i said to myself, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story. >> and this big news wasn't ough, we have big news makers on msnbc a little later today. chris christie will be on with nicole wallace at 4:00 p.m. and you're seeing a picture of paul ryan. he'll be on at 6:00 p.m. on "for the record with gretta. "so krothat will do it for me. hey, chris. >> thank you very much. we start with breaking news. we now have in james comey's own words for the first time what he says happened in his private conversations with the president before comey was fired as fbi director. his extraordinarily detailed statement based on written records he made right after nine one-on-one conversations he had with president trump in just

four months. i want to bring in chief legal correspondent ari melber. we'll go through the chief parts of this. there's a lot in here and it is important. let me start reading part of this statement. the president began by asking me whether i wanted to stay on as filibuster director, which i found strange. because he had already told me twice in earlier conversations that he hoped i would stay and i had assured him that i intended to. he said that lots of people wanted my job and, given the abuse i had taken during previous year, he would understand if i wanted to walk away. my instincts told me the one-on-one setting and the pretense that this was our first discussion about my position meant the dinner was at least in part an effort to have me ask for my job and create some sort of patronage relationship. i'm going to stop there.

ari melber, what do you take away from that? >> you read it and it doesn't get more dramatic than that. these words of an fbi director about this dinner. that word pretense that he's saying under oath is essentially that he thought president of the united states was misleading him, creating an environment where there would be patronage or something owed between the fbi director and the president which jim comey felt was inappropriate and untrue. they had already discussed that he would stay on. >> when you talk about the details in here, he said he thought he was going to this dinner with his family. that his family essentially gets disinvited. he goes to the dinner expecting that other people will be there and there he finds himself, the director of the fbi, sitting alone with the president of the united states, who is asking him about an ongoing investigation. let me continue to read from that. i applied that i love my work and intended to stay and serve out my ten-year material as

director. because the set-up made me uneasy, i added i was not reliable in the way politicians pews word but he could always count on me to tell him the uth. i added that i was not on anybody's side politically and could not be counted on in the traditional political sense. i said that was in the best interests of the president. a few minutes later the president said, i need loyalty. i expect loyalty. >> and i'll read the very next part as we're both just going through this. the next part is so important. jim comey said i didn't move, speak or change my facial expression in any way during awkward silence that followed. we simply looked at each other in silence. the conversation then moved on. but he returned to the subject near the end of our dinner. this is a story we'll hear more about in detail when jim comey's question under oath. he is describing something that we don't usually hear the curtain pulled back on this. these two powerful men, eyeball to eyeball in silence around the

white house dinner table. no one else there and they're squaring off on each other because they have different views about what's right. the president having a more transactional or power-based view of this role. the fbi director saying in his view, that wasn't appropriate. there should be no deal made at any private dinner. >> to that point he continues. at one point i explain why it was so important the fbi and the department of justice be independent of the white house. i said it was a paradox. throughout history some presidents have decide that had because problems come from justice, they should try to held to department close. but blurring those boundaries ultimately makes problems worse by undermining public trust in the institutions and their work. near the end of ourdinter president returned to the subject of my job. saying he was verylad i wanted to stay, alding that he had heard great things about me from mattis, sessions and many others and then said i need loyalty. i applied, you will always get

honesty from me. he paused and then said, that's what i want. honest loyalty. i paused and then said, you will get that from me. as i wrote in the memo, i created immediately after the dinner, it is possible we understood phrase honest loyalty differently but i decided it wouldn't be productive to push it further. the term honest loyalty had helped end a very awkward conversation and my explanation hs made clear what he should expect and it is worth pointing out at this point, this is not somebody remembering something that happened months ago. this is something he felt compelled to put down in under believable detail. detail we don't usually see in these kinds of circumstances, right after the fact. >> that's exactly right. this new testimony begins with him recounting that he did this especially for donald trump because of his concerns. that after the first meeting at trump tower, he got in an filibuster vehicle, he writes,

