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Don Lemon Tonight

Reuters: Trump Calls Contacts With Russians During Campaign And Transition Peanut Stuff; Trump To Reuters: Not Concerned About Impeachment, Predicts People Would Revolt If He Will Be; Flynn Asks For No Prison Time, Citing Cooperation With Mueller Investigation; President Trump's Former Lawyer Michael Cohen To Be Sentenced Tomorrow; Trump Family Role In Hush Payments Now Under Scrutiny; North Carolina's Ninth Congressional District Closer To New Election After Possible Data Leak; Darkness Of Hate Sweeps Across The Country; John Kelly's Legacy: The Good and the Bad. Aired 11-12a ET

Aired December 11, 2018 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon. President Trump sitting down with Reuters, just a short time ago, talking about everything from hush money payment to what he predicts will be a probable revolt if he is impeached. He also was asked about the numerous Russian contacts on the many people who work for him on his campaign and transition dismissing it as peanut stuff.

We'll get to all of that in just a bit and then we have this for you. The President sitting down with the Senate Majority Leader and incoming House of the -- Speaker of the House, I should say. Oh, it's a rough night. Chuck and Nancy, as he likes to call them. If you didn't see that today, you really missed it. The meeting was to discuss funding for Trump's border wall to avoid a potential government shutdown next week, the wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for. Trump is now trying to get funding from Congress for it and making this extraordinary admission.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK SCHUMER, INCOMING SENATE MINORITY LEADER: We disagree.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck, because the people of this country don't want criminals and people that have lots of problems and drugs pouring into our country. So I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I am not going to blame you for the last time you shut it down it, didn't work. I will take the mantle of shutting down. And I'm going to shut it down for border security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Wow. Shutting down the government is a potential -- a political stunt would have incredible consequences, but the President seems completely fine with it. He said, he doubled down and said it more than once, he said it like three times today, if not more. Let us begin with the breaking news on President Trump's first

National Security Adviser. I'm talking about Michael Flynn. Here to discuss is Charlie Dent, Frank Bruni and Ryan Lizza. Good evening to all of you.

So Frank, let's start with you, because tonight Michael Flynn is asking a federal judge to keep him out of prison. Mueller did say that he provided substantial assistance. How do you see this all playing out?

FRANK BRUNI, OP-ED COLUMNIST, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I don't know. He could get his request, because as you said, the prosecutor -- Mueller has said he was an enormous help. But there's no promise there. You know, so we just don't know. We don't know how a lot of these people are going to -- what's going to happen with a lot these people when it comes to cooperation versus reward for that, but he certainly seems to be in the best position.

LEMON: The President, Congressman says its peanut stuff. That is how he describes - he responded when asked about the people who work for him and they had contacts in our count, this is CNN's count, we can put it up, 16 people - about 16 people had contacts with Russia. If that is peanut stuff, then why did so many people lie about their contacts and not one of them reports them to the FBI? Sounds like you want to say that is a good question.

(LAUGHTER)

CHARLIE DENT (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE, PENNSYLVANIA: Well, there appears to have attempts at collusion. And what can you say? I mean, so many of these people in this administration, you know, just have had a problem with the truth. You know, they come into contact with the truth. There will be a mighty collusion. I mean, what we come to expect. It's a dumpster fire.

LEMON: Do you think all of this is a coincidence? I mean 16 coincidences? There could be more and - we just --

DENT: I ran for office many times. I just can't fathom why any campaign would be talking to a hostile foreign power at all. I mean, it just doesn't make any sense, not to mention that there were maybe 16 contacts. Clearly the Russians were trying to infiltrate the campaign. Whether they did that successfully or not I don't know, that is what Mueller is going to tell us, but it's a mess.

LEMON: Yes. Go ahead.

BRUNI: Whether they did it successfully or not in a sense doesn't matter. If the willingness was there, if people in Trump's orbit and people in Trump's campaign were happy to cooperate, collude with them, then whether it really kind of yielded great consequences is beside the point in terms of culpability, right?

[23:05:08] LEMON: Ryan, listen. The President also told Reuters tonight that he is not concerned about impeachment. Here is what he adds, this is, it's hard to impeach somebody who has not done anything wrong and who has created the greatest economy in the history of our country. I think that the people would revolt if that happened. He says he is not worried. Should he be worried? Revolt.

