doppler radar shows the pat earn from northwest to southeast. the pattern is breaking up from the steady rain. so we will see the clouds and the rain and later we'll see drizzly stuff around the area. chilly as we drop to the upper oh's to near 50 -- oh's to near 50. the rain will continue to saturday but will end saturday afternoon. we could see one or two more inches of rain. it's still looking good for mom on mother's day. we highlight that coming up in 15 minutes. jonathan: a changing story from the white house on the firing of f.b.i. director james comey. in an nbc interview the president refuted reports that the firing came at the recommendation of the deputy attorney general. >> i was going to fire comey. my decision. >> you made the decision before they came in room? >> i was going to fire comey. there is no good time to do it. by the way. >> in your letter you said i accepted their recommendation. you already made the decision. >> i was going to fire regardless of the

he is a showboat, a grandstander. the f.b.i. has been in turmoil. you know that. i know that. everybody knows that. jonathan: that breaking as the acting director of the f.b.i. facing congress. and questions over not only the firing but also the investigation into russia's effort to influence the election. chief political correspondent scott thuman is tracking all of this for us. there are a lot of cards in play here. start with what is going on with this investigation. it does go on no matter who is in charge of the f.b.i., correct? scott: you are right. whirlwind day. the director's firing opened up pandora's box of questions and denials and stark differences on how things really went down. one of the madelines today the acting director publicly refuting the white house explanation that director comey was fired because he lost the confidence of the men and women in f.b.i.

james comey's firing, the wave of the questions and the accusations continue to swell. first with president trump telling nbc news comey assured him he is in the clear. president trump: if it's possible will you let me know am i under investigation. he said, "you are not under investigation." >> the senate intelligence committee encouraging the new acting f.b.i. director to stay the course. >> do you commit to informing this committee of any effort to interfere with the f.b.i. ongoing investigation in links between russia and the trump campaign? >> i absolutely do. simply put, sir. you cannot stop the men and women of the f.b.i. from doing the right thing. >> meanwhile, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein was also on the hill amid some media reports he had been pressured to lemed comey's firing. and threatened to resign himself over the incident. he denied that to our camera today. >> no, i'm not quitting. >> did yu

>> no. scott: all are under the microscope now says the brookings institution. >> a lot of people in the administration have to come to the realization if they do anything to hinder the investigation they will go to jail. scott: for those who thought it would slow the process, he says, comey's firing may backfire. >> it's clear from reporting that the f.b.i. is unhappy with the removal of the director. that will only make those rank and file investigators work even harder to get at the truth. whatever the truth is. scott: in the past hour senator chuck schumer said he and his colleague across the aisle mitch mcconnell extended an invitation to have the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein show up next week and brief all 100 senators on what actually took place. no word if it will occur. if he will accept the invitation. live on capitol hill, scott thuman, abc7 news. jonathan: never a dull moment. thank

republican is that right mike leaf from utah is suggesting that judge merrick garland should lead the f.b.i. you will remember that obama nominated garland for the supreme court but the g.o.p. never gave him a hearing. republicans and democrats reacted positively to the news he would be a good choice. some questioned if garland, chief judge of the court of appeals would even want the job. michelle: former congresswoman brown has been found guilty in a corruption case. late this afternoon, a jury found the florida democrat guilty of funneling money to herself from an educational charity. instead of helping children, the money was used for parties, trips and shopping. jonathan: news tonight of a massive nationwide crackdown on illegal immigrants affiliatedded with violent games. i.c.e. agents capturing close to 1,400 people. that includes 52 arrests in the d.m.v. more than half of those have ties to m.s.-13. a violented gang.

from sex trafficking to weapons smuggling. michelle: a man deported from the country 15 times in is a years and once already this year faces criminal charges in a devastating hit-and-run. police say he was drunk and driving without a license when the truck slammed in a car heading home from disney land. a little boy in the car critically hurt. the family is cautiously optimistic the little boy will recover. jonathan: covering metro. frightening image to remind you not to lean on doors riding metro. this happened a it rhode island after station. in this case, both sides of the doors opened up. one led to the platform. the other one, the third rail down there. that is a long fall if you were to come out of the car. nobody was hurt. metro called it operator error and is adding several procedures saying the procedures they have in place weren't followed. michelle: speaking of metro. anger in prince george's county over the latest phase of the metro sa

on tuesday, they will close five stations on the eastern part of the orange line. that is all the orange line stops in maryland. they will stay closed for a month until two weeks ago, the stations were supposed to stay open and single track. officials are upset over what they call short notice of the change. jonathan: well, "7 on your side" tonight. possibly connecting you with money that maybe you dop know you had coming your way. call the number on the screen. 703-236-9220. connect with the experts we have at the unclaimed funds phone bank. we have found dozens of people who had money waiting for them and they had no clue. again, the phone number is 703-236-9220. keep the lines open until of:30 tonight. caught on video, exexplosive crash. look at this. quick thinking from the folks who saw it happen kept it from turning deadly. michelle: the fast-moving thieves escape police but they couldn't outrun the

