clap, clap olly. This is cnn tonight. President trump and House Speaker nancy pelosi at war tonight. The president is making their growing feud personal after pelosi accused him of engaging in obstruction of justice and a coverup and of throwing temper tantrums like a spoiled child. It was sad when i watched nancy all moving the movement and the hands and the craziness, and i watched it. Thats, by the way, a person thats got some problems. She clearly has gotten deeply under his skin. Though in a rare admission that pelosi has the upper hand, a source close to the white house insists that speaker, quote, hasnt gotten under his skin but got his attention. Ill say she did. Pelosi for her part calling into question the president s ability to handle his job saying he needs an intervention. Thats up to his family and his cabinet and his staff and the white house. This is not behavior that is rises to the dignity of the office of president of the United States. Lets discuss. Democratic congressman jeffreys of new york who sits on the House Judiciary Committee joins us. Thank you. Theres so much to ask you. Great to be here. Listen, i want you to take a loon at what the president said about nancy pelosi today and then well talk about it. It was sad when i saw nancy moving the hands and the crazy. Thats, by the way, a person thats got some problems. Nancy pelosi is a legendary legislator and one of the brilliant legislative leaders in fact shes accomplished a tremendous amount on behalf of tens of millions of americans in many different areas including helping to usher in the historic Affordable Care act in 2010. Now the president is forced to deal with a strong speaker who has the full support of the House Democratic caucus when during the last two years essentially the House Republicans conducted themselves like subsidiaries of the trump administration. He clearly does not know what to do, and hes having a major meltdown in front of the american people. Nancy pelosi is not afraid to spar with the president , though. This is some of what she had to say today. Watch this. I wish that his family or his administration or his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country. I pray for the president of the United States. The prayer comment almost suggests youre concerned about his well being. I am. Heres the thing. She knows exactly how to get under his skin. You know that. You said shes a smart woman by questioning his health. And tonight the president , some of his supporters seem to be coordinating a message that theres something wrong with her health while doctored videos spread like wildfire online. Whats going on here . Again, dangerously close to embarking on the same type of sexist campaign that they tried to engineer against Hillary Clinton during the midst of the 2016 president ial race. That will not be effective at all in the context of speaker nancy pelosi. Its unfortunate. Why dont they engage in a debate with us on the issues . We saw the president walked out of a meeting on infrastructure as opposed to having a conversation with us. We were there as Democratic Leaders to talk about our plan to deal with the crumbling bridges, roads, tunnels, airports, Mass Transportation system that exists in the United States of america. We want to invest at least a trillion dollars. You were in the room. I was not in the room. It was jim clay born and nancy pelosi. Did you talk to jim clyburn and who else . City hoyer and nancy pelosi. We were briefed by all three of them. Did they say anything about the president s demeanor . Thats correct. The president appeared agitated and erratic and the whole thing seemed staged. And three weeks ago the president indicated to us that he wanted to have a real discussion to try to enter into a bipartsan infrastructure deal, and now he appears to be super sensitive based on the fact that were calling him on the notion that his administration is clearly engaging in a sustained and systematic coverup. Yeah. So i got to ask you, you know, she has said, nancy pelosi has said he needs an intervention. Congress could intervene with impeachment. Justin amash called for the president s impeachment says that pelosi is talking out of both sides of her mouth on the issue. Does he have a point with that . No. We havent ruled anything in or out. Were going to follow the facts, apply the law, respect the constitution, and see where that leads us. At the moment all of the relevant Oversight Committee chairs have agreed with the strategy to proceed methodically and aggressively. Chairman nadler committed to Holding Hearings on obstruction of justice and abuse of power. Were going to hold hearings on the culture of corruption that appears to exist at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. The president said he cant investigate and legislate at the same time. He announced new legislation with Chuck Schumer to decriminalize marijuana. Why is this an important issue for you . We were able to advance the First Step Act in the last congress which is going to help currently incarcerate individuals successfully transition back into society as well as striking down some of the more draconian failed war on drugs sentencing laws. We want to build upon that. Youve had president s in the past that were under investigation by congress and were able to Work Together. Richard nixon was able to Work Together with House Democrats when he was being investigated connected to the water gate