foot. i think eventually we'll be averse to each other and that's the way it goes. vladimir putin is a bad guy. >> and that was the last word. that does it for this hour. nicole wallace "mtp daily" starts now. i promise i'll get better. >> you're doing fine. if it's wednesday, what's the real reason that trump said you're red? >> tonight, the motive. >> he wasn't doing a good job. the president said the reason for comey's ouster is simple. then why fire him now? >> the president made the right decision at the right time. >> we'll get reactions from senators on both sides of the aisle. >> it is still happening today. >> so how does russia probe

proceed in the post comey world? and why yesterday's firing is reminding a lot of people about a saturday night 40 years ago. >> the president's tactics, saying we're off now to new beginnings. >> this is "mtp daily" and it is starts right now. good evening. i'm chuck todd in new york. welcome to mtp daily. you're about to witness a firestorm on the search for a motive. why did the president fire director comey when he did? did he do it to imfeed fbi's criminal investigation into his associates' possible ties to russia? a lot of sxrats a few republicans and some folks inside the fbi seem to believe that. or did he do it because he mishandled in the hillary

clinton e-mail investigation and having a crisis in his leership. that's what the attorney general said and the deputy attorney general agreed. why did he do it some today the hunt for the answers began, starting with the president himself? >> why did you fire director comey? >> because he wasn't doing a good job. very simply. he was not doing a good job. >> here's vice president mike pence. >> did the president fire director comey to impede the russia investigation? >> as you know and has been stated repeatedly and the president has been told, he is not under investigation. >> the intelligence investigation say there's potential ties. >> that's not what this is about. the president took strong and decisive leadership here to put the safety and security of the american people first. >> pence' argument that this had nothing 22nd the fbi

investigation into russia isn't cutting it on capitol hill. the firing comes as the white house repeatedly made it clear they want this investigation to go away. >> russia is fake news. this is fake news put out by the media. >> i've said it from the day that i got here until whatever, that there is no connection. you'll to have take no for an answer with respect to whether or not there was collusion. >> when are they going to let that go? it's been going on for nearly a year. it is kind of absurd. there's nothing there. we've heard it time and time again. it is time to move on and time to focus on the things american people care about. >> the firing comes as the russian investigation may be heating up. a congressional official says comey told congress he was seeking additional resources to essentially expand the investigation. new department of justice spokesperson said the story is entirely false. we know the investigation was on the president's mind.

in his letter to comey, mr. trump wrote this. i great reply appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i am not under investigation. but perhaps the explanation raising the red flags has to do with hillary clinton. the white house says comey was fired in part because the doj said he released derogatory information about hillary clinton. and that he inappropriately handled that infamous october letter about e-mails found anthony weiner's laptop. but both the attorney general and the president praised comey for that october surprise when they were simply senator and candidate. >> fbi director comey did the right thing. he found new evidence. he had no choice but to report to the american congress where he underoath testified the investigation was over. he had to correct that and say this investigation ongoing now. >> it took a lot of guts.

i really disagreed with him. i was not his fan. but what he did -- >> just last week, mr. trump said he had confidence in mr. comey. today he said he was considering firing comey if day one. so which is it? capitol hill is more than skeptical. the republicans are speaking out. john mccain says the white house's reasoning isn't speaking out. jeff flake said he can't find rationale. bob cork he says it raise questions. rob portman wants an investigation. others say they would like a better explanation. both and he the top democrat on the committee, mark warner, have invited comey to testify next week as a private citizen in a closed session. let's begin with our correspondent pete williams.

one of the things we learned today is i guess the tick tock a little bit of who recommended the firing first and where it happened. walk us through story as you seem to know it best right now about when the decision and whose decision it was to recommend a firing of director comey? >> so this is based on the explanation we've gotten from officials at the justice department. also the explanation sarah sanders gave at the white house briefing. what they both say is assembling the pieces of the puzzle they each offer. that on monday the attorney general and the deputy attorney general, jeff sessions and rob rosenstein were at the white house and the president asked to meet with them. and he said he had concerns about james comey and thought comey should be fired and asked what they thought. according to this account, rosen stinl said yes, i've been thinking about the same thing and i've come to the same conclusion. the president said, would you put your thoughts down on paper?

