so how people come in a boat with water and gas from abaco is amazing and it speaks to the strength of bahamians. why is it these people are coming first and not the government? why is it we can get there and the government can't get there? >> good question. i want to hand it over to chris for "primetime." >> thank you i am chris cuomo." lo look who is finally back. congress. what about waiting on speaker pelosi to send a signal? and did president trump put one of our top spies at risk with loose lips? did his tweets and talk about what was going to happen at camp david blow a deal with the taleban tall e -- taliban and afghanistan.

valerie plame, she knows a bunch about bad guys in the middle east and she's now running for congress. she says she has some scores to settle. new week, same call to action. what do you have say, let's get after it. latest word tonight is that speaker nancy pelosi will not say if the house is conducting an impeachment inquiry or just investigating. she keeps saying that impeachment as an outcome is, quote, a possibility. she appears to be downplaying the judiciary committee's new moves to ready the rules that would guide potential impeachment hearings. chairman nadler has scheduled a vote thursday to define parameters. one of the members on that committee, steve cohen, has been itching to get this going since the beginning to time, it feels to me. he joins us now.

welcome congressman. good to have you back. >> good to be with you. >> what is this vote we expect around thursday. why does it matter ♪ >> it matters because it formally sets up a house judiciary inquiry into the impeachment of donald j. trump and the same parameters that were existent under the republican theme had the clinton impeachment and the democrat when the dixon impeachment came up. >> nancy pelosi doesn't seem happy about it. she says vetting is enough. the people have not said jove whe -- overwhelmingly that is what they want and she seems to have a sensitivity about whether this works for you guys going into the election. >> my knew in memphis used to be held by scripps howell.

we need to investigate. we have a responsibility. we have a duty and we're going to pursue that and do that now. >> but we were flooded with the klieg lights of the mueller probably and all kinds of things going on. so it's not apples to apples where people were during the nixon administration and proceedings. but another, maybe in the weeds but not for this audience, is you by formalizing it and centralizing it in the judiciary committee, you wind up having a lot of these other committees that are looking into all of these different roots of intrigue surrounding this white house. they have to stop. are you winding up centralizing it and therefore stopping efficiency? >> i don't know if that's necessarily true. i don't think they have to stop and i don't think that we can't incorporate their hearings into an impeachment report. i think the judiciary committee could do that. but the bottom line is there is

a cornucopia of instances of corruption and violations of the constitution. we have a president who shreds the constitution, has no rule, no law, no commandment that moses passed down, nothing that will stop him from doing whatever he wants. >> no crimes, not an agent of russia says mr. mueller, who everybody was supposed to respect. >> not a direct agent but they had several -- over 150 contacts with his campaign with russians. they welcomed the interference. trump even went on television, "russia, if you're listening." there was a reason he said that because he knew they were listening. he had people who had contact different places. we'll find out. what's in the grand jury testimony that was redacted by barr? trump's roy cohen may be the smoking gun or the arsenal or the garrison that breaks this thing free.

there's a reason barr redacted certain testimony. some of it i think to protect trump's sons. others we don't know. but he took it upon himself to redact testimony. >> grand jury is very sensitive. >> grand jury is sensitive but every incidence of the past, the attorney general has joined with the judiciary and say let them have it. this time he's not going do it. >> aeeric holder didn't join in certain things either -- >> there was not an impeachment inquiry of obama. >> fair point. >> so here's another thing that will seem not as pressing but to me every bit as important. the more you guys go down the road of impeachment, forget about the fact it's never going to happen in the senate, it's almost impossible that anything really happens. i know nancy pelosi says that you're legislating, you're getting things done, but you won't get anything done with the senate if this is happening or maybe not at all. at this point do you believe there's any chance that any

meaningful legislation happens in this session started today? >> not as long as mitch mcconnell is the leader of the senate. he has said he's the grim reaper. one bill on gun background ch s checks he won't even let people vote on it. mcconnell wants nothing to happen. he's happy the way things are. he's an aider and abettor of trump and someday down the line, there's going to be a reckoning and people will see this is not only the worst president of the united states but one of the worst human beings to grass this earth. >> -- grace this earth. >> if there's one thing you can say about this president, he's transactional. there's zero chance he'll be working with you on anything. you broke a main rule. you teak a shot at this

