[Cuomo:] All right. So, a fundamental question was raised in a heated exchange on CNN this weekend during President Trump's latest rally. Take a listen.
[Paul Begala, Cnn Political Commentator:] If we're going to wait 1,361 days and he's still going to be the moral midget that you saw on that stand in Harrisburg tonight.
[Paris Dennard, Former Bush White House Director Of Black Outreach:] I did not like probably 98 to 99 percent of the things that President Obama did but I would never call him Obama and I would never call him a moral midget.
[Begala:] You respect the office, not the man. I respect the office. If he enters a room, I stand. If he signs a law, I obey it. He is my president, but he is letting me down and the vast majority of Americans down.
[Cuomo:] The ways to criticize a president the office, the man. Let's discuss. CNN political commentators Ana Navarro and Jeffrey Lord. Ana, respect the man, respect the office how do you balance those two?
[Ana Navarro, Cnn Political Commentator:] Well, look, we live in America and we have something called the First Amendment, which gives us free speech. So this is a country where we can actually say what we want about anybody, including the President of the United States. That's a good thing and that's a bad thing. In other countries in a place like Cuba, in a place like Venezuela, in a place like the Philippines, that may get you killed. In the United States, we can. And I do think, though, that we have to have a civil discourse. I think we have to have respect for the office of the presidency, but I think that respect for the office of the presidency must begin, must be reflected by the person sitting in that office at that moment by the President of the United States, himself. And when you have Donald Trump a President Donald Trump who calls Elizabeth Warren "Pocahontas", a person who calls Chuck Todd "sleepy eyes", who throws ad hominem attacks on a constant basis and has done it his entire life, continues to do it as president, then you have to wonder. How can you seek respect, how can you want respect if you're not willing to give respect to your American people? To the people that voted for you, to the people that are part of your country.
[Cuomo:] Jeffrey
[Navarro:] But I think it goes both ways.
[Cuomo:] Jeffrey?
[Jeffrey Lord, Cnn Political Commentator, Former Reagan White House Officials:] Yes. Well, Chris,I have to say, I mean, first of all, the First Amendment is everything here in this country so that's a good thing. Secondly, I have to say there hasn't been a President of the United States in American history, beginning with George Washington, that hasn't been dumped on by their critics. I mean, this is part of life when you're in the White House. I listened to my friend Paul Begala in that clip that you just played and I have to say, with all due respect, there were plenty of Americans in the Clinton days who felt towards President Clinton more or less as Paul Begala was describing President Trump. This comes with the territory and every president's different.Presidents do things Harry Truman said of a critic of his daughter, for heaven's sake, that he going to he hoped not to meet him because if he did he was going to, you know, punch him and hit him where he might need a supporter, and the letter went on at length. And it was a letter, by the way. It wasn't an off the cuff remark. So this kind of thing is, you know, par for the course here in America and it gets more intense than at other times and you just roll with it.
[Cuomo:] But at the end of the day
[Navarro:] Jeffrey, you've got to go get some coffee this morning. You've just given an entire answer and you didn't even mention Ronald Reagan.
[Lord:] Well, of course, I do remember the protests of Ronald Reagan. How about that?
[Cuomo:] You know, look, I take I take the points but I guess the question becomes and look, this is not new. I deal with this every day with people who want you have two camps. One is do not normalize Donald Trump. Do not respect what he does just because he's president. It's about the man and the office. And then this other side, which is well, hold on, you cannot devalue what this office means and once somebody has won it, Ana, you must accord them the respect of that office, and if you don't like what they do, that's fine, but there must be a line.
[Navarro:] Well, good luck with that. Look, I saw some horrible cartoons, some horrible emails comes through when George W. Bush was president. I saw some horrible emails and cartoon comes through when Barack Obama was president, but I've got to go back to my point. The person that has got to establish the precedence of respect, that has got to behave in a presidential manner is the president, himself. That really sets a tone that I think makes a difference in America. When you are doing things, like inviting a mad man oppressor, a corrupt leader of the Philippines to our White House, that is not presidential and people are going to call you names because they are going to be offended, rightly so.
[Cuomo:] Right. So, it's a little bit of the "get what you give," Jeffrey, and is that something that must be factored into this as well? Yes, Donald Trump won the office. He is President of the United States, but the way he has conducted himself and the things that have come out of him, and the actions and the words have generated this criticism. You get what you give.
[Lord:] Well, all I can say is and Chris, the other night I was at the Washington Correspondents' the White HouseCorrespondent's' Dinner and right here in my adopted hometown of Harrisburg was the president, himself, and he gave that speech. And I can only tell you the reports that I got, some of them from that were being texted to me by a local reporter as the event was going on was that the folks who were there were thrilled with him. They love it. They love him to death. They are most unhappy with Washington, D.C. They are most unhappy with the kind of folks that were there with me at the at the Correspondents' Dinner and they wanted to make it known and they love him for doing it. So there is a disconnect here and I think we just have to, you know, work with that.
[Cuomo:] Hey, Jeffrey, does it bother you at all when the president says I want to change some of these First Amendment protections because when I when they say things that are terrible and wrong, you know, we should be able to get after them, like in the U.K.? Forget about the fact that the U.K. is moving some of their statutory principles to be more like us. But the idea of because I don't like it, maybe I'll change the law to get after the media, do you like that idea?
[Lord:] I confess, as a First Amendment freak, that does bother me a bit. I mean, I just think give these things free rein no matter who they are. But I know that he genuinely he's spoken to me about this long before he was running for president and I know he feels very, very strongly about it, so we'll see what happens. But I do think we have to be careful here when we deal with the First Amendment absolutely. And one other thing if I could say, Chris. You know, people at that dinner made which was terrific and I was a guest of CNN made a great deal about the First Amendment, but I didn't hear the words Ann Coulter anywhere at that dinner and here she was under physical threat from giving a speech at Berkeley. I mean, that was a pretty noticeable problem, I thought, and there were others. I didn't hear the names of other conservatives who have been attacked here and threatened, so I think that we've got to work on that.
[Cuomo:] Ana, let me ask you something while I have you. The first Cuban-American elected to Congress is going to retire next year. Tell us about this great lady and what people should know about the legacy of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
[Navarro:] She's my congresswoman, she is also my friend. She is also a mentor. She was the first Latina elected to Congress. She was the first woman to chair a major committee. She was the chair of Foreign Relations. She's also a sane, compassionate, moderate voice. She was the biggest winner she had the biggest swing district. Hillary Clinton won her district by 20 points and she won that same district by over 20 points. It was the largest difference and margin in the country because she has focused on her community. It's going to be a huge loss in this environment that we have today where there is such polarization and such dysfunction. I've been amazed by the I've been amazed by the feedback in social media to her announcing that she's retiring. You know, I've seen people from the left, from the right, Democrats, Independents, Republicans, LGBTQ, straight people, religious people, immigrants, native-born, young people, older people, Speaker Paul Ryan, even Rosie O'Donnell call her out for somebody that has done the right thing and expressed admiration for her. Ileana, mi amigo, muchas gracias. You're going to be you're a little teeny woman with little teeny feet but you're going to leave very big shoes to fill.
[Lord:] Hey, Chris, you're missing an obvious question here. Is Ana a candidate for Congress?
[Navarro:] Oh, sweetheart, please. I couldn't afford it and they couldn't afford me.
[Cuomo:] All right, thank you both for the discussion. We have a lot of news this morning including what is in and out of this government new spending bill that stopped the shutdown. Let's get after it.
[Trump:] In many cases, you're forced to make deals that are not the deal you'd make.