[Anderson Cooper, Cnn:] Good evening. Last night after President Trump walked out of a White House meeting with Democrats and gave a rambling, angry defensive and misleading press conference in the Rose Garden, I described it as not normal, as in not normal behavior for a president. After what happened today, though, I've got say I think I was wrong, because tonight, we know that by the standards of this president, that kind of behavior is normal, especially now that it's happened for a second straight day. It's normal meaning typical. It occurs with regularity and predictability. It happens over and over again. It doesn't seem like he can help himself. Today, at a press event with farmers and ranchers, the president of the United States, the chief commander in forces, let the moment which after all was supposed to be helping the very people his trade policies are hurting, dissolve into another airing of grievances about himself. Like last time, it was something House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that said him off. The event started with the president making what was supposed to be the headline announcement, except it wasn't exactly true.
[Donald Trump, President Of The United States:] So, today, I'm announcing that I have directed Secretary Perdue to provide $16 billion in assistance to America's farmers and ranchers. It all comes from China.
[Cooper:] Keeping them honest, it doesn't. The money comes from tariffs on Chinese exports which American importers and consumers pay. In any case, he pretty quickly digressed. And with the farmers and ranchers still standing behind him, returned to yesterday's walkout and the woman who had obviously gotten under his skin, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Here is a collection of her remarks from throughout the event as he kept returning to the subject, trying to emphasize that he was very calm yesterday, not upset at all.
[Trump:] I was so calm. You all saw me minutes later. I was at a news conference. I was extremely calm. I was probably even more so in that room. So I walked into the cabinet room. You had the group Cryin'Chuck, Crazy Nancy. I tell you what, I've been watching her, and I have been watching her for a long period of time. She's not the same person. She has lost it. She reminded me of Beto. She actually reminded me of Beto. Maybe a little worse. I was extremely calm, much like I am right now. And it was sad when I watched Nancy all moving the movement and the hands and the craziness. I don't want to say Crazy Nancy, because if I say that, you're going say it's a copy of crazy Bernie, and that's no good, because Bernie is definitely crazy. But I did it because we had this instance at least once before where I was very, very calm on another occasion, and they walked out to the sticks, and they said it was horrible. He was ranting. He was raving. He was pounding the table. The reason I didn't do that is because I didn't want them to say I would do that. But they said it anyway.
[Cooper:] This was an event about farmers, the people standing behind him. Then he went off on the woman who leads a coequal branch of government and the second in line of succession. He suggested is crazy, mocks what he clearly believes are physical disabilities or perhaps signs of aging. He then describes himself like this.
[Trump:] I'm an extremely stable genius, OK.
[Cooper:] OK. Number one, anyone who is an extremely stable genius, whatever that means, would not feel the need to describe themselves as such. I mean, if you're stable, you don't really need to go around announcing it. You're just stable. Nothing breeds confidence and a sense of stability than the leader of the free world insisting he is stable, and not for the first time, I should add. Oh, and if you're a genius, ditto. Geniuses don't go around with license plates they paid extra to say genius. They don't need to because they're smarter than that. Number two, anyone who is an extremely stable genius would not rise to take the bait of his opponents every single time. That's not a counterpuncher, that's a sucker. And number three, if you are extremely stable genius, or even just a stable genius, you would not do what the president then proceeded to do today. He asked his subordinates to publicly proclaim his stable temperament. I imagine it's what a family dinner with Kim Jong-un is like.
[Trump:] Kelly, what was my temperament yesterday? Let me ask you this, Mercedes. You're always a straight talker. You were in that room yesterday.
[Unidentified Female:] Yes, sir.
[Trump:] What was my attitude when I walked in? Larry, you were there. There were many people there, by the way. Many people. We can get you 20 other people to say this. What was my attitude yesterday at the meeting? Hi, Sarah. We're just talking about the meeting. Were you there yesterday? Were you there, Hogan? You know about it.
[Cooper:] Calling on Hogan Gidley. Now, in fairness, the president, political opposition leaders can be pretty irritating, especially when they do what Speaker Pelosi did this morning, clearly pushing his hot buttons.
