following breaking news. president trump has just fired the embattled fbi director, james comey. >> it just doesn't make any sense! >> this is the kind of authoritarian behavior we've seen spread in other parts of the world. >> am i surprised by it? not necessarily. >> he's lost the confidence of people at the fbi. >> everybody's had a problem with comey. >> he's done his job well, and i don't think he deserves to be fired. >> the fbi has been way too involved in politics. >> this has nothing to do with

russia. >> i have serious question about the times the white house. >> if there was ever a time that circumstances warranted a special prosecutor, it's now. >> hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you're watching, from around the borworld, thanks ver much for joining us. we're standing by for what should be a very eventful white house briefing later this hour. the unexpected firing of the fbi director, james comey, will certainly dominate this briefing today by the deputy press secretary, sarah huckabee sanders. you're already looking at live pictures coming in from the west wing of the white house. no sean spicer today. he's over at the pentagon on previously scheduled naval reserve duty. we expect to hear more justification for the firing of the fbi director from the white house, during the questioning at this press briefing, that's coming up. while many members of congress, on both sides of the aisle, have labelled the firing shocking and

troubling, president trump offered his rebuttal on twitter and on camera. the tweet, let me read it. comey lost the confidence of almost everyone in washington, republican and democrat alike, when things calm down, they will be thanking me. that's from the president. later, the president said this, during a photo op, with the former secretary of state, henry kissinger. >> why did you fire director comey? >> because he wasn't doing a good job. very simply. he was not doing a good job. excuse me? [ inaudible question ] not at all. >> and in what may be considered by some as unfortunate timing, president trump sat down with the visiting russian foreign minister, sergey lavrov, also this morning, even as the comey firing and its affect on the russian investigation is dominating discussions here in

washington. also at that meeting, by the way, the russian ambassador of the united states, sergey kislyak, remember, it was michael flynn's conversations with ambassador kislyak that ultimately led to flynn's downfall, as the president's national security adviser. the russian foreign ministry and the russian embassy, they tweeted out pictures of the meetings, but american pool cameras were not allowed into the room for any coverage. we're going to also likely hear plenty of questions today about that meeting, during the white house briefing, that's coming up, as i said, later this hour. let's bring in our senior white house correspondent, jeff zeleny. he's joining us from the north lawn of the white house, and our crime and justice producer, simone brokepez. jeff, ahead of the news conference, what's the latest on the white house from this extraordinary decision to fire the fbi director, james comey? >> reporter: wolf, so many questions here at the white house for the president, for the

mirk administration, on this very abrupt decision to fire the fbi director. there are many people protesting now outside the white house. we could hear them a few moments ago. they are shouting "shame" and calling on this white house to answer questions. that is not alone. here on capitol hill, republicans and democrats alike also asking questions, but the president is not addressing this today, at least not a fulsome way. he said, simply, that the fbi director was not doing a good job. he left more of the explaining, however, to his vice president, when he sent to capitol hill. >> the president's decision to accept the recommendation of the deputy attorney general and the attorney general to remove director comey as head of the fbi, is based solely and exclusively on his commitment to the best interests of the american people and to ensuring that the fbi has the trust and confidence of the people of this

nation. already this morning, the president is in the process of evaluating individuals who will be able to fill that spot, lead the fbi, and restore the confidence of the american people. >> so even as the white house and the administration are searching for a temporary leader of the fbi, which we're told could happen later today or certainly this week, they're still answering questions about what led to this abrupt firing of the man who was heading the investigation into any possible connection between the trump campaign and russian operatives, here. wolf, that investigation is going on with the career officials, investigators, prosecutors inside the fbi, even as this bombshell continues to reverberate across washington. a question here is, though, wolf, you heard the vice president there saying the president was following the recommendation of his deputy attorney general. one of the questions is, did the president direct him to do an

assessment of the fbi or did he bring this on himself. wolf, this is not a decision made by a deputy director of the justice department. this is a decision that is made at the white house in the oval office, so we'll still have a lot of questions here, and we're not expected to hear from the president anymore today. but as we know, that can always change. >> he can always surprise us, as he has in the past. tell us a little bit what you're learning about the president's meeting today with the visiting russian foreign minister, sergey lavrov? >> wolf, in terms of the timing o of this, at the heart of this whole discussion about the fbi, even though the white house says that it was -- you know, they're firing the fbi director because of his conduct last year during the campaign, last year, of course, they were praising his conduct. the investigation of the clinton campaign and the private e-mail server. but today the president, president trump, meeting with the russian foreign minister, his first face-to-face meeting here at the white house. we got a bit of a readout of

