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Cuomo Prime Time
Nancy Pelosi: Impeachment Is "A Possibility"; North Carolina Special Election Tomorrow Could Reveal 2020 Clues; Ex-CIA Officer Valerie Plame Announces Congressional Bid. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired September 09, 2019 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:00] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, ANDERSON COOPER 360: --get to an area like this?
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No. And I'll tell you something amazing, Anderson. The first help that arrived there yesterday came from people, regular Bahamians, who came from Abaco, which, as you know, has been destroyed.
So, how people will come in a boat with water and gas from Abaco, it's amazing, and it speaks to the strength of Bahamians. But why is it, that these people are coming first--
COOPER: Yes.
OPPMANN: --rather than the government. Why is it that we can get there but the government can't get there?
COOPER: Yes. It is a good question. Patrick Oppmann, thank you very much.
The news continues. Want to hand it over to Chris for CUOMO PRIME TIME. Chris?
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST, CUOMO PRIME TIME: All right, thank you, Anderson. I am Chris Cuomo and welcome to PRIME TIME.
Look who's finally back? Congress. The impeachment drum's beating once again, time to test a Judiciary member about this big vote this week. What about waiting on the people to send a signal? What about waiting on Speaker Pelosi? You hear what she said today about the new push?
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 Taliban in Afghanistan?
For perspective, guess who we have? Valerie Plame. You remember her. She had her cover blown as a CIA spy during all that Yellowcake intrigue.
She knows a bunch about deals with bad guys in the Middle East, and what can ruin someone's cover. She's now running for Congress. Wait until you see her ad. She says she has some scores to settle.
New week, same call to action. What do you say? Let's get after it.
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CUOMO: 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 of time, it feels to me.
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CUOMO: He joins us now. Good to see you, Congressman. Welcome back.
REP. STEVE COHEN (D-TN): Thank you, Chris. Good to be with you.
CUOMO: So, let's test this. First, what is this vote? We expect it somewhere, maybe around Thursday. Why does it matter?
COHEN: It matters because it formally sets up a House Judiciary inquiry into impeachment of Donald J. Trump, and it sets out the same parameters as were existent under the Republican team that had the Clinton impeachment and the Democratic team when the Nixon impeachment came up.
CUOMO: All right.
COHEN: Same rules.
CUOMO: So, two reasons not to do it, just to test the idea.
First is, Nancy Pelosi doesn't seem happy about it. She says investigating is enough. The people have not said overwhelmingly that that is what they want, and she seems to have a sensitivity about whether or not this works for you guys, going into the election.
COHEN: Well, first of all, my newspaper in Memphis used to be owned by Scripps Howard, and they had some motto about "Give light and the people will see the way." The Congress needs to give light and the people will see the way.
We saw the Nixon impeachment hearings, 17 percent approval when they started, over 60 percent when they finished. We need to investigate. We have a responsibility. We have a duty. And we're going to pursue that and do that now.
CUOMO: But we were flooded with the Klieg lights of the Mueller probe, and all kinds of things going on, so it's not apples-to-apples where people were during the Nixon administration in those proceedings.
But another, maybe little in the weeds, but not for this audience, is that 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?
COHEN: I don't know if that's necessarily true. And I don't think they have to stop. And I don't think that we can - that we can - can't incorporate therein 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. And--
CUOMO: "No crimes. Not an agent of Russia," says Mr. Mueller, who everybody was supposed to respect.
COHEN: Not - 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.
[21:05:00] They had people who could contact different places. We'll find out. What's in the Grand Jury testimony that was redacted by Barr, Trump's Roy Cohn, 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.
CUOMO: Well--
COHEN: Others we don't know.
CUOMO: Or--
COHEN: But he took it upon himself to--
CUOMO: But, you know, Grand Jury's--
COHEN: --redact testimonies.
CUOMO: --Grand Jury, very, very sensitive. Let me ask you something though. Here's one-- COHEN: Grand Jury's sensitive. But every instance in the past, the Attorney General has joined with Judiciary Committee, and these type instances say "Let them have it." And this time, he's not going to do it.
CUOMO: Well Eric Holder--
COHEN: They're accepting their--
CUOMO: --Eric Holder didn't join about turning certain things over either. It's not unheard of for an A.G. to--
COHEN: It was not an impeachment inquiry of--
CUOMO: --not want to give Congress--
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COHEN: --Obama.
