so the white house lets him in. avoiding a handshake with him would have been difficult. but what makes this strange, you see these big smiling photographs. president trump grinning in a huge, friendly way with kislyak in the oval office. it's the timing of this. i mean, one day after president trump fires the fbi director who was in charge of investigating trump campaign contact with russia. so, it's really the sensitivity of this. and that big washington word, the optics. so what the white house might have done is at least, if you feel like you're going to have to take a photo with this guy who's been at the heart of so many issues -- >> the center of the probe! >> yeah, the national security adviser who had met with him prior to the inauguration, he was fired for lying about that meeting with kislyak. the attorney general had to recuse himself from investigations involving russia, because he didn't tell congress during his confirmation hearings that he had been meeting with kislyak. so there's all of this strange

the white house. unbelievably senior people handling this personally. we will not talk about this on the phone, we will do this personally. they go to the white house, they go to the office the white house counsel. this is the white house counsel, don mcgahn. again, attorney general, we believe the national security division chief at doj, they rushed to the white house without even waiting for the fbi agents to write up their report on their questioning of mike flynn. they rush to the white house to notify the white house counsel about what they have learned about the national security adviser mike flynn. heading into today, everybody thought this was going to be testimony that would be kind of a letdown, that we already knew everything sally yates was going to say. but right off the bat, she gives you that incredible timeline and that incredible urgen si how they went to the white house and how fast. and then she said this. i don't think anybody has any idea what this means exactly. >> so i told them

white house council present. do you know, senator, if he told the truth or lied to the fbi? if he lied to the fbi, that's a crime. >> i don't know. i don't o have access to the transcripts or records. i don't know if he was truthful or not. i did ask ms. yates that. she declined to answer because she said it would release classified information. she was very careful today not to release classified information. there was another issue which was general flynn's failure to report he received tens of thousands of dollars from rt, russia today, and hundreds of thousands of dollar from turkey. a failure to file as someone who was representing a foreign power, that may have legal consequences for general flynn. >> when he got his security clearances renewed in april 2016, he lied in those documents, didn't provide information about the money he receiveded from russian tv or money he received from turkish elements? >> that's what is reported in the media, wolf. i don't know that independently but that's certainly what's

see what happening. >> reporter: if there are any tapes of president trump and james comey at the white houseon him to release them. two top house oversight committees are calling on the white house to turn over copies of any recordings, emails, any communications between president trump and james comey in this matter, so far no comment from the white house on this letter. anderson? >> brian todd, thanks very much. joining me now is history professor, douglas brinkley. obviously there's been taping systems in the white house before, it would be unique to have not only a sitting president tape their fbi director over dinner, but then to kind of, it's already raising the spector of it in a tweet. >> it's said that president trump developed a voice activated system. >> so anywhere oval office -- >> you also hear drinks being stird. and it was that you bick wit to us in the white house. >> winston churchill wrote a multiple volume, maybe i'll do the richard nixon tapes for the world. and ammunition against somebody he didn't like, somebody would say he said something, he would say i have the tran

it was really that third one, by the fbi, that the white house feared the most. because of course the fbi has like the senate and house investigations subpoena power, the ability to compel documents, testimony, offer immunity. but the fbi has something the other two investigations don't have. their resources to conduct a very thorough investigation. and they have the ability to bring criminal charges. and so not only was this a counter-intelligence investigation that comey was leading but it was one that put trump and his inner circle in criminal jeopardy. that is what i think ultimately caused the president to decide that he wanted to impede this investigation first by firing sally yates just a day or two after the president learned that the fbi had interviewed michael flynn and basically flynn had lied to the fbi. and then now firing the leader of that investigation in hopes to clean house and probably install somebody who he thinks will be more favorable to him and his team. >> raj, just of all, welcome to the broadcast. secondly, i know you have -- you have vi

white house official? so we explained to them, it was a whole lot more than that. we went back over the same concerns that we raised with them the prior day. that the concern first about the underlying conduct itself that he lied to the president and others, the american public had been misled and importantly every time this lie was repeated and the misrepresentation for getting more and more specific as they were coming out, every time that happened, it increased the compromise. to state the obvious, you don't want your national security adviser compromised with the russians. >> were there any take-aways from the first meeting or action items that you left with? >> there was an action item in the second meeting. we talked about several issues -- >> to get the order right, you said earlier there were two meetings and a phone call. >> right. >> was the phone call to phone call to set up the second meeting -- >> there was a third phone call. >> go ahead with the second. >> sorry about that. one of the issues

