there was no request by him to have a review at the department of justice. >> was the reason for the firing what was written by the deputy attorney general? is that why he did it? >> i think that was the final piece that moved the president to make that quick and decisive action yesterday. >> what did he mean in the letter that he wrote informing comey that he was being fired? he said on three separate occasions comey had told him that i am not under investigation. what were those three occasions that fbi director told the president that he wasn't under investigation? >> i'm not going to get into the specifics of their conversations but i can tell you director comey relaid that information to the president. jeff >> following up on that, did the president ask director comey whether he was under investigation when they had these meetings? >> again, i'm not going into the specifics of their conversation. >> he obviously made a decision to stick that in the letter to make that public. are there any concerns that it

was inappropriate that they had that type of conversation? >> no. charlie? >> how important was the fbi director's failure to go out of the fbi? >> i think that's probably one of the many factors. you can't deny somebody that that wasn't a problem. so i think that was just another one of the many reasons that he was no longer had the confidence of the president or the rest of the fbi. >> can we expect more firings from the justice department? >> not that i'm aware of today. >> going forward, does the president want the department of justice to shut down what he called the taxpayer funded charade investigated? >> he wants them to continue with whatever they see appropriate and see fit. just the same as he's encouraged the house and senate committees to continue any on going investigations. look, the bottom line is, any investigation that was happening on monday is still happening

today. that hasn't changed. and, in fact, we encourage them to complete this investigation so we can put it behind us and we can continue to see exactly what we've been saying for nearly a year. there's no evidence of collusion between the trump campaign and russia, and we'd love for that to be completed so that we can all move on and focus on the things that, frankly, i think most of americans are concerned with. >> even if they keep wasting taxpayer money? >> nobody wants to waste taxpayer money. the president has made a priority of this. that's another reason we'd love for it to come to completion. but at the same time, i know that you all will not let this go until it does, so we'd love for that to be completed. let's put it behind us. let's move on and focus on what we need to do to turn our country around. >> was the white house aware of the time of this decision and announcement that tkpwrapb jury in the case of michael flynn had just gone out? >> no, nor would we, should we have been. >> do you know anything about that process? >> no, i don't.

i'd have to refer you. >> does the white house believe that if the fbi investigations are going to proceed in these allegations of russian interference support funding and support who would lead that investigation? who is going to be running that? are you confidence that will be mccabe or somebody else? >> i believe that would fall to the deputy attorney general. we are confident in his abilities, as i believe you can tell by the rest of the senate, including many democrats are as well. given the fact that he was confirmed 94-6 and had overwhelming praise from both sides of the aisle. i think there's complete confidence in him. another reason, frankly, for director comey to be out of the way so they can have somebody leading this effort that everybody across the board has respect and confidence in. nobody wants this to be finished and completed more than us so that we can focus on what we need to do here.

>> president said -- excuse me. sean spicer said a week ago today the president has confidence in the director. so, again, what has happened in the last seven days to shake the confidence? was sean lying or did something happen in the last seven days? >> course you'd love to add that in. certainly not. i think one of the big things that took place was the process wednesday where, again, not to sound like a broken record, but since you guys keep asking the same questions, i guess it's only fair that i keep giving the same answers. but you have somebody, the director of the fbi who reports to the deputy attorney general going around the chain of command. that's simply not okay. that's not something that is allowed in the justice system, nor should it be. that's a huge problem. that along with the corrections that had to take place over the last i believe 48 hours. those are all big problems.

and another, i think, kind of final piece that pushed the president to make the decision that he did. >> does he regret not doing it earlier, like on january 20th or 21st? >> no. i believe the president wanted to give director comey a chance. but he feels he made the right decision. >> why did he do it as he did it? why didn't he have one of his long time security advisers hand deliver a letter to the fbi when the fbi director was, in fact, in los angeles? didn't he deserve a phone call or a face to face conversation? why did he decide to do it like that? >> he followed the proper protocol in that process, which is hand written notification. at the same time, no matter how you fire someone, it's never an easy process. so he felt like following protocol was the best thing to do. i'm not aware of that conversation. >> was the president aware that james comey asked for more

