's life for over 40 years. my grandfather made it and now i'm making it. as a micro-biologist i ensure that dog chow leads with
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book your weekend break direct with hilton.com and join the summer weekenders. in normal times the joint chiefs stick to advising the president on military affairs and try to stay out of politics. these are not normal times. we have heard from leaders of the army, air force, navy and marine corps publicly speaking out against bigotry and hatred, a move in and of itself which speaks volumes to the historical significance of this moment we
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are in right now post-charlottesville. joining me, cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr and cnn military analyst, rear admiral john kirby. barbara, what are we hearing? >> reporter: you are right. the joint chiefs, especially since the moment donald trump started running for president, have been adamant that they will stay out of what you might think of as domestic politics. as of this morning, all of that has changed. every one of the four major members of the joint chiefs, the heads of the services, now weighing in on twitter. the fact they are talking in this moment of national conversation is worth taking note of in itself but let's go to what these men are saying. the head of the u.s. air force, a battle veteran himself, a short time ago tweeting the following. i stand with my fellow service chiefs in saying we are always stronger together. it's who we are as airmen. the head of the u.s. army, a
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battle veteran, the army doesn't tolerate racism, extremism or hatred in our ranks. it's against our values and everything we have stood for since 1775. the head of the u.s. marine corps, a battle veteran, no place for racial hatred or extremism in the u.s. marine corps. our core values of honor, courage and commitment frame the way marines live and act. and general john richardson began all of this commentary over the weekend. he was the first to tweet about this. the head of the u.s. navy saying bluntly events in charlottesville, unacceptable and mustn't be tolerated in the u.s. navy, mustn't be tolerated. the u.s. navy forever stands against intolerance and hatred. now, is there a linkage? the marine corps has learned
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that the head of one of these white supremacist groups did serve in the marine corps, has been out since earlier this year, not in the marines, but did serve. also the man charged in the murder of that woman by ramming his car into her served in the u.s. army for about four months. the pentagon taking very deep note this morning that the chiefs are speaking out. >> fascinating. admiral, you know these men, some of them very well, and you feel they must have believed this was something they needed to do. >> absolutely. this is not something that they do you know, with happy heart. as you rightly point out, they don't wade into domestic politics. even today they would probably tell you they are still not doing that. what they are doing is standing up for the values they represent. you notice in one tweet, the word values was capitalized, the words honor, courage and commitment. these are ideals these guys
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lived and fought and served and seen their fellows sacrifice for. it means a lot to them. there's a pragmatic notion here where they have to man, train and equip the services. they have to make it clear that this is what they stand for and they don't have to worry about racism and bigotry in the ranks. there is also idealism here. they believe in these values very very much. i do know all four of them. again, a couple of them very very well. this gets right to the heart of who they are. this was not an act of defiance against a president. it would have been an act of defiance for these men not to say these things in light of what happened on saturday. >> it is interesting, you say the military leaders don't normally make political statements. in normal times i'm not sure coming out against neo-nazis and white supremacists is even a political statement anymore. there is no real political debate left in that. thank you both for being with us. i appreciate it. the nba's biggest star is now speaking out forcefully
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against the president of the united states in the wake of what happened in charlottesville. lebron james calling him the so-called president. we have the bleacher report next. plashing! wait so you got rid of verizon, just like that? uh-huh. i switched to t-mobile, kept my phone-everything on it- -oh, they even paid it off! wow! yeah. it's nice that every bad decision doesn't have to be permenant! ditch verizon. keep your phone. we'll even pay it off when you switch to america's best unlimited network. if you could book a flight, then add a hotel, or car, or activity in one place and save, where would you go? ♪ expedia gives you the world in your hand,
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lebron james, the world's biggest basketball star, calling president trump the so-called president. we have more on this morning's bleacher report. >> lebron james has never shied away from speaking out on social issues. lately, he's been voicing his displeasure with president trump. last night at his annual family charity event, he said he felt it was his responsibility to speak out on what's been going on. >> the only way for us to be
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able to get better as a society and us to get better as people is love. that's the only way we are going to be able to accomplish something at the end of the day. it's not about the guy that's the so-called president of the united states or whatever case. shout out to the people, the innocent people in charlottesville, north carolina and shout out to everybody across the world that just want to be great and want to love. >> lebron also taking to twitter yesterday afternoon after president trump's news conference saying hate has always existed in america. yes, we know that. but donald trump just made it fashionable again. statues have nothing to do with us now. mike bennett says he will be sitting during the national anthem this season, like colin kaepernick. bennett says he's doing it to speak out on injustice in our country. bennett's teammates say him sitting is not a distraction. head coach pete carroll, while he doesn't agree with the method, respects bennett's right to do it. >> his heart's in a great place.
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he's going to do great work well after the time he's with us and it's easy for me to support limb in his issues but i think we should all be standing up when we're playing the national anthem. >> it's not to be divisive or negative. i fully support mike and his message and his thoughts and definitely the way he went about it. the marlins giancarlo stanton hitting a home run for the sixth straight game last night. he now has 11 long balls in his past 12 games. if he's able to keep this up, stanton could make history. he's almost on pace to beat roger maris' old record of 61 home runs. take a look at the greatest home run seasons ever, through 116 games, you see stanton just one behind where maris was in 1961. i know you are aware, a lot of baseball fans still consider roger maris' 61 home runs as the true baseball home run record, considering the steroid accusations that surrounded barry bonds and mark mcguire. >> if stanton hits over that
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number it would clear things up and make things easier for those of us who care about that. he's crushing it. andy, thanks very much. we have an eye on charlottesville, virginia right now. we have live pictures i believe from inside the memorial service. this is the service for heather heyer, the 32-year-old woman who was killed in the events there. that's virginia governor terry mcauliffe in the back right there. we are going to cover this event for you as that city and this nation remembers that young woman. stay with us. the ford summer sales event is in full swing. it's gonna work, i promise you, we can figure this out. babe... little help. -hold on, mom. no, wifi. wifi. it's not a question, it's a thing. take on summer right with ford, america's best-selling brand. now with summer's hottest offer. get zero percent for seventy-two months plus an additional thousand on top of your trade-in. during the ford summer sales event get zero percent for seventy-two months plus an additional thousand on top of your trade-in. offer ends soon.
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hello. i'm kate bolduan. a quest for healing in a city heartbroken by hate-fueled violence and a country left searching for moral guidance right now and wondering where does the president stand? a memorial service is about to get under way as we speak for heather heyer, the woman killed while protesting against the white supremacist rallies in charlottesville this weekend. a woman described as passionate, kind and a sweet soul and a strong advocate. today, she is lost but not forgotten and that is why there's an overflowing crowd turning out to pay their respects and also wearing purple in her honor. her favorite color. her mother and others close to her say heather's death reflects the principles that guided her life. the man behind the wheel of the car that barreled into her and many others is now charged with murder. amid the heartache, a new wave of moral

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