2. tries sneaking out of that prison in honduras. >> that's not a woman? well, a for effort. jackie: "fox & friends" starts right now. abby: have a good wednesday, everyone. >> president trump has fired fbi director james comey. >> you are hereby terminated and removed from office effective immediately. >> they are using his handling of the hillary clinton email case as a reason. >> it's clearly a loss of confidence in director comey. >> they felt he had colored outside the lines and he had brought a lot of disrepute on the agency. >> the fbi field agents believe he demeaned their work, undermined their integrity. >> this firing was overdue and everyone in washington knows it. >> mr. president, with all due respect, you are making a big mistake. >> this was a guy who was being questioned day after day after day whether or not he was capable of leading the fbi.

>> that is a brazen, craven, disrespect for the rule of law. >> first of all, the president did not fire the entire fbi. he fired the director. >> he violated every known rule department of justice about how an investigator is supposed to conduct himself. >> it's time for the new leadership in the fbi. ainsley: you're fired. president trump ousting the fbi director james comey. steve: as it is revealed. the former director, now he is former, told the presidents president was not under investigation. told him on that on three separate occasions. brian: according to the president's letter. kevin corke is on our nation's capitol with the details. >> this has been fascinating. what a difference 12 hours makes. this broke before 6:00 p.m. yesterday. writing to tell his fbi director james comey he had informed him on three separate occasions that he himself was not end

investigation. nevertheless, the president went on to say in that letter he concurred with the judgement with the department of justice that he was no longer able to effectively lead the bureau. and just like that the tumultuous tenure at the helm for director comey came to an end. he lerpsd of his dismissal in los angeles where he was set to deliver a speech. i want to walk the folks at home through a time line. keep in mind back in july of 2016. comey announced that the fbi would not recommend criminal charges in the investigation into hillary clinton's private email server. then just ahead of the electric he had a letter to congress about a newly discovered emails. but then just two days before the vote he said we are going to stick with our statement from back in july interest there would be no recommendation for criminal charges. all this happens by the way just ahead of today's meeting with the russian foreign minister. sergei lavrov expected here at the white house in just a few hours for a meeting with the president you can

imagine how that played out in the media russian tie. it's going to make for dramatic day at the white house. i will keep an eye on it but back to you. steve: thank you very much. whitnorth lawn of the white house. he was meeting the field office there. on the tv behind him james comey slashed by the president of the united states. mr. comey thought it was prank and laughed about it and went into the office. we understand the president's personal guard keith schiller is the fellow who hand delivered a letter to the fbi yesterday afternoon indicating that the president of the united states was firing that tall man walking down that hall right there. brain brian the question is. even if you love james comey or didn't or you were one of the many people critical of what he has done over the last couple of years. you think he deserves better to find out 3,000 miles away in los angeles about to give a speech. i think he could have waited day or two to say listen,

you are out of here for multiple of reason in a formal declaration rather than find out through somebody else. ainsley: that's why people were saying why did this happen? and sarah huckabee sanders she is the deputy white house principle spokesperson. this is what she said the reason was. listen. >> director comey had lost the confidence of the rank and file within the fbi. he had certainly, i think, lost the confidence from members of both sides, republicans and democrats in the house and the senate. and, frankly, most importantly, tucker, he lost the confidence of the american people. the president was presented with a pretty clear and direct and very strong recommendation bay the deputy attorney general who a lot of people probably don't know but the fbi director actually reports to the deputy attorney general. that deputy made the recommendation. the president made a swift and decisive action. and let director comey go. >> you think you are watching oj? you are not.

that is james comey in california, i guess heading to the airport in his automobile. steve: not a white ford broncho it was a black suburban. brian: everyone get out of oj's way and used a car now he was the former director of the fbi. everyone is jumping to conclusions well, he is out because the russia investigation was getting too close. you read the "new york times" and other trump critics. i have think think are two different entire things. nothing was leading towards the collusion towards the russians. in fact, it was going the ore direction. perhaps, that went into the thinking particularly after sally yates and james clapper said there is no there there. it was on a certain track, especially a week after james comey came out and said let me reveal my thinking into why i made the decisions i made in july and october. then the letters come in. and donald trump makes the move. ainsley: the white house is confident he couldn't effectively lead. one week the democrats hated

him and next week republicans didn't like him. it sounded like he was going to indetective hillary at the end of the press conference he didn't. hillary blamed him on losing the election. sometimes items like him, sometimes they don't. steve: brian, you mentioned the "new york times." this is the coverage of the papers this morning. trump fires comey amid russia inquiry. that's true. obviously they are pushing the russia thing. fed up, kind of clever from the "new york post." and cudahy trump. you got to figure why television last night. they love the fact that they fired him because they didn't like him last year to your point, ainsley. but now they love him because by firing him they get the chance to push this we need a special prosecutor thing for russia. anyway. here is the montage of the democrats who in the past have attacked him but now they love him. >> we all disturbed first of all by the letter which

really broke precedent. was over the advice of the leaders in the justice department. i'm not challenging mr. comey's motivation, but i do think it was unwarranted. it was a mistake. >> he has a big burden of proof, so to speak on him for what he did which seems to be appalling act which goes against the tradition of prosecutors at every level of government. when i heard about it, i found it hard to believe that comey, who i thought had some degree of integrity would do this. >> i think he made a mistake on this and he clearly has a double standard. in his job if you are not in it for a while you can't take the heat. i think he couldn't take the heat from the republicans. >> i'm so disappointed in comey. he has let the country down for partisan purposes, and that's why i call hill j. edgar hoover. i believe that. >> do you believe he should resign. >> yes, of course.

>> a lot of people think he shouldn't have been reuped on the transition. he passed that hurdle when president trump said okay, you can stake around james comey. ainsley: the democrats asked for this. they demanded it at one point. then they get and it now they don't want it just because many people are saying the president wants it. and they are going against every single thing that he wants. steve: the president has a brand new nickname for schumer now. take a look at the tweet from last night. crien chuck stated recently i do not have confidence in him, james comey, and act so indigny napolitano. #drain the swamp. brian: not time for nicknames. if you want to write schumer being disingenuous. when you do the nicknames, it diminishes the impact of the moment. and i think diminishes james comey's career. whatever you think about him. he left a huge high paying job to spend the next 10 years as fbi director.

on both sides you could see legitimate criticism by the way he acts but no one thought he was insincere in how he was acting. ainsley: say that to stephen colbert, brian. the anymore names. brian: you are comparing the president with a bad talk show host? ainsley: a lot of people agree with him. chuck schumer liked him. brian: use a nickname to describe a leader? ainsley: i think it's outrageous. ainsley: you are entitled to that a lot of people agree with you. steve: ultimately, it is the actions of the federal bureau of investigation director. and ultimately the reason he got fired was because he usurped his authority. he did stuff he is not supposed to dos a the fbi director. and we have talked about this. i can't tell you how many people we have had on this couch who have said james comey should get fired. that was over the last year. when you saw the press conference starting in july, he did stuff nobody has ever done because you're not supposed to do it.

gentlemejoe degeneral have a whs on this show yesterday. 8 hours before james comey was fired said he should be fired. he said he was fbi director who acted like the president. meanwhile the montage of the media reaction last night went something like this. >> this is an extraordinary moment in american history. >> you bet it is, wolf. and it's a grotesque abuse of power by the president of the united states. >> a little whiff of fascism tonight is fair to say. >> absolutely. >> a little whiff of i don't care about the law i'm the boss. >> the timing now looks like it is connected to russia no matter what the president says. and this is where it's going to become a political hot potato. >> big question now involves the current fbi investigation into russian meddling and collusion between trump's campaign and russia. this is truly extraordinary. who runs this investigation. brian: the russia investigation was going nowhere.

if you want to question the timing of comey's dismissal, the letter from the deputy compounded with the deputy attorney general hand it over to the white house recommend and put out this letter that says he is fired. is he finished. he is throughs, that's fine. what's an enormous leak to say is he covering up something with the russia investigation. if there is something next to the president saying mr. president, i understand you have plenty of reason to fire him. i think you should get rid of him. should we do it on tuesday in the late afternoon or should we wait to get our political ducks in a row and maybe wait for him to come back from the speech? ainsley: how do we know he didn't decide in january he wanted to get rid of him on january 20th so he wanted to wait because he didn't want to fire him immediately so the investigation would be halted. there is no evidence to determine that there was collusion. steve: right, i think the timing, if there is any timing it had to do with the deputy attorney general. when he signed on. keep in mind, is he actually

james comey's boss. he reviewed the stuff and said he is going to have to go, mr. president. the attorney general concurred. the next big thing is who will they replace him with. given the fact that the democrats are calling for a special prosecutor. brian: as is justin amore and senator bush and senator mccain and some republicans are also doing that i think it would have been good for the president to work the phones because he is the best at that. listen, this is my school of thought. this is what i'm looking to do. we all know the russia investigation is going nowhere. how do i get this done with the least amount of ancillary dang. ainsley: here is the bottom line. he is the boss. and he gets to decide who works for him. someone who works for him who is not supportive of him he gets rid of them. he has the ability to do that. brian: of course. and there is no corruption involved. the timing of doing it to get more republicans on the same page so they know what's going on someone like susan collins was able to speak coherently about it other republicans are being

pulled over in diners and restaurants asked to comment. that to me is a problem. ainsley: you ask the intelligence community a lot of them are upset for being so public and having press conferences and ring so much information. steve: given the fact there is show much political pressure on this. the president needs to nominate somebody who-to-take the job who has great integrity and political. ainsley: sorry if we interrupted you. steve: no. no. the former house committee chairman pete huc huck pete hoed it's about time. brian: new option to take the option off the drivers license. ♪ any way you want it ♪ just the way you mean it ♪ anyway you want it ♪ i said any way you want it ♪ just the way you need it ♪ any way you want it ♪

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steve: fox news alert. president trump fired fbi director james comey. so what needs to be done to make that agency great again? and who is the right person to lead it? ainsley: joining us now is house intel committee chairman pete hoekstra. thanks for being with us.