>> after tuesday night when the narrative came out of the white house that it was -- that white house officials said comey was fired because senior justice department officials concluded he had violated the doj principals and procedures last year in the hillary clinton investigation. what of course we are now hearing is this really had to do with the russia investigation and the idea that comey was not loyal and supportive president trump felt to him. >> sara, do you know why rod rosen stin did not resign? why did he decide not to? >> we don't know that yet. we're working on that. but the white house did sort of back off yesterday and especially into the evening of pushing the narrative that rod rosenstein was the reason behind this and the president just accepted his recommendation. so we know there was a softening of the white house narrative regarding rosen stein. >> cnn along with other media outlets went to rod rosenstein's house. he lives in maryland this morning to try to ask him the questions about this. and if you have a monitor, sara, you can see that he happily jumped into

i think we need white house staff to say not me. >> in 60 seconds what is the white house agenda rightnow? can you disagree with me that this has consumed and now defines as of tonight day 120 the trump administration? >> i don't disagree with that but i had speaker ryan omy radio show today. they are moving forward with tax reform. he believes it will be done in 2017. i think senate will get repeal and replace bill done. the congressional branch continues and must function because obamacare is in collapse. trump white house needs stand up in a hurry. >> does this feel like water gate on methamphetamines? >> it does. it's all moving so much faster and we are all chained to our phones around the hours of 5:00 and 6:00 in the afternoon. >> i don't know what you are talking about. >> waiting for the latest revelation the way people would wait for the sound of "washington post" hitting their door steps. the criminal investigation is still in from the early stages. we have no idea where it is in the courts. by this point in water gate you had convictions and a process moving on and a lot fa

cox subpoenaed those tapes and the white house refused and he brought the white house to court, and the court ruled against nixon and told him to release those tapes and nixon refused. and then what nixon did is he came for archibald cox. he told archibald cox to lay off about these white house tapes and archibald cox looked the president in he eye and would not do that. no, i'm not going to lay off. and so president nixon told the attorney general to fire archibald cox and the attorney general said no and resigned. and so then nixon told the deputy attorney general to fire archibald cox and the deputy attorney general, he, too, said, no, and he resigned. essentially he had to get the solicitor general to fire archibald cox and that became known as the saturday night massacre. but archibald cox, yeah, he did get fired. ultimately, he did get fired but you know what? he got the president fired, too. he is the reason those damning tapes eventually had to be released. and nixon's presidency was over less than three days after those tapes came out. so fire the investigators? sure. nixon

but when i was at the white house tonight, brian, i just kept coming across white house official after white house official, texting, sometimes seeing them in person. they've been saying this has been lingering on the president's mind for a long time. yes, he has these letters from his officials and the justice department, but he has been thinking about comey and getting rid of him for quite some time. >> and, pete williams, it was just another day in cable news. what would a day be without a slow-speed chase out of los angeles? and we had this odd live coverage of the former fbi director's four-car motorcade down the interstate in california and l.a., culminating with this scene. good-byes to the local cops. then comey got on a gulfstream private jet to fly back to washington, an overnight flight landing in the early hours of tomorrow morning. are we expecting to see him or hear anything from the now former fbi director? >> not as of tonight, brian. there is no plan for anybody to say anything tomorrow that we know of. nobody at the justice department is going to be speaking publicly

but we begin tonight with chief white house correspondent john roberts, who joins us at the white house. john, a busy night once again. >> oh, my goodness, martha. let me walk into the genesis of all of this. "the new york times" broke the report about a quarter after five this afternoon, i will keep monitoring my phone for the latest breaking news. about a quarter after five, back in february, the president held in over office meeting with a group of his advisors, the attorney general jeff sessions was there, as was the fbi director. as that meeting wrapped up, the president asked the participants, with the exception of james comey, to leave, and a comey wrote a memo, according to someone who was close to him and "the new york times" reporting, in which he said it that the president said to him that lieutenant general michael flynn, the former national security advisor, had done nothing wrong, suggesting that the fbi should move on past this, thank you james comey, i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go. you showed us a second to go to the reaction from the white house, b

