he it worked, he will resign frm duke in the spring.wewewewewewe. have a great night. ♪ >> juan williams, jesse watters, dana perino, "the five" ." so, mr. president -- why did you fire director call me? >> he wasn't doing a good job, very simply. >> did it affect your meeting with the russians today? >> nope. so, comey is no longer his home homey. flipping more scripts than a coked up screenwriter. look what he has done to the

democrats. >> donald trump has tried to put himself beyond the law. that is not how it works in america. >> this is not just a scandal, they are neither republican actions or democratic actions, they are authoritarian. >> we have a deeply insecure president. that's why i believe he has let jim comey go. >> there is a winner. this is the same crew that wanted call me gone. trump does what they ask for and now they hate it. it reminds me when someone says, i am going to take up jogging and you say hey, i will join you after work. then they say, i really didn't mean it. that's the democrats. out of bipartisan benevolence, trump grants them their wish. which is why their stuttering outrage over his firing makes him look two-faced. it now requires twice as much botox but what about the firing

itself? the act, defensible. the execution, flawed. he could have let him go in august. no one would have noticed. he could've done it professionally instead of shooting him in the public square. but instead of donald trump sticking to formalities, that's like telling a cat to bark or chris matthews to make sense. imagine if the movie jaws had just shark attacks? and not a movie plot? this is our white house. always set to 11. and maybe one day he might realize you can't be on devcon five all the time. of course, it would be devcon six. you don't have to be in a prism of two ideas. it doesn't have to be treasonous

or absolutely wonderful. it could have been that the firing was correct but kind of tacky. >> right. it's interesting because he views the concept of being allowed to have two completing ideas competing thoughts, james call me -- you can believe it was handled poorly and it leads to more interest. it actually just lit the fire and turn the flame on russia, legitimately or not. that's what it did. expecting abnormalities from the white house, absolutely fine. expecting that the coverage is not also going to be ratcheted up is unreasonable. >> also the coverage helps everybody. it lifts all boats. >> including the democrats. there's a reason they are going overboard. they are raising a lot of money in trying to figure out a way to get back on their feet.

>> i want to take your comment and position it to jesse. if you wanted the russian story to go away, firing an investigator would not have been the way to do that. he would have been aware of that. of course he would know. that he it anyways. is there some kind of plan that we are not seeing? does he have something up his sleeve? >> yes at the grand plan. why cater to it? everyone likes to say he's not a normal president. well, that's why we elected donald trump. marmol hasn't been working for a lot of people. people send trump to washington to say you are fired. he had a hit show. everyone in america loves watching people get fired. it wasn't the classiest way to do it but i think it sends a message to a lot of haters out there. you better watch your back or you are going to get canned.

let's also remember, comey works for us. we don't work for comey. if you are doing a bad job, let him go. >> that's my point. i think democrats and republicans both wanted him to go. kimberly, now the democrats -- it seems so politics. if you change your mind. >> would they be upset if donald trump said okay, i believe in climate change and global warming? you never know. >> wait till next week. >> he evaluates the situation and make the decision. listen, this is something that the president needs to act on, entrusted those two individuals. to do that investigation. to bring him the evidence and the recommendation. the president followed that recommendation. the problem that people are having here is when the

democrats do something they actually wanted -- they feel like they should be against him regardless. it's an issue of optics and process. was the right process followed in terms of how to handle it? i don't really hear anybody saying that jim comey was doing a bang up, stand up job. this is a shining example of the fbi and the director at its best. no, both sides were objecting to the way he handled himself and i certainly as i said as a formal prosecutor, he was overstepping his grounds. it's not his decision as to whether or not an indictment could be brought. he is to present just the facts. what he did instead was, being the judge jury executioner, loretta lynch -- he tried to make the decision for her. that's just wrong. >> juan, do you think jesse at the point about the fact that

trump didn't care about the optics with russia? that's the thing that everybody on your side -- the communist left -- has been saying. clearly this was to impede the russian investigation. that's the obvious thing you would think which makes me think he didn't care or he's got something else going on cooking. >> the report today says he didn't anticipate all the blowback. he didn't have a plan and he didn't think he would need a plan. when i listen to kimberly say oh, this is what the democrats heard greg gutfeld said, it's sort of benevolence. bipartisan's benevolence. boy, there's a lot of republicans out there saying hey, i'm troubled by what i am hearing. a lot of republicans saying well maybe we need a special prosecutor here. i hear people saying to the

