>> democrats todayn the hill are trying to harness the outrage after the "new york times" first reported that donald trump asked james comey to stop investigating mike flynn, citing comey's own notes during a face to face meeting where trump said, you can let this go. the republicans have their own things to say. here's speaker paul ryan. >> we need the facts. there are some people out there who want to harm the president. our job is to be sober and concentrate on getting the facts. i want to get the facts and do our jobs and follow the facts wherever they may lead. what we don't do is try to meet the facts within some 24-hour news cycle. try to follow the facts where they lead and that will take some time. >> the president had his own words at the coast guard academy

in connecticut, a speech that was supposed to be to new graduates. >> no politician in history, and i say this with most surety, has any been treated more unfairly. you can't let the critics and the naysayers get in the way of your dreams. i guess that's why i won. let's get a debrief with our teams of analyst. nbc's mike vacarro is on capitol hill and pete williams is in our washington newsroom. let's start with you, mike. today one is detracting from that memo line. what if this tns out to be true? >> whe you sit or stand on the justin menage question,

historically over the last couple years sort of a burr under their saddle, not indicative of where the rest of the congress is. i can tell you there is a lot of activity here on the senate side, the senate intelligence committee leading their investigation. they have just asked of jim comey to come up and testify in both closed and open session, and mark werner, one of the top democrats on the committee, telling us just an hour or so ago that he expects comey will comply with that. we have jason chaffetz on the republican side over here asking the white house for any kind of memos. he wants it for his oversight committee in the house of representatives. keep in mind, though, he's a republican. i have to say, katy, most rank and file republicans right now, and i spoke to a lot of them, or at least tried to coming out of their weekly meeting at the republican national committee on capitol hill, very reticent to see any further investigation whether it be a special prosecutor, a special committee. they have faith in trump. remember, a majority of these folks come from districts

president trump won handily. >> and mike, you've been trying to chase down those republicans. we were trying to get some republicans on the air with us, to no avail here today. but peter, you've been steeped in the reporting over at the white house. yesterday the white house said the memo absolutely was not true. this morning you have some new reporting which basically says -- does it confirm it, does it deny it? it says this is the way the president talks? >> reporter: what's striking is the white house is not denying there mayor may not be existence of a memo or multiple memos. that's up to james comey andhe fbi to determine wheer they have that or if it exists. none of this is on the record from white house officials, but a private official told me as they reviewed the information as it's being reported as to what former fbi director james comey says, they say that's simply how the president speaks. he wasn't trying to shut down any investigation into mike flynn. this is him expressing his

personal affinity for flynn. this came out in one day, this meeting. it was one day after flynn was fired. he said publicly what he was alleged to have said in these memos, that flynn was a good guy. that's part of the pushback from the white house here. secondly, they note if comey had this information, if he was being told by the president to back off his investigation, why didn't he report that publicly at the time, come forward? and more broadly, why didn't he share it with the acting director, andrew mccabe, and they said last week there was no has tried to impede the investigation right now about the memos in general. this white house official said to me, was james comey keeping memos because he was trying to write a book or because he was trying to advance an investigation? katy? >> pete, that's a really good question. i was talking to somebody, a former member of the justice department and asking them why james comey would not have come out and said, hey, listen, the

president is trying to interfere if he wrote memos like this. the argument was he could have been building a case toward the president. what do you know about that memo specifically and the motivations behind keeping it? >> those people who are familiar with the memo and who talked to comey at the time say that the reason he didn't make it public is he didn't want to influence the fbi's investigation into whether any trump campaign associates were involved with the russian attempts to influence the election. he didn't want it known to people inside the fbi, he didn't want it to affect their investigation, that that's the reason he kept it to himself. now the question, of course, is you have all these requests for the memos piling up. members of congress, at least three or four requests to the fbi to hand over any memos that mr. comey may have had about his meetings with the president, and i presume that this is going to have to go to the justice department, that the fbi won't make this decision on its own. a couple things about that. number one, traditionally as an