did you show to it white house counsel and had you seen it at the time you went to the white house? >> no. the fbi had conducted the interview on the 24th west got a readout on the 25th. specific will you from the agents had that conducted the inrview. we did not want to wait for the 302. we felt it was important to get this informati to the white house as quickly as possible. so we had folks from the national security division who spent a lot of time with the agents. not only finding out how the interview went but how this impacted the investigation. >> so did you take summary with you? do you have any document with you that described the fbi interview of general flynn? >> at the time that i was there, i had notes that describe that had interview, as well as the individual that was with me. the senior career official from the national security division had been part of all those discussions with the fbi. >> did you discuss criminal prosecution of mr. flynn? general flynn? >> my recollection is that did not come up much in the first meeting. it did come up in the second meeting when

the white house story on tuesday was false., you heard sarah huckabee this morning trying to change the words a little bit. she said well, we asked for feedback from the fbi. that's not true. they asked for a recommendation. two, she said whether the fbi also thought that he'd lost the confidence. not remember the original story was the fbi came to us and said you fire him and we followed that. this is -- as you said, this is not the first time the white house has reversed course. it gets to the essential credibility for the spokes person for the president of the united states. and that is a really problem. >> it's as if he didn't get the spend control memo or he did but got angry and said i'm going to say what i think. we've seen this time and time again where i've had senior administration officials try to explain to me oh, well you see the president goes out and puts the left and right limits of what our new policy is going to be in a tweet or interview and then we roll out the actual policy. but more often it's they find ou

i should note thoot white house is denying this -- >> hold on, pamela. adam schiff, ranking democrat in house intelligence committee just emerged from a briefing. >> -- the president may have asked comey to essentially drop the flynn investigation. if true, this is yet another disturbing allegation that president may have engaged in some -- [ inaudible ] or obstruction of the investigation. i think we know enough now, there's been enough alleged publicly to want to bring the director back to testify ideally in an open session before our committee or judiciary committee. but he should come back to congress and share what he knows in terms of the president's conversations with him on any of the russia investigation. i also think that we ought to ask for the notes that were taken contemporaneously or shortly after those meetings and of course if there are any tapes as the president alleged, those should also be obtained by congress. ifs in i think we should subpoena them but hopefully we can obtain any of these materials voluntarily. but on the heels of an a

white house official? >> to be fair to mr. mcgann. he said his question what is it to the justice department if one white house official is lying to another white house official? why is that something the department of justice would be lying about and we went back through the reasons why it was important to us. >> do you think there was reason to be concerned if one white house official was lying to another official? >> to the extent that you may be talking about 1001 violation that's not something we were alluding to or discussing with mr. mcgann. i think his point when he made that point to me was that he wasn't sure why the department of justice would care about one lying to another, not to be discussing whether that was in fact a crime. >> and the reason you told him was what? >> was that, again, it was a whole lot more than one white house official lying to another. first of all, it was the vice president of the united states and the vice president had then gone out and provided that information to th

deja vu here at the white house. the president making his position clear and confirm anything a couple of tweets this morning that white house staff, including the national security advisor last night tried to knock down. let's look at the president's tweets. he said as president i wanted to share with russia in an openly scheduled white house meeting facts pertaining to terrorism and airline safety. plus, i want russia to step up their fight against isis and terrorism. the white house reeling from another crisis. >> the story is false. at no time, at no time were intelligence sources or methods discuss. the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publically known. >> h.r. mcmaster in a carefully worded statement refuting claims that were not in the story first reported by the washington post, while falling short of denying the president revealed classified information to russian diplomats. >> that the white house is playing word games here to that effect to try to blunt the impact of

the white house.nwreck" is the term that one unnamed official gave to the former campaign manager and former deputy trump campaign manager possibly coming to work in the white house, one unnamed source said it would only add to the toxicity of the white house. another said, i gagged. axios reports that they have had discussions about the crisis communication war room that president trump wants to set up to go to war with the news media over the russia investigation. david who was the man who filed the successful lawsuit that led to the citizens united supreme court decision was asked on fox news this morning if he's going to join the white house staff. >> so, they've talked to, you know, many people, including me. >> is that a yes. have you been asked? >> no. i'm not going to say that there's -- that something sitting on the table for me to pick. that would be a little -- i think that's -- it's an on going conversation. i think that's a fair way to put it. >> joining us now, josh, former white house p

