president-elect trump would lie about their meetings, therefore he made the decision to start taking notes and early january outside trump tower. he revealed forthat the former l loretta lynch asked him to refer the clinton email investigation as a matter and not an investigation. we'll fill you in on why that's important. i counted at least twice worry public and senators asked the question whether or not president trump was under investigation when he was fired, the answer was no. the revelation that james comey shared copies of his memos with people outside the department of justice. he confirmed yes with a close friend at columbia university asking him to get the notes out to the public. here's another question.

will this rise to obstruction of justice? answer, i don't know, that's where robert mueller will figure it out. as for the memos, will they go public? tom cotton, will he release them, the answer, sure. there's more to come on this as we head into a private meeting behind closed doors. it is 1245 here on the east coast as we continue our special coverage. i'm bill hemmer live in new yor new york. we've been sitting here for some time, what did you hear? >> it's interesting that senator lankford pushed him and said if you have copies out there, we need to get those back because you encourage people to get to those copies because the fbi has not been willing to turn them over. he confirmed that they exist. he said he had concerns the president would live. that's on the first time he said something like that today.

he started out early on by saying the president and his explanations about why he fired comey, he said the admin's ration defamed me on the. what he said were lies plain and simple. very strong language for him. he talked about the loyalty issue and how he felt the present was asking him for something, he was refusing to give it to him. he says mueller -- >> bill: president trump is meeting with religious leaders in washington, d.c. then we are waiting for his private attorney to make a statement that he's been listening to off the oval office there in the white house. our all-star team has been listening. chris wallace, ankara fox news sunday, chris stirewalt, and

dana. can you say today who won the day? >> not definitively. there are moments in this hearing where both sides made their points. what was clear is that republicans were going after why didn't you step up and leave your position if you thought it was obstruction of justice? comey was clear that he was making clear to the president that he was not under investigation, but democrats continued to try to get him to characterize his thoughts about what the president was intending by what he said. at some point, he says why do you kick everybody out of the oval office and just leave me in and make the case that he hopes the investigation against flynn that he can move on from it? the opening statement was surprising, it was strong, he

took his clothes off right away. at numerous times, he directly called president trump a liar. that said, the biggest losers, loretta lynch. the former attorney general who clearly told him to call the clinton email investigation a matter and not an investigation. the other loser, the media. comey says there are many, many stories pointing to anonymous sources that are dead wrong. "the new york times" was called out numerous times in this hearing. i think you're going to look at this overall and you're going to see both sides are going to see points. i think jim comey comes off as answering all questions pretty forthcoming. >> bill: thanks. chris wallace, let's go around the horn. chris, where do you think we are now?

>> there were different audiences watching this. if i were donald trump's lawyer, i'd be pretty happy because repeatedly, and up to the day he was fired, comey says there is no evidence that led to an investigation of donald trump. he was not under investigation and on the question of obstruction of justice, he said that's an open question that will have to be decided by the special counsel, robert mueller, he certainly did not indicate that he viewed it as absorption of justice or at least a prosecutable case. he said he had no doubt that trump was directing him to end the investigation, but as i say, as a lawyer, i would take some solace in both of those. my guess is when the president's lawyer comes out sometime, he's going to declare victory and say comey cleared trump. politically, i thought was very damaging to the president.

repeatedly, james comey called the president a liar, said he lied about the fbi was in disarray, that he defamed him and the fbi, said that the reason he kept those kinds of notes in the first place is that he thought this was the kind of man who would lie about those kinds of things. it's not good stuff to have said on national television. as been noted before, the strongest point about flynn and what was so improper what the president said about flynn and that oval office meeting on february 14th, why would you kick out the attorney general, the vice president, and the chief of staff if it was going to be something innocent? i was strong evidence. and terms of losers, i agree with brett. loretta lynch to knock him off while, also michael flynn did not come out well. comey indicated, the first mmi

knowledge that there was an open criminal investigation of michael flynn as to whether or not he lied to the fbi and he also raised the possibility and this raises a question about why the president might want him to drop the investigation. he said look, was there a relationship between the flynn investigation and what he said to the fbi and russia, he said someone has criminal liability, you can squeeze them and flip them to testify in other regards. perhaps the reason to not want flynn to be investigated is because you don't want him to turn state's evidence. >> bill: thank you. that microphone you see by the way that says stick opposition on capitol hill outside of the hearing room. if senators come to the microphone, will share that with you. you won't miss anything. i want to continue and get everybody slots on the table. dana perino, what did you hear?

