Interview this morning. Plus House Democratic caucus chair Hakeem Jeffries, republican senator tom scott and analysis from our powerhouse round table. Announcer from abc news, its this week. Here now chief White House Correspondent jonathan karl. Good morning. Welcome to this week. The campaign trail, coronavirus and calls for racial equality all converged last night in tulsa. The president was hoping to reboot his campaign, but while the hype was huge, he claimed 1 Million People asked for tickets, the crowd was modest. Lots of empty seats, a rarity for a trump rally. While there were some tense moments in tulsa, protests remained largely peaceful. In a speech that lasted nearly n, defhis the president slme handling of coronavirus saying he requested to slow down the testing to avoid finding more cases. He spoke at length about his slow walk down a ramp at west point. What the president did not do is mention juneteenth, the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 or george floyd amid a National Outcry for change. Well have more on the president s rally and demands for racial justice. First the fall out from the president s firing of federal prosecutor Geoffrey Berman, the man who until yesterday was overseeing an investigation into the president s personal attorney. It was an extraordinary move. Now the president is saying it was all the attorney generals idea. Why did you fire Geoffrey Berman . Mr. President , why did you fire him . Its up to the attorney general. Attorney general barr is working on that. Thats his department, not my department. Thats up to him. Im not involved. Lets take this to our chief justice correspondent Pierre Thomas and our chief legal analyst dan abrams. Pierre, why is the attorney general doing this . Isnt he just doing the bidding of the president . Jon, it wasnt a state secret the president wanted berman out of that job. Barr believes its the president s prerogative to have in this position who he wanted to have. That said, this exploded and became quite the washington controversy. Dan, this of course is the prosecutor that was investigating the president s personal attorney, sent his former personal attorney to jail. There are suggestions that there may have been other investigations involving the trump organization. What happens from here . What happens with those investigations . Thats the big question about those other investigations. I think that is why it was so important that attorney general barr agreed to put in the existing deputy Audrey Strauss into the position for now. It provided a level of assurance to the prosecutors working in that office that those investigations will continue. You talk to people who know her. They will tell you they expect this office will continue very similarly to the way it was working when geoff berman was in charge. Of course there does become a legal question which is what if attorney general barr becomes frustrated with Audrey Strauss before jay clayton is in that position . Could she be gone at that point . That is a concern. Well have to see. It seems that berman forced the temporary appointment of Audrey Strauss by refusing to leave. Jon, let me tell you this, what berman did yesterday was extraordinary. Basically what he said is that i dont trust you, mr. Attorney general. I dont trust you. He said im not stepping down unless you make me go. Thats what ended up happening. What barr was sensitive to, according to my sources, is this notion that it looked like he was meddling. So he wanted to blow that notion up. Thats why he made the deputy in that office the person who would be the acting u. S. Attorney to blow up that notion and he put forth this notion that anybody in that office who feels pressure can and should report to the Justice Department inspector general. Make no mistake, he knew he had to respond to this allegation that he was doing the president s bidding and trying to sabotage these investigations. What made this so extraordinary, especially extraordinary in terms of the timing, was it comes as john bolton is saying that the president promised the president of turkey he was going to make changes in this prosecutors office. Lets play a little bit of martha raddatzs interview with john bolton on this. The president said to erdogan at one point, look, those prosecutors in new york are obama people. Wait until i get my people in and then well take care of this. I thought to myself and im a department of justice alumni, i have never heard any president said anything like that. Thats brazen to have this move happen just after that allegation. Right, because thats from a while ago that happened. That makes it bolder that it happened now. The question from a legal perspective will be what happens to bolton now . He won round one in that the book is going to be published. The administration cant stop it. Theres a serious argument that he could face civil damages meaning all the money hes making from that book could end up going to the government because he violated his nondisclosure, because he didnt finish the review process. On the question of any criminality with regard to john bolton, there has to be classified information. The president alleged that much of the information in the bolton book isnt even true. You cant say the information is not truthful and classified. Theyll have to pick between those arguments. Well see. I dont expect criminal charges. Dan, if they get those earnings, the way that book is selling, it may put a dent in the national debt. Thank you, dan abrams and Pierre Thomas. Joining me now exclusively is senator tim scott. Hes leading the Senate Republican effort on police reform. I want to begin, senator scott, with the news about the firing of u. S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman. Do you have any concerns