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, we're only at the beginning of understanding what Mueller knows, right? And we do know that Mueller believes the President was told someone essentially to commit a campaign finance crime, right?

So on the one hand, you know, I think, Trump and his defender will have a case that perhaps he didn't intend to do that, because intent is a very important part of this law and maybe it's not the most serious crime in the world. On the other hand, crimes that help a politician get elected, in other words, crimes that thwart the Democratic process, you know, that will -- a lot of people will argue that that is the most serious kind of crime, right? And that is exactly what impeachment was designed to deal with.

So, say we start with these campaign finance violations that Mueller believes are quite serious and add to that something related to Russia. Something in the realm of collusion. Then you have two baskets of very serious issues that essentially thwarted the Democratic process. I'm not saying we're necessarily there yet, but that is one place that this all could be headed and then you start to see quite a powerful argument for impeachment going forward, but we might be getting ahead ourselves a little bit, because we don't know everything that Mueller is going to put in front of the public.

LEMON: I mean, whatever it is. That is an unusual number of contacts, right? I'm wondering though is, this interview, Frank, came just hours after that Oval Office meeting, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, he said, he would be proud to shut down the federal government over a border wall. Do you think this was an attempt at distraction?

BRUNI: I think it is somewhat, but I think, we sometimes say the President is trying changing the subject and trying to distract people when we're really just seeing his monkey mind. I mean, this is a man who has a hard time focusing, being disciplined about anything. And so I think, we sometimes attribute these great powers of distraction to him really his mind is just jumping all over the place, because he is undisciplined.

DENT: He is impulsive.

BRUNI: Yes.

LEMON: Yes. Very simple. But how much were you and your party cringing, Charlie today, when -- as this all played out? The President took full responsibility for shutting the government down, were you like, did you think it was a good thing?

DENT: No. That was really very bad. In fact, I would say this, there's a very simple way out of this. There are seven appropriations bills that need to be passed. Six of them are ready. They're negotiated with the Democrats. They can pass tomorrow. They should simply take those six bills up and pass them and I would do a continuing resolution on the Homeland Security Bill where the wall funding is and pump.

LEMON: Oh, that (inaudible).

DENT: That is the way you deal with this. Nancy was right about something.

LEMON: That is what I want to ask you. Go on.

DENT: She is right. She said that you don't have the votes, Mr. President. She is right. Having served the House Republican conference, I can tell you there are not 218 Republican votes to pass what would be a mini bus or omnibus appropriations bill. There never are. So, House Republicans always need some House Democrats to pass a bill like that and then of course, the Senate you will need 60 votes there. And clearly Republicans don't have 60 votes in the Senate. So, Democratic votes will be needed to pass these spending bills.

LEMON: But the President said I have the votes.

DENT: Well, he doesn't.

LEMON: He doesn't. OK.

BRUNI: He has bluster. He doesn't have the votes.

LEMON: That is my whole thing. This is the whole thing, Ryan, hold on one second. The President is concerned, I think about governing that he won't get anything passed. He is concerned about all investigations. But we know what he love --

BRUNI: Those are good concerns.

LEMON: What he loves most is owning the microphone, the narrative and the podium. He is got to share it now with Democrats and especially Nancy Pelosi. If Nancy Pelosi calls, we're going to come.

BRUNI: That is right. He doesn't like being corrected. He doesn't like being corrected by a woman in particular. She had the facts on her side. She said you don't have the votes. She is right. Listen. Nancy Pelosi is not the greatest communicator in the world. She doesn't have charm to burn, but she knows what she is doing. She knows how to count. She knows what is going on in the House. Much more so than Donald Trump and he is not going to win those rhetorical battles with her.

LEMON: Ryan, I mean, you can't forget that Vice President Mike Pence was in the room while all of this was going on and said absolutely nothing. CNN as a John Avalon said that he was like the elf on the shelf. Is that a fair assessment?