research in the russia investigation? did that factor into his decision to get rid of him? >> not that i'm aware of. that would be a better question for the department of justice. >> on the campaign trail, president trump frequently said criticized the department of justice for not being harsh enough on hillary clinton. he actually praised director comey for having the guts to reopen the investigation. why did he say he was too harsh on hillary clinton? >> you're looking at two very different positions. the president was wearing a different hat at that time. he was a candidate. not the president. the circumstances change when you become the president. and, again, when you go around the chain of command in the department of justice. like i said before, when you throw a stick of dynamite into the department of justice, that's a big problem and one that cannot be ignored. >> we already knew that, didn't

we? we already knew what mr. comey had done. >> my understanding is wednesday was the first time the director had openly and publicly made that statement and made that clea clear. >> on the president's meeting with prime minister lavrov, did you conclude anything about chechnya? is there a reason that was put in the notes. was the president not informed on this issue? >> i'm sorry. >> the reason why that wasn't included in the readout is because the president wasn't informed about the violence in chechnya? >> look, a lot of times there are parts of the conversation that aren't specifically included in a readout. i'm not aware. i haven't had that conversation, so i don't know. i wasn't part of that meeting so i can't speak to every detail. i'll have to refer you to the readout on what was discussed.

>> was the president briefed on that? >> that's something i have to get back to you. not 100% sure. >> do you want a russia investigation to continue with the doj? would the white house oppose special prosecutor to continue into this investigation? >> we don't think it's necessary. you've got a house committee, a senate committee and the department of justice all working on this. i don't think that there's a necessary need at this point to add that. you've got the deputy attorney general who i would say is about as independent as it comes due to the fact that he has such bipartisan support. >> if you have such confidence that rank and file within the bureau lost faith in the fbi director. there was a special agent that said the vast majority of the bureau is in favor of director comey. this is a shock. the real losers are 20,000 people in the organization because they lost the only guy working here in the past 15 years who actually cared about them. what's your response to these rank and file fbi agents who

disagree with your contention that they lost faith in director comey? >> we've heard from countless members of the fbi that say very different things. in fact, the president will be meeting with acting director mccabe later today to discuss that very thing, the morale with the fbi, as well as make an offer to go directly to the fbi if he feels that it's necessary and appropriate and will certainly provide further information. >> he's asking for a voice in this selection process, mr. comey's successor. is that something the president supports? >> i haven't had that conversation, but i know at this point it's being run through the department of justice so i would refer you to them on what that process looks like at this point in time. >> who did the president consult before making the final decision to fire james comey? >> the president spoke with a number of individuals, but attend of the day it was the

president's decision. >> in between monday night and tuesday when he decides to fire the fbi director, did he speak again with the deputy attorney general or the attorney general? >> i know they spoke on monday. i believe the next follow-up was actually in writing. they may have spoken again but i'd have to check to be clear. >> is it accurate to pull away from the information that we have that monday night the president made the final call said, i want this in written as a recommendation, then took that recommendation as the evidence that he wanted to provide to fire james comey? >> my understanding is the decision was made on tuesday, but the first conversation that he had was on monday when there was an oral recommendation made and the president requested that he see that in written to review it further. blake? >> you say you want to move on and focus on things the americans care about. let me ask you about. you're somewhat halfway home on healthcare. still have tax reform to do, spending bill, debt ceiling and

infrastructure. >> pretty big list. >> pretty big list, right? but what happened yesterday you could argue just widened the divide and made dc politics more toxic. how do you go about accomplishing all of those things with now the tightened political environment that we're in? >> frankly, i'm surprised that it did create a decide since you had so many republicans and democrats repeatedly calling for director comey to be gone. frankly, i don't think it matters what this president says, you're gonna have democrats come out and fight him every single step of the way. i think that's one of the things that's wrong with washington and i think that's one of the reasons that we've got to get back to focusing on those issues and frankly draining the swamp a little bit further. >> was he surprised by the democratic backlash? >> how could he have, considering the fact that most of the people that are declaring war today were the very ones that were begging for director

comey to be fired. if hillary clinton had won the election, which thank god she didn't, but if she had and she had been in the same position, she would have fired comey immediately. the very democrats that are criticizing the president today would be dancing in the streets celebrating. so it's skwrufrbgt i theurbg a purist form of hypocrisy. >> there's a report in israel that indicates the president has made a decision not to move the u.s. embassy from tel aviv. can you confirm that? >> the president has not made a decision. >> follow-up. >> sorry. >> also in his speech, the president warned moving the embassy to jerusalem. was that warning and warnings from other arab leaders play into his decision as he's considering this move? >> i'm not going to get into the decision making process here. all i can tell you is that he's still working. as soon as we have a decision, we'll be happy to report to you.

