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 week, what have you learned?

>> reporter: we do know that something that president trump had been considering, what we're being told by senior administration officials the deputy attorney general was confirmed two weeks ago, he had time to look over james comey's turn your, and we have seen the letters which are essentially an indictment of the handling of hillary clinton's emails. they said they no longer had faith in comey's ability to lead the department, they took this recommendation and he drafted this letter. but there's questions about the timing of this, why this is all happening now, it's information that president trump has celebrated in the past, but it's serge not new information. >> the letter that the president sent to former fbi director comby. can you explain what it cede said? >> reporter: i want to read you the portion that i think is

particularly confusing in president trump's letter to comey, in this he's dismissing him. he said that while i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i am not under investigation, i nevertheless concur with the department of justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau. it's not clear what instances the president may be referring to. they have made clear publicly that the fbi is investigating potential collusion between president trump's campaign in the 2016 presidential race and collusion with respective russian operatives. >> has trump said -- >> reporter: this may be a good indication of buy his public schedule has been so light. we're not expected to hear from him this evening. the white house said he will not be coming out, he will not be

making a statement. they said they're not going to be saying anything else even on paper tonight, anderson. >> wasn't jeff sessions recusing himself from anything to do with the russian investigation? >> reporter: yes, jeff sessions did recuse himself with anything to do with the russian investigation, i think that's why the white house is taking pains to point out that it was the deputy attorney general who made this recommendation, that comey be fired, then took it to sessions and then they took it to the president. >> but jeff sessions was still involved in the decision to fire the guy who was heading up the investigation? >> reporter: and i think that's why you're seeing concerns from both republicans and democrats tonight about timing of this and the way it's being handled. >> and comey was at an event in california when he was fired? >> reporter: this is a very awkward way to be fired because fru trump sent one of his trusted aides over to where trump was

meeting with agents in a field office. and that's apparently how he found out. there were news reports that broke that he was being fired. it's unclear how he was directly given the information still, since the letter dismissing him was taken to the fbi here in washington and comey was in l.a. >> is it possible he saw it on news reports? >> reporter: it is certainly possible, again, not the best way to be fired. >> thank you. introducing our panel, jeff toobin, i got to start with you, is this normal? >> no, this is a dark day in american history, anderson. this is so far outside of the american political and legal tradition for a sitting president to fire the head of the fbi, who's investigating his campaign, with a completely

bogus and pretext chural investigation of why he was fired, it's of course happened once in american history, and that was october 20, 1973, the saturday night massacre, when richard nixon fired archibald cox, the special investigator. >> you're comparing it to that? >> absolutely. and arguably worse, because jim comey is head of the whole fbi, archibald cox was only the deputy fbi director. president trump will now be able to install one of his stooges into that job. but from now on, the fbi is going to be directed by someone who answers to donald trump and responds and will supervise the investigation of donald trump.

that's what's going to happen now. >> even if there's a special prosecutor named, which is now what obviously many democrats are calling for, but many on capitol hill are saying might be the necessary step in order to have some validity, even if there is a special prosecutor, they're still going to rely on the fbi? >> special prosecutors are lawyers, they are prosecutors, they're not investigators. when i worked on the iran contra investigation, we were independent, but we worked hand in glove with fbi agents. even though there's a special prosecutor, they will rely on fbi agents who will answer to, ultimately a donald trump employee, someone who will be appointed for the specific reason of not investigating donald trump. >> when you said that the reason that they are giving, you're talking about the acting attorney general's explanation, justification that this had a

lot to do with director comey's investigation into hillary clinton's emails. >> rod rosenstein's memorandum says the reason jim comey was fired is because he was too mean to hillary clinton, that he said too many nasty things about her during the campaign. you'll recall, and we have been playing them tonight, that donald trump loved those things, he embraced jim comey all through the fall. and now for those exact reasons, he claims that that's why jim comey has to be fired. it's not believable. it simply couldn't happen. >> i want to bring in the rest of our panel, gloria borger -- >> what he said. >> is this as strange as jeffry -- >> i think it is, i think it's bizarre and it's an earthquake

and i think that, you know, ron rosenstein may well believe everything he wrote in this memo, because a lot of people believe it, that comey misbehaved during the clinton investigation of the emails, that he shouldn't have had that press conference on july 5, that he shouldn't have made that announcement on october 28, that set the election upside down. but then i was listening to someone who was giving me the spin from the white house on this, basically saying that this is the deputy attorney general's recommendation and the attorney general's recommendation and they sent it to the president and by gosh, the president approved it. you have to ask why now? >> we have joining us on the phone is the democratic congressman adam schiff, the ranking member of the house intelligence committee, congressman schiff, what do you make of the firing of director comey? >> well, it's incredibly disturbing at any level.

