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Don Lemon Tonight

All-White Democratic Field Heads To Iowa For Their Debate; President Trump Tweeted More Lies; Joe Biden's Camp Optimistic To Get The Nomination; Tom Steyer Makes It To CNN Democratic Debate; President Trump Is Gaslighting Americans; President Trump Criticized For Retweeting Fake Image Of Pelosi And Schumer In Muslim Attire; The Queen Holds Crisis Meeting Of Royal Family. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired January 13, 2020 - 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.

A lot going on. We're going to catch you up on all the big headlines.

We're not just hours away from CNN's big Democratic debate in Iowa, the final debate before the Iowa caucuses in three weeks.

But as the 2020 election year gets underway, as the Democratic race starts to narrow and tighten how can the candidates break through to American voters while President Trump has impeachment and the conflict with Iran it takes up all the oxygen in the room?

Tonight. we'll get some answers. Democratic candidate Tom Steyer is here live. And we'll hear from Joe Biden's campaign.

President Trump gaslighting again on Twitter, this time falsely claiming he has protected people with preexisting health conditions. In fact, he's tried to gut those protections by weakening and even eliminating Obamacare.

And royal family feud. Queen Elizabeth convenes a crisis meeting on the Royal -- of royal family to deal with the decisions by Prince Harry and his wife Meghan to step back from their roles as senior members of the Windsor clan. We're going to see what the queen has agreed to so far.

But first, all the conflicting statements coming from the president, President Trump and top administration officials about their shifting explanation for killing a top Iranian commander.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: What we could see was that there was an increasing threat from the activities of Qasem Soleimani. We knew that he was traveling in the region bound to Beirut, and then to Damascus and on to Baghdad with the intense -- intent purpose of delivering a blow against Americans in the region. We weren't about to take that risk.

ROBERT O'BRIEN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Look, it's always difficult, even with the exquisite intelligence that we have to know exactly what the targets are.

MARK ESPER, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: He didn't say the specific piece of evidence. What he said is he probably he believed it could have been.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you saying there wasn't one?

ESPER: I didn't see one with regard to four embassies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Here to discuss now, Patrick Healy, Catherine Rampell, Astead Herndon. Good evening, one and all. I'm glad you could join me here on set. Good to see you. Very colorful.

ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to be here.

LEMON: Yes. Patrick, I'm going to start with you. Tomorrow night is CNN's Democratic debate, it starts the first big political event of 2020. The Democrats have the spotlight. But, I mean, how are they going to break through in this election season, really, this election year when President Trump he continues to just take all the oxygen not only out of the room but out of the entire campaign?

PATRICK HEALY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, it's interesting, Don, because Democratic voters generally aren't asking about impeachment, they're not asking about sort of the process in Washington for President Trump.

Now so many Democratic voters, for instance, in Iowa still are really sorting this out, they're still trying to make up their minds even though there's almost three weeks to go.

So how, especially the senators, Senator Warren, Senator Sanders, Senator Klobuchar are able to kind of break through and just, and really kind of seal the deal with a lot of these voters when they're going to be back in Washington dealing with impeachment is still hard.

But the reality is we've had like a year race where there has been a real debate over big ideas. It seems pretty clear right now that the voters have a lot of very distinct choices. So, the degree to which they can really sort of hit home that --

LEMON: Yes.

HEALY: -- make that final sale, you know, there's a lot of ideas to talk about.

LEMON: But this, so this impeachment trial, this is going to -- it could start within days. It's going to complicate things for the -- on the campaign trail.

HERNDON: Without question. You see from the senators that their schedule is now even say pending impeachment because they don't know where they're going to have to be --

LEMON: Really? Wow.

HERNDON: -- on any given day. You see that from Senator Warren and Senator Sanders, Klobuchar and others. And so that is a complicating factor here. But we also know that Iowa is historically a place that breaks late in the cycle and with such a fluid feel, with that top four so closely bunched together we don't know exactly who is going to end up on top and I don't think the voters know also.

To Patrick's point, that they're still making up their minds. And so, you have a clear contrast, you know, the kind of progressive wing, you have the moderate wing. But for voters who have prioritized electability in beating Trump almost all year, that can go either way.

They could say I think big ideas are the way to beat Trump and that's a reason to go one way. Or they could say, I think a kind of steady hand, a moderate hand is the way to beat Trump and split another way.