scandal. Bill clinton was able to Work Together with House Republicans during the socalled white water investigation. Whats wrong with this president . Hes supposed to be a stable june yus. We want to drive down the high cost of life saving prescription drugs. We need a partner to be able to do it. Congressman jeffreys, its always a pleasure to have you on. Thank you. Great to see you. I want to bring in ryan liza and susan glasser. It is on, so to speak, between trump and pelosi. Is there any doubt in your mind, susan, who has the upper hand here . You know, they both have a theory of the case. They cant both be correct. You have a notion that trump thinks its good for himself if democrats proceed with impeachment. Pelosi thinks its politically perilous to do so. They cant both be right and of course the frustration is we now have to live through all of this and see how it comes out. But today don, watch that video. That seven minute video in the white house, i think its like one of those extraordinary records of the kind of madness that were experiencing, and that makes this presidency unlike any other spectacle weve seen before. The debasement of individuals today was just its something that you want to put in a time capsule and you wonder what are people going to think of this if you showed it to them 20 years from now. I can only imagine. Ryan, what is it about nancy pelosi that gets President Trump so rattled . I mean, why is she the one who always gets under his skin . I dont know. I think he has a weird respect for her, and he knows that she has the respect of her own caucus and that even though theres some outliers, some people who buck leadership a little bit, she has incredible handle on the Democratic House. She doesnt quite have the problems that john boehner or paul ryan had, and i think he finds that extremely frustrating that he cant crack democrats. He cant really divide them. There are some division having said that there are some divisions on the question of impeachment, and this mightily logical divisions that crop up every once in a while, but for the most part i think he is frustrated by the respect she commands, and look, he had a couple years where it was just a free ride. Right . And he also knows that shes extremely unpopular with his base. Shes one of the boogie people that he pulls out when he wants to rile up the base with barack obama or nancy pelosi or Hillary Clinton. Its one of those you can just whip out. You know, thats right. Shes been a boogie man for republicans for a long time. The 2018 midterms, a lot of the messaging from republicans was trying to use pelosi as that boogie man. It didnt really work. I mean, democrats took back the house anyway. But look, the house is very powerful. Hes realizing despite trying to thwart all of their investigations that they you know, congress is a coequal branch of government and having a Democratic House is no fun. Shes the speaker and leading the whole thing. We warned. Get ready. A lot of people warned get ready when they saw the new congress, the democraticcontrolled congress coming in. Susan, trumps attacks on pelosi similar to how he went after to Hillary Clinton during the election. Does this president have a problem with strong women in power . Well, it seems to me that the answer is unequivocally yes to that. I was struck as you were today listening to him talking about crazy nancy pelosi, and suggesting that she was really losing it or had a problem. Its similar to some of the criticisms and the effort to implant the idea with voters before the 2016 election that Hillary Clinton was unwell. Remember, she then had that, of course, terribly ill time bout of a cold that turns into pneumonia after the labor day in 2016, and trump was all over that in a reminiscent way. That was the debate stage where he stood up on the debate stage in 2016 and seemed to physically menace Hillary Clinton. You know, the thing thats interesting is that there are no real senior women in trumps cabinet. There are no women in real high ranking leadership positions. Now, you have this spectacle today of officials hes put forward publicly who include women. Kellyanne conway today. Sarah sanders. It was its really interesting to see that he really seems to only be comfortable with women in a more subservient position, and i dont think hes ever had an adversary like nancy pelosi is a powerful independent woman whose stature has nothing to do with his. Its not derivative of him in any way. Susan, ryan, thank you. Appreciate your time. Thanks. I told you about the president s latest effort to distract and deflect. Hes directing the Intel Committee to day cyst his hand picked attorney general with surveillance activities during the 2016 election. Im going to ask the former director of National IntelligenceJames Clapper about that. Hes up next. s best plant scientists comes miraclegro performance organics. Its miraclegros next big thing. Organic plant food and soil that finally work. And work. And work. And yes we did say organic. For twice the bounty, guaranteed. Miraclegro performance organics. Organics finally grow up. And up, and up. Go to the pharmacy counter for powerful. Congestion and pressure . Claritind. While the leading allergy spray is indicated for 6 symptoms. Claritind is indicated for 8. Including sinus congestion and pressure. Claritind. Get more. My time is thin, but so is my lawn. Now theres scotts thickr lawn 3in1 solution. With a soil improver seed and fertilizer to feed now yard time is our time. 