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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. >> he asked? >> at dinner it was ranged. i think he asked for the dinner. 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. and at that time he told me, you are not under investigation, which i knew anyway. >> but that's not exactly how comey remembers it. sources say the president tried to get the now fired fbi director to pledge loyalty to him. and comey wouldn't do it. that's according to a report tonight in "the new york times," and it comes as the president insists the russia investigation is, in his words, a made-up story and an excuse by democrats for losing the election. so here we go, let's get right to it. gloria borger is here. jim sciutto is here as well. carl bernstein and white house correspondent athena jones.

good evening to all of you. gloria, we'll start by listening to part of this interview with lester holt. he continued to insist that the democrats are using a made-up story about the russians to explain their loss. here it is. >> 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 made-up story. it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election that they should have won. the and reason they should have won it, the electorate college is almost impossible for a republican to win. it's very hard. because you start off at such a disadvantage. so everybody was thinking, they should have won the election. lost an election.e for having - >> are you angry with mr. comey because of his russia investigation? >> i just want somebody that's competent. i'm a big fan of the fbi. i love the fbi. i love the people of the fbi. >> but are you -- >> i think about the hillary clinton investigation? >> no, about the russia

investigation. >> no, i don't care, look, look -- >> and possible links between -- >> as far as i'm concerned, i want that thing to be absolutely done properly. when i did this now, i said, i probably, maybe will confuse people, maybe i'll expand that, i'll lengthen the time. because it should be over with, in my opinion, it should have been over with a long time ago, because all it is is an excuse. i said to myself, i might even lengthen out the investigation. but i have to do the right thing for the american people. he's the wrong man for that position. >> so, gloria, i mean, it sounds like he just admitted that he fired director comey because of the russia investigation. >> it does sound like that. he said, when i decided to do it, i thought about russia and it was a made-up story, it was an excuse pfor losing and blame it on the democrats. and the clear implication here is that comey was spending too much time on the russia story. and from my reporting and other

people's reporting at cnn and other news organizations, we know that this really rankled him particularly after he heard comey testify last week. and i think that that is something that was clearly on his mind. comey wouldn't pledge loyalty to him or to anybody else. and i think that you've gotta believe that this was something he was thinking about. all he did then come out and say, and you heard it, that he wants somebody who's competent, as in comey is not competent, and that he wanted it done, quote, properly, whatever that means. >> it's not about the russia investigation, but it's about the russia investigation, right? athena, this investigation into the russian mettling into our election should have been over a long time ago. and firing director comey might confuse some people here. what do you make of those two comments? >> well, it's hard to know what to make of it, don. it's kind of muddled because you have the president saying that this investigation should have

been over a long time ago. his suggestion is that there's nothing there, that's why it should have been wrapped up. but then he also acknowledged that maybe this decision to fire director comey could confuse people in his words, or certainly be taken, i guess, the wrong way. but then he acknowledges that this could end up lengthening the investigation, which is the opposite of what he said his goal was. the bottom line here, is that we know how the president feels about this russia investigation. he recently called it a taxpayer-funded charade. he's called it all sorts of other things, but it's odd because he sounds like he's making sort of a muddled point here, arguing that there's never a good time to have made this decision to fire comey. but then acknowledging that it could create confusion. it's a little odd, don. >> to say the least. as we know, in his letter, president trump that the director told the president three times that he was not

under investigation. and then lester holt asked him about that. here's part of the president's interview. >> i actually asked him, yes. i said, if it's possible, would you let me know, am i under investigation? he said, you are not under investigation. >> but he's given sworn testimony that there's an ongoing testimony into the trump campaign and possible collusion with the russian government. you were the centerpiece of the trump campaign. >> all i can tell you -- >> is he being truthful? >> i know that i'm not under investigation. me, personally. i'm not talking about campaigns, i'm not talking about anything else. i'm not under investigation. >> so jim sciutto, should a sitting president even be asking the director of the fbi if he is under investigation in the first place? >> i asked a number of democratic and republican lawmakers today that question. and unanimously they answered no, should not be. because whether it is interference, it certainly smells of interference in that

