>> we're going to begin tonight with some developing news, a major shake yup in washington. fbi james cope i is out. president trump fired comey a short time ago and announced the firing. we'll mark a new beginning for the fbi. the president says the search for an fbi will begin immediate limit you see it on the side of your screen. this is what we're talking about tonight. we need your input tonight. please tweet us with the #5@6:30. did the president do the right thing in firing james comey. chuck schumer expected to have a press conference soon. he is of course a democrat. we'll bring that to you as it

firing on james comey comes just days after he testified on capital hill about the handling of hillary clinton's e-mail investigation. president obama appointed comey in 2013. it's a ten-year term. that's going to be cut short. tom fitzgerald joins us with the very latest on this. we talked about 30 minutes ago about whether whetht this came as a surprise to comey and the whole intelligence commit. >>reporter: apparently it was a complete surprise. they were notified this by journalists tonight and they had not themselves learned of this. this letter that was apparently sent by president trump to fbi james comey tonight. now, the term gets thrown around a lot in washington. let's be clear about this. this is a bombshell. it was no secret in washington that the white house had not been happy with james comey, but to go the extra

simply nothing less than a stunning development. now, ostensibly the reason being given tonight is that the white house is expressing displeasure with how comey had handled the hillary clinton e-mail investigation. rewind to last summer you'll remember comey made the unprecedented step that aunderstand north koreaing that the fibromyalgia had been investigating lict's e-mail but he had decided that in his words no reasonable prosecutor would bring clarnlgs in that case. of course you know how the rest played out. the november election came and went and there were accusations that the fbi had influenced the outcome of that election because they had been looking into hillary clinton's investigation. now what did not come out last summer was the fact that the fbi apparently was also looking into the trump campaign and whether t had been working with russian officials which now both democrats consistent and republicans say were trying to influence the 2016 election.

this right now it is seeming that the reason being girch for this is the hillary clinton investigation and the fact that no charges were produced out of that investigation, but keep in mind, this ten-year term that jim just talked about, this is a position that has to be confirmed by the united states national. tonight andrea mccabe who was the deputy fbi director once stens bli would be the second in charge to run the department. we don't know who is going to be appointed to ultimately run the fbi. but keep in mind, there are going to be at some point confirmation hearings for whoever this is. and tonight there are some quarters in the democratic side of the senate saying that jim comey again should be called as a private citizen now to explain exactly what he was talking about last week when he said that the fbi was looking into the russian angle of whether or not they were in contact with people who were also working with the trump

you know, there's a ways you can talk about this. this is a mess right now. this is a mess. >> fights, we have the letter from president trump to jim comey. i'm going to read one line of it. while i greatly you informing on three separate investigations i am not under investigation. concur with the department of justice and this includes one letter of jeff sessions, two from ron rosen steen. that you're effectively not able to lead the bureau. that is one of the many letters that came out here tonight. is it a surprise to you because it sort of a was a surprise, not necessarily a surprise, but the president of the united states fired the man who is leading the investigation into whether there was some sort of collusion between him and the russians. the optics don't look good. >> a bit of history here. you probably have to go back to watergate, to the saturday night massacre when

other justice officials were let go by the nixon administration during watergate to equal what we are seeing here right now. whether or not we ultimately learn that this had something to do with what the fbi has been looking into russia, whether it has something to do with hillary clinton, this we do know, it is unprecedented for a president of the united states to fire an fbi director. so watch the reasons we ultimately are able to unearth about what led up to this, this moment in history is singular. there have objection to the form been a dozen fbi directors. jim comey is now a former one and he's coming up well short of that ten-year mark. by the way, just to peruse the letter here, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein he cites michael mu casey a former attorney even, because it seems like what i'm getting from these documents is they're saying that

comey has come from both sides and really when you think about it when that first announcement came out in october that he was investigating hillary clinton's campaign, on the right they were all for this. then a week later when the paradyme shifted and he said there's nothing to be prosecuted here, you know, the howling, the winds in the sales really kicked into high gear there. if you're in the business of mining for bad things that people have said about jim comey you're taking your pick ax in the right mind if you're looking at democrats or republicans. neither side have had good things to say about jim comey. if you watched the hearing last week, democrats were furious with the things that comey had done in regards to the hillary clinton election excuse me we're at the airport if you're getting some sound. at the same time republicanses were not happy about the things director comey had said in regards to the trump campaign. so that part is the one bit of

jim comey whether or not we're going to learn there was any improper activity on the part of this fbi director. you can bet your bottom doll or right now that we haven't heard the last of this. >> oh, no. there are going to be hearings not only looking into this firing but also whoever is now going to fill the shoes at the fbi and how wow like to be that person. they got a lot to deal with. no surprise, right now the democrats are already calling this congressman tim ryan a democrat from ohio, dislnld's very own saturday night massacre. unacceptable. must appoint a special prosecutor. it's in the a sprois to me that we're going to see the democrats come out and oppose all this. maybe he was getting too close to the russia connection. that just came out from jerry connelly. one of the other questions you thattive to ask now if jim comey has

mean for the hillary clinton investigation? jim comey had declared it closed. it's not necessarily a given as we stand here tonight that forever phils these shoes is going to share that opinion and given what we've heard tonight from the attorney general of the united states and the assistant attorney general of the united states citing that case is the reason why comey was dismissed. i don't think it's necessarily a given that we're done with the hillary clinton investigation. if you look back at one of the deby the when candidate trump said i'm going to instruct my attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor. and then he said he's not going to put her through that. let me just jump in here real quick. of course hillary clinton's running mate virginia time cane tweeted out just a short time ago, shows how frightened this administration is over the russia investigation.

