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tv   Erin Burnett Out Front  CNN  May 9, 2017 4:00pm-5:01pm PDT

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we can only speculate, we can only wonder what the fallout is going to be. we've had extensive live coverage. i'm wolf blitzer here in the situation room room. our breaking news continues right now with erin burnett "out front." >> good evening, i'm erin burnett. "out front," breaking news. president trump firing fbi director james comey. the bombshell announcement, something that was completely undppd to anyone came just moments ago. trump in the letter hand delivered by a bodyguard he's had for decades wrote to comey that he is terminated and removed from office effective immediately. the letter goes on to say "while i greatly appreciate you informing me on treat the separate investigations that i'm not under investigation, i am under the impression you are not
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able to effectively lead the bureau. this is stunning. the president just fired the man who is leading an investigation into the trump campaign and whether it colluded with russians in rigging the u.s. presidential election. jeff zeleny is out front at the white house. joseph, nobody seemed to have any idea that this was coming. >> reporter: indeed, erin. this was a very closely kept credit at the white house. i'm told only a handful of top advisories knew this was coming. i am told moments ago that the president himself has been considering this, been thinking about this for at least a week. did not necessarily have the rational when they first started talking about but then asked the attorney general and the deputy attorney general to look for that rational and that explanation. and that is what we got this afternoon. the timing of this, of course, so interesting, erin because the russian investigation front and center, it is one of the things
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that aggravates this president more than anything at all. as you were reading in that shortlered e letter there, it's just about five paragraphs longs, by the president saying he was essentially vindicated by this russian investigation, saying he was not a target of this investigation, he is trying to sort of essentially set the record straight or close the books on this, erin, but that is something that will definitely not happen. the books on this will remain wide open, regardless of who has the fbi. this is going to keep this story alive, if nothing else, for some sometime to come. interestingly, this news was delivered over to the fbi by an old-fashioned way. the director of oval office operations, a top aide to this president went over to the fbi this afternoon to hand deliver this. one problem with that, the fbi director himself is on the west coast this week. in california. so he found out about that
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sometime afterward. the news broke shortly after 5:30 this afternoon. the president does not expect to address this anymore this evening, i'm told. the white house is not answering anything else about this evening. he may talk about it tomorrow. not addressing the nation on something like this. >> let me ask you, geoff, sean spicer, the press secretary was asked today does the mtd have cullfull confidence in fbi director james comey. he said i have not asked the president since we spoke. i have no reason to believe. was he being coy? do we know? >> i do not know if he knew. it was very closely held by a very small group of individuals. >> yeah. >> i'm not sure if sean spicer knew about this. the press second is not informed about these things, so they
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don't have to sort of lie or not answer honestly, i guess, if you will. sean spicer's been asked a spectacular question in recent weeks. he's answered it the same but today his answer was different. it was anoujszed not in a statement. sean spicer came out to the doorway of the pressroom and announced it. it was a very odd way to make such a bombshell announcement. >> right. and it was a bombshell. there was nothing in there about accepting the resignation. >> he is fired. >> he is terminated and removed from the office. this is a loud, loud and shocking statement. thank you so much jeff zeleny. he's going to stay with us through the hour, of course. i want to go to pamela brown, our justice correspondent, and pamela, as we point out it was
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keith schiller, long-time bodyguard, head of operations at the white house now personally walked over to deliver to it the fbi director. he was not there. obviously, this is shocking. what is the reaction at the fbi in this moment? >> it is a shocking turn of events which has taken the most senior people at the fbi by surprise. i'm told, one says the it feels like we've lost a family member. another person i talked to said it's upsetting and shocking for a lot of the rank and file. a lot of people don't even know yet. this came as a surprise. senior staff at the fbi was notified moments ago. they're having an emergency meeting. you talk to some people and they say they're shocked but at the same time they're not surprised in a way, because of the fact that james comey has really been at the center of controversy over his handling of the hillary clinton investigation as well as
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the trump campaign associates and russia investigation. there was consternation within the fbi, internal conflict. what people are asking tonight, erin, are why now. they are surprised that this is happening now because there really -- you know, some of the rain controversies have happened in the past. that's what rob rosenstein, what he sites as comey handling of the clinton investigation and the press conference back in 2016. so a lot of unanswered questions tonight and a lot of shock all around. >> pamela, let me ask you. in the letter to director comey to the president of the united states he said "i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate indication that i'm not under investigation. "do we know that to be true? >> we don't know that. we've been calling the fbi press office and others trying to figure out exactly what the president meant by that. of course, the fbi and the white house is not supposed to be
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talking about an investigation that has to do with the president's associates. so we don't have the answer to that. >> thank you very much. mark warrener joins me now. i appreciate your time, senator. were you shocked? how did you find out? >> shocked would be a gross understatement. this was -- didn't see this coming. it's obviously outrageous. we now have got a president who's fired the acting attorney general, virtually all the u.s. attorneys, the fbi director. he's had hid u.s. attorney had to recuse himself from the russian investigations. the nsa director had to resign because of contact with russians. in terms of our investigation, boy, oh, boy, there is so much smoke here and we'll still have to determine how big the fire is. >> senator leahy came out and said this is nothing less than nix ownian.