investigation. the other point i would make is this, don. i think it's important to set the record straight, the president repeating what he said many times that the russian investigation is just an excuse for an election that the democrats lost. look at the timeline. one month before the election, october 7th, a month and a day, that the intelligence community and the department of homeland security announced, made a public statement that russia is interfering in the u.s. political process. they determined that their intention was to help trump. it was three months before that, we've learned since, that the fbi first began to look at possible collusion between the trump campaign is russia, which is a still open part of the investigation. that happened months, weeks before the democrats lost the election. so the fact is, it does not have anything to do with the democrats' election loss. ask ask the fbi that question, ask the democrat and republican members of the house and senate

intelligence committee meetings. it's a statement that does not stand up to the facts. >> the investigation started in july and the election was in november. so now to carl, "the new york times" reporting about one of those conversations between the former director comey and the president. one of the topics, loyalty. here's an account of that. he said, by mr. comey's account, his answer to mr. trump's initial question apparently did not satisfy the president, the associate said. later in the dinner, mr. trump again said to mr. comey that he needed his loyalty. their comey again replied that he would give him honesty and did not pledge his loyalty. that's according to an account of the conversation. but mr. trump pressed him on whether it would be honest loyalty. you will have that, mr. comey told his associates, that he responded. throughout his career, mr. chromey has -- mr. trump has made loyalty from people who worked with him a key priority, often discharging employees he considered insufficiently reliable. so my question is, jake tapper also reported that a lack of

promise of personal loyalty was one of two reasons that those close to comey believe that he was dismissed. that is really stunning. because fbi directors aren't supposed to be loyal to any president that they serve, right? >> that's right, but the bigger question here is one of honesty, transparency, and really a delusional view by the president of the united states of what proper conduct of the presidency is. he has been evading for months and months, attempts to learn the truth about a grave matter of national security, and whether or not he or and/or his aides colluded with a hostile foreign power. and his inability or deliberate attempts to show that this is not the issue is simply disingenuous. we are now facing a situation where there's a great search for

the truth going on about these grave, grave matters. the search for the truth is being conducted by the fbi. by committees of congress. by the press. and there is one person in the middle of all of this who has, from the beginning, tried to evade the truth. that is the president of the united states. and that's the situation we face right now. and we're going to be facing it from every available indication. and tonight's interview with lester holt, shows the degree to which the president seems unable to move toward the truth on these matters. >> i know there's a delay, but i want to play that. because he remains convinced there was no collusion in his campaign and he said as much tonight. watch. >> well, i think that looking into me and the campaign, look, i have nothing to do. this was set up by the democrats. there's no collusion between me and my campaign and the russians.

the other thing is, the russians did not affect the vote. and everybody seems to think that. >> there is an investigation under way, an fbi investigation, is that a charade? >> 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, if it's the senate or the house. >> james comey testified there was an fbi investigation. >> but they're probably helping the sous and the senate. you have house, senate, they have other investigations. >> but when you put out tweets, it's a total hoax, a taxpayer charade and you're looking for a new fbi director, are you not sending that person a message to lay off? >> no, i'm not doing that. i think that we have to get back to work. what 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. >> well, 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. >> gloria, i've watched that sound bite with a number of different people today. and every time it's come on, someone in the room will say, does he know what he's talking about? does he know what he's talking about? >> well, i think that he made it clear he's not clear how many investigations there are. although you have to sort of scratch your head and wonder why he wouldn't know about the fbi investigation since he asked james comey whether he was out of trouble in those investigations, three times. he asked comey about it three times, according to his own retelling of it. so i think this is a president who has been briefed on russian interference in the election. it's not like he doesn't know

about it. he sounded in that clip, by saying, i want to get to the bottom of it, i'd like to know about it. he does know about it. his own intelligence agencies have briefed him about it. what he wants to say is that i, the president, had nothing to do with any of this. and he said it. and he said his campaign had nothing to do with it. let the fbi do its job. let the congressional committees do their job. he should be out there encouraging that. he should be out there saying, i want the fbi to do its job. let's get this done so that -- and have a good, thorough investigation, so that i can get the work of the country done. he should be saying that every day. he should be promising the american people, this will never happen again in this country. >> i'll get you on the other side of the break. go ahead, jim. >> if i could just add, to

highlight gloria's point, because it's inconvenient information, which goes back to questions about his election victory, he still puts it in the if category, if russia were to do this. the intelligence agencies, weeks, months before the election, determined that very fact. and beyond saying that, he also continues to characterize it as sort of a democratic story, for how they lost the election. he's willing to throw, if not the truth, the assessment of his own intelligence agencies under the bus to feed, in effect, this questioning about, or just to feed the questioning about this assessment, which he may perceive as undermining his own victory. >> plenty more to come. we can talk more after the break. athena, i know you have to get off the white house lawn. thank you, athena. everyone else, stick with me. when we come back, is the white house story about why comey was fired unraveling?

