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Don Lemon Tonight

Mueller's Crucial Court Filings This Week Expected To Reveal Direction Of The Russia Investigation; CIA Director Will Brief Small Group Of Lawmakers On Jamal Khashoggi Murder; Truce In Trump's Trade War With China; President Trump's Awkward G20 Moments; President Trump To Attend State Funeral For George H.W. Bush; Trump Slams Cohen For Cooperating With Mueller, Calls For 'Full And Complete' Sentence; Trial Of Charlottesville Driver Underway; Remembering President George H.W. Bush. Aired 11-12a ET

Aired December 03, 2018 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon. President Trump starting out his day with a Twitter tirade, slamming his former personal attorney. He blasted Michael Cohen for cooperating with the Mueller investigation, for telling the truth to the Special Counsel, but that is not the only thing the President is worried about.

We are learning that Mueller's team is expected to reveal a lot about Michael Flynn in his sentencing memo tomorrow. The President's fired national security adviser pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia's ambassador. And Flynn has been cooperating with Mueller for a year, which means that Mueller now knows everything Flynn knows.

And on Friday we're going to learn a whole lot more about Paul Manafort's lies when Mueller lays it all out in his sentencing memo. We don't know yet exactly what Manafort lied about, but we're going to find out in just a few days. So there's lots to discuss. Let's bring in first James Clapper. He is a former Director of National Intelligence. Good evening to you, sir. Thank you so much for joining us.

JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: So, Director Clapper, we seem to be at a critical point in the Russia investigation with Flynn, Cohen, and Manafort. It's all coming together. Do you feel that something big is coming?

CLAPPER: Well, I guess -- I always do when we have this kind of discussion, I always like to remind myself and anyone else that whatever we think is going to be revealed that Special Counsel Mueller and his team still are ahead of us. They know more than we know. So yes, this week -- depending on whether these court filings are sealed or not could be quite revealing.

I think particularly in the case of Mike Flynn, since there have been delays in his process and sentencing and all that. So depending on how much of this is publicly revealed, it could be a momentous week. And the same is true with the Manafort filing Friday, but again, remember, Mueller is ahead of us and knows far more than what's been revealed or what will be reveled either tomorrow or Friday.

LEMON: But I mean, if you think about appropriateness here, you would think that the President would refrain from tweeting. And especially since we had a former President die and his services are going on. But, I mean, just look at the President's Twitter feed. It's only Monday, but he certainly knows that is what's in the pipeline. That what's in the pipeline isn't good for him.

CLAPPER: Well, you know, first of all, this behavior, which I think has become more erratic, more unhinged as time has gone on, is not the behavior of someone who's innocent. Someone who's innocent would say bring it on, I want an investigation, I want to be cleared of this. And obviously he is not behaving that way. And of course typically, unfortunately, this is about him first. Not about you know, going silent which would be I think the respectful thing to do in light of the death of former President Bush.

LEMON: Director, you know, if we just look at Flynn, we haven't heard much from him since he pled guilty to lying. That was a year ago. He was involved during the campaign, during the transition. In the early days of this presidency. What do you think we can learn from him?

CLAPPER: Well, he could -- he could for one cast light on you know, the big issue here, which is collusion. Going back to what transpired during the campaign. Because Mike was with him through much of that period and then of course transitioned into the administration, at least briefly, as a National Security Adviser. And he himself was involved in engaging the Russians. So if there is to be a -- you know, a so-called smoking gun revelation here about collusion, it could well come from Mike Flynn.

LEMON: Yes. Let's talk about the other Michael, Michael Cohen, because we learned from him about a potential Trump tower Moscow deal including that Trump was kept appraised during the -- or apprised during the Presidential campaign, briefed family members. We didn't know about it. Did that give the Russians a form of kompromat over the future President?

[23:05:10] CLAPPER: Well, I think it does. I mean, the Russians will engender kompromat, you know, their acronym for compromising material, whether it's real or contrived. So anything that even smacks of putting himself in a compromising position. And you know, whether or not this is true about the offer of the $50 million penthouse in Trump tower Moscow. Yes, that gives the Russians potentially some -- to use Congressman Nadler's term, more leverage. And that is what the Russians looked for. And that is why they tried to generate kompromat.

