Transcripts For CNNW CNN Tonight With Don Lemon 20170726

So doing better serve the people who elected us. Two speeches, two american leaders. Which one sounds president ial to you . Lets get right to cnns president ial historian, timothy natali, political analyst kirsten powers, rick san tore em, and cnn political commentator matt louis. Tim, you are first. Here is what President Trump said. Political correctness for me is easy. Sometimes they say, he doesnt act president ial. And i say, hey, look, great schools, smart guy. It is so easy to act president ial, but it is not going to get it done. In fact, i said, it is much easier, by the way, to act president ial than what were doing here tonight, believe me. I said [ cheering and applause ]. And i said, with the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, i can be more president ial than any president thats ever held this office. That i can tell you. [ cheering and applause ]. Tim . Well, first of all, im not sure how many president he could actually name other than president obama. I think that the issue for him has always been that he wanted to be different, he wanted to change the norms. He promised his base that he would not act like any other leader theyd ever had before. But you know what . Being president ial is not all about what you say or what you tweet. It is about what you achieve. So far as senator mccain reminded us today, besides the elevation of neil gorsuch this president ial has achieved very little. He said, weve accomplished he said to his colleagues, weve accomplished nothing but neil gorsuch, that was john mccain. You want to stack yourself up and compare yourself to roosevelt, either roosevelt, to john f. Kennedy, to ronald reagan, go ahead. You have to do it in terms of achievements. So far he doesnt have many to point to. Kirsten . It is collusionadelusional. Theres no other way to put it. It is distorted reality because theres nothing, as you said, that he could point to that would suggest that hes done anything that would put him on par with Abraham Lincoln or really any any of our president s. So, you know, if you cant get anything done, if you cant even achieve your one of your primary promises, something that your Political Party has been promising for seven years and you control every branch of the government, then obviously it is just complete lunacy to Say Something like this. Rick . What i would say is that he has accomplished much within his administration on an administrative level. Think hes definitely changed the tone in washington d. C. From the regulatory state to one that is allowing more free enterprise. Everything from the work thats being done by Jeff Sessions, i would argue, on immigration to work at the epa, work at department of labor. Theres a lot of things going on through the regulatory process, spending, a lot of obama era regulations and rules that are definitely making a difference. But having said that, i will agree with the two previous commentators that he hasnt had a whole lot of legislative successes. He needs to get one. Im here in aspen today, i was meeting with the republican governors and talking about health care and working with them to try to get them engaged and involved and actually helping President Trump come up with a plan that actually can pass if and when it gets to conference. Yeah. Matt, go on. So, okay, when i hear him say president ial, to me that doesnt mean does he roll back regulations or not. It is about reverent you know, we have reverence for president s. It is a tell practice meant. They have gravitas, theyre people on mount rushmore. In that regard he is not president ial. He is president ial in the same way kid rock will be senatorial, which is to say not at all. But thats not necessarily a horrible thing. You know, as was said earlier, donald trump didnt run to be president ial. He ran to shake things up and to be different. Matt, thats a good point then. I would say that is a very good point. Thats why so many people may have voted for him, because they wanted someone to shake things up. Maybe they didnt want someone who is president ial, but when it comes out of his mouth he opens himself up for criticism. I mean who sits there and says, you know, i am the best, im better than this person . Humility goes a long way. If i sat here and said, you know, water cronkite has nothing on me and ed warld r. Mouro wishes he could filmy shoes. It is absolutely ridiculous. Even if one thought that, they wouldnt say that. Go on, matt. No, i think thats right. Im not a historian, but i mean i would say like, you know, you go down the list of people like lincoln and these august figures that we revere, trump is nothing like that. I mean if im trying to be fair, i think, you know, its been said before but maybe the aforementioned teddy roosevelt, maybe andrew jackson. Thats the model for donald trump. It is not Abraham Lincoln. Lets move on and talk about because the hits keep on talking about when were talking about Jeff Sessions today. Here is what President Trump said on camera. I want the attorney general to