much and that is what i'm saying. i support legalization and i support the funds that are raised from it that goes to those who are harmfully impacted by it. >> all right. eric adams, thank you very much. appreciate your time tonight. >> thank you. >> so our viewers know, we'll speak to the candidates next week. thanks for joining us. anderson starts now. a gross abuse of power, john berman here in for anderson. that's how senate majority leader chuck schumer characterized the revolution first reported in the "new york times" the trump justice department saw computer data on the house intelligence committee. one of whom was the current chairman adam schiff and staff and family members and reporting on how broad the scope of it was but before going further, we should get a few things straight. even though the headline reads hunting leaks trump officials focused on democrats in congress, the reporting strongly suggests this was no routine

leak investigation. none of this was even remotely normal. as we learned last night what the doj did was unprecedented in who they targeted and this normal. as congressman schiff was being investigated, the chief executive was conducting a public vendeta that continued to the end of his term. >> little pencil neck ee e adam schiff. he has a little pencil neck. the smallest neck i've ever seen. schi irks schiff, the most dishonest politician. wa watermelon head. we call him schiffty schifft. when you see him go out and lie and lie and stand at the mike.

smart guy, by the way. you little pencil neck. >> you can chuck that up to a childish man behaving childish will you but he was the president and still is right now the unquestioned leader of his party so even as the doj's inspector general today began investigating the matter, republican lawmakers were down playing it. charles grassly saying in a statement today investigations into members of congress and staff are nothing new. congressman chris stewart who sits in the house intelligence committee says i support investigating leaks of classified information that glides right past the evidencel investigation. everything we're learning suggests not just to us but intelligence and law enforcement professionals this plain reeks. as manu raju was told the bottom line from the first day of the russian investigation i assumed a hostile government would do something like this. i just didn't think it would be

our own hostile government. again, it's not like the former president was hiding anything. you've seen the name calling. in addition, the ex president was loud rely was loud re calling for action. from ad deleted tweet from february to be stopped. again, this was as the investigation was underway and again, according to the times came up empty. let me repeat that. it came up empty. all of the allegations amounted to nothing. it was all bluster from the king of it. now as for former attorney general william barr three sources tell the times when he became attorney general, he revived the probe and put a trusted prosecutor on it. barr spoke with them today. william barr on friday distanced himself from the justice department seized communication belonging to two prominent democratic lawmakers spear

heading investigations into then president donald trump. in a phone interview barr said he didn't recall getting briefed on the moves. which is a clever answer because he certainly might not have been briefed on the moves made before he was a.g. but says nothing about the moves he himself reportedly made. he also told politico during his time as attorney general he was not aware of any congressman's records being sought in a leak case that plays funny tricks with tense. was he not aware of the time? of course. did he become aware retrospectively? it sounds like splitting hairs but william barr is no dope. what he is a proven dissemibler or e evader. >> has the president or anyone asked that you open an investigation of anyone? >> i wouldn't -- >> yes or no? >> could you repeat that question? >> i will repeat it.

has the president or anyone at the white house ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone? yes or no, please, sir. >> the president or anybody else. >> seems you would remember something like that and be able to tell us. >> yeah, but i'm trying to grapple with the word suggest. there are discussions of matters out there that they have not asked me to open an investigation but -- >> perhaps suggested? >> i don't know. i wouldn't say suggest. >> hinted? >> i don't know. >> inferred? you don't know? >> doesn't know? knows and won't say? will say but won't lie? won't lie but will deceive? the man has a record dating back to his blatant mischaracterization of the mueller report. he's also not afraid to cover just about anything with a thick slathering of don't recalls. >> you can't recall whether you

have discussed those cases with anyone in the white house including the president of the united states? >> my recollection is i have not -- >> you don't recall for sure? >> let me move on. >> i don't recall whether that was related to me. >> i don't recall any discussion. i don't recall that phrase and what context. >> i don't recall that i don't remember that. not that i recall. >> i can't actually remember how it came up but someone mentioned it. >> the former attorney general also told politico quote he was not aware of who we were looking at in any of the cases and also that he quote never discussed the lead cases with trump and didn't really ask me any of the specifics. again, he didn't have to. the boss was shouting it from the rafters. we mentioned the new reporting on this tonight. cnn evan perez joins us with that. what more are we learning about