>> good morning. ainsley: like it or not, it's done. james comey is out. who should be his replacement and what should we look for in that candidate. >> someone who is a face to america. someone that a lot of american people would recognize. has obviously a high degree of integrity. is from law enforcement. my suggestion is ray kelly, the former police commissioner from new york city. that's a face that america knows. when you are taking a look at the threats we face internally. the threat from terrorism. cartels, gangs, a big city police commissioner like ray kelly would be an excellent choice. there is other good people out there. that's not a bad place to start. steve: pete, why did comey have to go. >> comey had to go. he lost the confidence number one of the political class here in washington. you know, you have been playing some of the hits over the last six, seven, eight months of people on the democrat and republican side of the aisle who said what is this guy doing? he is doing things that an fbi director should not be doing.

he has lost the confidence there. he has lost the confidence of the american people. most importantly he lost the confidence of the president of the united states. brian: let me ask you something, when people are jumping and saying this is connected directly like jeffrey, a noted attorney who says this is directly linked to the russian investigation. what's your response? >> my response to that, brian, is there has been no evidence over the last nine months that there is any hint of collusion between the trump campaign and the russians. there has been no discussion about what laws may have been broken. that continues to be a discussion and a challenge or an allegation that has no merit to it. brian: do you question the timing? >> no. i think actually the timing is probably not that surprising. the president waited until he had his team in place at the justice department. he has got an attorney general. he has got a deputy attorney general who james comey reported to.

that team did an analysis. they made the recommendation. they said this director really is -- has lost the confidence of the fbi of his staff. we need new leadership at the fbi to move forward. they made the recommendation. steve: pete, real quick, exit questions. are the democrats -- and some republicans are going to call for a special prosecutor. do they get one? >> i don't think they get one at this point. there is not enough substance there. there is not enough merit to hire and to rate a special prosecutor at this point. ainsley: as these guys like to say there is no there there. >> you should listen to them. thank you. ainsley: i always do. great to see you. >> thank you. ainsley: coming up. protecting our heroes here at home. how one state wants to make it a hate crime to attack first responders. steve: ruthless gang ms-13 compared to al qaeda. next guest sees the violence firsthand. who is he blaming for the carnage. you will find out next.

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ainsley: attacking or killing a firs first responder could son be a hate crime in new york. state senate approving a new law harsher penalties on anyone who harms a cop, a firefighter or eminent. the bill is now heading to the state assembly. stay? cool and you won't be deported. los angeles public school district turning campuses into sanctuaries for illegals. schools are barred from asking students or their families about their immigration status. brian?

brian: all right. ainsley. ms-13 is gang made up mostly of illegal immigrants. most of them are here. the gang blamed for a string of murders here in new york suffolk county. now the trump administration is taking aim at them. >> we will prosecute gang members who commit crimes to the fullest extent of the law. >> and after they have been convicted, if they're not here lawfully, they are going to be deported. so i have a message for the gangs that target our young people, we are targeting you. we are coming after you. brian: now just a short time ago our next guest says he knows who to blame for ms-13 rise and points his fingers squarely at president obama. the former president of the united states. joining us right now is to explain is the sheriff of suffolk county demarc co. how did the president play into the -- of this gang. >> he started the unaccompanied minor program. and enhanced the unaccompanied minor program. with good attention but didn't

look at the details. we had a surge of 2014 to 2016 of gangs from el salvador come into this country illegally. some are already ms-13 gang members. some are not. come here for a better life but very soon recruited into ms-13 because they are putting communities where ms-13 is present. brian: centralized on long island, two working class areas. nice areas. they have a lot of pride. very hispanic in a lot of cases. they are put into an area. they are processed and brought in to sponsor families. those sponsor families have a responsibility. those for the most party, there is no consequence for these kids not checking in, not getting a progress report. they show up in these schools. and next thing you know they are counted as regular students. instead they are wreaking havoc on these schools. >> yes. there are rules to this program. the rules are not followed and no consequences for not following the rules. sponsor family is supposed to be looking after the child. that child is supposed to be looking in. immigration proceedings.

25% of these kids complete the program and actually become legal. the rest of them kind of just disappear. brian: for the most part, sheriff, you have a situation where they don't have a education. don't speak the language. they are thrown into our school system. we have to pay for them. they don't even belong here and they start threatening the other kids who are just trying to get an education, killing a lot of the non-gang members in a brutal fashion with machetes, axes, and knives. >> that's true. and h.h.s. is supposed to be vetting these families. vetting these kids. they don't contact local law enforcement. they don't contact the school district. they don't contact local social services when they place these kids. they don't tell us hot sponsors families are. the brentwood school is a recruiting ground for ms-13. brian: there is no question. we did a ride along on monday. you will see it next week there no doubt about it, these parents have been complaining, reaching up and they have been

virtually ignored there is a sense there is a change that this administration wants to help. >> yes. i feel that the trump administration realized this is a national problem. this isn't something that's going to be solved locally by us. we need border security u this program has to be evaluated. border security is going to change the way we -- the war on crime here in suffolk county and the country. 90% of the heroin that comes in this country comes across that southern border. the unaccompanied minor program needs to be revamped. i understand the benefit of it we are compassionate people but there has to be put limits on and it these kids placed in other communities not just this particular community. brian: i leave with you this thought. can you imagine a kid who just wants to get through his school years and when they get off the bus, they don't walk home, they run home. they're hoping not to get hit, harassed, and they are told you join out gang or we are going to kill your family. so they have no choice. sometimes these parents are

working 12, 14 hours. both of them. they are latch key kids. stay inside or be in a gang. >> can't have the program at the expense of the american people, especially our children. brian: you guys are taking action and this administration is backing you. thanks so much. >> thanks, brian. brian: coming up straight ahead. now that james comey is out as fbi director. how could the trump administration hire to replace him? we have the late frets white house. another brawl inside a being pad passenger plane. look at this. how this fight ended up in handcuffs. ♪ keep on turning. ♪

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>> attorney general. >> why didn't you recommend the firing of james comey? can you explain? > steve: there he is the attorney general being escorted into his armored is you bourboisyou burr is youarma. brian: white house vowing to hire someone who will bring credibility back into the agency. ainsley: names already being thrown out this morning.

>> a lot of names being floated around who might be able to work with the attorney general jeff sessions. there is no time line in the replacement. it could come in the coming days. andrew mccabe is the acting fbi director. until they pick, as you mentioned, someone that the white house wants to restore the confidence and bring credibility back to the fbi. those names are new york police commissioner ray kelly. you remember he is a top cop in the wake of 9/11. halls experience dealing with terror threats. he is tough on crime, which i'm sure jeff sessions would appreciate and governor chris christie. former u.s. attorney in new jersey. he has a history with president trump. although he does have something that may be baggage and, of course, this appointment by the president has to be confirmed by the senate. that is the bridge gate scandal which was investigated by the fbi and produced convictions of two members of his staff. other names representative trey gowdy who led the investigation of the benghazi hearings. a former federal prosecutor who is also known-as being tough on crime.

has respect of official washington. there is a wild card, milwaukee county sheriff david clarke. now, that's an interesting one that may draw a lot of criticism. but he certainly rose to prominence. we saw him last summer at the rnc convention. and then another name that's out there john pisol. former tsa administrator. he was a deputy director of the fbi and pretty much played a role in crafting the antiterrorism policies of the last two presidents both president's bush and obama. so maybe last but not least we shall see. remember, this appointment by the president first goes to the senate where the judiciary committee will look at it and this nominee will, of course, be investigated by the fbi for a background check as well. ainsley: all right. need 51 votes to get through the senate. brian: i know governor christie's wife does not want him to take this job because

been underachieving for years. she wants him to cash in. steve: want him to explore his income potential what the governor said on this program. he does need a job. ray kelly would be great. but then again, is he in private security now working for big firms. he probably at this point in his life probably doesn't want it. i love the idea though of trey gowdy. sea former federal prosecutor. he is a guy that went after drug gangs and stuff like that. a man of great integrity with no political baggage. that's what you need in a situation like this. brian: looking for someone who does not have any political back ground. so to speak. ainsley: democrats are looking for that. brian: republicans, too. they don't want a lot of fireworks around. this especially whether you have healthcare looming and tax reform hopefully to get something going this year do you really want to dig in on an fbi director and make this a political firestorm. ainsley: griff talking about the john pistole guy he was deputy director of the fbi.

he has a lot of experience and might not be political because he has worked both sides but then is that part of the swamp. steve: let us know how think. if you have a good idea let us know friends@foxnews.com or tweet us as well. brian: abby huntsman doesn't have to tweet us she can talk to us directly as well. abby: good to see all of you this morning. headlines we are following this morning. drunk driver accused in a hit and run crash that left a little boy with brain trauma is mexican immigrant who has been deported 15 times. california family on the way home from disney land when police say a man drove through a stop sign and hit their car. 6-year-old boy suffering from serious head injuries. his family says he is so hurt he cannot even open his eyes. that is so heart breaking. one person under arrest after another vicious brawl on a plane yes again. two southwest airline passengers punches thrown as getting off the plane in california.

37-year-old man put into cuffs and now facing battery charges. no word on what caused that fight. the pc police now taking on your drivers license. oregon now the first state to consider adding a gender neutral option for those who don't identify as he or she. well, tote the state will he or she. x category. it does not require approval from lawmakers. nau not in my yard there is aamazing saidio fearless dog black bear wandering around a neighborhood. diligent watchdog squaring up with the massive bear as you can see chasing him away from his home just outside of l.a. authorities believe the bear showed up because, of course, it was trash day and he was searching for food. no word on if the bear was captured. good dog. my dog wouldn't do that. brian: as athletic bears are. legitimately overweight springing ability and climbing ability of monkeys.

steve: kind of. they are climbers. there are a lot of bear in new jersey, our neck of the woods. ainsley: i thought you were going toy say like yosemite. steve: no they are terrified of the yappy dogs in the neighborhood. one day about a year ago, probably a standing up a 6-foot bear went up, i would say, 60 feet up the neighbors tree because a little dog like a pomeranian was down there barking at him. they just want our garbage cans. they are coming for the garbage. brian: i wonder if janice dean had any experience. steve: from canada? janice: i only have bear experience at the zoo. have you seen them on the swimming pools and hammocks. ainsley: i didn't expect in new jersey. he said there are a lot of them. janice: in new jersey. steve: swimming pool. ainsley: we have that bear on the trampoline and shepard smith loves that video. janice: the bear is fine by the way. all the videos we show the

bear ends up being okay. ainsley: they are cute from afar. janice: they are truly cute from afar. i have bad news, guys. our mother's day weekend in the northeast is going to be a washout. that's what it looks like. that's not good news. i have matthew's first communion coming up. i don't know what i'm going to do. people can't go outside. i don't need all my family in my house. anyway, let's go to the weather and take a look at the current temperatures. we have an area of low pressure across the west. unsettled there and the northeast where it's cooler than average. and then across the south. that's where we have got the warmer than average temperatures. in meteorology that's called omega block. pattern is not going to change until past the weekend. so there is the low pressure that's coming out of the west. that's going to give us the potential for severe storms, including large hail, damaging winds, isolated tornadoes across portions of texas, all the way up towards the great lakes. and that's going to be potentially nerve-racking this afternoon and through this evening where we could have tornado danger especially across portions of texas in

towards oklahoma. here is the nor'easter, potential nor'easter we are watching for saturday and sunday off the coast. we are not going to be dealing with snow. we are going to be dealing with heavy rain and wind starting saturday into sunday. what am i going to do with all the family inside my house, guys? this is the potential danger that i'm looking towards. brian: are you allow to postpone mother's day for a week because of rain? janice: that would be a great idea. ainsley: every day should be mother's day. janice: that's a good point. ainsley: birthday. you and your husband having another wedding. and first communion. janice: i need a wedding planner and. brian: remarrying each other again? janice: we are remarrying each other. steve: she has a busy may. coming up on wednesday telecast. firing of james comey. next guest, former department of justice official on what message this sends to the rest of washington and us. ainsley: finally, a student protest that you are going to love.