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do agree with that? >> we met as recently adds jed. we were going to have the fbi director in a closed neegt. i have a lot of faith in jim comey. i want him still to come and testify as former fbi director. it seems curious that this. would choose now, the day after ms. naits yates testified with us starting to pick up the pace a bit on our investigation, to fire the fbi director. >> would you say it's nix ownian? >> i would say what happened in the nixon period, there are some people who stood up then against president nixon's actions. i hope in the next days we'll see some zw a willingness to rise above partisanship. this is about more than the
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president. it's about the whole rule of law. >> he said i greatly appreciate you informing me i was not under personal investigation. do you believe that to be true? >> i can't confirm or deny that. i can tell you that the fbi director comey indicated h there were ongoing investigations into folks affiliated with the trump campaign or organization and the russians. i know that we have got a lot of interviews that are scheduled and to be scheduled that will try to answer these questions. >> no change in your investigation? >> yes. >> you're on track? >> erin, i believe that we need a special counsel or special prosecutor at this point. >> ok. >> i have zero faith in the deputy attorney general and more than ever, this investigation, we've got to get done. >> i don't know if you can stay. i hope you can. i want to listen to senator schumer, minority leader, speaking right now. >> right now.
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if the mayweather had objections to the way comey handling the clinton investigation, they had those objections, is the h the minute they got into office but they didn't fire him then. why did it happen today? we know the house is investigating russian interference in our elections that benefitted the trump campaign. we know the senate is investigating. we know the fbi has been looking into whether the trump campaign colluded with the russians. very serious offense. were these investigations getting too close to home for the president? it is troubling that attorney general sessions who had recused himself from the russian investigation played a role in firing the man leading it. so what happens now? deputy attorney general rosen
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stein sat in the judiciary committee and promised to appoint a special prosecutor at the appropriate time. that time is right now. the american people's trust in our criminal justice system is in rosenstein's hands. mr. rosenstein, america depends on you to restore faith in our criminal justice system, k4 is going to be badly shattered after the administration's actions today. s in part of a deeply troubling pattern from the trump administration. they fired sally yates. they fired barara and now they've fired director comey, the very man leading the investigation. this does not seem a coincide e
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coincidence. this investigation must be run as far away as possible from this white house and as far away as possible from anyone that president trump has appointed. given the way the president fired director comey, any person who he appoints to lead the russia investigation will be concerned that he or she will meet the same fate as director comey if they run afoul of the administration. the american people need to have faith that an investigation as serious as this one is being conducted impartially without a shred of bias. the only way the american people can have faith in this investigation is for it to be led by a fearless independent
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special prosecutor. if deputy attorney general rosenstein does not appoint an independent special prosecutor, every american will rightly suspect that the decision to fire director comey was part of a cover upper. i'll take one or two questions. >> are you suggesting this was parts of add cover yup and. [ inaudible ] to be appointed, what is your reaction? >> i simply said to him, mr. president in all due respect you're making a very big mistake and he didn't really answer. and i have said from the get-go that i think a special prosecutor is the way to go. but now with what's happened, it is the only way to go. only way to go to restore the american people's faith. are people going to suspect coverup? absolutely.
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if an independent special prosecutor is appointed, there still can be some faith that we can get to the woman of this. if not, everyone will suspect coverup? >> so are you suggesting coverup -- >> yes. >> you said you have lost confidence in jim comey because of how he handled the e-mail scandal do you think that the president's explanation that this is the reason why he's firing him now has credibility with you? do you believe that? >> ok. >> -- or do you think he's firing him for another reason? >> i never -- i never called on the president to fire director comey. i had a lot of questions about how he handled himself, but the overwhelming question is this. if the administration had those same questions, the events occurred months ago and they should have fired comey on the day they came into office. all of them occurred before he came into office, so that does not seem to me to be a logical
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or per swaszive with explanation. thank you, everybody. >> and that was senate minority leader chuck schumer speaking calling for a special prosecutor saying that the nation needs proof there was not a cover un and he spoke to the president and told him he was making a big mistake when the president called him today to tell him about this decision. tom fuentes joins me, jason miller joins me -- i'm sorry. dan five, gloria borger, mike preston and jeffrey tubin. let me start with you. sorry. i obviously have something in my throat. you are hearing from democrats, you have republicans coming out questioning what the president did toyed, to say the least. >> this is not a normal event in american shift.
