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Don Lemon Tonight
Massive Crowds Worldwide March against Trump; Trump Supporter Attends Women's March; Trump Blames Media for Feud with Intel Community; White House Accuses Media of Inauguration Crowd Undercount. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired January 21, 2017 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[23:00:11] DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: A day of protest from coast to coast and around the world. How will President Trump respond?
This is CNN TONIGHT. I am Don Lemon, live in Washington. Thank you for joining us.
Day 2 of the Trump administration and marchers flooded the streets in Washington and beyond, protests even spreading across the red states of Trump country. No response yet from the administration.
But Press Secretary Sean Spicer did have crowd size on his mind today, specifically the size of the crowd for President Trump's inauguration. The White House fighting back against reporting that the crowd at yesterday's inauguration was smaller than the crowd when Barack Obama took office in 2009.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: This has really been a day for the history books. Hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets of Washington and beyond, marching against a new administration just one day after Donald Trump's inauguration. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, Americans of all faiths and walks of life converging on the nation's capital protesting the agenda of the 45th President Donald Trump.
AMERICA FERRERA, ACTRESS AND ACTIVIST: It's been a heart-rending time to be both a woman and an immigrant in this country. Our dignity, our character, our rights have all been under attack.
ASHLEY JUDD, ACTRESS AND ACTIVIST: I am unafraid to be nasty because I am nasty like Susan, Elizabeth, Eleanor, Amelia, Rosa, Gloria, Condoleezza, Sonia, Mahlala, Michelle, Hillary. MALVEAUX (voice-over): A powerful eclectic group bringing their
message of equal rights for all Americans directly to the steps of the White House.
MICHAEL MOORE, DIRECTOR AND ACTIVIST: The message is we're here representing the majority of the Americans. The majority of our fellow Americans did not want this man in the White House.
REV. JESSE JACKSON, SR., CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: We're not anti- Trump. We're pro-America. We're pro-inclusion. We're pro-grace.
LEA DELARIA, ACTRESS AND ACTIVIST: Where do we go from here? We stay here. We keep this fight up. We keep letting them know that we're not going anywhere.
GLORIA STEINEM, FEMINIST: This is a wake-up call. And we're never going to sleep again.
MALVEAUX (on camera): And who needs to wake up?
STEINEM: Anybody who cares about democracy, anybody who cares about sanity in the presidency.
MALVEAUX (on camera): Do you have a message for President Trump now?
STEINEM: It's time to leave.
MALVEAUX (voice-over): And the movement spanned well beyond just Washington as hundreds of thousands of dissenting Americans gathered in all 50 states from Chicago to Los Angeles, St. Louis, New York, Denver, and Boston.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Hello, women of Massachusetts.
MALVEAUX (voice-over): Celebrities, politicians, and everyday Americans uniting --
ALICIA KEYS, SINGER: This girl is on fire.
MALVEAUX (voice-over): -- in rebuke of President Trump's past statements. Standing up to say they will fight for the country they know and love.
SCARLETT JOHANSSON, ACTRESS AND ACTIVIST: President Trump, I did not vote for you.
MARC STAUHOFFER, PROTESTER: My husband and I fought for 35 years for marriage and I lost him right before Christmas, and I'm here for both of us.
MALVEAUX (voice-over): Jessica Agullo's mother fell ill at 48 years old, up ending her life while the old health care system devastated her financially and left her in ruins.
JESSICA AGULLO, PROTESTER: I hope she'll be proud. I hope she'll be very proud, and I miss her terribly. And I'm sorry she had to go the way she went because it was not a righteous way to go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Well, the people who occupied this house behind me, making no mention of these massive protests.
But just to underscore just how staggering these crowds were, at one point at the beginning of the march on Independence and 4th, when we were trying to move just from the live truck to the camera shot location, at that point, people were just arm-to-arm. You could not move.
The announcers were begging people not to go any further. You got a sense that you could not breathe, that people squeezing in. You could feel the weight, almost as if people were going to be crushed or stampeded.
Fortunately, that did not happen. It subsided a bit. The crowds eased a little bit. But it just underscores the staggering number of people who participated was even unexpected by the organizers, Don.
