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Don Lemon Tonight
Trump Reaction To Press Inauguration Coverage; Inaugural Protestors; Panel On Protestors; Press Secretary Reacts To Reporting On Inaugural Crowd Size; Press Secretary Alleged Inaccuracies; Panel; Interview With Imam; Panel On Worldwide Trump Protests. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired January 21, 2017 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERICIAL BREAK)
[22:02:03] DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hundreds of thousands of people flood the streets of our nation's capital on a day for the history book. This is "CNN Tonight." I'm Don Lemon, live in Washington.
Well, this is not the inauguration of President Trump. This is the Women's March on Washington. And not just Washington. There's hundreds of thousands of people in cities all across the country, and many more all around the world.
On the day of protest against his -- his brand new administration, President Trump travels to CIA headquarters for a briefing from senior agency leaders, speaking in front of the Wall of Honor, where fallen operatives are remembered with stars. The president says this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I get up this morning and I turn on one of the networks, and they show an empty field. I said, "Wait a minute. I made a speech. I looked out. The field was, it looked like a million, a million and a half people. They showed a field where there were practically nobody standing there."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: We'll get to all of that this hour, for the next few hours here on CNN. But we're going to talk about the protesters first, all across America and around the world, marching today for women's rights and other civil rights they fear could be under threat from President Trump's administration.
And if you think it's a phenomenon that's mostly confined to Washington, I want you to take a look at this. Marchers spread across the country. There's Boston, and there's Denver. There's Park City, Utah. There's also Chicago, and there's Oakland, California, and more.
In Donald Trump's stronghold, in the red states, Indianapolis, Houston, and Phoenix. Plus thousands more marching worldwide, from London, to Barcelona, to Melbourne, to Oslo. A lot to discuss. I'm going to bring in now David Swerdlick, Douglas Brinkley, Jeffrey
Lord, Kirsten Powers, Mark Preston, J.D. Vance, Brian Stelter, and Jim Sciutto.
First day. So, how did it go?
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: So, listen, we're going to -- we have a lot to talk about. But I want to talk about massive crowds and protests, and I'm not talking about the inauguration. This is in all 50 states. They protested Donald Trump and his agenda, and they talked about women's issue. (sic) They were there to prop up women's issues, bring them to the forefront. Turnout was exceeding the expectations of organizers, in even smaller towns and cities like Anchorage, Alaska, like Peoria, Illinois, Sarasota, Florida. And crowds, they show up -- you know, the crowds that showed up.
Not to mention cities around the globe, and even Antarctica. How big of an historic moment is this? David Swerdlick first.
DAVID SWERDLICK, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND ASSISTANT EDITOR, THE WASHINGTON POST: So, I mean, as exercise in free speech and as an exercise in sort of, you know, nonviolent dissent, I thought it was a big success. I mean, just the pictures you're showing, Don, say it all.
I was at the grocery store this morning at 8:00. I saw a lot of moms with daughters. You got this same thing when I checked in with people back home in North Carolina. You got the sense that a -- a more experienced generation was passing on a tradition of activism to a younger generation.
In terms whether this translates for Democrats to gains in 2018 and 2020, no idea. You know, you can protest all you want. President Obama always said, "Don't boo vote." This is what he was talking about.
LEMON: Yeah. So put it in an historical -- historical perspective for us, Douglas Brinkley, especially compared back-to-back with a big inauguration.
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN;PROFESSOR, RICE UNIVERSITY: Well, it's always going to be remembered as two -- two morphed together: Trump's inauguration and this protest.
Originally, right after the election they were calling it a "million woman march on Washington, D.C." The organizers and grass roots people got smart and said, "In the modern age, let's not do that. Let's let it mushroom up all over America."
So some of the cities caught people by surprise today: Denver, and Seattle, and Atlanta... on, and on, the list that you just gave. It's big. I mean, it's a huge moment. We haven't had a women's movement march like this. But it also reminded me of, believe it or not, V.J. Day -- Victory over Japan, 1945. Because when victory came, people started coming out of apartments, and homes, and all sorts of unexpected people.
I talked to John Kerry today, and he marched - former secretary of state, today. It wasn't like he had on his calendar, "I'm going to march today." He got caught up in the spirit of it. And so a lot of extra people in these towns just started coming out.
LEMON: But historically, you know, we had the March on Washington for this. But as far as a -- a worldwide civil rights movement, this is unprecedented.
BRINKLEY: For the numbers.
LEMON: For the numbers.
BRINKLEY: The sheer numbers, and the sisterhood around -- it's global. It's a global sisterhood, not just in the United States.
LEMON: Yes.
BRINKLEY: And let's -- main thing, it was very peaceful. Any of us walking around D.C. here were proud. People hugging each other, taking families... It was -- it was a great moment of American dissent.
LEMON: You saw this broad ground swell of these protestors, Kirsten, and there was also a big celebrity component, especially here in the nation's capital. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMERICA FERRERA, ACTRESS: The president is not America.