about at least the appearance here with the attorney general firing somebody who was overseeing an investigation into the president s personal lawyer . I dont honestly. I think President Trump actually hired mr. Berman and he fired mr. Berman. Everyone at the doj works at the pleasure of the president. Thats number one. Number two, theres no indication that whatever is being investigated will not continue to move on. Will you track and see . Right now his deputy is taking over, Audrey Strauss. Theres no guarantee she wouldnt be replaced. How important to you is it that shows investigations continue without any interference from washington . I dont know that anyone has any evidence in whats in those investigations. As far as i can tell theres no indication that those investigations would stop. I would say that jay clayton the person who has been confirmed by the senate as the fcc head is in line to take over that position. Hes a straight shooter. Hes black and white. It will be hard for him not to move on any credible evidence in any situation or in any case. This comes as john bolton has made some extraordinary allegations against the president. I know you know john bolton well. He is certainly not a member of the deep state. Hes not a liberal democrat. What do you make of his rather serious allegations against the president . I do wish that mr. Bolton would have come into the house under oath and testified. One of the things about making allegations in a book for 29. 95, certainly going to be a best seller, but the problem is youre not putting yourself in the position to be cross examined. Under oath he would have had an opportunity to answer questions and not just make assertions. It would have been good for him to come to the house, answer questions under oath and be cross examined so we would have more information about fact patterns. So far it looks like he monetized it more than provided a fact pattern. On much of that the democrats would probably agree with you, although the president didnt want him to testify in the house. The president in response to this has called bolton a wacko, a sick puppy, a disgruntled boring fool who only wants to go to war. He said john kelly was way over his head. Called his former secretary of defense jim mattis, the worlds most overrated general. His secretary of state dumb as a rock. Jeff sessions not mentally qualified. These are some of the most important positions in government. Secretary of state, defense, National Security adviser, chief of staff. What does it say about President Trump that he appointed such people as that to those positions . It says the president s love language is not words of encouragement. Thats what i get out of those sequence of events and comments. May be a slight understatement. Lets move on to your bill, the justice act, which you unveiled this week. I was struck when you unveiled it. You talked about your own personal experience. We know you had been stopped by a capitol policeman coming into the capitol as a United States senator. You said you were recently pulled over for what you described as driving while black. What in your bill will address that type of action . Will anything address that . Certainly theres in our bill a lot of accountability. Not only do we provide resources for more training, we provide oversight and accountability so we can get to the root of the problem. The only way to get to the root of the problem is to have information collected by the fbi. Only 40 of offices report their information. For us to see the patterns in Law Enforcement that may be problematic we need all the information. Thats how we lead in the direction of how to target our grants to get the outcomes we want. Very important part of our legislation. I was struck by one place that praised your bill, the root which is an africanamerican liberal online magazine said the gop bill is more likely to stop cops from killing black people. They go on to say the bill would enforce its provision by reducing federal grant money and is available to state and local Law Enforcement agencies. Scott wants to prevent departments who dont comply to receive these funds. The article goes on to say it sounds a lot like defund police. Jonathan, i guess thats a question . God bless the root. Its nice to have them on my side every blue moon. Im not sure i agree with their conclusions. Its important for us to use the resources we give to Law Enforcement to compel them in the direction we think is in the best interest of the nation, the communities they serve and frankly of the officers themselves. We try to bridge that gap. One of the areas hes probably referring to is the importance of body cameras. Five years ago i started this journey after the Walter Scott Shooting in north charleston. A man was shot in the back five times and there was a false Police Report that brought us to the conclusion that was inconsistent with reality period. Had we had the type of resources in place, i think we could prevent more of these deaths and certainly have enhanced penalties for falsifying Police Reports. Thats not in the house bill. Its only exclusively in our bill. The false Police Report has an enhanced penalty on top of the serious Bodily Injury or death that leads to prosecution. Its important for us to bring more emphasis on character driven Law Enforcement. If we miss that, we miss the entire boat. I guess their point is if the Police Departments dont do what youre asking, they will lose access to federal funds. There would be an element of withholding funding here . Well, very important aspect of our bill, as well as the house bill, this is where 70 of it overlaps. The importance is that if the police an example, we all want to ban chokeholds. The house and senate knows you cant ban local use of chokeholds or state use