Cnn did not question the motivation behind trumps fundraiser, the one he held instead of attending the primary debate. We asked simple questions about the money trail. But instead of simply explaining those details today, mr. Trump turned the announcement into a storm of insults, name calling and questioning the role of a free press. Im the only one in the world could raise almost 6 million for the veterans, have uniform applause by the veterans groups and end up being criticized by the press. You keep calling us the disgusting, dishonest press. I disagree with this. Excuse me, excuse me. I have watched you on television. Youre a beauty. Im accountable. I didnt want credit for it. Now, actually, though, what i got was worse than credit questioning me. What youre doing is answering the questions now that we had back then and just a question. Look. Heres the story. Heres the story. Is it a question im dealing with the press a long time. I think the Political Press is among the most dishonest people i have met. I wanted to tell you this. I didnt want it with the presses all involved and all of a sudden everybodys going where did it go . We said who it went to and how much was it. Im not looking for credit. But what i dont want is when i raise millions of dollars, have people say, like this sleazy guy right over here from abc, he is a sleeds in my book. Youre a sleaze because you know the facts and you know the facts well. Go ahead. [ inaudible ] is this what it will be like covering you president . Yeah. It is going to be like this, david. If the press writes false stories, i continue to attack the press. Look. I find the press to be extremely dishonest. I may be right or wrong but thats who i am. You think im changing . Im not changing. Let me bring in my colleague you saw there, the top of the clip, jim acosta with a front row seat to that today. Jim, you say trump is always scathing of the media. You tweet about it. You say today this felt different. Why . Reporter well, you know, it was it was rather pointed. I think what you saw happen inside trump tower behind me a couple of hours and over the course of 60 minutes was basically donald trump not being very comfortable answering these questions about where this money was going to the veterans groups and visibly ainngry and anger boiled over before. You have carried many of the rallies live in your show. He goes after the news media as the disgusting news media, dishonest news media and were just sort of asking the questions here. Wheres the money coming from and going . And because of those questions, were not getting an accounting of where that moneys going. As you said at the top of this, this should have been a day donald trump talked about the causes for these veteran groums hes raising money for. Good, worthwhile there helping our nations veterans but sort of was overshadowed by this, you know, donald trump going after the news media display we saw take place over the course of 60 minutes and you heard at the end of the News Conference he said this is how White House Press briefings are going to play out and hes going to engage with the press and feels like theyre doing bad, negative stories on them, he is going to go after them. Keep in mind, brooke, this started in january skipping that Republican Debate and offered to hold the event and raised 6 million and all the news media is doing asking is wheres the money coming from and going and the Campaign Manager said 5 million and then donald trump said its around 5 million. And so, these are just questions being asked, raised. But this is very much what donald trump does when he goes after his critics hitting them hard. He did it against the gop rivals, the press and the upcoming general election battle against Hillary Clinton. This is very much tactical as much as it was emotional, brooke. Jim acosta and give you props for not missing a beat with screaming there behind you. Thank you so much here in new york. Lets broaden now the discussion and bring in my panel. I have dylan beyers standing by. I have boris epstein, republican strategist and trump surrogate and supporter. David ferin fold and mo alayi. Gentlemen, welcome to all of you. And, david, let me just turn and begin with you because we have been reading your post pieces. You have been, you know, for quite a while holding mr. Trumps feet to the fire with the veterans fundraiser piece. Right . Well get to the media bashing in a second but you eloquently outnulined the questions you wanted. Do you feel like you got them . Partly. We wanted to know how much trump raised. 5. 