[Rep. Nancy Pelosi:] But the president, again, stormed out. I think first pound the table, walk out the door. What? Next time, have the TV cameras in there while I have my say. That didn't work for him either. And now this time, another temper tantrum. Again, I pray for the president of the United States. I wish that his family or his administration or his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country.
[Cooper:] OK. I mean, that's certainly a jab suggesting that the president needs an intervention. But is it any worse than a member of the opposition shouting "you lie" during the State of the Union as one did to President Obama, or one comparing you to a used car salesman, as many did to Richard Nixon? Presidents have been called all sorts of names by all sorts of lawmakers for a very long time on both sides of the aisle, and they've all managed to do their jobs in spite of it. Until it seems now. Late today, Speaker Pelosi took another swipe, tweeting, quote, when the extremely stable genius, end quote, begins acting extremely stable, I'll be able to work with him on infrastructure, trade and other issues. More on all this from CNN's Jim Acosta, who joins us now. All right. Jim, I mean, so the scenes today at the White House, it was bizarre, even though it's come to be normal. To go around the room trying to get your subordinates to back you up, it just was weird.
[Jim Acosta, Cnn Chief White House Correspondent:] It was strange. And if you're trying to demonstrate that Nancy Pelosi is not under your skin, I don't know if the president accomplished that. Obviously, he demonstrated that she has gotten under his skin. I talked to a source close to the White House who advises the president earlier this evening who said maybe she hasn't gotten under his skin, but she has gotten his attention, and that is somebody who is close to the president. And so, they understand I think inside the president's team of advisers and so on that there does appear to be some sparring going on between President Trump and Nancy Pelosi, and perhaps it's not all going in his direction at this point. I will say I talked to a couple of people who were in that room earlier this afternoon, Anderson. They don't want to speak on the record. But they're saying, listen, we feel like we were telling the truth, and we told the president he was being calm during that meeting with Nancy Pelosi. One of these officials said, listen, it was Nancy Pelosi who was shell-shocked that the president called her out in front of her team and in front of other people in the room. And that she is the one who should be explaining for her demeanor during that meeting. But, Anderson, I would tell you, talking to my sources earlier today, there is something else going on here, and I think it's important to note. And that is some of this is tactical. I talked to a source who talks to the president regularly who said that the president is trying to up the rhetoric in this fight with House Democrats in the hope that he'll ramp up the pressure so high that they will essentially put up or shut up on this matter of impeachment. And I think, Anderson, I think that points to a very interesting aspect in all of this. The president does not like being in this in between no no-man's land that Nancy Pelosi has him right now. Remember, there are a lot of House Democrats who want her to go all the way and gore for impeachment. She has stopped short of that and said I like this place where the president is right now, where he is just under perpetual investigation. The president has shown in the last 48 hours she doesn't like being in that place, and he has been demonstrating that over and over again in these outbursts in front of the cameras Anderson.
[Cooper:] Yes, Jim Acosta, thanks very much. Perspective now from "Axe Files" host and former senior Obama adviser David Axelrod. Also, CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger and CNN global affairs analyst Max Boot, author of "The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right." Gloria, President Trump wants America to believe that Nancy Pelosi is not getting under his skin, see not doing a very good job, and in this sense he is completely transparent. He is unable to restrain himself.
[Gloria Borger, Cnn Chief Political Analyst:] No, he can't. And today was, you know, exhibit A, B and C. This is somebody who is completely reactive. Nancy Pelosi said, you know, I pray I pray for the country and I pray for your family and suggest there should be an intervention, and then at an availability on something totally different, he talks about how she is unstable and how she's losing it. And, you know, Anderson, I went back and looked at the way he talked about Hillary Clinton in 2016, and he used some of that same language against her. He said she was unstable. She's going short circuit, and I don't think she's all there. And that is exactly what he said about Nancy Pelosi today. He said she's lost it and she is disintegrating. So I think he has found a new way to attack her, but, of course, it's an old trick of his.
[Cooper:] David, I mean of all his political antagonists on Capitol Hill, why do you think do you think it's something about Nancy Pelosi that is particularly rattled by? I was talking to Senator Debbie Stabenow last night. She said basically it's because Nancy Pelosi is a smart, strong woman.