the justice department's subpoenas that to apple? >> this was an extraordinary request. the breath of it is simply just broader than i can remember any of these types of requests. we're talking about 73 phone numbers, 36 email addresses according to apple was part of this demand that came in a subpoena in february of 2018 and we now know that at least two members of congress, we know that some of their staff members and some of their family members including somebody who was underaged was part of the dragnet that the justice department was asking for the meta data was asking for from apple and here is this, john. a person we talked to familiar with the investigation said that the request basically asked for data going back to the inception of all of these accounts up to the present time, which was february of 2018. let me repeat that. from the inception of those

accounts so in some cases probably a decade. it's not clear. so what we know is that apple turned over what is now is meta data, it wasn't content but, you know, this was something done in 2018 and wasn't until this year in may that they were able to notify the account holders that their data was taken by the justice department. >> from inception. that's staggering. was apple aware of who was being investigated here and did they find it odd they weren't just subpoenaed but put under a gag order? >> they didn't know the target of the investigation or subject or what it related to. it appears they didn't know these were related to members of congress that they learned that these were accounts belonging to eric swalwell and hadadam schif.

it's not unusual for them to be told they can't disclose this. what happened in this case, john, is that this gag order was extended three times every year and it wasn't until just days before the biden administration comes into office that it appears the justice department stops essentially responding to requests from apple saying do you still need this data? do you want us to keep this gag order and the appears they lost interest. that's the reason why today you have this investigation from the inspector general, merritt garland, the attorney general and deputy attorney general asked for this investigation to be done because there clearly is unusual things about this. >> indeed. to say the least. thank you, evan perez for your reporting. appreciate it. >> thanks. joining us now maggie haberman and chief political analyst gloria borger. let me start with you. this new reporting illustrates

how big the scope of this actually was. 73 phone numbers, 36 email accounts looking for records dating back to inception. this really sounds like a huge dragnet. >> as we peel the young in, we might discover there were more email addresses and phone numbers that they were looking at 1k3 what becomes clearer and clearer is that this was really a fishing expedition by people who were interested in finding out where these so-called leaks came from. had the president of the united states screaming from the r rafters as you illustrated before he believed adam schiff was a leaker and democrats were leakers and as a result his justice department and bill barr who seemed toreinvigorate was appointing someone to take the leak investigations and look at

them because the president of the united states and he said and he told politico they were cabinet members and the in intelligence community were providing pressure on him to get this all done and as a result, we have what we have. my big question that remains unanswered is what evidence was provided to a grand jury to get these phone numbers? i mean, what evidence did they have that all of these numbers need to be tracked? we just don't know. >> was it properly predicated? the answer might come from the inspector general report. we just don't know. maggie, what do you make of all this reporting because there is irony president trump was virtually always complaining peep people were investigating him but the sweeping we've been told unreasonably unprecedented

investigation or fishing expedition. >> we don't know the scope of this. we don't know how many additional numbers or emails there might be or additional people being looked at certainly to target we know doj targets reporters. this happened under previous investigations. what is different is this is lawmakers and family members of lawmakers and again, we don't know if it stops there. to your point, what do i make of it? there is a president who as you noted was constantly talking about leaks and concerned about leaks i leaks inparticularly leaks into his investigation and campaign and people around him and any ties to russia or any con connections to russia and the doj started under jeff sessions began pulling records from people in a way every expert says we have not really seen before and we'll see where it goes but you touched on something that i think is important. there is no evidence right now

that it turned up anything given how incredibly broad it was. maybe something will be revealed where it did turn up something but remarkable how wide a net they cast to apparently not come up with anything. >> you know, gloria, if this was reversed in the obama justice department was seizing data of republicans on the house intelligence committee, i have a hard time thinking they would be so hum about it as they were today with republicans saying oh, you know, we support leak investigations, investigations happen all the time. >> how about gag orders that were extended three times so the people targets of the investigation didn't know about it for a long time? i mean, that is something that they would be screaming from the raft ters about. there is a lot of what about here? we heard chuck grassley put out a press release today saying, you know, this goes on. this goes on all the time. i'm all in favor of finding out about illegal leaks so we should, you know, we should keep on doing that.

