Return to Transcripts main page

Don Lemon Tonight

Trump Tweets Out Ad Demonizing Immigrants; President Trump Resorts To Stoking Fear With Six Days To Go Until the Midterms; Trump Promotes Racist Ad On Twitter Feed; Former ESPN Host Speaking Up About President Trump's Racism; Trump's Strategy Is To Divide The Country, And Rely On Fears Of Undocumented Immigrants; Chairman Of The Republican Congressional Committee Calling Out Iowa's Steve King. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired October 31, 2018 - 22:00   ET

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

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

[22:00:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: That is what fear and molding is about. That is Trump's bet. Now when I was checking the Democrats on tonight, I've been doing for some time now, to the chagrin of many who watch my show. What is their answer? Why don't they go toe to toe with him on this stuff?

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: It shouldn't be -- what is your strategy?

CUOMO: People aren't looking to be criticized right now. They're looking for an echo and that is why shows that echo partisan feelings do best.

LEMON: Yes. Listen, don't get me wrong. And I think what we have to be careful of -- because you know, they're looking for everything from everyone. From the media, the people they demonize all the time. That there is some sort of -- that we're making an excuse for this guy. This guy that is featured in that ad is a bad, bad, bad --

CUOMO: He is a murderous animal.

LEMON: Right. The question is the type of tactics they're using to sell this, by putting that ad out there.

CUOMO: They're saying that is who Democrats want in.

LEMON: That is one thing. But the President of the United States tweeting it out, Chris?

CUOMO: Yes. And there was some kerfuffle, you know. Some people would say, hold on don't tie it to the President. Hold on, this is about a production company. Nope. It's made by his campaign. It goes out from his account. He owns it. He can't have it both ways. They try to do this. They're doing it with the 14th amendment thing, too. Oh, no, no, he may have said that, but there is another position. His words matter, period.

LEMON: A source close to the White House said that the web ad was produced by James Town associates for the Trump campaign for the midterms.

CUOMO: Yes, there you go.

LEMON: The source described the ad as well as Trump's immigration push as changing the argument from family unification to invasion.

CUOMO: Family unification, how his in-laws got here, by the way.

LEMON: Exactly. Exactly.

CUOMO: Imagine that thanksgiving.

LEMON: As you know, I have a lot to discuss tonight.

CUOMO: You do. You've got a lot on your plate and we ain't talking snickers.

LEMON: We're not. A lot of people were riled up today. We're going to talk about that, we're going to talk about the facts first. Chris, always a pleasure, my friend.

CUOMO: Give them a trick and treat, D. Lemon.

LEMON: Thank you. Happy Halloween to all of your kids and by the way, I saw your kids on social media. They look great.

CUOMO: Thanks bud.

LEMON: All right, talk to you later.

This is CNN Tonight everyone. I am Don Lemon. Thank you so much for joining us. Tonight, I want to talk to you about hate. I want to talk about fear mongering. I want to talk about a blatantly racist appeal by President Trump and his Party, an ad that the President tweeted today, an ad that shows you just how willing he is to use lies and scare tactics to terrify his base with just six days to go until the midterms.

The ad beginning with a chilling confession from a brutal criminal, a man yet identified as an illegal immigrant, and he is. And he is a really bad guy. Nobody is going to defend this guy. The point is, though, this brutal criminal is who -- is what President Trump wants you to think about when you think about an immigrant. Just consider that. President Trump, who is the son of an immigrant himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, step out into the hallway.

(BEEP) No, kill more. (BEEP). Kill more cops too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (TRANSLATOR): He says he wants to apply for a pardon for the felony he committed.

Attempted murder. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Crowds tearing down fences. We don't know where. We don't even know if it's in the United States. Swarming the streets. It's a naked appeal to fear and hate is what it is, and it is racist. The President has always used fear to his advantage. First he wanted everyone to be afraid of the caravan. People he called invaders, even though they were a thousand miles away. And it worked for a while. Until terror reared its ugly head closer to home.

When a Trump supporter with a van covered in Trump stickers started sending bombs all across the country. So then the President tried to whip up fear by sending troops to the border. Again, to combat a nonexistent threat from refugee families, women and children, but this time people were talking about the horrible anti-Semitic murder of Jews at worship in a synagogue, and the climate of division for which the President bears responsibility.