(CHEERING)
FERRERA: His cabinet is not America.
(CHEERING)
FERRERA: Congress is not America.
(CHEERING)
FERRERA: We are America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WHOOPI GOLDBERG, ACTRESS: Having fought a lot of my life to get my rights as a woman, I'll be damned if I'm going backwards.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLORIA STEINEM, FEMINIST: Trump and his handlers have found a fox for every chicken coop in Washington, and a Twitter finger must not become a trigger finger.
He also said he was with the people, indeed he was the people. I -- to paraphrase a famous quote, I just want to say, I have met the people, and you are not them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Kirsten, here's what I thought was interesting: I think, that, you know, when you see celebrities, that may draw your attention to it, you know, if you're watching television.
KIRSTEN POWERS (D), PUNDIT: Right.
LEMON: But they were almost an afterthought.
POWERS: Right.
LEMON: And some might say they even, some, they distracted from it, because they didn't think it was such a ground swell.
POWERS: Well --
LEMON: Especially Madonna, with the comments about the White House.
POWERS: Well, also, we've seen women's, you know, where there's a -- a pro-choice march, where you see a lot of these -- these women come out.
What we haven't seen is what Doug was talking about. I mean, the picture from all the world... And you showed from Anchorage, Alaska. I mean, I tweeted out a picture from my sister-in-law from Fairbanks, Alaska, where I'm from, where, like, 1,000 people, according to my brother, and 1,500, according to my sister-in-law... My sister-in-law is obviously right. And you know, that's a lot of people -- but that's a lot of people in Fairbanks, Alaska, you know, coming out in minus 15 weather, you know, in a very conservative state, coming out and marching. And I think that's a really, really touching thing.
LEMON: Well, what was interesting... They sent me pictures just from my little town in Long Island with -- with people out marching, and I mean, just little towns that, you know, the cameras aren't there.
BRIAN STELTER, SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT, CNN: That's the story, Don. I'm glad you led with all those towns. It's not about New York and D.C. I -- I was in New York this afternoon. Joy all over the streets.
I think the story here is that the marches overperformed, right? So they underpromised and overdelivered. Donald Trump yesterday overpromised and underdelivered, compared to what he said he was going to have at his inauguration. He was predicting historic crowds that didn't show up. Today the crowds in New York were spilling out of 5th Avenue. There
was not enough room for the people, because these marchers, they underpromised, and they overdelivered.
LEMON: Yes, and like I said, cities that we didn't even have up on the screen... I have, you know, people call me from New Orleans. They say, "You should see what's happening here." Atlanta as well.
J.D., to all these people... Should the president possibly have said today, I think it would have been, you know, I think some people would have appreciated it, that "I am your president, too"?
J.D. VANCE, AUTHOR, CONTRIBUTOR, CNN: Well, that obviously would have been very gracious of him, but that's clearly just not his style, right? I mean, he's coming in in a very adversarial way, and I don't think that's going to change, and we shouldn't expect it to change.
One of the things that struck me about these protests is there's an analogy to be drawn here with what we saw in the Tea Party movement in 2008, 2009. And -- and -- and the analogy's in some ways very lazy, but one way that I think that's it's very true is that you have, really, two constituencies in this group. You have sort of a nonideological group who are just generally concerned about the direction of the country, maybe the rhetoric from -- coming from President Trump.
[22:10:00]
But then you have a much more committed ideological group on sort of the -- the -- the center, center left of the country. And it's interesting to think about who will really drive the movement forward.
VANCE: Because one of the big offshoots of the Tea Party movement is perhaps the most nonideological Republican president that -- that could have come out of the 2016 race.
LEMON: I'm glad you said that, because these -- some of the folks there were also complaining about Democrats, that Democrats are not listening to them as well. So just to say that they're liberal, and that they're all Democrats, or they're all possibly Hillary Clinton supporters is not necessarily -- would not necessarily be so.
Jeffrey Lord.
JEFFREY LORD, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, CNN: Yes, sir. How are you?
LEMON: What do Trump supporters -- Actually, I was actually sitting with Trump supporters today in a restaurant having lunch as this happened, and as he was at CIA. I will share my anecdotes with you later. But what do you think Trump supporters think about this?
LORD: Well, first of all, let me just say that I went down, and while I was trying to get with a friend to the African American Museum, and it was impossible to do, finally, because there were so many people. I was stopped many times, all without, you know, a couple exceptions
that were, you know, not for television. Most of these folks just terrific, and I encouraged them because, you know, I'm a child of the '60s. I believe in protest and demonstrations. I think it's terrific.
I think the Trump people, or the people that I was talking to yesterday think the same thing. What they also think is we had an election and they won. And they were the forgotten people, and they won.
And one -- one thing I would caution here. I remember -- and you know where I'm going with this, Don.
LEMON: Right.
LORD: Ronald Reagan.