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this is not something that presidents have done historically. there is only one precedent for firing a federal investigator who is investigating the president of the united states as jim comey was, and that was october 20th, 1973 when ribs ard nixon fired archibald cox. this is so far outside the range of presidential activities, it is so outrageous, so grotesque, it is so wrong that it is shocking that anyone in political life has even the shred of an ability to defend it. >> jason? >> well, i was a little bit surprised to hear senator schumer's n comments, considering on november 2nd he publicly stated he had lost confidence in director comey. but look, this is something that should have been done last year. the avalanche of democrats who came out and criticized director comey and said he should be
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fired whether it should be valley jarrett or are strong criticism we saw from 1234er9 schumer. heck, even harry reid said he believed he probably violated things last year. now we move into president trump taking over and deputy p a.g. rod rosenstein tried to get to the bottom of where the fbi was and it was clear to the deputy director that director comey had lost the following of fbi agents and they determined the decision needed to be made and they approached the white house and took it from there. i goes the only point where i would really disagree or say i would have done things differently, first of all, i think president trump maybe should have gotten rid of him on day one. but clearly this should have happened under president obama. >> they are so outraged that
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this is happening. >> that's right. because it's may of 2017. donald trump spent the entire campaign praising jim comey for what he said about hillary clinton. >> he criticized -- >> and now -- >> let me finish. >> now he's firing him for that exact bayer. nonsense. it is not true. this is a pretext. donald trump did not fire jim comey because he was too nice to -- he was too mean to hillary clinton. >> no, it's because he lost -- >> unbelievable. >> he lost the confidence of law enforcement and we need to restore -- >> let me just go here. to the letter from rod rosenstein, the first thing he mentioned as a reason for doing this. however, i cannot defend the director's handling of the -- i do not accept his --
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when you read that your jaw does have to drop. the first reason they're putting out is hillary clinton's e-mails and -- and he was mistaken. le. >> i know. >> the president of the united states praised comey for making that decision. >> comey -- look, it's no doubt that he has soured on comey since he's been office, the reason is clearly because of the russia investigation which he calls a hoax, right? he could have fired him on january 20th if he had wanted to. there was no reason he -- i mean, if he felt this way. and i also have no doubt that rod rosenstein bloefs what he wrote, because there are lots of attorneys inside sand outside of government, he quotes a bunch of them, who agree with him. that comey handled this badly, that he gave a terrible press conference he shouldn't have given on july 5th, that he sent a letter on october 28th that he shoonltd have sent. however -- and i'm hearing from
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people in -- who are echoing what jason is saying, trying to make it sound as if the mtd himself is an innocent bystander in this firing, that actually he just accepted what sessions and rosenstein said when in fact this would not have happened had the president not wanted it to happen. so it was a decision i believe was in search of a rational. >> let me ask you. when you see the letter from the president of the united states to drosh comey, you are hereby removed from office effective immediately -- this is not the way these things are usually done. usually they say i accept your resignation or something like that. i mean, this is clearly coming from the president himself. >> no. clearly, erin, and i think it is shocking and i agree with jeffrey and i agree with what gloria just said.
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the manner of doing this at this time with this level of urgency is what makes it so questionable. what did comey do today to justify he's got to be terminated today and immediately be gone. so i think that, you know, the idea that gloria mentioned, that it was a decision in search of a rational, its certainly appears that way the way this has come down. going back to the criticism of his press conference in july, the handling of the clinton case back in -- through the summer and his frequent testimony through last summer and fall before the election, many of the rank and file agents that i talked to and former agents felt that he had crossed the line in terms of politicizing the fbi and no matter what the outcome was, there was going to be an outcry from one party or the other, and in this cases managed to get it from both. >> erin, what -- >> seems what everybody is upset
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about is the timing of it and not the fact that he needed to be replaced. i think that's important to point out. again, there were republicans who called for director comey to be removed. there were democrats -- it daent matter regardless of party. last year there was an avalanche of calls wanting him removed. it should have happened last year or early in this administration but final by the right decision was made. >> the big question, as to whether this is a coverup -- perhaps it is -- the big question mark is why now? why today? why suddenly this afternoon does the president's bodyguard go over and hand him this letter saying you are fired. why? >> that's an answer we don't have right now. we're all desperately trying to get through. it is timing. timing inform life, in politics is everything.