and that's the genesis of this three-page memo blasting the director for his handling of the clinton e-mail investigation. that's how that came to be made. so they said that rosenstein had already reached the conclusion that comey should go even though he hadn't written a memo. the memo was written at the request of the president but that the conclusion came before. >> lots of call for special counsel. can you explain how the law works now? right now, is it the attorney general? or in this case since he recused himself from russia, is it up to rob rosenstein to call for special counsel? explain this process now under the law. >> yes to your question. it is called special counsel. we used to have an independent counsel, that's gone away. that was ken starr.

when the attorney general, if he's taken himself out as sessions has here, when the deputy attorney general believes that there's a conflict for justice officials to handle an investigation, and it would be in the public interest to avoid questions of impropriety, of a conflict, then a special counsel can be appointed. the special counsel comes in. has all the powers of a u.s. attorney, in essence. while as he creature of the justice departmentis not subject to the day to day supervision of the justice department. it has been used before. you may remember that james comey himself recommended a special counsel be brought in to investigate the whole scooter libby business. that was pat fitzgerald, the u.s. attorney in chicago. it would be the deputy's call in this case. >> finally the future of position of director of the fbi, right now there's an director. but i understand it is up to

justice to appoint an interim director and then it will be the president names a permanent nominee. they would have to get senate confirmed. walk me through interim steps. who is justice considering? and could the acting director be named? >> simply by way of the statutes, as soon as the director was gone, the deputy automatically became acting director. that's what the law says should happen. so now justice is saying that's nice. that happened automatic will au. we want more of a process including andrew mccabe, now acting director. a couple other folks who are special agents in charge of various fbi field offices. another senior person, another agent who is detailed to an intelligence agency. >> all right. pete williams t test.

let me bring in our panel. hello to all of you. we all received nbc pay collection so we should say that. >> tom, let me start with you. everything, where are you on the defcon scale? >> well, this is not saturday night massacre. i was there covering that. we had a criminal conspiracy in the white house, well known that we were working to find out what had gone on. some of the president's top aides were on the way to jail at that point. the investigation had been going on for 18 months. there was nothing that they can that would jif his firing in the eyes of almost he have one including republicans on that side. it was a much different situation then. and the consequences were obviously very big. at the same time, you have to

remember that james comey in the eyes of the democrats was a v y very -- it was funny to watch mitch mcconnell on the floor of the senate in his way saying this is a man, chuck schumer and others said that should not be in this job. and i think any objective observer would look at him the last 18 months and say he seemed not to be in his traces. a horse phrase. he was out in his own terms. i was very disappointed early on. the i investigates, the justice department prosecutes. you don't see the fbi director testifying before congress. at the same time in that letter that president trump released, he says deliberately, i am so grateful to you for those three times you said that i had nothing wrong. and by the way, good luck to you in your new life. this has to get sorted out. i want the systems in place to

do the investigation. i think the intel committee in the senate is worthy of doing this. i think there are people in the justice department who have been working on it for a long time. i don't want their integrity to be compromised. i think they should continue with this and we have to get him back on track so we don't have this on the stage and make up a play of some kind. >> there were two convening shoes. you did have a director of the finish he that had lost confidence in the political leadership. on the other hand you have a president who is under investigation and anything did he would make that decision questionable. it seems as if the white house didn't appreciate part two of this. >> they don't. who would? and i think it was an opportunity presented to the president that he took to get rid of someone who is this meddlesome priest. using the henry ii reference. i want to amplify one comment. the fbi investigates, justice

prosecutes. there's been attention, decades old between main justice in the hoover building in every city, the united states attorney and the special agent in charge. the fbi never gets to say who they're going to prosecute. so i think rod rosenstein, and i'm usingstein because that's what pete did. but he is a 12-year united states attorney. he has that institutional prosecutor view. >> katy, nobody has spent more time understanding president trump than you. if there is a pattern, two things. up in one. he runs to it. not away from it. the other thing, if he's worried about something, he doesn't, he finds ways to delay and push it off, almost hoping there are intervening spraenlts make it go away. tax returns are an example.