[22:05:02] So, President Trump turned to birthright citizenship, wanting to strip away a constitutional right that even his own Party leaders, even Paul Ryan said he could not do. So, he attacked Paul Ryan today for having the audacity to say the President was wrong, and to speak the truth. And just in case people missed the President's message of fear, dividing by race to suit his own political purposes, he tweeted that ad. And then went out on the trail to divide, divide, divide. He did it again tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will keep the criminals, the drug dealers, we will keep them all out of our country. We will get rid of all of this. We will end, finally, birthright citizenship. It's costing us so many billions of dollars.

(CHEERS)

(APPLAUSE)

People didn't want to bring it up. I said, we have to bring it up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Divide, divide, divide. He did it on the White House lawn today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Nobody is coming in. We're not allowing people to come in. Immigration is a very, very big and very dangerous -- a really dangerous topic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And he did it on Twitter to his over 55 million followers. It is fear mongering. A desperate attempt to avoid a reckoning at the ballot box, because everyone out there in America has a chance next Tuesday to cast their verdict on his presidency so far. The President knows that. And the President is using fear and hate to try to distract you from the truth.

Well, tonight I also want to talk about some uncomfortable truth. The truth about who really carries out domestic terror attacks in this country.

Earlier this week I made some comments about that in a conversation with Chris. I said that the biggest terror threat in this country comes from radicals on the far-right, primarily white men. That angered some people, but let's put emotion aside and look at the cold hard facts. The evidence is overwhelming.

A recent report from the government accountability office shows that. Even though more people died in attacks connected to Islamic extremists, the vast majority of deadly attacks in this country from 2001 to 2016 were carried out by far-right violent extremists. The Washington Post, in writing about this today, cites a 2017 report from the nation institutes investigative fund. It found that far-right plots and attacks outnumber Islamist incidents by almost 2 to 1.

The anti-defamation league says home grown extremists of all kinds killed at least 372 people in the U.S. from 2007 to 2016. Right wing extremists were responsible for 74 percent of deaths. Left wing extremists were responsible for only 2 percent. The nonpartisan think tank, new America, looked at attacks in this country after 9/11 and going up to the attack in Charlottesville. They found that of the domestic terror attacks, those carried out -- those not carried out by jihadist, 68 were by far-right groups. Only 8 were by left wing or black separatist groups.

So, let me break that down for you even further. Their analysis shows that for every eight deadly attacks by right wing extremists, there were one by left wing extremists. Those are the facts. So people who are angered about what I said are missing the entire point. We don't need to worry about people who are thousands of miles away. The biggest threats are home grown. The facts prove that.

Joining me now, CNN's White House correspondent Jim Acosta who was at the President's rally tonight. Jim, good evening to you. I thank you so much for joining us.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don.

LEMON: President Trump repeated a lot of his divisive rhetoric at his campaign rally tonight, but this new racist ad that the President dropped on Twitter that is getting a lot of attention, you have new reporting on that ad. Please tell me about it.

ACOSTA: Well, Don, we know it's a campaign ad put out by the Trump campaign for the upcoming midterms next week. I talked to a source familiar with this ad who said that is another attempt by the president to try to change the conversation according to the source. They are not talking about healthcare, they want to talk about immigration and they feel like they have changed the argument -- the discussion in this country away from family reunification, away from that awful policy of family separations at the border to what this source called, quote, invasion.

And if you look at that ad, Don, it is sort of like, you know, what is Willie Horton in Spanish? The President and his team are trying to drive up fear and rage when it comes to these migrants coming up from Central America towards the U.S. border with Mexico.

[22:10:00] As we know, they are perhaps weeks or a month away. They are not really an imminent threat at this point. But this ad is trying to paint it as such. The President was using that kind of rhetoric tonight at the rally, talking about how those caravan of migrants is full of rough people, as he called them, not angels as he stated. And talked about ending birthright citizenship. This is very much part of the Trump campaign play book, as it's been described to me. It's all about Kavanaugh and the caravan. They want to drive up this animosity towards immigrants, because they think it's working, Don.

LEMON: A distraction, because one of the biggest issues that people care about is health care. And you know that the President, this administration's record on health care, on preexisting conditions -- is that what they're trying to distract from with these ads? What other issues are they trying to distract from?

