situation room." erin burnett "out front" starts right now. cloish . >> next breaking news. new details at this hour an trump's stunning decision to fire jim comey. more breaking news this hour, we are just learning moments ago the senate intelligence committee has yishld a subpoena to former national security advisor michael flynn. the education secretary repeatedly booed, interrupted. why were students at a historically black college so angry? let's go "out front." good evening, i'm erin burnett. out front front tonight, breaking news, his own man. that's the conclusion president trump reached about the former fbi drosh james comey. several people fam with the decision said the president decided comey could not be trusted to lead the fbi at a time when it was expanding the russia investigation. sources tell cnn.

in, that one week before comey was fired, he had asked, appealed for more resources for his russia investigation. the justice department denies that. but according to two sources fam with the discussion, comey actually made that request specifically to the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. that, of course, is the man who made the case to let comey go. >> i think that director comey has shown over the last several months and frankly, over the last year a lot of missteps and mistakes. >> the president had lost again -- like i said, he'd lost confidence in director comey and frankly, he'd been considering letting director comey go since the day he was elected. >> since the day he was elected. there is, of course, a problem with that time line. sean spicer, the press secretary

had r has repeatedly said that the president has confidence in comey. here's the president himself, again since election day. >> i respect him a lot. i respect the fbi a lot. oh, and there's -- he's become more famous than me. i have confidence in him. we'll see what happens. >> so more breaking news at this moment. the senate intelligence committee issuing a subpoena, moments ago to former national security advisor general michael flynn. it's a big development. more on that in a moment. first, i want to go to jeff zeleny outside the white house. you're learning details about what led to trump's decision and it's shocking that he decided that comey was "his own man." >> that's right. we're talking to several people close to the situation, and this compilation of rorgts grows the

president was growing increasingly agitated at his fbi director starting with a hearing last wednesday. you remember the fbi director said the decision back last year over the clinton e-mails made him mildly nauseous. that did not sit well with this. . he was stewing over this over the weekend i'm told. he told his advisors he sees comey as his own man and does not trust him to lead this fbi investigation. will there was some dissent iin views, i'm told. the president disagreed and now he's looking for a new fbi director. >> thank you very much for being here. appreciate it. >> there's still one question tonight above all others for president trump. >> because he wasn't doing a good job. very simply. >> reporter: those sparse words is all the president had to say about why he fired fbi director james comey.

for a second day the bombshelling rocked washington. >> this established a very troubling pat rn. >> vice president pence praised the. 's decision but shed no more light on the man leading the investigation. >> president trump provided the strong and di siesive leadership the american people have come to expect from him and he took the necessary action to remove director comey. roimt as protesters gathered, inside the west wing, the administration struggled to not only explain why comey was fired but why now. >> the president had lost confidence in comey from the day he was elected. >> reporter: the time line and its contradictions matter in determining whether it was the president or deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein who triggered liz firing. >> do you regret not doing it yeshlgs like january 20th or

21st? >> no i think the president wanted to give him a full chance. >> russia front and center today in the white house. the president appearing alongside henry kissinger. >> everybody knows dr. kissinger. we're talking ability russia. and various other matters. >> also meeting with did russian foreign ministers and smiling in the oval office with russian ambassador sergei kislyak. all this as deputy white house press second sarah huckaby sanders blamed the dismissal on job performance. >> having a letter like the one he received and having that conversation that outlined the basic just atrocities in sir come venting the chain of demand p command in the department of justice.

>> one more question. all of this tonight is about the doerk jeff sessions. erin you'll remember a couple of months ago the attorney general recused himself in any bit of this regs investigation because of his meeting with the russian ambassador that he was not forthcoming about. in fact, the president met with the attorney general on monday in the oval office to talk about the removal of the fbi director and the attorney general is also involved in the selection of a potential new fbi director. that, of course, puts him squarely in the middle of this investigation. he said he would recuse himself from. >> thanks to jeff zeleny. the senate intelligence committee moments ailing issued a subpoena to the former national security advisor general michael flynn. pamela brown is utt front front in washington. a significant development tonight. >> it is. michael flynn being ordered to turn over documents related to