(LAUGHTER)
LORD: 19 -- 19 -- June of 19...
LEMON: It only took you 10 minutes into the show, 30 seconds into the story to bring it up.
LORD: June of -- of 1983, there were a million people in the streets of New York, and there were others around the world protesting for the nuclear freeze, and calling Ronald Reagan all sorts of names. Ronald Reagan reacted, not well. And you know, I think he questioned their patriotism. He challenged them, et cetera, et cetera.
My point is, at end of the day all they wound up doing was helping Ronald Reagan, who, by the next year, won a 49-state landslide, and he carried the day on -- on the issues.
So I'm just cautioning here. I think what these people did today was magnificent. God bless them. Good for them. That's their point of view. But I would caution them that just because you do that, doesn't necessarily mean you're going to carry the day on an issue. >>
LEMON: The difference is the one with Ronald Reagan wasn't worldwide. This is --
LORD: I thought there were some in London and Paris.
LEMON: Yes, but to the scope and magnitude of this. We'll continue to discuss. Blame him for taking your time in the first segment.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: I will get to you in the next block, I promise. We're going to come right back. Massive crowds marching against President Trump within earshot of the White House. But the president seems to care a lot more about the size of another crowd, the one at yesterday's inauguration. And his press secretary is hot under the collar about that tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: President Donald Trump's press secretary lashing out at the news media today over reports about the size of the crowds at yesterday's inauguration. I want to bring in our senior White House correspondent, Mr. Jim Acosta.
Jim, good evening to you. It was very interesting to watch this briefing. Day two of the Trump's (sic) presidency, and he was -- actually, the first full day. He was confronted by massive protests right outside his window. But the Trump White House is focused on the crowds at yesterday's inauguration.
Before we talk, I want to play Sean Spicer today at the White House, where he gave a blistering statement full of inaccuracies and then took no questions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Secondly, photographs of the inaugural proceedings were intentionally framed in a way in one particular tweet to minimize the enormous support that had gathered on the National Mall. This was the first time in our nation's history that floor coverings have been used to protect the grass in the mall. That had the effect of highlighting any areas where people were not standing, while in years past, the grass eliminated this visual.
This was also the first time that fencing and magnetometers went as far back on the wall, preventing hundreds of thousands of people from being able to access the mall as quickly as they had in inaugurations past.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK, Jim, I can tell you that I was down there. I went in. I wanted to go in like everybody else to experience it. I went in with it, because I could have through the media entrance. I went in through the public entrance, through the magnetometers, and they search, and all that, the National Mall. I waited in line with the public. There were hundreds of -- there weren't hundreds of thousands of people waiting in line.
JIM ACOSTA, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, CNN: No.
LEMON: There were only about 100 or so where I was, in the particular line where I was, and there were...
ACOSTA: Right.
LEMON: ...Weren't that many. What about these magnetometers and floor coverings they're -- they're blaming?
ACOSTA: Right. Yes, and two different things. Let's do the -- the ground coverings first. They use those ground coverings to protect the -- the grass, the -- the sod on the National Mall. And what Sean Spicer said was, "Well, this was the first time that these ground coverings were used."
That is just not the case. You're looking at a picture right there from Getty Images from Barack Obama's inaugural in 2013. And we should point out Tom Barrack, who was the inaugural chairman, who was just on this network a few moments ago saying, "Hey, wait a minute. This -- this wasn't used in 2013."
That other picture, where you saw the workers unloading theos ground coverings, if you look at the very back of that photograph, you see the inaugural setup at the capital. That is the inaugural setup in front of the capital as those ground coverings are being unloaded off of that stack, and placed on the National Mall.
And then one of our other campaign embeds, Ashley Killough, she also had a picture that she provided to us that shows those ground coverings used back in 2013 for Barack Obama's second inaugural. So they were used then, so that is just not factually accurate. And, you know, Google search, or having your staff do some searching around on the Internet would have uncovered that.
As for magnetometers, Sean Spicer said at one point that this, you know, that this use of the magnetometers went as far back as the mall, preventing hundreds of thousands of people from being able to access it as quickly as they could have in inaugurations past. As you -- as you mentioned, Don, there were not hundreds of thousands of people waiting in line. And the US Secret Service tells us that these magnetometers were not used to prevent people from accessing the National Mall.
Now, there were magnetometers around, and like you said, Don, you went through one, but they were not --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: For the parade route, Jim. I was going to the parade route.
ACOSTA: They were not circling the mall to give people - yes. To the parade route.
LEMON: Yes, right.
ACOSTA: They were not circling the mall, keeping people from going to the mall. That's just not the case.
LEMON: Right, right, right. Let's play a little bit more, something else that incensed Sean Spicer, and then we'll talk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPICER: Inaccurate numbers involving crowd size were also tweeted. No one had numbers, because the National Park Service, which controls the National Mall, does not put any out.
