To the point where we cant even think as highminded as this conversation . Its not nazi germany we need to worry about, its the friendly fascism of the 20th century. And i think democrats, people who voted for hillary first of all feel good about the fact that the majority of your fellow americans did not want donald j. Trump as their president. Thats the majority by over 2. 5 million. So take some comfort in that your fellow americans, you know are with you. Are with you. Number one. Number two, weve got to get active here. I agree with that. Can i just say this . Let me just say this. Then i have to get one voice in here. You have to hear this guy. I want to bring in chris vitali, who i thinks got something important to say to you. When i was a kid growing up, i listened to lee iacocca tell us how this country got screwed on trade deals. Right now germany puts a 19 tax on an american car that gets shipped to germany. China does even more. China does that to ensure production in china. Nafta was supposed to create a mexican middle class. 25 years later the average mexican manufacturing wage is 2. 49 an hour. I dont necessarily believe donald trump is a hater. I think hes a businessman. Tell me why i shouldnt have voted for him when my own union didnt back him and his own party doesnt back him on trade but hes willing to speak the truth. On that issue i cant tell you that because what he says now, what hell do, i dont know what hell do. But what he says is that nafta was wrong. Thats correct, it was wrong. Tpp is wrong. All the whole unfair thing that got set up. And democrats and republicans screwed the working class of this country. And the low unemployment that we have now is in large part due to the fact that some people have jobs, but they dont have the union jobs, the middleclass jobs that they used to have. So but lets see what he does with that because ultimately hes a billionaire who looks out he has an idealogy that he believes in. Its called donald j. Trump. Thats what hes going to make sure he takes care of. I dont think hes going to take care of you, the working person. I think hes done more for me than any democrat has done in my lifetime. He hasnt done anything for you yet. He raised the issue. And thats more than any of them have done. Let him talk, let him talk. What has he by the way, this is a he raised the issue. Hold on a second. This is a chrysler worker and hes from a state i think youve heard of called michigan. And a county youve heard of called macomb. I can tell you this. No other politician in my lifetime has ever brought this issue to the forefront, and the fact of the matter is we do get screwed on trade, and they tell these companies to be more global. Well, when you add 9,000 to the price of a jeep when it goes to germany, im frankly amazed they can sell any of them over there, let alone a few of them. Right. That needs to change. When he doesnt follow through, when he doesnt get rid of nafta, when youre still screwed in michigan five months from now, two years from now, where are you going to be then on this issue . How do you know hes not going to follow through, michael . Theres nothing in his behavior the man is first of all a malignant narcissist. And hes only about himself, folks. And youre about to see that happen in spades. You can say the same thing about Hillary Clinton. Hold on, guys. Calm down. I hate to be the one to say this. It makes me feel very odd. But hes not an idiot. Hes got to get reelected by these guys. Cant you give him a chance, at least on the stuff you agree with him on . I cant even imagine hes thinking about reelection. I cant imagine hes thinking about ive got to do this for four years . Not fair. Okay, listen. Ive got to get one more voice in here. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you. Weve got yeah, give a round of applause. Thank you, sir. Weve got Rebecca Liebson here, a sophomore at stony brook university. Shes got a tough political question for you. Hi. So ive grown up in an era thats greatly been characterized by political gridlock. So with that being said, what do you think is the best move Going Forward for the Congressional Democrats . Do you think that theyre going to be as oppositional as the gop was i hope so. With obama . Or do you think theyre going to try to reach across the aisle and form some sort of coalition . No, no, no, no. This is not the kumbaya moment here. The democrats in congress, they represent the majority of americans the majority of americans, lets say it between, wanted Hillary Clinton. The majority of americans did not want donald trump. It is the responsibility of this minority of democrats in congress to block, obstruct, disrupt and do whatever they can to prevent the onslaught that is going to happen with donald trump the American People do not support. Wait a minute. I keep feeling so odd, sir. I ruined your kumbaya moment. Im sorry. Let me just push back on you. Im on the left side of pluto just like you. But let me say a couple things here. I wore a tie for you, by the way. And i appreciate that. Listen, when the republicans did this, they blocked our president on everything, you know who suffered . Those workers suffered, the kids in oakland suffered, the whole country suffered. Yeah. Are you saying that now democrats should have a policy of imposing that same suffering four more years . Youre saying we shouldnt even try to find any way out . Their job is to stop the suffering that these people are going to cause. And let me tell you something. Hes going to be inaugurated on january 20th. And january 21st, which is a saturday, dont be surprised if the republicans call a saturday session of congress and they are going to pass law