as maggie pointed out, this is different. these are two members of congress. both of them were targets of donald trump's. so this is very different, and, you know, it's very clear from looking at all of this and looking at the history is that, you know, donald trump treated the justice department like they were just a part of the trump organization and i think while barr at some points may have tried to keep his distance, there was no getting away from what the president of the united states was demanding. in fact, he fired jeff session because jeff sessions said, you know, i don't work for you. i work for the american people. >> maggie, there are so many different angles to this and it's deeply serious but there is a present and future political angle here, as well. we're talking about the person who facto leader of the republican party in the future but he's more or less the current front runner for the republican nomination for president, too. i'm wondering how you think this

will play into republican politics? are they going to all line up behind him at this point? >> i think the answer is yes, john. i think what we have seen is the parties are so incredibly polarized that essentially, much more so with republicans at the moment what happens is that when the former president says something or it's perceived that in the mind of his supporters that the media somehow is against him, they then stick with his position and in this case, the position of the trump administration so i don't think you're going to hear a lot of out cry from republicans. there might be a little here and there. there might be republican candidates for 2024 who would be willing to say something but i don't think that's going to be a driving force for them. gloria is right and you're right if this was the obama administration that did this, there would be a lot of protest from republicans. i don't see this playing as a major political issue and frankly, that's going to detract from accountability issues and

people paying attention to something in the public interest. i do want to note and this is -- all of this unprecedented activity took place under former president trump. the biden justice department continued one of these gags in addition to my colleagues. there is a lot of work to be done what happens across the doj and how it is approaching the information and president biden took a strong position on the white house has taken a strong public position they won't do that but it will take awhile to restore faith just given all of the collective actions of the last five years. >> there is an issue of prosecution. it is very real and worth exploring and we all need to learn a lot more about it. thank you both so much for being with us tonight. house chairman adam schiff briefed the committee today. joining us now a member of the committee jim himes of connecticut who does not believe he was targeted by the trump

investigation. congratdlaulations on that fron. i know you can't tell us what happened but broadly speaking, what were you told about the scope of these records that were seized, what it means and what's your initial reaction? >> yeah, john, well, first of all, we don't know a lot. i don't think i was targeted but it turns out the way apple notified from an account like something like apple at info or info at apple. we don't know. the chairman and others have asked the department of justice for a complete list of those numbers of congress and associated staff and family members and children that were subpoenaed, whose records were subpoenaed and we've been provided that information so we have no idea the answer to your second question, which is how broadly does this go? and, you know, without betraying the confidence of a closed meeting, a lot of us what happened was bad enough, john.

this is the use of arguably next to the military, the most powerful thing that the federal government has, the department of justice it was the use of the department of justice to advance a quirkily political aim of the president and so what is horrifying here, it's good the inspector general will do his work and operate inside the department of justice. what we're talking about here, of course, is yet another flagrant constitutional abuse and we learned about it by reading it, at least i learned about it by reading it in the newspaper. what other elements were compromised? the irs used as a political tool for donald trump? the cia used as a political tool for donald trump? unless we have something bigger than an inspector general, unless we have -- i'm thinking back to the church committee of the 1970s, unless we have something truly all of government, we may never know the answers to that question and that leaves us profoundly

vulnerable to the next donald trump, the smarter donald trump doing this all over again. >> you're asking for a select or special committee or special prosecutor? >> well, you know, we've spent the last two months talking about a commission around january 6th. i was there on january 6th. i was very much at risk on january 6th but if you asked me to choose between a commission to figure out exactly what happened on january 6th and january 5th and january 7th or a commission that would look at the abuse of the state department, which of course got donald trump impeached the first time, the abuse of the doj and what else happened out there, i would choose the second. i would like to know from soup to nuts because we know this president had every opportunity, used the tools of the american public, the federal government for his own personal gain. i want to know where that stopped. that may go beyond a select committee. that's probably a commission. >> former attorney general william barr often seems fuzzy recalling vents.