and immediately starts typing out. >> while he's in the car. >> that's how important it was. to the part you just read, this honest loyalty back and forth. this has been leaked and reported out in various forums, we heard about the comey memos. but 3:05 on the east coast. this brand new testimony. what is different now f the first time we're seeing in it comey's own written words. tomorrow we'll hear it for the first time in his own words. what he is detailing is a difference where he feels he is saying, that he clarified exactly what he would do. that he was not going to be a partisan or political leader of the fbi. and that having thus clarified it when the president continued on, and according the jim comey sealed to be playing word games. okay. we'll leave it at that. there might be awkwardness or misunderstanding because trump didn't want to understand what he told him. he felt he looked at him eyeball to eyeball. he said i can't give you loyalty the way politicians mean.

i can only give you honesty. we know from the rest of the letter where that led. >> i want to turn to kelly o'donnell. obviously he has packed his day. he made a surprise announcement earlier today about naming somebody to replace jim comey. he has gone to ohio. he wanted to talk about infrastructure. what if anything is the white house saying at this point about this testimony that we're going to hear from jim comey tomorrow? >> well, we have been asking the white house for comment. me, my colleagues, our whole white house team. we've not been able to get any response. we've also reached outside the white house to sort of friends of the administration, if you will. people who might likely be surrogates. no response yet. but i'm re along the ohio river. just for the seasonable setting, it was as the motor indicated was loading up and with all the lights and sirens and the pageant bring a motorcade can be, he was leaving the scene as

the comey prepared statement hit everyone's e-mail boxes and gab to be part of this afternoon conversation. so we did not see the president at the time the comey notes came out. he was here to talk about infrastructure. he made a reference about taking heat in a joking manner. the audience laughed along. he had been talking about assigning authority to go ahead with one of the pipelines, the dakota pipeline saying he thought that would be so controversial but he said i'm taking heat on other things. so there was this -- >> okay. it seems like we've lost her. there is one thing i want to point out. before all this was released, we had heard from the white house that there was a chance there would be a gaggle on air force one on the way back to the white house. so we'll see if that happens. if we get a comment. obviously we'll let you be

apprised of that. technically when we're at the white house, we can hear the audio of. kind of gaggle back there. if we get anything, we'll let you know. let me bring in the former deputy press secretary under obama, shawn turner. elise jordan, columnist to rand paul's presidential campaign, matt, let me start with you. a lot of striking things. let's go back to that famous january dinner where we got this incredible detail. the president wanted comey to pledge his loyalty. the family was invited and then disinvited. comey assumed other people would be there. you reported that comey did not want to be alone with donald trump. tell us about it. >> you can see it as we look through the testimony. you can see that building.

that james comey did not want to be alone with the president. he made a point of saying this is not normal. this feeling is not just me not wanting to be alone with the president. i was alone with president obama and i didn't take notes on my interaction with president obama. he's recognizing there's something weird about this and it couple minute it is a on february 15 where he pulls jeff sessions aside after the morning threat briefing and he says, you cannot leave me alone with that guy. it is inappropriate for the president to be meeting with me one on one. we're doing this investigation. and it just shows how this has been building as long as it has. >> you have the president of the united states talking to the head of the fbi about an investigation involving his own presidential campaign. repeatedly this testimony points out in excruciating detail. you've been in the room. you've been in the oval office countless times. you've been aroundhese kinds of meetin. i have to get your reaction. when you heard th, time arrest

time after time. nine times, one-on-one, personal communications, during this investigation. between the president of the united states and the fbi director. >> my initial thought was this is unprecedented. when you look at the level of detail that director comey put into these memos and you consider the fact he thought this was so important that he couldn't wait to get back to the office in order to make an account of these engagements, the first question you have to ask yourself is why did he think this was so important? the level of detail tells us he was clearly concerned. i think that, i kind of lean forward and think how will the white house respond tomorrow? i think it is already the case, as you pointed out, having been in the white house before, we always think about what the strategy will be. as i think about what the strategy might be, once director comey does testify, i think that unfortunately, we're probably going to see a return to some