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plus to see president trump write that letter to include in the letter that director comey had told him on three separate occasions that he was not tied to the russia investigation was bizarre at the very least. but there is with one big winner in this, erin. i think we need to look at it right now. the winner is vladimir putin. you know they're laughing -- >> oh, come on. >> -- in russia they are looking at us right now and saying look it, what we did by affecting the election, by to youing with their election continues to have dominoes drop. and that is true. there's no argument about that. regardless of what happens and why he was -- why director comey was dismissed. we know that vladimir putin right now is happy about it. >> mark, do you think the handling of the clinton investigation last year warranted keeping director comey in his position? >> camera's way too high -- >> i think that -- listen. i think that at this point it
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doesn't matter what happens then. the timing is right now. they was the one doing the investigation right now into any alleged ties. i'll use the woshds alleged between associates of donald trump and russian officials. we know that the house investigation at least for a time was compromised and we are all trying to hedge our bets and hoping that the united states would do their job in addition to the department of justice. at this point right now we don't have the fbi director leading that investigation. >> there was not one republican in the entire country as far as i'm aware who was upset about james comey's decision to make nasty comments about hillary clinton last july. no republicans called for his removal. zero. now all of a sudden it's so outrageous that he has to be fired nine months later. it's completely unbelievable. the moenl explanation for why james comey was fired is because he was investigating the man who
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fired him. >> no, that is -- >> period. >> that is absolutely ridiculous. it was a pattern of over and over of investigations being bungled. the entire weight of the clinton fiasco happened, the interaction with loretta lynch. fundamentally, the director was no longer able to lead his people. >> ok. >> even lindsay graham was saying it was time for a restart. >> for one second, take us back to the voice which matters the most, which is that of the president. right after comey said he's looking into more e-mails for hillary clinton, ok, the day after, two days after and then again in january, here's the president of the united states. >> i respect the fact that director comey was able to come back after what he did. it took guts for director comey to make the move that he made in
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light of the confined of opposition he had where they're trying to protect her from criminal prosecution. he's become more famous than me. >> jason, that's what he had to say. right. he was thrilled when comey was on his side and now all of a sudden he's firing the guy. >> the fact of the matter is that director comey was all over the map. it's almost as though these investigations were run like a choose your own novel. it was ridiculous. we've seen it even continue going forward. so look, he had lost the confidence of the men and women he was supposed to be leading. >> who said? that's made up. that's not true. >> no. it's absolutely true. >> you just americansreferenced that was -- stharks tom, to some degree true? >> i said at the time that many of the rank and file disagreed with that july 5th press conference and many others felt that what he outlined as far as
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hillary clinton's actions warnlted a prosecution, so they were surprised that -- >> but at this time -- >> as the director, has he lost the confidence of the rank and file or no? you're take you can about last summer. i'm talking about now. >> i think it's been recovered again up until recently. there's more attention being given and more news in the last couple of days that he may not have accurately testified last week about the number of e-mails that went from uma an dean to anthony weiner's laptop. so that's a new controversy surrounding the director. but back to the point you made a moment ago about the praise from president trump about comey. >> yeah. >> i worked organized crime much of my career. when the boss gives you a kiss on the cheek, it's a bad sign. doesn't mean he loves him. >> dan -- >> go ahead dan. >> this is not a question of
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timing. that is a way to distract from what this is. all that matters -- jeffrey tubin is dpfl right -- donald trump firing the man investigating his campaign for colluding with the russians to tip the election in donald trump's favor. the fbi director is the one unfireable position in washington. i thought donald trump could never shock me. this is shocking. ooilts going to be a tests whether they'll put country over party here. >> i want to fauz -- all stay with me. but when you said what pruns are want to do. manu, you have so many news on what plunsz are saying. what are they telling you? >> that's right. i spoke to a number of them as they left the senate today. they are expressing shock. the members were not aware this was coming. some members of the leadership did get a heads-up shortly
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before this announcement came. but others did not. senator john cornyn, the number two, the senior member of the judiciary committee, the number two republican in the entire senate and he did not have any sort of awareness of this. he said he was surprised by the decision. even some members like marco rubio said he just learned about it through breaking news laertsz on his phone. >> rights. >> this came as a surprise from virtually everyone up here. you're not hearing a lot of dprichl republicans yet. they want to understand that comey has been at the center of some controversy. they're having a couple of republican senators who have criticized this decision or raised gets. one, john mccain said he was disappointed by the decision and renewing calls for a special committee to stlegt matter on russia as well as bob corker, the republican from tennessee who was once on the short list to be president trump's secretary of state, said that
