President trump will we hear tonight . Lets start with Cnns Kaitlan Collins at the white house. Kaitlan, obviously arizona an important state. Trump carried it in november. Immigration is a hot button issue. Hes been critical of both republican senators. What are we expecting to hear tonight . We are not going see the President Trump we saw last night where he was scripted, as you said, very measured and careful as he outlined his afghanistan policy. Instead, we will see the trump we typically see at these campaignstyle rallies, rambunctious and shoot from the hip. Will he go after members of his own party . Theres a lot of tension in arizona with the mayor of phoenix telling the president to delay his rally there tonight because of the tensions in the country because of the violence in charlottesville. Its obvious the president decided not to go do that, instead Going Forward with the rally. Also, he has been at odds with the two republican senators from there. We know he is still frustrated with john mccain as he voted no on the administrations effort and that the senates effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care act. The president hasnt forget because he brought it up in new york last week. We know he has been going after senator jeff flake. This is someone who has been very critical of the president and last week, in a tweet, trump said that he was weak on borders, toxic and a nonfactor in the senate and endorsed the woman who is trying to take jeff Flakes Senate seat. Well be watching to see if the president continues to criticize the senators. On afghanistan, is the white house saying anything about President Trumps refusal to be drawn on any specific numbers when it comes to increasing troop levels there . Reporter they are. They are batting down the notion the president was distancing himself from the decision to deploy thousands more troops to afghanistan without naming a number last night. The director of Strategic Communications for the National Security council said it was absurd the president was distancing himself from the idea and trump knows he is the commander in chief and he owns this decision. Instead, by not naming a specific number of troops, Michael Anton says the president was giving tactical authority to the pentagon and outlining regional strategy for the area. Clarissa . Kaitlan, thank you very much. I want to discuss the president s afghan war strategy with the panel. We have retired general, who was assistant secretary of state in the bush administration. We tired lieutenant general, commander in afghanistan, we have ambassador dan feldman, who was the state Department Special representative for afghanistan and pakistan in the Obama Administration and we have dr. Rebecca grant, a National Security and military analyst. Really, allstar panel here. General, let me start out with you. What were your initial thoughts about the president s speech last night and how is his strategy for dealing with afghanistan distinctly different from president obamas . I was taken aback from the speech last night. In my view, President Trump doubling down on the strategy of the predecessor barack obama and george w. Bush. There was very little in that speech that couldnt have been given by either of those two earlier president s in 2005, 2009 or 2012 in afghanistan. Theres more continuity in this approach than anything from this president. Thats a reversal from what we heard from ben kennedy during the campaign and much of the initial indications as he was looking at options the last several months. That surprised me. The question then is how does this become a Winning Strategy . Is there anything that gives it an edge over previous strategies, which, you know, those of us who spent a lot of time on the ground in afghanistan dont appear to be working terribly well. Well, i would say three things. First of all, what is working well is the last 16 years we have not had a major strike on the United States such as 9 11 because of the Counter Terrorist efforts we are doing in afghanistan. Number two, i think there is a minor difference. President bush and president obama put forces into afghanistan and used American Forces in direct combat. This plan is one where we spend more time doing advice assistance training, over the shoulder training 4,000 put in by President Trump. I think it is a different tactic and last, the emphasis on pakistan, which is nowhere close to the view that president , president obama had with pakistan. Those president s saw pakistan as either neutral or a quasi ally. It was put to rest last night how President Trump feels about pakistan. Well, it may have been put to rest how he feels about pakistan, but its one thing to say, okay, we need to talk pakistan, they need to take more responsibility. They need to stop harboring terrorists. Ambassador, you have seen for yourself, the reality of getting pakistan to do that is somewhat more con va luted. Same with the afghans need to take the lead here. Did you see indication that trumps strategy for dealing with pakistan and afghanistan is in any way an improvement on the obama strategy . I would agree with the general. I think what we heard last night and what was surprising was the fact it was relatively status quo. Many things were part of the obama strategy and the bush strategy before that, including being tough on pakistan. You had the commander of the joint chief say several years ago under obama, the network is an arm o. Pakistan intelligence. There were plenty of times when the past administrations have been very, very tough on pakistan, although, frequently