of chokeholds except by removing federal grants that come into play. By removing federal grants you make those departments change their policy in the direction of satisfying what we all know and frankly in South Carolina very few, if any, departments still have a chokehold. That we know is an unnecessary tactic except for saving the life of the officer. We use the resources in an effective way. We believe you need more resources, not less resources, if you want officers to be trained effectively, you have to give them the tools, training, to get there. That requires more resources. If you want more information on the federal level, that requires more resources for Record Keeping and for data collection. The house bill says the exact same thing. Were in a position that says, in order to get the Law Enforcement agencies to improve their data collection, to improve their training, to improve the deescalation of situations and the duty to intervene we use resources from the federal level to compel or coerce local behavior. Its the exact same thing the house does because the u. S. Constitution doesnt allow the federal government to take over local Police Departments. Right. This is local police. Let me ask you before you go about Mary Elizabeth taylor who was the former assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, somebody you supported getting that position. She has resigned. In her letter of resignation she writes the president s comments and actions surrounding Racial Injustice in black americans cut against my core values and convictions. I must follow the dictates of my conscious and resign. I want to ask you to comment on her resignation. I know shes somebody you supported. When you heard some of what the president has done just over the past couple weeks, invoking the words of segregationists, taking credit for making for juneteenth becoming something that people know about, when you hear his words and see what he has done, have you ever felt that his actions cut sharply against your core values and convictions . I certainly have spoken out about the charlottesville situation. He and i sat down after that. Thats how we got opportunity zones. I spoke about the comments about the squad in baltimore. The president has said things i found offensive. I spoken out against those things publicly. I also called him to have constructive conversations. Heres what i would say. I think Mary Elizabeth is a wonderful person, brilliant. She has an incredibly bright future. Shes following her convictions. I believe my convictions have allowed me to work with the president on opportunity zones, on the highest funding for hbcus, on permanent funding for those schools. Ive been able to work with the president on the executive order so we can make sure more folks who are suspects get to go home if they were not stopped under appropriate manners and go to jail if necessary. We were able to sit with the families of victims of Police Brutality and have a serious and civil conversation where the families left and they said themselves they were heard by this president. Im not sure what their expectation was coming in. I know what their expectations were going out. Frankly, whether its dick durbin with his use of token versus other comments made by the president , there are plenty of blame of race on both sides that we need to be more sensitive on the issue of race in this nation. In order for us to make progress its insincere or at least not authentic to suggest that one side has a bigger problem than the other, especially if you look at the 1994 crime bill that cory booker said this locked up a disproportionate share of africanamericans and then he worked with president to get the first step taken care of. Both sides of the aisle should be working for a more Harmonious Union called the great United States of america. Thank you, senator scott. Appreciate you joining us. Thank you, jon. Coming up an exclusive new excerpt from martha raddatzs block buster interview with President Trumps former National Security john bolton. Martha joins us next. Interview with former National Security john bolton. Martha joins us next. Neuriva has clinically proven oingredients that fuel five, indicators of brain performanc memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. Try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference. Polo marco. polo si . Marco. polo scusa . 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It leaked and everything else. He leaked classified information. So hes got a big problem. President trump celebrated a court ruling that denied his request to stop john boltons book from being published, but could open bolton to legal troubles. Lets bring in our chief Global Affairs correspondent and this week coanchor, march rad. Her exclusive interview with john bolton airs tonight on abc. Martha, that was a hell of an interview. Thank you. Hes come under such fire, bolton, for waiting so long to make these extraordinary allegations. He tells you he tried to raise the alarm repeatedly inside the Trump Administration. Yeah. He says he raised the alarm inside the Trump Administration essentially felt he couldnt do anymore. Of course his critics say why didnt he say all these things during the impeachment hearings, especially after what he told me. Lets listen. You also use the phrase in the book that trumps pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life which we couldnt accept. Obstruction of justice as a way of life . These were things i could see some evidence of. They bothered me greatly. I talked to the attorney general about them. I talked to the counsel of the president about them. I talked to members of the cabinet about them and relayed my concerns. They were very much on my mind. Of course he says, jon, the reason he didnt