(LAUGHTER)

LIZZA: I'm uncomfortable just watching it right now. And I mean, all of us I think wonder what Mike Pence really thinks, right? He is just.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: It is like watching a tennis match. Can you play that again? It's like a tennis match. Hold on Ryan. Let us play it again, it's like he is looking liking.

[23:10:02] BRUNI: It is like the world's largest (inaudible) --

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Go ahead, Ryan. I'm sorry.

LIZZA: And he just seemed wholly unprepared to be, you know, on camera and to be in a public place. And did not have the President's back in any way, right? Did not step in to defend him in any way, back him up. Probably good for him because I don't know what he could have said. And really the whole, you know, the whole scene was won by Nancy Pelosi, who very politely was trying to save Donald Trump from himself, right?

Trying not to expose him as someone who doesn't have the facts on his side, trying to get the cameras out of the room and then of course, Trump blames her for not wanting to be transparent and he says actually, Mr. President, the only reason I wanted the cameras out of the room, is because what you're saying is completely untrue. And again, Pence does not step in anyway and defend the President.

LEMON: But I think that was smart, Charlie. Actually I do. I think I would have just.

DENT: On Pence' part?

LEMON: Yes.

DENT: What was smart?

LEMON: To sit there. I would not say anything. Why be drawn into that?

DENT: The answer I think, Pence was smart to keep his mouth shut. In fact, I thought that Schumer and Pelosi should have you said Mr. President, you're in charge of the government till the end of the year. You got the votes. Pass the bill.

LEMON: They said that.

DENT: If you run into trouble, you know how to find us. And not say anything else.

LEMON: OK. Listen, I got to do this, Frank. Frank, you wrote a new piece out tonight, about President Trump and it is titled "The most powerful reject in the world." And here is what you write, you say, while other Presidents sought to hone the art of persuasion, he rebels in his talent for repulsion. How many people he attacks? He styles this as boldness. How many people he offends? He pretties this up as authenticity. How many people he sends into exile? His administration doesn't have alumni so much as refugees. Wow, you went in. He sought the presidency as so many others surely

did, because it is the ultimate validation, but it has given him his bitterest taste yet of rejection."

Wow. He has offended so many people. This is the thing when he says the media is out to get me. He has offended so many people, yet, he expects people to like him and he expects things - people to say positive things about him. It makes no sense.

BRUNI: Right and he is right now harvesting all of that nastiness. That is why he can't get people to work in his administration. That is why his chosen person for Chief of Staff, the most ambitious man in Washington just said no thanks, because he knows a sinking ship when he sees one.

LEMON: It is amazing. Can you imagine knowing what you know about Donald Trump, how much he loves the media, he really loves the media. He wants to be liked by the media. He wants to be like by celebrity. Knowing what you know of him, can you imagine how much he is seething now that he is on the outside of that?

BRUNI: He can't stand it. It's driving him crazy. Tillerson and Sessions, I think people learn their conditions. Seems like a hostile work environment.

LEMON: I could have told them that. I don't even work in Washington. Ryan, thank you, sir. Next time, come play with us here in New York. OK?

LIZZA: I'll be back.

LEMON: Thank you.

See you soon. Just ahead, more of the breaking news, former National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, asking a judge to spare him prison time, due to his extensive cooperation with Mueller's Russia investigation.

[23:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: And a sentencing memo released by his attorneys, former National Security Adviser, Mike Flynn asking for no prison time citing his extensive cooperation with the Mueller investigation. We have a lot to discuss. Michael D'Antonio is here, the author of the book, "The Truth about Trump." Seth Hettena joins us as well. He is the author of "Trump and Russia: a Definitive History."

Gents, good evening. Seth, I will start with you, because I want to get your reaction to this sentencing memo released by Michael Flynn's attorneys tonight. He says he spent 62 hours with Mueller's team. That seems pretty substantial, doesn't it?

SETH HETTENA, AUTHOR: Very substantial. And you know, I caught a little bit of the sentencing memo coverage and it seems now he is saying that he was entrap the by the FBI which is kind of interesting. He seems to be playing to the Trump base, I guess, looking for sympathy, but you know, what's interesting to me is that everybody caught up in the Trump Russia investigation is lying. Michael Flynn is lying about his contacts with the Russian ambassador, George Papadopoulos is lying, Michael Cohen is lying. And they are all lying about Russia. So, if you follow these lies, you know, they all point to Russia. And I think that is where Mueller is headed.

