Reporter yeah, wolf. As you said. This is going to be a campaignstyle rally here in phoenix. One of several the president has held since the inauguration. Its actually going to be the furthest west that donald trump has gone since becoming president , and we should expect some familiar faces on hand with him. The Vice President , mike pence. His chief of staff, john kelly. Its also notable who is going to be absent from this rally. Arizonas two republican senators. Both john mccain and jeff flake, very critical of the president. Both of them had very harsh words for him after his response to the violence in charlottesville at that Press Conference in trump tower one week ago. And the president Didnt Hesitates when responding to that criticism, specifically from jeff flake. He took to twitter last week saying that the arizona senator is weak and a nonfactor in the senate. And praising his potential gop primary opponent dr. Kelly ward. Its unclear whether or not dr. The response hes gotten in his remarks on charlottesville and heard from the chief of Phoenix Police who says her officers are ready for anything, wolf. All right, boris. Thanks very much. Boris sanchez getting ready for the president s first stop in arizona in yuma. Bringing in our political panel. Chris cillizza, cnn politics reporter, abby phillips, White House Reporter for the Washington Post and cnn White House ReporterJeremy Diamond is with us as well. Chris, it looks like that speech last night, very disciplined, very organized. You can criticize it, praise it, but it does seem to have the influence of his new white house chief of staff, general john kelly . Well, john kelly has been in the job for about three weeks now. Weve seen a lot of undisciplined donald trump between then and now. Including his comments about charlottesville. But the speech was
disciplined . It was. He stayed on message, on prompter. Odd if he went way off prompter. Usually off prompter when interacting with folks as oppose to just giving a speech. What weve seen, though, with donald trump is a series of false starts. A series of theoretical reset buttons pushed only to have a day later, two days later, a week later, either via twitter or a rally, him return back to sort of who we know him to be as a candidate, which is he likes to play with the crowd. He likes to throw red meat to his base. This is an interesting test, given the backtoback. If he is able to do this in arizona, if he is aible to avoid Relitigating Charlottesville in some way, shape or form. Able to stay away from controversial topics, i would be somewhat impressened and frankly surprised, because weve not seen his capacity to do that in the twoplus years hes been both a candidate and now president. Everybody is bracing for a very different donald trump tonight in his rally in phoenix. Abbeou abby, opposed to what we saw, read from the two teleprompters on each side of his lector . Right. One of the reasons he does rallies, his aids know he needs taken Out Of The Box sometimes and taken out of the white house and out in the public and feeds off that. Needs it to feel comfortable in this position. The problem is that too much freedom can sometimes be a little bit of a bad thing. It causes him to really react to the crowd. I think the protests outside to the degree that he will know they are there might be another source of problems for him, but just to go back briefly to a point you made, wolf, earlier. One of the interesting things about john kelly and his role in that speech yesterday was maybe less so what was said and just how they got to the point where he was giving a speech about afghanistan. He didnt tweet his decision on
afghanistan. It didnt really leak out of the white house, and thats why you saw people like paul ryan praising the process even more so than the decision that was made. The president in his speech, jeremy, last night, did somebody r something rather unusual for him. He add knowledcknowledged he wa against his longtime instincts. Listen to this. My original instinct was to pull out and historically i like following my instincts. But All Of My Life ive heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the oval office. Okay. Basically easy to Say Something when youre a candidate or a private citizen. A lot more difficult to implement that as other president s have always learned once youre in the oval office. Yes. It was a rare moment of reflection. Albeit a scripted moment of reflection from this president. But i think that this white house is kind of trying to have
one of the reasons hes going to arizona in the first place, symbolism of visiting. At the wall, have an opportunity to talk about it. I do think this issue of afghanistan and how we deal with fortune wars is profound about the Trump Administration and breitbart is correct that trump sb bought into this war last night. Acknowledged it wasnt going to end anytime soon. That isnt going away. Underlining who is trump and is America First going to survive now that steve bannon is no longer in the picture. Another risk this rally has tonight. This is a president who is probably aware of the way that breitbart covered this. Probably aware of the fact his former chief strategist, steve bannon, is unhappy with him and ready to go out and knock him on this afghanistan decision and he now needs to go out tonight and reassure his base. He needs to rally his base. And one of the ways he does that often is by making controversial
