top of the hour. you're live in the cnn newsroom. i'm poppy harlow in new york. we begin with the growing list of democratic congressmen and women who say they will skip the president-elect's inauguration. six days from now. a list that seems to be expanding by the hour. the latest count 16 members from the house from states all across the country, including georgia congressman john lewis. and john congers of michigan. congresswoman barbara lee made the decision days ago but for

others wit was based on somethig that played out in the last 24 hours, the president-elect responding to this comment made by civil rights icon and congressman john lewis. >> i don't see the president-elect as a legitimate president. >> you do not consider him as a legitimate president. why is that in. >> i think the russian's participated in helping this man get elected and they have destroyed the candidacy of hillary clinton. >> his key line, i don't see this president as a legitimate president. trump's response came on twitter. congressman john lewis should spend more time fixing and helping his district which is in horrible shape and falling apart, not to mention crime invested rather than falsely complaining about the election results. all talk talk talk, no action or results. sad.

let's talk about all of that and the day's madelines. ben ferguson, cnn political commentator and bakari sellers, also a cnn political commentator and a former member of south carolina house of representative. thank you for being here. bakari, let me begin with you and this growing list of democratic congressmen and women who will not go to the inauguration. this as a time when our country needs unity more than it was in quite a long time. is that the right move? >> i think these men and women are showing leadership. and civil disobedience and boycotting is as american as apple pie. the question is who am i going to support, is it john lewis or donald trump, and in this case i'm going to land on the side of the civil rights hero. first of all, there's 73 million people who didn't vote for donald trump. but there are many of us who believe that he stands for something that this country does not stand for. and while i think the question of whether or not he's

legitimate when it comes to the race and the involvement of the russians or anyone else, it's still an outstanding question that has to be answered. i think the members of congress who are protesting, showing civil disobedience have ever right to and i stand with them. >> the legitimacy of him being the next president is not something that's been questioned by the sitting president, barack obama. and the president-elect does have every right to respond to someone questioning his legitimacy, something he did to the current president for years with the birther movement. but the way he has done it, the way he responded, attacking a civil rights icon, punching back in the way he did saying all talk no action when you just look at these images, this is a man who almost died fighting for our freedom in '65 in selma. do you approve of the way he responded? >> i have a lot of respect for this congressman. i've met him several times, seen

him speak several times in person but i think he's dead wrong on this one. he is a civil rights leader and should understand that sometimes you don't get exactly what you want and you have to be respectful of the other side when they have a free and fair election. i think he should understand how important it is to have a free and fair election. but in reality what he's saying is i didn't get my way, i wanted hillary clinton, and so therefore i'm not going to show up. what does that teach young people in this country. >> i'm asking you though about trump's response, what he said, all talk and no action, counter punching instead of saying perhaps, look, i'm disappointed you feel that way, i'm disappointed you're not going to be there on friday but let's sit down and talk. would that have been a better response from the man who's going to lead this country in six days? >> i don't think so. >> why? >> i'm going to answer. you have to look at the connotation of what was said by a sitting congressman and how irresponsible it was for him as

a leader to say that someone is not a legitimate president. let's not for get about one thing here. what got hillary clinton to lose the election, referring to what he was saying about hillary clinton should have won this thing or it was stolen from her, her campaign wrote the staff that the american people didn't trust her. she had a problem with her own words. if he's mad about losing the election, blame hillary clinton and her staff for what were in her e-mails that people did not like. hoe won this election, they lost. and if they want to stay home, it's their right. it's just not leadership. and for a party that claims they're all about leadership right now, they're not showing any at all when they attack donald trump saying he's that tough on people and doesn't show leadership. what are you doing right now? you could literally say you're doing exactly what you hate about donald trump, which is also hypocrisy. >> bakari, to those who would draw somewhat of an equivalency

