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 hours.

the besieged trump white house facing accusations of obstruction of justice that could lead to impeachment, at least in theory. a memo drafted by now fired fbi director james comey details president trump asking him to shut down the michael flynn investigation during a february meeting in the oval office saying i hope you can see your way clear to 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 a russian ambassador. the encounter happened after a sfr conversation with sessions. comey was so appalled by the president's comments that he

documented the exchange, just a number of memos he wrote out of concern that the president was trying to stop the investigation. 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 between the president and mr. comey. in a tweet last week, president trump threatened or at least warned comey about potential tapes of their conversations, recordings comey hopes exist in order to corroborate his account, according to sources. the oval office happened one week after flynn was tired and two weeks after the president summoned comey to a dinner at the white house, reportingly asking him to pledge his loyalty. comey refused. three weeks later he was fired. the president said russia was on his mind when he made that decision. >> i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with

trump and russia is a made up story. >> on capitol hill, top congressional leaders stunned at the latest bombshell and largely silent. >> i think they are shaken and almost shell shocked by the news. >> but one republican, the chair of the house oversight committee tweeting he is ready to issue a sub to obtain comey's memo if necessary before sending the fbi a formal request to supply all notes and recordings detailing conversations between comey and mr. trump by next wednesday. paul ryan telling reporters he agreed with the move, adding we need to have all the facts. >> i saw that speaker ryan said some things tonight about getting to the bottom line. frankly, i think he shouldbe more aggressive. >> this is not a time for republicans to hide. >> democrats on the committee call for comey to testify

publically as soon as possibly. a move 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 and closer to the possibility of yet another impeachment process? >> reluctantly, wolf, i have to say yes because obstruction of justice is such a serious offense. >> all of this coming after the white house spent yet another day trying to clean up yet another controversy. of course, that's the one involving the president giving highly classified information to russian diplomats during a meeting in the oval office. cnn has been told that information was supplied to the united states by israeli intelligence. israel is one of the countries the president is expected to visit in his nine-day tour starting on friday.

today we expect to hear from the president giving a commencement speech at the coast guard academy in connecticut. >> thank you, joe. more on that other big story and bombshell. russian president vladimir putin says he is ready to provide the u.s. congress with a transcript of trump's meeting with their foreign minister and he insists that president trump did not pass any classified intelligence to them. cnn is live in moscow with all of the breaking details. what is the president saying, matthew? >> reporter: right. well, president putin caused some panic in the press core here because he used the russian word for recording. he said he had a recording of the conversation that took place between president trump and sergey lavrov and he was willing to pass that on the u.s. senate and congress if the u.s. side deems it appropriate. the idea of course that the

russians in that room recorded it is absolutely astonishing and the kremlin have been quick to roll back on that phrase that vladimir putin, the russian president, used. what they're saying is it is more of a record, a transcript. they're saying there was a stenographer present in the room that was specifically designated to record this meeting and provide transcripts to the russian side and presumably to the u.s. side as well and they've got that document and they are willing to provide it to the u.s. if they don't have a copy of their own. although, i can't imagine that they don't. it was all done in the context of a relatively joking response to a question to vladimir putin about this issue of the passing of secret facts or secret details by the u.s. president to the russian foreign minister. he laughed about it and said, look, we have to find some sort of punishment for sergey lavrov

because he didn't share that secret information with us and it is in that joking context he made those comments about passing on a record, a transcript of that conversation. but it is first the detail i heard that there is such a transcript of what actually was talked about in that meeting. >> thank you very much, if there is such a transcript. appreciate the reporting. another joke apparently once again on us. so let's bring in our political panel. cnn senior legal analyst, reporter and editor at large for cnn politics chris cillizza and phillip mud. file this under the category of you can't make it up. quick to the defense of president trump is russia, just like when lavrov mocked questions from the u.s. press core about comey's firing, just like when we had to learn about the meeting between lavrov and