first you have it based on a recommendation from an attorney general who is supposed to have recused himself from an investigation, and of course making the decision that he has his own associates under investigation, and reportedly on the basis that the president applauded during the course of the cam pain. so very hard to understand, races a whole host of very troubling questions, should never have been undertaken and certainly not in the absence of a county current appointment of a special prosecutor. i don't think anybody can have confidence that the president made this decision on a sound basis, instead, everybody's going to suspect that it's in his personal interest to have comey off the case. >> do you believe this is an attempt at a cover-up? >> i don't know if i would call it a cover-up. but it's a brazen interference

with a criminal investigation. after all, the president calls this whole investigation a fake, and here the fbi director, along with all his other flaws and i have criticisms about how he handled the hillary clinton email investigation, for this president to fire him, not at the beginning of his administration when he wanted to make a fresh start, but seemingly out of the blue after comey announced that he was investigating the donald trump associates, it just harkens back to some of those most tainted actions by president nixon. >> even if a special prosecutor is named, they are still going to be relying on the fbi, and it is an fbi that is now directed by somebody who's appointed by donald trump, does that raise concerns for you? >> it's certainly not a perfect

remedy. but i think the american public would have much more confidence if there was an independent prosecutor to conduct the investigation. they can really have an active hand in the conduct of the investigation. that is really what is called for here. and i would like to see some process by which an independent body helps select that prosecutor. >> right now where are all the fbi files, i mean everything that's being investigated, who has control of that now? >> well, the agents in the fbi that have been working this that are part of the counter intelligence squad, that are focusing on this investigation, they are going to continue doing this work regardless of who the

director is, but someone new who is brought in with the intense of shutting it down, this is a really tainted and bad decision, but it can be followed by an equal lly tainted and even wors decision. >> who now has the power to appoint a special prosecutor? >> well, i think this is something that the deputy attorney general can facilitate, can analyze what's the best way to approach the situation, how do we avoid any appearance of impro prity, i would have liked to have seen that letter firing director comey, quite an obvious conflict of interest and obviously encourage the attorney general to butt out of the

situation because he was supposed to have recused himself of the matter. >> director comey was expected to speak tonight at a recruitment rally in los angeles. details about how he got his firing, as well as the email that went out to fbi employees. >> reporter: jeff sessions has sent an ermail to fbi employees that the president exercised his lawful authority to remove james b. comey, and director andrew mccabe assumed the position of acting director of the fbi, as you know andrew mccabe is an exceptional law enforcement authority. thank you for your steady fast dedication and commitment during this time of transition.

anderson, the fbi director was traveling in los angeles, he was there for that event that you just mentioned and he was actually speaking to some of those agents in the los angeles field office, it's one of the largest offices that the fbi has when this news broke on television, that's how he found out, at about the same time, we're told that there was a person who had delivered from the white house the letter from the president telling him that he was gone. so that is how the fbi director found out. >> he found out from seeing it on television while he was talking to fbi agents? >> that's when the news broke about what had happened. the question that we all would ask now is how does he even get home? under the law, the fbi director is supposed to travel on a special plane that has special communications capabilities in order to be able to speak to the president and talk to other top officials. he flew out to los angeles on that plane, does he come back on

that plane? does he have to fly commercial? we don't know, those are questions that are being asked, what happens now, does he get a chance to clean out his office, his desk? we don't know. we know that andrew mccabe is now the director of the fbi and he's going to be running this investigation into trump and russia. >> and jeff sessions, once again, he has recused himself from this russia investigation, and again, why was he brought in to oversee or approve the firing of the buy running the fbi? >> reporter: my guess is what they're going to say is that this decision to fire james

comey was outside the purview of the russian investigation. that's not way the democratic critics on the hill or even republicans are seeing this, because everything you do with james comey right now affects the investigation, it certainly affects the confidence that people have in this investigation, and it's certainly important to what the fbi and what the justice department does. >> pam, what are you learning? >> we learned that not long ago, anderson, president trump met with then-deputy director of the fbi andy mccabe, now acting director of the fbi, according to the attorney general jeff saecessions and we learned that the president didn't know that the deputy director would become the acting director. i'm also told by a person familiar with the situation that