is this a way to cloud it up and delay russia? >> i think they've been trying to cloud it up since the outset. then again they keep adding to the cloud in a way that not many folks understand. but you're so right to say what he does is run toward a controversy, or run toward a handy cap. he did exactly that during the campaign. hillary clinton was running. she was a woman. instead of dancing around that and giving her polite deference as many would do, he ran right at it. he said she didn't have the stngth or stamina to be president. he made a number of references to her being a woman. so he is doing the same thing with this russia investigation. i agree with hugh and tom and i appreciate both of your histories in this. but i think we're missing a broader point. the time between the inauguration and when donald trump decided to dismiss fbi director james comey. yes, maybe they didn't agree with the way he handled the

clinton e-mails investigation but they did campaign on it and they did campaign on using that as a reason behind why hillary clinton was not fit for office. and a reminder, and i said this a lot today. a reminder, when james comey reopened the investigation, donald trump's campaign was sputtering. they were dealing with "access hollywood," the polls were in the tank. it rescued him and it gave moderate republicans and those on the fence a reason to go back to trump and say all right. i can deal with him because hillary clinton might be indicted. if there was so much concern about comey, he should have done it on the day of inauguration, when he took office. which is what a lot of his aides and associates are saying. >> what i'm concerned about at this point, i think comey has been a very flawed fbi director endisputably for more than a year now. there's to question about that. if they were going to act on it,

they should have acted at that time. theyad enough at that point to do just that. >> the problem is we know in the last week. and we know the president watches a lot of television. and in the last week comey was talking about russia a lot. we've got more to get to this hour. we are only dealing with this topic. up next, i sat down earlier 28 a former filibuster dire former fbi director to get his take. we'll talk to sheldon whitehouse.

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trust facing the fbi and how we could restore credibility to the agency. >> i think it is basically there. the american people want to believe in the fbi. they should draw no immediate conclusions about the decision to change directors. i don't think any of us are prepared to expound on that. but i think we can make a common plea for civility, in how we go about sorting out what is true, what's important, what is dangerous, what needs to be handled. civility is really important. >> you used the word sadness. what makes it sad? >> we need to get to a civil approach on law enforcement, effective law enforcement, fidelity to the constitution, working together and trusting

each other. >> by the way, he was a former federal judge. judging by his answer there, that probably won't surprise you. my thanks to the former fbi director, judge webster. when this bell rings... ...it starts a chain reaction... ...that's heard throughout the connected business world. at&t network security helps protect business, from the largest financial markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyber-attacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. keeping the world of business connected and protected. that's the power of and.

welcome back. with comey out, president trump can now nominate a few director. it is amplified the call from lawmakers. mostly democrats to appoint a special prosecutor. >> special prosecutor, special counsel, independent counsel. >> i become incredulous thinking about the ongoing fbi investigation. >> we need an independent commission. >> we have to get to the bottom of this special prosecutor is needed. >> other lawmakers, many republicans are defending the integrity of the multiple

concurrent investigations that we already have in congress and are hesitant to take step of saying a special prosecutor is needed. >> our democratic colleagues complaining with the removal of an fbi director whom they themselves repeatedly and sharply criticized. >> this is a count er intelligence investigation. >> to suggest that i would be for a special prosecutor would be to say that i don't think i can do my job. >> there you go. joining me now, senator whitehouse, a ranking member on the sub committee of rank and terrorism which means you will be involved in confirmation hearing for the new director. so let me and you, i've heard a lot of chatter from some democratic senators saying they don't even want to take up a new nominee until this special counsel issue is dealt with.

