Trump Renews Feud With Sports World; Moore Threatening To Sue Accusers
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles.</s>ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, Donald Trump launches fresh attack against the sports world as criticisms grow over the U.S. president's tacit endorsement of an alleged pedophile.</s>VAUSE: The Crocodile is back and about to take charge. But is Zimbabwe replacing one dictator for another?</s>SESAY: And the former doctor of the U.S. gymnastics team pleads guilty to sexually assaulting the underage girls he was supposed to help.</s>VAUSE: Hello, everybody, great to have with us. I'm John Vause.</s>SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. This is</s>NEWSROOM L.A. SESAY: Well, The Thanksgiving holiday is upon us here in the U.S., and President Donald Trump began his with an online tirade against sports figures who have angered him.</s>VAUSE: And so many across the U.S. are about to join together and give thanks. It seems Donald Trump believes he's not getting enough gratitude. CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports from the president's resort in Florida.</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump back at Mar-a-Lago for the first time since April. His Thanksgiving break, opening another season at his private club in Palm Beach. Even though he went to great lengths to suggest, he's not on vacation. "We'll be having meetings and working the phones from the Winter White House in Florida," the president tweeted just after sunrise. But as Republicans measured fallout from his embrace of controversial Alabama Senate Candidate, Roy Moore, the president hit the links today, following an early morning burst of tweets starting at 5:25 a.m. He added new fuel to the fight with LaVar Ball, the father of one of the UCLA basketball players jailed in China after allegedly stealing sunglasses. Ball blasted Trump earlier this week to CNN's Chris Cuomo.</s>LAVAR BALL, MEDIA PERSONALITY AND BUSINESSMAN: Tell Donald Trump to have a great Thanksgiving.</s>ZELENY: The president still fuming over not receiving more thanks for securing their release. "It wasn't the White House, it wasn't the State Department, it wasn't father LaVar's so-called "people on the ground in China" that got his son out of a long-term prison sentence; it was me. Too bad. LaVar is just a poor man's version of Don King but without the hair." Don King supported President Trump in 2016. The president went on to call Ball an "ungrateful fool." In a season of thankfulness, it was a blistering response to ball's refusal to say the words "Thank you" to President Trump.</s>BALL: If I was going to thank somebody, I'd probably thank President Xi.</s>ZELENY: The president didn't stop there, also reviving his beef with the NFL. "The NFL is now thinking about a new idea, keeping teams in the locker room during the national anthem next season. That's almost as bad as kneeling." The tweetstorm didn't stop until the president arrived at Trump International Golf Course. The messages may have been an attempt to change the subject from his remarks Tuesday at the White House.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me just tell you, Roy Moore denies it. That's all I can say; he denies it. And by the way, he totally denies it.</s>ZELENY: Even as the majority of Americans say, Moore shouldn't serve. Tonight, a new Quinnipiac poll shows 60 percent of American voters say, if Moore is elected, the Senate should vote to expel him; 28 percent do not. But in Alabama, Moore's campaign touted the move, sending a copy Mr. Trump's kind words to supporters. Florida Congressman Francis Rooney told CNN's Jim Sciutto, he was among the Republicans who would not be following the president's lead in backing Moore.</s>REP. FRANCIS ROONEY (R), FLORIDA: Well, it's up to the president to decide what he wants to do. But if -- I would've rather just seen no support for Roy Moore myself.</s>ZELENY: Several other Republican members of Congress also said, they did not intend to follow the president's leads and endorse Roy Moore. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who a week ago said, Roy Moore is not fit to serve, had nothing to say after the president's embrace of Roy Moore. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, West Palm Beach Florida.</s>VAUSE: For more, Democratic Strategist Caroline Heldman, and Republican Strategist Chris Faulkner joining us here. Good to see you both, welcome back. OK. Let's start with Roy Moore, who has threatened to sue his accusers as well as The Washington Post for libel. That legal action has not started, and here's the reason why from Judge Moore.