LEMON: I want to switch gears now and talk about Gina Haspel, the CIA Director, that is going to brief a small group of lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans, tomorrow on the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Remember last week the Trump administration denied this opportunity? What do you think she is going to be able to convey to lawmakers? CLAPPER: Well, I think knowing Gina as I do, I think she will be

truthful with the questions she gets. At the same time I'd say she is in a tough place. Given the position that -- the policy position that this administration is taking with respect to Saudi Arabia generally and Mohammed Bin Salman specifically. And you know, you hear is there a smoking gun or a slam dunk, two phrases that we don't -- the intelligence community doesn't use really, but the fact is if it's true, if what's been leaked is true, that the assessment, that the intelligence community or specifically the CIA has done has high confidence that MBS is not only implicated, but probably did direct the killing of the Saudi journalist. And she'll be forthright about that.

LEMON: There was also, of course, the high five between Putin and Mohammed Bin Salman at the G20. It got a whole lot of attention. What went through your mind when you saw that?

CLAPPER: Well, to me this was two auto autocrats with blood on their hands thumbing their nose together at the United States and at the President of the United States because neither of them -- both of them have gotten passes for among other things killing people, their own people outside the country, their own countries. And you know, it's great for "Saturday night live" purposes, but to me this was just the two of them together in unison thumbing their nose at the United States.

LEMON: Director Clapper, thank you. I appreciate your time.

CLAPPER: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: I want to bring in now Fareed Zakaria, host of "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" right here on CNN. Good to see you. That high five or that moment, that handshake, whatever it was, between Mohammad Bin Salman and -- at the G20 with Vladimir Putin. That was something else.

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN ANCHOR: You know, what it was more than anything else was kind of an amazing visual representation of something that we actually always have known, which is Russia doesn't care about the human rights condition of any country. It doesn't care about the regime, if the ruler of a regime is murderous, if he orders the death of journalists. Vladimir Putin has ordered the death of many journalists. So Putin doesn't care.

If anything it does create as Jim Clapper was saying a sort of shared camaraderie, but just as Russia doesn't care, China doesn't care. The country that has always stood for these kinds of things is the United States. What is surprising is not that Vladimir Putin would give a high five to Mohammed Bin Salman. It's that Donald Trump has effectively given a high five to Mohammed Bin Salman and the Saudi regime despite the murder of a journalist, despite conducting a brutal war in Yemen in which 12 million people are on the verge of famine. That is the surprise.

The surprise is the United States government has become the P.R. agency for the Saudi regime and for the Saudi regime as it has done things that are most decidedly not in America's best interests, not even clear that they're in Saudi Arabia's best interests. So to me I get why Putin is high-fiving. I don't get why Trump is high-fiving.

LEMON: Let's talk more about the President at the G20 because there's now this 90-day truce between the United States and China on these -- you know, this trade war, but isn't this another example of this administration creating a problem and then taking credit for solving a problem that they created in the first place?

ZAKARIA: You know, sometimes they do this. This -- this one I do have to give -- I would say that Donald Trump is right that China has been basically a trade cheat, that the Chinese have a very countless view of the world and particularly have this view of trying to get American companies to hand over intellectual property either by stealing it or by forcing them to do it.

[23:10:19] They don't reciprocate. There is a big problem with U.S.- China trade. I don't know that Trump has -- he is diagnosed the problem accurately. I don't know that his solution has been right, but in that process I'm willing to cut him some slack and that if he is raising the ante, if he is threatening them, if what you end up with is a deal where the Chinese do open up, I'll be happy.

It's not clear that that is happened. Right now all we know is that Donald Trump and Xi Jinping think the things are -- you know, there's a truce. No details have been revealed. And the Chinese don't make concessions easily. So I wonder what has actually happened. I wonder whether Donald Trump facing a very bad week at home. Michael Cohen, remember what he is going into the G20 with the Michael Cohen revelations and such, wanted a win. He wanted some happy news, some good news coming out of this. And so they've -- they pretended like they've made up, but it's not clear that there are any -- there are no real Chinese concessions that I've seen that make any sense.

LEMON: All right. Tell me if I'm wrong. My -- what I thought was that the stock market was getting hammered. This President relies so much on hey, look at the economy, look at the stock market, it's doing so great -- doing so well. They knew that if they eased off on these tariffs, right? And this trade war so to speak with China. That the market would react to it. And they could go back. That would become the news and they could go back to sticking to their script that, well, the economies great, nobody cares about anything else.

ZAKARIA: No, that is right. And that is why I'm saying this may be a P.R. strategy more than a real strategy. We still have a real problem with China on trade.

