Backtracking and guam residents remain on high alert. We start with President Trump pushing back against critics. Mind you, not talking specifically to those hurt most by charlottesville. The latest comes in the form of a tweet labeling ceos who leave his Advisory Councils in protest as grandstanders. Scott paul is head of a nonprofit that represents all manufacturers. He write, im resigning from the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative because it taos right thing for me do. President trump also has hit the retweet button a couple times today. In one case, that tweet was from one of the more wellknown conspiracy theorists on the altright. Another retweet showed a train hitting a cnn reporter. That was soon deleted. Lets go to our White House Reporter for the latest. Kelly odonnell. On monday, the president talked about the bonds of love and the things that bring us together as americans. What happened . Reporter well, this is the counterpuncher in chief as he has described himself, that he will smack back if he feels attacked, and thats what we of seen, especially on twitter. So you alluded to it, there was a tweet from the president today, a reaction to those ceos who lets remember this is a much more personal response for the president. These are people he considers to be in his peer group, and when they reject him, that is particularly personal for him. So he says in his tweet that those who are leaving the president s council are grandstanders and others will be willing to join in their place and then jobs, jobs, jobs. The president is in trying to in some ways say this doesnt affect him, its almost dismissive of the criticism, meaning others would line up to be a part of his council. S that one way for him to try to turn down the volume of the critici criticism. Weve seen a growing number of ceos who have removed themselves from the president s council. Under armour, we of e soon the head of disney, also elon musk, various reasons, not just charlottesville, but also the paris climate accord. These are people the president respects who have taken a position for either their corporate identity, their personal views, perhaps both, and the president doesnt take lightly to that, so he is doing what he has been known to d throughout the obviously, its raining there so kelly odonnell, we thank you for that. Lets talk more about the members of congress because already theyre having to deal with the fallout from the president s response to the violence in charlottesville. Take look at the scene in colorado when republican Senator Cory Gardner was asked about it during a town hall earlier today. Now, we should note that the audience did appear to have a large number of antitrump protesters. Are you confident that donald trump is fit to lead our country . Yes or no . Lets bring in our panel. David, Senior National correspondent for christian broadcasting network, nicholas is an msnbc contributor and political reporter for the New York Times, Zerlina Maxwell is director of programming for sirius xm and a former member of the 2016 clinton campaign. Nick, senator gardner isnt just any senator. Hes the head of the National RepublicanSenatorial Committee which means hes in charge of recruiting and supporting candidates to help keep the Senate Majority through 2018. One of the key questions here, what happened in charlottesville, the president s delayed response, has there potentially been lasting damage here for 2018 . Its hard to say, chris. Look, they the factors that are going to pull people into races in 2018 that are going to help or hinder candidate recruitment for cory gardner are money and the quality of the opponents, the primary issue, and of course the state. I think the senate map is actually pretty good for Senate Republicans. But i do think that the more time the president spends in these kinds of kerfluffles and fight, its more than a kerfluffle, obviously, the harder it is to recruit republicans who want to run against what will probably be an antirepublican tie. And the more the president knocks down the generic ratings for republicans around the country, the harder it is to recruit good candidates. David, what do you make of these ceos who are leaving . Are they grandstanders as the president says . Well, you know, they could be. They could not be. Just depends on how he obviously, he sees it a certain way and there always be a difference there. Look, the reality is that donald trump is just tired of people kind of cutting bait and moving on. We want them to stand is this about moving on or somebody standing up for what they believe in . Let me fin you shall the point, if they go ahead and if they are serious about economic improvement and their company and all of that, they would think thats whats going on around the country would be, that would be something that they would want to see done. You know, one thing that donald trump does, he brings this all to the forefront and brings out very sensitive matters. I pi thats an understatement. In the public discourse. Because of that, he starts to out, if you will, many folks who give real views about certain issues, and therefore because of that, we start to see im not understanding what youre saying, david. He brings out real views. I dont understand what your point is. Im sorry. Im just trying to simply say hes the guy that goes ahead and just straight shoots, tells it like it is and because of that, certain people, certain organizations start to reveal their true colors, whether it be more of a liberal bent this isnt straight shooting. This