</s>ROY MOORE: REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATE: We're talking about The Washington Post, we're talking about the women involved. You know, it takes time to develop a case and file a case. But you just don't go file a case without some proof, and we're getting proof, we're getting things.</s>VAUSE: Caroline, did he sort of give the game away? They just don't have any proof.</s>CAROLINE HELDMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, you know, this is just strategy, right? It's strategy where you threaten to sue the reporters -- you know, Eric Bolling is suing Yeshara Ali for $50 million --</s>VAUSE: Yes, Donald Trump threatened to sue all the women, and they have to do it again.</s>HELDMAN: Exactly. It's just a delay tactic. I don't actually think we'll see any action from this.</s>VAUSE: OK. We're also hearing from Moore's Pastor, Flip Benham, who explained during an interview that when Moore returned from West Point, all the eligible women were taken. And then, well, listen to this.</s>FLIP BENHAM, ROY MOORE'S PASTOR: So, he looked in a different direction, and always with the parents -- younger ladies. By the way, the lady that he's married to now, Ms. Kayla, is a younger woman. He did that because, you know, there's something about a purity of a young woman. And there's something about -- something that's good, that's true, that's straight, and he'd look to that --</s>VAUSE: Chris, did the pastor do the judge any favors?</s>CHRIS FAULKNER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, it's safe to say Pastor Flip shouldn't engage as a surrogate for the campaigning impacts in. No, he's not helping. He should stop talking.</s>VAUSE: Caroline, it does sort of go to this the bigger picture that there some in Alabama who don't think Roy Moore did anything wrong.</s>HELDMAN: John, I grew up in a cause of Evangelical. I knew exactly what the pastor is referring to. It's a pretty common practice. There were a lot of dates with much older men when I was a teen. This is not only a normal practice, it's seen as a good practice because you'll find a submissive wife. I, obviously, as an adult and as a feminist who cares about gender equality, have serious issues with it. But I think you're absolutely right, the fact that there are only three percentage points apart in Alabama, speaks volumes to the normalization of this practice.</s>VAUSE: OK. Well, a day after giving that tacit endorsement to Roy Moore, the president is at his Florida resort for Thanksgiving, clearly believing, you know, he wants a little more love, a little more gratitude from, you know, many people in this ungrateful country. But this is what Congressman John Garamendi said about Donald Trump's Twitter war with LaVar Ball.</s>REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D), CALIFORNIA: Mr. President, you're the commander in chief, would you please, please grow up? Stop this kind of absolute foolishness, because you bring all of us down.</s>VAUSE: Chris, at this time year, particularly, is it too much to expect the president to walk away and just leave it?</s>FAULKNER: Come on now. The president is a 70-year-old billionaire, who has been but everybody, lots of smart people that there was no way he'd ever be the Republican nominee for president. There is no way you'll ever be president of the United States. We're lucky he's reasonable at all. If you are a 70-year-old billionaire, and you told me all those things that I managed to do all those things, I would tell you this guy is read: water's not wet. There's a reasonable degree to which we can expect him to not be himself. The president is very opinionated on many things. He's going to continue being himself. He has no incentive to not do that.</s>VAUSE: I just wonder, Caroline, if this is just, you know, oh, we're shining -- there's a great, big, shining object over here, I'm having another Twitter war, you know, the parent of an African-American athlete. I'm going to take on the NFL because that went down really well with base the last time, just forget what I said about Roy Moore on Tuesday.</s>HELDMAN: Forget about what I said about Roy Moore, forget about the fact there's an active Russia investigation that continues to uncover more people to be indicted. Yes, I mean, it's certainly a politics of distraction. But at the end of the day, I used to think he was much more planful. And now, I really do get the sense that he is simply reacting and living in the moment and that he has some impulse control issues when it comes to Twitter.