statements, by going out on a limb. Showing them again this off the cuff persona who captivated millions of americans during the campaign. So the risk is that the president in trying so hard to reassure his base goes too far in terms of making controversial statements and getting himself into hot water. And important to see how he deals with the sensitive issue of children brought here to the United States, as little kids, by undocumented parents. Whether he allows the socalled dreamers to stay in the United States, legally, have some sort of legal status, or if he goes back to some of the comments made during the campaign that anybody who came here illegally has to leave, and come back quickly. Dreamers, look, Donald Trumps taken a hardline on immigration but on dreamers acknowledged, this is a very difficult issue. No easy answers for. By far his most moderate on that piece. If that irritates some of the base. Absolutely. Your body was made for Better Things than rheumatoid arthritis. Before you and your Rheumatologist Move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz is right for you. Xeljanz is a small pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. Xeljanz can reduce joint pain and swelling in as little as two weeks, and help stop further joint damage. Xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened. Dont start xeljanz if you have an infection. Tears in the stomach or intestines, low Blood Cell Counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. Your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz, and monitor certain liver tests. Tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. Xeljanz can reduce the symptoms of ra, even without methotrexate, and is also available in a oncedaily pill. Ask about xeljanz xr. Hi. And i know that we have phonAccident Forgiveness. Gent, so the incredibly minor accident that i had tonight four weeks without the car. Okay, yup. Good night. With Accident Forgiveness your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Switching to allstate is worth it. 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®. It was not only morally am biggious, equivocating. The people radio responded, david duke and he messed up tuesday. Right monday and right about an hour ago. He was wrong. When reading from the speaker of the house paul ryan during a town hall with jake tapper here on cnn. Commenting on president trumps response to the recent violence
in charlottesville, virginia. Bring back our panel to discuss. Chris cillizza and Jeremy Diamond. He acknowledged he messed up. Not often you hear the speaker of the house acknowledging that that president messed up. Right. The comments speak to the degree to which donald trump messed um to use the speakers words in this instance. Yesterday we heard the president , again, return to his scriptive remarks and make unifying remarks about not directly charlottesville but essentially the State Of Affairs in the country right now, and but the problem is weve already heard from donald trump. Heard him speak from his heart, offer prompter, frustrated with the State Of Affairs in the media at the moment, and i hate too say it. Ive seen this movie before and were looking at it again potentially tonight as the president Heads To Phoenix to
host a campaign rally. Not just a campaignstyle rally but actually paid for by his reelection campaign. We risk seeing the president once again dive back into this issue. Hope of his aides he wont and let his comments yesterday stand on the final words of last night. The problem with the president. You know when hes speaking from the heart, as jeremy said and when hes being scripted. Last night struck me as kind of, you know, a little odd. Because you know what trump is like, when he really feels something. Thinks its important. He cares about it. He speaks very differently than how he did last night, and i think thats why you cant just put something on a teleprompter and undo the damage of charlottesville and, frankly, paul ryan is putting it out there, he messed up, but what now . What are the consequences for that . I think there are actually a lot of republicans who want trump to do more than he did last night. Who want him to generuinely spe
from the heart. The damage is not undone. This is going to be a problem for some time and even paul ryans comments are not going to be enough to put the issue to rest. He opened remarks last night in front of the Military Personnel who gathered there at fort myer just outside of washington, d. C. In arlington, virginia, there was crowd of Military Personnel. Whites, blacks, asians. Im sure you know, catholics, protestants, muslims jews, gay, you know, everybody was in that audience. The military is very well integrated. He looked out at that crowd, and he said, a wound inflicted upon a Single Member of the community is a wound inflicted upon all of us. Strong words. Words he should have said earlier, but he used that occasion before he got into the afghanistan policy to speak about healing this nation, which is significant. Yes. I thought he did it in a deft
way, too. Jeremy is right. Never came out and said, you know, charlottesville, okay. I screwed up. Heres my attempt to make good on that. He talk and the military, makes sense in this audience, you point out, wolf, the subject matter, used the military as indicative of the need for a broader unity. Very well integrated. And going to combat its not democrats and republicans, not liberals, black and white, its one unit. Nicely delivered by him, i thought. The problem is, or the potential problem is, that donald trump seems to always take one step forward, two steps back. One step forward, two steps back in that, as you heard paul ryan say. I like what he said on monday. Didnt like what he said on tuesday. Liked what he said an hour ago. See about what he says ten hours from now. Thats always the problem. The way you get to the white