he said he was not aware who we were looking at in any of the cases and that then president trump then asked specifics. so do you buy that from bill barr? >> well, what we know about bill barr is he was more than willing to break precedent at the department of justice to as an attorney general actually act as the prime defender of donald trump. you of course did that with his letter describing the mueller report, which then mueller had to say wait a minute, that's not what i said. he's not a particularly good source on this stuff but clearly we're going to need to know exactly what happened because it's not enough to say that we were looking for leaks. look, if you tell me a member of congress took $10 million from the russian government in exchange for our nuclear codes by all means go after that guy. that is not what is happening here. it's never happened before. think about it. there is an old saying that keeps going through my head a new york judge once commented a skillful district attorney can

get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich and my republican friends need to ask themselves under a democratic president they would be comfortable with their being exposed and their children being exposed because some assistant u.s. attorney tells a grand jury we're going after the potential, the potential of a leak within republican members of the intelligence committee. it's outrageous they're not joining us and standing up and saying this cannot stand. >> 73 phone accounts. 36 email accounts. appreciate you being with us tonight. >> thank you, john. next, law enforcement and intelligence professionals both of whom were attacked by the former president make of all this and how far from the norm they believe this is. later, the current president, the current president's overseas trip and what vladimir putin just said about the current president and yes, the former one. you need an ecolab scientific clean here. and you need it here.

and here. and here. which is why the scientific expertise that helps operating rooms stay clean is now helping the places you go every day too. seek a commitment to clean. look for the ecolab science certified seal. this past year has felt like a long, long norwegian winter. but eventually,

with spring comes rebirth. everything begins anew. and many of us realize a fundamental human need to connect with other like-minded people. welcome back to the world. viking. exploring the world in comfort... once again. stay restless, with the icon that does the same. the rx crafted by lexus. get 1.9% apr financing

on the 2021 rx 350. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. advanced non-small cell lung cancer can change everything. on the 2021 rx 350. but your first treatment could be a chemo-free combination of two immunotherapies that works differently. it could mean a chance to live longer. opdivo plus yervoy is for adults newly diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread, tests positive for pd-l1, and does not have an abnormal egfr or alk gene. it is the only fda-approved combination of two immunotherapies. opdivo plus yervoy equals a chance for more starry nights. more sparkly days. more sunny mornings. opdivo and yervoy can cause your immune system to harm healthy parts of your body during and after treatment. these problems can be severe and lead to death. see your doctor right away if you have a cough; chest pain; shortness of breath; irregular heartbeat; diarrhea; constipation; severe stomach pain, nausea or vomiting; dizziness; fainting; eye problems; extreme tiredness; changes in appetite, thirst or urine; rash; itching; confusion; memory problems; muscle pain or weakness; joint pain; flushing; or fever.

these are not all the possible side effects. problems can occur together and more often when opdivo is used with yervoy. tell your doctor about all medical conditions including immune or nervous system problems, if you've had or plan to have an organ or stem cell transplant, or received chest radiation. here's to a chance to live longer. ask your doctor about chemo-free opdivo plus yervoy. thank you to all those in our clinical trials.

the white house weighed in on the breaking news today. jen mincing in words. >> let me be clear, the behavior, these actions the president finds them absolutely appalling. he ran for president in part because of the abuse of power by the last president and last attorney general. >> joining us now, james clapper also cnn senior law enforcement analyst and former deputy fbi director andrew moccabe that knows what it's like to be targeted. 73 phone numbers, 36 email addresses from apple, at least one subpoena to microsoft. we were talking to gloria and maggie and feels like maybe we're at the beginning of learning something bigger and potentially more troubling. what do you think? >> i think that's entirely possible. you know, it's death by 1,000

cuts. we're just learning about these things has they happen to dribble out because of gag orders and spiring and service providers providing notification. i want to put context on this for your viewers, john. this is so wildly different from anything i ever experienced running many sensitive investigations, some of which occasionally involve members of congress. some of which were leaked cases. this is like the equivalent of carpet bombing the house intelligence committee with legal process but of course, only on one side of the aisle so the way it was executed to me reeks of political purpose. >> yeah, that's what we talk about when we talk about it being unprecedented. the scope and the size of it and that's why there are so many questions. despite that, director clapper i mentioned earlier republican chuck grassley has been in since