LEMON: He said Peter Strzok and another FBI agent and another FBI agent visited Flynn in his office in the West Wing on January 24th, 2017 when he first made the false statements. He did not have an attorney with him at the time and was not warned, he could be prosecute for making false statements, his memo said on Tuesday night. Is that what you're referring to, Seth?

HETTENA: Exactly. You know, the fact is he pleaded guilty to lying. So if he didn't do it, you know, he shouldn't have pleaded guilty. He is obviously admitted that he committed a crime and now he is back. I think he is playing to a different crowd. There are a lot of audiences for these kinds of documents. He seems to be throwing some, trying to get sympathy by throwing some stuff out there.

LEMON: Here's the interesting thing to me, Michael. When he said I didn't know. There's a very simple way around it to avoid that? That is what?

MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Tell the truth.

LEMON: Just tell the truth.

D'ANTONIO: It's like the perjury trap. I have never heard of a perjury trap until this presidency and now everybody's talking about perjury trap, as if there's not a way out of that. And the way out is to tell the truth. Nobody seems capable of it though.

LEMON: OS, he met some 62 hours which I thought was interesting, but Michael Cohen met longer. Like 70 some hours.

D'ANTONIO: Close to 100, I think. Right.

LEMON: Or 80.

D'ANTONIO: They're talking a lot. And this is why I think we saw reporting today that the President is incredibly upset, worse than he is ever been. You know, his behavior in the Oval Office today was just about distraction, although most of what he does is about distraction.

[23:20:07] LEMON: If he is going to do that, he should bring his "a" game, because he got fact checked left and right and just checked all over place.

D'ANTONIO: Well, you could see Schumer. Schumer is a guy who has a few arguments on a New York City street. He is not -- Trump is not the only one who can play that game.

LEMON: Schumer is like, OK, I can't believe I just got you to say that in the Oval Office. Seth, you have a new piece out tonight in the New York Times and here

is what you are saying, part of it, you say, the problem for Mr. Trump is that he is unable or unwilling to spot the difference between a favor and a crooked scheme. And that goes a long way toward explaining why he has surrounded himself with people in trouble with the law and why his presidency is in the grip of intensifying federal investigations. Elaborate on that for me, if you will.

HETTENA: Well, you know, Russia has been doing favors for Donald Trump for a long time. Donald Trump is a guy who trades and collects favors like he keeps a bank of favors. So, he'll take anyone in if they do him a favor. Russia has been doing him favors for a long time, they had been buying his apartments, they had been spending lots of money in his casinos, and they have been financing his buildings. And you know, Vladimir Putin has done the biggest favor of all. He turned his intelligence service into a defacto arm of the Trump campaign and helped Trump win and maybe helped Trump win in a close election.

And on the other side of this, is Trump doing favors back. You know, he is very nice to Mr. Putin. He is attacking the NATO alliance. He is letting Russia kind of run rampage around the world. So, what I see as an exchange of favors, you know, and what else is collusion, but really two people doing favors for each other.

LEMON: That is a very good point. Do you think the President doesn't spot a crooked scheme or is it?

D'ANTONIO: No, he understands crooked schemes better than most of us. He prefers crooked schemes. What Seth -- nails it.

LEMON: Say how you really feel.

LEMON: He really does. It's more important to him to get over on people than to win. He doesn't want to win by the regular rules. He wants to win by deceiving you. I think Seth's piece was spot on today talking about how Trump does trade in favors, but the word that we should keep in mind when we talk about favors is money. It's people who provide money for him, key financing, apartment deals, those are the favors.

LEMON: Imagine this, Michael, because his former attorney Michael Cohen is going to be sentenced tomorrow. And the prospect of such a close Trump ally going to jail that has to be deeply concerning and uncomfortable for the President and those around him.

D'ANTONIO: It has to be. What Michael Cohen suddenly decide that he is willing to talk about that he hasn't talked about yet, because the prosecutors have said we're not satisfied, that is why we're happy to see him get sentenced. What could he decide is now worth his father to discuss?

