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President Is Set To Speak Before The General Assembly; Nikki Haley Refer To The President Is Doing Some Slapping And Hugging; Donald Trump Has Called The U.N. Incompetent And Weak; Fallout From Hurricane Irma In Florida; All Eyes Are Once Again On The Atlantic Ocean; Protesters Return To The Streets Of St. Louis For The Third Night In A Row; President Trump Is Sparking Controversy; Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Has Talk About Climate Change. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired September 17, 2017 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[19:00:14] BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: It is the top of the hour 7:00 p.m. on the east coast. I'm Boris Sanchez in New York feeling in for Ana Cabrera this weekend. Thank you so much for joining us.

President Trump is about to make his debut before the world body that he has called week and incompetent. We are of course talking about the United Nations where on Tuesday the President is set to speak before the general assembly. The President expected to speak to the group publicly then meet with several world leaders privately. President Trump letting his twitter followers know that he is busy today, though, posting this. Look at it.

Quote "important meetings and calls scheduled for today. Military and economy are getting stronger by the day. And our enemies know it." Of course, wrapping up with his signature #makeAmericagreatagain.

We are also joined by Athena Jones. She is live in San Jose, New Jersey with the President who is spending the weekend. We are also joined by global affairs correspondent Elise Labott.

Athena, let's start with you. You can expect North Korea to be at the top of the list of the things that the President is going to discuss before the general assembly on Tuesday. We heard from the administration though that this would be business as usual.

President Trump tweeted this out today. Quote "I spoke with President Moon of South Korea last night, asked him how rocket man is doing, long gas lines forming in North Korea. Too bad."

Rocket plan we believe is an allusion to Kim Jong-un. Athena, what can we expect the President will say at the U.N. on Tuesday?

ATHENA JONES, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: All right, Boris. We have gotten a little bit of preview from some of the members of his diplomatic team. We heard from U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley who said she had seen the speech has been written already. And she told reporters on Friday that the President in the speech on Tuesday will slap the right people and hug the right people. And so, I think we can certainly expect he will be slapping the leader of North Korea given its recent missile test and it is ongoing nuclear provocations.

We also heard from his national security advisor H.R. McMaster who gave us a little bit more of an idea of some of the things he is going to be touching on speaking to FOX News Sunday. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. H.R. MCMASTER, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: Well, he thinks the speech is a tremendous opportunity, obviously, to reach so many world leaders at the same time and to emphasize really three themes, first is to protect the American people, the second is to promote American prosperity and the third is really to help promote accountability and sovereignty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: So there you heard general McMaster called this speech a tremendous opportunity for the President to speak to so many world leaders gathered together. It's also a chance for these world leaders to see how the President plans to promote his America first agenda and what is a global meeting, a meeting of the global body that is usually geared towards solving global challenges together, at least trying to solve them together.

This is, of course, a big debut for the President. It's his first turn on the most high profile stage in the world and we are talking about 193 member nations who will be taking part. A lot of those leaders are going to be watching and listening very, very closely to what the President has to say to try to take a measure of this man who as you said, Boris, has been very critical of the United Nations in the past -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Athena, thank you.

Elise, let's turn to you. You heard Nikki Haley refer to the President is doing some slapping and hugging. Quote "we just found out secretary of state Rex Tillerson is planning to meet later tonight with his Russian counterpart, former minister Sergey Lavrov, is there more hugging or slapping going on at that meeting, Elise?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I think it's going to be a little bit of both because it's a love/hate relationship, Boris, between the U.S. and Russia, certainly right now. I mean, you have, you know, the pressing issues such as North Korea, the Iran nuclear deal, the crisis in Syria where the U.S. is trying to work with the Russians but recently had an incident where the Russians strike U.S. backed coalition forces on the ground in Syria.

So I mean, I think there is a lot of ways that they want to cooperate and a lot of pressing issues that they need to work together on but then you also have this tension between the U.S. and Russia. You have the U.S. holding the Russian diplomatic compounds here in the United States and Russia cutting U.S. diplomats from Russian expelling them.

