tonight's breaking news, new reporter from john king that the president was quote, white hout this weekend before firing fbi director james comey. the senate intelligence committee issuing a subpoena to fire national security adviser michael flynn demanding he turn over documents pertaining to his contact with russian officials. flynn refused a request for them. so the committee made them a demand. this comes days after director comey told the senate judiciary committee the bureau was ramping up its own investigation. we will get reaction from jim

himes, a member of the house intelligence committee who joins us now. first of all, your reaction to the senate intelligence committee issuing a subpoena to general flynn for documents regarding his interactions with the russian officials, how significant is that? >> it's evidence that the two congressional investigations, particularly the one i'm involved with on the house side, suffered setbacks. not coincidently that suffered shortly after an open hearing at which director comey acknowledged an investigation of the trump administration and the campaign. now, of course, the firing of comey after sally yates' testimony. i would suggest that's not a coincidence. the fact that there's subpoena for documents from michael flynn indicates that the senate investigation, like the house investigation, continues. that's not a substitute for an impartial fbi investigation.

but that's a good thing. >> by that implication, you think that the president sees these open hearings, watches them, gets annoyed and wants to try to slow them down or interfere in some way? you are saying after your first one, that's when nunes made the nighttime trip to the white house and claimed to have gotten information that he brought to the white house, even though they would have known about that information and now he saw comey and comey gets fired? >> exactly. devin nunes didn't cook that up on his own. that scheme resulted in all of the mess on the house investigation and his ultimate recusal from the investigation, that was -- that scheme was the product of rage and concern within the white house which we're at a point now where if you read the memo from the deputy attorney general, if you hear what's coming out of the white house, clearly donald trump had had enough. the sally yates testimony and the questions about the 18 day period in which michael flynn remained as national security adviser, this is a president who i guess to put it kindly reacts

instinctively to thinks he does not like on tv. this is the second time we investigators have seen that happen. >> this letter from the deputy attorney general, you think it's part of a scheme that kind of provides cover for the president to get rid of the director? >> let me be careful here. i'm not saying the deputy attorney general was part of some scheme. i think that the white house decided that comey's behavior had been difficult. there's no dispute about that. this is something we have been arguing about ever since the director made the statement and had the press conference. this has occupied legal minds and others for months and months and months. lo and behold, after donald trump praises comey and says he is doing a good job, it just happens that a day -- what are we 110 of the administration, right after the sally yates testimony, all of the pieces fall into place to fire jim comey. you read that memo by the deputy attorney general. if you have a legal mind, if you

know -- if you have read a department of justice memo before, wait a second, quoting editorials and quoting people in a legal memo, a bit odd. there's no question in my mind this was something that the president just decided had to get done. >> you put out a statement in which you said the investigated has fired the investigator and said that the interference appears political and adds to a narrative of deception, denial and obfuscation. the white house is saying this has nothing to do with russia. the president is not being investigated about russia. this has nothing to do with russia. >> anderson, nobody believes that. this has been one of the perplexing things about this investigation, which has been going on for a long time now. an innocent white house that wanted to get beyond this would behave in the exact opposite fashion that this white house is behaving. what they would do is they would

say, we need to move on to our legislative program, our agenda, which now with the firing of comey has taken a huge step backwards and starting months ago they would have said, as many resources as you need, all documents are available, no one needs to be subpoenaed, we will provide them, we need to move beyond this. instead, lo and behold, people who have been doing the investigations, whether director comey or sally yates, list goes on and on, the house investigation, we have seen obstacle after obstacle thrown in front of the investigation. somebody who operates in politics, it's a little perplexing to me. all the white house is doing by generating this is making their own legislative agenda an awful lot more problematic and raises more questions. >> appreciate your time. thank you very much. more now on white house claims that there's no evidence. sarah hucky be sanders today said of any collusion between

trump and russia. it's been a steady refrain there's no there there. today it went beyond that. the deputy press secretary suggesting investigators have all but reached such a conclusion. jim sciutto joins us on the fact check. you spoke today to members of congress leading both the house and senate investigations. what did they say? >> the white house claim is untrue. i reached out to both the republican chairman of the senate intelligence committee, richard burr, and the ranking democrat on that committee, mark warner, who gave on the record comments saying that the possibility of collusion between the trump associates and russians during the campaign is still a subject of the ongoing investigation. i heard the same thing from multiple republican and democratic members of the senate and the house intelligence committees as well. that are investigating russian interference in the investigation, but under the umbrella, the possibility of collusion.

