Not because im so romantic. But i am a pragmatist. They often go where the opportunity is and our elected leaders act out of fear of consequence more than out of good conscience and he has to expand his base. Yeah. This was an opportunity. Well, i stick by my thing. This is not politics as usual. This is not about left versus right. Its about right versus wrong. This is about fact versus fiction. This is about reality versus alternate reality or alternate facts which its a great way of thinking but it doesnt play with this particular person. Hes never going to change. He likes being in power. He likes dividing people. He likes the chaos. He thrives on it. He does not want to be a uniter. He is a divider. By nature. Fine. Its not going hes 70 some years old, its not going to change. What we have to do is figure out what do we do with that . And quit wishing you know, wish upon a star, that aint going to happen, hes never, ever, ever going to change. He is who he is. And in some ways you have to respect that. Thats who he is. That is who he is. Hes true to it. I dont respect it because to respect it would assume that he knows it gets him to the right place. I dont see how he gets that rationale. On closing the border, its still possible for someone to get to him and say this is crazy talk, dont do it. Remember why i say what i say, even if he doesnt do it, it resonates with people around him. I dont think its a coincidence democrats found their way to the border. Resonates with who around him, his inner circle . No, forget about them, other people in power. They hear you saying theres an opportunity in this. If the president were to do this, hed look good, no one is stepping up. Theres opportunity here. Theyre looking for opportunity. I have to tell you i dont understand why the democrats are sleeping on the border, i see so much opportunity for them there to swoop in. The president has left this you know, hes left it there. Hes basically just saying you guys do something about it. Theres opportunity there. You give them resources, you give them emergency funding, you show that you care about these kids and these families, now thats something about being our best. Now thats an america that people can believe in. Do you think they could win if democrats did that theres a reason im asking you this question. Do you think they could win over evangelicals and christians who support this president . Some. Okay, because the reason i ask that, you had the fact checker on earlier, one of the things were full, meaning americas full, and it was false. One of the tenets of the bible is that were supposed to take care of the poor and the needy. But you remember the whole story about in the nativity scene with jesus there was no room in the inn and they didnt realize the person they were keeping out was actually jesus, the chosen one. And he winds up in a manger. So you never know who youre trying to keep out, if you believe in the bible, if you are a true christian. Even if you dont, the allegory stands. But you never know, the next person that could become the next senator, the next scientist, the next person who has a cure for cancer. Thats not to say that we should not have restrictions and laws and people should not follow them. 100 . But we should be more humane and if you believe in jesus and god then you should be more of a christian and you should follow the tenets of what your religion tells you. This is not doing that. This is doing the exact opposite. Oh, absolutely. There is a christian hypocrisy involved in it, no question about that. Listen, to your point, the reason that they have jesus in a manger, manger, you know, you like to use french, that is a french word meaning to eat because he was the food for life. He was the food for creation. And these people are the food of our future. Or at least part of it. I just see opportunity in there from a pragmatic perspective because its doing the right thing. And addressing an obvious need. Yeah. And theres opportunity there, don, there just is. I just dont understand why theyre not taking it. Listen, do unto others, just because there may be people who are coming in, im sure there are for nefarious reasons, but there are people coming in for the right reasons and if i were in their position i would want them to give me everyone to give me the benefit of the doubt and to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, very simple. Well said and true words to live by, but not always easy to do. No one does it. Everyone twists that whole bible christianity thing into what they want it to be, instead of exactly what it should be and then you get hypocrisy and then you get what you have now. The new christian perspective seems to be god helps those whom god has helped there are. So if he hasnt helped you before he must want you out the door. You know what i mean . Thats what theyre going on now and its completely hypocritical. Even if it means grabbing someone by the you know what, cheating on your wife, lying, all those things, saying you can shoot someone, you know, i they look the other way on the character counts. I grew up in the church all my life as a baptist, studied catholicism in catholic school, never taught me anything as to what is going on right now. Ive got to run. Hope you have a good weekend. Wait a minute, im going to see you, were going to have fun. See you tomorrow night. Did you just you are so weird. Why . Because you why cant men show affection. Why does it got to be an italian guy. Why must you always hit me with an italian stick. Code switching. Come on, man. Diglossia, who gave it to you . Im educated. I did it myself. Someone told me, i would tell you dont hate. I love you, lemon, thats why i kissed you. Youre embarrassing me, the audience is going its their favorite part of the day. I know. Everyones like when are you and chris going get your show together, do a show together . No, you all dont want that. Bugs bunny and daffy duck. His ego is too big. This is cnn tonight, im don lemon, what a difference a week makes, 168 little hours, think about how things have changed for this president , he started the week on a