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Trump Blames Both Sides; President Ends Business Councils; Trump Disbands Forum. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 16, 2017 - 13:00   ET

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


WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Wherever you're watching around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Up first, the fallout from explosive comments by President Donald Trump on race, hatred and bigotry here in the United States. The president ignited a firestorm when he equated hate groups behind the protest in Charlottesville, Virginia with the people who demonstrated against them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think there's blame -- yes. I think there's blame on both sides. You look at -- you look at both sides. I think there's blame on both sides. And I have no doubt about it. And you don't have any doubt about it either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: "The Washington Post" responded with a very, very tough editorial entitled "The Nation Can Only Weep." It says, among other things, "Tuesday was a great day for David Duke and racists everywhere. The president of the United States all but declared he has their backs." Close quote.

And the fallout continues. Two more CEOs today resigned from the president's manufacturing council, Anga Tulen of 3M and Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison. That's -- that brings the total, so far, of resignations to eight.

Let's bring in our Senior White House Correspondent Jeff Zeleny and our Senior Congressional Reporter Manu Raju. Jeff, a senior White House official now says the president's impromptu news conference yesterday was all him, those are direct quotes, "all him." But others are encouraging surrogates to echo what the president actually said.

So, what do you -- what's the latest you're hearing from inside the Trump administration?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, inside Trump Tower here and, in fact, back in Washington at the White House, advisors there, they've been unusually silent. There have been few defenders coming forward, at least publicly, to defend what the president said yesterday. And certainly no Republican members of Congress either. There is a bit of damage control going on. Officials I have talked to here have said, look, we're going to try and get back to the agenda, try and essentially do our jobs.

But, Wolf, if you'll remember, the whole point of the president coming out before the cameras yesterday was to talk about infrastructure, was to talk about the agenda. So, the agenda, indeed, has been, you know, impacted by this. There's no question about it. Officials acknowledge that.

But, Wolf, just moments ago in Santiago, the vice president, Mike Pence, who's traveling in South America. He was asked about this in a news conference. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What happened in Charlottesville was a tragedy. And the president has been clear on this tragedy and so have I. I spoke at length about this heartbreaking situation on Sunday night in Colombia. And I stand with the president and I stand by those words.

But, today, while I'm here in Chile, our hearts are in Charlottesville. Because just a few short hours ago, family and friends gathered to say farewell to a remarkable young woman, Heather Heyer. And we've been praying. We've been praying for god's peace and comfort for her family and her friends and her loved ones. And we're also praying that in America, that we will not allow the few to divide the many.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So, listening to the vice president there say, we will not allow the few to divide the many. Certainly a very different message than the president was saying yesterday. So, this is the vice president who's been traveling. He's been abroad for several days now, Wolf. So, he's not been involved in these conversations.

But the reality here is, even as the White House tries to turn the page and they are trying to get the president back on track, saying he'll go to camp David on Friday to talk about the Afghanistan policy.

It is still the words he uttered in the lobby of Trump Tower yesterday that will perhaps haunt his presidency, that he will certainly have to address. But the vice president today obviously taking a much softer tone, as you heard just moments ago in Chile.

BLITZER: Yes, he didn't echo what the president said that there's blame on both sides. We clearly did not hear that from the vice president.

Manu, Republicans, they've been very quick to respond. They all point out hatred and bigotry, that very, very bad. But many of them have actually stopped short of actually criticizing the president himself. Give us a sense of how lawmakers, especially Republican lawmakers, are reacting. MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Yes, that's right,

Wolf. We're seeing several Republican lawmakers calling out the president by name. But those are members who do not serve in the party's leadership. Take Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, who was silent until this morning, despite the president's stunning press conference yesterday afternoon.

[13:05:06] Now, I am told by a source close to the majority leader that he was very upset at President Trump's remarks, especially given McConnell's own work on civil rights issues over his career. But he has not spoken with the president and he did not call him out by name in his statement released by his office this morning. Though he did allude to Trump's comments that there were, quote, "some very fine people" who attended that white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.

