comey in 2016. >> he is out-comeying comey. it's comey 2.0 and it doesn't look very good. >> there are similarities, but this isn't quite what comey did. james comey was head of the fbi at the time. he held a news conference about a traditional standard issue fbi investigation where there were no charges brought. that was a breach of norms for prosecutors. but here's the difference here. hur is actually a special counsel. he was appointed by biden to -- by biden's own pick to run the department of justice. he's actually legally required to write a report detailing his findings. a more apt comparison perhaps might be robert mueller. he compiled a 500-page report highly critical of trump even though he wasn't charging trump either. now, while it's fair to question how hur came to his conclusions, it's questionable to suggest he shouldn't have included them at all. now, as for republicans, it's interesting how their view of special counsels completely depends on the letter next to your name. for instance, when mueller was investig

comey didn't. hur, like comey, decided, i want to put myself in the middle of this campaign. >> yeah. well, to your point, willie, hur wrote that, unlike the evidence involving mr. biden, the allegations set forth in the indictment of mr. trump, if proven, would present serious aggravating facts. hur continues. quote, most notably, after being given multiple chances to return documents and avoid prosecution, mr. trump allegedly did the opposite. according to the indictment, he not only refused to return the documents for many months, but he also obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and then lie about it. >> biden said, turn it over. >> willie, this is the clear information that should be important to the american people in reading this, but it is clouded by all of this information that this guy put in, hur included about the president's age, that seems very distracting. in many ways, the conclusion is the most important thing here. when you think of the alternative, which he m

comey was quite _ months away from the election._ was quite franklyjust a matter of weeks away from the election. i think— weeks away from the election. i think it's — weeks away from the election. i think it's critical that democrats are careful here because the same kind of— are careful here because the same kind of criticism is that you heard today— kind of criticism is that you heard today from — kind of criticism is that you heard today from the white house and we've seen on _ today from the white house and we've seen on social media from dominant democrats _ seen on social media from dominant democrats that this is biased and political— democrats that this is biased and political in — democrats that this is biased and political in nature sound, resonate very much — political in nature sound, resonate very much with the same criticisms that trump— very much with the same criticisms that trump is trying to make. i'm not equating the two but we have to recognise _ not equating the two but we have to recognise that this was an ind

by 2015, republican james comey was the fbi director. he launched a criminal investigation into hillary clinton's emails. then can donald trump and the investigation and in his campaign dealing with russia. rod rosenstein appointed robert mueller as special counsel. remember? that but lifelong republican who served and several republican administrations, including in the bush heroes. that brings us back to republican robert heard. see a pattern? >> star, a ripen republican, as a former federal appeals josh and served as george bush solicit general. >> tommy and fitzgerald are both bush political appointees and carry the same baggage -- >> both robert mueller and james comey are lifelong republicans. >> george w. bush at one. days >> registered republican, who served in the top ranks of president trump's justice department. >> there is a clear pattern here. it's consistent, at least. democrats get investigated by republicans, while republicans get investigated by republicans. we are also seeing what happens when republican judge republica

she lost because of what jim comey did. >> this is not ten days out. this is ten months out. there's quite a bit of time before the presidential election. what happens next with the biden team? how do you think they go about this? >> well, you know, it's a double whammy. the first thing is they came out and did this at all. the second thing is what they did. the gratuitous language that i think ian and phil rucker referred to. in the sense of what's happening, at least it's on the table, the president's age and memory and overall mental acuity has been something whispered about, and actually spoken about pretty widely on the right. so let's get to it. people can vote whatever they want. if someone wants to vote for one guy over the other because they're taller or heavier or went to their college, so be it. joe biden is not running against nobody. he's running against donald trump. we know who that is. if you want to vote based on age, come on. donald trump is 77. he's only three years younger than president biden. if your father is 77 and your mother is 74, you don't say dad