john? >> thank you, sara. two questions. both related to the selection of a successor tpo director comey. when president carter chose an fbi director, he had a blue ribbon panel advising him. presidents clinton, obama interviewed several candidates. is the president gonna follow this pattern or does he have some individual in mind at this point? >> right now i know that there are several individuals being considered, and the first step will be determining the acting -- excuse me, the interim director. that is being handled through the department of justice. i would refer you to him right now. >> the other question that i was going to ask was -- >> you've got two. >> i have got two. >> i'm pretty nice, charlotte, aren't i? >> charlotte? but that's okay. that's okay.

it's a southern thing maybe. >> her daughter. >> just want to make sure we got that in again. happy birthday scarlet. charlotte. gone with the wind. come on, john. >> i was going to say, it is a fact that the association of former fbi agents and veterans of the bureau generally prefer people who have been agents themselves or have a background in the fbi. only two former agents have been director in the last four decades. will the president consider current or former agents for the position? >> i would say that he's not ruling anything out at this point. but again, as of today, the department of justice is handling the first step in this process. >> should the attorney general, who has recused himself from the russia investigation, have any

role in the selection of a successor? and given the fact that in his 100 day interviews, the president himself said that he had confidence in director comey. at the podium the american people were told he had confidence in director comey. can people take at face value what the president says about personnel issues like this or his views on things if just two weeks later he's out? >> absolutely, you take full confidence in the words of the president. in terms of whether or not attorney general sessions should have a role, look, the fbi is doing a whole lot more than the russia investigation. i know everybody in this room and probably most of the media around the world would like to think that's the fbi's sole responsibility, but that's probably one of the smallest things that they've got going on their plate and the 20,000 employees that work there, and so he should have a role in seeing who runs that agency and that department. >> does the president have

confidence in the acting director? >> yes, he does. >> secondly you mentioned you are encouraging the fbi to move on from the russia investigation. is it appropriate for the white house to be directing the fbi what to do with any investigation or person they're investigateing? >> i don't think that was the nature or intent of my comment was to direct the fbi. it's simply we're fully compliant with helping this process move along. we'd like to see it completed so that frankly all of us can move on and focus on things that blake listed earlier, like tax reform, health care, infrastructure. those are big programs, big priorities for this administration. frankly what we'd like to be the number one thing we're talking about here today, every single day, is not fbi investigations, but things that, frankly, affect americans, voters and american tax payers every single day. >> sara.

>> what exactly precipitated the monday meeting? was that because of the hearing last week or did the monday meeting of the president have doj officials come out of a longer process of consideration? >> the department of justice officials were here for other business, not specifically to meet with the president on that. the topic came up and they asked to speak with the president and that's how it moved forward. >> he didn't previously talk to attorney general sessions to talk about the possibility of going this way with comey? >> not that i'm aware of, no. >> was there any discussion about the confirmation? did he talk about rosenstein then? >> not that i'm aware of. >> the president's statement that he talked to comey about whether or not he was being investigated raises several questions. can you talk about why you're not willing to add any more to

that about who asked for that and why it was discussed? >> who asked for what? i'm sorry. >> the president seems to be trying to exonerate himself in this. can you talk about why he won't add any more to what that conversation was, how that took place, when it took place. >> three occasions. can you clarify those three occasions? >> again, i'm not going to get into specific details. i'll check and see if we have follow-up on that. at this point i'm not going to comment further out than what was spelled out on the letter. >> what was it in the letter? why was it put in the letter in the first place? >> it was something that somebody was included. i'm getting into the specifics of that. thanks guy, so much. >> melissa: that was sara huckabee sanders wrapping the first press briefing since the sudden firing of james comey, igniting a political storm in washington. hello, everyone, i'm melissa francis.