Now, McConnell said this. There are no good neo-Nazis and those who espouse their views are not supporters of America's ideals and freedoms. We all have a responsibility to stand against hate and violence wherever it raises its evil head.

Now, McConnell also concerned about similar demonstrations happening in Lexington, Kentucky. I am told one reason why McConnell did not mention the president's name is that he got into this flap last week with the president who pointedly blamed the majority leader for failing on health care. I'm told that the majority leader was weary about looking like he was piling on the president just to get back at him over their dispute.

And also, he needs the president's help in keeping the government open and avoiding a debt default next month.

Now, Wolf, at the same time, some members who are not in the party's leadership taking a tougher tone, like Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a frequent critic of Trump, saying this. Through his statements yesterday, President Trump took a step backwards by again suggesting there is moral equivalency between white supremacists, neo- Nazis and KKK members who attended the Charlottesville rally.

Now, many Republicans do not agree with and will fight back against the idea that the party of Lincoln has a welcome mat out for the David Dukes of the world. Now, wolf, the question is exactly how Republicans will fight back, whether there'll be hearings on Capitol Hill, or at least symbolic votes rebuking the president, as some House Democrats are pushing right now.

But now, we're not getting any indication that Republicans are joining that effort as of yet. But as we do now know, Wolf, that this all is overshadowing what the president's trying to do on Capitol Hill -- Wolf.

BLITZER: He certainly is. Manu Raju up on Capitol Hill. Jeff Zeleny just outside Trump Tower in New York City. In addition to blaming violence on both sides, President Trump also defended white supremacists and others.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people. They were people protesting very quietly the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. You had a lot of people in that group that were there to innocently protest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We now want to show you, our viewers here in the United States and around the world, who actually attended the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and what their stated intentions were.

A group of white supremacists gave VICE News exclusive access over the weekend. We're going to go show you some of the chilling footage that is airing on our sister network, HBO, released by VICE.

But we want to warn all of our viewers, some of the views expressed in these clips are very disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWD: Jews will not replace us. Jews will not replace us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, when did you get into, as you said, the racial stuff?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the Trayvon Martin case happened, you know, Michael Brown and Tamir Rice and all these different things happened, every single case, it's some little black (INAUDIBLE) behaving like a savage and he gets himself in trouble, shrackingly (ph) enough.

Whatever problems I might have with my fellow white people, they generally are not inclined to such behavior and, you know, you got to, kind of, take that into consideration when you're -- when you're thinking about how to organize your society.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In Oklahoma City.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. So, exactly. You have to go back to Oklahoma City to talk about a white act of terrorism.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dylan Roof.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can remember Dylan Roof's name. You could remember (INAUDIBLE.)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were asking if there were white people who were capable of violence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't say capable. Of course we're capable. I'm carrying a pistol. I go to the gym all the time. I'm trying to make myself more capable of violence.

CROWD: We're here, we're gay, we want the KKK. We're here, we're gay, we want the KKK. We're here, we're gay, we want the KKK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The riot police are coming. We have been told to disburse. Some of the alt-right are being pushed out. It's about a half an hour before the speakers are supposed to start.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're obeying the law. We're doing everything we're supposed to do, trying to express opinions. And the criminals are over there getting their way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're the true nonviolent protesters?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not even just saying we're nonviolent. I'm saying that we (INAUDIBLE) progress. We did not initiate force against anybody. We're not nonviolent. We'll (INAUDIBLE) kill these people if we have to.

[13:10:03] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just literally came down the street at 80 mile-per-hour to (INAUDIBLE) hit us just now. There are people, bodies laying on the ground right now.

