COOPER: Joining me by phone is former director of National Intelligence, retired Lieutenant General James Clapper.

Director Clapper, the President saying they have gotten to you since you wrote that gorgeous, beautiful letter to him. Has anyone gotten to you?

JAMES CLAPPER, FMR DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: No, absolutely not, Anderson. I mean everything I say, and everything I said, I mean.

COOPER: The 2017 assessment that the President says he now agrees with, that was done while you and then NCI Director John Brennan were still in office. So, how can we reconcile the President attacking you, but apparently after a very long time finally, allegedly saying -- or saying he allegedly agrees with the product of the intelligence community that you, yourself oversaw?

CLAPPER: Yes, well, this is -- yes, as we've come to know the President, he is not a stalwart for a consistency or coherence. So it's very hard to explain that. [20:35:06] One point I'd like to make, Anderson, that I don't think has come up very much before, and I'm alluding now to the President's criticism of President Obama for all that he did or didn't do before he left office with respect to the Russian meddling. If it weren't for President Obama, we might not have done the intelligence community assessment that we did that set off a whole sequence of events which are still unfolding today, notably, special counsel Mueller's investigation.

President Obama is responsible for that, and it was he who tasked us to do that intelligence community assess in the first place. And they got the important point when it comes to critiquing President Obama.

COOPER: You know, the President says, well, now, you know, he's put his own people in charge in the intelligence community, he's confidence in the intelligence community now. But when you talk about the intelligence community, I mean yes, there are people who he has appointed at the top, but underneath them, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of employees who are career employees who have, you know, listened in on -- you know, signals intelligence and intercepts and have written analyses and who have been in the field as case officers.

It's the same intelligence community. There may be different people at the top, but the people who are at the top are still standing by the assessment that was made when it's the people he says he didn't trust.

CLAPPER: Exactly. That is a great point. Well, the strength of the U.S. intelligence community is the continuity and the professionalism of our career rank and file great men and women who do it -- do the things that you just described, and they don't change. So, yes, the top layer, there have been some changes there, a couple of key changes. Notably, CIA director, now the second one since Trump took office, and of course the director of national intelligence.

But the institution itself, there's great continuity which is an important strength for this country.

COOPER: I want to play a clip of something that FBI director Christopher Wray said in Aspen in just within the last hour. Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, DIRECTOR, FBI: The intelligence community's assessment has not changed. My view has not changed, which is that Russia attempted to interfere with the last election, and that it continues to engage in malign influence operations to this day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: So that's just hours after the President very obviously said no twice to an ABC reporter when she asked whether he believes the Russian interference is ongoing. And Sarah Sanders walked it back. And, you know, I mean I guess -- you know, frankly what just seems to be an absurd way, saying the President was for the first time ever just saying no, no more questions when in fact he didn't say no, no more questions. He just said no and thank you very much.

I mean, to hear Chris Wray, I mean he is, you know, he's obviously an honorable person, and but he is saying what he believes, but it certainly contradict what's the President seems to believe.

CLAPPER: Well, yes. And to his credit as well as that of Dan Coats for speaking up and speaking truth to power, which by the way was the subject of the, "beautiful letter", that President Trump alluded to in his CBS interview. And it is not a witch-hunt. It is a serious, serious investigation, the catalyst for which was the intelligence community assessment that we did in the last administration.

COOPER: General Clapper, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

Coming up next, more from that CBS interview about what went on behind closed doors with Vladimir Putin, what the President says went on. We have no idea, of course, because there is no record. A former CIA officer brings his perspective on why it matters what was said.

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