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researchers stumbling onto the solution studying how tumors form. and that's the end of the story. so i'm not sure. we got to finish that story because i'm curious. brian: james comey out as head of the fbi u firing him. steve: big question why now and what does this say about president trump? here to discuss we have former department of justice officials jay christian adams joining us from our capitol. what's the message today. >> this is a message to institutional washington that this president doesn't fool around. that if you are out of line, no matter how entrenched you are. no matter how beloved you are by "the washington post columnists, he is going to deal with you. that sends a message to the bureaucrats throughout all the agencies that he is here to change the culture and did he it in a big way.

brian: what do you think about his decision to put in the dismissal letter although you told me three separate occasions i'm not being investigated. what was behind that? why do you think that was mess to put that in there? >> we don't know what was behind it. it was probably a private conversation between comey and trump. and what that does is once again, like i said before, trump doesn't play by the old washington rules. he doesn't play like previous republican presidents. previous democrat presidents. he doesn't go seeking the approval of that guy named wolf on another network or the congressional democrats. when he tweets out crying chuck schumer. it's a totally new ballgame. and institutional bureaucratic washington needs to be put on washington. brian: is that appropriate the nickname? >> look. it's accurate. whether or not it's appropriate i will leave to somebody else. but you know what's fascinating about this. while trump is reorganizing the order in washington, they're using a justification of deeply institutionalist.

deeply establishment to fire comey. that memo from rod rosen stein could have been written by a 40 year bureaucrat at the justice department talking about all the grand institutions that comey has transgressed. so it's an amazing mix of reform plus establishment that took place here. ainsley: so you have the democrats that are saying the timing is suspect because it looks like there might be collusion. james comey has never said there wasn't collusion. republicans saying james comey should have been fired on january 20th. what do you make of the timing? >> timing all has to do with rod rosen stein. he is the cog around which this machine turns. he had to be confirmed. he only had six no votes from democrats. is he comey's direct supervisor. the deputy attorney general. and he had to get in place. remember, this is a guy who had a reputation. he stayed on as a u.s. attorney under the democrats. rod rosenstein did. he had a lot of cover here.

understand something very important. this administration does not play by the same rules and that's, i think, what this firing shows. ainsley: why couldn't the president have fired him without rod rosenstein though. why was it important to have him in place that. >> would have been a bad idea. you have needed somebody in place who was senate confirmed. the senate confirmed pinner makes all the difference. ainsley: got it? >> this is part of the effort to delegit might trump. russia costing the election. comey costing miller the election. now it's wisconsin voter i.d. always excuse for bad candidates. steve: j. christian before you go. i know a lot of the republicans are celebrating that they fired comey. what about democrats? do they have reason to be happy that comey is out. >> well, this have been calling for him to be fired for so long it shows that you hypocrisy is not in short supply in washington. now that the democrats are outraged, they finally got what they wanted with comey's firing. brian: right. by the way he was hired by a democratic president.

j. christian adams, thank you. >> thanks, brian. brian: straight ahead, would you like to hear the phone call when hillary clinton succeeded to president trump on election night? you may get to soon. steve: carley shimkus is here with all of that come on in, you are our next contestant on "fox & friends." ♪ here's my number ♪ so call me maybe ♪ it's hard to look like ♪ but here's my number ♪ so call me maybe ♪ hey, i just met you ♪ and this is crazy ♪ but here [birds chirping] click

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prototype brian more than a thousand middle schoolers making a statement to support

our men and women in school. carley shimkus is here with the latest on the minnesota student walkout and more on today's top trends. what happened in minnesota? it's a pro-cop protest. >> it's a bit of an unfortunate story with touching element to it. the town of forest lake, minnesota recently voted to get rid of their police department. they planned to use the county sheriff's department instead to save a little bit of money. get this, 1300 students got together to protest that move. it was their idea to take action against this decision. clara olsen came up with this idea 9:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m. spreading the idea on social media. by 1:15 at the end of the school day everybody got together and protested that decision. the police chief says he is blown away by. this a lot of other people within the community are talking about it on social media as well. one of those people is anna. she says don't know how they could look into the faces of our community and make this

decision no matter what the flpd will always be our officers. and mark says unfortunate that shortsighted elected officials have decided to view public safety and community outreach as a commodity. that's sad. steve: all out to save molly money ultimately it probably won't change any minds. >> always going to be their officers. steve: 2:30 in the morning the day after the election, hillary clinton called donald trump to concede. >> that's right. steve: who knew that was recorded? >> so the president's social media director said he is going to release the concession tape that hillary clinton made after she lost the election. can you imagine that? so he tweeted that out saying screen shot via kellyanne conway's cell phone of huma abedin's call 2:30 a.m. eastern time six months ago. i have that on video and will share that in the near future. kellyanne conway responds #memories.

has everyone accepted the election results? yes. this is going to be a pretty interesting tape to listen to. ainsley: i can't wait to hear it. >> this is a little bit of juicy to it. this is of course after hillary clinton has made many excuses why she lost the election her biggest james comey. steve: i think the only detail we have heard about it was a phone call of, what, less than a minute. >> pretty quick phone call. so it won't take too lock to hear but i'm sure a lot of people will be looking forward to hearing what she had to say. steve: that's going to come up on the 8? >> we will see. he didn't say when he was going to release it we will be talking about it though. you know social media will be talking about it, too. my goodness. ainsley: why will be playing it. steve: thanks so much. meanwhile a jam packed two hours straight ahead. talking about the firing of james comey. brian: judge napolitano is here to talk about this unfolding story. james comey fired.

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it's clinically proven to remove plaque, the main cause of bleeding gums. for healthy gums, and strong teeth. leave bleeding gums behind. new parodontax toothpaste. ainsley: you're fired. president trump ousting the fbi director james comey. >> the president went on to say he is was no longer able to effectively lead the bureau. >> there was clearly a lost of confidence in director comby. >> they felt he had colored outside the lines and he had brought a lot of disrepute on the agency. >> trump doesn't play by the old washington rules. institutional bureaucratic washington needs to be put on notice. this firing was overdue and everyone in washington knows it. >> mr. president, with all due respect, you're making a big mistake. >> everybody at some point in time was mad at comey. but it's because he kept screwing things up. >> first of all, the president did not fire the entire fbi. he fired the director.

>> the president waited until he had his team in place. that team did an analysis. they made the recommendation. steve: well, we start this hour with a fox news alert. donald trump has said you are fired on auto television show but yesterday he said it in a letter ousting the director of the fbi james comey. brian: he made a few calls first to some important people on capitol hill u as it revealed the former director told the president he wasn't under investigation multiple times. how do we know that? that was in the president's letter. ainsley: kevin corke is live from our nation's capitol with details. >> reportedly when he was first told about the dismissal former director comey thought it was a joke. certainly was not a joke. the president made that very clear in his letter to mr. comey. writing among other things that while he appreciated being informed on a number of occasions, three separate occasions, in fact, that he was not under investigation, he nevertheless concurred with

the judgment ever the department of justice that mr. comey was not able to effectively lead the bureau. frequent critic of the president. new york senator chuck schumer said what the president did yesterday was simply beyond the pale. >> they fired sally yates. they find if a reek bara. now they fired director comey, the very man leading the investigation. this does not seem to be a coincidence. this investigation must be run as far away as possible from this white house and as far as away as possible from anyone that president trump has appointed. crying chuck schumer stated recently, i do not have confidence in him, james comey, any longer. then acts so indignant, #drain

the swamp. meeting coming at the house with the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov. last visit in 2013. this visit taking place at a time when secretary of state rex tillerson u.s.-russia relations all-time low. back to you. brian: thank you very much, kevin corke. ainsley: i have a feeling it's going to continue for another four to eight years. steve: drama? brian: great work. instant analysis. >> i enjoy when we have to turn on the dime because none of us had any notice it was coming. brian: what about the timing? what do you think is behind it? do you think we know everything we need to know. >> i don't think we know everything we need to know. the fbi director servings at the pleasure of the president even though he has a 10 year term the president can fire him for any reason. donald trump obviously wanted to make a very, very strong statement by the manner of the

firing while the fbi director was in los angeles giving a speech. brian: do you think they knew that they sent somebody over from the fbi. >> they probably should have known it. jim comey is a big guy not just that is he 6'8". he is an adult. he can take the bumps and bruises that we take in life there is a lot of moving parts here. he didn't fire the whole fbi as senator susan collins just said or the clip you just ran. he just fired the director of the fbi. some of us have been calling for this since july 5th when he had that bizarre press conference in which he said no reasonable prosecutor, his phrase, would take the case against hillary clinton. by the way, here's all the evidence against her. when he did that, he separated himself from hundreds, maybe thousands of rank and file fbi agents who felt that their work and the work of their colleagues had been demeaned by him.

i can't think of a time in the modern era where the government has exonerated somebody but at the same time laid out all the evidence against them. brian: we knew that answered got rehired. >> yes. he didn't get rehired. he got ratified. steve: he didn't get fired then. >> correct. correct. it is interesting, brian, that the reason for the firing or the stated reasons for the firing all happened on barack obama's watch. i think that jeff sessions wanted to have his team in place. he didn't have his full team in place until two weeks ago because chuck schumer and company delayed the confirmation of rod rosenstein. i don't know if there is more than meets the eye it is unusual that he would be fired because of these events that took place so long ago. but, in those events, he demonstrated absolutely poor judgment. he sort of big-footed his superiors i'm deciding whether or not he gets prosecuted. the judgment he made on the

anthony weiner was erroneous we all called him j. edgar comey at the time. your behavior has consequences and this is the consequences. ainsley: democrats are up in arms about this right now. but if you think back to when hillary clinton was on stage just a week ago, saying she lost the election because of james comey, or if you think about 13 days before the election the democrats are so mad at him saying he needs to step down, and then last summer when he didn't indict hillary clinton. nancy pelosi said they loved him. listen to the sound bites. >> we are all disturbed, first of all, by the letter which really broke precedent, was over the advice of the leaders in the justice department. i'm not challenging mr. comey's motivation. but i do think it was unwarranted. it was a mistake. >> he has a big burden of proof, so to speak, on him for why he did what seems to be such an appalling act that goes against the tradition of prosecutors at every level of government. it was -- when i heard about

it, i found it hard to believe that comey, who i thought had some degree of integrity would do this. >> i think he made a mistake on this. and he clearly has a double standard. and this job if you are not in it for a while, you can't take the heat. i think he couldn't take the heat from the republicans. >> i am so disappointed in comey. he has let the country down partisan purposes that's why i call him j. edgar hoar. i believe that. >> do you believe he should resign? >> yes, of course. ainsley: said he should resign and now they are mad that he was fired. >> very odd. the more he tried to explain and justify his judgment calls in the hillary clinton incident, by the way they called it a matter not an investigation which led toe a lot of fbi investigating you are the federal director of matters because they didn't

want to acknowledge this was a criminal investigation it, really has separated him so much from the rank and file. there is an in the weeds issue here. a lot in the legal community picked up on. he three times said we couldn't prove intent with respect to mrs. clinton. yet, the standard is not intent in this crime. it's the rare federal crime for which it can be prosecuted for gross negligence. what did he say she was? extremely careless. what else the definition of gross negligence? being extremely careless. steve: one of the things that they cited yesterday and one of the longer letters was the fact that circumstantial with one of those press conferences he usurped the authority of the attorney general. >> he did. steve: when you can't do. he is the top cop. he is not the attorney general. >> let me suggest. this maybe attorney general sessions and deputy attorney general rosenstein are now going to examine the hillary clinton case again.rocess of precinct this letter. steve: can they do that? >> yes.