I've seen bodies flying after being hit by that car. I've seen people in (INAUDIBLE.) This is my town. We did not want the (INAUDIBLE) here. And now, we got bodies on the ground and they're trying to revive somebody right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not saying it was worth it. We knew we were going to meet a lot of resistance. The fact that nobody on our side died, I would go ahead and call that points for us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But the car that struck a protester, that's unprovoked.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, the video appears to show someone striking that vehicle. When these animals attacked him again, and he saw no way to get away from them except to hit the gas. And, sadly, because our rivals are a bunch of stupid animals who don't pay attention, they couldn't just get out of the way of his car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, you think it was justified?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think more than justified.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: All right, with us now, our CNN Politics Reporter and Editor-at-Large Chris Cillizza; our CNN Politics Editor Juana Summers; President and CEO, former president and CEO of the NAACP, Cornell William Brooks. He's now a CNN Commentator. And our Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger.

That was incredibly hard to watch. And it opened up Friday night. We saw them marching in long, long lines with those flames reminiscent of what we saw in Germany in the 1930s, screaming out, Jews will not replace us. Jews will not replace us. You will not replace us. You heard that kind of chanting. And then, the president yesterday came out and said what he said.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, the president said he saw a lot of the footage and he saw more than we saw. I'm wondering whether he watched this VICE footage. Because what the president said is, you also had some very fine people on both sides.

You had a lot of people in that group that were there to innocently protest. This was not innocent. This person that was interviewed on VICE didn't care that Heather Heyer died. He had absolutely no concern about this.

He called the other people demonstrating on the other side, stupid animals and worse. And the president has said that there were fine people. And the president said I saw the same pictures as you. So, my question now to this president is, what pictures were you looking at?

BLITZER: Because you see in those pictures, Cornell, you and I have looked closely at those images that we saw. So reminiscent of what the video we've seen, the film we've seen over the years, going back to Nazi Germany.

CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS, FORMER PRESIDENT AND CEO, NAACP: That's right. The president, his own words, he said he saw images from the night before, where we had protesters wearing polo shirts and golf shirts with Nazi insignia.

When you wear a swastika, it's a statement about the present, your capability and your willingness to engage in violence. But it's also a statement by the lineage and legacy of violence that you come from, going back to World War II.

And so, for the president to suggest that these folks are on the same moral plane, or, in fact, that there is no plane. These Americans will suggest he go to all international cemetery. Look at those tombstones and look to the number of people who have lost their lives fighting against Nazism. And then, make the claim that these folks are on the same moral plane as the counter-protesters.

BLITZER: And anybody who studies history, when they just said, Jews will not replace us, you will not replace us, blood and soil. Those words from the Nazi era. Blood and soil, a very common Nazi statement.

And, all of a sudden, you hear that kind of rhetoric coming up from long lines, folks with the torches moving forward. It's pretty alarming. And I don't know if the president saw that video or didn't see that video. But that he would come out and say there's blame on both sides is causing all this outrage.

JUANA SUMMERS, CNN POLITICS EDITOR: It absolutely is and that's one thing that was particularly chilling to me is just seeing just how well organized these folks were. This isn't just -- some like to dismiss it and say it's a very small segment of the population.

It's parts of the south. It's your backwoods uncle, so to speak. But these are people who look like they could be my next-door neighbor or your next-door neighbor.

One thing that struck me about what the president said is -- yesterday, is he said that he didn't want to rush out and make a statement. He wanted to make sure that he had all the information.

From at least the snippet we just saw from VICE News, from the images that initially came out of Charlottesville, Virginia, it seems incumbent upon me that when you see swastikas, when you hear these chants that we all know some well from our reading of history, that you stand up and denounce that you don't need a lot of information.

[13:12:36]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:15:00] SUMMERS: When you hear these chants that we all know so well from our reading of history, you stand up and denounce that. You don't need a lot of information.

And this is a president who, in the past, has leapt and made big statements about terrorist attacks when information is still coming out, labeling them as such. He has come out when all -- when situations are still unfolding and made judgments time and again throughout his history, during the campaign and inside the Oval Office. And yet, in this moment, when there is sweeping evidence that you have neo-Nazis, members of the KKK and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, he did not make that same leap. And like Gloria, I have to wonder, what did he see and why in this moment did he not do so?