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this will raise questions about exactly what happened here so there needs to be a complete sandled thorough investigation without preliminary interference. so you're seeing some concerns from republicans but overall even a muted response or people wanting to hear some details or some support, including lindsay graham of south carolina, a frequent critic of this administration saying he was supportive of this decision to get fresh leadership at the fbi. so republicans still grappling with this news as well as democrats here on capitol hill. erin? >> thank you. putting politics aside, the bottom line still remains this: the president of the united states has just fired the man in charge of the investigation into actions by the trump campaign. that is the bottom line. and the president needs to do a lot more explaining as to exactly why he is doing that at this time. we understand he's not giving more information to the country tonight. correspond jim sciutto has more
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details on why now the shocking development. jim? >> reporter: the shock extending from the hill also into the intelligence community, the former director of national intelligence james clapper who we saw on the hill just yesterday, this comment to cnn "i have deep respect for james comey. this is a loss to the phish and the nation." those are strong words saying this firing is a loss to the nation. of course director clapper and comey work very closely on the investigation into russian sblrchs in the election, they were the ones who delivered their report from then president obama and candidate trump in february. i will add that it was director comey who, cnn is reporting, delivered knowledge summary of the famous dossier to donald trump alleging that russia had compromising information. it was comey who had that
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difficult conversation with him about that dossier. the other point i would make, i've speaking to mechanics of the house and senate intelligence committees today. none of them had a heads-up to this. certainly a difference in the way they react. democrats shocked. the republicans more muted tones. democrat and republicans becoming more partisan, sflit along party lines. we saw that, you saw that in the public hearings. the questions from the democrats about reduction interference, possible trump ties, the questions from republicans about leaks, unmasking, etc. this is a fest for the bipartisanship of those hearings. do they come together on, for instance, the issue of a special prosecutor, a special investigative committee or do they continue to come apart? it's a test going forward. >> and a crucial one for this country right now.
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senators warner, the ranking democrat on the senate investigation, just coming on this program and saying the fbi director james comey was scheduled to testify thursday and he is still asking that the fbi director -- former fbi director come and do so. he very much wants him top come, anyway. jeff zell dmi is live from the white house with more reporting. the crucial question, the time line. why now? >> reporter: a top white house official explained to me a short time ago and they are pointing exactly to april 26th. that is when the deputy attorney general who we've been talking about all evening here, he was a former prosecutor in the obama administration. was appointed as the deputy attorney general from the trump administration confirmed widely by a vote of 96. he saw that there was a lack of confidence in the phish. the fbi director reports to the deputy attorney general.
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at that point, the deputy attorney general looked into it and reported his findings back to the white house just today. that's what the white house is trying to frame this. erin, the reality check is something a little different. the reality check here is that the ovaloffs, the white house, the president himself was certainly in favor of this idea, knew about this idea and has been try b to be find add way to possibly get this done. and the appointment, the confirmation of the deputy attorney general who had worked in a democratic administration allowed them cover, an ability to try and get it done here. so the narrative that they're spinning here, the white house sees that it's losing the narrative a little bit. that's one of the reasons i'm surprised the president is not out speaking this evening, the administration is not out talking about this but indeed they are not. the reality check is slightly different than that. >> jeffrey rubin, let me bring thisyou in. >> right. and jeff zeleny, i think exactly
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characterizes the white house position on this. and that position is a lie. it is not possibly true. rod rosenstein did not decide to fire jim comey on his own. >> just to -- deputy attorney general? >> right. he did not come in to office and discover that jim comey had lost the confidence of the fbi. by the way, there is an inspector general investigation of jim comey's behavior during 2016 under way now. it's not over. so why didn't they wait until the end of the inspector general's investigation? they didn't wait because they wanted to fire him now when he's investigating the white house. >> so -- >> sometimes the most obvious explanation is the correct one. >> ok. so let me ask a question here, dan, to you. they're saying obviously this whole rod rosenstein was an
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obama pointee. you haesh some say that's bogus. our white house reporter is reporting that this has been underconsideration for days but one of the final straws was the revelation that his testimony was riddled with unthoouts. there were only a handful. it was wrong. there were serious errors in that testimony. do you buy that at all as a reason? does that make you question whether the fbi director is doing his job? >> i find it very hard to believe that the reason donald trump fired jim comey is because he was too unfair to an aip dean. there's nothing that holds up that supports the very poor insipid talking points that trump surrogates have been given to spout here. . not credible.