be much tougher on the leaks from intelligence agencies, which are leaking like rarely have they ever leaked before at a very important level. These are intelligence agencies. We cannot have that happen. You know many of my views in addition to that, but i think thats one of the very important things that they have to get on with. I told you before, im very disappointed with the attorney general, but we will see what happens. Time will tell. Time will tell. So, senator santorum, you think sessions shouldnt have recused himself but think he is doing a good job as a. G. What dow think the president should do . You know, look, i dont have any problem with the president calling out members of his cabinet, everybody else, and not following what he wants to do. I dont i dont necessarily agree with him when it comes to Jeff Sessions, that hes not doing a good job on really following through with what donald trump promised during the campaign. I have to say im disappointed in the president. Seems to be, you know, now fixated on calling Jeff Sessions out again and again, because Jeff Sessions is carrying his water. Jeff sessions is doing a great job on the policy front. As you mentioned. I didnt agree that Jeff Sessions should have recused himself. I didnt think he had to. I know theres Justice Department regulations but, you know, those are regulations that can be interpreted by the attorney general, and i think he could have held firm and not done it. I understand why donald trump was disappointed that he did it, but i dont think thats the reason the regulation is 28 cfr 45. 2, notice that Justice Department employees shall not participate in a criminal investigation or prosecution if he has personal or political relationship with an elected official or candidate and so on. But also yeah, but also, he says that he did it because he thought he had to do it. He said it was simple this is his testimony. He said, it is the law, it was in his Opening Statement before the Senate Intelligence committee. He believed it was the law. He said i recused myself not because of any aserlted wrong doing on my part during the campaign, sessions said. Right. But because a department of justice regulation, the one i mention, required it. Thats what he said. Yeah, i disagree. I just disagree with him because, i mean, if that was the case, if you have an affiliation with a political candidate obviously he did before he took the job. I dont think he mailed it clear that based on that that he was going to recuse himself. Look, i just disagree with jeff on that one. But having said that, i think hes doing what the president wants him to do on a lot of other important issues. Okay. Lets move on because i want to talk at this moment, this moment is between republican senator Susan Collins and democratic senator jack reid. Listen. I dont i dont say that lightly and as kind of, you know, a goofy guy. Oof, and, you know, the this thing, you know, if we dont get a budget deal i know. Were going to be paralysed, dod, everybody will be paralyzed. I know. But he hasnt said one word i dont even think he knows that there is a bca or anything. I really dont. So i call that Kitchen Table talk. Yeah. And also commercial break talk, even from people who are supporters of whatever. They say one thing in the commercial break and then yeah. You say, wait, where did that come from . Right. When you say things that you dont necessarily want to say in public, what you really feel. Am i wrong about that . No, i think thats exactly right. Why arent more people stepping up and saying that publicly . Look, Susan Collins was never a big trump fan, but i think even among people i think people would be surprised how many people talk like that who are in the house or in the senate and who are concerned about donald trump and who will not come out publicly and say it. You know, anyway, i know for a fact that there are a lot of people that feel this way. I think the reason theyre not coming out is because they, you know, donald trump is a means to an end for republicans. So he whether they like him or not, whether they think hes crazy or not, hes the only way theyre going to get their tax reform. He was the only way they thought they were going to get their obamacare repealed. Hes the only way theres going to be a crack down on immigration, or whatever their issue is, hes the only way it is going to happen. So theyre holding their tongues because they want to get their the policies done that they believe in. Well, stand by, because i know you want but, matt, is he the only way they will get this done or the best way to get this done is to continue to keep a republican majority in the house and in the senate . Because even if the person in the white house is a democrat, i mean, dont they have more power, you know, if they keep their majority . Yeah, i just think it is they were this fell in their lap. They did not think that donald trump was going to win, and you got to dance with the one that brung ya. Theres also the aspect that the debates loves donald trump. We saw it in West Virginia last night that