BLITZER: And the White House has now circulated so-called talking points to supporters of the president, what to say. You've seen them.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, I mean these are -- Jim Acosta reported on these last night. This is ridiculous. I mean, you know, that the president was right, the president -- the president expressed empathy for the victim. Well, he didn't say Heather Heyer's name on Saturday. And he did say that this violent was on many sides. And then, sure, he said something on Monday. I think most people thought a little bit late, but better late than never. And then yesterday he made clear that his view on Saturday was effectively his view, that there were -- what about the alt-left. Why are you not covering it?

He tends to try to fit everything into the way in which he views the world, Wolf, which is, there are people that are for me and there are people that are against me. And people who for me are, broadly speaking, good people and they get a bad rap by the people who are against me, namely the media and Democrats.

This doesn't fit into that. This is not something that fits on that spectrum. And, unfortunately, his world view is such that he is willing to -- we not even talk about it now, but this guy who he retweeted over the weekend, this conspiracy theorist, alt-right guy, you know, I mean it doesn't matter that this guy is engaged in conspiracy theory before because he's saying something nice about Trump and so are we making the point Trump wants made?

BLITZER: You know -- CILLIZZA: And their -- that's not morality. Being a moral person is not saying people are good because they agree with me, right, and that's the problem that we've got.

BLITZER: Just a moment ago, Gloria, just a moment ago he tweeted, the president of the United States tweeted this two minutes ago. Rather than putting pressure on the business people of the manufacturing council and strategy and policy form, I am ending both. Thank you all.

BORGER: Well, it was falling apart.

BLITZER: We know that eight CEOs have already resigned.

BORGER: Right.

And we know that people on the strategic and policy forum were discussing this morning what to do, as was the manufacturing council. Eight people, is it, had resigned from the manufacturing council. And so it's embarrassing to the president.

Particularly since these are the business people he was supposed to bring in and they were going to rally around him and make America great again. And so what that was, was damage control, allegedly, you know, from the president trying to kind of beat them to the punch before they all abandoned him, which is exactly what they were beginning to do because his remarks yesterday to CEOs and business leaders in this country were completely unacceptable, as they should have been, and he was kind of like, OK, you quit, I'm firing you.

CILLIZZA: That tweet reminds me of seventh grade when I would get word that a girl was going to break up with me and I would call and be like, I broke up with you.

BORGER: Right. I don't like the way --

CILLIZZA: Yes, I mean that's what that is, right? I mean it's like --

BORGER: Right.

CILLIZZA: You know, it's a -- well, we're going to disband this before you all leave and embarrass me.

BORGER: Right.

SUMMERS: And, of course, no acknowledgement whatsoever of the state -- the very things -- the very real criticisms and concerns that all of these executives from different walks of life have about the president's statements. He is (INAUDIBLE) to acknowledge that.

BLITZER: The first CEO to resign was the CEO of Merck Pharmaceuticals, who's African-American, and the president deliberately -- I don't if deliberately but I think he's probably the only one of these CEOs who was the subject of a direct attack on Twitter by the president.

BROOKS: That's precisely it. And the president has consistently acted as a craven candidate seeking to retain his racist base, as opposed to standing up to the full measure of his office, and conducting himself with some gravitas.

Note this. This young woman, Heather Heyer, was become memorialized today. And our president, our president, issues a get-back tweet, a revenge tweet, instead of speaking of the moment. Her father spoke about love. Love in a democracy, in a (INAUDIBLE) democracy, is a verb, meaning justice. He's not spoken about justice for her in terms of holding her killer accountable. He's not shown up at the memorial service. He's not conducting himself like a president. He's acting like a craven (ph) (INAUDIBLE).

BORGER: Well, and, also, what about saying to the leaders of the business community, as someone else would do, you have a problem with what I said, let's meet.

BLITZER: Correct.