1975 and said today it is nothing new. i get it. there are corruption investigations. we see them a lot but secretly seizing communications data in the ranking member of the house intelligence committee to say nothing of family members is really nothing new? >> well, i would disagree profoundly with senator grassly. yes, there have been as andy can attest, there are investigations of individual members of congress normally for suspicion of criminal activity but not like this and the sweeping nature of this. this is quite different, and, you know, shocking, stunning but not surprising are words we often find ourselves using of revelations of abuse of power by the trump administration and i fear i'm sure there is a lot more to this and there will be other examples that will come out over time. >> i want to read another

portion of the "new york times" reporting that is part and parcel of the newly revealed investigation that made donald trump look bad. quote, the white house was adamant that the sources be found and prosecuted and the justice department began a broad look at national security officials from the ocbama administration while most officials are ruled out, investigators opened cases that focused on mr. comey and his deputy andrew g. mccabe. did you know you were under investigation at that time or whether your personal data was seized and by the way, we should note the former president was attacking you as recently as yesterday. >> yeah, you know, i knew i was a constant target of his and he was constantly saying defamatory false things about me and my family. it been going on for years. it happened yesterday. did i know at the time i was the subject of a leaking

investigation? no, i didn't know. i had the unfortunate experience of having to find these things out in the last few years of this nightmare. you know, i learned in 2018 i got a notification just like the ones we're learning about this week. i got a notification from my email provider that they had received a court order for process on my account a year earlier and had been prohibited from informing me about that for a year. when those things happen, john, it's one thing to have the president tweet nasty things about you and you realize this guy really hates me and he's coming after me and it's not letting up but when you see that the machinery of the department of justice has been activated against you and they're actively trying to throw you in jail, it is absolutely terrifying. >> so director clapper, the former attorney general bill barr said today he doesn't recall being told the prosecutors in the justice department had subpoenaed apple for data from the accounts of

the house democrats with their staff and family members. he doesn't recall. did you buy that? >> well, it's not the first time he's at best disingenuous. i don't buy it. >> andy, what do you think? >> i mean, come on. this is the guy who stood behind the podium at the doj and lied to the world about the substance of the mueller report. so his answers to senator harris' question in the clip that we've seen many times on tv today, you know, as an investigator and someone that interviewed and interrogated hundreds of people, he shows every one of the signs of deception in that answer. so no, i don't take him at his word. >> director, how much faith do you put in the doj inspector general investigation? >> i agree with congressman mines. it bigger than doj and of course, we're talking about the inspector general department of

justice. and i think this is probably going to turn out to be far more reaching than just one department of the government. i think we'll see other examples of abuse like this so congressman had a good idea as some sort of outside commission. >> james cralapper, andrew mcca, thank you. the comparisons immediately made between trump and another president with an enemy's list, richard nixon. watergate veteran carl bernstein joins us when "360" continues. to the way things were. but what does that mean? does it mean getting back out here to feed the world? is it about getting back to this commute? this community? or this ingenuity? for folks who run with us, there is no going back. because they've never stopped working towards a better tomorrow.

together, we run forward. tonight, i'll be eating a pork banh mi with extra jalapeños. [doorbell rings] thanks, baby. yeah, we 'bout to get spicy for this virtual date. spicy like them pajama pants? well, the top half of me looks good. no wonder we still single. hello lenny28. wait a minute, i know a lenny28. ooo...lenny is cute! can i get some privacy, please?

you need an ecolab scientific clean here. and you need it here. and here. and here. which is why the scientific expertise that helps operating rooms stay clean is now helping the places you go every day too. seek a commitment to clean. look for the ecolab science certified seal. this is the epson ecotank color printer. no more buying cartridges. big ink tanks. lots of ink. print about... this many pages. the epson ecotank. just fill and chill.

in business, it's never just another day. it's the big sale, or the big presentation. the day where everything goes right. or the one where nothing does. with comcast business you get the network that can deliver gig speeds to the most businesses and advanced cybersecurity to protect every device on it— all backed by a dedicated team, 24/7. every day in business is a big day. we'll keep you ready for what's next. comcast business powering possibilities.