[23:05:02]

We still don't know kind of where that kind of undecided 20, 30 percent in Iowa is going to fall.

LEMON: It's interesting, Catherine, how the president has turned Soleimani into this boogeyman, right? And he's been on Twitter lying all day, and he's been, you know, and doing it really personally, but doing it a lot in person doing it.

But just on Twitter he's been falsely claiming that Democrats are trying to make Soleimani into a wonderful guy, right. So, when he doesn't have a clear explanation about his actions in Iran, right, or this whole when he can't come up with an imminent threat, then he goes to this playbook, to use it to attack Democrats.

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's what he's done from day one. Right? He had this tweet today where he -- it was the Islamic phobic -- Islamophobic tweet where he had, I believe it was Schumer and Pelosi -- it's on the screen -- Schumer and Pelosi in traditional Muslim garb.

This is what he did from day one when he launched his political career, right? He launched his career on the conspiracy theory that Obama was a secret Kenyan Muslim, because Muslim is apparently a smear that is worth tarring your opponents with, because Islamophobia is a useful cudgel to wield against some sort of political enemy.

So, there is nothing new about any of this. This is the playbook that he returns to again and again when he doesn't have something more substantive to say and this guy has had trouble keeping his lies straight about what the actual justification was for assassinating Soleimani.

So, of course, he's going to throw some red meat to the base.

LEMON: Well, speaking of that playbook, let's talk about Burisma, right? We have this new reporting tonight. We're learning that the Russian military hackers, Russian military hackers successfully have infiltrated Burisma. That's the Ukrainian gas company where Hunter Biden served on the board.

I mean, it's really significant news especially at the beginning of an election year.

HEALY: Right, and I don't want to further any disinformation or any kind of conspiracy theories but, you know, the degree to which Russia still has an enormous amount of power and leveragability to launch cyberattacks and in the United States' own vulnerabilities in terms of cybersecurity and the 2020 election are very real.

And you specially see it not to get too far off of Burisma, but, you know, you see it in states and states that say, you know, we're not sure that we have enough money to handle election security. We don't know how vulnerable some of our machines are, our systems are.

And you know, this is -- this is the kind of thing, Ukraine is different, Burisma is certainly different, but it just goes to the playbook, the essential playbook that Russia's had to interfere on its own terms and how this president and this administration have just looked the other way through this and it just sets up, you know, just that vulnerability for 2020.

LEMON: It's interesting, I wonder, Astead, what it says to you that the Russians are apparently doing exactly what Trump tried to pressure Ukraine to do to find dirt on Biden.

HERNDON: Well, I think that we know Russia has had an interest, we know that the reporting that came out of the Mueller investigation was to say that Russia had an interest in furthering President Trump's election. I think there's no evidence to say that that has changed.

I think this is an important thing to look forward. It's not just 2016 where Russia was look -- seeking to interfere in the election, we know this has been an ongoing kind of attempt. And we have -- we have to see from the administration if there's going to be a response to that.

We have seen on the campaign trail, particularly Democrats and Republicans kind of make rhetoric statements saying, you know, we're going to stand up to Russia, we're not going to allow them to interfere in our election going forward.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Yes. But it sounds like 2016. All you have to do is change the name from Clinton to Biden. Do you understand what I'm saying?

HERNDON: No, I get what you're saying.

LEMON: Yes. HERNDON: And so, that is the question, will the Trump administration proactively say that this is not going to be something that will be allowed? And then to the bigger point, will the kind of the American people kind of pressure states and federal government to beef up election security? That's the ongoing question we don't have an answer to even as the election comes near.

LEMON: What do you think, will they? Do you think that the Trump administration will --

(CROSSTALK)

RAMPELL: Stand up for election security?

LEMON: -- do what it says it will --

RAMPELL: No.

LEMON: Yes.

RAMPELL: No, of course not.

LEMON: And what can -- what can Democrats do? Do you think that they --

RAMPELL: What interest does this administration have in standing up to Russia? Right? What interest does this administration have in ensuring free and fair elections? We have seen Trump take very little interest in this issue from the get-go.