</s>VAUSE: OK. You know, Tony Schwartz, who is the co-author of the "Art of the Deal," he explained Donald Trump's to that criticism from LaVar Ball, one of the fathers of the three college basketball players who were released from China. Listen to this.</s>TONY SCHWARTZ, AUTHOR: I think Trump is half-awed and half-frightened by Black people. And his only way of dealing with them is to attack them, and on the other hand, I think he has a zero tolerance for any criticism of any kind.</s>VAUSE: It's always difficult, Chris, to obviously, you know, get into the president's head. But any -- you have any credit to that?</s>FAULKNER: There's a lot of sound advice that people acquire over the course of a political career. There why there are a whole lot of people that go from playing middle school football directly to the NFL. Because, there's a maturity process, there's learning process. There's a lot of great advice that I've given to lots of candidates. You want to have a friend? Get a dog. And you know, dogs are always going to be happy to see; they're always going to be gracious; they're always going to be thrilled no matter what you do. Voters, really, are not t same way. And this is something that you learn over the course of years of being in the House, the Senate, Gubernatorial elections and other things. The president is, probably, genuinely confused why he doesn't get more gratitude. Stock market all-time high, unemployment is falling, there's a lot of really good economic indicators out there, and he's looking at those things and saying, why am I did not get any more credit for those things?</s>VAUSE: Caroline?</s>HELDMAN: Well, he's given himself credit for those things on Twitter, right? I mean, it's, it's juvenile, frankly, to -- and he started this, right, with Mr. Ball by essentially tweeting why aren't these basketball players more grateful? It just -- it's not presidential. It shows a lack of class. And you're right, it's very consistent with what he's done since -- really before he got the presidency. But at the end of the day, I worry about the destructiveness to the office itself.</s>VAUSE: Well, while the president was endorsing Roy Moore, he also talked about how this is the wonderful time for women that they can come forward, and they can talk about sexual harassment, and, you know, they can do it freely, I guess. But last year, this is how Donald Trump talked about a woman who accused him of sexual harassment.</s>TRUMP: Say, oh, I was with Donald Trump in 1980. I was sitting with him on an airplane. And he went after me on the plane. Yes, I'm going to go after her. Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you.</s>TRUMP: You don't know, that would not be my first choice.</s>VAUSE: Caroline, I'm wondering, is there a common thread between, sort of, the way Roy Moore treats women and views women, and the way Donald Trump treats women?</s>HELDMAN: Oh, absolutely. They both, obviously, view women as being second-class citizens in some profound ways. They go after women in non-consensual manners, or at least according to multiple women. And the fact that we elected Donald Trump as President with 16 allegations of sexual violence, and sexual harassment. And now that number is up to 22, including two children, right, a 12 and a 13-year-old. I think there's a clear parallel in terms of age of the accusers. But at the end of the day, these are two men who simply do not respect women as full human beings.</s>VAUSE: And Chris, if you look at the exit polls from the election, a Tuesday ago, when -- in Virginia and New Jersey, women went against Donald Trump. You look at the opinion polls right now Alabama, women are going against Roy Moore. You know, there was a lot of talk leading up to the 2016 that Donald Trump had a woman problem. Now, it really seems he's got a pretty big woman problem if this continues.</s>FAULKNER: Again, I think -- going back to the elections that happened, in terms of Virginia and New Jersey, those were states that are definitely trending against Republicans. Is Donald Trump's tweets, his, you know, behavior, is it a drag on Republican candidates? It can be. If a candidate -- you know, it was a drag for Democratic candidates with Bill Clinton, it was a drag for Democratic candidates when we passed Obamacare on Republican's House back in 2010. There is always that, that uptick a drag that's going to come down on those candidates. How those candidates choose to define themselves, how they communicate, what it is that they're staying for? He's going to be the real challenge. It's going to be an increasingly difficult challenge for them, because, obviously, there are news -- the information flows continually, nationalized. The death of local media and the way people consume information is much more nationalized now.