institutional matter, the justice department generally resists these requests from congress, no matter who the administration is, whether it's a republican or democrat in office. and the white house resists these requests from congress for internal documents during an investigation. so their initial inclination is going to be to want to resist this, and they're going to have to decide what can be done, they'll have to get the memos, look to see if anything has to be redacted, if there's anything too sensitive to hand over, and then there's the question who at the justice department makes this decision. presumably based on the recusal of the general, it would be the deputy general to decide. >> can they ignore a subpoena, pete? >> no, but they've gotten a subpoena in the past for these documents, and they can always say, we just don't turn these over because they're investigative, and if congress doesn't like that, it can go to court. i'm not trying to prejudge how the department is going to respond, i'm just saying these are the sort of questions these

requests trigger. >> got it. pete williams in our washington newsroom. james woolsey is a former director chair at the cia. special assistant and national security council spokesperson with the obama administration, and daniel iline is ambassador to the u.s. james, let's start with you. this is potentially going to be a credibility war. if this memo is seen by a closed door hearing in congress or potentially an open door hearing in congress, who is going to win credibility more when it comes to donald trump and the former fbi director, james comey? >> well, first of all, we had to get clear what investigation we're talking about. the fbi runs two kinds of investigations. one is a criminal investigation which everybody is familiar with. you try to penetrate the mafia and see if they're struggling heroin and so forth. the other is a counterintelligence

investigation. that is not something that is focused on prosecution, it's focused on protecting the country from foreign intrusion and stealing of secrets. it's my understanding that what we have been talking about with respect to the russians, for example, is a counterintelligence investigation. so saying that there was obstruction of justice in the counterintelligence investigation related to russia is like saying you're out under the infield fly rule in a football game. you've got the procedures mixed up. and i think the first thing we have to get clear is just exactly what procedure we're talking about, because bouncing back and forth from obstruction of justice arm waving to substantive discussion doesn't work very well. >> ned, how do we get to that clarity. and speaking of chrks the memos.

why are there something the public could see right away if they're not classified. . i don't want it to be shown to the other party or the public. it's a delicate and different type of procedure than one is normally engaged in in these sorts of matters, but the main thing is to get the basics clear. they are not clear in virtually 95% of the discussion. >> i want to drill down credibility, though. let's take a listen to an interview that james comey did on "60 minutes" a few years ago. >> i believe that americans could be as deeply skeptical of the government power. you cannot trust people in power. the founders knew that. that's why they divided power among three branches, to set interest against interest. and that's why the director is given a 10-year term, so that it is guaranteed you'll spend

presidential administrations to make sure you're leading it in a way that's not influenced by the potical wins. >> not influenced by political winds. ned price, the subject of credibility. who is going to win a credibility firkts the president of the united states right now where it stands, or the former fbi director who admittedly did not make any friends on both sides of the aisle. >> he will have a statutory term unless he serves under a president who has no responsibility for those checks and balances. but i think the one thing people will agree on is that he is a man of. . when he rushed across a hospital room to make sure the bush administration did not do something he felt was

unconstitutional. we've seen that again and again with jim comey, and i think it's something that even his detractors will attest to. when it comes to this very specific issue, this will be dits missed in court as court-admissible evidence. i think this president, work product from him, will certainly not be treated with the same regard but a same, contemporaneously out there would. >> is this just the first shoe to drop out there in washington? >> i don't think it's the first shoe. >> in terms of memos, at least. many he has leftmemos. if he malized this conversation with the president, i think will see additional ones.

but the problem. there are overlapping investigations that sometimes have a nexxus with one another. we're talking about the investigati investigation. we were talk rg to interfere in our election and possibly other investigations we don't know about. it's often. it's a problem to untie this mess we've enher ted with this administration. >> donald trump is reported to have revealed to the russians highly classified intelligence that came from an ally, that came from israel. donald trump is going to israel in a few days, and now the leader who led massad in the '90s, he said, shavit accused

trump of entering situations without first being properly brief briefed. on one hand you have the paper rallying over this. what is the answer with the intel committee with one of our allies? >> the government will do everything to just get away from and to project confidence and continued cooperation, which is very important for both countries. there is a concern in the intelligence committee, and quite understandably, about not compromising sources, not revealing methods of operations, and in thatsense, i believe a

