Puerto rico where the human need is so great in scope ask so urgent that it is written on the street in bold letters, sos. The president and fema administrator answered tough questions about conditions on the ground. Exclusive cnn reporting on the russian probe. New cooperation between the special Counsel Robert Mueller and irs and how it could bring mueller closer to the red line. We begin tonight keeping him honest, with the president s latest take on the wave of protests sweeping nfl, with his attempt in football terms to claim credit for moving the ball when, in fact, he was on the opposite side of the play. Specifically this moment. Cowboys players wanted to show unity but they were very adamant about wanting to separate that message from the National Anthem. Lisa, as they take a knee collectively, boos can be heard from this sellout crowd in arizona. Dallas cowboys last night owner jerry jones included linking arms taking a knee before the playing of the National Anthem. The president tweeted about it today. Quote, the booing of the nfl game last night was the loudest i ever heard. Great anger. So far pretty standard stuff. Then he went on. While dallas dropped to its knees as a team they stood up for the National Anthem. Big progress being made. We all love our country. They all stood up for the National Anthem. Big progress says the president. Keeping them honest. The cowboys always stood while the starspangled banner was played. Jerry jones might have found a way to split the difference. However, for the president to call it progress, it ignores a key fact. He ignores what sparked it in the first place. Wouldnt you love to see one of these nfl owners when somebody disrespects our flag to say get that son of a bitch off the field right now . Out. Hes fired. Hes fired president in front of an overwhelmingly white crowd in alabama calling Football Players protesting what they see as Racial Injustice sons of bitchs, they should be fired. A protest simmering for months to boil over the president s own words. Thats what it took to make an owner and a team of a long tradition of not protesting anything to protest this, the president s own words. Now, you can agree or disagree with how or why or what the players are protesting and were having a town hall on that subject tomorrow night at 9 00 p. M. But for the president to claim big progress for being made, lately whats happened is progress is cheering on the bomb squad after lighting the fuse. Jim, the president addressed this today during his press conference with the spanish Prime Minister. What did he say . Thats right, anderson, he denied whether hes obsessed with this issue of nfl and patriotism. He was asked if hes preoccupied with the issue since friday night. The president has tweeted about this some 24 times, compare that with his five tweets on puerto rico since friday night. Heres more of what the president had to say earlier today. I wasnt preoccupied with the nfl. I was ashamed of what was taking place because to me that was a very important moment. I dont think you can disrespect our country, our flag, our National Anthem. To me the nfl situation is a very important situation. I heard that before about was i preoccupied. Not at all. Not at all. I have plenty of time on my hands. All i do is work. Reporter we should point out after the president made those remarks the white house became preoccupied with Something Else and thats the devastation in puerto rico. Not only did the white house issue several pictures of the president talking to officials on the ground in puerto rico, they also sent the fema administrator and the acting department of Homeland Security secretary out to the cameras to talk to reporters what the administration is doing. In the last several minutes the white house has issued a statement a read out of the president s call with the governor of puerto rico saying that the governor there has quote repeatedly thanked the president for the federal response there. The president is at a fundraising dinner tonight in new york. Has he said anything about this at all . Reporter we dont have a read out just yet what the president said at this fundraiser in manhattan. Hes on his way back to the white house later on this evening. We should know more later on tonight. What we can tell you is last night he did have a dinner with leaders of the conservative movement over here at the white house and it was during that meeting im told by one of the attendees in the room that the president said a couple of times this is really caught on, this has really caught on in reference to his comments on nfl players and patriotism. He went on the say hes essentially saying what a lot of americans are thinking, according to this person in the room who was at this dinner last night with the president , he seemed pretty pleased with this uproar hes ignited over the last several days. Wherever you stand on the issue surrounding it both the protests and reaction to it including the president s views are deeply rooted. Its hard to forget the photo of two american medalists raising their fists at the 1968 olympics in a black power salute or john lewis tweeted out protesters led by andrew young taking a knee. Nor is refusing to the stand for the National Anthem anything knew. Listen to what Jackie Robinson wrote after retiring. I cant stand and sing the anthem, salute the flag. I know im a black man in a white world. Theres a long tradition of counter protest, all setting the stage for what were seeing today. Today