>> i agree with everyone so far. i do think james comey was a credible witness. he's been a prosecutor, he's been a congressional aide, so he comes to this with a near photographic memory. he talked about the memos, he's unflappable. i do think that loretta lynch, if the democrats are thinking this going to be a big home run, they got a big surprise. they did not see that one coming and that's a thread that can be pulled. the white house or president trump's lawyer can say the president feels completely and totally vindicated here this on the same as exoneration. depending on which camp your en end, you can say he condemned trump or that the president was exonerated by comey. the thing is, this is another lab on the fire because robert

mueller is going to continue to push forward on this. there are many inconsistencies of the white house will be asked about. they can choose not to answer them, but there will be ones including the white house apparently disputing who invented whom to dinner. what was said about loyalty and was at about flynn. those of the three main things of the story line. the story is going to continue and this is not going away anytime soon. >> bill: we've only heard james comey's side of the story. the >> that's why i'm saying the white house and cannot answer that one question. >> bill: here's richard burr and mark warner to his left. >> it also enabled the american people to understand the massive amounts of stories that have been out there and to sort through those and to have an individual that can lay some factual context to it. this is nowhere near the end of our investigation.

i think it's safe to say that next week we hope to work with special counsel mueller, to work out clear pathways for both investigations, his and ours to continue, to work on d conflict and of witnesses and potential testimony, but we are more confident today that we can, through this process, work through a very bipartisan and thorough investigation. at the end of it, it will answer many of the questions the american people might have today. >> i was very proud of how all of the members conducted themselves today. i thought it was very important that the american people get a chance to hear jim comey's statements about what has transpired. the one thing, even if we have different views on where these questions may lead, the one message i hope all americans will take home is recognizing

how significant the russian interference and our process was, how it goes to the core of our democracy and that we have to be prepared to make sure that we are in a better defensive position in 2018, 2019, and as early as next week. thank you all. >> bill: is clearly investigation continues. this came up during the hearing about whether or not the senate continues to do their work and the answer of james comey was certainly or to some effect. i want to bring in chris stirewalt to give her video shot. >> james comey had a message for donald trump today and he made it very plain. he was talking directly to the president. in a number of times, he basely said you did me dirty the way you fired me, the way you tried to humiliate me, the way you talked about your tweets, what you said to lester holt, all of those things prompts that moment

where comey says he wakes up and rolled the night and says i have to leak the contents of these meetings before trump tries to ruin me and that's what precipitated the special counsel. that's what god donald trump in this jam of having special counsel loom over the rest of his term is the way he handled comey and he made that clear to the president and that is an error that the president may live to regret. also very clear, while republicans get the good part, marco rubio was enormously effective for donald trump. he was out there and he forced comey on the line to say no, i didn't think it was obstructive, no, it wasn't necessary for me to leave, no, he wasn't asking me to do anything illegal. rubio is really good getting him on the line. if you on the part of the testimony, you take the other

part. the other part is he can't cherry pick. the other part is that this investigation is big, it's serious with potentially huge consequences for people who are or have been close to donald trump and that's something you have to take and we took the first part. >> bill: the personal journey for donald trump is going to make a statement. that's still a few moments away, but we won't miss it. the other camera at the stake out location on capitol hill, there's a chance james comey will lock by their and will see whether or not he answers questions. two more things that were quite colorful over the past three hours. james lankford, the answer was no. suggesting a light touch by the president to dismiss the flynn matter as opposed to a heavy hand.

the other thing, while at the memo? >> shannon: i want your additional thoughts on this. we thought that comey was uncomfortable when loretta lynch asked to call it a matter. he went on to say that he felt queasy about the situation. it reminds me of what he said when he talked about making the very difficult decision. this is a very stressful job. it's on like for him, it's been off the charts. >> i'm not sure senator mccain is trying to get that answer. i don't over that question was

going. i do think that was a part of this hearing that many people didn't see coming. those questions were going to come. i want to make one point about a recurring theme that the republicans kept bringing up, including senator blunt. he said, would you still be fbi director today had you not been fired? comey said yes, i would. there were other questions from senator cornyn who said do you think it's the job of an fbi agent or officer that a legal duty to report any crime, and he kind of stumbled and struggled with that answer on the legal. the point being that if he truly believed that justice was being obstructed and as he said, he was very concerned, why did he stay in the job? >> that's what repugnance look at. democrats look at his very detailed description of

everybody being kicked out of the oval office and what was the meaning of president trump and what he said about michael flynn's investigation. >> shannon: we talked about whether the president will be watching or not. we had reports that he would be, then that he wouldn't be. we heard from sarah huckabee sanders. john roberts asked the question about if he's been watching, she said i don't know if he's seen much of it. the majority of the morning, they've been talking about issues with north korea. we've talked about very strong language on that front. she says, i can say definitively, the president is not a liar. it's insulting that question will be asked and she said of course, anything specific to the hearing. she said i will refer you