that from the russian foreign minister. he said simply, the russia investigation did not come up in their conversation. they were talking about syria and other military matters. other alliances, but they did not talk about the investigation. he did say simply, there is nothing to investigation. that the russian meddling in this election simply didn't happen, so he kept the official line on that, but, wolf, such strange optics, you know, 12 hours after firing the director of the fbi the next day, meeting with the russian foreign minister, as well as the russian ambassador, who was directly at the senator of this investigation into michael flynn, the former national security adviser here at the white house. we know the fbi is investigating his contact with him. wolf, so a strange sort of scheduling, timing. but the white house controls its schedule. the white house could have decided to reschedule the meeting. they decided that was not worth it. they said this meeting was one worth having to talk about syria and other matters, wolf.

>> stand by for a moment. shimon, you cover the justice department and the fbi more us. they see sergey kislyak, the russian ambassador to the united states, who is at the center of a lot of this and one of the reasons that michael flynn, the president's national security adviser was fired. when they see he's being received by the president today, what goes through their minds? >> well, i can tell you. i spoke to a u.s. official, whose jaw just dropped, right? it was kind of, couldn't believe it, and there was some laughter almost. but this is sort of the way trump has conducted his, you know, worked through his administration. i think people were surprised to see that today. especially given what happened yesterday. as we've reported, kislyak is under a fisa warrant. the fbi monitors his communications because they believe while he is a diplomat,

he does report back to russia and does act sort of like a spy. there's always this concern within the fbi counterintelligence division that kislyak is here operating and reporting back to the russians and perhaps giving them information on what the u.s. government is doing. it's why there was such concern with his meetings with mike flynn, wolf. >> very, sbrerinteresting, inde. thanks very much, shimon and jeff. we'll stay in close touch with you. as the shock wears off, the skepticism moves in. many democratic senators, as they're questioning the timing of president trump's stunning decision to fire the fbi director. it comes as the bureau is investigating on russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election here in the united states, with possible ties between trump's presidential campaign and moscow. the senate's top republican and democrat disagree on the path forwar forward. >> today we'll no doubt hear calls for a new investigation,

which could only serve to impede the current work being done. partisan calls should not delay the considerable work of chairman burr and vice chairman warner, too much is at stake. >> there are a great many outstanding questions about the circumstances of director comey's dismissal, the status of the executive branch investigation into the trump campaign ties to russia, and what the future holds for these investigations. i will be requesting that the majority leader call a closed and if necessary, classified, all senators briefing with the attorney general and the deputy attorney general separately. >> our senior kopcongressional reporter, manu raju, is up on capitol hill. first of all, what else are you hearing from u.s. senators? >> democratic senators are weighing exactly how far to take this fight. i spoke to a number of them this

morning after a closed-door briefing. and one thing they're considering is whether or not to hold up action in the senate. essentially grind the senate to a halt, until a special prosecutor is named in the russian probe. now, they're not certain they're going to go that route. some are concerned that could install other important committee busy happening in the senate. that is one area of consideration. now, on the republican side, you're hearing concerns from some senators about exactly what happened here. questions about the timing and the reasoning behind the firing of james comey. one of those senators is john mccain, who told me earlier today that he does not understand the rationale for firing james comey. he does not believe that the clinton e-mail investigation was a sufficient reason for firing james comey. other republicans voicing that as well. but, wolf, a number of republicans are divided about what the next step is, whether there should be a special prosecutor or a separate committee to investigate. take a listen. >> i think it renews the urgency

that i believe we need a select committee to investigate all aspects of the connections with russia and all of the other factors that have led to what is a very serious scandal in the united states. >> what about a special prosecutor? >> i would much prefer a select committee, because it depends on the quality of the individual and there's always questions about that. >> clearly, there are calls today for an independent prosecutors, independent councils. that's not necessarily helpful, but we'll deal with it. >> you oppose the independent prosecutor? >> i'm going to keep the committee jurisdiction and carry out the investigation. >> i think we rush to get special prosecutors all the time, and to me, that's not the way to go. >> so there's a concern also about the acting fbi director, andy mccabe, and chuck grassley

told me earlier that he does not believe he's the right person to lead the agency going forward, because he does not -- he's concerned about his wife's political ties to democrats. so you're seeing some divisions in the republican ranks grappling about what it means going forward. and also, questions about what the white house did here, but uns uncertainty, no real unity on the republican side about what is the next step, wolf. >> that's a good point. let's discuss this with democratic senator ben cardin of maryland joining us. senator, thanks for joining us. >> wolf, it's good to be with you. thank you. >> so you just heard mitch mcconnell say there's too much at stake right now for a new investigation, an independent outside special council or something look those lines. what's your reaction? >>well, the president of the united states has just fired the person who's the head of the principle investigation into