want to be any part of the impeachment hearing is because he thought it was too politicized and he wouldnt make a difference. So he said i pushed back on him several times in the interview this evening about how he would know whether he made a difference or not. Lets listen to another extraordinary clip where he basically sums up his feelings about President Trump. You describe the president as erratic, foolish, behaved irrationally, bizarrely, you cant leave him alone for a minute. He saw conspiracies behind rocks and was stunningly uninformed. He couldnt tell the difference between his personal interest and the countrys interest. I dont think hes fit for office. I dont think he has the competence to carry out the job. There really isnt any guiding principle that i was able to discern other than whats good for Donald Trumps reelection. Martha, weve just never have heard Something Like that from somebody in a president s inner circle while that president is still in office. I think thats what you have to remember. This is an extraordinary interview, really a jawdropping interview, because hes talking about a sitting president. He was there as you know well, jon, for 17 months. He wasnt there for a couple months, left and wrote a tell all. 17 months. He takes a lot of notes. Joe biden is a copious note taker. Hes considered a Foreign Policy heavy weight whether you agree with his Foreign Policy or not. Its really an extraordinary look into the white house. In this white house 17 months is an eternity. The longest serving so far National Security adviser for President Trump. Weve heard President Trump push back calling john bolton a sick puppy, a whacko, saying his is full of lies. How is bolton responding to that . He said he wont respond. He said its beneath the president to talk that way. We just heard him say the president was erratic and bizarre. Its like a back and forth school fight. Martha, thank you for bringing us that. The abc news exclusive airs tonight at 9 00 p. M. Eastern. Dont miss it. Coming up how will democrats handle the latest comments from john bolton . Ill ask Hakeem Jeffries next. John bolton. Ill ask Hakeem Jeffries next. Dust mite droppings eeeeeww dead skin cells gross so now, i grab my swiffer sweeper and heavyduty dusters. Duster extends to three feet to get all that gross stuff gotcha and for that nasty dust on my floors, my sweepers on it. 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It nourishes and strengthens my joints for the long term. Osteo biflex. Plus vitamin d for immune support. Thank you, john bolton, for being the firefighter that shows up to the building thats already burned with the fire hose and saying im here to help. Curious to me now he has something to say when he could have stepped forward as a patriot when the stakes were high. As damning as the allegations against the president are in that book, they are equally damning of john bolton for keeping it concealed. House democrats blasting john bolton for going public only after he had a book to sell. Bolton declined to cooperate with the house impeachment inquiry last fall. Lets talk to one of the leaders of that effort, congressman Hakeem Jeffries. He served as an impeachment manager during President Trumps impeachment trial. Senator jeffries, let me start with the breaking news over the weekend, the firing of u. S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman. We now have heard from the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, you are a member of the Judiciary Committee, saying theyll investigate. The committee will investigate and invited Geoffrey Berman to testify. Do you expect hell testify . Its my point that at some point the Judiciary Committee will hear from the former u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york, mr. Berman, because i think he has a lot to say about the continuing pattern of chaos, crisis and corruption that weve seen from the trump minutes from the very beginning until this very day. At the end of the day the president gets to hire, gets to choose, nominate, appoint u. S. Attorneys. He also, doesnt he, have the right to fire u. S. Attorneys . We have a long tradition in this country of there being no political interference between the white house and the department of justice, which is the primary vehicle at the federal level for ensuring that theres equal protection under the law, liberty and justice for all, anchored in the principle that were a government of the people, by the people and for the people, not a government of a dictator or monarch or a king. Thats why chairman adler said were going to have this hearing on political interference between the white house and the department of justice and take the facts to the American People and take it from there. Lets turn to john bolton. I mean, we know your criticism that he should have come out earlier. Let me ask you about his critique of the house democrats. He said it was malpractice to focus the impeachment so narrowly to the ukraine given all else that was going on. Is he right about that . In hindsight should you have had more in your impeachment inquiry than just ukraine . Not at all. John bolton is a political opportunist and a profiteer. He had the opportunity to step forward and participate in the house impeachment inquiry and share any information that he had about wrong doing by President Trump and other members of his administration and he declined. He could have stepped forward in the midst of the Senate Impeachment trial, but he ran and hid. Thats unfortunate. At the end of the day house impeachment managers proved with clear and convincing evidence that donald trump corruptly abused his power by pressuring a foreign government, ukraine, to target joe biden, an american citizen, solely for political gain as part of his