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 this memo being released. white house aides are now

worried that the new fbi director christopher wray could resign over this. the bigger question is what it means for the deputy owner general rod rosenstein. could this be used as justification to fire him? let's begin with cnn abby phillip at the white house. good morning, abby >> reporter: good morning, john. well, on the day we are expected to see perhaps this memo, the president is already tweeting about it. and really not backing town of his criticism of his own fbi and doj leadership. he wrote in this tweet just a few minutes ago, the top leadership and investigators of the fbi and the justice department have politicized the sacred investigation 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. now, that last line echoes something we heard from the president yesterday. but clearly he and his own fbi leadership are at odds over this

memo. 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 special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. house speaker paul ryan insisting otherwise. >> the more transparency the better. 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. >> 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 the memo to husband attention just two weeks ago. >> i have concerns about the process, about representations that may be made in court pleadings. >> i think it's up to the

american people to judge for themselves. >> reporter: the "post" also reporting that president trump news releasing the memo will help him build a public argument against rod rosenstein's handling of the case. cnn reported that president trump recently vented about wanting to fire rosenstein. a senior administration official tells cnn the memo is likely to be returned to congress today with no redactions. but the house intelligence committee may still make changes to accommodate concerns before releasing the memo to the public. despite this, the bureau continues to have grave concerns remarking that edits will not change the overall false narrative of the memo. >> this memo is of such low quality that when it is out there people will rapidly see this is just the latest installment of second-rate efforts to impugn the fbi. >> reporter: cnn has learned top white house aides are worried that christopher wray could quit in protest if the memo is released. others downplaying the memo's

significance, wondering if it is worth the showdown between the president and his hand-picked fbi chief. >> are you worried the fbi director may quit over this decision? >> reporter: tkporpler fbi director james comey, fired last may, tweeting he praoerbgs the fbi speaking up, noting american history shows in the long run weasels and liars never hold the field as long as good people stand up. now, john and alisyn, despite what republican leaders say about this having nothing to do with mueller, the president's own tweet seemed to imply it has to do with this so-called dossier he has been talking about many, many months. despite all of this swirling around him, the president plans to do traveling nearby to virginia. then off to mar-a-lago in florida as washington still reels from the controversy surrounding this memo. >> okay, abby, thank you very much for all of that reporting. joining us now is cnn political

analyst and "new york times" white house correspondent maggie haberman. >> also star of late night. >> one appearance. >> what were you on? >> seth meyers. >> what's your opinion about this memo and why it is so important to the memo and what they hope to gain? >> it is not actually that important to the white house. it is important to the president and some members of congress and some of the outside advisers of the president. there is a divide internally both whether this should be put out in the first place, be whether it is a focus of interesting for them and something they spent days on. the state of the union feels like days ago. the president is focused on it. i'm told by a couple of advisers that he is not consuming about it constantly in private. but he has made clear what he wants, and he wants it out. he had his opinion form based on watching cable segments. and hearing from people in

congress, hearing from friends who he talks to late at night. this is crucial. this needs to get out. people who have been briefed on it have told me that it's not going to show some great mystery. it is not going to be the thing that cracks the code on proving -- >> it might be underwhelming. >> right. this is a politically based memo. i'm not saying that because it is republicans. i would say the same thing of adam schiff's also. this is essentially talking points about underlying data that i think devin nunes has not seen. >> he hasn't. trey gowdy is the one to see the data. what do you make of how the president is framing this this morning? the statement seems to be the first salvo will be a daylong effort to paint this as, look, it's the fbi, not republican devin nunes. >> sure. this is what we have seen him do

repeatedly. it is is not a surprise. whatever he is being accused of, he turns the spotlight on someone else. it is important to note this is the latest in what we have seen from donald trump over many years of the hidden hand conspiracy that something is going on. so there's something you're not seeing that they don't want you to know. he st on okes interest in it. this is pitting him against his own appointees at the justice department and at the fbi. that is not insignificant. he talks about it in politicized terms. you know, they are favoring democrats against republicans. rod rosenstein is a lifelong republican. >> and trump appointee. >> chris wray, republican, trump appointee. it should not be a resign. that is not something he is agitating that hard about in praoeuftd p. he has had cyclical