review will be taking place and leaders from both countries will review the outcome of this, that the procedures and the understandings will be reinforced and affirmed. certainly not revealing to a third party any information he was given or intelligence given between the two parties. >> so you believe this is something that be repaired. if the review company comes out and says this potentially cannot be repaired, what is the implications of the united states losing intelligence from israel. >> okay, that could be enormous because israel's intelligence communities are probably first and foremost and not just in the middle east, but beyond. the television look at defense and methods of cooperation is very important and shared closely between israel and the

united states. i think it's important for both countries. i think, there are many, many challenges. i'm sure bot parti in washington and jerusalem will do everything in order to bring back his side of the tracks. >>. will democratic demands for impeachment only solidify republican support for president trump? we'll talk to the koj man wcong who wants a full explanation from the top down, next. first our microsoft poll question of the day, if james comey's memo showed donald trump tried to shut down the probe into flynn, do you believe trump obstructed justice? 98% said yes, 2% said no. you can add your voice at pulse.msnbc.com. we will be right back.

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do you still have the same level of confidence in president trump as you did before? >> that means close examination. i'm sure we'll have to ask mr. comey that if this happens as he allegedly describes, why didn't he take action at the time? >> they face a new round of questions they did not want to answer at this time.

mitch mcconnell said it's time they hear from james comey as soon as in public to respond to the issues that have been raised in recent days. instead of talking taxes or health care, they're now spending another day discussing all-consuming controversy surrounding the president. but there does seem to be a shift on capitol hill, however subtle. some republicans are now calling for a special prosecutor or even, reportedly, mentioning impeachment. jerry nadler of new york, who is a member of the house judiciary committee, he is demanding cooperation from the attorney general and top white house aides. one of your fellow congressmen, a republican, justin nash, is now talking about impeachment. are you hearing anything about that from your republican colleagues, and i have to ask you this, unfortunately, because we asked a number of republicans that came on today and we got turned down by every single one. >> i've heard from a number of

people that talking about that is a possibility. it's on people's minds, it's an obvious possibility. but right now what we need is a special prosecutor to oversee the criminal investigation. we need an independent commission like the 9/11 commission. time to take a general investigation of the whole subject and issue a report to the country. and ultimately the judiciary committee has to start preparing for an inquiry. >> why do you want to investigate the deputy attorney general and the attorney general as well? >> i'm sorry; i couldn't hear that. >> why do you want to investigate the attorney general as well? >> well, the attorney general recused himself and then took part in the firing -- recused himself from the investigation of the russians involved in our election and the collusion into the campaign with russians as part of that. then he fired the director of

the fbi who was directly involved with that investigation, so it's a direct violation of his recusal and therefore a violation of law. >> are you worried that if democrats star talking about this, they'll get ahead of their skis, as some on the right side of the aisle like to say? >> i think impeachment is an obvious possibility, but we're not near there yet. we have to find out what really went on, we have to find out the truth of all these different allegations, and we have to have proper investigations, and i think we're going to end up with an inquiry by the judiciary committee which could lead to impeachment, but it's too early to say they should or shouldn't be. but we have to investigate this whole thing. >> new york congressman jerry nadler. thank you for joining me, sir. >> you're welcome. there is a lot of talk swirling about impeachment, as we were just discussing, and also obstruction. two legal minds attempt to compare fact to fiction on what

trump did and whether he violated the law. the stall has driven stocks down today. it's the worst day since last september. you can see it's down 300 points right now. we'll keep an eye on it with more than 90 minutes left until the closing bell.

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i think we've seen thi movie before. i think it's reaching the point where it's of watergate size and scale. >> that right there, republican senator john mccain talking last night just hours after news that the comey memo broke. his spokeswoman later qualified that he really meant this was not good for america and needs scrutiny. he walked it back again this morning. >> it's just another scandal that unfortunately continues every -- it's now accelerated. watergate took many months and this thing seems to be taking hours. >> mccain and other lawmakers are looking to try to get to the bottom of the actions detailed in that comey memo, actions the president told our own lester holt last week did not happen. >> did you ask him to drop the

investigation? >> no. never. >> did anyone from the white house? >> no. in fact, i want the investigation speeded up. >> did anyone from the white house ask him to stop the investigation? >> no. why would anyone do that? >> any surrogates? >> not that i know of. >> a special watergate prosecutor, ari melber. watergate size and scale, he says, in terms of the revelations coming out and the noise around all those, you know, news drops that we're seeing day in and day out and all the people talking about it constantly. >> there is no question about it. this definitely has echoes of watergate. in watergate, what you had was the nixon white house, the committee to reelect the president trying to fix the election by getting information on the democrats. there was the break-in at the democratic national committee, there was actions taken in the