revelations the former president perceived enemies to another disgraced former president richard nixon and his enemies list. one rather infamous memo written in 1971 explained the purpose of that list quote stated a bit more bluntly, how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies. i'm joined by a veteran of the watergate era, journalist and author and cnn political analyst carl beernstein. there is a lot we don't know. the parallels between the nixon enemy list and what we're seeing from the former trump

administration, how apt are they? >> apt to the extent that nixon wanted to skew his political enemies, no question. so did donald trump. trump's action is really guilty of crimes against democracy. it's not just about screwing his enemies but getting everything he wants for himself for his own political ends for his own financial gain and family. he'll undermine a very basic premise of democracy as would now a republican party that is in debt to donald trump and these activities there is a conspiracy, on going conspiracy by trump and those around him and the high ark key of the republican fparty to undermine

democracy. >> to your point, there is another key difference between nixon and trump. in the nixon era, there were republicans that stood up to richard nixon. >> not only stood up. richard nixon was about to be impeached and convicted and forced to leave office. that's why he resigned. what do we have ccarthy that ar co-cons co-conspirators. look what they are doing to keep people from voting so that donald trump or his arepublican party that's an authoritarian undemocratic party, what is the goal here? it is not to further democracy. it's to undermine it and trump's whole presidency is about crimes against democracy. >> you see a through line between -- >> oh, boy. >> you see a through line between this doj investigation,

the foreign events, rudy giuliani, ukraine -- >> go through the whole list. >> you see a through line there? >> absolutely, absolutely. this is about donald trump's rule against his enemies for his political gain, for his financial gain. this is not nixon. nixon indeed wanted to screw his political enemies. nixon indeed was guilty of obstruction of justice, et cetera, et cetera. this is a much larger notion of sat sat satisfying every whim and will not sat 'tisfy this. there is nobody willing to say except for liz cheney, it's not mcconnell or kevin mccarthy.

they have laid down and the train is running over them and the train is running over our democratic principles that have guided this country throughout the history. we've never had a political party that has tried to suppress votes such as we're seeing now. we had the dixiecrats and democrats who control and tried to keep black people from voting but most of the party did not go along with that. >> what can or should the current justice department or merrick garland do? should joe biden do about this? because you don't think it's over. donald trump is the former president but you don't think this is over? >> it's obviously not over. all we have to do is listen to your show, anderson, every night and what we put on the air and read in the new york times and washington post. look, what we ought to be doing as journalists particularly, we need to find out everything that happened in the trump presidency in terms of these crimes against

democracy including the pandemic. homicidal negligence by a president of the united states. that figures in, too. what was that homicidal negligence about that resulted in tens, hundreds of thousands of deaths for his own political purposes. that's not nixon. this is something far greater. and what the congress of the united states investigation, the department of justice, yes, but it's going to be the press to find out what indeed has happened to us and this continuing line into the republican party today and this on going conspiracy of intent to undermine democracy. >> we got about 25 seconds left. i want to bring it back to the beginning where we were this week. i want your reaction when you read this story from the new york times about the scope of this investigation. >> well, look, it's a fishing expedition. it's to find outsou sources of

leaks. why didn't they look to find out what happened with russia? what was their interest so much about leaks and after the enemies, gone after schiff and gone after the democrats who indeed led the rish ussia investigation. it'so obvious. we don't need much more of a road map. >> good to be with you. there is more breaking news as president biden meets economic allies. vladimir putin discusses his relationship with the u.s. and praise for the former president in his brand-new interview days before the two men meet for their summit. the details when we continue. people everywhere living with type 2 diabetes

are waking up to what's possible with rybelsus®. ♪ you are my sunshine ♪ ♪ my only sunshine... ♪ rybelsus® works differently than any other diabetes pill to lower blood sugar in all 3 of these ways... increases insulin... decreases sugar... and slows food. the majority of people taking rybelsus® lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7. people taking rybelsus® lost up to 8 pounds. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybelsus® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking rybelsus® with a sulfonylurea

or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration which may worsen kidney problems. wake up to what's possible with rybelsus®. ♪ please don't take my sunshine away ♪ you may pay as little as $10 per prescription. ask your healthcare provider about rybelsus® today. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google, turn up the heat. ♪ ♪ ♪

president biden today met with some of the biggest leaders of the biggest economies. a table setter for the meeting scheduled to occur next week with vladimir putin. russia's leader spoke with nbc news. this is what he had to say about biden and his predecessor. >> even now i believe former u.s. president mr. trump is an extraordinary individual, talented individual, otherwise he would not have become u.s. president. president biden is radically different from president trump. he's a career man.