recommended by jetion sessions. i thought he had recused himself from the russia investigation. comey fired by a growing pattern by the white house to cover up the truth. i think we're going on keep hearing this from democrats. but the truth is republicans have the power in the house. while the attorney general has recused himself from the russia investigation he hasn't reduced himsel of being the attorney general of the united states. the way the flow chart works in the justice department is that you have the tone general of the united states and then you have the fbi director under him. the fbi director reports to the attorney general. so the way the flow chart on the jobs works, that's the way an fbi director would be dismissed. it would come from the attorney general's office. jeff sessions didn't recuse himself from the entirety of his job. he recused himself from that section of the investigation. matt advisor of the boston globe h

this out. comey was set to testify before the senate intelligence committee on thursday. think that's still going to happen? >> no. i don't think so at all. >> one other thing -- >> not so fast on that. it might. >> you think so? >> we don't know. i think that's the one thing we can say right now. remember, these committees, these tanning committees they have subpoena power. if jim comey is subpoenaed to appear before that committee, that doesn't necessarily go to jim comey fbi director. it goes to jim comey himself. remember, we saw sally yates testify for hours yesterday. she's no longer employed as an aassistant attorney general of the united states. because son is not necessarily in a government position doesn't preclude them from appearing at one of these committees. >> we should point out just a couple days ago, this is pointed out on may 3 sean spicer stated, quote, the president is confidence in the director. sinks days later he's fired. >> thank you so much. we certainly apreesht all of the news.

continue develop and we will stay on top of it. we appreciate you guys tweeting us right now. ag sessions him and then he deliberately lie under oath. a number of tweets coming in from our viewers tonight. keep them coming. in the meantime we're back after this h.

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>> welcome back. we are sending three to 5,000 more us troops to afghanistan. they will work with afghan i counterparts to counter terrorism. we will work it out to our national oh al yies in our best way forward. what are sometimes doesn't give you all good options. thats ' the nature of war. the nature of war. an iraq war veteran and military contributor is here to talk to us about what this troop surge would mean. thanks so much for joining us. good or bad idea to have this troop surge ever three

troops there? we're talking about something that has been going on for 16 years. more than 22,000 service members killed, 20,000 hurt and we've spent one trild on this. it depends on the timeframe you're discussing. term i don't doubt there's an immediate need to up sment our troops on the ground. with short-term decisions like this, strategic tactical decisions usually wise. whether this is in our best interest for the long term is another question and the answer isn't very clear right nowsm the paradyme has shifted quite a bit. remember the outcome from democratses when president bush wanted to do that troop surge into iraq and for a while it seemed to have stabilized things. are there parallels between what president bush and what president trump may want to do. >> absolutely. but the bigger question is what our exit strategy. president trump talks about winning. what does

this he decision help or hurt our long term. we've lost approximately 2400 american service members and 21,000 combat wounded. so this is steep. we definitely need answers on how this affects our longer term strategy and that hasn't been conveyed to the american public and the military comun. based on the language that we heard from press secretary sean pieser was basically saying we're not going in and decimate the taliban and isis. i can't remember the exact language, but it was more so wound them. i guess this would lead one to believe that this was a get in fast and then get out. is that what your take away would be. >> the bigger question is where, what is our long-term strategy in that region, in the middle east, in that part of the world what's our non military strategy in terms of action. how do we make countries like

iran, iraq, syria, how do we make them stable military, economically. we've had a number of different strategies. right now it seems like we're either the bapped aid that's holding everything together or we've also played hack a mole. it needs to be conveyed to the american public. we can't continue these short-term decisions. we've spent 17 years and a the lot of money and most importantly american lives. >> thank you very much for coming in tonight. >> thank you. we know lawmakers can't find common ground on almost anything, but what about healthcare? we'll talk about that we w when we come back. whoa. are you actually about to scratch it rich