primary of new hampshire both with pete macloskey running against nixon. >> but watergate took years as that investigation was unfolding. president trump has been in office, what, 118 days or so? >> that's right, but look at the allegation. the allegation in the watergate scandal focused on domestic policy and domestic interference. what is really scary and outrageous about this particular situation is that what we're dealing with is an allegation of a conspiracy with a foreign country, a russian no less, in interfering in our electoral process. so from that standpoint, what we have here is probably a lot worse than we had back in the watergate, even though watergate encompassed a lot more criminality than what we have here. it took a long time for that

watergate investigation to finally bubble up. it was july of 1972 when the break-in occurred. cox wasn't appointed as special prosecutor until almost a year later, may of 1973, and nixon didn't resign until august 8 of 1974. >> it took a while. >> it took a while. so we are really moving at lightning speed right now, probably because of the 24-hour news cycle, social media and the fact that everybody is so, we w interconnected. >> ari, obstruction of justice is a term we're hearing a lot. a definition of that term is certainly up for debate. but hgeraldo last night tweetin, cut him some slack because he is a good man, is not close to obstruction which donald trump inside that memo. is that obstruction of justice? >> i think geraldo is a

well-known expert on federal criminal investigations. >> no question about it. i read his treatise every time i handle a criminal case. >> twitter obviously a tool that is used by many would be the ideal context and length with which to analyze. >> all right, master of the deadpan, come on. >> no question. obstruction of justice means you had the willful, deliberate intent to try to impede an investigation and you did something about it. that's a simple layperson's explanation. >> doing so corruptly. >> that's right. you didn't go in and say, i want to affect the investigation and make sure you have all the facts. witness tampering is a classic example. let's step away from politics for a minute. you have a mafia case and you threaten a witness to shut them up, right? there are multiple statutes with that but the rubrik of justice would be entertained. i think there was a mistake in

this. the white house is saying the president's words alone would make the case. i doubt it. i think the analysis is the words plus other conduct and an intent in the mind which is always hard to prove. >> is this more a political issue than a legal issue? >> not at all. in fact, i would go further than ari is going. you have to look at the circumstances under which that statement was made. you can't just go by that one statement. you have to look at all the rroundincircumances, starting with the fact that sally yates called over to the white house and warned the trump administration about flynn and the fact that he could be blackmailed by the russians. he waits 18 days, doesn't fire flynn until the last moment when the press brings out all of this information about flynn, and then the next day what does he do? he meets with jim comey and tries to get from him, says to him he shouldn't do anything about this investigation, and stop it, this is the president of the united states. >> i would pose another question. if donald trump asked the vice president and the attorney general to leave the room so he could have a private

investigation with the fbi director about mike flynn, if he wasn't trying to change the outcome, what was he trying to do? >> that is a very good point. the reporting suggests that he asked the attorney general and the vice president to leave the room, the oval office, before he started talking to james comey. that is coming out of the "new york times." >> then he fires james comey and has a totally textual reason for doing it which makes no sense whatsoever. >> always nice to have legal minds here. thank you very much. at current count, there is one republican on capitol hill who is cotossing around that "i word. >> congressman, if the comey memo turns out to be true, will you call for impeachment? >> i have nothing further to add. >> do you stand by your comments that you will call for impeachment? >> i have nothing further to add. >> whose word do you trust more, president trump or former fbi director james comey?

>> i have nothing further to add. >> earlier you said the president should be impeached if the comey memo is true. do you stand by that comment? >> i have nothing further to add. >> do you think maybe the president obstructed justice? >> i have nothing further to add. >> do you still have confidence in the president? >> i have nothing further to add. >> you wonder if a lawyer got to him "i have nothing further to add" over and over again. what will it take for the entire republican party to ditch donald trump? we're looking at jason chaffetz' plans to testify at the scheduled wednesday hearing but so far has not been able to reach him to make a formal invite. more from that in a moment. and on that day you will walk into a room where 15 people will be waiting... 12 behind the sofa, 2 behind the table and 1 and a half behind a curtain. family: surprise! but only one of them will make a life long dream come true. great things are ahead of you when your health is ready for them.