So I mean, I think that there's -- secretary Tillerson in particular is trying to find a way to get rid of these what he calls irritants in the U.S./Russia relationship. And I think that there is a long list of things that they need to tick off there. But I think that there are a lot of, you know, North Korea pressing issues such as that that they are going to need to work together on. And I think they are going to try do that.

[19:05:01] SANCHEZ: Now Elise, I'm not sure if we have the sound bite but Rex Tillerson spoke this morning on one of the Sunday morning talk shows talking about American options when it comes to dealing with North Korea. He talked about wanting a peaceful solution, a diplomatic solution without taking the military option off the table. Let's play that sound now.

Actually we don't have it. I apologize. But Elise, realistically speaking, how much diplomacy is left?

LABOTT: Well, that's what secretary Tillerson was saying in that sound bite on "CBS this morning." He was saying that this pressure campaign is what he calls a peaceful pressure campaign, which is kind of, you know, continuing to tighten the noose around North Korea. You just had these sanctions pass in the U.N. Security Council and that was a kind of progressive oil ban on North Korea, not a full oil banquet yet. It was cutting textiles, really trying to get at the heart of North Korean revenue which funds their nuclear program. That he wants world nations to implement that. And when he says implement, he really means China because that's where the real pressure is going to come from North Korea.

So all this kind of tough military talk is not just a deterrent to North Korea not to take any provocations. It's also if you will a message to country like China, that if you don't get with the program if you don't get your act together and start implementing some of these sanctions, we are, you know, unfortunately going to be towards the military option because North Korea's nuclear program continues to advance. It continues to lob missiles and at some point what Nikki Haley and H.R. McMaster has said is you can't kick the can down the road anymore because there is no more road.

So I think, you know, secretary Tillerson this morning was saying, listen, we got to get this diplomatic, you know, economic option going pretty quickly because once we exhaust these diplomatic options, we are out of options and the only one left is military one.

SANCHEZ: That is unsettling to hear.

Elise Labott, thank you so much for the time and perspective.

Let's dig deeper with our panel. To discuss, we have Robert Zimmerman. He is a Democratic strategist who sits on Democratic national committee. We also have Caitlin Huey-Burns with us. She is a reporter for "RealClearPolitics." We also have CNN political commentator Andre Bauer. He served as lieutenant governor of South Carolina.

Robert, let's start with you. Donald Trump has called the U.N. as you heard before incompetent and weak. He has pledged to pull out of the Paris accords. He has pulled out of the TPP. He has pledged to pull out of NAFTA. It seems that the President is fixed on his America first vision. How does he relate? How does he draw empathy from world leaders at the U.N. when the mission of the U.N. is to bring the world together and he is trying to isolate the United States to some degree?

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: That's really the challenge. And these are not Democratic and Republican Party issues. They are much bigger than that. One of the great problems we have is that the President's message is so inconsistency and so contradictory that it doesn't put America first. It undermines our leadership. To say that we are out of the climate - the Paris climate accord and now the secretary of state says maybe we are going to go back in. For that matter when secretary of state Tillerson said today regime is not an option for North Korea, less than two months ago our CIA director said regime change was a possibility.

And so, this kind of conflicting messages from the administration undermine our country. And so the President's rhetoric sounding like an extra in a Vin Diesel movie. Doesn't really enhanced our stature. And we can't move forward if we are going to insult our allies like South Korea. We have to if we are going to lead the world and be a leader in the world try to bring the world community together.

SANCHEZ: Now, Caitlin, it's been speculated that some of that mixed messaging from the White House plays into this mad man approach, right, where Donald Trump is broadcast to the North Koreans to Kim Jong-un as someone who is very aggressive and who he does not want to mess with and then you have the diplomats like Nikki Haley and Rex Tillerson commanding and say well, diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy. Diplomacy is the answer. Do you buy that speculation that that's what's happening here or is it just mixed messaging?

CAITLIN HUEY-BURNS, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, REALCLEARPOLITICS: Well, what we know from this president is that he has been very critical of other Presidents who have tried to tackle this problem. And in doing so, kind of narrows his options, so to speak. And so by calling -- referring to Kim Jong-un as rocket man, I think a lot of not only people in the national security community but elsewhere would kind of say that's probably not the right way to go. In fact, you heard from some of his advisers.