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than slow internet from the phone company. say hello to internet speeds up to 250 mbps. and add phone and tv for only $34.90 more a month. call today. comcast business. built for business. jonathan: must-see video from texas. this is familiar to what we have seen here. four fast-moving thieves. watch two jump the couper and then they grab an armful of long guns and make a run for it. it takes seconds. this is while two other thieves were

they used a stolen truck to rip the door off of the shop. that left looks a lot like the one still unsolved in rockville on march. remember the scene? they go in there and in seconds they walk in and take rifles off wall, smash cabinets and take the handguns. we are checking with our source at a.t.f. who say the case is open and still actively investigated. they tell us when there is new information, they will let us know. when they do, they will pass it along. michelle: a hunt for two men behind a robbery at c.v.s. pharmacy. the men seen here stole precipitation drugs from the pharmacy on jefferson davis highway last night. they are not sure if it is linked to similar string of robberies in district and prince george's county. now new orleans, a heavily armed police presence is present there as they try to lower the confederate statue as it came down. workers there had the faces covered an

body armor for safety as they remove the 106-year-old statue of jefferson davis. that is as protesters rallied nearby. >> you cannot oppress our heritage. michelle: new orleans has been removing all the confederate statues one by one for weeks now. all of the work is done without warning to try to avoid violence. this is the second statue removed. two more remain. all will be put in storage until a museum is found to house them. jonathan: it looks like the mormon church bailing out on the boy scouts. they are pulling pulling out ths of older boys to lead a new program. it's not that they decided to allow openly gay scout leaders. since mormon scouts were exempt on religious ground they say they just want a scout troop closer to mormon values. michelle: a tough way to earn a buck. how much is it worth to you to go one-on-one with an 18-foo

python? >> i had a badly mangled left ear. my left jaw was broken. jonathan: this 80-year-old man is now opening up about the good deed that nearly cost him his life. michelle: next exploding into flames. this motorcycle rider's quick decision that may have saved his life. jonathan: there is still time to call "7 on your side" to find out you have unclaimed cash remaining for you. that would be a nice payday. 703-236-9220. we'll keep the lines open until 6:30. more news after this.

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asheville. discovery, inside and out. michelle: police near st. louis say a school bus plunged down a ravine after they worked to avoid a highway. it slid down the embankment. they worked hours to pull the driver from the wreckage. she is expected to recover. all 13 students had cuts and bruises including one boy flown from the bus. jonathan: watch the screen. the motorcycle rider, he didn't grab the bres

couldn't have hurt in the worst spot. hit the truck in the gas tank. it explodes. people come running over to see what is going on as the man is rolling around on the ground to put himself out. they start dragging him away. then look what happens there. the truck explodes. we understand that the motorcyclist is okay. the driver got out the other side. he will be okay as well. >> close! now to this. a man seriously hurt when he tried to help a woman escaping an abduction tells his story tonight. this is as the man who severely beat the good samaritan is sent to prison. maryland bureau chief brad bell is the only reporter to talk one-on-one with the 80-year-old survivor who says he has no regrets. brad: bob feels he was lucky to survive what happened to him last september. he tried to help a domestic violence victim who was attacked by her enraged boyfriend. >> i don't even remember being hit. i was clearly hit multiple

ear. my left jaw was broken under my ear. my chin was broken. brad: it happened here as bob was leaving the neighborhood. a young women ran up screaming "i need help, he is going to kill me." she gets in the car and they take off. but they realize they are being followed. >> he passed us. cut us off. force us to the curb. brad: that happened three times until the boyfriend robert mallette managed to corner bob. the woman jumped out and ran but mallette knocked the 80-year-old good samaritan unconscious. today already found guilty of assault, robert mallette was sentenced to seven years behind bars. >> we are pleased that this man is off the streets for a long time. he is a danger to our community. brad: bob heard an apology today says he doesn't know if he saved the woman's life but he doesn't regret helpin