anger. this is just the latest chapter in it. several people who are in contact with the president told me they made it very clear firing rosenstein would be a disaster. >> what's your latest reporting on the mind-set of the president and his attorneys on whether he will testify to robert mueller? because it seems to me this is all part and parcel of the same thing here. if the mueller investigation is tainted from the start why should i sit down? >> well, a, i think you're making a very good point. b, if you look at what was said to us shortly before he went to davos in john kelly's office, it sounded as if he was saying i can't wait to go do this. i'm looking forward to it. the important caveat is depending on what my lawyers say and all of that. i think you are seeing a dual strategy where he talks about, yes, yes, he's not dising mueller at all. he's very eager. many believe this would not be a

good idea and limit the scope as much as possible, if not get it off entirely. >> devin nunes has been very coy whether or not there was any coordination with the white house in terms of releasing this memo. he says peculiar things like, no, not that i know of. >> as far as i know, no. >> do you have any reporting that devin nunes has been coordinating with the white house? >> nothing knew from what i said previously, which is i had no specific knowledge of anything. there was that moment with devin nunes and the report of unmasking that he had to go rush and brief the president on which he had been told by other administration officials about. and there was an assumption of a pipeline there. >> if there was a conversation with other white house aides and he is trying to get a message without finger prints to the white house. if he doesn't know if his staff is coordinating --

>> the same way we say to white house staff and i don't know, i could ask and get back to you, he could say he would get back to us. >> let me read the "washington post" article on on this. they say mr. ryan bears full responsibility for the deterioration of congressional oversight of intelligence operation once a bipartisan responsibility that lawmakers treated soberly, as they still do in the senate. yada, yada, yada. this is only happening because paul ryan is letting it happen. which is true. >> it is is true. it is also important to remember that any speaker's control over the caucus, and this is true prior to paul ryan on the republican side, has not been great. but it is true that you are seeing ryan i think doing some kind of careful high-wire act in

his commentary. what you are not seeing is him fullthroatedly saying this is dangerous. officials are urging us not to go through with this. they see a danger in it. that is in the where you have seen attention paid as to what top officials are saying at the fbi. you have this sort of -- it's not the entire republican party, obviously, but segments in the republican party and the president, the leader of the party, attacking the fbi. it is -- and attacking things like the fisa process. i feel we have gone a bit through the looking glass here. >> that's an understatement. but also the idea that paul ryan is doing some sort of calculation, that he doesn't want to alien ate the trump base. >> it is making sure that every time he pushes in a certain direction, there is a pull in this way. and i think he is trying to choose his moments.

>> one of the big questions today is where christopher wray is withering. i have used that a lot there are plenty other reports saying he left bread crumbs. that this is not a quitting issue. >> yeah. i've heard those things. and i think previously, i know there was a report that wray threatened to quit. my understanding is it was a little dialed down from that. he would not be the first person in this administration to threat tone quit as a way to manage how the president is behaving. people in the white house have been very worried about it. part of why there are these things about redactions and what redactions would take place from the memo. one of the big can concerns is a lot of people are saying what we said in full. you have seen this criticism from some of the president's supporters. the media doesn't want you to see this. i don't know any member of the

media doesn't love a document dump. so i think most people would like to see it in full. if it's going to go out, people don't prefer the redactions. it is a minuteway to minimize the fallout with people like chris officer wray. >> we don't know how he will play it. that is legitimately an open question. >> there is a process taking place. it is a dual track. there is what the president is saying and what the aides are working on to make this happen. >> today will be interesting. thank you for sharing with us and being here. president trump is accusing the leaders at the fbi and justice department of once again favoring democrats he said ahead of that controversial gop memo release. we will speak to the top leader and get his reaction next. easy! easy! easy! (horn honking) alright! alright! we've all got places to go! we've all got places to go!

