apocaplyse happens, you will be happy with the flame thrower. it doesn't mention anything about it doesn't mention anything about burning your house down, though. do you feel like you need a flame thrower? >> i want to know who bought one and why. thanks for joining us. i'm renee marsh. >> have a great day. "new day" starts right now. president trump expected to defy the fbi and release the nunes memo today. >> this memo seeks to torch every floor of the fbi to protect the president. i think it's very important that the american people have access to the information contained in this memo. >> devin nunes neutered the confidence anybody could have in the house intelligence committee. >> this memo is going to be a guy january particular belly flop. >> i want prosecutions.

>> they are worried christopher wray could quit in protest. >> it does not impugn the mueller investigation. >> there is an ongoing effort by this president to discredit this critical investigation. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is "new day". it is friday, february 2nd, 6:00 in new york. john berman joins me. >> memo day and groundhog day. can't be a coincidence. >> president trump is set to release the controversial gop memo despite strong objections from the fbi and justice department. sources tell cnn that the president believes they could discredit by exposing bias in the top ranks of the fbi. a new report in the "washington post" said president trump never had any hesitation about the need for the memo to go public even before he had read it for

the first time two days ago. we'll tell you about the role cable news played in shaping the president's decision. sources tell cnn the fbi still has grave concerns about this memo being released. it is unclear what changes, if anything, the house intelligence will make before it goes forward. but they insist there are serious omissions of fact. they are worried that christopher wray could resign over this. an even bigger question what it means for rod rosenstein. will this be used as justification to fire him? amid all of this, a new concern this morning, some fox in the west wing are now worried that after all the republican hi hyperbo hyperbole, it really isn't all that. >> reporter: good morning, john. after a week of anticipation, president trump is expected to

go against the advice of his top law enforcement officials and pave the way to release this controversial gop memo alleging fbi surveillance abuses. president trump expected to ignore the warnings of his fbi chief and justice department officials, approving the release of the gop memo alleging fbi surveillance abuses today. cnn has learned that president trump has told friends in recent phone conversations that the memo may help him discredit robert mueller's russia investigation. house speaker paul ryan insisting otherwise. >> the more transparency the better. this is not an indictment of the fbi, the department of justice. it does not impugn the mueller investigation or the deputy attorney general. >> reporter: the "washington post" reporting that mr. trump never had any hesitation about releasing the memo and made the decision before even reading the document on wednesday. after two conservative

congressman brought it to his attention just two weeks ago. >> i have concerns about the process, about representations that may be made in court pleadings. >> it is up to the american people to judge for themselves. >> the "post" reporting president trump thinks it will help build a public argument against rod rosenstein's handling of the case. cnn has reported that president trump has recently vented about wanting to fire rosenstein. a senior administration official tells cnn the memo is like lu to be returned to congress today with no redactions. but the house intelligence committee may still make changes before releasing the memo to the public. despite this, the bureau continues to have grave concerns remarking that edits will not change the ofall false they're tough of the memo. >> this memo is of such low quality that when it is is out there people will see this is

the latest installment of second-rate efforts to impugn the fbi. >> reporter: cnn learn top white house aides are worried christopher wray could quit if it is released. others down playing it wondering if it is worth the showdown between the president and his hand-picked fbi chief. >> mr. president, are you aware he your fbi director may quit over this decision? >> reporter: james comey said american history shows in the long run, weasels and liars never hold the field as long as good people stand up. alisyn and john, we have yet to hear about the rationale for releasing this memo. it looks like based on his schedule today he may not. he plans to meet with north korea an defectors before heading to sterling, virginia to push an immigration plan.