sanders describing how president trump lost confidence in comey over the last several months. she said comey, quote, threw a stick of dynamite at the department of justice by going around the chain of command when he held the press conference without talking to the attorney general. she also talked about the timing of the decision and who the president talked to right before he let comey go. we have fox team coverage chief intelligence correspondent katherine herridge, former assistant deputy director, steve rogers a former member of the joint terrorism task force, attorney and former prosecutor. let's go right to chief white house correspondent john roberts, who is in the briefing room. john, what's the mood like there? what's the reaction? >> reporter: what was really interesting is i think we advanced the story somewhat today. she did it when she said the president lost confidence in his fbi director over the past few

months and, in fact, had been thinking ab firing him going all the way back to the election. we were told yesterday and again this morning by the vice president when he appeared u7 on capitol hill that this was the doing of the deputy attorney general ron rosenstein who decided to undertake a review of the entire case surrounding james comey when he was confirmed to become the deputy attorney general on april 25th. but now we find out, and i was postulating this last night, thinking ab pulling back the layers of the onion. this president has not been a huge fan of james comey for a long time even though there is video of him on january 22nd when he first met with him when he was meeting with a number of officials from law enforcement, called him over from across the oval office, gave him a big warm han shake, tapped him on the shoulder and whispered in his ear, you're doing a good job. now we know back then that is not what the president was thinking. you also have to look at this whole process of trying to get

rid of the fbi director. sara said the president was thinking ab firing him back then. but really when you look at the hierarchy of how things work at the tkdepartment of justice, it would have to be rod rosenstein who was the one who fire him. he is comey's direct superior. he is the one comey reports to. you can probably paint a scenario here that the president has wanted to get rid of comey for a long time, but kwrord to have the political cover to do it properly, had to wait until he had in place a confirmed deputy attorney general and someone who was of the sort of integrity that that decision would not be questioned. we saw last night when the democrats were reacting to the firing, that charles schumer did not take on rosenstein directly because he had just said 14 days previous to that, that here was a man of integrity. you can say this is something that happened in the last two weeks, but you can also i think paint a very viable scenario that this is something that's been carefully orchestrated over

the last few weeks and even months. >> melissa: that makes a lot of sense. thank you very much for that report, john roberts. let's go to katherine herridge who is live at the bureau headquarters. so who might the president pick to fill comey's shoes? what are you hearing? >> reporter: well, i just want to add a few comments to what we just heard from john roberts about what jumped out at me. this is the first time we heard the white house state that it was director comey's decision to go around the chain of command and that he reinforced that this was the right decision last week during testimony before the senate judiciary committee. then the white house said that his errors in the clinton e-mails, where he misspoke or he gave a wrong number to the senate committee last week, that there were thousands that had been found on anthony weiner's computer, a computer he shared with his now estranged wife.

it was that correction of the record that also led the record to believe that director comey was simply not on his game. the other thing that stands out to me is this erosion of trust. i know from a former administration official that there was discussion right after the november election about essentially tossing director comey because they were so unhappy with his performance and how he had politicized the bureau in the course of election. what we now see, this had been the case, but the president decided to give the director another bite at the apple and another chance. but it was rod rosenstein who initiated this process. this is different from what we had been told at fox earlier that he was tasked with this. but the white house is saying that is not the case. finally, on the acting fbi director andrew mccabe. the president will be meeting with him to deal with this issue of morale. over the last 24 hours i have been working with my colleague, senior executive producer pamela

brown, and we talked to a dozen current and former fbi agents. they told us that the decision really was blind siding, that it was a body blow and there was such confusion when it happened, that there was deep concern that the fbi director might not be able to get on to a government plane and fly back from los angeles to the washington, d.c. area. they also indicate to us that they see mccabe as a seat warmer, a place holder. that he may not even be in this job past this week because the justice department is actively looking for an interim chief and that mccabe is in this position because he's the next in line. the criticism of mccabe is two-fold. first and foremost, that his wife in 2015 took $700,000 from democrats for a state senate race, including a major contribution from a pack that's controlled by a clinton ally. the bureau did not see this as a conflict, but agents and critics see it as more evidence of a

