the administration chose to defame me. those were lies. plain and simple. >> it is unsuis insulting that n would be asked. >> the comparison between watergate and what we confronted now. >> we waited for a shoe to drop. nothing was in there. >>. i was fired because of the russia investigation. >> refused to pledge loyalty to a president. for that he got fired. >> the president never told mr. comey i need loyalty. i expect loyalty. >> the cloud hanging over this administration has just gotten a whole lot darker. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning.

welcome to "new day." it is friday, june 9th. 6:00 in new york. two stories shaking up the political world. the cloud of russia looming larger over the white house and president trump's credited bibin the line after james comey said the president lied about why he fired him. he wanted him to drop the investigation into michael flynn. president trump's lawyer disputes that and says the president never demanded loyalty from comey. instead, mr. trump's team said comey's testimony confirmed the president was not being personally investigated. >> the republicans are lining up behind the president arguing he is new to the job. that explains everything he said to james comey. they say it is really about president obama's attorney general loretta lynch and why she tried to obstruct that investigation. that was their big take away from yesterday.

that tells you everything about the political tribalism at play right now. in the uk, the british majority party for theresa may lost. now calls for her to resign. what does that mean for the brexit? we have it covered for you with cnn's joe johns at the white house. what a day, joe. >> reporter: it was, chris. president trump is expected to hold a joint news conference in the rose garden with the president of romania. the first time the president answered questions in three weeks. probably only answering a couple questions from reporters. it will be an opportunity to try to gauge the president's reaction after that dramatic testimony on capitol hill of fired fbi fbi director james comey. what was most striking about his testimony on capitol hill was the vision of former fbi

director accusing a sitting president of the united states plain and simple, of lying. comey even suggesting he prepared memos of his private conversations with the president in anticipation of the president lying about those interactions. listen. >> there's no doubt that it's a fair judgment. it is my judgment that i was fired because of the russia investigation. i was fired in some way to change or the endeavor was to change the way the russia investigation was conducted. >> reporter: by leaking memos of those interactions to the intt r intermediary, comey said he hoped it would lead to a special counsel. then turn them over to a law school professor who gave the memos to the news media. listen.

>> the president tweeted on friday after i got fired that i better hope there's not tapes. i woke up in the middle of the night monday night because it did not dawn on me there may be corroboration for our conversation. there may be a tape. my judgment was i needed to get that out into the public square. i asked a friend of mine to share it with a reporter. i did not do it myself. i thought it might prompt a special counsel. >> reporter: comey said if he had given the memo to a journalist, it would be like feeding sea gulls at the beach. through all of this, the president did not tweet at all which gratified his attorneys, but pointed to the fact that his attorneys were right here at the white house with him. chris and alisyn. >> seagulls. we are likened to sharks. that is an upgrade.

many republicans see it differently. thank you, joe. they are sticking with the talking points in the wake of the james comey testimony that it actually revealed things about james comey and not the president. house speaker paul ryan chalking up to inexperience. we have much more on their reaction from phil mattingly on capitol hill. >> reporter: alisyn, it was choose your news. every political party seemed to grab on to what they thought was important. when it came to republicans, on capitol hill, in talking to senators after the hearing was their perspective of no bombshell. it was a mixed bag. that is what john cornwyn. the investigations are still ongoing. they want to move forward. please get away from president trump and russia. that is something you hear repeatedly up here.

another explanation and i heard a lot yesterday that is a shift. it was that the president simply doesn't know any better. he is naive and new. house speaker a degree of independence with doj, fbi and white house in the line of communications established. the president is new at this. he is new to government. so he probably wasn't steeped in the long running protocols that establish relationships with doj, fbi and white house. he is new to this. >> you said the president is new at this. he has a staff. he has a white house counsel. why is that acceptable? >> it is not my excuse. it is just my observation. >> should it be corrected? >> he is new at government. i think he, therefore, he is learning as he goes.