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we have breaking news. president trump is again accusing top law enforcement leaders of being biased. this comes in a new tweet this hour. he claims they are the ones politicizing the investigative process, not the partisans in congress. sources tell cnn that president

trump thinks this memo could help discredit the russia investigation. joining us now is jerry nadler, ranking democrat on the judiciary committee. he has read the memo and the underlying intelligence behind it. you are the perfect guest. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> we will get to the underlying information in a second. you just september a letter to your chairman. you're calling for an emergency meeting with the fbi director chris wray. why? what are you hoping to get out of him? >> well, we have called for wray to come before the committee and hearings. well, he had a rather extraordinary statement. i read the underlying documents. i read the memo. and i said last week the memo was grossly misleading based on the underlying documents. one expects, i'm not surprised the fbi comes out and says this is dangerous, declassifying this information is dangerous and

endangers national security. but what is shopping is the fbi chief would come out and say the memo is deeply misleading. >> and you agree? >> i agree. but for the fbi to say that shows how grossly misleading and dangerous they regard it. >> because you've read the underlying intel and not many members have, do you think that this affects national is security? >> oh, absolutely. >> so the memo coming out you think threatens national security? >> the fbi judges that the memo coming out endangers national security in terms of the classification. remember that it is very interesting. the republicans pitted hillary clinton last year for her e-mails. some she allegedly was careless in the use of classified information. here they are giving out

classified information. >> how does it make sense? >> it doesn't make sense. on obviously this is part of a very direct campaign to discredit and to distract attention and to discredit the investigation of the russian interference in our election. the russians interfered in our election. we are told by general sessions they are going to interfere again. the president is doing nothing to protect our next elections. and we're investigating this and he's doing everything he can to distract from the investigation because he is worried about his personal political effect. and now the importance of this now is that the republicans in congress, for the first time, have crossed the rubicon and become accomplices in obstruction of justice. >> like who? >> devin nunes and anybody who participates in the release of the memo. >> do you think the memo can be used as a basis to fire rod rosenstein? >> well, i can't comment on what i saw in the memo.

i'm afraid they will try to use it for that, yes. that aside, i don't think anybody will be terribly shocked by what's in the memo. >> tell us about that. tell us, do you think has it been overhyped? >> except for the fact that it might be used as the spurious basis for trying to dismiss rosenstein, yeah, i think it's been overhyped. >> do you think there has been some coordination between devin nunes and the white house with this memo? >> i don't know that, but i certainly suspect it. i suspect it because obviously of the prior history of nunes working together with the white house and the phony revelation last spring. and because when asked whether his staff coordinated with the white house, he wouldn't answer the question. >> that's right. he was quite coy about it. >> the whole thing is a charade. >> it is worse than a charade.

if devin nunes is the conduit to get it out, the president can say, well, look, congress wants us to get rid of rod rosenstein. >> that's right. you have the president and members of congress being complicit in overturning considerations of national security by revealing information that the fbi says shouldn't be revealed in terms of classification. and, again, trying to discredit and disable an ongoing investigation. >> are you sure -- can you tell us this morning that there is no whereon doing that you saw in either of those? >> i saw no evidence -- i can't say that. i'm not supposed to talk about what's in the memo. >> i understand that. i'm not trying to get you in trouble. you feel confident there will be no revelation of bias or wrongdoing from the fbi or the -- >> i don't think there will be

any major revelations of wrongdoing or bias or anything. >> what do you want to see speaker paul ryan do about this? >> ryan should halt the release of this and call in the fbi and see if they made certain changes the fbi would be okay with releasing it. and he should do the same thing with regard to the democratic memo. it was written to say the nunes memo is misleading. and you ought to be able to read both. and the committee, by voting on a party line basis to he release the one but not the democratic is showing its own bias. again, it may be that based on underlying intelligence and information, neither can be released. i don't know. >> that's your preference, to have neither released? >> it would be better if both were released if the fbi will

say that they can he edit in such a way so it doesn't endanger the classified information. >> if it were redacted, you would be comfortable? >> yes. provided both were and that the fbi assured us it isn't compromising the secret information that endangers the national security of the country. >> did bob goodlatte agree to this? >> no. we only sent the letter yesterday, in fairness. but he has stonewalled all the attempts to do anything in this regard. >> thank you for coming in. it will be an interesting day. >> yes, indeed. >> thanks so much, alisyn. there is one word the president will not be using anymore when it comes to daca. what is it and why he won't say it, next. ique extended release technology helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. it's the best thing that ever happened to me. every great why needs a great how.