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jim comey has made many mistakes. i was critical of him for the way he handled the clinton e-mail investigation. he made mistakes in his testimony. but you still cannot fire the guy who is investigating your campaign for colluding with russia. that's knots something that's acceptable and normal in american politics. we have crossed a line here we have not seen since watergate. >> what do you say to that, jason miller? sure, democrats were upset. you point o that out now. >> not just upset. they wanted him fired. >> donald trump is now president of the united states. he digit fire director comey right when he came in. director comey is in charge of an investigation into the trump campaign. how can the president fire him right now? how can he fire the guy investigating him? >> absolutely. up mean, first of all like i said earlier, director comey should have been fired last year by president obama. but whoever replaces him will
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step inspect and continue the investigations until they reach their natural conclusion, which i would point out that there hasn't been one shred of evidence put forward saying there's some kind of coordination between the campaign and some foreign nation. so i think it's a wild goose chase. i think wiel have a steadier hand behind the wheel at the fbi. a very important thing to point out, there's not one person who's been on, has stood up and advocated and said that drosh comey was doing a good job and should stay in place. no one is saying he should stay where he was. >> i talked to senator cory booker a few days ago and he slammed director comey. i asked not once but twice, would you support him being fired. he would not do that. there was criticism but it stopped sort of saying he should be fired and that's a significant distinction. >> of course now with president trump being in the white house, they're going to go right up to
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the line. up mean, the crocodile tears are a little insincere here. democrats wanted him fired last year. it didn't happen. the only reason they're not excited it's happening now is purely for political reasons. >> kroks dial tears from you? what do you say? >> no. context is everything. not fooimg tiechlgt last july i asked -- i said that he shoorve fired right after he gave his opinion of hillary's concededly illegal actions at that time. had he been fired at that time you would have had a new fbi director. you wouldn't be firing the person directing the investigation into the president and the president appointing his own investigator. this is clearly part of a coverup and it's part of a pattern of behavior.
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the president, president trump is obviously trying to avoid an investigation. mr. miller said a moment ago there's not a shred of evidence between the donald trump campaign and the russians. we don't know that. >> so you would have wanted him to be fired once trump became president. >> he shouldn't -- he's the only possibility -- or he was the only possibility of an honest investigation. they've not staffed up. they're preceding at a mile a year. there's no staff. benghazi investigation had huge staff. but the leadership, the republican leadership of the house and senate don't want a serious investigation because -- as shown by the fact that there's no, sir additional staff to staff it. the only hope to get to the bottom of what was the most egregious interference in the american election to subvert an american election by a foreign
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power was going forward well, and now we cannot believe the honesty of any investigation. >> k3457b, are you saying right now that you're flip-flopping and you think that director comey should have remained in his position? so you're absolutely flip-flopping for political reasons. >> no i'm not flip-flopping for political reasons and i'm not flip-flopping now. i changed a while ago. where the president cannot appoint and fire and appoint his own investigator. that's the key here. this is the same as when nixon hired archibald cox. you can't control your own investigator. anybody who believes that the reason that comey was fired by president trump now is because comey was too helpful to the trump k578 pain in criticizing hillary last summer is absurd. anybody who believes that i have a nice bridge to sell them between brooklyn and manhattan.
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>> here the -- clear that the motive for his firing was to stop an investigation the president feared. i don't know why he feared it because we don't know what was going on there. he had to stop the investigation and the only way that anyone will have kchd that there's a investigation going on would be if there's an independent prosecutor appointed. if there is not, we -- >> congressman, director comey is the only -- >> that his -- >> can figure that out? >> this is the equivalent or worse than the saturday night massacre by presidents nixon. >> congressman -- >> why not if the president really has nothing to hide and he's not involved in any kind of a coverup. at this point why not wait until the investigation's over? >> why continue to have somebody serve who's lost the confidence of the men and women he leads. >> he has not -- >> folks have been saying it on here. >> if statements today, it is
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clear that the reasons given for firing comey are pretext. they're excuses. they're not true. they're further lies from this administration and the real reason is to stop what might have been, what appeared to be an honest investigation and the only way around it is to have a -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> do you think -- again, are you -- do you think that director comey is the only person who can carry out an investigation at the fbi? >> i think director comey was the only person other than a special prosecutor a-pointed outside the chain of command to the president who could have done that, yes. >> you thought so little of his judgment last year you wanted him fired. >> he should have been fired last year. once he got into a situation where the person who would fire him is the president he's investigating, its makes that firing part of a coverup. >> mark perreston -- oh, we hav
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dana? dana, let me go to you. the news that you have -- and mark we'll get your reaction -- they did not think there would be a political explosion. they are shocked tonight that this is happening. >> that's right. my understanding according to a source fam with white house discussions is that when this was initially going down and made public, that the -- some senior people in the white house did not think that this was going to be the political explosion that it obviously is. it's hard for us to believe but i was told. republicans argue, well, wait a minute. this is what democrats have been calling for. the argument that rod rosenstein made in his long letter is that they fired jim comey for everything he did -- >> for hillary clinton. >> the clinton investigation,