ACOSTA: They think that is sort of their magic potion for this very potent Democratic, you know, issue out there which is health care reform. Democrats have been talking about this out on the campaign trail repeatedly saying that Republicans are going to chip away at this protection for people with preexisting conditions that is part of the affordable care act. The president tonight once again, I heard him say several rallies saying, Republicans will protect your preexisting conditions.

Don, that is just totally at odds with the facts. His own administration right now is not defending the ACA in court against Republican attorneys general who are trying to basically strip away what's remaining of Obamacare, including that protection for people with preexisting condition.

LEMON: They ran on repeal and replace for years, and that was the reason so he was so upset with the late great John McCain, because John McCain came in and said, no, we're not doing this.

ACOSTA: That is right. And you know, it was sort of whopper after whopper tonight, Don. The President was once again saying he is going to go after birthright citizenship. He can't do that without changing the constitution. The President tried to make this claim. Well, you know, yes, I can, there is a clause in the 14th amendment that says I can do this.

He is just wrong about that, Don. Scholar after scholar after scholar has said he can't do this. But in addition to that, in addition to saying that they're going to protect people with preexisting conditions, he once again said that they are going to go after this middle class tax cut after the midterm elections are over. Even though talk if you talk to Republican sources up on Capitol Hill, they have no idea what the President is talking about. And so this is really just -- they're trying to sell a bill of goods

here in the last week before the election. And they may succeed in revving up this base, Don. When I was at that rally earlier tonight here in Fort Myers, that language that the President was using, that very volatile hostile rhetoric aimed at immigrants coming into this country that was whipping up this crowd more than anything I've seen and sometimes out on the campaign trail with the President.

And Don, once again, the President talking about his frustrations with the coverage of his trip to Pittsburgh under the phrase "enemy of the people" referring to the press or what he says is the fake news. And calling members of the news media the enemy of the people, even though just in the last week, Don, we at CNN have received pipe bombs. And so, the President is going after the media. He is going after immigrants. And when you talk to sources who are familiar with what they're trying to do over inside the Trump campaign and the RNC for these midterms, they are trying to drive up the rage to get people to the polls.

LEMON: Disgusting. Thank you very much. I appreciate that, Jim.

Let's talk about -- Max Boot is here, April Ryan and Doug Brinkley. We'll dig into that next.

[22:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: With the election just six days away, President Trump has given his Twitter stamp of approval to a shocking video with racist depictions of Latinos. Shocking, frankly, even for this President. With me to discuss now, Max Boot, the author of corrosion of conservatism, and why I left the right. April Ryan who wrote under fire, reporting from the front lines of the Trump White House, and Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley. Good evening, everyone. Again, this is shocking even for this President's standards, this administration. This morning he claimed that he is not fear mongering on immigration. What do you think when you see that ad?

MAX BOOT, SENIOR FELLOW, COUNCIL FOR FOREIGN RELATIONS: I think this ad, Don, is giving demagoguery a bad name. I mean, this is so blatant, so over the top, so hysterical. It is just a disgrace. I mean, just a few fast facts to throw out there. Immigrants actually have a lower crime rate than the native born. There is no immigration invasion. Illegal immigration is down 80 percent since the year 2000.

And, oh, yes, there is a slight upturn in illegal immigration in the past year, but that is not on the Democrats. That is on Donald Trump. He is the President. He is not securing our border and so instead of securing the border he is engaging in immigrant bashing in hysteria, whopping up hatred of Latinos and minority groups in order to win his re-election campaign, doing a political stunts by sending troops to the border for no reason, because they can't do anything, they can't arrest anybody at the border. So this is such a disgraceful performance and yet it is typical sadly on the way that Donald Trump behaves in office.

LEMON: Waste of taxpayer money, when you mentioned the troops. And all that is going to cost for that. April, listen. No one is defending this guy is a bad guy in this ad. He was deported twice. Once in 1997 by a Democrat, by the way, the President is blaming Democrats. By Bill Clinton. And then in 2001 under Bush, but it's how the ad depicts Latinos and immigrants generally. Why is this blatantly racist ad his closing argument before the midterms?

APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALIST: You know, Don, we've talked about this before and I've said it. You know, this President is using the mantra, without saying it, that Malcolm X said, by any means necessary. He even said, that the momentum went down for him when the bombings happened, the bombs that came to some of the Democratic leaders and to CNN.

