And president of the foundation for defense of democracies. And mark press ston. We got a lot of smart people joining us tonight. Mark, well start with you, the town hall wrapped up, you heard it you were there. The speaker was criticized for not calling trump out by name to his response for charlottesville. What did we hear from him tonight . Well certain a lot of thing don. He tried to clean up by being vocal and not using Donald Trumps name and condemning him. We learned he spoke to donald trump on monday morning. There was a Statement Released by the warehouse on saturday and wouldnt forceful enough. By monday we saw President Trump address the remarks, paul ryan told us here on cnn he spoke to the president that morning and he was very pleased with those remarks. Then comes tuesday and then of course we know how everything wen after that. The wheels went off the bus. Paul ryan said as you said that it was messed up, his respond to the charlottesvilles comments. He also said he did not agree to a sensor. I asked the question about one of the audience members about a resolution in congress would he agree to censor President Trump he said no because its not a issue but as a country we need to coming to on. In regards to tweeting, per set, couple thing we heard from the House Speaker tonight, one is do i wish there was a little less tweeting, of course i do. He also said its incumbent upon parents though to keep an eye on them whether theyre watching a lot of television or whether theyre on any of the social Media Networks when he was asked about bullying by the president. He said, listen parents we need to keep an eye on our kids. Now in terms of policy there was policy discussed tonight. With regard to tax reform, he says itll be easier to get tax reform to when passing obamacare but when asked about obamacare he hit the ball back saying look we pass it had bill, now its senates turn. Don. We want to talk being all that. But jason i want to get your response to what do you think about that . The president , i liked his comments tonight that he addressed bigotry and hate right off the top of his speech. As i said earlier last week i liked his comments on monday, tuesday he got off track. Coming back with what he said tonight, especially the line we used tonight about having the courage to heal our divisions within. That was a powerful line he had in his speech this evening and the president showed what kind of leader he could be not just with the tone but the overall approach to Foreign Policy and i think we seen a lot of maturity from his i know as a leader being able to step back and take a broader look at south asia and coming up with a strategy. You heard what mark said, less tweeting, wasnt happy with what he said which is a question i asked. But you like better what he said on the telepromer rather than what hes saying off the cuff which is what america thinks is in his own heart. When he reads the teleprompter people say it doesnt sound like trump. What do you say to that . These are fundamentally President Trumps words when he gets up there and said what he said tonight, tuesday and monday. One of thing with speaker ryan, where you take a look at what President Trump said in his remarks, a speech versus a town hall from speaker ryan you see the difference between the two. Speaker ryan did a good job in answering the questions but the one thing we didnt see clear was the present condition. With President Trump we see him talking about jobs and the committee. Every answer will come back to these points. I think part of the problem with speak r ryan, this is where he see the disconnect between the white house and capitol hill is it doesnt seem to be that idea yoj call core. The House Speaker you you dont see the seam ideological core driver as we see coming from the white house. This is going to be pick the speaker needs to get moving hes going to need the president to stick to the teleprompter in order to keep the focus on that because otherwise theyll be distracted with were going to need the house to get moving on tax reform. I wish we would have already checked the box and gotten it through but we werent able to get that done. Anna i want to get you reaction but first listen to the House Speaker, paul ryan. Thought his speech on monday was pitch perfect. Then the next day, i think it was in new york on Infrastructure Press conference, an answer to a question i think he made comments that were much more morally ambiguous much more confusing. I think he could have done better, i think he needed to do better. I think what he did two days ago in commending the peaceful protest against the hate in boston was a good start. I think what i heard, i dont know, 25 minutes ago what exactly what a president needed to say and hear. I do believe he messed up in his comments on tuesday when it sounded like a moral e kwif kwags or moral am dispute. I think the issue that eric was expressing was the reluctance to criticize President Trump for specifically saying thing like, very fine people were marching in that rally that had swastikas and antisemetic fans and there were not any very fine people in that rally. Thats right. Thats right. Thats right. And it wouldnt morally ambiguous it was morally wrong