your a1c and blood sugar, activate your within. ask your doctor about once-weekly trulicity. tonight's breaking news, the president making headlines on many controversies surrounding him. his firing of james comey and his characterization of how that came to be which contradicts the storyline until now. take a look. >> look, she's he's a showboat, grandstander, the fbi has been in turmoil. i know that, you know ta, everybody knows that. you take a look at the fbi a year ago. it was in virtual turmoil less

than a year ago. it hasn't recovered from that. >> monday you met with the deputy attorney general rob rosenstein. >> right. >> did you ask for a recommendation? >> what i did was i was going to fire comey. my decision. >> you had made the decision before they came -- >> i was going to fire comey. there's no good time to do it, by the way. >> because in your letter you said i accepted their recommendations. you had already made the decision. >> ways going to fire regardless of recommendations. he made a recommendation. he's highly respected, very good guy, very smart guy. the democrats like him, the republicans like him. he made a recommendation, but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey knowing there was no good time to do it. and in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a madeup story, it's an excuse by the democrat for having lost an election they should have won.

when i did this now, i said i probably maybe will confuse people, maybe i'll expand that -- you know, i'll lengthen the time because it should be over with, in my opinion, should have been over with a long time ago. all it is is an excuse. but i said to myself, i might even lengthen up the investigation. but i have to do the right thing for the american people. he's the wrong man for that position. >> let me ask you about your termination letter to mr. comey. you write, i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i'm not only investigation. why did you put that in there? >> because he told me that. >> he told you you weren't under investigation with regard to the russian investigation? >> i heard that from others. >> was it in a phone call or did you meet face-to-face? >> i had dinner with him. he wanted to have dinner because he wanted to stay on. our dinner was arranged. i think he asked for the dinner. he wanted to stay on as the fbi head. and i said, you know, consider, we'll see what happens. but we had a very nice dinner.

at that time he told me you are not under investigation, which i knew anyway. >> that was one meeting. >> first of all, when you're under investigation, you are getting all sorts of documents and everything. i knew i wasn't under. and i heard it was stated at the committee at some committee level that i wasn't, number one. >> so that didn't come up -- >> then during the phone call he said it, then during another phone call. he said it twice during phone calls. >> did you call him? >> in one case i called him, and in one case he called me. >> did you ask him are you under investigation. >> i actually asked him. if it's possible, would you let me know if i'm under investigation. he said you are not under investigation. >> but he's given sworn testimony that there's an ongoing investigation into the trump campaign and possible collusion with the russian government. you were the centerpiece of the trump campaign. so is he being truthful -- >> i know one thing, i know i'm not under investigation me personally. i'm not talking about campaigns or anything else.

i'm not under investigation. >> did you ask him to drop the investigation? >> no. never. >> did anyone from the white house -- >> no, in fact, i want the investigation speeded up. >> did anyone in the white house ask him to end the investigation? >> no, why would he do that? >> any surrogates? >> not that i know of. >> there was an fbi under way. >> i don't know if it's an fbi -- there's so many investigations. i don't know if it's an fbi investigation or if it's congress, the senate. >> james comey testified there was an fbi investigation. >> yeah, but i think they're also helping the house and the senator. so you probably have fbi but you have house, you have senate, they have other investigations. >> but when you put out tweets it's a total hoax, taxpayer sha aid and you're looking for a new fbi director, are you not spending that person a message to lay off? >> no, i'm not doing that. we have to get back to work. i want to find out. i want to get to the bottom. if russia hacked, if russia did anything having to do with our election, i want to know about it. >> but there's already

intelligence from virtually every intelligence agency that, yes, that happened. >> i'll tell you this. if russia or anybody else is trying to interfere with our elections, i think it's a horrible thing and i want to get to the bottom of it and i want to make sure it will never, ever happen. >> the senate intelligence committee wants information from the treasury department's financial crimes unit about your finances, your business' finance. can you tells whether you, your family, your business or surrogates have accepted any investments, any loans from russian individuals? >> yes, in fact, i just sent a letter to lindsey graham from one of the prestigious law firms in the country, tremendous highly rated law firm that i have nothing to do with russia, i have no investments in russia, none whatsoever. i don't have property in russia. a lot of people thought i owned office buildings in moscow. i don't own property in russia.

