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 the three occasions that the fbi director told the president he wasn't under investigation? >> i'm not going to get into the specifics of their conversations, but i can tell you that director comey relayed that information to the president. jeff? >> following up on that, sara, did the president ask director comey whether they were under investigation when they had these meetings? >> again, i'm not going into specifics of their conversations. >> 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 stop leaks going out of the fbi of the president? how important was that? >> i think that was probably one of the many factors. you can't deny somebody that that wasn't a problem, and so i think that waust another one of the many reasons that he 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's called the taxpayer funded charade investigation? >> he wants them to do whatever they see appropriate and see fit, just as he's encouraged the house and senate committees to continue any ongoing 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 encouraged 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 would love for that to be completed so that we can all move on and focus on the things that, frankly, i think most americans are concerned with. >> even if they keep on wasting taxpayer money, he wants it to continue? >> nobody wants to waste taxpayer money. the president has made a priority of this. that's another reason we would love for it to come to completion. at the same time, i know you all will not let this go until it does, so we would love for that to be completed. let's put it behind us, let's move on and let's focus on what we need to do to turn our country around. >> there are twoquestions. one, was the white house aware at the time of this decision and announcement that grand jury subpoenas in the case of michael flynn had just gone out? >> no. nor should we have been. >> do you know anything about that process? >> no, i don't. i would have to refer you to --

>> and does the white house believe that if these fbi investigations are going to proceed in these allegations of russian interference, support the funding and support who for that investigation? who is going to be running that right now? are you confident in andrew mccabe or does it have to be somebody else? >> right now i believe that would fall to the deputy attorney general, rob rosenstein, and we are incredibly confident in his abilities as i believe you can tell the rest of the senate, including democrats, are as well. given the fact he was confirmed 94-6 and had overwhelming praise from both sides of the aisle, i think there is complete confidence in him. and 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.

>> the president said -- excuse me, sean spicer said just 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? wasean l at that point or did someth happe in the last seven days? >> of course you would love to add that in, but certainly not. again, i think one of the big things that took place was the process in that hearing on 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, it's simply not okay, not something that's 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 i think another 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 january 21st? >> no, i believe the president wanted to give director comey a chance, but he feels that he made the right decision. >> why did he do it the way he did, if i may ask? why did he have one of his long-time security advisers hand a letter to the fbi when the fbi director was in los angeles? didn't he deserve a phone call or a face-to-face conversation? why did he decide to do it that way? >> he followed the proper protocol in that process, which is handwritten notification. at the same time, no matter how you fire someone, it's never an easy process. and so he felt like following protocol was the best thing to do. [ inaudible ] >> i'm not aware of that conversation. >> was the president aware that james comey asked for more

resources in the russia investigation, and did that factor in his decision to get rid of the fbi director? >> not that i'm aware of. i think that would be a better question for the department of justice. >> president trump frequently said "lock her up" and he criticized the department of justice for not being impartial to hillary clinton. he actually praised director comey for having the guts to reopen the investigation. why was he moved by a letter that said that director comey was anything but too harsh on hillary clinton. how did that make a move on firing him? >> the president was wearing a different hat at the time. he was not the president. circumstances change when you become the president, and again, when you go around the chain of command in the department of justice, when you, say, 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, sara? we knew what director comey had done. >> i think this was the first time the director had openly made that statement and made it clear. >> the president's meeting with sergey lavrov d not include anything of reported violence in chechn chechnya? >> i'm sorry, could you speak up a little bit? >> is the reason that wasn't included in the readout is because they did not talk about violence in chechnya. >> sometimes there are parts of a meeting that aren't specifically included in a readout. i'm not aware, i haven't had that conversation. i wasn't part of that meeting so i can't speak to every detail, and i would have to refer you to the readout of specifics i know were discussed. >> is the white house briefed on

this generally? >> i'll have to get back to you on that. i'm not 100% sure. >> you said you would want the investigation to continue with the doj. would you want the white house to continue the investigation? >> we don't think it's necessary. you have a house committee, senate committee and the department of justice all working on this. i don't think there is 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. >> you have such confidence that rank and file in the bureau lost faith. there was a special agent inside who said, the vast amount of people in favor of director comey being fired. they lost the only guy who worked here in the last 15 years that actually cared about them.