You also saw the White House statement talking very differently, more of a diplomatic approach saying that Donald Trump and the South Korean leader will meet on the sidelines of this U.N. meeting this week.

This is going to be a very important moment for Donald Trump, not only is he facing the threats from North Korea, he is facing a lot of issues back here at home on the legislative front. And this presents him an opportunity to really seize this Presidential moment. At the same time, he also has other things going on like drip, drip, drip of Russian investigations. And so we will see how he handles this and also keeping an eye on U.N. secretary Nikki Haley. This is an important moment for her on this kind of stage as well.

[19:10:22] SANCHEZ: Yes. The President has said that he wants her to speak her mind. Andre, to you, we have heard administration officials as I alluded to

earlier saying this is going to be business as usual. Business as usual fire and fury unlike the world has ever seen before, rocket man now with the recent tweet. What is going to be business as usual in your eyes when President Trump takes the stage on Tuesday? What is he going to say?

ANDRE BAUER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I want him to be firm. I want him to conduct business like he has been doing. I don't expect him to act like prim and proper politicians have done in the past and only glad handed and really done -- haven't done much more to address the problem.

I want him to do one of two things. I want the message to be clear with North Korea. Either we are going to take a military option or we are going to choke them out financially. If our friends around the world don't want to help us, then we might have to go with the other option. I hope we don't, like most Americans but this is getting to a level where it hasn't been addressed in the current and the previous administration and something is got to be done. So when he goes to the U.N. I hope he is pretty clear.

Look. We want to help our friends out but at the end of the day we need our friends to step up too and for too long the U.S. has been carrying the burden financially but militarily as well and that's why he is challenged the U.N. and said, hey, everybody needs to do their part.

SANCHEZ: Robert, I can tell you are itching to say something.

ZIMMERMAN: Yes. I just want to make this point before we all conclude the diplomatic options are closed, let's remember, we have -- the Trump administration hasn't even put an ambassador for representing us in South Korea. We don't have an undersecretary of arms control. We don't have an undersecretary in place for public diplomacy.

So before we reach this conclusion and there is no going back when you decide military options the only one, we still have to explore more diplomatic opportunities. And the first that the President can do is put people in place who can begin that process and he hasn't even taking that first step.

SANCHEZ: Well, Caitlin, it's interesting because we hear Nikki Haley say that the Security Council's exhausted all their options. But then you hear China's ambassador to the United States saying that the U.S. should do more, the opposite of what we have heard from Trump administration officials. Whose right here or do they both really need to do more?

HUEY-BURNS: Well, this is why I think it will be really interesting to look at how the President handles this. As you mentioned earlier, he has been very critical of the U.N. existing in general. And so I'm looking to see how he manages that line.

Also for Nikki Haley, she has become, you know, more in the spotlight than the secretary of state in a lot of ways. Some have argued that she is eclipsed him in some of at least on the public front on this. So it remains to be seen but I think the President had also campaigned as someone who wouldn't get involved in these kinds of things and is realizing that governing of course is much different than campaigning, particularly as it comes to foreign policy and national security, events come up that you cannot anticipate to the extent that they have become this serious. And so this is a big challenge for a President who campaigned on different kinds of issues.

SANCHEZ: Yes. It will be surprising to see if he pulls a rabbit out of his hat. Certainly, nobody really expected him to connect with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi the way he has so anything's possible.

We have to leave it there, unfortunately. Caitlin Huey-Burns, Robert Zimmerman, Andre Bauer, thank you so much for joining us.

Ahead in the NEWSROOM, tropical trifecta, three storms are brewing in the Atlantic but all eyes are on that one in the middle, Maria. Why this hurricane could wreak havoc on places already devastated by hurricane Irma?

Plus winter is coming. "Game of Thrones" fans know the phrase but one of its stars wants the world to know winter could be a thing of the past. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau joins me live to talk about his mission to combat climate change.