as you know, the way the law works, it would be up to the deputy attorney general to make this decision. what leverage besides the bully pulpit do you have? >> well, i think the bottom line is that the american people are going to simply insist on assurance that's there will be a current and thorough investigation that gets to the bottom of the firing of director comey and the russia investigation and ultimately it will be their patience and demand that creates the pressure. we can make sure that trump hacks like giuliani aren't part of the process, the new fbi director agreement by the republicans in the senate that needs to be a bipartisan decision and they're not going to ram some partisan guy through on a partisan vote. so there are some things like that that they can sort out

pretty quickly. >> you're not fully there on special counsel. why? >> i want to see how it works and i want to have a better understanding of where the investigation is right now. we are not briefed up on this and it is difficult to get briefed up on this because ongoing criminal investigations are not congress' business. when the question is, whether there's a legitimate investigative effort or not, we can usually answer some questions about scale of the effort. we're seeing new support that there's a grand jury operating in the eastern district of virginia. that subpoenas are out. there's cause for people to at least consider that there may be some significant figures already cooperating with the investigation. that both the eastern division of virginia and justice have prosecutors assigned. so if you have something going like that, if you look at the special counsel rule, you have to bring in somebody new, from outside the department. and they have the choice to make

their own decision that they want to start from fresh, perhaps. and i kind of want to work my way through that. bringing in somebody new and tries to start from scratch, that's a huge setback for what could be a good ongoing investigation. >> that's what i'm curious about. first of all, obviously, the oversight of judiciary. do you feel like you have a thorough investigation of it right now? >> not as good as i would like. but there's a lot from a lot of places that suggests that this is a very serious and federal investigation, and that very serious and able people are in charge of it. >> you voted to confirm the deputy attorney general, you and a lot of democrats. it was not unanimous but it was pretty close. oh 90 votes which means 42 of 48 democrats. >> a great reputation, did a

great job in the hearing. it was not a tough vote. >> okay. you read the memo. you've seen how this went down. any second thoughts? >> not yet. let me put it that way. i really haven't seen how this went down. there are two theories of at least how this went down. one is that this started with conflict between department of justice and the fbiful conflict between deputy attorney general rosenstein and jim comey. and this was an in-house, can't work with you firing time of action. when you consider all the different problems that comey has had and his failure to really own up to those is not an inherently out of line consideration from rosenstein. there was potentially cause there for a firing by rosenstein of comey. the real danger here is that isn't what happened. the real danger is that this came out of white house and that

the white house directed firing of an fbi director who was in charge of an investigation that is looking at, guess what, the white house. and if that loop is proven, that's a real problem. that's a nixonian. if that is proven, that reflects increditably badly on rod rosenstein. it suggests that his powerful and passionate memo was actually wall paper for a presidential decision that he was providing cover to. if that's the case, then we'll have serious problems with the deputy attorney general. but for now, this is a career guy who served with a lot of distinction over many years, who served president obama as u.s attorney in maryland. i think to throw him under the bus at this point without more evidence that he did something wrong is not a justified conclusion yet to reach. >> i know you're not on the intel committee but a lot of your colleagues are.

how confident are you that senators burr and warner can do the job as well as a special committee he could. an independent commission. >> i think an independent commission is a valuable addition. it brings in outside voices. it brings in outside resources. it can have more public hearings. i would reflect in its establishment a bipartisan seriousness about this that i think would allow it to go forward. there's still considerable hesitation on the republican side about being dragged too far along. and so extracting speeubpoenas witnesses. i don't want to say full on foot dragging but there is some caution there. once somebody is appointed to one of these, everybody who gets there wants to go and -- >> interesting. >> just to clear something up, it sounds like your pro independent commission, more so than special prosecutor out of

justice department. >> well, an independent commission would run absolutely peril toll everything else that is going on. >> would you still be investigating, where a special prosecutor, maybe you would not be. is that the difference? >> independent commission would run parallel to the fbi and department of justice criminal investigation. whereas a special counsel displaces and potentially disresults the existing fbi and doj investigation. as someone who might have to oversee that transition, i want to understand how they think they will make it work before i finally sign off on it. the principle of a special counsel, absolutely. but show me how you'll make it work. >> senator sheldon whitehouse, you have experience as attorney general, i believe. thank you for coming and sharing your views. still ahead, we'll talk to a senator from the other side of the aisle. richard shelby.