so how do you react to those who were not in favor of trying to add on? >> the president will be meeting with acting director mccabe later today to discuss that very thing, the moral at the fbi, as well as make an offer to go directly to the fbi if he feels the effects necessary and appropriate. we'll certainly provide information on that meeting. >> he's asking for a voice in director comey's successor. is that something the president supports? >> i don't know at this point, but i know it's being run thu the department of justice, so i would ask you to inform them what this 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 at

the end of the day, it was the president's decision. >> in between monday night and. did he speak again with the deputy attorney general or attorney general? >> i know they spoke on monday. the next follow-up may have been. >> is it accurate to pull away from the information we have, that please put that recommendation as the evidence that he wanted to provide -- to fire james comey. >> my understanding is the decision was made on monday when there was an oral recommendation made and the president requested th he see that in riwriting to review it further. blake? >> you say you want to move on and focus on things america cares about, so let me ask you about that. you're somewhat halfway home on health care. you still have tax reform to do, a 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 d.c. politics more toxic. so how do you go about accomplishing all those things with the highly political argument since you've had so many republicans repeatedly are asking what's going on. i don't think it matters what the president says, you'll have democrats coming out and fighting him every step of the way. i think that's one of the things wrong with washington, and that's one of the reasons we have to get back focusing on those issues and frankly drain the swamp a little bit further. >> was he surprised by the democratic backlash? did he anticipate it, given some of the past statements? >> 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, and the very democrats that are criticizing the president today would be dancing in the streets celebrating. it's just, i think, the purest form of hypocrishypocrisy. >> there is a report in israel that the president has made the decision not to lead the u.s. embassy from jerusalem to tel aviv. has there been a decision on that? >> there has not been a decision on that. >> he warned the president against moving the embassy to jerusalem. does that warning a warnings from oth arab leaders play into this decision as he considers this move? >> i'm not getting into the

decision-making process here. as soon as we have a decision, i know we'll be happy to report to you guys. >> thank you, sara. two questions, both related to the choice of a successor to director comey. when president carter chose a director, he had an interview here. is the president going to follow this pattern or does he have some individual in mind at this point. >> right now i know there are several and the first step will be investigatalking to the actim director, and i direct you to them for right now. >> i've got two. i'm pretty nice, charlotte, aren't i? >> scarlet, but that's okay,

that's okay. it's a southern thing, maybe. >> her daughter's name is charlotte who had a birthday. >> i want to make sure we got that in again. happy birthday, scarlet. >> scarlet. >> "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 in the russia investigation, have any

role in the selection of a successor? and given the fact that in his 100 days, he himself said he had confidence with comey on this podium, the american people said he had confidence in director comey, can people take at face value with things the president says or his views on things if just two weeks later he's out? >> absolutely you can 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 in the 20,000 employees that work there, so he absolutely 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. >> you mentioned earlier that you're encouraging the fbi to move on from the russian investigation. is it appropriate for the white house to be directing the fbi on what investigation they're currently investigating? >> i don't think that was the nature or the intent of my comment, wasn't to direct the fb but i think 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, like health care, like infrastructure. those are big programs, big priorities for this administration. and 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 american voters and american taxpayers every single day. >> sara!