they say that's an open question. they are looking at the evidence. they have not closed the case on that question as the white house and the president have repeatedly claimed. >> we were just talking to congressman himes. the investigations are not going away soon. there are concerns about whether they are funded enough, resourced enough, whether they have enough personnel, what the fbi investigation is going to look like after the firing of comey. they are ongoing. >> they are. there are questions of partisanship, too, splitting along party lines. in fact, what we have been seeing is an expansion of those investigations. you have the fbi, for instance, as we reported looking for more resources for its investigation. we have federal prosecutors that have issued grand jury subpoenas in the case of michael flynn. we know that at least one committee and possibly another -- senator lindsey graham talked about this -- want financial records to look at possible trump financial ties with russia. yes, i hear from multiple lawmakers involved, they want more resources, they want time.

but they're beginning to say they're getting the cooperation they want from the cia and others. they're beginning to ask, anderson, for more resources. they're beginning to demand, subpoena people like michael flynn to come testify. invite the fired james comey to come testify. expanding their witness list. the fact is, these investigations are not disappearing. it's the opposite, quite the opposite. they're commanding. >> jim sciutto, thanks very much. it was a scene today at the white house when the president's brief explanation for the comey firing to his spokesperson's most longer visit, to the kissinger visit, the russian visit. the russian ambassador, the acquaintance of michael flynn. understanding you are learning about the president's decision making behind firing comey. we're learning about the president's state of mind going into this. i am told by several people familiar and close to the process that the president was growing increasingly agitated, beginning with that hearing a week ago today when the fbi

director was speaking to the senate. he said he was mildly nauseous by the role he played in the 2016 campaign. the president did not like that. i am told by people close to him, he kept thinking about that. it kept festering, growing throughout the weekend. even his small victory on health care last thursday, which we talked about so much here, of course, apparently did not allay those concerns. when he came back to the white house on monday, he had a meeting with the attorney general who was intended to recuse himself from any type of a russian investigation. he had a meeting with the deputy attorney general. the president i am told said that he concluded that the fbi director, was sort of his own man, he couldn't be held responsible or trusted going forward with this. it was at that point on monday when the president set things into motion. over those 48 hours, leading into that, he kept it very closely held to the vest.

the white house communication operation, sean spicer, others, had less than an hour of advance warning before any of this happened. that's why they were caught flat footed last evening. >> you asked the deputy press secretary time line about this. what did she say? >> she said the president did not have confidence in this director since the day he was elected. but that of course flies in the face of what the president has said when he had the confidence in him. sean spicer said that last week. i asked sarah sanders what changed. >> i think one of the big things that took place was the process in the hearing on wednesday. you have somebody -- the director of the fbi who reports to the deputy attorney general going around the chain of command. that's simply not okay. that along with the corrections that had to take place over the last i believe 48 hours, those are all big problems. >> do you regret not doing it earlier, on january 20th or

21st? >> i believe the president wanted to give director comey a chance. he feels he made the right decision. >> anderson, we have heard so many different explanations for the reason for the time line. the president himself in that letter to his own fbi director undercut a lot of this rational by mentioning the russia investigation in the first place. the white house is trying to sort of move forward from this. again, the president does not have anything scheduled on his public schedule tomorrow. one of the big fallouts, the worry is i'm talking to advisors and others, what happens to his legislative agenda? he has inflamed things on capitol hill. how will this impact tax reform, other matters he was supposed to talk about this week? that's an open question that we will watch and see. >> jeff zeleny, thanks very much. having spoken to congressman himes, we will talk to someone the republican lawmaker. more reporting on the fallout, including other republicans,

including one who is demanding action from investigatrs. james comey was not first person investigating the president who ended up being fired by the president. three have been axed. their stories coming up.