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the president saying tonight that he was going to fire james comey no matter what his deputy attorney general recommended, but that directly contradicts what his top aids have been saying. back with my panel now. here's what vice president pence, sarah huckabee sanders and kellyanne conway have said over the past 48 hours. >> the president took strong and decisive leadership here to put the safety and security of the american people first by accepting the recommendation of the deputy attorney general to remove director comey as the head of the fbi. >> the president accepted the recommendation of his deputy attorney general to remove james comey from his position. >> he took the recommendation of rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, to whom the fbi director reports to. >> but again, he told lester holt that he was going to fire him anyway. so why is this story constantly

changing, carl? >> because it's dishonesty propaganda put out by the president of the united states and his aides. and we now face a situation in which it is essential for the country, that we find out what has occurred here in the conduct of the president of the united states, and whether or not he is engineering or is engaged in a cover-up of what occurred. that is now part of the investigation, part of what the senate and the house need to find out, part of what the american people need to know. it is possible that the president is not engaged in a cover-up. but it certainly is the belief of many investigators, including in the fbi, that he is. whether that is an obstruction of justice that could lead to his removal of in office or something of the kind, we're far away from that at this stage. but we're in an area of deep

water that is really bringing this president down into a position where he is in great peril because of his inability to be truthful, honest, factual, and tell the country and the united states and the world he wants to know what happened here. let's get to the bottom of this. if he doesn't, as we're seeing now, there's great pushback within the fbi, which feels, many of its agents, that the firing of comey is a sign that he does not want, the president of the united states does not want the truth to emerge. >> gloria, you think this puts the vice president in an awkward position again -- comey, because that was the first awkward position. >> totally. >> why is that? >> it puts the vice president in a terrible position because he was out there telling the same story. now, either the president lied to his vice president, which mike flynn was fired for, if you'll recall, which i don't

believe. or the vice president was toeing the line because that's what they were told to do. i've got to believe that the vice president knew about the president's upset with comey. but you know this isn't the first time this has happened, don. it's a pattern here. when you look from the very first full day in office. donald trump was talking about his crowd sizes at the inauguration compared to barack obama. sean spicer was sent out there to sort of spin that one. then, you know, we heard about voter fraud, three million voters. they were sent out there to spin that one. today we have a commission on that. the wiretapping. obama wiretapping donald trump. everyone was sent out there to spin that and they did. and so now, we have this decision, which the president made himself, he's mad at comey, he didn't like him. the guy didn't pledge loyalty, and it had been stewing. he makes it, closely held, and

suddenly they have to figure out a way to kind of rationalize this and explain the firing. >> if you watch it today, listen, any rational person, you understand what's going on here. it is so blatantly obvious that they're not telling the truth. they can't even spin it properly. and if anyone out there believes what they're saying, i got a bridge to sell you. jim, this is very interesting, from jeff zeleny reporting and just in. two government officials inside the fbi headquarters today said that comey's office has been cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape. it's not an actual crime scene. the tape is all they had to mark it off to keep people from entering. what do you make of that? >> a lot of folks ask the question was it intentionally timed that comey was fired when he was away from washington and out of his office, on the

opposite coast of the country, in los angeles, with the question, does it prevent him and the fact is, it does prevent him from getting to his papers, et cetera, under those circumstances. so that's a fair question. why while he was over there and what's the consequence of that? what can he not get to, e-mail files, et cetera. that's a fair question. and just to gloria's point, i remember that day we were there, that the crowd size was the issue within hours of the president being inaugurated. i remember wondering and saying at the time, when you have a falsity -- when will we have a falsity of consequence? crowd size is just crowd size. and since then, and gloria ticked off a few of them. these are falsities of consequence. the president and the white house creating a false narrative behind the firing of the nation's most senior law enforcement official. the president of the white house creating a false narrative about michael flynn and when they got a warning. sally yates testified last week