and i'm in very -- i'm in total compliance in every way. >> did you worry at all when you made the decision to fire comey when you did, the day before lavrov was here in the white house and the russian ambassador, did you think through the optics of a way this would look? >> i never thought about it. it was set up a while ago. and frankly, i could have waited, but what difference does it make? i'm not looking for cosmetics. i'm looking to good a great job for the country. i'm looking to create jobs. i'm looking to create strength and security. i'm looking to have strong borders. i'm looking for things like that. i think it's a good thing that i meet with people. now, this is a public meeting. because when you cover this, the people watching may say, oh, he met with lavrov. well, this was announced that i'm meeting with lavlavrov, jus like a number of days ago i spoke at a good conversation, very public in the sense that everybody knew this was taking place, i took all the time and spoke with the new head of south

korea who just got elected. i speak with the head of india. i speak with the head of china. i have to speak with putin also. it's called russia. but when i spoke with putin, he asked me whether or not i would see lavrov. now should i say no, i'm not going to see him? i said, i will see him. during that discussion with lavr lavrov, i think we had a great discussion having to do with syria, having to do with the ukraine and maybe that discussion will lead to a lot less people getting killed and will leave ultimately to peace. i'm okay with those discussions, lester. i think it's a good thing, not a bad thing. >> that was the president speaking with nbc's lester holt. a short time ago "the new york times" put up a story on the comey/trump dinner shortly after the inauguration in which the president reportedly demanded that director comey give some sort of indication of loyalty. cnn political analyst maggie hagen contributed to that. hey, maggie, if you can explain

what you learned about this dinner and if this is the same dinner that the president was referring to where he said that comey told him he wasn't under investigation? >> sure. this is my colleague, michael schmidt's reporting primarily. but my understanding is this is the same dinner and that, you know, essentially there were the two of them at the table, that there was this discussion about loyalty, you know, raised by the president, and the director of the fbi indicated something to the effect of that's not, you know, something that he could promise, that the issue is really honesty. and the president responded with a request for honest loyalty, which i think the director said that he could do. the white house has disputed that version of events as inaccurate but said that really if there was any suggestion of loyalty, it would be about loyalty to the country. the issue, anderson, is i think

we have seen the president struggle to some extent in the new job that he has after decades of running his own company, being his own boss with the concept that the country is not a company and these are not trump employees and that there's a reason why the fbi director is supposed to be seen as apolitical and not as loyal to the president who he or she is serving. and that's where this becomes an issue. you know, the president, as i understand it, in some discussions that he has had about who could be a replacement for james comey, has discussed the question of loyalty again. and i think we're going to find out exactly what that means. >> loyalty is something we did hear about during the campaign. i think you discussed it, a lot of people, that loyalty is something that's important to donald trump. it certainly was in his company life.

>> that's right. look, in his company life in terms of people who are private about him, people who are not going to talk about him, you know, the irony is, as you know, is this white house has been incredibly leaky, as we have seen, and i know that the white house has tried to suggest that that has slowed down, but in reality it has continued. the president is very, very consumed with sort of control and to that extent loyalty relates to it. and it's just not -- it's just not the way government works. all presidents want loyalty from their employees to an extent. that's not new. all presidents want loyalty to some extent from their own west wing officials and from, you know, cabinet secretaries. this is something different and again it is involving somebody who at that point was already overseeing an investigation that touched on trump associates, you

know, the question of whether it touched on the president himself has been unclear. the president said that's not true. but either way it is an unusual thing to ask even if what the president meant with the loyalty to the country, it is understandable why that could be misconstrued. >> and maggie haberman, appreciate you joining us for the latest on that. that story is up now on "the new york times." sara murray is standing by at the white house. sara, a, how is the white house responding to this? and certainly a lot to talk about what went on at the white house today and the interview he did with lester holt. >> we haven't really seen a lot from the white house explaining what happened at the dinner or in the subsequent phone calls that president trump had with james comey. i can tell you we've asked him repeatedly for more details and even dates when these thing os cured and it's very clear this isn't something the white house is interested in providing the details on, anderson. >> one of the things the white