is about him not saying something. You didnt let me fin you shall. This isnt straight shooting. This is about him not responding to what happened in charlottesville. Theres a difference. You know, it is fascinating that youre trying to react to something that i said when i was about 35 to 40 done with my answer. Go ahead. So what im trying to say is that when trump puts everything out there on the table, people start to reveal their strtrue color, whether it be a liberal or conservative slant. Thats all im saying. Thats human nature. Let me play you what republican congressman charlie dent said, his reaction to trumps second statement on charlottesville. He came out yesterday with a better response, but it looked a little bit forced an halfhearted pip think whats affecting the president here is the fact that his prior statements during the campaign were, you know, he went after, you know, made some attacks on mexicans, muslim, the innnd judge, and i think it makes these situations even more treacherous for president. So when you talk about true colors, is part of the problem that the president has this record thatmight lead people not the give him the benefit of the doubt in this instance . Dent didnt even mention trumps longdelayed announcement of david duke, the former kkk wizard. Are you asking me that, chris . I am. A couple things. First of all, look, the reality is that donald trump just goes ahead and says what he says and people are going to have to obviously deal with what he sz and, look, i mean, i dont even see quite the issue here. The truth of the matter is that this is something that hes done from the very beginning, so im not quite sure look, should hef said something saturday . Sure he should have. And he didnt. Now he says something monday and the immediate meade ya goes crazy with the fact he led with Economic News instead of charlottesville. Hashtag got to be trumps fault. Everything is trumps fault. Its interesting. What is the issue . Racism and Donald Trumps long history of saying things that are race u out loud and normalizing racism to the point where certain people who had been in the shadows, certainly White Supremacy and White Supremacists and White Nationalists, thats not a new phenomenon. Whats new is they are em bowdened by this president and are able to go out in public without any masking of their faces and proudly declare that they are supreme over other races of people. So donald trump has given comfort to this group of people whether it be his not renting to black people, whether it be his calling for execution of the central park five when those young men were innocent of the crime. Whether it be retweeting who ii supremacists, attacking a mexican judge for his heritage even though he actually is an american citizen. These are things that are on the record and do you reed anything into the fact that the president directly by name only attacked one of these ceos . And it was the first one so, maybe thats the reason, but also the only one who is africanamerican. Thats a dog whistle, essentially. He doesnt hesitate to attack the black ceo who drops off the council, but he does hesitate when calling out david duke or denouncing david duke, a former grand wizard of the kkk. Why is that . What message is he sending to this particular group of americans that what they believe is actually okay . You look at what Richard Spencer and david duke said this weekend alone, they said we believe in donald trump, hes going to bring about the america we want to see, and that america does not include people who look like me. He said he doesnt want anything to d with those type of groups. No, he has not. Hold on for a second. He said in 2016 i disavow them. He talked to New York Times about them. He said those groups is what he said and then went on and actually named them. The bottom line is evangelical christian leaders, all of them have a responsibility to denounce all of this by name, kkk, neonazis, they have nothing, nothing and let me say that in all caps nothing do with true biblical christianity at all. Just because they claim their v theyre christian doesnt mean its so. I agree with that. The ones in charlottesville surrounded by White Supremacists wi assault weapons, thats problematic, something we havent seen since the 60s. Donald trump has not denounced these groups. He has. Three Members Associated with White Nationalism work in the white house right now. Nick, i want to get to you one more time. I want to ask another question about the president , who seems to create many of his own problem, by walking away when he had an opportunity to answer a direct question about denouncing them, he did not do it, did not take that opportunity. He waited 50 hours to do this whereas he waited i think a matter of minutes before he denounced the merck ceo. He retweeted the defense from jack about how theres no outrage over the deaths in chicago. For people who dont know who he is, the l. A. Times summarizes his body of work. Trump retweets altright media figure who pushed pizzagate and seth rich conspiracy theories. Why cant he give these people up . Its an important question. I heard two minutes ago david gave an eloquent denunciation of neonaziism on behalf of evangelical in simple language in about ten words. It seems to somehow elude this president to say things like nazis are evil and they shouldnt wear my hats. Its the easiest thing in american politics. Its layup. There are always crazy nazis coming out and endorsing candidate who is dont want their support. Unfortunately, its a ritual of american