LEMON: He is going to be, I'm telling you, he is got more to be afraid of or concerned about with Michael Cohen even after this, because when Michael Cohen comes out and talks about this and does interviews, I think it's going to be very damaging to the President and can release and talk about some of those uncomfortable things, maybe things that weren't necessarily illegal, but some of the shady stuff that they did.

D'ANTONIO: What about when he testifies before Congress? I think maybe the federal authorities would let him go down to Washington and raise his hand and testify.

LEMON: Given the way the Trump Organization, works, OK, Seth, from what you know, do you think the Trump family had to know about the payments to Cohen and what they were for, because they worked for him. They all worked in the same organization. We are told that nothing will gets pass him as a businessman. He knows everything that is going on in his business.

HETTENA: Yes, I mean, did the Trump, how deep did it go in the Trump Organization?

LEMON: Or with his family. Do you think he knew about all of it?

HETTENA: You mean like Jared and Ivanka? Yes, I think -- I'd like to know that, too. I think Jared and Ivanka are behind the scene players at a`lmost every stage of this process. You know, we saw them you know, getting the chief of staff remove. Ivanka was involved with Russia. She helped the Moscow project. Jared, you know, these are behind the scenes players. I won't be surprised - you know what, I forgot to mention. Michael Cohen said he briefed family members. So yes, I think they did know what was going on.

LEMON: They knew, right?

D'ANTONIO: They absolutely knew. And this is the thing. This is a family business. People are mistaken if they imagine this is a big enterprise with thousands of employees. When the President talks about that, he is talking about everyone from the porters in front of the hotel sweeping up cigarette butts to the chief executive's offices at these properties.

[23:25:03] In Trump tower, precious few people, maybe a few dozen, the children knew everything, because he was preparing them to take over.

LEMON: Thank you both. I appreciate it. So, do you want to talk about some election fraud?

North Carolina. New reports that early voter data was improperly leaked, coming on top of possible electoral fraud that is already being investigated. All the details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The last remaining unfilled seat in the House of Representatives could be headed for a new election. North Carolina, Republican Party calling for this extraordinary step in the race of the -- for the 9th congressional district after it was reported that the early voting totals in Bladen County were leaked.

Officials have refused to certify the results of the November's election after allegations of fraud involving absentee ballots triggered an investigation. The investigation is focused on Bladen County and the actions of Leslie McCrae Dowless, a convicted felon and veteran political operative who was hired by a consulting firm connected to the Republican candidate's campaign. Of the 684 absentee ballots that were counted in Bladen County, Dowless, himself personally turned in 592 of them. Republican candidate Mark Harris currently leads the Democratic candidate Dan McCready by only 905 votes. This is an election where truly every vote matters.

Let's dive into all of this now. Harry Enten is here. Harry is here with the forecast.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: Not quite although make the forecast easier knowing the results.

LEMON: This is a mess. It's an absolute mess. We could be looking at a do-over. Republicans say that it's because early vote totals were leaked. How big a deal is this?

ENTEN: First off, it's against state law, so that is of course a pretty big deal, when one county is doing it and everyone else is abiding by the rules and they are not.

But more than that, if you talk to Dallas Woodhouse who runs the Republican Party in the state of North Carolina, he will tell you that that allows you to get a pretty good idea what turnout is looking like and you can adjust to your election day turnout as well.

I'll also add that most of the stuff that we've been talking about so far has to do with absentee voting. This is about early voting so it adds another element to it.

LEMON: That's another layer on top of it. So the election has already been attained by accusations of ballot fraud centered around Leslie McCrae Dowless. You mentioned that. CNN has obtained a signed affidavit from a North Carolina man who was working with a local campaign and says that he saw McCrae Dowless in possession of a large number of ballots. Here is what the affidavit says.

It says, I questioned his reason for having that many ballots. He stated that he had over 800 ballots in his possession. I asked him why he had not turned them in. He stated that you don't do that until the last day because the opposition would know how many votes they had to make up. My concern was that these ballots were not going to be turned in.

Ballot harvesting is illegal in North Carolina. What's the legit reason for him to have it? Is there one?