justice department, hey maybe the inspector general should look into this firing. no acceptable rationale for firing at this time. the republican head of the senate says comey's firing as a loss for the nation. charles krauthammer on fox news -- he comes around once a week. charles said guess what? this is inexplicable that you would fire him now. kimberly says, oh, the democrats wanted him out back in july. that was july. nobody says he was doing a bad job investigating the russian -- >> the fine line to the timing of it but nevertheless, dianne feinstein and james clapper have come out and said there's no evidence of -- is what i said untrue? >> this is an ongoing

investigation. >> that was the information we have up until this point. no evidence of collusion. what you are suggesting is the president to remove comey so then therefore the russian investigation, collusion, just disappears. but that's asinine. comey gone doesn't erase it like a magic marker. >> he decapitated the man, the head of the agency pursuing the investigation. >> what he actually might have done inadvertently and not meaning to is made it worse. because special prosecutor is maybe not necessary, the hill isn't the place that makes that decision. that is made at the justice department. >> the justice department is not going to appoint a special prosecutor. don't they look at criminal

issues? this is a counterintelligence investigation. you can put that to bed, juan. you can't cover up a scandal that doesn't exist. where is the scandal? what collusion took place? >> what we know today, for the top of the show -- federal grand jury subpoenas mike flynn's associates. for financial information. >> you are looking for a scandal instead of what scandals happen in washington. then there's the cover-up. there's only a scandal if it involves republicans. >> they went nuts for watergate and anything that ever comes up -- benghazi, forget about it. you want to see more hypocrisy? let's see more hypocrisy from the hypocrosians.

>> prosecutors from one end to american know it. >> if deputy attorney general rosenstein does not appoint an independent special prosecutor, every american will rightly suspect that the decision to fire director comey was part of a cover-up. >> you don't release this part of -- this whole episode will be reviewed by the department of justice as sort of an abject these doj policies.wrong when >> i don't think anyone believes this is unrelated to the russian investigation. that's exactly why i think a dramatic step needs to be taken to restore public confidence. that step ought to be appointment of an independent counsel. >> dana, we listened to that or pretended to anyway. i'm going to use my same point

earlier. there some kind of strategy about flipping the script so people no longer think that trump and comey were close. now he has all the people that hated comey defending him. i think there's some strategy here that might in fact be working. the democrats look kind of hypocritical. >> i don't think this worked out the way they thought it would at the white house. >> does it ever though, dana? >> no but look at the travel ba ban. it's not that different from how they rolled that out. the communication team, if they had known it was coming -- they would have said, can we get three days? it's absolutely your right to fire him. but we should preserve the good press you've gotten in the last two weeks. make sure you continue to be a winner. instead, they don't know or are given little notice.

>> you are with the bushes, he was in the bushes. >> the deputy press secretary at the time, this investigation took so long. it went all the way through to the administration and beyond. what happened was president bush was well within his rights to fire seven u.s. attorneys. he didn't have to give an explanation. our biggest mistake was given an explanation. that's exactly what president trump did yesterday in his letter. now what is going to happen? if you know jim comey is on the defense. he will have the right to defend himself. if they call him to the hill next week, he will defend his honor and answer the questions. this story will just continue to go. doing it in the quiet in august, very calm -- >> i wondered how he will handle

himself with this. obviously it was traumatic what happened but nevertheless, when the president makes a decision like that, he acts on it -- i think the disconnect and communications needed to be right on top. and focused. >> i don't know exactly what happened but i can imagine what happened is the president and bring in enough people into the decision to let them know about it. and if he could trust them with this decision making. >> you know why? probably about leaks. >> we find out their staffers in the white house saying well, i told him not to do this. >> we should ask dana about this problem. the messaging just struck me as wait a second, even if you wanted to believe the president, put all your trust that he had the right to do this and acted because comey was doing a bad job -- oh, but then the letter coming from rod rosenstein says

it's about what happened with hillary clinton. then the president puts out a letter saying it's about russia. i'm glad you told me i had nothing to do with the russian thing. >> he didn't say that -- he said he wasn't doing a good job. >> and then you have sarah huckabee sanders saying well, trump never liked him anyway. what is the real reason? >> he wasn't doing a good job. >> listen, i agree the white house botched the messaging but for the democrats to make it about russia? i don't think that helps the democrats. it shows how out of touch the democrats are. they have nothing in their holster. no policy to create jobs or give people better health care. they have no policy prescriptions to make this country rich and safe again. it goes back to russia over and over and over again. they don't care about a russian conspiracy theory. they just want to make money and take care of their kids and have better health care.

