robert: chaos, contradictions and threats. president trump's decision to fire the f.b.i. director launches a week of inconsistent explanations from the white house. i'm robert costa. we explore how the dismissal of james comey may accelerate the investigation into russian interference, tonight on "washington week." >> he's a show both, he's a grandstander, the -- he's a show boat he's a grandstander, the f.b.i. has been in turmoil. robert: president trump insists he fired fib director comey because of poor job performance not because of the probe into russian meddling or the recommendation of two top justice department officials. but that's not the message the vice president delivered earlier earlier in the week. >> president trump made the right decision at the light

time, to accept the recommendation of the deputy attorney general and the attorney general to ask for the termination. robert: and it's not consistent with the president's own words about why he terminated comey. >> when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story, it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election, that they should have won. robert: plus conflicting reports that the president pressed combey for his loyally soon after inauguration day. and by week's end, trump tweets a warning. james comey better hope there are no tapes of conversations before he starts leaking to the press. as calls intensify for an independent prosecutor, we explore the ramifications for the white house, congress, and the intelligence community.

with dan balz of "the washington post," margaret brennan of "the washington post," pete williams >> this is "washington week." funding is provided by -- >> their leadership is instinctive. they understand the challenges of today. and research the technologies of tomorrow. some call them veterans. we call them part of our team. >> additional funding is provided by -- newman' own foundation. donating all profits from newman's own products to

charity. ku and patricia yuen, for the yuen foundation, committed to bridging differences in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting. and from contributions from viewers like you. thank you. once again, moderator robert costa. robert: good evening. where to begin. it was a week where donald trutch's efforts to distance himself from the russia investigation grew more complicated by the words and actions of the president and his closest advisors he dismissed james comey as director of the f.b.i. that's his right. but why did that unravel and quickly and dramatically. the white house initially said he was dismissed because of his handling of the probe and the sec re-- and hillary clinton's

emails as secretary of state. president trump didn't mention that. he said, i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i am not under investigation, i nevertheless concur with the advice of others that you are not able to perform the job. at first it was said the decision was based on the recommendations of deputy attorney general, but then president trump said it was his decision alone. >> he made a recommendation, but i was already going to fire comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. robert: do they believe comey was dismissed because he would not end the russian investigation? >> that's the prevailing view. because james comey wouldn't shut it down he got fired. this was a double body employee

to the f.b.i. comey was not universally loved but was universally respected. always spoke up for individual agents. the firing was a huge ble to them. and the way it was handled, without dignity. the white house unaware he wasn't at the f.b.i. he was in los angeles, a recruiting seminar. he's standing there, and some l.a. affiliate is reporting he'd been fire department. that's how he found out. had to shrink back to washington. didn't have time to get the family pictures off his desk. it was a blow to them. they are just stunned by it. >> it was a stunning moment. margaret, have we gotten clarity from the white house whether the president demanded loyalty from comey months ago? margaret: the white house denies that was a demand or request made over this dinner but

according to reporting, some of my colleague at cbs, that was in fact a conversation that was had in regard to pledging loyalty versus what the f.b.i. director offered, which was more honesty. and so we'll see what happens on that. if there are these tapes that the president said in his tweet today, perhaps we will all hear of it someday. but i think this gets to that question of just, the president's own view of the institutions that serve the american people and whether they are meant -- how they are supposed to function, whether it's serving him or the public at large. that's, i think, what troubles many people when they are interacting with the white house and trying to understand, it seems sometimes that in the communications, it's a decision in search of a process. it almost seems like that's what happened with this communication. that the decision was made to fire and then these letters come out and there's a back and forth over who pulled the trigger and when and what actually got the president to go through with this. you heard the president say

himself, i was going to fire him anyway regard lofse what anyone told me. robert: when we going to learn more from congress? i know democrats who are in the minority in both chambers are pushing for a special prosecutor, that seems unlikely at the moment. but what do the republicans want to do to delve further into the questions? erica: it remains to be seen as the story unfolds. the house was on recess this week, senators as they cast their final votes and left town yesterday, the story was still rapidly unfolding. at that point, the white house was still on the story that it was roseenstein's memo that prompted the fire, trump hadn't yet given his interviews that turned that around. even at that point, republicans had questions about what was going on. especially from the rank and file. more so than we've seen at any point in the trump presidency to date.

