imagine what it would be like if it happened to you, say, on your job. the boss facing felony charges and prosecutors want to talk to you about what you heard and saw. what would you do? tonight on laura coates lies. >> you know that saying, if these walls could talk? well, the walls are a talking. and that move the workers at dawn trump's mar-a-lago resort might have seen and heard and what will they say if they are asked. well, federal investigators do not have to imagine what that would be like. cnn learning exclusively that some workers have already spoken to investigators and, in some cases, multiple times, about security at mar-a-lago. or the lack thereof. and how boxes of classified documents were kept there and whether they could have been seen by visitors to the resort. the former president is reacting exactly the way you'd expect him to react. if he had ballistic on your bingo card, bravo, you just won because that was indeed his reaction according to a source when the maid who cleans his bedroom suite was asked to speak with investigators. but wait, there is more, as they say. there is the woodworker who installed crown molding in his bedroom and noticed a stack of papers according to sources, although he didn't know what they were and later said what he said might have been maybe a movie prop, he thought. it was a chauffeur who is questioned about business people, including foreigners, who visited the club as vip guests. there is a plumber who worked at the property for a few days a week for years and of several other maintenance workers are among the potential mar-a-lago witnesses. just think of the range of work i just described. and now the range of all the places documents where these conversations may have been or taken place. this, as you know, is it far from the only case on donald trump's crowded legal calendar. he's facing 90. one charges across for criminal cases, and he is reacting exactly you might expect. we tonight he says he could use the doj to go after his political opponents. >> if i happen to be president and i see somebody who's doing well and beating me very badly i say, go down and indict them. mostly they would be out of business, they would be out. they'd be out of the election. >> chris christie, if you haven't heard is running against ron for president, who is also federal prosecutor himself, told anderson cooper this. >> think about how different dome trump's in 2023 than he was in 2016. in 2016 at the convention he said i am your voice. now he is saying i am your retribution. this is outrageous. >> i want to bring in former -- white house associate counsel and restoring integrity interest in elections. and the former house judiciary special counsel and then president trump's first impeachment trial. what a night, you too. nice to see you both here together as well. i want to begin with you here, norm, first of all just the reaction about having these particular witnesses potentially testify in this case. you're not talking about politicians, right, or perhaps true partisans and pundits who might be wanting to curry favor. you're talking about employees. does that make a difference to you? >> it does. number one, this was not who donald trump expected. so now he is rethinking. we know this would work, or for example, saw piles of papers. it was so implausible he thought maybe they are movie props, so to have these people come in, that is literally like having your innermost observers turn on you. that's number one. number two, trump is very smart. he understands these are witnesses who will be able to relate to a jury and the jury to them. they are ordinary folks, they are drawn from that same neighborhood, so that is very compelling. look, he had the documents there, we know that. it is just very damaging. i would also be very upset. donald trump is rightly ballistic, it's going to come back to haunt him at trial. >> i wonder, first of all, i am noticing, and maybe that's why i'm a prosecutor i'm just knows the, i want all the information, but i also think it myself that imagine all that was said in the car with a chauffeur. an expectation of privacy was always supposed to happen. and i do wonder if there are any ndas, for example, whether that will be a factor. it obviously would not overrule a subpoena, but in terms of what information could actually be gleaned, the chauffeur says that he was want to drive around, the billionaire, i think's name was anthony proud. trump showed him a sensitive dogs regarding nuclear submarines. he heard those conversations. >> i do think you're going to hear a lot about classified documents hanging from the ceiling, which i think we already had photos to that extent in his bathroom piled up all the way to the shower head, but i think what you are not going to see, or at least i don't think there is a high risk of this, is trump's mental state. and i think that is the tough part for this prosecution. under the espionage act trump has to willfully maintain defensive ration, but under the defense act he can deem documents personal and keep them. so, if he really did. think that he deemed them personal and kept them than it is hard to say, or harder to say, that he willfully retain something that wasn't his. so that mental state, what did you do, what do you think about these documents? i think it was powerful that he showed the documents that were classified, i really can't show you, that's the type of information i be looking for. not so much this guy was a disaster with. classified documents. >> the witness