fairly serious questioning of his credibility. i think that we're going to see individuals asking whether or not these memorandum roes are l. it will be our word against his word. and i think director comey as sbeegs, there he has to be prepared form. the other thing is despite what so some partisans have said, i don't think he seegs out or relishes the spotlight. but to some degree, i think he is looking forward to this testimony. that i will be somewhat liberating for him to be unencumbered by his role as filibuster direfbi director. >> he asked a good point. what does the white house say about this? whether it is tomorrow, in a gaggle today, aboard air force one. does the president make his way back? does he tweet something? first you have james comey saying about this dinner, it was clear to him that the president

was trying to create a patronage relationship. then i'll go on to read from this statement. on the morning of march 30th, the president called the fbi. he described the russia investigation as a cloud that was impairing his ability to act on behalf of the country. he said he had nothing to do with russia. he had not been involved with hookers in russia and had always assumed he was being record in russia. he asked what we could do to lift the cloud. what does the white house say in response to this testimony? >> well, i think in the classic white house fashion, try to say that wasn't his intent. he was referring to this as a distraction. i think the main talking point will be, see, comey validated what we were saying. that the president wasn't under investigation and he told him that three times. i think that's what they'll keep repeating over and over as their

messaging. what iind so interesting about this, is that he also brings up what he calls satellite associates. that president trump says, you know, if anyone, i haven't done anything wrong but if anyone who is loosely affiliated with me has, fine to look into that, we should know. he seems to almost wanting to preempt if anyone around him is found guilty of any wrongdoing. >> so the key question what questions follow this testimony tomorrow. let me come back to you. you brought up obstruction of justice and we should make very big distinction here, obstruction of justice versus what some democrats have talked about which is impeachment. put that aside. just in terms of what this does for any case that anybody might be building, any of these investigations, whether it is mueller or whether you have the senate or the house. what are the implications of what he has to say? >> well, one broad implication

that we haven't discussed much on air but you asked broadly, this testimony makes it more likely, i would think, that the special counsel will look at the broad situation surrounding the firing of the filibuster direbi. i think it makes it more likely and it does not prejudge to your point where that leads. any analysis of a federal statute. you mentioned obstruction of justice. involves not only what happened, who saw it, what was in your state of mind. so the good news for the white house is this is a document primarily about what jim comey saw and what was in his state of mind. not good when it was concerning, pre tectule. what is the we would call testimonial evidence. it is concerning but not the whole piece. >> so matt, you were talking about jim comey is that his, i

guess his state of mind now having a chance to come out after all the conversations that have been had. everything tell his side of the story. i guess the key question will be how far will he be willing to go? what is your sense of that? >> i suspect just knowing comey and having covered him as much as i have, i suspect he'll be a just the facts ma'am. i think he'll talk more about how it made him feel. and you can see the frustration, the discomfort building. frankly, i can also, as i read this, i can see donald trump and his frustration. if you are somebody who is not had steeped in matters of the law, and what is appropriate in terms of the line and the white house and the fbi, if you've been told you're not under investigation, and yet you can't get anything done as president

because you're under this cloud, you can see in comey's prepared remarks, you can see trump's frustration as well. what do i have to do to g out from under this? the problem is when you say things like that and you're the president, it creates the possibility you're trying to influence the investigation. that's the problem. that's the heart of what is happening here. >> there's so much we could talk about, thank you, i think we need to say the release of this statement which we need to know is official. it was posted by the senate intel committee that he will question comey tomorrow, came just after we heard the opposite. no details from two of the top intelligence officials on this very topic. that testimony, notable for what they declined to say and why. >> i have never been pressured. i've never felt pressure to intervene or interfere in any way, with shaping intelligence