to donald trump questioning the legitimacy of our current president, barack obama, questioning, you know, where he was born, completely unfounded with john lewis saying i don't accept the legitimacy of this incoming president. what do you say to critics when you say aren't you doing something similar to what you criticized? >> onlewis couched his statement by saying he didn't believe it was a free and fair election. why ben is riding his horse of privilege about this -- >> horse of privilege? >> not so that i would have any extra right. i would simply have equal rights and civil rights. i want to remind him about bill posey, a congressman from florida -- >> you're stretching, my friend. >> sponsored a birther bill in the united states. i want to remind him about joe wilson -- >> and i can bet that would happen. >> one actually said the first la lady of the united states had a

fat butting wi, all who hurled s at the president of the united states. >> if you want to have a litmus of all of these other things, when do you stop it and show leadership? you hate the people who have done it but now you're doing it. >> it's a question john lewis's leadership is absurd and neglects history. >> no it's not. >> john lewis knows exactly what he's doing. and if there's a question or whether i join him or donald trump, i'm going to side with john lewis every day of the week. >> to that point do you agree with representative lewis, do you agree that donald trump in his words is not a legitimate president? >> i question the legitimacy of donald trump's candidacy and his presidency since november 8th. >> wow. >> i think donald trump won this race. >> it's sad. >> i don't want to disparnl any of those people who voted for donald trump and i think they there are going to be questions answered about the russians.

>> on that point -- i want want bakari to answer. on that point, speaking for the american people of all parties, where does that leave the american public? where do we go from here? because this election is done, it is over, donald trump will be the sitting president in six days. so how can there be unity going forward? >> i think that's an amazing question, poppy and it's an amazing question that one should actually ask donald trump. we're having this conversation because of donald trump's response, and donald trump's ignorance -- >> we're having it because you said that donald trump is not a legitimate president. >> i want to get a thought out about you interrupting. >> you've gotten plenty. >> i think it's amazing we're having this discussion about someone who has the history and. pedigree, who doesn't have to read about civil rights in the books who actually smelled gun smoke, felt the water host against their back. >> ben, let's let bakari finish.

you'll have plenty of time. i promise. >> if we want to have a conversation that allows us to listen -- we have to start to love our neighbors even when they don't love us. but that doesn't mean i'm going to let someone who disparages people who have fought for rights this hard and who almost died so i can sit here today, i'm not going to sit here and let him go unchallenged. i'm going to challenge him every day of his presidency. >> ben? >> the hypocrisy that is coming from you bakari is truly shocking to me. you claim that you want to bring the country together but then you support someone who says he's not a legitimate president, you support people who won't show up for the inauguration when americans should come together whereby you claim that john lewis is an incredible person because of the civil rights, which he is, but you give him a free pass on the same

hypocrisy he's screaming right now. and for you to say that you respect the voters who voted for donald trump while saying this, that's just a lie. obviously you do not at all ropt the will of the voters in this election and neither does john lewis. freedom is not saying if i don't get any way i refuse to respect someone else when they win a free and fair election. that's what john lewis fought for, freedom he should respect it even when his side lost. >> i got 30 seconds. bakari, final thought. >> no. i think it's amazing to have the audacity of the level of privilege to lecture john lewis about freedom. >> why do you keep saying privilege? >> can i talk? ben. >> you're basically saying racism because i'm white. >> that's kind of how this works. my only point is i think we need to learn from the struggles of people like john lewis. i think if the president of the

united states had an issue, had an issue with what john lewis tweet tweeted, then i think a leader picks up the phone and has that conversation. i believe in john lewis. i wouldn't be here on cnn if it wasn't for people like john lewis. john lewis has led it this far and i'm going to ride john lewis until we actually get to say ben ferguson that we are free. >> bakari sellers, ben ferguson, thank you. thank you both. this is incredibly important to talk about. i appreciate both of your opinions tonight. coming up, the flect says he's make the best deals for this country. what does he do when china responds with the words nonnegotiable. what happens to the art of the deal then? the comment putting the president-elect at odds with beijing tonight. 100% of our food is 100% clean. no artificial preservatives, sweeteners, flavors, or colors.