When Democrats took over the House last year, one of the first things that they did was to put together a bill that was to improve election integrity and ethics in elections amongst other things and Republicans have said -- have kept their hands off of it and Trump has shown no interest, no involvement in furthering those efforts.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: But they set up -- but they set up a voter fraud commission that they had to disband.

RAMPELL: Right, right for all of -- whatever what was the three million fictitious votes or something like that, yes. Which, you know, I'm sure we'll hear in two weeks, in some, you know, mythical two-week period what the results of those findings were.

[23:10:08]

LEMON: Fascinating. It sounds like it's going to be -- it's interesting, if any of the players, if it's Biden or it may be Sanders, it may be the exact same playbook has 2016 and I wonder if people will fall for it all over again. Interesting. Thank you.

Democratic field getting narrower with the CNN debate just hours away. Candidate Tom Steyer will be on the debate stage. I'm going to talk to him. He's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Six Democratic presidential candidates will take the stage tomorrow night in Iowa for our CNN Presidential Debate. In the final debate before the Iowa caucuses and one candidate made the cut under the wire, and that's businessman Tom Steyer. And he joins me now. Congratulations, you made it. That must have felt good, right?

[23:15:05]

TOM STEYER (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, Don, I was very glad to make the debate stage. And I think a lot of people were surprised at how well I did.

LEMON: Yes.

STEYER: But we've been seeing those numbers for weeks because we've been seeing this kind of momentum --

LEMON: Yes.

STEYER: -- everywhere we went. I was surprised they ran polls but I wasn't surprised the polls were good.

LEMON: Yes.

STEYER: Because we see momentum in every state we're in.

LEMON: Well, good for you. Let me -- I want to ask you some -- because you're always very candid, the 2020 Democratic field, Tom, was the most diverse ever but tomorrow's debate stage will feature only white candidates. Is that a problem for you? What do you think of that?

STEYER: I think it's a problem. You know, when Kamala Harris dropped out, the next day I wrote an open letter to the Democratic National Committee and I said you should change the criteria for the debate stage because it's important to have a diverse field and you should change it to ensure that we have a diversity of candidates that reflects the Democratic Party.

Now, obviously the Democratic National Committee doesn't do what I tell them to do but yes, it's a problem and I tried to take action on it the very day Kamala dropped out.

LEMON: Yes. Because you don't feel it represents the Democratic Party. Senator Cory Booker who dropped out of the race today says the DNC's rules enable you to buy your way into the debate stage. What's your response to him?

STEYER: Look, what's driven everybody's success as a candidate has been message. I have a completely different message from everybody else who's running. I'm saying that we have a broken government that's been purchased by corporations and we're going to have to take back the government and I'm an outsider. I'm the only outsider in this race who has spent 10 years fighting and

beating those corporations. I'm the person who will actually change D.C., I'm the only person who will talk about term limits. And I'm also the only person who will say that climate is my number one priority and I'll do it from the standpoint of environmental justice and job creation.

LEMON: You have --

STEYER: And lastly --

STEYER: I'm sorry, I cut you off. There was a delay, sorry about that.

STEYER: -- as someone who started his own business I'll take on -- I'll take on Trump. I'll take on Trump on the economy and beat him on the stage because I have 30 years of experience and expertise that says he's a fake businessman and he's a fake person helping Americans in terms of economics.

LEMON: Yes, sorry about the delay. I thought you were finished with your thought.

STEYER: No worries.

LEMON: So, you have spent a lot of money, more than $160 million alone on TV ads. If Cory Booker had that kind of money at his disposal or maybe Kamala Harris, you mentioned her, do you think they'd be on that debate stage tomorrow too?

STEYER: I don't know, Don. I know the money makes a difference but I think what really makes a difference is message and grassroots. I mean, people are talking about South Carolina. We have 82 people on the ground in South Carolina. I've been there multiple times.

If you listen to what the people from South Carolina say they say Tom has been here, he's looked us in the eye. He has a message that's different. And so that's actually what I think is driving this. I've always believed in message and grassroots. That's my history over the last 10 years and that's what I believe really drives the outcome.

LEMON: Let's talk about the story that has -- that's bubbled up. Elizabeth Warren says that at a private 2018 meeting with Bernie Sanders that she told him a woman could not win that -- I'm sorry, that he told her that a woman could not win in 2020. She says obviously that she disagrees. Sanders denied that the characterization when first reported by CNN. What's your reaction to that? Can a woman win?