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a number of democratic senators are calling the firing of james comey nixonian, trying to compare it. what is now known as the saturday night massacre. it is when the president fired archibald cox. tom brokaw was telling a little of that history. here he was on meet the press the next morning. the sunday morning after. he pose ad question to the

adviser. >> the president has ignored an order from the federal appeals court. he has fired special prosecutor, he has second the resignation. in view of all that, don't you expect now impeachment proceedings against the president will begin in the house of representatives? >> well, first with all due apologies, i can't accept the premise of your question. >> well, attorney general richardson and deputy attorney general rucklehouse resigned that night. they refused to fire cox. he was fired by a solicitor general. nixon wanted him fired because he submitted time recordings seen as cover-up of nixon's handling of that night is seen as a gross overreach of presidential power. and not since then, has a president fired a person leading

an investigation so close to him. but as the nixon library pointed out, nixon never did fire his fbi director. still ahead, richard shelby joins me live with his reaction. plus our esteemed roundtable comes back we had another recd for the nasdaq. stocks closing mixed as investors digest the firing of fbi director james comey. the dow finishing down 32. the s&p up 2. in its first earnings report, shares of snap plummeting more than 19% after revenue misses and users fall short. shares of boeing dipped following news an engine problem is forcing the firm to temporarily suspend he is thes on the 737 max. that's it from cnbc.

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welcome back. the panel is back. brokaw, hewitt, tur. i want to talk about this. you expectohn cain and lindsey graham who have been very concerned about the russian interference to be highly skeptical. but i'm sorry, john bozeman is no one who wants to bash his own president. rob portman is uncomfortable. you're creeping into the not just the anti-trumpers. tipping the point? >> no. the leader mcconnell went to the floor and said there will be no special counsel if i have anything to say about it. they realize the special counsel takes us deep into 2018 and makes russia an issue in the next election cycle. they don't believe there is anything there but if there is, they want the boil sliced. they want all the prosecutions done. >> shawn whitehouse was drawing

a distinction. he is not for a special prosecutor. he would rather an independent investigation. saying if you bring in a special prosecutor, you start from scratch. it was an interesting argument and one of the few democrats arguing against it. >> and it is one of the things congress can get done on their own as opposed to a special prosecutor which would need to be appointed by the ag. the republicans may say they're disturb in the various e-mail statements. they're going to get pinned down by reporters on the hill. but the mentality has been to ride out the storm as it was during the campaign. the only recourse the democrats have rht now is to keep being loud a they have been and push it forward and make it a huge issue come 2018. the campaign, it is a long time away but they're already starting to gear up to try to influence voters and scare up some good candidates.

>> earlier did i speak with judge webster, cia, fbi, whose reputation is similar to what comey's was. above reproach. he just kept coming back to one issue. he is worried about the credibility of these institutions. doesn't an independent commission help the credibility of government? or do you think it would hinder it? >> i think it circumstance you will vents government. for instance, in the justice department, in the filibuster there are people who have been, in the fbi, they've been working this investigation. it has nothing to do with politics. for them to be told, it is no longer your case. we're going to hand it off to a civilian and we don't who know it is yet. i think we're at a stage in american life when we have to be mindful of our institutions, the senate, make sure had the american people can trust them. if you can't trust politics of

the senate or the white house or the courts for that matter. i think that's a road to really disillusion of everything we hold dear. so i would be opposed to this special counsel. i do think that intel committee, we need to know more about what's going on in the fbi and how deep they are. and they need to move to some dispatch. >> i think there's an interesting fact will get surfaced and it it means the private citizen comey will have to testify about this. i think he bought himself trouble when he said, you assured me three different times that i was not a target. >> very trumpian tactic. >> but that raises a question. what? are you interfering in this investigation? like this opens up a whole extra can of worms. >> he already had a problem potentially. >> i will say the other