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china is firing back at president-elect donald trump's nominee for secretary of state. in his confirmation hearing this week, rex tillerson supported a tougher stance by the united states in the contested waters of the south china sea. that is where china has built and militarized several islands. brian todd reports that tillerson's remarks prompted chinese media to issue a possible war with the united states. >> they've staked a claim in thousands of acres, used

sophisticated equipment like these ships, pumping sand through the tubes to create islands. then they built airfields, constructed ports, deployed weapons there, even built bar barracks. chai these buildups has angered the obama administration. the u.s. has sent ships and planes near the islands. sometimes drawing chinese warnings. >> this is the china area. please go away quickly. >> now a newspaper is warning over a possible war with the united states. it's spurred by the comment of rex tillerson. >> we're going to have to send china a clear sick nal that first the island building stops and second, your access to the islands is also not going to be allowed. >> the chinese paper says quote until washington plans to wage a large scale war in the china sea, trying to block their access would be foolish and tillerson better bone up on

nuclear power strategies. pentagon officials are call on china to reduce tensions. how could the u.s. deny china access to those islands. >> you would want to start with a naval brigade. i would assume you're talking about blocking access to the seven islands that china occupies here out of the dozens. you'd also have to deal with their air capabilities. china has four different air strips built on the islands, hangar space for a full regiment of fighter aircraft. that's an awful lot of capability. and this not without cost. are anti-missile systems. >> analysts are worried about escalation. >> the biggest fear is accidental conflict or of accidental conflict. the south china sea, even under the best possible set of

circumstances is going to get more crowded and more con ten sho contentious. there are going to be more military assets. >> a key question in all of this, did rex tillerson speak directly for president-elect trump. i spoke to a trump transition official who walked back slightly from tillerson's comments. the officials said denying access doesn't necessarily have to mean a naval blockade, that there are other options including economic ones. when i pressed on what those might be, the official said there are no details yet but all of this still has to be worked out. brian todd, cnn, washington. and in an interview with "the wall street journal" yesterday, trump called into question the decades old one china policy. that of course recognizes beijing's claim that taiwan is part of china saying that everything is under negotiation ind klug one china. a spokesman for china's foreign

ministry responded saying quote the one china principle is the political relation of sino-u.s. relations and is nononnegotiabl. he wrote the art of the deal. china says this is nonnegotiable. walk us through the thinking of the government in beijing when it comes to taiwan, especially following the controversial phone call that the president-elect had with the president of taiwan. >> reporter: right they're saying clearly now, officials in beijing that taiwan is not on the table. this is a nonnegotiable policy, the one china policy as you point out. why is president-elect donald trump talking about taiwan. why has he been talking about taiwan over the last month. it doesn't have any anything to do in e interest in the u.s.-taiwan relationship as such. but the belief is that president-elect donald trump is talking about taiwan as possible leverage in various trade

negotiations. but this is a trigger issue for china. the one china policy has underpinned. it's the foundation of the political relationship between the u.s. and china since 1979. this was the agreement that u.s. administrations have continued to respect for nearly 40 decades. that diplomatic relationships would be handled through beij g beijing. that the relationship with taiwan would continue to be unofficial. frankly president-elect donald trump shocked the world when he took that phone call from taiwan's leader just a month ago. and at that point, beijing had wondered if perhaps that was a fluke, some sort of sign of the inexperience of the president-elect's transition team. this certainly would seem to change the narrative when he's saying very explicitly that the one china policy is on the table in his mind. >> so that's why you think that the response wu more tempered a month ago versus now. >> it has definitely been a

markedly different response this time, poppy. we're not talking about a major response here. you're talking about a statement put out by the ministry of foreign affairs saying this is nonnegotiable. but it does certainly represent a ratcheting up in terms of the response from what we saw a month ago. there was an official statement a month ago. you heard leeshds in beijing urging the incoming trump administration to respect the one china policy. there was the formal complaint that beijing lodged with the relevant party after that phone call was taken. but at that time beijing really focused its eye on taiwan. it rebuked taiwan's leader for making that phone call, being very clear that taiwan knows the protocol. well giving taiwan a slap on the wrist. but donald trump making his sbrengs intenti intentions much more clear on this. >> alexander field, live in hong kong. elizabeth warren has a