BORGER: Let's talk about this. Let me hear you out. Instead, he doesn't want to hear from them because now they're on the enemies list.

[13:20:07] BROOKS: That's right.

BORGER: So --

BROOKS: You know, anyone who criticizes is on the doesn't like me list and therefore should be ignored and attacked.

BORGER: Right.

BLITZER: And, Chris, you posted on CNN Politics a very strong article this morning, and I recommend our viewers check it out. Donald Trump's presidency is the headline. Donald Trump's presidency is on the brink of total collapse.

CILLIZZA: Yes, I mean, look, he's going to keep a certain part of his base, no matter what. They will be for him solely because there are people criticizing him and they think those people are bad and they will be for him. So he will keep those people.

Look, the problem here is that there was not a lot of momentum for this presidency in the first six months, health care, immigration, tax reform. I mean, you know, the way that we define the success or failure is, what did they get done, right? There hasn't been a lot of momentum there.

This not only takes it from sort of a political failure, which I think it has been. Now it's six months in, six -- a little more. But morally, and more importantly, frankly, this is a moral failure on the part of the president. This will go down -- when -- whatever is eventually written about Donald Trump's presidency, this will be a part in which you say, the president of the United States vacated the moral leadership that every past president, particularly in the modern era, has issued, stepping up in times of crisis, stepping up to sort of be big to lead.

BORGER: And I -- CILLIZZA: Sorry, Gloria.

BORGER: But I want to -- I just want to add something to that. I do not believe that a large majority or a large portion of the president's base would condone this. I don't think so.

BLITZER: All right, hold on for a --

BORGER: I think it's -- whoever it is, I don't know that they're the base of anybody except themselves, right?

BLITZER: All right, the breaking news, I want to just reiterate the president's tweet that we just reported on. Rather than putting pressure on the business people of the manufacturing council and strategy and policy forum, I am ending both. Thank you all.

There you see it right there.

I want to bring in Cristina Alesci, our business correspondent.

This is a moment that certainly the president didn't want. He thought he had the big business community on board. And now they were abandoning because of the comments, because of the reaction to what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia. And now he has to go ahead and disband these two forums.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf.

And this is really a missed opportunity for President Trump. He had the full support of some very big brands that carried a lot of weight, the largest commercial bank in the United States, JP Morgan Chase. You're talking about one of the biggest investment advisors in this country, Blackstone. And plenty of other brands like IBM, for example, was in this group. They represent a cross section of industries. And they were supporting the president. They may not have not accomplished much over that time, over that short time when they came together, but they were at least giving him legitimacy and support to the public, and now those two groups, we're talking about two separate groups here, the one I was just talking about was the strategic and policy forum, that was the one that comprised a lot of the brands that I mentioned earlier, the CEOs of those brands.

There was also another group, the manufacturing council, which was really focused on creating jobs, bringing manufacturing jobs back to America. And in both cases, it really gave Trump a lot of legitimacy, and a lot of firepower actually. The images of these business leaders sitting next to him really gave President Trump a lot of legitimacy on Wall Street. It was one of the reasons, you know, that a lot of investors had confidence that we would get tax reform, is because we had these large names and these important thought leaders sitting next to him.

And now that they've disbanded, effectively the president has gotten in front of this by tweeting it out. But the reality was they were under immense pressure from consumer groups and activists to denounce the president and his remarks about what's happened over the past couple of days. '

So, Wolf, none of this is surprising. It's made it -- they've obviously made it easy For President Trump because they allowed him to get in front of it without each one peeling away and making it, you know, a bigger story for several days. He's just cutting the cord and they're allowing him to sort of do it easy.

BLITZER: Let's not make any -- let's not make any mistake, he was losing the support of these CEOs very, very quickly. He started with one, then two, then five, now eight. But and a lot more.

And if you take a look at these companies, Under Armour, Merck, Intel, 3M, Campbells, you can go on. Richard Trumkin (ph), the leader of the -- of the -- the largest union, the AFL-CIO, in the United States, the largest trade unions in the United States, the Alliance for American Manufacturing, they were bolting and more were ready to bolt right away.