the attorney general jeff sessions is reviewing potential candidates to take the place of the director of the fbi. we haven't been told any names yet, but that process is under way, because as we know, the firing of james comey has been in the works for a couple of weeks now, ever since rod rosenstein was confirmed in the senate. i'm told by a person that's familiar, that there were various ways that the white house tried to inform james comey that the president was firing him. of course there was the hand delivered letter to fbi headquarters, but as we know director comey was not there and there was an email sent to him about this decision. we're told that comey didn't find out from this letter, he found out by looking up at the television as he was talking to agents in the fbi field office, talking about his testimony on

capitol hill, they had a lot of questions and he looked up and saw the news on television, and i'm told he made a joke at the time, made light of it. >> he was talking to fbi agents in los angeles and he looks up and there's tv screens in the background and he sees that he's fired from television? >> that is what we are told from sources, myself, that he was there in the fbi field office, that he was talking to fbi agents and he apparently looks up and sees the news on television, and that's the first time he found out that he was fired from the fbi by president trump. and shortly after that, and at

that time, people familiar with the situation said that he made light of the situation. everyone in that room was so shocked, and there was just silence when they realized what was going on. then the then fired fbi director james comey just tried to lighten the mood because there was such shock in the room, anderson. >> wow, i mean, how do you finish that speech? dana bash, on capitol hill, i understand that president trump made a few calls to several folks on capitol hill before the news broke, unlike to the director himself? >> exactly, he called just for example the chairman of the subcommittee in charge of the fbi, that is is senator lindsey graham, on the democratic side, we know he talked to dianne feinste

feinstein, who's on the full judiciary committee. it was just a few minutes before the news became public that they got that information. what i was told, that back at the white house, that's maybe not as shocking that the fbi found out that he was fired while watching television while he was speaking to the fbi, it give you a window into why that was allowed to happen. i was told by a source familiar with conversations inside the white house that they were surprised by the political explosion here. it's surprising that they were surprised, but they were. why? because they believed that the spin that is in this letter, and some of it, much of it is very -- >> you're talking about the letter -- >> the letter from rod rosenstein, detailing why they thought james comey did a bad job, mostly for the handling of the hillary clinton investigation, that would be

music to the ears of democrats. so the question that is not answered is why what about the investigation into the trump administration? and another question, why now? the fact that they're not prepared for this seismic event is -- >> it's not only an apparent abuse of power by the government, but it was rude on top of all of that what the president did. the real question now, i think what dana is reporting accurately, lacks credibility in so far believing what the white house is saying and what they're putting out there, for a couple of reasons. you can actually support the firing of jim comey because of how he handled the hillary clinton issue, and be absolutely opposed to this. i would love to ask hillary clinton, who no doubt will be happen that he's being fired, whether he supports purging someone who had a russian tie to

the election. >> the director of her campaign has said this terrifies him. >> the issue here is rod rosenstein, who has an excellent reputation among prosecutors. he wrote this letter, outlining what nearly all career prosecutors believe, which is what comey did in the handling of the clinton email investigation and going public with it was 100% inappropriate. but why, i wonder, was he asked to do this investigation when the inspector general of the department of justice was doing the very same investigation? if not for, perhaps, to be used so that, boy, those career prosecutors, not the bo politicians. career prosecutors said that comey was no good. he ought to be fired because of that. so the question for rosenstein is does he have the guts to

stand up to the white house and say you're not going to overreach. he may have been trying to do the right thing. he has the power to put in a special prosecutor. that's where the momentum, that's where the pressure is right now. >> it seems like the -- as we go along here, developments keep unfolding, we're going to be breaking away from this conversation for other breaking news. ma mano, what are you hearing? >> concerns from republicans, including senator richard burr who's chairman of the senate intelligence committee, said he was concerned about the timing and the reasoning of this firing and saying there could impact the senate intelligence committee's own investigation into russian meddling saying that it confuses an already difficult investigation and why