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some people call it dreamers. don't fall into that trap. i said we have dreamers too. we have dreamers in this country too. you can't forget our dreamers. >> he wants to call them daca people. joining us now is ana navarro. first to you, ana. dreamers, no longer going to use that in the immigration discussion. >> he hit upon these lines in which some people like and embrace. then he goes on them over and over and over again. i think this is something he introduced during the state of the union. and you're going to see him obsess about this like he does everything. he's a broken record on everything. look, they are called dreamers. that's the bail that was introduced decades ago for them was called. daca and dream are actually different things. they're a different set of people.

daca is a subset of the people covered by the dream act which was introduced. daca was created by obama. it is an executive order. dream was a bill introduced. they are different things. i think what he is doing is blatantly obvious, playing to his base. >> he won approval, matt, from two people how he is defining it. the first is from david duke. thank you, president trump, americans are dreamers too. richard spencer, americans are dreamers too. so they're pleased with the president's new shift on this. >> and they are both repugnant people and i don't wish to associate with them at all. i think it is very fair to the immigrants, and i was listen to go talk radio on the way in. for the immigrants who are newly arrived in america and who did it the right way and waited in line, for the people waiting in line to become americans, let me ask you this question, john, is it the right first lesson for people who waited in line, paid

all the processing fees and is it right for them to be delayed even further so that people who get to skip in line come first? i think in america the important first lesson are the people who want to be americans. i'm so happy that so many of these people, including people overseas, want to be americans. but there is a process to become an american. and i think that's what the president is saying, which is that what the true dream is, to be an american and to follow the rules and for everyone to be treatmented the same way. >> well, matt, we are no longer using the term dreamers? >> i don't use it because it is a slogan used politically. it is fine if they want to use that slogan. i'm not fearful of the slogan. i'm a republican who believes in immigration. i think immigrants has made this country better. the president has a good plan to make sure we have a process. >> look, what he is doing here, john, he has figured out how to use words to make the case less

compelling. less compelling for the dreamers, more compelling for the side that does not want the dreamers. for example, instead of using words like family reunification, which is a term used for many, many years, he's now trying to call it chain migration. depending what side of the debate, that's the term you're going to use. dreamers, the problem he has, he has an impending deadline a month ago, and it is a very compelling issue. one of the few issues in america today that has 70%, be 80% approval rating. dreamers, their storiy're stori they're faces, they're aspirations, they're american values. they are so compelling. he wants to make it transactional. he wants to depersonalize the dreamers. he wants to take away their faces and their stories so that the american people don't feel the compassion that so many of us are feeling towards them and demanding a solution to the

problem. i don't know what you call them but i want it addressed. >> and they want it addressed by february 8th. that's seven days away. the president weighing in on this discussion over this memo drafted by republicans on the house intelligence committee. let me read you what the president he wrote moments ago. the top leadership and investigators of the fbi and 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. so the top leadership and investigators of the fbi and justice department, the top leadership that comes to mind for me, jeff sessions, the republican appointed attorney general by the president of the united states. the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein appointed by the president of the united states. christopher wray, a republican, appointed by the president of the united states. are these the people he's referring to as having politicized the sacred investigative process? >> look, john, it is a very fair question.

