Will wear the same hat provided by his alma mater, lsu. Mike maatta is ok. Were going to have the introduction of the ooms teams and a very emotional night here at nationals stadium. The shows of unity that were seeing are coming amid some Significant Developments in the russia probe. Mike pence announced he has hired his own outside counsel. And the president of the United States tweeting furiously today in a response to a report that hes under swregs for obstruction of justice. Several with tweets, including this. He said its quote phony story turning the focus to a fam target hillary clinton. Thats what he was tweeting about today. Out front. Now we have bill lerd who sits on the Intelligence Committee, a former cia undercovering agent. And our panel here, gloria borger, chris sa lizza, reporter and editor at large for cnn politics. Congressman, thanks for being with us. Obviously, an emotional moment. Were seeing everybody gathering here. Were going to have the announcement, the first pitch and and emotional National Anthem. You can feel the energy walking in here. Were going to raise more than a Million Dollars for charity. This game is a charity game and weve added a new charity here. Its for fallen officers to help with the bravery that our two Capital Police showed and the alexandra Police Showed a couple of days ago. What does it mean for you to be here tonight . This is something that americans dont even know happen. Its been happening annually. Tonight its different. Tonight its very different. Tonight this is about us showing solidarity. Showing that an attack on one of us is actually an attack on our democratic institutions. The goelg, can we take this feeling of bir partisan ship and unity and continue it beyond just tonight . Thats going to be the responsibility of our political leaders. Its going to be the responsibility of the American People to say we b demand. You have done a lot of bipartisan things. You did a road trip with a democrat. You talk about this investigation and youre asking tough questions as a republican but youre open minded. I cant say that about all of your colleagues in congress. Some people have been blaming the left because the shooter was obviously a Bernie Sanders supporter, a gop hater. When you hear these sorts of comments, does that upset you or do you think theres something fair to it . We all have to take a deep breath. We all have contributed to the di viciveness. One of the things i learned on my road trip is that we agree on more than we disagree and we should be focussing on those things. But if we want to see different outcomes in our governments, we got to change the way we think. If we change the way we think, we complaining the way bebehave. I hope everybody uses this as an example to show that would bipartisanship is not a dirty word and that quebec disagree without being disagreeable. On a physical basis, youve heard a lot of people say look, its understandable. Theres fear. Eats natural after what just hands. Youre a former cia agent, youre allowed to carry a gun, im sure you own a gun. Are you going to changes your security because of this . Are you going to carry your gun around . Youre allowed to do that. Unfortunately i have too much experience with these type of activities. Be afraid. Be nervous, be angry. All that stuff is natural. But we also have toss realize we cant lets this stop us from doing our job and representing the American People. Ive been looking over my shoulder all my life and ive continued to do that in this job. I think the American People need to realize the number of threats has been increasing over the last couple of years. Republicans and democrats are seeing this problem. So congressman i want to ask you one thing and bring in our panel. Tonight is a moment of unity but tomorrow what will happen he talked about blaming barack obama. He gave a radio interview. I want to play it briefly. I do want to put this at the feet of barack obama. He contributed mightily to creating it. I agree. This is some of the fruits of that labor. Whats your reaction when you hear from that your colleague . Poimtding fingers doesnt help. Right. We can only control our own actions. We can only control the way we talk about things and if you want to see a difference, then you have to be that difference, you have to be that change. We all should be talking about politics the way we want everyone talking about it instead of pointing fingers. All right. And as you can hear a little bit of cheering, you have the democrats coming out to second base. Theyre going to be introducing for the Democratic Team. The Republican Team well have the first pitch which we expect b to be from the British Ambassador. We will have the National Anthem which well bring to you live. Youve interviewed him. You know hes someone open minded. Kbh you hear comments like those from steve king, what might happen . Were hearing chants. There was this moment of unity. I remember standing on the capital and seeing members of Congress Come together on the steps and sing in unison. We saw that again when f moment. You see democrats. Youre obviously going to see republicans in a moment and the National Anthem. I think its a moment and part of the reason were here broadcasting for americans to feel how important this moment is. I mean, you watch these people taking a moment, these members of congress, praying for the other side, praying for the other team and we dont see that very often. And i think that of all the people who are here tonight, used to be you root for the democrats, you root for republicans. You heard the chants. People just want to be here for this moment to applaud the people who have sacrificed Steve Scalise, whose fighting in the hospital and for our system and i think everybody has realized that we all need to take a step back and tone it down. So i think this game is going to be a celebration of both