[Whitfield:] All right, welcome back. Live pictures right now out of Boston as we understand demonstrations are beginning to disperse there. Hundreds if not thousands of people have descended on the city with dueling demonstrations. Police even at one moment pushing back against protesters as tensions continue to rise. The objective, we understand from Boston police, was to try to separate one group of demonstrators from another group of demonstrators so that the two did not produce any unrest by clashing. These protests come amid harsh backlash toward the president of the United States over his mixed messages on the deadly Charlottesville, Virginia, clashes last weekend. All of this as the firing of chief strategist Steve Bannon is highlighting a dramatic shift in the president's inner circle. Trump is spending the day at his New Jersey golf course with no scheduled events planned. Joining me right now is CNN's Boris Sanchez. Boris, the president is not on the scene, but apparently he has been tweeting. And what has the president been saying?
[Boris Sanchez, Cnn Correspondent:] Hey there, Fred. So far we've gotten no indication that the president is watching the events in Boston unfold. He has not tweeted about them specifically, and we've not gotten clarity on the White House as to exactly what the president is doing today, whether or not he's on the golf course or not. But his tweets earlier today, two of them specifically referenced Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist that we learned yesterday was fired by the administration. The first tweet that the president sent out, he writes, quote, "I want to thank Steve Bannon for his service. He came to the campaign during my run against crooked Hillary Clinton. It was great. Thanks, S." That "S" of course referring to Steve Bannon. The president later on several hours later went on to tweet, quote, "Steve Bannon will be a tough and smart new voice at "Breitbart News," maybe even better than before. Fake news needs the competition." So obviously Bannon is on the mind of the president, though it's interesting that in those tweets he didn't mention any of Steve Bannon's work in the White House in his position as chief strategist. Beyond that, ironically, his other tweet today focused on a major point of dissension between Steve Bannon and other top White House officials, Afghanistan. The president tweeting about his meetings yesterday with top military brass in Camp David, saying that they came to some important decisions, one of them being on Afghanistan. Though CNN did reach out to the Pentagon and got a response, saying that there was no new announcements or information from the Department of Defense, so the president obviously keeping this information close. And as you said, Fred, he has no public appearances today so the press can't ask him about this new approach in Afghanistan, the firing of Steve Bannon, or these protests that we're seeing in Boston and elsewhere in the country this weekend, Fred.
[Whitfield:] Or even ask the president any further about the president and first lady not attending the upcoming December Kennedy Center honors, which is tradition for presidents to be in attendance and also host the reception.
[Sanchez:] You're absolutely right, Fred. That's another piece of information we got from the White House this morning. This is a big deal. This is only the fourth time that a sitting president is going to miss the Kennedy Center honors gala. And the quote that we got from the White House was, quote, "The president and first lady have decided not to participate in this year's activities to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction." Now interestingly enough, several of these honorees, included Norman Lear, Lionel Richie, and Carmen de Lavallade had said that they would boycott that reception at the White House that usually takes place before the Kennedy Center honors gala. This is just one more instance of backlash against the president after his comments about Charlottesville. We also saw the implosion of some of those special councils that he put together, the manufacturing council and the infrastructure council which didn't really get off the ground. We're also seeing several charities move events away from Mar-a-Lago, the Susan G. Komen foundation, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army as well. So this is clearly a trend of people moving away from the president, not limited to those within his own party. We saw several members of the GOP come out and call the president out by name, saying that he needs to apologize for his comments on Charlottesville going back to last Tuesday, Fred.
[Whitfield:] All right, Boris Sanchez in New Jersey, thank you so much. And we'll be right back.