its russia probe, russia's interference in the 2016 election. now, this follows a response from michael flynn's attorney to a letter back in late april asking for these documents where the attorneys said that he would not comply with handing over these dumtsds. as you'll recall he said he wanted immunity before testifying before congress. this subpoena that was issued today is specific to documents related to the russia probe. we've learned through sources that paul manafort and others who were subpoenaed have responded to the letter by turning over documents. michael flynn declined to do so. this also comes at a time, erin, that the u.s. attorneys office has issues letters. so this is a significant development and a sign that the intelligence community's investigation is moving forward in the wake of the firing of james comey. >> thank you very much, pamela

brown. "out front" now, cory booker, and senator, i want to ask you about that subpoena in just a moment. first, though, i want to start with the breaking news here. we're hearing that the president fired jim comey when he felt that he was his own man. the president said he lost kchd in comey several months ago. why do you think he was fired now? >> i think we're hearing conflicting reasons. they haven't gotten their stories the straight yet. on one hand ice rosenstein's letter. i don't want to let that distract from the crisis of this moment where we have russia who has heying tacked our country in a cyber way, trying to undermine our elections and there's a whole urgency to get to the bottom of what happened. there is an open investigation

going on, really investigating associates of the president's. so we really have a crisis right now and the urgency is to get to the bottom of that. public trust has been eroded. this president cannot oversee an investigation into his own associates. we need to have a special prosecutor, someone who's independent in what is not a partisan issue. >> you're going for special prosecutor. the house speaker, the senate majority leader says they don't think one is necessary. a lot of democrats are blasting the president for firing comey. the president, though, went to twitter this afternoon as i'm sure you saw, semis senator and says democrats have been complaining for months and months. now that he's fired they pretend to be aggrieved. phony hip kritsds. what do you say? >> i'm one of those people who

had serious problems with comey when he came to -- handling incidents leading into the election. even on your show i would not call for his being fired. i think it's very problem atati when you have a. and an attorney general involving themselves at a time in the firing of an individual that was investigating, asking for more resources to investigate, not only to russia's cyberattacks but also people who were part of the campaign and -- as jeff sessions was. we have to get back to the focus of what's going on right now which is really a moment in american history why weave had an unpress denlted reaction to or country. this should be a paul revolunteer moment for our country, talking ability the russians are coming, they're not intending not only to attack this last election but continuing to continue this behavior, what will our response be?

right now it's wholly unsatisfactory from this administration. >> you were on the show a week ago today. you did -- i questioned you several times to say whether you thought comey should be fired. you didn't say whether he should be fired. the reasonry pressed you is you were using very strong words with your frustration with him. you called his announcement agreej ougs. i want to play the bottom line of what you said. >> what he did was unacceptable, should be unacceptable to all of us to allow an fbi to interfere into an american election. it's dead wrong. he should be held accountable. there should be accountability for this. >> what were you exactly calling for? you were going to hold him to account but wrnltd calling limb for him to be fired? >> i've talked to some of my people and they said look, when you decide not to carry out legal action against somebody, you should not be talking about what happened. there should be literally should be some kind of accountability

sanction, some come-uppance for that. the fact that we have a president of the united states whoogs firing someone, with who is engaged in an active investigation into them, it erodes public trust. comey has been fired. he's no longer head of the fbi. what i think should be a nonpartisan issue, the urgency now for us to make sure that we have an investigation that's independent, that is out of the political chain of command. we have an attorney general who said he was going to recuse himself. we have a president whose own individuals, his own campaign team being investigated and we have the severity of the russians attacking our election process. right now let's leave cold temperatury aside. the decision has been made. what i'm calling for is is a special prosecutor, which i think the must be knees urgently right now. >> i'm going to play for you what b putin said told.