ENTEN: There is none. I don't understand it. As you said, ballot harvesting is illegal, which essentially means that the only people who can turn in the ballots are those who are the people who cast the votes are near relatives or guardian of them.

Someone like McCrae Dowless shouldn't have this many ballots unless he has a lot of family members in North Carolina. To my understanding, no one has that many family members no matter how big their family is.

LEMON: We talked about election fraud and there is no -- for significant election fraud, there is no evidence of significant election fraud in this country. But the one -- the possibility that this is election fraud and it's happening from Republicans who are always complaining about election fraud from Democrats.

ENTEN: I should point out there's a clear difference between the voter fraud that Republicans usually allege happen, right? That's when you come in and you say you're someone you're not. Here, there's no evidence of that at all. It doesn't seem like the voters have done anything wrong. It actually seems like voters were taken advantage of. People came to their homes, may have collected their ballots, may have not turned them in.

This is not on the voters at all. This is something entirely different. As you pointed out, usually it's Republicans saying voter fraud exists. But here, it actually seems to be potentially helping a Republican candidate.

LEMON: There were also ballot irregularities in the primary. Would Republicans run a new primary too?

ENTEN: According to state law, you would not actually have a new primary at least as it is. There has been some movement in the legislature to try and get it so a primary may in fact be rerun, but that is not in fact been -- that has not in fact occurred.

LEMON: Harry Enten. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. It's weird that you're not doing a forecast.

ENTEN: It's a little bit weird but at least we have matching --

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Oh, stop it, Harry. Thank you.

ENTEN: Thank you.

LEMON: Appreciate it. Anti-semitism spewed as Jehovah's Witness house of worship destroyed. White supremacists attacking a black man. We have a look at the hate spreading across the country, next.

[23:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Today, a jury recommended a life sentence for the white nationalist convicted of killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Nearly 40 others were seriously injured after James Fields Jr. plowed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters at a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last year.

Field's actions and the images of white nationalists marching with torches stunned and shocked the nation. Now, racial rhetoric and hate crimes are becoming all too common. CNN's Sara Sidner has this update on the state of hate in this country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is as if Pandora's box has been opened and hate is spilling out. In Aventura, Florida, police say Nadim Siddiqui was caught on camera smashing a bottle of wine at the Kosher Kingdom store, and this wasn't his only offense.

LAURENCE EINHORN, STORE OWNER: This caused a lot of problem and people get scared. We're so happy that they finally got him.

SIDNER (voice-over): Police say Siddiqui is charged with a hate crime because has shown a pattern of targeting Jewish people, knocking down a menorah in another building, and making hateful comments when confronted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He made comments of six million dead wasn't enough.

SIDNER (voice-over): What used to be held silently in the minds of some Americans is now being verbalized publicly, and statistics show being carried out with violent acts more frequently in the last couple of years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, your honor.

SIDNER (voice-over): Just in the past couple of weeks, the incidents are piling up. Perhaps the most violent, in Snohomish County, Washington. Seven men and one woman arrested. Police say they viciously attacked a black disk jockey while yelling racial slurs as he was simply trying to entertain folks at a bar.

The sheriff said an Asian employee was also attacked when he tried to help the deejay. Police say it turns out the suspects are bald members of a violent Neo-Nazi group. Police say two of the suspects have criminal records.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jews will not replace us.

SIDNER (voice-over): The Southern Poverty Law Center says one of the suspects took part in the 2017 white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. That rally turned violent.

[23:40:00] Ending in murder and mayhem after James Alex Fields rammed his car into a group of people protesting hate. A jury convicted Fields just last week and today decided his sentence on 10 criminal charges against him including the murder of 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer. Heyer's mother sat through the entire trial.

SUSAN BRO, MOTHER OF HEATHER HEYER: Justice has him where he needs to be and my daughter is still not here and the other survivors still have their wounds to deal with.

SIDNER (voice-over): But the darkness of hate continues to sweep across the country. The plots in two separate cases in Ohio are chilling, federal investigators say. One month after the deadliest anti-semitic attack in America carried out in Pittsburgh, they say Damon Joseph planned a similar attack on a synagogue in Toledo.

JUSTIN HERDMAN, ATTORNEY: Mr. Joseph pursued a detailed and calculated plan to strike synagogues in the Toledo area.