president, there will be no swallowing of any kind of vial, he's going to come at y you there's zeer over way to work with this president? >> there's no working with the president. he lies constantly. his word is zero. i didn't go to his inauguration, i didn't go to the state of the union. the man is despicable and there's no way cuff negotiate, just like china knows and north korea knows that you can't negotiate with a person who lies and has no credibility. the united states is not seen on the globe with other world leaders the same way it used to be. people don't have respect for trump. they like americans, they can't understand how we elected such app unusual character as our president. >> but what is the point of even having a session then right now? is it just about impeachment for you guys? how is pelosi going to legislate, if can you make a deal which would make him say enough of the grim reaper bit,

it's time to write some laws. >> we passed bills to clean up the swamp. the swamp is him, not us. we passed health care legislation, we passed legislation on all kind of subjects, guns, you name it. they won't touch any of it. they're not going to touch anything at all. all they want to do is approve judges who will be right-wing conservative judges -- >> aren't you supposed to be down there to cut deals? isn't that what you guys are supposed to do, debate, get angry at each other and then find common ground and get something done. that's why you're put there, isn't it in. >> to some extent. that's when you had a president you could find common ground with. there's no common ground with this man. nancy's gone to him. they wanted to have common ground on our transportation bill, infrastructure bill, as soon as we said we were going to consider discussions about impeachment, he said there will be nothing on infrastructure. because he comes first in everything, not the country.

he wants to repeal the affordable care act. he doesn't have anything not to replace it with. he want people not to have insurance. he wants to destroy our environmental laws. he took us out of the paris climate accords, out of the iran nuclear agreement. we don't show leadership to the world on climate change that threatens the next generation. we don't work on iran who is now developing a nuclear capability, which they wouldn't have if we had stayed in the agreement. i was just in the australia not long ago. everybody said you don't go about deal with china unilaterally, you go to the world trade organization for relief. >> i hear your criticisms. however, if you do not win control of the senate, if you do not win this next election, you guys are going to have some burden on yes or no hands

because you're going to have to figure out somehow justify being in office is your goal to get something done. i understand your arguments. i appreciate you speaking to my audience. >> you know this better than me. i think mario cuomo would be with me, stand up to justice and speak truth to power. >> listen, i'm not much in the business of guessing what my dearly departed father would think. >> he was a star, a hero. >> he said don't put a label on me except i'm a progressive pragmatist. he knew you had to get things done. can say a lot of bad things about my brother in politics, it about my brother in politics, it always happen

now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood.

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all right, the president tonight rallying troops for north korea's ninth district. this is a redo. remember there was a scheme uncovered and this had to be redone. dan mccreedy, gone.

there's a new one there. dan bishop could be a squeaker by why does it matter. 3rd district and 9th district, we're not talking about the 3rd because the representative there died unfortunately. best to his family. highly republican, should go republican. 9th you say is a toss-up. convince me. >> this is a really republican detective. trump won it by 12 in 2016. >> so the story is over. they're going to wenin. why are you taking my time? >> the average democrat outperformed clinton by 12 percentage points, right? what was going on here? this was the same margin that trump won the detective by. if that same trend that you saw all the way back in these special elections holds for what's going on in north

carolina's 9th district court, we'll have a very tight race on our hands. >> what else can you tell me how it looks? >> another thing to keep in mind and why i think the republican is perhaps slightly favored, dems representing districts where trump won biggest. there are only four districts currently represented by democrats in which trump won by a larger marge ein it and he won north carolina. >> if he wins by a significant number, it's more likely the republicans will win but you're balancing, you're saying it may balance out the disputed edge. >> right. we're essentially looking at votes for the house are very drench by trump. if you approved of donald trump's job performance, republicans won that vote by 77 percentage points. yous did approved, democrats won that by 82 points. we know trump is in very

negative territory nationally but in the limited polling i've seen, he's about breaking even in that district. to me what you're seeing is a national trend away from trump and in a district as republican as north carolina as 9th district, you have even ground. >> obviously he greaagrees with. in terms of who is running, does that change the calculus? >> i don't think so -- >> even with -- >> if mark harris was still on the ballot, i would agree with you. they got a new republican dan bishop in there. i don't think he has the stink on him. the polling indicates a very tight race. it's very much in line with the trend we saw in the 2017-2018 and trump's approval ratings have stayed strong year on year. that's bad news for republicans