the base loves donald trump. Theres a lot of regular americans, certainly a large percentage of the conservative base loves donald trump. If you are a republican elected official, your bet your best bet is to sort of just try to ride this out and get as much as you can out of it. Thats clearly the calculation at least. I agree. I think that whats going to happen is were going to be looking at the republican polls to see if republicans still generally support donald trump. And if you see that number dropping, watch as members of congress start to distance themselves from him before 2018. Yeah. Because thats the big test. Yeah. Another interesting point that may not be obvious is a lot of these big donors in different states, in texas, in florida, you name it, california, people think that a lot of these big conservative donors are like establishment types because, hey, if you made, you know, a billion dollars in business you must be rational, you must be serious, you must be like an establishment type republican. No. No. Theyre actually much closer to the Republican Base than are, say, the center right journalists and the political operatives. They also love the tax cuts and the things that go along with it. Not only do the politicians have to be careful to keep the base happy i got you. They probably have a donor in their home state who loves trump. Reeds statement said he was letting senator collins know he was in her corner and went on to explain. Says, for the good of the country the president needs to start focusing on the budget. Collins says she is worried about the transportation and Housing Program elimination and theyre critically important to the local communities, whatever. So they released statements talking about their hot mike moments. I thought it was important to get that in. Stick with me, everyone, when we come right back. I stand here today looking a little worse for wear im sure john mccain back on the senate floor days after a major surgery and cancer diagnosis. Were going to show you a lot more of his dramatic return next. What if we could bring you better value by having better values . At blue apron, we work directly with more than a hundred family farms. So instead of spending on costly middlemen and supermarkets, we can invest in the things that matter most making farmland healthier. Cutting down on food waste. And bringing you higher quality, fresher ingredients for less than you pay at the store. Because food is better when you start from scratch. Get 30 off at blueapron. Com cook tais really quite simple. Est it comes in the mail, you pull out the tube and you spit in it, which is something southern girls are taught youre not supposed to do. You seal it and send it back and then you wait for your results. Its that simple. Senator john mccain recovering from brain surgery returned to the senate today to cast a key vote in favor of moving the Health Care Bill forward, and it was an emotional moment. My panel is back with me. I want everyone to listen to some of senator john mccains impassioned message to his colleagues. Weve been spinning our wheels on too many important issues because we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle. Thats an approach thats been employed by both sides,m sides, mandating legislation from the top down without any support from the other side, with all of the parliamentary maneuvers that requires. Were getting nothing done, my friends. Were getting nothing done all weve really done this year is confirm neil gorsuch to the supreme court. Our Health Care Insurance system is a mess. We all know it. Those who support obamacare and those who oppose it. Something has to be done. We republicans have looked for a way to end it and replace it with Something Else without paying a terrible political price. We havent found it yet. Im not sure we will. All weve managed to do is make more popular a policy that wasnt very popular when we started trying to get rid of it. I voted for the motion to proceed to allow debate to continue and amendments to be offered. I will not vote for this bill as it is today. It is a shell of a bill right now. We all know that. If this process ends in failure, which seems likely, then lets return to regular order. Let the health education, labor and Pensions Committee under chairman alexander and Ranking Member murray hold hearings, try to write a bill out of committee with contributions from both sides. [ applause ] something that my dear friends on the other side of the aisle didnt allow to happen nine years ago. We are an important check on the powers of the executive. Our consent is necessary for the president to appoint powerful government officials, and in many respect to conduct foreign policy. Whether or not we are of the same party, we are not the president s subordinates. We are his equal. We dont hide behind walls. We breach them. We are a blessing to humanity. What greater cause could we hope to serve than helping keep america the strong, inspiring, inspirational beacon of liberty and defender of the dignity of all human beings and their right to