LEMON: They're still all over the place, though. Because the President tweeted -- said they'd agreed to remove tariffs on cars that China did. Larry Kudlow said, no specific agreement had been reached. At one point the White House had to correct something that Kudlow said. They're kind of all over the place.

ZAKARIA: Well, this is part of the craziness of the Trump White House. You know, you never quite know what's going on, but look, as I said, the fundamental issue is that China has played unfairly. There have got to be different rules that China agrees to which allow western countries fully to participate in the Chinese market to the extent that China can participate in western markets.

The real strategy that Trump should have taken was to have gone to the European Union, gone to Canada, gone to Japan and said why don't we all band together and go to China and say with 75 percent of global GDP we want you to change, but Trump of course fights with everybody. So he is fought with Canada. He is fought with the European Union. He so far hasn't fought with Japan, but that would be the smart way to do it. It feels a little bit more like what he wants is a win that he can announce as a win regardless of whether it changes the actual situation.

LEMON: OK. A couple of moments at the G20 that got some attention. Like this one, when Trump shakes hands with the Argentinean President, then he walks off stage, someone goes after him. There was some confusion. What is behind this? What do you think?

ZAKARIA: Well, none of us know. You know, and here you're sort of reading tea leaves. The one thing we know, the one thing we know is Donald Trump does not like these photo ops. You know, Donald Trump is in some ways, even though he is President of the United States, he thinks he doesn't get enough attention at these things. He is standing there with 20 other people, for goodness sakes. He can't wait to get off the stage when it's just him.

LEMON: There was also this moment. Trump sitting off to the side, solo, patting his arm, and then there's this exchange during the signing of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, PRIME MINISTER, CANADA: There you go, Donald.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: OK. Very good. Which is the one? Which is the one that matters?

TRUDEAU: Each one of us get a copy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Did you get the sense the President's mind was somewhere else during this summit?

ZAKARIA: Well, as I say, I don't think he particularly likes these things. I hate to put it this way. He is surrounded by a bunch of foreigners. He is not -- he does not have -- you know, the odd thing about these summits is there is an element of equality so that, you know, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, let's say, or Montenegro, remember, that is the guy he pushed out of the way at the NATO summit, these guys get equal footing as Donald Trump the President of the United States.

So I think he doesn't like these settings where it sort of equalizes them all. He likes situations where it's -- he is the spotlight. He is the center of attention. And you know, I think he said -- one of the other ones you didn't show is at one point he says to one of his aides, get me out of here. Get me out of here so I can get back to the Rose Garden where every camera is pointed at me. I don't have to share the stage with Justin Trudeau and his Twitter feed.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Oh, my gosh. Thank you, Fareed. By the way, I loved your special last night. The impeachment special. Thank you. Fareed Zakaria.

[23:15:02] President Trump is set to attend the state funeral for President George H.W. Bush on Wednesday, but does the 45th President feel like he is really part of the Presidents' club?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The 45th president is set to attend the State Funeral of the 41st and while President Trump often criticized President George H.W. Bush and his sons on the campaign trail. He is offering public praise now. Here to discuss CNN Presidential historian, Douglas Brinkley and Michael D'Antonio, the author of "The Truth about Trump."

Gents, good evening. Thank you so much. Michael, this entire week it is going to be -- people are going to be praising the former President, George H.W. Bush. In the presence of this President. So far Trump has been gracious, but they're praising the former President for all the traits that Trump -- that just don't belong to him. He does not have those traits. Restraint. Right? Humility.

[23:20:00] MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Reticence. Prudence. All of this.

LEMON: How long can he be gracious with this?

D'ANTONIO: Oh, I think he is going to try and hold it together throughout the week. I would be shocked even with Donald Trump to see him break character. Now, he does know how to play a role. I know. I know you're giving me that look. Look, the things that mark President Bush are things like valor, courage, reticence. The restraint that he showed in the first Iraq war.

These are all things that we as Americans respect and we know that President Trump doesn't respect them. So it is going to be a challenge for him to behave, but the world will be watching. I think he is aware of that. He'll be in the presence of other leaders. I would imagine he doesn't want to shame himself. Let's hope as citizens of this fine country that he doesn't do it.

LEMON: You're awfully optimistic.

D'ANTONIO: I know. I've been on a streak --

LEMON: Who are you what did you do with Michael D'Antonio?