corrupt scheme to interfere in the 2020 election. We established that. The senate committed malpractice in terms of acquitting donald trump and now its in the hands of the American People. When you hear the allegations that bolton is making about what he said with president xi regarding helping his election and also what he said to president erdogan of turkey, are those impeachable offenses . We litigated the question of impeachment and donald trump is impeached and forever will be. We had a trial in the senate that wasnt a functioning trial because unlike any other impeachment trial in the history of the republic, the senators declined to call a single witness. They declined to issue a single subpoena. They declined to review a single document and that was unfortunate. Again, as i indicated, this is in the hands of American People who will have a whole host of things to decide as to whether this president deserves reelection including his incompetent response to the covid19 pandemic, his failure to deliver in a meaningful way economically on behalf of every day americans and his inability to lead during a moment of confronting the long history of systemic racism in this country. Congressman jeffries, before you go, i want to ask a different question. If democrats retain the house, do you think that nancy pelosi should step aside and we should have a black speaker of the house . Not at all. Nancy pelosi has done a phenomenal job as speaker leading our for the people agenda, which has been focused on lowering health care cost, increasing pay for every day americans, defending our democracy, our covid19 response has been tremendous and comprehensive. Well pass the George Floyd Justice and policing act this thursday which will help strike a blow against police violence, Police Brutality and police abuse. She has been a legendary speaker working with an historically diverse caucus leading us forward. I look forward to her continuing to do so in the next congress. Definitive answer to that question. Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, chairman of the House Democratic caucus, thank you for joining us. Thank you. The round table is up next. Plus President Trump is back on the campaign trail last night. Where does the race stand . We have a brand new fivethiryeight forecast. Well be back in 60 seconds. We have a brand new fivethiryeight forecast. Well be back in 60 seconds. I ran for politics once, once in my life, and i became president of the United States. Well do it one more time. Well be two for two and our country will never, ever be stronger. I think were going to have a big victory in the state of minnesota. Theyve had it. President trump chose oklahoma for his first rally in over three months. He has plans to visit arizona and wisconsin next week. We asked nate silver can trump ride a midwest path to victory in 2020 as he did in 2016 . Big news from us. Fivethiryeight came out with our president ial averages this week. Theyll be updated every day from now through november. Go check them out. It means we can finally get into all the fun about the electoral map. Joe biden leads by around 9 points and that lead has been growing. National polls dont matter otherwise Hillary Clinton would have been president. Its worth noting a large lead is unusual in politics these days. Clinton never led by more than 7 points and in the 2008 raise barack obama led john mccain by 6 points. Trump needs to make a comeback and there is time for that. Maybe also get some help from the electoral college. The race is a bit tighter in the midwest. Biden is up by 6 points in wisconsin and 5 points in pennsylvania. Biden cant take minnesota for granted. Trump nearly won it in 2016. There has been no poling there since the protests began in the state. There are a lot of issues for trump. Hes behind by 10 in michigan and biden is doing well in florida ahead by 7 points. If biden wins florida, he only needs one state from that group. Biden could lose all those mid western states and win arizona where hes up by 4. I dont buy well have the same map as in 2016. Trump is fighting a twofront war with problems in the midwest and arizona and florida on the other hand. I want to be really clear. Trump could absolutely win reelection. He definitely has his work cut out for him. Thank you to nate. Lets bring in our round table, former republican governor of new jersey, chris kris, rahm emanuel former democratic mayor of chicago, our senior White House Correspondent cecelia vega and layla wright rigor cecelia, let me start with the rally last night. Rarely has there been so much hype before a political event. The campaign talked about 1 Million People requesting tickets. Rarely have there been so many empty seats at a trump rally. How upset is the president . We know, jon, from having covered him how much he loves a good crowd size. This is a big issue for him. The president behind the scenes was livid, extremely irritated by the low turn out. There will be some Big Questions for the Campaign Manager going forward. They needed this to be a big win given all the headlines going into this week. Frankly over the last month. Thats why they chose oklahoma. This is a state he won big, 36 back in 2016. They assumed this was going to be a mega rally. Heres my take. I think perhaps time will tell that this may be a reflection of an enthusiasm gap. I dont think thats the big headline out of what happened in oklahoma. I think the big headline is some of the things the president said. When he talked about testing being a doubleedged sword on coronavirus, that he asked his team to scale back on the testing because of the high numbers coming in. Were seeing the biden camp go hard after that. He didnt say on juneteenth, you mentioned that at the top of the show, given the climate about