after law after law and have him sign it the next day, and its going to be one piece of suffering against people after another. And it is the job of the democrats now to stop the suffering that hes about to create for the American People. That is their job, and they have to do it, and they better be planning it right now instead of being the wimps they usually are. This is going to be again, heres the messy truth for democrats. Its easy to say that, but when you have to go back to a district and you have to say, were going to turn down infrastructure and that type of stuff, its going to be a lot tougher than that. Im not saying turn that down. But they need to know when they go back to the district this spring, in the same way the tea party was there in 29, myself and thousands like me are going to be at those town halls in the districts in the spring. And we will primary them, these democrats, if they dont do their job. Consider yourself warned thats the message. Okay. Listen, i want to thank you, and we had an honest conversation here tonight, but this is only the beginning. I hope that you are going to take this conversation back to your dinner tables, back to work tomorrow, the water cooler and your communities. Thank you very much. Stay human. Cnn tonight with don lemon starts right now. [ applause ] thank you, van. From the messy truth to the breaking news tonight. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. President elect donald trump taking his thank you, america tour to North Carolina tonight. You went out and pounded the pavement, you organized your fellow citizens and propelled to victory a Grassroots Movement the likes of which nobody, nobody has ever seen before. And trump officially introducing his choice for defense secretary, retired general James Mad Dog Mattis. Were going to begin this hour with cnns sunlen serfaty. Shes in North Carolina topnigh where she was at that speech. Sunlen, this is the second socalled thank you rally. What did donald trump have to say and how was the crowd . Reporter the crowd certainly felt like they were at a campaign rally. A lot of energy from the crowd. Unlike his first thank you rally that we saw donald trump at last week, donald trump was much more subdued tonight. It was very clear he was trying to stick to script, really trying to push his own message. At one point it was interesting, the crowd started booing the media and he stopped them and said, no, no, maybe they will go on to write the truth. So its quite a different change in tone and posture tonight coming from the president elect. Really seemed determined to have his message be the headline coming out of this rally tonight, and that message here really playing all to this militaryfriendly community, given this is only a few miles from fort bragg. Heres a taste of what donald trump had to say. Now today our brave men and women are the first in line defense, defense against radical islamic terrorism, words that some people dont like to say, an ideology of death that slaughters innocent men, women and children. Were going to protect our people, were going to protect our country, believe me. In every generation, a new threat to freedom arises. And just as we defeated these threats, we faced generations in the past, and you understand that, so too will we defeat the forces of terrorism. Its unseen in many cases, but were going to defeat that force, and were going to defeat it strongly and quickly. Now, there was a bit of showmanship coming on the part of donald trump when he rolled out his formal nomination for secretary of defense, general james mattis. We knew that last week, but the two appearing together tonight. Mattis took the microphone for a few minutes. Mattis will need a special waiver from congress because he only retired from the military three years ago. Mattis speaking to that saying hes looking forward to serving in a civilian capacity if hes confirmed by the senate and if indeed he does get that waiver as secretary of defense. And trump later going on to say hes confident he will get that waiver and added that a lot of people will be angry if he doesnt. Sunlen, thank you very much. I want to bring in senior political director David Chalian and senior political analyst mr. David gering whoen was an adviser to four president s. Good evening to both of you. Mr. Chalian trump pretty much stayed on script tonight, nothing inflammatory. Did anything stand out to you . Well, what stood out to me was the discipline of the message. The clear attempt to be a uniter. He even caught himself. You know, sometimes we hear donald trump sort of instruct himself aloud as if hes repeating his advisers words. He started talking about poll numbers for a second and then he said, were not talking numbers, though, were trying to bring everyone together. He clearly was trying to not have a barn burner and divisive and really play to his base. He really was trying to set forth his 100 days agenda and bring everyone together. The optics are so important to underscore here. The defense secretary nomination of mattis. This is the first time weve seen donald trump share the stage with one of his cabinet appointees. Everything else has been press release. This one he wanted to physically attach himself to this guy, and i think that that underscores how important he thinks this pick is. David gergen, i hear youre in agreement. His tone was a little subdued tonight. But he did take another swipe at china. Look at this. We will have two simple rules when it comes to rebuilding this country. Buy american and hire american. All right . Buy american. On trade, our trade deficit now nearly 800 billion a year. North carolina has lost nearly half of its