testimony, when the deputy attorney general goes up, they'll and him for the time line. and he has to go up. and i'll looking forward to that. he did amazingly well. >> sheldon whitehouse was not toward throw him under the bus. he said he is a man of integrity. i want to wait for the facts. >> listen, it will be telling depending on how forthcoming he is and how much he withholds. he'll go up a lot to mirror what james comey was able to do in the confirmation hearings. he was quite adept saying i can't answer things but that doesn't mean i'm being positive or native toward that issue. he was very good at going up against senators and taking that hard line questioning. there's a lot of questions. a lot of suspicion. this cloud only gets dark he. the white house is not doing itself any favors and you have to wonder, who looked at that donald trump statement before it went out?

and whether white house counsel got a look to say maybe this line should be scrapped. >> there's been a lot of conjecture out there. the public has lost faith in the fbi. that's not true. in our last poll last month we threw on it there. the inls constitution that polled the best. 47-18. the majority of republican hs a positive view. independences, democrats. this was not an inls constitution as far as the american public was concerned. >> however you feel, for trump or against him or where you are as an american citizen. we're going into five months of utter chaos at the highest levels of american government. we not the continue like. this how many appointments are still to be realize in the all the agencies. the state department has been decimated and there is no

urgency about trying to put that back together again. this goes beyond this case. >> i'm going to have that conversation maybe, part of it next we'll hear from the other side of the aisle. richard shelby of alabama will be here. [woman] so beautiful. [man] beautiful just like you. [woman] oh, why thank you. [burke] and we covered it, november sixth, two-thousand-nine. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

briathe customer app willw if be live monday. can we at least analyze customer traffic? can we push the offer online? brian, i just had a quick question. brian? brian... legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. you're saying the new app will go live monday?! yeah. with help from hpe, we can finally work the way we want to. with the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes. . we've got more "mtp daily" ahead. tomorrow, president trump sits down with lester holt at the white house. you're not going to want to miss that interview.

it will be on the it's "nbc nightly news." i have a feeling, everybody will want to know what president trump has to say about all of this.

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every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ whenever an fbi director is fired by a president when there's an investigation going on, it will be a question. a lot of us are still puzzled. >> the panel is back. brokaw, hewitt and tur. the question is the type of person that can win, i think this has to have 65 votes in the senate. i think even mitch mcconnell understands that. so what kind of person do you find? do you find a retired -- >> it is so hard to know that it is almost impossible at this

hour on, this day. in the next 12 hours something is likely to happen. >> i think you need to have judge in the front of the name. in comey's last testimony, he said there are 2,000testimony, said there are 2000 open counter terrorism cases in the united states. you need someone like that. >> all right. let me get the republican perspective on this. joining me is senator richard shelby. mr. shelby, let me start with this. some of the republicans on your side of the aisle are concerned about the timing and explanation. do you feel comfortable with president trump's decision or do you need more explanation? >> i don't need any more explanation. i thought he would have been fired the first day either by a president hillary clinton if she had won or president trump. i think he's had 100 days that he didn't deserve. he broke three bill rules. he immersed himself in politics and became the object of skorn on both sides of the aisle. i think we can do better. i hope the president will get a

new director that he can nominate and we can confirm that restores a lot of confidence in the fbi, in the justice department period. i believe that director comey should have resigned last s summer. he didn't. he's had 100 days he didn't earn. >> do you think the president is going to handle this differently? would you have recommended -- you obviously thought he should have done it on day one. are you concerned by doing it when he did he added to the conspiracy about russia? >> oh, i don't know, but, you know, the facts -- we ought to follow the facts on the russian investigation and we will. the justice department, we've got -- is involved. the fbi, of course, will be involved. and the standing committees, intell jensen, house and senate will be involved. let's just follow the facts and see where it leads. but in the meantime let's restore some real respect and confidence in an fbi director.