(LAUGHTER)

The statement the President put out on Friday night referred to the phrase that President Bush made famous, and that is thousand points of life. Listen to what President Trump had to say about it on the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Thousand points of light. I never quite got that one. What the hell is that? Has anyone ever figured that one out? And it was put out by a Republican.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

D'ANTONIO: You had to put that on? I mean, it does remind you of what a lout he is. George Bush would never speak that way about anybody or anything. So it is a reminder of the challenge he faces.

LEMON: What do you think, Douglas?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, I think George Herbert Walker Bush was right. He planned his funeral memorial service right to have President Trump attend, but let's be honest. There's nobody that wants to see President Trump at this memorial service that is going to be there. He is no friend of the -- of, you know, the Bush family. As early as the 1980's, Bush 41 distanced himself from Trump. Trump used to volunteer to say I want to be the Vice President instead of Dan Quayle back in 1988.

And so -- and then of course when he eviscerated that Jeb Bush, low energy and attacked George W. Bush for his foreign policy, but he is going to be there. And what's going to be interesting, people will be looking to see who comes up to him, how does everybody act? Here he says that Barack Obama bugged Trump tower. He has accused Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton of crimes and she should be in jail. And they're all going to be sitting there in pews. So people will have to endure the fact that President Trump is there, but it's good that he is there.

LEMON: But why did they invite him? Is it just because they're just that -- I mean, look, I'm not President of the United States, but if my dad was President and he had died and this President had spoken the way he did about me or him, I wouldn't invite him. And I wouldn't feel bad about it. And I'd never look back. I wouldn't care.

D'ANTONIO: Well, Douglas, don't you think --

LEMON: Let Douglas -- they didn't have to invite him, did they?

BRINKLEY: You always, Don, were -- I remember when we -- when Barbara Bush passed and you were very almost proud of her for holding her ground and not wanting President Trump at her funeral, but in this case I think that it is important to show the continuity between Presidents, that Donald Trump isn't just an individual, he represents the institution of the presidency, which 41 held so dear. So it's very appropriate that he is there. My concern is strange tweets in the middle of it, because of all the Mueller investigation things coming out. He very well may be behaved during the ceremony and 15 minutes later writing strange things.

LEMON: Yes. We'll have to disagree on that, Douglas. I would be sorry not sorry. Go on, Michael. What did you want to say?

D'ANTONIO: Well, I think the President, President Bush understood, as Douglas said, the presidency. He understood the value of the office that that exceeds any personal animus he might feel. This is a level of strength that most of us don't possess. And I would be with you. I would not want him present, but this is a family that has embodied, as you said earlier tonight, class.

These are people who elevate the country above themselves. There's something really wonderful in that and something we can all admire. And maybe it's a lesson for President Trump. He is not been capable of learning any lessons to date, but this is a demonstration of true grace.

LEMON: Tough love. Sorry, you're not invited. I'm serious. I don't understand. They're bigger people than me, but considering the way he has treated this family, has spoken about this family --

D'ANTONIO: It's a disgrace.

LEMON: Trampled on the institution that this family has so much respect for. I do not understand why they want him to be here. You have your reasons, but again, I just -- I would not want him. That would be the biggest and better lesson to teach someone who is a bully. Sorry. Not invited.

[23:25:08] Douglas, you know, President Bush entered the Navy as a teenager, served in World War II, got multiple -- Trump got multiple -- I'm sorry, say it again? Oh, President Bush. Sorry. Served. And President Trump got multiple deferments avoiding Vietnam. Bush's graciousness, reaching out to political opponents, you know, being fondly remembered right now.

Trump dehumanizes, name calls, degenerates people -- denigrates people, excuse me. And also degenerates too in the office who oppose him. These Presidents could not be any more different. That is why I don't understand why they would want to sit there with him.

BRINKLEY: Completely diametrically opposite human beings. And I think -- you know, remember Donald Trump wanted a big military parade in November. He thought it would unify the country. Well, we're having something that is unifying the country. And it's the admiration for Bush 41 for his temperament. I spoke tonight at the Kennedy library here in Boston. A lot of Democrats were there. Everybody's grateful for the way that Bush 41 handled himself and the contrast is so dramatic that it might be a civics lesson for us, the way things used to be. What is a class act?