in a political way, or in relationship -- >> have you ever been asked to say something that isn't true? >> i stand by my previous statement, sir. >> do i likewise. >> did director comey ever share details of his conversations with the president with you, in particular, did director comey ever say the president had asked for his loyalty? >> sir, i'm not going to comment on conversations the director may have had with the president. >> why would it not be appropriate for you to share that conversation with us? >> i think i'll let director comey speak for himself tomorrow. quesons?re you not answering our >> i feel it is inappropriate. >> what you feelsn't relevant, admiral. >> kasie hunt is conversation the hearing. this was not your routine hearing. it got so intense at times. give us the headline. >> reporter: it did, chris. and for chiefs of national

security agencies that are typically quite frankly received with a great deal of deference, especially in public hearings, this was a significant departure from how business is normally done. you could see the frustration that the senators had on both sides of the aisle, quite frankly. there were some who wanted to talk about the actual subject of the hearing. but there were others, and you played some of the highlights there, who felt like they could not give a justifiable reason for not answering any of these questions. i talked to susan collins, the republican from maine afterward. she said she was not satisfied with how far they went. mccain was. in hearing. called the difference between what those officials were willing to say publicly and the reports in newspapers. he called that the difference between the level of detail in those two things to be orwellian. so i think you can really see some cracks start to form between republicans, and the

trump make on how forthcoming these officials were willing to be. and of course, we have now seen this pages long statement from jim comey that we will hear tomorrow. and of course, it doesn't go into any judgments about whether or not the president obstructed justice. but it does lay out many facts with what happened that is in stark, stark contrast to how the trump administration, national security officials came to congress today to talk about all these things. so clearly, one other thing i do want to point out. and you played a snippet of it. they were pressed very hard on what their justification was for not answering the questions. was it executive privilege? was it that mr. mule her pro behind him from talking. and at one point, dni coates said, i'll not sure there is a legal justification for them not

answering the questions. that's a really remarkable, we often see people come to congress and not answer questions but they usually have a reason. >> kasie hunt, another extraordinary bit of what has been an incredible daflt let me go to you,ari, it was, if it was marco rubio who was really pushing to say, what is your basis here? and getting the answer, not sure there is one. is that right? is there any reason they could not have answered some of these questions that members of the intelligence committee were asking today? >> there may be good legal reasons but they didn't offer any. that was what was so problematic. there are many ways the federal government the assert legal reons not to abls questions. executive privilege, lawyer client privilege, if the nsa spoke to general will counsel about it. and obviously classified

material, although i don't think some of these questions went topple they never actually invoked. this is important to understand. nobody came and said, hey, the president is asserting his powers as president to say this is executive privilege. could it still happen. it could be that over time a valid legal reason is put forward. but watching as a viewer, someone who is lawyer and a former senator myself, i found it remarkable to see so many senior officials under oath to give the reason why they were refusing what seemed like valid questions from senators. >> thank you so much for that. we want to take a lye picture. air force one is landing at joint base andrews. i've been scrolling through my e-mail to see if there is anything to suggest any kind of gaggle on board that plane as was suggested before they took off for ohio that might happen. but i don't see anything that suggests there's been any

comment yet on this blockbuster written testimony by james comey. up next, a sudden announcement one day before james comey is expectedo testify. president trump tweeted out his next selection for fbi director. raised eyebrows about the way he did it, who wasn't notified, which was pretty much everybody. congressional leaders learning about it from president trump's tweet. after the break, what we know about the man who would replace comey. and we'll talk to someone who knows him well. coastal lobster and shrimp, with a lobster tail with butter and herbs, sweet, smoky bbq red shrimp, and shrimp crusted with...get this...cape cod kettle chips. or try lobster and shrimp overboard.

