[Howell:] Three twenty-nine a.m. here on the U.S. East Coast, welcome back to viewers here in the United States and all around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. It is good to have you with us. I'm George Howell.
[Allen:] And I'm Natalie Allen. Let's update you on top stories this hour. In South Korea this hour the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford is set to meet any moment now with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Dunford is in South Korea amid the latest missile threats from Pyongyang. How to deal with North Korea is at the top of their agenda..
[Howell:] Protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia shouted down the organizer of the white nationalist rally when he tried to make a public statement on Sunday. That comes the day after a car plowed into a crowd of people protesting against that same white supremacist rally. One woman was killed by the car that rammed into the crowd of people.
[Allen:] U.S. President Donald Trump is being slammed for what he didn't say about that violence in Virginia. Mr. Trump convince hatred and bigotry but he failed to denounce white nationalism by name. A neo-Nazi web site even celebrated the president's remarks as, quote, "really good." Now the White House is trying to clarify the president's remark. One official said the president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred and of course, that includes, white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.
[Howell:] It is important to point out a footnote here. That statement comes from an official at the White House who asked not to have his or her name revealed. And many critics are pushing the president instead to say the words himself. So, just pointing out that footnote to the statement. Our Sara Sidner spoke with CNN's Wolf Blitzer about these white nationalists and what they expect to gain.
[Sara Sidner, Cnn Correspondent:] You got the white nationalists and that's probably the largest group because there's a lot of different people underneath this umbrella. They support white supremacist ideologies which make them white supremacists. To say some openly use racial slurs to incite violence, others claim they are nonviolent organizations but then you have other categories like the KKK, the neo-Nazi. The neo-confederates. There's also the alt-right and alt-light, two groups that talk a lot about white nationalism and they want to be in a place where white history, in other words, European history is the sole history that people learn and that they can be proud of. I do want to talk about the fact that Donald Trump did not specifically name neo-Nazi and specifically white nationalist and specifically name white supremacists, if you don't think words matter, you would be wrong. Words matter. And I want you to hear what one of the most extreme groups, the Daily Stormer, who's got a web site out there. The person who runs that, Andrew Anglin is one of the most racist hateful people in these groups and he's definitely a part of this march, some of his people at the march. I want to read what he said after Donald Trump spoke those words but failed to mention neo-Nazi and failed to mention white supremacists. He said, quote, "Trump comments were good. He didn't attack us," talking about white supremacist, "he just said the nation should come together, nothing specific against us. When asked to condemn he just walked out of the room. Really, really good. God bless him." This is from one of the most extreme people in this whole white supremacists movement and he's basically saying, well, the good thing is Donald Trump didn't say anything condemning us specifically so we're good. And he is good because he's basically saying to us, we're OK doing what we're doing, but we need to do keep doing this. This was really a recruiting tool, we should mention that as well as far as all of these different groups going out and marching together with this tiki torches definitely for recruitment. That is what these groups are looking to do, include and bring in more young people. Hoping that they will see there are so many people that are for this sort of white supremacy or white nationalism that will join alongside them. Of course, they don't want blacks to join, don't want Jews to join, they don't want Hispanics to join. They want to get rid of everybody else, but they certainly want whites to join. And that's what you're seeing here, a recruitment tool. Wolf?
[Wolf Blitzer, Cnn:] You know, Sara, these white nationalist groups they are pointing fingers at what they say is other side violent groups. Tell us about that.
[Sidner:] Look, it is fair to say that there are a section of anti- fascists or antifa as they're known, they're known as block black that often come out and they do end up pushing and shoving and screaming at one another. They were created in the 1930's. They targeted, they usually target racism, fascism, Nazism. They are known for destruction and violent acts. Just one section of it known as a block black is known for coming out and burning things. And we saw some of that in Berkley over these past couple of years. And this year especially we've seen some of their reactions there, you see some of the fighting that went on that was a Trump rally that happened in Berkeley. There was another rally against a white nationalist or alt-right, if you will, speaker who came to University of California at Berkley. And the block black, so to speak, you see them there getting arrested come they usually their faces are covered, they're wearing all black. And their point is to be destructive. Their feeling is look, non-violent hasn't worked we are going to do something different. It often that's destructive and violent. But we should be very clear here in saying that what started all this was this march with the tiki torches and the things that were being said by the neo-Nazis, by the white nationalist, or white supremacists, call them whatever name you want, that is what is sparked some of this reaction. People terrified and worried that this is going to grow. And one of the biggest reactions of that was that Donald Trump did not condemn these groups specifically, that's a real problem. Because these groups are taking that as a thumbs up to what they're doing.
[Howell:] Sara Sidner there breaking us a breakdown of the criticism against President Trump's talk.
[Allen:] Yes, and even if he were to say something now, a while later, would it really matter? Too much time has passed.
[Howell:] Yes.
[Allen:] So.
[Howell:] Yes. It's a point. I mean, you can look back at the interview that Jake Tapper had within a while back during the campaign where he asked him about David Duke. David Duke supporting him. The president in that interview did not disavow David Duke, did so later and some critics say that pause, that beat was basically sort of the dog whistle, so to speak to people, you know, that there was support there. Still ahead here, President Trump's controversial chief strategist Steve Bannon, he's been criticized for his previous role as editor in chief of Breitbart News, a right wing publication that has been publish and it's published inflammatory articles.
[Allen:] And now people close to the president are hinting the knives are out for Bannon. First, listen to former White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci speaking for the first time since getting fired.