STEYER: Well, of course I wasn't in that meeting and I don't know what was said but I absolutely believe that a woman can win. In fact, a woman got three million more votes than Donald Trump did in 2016.

LEMON: That simple. That was a short -- that was short and sweet.

STEYER: Yes. LEMON: But a woman is not sitting in the White House right now --

STEYER: Yes.

LEMON: -- so she actually didn't win.

STEYER: I know, but the question you asked me, Don, was can a woman win and I absolutely believe that a woman can win. If I'm not the candidate and one of the women who's on the stage tomorrow is, I will support her unequivocally, 100 percent. Either one of those women would beat Donald Trump.

LEMON: America elected a rich businessman, no government experience in 2016. Why do you think that they should do it again?

STEYER: Well, Don, let me say this, I am completely different from Donald Trump in every single way.

[23:19:59]

First of all, I actually built a successful business. I'm not a businessman who failed and was successful on reality TV. I succeeded in reality.

Second of all, I have 10 years of experience as an outsider passing legislation with the help of the American people in propositions, building grassroots organizations.

I built Nextgen America, one of the largest grassroots organizations in the United States. I actually have taken on oil companies and beat them. I've taken on drug companies, utilities. I've taken on tobacco companies and passed a $2 a pack cigarette tax, 3 to $4 billion a year and given it to MediCal, which is the health care for the poorest people in California.

So, in fact, I have 10 years of experience as an outsider. And if you believe that our issue here is a broken government that has been bought by corporations, let me ask you a question and let me ask the American people the same question, do you think that it's going to be changed by someone from the outside who has actually done it for 10 years and beat the corporations or someone from inside Washington, D.C.?

That's why I'm willing to do term limits of 12 years for Congress people and senators, because I am willing to change the system as an outsider in a way that no one else is.

LEMON: I'll let the American people answer that question. Tom Steyer, thank you for staying up late. I appreciate it. Good luck on the debate stage tomorrow. Thank you.

STEYER: Don, thank you so much for having me.

LEMON: Now I want to bring in Symone Sanders, a senior adviser with Joe Biden's campaign. Symone, thank you so much for joining us. I want to start with this bit of breaking story that we have now that Russians hacked Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company at the center of the impeachment drama.

As we all know Hunter Biden was on Burisma's board, what's your reaction to this?

SYMONE SANDERS, SENIOR ADVISOR, BIDEN CAMPAIGN 2020: Well, thanks for having me tonight, Don.

As we've said before and the vice president regularly says on the campaign trail. There are a couple folks that definitely don't want him to be president. Donald Trump, hence why he has manufacture these conspiracy theories surrounding the vice president and his son and his family, and secondly Russia.

And I think that is evident from this New York Times story today. So, the facts of the matter, though are, Don, that everyone has -- no one has asserted that Vice President Biden did anything wrong. He did his job, he carried out the policy of the United States government and our allies and reformers in Ukraine.

And what this is really about in terms of the impeachment inquiry is Donald Trump and his conduct.

LEMON: Symone, there is an op-ed by Bernie Sanders campaign coach Nina Turner, it's called, "While Bernie Sanders has always stood up for African-Americans, Joe Biden has repeatedly let us down."

And she writes, "Will our community side with former Vice President Joe Biden who has repeatedly betrayed black voters to side with Republican lawmakers and undermine our progress, or will we stand with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in a movement that has been fighting for racial and economic justice since the Civil Rights era."

Biden has admitted mistakes when it comes to his criminal justice record but he also has very strong support in the black community. Give me your response to that, Symone?

SANDERS: Well, I don't have a direct response for Nina Turner, Don, but this is what I will say. We are proud of the campaign that we've built and our campaign is the only campaign in this race that has demonstrated the ability to build a broad coalition that includes black voters, Latino voters, white voters, men, women, older voters. He has some young people, neighbor, folks all across this country. LGBTQ plus folks.

And that's what is going to take to one, win this democratic nomination, but also beat Donald Trump. And so we don't think anyone should be the Democratic nominee without being able to demonstrate that they have the ability, and frankly, can build that broad coalition.