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sign up at etrade.com and get up to six hundred dollars. i'm katy tur in new york. we look at your top five headlines of the day. we begin with whistle blower chelsea manning. she was sent to prison today. she was sentenced to 35 years for looking at a trove of records. presint trump traveled to connecticut this morning to deliver a commencement address to the coast guard ademy and their graduates. he told graduates he has been treated more unfairly than any other politician in history. >> you will find that things happen to you that you do not deserve and that are not always warranted, but you have to put

your head down and fight, fight, fight. >> in d.c., nearly a dozen people were hurt and two people were arrested after a protest yesterday outside of the turkish ambassador's residence. the incident unfolded while trump met with his turkish counterpart at the white house. the bodyguards were caught on camera taking part in the clash, causing some tough talk from senator john mccain. the u.s. state department also said they were concerned about the violent incidents. at least two people have died after a massive storm ripped through the southern plains all the way up to wisconsin. one twister was caught touching down right near the texas panhandle. severe damage now reported out of elk city, oklahoma where many residents were trapped inside their collapsed homes. ford motors plans to shrink its salaried work force in north asia by about 10% in order to boost profits. the government offers early

retirement incentives by october 1st. this comes just weeks after donald trump tweeted this announcement for creating jobs, jobs, jobs. so are republicans considering a revolt? in controversy after controversy, gop lawmakers have defended president trump, but the president's alleged attempt to shut down an investigation of the former security adviser has some lawmakers taking a step back. >> there is pending investigations now, but i think it's time that we look at the idea of whether it's an independent commission o special prosecutor. when we begin to hear this about the potential of asking the fbi director to stop an investigation, this has raised real red flags in the level of seriousness. so we need honest, nonpolitical answers. >> joining me now are charlie sykes, an author and commentator and nbc contributor and jennifer horn, political chair.

charlie, let's start with you. justin nash, you saw a moment ago getting run down by kristen welker in the halls of congress, refusing to elaborate, but reportedly said earlier that impeachment is something that could be considered if this memo from james comey turned out to be true. is he going to be the last republican we hear using that "i" word? >> probably for the near term. republicans are kind of hiding out in the weeds right now because, number one, they're shaken by what's been revealed over the last couple days, and they know there is more to come, there are more shoes to drop. but look, republicans in congress are not going to break with trump until the base moves, until the base shifts. right now the conservative republican talk radio fox news base is solidly behind donald trump. and as long as they're there, you know, in the cost benefit analysis, most republicans are going to keep their heads down, i think. >> jen, how much longer are his supporters going to stick by him?

what have you been seeing at least in your home state of new hampshire? i know donald trump didn't win it but he did definitely win by a landslide during the primaries? >> reporter: just to be clear, katy, i'm the former new hampshire state chairman. >> i'm sorry, our scripts are not quite updated. >> that's okay. there is no question that people are really starting to express concern about what's happening in the white house. i think that when donald trump became president, even those folks who perhaps were reluctant donald trump supporters or reluctant trump voters came at it with the idea that he's surrounding himself with good people, with smart people, and you want him to succeed and they were hoping against hope that things would go well. obviously, things are not going well right now. and while there is no question that folks like chuck schumer and nancy pelosi have been rooting for him to fail from day one, which i find, you know, honestly, that's about as close to unamerican, i think, as it gets, the problem right now is

that so much of this is self-inflicted by donald trump. he's got good people around him, and i think that if he would listen to them, he would do much better. but there are a lot of folks in the party and party leadership, you know, good, strong, long-time republican supporters, who are starting to question now whether or not he's going to be able to step into this role of president and do an effective job. >> jen, you were talking in a recent op-ed that donald trump needs to embrace a special prosecutor. that would actually be pretty politically savvy to do so. today we're not hearing the same thing from a lot of republican lawmakers. we're hearing it a little more now but generally not. today paul ryan said he had full confidence in the president. what's your reaction to that? >> well, to my way of looking at this, the best thing that could happen for president trump is to have some sort of independent entity take over this investigation, fully investigate what is happening, and to be clear, not just the