they were clearly unnerve by what had happened and why. mitch mcconnell and speaker ryan are sticking with the president's -- with the president so far but it is a very open question how long that lasts. robert: dan, rosenstein will come to capitol hill next week. he'll brief the senate. how important is that testimony going to be for this president and what can we expect to hear from rosenstein? dan: i think it's important any time someone has been in the middle of of one of these goes up and testifies, reports to the senate, we'll know a lot about it quickly. he has a big question mark around him. there have been reports that in the aftermath of the way this was rolled out, he was quite unhappy. that he was made to seem as being the agent of the firing. he will have to explain that as best he can. i'm sure he will have to be careful about that, knowing he's still part of the trump administration. but that's a big question.

another question is, the degree to which they would have confidence in him if it comes to appointing a special prosecutor. again, we're a ways away from that. doesn't look like that's likely in the near term. but if it does, there are, as you know, democratic senators who think because of his role in the firing of comey, that he should not be in charge of picking a special prosecutor. so there are a lot of questions that people have. as we know, i mean, the focus will continue to be on the republicans in the senate. the degree to which they ae standing by the president and when -- when or if we will see some cracks in that. robert: you asked how important it is to the president. it's very important to rod rosen stein. the explanation we got as we week went on was this was a meeting of the mind. the president decided he should be fired and he summons sessions and rosenstein and they say we

also feel the same way. the president said put it in writing. rosenstein was upset at the way he he -- he was depicted in this. some said he threatened to resign, i think that's not true. robert: if congress is slow walking on some front, a number of white house advoysors claimed that comey lost the support of the f.b.i.'s rank and file. duh during -- but during a senate hearing, acting f.b.i. director andrew mccabe contradicted that assertion. >> i can confidently tell you that the majority, the vast majority of f.b.i. employees enjoyed a deep and positive connection to director comey. robert: so we're seeing mccabe come out and say this investigation goes on into russian interference even as congress may be taking it slow. margaret: he put it in very

stark terms, saying, you know, you can't stop the men and women of the f.b.i. in their pursuit of the truth here and the constitution. -- and serving the constitution. but talk about loyalty, i think you saw a big demonstration of that there, mccabe defending his former boss, trying to defend the institution where he works as an agency saying that we will uphold and have integrity in this investigation. i think when you hear from the white house that the president wants this investigation to continue and end with integrity, that actually gets contradicted when the president tweets things out like he has, saying this is a farce, this is all driven by democrats. this is all political. there's not -- that the f.b.i. in continuing to go through an ongoing investigation is somehow politically minded and not grounded in fact. robert: where was attorney general sessions in all this? erica: he had recused himself not just from the russia

investigation but any investigations that touched on presidential campaign, yet he appears to be -- to have been intimately involved in the decision to fire or at least that was how it was initially reported to be, the president, of course, went on to say that it was his own decision and his decision alone. but that is just one of the many questions that members of congress and particularly democratic senators have. and this gos to why democrats will continue to push for a special prosecutor. and are not going to stop and let up on that demand. because as margaret was pointing out, the f.b.i. may have integrity and their goal may be to lead this investigation with integrity but at the end of the day, the justice department is over the f.b.i. and democrats have completely lost faith in the department of justice and the administration. robert: dan, washington has been upended by this whole episode. what's the response in the country? dan: i think at this point, you

know, the general public is several steps away from where we are here in washington. i mean, this has been a white hot week in washington. people comparing toyota watergate and -- comparing it to watergate and speculating. this has been a damaging week for the white house. the credibility of the white house has been really shattered as a result of the changing stories, or certainly seemingly changing stories. i think out in the country, people are still evaluating, but that's the norm in cases like this. these things take on a life of their own inside washington, and depending on where the investigation goes, the country will catch up with that. robert: are there going to be legal challenges to president trump, he makes these calls and has conversations with director comey, what kind of hot water, if any, is the president in for talking to the head of the f.b.i., the then-head of the f.b.i.? pete: certainly the question, am i under investigation, is according to every legal scholar