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she has been one of president-elect donald trump's harshest critic. but senator elizabeth warren says her latest criticism of donald trump about his business

is about good government. she says it's not partisanship. he's introduced a bill that would require anyone elected president to divest of all political interests. we spoke with her in washington. >> warren wants trump to sell his businesses. she says that's the beast way to prevent conflicts. otherwise we're looking at potential opportunities for corruption. look, under trump's plan he keeps ownership then's a sticking point. he knows about his assets, knows who his partners are and his own attorney said that he'll be able to read about the new deals the trump organization does in the paper. so for warren and for many ethics experts, the point is how can trump make policy decisions without anyone ever questioning whether he's considering his bottom line >> what he's zidescribing does t resolve the conflicts of interest. this is not a democrat or

republican issue. this is a good government issue. we count on the president of the united states to be working 24/7 for no one except the american people. no efforts to try to line his own pocket to make a little more money for his family. and that's the reason we say for a president of the united states and for others in high government office, listen, once you take that solemn oath, once you move into that position, you make sure that your financial interests are handle totally by someone else. and i want to be clear, someone else who, to you, is behind a wall. >> how will you get him to sell his assets in. >> i have a bill pending right now with several others in the senate to say that anyone, democrat or republican who is in the presidency has got to divest their assets, put them away, let an independent money manager manage but not someone that's a

family someone that you know. >> what risk is president-elect trump taking by not following that advice, by ignoring that advice? >> i would very much like to see the bill pass and then there will be a legal stand thard mak it clear. but more than anything else, what does he risk? he risks loses the trust of all of the people of the united states who are counting on him to be able to separate himself from his business interests. >> warren argues that trump's conflict are not a partisan issue. the problem, she's a powerful brand and personality for the democrats and most americans probably don't see her as an unbiased voice. but the office of government ethics, which is not a political machine, agrees with warren. the agency's head said trump's plan is nowhere close to meeting

the standards that presidents before have met. poppy? >> christina, great interview. thank you for that. coming up, trump taking on the intelligence community. what do they think of this comment from the incoming commander in chief? >> i think it's a disgrace and i say that and i say that and that's something that nazi germany would have done and did do. (man vo) it was may, when dad forgot how to brush his teeth. (woman vo) in march, my husband didn't recognize our grandson. (woman 2 vo) that's when moderate alzheimer's made me a caregiver. (avo) if their alzheimer's is getting worse, ask about once-a-day namzaric. namzaric is approved for moderate to severe alzheimer's disease in patients who are taking donepezil. it may improve cognition and overall function, and may slow the worsening of symptoms for a while. namzaric does not change the underlying disease progression. don't take if allergic to memantine, donepezil, piperidine, or any of the ingredients in namzaric. tell the doctor about any conditions; including heart, lung, bladder, kidney or liver problems,

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allegations that russia had compromising material that could harm him. trump followed that tweet with this statement during his news conference on wednesday. >> i think it was disgraceful, disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake without. i think it's a disgrace. and i say that, and i say that and that's something that nazi germany would have done and did do. i think it's a disgrace. >> all right. let's talk about where this leaves the next administration and the intelligence community that will serve it. cnn global affairs analyst kimberly do cher dozer is with . what do you think this means for the intelligence community when the commander in chief does make a comparison to the time of living in nazi germany. obviously anyone who knows anything about this these brave men and women who serve this

country still know they'll do their jobs to their full kpas i capacity but how does it make it more difficult? >> it's a bad way to start. i spoke with members of the intelligence community, former and present, and they had different reactions, along the lines of he didn't have to go there. maybe he doesn't like some of this information that was shared. maybe he is blaming basically director of national intelligence jim clapper and cia director brennon because they're also obama appointees. but the comments are hitting the entire community and it's got some pretty pretty upset. >> what do they want to see him do or hear from him? >> when his people get put in place, his dni, dan coats, the senator who has yet to have his