>> it's okay if russia interferes in our elections? >> it may no impact on the election. >> all the intelligence agencies have certified that russia interfered -- >> tried to interfered. >> i think influence does a wor word. i think influence is a better word. >> of course they said they interfered. what they said -- i want to try to help you -- there was nothing about corruption of the voting machines or the actual votes. in terms of interfering and hacking, there's no question. >> president obama obviously interfered in the election with france. he endorsed the guy. >> what about donald trump's

tweet for le pen? >> dana, words do matter. yes, there was an attempt by russia to influence the american election. >> they did. >> you said interfere. hold on, there isn't evidence that they actually were able to effectuate a specific outcome or voting in this country. where is the evidence? >> let me say, he believes that in states like wisconsin, pennsylvania, ohio -- not ohio, michigan -- where clinton lost by less than one percentage point -- >> he predicted that hillary was going to win. why should we take that analysis? >> the fact that hillary didn't show up to campaign in these states -- that might have had something to do with the outcome? >> you are serving trump here

saying that somehow this has nothing to do with trump and russia. >> let's keep it going. the administration under fire for removing the head of the premier intelligence agency. >> the president over the last several months lost confidence in director comey. at the doj lost confidence in director comey. bipartisan members of congress made it clear that they had lost confidence in director comey. and most importantly, the file of the fbi had lost confidence in their director. >> joining us now with more, john roberts. yesterday we learned the what, now today beget the the y and the how. what were your biggest takeaways today? >> last night, dana, you will find that this began long before april 25th which is one rod rosenstein was confirmed as the

deputy attorney general. it goes back at least as far as the inauguration, potentially back as far as the actual election night. and i would assume long before that as well. sarah huckabee sanders, a little bit of a contradiction. she said at one point he was thinking of getting rid of comey right after the election. then he said he was thinking about it at the time of the inauguration. i think you can safely go back into last summer. when president trump was getting real doubts about james comey coming out saying he should hin should not face charges. equally if not more a top-down operation that the president had his doubts and was looking for the right moment. >> was he looking for the letters that were given to him

on tuesday? >> he was looking for an assessment. that would come from james comey's direct boss. the attorney general of the united states, deputy. rod rosenstein. >> interesting. there has obviously been some monday morning quarterbacking here in terms of what is going on with the communications operations. what can you give us? >> there's a lot of stories out there that the president was probably talking about wanting to fire comey around the white house. anyone he was talking to. clearly this was a very closely held operation. i was talking to some white house officials a few minutes ago, among all of the things that have been swirling around the white house and the things that have leaked, this is the one thing that didn't leak out. a lot of the communications team was not even in their offices at the time the news dropped. there was an ice cream social

for a group of veterans. some of the comp staff was there, they were called back urgently to their offices. they were told this is happening. i guess the president probably thought they could develop an instantaneous strategy, if they had an extra 20 minutes to think about it. i was told the president was a little unhappy. may be very unhappy with the initial response. once his people started getting on the air, sean spicer was on with lou dobbs last night. sarah huckabee was on the tucker. kellyanne conway went on one of the rival cable networks. once the president saw his people were out there, then they got some surrogates out. he became quite happy with the communications response. i think he was asking them to do the almost impossible. dana you know a lot more about this than i do. if the president were to drop a decision on your lap that bake and have an instantaneous communication strategy, i think you would be hard-pressed. to come up with it.