>> reporter: that is something i also heard from senator marco rubio. several republican lawmakers saying the same thing. that is public defense. behind the scenes when he talked to lawmakers, they recognize yesterday was not a great day for the white house. i think what they want to focus on and what you hear consistently here is the cloud of russia that the president continues to talk about is a cloud that is under cutting the legislative agenda. they want to move on. they understand nobody is moving on anytime soon. >> ryan need to take a page from the trump rule book and own a situation when you do it. if you give the president an excuse for behavior, own the excuse. don't say i'm not calling it an executio excuse. yes, you are. let's bring in our panel. david gregory. editor at large chris cillizza. reporter for the washington post. karoun demirjia.

and laura coates. david gregory. >> this was a damning day for the president of the united states. the testimony from james comey was compelling. it opened himself up to criticism as well which we will get into. overall, it was a real blow against the white house and against this president. it only had the effect of widening the investigation around potential obstruction of justice for the special counsel to look into the areas where the president saw to insert himself or interfere with the investigation into michael flynn. if not the broader russia investigation. so there will be a lot of questions. there was cherry picking on the part of the president's lawyer. things he liked about james comey's testimony that he wasn't being investigated, but things he did not like. he was trying to have it both ways. in the end, the discussion we were just having about the house speaker, the president's defenders excusing the behavior

by saying he is new to all this. they are overlooking for the most self destructive part of this. the president doesn't listen to anyone. he has a white house counsel. he has advisers, including an attorney general, whom he ushered out of the room. there is no excuse. if he wants to practice in politics, he should have run for city council. he is president of the united states. there is no excuse for this behavior, even if it is not illegal. >> laura, as a former federal prosecutor, do you agree this somehow widened the investigation? >> absolutely. of course, ignorance of the law, david states, is no excuse for criminal activity or wrongdoing. the president's attempts to try to end or interfere or stop in some way the investigation into possible collusion with russia. in doing so and noting it was a distraction for the campaign as the president of the united states at this point he created a big sign that said look right

here. he invited the scrutiny of the fbi. there was conduct through communicatio communications. he exposed himself to criminal liability or criminal investigation where interestingly enough, it was not there yet. the testimony of comey at the time he was fbi director, all signs did not point to trump personally until trump inserted himself in the attempt to undermine the investigation of colleagues or cohorts. >> chris cillizza, what do you believe the fallout from yesterday will be? >> so i'm not sure yesterday -- i agree with david and laura that it was a seminole moment in the trump presidency -- i don't know the immediate certainly political fallout will be vast. the president has already lost a significant amount of support. he is in the mid to high 30s in terms of polling. my guess if you are a trump supporter, you will come out of

that hearing yesterday and say no smoking gun. he said he hoped that comey would find a way to get rid of the flynn investigation. not that he would. comey affirmed that trump was told he wasn't under investigation. comey leaked out his memos. there was enough there that in you are looking for it. i think today is not as bad a day for trump as some strategists may think. that said, it was not a good day. i actually think it sets up a series of not good days to come. right now, we have a he said-he said. we have jim comey saying this is my interpretation under oath. i believe he was asking me to end the investigation and asking for my loyalty. through trump lawyer, that's not true. out there is robert mueller

doing the key investigation. that's the central thing. otherwise, we have a he said-he said. trump is betting a lot that it will never move yonbeyond that. he better hope there are not tapes of the conversations. i think it is amazing. >> chris cillizza, i know you were watching the clock. >> you jinxed it. >> did he tweet? >> he tweeted. 6:11. i know you were trying to get to 6:14. >> he missed it. if he waited two more minutes, it would have been his longest twitter drought in history. >> camerota had to bring it up. this is what he says. >> despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication. wow. comey is a leaker! there you go. chris. >> missed it by that much.

>> karoun. what do you think? we heard both sides now. republicans want to get back to the agenda. this has all been a big diversion that they don't like and i think that most voters would agree. what do you think the fallout was from yesterday? >> i think it really depends on what we hear next. what comey said raised the obvious questions other people have to ask if there was obstruction of justice by the president. that is something that is more difficult for republican members of congress to wave off than the questions of russian collusion. a lot are waving off as trumped up thing in the media and standing alongside saying that say witch hunt. if trump's actions did lead to obstruction of justice, there will be a lot of members concerned about that. we won't know really whether they will get to that point. we won't fully know the value of comey's testimony is in driving those questions until we hear from other members of the

administration. i know we are focused on comey because that was a big deal hearing on thursday. you have to take it in totality when they heard from dan coats and admiral mike rogers who did not tell them and not speak about interactions with the president and conversation was comey. promised to do that behind closed doors. some of the republican leaders are waiting on a similar story from the other two intelligence chiefs. if they do, it makes comey's statements more weight behind it. if they also tell a story of being influenced by the president to try to get comey to shutdown the fbi investigation, all of a sudden it is not he said-he said. it is he said hyve versus three saids. we have to pull back and see how much weight the testimony will drive the investigation into the direction.