and he will head to mar-a-lago where he will spend super bowl weekend at his resort. >> anything could happen in the next hours. thank you for that reporting. over questions of obstruction of justice and collusion. that is almost a tsunami of terrible judgment. but it also shows coordination

between the house intelligence committee and the white house and the president, which itself is incredibly troubling. for paul ryan to pretendonitis got nothing to do -- >> i want to stop you. the coordination between the white house and the committee, what do you mean? >> we have seen earlier this year had to be sidelined from the russia investigation because he was working with people in the national security council. >> you think it is still going on? >> the patterns are hard to break. when nunes is not sharing information with the fbi, with the justice department but having a close relationship with the white house, i think that is a troubling fact pattern and we will find out more about it. i would not be surprised at all if we find conversations. certainly not under oath. in fact, just the opposite. >> paul ryan swears this is not about the mueller investigation. let's listen to what he says. >> this memo is not an indictment of the fbi, of the

department of justice. it does not impugn the mueller investigation or the deputy attorney general. what it is the congress's legitimate function of kwroovert to make sure the fisa process is being used correctly and if it wasn't, it needs to come to light so we do not have problems again. this does affect our civil liberties. >> this is 100% at odds with what cnn is reporting now. the president telling friends that this discredits the mueller investigation, which is why he is so excited about it. both things cannot be true, michael zeldin. the bigger picture is you see the white house and allies building the case. a political case of how it will handle the mueller investigation. a justification not to testify. why sit down if this has been

muddied from the start. a justification after the mueller report comes out saying why should we believe this. it has been muddied from the start. >> well, and that is their prerogative. what ryan said is untrue. this is not about oversight. it would involve christopher wray coming and testifying before the committee, which he offered to do and was rejected. he said this is not an assault on the if you can. christopher wray thinks otherwise. this is not an attempt to muddy up the investigation but tellsa on the phone that's what it is. with respect to muler and his team, they're following the clinton playbook in part, which is to shoot the messenger because they have problems with the facts being investigated. that's fine. but in the end it didn't help

bill clinton. he got impeached and tried and his presidency was impacted by it. >> it is fascinating to road all the reporting into the people who have tried to stop this from coming out. chris wray talked to john kelly. director of national intelligence dan coats met with him. security officials largely focused on the need to protect sources and methods of intelligence gathers, as well as concerns about setting a dangerous precedent. >> this isn't subtle, folks. you have the director of national intelligence, head of fbi, both trump appointees, and members of the justice department saying don't do this. this is reckless and could is the a dangerous precedent. and the white house seems to do it anyways. assuring the congressman 100%, we're going to release it, before he ever read it. that's why this is trowelling.

yesterday there were concerns should christopher wray resign if the president release this is outside his own recommendations. fbi agents realizing he has their back, but how have can they go? this is a unified field of intelligence services and law enforcement telling the president not to go ahead with this step. >> we get who may stay and who may go. people may get fired and or quit over it. transparency would be allowing us to see the data, which you can't do because that's classified. more transparency not just the republican analysis of that data, which is not data itself, and give us the democratic. short of that, it is not transparent. >> there is no transparency here. if you step back and you listen to what the justification for the release of the memo is, congressman nunes believes that there have been abuses in the

fisa application around the carter page warrant. so he is determined somehow to figure out if that's true or not. if we take him at his word and that's what he is out to get information with respect to, you call the i.g. and say investigate this. or you call in all the relevant people to a closed door classified oversight hearing and say, i want to know about this. but neither of those things have happened. in fact, they more or less have both been rejected. so you know now there is a political narrative they want to put out into the field to set the cement of this view that there were pwaoutsz and the fruit of the poisonous tree. everything else is tainted. therefore, we can't belive anything. >> there are a lot of different ways the speaker of the house could show his concern about

this. it is particularly partisan. it is sad to so a member of congress act like an errand boy for the white house. >> some of the writing that inspired the president to feel that the memo should become public before he had read it. congressman trey gowdy coming back from davos. watch this. >> about the process, about representations that may be made in court pleadings. i have concerns about the duty of government to provide comple complete, full, accurate information. we are not advocates at this stage. we are representatives to the court. so there is an obligation to present accurate, full, complete information. and that's true in every criminal case or every counterintelligence case. they just don't get the scrutiny

this one does. >> that gave it heft in the president's mind? >> i don't know that it gave it heft. but what it did tell you is he is misrepresenting the process. >> trey gowdy? >> trey gowdy is. what they're all upset about politically is the dossier, the intense in the dossier was part of the process. we don't know what part of on it. >> they make it sound like a lot. >> to understand the process, this is an application where executive branch officials go before a judge who has to make a determination whether probable cause to believe a warrant is worth implementing. these are judges who when you listen to the hearings on the reauthorization of fisa, the majority said these are -- i have the language. highly respected judges