CUOMO: Fair point.
COHEN: This will be an impeachment inquiry.
CUOMO: Fair point. All right, now here's another thing that we'll see maybe not as pressing, but to me, every bit is 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 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 - session that started today?
COHEN: Not as long as Mitch McConnell is the - is the leader of the Senate. Mitch McConnell has said he's the Grim Reaper. He said that's the graveyard.
He has not passed or in - even put on the floor for consideration two gun bills that we passed, one on background checks that 90-some-odd percent of the public supports, one on the Charleston loophole, which I imagine is closer to 90 percent as well. He won't even let people vote on it.
There's - McConnell wants nothing to happen. He's happy the way things are. He is an aider and abettor of Trump. And someday, down the line, there's going to be a reckoning, and people will see that this was not only the worst President of the United States, but one of the worst human beings to ever face - grace this earth.
CUOMO: Well I think that you just answered my question.
COHEN: And these people who support him with him.
CUOMO: But the idea of, you know, if there's one thing that you can say about this President, he is transactional.
But based on what you just said, there's zero chance he will be working with you on anything, because you just broke one of the main rules. You take a shot at this President, there will be no swallowing of any type of bile, he's going to come at you.
So, the Democrats, basically, you seem to be saying, Congressman, have zero interest in working with this President.
COHEN: There's no way to work with him. He hasn't worked with us on anything. He lies constantly. He has no - 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 you can 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 - on the globe with other world leaders the same way it used to be. People don't have respect for the - for Trump. They like Americans. They can't understand how we elected such an unusual character as our President.
CUOMO: So, what is the point--
COHEN: The - I mean--
CUOMO: --hold on a second. But what is the point of even having a session then right now, if is it just about impeachment for you guys?
COHEN: Hopefully we will--
CUOMO: Because Pelosi says she's legislating.
How is she going to legislate if you guys won't work with the President to get a deal, which would make him say to Mitch McConnell, you know, "Enough with the Grim Reaper bit. It's time to start breathing some life into some laws. Bring me some stuff."
COHEN: He - we - we've passed Ethics Reform bills to clean up the swamp. The swamp is him, not us. He got the term. It's him.
We've passed healthcare legislation. We've 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 who've--
CUOMO: But 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, but then find common ground, and get something done. That's why you're put there, isn't it? COHEN: To some extent. But there's - that - that was when you had a President who 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. And as soon as we said we're going to consider discussions about
impeachment, he said there'll be nothing on infrastructure because he comes first in everything, not the country.
And anything we've had, he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He doesn't have a - anything to - to replace it with. He wants people not to have insurance. We want to keep the Affordable Care Act and reform it.
You can't work with the man. There's no place he goes. He wants to destroy our environmental laws. He took us out of the Paris Climate Accords. He took us out of the Iran Nuclear Agreement.
What's the result of that? That we don't show leadership to the world on climate change that threatens the next generation. We don't work on Iran who's now developing a nuclear capability, which they wouldn't have if we just stayed in the agreement.
I was just in Australia not long ago. Everybody there said, "You don't go about deals with China unilaterally. You go with your allies as a group, and you go to the World Trade Organization for relief."
This man doesn't know what the World Trade Organization is or he doesn't care.
[21:10:00] CUOMO: But here's the thing. Congressman, 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 your hands because you're going to have to figure out somehow to justify being in office, if your goal is to get something done.
But I hear what you're saying. I understand your arguments. And I appreciate you making them to my audience. We'll see what happens in this vote, maybe Thursday right?
COHEN: I'm going to suggest to you, Chris.
CUOMO: Yes, Sir.
COHEN: And you know this better than me. I think Mario Cuomo would be with me. He would stand up to injustice, and he'd speak the truth to power.
CUOMO: Well--
COHEN: And that's what we need in this country.
CUOMO: Listen, I'm not much in the business of guessing what my dearly departed father would think.
COHEN: He was a star. He was a hero.
CUOMO: He was a good man. But he was also - he said, "Hey don't put a label on me, except I am a Progressive Pragmatist."
He knew he had to get things done. He taught it to his son. You can say a lot of bad things about my brother in politics, it always happens. The man knows how to get a deal done.
And hopefully, you guys will do that as well because that's why you're there. Get things done for the American people.