politics. Those candidates learn to say this person isnt with me, im against them. The president seems ham strung, proceeds with caution, doesnt want to g directly at those kinds of people. Im not sure why, but his actions speak for themselves i think. One last thing quickly. Jesus was not a white guy from kansas. He was a middle eastern man. The reason i say that is because donald trump has jewish grandchildren. That has to be part of the nary tooif. Everyone wants to talk about hes there, hes that, he has jewish grandchildren, his soninlaw is jewish. Thats not going the play well with the kkk and the neonazis but apparently thats not part of the discussion. Nor did it stop him from not saying that directly. Im just saying that to put it out there. Not saying it directly when he had the first opportunity. David brody, thank you so much, nick and zerlina, much appreciated. Meantime, the political world is watching todays alabama special Republican Senate primary. The race could tell us a lot about the power or lack thereof of donald trump and Mitch Mcconnell. Which candidate rode up to vote on a horse named sassy . Well take you to alabama. Then naming and shaming. Social media shining a light on the faces of hate caught on camera. Well have the fallout. At ally, we offer low rates on home loans. But if thats not enough, we offer our price match guarantee too. And if thats not enough. We should move. Our home team will help you every step of the way. Still not enough . Its smaller than id like. Well help you finance your dream home. Its perfect. Oh, was this built on an ancient Burial Ground . Okay. 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As one of those workers, im proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. Gillette the best a man can get. Jeremiah wright now voters in alabama are electing their first senator in two decades. Its republican primary day. Donald trump tweeted support this morning. Could be a rough night for incumbent senator Luther Strange. Roy moore somethings wrong here ahead in the polls, here he is, voting via horseback earlier. That he picture threw me off, but thats what he did, rode in. Strapg picked by the now former governor to take over for session sgs but he finds himself tied to the senates lackluster performance, accusations hes too cozy with Mitch Mcconnell. I told the president , we were talking about that, he said we both shared the frustration. Ive been in washington, in the government a month less time than he has, so were both incredibly frustrated by the lack of performance by the senate. So, you know, well have to get back to work. Msnbcs Garrett Haake is in hoover, alabama, which is just south of birmingham. Steven kornacki is over at the big board for us. Lets go to you, garrett. I dont know if you saw the horse, but what are voters telling you about what matters to them in this race . Reporter we did see the judge roy moore voting on horseback or at least the photos of it. Thats part of why hes popular in alabama, this perception hes an authentic guy, that no matter what else, hell be who he is. Ma thats why he might win this thing tonight, at least be the firstplace finisher in the primary. The dynamic here thats interesting when you tack to these voters, they want somebody who will stand up shoulder to shoulder with donald trump and support his agenda and somebody whos going to kind of pleau up the system and move things through the swamp of washington, but that doesnt really exist with one person in this race right now in part because Donald Trump EndorsedLuther Strange, who as you pointed out is also endorsed by Mitch Mcconnell so, you have strange, whos seen as both the establishment guy and the president s guy versus roy moore and mo brooks, the Freedom Caucus congressman who said lets throw out the 60vote rule for fill buster, lets blow up the senate and jam things through. Thats all create kind of a muddle here, and this polling place, back in 2016, they had hours, lines hourslong lines to vote. Its special election, of course that wont be the case, but you see the lack of enthusiasm when you talk to some of these voters out here today, including this gentleman i spoke to. Listen how he explained his vote for Luther Strange. I find all of them, to be honest with you, to be ineffective, and not that Luther Strange would be the most effective. I find him to at least be maybe the most diplomatic about doing some things. Reporter the least bad option, essentially . Pretty much. Pretty much. Po. Reporter so maybe the most diplomatic, least bad option is not a great Bumper Sticker going into a runoff, chris, but thats what we of got here. Strange is still fighting for that spot in the runoff and theyll have several more weeks of campaigning down here in what has been a very negative campaign so far. Garrett, thank you. An expensive one, too, steve. Luther strange had the endorsement of President Trump in a state where hes popular. We talked about Mitch Mcconnell. He also has gotten millions of dollars soshg why isnt this a cakewalk for him . This is an interesting test. This is sort of the average of all the polls we of soon afshha. Luther strange, were testing two very powerful and very different forces, though. Visualize it this way. In the middle here of the scale, you have luther, big luther they call him, hes 69, big Luther Strange anditis question of which one of these factors will outweigh the other. Hes being dragged down potentially on one side by voter anger at the establishment, really at two establishments, you have Mitch Mcconnell, the