race relations, in the long term it will be less about the number who showed up and more about what he said and didnt say in that rally. Governor christie, its not just about crowd size. Obviously were nearly five months out from election day. Look at the latest fox news poll. The president down 12 points to joe biden. If you look at our latest poll his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, only 41 approval, 58 disapproving. Weve seen in the polling the president trailing among suburban voters which he won in 2016. Hes barely winning among rural voters. There are a lot of red warning signs out there, arent there . Yeah. You know, jon, president dukakis was ahead by this much as well and even more later in the campaign. This Political Climate is so volatile and so different than any Political Climate weve had before that Everyone Needs to let this Campaign Play out. No doubt the president is the underdog right now. Hes dealing with three crises at one time the Coronavirus Crisis, the economic crisis caused by the Coronavirus Crisis and a real racial crisis in this country. When you have those three things at the same time, thats never good for the incumbent. The key to this race is what the president started last night. He needs to engage in a campaign where he gets joe biden out of the basement in wilmington, delaware and out on the campaign tr speaking. When that happens this race becomes a binary choice. When that happens, i think you see the race tighten up. This will be a close race. Theres no question, jon, in the current circumstances, four and a half months out the president is the underdog. Rahm, i assume you agree with that . What i think from a different perspective. What i think is, jon, first of all, look at that speech. I believe like cecelia in a month from now the president will shakeup his Campaign Given the trajectory its on. Number two, theres a telling sign if you take what nate showed. In the upper states michigan where hes invested a lot of time attacking the governor hes down by 10. Kind of different than where he is in wisconsin and pennsylvania. Showing the more involved he gets, the worse hes doing in every part of the race. Third, the last year and a half i believe the democrats were angry at trump and swing voters were exhausted. I think since the crisis from covid to whats happened in minnesota and around the country swing voters have gone from exhausted to now being angry at donald trump. In every crisis he could have flipped his presidency and done something with it. If he reacted appropriately theyve now seen the full part of the president and the most important part of the voters, swing voters, have come to the same conclusion as the democrats have for the last three and a half years. The president is out classed by this job and hes not up to uniting the country to face all three of these challenges in a united front. Thats why he has the judgment by the American People hes not up to the job. Theyre going to send him packing. Its time for a change. It is going to be a choice though. Its a choice between the president and joe biden. Leia, let me ask you given that we heard senator klobuchar take herself out of the running to be bidens running mate and saying biden should choose an africanamerican woman as his running mate, does that lock that in . Is that the direction hes going . Its not necessarily a lock. We have to consider that the base of the Democratic Party is black women. Black women are really pushing for their agenda and for their issues and needs to be front and center on the ticket and also have somebody in the white house whether Vice President or president who is going to fight for these issues and make them tangible. Were seeing a lot of black women and a lot of the broader party is saying, yes, this is a black womens time. I think its also important to listen to what these people are saying. What theyre saying is it doesnt necessarily have to be a black woman, it has to be somebody who listens to black womens issues. If there are candidates that happen to be black women, but they dont have our best interests in mind, perhaps we should look in a different direction. Thats what the campaign is looking at. Its what voters are paying attention to. Its what the base of the party, black women, are interested and committed to right now. Biden was quick to come out and say he doesnt support defunding the police. How does this play out . Once this turns into a real campaign, you know what donald trump is going to do. Donald trump is going to portray joe biden as somebody who wants to abolish Police Departments, somebody who favors what weve seen in seattle with protesters taking over part of downtown seattle. Hes going to tie biden to the most extreme elements of the protest movement. How will biden deal with that . Hes going to try to tie joe biden to the most extreme elements. One thing we have to Pay Attention to is theres a Larger Movement in this country actually in support of these things that donald trump is arguing are extreme and theyre pointing out theyre not extreme in the way that donald trump is pointing them out. Take defunding the police. When you break it down and look at the elements of reappropriating the founding, rethinking the police department, it turns out theres a lot of strength and support for that. I want to point out the other day the reverend barber held a virtual rally and inperson rally for the poor peoples movement, which addresses a lot of these issues. Over 1. 