house is sticking by is that comey was unpopular with the rank and file of the bureau despite the acting director of the fbi fully contradicting that today in sworn testimony. sara, at the briefing she said she spoke to countless fbi agents and personnel who had expressed that to her and then later on she seemed to backtrack and said she didn't really want to get into numbers. she said she doesn't actually know many people who work for the fbi. they're standing by that idea? >> there have been a lot of sort of fascinating contradictions today, anderson. you point to a good one which is the president insisting that morale was low at the white house and sara huckabee saying that and that's part of the reason why the president made this decisionp we saw testimony from mccabe on the hill basically saying the opposite, there were people who supported comey, who were sad to see him go and that sara sanders gave an

interesting defense. she had spoken to countless officials from the fbi who said they were happy about that decision. she was actually challenged at one point in the briefing, do you really think have you a better sense of where the rank and file and the fbi stand than mccabe who is actually there helping to oversee that bureau. and she basically said she wouldn't get into a back and forth. it's interesting to see how the white house continues to try to frame their decision, the president's decision to fire james comey and how he continues to sort of see different sorts of reasoning behind that. that's different from what they said initially, which is that this is all what the deputy attorney general recommended. >> sara, finally, the president i think was supposed to go visit the fbi. i think it was tomorrow. that's not happening anymore, is that correct? >> there were some rumblings that he would make a trek over to the fbi tomorrow, that he might perhaps announce an acting interim director, that he might perhaps try to address the

morale. there were plenty of rumors about whether that would happen. as often is the case here at the white house, those plans were up in the air. as of right now it doesn't look like that will be happening. but this is a white house that likes to make and change plans at the last minute. >> i want to listen to mccake talking about the question of mr. comey's support among the rank and file today. let's listen. >> you've been there for 21 years. if your opinion, is it accurate that the rank and file no longer supported director comey? >> no, sir. that is not accurate. i have the highest respect for his considerable abilities and his integrity. it has been the greatest privilege and honor of my professional life to work with him. i can tell you also that director comey enjoyed broad support within the fbi and still does to this day.

>> i want to bring in the panel, matthew rosenberg, gloria borger, you worked both at the fbi and the cia you know the acting director. what do you make of the testimony from him tonight? >> you can take him to the bank. he's a soft spoken man. i knew him when i was at the bureau. he's there to represent the bureau and to represent a tradition that goes back to 1908 of integrity. i don't care what the american people see, if you are working at the fbi you cannot view this intervention as anything but an intervention in investigation into the presidential office. there's two issues that are being confused here. people at the bureau routinely might say and many of them told me i agree the actions of the director over the past ten months many were inappropriate. he should not be in front of the microphone. that said, that's fundamentally different as saying do they see him as decent, a man of integrity, a man who brought thoughtfulness to the office. that goes without saying.

they look at this as the president trying to undercut the investigation. >> this investigation will go on, it will not slow down. do you believe that this will have an impact, can it have an impact taking the director out? >> not immediately. the only way to have an aim pact is if the president appoints an fbi director who subverts the investigation. even there, remember, i'm not suggesting this is anything close to this. but who in watergate was deep throat? that was deputy director of the fbi. there were hundreds out there who knows what happens here. it's ten months into the investigation. it's not like the initial phases. even if they cut this down today and shut it down, the truth will come outent wally, and it's going to be ugly. >> he said today this is a highly significant investigation. that's not the line coming out from the president tore white house. if he were a political appointee, it would be political suicide. >> if you're in omaha, nebraska, you know this is a significant

investigation. >> the white house's entire story. >> exactly. >> their entire story was this was an investigation that had to end and the fbi was bad and needs to be fixed. mccake gbe gets up there and sa they supported comey. this is one of our top priorities if not our top priority. now sara huckabee gets up and says she's getting calls from fbi agents. there's a level of honesty here and questionable honesty that needs to be addressed. who are these countless fbi agents who are calling up the white house to say you did a great job? >> does it make sense that countless fbi agents would be randomly be calling the white house and they would get referred to sara huckabee? >> no. >> if we can say, we have a lot of these folks who live around here some who are not with the fbi. anecdotal ne the last ten month, phil noted, he put forth two

