Others couldnt care less, and with all the concern and outrage over russia meddling in our election, how much has the u. S. Acted similarly . One researchers answer may shock you. Plus, performing the summers biggest rock concert tours and lacing it with angry antitrump imagery and prelimics. Well ask roger waters if the fans want to hear that or just the music. First, i began this year by pledging right here on cnn that i wanted to escape my bubble more often. The election results, they took my by surprise, and i was feeling disconnect the. Well, this weekend, i got more than i bargained for from my own Radio Audience. There was a succession of significant stories published in the New York Times about a june 9, 2016 meeting in trump tower, attended by donald trump jr. , jared kushner, and others. As i updated the Radio Audience ov on the developments, im careful to balance the perspective with balance from the right. On monday after the new summary, phone lines filled. The first call was said i should be ashamed of myself because i spent time on the latest bomb shell from the New York Times not j wiwithstanding i had anot view. The first caller from iowa was brad. Keep kicking the dog, maybe itll wake up. Do you find it significant that the president s son took a meeting with a Russian National where the promise was, we are bringing you dirt on hillary. Significant or not . Big deal . No, not at all. Who cares about dirt on that old hag as a hillary. Thats not typical. My callers come from the lower 48 and represent a nice Cross Section of the country, both racially and politically, but to my surprise, the next caller from vermont basically agreed with brad. Many on hold wanted to castigate the president and his son. Instead of taking their calls, i did something id never done in 27 years of radio hosting. I cleared the call board, and i requested only callers who agreed with the first two, and the results were eye and ear opening. I discovered a huge number of others also main taping it was the proverbial nothing burger. Take a listen. Caller cnn, New York Times, post, these guys have zero ounce of credibility. I say zero, negative zero, they are horrible. To me, get so in the weeds with some of these stories that its just disinterests me after a little while, so even if its true, thats fine, eventually, didnt affect my vote at the ballot box. It is an important worthy storyings but give it the time it needs, and then move on. At this point, it just seems like a witch hunt after President Trump. Only thing im angry about trump is hes not arrested that witch yet. She should be in cuffed. Youre an establishment [ bleep ] thats all you are, youre a piece of [ bleep ]. That last part, by the way, directed at me, im the establishment, a, and, well, you heard it. And so if you think the donald trump jr. Story is the one that changes trump supporter minds, you might want to think again. My experience reminded me of candidate donald trump saying he could shoot someone on 5th avenue and not lose his base. These voices were a revelation to many who dont hear them on the goto news outlets. There was a facebook montage of the audio of the callers to share the thoughts with the world, and it quickly racked up more than 100,000 views in less than 48 hours. Just to recap, heres what all nose callers deemed to be unimportant. Over three days, the New York Times drill down on the story of donald trump jr. , paul, and jared meeting with the russian lawyer. First, meeting denied. Then a false reason for the meeting was offered. The discussion of adoptions of russian infants. Then, timely, times called to tell jr. They were going to publish the emails, and he released them himself. They revealed that at a minimum, he was game to collude with the russians. Who could have imagined that there would be an email to somebody named trump offering, quote, very high level and sensitive information, able to, quote, incriminate hillary as part of, quote, russia and Government Support of trump over hillary. Not even these revelations impact his standing with the base. Joining us now, Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times part of the on going terrific reporting of this, and selena, the trump whisperer who writes for the Washington Examiner and New York Post coauthoring a book about why trump won. Matthew, does that frustrate you to know your hard work and that of the colleagues in some instances falls on deaf ears . No. I mean, i think thats kind of the nature of the beast here. People are not always going to agree. And i do hear people when they say, well, why is this important to me . Look, youre going to go to work tomorrow, bills to pay, kids go to school. This does not change your life immediately. Those people who are concerned or dont think this has real importance, that, you know, its not just dirt on Hillary Clinton or dirt on a political opponet. We dont want or we dont have, i guess, allowances to have Foreign Government feed information and provide resources to political campaigns, which we dont want foreigners playing a role in our elections. Same reason why you can be a citizen to vote. You cant wash up in the u. S. And vote today. You have to be a citizen. These emails really do establish more than anything else a direct line to the trump family, to the inner circle between them and the russian government saying, look, we want to help you. How far did it go . We dont know. Thats the thing. Theres a lot we dont know here, and one of the callers who you cited as being on the show, said, you know, this needs time. Shes absolutely right. These investigations could go on for years, but it is something that i think we should be concerned about, and i guess the last point, most important points is that this interference, attempt to headle in the election, yes, it happened last year, it will keep happening, and people will learn from their mistakes r and how you learn and you learn to stop it is by studying what happened in the past by investigators, and i think thats one of the reasons why people should be concerned, yes. Selena, you know the constituency. Is it they stand with the president of the United States, or that they are antitrump, and does it matter . Well, i think the thing that we need to maybe think about and explore deeper Going Forward is, is this distrust that the American People have with big institutions, but also with media . This is something that has been ongoing. The last time we had a broad trust with the media was 1964, right . 