LEMON: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. Thank you Suzanne.
Now, I want to bring in Derick Waller, reporter for our CNN affiliate, WEWS in Cleveland, and Camila Bernal, a reporter for our CNN affiliate, KEYE in Austin, Texas.
Hello to both of you. I'm so glad that you could join us this evening.
Derick, I want to start with you. It's fascinating that these protests are happening in 50 states, including in red states that voted for Donald Trump in the election. Tell us about the huge turnout in Cleveland.
[23:04:59] DERICK WALLER, WEWS-TV REPORTER: Well, actually, earlier this week, we heard from organizers of this protest who said they were expecting about 3,000 people. And this morning, they actually had at least 15,000 people. That's according to Cleveland police.
There were no arrests, no problems, again, according to Cleveland police, and very peaceful. But, yes, thousands more people than they were expecting even just a few days ago.
LEMON: And, Derick, you have been talking to the protesters out there. What's the message that they want to get out today?
WALLER: There's a variety of things they're concerned about, but I thought that the overarching thing, which you heard from everybody, really is health care.
They're worried about health care reform being repealed and what that will mean going back to way it was, when, you know, they didn't cover preexisting conditions and men and women got charged different health care rates, coverage for contraception and maternity care. So that's a real concern from just about everyone we talked to today,
was that they're concerned about what health care is going to look like. And right now, Republicans haven't really, you know, offered up what they're going to replace it with.
LEMON: Yes, that seems to be the mantra when I hear people, the sound bites from out there when people interview them.
Camila, I want to bring you in now. You're in Austin, where it seems like more people showed up than they had planned for as well. Austin is known for being more progressive than the rest of Texas but there were also protests in Dallas and in Houston as well. What was it like out there?
CAMILA BERNAL, KEYE-TV REPORTER: That's right, definitely a lot more people than expected. I think organizers were planning for about 30,000 and, actually, about 50,000 people showed up. A lot of people from the Austin area, but we just see some people from Dallas, from Houston, who came in busses in here and participated.
Throughout the streets, we talked to police, we talked to EMS, and even they were surprised with the number of people that showed up to the Texas capital this afternoon.
LEMON: So, Camila, a similar question to what I asked Derick, what were the protesters telling you? What was their key vision?
BERNAL: So I think the message here is the same one that's being said around the country. It's women's rights, it's human rights, it's the rights of immigrants, of minorities, of everyone who has felt left out or discriminated by the words that have been said from our now President Donald Trump.
But what I found interesting is that I asked people, what's next? How do you feel about what is coming next? And I think a lot of the people here in Texas felt inspired. They felt united.
And they felt that, through the march, through these protests, they will now be inspired to do something more for the next four years and to act and to get involved in local politics, state politics, and eventually make a change nationally.
LEMON: It is. Thank you very much. I know it's been a long day for both of you. Thank you, Camila. Thank you, Derick. We appreciate it.
Joining me now is Leslie Simek. She attended the march in Washington today, and she is a Trump supporter. As if you can't tell because she's got the flag on. She's got Donald Trump.
Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you.
LESLIE SIMEK, ATTENDED THE WOMEN'S MARCH IN WASHINGTON: Yes, thank you for having me.
LEMON: And she's full of personality. I'm so glad that you're here. SIMEK: Thank you.
LEMON: Because you attended the inauguration yesterday, right, which was fantastic. You enjoyed that.
SIMEK: Yes.
LEMON: But then this is a picture of you at the women's march in D.C. today. And so I want you to tell us why you marched on the first day that the person you voted for, your President, was in office.
SIMEK: Because I want to represent Donald Trump because he's an amazing person. And people want to march in a march to be united, then they should be united for our President of the United States, Donald trump.
LEMON: Good for you. What was it like being out there?
SIMEK: It was amazing.
LEMON: But there were other Trump supporters as well?
SIMEK: There was. And it was amazing. Everybody came together, everybody got to speak for what they believed in. And it was peaceful. It was beautiful.