these are troubling times. i am disgusted and dismayed that during a presidential election president on obama used the intelligence community to essentially spy on its political opponents. >> hang on, hang on. you said president obama used it. >> he did. >> where is your proof? >> john, that's why all of this needs to be released. how did they get the fisa warrant if obama appointees didn't go after to get the fisa warrant in order to spy on the trump team in order to find information, right, that could be politically -- >> hang on, hang on. you asked me a question. they are not politically appointed. they go through the process and then it gets signed off on -- >> no. >> -- by leaders who may be politically appointed and then appointed by a judge. >> i agree with everything you said despite one fact. what they did to get this fisa

warrant -- >> who is they? >> the specific person? the name, rank, and serial number. that's why i want to read this memo. that's why you should read this memo, which you vice president read, which most americans have not read, most congresspeople have not read. >> devin nunes hasn't read the documents behind the memo. >> i don't think that's right. >> it is. >> that's not right. >> it was read by two people. by trey gowdy, the one republican, and adam schiff on that committee. >> i have full confidence that devin nunes understands that there was an abuse of power by one administration, the democratic party -- >> tell me who. >> i did. i said it was president obama and his appointees used their full power to go after political opponents -- john, this is clear. which is we've never had this

before. it's why a lot of liberals and conservatives agree on this issue. the authority, the ability to spy on americans in this country is a very, very troubling question. and the fact that the obama administration felt it was necessary to spy on americans in the middle of a political campaign is a disgusting and disheartening element of what obama did as he left office. >> ana, i want you to jump in here. this is the first i heard that president obama ordered the fisa warrant. >> i didn't say you ordered it. >> you said president obama spied on donald trump. >> i think president obama allowed and encouraged his team to use their power to go after his political opponents. i think it's clear he went after mike flynn. >> i'm not sure what's what's in this memo. >> i'm not sure. john, you don't know. you haven't read it. >> it seems to go beyond frankly you what we were told is in the

memo. this is a conspiracy involving an active president obama and those people working for him, ana. >> i just think there is so much noise with the clear intent of muddying the waters of discrediting the fbi, of discrediting bob mueller, of trying to lay the groundwork so he can fire rosenstein, and then, you know, go after mueller. this is to me a very clear road map here with the help of a lot of people, with the coordination of folks in congress, in the right wing media, in coordination with surrogates and allies, just drumming up all of this nonsense, conspiracy theories under the direction -- >> i -- >> matt, you spoke a hell of a lot. i think you can take that tweet by donald trump, reword it and america would think it is very accurate. if you said the top leadership of the white house has

politicized the sacred investigative process in order to help donald trump a lot of people, including myself, would think that is what's happening in america right now. >> there are -- are there barriers? >> hang on. >> it is is so incredibly disappointing. >> very quick last word because we have to go to break. >> liberals and conservatives should agree on this. the power of the federal government can be so troubling. should we not use the fbi to go after a little bit al opponents? i think this is reprehensible. >> matt schlapp, ana that sraeur row, thank you. the flu has killed three dozen children so far. can doctors do more to prevent these. we have a live update on the flu next.

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listen to this staggering number. at least 37 children have died in this year's flu outbreak, according to the centers for disease control and prevention. the cdc is warning this year's outbreak could be the deadliest ever for kids. cnn senior medical correspondent joins us now with more. this is just horrible, elizabeth. >> it is horrible. this is also healthy adults are getting sick and dying. this is the story of a

36-year-old woman got the flu, went to the emergency room, was told to go home. the next day she was on life support. now her family is asking what happened. a workplace in mourning after the sudden death of one of their own, tandy harmon. >> this is where she worked? >> yeah. the last four years. amazing, amazing gal. we're going to miss her. >> her death shows how much we still don't know about the flu and how much it is hurting us this year. the worst flu season in years. tents is set up for extra patients. schools closed across the country. tandy was young, just 36, and healthy. >> she posted on facebook, dang, caught the flu. darn flu. >> her boyfriend said when her chest started hurting, she went to the emergency room where she was diagnosed with the flu and went hole. she got worse and went back hours later. >> do you remember the last thing tandy said to you? >> i'm scared. i don't know what's going on.

i'm scared. in between all the breaths, she got that out. >> tandy died, leaving her family mystified why didn't doctors keep her in the hospital the first time? she's not the only one. 6-year-old emily died hours after a paramedic said she could stay home. >> who is to blame? do you blame god? do you blame the world? do you blame the doctors? >> flu is sneaky. it is devilish. >> the doctor says when it comes to the flu, there is no credit tal ball. >> we have thousands upon thousands of patients who come in, are evaluated, are sent home, and do wonderfully well. and trying to pick out who among them is going to take a turn for the worse is something that we can't do. it's a gap in our knowledge. >> but could medicine be doing more? >> we need better diagnostic tests so so we can predict who is going to have a bad result.

