a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. the choice is yours. ♪ lower your blood sugar with invokana®. imagine loving your numbers. there's only one invokana®. ask your doctor about it by name. this is cnn breaking news. >> welcome viewers in the united states and around the world. this is "new day." we start with breaking news. another bombshell out of the white house. president trump asked fbi director james comey to drop the investigation into former national security adviser michael flynn. this according to a memo written by james comey before he was fired. >> the white house denies the charge, but after the credibility problems, can you believe the denial? if donald trump tried to influence an investigation into links with the campaign and russia, that could be

obstruction of justice. both sides of the political aisle are saying at minimum, they need to get to the bottom of the facts. some democrats are going further saying this could be ground for impeachment. let's start with joe johns at the white house. >> reporter: chris, the concern here is whether the president tried to influence an fbi investigation and then fire the man who was ultimately responsible for that investigation. as you said, the white house denying the conversation ever happened. if it did, this memo could be a big problem for president trump. another bombshell in 24 hours. the besieged trump white house facing allegations of obstruction of justice that could lead to impeachment in theory. a memo drafted by now fired fbi director james comey details president trump asking him to shutdown the michael flynn investigation during a february meeting in the oval office.

saying i hope you can see your way clear of letting this go. to letting flynn go. he's a good guy. i hope you can let this go. cnn has not seen the memo. the story was first reported by "the new york times." the president told comey that flynn did nothing wrong despite the fact he was fired for lying to the vice president about his conversations with the russian ambassador. sources tell cnn the evncounter happened with mike pence and jeff sessions whom the president asked to leave the room to speak privately with comey. comey was so appalled by the comments, he documented the scha exchange. the white house flatly denying the explosive allegations saying the president has never asked mr. comey or anyone else to end any investigation. this is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the

conversation with the president and mr. comey. in a tweet last week, president trump threatened or at least warned comey about potential tapes of the conversations. recordings comey hopes exist. the oval office meeting happened one day after flynn was fired and two weeks after the president summoned comey to a dinner at the white house reportedly asking him to pledge loyalty. comey refused. less than three months later, comey was fired. the president has openly said russia was on his mind when he made that decision. >> 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. >> reporter: on capitol hill, top congressional leaders stunned by the bombshell. >> i think they are shaken and almost shellshocked by this news. >> reporter: one republican, the chair of the house oversight

committee tweeting he is ready to issue a subpoena to obtain comey's memo if necessary before sending the fbi a formal request to supply all notes and recordings with comey and trump by next wednesday. house speaker paul ryan telling reporters we need all of the facts. >> i saw speaker ryan said things about getting to the bottom line. frankly, he should be more aggressi aggressive. >> reporter: democrats on the committees demanding the immediate investigation as a growing number of lawmakers call for comey to testify publicly as soon as possible. a move sources say the former fbi director supports. >> the country is being tested in unprecedented ways. history is watching. >> if these allegations, senator, are true, are we getting closer to the possibility of yet another

impeachment process? >> reluctantly, wolf, i have to say yes simply because obstruction of justice is such a serious offense. >> reporter: this crisis comes after the white house spent tuesday trying to clean up the mess essentially after another shocking disclosure that the president revealed highly classified information to top russian officials in an oval office meeting. cnn has been told that information was provided to the united states by israeli intelligence. now the president is planning to go on the long tour of several countries starting on friday. one of the countries he is expected to visit is israel. setting up the possibility there could be more drama while the president is on the road. chris and alisyn. >> joe, thank you for all of that. leaders of both parties want to get their hands on the james comey memo or memos.

some asking why he took such copious notes. evan perez is live in washington. evan. >> reporter: alisyn, the bad news for the trump administration is a lot more memos to be revealed according to people close to james comey. the former fbi director is known to document big moments in his tenure. one close to the source to pamela brown said he shared e-mails and memos about conversations with president trump. particularly those that left him uneasy. the conversation of michael flynn left comey concerned. comey wrote memos after other discussions with the president. congress has asked the fbi to turnover memo and e-mails comey may have written. with the white house disputing how comey described the conversation, it is comey's word against the president's. one critic said why didn't he

say something before he was fired. his friends say comey did not want to affect the ongoing russian investigation. he believed he had the issue under control. he also insured the president's comments did not get back to agents conducting the investigation. >> thank you, evan. we have our panel. analyst david gregory. legal analyst jeffrey toobin and reporter and editor at large chris cillizza. when you look at this situation, a lot of law in the air. you have politics in the air. what do you think the level of crisis is for the white house? >> i think it is grave because i think everything that the white house would like to focus on, they have completely got knocked off optopic because of the president's behavior which undermines democratic institutions for which he is showing contempt or reckless disregard of. the real thing to focus on, we