sara! >> what exactly precipitated the monday meeting? was that because of the hearing last week and what he said there, or did the monday meeting with the president with the russian official come out of a longer process of consideration of comey? >> 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. >> they previously talked to attorney general hutchins about the possibility of removing director comey? >> d he talk about rob rosenstein then? >> not that i'm awa of. >> the president's statement that he talked to comey about whether or not he was being investigated raised several questions. did he talk about why they'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 try to exonerate himself in this. can you tell me why he won't add anything more to how that conversation was, when it took place? >> can you specify those three occasions? >> i'm not getting into the specific details. i'll look and see if we have follow up on that, but at this point, i'm not commenting what happened in the letter. >> if you didn't want to comment, why is it in the letter in the first place? >> this was someone far above my pay rate decided to have it included and i'm not getting into specifics of that. thanks, you guys, so much. >> sara huckabee sanders abruptly ending the session. a quite different style for those who watch sean spicer with

any degree of regularity. we are joined here in the studio by ari melber and katy tur who have been following the president. we are learning that the president lost confidence in director comey pretty much day one. >> which is unbelievable since he had a meeting with director comey and said, you're even smarter than me, and blew him a kiss. as late as last week, donald trump a few days ago said that hillary clinton should thank james comey because he gave her an excuse to why she lost. this is an about-face from this administration. we had not been hearing that

donald trump, the president of the united states, did not have confidence in his fbi director until yesterday when we were told that he was fired. we got a little more of a timeline, though. sara huckabee sanders said the president had a fourth conversation or some kind of oral conversation on monday where the deputy ag expressed his concern with fbi director comey. then sara huckabee sanders said the president asked the ag, deputy ag, to submit that in writing. and that is what happened as of yesterday. donald trump then made the decision very quickly to decide to fire james comey. so this is happening certainly quickly, so quickly that the white house seems to be taken off guard by this. after all, we do know that last night well into the night the lights were on in the west wing,

people fehr vervently trying to figure out how to spin this news in their favor. >> i think it's a little more than that. they tried to spin the letter to be an origination of an idea, and the deputy attorney general told the nation that's not quite right. there was a conversation monday, as katy says, that led to the letter. but the letter doesn't say, pursuant to our conversation, we're putting this in writing, or pursuant to a presidential request. the letter is entitled, let's restore public confidence in the fbi process, and now i think part of this timeline of the letter has unraveled. >> there is a political report this morning that says this. the optics of this firing are almost too reckless to believe. we saw there kelly o'donnell taking part in the questioning. kelly is available to us from her seat in the audience. kelly, quite a turnaround to learn now that the president started losing confidence in

comey pretty much on day one. >> well, one of the things that in washington the phrase "having confidence in a particular figure," whether it's uttered by the president himself or a top spokesperson has always been an important sign in washington of how strong that person is held in the president's regard. more than a casual nature of what those words might mean. it's a very strong line that has often been used in washington. so we know president trump doesn't always follow those sorts of conventions, but for him to have said in interviews that he had nfidce, for his top spokespeople to say that from this podium. now we're being led to believe that the president's words were not trustworthy because he had been considering for a long time dismissing james comey, even though that's only happened once before in the history of the fbi in nearly 90 years, and that was for cause. very different circumstance. now we're hearing the president really felt there was a chain of command problem, which i find

interesting given the fact that the president, who has no military experience and has liked to use sort of competing rivalries within his own corporate structure, very different than chain of command. if it's chain of command, there is always question of is james comey of recruits he's trying to attract, to be told by letter that he was let go. the leadership, members of the house as well. so if it was about morale, then is summarily dumping your fbi director on national television good for more amorale. and if he is dismissed, can he find somebody who would be in a line of responsibility for that?

of course, james comey did more than t russian inigation, but we're told who the next fbi director will be. so there are confusing messages coming out of this briefing about the timeline, what we can really take at face value when we're given assessments along the way and what the back rung was. big questions unanswered, what were the three instances in which the president claims comey exonerated him. no answers on that. >> kelly o'donnell in the white house briefing room. our upper right-hand square is mike vacarra on capitol hill. mike, one of the senators who got a heads up, the phrase of the week, was dianne finestein of california. >> that's right, and she recounted a very different conversation she had with president trump. she said president trump told her the department of justice was, in his words, a mess, and that he had asked jeff sessions and the newly established deputy attorney general rob rosenstein,

the center of this controversy, to look into it. rosenstein came back with a letter that has obviously led to the controversy we're seeing today. evident there were a few calls. richard burr, head of the intelligence community, received word from mr. trump this morning. they have not softened this shock that has swept over capitol hill, and the outrage is bipartisan. democrats, of course, not holding back. you can see republicans not following into lockstep behind the white house at all on this. that has to be an area of political concern. mike warren, the vice chairman. they have an ongoing investigation into russian meddling. they have asked james comey, and that must be in a closed setting.