And we're proud that we have been able to and we encourage other campaigns to do the same. The last thing I'll not is this. Don, we have seen over the course of this nine months, folks lob all types of attacks and negatives and debunked assertions about Vice President Biden and his record and what we've seen over these last nine months is the attacks haven't worked. Because voters know Joe Biden. And what you're seeing in this last couple of days in the leadup to this debate and also in the leadup to the Iowa caucuses are campaigns just getting a little but desperate, Don. So, we're going to continue to be positive, run our race, speak directly to the American people and voters in Iowa. And we're happy about the campaign we're building and you know what, other campaign is just going to have to decide what kind of campaign they want to run but we know what kind we're running.

LEMON: Do you think there's reason why they are bringing it up now South Carolina -- in South Carolina?

SANDERS: Look, I'm not sure, Don, but I can tell you that I'll be in South Carolina this week kicking off our South Carolina bus tour. We are proud of the support that we have built not only in the state of South Carolina but in places all over this country.

If you'll note earlier this week a number of front-line members came out and endorsed Vice President Biden, folks from very diverse places but also folks that ran and won in Trump districts, districts that Donald Trump carried in 2016.

And so I think what that means is that voters across the country are speaking loud and clear that there's momentum behind our campaign and they want a candidate, frankly, and a nominee that has demonstrated the ability that they can beat Donald Trump, help folks down ballot and build a broad coalition.

[23:25:07]

So, I don't know, again, what the Sanders campaign is talking about but I can only tell you about what we're actually seeing on the ground in terms of the support for our campaign.

LEMON: I want to put up this new Washington Post/Ipsos poll and shows 48 percent of black voters are backing Joe Biden, Sanders is close to him, 20 percent. But in that poll there are -- there's an age and ideology division, an age and ideology divisions there, younger African-American voters more apt to back Sanders who you worked for him last cycle. Why is that, do you think?

SANDERS: Well, Don, this is what I'll say, I think a lot of times folks get caught up in the conversation about this election and they only look it through the lens of the Twitter universe.

And if you're looking at the support of young voters, squarely through the lens of the Twitter universe I don't think you're getting the full depth and breadth of young people, of young voters.

And so, well, yes, there are a number of young voters that are supporting other candidates in this race, there are young voters that are supporting Joe Biden.

I'm in Iowa right now. We were in out in Iowa last week on a we know Joe bus tour and we had a number of young electives across the country, Representative Malcolm Kenyatta, Representative Shevrin Jones from Florida. We had a number of young people that came out to talk about -- young

black people mind you, young black elected officials about why they support Vice President Biden, why they believe that he is not only the right president for this moment but his vision is the right vision for the country.

LEMON: Symone, tomorrow is the debate stage that's why you're there in Iowa, that there's going to be a debate tomorrow. It's going to feature candidates, right? All of them are white. Your candidate aside, is that personally disappointing to you as a committed Democrat and a person of color?

SANDERS: Well, look, Don, I will say that not one candidate, and I think Joe Biden would say this include himself, included on that stage tomorrow, will themselves individually represent the depth and breadth of the party. But that's what -- that's why -- again, we're so proud of the community and the movement and the campaign that we've built that is, in fact, representative of all corners of the party.

And so I think it's one -- the incumbent -- it is incumbent upon any candidate, whoever will be the nominee, and we think it's going to be Joe Biden, to make sure that the campaign is reflective of the depth and breadth of America and the big tent, that is the Democratic Party. And you know, I think that we have shown that work out there on the campaign trail.

LEMON: Symone Sanders, thank you.

SANDERS: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: It is the last debate before the first vote and it's only on CNN. The top Democrats head to Iowa for a live CNN Presidential Debate in partnership with the Des Moines Register tomorrow night 9, only on CNN.

President Trump not only making a false claim today, but flat out lying. He says he is protecting Americans with preexisting conditions. But we're going to tell you what his administration is actually doing that will put them at risk.

[23:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: President Trump gaslighting you again tonight, falsely claiming that he has protected people with pre-existing health conditions, tweeting that he stands stronger than anyone in protecting your health care with pre-existing conditions. But he's done just the opposite, trying to gut those protections and seeking to eliminate Obamacare.

Let's discuss with CNN Contributor, Wajahat Ali and political commentator Scott Jennings. Gentlemen, good evening to both of you. Wajahat, I'm going to start with you. The president is doubling down tonight after tweeting this morning, claiming he was the person who saved pre-existing conditions in your health care and that he will always protect your pre-existing conditions, the Dems will not. Again, flat out lying here.