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in addition to late word on the flynn subpoena, we have been dealing with comey fallout and reaction to how the white house is explaining the move. much of it is playing out among lawmakers, including republicans who find themselves again at the center of a storm that originated with the chief

executive. cnn's manu raju is on the hill for us. the fallout continues. what are you learning on the hill? >> democrats are united behind their calls for a special prosecutor. they're demanding that, anderson. there's debate about how far to take this fight. whether or not to effectively shut down the senate and to force the special prosecutor to be named, use leverage by gumming up the works here in this chamber. elizabeth warren of massachusetts, who i spoke with earlier today, said that would not go as far as wanting to bog down and demand a special prosecutor. they're weighing other things to force the administration's hand, including trying to block the fbi director nominee to get the special prosecutor named. on the republican side, views from across the map. republican leaders like mitch mcconnell and paul ryan say that they support the president's decision. then you hear concern from very

prominent members of the senate republican conference, including bob corker, as well as john mccain, the senate armed services chairman who i spoke with earlier today. he raised concerns about the rationale behind the president's decision. >> they have been investigating the trump campaign's connections with russia for a long time. i just think that it obviously was not done in an efficient fashion. when you fire probably, arguably the most respected person in america, you better have a very good explanation. so far, i haven't seen that. >> reporter: you don't buy that clinton e-mail explanation that he mishandled the clinton's e-mails, that's why he was fired? >> i don't believe that that is sufficient rationale for removing the director of the

fbi. i regret it's happened. we have a lot of issues and challenges. and this just diverts a lot of that attention. >> anderson, james comey was expected to testify tomorrow before the senate intelligence committee. no longer going to do that. he was invited to testify in a closed session next week. he's not yet accepted that offer. we will see if he does do that. >> there's late word that congress has asked the inspector general to look into comey's firing. >> that's right. this is from jason chaffetz, the house oversight committee chairman, sending a letter to the inspector general who had launched an investigation back in january looking at the handling of the clinton e-mail situation and looking at comey's handling of the situation. now chaffetz wants to expand that inquiry to look into the circumstances behind the comey firing. this would be a very significant investigation if the inspector general does do that. there are 450 employees of the inspector general's office. we will see if he listens to the chaffetz request. comey has been interviewed by the inspector general. >> we will bring in the panel.

joining ein right now moogtue rosenberg, matt lewis, and keirsten powers. does it make sense, dana, that -- the inspector general investigation was ongoing and looking into way looking into comey's handling of the clinton e-mails. that seemed to have been ignored by the white house or they didn't wait for that. >> they didn't wait which is one of the many potential problems here. but let's just take a step back. there was an inspector general and still is an inspector general investigation going on about comey's actions with regard to hillary clinton's e-mails. now capitol hill -- republican on capitol hill is calling for an inspector general investigation into the president firing the guy who -- you need an actual -- one of those homeland maps up on the wall to know who everybody is and where everybody connects. it's beyond confusing. it just kind of speaks to the

sort of alice through the looking glass nature of all of this. it's mind boggling for us and we cover this every day. can you imagine being somebody in the real world watching this and saying, what is happening. >> how significant that it's jason chaffetz asking for this expansion of the inspector general investigation? >> it's amazing. chaffetz has done a 180 and seems to be taking that oversight role. i don't know how trump thinks about these things. if you are a republican and you see jason chaffetz, who is partisan, saying we need to look into this, we need answers, that's an incredibly worrying sign for a white house that is finding its move is not as popular as they thought it would be. >> i draw the opposite conclusion from what happened. here we have the most catastrophic act in terms of a firing by a president since 1973. how many republicans have said boo? you have a handful who say i'm troubled, i'm concerned. after 19 -- after the saturday night massacre, you had republicans talking about impeachment.