>> dana would have been able to come up with it. >> is always interesting to watch people blame the communicators. if they aren't informed, they can't actually help you. that would be one thing i would suggest. >> if there were any way that could do it, it would be you, dana. i was here when you are one of the deputies -- you had it. >> we are going to jesse next. >> john, it's clear some of these republican senators aren't on board with this. you had mccain out there. does the white house feel -- maybe betrayed us to wrong up the a word. i don't member a lot of times when the democrats never circled the wagons around anything president obama did. is there anything we can do to

get people on the same page? it gets picked apart by the left and the media. it makes the legislative agenda that much harder. >> you saw the vice president go up to capitol hill in the morning hours this morning. he made a beeline for the cameras so he could articulate his position in the white house position and the president's position on why this all happened. i know they have been talking with members of congress as well. i think the president was initially surprised at the amount of blowback a god, particularly if you go back over history and you looked at the sy chuck schumer about james comey. he thought people would not be if not happy at least accepting of the fact that he was fired. it was the timing of everything. right in the middle of this investigation into russia, it has the percept -- you can easily see people would get the perception that the president was trying to play fast and loose with the investigation here. even if that is not the case, i think the democrats have hopped

onto that. >> a communication strategy includes a hill strategy. juan williams. >> john, i saw on "the wall street journal" front page today that president trump was upset with comey because comey refused to say there are no ties between trump administration or the trunk campaign and russia. what do you hear about that story? >> wan, repeat the last part of that question mike i'm sorry, i just got a little bit of information coming over my cell phone just as we were talking. just confirming that yes, apparently the president was very open about his thoughts regarding comey in the days leading up to the firing. that would confirm he was probably among a very small circle of people talking quite openly about his desire to get rid of comey and whether or not he should do it -- i am sorry, juan, your question again? >> that was interesting to me

because i think the impression is -- i think you have confirmed this -- in fact, even the communication staff and a number of his top officials were unaware that he was about to fire jim comey. anyway, what i was asking -- it indicated the president was angry at comey because comey refused to say for words. there are no ties between the trunk campaign and russia. >> i think he would've liked to have seen comey articulate that more publicly which is why you saw on the termination letter that the president said i appreciated the fact that you told me three separate times that i did not have ties. i think think you would have lo hear it more publicly. this is not going to go away. >> speaking of refusing to go away, the disbelief that people

weren't happy about this -- that the democrats or republicans had agreed on comey. he agrees on this. couldn't be that that is why he did this? he didn't think this was a big deal? he didn't think that russia would be pulled into this, he just thought he was firing somebody and moving on? could it be as simple as that? >> i think he saw the history of what people had said about comey and thought if he pulled the trigger and got rid of him, most of the people in congress on both sides of the aisle would be happy about it. it certainly democrats were calling for comey's head when he came out in october saying he would reopen the investigation into hillary clinton's emails. she herself thought he threw the election without announcement. if you got rid of comey, the democrats on capitol hill probably said, good idea. let's move on to the next thing.

even if the democrats, greg, are happy to see comey go -- they will beat the president over the head with this because that's what you do when you are playing politics. >> hillary clinton would have gotten rid of him quicker than president trump. >> i think is a pretty safe bet that if hillary clinton had become the president, james comey tenure at the fbi probably would have ended at about the three year and one day mark. not the three and a half year mark. >> imagine how we would have covered that. the media cannot get enough of the comey firing

>> welcome back. from nearly the moment

president trump fired fbi director james comey come in the mainstream media went into full meltdown mode. here are some of the low lights. >> huge story that broke just minutes ago. at less than 10 minutes ago. fbi director james comey has just been fired by donald trump. [applause] >> wow. huge donald trump fans here tonight. >> thanks for the trip down memory lane. i was on your show saying we are going to win michigan and how we were going to do it. >> the president of the united states has removed someone at will, who is in charge of an investigation that could lead to treason. >> all the right. what a little montage that was. speaking of... [laughter] >> that little montage? they remind me of a trailer park -- the trailer park doors after a tornado, they are all unhinged.

they realize ratings after eight years of sleeping on the foot of obama's bed, i love the stephen colbert clip. it shows the disconnect between him and his audience. he didn't expect them to applaud. the plot is like oh, man. >> that's what trump thought was going to happen. >> exactly! he got trumped. >> i think that the media, obviously it went into a big meltdown but it was like wow, huge story. the media is not making it up. they wanted the story out at five: 40:00 p.m. i think they thought the i outcome was going to be like they did and the colbert audience. >> like the mother of all bombs. >> it's funny watching the media, being wrong about donald trump for two years. why should we believe them now?