who is going to kill trump on intent is his lawyer. evan corcoran. you know, you are made, your chauffeur, woodworker, he installed crown molding in's room. okay, they're going to over here stuff, but trump divulged what he was thinking to his lawyer and the lawyer was forced to testify. why? crime fraud exception to privilege. if there is substantial evidence that is what the court found, the privilege is pierced. that is going to kill him, then there is that tape made at bedminster talking about the iran documents. trump went on tv and said no that was real estate papers, that was proving to be false. who is there? susie wildes, one of his closest confidants. when she goes on the stand to say what trump did, you will be able to infer intent. so it is the mix of witnesses that makes this powerful. >> whenever this trial might happen i doubts could happen on the schedule we've already seen. we know how this is going to work. but, in any event, a suppose this happens say after and trump believes he might be the president of the united states yet again, and who sneaking about what he might do in terms of political opponents and retribution and beyond. i mean, what is your reaction to that? it seems so, when i heard it at first i thought, then he's going to say i'm being facetious in some way or hyperbolic. he wasn't. well, this is a guy who also campaigned on lock her up and then he didn't lock her up, as we have to remember trump's words. trump is lots of words, but trump's words. he did not drain the swamp, he had his own the a judge, it was the one who was working with twitter to cut off conservative voices. >> but he sang it three times now, may, about having the doj be essentially his pan. >> essentially what i think he is trying to get his message across is that is what the doj is doing to him and would you like it if i didn't you? would you like that chris christie? would you like that joe biden? and i think that message, i'm going to do that for whatever reason, when it comes out of trump's mouths people here you are anti-democratic and you're scary. but what he is meaning to say is that is what is happening to me. what would you think if that happened to you? >> i think you're cleaning it up a little bit. i don't know him personally, but the way you have talked about it it sounds much nicer and much more diplomatic than what he has consistently said in terms of what he believes that biden is doing with his own doj. he thinks that it is his own doj. do you see this the same white made us? >> my question was rhetorical, do you share the same opinion? >> i see it a little differently. this is a president who became steadily more lawless. he staged an attempted coup. we have never seen a non peaceful transition of power. he used phony electoral certificates to try to get mike pence to usurp the powers of congress, some of may's former colleagues are involved now implementing, they say the federalist society is not conservative enough. they want lawyers who do the president's bidding. i think he is serious and, you know what else he is areas about laura? these trials, federal trials, will be shut down is he is reelected. the first thing he will do, he has the power, he will say doj drop the case. he may even pardon himself. now, that is unconstitutional and will lead to litigation, so we are going to be in a new era of attack on the rule of law and we heard that from donald trump's own mouth tonight. >> we'll give you the last word before i cut you off. >> i still think that when the conservatives look to the justice department and they see the teachers union say that school board moms are a problem and america arlene turned around and say we're going to put school board moms on our watchlist, it feels like the weaponization of justice. and what do you want to do when you are being weaponized against? you want to turn that threat around. not necessarily to use it, but to know that you have activated this weapon, it shoots in all directions, and trump is not a great messenger for that. but that to me is the message. >> so is the fact that the president will be the head of the executive branch to enforce the law and if there is a crime it ought to be charged. we'll see what happens ultimately in all these cases, thank you both, nice talking to you. may mailmen and norm eisen. i'll tell you something, this is just what democrats did not want to hear. joe manchin says he is not running for reelection, maybe you are not surprised, but a lot of people are. and the question now is what will that mean for his chances to hold control of the senate in next t to electioion? ♪ ♪ ♪ >> will this marsh lake up on capitol hill tonight that could very well shift the entire balance of power in the senate. west virginia democrat joe manchin announcing that he is not going to run for reelection. now, of course, it is a major blow democratic -- to try to keep his ruby red west virginia state a royal blue, and that is not all. it could also be a blow to the president of the united states, joe biden, with manchin now teasing but not confirming a possible run for a presidency as an independent candidate. let's bring in jim messina, he was for president obama's campaign manager and also served as obama's deputy chief of staff. jim, nice to see you tonight. this news is pretty stunning for a lot of people, although, i mean, he has been a bit of a thorn in the side of democrats for several years on a number of issues. but what could losing joe manchin's seat in the senate actually mean for the