On Thursday, CNN Political Director David Chalian went off on President Donald Trump in "The Situation Room," excoriating him for his outburst against Democratic leadership and accusing him of sabotaging his own policy platform for the sake of his ego.
"Sometimes you think you're living on another planet," Chalian told host Wolf Blitzer. "This is the President of the United States referring to the Speaker of the House as 'crazy,' which she is not. And also, this total obsession on the president's part to line up his staff — he's the President of the United States, one of the most powerful people on Earth — he's lining up his staff, his advisers, his press secretary, his deputy press secretary, to attest to the fact that he was calm."
"That's not even the point!" shouted Chalian. "The point was — it doesn't matter what his demeanor was — he walked out of a meeting and said, we're not going to legislate on the American people's priorities, his priorities, infrastructure, trade, his own agenda items, I'm not moving forward with that until you stop investigating me. That's not how the Constitution works."
"So what's going to happen now?" asked Blitzer. "I mean, this exchange was so bitter, so nasty, what happens?"
"Well, what is clear is that Nancy Pelosi is getting under the president's skin, there's no doubt about that," said Chalian. "She is walking away the victor from these exchanges, and Donald Trump — I don't know if he gets this or not, he is helping Nancy Pelosi with her own politics with Democrats."
"Wolf, just at the beginning of this week there was this minority of Democrats, a growing chorus, a minority wanting to move to impeachment now, something Pelosi thinks is perilous and doesn't want to do, and she was going to have to beat back this growing number of people in her caucus," said Chalian. "Guess what? She was able to totally do that because of the president's help. He calls her crazy, he walks out of a meeting, she goes back to the Democrats on the Hill, and they all rally around her, because she just was in a Trump that she won. So he is an unwitting co-conspirator in her effort to unify her caucus."
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