>> one way to do that would be if somebody gets nominated that couldn't win 65, 70, 75 votes -- in fact, here's a fun little fact we came up with. only once have we found anybody that actually ever voted against any nominee for the fbi. how do u do that? should your side say, you know what, we want to make sure we get a nominee that can win over half of the democrats? >> well, i think that the president should look far and wide for someone with impeccable integrity, experience, no ties to any of us personally that's going to run the fbi the way we want it run, above politics. >> does that mean you pick a judge, you pick a prosecutor? do you have any ideas? >> i have no idea, but, you know, you mentioned a prosecutor with impeccable integrity or federal judge or state judge. if they've got the integrity, they've got the education, and they are going to be above

politics, not immerse themselves in politics, that's what we need in america. >> as we go forward here, are you concerned that the president's agenda is going to get derailed by all this? >> i doubt it. i think this will go on, but i think the sooner the president comes up with a nominee and we get the story behind us, that is the story the fbi, new director, and let the russian probe follow the facts. >> you have full confidence in the senate intelligence committee or do you think there should be an independent commission in addition to the senate intel committee? >> well, i think there's a lot of -- i have a lot of confidence in the intelligence committee. i served on it some 20 years ago. >> yes, you have. >> and rhard burr i think is going to do a good job. let's see what happens. >> fair enough. senator richard shelby, thank you for coming on sharing your views. >> thank you. >> thanks very much. very quickly, interesting to hear, that is more of a plurality of republicans are,

katie, which is, look, let's let this play out. let's have a little patience. >> yeah, and let's figure out a way to get a new fbi director in as soon as we possibly can. the fbi sources tell us that they want to be involved in this decision. they want to be able to say, not officials, but members of the fbi saying they want, they want to have a hand in who replaces fbi director comey because they feel that they were so blind sided by this. you know, whether it's a federal judge or a state judge or a prosecutor, it's got to be somebody that is completely a political. it's got to be somebody that both sides can sign on for because right now who is really suffering is the american people. they don't have trust in congress. they have very little trust in the media right now. they did have trust in the fbi. >> that's right. >> we'll see if that remains the case the next time we take one of those polls. you know, we have to figure out a way to come together on these things. >> if you're the white house right now, you have to be relieved that you're not losing

the richard shelbys of the world. >> yes. >> there are different categories. you expect graham and mccain and ben sass. who is the next person you would worry about if you -- >> robb portman is on the fence and robb portman is one to follow. he came on quily on the no hearings no votes on the supreme court vacancy so he might tip it backward. >> a bellwether to keep an eye on. i have to leave it there. thank you, guys. you helped me rock and roll here while we get little ear pieces moved and reconnected. up next, why james comey maybe should have been careful what he wished for at last week's senate oversight hearing. trying to keep it light, but keep it here.

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comcast business. built for business. well, in case you missed it, in at least one way former fbi director james comey may have gotten his wish when he got fired. what do i mean? comey was spotted as virginia home today after making his way back from los angeles where he was when he got the news that he was ousted. and it wouldn't be l.a. without chopper style footage tracking every movement of his car as it headed to the airport. here's what comey said, though, at a hearing last week when asked if he had any regrets about handling the investigation into hillary clinton's e-mails. >> the honest answer is no. i've asked myself that a million times because lordy has this been painful. only thing i regret is maybe answering the phone when they called to recruit me when i was in connecticut. >> we welcome you back to

connecticut. >> would i pray it away, wish i was on the shores of connecticut sound, but failing that i don't have any regrets. >> there you go. you know, i guess has a chance to return to the connecticut shore if he wants to. looks like if he wants that life back, he can get it sooner than anybody thought. that's all for tonight. for the record with greta starts right now. greta, what a day, what a week, what a moment. >> chuck, i mean, it's only about 100 some days. i don't know we're going to survive. thanks, chuck. things are strange in washington just in case you hadn't noticed, right? the trump white house getting extreme heat tonight for the now fired former director james comey. why did the president fire him? do you believe the president's explanation or do you think someone is hiding something? and vladimir putin who wanted trump to beat secretary clinton appears to have a smug look on his face. does he? and if so, why? here's putin's bizarre reaction and if you thi