</s>VAUSE: Yes. And it's going to be very difficult to separate themselves from the Roy Moore's and the Donald Trumps.</s>FAULKNER: Certainly.</s>VAUSE: OK. So, remember back when the president was in Asia, and he called Republicans and Democrats about his tax plan. He made that totally untrue claim that he would be worse off, he's spoken to his</s>SEN. TOM CARPER (D), DELAWARE: Gary gets out to take a call on his cellphone, comes back into the room and he said we have somebody calling in from Asia, and it was the President. 15 minutes later, the president's still talking. I said, Gary, why don't you do this? Why don't you just take the phone from -- your cellphone back and just say, Mr. President, you're brilliant, but we're losing contact and I think we're going to lose you now so goodbye. And that's what he did, and he hanged-up.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you saying Gary Cohn faked the bad connection to get the president off the phone?</s>CARPER: Well, I wouldn't -- I don't want to throw him onto the bus, but yes.</s>VAUSE: Caroline, the only thing that would make this better is if Cohn got out a hair dryer blew down the phone and pretend that he was in a tunnel. I mean, this is cabinet who's faking, you know, bad phone lines to end conversations. You've got the National Security Advisor McMaster saying that the president has the intellect of a kindergarten; he doesn't understand what's going on. You know, his secretary of state, not denying that he called the president a moron.</s>HELDMAN: Well, again, I think that this speaks volumes to how much under threat the presidency is. When you have a cabinet that is not actually listening to you, that is engaging in calling you names, and this is just what's leaked, so you know that this is happening much more behind the scenes. But getting off the phone with the president because there isn't something useful being said, yes, this speaks to the erosion of how the presidency is supposed to work, and that is really due to this one man being in the office.</s>VAUSE: And, Chris, you know, is that -- is this, sort of, just the tip of the iceberg? Because as Caroline says, this is what we know about. This is the stuff which is leaking out or is this it?</s>FAULKNER: No, I disagree. I think we live in an age where the microscope of public scrutiny is much more so that it has been in the past. Whether or not -- I mean, a team of rivals. I mean, American politics has always</s>HELDMAN: You think that Lincoln's team of rivals would've tried to get off the phone with him?</s>FAULKNER: No. They would've shut him down in the first place.</s>FAULKNER: They probably, multiple -- if you really, look, the guys were running for president against Lincoln actively while serving in his cabinet. So, I think, I think discourse --</s>FAULKNER: They'd probably call them far worse than that.</s>VAUSE: Exactly. That's true. I mean, it was a much more rough and tumble time of America politics. This is, I guess quite tame in comparison. Before we go through, we have a quick pop quiz. OK. Look at the screen. Can you guess which photo is America's loudest, most annoying helicopter parent? That would be LaVar Ball. And which photo is the active best known as the engineer from the U.S. Enterprise -- Georgi La Forge, AKA LaVar Burton. OK. So, is it -- is LaVar Ball, photograph A? or is photograph B? Caroline.</s>HELDMAN: Well, obviously, LaVar Ball is photograph B. And it's unfortunate that we're having this conversation right now.</s>VAUSE: OK. Chris?</s>FAULKNER: Well, LaVar Burton will always be me</s>FAULKNER: So, obviously, depicted therein you photograph --</s>VAUSE: You're both accurate. But apparently many Trump supporters do not know the difference between LaVar Burton and LaVar Ball because LaVar Burton has been the focus of a lot of angry tweets. And with that let's say good night. Thank you.</s>HELDMAN: Good night.</s>VAUSE: Good to see you both.</s>SESAY: An important distinction to many.</s>VAUSE: Yes, it's very important.</s>SESAY: Good chill on that. We're going to take a quick break. A new leader is set to take the oath of all decisions in Zimbabwe, just ahead. Why some critics say the next president may be no better than the dictator he's replacing.</s>VAUSE: Also, ahead, the days of net neutrality may be numbered in the U.S. and that could have global consequences.