kislyak from russian media and now they say trump did nothing wrong with intelligence and we can prove it. what does this mean? >> two things. one, between the potential for a transcript out of this meeting and donald trump floating the idea that he's taping phone calls affirms my belief that everything is being recorded at all times everywhere in the world. >> i think even this show is being recorded. >> this is fine. you can say whatever you want here. but my point, too, is that this is russia being donald trump's worst enemy in some ways, right? if ever there was a time that you didn't necessarily want vladimir putin, who ever republican short of donald trump said this is not a good guy. this is an adversary to the united states. vladimir putin saying, yeah, yeah, we have a transcript. we'll ship it right over to you, further affirming the trying to prop donald trump up here on this issue. plus, look, given what we know

about vladimir putin, are we ready to believe for certain even if there is a transcript that that is exactly the nature of what went down in that meeting? it is just very -- and again as matthew reported, it was said in a broadly joking context, so it is not clear that that exists. but even if it did exist, i'm not sure that that's the evidence donald trump is going to be looking for to exonerate himself. >> but, phil, maybe this is a threat actually, a vailed threat from vladimir putin. maybe he does have a transcript of it. maybe president trump did die vuling that information. maybe he doesn't want vladimir putin to say anything. maybe he's sending a message. >> i don't think he is sending a message. i think this is pretty straightforward. they see themselves as partners and putin is looking for an opportunity to defend the president. i hope that plays 180 difference in the united states. let's offer a moment of perspective here.

the national security advisor loses his job because of an inappropriate conversation with the russians. the man investigating that, by all accounts, regardless of what you think of his actions, an honorable man, gets fired for investigating that and the president of russia says he's the one who is going to defend the president against inappropriate charges. i mean, i don't know what you say. i think we have to step back for a moment and acknowledge two things, that congress needs to proceed with an investigation so that we can take a deep breath out of partisan politics and let's not forget the forgotten story. the fbi needs to proceed with a criminal investigation because some time i'm expecting in 2017 somebody from the department of justice is going to say forget about the congress, here is who is going to be indicted from the administration or the campaign. this is not going to go away for months or years. >> if this is all true about comey and the memo, which really isn't a memo. it is a contemporaneous account.

the fbi has five days to put it into a file and that's what comey was doing and he was done for doing that rngs let's accept that as truth for now. why do you think, phil mud, that comey didn't go to the doj if he had any type of reasonable concern that the president was trying to influence the investigation? i get why he would document it. but if it was real, why wouldn't he go to the doj? >> well, first he can't go to the attorney general because the attorney general has recused himself of the investigation. what are you saying? the president tried to influence the russians? >> it was before that. even if that were the case, which it wasn't. >> well, he could have. and my assumption is he did. >> you think he did? >> in washington the walls have ears. i think he spoke to somebody in the department of justice for the fbi who typed up -- >> that means session or maybe even rosenstein knew that james comey had been pushed up on by

the president and still went forward putting forward a memo. >> i'm not going to presume how much rosenstein knows. the attorney general despises former director comey. so i think the personal relationship may play into that. but other people know, chris, and we keep talking about one memo. who thinks there is only one memo from the fbi director? this is going to be drip, drip, drip and the president is going to be shifed in the back with multiple e-mails, in my judgment. this is not the end of this one. >> jeffrey, where are we today? >> well, i mean, look, there is a serious accusation out there that started yesterday in "the new york times" later confirmed by cnn reporting that a possible obstruction of justice took place on february 14th between donald trump and james comey.

there are these memos that exist in the world. i don't think anyone believes these memos have disappeared. congress has to get them and make them public. comey has to testify. and then we'll see where we are. >> jeffrey, what if it turning out this is just donald trump being donald trump? is that obstruction of justice if that's him vamping one-on-one with the director? >> if you're president of the united states and you are talking to the fbi director who works for you, that's not just vamping. even if donald trump has a style that's unusual, the setting and the participants and the nature of their relationship make those comments significant. >> especially when you wind up firing the guy. maybe if he hadn't fired him -- >> that's show boating. donald trump has been all over the map. >> he said i thought this russia

thing was a hoax. i said, trump, what is it about? comey shouldn't do it. >> that's right. but firing an fbi director and asking an fbi director to end an investigation of your campaign, you know, i don't care what your style is and whether you're vamping or whether you are just thinking outloud. it is very significant. now, is it actually an obstruction of justice? is it an impeachable offense? i don't know at this point, but it is certainly worthy of this investigation. >> your first main question, right, adam schiff talked to us about this is, well, we have to get some kind of independent investigation done on this. that's going to require gop movement on this. >> yep. >> all roads lead back to the gop. they will have to make anything happen. there will be no judge. there will be no courtroom involved in this subject to jeffrey's different take on that, that this isn't going to