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my friend always wants to take a lot of pictures. yes, yes. >> good evening. this is the 37th time i have spoken to you from this office. >> at 26 past the hour on a day of incredible breaking news, this is president returning from ohio, a trip that maybe he hoped would divert attention from what will happen tomorrow. that's the testimony from james comey. but the intel committee sort of did an end around, released the testimony and it is blockbuster. sarah did talk for nine minutes. we have some rough notes. let me tell you. she said i've not had a chance to have extensive conversations with the president. some questions i will have to defer to get back to you. what about the comey testimony being released?

has presidt had a chance to review it? not aware if he's had any opportunity to review the specific details of that testimony and sarah said i do find the timing of the release a little bit interesting. directly after the testimony of the other hearing earlier today. it is true. this is unusual. usually we will get testimony like this minutes before or about as it is about to be delivered. but it is important to note, this was a bipartisan decision to release this from the chairman and the ranking member. does the white house dispute anything in the comey testimony? according to sarah huckabee sanders, again, i think they are reviewing that now and i will keep you guys posted. and then he went on to ask about the timing of the release of the information about the fbi director who would replace comey and whether or not she was made aware that the president would announce the fbi pick. was senior staff made aware?

we already know that key members of congress were not made aware. she said we were made aware at the appropriate time in order to do our jobs. what's the appropriate time? when the president lets you know. we're still following that breaking news on former fbi director james comey's prepared testimony in which he details a number of conversations he had with president trump. among the key parts of it where he says he feared a now famous january dinner where he was alone with the president under expectedly, the president seemed to feelike he was trying to create a patronage atmosphere. on march 30th, the president talked on him about a cloud that was hanging over him because of the russia investigation. over and over and over again, details about nine separate conversations. joining me now, the congressman who represents the u.s. virgin islands and she personally knows the man who has been nominated

to replace director comey. let me go back to the big breaking news today and get your retook what we are hearing and what we're reading and what we will hear tomorrow from james comey. >> right. good afternoon. i think this is really a very interesting information we have from director, former director comey. i think that jim comey has really outlined very systematically and in detail the conversations that we had with the president. there are several things that i note that were really interesting to me. one was the discussion that he said he immediately, after election, felt very under comfortable in his conversations with the president when he was privately briefing him. and he then went back in the car from trump towers and began on a laptop to begin writing the notes out. because of the reaction of the president. this was something that he had not done in the past with prior presidents. so i think it is interesting that he started a precedent at

that moment to begin writing out these convertions. the second is the conversations that he has with him. one of course, y tal about. was the loyalty pledge that he was trying to get. but i think another one that was interesting was the president asking him to continue to put out that he was not under investigation. and interestingly, comey's reaction with his senior staff that he would not do that. although they were not investigating the president at that time, they didn't want to go back and correct as they had to in the case of hillary clinton with the, secretary clinton when she was running for president. so that's a really interesting fact as well. what else did you think was really interesting about this? >> i have to tell you there are so many things. first of all, there are nine conversations, right? one-on-one conversations over the course of four months which was something that we would not expect to see and we would not expect to see it where there are gofrgss an ongoing investigation involving members of the president's campaign. i do think that this

contemporaneous record that he kept, the idea that he had such very specific details about it. and to your point, on the morning of i am a 11, and i'm read, now from the testimony, the president called me and asked what i had done about his request that i get out that he is not under investigation. i'm going to my e-mail now. one. questions that we were asking was, what would the rnc have to say about it? what would republicans have to say about it? well, the republican national committee has responded to thi eight pages of testimony. and i want to read to you what they're saying and get your reaction. president trump was right, said chair woman mcdaniel. director comey's testimony reconfirmed what the president has been saying all along. he was never under investigation. that statement just released by the republican national committee. your reaction envelop and of course, this is what i said was the very interesting point.