The problem is this President is trying to rally his base. His base that he understands has a certain kind of feeling or misconception or perception, whatever, about minorities, particularly right now Mexicans or those who are coming from the southern border. This President is playing on and you know, it begs the question, he talks about the press being the enemy of the people.

[22:20:08] It begs the question, is he the enemy of the people by stirring up this hate? By causing people to actually act on hatred or discrimination against those, to even go as far as killing people? So, this President is stirring up a cauldron of hate on this Halloween night with this terrible ad. And he is trying to win this midterm. This is a midterm about other people, but it's the President that is on the ballot. This is about the President.

LEMON: You know, Doug, here's the sad truth of it is that, people are comparing this to the Willie Horton ad, but is that ad effective?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: You know, the Willie Horton ad gave George Willard Bush one big black eye on history. The very fact that he allow -- (inaudible) to convince to run with such a racist ad. It was effective in the sense that Michael Dukakis lost back in 1988 and Bush was able to win. The fact that Donald Trump is doing this blatant this late in the 21st century, blatant xenophobia, racism, hate, dividing of America, it's really quite disgusting. And I think we have to talk about the bomber of Florida. We have to talk about what happened in Squirrel Hill in Pennsylvania. We have to see that fear mongering has casualties.

RYAN: Exactly.

BRINKLEY: That the terrorists aren't people, refugees with no money and poor wandering around Mexico from Honduras and other Central American countries. We've got right wing terrorism in this country like we saw during the Oklahoma City bombing during the Bill Clinton years. We're seeing it on the rise right now. Anti-Semitism up over 50 percent in the past year. And Donald Trump feeds off of this kind of ugliness and cruelty and his supporters back him on it because they didn't get the wall, but now they might be able to stop an imaginary caravan.

LEMON: Interesting. Let's talk about how Republicans, Max, are going to respond to this. One of them -- and my colleague Jake Tapper tweeted this out. It is an ad from Senator Flake. He talked about Senator Flake talked about this ad. He said, it is a new low in campaigning, adding that this was sickening. He is leaving. He is on his way out, but do you think Republicans are going to respond to this? Shouldn't every Republican in Washington and in this country speak out against this?

BOOT: They should but they won't, Don. Because instead of standing up to this kind of hate mongering by President Trump, Republican are imitating it. If you look at campaign ads around the country, Republicans are doing exactly what Donald Trump is doing. Vilifying immigrants, pretending that George Soros is behind this invasion, suggesting that Democrats are on league with criminals. All these horrible filthy destructive lies. The Republican Party is echoing this, it is not just Donald Trump.

That is why today I had a column in the Washington Post saying as a former Republican myself, please vote against Republicans. Every single one of them, because you have to make them pay a price for this kind of hate mongering. You have to make them understand that this is not the way to win political power in America, by dividing Americans, by stigmatizing minority groups, by lying, by conspiracy mongering. You cannot reward this kind of behavior at the ballot box. Otherwise we're going to see a lot more of it in the future.

LEMON: I want you to stick around everyone, because you're not going to believe this? The President's response when asked by a reporter if he is truthful, OK. We're going to play it and get the response from these guys when we come back.

[22:25:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So, we're back now with Max Boot, April Ryan and Douglas Brinkley. OK. So, the president spoke with John Carl over at ABC news and John Carl asked him about whether he is truthful. Here's the President's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I always want to tell you truth. When I can, I tell the truth. Sometimes it turns out to be where something happens that is different or there's a change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So -- OK. Max, what did that mean? Why can't he tell the truth all the time? Shouldn't a President be truthful all the time?

BOOT: Well, the truth doesn't favor him, Don. I mean, it's ironic here because he is kind of telling the truth when he says, I will tell the truth when I can, which means he doesn't tell the truth most of the time, because he doesn't think the truth helps him. I mean, and even today, he was lying like crazy. Once again, promulgating this crazy conspiracy theory about George Soros funding the caravan, which is exactly the kind of anti-Semitic garbage that led this fanatic in Pittsburgh to go out and open fire on a synagogue. And he continues doing stuff like this. LEMON: Yes.

BOOT: I mean, it's just appalling that a President of the United States is behaving like this, and he is cavalier about basically admitting -- I mean, he is de facto admitting that he lies regularly and he does. I mean, he's lying is off the charts.