freedom and equal justice . That is the cause that binds us and is so much more powerful and worthy than the small differences that divide us. What a great honor and extraordinary opportunity it is to serve in this body. What do you think, matt . Well, look, i love john mccain. Obviously i think all americans are keeping him in our prayers. It was up lifting. That was senatorial. That was president ial. I would say though, if you want to drill down on the actual substance, john mccain talked about returning to regular order and having a bipartisan approach to fixing health care. He could have made that happen today. He actually could have voted against the motion to proceed. Most likely then they would have republicans would have had to work with democrats. It is interesting he had this call for working for a bipartisan approach to fixing health care, but he actually, you know, helped give i think republicans a chance to do this on a party line vote. Tim, what dow think of that . I couldnt disagree more. Go ahead, senator. No, i just couldnt disagree more. Like the idea and this is the game in washington for a long time. The only way youre bipartisan is you go and do what the democrats want to do, thats bipartisan. For them to actually come over and try to repeal obamacare and do something and create something better, thats not bipartisan. Bipartisan is trying to fix a horrible system. See, this is this is the filter by which a lot of we see a lot of the news through. It doesnt work. What john mccain was trying to was saying was right. The democrats didnt allow this debate to happen for many years. I mean you want to talk about getting nothing done, the last several years of the Obama Administration nothing got done because the senate was this quagmire, which by the way has continued. Look, i agree with him, a lot of the blame now goes to so why isnt it bipartisan to want to say we have something in place, a lot of people rely on it. There are some parts of it that are really good, some parts are really bad. Get rid of the really bad parts and work on the good parts, who cares what you call it . What we care about are the american people. How is that i couldnt agree more, but i think and i have been working with john mccain actually on another solution that he believes and i believe actually could and should get bipartisan support. Whether it will, i dont know. But ive been working with senator cassie and senator graham and senator mccain and others to try to craft something out within the context of this reconciliation bill. Can i ask you something . Yes. Is there nothing is there anything about the Affordable Care act that you like . Actually, not very much, no, i dont. I mean, in fact, the idea that were talking about is to do what so theres nothing you like about the Affordable Care act . No, what i would like to take the Affordable Care act and get rid of all of the provisions of it, not all of the taxes, and what were talking about doesnt, but then take the money and send it to the states and do what we did in 1996 with bill clintons support and almost 20 Democratic Senators and say, washington shouldnt be managing this very personal, very difficult and very diverse area of the world, which is health care. Quickly because others want to get in. We should give it out to the states, allow for innovation, allow for experimentation, allow for that kind of dynamism and not run it out of washington. Senator, if it werent for the Affordable Care act, do you think republicans would be talking about protecting people with preexisting conditions . If it werent for the Affordable Care act as you wait a second. You had time. Do you think republicans would be talking about insuring young people, people under the age of 26 to be carried by their parents Insurance Programs . Do you think if it werent for obamacare we would be discussion the expansion of medicaid and protecting that expansion in certain states . I think that we actually are talking about a bipartisan issue, but things are so partisan in washington, republicans are not willing to admit that it is thanks to obama that the nature of the debate over health care has changed and that now the republicans are trying to actually meet the National Demand for the benefits that obama brought to this country. Whether you like it or not, the whole debate has changed. Theres no way that you can just repeal obamacare with nothing to replace it. That wouldnt have happened without obama. In this you heard what john mccain said. He said all that we have accomplish meaning the senate was to make a non popular bill more popular. Well, look, this is what i would say to answer your question. With respect to preexisting condition, as you know, most people with preexisting condition were already covered, one by federal law that if you were in a group plan you couldnt be eliminated and mostly by state laws that did what obamacare did. Obamacare covered very few on that provision, number one. Number two, you are right, obamacare dramatically expanded medicaid. I can tell you very few republicans want to expand