points. they're not mutually exclusive. that doesn't mean you keep him. with the bipartisan consensus to get rid of him, this isn't an illegitimate question, this is one of timing. i would add to it method process and so forth. but it's still substantively the right decision. >> i just asked the question about whether is sara huckabee sanders the one that it would be directed to? >> here's the big thing. fbi is a big organization. no question after comey's performance last july there were some that weren't happy with that. but it's different from the proposition made from the white house podium that james comey lost the confidence of the bureau. that is frankly not true. i would think in this situation you talk to the career people, not the politicals. i know that phil does that same thing, i do, my colleagues do as well. the reaction to the firing was shock and awe and disappointment and anger. that's why you have fbi folks changing their profile pictures to the picture of james comey

right now. >> people are doing that? >> people are doing that, yeah. >> it's not just on the issue of morale. the president repeating this as well, that the security clearance, that it was the obama administration who had the security clearance for michael flinn and they're to blame. talk to the people who have served both republican and democratic organizations about who is responsible for the clearance and the vetting of the most seen jor national security officials when they come to the white house. >> of course. >> the white house story does not stand up to the facts. and not from partisans, democrat, but people inside the intelligence agencies, people inside the bureau. >> let me ask you this. as somebody who is involved in the trump campaign, now i would not have necessarily seen anything or not seen anything, but i can tell you i saw absolutely no relationship to coordination with russia. at what point would it be fair for people who are making all these accusations to show some shred of evidence?

vently dianne feinstein said they had seen nothing. adam shift, who as you know is very partisan and would love to say -- but he actually said there's no evidence yet. joe manchin said there was no evidence. susan rice was there nosing around the entire time -- i would just like to -- >> so your question is when would be the appropriate time? >> once this is declassified one and two -- >> watergate depp throat was the deputy -- >> listen to the date. democratic and republican chairman of the senate and house intelligence committees said that this investigation is continuing. they continue to look at collusion. they haven't established it. but it's an open question. >> phil, for you, what's the answer? >> never, never. the fbi director should never have spoken about the investigation. once it was closed, he should never weeks ago spoken about abedin everett. she's a private citizen. you cannot discuss the private

citizens that you're collecting on when you have awesome power in a democratic society of the fbi unless you're going to go and say that person is under indictment. >> which is why he should have been fired because hillary clinton he said was innocent. he gave her a 13-minute indictment and then said -- >> where were you july 5th, my friend? >> i'm telling you eric holder july 5th said guy's got to go because he's -- >> gloria? >> you weren't complaining about it then and donald trump wasn't complaining about it then. >> actually, i was. >> well, he was quoting -- >> i was. >> he was quoting james comey talking about hillary clinton being reckless. >> yes. >> he wasn't complaining about the release of the letter on october 28th either which was cited in rosenstein's memo. so nobody was complaining about it at the time before the election which is why all of this is such a ruse, okay? it's a total ruse. the president himself told

everybody today he wanted to five th fire thisser. and he found a reason to do it with rosenstein his reason was very different. his reason was that he didn't have the loyalty to go back to the "times" story in jake's reporting, he didn't have the loyalty of comey -- >> that's a subjective conclusion, though. i mean, when jerry handler and maxine waters and other democrats and we can all made statements and they're out there raising their fire comey hashtags which they've had up on twitter all summer long. can we at least agree that comey was damaged goods for both parties? >> yes, yes. >> i'm sorry, you're insulting the audience's intelligence. the democrats had nothing to do with this. the president of the united states -- excuse me for talking while you're interrupting. the president of the united states fired the head of the fbi. the fbi's investigating that president's campaign to find out if in fact that campaign

colluded with russia. first he told us he fired him because he was so mean to hillary. that's preposterous. then he told us because morale was low. under oath the current director said no, that's preposterous. now we're hearing about loyalty to the country. he fired him because of russia. >> we're going to continue this. we have to take a -- >> that's stupid. >> the democrats actually did brand this guy, whether you say had nothing to do with it or not -- >> okay. we have to take a break and including a timeline of the comey firing and how that timeline has changed and how the president operates and how he lives from a reporter who recently spent time with him. totally, that's why i have this uh trail mix. wow minty. p3 snacks. the more interesting way to get your protein. [fbi agent] you're a brave man, your testimony will save lives. mr. stevens? this is your new name.