the difference tw the situation with jim comey, jim was not a special counsel. he was not under any sort of obligation, certainly not under an obligation to make a public statement about what we thought of the investigation we had conducted into the e-mails. jim felt that it was important and necessary for the public to understand, for us to be transparent about what we found and what we thought about the case because the case had been so public since its inception. the public knew about the investigation before we even got it from the inspector general of the intelligence community. so there was so much anticipation that jim felt that there was no one in a better position than us. we'd done the investigation, we should go out and tell the public what our conclusion was. i think that is -- those are questionable decisions. i think where we step far over the line and made a mistake was in jim's rhetoric clearly criticizing hillary clinton but of course not recommending that she be charged. the use of those terms was very likely a violation of doj policy which say

james comey was the director of the fbi overseeing traditional criminal investigation where there were no charges. it is not the custom of the justice department or former prosecutors to discuss someone the subject of an investigation that was not charged. that was done days before an election. for people to say this is what mike james comey did, wait a second, robert hur is doing his job, he had to compile the report and turn it over to the attorney general. sometimes the things you find of the course of the investigation, even if you don't charge are ugly, not flattering like robert mueller's report and he did not trump much is highly critical of him. i do take issue with that comparison. but politically, repercussions could be similar, the legality is different. robert hur was doing something is required to do, james comey was breaking with president and arguably had an impact on the election. >> i started my career in journalism as a police reporter you read prosecutorial arguments, this is what they read like, they're not nice, they are prosecutorial documents. >> reporter: the wh

and that's 0.1. 0.2, what i would say to rob her, is that your role is not to be james comey two pointat movie. you are not to put a finger on the scale of politics. once you determine that there is an insufficient evidence to recommend going forward, that ends the equation. it is for other people to make the case for one person to run for office or another person to run for office and whether they are quick to do that or not. and by the way, nothing emceeing is weighing in on that. i'm talking about the role of somebody at the department of justice. and i also agree with neill that the attorney general has an independent obligation, because the attorney general is the one who makes the report public under the rules. not robbed her. and he had the absolute authority to adhere to the written rules of the department of justice, which don't permit any lying prosecutor to do what happened here. >> neal katyal and andrew weissmann, good at reminding, everybody should read the report before they are reporting on that. important guidance, there. thank you both as always for joining us this af

let's go back to james comey. he described hillary clinton as being extremely careless in using her private email server, described putting together her email service like removing the frame and dumping the pieces on the floor. stuff he didn't have to say. the only thing that herr didn't do that comey did was do it 11 days before the election. i want to get your comment on the fact that it does appear that this person was trying to give fodder to donald trump's -- i mean, to joe biden's political enemies in a report that was clearing him. >> well, joy, i think that clearly is the case. and i agree with everything you said and the guests have said. this is kind of historically egregious. but it's a political problem, no question about that, because there are existing voter concerns about joe biden's age. and i think there's going to be two ways for him to handle that. one is to make sure, you know, this is a contrast because donald trump is giving up every day that this guy is in severe mental decline in addition t

i mean, comey had -- was under no obligation to say anything. robert hur had a legal obligation to produce the report that he produced to merrick garland. and i think a much more useful analogy for folks at home is not comey, it's the mueller report. also a special counsel conducting an investigation who concluded evidence was insufficient to bring charges against a sitting president who also released 100-page-long report that featured a lot of derogatory information about the sitting president including information that i think had significant political adverse effects for him. that's a much more clean analogy between the two situations. special counsel and special counsel, not james comey and rob hur. >> all right, thank you so much. thanks for rolling with it. and yeah, you -- you did a very good job of clarifying so much for all of us. so for those of us whose heads are spinning because of the legal cases, kbyou've brought i all central. thank you. >>> still to come, a manhunt is under way in tennessee for a man accused of killing a sheriff'