be about a crime of obstruction of justice. it is going to be about political reckoning. and do you think it is likely that the gop is anywhere near getting ready to tighten the screws down on an independent probe of the president? at 6:00 p.m. last night, yes.e - i think this is different in kind than even the trump conversation with kiss lee yak and lavrov and what he told them and what he didn't. interestingly, remember, there is strong push back in a lot of white house stories on that story. what have you heard in terms of push back on this story. and the answer is from the white house and everybody on the republican side, zero. the only response you have heard is this morning saying we need an independent investigation. it is just -- again, in politics you have to think of what is a credible, plausible place to land, a middle place to land

here that's not calling for impeachment if you're republicaning. democrats -- most democrats aren't going to do that. where is a safe island they can land on that is defendable politically when they go home to people who are not in the score trump case. that's 75% of the public. an independent counselor, whatever you want to call it, that's the thing that's defensible. my guess is given the silence over the last 14 hours, that's where paul ryan, mitch mcconnell, most of the house freedom caucus, some of the house freedom caucus is going to land. there is going to be a lot of members in swing districts, people worried about losing ree lix saying wait a minute, we need to do something more than saying, well, that's just the president being the president. >> panel, thank you very much for setting it up so well for us. so is this comey memo or memo a

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oh no, looks like somebody needs a new network. when i got this unlimited plan they told me they were all the same. they're not. verizon has the largest, most-reliable 4g lte network in america. it's basically made for places like this. honey, what if it was just us out here? right. so, i ordered you a car. thank you. you don't want to be out here at night 'cause of the, uh, coyotes. ok, thanks, bud. bye. be nice to have your car for some shelter. bye. when it really, really matters, you need the best network and the best unlimited. just $45 per line for four lines. big question this morning. you will be hearing about it all day. is the james comey memo a turning point for the gop? well, what is the proof that we're seeing any changes? senator john mccain was at a dinner and he levelled one of the harshest criticisms about

the president yet. here is a taste. >> i think it is reaching a point where it is a watergate size and scale and a couple of other scandals that you and i have seen. it is the centipede, and the shoe continues to drop and every couple of days there is a new aspect of this really unhappy situation. >> joining us now, republican senator suzanne collins. she is a member of the select committee on intelligence. always have a pleasure, ma'am. >> thank you, chris. >> do you share the urgency and characterization of senator john mccain? do you believe it is time to look at these allegations? >> the senate intelligence committee on which i serve is vigorously pursuing all of the allegations involving russian

influence on the campaign, including the vital question of whether there was collaboration between any member of the trump campaign and the russians. that is a bipartisan investigation. it is now moving up pace. we have subbed mi subpoenaed min and his records and i think we will find out more from that congressional investigation about exactly what happened. >> but what about these questions about the president's actions with comey in the firing, the different stories, the die vulging of the intelligence with the russians? do you think those demand an independent commission? >> i think the senate intelligence committee is perfectly capable of doing that kind of independent work. it is vital that our work be

grounded in the evidence and thus accepted by the public once we finish. but we should pursue all of those allegations. and that means not only getting access to mr. comey's memo, but any other memos or transcripts related to this issue and we need to hear directly from mr. comey himself about what occurred in that february discussion with the president. the tone of the president, what he said, the actual words are so important, and that's why we need to hear and soon from mr. comey. >> how troubling are the allegations to you about the comey memo, about the firing? >> they are deeply troubling. they raise very serious questions. the problem is that what we have

now is speculation getting a bit ahead of the facts. we need facts, and that's why we need the actual documents and we need evidence and we need testimony from those involved. i've spent parts of three days out at cia headquarters going through the raw intelligence that normally we would not see because it's not vetted. and i'm going to continue along with the rest of the committee and our two leaders who are working together in a bipartisan way to pursue the evidence wherever it may lead. >> first, do you after going through the raw intelligence, do you share the president's appraisal that the russia investigation is a hoax? >> no, i certainly don't. if there is one conclusion that i've seen enough evidence on to get to a finding it is that the