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without one important fact at their disposal, which is why now? this is why there's a little bit of a shock i'm told inside the white house that this is as monumental as it would have been and the reaction is the way i think anybody would have understood it to be. >> mark, it's sort of shocking that they would be so unaware of the bombshell that this would drop. they clearly tried to make that argument. the first paragraph was all about hillary clinton's e-mail. unfortunately -- >> can i -- >> shows that to not be his actual point of view. >> jeff's got to be somewhere. >> let's remove motive from it. let's assume that there is no nefarious motive behind it. if that is the case -- and we'll give them the benefit of the doubt -- strategically, they had no idea what they were doing, they had no idea this was going
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to be a political bombshell, they had no idea there would be questions directed towards them. now they've just handed the democrat irk party a whole armful of talking points to criticize president trump and to try to link him tom an investigation that we don't really know what the outcome is. that's pretty scary. they don't know that, what else don't they know? what else is concerning, it seems like president trump was acting like he did when he was a private citizen. when you're the ceo of a company, you can do things like this. when you're a president of the united states, there are consequences, there are questions and that's what we're seeing right now. >> dan, do you really believe, truly at your core, is that this is part of a coverup? that this is a nixon moment or whether it's just a miscalculation in terms of the timing? >> i do believe it's part of a kwovrup and a nixon moment. if trump believed he had nothing to hide, he would have let comey
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stay, let the investigation finish, be exonerated and move on. now he'll never been exxon rated. the person who will conduct the investigation going forward will be the person he hand picked. the wizards would not let the celtics pick the referees for the game. you only do that if you have something to hide. this is a very big moment. >> let me ask you to jason miller's point. is there no one that could do a fair investigation that would exonerate the president and his associates -- >> there are a lot -- >> could they fix this with a special prosecutor at this point? >> they could fix it with a special prosecutor with a commission, such as in people are asking for like a 9/11 to look into the whole thing. they cannot fix it by appointing a new director of the fbi. >> no. >> that would be part of the cover. let me say one other thing. only a president -- i was
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skbreegd by this that they were shocked -- only a president so ig rant of american history to think that andrew jackson was alive during the civil war could think this wouldn't be a explosion because people see this as a coverup. >> even with -- >> even with an -- >> special prosecutor with a telling invitation? >> yes. a special prosecutor is a lawyer. a lawyer only has to -- has to rely on fbi agent. a lawyer may operate independently but the fbi is going to answer to the new director. and the new director is going to be some stooge that donald trump puts in there. it's probably -- >> yessy, that's ridiculous. >> it's probably going to be sheriff david clark of milwaukee who ran around the country telling everyone to throw hillary clinton in jail, just like michael flynn did, and it will be -- or it will be rudolf
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guiliani or somebody who campaigned for donald trump who will become the head of the fbi. >> it will be someone who follows the rule of law -- >> someone reporting to a trump appointed fbi director. >> so i want to -- >> jeff is right. >> on this point, though, of the fbi director, a little kwlor. tom, we are finding out that he was at the l.a. field office today meeting with fbi agents when the news broke. he finds out he's been fired. they find out. they're in this meeting together. on this important point. because i right now, from your understanding, does the or did the fbi director, jim comey, have the confidence of his rank and file? >> well, erin, that's hard to
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answer. some of the people i have talked to obviously are senior officials at fbi headquarters and they even had a mixed set of feelings about whether he had caused the fbi to become too much in the spotlight politically, starting with the july 5th press conference, the series of hearings that he testified in, where he was extremely critical all summer and fall of hillary clinton and the idea that it was politicized even back then, before the letter. most people thought the letter was justified, that they were going to reopen and get search warrants, that they had to notify. but i can't imagine for the 14,000 agents around the world, what all their feelings are. i do know that the fbi has been thrown into such a political arena in the past year, however part of that goes to the fact
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that the hillary clinton investigation had been stalled for so long that it was coming to fruition during the heart of the campaign, and 45that was as much hillary's fault as anybody else's if she would have cooperated earlier in the investigation. >> so in terms of the fbi and who is actually being investigated, i think this is crucial. in the letter from the president of the united states to director comey, donald trump writes, while i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i am not under investigation, i nonetheless concur with the department of justice that you are not effectively able to lead the bureau. i asked the democratic ranking member mark warner, could he confirm that the president of
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the united states was under investigation, he demurred answering that directly. >> i talked to a couple of white house officials asking them in fact to elaborate on that paragraph, it is the second paragraph of this letter here that we have been talking about all night. and a senior administration official said there will be no more comment this evening and they will not elaborate anymore on what the president was talking about here. but, erin, let's think back to how the president has been communicating about the investigation. he called it, you know, a taxpayer financed charade, he said it's a fake investigation, fake news here, so he is not exactly been the arbiter of reality when it comes to what is going on with this investigation here. so perhaps that was a private conversation he had with the fbi director, that would seem to