By the way, this applies to any attempts to try to count the number of protesters today in the same fashion. We do know a few things, so let's go through the facts. We know that
from the platform where the president was sworn in, to 4th Street holds about 250,000 people. From 4th Street to the media tent is about another 220,000, and from the media tent to the Washington Monument, another 250,000 people. All of this space was full when the president took the oath of office. We know that 420,000 people used the D.C. Metro public transit yesterday, which actually compares to 317,000 that used it for President Obama's last inaugural.
This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK, so Jim, I know you've been doing your homework. You've been fact checking those numbers. What can you tell us?
ACOSTA: Right, well, we know that -- that the Metro ridership numbers cited by Sean Spicer were not accurate. I believe we have a graphic prepared for this. Put this up on screen.
According to the Washington Metro Service here in the nation's capital, 570,000 riders took Metro on the inauguration day yesterday for Donald Trump. Back in 2013, it was 782,000, and then 1.1 million back in 2009. That is -- that is the full day ridership number from Metro.
So Sean came in and he gave -- Spicer came in and gave numbers that were not complete. And part of the issue that this raises, Don... And, you know, granted, this is the first day out for Sean Spicer giving a briefing in the -- in the White House. But when you're White House press secretary, it really pays dividends in the long run for him, his boss, the administration to have their facts straight.
And to pick this fight with the news media and go after everybody, and accuse journalists of falsely representing what actually took place yesterday, and then not coming armed with any decent facts to back that up, just strikes me as just being woefully unprepared and doing his boss a disservice. And -- and that is -- that is going to be a major problem moving forward for Sean Spicer.
If the boss is sending him out there because he's so irate and outraged that he -- he wants his press secretary to go out there and clean it up, there is going to have to come a moment for Sean Spicer to say to his boss, "Mr. President, I can't go out and just lie to everybody. I can't go out and just present false information to everybody to get you out of this jam." And they're going to have to work that out.
That -- those are some of the battles that go on behind the scenes at -- at -- at the White House whatever the administration, Don. But I think today, you know, being the very first full day for this White House, to have what we saw today unfold I think was just astonishing. I've never seen anything like it.
LEMON: Yes, I think you're right. There is a "Thou doth protest too much" quality to this. Thank you very much, Jim Acosta.
ACOSTA: You bet.
LEMON: I appreciate that.
Let's bring the panel back. Mark, so, two things: We didn't talk about this yesterday, and I said this on the air last night. We wanted to give Donald Trump his due. He is the president. He had an inauguration. We didn't focus on crowd numbers. We have all covered inaugurations, and we've been there, and we've seen the crowds, and yesterday there were very sparse crowds. The evidence shows it. You can go back and look at the footage that was live at the moment, and that's on tape now. It's just, it is what it is. We wouldn't be discussing it had he not brought it up.
Why is he obsessing over crowd numbers? Because that was not even part of our coverage. It may have been something on social media that people were obsessing over, but why is he...?
MARK PRESTON, SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, CNN: Well, a couple things. One is, well, let's just stop and think about the irony of all this, that Donald Trump sitting inside the White House right now, and there is a reporter out on his lawn questioning why he would choose to try to blatantly lie. That has got to be eating him up inside. I think that's lost on everyone right here, but I'm sure Donald Trump would love to walk out and -- and -- and probably, you know, punch out Jim Acosta and other reporters who were out there doing...
(CROSSTALK)
PRESTON: But let's talk about the bigger issue on this, because there is a much bigger issue. Because crowd size does not matter, OK? I mean, it is what it is. People watch it on TV. They listen on the radio. You see it on the Internet.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: (inaudible)
PRESTON: Whatever. It is what it is, right?
The bigger issue is -- is that Donald Trump chose to send his spokesperson out to blatantly lie. Now, think if you were in the shoes of Sean Spicer, the spokesperson. First full day on the job and you have the leader of the free world say to you, "Go outside. I want you to go out there, and you tell the reporters this." Now, do you say, "Look, no. I'm not going to do that, and I quit?" Or do you say, "OK, I will go out there."?
Now, think of the quandary you're in at that moment. If you resign...
LEMON: He's not going to fire Sean Spicer on the first day.
PRESTON: Sean -- look at. Look who you're talking about.
LEMON: He's not going to do it. PRESTON: We have no idea. I'm just telling you -- Don, you don't
know. Your communications director and press secretary, who runs your communications shop, quits on the first day, and it comes out he quits because he refuses to go out and tell a blatant lie. What is worse?
Now, look at, we know that this is terribly wrong, what happened. I just think that it's not about Sean Spicer. This is all about Donald Trump, and the fact is, the scariest part, Don, is that -- is that Donald Trump is so thin-skinned...
LEMON: OK.
PRESTON: That something so small... this is...
LEMON: I want to get to Mr. Sciutto. Mr. Sciutto, I just want to say this before I get to you. I -- listen, I agree. That's fine. I think the bigger issue is lying to the American people. We have a responsibility to have an informed electorate, and he is misinforming the American people and misleading them.