LEMON: Danny, please re-rack that for me please. It is short, I want to play it again just so we get -- do you have the longer version? OK. Let's play the longer version. Thank you. Let's play the longer version.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You remember well on the campaign, you made a promise. You said, I will never lie to you. So, can you tell me now, honestly, have you kept to that promise at all times? Have you always been truthful?

TRUMP: Well, I try. I mean, I do try. I think you try, too. You say things about me that are not necessarily correct. I do try, and I always want to tell the truth. When I can I tell the truth. And sometimes it turns out to be where something happens is different or there is a change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK. So there's a difference. He says, you don't tell the truth about me all the time. That is a mistake in reporting. Jonathan Carl does not go out and intentionally lie about the President. There is a difference, right? And he is being too cute.

RYAN: Exactly.

LEMON: Go on, April.

RYAN: Well, you know, the President again, the President came around the back way through the bushes. He met Sean Spicer in the bushes when he came out and basically saying that he lied. And you know as the kids say, liar, liar, pants on fire. I mean, even when he can, he tells the truth. Don, the reason why this is not a joke -- and right now we're laughing to keep from crying -- is because the reason why this is so serious is because being the President of the United States, life and death is written in pen or given through the tongue.

What you say matters. Markets can be shaped or changed, you know. Wars can happen. What you say is important. Words mean something, those vibrations. And this President came out and said he was -- he lies. He said he lies. He may not have said the word lie, but he said I tell the truth when I can.

And sometimes things change. And sometimes things change. Well, if you don't want to give information, just hold back. I mean -- I don't know what to say.

LEMON: Yeah. RYAN: It's sad.

LEMON: It's flabbergasting. It's really flabbergasting. If you listen to that -- if you really listen to that quote and you're honest about it, Douglas, I mean this is the President of the United States. This is the President. April, quickly...

(CROSSTALK)

RYAN: And he calls us dishonest.

LEMON: Yes, exactly.

(CROSSTALK)

RYAN: He calls us dishonest.

LEMON: Can he win, Douglas without being -- without not telling the truth as he says, and using fear and division?

BRINKLEY: You know it doesn't look very good for Donald Trump right now, at least with the Democrats taking control of Congress, perhaps having subpoena power. So -- and he has got to live with the fact that there is a Democratic Congress. They're never going to fund his wall. So he's inventing the giant lie about this caravan being this major national security threat, which we need 15,000, you know, troops down on the border.

You know our U.S. Army is tremendous, Don. I went down when the earthquake hit Haiti for Vanity Fair. I embedded with General Keen, head of the Southern Command. And I watched our men and women handing out provisions to people that were in need and that were struggling. There is a big humanitarian heart in our armed forces. Trump only sees using military to belittle people that are struggling in impoverished countries of the world.

And it isn't allowing armed forces to be all that it can be. And in these ways, he's bankrupting the country morally. But you get your comeuppance in life. We all are -- have -- we don't all live forever, and these lies will catch up eventually. You have to believe it. You have to have faith that, you know, we're not a country of intolerance. That in the end as Martin Luther King said, the ark of justice bends slowly.

Now it's bending backwards on us. But it will start moving forward and better days will be here. It might be as early as next week when there is at least a check on his power if the Democrats take control of Congress.

LEMON: Quickly, Max.

BOOT: If I can jump in quickly. You know the military is sworn to tell the truth. The honor code of the U.S. Military is that a soldier, an officer shall not lie and to not tolerate those who do. And they are serving a Commander-In-Chief who lies with impunity and basically admits that he's lying, and so we cannot take at face value his justification for deploying the military to the border.

This is an insult to our men and women in uniform. These are honorable, brave people who risk their lives for our country, and they risk their lives for an honor code that they actually live by. And to have the Commander-In-Chief sneer at everything that they fight for and stand for, it is just an insult to our men and women in uniform.

LEMON: Thank you, all. I appreciate your time.

RYAN: Can we trust him? Can we trust him?

LEMON: Yeah, good question.

RYAN: That's the question.