he spent virtually all of his adulthood in politics. think of the number of years in the senate. it my great hope, yes, there is adva advantages, some disadvantages but no impulse based movements on behalf of the sitting u.s. president. >> our chief international correspondent clarissa ward has the latest. >> the fact vladimir putin is heaping prize on donald trump, what kind of message does that send before he sits down with joe biden? >> i lost track at some point, john, of the sort of adjectives he used to describe trump there, extraordinary, talented, colorful. i think that president putin always likes to do is keep everybody on the back foot. keep everybody guessing and anxious. i think he's signaling this is not going to be an easy summit. he did also have some praise for president biden but certainly

it's going to be a difficult conversation that these two leaders are going to have and it's not clear yet what real substantive progress can be made from this very difficult conversation and certainly, we're no closer to knowing that based on the clip that we just heard of that interview. >> have to say the extraordinary gains men ship before this summit begins is remarkable. putin was confronted with accusations that he's a killer. i want to play a clip of that.b. putin was confronted with accusations that he's a killer. i want to play a clip of that. >> let me give you names. alexander, poisoned, boris shot moments from the kremlin moments from here and one died of blunt trama in washington d.c. and all of these are coincidences, mr. president? [ laughter ] >> translator: look, you know, i don't want to come across as being rude but this looks like some kind of indie gegs.

you mentioned those who suffered and died at the hands of other individuals. >> is putin used to being put on the spot like that? >> reporter: i think that he would have anticipated being put on the spot doing an interview like this. i don't think he would have been surprised by the tough nature of those questions. but i do think it interesting to see how he almost seems to enjoy his reputation in the west as keir simmons is reading out that list of all these opponents of the kremlin who have ended up dead, he starts out by laughing and then says listen to me, here is the deal and then goes on to talk about verbal indigestion. i'm not exactly clear what he means by that but does have this extraordinary ability, john, president putin to deny something at the same time as clearly enjoying the fact that this is a part of his

reputation. >> the look on his face was something there. so what kind of message is president biden expected to try to deliver at the summit? is he going to raise the issue of the poisoning and jailing of alexi navalny? >> reporter: he's made it abundantly clear he's going to raise all the international human rights, the attempted murder of a dissident, very much falls under that preview. and president putin has said, this is off limits. we're not going to be discussing internal domestic russian political affairs. but we've heard from the white house, it doesn't matter whether he wants to talk about it, this will be raised. what does that achieve? where does that conversation go? what are the openings here? and, you know, as we heard today, cnn's matthew chance spoke to putin's press secretary and he said, listen, the reason for this entire summit is that relations are in such a poor state that really this meeting

needs to happen in order to ensure that things do not degrade any further. so it may be that really at its core, this is a summit which is designed not to deliver anything tangible or positive, but just to prevent things from deteriorating further, trying to find possibly some common areas that the two countries can work together onto prevent the relationship from being completely derailed, but i would not expect any positive news to come off this at all. >> you'll be watching. thank you very much. back here at home, a startling new report on the threatening text messages, voicemails and emails georgia's top election official, a republican, received as well as his family. all of it sparked by the voter fraud lies from the former president. es with. big ink tanks. lots of ink. no more cartridges. incredible amount of ink.

the epson ecotank. just fill and chill. hey, mom. i'll never say this but... - thanks for telling me everyone 12 and older is eligible for the covid-19 vaccine. - thank you for loving me that much. - thanks. this past year has felt like a long, long norwegian winter. but eventually, with spring comes rebirth. everything begins anew. and many of us realize a fundamental human need to connect with other like-minded people. welcome back to the world. viking. exploring the world in comfort... once again. bipolar depression. it's a dark, lonely place. this is art inspired by real stories of people living with bipolar depression. emptiness. a hopeless struggle. the lows of bipolar depression can disrupt your life

and be hard to manage. latuda could make a real difference in your symptoms. latuda was proven to significantly reduce bipolar depression symptoms, and in clinical studies, had no substantial impact on weight. now i'm feeling connected. empowered. latuda is not for everyone. call your doctor about unusual mood changes, behaviors or suicidal thoughts. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. elderly dementia patients on latuda have an increased risk of death or stroke. call your doctor about fever, stiff muscles, and confusion, as these may be life-threatening, or uncontrollable muscle movements as these may be permanent. these are not all the serious side effects. this is where i want to be. talk to your doctor and ask if latuda could make the difference you've been looking for in your bipolar depression symptoms. hooh. that spin class was brutal. well you can try using the buick's massaging seat. oohh yeah, that's nice. can i use apple carplay to put some music on? sure, it's wireless.