sides. Honestly, i dont think anybody here is rooting for any team. I really dont. Chris . You know, mark and i having worked at roll call newspaper which long ago started sponsoring us. Weve been to these games before. Glorias right. Of a different moment here for obvious reasons. The one thing i would add to what the congressman said about is this a moment or is it something more . The reason that you see a lot of statements out of members of congress on both sides that are not the sort of thing that are going to make this more than a moment because unfortunately, voters often reward that. We have a lot of districts in the country. The congressman does not represent one. He represents one very evenly split. Right. The problem that you get, steve king will pay no political price for a comments like that. Maybe it may do him some good. Thats a big part of why we have these moments in time that are meaning. Are different. Do suggest we have more in common than we have difference. They are moments rather than any kind of extended period. If i can add to that youve highlighted steve king. Over the last two days, there have been a number of republicans in plus 27 or plus 30 r districts that have said and talked about bipartisanship in a way they never have. One of the things that i would ask from yall who many people turn to and look for whats really going on is highlight some of those folks who are actually doing the behavior that we want to see continue, because theres plenty of examples of that. We dont always highlight that enough in on tv or in its a fair point. Thats part of the reason youre standing here tonight. We wanted someone like that. We spent a lot of time covering capitol hill before going out on the National Campaign trail. If you look at congress 10 years ago, very much more polarized today. Its good to see somebody like congressman hurd come in wanting to work across party lines. Some districts will not pay a price because they are so backed by either the hard right or the hard left. You also yeah, go ahead. Its a Different Congress than when we were all covering congress, not to age ourselves, but people come here for a term or two and leave. Either theyre term limited or they selflimit themselves. People dont know each other very well because they go home every weekend to their districts. Its demanded of them. Theres a lot on social media. The news cycle that they have to deal with. There isnt as much time. Congressman, you can talk about this if im right. For members to really get to know each other and appreciate each other, thats why games like this are important, because plunls can bond with republicans and with democrats. As you were coming out we were talking about the issue of security. You were saying you had hosted 400 political Public Events in the last two years. Yeah. 400. Yeah. Thats not just security. That is now demanded. Right. Its important that you do that for your constituents. But it means youre not able to deal with people here as much. Absolutely. But i think everybodys recognizing that. What i would say about my class and the current class, one of the things is weve all had backgrounds in other industries. Right. We havent been career politicians. So we have a bias towards action. Thats where republicans and democrats. So they bring a different mentality here that we havent seen in a while. Im hopeful for the future. There are some members committed to getting things done. Were just hearing the announcement of the Republican Team and then well see what happens after that. Then the color guard and the National Anthem. Then well have that first pitch. Chris, let me ask you, as we understand the president has taped a meblg. Well see that. Hes not here tonight. He obviously gave some very emotional comments yesterday about what happened. Today, though, he has been on twitter five times tweeting about hillary crooked hillary, the witch hunt, the Washington Post on bob mueller being phony. Thats what hes done today. You just saw Roger Williams from texas wearing the purple tcu walking out on crutches because he dove head first yesterday to avoid someone who was hunting members of congress. The president does this. Its a boombust psyche 78. He gives a speech that anybody would say thats kind of the message you want to hear. Lets focus on the victims and what matters here. Then at 6 55 in the morning hes on the special counsel. And then at 4 30 hes on hillary clinton, which makes it harder, i think, you know, i hear from a lot of republicans who say why dont you guys focus on the issues, from democrats focus on the kwlishs. This is not a private citizen offering his thoughts. This is the single most powerful politician in the country, maybe in the world, who is constantly suggesting that his priority in terms of what he feels personally is not this stuff. Thats it. Look. It is a good thing that cnn is here at this game. That we are here. That people are getting to see us. People need to understand you dont like the way in which people interact in congress, you need to elect different people. You need to elect people who are more kbhitsed to bipartisanship, who do believe that working is good, that compromise is not capitulation. We cant change it from this level. He did what he could but you cant altar the makeup of the congress in a day or a week. Theres also question of where leadership comes from. Youre making the point that it could come from everywhere. But it also needs to come from the president of the United States. It did yesterday but when you get tweets like today, its nothing the media can ignore. As leader of the country, this is what hes chosen to talk about today. There is coequal branches of government. Congress is one of those. The president has he can say what he wants to say but our government is actually run by congress as well and the Judicial Branch has a role also. Thats why were resilient. Thats