To gain the right to vote. To achieve the sacred birth right of equality here. Thats big stuff, thats big stuff. Those are very big phrases, very big words. Here we memorialize the brave men and women who struggle to sacrifice and sacrifice so much so that others might live in freedom. All right, i want to bring in athena jones now. Shes at the museum. So how was the president s messages received today . Hi, fred. Well, there was certainly applause after those remarks. And during those remarks, especially when he recognized the widow of medger evers, who was there inside the museum during the tour. He came, he toured the museum, he saw several exhibit, including freedom writers, who helped desegregate buses in the 60s. He mentioned james meredith, who was the first black student to attend the segregated university of mississippi in 1962. He spent a good deal of time talking about medgar evers himself who was assassinated here in jackson in 1963. Yak sons airport is named after him. Its interesting, that bit of sound, that clip you played just now, with the president talking about the fight to end slavery, to break down jim crow, end segregation, gain the right to vote. A lot of the president s critics, those protesting his inclusion in todays festivities, including congressman thompson from right here in mississippi and georgia representative john lewis, who is himself a civil rights icon, part of their argument has been this president has not been a strong defender of civil rights. They point to a long list of concerns, including the fact he questioned the legitimacy of americas first black president , the fact he has endorsed an plan plan Senate Candidate roy moore who when asked when america was last great, he said back in slavery, back when families were united, even though we had slavery. Theyve also talked to the criticism hes logged at mostly black nfl players who have been protesting racial inequality and they point to his Voter Integrity Commission that many see as an to actually suppress votes. So a lot of detractors here. That may be one reason he chose to deliver his remarks indoors to a smaller group. Athena jones, thank you so much. All right, lets talk more about the president s controversial visit to the new Civil Rights Museum in mississippi. Joining me right now is Cornell Williams brook, a cnn contributor and former president of the naacp. Cornell, good to see you. Its good to see you too. So im wondering, what did you believe the president s goal to be if he was not going to respond to the litany of criticisms that were just outlined by athena and previous guests who talked about his track record dating back to, you know, housing discrimination to, you know, leading the berther movement, trying to discredit the first africanamerican president. What was the president s goal, in your view, and did he achieve it . The president s trip to mississippi, to the mississippi Civil Rights Museum had the effect of marginalizing and trivializing the civil rights victories of the past and the struggles in the present. So his visit to mississippi, which provided a kind of whitewash and to his visit to florida, endorsing roy moore. Is, frankly, disgraceful. Its a matter of political opportunism. Than it was a true acknowledgement, recognition and honoring of the sacrifices of people like medgar evers. There werent enough hours to separate the president s remarks in pensacola, supporting a candidate who the president says is to help push his personal agenda, his political agenda, but at the same time, one cannot forget about the allegations of being a pedophile thats right. The allegations of being a racist, by his own words that were recorded, trying to draw parallels between greatness and slavery. Thats right. And then the president would be at the Civil Rights Museum and he would say you know, and reiterate the importance of, you know, trying to have representations there at the Civil Rights Museum, that talk about the efforts of ending oppression, to break down jim crow, and to achieve the sacra birth right of equality. So why does the president not see and why would his office or anyone not see that the hours separating those giant opposing events makes it very difficult for a lot of people to digest . Very difficult to digest. But this was not a matter of political miscalculation. We need to be very clear here. Listen to the president s remarks. All the verbs were in the past tense. In terms of civil rights struggles in the past. All the nouns were referred to the civil rights struggles of the past and did not speak to the current civil rights struggles in which this president stands against those who stand for civil rights. Note that when president obama went to selma a few years ago, he stood beside john lewis, as opposed to President Trump being boycotted by john lewis in jackson today. So this is not a matter of political miscalculation. In fact, what the president is trying to do is to whitewash his civil rights record. His civil rights record is really not a matter of not doing i should say, doing too little. Or not going fast enough. But doing too much, going in the wrong direction. This is a president whose attorney general stands against the use of consent degrees to prevent Police Brutality and protect civilians from police misconduct. This is a president who supports a Voter Fraud Commission which perpetuates the myth of voter fraud while turning a blind eye to voter suppression. This is a president , on a regular and re curing basis, uses language and rhetoric and political speech i should say political tweets to divide americans. To refer to mexicans as rapists. To refer to nfl players as sons of bs, to demonize