and a "washington post" story that the russians have identified a white house official, a current white house official, as a person of interest in this investigation. james comey will testify in a hearing right after memorial day. matt from the "washington post," leslie clark, nbc's kevin delaney and author from the "washington post." who has the hottest news of the testimony? ken, it seems like you have daytime ratings for television like you've never seen. this guy is the john dean of this affair. he is the star witness for the public because he's our fbi director recently, and he's the one that will tell us what happened to him. he's also a victim, which makes him a very interesting person, a victim. >> chris, this will be absolute epic. you're the historian, you tell me, but this could be the biggest hearing since watergate, right? despite michael schmidt's fantastic reporting, i'm sure there are things for jim comey left to tell us. there are revelations yet to be had. the only question in my mind is will bob mueller let this go forward? the special counsel generally does not want

live at the white house. >> thank you very much. we're live at the white house.ial start to summer. the trump administration is feeling the heat. nbc news confirmed a major staff shakeup. who is in, who is out, and who might be in again after being out before? the white house setting up a so-called war room with jared kushner advised to lay low after reports he wanted a secret line of communication with the kremlin. all that happening behind us on this cloudy d.c. day. around the world, different storm is brewing. european allies are not thrilled with president trump after his trip abroad and they are not happy he hasn't made a call on a critical climate agreement yet. we have a lot to talk about on this tuesday morning. our team is here covering all of this. kristen welker is down the driveway at the white house. kasie hunt is on capitol hill. the former director of the fbi's office in counter intelligence, frank montoya is also with us. on the set. white house bureau chief for the "washington post," phillip rucker and white house reporter for the associated pre

soil, back in the white house.t not about those successes, largely, he has been tweeting about his relationship with the media and calling it fake news, et cetera. i mean, is this setting back the white house, particularly when the president you know said that he just came off a successful trip? >> yeah, i mean, it was interesting to note, fred, that while the president was on this foreign trip that he considers very successful he was not tweeting in the usual provocative ways. there was a message that the white house in a concerted way tried to put out every day. and some days, especially early on in the trip in saudi arabia and israel there was some success there. i mean, this was relatively for this white house, a disciplined operation. and now you know he is coming back. and to alice's good point, the white house, so much of their day, day-to-day is dealt with keeping up with president trump's tweets and the distraction that they create from the legislative agenda that they're trying to push. that president tru

look at the picture from the white house the other day. ow the health and human services secretary tom price defends the visual of mostly white male lawmakers celebrating a bill that has a major impact on women's health. stay with us, next, right here on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. (vo) more "doing chores for mom" per roll more "doing chores for dad" per roll more "earning something you love" per roll bounty is more absorbent, so the roll can last 50% longer than the leading ordinary brand. so you get more "life" per roll. bounty the quicker picker upper. let's take a look at some numbers: 4 out of 5 people who have a stroke, their first symptom... is a stroke. 80 percent of all strokes and heart disease? preventable. and 149 dollars is all it takes to get screened and help take control of your health. we're life line screening... and if you're over 50... call this number, to schedule an appointment... for five painless screenings that go beyond regular check-ups. we use ultrasound technology to literally look inside your arteries..

how is this white house dealing with crisis management? >> well, i always said you were great, nicolle. >> couldn't be that good. >> again, they're not doing that well. whether they have to get used to him, he has to get used to them, the fact is, no, actually none of this is being handled well but on the other hand, president trump, i've been defending him for the last five minutes but now i'm saying a lot of these are unforced errors. these are -- can't have mike pence out there saying that comey was dismissed because of the -- >> right. >> -- you know, the a.g.'s memo and then have the president say i was going to fire him, anyway. you have to get a coordinated message. >> right. >> yaw canou can't say one thin day and -- this doesn't go to criminality or improper behavior but makes it very hard for people like yourself and others who served in the white house to actually defend the president. i agree with that. >> thank you so much. i hope we're still friends. thanks for being with us. >> absolutely, you kidding? always. thank you, dol

also contradicting the white house by saying this is a highly significant investigation even as the white house spokesperson sarah huckabee sanders said this is not a high priority for the fbi. at the same time, mccabe strongly pushing back of the white house assertion saying the rank and file deeply support mr. comey. >> i can tell you that director comey enjoyed broad support within the fbi. and still does to this day. i can confidently tell you that the majority of the fbi employees enjoyed a deep and positive connection to director comey. >> reporter: this comes as comey was invited to testify on tuesday before the senate intelligence committee. no word if he has confirmed that appearance. this would be a classified closed session and that means it would be off limits to the public. we do know that other people in the administration plan to talk about some senators. rod rosenstein at the center of the comey firing invited to the briefing next week to discuss the comey firing. this issue not going away anytime soon. christine and dave. >> manu, thank you. rod rosenstein denying reports