SIDNER (voice-over): Investigators say a woman was behind a plot to blow up a pipeline. Elizabeth LeCron used social media to heap praise on the Columbine killers and racist murderer Dylann Roof.

Even on college campuses, racist tirades are gaining more and more attention. This happened at Columbia University.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE'UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We build modern civilizations. White people are the best thing that ever happened to the world.

SIDNER (voice-over): A student who in a statement says he's not a racist and does not hate anyone, but he goes off on a group of students because of his distaste for the overuse of the term white privilege and similar divisive rhetoric as a means of dismissing views of others. And yet --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're white men. We did everything.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Sara Sidner joins me now. Sara, hello to you. There's been a major spike in hate crimes over the past two years, even on college campuses. Why are we seeing it more with young people?

SIDNER: You know, it's a good question. One of the things that's happened on college campuses when you talk to the groups that study -- have been studying this for many decades is that there is serious recruitment going on on college campuses and through social media.

There have been flyers that have been put up and actually just today at the State University of New York Purchase campus, a student has been charged with a hate crime for putting up Nazi posters, posters that have swastikas on them and putting up at a time when Jews are celebrating Hanukkah.

That happened just today but there have been plenty of other flyering incidents across the country and certainly on social media. Some of these groups are trying to entice those who they think may start feeling threatened, if you will, by students of color. So it's interesting to note that there is a lot of recruitment going on.

We should also mention another hate crime that has happened. The fifth attack on a Jehovah's Witness kingdom hall in Washington state. That particular attack was an arson, that police say has happened several times. There have been five different attacks on Jehovah's Witness kingdom halls and police are saying yes, these are hate crimes.

They have not so far found a suspect, but in one of those attacks, a suspect shot up one of those halls 30 times. The violence is increasing if you look at the numbers from the FBI and anyone who looks at those numbers can easily say, look, these numbers are not the actual numbers of what's happening out there. There happen to be many more. Sometimes people don't report them and sometimes police departments don't report hate crimes to the FBI, which is how the FBI gets its numbers, Don.

LEMON: It's sad.

SIDNER: It is.

LEMON: Sara, we appreciate your reporting. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. The search is on for a new chief of staff, but John Kelly is leaving a few things unresolved. Congresswoman Frederica Wilson joins me next on the lie he told about her, the threats she's gotten since, and why he never apologized.

[23:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: John Kelly is on his way out of the White House and his tenure as chief of staff is roiled with controversy. His feud with Democratic Congresswoman Frederica Wilson and his lie about her still unresolved.

Last year, Sergeant La David Johnson was among four U.S. soldiers tragically killed by enemy fire in an ambush in Nigeria. When Johnson's body was returned home, President Trump as part of his job as commander in chief phoned Johnson's widow. When he called, Congresswoman Wilson, a family friend of the widow, was in the car. And then she told us what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. FREDERICA WILSON (D), FLORIDA (via telephone): I heard what he said because the phone was on speaker.

LEMON (voice-over): What did he say?

WILSON (via telephone): Well, basically he said, well, I guess he knew what he signed up for, but I guess it still hurts.

LEMON (voice-over): Hmm.

WILSON (via telephone): That's what he said.

LEMON (voice-over): The president said to her, he knew what he signed up for.

WILSON (via telephone): He knew what he was signing up for.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Trump denied Wilson's account and said she had it all wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I didn't say what that congresswoman said. Didn't say it at all. She knows it, and she now is not saying it. I did not say what she said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: He lied. Cowanda Jones-Johnson, the widow who took the call, backed up Wilson's account. And both Johnson and Wilson say the president didn't know the dead soldier's name. On the call, Trump repeatedly referred to Sergeant Johnson as "your guy." And this is where Chief of Staff John Kelly comes in to the story.

Kelly took to the White House podium to say that he was stunned by Wilson's decision to take to the press to criticize Trump for his call with a gold star widow and then he attacked her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[23:50:03] JOHN KELLY, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: And the congresswoman stood up, and in a long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise, stood up there in all of that and talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building, and how she took care of her constituent because she got the money, and she just called up President Obama.