that's important is because the intelligence committee spends a lot of time meeting with people in the fbi, in the intelligence community, trying to gather evidence and trying to gatter information. because comey has been more forthcoming than other past fbi directors on various issues. including on this russian concern that this could impact highway the investigation is going to go forward. now other republicans that sit on the committee have not gone that far, marco rubio who sits on the committee told me earlier that he wants to understand exactly what's happening, and senator john cornyn also sits on the committee, under republican leadership. but this claim is a surprise to virtually everyone on capitol hill, even members of the leadership, mitch mcconnell, the majority leader did get a heads up, but not too soon before this was announced, clearly,

republicans here too are gr grappling with this news and uncertain how this will impact investigations on capitol hill. >> what does this do to the senate intelligence committee's investigation into russia? >> they're still going to move forward, i'm told, they're still going to interview witnesses, they have asked for records of a number of trump associates to lay out exactly the context with russian officials campaign officials during the campaign season, and two responses so far including from carter page, that trump foreign policy advisor, who was not actually responsive and did not give them any information. so they're still trying to gather information. but it can be much harder if the fbi is not cooperative, given that they're trying to work in tandem with this fbi investigation. so with don't know the ultimate impact here, but input by

prominent senator richard burr. >> in his letter to comey, he thanked him for informed him three times that he was not under investigation. and james clapper confirmed there's no ed of collusion, the fact is neither of those statements are true. the senate intelligence committee is investigating not only russian interfeerns, but possible collusion. today i talked to both republicans and democrats on the senate and house intelligence committee, and i asked them, have you eliminated the possibility as the president claims trump associates and the russians? and all of them said absolutely not. that's what we're investigating. >> it's possible that comey said you're not going investigated? >> it could be true today and

not true tomorrow. >> what members of the house sand senate intelligence committee said they're still looking into that question. fbi includes among itself questions was there collusion. could that be, you're right, the exception is, mr. president, you individually may not have evidence of you individually conspiring or colluding, but trump associates is another issue, and this is something that we know that they continue to look into, the carter pages of the world. roger stone, paul manafort, were they colluding in some ways. those investigations are still under way by multiple bodies. >> can i just underline the important point here, you talk about trump associates, but it would been hugely embarrassing if associates were found to be colluding with the russians, that would be a huge problem. >> would you just take a step

back and look at the pattern, you have the white house interfering with the white house investigation, with devin nunes, and the the white house trying shut that investigation down. we have reports that the white house tried to get the senate intelligence committee to not have yates testify this week. we have the white house telling republican leaders not to appoint an independent committee to investigate and now we have the white house really an absurd circumstance where you have someone who recused himself from the investigation, sessions, advising the president whose campaign is under investigation to fire the investigator. to all of these investigations, the white house is putting their thumb on the scales. >> one more thing. the u.s. attorney who was in charge of the district that would have prosecuted donald trump in new york, he got fired after he was brought in by president-elect trump, told i want to keep you over from the

obama administration. >> and then sally yates gets fired. sally yates made him look horrible. what happens if you cross the president. what happens if you threaten the president, directly, indirectly, disagree with? you get hired. there is a pattern here. and again timing is everything here, because if he had questions about comey and you can look through his twitter feed from when he praised comey to when he criticized comey. and he's clearly sour on him if you look at his twitter feed. he could have fired him in january, but he didn't. now it's getting close to home. what they could have done. and to dana's point, they didn't expect this kind of fallout, they could have said, okay, we feel we need to fire comey, but we think there should be an independent prosecutor. that would have saved them a lot

of this grief, if they had called for an independent prosecutor at this time. >> the problem with conflicts of interest, it never occurred to him that what vladimir putin did to hillary clinton and the democrats, he would be happy to do to him. he's got to care about the presidency. he doesn't care about the presidency enough to -- >> surprisingly, the intelligence chairman richard burr and other republicans john mccain are very upset about this, but in this sort of up is down, left is right world that we're in right now, you have lindsay graham, who's been a very staunch critic of the president, he says he thinks this is just fine. i talked to him just before coming on the air. he says he thinks that it's time for comey to go, too much drama over there. and susan collins, who's no cheerleader for this

administration, she said the fbi is not about it's director, the fbi director is not doing his job, let's get another director. >> we're expected to hear very shortly from the counsel to the president, kellyanne, and secretary clinton's spokesman, weighing in saying hillary clinton has no comment at this time. >> here's what the bottom line is s you know, there is reason to fire jim comey, there is bipartisan agreement on that, and then forget the politicians, what about career prosecutors, fbi agents, prosecutors. you just don't do this when they're investigating you. >> why now? we don't know. it's a firing in search of a rationale. and rosenstein gave him the rationale. >> douglas, how do you see this,