will get the comey memo at some point. comey will be on capitol hill testifying. that is the showdown we will see. comey versus the president. it is a day of reckoning for the republicans to get back on track. how they rein the president in and what it means for the russia investigation so they can get on to whatever may be left of an agenda they want to govern on. that's the name of the game. they are taking incremental steps. there is circling the wagones a. everybody is feeling dizzy by one revelation after another. >> chris cillizza, this is a time of reckoning for the republicans. it feels as if something has shifted today. up until 48 hours ago, there was more, i think, of circling of wagons. do you feel the shift in the

beltway where people are talking more? >> let me caution it has been 13 hours. >> you are talking -- hold on. you are talking about the revelation of the comey memo. i'm talking about the divulging of the classified memorandinfor. this is the one-two punch. >> i think you are right. i think we saw throughout the day yesterday republicans speaking out more and even with jas jason chaffetz. david's description of what the party feels like at the moment is shellshocked. they knew they were getting unpredictable with president trump. i don't think they thought they were getting into this. maybe they did. what i wonder about now going forward is what do the leadership of the party do? mitch mcconnell said we don't need a special prosecutor.

what do they do to offer up something that gets them in a place they can defend? with the russia leak, there was defense as i was on cnn last night and the senator from idaho said, this is ridiculous. he can declassify what he wants. he saw this as appropriate. h.r. mcmaster described it as appropriate. it is hard to imagine a defense right now that is a political place where the republican party can find solid ground. is it independent commissioner or special prosecutor? what is it? right now, the only defense is james comey is lying or grossly misunderstood or the memo doesn't exist. i think the memo doesn't exist is unlikely. we know the reporters involved and it does exist. james comey miss undunderstood things? possible. if you think he lied about the

tenure of the conversation, ask yourself why. why would the fbi director lie? they have to find a place, a safe harbor, the republican party does, in the very near term they can get behind to show they are doing something. my guess is that will probably be an independent commissioner independent prosecutor. who knows at this point? >> that would take a vote if you have an independent commission and the republicans have the votes. alisyn said this was a one-two. this is going to come down to credibility exercise. i would argue it is a four which is jab-jab-cross-hook-cross. i think he has layered. it is four. double jab is counted as one in fighting. fact as sids aside, he has doneh about his credibility. that is the biggest challenge for the white house.

cillizza is laying out the idea this doesn't exist. this is all poppycock. unless the trump campaign suggested in a fund raising e-mail, they are calling this sabotaged. unless you can show it is fake, it is coming down to credibility. that is the biggest challenge for the president. >> it is. also, yes. the credibility of what happened in the conversation with the two men after sessions and pence were excluded from the room. remember what the conversation was about. the conversation as the comey memo apparently says was let go of the investigation. the president says to comey. let it go. let flynn go. if that's true, that is the president telling the director of the fbi to drop an investigation of the trump campaign. in 1974, richard nixon was forced from office because the

smoking gun tape of june 23rd, 1972, white house tape said we're going to stop this fbi investigation. we're going to use the cia to stop an fbi investigation. it is precisely analogous investigation. >> interesting from the white house, david gregory, they say the conversation did not happen that way. very interesting then. didn't happen. never happened. never said it. you know, it didn't happen that way is giving them some room. different in posture to what they took in the second paragraph of that now infamous letter of why they got rid of comey. three times they told me i wasn't investigated. that will come back to help or haunt them. how important politically is this as a credibility battle for the gopers on the fence? >> i think that is very

important. the question is to what extent they fear reprisals from the president or politics or do they feel he is so weakened they can step out and be independent. you would like to see courage here. >> it will take courage. is there any sign he is weakened? he is beat up and not helped by how they handle it. the base numbers, every time they measure it, they are strong. >> they are strong for now. they are getting weaker. i'm not going to predict the president's political future. we all have been wrong about that. i also think we have to take things one step at a time. within the media itself, you know, you have fox news out there. talking about the activism over journalism. stop. journalism matters. we have been reminded of that. great journalism from the trump administration. journalists do their job. see where it takes you. you have a president who is ill