he was asked about comey's firing. here's how hi answered the question. >> we have nothing to do with it. president trump is acting in accordance with liz competence and law and constitution. and what about us? why we? i'm going to play hockey. >> he saw him not taking that seriously there, senator. what do we have to do with it, sort of laughing it off? do you believe that russia and vladimir putin did not influence trump's decision to fire jim comey? >> look, i mean, the severity of that question that we're asking in america today whether a foreign power who does not have our enters, who's irnds mining our foreign policy when it comes to places like syria is somehow influencing the president. the mere fact that that question is being asked on cnn demands

fours as a country. if that shadow ask out there, we need to get to the bottom of what's going on. this is the kind of stuff that should have been for spy novels of the past. not the reality that we're asking these questions today. the mere fact that you -- it's calling for what we need,s restore trurs to the presidents si. and to get there, if only avenue, the only pathway there i see right now is to have somebody independent from the political process independent from this administration to be able to give a thorough investigation into what happened and what is actually going on. the russians -- we see this from the french elections, they continue to connect this country. the russians are coming. what are we going to do about it? everyone who believes in the

sanctity of democracy should paul be going toward an independent special investigation under a special prosecutor. >> thank you for being on. >> thank you. >> will jim comey testify before the senate intelligence committee? yes. testifying now. and the man who made the case to fire comby. rod rosenstein o, did he make the decision or not? why did president president trump choose to meet with henry kissinger today. last year, he said he was going to dig a hole to china. at&t is working with farmers to improve irrigation techniques. remote moisture sensors use a reliable network to tell them when and where to water. so that farmers like ray can compete in big ways. china. oh ... he got there. that's the power of and. this is brooke's yard with ugly bare spots. but scotts ez seed changes everything.

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ongoing investigation into whether trump campaign association colluded with the russian government. the day after the president fired the fbi director, the white house downplaying the importance of the probe. >> that's probably one of the smallest things that they've got going on their plate. >> some lawmakers, however, are now demanding that the justice department appoint a special prosecutor, end pent of the administration and capitol hill to lead the probe. >> were those investigations getting too close to home for the president? if there was ever a time when circumstances warranted a special prosecutor, it is right now. >> those circumstances, sources tell cnn that just days before being fired fbi director james comey asked deputy attorney general rod rosenstein for more resources to devote to the bureau's russia investigation, an account the justice department denies. run indication the investigation was ramping up, federal

prosecutors issued grand jury subpoenas to former national security advisory michael fling. another sign, a request has gone to the treasury department for any financial information related to president trump, his top officials and campaign aids. >> the decision to fire comey raises questions about the appropriateness and timing of firing the person in charge of an investigation that could -- i won't say would, but could implicate the administration. to have this happen and happen now is beyond surprising. >> could you affirm -- >> in his confirmation hearing rosenstein said he was open to the possibility of appointing an independent prosecutor if warranted. >> i'm willing to do it whenever it's appropriate based upon the policies and procedures of the justice department. >> today mitch mcconnell said an

independent prosecutor isn't yes, sir. >> we'll hear calls for a new investigation. which could only serve to impede the current work. >> reporter: and the white house agreed. >> we don't think it's necessary. you've got a house committee, a senate committee and the department of justice all working on this. >> reporter: we're seeing tonight the first pictures of former director comey since his firing. this is him returning to his home outside washington, d.c. on the key question of collusion. i tokespoke over the last 24 hours to republican and democratics, they say the issue of exclusion is not closed. they're still investigating the possibility that trump associates coordinated with russians. that case, erin, is not closed. >> thank you very much, jim sciut sciutto. jeff, let me start with you, the

breaking news. the senate intelligence committee issuing that subpoena to general flynn. they want documents that he has refused to hand over, even though others like paul manet forth did hand over requested documents without subpoena. how significant is this first move? >> it's a start. michael flynn has said he would not provide testimony or documents without receiving immunity. this is going to be a slow moving process. >> they don't want to give him immunity and they're not going to do it. >> right. these investigations take a lot of time. especially when the senate, mitch mblg continental has given the ♪ intelligence committee extremely limited resources to conducts this investigation. >> what about those resources, jason? that's a big question, right? we're learning tonight that trump was frustrated that comey was quotes unquote his own man.