i think the republicans here remain very united -- >> can i ask you a question? historically speaking? >> sure. >> wasn't the saturday night massacre after six years of investigation and drip, drip, drip? >> it wasn't six years. >> many years. >> it was 1973. he had been re-elected in '72. >> there had been a long investigation. >> it's a fair point that the republicans aren't really speaking out against this. jason chaffetz is leaving. he announced he is retiring. you need somebody who is actually, i think -- is going to be around for a while. the only way anything is going to shift is if republicans do change their position on this. >> richard burr, the chairman of the intelligence committee says i'm troubled by this. and maybe there should be -- but mitch mcconnell runs the senate. mitch mcconnell is going to protect donald trump. >> burr issued a subpoena today to michael flynn. there's steps. there's no great breaking of ranks here. but there certainly are steps that i don't think we might not

have seen a month ago. >> it's more of an argument for the independent investigation. it just seems like we need an independent investigation because we need somebody who donald trump can't fire. we need somebody who is not a partisan, which is basically what's happening on the hill. >> i think there have been some signs today -- there's so many different contradictory things being said. i watched last night. the sense i got was that the assumption was that there was something nefarious that had taken place. this was all about russia. maybe it is. it could be about russia. today when i was reading, there's a reuters story that says, comey regretted what he said about hillary clinton but not what he said about trump. it's starting to look like, at least there's a plausible theory here, that donald trump ego, not the coverp of the russia stuff, but the fact he took it personal what comey said and he's an egomaniac might have

sparked this. in the "new york times," you read that the countdown to dismissal began with the comey testimony about -- where he said he was slightly nauseous at the thought that he had helped elect donald trump. donald trump is a narcissistic guy. i think he might have taken that personally and fired comey. that doesn't put donald trump in a good light. it also many means they lied to us yesterday when they said it went back to the hillary clinton e-mails. it's not the same as our assumption that it's a coverup of the russia -- >> not to be underestimated here is the role of conservative media, which is 100% in the other direction. in terms of its affect on public opinion and senators and members of congress. the essential message there is that the people in washington and the elite media and on capitol hill hate donald trump. that is what's driving this and everything else is just flowing

from that. i would just suggest that when that happens, if in fact that's accurate, that that's a problem. then eventually people will see that you are not driven by facts. you are driven by a con testimony -- >> who is not driven by facts? >> in general. if you in the generic sense are doing whatever -- you can't stand the president -- >> that's the framework -- the problem with this is the framework the white house created. this is the framework that the president's campaign created, which is that there's no neutral set of facts, there's no central middle ground everybody can agree on. there's black and white and two sides -- that's not actually how life works. and that's not actually the case. >> that's the way it's seen. >> the republicans on the hill, they have been gutless. they will find their courage when the american people give it to them. the polling today -- it's today. it's before this comey firing. the congressional generic ballot, the democrats lead by 16 points.

i have never seen it that high. it's not going to be that way -- the election will be a landslide. trump's favorable among republicans where he must have gotten 95%. it's down to 84%. 84 is high. when you are collapsed with independents, you have to do better than 84. i talked to one of our pollsters that i used to advise that took on mr. trump in the campaign. his line is 80. he is one of the best pollsters. if trump goes below 80 with republicans, you will see -- >> i have to say, there's people listening tonight who remember these same conversations during the election where a lot of democrats are talking about polls and the polls show that and it didn't turn out to be that way. are you not skeptical? >> i'm always skeptical. there is evidence that the guy is doing a bad job. voters are saying, i think he's doing a bad job. i think it actually -- as george w. bush said, it resignates.

>> when nixon fired the special prosecutor there was outrage. by the time we got to ken star, there were people in the clinton administration who -- he didn't get fired but they so did in his reputation that he was rendered ineffective. i would suggest if there is a special move for a special prosecutor that the trump white house will bar him from the clinton white house and go barf this special prosecutor -- >> we have to take a quick break. one recap. it's mind boggling. jeff zeleny is reporting that sean spicer had an hour advance warning the comey firing was about to happen. only an hour. coming up james comey is the latest but not the first person to be fired by president trump. who do these three have in common? all were involved in investigating president trump. that's next.