what the president said. Let me just add to what you just said. I have a hard time believing if your standing in a crowd to protest something and you see all these antisemetic slogans and the high hitlers and the swaus tacks your good with that. Youre not a good person if youre there. Anna, after charlottesville you excoriated members of your parties for looking the other way. Jay seems stronger than paul ryan, he didnt really say that in the comments today. Did lehe go far enough tonight u think . Let me tell you don, this is hard for me. Its hard for me because ive known paul ryan, i know and love his wife jena, i know hes a good father, husband, son and family man. A man whether or not he hose go. Its frustrated to not see him be more forceful. I realize hes trying to strike a balance of a person of his own convictions and behavior and cutting the president and his party slack, giving him more chances and trying to strike the balance by criticizing what he said without criticizing the man who said it. So i think its cringe worthy. Had anybody else said it, im pretty sure paul would have been more force fortunately. Hes putting his position of speaker above his own brand and core. For somebody who knows and liked him and flows what his values are, not the ones hes projecting and bending like a pretzel to try to articulate, its more painful to see paul cannot be more forceful and be himself. The paul i see there is the political paul. Now, that being said, i give paul a lot of credit because this is his second cnn town hall and he has taken very tough questions at both. I remember the first one where he took a very tough emotional question from a dream act kid. In this place, again he took very tough questions. He takes them all, he excels at the policy questions. These where these where he has got to reconcile the paul ryan i know with speaker paul ryan, willing to fudge a little bit on donald trump and not condemn what is condemnable, for me, is a little painful. Yeah. Cliff, i got to ask you then. With ana having said that, if this kind of moral clarity was so essential and he needed to follow up and add to what jake said, why did the speaker feel comfortable waiting six full days to address what the president did . I cant speak for paul ryan. When he talked about the moralquiv indication or ambiguity, he was suggesting something else. I think the president is somebody who should listen to his advisers and have his words filtered so that his proper meaning gets across. If for example, he was saying not that there was anybody good in the nazi or kkk march, there isnt, but that there are some people who dont want to see George Washingtons statue pulled down, dont want to see Franklin Roosevelts statue butted or abraham lincolns at that time to you pulled down or vandalized as happened in chicago, those are not bad people. He may not have the communicated all that effectively. He should have people working with him so he gives a speech like he did tonight about afghanistan where its pretty clear what he means to say. I disagree with those who think what the president is trying to say is there is some good nazis abd some good klansmen, just i dont think he thinks there are good al qaeda or taliban. He needs to be clearer in his communications. I think he lost an opportunity because as paul ryan said on monday, he was very clear. On tuesday when he was impromptu, he left a lot of room for ambiguity. People can interpret as you have and ana has. Not as i have. That is unfortunate because he blew an opportunity. Cliff, if you were going to a rally and lets say you were upset with a statue coming down and you saw people with nazi symbols and saying racist things, would you continue to stay there and support it . Do you think very fine people were among the crowds there . Look, i think people get confused. You or i clearly would walk away from those kinds of people. I would also walk away from antifa. They hold up signs saying more dead cops. They support violence and utilize violence. They didnt kill anybody that weekend but they have attacked people in the past. I would also walk away from an ante fa rally. I would ask, dont you think thats also correct to walk away from them, as well. The president said he thought there were very fine people on both sides. I think what he meant by that, there are people who think that a statute of a confederate general, the robert e. Lee should cop down, thats a legitimate position and people think its part of our history. Thats a legitimate position but nobody who is a neonazi, nobody who is a skinhead or klansman or within ante fa in my vision is somebody who is a reasonable or good person. Those are people full of hate. I kind of think thats what he intended to say. It sounds like youre just for clarity, youre not making the same moral equivalence for antifa and the neonazi folks out there, the neonazi racists. One is there fighting fascism and whether their tactics are right, we can debate that. But theyre not on the same level, are they . The soviet communists for a while thought fascist. That the did not make them good people. They killed a lot of people, too. Antifa is full of anarchists and communists and they are not good people. If you want to say who