You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:18:14] SANCHEZ: Fallout from hurricane Irma in Florida, the deaths of eight elderly residents in a steamy hot nursing home are prompting an emergency mandate from Florida's governor Rick Scott. The mandate calls for all assisted living facilities and nursing homes in the state to have ample supplies and power to not only continue operating but also to maintain comfortable temperatures for at least 96 hours following a power outage. The eight elderly patients who died after Irma spent three days in sweltering heat after that nursing home lost power.

All eyes are once again on the Atlantic Ocean where tropical storm Maria is now hurricane Maria. One of three storms that meteorologists are watching in that part of the world. Also along ports of the east coast, tropical storm watches going up as hurricane Jose passes by. And you see Lee not far in the east.

Hurricane Maria though is maintaining the focus. That is what has hurricane watchers mostly concerned because it has been following the path of hurricane Irma.

Meteorologist Julie Martin joins us now from the CNN weather center in Atlanta.

Julie, is it still following the path of Irma?

JULIE MARTIN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. And it is expected to strengthen as well. Right now a category one storm, Maria. By the way, Lee, nothing to worry about at the moment. Appears to be falling part. Jose a category one as well that could impact the northeast coast.

But let's take a look at Maria because Maria is one that we will have to continue to watch. We are looking at the potential for this to be moving on into the Leeward Islands in the next 24 to 48 hours. So that is going to be real trouble for some of those island nations who, of course, were impacted so hard by hurricane Irma.

So the Leeward Islands that's going to be the general direction that Maria will be moving. It will be potentially a strong hurricane, a category three hurricane by the time it does hit places like the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. So we will have a little bit more on Maria and Jose for you coming up.

But Jose looks like not a direct hit to the U.S. coast. It does look like it will be causing some pretty wicked surf in the northeast. We have some tropical storm warnings up. We have some tropical storm warnings up and those go right here all the way from Delaware all the way up into Boston. We are looking at obviously having some computer problems here guys, but we are looking at the potential for some very messy weather in the northeast which could also slow down travel conditions. We will get those maps back up for you next time.

[19:20:45] SANCHEZ: Not a big deal. Julie Martin, glad to hear that Lee is falling apart, at least one less thing to worry about.

Julie Martin, thanks again.

Coming up, we are following breaking news as protesters return to the streets of St. Louis for the third night in a row. This following the acquittal of a white police officer in the death of an African- American man. We will take you to the scene next.

Plus a star of the HBO hit series "Game of Thrones" joins us to talk about his passion -- climate change.

You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:25:45] SANCHEZ: Just in to CNN. President Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen says he expects to appear before the Senate intelligence committee this Tuesday in the Russia probe.

Joining us now over the phone, CNN crime and justice reporter, Shimon Prokupecz.

Shimon, two things that I want to know. Why is Michael Cohen important? And then one other detail, I notice in a reporting, we don't use the word testify, is he not going to be going under oath?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE PRODUCER (on the phone): That's right. Let me take the last part of your question there and that is he is not expected to be there under oath to take an oath. However, you know, lying to Congress is still a crime. So he has to be truthful because later on down the line anything he says if it turns out that he lied could potentially, you know, bring perjury charges.

Michael Cohen has been sort of this interesting person to the President. He is a longtime associate, longtime friend, was involved in the campaign, spoke out, spoke to reporters, was on television, spending, supporting the President and since that time a lot has happened. You know, there was this dossier that mentioned Michael Cohen. In it, it talked about him going to Prague and meeting with Russians, you know. All of these was unsubstantiated with a claim made by a person who put the dossier together, former British intelligence agent. So that's when interest in Michael Cohen certainly started to surface.

Also, recently, we have learned that Cohen was pushing a deal in Russia, was trying -- had some ideas about potentially a Trump tower being involved or building a Trump tower in Russia, in Moscow and had reached out to the Russian government expressing his interest seeking their help to potentially put this deal together. It sort of fell through. Michael Cohen claims he never felt they were serious about it so the deal fell through and probably the people who are going to be questioning Michael Cohen on Tuesday, these are going to be staffers and investigators from the hill from this committee from the Senate intelligence committee, senators. They may be able to dip into the readings. They didn't listen but they are not actually supposed to question him. It's really going to be staffers. And some of what they are going to ask to be exact was will be about this deal that he wanted to put together or potential Trump tower. And also his other connections to people who have surfaced in the Russia investigation and also the dossier.

