i m kristie lu stodon lemon. we have big stories for you tonight. president trump doubling down on his war with the nfl, telling his base exactly what they want to hear. i think the nfl is in a really bad box. you look at what s happening with their ratings, frankly the only thing doing well is the pregame because everybody wants to see what s going on. the nfl is in a very bad box. you cannot have people disrespecting our national anth anthem, our flag, our country and that s what they re doing. in my opinion, the nfl has to change or you know what s going to happen, their business is going to go to hell. we have to respect our national anthem, we have to respect our country and they re not respecting our country. and most importantly, the fans agree with me. i mean, largely the fans agree. we have to show total respect
for our national anthem, for our flag, for our country we have to do it. that has more than 3 million mesh citizens in puerto rico are desperately trying to survive the aftermath of hurricane maria. we ll discuss that but first i want to get to ed martin, mike dyson, both books are on my desk, i have read michaels i ll get to your s ed. the president is using the nfl controversy to drive a giant wedge in our country. he s playing to his base but what cost is that. his base is file and base. the fact is he could do us all a favor as a nation by galvanizing us but using his bully pulpit to bring us together. let me tell whou disrespects the flag, a man who stands up and lies daily a man who would get
you re standing or kneeling at the flag. the real question is why is trayvon martin laying in a cask casket. michael brown and alton sterling and the list goes on and on of people laying in a casket, and we re talking about whether you re kneeling or standing. i just think it s a tough conversation, and i think it deserves a real honest discussion. and i don t think that this president is given us that. by the way, we ve sent him letter after letter after letter. 130-page book about how we start to address racial problems, how we help the african-american community, how we help rural communities and poor communities. and he has not responded to any of them. do you think he read it? absolutely not. he didn t read it. the attorney general is who i said he was when i testified against him. he is a racially challenged man from alabama and this president chose to go to alabama to start
bitches. but here is what the players taking a knee are doing and not doing. they are not protesting the flag or the national anthem. they are not protesting our troops. they are protesting racial inequality and police brutality, which is their right as american citizens. some people support them. others are offended. and i m going to talk to people on both sides tonight. it s going to be a very interesting couple of hours here on cnn, so let s get right to cnn contribute tore. also cnn political analyst april ryan, wesley lowery of the washington post, and christine brennan. so good to have you all on. and as i said, this is a very important conversation. we re going to take our time with it and we re going to dig into it as much as possible because we all need to have it. april, i want to start with you. six days it s been since the president took on the nfl. yes. he didn t let up today.
everybody up. so if you re an african-american athlete, businessman, parent or anybody else, you have to say what s the difference between the two addictions? and the truth is there s no medical difference between the two addictions. so the only difference is who is addicted and the response that we re giving. and i think that that is the biggest thing that people should pay attention to is that this is a substantive issue that i think deserves more merit than a president just tweeting about this ill. and you think that professional athletes want to put their careers on the line for attention or to disrespect the flag that, by the way, african americans have bled to make this country a great country from the beginning, whether it was fighting in the american revolution, the civil war or any conflict that we ve had in this country or the 4,000 lynchings that we had in this country when people left church to go watch.