5 million. More than what Cory Lewandowski was telling us. A lot of money. Wow. For the folks that got the donations, a huge life changing donation. The point is not to say he didnt give money to veterans but not sort of giving details of what had happened to the money he said he would permly give and gathered from others to give away and we know the total figure now and the question is what took so long and trump talked a lot about vetting. I had to vet the groups to make sure they were worthwhile and trying to dig in to figure out how much vetting and the news groups that got the money. Boris, in a minute. Okay. Watching you watching your face. Dylan, to you, lets just back up and mention, you know, it was cnn, our investigations unit, drew griffin who really exposed the va story on a national scale. It was january of 2014 when we broke it. And i know that, you know, drew and david and others have been asking all the Smart Questions as david outlined and still other questions remain as it pertains to the vets and others and amazing the money raised and the question is asked and today mr. Trump instead of focusing on the causing and the veterans railed on the media. Well, right. It is really incredible he railed on the media on this topic because its precisely the reporting thats been done by david and others to really press donald trump to address this issue and to address it publicly. And had that reporting not been done, had the media not done its job in that regard, we dont know if donald trump would have ever addressed this issue. We dont know how much money he might have raised for charity and what hes doing is coming back at the media and criticizing the media in large part to make the story about donald trump verse the media once again to draw attention away from the fact that he might not have raised this much money and attention away from the controversy over Trump University. Any day that donald trump can make the story trump verse the media plays very well with his base and it goes further to inoculate him against criticism and inquiry of the media. You look at every reporter in that room today at the press conference. They were doing their jobs despite what donald trump says but thats not what his followers believe. They believe theyre biassed and dishonest. Boris, lets turn to you and respond to all of this, but also, just mentioning trump said he didnt want any credit but the top of the presser he said, essentially, you know, the media is not nice to me and not getting the credit. He said he didnt want any credit because the plan was to raise the money to donate the money and not to have a big presser talking about it. What dylan said is so unfair. That trump may not have given the money if he wasnt pressed by the press and so unfair and out of line, frankly, to question someones motives who did have this event, did raise the money and gave 1 million of his own money so talking about the unfair press, thats a perfect example of that saying how can you put it out there, you have no idea, dylan, somebody would i cant crawl into Donald Trumps head. Right. Neither can i. Again, i say it again, i think its extraordinary 5. 6 million going to the amazing groups. 92 . But this is somebody to be the leader of the free world and we the press sure. The free press, thank goodness in this country, should get to ask the questions. Absolutely. Youre asking. You get to ask the questions but the premise of he wouldnt have given the money if the press hadnt asked is out of line. An interesting parallel is trump talks about the va and terrible and there are a lot of problems. Trump uses says im the person to fix the va. Think about how complicated, the money, the people, rules involved, whats happened here and raising 6 million, finding groups, distributing it, this is a much less complicated thing that trumps done and really been unhappy about the scrutiny received over this relatively simple operation so to me an interesting parallel of that and reforming the va. Mo, im assuming you would call it a nightmare potentially for a campaign, but wont this help . Will this help among Trump Supporters everything that he stood by and said today . Yeah. I think both the Trump Campaign and the Clinton Campaign are happy with that performance because they both are actually able to reinforce a narrative they want to drive. The Clinton Campaign says, see, this is the donald trump who is unhinged, who will rail against anyone who even remotely starts to criticize him. This is the risky donald trump we have been talking about. The Trump Campaign points to supporters saying this is the guy to take on the establishment and the media and fight against these injustices and both sides will be able to frame it the way they want to. Now, i think theres some definite points in there that hurt donald trump. The notion that him saying i never wanted any credit when the whole thing was around an event that he held in january in iowa where he was trying to take credit for helping veterans. He didnt attend the debate. Instead he held or he was participating in the fund raiser to raise money for veterans. Nothing wrong with that. Isnt that great . The notion that hes sayisaying look. Hes saying i didnt want any yesterday for it. Okay . Now, hes also saying take my word for it. How dare you question my motives. Take my word for it. This is a guy who questions motives all the time. Didnt afford the president of the United States that same courtesy