we've seen nothing like that. and now andrew mccabe, the sitting deputy attorney, leading that. he'll be next on the director of intelligence. we'll see that hearing tomorrow. john mccain calling for a special committee in congress to look into this. john bozeman of arkansas saying the american people deserve an explanation. so trouble here in the aftermath of this controversy on capitol hill and. at the end of the day, and this may call for a judgment on your part, what. >> you're right. a computer can only be formed or named by the attorney generalment people are trying to figure out if this is going to blow over, brian, no question

about it, on the republican side particularly. you saw chuck schumer in response on the floor. all 100 senats sitting there. you very rarely see that. saying he want to have a closed, classified discussion, perhaps, for all senators trying to keep the pressure on. but we already see, again, a crack there on the republican side. john mccain calling for a special congressional committee, ala the 9/11 committee. richard burr says his committee is moving along just fine, thank you very much. there is a so-called decon fl t deconflicting issue. they have to know who they can talk to, when they can talk to him and the fbi. they'll be walking on eggshells around capitol hill today,

brian. >> we often call on michael schmidt of the "new york times," e eli stoeckels of the washington journal. eli, the same question i just asked of mike viquera. what game do the republicans have? >> i think they have public opinion on their side but they don't have hillary clinton. >> this is probably the rosey view, presuming that the investigation into russia doesn't really yield anything, but they said what donald trump did in this sort of very hasty option and the optics of it, really turned this whole thing into the ben gazi. .

. and basically this is something that will. it may over time lead to questions about how long they can stand up to defend this president. >> you're leading the way in our understanding of how and where -- fired. one of you learned sub -- which of the white house briefing quoting fbi agents who are now relieved that fad. >> the fbi, the folks here say the morale has been really hurt by this. including mr. comey who was in the room when he found out about this. of course, yesterday he's in los angeles, he's speaking to a group of employees, the. his staff then comes over and

tells him about it. that's been pretty dememorial. >> one person said it was kind of like a wake. >> and. very visibly and directly take some pipd out of the democratic efforts overnight. >> yeah, that's the question here, is how much traction will the democrats get in terms of getting an independent commissioner, getting a special prosecutor. it really seems like something new is going to have to come out about mr. trump or about his associates that really changes the narrative here. it doesn't seem like there's enough public pressure, even at this point, to get republicans to go along with that. . i don't think his ouster will

change because of mine. from the white house briefing that the president started losing confidence in her in day one. >> i think. ma many people saw what he did in july and how he broke protocol inside the justice department. i'm sure director come y believes the attorney general gave him the power to do this at the time, but we can put that aside. this is how it goes to their credibility, that somehow the investigation of the campaign loved in october, where he praised james comey, where he consistently did that. so i think they're only making their explanation that somehow it's got nothing to do with russia and everything to do with nick.

i know that they believe their ba base. here is what has happened today. what's happened today, forget t t that. john postman, republican from arkansas. this isn't someone who would make a name for himself by attacking republicans. he just wants a better explanation. john corker wants a better explanation. richard burr who at times has been -- not an ally of the trump warehouse but certainly an adversarial. it uncomfortable defending him right now. >> we should be wautching for te

next move. >> i think the next move will be from the united states senate. does mitch mcconnell try to keep the republicans together, or does he say, let them go, and if you have the ben sasses of the world, a never trumper from the beginning, a group of them joining 48 democrats, who knows. i think you could see people saying, we won't consider it. i think the next band of people will come fro the united states senate. >> john mccain, freshly reelected and his own man always, but it's fascinating as a microcosm, just one of 50

states, two of 100 senators. >> you want to bring it back even further? >> somewhere he supposedly made that trek to the white house and said, president nixon, the gig is up. >> you know what's so jarring. you have sara huckabee sanders saying it's so critical of democrats who had been so critical of james comey up until the election, and accused him of swinging the election in hillary clinton's favor. it's hypocritical, she says, for them not to praise this. we have to remember what was said on the campaign and trump wasie fus sieve about director comey when he reopened the investigation. there's a lot of.