>> one of the ways the flu kills the young and healthy is by turning their own immune systems against them. some researchers have been trying to stop that response, and they have had some success with animal studies. >> there has to be something more they can do. the flu is not going to go away. >> now tandy's boss has lost a friend and waitress, her boyfriend the woman he loved, and tandy's two children, their mother because medicine wasn't advanced enough to save her. >> there are steps to take to protect yourself and your family this flu season. it is not too late to get a flu shot. john? >> elizabeth cohen, thank you very much. it is a big concern in my house and the school my kids go to for sure. breaking news. the big reveal from punxsutawney, pennsylvania. the best known groundhog saw his shadow, signaling another six weeks of winter. >> oh, thanks, phil. >> it is is currently 12 degrees

in punxsutawney. >> look at him. >> he has something to hide. >> i can see that. he is enigmatic. kickoff for super bowl lii is two days away. john berman is not the only one who can't wait to see tom brady. >> you guys, good morning. over 100 million will be joining john berman and expected to tune into the big game. yesterday was a press conference about the big halftime show. justin timberlake was poked and prodded about what he might sing, who may join him on stage. but the biggest talk of the conference was this apparent man crush that had developed between him and patriots quarterback tom brady. sorry, john berman, you have a challenger. listen to this. >> he has great hair, though. i mean, great hair.

tom is definitely the type of dude you invite over to watch the super bowl with you. the problem is he's always in the super bowl. i actually texted tom before the conference championship game and i said, i'm going to the super bowl. are you coming to the super bowl? >> ye is s, he is. he's going for his sixth super bowl title. now just around the corner, it also means around the corner, kickoff in minnesota. a cnn "bleacher report" special. hines ward and i will will join dave briggs to bring you an intriguing story line 2:30 eastern here on cnn. everyone talks about tom brady being the big deal in new england. but danny amendola, when you talk about man crushes, his girlfriend is 12012 miss universe. >> whatever. >> he has a modeling contract. you better look out up there in new england. >> tom and i never had we have

an exclusive relationship. we never set those parameters. >> justin timberlake is competition. >> i texted him. see how he threw that in there? arrow in my heart. the president set to release the controversial memo citing fbi abuses. a former cia director weighs in next. go. yes! go. yes! nice play. still buffering. mine too. what happened? hey, joy, you should let your new pals know that according to a leading independent study, the most awarded network is now best in streaming. i think you just did. you both can get a much better view of the game on the iphone on verizon unlimited. thanks. thanks. hey, thomas, when's your flight? (gasps) someone stole my watch. hey! (vo) unlimited is only as good as the network it's on. so get the best unlimited on the most awarded network. and right now, when you buy iphone 8, you'll get one on us. ♪

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president trump accusing leaders and investigators at the fbi and justice department of politicizing what he calls a sacred investigative process. sources tell cnn the president plans to tell congress to release the classified republican memo. let's discuss with james wool see who served as an adviser

during president trump's campaign. should this be released to day over the objections of the fbi and the director of national intelligence? >> i think you can't tell without reading it. somebody needs to read this document before making judgments about it. i think whether it's the president or members of congress, they ought to both read it. this is the president's authority. the classification decision is the executive branch's. it's really his responsibility to ensure the country is not harmed by material coming out that would damage it. we have something this important that has this degree of contention about it, i would think putting together a small panel of two or three people on each side who has a reputation for objectivity and being a able to deal across the aisle and letting them sort this out with redactions, something like that, would be a lot more sensible than what we're doing.