informed and does not have experience and who thinks he can bully his way through our democratic system. he is hanging out with erdogan who is a tyrant in turkey. he has been cozying up with putin in russia. it never occurred to him he could be manipulated or america could be compromised by russia. look what russia has achieved? look at the tumult? the president is concerned about his sense of legitimacy. he won't do what is appropriate. that requires reining in oversight. >> they have a meeting with the president and foreign minister, unusual, with no u.s. media, with only russian media. a picture of him with the guy the ambassador who everybody is trying to make a bad guy politically. >> and an issue of divulging classified information. >> the explanation is putin and

he talked and asked as a favor if he would meet with lavrov. a lot of stuff going on there. one other point with comey memo. we're rightly focused on comey alleging that trump told him to quit it on the russia or the flynn investigation. it's worth noting and brian stelter has noted this. he also said he should look into prosecuting more journalists. david's point is right. there's a tendency to assume -- this is not journalists' fault. journalists did not set up the meeting with james comey and donald trump. journalists did not tell donald trump to ask jeff sessions and mike pence to leave. journalists -- according to the memo, journalists did not say, hey, you should tell comey to back off flynn because he is a good guy. journalists are exposing this. we did not create these facts.

the idea of cab sasabotage. that is fine for the republican base. nothing that the three of us or the two evof you say. what is at issue is the fbi director in a thmemo allege tha the president of the united states said to stop or urged him to stop investigating. we need to focus on that one thing. that is of critical import. all of the noise of the media, that is a fact that exists or it doesn't. >> panel, thank you very much. so, is support waning for president trump on capitol hill? some are demanding answers. someone a gop congress member. he will tell us what wants to know next. the guy sa ou picked the wrong insurance plan. no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, you won't have to worry

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continues to drop. every couple days, there is a new aspect of this really unhappy situation. >> that was senator john mccain using some of the strongest words yet from a gop leader. our next guest is one of several republican lawmakers calling for the release of the comey memo or fired fbi director to testify before congress. joining us now is congress member adam kinzinger. veteran of the wars in iraq and afghanistan. >> good morning, alisyn. >> do you agree with senator mccain? >> that is hyperbole. he is very intelligent, obviously. one thing that is bringing a lot of questions to the front is what is going on and what is happening. it seems like every day there's some new information to pop. yesterday it was the idea of speaking and giving intelligence information.

today is the idea of was there quote/unquote, cover up or attempt to cover up obstruction of justice? that is concerning. we have to get to the answers. it is not just about the politics of it. everybody is focused on the politics and what it means. when this is done, the american people need to know that justice was served. either way. whether the administration shown they actually did not do anything or whether there was something. the american people deserve the answer. >> if the president asked fbi director james comey to let the investigation go of michael flynn and that is obstruction of justice? >> so i'm not a legal expert and it is hard to jump to that conclusion when i don't know and haven't seen the memo. don't know beyond the new york times story what was confirmed in areas. i will say if, in fact, what was in the memo is true it's very concerning and we need to get to

the bottom of that. have legal experts see what level that rises to. the american people deserve answers. democrat, republican or independent. our job in the legislative branch is to get answers to questions like that. >> how are you going to get to the bottom of it? >> there's pending investigations now. it is time we look at the idea of an independent commissioner special prosecutor. i'm not sure the best venue. i think it is time we do whatever is necessary that when this is over we give the american people the confidence that justice, either way it goes, has been served. i think we are getting to the point where this is too political. people are making determinations on whether something did or did not happen by political stripes. not by the rule of law. i think we're in the position now it is time for independent commissioner special prosecutor or whatever. >> correct me if i'm wrong, we have not heard you say that before. calling for a special prosecutor.

so are you saying you have lost faith in the congressional committees' investigations into this? >> i have not lost faith in their investigation. i think it should continue. i think they are doing really good work. yesterday, you know, when we begin to see memos and again, we need to see this. we need to see this memo. when we begin to hear things about the potential of asking the fbi director to stop an investigation, this has raised real red flags in the level of seriousness. we need honest, non political answers. we need people quit coming in front of cameras and try to make politics out of this. we need answers to justice. this is about america. this is not about the political parties or political future. whatever form that is, if it is a commission or something. it is where we need to go. >> if it comes down to james comey's word or president trump's word, who would you believe? >> there are so many iterations

of information to come out on that. >> sorry to interrupt. there were two men in the room. at that time, director comey wrote a memo about what happened and presents it to you and president trump said that did not happen and not any recollection. who would you believe? >> i think james comey has a very good reputation for the trauth. truth. i have a good buddy. he said james comey has a great reputation within the fbi. to say i'll pick this guy over this person. that leads to the iteration. there are so many issues to come out. this raises major red flags. we need answers. the american people deserve it. we have to stop standing in front of the cameras. it is easy to talk about what this means for the mid terms. the question is we need to have faith that the administration and justice is being served on all levels.

