axle rod, how would you have reacted? i would have been been packing. one thing we know about donald trump is a prelude of someone leaving is him calling them a good person. reince priebus was a good person. sean spicer was a good person. i don t think he thinks being a good person is necessarily that good. but we really need a good person as president right now and a lot of people are questioning or maybe not questioning whether we have one. a good person, a good president would stand up in the face of h hate. rebuck ka is talking about republicans now sending tweets, et cetera, et cetera. who is going to lead the republican party? we were talking about this in the last hour. is mike pence going to come out and say something? who now can lead the republican party in opposition to donald trump that will actually have an
approach. he is deepening divisions. he is trying to channel this anger that we see in the country and this hatred and use it for his own political gain, or to settle personal scores. it s really incredible to see. and i have to disagree with what jeffrey said, that this is what people voted for and maybe what americans would want, because you might expect these sorts of things from a candidate. but the job description for a candidate is much different than the job description for a president of the united states, and at some point you have to wonder what does donald trump view his job as as president, because americans typically look to the president in times like this for leadership. you know, hold on one second. i think it s significant. he also in the course of the q & a with reporters, gloria, he went after senator john mccain for voting against the repeal and replace of the health care. senator john mccain, someone who is fighting brain cancer right now. listen to this.
he had an opportunity today to double down on the denunciation of white nationalism, to double down on his denunciation on white supremacy. he declined to do that. can he fix it? i don t see how you dug yourself out of this moral abyss, except through deed and policy. but that would presuppose that he s acting out of his heart. cornell william brooks, thanks very much for your reaction. i want to hear from a leading democrat right now, senator richard blumenthal of connecticut is joining us, member of both the judiciary and armed services committees. senator, you just heard the president of the united states equate in effect the white supremacists, the neo-nazis, the kkk supporters with those who oppose those hate groups, saying there s blame to go around on both sides. what did that reveal to you about this president? what it revealed to me, wolf,
presidents over these years here in washington. i don t remember a president of the united states having an exchange like this, simply going off the rails. he certainly does not like to admit he made a mistake. he certainly does not apologize. but this was certainly something i haven t seen. i don t remember a time when a president has done something like this, especially when you re dealing with neo-nazis, kkk supporters, white supremacists. this was an extraordinary moment, i must say. all right, jim accosta, thanks very much. i want to get reaction now from the former president and ceo of the naacp, our cnn contributor cornell william brooks. you must have been pretty shocked listening to the president. shocked, disturbed, unsettled. this president, in the 200 plus days he s been in office, 200 days ago, 200 plus days ago, he took an oath of office. he has yet to assume the moral gravitas of the office.
nationalism. this is very dangerous. the president appears to want to have his hate cake and eat it, too. he says one thing one day, something else the next day. but in either instance, he seems to want to appease his base while signalling to the rest of the country that he s disavowing them. it s unconscionable. it s disgusting. and as a former president of the naacp, i have to tell you this. being on the back end of a death threat, having your colleagues evacuate our headquarters as a consequence of bomb threats, seeing my colleagues have to abandon their headquarters because of above threats, seeing a young woman lose her life as a consequence of white nationalism and to have our president apologize for that and suggest we have the alt-right, we have the alt-left. these are morally equal entities on the same more plane. it s disgusting, it is unconscionable, and the president has to be called out for it.