>> does it concern you that the fbi, the director of the fbi, the dni, dan coats, they have made appeals to the white house not to release this? >> sure. they're important figures and they ought to be listened to, but they should not necessarily prevail over the individual whose statutory this authority, namely the president's. >> let me stop you for one second because there is reporting that the president decided to release this before reading it. what does that tell you? >> i think he ought to read it and the members of congress that are key to this, four or five of them, ought to read it as well. it's a very bad idea to make decisions of this importance without understanding what's at issue substantively. >> does that suggest that it is he who is politicizing this, the fact he decided to release it before reading it, what else can you conclude? >> i don't think it draws that conclusion. he may be right.

he may be right for different reasons than somebody else would have. this is a political argument. what's happened is that what is normally a pretty objective and decent system, the classification process, has deteriorated into almost a shouting match, and that's not good for the country and it's not good for the intelligence world. >> sure. why not go through the regular process? why not hear the fbi? why not hold off on doing this if the intel chiefs don't want this out? >> fine to hear the fbi, but if you go through the regular process, the person whose authority this is statutorily to make a decision is the president's. >> the president felt very differently about this in 2014. it's always interesting to get in our time machine and go back and hear how donald trump used to feel about intelligence being released over the complaints,

objections of other people. this is in 2014, the cia torture report. he said the cia report should not be released, puts our nation and military overseas in danger, a propaganda tool for our enemies. as you know, there are all sorts of people in the fbi that says this will reveal sources and methods and shouldn't be released. >> there are two important values here, but they point in opposite directions. one is security, and that means protecting sources and methods from showing up in the pages of our press and so forth because that can get people killed. it has gotten people killed in the past, ruined relations between us and other countries with whom we trade intelligence and the like. that points in one direction. the objective of the people knowing what is important and being able to make judgments about which of their elected representatives is handling this well and so forth produces an inclination for more openness.

this is sort of like freedom and equality, they sometimes point in opposite directions. i think the way to do it is get two or three respected people together from members of congress that have worked on these issues over the years. maybe a retired couple, two or three. let them sort something out and make a recommendation to the president and to the leadership of the congress. i think it's come to a point where they probably need to take some kind of action of that sort. >> that sounds like a great idea. it sounds like that might not happen. it sounds like the white house is preparing to release this today. there have been various reports that suggest this memo goes after rod rosenstein, the deputy ag, the president makes it clear he's lost faith in rod rosenste rosenstein. >> scenarios exist all over the place. i don't want to speculate on

something like that. if any individual believes that he needs to resign because he's come into conflict with the president, he ought to do that. if he believes that he can prevail in discussion, he ought to do that. it's a free country, including for members of congress and the white house. they can give the rationale that they have and let the rest of us judge. >> speaking of resignations, i just have to ask, because you're a part of the president's transition team or his campaign, both, and you left last january, 2017. there were suggestions that you left because of growing tension over the president's vicks for the intelligence agencies. >> i was an adviser on the campaign and they started carrying me on chyrons in the press, after that, as being a senior member of the transition

and i was not involved in the transition. so in order to keep things straight and not fly under a false flag, i just put out a release saying i was not part of the transition. if they asked me to be part of the transition, i might have set aside some time and done it. but i didn't, and it wasn't right to say i was a senior member of the transition. >> fair enough. did you have tension with him about his vision on intelligence -- >> not on anything related to this, no. >> do you worry about what all this done to the rank and file in the fbi and beyond? >> sure. this is something that we need to make sure it works in a straightforward and routine fashion. classification is important, and messing up classification can cause serious damage to the country. but it's also true that this whole classification system reports ultimately to one

individual, the president. so it is his entire -- it's entirely clear that it's his right under the process to say i have decided this will not harm the united states and it should be released or i decided it will harm the united states and i do not want it released. >> james woolsey, thanks very much. >> thank you. good morning everyone. welcome to your "new day." it's friday, february 2nd. chris is off today. john joins me. let's get right to it. president trump is again accusing the nation's law enforcement leaders of having a pro democratic bias saying they're influencing the investigative process rather than partisan lawmakers. the president is set to release the c