criminal wrongdoings involving russia's contacts here in the united states, involving people associated with mr. trump. that investigation has now been compromised by the president of the united states. in order to restore confidence, it's absolutely essential that there be a special prosecutor named by the department of justice to do the criminal investigations. i agree with senator mccain that we need a more thorough investigation on russia's involvement in the united states, so that we can protect ourselves and hold those who have facilitated this accountable. that, in my view, should be done b an independent, bipartisan commission. but we certainly need to evaluate the importance of that investigation. >> you know rod roserosenstein, deputy attorney general. he was the u.s. attorney in baltimore, where you're from, for a long time. he was confirmed by the senate, what, 94-6. do you have confidence in him following the letter of -- the recommendation he gave the

president yesterday to fire the fbi director? >> wolf, it's now been wildly reported that president trump was considering firing mr. comey for at least a week, and that he -- if you look at the date of the memo sent by the department of justice, it was just yesterday, so it's clear the president made up his mind and instructed the department of justice to give him ways that he could justify the firing. so the responsibility for the firing rests with the president of the united states. he did something that should be unthinkable in american politics. and that is disrupt an investigation, particularly when he might be part of that investigation. >> so have you lost confidence in the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein? a man you know well? >> i think that mr. rosenstein can restore confidence among members of congress by quickly naming a special prosecutor to handle the criminal investigation. i think that's going to be absolutely essential for him to do that in a very short order.

>> do you think he will? >> i think he's going to have to. i mean, i don't know how else he is going to be able to restore the confidence that the investigation will be non-partisan and not be subjected to oversight by the president of the united states. we saw that with mr. comey's removal. i think the only way that mr. rosenstein can restore the confidence in the department of justice investigation is to name a special prosecutor. >> so, i just want to be precise, senator. you believe the president instructed the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, to write this letter, this recommendation, even though he, himself, didn't really want to do it. he did it under orders from the president. is that what i'm hearing? >> i don't know what mr. rosenstein's intents were or his involvement from the point of view of how much this reflects his personal views. i am convinced that the president made the decision and asked the department of justice to give him the justification, the legal justification for

firing the director. i don't know how much influence was exerted on mr. rosenstein, how much of this is his own work, et cetera. so i don't want to cast any aspersions there. but i am convinced the decision to fire was made by the president of the united states and not based upon the recommendations of the department of justice. >> yeah. the memo that he wrote, memorandum for the attorney general from rod rosenstein, deputy attorney general, subject restoring public confidence in the fbi, he signed that memorandum. it was on his name, so it was obviously a significant development. bottom line right now, how far do you go in accusing the president of any wrongdoing? well, i think what he did in dismissing mr. comey was wrong. i think that jeopardizes the independence of this criminal investigation. i don't have any information about the president's personal involvement as it relates to russia. and i'm not trying to say that we know that.

we need to have an independent review. i am, though, concerned on why the president would pick this particular time to fire mr. comey, just as we've had other information about subpoenas being issued in regards to those close with mr. trump, involving russia, where we now have reports that mr. comey had sought some additional funds from the department of justice in order to do the russian investigation. and mr. trump is now meeting directly with the foreign minister of russia, as if nothing has changed. all of that raises alarm bells to me, that i would like to get answers. >> senator ben cardin of maryland, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> with james comey out now at fbi, some on capitol hill are calling for a new independent investigation into russia's election meddling, maybe even a special prosecutor. we're going to talk about that and more, republican senator rand paul of kentucky. he's standing by. he'll join us, live. plus, who should replace comey as the next fbi director? our cnn panel of experts, they