if it turns out to obstruction of justice, that is a more serious thing republicans cannot wave off. >> david? >> i want to react to the tweet. no question that the president now has a new political lane to drive against comey. the argument is these people are out to get me. the intelligence community. fbi chief. leaking to hurt me when there is nothing there. i'm completely vindicated. that is not true. if this is a credibility fight with he and james comey. the president brought us the birther lie. a lot more to go here than credibility. by the way, he said he had tapes. it is time for the president, his lawyer to put up or shut up. where are the tapes? if you want to win the argument with comey. let's get it on. put them out there. >> that's what comey said. lordy, i hope there are tapes. all of this that you are laying out depends on good faith curiosity by political leaders and it is clear that the

president's party doesn't want to go there. where does the process go? we discuss that. now james comey's testimony is in the books. what happens next in this political process? usaa gives me the and the security just like the marines did. the process through usaa is so effortless,

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now that james comey has told his side of the story what happens with all of the russia investigation in congress as well as with the special counsel? let's bring back david gregory, chris cillizza and karoun demorijia and laura coates. chris. >> if you listened to the testimony early on, he asked jim comey, do you think the special counsel investigation makes it impossible for us to do our oversight investigation just to get comey on the record. comey of course says no. i think it is uniquely possible. there are two things here. the special counsel is looking into criminality. what congress is doing is oversight function as it relates to the executive branch. just on the surface what all

happened, although i defer to laura because she knows more than me. probably on a faster calendar than the special counsel. we may find some more out in the senate and house intelligence committees than we will in terms of when from the mueller investigation. this two things are still ongoing. this is the problem. the trump declaration of victory as it relates to the tweet sent just three minutes before he could have set his all-time record for time between tweets. suggesting he has been completely vindicated. i assume that is just spin. i assume he doesn't just think that. we are sort of in the middle origining of the m origo or beginning of the middle of the process. jim comey should not declare victory. i'm certain president trump

should not declare victory. >> david gregory, couldn't you argue that the president got what he needed most out of yesterday? while i'm not differing your analysis and the import, but when burr said i want to talk about loretta lynch and her calling an investigation and the gop and chorus like shakespeare saying that could be obstruction. paul ryan saying, the president, he ordered people out of the room. he is new to this. didn't he get what he needed most of all? his party is behind him. facts be damned. >> i agree with that. i would add to it. i think the fact that comey and pressed by democrats and republicans about it. if you felt this way, why didn't you push back and immediately report up the legal chain of command of obstruction of justice. if you felt you were directed to

do something wrong and felt the commander in chief and president of the united states was lying, why didn't you do more? we have the memos by comey that trump said it would be good if this investigation saw to its conclusion. in all of this, the president takes from what's happened that he's in the clear. number one, that's not the case. if that was the case before he wasn't investigated, that could have changed and that may have well changed based on his beaver. behavior. he doesn't realize this is under a cloud as the investigation moves forward. i agree he will take things and he will drive comey the leaker of the story line and the media and those entrenched in government are out to make him look bad and derail his presidency. there is a constituency for that if you look at support among republicans. >> laura, where do you think the

investigation goes from here? >> i think it lays with robert mueller who has a task to have a singular focus. remember the congressional hearing is expected to talk about changes. where to go to preserve or retain the credibility of democracy. the criminal justice probe is a big dog with a very big bone. they will be singular in focus. what i find perplexing about all this and the idea of the president just tweeted is this. the very thing that the president needed was the corroboration from james comey that he did in fact had these conversations and he was told this information and comey went ahead and did that. now people are saying that he was wrong to have leaked the very information that corroborated the president's own statements. it is a very, very interesting dynamic which is perplexing and points out hypocrisy. the probe is widened by the