it's reversing itself entirely, a complete 180 when it comes to how james comey reacted. >> quick break. among those waiting to talk to us, secretary blumenthal from the sat of connecticut, and a man with experience in this area where legal houses are concerned, john dean, when we come back. (vo) pro plan bright mind adult 7+ promotes alertness and mental sharpness in dogs 7 and older.

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did the president direct rob rosenstein to write this memo on james comey? >> no, the president had lost, again, confidence in director comey, and frankly he considered letting director comey go since the day he was elected. >> dianne feinstein said she was told something different. she was asked to review this. is she lying? >> he asked for a letter of recommendation based on the conversation they had monday. he asked that a letter of recommendation be put in writing. >> the president always said he had full confidence in james comey. why did he say that? >> again, he's questioning director comey's reason for staying with the fbi. he had countless discussions with members within the fbiment i thi -- fbi. i think the biggest catalyst was

last wednesday. director comey made a startling revelation that he had taken a stick of dynamite and thrown it into the department ofusce by going around the chain of command when he decided to take steps withoutalking to the attorney general or the deputy attorney general when holding a press conference and telling them he would not let them know what he was going to say. >> one of the more interesting exchanges from today's white house briefing, and if you're just joining us, that was sara huckabee sanders in today for sean spicer who is off doing part of his service in the u.s. navy reserve over at the pentagon today. this has happened before. she is a very different briefer for some obvious reasons. that was not fiction from hallie jackson that fueled that exchange. this was something of a parallel universe today where we now learn, contrary to what we've heard from that podium in the past, that the president pretty much started losing support in

comey, started losing confidence in comey on day one. we have a democratic lawmaker standing by to talk to us. he is connecticut senator richard blumenthal. senator, i note that you were out and out trolled by the president on twitter this morning to which you responded, your bullying won't silence my calls for an independent prosecutor and investigation. but on that front, because you are a member of the minority party, because we did see how mitch mcconnell chose to start the day in the well of the senate, are there any talks going on? are you guys going to get any republicans to come over and go with your side? >> there are talks ensuing and there is growing disquiet and doubt among many ofy republican colleagues about the president's direction. face a looming constitution crisis. the saying goes, history does

not repeat itself but it does rhyme, and a lot of what's happening here with the potential for a cover-up, stifling or stopping an investigation, using a pretense of what director komy dcomey di firing him, that there needs to be an interim prosecutor. i'm going to keep advocating as i have since february that we need that impartial, independent prosecutor to make decisions whether to prosecutor not. because equally important would be the decision not to prosecute. >> before i turn the questioning over to katy tur, do you guys -- you democrats think you have the lumber to stop an appointment, whoever the trump administration chooses to now, in effect, be their investigator, run this russia investigation, run the fbi and saying, no, no, we have the votes, we can first demand a

special prosecutor? >> it really is a matter of the human cry, the outrage and cry we're beginning to hear from the american public. i can tell you, brian, if i go around the state of connecticut and my colleagues hear town meetings i've held in the last week, people want to uncover the truth and they want accountability for anyone, the russians for interfering in our elections, and anyone who colluded or conspired with them, including trump associates. there is mounting evidence that roger stone, plmanafort, the former campaign manager, carl page, michael flynn have all been involved, and that evidence could lead us to the very top. >> what wherewithall do you have

to demand that the deputy attorney jegeneral appoint a special prosecutor before you identify a new fbi director? are you going to get any republican colleagues on board with that demand, and if so, who would you be looking at? is it senators burr, flake, bozeman, any of those members? >> i would rule out nobody in the republican caucus at this point as potentially siding with us, as there are more and more -- just this afternoon there was a report, seems to be credible, that director comey went to the deputy attorney general, then rob rosenstein very recently, and asked for more funds and resources for this investigation, indicating that it was expanding. and that is part of the evidentiary trail that leads us to think that our colleagues will conclude we need to stop