under oath that in fact, she warned that he was in danger of being compromised by the russians. the president said that president obama ordered him to be wiretapped. that has not stood up to the facts either, including director comey himself contradicting the president. these are falsities of consequence and they are repeated. >> none of it stands up to the facts and they continue to move on. they present something else that's not factual, there's a lie or basically not true and they have to come out and spin it as if it's true, when it's not. i have to get it in in our short time. we heard from rod rosenstein, the man who made monday night's recommendation to the president, for the first time. watch this. >> did you threaten to quit over the comey fall-out? can you say as to why you -- >> no, i'm not quitting. >> did you threaten to quit? >> no. >> did the fbi lose confidence in fbi comey?

today the top seven officials in the hearing today said that they still had strong confidence in comey, the fbi did. do you have any comment to that? have you spoke to the white house lately today? >> thank you. >> we didn't hear much, carl. so what's your reaction to what happens to the deputy a.g. next? >> well, what we have learned is, the deputy attorney general was co-opted, or the president of the united states attempted to con and co-opt the deputy attorney general of the united states and the investigation itself. i've been very reluctant to say we're in a constitutional crisis, but it appears that we are, because the rule of law is really what is at issue here. and the president of the united states, throughout this, has tried to subvert the legal means to conduct investigations into

the gravest of national security matters. and what we see in the rosenstein example is, once again, how he has tried, the president has tried to undermine, demean, and make it impossible for investigators to do their job, including here is the deputy attorney general of the united states, who is apparently trying to see that there is an independent investigation conducted. but had to threaten to quit, really, unless the president or the white house corrected the record and came out with the truth. this is what we're seeing at every juncture in this story, is about untruth and the attempts by others to get at the truth. and that's where we're heading. >> thanks, everyone. when we come back, i'm going to speak to a senator who is calling for an independent investigation into russia. what he thinks of the president's comments tonight about james comey.

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president trump insisting tonight that he wants to get to the bottom of russia's mettling in the election. i want to bring in senator richard blumenthal, democrat, member of the judiciary committee. the president fired the man leading the investigation into the russian dealings. where do we go from here? >> thin my view, an independent special prosecutor to be appointed by the deputy attorney general. it's the only way that rod rosenstein can save and redeem his reputation. he's become a pawn of the president in perception, and i'm

afraid in reality. and he must now do the right thing, appoint a special prosecutor who will be independent the donald trump and him and the attorney general who should all take themselves out of this investigation, have no contact with the fbi, unless they are interviewed for the investigation. and allow sufficient resources to be devoted to this investigation. >> but your republican colleagues -- you're calling for an independent investigation. your republican colleagues are not. do you think that will actual happen? >> don, i think that's really the key question, politically. i think the ground is shifting. the politics and the dynamic here are moving because the ground under their feet is shifting as the human cry, the outcry and outrage from the public grows. >> i've heard this so much on air and others. when are responsible republicans going to stand up? when are republicans who have a backbone, the kind of republicans they had during the

nixon administration? what makes you and your colleagues actually think that's going to happen, considering the whole election, someone with the whole genitals thing, the way he spoke about immigrants, and spoke out against him initially and yet all embraced him in the end. what makes you think they're going to change now, that there's going to be a moral shift with them? >> key question. first of all, the ground has shifted for my democratic colleagues. i was one of six democrats who voted against rod rosenstein. i was the only member of the judiciary committee who did so, because i asked him to commit to amount point a special prosecutor and he refused to do so. now we have virtually unanimous support for a special prosecutor among my democratic colleagues, and i can tell you just from my conversation today, a number of my republican colleagues are

absolutely chilled by what they are seeing unfold now. and here's why, don. what we have here is not a two-bit burglary. what we have here is an assault on our democracy. in the watergate era, the cover-up was worse than the crime. now what we have is a theft of our democracy, and that is chilling to republicans as well as democrats. so i think it is moving the dynamic. >> so you think it may not be russia collusion, but impeding the investigation may be, you think, the crime here, the bigger crime here? >> impeding the investigation, obstruction, cover-up, call it what you will. >> i have to ask you about the interview. as you heard with lester holt on nbc, did it change anything for you? did you understand the president's reasoning about firing james comey? >> it established clearly a contradiction with his subordinates which we now have highlighted numerous times, but it also indicated to me that