LEMON: Because there were women and there were people, I mean, men from all over --
SIMEK: Many.
LEMON: -- all ages, all races. What was it like marching out there?
SIMEK: It was amazing because that's what it's all about. We're one nation under God, and we're a melting pot. There's people from all over the world, and everybody's lives matter. Everybody has a right to say what they want.
LEMON: Mm-hmm. I see you have a "Black Lives Matter" thing on you.
SIMEK: Absolutely.
LEMON: Yes. And then you have a "Hot Chicks for Trump" as well.
SIMEK: Yes, and a Palestinian throw.
LEMON: Yes.
SIMEK: This is all the way from Palestine.
LEMON: Yes. And this is -- it's got "America." It's --
SIMEK: Mm-hmm.
LEMON: I had imam on earlier and I said to him that America is about all kinds, and that's why he delivered the address and the message that he gave to Donald Trump today at the interfaith service --
SIMEK: Absolutely. Yes.
LEMON: -- because he feels the same way.
SIMEK: That was beautiful mass.
LEMON: What would you say to him? Should he reach out to these people? If you could speak to him, the President that you voted for, what would you say to him about that?
SIMEK: You don't have to say anything because he's going to. That's what people don't realize. Everybody makes mistakes in lives and, you know, nobody's perfect.
And if somebody has a way of showing the world that he's not the person he's perceived to be, it's by running for President of the United States. And he's going to prove to everybody that he's the wonderful person that I believe him to be. I'm his number one fan in upstate New York and he's going to make America great again.
[23:10:10] LEMON: Yes. How do you think he's going to reach out if he had any --
SIMEK: He's going to unite. You know, a lot of things happened and people feel like they're -- you know, we're all struggling in one way or another. And people are afraid they're going to lose their entitlements, and it's not going to be that way.
We need to fine-tune the government and drain the swamp for sure for the simple reasons, is because we need that money to take care of other people especially homeless, you know, the people that are needy. I mean, it's very hard to buy health insurance with an $8 an hour salary.
You know, he's going to work on all those. I mean there's a lot of fraud, waste, and abuse working for the government. And you know, you have to figure out what you need to get rid of so you can use it for something more important.
LEMON: Yes. Just back to the march real quick, people are happy to see you, right? Were they --
SIMEK: Oh, absolutely.
LEMON: I'm sure there were some -- there's always an upset somewhere and everything --
SIMEK: Oh, yes, of course. Yes.
LEMON: -- because, you know, that happens.
SIMEK: But I love everybody, so.
LEMON: Yes. It's great. So you know who Michael Flynn is. He's Donald Trump's pick -- SIMEK: Yes.
LEMON: He's his national security adviser. Here's what his son tweeted.
SIMEK: OK.
LEMON: His son said, "What victory? Women already have equal rights and, yes, equal pay in this country. What more do you want? Free mani/pedis?"
What's your response to that?
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: And I know you speak your mind. I can tell.
SIMEK: I want to say that women do have a lot of rights in this country. If you go to other countries, they really struggle. And women, you know, watch too much reality T.V. because there's a lot of things going on in the world more important than mani/pedis.
And, yes, you know, salary inequality can be fixed. You know, if you do work and, you know, your evaluation rates your work, then your job performance should be exceptional, then you should get a raise.
LEMON: Yes.
SIMEK: It should be based on that.
LEMON: Yes. Yes. I think you're right about that. Today, we spent a lot of time, which we weren't going to because it just wasn't on our radar, talking about crowd sizes.
SIMEK: Yes.
LEMON: The crowd size was -- you know, he had enough crowds to get him to be elected President of the United States.
SIMEK: Absolutely.
LEMON: He had enough people like you who went out to vote for him. He spent the first day talking about how big and arguing and his Press Secretary giving wrong numbers about how many people were there and so on and so forth. Do you think that's what he should be focusing on his first day?
SIMEK: Absolutely not. You know, Mr. Trump, you know, he's a very sensitive person. And, you know, he's like me, he's a marshmallow. You know, his hard on the outside but he's soft on the inside.
And, you know, his silly tweets are ways of defending his heart because he has a big heart.