russians had an active campaign to try to influence the presidential elections last fall. that i believe has overwhelming evidence to support it. the other questions, including the critical question of was there collaboration between the campaign and the russians remains to be answered. >> now, people take that remains to be answered to mean there is none. you should have it by now or it would have leaked, and that fuels suspicion that that part of the inquiry is political brinkmanship, democrats trying to hurt the president. do you agree? >> no, i don't. the committee has taken the investigation very seriously. and we are issuing subpoenas. we are -- we have interviewed -- the staff has interviewed more than 30 people. we are now getting closer and closer to the principals, the

names that you read in the paper and i am confident that we will do a good job. i do think it would help if we brought in an experienced former prosecutor or an experienced investigator, and i have made that recommendation to both the chairman and the vice chairman. >> who? >> well, i have made a specific recommendation, but i think i should keep that between the chairman and vice chairman. >> come on, suzanne collins. >> you would know his name and think he was well-qualified. >> is it comey, like your brother senator from maine? >> that doesn't make any sense at all. he's the witness in this investigation. you don't put a witness in charge of the investigation. >> two more quick things, senator. first, there is a likelihood that these questions surrounding why the firing, what happened with comey's memo, was there any

pressure from the president, it's going to come down to credibility. do you believe at this point you can take the president or the white house at face value with what they say the truth is on any of those questions? >> unfortunately the administration has given such conflicting information that president's tweets at times seem to contradict the statements made by his staff, and that's why we need to have an interview with the former fbi director and we need all of the documents. and if there are transcripts, we need those transcripts as well. but i've got to tell you. we don't need them from the russians. the idea that we would accept any evidence from president putin is absurd. >> what does it mean to you that you have these two different dynamics going on, one, that putin, whether he's joking or not, was suggesting that they have a record of what happened in that meeting. and that russia is consistently

on these issues vigorously defending president trump. what do you make of that? >> well, i can't help but wonder if this is a russian plot to try to undermine confidence, further undermine confidence in the president and in our democracy. but unfortunately, when the president meets with the russian foreign minister and the russian ambassador, he gives more fuel to the fire. so i think he should stop meeting with the russian leaders. they are not our friends. they are our adversaries. and as far as president putin's opinions on what's going on, i'm more interested in how he's treat i treating the annexation of crimea, the problems throughout western europe and trying to influence those investigations, the support for the assad

regime, which the russians are give i giving -- a regime which is murdering its own citizens. those are the issues that concern me about russia. and i think that it is not helpful. i wouldn't trust any evidence that the russians suggest that they could provide. >> senator susan collins, thank you for being on new day as always. >> did president trump obstruct justice? we will look at that question and the future of the trump white house next.

if the president told fbi director james comey to let the michael flynn investigation go, did he obstruct justice? what does this mean for his presidency? let's bring in the former speech writer for george w. bush and senior editor of the atlantic and former chief of staff for president clinton. gentleman, it is great to have both of you here. david, i want to start with you. it has been quite a 48 hours

between the story of the die vuling of classified information to the russians and the james comey memo. >> i have troubled by converting pretty cal questions into legal questions. we will spend a lot of time debating the obstruction of justice. we ought to be talking about fitness for office. i have urged again and again there not be a special prosecutor. those the end to disappear down rabbit holes. obviously it is important that paul manafort make those discussions. we need to know how did russia contaminate the 2016 election. was there talk back from the trump campaign. even if that broke no law, what did they owe russia and why were they so anxious to break down this inquiry, even if this was

carefully brokered. >> let's be clear on exactly what the james comey memos say. i have not seen them. ho however, a source has shared this with cnn. they say the president said i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting it go. he is a good guy. i hope you can let this go. what does that sound like to you? >> well, it sounds like it was not a carefully or thoughtful commentary to the fbi director, if indeed it took place. the white house as you know has pushed back vigorously, denying there was any conversation of that sort. we haven't seen it. the acting fbi director has said the investigation had not been impeded in any way. so you have to be balanced here. i think david gets to the point. we just must get to the bottom of both this issue, as well as the meeting with the russians.