and one that i know that the republicans are going to glom on to. that at the time of the conversation with the president, he was not part of the investigation. but of course the rnc is not going to put in there is that the reason director comey was not going to release that fact was that they didn't know what would happen further down in the investigation. if in fact president became entangled in it. we know the president was very disturbed by the initial briefing and that he continued to believe a cloud was hanging over him. and comey said, listen, in your best interests, it is best to act independently so if in fact you are not part of it, the american people have that assurance. what i think the people in the intelligence committee are trying to do with the release of this is to assure the american people and ensure the right questions tomorrow. we'll note that in this testimony, we do not hear any details about the actual investigation itself.

former director comey is only talking about his conversations with trump. he has not released, interestingly, information and the depth of the investigation with the russians. >> i know we asked you on to talk about the man who could replace james comey west got way laid by breaking news. come back. it will be some time before those comfort administration hearings get underway. >> i'm hopeful all of this will come out into the public. the people in the districts can do what they need to do for the american people. thank you so much. >> thank you. appreciate it. up next, more only breaking news out of washington. the details we're getting from the release of our former fbi director comey's hearing tomorrow morning. they'll open some bars early in washington, d.c. and have viewing parties. you're watching msnbc. it's an important question you ask, but one i think with a simple answer. we have this need to peek over our neighbor's fence.

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correspondent ari melber, matt who has broken several stories in this saga, and msnbc political analyst elise jordan. so comey said he never transskribld his conversations with president obama. in fact, he only spoke with him twice in three years. but in four months he and trump spoke privately nine times. what do you make of that? >> that's right. and comey was apparently so alarmed by some of those conversations that he describes beginning to type a memo about it in the fbi vehicle on the way out to memorialize it. so that's pretty interesting and pretty suggestive. i'm also struck by the fact, as you said, comey described nine interactions but we are only hearing five of they will in this prepared testimony. it raises the question whether james comey has left a little to describe in the hearing tomorrow. the other -- there are some fascinating details in here. for example, comey describe

when's the president asks for loyalty, or he said i demand loyalty, comey describes looking at him and not moving a muscle and staring down the president of the united states. that is absolutely fascinating. >> you can't even make this stuff up. it is so dramatic. you read this testimony. i can't wait to hear him actually frankly, read it himselmorrow. but then, matt, bause you've been following this tick tock tick tock second by second, i thought it was really interesting. we've got mike pence canceling this interview but we did hear from sarah huckabee sanders on air force one. mostly she said i haven't had a chance to get any reaction but she said, i do find the timing of the release a little bit interesting, directly after the testimony from the other hearing earlier today. it is true, that mostly in these cases, those of us in the media will get a copy of the statement of whoever the person is testifying before congress a short time before or maybe even

as they're beginning to testify. sometimes they're making last-minute revisions. what do you make of the timing? both the decision on release it and presumably done, i don't know what you think, with the okay of former director comey. >> i don't know if jim comey gave the okay. i too find the timing a little bit interesting. i feel like this is a bit of a spoiler. i see all the broad outlines of what james comey will say but in another way, i'm so much more excited to see what he will say. the administration had just this morning announced the fbi director. they were getting a lot of praise for the person they picked, a guy named chris wray, well liked. even democrats were not truly coming after him. and then this bombshell testimony comes out. written testimony comes out and it gets all the attention right back on jim comey. i don't know that there was a calculated effort, right? the republicans are in charge of

congress. this was a senate intelligence committee document. >> but this isn't something you just willy nilly decide hey, i'll put this out there. it is the most anticipated testimony since hillary's benghazi. why would they do this? >> i think we were reporting in, i think it might have been ken who reported that he would like for the testimony to be released early today. and i don't know if ken can back that up. >> thas right. that's right. actually, senator burr told nbc news off camera is that confirmed that this was comey's idea. he had requested this happen. we don't know why. >> why do you think? >> i think it comes from a position of strength. you don't need surprise if you feel you have all the facts to your side. what he is doing, in one big under oath hearing, here's my whole story, here it is in writing, you can have time to prep. in court you don't necessarily getting time for trying to