they absolutely can. the statute of limitations hasn't expired. they can take a fresh look at the evidence. it would be unusual for the president to preside over the prosecution of the person he ran against. but the evidence of her guilt is overwhelming. brian: judge thing whether he can or shouldn't. whether he was popular and did things right. that's the an element of it the other thing did he with the investigation going on. nothing has emerged. the way did he it has republicans yesterday coming out and saying senator bird for example troubled by the special investigation outside prosecutor on the russian investigation. and you have justin amos saying the same thing. when you don't have republicans on the same page politically it doesn't make sense. >> politically it's dangerous especially for people like senator burr for who there is a great deal of respect in the intelligence community and law enforcement community. senator burr is one of the few people in congress that can go into i will use the phrase a

secret room the other members can't go with people like jim comb i can't understand admiral rogers who runs the nsa and mike pompeo who runs the cia and examine the secrets of the nation. when somebody like senator burr says i'm not so sure about this, you are right, brian, as people begin to call for a special prosecutor, special people like senator burr and senator mccain it's going to be tough to resist. that person is made by one person normally the attorney general. he has recused himself from all of this because of the little kerfluffle he had about not revealing his conversation to the senate judiciary committee with the russian ambassador. so, deputy attorney general rosenstein a well respected career prosecutor, unknown to the general public. steve: guy who wrote the big letter. >> correct. is the one who decide special prosecutor. if he does that person has his or her own budget, own fbi

agents and answers no one. brian: they go wild. >> they often have gone wild. steve: thank you so much. >> more to come, i'm sure. steve: it's about 7:11 in new york city. time for news with abby. abby: happy wednesday to all of you. new overnight no radiation detected after a nuclear scare causes thousands to run for cover. washington state locking down the facility for hours. the collapsed tunnel full of contaminated particles including radioactive train cars that were used in the cold war. luckily, no one was hurt. and the threat of deadly terror attacks on american soil is on the rise. a new house home land security router shows an 8% increase in homegrown jihadists cases in just the last month. just as troubles, more than 20% of all extremist cases since 9/11 have occurred in the past year. officials now warning that the threats will only get worse as isis continues to lose territory overseas. and the former army

intelligence analyst convicted of leaking classified information will be released from prison next week u chealings manning sentenced to 35 years behind bars for stealing documents in iraq and handing them over to wikileaks. the 29-year-old formerly known as bradley manning had her sentence commuted by former president obama before he left office. manning has only served seven years of her original sentence. introducing botus bunny of the united states. introducing the pence family rabbit while celebrating military appreciation. we can't meet for military families to marlon bundo after first appearance. they named the bunny after marlon brando her daughter got him while she was making a movie in college. how cute. is that the first bunny we have had in the white house? steve: that's a good question. >> tried looking it up. steve: you don't have google on your phone? abby: i do.

i couldn't find it. steve: we will know in a couple of minutes. brian: bunnies live surprisingly long time. time.steve they do. brian: it was a lot of cleaning. steve: and they can bite. big teeth. brian: that's if you take them out of the cage. steve: i did. oops. brian: meanwhile, the crime is horrific. two boston doctors found murdered in their apartment. boston's top cop here with the latest. steve: maxine watters finally denying any connection to donald trump. you will want to hear what she said coming up ♪ don't stop ♪ thinking about tomorrow ♪ don't stop ♪ it will soon be here ♪ it will be here ♪ better than before ♪ yesterday's gone ♪ help adults who are overweight or struggle with obesity lose weight and keep it off. contrave is believed to work on two areas of the brain:

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heart healthy california walnuts. great tasting, heart healthy california walnuts. so simple. get the recipes at walnuts.org. steve: fox news alert. the president of the united states is up and tweeting this morning. he just tweeted the democrats have said some of the worst things about james comey, including the fact that he should be fired. but now they play so sad. joining us right now is the former top cop in boston, we're talking about police commissioner ed davis joins from you boston. good morning to you, ed. >> good morning, steve. how are you? steve: good, thanks. you are law enforcement.

what do you make of the law enforcement firing yesterday james comey as head of the fbi? >> well, i was a police chief for 20 years in two different jurisdictions. the truth is that these jobs are -- you serving at the pleasure of the mayor in most cases or the president in the case of the phis of the fbi dir. i know there is a 10-year term associated with this. you go to work every day knowing that you might have to step down. that you might have to rethink your position if you lose the support of the people who are duly elected. and the fbi is in the executive branch and these things happen. james comey is a great guy but the truth is we serve day-to-day as police chiefs. steve: so as things go, is this a big deal or not a big deal? >> well, it's certainly a big deal. the fbi director has a 10-year term and that has been interrupted. so, the president needs to discuss why he did that but in the final analysis. it's the president's call. steve: sure, absolutely. i have got to ask you about

this double murder up in boston. and it's very troubling. not going to get into graphic details. but a man and woman doctor murdered in their apartment. early story was the presumed killer had known them but now it sounds like maybe he didn't. just got out of prison. what do you know, ed? >> the way this is turning out of right now is this looks like a murder robbery -- a robbery/murder i should say where someone had planned to go into a high end condominium we learned that the suspect actually worked there for a period of time. he may have had access to keys, to gain entry to the building. and it's looking like there was no connection between the suspect and victims. this is a every community's worse nightmare of a stranger incident like this. most homicides are committed among people who know each other so though is very, very troubling. steve: story was early he must have known him because it was

hard to get into the building but now we know how easy it was if you work right next door. but also message of retribution on the wall and maybe that wasn't the case either. >> well, my sources tell me there was something written on the wall. sometimes these things are -- the message was a general message. it wasn't specific to the people. so, without knowing exactly what was there and trying to divine what was happening in this suspect's mind, it's hard to say. but, you know, clearly mental health issues will come up in a situation like this. it's sometimes their only defense and this is a terrible, horrible murder. steve: you are absolutely right. ed davis. former top cop in boston. thank you so much for joining us live today. >> thank you, steve. steve: up next on this wednesday, remembering one of america's fallen heroes a virginia congressman who served side by side with navy seal kyle mcmillen, tells us about the friend and father who died fighting to keep us safe.

♪ there goes my hero ♪ watch him as he comes ♪ the show's about to start! how do i look?

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show me the top hot 100 artist. they give awards for being hot and 100 years old? we'll take 2! [ laughing ] xfinity x1 gives you exclusive access to the best of the billboard music awards just by using your voice. the billboard music awards. sunday, may 21st eight seven central only on abc. brian: 23,000, that's how many people were killed in mexico last year because it was the second most deadly conflict zone in the world. that's after syria. the war among drug cartels killing more people than in afghanistan and iraq. stunning. next, 70%. that's how much illegal crossings at the mexican border have plunged since this time last year. trump administration officials have attribute credit to the trend to increase enforcement on the border and inside the country. and finally, $63 million.

63 -- 63 million is how many vehicles with safety recall problems are on the road right now. car fax revealing the top five states with this issue, texas, hawaii, louisiana, mississippi, and alabama. keep your distance. ainsley? ainsley: thank you, brian. the u.s. navy seal killed in the military operation in somalia will be laid to rest at arlington national cemetery. 38-year-old kyle milliken was killed last week on friday against the extremist group al shabaab. he is the first to die in combat since 1993. virginia congressman scott taylor is a former navy seal who knew kyle milliken very well for more than a decade and served with him in iraq. he joins us this morning to remember his friend and our country's fallen hero. good morning to you. thank you for joining us. i'm sorry for your loss. >> good morning, ainsley. good to be with you and of course to honor kyle. ainsley: absolutely.

tell us about kyle what he was like. >> witty, consummate professional, clearly was going to do great things in the team that was clear very early on. great family man. very fiercely loyal. great man, family man and teammate. ainsley: congressman taylor why was he over there. i know he was in somalia fighting for our country but what was the mission? >> well, you know, there is counter terrorism mission in somalia. obviously al shabaab poses a threat to america. they have tried to recruit here and obviously pose a threat to american interest and americans in general. so that's why. it's one of the reasons why we are there and i would love to ask for prayers for family, teams and teammates from americans. i do believe it is appropriate. it wasn't a few minutes in somalia. he and his family have sacrificed over many years for this nation and quite frankly the unwavering courage in the fails of adversity is something that has run through the veins you have many americans, including kyle. we are better for it.

and we are better because they have lived. ainsley: yeah. absolutely. you mentioned his family. have you talked to them? >> >> i have. they are strong.y is strong and everyone comes together in this tragedy. it's a beautiful thing that they do that they are strong but obviously this is a huge tragedy that hits everyone's home. and you know we feel for them and we pray for them. ainsley: he has a wife and how many children does he have? >> he had two children and, again, our families are very strong but these types of things -- unfortunately live but funera for it unnatalie this something our community has dealt with for years. people know how to come together and hold and prop up those grieving families. and, again, we just our thoughts and prayers are out to them. ainsley: what's your message to the american people that are watching? what can we learn from kyle's story? >> >> well, again, irthink that -- perhaps i'm a little

bit of an idealist. i think, you know, people like, this who go forth in the face of adversity and sacrifice over and over again, this is something that should be a beacon of hope in america e encourage and inspire americans of every walk of life to do more for their country, to not be as selfish, be a lot more selfless in service to this nation in whatever capacity that is that you do. i think he is an inspiration as others have been as well, too. and americans should grieve but should be inspired and should remember. ainsley: congressman taylor, thank you for coming on to honor your friend and american hero. there is his picture, kyle milliken, in our thoughts and prayers his family is. and we will remember him. >> thank you. ainsley: the president is up and tweeting this morning about finding a replacement for james comey. senator chuck grassly is going to join us live to react.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

ainsley: president trump is awake. he is firing in on firing james comey. the democrats have said some of the worst things about james comey, including the fact he should be fired, now they play so sad. steve: he also tweeted james comey will be replaced by someone who will do a far better job bringing back the spirit and prestige of the fbi. brian: continuing now. comey lost the confidence of almost everyone in washington. republican and democrat alike. when things calm down, they will be thanking me. let's bring in senator chuck grassley chairman of the senate judiciary imli. a lot of people are saying the president didn't want comey all over the russian investigation and this was his push back to save his job. what's your reaction to that type of hysteria? >> yeah. let's get to basics. remember, that the fbi director report to and is

under the direct of the deputy attorney general. that's rosenstein. is he well-respected because he has been under both republican and democrat administrations. he was just approved by the senate 94-6. he said that comey, being head hurts the confidence of the public and the fbi. and he should be replaced. now, the president wouldn't have to take the advice of rosenstein, but obviously a president ought to have a good reason for not taking it when the guy that sprcheses the fbi felt that he was, mr. comey was bad for the morale and the confidence that the public ought to have and the fbi and they need to rebuild that confidence. ainsley: so if rosenstein recommended this and approved 94-6. most democrats in the senate approved him. what do you make then of democrats now being against this? is it just political? is it anything donald trump does they hate?