approved, appointed by the supreme court justice -- the khf justice of the supreme court. these are the best of the best. but now of course when they're making a routine probable cause determination they will be snowed by an fbi agent who will rely on raw data. it is laughable. >> stand by. we will discuss a lot more. trey gowdy is the one republican who has seen the underlining data. but gowdy has seen it. all right. so if this memo becomes public today, could it force the fbi director christopher wray to resign? is that possible? we'll discuss next. this is the story of green mountain coffee roasters dark magic told in the time it takes to brew your cup. first, we head to vermont.

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defy several department officials today by approving the release of this controversial republican memo. so could this lead to the president's new fbi director christopher wray quitting over the release? guys, let's just restate what the reporting is here. cnn is reporting on this that there are people inside the

white house concerned that christopher wray might get over this. christopher wray didn't sign it so he wouldn't have to personally own it. without his name he won't have to resign. >> it is really ar contain. the white house's concern that wray might resign shows the devastating effect, a double resignation within the first 1 months of presidency. on the other hand, the president is trying to pressure people in his cabinet to resign all the time. he likes to bully and force people out. if wray steps aside for reasons of honor around this memo issue, then the president gets to appoint someone else. and the whole point is the center of gravity in the trump administration toward more

loyalists. >> two democrats i spoke to yesterday said they don't want to see this happen. >> there's been reporting that this memo will somehow impugn rod rosenstein. and he of course oversees mueller's investigation. is this the predicate for getting rid of this here? there's nothing in the fisa authorization that apparently signed off on that gives anyone cause to believe that he needs to be fired. >> but politically look at this memo. this shows something has gone terribly wrong. >> that's what i'm saying to you. you cannot make that argument based on the facts of the case. this was an authorization for a warrant back in the summer. then they have 90 days. during that 90 days they have to

acquire additional evidence to re-up the warrant. you can't rely on original intelligence. >> so it can't be the dossier in the reauthorization. >> right. so rosenstein, as i understand the facts, signed off on the reauthorization. so it goes through all the fbi, then the doj, the line people and finally gets to rosenstein. they say to him, boss, everybody has vetted this. can you sign off on it. he reads it, which is 6500 pages, these things, and then he said, all right, i think we have probable cause. let's reauthorize. so there is nothing in that continuum that says this is the basis to fire. and if they want to fire, they can fire because he has the constitutional right to do so. >> you're living in the world where he needs factual reasons to fire rod rosenstein, not political reasons. what he is looking for is political justification. this might give him the

political justification for that. let's put up the rap sheet. james comey going. andrew mccabe left as well. everyone except donald trump jr. thinks this is over the russia investigation. that's a whole other issue. rod rosenstein and bob mueller still here. rod rosenstein is central, central. >> yeah. >> because he is the justice department official overseeing the investigation. not just that but he keeps it within certain barriers. >> if you have the white house trying to pull a slow-motion saturday night massacre, force people out over a period of months instead of one night to under ts c undercut the investigation, that may be strategically what they are trying to do. there is a degree of coordination with partisan media building this drum beat to create a separate reality so it doesn't actually matter what the

memo says. it's the narrative that has been created around it that folks will believe. that itself is a separate form of political -- >> i guess the point i was going to make is this. in respect of the firing of comey, there was a plausible argument. he didn't do a good job on the e-mails with hillary clinton. he testified about a counterintelligence investigation which is not normal. so that's behavior that is not acceptab acceptable. and the same is true with the other that he fired, mccabe. his wife was running for office. she was receiving money. he was biased. he didn't remove strzok. it was a laughable but arguable argumentment for their removal. there is not for rosen stipe based on this fisa warrant. so they are going to fire him if they want to because they don't like the fact that he is allowing mueller to proceed with his investigation. >> that is an obvious step towards firing mueller himself.