house. they are white males. and given that the house bill defunds planned parenthood, given that was the largely the work of white males, it's already been noted that not one of the five female republican senators is in this working group. with a 52-seat majority, the republicans can only afford to lose two votes if they want to pass their health care replacement bill. as to when we will see anything from the senate? well, that seems see anything before the summer recess. there's talk we'll see something by the midterm elections. and because it's washington, as of tonight, it's all just talk. that's our broadcast for this monday night as we start a new week. thank you for being here with us. good night from new york. >>> tonight on "all in". >> ms. yates, what did you tell the white house about mr. flynn? >> sally yates speaks out. >> we believed that general flynn was compromised with respect to the russians. >> for the first time ever, former acting attorney general on what she told the white house about michae

tell cnn it was comey's handling of the russia probe, not the clinton e-mail one, that let the white house, quote, white hot and concerned that comey, quote, was his own man. the president today openly admitting that on three separate occasions, he spoke directly to comey about the russia investigation. >> i asked a dinner with him, he wanted to have dinner because he wanted to stay on. we had a very nice dinner at the white house. >> he asked? >> dinner was arranged. i think he asked for the dinner. and he wanted to stay on as the fbi head. and i said i'll consider it, we'll see what happens. but we had very nice dinner and at that time he told me you are not under investigation. >> directly from him? >> and during a phone call he said it and during another phone call he said it. so once at dinner and twice during phone calls. >> did you call him? >> in one case i called him and one he called me. i asked him, if it's possible, will you let me know am i under investigation. you said you are not under investigation. >> so very interesting exchange there. the president clearly sees no issue

i want to begin with joe johns at the white house. again, joe, this statement from the president saying, yes, he did share information, a very different explanation, in some ways, perhaps, at odds with the theme professed last night from his national security adviser, h.r. mcmaster. >> that's absolutely right, john, but i think we have to do a little bit of fact-checking on the president's tweets this morning, starting with the fact that he referred to the meeting last week with the russians as openly scheduled. and it may have been openly scheduled, but it wasn't exactly open, because american journalists were not allowed in to take pictures or record any part of it. and the pictures you see that have been made public are pictures that were taken by a russian photographer, a bit of a public relations problem there for the white house. but in the big picture, john, as you said, there is that issue of the president sort of suggesting or creating the inference that the story as reported last night may very well have been true, but the p

that's not white house language. the white house is not supposed to accuse the senate of conducting a political witch hunt. the white house has to do business with the senate every day. you can't talk like that. so no one in the nixon white house would allow themselves to actually be caught by name using that phrase then, witch hunt. at 7:52 a.m. today, the president of the united states was awake and tweeting. this is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history. last night, the white house issued a statement written for the president in language that he would clearly never personally use saying, "as i have stated many times, a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity. i look forward to this matter concluding quickly." it was a perfectly reasonable presidential-sounding white house statement about a situation like this. but everyone knew that would not be the president's last word about the investigation. everyone

it comes from the heart of the justice dpept, not the trump white house. >> and the trump white house here, we're barely 90 minutes into knowing this. they got a little bit more warning than that but we don't yet have a formal response, which is a very significant thing. they have not decided what to say. >> and we're waiting for that. as jeff zeleny pointed out, sean spicer has been saying there's no need for a special counsel. >> as recently as monday. >> right. this isn't going to be welcome news at the white house. this means that this investigation is going to be long and deep and it's not going to be over quickly. and i think you can only look at donald trump for that. i agree with john avalon the that something happened with that comey memo that probably made rod rosensteining change his mind. on capitol hill now, i would also add that this does give everybody a little bit of breathing room here. that the democrats obviously applaud this, and the republicans who didn't -- weren't much interested in a special counsel can now say, well, this is being investigated by a special cou

we have reached out to the white house for any response. we have not yet heard back, but when we do, we will report that to you. again, just to be very clear about this, nbc news has now learned from at least three former obama administration officials that president obama at the time, it was on thursday, november 10th, warned then president-elect donald trump against hiring mike flynn. chris? >> all right. we're going to have peter stand by. as soon as he gets any reaction from the white house, we'll go back to him. but greg miller from the "washington post," you have been following this so very closely, minute by minute, your reaction to what we just heard? >> i think that sounds like, you know, this is just another flag. there were all these warning flags about flynn, that the trump administration ignored or pushed aside in hiring him and putting him in that position. and, you know, i think it's just crazy in some ways that this many months later we're still learning all of these new things about mike flynn and how problematic that pick