russia was very much on his mind and i think he fails to understand how serious this assault on a democracy was. unless the russians are made to pay a price, they will do it again. >> i want to ask you, since you mentioned that. this is politico tonight. they're reporting trump did a lengthy interview with holt, even though some of his staff believed it was a bad idea, and gave his answers off the cuff. one person who spoke to him said he'd been fixated on news coverage and believed his press team was failing him and that he needed to take the situation into his own hands. >> if he took the situation into his own hands, maybe he was telling the truth, that in fact, he made the decision to fire jim comey because of the russian investigation. because jim comey said in response to questions at the judiciary hearing, when i asked him, that he would not rule out

the president as a target because he went to rod rosenstein and asked for more resources, which, by the way, are the life blood of an investigation. when he went to rod rosenstein and he said, i need more resources, it was a sign that the investigation was expanding, not diminishing. >> so in the context of responsible republicans, as your colleagues have been saying, when are they going to stand up. in the context of this off-the-cuff interview. part of the politico article said, asked what the strategy was to get through the crisis, one senior administration official laughed and asked if the reporter was joking. and then said there was widespread recognition that this was handled terribly and a real sense there wasn't much they could do. so is anyone in the white house ready to tell the emperor about his clothing and that maybe less is more, because the more he speaks the more he continues to dig himself into a hole as it

relates to russia, flynn, and on and on and on? >> if a rational person were advising the president of the united states, he would tell him, he needs a strong chief of staff, jim baker, to organize, bring together, make sure that the truth gets out, on the assumption that the truth is what eventually will get out. as leon panetta said just an hour or so ago on cnn. >> do you think this is incompetency? >> i hope that whatever it is, incompetence, or lack of truthfulness, will be corrected. and i say that as a democrat who believes strongly that there must be an independent prosecutor to make sure that the truth is uncovered and that people who colluded with the russians, whoever they are, are held accountable, because the russians need to be made to pay a price, and so do the people

who helped them. because the russians will do it again. they tried to get into the vote-counting. and they'll do it in 2018, and so will the people who colluded and helped them, if they are not made to pay a price. >> and the american people want you guys, all of you, to check your politics and your party at the door. and it doesn't seem that anybody is doing that s. >> that's why i hope my republican colleagues will listen to their constituents. >> thank you. when we come back, new details about what the president said to james comey. the two telling very different stories about a dinner where the president asked if he was under investigation.

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sarah huckabee sanders with an interesting statement today about the firing of james comey. let's discuss now with the panel, good evening. michael, you first. the white house said today that removing comey from his post may hasten the agency's investigation into russian mettling. sarah sanders huckabee had this to say about the investigation. >> we want this to come to its conclusion with integrity and we think by removing director comey we've season steps to make that happen. >> is it the place of the white house or the president to decide when this investigation is concluded? >> no, it's not the place at all. we're living in never-neverland when you somebody under

investigation, trying to call the shots about the investigation. i listen to what the president said about comey's assurances, that's had his letter that he sent to comey, that makes no sense to me at all. even if, and i don't believe it was said in the way the president has relayed it, but even if comey made a reference about whether or not he was under investigation, it was an improper question to ask him. these investigations continue to roll from one thing at the next. while that may have been the case at the time, that doesn't mean that the next day something didn't come up that put him or his associates under the microscope. >> listen to this. >> i actually asked him, yes. i said, if it's possible, will you let me know, am i under investigation? he said, you are not under investigation. >> every person who watched that interview, that part, they were struck by that, laura. it may not be illegal, i don't know, you're the legal expert. but was it ethical?