Steve Cohen, appreciate the good word about my father. Be well.
COHEN: You're welcome. He was one of my heroes. Thank you, Chris.
CUOMO: Thank you. Mine too.
COHEN: I don't know what he'd think. I try not to think about it, to be honest. Often I feel it would be very condemning of me and my actions.
All right, the eve of a very important election for the President, a bellwether of sorts for 2020. That's why the President was down in North Carolina tonight, doing what he can to increase the odds. Key word!
What are the odds? What's going on in the 3rd and the 9th District? The Wizard of Odds seeing red or blue, and why do I care, next.
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CUOMO: All right, the President tonight, doing what he does best, rallying his MAGA troops for that big special election tomorrow in North Carolina's 9th District.
Now remember, this is a redo. Remember there was a illegal voting scheme uncovered. The party had to redo this. The state officials wanted it done.
Democrat Dan McCready is still on the ballot. The Republican he was running against in last one, gone. There's a new one there, Dan Bishop.
Could be a squeaker, could be, but why does it matter? Test for 2020, let's bring in the Wizard of Odds. One, 3rd District and 9th District, we're not talking about the 3rd because--
HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER & ANALYST: Yes.
CUOMO: --the Representative there died, unfortunately. Best to his family. It is highly Republican, should go Republican.
ENTEN: Yes, absolutely.
CUOMO: 9th, you say, is a toss-up. Convince me.
ENTEN: OK. So let's first just lay out the groundwork here, right? This is a really Republican district. Trump won it by 12 in 2016.
CUOMO: All right.
ENTEN: And Romney won it by 12 points.
CUOMO: So, the story's over. They're going to win. Why are you taking my time?
ENTEN: OK. Why am I taking your time? I think this is a key reason I'm taking your time.
Take a look at the special election results between January 2017 October of 2018. The average Democrat outperformed Clinton by 12 percentage points. 12 percentage points, right?
What was going on here? This was the same margin that Trump won the district by. So, 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, we will have a very, very tight race on our hands.
CUOMO: All right, what else can you tell me about how it looks?
ENTEN: So, I think that another thing to keep in mind, how it looks, and why I do think the Republican perhaps is slightly favorite is, take a look at this, Dems-representing districts were Trump won biggest.
There are only four districts right now, four districts that are currently represented by Democrats, in which Trump won by a larger margin than he won in North Carolina's 9th District.
CUOMO: So, if he wins by a significant number, it's more likely that the Republican is going to win.
However, you were balancing that with what happened in the midterms, where there's an outperformance because you're saying there's a negative reflex on him, so that that may balance out the disputed edge.
ENTEN: Right. That's essentially it. What we're essentially looking at is that this, votes for the House are very much driven by Trump in this era. Take a look at what happened in the midterm elections in 2018.
If you approved of Donald Trump's job performance, the Republicans won that vote by 77 percentage points. But if you disapproved of Trump's job performance, look, Democrats won that by 82 points.
And we know that Trump is in very negative territory, nationally. He's a little bit more positive in North Carolina's 9th District. But in the limited polling I've seen, he's about breaking even in that district.
So, to me, at this point, what you're seeing is a national trend away from Trump. And in a district that's as Republican as North Carolina's 9th District, you essentially have even ground.
CUOMO: Well obviously he agrees with you because he did the rally there tonight for a reason, right?
ENTEN: Right.
CUOMO: So, he - he picked that place. In terms of who's running, does that change your calculus with it?
ENTEN: I don't - I don't really think so because in this day and age, what you're essentially dealing with is it's all about the President of the United States. Yes, there are certain times some candidates--
CUOMO: Even with the stink on this race that there--
ENTEN: He - he--
CUOMO: --have been some ballots screwing around.
ENTEN: You know, if--
CUOMO: And the Republican had the job.
ENTEN: --if Mark Harris who was the Republican who ran last time around was still in the ballot, I would agree with you. But they got a new Republican, Dan Bishop, in there. I don't think he has the stink on him.
The polling indicates a very, very tight race, which again, I just keep going back to this, is very much in line with the trend that we saw back in the 2017-2018 elections.
And we know that Trump's approval rating overall has stayed fairly stable year-on-year. So, to me, I'm expecting a tight race, maybe slightly leaning towards Republican, where really anything can go.
And the fact is 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.