because remember what happened when we saw that special election advantage for the democrats in 2017-2018, democrats were able to win the house overwhelmingly in 2018. >> so you're arguing it's failure averted. they don't want to lose this because it will start a narrative they don't want to hear. >> right. >> always a pleasure. >> my pleasure to be with you. >> shalom. >> shalom. >> a big cnn scoop. the president may have put a top u.s. spy in jeopardy, prompting the cia to take drastic pressures and remove a source. is this really there or is it just about timing? we've learned some new details. we'll go through it be a and we the perfect guest to help us understand how this works, a one-type operative herself exposed. valerie plame running for congress. why do that next.

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we have new developments in a cnn exclusive. this story about the removed spy from russia, here's why the

story is resonating. remember that weird meeting back in may '17 in the oval office, the president seemed all palsy-walsy with the russians? so shortly after that happened, we do know that there was a successful covert mission to extract one of america's top spies from russia. we're learning more tonight about just how critical that spy was. sources tell our jim sciutto that the spy was our highest level informant ensiinside the kremlin, even providing images on vladimir putin's desk. the intel went back more than a decade. was this about what the president said? if you look at the reporting, it also could have been a long decision tree. who better than to discuss this with than a former operative.

former covert operations officer valerie plame joins us today plame launched her bid for congress in new mexico as a democrat. i want to discuss that but i want to discuss this story first. good luck to you in your race and thank you for joining us on "primetime." >> thank you for having me. >> i know you've looked at the reporting on this. more importantly you understand this from the perspective of the inside. there are two versions here. one is things got a little dicey. they thought maybe they had to remove the source. the source didn't want to do it and they questioned the source and they were really nervous and prevailed upon the source to be extracted, had nothing to do with the president. the other one is that the timeline lines up that when the president said those things in that meeting that we're not even really sure what he said but we know intel people didn't look it and they didn't like it in the context of russia, this covert mission to remove the source happened. coincidence or relevant?

>> recruiting a source with key access is really, really difficult. it happens particularly in difficult climates, in difficult environments like russia maybe once in a generation. so having something go wrong is -- can be catastrophic. the cia takes as a sacred obligation protecting our sources. so if something has gone wrong, we have an obligation to exfiltrate them out safely. this seems it was one of our highest sources. though he wasn't in putin's inner circle, he did provide a great deal of intelligence that was useful to us and helped our national security and then with him gone or her, that just dried up. >> you know, there's an interesting line until the "new york times" read-through on this. former intelligence officials

said there was no public evidence that mr. trump directly endangered the source. i know there's no public evidence otherwise we wouldn't be asking people the question. what do you think the likelihood is that this president said something that made this happen? >> well, we know that trump has made a habit actually of giving classified information when he shouldn't. there was just recently the issue with the classified satellite image of iran. there are other ones as well. so it possibly could have happened. we do know that in the run-up to the election and then following afterwards, there was deep concern among the intelligence community that the elections had been compromised, that the elections were seeking to meddle. you're right, there's no public confirmation but it is certainly open to speculation. >> we have heard from other

people in your position who were once inside now outside that they've heard from people about concerns from this administration. have people you knew when you were working for the government said this white house is of any particular concern, this president? >> without question. i mean, there is a lot of daylight between the intelligence community and the president and that is never good for our national security. between the time as a campaigner -- >> wouis there concern he would compromise his on country in. >> he might do it by not exactly understanding the role of intelligence because it's clear he has disdain for them. and if he feels they are somehow getting in his way, he has no compunction about pushing back. and we do know without question that the russians interfered with our elections. i think investigations are still going on. as we know from the mueller report, he was not exonerated.