LEMON: Thank you. The former ESPN host who suffered a backlash for publicly calling out President Trump's racism responds to the racist ad the President tweeted out tonight. I am happy to have Jemele Hill join me on this show. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:35:00] LEMON: So President Trump's strategy is to get his base to the polls for the midterm elections, divide the country, and play on fears of undocumented immigrants. That's why he tweeted out that racist web ad. I want to bring in now Jemele Hill, a staff writer for The Atlantic. Welcome to the program.

JEMELE HILL, STAFF WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: Been a long time coming, Don. Thank you very much.

LEMON: What do you think of this ad?

HILL: Well, you know, I think everyday we're all sort of collectively traumatized by some of these racist acts, blatantly racist acts that go on in this country. And I think the disappointing and the heartbreaking part is that the President is supposed to be a better example and set a tone for the rest of us. And unfortunately, he hasn't done that.

And he's failed morally as a leader. He's brought us to a collective low that I never thought that I would see in my lifetime. I have certainly read about, you know, how bad things have been at different points in this country. And while we have experienced racism and other isms throughout our lifetimes, we always were trying to get better.

And my fear is that because of it's such a traumatizing experience everyday in this country to have to sit through this, is that it will become a new normal, and this new low will be all that we know.

LEMON: Can we -- let's talk. Let's talk, Jemele. There are a few of us who are on the frontlines here when it comes to covering this administration, this President. And much of what we see is a disinformation, a campaign of disinformation. But there are very few people of color. Me, you, and a couple of more people who are actually able to give a point of view on it, rather than just a straight news anchor giving the nightly news every night.

The things that you have had to deal with and the few of us who are of color have had to deal with in this administration, I think, is extraordinary and unique, and especially in our perspective. We have a unique perspective on it. Talk to me about what you've had to deal with over the last year or two.

HILL: Well, obviously, like you I am part of that special club that the President has decided to single out and name call and attack. And as a result of that, I think you find out a lot about who your friends are. I have had great support. So I think that part for me has been very humbling and grateful. But at the same end of it, you know, I have certainly had people wish ill will on me when I was at ESPN.

[22:40:13] Certainly, security had to be amped up. I had to turn off my voicemail. There was just a level of hatred that I had not ever experienced before. I mean, obviously, Don, and you know this better than anybody. When you're a prominent person of color who has this kind of platform, this is just something you realize you're going to have to deal with.

However, the level of which I saw it reach last year when I made those comments about the President, was something that was, you know, really kind of heartbreaking for me to experience. And as far as I was concerned, all I did was tell the truth. And as anybody who has watched the news and has seen how he has behaved, all he has done is proven me right ever since I said those things.

LEMON: Uh-huh. It's hard to -- when you have respect for -- you have more respect, you feel, for the office of the presidency than the person who is actually sitting in that office, and to have especially people of color, women, people from underserved communities, the LGBTQ community all singled out by this administration or criticized extremely harshly by this administration.

As a person of color, there is a tug-of-war, honestly, that goes on when you're reporting on this. And I don't think that other reporters experience that or -- it's not as personal for them.

HILL: Yeah. I mean that was the thing is that, you know, it was a lot of backlash to what I said. I think a lot of it had to do with who I worked for. And, you know, and working for ESPN, it's a sports network. So when people come and tune in to ESPN, not that I made those comments on the airwaves, is that there is an expectation of what they're supposed to see and what they're supposed to get from the talent on those airwaves.

But as you mentioned, Don, is that as much as we all take our journalistic credo very seriously, if you're a person of color, if you're an LGBTQ member, if you fit any of these marginalized groups that have been under attack, it is hard everyday to do your job. And I got to a point where I couldn't hide it anymore. Like, I didn't want to talk about (Inaudible) and I never wanted to talk about who was the Super Bowl contender.

I wanted to try to deal with in some way all of these things, these atrocities that were happening in this country. I have never felt as alienated as a citizen as I have in the last two years because of the tone that this government has set, making me feel like I am somebody not wanted in my own country. I pay taxes just like everybody else, OK?

And the thing is when you're a journalist, while you're supposed to create some kind of objective distance, it's much harder for you to deal with when you fit the description of what supposedly our government doesn't want or doesn't think is good enough or doesn't deserve the equality that other people have.

LEMON: Yeah. And the thing is, what we do is we just continue to tell the truth as we do, and that is the marker. We tell the truth and move on. So, listen. Let's talk about some of your reporting. The country is closely watching the Senate contest in Texas. You recently interviewed Beto O'Rourke. Were you surprised that he was willing to go there on the NFL player protests?