You know, and the sense of duty, honor, country. Bush 41 is exemplary. And he is going to go down and history as an excellent one-term President. Donald Trump has the possibility of going down as a one-term President that wasn't very good. And so I think you have to have him there to invite -- I think, Don, in my opinion -- he had to be invited or would have looked like the presidency would have looked smaller. And the fact that you do -- you know, the Obamas say you take the -- you know, they go low you go high. I think by inviting him it shows that the Bush family is large.

LEMON: Listen, I will give you that. And they are. I'm just saying, he could watch it -- stay at home and watch it on his favorite cable channel, CNN. Thank you both gentlemen. I appreciate it.

D'ANTONIO: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: We'll be right back.

[23:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The president wants his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to serve a full and complete prison sentence. He is slamming Cohen for cooperating with the Mueller investigation. He sounds pretty worried about exactly what Cohen is saying.

Let's discuss now with Juliette Kayyem and Renato Mariotti. Hello to both of you. Renato --

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Hello. LEMON: The president is slamming Michael Cohen any chance he gets now. Does this mean he understands everything Cohen could tell and prove to authorities, that he's worried about that?

RENATO MARIOTTI, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it sounds to me like he is trying to teach people who might cooperate like Michael Cohen that he's going to do whatever he can to -- to try to increase their sentence, try to get back at them, while in the same exact day rewarding somebody who is refusing to cooperate with authorities.

It's essentially the exact opposite of what you'd expect an innocent person or the president of the United States to do, which is an innocent person would be encouraging people to cooperate with law enforcement and, you know, chastising people who refuse to do so. Instead, we have the president of the United States doing the exact opposite.

LEMON: Yeah. It's not opposite day. Is it opposite year? Yeah. Opposite term.

MARIOTTI: Opposite term.

LEMON: Opposite term. Oh, great minds. Great minds. Juliette, in the new court filing from Cohen's attorneys, they say in addition to his interviews with the special counsel, that Cohen is cooperating with prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's office concerning an ongoing investigation.

The New York state attorney general's office civil lawsuit against the Trump Foundation and state tax authorities. So how worried should the president be? Because this is one he can't pardon anybody for, right?

KAYYEM: That's right. And this is part of the theory that Reynaldo (ph) and others have been talking about, that Mueller has sort of dispersed this case to enough different courts in terms of different legal proceedings so that there's not one single point of failure, right?

In other words, if Trump fires Mueller, there's still going to be a whole bunch of other stuff going on. And so what you see this week was just sort of the panic attack of the Trump was having quite publicly on Twitter, is what I call -- what I've been calling the "four M" problem, right?

It's Mueller, Manafort, Michael Cohen and now Michael Flynn. Michael Flynn has not been seen or heard from for a very long time. Tomorrow is a big day. That is when Mueller is going to show what Michael Flynn has been talking about for a year. I mean, Michael Flynn's sentencing hearing has been moved months now at this stage.

So, it's a really bad week upon bad week, upon bad week for Donald Trump. And I think what you're seeing publicly from Donald Trump is he's just run out of options. I mean, he just -- you know, he is just -- all he has is threats and maybe the potential for pardons for some of these guys.

LEMON: Renato, according to this filing, Cohen consulted with White House staff members and Trump's legal counsel as he prepared for his false congressional testimony.

[23:34:57] Does this mean that they knew he was going to lie or encourage it?

MARIOTTI: That's certainly the implication that Cohen's attorney is trying to get us to draw. He's certainly suggesting that that happened. Essentially, what he said is as Cohen was preparing to make false testimony to Congress, he was talking to Trump's lawyers, talking to White House staff. You know, essentially running past his testimony with them.

Now, I think the hard part would be if you're the prosecutor trying to prove that, prove that they knew, prove that they approved of the false testimony because I'm sure these conversations were verbal, I imagine especially the lawyers were at least somewhat careful about what they said.

But it looks a lot like a conspiracy to lie to Congress and then encouraging or approving that lie to Congress. And I expect a Democratic House of Representatives in January is going to want to find out a lot more about them.

LEMON: Juliette, could this mean legal trouble for this lawyer and the White House staff member involved?

KAYYEM: It could. It very well could. At this stage, as Renato was saying, at this stage, if there is culpability, in other words, in trying to either lie to Congress or to Mueller, there would be exposure.

And so I think this is what makes this part of the case so hard and somewhat complicated. We can get lost in the weeds is the lies upon lies upon lies, and we're trying to follow which lie is at some stage redeemed by the truth, and we're looking at this from the perspective of just these court filings.