medicaid, and in fact the provisions were working on is to give the government the flexibility to design a different system to use private insurance to provide health care as opposed to expanding a very expensive and bureaucrat system like medicaid. Let kirsten get in. I think the problem, the people who didnt have the people with the preexisting coverage that had insurance and never let it lapse, but if it lambsed, if you lost your job, got sick and had to quick your job and you had a prekpesiexist condition, you were pretty much screwed for the rest of your life. I think youre down playing it, senator. The reality is the republicans had a chance to come up with a plan when george bush was president and they never did it. To your point, the only reason theyre talking about it now is because president obama changed the dynamic of this conversation. Now people expect the government to provide some sort of safety net for them. So, you know, i think that because something exists i think it is a little unfair for republicans to expect democrats to come and dismantle something they created thats a legacy of the last democratic president and that they believe works. So it would be behoove republicans if they want to get something done and they need it to be bipartisan to try to fix obamacare, that there are problems with it and it could be fixed. Okay. Thats got to be the last word. Matt, you dont get to speak right now. Thank you very much, all of you. When we come back, the president attacking his own attorney general, but why isnt he taking the approach that we expect from him instead . Youre fired. You wont see these folks they have businesses to run. They have passions to pursue. How do they avoid trips to the post office . Stamps. Com mail letters, ship packages, all the services of the post office right on your computer. Get a 4 week trial, plus 100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. Go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again. Who knew that phones would starentertaining us,ng . Getting us back on track and finding us dates. Phones really have changed. So why hasnt the way we pay for them . Introducing xfinity mobile. You only pay for data and can easily switch between pay per gig and unlimited. No one else lets you do that. See how much you can save when you choose by the gig or unlimited. Call or go to xfinitymobile. Com. Xfinity mobile. Its a new kind of network, designed to save you money. President not letting up on his public criticism of attorney general Jeff Sessions, saying today he is disappointed in him and blasting sessions in a tweet as very weak. Vickie ward. William cohen is here, the author of why wall street matters. Alice stewart. And mike dantonio, the author of the truth about trump. Vickie, when asked about the future of attorney general Jeff Sessions President Trump said, we will see what happens. Time will tell, time will tell. The president could fire sessions if he wanted to. Why doesnt he just do it . Why doesnt he say, youre fired . Great question. You know, he doesnt really like to fire people. I was speaking to sam nunberg who worked on his campaign who he did fire, quite unusual. He said it was very, very difficult for him. He did do it facetoface, but he views, you know, the people he hires as family. So and, you know, certainly when he was in real estate he had a very Lean Organization at trump tower. You know, it is actually very unusual for donald trump to fire people. Dont like to do it directly. You know, i read report just before coming on now there are a lot of people inside the white house like steve bannon pushing him really not to fire Jeff Sessions. You know, Jeff Sessions has a tremendous amount of support in the base, a lot of republicans are really worried that firing Jeff Sessions would be a really, really bad political move for this president. Theres a lot of political currency in that and they dont want to squander that. Yes. Havent we talked about this before . Havent you told me he hates to fire people . I think it was either you or william cohen. It could have been either one of us. Speaking of william cohen, remember this guy . Watch this. Youre fired. Youre fired. Youre fired. Youre fired. Youre fired. Youre fired. Where is he . You know, apparently, don, if ive done my homework properly, he wasnt the one doing the firing on the apprentice. He was merely reading a script about who he was told to fire. Even in his singular role as the one who fires people, he was not even doing the firing. He was following the apprentice script. You mean in reality tv theres a script . Oh, my gosh shocking. Yeah. I mean where theres no script apparently is in the white house right now. Thats where there is no script. Yeah. That was sarcasm for folks who believe that reality tv is really reality tv, that there is no script to it. As you were saying about what vickie said . I apologize for being a little tongueincheek. I think vickie is absolutely right. This is a guy who doesnt like confrontation. I think it is even kind of worse than that. I think he gets some sort of sadistic