[Cabrera:] The President is reportedly furious over James Comey's new tell-all book and upcoming media blitz, at least according to his Twitter feed. For more than an hour this morning, the President assaulted Comey's character in a Twitter tirade, calling him a slime ball, slippery, and predicting that he will go down as the worst FBI director in history. All of these comes just hours before a major sit down in interview with Comey, set to air an interview that at least one outlet claims will shock the President, and his team. I want to bring in my panel ahead of tonight's big interview with James Comey, joining us, CNN Political Commentator, and former Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes, CNN Political Analyst, and Senior Political Correspondent for the Washington Examiner, David Drucker, and National Political Reporter for RealClearPolitics, Caitlin Huey- Burns. So, Caitlin, you're here with me in New York, I'll start with you. It's safe to say that the President is angry, nervous, anxious about this interview tonight?
[Caitlin Huey-burns, National Political Reporter, Realclearpolitics:] Certainly, and we have seen that in the tweets over the weekend, of course. And even before these interview were coming out, the President was tweeting about this, really denigrating James Comey, and what's interesting to me is that I think he could employ a strategy, which is to kind of let this book play out. This book has come under criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike. And so you have kind of both sides of the political aisle sparring about certain details in the book, Democrats, of course, still upset about the decision that Comey made to come out just 11 days before the election about the Clinton information. And some Republicans are saying that look, Comey is taking some personal shots at President that undermine the whole entire premise of the book. And so President could just let that all play out, and move forward talking about the decision that he made on Syria, kind of going through the next week. But remember, he stayed home this weekend from South America, to focus on Syria. This is certainly top of mind, of course, also the Cohen raid earlier this week.
[Cabrera:] There's been huge focus of name calling of liar really on both sides. What we read in these pages from the excerpts from the book, we see reference to the President being untruthful, and the loyalty pledge, operating acting like a mob boss of sort. David, a new ABC news, Washington Post poll though finds more Americans find Comey to be more believable than President Trump. What does that mean for the President?
[David Drucker, Cnn Political Analyst:] Well, look, I think that's what the President's job approval ratings that James Comey is going to be less trust worthy with Republicans, and more trust worthy with independents, and Democrats. And I think that breaks along line according to how you feel about the President personally. Look, I think that it's understandable of the President, if he feels like he's been unfairly attacked, if he's thinks that James Comey is making claims that aren't true, that he would want to fight back. It's a natural human reaction to have. And when you are President of the United States, you are better off doing your day job, people are going to respond to that better, and let a war room that you create to defend you, farm it out to them. That worked very well for Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky investigation, with Special Prosecutor Ken Starr, and I think it would work so much better for President Trump in this case, if they saw him doing things that presidents do. Whether it's from a national security perspective, as we saw within the past 48 hours or so, working on the economy, and just doing everything else, they would then be able to sort of separate, and think about the claims that Comey's making, and the way that the President is acting. But as the President is won't to do, because he feels in some ways, justifiably that it has worked for him, after all, he did get himself away for the President, and he is going to be the White House Communications Director, he's going to be his own war room, and he's going to leave it all out on the field. I think at the end of the day, what we're all going to find out is that he's really great at selling books, but the politics surrounding how people feel at the Russia investigation, and Comey, and Trump are not going to be materially changed at all based on what they're hearing from Trump on the one hand, and Comey on the other.
[Cabrera:] That's correct, we still don't have a communications director in this White House, [Inaudible]. Steve, we do have a press secretary, and White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on Friday, one of the President's greatest achievement will go down as firing Director Comey. Do you think that would be the case? Because an argument could be made that firing Comey is exactly what led to the Mueller probe.
[Steve Cortes, Cnn Political Commentator:] Right. Well, listen, I yes and no, and I am not usually you know me, Ana, I usually come down very hard in defense of the President. He should have fired him on January 21. And if he had done so, I think it wouldn't have been a very big deal. So I think it was a big miscalculation to delay firing Comey. By the way, this was a few things in Washington, D.C., and there's not many things, whether it's bipartisan agreement. The Democrats, Leader Pelosi, Leader Schumer, agreed with President Trump, that Comey was totally discredited, was totally not believable, did not deserved the leadership of the FBI. I wish he'd fired him immediately. Now, that said you know, that's spilled milk, right? We can't cry over spilled milk. It's still good that he's gone. I think Director Comey, by the way, really in his book tour, which I think he thought would somehow be his shining moment. I think if anything is the opposite, I will see this tonight, and in coming days. He comes across as a whiney, complaining, disgruntled employee who was fired for a very good reason. And talk about majoring in the minors, the kinds of things he talks about President Trump, his tie is too long, his height is too short, his tan is too intense. You know, these are the kinds of whining again of someone who really never deserve to have the leadership of the FBI, of that incredible agency, which has so many brave people working for it, and thank goodness he is gone.
[Cabrera:] Caitlin, something that is getting a lot of attention is this confession, of sorts, that polls apparently influence Comey's decision to announce, again that that they were looking into some newly found e-mails involving Hillary Clinton. This is 11 days before the election, and Comey writes this. It is entirely possible that because I was making decisions in an environment where Hillary Clinton was sure to be the next president. My concern about making her an illegitimate president by concealing the restarted investigation for a greater weight, than it would have if the election appeared closer, or if Donald Trump were ahead in all polls, but I don't know. What impact could this have on Comey's credibility?
[Huey-burn:] It is really startling, especially when the protocol had been to not intervene with information that close to the election. This is something that still continues to really rattle Democrats, who really denigrated Comey after the election. And what's interesting about the Trump presidency, is it tends to scramble different alliances, the firing led to Democrats to take Comey's side in terms of the principle of the firing. But that kind of information I think does raise some questions about partisanship, about the way in which he was engaging or monitoring the political atmosphere at the time, which again, I think that, you know, Trump could just let the criticisms of this book stand out there without himself having to engage.
[Cabrera:] Because that is adding more fuel to the fire?
[Huey-burn:] It's adding more fuel to the fire certainly. I mean, this is a remarkable situation where you have a fired FBI director, coming out with this tell-all memoir, which has pretty had some pretty salacious information in there. And details, you know, sparring with the President who fires him, which of course as you mentioned, raised all sorts of other questions, and could have led to the Mueller probe. So this is a very, you know, unique situation, a very strange situation to have these two sparring so openly at the time.
[Cabrera:] Caitlin, thank you. Gentlemen, I owe you extra questions next time. Thank you all for joining us.
[Drucker:] Thank you.
[Cortes:] Thank you.
[Cabrera:] Still ahead, Starbucks under fire, accusations of racial profiling calls for a boycott, after black men a couple of black men were arrested for apparently waiting at a table at the coffee shop. Details next live in the CNN Newsroom.