and white house visitors. his presidency. and 10 minutes later, he welcomed formerix

he calling on the white house, he says -- >> the white house should make the transcript of the meeting available immediately to the congressional intelligence committees. and if the president has nothing to hide, he should direct that the transcript of the meeting be made available. >> this is now, hearing from chuck schumer the call from congress, congressional democrats of the white house to provide the transcript of the meaning. one republican member is echoing this call as well. ned price, we heard senator chris coons earlier this hour reiterate the need. that members want to see what was said inside the meeting. >> it's an interesting question. the "washington post," in the middle of its story, included another interesting detail. that is that the white house went back to the memorandum of that meeting and actually white-washed it, actually deleted the more sensitive excerpts that would have betrayed this key intelligence source at the center of this story. so it's an interesting question as to whether the memorandum for the record would actually reflect this part of the discussio

the white house. prufrm firing off an apparent threat to the ousted fbi director, trump tweeting james comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. trump's warning coming as the president is facing scrutiny for his private conversations with comey before he was fired. today the president is refusing to explain what tapes he was referring to. and whether he's secretly recording conversations in the white house. >> i won't talk about that. all i want is for comey to be honest, and i hope he will be, and i'm sure he will be, i hope. >> reporter: as comey was overseeing the investigation into possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia, trump says he asked comey repeatedly for reassurances that he wasn't under investigation. >> and did you ask him am i under investigation? >> i said if it's possible, will you let me know am i under investigation, and he said you are not under investigation. >> reporter: those conversations which quickly

and the white house, as we were saying earlier, the white house has denied this, and the president hast him denying it, but i stand by my story. and i would also add, wolf, that we -- if we were better readers of the tea leaves, in fact, and by that i mean, donald trump's tweets, we should have seen this coming, in a way. because i'm looking at a tweet of donald trump's from may 2nd, which i believe was the day before comey testified. so it was in the lead up to the comey testimony, in which donald trump says, fbi director comey was the best thing that ever happened to hillary clinton, in that he he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds. so the worm was already turning there. and then he watches, you know, you can think about this, and this now is speculation, but you think about this, and he watches the comey testimony, where comey had to dodge questions about collusion and what was directly under investigation by the fbi, because he can't answer those questions in an unclassified setting. and you can get this sense and then the president called the russian investigation a hoax afte

white house fighting back.spondent joe johns starts our coverage from washington. good morning to you, joe. >> reporter: good morning. sources telling cnn that president trump asked former fbi director james comey to end his investigation into the administration's first national security adviser michael flynn who was fired. here's the importance of it. if this latest allegation is proven true it's a sign that president trump attempted to exert command influence on the fbi's investigation into possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia. so this is already being described as a grave turn in the drama surrounding the trump presidency, raising questions of attempted obstruction of justice which in turn raising

former acting attorney general sally yates rushed to the white house to warn the white house council about general flynn's contact with ambassador kislyak and possibly other information. today michael flynn is not allowed in the russian office anymore, but the russian ambassador is very welcome. after meeting with the russians, president trump welcomed the press core where he was meeting with henry kissinger who served as secretary of state to president richard nixon, the most disgraced president in american history. a president driven from office on the eve of impeachment for crimes committed in the room where henry kissinger was meeting with donald trump today. >> why did you fire director comey? >> because he wasn't doing a good job, very simply. he was not doing a good job. >> did it affect your meeting with the russians today? >>xcusme? >> did it affect your meeting with the russians today? >> not at all. >> thank you. thank you. thank you, everybody. thank you. >> will the new director of the fbi be in charge of the russian investigation? that question will be asked tomorrow at

the next day, sally yates called the white house counsel, yes, she decided that the white house counsel could come to the justice department to see the underlying evidence in thelynn case. she doesn't know if the white house counsel ever did that, because that same night she was fired by the president for refusing to try to defend the president's unconstitutional travel ban in federal court. the president's executive order on banning entrance to the united states buzz blocked by federal judges from boston to seattle and was clearly so desperately unconstitutional that the president eventually completely with drew it. while the president was trying and failing to get his travel ban enforced, he took no action to ban michael flynn from access to highly classified material, even though the white house had been warned that michael flynn could, quote, be blackmailed by the russians. >> general flynn continued to hire key senior staff on the national security council, announce new sanctions on iran's ballistic missile program, met with japanese prime minister shinzo abe along with president t