LEMON: Yes, but you're not President.
SIMEK: I'm going to be someday.
LEMON: Yes. Now, she told me she's going to run for President one day. I had a conversation as they were, you know, talking about the crowd sizes, and he was at CIA today. He was headed to Langley --
SIMEK: I was at both.
LEMON: Yes.
SIMEK: And I was --
LEMON: You were there?
SIMEK: I was at both and I think, with the inauguration, everything was more spread out so it didn't --
LEMON: Oh, you mean you were at inauguration, you were at the rallies --
SIMEK: And the rallies.
LEMON: -- not you went at the CIA. Go ahead.
SIMEK: No, but I was at inauguration and I was at the rally. And I think because it was more spread out and everybody was going through different gates, and it could have been perceived that there wasn't more people there. But really, what does it really matter?
LEMON: Exactly.
SIMEK: You know what, there was people there to support him at his inauguration, and there was a march today for women's rights, and both of them are both important issues.
LEMON: You are awesome. I'm so glad you said that.
As I was telling my story, I was in a restaurant with Trump supporters, and we were talking about it. I asked them what they thought about him and tweeting. And every single one said, I wish he should just not.
SIMEK: He's cute. You know what --
LEMON: You don't mind the tweets?
SIMEK: I don't mind the tweets because, you know what, small minds talk about people, big minds talk about ideas. And sometimes, if just want to tweet to vent out a little bit, it's OK.
LEMON: Leslie, thank you. I appreciate you coming on.
SIMEK: Thank you for having me.
LEMON: Anyways, thank you so much. Good luck. Be safe out there, all right?
SIMEK: Thank you. Where is the camera?
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: It's right there.
SIMEK: Bye.
LEMON: When we come right back, President Trump visits the CIA to mend fences and ends up bashing the media.
[23:14:20] Is that the right message to send to the intelligence community?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: And we're back. President Donald Trump and his Press Secretary lashing out at the news media today about the President's relationship with the intelligence community and over reports about the size of the crowds at his inauguration.
Back now live from Washington, I want to bring in CNN's Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta. He's here with us on the set.
Jeffrey Lord's with us as well. Salena Zito, senior political analyst, Mark Preston, presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, senior media correspondent Mr. Brian Stelter, host of "RELIABLE SOURCES," and our chief national security correspondent, Mr. Jim Sciutto.
Here is Donald Trump at CIA headquarters earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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.
(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 is it's exactly the opposite. Exactly. And they understand that too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Jim, what's your reaction? What are you hearing from sources in the intel community?
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, a couple of things.
First of all, the important part, he's going to intelligence agencies there. He's standing in front of what, for them, is their Arlington, right? I mean, this is the Memorial Wall, 117 stars there for CIA agents who've given their lives in the call of duty. Many of them, we'll never know their names. Some names we do know, the first person to die in the war in
Afghanistan after 9/11, Johnny Micheal Spann. He's one of those stars. The two CIA operatives who were killed in the Benghazi raid. Their stars are up there as well.
So that's a hallowed spot yet the President going there in midst of a running public dispute with the intelligence agencies that, I mean, he said that we created it.
That's just factually incorrect. We have many tweets. We have many public comments from him criticizing and undermining the confidence in the intelligence agencies. So there's that.
But he makes no mention of where he is, where he's standing, which would have been very simple. It would've taken a line, right, to say, I understand the sacrifice like you would do when, for instance, he was laying a wreath at Arlington, to be expected.
[23:20:09] So over the course of the day, I've been getting -- my phone's been dinging -- texts and e-mails from folks inside or who used to be inside the intelligence community, saying, listen, that was -- "despicable" were the words that the former CIA Director used. And I've heard even harsher words. To them, it's an insult, really, to the sacrifice and the work they do.
LEMON: He actually outright says that he went there in the first place, is because of this, you know, this war he had with the media going on. But that's not exactly -- maybe that's why he says he went there, but the war with the media, it was his war.
SCIUTTO: Right, no question. I mean, there's a public record of it. In his own Twitter feed, right, where we're in the midst of.