he didn't, comey didn't.o get to this hour. morning joe: weekend continues after a short break. joe: weekes after a short break. were you worried the wedding would be too much? nahhhh... (inner monologue) another destination wedding?? why can't they use my backyard!! with empower, we get all of our financial questions answered. so we don't have to worry. empower. what's next. with the freestyle libre 3 system... know your glucose levels no fingersticks needed. all with the world's smallest and thinnest sensor. manage your diabetes with more confidence and lower your a1c. try it for free at freestylelibre.us. ( ♪ ♪ ) start your day with nature made. the #1 pharmacist recommended vitamin and supplement brand. hey, you should try new robitussin honey medi-soothers for long-lasting cough and sore throat relief. try new robitussin lozenges with real medicine and find your voice. you know? we really need to work on your people skills. with nurtec odt, i can treat a migraine when it strikes and prevent migraine atta

why do they see this like a comey thing? explain. >> well, jim comey, as special counsel, released a report, it was about two weeks before the 2016 election. but also did a press conference laying out his reasons for not charging hillary clinton with a crime. and sort of laid out a parade of horribles of all the bad but not illegal or at least not chargeable things that she was accused to have done. now, here, something somewhat similar has happened here in that the report detailed a lot of conduct that would not be charged as a crime, but still looks bad for a political candidate for office. that's why i think you're seeing democratic politicians and others excoriating the report a bit. look, john, on the ride in this morning, i saw two different headlines specifically saying joe biden challenges report that questions his mental fitness and mental acuity. if that's the takeaway, then someone is failing at their job. this was a declination report. it should have been a report in which prosecutors merely said why they were or

>> then, on june 5th, then fbi director james comey walked in front of the cameras and said this. >> there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information. >> and this. >> there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information. >> in the months that followed, eight out of the nine straight gallup polls found that the one word americans are the most about hillary clinton then was email. yet in the resulting media coverage there is very little mention of this part. >> no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. >> fast-forward to where we are now, as polls do show that 76% of americans already say president biden's age is a problem. it is a reality that republicans are often happy to bring up. >> he is too old. >> joe biden is too old. >> everyone is saying he is too old. >> that is where special counsel robert herr in his report comes into the picture. with this report to congress it describes the president in a -- as an elderly man with a poor memory, mr. biden's

host: did robert hurt have a james comey moment? what does that mean? guest: i think not. when we refer to james comey and think about his tenure at the fbi, you think about the justice department placing its thumb on the scale and influencing the outcome of the election. i don't know if that comparison is apt here in part because we are so far away from the election. if you think about james comey reopening the investigation and making an announcement close to election day, a lot of people construed that as putting your thumb on the scale. we are in february. we have months to go especially this new political cycle when these things really don't stick. i don't know if this will make that much of a difference. people say that biden was old and many people think that and people have their views entrenched. host: you talk to folks at the justice of hartman, were they taken aback at those kind of comparisons that this could possibly be construed as placing their fingers on the scale? have you heard much from them about the blowback on that report? guest: i don't know that the

one is most fundamentally jim comey wasn't the prosecutor. he was the head of the fbi. his job was to ensure the police collected the proper evidence submitted to the prosecutors. it's up to the prosecutors in the justice department and the attorney general to make a decision on what information is released. rob hur was the prnd his job to make that decision and that recommendation to the attorney general who as you acknowledged has previously committed to make this report public. that's one difference. the second difference is the special counsel regulation. the ordinary case, hillary clinton was not investigated by the special counsel. no procedure to make those reasons public. here it's baked into the regulation. now we say 25 years on the road that regulation was passed by the attorney general in 1999. and now we have 25 years of experience. i think it is worthwhile to sit back and ask whether or not this is the right procedure. do we really think that we ought to have prosecutors writing reports for public release of everything they discovered and all the reasons f

one is most fundamentally, jim comey wasn't the prosecutor. he was the head of the fbi. his job was to ensure the police collected the evidence, submitted it to the prosecutors and it's up to the prosecutors and the attorney general to make a decision about what information is released. rob hur was the prosecutor. it was his job to make that decision, that recommendation to the attorney general who as you acknowledged has previously committed to make this report one, that's one difference. the special counsel investigation. there was no procedure to make those reasons public. here it's baked into this regulation. now we sit, jake, 25 years down the road. that regulation was passed by attorney general reno in 1999. now we have 25 years of experience. i think it's worth while to city -- sit back and ask is this the right procedure? should we have prosecutors writing reports for public release? or is there a better way to do that without having all the embarrassing information come to public light? >> donald trump, of course, is charged in had the january 6th case with cons