house is incredible to message discipline. Covering a campaign, all they do, give the same speech over and over and observer agaver ag. Donald trump is not that guy in a way made him appealing as candidate but so difficult to project what hell say tonight or a week from now. Abby mentioned, yes, for a day, maybe a week stays off twitter. But always sort of cycles back to who hes been most of his adult life. What do you think, jeremy . Refer to charlottesville in his speech in arizona tonight . Its impossible to predict. One thing ive learned covering donald trump the last twoplus years. You never predict anything anymore. And a lot of republicans would love to hear him say, im sorry. I apologize. I made a mistake. Here is what i feel in my gut about the kkk, about neonazis, about white ssupremacists. They are not very fine people. I think so, but two important
things to remember. First, we know how the president loves to bash the media at these rallies, and the media has been largely carrying a lot of this coverage of the criticism of the president s remarks and response to charlottesville. Theres the mine field number one. The second thing, we know that despite the outrage in washington, we know that a lot of his comments, his initial resposr response to charlottesville resonated with the president s base, or a portion of the base. President doesnt see the need for a kneejerk reaction against these White Supremacists or against anyone who support confederate monuments and actually supports them without supporting White Supremacists and neonazis. Society president , what steve bannon tried to convey to the president in his last week at the white house, is, listen, you cant forget about this base. Cant forget about these people. Dont listen to jared and ivanka and all of those people urging you to moderate on this issue. Nothing wrong with trying to expand the base. Nothing wrong from a political he needs to politically. Yes, his base still with him, but not currently big enough to get him reelected. Quickly. Hes been pretty happy with the reception of his speech last night that might carry through to today. Feeling more positive about the media environment hes in. Stick around. Chris, abby, jeremy, guys, appreciate it very much, the u. S. War in afghanistan drudged on more than 16 years. President trump says he knows how to win there. Well assess this with a republican congressman of colorado. Standing by live, a key member of the House Services committee and marine corps combat veteran. Well discuss with him, right after this. Ry one of them. Only proprietary tempur material precisely conforms to your body. You get up to twice as much pressure relieving power, so you wont toss and turn. And tempurpedic is the best at minimizing Motion Transfer from your partner. Youll sleep deeply. And wake up, feeling powerful. Now through september 17th, save up to 500 on select adjustable sets. Find your exclusive retailer at tempurpedic. Com and its also a story mail aabout people and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you wont replace the full value of your totaled new car. The guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. No, i picked the wrong Insurance Company. With Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, you wont have to worry about replacing your car
because youll get the full value back including depreciation. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. President trump has laid out his longawaited strategy for afghanistan. Last night the president spoke in Broad Strokes saying he didnt want to give specifics to the enemy. What we heard from defense secretary james mattis in baghdad when asked about the specific numbers of u. S. Troops who could be a part of this new commitment. I prefer not to go into those numbers rights now. The first thing i have to do, level the bubble and count for everybody on the ground there now. The idea being that were not going to have different pockets were accounting for them in. Ill tell you what the total number is, and there is a number that im authorized to go up to. I have to look. Ive directed the chairman to put the plan together now. Obviously weve been discussing this option for some time. When he brings that to me ill determine how many more we need to send in. Joining us now from denver, colorado. Republican congressman mike
coffman. A member of the house armed Services Committee and Veterans Affairs committee. Sor and congressman, thank for joining us. Look, sounds like nobody is ready to commit formally to the new number theyre what . About 8,400 u. S. Troops. 8,400 u. S. Troops in afghanistan right now. Theres another almost 25,000 u. S. Contractors there in afghanistan. 10,000 of whom are u. S. Citizens. How many more troops . Have you been briefed . How many more u. S. Troops is the president now prepared to deploy. I havent been briefed yet, but certainly a change in the Rules Of Engagement is very important, as well as some increased presence. The point is to put Military Pressure on the taliban, to get them to come to the negotiating
table. I believe theres a path to a negotiated settlement. If, in fact, they feel that pressure. Right now they dont feel the pressure. They feel theyre winning, but there is a path for some governance model that involves the taliban. Because the Vice President , we were just talking about, mike pence, was on the today show this morning saying the generals want another almost 4,000 tro