>> he doesn't need to fire mueller. if he could get the right guy, his loyalist friend in that position -- >> which position, rosenstein or the fbi? >> rosenstein. then rosenstein more or less controls mueller's budget. if he controls the purse strings, he can capitate the investigation. then mueller has to go to the hill essentially and say you're not allowing -- the justice department is not allowing me to proceed. that's interference. then you have a political nightmare. >> oh, my goodness. you laid out the interesting scenarios we will see possibly today. thank you very much. all right. so we have new details to tell you about. the 12 erld kwraoe girl accused of firing a gun at a middle school. it may have been an accident.

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police say a shooting at a los angeles middle school was unintentional. a 12-year-old girl is in juvenile custody for unintentional shooting of a firea firearm. a 15-year-old boy was shot in the head but expected to recover. few other details have been released. at least 18 people injured, three seriously, after a mini van plowed into pedestrians in shanghai. gas canisters ignited because the driver was smoking. the driver is among the most seriously hurt here. the driver has no criminal record and appears to be ruling out new kind of attack. spoiler alert. no matter what punxsutawney phil see, the east coast is bracing for another winter storm. chad myers has our forecast. can't the groundhog turn this around somehow? >> no. it's coming on sunday. it will not be a big deal.

punxsutawney phil is freezing at 11 degrees in pennsylvania. boston, rhode island, will be over in an hour or two. the cold air behind it is really going to get your attention. right now in chicago it feels like 7 below zero. minneapolis, about the same. super bowl will be cold. good news, it's inside. the next storm system is coming up the east coast, making rain, changing over to snow by sunday night, monday morning. really a chance of ruining the monday morning commute. we'll have to take a look at that. all phil will say today is there's cloud cover. you know, john, he always sees his shadow. there's so many tv lights out there, how could he not? >> i feel like meteorologists around the world loathe punxsutawney phil. >> you're saying the system is rigged? the entire forecast would be more compelling if just today

you wore a giant groundhog outfit. >> my last day on cnn. >> i think it would go viral, my friend. >> john avlon has strong feelings about groundhog day. >> proving my point. >> we should listen when it comes to forecasting. president trump, no connection here, declaring americans are dreamers too. is he trying to reshape and redefine the immigration debate. we will dig in there.

president trump does not like the term dreamers for the young undocumented immigrants brought here as children. >> some people call it dreamers. it's not dreamers. don't fall into that trap. and i said the other night, we have dreamers too. we have dreamers in this country too. you can't forget our dreamers. i have a lot of dreamers here. >> the president prefers daca people. it's just not as catchy as some of his other stuff. the president said americans are dreamers too. you heard him say that.

let's bring back anna palmer. he was all over the map with the dreamers. it was quite interesting to hear him say, that's an obama term. so he also not going to use that obama term for dreamers. that's his first objection. and he seemed to be less sympathetic than he has been in the past. >> dreamers is something you can feel, personalize. this is a president all about branding. daca people. there is distance there. it allows him not to be sympathetic in terms of what they are going to get done by march or later this year. >> it is too humanizing to describe these people brought here as kids through no fault of their own. john avlon, you and i have had this discussion before how political terms shape debates. he is reading his stage directions out loud. he is admitting in west virginia

where you are to republican members of congress, this is where i'm driving this discussion. this is where i'm driving this debate. >> look, be the president is a master marketer. when he uses terms, he is using them intentionally. he is also trying to soften the right. with the proposal they're pushing has opposition on the far right, on the left certainly. and so by sort of denigrating dreamers, which is a democratic term to be clear, he calls them daca people, not too sympathetic. >> the president is weighing in just now vaguely on the issue of the memo and intelligence gathering. he just wrote this seconds ago. the top leadership and investigators of the fbi and the justice department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of democrats and against republicans. something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. rank and file are great people. this confirms.

this is single source confirmation of the cnn report from yesterday that the president feels that this memo somehow discredits the entire mueller investigation now. president trump telling us exactly how he feels. >> also it's a sign that he is trying to denigrate christopher wray, leadership. potentially wray could even step down if this memo was public because he doesn't think the president should do that. >> the key phrase is top leadership. he is clearly singling out the leadership of our intelligence and law enforcement services saying i love the rank and file. look at the projection here. he's basically saying even though we know leaders of intelligence services, law enforcement are all telling the white house not to release this memo because it would be seen as partisan and under cut the integrity, he's categorizing those efforts as partisan themselves. >> this is an interesting threading of the needle. i'm not sure that you get to say