broken culture. and also that mccabe is someone who's really never been out in the field. kind of a desk jockey. i think we've heard that term in various work places. he's not really someone who is a shoe leather investigator and would not be the right kind of temperment to lead the bureau. >> melissa: wow. i was fascinated by that piece you said in there about him maybe not -- former director comey not being able to get on a plane to come back. have we seen him? have we heard from him? when do we think he's going to resurface? >> reporter: he's gonna resurface from the best of our knowledge and reporting next week, likely tuesday, before the senate intelligence committee in a closed session. senator mark warner, the ranking democrat, just a short time ago told my colleague senior congressional correspondent mike emanuel that that was the case. early in the day, we heard from a ranking republican on that committee, senator richard burr

who suggested they were going to have comey in as a principle witness in the course of their fbi probe. just to back up with one final point. weer with expecting to see comey on the hill tomorrow for what's called the worldwide threat hearing. that's kind of like the oscars of the intelligence community. everyone who is is there. but that seat will now be taken by andrew mccabe who is acting, at least for the time being. >> melissa: wow. a lot to chew on there. great reporting. thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> reporter: you're welcome. >> melissa: for more on this we have a former deputy assistant director and hostage rescue team director, jonathan philborn and steve roger, a former member of the fbi joint terrorism task force and retired lieutenant commander in the office of naval intelligence. steve, i'll start with you, 'cause you still know lots of people in the fbi. one reporter got in there and said, wait a second. you say the rank and file has lost faith in former director

comey, not the people we talked to. what are you hearing? what's the truth there? >> there was one point in time when the confidence in director comey's leadership began to unravel. and that was the time that he was testifying before the congressional committee in reference to hillary clinton's e-mails. if you remember, he made the decision, the authority of the attorney general and it was the director, who is a fine fellow. he made the decision not to proceed with charges or prosecution. he should not have done that. it was his job to bring the evidence to the attorney general. >> melissa: that's the rank and file? you said the rank and file, that's why they didn't have confidence in them? >> the rank and file felt that way. i have spoken with police officers across the country. we all reveer the fbi. that's the best agency on the face of the earth. but when the director did that, he shook the confidence of the rank and file. he did. >> melissa: danny, i wonder what you're hearing. they mentioned that idea that he went out and gave that testimony

about abadine forwarding these e-mails to her huh band, anthony weiner. it turns out that's not the case. did he have the confidence or not? >> well, i think the whole thing started when the fbi was not allowed to have a grand jury in this case. that's a paramount issue for me and most fbi agents. in a grand jury proceeding, it's all secret. had it been a secret grand jury investigation run by the fbi, there would have never have been a press conference. they would have presented the case to the grand jury and they would have ahead with prosecution or no prosecution. at that point, it's over. the most important thing here, it is not our job as an agency to recommend prosecution. that offended me. it offended every fbi agent i have ever talked to and every former agent. that is the big -- i think that's the big dilemma here, why did the director think he had the authority to recommend prosecution? never happened in the history of the fbi to my knowledge. i think that was his undoing,

frankly. >> melissa: that was one of the most staggering things that came out of that hearing when director comey said he would not do anything differently. when he said that he felt like he had to go out and make the decision because the justice department lacked the authority after that meeting on the tarmac. so he overstepped the bounds of what his authority was with that. that was one of the justifications in that memo firing him. do you buy that? does that make sense? >> well, i think once the president loses confidence in anybody, it's his absolute right to fire. just as if you were running any organization. you lose confidence in one of your key players, you're gonna fire that person. however, james comey is not the fbi. he's one part of the fbi. in terms of the intelligence investigation that's on going, that can continue without him. so i don't understand why the democrats are so up in arms that all of a sudden we need to get a special prosecutor when the investigation is not over. >> melissa: we're gonna talk ab

hypocrisy in a moment. but steve, let me ask you. what happens from here? for a lot of people, the big issue is restoring confidence in all of this. in the fbi. all in this investigation into what may or may not have happened with russia. how do you do that? is it about a special counsel? >> you're -- young lady is right. >> thanks for calling me young. >> there's no single point of failure or success. so the investigation will go on, number one. number two, they got to get this russia thing over with. there has been and appears there will never be any strong evidence that there was collusion. that's gotta go away an we've got to move forward. and i don't believe there's a need for a special prosecutor at this point. you've got these congressional hearings, these senate hearings. let the process work out within the frame work of what we have now and let's move on from there. that's how you'll build confidence. >> melissa: how do you move the fbi forward to come to a conclusion on the russia question that then everyone accepts? is that even possible?