president's actions and the memos have corroborated the portions that helped the president and display comey in a different light that no one anticipated. it did not do anything to obstruct, per se, it accelerated the justice system process. >> to that point, karoun, kasowitz, the president's lawyer came out and said you see that, he never directed any action. comey said he did not direct it. it's not what comey said. in fact, comey said that he leaked or whatever. gave the memo to his friend because he wanted a special counsel. when asked if the special counsel would considering obstruction of justice. he gave an of course he will be answer. where does the president and his men and women get confidence he is in the clear? >> in how they are setting it up basically. it was early on in the hearing that jim reich made the point that the president said i hope

you can see your way clear to letting this go on flynn. not i'm ordering you to do that. they picked up on that. and raising questions about comey's credibility as well. to the early point of where does this go from here i think rides on the meeting between the senate intelligence committee chair and vice chair with mueller to talk about deconfliction. the magic word. try not to butt heads with the congressional investigations and the criminal probe that mueller is running. the senate intelligence committee is scheduling time to talk to jared kushner. they are fact finding. as much as mueller drives this and where the divisionlabor is split up. this is going to come back to congress. it is unlikely that mueller indicts the president. it is up to the congress if it does something. if it doesn't get to the level

of criminality, it is not there yet. you cannot find a democrat or republican it has evidence to this point. if it doesn't get to that point, the court that matters is the court of public opinion. that is not mueller or it is congress or the country. >> you cannot find anyone who said oh, yeah, the president was trying to obstruct. you will find them who said loretta lynch was trying to obstruct. >> we heard it here. >> i don't know how you believe those two things. >> panel, thank you very much for all that. a stunning outcome in the uk election. theresa may's big gamble back fires. how will prime minister respond now to calls for her to resign. we have a live report from london next. think again.

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may's conservative party lost the majority in parcliamenparli. now her rival is calling on may to resign. we have nic robertson with the latest at 10 downing street. what a turn of play. >> reporter: no one expected, chris. she did not believe this would happen with the snap election. she called it for a period of stability. she will leave downing street and driving to buckingham palace to meet the queen. this is a formality. she will tell the queen she will form the next government. she does not have majority. she does not have the required majority within the conservative party. she is expected to align support. she is expected to use the unionist party. a hard line pro unionist party. she will require their help to prop up her leadership and her government. the leader of the opposition

jeremy corbin called this a disaster. said she should resign. we are hearing from leaders in europe as far as the brexit negotiation which were due to begin in 11 days. she campaigned on and wanted to increase the majority to bring a stable britain to deliver as she wanted a strong and good result from the brexit negotiations. all of that is up in the air. leaders in europe now saying they are not sure what will happen with negotiations. they will be tougher and more unpredictable and not clear when they begin. for now, theresa may plans to form a government, however, on top of that will she face internal push back from her party? will they challenge her leadership? that is what everyone is asking. alisyn. >> nic, as the world has learned, it is hard to predict election results in this day and age. thank you very much for all of that. if james comey's account is true, do president trump's

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well, it was some gripping congressional testimony. fired fbi director james comey repeatedly accused the president of united states of being a liar. listen. >> the administration then chose to defame me and more importantly the fbi by saying the organization was in disarray. that it was poorly led. that the work force had lost confidence in its leader. those were lies. plain and simple. it is my judgment i was fired because of the russia investigation. i was fired in some way to change or the endeavor was to change the way the russia investigation was conducted. >> so president trump responding on twitter just a short time ago. he said despite so many false statements and lies, totally and complete vindication. wow, comey is a leaker! let's speak to jason miller and

political contributor hilary rosen. we have a lot to get to, guys. jason, i will start with you. the president is calling james comey a leaker. james comey said he found some interactions with the president some sort of surreal and strange that he felt compelled to write it down and to as he said get it out in the public square so people could see he was asked to take loyalty pledges and pressed to back off the investigation. what's your response? >> well, i don't think this is president trump calling director comey a leaker. i think director comey came out himself. >> he called him that in the tweet. >> he is using the exact -- describing exactly what james comey said he did which was try to manipulate the special counsel investigation by sending this memo to a friend at columbia law to leak it to the media. this is exactly what happened. i don't think this is a game of semantics here. the single biggest take away

yesterday is the president, as he mentioned in his tweet, was completely vindicated. director comey backed up three times he told the president he was not under investigation and the president did not try to impede the russia investigation. >> hold on. i think he shared with the president he was not the target of the investigation. that is the prerogative of the investigator to do. however, he testified that the president was pressing him to back off the michael flynn investigation. >> there is a lot of questions around that. first of all, the president's outside attorney completely refuted that description of that conversation. this was part of the reason why i think folks on the right were so whipped up yesterday. if director comey felt so strongly about what happened in the supposed conversation, which again, is disputed. why didn't he go and make it public or tell attorney general sessions. why not write a letter of re