Listen, this is a sensitive time with the intelligence communities because you have this assessment from the intelligence agencies that the Russians interfered with the election. And as that has happened, that's uncomfortable information for him to hear. He takes it as somehow making his victory illegitimate, which is not something that the intelligence community has judged or even attempted to judge.
But perhaps because of that, he has attacked their credibility, and not just their credibility but also the motivations of the intelligence agencies, to say that this politically driven, to compare it to Nazi Germany, this kind of thing. So it's a sensitive time.
And fact is, these investigations are ongoing, of the Russian interference. There's also an ongoing investigation of people inside his campaign for communications with Russia during the campaign. Very sensitive time.
And that was the message when he went there.
LEMON: And, Jeffrey Lord, I've said this a couple times in the show but I was -- we're watching on television restaurant and I was sitting with a Trump supporter, and we saw the Vice President there. And we said, that was a beautiful message -- reading the close caption and he said, great message from the Vice President.
Then the President gets up and people started, oh, gosh, just reading the thing. These are Trump supporters. They've got "Make America Great" hats on.
He spent nine minutes of a 15-minute speech discussing things other than intelligence. Was it appropriate to do it in front of the CIA Memorial Wall?
JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, here's the thing. I mean, I think this is truly being vastly overblown here. His entire --
LEMON: Jeffrey, can you just answer my question directly?
LORD: Sure.
LEMON: And then you can pivot. Was it appropriate to do that in front of --
LORD: Sure, sure, sure. You want to know --
LEMON: OK. Go ahead.
LORD: I mean, his audience heard him and laughed.
LEMON: Yes, go on.
LORD: And cheered him, right?
LEMON: Yes.
LORD: OK. Here's my point. He made it his --
LEMON: Again, before -- I will let you go on but, again, part of that was staffing that he brought in and others are part of the CIA people who -- --
LORD: But there was more, I mean, that clearly was coming from regular people and they're in --
LEMON: -- chose to come in today because they may have an --
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: They're CIA people and they cheered him and they applauded.
LEMON: -- but go on.
LORD: My point to you is that he made it his business to come over there as the first stop. He could have gone anywhere in the government. He made it that first spot because he wanted to underline to them that he is on their side.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Or intimidate them. LORD: Now, you know, that -- or to intimidate? I mean, Brian, they
work for him. They work for him. And in terms of intimidation, what --
STELTER: They're leaking.
LORD: How --
STELTER: They're leaking against him. We both know that.
LORD: Right, right. We both know that and so he's got grounds for his complaint. And this is a standard Washington thing that's been going on for years, when bureaucrats in department A or B or C don't like what the President of United States -- ketchup is a vegetable. I mean, they leak stuff out to try and, you know, jam the President. And that's clearly --
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Thank goodness they do.
LORD: Well --
(LAUGHTER)
LORD: Oh, my God. What do you mean? You think that's a great idea?
ACOSTA: Otherwise we wouldn't know about these things, Jeffrey.
LORD: So you think it's a great idea to leak classified information?
ACOSTA: I'm not saying it's good idea to leak classified information.
LORD: Well, that's what's at issue here.
ACOSTA: But sometimes leaks are good.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Yes. Jeffrey, do you like whistleblowers?
LORD: No, I don't.
LEMON: Do you think whistleblowers are --
LORD: I don't dispute any of that.
LEMON: OK.
LORD: But I'm saying there should not be leaks of intelligence information, the classified information. It's classified for a reason.
LEMON: Jim Acosta --
ACOSTA: Yes.
LEMON: -- and what was the reason from the White House point of view to go over there today?
ACOSTA: I think this was really a chance for Donald Trump and I think they saw it as such to mend some fences with the intelligence community. I think that's why he went over there, and I think that was a good instinct to follow.
LORD: Yes.
ACOSTA: Absolutely. He's going to have to rely on them, and they're going to have to rely on him to keep this country, to keep the world safe.
I will say, though, after watching that display over there and hearing the crowd cheering over there, I have to say I think that was a very disappointing moment for our country because I think there are probably a lot of people who work at the CIA probably who will probably not applauding at that moment and were aghast at what was taking place there.