He has denied ever going to Prague, ever meeting with Russians, certainly has denied participating in any sort of form of collusion or communicating with Russians about collusion. But nonetheless, these investigators on the hill are still going to ask him about it.

And also, Boris, lastly, you know, the FBI has also been scrutinizing some of Michael Cohen's dealings. We have reported on that and again he has denied, consisting in denied any wrongdoing.

SANCHEZ: That's right, Shimon. A vocal supporter and defender of the President. Someone that is very close within Donald Trump's orbit.

Shimon Prokupecz, thank you for helping us looked through that breaking news.

We are also following breaking news out of St. Louis at this hour after the acquittal of a former police officer in the 2011 shooting death of an African-American man. You are looking at live pictures right now of protesters gathered outside what appear to be police headquarters in St. Louis.

We are now joined by CNN Ryan Young. Ryan, what are you seeing?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, we did start at police headquarters and now we are back there. Look. We have been walking for about four miles. Everything has remained peaceful.

Boris, I want to show you something right here. Because see police staging outside of headquarters down that direction right there. You see some of the officers in riot gear as my photographer Jake kind of zooms in. You can see them over there.

There's a good reason why they are staying out of sight here, because every time they are seen by the crowd. It sends people into sort of further. And they are just very upset about it. We will bring this camera back this direction. So we can show you how they have just taking over this intersection.

This is what they have been doing as they walk down the way, though. Block off an intersection and make sure the protesters can walk through. We are walking toward the front of where this is happening right now. The protests have been peaceful. And what ends up happening is, every single day we have had peaceful protests. It's at nighttime that we have had the issues.

If you look back this direction, you can see the collection of people. And what we have seen is some of the same people protesting during the day. Then at night there's another crew that sort of shows up and creates issues. I hope we can show some of the video from last night. It was downright scary last night when they started throwing rocks and urine and paint at police officers. We saw them have a soft response at first. But then obviously, it was getting out of hand.

People started running. We saw folks getting trampled. Then we saw just carnage on some of the local businesses. We saw them breaking the windows of local businesses and that really upset some of the protesters because they were like, hey, some of these people have supported us, why are we doing this? So now you can see them in front of headquarters. They want to make sure they get their message heard.

One thing I want to point out to you, Boris, look upstairs. You can see the officers who are posted up top on top of the building who are watching this crowd. So right now the very peaceful situation but, of course everyone is worried about sunset.

[19:31:16] SANCHEZ: That's right, Ryan. We have seen things get violent the last two nights. Again, we hope that tonight does not become another rash of bad decision in St. Louis.

Ryan Young, thank you.

Coming up, he is a man on a mission. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, better known as Jamie Lannister on "Game of Thrones" is raising awareness on climate change. We will talk to him about it live. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[19:35:45] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This isn't about noble houses. This is about the living and the dead. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I intend to stay amongst the living. At the

start boy and his new queen defending oath (ph). We stay here where we've always been.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I made a promise.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our child will rule.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our child will never be born if the dead come south.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: If the dead come south. It is a recurring theme on the popular HBO series "Game of Thrones." And one that many fans of the series believe is a metaphor for climate change. That is just fine with the actor in that clip. You might know him as Jamie Lannister, the king slayer, the former lord commander of the king's guard, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau joins us now.

You are an actor and activist and you are here this week to take part in the general assembly of the United Nations. We are not here to talk about "Game of Thrones." We are here to talk about something you are very passionate about, climate change, why is that?

NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU, ACTOR, GAME OF THRONES: Yes. Well, I'm a goodwill ambassador for the UNDP. And they have what's known as the 17 global goals for 2030. One of them is climate change. I pick two climate change and gender equality.

And the interesting thing is if you look at these goals, I mean, there's goals that we can all agree on like end poverty and you know, education for all, gender equality. And if you look over the last 20 years we are actually doing really well, you know, 250,000 people exited extreme poverty every day. We have - I mean, everything is going really well apart from one very important goal which is the climate change. It's actually going really bad. And the worst projections seems to be getting worse every year. And if we don't act globally, then we will be in terrible trouble.