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in other key respect was big news because in revealing it to lester holt, the president also revealed that the white house storyline of comey's firing was not true. as dana bash reminds us, keeping them honest. >> remember when kellyanne conway appeared on this show and cited this letter from deputy attorney general rod rosenstein as the basis for firing james comey? >> he took the recommendation of his deputy attorney general. >> reporter: that was so two nights ago. >> i was going to fire comey. my decision. it was not -- >> you had made the decision before they came -- >> i was going to fire comey. there's no good time to do it, by the way. >> because if your letter you said i accepted their recommendations. so you had already made the decision. >> i was going to fire him regardless of recommendation. >> reporter: that not only contradicts explanations from a slew of his ais but even the vice president just yesterday morning. >> by accepting the recommendation of the deputy

attorney general to remove director comey because of the actions that the deputy attorney general outlined to the president to act on the recommendation of the deputy attorney general. >> reporter: now trump is doming clean about his ill will towards comey. >> look, he's a showboat, she's a grandstander. the fbi has been in turmoil. >> reporter: sources tell cnn comey's testimony last week enraged president trump. >> look, this is terrible. it makes me mildly nauseous to think we had some impact on the election. >> reporter: targeting one of his insecurities, the legitimacy of his election. sources familiar with the president said he was white hot and couldn't let it go stewing all weekend while at his property in bed minster, new jersey. one trump source tells cnn he was already holding a deep grudge against comey since march for publicly contradicting

president trump's apparently false claim via tweet that president obama had his wires tapped in trump tower before the election. >> with respect to the president's tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, i have no information that support those tweets and we have looked carefully inside the fbi. >> reporter: also upsetting to trump, comey's surprise announcement at that same hearing that the fbi had been investigating the president's associates since july. >> that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russia's efforts. >> reporter: sources familiar with the president's thinking say he is perpetually frustrated by the russia probe and leaks about its status because of the way it often overshadows his agenda. an open question is if the president got the question the fbi russia probe was

accelerating. sources tell cnn the week before comey was fired, he met with the top republican and democrat on the senate intelligence committee and told them he was asking the justice department for more resources. the senate's number two democrat draws a controversial conclusion. >> if you're in the trump white house and you know that they're looking for collusion by members of the trump campaign, it's pretty clear hair in hot pursuit when they're asking for more resources for investigation. >> reporter: a justice department spokeswoman insists comey did not ask for more resources for the russia probe and the man leading the fbi now was careful today when asked. >> i cannot confirm that request is made. as you know, when we need resources we make those requests here. so i don't -- i'm not aware of that request. >> reporter: whether or not the president thought comey was expanding the fbi probe when he fired him would raise serious questions about impeding the investigation. perhaps more startling is this conversation between comey and

trump. >> i think he asked for the dinner. and he wanted to stay on as the fbi head. and i said, you know, i'll consider, we'll see what happens, but we had a very nice dinner. at that time he told me you are not under investigation. >> reporter: talking to fbi director about a probe in his own campaign is out of the norm to begin with, doing it in the same conversation where they discussed whether comey would stay in his job, that seems to be dangerously out of bounds. >> dana, thanks very much. back now with the panel. how much do you think this has hurt the president's agenda? obviously this entire week is focusing on this. >> how many people watching know what executive order was issued today? probably about -- okay, there's one. i got an e-mail on it and i can't remember. look -- >> cyber security. >> that is part of their problem is there are a lot of things, of course, on a presidential agenda. you never want to see this kind of sidetracking no matter what

any of us think about the substance of it. there's no question, anderson, is overshadowing other things. i take the president absolutely at his word. he wants to focus on the economy, he wants to do other things that grow and strengthen america, but look, this is a huge distraction. it's gog remain one for a while -- one quick -- until they appoint someone beyond reproach. >> for someone who worked in the white house, how do you fix what is clearly an ongoing issue. we're not just talking about fbi but the white house saying one thing then the day later the president says something else, then they spend a couple of days trying to sort of align all that and it eats up a lot of time. >> a ton if the president is clearly obsessed about it. >> ken made the point is there a chief of staff problem, the other night. >> when it's a president of the united states problem. >> that's not changeable. >> well, i don't know what to tell you. i've studied nixon and watergate when i worked for president