pleasure about watching poor Jeff Sessions twist in the wind as he has been doing for the last week or so. It is kind of painful to watch. I might add that the new addition to the white house, Anthony Scaramucci, seems to be having a grand old time acting as though hes going to fire people and, in fact, firing people today. So there you go. Maybe it is anthony is going to do the firing. Michael, when the president fired the fbi director, james comey, he didnt even do it himself. Comey was fired by letter that Jeff Sessions, of all people, wrote, and it was hand delivered by trumps longtime body guard keith shiller. Is this a strategy of managing people out the door as opposed to leading . Well, i think both of your guests got it right, that donald trump doesnt like to fire people, and that he actually finds it more comfortable to confront someone whos low on the totem pole. The more powerful an individual is, the less likely he is to engage in direct confrontation. But theres also an element of disruption here, which is classic trump. Hes letting sessions know that hes unhappy, but hes also signaling everyone in the administration that youre not secure. This idea of systemwide insecurity i think is a longstanding strategy for him. He doesnt want anyone to get too comfortable, but yet if something has to be done hes not likely to do the deed himself. Yeah, it was interesting. Do you remember during the whole Corey Lewandowski it was said that it was jared and ivanka that wanted corey out and that the president didnt want to fire him. Has donald trump always had this passive aggressive management style, michael . Well, he has. You know, he is a very passive aggressive kind of guy, with the emphasis on the aggressive. You know, he likes to be aggressive in public, and if it is a weapon like a tweet or a Public Statement that he can make, hes happy to appear aggressive there. But in private hes actually often a pus cat. Yeah. Lets im sure a lot of people at home are going, really . Alice is laughing at that. What do you think, alice . I think the world of michael, but im not sure i would use pussy cat to describe donald trump. This is a pattern. He did the same thing when it came to letting Corey Lewandowski go and flynn, and he let someone else do the dirty work. When the president comes out and says sessions is weak, think thats very confusing because one of the reasons that he brought him on, because sessions was so strong on one of the key issues that the president is so passionate about, which is immigration. I think that is something that the attorney general is still fighting very hard for today, rolling out a new crack down on sanctuary cities. He is also executing the president s policy with regard to civil asset forfeitures. It is unfortunate that the president doesnt recognize what sessions is in there doing to execute his policies, and instead he is so focused on the fact that sessions recused himself from the russia probe, which he really needed to do given the fact he shouldnt be investigating a situation that he was involved with through the campaign. So in my view, sessions mailed the right choice to recuse himself. Unfortunately, the president just cant seem to get passed that. Alice and the rest of our panel have a lot more to say right after this. If you could book a flight, then add a hotel, or car, or activity in one place and save, where would you go . Expedia. This school year, its okay to stumble. To struggle. To want to give up. But not to give in. To be scared. But not scared away. Or hit the wrong note. And keep playing. Youre learning resilience. Tenacity. Lessons you cant put a letter grade on. Lessons im learning, too. Heres to the moms who show their kids that every step even a misstep is a step forward. What if we could bring you by having better values . At blue apron, we work directly with more than a hundred family farms. So instead of spending on costly middlemen and supermarkets, we can invest in the things that matter most making farmland healthier. Cutting down on food waste. And bringing you higher quality, fresher ingredients for less than you pay at the store. Because food is better when you start from scratch. Get 30 off at blueapron. Com cook back now with my panel. Mr. Cohen, President Trumps new Communications Director told reporters tonight he does not plan on firing any more people until he reviews the communication department, but he added if leaks continue he is going to let everybody go. Is this the kind of fighter donald trump has been looking for . I think so, right . I mean he said repeatedly over the last few days he wanted Jeff Sessions, his attorney general, to start plugging the leaks in the intelligence community. Anthony scaramucci comes in on friday and is already talking about firing people who have been leaking supposedly in the communications office. It sends a very powerful signal. Im sure theres a lot of people who are quite nervous as a result of this. And im sure thats exactly what donald trump look, i known anthony very well. He is not going to do anything that donald trump