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we'll take 2! [ laughing ] xfinity x1 gives you exclusive access to the best of the billboard music awards just by using your voice. the billboard music awards. sunday, may 21st eight seven central only on abc. right now, we're only minutes away from the white house press briefing. where we expect to hear much more about the president's extraordinary firing of the fbi director, james comey. you're lacking at live pictures. reporters getting ready to ask a lot of questions. but joining us now is kentucky republican senator, rand paul. senator, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. thanks for having me, wolf. >> as you know, the president said today that members on both sides of the aisle in the senate, in the house, republicans and democrats, they will eventually thank him, because both parties, he says,

have lost confidence in the fbi director, now the former director, james comey. have you lost confidence in him? >> yeah, and i think it's true both sides of the aisle had. because democrats felt like he had gone too far, in insinuating that hillary clinton was guilty. and republicans felt like he didn't go far enough in indicting her. it's like he had republicans and democrats lost confidence in him. and i think universally, people thought that the clinton e-mail investigation got politicized. normally, the fbi doesn't come forward and have all of these public discussions. and really, she was convicted, basically, in public, even though she was never indicted. you could argue that if everything he said about her was true, she should have been indicted. but it served to please no one. and it did happen right in the height of a presidential campaign. so i think, really, you know, harry reid said that he should resign. chuck schumer said he lost confidence in him. even eric holder said he defied most of the traditions of the

department of justice. so i think a lot of people on both sides lost confidence, myself included. >> what do you say to the critics about talk about, now, the timing of the firing, that it comes in the wake of the latest reports, including from cnn, among others, that just the other day, he was asking for more resources, more money, to help the fbi in this russia investigation, the department of justice, the spokesperson there, denying those reports, but that he wanted more resources to get involved in this investigation, and then all of a sudden the president fires him. >> all i know is what the department of justice says. and you can say they're dishonest, but they're saying that never occurred and is not accurate. so i think we have to at least listen to what the people are saying or are involved. but i would say that there are a lot of reasons why we should get new direction at the fbi. for a long time, i thought that our investigations and tried prevention of terrorism hasn't gone so well. the killer in orlando was known to the fbi and was reported to a gun shop weeks in advance.

and i think the fbi didn't do an adequate job. so there's a lot of evidence that wing we nei think we neede direction but we haven't had a scandal in the middle of a presidential election where the fbi director comes forward and says, you know, i think she's guilty, but i'm not going to indict her and lays out 15 minutes of why she's guilty and so many fronts and doesn't indict her. >> but you remember -- you remember -- you remember all the statements that the then candidate donald trump made around that time, praising comey for what he was doing, praising his statements about the hillary clinton investigation, and he continued that for a while. if he was going to fire the guy, whee didn't he just simply do it on the day he became president on january 20th? >> i think the same people that criticize him now would have also said, well, he didn't go through any deliberative process. and really, technically, the fbi director works for the assistant attorney general, who works for the attorney general.

so the department of justice oversees the fbi. and it took a long time, mainly because democrats opposed approving these people, so when they did get approved, they went through a process and said this is probably the most politicized investigation ever. and i think it is kind of crocodile tears now for the democrats. they have been haranguing and iing they cost him the election. they've been calling for his head for months, and then when it finally happens, they're like all holier than thou and this is watergate? that's ridiculous. >> do you believe there should be an independent investigation now, given the uproar that has developed over this whole issue? >> no. i think a lot of the uproar is concocted and still sour grapes over losing the election. i would say that when someone comes forward with some thaefeve that a crime has been committed -- i don't even know anybody that has accused of crime. but they are investigating it. we have five or six committees. and i think the fbi is investigating it. and just because you change the head of the fbi doesn't mean that everybody else at the fbi

just goes on vacation and we're no longer investigating things. i think all of the investigations continue. in fact, i would be shocked if someone at the fbi says tomorrow, oh, because the head is gone, we no longer investigate this thing. i don't know any of the details. if the facts come out that somebody committed a crime, that's a different story and we can address it. right now it's mostly political innuendo and sour dprgrapes ove the losing the investigation. >> not exactly, senator. the former fbi director did testify under oath that he launched a criminal countersbleblcounte counterintelligence investigation into allegations of collusion or cooperation between trump associates from the campaign and the russians as far back as last july. and this investigation, he just reiterated the other day, is continuing. it's not just a little bit of smoke. he says there's a formal, criminal jegs underway. >> but also he's apparently written three written notes to

pr president trump saying he's not a target of any investigation. >> that's what the president wrote in his letter, announcing the firing of comey. and we have the letter and i can read it to you. the president said that he had been assured on three separate occasions by comey that the president himself was not under any investigation. that's what he said, but there is no indication there that trump associates were not under investigation. because that's at the heart of this fbi probe. >> if someone has proof, they need to come forward with it and we'll see what direction it goes. but i still see this as tied up in electoral politics. the clinton people really thought they were going to win. they won the popular vote. they're still very, very unhappy. they hate the idea of comey continuing on. they were for getting rid of him until president trump did get rid of him. now they're all saying it's all watergate, even though every one of them -- the hypocrisy is so thick around here, you could cut it with a knife. every one of them were for getting rid of comey until it