the colbert audience was funny because it shows how complicated the comey thing is. they don't know what to think. they clap no matter what. the eye roll, i think anderson cooper was classier than that and i didn't expect to see that from him. identity politics cuts both ways. they really mistreated kellyanne conway. she gets cut down like that on cnn, msnbc, "snl" kills her. at the congressman said those mean things. >> god bless her. she is tough. juan, i want to get your comments on this. it jim comey a farewell letter. about his time at the fbi. >> you can't bring up russia. >> i've sent you before that in times of turbulence, the american people should set the fbi as a rock of competence, honesty and independence. the nature and quality of its

people make it that a rock for america. it continues on but it's hard to leave a group of people who are committed only to doing the right thing. my hope is that you will continue to live our values and the mission of protecting the american people and upholding the constitution. if you do that, you too will be sad when you leave and at the american people will be safer. it's been one of the great joys of my life. thank you for that gift. jim comey. >> across partisan lines, we believe america is a country of laws and not men and the suddenly having emotional fits and getting angry and so forth. there should be some lines. instead, what we see is president trump just violates those lines, crosses and jumps across -- i think he said he goes up to number 11 or 12 wearable whatever? the media is so wrong? guess what? donald trump likes to create noise. at this time, the star is blowing back in his face.

>> it's okay when you disrupt the dissent on the left but when you find one on the right, all of a sudden it's oh, my god. >> he was elected and put in. >> joined the resistance. >> i don't know. i would have done the same thing. i might've handled it a little bit differently and had dana do they can medication strategy. there must be something in the air. another fight aboard another flight. the

♪ >> another day, another airline brawl. a fight broke out on a southwest airlines flight.

no word on what started the altercation but police made one arrest. there's more. chaos erupted at fort lauderdale hollywood international airport after spirit airlines canceled nine flights. [yelling] >> we were talking the commercial break, what you think of the main components in these airline incidents? >> no peanuts. >> on the airplane, i would have imagined it was a mix of alcohol and some sort of jealousy regarding a woman. >> probably. >> i would have been furious if i was on that flight. it put everybody at risk. >> fighting over the armrest. that is what it is. what constitutes all the tension on a flight?

who gets the armrest? if they offer double armrests and more legroom, we would have less fights. and i am a short person. i get all the legroom i need. >> it's very territorial. you get into this very's short space. you get somebody's elbow over here and you feel like you get disrespected. >> sometimes it comes from behind too. >> kicking your seat? are you a leaner? >> no, i want to be adjusted. i am. never mind. >> i'm going out for a graduation -- lewis clark state. what bugs me is the lack of human humanity. the way the airlines treat passengers. >> like cattle. >> exactly right.

sometimes they leave you sitting on the tarmac for hours. they don't explain why things are going or the weather, they start canceling flights. nine flights you said, right, just say? >> . >> they don't take care of you. the flight is canceled or delayed. >> you are not going to punch somebody in the face. >> my wife gets into it with me but that's unacceptable. >> is the rock going to run for president? that story, when we

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♪ >> president trump when the white house without any previous experience, dwayne the rock johnson, a former pro wrestler telling "gq" a campaign for the white house is a real possibility. what do you think, kimberly? >> i am a big fan of his. of his movies. >> [laughs] >> we stop there? >> yeah, i think it he could pa

president. he's fantastic and the new he is a tremendous amount of public appeal. what kind of experience does he have? trump has business experience, trying to bring jobs back. >> wait a second. he has a wrestling and acting experience. extraordinarily successful and wealthy. >> how does wrestling experience translate into success in the white house, juan? >> how is business doing? >> look at the stock market and jobs created. i think he says this to get attention. he made a little splash in "gq." there is no way the rock is going to run. >> what about oprah? >> i do know a lot about the rock until i read that "gq" article. i didn't know about his upbringing. he worked his tail off to get where he is. he seems very nice, popular.

