Attack Charlottesville News Today

Bashing senators of his own party. lindsey graham colorfully in this "the new york times" article saying they will invoke article 5, obviously referencing the nato doctrine, one attack on a senator is an attack on all republican senators. look at how they rallied around jeff sessions when he went against him. he apologized to jeff sessions. we may see the president forced to do the same when it comes to the attacks were seeing now. >> clearly, phil mudd, the presidents reaction, some of the comm...

Congressman mark sanford and our correspondents and specialists are also standing by. first, lets go to our senior national correspondent alexander mar quart. hes in phoenix at the site of the presidents big rally later tonight. alex, so, what can we expect? >> reporter: well, wolf, the big question is which trump will show up. is it the free wheeling unscripted trump these people here, his base loves, or is it the more scripted on message, on teleprompter trump we saw last night in the speech...

>> well, i think he has backed up and made the vice-president stated, a number of different points of condemnation. the problem is it was late. the problem, again, there was that equivalency component i think troubled a lot of folks. if he wants to, again, come out with further condemnation, i think it would be a good thing. i dont know that this is where its going to fit in given i suspect much of the conversation, in fact, will be about border wall and what happens next on immigration. >> a lo...

Question will answer your question. will the president be trump or will he be president? when we saw the reaction to charlottesville, we saw a president who stepped back and said, im going to ad-lib and im going to talk about what im interested in, what my base is interested in. and he stepped out in a way outside of what his advisors would have suggested, horrible mistake. when he spoke last night about afghanistan, i was rereading it right before the show. whether you agree or disagree with wh...

Presidents overall approval at 37%. and just 28% approved of his response to the deadly violence in charlottesville. >> very fine people on both sides. >> reporter: monday night house speaker paul ryan told a cnn town hall that trump, quote, messed up. >> i think he made comments that were much more morally ambiguous, much more confusing. and i do think he could have done better. i think he needed to do better. >> reporter: today vice-president mike pence coming to trumps defense. >> the preside...

>> reporter: there are thousands. give a look at the line. there are thousands who have been lining up. there will probably be between 15 and 20,000 in there by the time its done. protesters hope to have up to 10,000, perhaps more protesters, several different protests they have planned. but it is not clear how this is going to go. wolf? >> were going to stay in very close touch with you. miguel marques on the scene for us in phoenix. stand by over there. in the meantime, lets talk a little bi...

Huge reelection campaign rallies as hes about to do tonight? a lot of people are wondering why. >> the one place im not going to try and get is inside donald trumps head. so, in fairness, hes going to do what hes going to do. you know, as a legislator, i have to simply react to what comes next from a legislative standpoint and its going to be an awfully busy season come, you know, a couple weeks -- couple days from now when we get back into session. >> right after labor day you have a lot of wor...

>> the president said there were very fine people on both sides. thats the statement that really irritated, angered so many people out there because on the one side there were white supremacists, kkk, neo-nazis. on the other side there were protesters who opposed those white supremacists. when you heard those words, very fine people on both sides, congressman, what was your reaction? >> well, as i just stated, a bit of shock and a bit of disappointment. you know, i attended business school in ch...

President trump a fresh taste of the charlottesville backlash. the states top republicans will be conspicuously absent tonight amid concerns about what he may say and the state of his presidency. also tonight, "the new york times" report that senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is spriechlly expressing uncertainty that mr. trump will be able to salvage his administration following one crisis after another this summer. right now republicans are divided over the presidents address to the nati...

And changing his view, the president abandons promises to get out of afghanistan, admitting hes going with the advice of his generals and against his instincts. new reaction tonight as mr. trumps policy is attacked by the far-right. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. im wolf blitzer. youre in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> we are following breaking news. president trump returning to campaign mode in arizona one week afte...