manufacturing jobs since nafta. America has lost 70,000 factories. Think of it, 70,000 factories since joining the world trade organization. So china joins the world trade organization, and since that time, weve lost so much. 70,000 factories. Were living through the greatest jobs theft in the history of the world. Theres never been a jobs theft like whats happened to this country. So, david, even before taking office, donald trump is showing a strong man approach to governing, but how will that play on the world stage . Will it be effective . Well have to wait and see. Clearly hes caught up to putin and he seems to think thats going pretty well. I think the big surprise is how tough hes been on china. We dont know the chinese response has gradually ratcheted up over the last 48 to 72 hours. So now that it looks like he really got their attention, you know, what he seems to do, don, as he did with boeing today in his tweet and he did with hes done with others. He picks up a board and smacks somebody in the snout and gets their attention. And thats what hes done with china, you know. He got their attention, but where it leads i think is very unpredictable, and analysts are are completely divided on that question. I heard you agreeing again. Im going back to what david said about his tone and staying on message. Do you agree with that . I do. The last time the first rally was sort of spike the football rally. And this time there was a lot less of that braggadocio, a lot less of i think David Chalian had it absolutely right, that he was trying to sort of unite people more. Its also important to remember his message, the substantive message was to the troops. Its important to remember how close he was to fort bragg. And talking to that audience. Not only introducing mattis, which is one of the reasons i think he took him there and showcased him as david said but also basically making the argument were not going to intervene where its not in our paramount interest. If its in our supreme interest then we may go in. It is in our interest to go after isis. But our plan his plan is to pull back. A lot of americans will welcome that. Thats what he said during the campaign. There was nothing particularly new in the speech today. But it helps you got a sense of where his emphasis is. And the priems he and the primacy hes placing on job and the plan to pull back. The daytoday management to secretary of defense and secretary of state and others and hes going to focus on rebuilding the country at home. Is that really what he campaigned on, because he seemed to be much more aggressive in going into syria, going after isis. Is that what he really campaigned on, David Chalian . He certainly campaigned on this notion of pulling back, of america first, of not engaging in what he thinks were chaos conflicts. And this is why he was so adamant. You remember the entire debate about his support for the iraq war on the howard stern show, but then he was so adamant to say, no, no, no, i was never for iraq even though the facts said otherwise, because he was trying to say this isnt a democrat republican thing, this is donald trump trying to convince americans of a new way forward that is less entangled in the middle east conflicts. All right. David, david. Stand by, everyone. Up next, the contrast in both style and tone between donald trump and president barack obama. Well be right back. Who says i shouldnt have a soda every day . My doctor. My dentist. Definitely my wife. Hey wait. We have better bubbles. Make sparkling water at home and drink 43 more water every day. Sodastream. Love your water. 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The cloud gave us a single platform to reach across our entire organization. It helps us communicate better. We use the microsoft clouds advanced analytics tools to track down cybercriminals. This cloud helps transform business. This is the microsoft cloud. Donald trump becomes president in 45 days, and hell be a dramatically different leader than the man who has been in the oval office for the last eight years. Back with me now David Chalian, david gegen and joining me cnn political contributor van jones who just hosted the town hall event the messy truth and former congressman Jack Kingston a former Senior Adviser to the trump campaign. Welcome to the panel. Nice job. Congratulations on your special tonight. Thank you, big brother. Good job. You said panic inducing . Exactly. Panic inducing. People dont realize so many people are talking, youre like which way do i go . Thank you, don. It was a great special and well discuss it at length a little later on in this show. But donald trump was in front of a crowd tonight, probably his favorite place to be, while the current president barack obama gave his final National Security speech. Could the tone and the style, van, of each man be more different . No. I thought we were going to play a clip. No. And thats the most amazing thing that weve seen. Were supposed to have one president at a time, by the way. President obama is still the president of the United States, by the way. Hes supposed to be able to complete what hes doing. Instead youve got the master showman stealing the spotlight over and over again, but they couldnt be any more different in their style or their approach. The soberness of obama and the showmanship of trump its hard to digest in the same news hour. Its going to be interesting to watch, especially when theyre something huge as he would say happens. Huge. Something huge happens, to see him stand there and be president ial because hes such a showman. Lets talk about the contrasting styles a little bit more. We heard donald trump earlier. Now listen to the current