he sort of admits he would have to come up with some specific policy platform if he is going to run but at this point, it's all speculation. al franken is deftly going to try to run. it's because that's kind a celebrity. >> for the record, i like the rock and i don't want to get on the rocks bad side. i want to make that clear. >> they predicted that a star and a wrestler -- >> it wasn't south park, it was my judge. you are thinking of beavis and butthead. i hate being the only cultural expert at fox news. >> what do you think of electing or we vote for the biggest celebrity in the room? >> people talk about historical presidencies. donald trump broke the celebrity ceiling. we had never had celebrities before.

now we have them and he proved politics is really downstream from pop culture. when selena gomez' president, justin bieber is vice president and miley cyrus as secretary of state, we will have donald trump to think. he broke down the barriers and through that ceiling. he got our celebrities into office. >> is a justin bieber single no now? >> that's a great point. politics is just downstream from culture. what entertains me is what matters most. >> now it is coming true. >> "one more thing," up next. [] [wind blows] yo- wh- ah- he- [gas pouring]

[slurps loudly] [engine starting] [loud slurping continues]

♪ >> holy toledo. time for "one more thing" ." it's hard for me to do this. kimberly, you go first. you probably have 37 pictures. >> happy birthday, dana perino! breaking news yesterday, so we are picking up today. >> bring them in! >> airplane.

>> the smells. >> dana, cut it. we want to say happy birthday to dana perino. we had a wonderful weekend with dana in south carolina. take a look at a couple pictures. >> of course, pictures. >> greg was not invited. hugely talented, he saying. that's us with the whole crew. that was interesting too. we have a special surprise. sent from... roll it. hello, dana. i wanted to wish you a very happy birthday. from me and jasper. >> he is very camera shy. >> i asked and from felix and manny.

it's your turn now, dana. >> excuse me, when i was a kid, my parents always taught me that when you had a birthday party, you didn't tell other people about it who weren't invited. i think that we learned a lesson here. some people don't have any clas class! >> come back when i have more time. >> i wouldn't go if you paid me. >> i have a good news story. this is a follow-up story. i went to africa in march. we met these two little kids. yana's and nadia. they both have congenital cataracts. they couldn't see. the doctors fixed them all up. nadia and jan us are now fully seeing little people and i am excited for them. mercy ship is just awesome. >> i love that you go every year.

jesse, what do you have for us? >> did you just change the order? >> there needs to be some leadership here. i don't care. >> what are you doing? [laughter] >> i'm a very unusual podcast. go to fox news podcast, it's with a guy named bill carter. he is the lead singer of a band. we tracked him down, they were missing for 30 years. now i am going to go and say note to self -- stop saying note to self. to say what you want to say. you don't have to say note to self, got a buy light bulbs. write it down. >> note to selfie. >> note to self, by a lemon cake for dana. no, get a chocolate cake. >> i got a butter cake. >> i need to make correction.

devcon actually increases when it goes down. devcon one -- that's more intense than devcon five. juan? >> back in april, 16-year-old carter wilkerson of reno, nevada, tweeted at wendy's, he wanted to know how many retweets it would take for him to receive free chicken nuggets. for a year. guess what? wendy's answered and said 18 million. wilkerson didn't reach it but he did reach the most retweets of all time, passing ellen the generous famous selfie. wendy's has said that his impressive record -- he will get free nuggets for a year and will also get $100,000 to a

foundation. >> millennials are the best. i am just trying to win here. >> you are interrupting every single thing. >> this is becoming like an airplane trip for me. >> stephen bannon, senior white house advisor to president trump. bad reputation because everyone is calling him a racist and anti-semite but they talked to his teammate in hollywood. they work together and this is what this guy said. he's a democrat. steve has great character. he's not a race or anti-semitic. he's a good friend and an incredibly hard worker. he has beliefs and stand by him. they are not based on racism, he believes what is honestly best for the world. i am glad this guy stepped up and said something. i will see you next week in d.c. >> that'll be our stephen bannon moment.

for your next stephen bannon moment, try tomorrow. never miss an episode of "the five." set your dvrs, "hannity" is up still on the trump demonstration changes the timeline, saying the president lost confidence in fbi director james comey right afte. democrats continue to equate president trump with richard nixon plus the house speaker is here to react to the moves for the first time. this is "special report" ." good evening. welcome to washington. i'm bret baier. the reverberations from tuesday's surprise firing of fbi director james comey have political washington in the kind of frenzy rarely seen even the most pressure packed times. president trump is defending himself, saying comey was not do