>> i don't think that it was. it was an inappropriate question for him to ask, and an inappropriate question if comey actually answered it, and that's a big if. but the real issue is the timing of it. we don't have the timing of that conversation. it matters. remember, in march is when comey came forward and said at a hearing that there actually was a criminal investigation into the trump campaign and whether it colluded with russia during the 2016 election. if that conversation that he asked that question at the dinner or the two phone calls that came after it happened before march, then arguably, you could argue that, listen, he didn't know there was an ongoing investigation and you miss an important link about obstruction of justice. if however it came after that, and it probably came a little bit before and after, then you have more of an inkling to say, you knew there was an investigation. did your question at the time he was looking to extend his tenure, did you hope to

influence that decision, and did that have an impact ultimately? that's going to be the conundrum we're facing, what was the timing and what was your intent at that time. >> here's how you know that politics is involved when there's this sort of disingenuity and that it's hypocrisy. do you remember, steve, when bill clinton met with loretta lynch on the plane? everybody, republicans and democrats, said it was inappropriate. right? now you have the president of the united states meeting with the director of the fbi and admitting that he asked him if he was under investigation. yet republicans in washington and i'm sure many around the country are still standing up for him and not condemning it like they condemned the meeting with loretta lynch and bill clinton on the plane. this is one of the central problems that we're having, don. there's no doubt in my mind that although i understand the

administration's desire to have this investigation be over with, there's no doubt that comey's removal has slowed that down. and it is a question of perception and integrity. people are saying things like the good people at the fbi and there are lots of good ones and i've worked with lots of good ones, will continue to work on this investigation regardless of who is the director. and the bottom line is, while that's true, these people also have mortgages to pay, kids to put through college, they need the political top cover and you were just mentioning when politics gets involved. in this sense, it's a positive thing, they need an fbi director who is completely apolitical, who will protect them from the political winds so they can do this counterintelligence investigation. that's the only way we'll get to the bottom of this. ironically, comey, who was disliked by both sides of the aisle at various times, in today's polarized washington, he's about the closest you can get to apolitical, and they've just gotten rid of him. so what's gotta happen, the republicans and the rest of congress are going to have to

make sure that whoever donald trump, who by the way is the guy being investigated, whoever he names is up to a very high standard. and whether the republicans can actually come through and do that, because they control it, right? >> yeah. >> it will be very interesting to see. >> that's an interesting point. because we say in this business, if you're ticking everybody off, left, right and middle, then you're doing something right. >> it's a good sign. >> in the press briefing today, the white house said they want the russian investigation to come to its conclusion with integrity. here's what the president told nbc. >> oh, i was going to fire regardless of recommendation. 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 made-up story, it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election that they should have won. >> so i've heard some people say this is a president confessing to obstruction of justice. what do you think? >> i certainly think he's trying to put his thumb on this investigation. he wants somebody he can control in the position of fbi director. because i don't understand at all, if the real reason to remove comey is what he did in the clinton investigation, or what he said in the congressional hearing, why also get rid of mccabe? now, did i not expect the acting director of the fbi to actually make it through the hearing today, because it's clear from what he said, he is independent, he's strong-minded. and he is somebody who, i think, could run this investigation. but i understand that the attorney general and the deputy attorney general are already looking for replacements for this guy and he hasn't been on the job for a full week yet. so i don't know why we can't keep someone like mccabe in his position to allow him to continue to run the investigation. because if we cannot do that,

the only way to have any credibility at all in this investigation is to appoint a special counsel. and if the deputy attorney general is the kind of guy that i hear that he is, i expect that he will eventually do that. he has no other choice. >> yeah, but isn't it their entire goal, it appears they don't care about a credible investigation, if you look at what's happened with nunes and on and on and on. that doesn't seem to be the president's goal. >> they want it over with, no question. and they want it over with without anybody being charged. the best way for them to do that is to keep someone that they control in the decision-making position. so if the deputy attorney general now decides to start looking into this case individually or independently, trump can remove him, and he's shown that he'll remove people in that position because he's done it in the past. i think the only way for the investigation to have any kind of credibility, the only way for this administration to move on

to other things, is to have somebody from the outside sit down, get the resources that they need, and be independent. >> let me just say -- >> can you hold that to the other side of the break. i'll get to you, laura. when we come back, acting fbi director contradicting the white house in his first appearance. we'll discuss that and more. so there are no artificial colors, no artificial flavors, no artificial preservatives in any of the food we sell. we believe in real food. whole foods market. i was always "tpeople don't stare anymore. i never joined in. that wasn't fair to any of us. i was covered. i tried lots of things over the years. but i didn't give up. i kept on fighting. i found something that worked. that still works. now? see me. see me. i found clear skin that lasts. see if cosentyx could make a difference for you-