democrats? >> well, laura, it means the math is really, really hard for democrats. it means the democrats now have to control and hold every single incumbent seat. they can't lose any incumbents, and that includes into states like my home state of montana, like ohio, like the open state of michigan. they have to hold all of those. now that is doable in 2022 for the first time in american political history no incumbent lost, so that is doable. but even if they do all of that, they then only have a tie and they need the white house to continue to break the ties. so, this really means that democrats desperately need to pick up a republican seat and the two options are probably texas and florida, not exactly two states where democrats have had a lot of recent success, but that is what the math is. and so tonight there is a bunch of glob democrats sitting around wishing joe manchin had run for reelection? >> i mentioned the thorn in the side. i want to show people in the audience some legislation that he opposed and why this is such a critical figure. many to be looked at it and said now why is he so important to the democratic party? the things he was talking about? he opposed a climate spending bill, he is opposed the social expansion bill, the build back better act, blocked all of biden's nominees for the epa, just to name a few during biden's presidency, yet, as you described jim, so significant to possibly lose the seat and have florida and texas being the options of ways to go? i want to play for you how manchin described his next chapter. listen to this. >> what i will be doing is traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle, and bring americans together. we need to take back america and not let this divisive hatred for other pull us apart. >> this is first coming after two very negative polls, i should mention, but was that all code for i'm going to have an exploratory committee to then run for the presidency? >> it certainly seems like it, or at least i'm going to do something to continue to have the cameras follow me all over the country. and i think, laura, it is really sad because there's no way he could win. ross perot got 19% in 13% of the nationwide vote and zero electoral votes. the conservative democrats, would start to siphon votes away from joe biden in a really, really close election, in the same way that our republican friends are losing their minds over kennedy junior running right now because he's pulling votes away from trump. >> i want to lean into that because i'm always wondering about the process. obviously earlier in the week we heard about conversations about whether biden could truly be running. i think that seems to be a settled issue among democrats that he in fact will as far as we know. when it comes to the independents or the no party or no labels, what is the process? is it to place for him to even enter the race now as an independent? what is that process like? >> so, there is a third party movement called no labels that is trying to qualify in some of the battleground states. and it is bankrolled by a whole bunch of rich folks trying to have a political voice. i think it is very unlikely, their own polling shows that they can't get any electoral votes and it is sort of a quixotic quest for relevancy. but close election, it could really start to take away votes from one of the two major parties in a really, really dangerous way. so they could get on the ballot and if they pick him he could be their nominee. it is still very unclear what their process is, they haven't decided what it is, so it just throws more uncertainty into an already uncertain time. >> you do wonder what iran -- what impact that will have and on who? is it on, say, biden or trump if either of them secure the nominations and talking about that? a lot more to get to, jim, thank you for helping us understand it. it's a pretty important decision that manchin has made. thank you. >> my pleasure, thank you. >> a whole lot of intolerance outside of the museum of tolerance. look what you're seeing there, rival protesters trading blows during a private screening of a film showing the hamas atrocities in israel. plus, from a wrongful conviction to elected office, the use of islam who is now exonerated from the -- jogger case anand he is s now my guest anand as a newew title. >> tensions here at home over the israel hamas war. they have been building for weeks from rival protests to threats of violence and actual violence, as well. like last night, a -- that is built for understanding. a brawl between pro israeli and pro palestinian protesters corrupting outside of the museum of tolerance, of all places, in los angeles. i repeat, it was outside the museum of tolerance. it was posting and hosting a private screening of the video of the hamas atrocities in israel organized in part by israeli actress gal gadot, who is not there. it's not the first time things of actually boiled over. tonight the nypd is investigating a possible bias incident after a father claimed that he and his infant son were attacked while they were at a playground. he was falsely accused of supporting hamas. in fact, here is a video of what happened. >> you can't tell me what to do. >> go away. >> why? >> what? >> get away. [bleep] >> get away. >> i'm playing with my son here. she is attacking me because i'm wearing a scarf. >> get the [bleep] out. >> i'm not going to do that. >> don't take pictures of me. get away. >> i've got a baby. >> over the weekend a 69-year-old jewish man fell backward and later died from a