Which can be lifethreatening. Stop chantix and get help right away if you have any of these. Tell your Healthcare Provider if youve had depression or other Mental Health problems. Decrease alcohol use while taking chantix. Use caution when driving or operating machinery. The most common side effect is nausea. I dont think about cigarettes anymore. Talk to your doctor about chantix. s welcome to kasie d. C. Im kasie hunt. We are live every sunday from washington from 7 00 to 9 00 p. M. Eastern. Tonight, one year after violence overtook the streets of charlottesville, virginia, thousands take to the streets of washington. Our nbc reporters are live all over the city. Plus, the president tries to cool the rhetoric. While one of his longtime collaborateers accuses him of
being a racist. Later, longtime listener, firsttime caller, the president s legal team takes their case to Primetime Radio as they assail the Attorney General on twitter. Known for the history of nonviolent expression, is watching and waiting. A handful of White Nationalists, just two dozen, gathered within sight of the white house earlier. Thousands more met them headon during a rainy night here in the nations capital. And i want to start with our team of reporters that has been out in the rain all day and night. I want to start with garrett haake. Garrett, you started your day at the metro meeting this small group of protesters, frankly. Can you walk us through what youve seen over the course of today . Sure, kasie. It was clear from the word go that this rally was not going to be everything that it was advertised as. When organizers put it together, they had told people to meet at the metro in vienna, virginia
around 2 00 so they could come into the city as a big group and a show of force examiand for th own protection. They got their protection from mpd once they made it to the district of columbia. There was no show of force. Only two dozen or so with Jason Kessler the organizer of charlottesville last year, and doing the unite the white rally 2. 0 here in d. C. Today, the disorganization, the disunity, the lack of message was clear from the start. Most of these folks showed up. They didnt even have metro cards so they marched into the vienna Metro Station and then marched right up to the metro card machine and had to slow themselves down to buy fare to get into the district. And the message was muddled from the word go as well. Kessler tried to tell me in an interview that this was not a racist event, that this was all about free speech. Then i started talking to some of the people who showed up with them and two young White Supremacists, there is really no other word for it, told me they considered white americans to be the founding stock of this country. And if you werent a white
european american, you were somehow less american than they. So no message unity. The ride in on the train was probably the highlight of the day for these guys because they had the Press Attention to themselves. And when they got into the city they were completely and utterly overwhelmed by the thousands of counter protesters that swarmed them every step of the way from the metro here to Lafayette Park behind me and stayed with them all day long until they left. Garrett, can i ask you, ive seen some traffic and some people frankly raising questions about whether these White Nationalists were given separate cars on the metro to bring them in to washington, d. C. Since you were there, what did you see . I was on the train. There was a car that was entirely White Nationalist and reporters, but i dont know that that was done under the direction of anyone except people on the platform who also looked around and decided they didnt want to be in a metro car full of White Nationalists and reporters. There were other people on that train coming in from vienna, but
they were riding in different cars. Its not clear to me that that was done at the direction of police. Rather, just some good sensible virginians who looked around and said theres probably another car on this train theyd rather ride in. I absolutely want to be no part of this. Garrett, thank you. Jeff bennett, can you talk us through what youve seen from your Vantage Point . And also obviously after this happened in charlottesville, just one year a go, all the attention turned to President Trump and his really response or lack thereof to what we had seen in the streets of charlottesville. How are things different this year . Kasie, youre 100 right. Look, Jason Kessler, the organizer behind Unite The Right, the rally last year and this sequel rally, initially wanted to hold the followup in charlottesville. But he was denied a permit there the so he turned his attention to washington, d. C. And the National Park service approved his permit for what he called a white civil rights rally because the National Park service says that they are forced to approve
any First Amendment rights event. So he thought he was going to be coming in closer proximity to President Trump, even though this is a weekend in which we know President Trump is at his private golf resort in bedminster where hes finishing up his week there. But weve seen the president just yesterday sort of issue that preemptive tweet where he says, i condemn racism on all sides. So some people have really characterized that standing in stark contrast to what he said last year where he drew this moral equivalence between the White Nationalists, the White Supremacists and those who were protesting against him. However, some people have read that same tweet and said, look, the president still cant condemn these White Supremacists. He cant call out their bad acts. So we had this tweet from the president today, ivanka trump, the president s daughter and white house aide added her voice to all of this saying she condemns specifically racism, White Nationalism, nazism, says it has no place in our country. So the question is what will the president say when hes in an unguarded, unscripted moment and he gets a question about this, whether its an oval office
