Channing dungey deemed barrs comments abhorrent, repugnant and ininconsistent with our values. By late this afternoon, abc remove all mentions of her from its website. As for Valerie Jarrett, she had been scheduled in advance to appear in tonights town hall before barrs tweet. Heres how she responds to the attack. First of all, i think we have to turn it into a teaching moment. Im fine. Im worried about all the people out there who dont have a circle of friends and followers who come right to their defense, the person who is walking down the street minding their own business and see somebody cling to their purse. I want to the mention bob iger, a ceo of disney called me before the announcement. He apologized. He said he had zero tolerance for that sort of racist bigoted comment and wanted me to know before he made it public that he was canceling the show. I appreciate that they did that. She noted barrs tone comes from the top. President trump about to kick off a rally in nashville which well be monitoring for any mention of barr fuels his political rise by pushing a false and racist conspiracy about president obamas birthplace. Upon his depart today, he refused to answer questions about barr or well, anything else. Mr. President , youre rookzing to roseanne. Your reaction to roseanne. Is the summit going to happen, mr. President . What about immigration and roseanne, mr. President. Barr has long tracked in racism and conspiracy theories, a vocal trump supporter in her personal life and her show. How could you have voted for him, roseanne . Talked about jobs, jackie. He said he would shake things up. I mean this might come as a complete shock to you but we almost lost our house the way things are going. Have you looked at the news because now things are worse. Not on the real news. Please. After that, roseanne revival debuteded in march and those ratings have declined since then, the president celebrated Roseanne Barr has a kindred spirit. Look the an roseanne. I called her yesterday. Look at her ratings. Look at her ratings. They were unbelievable. Over 18 Million People. And it was about us. With me now to discuss all this my colleague and cohost for to knows town hall had, joy reid, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Cedric Richmond, democrat of louisiana. Congressman, let me start with you. What is your reaction to abcs actions today . Well, i think it was appropriate. I think it was swift. And i think it was warranted. So they made a quick decision, the right decision and applaud them for it. Joy, i have to say, you and i were talking about this today. Roseanne has quite a history. Its not just this tweet. She said something about susan rice in 2013. She tracks in really deeply crazy conspiracy theories. Youve got to ask a question of like what, exactly did abc think it was getting. Nostalgia. Part of the lure of trumpism is that it does play to a certain nostalgia. You know, the data bears out of is a lot of is an imagined 1950s when they were more orderly relations between the sexes, between the races. Theres that nostalgia part of the trump appeal and what the networks and what abc was looking at theres a knot nostalgia for a kind of television experience thats also a bygone. Obviously given it opened to 22 million viewers, that is true. People want to look back to the past characters they had affection for. The difference with roseanne is that runs after her show was launched you had the incident with doing the National Anthem that was controversial that the person she is and the character of roseanne are very different people and now more in alignment. For a lot of people its been jagr. But for the fans of donald trump, it was saying heres somebody who is portraying who we are, our kind of people. So i can understand why the network said look, trump just won an election. Lets try to get some of those 60 some odd Million People to watch the show. Congressman, you wrote a letter and it has the title sort of open letter, dear white people, which is the name of a movie that had been out in theaters. About kind of your experience youre the head of the Congressional Black Caucus at this moment as were having this kind of bit of reckoning about a bunch of incidents piled up around the country that some people, white people particularly are just sort of paying attention to. What do you want to communicate . I want people to know one, you cant judge a book by its cover. Normally when im on your show, im wearing a suit. Today i decided to dress down. When im not wearing a suit, white people will clutch their purse or cross on the other side of the street or assume i have bad intentions because of how i look. I think we have to get past that. Lets go all the way back to Trayvon Martin who had iced tea and skittles but George Zimmerman perceived him as a threat. Then comes the interaction between black males, Law Enforcement or wannabe Law Enforcement and we end up with a young africanamerican male unarmed africanamerican male thats now dead. We have to get past that so you can look at the starbucks incident, you can look at the four africanamerican women playing golf and people called the police on them because they were going too slow. So are the black family that was barbecuin in a park and they call the its r the police on them. At some point, the police have to make better decisions. Then again our white fellow citizens have to stop perceiving africanamericans as a threat to them simply because of the color of their skin. Whats striking me, the congressman is talked about biases people have when they call the cops, how roseanne has said about muslims, palestinians, all sorts of groups even before today, its just explicit rhetoric of bigotry and theres a real question how much that is the ground for that is shifting in favor of it. Certainly before today. Well, i mean. Absolutely. The