any effort to stifle or stop this investigation or cover it up. >> senator, the doj is flatly denying that. i spoke twice today to sara flores who works there who said that absolutely is not true. still, our reporting says that members of congress, c congressional staffers, said that is the case, he did ask for more resources. when you have this where one side says one thing and the other side says another, who does the american public believe? and has it come to a point where everything no matter what is looked at through a partisan viewpoint and the american public cannot look to congress any longer, or anybody in washington for that matter, for the truth? >> well, that is a profoundly important question. and it's one of the reasons why i've advocated an independent special prosecutor, because public credibility and faith and trust in the justice system has to be sustained and maybe

redeemed. second point is that some of this evidence can be seen and heard by americans for themselves. for example, jim comey testifying in response to my questioning just last week that he would not rule out the president as potentially a target of the investigation into russian interference and possible collusion by the trump campaign. and third, there needs to be a hearing or meeting where rod rosenstein explains this decision and answers that question that you've just asked about whether jim comey asked for additional resources. so i think there needs to be more truth telling, uncovering of the truth. that's why a special prosecutor is necessary. because remember, the intelligence committee can hold hearings. an indepennt commission can produce a report and findings. only a prosecutor and only a special independent prosecutor

can bring charges, hold people accountable if they've broken the law. >> senator richard blumenthal, from connecticut. thank you for being here. we appreciate it. >> thank you, brian. we want to bring in john dean. counselor, i've been anxious to have some time with you on the air, mostly because of the number of times nixon's name has been thrown around in the last 24 hours. the presidential library had some fun with it yesterday and put out a tweet with the hash tag not nixonian to point out that among his other sins, he never fired the fbi director. but please, once and for all, as one of the living, breathing experts on the subject, what was nixonian about what we witnessed yesterday, what was not? >> well, i think what was nixonian was the blunt, clumsy

hand-fisted style that was carried out. that was very nixonian. you know, brian, a lot of people think watergate was a continuous stream of sinisterial legal activities. that really wasn't the case. it was also mixed with blunder after blunder and botched activity after another. thaet wh that's what we're seeing here. this is the sort of thing that results in the end of a presidency the way nixon's ended, and a lot of that was just because of stupid, careless, foolish undertakings that should have been thought out, and like we're seeing in this one, they were just not carefully gained out and why they were surprised at the reaction, it baffles me because they certainly could have looked at history and seen the results. >> the saturday night massacre came in the middle of a

burgeoning, blossoming crisis that every american was aware of. it had the added benefit of making it worse for the president. i think part of your early appoint, you would agree that if the president planned to slip this by, perhaps not mindful of the fact that firing the fbi director is a big deal in this country prior to the end of the expiration of their 10-year term, that was not the outcome, and as nicolle wallace put it in the first ten minutes of our coverage yesterday, he has managed to shine a much brighter light on the russia investigation. >> he sure did. and one of the reasons that statute was created post-watergate was to eliminate this sort of political chair changing based on new presidents. in other words, the tenure of the fbi director was to exceed many presidents. and we're not seeing that. we're seeing to politicized

deeply, and the way it was handled. they didn't need to fire comey. they could have told him, we don't have confidence in you. we're troubled by could have s troubled with this. the reason is the hillary e-mail investigation which seems dubious but if that was. this could have all been done in a very gentlemanly way and comey could have gone out and departed, and not have a firing. i mean, the same with the acting attorney general. the same with the u.s. attorney for the southern district. i mean, why you have to do this seems to be a stylistic political choice rather than a good governing choice. >> if you continue to throw around words like gentlemanly, i'll going to accuse you of having lived on the west coast for too long. i will ask you a final question. do you fear for the successful completion of a true and deep