>> there's no question about that. one of the things that would have been nice to know going into the mueller probe is that he was accepting the understanding within the d.o.j. that you cannot indict a sitting president. i think that would have medical m -- helped manage expectations much better. that's not your concern. the president is trying to cut a deal with the taliban. the government mass mott been effe -- not been effective there and maybe they were going around to get this done. the president hears about it, he wants to bring them in, meet, take ownership of the deal, celebrate it getting down, have the guys come to camp david. what's your feeling about doing a deal with the taliban in the first place? >> chris, so my twins were toddlers when 9/11 happened. they're now in college and we are still on combat footing in afghanistan. this is an endless war. i am always in favor of

diplomacy, whether camp david then and there was the right choice, it's hard to say. we were not privy to the discussions leading up to it, but it is an endless war and i'm against that. >> the president has also said he's not about having america blood and treasure abroad, he doesn't see advantage for it so he would want to get this deal done would seem like something so now he's getting criticism that he screwed it up by talking about it too much. do you think that's fair criticism? or do you think whatever gets the deal done is fine? >> he likes to fashion himself as the deal maker and so far he's not batting too well on any, whether it's north korea or iran or anywhere else. i think our credibility -- his credibility around the world has plummeted and as a result the united states is in a much weaker position. the foreign policy of this administration seems to be by

tweet and it both reckless and feckless. >> he was saying the reason president obama is more popular in europe than he is, is that he's actually doing his job, not just kissing up to everybody over there. i want to take a break and you've come to a conclusion that you believe these things strongly enough about foreign policy a you want to get in to politics vauand you have some campaign ad that people are talking about. let's take a break, show the ad and talk about why you are doing this and how you will fare. it's time to be tested, valerie plame. stick around after the commercial. >> thank you. and home to three bp wind farms. in the off-chance the wind ever stops blowing here... the lights can keep on shining. thanks to our natural gas. a smart partner to renewable energy. it's always ready when needed. or... not.

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all right. we're back with former u.s. operative valerie plame who today launched a bid for congress in new mexico as a democrat. her dramatic new commercial is getting a lot of reviews. here's a look. >> i was an undercover cia operative. my assignment was preventing rogue states and terrorists from getti getting nuclear weapons. you name a hot spot, i lived it. then deck cheney's chief of staff took revenge against my husband and leaked my identity. his name, scooter libby. guess who pardoned him last year. i come from ukrainian jewish

immigrants. dad was in the air force. my brother almost died in vietnam. my service was cut short when my own government betrayed me. we left washington to raise our kids in new mexico, one of the best places on earth. now ei'm running for congress because we're going backwards on national security, health care and women's rights. we need to turn our country around. and, yes, the cia really does teach us how to drive like this. you've probably heard my name. and, mr. president, i've got a few scores to settle. >> all right. there's the ad. let's talk to the person who wants to represent congress from that district there in new mexico. the ad getting a lot of talk. that's why you did it. good. now why do you want to run? what do you want to do for the

men and women who would put new office in new mexico? >> my district is northern new mexico. i'm running because i want to take a searing life experience of being outed and take the judgment i had to display every day in the cia, my knowledge of washington and put it to good work, good use right away for northern new mexico. i -- this opportunity presented itself. it doesn't happen too often and i thought i can do that and i can do it well. >> are you being driven by a particular agenda or animus? you say in the ad i've got scores i want to settle, mr. president. that's kind of ominous, right? >> i think the ad is a great metaphor. i believe we are going backwards on things like women's rights, on health care, on national security. so i have a record of speaking truth to power, and i have a loud, clear voice. i want to go to washington and on day one get to work. i want to work for the people of

northern new mexico. >> what are the scores you want to settle? >> the scores i want to settle are get us back on track in ways the house has passed so much legislation on gun control, health care, women's rights and yet none of this has been taken up by the senate. so i hope the election of november 2020 helps right that. >> so you got ben ray luhan in the senate. that creates the opening there's a new level of scrutiny for you here. in the ad you tell your story about how you got outed and you finger scooter libby. but it wasn't him. it was armitage reportedly that told bob novak, may he rest in peace, your identity. yes, libby got in trouble for things, he got a felony conviction and it was bush that gave him the -- >> scooter libby was convicted of obstruction of justice among

four other counts, which means he lied, they couldn't get to the bottom of everything. we do know that senior bush white house officials pushed the story and my name to at least half a dozen reporters. and we know that scooter libby spoke to the "new york times" reporter judith miller. so, you know, it's an ad, we're condensing it down but it's fair to say scooter libby was one of those pushing this false narrative. >> here is the other stick you're getting hit with right now is that you have retweeted or shown interest in articles that are put out by a web site that is basically a platform for extremist thought and anti-semitism. what are you doing having anything to do with a site like that if you want to represent new mexico as a democrat? >> when i retweeted that, i apologized profusely and multiple times. it's not who i am and it's not what i believe. i told my twins when they were growing up many, many times when you apologize, you have to say