i've talked to not a problem. the question would be, is the firing of the fib director in the middle of the investigation -- of the f.b.i. director in the middle of the information an obstruction of justice. the question is what would be the legal -- there would be legal consequences if the f.b.i. determined he committed a crime. aside from that, i don't know what legal consequences there would be. i don't know who could sue him. robert: democrats are saying obstruction of justice. that's the charge they keep making. they keep bringing up nixonian language as they talk about this. pete: the justice department would have to investigate that or a special counsel. it's not an easy case to make. you have to look at the president's intense. -- intent. some say, he laid it out there when he said it's the russian thing that he keeps harping on. but he mentioned a whole bunch of other things. to try to signal intent, especially when you have the attorney general and the deputy attorney general agreing that james comey had to go for a variety of different reasons that would make that a hard case to make.

robert: speaking of russia they say a picture is worth a thousand words. that's true after the president posed with russian diplomats one day after firing comey. he met with russian minister lavrov and kislyiak in the oval office. you recall national security advisor michael flynn was fired for lying about meet hessian had with the diplomat. the american press was blocked from being part of this meeting from covering this meeting. a lot of news agencies were using russian photos. what was that like at the white house when you were there? what does that tell us about the white house's relationship with russia? margaret: i was sitting there at my desk right off the white house briefing room looking at my twitter feed say, that's the oval office right now. this was supposed to be a closed to all press meeting. and then government websites run

by the russian government, their embassy, their foreign ministry are posting photos, smiling photos, arms around each other, chuckling, hands being shaken, of not only the top diplomat, lav rombings v, but kisliak, the ambassador you talked about. that was what got attention. there are a -- there were a series of other moments, stunlabling into henry kissinger in the oval office when we thought we were getting a photo with lavrov. what's interesting about this is the white house said, basically this was a misunderstanding. they thought they were misled. that this photographer they allowed to remain in the room worked for russian state to media organization, not the official foreign ministry photographer, that's what they thought they had. that's where this end. the russian photographer has come out with statements say, you american press didn't try too hard. i will tell you that was not -- that's not accurate. but it gets to this broader sort

of diplomatic stagecraft that it seems was amateurist, frankly, when you were dealing with an extremely experienced decades of experience that the -- at the u.n. and foreign ministry level, sergei lavrov is someone who walks in knowing what he wants at the meeting. they got the picture they wanted to show of their meeting. they they showed that all over their media back home. and it looks like russia got a much better relationship with trump. robert: did he, though, dan? it's hard to look at foreign policy in terms of trump and russia. he has warmer relations, the president is going abroad next week. when margaret was asking about the russian relationship, we're not still getting a vivid picture of what that is. dan: i think what we have seen almost consistently is that the president has been reluctant to be tough on russia and on

vladimir putin in his public statements. but everyone around him has taken up that charge. whether it's h.r. mcmaster over mattis, or nikki haley the ambassador at the u.n. or even secretary of state tillerson. in a sense, he's sur rounded by people who are carrying the message that the traditional foreign policy establishment wants to hear, yet he won't say all those words. it'll be interesting when he goes on his overseas trip, what we hear from him when he's in foreign capitals. >> general mcmasters said these are engagements, not strategies. i don't know what that means but when the words and actions conflict, it gets us to the broader what is the trump foreign policy? and it may not get us to a better relationship. those were some tough conferrings and tough meetings in the wake of those strikes. robert: pete?

pete: i can only bring it back to the f.b.i. i can tell you that the f.b.i. russia investigation will not be derailed by the firing of james comey. you heard, as margaret said this muscular statement from the deputy director who has become the acting director. you could fully expect, this was at an intelligence committee hearing on worldwide threats, you could expect he would be freshman reluctant to sit back an yem and no, sir. but it was a muscular statement. like the f.b.i. is freight train, you're not going to stop. he also said, he had no whether -- no idea whether comey said to the president he was not under investigation but he was asked would you ever give assurances like that? and he said no. in terms of the russia campaign investigation, the f.b.i. was eager to say in the midst of the storm it hasn't dropped a stitch. dan: one thing we're all trying to do is piece together, as the f.b.i. and others do their