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the president of the united states fires the man investigating his campaign's possible ties to a foreign government. safe to say not many people saw the firing coming. not even the fbi director himself who learned about it from it appearing on television. it does fit a pattern. comey is not the first person on

the chopping block who was involved in investigating the president. >> reporter: it's a phrase donald trump came to be known for on reality tv. >> you're fired. you're fired. you're fired. >> reporter: this is not a television show. this is washington, d.c. those investigating president donald trump have a curiously short tenure. >> this is part of of a deeply troubling pattern from the trump administration. >> reporter: january 30 this year, acting attorney general sally yates was first to go down. after instructing the department of justice not to defend president trump's first travel ban. >> as someone who has chosen to lead a department, she was rightfully removed. >> reporter: white house declared in a statement that yates was weak on illegal immigration. yates had questioned whether the president's travel ban was lawful. keep in mind sally yates also played a key role in the investigation of trump's former national security adviser michael flynn.

just four days before she was fired, she warned the white house flynn may be compromised because he lied about discussing u.s. sanctions with a russian ambassador. 5 1/2 weeks after her firing, the president was at it again firing u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york preet bharara. on march 11, bharara tweeted, i did not resign. moments ago, i was fired. all 46 us attorneys across the country were asked to resign. bharara refused. the president let him go. bharara was stunned, given his meeting last november at trump tower. >> president-elect asked to meet with me. to discuss whether i would be prepared to stay on. we had a good meeting. >> reporter: bharara headed the southern district of new york and would have played a key role in investigations like the trump campaign's alleged ties to russia.

as well as trump's claim that president obama wiretapped trump tower. just this week, fbi director james comey was fired. comey will clashed with the white house on supposed wiretapping at trump tower. >> with respect to the president's tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, i have no idea that supports those tweets. >> reporter: he was investigating russia's meddling into the u.s. presidential election. just last week was looking for more resources for that investigation. >> that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government. >> reporter: signs that comey's tenure as fbi director was in jeopardy likely started to appear last july. after he cleared hillary clinton in her e-mail scandal. >> today is the best evidence ever that we have seen that our system is absolutely, totally rigged. it's rigged. >> reporter: comey announced he was taking another look at

clinton's e-mails 11 days before the election. this time, trump praised him. >> i have to give the fbi credit. >> reporter: trump parted ways with director comey, the white house blamed it on his handling of the clinton e-mail investigation. critics pointed to comey's investigation of russia's alleged ties to trump. whoever takes over may have good reason to wonder if they will meet the same fate as those who dare to investigate president donald trump. randi kaye, cnn, new york. shortly before air time, i spoke with james langford, member of the senate intelligence committee. your committee has now subpoenaed michael flynn -- >> documents. >> can you explain why you did that? >> he didn't turn them over. we will given him a deadline of may 9. >> why wouldn't he turn them over? >> we don't know. his counsel advised him not to.

we told him that's not an option. we made a request for documents and he didn't turn them over. so we will subpoena them and get them with a subpoena. >> have you scheduled a time to have him come in to speak? >> typical investigation, you get all the documents. helps you know what questions to ask so when they come in, you're fully ready for that. we have done our own investigation separate. we can gather documents and go through documents he will present that adds to our information. then we will have him with us. >> there was talk his attorneys were looking for immunity. is that a possibility? >> that's not something the intelligence committee would do. we're gathering information. that's up to the chairman and ranking member to work through that. we made a request for documents. we expect documents to be there and meet with him. >> the white house says you are among a group of senators who met with the president. did the firing of director comey come up? >> it did actually. we were meeting on tax policy issues. we went to issues where we were trying to spin things, the health care tax issues with comey and everything else. i did have a side by side with