head injury after a confrontation with a pro palestinian protester. investigators are digging out if they actually bring criminal charges in that case. both jewish and muslims communities across this country are on edge over all that is going on. . in new york city police are reporting a 214% spike in antisemitic hate crime reports, that is for october, everyone. the council of american islamic relations says it has gotten more than 1200 reports of anti-arab and anti-muslim bias incidents just in the last month. joining me now is senior rabbi willsher boulevard temple, rabbi steve leader. rabbi, thank you so much for being with us. we have been watching so much unfold in the last month from what is happening in the middle east to what is happening at home on college campuses, in places like los angeles and places like new york, and all across the country. you've got fistfights, rabbi, in front of the museum of tolerance following the screening of the unaided hamas mascara videos. i wonder, when you are watching this particular incident unfold, what were your thoughts? >> let's imagine, for a moment, laura, let's imagine for a moment the mindset of people watching that film. watching massacres happening in that theater, watching the films. and then, imagine what it is like after that experience, which anyone who has seen them knows what i'm referring to, you cannot even see those images. imagine for a moment walking out of that theater with that mindset and then being assaulted by protesters and being, once again, victimized and being called the victimizer. this is a flip that is incredibly painful and when i saw it, it was the newest chapter in a very old story. and the story is heartbreaking. >> rabbi, when you side initially, it was so raw and i think it was so articulate and what so many people are feeling when they are trying to even gravel with, not only the images, but also the image of this country grappling with those images. and the tension that was happening, i wonder, how can people, in a world like this, can they both peacefully protest without devolving into violence? is there a way to even have these conversations? what are you feeling in terms of the ability to do that? >> i think there is a way to do it, but the way to do it i am going to share one of my new favorite words to you, the word is disambiguate. it is important, if we are going to make progress, to disambiguate, to remove the ambiguity from the current situation and by that i mean the following. the palestinian people have been the door mat of the middle east for a century. and they does better. they deserve better from their own leaders, they deserve better from their arab brethren and other arab nations. they deserve better from israel and they deserve better from us. they do. now, here is the word that disambiguates, however, that it immediately nuanced, difficult dynamic that needs to be addressed, has nothing, i repeat nothing to do with what happened on october 7th in 2023. that hamas made the decision to murder -- we have to bifurcate. conflation is the enemy. when you start to conflate a clear act of murderous terrorism, within admittedly complex and difficult issue, you began to obscure the truth of the matter. so the only way forward, i think, is the following. can we all agree that what hamas did was morally repugnant and wrong and can we all see how they are trying to flip the script? by that i mean, attack israel and murder, forced israel to defend itself and respond, hide behind innocent gazans, behind them and underneath them in tunnels, 300 miles of tunnels below the ground, and then use the death of those civilians to claim that you, the perpetrator, are the victim, and the real victim is now the victimizer. if we can it least agree that what hamas did was wrong, morally repugnant, then we have a conversation that we can actually have. but if we conflate what happened on october 7th with the other complicated issues within the middle east we will make no progress and it will be a race to the bottom. my tragedy is worse than your tragedy. we have got to stop conflating these two issues, it's the only way that i think we can address them one at a time. >> rabbi, what do you speak of is really the essence of finding common ground, so that a conversation can than we had. perhaps the more interesting question, and by interesting i mean demoralizing for so many people to think about is why can't what you've described happen? i know are running short on time, but i have to ask you this question because i am a scholar of the civil rights movement. it was a calling of mine to be in the civil rights division of the department of justice and one of the things that was always so ingrained in my household growing up and that i try to impart my children as well as that sometimes the people don't look like you or believe what you do or have had your personal life journey, can be and ought to be your staunchest defenders and champions and you should be one for them as well. i wonder, what has been the experience of support you have gotten from communities where we are accustomed to having coalitions? do you feel that there is support from other groups? >> some, but not anywhere near what i had hoped for. i will tell you what i said, i spoke to a bunch of millennials and gen z years a couple of weeks ago about this issue and i said the harsh reality is that most people are better at virtue signaling than they are at behaving virtuously. and that is what works. and our brothers and sisters with whom we