WAJAHAT ALI, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think we should believe Donald Trump, a man who has lied more than 15,000 times in his three years as president, and as I have said on your show, will probably put our fact-checker, Daniel Dale, in a coma by 2020, and a man who's own White House yesterday tweeted out that it was snowing, the first snow in D.C. while it was completely clear.

So we should believe him when he said that he has protected pre- existing conditions even though Republicans for the past 10 years have tried to repeal and replace Obamacare. In fact, Donald Trump ran on it. In fact, I'm old enough to remember, Don Lemon, when they tried to repeal the law and John McCain, who was dying, came out and rejected it and saved Obamacare.

And then Donald Trump and Republicans have done a lawsuit called Texas V. United States. They got a federal judge in Texas to rule on it, declare it all unconstitutional. And the Justice Department, Donald Trump's own Justice Department, has now come on to that lawsuit and Bill Barr saying, wait, wait, wait, Supreme Court, wait until after the election to rule on this because A, they know it is going to hurt them, B, they are hoping that Ruth Bader Ginsburg retires so they can flip flop that 6-3 and get, you know, get the wind from the conservative judges and eliminate Obamacare.

So this is such a beautiful -- I just admire the shamelessness of the lie, Don, because it requires a talent to gaslight America to this level, where Donald Trump who literally has run on repealing Obamacare, is now saying he's taking credit for saving pre-existing conditions when they want to repeal and replace it and kick off 20 million Americans off of health care.

LEMON: Scott, it was, you know, in fact, the Democrats along with a few Republicans who saved pre-existing conditions in 2017 by voting against repealing or replacing parts of Obamacare, including -- we can put the video up again because Wajahat mentioned that the late senator, John McCain, with his famous middle of the night thumbs down vote, remember he came back, remember he was sick, right? Why do you think that he feels the need to make this claim when he so clearly -- when can't back it up?

[23:35:00]

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That night was an interesting night, Don. If you remember, we were on the air together in the middle of the night there in your studio --

LEMON: Don't remind me.

(LAUGHTER)

JENNINGS: Yeah. You know, I think on this particular issue, a couple things. Number one, obviously, it's an important issue to both parties. Both parties are talking about it. Trump knows he's going to have to talk about it. Obviously, they know that you can't run against pre-existing conditions. I mean, why is he upset about people trying to repeal Obamacare?

As far as I know, every Democrat running for president except Joe Biden is trying to repeal and replace Obamacare. There isn't safe ground for Trump here to run on. Number one, he certainly doesn't have a monopoly on health care hyperbole. Go back to the last administration. And look at Elizabeth Warren in this one, in this presidential campaign, not admitting she wants to raise your taxes.

You know, there is room for him to run. This was not probably the right fight to pick because obviously the political media world has come crashing down on him today. Republicans in the Senate did offer a bill in April of 2019 to save pre-existing conditions. Trump did endorse that legislation. He may be referring to that in this particular case.

But look, in this campaign, he is going to have to be for this, saving pre-existing conditions, and I assume it is part of his overall messaging apparatus that he is going to engage in during presidential campaign.

LEMON: I want both of you to stick around. I got to get a break in, OK? We are going to talk about a presidential retweet today because a lot of people are calling him Islamophobic. Stand by.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: President Trump is getting a lot of heated criticism tonight for retweeting fake image of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi in Muslim attire.

Back with me are Wajahat Ali and Scott Jennings. Waj, Trump retweeted this doctored photo, a Photoshop image of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in traditional Islamic garments, standing in front of an Iranian flag.

Trump says he is not a racist, but then he tweets this out. Listen, there's nothing wrong with wearing traditional Muslim garb if you're a Muslim and even if you're not. But there's a reason behind him doing this. But he says he's not racist, but then he tweets this out.

ALI: Of course, he's not racist or an anti-Muslim bigot, the same man who passed the Muslim ban, the same man who said he saw a video of American Muslims celebrating 9/11, when they asked him where is the video, he doesn't show it, the same man who tells Ilhan Omar to go home to her country, the same man who retweet Katie Hopkins, an extremist, an anti-Muslim bigot. Why would that man be a racist and anti-Muslim bigot, Don?