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I decided i needed to find an alternative. So i started looking and then juul came up. I did both for a while. And eventually i just switched over, its very quick. I remember recently you asking me like did you want to smoke before we go in . And i was like no, i dont need to. President trump announcing hes directing the Intelligence Community to assist attorney general barr with his investigation into what hes calling surveillance activities during the 2016 election. Joining me now is a former director of National Intelligence mr. James clapper. Director, thank you for joining us this evening. I got to get your reaction to the president giving the attorney General Authority to declassify and release information about 2016 election interference. Well, that could be concerning, because theres already been so much information declassified already that particularly in the form of the mueller report, and the previous indictments going back to our original Intelligence Community assessment that we did in january of 17. I wonder what else is going to be declassified that risks jeopardizing source and methods. I dont know. According to a memo released by the white house, it says the heads of each department or agency that includes an element of the Intelligence Community should provide such assistance and information as the attorney general may request in connection with that review. What does this do to the people in those agencies . Well, the currently serving ones it doesnt do much of anything. I think looking to the future, and im particularly concerned about the fbi and the already i think damage has been done there. In terms of precedence, because i think this is going to have a Chilling Effect on any kind of future such god forbid we have one, but if we did have a Chilling Effect on the Law EnforcementIntelligence Community generally but specifically because of the investigatory responsibilities that the fbi has only, i worry about that. The Chilling Effect. Yeah. Sorry for coughing in your ear. It came up on me suddenly. Listen, trump had a bad week. Hes been ripped apart by nancy pelosi. Multiple federal judges ruled he isnt exempt from congressional oversight. Do you think its a tactic to make that announcement tonight . It could be. I think this is in a small way, people are getting tired of it, its a way to sort of focus attention away from not such a great week for him by lets inve gait the investigators and this sort of thing. It plays to his base. And by the way, don, i think such an inquiry don fairly and objectively would be useful. Id welcome it. Id like to speak about it publicly if given the chance. I think thats the consensus from most people, as long as its done fair and its a thorough investigation, i think with no preconceived notions, i think people are fine with this investigation. Listen, you know, hes also going after his former secretary of state, Rex Tillerson saying that he is dumb as a rock. This is after tillerson told the House Committee trump was not prepared for the meeting with vladimir putin. Why do you think this got the president so enraged . I mean, is it because it has to do with putin maybe . Well, that, yeah, that. I think any time somebody alleges some imperfection for our stable genius, i think that, you know, that enrages him. He just cant hes not very good at taking criticism. And hes in the wrong job for somebody that doesnt like criticism. I cant help but think about a friend of mine, a former boss and a mentor and an iconic american of bob gates. I often wonder what goes through bobs mind. He introduced tillerson to then president elect trump in trump tower, and it was through mainly through bobs and tillersons associations with boy scouts of america, and i have to think bob, you know, probably wishes he hadnt done that. Look, maybe so. You know him better than i do. But he said all these things about tillerson. But him calling tillerson dumb as a rock, this is what he used to say about him. Here it is. Watch this. We have a very talented man, Rex Tillerson. As you know, rex, secretary of state has done an incredible job. So, of course this is a theme with the president. Michael cohen was a very talented lawyer. Now hes weak. Christopher wray was a man of impeccable credentials you hes not. What does this pattern say to you . Well, it says to me that boy, think twice before you go to work in the trump administration, because one day youre getting praise. The next day youre getting knocked, and its its all about him. You know . People that turn on him or have an independent mind is not a good thing in this administration apparently which is, by the way, not good for the country. Director clapper, its a pleasure having you on. Thank you so much. Thanks, don. Thank you. Howard stern has two words for Donald Trumps president ial campaign. Quote, publicity stunt. Well, hes actually got more words than that to say about the president. And youre going to want to hear them next. To a single defining moment. When a plan stops being a plan and gets set into motion. Todays merrill can help you get there with the people, tools, and personalized advice to help turn your ambitions into action. What would you like the power to do . I dont know. Our relationship is just kinda boring. Uhm, youre not alone. I used to have a limited selection of shows ondemand. And let me te