Now, the good thing news is of course that we are. I mean, last year and two years ago, the Paris agreement, the whole world came together and said, OK. We understand this is catastrophic. If we don't do something you are going to end in tears. It's all going to end in tears. And the whole world came together except for two, maybe three countries.

SANCHEZ: Three now.

COSTER-WALDAU: Three now, yes. But what was interesting and what I thought was if you look at the positives, was that the fear -- I mean, President Trump said in his campaign that he was going to do that so it wasn't a surprise. The surprise I think and the positive was that the rest of the world didn't just go, if the U.S. don't want to do this, well, we are out. They did the opposite. They said, OK. We are going to go even harder. We will really combat this. You had the major cities in the U.S. go in like New York saying, hey,

we are going to do our bit. California, the state which is the biggest polluter in the U.S. said we are going to go even further. So overall it's positive, but the thing is climate change is such a threat to all of us.

SANCHEZ: Right. And outreach is important because a lot of people don't believe it's real.

COSTER-WALDAU: Yes. And that's -- it's funny because, you know, today I was just reading on twitter. You know, Scott Kelly, the astronaut. I saw this little thing and he was -- someone asked him, can you help me out, Scott, you know. My family believe that the earth is flat. And he was like, well, I have been going around it a couple thousand times, the earth is round. And it's kind of the same thing with climate change. There is no -- there's no point in discussing it any more. The facts are real. It's happening. It's not even, you know, you can't discuss it. So let's just deal with it.

SANCHEZ: Among the scientific community it's certainly real.

COSTER-WALDAU: Well now -- well there is a difference between facts and believes, you know. I just find it - it is like me saying well two and two is five. That's my belief and then you can say, well that's fine but it doesn't make it real and that's --

SANCHEZ: So how do you go about making it real for those that don't necessarily --?

COSTER-WALDAU: Well, I just --

SANCHEZ: -- believe that? Especially among our leaders. Here is an issue. We just had two historic storms hit the United States. One of them hit us with 50 inches of rain unprecedented. Another was the size of the state of Florida, my home state. The governor there, let's say he is hesitant to say the words climate change. How do you reach those leaders and connect them to what is actually happening?

[19:40:17] COSTER-WALDAU: Well, I mean that's a very good question. And you know, I find it's just mind boggling because again, I don't know your job. You don't know my job. If I came to you and said, listen, you should be a journalist this way. It's the same thing with -- you have people that dedicate their lives to study the climate. Why wouldn't you listen to them? Why would you suddenly just think, well, I know better?

No one has -- why would anyone want us to combat climate change if it wasn't real? I mean, it's -- I think -- the fact is -- the whole thing is we need to educate ourselves and I, you know, I'm just an actor. I'm just trying to use whatever spotlight, you know, "Game of Thrones" is affording me to put that on the UNDP. And so, you can just say to people, go to globalgoals.com. Go to UNDP.org. Read about these things. And then we have to - I mean, it's a global threat and we all have to do our part.

And, you know, we live in democracy. Every vote matters. And we just have to tell our politicians that we care about these things and the facts are the facts. There is nothing fake about this. It is happening and you can see that -- you saw that - of course, you know, I know people say, well, it's just weather. We have always had bad weather, which is true. But if you look at the last warmest years on record, well, they are all in the last 20 years. It's -- we have to deal with this. And the good thing is the world is dealing with it.

SANCHEZ: Got it. The President is expected to speak before the United Nations on Tuesday. There's a lot of questions about how he might approach it. What are you looking for him to say?

COSTER-WALDAU: Well, obviously, it is going to be interesting the whole world is waiting. I hope that he will address climate change and be more proactive. And if not, then there are a lot of citizens that will and there are a lot of cities in the U.S. that will and most of the countries of the world will.

SANCHEZ: While we have you here, are you the prince that was promised?

COSTER-WALDAU: That would be nice, wouldn't it?

SANCHEZ: Nikolaj, a pleasure to have you. Thank you very much, very important work.