>> absolutely, it's possible. i think the comment that the director of the fbi is not the fbi. very frankly, i was a deputy assistant director of the fbi when sessions was being investigated. i was ultimately terminated. during that period of time, it didn't change anything i did. didn't change anything the fbi did. the fbi is a strong entity and, very frankly, if the director of the fbi didn't show up for work for three, four months, it wouldn't make any difference. i know that sounds kind of flippant, but it doesn't make any difference. his job is to deal with congress, deal with white house, get assets and let the agents run the cases. i have spent the last two weeks with the fbi. they're working hard. they're not affected by this at all. they may not like it, but they're gonna do their job. >> melissa: they're still continuing the investigation. we gotta go. thank you, all three of you. so we may see director fbi comey on capitol hill soon. chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel is next with what we're about to

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>> melissa: fbi director james comey invited to come back to the hill to deliver closed door testimony next week before the senate intelligence committee. mike emanuel is live on the hill with more on this. so are lawmakers eager to hear from comey even now that he's out of a job?

>> reporter: no question about that. a number of senators want to know exactly where director comey was in the russia investigation that he was handling at the fbi. they'd like to know about his final days in office before he was fired. his termation caught a lot of folks off guard. so senator mark warner the top democrat on the intelligence panel told us he invited director comey to come up here next tuesday one week after he was fired as fbi director. we are now told it will be behind closed doors meaning off camera. a leading republican is saying that there is no need for some new special probe. >> this is the counter intelligence investigation not a criminal investigation of the trump campaign. if it ever becomes a criminal investigation, then we'll talk about a special prosecutor. you don't need a special prosecutor for a counter intelligence investigation. >> reporter: senator graham is one of the senators who got a heads up from president trump before director comey was fired so perhaps he's in less shock

than some of the other senators. bottom line, they are looking forward to hearing from director co comey. >> melissa: call it what you like, but it is clear democrats are not giving up their push for a special council on the russia probe. >> reporter: no question. they are questioning the timing of director comey's firing. they're also questioning the explanation for why he was fired. for example, whether it was connected to the clinton e-mail scandal late in the election cycle. bottom line, democrats are calling for an outside independent investigation. >> if there was ever a time when circumstances warranted a special prosecutor, it is right now. mr. rosenstein already expressed concern that director comey damaged the integrity of the fbi. the attorney general has already had to recuse himself from the investigation. >> reporter: i have asked a number of senators if they have a name or names of people they

think would be suitable to be the next fbi director after this controversy. they didn't want to get into specific names, but they said that the confirmation process is expected to be grueling. melissa. >> melissa: thank you. let's drill down more on this. we'll bring in chris plant, syndicated radio talk show host and leslie marshall also a talk show host and fox news contributor. clearly, i need my own syndicated radio talk show. before that, chris, let me ask you, you know, if there is a lot of hypocrisy as usual to go around in washington. all of a sudden democrats saying they can't believe this. it's outrageous. what do you make of that? >> if you had taken a survey on capitol hill yesterday at breakfast, democrats overwhelmingly would have called for comey to go. by the time that dinner came around, they had all done a 180, gone completely against it. now they're rah rah, trying to walk this high wire act that they're not for comey. the lack of sincerity in this town is epic.