JIM SCIUTTO, CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Yes, let's just forget crowd size for a moment.
LEMON: Yes, yes.
SCUITTO: Because it doesn't really matter.
LEMON: Right.
SCUITTO: There was a big, massive lie told about it today, but that doesn't matter. In the hierarchy of inaccuracies told today, the far more important one, in my view, is that the president himself went to the CIA, and -- and he lied, I suppose I could use that word, or he told a narrative contrary to the facts about who created this dispute with his own intelligence agencies -- which was him, and we have numerous public statements via Twitter, and on videotape of him criticizing, disparaging, undermining his own intelligence community because he did not like its assessment that Russia interfered with the election, because it's apparently his read that that makes his presidency less legitimate. That's an important lie, right?
LEMON: Let's play it.
(CROSSTALK)
SCUITTO: (inaudible)
LEMON: Because (inaudible) what you were talking about, and then we can finish. Here it is:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think it was disgraceful, disgraceful, that intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake, out. I think it's a disgrace. And I say that, and I say that, and that's something that Nazi Germany would have done, and did do. I think it's a disgrace that information that was false and fake and
never happened got released to the public.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK, that was then. That was, what, over -- just over a week ago, and then this is today, at the CIA.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The reason you're my first stop is that, as you know, I have a running war with the media. They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth.
(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Right? And they sort of made it sound like I had a feud with the intelligence community. And I just want to let you know, the reason you're number one stop -- it is exactly the opposite. Exactly. And they understand that too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Go, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Well, that's not true, what he just said, right? I mean, we have the public statements where he criticized and disparaged the intelligence community. But even that -- well, first of all, that actually is important, because he was willing to go public and -- and -- and undermine intelligence agencies that he and the country depends on to keep the country safe, whether it's against Russia, or terror attacks, or North Korean missiles. But because he didn't like their assessment on Russian interference and the hacking, that's important.
So you talk about lies, you put your press -- your spokesman out there to lie about crowd size. What if Donald Trump orders troops into battle and they die, right? Do we trust the White House to speak about that honestly, if they're going to lie about this? Why is that?
LEMON: That's a --
SCIUTTO: What if the intelligence agencies say that, you know, what if a terror attack happens, and they had a warning, or -- or he gets a warning and doesn't share it with the American public? Can you then trust him to share that information that the public deserves to know accurately? Based on this, whether from his spokesperson's mouth or from the president's mouth? I mean, that's a thing that's essential to the functioning of democracy.
And if on day one you're willing to tell two inaccuracies like that on issues that don't matter that much, you know, or matter less than when real stuff starts happening, that's -- that's a concern.
LEMON: Does anybody here -- let's just get a... Did anybody... And then, producers, I'm going to get a little bit more time, please, so just take that into account. Does anybody care about crowd size here? I didn't care one bit. I was on the parade route yesterday, and I said, "These people are here. They're happy to see the person that they went to the voting booth for is now the president of the United States.
STELTER: I actually do care, I mean, it shows divided America. That fewer Americans showed up.
LEMON: I don't think it really matters. You never --
STELTER: It matters a lot.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: (inaudible)
STELTER: I think they lied about it. Five misstatements in five --
LEMON: I think the lie matters, but I don't think the crowds matter that much.
(CROSSTALK)
STELTER: (inaudible)
VANCE: I think it's the natural response to this, right, which is that, I mean, what percent of the D.C. population voted for Donald Trump, versus Hillary Clinton? What was it, 95 to 5? The response is, where are -- you know, my voters are from Middle America, and just not enough of them could afford to make the trip out.
(CROSSTALK)
[22:30:05] STELTER: George Bush had big inaugurations here though. I loved those (inaudible)
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Yes, yes, I think there are a lot of excuses with that. There were a lot of -- we know that Trump's voting population was lower income, relative to George W. Bush's.
STELTER: Then why do he put all the dress shops in Washington were sold out?
LEMON: J.D., there were a lot of poor people who voted for President Barack Obama.
VANCE: Of course.
LEMON: And then again I was here, and this is my unscientific polling. There were people from all over the world, from every state in the United States. And people keep saying, "His voting block is from here, in urban areas and whatever, African Americans or whatever, people who vote for him.
Yes, but that is, that may be true, but there was -- I mean, there were a million more people, if not almost...
PRESTON: What's not a few million people? (ph)
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: At that inauguration.
PRESTON: But wait a second. It's not a fair comparison to compare the first African American president elected and his inauguration, than Donald Trump, who clearly has divided the country.
STELTER: Then why didn't Spicer say that instead of lying?
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: They were talking about the CIA, but real quick -- the CIA. You said, "Oh, they applauded. The CIA liked it." No, but I'm told he also had staff members there.
POWERS: Well, he had staff members there, and also, I -- I -- there's someone at the CIA that I communicated with today, and who said, basically, this was -- you could go to it if you wanted to. It was very self-selective. The people who went were the people who liked him. And the truth is, most of the people there don't like him.