president barack obama talking about terror and the danger of giving terror too much attention. The Terror Threat is real and it is dangerous. But these terrorists want to cast themselves as the vanguard of a new world order. They are not. They are thugs and they are murderers, and they should be treated that way. [ applause ] todays terrorists can kill innocent people. But they dont pose an existential threat to our nation, and we must not make the mistake of elevating them as if they do. That does their job for them. It makes them more important and helps them with recruitment. So david gergen, as you understand there and most people, hes making a nuanced point about the psychology of dealing with isis. Contrast that with Donald Trumps point of view for me. Well, theyre both very good speakers. But theyre vastly different styles. A couple points. Obama is cerebral. Trump is primal. Obama resorts to facts and logic. Trump goes for emotions. What aristotle called the difference between logos versus pathos. Very different speaking styles. And of course we now with obama its no drama. With trump its all drama all the time. Did you guys think when he said primal, that was an interesting choice of words . He chose that word very carefully. Dont you think theres something about where hes coming from . It does have a primal quality to it, almost a primal screen. Even though we saw contrasting styles there, we also heard barack obama there talking to donald trump, basically. That was the other sort of audience member he was trying to speak to in those very comments. He was trying to make sure to set the stage on his terms that donald trump will step onto. But i do think that, as van alluded to, there is a little bit of lame duck irrelevancy to a president at this stage. Particularly after a longfought president ial election. And i dont say that disrespectfully. I just think thats the reality of it. Donald trumps venue tonight was right in the shadow of fort bragg. And fort bragg has had a disproportionate lift in the middle east in the last ten years. And so i think rolling out mad dog mattis there to people who love that nickname and go woof, woof, woof in the crowd. And then you know, hes again, showmanship. To davids point. Showmanship and cheerleading. Probably just pulling out that patriotism. Very little criticism of the press or other people tonight. Thats a good point there. I think that one of the things that may happen is that we may wind up missing barack obama more as time goes forward. There is a danger with the kind of rah rah belligerence. President obama is not wrong. They have studied the psychology of the recruitment. And everything that you do to either marginalize young muslims by making them feel like they dont have a place, they dont fit in, which were in danger of doing in our own country, helps the recruiters. Everything that you do to sort of amp up their meaning, a lot of young people want to be a part of something thats powerful, thats important, that means something. By giving them all this attention youre actually helping the recruiters. That policy may change and we may wind up regretting it. Right now it may feel great to go yeah, yeah, were going to go get them and talk about them all the time but it may actually make us feel much worse. Like a big hamburger and french fries feels great every day but its not necessarily a good thing. The other thing i do think is important that Donald Trumps message tonight was were going to strengthen the pentagon and were going to pick and choose our battles very, very carefully and Barack Obamas footprint of war is bigger than george bushs. At least geographically. Were in libya, were in somalia, at least from the air. Were in yemen, again, from the air. We left iraq representative, if i may, but i thought the criticism from conservatives on president obama was that he was not involved enough, he wasnt aggressive enough, he was too wimpy, and now youre saying he was too aggressive. The footprint of war was too big. What is the messy truth here . Actually, though, and let me say this. There is a republican hat and there is a trump hat when it comes to this because mr. Trump has said repeatedly i was not for the war in iraq, and there was a debate on that, as we all know. But i think his approach to the middle east is going to be different. Im not certain what his program will be in syria, for example. We do know that he wants to talk to the russians about the defeat of isis, but not sure what this is going to mean to the assad regime in the long run, how you deal with refugees, how you deal with the rebels. But i dont know that the average American Associates his daytoday life with whats going on in somalia, yemen or libya, and so when donald trump is talking about were going to pick and choose our battles more carefully, i think there is a good sales point to that. Now, having said that, i do agree with you, the republicans in congress, john mccain is one of them, may have some major Foreign Policy differences. For now mr. Mccain is being very quiet about their differences. Some . Im sorry. Go ahead. Well, hes been quiet about it. After mr. Gergen, ill give mine. I just want to add this point. I challenge the point that president obama is becoming less relevant or irrelevant as his days become numbered. I actually think what hes trying to do is set up a series of speeches and statements that shows hes turning over a legacy in a country thats in much better shape than it was when he got it. And thats obviously true in regard to the economy, but hes also now making the point that, look, were doing better against isis than we were. Were making gains against isis. Whether people want to believe