actually happened. >> but let me ask you this, senator, do you agree with the fbi, the cia, the nsa, the director of national intelligence that the russians did meddle in the u.s. elections? >> i think most people have come to that consensus. and what is the reaction to that? we need to protect ourselves. we need to set up various cybersecurity walls to try to protect our secrets, our people, our institutions. so, yes, we know this happens all the time. and apparently it happens on all sides. every country that has the ability to commit cyber espionage does. we collected all of the phone calls in italy in one month. we collected angela merkel's phone calls, her personal phone calls. everyone that can spy is spying and you've got to protect yourself. and so for national defense purposes, we should learn, absolutely, we should protect ourselves. >> senator rand paul, thanks so much for joining us.

>> thanks, wolf. let me bring in our panel. we'll get reaction to that and all the other developments jo joining us. gloria borger, our chief political analyst, pamela brown, david gregory. tom fuentes, cnn former law enforcement analyst, and noah bookbinder, executive director of the citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington. pamela, let's talk first of all about the latest developments that only in recent days we're now reporting and you're among our best reporters involved in covering the fbi and the justice department that comey sought additional resources, more money, to accelerate this investigation. what are you hearing? >> that is something that the department of justice is coming out and flatly denying, saying that he did not ask for additional resources, but our sara murray has heard from her sources that that did, in fact happen in a meeting with rod rosenstein, in fact, a deputy attorney general, and the person who recommended to president trump for james comey to be

fired. but what we do know, wolf, is that this investigation is full-fledged. it's moving full steam ahead. and just in the last couple of weeks, the eastern district of virginia u.s. attorney's office has issued subpoenas to associates of michael flynn, who, of course, was attached to the trump campaign and was president trump's former national security adviser. so that case indicates a significant escalation in this investigation. and it will continue. there's still that question of, what, now will happen to the russia probe? folks i've spoken to in the fbi will say, we're not going to blink, we'll continue to move forward. but there's a big question mark about who the new fbi director will be and what happens then? >> and gloria, you've been doing a lot of reporting on this. what's the latest you're hearing? >> look, i think what we're getting is a lot of reporting and a lot of denying out of the white house. we reported, i reported earlier this morning that roger stone was among those who recommended to the president that he fire

james comey and both the president and roger stone today have denied that they have that conversation. so the white house has denied it, as well. the white house is denying this funding reporting that sara murray and "the new york times" has. so it's up to us, wolf, to try to get to the bottom of all of these issues, where we have clearly conflicting sources here and in my case, i stand by my reporting. >> it's interesting, this briefing, david gregory, we're about to see, the white houpres briefing, it's a really important day for the white house. the deputy press secretary, sarah huckabee sanders will be doing the briefing. sean spicer is doing his naval reserve duty at the pentagon, three days. he could have easily rescheduled that, but for some reason he decided he wanted to go forward with that and let sarah huckabee

sanders do this briefing. >> i would do it too rather than face the questions. because the white house has an enormous credibility problem, from its top officials and from the president. there is a rationale for why comey should be fired, and i think senator paul is right it's one shared by democrats and republicans, but you have to get to the what and the why and the when. the what is, the head of the fbi at the time of a major investigation by russia was fired. during that time and the president, if he was so worried about what happened to hillary clinton and how comey handled himself could have fired him right after the election. is this a revelation that comey overstepped his bounds? no, there's so much heat from this investigation, maybe not enough emphasis on investigating the leaks that the president acted now. it's not a credible explanation. >> and you're a former white house correspondent and so am i.

i think it's pretty extraordinary, though, for sean spicer to decide he's going to go forward with his routine naval reserve duty over at the pentagon, at a time like this, instead of stepping up and doing this major briefing. >> but they don't have a real concern about being accountable and giving the press corps answers. they'll accepted out the vice president or kellyanne conway to just spin this pretext of what -- it's simply not credible that the president ever cared about how jim comey handled the hillary clinton investigation. there's nobody who's going to believe that and yet, there is still a basis and apparently there's enough republican support for doing it, they think they can ride this out. and part of the rationale, whatever you think about the timing, we'll take our lumps, and the investigation will continue. but this notion that it doesn't matter who's head of the fbi and the investigation continues is so ridiculous. tom knows more about this than i