no pictures released yet by the white house. not a lot was released about what they discussed but we know they agreed on one thing, the russia investigation is fake news. vladimir putin today after skating in a celebrity hockey game asked by cbs how comey's firing will affect u.s./russia relations. there will be no effect he says, we have nothing to do with that. president trump is acting in accordance with his competence and law and constitution. >> reporter: russia's foreign minister challenging reporters saying president trump publicly says all of it is false news, given no proof it's not serious. democratic congressional investigators noting the irony. >> you can't make this stuff up. lavrov will have to say, i've noticed is more consistently on point with the president's message than sean spicer is. >> reporter: and the russian's also beat the white house to the punch announcing the president and putin will meet for the first time since mr. trump took office in germany this summer in july at a summit. the white house will o

from what i could tell, the white house to double, mr. mcgann took it seriously and 18 days the guy is fired. i learned there was an unmasking and member of congress during the 2016 election, the first time i ever heard of that. bottom line i thought sally yates did the right thing in terms of her role in this. >> senator whitehouse, 18 days seems long since he learned. you have to factor into it and i don't know who knew this and when. there was something squirrely, my turn, about general michael flynn's relationship with turkey, even that weird meeting, i don't know forever you know about it, former cia director woolsey said he walked in some meeting where flynn in october was trying to figure out some way to help turkey get a dissident out of the united states bypassi ining extraditio. there were weird things. 18 days seems long to me. what about you? >> one of the things we learned, there was a second meeting with white house counsel and those two meetings allowed attorney yates to hammer home to white house this was an ongoing nation

the white house said give us the white house, we will govern, pass tax reform, get the economy going,rnment involvement in things like health care, education, where is the republican governing? >> i think they probably can advance an agenda without the them. what they're concerned about is that trump is is just going to show up and throw a monkey wrench into everything. members who are basically in his districts essentially and that can really complicate things, so they're trying to get ahead of that by working with the white house a little bit more. trying to hold their hand as they walk here. because they don't want any sort of 11th hour surprises. the difficulty for trump always with policy is that policy doesn't always give you an enemy. and trump kind of always needs someone to push up against. and that's what these, what these tweets are about this morning. the russia investigation is. it is something he can fight back on. and it's been so hard for him and his white house to focus on policy. because it just doesn't give them that same kind of you know, person on the other side o

the white house was facing a new firestorm.controversy centers on a program that gives wealthy foreigners fast track and a sales pitch that kushner's sister made to investors in china. what she said renewed allegations that kushner, senior advisor of the president, has not resolved the conflicts on the interest involving his family's company. dana bash has details. >> reporter: an american real estate company courting chinese investors in beijing. it would be an unremarkable event except that it was kushner company and nicole kushner myer dropped her brother's name saying my brother jared kushner joined the company as ceo and recently moved to washington to join the administration. the goal was to raise funds for a real estate project in new jersey, telling wealthy chinese investors if they give half a million dollars to the project, they could also secure a green card. it's completely legal if not highly controversial, a visa program known as eb5 used by many real estate developers. at issue here was the context. an ad for the

the white house blasting those leaks. "the washington post" reporting that a current white house official has been identified as a person of interest in the investigation into russian meddling into the presidential election. the "post" citing unnamed sources. this is the latest effort by the left to destroy the trump presidency to take over the got. all coming after president trump was safely on board air force one and on his way to -- to saudi arain yeah. john roberts is in riyadh with our report. reporter: on the president telling lavrov firing coachy re-diewlsd the pressure on him and calling comey a snut job. the prime minister said the president has always emphasized making deals with russia for the benefit and safety of the american people. by grand standing and politicizing his actions comey inhibited our ability to negotiate with russia. spicer said quote as the president has stated before, a thorough investigation will con flirm was no collusion between the -- confirm there was no collusion between the campaign a

because if someone in the white house, if a senior member of the white house is subpoenaed, that person will have to cloister themselves to some degree. they will to have get independent legal advice and no longer able to take counsel from the white house counsel, don mcgann. hans nickol is at the white house. i have wendy sherman, and eliana johnson for politico. i want to and you, i know our reporting that handles and i have been working on. what are you pursuing at politico on this? because as senator markee said, this has taken the whole issue of russia into an entirely new category. >> that's absolutely right. i've been sitting in this chair the whole time so i haven't been able to look at what my colleagues are doing. i would put these stories into two different categories. one, the "new york times" story. anybody who followed trump on the campaign would be shocked to know that he said something endiscreet to the russian ambassador and the russian foreign minister in the oval office. so doing it in the oval office takes it to a new level. if bob mueller's investigation shows there