that or not. Whether people want to i have to get to the break, david. Van, you wanted to make one last point. Go ahead. I just want to say there are the hawks and the isolationists and trump makes promises to both. Well, a promise to one is a lie to the other. At some point these things have to catch up. Youre either going to go there and be more aggressive or youre going to stay here at home. And at some point this conservative populist alliance is going to have to be rebalanced if it doesnt break. Thank you, gentlemen. Some of you ill see you a little bit later on in the show. Others have a good night. Thank you for coming on. Up next, president barack obama delivering a subtle warning to his successor about National Security issues. Ill have that goat cheese garden salad. That gentleman got the last one. Sir, you give me that salad and i will pay for your movie and one snack box. Can i keep the walnuts . Sold. But i get to pick your movie. Can i pick the genre . Yes, but it has to be a comedy. A little cash back on the side. With the blue cash everyday card from american express, you get cash back on purchases with no annual fee. Throw. Its more than cash back. Its backed by the service and security of american express. Lets just get a sandwich its more or something. K. Or something . You dont just graduate from medical school, or something. And we dont just pull smoked chicken, bake fresh foccacia and handslice avocado. Theres nothing or something about it. Ive spent my life planting a sizesix, nonslip shoe into that door. On this side, i want my customers to relax and enjoy themselves. But these days its phones before forks. They want wifi out here. But behind that door, i need a private connection for my business. Wifi pro from comcast business. Public wifi for your customers. Private wifi for your business. Strong and secure. Good for a door. And a network. Comcast business. Built for security. Built for business. In his final major National Security address president barack obama reaffirmed his counterterrorism strategy while also issuing a subtle warning to the Incoming Trump administration about some of their plans. I want to discuss this with Fareed Zakaria, host of Fareed Zakaria gps right here on cnn. On the same day that president obama delivered his counterterrorism legacy, the president elect held a rally. You saw. He introduced mad dog mattis, his pick for defense secretary. How much of todays obama speech do you think was about knowing he was passing the baton to a successor with an entirely different worldview . I think what he was trying to do more than anything else was to lay out his world view in a kind of honest way. And point to the places where it was different. So he began, actually, by pointing out, look, here is my world view. We live in a dangerous world, we have incredible military power, we can use it but we have to be discriminate and we do not want to be nation building all over the world, he with instead want to be using our lethal power like drones and special forces, not engaging in nation building. Now, that should be a message that actually if donald trump were to think about it he agrees with. Trump and obama have this broader overlap on this kind of core strategic way they would use force than i think either of them is willing to admit. Then obama moves to the differences, and that was very interesting and very pointed. The differences the differences he pointed he said, you know, isis is not an existential threat, they are not going to destroy us, they the only way they can destroy us is if we start cutting back on our civil liberties, if we start turning our society into something different. He pointed out you know, he went through a number of issues on torture. He said, ive never i scaled back the use of any kind of torture and not one Intelligence Agency ever told me that we were denied information because of it. You know, he went through a whole series of the kind of things trump has talked about. He said american muslims deserve as many rights as anybody else, including those that serve in uniform. We are not a country that believes in religious tests. He laid out these markers where the obama strategy is both different but is working. He started out by saying by presenting a strategy that i would be surprised if donald trump has huge disagreements with. He was speaking directly to the incoming president. I think this is the reason this stood out to you. Listen. But ive also insisted that it is unwise and unsustainable to ask our military to build nations on the other side of the world or resolve their internal conflicts, particularly in places where our forces become a magnet for terrorists and insurgencies. Instead its been my conviction that even as we focus relentlessly on dismantling terrorists like isis and isil we should ask allies to do their part and we should strengthen local partners who can provide lasting security. And that was to your broader point. To the point you made. I think that has been the core of obama strategy in terms of the middle east, in terms of the fight against terrorism, and it would surprise me greatly if when donald trump sits down and thinks about it he doesnt actually agree with it. You know, because thats really trumps instincts. All we have with trump are trying to understand his instincts, and his instincts seem to be beat up the bad guys but dont go there and dont try to nation build. And in fact, that has been the obama doctrine. Remember, when barack obama came into office, there were about 180,000 american troops in afghanistan and iraq. We have 15,000 there right now. What he has done is hes found a way to fight this war with drones, with special forces forcing