CUOMO: So, successful Republicans in this race, you kind of arguing, is failure averted that they just don't want to lose this one--
ENTEN: Right.
CUOMO: --because it'll start some type of narrative they don't want to hear.
ENTEN: Right. And the narrative that we saw in 2018, this is just bad news potentially.
CUOMO: Whiz, always a pleasure.
ENTEN: My pleasure to be with you.
CUOMO: Shalom.
ENTEN: Shalom. Oh, you got it in before me.
CUOMO: A big - a big - a big CNN scoop. The President may have put a top U.S. spy in jeopardy, prompting the CIA to take drastic measures, 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.
[21:20:00] And we got the perfect guest here to help us understand how all this works, a one-time operative herself, famously exposed, Valerie Plame running for congress. Why do that? Next.
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CUOMO: All right, we have new developments tonight in a CNN Exclusive. Here is where this remove story that - this story about this removed spy from Russia, here's why the story is resonating.
Do you remember that weird meeting back in May of 2017 in the Oval Office? The President seemed all palsy-walsy with the Russians. Then we learn that this President surprised our Intel folks by discussing highly classified intelligence with Russian officials.
All right, 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 inside the Kremlin, even providing images of documents on Vladimir Putin's desk. The Intel went back more than a decade.
[21:25:00] So, was this really about what the President said? If you look at the reporting, it could also have been about a long decision tree. Who better to discuss this with than a former Operative? Former CIA Covert Operations Officer Valerie Plame joins us.
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CUOMO: 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 PRIME TIME.
VALERIE PLAME, FORMER CIA COVERT OPERATIONS OFFICER, (D) NEW MEXICO CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Thank you for having me.
CUOMO: So, I know you've looked at the reporting on this. But, 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 doesn't want to do it. That made them question the source. Now they were really nervous, and they prevailed upon the source to be extracted, and that's all that ever happened. It 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 like it, and they didn't like it in the context of Russia, this covert mission to remove the source happened.
Coincidence or relevant?
PLAME: 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, do the best we can. And it - it seems as though this particular source was one of our highest placed. He was providing all sorts of information.
Although 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, that just with him gone, or her, that just dried up.
CUOMO: You know, it's in - there's an interesting line in The New York Times read-through on this. Former intelligence officials said there was no public evidence that Mr. Trump directly endangered the source. Well yes, 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?
PLAME: Well we know that Trump has made a habit, actually, of - of giving classified information when he shouldn't. There was just recently the issue of the satellite - classified satellite image of Iran. There are other ones as - 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 in fact that elections had been compromised that the elections were seeking to meddle.
So, of course, you know, you're right. There's no public confirmation. But it is certainly open to speculation.
CUOMO: We have heard from other people in your position who were once inside, now outside, that they have heard from people about concerns with this administration.
Have people that you knew, when you were working for the government, said to you that this White House is of any particular concern, this President?
PLAME: Without question. I mean there's a lot of daylight between the Intelligence Community and the President, and that is never good for our national security. Between the time--
CUOMO: But concerns that he would--
PLAME: --he as a campaigner--
CUOMO: --compromise his own country?
PLAME: Well 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 that they are somehow getting in his way, he has no compunction about pushing back.
And we do know without - without question that the Russians interfered with our elections. So, I think investigations are still going on. And as we know from the Mueller report, he was not exonerated.
CUOMO: There's no question about that.
I mean, you know, one of the things that would have been nice to know going into the Mueller probe was that he was accepting the understanding within the DOJ that you cannot indict a sitting President. I think that would have helped manage expectations much better. But that's not your concern.
Let me ask you about something else. The President, by all indications that we have now, they're trying to cut a deal with the Taliban, because the Taliban is in place there. The people have a level of acceptance. The government has not been
effective there. And maybe they were going around the government, currently in place, in Afghanistan, to get this done.
The President hears about it. He wants to bring them, and meet, take ownership of the deal, celebrate it getting done, have the guys come to Camp David.
What's your feeling about doing a deal with the Taliban in the first place?
[21:30:00] PLAME: 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.
CUOMO: And when the President has also said he is not about having America blood and treasure abroad, he doesn't see advantage for it, so it - 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 that's fair criticism, or do you think that whatever gets the deal done is fine?