it with sincerity so that it's meaningful and it was sincere. so people can only judge me from my words and actions going forward. >> why did you do it? >> because i departmeidn't read article all the way through and i was simply focused with the mistake i thought of getting out of the iran nuclear deal, which i thought was a really bad idea and it was proven to be true. >> you've shown other interests in that web site before. why would you have anything to do with a web site that is operated or at least provided by a guy who is a holocaust denier? >> because social media and twitter can be a pretty hateful environment, and it doesn't exactly lend itself to thoughtful discussion or reading all the way through. i made a terrible mistake and i hurt people whose beliefs i respect and i apologized for it. >> i get it. i'm not beating you over the

head with that one instance. i'm saying there was more than one. is there something about that site that you like or that you are think is relevant for people? >> sometimes all sorts of things come across, as you know, in social media that you don't read all the way through and, you know, and that's why i'm not on twitter anymore. >> so let me ask you this. you get into congress. you get through this scrutiny and it's going to be coming because that's the nature of the game right now, especially when you give people easy things to reach out and judge you by. you make it through, you get in. what do you expect you bring to the job that no one can match? >> i know what i can do, which is on day one i hit the ground running. it's a blessing and a curse. people know my name. i expect that i don't have to wait around for years to have that seniority so that people return my phone calls. new mexico is my home. it's where we moved when we left

washington, d.c., and i have lived and worked and traveled all over the world and this is the only place, the first place that really feels like home. so i want to be able to give back. we were very warmly welcomed when we arrived here. i dove into the community, and this opportunity allows me hopefully to serve my country again. and it's something i would love to do. i'm going all over this district, which is huge, and i believe -- i'm very concerned about my country right now and i want to be able to say i tried. >> valerie plame, thank you very much for giving us your insight into these other stories and telling us about your election. good luck going forward. thank you. all right, thank you. >> so i've got another story for you that defines or actually redefines school spirit. a young student, not even in junior high, he had a vision that is now wowing an entire university. and it's giving us a tool to

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i know it's only monday but are you ready? a florida elementary student wanted to do his part for college colors day at his school. he loves the university of tennessee, but he didn't have any of their gear. so this is what he came up with. that's him, by the way. he scrolled out his own logo. mom pinned it to an orange t-shirt. but he ended up in tears because you know kids, right. god forbid they be nice to somebody in this situation but they mocked the homemade version. he is teacher saw him crying and shared the story online. now our story is what the university did. they did this -- that drawing

inspired an official tennessee tee. d. lemon, come on. got to love it. that's us on our best and worst story. >> they didn't realize there's always the bright side. what you can't do for yourself, most times god will do for you. so this, his t-shirt, will probably be more popular than anything those kids who teased him will do in their lives. probably. maybe not but probably. and that is the coolest looking college t-shirt i've ever seen. i'm going to do that with mine, my lsu shirt. make my own. it won't be that popular. good for hill. -- him. i hope he gets some proceeds from that. >> i hope the validation is more important than anything else. i'm so happy the teacher put the story out there. kids have to be taught at that age, i know you think it's funny

and you'd rather be a a group making fun of this kid than be part of the group that's being made fun of. thank god he was celebrated for doing what others mocked him for. >> they kept his information, his identity private, right. i'd love to see the kid. i'd love to have him and his family on. i'd love to know because he did a great thing. you know, the vols did a great thing, too. >> i love it. and good for them for doing it. >> how you feeling? >> better than i deserve. how you feeling? >> i'm feeling all right. i'm excited. >> what are you excited about? i knew this question was leading somewhere. >> no, no. >> i know you were asking me that as a setup. what's going on? >> because i'm going to talk about a lot of things, obviously what's happening in politics and in the world. i'm also going to talk a bit about -- have you see the dave

chavelle special? >> i have. >> it's drawing controversy, from critics. >> i don't want to give away >> he talks about people, about kids who were victimized with jackson, michael jackson, and he makes a joke out of the surprise of that. and a lot of people don't like it. >> right. he talks about the lgbtq community. he talks about all kinds of things, political correctness and what have you. so i'm just wondering what it means for society that the average person loves it, right, and then the critics hate it. and then i'm wondering if it's a turning point with political correctness. that's it. the person who is going to share his opinion about it really is charlamagne tha god. that's why i'm excited. i have charlamagne tha god coming in. that's one of the subjects we'll talk about. >> good cause for excitement. he's talking about what's happening. i'm going to be talking about