i mean as a presidential historian? >> it's a very troubling abuse of power, donald trump just behaved like a tyrant, we see that in other countries in the world, we don't expect it here. jeffrey toobin correctly was pointing out about the saturday night massacre, in 1973, when archibald cox was fired. by what's prominent about that is that there were two resignations who said this is not okay, we're putting our country above party and they quit. after that saturday night massacre, eventually just like donald trump didn't want to talk a lot now, nixon didn't want to talk either. when he did come out of the wood work, he said i'm not a crook. you had a plurality of america s s starting to talk about whether nixon needed to be impeached or

not. so the fact that donald trump is trying to exonerate himself is troubling, so we need now heroes in the republican world, and we're starting to see them with richard burr and john mccain, men of duty, honor, country, who aren't going to play a partisan game but do what's best for our nation. >> this is the motorcade of former director comey, we believe, who is at a motorcade -- who was at an event earlier in los angeles. and i want to, as we watch this, i want to go to jeffrey to be bic toobin who's standing by, who do you say to -- that the fbi is not the director, that other people can lead this investigation and it can go on? >> i think it is transparently

bogus. first of all, you know, to say that the fbi can be, that the rest of the fbi can continue to function is a debatable proposition, but that doesn't answer the question of why they fired jim comey in the first place. i think it is not at all clear, that this investigation will continue. the person who will be -- who will be supervising the fbi, henceforth, will be a donald trump appointee, and it may be chris christie, it may be rudy giuliani, it will be somebody who's loyal to donald trump that's how he appoints people. so the idea that the fbi is just going to be fine, because they're fine agents, there's little basis to support that.

and it doesn't address the question of why james comey was fired in the first place. and he was fired because he was investigating the white house. and that is an unacceptable -- that is an unacceptable rationale, to fire the head of the fbi, and no -- and no confidence in the fbi. >> but there are plenty of democrats who have been calling for james comey, who say they don't have confidence in james comey, they are not -- even some of those democrats now are saying this is not the time to do it, but there are plenty of democrats who have said previously, i have no confidence in james comey because of his handing of the clinton investigation. >> and there was never one republican and certainly not candidate trump or president trump who said anything like james comey should be fired. yes, there were a lot of democrats who said james comey

did terrible things to hillary clinton and he should be fired for it. but how can it be that the whole republican party just changed overnight to be outraged by james comey treatment of hillary clinton? it's just not credible. the only reason to fire james comey now because you're president trump is because you don't want him investigating you. that's the only possible rationale here, just look at this crazy letter that donald trump wrote, this crazy paragraph where he claims to be exonerated by james comey. you can't fire somebody who's investigating you and do it credibly, regardless of what democrats think, it has nothing to do with what democrats think. it's trump doing this and he is the guy who was praising comey

all through the fall for the behavior that he now says justifies his firing. that is ridiculous and not believable, and shows that it's not the real reason that comey was fired. >> and we continue to watch the motorcade, what we believe is james comey. >> this is a reason he was fired, we just don't demo what it was. >> this is a police motorcade on a busy rush hour in los angeles, and if you remember oj simpson, this is just crazy. >> kellyanne conway, to those who say why fire james comey now? >> i would point to the three letters that were received today. the letter by president donald trump and by attorney general jeff sessions and by deputy

attorney general rob rosenstein, the deputy attorney general usually reports to the attorney general. he was just confirmed 14 days ago. he's well respected across both sides of the aisle, he served as u.s. attorney in maryland under president obama. and he sent out a memo today to the attorney general and the re: line says referring to the investigation of hillary clinton. >> but as a candidate, trump praised james comey, donald trump talked about this on the campaign all the time. all of a sudden, the white house is concerned got james comey's handling of hillary clinton's emails? >> there are many things covered in this letter, it goes to the fact that there's a lack of morale -- >> the main paragraph --