that's what needs to happen here. we've got to move through this process and the president needs to get back to his agenda working with the american people. >> but just one more thing. if it did happen the way he said it did and he wrote the notes to himself at that time and he said he shared it with colleagues, is that obstruction of justice. >> well, i am not a lawyer, so i am not going to opine on whether it is obstruction of justice. if indeed that's what the documents suggest and that's the conclusion, it is a very serious issue. and any time you're talking to the fbi director or any relationship in that vain, you've got to be very careful and thoughtful and appropriate. words matter. >> so what now? >> well, i want to dissent a little from what he said. i don't think we are facing a binary choice where we examine

these words. and if the words are arranged in such a way they count as obstruction of the justice, then the president has a lot of trouble. if they don't, he goes back to his agenda. i think we are in murkier territo territory. it smells like this president ohs things to russia. the way that was accumulated may not have violated any law. believe it or not, it is actually not illegal for an american citizen to plot with a foreign government to pollute an american election. that probably -- i wrote a long article about this for the atlantic, that probably doesn't break any laws. it is just un-american and disloi yol. so the question we ought to be asking is not did the president trigger an alarm? if not, he stays and polices the agenda. the question is is this president compromised in any way that is relevant to national security. is his inability to keep secrets? can he continue in office safely for the american people.

it is not about him and his rights. >> david makes a fair point. i still think i'm more in the senator collins camp, that we need to work through this. i think the process is in place certainly in the senate. perhaps there needs to be an independent commission. >> look, you were in the clinton white house. you were the chief of staff. so you understand a little bit of chaos, right? >> getting an administration in place is a challenge. >> there you go. so if somehow the president can emerge from this, what do you do in the white house today to stop the downward spiral? >> i think david makes the point. we've got to move through this process. if i were advising the president, i would suggest let's let the process work in a serious expedited credible manner and get all of the facts out and then make the determination. and then if there are issues that need to be reviewed, that's fine. but you have got to get passed

this. at the same time, you have got to get back to governing. >> that won't work. let's just suppose for a minute that donald trump is indeed a completely innocent guy. what he needs to do is bring in a team of independent and respected people and throw open to them the books of the trump organization and go back holding nothing back over the past 20 years and demonstrate to them that there is proper business even tanglement between him and russia. i recognize this is invasive, but these should be people, not his pet lawyers, people that command public trust. the question he needs to answer is he a security risk. not did he commit some infraction of a statue. someone may have lost their life because of the president's compulsi compulsive. >> you mean somebody may lose

their life. >> someone may have already done so. >> we don't know that detail yet. but we certainly know that these are life and death consequences. thank you very much. >> thank you. chris? >> protests between supporters and critics of turkey's president turn ugly and violent. just down the street from guess where? we'll tell you right after the break. ♪ with this level of intelligence...

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>> a violent seen outside the embassy and walk. nine people injured. take a look at your screen. this is america. this is down the street from the white house and it was going on because the turkish president was here meeting with president trump. the protests got bloody. police had to make two arrests. a series of devastating tornadoes devastating two states. people killed. one in a mobile park in wisconsin. the other killed in their car in oklahoma. the tornadoes injured 25 people. and as you can see, damaged or

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. the big news of the day is this memo supposedly written by james comey that accuses president trump of asking him to put an end to the agency's investigation into michael flynn. what will it lead to? that's going to come down to politics. with the bottom line is david axelrod. how do you see it, my friend? >> well, look. i think that you heard suzanne collins on your air this morning. the republicans are beginning to stake out much more independent positions on this because obviously it took a quantum leap in terms of the white house with this comey memo. and one of the things that whoever leeked that probably understood is that it would necessitate congress subpoenaing

all of his memos and calling him to testify, which is going to be the most explosive appearance that we have seen in maybe since the water-gate era. so i think the pressure is going to build here, chris, which is the behavior of the president. if this memo is true, you know, and you put that together with the other story that was breaking even as this memo emerged, and that is the meeting with the russians and what he divulged there and you get the picture of a president who has no control, who is reckless, who has no sense of where the boundaries are and it is consistent with a guy who spent his life flouting rules, flouting norms, pushing the law to the limit, we hoped that would change when he came to the office of the president, that the office would doiscipline hi. whatever happens on this issue, would his behavior change in the future? >> we have seen this shoot from