And then Stephanie Grisham, who gets paid six figures, to not do her job which is the best job on earth as the White House press secretary, goes on Fox News and the Fox News host reads a comment from a Muslim commentator (INAUDIBLE) which basically -- she says (INAUDIBLE), that is a slur against the religion of 1.7 billion people.

And then Stephanie Grisham doubles down and says, well, he just did it to show that the Democrats are terrorist sympathizers. Again, to somehow insinuate that those who are Muslims -- there are four million American Muslims -- are somehow anti-American or terrorists.

It is the same thing he did with Obama by promoting the birther conspiracy. Why should we be surprised? This is who he is. He's a racist. If you support him, you might not be a racist, but you got to know, in 2020, you are supporting and endorsing a racist president.

LEMON: Scott, would you tweet something like this? Would you tweet this?

JENNINGS: No, I wouldn't. I will tell you. Because I lived through the Bush/Cheney years and I have lived through the Trump years now, and I've seen meme after meme after meme after picture after Photoshop image of all those guys depicted as Adolf Hitler, so wearing a Nazi uniform. I don't like it when the left depicts Republicans as Nazis or somehow evil in this world.

I don't think we ought to do it to our political opponents either. I do think the people who angry about this today are the ones who are most likely to retweet --

LEMON: Scott, Scott, Scott, hold on. Bold on, Scott. Scott, I want to help you. I want to help you here. You're not saying --

JENNINGS: Help me?

LEMON: -- that wearing a hijab is the same thing as Hitler or Nazi, are you?

JENNINGS: No. I'm saying that I don't think either a political party should depict its opponents as something less than, you know, less than American citizen or an American patriot on the side of America. That's how I viewed the photo today. He's depicting them as being on the side of the Iranian regime, which I don't necessarily think is true.

LEMON: OK. The other thing, you're talking about people who are on the internet and sometimes wacky people who are in the party. I never saw President Bush or President Obama or President Clinton do this to -- with any -- I'm talking about the president. I'm not talking about fringe elements on the internet or even sometimes people who do stupid things who are part of a political party. We're talking about the president of the United States, Scott.

JENNINGS: Yeah. Like I said, I don't agree with it. I don't think we ought to depict our political opponents in ways that are intended to make them seen un-American or anti-American interests. I think we can disagree, but no, I don't agree with it. I think both sides do it. I don't agree with it. It's not my preferred strategy.

ALI: Don --

LEMON: I'm going to let you finish, Waj.

[23:45:00]

LEMON: But I don't think this is both sides thing. I think this is a president thing. We're talking about the president.

JENNINGS: You deny that the left has depicted Republican --

LEMON: No, no, no. No, I don't deny that.

JENNINGS: -- presidents in the last two decades --

LEMON: Scott, if you said to me that President Obama depicted President Bush or Nancy Pelosi or John Boehner in that way, then I would say, yes, you have a point. But I never saw President Obama do that. I never saw the president before him do anything like that.

Now, if you're talking about other people who are in the party, yes, I would say you have a point, but I don't think you have a legitimate point now because I'm talking about the president of the United States. Waj, go on.

ALI: President Obama tweets out books that he's read. President Trump in three years has retweeted conspiracy theorists, conspiracy theories, hateful memes again and again and again. This is not the first time. This is the feature. It isn't the bug. He is the commander in chief of more than 330 million people, the greatest nation on earth.

Why do we lower the bar for the president of the United States of America? And why can't we just call him out for what he is, Don? He does not have a racial flare-up. He is a racist. If you keep behaving like a racist and tweeting like a racist and talking like a racist and supported by racists, maybe you're Donald Trump.

LEMON: All right. Gentlemen, thank you. We'll be right back.

ALI: Thank you.

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[23:50:00]

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LEMON: Queen Elizabeth convening a crisis meeting of the royal family today to deal with the decision by Prince Harry and Meghan to step back from their roles as senior royals. The queen is agreeing to a period of transition for the couple while final details are worked out.

Let's discuss now with CNN Royal Commentator, Victoria Arbiter and Tom McTague, staff writer for The Atlantic who has written a new article about Harry and Meghan's move. Good to have both of you on. Thank you so much. Victoria, I'm going to start with you. You said you have never seen a royal meeting like this before. What can you tell us about this?