no matter. >> it is about the mid terms also. let's face it. there are some people in your party, obviously, who are looking at their districts and if they are not in a solidly red district, they are getting concerned. >> oh, sure. there is politics to it. we're political creatures in d.c. that is what this place was built for. every news story that comes out about donald trump, someone on the left make it an 11 on a 10 scale. some on the right are saying anything could go on. all we need is answers. however the form. this goes beyond 2018 or 2020. this is about protecting at whatever level. our system and faith in politicians and institutions. we have not had that for a while. >> here is one offer for an answer. reuters is just reporting at

this moment that president putin of russia says president trump did not pass secrets to sergei lavrov and he can give a record of the trump/lavrov conversation to u.s. congress members if you are interested. will you ask putin to give his account of what happened in that room? >> i don't talk to murderous dictators like vladimir putin. look, he says he doesn't use gps guided bombs to bomb hospitals in syria. we know that to be untrue. putin's word to me doesn't mean a lot. if they want to send information, we will be interested to look, but it is interesting why there is any account of what was discussed in the white house with the russians? >> will we hear anything from your colleagues? >> i think there is interest and concern. we want to get to the bottom of it. >> congress member adam kinzinger, thank you.

>> you bet. >> joining us next hour is susan collins. the next issue is will former fbi director james comey testify again? if so, when? if so, before whom? the top democrat on the intelligence committee wants to hear from him. what would he ask? what does he want to know? where does he believe any of this leads? congress member adam schiff. big player for the democrats next. 471-horsepower lexus lc 500 or the multistage hybrid lc 500h. experience amazing.

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this is cnn breaking news. >> russian president vladimir putin says he is ready to provide the u.s. congress a recording of president trump's exchange with their foreign minister sergei lavrov and insists trump did not pass secrets to the russians. joining us is congress member adam schiff. top democrat on the house committee. what do you make of the generous offer? >> after a striking couple days, yet another twist in the road. i think the last thing the president probably needs right now is for vladimir putin to be

vouching for him. if putin is now saying he has tapes, you know, that of course begs more questions about why the russians are recording conversations with the u.s. president. all of this gets more baffling every day. i don't think we should allow it to distract us from the very serious allegation that was contained in "the new york times" article that the president effectively asked comey to drop a serious investigation involving his first national security adviser. someone who was among his promised surrogates during the campaign. that is a serious charge. we need to get that memoranda or any other information that the fbi director may have had to outline conversations with russia or any other improper things. we need the director to come back to testify in open session if possible. >> if the sum and substance isrn

what? >> we still have a lot of investigating to do to determine what the president was asking the fbi director to do and why. whether he was asking him to interfere or impede goes to the president's intent. we have conflicting accounts from the president and white house and those around james comey as to what went on in the conversation. that memoranda may be an among the best of the evidence. the director is in the position, probably, to fill in the information that may not be in the memoranda. of course, we may find there are other documents as well and other conversations that shed further light on the president's motivations. i don't think we should prejude it. there is enough we need to get to the bottom of this. >> congress member, you are providing a legal nimble analysis. i guess you could make a soft

assumption if comey had memos pointing to real gross obstruction or interference, you think he would share them with the doj at some point. at the end of the day, this won't be a legal matter. the law on indicting a sitting president for any criminal matter is clear. it will not happen. certainly not until after an impeachment process. that is all up to the gop. they have the numbers. that is a political process. it is about votes. not proof. do you see anything coming of this? 12k3w >> you are right on both points. first, director comey should be asked when he testifies, are conversations about the president and the question of legality and ethics, why not reported to someone in the justice department? that is the appropriate question to ask the director. in terms of repercussions if there were demonstratable

evidence there, we need to decide if members of congress and the country as a whole believe that the president's conduct was corrupt enough, if that is what we find, his removal is not just the nullification of the election by other means. that is the test. having prosecuted impeachment case in the senate with the federal judge a few years ago, i can tell you it is a hugely consequential action. with the president of the united states, it is disruptive of the country. that is not lightly entertained. i think we fall the evidence and obtain the evidence and hear the testimony and we decide what this shows about the president's conduct. >> few quick questions for you. one, do you believe what comes out of the white house? >> on the subject of russia, i don't think question believe it. certainly the president has sent so many conflicting messages

just within the course of the week. he had his proxy and surrogates go out and layout a pre-text for why he fired comey that turned out to be completely false. the next day, the president acknowledged it was false. we really can't believe what the president says on this. you know, to have him now potentially in dispute over what happened with his version and director comey's, i think most of the country will not believe the president's account. this is why any other evidence is so important whether it is contemporaneous notes or tapes as the president suggested and threaten he may have. >> do you think that your message to your fellow democrats at this point should be to back off the impeachment word? you are nowhere near that? >> we are asked about this all the time. there is no avoiding having to answer the question.