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bhbe highly unusual. but the white house is not saying tonight what three separate times he's talking about. >> knowing him over many years of covering him, he wrote that himself, he put that in there about the three separate occasions. >> this is not normal. this is now how presidents behave. they don't exonerate themselves in letters in which they fire the person who was investigating them. it's just not how american history has unfolded. i mean this is not how american law works, that the president gets to write a letter where he says, you say that i am in the clear, and by the way, you're fired. >> and how unusual, okay, was jeff's point that these occurred. would the fbi director, or someone who should be the fbi director. >> or used to be the fbi director --
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>> ever had a conversation like that with the president of the united states and assured him he was not under investigation yektly. >> there are guide lines in how investigations are to be handled with respect to the rest of the executive branch. those guidelines certainly do not allow the fbi director to go to the president and say you're clear. so i don't know what the president was basing that paragraph in his letter on, but if director comey said it, he would have been violating all sorts of norms and procedures in terms of how the fbi and the executive branch are to function. >> he should be fired if he actually said that. >> i think director comey deserves the right to have his own explanation of what that paragraph refers to, if it refers to anything at all. >> i think it's crucial that he
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does. because by the way, he could answer whether he said that without saying the president is or is not -- there are ways you can wordsmith to say they talked about it three specific times. democrats being outraged. cnn congressional reporter joins me from capitol hill. i spoke to the democratic ranking member on the senate intel committee, mark warner said special prosecutor, but said they're moving head. are they on the same page or are they not? >> reporter: he, richard byrd just put out a very strongly worded statement in criticism of the president, saying i am troubled by the timing and reasoning of director comey's termination. he said that his dismissal further confuses an already difficult investigation by the senate intelligence committee.
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he said that comey has been more forthcoming than other fbi directors in the past and he is raising some significant concerns that this is going to be a problem for the senate intelligence committee's own sweeping investigation into russia and the trump campaign. very strong words, saying that he's troubled by the timing and reasoning behind this firing. so probably with some of the strongest words we have heard tonight from a very powerful member who's been concerned about some of president trump's statements as well. >> well, it's huge and it's important, and it's a good thing to hear that the democrat and republican in that committee are on the same page, it's important in a moment of bipartisanship. what's your reaction to all this? >> i think a lot of people are sitting at home, knowing that the russians have interfered with our elections and now they see that this is the third person that's been fired by this administration. so i think people want to know, was this because someone was
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closing in on information about that investigation, that might have incriminated people within the administration? if that's not the case, then mr. rosenstein should appoint a special prosecutor as soon as possible. >> you see the president obviously saying that he's been assured by the fbi director, the former fbi director on three separate occasions that he's not under investigation. and he lays out the justification for today's move, leads with and greatly elaborates upon hillary clinton and how that was handled. do you buy that or do you believe that that is cover? >> i know that my constituents want answers about who knew about the russian interference. and as i said, mr. comey being now the third person that is fired, wonder if every time somebody get close to this, that somehow, even my colleague from the house who now recused himself from the investigation. so i think what we really need is to have in prosecutor, a
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special independent prosecutor, look into the details of this. our colleagues on the intelligence committee, as you just heard, both democrats and republicans are not going to step away from investigating this. we are going to get the answers for the american people. >> and do you believe that this investigation can continue at this point? >> well, my colleagues in the senate are going to investigate. and the judiciary committee is going to continue to investigate. what we had hoped was that the fbi was going to continue to do their job in this investigation. and we -- this is very surprising decision, this moment to stay we're making this termination because the facts stated in the letter are things that have been known for months and months and months. so why all of a sudden do you make that decision? >> senator kent, i appreciate your joining us tonight.
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and i think to the significance of senators burr and warner being on the same page. and i think they know the importance of doing that this evening. >> certainly heartening, given what we have learned in the last hour or so, without explanation of why james comey was terminated or an explanation that was not very robust. it's good to see this the two men leading this investigation appear to be on the same page as they go forward and see if there's anything about these alleged ties between donald trump's associates and russian officials. >> thank you very much to all of our panel, with a stunning development in american history, with the president of the united states firing the director of the fbi. thank you very much for joining us. and ac 360 begins right now. and good evening from washington, we're of course
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covering the unfolding of president trump's firing of fbi director james comey. what happened to him just to be clear at the outset, the president firing the head of the agency that's investigating whether his campaign colluded with russia. it comes a day after what is embarrassing testimony on russia by sally yates. it was done at the -- jeff session actually recused himself from the russian investigation because of his own contact with russians that he didn't initially disclose and it's being justified with apparently no sense of irony, on the basis of director comey's handling of the investigation of hillary clinton, which candidate trump celebrated at the time and praised director comey for. that's what this is. it's also unprecedent, potentially explosive. a lot to cover. i understand this was being planned for over a