clinton and they tried impeach him. nixon was obsessed with watergate. president clinton he had the ability to compartmentalize. i would meet with ambassadors, generals or domestic folks who could not believe this guy was going through the stress of his person life, but this guy has to learn how to focus on the work. i think he's fixated on this because there's some there there. he said this to lester holt. sometimes with trump there's a whole lot going on, but if you can pull through the manure, you can find a pony. here's what he said to lester. >> that's quite the visual. >> that's from reagan. you know this russia thing with trump and russia is a madeup story. he actually revealed that when he fired him he was thinking about russia and the investigation and that's the one thing he shouldn't have discussed with the fbi director.

>> how about asking three times whether he was under investigation. should he have done that either? i was just saying during the break when my kids used to ask me, am i in trouble, i would know they're in trouble. >> you covered them as a reporter. is it a staffing thing? is it an organization thing? is it too many people having the president's ear or not the power to say to the president, you know what, you shouldn't do this right now or we got to get our stories straight. >> one of the last pieces you said, the people who don't have the power, he's got these people around but he does what he wants. he's changed the story. they may have the story right here and he goes and does something else. when you have an issue of this magnitude, everyone needs to be on the same table. everyone needs to be on the same playing field. the problem is they're going for different scripts, then they have to go back and change after the president says something. but this is also an issue, i believe, of the fact that this

preside president, when he speaks to the nation, people do not believe him. there's an issue of checks and balances, and he doesn't understand just what it is to govern. >> the people who voted for him believe him. >> well, but there's a large number who disapprove. and most do not believe. they don't feel he's credible. >> anderson, i actually think he's very similar to president clinton. and i was there during the impeachment proceedings. >> how so? >> he could walk and chew gum. let's talk about it. immigrations. he is down 60% because of what he's done. he's passed healthcare out of the house. >> but it hasn't gone all the way yet. >> renegotiate trade agreements. he's appointed a supreme court justice. he's done et ibs changes, he's introduced a tax bill, he's built pipelines for energy. he's absolutely popular, he can walk and chew gum. >> but you would agree that he has stepped -- he's had good things happening and then he has stepped on them.

>> -- april. i think that messaging on this issue isn't the highest priority because he's not obsessed with this as a priority. >> it should be a priority. >> he's not. >> he's moving on. >> no, he's not obsessed about it. >> i may be slightly closer to the administration than you. maybe not. >> okay. >> thank you. gosh. if you look at his own words in the interview today, how much he talked about russia, what he says show be happening, he's saying the russia investigation should be over with. it's very clear what he's concerned with and what was motivating him. he said it should be sped up. he's not hiding his feelings on this. we can debate whether "the new york times" story is correct about the loyalty thing, all we have to do is look at his description of the dinner. his description of the dinner was that they went to dinner and he wanted to stay on as the fbi

head, then we had a very nice dinner, hen he told me i'm not under investigation. this is intimidation that's going on with him. >> we got the break there. we have more ahead including a new interview president trump gave to "time" magazines where he plays the james clapper and sally yates hearing on a huge tv and says they choked like dogs.

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we just got a late reaction from one of the figures in the comey firing. rod rosenstein. it's been reported that he threatened to resign in connection with all this. just moem moments ago he spoke it. >> did you threaten to quit over the comey fallout? can you say as to why you -- >> no. >> did you threaten to quit? >> no. >> with us now is michael scherrer of "time" a fascinating profile of the president the day before he filed comey. del quinton wilbur of "the wall street journal." first of all, michael, again, it is fascinating and i recommend

people read this in "time." what struck you most about your conversation with the president? >> he kept switching back and forth between different views of the world. and one moment he'd be saying -- he admitted at one point he may have been too combative of his time in office so far and that could be his fault. the next moment he was name calling his opponents again. we watched him watch tv calling former federal officials dogs. >> they choked like dogs. >> they choked like dogs, he said. i think there's really attention. he flits back and forth between the two views. all of it comes back to a very deep sense of grievance he has about the way he's been treated. it animated our entire -- we were with him for 2 1/2 hours monday night through different settings throughout the white house. but that sense of grievance followed him throughout the whole time he was there. >> there was one detail. he talked about -- he fired up his tivo while you were there which he said called one of the