socalled, oh, sorry, congress man. No, go ahead, joy. Okay. I was going to say the other part of the trump appeal if you look at a lot of his followers especially online was the sense that political correctness, that the left was policing speech in a way that didnt allow people to make jokes or comments or facebook posts that they felt were inbound and that people of color felt were out of bounds. One of the results of the eight years of president obama is a whole group of american whos felt straitjackets in the things they could say and get away with it and not get in trouble. I think one of the things that donald trump has done is unleashed a sort of permission and said you can be who you are. Let it fly. Youre allowed because i can do it. He became the avatar for being able to put forward speech that people had been stifled. Youre hearing the same debate about College Campuses not allowed to speak. It is interesting people on that side of the line carve out the nfl as the one place where they dont feel there should be this open zone of free speech for the players who want to protest Police Brutality but other than the players, there is the sense that the trump era, you know, the trump era means we can say whatever we want and there arent going to be consequences because the president of the United States has said you can do it. Does it feel that way to you, congressman . Well, absolutely. The president has brought bullying backing into mainstream. And people see what hes able to do and get away with. Never apologizes for anything from mocking a disabled reporter to all of the things that he consistently does. So hes an enabler for all of this hate speech and these actions that are going on because hes feeding into it. You wont hear him say anything about this incident. You dont hear him really man up or act like the commander in chief and put have this conversation on race. I mean, its really the sad part of it all is that it stems right from the white house to main street. And im just afraid that the division that he plays into purposely and strategically is going to create a bigger divide in this country between Law Enforcement, between white citizens and black citizens. I think that its a dangerous game that hes playing just for his political game. Joy reid and Cedric Richmond of louisiana, thank you for being with me. Thanks for having us, chris. Im joined by cbs evening news former anchor dan rather, the author of what unites us, reflections of patriotism. Ill start with where the congressman and joy left off about the tone set from the top and a kind of perception that all bets are off now because of how the president babes rhetorically. Well, two different points of that, one is tone set by the president which by any reasonable analysis is terrible particularly when it applies to race relations. The other is the perception somehow that hes winning this battle for hearts and minds which i for one do not believe. That have the encouraging thing about what were seeing all kinds of encouraging things. What abc and disney did today frankly surprised me almost to the point shocking me. They made a big money decision, it costs them a lot of money. They decided the right thing. They decided it quickly. They decided against their own monetary interests. And i dont think you could give enough credit to the corporate leadership, iger, sherwood all of those people, this indicates there perception somehow trump is winning the battle for its okay to say what you want, i dont think he is. Maybe thats just a result of my optimism, but i dont think he is. We may look back on this day, chris, as another if not turning point part of some wide turning points that weve seen. You know, back in the late 50s and early 60s we had young people leading the sitins and the freedom rides. We had young people who were dominant in large numbers following dr. Martin luther king. More recently on the issue of gun violence, weve had what happened with the Parkland School in florida. That Young Americans are not buying into this business of racism at all. Now, i dont believe and i dont think most white americans believe that the majority of americans are racist. But we cant take any comfort in that because we obviously have deep and abiing problems with what you have called and i compliment abc for this special tonight about every day racism. We obviously have some deep and abiding problems. Once again, i would say we learn frommure lift. We go through these periods, and the Civil Rights Movement in the lets 50s and early 60s was a period. Weve seen several of these periods. This may be part of a turning point what happened today. Its interesting you note the swiftness of the decision, the fact it happened against its monetary interests of the network. There was a market for this. I wonder what you think about the fact that look, there was all this talk about roseanne representing authentic willy a group of americans that feel unrepresented in pop culture. It seems this is the other side of that in that she is really is one of the people she claims she is on the show. Exactly. I think that many people thought, shes just an actress and acting the part on the show. Thats not who she really is. I dont know Roseanne Barr, what her personality is in person. However it turns out, just as you say, that the things she was saying on the program what she reflected on the program where she is in terms of politics, ideology and particularly in race reeses is pretty much who she turned out to be. One important thing about this day and we have to point out that this was a teaching moment as Valerie Jarrett said and says on the recorded program that follows this one. This is a teaching moment. Actions and words have their consequences. And Roseanne Barr had obviously reach the point where she thought she was bullet proof because she was so successful