pick something we all like. ok. hold on. what's your buick's wi-fi password? “buickenvision2021.” oh, you should pick something stronger. that's really predictable. that's a really tight spot. don't worry. i used to hate parallel parking. [all together] me too. - hey. - you really outdid yourself. yes, we did. the all-new buick envision. an suv built around you... all of you.

another reminder now of how these are not normal political times and how much of the reason for it can be trace today the former president and his voter fraud lies. in this case, about losing the state of georgia.

according to rurters, people are receiving threats. the state's top election official says a family member's home was broken into. more from gary tuchman. >> one of the text messages said, you and your family will be killed very slowly. >> reporter: linda is a journalist who just wrote a story about the threat to election workers following donald trump's election loss. the text she read was sent to the wife of georgia's republican secretary of state, brad raffensperger. >> it came from a sender called raffensperger at revenge.u.s. >> this was two days before the capitol insurrection. >> hello, georgia. by the way, there's no way we lost georgia.

there's no way. that was a rigged election. >> reuters reports the raffensperger family has received a constant stream of threatening texts for months. somebody in your is going to have a very unfortunate incident. that came from the address murder@raffensperger.com and please pray. bepray for the death of you and your family every day. i'm sorry. the secretary of state and his wife made a decision to go into temporary hiding following the multitude of threats. after an intimidating housebreak-in that their daughter-in-law and grandchildren endured. >> she returned to her home one evening with her children to find that the garage door had been pulled up, the door leading to her house was open, all of the lights in the house had been turned on. items within the house had been moved around, but nothing was

taken. >> reporter: many other election workers have been threatened. richard is the fulton county, georgia, elections director. we talked to him as ballots were being processed and scanned. >> do you feel pressure on your shoulders? >> well, yes, because we want to make sure all of the votes count. >> reporter: election workers did their jobs well. but trump's lies resulted in the election's director receiving -- >> hundreds of phone calls, emails, threatening -- there was one in particular that really alarmed him. a caller had said that they were planning on standing him before a firing squad and killing him. >> reporter: and here is the audio of one of those phone calls. >> i think you need a pair of handcuffs slapped on you. it's quite obvious the fraud that went on. why don't you come out and admit it. and quit jerking the american

people around. just wondering how much they paid you. when i'm done with you, you'll be in prison. >> reporter: the day after the capitol insurrection, cnn asked brad raffensperger what he would say to donald trump? >> obviously that's why i've said from day one, we have to be mindful of our speech. we can't play people and get them into emotional frenzy and an emotional state. deal with the facts. >> wow. gary joins us now from atlanta. secretary raffensperger was just on cnn last hour. what did he say about this? >> he says he and his wife have had to spend a considerable amount of time away from their grandchildren since the election because of the threats. they want to keep them safe. he said he's a conservative republican but he can't believe what's happened to his party. he said we got to clean up our backyard and he said this country is bigger than just one person. a clear reference to donald trump. >> has to keep his grandchildren safe. gary tuchman, thank you so much. before we go tonight,

anderson sat down for an exclusive interview with former president barack obama to talk about fatherhood, leadership and his legacy. you can catch it tonight at 11:00 right here on cnn. a lot of news tonight. it continues. let's hand it over to chris for cu"cuomo prime time." >> thank you, john. there are too many question marks in this doj situation. and they are not needed. let's be clear. if there were a clean explanation for what trump was up to at the doj with this obviously politically motivated probes, bill barr would be telling us how we have it wrong and we are the danger, not him, et cetera. and trump would be talking a red streak. instead, bill barr, the former ag claims he can't recall anything about the probing that he was at the center of.