>> i think it gave them a chance to get back to something that they argued a month ago and it was losing steam to have a special prosecutor or having a commission look into it. but there's committees of congress, including my own committee, investigating this. and it gives them an opportunity to bring those issues up again. steve: sure. >> they really don't have a lot of credibility based on what they said last october when comey reopened the presidential inquiry about the emails. so, consequently, i don't think they have much credibility. steve: senator, we are showing some video of you asking mr. comey some questions at your senate hearing last week. one point you got so frustrated you said egadd you didn't like what he was saying. and he was not asking your questions. i understand as well that the

president of the united states, while we all found out last night about 5:45 that he had fired mr. comey. the president actually called you last night about 5:00. what did he say? >> well, pretty darn simple. maybe i shouldn't report about private telephone conversation but i don't think the president would care. he just wanted to inform me as chairman of the committee and comey as the first senator to tell me was going to make this firing so i wasn't caught off guard. that's the way i got the message. it was short message. simple message, pretty down to earth that he was in charge and acting -- he didn't say anything about the apprentice but you can imagine the first time we haven't had a general or a politician as as a president of the unite united states, you get a business person in there. and business people are really geared towards making decisions quickly and i guess that's what he was doing as a businessman. brian: do you support it? >> of course i support it. brian: what about the timing?

did you wish he did it when he took the job in november, officially came on board in january? >> i think you have to give a business person who has never been in politics, never been a general, never been in government, even though you are outstanding businessman, it takes a while to get used to what the presidency -- even if you were a senator going into the presidency, there would be a lot to learn, but there is a lot more to learn for a businessman becoming president president of the united states. give the president a little bit of leeway. not being in government. steve: senator, let me ask you this, i don't know if you have watched any of the televisions or read the papers, they were saying the firing was nixonian, as echos of watergate with the saturday night massacre stuff like that. for the people writing those headlines what is your message to them? >> my message to them is suck it up and move it on.

ainsley: suck it up buttercup? brian: i want you to hear from senator susan collins. she got the call too last night. here is what she said. >> the president did not fire the entire fbi. he fired the director of the fbi. and any suggestion that this is somehow going to stop the fbi investigation of the attempt by the russians to influence the elections last fall is really patently absurd. brian: that hasn't stopped it do you agree? >> listen to susan collins. she has got a lot of common sense. she looks at things independently and she is 1,000% correct in what she said. she can speak for me on that point. ainsley: all right. senator grassley. thank you for joining us. goofed to see you. >> thanks. bye. steve: let's hand it over to abby who has headlines for us. ash an i do want to bring you headlines. this is a twist. congresswoman maxine waters

says there is no evidence of president trump colluding with the russians. >> have you seen anything either intelligence briefings through intelligence briefings, anything to back up. >> sure. well, first of all, don't forget all of our intelligence agencies said yes, they have the documentation that they did the hacking. >> the hacking? >> on the dnc and some of us. >> but the collusion though? >> no, we have not. abby: watters one of trump's biggest critics making that admission during an interview with the "the washington post." students can make 10 bucks an hour for being social justice warriors. the university of arizona posting inclusive communities. increasing awareness. diverse. reporting any bias incidents or claims to appropriate staff members. those warriors expected to work 15 hours every week.

what gave this guy away? convicted killer hoping to break out of prison dressing up as a woman with blonde wig and nail polish. guards noticed him trying to struggle to walk in heels. manly voice also giving him away. police say he was trying to use i.d. left behind by a visitor: check out this sign hanging outside a connecticut high school. do you notice anything wrong? ienterance. been up since august without one person noticing. it will be raveled off as part of a fundraiser for charity. who wants to pay for that? steve: just the fact that it was up there for a long time and nobody noticed. abby: incredible. ainsley: thank you, abby. steve how about the story. ainsley: the guy dressing up as girl?

steve: the tale was he couldn't walk in heels. brian: how do you practice in prison? ainsley: where do you get high heels in prison? steve: another good question. ainsley: maybe you make them in carpentry. brian: absolutely do you have crafts and options. steve: we have questions regarding the firings of fbi director james comey. his replacement, who will that be? somebody with strong ties to hillary clinton wants to know what's coming up with that ed henry is going to break it down coming up next. brian: start your engines. janice dean is helping highlight the best cars of 2017 like this one zero to 60 in two seconds. janice: woo. ainsley: first trivia question born on this day in 19765, canadian model featured on 17 magazine covers. who is she? be the first to email us at friends@foxnews.com with the correct answer. steve: good question. ♪

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brian: james comey out as fbi director as of yesterday. now going wild over conspiracy theories. ainsley: someone who has strong ties to hillary clinton's network. steve: who is that person let's talk to chief national correspondent ed henry with more. andrew mccabe is in charge right now until the president says this next person is the new director. right? >> yeah. he is the acting director of the fbi. andrew mccabe. he has been very close to james comey. so when you have got the president suggesting it was time to drain the swamp, you now have the sort of number two at the fbi in mccabe risings up here which is going to raise even more questions.

remember back in the wage days of the presidential election last year part of the reason why james comey was in hot water was because of that man right there andrew mccabe. his wife had been running for a local senate seat in the state of virginia and had been fund raising with terry mcauliff the governor of virginia, who of course, was one the most high profile campaign advisors to hillary clinton. so now he is the person who is another key campaign advisor hillary clinton, of course, john podesta, take a look at the whiplash that you get if you look at twitter and what john podesta was tweeting yesterday morning about james comey, quote: the american public is getting mildly nauseous listening to james comey, then not making this up, a few hours later, almost 5:00 p.m. yesterday, after the firing john podesta hey, at reel donald trump didn't you know you are supposed to wait until saturday night to massacre people investigating you? well joe degenova told tucker.

>> he was acting like the attorney general and each the president of the united states. he violated every known roughly the department of justice about how an investigator is supposed to conduct himself. and for that he usurped the powers of the attorney general on july 5th, 2016. from there on in he was no longer able to lead the fbi. his testimony last week, before the senate, was viewed by many as so bizarre, so self-indulgent. so self-righteous that many people believed he had really lost it and could no longer effectively function as the leader of the fbi and they were absolutely correct. >> for all those reasons that's why you see the president of the united states in the last few moments tweeting again that after this firestorm dies down, basically, the president saying, people in both parties will thank him for firing comey. but let's not forget as well that before the election you had donald trump out on the stump praising james comey saying he showed a lot of the guts and courage with what he

did in the hillary clinton investigation. only told marie he a baltimore tony was doing a great job. evidence has had a flip flop as well. brian: surprised about the firing and quickly scrambled his communications people to get out there and start defending him last night. that he was why we saw kellyanne conway and we saw sarah huckabee out there; is that true? >> yes. and also, brian. you have been highlighting that you have some very serious republicans like richard burr, the chairman of the senate intelligence committee raising questions about the timing of this. so is barbara come stack a conservative in the house. think also about what impact all of this may have on the president's agenda. think about it. 24 hours ago you had the speaker of the house, paul ryan on this program saying we're going to get a health bill out of the senate in a month or two. which was very ambitious timetable that's what he said. we may get tax reform by the end of the year. does anyone really believe all of that which was starting to come into place for the president is in a good place today with everything that's happening here? there is going to interfere

with a loft his legislative agenda. brian: add justin amos to that too. he is mulling bringing in a special prosecutor for the russian leaks we haven't seen any. >> months on all of that think about the time sapped away from repealing and replacing obamacare and dealing with taxes. two big issues for this president. ainsley: when is the right time though? democrats are saying he shouldn't have done it now because this is -- there could be collusion. but some are saying he should have done this in january. when is the right time? maybe he waited this long so that democrats wouldn't spread that message that they're going to spread any way? >> you raise a great point, ainsley, regardless of the rest of the president's agenda, if it is the right thing to do and the president believes he wants to stand on that principle that james comey was not the right personal and restore the integrity i of the united states. you are the commander-in-chief. it's up to you. can you do it whenever you've. the question is going to be if there is no there there with the russian collusion story, all of this in weeks or months

is going to be maybe a blip. ainsley: it's been nine months. if there is some there there, wouldn't we know it by now? brian: evidently his aides were in the dark by this and even sent his own body man keith schiller to deliver the note. that's the not going you usually get how it's done to even know that the fbi director wasn't there. >> right. look, the there, there ainsley is absolutely right. it's been a long time. i was just talking to republican senator lindsey graham a few moments ago he told me is investigating and people investigating and there has been no evidence of russian collusion with the trump campaign. there is no there there today. apparently report now that there is a grand jury investigation going on in virginia. and subpoenas have gone out to general flynn and others. so, if there is some there there, there's going to be a problem for this white house. we simply don't know today. steve: that is regarding michael flynn. but regarding the timing, which, you know, i was just reading ax gross, and i think the top part of the column is why now.

isn't it predicated on the fact that the number two guy at the department of justice, he just, you know, he just gout voted. in he is just getting his sea legs over there did he an investigation. he looked back at what comey had done over the last year. >> right. steve: he essentially the spark plug on why this happened. >> good point, steve. number one. number two at justice chuck schumer and other democrats again in terms of hypocrisy they were praising him a couple weeks ago for his integrity. let's see how they spin that one. james comey messed unagain this week. remember in that testimony a few days back he said huma abedin had sent all these classified emails t anthony weiner. well maybe he wasn't right that might have something to do with the timing as well. comey messed up again. ainsley: who is to say this new person, the male, fee marriages whoever takes the place of james comey, who is to say they won't investigate collusion, too. just because james comey is out doesn't mean that investigation is done. >> chris christie.

he is up for fbi director. one name floated to me was kelly ayotte. the former attorney general for the state of new hampshire. brian: thanks, ed. we have got to run. start your engines, janice dean is out on the veranda in 2017. maybe i will get one. ainsley: the veranda. are moments gained with excedrin. [heartbeat] flea bites can mean misery for your cat.