LEMON: This was Saturday. It was a day off.
POWERS: Yes. Most of the people there actually don't like him, for obvious reasons, I think.
LEMON: Yes.
POWERS: And then, then maybe the not so obvious, which is, they really value people who have an interest in what's going on around the world, and they don't feel like he does.
LEMON: Yes. Well, there we go. Ready? Four more years. Thanks, everyone.
(UNKNOWN): Eight. Eight years.
LEMON: OK. Just ahead, President Trump attends an interfaith prayer service and gets unexpected message from a leading imam. I'm going to talk to him next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: President Trump began his day attending a prayer service at Washington -- Washington's National Cathedral. Clergy from various faiths took part, but one had an unexpected message for the president, of sorts. He is Imam Mohamed Magid. He is executive director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, and he joins me now.
Thank you, Imam, for joining us. You were supposed to -- originally, they asked you to do the call to prayer, right?
IMAM MOHAMED MAGID, PRESIDENT, ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA: Call to prayer. Yes.
LEMON: And then you -- a couple of days ago you told them that --
MAGID: Like, a few days ago I shared with the National Cathedral and inaugural team that I would like to use verses from the Koran, and they approved those verses.
LEMON: Yes. So you decided to give the verses, and the verses were about diversity, and --
MAGID: Yes.
LEMON: Many saw it as political messages. Why did you choose to do that?
MAGID: These verses from the holy Koran, I used them in various gatherings for the praying for the nation, and celebrating diversity of this beautiful country. Those verses really are the verses from the holy Koran that address that all of us as human beings are equal before the eyes of God. And it's not a political message at all. I think it was well received, first of all, I would like to say.
It is the verses that address the principles that this beautiful country was built on.
LEMON: Yes. What -- what -- what were the verses? What were the verses you read?
MAGID: The verse from chapter 49 says that all mankind, all human kind, we have created you from male and female, Adam and Eve, and made you to different nations, and tribes, and communities...
LEMON: Right, and then --
MAGID: So that you might recognize one another, get to know one another. And the best among you are those -- those are the most righteous.
LEMON: Why did you feel the need to do that?
MAGID: I feel the need to do this because when I saw the numbers of people coming to this prayer service from various communities, with different religious backgrounds, I looked to that gathering and saw the American salad bowl.
LEMON: Yes, and you thought that they needed to hear that message.
MAGID: That -- that message.
LEMON: So you are well -- very well-known in Washington, a very well- known imam, you've been criticized by your fellow Muslims for agreeing to take part in this event. Why did you agree to do it?
MAGID: Yes, you know, my model and my example is my prophet, peace be upon him. Prophet Mohammed spoke to people who disagreed with him, people who spoke ill of him, and he engaged them. And I do believe that in order to have people to understand who we
are, with have to engage with them. And -- and therefore, the -- the -- the... American Muslims are hurt for they have heard -- the rhetoric they've heard during the campaign. And -- and therefore, enough of them, they still believe that -- that have -- they've been misunderstood. They have not -- they've been mischaracterized -- you know...
LEMON: Mischaracterized.
MAGID: Characterized by the campaign, and Muslim Americans want to be looked at as prospect, not suspect. They don't -- none of us would like to be looked at as security threat.
LEMON: So what would you like to see from this administration?
MAGID: What I'd like to see from this administration --
LEMON: And by the way, did you get to talk to him?
MAGID: He shook my hand and thanked me for the -- for the --
LEMON: And that was all that...
MAGID: Yes.
LEMON: So what would you like to see? You had a longer conversation with --
MAGID: I would like -- What I would like to see from this administration is to understand that American Muslims are -- they are part of American social fabric. They contribute greatly to this country. Some of them lost their life for this country.
And I have five daughters. That's really quite a task, and I want all of them to grow up proudly in America, not to every day, to feel they're not part of America. I don't like them to feel that -- be looked at -- be looked at as security threat. Because I want them to be the best American they can be.
LEMON: Americans come in all religions, all backgrounds, all shapes, size and colors.
(CROSSTALK)
MAGID: Absolutely. Absolutely.
LEMON: Thank you.
MAGID: Thank you, my pleasure.
LEMON: It was -- it was an honor.
MAGID: So, my pleasure.
LEMON: The honor was mine. MAGID: Thank you.
LEMON: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Massive protests worldwide the day after President Donald Trump's inauguration. Let's discuss now with political commentators Bakari Sellers and Kayleigh McEnany. They're both here, as well as Matt Lewis, a senior contributor for The Daily Beast; Symone Sanders, former press secretary for Bernie Sanders; and Salena Zito, columnist for The New York Post. How's everyone doing today?
(CROSSTALK)
(UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN): Great! All right!
LEMON: Get some rest?
SELLERS: No.
(UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN): No. (Inaudible) March.
LEMON: You can sleep all day tomorrow. So, hello, how are you?