chose to do it in more private settings to be more effective. What is missing in this, though i welcome sending a few thousand more troops to help stabilize the situation, what President Trump called for was an integrated Political Economic strategy. What we have heard nothing about the economic strategy. All the things you said, whether its talking tough with pakistan, engaging the region, trying to incentivize it or laying out a vision for the Afghan Government in terms of what is expected for them or how we deal with our nato allies and what we seek. You will need a very, very robust, diplomatic strategy. We dont see a sign of what that will be or who can do that now. You raise a very interesting point that struck me when i was listening to the speech. It was almost buried in there, this idea of a potential future reconciliation with the taliban and dr. Grant, i wonder, based on your analysis of the situation on the ground, how realistic is that right now . Does the taliban have an incentive to come to the negotiating table . Yeah, that struck me, too. We know theres been more connection between the russians and the taliban. Thats worrying. Here is what i think the essence of what trump is trying to do. He wants to try the tactic that is work in mosul, get the advisers closer to the firing line, coach afghan allies, use air power. They are on track to double the number of air strikes this year. Already 1,245 air strikes, they are going double what they did last year. If you can make progress, little by little as we saw in mosul, then you say, yeah, maybe the taliban are part of the solution. We know President Trump doesnt like to telegraph military operations, like he thinks the ghost of Dwight Eisenhower is going to get him if he says too much, he is playing it slowly and thats why he didnt give specific numbers. He doesnt like to be drawn on specifics, which one can understand but convenient on the other level because you dont have to answer for what the specific methodology would be. I want to play you all sound from President Trump last night when he was talking about the idea of shifting from deadlines to a conditions based exit. Take a listen. A core pillar of our new strategy is a shift from a time based approach to one based on conditions. I have said it many times how counter productive it is for the United States to announce in advance the dates we intend to begin or end military options. General, just very quickly, your thoughts on this . What are the conditions that would allow the u. S. To finally leave afghanistan . I think thats an open question, a more difficult issue is how to get to those conditions. They are looking for a more stable Afghan Government and military that can fight largely on its own. Thats a long ways from where we are today. How the president is going to get there, that is part of articulating your strategy. You have to identify what is the road map. Its not telegraphing your punches and your exact ideas, but the people fighting need to understand what is the theory of victory . How do we get to that and how long is it going take and how much are we willing to spend given we have been there 16 years. Indeed. Panel, thank you so much for jounging us with your perspective. This just in to cnn. We have learned the Treasury Department is taking action to isolate north korea even more. Diane gallagher is here with the details. Diane, what are you learning . Clarissa, this is about china and russia, but in reality, north korea. The Treasury Department in the past hour, announcing a new round of sanctions on chinese and russian entities. Ten groups, six individuals who they believe could be assisting in some way north Koreas NuclearMissile Program and the energy trade there. The Treasury Department, the secretary, Steve Mnuchin saying the individuals may be allowing them to access u. S. Financial system or the exploration of workers. Obviously, you are aware, over the past month or so, as it has rhetoric is ratcheted up, the United States admitted they need china if they are going to work through diplomacy here but they may have that on their side. The past month, earlier, the United Nations security counsel voted unanimously, including russia and china to add additional sanctions on north korea. All right. An interesting update. Diane gallagher, thank you so much. Coming up for us, the debate over confederate monuments has not cooled down in charlottesville. We will show you the chaos that erupted at a city counsel meeting there and the social media post that has the wife of trumps treasury secretary in some hot water. See what she said. Stay with us. At holiday inn express, we cant guarantee that youll be able to contain yourself at our breakfast bar. Morning, egg white omelet. Sup lady bacon fruit, there it is but we can guarantee that youll get the best price when you book with us. Holiday inn express. Be the readiest. And when youod sugar is a replace one meal. Choices. Or snack a day with glucerna. Made with carbsteady. To help minimize blood sugar spikes. You can really feel it. Now with 30 less carbs and sugars. Glucerna. Megans smile is getting a lot because she uses act® mouthwash. Act® strengthens enamel, protects teeth from harmful acids, and helps prevent cavities. Go beyond brushing with act®. [ inaudible ] [ bleep ] [ bleep ] [ bleep ] [ bleep ] [ bleep ] [ bleep ]. You can see their anger boiling over in charlottesville, virginia in the First City Council meeting since the deadly rally by White Supremacists. Accusing them for having blood on their hands for not removing the statues