resignation like he did in 2004? >> he did go to the acting attorney general. he did not go to sessions because he knew sessions would recuse. hilary, what did you hear? >> i think it is important to note that on the one hand the president and lawyer are trying to rely on things that jim comey did say yesterday that they think helped them. then they are calling comey sort of a liar on the other hand. they can't really have it both ways. what the president experienced yesterday was somebody coming in under oath and let's remember jim comey thinks there may actually be tapes in the white house of this conversation. he has even less reason to lie. he goes up to the hill and the senate republicans believed him. they didn't challenge whether or not he was telling the truth or not. he said the president told him to let go of the russia investigation. and the president just a few weeks ago had tweeted that comey

was a liar and he never said that about flynn. he told him that the president tried to back off a significant number of things. you know, you have this credibility fight and i think jim comey wins on the credibility fight. i don't think there's any total vindication of the president. >> make your point, jason. i want to move on to the loretta lynch part. >> this is why the investors daily today is a 57% of the americans say the media is responsible for the hoopla. and president trump was not under investigation. the campaign did not coordinate with some foreign entity to influence the election. plain and simple. >> there is no plain and simple. we have a special counsel. >> jason, there are other polls. hilary, i want to ask about the

loretta lynch moment. republicans seized on. it is happening on that side. that's where we should be looking about the pressure of james comey. let's play for what you james comey said. >> at one point, the attorney general directed me not to call it an investigation, but call it a matter. that confused and me concerned me. that is one of the bricks in the load that concluded me to step away from the department if we are to close the case credited bring. >> he is talk about the investigation into the hillary clinton e-mails. that attorney general is loretta lynch under president obama. can we conclude that comjames cy was under siege from both sides to press him to call things different things and back off the investigations? >> i think we can conclude that james comey actually conducted an investigation under loretta lynch. she stayed away from the conclusions of the investigations and he made his own determination on hillary

clinton's innocence. that is what we can conclude. that is not what happened here in this case. we have direct interference by the president and the justice department so much so that even the attorney general and deputy attorney general said we need to bring in a special counsel to conduct a fair and independent investigation. >> jason, why do republicans seem more fixated on this which is in the past and is over. it was settled easily by the election at least. why more fixated on loretta lynch than a sitting president pressing the head of the fbi to back off an investigation? >> i would qualify it more than, but this fits in the broader narrative of vindication. the fact that many republicans and many independents i believe saw this political influence in the previous administration. whether it is lois learner at

the irs. >> from this administration? why not see this? >> this was a huge bombshell that loretta lynch tried to influence the investigation into secretary clinton. >> why is it a hughe bombshell e is trying to meddle? >> he did not. >> he told me. he told to back off the flynn investigation. >> the president disputed that account. don't just take it from me. >> the president admitted, jason. >> legal experts like jonathan turley or alan dershowitz. >> i'm not saying obstruction of justice. you only believe comey when he talks about loretta lynch. you don't believe him when he says the president of the united states said to back off michael flynn. >> give it to him half the time. the immediamedia doesn't believ president when he speaks all the

time. >> the most distressing part for me is an american citizen. you have the president of the united states meeting with the fbi director who was actually conducting an investigation of russian interference in the u.s. democracy. and not once in those sessions did the president express any interest or concern about the russian interference in our democracy. the only thing he wanted to do was pressure james comey to back off of him personally and politically. >> that is further proof he wasn't trying to interfere with the investigation. >> proof he didn't care. >> guys, jason miller, hilary rosen. thank you. chris. on top of what you just heard, when the president asked to clear the room and ask james comey to drop the michael flynn investigation, what do you think he wanted to do? james comey says the president wanted him to drop the probe.