is worse, yeah, i guess at this point, theres no question the neonazis are worse. That doesnt make antifa good guys because they dislike people that you and i dislike. I hope we can agree upon that. Ana, you want to respond to what he said . Look, i think i dont understand how anybody can be in the presence of such hate and not be part of that hate. I dont know how you can be in a march, a protest that to me looked like a kkk march except without the hoods. You know, something and ive been thinking about this protest in charlottesville, this kkk march without the hood, and theres something that made me so sad about that and that i think we have not discussed enough on tv. How young most of the participants were. A lot of times when we see old footage of kkk marches, its kind of, you know, old bitter people blaming their lack of success in life to other people. But to see this very young generation in charlottesville, its heart breaking because it tells you its an entirely new generation of hate, of racism of bigotry. And that to me was heart breaking. We agree on that. Absolutely agree. But the young people who join ante fa who call themselves anarchists and communists and say were going to restrict the rights of those we disapprove of, surely you can condemn, as well on this show. Can you not . Sure. Listen, i condemn anybody that tries to trample on any other americans rights. I condemn anybody that tries to divide us. That includes the president of the United States. Okay. Id like to hear you address antifa specifically. It sounds like youre making a case better than the president of the United States made the case. I think he didnt really say he addressed the people, the pro efforts. He wasnt talking about when he said there are very fine people on both sides, he wasnt talking about the people supposedly who were there for the statues. Go on, steve. Listen, i do think youre right. Thats why we talk about the moral ambiguity andquiv vocation and why he bungled an unit to make clear hatred from the far left or right, he does not support either one. We need to support american values, freedom of speech for everybody regardless of race, creed or color. Thats where he should be because i think, i think thats what he actually believes. Steve, go ahead. Steve has been sitting by patiently. Look, thank you. Its hard for a new yorker to sit by and be patient. Look, what were hearing tonight is a reflection of the deflection. This is not about the antifa. I condemn with them. This isnt about them, don. This is about a group of neonazi whos marched past a synagogue with torch lights and assault weapons. Every time we hear if youre going to condemn one, you should condemn the other. Thats not what this is about. Its about those groups filled with hate, violence and venom. Thats what we should be focusing on, not these distractions and this continued deflection. What we saw tonight, by the way, was a president who was a uniter when he reads from a teleprompter but seems to be a divider when he speaks from the heart. I will hope he will be more consistent with the words written for him as we go forward. Focus on al qaeda, the taliban, the islamic because those are the one whos said death to america. Steve . Dont disagree with you at all. Thats good. You talk about afghanistan. Its great to find common ground. One thing i notice about the paul ryan, the very well done town hall that cnn did with paul ryan, people were having a civil debate. Theres not enough of that in this country. Have you people pulling down statues. Cliff, it sounds like the president of the United States should be listening to your advice because hes the one, i mean, hes a big part of the divide, the separation. He may say that he wants people to come together but his words reflect something else. And don. I agree he did not do this. I respond to don. Don, if youre saying he did a bad job on tuesday, particularly on tuesday when he was impromptu and said whatever popped into his mind, i totally agree with you. I didnt by the way, think as an american, i didnt think it was necessary for him to bring that into the afghanistan speech tonight, as well. I didnt think he should have brought charlottesville into that. If he wanted to speak about his comments, he should have spoken to the nation about charlottesville and not muddled it by putting it into a speech about afghanistan. Thats what i thought as an american. Listen, your advice, my vis, anas advice, perhaps hes listening to all of it and maybe will take the best of it. Go ahead, ana. First of all, i think it was fine for him to bring up charlottesville because the country needs to hear more from him because he has bungled so he has screwed it up. He hasnt messed it up. He has been a complete and absolute failure. How hard can it be to condemn neonazi for gods sakes. This is not complicated math. This is something that should be morally simple. It is not moral ambiguity. It is moral deficiency, lacking morality. I think it is really important that we all agree that it is just as much of a priority to condemn foreign terrorism as it is to condemn domestic terrorism. Both want to destroy america. Both want to destroy american values
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