investigation, what is the full extent of trump and his businesses and associations, in america. we got a look when trump's tax lawyer said he's had limited financial relationship with russia. was that revealing at all? >> frankly, not particularly. it was a fairly brief letter. was released with no backup documentation. and no evidence of any kind. it had very little value in the opinion of many people. and it's really difficult to overstate how many questions all of this raises for members of congress and the degree to which this has really consumed capitol hill and totally derailed what is ostensibly president trump's agenda and the congressional agenda on health care and taxes. instead, there's going to be a

circus in the coming weeks -- coming week when rosenstein is up there talking to the full senate. there's going to be another circus when they try to confirm a new f.b.i. director. i mean, it's just totally taken the oxygen out of the room, out of the agenda. it's all self-inflicted. a number of lawmakers are really furious about this. >> when i was at the capitol, erica, i was struck by how, when senators would be on the record, they would tolerate trump's -- president trump's may havor, saying it would help us get infrastructure but privately they said they hope the white house turns it around they feel exposed because the white house put out one story to the party and then they change the story and have to backtrack. we're going to face more challenging in the days and weeks. part of president trump's tweet storm included a strong suggestion he might shut down

white house press briefings -- briefings. he tweeted, maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future bress brief -- press briefings and hand out written responses for sake of accuracy. the president said, unless i have them every two weeks and do them myself, we won't have them. i think it's a good idea. dan, press briefings are a traditional part of the presidency. dan: absolutely. i would be astonished if the white house carries out the threat the president seemed to put on the table today. they are part of the institution of the white house. they are depended upon by a lot of people, including people in the white house, to convey information as well as answer question. they do become circuses sometimes. they are very difficult often for the person at the podium who has to brief when things go bad, as they did this week. but the -- to suggest that they should be removed because in one way or another this president move sod quickly his spokespeople can't keep up with him and therefore can't always

be accurate, is a statement that kind of defies logic. robert: margaret who is advising the president? who was influential on comey. we hear he was unhappy other the weekend at his golf club. it seems like many at the white house are out of the loop of what the president is out of the of what the president is thinking? margaret: certainly his communications team is out. it was quiet that weekend but apparently the president was stewing on this, watching sunday shows, really thinking about the that testimony that james comey gave the week before. saying he was made nauseous at the idea that he perhaps tipped the election. and that sat with him, from what we are told. but in terms of who has the influence and ability to truly steer the president toward one direction, i'm not clearen that. jared kushner, his son-in-law,

others are influential. but i don't know that there's one person who the president does truly turn to as the voice of reason. >> i was told by a couple of people today that he had voiced his displeasure with the comey testimony before he went away for the weekend. so there were people in the white house who knew he was stewing about that. even as he went off to bedminuteser to stew by himself. >> and he must have been stewing from the previous testimony when comey refused to back up his wiretapping claims. there is a history of frustration but it boiled up. robert: 10 seconds. i'm told the president was so frustrated with the f.b.i. for not going after leaks to the media that this prompted the comey firing. >> no doubt about it. he keeps bringing up leaks and that's the republican rallying cry too, let's focus on the leaks and work on the other stuff later. robert: going to be fascinating to watch.

leaks, the president angry, the president making decisions. before we go, let me take a moment to thank all of you who emailed your personal health care stories to "washington week." it was fascinating to read and the response from across the country simply incredible, as were your experiences and concerns. we had planned, as you might imagine, to talk about health care this week before the comey news broke. we'll get back to health care real soon. but keep sending us your thoughts. the email address is on ethe screen. our conversation will continue online on the washington week extra where we'll talk about many things, including what's happening with the search for the new f.b.i. director. we'll hear from pete on that you can find that friday night after 10:00 p.m., pbs.org /washingtonweek. i'm robert costa. thanks for watching. to all the moms watch, have a happy mother's day. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

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announcer: "truly california" presented in association with -- the california council for the humanities. ♪ next on "truly california"... photographer dorothea lange and painter maynard dixon were embraced as two giants of the american art world. but as parents, their talents had different effects. daniel: maynard wasn't there. dorothea was. i did feel not just lonely, but abandoned. announcer: a story of great gifts and insidious curses in "child of giants."