HILL: I was very surprised. I mean he gave some of the most eloquent comments to date, somebody who clearly understood the frustrations that these players have that have been protesting. And even those that haven't. I mean that's the thing, that when you're a professional athlete, when you're a black athlete, people always think that you have it good enough, that you somehow are not touched or not sensitive to these issues when you see what has happened to Philando Castile or to Mike Brown or to Sandra Bland, any of the people of color who have had to suffer and have died because of police brutality.

And he clearly had a very clear understanding of that issue. Now usually, there are a lot of politicians who have stayed away from it, or they have come down against the player. But the fact that he answered so honestly and candidly, to me, that was when he became a national star. There were a lot of people, certainly in Texas, who knew who he was, considering he had been to all 254 counties in Texas.

But for Lebron James and Ellen DeGeneres and so many professional black athletes to respond to what he said, to me that is when he made that leap. And everybody looked and said, you know what, we might not just be looking at a possible Texas Senator. We might be looking at somebody who could be President.

LEMON: Interesting. You're narrating the new Lebron James produced documentary series, Shut Up and Dribble on Showtime. Let's watch a clip of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[22:44:45] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, you go back in time and you go back into the history, without Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, without Lew Alcindor who became Kareem. And that's just three of those guys. There were many more, those guys standing for something that was more than dribbling a basketball, I am not sitting here talking to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: Race in sports. Another one of those issues that the President relies on to try to divide this country.

HILL: Yeah. I mean he has used the NFL players almost, maybe not as harshly, but almost in a similar that way he used that unfortunate fear-mongering ad, that you've been discussing throughout this program, as a way to dangle them in front of his base who would like to look at professional black athletes as if they were less than -- as if, don't you have it good enough? So why are you complaining?

And the beauty of Shut Up and Dribble is that you will see that throughout history, from Bill Russell to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Lebron James, and you know this personally, as somebody who sat down with him, and who touched off a lot of this. You know that black athletes have been told in some way, shape, or form, to just shut sp and dribble.

To just worry about playing a sport and entertaining the masses, and not to worry about their community, their people, where they come from, or even bigger and bolder issues in this country. And so the connective tissue that is laid down in this documentary, I think people will find extremely compelling because it just -- it hasn't gone away. I mean Lebron James has been told that before.

Steph Curry, Steve Kerr, Gregg Popovich, you name it. And so although they aren't black athletes necessarily, but this idea that if you make a certain amount of money or you have a certain talent or you're a certain person, that you shouldn't care, or that you shouldn't worry about things that are bigger than you.

LEMON: You should be happy and satisfied.

HILL: Exactly.

LEMON: Jemele, I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for coming on. Come back any time.

HILL: Thank you, Don, most importantly for being on the frontlines.

LEMON: Absolutely, thank you, you as well. First, he lost two corporate donors. Now with just six days until Election Day, the Chairman of the Republican Congressional Committee is publicly calling out what he calls Iowa Congressman Steve King's white supremacy and hate. The eight-term representative is blaming the media. Will voters buy that?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:50:00] LEMON: So the President clearly trying to stoke fear in his base with the racist ad about immigrants. I want to talk about this now with Alice Stewart and Evan McMullin. Good evening.

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hi, Don.

LEMON: So Alice, we have been talking about this racist ad and President Trump posted on his Twitter account. I mean what do you -- can you defend this? Is this fear-mongering? What do you think of it?

STEWART: I think it is inappropriate, and I think it is unfortunate. And we would be much better served -- the country would be much better served if we were talking certainly about the issues that they are concerned with, such as jobs and the economy, and many also concerned with healthcare and stuff like this. And this kind of rhetoric is not what we need in the last six days of the election.

And I would suggest everyone, including those of us here, focus on the issues that the voters are more concerned with and not on divisive rhetoric that seems to be taking center stage.

LEMON: If I can indulge you, though, (Inaudible) with my colleague Alice said. Evan, with just six days from Election Day, does this show how willing Trump is to use lies and scare tactics to terrify his base? And is so, will these tactics work? Do they work? Is that why he is doing it?