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there with cars almost as good. this is a? >> honda civic. a hatch. 366,000 of these were sold last year. why isn't one o is it one of ou. lane warning. adaptive cruise control. sportier, bolder, better. best in class fuel economy. all of these you need to know. brian: all of these for $20,000. >> $20,000. brian: steve doocy. steve: $22,000. and it's a toyota. >> called the chr. compact high rider. built on a car platform but a little bit higher. so for the mom who has a couple kids that wants to take them around town. sportiness, sexiness to this vehicle. toyota safety sense. adaptive lane control. lane warning. great fuel economy. i love the higher handles on the back. easier to get in and out of the vehicle. sporty with the spoiler on the back. >> i have been wanting to

bring this to you ainsley for a long time. this is the alpha. four leaf clover on the side which is irish sphwhirks 1920, this was a race inspired get lucky by putting a four leaf clover on race car. quad folio. compete against bmw and-mile-an-hour sadz, starting at $39,000. this one is $72,000 packed with performance. steve: that right there? >> yes. janice: save the best for last. the dean demon show me. >> i have wanted to bring this to you in new york. there are only two of these in the entire united states. janice: banned so totally my car. >> 840-horsepower. 0 to 60 if 2.1 seconds. this thing is all about performance. rev it up. janice: oh, yeah. baby. banned by the nhra it doesn't have a roll bar on the inside. i could ride a motorcycle and get myself in the same kind of trouble. >> racing slick tires. steve: mike, thank you very

much for joining us with new cars. all right. much more show to go. we have newt gingrich. david bossie and senator rand paul all reacting to the firing of james comey. ♪ a good clean salad is so much more than green. and with panera catering, more for your event. panera. food as it should be.

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ready, go. ahhhhhhhh! shake! shake! shake! shake! shake! done! you gotta shake it! i shake it! glad i had a v8. the original way to fuel your day. ainsley: you're fired. president trump ousting the fbi director james comey. >> the president wept on to say he was no longer able to effectively lead the bureau. >> he demonstrated absolutely poor judgment and your behavior has consequences and this is the cone sequence. >> they felt he colored outside of the lines. he had brought a lot of disrepute on the agency. >> trump doesn't play by the old washington rules. >> you're the president of the united states. you're commander-in-chief. it is up to you can do whenever you want. >> this firing was overdue everyone in washington knows it. >> mr. president, with all due respect you're making a big mistake. >> they really don't have a lot of credibility based on what

they said last october. >> first of all the president did not fire the entire fbi. he fired the director. >> this director has lost the confidence of the fbi. we need new leadership. steve: fox news alert. help wanted. they're looking for a new director of the fbi. the president of the united states will determine at some point in the future, apparently the near future, who that person is. meantime the president has been up tweeting, defending his action from last night. ainsley: three new tweets. here is the first one. democrats said some of the worst things about james comey including the fact he should be fired. now they play. so sad. brian: james comey will be replaced by someone who will do a far better job, bringing back spirit and prestige of fbi. steve: he comey lost confidencef everyone in washington republican and democrats alike. when things calm down they will thank me.

brian: lindsey graham, recent controversy surrounding the director, a fresh start will serve the fbi and the nation well. let's bring in newt gingrich to see how the speaker feels. he is in close contact with the president. mr. speaker, do you agree with the timing and the way it was done? >> put this in context. you have a brand new deputy attorney general. he is a 30-year career professional in the justice department. he was picked by president obama to be the u.s. attorney for maryland. u.s. senate two weeks ago approved him 94-6. this is the person who wrote the letter that set the timing f you're donald j. trump, sitting there as president, looking at a letter from this person who is totally non-partisan, you could argue was acceptable to barack obama, and this guy writes you will never rebuild fbi as long as comey is there, given trump is an entrepreneur, trump understands the term, you're fired, what is he

supposed to do, oh, gee, i sure feel bad this guy has strong opinion. ainsley: why does the left have such a problem with it then? >> if trump comes out and lunchtime, american flag is red, white and blue, chuck schumer will say it is fuchsia. they are in knee he jerk, if president trump is for it, it has to be wrong. let me scream so my donors and partisans will be happy. it is pathetic, look what schumer and others said last fall you would think they would be applauding, thank god they rump.e is finally doing this. this was not him issuing orders. this is brand new deputy attorney general, independent person, pickedded by president obama to be u.s. attorney approved by the senate 94-6. now two weeks later they will turn, he shouldn't have offered his best professional judgment. his letter is devastating. american who has doubts read the

letter, you have no doubt the end of it president trump did the right thing. ainsley: people watching don't know washington like you do, what is happening within the fbi? you talk about unrest and things happening within the fbi. what do you mean? >> the fbi has a very strong tradition being the best law law enforcement division in the world. they inspire professionalism. instill it from the day you join fbi training. comey has been embarrassing last couple weeks. he has been you there the process of publicly saying things, as rosenstein, the deputy attorney general says, no fbi should be saying. by the way president obama's former attorney general, holder, also said, he had violated, comey violated all core principles of the fbi. one you don't talk in public about an investigation, inevitably you will hurt somebody. two, you don't render judgment. the fbi is investigative agency.

the justice department is above it. it is justice department lawyers who decide whether or not to actually prosecute. when comey said last july, he had made the decision not to prosecute, he took on himself powers from the attorney general that were totally wrong. and i think that, in that sense, really began to politicize the fbi in a way that's very, very dangerous. steve: newt on cover of "new york times" today it features the letter that the president wrote to mr. comey right here. the headline is trump fires comey amid russia inquiry. and so, while the headline has been he is fired comey, the subtext on all the channels and the mainstream media it is happening during this russia investigation. donald trump i think tried to address it yesterday when he said that on three separate occasions in his letter right here, you told me, mr. comey, i was not under investigation. why would he include something like that?

>> i think because he expected "the new york times" to have the headline they have. frankly had they asked my advice, i would have said don't include it. steve: why? >> he didn't react in response to the russia investigation at all. he reacted to a letter from the deputy attorney general, a non-partisan profession. that is the person who said you ought to fire him. i think all trump has to do today is be quiet. allow rosenstein to defend himself. i mean this, this is very hard to take on a guy who spent 30 years in the justice department picked by president obama to be u.s. attorney. steve: also the guy the fbi director reports to. >> right. he is the guy who will lead the effort, my guess, attorney general sessions will delegate him to lead the effort to produce candidates, this is my guess, that are totally acceptable to be the new head of the fbi. so rossen stein becomes a very major player here.

i wish the president would invite him to the white house press room, ask him to read the white house press corps. make them listen to the whole letter before they take questions. it is a very sobering letter. brian: what about the fact a lot in the west wing don't seem as though they were even read into this? took them by surprise? looks as though the president drafted himself, his long-time body man deliver the actual firing letter, to the fbi and director wasn't even there? does that bother you? also the fact that senator ben sasse, senator bob corker, all republicans, justin amash, republicans, in one way, shape or form are troubled by timing? >> the question i ask about the timing, how long should he wait after he has a letter like that from the deputy attorney general? the timing is not trump's choice. the timing was the deputy attorney general's choice. brand new guy, walks in, looks around, as career professional, this is crazy.

you not not possibly rebuild the fbi there? their argument is with rosenstein. what should trump have done sat on it? if trump had gotten letter, sat on it, comey chem his job, he only kept comey because there is deal, the fix is in, he has a blackmail comey at anytime. trump did cleanest thing he could do, he has been told by the professional, remember the senate endorsed 94-6, again this is the guy who president obama picked to be u.s. attorney for maryland. so he gets a letter from hims saying you know, we can't fix the fbi while comey is there. what does he do? wait a month or two? ainsley: he can't win, no matter what he does the mainstream media will go after him. >> that's right. ainsley: who should he take his place. rudy giuliani, chris christie,

ron pistole or come up with someone that is more neutral? >> i hope the president will delegate to the attorney general, who would i think delegate to rosenstein to come up with a list of three names. three characteristics, impeccably committed to rule of law, professionals, not partisans, and people, judge webster, for example, was a great fbi director. he came off the federal bench. there are a number of people you could pick are very, very impressive people. you want him not to be a republican partisan. you want him frankly not to be a necessarily a trump supporter. in the campaign, you want him to be somebody who says i will enforce the law, i will rebuild the fbi as the number one you law enforcement agency in the world and i'm going to be a straight-shooter and let the facts fall where they fall. that is the kind of person you want there. brian: senator chuck schumer said, all democrats be in your seats in the senate 9:30 in the morning.

here what he said last night after the firing was confirmed and after he got a call from the president. >> earlier this afternoon, president trump called me and informed me was firing director comey. i told the president, mr. president, with all due respect, you are making a big mistake. the first question the administration has to answer is why now? if the administration had object shuns to the way the director comey handled clinton investigation, they had the objections the minute they got into office. they didn't fire him then. why did it happen today? steve: apparently he didn't hear your explanation a moment ago about the in per two guy. >> chuck, baby, call rosenstein. ask rosenstein why did he pick this date to send the letter? he wasn't there until two weeks ago. think about it, the new

president gets elected. does not have attorney general, does not have deputy attorney general. he takes himself to fire comey? that would a been a firestorm. now he has done the right thing in the right way. of course schumer has to oppose it, even though schumer said last november comey should be fired. brian: what do you think he is asking for 9:30 today? a special investigator? >> they will ask for a special investigator, president trump somehow become a democrat. they ask they get allowed to pick the next five supreme court justices. these people are currently in a cycle of pain so deep. remember two weeks ago it is hillary clinton who is on television saying that comey was one of the two reasons she lost the election. now you think they would say, finally the guy who beat our candidate got fired. ainsley: depends on the week, mr. speaker. one week they like him. one week they don't. same with the republicans. >> the key thing here is very simple. if donald trump does it, schumer will oppose it.

said earlier, if trump comes out this afternoon he is announcing that the vanilla is the new national ice cream flavor, there will be a resolution in the senate -- brian: way rest of the media is covering it. i want to get your reaction. >> this is extraordinary moment in american history. >> you bet it is, wolf. it is a grotesque abuse of power by the president of the united states. >> a little whiff of facism tonight is fair to say. >> absolutely. >> a little whiff, i don't care about the law, i'm the boss. >> the timing now looks like it is connected to russia no matter what the president says. this is where it will become a political hot potato. >> big question now involves the current fbi investigation into russian meddling and any possible collusion between members of the trump's campaign and russia. this is truly extraordinary. who runs this investigation? brian: russia. >> first of all, didn't we just have a congressional hearing where the former director of national intelligence and former democratic, acting attorney

general both said there was no sign of any involvement between trump and russians? didn't i miss this? wasn't that a hearting three days ago? the fact is elite media knows can't have been honest election, fair election because donald trump won. so something had to have happened. if the russian thing collapses, the next phase will be martians. martians came in. martians got trump elected. so we know that the elite media, every morning gets up and says the headline will be somehow wolfing russia. the question i would ask all of them, i hope this will be the focus of sean spicer's press briefing today, why did rosenstein pick now? what was -- does anybody seriously he believe that a 30-year career veteran in the justice department showed up and said, oh, gee, i think i will protect trump from the russian investigation? that is so inconceivable. he went through the hearings. he answered the questions.