comey had -- comey is fired now. the omtdics of that does not look good. >> let men unpack a little bit of what you said. first and fore most with regard to the resources question, the d.o.j. has flatly denied that. none of us are inside the d.o.j. we don't know that to be the case. second, with regard to the allocation, the way the president was feeling and thinking, again, these are coming from naumgs sources. i think the bigger take away here is that the broader democratic hypocrisy, that they wanted comey gone. now they're trying to make hay out of it. i don't think anyone can disagree that secretary clinton would have fired him right away and there's no one on the airwaves saying that comey was doing a good job. >> can you even believe that we are having a discussion about what president hillary clinton would have done as opposed to

what donald trump did do? i mean, it's just rikds. >> jeffrey, of course second clinton would have fired director comey. >> how do you know? >> for the way he carried on that investigation, absolutely. >> her husband, blaenlts despiedsed louis freeh who was fbi director. he never fierds louis freeh because drurchl has a different view of the thinking of the american people. they're safeguards to avoid this kind of situation. >> so mark warner told me boy, oh boy, there's so much smoke here, we'll have to determine how many big the fire is. now they're asking jeff comey to come in and tell then everything. is he going to do it? >> never happen in a million years. has probably not going to

testify at all. he's going to say look, i'm not the fbi director anymore. even if he did, he would say he is not going to disclose the details of ongoing investigations, so people are getting their hoips up for jim comey to spill hall even in a classified setting, he's probably not going to say anything and if he does testify he'll say very little. >> i want to show this to our viewers. trump fires jim comey. then he meets with henry kissinger and he meets with the foreign ministers of russia, serg sergey lavrov and sergey kislyak. why did the president do this today, jason? there's no way it was random or he didn't know that this would cause any kind of a blowback. why did he do it? >> these things take a long time to set up. while i don't have any inside knowledge as to why it was skemd

for this particular day -- >> i mean, lav ro, they didn't confirm it until last night. it's almost as if they're like ok, bring it. >> i think it's probably more coincidence than anything else. look, the president is meeting with foreign leaders or emissaries from foreign countries. i don't see where that's a big deal. >> what an embarrassment. >> jeff, what do you mean? >> the greatest first amendment freedom of press anywhere. the american press is excluded but the russian press where they kill reporters, they're the ones allowed to take pictures. also, what did they talk about? did they talk about the fact that the russians tried to overturn our elections? >> all we know is that they said the meeting was very, very good. >> no. they said they talked about syria. that was the only thing they talked about. how embarrassing for our country. god. >> why is it embarrassing jeffrey? seems like you're so angry on

this when the president is's meeting a foreign emissary, that's part of his job. >> should he just take it for granted that the russians should get involved in our lekszs and try to help one party or another? that's not something worthy of discussion? >> you know a lot of conversations that go on in these meetings don't necessarily come out. there's a reason why did full conversation hasn't been put forth. i mean, but to throw out this rhetoric of embarrassing and be attacking the president like this, i mean, i almost feel like you want there to be something negative going on as opposed to giving an analytical perspective and that's your rights. >> thank you. >> i understand where the anger's coming from here. >> thank you both. next, the white house insisting a career justice department official told him to fire comby. is it fair to compare trump to

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. breaking news. less handle the 24 hours after firing fbi director james comey president trump met with two russian officials and henry kissinger who is president nixon's secretary of state. tom foreman is "out front." >> reporter: a president under pressure, an investigation in play. and a sudden firing of the man leading the probe. for critics of donald trump, the parallels to richard nixon are starting. this is nix ownian, a nixonesque coverup. >> it certainly is nixonian in his tone to fire someone of this stature, even though i've had disagreements with him as general hayden did, in the midst of an investigation. >> reporter: the cornerstone of the investigation lies in

watergate, of course. nixon steadily denied i would. >> people have got to know whether or not their president's a crook. well, i'm not a crook. >> reporter: but when special prosecutor archibald cox demanded recordings of oval office conversations which contained damning evidence of plans to derail the investigation -- >> the investigation -- the democr democratic, we're about to be in a problem area because the fbi is not under our patrol. >> reporter: nixon stone walled. he offered compromises and finally ordered the firing of cox, prompting the attorney general and his deputy to resign, too. it was called the saturday night massacre. >> i'm old enough to remember the mixonian move, so to speak, and it didn't come out so well for president nixon. >> reporter: it did not.