entanglements between some of his associates and russia, but also some of these really very dangerous and inappropriate leaks that are taking place as well. if we can have an independent entity look at this and come out with an answer, that will give the american people something they can really trust and really believe in. i think that the greatest damage that is coming out of all of this, the chaos, the idea that we're in constant crisis mode, you know, there is a new story breaking not every day but every hour, i think it is beginning to damage the american people and their faith in a free and open press, and their trust in a transparent government. i think that's really damaging to our country, and i think the best way to get past that would be for the president to kind of embrace this idea and show leadership and say, we're going to investigate everything, we're going to cooperate, and we're going to show you once and for all what is real and what is not. >> charlie, very quickly if you can, what happens if republicans lose these two special elections

that are coming up? >> then you have real panic. that's what's really going to -- you know, that will be that small voice of conscience telling them, hey, maybe you ought to freak out now. until it becomes obvious to them that, number one, they're not going to get their agenda and they could be facing a blowout in 2018,hey're goi to be reluctant to break. but ce that happens, then i do think the calculus changes. but then again, do not underestimate the ultimate investment of the trump base in trump. i understand what people are saying about people being concerned about this, but we're not seeing that happen quite yet. >> absolutely. the people who supported donald trump supported him despite -- or actually, maybe even because of all these controversies. jen, i'm sorry, i keep getting the hard rap in my ear from my producer so i have to go. charlie sykes, jen horn. good to see you guys. thanks for joining me. why does this go from one controversy to another? plus, what the wall street

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let's take you to air force i right now.

that's secretary sean spicer speaking to reporters just moments ago. take a listen. >> could you confirm that? >> i think we made it very clear, i'm not going to get any further comment on that. >> so do you have any evidence to back up, is it just that the president said this didn't happen, this conversation didn't happen? is there any -- >> the president, the president was very clear that this is not an accurate representation of thatmeeting. >> in the tweet last week, are there records? >> we put out a statement regarding that. >> is the president considering having personal lawyers outside of white house counsel in light of these allegations and things that have come up? >> if i have any updates, i'll let you know. >> some of the characterizations the president had with the russian foreign minister, it sounds like the russian

president has said their side is willing to release transcript of the conversation. do you support the russians releasing a transcript of that conversation to congress? were you aware they were recording the conversations? >> i'm not aware of that. i don't have any update. i think we put out a statement very clearbly the president does not believe there is an accurate representation. >> would you like the transcript to be made public? >> the national security advisor and deputy have made it very clear of their account of that meeting. >> the president spoke to yahoo! yesterday. can you discuss a little more about what they talked about? were there specific allegations that israel was behind -- did that have anything to do with it? >> that phone call was purely logistical. >> the source of the

intelligence -- >> i think that the president has been a little bit quiet in the last 24 hours, making any public remarks outside the official events? is there an effort to scale back? any kind of other comments about the issues that have been going on in the white house right n until he takes off on his trip? >> put out a statement last night. i think there have been questions that others are out there talking about this event in terms of it. the white house has put out a statement very clearly with our account. >> are you advising some of the republicans in congress are making saying that this is starting to approach watergate proportions? >> the president is focused on

winning widespread praise for what he just talked about. the role of the coast guard and the future. the meeting with the president of colombia tomorrow and looking forward to taking off on this trip. thank you. thanks, guys. >> sean spicer giving an audio only briefing aboard air force one. the president on his way back from connecticut, back to washington, d.c. when asked about whether or not there could be tapes or recording that the russians may have taken of their meeting with donald trump, sean spicer said he was not aware of a recording. they asked also about the netanyahu phon ca. we weren't aware of it until much later. asked whether or not donald trump discussed the fact the information, the intelligence came from an ally, from israel, and sean spicer said it was just a logistical and trip prep

conversation. joining me and talking about the administration, the chief white house correspondent for politico. sean spicer saying repeatedly the president has been very clear, very clear, our position has been clear, clear seems to be the talking point coming out of white house from the press briefing room or briefing plane standpoint. >> yeah, when you hear sean spicer saying things are very clear, it is often not clear at all, it is a verbal tick when answering questions. you heard a voice and a named white house official defending trump and pushing back against comey allegations. they've been he absent from the airwaves. pretty telling, they put out a printed statement with no name on it. they're trying on handle a whole bunch of crises before they go abroad this week. >> what is it like in the white house press briefing? what is it like the cover this presidency? are you, as i have during the