do, of course. but the head of the fbi directs what gets done, how it gets done, the timing, the decisions. think about the hillary clinton investigation. going public, what they did, reopening the investigation. that was all jim comey. >> you know, what and tom fuentes, you're a former fbi assistant director, so you spent a career inside the fbi. the last time a president fired an have fbi director was back in 1993 when bill clinton fired the fbi director, william sessions. but that followed a formal investigation and report of wrongdoing on the part of the fbi director sessions. in this particular case, the inspector general at the, so why not wait for the inspector general report to come out and then fire him, if, in fact he did something wrong. >> i think if they did, wolf, the question would be, if it's

two months, six months, we don't know how long that investigation is going to take. and then when they come out with it, wait a minute, you've let him sit in this position the whole time and didn't do anything about it. i think to me the x factor going on here and being understated is deputy attorney general rosenstein. because a year ago, when james comey was basically usurping department of justice authority to decide if a case gets prosecuted or not, he was sitting as a u.s. attorney and as one of the 96 u.s. attorneys around the country, they were mostly outraged that the fbi had taken that position, when it's a doj position. i was on the air at the time saying that the fbi should have sent that report across the street to the department of justice and i don't care if the janitor over there made the decision, it's still the responsibility of doj to decide whether or not to bring a prosecution. >> let me get your quick reaction, noah bookbinder. how do you see it? >> well, i think that while

there certainly is a rationale case to be made that james comey made mistakes, it seems like there's irrefutable, certainly smoke, and likely fire, that this was made for different reasons. that the reasons that the president is now relying ining the opposite of what he's been saying for months. and even in his letter, in his letter, he referenced investigation into himself. and that's clearly what was on his mind. and that's what people are concerned about. >> and the president -- as a candidate, he praised the job that jim -- >> repeatedly. >> so did the attorney general, say that comey did the right thing. the idea -- tom, you're exactly right about rod rosenstein. but the idea that they want to wrap themselves in the cloak of big justice here, is absolutely without merit and not credible. they didn't care. we had the candidate for president of the united states say that he wanted to put hillary clinton in jail. and that he would pursue that. that's what -- that's how tyrants talk. now he bricks in rosenstein.

by the way, why is rosenstein ca tasked with doing this investigation while the ig at the department of justice is doing the very same thing? could it be that they wanted to bring in this guy with a great reputation to reach this conclusion, knowing that's how career prosecutors felt, so then they could use that as a pretext? >> all right. everybody, stand by. there's a lot more coming up. rosenstein's only been on the job, by the way, for two weeks or so. that's another issue. we're also learning, by the way, that the top democrat on the senate intelligence committee, senator mark warner, has just invited comey to come and testify up on capitol hill. we have new information. we'll share that with you, as we await the white house press briefing. we'll be right back. that i'm 2. i had no idea. just to know this is what i'm made of, this is where my ancestors came from. and i absolutely want to know more about my native american heritage. it's opened up a whole new world for me.

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got some more breaking news. the top democrat, the ranking member of the senate intelligence committee, mark warner, says he was asked the former fbi director, james comey, to come up to capitol hill and testify before his committee, next week. let's go to our senior congressional reporter, manu raju. manu, what are you learning? >> well, wolf, actually, this turns out to be a bipartisan invitation. richard burr, the senate intelligence chairman, and the vice chairman, a mark warner, asking comey to testify in a tuesday hearing next week.

we do not know whether or not the former director will, in fact, testify, but we know that invite has been extended. and of course, this would be rather dramatic appearance. this would be the third time that he would appear before a congressional committee if it does occur. and if it does happen in an open session. and it comes as concerns have been raised by not just mark warner, but also richard burr, about the firing of james comey, the timing, and the reasoning behind it, and as richard burr said last night, he -- he believes a firing raises more questions and confusion of an already-difficult investigation that they're launching into russia and the trump campaign, something that has actually been going a lot slower than a lot of the people on the committee would like. so we'll see if comey actually agrees to do that, but we do know that this invite has been extended to james comey. the question is, does he agree? and if he does, buckle up. it could be a rather dramatic hearing, with a lot of questions from senators, particularly that

letter from president trump saying that he was warned -- or he told president trump that he was not a target of the investigation. we'll see what james comey has to say about that, wolf. >> it would be lively, to put it mildly. manu, thanks for the reporting. i want to bring back our panel, also joining us right now, our senior reporter, nia-malika henderson. in that letter that the president wrote, firing comey, he citizsays, while i greatly appreciate you informing me ton 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. there's a lot of questions that have been raised. did comey really tell the president he was not under investigation? was that appropriate. was that legal, if he did? did the president ask him. should he have responded? that's becoming a huge issue. >> and why did it end up in this letter? there have been so many comments from this white house saying this firing of james comey wasn't about russia and there