And so I just think, you know, Michael Cohen is first up in terms of, you know, how much trouble is he in for the lie? I'll tell you personally, Michael Cohen is responsible for some, you know, really bad stuff. And, you know, the country's institutions are under stress because of him and a world order is under stress because of this president.

And so I just -- I find it hard to, you know, sort of stay up late at night, worried about Michael Cohen's sentencing at this stage.

LEMON: Renato, quickly, because I'm almost out of time. I want to get to Trump's tweets today on Cohen and Stone. A lot of people say that this could be witness tampering, but warn that it's challenging to prove. What do you think?

MARIOTTI: I think it is challenging to prove. It certainly looks like witness tampering. But proving beyond a reasonable doubt that that was his purpose as opposed to informing the public or just criticizing the special counsel would be a challenge.

LEMON: Renato, Juliette, thank you.

MARIOTTI: Yeah.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

LEMON: It was more than a year ago that Neo-Nazis marched in the streets of Charlottesville, sparking violence that ended in a car crash that killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Now, a 21-year-old man is on trial in her death and could spend the rest of his life in prison if he's convicted. The latest on the trial, next.

[23:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: It was a deadly incident that shocked America. Now, more than a year after Heather Heyer was killed, when a car plowed into the crowd of counter-protesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, the trial of 21-year-old James Alex Fields is under way.

He faces a possible life sentence if he is convicted of first-degree murder. Fields also faces eight more counts related to eight people who were injured. Sara Sidner has been following the trial and she joins me now. Sara, good evening to you. The prosecution is expected to rest the case tomorrow, but there's some new evidence they're trying to bring into court?

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we have all just seen publicly some new evidence that could be potentially damaging for James Fields' defense because it could speak to his state of mind.

What we are now seeing from prosecutors who are trying to get the judge to allow this to come into the case are text messages between James Fields and his mother long before police say he rammed his car into dozens of protesters here in Charlottesville, Virginia. I'm going to read out the text messages that the prosecutor is trying to get into this case. Here's what the first text says. It says, "Fields tells his mom, I got the weekend off, so I'll be able to go to the rally." His mother responds like any mother would, telling him to be careful.

Fields then sends this text back that reads, "we're not the one who need to be careful" and he adds an image of Adolf Hitler to that message. That is very damaging evidence because it could speak to his motive. It could talk a little bit about the fact that police have already accused him of being a Nazi sympathizer.

You have a picture of Adolf Hitler there and you also have his aggression coming out in those text messages. It sounds like pre- planning, if you will, as well. Then you have this. Three months before any of this happened.

There was a meme that James Fields put out on Instagram. And that the judge says can come in to this case. And I'll take -- look at this meme. Basically you see that picture there.

LEMON: Wow.

SIDNER: It's someone running into a bunch of people. And it says, "you have the right to protest, but I'm late for work." So it shows a certain kind of callousness. Now, remember, that is several months before he has been accused of running his car into all these people, killing Heather Heyer.

But I do want to mention to you what was really striking, I think, in court today. We heard from some of the victims, some of the victims who are still recovering after being hit by the car here in Charlottesville.

We heard from a victim named Jeanne Peterson. She said that she was there, she was near Heather Heyer, she saw Heather Heyer being hit, fly up into the air. She looked into her eyes and said, "I think that's what the eyes of a dead person looks like." And she is still in a wheelchair, Don.

[23:44:58} She has such damage to her leg that she is still going through surgery. She has a sixth surgery that she is currently awaiting. Her life will never be the same.

We also heard from Thomas Baker, who was a conservation biologist. He talked about the fact that he really didn't want to take part in any of the crazy machinations that happened here in the rallies. None of the violence.

He actually just kind of want to come down and see, but he also wanted to be present. He was new to the area, and he did not like the idea of the "unite the right" rally coming here and spewing hate. So he wanted to come out and observe and also just be present.

And he says he got a part of this group that was cheerful and happy. They were sort of celebratory. They were singing and chanting in the streets. They were not being violent. When all of a sudden he heard tires screeching.

He too got hit by the car. He says he will never be the same. He used to be an athlete. He says it was part of his identity and that has been stripped away. He now cannot run. He says it hurts sometimes just to sit or stand.

So these are just some of the stories of the victims. But Heather Heyer's mother, Susan Breaux (ph), has been here every single day listening to the details of the worst day of her life.

We all listened as a paramedic who got to Heather Heyer and the first person that tried to save her life talked about Heather Heyer being alive when he first got to her and then her skin color changing.