[Anthony Scaramucci, Fmr. White House Communications Director:] If the president wants to execute that legislative agenda that I think is so promising for the American people, the lower middle class people and the middle class people then he has to move away from the sort of Bannonbart nonsense.
[Unidentified Male:] You mean Steve in Breitbart, Steve Bannon.
[Scaramucci:] Yes. The whole thing is nonsensical. It's not serving the president's interest.
[Howell:] And now take a listen at how the president's national security advisor, H.R. McMaster responded when he was asked, not once, but twice three times, if he can work with Bannon.
[Chuck Todd, Nbc Host, "meet The Press":] Can you and Steve Bannon still work together in this White House or not?
[H.r. Mcmaster, National Security Advisor:] I get to work together with a broad range of talented people. And it is a privilege every day to enable the national security team.
[Todd:] You didn't answer can you and Steve Bannon work in that same White House?
[Mcmaster:] I'm ready to work with anybody who will help advance the president's agenda and advance the security and prosperity of the people.
[Todd:] Do you believe Steve Bannon does that?
[Mcmaster:] I believe that everyone who works in the White House, who has the privilege, the great privilege every day of serving their nation should be motivated by that goal.
[Allen:] Never quite directly answered that question. That was national security advisor H.R. McMaster who is said to be under attack from both inside and outside the White House.
[Howell:] A report memo, a reported memo, rather, is highlighting the power struggle between two of President Trump's closest advisors. Here's CNN's chief Washington correspondent, Jake Tapper.
[Tapper:] While the president's national security advisor and the National Security Council are trying to provide guidance to President Trump as he attempts to navigate and escalate in high take showdown with North Korea, they're also facing attacks from outside the White House and from within the White House. Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, the National Security Advisor to the president has been fending off an information and sometimes disinformation campaign against him by a warring faction vying for power under the same White House roof, allies to the president senior strategist Steve Bannon and those of his first fired National Security Advisor, General Michael Flynn.
[Michael Allen, Fmr. Majority Staff Director, U.s. House Intel Committee:] It's a fight for the soul of President Trump as he grapples with should I be more of a traditional national security national president or should I try in be a foreign policy president in my campaign voice.
[Tapper:] Bannon received a special waiver to continue to talk to his former employees at Breitbart News where he serve as chief executive in which he once described as a, quote, "platform for the alt-right." It's a web site that is launch attack after attack against McMaster in a slew of recent articles. Earlier this week the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research labs noted that many of those stories as well as other attacks against McMaster by fringe web sites and figures including info wars have been pushed on social media using the hash tag fire McMaster by a former Breitbart employee who now literally works for the Russian government as an employee of Sputnik News. Fire McMaster has also been pushed by fringe conspiracy theorists with social media presences who have occasionally been granted access to the White House briefing room by the Trump team. Also pushing this propaganda, someone not particularly influential but extremely noteworthy. Michael Flynn, Jr., the son and one-time top aid of the man who used to have McMaster's job, General Michael Flynn. The Digital Forensic Research Lab notes that the hash tags spread partly because of fake or automatic accounts or bus. They say the campaign against McMaster began in earnest after McMaster ousted the first of five controversial officials of the NSC who have been brought in by Flynn. Why Rich Higgins, a strategic planning aid who work on the Trump campaign was fired by McMaster is subject to debate. Some sources say he and others exemplify McMaster's view that Flynn hired unqualified sub-standard staffers. But there is also the matter of this memo Higgins wrote, rife with conspiracy theories reminiscent of those in the fevered corner of the paranoid internet.
[Jana Winter, Contributor, Foreign Policy Magazine:] If you are on the McMaster side, you do not like this memo because you read it and you say, is he talking about me? Is he talking about someone in leadership who may disagree with the president by that guy?
[Tapper:] The memo obtained by foreignpolicy.com purports to unravel a bizarre conspiracy theory about a coordinated effort between the establishment, the media, globalist, bankers, Islamist, Black Lives Matter, the ACLU, the organization for security and cooperation in Europe, the United Nations, cultural Marxist and the so-called deep state or permanent government apparatus, all of whom the memo claims are banding together to delegitimize and destroy President Trump and prevent him for making America great again. Quote, "For this cabal," the memo states, Trump must be destroyed."
[Allen:] To me it was really a declaration of war on some of the choices for personnel that the president has made. He's this memo's message essentially was hey, those that are perhaps generals or those that had been in the process, that's not your brand. That's not who you are.
[Tapper:] The memo also compares Trump to Abraham Lincoln casting Trump's struggle as a battle between good and evil. Quote, "In the same way, President Lincoln was surrounded by political opposition both inside and outside of his wire and both overt and covert forms, so too is President Trump." Higgins writes. "Had Lincoln failed, so too would have the republic." Though President Trump, it should be noted defended McMaster just yesterday.
[Trump:] He's our friend, he's my friend, and he's a very talented man. I like him, and I respect him.
[Tapper:] Evidence the campaign is having an effect. While McMaster is trying to give a sense of national security adviser to the president during his critical, he's also forced to fend these attacks from the far right both from outside the house and the memo makes pretty clear from inside as well. CNN reached out to the National Security Council and they said the memo was not an official NSC document. I'm Jake Tapper in Washington.
[Howell:] Jake, thanks for the report. With independence came decades of tension, a look at the milestone anniversary of the end of colonial rule in India. Stay with us.