the president to ask him personally. my question was the question i had all along in the last 24 hours, why right now? why at this moment? i understand there's been controversy about director comey that's been there for months. it depends on the week whether republicans or democrats likes director comey or who hates him that week. why right now? >> one of the things you said is the american people need clarity and deserve an explanation for comey's firing. did you get clarity? >> i did. he said it was rosenstein, he brought him on. he was senate confirmed. he had the opportunity to meet with him, talk about some things. they had disagreements. whatever that was he didn't get into on that. he said, this guy is not going to work out long-term for us. he has controversy. he said, this is not going to work long-term. rosenstein contacted the president and said long-term we have to resolve this, he did. >> there has been reporting, cnn and others saying that director

comey asked for more resources from the department of justice. the department of justice denies that that request was made to rosenstein. do you believe the russian investigation had any impact on the president deciding to get rid of comey? >> i didn't bring it up. we're working through our own investigation. it wouldn't be appropriate to bring that up with the president one on one. i didn't get close to that. he didn't mention anything on that in our conversation. i would say director comey would get whatever resources and assets he needs. i don't know of any request that he made either to our committee or to anyone else. >> you can't comment whether or not you think the russia investigation, president trump's obvious concerns about it or dislike of it had any impact on his decision to get -- >> he didn't mention it when i brought it up to him. i asked him why right now? the russia issue never came up in that conversation. >> the number of people who have been fired so far by this president -- sally yates, director comey, the attorney --

>> all u.s. attorneys. >> all u.s. attorneys. pretty much everybody had some form of investigation going on or did something the president didn't like. >> sally yates was a carryover from the obama administration. that person will be and has been replaced. all the u.s. attorneys, every president clears the deck on u.s. attorneys. those two don't surprise me. the transition of the fbi director, obviously if they lose trust of the american people and the administration, that's serious. typically, they are there ten years. the reason they are there ten years is to have that non-partisan perspective. the challenge that you have is with jim comey, who i have respect for and i think worked incredibly hard, he has been a lightning rod. he has been in front of the media a lot. the more you do that, you more the attract that. >> do you think this will have a chilling effect on the fbi investigation? >> it should not. we will do oversight to make

sure it does not. the career investigators are doing the investigation. director comey is not doing the day to day investigation. there are documents, there are interviews that have to go to the top to get signed off. there's things director comey has to go to his boss to get sign-off on. the career investigationers are still in play. >> to those who say, it looks like they are ratcheting up the pace, you are saying that's not going to have any impact? >> it shouldn't have impact. our committee has a responsibility to make sure that doesn't have an impact. the same authorities are there, the same people are still involved in the process. they have the resources to accomplish it. we started from the beginning on this. we're going to go where the facts go. i do not have an obligation do coverup for anybody. neither do i have an obligation to try to send out a message that's inconsistent with the facts. where the facts go, the facts go. that's where we have to go, and that's a commitment we made in a bipartisan way. >> i appreciate your time. >> you bet. more ahead, including one senator's warning about where the comey firing could lead. perhaps impeachment.

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in the 24 hours since president trump fired the fbi director who was investigating whether his campaign colluded with russia, the foreign adversary, the after shocks keep coming. i spoke with richard bloomenthal. i asked him about how serious he thinks this could get. >> it may well produce another united states versus nixon on a subpoena that went to the united states supreme court. it may well produce impeachment proceedings. although, we're very far from that possibility. >> earlier today, trump slammed senator blumenthal. they demanded they turn over documents. regarding his interactions with russian officials. this after flynn's lawyer refused to supply them. joining me carl bernstein and david axelrod and michael haden.

general hayden, you wrote an op-ed for the hill. you say, it's beginning to feel a little like nicaragua around here. how do you -- what do you mean? >> in 110 days, the president has fired a national security adviser, an acting attorney general and the director of the fbi. i was trying to capture what that must feel like for people on the outside looking in at america and by the way, my international network has kind of check in with you guys are going to be okay, right? i was trying to describe that this kind of behavior is not normally associated with a mature western democracy. it's associated with autocratic populous states. >> do you feel that could be the -- that's where we're headed? >> look, i have lived enough in the world. america sent me to places that weren't happy at the moment.