the iraqis to get much more involved and be very disciplined about not getting involved in syria. There are people that complain about that, but not donald trump, i dont think. President obama, when he first came into office, he said he wanted to close guantanamo bay. He argued about closing that again tonight and the banning of torture as well. Heres donald trump on torture back in june. Can you imagine them sitting around the table or wherever theyre eating their dinner talking about the americans dont do waterboarding and yet we chop off heads. They probably think were weak, were stupid, we dont know what were doing, we have no leadership. You know, you have to fight fire with fire. So he has since walked that back a bit, but thats the sort of talk that won him the presidency. Tough talk. People always say we shouldnt take donald trump literally, we should take him seriously. So lets assume there, as usual, he probably doesnt know exactly what the difference between waterboarding and torture and these variety of things. Hes trying to say hell be very tough. And i think obamas point in the speech was, we were very tough but you did not have to violate American Values to be tough. You dont have to register muslims in some kind of database, you dont have to apply religious tests, you dont have to use torture. And the broader point that obama was making, which is very important, it really is one of the central, intellectual legacies hes trying to leave us with, is this is not an existential threat. This is not like soviet communism. This is not like fascist russia. This is a band of thugs. Maybe there are a few thousand. Maybe they can manage to do some spectacular act of terrorism, but they are not like the nazi armies marching through europe, they are not like the soviet union with all its nations. You know, this is a very limited, specific kind of threat. Were going to beat them up, were going to keep pressure on them, but lets not surrender our values because we get so freaked out by a bunch of guys who produce slick videos and once every three or four months manage to kill ten people in a cafe. And buy into a lot of rhetoric that people have bought into. Fareed, i want you to stay with me because i want to ask you about your interview with president barack obama. And i have a question for you on that. And also where he reflects on being americas first black president. Inside the box. Ft isnt s its whats inside the person who opens it. Give your loved ones ancestrydna, the simple dna test that can tell them where they came from by revealing their ethnic mix. Youll save 10 and theyll have a new story to tell. Order now at ancestrydna. Com and save 10 . Who says i shouldnt havmy doctor. Very day . My dentist. Definitely my wife. Hey wait. We have better bubbles. Make sparkling water at home and drink 43 more water every day. Sodastream. Love your water. If youve got the time welcome to the high life. Weve got the beer miller beer you found the perfect car foim a robot s. Com yeti rawr jingle bells tents up guys. And used cars. Com to find a place to service it at a fair price, too. Signal, signal hey guys, hows it going . Thats not even music. Now when youre ready, you can sell your old car and find your new one all on cars. Com you know us for shopping, and now were there for every turn. Cars. Com Fareed Zakaria is back with me. He sat down with the 44th president of the United States as his tenure winds down. My question was before when we were talking about his Foreign Policy, hes a velvet glove, isnt he . He is. Hes very cool, very unsentimental. The thing im struck about about him is there really is a very spocklike quality. I talk to him about drones and civilian casualties. He feels as though his job is to protect the American People if he needs to take out bad guys, hes going to take them out. I want to talk to you about your new special, tomorrow night at 9 00 p. M. Here on cnn, fareed spoke to him about being the only black president. Listen to this. The first line of your biography will almost certainly not be something you did but who you are, the first africanamerican president. And yet youre half white, you were raised by three white people, your mother and your two grandparents. And an indonesian you can throw in there. And an indonesian. Are you comfortable with this characterization of you . I am, actually. And the concept of race in america is not just genetic, otherwise, the one drop rule wouldnt have made sense. Its cultural. Its this notion of a people who look different than the mainstream. Suffering terrible oppression, but somehow being able to make out of that a music and a language and a faith and a patriotism. Being black meant only the knowledge of your own powerlessness and your own defeat. Barack obama once felt quite differently about race. And the final irony should you refuse this defeat and lash out at your captors, they would have a name for that, too. A name that could cage you just as good. Like paranoid or militant or violent or nigger. At a reading from his first book, dreams from my father, he told a painful story from his childhood when his grandmother expressed fear of a man at her bus stop, his grandfather became very angry. Shes been bothered by men before. You know why shes so scared this time . Ill tell you why. Before you came in she told me the fellow was black. The earth shook under my feet, ready to crack open at any moment. I stopped, trying to steady myself, and knew for the first time that i was utterly alone. So that is closer to when i lived in chicago, the barack obama i knew back in the early 2000s. Had a different he sort of spoke differently about race. Then in the beginning of his