and diminish the legacy of black women. And so the point being here is his visit to mississippi does in no way obliterates, in no way whitewashes his record on civil rights which is precisely why people are so offended by his trip to the museum. For those who do support the president among them we had our guest on earlier, a trump supporter, and he said that people need to be looking at what the president is doing now. And paris denard was saying the tax plan is one in which africanamericans would be benefiting. Help said the lowering of the unemployment among africanamericans are a continuation of that, should be credited to the president of the United States, and that that should count. Well, listen with all due respect to mr. Denard, rhetoric around tax reform is not a substitute for racial dignity. The fact of the matter is, the tax reform package supported by the president written on the back of a napkin as the senators were voting, in fact, does a tremendous amount of harm to those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder, is not good for the economy, is roundly and widely panned as being a tool which will exacerbate income inequality. So with all due respect to the apologist to the president , you dont get to duck the ways in which you perpetuate racism by talking about tax reform. This is not acceptable. So now what for the president . How would you challenge the president to to encourage his words of promise to be the president of all people to be met by actions that would be mindful of all people of this nation . Well, i would encourage and call upon the president to stand in the full stature of the office. Which is to say when a president visits a museum, when a president uses a symbolic weight of the office, they use it to speak to policy, they use it to speak to current challenges. Not a nostalgic road trip but to speak before the current challenges. So the president can take a stand against voter suppression. The president can take a stand against police misconduct. The president can take a stand against the discrimination we see in the workplace daily or the discrimination that we see in our schools. The point being here is the president needs to act in a president ial matter as opposed to engaging in this president ial hypocrisy of standing against civil rights while commending civil rights. Which is a moral perversion. The president wants some sense of how he should be with respect to civil rights. Take a note or two from president obama. He did a more than decent job at that. Cornell william brook, good to see you, thank you. Good to see you. All right, its down to the wire in the Alabama Senate race, as President Trump does stum for roy moore. Democratic star power is also pouring into that state. And a show of support for the democrat doug jones. So will that make a difference in these final hours . Were live in alabama next. more people shop online for the holidays than ever before. clapping and the United StatesPostal Service delivers more of those purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest. Even the smallest things a trip back to the dthe doctors office, mean just for a shot. But why go back there, when you can stay home. With Neulasta Onpro . Strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection. Neulasta helps reduce infection risk by boosting your white blood cell count, which strengthens your immune system. In a key study, neulasta reduced the risk of infection from 17 to 1 . A 94 decrease. 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Voters will decide whether to elect roy moore, a republican accused of being a child molester, or democrat doug jones. Democrats cory booker and deval patrick, formerly the massachusetts governor, campaigning in alabama for jones. Last night, President Trump put his star power on the line at a rally for moore near alabama. I want to bring in cnns alex marqat who is in montgomery, alabama. So so, alex, what is the focus with just three days to convince voters . Hi, fred. Weve got one candidate, the democrat, doug jones, who is going all out, trying to squeeze every last vote out of potential voters this weekend and then roy moore, the republican who is being relatively quiet. We know doug jones has a number of events today, at least four, and more tomorrow. Roy moore on the other hand is staying relatively quiet. Of course, he could add events to his schedule. But as you mentioned, the president came out and spoke in favor of moore last night. Reiterating his fullthroated endorsement in nearby pensacola, so clearly he is letting the president s words do the talking for him for at least for now. Lets take a listen to what he said last night. We cant afford to have a liberal democrat who is completely controlled by nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. We cant do it, cant do it. His name is jones and hes their total puppet and Everybody Knows it. He will never, ever vote for us. So get out and vote for roy moore. Do it. Do it. So the president making clear there that his emphasis, his preference, is for someone who could act as a bullwart against democrats, who can enact his agenda. Now, doug jones, this was already this race, before these allegations came out against moore, he could have won relatively comfortably. These allegations made this a very close race. Now, we dont have any real reliable polling so its really anyones guess but we do know its very close. We know that moore im sorry, that doug jones, the democrat, is going to be working 24 7 until tuesday to try to get people to come out for him to vote. Now there are two very important groups that he really needs to turn out. Women, they are an easier target