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panera. food as it should be. the allergy medicine xyzal is now available over the counter in original prescription strength. so for 24 hour symptom relief be wise all take new xyzal. back now with my panel. i know you want to get in, laura, but i want to say this and i want to get the dates correct. so we know that sallyuates, right, met with the white house counsel on january 26th so they that flynn had been compromised. right? had been compromised. the dinner that the new york

times is reporting about where the president asked james comey to pledge loyalty happened the very next day on january 27th. what does that say to you. >> well, that tells me that one, obviously it was prior to his con kbregsal hearing where he confirmed that there was in fact, a criminal investigation into collusion and it also suggests to me that you have a president who was pushing his weight around at the time and was trying to put his thumb on the scale to figure out whether this person would go forward with an investigation and whether the answer to that question had to be no for you to keep your job. now, again, that's if comey answered that question. the interesting part about this is we all want to hear from james comey, but the question is going to be, listen, will there be the assertion of the executive privilege by the president to say no, i said there was a conversation but you cannot talk about what was actually inside of that conversation so i'm eager to figure out how they're going to have an opportunity for us as

the public to hear what comey in fact, did and if he answered the question it would be highly inappropriate of comey, it would be improper of the president, but we're still not yet at the unlawful part for a criminal investigation or charge. >> michael, maybe it's just a coincidence, but you know, the acting attorney general says hey, you know, your national security advisor is compromised, and then the next night you have dinner with the president of the united states? i mean, come on. >> let me tell you, i think that james comey lost his job because the president realized the fox was getting a little close to the hen house and they realized after sally yates brought to their attention that mike flynn and the contacts he had made and not reported and comey's coming up and he's talking about russia, i think that they were starting to feel the heat and they felt like they had to move

at that point. the danger i think for the democrats is that we start talking or the democrats in congress talk more about comey and the firing of comey than they do about russia. and the focus has got to remain on russia and not on comey. and this could be just a clever tactic by this administration and they're good at this. they throw these red herrings to move the news, to move the discussion so they've got to watch that, but i think that's the danger in something like this. >> we're not talking about policy, about signing bills and, you know, he does with the executive orders. steve, why are you shaking your head? do you agree with what he said? >> absolutely. we have to have this laser like focus on the russian part of this investigation. i mean, more serious stuff is indeed coming out which raises, you know, legal questions about the president's behavior and you know, all of that sort of thing, but you've got to remember that really the real threat here is if there was that collusion or

cooperation with the russians, that's -- exist ten shl threat is probably -- i mean, how can -- you know, how does this go forward? >> how does that work? i've got to get paige in. what do you make of the timing here and everything -- what we've discussed? >> it's entirely coincidental, don. can't you see that? that's just the way the world works. no, it's not coincidental at all. the white house had information something was going on. flynn was starting to be under the microscope. so what are they going to do about it? they're going to inquire from the fbi director who at that point trump thinks is his buddy. i'm going to get an assurance from him. i don't think jim comey ever

told him word one about this investigation and certainly not on three separate occasions and why would trump be asking for three different assurances he's not under investigation if there wasn't something to investigate? >> i've got to say, don, elephant in the room is also jeff sessions. did he -- was he also involved in any attempt to obstruct justice? if he had a part in trying to shut down this investigation. he cannot be forgotten. he's not in a safe place right now. come to find out, who was the date he chose to recuse himself? i bet it will be a coincidence as you mentioned as well. >> have you guys seen the new yorker cover? have you seen that with jeff sessions dragging jim comey off the plane? yeah. okay. thank you all. see you next time. when we come back, the president's first interview since firing james comey. it seems the two men have very different views of how their

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and built a state-of-the-art gas operations center. we can never forget what happened in san bruno. that's why we're working every day to make pg&e the safest energy company in the nation. breaking news, president trump at odds with his own white house. this is cnn tonight. i'm don lemon. the president saying he was going to fire james comey with or without a recommendation from rod rosenstein. for those keeping score at home that comes after vice president pence, kellyanne conway and sanders had all insisted the president fire comey only after rosen stein recommended it. plus, the