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all right. so if you were going to crystalize if the president did the right thing with james comey with the russia interference investigation and the michael flynn issue, it comes down to this moment. when he asked the attorney general and other staffers, including his son-in-law to clear the room and then said to comey 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. comey then testified he thought that was a direction. let's discuss with cnn national security commentator mike rogers and counterterrorism analyst phil mudd. my guess is neither of you see it that way. phil mudd, let's start with you. comey says that's how he took it. you don't. make the case. >> i think it is a request. the order is go back and drop

the case. if i'm in comey's chair and the president says i hope you can do this, i'm thinking what comey did. there eventually be a reckoning day. when these words go public, is the public going toorder. my order is no, go do this. if george said go back to your office and i hope you can do this, i know what he wants me to do. he didn't tell me to do it. an order is go do it. that's not what the president said. >> mike rogers, he clears the room. he says this. comey says he thinks this is what he wants him to do. i don't know why he would not think otherwise. he fires him for not doing it. you are comfortable concluding it wasn't his intent to meddle or direction. >> it is inappropriate. to rise to the level of obstruction of justice is a serious event. >> i don't think we have to go there yet. let's deal with inappropriate.

we will leave the legality to later. when you look at everything comey said, what do you see in the pattern of conduct from the president? >> i think the whole thing was inappropriate. >> what does that mean inappropriate? that is a nothing word. it is like when my kid uses bathroom words. it is inappropriate, but i'm not going to do anything about it. >> listen, we are trying to convict someone based on one set of testimony. i think comey was compelling. it was a bad day for the president yesterday. they set it up to be the fbi versus the white house. i guarantee who will lose that. that is the white house. this is a terrible spot for them to be in. they put them sefrselves in the. when you are talking about it doesn't mean criminal. i'm not sure what word you are looking for, chris. if you say this is a criminal act, there needs to be more information and you have to go back and look at the totality of

the seven to nine meetings which is an indication he has an interest in this. you look at the information, including talking to people in and around the investigation. what i heard yesterday there was no aha moment. you slap your head and say what was the president thinking. that is inappropriate. >> i want to keep it there for a couple of reasons. mueller is looking at that. nobody in congress will decide what is legal or illegal. you can argue they should not look at the president's behavior. they should focus on the interferen interference. democrats are consumed with impeachment. let's let mueller have purview. i want to have a look at this. if it did become a political process or trial of the president. it is high crimes and misdemeanors which means nothing. it means neither crimes nor misdemeanors. you pick grounds. the republicans are arguing what you two guys are now.

i heard inappropriate. whatever that means. not that much. then they look at loretta lynch. they say her wanting to call an investigation a matter. that's obstruction. how can you believe everything comey said about president trump is meansles lesin meaningless, matters? >> hang on, chris. you said he hopes comey doesn't pursue this is not significant. you have to put it in context. he fires the fbi director. take the whole package. if you want to ask the question of what the president did deserves the attention of the congress. my answer is yes. i have to combine the request to drop the case with everything else that happened. you cannot look at this stuff in isolation, chris. the lynch thing is goo gofy, bu not significant. we do preliminary investigations and full investigations.

anybody who said yesterday, you got to be kidding me. if we are spending time on one sentence from the former attorney general, it is goofy, but not worth our time. >> i did say everything that comey said about the president yesterday. i did give you the full context. i take your high text in stride. mike rogers, what do you say to your republicans and democrats, who saliy lynch is the obstruction. everything that comey said doesn't impress me? what do you say? >> if you are looking at this as a legal matter, i agree with phil mudd. the fact the attorney general wanted to change the terminology, but not interfere with the investigation. i think it is inappropriate. i don't believe it rose to any level of criminal activity. this is when you throw criminal action around on significant public act ors, you better be

right. >> even if the democrats, even if they somehow magically wound up in a situation where they were trying to impeach the president for real, it would not be about criminality. that's why i'm saying leave that to mueller. it is all going to be about him. gentlemen, i appreciate the perspective as always. by gentlemen, i mean you, mike [ laughter ] >> this is a fine welcome back. >> it's always good to have you. we missed you. i was happy you were going to be there. happy you were in consideration. quality man with great credentials. we need you here as well. >> thanks for lowering your standards and letting me back. >> that's a high standiard. the other guy. >> you are a high standard, too, phil. james comey was fired over the russian investigation. what is the fallout? we hear from former attorney

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i was honestly concerned he may lie about the nature of the meeting. >> he felt the president would lie. that ought to take our blereath away. >> did you order james comey to close the investigation on michael flynn? >> no. next question. >> the president never suggested that mr. comey let flynn go. >> i have see