but many on capitol hill asking -- is the white house really concerned about clinton? or is this about russia? >>> also tonight. vladimir putin, and his reaction. and the news that james comey had just asked for more money for the fbi investigation into russian meddling. >>> also tonight, the officer on trial. she opened fire on the driver of this suv who at one point had his hands in the air. what we learned today. >>> and the alleged school plot. police flooding the school. a boy pulled from the classroom. his arsenal -- knives, gasoline, and a hit list -- right in his bag. >>> good evening on this wednesday night. and we begin tonight with new reporting here after that major shakeup in washington. the director of the fbi, james comey, fired, learning about it on television. he thought it was a prank. the president's termination letter then read to him on the phone. but tonight, here, major questions. why fire comey and why now? the white house saying the department of justice, in particular the deputy attorney general, recommending comey's departure. tonight, our te

other statement as well from white house officials.na powell, deputy national security adviser saying the story in "the washington post" is false. saying the president only discussed the common threats that both countries faced. manu raju is getting a lot of reaction up there to these two reports now. what are you learning, manu is. >> wolf, members of congress want answers. they don't know anything what they've read in these reports saying they are alarmed, both republicans and democrats, and they are concerned. people like senator bob corker saying this is problem at ache endick dushin, senate whip saying this is reckless if this were true. a lot of members have not heard about this. even members who sit on the senate intelligence committee. richard burr said he hasn't even read anything about this other than what's in the report. he said he has not fully read in detail bp we just got a statement from paul ryan, house speaker, who said this, we have no way to know what was said but protecting our nation's secrets is paramount. the sp

may 8th will be the first time the former acting attorney general will publicly speak about that white house meeting. a source familiar with the situation said yates will be limited on what she can tell the committee because many details involving flynn remain classified. yates previously scheduled appearance in front of the house intelligence committee you may remember was cancelled by chairman nunez, sparking outcry from democrats who believed he was trying to shield the white house from damaging new revelations. >>> thank you, jim. hillary clinton meanwhile said she would have won the election if it were held on october 27th. speaking to cnn's christiane amanpour, the former candidate said she didn't let up on fbi director james comey. >> i was on the way to winning until a combination of jim comey's letter on october 28th and russian wikileaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off. >> interviewed by christiane amanpour at a women for women international event in new york, secretary clinton did take what she called absolute personal respo

so why didn't the white house listen? >>> plus, jared kushner's sister wooing investors, name dropping the president, touting her brother's access. one former white house official calls it outright bribery. >> who's going to win the political race everyone is watching. let's go "outfront." >>> and good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, breaking news. blackmail tarked. sally yates speaking publicly for the first time about general michael flynn's russian connections. it's revealing she warned the white house that flynn had lied repeatedly to vice president mike pence and others about his contacts with russians. these are lies that yates says left flynn exposed to blackmail by the russians. >> we believe that general flynn was compromised with respect to the russians. logic would tell you that you don't want the national security adviser to be in a position where the russians have leverage over him. >> yates says she warned the white house multiple times about flynn. and that news comes as we're learning about

>> there will always be white house briefings. as have you seen we have had cabinet secretaries and other administration officials going to going up to the podium. the issues they are working on are actually part of the news of the day. and that's going very effectively as well. not every briefing has to be on camera, either. there are many audio briefings that many press secretaries in the past.

flynn was under investigation before he came to the white house and the white house denying it.if that is true would vice president pence have known he was under investigation since he was overseeing the transition team? >> it's a good question. the white house is welcome to deny this. they had the opportunity to do that yesterday hours before the story was published and they chose not to comment. today, decided they will comment. i don't know what went on inside that transition. if the warnings they were given were not communicated to vice president pence running that transition, that's another story and a significant problem, too. at what point does this become, you know, a story about an organization that failed to vet properly, didn't take years of investigation to figure out. people were already talking about it in november, that flynn was representing turkey. did nobody do any due diligence here? i think there are serious questions both about the vetting done by the trump transition and why they went forward knowing what they did about general flynn. >> also fascinating, t