doesnt want him to do, and he will do everything donald trump wants him to do. So this is exactly coming from donald trump. The interesting thing is im sure these leaks are not just in the communications office. Im sure theyre also in the rest of the white house. Is he going to start policing people in the rest of the white house, too . Vickie, the irony is that when he says he wants to stop leaks, what happens . I dont know if you noticed that anthonys first firing got leaked to Tara Palmieri at politico today. Like you, i like Anthony Scaramucci. I think he could be very effective. I think what you have to give him props for, he was like cast into the wilderness by Reince Priebus in january. Now hes back. You know, sort of seemingly running the show in the white house in a matter of months. Well, the thing is that here is what the scuttlebutt was, and im sure alice knows about that, that Anthony Scaramucci was supposed to get a bigger role, or a role earlier on at the white house, i should say, and the scuttlebutt was that Reince Priebus was torpedoing him from doing it and there was no love lost there. You took the words out of my mouth. Theres no love lost between Reince Priebus and anthony. That happens when you have an Administration Like this or a campaign or a business, you will have people that have differences of opinions and different agendas, but the reality is now all of them realize theyre on the same team. Theyre all loyal to the president. Theyre loyal to the office of the presidency. Reince priebus has his role, steve bannon has his role, and now anthony has his. What im hearing and what were understanding now is that scaramucci is really going to crack down on making sure that the communication shop works together, cracking down on leaks, and making sure that the president does all he can to stay on message. Look, youre going to have people that butt heads, but at the end of the day what were seeing right now is things taking shape and people loyal to the president and certainly to this country. Hey, michael, heres the word the president uses a lot. Watch this. I know them all. Theyre killers. Theyre negotiators. I will be using our best, best, sharpest, killer businesspeople. If one of the people that i know, some new york killer builder or somebody built that building, it would have been up two years ago. Theyre killers, but this is what we want negotiating for this. Does scaramucci fit that killer winatallcosts . I dont know him well enough, but i know President Trump was raised with his father whispering this mantra into his ear, youre a killer, youre a king. Now, scaramucci i dont think wants to be the king. He recognizes that there is only one king, and hes in the oval office. So if the president wants him to be a killer, im sure he will go out and try to accomplish whatever the president orders. The problem here is that every white house really since nixon has leaked like crazy, and every white house has tried to plug the leaks. It is hit or miss. You know, there are so many examples of president s cracking down, and yet more and more leaking happens. A lot of that depends on whether people are on the same page, and also how threatened they feel, especially legally. Plus, thats the way many people, Many Americans get to know the wrong doing is through the leaks. Many have said scaramucci is what donald trump sees when he looks in the mirror, but it seems scaramucci may be taking things from the president , too. It is from the daily show, by the way. Getting the simplest point think our this is a real plan. Dont pin it on the republican any place. I mean new yorkers, they talk with their hands. Come on, vickie. I mean what do you think . I think anthonys saving grace is that hes seven inches shorter than the president. Otherwise he would be in problems. The president doesnt like to be overshadowed. That is pretty funny, you have to admit. Loved having you all on. See you soon. Thank you so much. Thanks, don. When we come back, a new days Alison Camerota stays up late and joins me with a sneak peek at her new project. 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They have passions to pursue. How do they avoid trips to the post office . Stamps. Com mail letters, ship packages, all the services of the post office right on your computer. Get a 4 week trial, plus 100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. Go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again. Well, you watch our own Alisyn Camerota every morning on cnns new day, she is the author of a new novel. It is the story of a young reporter who lands a job at a bigtime cable news station. They know what they say, you talk about what you know. She joins me now. Everybody is describing it that way . I have seen it written Devil Wears Prada of cable news, so im saying it a lot. So this chapter titled the impossible dream where you talk about going for an interview, right, and then the person asks, you know, were the fair news network. You said, isnt that already cnn . Then you go on, it is about what you know, but youre not basing it on one