PLAME: He likes to fashion himself as the deal-maker. And - and, so far, he's - he's not batting too well on - 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 is both reckless and feckless.
CUOMO: So, he was saying at his rally tonight that the reason President Obama is more popular in Europe than he is because he's actually doing his job, not just kissing up to everybody over there.
I want to take a break, and then I want - you've come to a conclusion that you believe these things strongly enough, what you're saying about foreign policy, that you want to get in to politics, and you have some campaign ad that people are talking about. So, let's take a break, show the ad, and talk about why you're doing
this, and how you will fare. It's time to be tested, Valerie Plame. Stick around after the commercial.
PLAME: Yes. Thank you.
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CUOMO: 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.
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TEXT: VALERIE PLAME CAMPAIGN AD.
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PLAME: I was an undercover CIA operative. My assignment was preventing rogue states and terrorists from getting nuclear weapons. You name a hot spot, I lived it.
Then, Dick 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, I'm running for Congress because we're going backwards on national security, healthcare, 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.
TEXT: VALERIE PLAME.
PLAME: And Mr. President, I've got a few scores to settle.
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CUOMO: 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 you in office in New Mexico?
PLAME: My district is Northern New Mexico.
I am running because I want to take a searing life experience of being outed, and take the judgment that 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 - I - this opportunity presented itself. It doesn't happen too often. I thought I can do that, and I can do it well.
CUOMO: Is - 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.
PLAME: Well I think--
CUOMO: Right?
PLAME: I think the ad is a great metaphor. I believe we are going backwards on things like women's rights, on healthcare, on national security. So, I - 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--
CUOMO: What are the scores you want to settle?
PLAME: --Northern New Mexico. The scores I want to settle are get us back on track in the - in ways the House, as you know, has passed so much legislation on gun control, healthcare, 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.
CUOMO: All right, so you got Ben Ray Lujan in the seat right now. He's running for Senate, so that creates the opening.
PLAME: Yes.
CUOMO: I get that. So, there's a new level of scrutiny for you here. So, let's test a couple of propositions.
In the ad, you tell your story about how you got added - and you - outed, and you finger Scooter Libby. But it wasn't him. It was Armitage, reportedly, that told Bob Novak may rest in peace that your identity.
Yes, Libby got in trouble for things. He got a felony conviction. And it was Bush that gave him the first break.
PLAME: It was - it was--
CUOMO: Trump gave him the second break.
PLAME: --Scooter Libby--
CUOMO: Why name him?
PLAME: --who was convicted of - Scooter Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice among four other counts.
CUOMO: Right.
PLAME: 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 New York Times Reporter, Judith Miller.
So, you know, we're can - it's - it's a - it's an ad. We're condensing it down. But I think it's fair to say that Scooter Libby was one of those who was pushing this false narrative.
CUOMO: All right. Now, here's the other stick that you're getting hit with right now, is that you have retweeted or shown interest in articles that are put out by a website 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?
[21:40:00] PLAME: 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're 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.
CUOMO: Why did you do it?
PLAME: Because I didn't read the article all the way through, and I was simply focused on getting out of - the - with the mistake I thought of getting out of the Iran Nuclear Deal, which I thought was a really bad idea, and that's proven to be true.
CUOMO: If it were want to be one and done, but you've shown other interest in that website before, why would you have anything to do with a website that is operated or at least provided by a guy who's a Holocaust-denier?
PLAME: Because social media and Twitter is - 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.
CUOMO: 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 think is relevant for people? PLAME: Sometimes, art - 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.
CUOMO: 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?
PLAME: 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 pro - 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."
CUOMO: Valerie Plame, thank you very much for giving us your insight into these other stories and for telling us about your election. Good luck going forward.
PLAME: Thank you.
CUOMO: All right.
PLAME: All right, thank you.
CUOMO: All right, 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 show that we can be better.
D. Lemon and I discuss. It's a T-shirt. You may like no matter what college team you support, next.
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CUOMO: I know it's only Monday. But you ready for some feels? 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 scrawled 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. His teacher saw him crying and shared this story online. I'd love to know what she said to the other kids.
Now, our story is about what the university did. They did this.
That drawing inspired an official Tennessee T.
D. Lemon, come on, got to love it. That's us at our best and our worst in the same story.
DON LEMON, CNN HOST, CNN TONIGHT WITH DON LEMON: What they didn't realize right, that's - there's always - there's always the bright side, right. And 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 that - my LSU shirt, make my own. It won't be that popular. But, you know, good - good for him.