[13:25:14] Cristina Alesci, there's no doubt the president had no choice, either he announces he's disbanding these two councils or they're all going to quit within a matter of days.

ALESCI: That's right. That's right. And that's one group, the group that you just showed on the screen there, that's the manufacturing council. The other group was solidly together and they decided, you know, to act sort of as one and allow the president to pull the plug on it. And that was that CEO group that comprised of Jamie Dimon, Steve Schwartzman (ph), J.D. Remedy (ph) from IBM. All of those leaders.

And, you know, look, the larger -- the larger picture here is that there was an opportunity to do something with the CEOs of America. There was a real chance that this group, the manufacturing council and the CEO group could have affected change. But the really is, that they were under so much pressure from the outside, probably from investors as well. Remember, all of these people, all of these CEOs, not only do they have to make their consumers happy, but they also have to make their shareholders happy.

And once there is less upside for them, once they start hearing from those two constituencies, then it's pretty much game over here. And it's -- and I would think at this point from an economic policy, we're going to have to see how this plays out, how Wall Street reacts to this. But this is definitely a negative turn for the president. And probably opens the door for a lot of other supporters to maybe see this and say, maybe sticking by President Trump isn't the best thing to do.

And I think that's the next storyline we're going to see. This is the business community. The question is, who's next after this?

BLITZER: And the -- and, Cristina, thank you very much.

You know, Gloria, who's next? The question is, will folks who are working for him inside the White House --

BORGER: Right.

BLITZER: At the Treasury Department, elsewhere in the administration, will they decide now, you know what, I can't stay, I can't stay, I have to leave?

BORGER: You know what I thought of as I was listening to Cristina, he cannot disband the Congress. He can disband his manufacturing council and the strategy and policy group. And people can quit in the administration or not quit. But the one thing he can't do is say, I'm dismissing you in the Congress.

And what we are seeing is members of Congress, some of them addressing him more directly, like Lindsay Graham and like John McCain. Others doing it a little bit more obliquely. But what you are seeing in the Congress is that people, members now, may get a little more muscular and start saying to the president, you know what, we're not going to -- we're going to deal with, whether it's some of his staff or whether it's Kelly or -- you know, maybe members of Congress now are going to get a little more bold about how they regard this president, because he cannot fire them.

BLITZER: You know, and it's -- what's interesting, only yesterday, Cornell, the president had a very different tweet when some of the CEOs started resigning. He tweeted this. Let's put it up on the screen. For every CEO that drops out of the manufacturing council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. Jobs.

So this is clearly a failure. He thought he had many CEOs ready to replace those who were dropping out. He apparently did not.

BROOKS: He misread the character and conscience of the CEOs as well as the public. When that recent poll reveals that 31 percent of the American public thinks that the president personally supports white nationalism, only 22 percent believe that he's opposed to it and 24 percent believe that he doesn't care. Unless you believe 30 percent of your consumers, 30 percent of the voters personally support white nationalism, everybody in Congress needs to be concerned.

BLITZER: He doesn't like to admit defeat, Juana, as you know, the president of the United States. Here he is admitting two of his major advisory councils that he put together early on in his administration, with some very, very high powered, very effective talent, he has now -- he has no choice, he's got to disband these two councils because the CEOs were fleeing.

[13:29:42] SUMMERS: Yes, it's like, on the one hand he's admitting defeat. He's saying, you know, this isn't going to work. He doesn't have that stack of CEOs, as you noted, sitting there to fill the seats. On the other hand, he's kind of pushing along saying, you know what, noting to see here. You don't see him lashing out and attacking these newly departed CEOs or this other group the way that he did the head of Merck that he went after. You see him just trying to move it right along, get into a different conversation. I'm sure that by the time we leave this set, there will be yet another tweet of the president throwing something else out there into the public consciousness to distract attention away from the fact that here he has failed.