i do think that all of us ought to talk about what a wrenching experience that would be for the country. that is not something we should be rushing into or rushing to suggest. we need to get to the bottom of what took place. what was the president's intent? was he trying to shutdown a legitimate prosecution? was he doing it because he was worried the trail may lead back to him? these are profound questions we need to answer before we get too far down the path of what are the consequences if the proof turns out to be there. >> your gop brothers and sisters are starting to talk more given the weight of the things divu e divulging of highly classified intel to the russians and firing comey. now the firing in light of the revelations of his relationship with comey may have been vis-a-vis the flynn

investigation. the idea of comey testifying before committee. do you think there is a chance that the hot allegations of what comey's memo may or may not say. is there any chance that the gop leadership would allow an independent commission to look at it? >> i do think there is a chance. i think the pressure continues to mount on the speaker to allow the legislation to go forward. you have, i think, just about every day additional republicans adding their voice to the support of either independent commissioner independent coun l counsel or both. when we see the commission taken up, the legislation taken up is when the speaker concludes that he is better off politically with a commission. he is better off being able to say okay, we gave it to an independent commission. we did what the public wanted and 3/4 of the public thinks this is necessary and important. now can we talk about tax cuts. until we get to that point where the gop leadership decides that

the continued obstruction of a commission is an impediment to the agenda, we skitill have to fight for it. >> congress member schiff, thank you. chris, a protest turning bloody outside the embassy in washington after the turkish president met with trump. that's next. when did you see the sign? when i needed to jumpstart sales. build attendance for an event. help people find their way. fastsigns designed new directional signage. and got them back on track. get started at fastsigns.com. mattress firmness? enter sleep number... she likes the bed soft. he's more hardcore. you can both adjust the bed for the best sleep of your life. save $700 on

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a protest outside the turkish embassy in washington turning violent. injuring nine people. this was hours after the turkish president erdogan met with president trump. this got bloody when erdogan supporters and protesters clashed. the groups separated and police made two arrests. and chelsea manning will be released after serving three year. manning then known as private b bradley manning was convicted of stealing documents and giving them to wikileaks. in one of the last acts, president obama commuted the rest of the sentence. a series of tornadoes ripping through five states and leaving two people dead. emergency officials say one person was killed in a mobile home park in wisconsin. the other person killed in their

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already the trump white house is dealing with two major bombshells. is something bigger happening here. joining us now, former political director to then president george h. bush. i'm suffered with a cold, in case that hasn't been obvious to everybody. i apologize everybody for my coughing, but we are going to get through this. ron, how are you and what do you make of what has happened this week? let's just boil it down to the james comey memo and whether or not you think donald trump said, can you just let the michael flynn investigation go? >> first, i hope you feel better. >> thank you. >> i think what we're seeing this week is something different than the other controversies that have embroiled trump. this controversy about

mishandling classified information is a serious one and the combination of firing comey after having requested that he not pursue the anyoflynn mattera serious one. and i think that there is an obstruction of justice. the fact that trump asked other people to leave the room so he could have this conversation is a very welling sign here. >> i think it's very serious. i think it is important to remember that the trump white house has pushed back the account on this memo and whether or not this memo exists. you put congressmen in a terrible position. i'll tell you as someone who, you know, has been in the white house, to think that james comey was writing down these instances of potential wrongdoing by the

president and keeping it in kind of his side drawer for the right moment, that's awfully alarming to me. that's what j. edgar hoover used to do. i don't want to make that charge, but that's sure what this looks like. if this was wrongdoing, if people are charging this is obstruction of justice, why wouldn't the fbi director immediately take action on that? if anything, i think this makes jim comey look even worse after he's lurched left, lurched right, played this strange role in the presidential campaign. it seems uneven to me. >> but you think that opportunityism is worse than obstruction of justice? why are you zeroed in on what comey did? i think the explanations were he thought he could handle trump.