the -- >> therefore, i shall refine the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. >> reporter: but there are key differences. this has beenunder way about 10 months. the watergate investigation lasted years, although president trump has pushed out the fbi boss as the nixon library tweeted, fun fact -- president nixon never fired the director of the fbi. and the biggest issue is this. we knowed the watergate investigation uncovered illegal acts directlily connected to president nixon. so far we have nothing like that about president trump. >> thank you. now jack kingston of georgia, jason candor, and ken naftali. and former director of the nixon presidential library. you know a lot about nixon, more

than probably anybody else out there. ok. so let me start with you. do you think these comparisons are -- they're coming from democrats. are they fair? >> well, i saw the comparison between the two men at the beginning of the administration was fair because president nixon had a lot of knowledge about the world. he and president trump share a certain rage, a certain sense of being victims and a slight pair now ya. what happened yesterday could very well be a parallel. i say could be, because what richard nixon tried to do was obstruct juflt. tom foreman pointed out in a piece. nixon knew exactly what he was doing. he did not want the these tapes which would incriminate him to find its way to the prosecutor. when he couldn't find a cockamamie compromise to get this senator stennis, a southern

conservative democrat to listen to the tapes and fine off on white house-produced transcripts, when that didn't happen and the special prosecutor said i won't take that, he had him fired. what we don't know right now is the extent to which the criminal division and the counterintelligence division of the fbi somewhere had their investigation affected at all by the white house. >> do you know if there's been any obstruction -- >> that's the key. if there is obstruction of justice, this is definitely nixonian. >> what do you see congressman kingston? >> this is silly. i really think that. this is the alternative to click bait. the media hates both nixon and trump. there's no parallel at all. in watergate a crime was committed. we knew it from the start. a break in. there has been no crime except did felon of leaking information

which according to sally yatesle mr. comey wasn't even investigating. so all this democrat yearning and pining for protests in the streets and the good old days of the 60s and -- >> ok. >> hearings and high rhetoric, i think it's silly. >> jason, are you yearning and pining? he has a point. as of tonight we have not seen any proof that he did anything illegal. it's not been out there in public. are democrats getting ahead of themselves? >> president trump is going to do absolutely everything he can to make sure that doesn't happen, including firing the person in charge of that investigation. he's already done that. that's what's happening. there's not two sides this to story. there's been an enormous abuse of power and now there's a coverup. that is clear. it is not defense nl. that is why did president's press secretary was hiding in the bushes last night. >> he did come out of the bushes. are strange moment. >> you know what's interesting

about this, a special prosecutor is in charge of an investigation. comey is involved in the investigation. he's not directing the whole thing the way a special prosecutor was. it's as if the investigation loses ground now without comey. that's absolutely not the case. >> so jack kington's your favorite pressure? >> would i support one, was that the question? >> would you support one? >> absolutely not. i agree with sally yalts, this monday said a special prosecutor was not necessary because people -- career people in the department of justice are fair and even and nonpart sedan in their rooufrs. >> so -- >> and no -- >> this is such an enormous smoke screen y'all are putting up. it's impressive except for the fact that it's run by people in this trump white house unlike in the nixon white house who are totally fin competent.

this is not complicated. >> there's an investigation into the possible crime. >> let me ask you about -- one thing that -- hold on. one thing that happened. the president seems to love this. he is playing up comparisons to nixon. i know these things are played a long time in advance. henry kissinger nixon's secretaries of state, trump deciding last night according to their announcement to meet with the russian foreign ministers. he also met with the ambassador. our press wasn't able to take pictures. what is the game here, do you think, tim? >> well, i -- couple of things. >> is he really showing hi has nothing to hide? he's happy to say look here i am with the russians. >> can we just put party to the side one moment, please? when a foreign government intervenes in our election and our intelligence committee is united in believing this happened, shouldn't we