that the fbi and the justice department are politicized but saying the rank and file are great people. the rank and file are part of the entire process and they can't feel good about what's been happening. and the top leaders are republicans. >> appointed by him. >> appointed by him. and, last, devin nunes is the politician here. you can't say that if the fbi is politicizing things they don't want the memo released and saying devin nunes isn't. it is is illogical. >> he is a hyper partisan, nunes is. far to the right. a darling now of them. and you look at this and what is happening at fbi, the big question i think is what do republicans on the hill, senators and house members do? do they defend the fbi. a lot of senators is say no. it is is an institution. it is something we need to uphold the law. or do they fall in line with trump and say, you're right, the fbi is full of -- >> that's important.

the odds of history are upon you. if you're serving in congress, you need to take a step back from the short-term policies. don't think about whatever bullying factors are influencing your decision. defending the integrity of law enforcement will look a lot better than folding under a president. >> the president all but calling him out by name. the top leadership and investigators of the fbi and justice department have politicized, he says, the sacred investigation here. look, we know james comey is already gone. andrew mccabe is already gone. rod rosenstein, who he appointed, he is very upset about. this seems like early morning justification to begin a move. >> everybody believes he has made the decision. it is going to be released. this is the starting point for that justification. >> typical trump play back. attack your opponent of the

things you're accused of doing yourself. it muddies the waters. >> it is by definition partisan. >> right. >> thank you very much. final countdown to super bowl lii. it's the eagles versus the patriots. >> you don't say. >> it is also destiny versus dynasty. i'll explain all that when we go to the "bleacher report" live from minneapolis, for some reason, next. my digestive health, so i can take on my day. activia. now in probiotic dailies. what is this? when we love someone, we want to do right by them. but some things we can't control like snoring. (snoring) introducing theravent anti-snore strips. clinically shown to reduce snoring. theravent. the answer is right under your nose.

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one small town is sending 30% of their police department. granted, they only have seven officers so they are sending two. all hands on deck to especially sure the safety of fans in minneapolis for super bowl lii which is just around the corner. almost time for our kickoff in minnesota. two-time super bowl champion hines ward and dave briggs will bring you exciting story lines tomorrow 2:30 p.m. you have been to a super bowl where your patriots have won, so you are all good. >> it is hard to miss being at a super bowl where the patriots win. >> you're enjoying this. >> a little bit. >> i get that. coy, that sounds great. you sold it so well, even i will

watch. >> alisyn, that just made my day. thank you. >> thank you, coy. thanks so much. talk to you soon. all right. president trump again slamming the leaders of the fbi and the justice department. so we will speak with former director of national intelligence james clapper about what happens next. ♪ when heartburn hits fight back fast with tums chewy bites. fast relief in every bite. crunchy outside. chewy inside. tum tum tum tum tums chewy bites. stay at la quinta. where we're changing with stylish make-overs. then at your next meeting, set your seat height to its maximum level. bravo, tall meeting man. start winning today. book now at lq.com

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rank and file are great people. this comes as sources tell cnn president trump thinks it could discredit robert mueller's investigation and that is the primary reason he wants the release. here to discuss is former director of national intelligence james clapper. thank you for being with us. your reaction to the president's statement moments ago saying investigators and leaders of the fbi and justice department center politicized the investigative process. >> well, it strikes me as the pot calling the kettle black. i think this is almost amusing if it weren't such a serious subject is. i think the department of justice, and particularly the fbi, have done the right thing by trying to defend themselves. and i was particularly struck by the fbi statement which cited errors of omission of fact

rather than jeopardize the sources. >> why? >> transparency is a great thing. but let's be fact al and objective about it. this is clearly a blatant political act. and i hope the fbi particularly takes the opportunity to rebut the memo and include those to the extent that they can. >> there is an implication in the president's statement this morning that it is the leadership politically biased not the rank and file. is there any narrative to that distinction, especially in dealing with the russia investigation from the beginning. wassist the leadership doing this investigation? was it the leadership driving for these fisa warrants, or was it the people, the rank and file on these cases? >> it was probably the rank and file. certainly the leadership is