he wasn't going to stop doing the investigation on michael fly flynn. >> well, let's start from the very beginning. every one of these controversies, which there has been some manner of sloppiness in the white house. from the beginning of this, everybody has simply wanted the facts and i think what people have grown frustrated with with the fbi is that it seems to take jim comey's fbi a very long time to show the american people some very basic information. and what it seems like with him is he talks about some aspects of an investigation and says nothing about the basic facts. for instance, was donald trump a target of that investigation, it took donald trump explaining

that for us to know he wasn't a target. this is frustrating for some people and it means that james comey lacks credible. >> ron, what do you think of about this? we've heard this from other republicans. this is what we should be focussed on, not whether or not the presidentdy v die vulged information to the russians. >> he potentially put our allies at risk by carelessly handing over information to the russians and to try to squelch an ongoing investigation. i worked at the justice department. investigations unfortunately take a long time if they are done the right way and i think the evidence here suggests the fbi was doing it the right way. as for what james comey thought

he was doing, he was clearly making notes of the progress of an investigation, making notes of his conversations with the president when he thought they were troubling. that all changed when last week the president fired jim comey and then went on lester holt and said he fired him because he was frustrated about the russia investigation. >> i agree with this. >> that is a serious problem. >> i agree with this. what we're seeing here is jim comey is getting his revenge. he was fired. he feels like he was humiliated and he's striking back and releasing information through friends to reporters about potential wrongdoing of the president and i think that's wholly inappropriate. >> not about him wanting to get the information out, but the president was trying to obstruct an investigation. >> let me be clear about this. if he is going to say that the president was doing something illegal and he was simply going to write it down on a diary for

history and he wasn't going to take action on that, does anybody else find that incredibly troubling? >> that's not what happened here, matt. >> well, we don't know what happened. >> well, we do. >> what we're told happened is he is now releasing -- he said this memo existed. he is sbe maintimated what's in that. >> how do you see it? >> i see the conversation with the president was troubling. what made it potentially criminal is when the president then fired the fbi director and acknowledged that it was for the purpose of obstructing the russia investigation. that is, jim comey was proceeding with the investigation. notwithstanding the comments from trump until the president took one additional step, to fire the fbi director. >> the only thing i would back to that, ron, is that you now have the person running the fbi

who is saying that the white house has done nothing to impede any of these investigations. >> that's not what he said. >> you're talking about mccabe and he was answering a specific question i believe. so you have to look at it in context. he also may not have known about the comey memos. >> that doesn't matter. >> hold on one second. >> no, but let me just -- the fbi didn't impact any of the operations in the fbi with all of these officers and field officers that were doing their job. >> right. it doesn't work. but if the president tried to do that, that is notable. i just want to say one thing. does it trouble you if the president divulged classified information to the russians? >> i'm with john on this. there is nothing in this that i think is beyond a sloppy process. i think they should be a better process. giving israel a head's up would

be a good thing to do. i think the sloppiness of not knowing who was going to have a recording device or a smartphone in the oval office, having those photos come out. now we have vladimir putin with a recording, i think that's general sloppiness and that needs to stop. >> it's general sloppiness when the president divulges classified information, but not when hillary clinton has three e-mails that she sends to her own staff? how is that possible? >> the president of the united states has the legal ability to share this classified information. yes, it is better politically and for relationships if there is a process. hillary clinton was the secretary of state. she lied dozens of times about her mishandling of information. and the fact is that the whole system including the server was never cleared. so they are completely apples and oranges. >> ron, last word. >> i think they are apples and oranges in that what trump did

was much worse. clinton never led to the release of classified information to adversaries. >> absolutely. >> donald trump handed israeli intelligence to the patron of its arch enemy, iran, a russian client state. there could be nothing more damaging to israeli security. >> we've got to leave it there. we heard your side, matt. ron, thank you very much. we're following a lot of news this morning, including one of the few republicans speaking out this morning. senator suzanne collins is going to join us this morning, so let's get right to it. >> all right. we welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is "new day." it is wednesday, may 17th, 8:00 in the east now. we have breaking news. the latest bombshell from the trump white house comes from a memo written by former fbi director james comey. comey says president trump asked

them to drop their investigation into mike flynn. the white house denies this account. but did the president obstruct justice. >> now, russian president putin weighs into the other bombshell of the week, that president trump did not share classified intelligence with russian diplomats and putin says he can prove it. will they believe vladimir putin? give us the latest, joe. >> reporter: good morning, alison. the real concern is whether the president tried to influence an fbi investigation at the very top and then fired the man ultimately in charge of that investigation. the white house is disputing this account, denying this conversation ever occurred. but it is a huge problem for president trump. another bombshell in 24