host: headlines there, trump fires comey. front page of "the new york times," trump fires comey amid russia inquiry." printing the letter showing that fired effective -- immediately. "i never live up -- nevertheless concur that you are not able to effectively lead and it is essential that we find new leadership for the fbi that restores public trust and conference -- confidence in the law enforcement mission." that tookn the firing washington by surprise yesterday, we turn to katie bell williams, staff writer for "the

hill," joining us on the phone. talk to us more about the reasoning and the timing, specifically, here. katie: the administration is saying that this is over comey's handling of hillary clinton, the investigation into the clinton private in l server. they said that his decision to publicly announce so much detail in july, the sort of bombshell letter that he sent in october to congress announcing that he had more letters, they are saying that this behavior is the reason they hit the road. what you are seeing from democrats are a lot of questions about the timing here. why now? these actions were last year. for democrats, citing the is this related to the ongoing investigation from the fbi into any coordination

between trump campaign officials? that fbi investigation, when a we expected to hear any kind of update on that from the now fired fbi director? very little. director comey testified last week and was asked about that. he said -- look, we are going to be sticking to our normal practice, we won't be giving a lot of details about what's going on with an active investigation. there has been reporting in the last 24 hours that they have issued grand jury subpoenas to michael flynn regarding some of his business contact, but at this point we really don't know how far along investigators are and when we can expect some kind of resolution to that vote. is there any expectation that we might hear more from james comey?

there have been calls in the to 14 hours to get him up on capitol hill to talk about the status of that investigation and the time -- by the time he leaves the department. guest: that's the next big question, when do we hear from james comey? he was scheduled to testify on thursday on worldwide threats. it's very unlikely that he will be making that appearance. but i think you are going to see a lot of pressure from democrats to get him talking on the hill about this. they are going to want to see attorney general jeff sessions as well. remember, the attorney general recused himself from any involvement in the russia investigation. democrats are saying -- well, if that's the case, why were you able to be one of the ones that was recommending comey's firing?

the replacement process here, what do we know about the timing, if anything? guest: the white house has said that the search is going to begin immediately, but you can pretty well assume that this is going to be a big fight. the sort of partisan distrust now between the trump white house and democrats, even in the ,ake of this, some republicans is so intense that i think i most anybody the white house picks will face a pretty intense confirmation hearing process. although, as you remember, they rules, sohanged the you only need those 51 votes. host: thank you for watching -- walking us through it, he will talk you down the road. the phone lines are yours this morning. we want to hear from you, your

reaction to the firing of james comey. on is a first this morning. democratic line, good morning. caller: i was 21 years old when nixon -- fired people. took a lot of republican politicians to grab the bull by the horns and make nixon come to his senses. that's what's going to happen now. we are going to have to have that. these republican senators, republican congressmen and women in positions to get to the bottom of this better have some nerve. otherwise we are in deep trouble for the next 18 months. i could say a lot more, but i won't. host: next, louisiana, boxer city, good morning. go ahead. yeah, he should have been

fired long time ago. strictly because hillary had him in her back pocket, you know? it was pretty obvious what was going on, how things were handled. i don't know why he took so long to do it. that's my only question. i'm glad it happened. i think he ought to take care of that black lady that was on a plane that bill clinton jumped on. i think he ought to fire her, too. attorneye former general loretta lynch, under the obama administration? she doesn't work for the trump administration now. aware of that.t anyways, i felt like she was part of all of that rigmarole , you know? anyway, that's my feelings. i'm glad it's over with now. all right, sandra, massachusetts, good morning. caller: i would like to know one thing. is this the trump fake news or

our truth? we need the truth. independence,our to fight for the truth of our country. we are going to shut our mouths to what trump thinks or what trump wants. yet we want his taxes to be put out. we don't like probably the idea of syria being against. turkey does not like that. we are making horrible bedfellows all over the place. bad decisions. we need help. thank you. stick around. later in the show we will be talking about the decision to arm the rebels. we will be talking in the 9:00 hour about that and you can learn more. harry, pittsburgh, live in for republicans, go ahead.

-- line for republicans. go ahead. caller: it's going to backfire on the democrats. anything they do now is political to make them look good. is, after thismp is over i hope they investigate him, i think he will be off the hook. but hillary clinton is the one behind this. when this happens, then they go after obama for spying. he will put somebody in there. the second in command in there, but it will be madden or something like that. his wife is a democrat running for office. when it is over and these democrats call in and want trump's hide, he's going to get clinton and she's definitely guilty. investigate trump, i wanted to happen. host: the next fbi director will reopen the clinton probe? caller: why not? he was the one that let her off the hook. those democrats. there is no collusion between

trump and the russians, they all know this, they are just playing a political game. he's the victim. they will go after lynch. those two, they were playing with each other. clintonf that, hillary gave the russians uranium. clinton was with obama, in russia when obama put him in office to gain a position. this is going to backfire and i'm waiting for it to happen. harry.ot your point, david is up next. line for democrats. david, good morning. caller: good morning, how are you doing? host: doing well. caller: firing comey, that was very strange. comey was in california when he did that. when you do something like that, what they did, they went into his office, they cleaned it out, and casinghead any evidence on mr. trump. so, they it rid of all the

evidence. you know? host: where did you read about cleaning out his office for evidence? caller: think about it. i didn't read it. i'm a corrections officer. when you fire somebody like that on the road? he had no knowledge of him being terminated, nobody said anything about it? >> polite crowd. >> [inaudible] heard.'ve good afternoon, everybody. as most of you know, sean is on reserve duty for the rest of the week, so i will be briefing you today and in the following days. i have a few announcements at the top before i take your questions. i have an update at the tunnel collapse in washington state. the incident is moving from the emergency phase to the recovery phase. after extensive testing we remain confident that there has been