you have the president in there, raising the specter of russia. and i think because this president and this white house has a credibility problem, we've been on television shows before, talking about statements that have come out of this white house, that have ended up not being true. you imagine that this is another one that's going to get a lot of questions and scrutiny, if james comey is in front of the senate intelligence committee, talking about this, you think that you mentioned that will come out. i also think, it's clear that this white house was unprepared for the blowback, that has ensued in these last hours since this firing. they were unprepared in terms of the messaging around it. it seems that they thought james comey was going to go away w, i they fired him. it's clear this firing raises more questions. >> gloria, you have been reporting that, what, the former trump adviser, roger stone, told the president to fire james comey. tell us a little bit more about what you've learned? >> well, what i've learned is that roger stone, and this is

according to someone familiar with the conversation, that roger stone had spoken to the president and that he advised the president that he ought to fire james comey. and the white house, as we were saying earlier, the white house has denied this, and the president has tweeted about him denying it, but i stand by my story. and i would also add, wolf, that we -- if we were better readers of the tea leaves, in fact, and by that i mean, donald trump's tweets, we should have seen this coming, in a way. because i'm looking at a tweet of donald trump's from may 2nd, which i believe was the day before comey testified. so it was in the lead up to the comey testimony, in which donald trump says, fbi director comey was the best thing that ever happened to hillary clinton, in that he he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds. so the worm was already turning there. and then he watches, you know, you can think about this, and

this now is speculation, but you think about this, and he watches the comey testimony, where comey had to dodge questions about collusion and what was directly under investigation by the fbi, because he can't answer those questions in an unclassified setting. and you can get this sense and then the president called the russian investigation a hoax after that. so, in a way, we should have seen this building to what eventually occurred. because it's clear to me, just watching all of this, that the president was watching the hearings, watching all of this, and he didn't like what he was seeing and he didn't like what he was hearing, wolf. >> i'm sure he didn't like david gregory, and we're waiting for sarah huckabee sanders to walk out. the fact that comey has now said repeatedly, there is now a criminal investigation underway into these allegations of collusion between trump

associates and the russians and that investigation was launched last july. >> and it's quite possible, by the way, that comey did, in fact, notify the president that he was not being investigated at this time, or that he was not a target at this time. my understanding of procedures is that that could have been, in fact, been said, and that could be true today and not true tomorrow. if you continue to investigate in talking to other people, then things might develop in such a way to make him a target at a later date. >> sarah huckabee sanders, walking up to the lectern. >> light crowd. >> slow news day. >> so i've heard. good afternoon, everybody. as most of you, i think, know, sean is on reserve duty for the rest of this week, so i will be briefing you today and in the following days. i've got a few announcements here at the top before i take your questions. i have an update on the tunnel collapse at the hamford nuclear waste site in washington state. the incident is moving from the emergency phase toward the recovery phase.

after extensive testing, we remain confident at this point that there has been no indication of worker exposure or an airborne radio logical release. personnel will begin taking steps to stabilize and fill the hole over the partially collapsed tunnel last night and we expect those efforts to be completed >> dedicated experts on the ground are looking closely at what next steps should be taken with respect to mitigating future tenl breaches. in washington, d.c. as shawn mentioned yesterday the president is focus on preparations for his up coming trip. he met yesterday with the foreign minister following the visit of secretary state tillerson to moskow last month. i referred to that read outfor further questions on the meeting. outside of d.c. on the ongoing effort to address issues of

opioid, today he will meet with officials in maine and new hampshire to discuss how the administration can best support the local initiatives to combat this tragedy. secretary zincy is in utah today visiting national monument sites and meeting with foilgtss. the secretary also took another step to advance the president's america first offshore energy strategy by reversing an obama administration action to aderholt scientific research in the outer continental shefl. and he's in detona beach fla. the university is an example of the top-notch education they continue to provide to their students, and i know the secretary is honored to be there today. there's also another nugget of

big news as you guys may have been paying attention to in regard to the termination of the former fbi director comey. the president over the last several months lost confidence in director comey. the doj lost confidence in director comey. bipartisan members of congress made it clear they had lost confidence in director comey. and most importantly the rank and file of the fbi had lost in confidence in their director. accordingly the president accepted the recommendation of his deputy attorney general to remove james comey from his position. before the news broke, the president spoke to several members of congress to inform them of his decision. those members are senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, speaker of the house paul ryan, senate chuck grassley, sen cht chucksumer, linda gram, house majority leader kevin mccarthy,