CUOMO: You know--
LEMON: Hope he gets some proceeds from that, by the way.
CUOMO: Well look, I - I hope the validation--
LEMON: Right.
CUOMO: --gives him something that is more valuable currency than anything else. And I mean what I said. I'd love to know what the teacher said to those other kids in the class. I'm so happy she put the story out there.
But kids have to be taught at that age. I know you think it's funny. I know you think it's fun and you'd rather be with the group making fun of this kid than be part of the group that's being made fun of. But it's got to stop. And that's the time to do it.
And, thank God, he was celebrated for dealing with what others mocked him for.
LEMON: And you know what? They - they - his, you know, the - they kept his information, his identity private, right?
CUOMO: Yes.
LEMON: I'd love to see the kid.
CUOMO: Well he's a kid.
LEMON: But I'd love to have him on. I'd love to have him and his family on. I'd love to know because he did a - he did a great thing, I mean. And, you know, the Vols did a great thing too.
CUOMO: I love it. And, yes, good for them.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: Good for them for doing it.
LEMON: How're you feeling?
CUOMO: Better than I deserve. How're you feeling?
LEMON: I'm feeling all right. I'm excited.
CUOMO: What are you excited about?
LEMON: You know, I mean--
CUOMO: I knew this question was leading somewhere.
LEMON: No, no, no, no.
CUOMO: What - what is it?
LEMON: No, no, no. No, no, no. I'm not getting - This is not about you. It's not only about you.
CUOMO: I know. That's why I was saying. I know you were asking me that as a setup.
LEMON: I'm excited because--
CUOMO: What's going on?
[21:50:00] LEMON: --because I'm going to talk about a lot of things. And I'm going to talk about obviously what's happening in politics and in the world. I'm also going to talk a bit about - you've seen the - have you seen the Dave Chappelle's special?
CUOMO: I have.
LEMON: It's drawing controversy.
CUOMO: A lot. LEMON: But from critics. But everybody else loves it.
CUOMO: A lot of people love it.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: But I don't know that they love what he's getting criticized about.
LEMON: Well right.
CUOMO: I don't want to give away your story.
LEMON: No, but you're right.
CUOMO: Well I guess I can, right?
LEMON: You can.
CUOMO: It's out there already. The Act is out there.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: He talks about people, about kids, who were victimized, and with Jackson - Michael Jackson, and he makes a joke out of the surprise of that, and a lot of people don't like it.
LEMON: Right. He talks about the LGBTQ community. He talks about - he talks about all kinds of things. He talks about political correctness and what-have-you.
But so - but I've just wondering what it means for society that the - 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's going to - who's going to share his opinion about it really is Charlamagne tha God. That's why I'm excited. I have Charlamagne tha God coming on. That's one of the subjects that we'll talk about.
CUOMO: Good cause for excitement.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: I'll see you in a second.
LEMON: See you.
CUOMO: All right, now what I'm going to be talking about - he's talking about what's happening. I'm going to be talking about what I think isn't going to happen. I have a message for Congress, or actually, I think you should have a Member for Congress.
They just got back in session. But you heard Steve Cohen today. They're not there to like tick off a list of items, for you, necessarily. So, what is it about? The idea of doing their job, what does that mean to you, and what does it have to start meaning? It could be the key to a lot of things we need, next.
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CUOMO: 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? And 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.
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SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): We come here to fight for our neighbors, for the places we love and are proud to hail from.
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CUOMO: Now, maybe, but it kind of feels like BS. And I would argue that McConnell is at the heart of the inaction. I would argue they go home to 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. And 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 percent of you are in favor of it in this country, red flag laws, 76 percent 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 you're 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 in 12 of them, all right, so fine. The Senate has done zero.
This nation was founded on the idea of fierce debate. We welcome it. We actively participated on this show. That's - that's the show. We do it all the time.
But the point of debate is what? It's to find common ground. And 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 this show, in 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. LEMON: You really think we're a majority-ruled country when you look at - when you look at the Electoral College, you look at the polling, when it comes to guns, when - if you look at what happens in social media.
And part of my conversation I'm going to have, as I said, later on with Charlemagne, it's the smallest group, the loudest are most influential.
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