particular experience, right . Well, no. It is my experience basically of 25 years over my career, boiled down into her amandas trajectory amanda gallo. A ch amanda gallo, basically she figures out in a year and a half what took me 25 years to figure out. It is set at fair news. What that is was my imagination, my yeutopian dream of being at network where you werent put into a partisan box because it would be a tenlt ft for left an right, old and young, north and south. Because those who dont know alisyn, you have always been on in the morning. You came from fox and anchored the weekends at fox. I would watch you and dave who is now here, i would watch you on fox and text message. Yes, we always appreciated knowing you were watching. When you first came to cnn you had a coanchor back in the day. Very handsome. Dashingly handsome coanchor. And the character is based on, but it is not. Yes, it is don lemon. It is the torrid affair we had. Lets talk seriously about the book. The segment of borgs was getting on twitter. She says, when i was challenging the womans attorney they said i was right wing, antiabortion hater. When i was challenging fluke, who was the male, they said i was a left wing liberal baby killer. Those were the more pleasant ones. Benji snorted, then you must be doing something right, he said. Do you agree with that . You recently quit twitter because of this craziness like this. But, look, you know that feeling of depending upon what segment you do, then social media can light up with calling you names and trying to put you into a box and youre either a conservative maniac or youre a liberal left wing nut. I do think theres something to that, then you must be doing something right, if you get, you know, hate from both sides. It is unpleasant regardless of what side it comes from, but i think that people do have a hard time fitting me into some box, which ive always seen as sort of a feather in my cap. Dont you hate it though because sometimes twitter and the outrage and it is not always real, it is faux out race, it creates and writes a false narrative thats not true about it and your work . Sure. Thats why i broke up with twitter. I wrote a dear john letter to them because i was tired of the toxicity. In the book i let people know social media ends up being a character in the book. Our protagonist has to deal with the social media hate and the lug. Thats also a drug when you log on and people feed you with, oh, youre so wonderful, thats so great, that affects your brain center and affects you in a way. In the book i took verbatim from my account, because my imagination couldnt make up something more vivid than what was in real life. Can we talk about fluke that you mentioned and the tweet you mentioned, his name is victor fluke, an outside president ial candidate coming straight from hollywood, a huge personality. People think it is based on trump, but it is not actually. Well, the genesis of this character i started writing this book in 2012 during a different crazy president ial race, and just to remind people we forget about that. We forget about that because, you know, 2016 eclipses everything, but 2012 was a fascinating race. There was, just to remind people, michelle balkman was in the race, rick perry, rick s santorum, herman kaine, newt gingrich. I started writing it because my boss at the time, roger ames, liked what herman cain stood for, he liked he was an outside man p an outsider, a pizza magnet with this simple economic plan of nineninenine and all of these quips. I was just writing nineninenine. And he was funny and quippy, so i got the idea for this outsider, largerthanlife president ial candidate who the boss in the book wants to keep having on, so you might have to treat him with ki gloves so he comes back on. It is interesting, you were going back over 2012 and nineninenine came up. What was his name i forget the third, and now he is head of that department, perry. And then Michelle Bachman was tip of the spear. He had all of these characters, 47 mitt romney. Got mitt romney in trouble. We forget about those things. Right. In fact it was a cellphone catching mitt romney saying that, and that also theres a chapter in there motivated by some of that. It is really fascinating. It is so good to see you, my friend. You too. Best of luck with in. Thank you, my dear. Great to see you. Good luck with that guy in the morning. Chris cuomo . Hes not that bad. He has really good days and hes funny and also handsome. You can say that because you have to work with him, i dont. Oh, my. You love him you guys have a bromance. He is my bratty kid brother. Make sure you go out and get her novel. Thats it for us tonight. Thanks for watching. I will see you back here tomorrow. Debate is underway, but just after one vote it is clear republicans have a long road ahead if they want to pass a new health care law. I am disappointed in the attorney general. A stinging public rebuke of the attorney jeb. The President Trump now being urged to tone down his tv and twitter attacks on Jeff Sessions. And a heros welcome for john mccain. The