minority leader nancy pelosiy. he also spoke to the chairman of the senate committee on foreign relations. in in addition to all the big news happening at the white house today, it is also my daughter's scartal birthday. my first birthday wish with probably be that you guys are incredibly nice. and now i will take your questions. >> i have a couple of broader questions for you. so, yes or no, did the president director rosenstein to write this on james comey? >> no, the president had lost confidence in director comey. and frankly he'd been considering letting director comey go since the day he was elected. but he did have a conversation with the deputy attorney general on monday where they had come to him to express their concerns. the president ask they put those

concerns and their recommendation in writing, which is the letter you guys have received. >> so did the white house and rosenstein decide on his own to review comey's performance? >> absolutely. and believe most of america had decided on their own that comey was the one who should be leading the fbi by what we saw by comments. >> senator finestein said she was told something different by the board. is she lying? >> he asked them to put that recommendation from monday in writing. but they came to him -- and again, the president had lost confidence in comey from the day he was elected. >> on may 3rd, sean spicer said

he had full confidence in the fbi director. why did he say that. >> again, he had countless conversations with members from within the fbi. i think one of the big catalysts we saw was last week on wednesday director comey made a pretty startling revelation that he had essentially taken a stick of dynamite and thrown it into the department of justice by going around the chain of command when he decided to take steps without talking to the attorney general or the deputy attorney general when holding a press conference and telling them he would not let them know what he was going to say. and that is simply not allowed. and somebody like the deputy attorney general rob rosenstein and everybody across the board has unequivocally said this man is an up standing person and

when you go around the chain of command, then you have to take steps and take action to make a recommendation to the president and that's exactly what he did. john. john, go ahead. we'll kpl back to that i'm sure. >> you said the president lost confidence with him over the last weeks and months, we thought this was all rosenstein's doing, when was it the president lost confidence in james comey? >> i think it's been an erosion of confidence. i think director comey has shown over the last several months and frankly the last year a lot of missteps and mistake. and i think certainly as you've seen from many of the comments from democrat members and concluding senator schumer, they didn't think she should be there. they thought he should be gone.

frankly, it's startling democrats aren't celebrating this. >> another one i want to ask you, too. >> i think there's a dwo question limit around here. >> following on that, you said he made a lot of missteps and mistakes. back at the end of october this president was applauding the fbi director when he reopened the investigation into hillary clinton's e-mail. so he seemed quite happy with him at that point. what changed? >> i think the president's position. one, he was a candidate for president, not the president. those are two very different things. once you take over leading the department of just, that's very different from being a candidate in a campaign. as you guys all known, there's a clear distinction between those two things. i think also having a letter like the one he received and having that conversation that outlined the basic just atrocities in circumventing the

chain of command in the department of justice. any person of legal mind and authority knows what a big deal that is, particularly in the department of justice, particularly for somebody like the deputy attorney general who has been part of the justice department for 30 years and is such a respected person. when he saw that, he had to speak up on that action, and i think that was the final catalyst. >> just a real quick question on the meetings of this president. the president was accused by democrats trying to circumvent the russia investigation by firing comey. he meet with richard's nixon secretary of state. the timing of all of this, is it just ironic or is it the president poking a finger othis critic's eye? >> these have been soaking on the books for a while. they didn't just happen this morning. there's not a strategy to go after the democrats on this.

i think, frankly, the saddest thing is the democrats are trying to politicize and take away from something he should be doing. he should be meeting with the foreign minister and should be meeting with people like kissinger. and maybe they should spend a little more time doing their jobs, and maybe we wouldn't have the problems we do. >> isn't it he had already decided to fire james comey and he asked the department to put together the rationale for that firing? >> no. >> where did he make the decision? >> he made the final decision to move forward with it was yesterday. but i know he's been contemplating with it for a while. >> but if i know stain said he had told her he was concerned with the fbi -- >> i can't speak for senator finestein, but i did speak to the president and heard directorly from him that, again,

he'd been considering letting director comey go pretty much since the day he took office. but there was no request by him to have a review at the department of justice. >> well, was the reason for the firing what was written by the deputy attorney general, is that why he did it? >> i think that was the final piece that moved the president to make that quick and decisive action yesterday. >> what did he mean in the letter he wrote informing comey he was being fired? he said on three separate occasions comey had told him that i am not under investigation. what were those three occasions that the fbi director told the president he wasn't under investigation? >> i'm not going to get into the specifics of those conversations, but i can tell director comey relayed that information to the president. >> following up on that, sarah, did the president ask director comey he was under investigation when they had these meetings? >> again, i'm