same thing happened when jim comey went up to testify on capitol hill on his report.t crucified. i think the same thing will happen here. and the white house can figure out do they do that, put it out the day before the hearing, near the hearing, coordinate that with house democrats. and for them to -- you know, the way -- with integrity this time, but the way bill barr did when he presented the mueller report. bob bahher, these are the things you need to know and package in a way that is putting the facts in the right context. >> jen palmieri and jen psaki, thank you for your time tonight. that does it for our show this evening. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next. >>> you've been intrusive into people's personal lives. you're confused. you think i'm on trial. these people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. i'm not on trial no matter how hard you try to put me o

now joe gets off without no like hillary and james comey. he gets james connolly exonerates hillary and donald trump getsy lets see his home raided and charges brought against him. remember, james comey found comy tons of classified e-mail on tha ft on that laptop. top secret, classified email. secret cit was believed that our enemies might have had access to it. but first,ccess to our other toy tonight. we'll get back to this in a minute. earlier todaa y, the supreme court, they heard oral arguments over the colorado attempt heard or to ban donald trump from that ballot. and it was a disaster from start to finish for the leftists in colorado. >> listen to this. if colorado's position is upheld, surely there will be disqualification proceedings. on the other sidwiee, i would expect that, you know, a goodly number of states will say, whoever the democratic candidate is, you're off the ballot. and others for the republican candidatallot.e, you're off the ballot. it all comes down to just a handful of states that are goinballotg to decide the p

clearly james comey implicated hillary.and then this report robert hur implicated joe biden as being guilty, willfully retaining. isn't that the same thing? >> how in the world do you explain this to the american people? trump gets prosecuted and biden does it because he's too demented? this report should deeply alarm all americans. i do think is compelling evidence that the cabinet should at least consider invoking the 25th amendment incapacity. what robert hur was saying today in his report is joe biden is not competent to stand trial. how in the world is he competent to be president? a special counsel portrays biden as so senile that it's impossible to prove his willingness or intent. that is fundamentally wrong under the law. at issue is not biden's current manner of state. what it was years ago when he removed, kept and shared classified documents. the report also cites biden's cooperation. that's not a defense under the law. if a bank robber coughs up the dough, it doesn't erase his crimes. that's absurd. as for the p

once comey failed, once comey was fired, what did he do?d this memo to get mueller there. mueller was all about covering up what they were doing during crossfire hurricane. that a failed. it continued into impeachment 1.0, 2.0, trump fought back and the country's stronger because of that. we need to continue to understand, maria, this isn't a 2016 story that we're talking about here. this affected now three different u.s. presidential elections. maria: yes. >> 2016, 2020 when you have the cia willfully is suppressing the hunter biden story and, of course, this new information now that was just released this past week is going to have a major impact moving forward in 2024. so domestically, congress has to act. you have fisa renewal up for debate right now. maria: yeah. >> you have the power of the purse that congress has to use to rein in the intel agencies. and globally, you have now this war raging with russia, you also have to look at how the five is intelligence agreements that the united states has is going to be effective moving forwar

also, the comey report which was released before the 2016 election. these things had influence on the report. so i think here why it matters is because people have pre-existing views about joe biden and his age and so hur is calling into that and buying into that. the so the best thing that can actually happen right now is for somebody like joe biden to combat those stereotypes and those rumors through his actual appearance. he's already started to do that trying to show that he is actually more together than this report would say. it also matters, i think, for him to make the argument -- for him to make an argument about what he is capable of doing in terms of wisdom and experience. it's the same thing that trump has tried to do and it's really the same thing democrats should do in order for him to be back on track. >> michael, let me ask you about the releasing of the transcripts of the interview with the president. the house oversight committee is demanding the special counsel's office release those. the white house has said that it's not off the t