high, shouting total exoneration to anybody who would listen. Even though thats not what the what mueller said. And now its all empty threats. Its lies, its flipflops on his own favorite policies, all to distract and to deflect. So what doesnt the president want you to know . Think about that. What doesnt the president want you to know . Well, it sure seems like theres something in his tax returns that he wants to hide, to keep secret. A source telling cnn this is the hill, the administration is willing to die on, and theyre willing to take the fight all the way to the Supreme Court. Can you believe that . You dont Say Something like that unless you think its really, really important to keep those returns under wraps. The source also saying this about the battle for the returns this is a quote we will see you in court. Lawyers hired by the president have been preparing for months for this fight. And today they sent a letter to the Treasury Department claiming that the request for the returns is a transparent effort by one Political Party to harass an official from the other party because they dislike his political or his politics and speech. While the president says this. Im under audit. But thats up to whoever it is. From what i understand the law is 100 . I have said this before. It bears repeating every time since the president continues to use the issue of an audit as an excuse to keep his returns hidden, people. This is just the facts. Just the facts. The fact is, and if you dont believe me, just look it up. The fact is an audit would not prevent him from releasing his returns. Just as past president s have done. Okay . Every year dating back to the early 1970s the irs has audited the personal tax returns of every sitting president and vice president. That is not an excuse. A legitimate one. Its a false excuse, but its not a real excuse. Its a flatout lie. Since nixon every president has released his tax returns, except for gerald ford who instead made public a decades long summary. So an audit has nothing to do with it. But of course if theres something in there that you dont want anybody to know about youre going to fight tooth and nail, right . And then theres this president s photo op at the border today, photo op. He tweeted that he checked out the new wall on the border. Now, the president would like you to believe thats a new wall. Theres even a plaque claiming this is the first section of President Trumps border wall dont believe everything you read, even on a plaque. Customs and Border Protection said more than a year ago that the project was Replacement Border fencing, a local Infrastructure Project that had been in the works for some time. Not part of the president s promised wall. Shouldnt the facts matter . Especially if youre one of his die hard supporters and hes telling you this and hes lying to your face and youre making excuses, oh, well its a lie. He wants you to believe him and hes trying to trick you. Does that not bother you at all . The wall or no wall the president seems determined to double down on his antiimmigrant message claiming today the country is full. The system is full. Cant take you anymore. Whether its asylum, whether its anything you want, illegal immigration, cant take you anymore. We cant take you. Our country is full. Our areas full. The sector is full. Cant take you anymore, im sorry. If he really believes that you have to wonder whatever happened to the president s threat to shut down the border this weekend . Not only did he backtrack he claimed he never said it in the first place. I never changed my mind at all. I may shut it down at some point but id rather do tariffs. Never changed his mind, huh . Lets go to the videotape. Mexico is going to have to do something, otherwise im closing the border. I cant imagine it being any worse than it is right now. So theres a very good likelihood that ill be closing the border next week, and that will be just fine with me. Is it your intention, sir, to close the border this week, and what would it take to not close the border. I havent made that intention known. And im ready to close it if i have to close it. If we dont make a deal with congress, the borders going to be closed, 100 . He never said it. And yet there he is saying it. And speaking of the border, the president s nominee for i. C. E. Stabbed in the front today when hiss nomination was suddenly withdrawn, just as he was supposed to fly with the president to the border, awkward. Even the dhs secretary Kirsten Nielsen was caught by surprise and i. C. E. Leadership thought it was a clerical error. The president said this. Were going in a little different direction. Rons a good man but were going in a tougher direction, we want to go in a tougher direction. And by we, you mean stephen miller. Two officials tell cnn that miller told the president that vitiello was not 100 on board with closing the border. Lets not forget the rest of this very, very trumpy week. The president doing a 180 on health care, going from his empty promise of a plan that would be better than obamacare to postponing the whole thing until after the election. The Republican Party will soon be known as the party of health care. You watch. I understand health care now. Especially very well. A lot of people dont understand it. We are going to be the republicans, the party of great health care. We are going to have a plan thats so much better than obamacare. Thank you. Were going to always take care of preexisting conditions. I wanted to delay it myself. I wanted to put it after the election. When the plan comes out, which well be showing you at the appropriate time, its much better than obamacare. We should have done it when we had the position but were going to get it back. And its going to be a better plan. But were going to show it to you after the election. There was no time for a better plan when he had the house and the senate, its going to take two more years. Okay, that makes sense. Theres also his outrageous rant to Congressional Republicans urging them to be more paranoid about elections and implying that the midterms were somehow rigged simply because democrats