COSTER-WALDAU: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Coming up, President Trump is spending the weekend at his golf club in New Jersey, but it was the golf themed tweet that he sent out this morning that is raising eyebrows. We will show it to you.

You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. Thank you again.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:47:17] SANCHEZ: An early morning twitter spree by President Trump is sparking controversy tonight. At issue, this meme that the President retweeted. It features footage of him swinging a golf club spliced together with video of Hillary Clinton falling to make it looked like the golf ball knocked her over.

The caption re-spoke, Donald Trump's amazing golf swing, #crookedHillary.

Well, some Trump supporters wrote it off as a joke, others are accusing the President of condoning violence.

Let's discuss with our panel. Returning, CNN political commentator and former Republican lieutenant governor of South Carolina, Andre Bauer. Also with us Democratic strategist, Robert Zimmerman.

Andre, let's start with you. Donald Trump is won the presidency. The campaign is now many months behind. When is enough in terms of these attacks on Hillary Clinton?

BAUER: Well, you know, I missed maybe on the other side of this. I'm thinking when did America loses its sense of humor. I actually think maybe should have used more club.

Look. Donald Trump is 71-years-old. He is a billionaire. He is married a super model. He is now President of the United States. He is always done it his way. And at 71 years old, I got a news flash for you, he isn't changing.

That's not good enough, Andre and you're better than that. We should all be outraged the idea of normalizing violence in any capacity.

ZIMMERMAN: You know, that is not good enough, Andre. You are better than that. We should all be - we should all be outrage. The idea of normalizing violence in any capacity.

BAUER: Oh, come on.

ZIMMERMAN: He is not just a 71-year-old billionaire, he is a President of the United States of America. And the idea that he would actually take a tweet --

(CROSSTALK)

ZIMMERMAN: Excuse me, Andre.

SANCHEZ: Just a second, Andre. I will let you respond in just a moment. Let Robert --.

ZIMMERMAN: The fact that he would take a tweet from an individual whose twitter page is full of homophobic and racist and anti-Semitic rants. The fact that even go there, have access to that page is startling enough.

What is more disgusting and reprehensible is the idea that while his wife Melania is supposed to be living a program against cyberbullying, he is President of the United States. He is setting a terrible example for young people. Any school -- if he were a child in my public cool, he would be pulled aside and spoken to and his parents would be called in. We can never normalize violence, Andre.

SANCHEZ: I just want to get a quick point before I give you a chance to speak, Andre. The information about that account that the President retweeted has been reported by Buzzfeed. CNN is actually still working to confirm that information.

But Andre, go ahead.

BAUER: To call this, the President using violence it's the snowflake world. I mean, we all know the President is not condoning violence. It was a spoof. It was a little bit of a dig. But to say he is condoning violence I mean, it's such a stretch from far away.

ZIMMERMAN: Andre, the President has advocate --

SANCHEZ: Let him finish. Andre, continue.

BAUER: You know, a lot of things -- Robert, sometimes I actually convinces me to his way, I'm thinking. But tonight, to say that this is President condoning violation, isn't going to happen. And I think most people that saw it didn't feel that way either.

[19:50:08] ZIMMERMAN: Andre, this President actually stood up at political rallies and offered to hold the coats and pay the legal fees of his supporters if they took and engage in violence against the protesters at the rallies. We saw him try to normalize in this rhetoric. We saw him normalize an excuse, neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

Republicans - the credit of many Republicans, they condemned the rhetoric in his conduct. Republican would come together and speak out because violence when it involves women, violence when it involves anyone, should never be normalized or accepted.

And Andre, how many tweets did he do that engaged in any sort of violent activities against men. None. That's something to think about.

BAUER: That's probably not true as well. He did the meme of wrestling. And it was not a woman. News flash for you, lighten up, take a joke.

SANCHEZ: Let's pivot to something else.

Robert, this week we've heard about Hillary Clinton's book tour. Bernie Sanders is out there campaigning with a new piece of legislation. We have also seen Joe Biden out there as well. He pinned an op-ed on American values recently. Where are the new faces for the Democrats? It seems like a lot it was seeing as the old guard.