aware particularly if there is a fisa authorization request. by the way, you know, this implicates a lot of other considerations here. the court itself that grants -- in this case i understand the instant issue was the extension of a fisa authorization which would indicate that the original fisa order was producing something and information of value. so the court -- this is not a casual thing. there has to be layers of approval, corroborating evidence. and the court, more importantly, has to approve it. as well, i think mike hayden alluded to this yesterday, this also implicates others in the intelligence community who have a lot at stake here with the whole fisa process. not to mention regardless of what the tweet says besmerching

the people of the fbi. and i think it calls to question our standing and our ability to keep secrets in the rest of the world. it could impact shaurg. >> leave aside for a second this is a republican memo and the democratic version of the analysis of the underlying data is not being allowed to come out at the same time. but is there a proper role for congressional oversight over the intelligence agencies if there was something wrong with the way that investigators went about getting this fisa warrant. shouldn't congress step in and say, hey, this smells funny? >> absolutely. that's the whole purpose of why the two intelligence oversight committees were established in the first place. unlike other constituencies in the government, department of commerce, what the intelligence community does is secret. so i almost felt that the oversight committees have an additional burden because they

have to represent the people because we can't expose what the intelligence community does every day because of the concern about sources and methods and trade craft, protection of people undercover, et cetera. but absolutely they should conduct oversight. but there is a process for this that is discreet and confidential. exposing this as a political act i think is particularly egregious. >> let me ask you this. christopher wray, the fbi director, people are within the white house saying there is concern he might quit on over this. put yourself in his shoes. if the white house goes ahead and releases this over your objection and your frankly public objections to this, should he stay in his job? >> that is entirely up to him. that is a personal decision. i will tell you, john, having been in a situation like that,

in a similar position, senior position, that there were times when i considered resigning to make a point. what you have to weigh is what would be the impact on the institution if you did that. are you doing more harm, be causing more turmoil if you take an action like that to make a point. that's a very personal decision and only chris wray can make it. and i don't think anyone else can-can speculate. i certainly can't, about what he will do. >> just one more question on the president's statement. top leadership politicized this. you're director of national intelligence. when this all began, were there any politics involved when you were there? >> well, i don't think so. people will argue that until the cows come home. but i know in the preparation of our intelligence community assessment, we tried to keep the politics out of it and just

report -- and we did so with pretty high confidence in the findings of the intelligence community assessment. obviously when we went to the hill to brief it, there were varying reactions to what we said in the intelligence community assessment. and some republicans did look fox political motives. but we tried very hard to keep that out of it. certainly not among the analysts that did the work. >> i want to ask you questions on other news today. we learned mike pompeo met last week in the united states even though one was listed under russian sanctions. they went through the proper processes to okay this meeting and certainly former u.s. intelligence chiefs had met with russian leaders before. what do you make of this meeting? >> well, sort of a mixed message here. first, it is a good thing to try

to communicate a dialogue with the russians. although in my experience i found that to be very unsatisfactory and pretty much a one-way street. because the russians are, at least, transactional. i do hope that director pompeo when he did meet with them didn't give them a pass as far as the russian interference in our election. he was meeting with the leaders of which that were at the pointy end of the stick if you will in orchestrating the interference in our election. russians are bad, but we need dialogue with them. if we can find ways to work with them, fine. i never did. but you've got to talk to them. but i just hope that they didn't get a pass when he met with them. >> james clapper, always great to have you, sir. thank you so much. >> thanks, john. >> thanks for our international viewers. if you cnn talk is next.

for our u.s. viewers, we have more now. we have breaking news. developments are coming out this morning fast and furious about this memo. john berman joins me. here's the breaking news. president trump is again accusing top law enforcement leaders of being biased. this is a new tweet. he claims they are the ones politicizing this investigative process rather than the partisan politicians in congress who are doing so. the president is set to approve the release of that controversial gop memo alleging surveillance pwaoutsz despite strong objections from the fbi and the justice the department. sources tell cnn that president trump wants the memo to discredit the russia investigation. a new report in the "washington post" says president trump was convinced that the memo needed to go public even before he read it for the first time, which happened just two daysing ago. a source tells cnn the fbi still has grave concerns, grave concerns about t