78 of the people trusted government, trusted the media. Thats just cratered since then, and its in the opposite, you know, sort of flipped around. And, so, its its not just that they firmly, you know, are not going to be dislonged from trump, its also that they view us with a lot of skepticism, some of that is deserved. Some most of it is not, but i think that thats the thing that we need to, honestly, we need to address that because the the American People should have much more level of trust with the people that are the, you know, who are guarding and digging into the greater powers in the country. And, you know let me tell you what i think go ahead. I dont think it changes, no disrespect to matthew and the times, but it doesnt change when the times has a revelation on the front page. It changes when those mouthpieces for the right, to which leadership of the Republican Party has been advocated, when they start to take a serious look at what matthew and his colleagues are reporting. For example, i showed a snippit of it. This is from fox news yesterday. Roll this. This really shouldnt be a matter of liberal versus conservative, protrump against antitrump. If youre a fairminded citizen, you ought to be concerned about the fact that we were repeatedly misled. They say theres nothing to this, nothing came of it, not memorable, didnt write it down, didnt tell you anything, i dont remember it, why all the lies . Why is it lie after lie after lie . And maybe you say, well, shep, unlike the others, step outside the box from time to time. Put up on the screen, katherine, crowdhammers syndicated column from the washington post, the first line, the evidence is now shown, this is not here say, not fake news, not unsourced leaks. This is an email chain released by donald trump jr. Himself. When its the shep saying, hey, this times reporting, substantive, maybe the base reconsiders or not do they recover . Theres a percentage who vote identi identity. They do not shift or change. Theres a tremendous amount of americans who are fairly horrified to know that a president the president now, if he did or if anyone close to him did work with the russian government to secure the election, even if no effect, its hard to know in thats the case, so, yeah, i think these things have an effect overtime. Youre absolutely right. The New York Times are not the people who immediately say people say, oh, wow, changed my mind. Its coming when their own commentators they look to for guidance say, hey, you know, you got to Pay Attention to this, theres a problem here. Hey, i dont want to focus only on the media. Lets also take note of the fact that although i think this was an enormously significant week, the Republican Leaders in the house and senate have largely been silent, much in the same way that those callers from the base were reacting to me. What do you have to say about the gop leadership on this . I think the gop leadership is in a really terrible position, right . Because, you know, if you vet if you drill down and look at the numbers of where trump won and where he won big, you knows thats in their districts r a, so theres a political price to pay as do you step out in front of this . Do you stand back . I think that youre the caller, the female caller who said this is important, and we should but well give it time, i think i hear a lot of that not just from regular voters, but i also hear that from people who are inside Washington People part of the establishment, people who are elected officials. One thing i want to point out that i find fascinating is the amount of people who didnt vote last year, you know, found both of them sort of, you know, repulsive, they they tend to cheer trump on when he has a problem with the media, when these kinds of stories come out, and i find that, you know, part fascinating, like, we really have a problem that we have to take on. Matthew, final question for you. As i read carefully the stories up fold, i wondered, did the times have the trump jr. Email all along, did you reveal only a little, and almost set a trap for him to come up with that adoption story, and sort of, frankly, dig his own grave politically speaking . You know, i wish we were that savvy. I cant tell you exactly how the story unfolded, what we had when, who we got it from. My colleagues have been working on the story, and i think, you know, it really highlights the fact that theres an email out there. There are this has been in the news for months. This has been an issue for months. There were multiple opportunities for paul, jared, and for donald trump jr. To say, hey, you know, we had a meeting, heres what happened. This is why i dont think its a big deal. Nobody ever did. Then the transparent moment when donald jr. Said ill publish the emails. That was done that morning the New York Times called them, say, we have the email, were printing it, going to publish it, and then somebody in the white house became transparent. That was not a kind of selfawareness, oh, im going to have a moment to become transparent. It was in response to the fact things were about to be published, and i think thats something people okay. I think youre saying i think youre saying the times did not have the email when last saturday you dropped the first story. Thats what im hearing . I cant say one way or another. I really cant. I hate to pull an fbi or cia thing here, but its just