EVAN MCMULLIN, FORMER CIA OFFICER: Well, yeah. Sadly, I think they do work to a degree with his base. And I think he learned this lesson in 2016 that he could fire up his base with an anti-immigrant message, with a bigoted message. Not everyone in the Republican Party was onboard for that, but a lot of people were. Other decided to turn a blind eye towards it. He learned that another point of leverage was, of course, the Supreme Court.

He has leverages that once again. So he's going to back to this old playbook. And I wish I could tell you, Don that it is not going to work with his base this time, but I think it is. The important difference that I hope for, that I and my organizations are fighting for is to hold on to people in the Republican Party who are not -- who are opposed to Trump. And it may only be 10, 15, 20 percent.

But we want to keep them from being pulled into the partisan tribe again in this context. They sort of have exited it in recent months, and Trump is trying to pull them back with this. We want to bring them into a cross partisan coalition of them, independents, and Democrats to defeat, you know, bigots like Steve King and to restore the separation of powers in Congress.

LEMON: I am glad you mentioned that, because Alice, more Republicans are turning against one of their own. And Evan mentioned the Iowa Congressman Steve King. He's the head of the House Republicans Campaign Arm, the man in charge of getting Republicans elected. He tweeted this against King. He said King's recent comments, actions, and re-tweets are completely inappropriate.

We must stand up against white supremacy and hate in all forms, and I strongly condemn this behavior. But Alice, King -- he has been making these controversial comments for years. What took so long for Republicans to call him out?

STEWART: Steve King is a friend of mine. I just with about an hour ago about this topic, and he is someone that says things that are -- some view as uncomfortable. He pushes the envelope at times. But there is a reason why he is an eight-term incumbent in Iowa is because he is very responsive to the people in the fourth district.

And when he travels the district, he focuses on issues that they are concerned with, number one, the pro-life issue, certainly immigration and agriculture and trade. And unfortunately, for people like Steve King, you have Evan McMullin and his group, and the never-Trumpers and anti-Trumpers who are insistent on flipping the House to be a check on Donald Trump, who is going to run the risk possibly of losing some strong Republicans. And I think the effort to try to push him out...

MCMULLIN: Like Steve King?

(CROSSTALK)

[22:55:02] LEMON: Evan, I know you want to get in, but just let me -- he keeps a small version of the Confederate Flag on his desk, which is right -- never mind that Iowa was a union state during the Civil War. In 2008, King said that if Barack Hussein Obama won the Presidency, that radical Islamists of Al Qaeda would be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11th, because they would declare victory in this war on terror.

He would later explain that they would supposedly do so because of Obama's middle name. Then he talked about nonwhites surpassing white Americans in populations. He said I would predict that Hispanics and blacks will be fighting each other before that happens. He also re- tweeted some neo-Nazi people. And -- I mean that is more than uncomfortable. Those are just outright racist acts. But Evan, go on.

MCMULLIN: Look, if you wanted to play that game, Don, of listing all of those things, we would be here all night. Another thing he said is that white people have contributed to world advancements and world civilization and other people have not. I mean this is the kind of thing he says over and over again. The list is long and it's happened overtime. Look, Steve King is a bona fide member of the International White Nationalist White Supremacist Movement.

He promotes candidates in Europe that are in the far right white nationalist movement. They promote him. He's endorsed by white supremacists here in the United States repeatedly. I mean this guy is part of the white supremacist movement in the west, both in Europe and in the United States. There is just -- this isn't a grey area.

This is a clear -- this is a clear case of a white supremacist in the Republican Party, and unless you stand up to that, the Republican Party is going to be severely damaged with it.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Alice, I will give you a quick response. It's got to be 10 seconds because I'm up against the clock.

STEWART: That is absurd and irresponsible to use such rhetoric like that.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: You mean for him or for Evan?

(CROSSTALK)

STEWART: There are many things that Steve King has said that I think are too far. But at the end of the day, he is strong. He is a strong Republican, represents his district well, and to go and attack him in this manner, in this way just because you don't like Trump is not the way to go about it.

LEMON: I got to go.

MCMULLIN: This is not about Trump. This is about Steve King and our country and our values.

LEMON: Yeah. Thank you both. I appreciate it.

STEWART: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: The President tweets a racist ad that demonizes immigrants with just days to go until the midterms. Is he going off the deep end with his divisive rhetoric?

(CROSSTALK)