won. Were going to watch those vote tallies. I keep hearing about the election and the various counting measures that they have. There were a lot of close elections that were they seemed, every single one of them went democrat. If it was close, they say the democrat. Theres something going on. Youve got to be a little bit more paranoid than you are. But we have to be a little bit careful because i dont like the way the votes are being tallied. I dont like it and you dont like it either. You just dont want to say it because youre afraid of the press. Yeah, its you know, you dont have an explanation for things and you just say a lot of words and things. Yeah. A word salad. You just hope no one catches on. I mean, honest, it happens to me sometimes. What did i just say . You all keep falling for the okeydoke. And of course theres mueller. And the constant drip, drip, drip of news that doesnt fit the president s exoneration narrative, some on muellers Team Breaking their silence this week saying their findings are more damaging for the president than the attorney general has revealed. That as the House Judiciary Committee approved a subpoena for the unredacted Mueller Report. And more revelations, could be right around the corner. None of that bodes well for this president. So its probably no surprise he has flipflopped on releasing the report now. Have a right to see the Mueller Report . I dont mind, i mean, frankly i told the house if you want let them see it. Let it come out. Let people see it. The attorney general but it wouldnt bother me at all. Up to the attorney general, wouldnt bother me at all. Attorney general said today that he intends to release the Mueller Report in full to congress and then the public. Do you agree with that decision or do you want the white house to take a look over it for privilege . I have great confidence in the attorney general and if thats what hed like to do, i have nothing to hide. I think its ridiculous. We went through two years of the mueller investigation. So theres no collusion. Theres no obstruction. And now were going to start this process all over again . I think its a disgrace. One of my late famous dear friends said, you can google this, lies, lies, and more lies. Lies on top of lies. Just look it up. Empty threats. Lies. And flipflops. All to distract and deflect. So the question is what is what is it the president doesnt want you to know . What doesnt he want you to know . Think about it. And will we ever learn the whole truth and nothing but the truth . So will congress and the American People settle for anything less than the full Mueller Report . Were going to discuss. Philip bump, max boot, april ryan, next. Six months, six pushups ready. Up. Up. Down. Down. Ah ah thats one. Up. Thats two. Down. Down. Get down, get down. Anna, do you yes those plans . I just wanted to show you something ive been wor. James r. And associates. Anna speaking. James r. And associates. Anna. [phone ringing] baker architects. This is anna baker. At northwestern mutual, this is what our version of Financial Planning looks like. Tomorrow is important, but youre ready to bet on yourself today. Find an advisor at northwesternmutual. Com. Did you eat all of your treats . Help i need somebody help not just anybody help you know i need someone the attorney general, william barr, set to testify on capitol hill next week about the his departments budget. But youve got to wonder whether questions about the Mueller Report will come up. Thats as barr is under growing pressure from democrats as well as republicans to release it in full without redactions. Lets bring in philip bump, National Correspondent for the washington post, also max boot, the author of corrosion of conservatism, why i left the right, and april ryan, the author of under fire, reporting from the front lines of the trump white house. Good evening to everyone. Max, were getting close to the 14day mark for the attorney general sending his letter to congress, battle lines are already drawn. Ing anything but the full report going to fly . No. It shouldnt fly. I mean, you know, barr has committed to releasing the report but theres a real issue as to how much of it is he going to redact . He can hide behind the fact theres classified information here, grand jury material but that should not be an obstacle because what the classified information, congress is clear to see that. They can see the classified report. Now, with the grand jury material its a little bit different but there is ample precedent for him to go to a judge and ask to unseal the grand jury material because there is an overriding public imperative here for the country to see the report. So he can do that. If he tries to hide it its not going to be credible. He has no credibility right now because were seeing members of the mueller team, after 22 months of silence, leaking that barr is distorting their findings. That is damning and devastating to barrs credibility right now. That is surprising theyve kept theyve kept quiet for so long. You have pored over the polling and you say theres one group that would not be surprised that barr is undersold this Mueller Report. Yeah, the only group that would not be surprised if barr is sort of oversold how trump got off was most persons. The majority of americans feel like are skeptical, are skeptical of what barr put forward. Theres good reason to be skeptical. He quotes mueller saying he wasnt exonerated in obstruction. Comes up with this rationale for why it doesnt apply. Quotes mueller midsentence about the issue of collusion or conspiracy. There are all these reasons to be skeptical, polling shows a the vast majority of americans want to see the full Mueller Report, b, they are skeptical that barr represented what mueller said accurately and or completely. Those two things combined if for no other reason, barr should release this. We dont know whats in that report and maybe its not incriminating, who knows, but i think people just want to know for themselves. And why should they . Take a summary as the gospel . Its not all that innocuous. Otherwise the administration would be rushing to release it, right