one of the things on the internal reporting we dont get into. We publish what we know when we know it. I can say that. Okay. I hear ya. Its a part of the story im eager to learnment thank you. Selina, thank you, appreciate it, matthew. What are your thoughts, ill read responses throughout the course of the program. What do you have, gang . Its just wild. These callers sound like they were brainwashed from a cult and refuse to believe the evidence before their eyes and put on blinders with trump. Jennifer, i didnt go to the callers to be exposed to the mind set. Im a butter knife away at family gatherings from this thought process, but its a wakeup call for those of us reading all the revelations, the time, the post, here at cnn, mied gmy mied god, this is significant, 46 of the people in the country say hogwash. One more if we have time. Im glad you took the calls, michael, ultimately does no good to ignore people with differing views. I like to hear from all points of view, even the guy who called me you heard what he called me. Up next p roger waters, formally a pink floyd, back on the road staging one of the most successful and controversial summer concert tours. Do his fans want to hear and see his antitrump message . I sat down with him and asked whats up. Here you go little guy. A cockroach can survive submerged underwater for 30 minutes. Wow. Yeah, wow. Not getting in today. Not on my watch. Pests never stop trying to get in. We never stop working to keep them out. Terminix. Defenders of home. Americas Small Business owners. And heres to the heroes behind the heroes, who use their expertise to keep those businesses covered. And heres to the heroes behind the heroes behind the heroes, who brought us delicious gyros. Actually, the gyro hero owns veros gyros, so he should have been with those first heroes. Ha ha thats better. So, to recap Small Business owners are heroes, and our heroes help heroes be heroes when theyre not eating gyros delivered by ah, you know what i mean. Bounty is more absorbent,mom per roll so the roll can last 50 longer than the leading ordinary brand. So you get more life per roll. Bounty, the quicker picker upper there have already been intense culture war over the presidency of donald trump. Kathy griffin, staging of shakespeare in central park and even steven col been jebert. Roger waters, a Founding Member and chief leer cyst of pink floyd is back on the road e this summerment i personally enjoyed his music for 40 years. His politics . Sometimes not. Waters amped up the volume, turning the worlds biggest tours into the most political. Several portions of his us and them show in support of his new album, is this the life we really want, are as much antitrump rally as rock concert. Take a look. This has Donald Trumps face on the side, screens display images of the president vomiting with putin as a big baby, and as hitler. Hes turned the 1970s pink floyd animals classic pick pigs three different ones into a diatribe against the charade he says in the trump white house. Theres no debate about the impeccable quality of the sound or the production values of the waters tour, but the message has taken some by surprise. In new orleans, a few fans simply left, and according to waters, a Major Corporate sponsor pulled out in the states, although maintaining its commitment in canada. In 2006, i, myself, was unsettled watching him perform. The famous pink floyd pig circled over the crowd with a message about prisoner rights at gitmo. Three miles from ground zero, i was no mood for that nine years after 9 11. 15 years after 9 11 . I had to admit he had a point. Waters is defiant in defense of his music and message, not with stanning the way music harmed other entertainers. Remember the dixie chicks. When i flew to miami to interview him and watch the show, another charge occurred, the charge of antiseven niche. They took out an add in the miami say reading this is in the welcome in miami. Waters says, his criticisms are political, not religious. He has drawn ire as israel bds supporter, and hes lobbied performers not to play in israel, and hes regarded the israeli treatment of palestinians as a par tide. On this tour, however, his performance is silent on that issue, training his base guitar instead on donald trump. Back in 2013, he illustrated the pig with a star of david alongside a dollar sign and sickle and hammer. I was invited to a thursday night rehearsal in miami to witness a dozen local teens from the miami beach Parks Summer Program rehearse another brick in the wall with waters, but at the last minute, the city pulled the plug on their participation. In the end, other kids did perform the song, but not those who had been eagerly rehearsing. I asked roger waters about the chargers. Ive been flooded with Facebook Comments that said, why are you giving a platform to waters, the antisemite. To those people you say . Im not appty semite, obviously, its as plain as your face. Im not. Ive never done anything. What i have done is ive become an activist to try this is what i say to these kids, right, and informed local officials and informed campaign of malicious propaganda, which it is. Calling me an antisemite is malicious propaganda. They want to silence my voice. Because my voice speaks to the nonviolent loving resistance to the oppression of an oppressed people. Now more of my exclusive sitdown with roger waters. Lets talk about this leader we legislated in the United States. Speak to the audience. Tell them the mind set you put into the presentation of pigs three different ones. We were running up to that election, and i did feel very strongly about it. And much as i disparage Hillary Clinton, and i do, i think and however big the questions are that i might have had, you know, with obama and post after administration, donald trump, i watched this guy operating for the last 20 years. Do you run the risk of helping him by going over the top . No. He i dont think helpf