>> the first paragraph. >> the third paragraph, to usurp the attorney general's authority on july 5. i mean why now are you concerned about the hillary clinton email investigation when as a candidate, trump was praising it from the campaign trail. >> i think you're looking at the wrong set of facts here, in other words you're going back to the cam pain, this has been is the president of the united states, he acted decisively today, he acted at the direction of his deputy attorney general. he makes complete sense because he has lost confidence in the fbi director and he took the recommendation of rob rosenstein, the deputy attorney general. the deputy attorney general has been on the job for two weeks, i quote, he says that almost everyone including james comey,

it's one of the serious issues that unites people. this is a man who's trying to t restore public confidence in the fbi. this is what he presented to the attorney general who presented to it the president. >> this is his memo that a lot of people have been pointing to saying this is just bogubogus. the head of the senate intelligence committee investigation is concerned about the timing of all of this. >> so the same senators that just voted to confirm this man, whose integrity is not in doubt, 94-6 two short weeks ago, we're supposed to believe the derogatory descriptions you just made of him. that's not fair. and it was senator schumer who said about mr. rosenstein, he has developed a reputation for integrity. >> he's saying essentially this is a cover-up today. >> he's wrong, it's not a

coverup. in fact the president makes very clear in his letter the fact that mr. comey on three occasions assured him he is not under investigation. the president says that's between the president of the united states and director comey. but he is telling on at least three occasions he assured him he's not under investigation. but at the same time, he's taking the recommendation of the deputy general and the attorney general of the united states. this is what leaders do, they take decidive action based on recommendations given to them. that's what the president dtoda. >> don't you think it's at all suspect that the president's. >> let me repeat that the president has been told by the fbi director that he's not under investigation. >> the president gratuitously in

this letter says while i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i'm not under investigation, he goes on to say that he agrees with the decision to let go comey. but i mean, clearly, this white house is under investigation, the people around the president, the people around the president are under investigation. you would agree with that, yes? >> no, i don't. i know that some are obsessed with -- >> james comey said that there was an ongoing investigation. >> the president is not under investigation, i'm around the president. i'm not under investigation, i can name several people in that same situation. >> you can name an investigation that's going on right now around the people who are close to the president of the united states? >> the president himself is not the subject of investigation and most importantly, are you talking about the folks who were involved in the campaign? >> yeah. >> okay, well you said the

people around the president. are you talking about people who were -- who were on -- >> some of them may still be around the president. i don't know who exactly is being investigated. >> you want this to be about russ russia, when this is about restoring confidence and integrity in the fbi. >> i'm not sure that many people believe this doesn't restore confidence in the fbi, in fact a lot of people are raising questions about saying that it destroys people's confidence in the fbi about whoever the president may appoint is now going to be in charge of an investigation into people who have been close to the president during the campaign, any potential collusion with russia. >> and today's actions had zero to do with that, today's actions had everything to do with mr. rosenstein, the man who oversees the fbi director, who's been on the job for two weeks, but has

been in government for decades and recently served as u.s. attorney for president obama in maryland. if everybody would read his letter rather than squeeze it into a sound bite. >> i can read the whole letter. >> i would love to read the letter outside. would you like me to start? >> in the letter, why not ask for a special prosecutor at this point? >> this letter is about restoring public confidence in the fbi. >> i just talked to adam schiff who is the leading democrat on the white house committee, who said we have got to have a special prosecutor and john mccain has talked about the need for a special prosecutor. >> you're talking about restoring confidence -- in other words to restore confidence, we need a special prosecutor. >> what happened to all the democrats, i have all their quotes right here, that had no confidence in jim comey when it was politically expedient to

the th them. >> there are a lot of democrats who don't have confidence, but feel the timing right now at this point in the investigation into possible collusion of people in the trump campaign and russia seems very odd that now, all of a sudden, the president has lost confidence in jim comey. jeff sessions told fox business news in december of 2016 that comey had an absolute duty to make an october announcement and had to make a july one. why did he say that? >> none of that has anything to do with today's actions, has nothing to do with what mr. rosenstein concluded. >> now you're taking issue with that very announcement. >> what jeff sessions said in his letter today is important, read it, he said we need confidence and integrity and actionable capability at the fbi and they feel that the current

director wasn't able to perform his duties. you mentioned the democrats, that's rich. you said the democrats don't have confidence. you said that. let's talk about the democrats, have you seen democrats who can't muster up a single vote for health care, a single vote on budget tear matters, three whole votes on judge gorsuch. these same democrat who is go out there every single day and say our job is to resist and on instruct. let's focus on what happened today? >> this is what donald trump said about james comey during the campaign. let's play this. >> i have to give the fbi credit, that was so bad what happened originally, and it took guts for director comey to make the move that he made in the light of the kind of opposition he had when they're trying to protect her from criminal prosecution. i respect the fact that director