the martha stewart case was the first time most americans had probably heard the name james comey, buthat they didn't know is they'd be hearing that name a lot as the years passed. now, when comey brought the charges against martha stewart, he emphasized, we're charging you for lying to the federal authorities. this criminal case is about lying. lying to the fbi, lying to the sec, and lying to investors. that is conduct that will not be tolerated by anyone. so ultimately a decision is made not to prosecute her criminally for insider trading, and only charge her with the obstruction of justice and false statements. martha stewart is being prosecuted not because of who she is, but because of what she did. were you surprised by the charges, none of which says insider trading? the us attorney said today, this is not about martha and who she is. oh, yes, it is. it's entirely about that. stewart was charged not with insider trading, but rather with lying to protect herself from the insider trading charges she wasn't charged with. there were definitely questions raised by some. is this case b

there's a comey-esque feeling to this whole thing. james comey basically chose not to bring charges against hillary clinton because of her mishandling classified material through her private server. but then he indicted her publicly saying she was reckless handling that material. it kind of felt like that. having said that, the politics of this is bad for joe biden. donald trump behaved horribly with classified material and was uncooperative. but this issue now is kind of a wash politically because i'm not sure how biden is going to be able to criticize trump on this. by the way, trump is in real legal peril because of his horrible handling of these materials. so i think right now, politically, biden doesn't have much to stand on. in fact, the bigger problem, though, is the issue of his memory that this special prosecutor essentially reinforced the narrative out there that joe biden is too old and has diminished faculties, diminished capacity. that's what really hurts the biden people. i understand why they're upset about it, but, hey

it's so evocative, dana, i know it's different circumstances, special counsel and what jim comey wasoing in investigating hillary clinton, but politically, i think it really echos each other. so, you know, to have somebody come out and say, no charges being filed, no provable wrongdoing here, but let me add some other things to my feelings on this topic, says a prosecutor, and actually feeds into the single biggest problematic narrative for the biden candidacy, which is the concern that voters have about his age and ability to do the job. >> it's so interesting. yes, i mean, the legal parallel is very limited, but -- and hoping that that gets the base, which is probably still not over the comey moment, many of them in 2016 and think that that was a big contributor to hillary clinton losing that it helps to focus the energy on the democratic side. >> yeah, look, and both biden and vice president harris know that the quick -- the narrative quick sand for them in this election is the president being seen as senile, being seen as not up to the job, being seen as unaware or incapable of f

prosecutors usedpros to speakwe through documents and we didn't have pressdo conferences likeor jim comey orts do special repors memos. one part that caught my attention as special counsel hus suggested the facts involving biden were different from the facts involving donald trump. you and i both know there is a very good democrat and lawyers of these committees, and they are going to harp on trumpet anh not biden when hur testifies. i know members of congress thine they are clarence darrow. they think they are great questioners. but the truth is, they could lose this hearing whereas rightt now i'm i think they are winning the public narrative as it relates to this report. >> completely. this report was completely devastating for joe biden. i think where he may have made mistake as well as his attorneys is calling aspects of the report falls. we don't know what parts are false but that opens up the question about releasing transcripts. well i wouldn't necessarily have an issue with joe biden who fell for the transcripts release which wetr haven't seen yet if t thinks it will vindicate him

i lived through the comey letter. i've got to a lot to say about what hur did, but let's look at how the president hand of last night. yesterday afternoon, he did that statement. i thought it was supersmart. get him on camera, hur is not on camera, he's doing all the pushback he wants, it was great. they made the decision to put him out last night, a lot of people monday morning quarterbacking yet -- whatever, it's been done to me a lot. hate us great in the press conference. what does he show you? he's, like, feisty and fighting with the price. -- he was clearly in command affects. he understood exactly what was in the report. he had a good push back, it was great. and then he took -- mister president, walk out the door. just stop. walk at the door. >> he stayed at the party to long. >> he stayed at the party too long, and then he has the gas. joe biden knows who the president of egypt is, and he knows who the president of -- he knows that. i'm not sure donald trump knows the difference between iran and iraq. but it'