confirmation hearing. >> pompeo. >> and the nominee mike pompeo. when they get in they'll want to hear now that he's got his leadership in that they're going trust the conclusions of the community. especially right now when you've got allegations that russia tried to influence the election and you have trump saying things publicly that sound very cozy and friendly towards russia, what the intelligence community fears is has he been -- the expression is case-offered. has putin managed to get in his head, flatter him and win him over. if so, what kind of underhanded campaign could follow the one to influence the election. and they're worried that when they bring evidence of the future campaigns that they're sure will happen to the president's desk, that he might not believe it. >> this is not the first time, though, as you know, kim, that we've seen a president at odds with the cia, with the intelligence community. but as with everything else, you

know, this is certainly all playing out in public as we've seen slatel lately. what are some other historical examples that we've seen head butting akin to this. >> george w. bush doesn't like what he heard from the intelligence committee about the war in iraq. nixon didn't like the intelligence saying that the war in vietnam was going poorly. there is a history with this. and i spoke to people close to the trump campaign, the administration who have actually sat down with trump and they've said, he's skeptical towards intelligence. he's going to be a consumer who demands as many facts as he can get before he believes. he's going to be a show me type president and the intelligence committee knows that going in, that a regarding is going to hold more sway with him of a conversation than say a report that's stamped high confidence.

they're going to have to win it every step of the way. >> i should note that he did wait more than seven week to meet with the heads of all of the intelligence agencies whereas most presidents, including president obama met with them within two or three weeks of being elected. >> he did. but again those people he would have met with were closely associated with the obama administration. we're going to have to wait and see until-he's in charge and see how he responds to what they bring him there. >> nice to have you on. thank you. >> thank you. coming up an emotional farewell to an orlando florida police officer gunned down in the line of duty. a city's grief and the manhunt for her killer is next. hey, how's it going?

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monday in the line of duty trying to arrest a murder suspect. her killer is still on the loose. our nick valencia is in orlando. ♪ >> reporter: it has been a solemn week in orlando, punk waited on saturday by the saddest of them all. >> we're here to honor a beautiful life, a wife, mother, daughter, sister, police officer, leader. >> reporter: master sergeant debra clayton, a 17-year veteran of the orlando police department, laid to rest. >> we have all struggled this past week to kocome up with the words to soft your loss and there really are not any. words cannot begin to express our heart ak. >> reporter: more than 1,000 people attended her funeral at the first baptist church of orlando. officers from all over the country came too. >> he was courageous.

>> reporter: before the service began, two op her colleagues and friends reminded everyone just how big of a void was left behind by her death. >> it's sad. it's senseless death. she loved her job. she was a strong-willed woman with a contagious smile. she will be missed but not forgotten. >> she had a passion to make orlando better. she like myself grew up here in orlan orlando. for her to be taken away by someone in the community she loved, someone from the same area as her is just hard. >> reporter: she was murdered by a man on the run for allegedly killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend in december in an exchange that lasted less than 30 seconds, police say fugitive mark key lloyd took the life of sergeant debra clayton. at one point he stad over her body and continued to fire even though she laid on the ground defenseless. >> as we celebrate the life and

the legacy of master sergeant debra clayton -- >> reporter: of the more than 700 officers in the city, she was one of the most engaged in the orlando community, an officer, yes, but also a community activist determined to bridge the gap between police and the public. her friends and colleagues have only one message for the man suspected of killing her. >> if he could hear you guys, and you could speak directly to him. >> i'm sorry, i don't have something nice to say right now nlts you won't get away with this. i'm confident in our department and we will turn over every stone to find you. >> thank you guys so much. we're all very sorry. >> reporter: nick valencia, cnn orlando, florida. coming up next, the number one movie at the box office this weak. it is not 'star wars."

it's not fiction. it's a true story i would bet not many of us have ever heard about. it's about three african-american women who helped nasa win the space race. you're life in the cnn newsroom. >> quite a few women work in the space program. if you're totally blind, you may also be struggling with non-24. calling 844-844-2424. or visit my24info.com. with not food, become food? thankfully at panera, 100% of our food is 100% clean. no artificial preservatives, sweeteners, flavors, or colors. panera. food as it should be.