presidency i think he was a little more hesitant to do so even though he gave the race speech. Now do you feel hes more open about it . Has he changed . Is it a more nuanced way and more honest about race . You know, i think hes always struggled with this reality, that he is biracial. He was raised by three white people. His mothers family is actually scotsirish. And yet of course hes black in that he looks back, hes treated as black. So hes always had this struggle, which is he had to be black enough to assure black america and white enough to assure white america. So i feel bad for him because the poor guy, hes always navigating that. And i think youre right. He started his presidency much more cautious, much more careful, to be just the president of america who happened to be black. And by the end of it, after all those racial incidents and with the iphone videos and Trayvon Martin and all that, i think he found a more comfortable place where he could be both half white and half black, where he could speak to the frustrations and aspirations of black americans. Its interesting, because i think thats an experience that a lot of people of color, especially men of color, have, even though they may not be biracial, right . You have to sort of code switch in order to gain confidence or make other people comfortable even though its not fair that one has to do that. It must be an interesting experience to have to do it as a president. I think thats exactly right. As an immigrant i see that on the one hand you have to assimilate. On the other hand you have your roots. I cant wait to see this. Always fascinating. See you tomorrow, hopefully. Hopefully youll be back on tomorrow. Fareed zakaria talks with barack obama about his triumphs and struggles in his years in the white house. The cnn special report the legacy of barack obama airs tomorrow night at 9 00 right here on cnn. Make shire you tune in. And coming up, when the country looks to its president to unify the people, will donald trump be up to the job . This is your daughter. And she just got this. Ooh boy. But, youve got hum. So you can set this. And if she drives like this, you can tell her to drive more like this. Because youll get this. You can even set boundaries for so if she should be here, but instead goes here, here, or here. Youll know. So dont worry, mom. Because you put this, in here. Hum by verizon. The technology designed to make your car smarter, safer and more connected. Put some smarts in your car. Whmade plastics that tmake them lighter . Rs the lubricants that improved fuel economy. Even technology to make engines more efficient. What company does all this . Exxonmobil, thats who. Were working on all these things to make cars better and use less fuel. Helping you save money and reduce emissions. And you thought we just made the gas. Energy lives here. At godaddy, our goal is to lets chat in football terms. This is the goal post. The end zone. The goal of every team. We know you have goals. Like getting exposure for your idea or business. With godaddy Website Builder, you can easily create an awesome mobilefriendly, get you more exposure website. We call that. A Website Builder touchdown. Get your free trial of Website Builder now. As Donald Trumps thank you tour rolls through the country, millions of voters arent feeling grateful. Im joined by a Senior Adviser to the trump campaign. And political contributor van jones who just hosted the messy truth, a town hall about trump and clinton voters. Lets have another messy truth, moment. This is from your town hall a little while ago. You talked to a voter who chose president obama twice, but voted for donald trump this year. You asked him about trumps inflammatory statements on race. If you guys are raised the way you were, you know not to say some of those things to people. Why didnt it make you vote against him . Because we hear it and crumble it up and throw it away, and it doesnt allow us to make your general decisions to decide how were going to provide for our family. We ignore that garbage and see what he has to provide for us outside of that. Thats tough. Weve gone back and forth about this. I dont know if i agree with you on that. They said his statements were distasteful but not disqualifying. Its heart breaking, but its not enraging. In other words, i think there was a moment when people were afraid that what was driving the vast majority of trump voters was the racially inflammatory comments that they were for it, and there were some people who did love it, but there were people who found it disturbing, but not disqualifying. It breaks my heart that you would throw somebody under the bus, throw a muslim or mexican he said we just ignored it. Heres what ive said to you. When you said that because people voted for donald trump that did not make them racist. I agree with you on that, but it does make them because of the some of the statements that were made and some of the activity during the it does make you an enabler, and by being an enabler, does that then make you i guess. What does that make you . Theres a heroic position of saying even it costs my family a job, im going to vote for him. Then theres the villian of saying im glad hes going to stick it to those darkies. But theres the bystander, the enabler, and its heart breaking. Its not the best, but i just dont want people those people are the worst. I understand what youre saying. Thats what this conversation is about. Do they understand muslims, women of color who voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton, they dont have the luxury to ignore that. Because they are faced with it on so many levels every single moment of their lives. Every single day. You