and when trump got wind of it the comey firing.ed the molar investigation. the muller investigation was designed to cover up for obama and hillary and t up impeachment. had failed on impeachment, but the cover-up worked. until now. new reporting by matt and michael revealed that house investigators had discovered the root causes, but their investigation and all of their documents were confined to secure rooms in langley. when trump was leaving office in those hectic final days, he attempted to declassify this material which started a battle between former cia director gina hospital, the department of justice and the national archives. the report says someone may have taken this binder of material exposing the entire intelligence community out of langley. and it may have been what the fbi was looking for when they raided mar-a-lago. others say that is not true. but the point remains. the obama biden white house, their cia and fbi director launched an illegal preemptive war against democracy, got caught, and have been covering it up

astray is despite all of those crimes, the special counsel in this case, robert hur, pulled a jim comeyially said just as jim comey did with hillary clinton that even though joe biden committed every element of every crime that he set forth, that he wasn't going to recommend charges for joe biden. and he offered two reasons for that. one of them is a legitimate consideration. the other one was not. the one that was not was he said, well, we're not going to charge him because he's cooperated. i think you and i have talked about this before, maria. cooperation is not a defense under the law. it's something that can only be taken into account by a judge at sentencing. it's as if, you know, bank robbers don't get to return stolen property and not get charged because they cooperated with the government. the only legitimate basis for robert hur not to recommend charges is the noncampos mentis defense which is essentially that joe biden was too mentally infirmed to stand trial. the problem for that, of course, is it creates the catch 22 of if he's too mentally infirm to stand trial, how is he

because if it were, it would be, you know, a comey moment in the hillary clinton situation where theee branches weigh in. it is weighty, it is damning, and it's going to be important for the president to sort of clean that up for himself and for his presidential narrative, because you have this other branch now sort of weighing in and saying, yeah, he's sympathetic because he's forgetful. >> katie phang, i would be remiss not to point out what's not in here is any allegation that joe biden hid documents in his basement, hid documents in his house, or changed the locks on a room so that he could hide documents even from his own lawyers or refuse to give them back. i think that's important to note. >> that is the only important information to note. special counsel appointment to investigate a crime if any. the only relevant portion of that ridiculously long, completely irrelevant report is the fact that there was no intent by president joe biden to commit a crime versus what we do know is evidence of donald trump's criminal intent to be able to commit fraud, to make sure that he kept t

public the way he did, to me, is another level of incompetence inside the doj that relates back to comey and clinton. what is going on there that someone can take a pen and sit down n and go, gratuitous, not necessary, not legal, not relevant to the case in front of us. >> i want to first responders using a competent the doj with respect to comey. i was in doj at that time and my jaw was dropping when he went on television and at a press conference. >> y'all didn't know it was happening. >> he did not come see the attorney -- >> he was like, let me set the record straight. >> as a my house, like what in the world? >> that was not something that a.g. blast or anyone in the department blast. i think a.g. garland was at least he probably perceived himself as between a rock and a hard place. you're right, he could've, said these things aren't relevant, take them out. and he would have been absolutely lambasted. what are you trying to hide? why won't you be transparent? that's a decision that obviously thhe made in favor of transparency. i'm sure there is a lot of discussions. where it might

james comey was not required to come out and talk about that case, traditionally, prosecutors not publicly talk about cases when someone is not charged. but it is different with the special counsel. and the most comparable example is of course the report from former special counsel robert mueller. it was incredibly critical of former president trump, and many of his associates. it was equal in length to rob her's report. there are no page requirements, right, for any real restrictions on the special counsel. they are expected to comport with the justice department norms. and i think intelligent minds, including our norm, can disagree with what this means. and if he did go outside of the lines. but in speaking with witnesses who were interviewed in this case over the past year, as we have broken a lot of stories on this investigation, they described -- as someone who is meticulous. he would call multiple times about the same question that in their minds was pretty minor. where did people, set what were they doing, who lifted the box? he was meticulous. so, if he included these details, and