i talked with pete carroll. President trump today in the rose garden said that the protest in the nfl were disgraceful, saying, quote, i dont think you can disrespect our flag, our country and our National Anthem. Do you feel thats whats going on here . Absolutely not. I dont see it anywhere pointed in that direction. Whats happening is players are rallying to protest and set out a message that they want to set out. It has nothing to do against the flag or against the country. Its the opposite. I think they are talking on behalf of freedom of speech and the constitution and having a message that they want to impart on the rest of the people in the country. What your team did on sunday in nashville deciding not to go out on the field during the National Anthem, i know you said it was the right statement for the moment. Can you explain what you meant by that . We had to figure out what we wanted to do. We wanted to do something and make sure it was unified and try to dignify the moment. Theres so much here to say. And that was the way that they decided to do it. They felt collectively about that. So that was the way we went about it. I know other teams, other organizations did things differently. Thats the way our guys thought best to do. The coach of the pittsburgh steelers, mike tomlin, said about his team, were a group not interested in making statements. Were a group in making impacts. Im wondering what you thought of that. Does that apply to the seahawks as well . Its a very good statement that mike makes there. Our guys in all of their efforts whether its seen on the field or off the field our guys are so active in their community. The last thing they want to do is be offensive to the country, the flag, the military, they stand absolutely in total support. They understand that. They know what they are doing. They wanted to make sure and start the dialogue, start the messaging and then work to a greater opportunity thats coming because of the protests that have taken place. Do you think the president understands that . I dont think so. I think it gets put back into other references. I think if we had the opportunity to share this new dialogue and this new conversation about freedom and about inequality and freedom of speech and he could see and feel what our players feel, i think it would make all the difference in the world. Could he . I dont know. Thats up to him. But i know our guys are willing to try and share the message. Theres an empathy here that needs to be understood if were going to make any move forward and make progress, and our guys are tuned into that and do whatever it takes to get that done in the most peaceful and proper manner possible. How do you see this playing out in the weeks and months ahead . Do you see players and teams continuing to protest like this during the National Anthem or before the game and would you continue to support your players if they wanted to . First off, this is an opportunity for us to create a new dialogue. You know, anderson, theres so much here. Theres so much that needs to be talked about, its a dialogue thats been uncomfortable and one that people dont know how to venture into. Our players clearly understand inequality. They clearly understand what it is to be marginalized, and they know that when they are not Football Players but off the field in their every day lives and with their children, how they have to prepare their children to act properly and be safe because of things they are up against. This is a dialogue thats so important that whatever we have to go to the next steps our guys are willing to do that. The president watches a lot of tv, a lot of cable news. If you could just Say Something what would you say to him . I wish i had a chance to sit down and talk with him. I would love to do that. But basically right now i just wish that he would understand that this is a moment to be empathetic and to listen, listen to what everybody is saying and have a chance to feel what thats all about without passing judgment. Thats what needs to happen. I see it as a empathy, preme from all different walks and all different opinions, we need to give ourselves the opportunity to hear the other side. Thats the first step in creating change. This is about change. Im hoping we can make progress and whatever it takes to get that done, you know, from the president on down, were ready to work at it. Finally, we had somebody on the program last night who said they believe the protests that we saw this weekend were more about were more protests against President Trump than they were protests against Racial Discrimination or, you know, allegations of Police Brutality or racial inequality in this country. Do you believe that it was about the president , or was it about the issues this all started with . No. The issues have been here for a long, long time. The opportunity was presented. I think thats what youve seen happen. Because of the statements that are made, the opportunity to go ahead and okay lets go for it right now, this is the time that maybe we can make a change and make a difference. This discussion has been coming for a long time. Right now is maybe the best opportunity weve ever seen for really accelerating the discussion and accelerating the openness and creating a new dialogue to create changes that are so necessary. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thanks for having us on. Quick reminder well be devoting an hour tomorrow night talking to some of the best and brightest and taking your questions. Its a cnn special town hall event, patriotism, players and the president. 