in this week's american opportunity, a movie about the forgotten women who helped nasa win the space race and now it is number one folks at the box office this week. "hidden figures" tell the true story of three african-american mathematicians who played pivotal roles in sending astronauts into space, bringing them back safely even as segregation was enforced. watch. >> you know what we're doing here? we're putting 0 human a human s of a missile.

it's never been done before. i need a mama tigs to look beyond the numbers. >> do you have someone? >> katherine is the gal for that. she is handle any numbers that you put in front of her. >> don't embarrass me. >> this wasn't empty last night. >> i'm sorry i wasn't -- >> why would he be doing that. >> dorothy. you already have a slice of pie. >> they let women handle that? >> yes. they let women do some things at nasa, mr. johnson and it oohs not because we're wearing skirts. it's because we wear glasses. >> joining me now is the author of the book that inspired it all, "hidden figures" also founder of the human computer project which is recovering the names and accomplishments of all of those women who worked as mam mathematicians at nasa.

thanks for being here. >> thank you, poppy. >> i'm so glad you wrote this book. i'm so glad you told this story. i can't wait for any daughter to see this history come to life one day when she can see it. where do we begin. you have said that part of the reason this story was lost for so long was because the central figures weren't just black, it's because they were women. >> that's correct. there are any number of reasons why we're only getting around to tell the stories of these women and celebrating these women. but i think one of the most central reason is the fact that this kind of work, this computing essentially calculating was women's work. so the men by and large were engineers and the women were the computers. the men did the analytical work and the women did the calculations that were necessary to make these engineering fetes come to free sigs.

it was women's work and we didn't value it the same way. >> these were jobs considered sub professional. and yet you have women like katherine johnson, for example, that literal lly are the reason that john glen was able to do what he dade and come home safely and we were referred to as girl >> yeah. we have to remember. the women started working at what was then called the langley memorial air nautical laboratory back in the 1930s. the first black women showed up in 1943. so the 1940s and anoth'50s and that was a mad men work situation. but despite the fact that we're talking about virginia and the jim crowe south, segregated bathrooms, segregated cafeteria, segregated work room. these black women were in a seg g

segregated woman yes they were providing the calculations. >> in the movie the very famous playing katherine johnson, the one that provided the calculations for john glenn. he wanted her. he said, i want her to double-check the computer and make sure the darn computer is right. what kind of fete was that back then in. >> it's pretty significant. what we want to remember is that it took thousands of people to send humans into space and bring them back safely. thousands of people. everyone had their role. and katherine johnson's role was to double-check the math of the computers. computers were being used in a much more unprecedented way for the flight of john glenn in 1962 and she was asked to basically double-check the output, take all of the equations that had been program into the computer,

run all of the numbers through it and do this by hand with her desktop calculator and make sure she got the same thing with the computer with the idea that if those two things were in agreement, those two sets of calculations then this was another one of the checklists that said okay, we're ready to go. >> first lady michelle obama recently hosted a screening of "hidden figures" at the white house. here's how she described the story's lesson. >> i want you to see that it does not matter what you look like, it doesn't matter how much money your parents have. none of that matters. skin color, gender is the most ridiculous defining trait that we cling to. it doesn't matter. >> i should note for our viewers, this is your first book, correct? >> this is my first book. that's right. >> i don't know how you're going to top it. but what did that mean to you

coming from the nation's first african-american first lady? >> it meant everything. i mean, the fact is, you know, the american dream, there's a reason why this is in the subtitle of the book. this really is about those american values and about the times when america's fallen short of those values and the times when america's lived up to those values. and i think the first lady, you know, for a lot of us really said somebody like me who is multigenerational african-american can find herself in the white house, in that position. somebody like catherine johnson, who was the smart girl, not just the girl, can be the right person at the right time. that's what this is all about. >> right. and let's remember, this is from a first lady who, you know, brilliant at princeton, whose own roommate moved out rather than to live with a black woman. who did you write this for? >> honestly, i wrote this book

first and foremost for myself. i wrote the book that i had been waiting to read since i was a little girl. i love big american stories. i love great sweeping history. i wanted a protagonist who looked like me. i wanted that protagonist to be the one to go on the huge adventure. it just turns out that a lot of other people apparently were interested in having a story like this as well. but i really wrote it first and foremost for myself. >> i think encouraging to see the reception. it's the number one movie in america. so a lot of people want to hear this untold story. thank you for writing it, for the service you have done to all of us and our children for generations. congratulations. >> thank you. it's been my pleasure. >> all right. coming up next, in our america, a big-hearted principal goes bald for a very good cause. the story of how he backed up a bullied student, next. (vo) maybe it was here,