surprise the other side. there are a lot of rule about what a fair process looks like so give both sides time to prepare. everybody has been preparing anyway but he is doing his detractors an extra solid by saying here's the core of my testimony. obviously more will come out tomorrow but he has given the core. the dinner, the discomfort, the appeals to the deputy attorney general, and jeff sessions. he is naming names and giving them notice and i think it puts the comey critic crowd in a tougher spot. now they have to prepare for tomorrow knowing what he will say. >> the first thing i thought was you can see the senate staffers scrambling to try to get all the adjustments made that they'll need to make. another piece of breaking news that we got for you here via kasie hunt who is always running around trying to get the scoop. she just saw senator john cornyn. she spoke to him outside the senate intel committee off camera is that he toldher, the comey memo should be released to

the public. and he added, he believes james comey is a man of integrity. what do you make of that? >> i think we're seeing a lot of senate republicans lining up. some publicly like senator cornyn. but privately behind the integrity of this process. and you know, all along, i felt that senator mcconnell has really pressured behind the scenes for this to be an upstanding and forthright process. and you see senator burr working hand in hand with senator warner and they are going to get, they're determined to get to the bottom of this and have some kind of investigation that passes muster. so just back to ari's point about comey is putting everything out there with a level of preparation. and that signals strength. and i just contrast that to the utter chaos of the white house press operation right now when it specifically comes to combatting any of the controversy related to this russia probe. you've heard for weeks that how

there might be a war room of some sort. now president trump has -- >> no war room. it hasn't materialized. >> you have someone who is preparing to such a high degree going up against a president who will be shooting blind. >> one of the things we'll be waiting for is to see whether or not the president of the united states decides to live tweet this testimony tomorrow. what do you think? >> i home he does. i'm disappointed you brought up earlier that mike pence will not be giving an interview with all this news going on. i think his lawyers would probably prefer he not. one of the things that's interesting -- >> i wouldn't even say probably. i would say his lawyers would most decidedly and affirmatively say do not tweet. >> we're looking at the obstruction issue. that's the thrust of this testimony. whether there was obstruction of justice in these interactions. the president's tweeting about this. i don't see how that could help him in any kind opectful

i'm eager to see what he thinks about this as a member of the public and as a reporter. i don't know how that would help him. >> i don't know if he'll wait. we'll see if we hear from him before. that one more news nugget that came out of kasie hunt talking on john cornyn. he said tomorrow, he also plans to ask comey about hillary clinton, the loretta lynch meeting and the actions he took to clinton's use of a private e-mail. thanks to all of you. up next, i'll be joined by congressman lee zeldon who had dinner with the president just last night. did the conversation with james comey come up? iddle of the nigh. hold on dad... liberty did what? yeah, liberty mutual 24-hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. don't worry - i know what a lug wrench is, dad.

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with fashion, you can dress people and help people. it's really cool to see your work come to life. so10:00 a.m. tomorrow easte time, jim comey will beginticip before the senate intelligence commite. we got a shocker a few hours ago when the committee released a copy of comey's prepared remarks, detail, excruciating detail about his conversations with president trump including the one meeting in which comb me said the president angstasked fs

loyalty. comey responded he could only offer honesty. i want to talk wiabout this wit lee zeldin from new york, who had dinner with the president last night. good to see you. >> good to see you, good afternoon. >> we got reaction from another republican, john mccain, who he reviewed the opening statement and he said the loyalty thing concerns him. i want to read directly from the prepared statement to what he's referring to, he said that that dinner in january meant to him, comey, at least in part, was an effort to have me ask for my job and create some sort of patronage relationship. the president said, i need loyalty, i expect loyalty. does this concern you, as it does senator mccain? >> i think it's important for the department of justice and for the fbi to be able to maintain a level of independence as it relates to anything that requires them to do their job in