i have seen how thin the veneer of civilization really is. you walk through -- >> we think it's solid. but you walk through -- what >> what strikes you is not how different those people are, but how they're not different from -- >> there are snipers. >> you just have that concern. people, be careful. we're not guaranteed this kind of life that we have experienced for the last period of time. >> david, that's chilling. why do you think the white house thinks it's a good strategy to continue to say there's no evidence of collusion, there's nothing to see here, when republicans and democrats on the intelligence committee are telling jim sciutto, it's an open question. there may not be anything there but they are investigating. >> absolutely. i think this is being driven by donald trump. every time the subject comes up, he becomes unhinged.

you can it in those tweets about senator blumenthal this morning. all the reports we have seen suggests that it was he who really triggered this yesterday and the set of events we saw yesterday. i agree with general hayden about the fragility of our institutions. the thing i have said about president trump was that policies come and go and that's the nature of democracy. that's not my concern. my concern is his wanton sort of disregard for institutions, whether it was the intelligence community or the courts or the media or the former president who he denigrated. now the summary dismissal of an fbi director who was investigating his associates and in the midst of a very tense and

frighted issue for the country. at the same time, we see him reach out and embracing autocrats all over the world. he seems to be fascinated with people who don't have to deal with the democratic institutions. i'm not sure i would be as dark as the general was. i do think there's a resilience to our democracy. it's being tested right now. the president is the one who is testing it. >> carl bernstein, what do you think stands between a further slide to becoming what the general describes? >> i think that donald trump destabilized his own presidency. he has done it through his tweets. he has done it through his lies. he has done it through undermining a legitimate investigation of the most serious national security consequences. remember, we are at a very

dangerous moment. why? because a hostile foreign power destabilized our electoral process according to all the intelligence agencies of the united states government. and in connection with that, there are serious allegations that the campaign of donald trump, his close associates, perhaps the candidate himself, colluded with russians. instead of opening up, instead of saying, look, let's get to the bottom of this because i the candidate and the people around me had no such collusion with hostile powers, this president has chosen to undermine, demean, obstruct and impede a crucial national security investigation. in the process, through his lies, through these tweets, through his temperament, he has destabilized his own presidency to the point where quietly, a

lot of republicans are saying to each other -- i have talked to them. i think probably david has as well. they are worried about the temperament and the stability of this man's presidency. >> general hayden, outside sarajevo, there were serbs firing, easy for a society to crumble. when there's not an outside factor, what causes a society to crumble? >> anderson, great question. we talked about what the russians did. as somebody who has experience with covert influence campaigns, let me tell you, they never create fractures in a society. they only work when a society has pre-existing fractures. what the russians did, perhaps they knew us better than we knew ourself, they went after the fractures in american society. look, i'm not apocalyptic. i agree with david. we've got resilient institutions but we can't take them for granted. >> it also requires people of good faith to stand up and be

honest and respect the truth and respect those institutions. >> the truth really matters, the processes really matters. the separation of powers, co-equal branches, competing branches of government really matter and they need to be respected. >> david, how much can actually change unless -- i mean, look, politicians on both sides of the aisle stand up and, you know, aren't just kind of looking out for their own political sides. they're actually looking out for the good of the country. >> yeah. look, i think one of the things the white house is counting on is that this thing gets depicted as in the minds of many as kind of a partisan squabble rather than a serious constitutional issue and a serious issue about whether there are foreign powers trying to destabilize our country.

and it is disappointing -- i was disappointed, frankly, in some of the comments of senator mcconnell today, who seems like he's going to try and stonewall the notion of a special prosecutor or a commission to investigate this which could restore some confidence in these probes. and i was also, you know, frankly senator blumenthal i thought should not be talking about impeachment at this juncture. >> yeah. >> i don't think democrats should be using that kind of heated rhetoric. let's be responsible. >> yeah, david axelrod, carl bernstein, general hayden, thank you so much. coming up, something we try to do as often as we can on big stories, get outside the beltway, go to iowa, to speak to trump supporters. the answers we get in these assignments are always intriguing. tonight you might even be surprised. we'll be right back. we're all about making things simpler for you. like, imagine having your vehicle serviced... from the comfort of your own home. introducing complimentary lincoln pickup and delivery servicing.