investigation? >> i think it is very hard to disrupt an investigation this far progressed. what will happen next, they're trying to turn the investigation, if there is a real body of evidence there that they need uncovered, they will start to leak. pressure will build up that way. these professionals in the counter intelligence division. it is one of the really fine areas of the justice department and they won't let the be pushed around by a change at the top. i don't see that happening at this point. >> hear hear to your investigators. it is a point our own pete williams has made on more than one occasion. always a pleasure to have you on our air. thank you very much. another one of our colleagues is standing by to talk to us. phil, just spew whatever reporting you have for your paep

out on our air and 97 mind that you have a primary employer. what can you add to the conversation what you've learned today? >> well, we've learned a lot today. and i can tell you a little of what's going on inside the white house. in a white house that has had a lot of moments of disorder in these first 110 days, i think the last 24 hours is excite exceptional. a lot of senior staff in the west wing were not even aware this comey news was coming until it was announced before hand. there was no plan to defend it. no surrogates toward get throughout and that infuriated president trump. talking to sources today, he's been very angry with the lack of a coordinated fierce defense. the sarah sanders briefing helped write the ship a little bit but we're 10:00 on get information doesn't add up. the explanation from last night that this was a response to the rod rosetein letter conflicted

with what sarah sanders said today about the president having been thinking about doing this. letting comey go for so long, sense the beginning of the administration. at this point we would like the hear directly from the president to plane is his thinking and his thought process along the way and what the key ennext points were. >> we were told the com staff was in until late last night. conway surfaced on cnn. they had ken cuccinelli on the air last night kind of making their case for them. how did they not correctly know that this was going to be, when you fire the fbi director, it tends to be a big deal. >> they miscalculated that this would be such a big deal. i think there was an assumption made that because so many democrats, especially democratic senators had spoken out against comey, had criticized him during

clinton administration, that they would be please that had trump fired him. in fact it is the opposite. this has been an explosive news story as we all could have known. and the other problem is that trump kept his decision making very close to the vest. he obviously talked to the deputy attorney general, he talked to a couple of other senior aides in the white house. that you a lot of key political advisers in the white house were not a part of these discussions oriole and were not sort of given the lead time to really prepare an effective strategy to respond. >> in the newsroom of the "washington post," always appreciate you coming on theary with us. thank you. charlie sikes is standing by. our friend of longstanding and associate as we cover this political season from wtmj tv 4 in milwaukee. well, seat of the pants presidency has gotten the president in trouble, perhaps? >> well, he is paying a price for his ignorance of history a

his ignorance of the political norms in america. the fact they did not see this coming as a firestorm is stunning when you think about it. this is what you get when you surround yourself with amateurs and six elephants or when, you think about how much political capital he has spent over the last 24 hours. this notion that the democrats would not push back because comey had made so many mistakes. it is not inconsistent to be very, very critical of the way comey has handled these issues. the fact the white house did not see this coming is in itself stunning. >> what about the letter showing their homework? showing the underpinnings? that this was because of cruelty and mishandling of hillary clinton's e-mails, knowing this second wave of reporting. we were still in the first hour

of the coverage of this yesterday and the reasoning was coming out and was apparent. >> yeah. nicole wallace was absolutely correct when she said this sheen as much brighter light. let's say for the sake of argument that there is nothing to find without this russia trump collusion. why have there been so many lies? why do they act like they're engaged in a cover-up and why don't they see that everything they areoing along these lines intensifies all the attention to this scandal that he wants to go away? charlie sikes, thank you. a pleasure to have you on the air with an apology of running over katie tur's day shift with the white house briefing today. thank you to all of our guests and contributors. that will wrap it up for this hour. peter alexander will begin with the top of the next. future freaks her out. how come no one likes me, jim? intel does!

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>> i'm peter alexander. the back story of the president's abrupt firing still developing as we speak to you. the white house aides saying the president's trust of his fbi director, now ousted fbi director, erolleded over the course of weeks and even months. it didn't happen in a single day, after hearing from the deputy attorney general on this issue. we've also learned the acting fbi director is expected to come to the white house to meet with the presiden