>> you do what you do based on the circumstances at the time. brad: in supper marlboro, brad bell, abc7 news. jonathan: good man. he does not look 80 by the way. a prince george's county police officer now facing criminal charges. grand jury today indicting corp rail crudup for charges including witness intimidation. they opened an interim investigation two years ago when he was accused of interfering with the investigation. michelle: while moments in florida that make you question what would you do for $700? >> that is a big snake, boys. yeah. it is huge! that is a man wrestling an 18-foot long python. florida has a real problem to the snakes which are not native to the region so they pay people to round them up. the bounty is $8 an hour. $50 for a four-foot snake. $25 for each additional foot. so you have to do all the math and it adds up to this hunter

the snake and then he will get $375 also for selling the skin. jonathan: a lot of boots there. michelle: yeah, boots, belts, purses. jonathan: that is a problem in florida. the snakes are not from florida. they dumped the pets in the everglades and then they are all over the place. michelle: they are mighty animals, ones that will attack a gator. jonathan: go after deer, gator, dogs, cats, anything. interesting way to make a buck. doug: they have other animals in florida. feral hogs, bears. wild place. we will see the end of the steady rain pattern get drizzly tonight and tomorrow. more heavy rain moving in this time tomorrow. get busy and give you a look at a blah camera. sometimes it's spectacular and the blue skies at national harbor. not so much. blah. rain, drizzle. low clouds. unseasonably temperat

are 20 below average. we have steady rain from the district. you can see in the animation from life doppler. but it will diminish to patches of the light rain and drizzle. that will be the story overnight and for a piece of tomorrow. but tomorrow afternoon it changes. you can see at 7:30 in the morning a lot of rain regenerating over southwestern virginia. then it moves rapidly northeastward and it fills in. steady rain for second half of tomorrow afternoon rush. tomorrow night it will get heavier as it moves through the region. the area of the low pressure will develop and move east. it looks like the storm moving throughout the day will take the rain offshore for the afternoon. the storm might get stronger. that will help us because it will pull the rain out. keep us locked in the clouds

sunday it will be far enough away to allow sunshine, warmer temperatures and the gusty winds as well. the future rainfall after what we have had today. maybe another one to two inches across the area. then finally sunday we begin a long string of the dry days with a major warming trend. 59 tomorrow. and saturday, but back to 72 on mother's day. with the sunshine. the extended outlook, probability of the rain diminishes quickly once we get past late saturday. saturday evening the rain should be over bar philadelphia takes on d.c. united. we can see it live on the sister station newschannel8. a nice looking mother's day. monday, tuesday we start to warm up with the sunshine. then it will feel like summer again for a while with plenty of sunshine. mid-to-upper 80's. the mid-80's through next weekend. looking pretty good. nice changes coming. erin: the sun arrives just in time for mother's day. thank you, doug. now one d.c. sports team season ends while another is ready to begin. plus, the nats look to get even with the orioles tonight in the battle of the beltway

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erin: well, the nationals provided much-needed excitement on otherwise gloomy day. after losing twice in baltimore, the first place nats trailed 6-2 in the serveth inning.

they scored three in the ninth to pull out the win. capped off by the matt wieters walkoff single against his former team no less. after dropping the first two games in the series it was a win that the nats really needed. >> a big win. like i said, the first two games of the series. you want to be able to giveous a chance the next day to even up the series. we felt like we played better for the first two games. did not come out with a win. last night i thought they were playing better than us and to sneak out a win was big for us. erin: welcome to washington, wieters. another team to give washington fans hope. mystics. their season tips off on sunday against the san antonio stars at the verizon center. there are plenty of new faces this year including elena della donne. >> i am so excited

and get a game under our belt. i'm sure there are nerves to get through. i can't wait to get the first game under our belt. erin: it will be fun. we learned today according to the russian hockey federation, alex ovechkin had been playing with lower body injury. he reportedly finished the playoffs with pain-numbing injections. probably that play there you see. he will not join russia for the world championship. finally the wizards are back home to host celtics in game six tomorrow night. hopefully it won't be more heartbreak. jonathan: i know. we would like to see them win their series. erin: it has been a rough week. doug: more rain tonight but it will taper off and become drizzly. steve will watch that. he will give you an update to mother's day and the big warmup ahead next week. >> thank you, doug. "world news tonight" with david muir coming up next. jonathan: thank you for watching tonight. see you back at 11:00. have a good night.

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tonight, president trump in his own words. why he fired fbi director james comey. the president calling him a showboat, a grandstander. also tonight, the president says he asked james comey if he was being investigated by the fbi. is that a conflict of interest? and the acting head of the fbi tonight disagreeing with the white house in front of the american people. also breaking developments right now. a 35-hour police standoff, a bystander killed in the cross fire, trying to crawl away. what we have just learned from the screen. the mother's day storm moving in. a possible nor'easter now. already bringing damaging winds tonight. the abc news investigation tonight. cars ig nighting. this one, in a parking lot. others setting homes on fire. brian ross standing by. and the sheriff's department