i have lived here for about 30 years. what senator schumer did yesterday was a ph.d. level course in insincerity. the lack of integrity, lack of truthfulness, is epic. then it reaches the news media, i'm sorry to say, where it doesn't get any better. it gets worse. the hypocrisy, we're going to have to come up with a new word. >> melissa: one that was really stunning was podesta tweet shaming former director comey. then there was more on top of that. listen to some of the attacks that have gone by. leslie, i'll ask you to react. >> i'm not challenging mr. comey's motivation, but i do think it was unwarranted, it was a mistake. >> he's got 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. >> i think he made a mistake on this, and he clearly has a

double standard. these job, if you're not in it for awhile, you can take the heat. i think he just couldn't take the heat from the republicans. >> melissa: leslie, it didn't sound like they liked him that much from those quotes. but now it sounds like democrats do. what do you make of that? >> i don't think democrats like comey. democrats and republicans across the board in washington have felt for awhile that he should not be leading the fbi. the problem here, melissa, is not the action. it is the timing of the action and the alleged reason for the action. it almost sounded like the letter, a list of democratic talking points, if you will, that the president has, praised comey in the past. you don't. democrat and republican lease the head of the fbi when you have an on going investigation. it's nixonian. >> melissa: what about the other day when he gets out there and

in sworn testimony completely misrepresents mistakes, whatever you want to call it, what happened with anthony weiner. that was the headline in every paper the next day. then it comes out that that's not the case. i would think as a democrat you would want him gone immediately, if not sooner. >> look, i am not happy with him. i have not been happy with him, quite frankly, since he was not fair in announcing who was being investigated and for what during the election, for both campaign. but it is the timing of this that is a problem, melissa. if i were president of the united states and i would have -- this would be the third individual i'm letting go that has ties to an investigation into the campaign of me, donald trump. >> that's a misrepresentation of the facts. >> no, that is problematic. >> melissa: we got to go. letting him hang around and make

more mistakes makes sense. we have new reaction from russian president putin. what he has to say about this next. what makes this simple salad the best simple salad ever?

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so simple. get the recipes at walnuts.org. >> melissa: lawmakers long criticizing fbi director james comey on his handling of the clinton e-mail investigation. has some saying he should have been fired a long time ago. >> absolutely. >> terms for termination. >> at that particular time, i believe very well could have been sufficient basis to remove the fbi director. i also have to ask, where was the attorney general? >> melissa: let's bring in a former cia senior analyst and senior vice president for the center for security policy. wrote an article in which you said this should have happened on mr. trump's first day in office. why do you think that? >> it's great to be here.

i remember last july when comey read a laundry list of serious security violations including classified information on this e-mail server she had in her home. and then said she shouldn't be prosecuted. if i had done a small fraction of these things when i was with the government, i would have lost my job, i would have had thousands of dollars in legal bills and i think i would have went to jail. it seems like there was a separate set of rules if your name is clinton. this, frankly, fixing this ridiculous situation. >> melissa: what about the idea that the reason why he was fired was not for that, but testify rather the fact they overstepped the bounds of what his job was by userping the power of the justice tkep and deciding whrorpb they should proceed with prosecuting that case that you were talking about. also the idea that he testified that it turns out something wasn't the case.

this is the reason they're giving for the firing. do you buy that? >> there's a lot of reasons he could have been let go in addition to what i mentioned to you. he's been too public a figure. every time he makes a public appearance, there's some investigation he'll talk ab and another one he won't. no one can figure out why. why didn't he investigate the clinton foundation which i think was an enormously serious violation of ethics where there were foreign governments buying influence with hillary clinton, a potential president? there's many, many reasons. my main reason is what he said last july. clinton should have been prosecuted for those things. if that had happened, she would have been a viable presidential candidate. >> melissa: now what the democrats are saying, yes, he may have done these, but the timing is what's suspicious, given the russian probe. how do you respond to that? >> yesterday they wanted comey gone. look, they are gonna come out against trump no matter what he does. i think the american people are tired of this crying wolf by the democrats, going against trump no matter what he does.

this is a good move. we know comey lost confidence from republicans and democrats. >> melissa: final thought, how it was done. john dean, white house counsel under nixon, said it was a nixonian move. this could have been a quiet resignation, instead it was an angry dismissal. >> we don't know if it was an angry dismissal. nixon did not let go an fbi director. he let go a special prosecutor who was investigating him. there is no investigation of trump on anything that trump did wrong. >> melissa: thank you. >> good to be here. >> melissa: we'll be right back. ♪ we asked people to write down the things they love to do most on these balloons. travel with my daughter. roller derby. ♪ now give up half of 'em. do i have to? this is a tough financial choice we could face when we retire. but, if we start saving even just 1% more of our annual income... we could keep doing all the things we love. prudential. bring your challenges.