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we always try to make a point of including as many different voices as possible on this broadcast. with that in mind, what reaction is donald trump's firing of fbi director james comey getting outside of washington, especially those loyal to donald trump? gary tuchman went to iowa to find out. >> reporter: tiny delaware county in eastern iowa is trump country. the president winning big here in november. this victory aided by the

support of the owner and many of the customers in this deli in the county seat of manchester, iowa. people we talked to not troubled at all by controversial things the president has done since taking office. >> thank you. >> reporter: so we were surprised to hear quite a few of them say the firing of james comey is different. >> because there's an investigation going on with alleged ties between his campaign and russian officials, does it bother you the timing of the firing of the fbi director? >> i would say my opinion, yes, i think that with his reputation that he has for, like, all the americans, not everyone agrees with his decision but he should have let the investigation go through before he made a decision like this. >> reporter: deli owner, shelley schrader, didn't sound concerned. what do you think of the decision to fire the fbi director yesterday? >> i think it's a good one. >> reporter: why do you think it's a good one? >> i think he should have done it a long time ago. >> reporter: but after a follow-up question -- the attorney general recommended the firing to president trump. attorney general sessions. >> correct. >> reporter: attorney general sessions has recused himself

from the russia investigation. >> i know. >> reporter: but yet he recommended the firing of the man who was leading the russia investigation. >> yeah. >> reporter: does that trouble you? >> that, it does. >> reporter: you voted for donald trump for president. >> yes, i did. >> reporter: how do you feel about the decision yesterday to fire the fbi director, the timing of it, the decision? >> yeah, it was all of a sudden just like that. he should have told the people kind of his feelings or should have probably done it sooner. if he knew what was going on with the fbi. >> reporter: you don't think he was open enough about why he did this. >> no. that's the way trump is. he's quick on action. i don't think he should be that way, but sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not good. >> reporter: there's no question, many trump supporters in delaware county are completely fine with how the comey matter has been dealt with like this former mayor of a nearby town. >> i think he walked into a tough situation there. i would give him an "a" for what he's done. as a former politician, when you start to clean up a mess like that, you're not going to be the flavor of the month with a lot

of people. >> reporter: does it trouble you that donald trump fired the man whose investigation could be imperilling his presidency? >> not at all. not at all. he needed to go. it just happened that it may be investigating him. he needed to go. you know that. i know that. >> reporter: but even among those comfortable with the president firing comey, we did hear this from some. do you think maybe it would be a good idea now to have an independent investigation of these possible russia ties with this campaign? >> i think that would be the best decision to have, to make to do that. to investigate -- there's no favoritism, there's mutual people involved, you know, trying to investigate so there's not favoritism to one side. >> gary joins me now. you've been speaking with trump supporters ever since the campaign. do you see any change in tone from this supporters now? >> reporter: there's a little different feeling right now, anderson. we've been talking to trump supporters for almost two years. they're very loyal. it's very rare a trump supporter criticized donald trump on our television cameras.

of course, it happened last year during the "access hollywood" videotape that was released, donald trump walking off the bus, his microphone remaining on on the bus. it happened then. it hasn't happened much since then. what we're seeing in iowa today and tonight, in people talking to us, trump supporters who are concerned what's happening now could imperil the future of his presidency. and that's the new vibe we're feeling. anderson? >> all right. gary tuchman, thanks very much. thanks for watching "360" tonight. time to hand things over to don lemon. "cnn tonight" starts right now. >> thanks, anderson. lots more on our breaking news right now. growing outrage over president trump's firing of fbi director james comey. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. sources telling cnn the president was more and more agitated about the russia investigation, decided he couldn't trust the fbi director. another source telling cnn trump was white hot, that's a quote, angry and cursing about comey testifying he felt mildly nauseous that his actions last fall cou