comey was able to come back after what he did. i respect that very much. good job by the fbi. i have respect that the fbi has given it a second chance. as you know, the fbi, and i give them a lot of credit, because they're fighting force they're not supposed to be fighting. i was never his fan, but what he did, he brought back his reputation. he brought it back. he's got to hang tough, because there's a lot of people want him to do the wrong thing, what he did was the right thing. >> so now your white house is saying that what he did was wrong, but previously as a candidate, donald trump was saying it was the right thing. >> you're comparing two things that don't belong together. thanks for the trip down memory lane, i was on your show often

last fall say we were going to win. but today, not in the campaign, the white house, the president of the united states took deswoodecid decisive action. >> candidate donald trump, we're no longer able to refer to, we can only refer to the donald trump that exists today? >> as president of the united states, he needs confidence in his fbi director and he doesn't have it. >> when was the moment he lost confidence? >> well, read these letters. it's a confluence of events. jeff sessions said i cannot defend the director's handling of the conclusion of the investigation of secretary clinton's emails. quote, the fbi director is never allowed to supplant federal investigators. quote, we do not hold press conferences to release

derogatory information. he also said that the dismiss e dismisschool of the fbi director needs to be done carefully. but we have to have a director who understands the gravity of mistakes and pledges never to repeat them. that is what happened. this has nothing to do with the campaign six months ago, this has everything to do with the performance of the director since donald trump has been in the white house. he is not the subject of an investigation and we appreciate the time and the platform tonight. >> and jeff sessions who has recused himself of anything to do with russia, why somebody accused himself with anything having to do with the russian investigation, fires

>> this had nothing to do with russia as much as somebody must be getting $50 every time the word is said. i'm convinced. this has nothing do with russia. this has everything to do with whether the current fbi director has the president's confidence and can faithfully and capably execute his duties. the deputy attorney general decided that was not the case. he wrote a very long memorandum about it. he presented that to the attorney general. the attorney general presented it to the president. the president took the recommendations as he says in his brief very powerful letter today. he took the recommendations and he agreed that the only way to restore confidence and trust -- public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission, that of the fbi, was to have a new director. >> appreciate your time. jeff toobin standing by and

our panel. your thought ss? >> she read from the letter -- she read that all the criticism of what james comey did during 2016. all of that was what candidate trump praised. so the idea that he is being fired for what he did during the trump presidency as opposed to 2016 is not borne out by the letter itself. the letter is such a pretext. it's such a phony. >> she's saying that as a candidate, he can say whatever he wants to say. i assume that's what she means. because he is a candidate and he doesn't bear the responsibility as president. but now that he is president, it doesn't suit his interests to have that opinion anymore. i guess. >> i admire your game attempt to characterize what kellyanne conway just said.

obviously, he is not legally bound by what he said. it's not like it's a promise that he is obliged to keep. but when we're evaluating the credibility of this firing, it seems highly relevant to me to look at what candidate trump said in 2016. how can you fire someone in 2017 for what he praised him for doing in 2016? i understand that's not a legal difference. but, you know, in the realm of logic and politics, it just suggests that the reason is not the real reason. the real reason is russia. >> in the white house ecosystem, they believe the russia investigation doesn't exist because donald trump says he is not being investigated. >> well, they want to believe it. >> they want to believe it doesn't exist. therefore, this has nothing do with russia. when outside the white house,

the russian investigation seems to be a pretty big idea. >> that's what they say. the reality is, they know that the russia investigation is a huge political problem. death by a thousand paper cuts as one senior adviser said to me. it will not go away. they're incredibly frustrated by it. whether or not this firing is part of it, it seems that way. can i just make one point? >> we're watching james comey departi ining l.a.x. >> it's not a bronco. >> let's just say donald trump never said anything about james comey during the campaign. let's say that happened. okay? it doesn't matter. this letter, which we have all read now many, many times -- i'm sure you can go on our website and read it back at home -- from rod rosenstein goes through the errors james comey made during the hillary clinton investigation. you tried so many times and we didn't get an answer to what has changed between then and now.