greatest inventions of all time. i happen to agree with him on that. it's that or the george foreman grill. but i agree with him on the tivo. i'm fascinated by how much he watches news, watches himself. so many people i know at a high level choose not to look at themselves or read about themselves because it doesn't help them. >> at the same time he made the point and he described everything that's been said about him as well so he's paying attention. he made the point that he's been trying not to read everything about himself. he said at one point i can't believe i'm able to do it, i'm surprised i've been able to tune some of this out. he found in office it's more different than in his private life in which his media clips were his life. he has more responsibilities here. he's trying to figure out how to fit the donald trump he knows and loves, this gut instinct person who has been very successful into the box of the presidency which has a different set of rule and restrictions.

there's a real struggle going on right now. >> you reported in "the wall street journal," again fascinating details. you reported that the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein wanted the white house to direct the record on the comey firing. is that part of or the reason why the story changed from the white house? >> i think so. we know that first night it came out it was a haphazard and i think sean spicer was hiding or among the bushes. and they didn't really have a message it seemed like. it happened very quickly and very fast without a lot of preparation. >> they didn't really put it on the -- >> especially the next day. sara sanders was talking about based on rod rosenstein's recommendation. he did not like that. no, i met with the president, he asked me in writing what i thought of what james comey did and i did it. some would argue that makes him look worse, that he was donald trump's stooge in all this, do this, give me the justification to fire him and he did.

so rosenstein's credit, he wanted the truth. i cannot operate in a world where we're being unaccurate and not truthful. and i don't know if he didn't threaten to resign. our reporting didn't say threaten to resign but he had issues with it, pushed that narrative. if you notice right after he does ta, the white house changed. now we've changed again. >> phillip, i mean, what was -- according to your reporting, what was the president angry with comey about? >> the anger built over a lot of time, actually. there were a number of instances during the campaign that made him angry. once he was in office he was angry that comey didn't back him up on his baseless claim that barack obama had his office wiretapped. >> be about being mildly nauseous. >> about thinking he might have influenced the outcome of the election. it built over time.

and this past weekend when the president was at his golf course in bedminster, new jersey, he really said look, i've had it, comey has to go. the russia thing was hanging over it. he was bothered because every time comey would come out in public the question was always russia and that's the thing that trump wanted to ephrase the headline. >> even the lester hold interview he point blank said everything's about russia, trump russia while he was thinking about firing comey. >> i think that was an incredible revelation in the s lester holt interview because he was thinking about the story, which he calls fake. >> the surrogates on the night he was fired had nothing to do with russia. >> and the staff has found themselves in this situation many times before. i mean, they started out, for example, when the president said his crowds were bigger at the inauguration than barack obama's. the voter fraud issue, wire tapping issue.

you had a white house staff who suddenly had to justify what the president was saying. they had to come up with a fake narrative. >> you just wrote an article, no one can save trump from himself at cnn.om. is there no one who can say to the president, you know what? let's get all the sister stories. sar ray anders said i didn't ask the president that exact question today and that's why we're all wrong. >> i don't know if there's anybody on the staff right now who can actually do that. the only people who have been quite silent during this whole controversy are maybe ivanka and jared, but we haven't heard from them, as much as i tried to find out what they're thinking about this. >> i got to get this detail in from you. you had dinner i guess a four-course dinner with the president and there's fascinating details in your article. >> the actual conversation was fascinating. but i imagine this is what you're going at. how the dinner was served. interesting, usually when you go to the dinner the host will eat

the same food that your eating. almost every course he was eating something different. he had a different dressing for the salad, more an extra dish of sauce for the chicken. when the dessert came, we all got a piece of chocolate pie with a scoop of ice cream on it and he got a piece of pie on a separate plate with two scoops of ice cream. >> he's the president. he should get two scoops of ice cream. >> all of you are doing remarkable jobs of reporting. much needed perspective from a government official leon panetta who served as cia director. what does he make of the events of the last 48 hours? ♪