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, CNN: Hello.
LEMON: Good. Congratulations again.
MCENANY: Thanks.
LEMON: In city after city you saw all of these crowds protesting against President Trump. It was massive, even worldwide. Donald Trump likes to claim support, you know, from crowd size from events like this, today's marches. What does -- what kind of a message do you think that sends the day after his inauguration?
MCENANY: I think it shows we are living in a hyper-partisan time. You know, this reminds me of the Tea Party protests. It didn't happen the day after the election. It wasn't a mass gathering of people on the mall.
But nevertheless, it was a movement that was loud, and it was sustainable, and sustained itself all the way, really, into the election of Donald Trump. And my wonder with this, is, is this protest going to turn into a new movement? I think it's hard to do, but it says to me we're in hyper-partisan environment, just like we were eight years ago.
LEMON: Now, Symone, you know, it was overwhelmingly women, right? But then today... anybody want to respond to what she said, about hyper-partisan, before I...
SYMONE SANDERS, FORMER PRESS SECRETARY FOR BERNIE SANDERS: Just that the march -- the march organizers, the national conveners said it wasn't about Donald Trump. It was a march for women, not against Donald Trump.
LEMON: OK, well, that's my question then, because it was mostly women, but they also, there were a lot of things they talked about, a lot of grievances they talked about. Women's rights, LGBT rights, fears over immigration policies and so on. Is that at risk of getting diluting from the core message, which was women?
SANDERS: I don't think so. I think intersectionality is important and it's key, and that is what the march highlighted. You know, there are -- you know, we can talk about the rights of women, but there are so many women that are also dealing with, you know, the fear of their families being snatched away in the middle of the night by ICE.
There are women who are -- who have children, whose children aren't comfortable with themselves. They don't feel like they can exist in society because, you know, they're being discriminated against because they're LGBTQ.
So I think we have to touch on intersectionality, and we do ourselves a disservice when the conversation is one-sided, and that is why the march today was so important, because it was -- it was -- it was multi layered.
LEMON: Do you -- were you surprised to see so many men?
MATT LEWIS, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, THE DAILY BEAST: No I wasn't. But --
LEMON: Were you surprised at the sizes?
LEWIS: Yes, I was. I was. I was. I was surprised at the size.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: I was sitting and watching in a restaurant that had, like, different, and it was breathtaking.
LEWIS: It was -- it was big. You can't take that away. And I -- something Kayleigh said, though, makes me wonder. If you look at Tea Party movement, you could argue, well, you know, Republicans, it all paid off for them, because they won midterms, Donald Trump ended up becoming president...
A lot of bad things happened along the way, too, including the fact that -- that President Barack Obama -- if you're a -- if you're a Tea Partier, got two terms. And I just, I wonder how much of this energy -- like it was, you know, equal and opposite sort of reaction, you know? You take the good with the bad. How much of this energy is going to be good, versus how much of it is based on paranoia about Donald Trump, fear and the Trump derangement syndrome.
So I wonder, is this going to be good or bad if -- if you're -- if you're a liberal activist?
LEMON: Trump derangement syndrome?
LEWIS: It's alive and well. It's alive and well. BAKARI SELLERS, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, CNN: I think that -- I think that you do what we saw today a disservice around the world if you cut -- castigate it out as being liberal, if you castigate it out as being democratic or some -- part of some --
LEMON: They're not happy with Democrats.
SELLERS: No, they're definitely not.
LEMON: Right.
SELLERS: And so I -- I think what you saw today was purely American. I think what you saw today was not anti-Trump at all. I think what you saw today was --
LEMON: Did you read the signs, though, Bakari?
SELLERS: There is a lot of fear, though, Don. I mean, we talk about this all the time. There's a lot of fear. There's a lot of anger. But I do think what you saw today was something that even surprised me.
I mean, I -- I consider myself to be a very, very proud progressive Democrat, even coming from South Carolina. But it surprised me, the numbers. I mean, you're talking about people who were protesting around the world.
And so Donald Trump's done two things. You give him credit. I mean, his first day was rocky, his first day -- I mean, I don't know if this is politically correct, but his first day sucked.
But you know, I think that he's done two things very, very well. The first is that he's brought people together who've had those issues that, when we talk about intersectionality of economic injustice, environmental injustice, women's rights, African American criminal justice... I mean, he brought all these people together, and he made the Affordable Care Act popular again. I mean, so there are people who have a voice...
(CROSSTALK)
LEWIS: Don't you think that there's a danger though, the danger of a backlash? When you have Elizabeth Warren up there flinging her hands around. You've got Madonna saying controversial things from -- from the podium. That if you're -- if you're sort of a working class guy out there in Middle America, and you're watching this on TV...
SELLERS: Well, I mean, that's -- that's -- that's really cool to say, I mean, but you had a lot of working class women who came to Washington D.C. ...
(CROSSTALK)
SANDERS: Working class white women.