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>> so the senate is expected to make maplor changes to the house gop healthcare reform bill if not completely rewriting

own. 1 percent of americans say they support the house legislation and repealing the affordable care act. 44 percet say they oppose it. 25 percent of the people say they weren't sure. ronica clear is out getting the pulse of it. >>reporter: reporter tonight we wanted to find out what is going on with this senate working group. they are tasked with the responsibility of redrafting, rewriting, whatever it may ultimately be, this healthcare bill that did just pass the house and there is undoubtedly some controversial i over who is in the group. some senators you might recognize, senator ted cruz, senator mike lee from utah, but of the 13 people in this group there are no women. so today in the briefing, it was canned of the press secretary would the white house sort of exert the power that they have to change that. take a listen to what was said. i think the more voices that we

this done, the better. so to the senate i'm not going to tell leader mcconnell or the white house is not going to tell him how to conduct a panel, but at the same time i think that any voices that be construed as getting a more patient healthcare system put together would be welcomed. but dhas ' in the our call to make. senate leader mitchell mcconnell said no one is being expleuded based on gender. part of the reason might this may be even more controversial if you will than maybe another senate committee is i think for sure that conversation that people are having based on preexisting conditions, there are situations and circumstances, if you will, that women have been identified as having preexisting conditions. it used to be a preexist condition to have been pregnant. april so conversation may be -- there might be more controversy, if you

because they're talking about healthcare and healthcare is very different for women than for men. as you said, sean, that pulse of the people, weigh in and let us know what you think. in today's press briefing i think it was the only question that came up on healthcare. now they're talking about fbi director james comey. none of it is go away. weigh in and use the hashtag. a the look of people are weighing in on this. i'm wondering, you know, if we're just going to see a repeat of what we saw before with, you know, not enough people being on board to actually push this through the senate anyway. we know a lot of the female senators are not a part of this committee so they've shown a little opposition so far. female senators have weighed in invoicing some of that concern and republican senators have weighed in saying that the bill as it is is not one that they're going to be willing to vote objection to the form it is a huge up hill climb. when y

mentioned female senators are you referring to susan collins? she's up in maine. she is a republican. >> yeah, and the senator from alaska raised tonight gow ski, she weighed in as well and she voted against betsy devos, certainly a rep april who is willing to go against party lines when she feels it is necessary. so that may not be the last we hear from her on this issue. >> thank you, ronica. we are staying on top of that breaking news tonight, fbi director james comey has been fired. that's right. we're going to have more political news coming up, right here on 5@6:30. is triple checked. we're focusing on fresh... ...so you don't have to guess. my giant. introducing the fios gigabit connection with download speeds up to 940 megs that are 20x faster and more powerful than most people have. incredibly, it's $79.99 a month for one year.

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great price on this boneless chicken! yeah. we love low prices. no bones about it. [ laughter ] great everyday prices and thousands of bonus buy savings. my giant. tv company sinclair broadcast group is buying tribune media which would make it the largest group of tv stations. they sent out a copy, it was a must run commentary it accused the national media of publishing fake news stories. here t t

of the washington post. one of the stories we're talking about channel seven. >> sinclair bought wyla a couple years ago. and this is a platform that we introduced to all the taitions, a 173 different stations that they open across the country. >> there has been a little push back from sofer the sinclair own stations about this directive that we heard recently about running this story on fake news break that down for our viewers who may not know about this. sinclair is known for these must runs that tend to have a political slant that come from headquarters. >> a conservative political slant, right. >> yes, they're known for having a conservative political slant and they send them out across the country. most recently in seattle some staffers said it made it hard for hem to do their job as stafferses when you have these comments coming from headquarters.

must run. this was in the form of a documentary about stolen honor about john carry about him lying about his swift vote service. there was actually a push back when people learned that this was going to be one of the best runs on sinclair stations. there was a campaign to have them drop the idea, hit their stock price and eventually sinclair backed often and decided not to run it. i know that one of the bigger -- sinclair has bought tribune and fox news was also going to go after try bun out here. what are you hearing about the future or the concerns of what where sinclair may grow now that they've certainly grown their media other than group? a. they're going from # p three stations to 215 nationwide. the rumor is actually most people in the broadcasting road is that sinclair wants to become the fox news of the broadcast world. fox news famsl

that to the broadcast world which generally has not had political slant to its coverage you guys are owned by fox. fox news and fox ownership of this station are two very different things. on the sinclair side it's slightly divment todd, thank you very much for coming in tonight. it's been pretty busy around a here. before we head out, an update on the big story, president trump firing fbi director james comey. this all comes days after he testified on capital about the agency's investigation into the russia's meddling into the presidential investigation as well as he handled hillary clinton's e-mail investigation. it's a ten-year term that's now been cut short. we've already heard from a number of key democrats. we're expecting that chuck schumer will hold a press conference shoon to address the issue. we're calling from some to hold an unprecedented investigation into this h. more importantly i know a lot of

story. we have not heard seen any substantial comments on the republican side of things. that may change by 150bg. we'll keep you updated at ten, ten:30 and 11 on this very busy day.

announcer: today on "tmz" -- harvey: kellyanne conway has resurfaced. >> we talked to her about the "saturday night live" sketch, where in the world is kellyanne conway? >> i was on fox this weekend. >> "snl" pushes the story line she's been out of the public eye and she's like that's not true at all. >> her profile is lowered. >> she says it's not though. >> i say i'm as thin as i was 10 years ago. it ain't true. >> i say i'm a virgin. >> darren criss, so we know he's playing andrew cunanan and they actually have video of him re-enacting the scene where he shoots versace. >> the weirdest thing is he just walks away. harvey: this guy when he puts glasses on, he looks like cunanan. >> don't you feel like there's something eerie about this though? harvey: yeah, that's what