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on days like this when the president of the united states are gives an explanation that contradicts what his white house says, and the ties to russia, an investigation that president trump played taxpayer charade, on days like this you want perspective. i spoke with leon panetta, cia director and secretary of defense. secretary panetta, this evolving time line from the white house, does it make any accepts to you,

how you go from the white house, i guess on tuesday saying it was all about rod rosenstine sending this memo, and the president agreeing with it, and now the president admitti inting he had planned to do this all along? >> it's obviously very confused. and it just shows a lot of disorganization within the white house. and the relationship between the president and his subordinates. because if you're going to take a major step like firing the fbi director, you would assume that everybody would get together, and agree on some common talking points. that obviously has not been the case. and i just think it raises even greater questions in the credibility of the investigation into the russian situation. >> you know, in the past, when -- as a reporter, when you say, well, the white house says, that sentence, the white house

says, that's supposed to have some credibility to it, some meaning to it. the white house has made a public statement, declaration of something. it now seems like, well, tuesday the white house is saying one thing, but then wednesday, or the surrogates from the white house are saying one thing, but then the next day the president says something completely different. and then the surrogates pretend like, oh, well, that's what we meant all along, or it doesn't matter what we said on tuesday wasn't right, because we actually hadn't talked to the president. we were just given those talking points. what should the american people believe about what is coming out on a day-to-day basis out of the spokes people from the white house? >> well, it creates obviously a great deal of confusion in the country, and i would suspect it creates a great deal of confusion around the world. i mean, you know, when the president speaks, when the white house speaks, you assume that what is said is credible.

and that it's the truth. >> do you trust what the white house is saying right now? >> you know, you have to cross your fingers, and give it 24 hours to see whether or not what they say is in fact the truth. i mean, i just think that they're creating incredible problems for themselves in terms of the credibility that they have with the american people. you cannot continue to have several different versions of what took place here. there's one version. there's one truth about what was really involved here. and they ought to say it, and they ought to stick to it. >> as far as the president having dinner with the director of the fbi, and again, this is according to the president, this is the only account we have of it, discussing whether he's under investigation, he said the dinner was comey basically saying he wanted to continue on and the president said am i

under investigation. is that a problem? according to the white house today, this esay it's entirely appropriate that at a dinner where somebody is concerned about their job, the president is asking him about whether or not he's under investigation. >> i think i can tell you, anderson, that no president i ever worked for would have asked that question of an fbi director. because of the appearance of a conflict, by just asking that question. the fbi director is appointed for ten years. he's supposed to be independent. if he's conducting an investigation, that investigation is supposed to be under the control of the fbi director. and it should not be influenced one way or the other by the white house, or by the president. >> i was talking to michael hayden on last night. and something he said has really stuck with me. i've been thinking about it ever since. he said that the behavior we're seeing is, quote, not normally associated with a mature western democracy.

it's associated with autocratic populist states. he went on to talk about, in his words, quote, how thin the veneer of civilization really is, and that we're seeing that here. this is a reminder of how thin the veneer of civilization is. do you worry about that here? >> this president, any president cannot run away from the truth. ultimately the truth is going to show itself. it's always happened throughout history. and so regardless of what this president may or may not try to do, to possibly influence this investigation, the bottom line is, it is going to happen. and we will find the truth. and when we do, hopefully this country can continue to move on in terms of our democracy.

>> i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. allergies with nasal congestion? find fast relief behind the counter with claritin-d. [ upbeat music ] strut past that aisle for the allergy relief that starts working in as little as 30 minutes and contains the best oral decongestant. live claritin clear, with claritin-d. with an unlimited mileage warranty on your certified pre-owned mercedes-benz, you can drive as far as you want for up to three years and be covered.

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♪ thanks very much for watching. watching. "cnn tonight" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com what really happened during president trump's white house dinner with james comey. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. i want you to listen to what the president tells lester holt. >> i had a dinner with him. he wanted to have dinner because he wanted to stay on. we had a very nice dinner at the white house. dinner was arranged. i think he asked for the dinner. he wanted to stay on as the fbi head. and i said i'll consider. we'll see what happens. but we had a very nice dinner. and at that time he told me you are not under investigation. which i knew anyway. >> that's not exactly how comey