particularly with this new program. Boom, she says the wrong thing. And you know, awful things and theres a quick and important consequence to pay for that. That is a very important teaching moment. Final question here, immediate thoughts what the president would say anything about this. He talked about calling her up. She kind of had a little bit of the record that she has about her public statements even back then. But theres a real question in my mind whether you expect to see the president wega in on this. What do you think . I think given his record and lets remember, he praised Roseanne Barr to high heaven you ran some clips as you opened the program when she was seemingly on top having great ratings success. I find it a very instructive moment that now he has not denounced what she said. He hasnt said this is wrong. He doesnt say he hasnt said anything so far. Well see later on in the evening and his record demonstrates President Trump is pretty good about trying to go for the win. Thus far, its instructive who he is, what he stands for and he hasnt said anything. One other point that i cant leave without saying. There was talk, there always is talk well, President Trump sets the tone and how influential he is. No president is more powerful than the country as a whole and the country as a whole particularly the young people in the country are moving in the opposite direction from donald trump on race as well as some other things. But most importantly on race. Thats a great point. The president s one person. Its a big country and citizens ultimately control the destiny of the nation. Dan rather, thanks for your time tonight. Thank you, chris. New reporting that special Counsel Robert Mueller is looking into a previously unreported meeting between the president and attorney general Jeff Sessions about sessions recusal from the investigation, that breaking news happened about ten minutes ago. In two minutes. So, i have this recurring dream. Im 85 years old in a job where i have to wear a giant hot dog suit. What . Wheres that coming from . I dont know. I started my 401k early, i diversified. Im not a big spender. Sounds like youre doing a lot. But i still feel like im not gonna have enough for retirement. Like theres Something Else i should be doing. With the right conversation, you might find youre doing okay. So, no hot dog suit . Not unless you want to. No. Schedule a complimentary goal Planning Session today with td ameritrade®. Obstruction of justice probe targeting the president of the United States. New york times reporting the special counsel is examining a previously undisclosed encounter between the president and attorney general Jeff Sessions in march, 2017 where the president urged sessions not to the recuse himself from the russia investigation. According to times, sessions had flown to florida because the president was refusing to take his calls about a pressing decision on the travel ban. When they finally spoekt president who told aides he needed a loyalist berated sessions and told him he should reverse his decision wit times calls an unusual and potentially inappropriate request. Sessions refused to comply. For more on the president s campaign against the mueller probe, im joined by Michelle Goldberg from the New York Times and federal prosecutor jennifer rod rog persons jennifer, youve got a situation in which sessions recutions because he says he might be implicated in the investigation. The president freezes him out for two days. Sessions flies to talk to the president and the first thing he wants to talk about is to berate him and tell him to unrecuse. This goes in the bucket of things we already knew happened but didnt have confirmation of. We knew the president was so unhappy, we knew he berated Jeff Sessions. We knew he didnt want him to recuse and complained about it constantly. This is confirmation what we already know. Sessions was clear to say he consulted with the ethics folks at doj and this was something they told him he had to do. So he didnt really have a path to undo that. So again, its just the president ranting and raving but sessions did the right thing and stuck with the decision. Michelle, it seems to me that whats clear here is there is now explicitly a Political Campaign against the mueller probe. Its not really a legal one. Thats probably been clear from the beginning. What heres what giuliani said on sunday about the president sort of increasingly baroque conspiracy theories hes been spin bth probe. Take a lis. And were defending to a large expent remember, dana, were defending here, it is for Public Opinion because eventually, the decision here is going to be impeach, not impeach. Members of congress, democrat and republican are going to be informed a lot by their constituents. So our jury as it should be, is the American People. And the American People yes, are republicans, largely, independents pretty substantially and even some democrats now question the legitimacy of it. Sort of giving away the game there. Well, and i think to some extent i think that democrats have made it a little bit too easy for them because theres no question at least in my mind that trump has done manifold things that are impeachable. If he has done even a third of the things that we think hes done in the russia investigation, never mind emoluments, never mind compromising american intelligence, of course he should be impeached. Democratic leadership decided for what might it be very sound politically or strategically political reasons to take impeachment off the table. Theyve decided that this is an issue they dont want to fight on. They have the example of impeachment sort of backfiring on republicans during president clintons administration. But what it means is that the goal posts have shifted so that you dont have a lot of the strong voices out there anymore saying that this is an abso