for him, especially in light of these allegations. But in particular africanamericans. Africanamericans make up a majority of the democratic electorate. So he is working very hard to turn them out. We have seen were seeing this in his events today. As you mentioned, hes got a number of democratic allstars coming down to campaign for him. He has an event with corey beeshg in selma, alabama, today. He is coming here to the university, whethich is an histc black college. He really is targeting the africanamerican electorate in these final hours before everyone heads to the polls on tuesday in the special election. Special elections are tough because historically voter turnout is very low, but well see what happens this time, because both of these candidates are hoping for a significant turnout. All right, thank you so much, alex marquadt, in montgomery. My panel, Rebecca Burke and cnn contributo contributor. He was in mississippi for the opening of the Civil Rights Museum. Where he honored heroes like medgar evers, so selena, do you think the president s words at the Mississippi Museum will resonate with black voters in alabama or did the president s message at the roy moore rally derail youre already shaking your head any attempt at reaching out to the black community . Well, i think you dont even have to verbalize, i read your body language. Exactly, im italian, this is what i do. Honestly, i think they are two separate things. I think people in alabama are going to view them separately. What he did in mississippi i think was important. He was going to get he was going to get a, you know, criticism, whether he showed up or not. He took the high road. He went. He deserved some of the criticisms hes received from the Africanamerican Community on his choice of words and his choice of the way he approaches things. A lot of things. But, you know, i think it was a good thing that he went. I think it was a good the speech was good. He didnt go overboard. He didnt go over the top. He said the appropriate words and he left. People are going to criticize him for being there, for not being there. I think it was the right move. I dont you know, i dont look at it as a political move. Alabama well, pensacola last night, 20 miles across the border, hes not he was not going to win over any of the africanamerican alabama vote that he was already going to get. Theres going there has been a certain small percentage of africanamericans who have supported him, you know, for a number of reasons, mostly economic, from the ones that i have interviewed. But, you know, theres no i dont see the two of those speeches as as being one benefiting the other. Theyre completely separate. Okay, so the president just in the last hour was in mississippi and he had his remarks, you know, paying homage to the many heroes, rebecca, but still perhaps upstaging what took place at the Civil Rights Museum where his words, you know, in pasadena, while he mentioned roy moore, even though it was in pensacola, not in alabama, but i guess the hope was that the alabama audience was listening, take a listen. We cant afford to have a liberal democrat who is completely controlled by nancy pelosi and chuck schumer, we cant do it, cant do it. His name is jones and hes their total puppet. Everybody knows it. He will never, ever vote for it. Rebecca, its an interesting way to convince voters that perhaps they need to look beyond any accusations of roy moore because, you know, doug jones, just by virtue of the name, is a far worse candidate. Absolutely, but the president s endorsement is a big deal in this race, fred, make no mistakes about it. Democrats saw in their internal data and their internal numbers a boost for roy moore after the president initially endorsed him and this sort of rally, this big sort of Campaign Event is a good way to get out the vote in a special election. You mentioned in the report from alabama that it is very difficult to turn out voters in any sort of special election, much less one that has been so controversial. There are so many negative feelings attached to this race for alabama voters for obvious reasons. So encouraging voters, making them feel good about coming out to the polls for roy moore, thats exactly what the president s trying to do. He has made somewhat of a difference according to the data. So alabama, very red state. It wouldnt be to anybodys suppress, you know, a republican would win this seat, even in light of all of the accusations, so then if roy moore does win, can the president , you know, celebrate calling this a real referendum, you know, on him and that, you know, his support is still strong. Right, alabamas sort of a difficult state to use as a gauge for a strong support for trump. If you remember, that was where he held his first rally in 2015 or early 2016, right. This was a state that was always going to be supportive of him. On moore, its really complicated because he didnt support moore in the primary. That wasnt his guy. Luther strange was. And voters in alabama voted against Luther Strange and for roy moore. So its a little more nuanced than this. In alabama, whatever happen, its not reflective of the moment, because theres so many Different Things that are outside the norm. But rebecca, you know, the president said even when Luther Strange didnt get it, he said i will support roy moore. But then all the allegations rose to the top. Then there was kind of radio silence before now. The president said flat out in pensaco pensacola, go roy moore. Whats changed . There was a sense among republicans that as distant as the hope was, there was some hope they would be able to get roy moore drop out of the race and have some other republica