VICTORIA ARBITER, CNN ROYAL COMMENTATOR: There really hasn't, Don. To the best of my knowledge, we never get senior royals all together face-to-face in a room like this. A perfect illustration is back in the 90s when the queen was urging Charles and Diana to separate. She was writing letters, very old school.

But I think today's meeting was not just about trying to hammer out a workable solution for Harry and Meghan, the institution of monarchy, and of course, the British public, something that is acceptable to them. Today was about healing wounds, building bridges, trying to heal this rip, get this family together so that they can start talking as opposed to all the shenanigans that have been going on behind the scenes.

LEMON: Tom, let's talk about your latest piece in The Atlantic. It is called "The Hypocrisy of Harry and Meghan's Decision." You say that in Britain, hypocrisy is the worst sin of all. Why do you say Prince Harry and Meghan are hypocrites?

TOM MCTAQUE, STAFF WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: I think it's because they -- the view is that they are trying to have it all ways. They want the titles. They want the public money that comes with the role for doing their homes and having a home in London and a life in North America.

They want it all but they don't want to do the duty that comes with that. That is the boring stuff: the day-to-day job, the opening supermarkets and hospitals and cutting ribbons, and all of those things. They don't want that, but they want the money and the title. That's the problem.

LEMON: So Tom, there are some other hypocrisy that I would like to show you, giving credit -- I want to give this credit to BuzzFeed. They compiled this headline. It is from the British press covering similar stories about Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton. The difference in tone of those headlines is just incredible if you look at it, just looking at these headlines.

Take a look. This is not long to go. Pregnant Kate tenderly cradles her baby bump while wrapping up her royal duties ahead of maternity leave and William confirms she is due at any moment now.

This is one of the Daily Mail about Meghan. Why can't Meghan Markle keep her hands off her bump? Experts tackle the question that has got the nation talking. It is pride, vanity, acting or a new age of bonding technique?

And then there's this one. Kate's morning sickness cure? Prince William gifted with an avocado for pregnant duchess. And then on Meghan, it says, Meghan Markle's beloved avocado linked to human rights about and drought, millennial shame. And then the Daily Mail again, Kate and Wills Inc. -- this just goes on and on if you look at it. We'll put a couple of them up here. So, is that hard to see why Prince Harry and Meghan might want to leave or at least not be exposed to this any longer?

MCTAQUE: Completely. Also, if you look at Prince Harry, you know, his mother was haunted to death by the press in Paris. This is something that is entirely understandable. Everybody who has a small child and I have a child, I wouldn't want anything like this level of intrusion. I would look at North America and say, you know what, that sounds good. That looks good over there.

I think they're going to -- it's not like if you move to North America or Canada or California, you're simply not going to have press intrusion. There is going to be lots of that. They would like to have it on their own terms and would like to control it more. That is understandable.

[23:54:57]

MCTAQUE: I think the problem is, will you make that decision and will you give up the titles and all that which comes with it? I don't know the answer. It is entirely understandable from a human point of view.

LEMON: That's a good question. In her statement, the queen didn't use her title. Victoria, is she going to take them away?

ARBITER: Well, that's been sort of the one thing that everyone said they thought they would keep. There's been a lot of speculation tonight because yes, there was a very personal reference, Harry and Meghan. In their formal statement from Buckingham Palace, from the queen, you would normally see titles.

But I think the queen here was issuing a statement as a grandmother. She was trying to remind everyone that yes, I'm the head of state, and yes, I'm trying to find a workable solution here, but I also got my grandson, my daughter-in-law -- my granddaughter-in-law, and my eight great grandchild to consider as well.

So, I think titles are still up in the air. She did refer to them as the Sussexes as well. But some people are taking that as a first clear that perhaps titles are going to fall by the wayside.

LEMON: Ah, it is fascinating. Everybody is really talking about it. I'm not a real royal watcher but I am fascinated by this. Thank you so much. Tom, thank you. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Victoria.

ARBITER: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: The world has watched their every move and now CNN presents the story of the world's most famous royal family, "The Windsors: Inside the Royal Dynasty." It premieres Sunday, February 16th at 10:00 p.m. on CNN. Thank you for watching, everyone. Our coverage continues. Go Tigers.

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