the hip chaotic style from the president, but does something feel to you it's shifted in the past 48 hours because of those two stories? >> well, i mean, you read the stories about what's going on in the white house and, you know, it's obviously a catch. he's going overseas today. he's fleeing an asylum because the white house is completely out of control. things have accumulated to critical mass where you have a crisis of leadership here. >> we'll see what happens. this is all coming down to politics. as you know, this is going to be decided in the house, if anywhere, at any point. although, you heard collins. she and schiff both said, no, can't take the white house at face value when it comes to russia. we'll have to have comey come in. that alone, when have you ever

heard that before, where a republican senator with a democratic congressman says, no, can't trust trump. not on this. >> yeah. well, i mean, i think that you are going to see a growing chorus in the congress around this. he'll have his defenders within the party. you have seen some of them speak out this morning. but there are several others who are very outspoken. remember, in the senate, you know, for example, for the senate to move for some sort of independent investigation, you only need three republicans to break away. so i think there is significant problems here for the white house. i'm not sure they know how to deal with it right now. >> will, what is the answer? honestly, how do they move forward given the cloud of -- these two huge stories between the comey memo and the possible die vulging of classified information to the russians,

this is not going away. >> right. but we heard that it is time for a special prosecutor. what do you see happening next? >> well, look, if from the white house standpoint there are only two options. one is to be completely hope because you feel that nothing has been done that's improper and sort of let the sunlight in. that seems like an unlikely path given what's happened so far. and the other is a much more aggressive push in the congress for some sort of independent investigation. but this can't be ignored. if the president of the united states said to the fbi director, drop this investigation of my pal flynn and then ended up firing the fbi director who didn't drop the investigation, you have a real constitutional crisis here. and, so, they have to move forward, i think. >> well, you'd have few more steps down the road of what that would mean. here's my question for you,

axle. if it was the extreme that it is being painted as, why didn't comey say something about it? why didn't he go to the doj, if he did not go. we don't know all the facts. but if it was serious enough where he felt like, wow, i better record this. this is bad. >> you know that when he gets called, he is going to have to answer that question. it is a very fair question, what his supporters have said is he didn't want to make this widely known because he thought it would chill the investigation. he also might not have had confidence in the justice department. i don't know the answer to that. he's going to have to answer that. but now we're going to get the answer because he's clearly going to be called. i'll tell you one thing, though, guys, the person who probably won't be called to testify is vladimir putin, and this was an absurd development today when he offered up his -- >> transcript? >> supporting evidence for the president. i said to someone earlier, this

is like a bank robber -- this is like someone calling a bank robber to testify as a character witness for the guy accused of driving the get-away car. not a very good situation here. >> fascinating analogy. david axelrod thank you very much. >> the russians just keep on laughing, always laughing. speaking of that, late night comics taking on donald trump. want some laughs? we've got them. just like the ma. at one point, i did change to a different company with car insurance, and i was not happy with the customer service. we have switched back over and we feel like we're back home now. the process through usaa is so effortless, that you feel like you're a part of the family. i love that i can pass the membership to my children, and that they can be protected. we're the williams family, and we're usaa members for life. call usaa today to talk about your insurance needs.

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comedians are having a field day. they are tiering into president trump with one controversy after another. >> to paraphrase himself, trump better hope there are tapes of their conversation. or really anything he needs to change the conversation to something, shall we say, less indicting. maybe now is the time to release your tax returns, sir. or, let's see, that would be fun. or, oh, oh, oh, what would be less damaging? got any more tapes of you and bully bush. >> the washington post is reporting that president trump revealed classified information to russian officials in the oval office last week. and there is talk that congress might investigate him for that. trump says he has nothing to hide and that he'll fire whoever is investigating him anyway. >> i will say this. i hope the republicans new health care system is good because i'm getting whiplash

from all of these scandals. you know what i'm saying? again? who said what? >> better watch his neck. could hurt himself. >> i mean, you know, truth is sometimes stranger than friction. so you can actually see them struggling to come up with something funny to say about all of this. >> if they can't find material right now, they should get a new job. thanks for being with us. there is new headlines and big information. let's get to cnn news room with john berman. john? >> this is cnn breaking news. >> good morning, everyone. i'm john berman. poppy is on assignment this morning. james comey has memos. vladimir putin has transcripts and republicans have og da. at this moment, we're waiting for the president to depart the white house for a commencement address. he has still not commented on