SELLERS: You had a lot of working class white women on a Saturday who came, and this was their first time ever protesting anything.
(CROSSTALK)
LEWIS: I'm just saying that I meant there's a double edged sword, and sometimes they show energy, and passion, and a movement, and sometimes...
SELLERS: Well, Matt, Matt, Matt, I hear you. I -- I refer to myself as a child of the civil rights movement and that may have been a double-edged sword, to use your words. But I will bet on the successes of that protest movement versus anything else you have to say, or any other movement you want to ---
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Should the president be reaching out to the people in that crowd? Salena Zito starts off our panel when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We're back now with my panel, and we're talking about the rallies that were these huge rallies that were held all over the world today. Salena Zito, I want to start off with you.
Matt was saying he's worried about that there's -- you know, it's a double-edged sword, there could be backlash. But these rallies were also held in red states ...
SALENA ZITO, COLUMNIST, THE NEW YORK POST: Yes.
LEMON: ... as well, and there were Trump supporters, women who were out there as well.
ZITO: Yes. You know, one of the things that President Obama faced when he -- when the -- when the Tea Party came out, was that he never really addressed them. And he paid for it not personally, because he always remained personally popular, but his policies paid for it in the -- in the -- in the midterm elections and down ballot, in state legislative bodies.
And -- and I always thought if he would have had this conversation with the people that were upset with him, with the people who didn't like his policies, in some way or form, he maybe not -- would have not lost those (inaudible)
LEMON: There may be a Democrat in office now. Should Donald Trump do that?
ZITO: Yes, I think that there needs to be some sort of olive branch passed out, some sort of conversation. You can avoid the pitfalls that happened to the Democrats... I mean, and they are -- 1,030 seats in -- in -- in seven years, that's a lot of seats that they left. And that could happen to Republicans if that line of communication isn't open.
LEMON: Yes. ZITO: I think it's really important --
LEMON: I told Jeffrey Lord earlier that I would share my anecdote, and I said if there wasn't some olive branch, that if you see these crowds of people and that continues to happen, that doesn't bode well for a re-election, if he doesn't extend some sort of olive branch. Because these people, it's -- they can be pulled in, because they're not happy with Democrats as well.
ZITO: No, you're right, and I think there will be an olive branch, but it will come not in the form of words, which I would argue he did that in his -- in his address. But it's going to come in the form of action. Because where Obama was -- governed like a liberal, and he said -- that's what he campaigned as, Trump is going to govern as the first post-partisan president. You are going to see him making deals with guys like Bernie Sanders on issues like trade. You are going to see him trying to ensure that everyone has some form of health care.
He's the first post-partisan president. If he governs that way, the people who marched today are going to be very surprised at the sort of products you see from a Trump administration.
SANDERS: I'd like to remind everybody, Trump ran on the Republican ticket.
(CROSSTALK)
LEWIS: No, I think that's actually -- I actually find that to be --
SANDERS: Post partisan my tail. He ran on the Republican ticket.
LEWIS: I actually find this discussion to be fascinating, because you brought up the point that if Barack Obama would have done this, or done that, or reached his olive branch... I mean, the night before Barack Obama got inaugurated and sworn in, what was Barack Obama doing? He was at a dinner honoring John McCain. You had -- you had people like Mitch McConnell who said that we're going to make sure that this is a one-term president. You had the stories about the Republicans who met under the cover of darkness, making sure that they made his agenda not exist.
And so that -- that -- that being said, I do recall very often that people said Barack Obama, it was something that he even said, which he has now taken back, being the first post-racial president.
And so to hear that -- that -- that now Donald Trump is the first post-partisan president, it just echoes so... It just, it just echoes...
(CROSSTALK)
MCENANY: I'm not talking about going to dinner with John McCain. To me, that's not -- that's not being post-partisan. I'm talking about how congressional Republicans have said this is the first president who didn't pick up phone and try to call me and work together on issues. This is -- he did not extend and reach across the aisle the way we've seen with -- and the Gingrich days, and the Gingrich.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Fifteen seconds here.
SANDERS: But these -- but... OK, but the Republicans under Barack Obama literally said their job was to make sure he -- he was unsuccessful. So it's hard to pick up the phone for somebody that they -- Look, for Donald Trump, I think he needs to reach out. We have yet to see him actually extend any olive branchs to anybody.
LEMON: I also remember people, Democrats, and even some African Americans criticizing him, saying, "Stop trying to work with them. They don't like you. They're not going to work with you." Because he -- they said he tried too much to be bipartisan, and to work with --
SANDERS: Right. Donald Trump has yet to try just a little bit. But we're going to see the ---
(CROSSTALK)
SANDERS: Just a smidge. Just give me a little something, OK?
LEMON: Listen, Donald Trump, what else do you have to lose? People around the world, taking it to the streets to protest today, one of them a woman who supports Trump. I'm going to talk to her next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A day of protests from coast to coast, and around the world. How will President Trump respond --