marched after george floyd, with whom we marched for women's rights, for lgbtq plus rights, we were marching on a one-way street for the most part because they are not marching with us now. in fact, any feminist marching for hamas is a feminist marching for -- it is inexplicable to me. and i don't have a good answer for you, other than to say, sadly, that hatred is trumping, and subverting and subordinating the values that they claim to stand by and live by. there's a blindness that comes with group think, there's a blindness that comes with jewish hatred and you end up subordinating all of the values that you say you stand for. and when you are professed values and lived values are not the same that makes you a hypocrite. full stop. >> rabbi, i am very glad we had this conversation today. it is what i find so thought-provoking and intriguing is that there are those who will believe hypocrisy is on the other side and those who will believe that these conversations are desperately needed and there is this confounding feeling that they are not productive, and this was a good moment to at least have a part of that conversation today. rabbi, thank you for joining me. >> you are so welcome, laura, i appreciate it. >> a really thought-provoking conversation. next, it dominated the headlines in new york and roundly send five teenagers to prison. now one of the exonerated men in the 1989 central park jogger case is on his way to a seat on the new york city council. yusef salaam joins me next. >> more than 30 years ago, five black and latino teenagers were accused of the and assault of a white female jogger in new york city's central park. they were targeted in an ad by a man who would later become the president of the united states, donald trump, calling for new york state to adopt the death penalty after the attack. more than a decade after being wrongly convicted and having served time in prison, they were exonerated. two decades later one of them has now been elected to represent central harlem on the new york city council. talk about a remarkable turn of events for yusef salaam, one of the exonerated five. he joins me now. first and foremost, congratulations on your win and success, i wonder what it must mean to have that seat at the table when many people know your story for not having had a voice? >> thank you, thank you for that. what this means, really, is that those who have been in a position where power eluded them, where they were really run over by justice, when every decision that was made was made without their input, finally have an opportunity to have an ambassador for their pain, to speak truth to power. to tell their stories, to carry their same voices into the halls of power. you know, in 2002, when we were found innocent, we marched for justice. we cried for justice, and i wondered who in city hall would hear our pain, who is echoing our voices in city hall. and then i realized that those who were closest to the pain have to have a seat at the table. my story is a story that the whole world has had an opportunity to have a front seat to, and now they'll get the opportunity for my same community that i was born and raised in, they'll get an opportunity to have a representative who knows their stories because i am them and they army. >> that is such a powerful sentiment you described. just thinking about speaking truth to power, you can also speak -- and having the vision that you have, so invaluable and the insight that you obviously will bring. somebody who has faced injustice in the way that you have, having been vindicated, now turned politician, which is a term that many people sometimes give a side eye to and they wonder if that visit, what the true motivation is. but here you are we're gonna have to balance creating that safe space, hearing people, and trying to ensure there is not going to please please bias. it's not an easy road ahead of you. how will you grapple with it? >> you know, i think that my lived experiences is really what i'm going to used guide me. you know, being went over by the spike wheels of justice is one thing, but being able to get up to dust yourself off, to be really an example of how you can resuscitate the life that human potential that is inside of you, it seems impossible. but right inside of the word impossible is the world possible. one young people see me they'll get an opportunity to realize they can't count yourself. out you have to literally better yourself all the time. there is no one coming to save you. but if we can save ourselves, and we can organize ourselves, and we can fight for ourselves, if we can participate in using our voice for us, we will never again be denied. and i think that is what is really at stake. trying to reverse a reality that we did not decide for ourselves, a reality that says we are mistakes. when the opposite of that is the most truest thing in the world. our potential has been pushed down and we believe that we were born mistakes. the worst thing is that if we believe it, wholeheartedly, then we begin to move through our lives like we are mistakes. our people need safe housing, they need affordable housing, they need the housing that is affordable to be permanently affordable, they need to have safe streets and great education because education is the path to the future. but they've already decided to build jails by the time our children get into third and fourth grade, we are fighting an uphill battle and, right now, we get an opportunity to really participate in what i call a great experiment. for