questioning his birth certificate. What made it truly remarkable was not that he went after the press. That is about as typical republican tactic as you can get. It was about as typical as you can get in the Republican Party to attack the Mainstream Press and what made it truly outrageous and fascinating is anger. The anger we saw there. You dont see that very often from a president ial campaign. You dont see that, raises questions about how thin skinned donald trump. Not at all. Really is. I would also say isnt that why so many people like him . Dylan . Look, look. It is not just that hes thin skinned and barely stand up to any level of scrutiny but the expectations of the press to be laudatory in terms of what happened today and why arent you saying how great this thing is . Youre bias shining through everything youre saying. No. I dont have any bias for or against donald trump. Come on. Be honest. For accountability. No. But what about this point . What about this point . This is before i ask you all to stand by. Boris, listen. It is our job to have a thicked skin. Were in the press. People arent really nice to us. We get over that. But, you know, for somebody to sit there and Ask Donald Trump will this be how you treat the White House Press corps elected president . Okay. Great. Whatever. But is this how you treat critics, World Leaders . The second in that oval office in the white house, you have critics in every corner of the globe. He said today hes not changing. Is that okay . Donald trump throughout his career has shown unbelievable ability to be successful in the boardroom, in negotiations with folks all over the world. Im not asking about success. Both World Leaders. Tone. Both World Leaders and business people. Tone matters to a degree and success is what mat earls in this country. Does tone matter . Ask Teddy Roosevelt and not meek and very brash. Truman, very brash and successful president s who had the ability to be out there. If i may respond to mo saying, thes not one voter not voting for donald trump based on today. Voters are angry and he is channelling that anger and voters are attracted to it. I agree with you. Lets ask you to stand by. Im not finished with you all yet. A reminder, jake tapper interviewing Hillary Clinton this afternoon on the lead coming up after my show. 4 00 eastern here on cnn and shell respond to what were discussing. Donald trump responds to a prominent conservative saying hes found a Third Party Candidate to run against the presumptive nominee. How mr. Trump responded to that and other narratives from the presser. Hillary clinton gets a huge endorsement of someone whos had a longtime feud with her and specifically with her husband. Why the bad blood is wiped clean. And breaking news involving the death of that gorilla at the cincinnati zoo. Have you heard about this . Prosecutors now revealing an investigation is, in fact, under way. Hear why. Youre watching cnn. 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So, lets begin now with what donald trump said today about Weekly Standard editor bill kristol who tweeted out over the weekend he has an independent candidate in the works. Bill kristol is a loser. His magazine is failing, as you know. I dont think it even survives. Hes getting some free publicity. Bill kristol, im watching this for two years. Trump isnt going to run. I did into the race. New hampshire. He is not going to win New Hampshire. Win in a landslide. I was not going to win and i win in a landslide. Do you think maybe he doesnt like me . I can tell you bill kristol responded to that on twitter, quote, i gather donald trump said im a loser, i won and lost some and tried not to be is a roaring jackass. Can i say that on cnn . Okay, good. Because i just did. David, turning to you first, to his point, people saying what the heck is bill kristol . Because were supposed to have a candidate by the end of the holiday weekend. Its tuesday. Whats going on . Well, i dont know. Longer this goes on, the less relevant it becomes and states filing deadlines are passing. But still, even if he were to get on for a number of key states, that makes a dent. And then a kamikazi president. People are willing to take Great Lengths apparently in go around. You dont know whats up with this . No. Comic relief, thiss for sure. What about susanna martinez. Trump surrogate, trump asked about the attacks against shes one of the countrys most popular governor, latino governor. Trump recently, shes got to do a better job. Heres mr. Trump today. She was not nice and i was fine, just a little bit of a jab. But she wasnt nice and you think im going to change . Im not changing including with her. So, she is well liked, republican, latina, head of the governors association. Shes not someone he should be irking. Why is he not courting her instead of saying what he did . Hes not a usual politician. A regular politician would do trying to unify the party and coalescing behind mr. Trump and shes a mega voice in the party . Key for the rest of the p