why we can disagree and thats why we can have a battle of ideas. But we need to make sure that were talking the way we want our children to talk angds the way we want our dwrand children to take. It starts with some of the basic things we learned in kindergarten. Be nice to people. Right. Be honest. It isnt things like crooked hillary at 5 00 in the afternoon today. Thats just the realty. A couple of things. One is i absolutely agree with the congressman about the three branches of government. I think we get caught up at least people look at the white house and say the president , it begins and ends with him. But the fact of the matter is it does. He needs to lead by example and he hasnt. I actually have a lot of sympathy for the congressmen leer, they have to answer questions from us day in and day out about whatever President Trump is tweeting about. Thats got to be hard. Im glad you recognize that. Can i i hope somebodys recording this. Can i just say there is nothing more american than baseball. And you have these are not the boys of summer out here. They are many, many summers ago. What makes it so they all came here and did not want to cancel this game. Right. Yep. Yeah. I think it is important to point that out. Right. All wearing the same hat in honor of steve. Theyre playing against each other and they want to have a winner and loser. As long as the game is played fairly, theres winners and losers. They come in tide tonight tied overall. Im a nerd about these things. The republicans about can congressional baseball matches . Yeah. Thats funny. Republicans, seven, eight games in a row because the member of congress from louisiana cents an amazing picture. Last year republicans one by one run. Now i will resign myself they didnt take him out of the seat . No. Jeff zuckerman was looking for not me. We have just talent. We have new talent being rolled out tonight. The question. Congressman chblgts former cia agent, used to the dark arts, why are you here . Im a basketball player. Im a basketball player. Ok. Youll see me in that game. This is obviously the republicans have fanned out as were finishing the announcement. From this event were going to have the color guards. There will be the color guard and then the National Anthem and then there will be in a first pitch. Which as i said, its should be the British Ambassador but that could change. Well see. Its striking to think that literally almost started shooting started at 7 09 yesterday morning. To be able to do this and have these guys out here and is meaningful and we should stop and take history it does speak to resilience. Make too much of one thing. But persistence, getting knocked down and get up. 36 hours ago a man was shooting at them, struck a member of congress as well mike emricka. Palmer said he was aimed at. Yes. Theyre out there now playing. Look at the crowd size. Its so much larger. There were reports today that they were selling 500 tickets an hour. Its not too late. Come on. Its for charity. Usually youre not going to draw a crowd size. This looks i dont know. 20,000 theyre expecting . I dont know. Hold on. People to contribute but many of them are walk right up to theweekold now at Nationals Park. Get a ticket for ten bucks. It goes to great causes. This is a bigger turn out. I hope every year, not just this year but every year we do this in honor of what occurred 36 hours this was ok. This is a bigger more emotional thing than in years passed. That being said, this lab my girlfriend now wife at the time doing the threelegged raise in the middle of the sixth inning in the congressional baseball game. This has regularly been a really good event where if you felt that partisanship was crushing, that members of congress hated one another, this has always been that. Its nice that its getting yeah. Jooft its a sad way to get more publici publicity, but it is nice. It is. They were out practicing at 6 30 in the morning. They were automatic doing that. They had been out there doing that for a couple of months. They dont just show up that day. They care passionately about it. I cant put too fine a point on this. The members, a limb bit over 24 hours ago saw their life pass before their eyes, right . And thats not going to sink in to everybody today or tomorrow. But it is. Theyre going out there. This is part of the healing process for them as well. Think about all the staffers that are here that had one of their own, you know, with a gaping chest wound just yesterday. You know, this is what a lot of people here and its ka thartdic and its good we can all appreciate that. Instead of showing highlights of steve king, i would suggest you go back and show Roger Williams talking the other day about how this is something to represent those men and women that are still willing to put on a uniform, put themselves in harms way in order to protect others. We did, i thought, run a great joe partson, the manager of the Republican Team and mike doyle from pennsylvania, the Democratic Team did a presserville ability. They spoke in personal terms about their lives. Congressman bartons son was there. Yes. If you havent seen it, go back and watch it. We forget sometimes. This is dumb but members of congress are human beings. I think thats right. And truly affected by this. Members were truery affected by this, because they knew there by the grace of god. Were seeing the color guards. A moment ago pelosi, ryan, schumer, mccarthy, leadership were all together sort of laughing and smiling. Go ahead. The color guard. I think theres two very important points. Were seen around the world here and were often cnn. Were talkingant the division, here in the United States between president , demsz, republicans and what have you. This is a very big moment i think for people around the world. Lets just listen in here and well have the National Anthem. [ cheers and applause ] announcer star spangled b