And on that phone call, he gave the money -- the $20 million -- to build the building, and she sat down, and we were stunned, stunned that she had done it. Even for someone that is that empty a barrel, we were stunned.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, besides being a baseless attack, what he said about her is just not true. Video from that dedication ceremony of that FBI building dug up by the Sun Sentinel, it shows that Wilson took credit for fast-tracking legislation to name the building for two FBI agents who were killed, not to fund it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILSON: Immediately, I went into attack mode. I went to the speaker, Speaker Boehner, and I said, Mr. Speaker, I need your help. The FBI needs your help and our country needs your help. We have no time to waste. The president signed the bill into law this past Tuesday, April 7th, 2015, with a bang, bang, bang.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So here are the facts as we like to do here on this program and on this network. There is no evidence that Wilson ever took credit for the building's funding. And despite Kelly's outright lie, Wilson tells the Miami Herald that she never got an apology. She also says that ever since his lie, she has received death threats and even nooses in the mail. This is what we've come to.

Congresswoman Frederica Wilson of Florida joins me now. Congresswoman, thank you so much. I appreciate you joining us. Why do you think he never apologized? WILSON: Well, I think that's a part of his nature. I think he made up the whole story to side with the president, to make it look like I was some sort of a clown or someone who was -- who just lies all the time. And I think that's why he never apologized. And because he does not respect women. And he definitely does not respect black women. And I don't think he respects black people.

LEMON: Do you think he will ever apologize?

WILSON: He said, absolutely not. He will never apologize. He said that several times on Fox News.

LEMON: Yeah. Congresswoman, you received threats after Kelly attacked you from the White House podium. At one point, it kept you from working. Do you blame him for that? What do you say to that?

WILSON: Well, that just shows what this White House has done to this country. And on the other hand, he kept me from voting. But he also has endeared the whole military community to my side. And everywhere I go and travel, soldiers and gold star families come up to me and they say, thank you, Congresswoman Wilson for standing up for La David Johnson, your constituent. He was a hero.

And so he thought he was doing something to hurt me. But he has called attention to the fact that the president does not understand the trauma that gold star families have to undergo.

LEMON: How did he keep you from voting?

WILSON: Well, I guess it was so much going on with the phones and so many people calling. There was a gentleman in Orlando who said he was going to kill me. He was going to hang me. They arrested him. He bonded himself out of jail. And so the capital police suggested that I just stay put for a while until they can calm everything down.

LEMON: So, this is real. This is real.

WILSON: This was real. It was very real. It was terrible. I was petrified. I couldn't even go anywhere without armed security from my local Miami Gardens police department.

LEMON: When they talk to you about civility and those sorts of things and they talk about what the left is doing because you're a Democrat, what do you say to them?

WILSON: Well, they have to take a look in the mirror because we are civil. I am civil. I was standing up for my hero, my Sergeant La David Johnson and his family.

[23:55:01] They came after me for no reason. And John Kelly has lost all four of his stars. Every day, he has lost a star because he had no reason to slander my name. And they said they brought him into the White House because he was going to be the adult in the room, and he has turned out to be so terrible. Now, the president is getting rid of him. LEMON: You said that, in your opinion, that he is -- because of the job he did, it cost him his stars, in your opinion. And a lot of people said that he was the grown-up, as you said, in that room who helped manage Trump. Things could have been worse had he not been there, maybe? Do you agree with that?

WILSON: I don't see how it could have been worse. It's awful now. And Donald Trump is just on a tirade. I don't think that Mr. Kelly did a good job. I think I want to say good riddance to him. Good-bye, John Kelly. Good-bye.

LEMON: How is a La David Johnson's widow doing and her family?

WILSON: She is doing great. She graduated from nursing school. She has a new baby. They have a new home. And it is just so wonderful to see how they are moving along and prosperous without the father. And she speaks of him in the present. The children speak of him in the present. He was a great man. A great, great man.

LEMON: True patriots, him and that family, and so are you.

WILSON: True patriots.

LEMON: Congresswoman, thank you. Merry Christmas to you.

WILSON: Thank you. Same to you. Happy holidays.

LEMON: Thanks for watching. Our coverage continues.

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