know, i think that i learned we are now all in our own filter bubbles, they call them. Our own bubbles. Some people really dont even know. They say, well, listen, donald trump is only talking about isis. Why are the muslims worried . Then you talk to muslim families, and they dont know if they should leave the country because the way that one person hears it versus is way another person hears it how are you in a filter bubble . He said to be clear, he said he wants to ban muslims from coming to the country, but the ones here feel more as a rule forabvulner. People say its isis. Some say hes talking about the bad ones. When i said white lash, i said i was ill get to that. But you understand that whole one of the good ones things is insulting too. We know the history of that. But youre not like them. Youre one of the good ones. Youre like what does that mean . A lot of people remember this. Weigh in on this and then well talk about the white lash. For people who have seen their Household Income drop over the last 15 years, their number issue is economics. They believe that their government has let them down. They believe that washington is about washington and not about them, and here comes a guy who says blow it all up. Im different. Im not bought. Im going to help you. Im going to speak to the heartland. He took repeated trips. The guy who said that was Bernie Sanders. What trump did he took that message but also added other stuff that was disturbing, didnt he . Well, let me say this. As the white man who grew up in integrated schools, and id say in many ways was on the front edge of integration. There were schools that were white and then we had our first African American young man come when i was in fifth grade, and by the time, and i was in the first white class to go to bernie Hills High School in athens georgia that was a black high school at the time, and by the way, ive been beat up because of my race. I have been a victim of what would be called a hate crime now. But im also secure in who i am racially, and i dont need donald trump or the media or whoever to define me racially, and so a representative. First of all, if you were victimized, i think thats terrible, and i sure hope that you were able to get past that and get absolutely. But heres my question to you. Dont you agree with me that that economic populist message, that a Bernie Sanders had, that a donald trump often has is one thing. But once you add into it some of these things that feel more racially charged, it marbles it up . We all have a filter. When Hillary Clinton has a rally and the orlando terrorists dad is in the back row, democrats kmi dismissed. Republicans could have done the same thing, but it was outrageous, and then when she called half of Donald Trumps followers, ir redeemable and deplorabl deplorables, offensive. Id say that filter works in a lot of different ways. Shouldnt you only be offended by that if youre ir redeemable or deplorable . Heres the thing. Ill tell you what. Let me stick up for you, congressman. I thought that statement was completely unacceptable. And ill tell you why the. If somebody said half the people at cnn are deplorable, even if i dont think of myself as that, i would be mad because i know half the people at cnn are not. Youd have to wonder, van, hold on, congressman. I understand what youre saying, van, but youd have to look at the evidence of whether someone in a particular group or a particular supporter is deplorable. I would say wheres your evidence that someone at cnn is deplorable. If you said where is your evidence that some of Donald Trumps supporters are deplorable, youd have to look into the supporters actions and figure out if there are some, and if youre not one of those, then why do you take personal offense to it . Ive been called a lot of things. I dont agree with those things as the representative said. I know who i am. I am not that, then why am i offended by someone calling me a name that im not. Because no one running for president should say that. . I agree it shouldnt have been said, but you understand my point. I do. I think theres also a politically correct censorship that has permeated american universities. In many cases and other venues as well where people cant speak their mind. I agree. Van, you asked me if i got over being a victim of racial differences. I did, but we were integrated in a very true sense. I mean, we were sitting next to black children. We were playing sports with black children and going to the shower and the locker room with black children. There was a time to hold a grudge. You kept moving through the next day. That was one of the things that the 60s had that the today we dont have. The millennial children, i think theyve almost gone back to segregated bubbles. I think theres just some great stuff that weve lost because of the being worried about being politically incorrect. I think youre right about that. I dont think anybody would want to go back to those times, but penal a people are coddled now. No one wants to hear what the other person has to say, thus the reason we had vans special tonight. Im glad we had it. I have to go. Its the top of the hour and i have to get to the next hour. We went through the break. Im in trouble. This is cnn breaking news. Breaking news, donald trump thanking his viewers on his thank you tour in North Carolina. This is cnn tonight. Im a don lemon. President elect warmly received by the crowd and officially introducing James Mad Dog Mattis to be the next secretary of defense. Our other breaking news, a white supremacist talking at texas a and m. Thousands of students and other opponents rallying against the address. We have a lot to get to this hour. I want to