joe gets off with out charges like hillary clinton and james comey exonerates hillary and donald trump gets, let's see, his home rated and charges brought against him.ons james comey found classified emaissifl on that laptop.s. classified email. it was believed that our enemieh might have had access to it. and first the other top story tonight. to we will get back to this in a minute. todaearlier today, the supreme t heard all arguments over the colorado attempt to ban fro donald trump from the ballot. it was a disaster from start tof finish for the leftists in colorado. listen to this. >> if colorado is a position upheld, surely there will be disqualification proceedings on the other side. i woulualid expect that a good number of states will say, whoever the democratic candidate is, you are off the ballot. and others for the republicane o candidate, you are off the ballot. ballit will come down to a handl of states that will decide the presidential election. that is a pretty daunting consequence. >> what about the idea that we should think about democracy, think about the right of the

>> well, the term comey moment was mentioned earlier. out who they were going to vote for and heading to the polls. right now, we are nine months away from the election. so in terms of this type of attack sticking on joe biden, that is something that democrats can hang their hat on right now, because yes, it does feet into the pre-existing narrative that matt was referring to. but also, remember that president biden and his lawyers had a chance to redact some of the portions of the special counsel's report. so if they had redacted this part, it would have ignited questions about, what are they trying to hide? and then eventually, as things always, do they leak out. and if this leaks out in october, right, and the lawyers tried to cover-up, essentially, i feel like that would be a worse news cycle for president biden than he is having right now over this. and, it would be closer to the election. >> right, i agree with you andrew. which [laughter] is good, because we've got to take a break. don't go anywhere, my panel will be back with me

it didn't work with james comey who appointed by democrat. it did not work with her. and i think this was -- there was no case to be brought here. but hur did his best to damage biden politically. now, unfortunately, for biden, biden did not help himself today and his response. but the idea that this was put in this report, that he was elderly and -- that did not belong in that report. >> some of it did feel very gratuitous. i do agree with that. but i do caution, i see an emerging narrative from democrats that this is a partisan investigation by the doj. this was a republican and a trump appointee. so, therefore, he's putting this in -- the message of the democrats has been, we should trust our institutions. we can trust the department of justice. it's not weaponize. republicans are misrepresenting it. and i'm seeing a bit of that coming in response to this report. now for me specifically. but from some of the democrats that are depending defending biden today. >> all right, kate bedingfield, jeff toobin, alyssa farah griffin, mj lee. thank you. as well, go back to k

nikaragua honored the palestinian people by inaugurating a street named after gaza. our correspondent to comey less reports from managua. nicaragua has dedicated an avenue in its capital to the people of gaza and palestine. the mayor's office of managua held a ceremony to officially name the street and nearby park which has been named parke palestina. in recognition and solidarity with the ongoing 75-year struggle against the zionist occupation. in attendance were nicaraguan solidarity groups and representatives of the palestinian embassy, who, together with the mayor of managua andveiled the new street name. we are very happy doing this act in honor of the fighting people and their historical struggle and the unconditional bond with the people of nicaragua. we are inaugurating an avenue with the name of gaza, an avenue that is in our. historic center of the city and we are demonstrating that palestine is there in our hearts, in the hearts of nicaragan. it's very significant, this reflects the brotherhood and historical relationship between both peoples, both governments. in the midst of the i

james comey. so what he did was stating the obvious.as there was no criminal case against hillary clinton. that there was just to me there was never going to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt in that case. and that was what was found. and the appropriate thing to do there is to just say, we're declining. there's insufficient proof. it is not at a time to have a press conference to state, by the way, let me give you my personal views. that is why here, you really are supposed to be better course is to stick to the facts. that's why i was very interested and always very concerned when i heard who was appointed, whether they were going to use adjectives and adverbs. adjectives and adverbs, those have no place at this point. if you indict somebody and convict them and then want to talk about the case, maybe then. this had is the complete opposite. it is worth noting to me we're sort of in the weeds about the propriety of how this is done and certainly politically will take on that spin, but the big take home is that this investigation whic