[David Axelrod, Cnn Political Commentator:] Well, it may be. I don't really pretend to understand what it is, but she's got his number, and she gets under his skin, and she knows that she's getting under his skin. And that is a propitious time for her to have a fight with the president because she is trying to hold her caucus together and slow down the march to impeachment which she thinks is not ripe right now. And the best way to do it is to have these kinds of back-and-forths with the president. He has been totally cooperative. One thing I'd say is you don't look like he calls himself a stable genius. You don't look particularly stable when you march out five of your staffers and, you know, like Captain Queeg and the Caine Mutiny, question him about whether he seemed sane. And you don't seem particularly genius when you call the leaders of Congress together to tell them if they don't stop investigating you, you won't do the people's business. So, you know, she's got him tied up in knots right now.
[Cooper:] Yes. And, Max, it's obviously calculated on Speaker Pelosi's part. He says the president throws tantrums or an intervention thing. She certainly knows how to push his buttons. What is in it for her other than upsetting him? Is it, as David said, that this kind of puts a stopgap on members of her own party, trying to push for impeachment?
[Max Boot, Cnn Global Affairs Analyst:] I think Speaker Pelosi is masterful in her handling of Donald Trump. Remember, there are a lot of people in the Democratic caucus who thought her day has passed, and clearly that's not the case. Because whether it's on the government shutdown or these investigations, she clearly has his number, and he doesn't know quite how to react. And I think as David suggests, she is trying to walk a fine line between investigating Trump and getting his misdeeds before the American public and not jumping into an impeachment, which could backfire for the Democrats. And I think right now she basically has the trust of her caucus, and for good reason, because she looks like she is pretty strong and stable, and Donald Trump is basically resorting to his old insults, as Gloria pointed out. This actually kind of reminded me of what happened with Hillary, where remember in that debate where Hillary Clinton said that he was a puppet of Russia. And his reply was no puppet, you're the puppet. He is doing the exact same thing where speaker Pelosi says he is having a temper tantrum and he replies oh, no, she is crazy and she is coming unhinged. Pretty clearly he is the one who is coming unhinged.
[Cooper:] Yes. I mean, Gloria, again, the old very stable genius comment, I thought it was a one-off, today was extremely stable genius. It's actually been repeated twice, the president has done this twice. Do his aides, I mean they must know how this sounds. You know, you don't hear Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos saying that about themselves?
[Borger:] One would think that they understand that when he calls himself a very stable genius that it sounds ridiculous. But if you look at that scene today, at this press conference he had as David was talking about, he turns to his staff and it was like dear leader. Why don't you tell everybody how great I am, why don't you tell everybody how I didn't get upset at that meeting with members of Congress? Why don't you tell everyone how smart I am? It was absurd to watch, and we all had to sit there and watch that. So how could any of these people go into the president and say, you know, Mr. President, you really shouldn't call yourself a very stable genius when they are actually doing the same thing in public?
[Cooper:] And, David, it reminded me the same time the cabinet was together. I don't remember if it was the first time the cabinet was together, but they had to go around the table and say how amazing it was to work for him.
[Axelrod:] Yes, Gloria is right. It's all very North Korean, even calling himself an extremely stable genius. Maybe he's just been hanging around with Kim Jong-un too much. But the look is very, very bad, and right now he just looks flustered. And I'm sure they're going to try and figure out a way to pull out of this because it is it is damaging to him. But Pelosi is going to keep pushing those buttons, and my guess is he'll respond in Pavlovian fashion.
[Cooper:] Max Boot, David Axelrod, Gloria Borger, thanks.
[Borger:] Sure.
[Cooper:] We have more ahead including a Democratic senator's take on this and his committee's job looking into possible wrongdoing by the president and his people. Also tonight, more insight into the potential relationship between the president and House speaker. We'll hear from her former top adviser. Plus, my conversation with Howard Stern covering a lot of ground, including his thoughts on one of his regular former guests. When you see him now in the White House as president, what do you see?