any different angle or direction. so, from that standpoint, i think we should be protecting the independence of the department of justice and fbi. >> so, we you have nine one-on-one conversations between the president and the fbi director, and there's an ongoing investigation into members of the president's campaign, do you see that as inappropriate? >> well, the -- i'm not concerned about the number of conversations that take place, the fact of the matter as you have a president-elect coming in as well as getting his administration up and running, and i had a chance to review that transcript as well. you know, he discusses needing to brief the psident on counterterrorism. there was one briefing where therwaa half aoz of them in the oval office to discuss another topic. there was another exchange as you have incoming president, they went to trump tower -- >> in those meetings, he asked people to leave, very

specifically asked people to leave, and at one point, when they look into the office, he signals for them to close the door. he clearly wanted to have one-on-one conversations with the fbi director about the russia investigation. did you not read the testimony that way, congressman? >> no, no, i did. i'm just not -- i wasn't concerned about the number of conversations that were had, but there's no doubt that it was clear from comey's prepared remarks that he felt uncomfortable with the requests for the one-on-ones. >> so, i guess my question then does that make you uncomfortable? or what do you need to hear tomorrow that will clarify that for you? >> well, i mean, the testimony in many respects, it speaks for itself. the fbi director was in a position that he felt uncomfortable with on multiple occasions. i, personally, believe that it's important to maintain independence between the

department of justice, the fbi and anything that they're involved in to be able to do their jobs. this is an interesting investigation, though, that started in 2016 because we spend time talking about the aspect where investigatg collusion and then there the aspect related acng of e-mail accounts, the investigation into protecting the integrity of equipment on election day, itself. the investigation into leaks. and then you have the information that mr. comey has in his prepared testimony of some information that he wanted to provide to the president-elect that he thought the president-elect needed to know, so the fact this is so multifa set multifacetted, i'm not surprised there would be multiple interaction with the president. also it should be noted that he was never -- as far as we know, the president, himself, was

never a target of the investigation. there wasn't evidence targeting the president where he might become a subject. and also some of these -- even in comey's prepared remarks on general flynn, while there was a dialogue between the president and director comey on general flynn, there's nothing in the prepared remarks to indicate that general flynn did anything wrong. they just had this multifaceted investigation, and one component of was looking at contacts between people associated with russia and the trump campaign. >> congressman lee zell din dinw york. thank you so much. we shall be watching tomorrow. all of us. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> and we'll be right back. whoever threw it has to go get it. not me! somebody will get it... ♪ (dog barking) anyone can dream. making it a reality the hard part. from the b-2 to the upcoming b-21,

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more on the breaking news. we just told you about. nbc's hallie jackson catching up with senator john mccain talking about former fbi director jim comey's prepared testimony which was released just a couple hours ago. let's take a listen. >> reporter: director comey talked about in his testimony the president asked for loyalty, in essence confirming what we heard. >> does not surprise me. does it surprise you? >> reporter: is it concerning to you? >> of course. >> reporter: why? >> because it's not the job of the president of the united states. >> reporter: so what questions do you have for director comey then? >> watch tomorrow, tune in. >> tune in. as people will be. that just a little bit of the breaking news. we heard today. john cornyn saying he thinks the comey memo should be released and also saying that he believes that director comey, former director comey, is a man of

integrity. that's going to wrap up a very busy hour for me. thanks for watching. always find me on twitter @chrisjansing. "deadline white house with nicolle wallace" starts now and joining nicolle today, new jersey governor chris christie. hi, everyone. it's 4:00. let's get right to our breaking news. we are hearing from jim comey in his own exquisitely detailed words about meetings with president trump in prepared testimony released tod by the senate intel committee, he writes, "i felt compelled to document my first conversation with the president-elect in a memo to ensure accuracy. i began to type it in the laptop in an fbi vehicle outside of trump tower the moment i walked out of the meeting. creating written records immediately after one-on-one conversations with mr. trump was my practice from that point forward." comey will also testify the president told him, "flynn hadn't done anything wrong on his calls with the russians