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all right. so after six weeks at home, congress is back in session for now. can you believe the house only has 13 working days on the schedule this month? then after that, they're going to take another two weeks off again. we're told these long recesses are needed so they can go home and better understand what you, the voter, wants. the senate majority leader said the right words today. >> we come here to fight for our neighbors, for the places we

love, and are proud to hail from. >> now, maybe but it kind of feels like b.s. and i would argue that mcconnell is at the heart of the inaction. i would argue they go home and raise money as often as to do anything else. and too often these days that means pitching opposition to the other side. and that's because of a couple of things. fringe elements of right and left seem to have huge sway over this white house and this president and even the top of the field to replace him. the radical left versus the rabid right. but what if instead of the hate parade, you voted on what got done? not only would that get more done for you, it would also reflect reality. we are not these fringes. we are not our extremes. people have to work to divide us. think about it this way. major social issues, like access to weapons, intractable in washington, d.c.

the president even double-speaks all the time on this. i'll do it, i don't want to do it, yes, no, phone call, forget it. background checks, universally, all gun purchases, 90% of you are in favor of it in this country. red flag laws, 76% of you. the climate crisis, a solid majority wants a plan to reduce the use of fossil fuels. look, there are the numbers. plans for both have already passed the house, going nowhere in the senate. same for election security. lowering prescription drug costs, equal pay. an overwhelming majority of you say you want these things. see, people agree. it's special interests, it's fringes, they all appear to have zero chance of going anywhere in the little time that congress actually has. what happened to the power of the majority? one problem is, of course, concentration of opposition in the senate, which has become the land of no unless the president

says yes. you could argue he should be tweeting and rallying folks to do something on these issues. tell mitch mcconnell stop being the grim reaper. breathe life into these laws. but he isn't. the one thing both sides agree are going to get done in this fortnight session, they really believe -- this is what they're going to do. they're going to vote to delay doing the job of keeping the government funded and open. i mean the irony of it. there are some 12 annual spending bills they need to pass. the house has done 10 or 12 of them. fine. the senate has done zero. this nation was founded on the idea of fierce debate. we welcome it. we actively participate on this show. we do it all the time. but the point of debate is what? it's to find common ground. yet more and more opposition is what seems to keep people in office. what they stand against is more operative than what they get done. i know this president can rally a crowd and drive a news cycle by saying who and what he's

against, and his party stands quiet and waits for his direction. but you are the ones who put all of them there, right, left, and reasonable. you have to remember these men and women work for you. so many of you say to me here on the show and social media and on my radio show, so sick of the division and the toxic negativity. i'm so sick of it. so change it. start calling your representatives tomorrow. email them. say, get things done in this session, or i'm not going to vote for you, man or woman. then reward that progress. tell them. you didn't put them there to tear the other side down. you put them there to build this country up. tell them to do their damn job. and if they don't, remember and vote. and i'm telling you, you will see if they see that progress keeps them in, progress will come. thank you for watching.

"cnn tonight" with d. lemon starts right now. >> you really think we're a majority rule country when you look at the electoral college, you look at the polling when it comes to guns, when you look at what happens in social media? part of my conversation i'm going to have, as i said, later on with charlemagne, it's the smaller group, the loudest or most influential. >> i think that you have to separate what happens in elections and what happens in certain discreet cultural issues and debates that get picked up by the media. yes, i think the majority matters a lot. i think it's what the majority wants in this country that you have to consider. i think we have fallen into a pattern of rewarding opposition. >> yeah. >> and we have fallen into a pattern of negativity. >> or being afraid of opposition as well, too. >> as long as it happens -- look, fear is one of the biggest drivers of animus. as long as it stays that way, you will see inaction as the main thought in congress because they think they're going to get to stay there because of what they're against a