campaign, are you constantly tied to your phone? are you trying to figure out on a daily basis what exactly a statement means? where the administration stands? how hard is it to keep things straight? >> it's pretty hard. you saw today, trump was vintage campaign trump. the words were fight, fight, fight. he would get energy from the crowd in his rallies. while this wasn't a campaign rally, he tried to revive his spirits the way he did in the campaign. the white house is scrambling to keep up. each new day has brought a new story line that has been trouble for ten days, since the health care bill was passed. it has been bad news after bad news. they're hoping when they go abroad later this week that they can turn the page a little bit. now congress will have hearings. inviting comey while trump is abroad. >> i hope we're seeing you. the monitorer i have is completely different.

>> sorry for that distraction. there's a reuters article out and i'm hoping you saw it. conversation with some officials would brief trump and others who are aware of how he absorbs information portray a president with a short attention span. he likes single page memos and visual aids like maps, graphs and photos. national security figures have strategically included his name in as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he is mentioned. the same thing i flared a number of his aides. he won't read it unless his name is mentioned. >> there are so many exam wills here of trump's own staffer discussing anymore ways that are undercutting him. they compare him to sometimes like child. >> this is the president of the united states talking about it like he is a child? >> and these his staffers. this is coming from inside the white house. the reuters at least looked line a national security council of staffers discussing the ways to manipulate or convince the

president to rd things, do things. often they're describing it in ways that they're talking down to him. >> and we have president obama news out from those who know him, who say that he called donald trump nothing but a bs'er. i'm not using the whole word because i'll get fired. >> i'm not familiar with that story line. i know there's a lot of obama officials who have been watching what's going on here. you can tell from these stories by the fbi, they're setting both the current and former administration officials. that's a point of contention. they say look, they are obama holdovers in the government or around the government. >> deep staters as i like the say. >> yes. >> thank you very much, sir. i appreciate your time. and one more thing before we go. it is day 118 of the trump presidency. just one week, only one week since donald trump fired fbi

director james comey. take a listen. >> breaking news. jim comey is out at the fbi. >> is this a cover-up? is this a cover-up? >> of what? of what? >> does comey firing cast a shadow over your talks? >> was he fired? you're kidding. >> there was one newsgency allowed in the trump lavrov meeting and itelged to vladimir putin. >> you can't make this stuff up. >> regardless of recommendation i was going on fire comey. >> they keep changing their story. >> did you drop him to drop the investigation? >> no. never. >> did president trump record his conversations with fbi director comey? >> i assume you're referring to the tweet? >> james comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. >> the president on multiple occasions demand that had comey pledge his loyalty to him. >> i read that article.

i don't think it is inappropriate. >> did you ask that question? >> no. but i don't think it would be a bad question to ask. >> president trump revealed highly classified information to the russian foreign minister and the russian ambassador last week during a meeting at the white house the story that came out tonight as reported is false. >> i think we could do with a little less drama from the white house. >> most senators are shaking their heads saying, is this going on end soon? >> guys, it is only wednesday. that wraps things up for me. stephanie, wonderful to see you. >> great to see you. it might be wednesday but it is time to shake things up. we'll begin with breaking news. a massive ground shift in d.c. a bipartisan firestorm of reaction is pouring in on the bombshell "new york times" report that claims president trump urged james comey to close the michael flynn investigation. talk of impeachment is heati up on capitol hill as the conversation turns to only obstruction of justice.

senator john mccain said the russia probe is reaching the point of watergate size and scandal. here's just some of what we've heard from lawmakers today. >> this is where i stand. i will not be moved. the president must be impeached. >> whether it breaks the law or not is not the point here. the point is he was trying to interfere with an investigation. >> there's been a lot of reporting lately. i think that requires close examination. let me tell you what i told our members just this morning. >> it seems like we are learning new allegations with president trump, not just every day, but ladies and gentlemen, every hour. >> nobody likes what we're hearing in terms of the reporting that's coming out in the last few days. obviously we want to make sure we get this train back on the track. the president is the person best