94 senators to 6 voted to accept him as deputy attorney general. their real fight is not with trump. they don't want to admit it. their real fight with rosenstein, why he picked time to send the letter. whether or not he can defend his own letter. that is the key. steve: sound if he sent the letter a week ago, they had been trying to figure out the final timing. mr. speaker, let me ask about this, given the fact i think we are now on day 111 of the donald trump presidency, what does the way he fired james comey with -- watch the mainstream media as brian cued up the montage, everybody's hair is on fire about what happened. what does it say about donald trump's management style when it comes to important items like this? >> well, the great strength trump has he can move has he can move very, very fast. the great weakness he sometimes moves fast the rest of the team don't know what the play is. that is how he works and operates. worked brilliantly with the

chinese president, trump changed whole context of conversation. may have created a genuine personal relationship no one thought possible. on other hand there are times when the, team has to know what play you called in order for them to do their job. sometimes the president moves a little faster than the team is ready for. brian: seems like he left a lot of staff behind. newt gingrich, thanks for joining us. joining us, senator bill cassidy. we were going to talk, senator, about health care. my goodness the headline changed. how did you find out that james comey was out and do you agree with the decision? >> i found out because i came home last night, my staff texted me saying comey was fired. he is an american cares deeply about the country. but he had become the issue, was a distraction. i think in his heart of hearts agrees that is not what it should be. terrible timing. the speaker gave explanation why this timing played out. ainsley: democrats are so

worried because this is want, president trump wants collusion investigation to be thrown out the window. but just because there is going to be a new director of fbi doesn't necessarily mean that will happen? >> as the speaker said there is hearing last week dispelled that. number one. number two, comey is overseeing but others are investigating. those are on the ground investigating a new person coming in to oversee. whatever on going investigations there are about anything will continue. steve: would it be accurate to say, we heard democrats starting last summer, talking about how disappointed they were in mr. comey and that he should be fired and now of course they're going, he shouldn't have been fired. the timing thing with russia. is it accurate, senator, to say that, mr. comey had lost the trust of both democrats and republicans on capitol hill? >> yes. i mean, that is regrettable. i think he cares deeply about our country. he is in a tough situation. on the or the hand when the

director himself, eventually herself becomes the issue, then the fbi's it become becomes a distraction to the fbi and mr. comey became an issue. brian: talk about health care if we can. among the people who think you should be on that committee decides how they move forward in the senate is senator susan collins. he is a doctor. why wasn't he asked to be on that committee? does it bother you weren't asked by mitch mcconnell? >> mr. mcconnell wanted people he had. i told folks you want to achieve president trump's objective, he made a contract with american voter, provide coverage, care for those with preexisting conditions, eliminate mandates and lower premiums. , the only way you get there is through the bill susan collins and i have out there, the cassidy-collins plan. that bill is in the room. only way you achieve his contract with the voter is through that bill.

steve: you were on with jimmy kimmel. kimmel became part of the national debate on health care and with his son born with a heart problem and preexisting conditions you detailed a moment ago. we run a little snippet from the show where you went back and forth. >> the jimmy chem medical test i think no family should be denied medical care or emergency or otherwise, because they can't afford it. can that be the jimmy kimmel test? [cheers and applause] s that oversimplifying it? >> you're on the right track, if that is close as we get works great in government. got to be able to pay for it. that is the challenge. steve: that is the challenge. people want good health care doesn't cost as much as this stuff does. >> totally. there are different ways to lower the cost of health care. it has to be adequate. only thing shopped is something knot adequate, someone gets in a car wreck, premiums this paying went for nothing. you have to lower the premiums. people paying, 20, 30, 40,000 a year in premiums or health care

cost you have to lower it. but at the same time when your baby is born or your wife hit with breast cancer or sown with a drug overdose you need the services. that was president trump's commitment to the voter. ainsley: will this get through the senate quirky? speaker paul ryan said he didn't think the senate will take as long as the house did? >> i think the senate will take longer we have to have a score. they voted without a score. that will take at least two to three weeks after we finish our product. brian: senator, lastly, do you think the fact that you're not on committee, nor is susan collins that mitch mcconnell is not interested in the plan. >> the only way to fulfill president trump's contract with the american voter our plan or something that looks like it. i don't care if it has my name on it. i care trump fulfill the contract with the american voter. he is serious about it. he is passionate speaking about

the forgotten man and woman, this would show he remembers them. brian: appreciate you joining us. this is wild news morning. >> thank you. ainsley: good to see you. brian: straight ahead, now that james comey is out at fbi director, who does the trump administration want to hire to replace him? we have a live report from the white house. ainsley: a student protest. you will love this one, all about standing up for our men and women in blue. the woman who organized it will join us live next. ♪ usaa gives me the peace of mind and the security just like the marines did. 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. we're the williams family, and we're usaa members for life. new sun protection like you've never seen or felt. introducing coppertone whipped.

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>> fox news alert. as you know james comey is out as director of the fbi. who will be the incomes director of fib? jo the white house is vowing someone that will restore credibility back to the agency. we are live in d.c. with some top names being thrown out this morning. hey, griff. reporter: we know there is no timeline on this replacement. we saw a tweet last hour from president trump, whoever it is they will restore the spirit and prestige of the fbi to a better job than james comey. let's take a look at some names being listed out there. new york city police commissioner ray kelly. he was a top cop in the wake of 9/11. has experience dealing with numerous terror threats in new york city, being tough on crime may be a good fit for jeff sessions. we'll see. governor chris christie's name being thrown out. he was u.s. attorney in new jersey. he has a long history of president trump. however he may have a problem and that is "bridgegate." it was investigated by the fbi

and produced two convictions of two members of his staff. other names, representative trey gowdy, who led the investigation into the benghazi hearings. former federal prosecutor, tough on crime. he has a pretty general respect of most here in washington which may help him. of course they want to drain the swamp. maybe get a wild card like milwaukee count sheriff david clarke, a fierce cop with little experience although he rose to prominence at the rnc. another name being tossed about, john pistole, former tsa administrator. remember him? before that he was deputy director of fbi. he played a pretty big role in the anti-terrorism policies. last two presidents, president bush and obama. as we heard in the last hour from our colleague ed henry, maybe former senator kelly ayote, attorney general of new hampshire, played a role in the gorsuch nomination. so it is parlor games at its best right now. guys? ainsley: newt gingrich said, no

one political. in that case your list is debunk. steve: it is the first list. therethere will be many. griff, thank you. a city council voted to end 80 years of community policing by disbanding its police department and having the sheriff's department take over. ainsley: tensions are boiling over, 1000 high school student walking out in class in support of the local police department. steve: here with more is mara bain, member of the forest lake city council who voted against disbanding the police. and susan ol' len who organized walkout. >> good morning. >> good morning. steve: mara, why did you vote against this? why is this bad idea disbanding the police. >> we have 80 year relationship with the police department. this community came out in strong support with the relationship.

we value that relationship. we're a model of community policing. we do not wish to have a low-cost model. this morning we're mourning the potential loss of the department. ainsley: clara, as a student, what made you decide to organize the march? >> the decision made monday night did not satisfy what students and community members wanted for city. we decided by protesting, leaving school. hopefully that the county commission would listen to us. steve: this is unusual because the demonstrations we see these days, sadly, seems like they're all against the police. >> right. steve: this one was for the police t was gigantic. >> it was gigantic and student-led. this is in touch with our community and supporting law enforcement. this community loves the relationship with the police department and does not want to see that leave. you're right, against, what is happening in the national

backdrop that is incredibly, remarkable story. ainsley: what are all of these police officers saying? they're out of a job now. >> yeah. we have potentially 23 officers who would be laid off. they would be replaced by sheriff's deputy who would provide patrol services for the community. they would be essentially out on the street looking for new roles. again for that, we sparked a protest. steve: mara, i got a question, how much money will you save if you disband the police? how much does that come down to the average person in your town? >> great question. about $387,000 a year in annual savings. for community like forest lake, $3 per month. $36 a year. steve: are you kidding? >> are you kidding, right? residents said we will pay it and pay more. this is relationship we want. it is worth every penny. you can't spend enough money on perception of safety for a community and for relationship with your police department.

ainsley: show them how expensive it is to put a criminal behind bars? you will have more criminals in the area if they know more police are not around. >> that is exactly right. you know, in today's world of liability management, it is all about building trust with your community. that is how you manage risk. defend, that is the value that the community is saying we want to pay that. that is money well-spent in our opinion. steve: another meeting on tuesday. we'll see what happens. clara, mara, thank you for being here. >> thank you. ainsley: democrats continuing to go wild over president trump's firing of james comey this morning. steve: that's right, ainsley. we'll talk to former deputy campaign manager for president trump, david bossie, about the hp hypocrisy you're seeing on other channels. and administrative paperwork... your days of drowning people are numbered. same goes for you, budget overruns.

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brian: dave bossy has been in the forefront of trump campaign and phenomenon. he he is on the outside with lines on the inside to bring us breaking news about fbi director james comb you my being fired 3,000 miles away. first off, do you think the president, dave, anticipated this type of reaction and type of uproar when he did it? >> look i think the president made the right decision for for america and fbi. look this president isn't afraid to make tough decisions. that is what leadership is about. this president taking over from barack obama who, you know, kicked the can down the road on every issue from foreign policy to economics to law enforcement matters. you know never made tough decisions. this is what the american people are seeing, a decisive leader for the first time in a long time. i think, quite honestly i don't think the president makes decisions based on polls or

what, what are the democrats who are running a permanent campaign against him are going to think. brian: sure. steve: keep in mind as the president himself pointed out the polls were wrong when it came to his presidency, wound up being the top guy with the keys to air force one. >> doing the right thing every day is important. that is it what the president wakes up to try to do for the american people. steve: we heard from hillary clinton recently as last tuesday, look i'm not president because of the russian thing and james comey. we know the democrats have been really upset with james comey and his intrusion into that case over the last period of time since july of last year. and now some of them are going, you know what? the president should not have fired him. what do you make of just the hypocrisy, wait a minute six months ago you were against him and now you're for him? >> yeah. guys i'm a pretty jaded guy.

i've been around this town a long time. watching hysteria, the flip-flopping of the democrats all over the place, trying to make this into something it is not. you know trying to, comparing it to richard nixon. watergate is outrageous, that is ridiculous on it is face. first of all, richard nixon didn't fire the fbi director. there is no correlation. there was a crime related to that. he fired the attorney general, not the fbi director. this came from the deputy attorney general, a report, to the president on why he feels, in the chain of command the fbi director works for rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general. he was an eight-year u.s. attorney under george bush and a eight-year u.s. attorney under barack obama. other people said it, 94-6, i believe just two weeks ago confirmed by the u.s. senate. we haven't seen a 94-6 confirmation in a long time because of the partisanship.