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>> melissa: russian president putin, while playing hockey today, giving reaction to president trump's move to fire fbi director james comey. here's what he said when asked

about it by reporters from cbs. >> how will the firing of james comey affect u.s./russia relations? >> there will be no effect. your question looks very pointed to me. don't be angry with me. we have nothing to do with that. >> melissa: we have nothing to do with that, is what he said. putin's comments coming shortly before russian foreign minister lavrov met with president trump at the white house. now to capitol hill. reaction where senate intelligence committee chairman richard burr stopped short of calling for a special prosecutor to continue the russian probe. >> timing and the reasons for this decision made little sense to me. i don't think i have heard

anything since that night that would clarify that in any way. >> melissa: ben carton is the top democrat on the senate foreign relations committee. sir, thank you for joining us. what do you think has to happen right now in order to make you feel confident that the russian investigation is complete? >> well, i think right now the integrity and the investigation is being questioned on the president firing of mr. comey. i think the most important thing right now is for the department of justice to establish credibility on the criminal investigation by appointing a special prosecutor. that will preserve the criminal investigation. of course, in congress, it just adds additional questions that need to be answered in regards to the russian probe. >> melissa: if a special counsel was appointed and went in, what would they have to say that would make you and other democrats satisfied that there hadn't been collusion between the trump campaign and russia. what specifically do you need to hear? >> we don't know where the facts

will go. we want the special prosecutor to be able to let the facts go where they may lead without any inhibition from the political system so that they can follow leads. they can interview witnesses. they can find out whether there was any collusion or not and hold people accountable that they have violated our laws. >> melissa: what makes you feel like that's not what's going on right now? why do you think the fbi agents that are investigating it aren't doing exactly what you just said? do you have evidence of that? >> no. i think they were doing, pursuing the investigation. we have no reason to believe they were not. but now when they recognize the head of that investigation, mr. comey, can be removed by the white house, i think it adds an intimidating impact on whether they believe their investigation is truly independent. >> melissa: what makes you think that director comey had come to the conclusion that the president was somehow involved and that's why he was fired? what evidence do you have of that? it seems like he did maybe 100

things before this that all together, you know, led to his firing, including the fact that the person that needed to come in to make that recommendation, make it official, had just been sworn in? that's what they say is behind the timing. why do you think that's a lie? >> i'm not challenging why mr. trump did what he did. i don't know the answer. but i do know the consequences of when a person who whose associates are target of an investigation dismisses the person in charge of that investigation, it gives a very chilling effect to those that are doing the investigation, that it will be independent. so all i am asking for is that we insulate the investigation from the political process. i think anyone would want to see that. >> melissa: who would you like to see replace director comey? who do you think would be the best choice? >> two things need to occur. first a special prosecutor needs to be appointed so we just don't

concentrate on this episode and confirming the next fbi director. secondly, we like a commitment from the president that he's gonna see if it's a consensus that can get not just a majority of senators but an overwhelming majority so the american people have confidence in the fbi is not going to be a consideration. >> melissa: who do you think would be good for a special counsel? who would run that investigation? who should run the fbi? >> i'm afraid if i mention a name, that person may be off the list. so i think i'm better off not naming any specific names at this point. >> melissa: senator, we appreciate your time. thank for joining us. >> thank you. >> melissa: we'll be right back. all finished.

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>> melissa: so along with president trump, all eyes are on this guy, rod rosenstein. he's the deputy attorney general who called for comey's firing. he's the only u.s. attorney appointed by president bush that stayed in the role through the end of the obama administration.

he was confirmed by the senate just two weeks ago. he's a career justice department attorney. he previously worked on the clinton-related whitewater investigation. a lot to chew on. thanks for joining us. i melissa francis. here's shep. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast, 3:00 in washington d.c. we're watching the fallout from the firing of the fbi director james comey. to hear the president tell it, it's cut and dry. his critics are not convinced. >> there's a great many outstanding questions about the circumstances of director comey's dismissal. >> why did you fire director comey? >> because he wasn't doing a good job. very simple. >> and reports that director comey just asked for more money to investigate russia's meddling. that plus senators from both sides will join us live.