5 Million People attended. Thats not insignificant. Thats quite powerful. Thats the kind of thing joe biden wants to tap into as hes thinking about Vice President ial nominees as somebody who can excite the base and bring them into the Democratic Party and bring them into the electoral process. Rahm, one other thing we saw in the protest in San Francisco, we saw a lot of confederate statues going down. I was surprised to see the statue of ulysses s. Grant toppled. I found this strange on two fronts. Grant directed his attorney general to prosecute the kkk. The kkk history doesnt come back until 1920 because of what grant did. I would say this as a jewish american, grant signed order 11 which was antisemitic and realizes what he did was wrong and appoints a number of jews to his administration and was the first president to visit a synagogue. I think we should take a step back in this process. You cant white wash history and you cant white it out. Grant is a president who had his faults. He was human, but he accomplished a great deal to get america right. In the same way i think roosevelt is one of the greatest president s, he interred the japanese, he didnt allow the st. Louis ship in 1938 to come to the shores of the United States. On the other hand he agrieved great things. In toppling that statue i understand the desire and i dont want to throw it it with the civil war honoring confederate soldiers. Thats a mistake and its wrong. He made mistakes. On the other hand, you learn from that and he learned from it and became a better president. Governor christie, i want to turn to this president. The firing of Geoffrey Berman, i fully understand president s have the power to nominate and appoint u. S. Attorneys and the right to fire them. Isnt at least there a serious appearance of a conflict here . No, theres not. The fact is that, you know, u. S. Attorneys i was one of them for seven years. You serve at the pleasure of the president who appointed you. This is not a situation where the president did anything other than say he was no longer content with the service of the person that he appointed and the proof of the matter is that he appointed that persons First Assistant to succeed him. So in the end the Southern District of new york, which those of us in new jersey and the other 93 districts call the sov vern district of new york. Everything i know about Audrey Strauss is shell be an independent voice leading the Southern District of new york. Today theyre at least as well if not better than led by Geoffrey Berman. The president had some defeats in the Supreme Court over the past week of course on the gay rights decision and then on daca. How significant is that daca decision, cecelia . Its huge. It was a bombshell with the chief justice deciding with the liberals on the bench. The president is in a really tough spot. He said overnight that he plans to refile the case. He said everything is going to work out for the young people, but then went on to insult them saying theyre not so young anymore. Heres the reality right now. 86 of people in the country support giving the daca recipients, people brought to this country as Young Children illegally by their parents. With this overwhelming public support the president has to make this judgment as to whether go forward and refile and attempt to have legislation either in congress. Theres zero appetite for that. Joe biden said he plans to enact some sort of protection for dreamers on day one if hes elected. You can bet, jon, this will be a Major Campaign issue heading into 20. Rahm, the president s response was do you get the impression the Supreme Court doesnt like me . Do you get that impression . I wouldnt make that impression. The fact is hes on the wrong side of the law is how i see this. I think he made a mistake. I want to go back to one thing you asked, jonathan, of chris. Theres an intersection between the berman decision and whats in the joe biden book. Attorney general barr is finally donald trump has his roy cohen. The president if boltons book is to be believed says i will interfere in that justice case whether with the chinese or the turkish government. Here you have a case where you have the u. S. Attorneys Office Investigating the president s network and now that person is fired. He may have the liberty to fire him, but you have a situation where bill barr is both John Mitchell and roy cohen rolled into one. I never thought i would say this. Actually we found bill barr is like the dick cheney in this minutes without the sunny out look. I think theres a pattern here of corrupting the Justice Department. Governor christie . Jon, you can tell were within four and a half months of the election because rahm emanuel is more partisan than normal. I ate my wheaties. Theres no evidence the president or anyone else interfered with that turkish case. That turkish bank was indicted by the Southern District of new york. That matter is pending. If the president interfered, he was wholly ineffective. Rachet down a little bit. Were out of time. Cecelia, leia, chris, rahm, thank you for joining us. That is all for us. Before we go remember the room where it happened, martha raddatzs interview airs tonight at 9 00 p. M. Eastern right here on abc. Thanks for sharing part of your sunday with us. Have a Great Fathers day. Up next, heavy duty fireworks seen and heard across the bay area oefrnt. We have a possible reason why every night is feeling more and more like the fourth of july. Isnt that a beautiful sight . We can see the compressed marine layer. Its already in the upper 60s in concord and livermore on your way to a warmer afternoon in our east bay valleys. Stay tuned, ill have all the details for a warm week ahead, next on volkswagen today. Youll get 2 years or 20,000 miles of scheduled carefree maintenance. 3 years or 36,000 miles of 24 7 roadside assistance. 4 years or 50,000 miles bumpertobumper limited warranty. 5 years of connected services. And for 6 years you wont have paid any interest. Down the road, youll be grateful you bought a volkswagen today
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