investigate whether there's any collusion by americans? i would ask that question. >> it's been investigated and clapper said this week as well, and it's been investigated for months now, almost a year. there's no evidence of collusion. >> i don't believe you said that. >> this is -- >> i don't believe you said that. >> absolutely. >> this is not a democrat versus republican issue. >> i know that sounds lofty, but the people who are pushing it are democrats. >> actually, there are people who put their country ahead of their party. >> can you tell me who in the political circles are coming out with the outrage we're hearing from did democratic party? we're not hearing any. why aren't you guys concerned about the leaks? that is a felony. according to the washington post, there were undisclosed sources that confirmed one of the stories. they were nonfelons. >> this is complicated. if the leaks didn't happen,

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. breaking news about the man at the center of jim comey's firing. sources telling cnn tonight that it was just last week that he went to deputy attorney rod rosenstein. days later according to the white house rosenstein went to the president and talked to him and then was asked to write this letter, as you can see, i have it here. about three pages. it's a damning memo about why comey had to go. >> he asked them for their recommendation based on the conversation that they had on

monday. he asked them to put that recommendation in writing, but they came to him on his own -- >> they came to the president is what the white house is saying. that rod rose stein is the person who started this, initiated this, put it in paper and asked the president to fire jim comey. defense lawyer, former state and federal prosecutor has known rod rosen stein 15 years. look, rosenstein is at the center of this. his name is on this memo. in it, he writes, as his first reason to recommend the firing of jim comey. he says i cannot defend the director's handling of the conclusion of the investigation of secretary clinton's e-mails and i do not understand his refusing to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was mistaken. now, one of the former deputy attorneys general quotes in that says that that is a sham in terms of a reason.

do you believe that the clinton e-mails are why rosenstein wrote this letter? >> i think that rob rod wrote that letter because that's consistent with the way he's conducted himself over the years i've known him. when he ran his office he didn't let anybody nor did he discuss pending investigations. i think to him, that's an absolute abdication of his responsibility to conduct an investigation in a proper and professional way. i think he would be very upset at somebody who he now would have responsibility to sbrv or as a supervisor for the director of the fbi to have somebody in that position that he did not respect. >> let me ski. they had worked together for years, comey and rosenstein. rosenstein mentioned comey twice. there was no indication of an issue at that time. and just last month, he was

asked specifically in a rare interview about how he would handle highly political cases and here's what he said. >> i think it's important to separate the role of politics and setting priorities and the decision about how to prosecute cases. the justice department, that's what we do on a daily basis. that's how we were trained. so it's not difficult for me. >> you know him. you've known him for a long time could he have been swayed or intimidated by this president into coming up with the rational to essentially do the president's bidding? >> it would not be the rob that i know and that i've observed and had dealings with over the course of many years. his memo is drafted, as you would expect, a professional independence individual prosecutor to draft one when you're talking about what you expect in a law enforcement or prosecutor in terms of how they conduct privately confidentially

a criminal investigation. and if you took that memo and you took it out of today's context and you said ok, this is a rational that anybody can understand about why you wouldn't want somebody you're responsible for overseeing being in a position and acting in the way that director comey did. >> all right. i appreciate your time very much. thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> "out front" next angry town halls. these are live pictures where officials are taking questions about comey. >> while we will undoubtedly disagree at times -- >> the head of the ncaa is my guest next.

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breaking news. backlash over president trump's firing of jim comey at town halls. the crowd here furious over comey. >> my view right now is the fbi is still got some work to do in their investigation and both the senate and the house intelligence committee are still investigating. this isn't the first fbi director that was fired. bill clinton fired his too.