why now? why today? why 100 plus days into his administration did he say, by the way, james comey, he stinks, let's get rid of him. there's no answer to that in here, no answer that kellyanne conway could give. she was doing her best, clearly sent out to try to give -- put the best spin on it. there's no answer because i don't think that there's an answer that they can give that would not be the obvious. >> you know that they were thinking about this, because in the president's letter he says, well, while i've been told three times by you that i'm not under investigation, i still fire you. well, if it wasn't on their mind and they didn't know that this was going to create a stink here, why would he have said that? >> the investigation, dana made a point, are not going away. james comey is not going away. just like former director of national intelligence clapper,

former acting attorney general sally yates, will be called before public hearings of these multiple senate and house committees that have investigating this. just as michael flynn was fired but he is not going away. in fact, he has many legal problems and many strands of investigations focusing on him. the investigations won't go away. the people who have been leading the investigations, they will be asked hard questions in public and classified settings. >> this episode itself is going to be part of the congressional investigations. >> strip away the formality. call this what it is. i stopped listening to kellyanne conway when the president fired the guy investigating the campaign for inclucolludes the shafrn russians. she wanted to compare that to a drinking game. it's bigger than trump. it's about america. it's about protecting our institutions. they don't care about that. that's what their disdain shows in their answers tonight. he fired the guy investigating him. i don't care if jim comey had him on speed dial to tell him,

we're not investigating you, that could change tomorrow. anybody who is a prosecutor knows that that's the case. by the way, even if trump is not being investigated, you are telling me, look at all -- look how bad they look because of their poor judgment with general flynn, who talked about locking up hillary clinton and who was playing footsey with vladimir putin. you are telling me who were colluding with the russians that he wouldn't look awful and there wouldn't be serious blow back? this is outrageous. >> this leads me to believe -- everything you say is true. they knew -- they knew what the repercussions would be. this leads me to believe, this is donald trump. this is donald trump who wanted to do this. >> another reason to believe that is -- >> no, no, they're blaming it on rod rosenstein. >> he was chosen because he had a great reputation.

there's every reason to believe that rosenstein is being set. maybe he's going to be fired. >> the interesting thing about president trump is he telegraphs what he is going to do. just last night the fact that he went on this tweet storm. he had his -- the home page changed to exonerate himself based on clapper. the fact that he so clumsily in this letter for no reason inserts this sentence like a -- it's like a fifth grader inserting the sentence, you know, because the dog ate my homework, i am not, therefore, responsible. here is my -- >> he tweeted on may 2, fbi director comey was the best thing that ever happened to hillary clinton and he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds. >> the parallel to -- of course, we don't know the background necessarily whether the deputy attorney general was set up. the parallel to this, it looks similar to the nunes case. he has a conversation in the white house. comes forward to the cameras, claims there's this great crime

that's been committed. now debunked. cnn's own reporting by democrats and republican wls who have see the reports. >> this is all rod rosenstein when it's president trump using them. more reaction from capitol hill. joining us is senator coons. first of all, what's your reaction to comey's firing? >> this was a simply stunning development. not just because of the timing, but because of the justification. it is striking to me the attorney general, when had recused himself from involvement in the investigation into possible collusion between the trump campaign and administration and russia, had a direct role, had a hand in this decision to fire the fbi director. the director who is responsible for oversight of the agency that we recently learned is conducting an ongoing investigation into that exact matter. it's striking. i think this deserves unique

focus and attention in a bipartisan way in congress in the coming days. >> the white house's rational is saying that he lost the confidence of the president and the reason that they are citing in this letter from the deputy attorney general largely is how he handled the clinton e-mail investigation. does that -- that's the argument that kellyanne conway was on trying to push. does that make sense to you considering the fact that as a candidate, donald trump was praising repeatedly comey's handling of it during the campaign? >> anderson, that's exactly why this is hard to square with reality. the trump administration has been in place for six months now. there's no new developments here. his handling of the clinton e-mail issue was questioned, was criticized by many at the time. but that's not a new or recent development. it doesn't seem as if it is a full justification of why president trump would take this action at this time. just in the last few days, we have had concerning testimony

from sally yates, the fired former acting attorney general, that suggests that there was more going on with the national security adviser general flynn than was previously understood. my concern is that we now have to take strong action to ensure that the american people can be confident that the fbi is capable of an independent investigation into this topic. that the senate intelligence committee remains capable of an independent and effective investigation into this topic. and it may well be time for us to have a special counsel appointed so that there's no confidence in the independence of the investigation that is not yet concluded. >> the president and kellyanne conway say this is about restoring confidence in the fbi. does the firing of the fbi director who is leading the investigation into the white house by that white house, the firing of him by that white house, does that restore confidence? >> not at all. in fact, the