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barring any new additions, donald trump will become the

first president in 150 years without a pet. his vice president, on the other hand, is big on animals and even has a rabbit named marlon bundo. here's jeanne moos. >> reporter: meet the vpp. the vice presidential pets. the pences' bunny actually got to deplane before the vice president. this is marlon bundo. one political strategist tweeted, "okay. i've been a pence skeptic. the fact that he has a rabbit called marlon bundo has softened me." the family's two cats, oreo and pickle, were carried oit ut by vice president-elect's wife and daughter. pickle, the beige and white one, got air sick aboard the plane but at least the cat didn't nip. >> president bush's scottish

terrier barney nailed a reuters reporter. >> i got bit by barney. >> reporter: and bill clinton's cat socks had a turf war with buddy. >> i did better with the palestinians and israelis than i did with socks and bunny. >> franklin roosevelt was so close with his dog that they're together forever as statues. lbj got flack from animal lovers for picking up his beagle by the ears. and president bush once accidentally dropped barney. you never know with presidential pets who's going to take whom for a walk. but we know where beau wasn't sleeping. >> are you going to be in a bed? >> not in my bed. >> reporter: the wise stop at dogs and cats. woodrow wilson used sheep to mow the white house lawn during world war i. first lady grace coolidge is seen here with her pet raccoon rebecca at an easter egg roll. and teddy roosevelt had a virtual zoo at the white house. the pences also have a pet

snake. though we didn't see any snakes on the plane, for pickle and oreo and marlon bundo this was their first vpp motorcade. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> jeanne moos, you do it like no one else can. thank you for that. now in "our america." at a time of so much division in this country there are moments of unity all around us every day and we want to make sure we show you those on this show as well. so tonight in our america we want you to meet jackson johnston, a sixth-grader in packwood, iowa. his grandfather was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and started losing his hair. so jackson shaved his own head in support. >> when we got down to papa's that day his hair hasn't all come out yet but it's patchy and he didn't want to shape it. he didn't want to spook the kids. sew was going to wait. and then jackson comes in and takes his hat off and says hey, papa, i thought we'd start a new club. and just the emotion that went over his face. just amazing. >> but jackson's show of love

for his grandfather soon drew some pretty mean comments from some of his classmates. >> i was going to my first class and i had someone walk by me and say, well, you look like you have cancer. and i'm just like, actually, i'm not the one that has cancer. i did this because my granddad has cancer. >> but when principal tim hadley heard about how jackson was being treated he decided to take action. >> my mother had thyroid cancer. i have a mother-in-law who had uterine cancer. i have a grandfather who didn't finish the battle against cancer. and it was something that resonated deeply with me. i know so many people that have gone through what jackson's going through. i mean, to be a young man and find out that a family member has potentially a life-threatening illness it's a difficult thing to handle. >> and so principal hadley allowed jackson to shave his hair, explaining to his students that judging someone else for their reaction to cancer or anything is just plain wrong. soon after jackson said even the students who teased him the most

came up to him and complimented his new haircut. pretty great to see. thank you so much for being with us tonight. coming up on cnn after this, cnn special reports, fareed zakaria speaks with president obama about his legacy. that is right now on cnn. have a great night. have a great night. i'll see you back here tomorrow. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> announcer: the following is a cnn special report. barack obama's america was born with hope. people were crying in the streets. >> and with crisis. >> fragile financial system. >> likely to get worse before it gets better. >> financial panic. >> we were hanging on the edge of a cliff. >> health care hysteria. >> kill the bill! >> why don't they take the health care being forced down our throats? >> two wars. mass shootings. >> a gunman opens fire.