>> yes or no? >> the answer is, no, not yet. >> jason carroll is out front live at that town hoall. pretty strong views. >> reporter: very angry people in this room tonight, erin. this congressman came here tonight expecting to talk about health care. you remember this is the same person who helped to craft that amendment to the bill, which would allow states to apply for the waiver to cover people with pre-existing conditions. he was ready to come here tonight to deal with that. after the president fired the fbi director, he immediately or very soon found out he was going to have to come here tonight and answer for this president. >> and now we have comey fired. if that isn't enough to convince you that the legislature cannot

do this on its own, what specifically do you need to see? >> you're right. the chairman of the house intelligence committee did recuse himself, but that investigation is now continuing in a bipartisan manner. it is. >> how is it ever going to get finished if you keep firing the people? [ applause ] >> well, you asked and i answered. >> reporter: if i had to gauge, i would say so far half of the questions have been about health care. the other half have been about the fbi director. people very, very upset about that. i should point out that this part of the district is there are a number of people here who are registered as democrats, and the congressman told me earlier he wanted to come to this part

of the district because he wanted to hear from some of his toughest critics, but having said that, at one point he said, "i didn't come here tonight to defend a president." erin? >> all right. jason, let's listen into that town hall for just a moment now. >> because i had to fight hard with the access to health care thank god my children are healthy and can speak. my concern is what's going to happen to them when they are 17, 18, 20, 30, 40, 50, and they are denied health care because our state of new jersey is losing jobs at an alarming rate, and our medicaid is on skyrocket. i understand you have to delegate and i'm asking you to please understand where we are all coming from and to consider us because what's going to happen? we're going to be lost in everything. i've heard trump and i've heard many senators and i've heard

many congressmen talking about everybody, the middle class, the rich, but not talking about the working poor. not talked about the improdisab. we're losing from what i understand the news, which trump is saying fake news, i get my news from abc, but the point is this. i'm hearing we're losing -- we're getting cuts for kids with special needs. i'm hearing mental health is getting cut. where is the future in this? >> you can hear the passion at this town hall. you can hear the passion there at that town hall as we keep checking back in there a lot of passion and give the congressman credit for going there where there are democrats to hear their concerns. listen to this reaction. at a graduation ceremony today for college seniors. >> thank you so very, very much for this great honor and

privilege. i am honored to become a wildcat. and it's a real honor and privilege to be with you as we celebrate the class of 2017. while we will undoubtedly disagree at times, i hope we can do so respectfully. let's choose to hear one another out. >> the boos drowning out the education secretary betsy devos. she spoke at a black university in florida. part of the reason students were booing turning their backs was to protest her statement that founders of black colleges were pioneers of school choice but they were found when they were barred from attending many colleges. and now the president of the

naacp. i appreciate your time. the president was called on to resign because of this invitation to devos to speak. do you support what students did to secretary devos today? >> the students booing and some cheering is a reflection of their concern about the policies of the department of education. let's be clear about this. the issue is not civility of the students but rather the policy of the secretary. that is to say supporting cy, - privatization, not necessarily supporting the kinds of policies that will ensure that more students are able to attend historically black colleges and universities. that's the issue. so the students were protesting the secretary's policies, not merely her personality or presence. >> i have to ask because i do think it's important. they can have those feelings, right, and they can express that. is it right to boo her and turn

their back to her? is that the way to express it? >> well, the issue here is not the booing. students have about booing commencement speakers for decades on end. these are not the first students and they probably won't be the last. they exercise their first amendment right to boo. the secretary exercised her first amendment right to speak. the issue here is what happens after the speech, and with respect to that, this secretary and this department of education does not have a set of policies to ensure that they continue to survive and serve generations of students going into the future. that's what the students were protesting. a note here. this is the same secretary who out of a lack of awareness or perhaps understanding referred to hbcus as pioneers of choice when in fact as you well know, they were instruments -- i

should say tools against school segregation and not instruments of choice. >> cornell, i have to leave it there. i very much appreciate your taking the time and giving your side of this. thanks again. and thanks to all of you for joining us. anderson's next. >> good evening from washington. there's breaking news here in the russian investigation on top of everything else. when we left you last night, we were struggling to make sense of what had happened. all of us asking the same key questions. could the firing of fbi director james comey been anything other than the president getting rid of the official investigating him and his campaign. today from the president on down, the white house tried to explain the president's action. the words running smack dab into one indoundisputable thing, the president's own words that run counter what the white house is now saying. one point on the time line after another, one tweet, one letter, one prior sta