ZIMMERMAN: Well, first of all, I think it's a really important question to consider. And frankly, you are going to see after the midterm elections, a number of new faces emerge. I have already been called by many of them to talk about their possible plans.

But the point here is, every Democrat should be focusing on the 2018 midterm elections. If we don't score well there, if we don't take back the House. If we don't win the Senate or at least come close in the Senate and we don't score. Then the 2020 doesn't count. So I think it's important to put it in perspective. There are, believe me, I would think, about 20 individuals who are looking to emerge. Hillary Clinton said she is not running. Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden have their own time frames.

SANCHEZ: Andre, very quickly to you. I did want to ask about 2018 because just this week, we saw the President engage with Democrats in a way that we had not seen them do so before, with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. Does that present a problem for Republicans in 2018, specifically those like Dean Heller in Nevada, Jeff Flake in Arizona, who at one point feared opposition coming from Republicans running on the right? Doesn't this complicate things?

BAUER: Absolutely not. It shows a President that wants to get things done beyond anything parts and whatsoever. It does exactly what he said he was going to do. And look, Republicans and Democrats need to work together. When I was a member of the legislature, I worked with the Democrats all the time. And we had amazing things happen in our states. But it took both party.

Most folks out in the working field, they don't care about Republican or Democrat. They want results and they are tired of what's going on for they are watching too long. And at-a-boy, did Donald Trump are shaking things up for working with both parties. We needed it for too long.

ZIMMERMAN: And that, Andre, you and I can agree on this evening. That's for sure.

SANCHEZ: And we have to leave it there. At least on a point of agreement. Good note in our Sunday.

Robert Zimmerman, Andre Bauer, thanks for joining thus weekend.

We are now going to show you some live pictures from the 69th annual Emmy awards red carpet where tonight Stephen Colbert is set to host. How political will he get in prime time? We have a sneak peek next in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:57:44] SANCHEZ: TV's biggest night, the Emmy awards are tonight. And we are watching the red carpet. There's Elaine, Julie Louis Dreyfus, she is nominated for her HBO show, Veep. The HBO has more nomination than any other network. But SNL is also leading pact with 22 nominations.

CNN's Stephanie Elam has a preview for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I won the election fair and square. And everyone knows that. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Mr. President, you say that literally all the time.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 69th annual prime time Emmy awards will celebrate the best of the small screen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Begin today by apologizing on behalf of you, to me.

ELAM: And with politics refueling its satirical engine, this year it's all about "Saturday Night Live."

DEBRA BIMBAUM, EXECUTIVE TV EDITOR, VARIETY: This was a tremendous year for SNL. It got tied for the most nominations this year. And I think it was just because it was a great political year. They were on fire.

ELAM: With a late start, "Game of Thrones" is ineligible this year. So, it's the robot cowboys of west world dominating the drama categories.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are one of them, aren't you? You're not real.

ELAM: The sci-fi saga is up for 22 trophies, including best drama. It will face off with better call Saul, the Crown, the Handmade's tail, House of Cards, Stranger Things, and Ratings Sensation, this is us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we said --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's three.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Big three.

BIMBAUM: I think it's a popular hit. I think everyone loves it. So I would be surprised if this is us doesn't take the best drama trophy.

We need to reform. We need to reaffirm the third R.

ELAM: The White House (INAUDIBLE) Veep lapped up 17 nominations, including best comedy series. The HBO mainstay is up against Atlanta, Blackish, Master of None, Modern Family, Silicon Valley and unbreakable Kenny Smith.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have memorized he categories. Outstanding comedy series, outstanding supporting garment, outstanding mixed marshal hearts fighters.

ELAM: Stephen Colbert will host the show, almost a guarantee that politics will take center stage.

BIMBAUM: I think the choice of Stephen and certainly the reason he is done so well is how much he's talked about Donald Trump. Donald Trump is the biggest TV story of the year. And so his name is going to get mentioned and it is going to get mentioned a lot on Emmy night.

ELAM: Much like politics of late, expect that Emmy is so serve up plenty of surprises.

Stephanie Elam, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)