the next five voting cycles let's vote in mass, in our interest, and see how powerful we really are. >> the trajectory you described is unbelievable and to see you in that role is completely remarkable and resonates with so many people. i do wonder, it is hard for me to miss the irony of a statement like this, but i wonder what is going through your mind as you sit here tonight, as a newly elected official, while donald trump,. having taken that path out, is facing 91 criminal charges? what is your >> i think we are in a really interesting space in our country's history, because we are a very young nation. but for us to be in his face where a person who -- i have a different type of relationship with donald trump. the rest of the country, and the rest of the world have their relationship. my relationship is a relationship where, he judged me by the color of my skin, and not by my -- in a country that says you are innocent until proven guilty, i had my hope is that he gets the opportunity to have the law applied to him in a way that it was never applied to us. my, that i mean we see what happened. there is proof in what happened. i'm not going to say that we are going to supersede the law, but the beautiful thing about it is, we get the opportunity to see the law work in the way that it is supposed to work. hopefully the outcome will be a outcome where -- i said a little while ago, i just tweeted the word karma, it becomes a reality. >> well, i tell you the fact that you would still wish for him and due process speaks volumes about you. i want to thank you honestly as a mother, a -- particularly for my son, the story of you and the exonerated five more broadly has been such an important moment as a parent to share with my children, and better prepare them for the world they do live in. i want to thank you so much for being open enough to share with the world. thank you so much on behalf of my boy, thank you. >> my pleasure, thank you. >> well the parents of one of the parkland shooting victims filing a first of its kind lawsuit against the u.s. government, they argue lax gun policies actually violate human rights. the father of -- is here e to explainin theheir e next.. >> tonight, the parents of one -- gunned down in parkland florida -- now taking unprecedented legal action in honor of -- walking him all of his family says the country's gun policies and the supreme court secular men meant decisions rob their child of his way to, quote, fall in love, chases dreams, war attend a rolling stones concert with his father. joining me now is -- his father along with his attorney jonathan. thank you both for being here. your son, obviously invaluable, so important to you and all who love, him and really to the world don't knowing the advocacy you have been involved in. tell me why this lawsuit is the next course of action for you. >> -- also representing every single, kid every single person that is losing as vital. it is very important. we have tried many different ways of addressing the issue. this is a new way. we are trying something that no one has tried before. and this is what he will be doing. and -- why keep knocking on that same, door i'm glad here way and i'm open to keep fighting on this path until we find -- >> this is a novel approach, the human rights element of it and gun policies in this country. why is this new pressure point? >> we have seen the problems with a u.s. gun politics. they are so constraining. they are not getting us anywhere. so what we have done, we have gone outside the u.s. to the international community, and international human rights tribunal that hopefully will tell the united states you are violating human rights, law you have to protect the right to live, you have to get your gun policy in place like the rest of the world does. >> you know, we are in a world where people look at the united states, and the gun, violence mass shooting numbers, the scope of this is so unbelievable. yet the frequency it happens does display a level of indifference that i do not know how we can get our minds around. every time you see a mass shooting, it must be extraordinarily difficult for knowing a lot of this could be prevented. >> it also reminds us it is a failure of the system. this is not a mistake. -- so, this is happening, we had -- a mass shooting a couple weeks ago. and we did not see anyone offended about this. so sometimes, you have to take things by your own hands. i am a father, i'm still -- still -- and we are willing to represent the legacy of our son forever. >> it is a kind of class action in that there could be so many other people, obviously not only -- but people who could ultimately be in a position to have a shooting have been where they have been in their own backyard, that their schools and beyond. what is it you are asking as a result of this lawsuit? >> we would like the american commission on human rights to declare that the u.s. is violating its human rights obligations. and, it is required to join the rural community and have the sort of gun laws in place that every other country does, and to keep dangerous people like the parkland shooter from getting -- assault weapons off the street and do other sensible reforms. again, every other country in the world already does. >> he is really all of our, sons i'm sorry for your, lot and thank you for the fight that you continue to put out. thank you. we will keep undoing this. >> thank you all for watching, our coverage continues. >> the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network.