before the hat rally could start. This, as a leader of President Trumps own party says the president , quote, messed up with last weeks inflammatory comments. A lot to talk about with the panel. We have keith boykin, a former white house aide at strategist, a reporter for the Washington Post, Patrick Griffin is a Campaign Strategist and adviser to four president ial campaigns and cnn politics reporter and editor at large, chris cillizza. Keith, let me start with you. You saw the anger in that room. Then you heard the words of President Trump last night, clearly trying on some level to make amends or start the healing process. Do you think his words last night were enough to begin that healing process or are people not ready let go of this, yet. The two words i heard last week were moral clarity. I dont think the president , even when he tries to speak about an issue from the teleprompter or scripted remarks is speaking with moral clarity. You cant, on one day, talk about unity and the next day tweet about how you hate your enemies and these people are divisive and the outside agitators are antipolice. These are the type of mixed messages the president of the United States is communicating. Its time for the president and john kelly, if hes capable, to have a hearttoheart with the American People thats based on sincerity, not based on what the pundits are telling him to do. He needs to speak to us from whats in his heart. I fear what is in his heart is hatred. Thats not good for america. You work at the Washington Post. The Washington Post had a poll out recently, i think we have it here, we can get it here. The Approval Ratings or lack of approval, 56 of people disapprove of the president s handling of this situation. What is your read on whether there was any sort of soothing bond in his words last night . Would those numbers be affected or is this, you know, its easy to read from a teleprompter, but what you do is more important than what you say. The majority of people think he handled it well considering what happened. Then the back and forth of sunday, monday and what he said tuesday. He lost a lot of people. Last night was a moment to reset. He did it by using the forum of the military and the example of the military and the various backgrounds of everybody in the military. Its a different approach to this problem, which he hasnt managed to do convincingly or well. The clean up. Now the question is, does he maintain this Going Forward . He has campaignstyle rally today in arizona. Itis a different environment. Is not twitter, but a twitterstyle trump, giving a serious speech in front of soldiers. If he can maintain, he could win some people back. He lost a bunch of people because he was such a mess. He had his own party, most people in his party coming out and taking a hard stand of where they stood about white nationalists or repudiating the president saying not good enough, you have to do more. To that point, patrick, we heard from paul ryan on a town hall with jake tapper, saying, listen, trump messed up. I dont think we often hear that kind of direct critique from ryan. What was your read on that . Well, i think the speaker was right. President trump did mess up last week. It was as bad week. When you create moral equivalency with white nationalists and others who are equally disgusting and people there to oppose that kind of thing, it gets very, very murky and bad. The president does have problems and healing to do in his own party. However, i think last night was a good beginning for this president. I have, on more than one occasion criticized President Trump for his tweets and the things he says. Last night was a solid reset. He used a president ial opportunity to behave president ially, even his style and tone last night was, i thought, very untrump. I dont know if thats what happens when the president is exposed to a Solar Eclipse or not, but the trump we saw last night was very president ial, all about healing and used this effort in afghanistan to talk about healing our nation at home first. It was a very good speech for the president. The problem is, most enmys go back to that reset point, the de facto point that trump is a racist, i dont think that is true even though his behavior last week was not good. I want to draw your attention, we heard from Vice President pence this morning on fox and friends. Chris, cillizza, i would love you to listen to some of his thoughts on the issues of statues in charlottesville, then talk about it after we take a listen. Someone who believes in more monuments, not less. What we ought to do is remember our history, but celebrate the progress we have made since that history. I mean, chris, you heard it there. More monuments, not less. What is the strategy here . Well, i think everyone from donald trump on down understands a fight over moral relativism between White Supremacists and people there to protest White Supremacy is a loser, politically. No. A debate over monuments, which should come down, stay up, be built is, at least a way to pivot that conversation in a way that is at least worthy of debate as opposed to 99. 999 of the public viewing things one way. You have pence doing that, trump did a little of it last week and you have trump delivering an odd message out of his mouth, but a message i think for a lot of republicans they were happy to hear, which is an acknowledgement that he understands he screwed up the charlottesville situation. Its been a series of false starts down the president ial road. He gave what i thought was a good speech to the bipartisan joint session congress, kind o