Of course, we heard from the former CIA Director saying, you know, that he didn't like what he was there.
LORD: And leak occurred under his watch, right?
ACOSTA: But, you know, because a lot of these CIA operatives have been around the world, Jeffrey --
LORD: Yes.
ACOSTA: -- and been to countries where there is not a free press, where there's not a press that has freedoms. And guess what, those countries aren't very prosperous.
LORD: Right.
ACOSTA: Those countries aren't very free, and those aren't countries that I want to trade places with any day of the week.
LORD: I'm all for a free press and the First Amendment.
ACOSTA: So, I mean, you know, I just thought that that was disappointing.
[23:24:57] Now, as for Sean Spicer over at the White House, I think that was also an unfortunate, regrettable moment for our country. Here is the White House Press Secretary on the very first full day of this administration going in and lambasting the news media.
I just thought, you know, listen, there's plenty of time to yell and scream at us, and this isn't the time.
SCIUTTO: I've had press secretaries yell at me over the phone, but let's take a listen. This was different.
(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, it 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 largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So, Jim --
ACOSTA: Yes.
LEMON: -- sitting there, I think, there's many people going, why? Why?
ACOSTA: Yes. Yes.
LEMON: But you checked the number.
ACOSTA: Yes.
LEMON: And why.
ACOSTA: Exactly, and why. Which should I take first, the numbers or the why?
(LAUGHTER)
ACOSTA: The why is unbelievable because of all the things -- I was talking to Jeffrey before we came out on this segment -- what if the White House had decided, you know what, guys, here's your picture for today. We're going to have you go out in the back and get pictures of Donald Trump playing with his grandchildren. That's going to be our picture that we put out today.
LEMON: Yes.
ACOSTA: What if he did that instead? And so --
LORD: You're hired.
(LAUGHTER) ACOSTA: I'm not here to help. I'm here to report. But --
LEMON: And what if he tweeted out, I see all the people, I hear your voice, and I'm your President too?
ACOSTA: But instead you pick a fight with the news media. I just don't get that. It doesn't make any sense to me.
STELTER: He didn't even address the marchers.
ACOSTA: OK. You know, it worked for --
LEMON: Yes.
SALENA ZITO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I mean, this is the --
ACOSTA: It paid dividends during the campaign. You know, now, you have to run the country. How do you have time for that? I don't get that.
LEMON: Now, the numbers. Now, the numbers. I'm sorry.
(CROSSTALK)
ACOSTA: All right. The numbers, let me just walk us through the numbers.
There were a couple of things. First of all, Sean Spicer said there had never been these white ground coverings on the National Mall before in an inauguration. We have photographs from 2013 where you can see the National Park Service unloading the white ground coverings to cover up the grass on the National Mall.
LEMON: Yes.
ACOSTA: There it is. If you look at back of that photograph, you see the inaugural setup at front of the capital. OK, that's 2013, so obviously that was not correct.
They also said the fact that there were magnetometers placed around the Mall kept, quote, "hundreds of thousands of people getting down to the National Mall." There were not hundreds of thousands of people waiting to get through magnetometers. The U.S. Secret Service tells us that there were not magnetometers around the National Mall.
And then this Metro ridership numbers that he threw out, they were incomplete. "The Washington Post" first put these numbers out, but we confirmed them. Metro ridership numbers for the full day yesterday, 570,000 for Donald Trump. Back in 2013, which is what Sean Spicer was measuring themselves against, for what reason I don't know -- but he said that it was largest ever, it was not -- 782,000, for Obama in 2013 and at 1.1 million in 2009.
I just don't understand why. And you would think, by now, I would figure it out because I've been covering this guy for so long.
LEMON: Yes.
ACOSTA: Why he gets up in the morning and decides to go on these rants and turn into a public discussion.
LEMON: OK. Stand by everyone. Facts do matter.
ACOSTA: Yes.
LEMON: We'll discuss right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
[22:30:00] VANCE: ... could afford to make the trip out.
(CROSSTALK)
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.