He talked about all of her multiple injuries to her chest. Her ribs were broken. Her lungs were bruised. Her leg was broken, and one of her arteries was severed in half. She ended up taking so much trauma that her body just couldn't handle it, Don.

LEMON: Couldn't handle it. I've got to ask you, because it's obvious. I wonder what the defense is going to say, because this alleged murder is caught on camera. I mean, you can see the video here, and it's very graphic. But we saw this happening almost in real time.

SIDNER: And not just in one place, but there was someone who spoke, a witness who spoke who had Facebook lived it. There were other videos of this. There's some surveillance video as well. So there were multiple different places where people had video of either the beginning of the incident or the whole thing.

So there is a lot of video out there due to social media in part. But the defense appears to be trying to say that this was done in self- defense. Now, we haven't heard the defense's case yet. We are expecting the prosecution to rest its case before lunch tomorrow. This case going very quickly, according to the judge.

But we are listening to the cross-examination by the defense. And much of what they are trying to bring in is the fact that there were not a lot of police around in the area, that the police presence was very small, that there was nothing blocking the streets, that there was no protection, if you will, around James Fields, and so that he felt scared potentially in this particular area.

But everyone who testified today said they didn't really see anybody around him before they heard the screeching of tires and then the thumps. That was him hitting people. Don?

LEMON: Sara Sidner, I appreciate your reporting. Thank you so much. The nation is honoring the 41st president tonight. We're going to talk to someone who worked closely with President George H.W. Bush and with his son, President George W. Bush.

[23:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Tonight, the nation honors President George H.W. Bush. The 41st president will lie in state at the capitol until Wednesday morning. After that, his casket will be taken to the Washington National Cathedral for his state funeral.

Joining me now is Anita McBride. She was the director of White House personnel under President George H.W. Bush. Anita, thank you so much for joining us. I'm so sorry for your loss.

ANITA MCBRIDE, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH: Thank you for having me again, Don. I appreciate being able to talk to you about him.

LEMON: The former Secretary of State, James Baker, told Jake Tapper that President Bush's last words were, I love you too, said over a speaker phone to a son, President George W. Bush. It's very moving to see President George W. Bush with his hand on his heart, while his father was brought into the capitol to lie in state. You worked for both of them.

MCBRIDE: Right.

LEMON: What was that relationship like? Did you see that moment? Because it was certainly moving to me and it brought tears to my eyes.

MCBRIDE: I did see that moment because a number of us from the staff of former President Bush 41 were invited to the capitol, to the rotunda today, and then got to go pay our respects before the doors were open to the public. And so I did see that, George W. Bush, you know, who is an emotional guy.

LEMON: Yeah.

MCBRIDE: And, you know, he can be moved to tears as well. But what I saw there was hand to heart, father to son, president to president.

LEMON: Yeah. And both of them -- I mean, just really -- can you imagine though, you being the president --

MCBRIDE: Yeah.

LEMON: -- and then your son becoming the president of the United States, and then having to go through all of this. I mean, it's just unbelievable. The burden of the heart, I can imagine. But Anita --

MCBRIDE: And, you know, joyful too, Don, really.

LEMON: Yeah.

MCBRIDE: Yeah.

LEMON: And that's what I've heard so far from many people. We're sad but there's more joy for a life well lived, one of service, one of compassion, and one where family was really the top priority. You know, he was credited as president with accomplishing so much on the world stage, and his funeral is going to be attended by a lot of foreign dignitaries.

The Canadian prime minister, Brian Mulroney, will eulogize him, Prince Charles, former British Prime Minister John Major will attend, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. How do you think he will be remembered around the world?

[23:54:58] MCBRIDE: For presiding over a world transformed with a steady hand and with someone who believed that as the world order was changing, that the United States had a role to play to help guide it but in a gentle way, not in a way that was directing all of it but was helping the world transform.

And I think because of based on all of the experience he had on the global stage, the international background that he had in all the fields of diplomacy including intelligence, he was the right man at the right time. And I think we all can look back on that and say, aren't we lucky?

LEMON: Aren't we lucky? And you said the right man at the right time. The right person to talk about this at the right time is Anita McBride. Thank you for your time. I really appreciate it.

MCBRIDE: Thank you for having me. It was an emotional day but a beautiful day.

LEMON: Thanks for watching. Our coverage continues.

[24:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)