spray, whether its a south lawn scrum, whether hes going to do an event tomorrow. There will be some press pool reporters there. What will he say when hes caught off guard . I think that will be far more illustrative and far more instructive. Kasie. And we should note of course, jeff, the permit that was given to mr. Kessler was for upwards of 400 people. He showed up with just two dozen. Jeff bennett, thanks very much for your reporting. Well be checking back in with you tonight. Sure. Meanwhile i want to welcome in my panel with me on set, Former Rnc Chairman and political analyst, Michael Steele. Whouts reporter for l. A. Times and nbc political analyst eli stokols. Polster and msnbc political analyst Cornell Belcher and the president of the National Urban league and former mayor of new orleans, mark morial. Thank you all for being here tonight. Michael steele, i want to start with you as somebody who is there is a lot being ascribed to what i think is still your party, although you have had some major differences over the
course of the last year. Were working that out. But what do you read into what you saw today with this frankly dismal showing, and what the president had to say about it so far . I kind of ignore the showing in all of that. Thats melodrama that will play itself out one way or the other. 24 people, 400 people, that is what it is. How that is ultimately framed in my view is what we have relied on in the past and that is a president who speaks into the moment and clarifies and defines where we are as american citizens when it comes to this type of hatefilled response to fellow americans. And the fact that the president is giving us sort of, you know, sort of a lightweight response on twitter. Hate racism of all kinds. Okay, but were specifically talking about this, all right . Can you narrow it down for us just a little bit with respect to whats happening in your front yard . And the fact that he still cant do that, that to me is the lesson that every american should take from what we see this weekend. Mark morial, to Michael Steeles point, the president is not out front leading on this tonight. The rally by the Unite The Right group is an absolute flop, a failure, a poor showing. 30 people and all of this anticipation, all of this mobilization, all of the Public Resources spent by the city of washington and the federal government and the taxpayers for 30 people to show up. But secondly, this was an opportunity for the president to make a forceful unequivocal statement. Go look at mitt romneys statement. Look at ivanka trumps statement. Those statements are more on mark of the type of statement wed like to see the president make. This is a moral moment. This is a moment where we expect the president to speak unequivocally. He seems to not be able to really get to the point where he
condemns this awful ideology of nazism and antisemitism. We need him to lead at this difficult and challenging time in american history. We havent heard that. And i think we should hear it. Cornell belcher, first of all, your perspective on what weve seen unfold in the streets of washington today. What kind of lasting damage might President Trump be doing to public relationships with the gop for African Americans thinking about where can i have a home . Right, where can i have a home is a big issue. Weve seen in a lot of polling and cbs polling, we did polling in Battle Ground for African Americans for black pac. You have over 70 of americans thinking that racism is on the rise, right . And a majority think their communities are under attack. So thats the sort of reality for minorities, for many
minorities who thought so much of this was in the past. We are again watching ku klux klan and White Supremacists march through the streets of washington, right . But i also at the same time, to the chairmans point on this, the 30 people showing doesnt mean anything, right . Because we understand its a strategy theyre going underground. And when you look at sort of the racism that i think trump is making okay again in this country, thats going to hurt us long term because one of the things i talked about before is were not going to get whiter as a country so we better figure out how to live with each other whether youre republican or democrat. We have to do a better job of figuring out how to live with each other and the president must play a central role in that. Yeah. Eli stokols, from a political perspective, this is a president who feeds off crowds. He watches what happens in front of him. He tosses things out to the crowd. He sees how they react to it and oftentimes hell continue to Say Something because it seemed to resonate. It does president seem to me that this small group of