so this man clearly has no bones. he has no agenda. he called it like he saw it. this is about rod rosenstein's decision to move on from james comey to try and restore honor and integrity back to the fbi. the president of the united states took his top advisors advice and fired james comey. ainsley: david, if the president and if rod, if they don't believe he is the best man for the fbi who do you think is? >> wow, it's a little early to be throwing names around. steve: go ahead. you get to pick. >> that's right. i think that speaking to people who can give him informed counsel who should be the nominee is very important. so speaking to people like chris christie and rudy giuliani and ray kelly. by the way former fbi director louis freeh and robert muller,

speaking to those types of people who have integrity and honor and are law enforcement through and through, you law and order men and women alike. there are many women out there who would be very interesting picks as well. brian: last night we watched frenzy with all the analysis what was behind the president's firing and the letter. do you think in retrospect the communicating what your decision is, putting the attorney general out there to explain or ron rothstein himself out there to do it, would have made sense, rather than scrambling some people on the inside like sara huckabee and kellyanne conway to do damage control, would be the way you do it is important, almost as important what you do? don't you agree? >> you know, obviously i do. i don't, i'm not on the inside, it is very easy to monday morning quarterback but i can just say i agree with your

premise that the white house needs to do a better job in the communications side of this, that the rollout of this could have just been a little smoother, you but again, this is the a president being decisive taking action. the american people elected him to do just that. so i don't have qualms with how this president does things. obviously, you know, we need to have good communication process. i would like to see that done. ainsley: do you think something happened we don't know about to make him fire him this way? >> not necessarily. the president is a decisionmaker. he got a report from rod rosenstein, deputy attorney general and attorney general of the united states, a member of president's cabinet, one of his closest advisors concurred with that opinion. therefore the president made the decision. there is no need then to worry the machinations who does what

when and where. it is simply. he made a decision and he acted upon it. it is the right call for the fbi. james comey needed to go. steve: david bossie, former deputy campaign manager for donald trump. >> thanks for having me. brian: 22 minutes before the top. hour. steve: more on our top story, president trump ousting fbi director james comey. senator rand paul will join us next. ainsley: what will the fbi look without him. his replacement might have strong ties to hillary clinton. what would that mean? ed henry breaks it down next. ♪ before fibromyalgia, i was a doer. i was active. then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy. my doctor said moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. she also prescribed lyrica. fibromyalgia is thought to be the result

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give a head's up to number of top officials in washington including mitch mcconnell, the senate majority leader, who in the last two minutes has just released a statement. he says, once the senate receives the nomination we'll look forward to a fuel, fair, timely confirmation process to fill the director position. brian: "the wall street journal" fired james comey, he never said allowed three words, there are no ties any collusion with the russians with the election. ainsley: senator rand paul, live on the hill. what is your reaction to this? >> it couldn't have happened soon enough. i lost confidence in comey. i never voted for his confirmation. most of america thought he botched the clinton email scandal. all the democrats thought he said too much and republicans said he didn't do enough. he had the confidence of no one. chuck schumer said six months

ago he lost confidence in him. i thought especially telling in the letter that the assistant attorney general sent, he said eric holder said that comey had violated long-standing department of justice procedures. i think without question that's true. and i think he politicized something by making way too many statements to the press. i think it is time for new leadership at fbi. steve: you just mentioned a moment ago you lost confidence in his ability to run the fbi, not taking into consideration the whole hillary clinton email scenario and stuff like that. in what way did he lose your confidence? >> there were a couple of other episodes. one of the prominent episodes where i didn't like the reaction or lack of action was in the orlando killing. you remember the mass murder that happened down in orlando. the killer went in to buy lots of ammunition and lots of kevlar armor, and the gun store owner called the fbi. they kind of went out there but

they never looked at the footage. they never presented any images of potential terrorists. this guy was a potential terrorist. he had been investigated for two years. all they had to do show a ray of photos to the gun store owner weeks in advance of the killing they might have stopped this. the fbi including comb i my, refused to take any responsibility for missteps. all they continue to ask for is more power to invade our phone calls and more power to invade our privacy. i was not a huge comey plan. really both sides lost confidence because he politicized i think the clinton email investigation. brian: didn't take long before everyone was saying he got fired because he was too close to proving rush shun collusion. what have you heard even among democrats -- i saw maxine waters saying yesterday there is no evidence of that. what about that leak? >> not only is there no evidence that the trump administration or campaign was connected to russia or committed any crime, no evidence at all of committing a crime, there is not even an

accusation that i know of what crime would have potentially be committed. all this breathless talk about people, there is a lot of hypocrisy going on. many of these democrats, including chuck schumer said they lost confidence in comey a long time ago. hillary clinton has been blaming comey. they should be thanking president trump for getting rid of comey because he politicized something may have well had something to do with hillary clinton's loss. i think a lot of crocodile tears and a lot of people saying you know, they were for getting rid of comey. now they say all about the russian investigation which hasn't produced one iota of evidence that anybody did anything wrong or broke the law. ainsley: the senators and congressman we've been interviewing all say the same thing, there is no there there. why do when you talk to democrats believe there is collusion? >> it is sour grapes because of election. of the russian thing is propagated for people that lost the election. got their teeth sunk into

something they will eventually find something. everything is built upon a huge myth as far as i'm concerned. i don't think there has been any facts presented that anybody broke the low. yet this goes on and on. clamor now for special prosecutor and all of this, special investigation. i don't think there is any evidence that anybody broke the law. steve: sure. senator, you mentioned a moment ago how the government could be surveilling people out there, you wondered whether or not you were surveiled just as donald trump said he was under the impression he was surveiled, spied on as well. >> i think some of the media have gotten this wrong. when president trump said he was wiretapped. of course he was. we don't do old-fashioned wiretapping. there are no wires tapped to our phones. wiretap means you were surveiled using some sort of modern technology is not literally a wiretap anymore. they did listen to flynn's phone call. this is amazing invasion of privacy. realize what kind of world we'll live in.

realize the statement that chuck schumer said a week or two ago. he said don't mess with our intelligence community because they will get you six ways to sunday if you do. trump is making a big mistake here. this is coming from one of the people, schumer is one of the eight people in congress that know everything about intelligence. when he says that the president should be afraid of the intelligence community, that should make us all wake up because what about the lesser mortals in this country decide they don't like us? what do you think could happen to us if they had that much power. brian: when you say you think you were surveiled, do you get a lead on that, is that a gut feeling or you just wonder? >> we had two reporters call us say they have sources. i have not seen the sources. so i can't say one way or another but what different reporters telling me they have multiple sources saying that the obama administration was either unmasking or querying presidential candidates, my ears do perk up. not really for my sake because i know i haven't done anything wrong but really for the american public's sake, if they're doing this to

presidential candidates they could sway presidential elections. we're worried about the russians swaying an election? what about our own intelligence community being used by the previous administration to sway elections? that is a bombshell. ainsley: you were requesting information. i hope you get that. we don't have much time. talk about obamacare. repealing and replacing it. what will it take for you to vet yes repealing and replacing in the senate? >> one of the basic precept with obamacare that federal government got involved in buying shin urns. i don't think the federal government should be in the business of buying insurance. the insurance companies made 6 billion a year in profit before obamacare. they make 15 billion. all this talk of high-risk pools, fancy, wonky talk about health care, it is basically subsidy bailing out insurance companies. i'm not for bailing out rich companies with taxpayer dollars. there ways to fix it. i want to expand of individuals to leave the individual market

get into a big buying group. like what if nra could be buying group? what if credit unions could be a buying group? all kind of ways to fix this the house plan doesn't fix it. it put as bandaid on it. hundreds of billions of dollars bandaid paid by the taxpayer. that is not conservative solution. brian: whatever you do, get to work, don't sit back. get your hands dirty, senator. >> we're trying, trying to mix it up. steve: senator paul, thank you. >> thanks. steve: who now that james comey is out temporarily running the show at the fbi? here is a hint. that person has very strong ties to hillary clinton. ed ed henry tells about him next. brian: i've been asked to welcome bill hemmer to tell about his show. good morning bill. >> great program. very interesting with rand paul there. very significant two hours of coverage. plenty of coverage, including ultimate what comes next or who comes next. also when will president donald trump talk about it? we should see him with the russian foreign minister this

morning. certainly coverage of that. we have some answers. we'll search for more. great lineup to help us understand all of it. join us in ten minutes, top of the hour on "america's newsroom." see you then.

brian: democrats going wild spewing out conspiracy theories. ainsley: comey's replacement, strong ties to hillary clinton's net bork. steve: wife of the temporary person was a big story last summer, wasn't she, ed henry? reporter: that's right, nice. very interesting. you had the issue at top of the fbi, not just james comey, andrew mccabe, the deputy now elevated to acting director. as you noted last year in the

middle of the campaign season it was not just a problem for james comey himself in terms of back and forth whether he was investigating hillary clinton, was it just a matter, was it a full-scale investigation, then 10 days before the election coming back and reininvestigating and saying nope, we didn't find anything, all of that on top of mccabe. as you say his wife had been running for a low call seat in virginia and had money, big money raised by the governor of virginia, terry mcauliffe, remember, a key campaign advisor of course to hillary clinton. another key advisor to hillary clinton of course was john podesta, the campaign chairman. look at the whiplash from some of his tweets. yesterday before the firing, podesta said quote the american public is getting mildly nauseous listening to jim comey. after the firing podesta tweets to the president, didn't you know you're supposed to wait

till saturday night to massacre people investigating you? former trump advisor pete hoekstra says there is no there there with this russian investigation. >> there has been no evidence over the last nine months that there is any hint of collusion between the trump campaign and the russians. there has been no discussion about what laws may have been broken. that continues to be a discussion and a challenge or an allegation that has no merit to it. reporter: the president may have some explaining to do as well. remember in the final days of the campaign, he praised james comey, said he was a man of integrity, now saying much different as he fires comey. brian, you said why didn't they put the attorney general out there? i spoke to someone in the administration, the look the attorney general recused himself from the russian investigation, deputy attorney general they want to hold up as independent. chuck schumer praised the deputy attorney general. that is why they didn't want to put them out there. steve: who needs wikipedia when

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>> never dull on this show. >> tomorrow is thursday. tail end of the week. >> stay within yourself, everybody or run to the radio. >> bill: by now you know the bombshell. firing igniting a political storm in washington james comey is out at the f.b.i. the white house says he was fired over his handling of the investigation of hillary clinton's emails. there are many questions this morning among them why now and ultimately who will replace comey at the f.b.i. it is a busy wednesday and a big two hours ahead. i'm bill hemmer. >> shannon: i'm shannon bream. this news broke around 5:30 eastern time last night president trump firing james comey after recommendations. some lawmakers questioning the timing of the dismissal.