9 00 p. M. Eastern time right here. Just ahead tonight the back story behind the president s decision to spotlight the decision. Later cnn exclusive new details from the russian investigation. A development that could take it exactly where the president least wants it to go. You know who likes to be in control . This guy. Check it out selfappendectomy oh, thats really attached. Thats why i rent from national. Where i get the control to choose any car in the aisle i want, not some car they choose for me. Which makes me one smooth operator. Ah still a little tender. vo go national. Go like a pro. Start here. At fidelity, we let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your retirement plan, youll always be absolutely. Clear. Its your retirement. Know where you stand. Like paperless, multicar,e aand safe driver,r. That help them save on their car insurance. Any questions . Yeah. How do you go to the bathroom . Great. Any insurancerelated questions . Mmhmm. Do you have a girlfriend . 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He liked the way the crowd responded. And on the way back he was talking about how well it did. He was planning to stick with it. He talked to a couple of people. He had dinner with a small group of people at his private club in new jersey. He asked a few members what do you think of this nfl issue. He got pretty muted responses from people who didnt think it was needed. Nope, this is great with my base. He did that again at a white house dinner last night with attendees. He said this had caught on. He feels very good about it. Also in the article you reported on other details. He was talking about everything at the event about crowd size, about even the color of his tie. He was reliving the sort of physical attributes related to both himself and the rally. He was speaking very little about Luther Strange who is the candidate he was supporting. An appearance occasionally at this rally but mostly about trump. Trump was talking about the crowds. The crowd was not as big as he hoped to be. He was questioning whether the pink tie would play well with this crowd in alabama. He was reliving all these greatest hit moments before this southern audience. Remember, one very important context note. We actually didnt get into this. In alabama that was where he saw his first big outside of the east coast rally, outside of iowa rally during the campaign. In his mind he had some special connection to the place. So is it fair to say that he felt like his nfl comments were the highlight of the evening . For him. I dont know that it was the stand out on its own if you had to take it down piece by piece but he felt it played the best with the crowd. So he was excited by it. Do the people in the white house, do they talk about as the president kind of pushing culture wars . The president igniting his base . They do. And pretty bluntly. People both inside and outside of the white house who are either in contact with the president or know him very well or are in contact with their aides all put it pretty simply this is somebody who is focused on stirring up his working class white base and he thinks this is the way to do it. He did this once before in the campaign in january 2016 during the height of the primary season when the votes were about to begin. He made some reference to this issue. It sort of died down, but he has decided this is a way to stir people and its interesting because you see him do this time and again where he rebels against the norms that are being put in place around him. Staff, had a put in some semblance of order in the white house. He had gotten the president towards, you know, some semblance of normalcy on certain aspects of the presidency. Not many. Kpt control the tweeting. But the president took a very baby and not permanent step towards bipartisanship and now rebelling against that because hes getting concerned. Frankly even if he hadnt done this nfl thing, during that rally, he was very equivocal on Luther Strange. You could see the president doubting his own choice and what it meant for him. Fascinating to me the people you talked to are very open and this is about appealing to White Working Class base and getting people riled up. There is not a lot of veneer in this white house about what exactly theyre up to and the president is up to and what his thinking is, is one of the areas for better or worse most candid. Thank you very much. Joining us now cnn political commentator who served in the white house during president bushs term. Appreciate both of you being with us. Dr. West, the president says his comments had nothing to do with race. You hear maggie hash brman reporting. How do you see it . Well, i think the president needs to get off the symbolic crack pipe and have a sense of reality. The reason why these courageous young people are standing up is because they have a love for black people, a love of justice and a love of fairness, and they are concerned about a racist criminal Justice System. Its a beautiful thing to see this kind of moral, spiritual awakening taking place among the athletes. They represent not just athletic excellence, but theyre now aspiring to spiritual and moral excellence. Excellence is about love. You step down and let the world know you have a love for these people not being treated right. You have a love for these people being treated unfairly. Im a christian brother. So every flag is under