extremists really had any sort of showing that should suggest that this is something with a real constituency. If hes watching tv tonight, and we have no reason to think hes not, because he watches tv pretty much every day. Hes seeing this and he is not going to take satisfaction, hes not going to claim credit. If anything, he might distance himself from it. But before he could see the crowds as everybody here has pointed out. He had a chance to make a strong statement condemning not all kinds of racism, but specifically White Supremacists. The president is really good at giving these mealy Mouth Statements open to interpretation so he can say, i condemned racism. What do you want me to do . But he can leave enough room there for people who want to march in these rallies or attend these meetings or pop off on facebook with racist ideas, he can leave enough daylight for them to think, hes actually with us. That protest that we saw in
charlottesville a year ago, that hadnt been seen before donald trump was president and from all the reporters who were in the crowd talking to people, the majority of the White Supremacists who showed up believed rightly or wrongly that this president was on their side, that he understood them differently than past president s, past political leaders before and there was an excitement about that. And if that is not the case, its incumbent on the president to send a stronger message to say, i do not support this and as yet he has not. Michael steele, this is a question that chuck todd asked of a member of congress on Meet The Press a week or tua go. He asked, is the Republican Party becoming the party that is fundamentally antiblack . I dont know if ill go that far yet. We have our roots, though. We have our roots when there was a southern strategy in the Nixon Campaign in 68 to bring into the fold this particular ilk of person, to put it politely, this kind of trash, because there was some electoral benefit
presumably that would come from it. There was no consideration given to the poison that would infect the body politic within the gop, that here we are now some 50 years later having to deal with a president , a republican president who, to the point that was just made, gives countenance to it, that gives room to that. So, the party has to now, irrespective of the president , the party has to account for this because i dont know how we go into a black community, into an Hispanic Community and say, come, join us, be a part of us. Its not justify to say youre conservative, not enough to say you go to church on sunday. Its not enough to put that on the table any more when you have this body of work by this administration. Youve got the rhetoric and Everything Else that says something very different to communities of color in this country. And its a real problem. Mark morial, jump in. I want to offer, i think its
an interesting arc, if you will, from george bush circa 2001 talking about affirmative access, appointing colin powell and later Condaleeza Rice as secretaries of state. A gop in the congress that had a j. C. Watts in its leadership and a gop that had a Michael Steele as its chair. That party would seem to be maybe making small steps is a very different scene today. Michael steele, a j. C. Watts, a colin powell, a condee rice, they were in the Republican Movement in 2000s. This is a directional shift when you have a corey stewart, a Patrick Little as candidates nominated or candidates running under the gop banner. So i think the difficulty for the gop is not only in its
leadership optics and in the president s rhetoric, but also the fact that there are no longer any credible African Americans in any leadership role anywhere, it seems, in the congress or in the executive branch. Its hard to make up a particularly when youve got a changing landscape in the country not to even mention the lack of latino leaders in the very same party. So youve got to look at this in terms of where its come from maybe 15 years ago to where it is directionally in the wrong direction if you consider the demographic shifts in the country for the gop. Fair points. We are just Getting Started here on kasie d. C. Were going to take you back live to the streets in washington as some of the most dramatic moments come from antifa protesters. Plus reality show plot twist 15 years in the making. Omarosa throws the book at the president. Were back after this. Morning. Morning. What do we got . Keep an eye on that branch. Might get windy. Have a good shift. Fire pit. Last use 0600. Id stay close. Morning. Get ready to switch. Protected by flo. Should say, protected by alan and jamie. Right . Should it . When you bundle home and auto. Run, alan . You get more than just savings. You get roundtheclock protection. Him to process complex information, how he is not engaged in some of the most important decisions that impact our country. I was complicit and for that i regret. Welcome back to kasie d. C. Omarosa has now been relegated to the list of people that the president has dismissed as low lives. That includes ted cruz, Eric Harryman son, and someone who is not bob costa. I wish i knew off the top of my head who it is. It is easy to forget omarosa and the president were collaborateers in one way or another for 15 years. I want you to go out to laelgz, greet these guys, and over a period of weeks youre going to decide whether or not there is somebody for you. Goodbye, sweetheart. Good luck, have a good time. Will it work . The new show on tv one is called donald j. Trump presents the ultimate merger. Donald and omarosa, welcome. Thank you. First of all, describe the
right guy for omarosa. What kind of Guy Should Omarosa i dont know if there is a right guy. I dont think there is any man in the world that can handle this. Shes smart, shes tough, but shes good. She has a good heart, i will say that. There is a reason you liked her even though you had tr