that's the tragedy and the sort of -- of what james comey did, which set the standard. i want to say, at a personal level i should say, one of the people whose names is in the report is somebody who i've known and worked with on tons of different projects for years. so in this beautiful disclosure i have to say he's one of my good friends. so that makes it awkward in terms of me covering this. but that's in the interest of transparency. ari, you said that this feels like a legal report that he is couched in a bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with this legal report. does any of that change the fact that this is sort of a cul- de-sac? legally this is it. there is no next step. >> this is done. it's a very good legal news for the president to have this done and done this early. they expedited that by fully cooperating. andrew weissmann knows better than most that the prior president did not cooperate with the open probe, did not say, you know what? if we sat down and i explained all this it would look better or not as bad as you think. but rather fought them tooth and

some people are making an analogy to james comey, the former head of the fbi, who before 2016 also foundart of hillary clinton, the democratic candidate then, in relation to how she handled classified information on her e—mail servers, but said many things that were disparaging. these kind of comment can have an effect potentially on a campaign but i should say these comments are coming much earlier in the campaign, a lot is going to happen between now and november, assuming it is biden and trump. so it's hard to know how much this will have an effect on what otherwise is expected to be a close election. expected to be a close election-— expected to be a close election. . ., ~ , ., election. the feta, thank you very much — election. the feta, thank you very much indeed. _ election. the feta, thank you very much indeed. -- - election. the feta, thank you . very much indeed. -- protester, very much indeed. —— protester, thank you very much indeed. recent polling shows that only 51% of americans are concerned about mr trump's legal troubles. on thursday, he's running unchallenged in the nev

reporter: politico is reporting on a top campaign official firing back at this saying it's very james comeyillary clinton had done but said we are not going to prosecute her. it really hurt her. folks in the biden camp faxed think that that's the net negative. blue one what is the difference between biden's charges on the document and trump's charges on the documents? >> reporter: donald trump is facing dozens of felony charges in connection with his mar-a-lago documents. he differentiated them and said it turns into an obstruction case when donald trump was given numerous opportunities to turn over documents, to be truthful about what had been turned over and not only did he not turn over the documents but there are allegations he worked with other people to hide documents from federal authorities. he says mr. biden was always cooperative, set for these interviews which he sees them as two different cases. stuart: the supreme court will likely allow donald trump to stay on the 24 ballot in colorado. listen to what trump had to say. >> i consider it to be more election interference by the d

barack obama appointed jim comay head of the fbi and jim comey sabotaged the campaign of hillary clinton for president. merrick garland appoints someone who was a trump appointee to investigate president biden. he does what the evidence demands, which is, this not be a criminal case, but at the same time, he inflicts political damage on president biden. i don't know why merrick garland come out of all the lawyers in the united states, had to choose this one. but this is what happens when you appoint people who have political agendas against your boss, to investigate your boss. >> there is this question of, something you and i discussed, for some time now, the pace with which merrick garland, the justice department, the special counsel's office, brought forward these cases against donald trump. a lot of this i think is frustrating president biden. are we starting to see a merrick garland legacy take shape? has enough time past for you to offer your own judgment as to what happened with merrick garland's time as attorney general? >> unfortunately for merrick garland, people's perception wi

this feels to me like a second comey moment. before an election, a special counselor, an investigator writes something irrelevant. that is to say what he wrote about joe biden's memory. that's no more relevant that if a special counsel were to write, i don't think this person would be good in front of a jury because they're not attractive. >> we look at the moments in that report about president biden's memory, how he would come across to a jury, about the observations, the fact he came out so forcefully last night and then used the name of the president of egypt and said he was the president of mexico, there has been pushback. senator mike lee raising concerns saying, posting on x, it was a significant threat to national security and urging cabinet members to invoke the 25th amendment. your response to that? >> doesn't surprise me coming from senator lee. if that's the standard, let's accept that. then i want to hear senator lee apply precisely the same standard to donald trump who famously said that victor orban was the leader